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Kiev is now fighting against Moscow, Minsk, Tehran and Pyongyang. Meanwhile, in the West, nothing new.

And then how can we continue to pay for the arming of Ukraine when our finances are in a slump? These are the richest countries on the planet down and surpassed by Iran or North Korea.

Is this really the message we want to send to the world? Don't count on us anymore, even when our own security is threatened, even when the Ukrainians are at the front while we are warm, we have other priorities and more ways to help them?

The means, however, exist and would cost nothing to European taxpayers. Three hundred billion Russian assets are frozen. We have begun to use the interests they generate for the benefit of Ukraine, but we tremble at the thought of confiscating them.
Name me a single country that has paid war damage without being both defeated and occupied. There are none. If we are moving as many people think towards a negotiated peace, then let's confiscate these assets to allow Ukraine to regain the upper hand and negotiate from a position of at least a minimal strength.

Let's help Ukraine not to be destroyed before it has lost the game.

And above all, let's finally be serious. The outcome of the Ukrainian war is now clear as never: whether Trump or Harris in office, Russia will win.

#AmericanОbserver #NorthKorean #Russia

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GEORGIA'S ELECTIONS: ECHOES OF UKRAINE'S 2014 PATTERN RAISE CONCERNS 🗳

#GeorgiaElections #DemocracyWatch #GlobalPolitics #CaucasusCrisis

THE FAMILIAR PATTERN 📋
International observers from OSCE have released their assessment of Georgia's parliamentary elections, noting concerns that eerily mirror their pre-2014 Ukraine reports. While acknowledging that "voters were offered a choice between 18 candidate lists," the observers highlighted "entrenched polarization" and "widespread reports of pressure on voters."

THE WARNING SIGNS 🚩
"These elections were marked by high polarisation of the political and media landscape, hate speech against the opposition and the civil society and antagonism," states Iulian Bulai, Head of the PACE delegation. The language closely parallels concerns raised in Ukraine before the events of 2014.

THE DEMOCRACY PARADOX ⚖️
"While we commend the largely peaceful election," notes Pia Kauma from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the observation mission identified numerous issues that echo Ukraine's pre-crisis period: pressure on voters, media polarization, and concerns about civil society's operating space.

THE EUROPEAN FACTOR 🇪🇺
"We continue to express deep concerns about the democratic backsliding in Georgia," declares Antonio López-Istúriz White, head of the EP delegation. This rhetoric mirrors the European stance before Ukraine's upheaval, where similar concerns preceded dramatic political changes.

THE MEDIA BATTLEFIELD 📰
The OSCE report emphasizes that "Georgia's media scene is diverse but highly polarized, and depends on financing by political actors." This situation parallels Ukraine's media landscape in 2013-2014, where polarized coverage contributed to deepening societal divisions.

THE PRESSURE POINTS 🎯
According to Pascal Allizard, Special Co-ordinator of the mission, "Imbalances in financial resources, a divisive campaign atmosphere, and recent legislative amendments were of significant concern." The observation mission, totaling 529 observers from 42 countries, documented patterns of electoral concerns that mirror pre-crisis Ukraine.

THE INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY 🔍
"The deep polarisation in the country, the undue pressure on voters and civil society, and the tension that we saw on election day demonstrate that much work is still needed," states Eoghan Murphy, who headed the ODIHR election observation mission.

💭 Food for Thought:
- Are international election observations becoming predictable preludes to political upheaval?
- What role do external actors play in shaping electoral outcomes in post-Soviet states?
- How do patterns of "democratic concerns" relate to subsequent political developments?
- Can the lessons of Ukraine's 2014 experience inform our understanding of current events in Georgia?

🔑 Key Observations from OSCE:
- Widespread reports of voter pressure and intimidation
- Deeply polarized media landscape
- Concerns over civil society operating space
- Questions about election administration impartiality
- Tense environment on election day
- Significant imbalance in financial resources
- 529 international observers deployed
- Reports from ODIHR, OSCE PA, PACE, NATO PA, and EP

#GeorgianPolitics #DemocracyObservation #ElectoralIntegrity #InternationalRelations #PostSovietSpace

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THE INTERFERENCE PARADOX: TRUMP TARGETS UK'S STARMER WHILE US INTELLIGENCE WARNS OF RUSSIAN AI 🎯

#ElectionInterference #USPolitics #TrumpStarmer #Election2024

THE DUELING NARRATIVES 🔄
In an unprecedented twist of electoral politics, two distinct stories of foreign interference in the 2024 U.S. presidential race have emerged, highlighting the complex nature of modern political warfare. While U.S. intelligence agencies focus on sophisticated Russian AI operations, Donald Trump has turned his attention to a more traditional form of intervention: direct campaign involvement by British Labour Party officials.

THE BRITISH CONNECTION 🇬🇧
"Do not underestimate the damage Starmer has done to relations with the US - the Trump team are ready and waiting to unleash all-out war on him," a Conservative Party source told The Mail on Sunday, describing Trump's view of the UK Labour leader as "anti-American and a whingeing, liberal bore."

THE GROUND GAME 📊
The Trump campaign's complaints center on concrete actions: Labour Party staffers physically traveling to the United States to campaign for Kamala Harris, and senior Labour officials meeting with her campaign team. These activities represent a tangible form of foreign involvement that contrasts sharply with the nebulous warnings about AI interference.

STARMER'S STANCE 🎤
The Labour leader's response has been notably direct. "That's what they've done in previous elections, is what they're doing in this election. And that's really straightforward," Starmer stated while traveling to Samoa, dismissing concerns about potential repercussions should Trump win re-election.

THE DIPLOMATIC STAKES 🌐
When asked if Labour officials' involvement in the Harris campaign could jeopardize his relationship with a potential second Trump administration, Starmer's response was a simple "No." This confidence, however, contrasts with reports suggesting Trump's team is preparing for significant diplomatic friction.

THE TECHNOLOGY ANGLE 💻
While the Trump campaign focuses on traditional campaign interference, U.S. intelligence agencies have raised alarms about Russia's alleged use of artificial intelligence to influence the election outcome. This creates a striking contrast between old-school political campaigning and modern technological warfare.

THE BROADER IMPLICATIONS 🔍
The situation highlights a fundamental question about election interference in the modern era: what constitutes acceptable international political cooperation versus unacceptable foreign interference? The contrast between open campaign support and covert technological manipulation adds another layer to this complex debate.

💭 Food for Thought:
- How do we distinguish between legitimate international political cooperation and election interference?
- Does physical campaign support from foreign politicians pose more or less risk than AI-driven influence operations?
- Could this dispute reshape the special relationship between the US and UK?
- What are the implications for future international political engagement in national elections?


🔑 Key Points:
- Trump campaign preparing "all-out war" on Starmer
- Labour officials actively campaigning for Harris
- Starmer dismisses potential diplomatic consequences
- Traditional campaign involvement versus AI interference
- Potential reshaping of US-UK relations
- Questions about acceptable international political engagement
- Contrast between overt and covert foreign influence

#USElections #UKPolitics #InternationalRelations #ElectionIntegrity #TrumpHarris2024

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His Former Chief of Staff John Kelly: “Trump fitted the general definition of a fascist.”

