Ukraine President Zelensky is dealing with American diplomats who are "playing games" reports Spiegel news in Germany

Echo report published in NewsNation by Andreas Rinke, Gabriel Stargardter and Dominique Vidalon:

BERLIN Germany (Reuters) – The French President and German Chancellor have voiced skepticism over the direction that U.S. efforts to negotiate a peace between Ukraine and Russia are taking, German magazine Spiegel cited a transcript of a confidential call as showing.

• France, Germany express skepticism over US plan
• The report is from Germany's largest news magazine
• French and German officials won't comment

In a report on Thursday, December 4, 2026, Spiegel said that in the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders, France’s Emmanuel Macron warned that the United States could insist that Ukraine makes territorial concessions to Russia without guarantees to prevent future Russian aggression.

“There is a chance that the U.S. will betray Ukraine on territory without clarity on security guarantees,” he said, according to the magazine.

In the call that took place on Monday, December 1, 2025, Germany’s Friedrich Merz warned

Zelenskiy that U.S. negotiators are “playing games” and that he should be “very careful” over the next few days, the Spiegel report said.

Berlin declined to comment, while the French President’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The President did not express himself in these words,” Spiegel quoted the Élysée as saying.

J.D. Vance delivers "hillbilly" speech in Germany causing angry respose by intelligent Chancellor Olaf Scholz

 Scholz rebukes Vance, defends Europe's stance on hate speech and far right  By Andreas Rinke and Ingrid Melander

Olaf Scholz Chancellor of Germany since 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

MUNICH, Feb 15 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered a strong rebuke on Saturday to U.S. Vice President JD Vance's attack on Europe's stance toward hate speech and the far right, saying it was not right for others to tell Germany and Europe what to do. Vance lambasted European leaders on Friday, the first day of the Munich Security Conference, accusing them of censoring free speech and criticising German mainstream parties' "firewall" against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

"That is not appropriate, especially not among friends and allies. We firmly reject that," Scholz told the conference on Saturday, adding there were "good reasons" not to work with the AfD.
The anti-immigration party, currently polling at around 20% ahead of Germany's February 23, national election, has pariah status among other major German parties in a country with a taboo about ultranationalist politics because of its Nazi past.

"Never again fascism, never again racism, never again aggressive war. That is why an overwhelming majority in our country opposes anyone who glorifies or justifies criminal National Socialism," Scholz said, referring to the ideology of Adolf Hitler's 1933-45 Nazi regime.

Vance met on Friday with the leader of AfD, after endorsing the party as a political partner — a stance Berlin dismissed as unwelcome election interference.

Referring more broadly to Vance's criticism of Europe's curtailing of hate speech, which he has likened to censorship, Scholz said: "Today's democracies in Germany and Europe are founded on the historic awareness and realisation that democracies can be destroyed by radical anti-democrats.

Memorials for 18 victims of Lewiston Maine mass shootings media coverage

The shootings on October 25, 2023, at a bowling alley and bar followed by a prolonged manhunt convulsed the community of Lewiston, Maine, where the victims included deaf people playing in a beanbag-throwing tournament, a father-and-son pair of bowlers, and a couple aged 76 and 73. (Reuters news)

People attend a candlelight vigil for victims of Lewiston mass shooting, at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, in Lewiston, Maine.

Echo opinion published in Media Nation by Dan Kennedy:

The Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine, and the Portland Press Herald have dropped their paywall for coverage of the mass shootings in Lewiston on Wednesday night, which claimed what’s now reported to be 18 lives. The two papers, which are owned by the same nonprofit trust, have also published a sensitive story about some of the victims — six at the moment, with, sadly, more to come.

Meanwhile, The Boston Globe is treating this as a local story, going all-in with multiple reports. Today’s print edition includes four front-page stories, ranging from a round-up of what we know so far to a story on Maine’s gun laws. There are two opinion pieces and four more articles in the metro section covering topics such as the fear experienced at nearby Bates College and how teachers should discuss mass shootings with their students. The Globe is also running updates on its homepage.

For journalists, this is difficult, harrowing work. I’ve covered some emotionally upsetting stories, but never anything remotely like this. While we focus on the suffering of the victims, think about the reporters, too. Like first responders, journalists are performing a vital role in keeping the public informed about an ongoing tragedy.

