#its supposed to be a book that is a record of “the great survey” conducted by king William the conquerer

[psychicbluebirdmiracle]

Ah nothing like ignoring everything you need to do to sit down and read a pdf of a book from the 1800s that was a copy of the domesday book 🙃

[patriotsnet]

Why Some Republicans Are Feeling Shame

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-some-republicans-are-feeling-shame/

Why Some Republicans Are Feeling Shame

Who Are These People

Why some conservatives feel targeted by social media companies

Earlier this week, as the challenge by congressional Republicans of the choice of electors by six states loomed ahead of us, I shared with my spouse how miserably dispirited I had become as an American citizen. The realization weighed heavily on me that I have nothing in common with nearly half the electorate in this country: not my social values and attitudes; not my political beliefs and allegiances; not the value that my ethical sensibilities place on rationality, cooperation and the common good; not even my fundamental moral principles.

I cannot relate to these others, nor do I want to. I already know what they represent, and what they represent, I despise. I feel alienated from them. They make me feel that I am a stranger in my own homeland. I suppose the alienation felt is mutual between us. But I cannot reach out to them. Like addicts, they need to recognize and claim their own demons and crawl away from them. Neither I nor anybody else can do that for them. This may be a harsh and uncharitable comparison. But I would be dishonest with myself to think and to say otherwise.;

Steven Pokorny, Urbandale

Senate Republicans Are Bathed In Shame

Theres no impartial justice, just protection of Trump at all costs.

By Frank Bruni

Opinion Columnist

The impeachment trial of Donald John Trump began on Thursday when John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States, directed all of the senators to stand and raise their right hands. Ever since I cant get two questions out of my head.

The first: How in Gods name and it was in Gods name can the Republicans who have already decided to acquit President Trump take a solemn oath to administer impartial justice? Theyre partial to the core, unabashedly so, as their united march toward a foregone conclusion shows. A mind-meld this ironclad isnt a reflection of facts. Its a triumph of factionalism.

The majority of the partys senators have said outright or clearly signaled that they have no intention of finding the president guilty and removing him from office. Yapping lap dogs like Lindsey Graham and obedient manservants like Mitch McConnell have gone further, mocking the whole impeachment process.

So the oath they took: How does that work? Did they cross the fingers on their left hands? Do they reason that American politics has reached a nadir of such fundamental hypocrisy and overweening partisanship that no one regards that pledge as anything but window dressing?

If there were nothing to this, why would Trump stonewall Congress to the extent that he has? Thats not how the innocent act.

A pathological liar, Cruz called Trump.

What To Watch For

It is highly unlikely Cruz or Hawley will resign or be forced out, but their political prospects both within and outside the senate appeared to have dimmed. In addition to alienating possible donors, one anonymous Republican senator told Politico the caucus would face a reckoning over Hawley and Cruz.

Also Check: How Many Republicans Are There In The Senate

Think Republicans Are Disconnected From Reality It’s Even Worse Among Liberals

A new survey found Democrats live with less political diversity despite being more tolerant of it with startling results

In a surprising new national survey, members of each major American political party were asked what they imagined to be the beliefs held by members of the other. The survey asked Democrats: How many Republicans believe that racism is still a problem in America today? Democrats guessed 50%. Its actually 79%. The survey asked Republicans how many Democrats believe most police are bad people. Republicans estimated half; its really 15%.

The survey, published by the thinktank More in Common as part of its Hidden Tribes of America project, was based on a sample of more than 2,000 people. One of the studys findings: the wilder a persons guess as to what the other party is thinking, the more likely they are to also personally disparage members of the opposite party as mean, selfish or bad. Not only do the two parties diverge on a great many issues, they also disagree on what they disagree on.

This effect, the report says, is so strong that Democrats without a high school diploma are three times more accurate than those with a postgraduate degree. And the more politically engaged a person is, the greater the distortion.

Should the US participate in the Paris climate accord and reduce greenhouse gas emissions regardless of what other countries do? A majority of voters in both parties said yes.

Our Very Right To Vote Under Fire

The foundation of the American democracy is the absolute right of the people to choose their own leaders through the ballot box. Historians label this the sovereignty of the people. We are our own authority, in the decision-making process of the state and in the maintenance of order.

This absolute right of the people is under severe attack. Many of our fellow citizens believe that votes legitimately cast and counted are illegitimate. I do not know how or even if we will return to a culture of trust in the sovereignty of the people, and if we cannot go back, how will American democracy survive?

;Karen Merrick, Guttenberg

Recommended Reading: Why Do Republicans Still Back Trump

Hes Destroyed Conservatism: The Republican Case Against Trumps Gop

Stuart Stevens was a winning GOP operative. Now he feels terrible about what hes done to the country.

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

Link Copied

Michael Grunwald is a senior staff writer for;Politico Magazine.

Stuart Stevens spent four decades helping Republicansa lot of Republicanswin. Hes one of the most successful political operatives of his generation, crafting ads and devising strategies for President George W. Bush, Republican presidential nominees Mitt Romney and Bob Dole, and dozens of GOP governors, senators and congressmen. He didnt win every race, but he thinks he had the best won-lost record in Republican campaign world.

And now he feels terrible about it.

Stevens now believes the Republican Party is, not to put too fine a point on it, a malign force jeopardizing the survival of American democracy. Hes written a searing apologia of a book called It Was All a Lie that compares his lifelong party to the Mafia, to Bernie Madoffs fraud scheme, to the segregationist movement, even to the Nazis. Hes pretty disillusioned.

It Was All a Lie is really about the party that spawned Trump and now marches in near-lockstep behind himthe party to which 67-year-old Stevens has devoted his career. The GOPs abject surrender to its unorthodox and unconservative leader was a surprise to Stevens, but he has concluded that he shouldnt have been surprised.

Aboard Mitt Romney’s campaign plane in Sept. 2012, senior adviser Stuart Stevens speaks to the press. | AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Hart Is Doing The Right Thing

I know Rita Hart personally and in my experience, she is the kind of person who is always trying to do the right thing, even if its difficult and an uphill battle.

Hart would likely win if just the uncounted 22 ballots were counted, but she is going a step further to ensure everyone can be confident in the election outcome by asking for a full recount. In a situation like this, a bipartisan commission in the U.S. House will likely ask the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office to conduct the recount so we can trust that politics will not interfere with the review of the election.

It is commendable that Hart is fighting to protect our sacred right to vote and the trustworthiness of our elections. Every vote must be counted to ensure Iowans continue to have confidence in their election system. Count every vote

;Maria Dickmann, Davenport

Also Check: How Many Registered Republicans In Illinois

Executive Action Is A Slippery Slope

The rationale given by the editorial board Jan. 3 to have Joe Biden issue executive orders to undo Donald Trumps executive orders is that some issues are too important to just wait for Congress. ;

Im sure this was the belief of Barack Obama when he issued his orders and the belief of Trump when he issued his orders. In other words, this rationale could be employed by any president at any time and it poses a real danger to the separation of legislative power and executive power provided by the U.S. Constitution. ;

Do the board members really want to combine these powers in the office of the presidency ?

Lonny Wilson,;West Des Moines

Democrats Werent Violent But Chose A Different Dishonorable Path

Why Do We Feel Shame?

I agree with the Jan. 7 letter Shame, shame, with the closing statement, This is one of the saddest days in our history.

And yes, when Trump won in 2016 there was no mob violence by Democrats. There was just four years of disbelief by the Democrats that Trump won and four years of trying to impeach him.

William D. Blohm, Carroll

Read Also: Who Makes More Money Democrats Or Republicans

Why Some Republicans Are Feeling Shame

Back in the fall, when Donald Trump dubbed Jeb Bush low-energy, Carlos Gimenez grew a little concerned. By last month, when Marco Rubio and Trump engaged in childish name-calling, the Republican mayor of Miami-Dade County thought the GOP presidential race had gotten out of hand. Now, after a tawdry week that has focused on the wives of Trump and Ted Cruz, Gimenez is certain that the race has moved totally out of bounds.

Politics is a contact sport, Gimenez said, but there should be contact in other ways.

Gimenez is watching with disgust, as are many Republicans across the country, as his partys presidential race turns into a tabloid talk show. After a winter that featured anatomical insults, violent clashes at rallies, and fierce accusations of lying and dirty tricks, Republicans say the past week has been particularly dispiriting.

At a moment when the party had hoped to turn its attention to;a general-election matchup against Hillary Clinton, Republicans were instead caught in;an;uncomfortable back-and-forth over allegations of adultery and jabs at the physical appearance of the wives of Trump and Cruz.

That dispute took on renewed vigor Sunday, when the two candidates went at it again on the morning shows.

Dont forget, I call him Lying Ted. I call him that because nobody that Ive known Ive known a lot tougher people over the years in business, but Ive never known anybody that lied like Ted Cruz, Trump said.

Republicans Said President Obama Would Raise Taxes Sky High

It never happened. Income taxes for over 95% of Americans remained the same or lower than they were before Obama was elected. The only people whose income taxes increased were those who make more than $400,000 per year, and their taxes rose only 3%. For most Americans, taxes are still lower now than they were under Reagan.

Don’t Miss: Can Republicans Vote In The Democratic Primary In South Carolina

Conflict Over Health Vs The Economy

Masks are also linked to the broader debate about the disease threat from the coronavirus versus and the devastating impact that social distancing has had on our economy. This controversy again has fallen out on political lines, with the right placing a relatively greater emphasis than the left on the need to restart the economy.

Within this debate, some may see masks as playing up the disease side of this balancing act, while those who don’t wear masks might be seen as prioritizing a swift return to normalcy over concerns about health and safety.

Why Republican Voters Say Theres No Way In Hell Trump Lost

By Brad Brooks, Nathan Layne, Tim Reid

12 Min Read

SUNDOWN, Texas – Brett Fryar is a middle-class Republican. A 50-year-old chiropractor in this west Texas town, he owns a small business. He has two undergraduate degrees and a masters degree, in organic chemistry. He attends Southcrest Baptist Church in nearby Lubbock.

Fryar didnt much like Donald Trump at first, during the U.S. presidents 2016 campaign. He voted for Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the Republican primaries.

Now, Fryar says he would go to war for Trump. He has joined the newly formed South Plains Patriots, a group of a few hundred members that includes a reactionary force of about three dozen – including Fryar and his son, Caleb – who conduct firearms training.

Nothing will convince Fryar and many others here in Sundown – including the towns mayor, another Patriots member – that Democrat Joe Biden won the Nov. 3 presidential election fairly. They believe Trumps stream of election-fraud allegations and say theyre preparing for the possibility of a civil war with the American political left.

If President Trump comes out and says: Guys, I have irrefutable proof of fraud, the courts wont listen, and Im now calling on Americans to take up arms, we would go, said Fryar, wearing a button-down shirt, pressed slacks and a paisley tie during a recent interview at his office.

This is dystopian, Light said. America could fracture.

THERES JUST NO WAY

NO WAY IN HELL

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans Are Running For President

Republicans Said Waterboarding And Other Forms Of Enhanced Interrogation Are Not Torture And Are Necessary In Fighting Islamic Extremism

In reality, waterboarding and other forms of enhanced interrogation that inflict pain, suffering, or fear of death are outlawed by US law, the US Constitution, and international treaties. Japanese soldiers after World War II were prosecuted by the United States for war crimes because of their use of waterboarding on American POWs.

Professional interrogators have known for decades that torture is the most ineffective and unreliable method of getting accurate information. People being tortured say anything to get the torture to end but will not likely tell the truth.

An FBI interrogator named Ali Soufan was able to get al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah to reveal crucial information without the use of torture. When CIA interrogators started using waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation methods, Zubaydah stopped cooperating and gave his interrogators false information.

Far from being necessary in the fight against terrorism, torture is completely unreliable and counter-productive in obtaining useful information.

Shame Can Last A Lifetime If We Let It

Find a therapist near me

Shame is one of the hardest emotions to talk about. It can also be the hardest emotion to recognize in ourselves, and it can feel the most painful. So, what is shame and how do we know if were feeling it?

Shame is often confused with embarrassment or guilt. Embarrassment arises when the way we want people to see us isnt the way they do. We want people to think were cool, but then we walk out of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck to our shoe. The feeling usually doesnt last long. Guilt arises when we think weve broken societys or our own moral code. We feel guilty when we lie, for example. Guilt can last a long time, but we usually know that well feel better when we come clean.

Shame can last a lifetime if we let it. It isnt caused by a single event, but an amassing of wounds to our self-worth. We feel guilty when we think weve done something wrong and embarrassed or humiliated when weve erred in public. But we feel shame when we think we are wrong. We may feel powerless to change whatever it is that makes us feel it, which then leads us to feel even more of it. Shame can feel unfixable, because it binds to all emotions. So even when we feel good, we can feel shamelike we dont deserve it.

Its never too late. Love yourself and forgive yourself. Begin today.

Read Also: How Many Registered Republicans Are In The United States

Senator Grassley Was It Worth It

Dear Senator Grassley:

It was impossible to not see the events of Jan. 6 as inevitable.;Some in your Republican Party are assigning blame to the president, acknowledging the role he played. ;

The blame for the;insurrection, loss of life, and the tenuous state of our democracy lies elsewhere.;Truth be known, anyone paying attention knew who Mr. Donald Trump was, and remains: a lawless, narcissistic, racist, immoral, and corrupt human being.;More could be said. ;

Perhaps it is time for you to accept responsibility for the indisputable role you played in empowering this despot.;The examples of his malfeasance in office are legion. ;

You had a chance to put an end to;Trump’s tyranny when you cast your senatorial vote after House impeachment.;The evidence of his offense could not have been clearer,;ignored by you and everyone in your party,;save for Sen. Mitt Romney, your own former presidential nominee. ;

Repercussions of your cowardice, including the treatment of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a whistle-blower, which you made a career off pretending to protect, are too numerous to count.;Your tepid statements supporting other whistle-blowers who were also subjected to vicious attacks, and the rarity of public admonitions of these and other wrongdoings, are a disgrace to your office. ;;

Nevertheless, you certainly have achieved what must have been foremost in your agenda.;You personally helped to pack the Supreme Court, and countless other lifetime appointments have been confirmed. ;

Republicans Claim That Raising The Minimum Wage Would Kill Jobs And Hurt The Economy

Why are Shame & Trauma so Connected?

There is far more evidence to the contrary. Cities and states that have higher minimum wages tend to have better rates of job creation and economic growth.

Detailed analyses show that job losses due to increases in the minimum wage are almost negligible compared to the economic benefits of higher wages. Previous increases in the minimum wage have never resulted in the dire consequences that Republicans have predicted.

Republicans have accused President Obama of “cutting defense spending to the bone”. This chart of 2014 discretionary spending firmly disproves that argument.

Also Check: How Many Senate Seats Do The Republicans Have Right Now

[susatodrop]

if wishing made it so (DGS2 fanfiction)

SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE DGS SERIES, meaning both DGS1 and DGS2 in their entirety. Please do not read this if you do not want to be spoiled.

if wishing made it so (AO3 Link)

Fold it up, call it love, and bring it to a quiet place.

Characters: Naruhodou Ryuunosuke, Mikotoba Susato, Asougi Kazuma, Iris Watson, Sherlock Holmes, Barok van Zieks

Notes: Some writing I did as a breather in the midst of working on my actual DGS2 celebratory/appreciation fic. DGS2 has completely ruined my life (in a good way)

.…Writing to take a break from writing… what madness is this…

A note about honorifics - since they all speak English in London, my way of treating the honorifics used by the characters in-game is to make just the Japanese characters keep them (specifically Susato since she’s the most relevant example) even to the British characters if there’s not a good equivalent. …Well, I fully admit I just dealt with it as I pleased to make my life easier.

An inexpressible amount of gratitude to airisuwatoson and turnaboutancestor for their DGS playthroughs, without which I wouldn’t have been able to write this. Each and every update always had me on edge. Thank you!!!

One last warning that this fic contains spoilers for all of DGS2.

A story of a thousand wants.

“And then, you fold this triangle down to make the head.”

“Like this?”

“Yes! Very good, Iris-sama!”

At the double cheer resounding from behind, Ryuunosuke tears his eyes gratefully away from his textbook and glances over his shoulder, curiosity prickling at the back of his neck. “What are you two doing?”

Susato turns to face him, beaming. “I was just teaching Iris-sama how to fold a paper crane. Look how well it turned out, Naruhodou-sama!”

“It was only because Susie was so good at teaching me!” Iris Watson chirps, lifting her arms to proudly show Ryuunosuke the small, folded crane that rests on her hands. “It’s so cute!” The girl whirls around once, bright pink curls spinning with the motion, and the crane very nearly seems as if it could take flight right then.

