New York Times (March 21)
“From his first announcement of the attack on Iran on Feb. 28, President Trump has issued a stream of falsehoods about the war.” It’s well documented that “lying is standard behavior for Mr. Trump,” but “lying about war is uniquely corrosive. When a president signals that the truth does not matter in wartime, he …. makes it harder to win by hiding the realities of conflict and by making allies wary of joining the fight. Ultimately, he undermines American values and interests.”
Tags: Allies, Attack, Conflict, Corrosive, Documented, Falsehoods, Iran, Lying, Realities, Signals, Standard behavior, Trump, Truth, Undermines, Values, War, Wartime, Wary
Professional Pensions (April 17)
“As political tides shift in the US, many firms are pulling back on their DE&I commitments, restructuring or scrapping entire departments in response to legal challenges and cultural pressure. And the ripples are already reaching UK shores.” The appropriate response is not “about virtue signalling, it’s about smart governance.” US backsliding presents “a real, tangible issue that UK organisations, especially those working with global partners, need to pay close attention to.” They should secure their values and their supply chains as Transport for London did “by cutting ties with Accenture … after the consultancy ‘sunset’ key DE&I policies.” TfL disallowed Accenture “from bidding on a creative contract because it no longer met TfL’s diversity criteria, stating ‘We are proud to hold our suppliers to account… making sure they are aligned with our commitments on diversity and inclusivity.’”
Tags: Accenture, Cultural pressure, DE&I commitments, Legal challenges, Political tides, Restructuring, Smart governance, Suppliers, Supply chains, Transport for London, U.S., UK, Values, Virtue signalling
Foreign Affairs (September 2)
“Europe’s supposed commitment to seeing Russia held to account for its actions in Ukraine seems to be trumped by its undeniable energy needs.” An overfocus on symptoms and quick fixes obscures “the path toward energy security.” Absent “coordinated foreign policy—not fragmented individual national responses…. EU member states will find themselves constantly threading the needle between upholding their values and meeting the basic needs of their citizens, a precarious exercise that will hurt the European project itself.”
Tags: Basic needs, Citizens, Commitment, Energy needs, Energy security, EU, Europe, Foreign policy, Fragmented, National, Responses, Russia, Symptoms, Ukraine, Values
New York Times (June 12)
“Something truly terrible happened on Jan. 6, and confronting it is essential to healing our divided nation.” The hearings aren’t “simply about holding Mr. Trump, his allies and the flag-draped thugs storming the halls to account. The hearings challenge all Americans to recommit to the principles of democracy, ask how important those values are to us and face the threats posed to our democratic way of life.”
Tags: Challenge, Democracy, Divided nation, Essential, Healing, Hearings, Jan. 6, Recommit, Terrible, Threats, Thugs, Trump, Values
New York Times (November 7)
“Having peered into the abyss of autocratic nationalism, the American people have chosen to step back from the brink. The ballot counting will continue for a few days yet, but… Joe Biden will have the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, and likely many more. President Trump’s four-year assault on our democratic institutions and values will soon end.”
Tags: Abyss, Assault, Ballot counting, Biden, Democratic institutions, Electoral votes, Nationalism, Trump, U.S. Autocratic, Values, White House
New York Times (November 21)
Donald Trump stood up “for Saudi Arabian values. He disregarded the C.I.A.’s conclusions and American values in swallowing the Saudi version of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.” The President did absolutely nothing to support “the safety of journalists or Americans abroad.” He “could not summon even a modicum of lip service to condemn the abomination of dispatching a hit team equipped with a bone saw to throttle and dismember Mr. Khashoggi for daring to criticize the crown prince.”
Tags: Abomination, Bone saw, C.I.A., Crown Prince, Dismember, Journalist, Khashoggi, Murder, Saudi Arabia, Trump, U.S., Values
Washington Post (March 6)
“As the saying goes, you don’t miss the water until the well runs dry: This deeply aberrant presidency threatens to cost the nation much more than even some of President Trump’s harshest critics may realize…. It’s easy to lose the habits and values of democracy, but incredibly hard to get them back. Perhaps most difficult is to recover lost faith in the rule of law.”
Tags: Aberrant, Cost, Critics, Democracy, Habits, Lost faith, Presidency, Recover, Rule of law, Trump, Values
Boston Globe (August 16)
“In one respect, we should be grateful for the president’s unhinged performance. No longer do we need to deliberate over his true character and beliefs. We can just give up the ghost and acknowledge, as a nation, that the president of the United States is a racist. Period. He doesn’t just sympathize with white supremacists and neo-Nazis, he agrees with them…. Every day that he remains president is a day that further diminishes our values, our basic decency, and our nation as a whole. The time has come for every American, regardless of their partisan affiliation, to demand that he relinquish his office.”
Tags: Beliefs, Character, Decency, Grateful, Neo-Nazis, Racist, Resign, U.S., Unhinged, Values, White supremacists
LA Times (January 14)
“Farewell to Barack Obama: A humane, intelligent and (mostly) effective leader…. The 44th president was a conscientious and intelligent leader who espoused humane values, inspired millions of Americans and successfully fulfilled some of his most significant promises.”
Tags: Conscientious, Effective, Farewell, Humane, Inspired, Intelligent, Leader, Obama, Successful, Values
Financial Times (December 20)
“Fear and rage must not be used as an excuse to destroy America’s core institutions.” Britain and other western democracies are also at risk of falling into the hands of despots. “The core institutions of democracy do not protect themselves. They are protected by people who understand and cherish the values they embody. Politics must respond to the fear and rage that brought Mr Trump to power. But it must not surrender to them. They must not be an excuse to destroy the republic.”
Tags: Core institutions, Democracies, Despots, Fear, People, Politics, Rage, Trump, UK, Values