Mass shootings continue while Republicans block humanitarian efforts to enforce gun safety

More preventable gun violence destroys America's July 4th celebrations!  "It seems like everyday...."????  In fact, it is happening every day!  Opinion letter below published in the Missoulian newspaper in Missoula Montana: 

Ten dead, 38 wounded in three US mass shootings: July 4 (Reuters) - Ten people were killed and 38 wounded in mass shootings in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Fort Worth ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, officials said, prompting a fresh call from President Joe Biden to pass gun control legislation. (Reported by Kanishka Singh and Raphael Satter)

• In Fort Worth, three people were killed and eight wounded in a mass shooting after a local festival to mark the U.S. Independence Day holiday, police said on Tuesday.
• In a separate mass shooting in Philadelphia on Monday evening, five people were killed and two were wounded, including a 2-year-old boy and 13-year-old boy, both of whom were shot in the legs, when a suspect in body armor and armed with an AR-15 opened fire.
• The Monday night shootings came a day after two people were shot dead and 28 others injured, about half of them children, in a hail of gunfire at a neighborhood block party in Baltimore.

Dear Editor of the Missoulian:  It seems like every day I turn on the news and there is a new mass shooting reported. 

My partner Mary will say, "isn't that awful," and I will reply "yes, it is awful." Then the next day there is another mass shooting and another "awful" exchange. I would recommend that Americans act like ostriches and put their heads in the sand — no hearing, seeing or reading about our country's daily slaughter. 

National legislation should be adopted creating one network, such as C-SPAN, to report on mass shootings. Other national networks, such as NBC, CBS and FOX, would be prohibited from reporting on the mass shooting carnage. This new network would be known as the Mass Shooting Network-America (MSN-A). The funding for MSN-A would be accomplished by instituting a 25% surcharge on the sale of every gun and bullet sold in the United States. Such a surcharge would create huge funds for MSN-A to report on the shooters and their victims. 

Personally, I would be an ostrich, never watching MSN-A. I would watch the "good news" from the other networks, such as the war in the Ukraine, pandemics and global warming. No more "awful" conversations with Mary. From Randy Harrison, Missoula Montana

Russian war crimes: Ukrainians mourn the victims in local cemeteries

 Ukrainians brave Russian-mined cemetery to mourn the dead

By Joseph Campbell and Zohra Bensemra echo report published in Reuters and Yahoo.com news.

TROSTYANETS, Ukraine (Reuters) - A handmade sign on the gate warns: "The cemetery is mined. Danger." But, residents of the formerly occupied town of Trostyanets in northern Ukraine still come to visit the fresh graves of family killed in the war.

The graveyard in this town in Sumy region has only been partly made safe since Russian forces planted mines there as they pulled back in early April, cemetery manager Olena Matvienko said.

"De-mining teams came later and de-mined it partially. Then they didn't go further inside," Matvienko said on Saturday, standing in the cemetery where a number of gravestones were shattered or riddled with bullet holes.

Some areas were still dangerous for people, she said.

Even so mourners gathered around different graves, some clutching bunches of spring flowers.

One of those disregarding the warnings was Natalia Evdokimova, 46. She and her husband were visiting the grave of their son Dmytro, a Ukrainian soldier who was killed on the northeastern frontline on March 29 and buried back home soon after Russian forces left the area.

She said her son, who was fighting near the town of Izyum in Kharkiv region, had been most worried about what might happen to his parents under Russian occupation.

"'Mom, leave, it will be too dangerous in Trostyanets,’" Evdokimova recalled him saying, tears spilling down her cheeks. "And he went to hell himself, near Izyum. And died there."

Her husband stood silently at the flower-heaped grave. Before they left, Evdokimova reached both her hands towards a framed photo of her son that was attached to the grave marker, as if trying to hug him.

Russia denies its troops kill or target civilians or have carried out war crimes in occupied areas of Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion. Reuters could not independently verify casualty estimates or accounts of deaths in Trostyanets.

The cemetery manager said a further 20 people had recently been buried in the cemetery, who had died while Trostyanets was occupied.

Mayor Yuri Bova told Reuters that at least 50 people are estimated to have died or been killed while Russian forces controlled the town, which had a pre-war population of around 20,000.

"Some of them were just shot on the street, some were found with tied hands, eyes taped. We found people in villages shot in the head," he said.

(Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Pope Francis in Rome stands with Ukraine: visits the Russian Embassy in Italy

VATICAN CITY, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Pope Francis went to the Russian embassy to the Vatican on Friday to relay his concern over Russia's invasion of Ukraine to Moscow's ambassador, in an unprecedented departure from diplomatic protocol.

Echo report published by Reuters by Phillip Pullella.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Pope spent more than half an hour at the embassy.

