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“there seems to be this effort to create a narrative within the US administration that Iran is maybe thinking about moderating their response. Do you think there’s any truth to that?
I don’t. I think that’s wishful thinking. I think the sources of that reporting are coming from the administration.
It is the world they’d like to live in, but I don’t think that’s the world and the reality that we’re in right now.”
“Hamas, Hezbollah, and the constellation of the Houthis, the Axis of Resistance, all have different relationships with Tehran.
All of them are dependent upon Iran for material expertise, mostly funding, and certainly a broad variety of economic support. Hezbollah, though, is in its own category. It was the first, it’s the crown jewel in the Axis crown.
It, as more as than any other organization within the Axis, has the ability to act somewhat independently. It is the best resource. But at the end of the day, they are still completely dependent for their survival and sustained operations on Tehran.”
“there are no circumstances in which Hezbollah would intentionally escalate a scenario without a degree of approval from Tehran and from the leadership there.”
From The President’s Daily Brief: PDB Situation Report: Iran’s Retaliation Countdown & Ukraine Invades Russia, Aug 10, 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-presidents-daily-brief/id1617887885?i=1000664887182
This material may be protected by copyright.
From The President’s Daily Brief: PDB Situation Report: Iran’s Retaliation Countdown & Ukraine Invades Russia, Aug 10, 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-presidents-daily-brief/id1617887885?i=1000664887182
This material may be protected by copyright.
From The President’s Daily Brief: PDB Situation Report: Iran’s Retaliation Countdown & Ukraine Invades Russia, Aug 10, 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-presidents-daily-brief/id1617887885?i=1000664887182
This material may be protected by copyright -
POPSICLE PETE
Pete is our most recent feral tenant. He is a perfect gentleman. Best behaved cat in the house. We made him a safe space in the library so we can watch the news together. This is because one of the other male cats, The Pooper, pitches a fit when other cats come up to the second floor.
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NEWS NOTES
9 AUGUST 2024
Ukraine/Russia
- The Ukrainian military has made an incursion into Russia, north of Kharkiv. While the U.S. corporate press is already carping and asking questions about the efficacy of the operation, it seems to be (at least for the present) successful.
- Ukrainian forces moved deeper into Russia on Friday and if nothing else, the operation has seemed to improve the attitude of Ukrainians.
- The Ukrainians were evacuating the population near the border, perhaps fearing retaliatory strikes.
- The operation forces the Russians to move troops to counter the offensive, but the goal of the operation is unclear.
- Statements from the US have said that the incursion does not violate American guidance.
- American officials were skeptical that the Ukrainians could hold the territory long enough to force a significant shift in troops by the Russians. (Note: NATO and American military sources have carped about Ukrainian tactics since the beginning of the war.)
- The Ukrainian military also said that they had struck a Russian airfiled in the Lipetsk region, near Kursk.
- Whether the Ukrainians will move forward or consolidate their hold over this area remains to be seen.
- See https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/09/world/europe/ukraine-russia-kursk-lipetsk.html
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Corruption in Nigeria – Wikipedia
— Read on en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Nigeria -
To address the gaps in Nigeria’s fight against corruption, Transparency Information Technology Initiative (TransparencIT) launched the Trial Monitoring of Corruption Cases project in 2016. The project’s objective is to foster courtroom openness and galvanize citizen participation in judicial processes to promote accountability and advance the rule of law.
— Read on worldjusticeproject.org/news-year-impact-transparencit-nigeria-corruption -
Released last month, the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) confirmed what many Nigerians know intuitively—that a steady stream of official antigraft rhetoric has hardly made a dent on what many agree is the most formidable perennial challenge to the country’s long-term stability. President Buhari’s sentiment to the effect that “if Nigeria does not kill corruption, then corruption will kill Nigeria,” is widely shared. Not only is Nigeria down five places from its 2020 ranking, its total score of twenty-four out of a maximum one hundred points represents a drop for the third successive year, making it West Africa’s second most corrupt country. Guinea-Bissau, still reeling from a failed military takeover in early February, holds the dubious honor of being the most corrupt.
— Read on www.cfr.org/article/nigerias-all-too-familiar-corruption-ranking-begs-broader-questions-around-normative -
PODCAST: The Inside Story: Nigeria/
3 August 2024/
Protestors shot/
Interview with Nigerian Government Official, Mohammed Idris.
- Once this type of protest is allowed to happen, riots occur.
- The protestors started looting and touching people.
- Rioters, looters, were violent and causing unrest.
- Once “criminal elements” go on the streets, there is a big problem with violence.
- The government has heard their voices, is “listening to you.” “Reforms.” There was no budget supervision in the past.
- Fuel subsidy removal happened under this government. Nigeria’s economic situation “has been a bad one.”
- Have to “restructure.” “Nigerians will have some kind of relief in the medium and long term.”
- For now, “everybody has to bear up.”
- Government is there to “protect lives and property.”
Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International Nigeria; Ayisha Osori; and Kabir Adamu
- Isa Sanusi
- We warned that the security agencies must provide protection for the protests and ensure that criminals didn’t infiltrate the protests.
- Nigerians are hungry and they are angry. They are tired of years of corruption and mismanagement. \
- They are tired of being told stories about making sacrifices for the future. Inequality is increasing. People have the right to protest.
- Ayisha Osori
- There is a cost of living crisis. We have been badly managed for the past couple of decades. People in power now have been in government before.
- There is a lot of pain within the new policies. This pain is with the citizens. The executives are not feeling this pain. There is unnecessary spending on the part of these elites.
- There is a new private jet for the president, for example.
- This is the way to hold people in power to account.
