The Orange Grover Cleveland’s return to the White House could be a bumpy ride because he has not pledged to avoid conflicts of interest, among other ethical concerns, while in office.
Most people apparently still don’t get it. There is no excuse, NO EXCUSE, for anyone who has attained 18 years of age to vote for the worst enemy this country has ever had. And that is a hard hill to climb. Chump and nukes are a lethal combo for every citizen of planet earth, every animal and every institution that others have strived to build. Democrats tried to warn all of us. MSM yawned, Rupert’s crew of vipers skewed, distorted every utterance and action, and lied about democrats ad nauseam. Oddly, they told the truth about themselves more often than they should have. Still, idiots are blathering about the price of f**king eggs, and how poor people have been ignored. This is after Joe worked his arse off for the middle class, as did Kamala. Now Putin and Netanyahu can bulldoze wherever and whenever they choose. I hate so many of my fellow citizens right now. I hope I can love some again because hate is what won this phony election. Putin had it scoped out before one vote was cast.
Greg Olear covered much of the same material about Dorothy Thompson. Truth speakers in a sea of bullschittery. Chump is so soulless that he and his puppeteer will beat climate change in the destruction of our planet. At least the part worth saving.
The thing that still flummoxes me is the number of my veteran friends, some of whom are Vietnam vets, some who are GWOT vets, some who are Cold War vets that voted for him. Based on the posts I read, its about men dominating women's sports, and the price of gas....and eggs, of course.
C'mon Ally - we were both there. I never knew so many white male morons in one place at one time as in the Navy. Yes, there's all the ones we knew who we can't forget, but we forget all the ones we never wanted to know to begin with.
Chump tagged all of them suckers and losers, some deserved it, I know many who didn’t. Rupert is so good at lumping the wheat and the chaff. They don’t even know how to separate themselves, effectively.
Christian = good
Veteran = good
Patriot = good
Flag = good
Racist = good points that Dems deny
Sexist = normal for many.
But half the first four groups claim him, and he claims them.
Let’s just face it. The man does not have to follow any rules, norms, ethics, or timeline. We need to stop being surprised and accept that the next four years will be done his way with his own people and we’ll feel like shit most of that time. It doesn’t mean we bow down or acquiesce in any way, but unfortunately Dorothy Thompson called it long before we heard the names Trump and Vance.
What you're sharing with us is he's going to do what he wants, when he wants, and ignore all laws. And since the SCOTUS gave him immunity, there is no recourse.
it strikes me that there are very good reasons why the powers-that-be have made sure that Dorothy Thompson is a name only vaguely remembered by history mavens (unless, of course, the history they like is the history of American Journalism). nailed Vance like she was some kind of medium. that things have changed so little, that we have learned so little, is ...uhh....disheartening.
Well put. And as my beloved Vin Scully (a republican who donated to every nominee of the past 30 years until the 2016 nominee, so good for him) would say, an asterisk and a footnote. Haley and Pompeo are responsible, establishment republicans in much the same way that I am Miss Nude America. And I'm not.
In 2016, when first learned he won, I said how bad can he be?? 8 years later he dropped the bottom out of being the most incompetent and deadly POtus to ever serve! Deadly as in the nearly 1,000,000 Americans who died due to his deliberately incompetent leadership during the covid crisis!
A 4 year shit show! But he will pocket tens of billions before the destruction is complete!
Our beloved country will be the scene of a giant s**t show. We are already seeing Nazi flags flying, bro guys insulting women at every turn, and immigrants - legal or not - getting harassed every day. We must fight back…but how?
And execute they will. His pick for AG posted that he wants to kill all white left-leaning women and drag their bodies thru the streets. But the f**king price of eggs…
He hasn't named Mike Davis yet. My hope is, he is dangling this monster - who would never get approved, even by the Republican senate - so that whichever other monstrous flunkie he does name sounds completely reasonable against "what might have been." I hope.
Davis is made to order, just like the ruthless, no conscience asswipes that signed on to Adolf. Is it him or Kevin Robert’s? I still think he’s the carnival barker.
FWIW. I'm guessing West Palm Beach is going to be the new Silicon Valley or home of mega Banks'. The new seat of Power. The upscale restaurants and Univ "extensions," are moving in. Will the new Tesla logo be a little Palm tree?