Pope Francis was born December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 2013. Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas.

"He went to express his concern over the war," Bruni said, declining to give details about the visit or the conversation.

Bruni would not comment on an Argentine media report that the pope, 85, had offered the Vatican's mediation. 

Moreover, the ambassador, Aleksandr Avdeyev, denied this, according to the Rome correspondent of Russian TASS new agency.

Instead, Avdeyev told the RIA Novosti news agency that the meeting lasted about 40 minutes and that the pope expressed "great concern" about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

The ambassador was quoted as saying that the Argentine pontiff "called for the protection of children, the protection of the sick and suffering, and the protection of people."

When contacted for comment by Reuters, the Russian embassy said the ambassador was not available.

The visit by a pope to an embassy to talk to an ambassador in a time of conflict is unprecedented in living memory.

Foreign envoys are usually summoned by the Vatican's Secretary of State or meet with the pope in the Apostolic Palace.

In an interview with Reuters on February 14, before the Russian unprovoked invasion, Ukraine's ambassador to the Vatican, Andriy Yurash, said Kyiv would be open to a Vatican mediation of the conflict. 

Several hours after meeting the ambassador, the pope telephoned Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, leader of Ukraine's Eastern-rite Catholics who has vowed not to leave Kyiv and who has opened up his cathedral's basement as a bomb shelter.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk discusses solidarity, patriotism, power for a free Ukraine. (The Catholic World)

Shevchuk's Rome office said in a statement that the pope told the archbishop "I will do everything I can" to help.

In a statement on Thursday, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Holy See hoped that those who hold the destiny of the world in their hands would have a "glimmer of conscience". 

World leaders have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of a flagrant violation of international law by launching the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.

Francis made many appeals for peace in Ukraine before the invasion on Thursday, but has not spoken publicly since. He has proclaimed next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, as a day of prayer and fasting for peace in Ukraine.

The Vatican announced separately on Friday that Francis would not be able to preside at the Ash Wednesday services because of an acute flare-up of pain in his knee. He also will have to skip a planned trip to Florence this Sunday.

Vote! Vote! Vote! Destroy "The Big Lie": Transcript

President Joe Biden-

Voting Rights Speech Transcript July 13: 

“The Big Lie is Just That— A Big Lie”

PHILADELPHIA, PA- July 13 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden, under pressure from U.S. civil rights leaders, on Tuesday called it a "national imperative" to pass sweeping voting rights legislation that has stalled in Congress, but he did not outline a path to overcome Republican opposition.

Biden made a searing critique of what he called efforts to undermine voting rights, likening them to past laws that prevented Black people and women from voting in the United States.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at New York University Law School, at least 17 states this year have enacted laws that restrict voting access, with more being considered.

Joe Biden: I see an awful lot of good friends out there. Please have a seat, if you have one. Let me begin by saying I used to be important. I used to be the chairman of the board of this place. And Jeffrey Rosen allowed me to do that for a while. But thank you all for being here, I truly appreciate it.

Joe Biden: Governor, it’s above and beyond the call. Mr. Mayor, I thought you were a great mayor still think you are, but your judgment in finances is even stronger. But all of you. And a good friend Bobby Brady… I see so many friends. Al Sharpton, Al, how are you pal? It’s great to see you.

Joe Biden: I’m going to get in trouble here because I’m going to recognize my Congresswoman from the state of Delaware, Lisa Blunt Rochester and her sister who used to run my office. Stand up.

Joe Biden: Folks, good afternoon. There’s a serious subject I’d like to talk about today. I’m here in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center, the city and the place where the story of We The People began. It’s a story that’s neither simple, nor straightforward. That’s because the story is the sum of our parts, and all those parts are fundamentally human. And being human is to be imperfect, driven by appetite and ambition, as much as by goodness and grace.

Joe Biden: But some things in America should be simple and straightforward. Perhaps the most important of those things, the most fundamental of those things, is the right to vote. The right to vote freely.

Joe Biden: The right to vote freely, the right to vote fairly. The right to have your vote counted. The democratic threshold is Liberty. With it, anything’s possible. Without it, nothing, nothing. And for our democracy and the work, and to deliver our work and our people, it’s up to all of us to protect that right. This is a test of our time and what I’m here to talk about today.

Joe Biden: Just thinking about the past election, 102 year old woman in Arkansas who voted for the first time on the very spot she once picked cotton. A 94 year woman in Michigan voted early and in person in her 72nd consecutive election. You know what she said said? She said this election was quote, “the most important vote that we ever had.”