- If they were anticipating violence, they should have been more pro-active. You can deal with protestors without killing them. I don’t buy the excuses of the minister.
- Kabir Adamu
- The fuel subsidy removal is affecting people too much and too quickly.
- Nigeria is an oil producing country. But, Nigeria has to import refined petroleum. Government would subsidize that imported oil. There is corruption around the importation. The subsidy should be removed, but the manner it was removed is wrong. There were promises, but petroleum is not available. When available it is beyond the average Nigerian. The ripple effect is enormous.
- You cannot expect people to live like this and remain quiet.
- Ayisha Oaori
- It is a difficult situation for students. Transport, lack of electricity, more expensive electricity. This has “been decades in the making.”
- Students “have been the conscience of Nigeria in terms of protests.”
- We need to declare a “state of emergency in terms of education and health.”
- Kabir Adamu
- Ghana is going through a cost of living crisis. So many factors have come together. Environmental factors, political factors. The factors are coming together at the same time in Nigeria. Officials are not validating the situation. Basic food items are out of reach for most Nigerians.
- Administration has put forth several policies but they are not being felt by average Nigerians.
- Isa Sanusi
- Protestors cannot be “seen and the enemy.” Promises were that everybody would be happy and things would change. Again, now they are saying the same thing. “People have to see commitment.”
- There are a few people living lavishly on “government funds.”
- Ayisha Osori
- We will continue to see pockets of protests.
- “Make some sacrifices immediately.”
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NEW YORK TIMES 8/3/24Afternoon news notes
VANCE
Mr. Vance said in 2021, stressing the need to counter what he described as the political ruthlessness of the left. “If we’re going to push back against it, we have to get pretty wild, pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.”
For years, Mr. Vance has appeared entirely comfortable in far-out-there corners of his party, embracing thinkers and proposals on the so-called New Right. He has drawn from influences as varied as a monarchist blogger, “postliberal” conservative Catholics and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, according to a review of dozens of speeches, interviews and writings since Mr. Vance formally entered politics and interviews with people close to him.
He has urged Republicans to “seize the endowments” of left-leaning universities, punishing nominal ideological foes through dramatic changes to the tax code, and warmly quotes Richard Nixon’s observation about higher education: “The professors are the enemy.”
Mr. Vance, a leading Republican voice against aid for Ukraine
Christopher Rufo, the conservative activist and an ally of Mr. Vance’s who helped catalyze campaigns on the right against critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion programs
People whom Mr. Vance has cited to explain his worldview or detail who helped shape his thinking include Patrick Deneen, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame who has suggested that conservatives must harness the power of the state to counter “liberal totalitarianism”; Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist for whom Mr. Vance worked; and Curtis Yarvin, a prominent voice on the New Right who has argued that American democracy has devolved to the point that the country needs a monarchical leader.
Mr. Vance recently contributed an admiring blurb for a book co-written by the far-right activist Jack Posobiec, who promoted the “Pizzagate” hoax. He is also listed as the author of a foreword for an upcoming book by Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation
He has highlighted two approaches from Mr. Orban’s Hungary, a North Star across much of the New Right: tightening the state’s grip on universities and offering loans to married couples, to be forgiven if the pair has enough children.
GEORGIA
President Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020, though Mr. Trump has enjoyed a consistent lead in polls there this year.
FTC
Washington insiders prefer the art of subtle pressure. DealBook asked donors, lobbyists and insiders how they would pressure the vice president to replace Khan. Their hypothetical strategies involved highlighting economic studies that question Khan’s policies; enlisting support from organizations of smaller companies; and containing the ire that replacing Khan would provoke from progressive politicians like Senator Elizabeth Warren.
ISRAEL
In this hopeful scenario, the assassination of Mr. Haniyeh could actually improve chances of a cease-fire. It means that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has insisted that Israel will continue to fight in Gaza until it has fully defeated Hamas, could claim victory and bask in an impressive feat of Israeli intelligence and arms, and move on to a cease-fire and the release of the remaining 111 hostages seized by Hamas on Oct. 7, 39 of them presumed dead, according to Israeli officials.
Many Israeli generals have long wanted to launch a definitive strike against Hezbollah
The assassination of Mr. Shukr in retaliation for the death of 12 youths in a rocket attack on the Golan Heights was a sign that Israel is prepared to get far tougher on the northern front.
If the cease-fire talks on Gaza are at a dead end — and both Israel and Hamas have been regularly putting new obstacles in its way — Mr. Netanyahu has a choice between continued instability and threat in the north or a decisive clash with Hezbollah and, if need be, with Iran and its proxies.
Israel, in that case, would pay a heavy price, but Lebanon and Iran a far heavier one. On his recent visit to Washington, Mr. Netanyahu repeatedly referred to the war in Gaza as really a war against Iran and its proxies, and spoke of continuing until full victory. -
The Georgia Election Board wants a deeper investigation into the heavily Democratic county.
— Read on www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-election-board-scrutinizes-double-voting-allegation-in-fulton/FIT6OKELVZGJ7LAROV36AUKR24/ -
Thursday 1 August 2024
Podcast: Election Integrity and National Security, The Brian Lehrer Show (8/1/24)
- Discussion of the book, “Our Nation at Risk: Election Integrity as a National Security Issue, 2024, NYU Press.
- Our Nation at Risk: Election Integrity as a National Security Issue: Zelizer, Julian E., Greenberg, Karen J.: 9781479830916: Amazon.com: Books
- Editors: Julian Zelizer, Karen Greenberg.
- (Note: Assuming the 2024 election will be secure is a mistake.)
Law, Power, and Justice 