Craving Power | Supporting the Troops and Iran | Capitalism & Climate Change

“Broadly put, philosophers think: politicians maneuver. Jefferson’s genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Such is the art of power.”

“Politicians often talk too much and listen too little, which can be self-defeating, for in many instances the surer route to winning a friend is not to convince them that you are right but that you care what they think.”

― Jon Meacham

Warm Greetings From A Freezing Moscow: By now just about everybody has seen images of the hearty big-smiles-and-handshakes greeting Russian president Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave each other at the G-20 summit in Argentina. The takeaway was clear —- Putin has been busy nurturing personal relationships with Middle East leaders, and it’s working. His strongman image resonates with authoritarian rulers, and under his personal direction Russia is beginning to displace the US as the region’s perceived superpower. Arguably, the single biggest boost to Putin’s credentials as a decisive, effective leader who delivers what he set out to achieve was his 2015 military intervention in Syria, and the ultimate survival of President Bashar al-Assad. It positioned him at the nexus of the region’s overlapping conflicts, and spread Russia’s influence to all the countries having a stake in the outcome of the war.

This past year Putin has met nearly three dozen times with the leaders of Turkey and Israel alone. By welcoming anyone who wanted to visit he has made Moscow a must-stop destination for leaders with a problem to solve. Meetings have often resulted in substantive policies and strategic partnerships. The US still has a vast economic, military and technological advantage over Russia, but increasingly it is Russia that is seen as the go-to power for a region awash in crises and unsure of Washington’s reliability. According to the head of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis: “Russia has managed to create the perception in the Middle East that it is more powerful, more capable and more relevant than the United States. It’s not how much power you have. It’s how you use it. The United States has all these troops and bases, and Russia has a fraction of that. But Russia uses its power more effectively.”

Man Proves It’s Possible to Support the Troops and Iran: A 75-year-old Jordanian-American, the head of a company with $8 billion in contracts to provide food and other logistical support to American troops in Afghanistan, has been charged in a Washington DC federal court with multiple offenses, including violating sanctions against trade with Iran. Abdul Huda Farouki, his brother Mazen Farouki, 73, and 71-year old Salah Marouf were all charged in a series of legal cases connected to Abdul Farouki’s company, Anham FZCO. The inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, John Sopko, said the case began with information from a whistle-blower four years ago. As of October, the inspector general’s agency has won convictions of 132 people, mostly contractors in Afghanistan. Sopko said corruption among American contractors has undercut efforts to fight rampant corruption problems already in the country. “We just poured so much money into the country we contributed to the corruption problem…like throwing fuel on the fire.” (NYT)

UK Storage Wars: Preparing for Brexit, yet not knowing the specific terms of what will happen or how it’s going to work, has sent British businesses into hoard mode, (not the game kind), snatching up available warehouse space all over the country. Storage facility managers are keeping staff busy trying to find ways to cram in more goods—narrowing aisles, adding racks or even whole floors to existing buildings, throwing up temporary ones—until finally nothing is left but to turn away customers. Owners of frozen and chilled storage space say they are fully booked until the middle of next year. And the government had to request more secure storage for medication be built after it discovered that an order for all drugmakers to hold six weeks of supply could not be met. (Reuters)

In India, Silence Is Sadly The Safest Option: Sexual assault is a chronic problem in India, but women who report their crimes to the police are ignored, harassed or worse. In 2012 the country enacted tougher new laws against convicted rapists, but police have failed to follow through and sexual assaults have actually increased. A favorite way a perpetrator will retaliate against a woman who has reported him is to stalk her, set her on fire, and in some instances, kill her family for good measure. (WaPo)

– “A female soccer player’s historic moment was spoiled by one man’s question: ‘Do you know how to twerk?’” (WaPo)

– “Mexico’s New President Restarts Investigation Into 43 Missing Students:‘I assure you there won’t be impunity in this sad and painful case,’ said Mr. López Obrador, flanked by two of the missing students’ parents.” (NYT)

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Where Have You Gone George H.W. Bush, Our Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes To You: Dignitaries, politicians and family gathered at Washington National Cathedral Wednesday to bid farewell to the 41st president of the US, George H. W. Bush. Four people delivered eulogies, including presidential historian and Bush biographer Jon Meacham, and 43rd president and eldest son George W. Bush. Meacham remembered “Poppy” Bush as “America’s last great soldier statesman”, while George W. called him “a great and noble man” and “the best father a son or daughter can have,” adding he “showed me what it means to be a president who serves with integrity.” Sitting together somewhat awkwardly in a front pew were current president Donald Trump, and three former presidents, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter. Senator John McCain did not include President Trump at his funeral, but George H. W. Bush specifically wanted Trump invited. Yet, the more the expressions of praise and admiration for Bush’s kindness, humility, graciousness, empathy and tolerance continued, the more uncomfortable Trump appeared. (NPR, BBC)

– “Les Moonves destroyed evidence in sexual misconduct investigation – report: CBS chief misled investigators to protect his reputation and a $120m severance payments, which could be denied to him” (Guardian)

– “Wisconsin Republicans Defiantly Move to Limit the Power of Incoming Democrats” (NYT)

– “The Link Between August Birthdays and A.D.H.D.: A new study raises questions about age, maturity and overdiagnosis.” (NYT) I’m an August birthday and growing up many people accused me of ADHD. I’m lucky that I never was prescribed or used medicine to combat such ADHD. There’s a big difference between a 7 year old (August birthday) vs. an 8 year old (April birthday) in a classroom. And we need to let kids be kids. We are overprescribing normal behavior. And I’m thankful a doctor never asked about my condition…because I would not have had the confidence and knowledge to question doctors as a child.

– “Ask Your Doctor These Four Questions About Any Treatment: What are the chances this will help me? What are the chances this will harm me? What are the alternatives? What happens if we do nothing?” (Lifehacker) My older siblings are both doctors. And knowing how fallible they (and all of humanity) are has provided me with the confidence to seriously question doctors. And the more doctors I meet, the more confident that I am that too much of society has too much deference for doctors. Yes, doctors have knowledge and years of training. But one often needs to demand their attention and service. Otherwise they’ll happily skip to the next patient. Doctors (like all of us) are profit driven and so one should question their point of view. Said otherwise, it’s your life and your health, and no one else will manage it better than yourself.

– Christianity in the News: “Trump’s Christian Apologists Are Unchristian:Polls show that on immigration, race, and poverty, white evangelical Protestants have surrendered moral judgment and social responsibility.” (Slate) “John Chau Aced Missionary Boot Camp. Reality Proved a Harsher Test.” (NYT) and “Killing Of American Missionary Ignites Debate Over How To Evangelize” (NPR) “A Business With No End: Where does this strange empire start or stop?” (NYT) A deep dive into a “Christian” organization with a zealous approach to making money off of Newsweek, Amazon, and higher education.

“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship-be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles-is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things-if they are where you tap real meaning in life-then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth.

Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already-it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power-you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart-you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.” – David Foster Wallace, This is Water

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