Joe Biden: A daughter who voted in memory of her dad who died of COVID-19, so others wouldn’t have the experience of pain and darkness and loss that she was going through. Patients out there. And the parents, the parents who voted for school their children will learn in. Sons and daughters voted for the planet they’re going to live on. Young people just turning 18 and everyone who for the first time in their lives thought they could truly make a difference.

Joe Biden: America, America, and Americans of every background voted. They voted for good jobs and higher wages. They voted for racial equity and justice. They voted to make healthcare a right, not a privilege. The reason Americans went to vote and the lengths they went to vote, to be able to vote, this past election were absolutely extraordinary.

Joe Biden: In fact, the fact that so many election officials across the country made it easier and safer for them to be able to vote in the middle of a pandemic is remarkable. As a result, in 2020 more people voted in America than ever, ever in the history of America in the middle of a once in a century pandemic.

Joe Biden: All told, more than 150 Americans of every age, of every race, of every background exercised their right to vote. They voted early, they voted absentee. They voted in person. They voted by mail. They voted by Dropbox. And then, they got their families and friends to go out and vote.

Joe Biden: Election officials, the entire electoral system withstood unrelenting political attacks, physical threats, intimidation and pressure. They did so with unyielding courage and faith in our democracy with recount after recount after recount, court case after court case, the 2020 election was the most scrutinized election ever in American history. Challenge after challenge brought to local, state, and election officials, state legislatures, state and federal courts, even to the United States Supreme Court not once but twice.

Joe Biden: More than 80 judges, including those appointed by my predecessor, heard the arguments. In every case, neither cause nor evidence was found. Don’t undermine the national achievement of administrating the historic election in the face of such extraordinary challenges.

Joe Biden: Audits, recounts were conducted in Arizona and Wisconsin. In Georgia it was recounted three times. It’s clear, for those who challenge the results and question the integrity of the election, no other election has ever been held under such scrutiny and such high standards. The big lie is just that— a big lie.

Joe Biden: The 2020 election, it’s not hyperbole, suggest the most examined and the fullest expression on the will of the people in the history of this nation. That should be celebrated, it is the example of America at its best. But instead, we continue to see an example of human nature at its worst, something darker and more sinister.

Joe Biden: In America, if you lose you except the results. You follow the Constitution, you try again. You don’t call facts fake and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you’re unhappy. That’s not statesmanship.

Joe Biden: That’s not statesmanship, that’s selfishness. That’s not democracy it’s the denial of the right to vote. It suppresses, it subjugates. The denial full of free and fair elections is the most un-American thing that any of us can imagine. The most undemocratic, most unpatriotic and sadly not unprecedented.

Joe Biden: From denying enslaved people full citizenship until the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments after the Civil War to denying women the right to vote until the 19th Amendment 100 years ago. To poll taxes and literacy tests and the Ku Klux Klan campaigns of violence and terror that lasted into the ’50s and ’60s. To the Supreme Court decision in 2013 and then again just two weeks ago, a decision that weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act. To the willful election attacks in 2020, and then to a whole other level of threat, the violence and the deadly insurrection on the Capitol on January 6th.

Joe Biden: Just got back from Europe, speaking to the G7 and to NATO. They wonder, not a joke… They wonder, Gov. They asked me, “Is it going to be okay?” The citadel to democracy in the world, “Is it going to be okay?”

Joe Biden: Time and again, we’ve weathered threats to the right to vote in free and fair elections and each time we found a way to overcome. That’s what we must do today. Vice President Harris and I have spent our careers doing this work, and I’ve asked her to lead, to bring people together to protect the right to vote in our democracy. And it starts with continuing the fight to pass H.R. 1, the For the People Act.

Joe Biden: That bill would help end voter suppression in the states, get dark money out of politics, give voice to the people at the grassroots level, create fair district maps and end partisan political gerrymander. Last month Republicans opposed even debating, even considering For the People Act. Senate Democrats stood United to protect our democracy and the sanctity of the vote. We must pass the For the People Act, it’s a national imperative.

Joe Biden: We must also fight for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and expand voting protections, to prevent voter suppression. All the Congress women and men here, there’s a bunch of you, you knew John, many of you.

Joe Biden: Just weeks ago the Supreme Court, yet again, weakened the Voting Rights Act and upheld what Justice Kagan called quote, “A significant race based disparity in voting opportunities.” The Court’s decision, as harmful as it is, does not limit the Congress’s ability to repair the damage done. That’s the important point.