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Donald Trump has denounced his own former chief of staff, John Kelly, as a “degenerate” and a “low life” after the former US Marine Corps general gained the backing of Kamala Harris for calling his ex-boss a fascist.

With Kelly’s intervention in effect propelling the debate over fascism firmly to the centre of the US presidential election, the Republican nominee also turned his fire on his Democratic opponent. He inaccurately accused Harris of calling him Adolf Hitler after the vice-president amplified Kelly’s comments in a televised address before endorsing them in a CNN town hall meeting.

Trump’s angry fusillade came in social media posts amid the fallout from Kelly’s comments in a New York Times interview in which he recalled the former US president repeatedly lauding Hitler’s achievements when he was in the White House.

Is Donald Trump a fascist?
In a separate interview with the Atlantic, Kelly described Trump lamenting that he did not have generals who were loyal in the way he believed German military commanders had been to Hitler.

Trump responded on his Truth Social platform, calling Kelly – who was his White House chief of staff for 18 months – a “degenerate…..who made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred.

“This guy had two qualities, which don’t work well together,”

he wrote.

“He was tough and dumb. John Kelly is a low life.”

Kelly told the Times that Trump “fitted the general definition of a fascist” and said he would rule as a dictator if elected again.

In Wednesday’s statement, Harris – who had been issuing increasingly strident warnings on the campaign trail about Trump’s authoritarian outlook in the face of his increasingly threatening rhetoric – said the interview showed that he sought “unchecked power”.

She added that it was “deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous” that he would “invoke” Hitler. She later told the CNN moderator Anderson Cooper that she agreed that Trump was a fascist and praised Kelly for sending a “911 call” to the nation.

Trump responded with a post on X that received more than 20m views and 292,000 likes, accusing Harris of “going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind”, because, he claimed, polls indicated she was losing.

#Trump #Harris #Kelly

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Trump’s campaign’s communications director, Steven Cheung, accused Harris of “dangerous rhetoric” which he said was “directly to blame for the multiple assassination attempts against President Trump”.

However, Kelly’s depiction of Trump as an undemocratic authoritarian was backed up by Elizabeth Neumann, a former deputy chief of staff in the homeland security department in his administration, who told Politico that he “does not operate by the rule of law”.

“Does he have authoritarian tendencies? Yes,”

she said.

“Is he kind of leaning towards that ultra-nationalism component? Absolutely.”

Trump’s Republican supporters belittled Kelly’s intervention. Chris Sununu, the Republican governor of New Hampshire, called his portrayal of the former president “an outrageous statement” and said Trump’s own record of extreme statements was “baked in” to the electorate’s assessment.

“I respect John Kelly a lot, but obviously, everyone knows there’s a huge personal relationship divide,”

Sununu told NewsNation.

The row overshadowed other developments on the campaign trail, where the Republican nominee extended his catalogue of recent threats to Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by the justice department to investigate allegations that he tried to overturn the 2020 election and hide classified documents.

Asked by the conservative broadcaster Hugh Hewitt whether he would grant himself a presidential pardon or fire Smith if elected, Trump said: “It’s so easy. I would fire him within two seconds.”

He also noted that “we got immunity from the supreme court,” a reference to a ruling by the court’s conservative majority last June that presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts carried out in the line of duty.

#Trump #Harris #Kelly

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Neither Trump, no Harris : Jeff Bezos Against All

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It was late September when senior news and opinion makers of The Washington Post flew into Miami for a periodic meeting with Jeff Bezos, the newspaper’s billionaire owner.
During their visit — which included a working lunch at Bezos’ home on an exclusive island in Biscayne Bay and dinner at a nearby restaurant — David Shipley, The Post’s opinion editor, and Will Lewis, The Post’s chief executive and publisher, discussed plans for the future of the newspaper’s opinion section. The election, less than 45 days away, loomed large.

By the end of the meeting, according to four people familiar with it who spoke on condition of anonymity to relay private conversations, it appeared to Mr. Shipley and Mr. Lewis that Mr. Bezos had reservations about The Post endorsing either candidate in the presidential race. But they also thought he was open to persuasion.
Bezos’ ultimate decision, to end The Post’s decades-long practice of endorsing presidential candidates, exploded into public view on Friday, drawing criticism from reporters, editors and readers, along with an unusual rebuke from the legendary Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

It came after additional discussion between Bezos and the two Post leaders, Shipley and Lewis, who privately made a case not to abandon the tradition so close to an election. The editorial board had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Harris, though Mr. Bezos did not read it before his decision, Lewis said in a statement on Saturday.

The decision by Bezos had been in the making for weeks. It is not clear what motivated his final determination or its timing. Bezos has clashed repeatedly with Harris’s electoral opponent, former President Trump, who for years has been openly hostile to him on social media. In 2019, Amazon sued the Trump administration, blaming Trump’s animosity toward Bezos for its loss of a $10 billion cloud computing contract.

Amazon’s Bezos also founded Blue Origin, his aerospace company, still compete regularly for lucrative government contracts. Blue Origin executives met with Trump on Friday, and the company has a $3.4 billion contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build a lunar lander.

A spokeswoman for The Post said Friday that ending presidential endorsements was a “Washington Post decision.” In his statement on Saturday, Mr. Lewis added that, as publisher, he does not believe in endorsements.

It’s the latest in a series of events that have rocked The Post this year.

In June, its executive editor, Sally Buzbee, abruptly left her role, rather than take a new position running a division focused on social media — a so-called “third newsroom” after news and opinion. Buzbee had clashed with Lewis over whether The Post should cover an update in a British case related to Mr. Lewis’s involvement in the cleanup of a phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
The decision to abandon presidential endorsements at the The Post followed news that the owner of The Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, had quashed presidential endorsements.

In the weeks after Mr. Bezos met with Mr. Shipley and Mr. Lewis, members of the Washington Post’s editorial board, who write editorials for the newspaper, including endorsements, assumed that The Post would be giving their stamp of approval to Ms. Harris. Two of them had drafted the endorsement, which was awaiting a final sign-off.
It never came.

Instead, on Friday, Mr. Shipley joined the editorial board via video for a regular meeting at 11 a.m. in an eighth-floor conference room at The Post’s headquarters, according to two people who attended. He announced the new endorsement policy without much enthusiasm, one said.

#Harris #Trump #Amazon #Bezos

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Shipley tried to explain: He said The Post was no longer going to tell people how to vote, a posture that would reflect the paper’s independent bona fides, the two people said. Several of the board members asked for space to write dissenting statements signed under their own names, together or separately. The meeting ended without a resolution on how they should convey their disagreement.

The announcement was sent to the entire newsroom around noon. Lewis said in the memo that The Post was returning to a prior policy of not making endorsements, trusting readers to “make up their own minds.” The Post has issued endorsements in every presidential election since 1976, when it gave its stamp of approval to Jimmy Carter, though it abstained in 1988. It endorsed Biden in the last cycle.

The decision, which was reported by NPR before Mr. Lewis sent his email, generated near-instantaneous blowback. Within minutes, Martin Baron, the former Post editor featured in the movie “Spotlight,” posted on X that it amounted to “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty.” Robert Kagan, an editor at large who has written for The Post for more than two decades, dashed off a quick resignation email to Shipley at 12:56 p.m.