There were storm clouds 3 days ago. Hovering over PB. The town is eerily quiet. West Palm is dense with traffic. It can't handle what's coming. Storm clouds: the metaphor.
And the consequence for violating the Presidential Transition Act law is… not a damn thing. Ethics? Please refer all questions about ethics to the US Supreme Court.
Remember how Hillary lost an election in large part because of an investigation around using an unsecured server? Several members of Trump's new administration including members of his own family (his paid "advisor" daughter for one) were found to be using an unsecured server to send classified emails within weeks of his being in office last time. When confronted about it she said she hadn't known of the requirement... after Hillary's emails had been their family's war cry for Months. For them? No consequences.
We know he won't feel bound by any ethics codes nor by any promises or pledges he signs. The only point in trying to get him to sign anything is to at least have something on paper to present in court to hold him accountable later and we know the courts of this land will not hold him accountable, and we know he is unlikely to be in fit condition in four more years to be held mentally accountable for anything.
Now, "The team also missed several deadlines for signing agreements that are required in order for them to participate in national security meetings and to gain access to federal agencies" holds a bit more promise if those responsible for holding those national security meetings and heading those federal agencies would hold the line and say "sorry, we're still waiting on those agreements". Even if that were to happen however, it would only delay his access until he just replaces them with people who will say "ethics agreements? Who needs any fecking ethics agreements? Come on in, our casa your casa, our national insecurity meetings your meetings".
Without enforcement no "teeth" amount to a pile of broken dentures. I haven't read the agreements but if they don't specify consequences dealt out by people other than those he'll put in place, they aren't worth the paper they're written on. Once during a move, I had put down a rather nice knife I was using only to turn around and find it vanished. I knew which of the movers had been in the room and I knew which pocket it was in, but short of violence there was no way to prove it. He looked me right in the face, grinning, and said he hadn't seen it. I stood there while it really penetrated how much we all rely on the social contracts and expectations that govern daily life. Eventually, he was not the one who left with something that day - I did. I left with a bone deep understanding that when it's all stripped away, if someone can look you in the eye and lie, and there is no physical power of enforcement available or acceptable to you, they can do almost anything. The power of being a sociopath is chilling.
Spilled milk in this country is going to drown us all. During these last four years we should have been working on developing some form of enforcement that is independent of our three branches but can be brought to bear upon any one branch by order of the other two such that each branch conducts it's own business according to the limits set out for it and abides by those limits. We have hired security for shopping centers and banks, sheriffs and police to govern us in our towns and cities and on our highways. We have national guard. We have various specific enforcement groups for things like the border, for parks, for airports. But when we consider the very highest layers of our government there is suddenly a gaping void where enforcement ceases. When the SCOTUS decides to pop out inexplicable decisions in violation of precedent or without any explanations at all, or a justice refuses to recuse in a flagrant abuse of common morality, and the court refuses to devise ethics guidelines then produces something weak and worthless, or even then clearly violates even that, what can be done? I've heard repeatedly that their power is in the public's perception of their legitimacy, but I think their power is in their functional sociopathy. If the public concludes, to the last person, that the SCOTUS is no longer legitimate, then what? Who will go in and make Clarence Thomas sit out a case? Who will announce a decision they made violates the Constitution and declare no law enforcement shall enforce it? All of our law enforcement is aimed at the less powerful or the individual or at most at corporation level business violations. Where is the law enforcement for governmental systems?
Apparently it was always assumed that those in power would be honorable. We now know that the majority of the electorate no longer has "honorable" in their lexicon. My earnest hope is that with so many power seekers in one place, that place with become a snake pit wherein they spend their time going after one another. This would buy time for the midterms.
Ah! Another tactic - lobbing bait into the pit. Midas Touch was engaging in that one when they did ads suggesting someone was whispering about Trump inside his inner circle.
The Epstein tapes say Trump himself regularly engaged in pitting his advisors and sycophants against each other, saying this one said you're not so great at doing this, I like A but B tells me bad things about them, then to B that A says bad things about them. He liked to keep them stirred up in ways that must have been productive to him (or it just amused him?) and kept them from forming alliances so he was always at the center keeping them off balance.
Writing this it sounds like chaos benefits Trump, and it probably does, but you're right that keeping it off rhythm might slow down their efficiency.