Joe Biden: It puts the burden back on Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act to its intended strength. As soon as Congress passes the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advanced Act, I will sign it and let the whole world see it. That will be an important moment.

Joe Biden: And the world is wondering, and Dwight knows what I’m talking about, for real. You know, the world is wondering what is America going to do? But we also have to be clear-eyed about the obstruction we face. Legislation is one tool, but not the only tool. And it’s not the only measure of our obligation to defend democracy today.

Joe Biden: For example, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the United States Department of Justice is going to be using its authorities to challenge the onslaught of state laws undermining voting rights in old and new ways. The focus will be on dismantling racially discriminatory laws like the recent challenged to Georgia’s vicious anti voting law.

Joe Biden: The Department of Justice will do so with the Voting Rights Division that at my request is doubling its size and enforcement staff. Civil rights groups and other organizations have announced their plans to stay vigilant and challenge these odious laws in the courts. In Texas, for example, Republican led state legislature wants to allow partisan poll watchers to intimidate voters and impartial poll workers.

Joe Biden: They want voters to dive further, and be able to be in a position where they wonder who’s watching them, and intimidate them. To wait longer to vote, to drive a hell of a lot… Excuse me… A long way to get to vote. They want to make it so hard and inconvenient that they hope people don’t vote at all. That’s what this is about.

Joe Biden: This year alone, 17 states have enacted, not just proposed but enacted, 28 new laws to make it harder for Americans to vote. Not to mention, it gets this nearly 400 additional bills Republican members of the state legislatures are trying to pass. The 21st Century Jim Crow assault is real, it’s unrelenting, and we’re going to challenge it vigorously.

Joe Biden: While this broad assault against voting rights is not unprecedented, it is taking on new and literally pernicious forms. It’s no longer just about who gets to vote or making it easier for eligible voters to vote. It’s about who gets to count the vote, who gets to count whether or not your vote counted at all.

Joe Biden: It’s about moving from independent election administrators who worked for the people, to polarized state legislatures and partisan actors who work for political parties. To me, this is simple, this is election subversion. It’s the most dangerous threat to voting in the integrity of free and fair elections in our history. Never before have we decided who gets to count, count, what votes count.

Joe Biden: Some state legislators want to make it harder for you to vote. And if you vote, they want to be able to tell you your vote doesn’t count for any reason they make up. They want the ability to reject the final count and ignore the will of the people if their preferred candidate loses.

Joe Biden: They’re trying, not only targeting people of color, they’re targeting voters of all races and backgrounds. With a simple target, who did not vote for them? That’s the target. It’s unconscionable. I mean, really, I it’s hard to declare just how critical this is. It’s simply unconscionable. We’ve got to shore up our election system and address the threats of election of subversion, not just from abroad, which I spent time with Putin talking about, but from home.

Joe Biden: We must ask those who represent us at the federal, state and local levels, “Will you deny the will of the people? Will you ignore their voices?” We have to ask, “Are you on the side of truth or lies, fact or fiction, justice or injustice. Democracy or Autocracy?” That’s what it’s coming down to.

Joe Biden: Which is bringing me to perhaps the most important thing we have to do. We have to forge a coalition of Americans of every background and political party, the advocates, the students, the faith leaders, the labor leaders, the business executives to raise the urgency of this moment. Because as much as people know they’re screwing around with the election process. I don’t think that most people think this is about who gets to count what vote counts. Literally, not figuratively.

Joe Biden: You vote for certain electors to vote for somebody for president. A State legislature comes along, under their proposal, and they said, “No, we don’t like those electors, we’re going to appoint other electors who are going to vote for the other guy or other woman.”

Joe Biden: Because, here’s the deal, in 2020 democracy was put to a test. First by the pandemic, then by a desperate attempt to deny the reality of the results of the election. And then, via violent and deadly insurrection on the Capitol, the Citadel of our democracy.

Joe Biden: I’ve been around a long time in public life. I thought I’d seen it all, or most of it all, but I never thought I’d see that for real. And in spite of what you see on television and you saw it, you have Senators saying it was just a day at the Capitol, just people visiting the Capitol.

Joe Biden: Folks, we met the test. Because of the extraordinary courage of election officials, many of them Republicans, our court system and those brave Capitol police officers, because of them democracy held.

Joe Biden: Look how close it came, I mean for real, how close it came. We’re going to face another test in 2022, a new wave of unprecedented voter suppression and raw and sustained election subversion. We have to prepare now.