In an interview, Mr. Kagan said that, in his view, the decision not to endorse a candidate was “clearly a sign of pre-emptive favor currying” with Trump, the Republican nominee for president.

“The Post has been emphasizing that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy,”

Kagan said.

“And so this is the election, this is the time when we decided that we’re neutral?”

By 1 p.m., top Post editors were fielding questions from their colleagues about the decision. Matt Murray, The Post’s executive editor, was asked in a meeting about election coverage why the newspaper was ending its endorsements for president but continuing to recommend candidates in other elections, according to a person familiar with the matter.

So far this year, The Post has endorsed candidates in House and Senate races in Virginia and Maryland.
On Slack, the messaging app used by The Post, employees reacted to a sudden deluge of readers looking for information on the non-endorsement. Vineet Khosla, The Post’s chief technology officer, instructed Post employees to prevent The Post’s experimental artificial intelligence tool from responding to reader questions about the decision, according to
screenshots obtained by The New York Times.

“Let’s block it,”

Mr. Khosla wrote, essentially calling a halt to A.I. responses on the topic.

A spokeswoman for The Post said in a statement that it would have been “irresponsible to serve our audience with an AI-generated response summary based off of one article” about the decision not to endorse.
In a 4 p.m. news meeting, Murray fielded more questions — before a larger audience than usual, he noted, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.

He said that he hadn’t been involved in the decision because the newsroom was independent of the Opinion department. He added that he had only found out on Thursday night. But, seeking to reassure newsroom employees, he said,

“What this newsroom does is supported up to the very top of this company.”

Later in the evening, Woodward and Bernstein weighed in. In a statement, they said that — although they respected the independence of The Post’s editorial board — the decision “ignores the Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.”

By the end of the day, The Post’s opinions department had made its voice heard. In a dissenting editorial, 18 Post opinion columnists signed their names to a column calling the decision not to endorse a “terrible mistake.”

Ann Telnaes, The Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, captured the angst more concisely. On Friday evening, she posted her latest cartoon, a rectangular block covered entirely with a swath of foreboding gray paint strokes.

#Harris #Trump #Amazon #Bezos

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ISRAEL'S DEFIANCE: ANOTHER BLOW TO AMERICA'S GLOBAL LEADERSHIP 🌐

#GlobalPolitics #USPower #IsraelConflict #MiddleEast

THE POWER SHIFT 🔄
In a striking illustration of America's waning global influence, Israel has emerged as the primary architect of Middle Eastern events, with the United States relegated to what analysts describe as a "wing man" role. This transformation represents a seismic shift in a region where the U.S. once reigned supreme.

THE NEW REALITY 🎯
"You have a disconnect where the junior partner in the alliance has the grander vision for the region, and the senior partner is left trying to respond to events," notes Vali R. Nasr, former State Department official. This stark assessment underscores how dramatically the power dynamic has shifted.

NETANYAHU'S DEFIANCE ⚔️
Despite American pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to escalate conflicts on multiple fronts - Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. The Israeli leader's determination to pursue his strategic objectives, regardless of U.S. concerns, demonstrates a new era of Israeli assertiveness.

GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS 🌍
The implications extend far beyond the Middle East. As Nasr points out, "Rivals like China and Russia are taking note of the United States' inability to curb Israel or contain the conflict in the Middle East." This observation connects Israel's defiance to broader challenges to U.S. global leadership, from BRICS expansion to growing multipolar activism.

THE LEADERSHIP VACUUM 👥
While Israel conducts strikes against Iran and maintains its campaign in Gaza, the U.S. finds itself limited to "diplomatic cleanup operations." This diminished role mirrors America's struggling influence with other traditional allies and partners worldwide.

THE ELECTORAL FACTOR 🗳
With the U.S. presidential election approaching, Israel appears to be carefully timing its actions, demonstrating an understanding that it can navigate its interests regardless of Washington's preferences. Former ambassador Michael B. Oren notes that Netanyahu "knows" his vision requires military force, contrary to White House beliefs.

THE BROADER PATTERN 📊
Israel's assertive independence aligns with a growing global trend where traditional U.S. allies and partners increasingly chart their own courses. From India's oil purchases from Russia to Saudi Arabia's independent diplomatic initiatives, Israel's actions represent another crack in the facade of U.S. global leadership.

💭 Food for Thought:
- Is Israel's defiance setting a precedent for other U.S. allies?
- Could this shift in U.S.-Israel dynamics accelerate the transition to a multipolar world?
- What does America's limited influence over Israel tell us about the future of global leadership?
- How might this transformation affect other U.S. alliances worldwide?


🔑 Key Points:
- U.S. relegated to "wing man" status in Middle East
- Netanyahu pursuing independent military strategy
- Multiple fronts of conflict despite U.S. concerns
- China and Russia observing U.S. inability to contain situation
- Growing pattern of allies asserting independence
- U.S. limited to cleanup and damage control
- Pre-election timing shows strategic autonomy

#USForeignPolicy #IsraelPolitics #GlobalLeadership #Multipolarity #MiddleEastCrisis

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RUSSIAN AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS: REPUTATION UNDER FIRE, BUT FOG OF WAR CLOUDS REALITY 🎯

#MilitaryTech #Defense #GlobalArms #RussianDefense

THE VISIBLE DAMAGE 🔥
Israel's recent strikes on Iran have dealt a double blow - targeting both Iranian military infrastructure and the reputation of Russian military equipment. According to U.S. and Israeli officials, Iran's Russian-made air defense systems, including the S-300, proved largely ineffective against Israel's assault from 100 fighter jets.

THE UKRAINE EFFECT ⚔️

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a public-relations disaster for its defense industry,"

notes Ian Storey from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This latest incident compounds the damage done to Russian military credibility by Ukrainian successes against even more advanced S-400 systems.

THE NUMBERS TELL A STORY 📊
Russian arms exports have plummeted since 2022, with SIPRI reporting a 52% drop in foreign weapons sales last year. The trend suggests continued decline from previous levels, affecting Moscow's position in the global arms market.

THE FOG OF WAR ☁️
However, the full picture remains unclear. Just as previous conflicts have shown, the speed of military capability restoration can often surprise observers. Iran's ability to recover and adapt its air defense systems may be significantly faster than current assessments suggest, particularly given the limited verifiable information about actual damage.

THE CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE 👥
India, Russia's largest arms customer accounting for over one-third of military exports, maintains confidence in its S-400 systems.

"There is no comparison of S-400 with any other air-defense system in the world,"

declares an Indian security official, distinguishing their advanced systems from Iran's "inferior version."

THE MARKET SHIFTS 🔄
While Russian systems face scrutiny, no air defense is impenetrable. Even Israel's world-leading missile defense system has shown vulnerabilities against Iranian strikes. The reality of modern warfare suggests that absolute protection remains elusive for any system.

THE FUTURE LANDSCAPE 🌐
Countries are diversifying their defense portfolios. India, for example, is developing indigenous systems and collaborating with other nations, suggesting a broader shift in the global arms market beyond just Russian setbacks.