Ryuunosuke crouches in front of her to get a better look, admiring the piece. “It’s really good considering it was your first time, Iris-chan.” Indeed, there is barely a careless crease or wrinkle in the paper, only straight, clean lines that are evident of a studious precision. “I still remember when I first tried folding one when I was younger. You couldn’t even tell it was a crane at all.”

A good-natured giggle spills from Susato’s lips, her hand going to her mouth. “That’s very like you somehow, Naruhodou-sama.”

“O-Oh, is it…?”

“But origami is something that can be done by anyone,” she continues, looking back fondly to Iris’s crane. “All it requires is a little patience.”

“Well, true enough.” His disastrous first attempt had left a bitter taste in his throat, and Ryuunosuke recalls the indignant determination that had refused to let him rest until he had folded a successful crane. “I actually got pretty good at it as I kept folding more, although I haven’t done any since we came to London.”

“There’s still paper here if you want to make one too,” Iris calls, waving the sheets in his direction.

After a moment of contemplation, the words escape of their own accord. “…I think I will.” He reaches over to take one of the proffered papers. “…Wait. These papers are my notes from previous cases!”

“Oh, are they?” Yet the untroubled tone with which Iris responds tells him that she is perfectly aware. “They were just scattered all over the floor, so I figured they were just going to be thrown away later anyway.”

“I might’ve wanted to look over them for reference in the future…”

At the excuse, weak to even Ryuunosuke’s own ears, Susato places her hands on her hips and looks at him sternly. “Is that how you should treat valuable documents, Naruhodou-sama? By leaving them without care or organization on the floor?”

“N-No…”

“Besides, if you are in need of references from our past cases, I have also recorded information in my notes.” With that, Susato fishes out a small, bound book, a certain pride brimming in her motions. “You may look through them at your leisure.”

“…As expected of you, Susato-san.” It is certainly not the first time, and he knows it will be far from the last, that awe at her diligence washes through his entire body and leaves a strange warmth in its wake.

“It is simply my natural duty as your legal assistant, Naruhodou-sama,” Susato smiles. “With that, I trust you have no objections to the usage of your scrap paper?”

My case notes were downgraded to “scraps”... He allows himself only a small sigh, relenting at last. “I guess it is better than just seeing them all over the ground.” Without further ado, Iris hands him a sheet and cheerfully sets about folding another one.

At that moment, the door to the attic suddenly bursts open and a tall, lanky man waltzes in, a wounded expression on his face. “What’s this? No greeting when I arrive home, and instead I find you all cooped up in this dingy, dusty attic? Without me?”

“Please don’t talk about the room you rented us like that,” Ryuunosouke retorts, barely glancing up from his task. “Welcome back, Holmes-san.”

“Sherly!” Iris squeals and bounces to the self-proclaimed great detective, wrapping her short arms around his waist. “Welcome home! How did the case go?”

A jubilant laugh rings in the air. “Need you even ask, Iris?” Sherlock flicks his distinctive deerstalker with his index finger in triumph, a wide grin meeting Iris’s sparkling eyes. “Another case closed by the great detective Sherlock Holmes! We can rest easy about rent for the month.”

Is that really the sort of conversation you have with a child? Ryuunosuke does not say, but Iris, unperturbed, claps her hands together with equal delight.

“And now,” Sherlock continues, turning to survey the rest of them. “It’s my turn to ask again, just what you all are doing cooped up in this dingy, dusty, decrepit attic—Ah!” He holds a hand up to forestall the exasperated shape that Ryuunosuke’s mouth has formed, smiling slyly. “Allow me to make a deduction!”

“I was doing some origami,” Susato interrupts brightly without heed for the detective’s grandiose conduct, gesturing to the short lineup of small shapes on the table before her. “And Iris-sama was curious, so she allowed me to teach her the most classic design, a crane. And it turned out beautifully, Holmes-sama!”

In a rare occurrence, Sherlock’s depressive episode at the interruption of his deduction does not linger and he straightens immediately. Taking Iris’s crane up in his hand, he tilts his head, examining it from all angles. “As I recall, origami is the traditional Japanese art of folding paper into intricate designs, am I right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.” With a nod of satisfaction, Ryuunosuke places his own completed crane next to Susato’s skillfully folded pieces. There is only a mild twinge of disappointment in himself as he eyes his crane’s slightly uneven lines compared to Susato’s delicate work. “So you’ve heard of it, Holmes-san?”

“As expected of Holmes-sama!”

“What kind of great detective would I be if I didn’t know this much?” One hand returns the crane to Iris, the other lands in a pat on her head, making her giggle. “It might be news to you, but I know how to make a few things myself!”

Ryuunosuke’s eyes widen. “Really? Did someone teach you?”

“I suppose you could say that.” But to his surprise, Sherlock does not elaborate, and Ryuunosuke catches only a snatch of something faraway and fond in his eyes before the detective blinks and turns his gaze back on the scattered papers. “But I must say, the two of you work fast.”

Susato and Ryuunosuke blink in unison, looking down. There is a small pile of cranes sitting between them both, clearly flourishing in their absentmindedness. Ryuunosuke feels his ears grow hot, and he throws half a sheepish glance at Susato, who returns a soft laugh.

Iris leans over the pile, starry-eyed. She scoops a handful up and lets them fall from her hands, smiling as the cranes scatter back to the wooden floor like large snowflakes. “Hey, Susie? You said that the crane is the most classic design, but why’s that?”

“Oh!” Susato brings a finger to her chin, tapping in contemplation. “If I had to say… There is a type of crane native to Japan that is said to be a symbol of good fortune and longevity. These paper cranes are representations of it.”

Something stirs in the back of Ryuunosuke’s mind at Susato’s words—stories and laughter from a childhood that seem like from a lifetime ago. He sweeps a look over the cranes in a quick estimate. Certainly, not a number that any would call ‘few’, but at the same time, not nearly enough. “There’s a famous legend about paper cranes, too,” he finds himself saying, words from his memories filling his throat. “They say if you fold a thousand of them, you’ll be granted a wish.”

“A wish?” Iris echoes, her deep green eyes widening.

“Ah, that’s right!” Susato nods in agreement. “There are many variations to that legend as well. Some say that you must finish the thousand cranes within a certain period of time. Others say that it only works if one person folds them all by themselves. But the fact that there must be a thousand cranes is the one, absolute constant.”

A wistful sigh escapes Iris. “That’s such a nice story. Wishes, huh?”

“It is a nice story.” Ryuunosuke smiles, a little wryly. “When I was younger, everyone wanted to do it, and they’d try. But one thousand cranes is actually a lot more than you’d expect, as it turned out. Most children would get tired of it quickly.”

“Why don’t we give it a try?”

All eyes snap to Sherlock, who is still standing serenely, now with his pipe in his mouth. He smiles down at them with something beyond his usual frivolity. “You seem to be off to a good start, anyway,” he continues, eying the numerous cranes sprinkled across the floor. “With the four of us, one thousand doesn’t seem so far away, does it?”

“I want to do it!” Iris chimes in, nodding energetically. “It sounds like fun!”

Susato clasps her hands together, merriment dancing in her eyes. “It does sound like fun. I’m sure if we keep steadily at it, we’ll reach one thousand cranes in no time.”

One thousand paper cranes. He rolls the phrase around in his head, trying to visualize the end number. Not an impossible goal, by any means, but a question presses insistently forward. “I don’t mind,” Ryuunosuke starts, “…But who gets to make the wish?”

“Oh.”

The small sound of realization Iris makes is enough to make him feel ashamed of himself. “Not that it’s a bad idea or anything, not at all,” he hastily adds. “I mean, I’m just saying that according to the legend…”

“An excellent question, Mister Naruhodou!” Sherlock cuts in, unfazed as ever. He spins on the spot with a wink, a solution clearly on his tongue. “Why don’t we let the lucky person who folds the last crane make the wish? In any case, there’s still a while, is there not?”

Enthusiastic nods from Susato and Iris, a grin of satisfaction from the detective—not that it was ever an option, but how can he say no? “Well, let’s do our best, then.”

“Yay!” Iris skips to the table for more paper, beginning the folding process in quick, dainty motions, while Susato turns curiously to Sherlock.

“What would you wish for, Holmes-sama?”

Sherlock snaps his fingers. “A case from a rich client!” he announces dramatically, squaring his arms in the strange pose he makes when in high spirits.

Ryuunosuke tilts his head quizzically. “If you want money, why don’t you just wish for money?”

“Goodness, Mister Naruhodou.” Sherlock wags a finger in his direction, shaking his head as if the answer is obvious. “Do you think I take cases just for the money?”

“…”

“Stop looking at me like that. No! If the case is a worthy challenge to the intellect of the great detective Sherlock Holmes, then all the better! I didn’t make my fame by only taking cases based on how much I was paid, you know.”

Despite the lightness in Sherlock’s voice, the twinkling look in his eyes, the undercurrent of deliberate resolve is all genuine and Ryuunosuke cannot help but smile. “No, I didn’t think so.”

“And what about you, Iris-sama?” Noticing the younger girl’s progress, Susato presents her with more paper just as Iris folds down the head of a new crane. “Do you know what sort of wish you would make?”

Iris happily accepts the sheet, her expression bright with the possibilities tumbling through her mind. “There’s a lot of things I’d like to wish for! I’ll have to think it over.” But abruptly, her fingers slow in the middle of a fold, her gaze seeming to travel elsewhere.

“Iris-chan?”

“It should be for something important, shouldn’t it? The wish.” Her voice comes out subdued, solemn, as she continues to stare at the half-formed crane in her hands. “Something important like… being able to meet my papa soon.” The note of uncertainty makes something in Ryuunosouke’s chest twist.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he thinks he sees Sherlock tense.

“...I think,” he begins carefully, “you can wish for anything you want.” He thinks for a moment, and then nods, decisively. “That’s what wishes are. Whether or not you think it’s important, or whether or not you think it’ll be granted, all that matters is that it’s something you want, right?”

Only for a moment, he wonders who he’s really trying to convince.

“That’s right, Iris-sama,” Susato speaks now, resolutely. “Please don’t fret about it too much. If you find that you need another wish…” She gestures triumphantly to the still sizeable stack of papers they have gathered and deposited onto the table. “All we have to do is fold another thousand cranes!”

“…You’re right!” Just like that, Iris’s smile is back on her face, the shadow of doubt from moments ago nowhere in sight, and she and Susato giggle briefly at each other. Ryuunosuke marvels at the scene and hears a sigh of what might be relief from behind him. “What about you, Susie? What would you wish for?”

“Me?” For all her enthusiasm about folding cranes, the slightest thought of the end goal does not have appear to have crossed her mind. Susato tips her head into her chin, contemplative. “I… I don’t know. There’s nothing that I feel warrants something as grand as a wish—ah!”

He jumps slightly at her exclamation. “Did you think of something, Susato-san?”

“Yes, I think so.” Susato turns to look at him, and for some reason, her eyes seem very bright. “I would like to wish... for Naruhodou-sama to become the wonderful attorney he hopes to be.”

“Huh!?” The less than flattering sound leaps out as Ryuunosuke’s own eyes widen. “No, no, no, that’s- that’s not— I mean, shouldn’t you wish for something for yourself? I-I can’t possibly accept—”

“Do you truly think that it’s only for yourself?” There is fire in her gaze and steel in the words she returns as she stares at him, unwavering. “It’s something that I too desire, from the very bottom of my heart.” Her eyes travel downward, landing on the object at his hip, and soften. “Wish or not, I believe that it will happen. This is simply… asking for a little assistance.”

He has nothing to respond with but a meek nod, something hot building up in the corners of his eyes and an lump in his throat.

“Mister Naruhodou, do you need a handkerchief?”

“N-No!” Ryuunosuke scrubs briefly across his face with his sleeve, leveling a scowl the best he can at Sherlock before glancing back to Susato. “Susato-san... thank you. I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations.”

She only smiles at him again, an infinitely gentle expression. “What would your wish be, Naruhodou-sama?”

“A wish, huh…” He has pondered the question from the moment their shared goal was decided—but he is sincerely at a loss. “I… really don’t know. I guess I’ll think about it when we get close to the end.” A wish meant a desire, a hope.

A want.

…I wonder… if it would work…

He glances out the window, from where he can see sunlight spilling in and a few, fluffy clouds drifting lazily through a blue, blue sky. Sherlock may have called the attic ‘decrepit’, but bathed in a golden glow, there is not a sight more welcoming.

A warm breeze blows into the room, sending a few papers whirling.

...Probably not.

But he reaches for another sheet.

“…How are you doing? Are you surprised to see a letter this soon? Just after we left, I remembered a few things I forgot to tell you, so when the ship stopped at a port to resupply, I took the opportunity to send this.

You’re probably still getting used to London, aren’t you? I wanted to mention that there are some things left in my old room at Holmes-san’s place that you might find helpful, like books and stuff. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t take everything back to Japan with me, so if you’re up to it, you can go over to Baker Street sometime to take anything you’d like. In fact, it’d make me really happy if you got some use out of them…”

The sound of the horse carriage clattering noisily away is quickly replaced by that of his own heartbeat, pounding loudly in his chest. It seems silly that such apprehension should eat at him, compared to everything else that has happened, and for the life of him, he cannot find a logical rationale for it.

He takes a deep breath, lifts his hand, and knocks solidly on the door of apartment 221B.

Immediately, pattering footsteps race closer from the other side, and with a click the door swings open. Deep green eyes blink up inquisitively up at him, before they widen in recognition and delight. “It’s you! Come in, we’ve been expecting you!”

Asougi Kazuma inclines his head briefly, unable to stop the corners of his lips from turning up at the child’s enthusiastic greeting. “Good day, Miss Watson.” If the still-puzzling facsimile of her in court hadn’t been lively enough, she is a thousand times more spirited in person.

“Just Iris is fine,” she says cheerily, ushering him in. “Have a seat anywhere you’d like! My special herb tea is almost ready!”

“Ah-” he starts, “You don’t have to-…” But Iris has already vanished elsewhere into the depths of the apartment, presumably to the kitchen. Bemused, Asougi looks side to side, his gaze sweeping over the cluttered sitting room. Despite her encouragement, an assortment of strange contraptions litter every possible place to sit, and he does not particularly feel like carelessly engaging with them.

“Why, if it isn’t Mister Asougi!”

The airy voice from behind him sends a jolt down his spine and Asougi whirls, a hand automatically reaching for the saber at his side. In the next moment, his eyes land on the voice’s owner and he relaxes with a huff. “Detective Holmes.”

“There’s no need to be so wary.” Sherlock Holmes, sans his usual distinctive hat and overcoat, shrugs whimsically, appearing utterly unconcerned with Asougi’s instinctual reflex. “You’re our honored guest for today.”

He bows slightly. “Thank you for your invitation.” It’s not that he means to be curt, but cautious uncertainty still holds him in an iron grip—how should he react to the man who pulled the strings behind his interrupted first journey to London?

But Sherlock only beams, undaunted. “Think nothing of it. You’re Mister Naruhodou and Miss Susato’s dear friend, after all—how could we disappoint them in treating you otherwise? In fact,” He fishes a folded paper from his front pocket, waving it before Asougi. The scrawling handwriting from what he can see on the envelope is achingly familiar. “Mister Naruhodou explicitly requested us to look after you and lend you a hand where possible.”

“Naruhodou… he worries too much.” A wry smile escapes him nevertheless. “But I’m afraid I won’t be staying long. I’m only here to pick up some items Naruhodou left behind before I return to the prosecutors’ office.”

“Mister Naruhodou mentioned those as well.” Sherlock snaps his fingers in the direction of the stairs. “Take whatever you’d like! I told him anything left is fair game for my experiments.”

He bows a second time, turning away. “Excuse me, then.”

“Ah, just one moment, Mister Asougi!” Sherlock calls, striking a strange pose. “The bottom of the lowest shelf in the farther corner of the room. I suggest you take an especially close look.”

Asougi pauses with his foot on the first step, puzzled.

Sherlock winks at him, mischief and goodwill in equal measure. “I think you’ll find something very interesting there.”

The attic glows with midmorning light, exuding an atmosphere of welcome despite the clear lack of inhabitants. Asougi stops at the top of the staircase, letting his eyes wander from corner to corner and taking in every sight of the cozy, if slightly lonely space.

This is the room where his best friend stayed and learned and lived, in their year of separation.

The room is sparse now, but by no means empty—a number of packed boxes and heavy-looking hardcover books still line the shelves against the wall. When he runs a finger along the desk, only a few specks remain on his glove; someone has been up here to dust recently.

A soft splash from nearby catches his ear, and Asougi turns to see a small glass tank filled with water—and prawns, of all things. He peers dubiously into the tank, wondering what in the world possessed his friend to keep such tiny sea creatures. As far as prawns go, they seem quite healthy—not that he can tell. Perhaps Sherlock, or more likely Iris, cares for them now in Naruhodou’s absence.

There is a door at the end of a shallow recess that branches off from the attic, still bearing Mikotoba’s name. He smiles briefly at it before moving past to the shelves at last.