I am very scared both as a Holocaust historian and a severely Disabled person who is going to die without the support of my medications. Inadequate as they are. Social security. Medicare. Medicaid. I have those all. Is so much ugh.
Agh. Yes, of course, I see... so true. Well, make sure you get all of your updated inoculations while they are still available and send away for your free covid tests if you haven't already, and keep up to date on any efforts to affect those programs and to fight it in the courts so if there are opportunities to help you'll know about them, and if they can delay destruction by two years maybe we can get a Democrat House and Senate in two years if elections are still fair and people are finally paying attention. And keep surrounded by a like minded community, such as on Substack and in your region. Hugs.
I have a Medicaid waiver program where I get 83 hours a week of paid home health care. It also pays for other things, but that one is the key thing, both financially and personally.
That is a measure of how sick I am with two progressive brain diseases. I am 46 and have progressive spastic hemiparesis which basically means spastic paralysis. The exact disease labels are irrelevant.
Without that paid home health care (fiercely loyal and loving family members and I do still need to pay bills and eat) and the medications I have, I very quickly have three choices. Hospital stay, Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking and/or an overdose, and/or trying to be a refugee to Canada. That’s it. That’s all.
So yes, very very ears on ground and all. Not catastrophizing. And a very sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
No, not catastrophizing, and helplessness coupled with fear is terrible, but not unfounded. The only thing I can think of is that you might get some response if you write to those providers (start with various customer help calls and ask for where to write as well as looking online) and ask if they have a plan, ask for advice as to how you can plan, write Walz' office and ask those questions. With so much bulwark reinforcement needed so quickly it doesn't hurt to remind everyone about the need to plan ahead as to how to provide something for those most in need and draw attention to specific types of services that may be critical and unsupported. Will the state pick up some services? Does your county have services they may need to plan to reinforce or increase to fill gaps? Again, hugs. And keep online - it's a way to reach across miles and miles of blood red barbed wire attitude.
If such radical cuts are made they will cut into the magas as well, and then the assassination attempts may begin because they have the guns and we saw that it doesn't take much disillusionment for them to destroy things. Some of them may actually like their sick or handicapped family members and want to see them survive, even though that's probably a long shot. As for our side, lawyers and blue state AGs have already been strategizing to tie up any efforts to do serious damage. I think you'll be okay, Rebecca.
As of today Biden has offered to begin the transition, and Trump has pretty much slapped his hand away. Therefore, any Dems in current position who will be replaced must either refuse or neglect to train or provide orientation for their replacements. Take annual and sick leave time if it's available. Don't even tell them where the toilet paper is kept. No rolodexes. No phone chargers left behind. Reprogram the thermostats. No coffeepots. No introductions to maintenance staff. Maybe even switch the restroom signs. Anything not labeled government property gone. It can all be boxed and sent back later. Death by a thousand small cuts. Yes, I'm bad, but there's no reason to aid and abet them in unraveling our government and our country. It's clear that playing nice is for chumps.
2nd column I’ve seen invoking Dorothy. What an intrepid and little known journalist. Her descriptions are of hitler and the nazi party. She describes a parlor game during which the question would be asked, “who would be the nazi?”
As far as that man from Florida, the delusional “king” goes 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Greg's very happy I told him about the book, "Last Call At The Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Covered A World At War" which tells about Dorothy Thompson, John Gunther, and the rest of worked in the 1920s and 1930s to convince Americans to pay attention to world events.
Most people apparently still don’t get it. There is no excuse, NO EXCUSE, for anyone who has attained 18 years of age to vote for the worst enemy this country has ever had. And that is a hard hill to climb. Chump and nukes are a lethal combo for every citizen of planet earth, every animal and every institution that others have strived to build. Democrats tried to warn all of us. MSM yawned, Rupert’s crew of vipers skewed, distorted every utterance and action, and lied about democrats ad nauseam. Oddly, they told the truth about themselves more often than they should have. Still, idiots are blathering about the price of f**king eggs, and how poor people have been ignored. This is after Joe worked his arse off for the middle class, as did Kamala. Now Putin and Netanyahu can bulldoze wherever and whenever they choose. I hate so many of my fellow citizens right now. I hope I can love some again because hate is what won this phony election. Putin had it scoped out before one vote was cast.