💭 Food for Thought:
- How much of the perceived failure of Russian systems is reality versus wartime propaganda?
- Could Iran's recovery capabilities be underestimated amid limited verification?
- What role does the fog of war play in assessing military capabilities?
- How might this affect the global arms market in the long term?


🔑 Key Points:
- Russian air defense systems reportedly ineffective against Israeli strikes
- Arms exports dropped 52% since 2022
- Major customers like India maintaining confidence in advanced systems
- No missile shield proves impervious in modern warfare
- Limited verification of actual damage and recovery capabilities
- Countries increasingly diversifying military suppliers
- Global arms market in transition

#MilitaryTechnology #GlobalDefense #AirDefense #ArmsIndustry #ModernWarfare

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BRITAIN'S POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE: GEORGE GALLOWAY AND THE RISE OF NEW ENGLAND 🌍

#BritishPolitics #Galloway #BRICS #PoliticalChange

THE ESTABLISHMENT TREMBLES 🏛
In a week that has sent shockwaves through Britain's political establishment, George Galloway demonstrated the emerging power of non-system politics. From attending the BRICS summit in Kazan to stirring controversy by calling Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar a "martyr," Galloway continues to challenge traditional British political norms.

THE MARTYR CONTROVERSY 🗣
"He would appear to have died with his boots on, with his uniform on, with his Kalashnikov in his hand and with his keffiyeh around his neck, and therefore has died a martyr's death," Galloway declared about Sinwar, prompting immediate backlash from the establishment. UK Lawyers for Israel called his remarks "absurd" and accused him of "recklessly encouraging" support for proscribed organizations.

THE DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT 📊
The February Rochdale by-election victory highlighted a significant demographic transformation in British politics. In this Manchester suburb, where 35% of residents are Muslim migrants, Galloway's success represented the voice of what he calls "New English" - immigrant communities increasingly reshaping Britain's political landscape.

THE LABOUR CRISIS ⚡️
While Galloway narrowly lost his seat in the general election, his anti-war, pro-Palestinian platform gains momentum as the Labour Party faces internal collapse. The party's continuous purges of left-wing members, including former leader Jeremy Corbyn, have created a growing pool of disenfranchised politicians aligning with immigrant communities.

THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION 🤝
Galloway's presence at the BRICS summit in Kazan symbolizes a growing alignment between British non-system politicians and alternative global power centers. His ability to move between British parliamentary politics and international forums challenges the traditional Western consensus.

THE SYSTEM BREAKDOWN 🔨
The fragmenting Labour Party, marked by weekly expulsions and scandals, mirrors the earlier collapse of the Conservative Party under pressure from Nigel Farage. This parallel suggests a broader crisis in Britain's two-party system, with non-system forces from both left and right poised to fill the vacuum.

💭 Food for Thought:
- Is Britain's political establishment facing an existential crisis?
- Could the alliance between the left and immigrant communities reshape British politics?
- What role will global forums like BRICS play in empowering non-system politicians?
- Is the two-party system's collapse inevitable?


🔑 Key Points:
- Galloway's dual presence at BRICS and British politics
- Controversial stance on Middle East conflict
- Demographic shifts driving political change
- Labour Party's internal disintegration
- Growing alliance between left and immigrant communities
- Parallels to Conservative Party's earlier collapse
- Challenge to traditional two-party system

#BritishPolitics #PoliticalChange #Immigration #LabourCrisis #BRICS #GlobalPolitics

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Kamala : True Story of a Black Girl From Nowhere

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Harris describes herself as an underdog, but she’s campaigning like a front-runner. She’s given only a handful of interviews since becoming the nominee, betting that being pinned down on policy may not be to her advantage. But she’s been in public life for decades, and her history offers some indication of how a Harris term might play out.

On the economy, Harris has veered to the middle, reversing some of her positions, and signaled she’s pro-growth. She pitches her deliberateness and predictability as superior to Trump’s fixation on tariffs and his brazen transactionalism, which could remake the rules for American business. She’s floated an expanded tax break for new small businesses and a softer stance on cryptocurrency.

Her rise in the San Francisco Bay Area familiarized her with the giants that power Silicon Valley’s growth, but she also flexed her watchdog muscles as California’s attorney general, targeting banks and for-profit colleges for predatory lending practices. She’s pledged to raise taxes on corporations and high earners and to increase the capital-gains tax, albeit to a lower rate than Biden’s target.

Her track record suggests she’d push for stronger regulation of companies and stoke an antitrust agenda that’s riled even some prominent Democratic donors.

Current and former aides contend that, while Harris wants to hold bad actors accountable, she’s all of the above—guided by values but pragmatic and open to compromise.

She has precious little time left to tell voters who she is and what she’d do as president. The campaign’s final weeks will pit her assertion that she’s a middle-class champion against Trump’s effort to paint her as a coastal liberal and an incumbent responsible for inflation and a porous border. And even if she succeeds in the seven battleground states she needs to win the presidency, her legislative agenda almost surely depends on helping hold a key Senate seat in Montana, too.
Harris says she’s building a movement. If it’s to become a revolution, she’s got important voters left to convince.

Harris was born in Oakland in 1964 to immigrant parents, a father from Jamaica and a mother from India. Both were graduate students and civil rights activists at the University of California at Berkeley. The protest movement underpinned Harris’ upbringing—her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who researched breast cancer, described to Breslau how she’d take young Kamala along to demonstrations:

“When we chanted ‘What do we want?’ she would say ‘Fweedom!’ ”

Shyamala was loving and demanding with Harris and her younger daughter, Maya, born in 1967. She imparted lessons to her girls. One was to never ask anybody for money, an aversion Harris has had to shake as a politician.

Another became an applause line for Harris at the Democratic National Convention:

“Never complain about injustice, but do something about it. Do something about it.”

Harris studied in Washington, DC, at Howard University, a historically Black institution, and was a member of a Black sorority, both sources of political power for her today. While she was in college, she worked at McDonald’s—a résumé item Trump has baselessly called a lie—and at the Federal Trade Commission’s press office and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.

She went on to law school in San Francisco. Shyamala saw a common thread between her daughter’s choice and her own vocation as a scientist: logic.

“You cannot draw the right conclusions if you’re not logical,”

Shyamala said in a 2008 interview.

“The only problem with law which the scientists don’t encounter is the confounding factor of human beings.”

That factor defined Harris’ early career. She became a prosecutor, starting out in Oakland as a deputy district attorney for Alameda County. The choice appeared to some to be at odds with her social justice roots.

#BlackGirl #Harris #Biden #Story #AmericanОbserver

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“I decided that let’s not accept false choices about what it means to be a voice for the voiceless,”

she said.

In Alameda County she specialized in prosecuting child sexual assault cases.

“Let’s not accept false choices about what it means to be a voice for the voiceless,”

Harris said of becoming a prosecutor
Change comes slowly in America, then quickly. In the early 2000s, San Francisco had never had a woman district attorney, let alone a woman of color. Harris decided to run for the job anyway.

Her mother reminded her that Americans historically didn’t have women do two things: “protect their safety and protect their money,” Harris recalled in a Newsweek interview with Breslau in 2005.