Naruhodou Law Consultation Office may be labeled at the entrance, but it is Mikotoba’s influence that is clear in the level of organization present. Boxes are neatly labeled and books sorted by subject in a way that is not quite believable of Naruhodou, as far as Asougi remembers. He sifts through them one by one, pulling out the files he deems useful and putting the rest carefully back with a mental word of pity for their eventual fate at the detective’s hands.

Although knowing Sherlock, the threat might have been made in nothing more than simple jest.

Speaking of the detective—Sherlock’s words from earlier float into his mind.

The lowest shelf in the corner, was it?

In that spot, there is another large box tucked away, unlabeled. When Asougi lifts it, the box feels surprisingly light for its size. He sets it on the table, raising the lid to set aside, curiosity prickling at the back of his neck.

The box is filled to the brim with strangely shaped paper.

…Cranes?

Asougi picks one up from the multitude, eying the crane as it sits inoffensively on his palm. Paper cranes. The classic shape of origami, a common pastime in Japan. He has not expected to see one an ocean away. And moreover, this many of them. There is only one explanation.

A thousand cranes…

There is not a child in Japan who has not heard the legend, and Asougi recalls it dimly in his own memory as well. A pretty, fanciful story of wishes and hope, but ultimately, nothing more.

Yet somehow, here in Naruhodou’s room, he is not surprised to see them at all.

A single square piece of unfolded paper he had missed at first glance flaps conspicuously from a corner of the box, and Asougi pulls it free.

His eyes widen as he turns it over and catches sight of his own name in familiar scrawls, messier than usual as if written in a haste.

“Asougi,

I folded these cranes with everyone here, although we didn’t get around to finishing the very last one.

But, I don’t think I need them anymore.

So if you’d like, if you want—…”

Vaguely, Asougi becomes aware of a quiet, choked up sound that is filling the attic. At the same time, breathing is strangely difficult.

Then he realizes—the laughter is coming from himself.

He presses a hand to his mouth, his friend’s note shuddering in the other. There is a bizarre obstruction in his throat that threatens to leave him gasping.

But in illogical contradiction, his heart feels lighter than ever.

Ahh, I have never been a match for you, Naruhodou.

When he makes his way back downstairs, Naruhodou’s note in his pocket and boxes balanced in his arms, Sherlock and Iris are there to greet him and grin knowingly at the look on his face. The fragrant smell of tea wafts warmly through the air.

“It’s still hard to believe we folded all these!” Iris says as she lifts the lid up to marvel once again at the collection of cranes.

“A nostalgic sight indeed,” Sherlock nods in agreement, puffing from his pipe. “Well? What do you intend to wish for, Mister Asougi?”

Asougi starts at the question. True, Naruhodou had indicated that the cranes be left to him, but if it had been a group effort as his friend mentioned, can he really accept them? “…Are you sure I can take them? After all, I didn’t help fold a single one.”

“We don’t need them!” Iris’s response is bright and immediate. She closes the box with a flourish, leveling a kind gaze at him. “Not anymore. Besides, if they said you should take the cranes, you should.”

“That’s right. It’s not as if I hoped you would gallantly proclaim that you needed no such thing and then I could wish for a rich client—”

“Now, now, Sherly, drink your tea.”

Asougi chuckles at their banter. “…Thank you.” But as he glances back to the box, thinking, an idea comes to mind. “Detective Holmes, Miss Iris, will you help me with something?”

They turn inquisitive expressions on him. “Hm?”

“Do you have string?”

The journey back to the prosecutors’ office is uneventful, and he spends most of it gazing aimlessly out the window of the carriage.

The box of cranes sits by his side, slightly emptier.

“String?” Iris echoes, her head tipping to the side in question.

“In Japan, it’s traditional to hang the thousand cranes in groups on string,” he explains. “It makes for easier organization, as well.”

It takes Iris little more incentive to hunt for the material, and the three of them begin the arduous task of threading the cranes together in sets.

“What about your work?” Iris asks, snipping another length of string.

He waves dismissively. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

At length, they finish the job, and Asougi silently marvels that there really were nine hundred and ninety-nine cranes stuffed in the box.

He turns and holds several strings of cranes out to them both. “You have my gratitude for taking care of Naruhodou and Assistant Mikotoba during their time in London. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Iris takes the cranes, bundling them carefully in her arms, and smiles widely. “Come visit us any time!”

Sherlock places a hand on his hip, a playful, knowing look in his eyes. “Bring that gloomy reaper with you too, Mister Asougi.”

Barok van Zieks looks impassively up from his desk as Asougi enters the office, nudging the door open with his foot—his arms are otherwise occupied. “It’s unusual for you to be late without reason,” Barok remarks.

“My errand took longer than I thought,” Asougi replies shortly. “I’m prepared to make my work up in full.”

“Hm. No matter. There is little to do today, in any case.”

“Is that so?”

Brief, concise, void of unnecessary tangents. Their conversations have always been this way so far. The vast abyss of tangled, convoluted feelings that lie between them still runs deep, after all.

It is precisely for that reason that Asougi reaches into the box, scooping out a handful of the contents.

Without a word, he walks up to Barok’s desk, and scatters the cranes onto the tabletop.

For several entire seconds, silence falls over the room.

Barok’s gaze flickers from the pile of cranes on his desk back to Asougi. To Asougi’s pleasure, there is no mistaking the genuine bewilderment in the other prosecutor’s eyes—he has well and truly caught the man off-guard for once.

At last, Barok opens his mouth. “…Prosecutor Asougi. What exactly are these?”

He cannot help the grin that spreads across his face as he turns tail and strides purposefully out of the room with the rest of the box, laughter on his lips and satisfied amusement in his chest at the former reaper’s flummoxed expression. “Wishes, Prosecutor van Zieks.”

There are still many, many left to give.

A few more strings go to Inspector Gina Lestrade when he comes across her delivering a report. Her loyal companion sniffs playfully at Asougi’s boots while he places the cranes in her outstretched hands—a silent word of appreciation and apology all at once even as she accepts them skeptically.

She waves goodbye as she dashes into the prosecutors’ office, the cranes trailing in flight behind her and Toby at her heels.

The next name on the list Sherlock wrote for him is a woman by the name of Viridian Green, a woman he has never met—

But Naruhodou has.

And Asougi thinks, there will never be enough gratitude in the world to Naruhodou for all the lives he has touched.

The box has never been heavy, but there is a strange weight in the remainder of the contents despite the fact it should feel the exact opposite now.

When he arrives at the gates, the sunset burning at his back, his feet freeze in place. But if he should stop here, it will have all been for nothing.

He weaves lightly through the rows upon rows of marked stones—these are not what he is searching for. There would have been no inscription, no indication—not for a murderer. It is only by the allowance of the prosecutors’ office’s records that he knows where to go.

At last, he comes to a stop, his eyes fixed on the blank headstone before him. For a long while, he can only stare at it wordlessly, everything he has ever wanted to say suddenly, inexplicably lost in his throat.

So instead, Asougi takes a step forward, and lets the last of the cranes in his arms fall to the dirt on his father’s grave.

In the dimming light, the cranes seem to faintly glow.

It is much, much later, after he has pulled himself away, that he realizes Naruhodou’s note is still in his pocket. He brings it out, smoothing the creases, looking down at his friend’s messily inked words, and recalls how to smile.

He begins, by folding the paper in half.

A/N: Dedicated to Miryul for the many long hours we spent screaming over Asougi- I mean DGS2, haha. PLEASE LOOK AT HER ART IT'S SUPER BEAUTIFUL! (and be care of spoilers)

I also want to thank everyone for all the love towards my DGS fic from two years ago. I'm so glad Asougi's alive.

[eggnogdoubt38-blog]

travel: an education… (2017)

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It has been over a dozen years since I started recording and reporting here.  Yet, despite my dwindling updates, I have not lost enthusiasm or eagerness for it. What little time I manage to devote to writing my blog remains exciting and important to me, because above all, it represents an incredible education.

Since leaving the law firm at the top of 2011, and more significantly, leaving my anonymity behind shortly thereafter, I began writing from a different perspective.  With an explosion of blogs and food media that began flooding the internet restaurant-related minutiae, the need for detailed reports like mine diminished. So, I broadened the scope of this blog to do more of what I love doing: connecting the many reference points I had gathered over the years, and championing those who are producing something of quality and substance.

Sadly, I can’t say I’ve been very regular about it. For the past few years, I’ve deferred much of my reflecting and sharing to the end the year, when I scramble to collect my thoughts and preserve some of what I have been too busy to file in the preceding 12 months.* And this task has only become more challenging as my calendar has grown more and more crowded each year.

Of course this is a good thing.  It means those blurred lines that I described in 2013 have sharpened.  Blissfully shrugging off the ambiguities (and the one-dimensional pigeon hole) of “food blogging,” I have moved into a truer and more fulfilling role as a photographer.  Documenting the world with a camera has been an essential part of my life now for more than two decades.  Before I had an adequate grasp of writing, or an understanding of the restaurant industry, I was framing the world around me through a lens. Now, in my adult life, I am blessed to be able to do this professionally.

2017 took me to far corners of our globe.  Logging over 120,00 miles, I visited 8 countries on 4 continents, as well as cities across the United States.  Much of it was to photograph restaurants, food, and chefs, both professionally and for personal pleasure.  But much of it was for other things that interest me – art, history, and culture.  When I’m not eating or writing about food, these are the things that occupy my time and thoughts.

So, before I turn to anthologizing my year in eating, as I have done for a decade or more, I’d like to share a bit of where I went, what I experienced, and what I learned last year.  Of course, if you’re not interested in these things, I invite you to skip to the bottom of this post, where I log all of the restaurants I visited in 2017.

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I was having dinner at Kong Hans Kælder in Copenhagen, a house to which I have grown familiar over the past few years, when I mentioned to Peter Pepke, the manager and wine director, that I was heading to Africa.  Peter had grown up in southern Africa, and had gone to school in Zimbabwe, one of the countries on my itinerary.  He told me that, coincidentally, Tobias Nilsson, one of the sommeliers at the restaurant, who I also knew, was moving to South Africa within the month. A Danish family had purchased an estate in wine country, outside of Cape Town, and he was moving there to manage the property and cultivate the vineyards for wine production. Tobias told me that the estate had plenty of guest rooms, and invited me to visit him.  Thrilled to have found a friend in Africa, I gave him my dates of travel, and we planned on seeing each other a few months later.

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In my freshman year of college, I chose, as one of my two, compulsory writing seminars, “Modern South African History.”  Two unexpectedly wonderful things happened in that class. First, I met Mike Tetelman, then a young, PhD candidate for African studies at my university.  I credit Tetelman with teaching me how to write, and, more importantly, inspiring me to want to be a better writer. Secondly, Tetelman assigned one of the most transformative books of my life, written by a man who had been imprisoned for 18 years on a faraway island for fighting racial injustice.  Although this autobiography had been decades in the making, much of it happened within my own, recent memory.  It was only a few years before I read the book that its author Nelson Mandela had been set free by then-President of South Africa F.W. de Klerk.  I remember watching evening news reports about the two men negotiating the end of apartheid. And, as a high school student, I remember when Mandela and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together in 1993 for their bipartisan reforms, and when Mandela was elected the first black president of South Africa a year later.  My own coming of age coincided with that of a great nation and people.

A year after I took the class with Tetelman, the prison on the faraway island closed, ending its 400-year history as a place of banishment and imprisonment.

It is with all of this personal history that my trip to South Africa last year fulfilled twenty years of anticipation.  On Robben Island, I visited the tiny cell – smaller than the kennels in which the prison guard dogs were kept – where Nelson Mandela started writing his “Long Walk To Freedom.” I saw the prison courtyard, where he hid the manuscript behind a vine tree. And I got a tour of the prison by a former, political prisoner on the island, who described the horrors and injustice that he and his fellow inmates endured, sockless and shoeless, for years. If you haven’t read Mandela’s autobiography, read it now. It is one of the most powerful stories of the human will for justice you will ever experience.

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Wildepaardejacht is a stunning estate nestled at the foothills of the craggy mountains of Paarl, a wine district about an hour’s drive from Cape Town.  Established in 1688 by Dutch settlers, the gabled manse occupies a unique position in the area.  It offers a breathtaking survey of its surroundings – sprawling vineyards and orchards fenced in by rocky rises.  And yet, it is entirely invisible to the outside world.  You can’t see the beautiful, white structure from any road, not even the one that leads you right to its gates.

Kirsten Madsen welcomed me to her home.  She and her husband had purchased the estate some years ago, and had been alternating between spending time in their homeland of Denmark, and in the wintry months, escaping to the sunnier, summery cape of South Africa.

She showed me to my quarters, a generous suite of beautifully wood-paneled rooms, including a bathroom with a heavy, bulletproof door.  When I asked about the door, Kirsten told me that the prior occupant of the house had been none other than F.W. de Klerk, the former president of South Africa. The Madsens had purchased Wildepaardejacht from de Klerk and his (second) wife Elita. The bathroom had been the president’s safe room in case of an attack.  The panic button inside the bathroom was still active, and I was cautioned not to mistake it for the light switch, lest I set off a string of alarms and send the guards running.

Perhaps my friend Tobias had told me that the estate he was now managing was the former residence of de Klerk.  In fact, I’m sure he had. But in the weeks leading up to my trip, we had both been overwhelmed with work and travel, and our communication was spotty and short.  Somehow, this extraordinary fact escaped me.

Imagine my astonishment.

Just two days before, I had been in the prison cell of de Klerk’s successor. And now, I would be staying in de Klerk’s house and home.

The Madsens left de Klerk’s suite largely untouched.  Simple and spare, his bedroom was dominated by a pair of handsome wardrobes and a large bed, over which a small, framed map of South Africa hung.  There was a chair, two nightstands, and de Klerk’s valet stand.  Otherwise, there was nothing to distract you from the view outside.  Three, large windows framed the surrounding property, offering a 180-degree view of the manicured estate, and the mountains beyond.

Here, at Wildepaardejacht, de Klerk hosted heads of state, including Margaret Thatcher. And the dining room table, where my breakfast was set out every morning, is where much of the de Klerk-Mandela negotiations were conducted.

Rarely have I been so intimately close to history.  And if it were not for the dedication and care of faithful stewards, like the Madsens, these encounters would not be possible.

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Using Wildepaardejacht (which roughly translates to “wild horse hunt” in Dutch) as home base, Tobias and I took day trips around wine country in a gorgeous, Volkswagen van from the 1960s.

We drove over to Franschhoek, originally a French settlement as its name suggests. We had lunch perched on those hills, at a quaint auberge called La Petite Ferme.  Afterwards, Tobias deftly negotiated the narrow curves of the Franschhoek pass that snaked upwards and beyond the mountains, for a spectacular view of the valley below.

On Paarl Rock, the second largest rock in the world after Uluru (or Ayers Rock) in Australia, we leaned into breathtaking winds that nearly swept us off our feet.

One morning, we relished the commercialized downtown of Stellenbosch, where Tobias, especially, had access to many supplies and creature comforts that were unavailable to him in the smaller town of Paarl near him.  Home to one of South Africa’s largest universities, Stellenbosch was a scene of youth and activity, a welcomed contrast to the sea of despair and disparity that still dominates South Africa’s countryside today.

And we paused at the gates of Drakenstein Correctional Centre to see the famous statue of Nelson Mandela with his fist raised high. This was the last place he was imprisoned, after being transferred from Robben Island. And it was from these gates that he finally walked free, just a few miles down the road from the home of the president who he would succeed. Because Drakenstein is still an operating prison today, we were unable to enter.

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Zimbabwe has its own currency, which is supposed to be on par (that is, dollar-for-dollar) with the U.S. Dollar. However, it has no confidence, and therefore, is worthless outside of Zimbabwe.  So, the country uses U.S. currency (this is one of two countries I visited last year that operates almost entirely on U.S. currency).

When I landed in Zimbabwe, I was prepared. I had 200 U.S. Dollars in $10 bills (because I was told that locals will not accept bills higher than $20). I spent $50 on my visa at the border. Shortly after I passed through immigration, a young German couple, who had been on my flight, was stuck behind. They did not know that Zimbabwe immigration did not accept credit cards.  And they had no U.S. currency.  One of them was allowed to pass through to the arrivals hall to get cash out of a cash machine. But the cash machine was empty. So, they were unable to enter Zimbabwe.

Why was the cash machine empty? Zimbabwe was headed into an election. And the sitting president Robert Mugabe (who had been in power for nearly 40 years) appeared to be rigging it in favor of his wife – unaffectionately dubbed “Gucci Grace” by her detractors – to succeed him. So, in preparation for the election, Mugabe froze all cashflow, essentially holding his people captive in exchange for their votes. As a result, the cash machines were empty, and the banks were not allowed to release any currency. There was a bank across the street from my hotel, and every day, a line of dozens trailed out the front door – locals desperate for any cash they could withdraw to pay for everyday necessities.