Joe Biden: As I’ve said time and again, no matter what you can never stop the American people from voting. They will decide, and the power must always be with the people. That’s why just like we did in 2020, we have to prepare for 2022. We’ll engage in an all out effort to educate voters about the changing laws, register them to vote and then get them vote out.

Joe Biden: We’ll encourage people to run for office themselves at every level, we’ll be asking my Republican friends in Congress and states and cities and counties to stand up for God’s sake and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our elections and the sacred right to vote.

Joe Biden: Have you no shame? Whether it’s stopping foreign interference in our elections, or the spread of disinformation from within, we have to work together. Vice President Harris and I, we’re making it clear that there’s real peril in making raw power, rather than the idea of liberty, the centerpiece of the common life.

Joe Biden: The founders understood this. The women of Seneca Falls understood this. The brave heroic foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement understood this. So must we. This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans, it’s literally about who we are as Americans. It’s that basic.

Joe Biden: It’s about the kind of country we want today, a kind of country we want for our children and grandchildren tomorrow. And quite frankly, the whole world is watching.

Joe Biden: Folks, I’m not being sentimental. I’m not preaching to you. I’m just giving it to you straight, as I promised I would always do. Lay things out on the line and honor your trust with trust. So hear me clearly, there’s an unfolding assault taking place in America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in fair and free elections. An assault on democracy, an assault on liberty, an assault on who we are, who we are as Americans.

Joe Biden: For make no mistake, bullies and merchants of fear, peddlers of lies are threatening the very foundation of our country. It gives me no pleasure to say this. I never thought in my entire career I’d ever have to say it. But I swore an oath to you, to God to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. That’s an oath that forms a sacred trust to defend America against all threats, both foreign and domestic.

Joe Biden: The assault on free and fair elections is just such a threat, literally. I’ve said it before. We’re facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That’s not hyperbole, since the Civil War. The Confederates back then never breached the Capitol as insurrectionist did on January the sixth.

Joe Biden: I’m not saying this to alarm you, I’m saying this because you should be alarmed. I’m also saying this, there’s good news. It doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be, for real. We have the means, we just need the will. The will to save and strengthen our democracy.

Joe Biden: We did it in 2020. The battle for the soul of America. In that battle the people voted, democracy prevailed, our Constitution held. We have to do it again.

Joe Biden: My fellow Americans, it requires fair mindedness, devotion to justice, as corny as it sounds, love of country. It requires us to unite in common purpose to declare here and now, We the People will never give up. We will not give in. We will overcome. We will do it together.

Joe Biden: Guaranteeing the right to vote. Ensuring that every vote is counted has always been the most patriotic thing we can do. Just remember, our late friend John Lewis said, “Freedom is not a state, it’s an act. Freedom is not a state, it’s an act.” And we must act and we will act, for our cause is just, our vision is clear, and our hearts are full. For We the People, for our democracy, for America itself, we must act. God bless you all and may God protect our troops and all those who stand to watch over our democracy. But act! 

We’ve got to act! Thank you.

Florida catastrophe- a tragic environmental harbinger for our time

"Republicans refusal to vote for Biden’s infrastructure and climate change plans, because ' it will cost too much', is the epitome of short sightedness."

echo opinion letter published in Tuscon.com Arizona Daily Star

Surfside condo failure!

"...the building's owners had not yet begun a mandatory safety recertification process required 40 years after it was built." (Reuters)

So it seems like the board that ran the condo that collapsed in Florida were aware of the seriousness of the buildings problems for some time, but could not get it together to decide what to do about it. There was no doubt the situation would only get worse and cost even more to fix the longer they dithered. But they waited too long.

The similarities between what happened to those people and what will happen to the whole world if we don’t get our act together, real soon, are clear and terrifying. The Republicans refusal to vote for Biden’s infrastructure and climate change plans, because “ it will cost too much” is the epitome of short sightedness. It is insanity. What do you suppose the board members of that condo ( that lived), who kept voting to delay the repairs because they didn’t want to spend the money are thinking now? What the hell are Republicans thinking? Are they all crazy?

Robert Scanlon, Midtown (Phoenix) Arizona

Senator John McCain memorial in Hanoi Vienam

Flowers, tributes offered for McCain at Vietnam War crash site

On the banks of the Ho Truc Bach Lake in downtown Hanoi. Monument. A stone sculpture of a person with arms raised and head lowered. To the right of the person is USA and a star. To the left of the person is the text in Vietnamese.