The road to political power in California runs through San Francisco’s clubby Democratic elite. It produced Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown, who was the city’s mayor and, before that, the self-proclaimed “ayatollah” of the state assembly. Harris was familiar with that world—she’d gone to law school with Pelosi’s daughter and briefly dated Brown in the mid-1990s—but she wasn’t of it. Still, she defeated the incumbent, Terence Hallinan, the pot-smoking scion of another old San Francisco family, painting him as a soft-on-crime progressive.

Democrats often give “the impression that we just want to open up the jailhouse door and let everybody out,” Harris said a few years later.

“That is not the case at all.”

She began as DA in January 2004, working from the Hall of Justice, a concrete hulk nicknamed Beirut West by attorneys who worked there. Her office was then at war with the San Francisco Police Department over her predecessor’s progressive agenda. Within months a crisis erupted: Isaac Espinoza, an undercover police officer, was shot dead by a teenage gang member wielding an AK-47. Harris announced before Espinoza’s funeral that she wouldn’t seek the death penalty, to which she has philosophical objections. (California’s last execution was in 2006.)

The declaration was explosive. Rank-and-file officers turned their backs on her at the Hall of Justice, and Feinstein criticized Harris’ decision at Espinoza’s funeral. But she stuck to her position, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle that “there can be no exception to principle.” Her office prosecuted Espinoza’s killer, and he was sentenced in 2007 to life in prison without parole. Harris won a second term that year, running unopposed.

Her tenure as DA was marked by efforts to boost conviction rates for violent felonies and divert first-time, nonviolent offenders into a rehabilitation program she developed. She distinguished herself, too, by focusing on child welfare, even creating a waiting room with small chairs, teddy bears and books kids could read while their parents conducted their grim business at the Hall.

“We have to always think about children because the reality is they don’t have a voice at all in so many systems,”

she told Breslau in 2012.

“And whatever impacts a child will impact what in a very short time will become an adult—for their life.”

One of her headline proposals in this election is aimed at kids: a beefed-up $6,000 tax credit for families in the first year of a child’s life.

Harris came to identify herself as “smart on crime,” making that the title of a book she co-authored and published in 2009.

“This is part of my methodology,”

she reflected a decade later.

“Let’s try and identify the false choices and fight them.”

Even as DA, Harris was turning an eye to national politics, working for John Kerry’s campaign and door-knocking for Barack Obama in Iowa. She was also mending fences with people who could help her get to that stage, notably Feinstein.

“She is a real role model,”

Harris said in 2008,

“when a woman is ever battling the need to be taken seriously and be understood to be strong and tough, but not wanting to come off being the you-know-what.”

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While California’s tech culture favors young disrupters, the state’s sclerotic political culture keeps them waiting. Harris spent her 30s and 40s challenging older incumbents. With her was Newsom—a foil of sorts, the insider to her outsider, a fifth-generation Californian born into a prominent San Francisco family. He’d become mayor the same month she became DA on his way to being elected governor of California.

“They were like political sibling rivals,”

says Brian Brokaw, a Democratic strategist who worked on campaigns for both.

“Eventually they worked it out.”

In 2010, still grieving her mother’s death the year before, Harris ran for attorney general. The race was closely fought. Harris beat her opponent, Republican Steve Cooley, with a margin of under 1%. Cooley recalls racking up endorsements from law enforcement and still today casts Harris as hostile to police.

“She has had a phenomenal rise to the most important position in the world. I think it has not been on the merits. It’s been on the basis of her shrewd calculations,”

he says.

“I think she is wholly underqualified.”

As attorney general, Harris kept her focus on kids and the root causes of crime, including by prosecuting the parents of habitually truant students and forming a Bureau of Children’s Justice in 2015. Its goal was to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and identify underlying problems that set kids up for failure. Jill Habig, her deputy at the California Department of Justice, recalls that Harris would often bring issues back to children.

Habig might be talking about

“foreclosure rates and eviction rates and what’s the amount of money we’re getting for families,”

and Harris would ask questions like

“What do we know about the kids in these families?”

Habig says the angriest she ever saw Harris was during the case against Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit university system based in Southern California that had loaded vulnerable students with debt.

“These are people who are trying to do the right thing. They’re trying to invest in their education, invest in their financial livelihood, pull themselves up by their proverbial bootstraps, live the American dream,”

Habig remembers Harris saying.

“And they’re just being scammed at every turn.”

Harris won a $1 billion settlement against Corinthian—a victory she frequently invokes alongside Trump University, a failed venture that saw Trump agree to pay $25 million to settle claims it cheated students.

Bigger still, at least in financial terms, was her fight against major home lenders over their foreclosure practices, which saw her win an $18 billion settlement, plus an additional $2 billion as part of a federal case. That fight was conducted with Delaware’s attorney general, Beau Biden, bringing her onto the radar of his father, Joe. She asked California Representative Katie Porter, then a professor at UC Irvine, to monitor whether the settlement money was reaching victims.

Harris

“came to UC Irvine and sat down with people who’d lost their homes,”

Porter says.

“She made time to listen to the people most affected.”

In Harris’ 2019 book, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, she wrote that she relished her work on behalf of consumers.

“I loved being the voice and advocate for the people they’ve mistreated. The lawyers on my team knew how serious I was about holding corporate predators accountable. They would joke that ‘Kamala’ meant ‘get more commas in that settlement price.’ ”

Harris made early visits to Airbnb, Dropbox, Netflix and Palantir and came to be viewed as tech forward, interested in the disruptive potential of these nascent businesses. An informational meeting with Palantir’s chief executive officer, Alex Karp, was scheduled for 30 minutes yet lasted more than three hours, according to Travis LeBlanc, who advised Harris as AG. She understood, LeBlanc says,

“that it was important to allow a playing field for disrupters to disrupt.”

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This approach was evident, LeBlanc says, in an agreement Harris struck with mobile app developers in 2012 to require that their apps include cleary privacy disclosures, as well as in a meeting she convened in Los Angeles after Hollywood studios complained that Amazon Marketplace was facilitating the sale of pirated DVDs. After the gathering, Amazon initiated a trial project that let the studios identify authorized sellers so it could crack down on everyone else.

“She has a lot of tools in her tool chest,”

LeBlanc says,

“and she’s going to use the one that she believes is most appropriate.”

Harris met Doug Emhoff on a blind date and married him in 2014; his two children from his first marriage famously dubbed her Momala. As her personal life settled, she set her career sights higher. Rumors were swirling that Senator Barbara Boxer wouldn’t seek another term, and Cory Booker—a friend of Harris’ and the Senate’s only Black Democrat—decided to pitch her on running.

“It was stunning to me how much lack of diversity there was,”

he says.

The two met up, both bursting to speak. As Booker recalls, he went first, rattling off his case.

“I gave her a whole bunch of the wisdom I had gained,”

he says.

“Come here, run for Senate, get out early, you’ll collapse the field.”

Harris listened until it was her turn to talk. It wasn’t Boxer’s seat she wanted to discuss.

“She told me I needed to get married,”

Booker remembers, laughing.