Thankfully, all of my ground expenses, except my meals and visa, had been prepaid. So, on my faith in humanity, I lent the German couple the $100 they needed for their entry visas, and relied on my credit card for the remainder of my stay. The couple not only repaid me when they returned to Germany, but sent far more than I lent them as thanks. And, I made two, new friends.

While our stories ended well, what about the people of Zimbabwe?

A month later, in November, the Zimbabwe military staged a coup, overthrowing Mugabe.

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Following the months of dry season, the Zambezi River’s level drops significantly.  In fact, during these months – the winter months in the northern hemisphere – by the time the river reaches the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, where it pours over a cliff in an expansive fall that stretches a mile wide, the Zambezi dwindles to just 10% of its capacity in high season.

The famous British explorer David Livingstone, searching for the source of the Nile River, first arrived here in 1855, and named this magnificent, natural phenomenon – the largest falling sheet of water in the world – after his queen.

Victoria Falls pours into a long, narrow crack in the earth – which happens to mark the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.  So it is not possible to view the waterfall from the bottom. It can only be viewed from the top of the gorge.  I think most would agree that the best view of the falls is from the Zimbabwe side, where roped trails in Victoria National Park bring you within feet of the edge. From this side, you have a full-frontal view of the falls across the narrow gorge – about 500 feet across.  You’re so close to the falls that the mist rising from the gorge – which can be seen miles away – drenches everything near it, turning the park trail into a lush rainforest. (Some say the best view is from the air; helicopter rides are available.)

But, during low season, when I visited, you can also get a rare view of the falls from the Zambia side.  When the Zambezi is at its lowest levels, it is possible to take a boat downstream to Livingstone Island, a rocky outcropping that perches at the edge of the falls.  From there, you can jump in a small pool of water that eddies at the ledge. Appropriately named “Devil’s Pool,” this unique spot, just a few feet away from roaring currents that sweep by and pummel 300-some feet to the bottom, allows the daring to swim right up to the lip for a spectacular view, both across and down the gorge.  Despite being a fraidy cat when it comes to heights, I did just that.

If you are not a confident swimmer, I will warn you that you cannot touch the bottom of Devil’s Pool.  You will need to swim, or cling to rocks while making your way around the rim to the edge of the falls. If you can tread water, then the current in the pool, which isn’t forceful enough to take you over, will carry you to the edge without much effort.

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Construction on the royal crematorium – an elaborate pavilion in which Bhumibol Adulyadej, the ninth Rama of the Chakri Dynasty, would be cremated – was near completion when I arrived in Bangkok in September (he was subsequently cremated on 29 October, 2017). One of the longest reigning monarchs in world history, this king was so beloved by his Thai people that they conferred upon him the sobriquet “The Great.”  Despite having been dead for nearly a year, his image remained enshrined everywhere – in taxis, on billboards, buildings, street signs, and temples.  In keeping with the royal tradition of observing a year of mourning, his son and successor Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, styled Rama X, deferred his enthronement and coronation (and, as of January of 2018, the new king remains uncrowned).

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Sadly, I didn’t see much while in Bangkok.  The heat, humidity, and the horrific traffic  discouraged me from exploring beyond my neighborhood, which, like most neighborhoods in Asian metropolises, is larger and more populated than many American and European cities. Other than a few destination dinners that forced me afield (I’ll get to these in my subsequent posts), I stayed near my hotel in the heart of the city, where I had walking access to plenty of shops and restaurants.

Although I spent a week in Bangkok – my true aim on this trip was Cambodia.  From Bangkok, a short, one-hour flight put me in Siem Reap.

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Cambodia also runs on U.S. currency. But unlike Zimbabweans, Cambodians are far more particular about their cash – they will reject a bill for the slightest tear, crease, or flaw. Cambodian cash machines and merchants alike dispense crisp, clean bills that look as if they just rolled off the press at the U.S. mint.  How this is possible, I do not know.

Whereas the Zimbabwe Dollar is supposed to be on par with the U.S. Dollar, that is not the case with the Cambodian Real, which is comparatively debased.  While neither country uses American coinage, because the Zimbabwe Dollar is on par with the U.S. Dollar, and because the Zimbabwe economy is more robust than the Cambodian economy, Zimbabweans have an easier solution: everything in Zimbabwe is rounded out to whole-dollar amounts. Although the cost of living in Zimbabwe is cheaper than in the U.S., American (or European) tourists might not see much of a price break in the areas they’re most likely to visit.  My meals at the Victoria Falls Hotel, for example, were commensurate with the price of a meal at a nice restaurant in the United States.

By comparison, goods and services in Cambodia – even in touristy areas – are far cheaper. For the sake of convenience, most services are bartered in whole-dollar amounts (tuk tuk rides, for example). However, if you pay for goods in U.S. Dollars, change will be returned in Cambodian Riel (at the time I was in Siem Reap, the exchange rate was 10,000 Riel to one U.S. Dollar).  So, when I paid for a $0.65 espresso with a George Washington Dollar was given back 3,500 Real in change, dispensed in seven, crisp bills of 500 Reals.

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How the Khmer thrived in the thick and soupy lowlands of present-day Siem Reap I do not know. Unaccustomed, and not particularly friendly to heat or humidity to begin with, I found the steamy jungle unbearable. During the day, I relished and relied on open-air tuk-tuk rides to cool me off between destinations.

Angkor is the largest religious complex in the world.  Built nearly a millennium ago by Khmer kings, it is comprised of scores of temples and monuments.  Spread over 400 acres, this ancient city was, at the height of the Khmer empire, home to a million people – the largest, known pre-industrial city in the world.  Now, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Cambodia’s most visited landmark (Angkor Wat, the main temple, is depicted on the Cambodian national flag; and the overgrown temples of Ta Prohm are probably far better known for being the backdrop of the movie Tomb Raider).

I was surprised by the level of access that visitors have here.  With few exceptions, you can walk through the temples – even in parts where collapse, if not already arrived, appeared imminent.  And, in many cases, you can climb up the perilously steep sides.  For both safety and preservation, I doubt these generous allowances will continue for long.

Even so, efforts to restore the temples are ongoing.  I saw a number of sites where the enormous blocks of rubble were being sorted and reconstructed. It was also apparent that many of the temples were still being used as places of worship – predominantly Buddhist.

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Vestiges of French colonialism are palpable in Siem Reap, especially in some of the older quarters of the city.  My hotel, The Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor, is an excellent example of this. Built in the French colonial style of the early 20th century (it dates to 1937), this stately structure sits on a street named after French president Charles de Gaulle.  Culturally and culinarily too, the French left their imprint, confluent with the Thai and Chinese.  These influences are evident in a walk through the city’s old market, where you’ll find everything from turtles, frogs, and giant, roach-like water bugs (I’ve been told that, when cooked, their papery skeleton bursts with a creamy interior akin to watery, licorice-flavored, scrambled eggs) to Chinese sausages, curry, baguettes, and coffee.

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There were far too many other destinations in 2017 to include here.

Some of them I’ve already written about on this blog – my trips last year to Paris, Noirmoutier, New York, and Arkansas, for example. And my month in Napa (California) was well-documented in a series of posts about the Twelve Days of Christmas; it’s become an annual highlight.

Others you can learn about in my writings elsewhere. My annual trip to South Carolina to photograph Music To Your Mouth was the subject of this personal essay that I wrote for Palmetto Bluff. And an extended trip to Mexico City with Adam Goldberg (Publisher) and Daniela Velasco (Creative Director) for their sister publications Drift (vol. 6) and Ambrosia (vol. 4), for which I serve as an editor at large, is well documented in the latest issue of each. In them, you’ll find an interview I did with Enrique Olvera, chef of Pujol, as well as an article I wrote and photographed about the pre-Hispanic chinampas of the Mexico City basin.

Sadly, I only made it to Scandinavia once in 2017. After traveling there more than a dozen times over the past three years for the immensely educational Friends of Lysverket series, my friend Christopher Haatuft decided to end the collaborative project to focus on opening a second restaurant.  But this didn’t stop me from going back to visit my friends in Norway (I was in both Oslo and Bergen, crossing the country on the breathtaking rail line that connects the two), or my friends in nearby Denmark.  In Denmark, I was mostly in Copenhagen (in part to photograph for Format, a new restaurant at the Hotel Sankt Annae).  But I also escaped the capital for brief trips to Odense and to Århus, the country’s second largest city, to visit the ARoS Kunstmuseum, famously crowned with Olafur Eliasson’s colorful halo entitled “Your Rainbow Panorama.”

Domestically, I was all over the map: Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, Chicago, Tampa, Seattle, Charleston, and San Francisco, where I photographed for a number of restaurants, including Quince and Saison.  I returned to photograph Gourmet Fest for a second year.  It’s a Relais & Châteaux event hosted by l’Auberge Carmel in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.  I also returned for a second year to photograph the Synergy Series, a quarterly charity dinner hosted by Gavin Kaysen at his restaurant Spoon & Stable in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Kaysen just informed me that the Synergy Series will continue in 2018 for a third season.  I look forward to it.

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Per annual tradition, before I turn to consider the highlights of my year in eating, I pause to account all of the restaurants I visited in 2017.  Here is that list.

JANUARY

AEP Thai (Kansas City, Missouri) Bluestem (Kansas City, Missouri) Café Europa – Union Hill (Kansas City, Missouri) Kin Lin (Kansas City, Missouri) Ponak’s (Kansas City, Missouri) Q39 (Kansas City, Missouri) Speak Sandwiches (Kansas City, Missouri)

FEBRUARY

Arsaga’s (Fayetteville, Arkansas) Hive at 21C (Bentonville, Arkansas) Jarocho (Kansas City, Kansas) Preacher’s Son (Bentonville, Arkansas) Pressroom (Bentonville, Arkansas) Shio Ramen (Kansas City, Missouri) Speak Sandwiches (Kansas City, Missouri) Stock Hill (Kansas City, Missouri) Ye Olde Union Oyster House (Boston, Massachusetts)

MARCH

Canlis (Seattle, Washington) Corvino Supper Club (Kansas City, Missouri) Heirloom (Kansas City, Missouri) Howard’s Grocery (Kansas City, Missouri) Poppy (Seattle, Washington) Portia’s Café (Kansas City, Missouri) Rye (Leawood, Kansas) Spices Asian (Kansas City, Missouri) Urban Café (Kansas City, Missouri) West Bottoms Kitchen (Kansas City, Missouri) Willows Inn (Lummi Island, Washington)

APRIL

3 Arts Café (Chicago, Illinois) Arsicault (San Francisco, California) Bad Hunter (Chicago, Illinois) Bellecour (Wayzata, Minnesota) Bo Ling’s (Kansas City, Missouri) Boulette’s Larder (San Francisco, California) Columbus Park Ramen (Kansas City, Missouri) Deli Board (San Francisco, California) Genessee Royale Bistro (Kansas City, Missouri) Great China (Berkeley, California) Happy Gillis Café & Hangout (Kansas City, Missouri) Kin Lin (Kansas City, Missouri) Mario’s in Westport (Kansas City, Missouri) Marla (San Francisco, California) McClain’s Bakery (Kansas City, Missouri) Michael Smith (Kansas City, Missouri) Quince (San Francisco, California) Saison (San Francisco, California) Single Thread (Healdsburg, California) Speak Sandwiches (Kansas City, Missouri) Smyth (Chicago, Illinois) Sun Street Bakery (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Town Topic (Kansas City, Missouri) Voltaire (Kansas City, Missouri) Young Joni (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

MAY

Asia Market Thai Lao (Houston, Texas) Better Luck Tomorrow (Houston, Texas) Blackbird (Chicago, Illinois) Blacksmith (Houston, Texas) Bluestem (Kansas City, Missouri) Breakers Café (Stinson Beach, California) Café Robey (Chicago, Illinois) Cellar Door Provisions (Chicago, Illinois) Champa Garden (Redding, California) Columbus Park Ramen (Kansas City, Missouri) Corvino Tasting Room (Kansas City, Missouri) Cotogna (San Francisco, California) Dot Coffee (Houston, Texas) Hamano (San Francisco, California) Himalaya (Houston, Texas) Joe’s Kansas City (Kansas City, Kansas) Kata Robata (Houston, Texas) LC’s Bar-B-Q (Kansas City, Missouri) Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot (San Francisco, California) Morningstar (Houston, Texas) (2x) Pho Binh (Houston, Texas) Pit Room, The (Houston, Texas) Roister (Chicago, Illinois) Rye (Leawood, Kansas) Thien Thanh (Houston, Texas) Won Fun 2 Fun (Chicago, Illinois)

JUNE

Al’s Place (San Francisco, California) Bellecour (Wayzata, Minnesota) Blue Koi (Leawood, Kansas) Boulette’s Larder (San Francisco, California) (3x) Comedor Jacinta (Mexico City, Mexico) Contramar (Mexico City, Mexico) Dad’s Luncheonette (Half Moon Bay, California) Duarte’s Tavern (Pescadero, California) Eno Loncheria (Mexico City, Mexico) (2x) el Farolito (Mexico City, Mexico) Fonda Mayora (Mexico City, Mexico) Lalo (Mexico City, Mexico) Maximo Bistrot (Mexico City, Mexico) Oja de Agua (Mexico City, Mexico) Pujol (Mexico City, Mexico) Quintonil (Mexico City, Mexico) Saison (San Francisco, California) Slanted Door, The (San Francisco, California) Sushikyo (Mexico City, Mexico) Z&Y (San Francisco, California) Zuni Café (San Francisco, California) (2x)

JULY

Alma Hotel (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Bellecour (Wayzata, Minneosta) (2x) el Camino Real (Kansas City, Kansas) Grand Café (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

AUGUST

108 (Copenhagen, Denmark) 108 Corner (Copenhagen, Denmark) á l’Aise (Oslo, Norway) Apollo Bar (Copenhagen, Denmark) Atelier September (Copenhagen, Denmark) (2x) Barr (Copenhagen, Denmark) Bekkjarvik Gjestgiveri (Bekkjarvik, Norway) Bistro Bohème (Copenhagen, Denmark) Blings (Oslo, Norway) la Cabra (Århus, Denmark) Café Don Pippo (Bergen, Norway) (2x) Charter Oak, the (St. Helena, California) Chez Panisse Café (Berkeley, California) Format (Copenhagen, Denmark) Fuglen (Oslo, Norway) Gastromé (Århus, Denmark) Gott’s Roadside (St. Helena, California) Kaffemisjonen (Bergen, Norway) (2x) Kolonialen Bislett (Oslo, Norway) Kong Hans Kælder (Copenhagen, Denmark) (2x) Lysverket (Bergen, Norway) (2x) Nico (San Francisco, California) Sortebro Kro (Odense, Denmark)

SEPTEMBER

510 Lounge (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Al’s Breakfast (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Bakery at the Plaza Athenée (Bangkok, Thailand) (2x) Bellecour (Wayzata, Minnesota) Blackbird (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Bo.Lan (Bangkok Thailand) B.S. Taqueria (Los Angeles, California) Ça Va (Kansas City, Missouri) Carniceria San Antonio (Kansas City, Missouri) Cuisine Wat Damnak (Siem Reap, Cambodia) Destroyer (Culver City, California) Dialogue (Santa Monica, California) Din Tai Fung at Century Embassy (Bangkok, Thailand) Eathai at Century Embassy (Bangkok, Thailand) Gaggan (Bangkok, Thailand) Gjusta (Venice, California) Hmong Village (St. Paul, Minnesota) Maisen at Century Embassy (Bangkok, Thailand) Malis (Siem Reap, Cambodia) (2x) Marum (Siem Reap, Cambodia) Myung in Dumplings (Los Angeles, California) Nahm (Bangkok, Thailand) Rohatt Café (Siem Reap, Cambodia) Sari Sari at Grand Central Market (Los Angeles, California) Somboon Seafood at Century Embassy (Bangkok, Thailand) Supanniga Tasting Room (Bangkok, Thailand) Uncle Joe’s Ham & Eggs (Los Angeles, California) White Castle (Minneapolis, Minnesota) World Street Kitchen (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Young Joni (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

OCTOBER

l’Ambroisie (Paris, France) Chez l’Ami Jean (Paris, France) Clown Bar, The (Paris, France) Brasserie Grandcœur (Paris, France) le Dauphin (Paris, France) Desnoyez (Paris, France) Fire Fish at the V&A Waterfront (Cape Town, South Africa) la Fontaine de Bellevie (Paris, France) (2x) Grill, The (New York, New York) Hemlock (New York, New York) Lidia’s (Kansas City, Missouri) Made Nice (New York New York) Maison Moizeau (Noirmoutier, France) la Marine (Noirmoutier, France) Noble Rice (Tampa, Florida) du Pain et des Idées (Paris, France) el Pollo Rey (Kansas City, Kansas) Per Se (New York, New York) Penny’s (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Stanley’s Terrace at Victoria Falls Hotel (Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe) (3x) Wildair (New York, New York) Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air (Bel-Air, California)

