strange elected officials – USA Gov Policy

Misstatements and misrepresentations concerning major figures affecting both national and local governments continue. The reasons may be misplaced political correctness, a biased media, or an unwillingness to confront extremely unpleasant facts. Candidates and elected officials affiliated with Tea Party principles are frequently described as extremist for adhering to concepts such as adherence to Constitutional practices and opposing excessive governmental spending. Yet a number of key individuals who have adopted truly odd positions continue to be overlooked.

Consider just two examples:

Al Sharpton: Black Americans have suffered deeply due to slavery and segregation. Now they are being further harmed by a media that insists on portraying Al Sharpton as a spokesman for them. According to the National Legal & Policy Center:

“The cold-blooded murder of two New York City police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, follows weeks of Sharpton’s vilification of law enforcement personnel…This is not the first time that violence and loss of life have followed Sharpton’s agitation, such as in the 1991 Crown Heights riots and the 1995 Freddy’s Fashion Mart incident. Sharpton’s involvement in these and other abhorrent episodes, such as the Tawana Brawley hoax, are a matter of record.”

Sharpton, who is said to owe $4.5 million in back taxes, has shown far more interest in self-aggrandizement than in assisting Black Americans. The media, particularly MSNBC where he hosts a show, does a grave disservice by extending to him an unwarranted platform to purvey his poison. That venue, as well as others that continue to portray this shake-down artist as a spokesman for Black Americans, has not received the criticism they deserve for this inappropriate and, yes, racist practice.
Make sure that you relate therapists understand the dynamics in a relationship. canada cialis online The various kinds of tests could be coordination tests, muscle strength, joint http://www.slovak-republic.org/history/communism/ cialis 10 mg motion, balance, sensory and neurological tests, flexibility, palpation, postural screening, and movement analysis. One would assume that by doing so they could help eliminate ED, but it’s a very wrong idea. cialis 5mg cheap It plays leading role in reducing troubles that invite conflict in human relationship. cialis soft canada Oral Jelly generally becomes visible in numerous tasty flavors such as mango, banana, black currant, orange, grape, strawberry, rose, watermelon, mint, chocolate and a lot more.
Mayor Bill de Blasio: New York’s Mayor is Bill De Blasio. This truly strange elected official supported the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua during the 1980’s, when they were inviting Soviet troops into their nation. His campaign featured such offensive comments about the Big Apple’s police force that he alienated what is generally agreed to be the world’s most professional law enforcement department. In office, he chose to re-appoint a judge who freed without bail two defendants who threatened their lives just days after two NYC cops were assassinated.

Despite his city’s many problems, upon taking office, he chose to prioritize an issue that wasn’t an issue at all. In what appeared to be a truly weird move, he sought to ban horse-drawn carriages from the city, a favorite tradition for tourists and locals, and a source of jobs. It turns out their stable was on a piece of property hotly desired by one of the Mayor’s campaign contributors.

Most media outlets have failed to emphasize his bizarre record both before and after his campaign.

Quick Analysis

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.