Monday, November 18, 2019

Notes on cause and effect when looking at Trump, Russia, Ukraine, Hong Kong, and Venice




Notes on Cause and Effect: Trump, Russia, Ukraine, Venice, and Hong Kong


We did not write about the yellow vest movement which celebrated its one year anniversary this week with some small but violent demonstrations. Most people ignored it. Paris was packed with shoppers. But as the notice at the Madeleine bus stop shows, a lot of public transport was shut down on Saturday. Elsewhere in the city, we saw the last of the fall colors, which you can take a look at on my Instagram feed.
 
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One of the core purposes of reporting is to understand cause and effect. The actions we write about almost always are reactions to events that have gone before. But the truth of the matter is not always easy to discern as people try to impose their own one-sided narratives on known facts, or invent their "facts" altogether.

The stories we've published about world news over the last few days were all reported with an eye to understanding why we see what we see happening in various corners of the world:

It's much easier to understand the way Donald Trump thinks and acts, for instance, if one knows about his longstanding connections to alleged Russian mobsters.

ВОР В ЗАКОНЕ
The impeachment investigations will have as constant background Trump's most important and long lasting connections to Russia—through alleged mobsters.

Russian state media crowing over impeachment are less interested in the fate of the U.S. president than they are in the demoralization and weakening of Ukraine.

'TRUMP UNCHAINED'
Vladimir Putin could not possibly envision a sweeter gift than Ukraine falling away from the West into the welcoming—albeit bloodied—hands of the Kremlin.

The presence of the extreme nationalist right in Ukraine, including white supremacists and neo-Nazis, cannot be ignored, even if efforts by members of the U.S. Congress to get the Azov Battalion declared a foreign terrorist organization play into the hands of Kremlin propagandists.

WOLFSANGELS
In 2014, almost anyone who wanted to fight the Russians in Ukraine was more than welcome. But today one volunteer battalion is accused of white-supremacist terrorism.
CHRISTOPHER DICKEY


Despite Russia's denials, damning evidence continues to accumulate about the Kremlin's complicity in the downing of a passenger jet flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in 2014.
DAILY CONTACT
Dutch investigators release damning audio that connects Russian authorities to the rebels suspected in the 2014 shootdown of a Malaysian jet with 298 people on board in Ukraine.

On other fronts: 


Much of the Hong Kong coverage the world sees has focused on telegenic flames, clouds of teargas, bricks thrown and shots fired. But the make or break moment may actually come at the ballot box next weekend—if elections are allowed at all.
 
SIEGE MENTALITY
Blood has been shed on Hong Kong streets and a university is under siege. But even the "black bloc" at the vanguard of the protests is looking toward the Nov. 24 vote.
BRENDON HONG


This story, which ran in our travel section, tells you why climate change and the full moon are not the only culprits in the destruction of one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
 
HELL OR HIGH WATER
La Serenissima has long struggled with flooding as it sank deeper and deeper, but the recent crisis has been exacerbated by all too familiar corruption.

 

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The Berlin Wall Fell Over a Weekend, 30 Years Later We're Still Trying to Cope with the Consequences




The Berlin Wall Fell Over a Weekend, 30 Years Later We're Still Trying to Cope with the Consequences


Mike Pompeo was in Germany serving with American forces there when the Berlin Wall came down. It seems he has no illusions about the Soviet threat back then, or the threat posed by Vladimir Putin today. This is what he had to say in a speech in Berlin on Friday
Yet Pompeo's boss, on whose behalf he lies and deceives whenever he deems it necessary, is talking about going to Moscow to hang out with Putin on "Victory Day" next May.

"Today, Russia – led by a former KGB officer stationed in Dresden ‒ invades its neighbors and slays political opponents.  It suppresses the independence of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.  Russian authorities, even as we speak, use police raids and torture against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians who are working in opposition to Russian aggression.  In Chechnya, anyone considered 'undesirable' by the authorities simply disappears."

There is something wrong with this picture.

My comments on MSNBC on Saturday: 

http://us.wildmoka.com/c/clip/7FlqGL

At The Daily Beast we ran several stories about the Fall of the Wall which I invite you to read, watch, and share.