NOVEMBER

Bean in Love (Paarl, South Africa) Belota (Paarl, South Africa) Blue Crane & Butterfly (Stellenbosch, South Africa) Café Europa at Union Hill (Kansas City, Missouri) Carniceria San Antonio (Charleston, South Carolina) Cattle Baron (Paarl, South Africa) EJ’s Urban Eatery (Kansas City, Missouri) Giulio’s Café (Cape Town, South Africa) Heirloom (Kansas City, Missouri) Henrietta’s at Dewberry Hotel (Charleston, South Carolina) Jason’s Bakery (Cape Town, South Africa) Kuriba at V&A Waterfront (Cape Town, South Africa) McCrady’s (Charleston, South Carolina) McCrady’s Tavern (Charleston, South Carolina) Minero (Charleston, South Carolina) Noop (Paarl, South Africa) la Petite Ferme (Franschhoek, South Africa) Rodney Scott’s BBQ (Charleston, South Carolina) Rye (Kansas City, Missouri) (2x) Sahara (Kansas City, Missouri) Shortmarket Club (Cape Town, South Africa) Willoughby & Co. at V&A Waterfront (Cape Town, South Africa)

DECEMBER

Boulette’s Larder (San Francisco, California) Charter Oak, The (St. Helena, California) (4x) Cotogna (San Francisco, California) Cowgirl Creamery at Ferry Building Marketplace (San Francisco, California) Gott’s Roadside (St. Helena, California) (5x) In Situ (San Francisco, California) Kin Khao (San Francisco, California) Restaurant at Meadowood, The (St. Helena, California) Restaurant at Meadowood, The (St. Helena, California) (The Twelve Days of Christmas: Lundgaard Nielsen, Mehrotra, Stone & von Hauske, Fox, Sukle, Brock, Takazawa, Keller, Werner, Zonfrillo, Couillon, and Kostow) Saison (San Francisco, California) Tosca Café (San Francisco, California) Z&Y (San Francisco, California) Zuni Café (San Francisco, California)

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* Here is a catalog of my year-end posts:

2011: suitcase party… 2012: foreign and domestic… 2013: blurred lines… 2014: leapfrogging…  2015: fairytale… 2016: hemispheres and horizons… 

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Photos: Lilies in the moat that surrounds Angkor Wat in Angkor, Cambodia; the breathtaking view from Cape Point, South Africa; pool with the mountains of Paarl rising in the background, dusk at Wildepaardejacht in Paarl, South Africa; Tobias Nilsson and a beautiful VW van at Fraschhoek Pass, South Africa; the bar at the Royal Livingstone in Livingstone, Zambia; butter-yellow staircases at the Victoria Falls Hotel in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; Victoria Falls from Victoria Falls National Park, Zimbabwe; Zambezi tram in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; an enormous portrait of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej in Bangkok, Thailand; mopeds, cars, and buses in Bangkok, Thailand; the expansive pool at the Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor in Siem Reap, Cambodia; turtles, frogs, fish, bamboo shoots and more at the Old Siem Reap Market in Siem Reap, Cambodia; ruins at the temple of Ta Prohm in Angkor, Cambodia; a Buddhist monk at Angkor Wat in Angkor, Thailand; Allen Fieldhouse, home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence, Kansas; “El Ángel” on the Pasea de la Reforma in Mexico City, Mexico; “Your Rainbow Panorama” at the ARoS Kunstmusem in Århus, Denmark; a colony of penguins on Boulder Beach in Simon Town, South Africa; the wharf at Bekkjarvik, Norway; Cape Point, South Africa.

~ by ulterior epicure on January 23, 2018.

Posted in dining, drink, life, restaurant, restaurant review, travel Tags: cambodia, f.w. de klerk, france, nelson mandela, south africa, travel, victoria falls, zambia, zimbabwe

Source: https://ulteriorepicure.com/2018/01/23/travel-an-education-2017/

[iasshikshalove]

Daily Current Affairs Dated On 13-Aug-2019

Daily Current Affairs Dated On 13-Aug-2019 GS-1 Perseid meteor shower What is it?  On its journey around the Sun, the Earth passes through large swathes of cosmic debris.  The debris is essentially the remnants of comets — great frigid chunks of matter that leave behind dirty trails of rocks and ice that linger long after the comets themselves have passed.  As the Earth wades through this cloud of comet waste, the bits of debris create what appears from the ground to be a fireworks display in the sky — known as a meteor shower. Recent cases  Several meteor showers can be seen around the year.  Among the brightest and best known of them is the Perseid Meteor Shower, which has been active from July 17 onward, and can be seen until August 26.  The showers peaked on the night of Monday-Tuesday. What is special about perseid?  The Perseids occur as the Earth runs into pieces of cosmic debris left behind by the comet SwiftTuttle.  The cloud of debris is about 27 km wide — and at the peak of the display, between 160 and 200 meteors streak through the Earth’s atmosphere every hour as the pieces of debris, travelling at some 2.14 lakh km per hour, burn up a little less than 100 km above the Earth’s surface.  The Perseids currently visible in the night sky are not due to the debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle during its most recent pass, which happened in 1992.  This particular comet goes around the Sun once in 133 years, and the meteors now visible were left behind by the pass before the last one — or perhaps even earlier. When are they visible?  Meteors are best seen on a cloudless night, when the entire sky is visible, and when the Moon is not extremely bright.  Chances of a successful viewing are higher from locations far away from the lights of cities.  Pollution and monsoon clouds make the Perseids difficult to view from India.  The showers peak when the Earth passes through the most dense part of the debris cloud. Peaks can last for a few hours or several nights. Daily Current Affairs Dated On 13-Aug-2019  They tend to be most visible after midnight and before dawn.  The showers should be seen with naked eyes; binoculars and telescopes narrow the field of vision. River interlining project Background  IT IS an idea that has been in circulation for nearly four decades: can India build from scratch a national water grid, which will help transfer water from water-rich to water-deficit regions?  This has led to proposals for water transfer from one river basin to another.  The Special Committee for Inter-Linking of Rivers has submitted its progress report for the work done from July 2016 to March 2018, and the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister was updated on the report recently. The reasons for?  The Inter-Linking of Rivers programme aims to connect various surplus rivers with deficient rivers.  The idea is to divert excess water from surplus regions to deficient regions to help improve irrigation, increase water for drinking and industrial use, and mitigate drought and floods to an extent.  It is to be in accordance with the National Perspective Plan.  This plan was formulated in 1980 by the Ministry of Irrigation (now Water Resources) to look into inter-basin transfers.  The plan comprises two components: peninsular rivers development and Himalayan rivers development.  India also has a National Water Development Agency (NWDA), which was set up in 1982, to conduct surveys and see how feasible proposals for interlinking river projects are. Daily Current Affairs Dated On 13-Aug-2019 Three projects The status report of three priority links was shared with the Cabinet. These were Ken-Betwa, Damanganga-Pinjal and Par-Tapi-Narmada. KEN-BATWA:  The project aims to link the rivers Ken (in the Bundelkhand region) and Betwa, both flowing through Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.  It proposes to “divert the surplus waters of river Ken through the Ken-Betwa link canal to river Betwa for meeting water requirements in the water-deficit Betwa basin”. Dams will be built across the Ken for storing and transferring water through the link canal. . DAMANGANGA-PINJAL:  The project aims to divert excess water from rivers in western India to meet the domestic and industrial water requirements of Greater Mumbai.  It proposes to move available water at the proposed Bhugad reservoir across the Damanganga and at the proposed Khargihill reservoir across the Vagh, a tributary of the Damanganga.  These two reservoirs, proposed by the NWDA, will be linked to the Pinjal reservoir (proposed by Maharashtra) through pressure tunnels. PAR-TAPI-NARMADA:  The project proposes to transfer water from the Western Ghats to water-deficit regions of Saurashtra and Kutch via seven reservoirs proposed in northern Maharashtra and southern Gujarat.  It is an attempt to save water at the Sardar Sarovar project by using feeder canals to service a part of the command area of the dam, officials say. . Daily Current Affairs Dated On 13-Aug-2019 Issues and challenges  Many experts and activists have questioned the idea of inter-basin transfer, for various reasons. The ecology of every river being unique, experts have stressed that letting the waters of two rivers mix may affect biodiversity.  Because the programme proposes the construction of a massive network of canals and dams, it would lead to large-scale displacement of people and changes in agricultural patterns, and affect livelihoods.  Experts have also objected to interlinking for financial reasons.  In 2001, the total cost for linking the Himalayan and peninsular rivers was estimated at Rs 5,60,000 crore, excluding the costs of relief and rehabilitation, and other expenses such as measures to deal with submergence in some areas.b  Two years ago, a committee of the Ministry suggested that this cost was likely to be substantially higher now and the cost-benefit ratio might no longer be favourable.  Another objection raised is that rainfall patterns are changing due to climate change, so the basins now supposed to be surplus, might cease to be so in a few years. Guif war Why in news? In an emotive gesture, Iraq on Thursday handed over the remains of 48 Kuwaiti nationals, more than 28 years after the Gulf War ended. Background  The Gulf War, which lasted between August 1990 and February 1991, was an international conflict that erupted after Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussain, invaded neighbouring Kuwait, claiming it as its “19th province”.  After Hussain defied UN warnings, the US and its allies forced Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. What happened during the Gulf War?  On August 2, 1990, Iraq annexed Kuwait, its south-eastern neighbour 25 times smaller in size. Daily Current Affairs Dated On 13-Aug-2019  Although Hussain claimed Kuwait to be a part of Iraq, he invaded the region so that Baghdad could cancel a massive debt that it owed Kuwait, as well as acquire Kuwait's large oil reserves. Hussain also sought to link the annexation with the Palestinian conflict.  Immediately after, the United Nations Security Council strongly reprimanded Iraq and warned of military action if its forces did not retreat by January 15, 1991.  As Hussain refused to pay heed to the UN’s many warnings, a US-led coalition, consisting of 7 lakh troops from 35 countries assembled in Saudi Arabia -- Iraq's neighbour also threatened by Hussain's adventures in the region.  After the January 15 deadline was flouted by Baghdad, coalition forces first launched Operation Desert Storm, which destroyed Iraq’s air defences, oil refineries, and key infrastructure.  This was followed by Operation Desert Sabre, a ground offensive that went on to free Kuwait. The war finally ended on February 28, 1991, when the US declared a ceasefire.  During the war, the Iraqi military is known to have lost between 8,000-50,000 people, as opposed to around 300 casualties incurred by coalition forces. India during the Gulf War  New Delhi had been one of the first powers to recognise the Baathist regime when it came to power, and Baghdad, in turn, had consistently maintained a pro-India stance, especially during the era when the rest of the region was seen to have gravitated towards Pakistan.  When the Gulf War started, India, which at the time was led by PM Chandra Shekhar, maintained its signature non-aligned stance.  However, it rejected Baghdad’s demand for linking the hostilities that were unfolding then with the Palestinian conflict.  Between August 13 and October 20 of 1990, India evacuated over 1,75,000 of its nationals from war-torn Kuwait, the biggest such operation by the Indian government.  The feat has been mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest number of people being evacuated by a civilian airliner, and was depicted in the 2016 Hindi film ‘Airlift’. Daily Current Affairs Dated On 13-Aug-2019 GS-3 CIITES Why in news? India has submitted proposals regarding changes to the listing of various wildlife species in the CITES secretariat meeting, scheduled later this month in Geneva, Switzerland. About the proposal  The proposals submitted are regarding changes in the listing of the smooth-coated otter, smallclawed otter, Indian star tortoise, Tokay gecko, wedgefish and Indian rosewood.  The country seeks to boost the protection of all the five animal species as they are facing a high risk of international trade.  For the Indian rosewood, the proposal is to remove the species from CITES Appendix II. The species covered by CITES are listed in three appendices on the degree of protection they require.  India is among the parties proposing the re-listing of the star tortoise from CITES Appendix II to Appendix I. The species faces two threats: loss of habitat to agriculture and illegal harvesting for the pet trade. About CITES:  CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species on Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international treaty to ensure that trade in wild animals and plants do not threaten their survival. Iron ion battery Why in news? IIT Madras has fabricated a rechargeable iron ion battery and registered initial success. About  The rechargeable iron ion battery has been designed using mild steel as the anode. Daily Current Affairs Dated On 13-Aug-2019  The iron ion battery is cost-effective and the amount of energy that can be stored in the battery is also high.  While lithium ions are the charge carriers in lithium ion battery, the Fe2+ ions perform that function in the case of iron ion battery.  When fabricated under controlled conditions, the amount of energy that can be drawn from the iron ion battery is 220 Wh per kg, which is 55-60% of lithium ion battery’s performance.  In iron ion battery, vanadium pentoxide is used as the cathode. Vanadium pentoxide was chosen as it has a layered structure with very large spacing between the layers.  The large inter-layer spacing in vanadium pentoxide allows iron ions to easily move in and bind to the interlayers of the cathode and also easily get detached and move back to the anode. Benefits of iron over Lithium:  Iron has favourable physico-chemical properties like lithium.  The redox potential of iron ion is higher than lithium ion and the radius of the Fe2+ ion is nearly the same as that of the lithium ion.  Iron is more stable during the charging process and therefore prevents short-circuiting of the batteries.  This, when compared with the popular lithium metal-based batteries helps cut down the cost and make it safer to handle.

[newstfionline]

From moms to medical doctors, burnout is everywhere these days

By Jenny Rough, Washington Post, March 30, 2019

A common ailment is going around, and you probably know someone plagued by it. Caused in part by social media, the 24-hour news cycle and the pressure to check work email outside of office hours, it could hit you, too--especially if you don’t know how to nip it in the bud.

Burnout is everywhere.

Books are being published about it, high-powered medical groups are raising alarms and ordinary people are feeling it. A recent report from Harvard and Massachusetts medical organizations declared physician burnout a public health crisis. It pointed out the problem not only harms doctors but also patients.

“Burnout is associated with increasing medical errors,” the paper said.

Ninety-five percent of human resource leaders say burnout is sabotaging workplace retention, often because of overly heavy workloads, one survey found. Poor management contributes to the burnout epidemic.

“Organizations typically reward employees who are putting in longer hours and replace workers who aren’t taking on an increased workload, which is a systematic problem that causes burnout in the first place,” says Dan Schawbel, research director of Future Workplace, the firm that conducted the survey along with Kronos.

“Mommy Burnout,” a book published last year by psychologist Sheryl Ziegler, resonated with women who had run themselves into the ground trying to be super mom (and dads made it clear they were burned out, too).

A new book, “Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle,” by sisters Emily Nagoski (a health educator) and Amelia Nagoski (a choral conductor who was hospitalized for burnout) aims to help women, in particular, live a more balanced life.

Burnout is a term easily tossed around, the way somebody might claim to be starving when they’re simply hungry, or freezing when cold. That’s harmless if a person is describing a tired day or week. But somebody who is actually burned out should be prepared to take serious action because it’s a condition that needs attention.

Amelia Nagoski was juggling the demands of a doctoral program when she experienced such severe abdominal pain she was hospitalized. Doctors concluded it was “just stress” and told her to relax. Turns out, she had stress-induced inflammation from burnout.

Ziegler defines burnout as “chronic stress gone awry.” The big three symptoms are emotional exhaustion, cynicism and feeling ineffective, according to the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a survey designed to measure employee burnout in the workforce. Other symptoms can include frequent colds or sicknesses, insomnia and a tendency to alleviate stress in unhealthy ways, such as with too much alcohol or online shopping.

Part of the difficulty of pinpointing true burnout may be because burnout is a nonmedical term--at least in the United States. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders doesn’t list it as an illness. But other countries including France, Denmark and Sweden, do recognize burnout syndrome and consider it to be a legitimate reason to take a sick day from work.

“Everybody intuitively recognizes what burnout feels like in their bodies and their feelings and their thoughts,” Emily Nagoski says. “It’s like art: You know it when you see it.”

Even without an official diagnosis--or agreed upon definition--American researchers have studied burnout for decades. Psychologist Herbert Freudenberger popularized the term in the 1970s, basing it on his work with drug addicts where he witnessed their veins burn out from needle injections and their cigarettes burn down. Soon after, psychologist Christina Maslach developed the MBI.

Burnout is caused by chronic stress, not stressors, the Nagoskis say in their book. It’s important to differentiate the two. Stressors are external: to-do lists, financial problems or anxiety about the future. Stress, on the other hand, “is the neurological and physiological shift that happens in your body when you encounter [stressors],” the Nagoskis write.