By James Pearson published by Reuters:

HANOI (Reuters) - On the shores of a still and peaceful lake on the edge of downtown Hanoi, the inscription on a faded monument stands as a reminder of a violent event 51 years ago.
“On Oct 26, 1967, at Truc Bach Lake, the military and people of Hanoi arrested Major John Sidney McCain (MaineWriter: This is not correct, at the time, Lt.Cdr John McCain was a Lieutenant Commander USN), a pilot of the American Navy’s air force,” it says on the sculpture, which depicts an airman with his hands above his head in front of a broken plane wing.

McCain, a U.S. senator who ran unsuccessfully for president as a self-styled maverick Republican in 2008 and became a prominent critic of President Donald Trump, died on Saturday, his office said. He was 81.

The naval aviator was flying one of 10 planes that were shot down by the North Vietnamese military on the same day, according to the inscription on the statue, which McCain himself visited on a return to Vietnam in 2009.

“I felt compelled to come out here and bring some flowers,” said Robert Gibb, an American in Hanoi who placed a bouquet of yellow chrysanthemums at the foot of the monument after hearing the news of McCain’s death on Sunday morning.

Gibb was one of several U.S. citizens living in the Vietnamese capital to visit the monument with tributes. Most brought flowers. One man offered a folded U.S. flag.

“He was the last guy I ever voted for president,” said Gibb. “The moment he dropped in here changed his life forever.”

‘HANOI HILTON’

McCain was dragged out of Truc Bach lake and spent the next five-and-a-half years as a high-profile prisoner of war in Hoa Lo prison - the infamous “Hanoi Hilton’ - where he said he and others were tortured.

Vietnam says the American prisoners were treated well.

A statue marking the spot by the lake was erected in 1967, and renovated in the 1980s and 1990s.

The monument is easy to miss - on the tree-lined street, it stands on what is now a popular tourist destination, dotted with cafes, ice cream parlors and vendors selling cotton candy from the back of bicycles.

The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi said on Sunday it planned to launch a fellowship to support a “young Vietnamese leader committed to public service” to travel to the United States on a study tour annually.

The program will be named the “McCain/Kerry Fellowship” in honor of McCain and John Kerry, another Vietnam War veteran who has promoted U.S.-Vietnam issues during his political career, the embassy said in a statement.

Le Ma Luong, the former director of the Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi who met McCain soon after 2010, told Reuters he remembered the late senator as an articulate and professional man who contributed greatly to building relations with Vietnam.

Luong said he felt sorry that in return Vietnam had been unable to locate the ring McCain was wearing on the day he was dragged out of the lake.

“That was the ring his wife gave him and it went missing after he was shot down and rescued. We have tried our best to find it but in vain,” said Luong. “Anyone who lost a ring from their beloved would be devastated by it, not just him”.

“His contribution to the Vietnam-U.S. relationship will be remembered.”

Additional reporting by Khanh Vu and Kham Nguyen; Editing by Paul Tait

How's all that "fire and fury" working out?

No 'fire and fury' as Trump team talks North Korea with Congress

There's a lot more "fire and fury" in the 2017 dangerous hurricane season than in the anticipated US response to North Korea's potential deployment of nuclear weapons, via a missile attack.

North Korea's President Kim Jong-un, continues to threaten aggression. Apparently, he isn't deterred and has not responded to the proposed reciprocity laid out by Donald Trump, who described the US reaction as being "fire and fury".

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seems intent to keep his diplomatic cool, in the face of North Korean military aggression.

Donald Trump obviously needs a mentor to help him respond to the evil threats of Kim Jong-un, who demonstrates an obsession for launching a nuclear weapon. My suggestion? Check out the stoic attitude of his Trump's idol, Vladimir Putin. Although I have no use for Russia's President Putin, because he's a 100 percent Cold War veteran who served in the clandestine KGB, the fact is, he knows how to respond to an international crises.  Putin has no flair for bellicose rhetoric.  Rather, his style is to be cool, albeit knowing how his brain is calculating a strategy to design winning moves.

Thankfully, Donald Trump's advisers are more "Putin-esque" in their response to North Korea's danger, than is their "bellicose" boss. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s top national security advisers stressed efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis to Congress on Wednesday, staying far from Trump’s tough talk of potential “fire and fury” military responses to Pyongyang’s missile program.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford held classified briefings on North Korea and Afghanistan for the entire House of Representatives and Senate.

Lawmakers said the officials discussed efforts including consultations with allies, sanctions, pushing for action at the United Nations and military options.

