Expanding Our Political POV

“Chris, I’m a well read observer of the world around me.” - A friend years ago, who spends hours reading the paper, but never acting on what he reads. Maybe that luxury no longer exists. cm

I spoke to three people yesterday—two close friends and one business cohort. All three of them said they’re having difficulty doing anything other than trying to stay out of the news until something specific is in front of them—something they can actually do to make a difference. They can’t take the stress.

I’ve felt the same way. I’ve tried to approach things from a positive point of view, to resist the fear and anxiety that creep in when I wake up in the middle of the night.

For the most part, it’s working. I can have conversations outside the American hurricane raging on the other side of the wall I’ve built. I can laugh. I can focus on the two books I have coming out—books that have nothing to do with the chaos happening around me.

And then the video below came across my feed.

I beg you to watch it—not just read it.

I beg you to ask yourself if you’re living in a bubble while the world crumbles around you.

I know I have been.

Is anyone watching Paradise on Hulu? I was mesmerized. The last episode of the first season dropped Tuesday night. It’s about the end of the world. Twenty thousand people were saved by billionaires who built a city beneath the mountains of Colorado, far from the devastation outside. Or so they thought.

It’s not so far away …

This is not a time to do nothing. This is not a time to just read. This is a time for action—every day—toward supporting the good that people across the globe are trying to build.

And, this brave French politician spells it out, and others across Europe are raising the horn to a different future as well.

And, me? I am mad at MSNBC for leaving Morning Joe on the air. Seriously?

Before World War II, we were isolationists. Why should we get involved? people asked. It’s happening across an ocean—it has nothing to do with us. We are doing it again. Dabbling, but not committing.

The first thing I’m going to do is broaden my perspective. I need to read more from international sources. Otherwise, I might have missed this speech altogether. I realize now how much my laser focus has been locked on the U.S.—the country I rely on most.

Here is a link to the YouTube version of his speech. If you can’t forward this post, or don’t want to, please commit to forwarding this to ten people, who might not want to watch the whole thing, but who might need see that it’s so much bigger than our Social Security checks not getting sent out to our parents.

Watching it is better than reading it, but we have loaded the transcript below in case that’s easier, or if you want to quote him.

And, at the bottom of this page are some suggested news sources to consider to add to your custom news list … big picture can’t be ignored. And they offer a view of what is happening that is not filtered through a US-centric lens.

God Bless the America this amazing speaker still believes we can be. CM

"We Are Fighting Against a Dictator Backed by a Traitor" - A French Senator Speaks Out

Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Honourable Ministers, Honourable Ministers, Honourable Colleagues, Europe is a critical turning point in its history. The American shield is falling apart. Ukraine is at risk of being abandoned.Russia is being reinforced.

Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine charged with purging the civil service. This is a tragedy for the free world, but above all, it is a tragedy for the United States.

Trump's message is that being his ally serves no purpose, as he will not defend you, that he will impose higher tariffs on you than on his enemies, and that he will threaten to seize your territories while supporting the dictatorships that are invading you. The so-called “king of the deal” is demonstrating what the submissive art of the deal is. He believes he will intimidate China by capitulating to Putin, but Xi Jinping, witnessing such a collapse, is undoubtably accelerating the preparations for the invasion of Taiwan.

Never in history has a President of the United States surrendered to an enemy. Never before has one supported an aggressor against an ally. Never before has one trampled on the American Constitution, issued so many illegal decrees, dismissed judges who could oppose him, sacked the military leadership in one go, weakened all counterparts, and taken control of social media.

This is not a liberal derivative, it is a beginning of the confiscation of democracy. Let us remember that it took only one month, three weeks and two days to bring down the Republic of Weimar and its Constitution. I have confidence in the solidity of American democracy, and the country is already protesting.

But in just one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in four years of his last presidency. We were at war against a dictator. We are now fighting against a dictator supported by a traitor.

Eight days ago, when Trump was patting Macron on the back at the White House, the United States voted at the UN alongside Russia and North Korea against the Europeans, who were demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops. Two days later, in the Oval Office, the draft-doger was giving moral and strategic lessons to the war hero Zelensky, before dismissing him like a stable boy, ordering him to submit or resign. Last night, he took another step by halting the promised delivery of weapons.

What to do in the face of this betrayal? The answer is simple: stand firm. And above all, do not be mistaken.

The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic countries, Georgia and Moldova are already on the list. Putin's goal is to return to Yalta, where half of the continent was ceded to Stalin.