To fix burnout, people need to address the stress itself. They must allow their body to complete its stress response cycle. Instead, people tend to focus on stressors. “They assume their stress will go away if they’re on top of things, if they’re accomplishing things and constantly checking things off their to-do list,” Emily Nagoski says.

That’s a lesson Paula Davis-Laack learned the hard way.

Davis-Laack practiced commercial real estate law before the Great Recession of the late 2000s. The fast-paced environment gave her a constant adrenaline high as she closed deals and kept so busy that she barely left time to grab a handful of peanuts for lunch. Her frequent headaches, stomach aches and colds threatened to drag her down, but no doctor could give her a diagnosis.

One day, drafting a document in her office, she says she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She bolted out of her chair and raced to a nearby health clinic. “Help me!” she gasped. She was having a panic attack. After two more medical crises landed her in the emergency room, she feared a mental or physical collapse if she kept going. She decided to walk away from the law.

“It was like a 50,000-pound weight lifted off my shoulders,” she says.

Still unsure of what was wrong, she poked around the Internet doing research of her own when she came across information on burnout. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is exactly what happened to me!’ “

Davis-Laack traces the beginning of her burnout back to her teenage years.

“There were a lot of messages to be a high achiever,” she says. “Those check-the-box matrix measurements were important to me. I internalized them.”

The messages took an even stronger hold once she started working.

She returned to graduate school to study well-being, the effects of stress and their effect on the workplace. In 2013, she opened the Davis Laack Stress & Resilience Institute in Wisconsin. She now teaches workshops on burnout.

For those who suspect they might be on the road to burnout, there are practical tools to mitigate it. Among others: physical exercise, sleep and positive social connection (the real kind, not the Facebook kind). The importance of balance and self-care to prevent burnout likely isn’t surprising to most.

“There’s nothing fancy about what it would take to turn things around,” says Ziegler, the “Mommy Burnout” author. “But it’s a huge shift in the cultural mind-set. That’s the challenge.”

Plus, fixing burnout can feel like adding more stressors. An employee who takes a lunch break in a park (time in nature reduces stress) might feel pressured to stay late at the end of the day. A yoga class or walk is another item to squeeze into the calendar. A mom can’t quit her parenting job. To address time-management issues, the Nagoskis provide work sheets in their book to help readers reprioritize activities. Ziegler suggests setting boundaries with social media. Use the Internet for help, such as ordering groceries, but limit scrolling to 10 minutes a day. Also, it’s okay to remove activities from the calendar (or quit them completely) so you can exercise.

Gender might play a role in burnout, too.

Researchers from the University of Montreal questioned 2,026 people, half women, in 63 different workplaces. Their work, published in the Annals of Work Exposure and Health, found that women reported higher levels of burnout.

One reason was because women have more work-and-family conflicts. The women’s rights movement was “supposed to give women choices,” Ziegler says. “Sounds awesome, but it became you need to do it all. You need to run your house and be the perfect wife and mom and work. The stress on women got higher.”

Other studies have shown that rates of burnout are more or less equal among genders, although males and females experience it differently. A study published in BMC Public Health showed that female physicians are susceptible to burnout from emotional exhaustion while male physicians to burnout because of cynicism.

Steven Manning remembers the night he realized he had become pessimistic about practicing medicine. One Wednesday at his family care practice in Williamston, N.C., he worked on electronic medical records well past 9 p.m. His wife and kids waited for him at home. He had seen about 30 patients that day but felt he hadn’t given a single one the highest level of care because the appointment times were too short. Yet the hospital and insurance companies kept pressuring him to see more patients a day, not fewer.

“I began to think, ‘I’m burned out. How did I get to this point? I don’t enjoy coming into work.’” It wasn’t too late to make a change. Within a year, Manning started a direct primary care practice, a model where patients pay a membership fee, negating the need for insurance billing. Without mounds of paperwork, he had time to do what he truly wanted: help patients.

“It brought back the joy of medicine I felt I was missing,” he says. “Before, I barely had time to address my patients’ diabetes, hypertension and heart failure, let alone spend time taking a mental and spiritual inventory.”

Now, he talks with patients about depression, anxiety and stress and notices many patients are burned out, especially mothers of young kids.

Lawyer and mom Anna Swain knows the feeling.

She poured her heart and soul into fixing the troubled lives of criminals who had messed up with drugs and violence only to wind up devastated when her hard work seemed pointless.

“I’d call my mom every day on my way home from the office crying,” she says. “I was either sad over a client who was having her third meth-addicted baby or crying over a shockingly rude email by opposing counsel.” When she added motherhood to the mix, her feelings of failure increased. “I didn’t know what I was doing. Nobody does with a first child.”

Burned out on “doing the next thing I was supposed to do to be a good girl and get ahead,” she knew she needed downtime, but she was afraid to take a step back from the hamster wheel. “Boredom goes against everything we’re told to do to succeed, achieve and be proactive,” Swain says. “Even when I clean the house, I think, ‘Well, I should take the opportunity to listen to a podcast. Maybe I can grow as a person.’ Honestly, I’d grow more if I chose to be in silence and let my mind wander.”

She tried it. Rocking her baby to sleep, she wanted to watch the TV series “Game of Thrones” or scroll through her phone. But she couldn’t. One wrong move--or the glow of a screen--would wake her baby up. At first, Swain felt angry and resentful at the lack of distractions, but the stillness gave her an opportunity to daydream. That opened the door to creativity.

“I started creating little poems and rhymes in my head. I felt exhilarated,” she says. Eventually, Swain wrote a children’s book. “I felt a sense of purpose again,” she says.

The Nagoskis agree that daydreaming during low-demand tasks, having a creative outlet and engaging with something larger are three more keys to preventing burnout. They suggest writing your own obituary to find out what is meaningful to you.

“It sounds dark,” Amelia Nagoski says. “But it makes you think about who you are and what’s important to you.”

Making space in our lives so we’re not so hurried and harried isn’t easy, especially in a culture that shames slow living, Amelia Nagoski says. Preventing burnout requires hard decisions. Everyone has the same amount of time in a day: 24 hours. To rest--whether with a walk, an extra hour of sleep or a talk with a friend--means something else drops off the schedule.

At first, you might panic that you’re not “accomplishing” something. But before long, you may notice you’ve moved farther away from a breaking point. Your downward spiral will change directions.

[yourabsentgod-blog]

National Public Radio (NPR) Goes Mobile

National Public Radio (NPR) Goes Mobile

I've had a love / divorce relationship with NPR over the years. There's lots to like about NPR, for it has some great content and unique programming along with being one of the few sources of classical music. I like Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, and Car Talk with those zany brothers. I appreciate Fresh Air, All Things Considered, and the in-depth news.

On the other hand, NPR has some serious negative features in my opinion. On the weekends, it has that awful Celtic music, which is repetitive, boring, and banal. Who would choose to listen to that stuff? And yet it goes on and on, year after year. There must be some heavy-duty, deluded sponsor who keeps it going. Certainly there could be far better, more creative and profitable programming to fill that slot. For a supposedly commercial-free platform, I grow weary hearing about their sponsors incessantly, and solicitations for more sponsors.

An improvement I would suggest is broadcasting scrolling text for the music being played and the composer / artist. I certainly appreciate this feature when listening to satellite radio and many other AM / FM stations. News can be broadcast this way as well while multi-tasking with other programming. I suppose it could also be used for mentioning sponsors. Perhaps this will change when stations begin HD broadcasting. But then how many people will have radios capable of receiving HD signals?

Another problem with NPR is that it looks every time I turn it on there is a fundraiser going on and on and on. While it bugs me, I usually fork over a donation every year because I want to support what I do like. However, it is usually a major inconvenience to make a contribution. I would be much more inclined to do so and more regularly if it was possible to do on my mobile phone or with PayPal instead of having to write a check, find a stamp, envelope, go to post office-fergetaboutit. Dropping everything to call on the phone and digging out a credit card is not much better. Get with it NPR-go mobile.

Actually, NPR has gone mobile with a truncated version of its full Website. You can access it at mobile.npr.org. You'd think they would have used npr.mobi instead. There is a decent array of offerings there including "Local" News, Most Popular Stories, Story of the Day, Music, Politics, Business, Health and Science, Movies, Books, Interviews, Commentary, Wait Wait, Do not Tell Me! Quiz. Opening each of these headings brings up mostly text stories, but if the word "call" is next to a story, you can get a recording.

There are some 35 "local" stations representing only the larger markets. If you want to listen to one of these stations, you can place a "call" to connect. This could cost serious money if do not have the right data plan. Has not NPR ever heard of Wi-Fi? You can search for a station in your area by zip code or city name, but chances are it will not be online if it's in a smaller market.

There is also an opportunity to donate to your "local" station. But, again, it's only the large market stations. The joke is that they give you a phone number to call. NPR just does not get it, and is losing out on the power of mobile phones as a tool for charitable contributions.

I think they need to retool their entire money-raising machine. It's outmoded and annoying, and particularly inept in this tough economy. I recently sent our regional NPR fundraising representative a proposal with an innovative approach that would have generated a sustainable residual income. She did not even have the courtesy to respond. It's a good thing she does not work for me; she would be looking for another job without a recommendation.

What amuses me is that the mobile version does not even mention RSS feeds, podcasts, links for iPhone / Blackberry, text only site, API archives, Newsletters, MobiRadio, or Mspot. What about Windows Mobile?

NPR looks to be totally unencumbered with any knowledge of the interactive capabilities of mobile technology. There is not even an opinion section on the mobile version, nor are there any blogs. NPR needs to hire someone knowledgeable in Web 2.0. NPR is missing so many opportunities. It should have a presence on all the social networks. It should be Twittering away with timely Tweets. It should be texting and allowing its sponsors to have contests, sales, promotions, conducting surveys, texting coupons, sending out optimized mobile sites, and MMS messages as well. What an incredible waste not to be building an opt-in subscriber base for fundraising and communication purposes. Shame on NPR. Does NPR stand for Neo-Paleolithic Radio?

I suppose congratulations should be extended to NPR for offering a mobile version, but it is so lacking in mobile technology features that it is pathetic. One does wonder about in what century the mobile site was built. While it is certainly a start in the right direction, there is much room for improvement, which I hope will soon ahead before the next ice age. Meanwhile I will restrict my NPR experience to listening via satellite radio over Wi-Fi.

Ata Rehman

[patriotsnet]

Why Are Republicans So Scared Of Trump

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-are-republicans-so-scared-of-trump/

Why Are Republicans So Scared Of Trump

Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of Voters

Why Are Republicans Still So Afraid Of Trump? | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

There is no both sides do it when it comes to intentionally keeping Americans away from the polls.

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstandingvalues. It is separate from the newsroom.

As of Sunday afternoon, more than 93 million Americans had cast a ballot in the November elections. Thats about two-thirds of the total number of people who voted in 2016, and there are still two days until Election Day.

This is excellent news. In the middle of a global pandemic that has taken the lives of nearly a quarter of a million Americans, upended the national economy and thrown state election procedures into turmoil, there were reasonable concerns that many people would not vote at all. The numbers to date suggest that 2020 could see record turnout.

While celebrating this renewed citizen involvement in Americas political process, dont lose sight of the bigger, and darker, picture. For decades, Americans have voted at depressingly low rates for a modern democracy. Even in a good year, more than one-third of all eligible voters dont cast a ballot. In a bad year, that number can approach two-thirds.

Why are so many Americans consistently missing in action on Election Day?

For many, its a choice. They are disillusioned with government, or they feel their vote doesnt matter because politicians dont listen to them anyway.

Democratic Congressman Suggests Kevin Mccarthy Is ‘afraid Of Donald Trump’

Congressman Jim McGovern said House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy may be a coward who is afraid of former President Donald Trump after he voted against plans to create an independent commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot.

In an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, Rep. McGovern said McCarthy had got “basically everything he wanted” in the proposals for the independent commission, noting that its members would be made up evenly of Republicans and Democrats.

The aim of the commission would be to review the events that led to the deadly attack on Congress, any intelligence failures and how the government responded. The House backed setting up a commission on Wednesday in a 252-175 vote that saw 35 Republican lawmakers break with their party to back the probe.

Speaking to All In With Chris Hayes, McGovern said: “Kevin McCarthy got basically everything he wanted. He sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi talking about his demands, including an equal representation of Democrats and Republicans on the commission. He got it, he got everything.

“And yet he walked away. So he’s either a worse negotiator than Donald Trump, getting everything he wants and then walking away, or he’s a coward. He’s afraid of Donald Trump. Donald Trump does not want the truth to be known, and does not want this commission to move forward.”

Full List of 35 Republicans Who Voted for January 6 Commission

Republicans Have A Good Reason Not To Want To Investigate Jan 6: Theyre To Blame

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Our nations preeminent bipartisanship fetishistsJoe Manchin, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowskiare deeply disappointed that they cant get Republicans to back an investigation into the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Indeed, they seem outright baffled that their efforts at compromise have fallen short on plans for a bipartisan panel. There is no excuse for any Republican to vote against this commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for, Manchin said in an angry statement on Twitter. It would be so much better if we had an independent outside commission, Collins, a moderate Republican, told reporters Thursday. Is that really what this is about, one election cycle after another? added Murkowski, blasting Mitch McConnells anticipated filibuster. Or are we going to acknowledge that as a country that is based on these principles of democracy that we hold so dear, and one of those is that we have free and fair elections.

I kind of want that to endure beyond just one election cycle, the Alaska moderate Republican told reporters.

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Trump Is Creating His Own American Republic Of Fear

This is a column about American cowards and an American hero, and what their behavior tells us about the future of democracy in this country and its reputation abroad.

First, let us look at the cowards, the congressional Republicans so fearful of President Donald Trump that they are unwilling to call out his rejection of a peaceful transfer of power, the bedrock of American democracy.

Just 27 of 247 congressional Republicans in the House and Senate were willing to acknowledge that Joe Biden was president-elect in a December poll by the Washington Post. They were too terrified of Trump to reject his lying rants about election fraud. Or to denounce the threats his fans are making against election officials of both parties around the country.

Unlike many of those fans, GOP legislators know Biden has won. Yet they are acting as if they live in Belarus, or Russia or China, where opposing an autocrat gets you jailed or poisoned, or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, where it got you killed.

“Republic of Fear” is what they called Saddam’s Iraq, and despite the huge differences between his murderous tactics and Trump’s, the term seems apt for the bubble of fear in which GOP leaders live. Unless congressional Republicans bust that bubble soon, the American republic will face a grim next few years.

Dent echoes that thought, saying, “If 100 of them today said ‘game’s over’ it would have an enormous effect on the base.”

Opinion: Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of A Fair Fight At The Polls

THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic has left state leaders scrambling to run a fair election this November. Ramping up absentee voting is the most sensible response, but unfortunately it also is becoming a partisan choice. President Trump continues to spew disinformation about the supposed dangers of mail-in voting, some state Republican leaders are refusing to make voting easier, and party officials are fighting states that are trying to do the right thing.

There is NO WAY that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent, President Trump tweeted May 26, accusing California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, of proposing to send ballots to anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there. In fact, voter fraud of any kind is rare, and states that conduct all-mail-in elections, such as Oregon and Utah, have not seen widespread fraud. Mr. Trump may have been spurred by a lawsuit the Republican National Committee filed May 24 against Mr. Newsom, demanding that the courts stop the governor from distributing absentee ballots in California. That lawsuit, too, is built on fearmongering.

If Republicans fear that enabling more people to vote will hurt them, they should offer more attractive policies and candidates and stop trying to suppress the vote, in California and everywhere else.

Don’t Miss: How Many Republicans Are In The 116th Congress

Republicans Now Bragging About Being Trump Big Lie Pushers

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In taking a shot at CNNs Jake Tapper, Republicans are openly boasting that theyre responsible for spreading democracy-defying conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.;

The CNN anchor recently took a stand against inviting election deniers on his programs, saying last week that lawmakers who support former President Donald Trumps Big Liereferring to the false claim that the election was stolenare not welcome on his weekday and weekend shows. Its not a policy but a philosophy, Tapper said, noting he hasnt booked such Republicans since the election. Pro-Trump Republicans have since come forward with emails from CNN bookers requesting their presence on Tappers shows. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New Yorkwhom the GOP last month voted to replace Liz Cheney as the partys conference chairtweeted screenshots, telling Tapper to read and weep:

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Responding to these apparent gotcha attempts, Tapper said he cant account for every email from my excellent bookers whose job it is to present me with as many options as possible. He also pointed to the absurdity of Republicans rushing to prove they are, in fact, election deniers. Kind of stunning to see her proudly identify as a conspiracy theorist, he said of Stefanik.

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Todays Republicans Really Hate Democrats And Democracy

1) Trumps supporters have embraced anti-democratic ideas

This chart shows results from a two-part survey, conducted in late 2020 and early 2021, of hardcore Trump supporters. The political scientists behind the survey, Rachel Blum and Christian Parker, identified so-called MAGA voters by their activity on pro-Trump Facebook pages. Their subjects are engaged and committed Republican partisans, disproportionately likely to influence conflicts within the party like primary elections.