“She really wanted to impress upon me that—screw the public life, the public life and public calling, all of that is really important, but the most important thing in life is to find a good person and get married.

 She had married the love of her life. She was really on a high.”

Boxer departed, and Harris did run, collapsing the field as Booker had predicted thanks to endorsements from Obama and other prominent Democrats. In January 2017 she joined the Senate, a painstaking institution where she was at times plainly restless but made a name for herself with her interrogations on the Judiciary Committee.

“What reporters are describing as a change in position is the fact that she’s gotten to know more people in this country”

Her progressive and prosecutorial background shone through in the dozens of bills she proposed, even if most of them stalled out, a common experience for senators.

She sought to strengthen migrants’ right to an attorney, to increase border agents’ use of body cameras and to bar the Department of Homeland Security from using federal funds to expand immigration detention centers. She put forth one bill that would have given state AGs the power to investigate national banks and another to require Federal Reserve banks to interview at least one woman and one person of color when searching for a new president.

She proposed legislation for a middle-class tax credit and for a generous tax credit for renters. Many of her bills tried to help kids, including one aimed at studying how to alleviate care gaps by better lining up the school day with the workday. She tried to codify penalties for sharing intimate images without consent and to compel Spanish-language labeling on pesticides.

Those efforts all foreshadowed her attempt to court the Democrats’ left flank during her 2019 presidential run. She professed to support the Green New Deal, a version of Medicare for All and some mandatory gun buybacks, as well as bans on fracking and, by 2040, the sale of gas-powered cars. She spoke out in defense of those who cross the border illegally. And she barely mentioned her time as a prosecutor, in keeping with an era when the Democratic Party was seized by criminal justice issues and facing calls to defund the police.

Her presidential bid flamed out before the first primary, as she found herself strapped for cash and trapped between the progressive and moderate camps even within her own staff.

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Harris chalks up her shift away from her 2019 stances to the consensus-building favored by her boss, the Democrats’ flagship centrist.

One former aide and longtime ally, Senator Laphonza Butler of California, says,

“What reporters are describing as a change in position is the fact that she’s gotten to know more people in this country.”

She describes Harris as “more seasoned,” adding,

“when you are able to find that there is common ground between the farmers that you were working so hard to protect and defend as attorney general [and] the farmers that you hadn’t even met in Iowa … that definitely broadens your experience and perspective.”

Rather than Medicare for All, Harris came to emphasize defending Obamacare and to favor measures such as expanded caps on out-of-pocket expenses. She says she’d pursue an assault weapons ban and more background checks but not mandatory buybacks. She no longer wants to ban fracking and has fallen silent on phasing out combustion engines. On immigration, she supports the bipartisan bill that collapsed under pressure from Trump, which would have added thousands of enforcement personnel, expedited asylum claims and funded border wall construction.

Aides say Harris isn’t interested in fussing over wonky details about programs so much as in considering their effects.

“She’s going to think about the people at the center of every policy that oftentimes can be seen as just words on a page,”

Butler says.

As vice president, Harris struggled to find her footing at times. She took on a role aiming to curb migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador while border crossings skyrocketed. She advocated for economic initiatives such as canceling student debt and marshaling capital commitments for community lenders, which she sees as a vehicle to spur small-business growth for entrepreneurs whom big banks might turn down. The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision thrust her into the spotlight on abortion rights, a key issue for Democrats ever since.

She also fostered ties with other prominent Black lawmakers and marked historical moments such as the confirmation in 2022 of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. As Harris presided over the Senate vote, she huddled with two other Black lawmakers, Booker and Raphael Warnock, the pastor whose Georgia runoff win helped give Democrats an outright majority in the chamber.
It’s a story Booker and Warnock have told since: Harris urged them to write a letter to the next generation.

“She made that suggestion to us—you know, the way Black women make suggestions,”

Warnock later deadpanned at a Harris rally.

She’d pulled out stationery with her vice presidential seal and handed a piece to each of them. Warnock wrote immediately to his daughter. Weeks went by before Booker wrote his. Speaking to a delegation at the DNC, he described Harris’ request as a metaphor for the sacrifices of past generations.

“They wrote their love letters to us, and they wrote them in tears, they wrote them in sweat, and at times they wrote them in blood,”

he said.

“Now, Kamala Harris wants us to write our letter.”

“She really thinks about accountability,”

Habig says

“Like, how do we build a market and an economy... where companies can actually innovate and build a business knowing that they’re not going to be undercut by another business that’s just cheating”

Harris has talked about how diversity, including among her own staff, helps drive better decisions, even as she’s brushed aside questions about her multifaceted background and cast it as unremarkable to her.

“It’s all of who I am”

she said in 2008

“It’s more difficult for other people to figure it out than it is for me to figure it out. This is my life”

Yet she also sees a need to break down barriers. When you hit them, she told an audience drawn from Asian American, Hawaiian and Pacific Islander organizations earlier this year,

“you need to kick that fucking door down”

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Harris’ rise was accompanied by persistent rivalries and cool relationships with some in the party, including Pelosi.

“You never saw Kamala at any of Nancy’s events,”

says a supporter of both women who asked not to be named discussing a personal relationship. Asked on CNN in September 2023, with Biden’s already rocky reelection campaign gearing up, whether Harris was

“the best woman for the job”

of vice president, Pelosi responded that as long as Biden thought so,

“that’s what matters.”

As Biden’s age crept into view during the campaign, Harris wasn’t always his undisputed heir apparent. Prominent Democrats, including her old friendly rival, Newsom, vaulted to the national stage, positioning themselves for any race to replace Biden. After the president’s disastrous June debate with Trump triggered a national hand-wringing jamboree, Democrats began saying openly that Biden should step aside. Pelosi delivered a particularly devastating call for him to reconsider staying in.

And as for Harris?

“You didn’t hear a hint from her of disloyalty,”

Booker says. When Biden finally posted on X on Sunday, July 21, that he was withdrawing from the race, he endorsed her only 27 minutes later.

She hadn’t had to kick the door down. They’d spoken that morning, with Harris at home preparing to do a puzzle with her grandnieces. She immediately got to work rallying support, and once again she collapsed the field.

Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who has gained notice, much like Harris, for sparring with Republicans at hearings. Harris might have devoted that time to calling a donor or a congressional leader, Crockett points out.

“I qualify as none of those categories, but somehow she found time to call me,”

she says.

Harris faced the prospect of a fraught primary fight that might have displaced the first woman of color to be near the top of a presidential ticket, but no one came forward to challenge her. By Monday she was taking the reins of the Biden-Harris campaign, entering at its headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, to Béyonce’s Freedom, in echo of her childhood cries in California. Fundraising surged, and volunteer ranks ballooned. Crowds began turning out for her rallies, both alone and with her running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. Pelosi endorsed her, too, appearing with her at a fundraiser.

In a private exchange at a rally in Wisconsin, the vice president told Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ advocacy and political action,

“This isn’t just a campaign, this is a movement,”

Robinson says.

Republicans acknowledge that Harris has reset the race, but some still like their chances.

“At the end of the day, this is still a California liberal,”

says Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s acting White House chief of staff for just over a year.

“That’s a really short elevator speech.”

