On June 27, 2019, Mette Frederiksen became Prime Minister of Denmark. A Social Democrat, she replaced the rightish Lars Rasmussen - who had, in his turn, replaced the Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt. 1/x
I don't follow Danish politics closely or consume much Danish TV. But I'll place a big bet denominated in Danish kroner that at each of these turns in office, nobody congratulated Danes on their "peaceful transfer of power." 2/x
A "peaceful transfer of power" is something that is just *expected* in developed countries, like electricity that works. What else do you expect? We are civilized people! 3/x
Yet here in the United States, at regular intervals, Americans do lavishly compliment themselves on the amazing accomplishment of their "peaceful transfer of power." Partly, this is driven by the cable networks' need to fill the boring morning of inauguration day with chatter 4/x
But it's also real. As Donald Trump's speculations about voiding ballots are showing ... the United States lingers closer than any other comparably advanced society to political violence. 5/x
In Denmark, Portugal, New Zealand, it goes without saying that a transfer of power will be peaceful. Here in the US - it's always a question. In no comparable society do millions of citizens carry arms - and threaten to fire them if they get a political result they dislike. 6/x
Should we all make it alive and intact to a Biden inaugural in January, you'll hear even more network chatter than usual about the so-called miracle of the unique American tradition of the peaceful presidential transfer of power. 7/x
But understand: what you will be hearing is not a celebration of a way in which the United States leads the democratic world. What you are hearing is a sorry indictment of a way the United States *lags* the democratic world. 8/x
And of course under Donald Trump - the US now lags further behind than ever: the only advanced democracy in which citizens must worry whether they will be allowed to vote, whether their vote will count - and whether the loser will use violence to hold power. - END-
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The defendant's presence at his criminal trial is not an inconvenience or imposition, as Trump's partisans complain. The defendant's presence is a *right,* guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. 1/x
The right to be present at one's trial is precious. But it is not absolute. The Supreme Court has ruled that presence at a trial can be forfeited by persistently bad behavior. 2/x
In Illinois v Allen (1970), the Supreme Court considered three options for dealing with "disruptive, contumacious, stubbornly defiant defendants": binding and gagging them, holding them in civil contempt, or temporarily removing them from the courtroom until they behave. 3/x
No big deal, just the second-largest newspaper in French Canada caricaturing Jews as vampires. lapresse.ca/actualites/car…
The Jew as vampire is one of the deepest myths of western culture. The 1922 film Nosferatu that inspired the La Presse cartoon also inspired Nazi cartoonists of the Third Reich anumuseum.org.il/blog/myth-vamp…
La Presse has removed the image, here's a screen shot. It substitutes Benjamin Netanyahu's face in an iconic still from the 1922 movie, Nosferatu. That film was riddled with antisemitic images and themes and directly inspired antisemitic cartoons in the Nazi press of the 1920s and 1930s.
Why was the Alger Hiss case such a big deal? The secrets Hiss betrayed to the Soviets were not so important. (He gave them, eg, blueprints for a new design for a Navy lifeboat.) It was Hiss's career trajectory that alarmed: the potential for a Soviet asset as secretary of state.
The Hiss case convulsed the country. But we've now had eight years of people with deep connections to the ex-KGB dictator in Moscow arriving at the very highest levels of US politics, media, and government - and that's become business as usual.
One conservative radio host used to - maybe still does - open his interviews by asking guests whether they believed Alger Hiss was guilty. Today, the answer might be, "Hiss was just a little ahead of his time."
News reports don't get more disturbing than this, from @propublica about the president of Mexico. propublica.org/article/mexico…
The @propublica story deals with Lopez Obrador's first run for president, in 2006. Lopez Obrador lost, a result he never accepted and tried to overturn. When he ran again in 2018, Lopez Obrador promised "hugs, not bullets" for the cartels.
@propublica As president, Lopez Obrador has shown favor to cartel criminals in many ways - perhaps most notably, by pressuring the Trump administration to release a former Mexican defense minister arrested in the US for drug corruption. Lopez Obrador then bestowed a medal on the ex-minister
Which is true, if by "existed" you mean "has been continuously sovereign under its present government."
It's also true that as a country founded in 1948, Israel is older than 134 of the 193 member nations of the United Nations.
The weird fact of the modern world is how *new* most countries are, even seemingly ancient ones. EG Egypt re-emerged as an independent sovereignty only in 1922 after half a millennium under Ottoman then British overlordship.
The concept of "indigenous peoples" is incoherent and generally sinister pretty much anywhere except Australasia. But it's an especial mess in the Middle East, where virtually every country is a broken-off bit of a long succession of ancient empires.