These voters, according to Blum and Parker, are hostile to bedrock democratic principles.

Also Check: What 10 Republicans Voted For Impeachment

How Americas Political System Creates Space For Republicans To Undermine Democracy

9) Republicans havean unpopular policy agenda

Let Them Eat Tweets

The Republican policy agenda is extremely unpopular. The chart here, taken from Jacob Hacker and Paul Piersons recent book Let Them Eat Tweets, compares the relative popularity of the two major legislative efforts of Trumps first term tax cuts and Obamacare repeal to similar high-priority bills in years past. The contrast is striking: The GOPs modern economic agenda is widely disliked even compared to unpopular bills of the past, a finding consistent with a lot of recent polling data.

Hacker and Pierson argue that this drives Republicans emphasis on culture war and anti-Democratic identity politics. This strategy, which they term plutocratic populism, allows the partys super-wealthy backers to get their tax cuts while the base gets the partisan street fight they crave.

The GOP can do this because Americas political system is profoundly unrepresentative. The coalition it can assemble overwhelmingly white Christian, heavily rural, and increasingly less educated is a shrinking minority that has lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential contests. But its voters are ideally positioned to give Republicans advantages in the Electoral College and the Senate, allowing the party to remain viable despite representing significantly fewer voters than the Democrats do.

10) Some of the most consequential Republican attacks on democracy happen at the state level

Lock Him Up Heres The Real Reason Trump Is Afraid Of Leaving The White House

Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of Lev Parnas? | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC

Despite having lost the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump is seemingly doing everything in his power to maintain control of the White House. Surrounded by Republican political leaders who are bolstering his lies about widespread voter fraud, the president has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, and has kept himself busy by replacing senior Pentagon officials with loyalists.

While the presidents apparent attempt to shore up his influence with military leaders is certainly dangerous, few experts believe he is likely to stage an actual coup. Instead, consensus is that Trump will be leaving office one way or another and that even he knows that. What Trump also knows, though and why he is perhaps so desperately clinging to the fantasy that he won is that, when he does leave, he could face prison time. And its that risk of prosecution looming over him that is making Trump tighten his iron grip on the presidency.

If Trump does end up in prison as a result of his various civil and criminal legal transgressions, he will join the ranks of several of his former associates who have been charged or imprisoned under his administration.

Then, too, former Trump campaign managers Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski were, respectively, indicted with defrauding donors of a We Build the Wall fundraiser, and charged with misdemeanor battery.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

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An Effort To Investigate Was Blocked In The Senate

Its different with the Jan. 6 insurrection. After Republicans in the Senate blocked a bill to investigate, the House decided to investigate on its own.

This time around, however, all but two Republicans in the House Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming voted against setting up a committee to find out what happened on;Jan. 6.

All of Arizonas Republican representatives voted no.;This would include Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. You may recall that right-wing political activist Ali Alexander claimed that these two Arizona representatives worked with him to plan pro-Trump rallies, including the one that ended with an attack on the Capitol.

That kind of connection to the Capitol riot seems to be what Republicans are worried about. They;fear the exposure of possible;links between the rioters and Republicans, and the implications that may have for former President Donald Trump.

Gladys Sicknick, the mother of Brian Sicknick, said of the Republicans who voted not to investigate the event, I just dont believe anybody could vote no, it doesnt make sense.

Why Are Gop Lawmakers Afraid To Stand Up To Trump This Race Offers A Clue

WASHINGTON ;A nasty primary runoff in Georgia this week helped explain why congressional Republicans are so afraid of taking on President Donald Trump.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle had maintained a lead for the GOP nomination in the states gubernatorial race since May, when he fell short of getting the 50 percent of the vote needed to win the nomination outright. He was considered the front-runner in the race, the one who had the best chance of taking on rising progressive star Stacey Abrams in the fall.;

But it all fell apart when, in a surprise move, Trump endorsed Brian Kemp, Georgias secretary of state and Cagles GOP rival in the race. The announcement blindsided;Cagles campaign and other GOP officials, including the leaders of the Republican Governors Association.;;

A leaked internal tracking poll for Cagles campaign that was obtained by a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed how the lieutenant governors poll numbers nose-dived after Trump endorsed Kemp, who cruised to victory Tuesday.

The dramatic boost for Kemp is a testament to Trumps enduring sway on the Republican electorate, despite growing criticism from GOP officials about his trade policies and his disastrous summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The president did not change the outcome, but it significantly impacted the margin, which means he had a very positive effect, Sen. Jonny Isakson said Wednesday of Trumps endorsement.

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Did Trump Damage American Democracy

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Did Trump permanently damage American democracy? This question has spawned a veritable cottage industry of hand wringing over the state of American democracyunderstandably so. Never before have we had a president who schemed to overturn legitimate election results, who attacked the press and the civil servants who worked for him, who admired dictators, who blatantly profited from his public office and who repeatedly lied to the public for his own selfish purposes. But while Trumps four years of rhetoric have been a shock to democratic norms, did they inflict permanent damage on our democracy? My answer is a qualified no. The guardrails of democracy held. The institutions designed to check autocracy are intact.

Successful democratic systems are not designed for governments composed of ethical men and women who are only interested in the public good. If leaders were always virtuous there would be no need for checks and balances. The Founding Fathers understood this. They designed a system to protect minority points of view and to protect us from leaders inclined to lie, cheat and steal. Fortunately, we havent had many of those in our 200-plus years of history, which is why the Trump presidency sent such shock waves through a large part of the body politic.

Did Trump weaken the powers of Congress? No.

Still In The Thrall Of Trump Party Continues On Toxic Turn Away From Truth

Even if you dont like or have never seen the 1992 film, or if you judge Jack Nicholsons acting technique as, shall we say, a bit much, you can probably recite his signature outburst from;A Few Good Men,;with appropriate volume: You cant handle the truth!

Why are so many in the GOP still insisting that the presidential election was rigged and that Donald Trump, the main attraction at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, is the real president? Why would a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to avoid a repeat by the same forces who believed an election fraud lie be a bad idea? Why all the squawking and attempts in some states to censor a social studies curriculum that presents a nuanced and complete history of a United States that has not always acknowledged the accomplishments and sacrifice of all its citizens?

Say it louder, Jack. I dont think the Republicans present and represented at;CPAC;can hear you.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to reassure a justifiably fearful country, in the midst of a crushing Depression, by being honest and positive about our common problems.

Let me assert my firm belief, he said, that the;only thing we have to fear;is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Its a soulless transaction that views democracy as expendable.

Read Also: What Do Democratic Republicans Believe In

[patriotsnet]

Why Are Republicans So Scared Of Trump

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-are-republicans-so-scared-of-trump/

Why Are Republicans So Scared Of Trump

Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of Voters

Why Are Republicans Still So Afraid Of Trump? | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

There is no both sides do it when it comes to intentionally keeping Americans away from the polls.

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstandingvalues. It is separate from the newsroom.

As of Sunday afternoon, more than 93 million Americans had cast a ballot in the November elections. Thats about two-thirds of the total number of people who voted in 2016, and there are still two days until Election Day.

This is excellent news. In the middle of a global pandemic that has taken the lives of nearly a quarter of a million Americans, upended the national economy and thrown state election procedures into turmoil, there were reasonable concerns that many people would not vote at all. The numbers to date suggest that 2020 could see record turnout.

While celebrating this renewed citizen involvement in Americas political process, dont lose sight of the bigger, and darker, picture. For decades, Americans have voted at depressingly low rates for a modern democracy. Even in a good year, more than one-third of all eligible voters dont cast a ballot. In a bad year, that number can approach two-thirds.

Why are so many Americans consistently missing in action on Election Day?

For many, its a choice. They are disillusioned with government, or they feel their vote doesnt matter because politicians dont listen to them anyway.

Democratic Congressman Suggests Kevin Mccarthy Is ‘afraid Of Donald Trump’

Congressman Jim McGovern said House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy may be a coward who is afraid of former President Donald Trump after he voted against plans to create an independent commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot.

In an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, Rep. McGovern said McCarthy had got “basically everything he wanted” in the proposals for the independent commission, noting that its members would be made up evenly of Republicans and Democrats.

The aim of the commission would be to review the events that led to the deadly attack on Congress, any intelligence failures and how the government responded. The House backed setting up a commission on Wednesday in a 252-175 vote that saw 35 Republican lawmakers break with their party to back the probe.

Speaking to All In With Chris Hayes, McGovern said: “Kevin McCarthy got basically everything he wanted. He sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi talking about his demands, including an equal representation of Democrats and Republicans on the commission. He got it, he got everything.

“And yet he walked away. So he’s either a worse negotiator than Donald Trump, getting everything he wants and then walking away, or he’s a coward. He’s afraid of Donald Trump. Donald Trump does not want the truth to be known, and does not want this commission to move forward.”

Full List of 35 Republicans Who Voted for January 6 Commission

Republicans Have A Good Reason Not To Want To Investigate Jan 6: Theyre To Blame

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Our nations preeminent bipartisanship fetishistsJoe Manchin, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowskiare deeply disappointed that they cant get Republicans to back an investigation into the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Indeed, they seem outright baffled that their efforts at compromise have fallen short on plans for a bipartisan panel. There is no excuse for any Republican to vote against this commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for, Manchin said in an angry statement on Twitter. It would be so much better if we had an independent outside commission, Collins, a moderate Republican, told reporters Thursday. Is that really what this is about, one election cycle after another? added Murkowski, blasting Mitch McConnells anticipated filibuster. Or are we going to acknowledge that as a country that is based on these principles of democracy that we hold so dear, and one of those is that we have free and fair elections.

I kind of want that to endure beyond just one election cycle, the Alaska moderate Republican told reporters.

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Trump Is Creating His Own American Republic Of Fear

This is a column about American cowards and an American hero, and what their behavior tells us about the future of democracy in this country and its reputation abroad.

First, let us look at the cowards, the congressional Republicans so fearful of President Donald Trump that they are unwilling to call out his rejection of a peaceful transfer of power, the bedrock of American democracy.

Just 27 of 247 congressional Republicans in the House and Senate were willing to acknowledge that Joe Biden was president-elect in a December poll by the Washington Post. They were too terrified of Trump to reject his lying rants about election fraud. Or to denounce the threats his fans are making against election officials of both parties around the country.

Unlike many of those fans, GOP legislators know Biden has won. Yet they are acting as if they live in Belarus, or Russia or China, where opposing an autocrat gets you jailed or poisoned, or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, where it got you killed.

“Republic of Fear” is what they called Saddam’s Iraq, and despite the huge differences between his murderous tactics and Trump’s, the term seems apt for the bubble of fear in which GOP leaders live. Unless congressional Republicans bust that bubble soon, the American republic will face a grim next few years.

Dent echoes that thought, saying, “If 100 of them today said ‘game’s over’ it would have an enormous effect on the base.”

Opinion: Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of A Fair Fight At The Polls

THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic has left state leaders scrambling to run a fair election this November. Ramping up absentee voting is the most sensible response, but unfortunately it also is becoming a partisan choice. President Trump continues to spew disinformation about the supposed dangers of mail-in voting, some state Republican leaders are refusing to make voting easier, and party officials are fighting states that are trying to do the right thing.

There is NO WAY that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent, President Trump tweeted May 26, accusing California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, of proposing to send ballots to anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there. In fact, voter fraud of any kind is rare, and states that conduct all-mail-in elections, such as Oregon and Utah, have not seen widespread fraud. Mr. Trump may have been spurred by a lawsuit the Republican National Committee filed May 24 against Mr. Newsom, demanding that the courts stop the governor from distributing absentee ballots in California. That lawsuit, too, is built on fearmongering.

If Republicans fear that enabling more people to vote will hurt them, they should offer more attractive policies and candidates and stop trying to suppress the vote, in California and everywhere else.

Don’t Miss: How Many Republicans Are In The 116th Congress

Republicans Now Bragging About Being Trump Big Lie Pushers

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In taking a shot at CNNs Jake Tapper, Republicans are openly boasting that theyre responsible for spreading democracy-defying conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.;

The CNN anchor recently took a stand against inviting election deniers on his programs, saying last week that lawmakers who support former President Donald Trumps Big Liereferring to the false claim that the election was stolenare not welcome on his weekday and weekend shows. Its not a policy but a philosophy, Tapper said, noting he hasnt booked such Republicans since the election. Pro-Trump Republicans have since come forward with emails from CNN bookers requesting their presence on Tappers shows. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New Yorkwhom the GOP last month voted to replace Liz Cheney as the partys conference chairtweeted screenshots, telling Tapper to read and weep:

Twitter content

Responding to these apparent gotcha attempts, Tapper said he cant account for every email from my excellent bookers whose job it is to present me with as many options as possible. He also pointed to the absurdity of Republicans rushing to prove they are, in fact, election deniers. Kind of stunning to see her proudly identify as a conspiracy theorist, he said of Stefanik.

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More Great Stories FromVanity Fair

Todays Republicans Really Hate Democrats And Democracy

1) Trumps supporters have embraced anti-democratic ideas

This chart shows results from a two-part survey, conducted in late 2020 and early 2021, of hardcore Trump supporters. The political scientists behind the survey, Rachel Blum and Christian Parker, identified so-called MAGA voters by their activity on pro-Trump Facebook pages. Their subjects are engaged and committed Republican partisans, disproportionately likely to influence conflicts within the party like primary elections.

These voters, according to Blum and Parker, are hostile to bedrock democratic principles.

Also Check: What 10 Republicans Voted For Impeachment

How Americas Political System Creates Space For Republicans To Undermine Democracy

9) Republicans havean unpopular policy agenda

Let Them Eat Tweets

The Republican policy agenda is extremely unpopular. The chart here, taken from Jacob Hacker and Paul Piersons recent book Let Them Eat Tweets, compares the relative popularity of the two major legislative efforts of Trumps first term tax cuts and Obamacare repeal to similar high-priority bills in years past. The contrast is striking: The GOPs modern economic agenda is widely disliked even compared to unpopular bills of the past, a finding consistent with a lot of recent polling data.

Hacker and Pierson argue that this drives Republicans emphasis on culture war and anti-Democratic identity politics. This strategy, which they term plutocratic populism, allows the partys super-wealthy backers to get their tax cuts while the base gets the partisan street fight they crave.

The GOP can do this because Americas political system is profoundly unrepresentative. The coalition it can assemble overwhelmingly white Christian, heavily rural, and increasingly less educated is a shrinking minority that has lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential contests. But its voters are ideally positioned to give Republicans advantages in the Electoral College and the Senate, allowing the party to remain viable despite representing significantly fewer voters than the Democrats do.

10) Some of the most consequential Republican attacks on democracy happen at the state level

Lock Him Up Heres The Real Reason Trump Is Afraid Of Leaving The White House

Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of Lev Parnas? | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC

Despite having lost the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump is seemingly doing everything in his power to maintain control of the White House. Surrounded by Republican political leaders who are bolstering his lies about widespread voter fraud, the president has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, and has kept himself busy by replacing senior Pentagon officials with loyalists.

While the presidents apparent attempt to shore up his influence with military leaders is certainly dangerous, few experts believe he is likely to stage an actual coup. Instead, consensus is that Trump will be leaving office one way or another and that even he knows that. What Trump also knows, though and why he is perhaps so desperately clinging to the fantasy that he won is that, when he does leave, he could face prison time. And its that risk of prosecution looming over him that is making Trump tighten his iron grip on the presidency.

If Trump does end up in prison as a result of his various civil and criminal legal transgressions, he will join the ranks of several of his former associates who have been charged or imprisoned under his administration.

Then, too, former Trump campaign managers Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski were, respectively, indicted with defrauding donors of a We Build the Wall fundraiser, and charged with misdemeanor battery.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Recommended Reading: Why Do Republicans Hate Gay People

An Effort To Investigate Was Blocked In The Senate

Its different with the Jan. 6 insurrection. After Republicans in the Senate blocked a bill to investigate, the House decided to investigate on its own.

This time around, however, all but two Republicans in the House Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming voted against setting up a committee to find out what happened on;Jan. 6.

All of Arizonas Republican representatives voted no.;This would include Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. You may recall that right-wing political activist Ali Alexander claimed that these two Arizona representatives worked with him to plan pro-Trump rallies, including the one that ended with an attack on the Capitol.

That kind of connection to the Capitol riot seems to be what Republicans are worried about. They;fear the exposure of possible;links between the rioters and Republicans, and the implications that may have for former President Donald Trump.

Gladys Sicknick, the mother of Brian Sicknick, said of the Republicans who voted not to investigate the event, I just dont believe anybody could vote no, it doesnt make sense.