Greg Olear covered much of the same material about Dorothy Thompson. Truth speakers in a sea of bullschittery. Chump is so soulless that he and his puppeteer will beat climate change in the destruction of our planet. At least the part worth saving.
It would be like loving a Nazi, JD. I will never forgive these people.
Hearts being ripped apart as we post. The happy MAGAts today will suffer too, just too stupid to know it.
The thing that still flummoxes me is the number of my veteran friends, some of whom are Vietnam vets, some who are GWOT vets, some who are Cold War vets that voted for him. Based on the posts I read, its about men dominating women's sports, and the price of gas....and eggs, of course.
C'mon Ally - we were both there. I never knew so many white male morons in one place at one time as in the Navy. Yes, there's all the ones we knew who we can't forget, but we forget all the ones we never wanted to know to begin with.
True, but still... I thought they were smarter than that. Guess that hatred flavored Kool Aide was too much to resist.
Chump tagged all of them suckers and losers, some deserved it, I know many who didn’t. Rupert is so good at lumping the wheat and the chaff. They don’t even know how to separate themselves, effectively.
Christian = good
Veteran = good
Patriot = good
Flag = good
Racist = good points that Dems deny
Sexist = normal for many.
But half the first four groups claim him, and he claims them.
Let’s just face it. The man does not have to follow any rules, norms, ethics, or timeline. We need to stop being surprised and accept that the next four years will be done his way with his own people and we’ll feel like shit most of that time. It doesn’t mean we bow down or acquiesce in any way, but unfortunately Dorothy Thompson called it long before we heard the names Trump and Vance.
What you're sharing with us is he's going to do what he wants, when he wants, and ignore all laws. And since the SCOTUS gave him immunity, there is no recourse.
Exactly! Is the House in maga control?
No final result there, but momentum is on their side.
holy fucking shit.
it strikes me that there are very good reasons why the powers-that-be have made sure that Dorothy Thompson is a name only vaguely remembered by history mavens (unless, of course, the history they like is the history of American Journalism). nailed Vance like she was some kind of medium. that things have changed so little, that we have learned so little, is ...uhh....disheartening.
Well put. And as my beloved Vin Scully (a republican who donated to every nominee of the past 30 years until the 2016 nominee, so good for him) would say, an asterisk and a footnote. Haley and Pompeo are responsible, establishment republicans in much the same way that I am Miss Nude America. And I'm not.
You hit it exactly. It's much worse than it looks. Thanks for the post.
In 2016, when first learned he won, I said how bad can he be?? 8 years later he dropped the bottom out of being the most incompetent and deadly POtus to ever serve! Deadly as in the nearly 1,000,000 Americans who died due to his deliberately incompetent leadership during the covid crisis!
A 4 year shit show! But he will pocket tens of billions before the destruction is complete!
Our beloved country will be the scene of a giant s**t show. We are already seeing Nazi flags flying, bro guys insulting women at every turn, and immigrants - legal or not - getting harassed every day. We must fight back…but how?
Roger Stone alone with the power he’s going to wield is chilling enough. Willing executioners all.
And execute they will. His pick for AG posted that he wants to kill all white left-leaning women and drag their bodies thru the streets. But the f**king price of eggs…
He hasn't named Mike Davis yet. My hope is, he is dangling this monster - who would never get approved, even by the Republican senate - so that whichever other monstrous flunkie he does name sounds completely reasonable against "what might have been." I hope.
What loosie Cannon from Florida is getting the job???
We are down to hope, aren’t we. Maybe add thoughts and prayers. He will probably be “acting.” No laws/rules need be followed
He's going to name Mike Davis. It's why he wants the Senate Majority Leader to OK recess appointments. Bet on it.
Davis is made to order, just like the ruthless, no conscience asswipes that signed on to Adolf. Is it him or Kevin Robert’s? I still think he’s the carnival barker.
Roberts would not be AG.
He can fucking try to kill me, but he'll know I was there. This is such bullshit.
Similar to what Sophie Scholl said. Kill me and someone else will take my place, or words to that effect. It took Ike….
Hit the nail on the head yet again. No law can constrain him now. Conflicts of interest, aka kleptocracy, will be the rule of the day.