But they said the briefings’ tone was sharply different from some of Trump’s recent public statements. After recent missile launches and nuclear tests by North Korea, the president has vowed to stop the weapons program and said he would unleash “fire and fury” if Pyongyang threatened U.S. territory. (MaineWriter: HELLO?- how many threats does it take to constitute a "threat to US territory"?)

Mattis also warned of a “massive” military response if the United States or its allies were threatened.

“Each of them was very professional, very measured in what they were saying, and understand the stakes that are in play here. So there’s nothing over-the-top, no over-the-top rhetoric, just a layout of where they are in trying to deal with this issue,” Senator Bob Corker, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters.

Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said after the briefing it was clear that the administration would like to negotiate an agreement with North Korea. “There was really no bluster whatsoever,” Engel said.

Members of Congress from both parties called for stricter sanctions against North Korea, and said the United States should seek to work closely with allies like South Korea, push China to do more and see action at the United Nations.
“The best strategy would be deploying sanctions... sustained financial pressure in which we do not let up on those financial institutions that are assisting North Korea,” said Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House committee, who just returned from a trip to South Korea.

Republican Representative Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said there had been more members of the House at the briefing than he could remember at similar sessions.

“There was a tremendous amount of interest,” he said.

Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

MaineWriter- Diplomacy may be a temporary band-aid to bridge North Korea's aggression, while diplomats attempt to bring the rogue nuclear nation to the peace table. Nevertheless, the fact is, when Donald Trump jumped to a "fire and fury" response, to threaten Kim Jong-un, it was a hallow and bellicose response that failed to deter North Korean aggression.

Public continues to support Affordable Care Act- so improve it!

Majority Tells Trump "No Obamacare Repeal" As They Want Congress To Move On From Healthcare

(Senator Lindsey Graham wants the Senate to continue working on a bipartisan health care reform bill, but the public doesn't really see it that way. Nevertheless, the GOP Senate were like lemmings when they voted on the Republican health plan, with only 17 percent public favorability.)

Senator Lindsey Graham R-SC continues to talk health reform but he didn't support his colleague Senator John McCain in opposing the Affordable Care Act repeal

Reuters on Mon, Jul 31st: By Chris Kahn and Michael Erman

A majority of Americans are ready to move on from healthcare reform at this point after the U.S. Senate's effort to dismantle Obamacare failed on Friday, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.

This wasteful Republican debacle about health care (seven years in the failing) can be easily fixed, almost like prestidigitation!  

What's needed is a vote to expand Medicare eligibility to include more people under the age of 65, perhaps as young at 50-55 or even anybody who qualifies by paying 40 quarters into the shared benefit premiums. Medicare law is already in place and only needs adapting to create an expanded health insurance program that will allow for Americans who qualify to buy affordable and quality health care.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A majority of Americans are ready to move on from healthcare reform at this point after the U.S. Senate’s effort to dismantle Obamacare failed on Friday, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.

Nearly two-thirds of the country wants to either keep or modify the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, and a majority of Americans want Congress to turn its attention to other priorities, the survey found.

Republicans have vowed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act since Democratic President Barack Obama signed it into law in 2010, and it appeared they finally had their chance when Republican President Donald Trump took office in January. But the law, which helped 20 million people obtain health insurance, has steadily grown more popular.

The July 28-29 poll of more than 1,130 Americans, conducted after the Republican-led effort collapsed in the Senate, found that 64 percent said they wanted to keep Obamacare, either “entirely as is” or after fixing “problem areas.” That is up from 54 percent in January.

The survey found that support for the law still runs along party lines, with nine out of 10 Democrats and just three out of 10 Republicans saying they wanted to keep or modify Obamacare.

Among Republicans, three-fourths said they would like their party’s leaders to try to repeal and replace Obamacare at some point, though most listed other issues that they would give a higher priority right now.

Disappointment among Republicans and happiness among Democrats about the repeal’s failure were palpable. Two-thirds of Republicans felt “bad” that the Senate failed to pass a healthcare bill, while three-fourths of Democrats felt “good,” according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll.

When asked what they think Congress should do next, most Americans picked other priorities such as tax reform, foreign relations and infrastructure. Only 29 percent said they wanted Republicans in Congress to “continue working on a new healthcare bill.”

Gene Anderson, 81, a Trump voter living in a retirement community in Zionsville, Indiana, said the president should “refocus on some stability in his administration and some demonstration of being able to work together with Democrats in Congress.” - ahhhh.....ya'think