You may have heard that yesterday the US ambassador to Denmark personally cancelled a talk at the Atlantic Council In Copenhagen by an international relations scholar deemed insufficiently pro-Trump. I posted yesterday about how unusual such behavior used to be
And how such partisanship at US embassies defies even the Trump administration's stated foreign-policy values ...
Then it occurred to me: I bet the ambassador who cancelled the talk - @USAmbDenmark - is very worried about "cancel culture" on campus. She maintains a personal account @CarlaHSands So I went and took a look yesterday
@USAmbDenmark @CarlaHSands The account is amazing. A serving US ambassador retweeting partisan attacks and conspiratorial fantasies from sites like Breitbart and Project Veritas. And yes, the ambassador who cancelled is indeed appalled by cancel culture. I didn't thread the links last night, so here goes
@USAmbDenmark @CarlaHSands So that's the series. As mentioned, I scrolled back only through three months. I screen-shotted, guessing the account will be locked or deleted soon. But, in the interim, serious point:
@USAmbDenmark @CarlaHSands Denmark is not alone. US embassies around the world are policing invitations by State Department backed groups, scrolling through social media accounts lest invitees somewhere sometime said something unsupportive about President Trump.
@USAmbDenmark @CarlaHSands The people being disinvited are not provocateurs. They are distinguished academics, retired public servants, typically addressing issues of foreign policy and international relations in a serious and even scholarly way. That was the case in Denmark.
@USAmbDenmark @CarlaHSands In the UK, Ambassador Woody Johnson fired his Deputy Chief of Mission for *mentioning* Barack Obama in course of a discussion of US support for gay rights in Africa. (The DCM, a career FSO, had served as ambassador to Senegal during the Obama years) businessinsider.com/trumps-uk-amba…
@USAmbDenmark @CarlaHSands Even worse stories are told about the US embassy in Germany under the ambassadorship of former Fox News contributor Richard Grenell.
@USAmbDenmark @CarlaHSands Embassies are not PR shops for presidents. They are paid for by taxpayer funds, contributed by those who voted for and against President Trump. They exist to serve the interests of the United States as a nation, not the interests of one party or faction.
@USAmbDenmark @CarlaHSands As Trump scandals go, what happened in Denmark yesterday does not rank in the top 250. But it's an example of the corruption that has gripped the whole administration from top to bottom: the all-pervading abuse of government power for private purposes.
@USAmbDenmark @CarlaHSands Trump's corruption in Ukraine is the most aggressive and dangerous (known) instance. If Ukraine was extreme, though, it's not unique.
It's not something in Denmark that is rotten. Something is rotten in DC. And the stink has been wafted all the way to the Skagerrak
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It's not something in Denmark that is rotten. Something is rotten in DC. And the stink has been wafted all the way to the Skagerrak
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