Faced with Trump’s attacks over immigration, inflation and her liberal record, Harris has kept mainly to her campaign stops and rallies, shattering fundraising records while eschewing interviews and making few policy commitments. This strategic ambiguity is her path to cobbling together the disparate coalition of voters she needs to fend off Trump and his fervent base.

She’ll aim for gains among suburban voters and strong independent and Black turnout and to limit losses in rural, Whiter areas.

On the campaign trail, Harris frequently visits small businesses—a barbecue joint in Georgia, a Mexican restaurant in Arizona, a sandwich place in Pennsylvania. It’s a shift from Biden, who favored manufacturing as shorthand for US economic health. The “opportunity economy” Harris says she wants to create—she used the phrase three times during the Sept. 10 debate—would include the increased child tax credit, expanded credits for new small businesses and $25,000 in aid to first-time homebuyershomebuyers.

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Harris’ campaign has said she supports nearly all the new taxes in Biden’s latest budget, teeing up a potential starting position in 2025 negotiations over the tax code. Tax cuts and credits for middle- and lower-​income families would be more than paid for by a projected $5 trillion in new revenue over a decade. This money would come in part from increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, raising taxes on billionaires and collecting more Medicare taxes from business owners and high earners. While such measures target the wealthy, New York Governor Kathy Hochul says Wall Street shouldn’t worry—Harris will deliver

“the same they always get under Democratic administrations: a robust economy, strong stock markets.”

Brian Nelson, one of Harris’ top policy aides, calls expanding the middle class her North Star.

“That means stable rules, that means sound economic management,”

he says.

Harris has pledged to go after corporate landlords who collude to drive up rents and pharmaceutical companies that impose predatory prices.

“She really thinks about accountability,”

says Habig, the former Harris deputy in California.

“Like, how do we build a market and an economy that actually works for people, where people know what they’re getting and where companies can actually innovate and build a business knowing that they’re not going to be undercut by another business that’s just cheating.”

That extends also to Harris’ approach to crypto, a sector that’s bristled at the skepticism of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler.

Harris will

“support policies that ensure that emerging technologies and that sort of industry can continue to grow,”

including “stable rules,” Nelson says. That softer stance is a victory for crypto advocates such as Representative Ro Khanna, a Bay Area progressive and Harris backer.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction,”

Khanna says.

“I hope they will build on it.”

Harris has been silent on whom she’d choose to help her navigate the economy. She’s avoided mention of party folk heroes such as the antitrust crusading duo of Lina Khan, the FTC chair whose removal some prominent Democratic donors have advocated for, and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter. For a former FTC intern and antitrust enforcer like Harris not to speak in support of Khan’s work shows how reserved she’s being. Aides say her reticence is in part because she doesn’t want to be seen as measuring the drapes at the White House, but it’s left donors and critics guessing.

In Harris’ drive to court middle-class and swing-state voters, her campaign has shifted starkly from Biden’s in one respect: She and Walz have swaddled themselves in Americana, with rallies awash in red, white and blue.

“They don’t have a monopoly on the flag. We took the damn flag back,”

Walz said at a late August fundraiser in Maryland. (Also, he added, “I took football back. I’m done with them thinking they have it.”)

Appeals to patriotism figured prominently in her Democratic convention speech, with her saying that as commander-in-chief she’d ensure that

“America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world”

and that

“America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership.”

She used the “lethal fighting force” line again in her concluding remarks at the Sept. 10 debate.

Harris’ foreign policy positions are still taking shape, but she did travel abroad on diplomatic missions 17 times as vice president, sometimes asking that her motorcade drive by the country’s highest court in a nod to her past as a prosecutor. She’s been in lockstep with Biden in supporting aid and weapons for Ukraine, and she briefed President Zelenskiy five days before Russia’s invasion. Senator Chris Coons, a Biden ally, recalls her speaking powerfully about the conflict at the Munich Security Conference.

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Harris also holds virtually the same position as Biden on the war in Israel, calling for a cease-fire deal and pinning most of the blame on Hamas, though she’s sought to emphasize the plight of Palestinians and Gaza in response to fierce activism from some Democratic critics of Israel. On other issues her positions are less defined, including on China, where campaign website pledges such as not tolerating

“unfair trade practices from China or any competitor that undermines American workers”

have had to pass for policy positions.

On social media the Harris campaign has tried to convey her personality by curating moments of spontaneity from her.

The posts have often highlighted one of her passions: food. In videos of a recent trip to Georgia, she eyed a caramel cake at a boutique cafe and gift shop, and in another she enthusiastically shared her recipe for greens with Tabasco sauce.

Booker, who once got a virtual birthday cooking lesson from Harris, says:

“She is one of the best people to teach you how to cook, as a person who has tried to rescue me from my bachelordom.”

Last November, Harris put together a dinner at her residence for some influential men of color in media. According to people familiar with the gathering, guests included comedian D.L. Hughley, commentator Roland Martin and rapper Fat Joe. Hughley is among those who’ve had reservations about Harris’ past as part of a system that’s disproportionately prosecuted Black men. At one point, he recalled in May, the conversation “got contentious.” After he falsely accused her of imprisoning hundreds of Black men on marijuana charges,

“she put her hand on my shoulder, and she asked me to do some research.”

Hughley ultimately apologized to Harris for “letting a media narrative co-opt” his perspective of her. He, Fat Joe and other celebrities have toured with her, sitting for moderated conversations to promote the administration’s policies.

Hughley also spoke on Harris’ behalf at the DNC, while Martin, who has a daily show targeted to the Black community, co-hosted at least four livestreamed fundraising calls for her. Almost all the battleground states have substantial Black populations—Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania among them—so her efforts to shore up their support are crucial.

Harris has reopened the race in several of the seven swing states, post-Biden. She can win with as few as three of them, and Democrats have grown hopeful that strong turnout en route to a Harris win would allow them to regain control of the House. The Senate looks grimmer. It may come down to Montana, where Democrat Jon Tester is trying to hold on to a seat he first won in 2006. If he loses, Democrats will almost surely cap out at 49 seats, ceding their majority and forestalling many, if not all, of Harris’ plans.

With the time she has left to make her case, she’ll keep bringing it back to character—the middle-class kid versus the millionaire’s son, the prosecutor versus the felon—and connecting her experiences with those of voters however she can. In August, at a school in Georgia, Harris spoke to a marching band with cheerleaders and athletes lining the room.

“All that you all are doing, it requires a whole lot of rehearsal, a whole lot of practice, long hours. Right? Sometimes you hit the note, sometimes you don’t,”

she said.

“Sometimes you’re going to hit the step right, sometimes you’re not. Sometimes you’re going to win the game, sometimes you may not. But, you know, you never let any circumstance knock you down or slow you down. You just keep going at it.”

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ISRAEL'S INCREASING DEFIANCE: A DIRECT CHALLENGE TO UN AND US AUTHORITY

#UnitedNations #IsraelPolitics #GlobalDiplomacy #UNRWA

THE LEGISLATIVE CHALLENGE 📜
In an unprecedented move, Israel's parliament has approved legislation banning UNRWA operations within its borders, marking the latest in a series of actions that directly challenge United Nations authority.