Among them is an essay that I wrote this week, but should have written 30 years ago: 

HAMMER, SICKLE, AND SWASTIKA

The Night the Cold-War World Turned Upside Down

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY


This vivid context by Andrew Nagorski:
 

THE GREAT ESCAPE

The Berlin Wall and the Collapse of Communism in Five Acts

ANDREW NAGORSKI


And this provocative 2014 essay about the impact of November 1989 on one Vladimir Putin: 
 

COLD WAR

How the Fall of the Berlin Wall Radicalized Putin

In 1989, as East Germany collapsed around him, a KGB spy in Dresden named Vladimir Putin came to some hard conclusions that would later inform his bellicose geopolitics.

MASHA GESSEN


We also ran several great photographs by the redoubtable Turnley twins:
 

REUNION

The Fall of The Wall as Captured by Peter and David Turnley

PETER TURNLEY


And we embedded this slide show that has even more of their extraordinary pictures:  https://vimeo.com/369238488
 

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Sunday, November 03, 2019

Trump's Syrian Oil Shakedown, Plus News of Russia, Spies, ISIS, and More




Trump's Syrian Oil Shakedown, Plus News of Russia, Spies, ISIS, and More


Good morning USA, and welcome back to Standard Time. I have never decided whether I prefer Standard or Daylight Savings time, but making the switch always seemed to me to be rather silly, and since there is a two week delay between the changing of the clocks here in Paris and the spring forward or fall back in the States, things can get confusing.

Here on the Continent, the European Parliament has voted to end the twice-a-year change as of 2021, if the Council of Europe agrees. Hard to imagine it will not, since a query to the public generated 4.6 million replies and 84 percent wanted to do away with the bi-annual clock changes. But under the new rules each member state can decide what kind of "standard" time it wants, and some may choose to remain on "daylight." That could get problematic.

Still, the question of how we "keep time" (a curious locution if you think about it) and how we perceive time has always fascinated me. This is a piece I wrote for Newsweek several years ago which, I am happy to see, is still available on line: "Turning to God's Time'"

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I mentioned last week that I would be writing about Trump's Syrian oilfield shakedown. And so I did:

 

'SO VALUABLE'

Is Trump Saving Those Syrian Oil Fields for the Russians?

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY


In an appearance on MSNBC Saturday morning, I discussed the issue further, along with questions about whether the danger of ISIS as increased, Trump's efforts to roll back the clock on Russian interference in the 2016 elections by squeezing allied intelligence services, and the difference between the crimes of an average citizen and the highest crime that a president can commit: abuse of power. This is the link: http://us.wildmoka.com/c/clip/75r69v

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Here are some of the other stories published in the World News section of The Daily Beast over the last few days:

 

RETURN TO 'RIGHTEOUSNESS'

What Baghdadi's Death Means for al Qaeda—and Why It Matters

The faithful followers of Osama bin Laden and his successor are not mourning the demise of the Islamic State's leader. They're hoping to recruit his fighters.

RITA KATZ

 

ALL I WANT FOR XMAS

Britain Resorts to Wild, Populist Election to Settle Brexit

Britain is set to hold its first December general election for almost a century with both of the main parties touting their most radical populist messages.

NICO HINES

 

LEGACY OF BRUTALITY

Rights Group: CIA's Afghan Militias Are 'Death Squads'

Paramilitaries trained and funded by the CIA in Afghanistan commit summary executions, village-wide roundups, and other atrocities, according to a new Human Rights Watch report.

SPENCER ACKERMAN


 

MALTESE TEASER

Bill Barr's Josef Mifsud Conspiracy Story Is Plain Dumb

Mifsud's deep connections with Putin's foreign policy establishment and his glowing appraisals of Russia's role in global affairs show Barr has barked up the wrong tree.

AMY KNIGHT

 

PEACE OF THE GRAVE

The Russians Really Think Putin Deserves Nobel Peace Prize

ANNA NEMTSOVA

 

MAN ON HORSEBACK

Kim Jong Un Gets All Mystical—Then Launches Missiles

DONALD KIRK


THE SPIES LEFT OUT IN THE COLD

Here's How the KGB Knew You'd Be a Traitor

MICHAEL WEISS




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