The Global South is awaiting the outcome of this conflict to decide whether they must continue respecting Europe or whether they are now free to trample it. What Putin wants is the end of the order put in place by the United States and its allies 80 years ago, with, as a first principle, the ban on acquiring territories by force. This idea is at the very source of the UN, where today the Americans vote in favor of the aggressor and against the aggressor, because the Trumpian vision coincides with that of Putin.

A return to the sphere of influence, the great powers dictating the fate of small countries. To me, Greenland, Panama and Canada. To you, Ukraine, the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe.

To him, Taiwan and the Sea of ​​China. This is called in the evenings of the oligarchs of the Gulf of Mar-a-Lago diplomatic realism. We are therefore alone.

But the discourse according to which we cannot resist Putin is false. Contrary to the propaganda of the Kremlin, Russia is going badly. In three years, the so-called second army of the world has managed to plunder only crumbs of a country three times less populated.

Interest rates at 25%, the collapse of the gold and currency reserves, the democratic collapse show that it is on the edge of the gulf. The American push to Putin is the greatest strategic mistake ever made during a war. The shock is violent, but it has a virtue.

The Europeans come out of denial. They understood in one day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands and that they have three imperatives. Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the American letdown, for it to hold, and of course to impose its presence and that of Europe in any negotiation.

It will cost dearly. It will have to end with the taboo of using frozen Russian goods. It will have to bypass Moscow's accomplices within Europe by a coalition of the only voluntary countries, with of course the United Kingdom.

Secondly, demand that all agreements be accompanied by the return of kidnapped children, prisoners, and absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia and Minsk, we know what the agreements with Putin are worth. These guarantees go through a sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion.

Finally, and this is the most urgent, because it is what will take the most time, it would be necessary to build the neglected European defense in favor of the American umbrella since 1945 and to tackle it since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a Herculean task, but it is on its success or its failure that the leaders of today's democratic Europe have come together. Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance.

It is to recognize that France has been right for decades by pleading for strategic autonomy. It remains to be built. It will be necessary to invest massively, to strengthen the European defense fund outside the criteria of Maastricht's debt, to harmonize weapons and ammunition systems, to accelerate the entry into the Union of Ukraine, which is now the first European army, to rethink the location and conditions of nuclear dissuasion from the French and British capacities, to relaunch anti-missile and satellite shielding programs.

The plan announced yesterday by Ursula von der Leyen is a very good starting point. And it will take much more. Europe will only become a military power by becoming an industrial power.

In a word, we will have to apply the Draghi report for good. But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament. We must convince the public in the face of laziness and the fear of war, and especially in the face of Putin's comparses, the far right and the far left.

They still pleaded yesterday at the National Assembly, Mr. Prime Minister, against European unity, against European defense. They say they want peace. What neither you nor Trump say is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of De Gaulle-Zelensky by a Ukrainian peasant in Putin's boot, the peace of the collaborators who have refused to help the Ukrainians Is this the end of the Atlantic Alliance? The risk is great, but for a few days Zelensky's public humiliation and all the crazy decisions taken in the last month have made the Americans react.

Polls are falling. Republican elected officials are welcomed by hostile crowds in their surroundings. Even Fox News becomes critical.

The Trumpists are no longer in majesty. They control the Executive, the Parliament, the Supreme Court and social networks. But in American history, the supporters of freedom have always won.

They are starting to raise their heads. The fate of Ukraine lies in the trenches, but it also depends on those who in the United States want to defend democracy and here on our ability to unite Europeans, to find the means of their common defense and to make Europe the power it once was in history and hesitates to become again. Our parents defeated fascism and communism at the cost of all sacrifices.

The task of our generation is to overcome the totalitarianism of the 21st century. Long live free Ukraine! Long live democratic Europe!

Here are some international publications to consider:

    •    BBC News (UK) – bbc.com

    •    The Guardian (UK) – theguardian.com

    •    The Financial Times (UK) – ft.com

    •    The Independent (UK) – independent.co.uk

    •    The Times of London (UK) – thetimes.co.uk

    •    Deutsche Welle (DW) (Germany) – dw.com

    •    Le Monde (France) – lemonde.fr

    •    Der Spiegel (Germany) – spiegel.de

    •    El País (Spain) – elpais.com

    •    The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) – smh.com.au

    •    The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) – scmp.com

    •    The Straits Times (Singapore) – straitstimes.com

    •    Al Jazeera (Qatar) – aljazeera.com

These outlets provide a broader view of global events, offering perspectives that aren’t filtered through a U.S.-centric lens.