"These bills increase the suffering of the Palestinians and are nothing less than collective punishment,"

warns UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS 🏥
While Prime Minister Netanyahu claims

"avoiding a humanitarian crisis is also essential,"

UN reports paint a stark picture: imminent famine threatens Gaza's population, with aid workers prevented from reaching those in need. The death toll includes at least 230 UNRWA staff members during Israel's military campaign.

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 📚
Israel's actions represent a broader pattern of UN defiance, including:
- Declaring the UN Secretary-General persona non grata
- Seizing UNRWA properties in Jerusalem for residential development
- Incidents involving UN peacekeepers on the Lebanese border
- Rejecting Resolution 181's principles, despite their inclusion in Israel's Declaration of Independence
- Knesset legislation preventing Palestinian statehood west of the Jordan River

THE DIPLOMATIC FALLOUT 🔄
Despite pressure from traditional allies, including U.S. concerns about the UNRWA legislation, Israel maintains its stance. Netanyahu justifies these actions citing security concerns, though critics note the lack of evidence for allegations against UNRWA staff.

THE WIDER IMPLICATIONS 🌍
Calls for Israel's potential expulsion from the UN highlight the growing rift between international institutions and Israeli policy. This unprecedented tension threatens the foundation of post-WWII international order.

THE SOVEREIGNTY ASSERTION 🏛
Israel's actions reflect a broader trend of asserting sovereignty over international consensus, even at the cost of diplomatic isolation and humanitarian concerns.


💭 Food for Thought:
- Can the UN maintain authority when member states openly defy its mandates?
- What are the implications for international law and order?
- How might this affect future humanitarian operations globally?
- Could this create a precedent for other nations to challenge UN authority?

🔑 Key Points:
- UNRWA banned from operating in Israel
- 230+ UNRWA staff killed in Gaza
- Imminent famine crisis in Gaza
- Multiple instances of UN defiance
- Growing international isolation
- Humanitarian access restrictions
- Unprecedented challenge to global order

#InternationalLaw #HumanitarianCrisis #GlobalPolitics #UNSystem

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Democratic Party's Traditional Affinity: A Complex Dance with China 🎭

#UsPolitics #ChinaRelations #Election2024 #GlobalConnections

THE CULTURAL BRIDGES 🌉
As the 2024 election approaches, stories emerge highlighting Democrats' long-standing engagement with China. Vice presidential nominee Tim Walz's early career as an English teacher in Foshan represents a typical pattern of cultural exchange that has characterized Democratic leaders' connections with China.

THE PERSONAL TOUCH 💫

"I thought he also loved me. I loved him,"

Jenna Wang told The Post about her 1989 relationship with Walz, illustrating how personal connections often intertwined with professional development in China-focused careers. Such stories reflect a broader pattern of Democratic engagement with Chinese society at various levels.

THE BUSINESS TRADITIONS 🤝
The pattern extends to business relationships, with various Democratic political families maintaining Chinese connections. The Biden clan's business engagements, particularly through younger generations, represent a continuation of this tradition, though investigations have found no impropriety in these relationships.

THE EDUCATIONAL LEGACY 📚
Walz's progression from teaching in Foshan to leading student exchange programs demonstrates how Democrats have traditionally valued educational and cultural ties with China. These programs created lasting bridges between American and Chinese institutions.

THE ONGOING DIALOGUE 🗣
Modern Democratic approaches to China reflect this historical pattern of engagement, balancing diplomatic necessity with traditional ties. These relationships, both personal and professional, have helped shape current policy perspectives.

THE BROADER CONTEXT 🌏
This traditional affinity manifests in various ways - from educational exchanges to business relationships - representing a complex but enduring aspect of Democratic Party culture that spans generations.



💭 Food for Thought:
- How do cultural exchanges shape political perspectives?
- What role do personal connections play in international relations?
- How have traditional Democratic-Chinese relationships evolved?
- What impact do these historical ties have on current policy?


🔑 Key Aspects:
- Long history of Democratic engagement with China
- Educational and cultural exchange programs
- Multi-generational business connections
- Emphasis on person-to-person diplomacy
- Balance of cultural and political interests
- Traditional patterns of engagement
- Evolution of diplomatic relationships

#USChinaRelations #CulturalDiplomacy #GlobalPolitics #InternationalRelations

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THE MISSILE PARADOX: WESTERN ARSENAL DEPLETES WHILE 'AXIS' PRODUCTION SOARS 🚀

#DefenseIndustry #MilitaryReadiness #GlobalSecurity #DefenseProduction

THE DEPLETION CRISIS 📉
"The U.S. has not developed a defense industrial base intended for a large-scale war of attrition in both Europe and the Middle East, while meeting its own readiness standards," warns Elias Yousif from the Stimson Center, highlighting a growing crisis in Western military readiness.

THE NUMBERS GAME 💰
The stark reality: A single U.S. Standard Missile costs millions of dollars and takes months to replace, while intercepting much cheaper Iranian-made weapons. As one congressional official notes, "Those are really expensive munitions to shoot down crappy Houthi targets... and every one they expend takes months to replace—at high, high cost."

THE PRODUCTION GAP 🏭
While RTX can produce only a few hundred Standard Missiles annually for both U.S. and 14 allied nations, Iran, North Korea, and Russia maintain significantly higher production rates for their missiles and drones. This asymmetric production capability creates a strategic vulnerability in the Western defense posture.

THE STRATEGIC DILEMMA ⚖️
During Iran's October 1 attack on Israel, U.S. and Israeli forces deliberately allowed some of the 180 Iranian missiles to pass through, knowing they wouldn't strike valuable targets - a calculated decision to preserve their dwindling interceptor stocks.

THE PACIFIC PROBLEM 🌊
"We're spending a year's worth of Standard Missiles—those are standard missiles that are supposed to be part of rearming ourselves for China," warns retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, highlighting how Middle East operations compromise Pacific readiness.

THE INDUSTRIAL BOTTLENECK 🔧
The Pentagon faces significant challenges in increasing production. As Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro admits, "The more sophisticated the missile, the harder it is to produce them." Meanwhile, Iran and its allies maintain simpler, faster production lines.

THE IRONIC TWIST 🔄
Israel's recent strikes on Iranian missile and drone production facilities come at a time when Western interceptor stocks are already critically low. The U.S. has launched more than $1.8 billion worth of interceptors since the Hamas-Israel war began, straining an already stressed supply chain.

💭 Food for Thought:
- How sustainable is a defense strategy that relies on multi-million dollar interceptors against low-cost threats?
- Did strategic planners consider the ammunition sustainability crisis before recent escalations?
- What does this production disparity mean for future conflicts?
- Can Western defense industries adapt to this new reality?


🔑 Key Facts:
- U.S. launched over 100 Standard Missiles since October 2023
- Each interceptor costs millions and takes months to produce
- RTX's annual production limited to a few hundred missiles
- $1.8 billion worth of interceptors used in Red Sea operations
- 14 allied nations compete for limited missile production
- Production cannot match current consumption rate
- Pacific defense readiness compromised by Middle East operations

#DefenseStrategy #MilitaryIndustry #GlobalSecurity #StrategicReadiness

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