Why Are Gop Lawmakers Afraid To Stand Up To Trump This Race Offers A Clue

WASHINGTON ;A nasty primary runoff in Georgia this week helped explain why congressional Republicans are so afraid of taking on President Donald Trump.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle had maintained a lead for the GOP nomination in the states gubernatorial race since May, when he fell short of getting the 50 percent of the vote needed to win the nomination outright. He was considered the front-runner in the race, the one who had the best chance of taking on rising progressive star Stacey Abrams in the fall.;

But it all fell apart when, in a surprise move, Trump endorsed Brian Kemp, Georgias secretary of state and Cagles GOP rival in the race. The announcement blindsided;Cagles campaign and other GOP officials, including the leaders of the Republican Governors Association.;;

A leaked internal tracking poll for Cagles campaign that was obtained by a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed how the lieutenant governors poll numbers nose-dived after Trump endorsed Kemp, who cruised to victory Tuesday.

The dramatic boost for Kemp is a testament to Trumps enduring sway on the Republican electorate, despite growing criticism from GOP officials about his trade policies and his disastrous summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The president did not change the outcome, but it significantly impacted the margin, which means he had a very positive effect, Sen. Jonny Isakson said Wednesday of Trumps endorsement.

Don’t Miss: What Happens If Republicans Win Midterms

Did Trump Damage American Democracy

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Did Trump permanently damage American democracy? This question has spawned a veritable cottage industry of hand wringing over the state of American democracyunderstandably so. Never before have we had a president who schemed to overturn legitimate election results, who attacked the press and the civil servants who worked for him, who admired dictators, who blatantly profited from his public office and who repeatedly lied to the public for his own selfish purposes. But while Trumps four years of rhetoric have been a shock to democratic norms, did they inflict permanent damage on our democracy? My answer is a qualified no. The guardrails of democracy held. The institutions designed to check autocracy are intact.

Successful democratic systems are not designed for governments composed of ethical men and women who are only interested in the public good. If leaders were always virtuous there would be no need for checks and balances. The Founding Fathers understood this. They designed a system to protect minority points of view and to protect us from leaders inclined to lie, cheat and steal. Fortunately, we havent had many of those in our 200-plus years of history, which is why the Trump presidency sent such shock waves through a large part of the body politic.

Did Trump weaken the powers of Congress? No.

Still In The Thrall Of Trump Party Continues On Toxic Turn Away From Truth

Even if you dont like or have never seen the 1992 film, or if you judge Jack Nicholsons acting technique as, shall we say, a bit much, you can probably recite his signature outburst from;A Few Good Men,;with appropriate volume: You cant handle the truth!

Why are so many in the GOP still insisting that the presidential election was rigged and that Donald Trump, the main attraction at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, is the real president? Why would a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to avoid a repeat by the same forces who believed an election fraud lie be a bad idea? Why all the squawking and attempts in some states to censor a social studies curriculum that presents a nuanced and complete history of a United States that has not always acknowledged the accomplishments and sacrifice of all its citizens?

Say it louder, Jack. I dont think the Republicans present and represented at;CPAC;can hear you.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to reassure a justifiably fearful country, in the midst of a crushing Depression, by being honest and positive about our common problems.

Let me assert my firm belief, he said, that the;only thing we have to fear;is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Its a soulless transaction that views democracy as expendable.

Read Also: What Do Democratic Republicans Believe In

[patriotsnet]

Why Are Republicans So Scared Of Trump

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-are-republicans-so-scared-of-trump/

Why Are Republicans So Scared Of Trump

Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of Voters

Why Are Republicans Still So Afraid Of Trump? | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

There is no both sides do it when it comes to intentionally keeping Americans away from the polls.

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstandingvalues. It is separate from the newsroom.

As of Sunday afternoon, more than 93 million Americans had cast a ballot in the November elections. Thats about two-thirds of the total number of people who voted in 2016, and there are still two days until Election Day.

This is excellent news. In the middle of a global pandemic that has taken the lives of nearly a quarter of a million Americans, upended the national economy and thrown state election procedures into turmoil, there were reasonable concerns that many people would not vote at all. The numbers to date suggest that 2020 could see record turnout.

While celebrating this renewed citizen involvement in Americas political process, dont lose sight of the bigger, and darker, picture. For decades, Americans have voted at depressingly low rates for a modern democracy. Even in a good year, more than one-third of all eligible voters dont cast a ballot. In a bad year, that number can approach two-thirds.

Why are so many Americans consistently missing in action on Election Day?

For many, its a choice. They are disillusioned with government, or they feel their vote doesnt matter because politicians dont listen to them anyway.

Democratic Congressman Suggests Kevin Mccarthy Is ‘afraid Of Donald Trump’

Congressman Jim McGovern said House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy may be a coward who is afraid of former President Donald Trump after he voted against plans to create an independent commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot.

In an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, Rep. McGovern said McCarthy had got “basically everything he wanted” in the proposals for the independent commission, noting that its members would be made up evenly of Republicans and Democrats.

The aim of the commission would be to review the events that led to the deadly attack on Congress, any intelligence failures and how the government responded. The House backed setting up a commission on Wednesday in a 252-175 vote that saw 35 Republican lawmakers break with their party to back the probe.

Speaking to All In With Chris Hayes, McGovern said: “Kevin McCarthy got basically everything he wanted. He sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi talking about his demands, including an equal representation of Democrats and Republicans on the commission. He got it, he got everything.

“And yet he walked away. So he’s either a worse negotiator than Donald Trump, getting everything he wants and then walking away, or he’s a coward. He’s afraid of Donald Trump. Donald Trump does not want the truth to be known, and does not want this commission to move forward.”

Full List of 35 Republicans Who Voted for January 6 Commission

Republicans Have A Good Reason Not To Want To Investigate Jan 6: Theyre To Blame

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Our nations preeminent bipartisanship fetishistsJoe Manchin, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowskiare deeply disappointed that they cant get Republicans to back an investigation into the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Indeed, they seem outright baffled that their efforts at compromise have fallen short on plans for a bipartisan panel. There is no excuse for any Republican to vote against this commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for, Manchin said in an angry statement on Twitter. It would be so much better if we had an independent outside commission, Collins, a moderate Republican, told reporters Thursday. Is that really what this is about, one election cycle after another? added Murkowski, blasting Mitch McConnells anticipated filibuster. Or are we going to acknowledge that as a country that is based on these principles of democracy that we hold so dear, and one of those is that we have free and fair elections.

I kind of want that to endure beyond just one election cycle, the Alaska moderate Republican told reporters.

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Recommended Reading: How Do Republicans Feel About The Wall

Trump Is Creating His Own American Republic Of Fear

This is a column about American cowards and an American hero, and what their behavior tells us about the future of democracy in this country and its reputation abroad.

First, let us look at the cowards, the congressional Republicans so fearful of President Donald Trump that they are unwilling to call out his rejection of a peaceful transfer of power, the bedrock of American democracy.

Just 27 of 247 congressional Republicans in the House and Senate were willing to acknowledge that Joe Biden was president-elect in a December poll by the Washington Post. They were too terrified of Trump to reject his lying rants about election fraud. Or to denounce the threats his fans are making against election officials of both parties around the country.

Unlike many of those fans, GOP legislators know Biden has won. Yet they are acting as if they live in Belarus, or Russia or China, where opposing an autocrat gets you jailed or poisoned, or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, where it got you killed.

“Republic of Fear” is what they called Saddam’s Iraq, and despite the huge differences between his murderous tactics and Trump’s, the term seems apt for the bubble of fear in which GOP leaders live. Unless congressional Republicans bust that bubble soon, the American republic will face a grim next few years.

Dent echoes that thought, saying, “If 100 of them today said ‘game’s over’ it would have an enormous effect on the base.”

Opinion: Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of A Fair Fight At The Polls

THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic has left state leaders scrambling to run a fair election this November. Ramping up absentee voting is the most sensible response, but unfortunately it also is becoming a partisan choice. President Trump continues to spew disinformation about the supposed dangers of mail-in voting, some state Republican leaders are refusing to make voting easier, and party officials are fighting states that are trying to do the right thing.

There is NO WAY that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent, President Trump tweeted May 26, accusing California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, of proposing to send ballots to anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there. In fact, voter fraud of any kind is rare, and states that conduct all-mail-in elections, such as Oregon and Utah, have not seen widespread fraud. Mr. Trump may have been spurred by a lawsuit the Republican National Committee filed May 24 against Mr. Newsom, demanding that the courts stop the governor from distributing absentee ballots in California. That lawsuit, too, is built on fearmongering.

If Republicans fear that enabling more people to vote will hurt them, they should offer more attractive policies and candidates and stop trying to suppress the vote, in California and everywhere else.

Don’t Miss: How Many Republicans Are In The 116th Congress

Republicans Now Bragging About Being Trump Big Lie Pushers

Save Story

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.

Save Story

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.

In taking a shot at CNNs Jake Tapper, Republicans are openly boasting that theyre responsible for spreading democracy-defying conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.;

The CNN anchor recently took a stand against inviting election deniers on his programs, saying last week that lawmakers who support former President Donald Trumps Big Liereferring to the false claim that the election was stolenare not welcome on his weekday and weekend shows. Its not a policy but a philosophy, Tapper said, noting he hasnt booked such Republicans since the election. Pro-Trump Republicans have since come forward with emails from CNN bookers requesting their presence on Tappers shows. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New Yorkwhom the GOP last month voted to replace Liz Cheney as the partys conference chairtweeted screenshots, telling Tapper to read and weep:

Twitter content

Responding to these apparent gotcha attempts, Tapper said he cant account for every email from my excellent bookers whose job it is to present me with as many options as possible. He also pointed to the absurdity of Republicans rushing to prove they are, in fact, election deniers. Kind of stunning to see her proudly identify as a conspiracy theorist, he said of Stefanik.

Twitter content

Twitter content

More Great Stories FromVanity Fair

Todays Republicans Really Hate Democrats And Democracy

1) Trumps supporters have embraced anti-democratic ideas

This chart shows results from a two-part survey, conducted in late 2020 and early 2021, of hardcore Trump supporters. The political scientists behind the survey, Rachel Blum and Christian Parker, identified so-called MAGA voters by their activity on pro-Trump Facebook pages. Their subjects are engaged and committed Republican partisans, disproportionately likely to influence conflicts within the party like primary elections.

These voters, according to Blum and Parker, are hostile to bedrock democratic principles.

Also Check: What 10 Republicans Voted For Impeachment

How Americas Political System Creates Space For Republicans To Undermine Democracy

9) Republicans havean unpopular policy agenda

Let Them Eat Tweets

The Republican policy agenda is extremely unpopular. The chart here, taken from Jacob Hacker and Paul Piersons recent book Let Them Eat Tweets, compares the relative popularity of the two major legislative efforts of Trumps first term tax cuts and Obamacare repeal to similar high-priority bills in years past. The contrast is striking: The GOPs modern economic agenda is widely disliked even compared to unpopular bills of the past, a finding consistent with a lot of recent polling data.

Hacker and Pierson argue that this drives Republicans emphasis on culture war and anti-Democratic identity politics. This strategy, which they term plutocratic populism, allows the partys super-wealthy backers to get their tax cuts while the base gets the partisan street fight they crave.

The GOP can do this because Americas political system is profoundly unrepresentative. The coalition it can assemble overwhelmingly white Christian, heavily rural, and increasingly less educated is a shrinking minority that has lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential contests. But its voters are ideally positioned to give Republicans advantages in the Electoral College and the Senate, allowing the party to remain viable despite representing significantly fewer voters than the Democrats do.

10) Some of the most consequential Republican attacks on democracy happen at the state level

Lock Him Up Heres The Real Reason Trump Is Afraid Of Leaving The White House

Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of Lev Parnas? | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC

Despite having lost the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump is seemingly doing everything in his power to maintain control of the White House. Surrounded by Republican political leaders who are bolstering his lies about widespread voter fraud, the president has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, and has kept himself busy by replacing senior Pentagon officials with loyalists.

While the presidents apparent attempt to shore up his influence with military leaders is certainly dangerous, few experts believe he is likely to stage an actual coup. Instead, consensus is that Trump will be leaving office one way or another and that even he knows that. What Trump also knows, though and why he is perhaps so desperately clinging to the fantasy that he won is that, when he does leave, he could face prison time. And its that risk of prosecution looming over him that is making Trump tighten his iron grip on the presidency.

If Trump does end up in prison as a result of his various civil and criminal legal transgressions, he will join the ranks of several of his former associates who have been charged or imprisoned under his administration.

Then, too, former Trump campaign managers Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski were, respectively, indicted with defrauding donors of a We Build the Wall fundraiser, and charged with misdemeanor battery.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Recommended Reading: Why Do Republicans Hate Gay People

An Effort To Investigate Was Blocked In The Senate

Its different with the Jan. 6 insurrection. After Republicans in the Senate blocked a bill to investigate, the House decided to investigate on its own.

This time around, however, all but two Republicans in the House Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming voted against setting up a committee to find out what happened on;Jan. 6.

All of Arizonas Republican representatives voted no.;This would include Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. You may recall that right-wing political activist Ali Alexander claimed that these two Arizona representatives worked with him to plan pro-Trump rallies, including the one that ended with an attack on the Capitol.

That kind of connection to the Capitol riot seems to be what Republicans are worried about. They;fear the exposure of possible;links between the rioters and Republicans, and the implications that may have for former President Donald Trump.

Gladys Sicknick, the mother of Brian Sicknick, said of the Republicans who voted not to investigate the event, I just dont believe anybody could vote no, it doesnt make sense.

Why Are Gop Lawmakers Afraid To Stand Up To Trump This Race Offers A Clue

WASHINGTON ;A nasty primary runoff in Georgia this week helped explain why congressional Republicans are so afraid of taking on President Donald Trump.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle had maintained a lead for the GOP nomination in the states gubernatorial race since May, when he fell short of getting the 50 percent of the vote needed to win the nomination outright. He was considered the front-runner in the race, the one who had the best chance of taking on rising progressive star Stacey Abrams in the fall.;

But it all fell apart when, in a surprise move, Trump endorsed Brian Kemp, Georgias secretary of state and Cagles GOP rival in the race. The announcement blindsided;Cagles campaign and other GOP officials, including the leaders of the Republican Governors Association.;;

A leaked internal tracking poll for Cagles campaign that was obtained by a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed how the lieutenant governors poll numbers nose-dived after Trump endorsed Kemp, who cruised to victory Tuesday.

The dramatic boost for Kemp is a testament to Trumps enduring sway on the Republican electorate, despite growing criticism from GOP officials about his trade policies and his disastrous summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The president did not change the outcome, but it significantly impacted the margin, which means he had a very positive effect, Sen. Jonny Isakson said Wednesday of Trumps endorsement.

Don’t Miss: What Happens If Republicans Win Midterms

Did Trump Damage American Democracy

Reddit

Did Trump permanently damage American democracy? This question has spawned a veritable cottage industry of hand wringing over the state of American democracyunderstandably so. Never before have we had a president who schemed to overturn legitimate election results, who attacked the press and the civil servants who worked for him, who admired dictators, who blatantly profited from his public office and who repeatedly lied to the public for his own selfish purposes. But while Trumps four years of rhetoric have been a shock to democratic norms, did they inflict permanent damage on our democracy? My answer is a qualified no. The guardrails of democracy held. The institutions designed to check autocracy are intact.

Successful democratic systems are not designed for governments composed of ethical men and women who are only interested in the public good. If leaders were always virtuous there would be no need for checks and balances. The Founding Fathers understood this. They designed a system to protect minority points of view and to protect us from leaders inclined to lie, cheat and steal. Fortunately, we havent had many of those in our 200-plus years of history, which is why the Trump presidency sent such shock waves through a large part of the body politic.

Did Trump weaken the powers of Congress? No.

Still In The Thrall Of Trump Party Continues On Toxic Turn Away From Truth

Even if you dont like or have never seen the 1992 film, or if you judge Jack Nicholsons acting technique as, shall we say, a bit much, you can probably recite his signature outburst from;A Few Good Men,;with appropriate volume: You cant handle the truth!

Why are so many in the GOP still insisting that the presidential election was rigged and that Donald Trump, the main attraction at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, is the real president? Why would a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to avoid a repeat by the same forces who believed an election fraud lie be a bad idea? Why all the squawking and attempts in some states to censor a social studies curriculum that presents a nuanced and complete history of a United States that has not always acknowledged the accomplishments and sacrifice of all its citizens?

Say it louder, Jack. I dont think the Republicans present and represented at;CPAC;can hear you.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to reassure a justifiably fearful country, in the midst of a crushing Depression, by being honest and positive about our common problems.

Let me assert my firm belief, he said, that the;only thing we have to fear;is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Its a soulless transaction that views democracy as expendable.

Read Also: What Do Democratic Republicans Believe In