FWIW. I'm guessing West Palm Beach is going to be the new Silicon Valley or home of mega Banks'. The new seat of Power. The upscale restaurants and Univ "extensions," are moving in. Will the new Tesla logo be a little Palm tree?
I hope that if they do settle anywhere in Florida that Mother Earth sends the worst hurricane of all time right at them.
There were storm clouds 3 days ago. Hovering over PB. The town is eerily quiet. West Palm is dense with traffic. It can't handle what's coming. Storm clouds: the metaphor.
And the consequence for violating the Presidential Transition Act law is… not a damn thing. Ethics? Please refer all questions about ethics to the US Supreme Court.
Remember how Hillary lost an election in large part because of an investigation around using an unsecured server? Several members of Trump's new administration including members of his own family (his paid "advisor" daughter for one) were found to be using an unsecured server to send classified emails within weeks of his being in office last time. When confronted about it she said she hadn't known of the requirement... after Hillary's emails had been their family's war cry for Months. For them? No consequences.
In the style of Putin, sounds like a great “re-election” slogan, “Trump, No Consequences!” They’ll wear it like garbage bags over their diapers.
That court no longer is supreme nor US but trump -Robert’s stench tribunal!
We know he won't feel bound by any ethics codes nor by any promises or pledges he signs. The only point in trying to get him to sign anything is to at least have something on paper to present in court to hold him accountable later and we know the courts of this land will not hold him accountable, and we know he is unlikely to be in fit condition in four more years to be held mentally accountable for anything.
Now, "The team also missed several deadlines for signing agreements that are required in order for them to participate in national security meetings and to gain access to federal agencies" holds a bit more promise if those responsible for holding those national security meetings and heading those federal agencies would hold the line and say "sorry, we're still waiting on those agreements". Even if that were to happen however, it would only delay his access until he just replaces them with people who will say "ethics agreements? Who needs any fecking ethics agreements? Come on in, our casa your casa, our national insecurity meetings your meetings".
Without enforcement no "teeth" amount to a pile of broken dentures. I haven't read the agreements but if they don't specify consequences dealt out by people other than those he'll put in place, they aren't worth the paper they're written on. Once during a move, I had put down a rather nice knife I was using only to turn around and find it vanished. I knew which of the movers had been in the room and I knew which pocket it was in, but short of violence there was no way to prove it. He looked me right in the face, grinning, and said he hadn't seen it. I stood there while it really penetrated how much we all rely on the social contracts and expectations that govern daily life. Eventually, he was not the one who left with something that day - I did. I left with a bone deep understanding that when it's all stripped away, if someone can look you in the eye and lie, and there is no physical power of enforcement available or acceptable to you, they can do almost anything. The power of being a sociopath is chilling.
Spilled milk in this country is going to drown us all. During these last four years we should have been working on developing some form of enforcement that is independent of our three branches but can be brought to bear upon any one branch by order of the other two such that each branch conducts it's own business according to the limits set out for it and abides by those limits. We have hired security for shopping centers and banks, sheriffs and police to govern us in our towns and cities and on our highways. We have national guard. We have various specific enforcement groups for things like the border, for parks, for airports. But when we consider the very highest layers of our government there is suddenly a gaping void where enforcement ceases. When the SCOTUS decides to pop out inexplicable decisions in violation of precedent or without any explanations at all, or a justice refuses to recuse in a flagrant abuse of common morality, and the court refuses to devise ethics guidelines then produces something weak and worthless, or even then clearly violates even that, what can be done? I've heard repeatedly that their power is in the public's perception of their legitimacy, but I think their power is in their functional sociopathy. If the public concludes, to the last person, that the SCOTUS is no longer legitimate, then what? Who will go in and make Clarence Thomas sit out a case? Who will announce a decision they made violates the Constitution and declare no law enforcement shall enforce it? All of our law enforcement is aimed at the less powerful or the individual or at most at corporation level business violations. Where is the law enforcement for governmental systems?
Apparently it was always assumed that those in power would be honorable. We now know that the majority of the electorate no longer has "honorable" in their lexicon. My earnest hope is that with so many power seekers in one place, that place with become a snake pit wherein they spend their time going after one another. This would buy time for the midterms.
