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“US has decisively stepped away from aspiring to be a force for good.”—Keir Giles, American Overthrow
It takes a cold line like that to wake up a slumbering nation.
People can debate the historic good of the US, but there’s no question that the US has betrayed the post-World War II liberal world order.
Trump and his loyalists ally with dictators and are doing everything in their considerable power to harm remaining democratic nations.
One way to harm democratic nations is to attack international law.
Since last year, I have reported extensively on Trump’s targeting of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
As I prepared for an interview on The Thom Hartmann Program yesterday, I realized that all of Trump’s dictator pals are under investigation by the ICC, which issued arrest warrants for Putin, Netanyahu, and is currently holding Rodrigo Duterte in detention as he awaits trial for crimes against humanity.
Clearly, by going after the ICC, Trump is signaling he identifies with the criminals and not with civil society.
Each day brings a new attack, as he tries to remove any potential threats that might thwart his own criminal behavior, while also helping his criminal friends.
Today, the ICC was forced to rebuke new US sanctions on Judge Tomoko Akane, the Court’s President, who in 2023 issued the arrest warrant for Putin, and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, calling it a “flagrant attack” on the Court. To date, the US has targeted nine ICC judges, both deputy-prosecutors, a former prosecutor and a staffer.
Akane is from Japan, the biggest funder of the ICC, and has served as the ICC’s president since March 2024. Seye is from Senegal.
In its statement, the ICC said it “stands behind its personnel and behind victims of unimaginable atrocities,” a reminder that the Court is tasked with investigating genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression.
While the US bullies the ICC’s 125 member states, in a pressure campaign to retaliate on nations that refuse to withdraw support, multiple world leaders from the EU and Japan blasted the latest US attacks.
Ballroom Intrigue
While the remaining free world is rallying around the ICC, the Financial Times breaks a story about how Trump’s “ballroom official held quiet Kremlin talks.”
According to the FT report:
The US official overseeing Donald Trump’s contentious White House ballroom extension held talks with Kremlin officials in Russia this summer as part of a quiet diplomatic mission, according to people familiar with the matter.
Rodney Mims Cook Jr, chair of the US Commission of Fine Arts, was given a diplomatic passport and extensive briefings before attending Vladimir Putin’s flagship economic forum in St Petersburg in June, where he met Kremlin officials and was assigned a diplomatic security detail, the people said.
An enthusiast for Russian culture, Cook presented his trip as a “cultural visit” where he showed photographs of his “dacha” in Atlanta.
“A quiet diplomatic mission.”
While Trump and his loyalists are dancing with dictators, EU nations are exposing more acts of Russian sabotage.
Among the latest breakers: Paris prosecutors are investigating Russian destabilization campaigns aimed at France’s 2027 election, which include targeting two former prime ministers and a current candidate. Using “doppelgänger” media tactics, French political leaders became the focus of operations where Russians created fake reports that mimic French media outlets.
Recall in 2017, when Russia hacked Macron and his campaign staff, distributing 9GB of private data, and French media ignored it? The previous year in the US, Trump loyalists distributed the Russian hacked private data of Clinton and her campaign staff to media outlets, which published the Russian provided material.
Today, Estonia is investigating possible Russian sabotage after an arson attack at a defense firm that provides military systems to Ukraine.
Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said that investigators have already identified suspects, as she noted: “One of the theories being investigated is that this may have been an act of sabotage and that Russia was behind the arson. If the aim was to intimidate Estonia, turn our citizens against one another, or force us to stop supporting Ukraine, it will not succeed.”
The defense firm, Milrem Robotics, produces ground robotic systems.
Recently, I have reported on both France and Estonia’s increased moves to thwart Russian sub-threshold attacks.
Both countries are hardening their democratic immune systems by expelling or imprisoning Russian propagandists.
Multiple European nations are also blacklisting the data analytics firm, Palantir, due to US security threats.
With zero fig leaves obfuscating Trump and his loyalists rushed efforts to remove any obstacles to their unbridled power and financial pillaging, I find it useful to return to history to see what happens when checks and balances fail.
Earlier this summer, I spent some time educating myself about the English Civil War, which took place in the mid-1600s during the reign of King Charles I.
In short: when King Charles tried to nullify Parliament, they raised an army, and he misplaced his head.
History is endlessly fascinating.
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