center-right government

The Scaredy Scare (#truthscare rising)

#ScaredyScare | #WhatTheyVotedFor

President Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump): "The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security 'leakers' that have permeated our government for a long time. They can't even find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on U.S. FIND NOW" (via Twitter, 24 February 2017)

It would seem ironic if, in the end, Republicans managed to make “patriot” the new “communist”. More than political irony, though, the strangeness of the Trump White House is such that we really cannot afford to skip the part that wonders if perhaps the president’s latest twitshit tantrum really does intend its darker implication.

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Peace, and May It Live Forever

It probably embarrasses sufficiently to suggest that had I been paying attention―

Colombia’s center-right government and the Marxist FARC rebel group signed a peace deal on Monday to end a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and once took the Andean country to the brink of collapse.

After four years of peace talks in Cuba, President Juan Manuel Santos, 65, and rebel leader Timochenko―the nom de guerre for 57-year-old Rodrigo Londono―warmly shook hands on Colombian soil for the first time and signed the accord with a pen made from a bullet casing.

(Murphy and Acosta)

―this wouldn’t be such a surprise.

Alright, then: Congratulations. Good luck.

Something about holy shit goes here, or perhaps I overstate myself. That I did not expect this in my lifetime only suggests I never cared to attend closely enough that I could reasonably expect a thing about how it goes.

Still, I’m pretty certain we’re supposed to be impressed.

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Murphy, Helen and Luis Jaime Acosta. “Colombia, Marxist rebels sign accord ending 52-year war”. Reuters. 27 September 2016.