Ah! Another tactic - lobbing bait into the pit. Midas Touch was engaging in that one when they did ads suggesting someone was whispering about Trump inside his inner circle.
The Epstein tapes say Trump himself regularly engaged in pitting his advisors and sycophants against each other, saying this one said you're not so great at doing this, I like A but B tells me bad things about them, then to B that A says bad things about them. He liked to keep them stirred up in ways that must have been productive to him (or it just amused him?) and kept them from forming alliances so he was always at the center keeping them off balance.
Writing this it sounds like chaos benefits Trump, and it probably does, but you're right that keeping it off rhythm might slow down their efficiency.
I am very scared both as a Holocaust historian and a severely Disabled person who is going to die without the support of my medications. Inadequate as they are. Social security. Medicare. Medicaid. I have those all. Is so much ugh.
Rebecca, what state do you live in? Some states are likely to become better refuges against this administration than others.
Tim Walz’s Minnesota! And I know. But also very worry about federal programs.
Agh. Yes, of course, I see... so true. Well, make sure you get all of your updated inoculations while they are still available and send away for your free covid tests if you haven't already, and keep up to date on any efforts to affect those programs and to fight it in the courts so if there are opportunities to help you'll know about them, and if they can delay destruction by two years maybe we can get a Democrat House and Senate in two years if elections are still fair and people are finally paying attention. And keep surrounded by a like minded community, such as on Substack and in your region. Hugs.
I have a Medicaid waiver program where I get 83 hours a week of paid home health care. It also pays for other things, but that one is the key thing, both financially and personally.
That is a measure of how sick I am with two progressive brain diseases. I am 46 and have progressive spastic hemiparesis which basically means spastic paralysis. The exact disease labels are irrelevant.
Without that paid home health care (fiercely loyal and loving family members and I do still need to pay bills and eat) and the medications I have, I very quickly have three choices. Hospital stay, Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking and/or an overdose, and/or trying to be a refugee to Canada. That’s it. That’s all.
So yes, very very ears on ground and all. Not catastrophizing. And a very sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
No, not catastrophizing, and helplessness coupled with fear is terrible, but not unfounded. The only thing I can think of is that you might get some response if you write to those providers (start with various customer help calls and ask for where to write as well as looking online) and ask if they have a plan, ask for advice as to how you can plan, write Walz' office and ask those questions. With so much bulwark reinforcement needed so quickly it doesn't hurt to remind everyone about the need to plan ahead as to how to provide something for those most in need and draw attention to specific types of services that may be critical and unsupported. Will the state pick up some services? Does your county have services they may need to plan to reinforce or increase to fill gaps? Again, hugs. And keep online - it's a way to reach across miles and miles of blood red barbed wire attitude.
If such radical cuts are made they will cut into the magas as well, and then the assassination attempts may begin because they have the guns and we saw that it doesn't take much disillusionment for them to destroy things. Some of them may actually like their sick or handicapped family members and want to see them survive, even though that's probably a long shot. As for our side, lawyers and blue state AGs have already been strategizing to tie up any efforts to do serious damage. I think you'll be okay, Rebecca.
Damn. Just damn.
Those descriptions of Nazis are so directly applicable to Trump and Vance, it is downright eerie.
As of today Biden has offered to begin the transition, and Trump has pretty much slapped his hand away. Therefore, any Dems in current position who will be replaced must either refuse or neglect to train or provide orientation for their replacements. Take annual and sick leave time if it's available. Don't even tell them where the toilet paper is kept. No rolodexes. No phone chargers left behind. Reprogram the thermostats. No coffeepots. No introductions to maintenance staff. Maybe even switch the restroom signs. Anything not labeled government property gone. It can all be boxed and sent back later. Death by a thousand small cuts. Yes, I'm bad, but there's no reason to aid and abet them in unraveling our government and our country. It's clear that playing nice is for chumps.
2nd column I’ve seen invoking Dorothy. What an intrepid and little known journalist. Her descriptions are of hitler and the nazi party. She describes a parlor game during which the question would be asked, “who would be the nazi?”
As far as that man from Florida, the delusional “king” goes 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Greg's very happy I told him about the book, "Last Call At The Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Covered A World At War" which tells about Dorothy Thompson, John Gunther, and the rest of worked in the 1920s and 1930s to convince Americans to pay attention to world events.