Podcasts about american ambassador

Former CIA agent and Boston native Ralph Mariani shares the real-life thriller account of the 1975 murder of his boss, Richard Welch, the then-CIA station chief in Athens, and the twenty-seven-year investigation that was only solved when two grandmas came forward when a new description of the culprits was circulated.On the night of December 23, 1975, CIA Station Chief Dick Welch and his family attended a Christmas party at the American Ambassador's residence. Upon returning home, Dick exited the car to open the main gate. A man appeared amid the darkness and shot him dead. Five days after the attack, a terrorist group called “Revolutionary Organization 17 November” claimed responsibility for Dick's death. It wasn't until 2003—almost 28 years later— after 17 November had killed 23 people as a bomb exploded in the hands of Savvas Xiros, one of the organization's most ruthless killers, that the people responsible for the murder of Dick Welch and several other foreign diplomats were caught. Because of the  steadfast efforts of Ralph Mariani, other colleagues and members of Welch's family, together with fears about poor publicity ahead of the 2004 Olympics did Greek authorities finally take action against the group, and bring them to justice. The question Mariani helps answer is: Why did it take so long? And why did the Greek government not accept US help in solving the crime?   Heroes Behind HeadlinesExecutive Producer Ralph PezzulloProduced & Engineered by Mike DawsonMusic provided by ExtremeMusic.com

rWotD Episode 3164: William Short (American ambassador) Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Thursday, 1 January 2026, is William Short (American ambassador).William Short (September 30, 1759 – December 5, 1849), a Virginia-born lawyer who disagreed with slavery, became an American diplomat during the first two decades of his country's existence before moving to Philadelphia and becoming a successful financier and philanthropist. Thomas Jefferson, later the third President of the United States, was a lifelong mentor and friend. In a 1789 letter, Jefferson referred to Short as his "adoptive son," Short served as Jefferson's private secretary when the latter was a peace commissioner in France, and remained in Europe to take on several other diplomatic posts, including as the U. S.'s chargé d'affaires in France during the French Revolution (1789–92), America's fiscal agent in Europe (1790-1794), as America's Minister to the Netherlands (1792), as a treaty commissioner to Spain (1794 to 1795), and had a recess appointment as Ambassador to Russia in 1808 but never physically assumed the post.Although Short's diplomatic career was not as celebrated or long as Short may have wished, and his love affair with a French noblewoman ended with her marrying another man, Short was a successful businessman and an opponent of slavery who died very wealthy in America.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:19 UTC on Thursday, 1 January 2026.For the full current version of the article, see William Short (American ambassador) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Niamh.

Peso Pluma BioSnap a weekly updated Biography.Peso Pluma's ascent over the past few days reads like a whirlwind of historic firsts and high-wattage headlines, blending global fashion influence with undeniable music power. According to multiple outlets including Hombre1, Hola, and QueOnda, Peso Pluma has just been named the first-ever Mexican-American ambassador for New York Fashion Week by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. This isn't a ceremonial title; it positions him centre stage as NYFW launches its Spring/Summer 2026 season at Rockefeller Center, joining a select cadre including club CFDA Chairman Thom Browne, mega-designers Michael Kors and Anna Sui, and co-ambassadors Young Miko and Anok Yai. Fashion insiders say his appointment marks a cultural shift—Peso Pluma is now the face of NYFW, spotlighting Latin music's growing influence beyond playlists and stadiums.Social media chatter and entertainment headlines are buzzing about his presence, as he'll be featured throughout NYFW Live at Rockefeller Center, broadcast events running September 11–16 and connecting American collections with the broader public for the first time. Peso Pluma's ambassador status comes on top of a breakout year: Hola reminds us that he's up for nine awards at the 2025 Billboard Latin Music Awards, including Artist of the Year, Hot Latin Songs Artist of the Year Male, and several nominations for his album Exodo. His recent single releases, including Morena (Remix) with Tiësto and Netón Vega and Desvelada with Oscar Maydon, are pulling big streaming numbers and drawing attention for their genre-blending sound—a fusion of classic Mexican corridos, EDM, and urban pop.In fashion, Peso Pluma's style clout has been on full display. Earlier this year, he debuted at Thom Browne's Fall/Winter show in signature threads, confirming his crossover appeal as both sartorial tastemaker and pop star. Public discussion on platforms like Instagram, X, and TikTok continues to amplify his public image, with fans and fashionistas alike sharing clips of his NYFW appearances and new festival bookings.On the business front, Billboard and Telemundo confirm his role as label boss at Double P Records in partnership with George Prajin, signaling a shift toward mentorship and industry leadership. Meanwhile, previous performance visas—and those of other Latin stars—were reportedly at risk due to tightened U.S. immigration rules, as reported by KNPR, but no verified accounts indicate any recent interruption in Peso Pluma's U.S. activity.In sum, Peso Pluma's latest milestones at New York Fashion Week and his nominations at the Billboard Latin Music Awards underline a transformative moment—not just for his résumé, but for the profile of música Mexicana and Latin culture worldwide. If there's speculation, it's simply about who he'll collaborate with next or which runway he'll conquer. For now, his star is burning brighter than ever, with every headline, streaming chart, and fashion week snapshot doubling as evidence.Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOtaThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

According to a former American Ambassador to Ukraine, Trump's one-on-one meeting with Putin in Alaska is a bad look for the President - and very unlikely to produce a deal. As hot, dry weather persists on Prince Edward Island, a farmer says this season, his mind is on fire precautions as much as the harvest. A new study of an English burial site finds that some remains dating back to the seventh-century had West African ancestry - and one archeologist tells us the discovery is a reminder not to assume too much about the early Middle Ages. We hear from a Canadian organizer behind a human chain joining citizens on both sides of the border in protest of Trump administration policies who says some of her American neighbours are fearful, but determined to take part. She's no spring chicken - in fact, she's the oldest hen in the world. And the owner of the distinguished bird named Pearl -- tells us the hen has a lot in common with her predecessor, plus a few peccadillos all her own.We hear from an planetary geologist who has studied an extraordinary meteorite, that crashed through a roof and landed mere feet from the homeowner. As It Happens, the Wednesday edition. Radio that always keeps things down to earth.

Is it “outrageous” to ban American products on Canadian shelves in response to Trump's annexation fixation? Well, the orange guy in the White House has another marionette's strings to pull in Pete Hoekstra, the new American Ambassador to Canada, who made these statements in a recent interview. The United States has “never done anything like that to Canada”, he says. (Pause for eye roll.) Let's talk about these and some other appalling comments the US Ambassador to Canada has said regarding the Trump tariffs. Is Pete Hoekstra gaslighting us? Let's remember how we got here in the first place, Pete… This isn't the first time that America has happily twisted history, and it won't be the last. (PS: I had to mute a lot of cussing in this one. Sorry.)In Episode 145 of The Bill Kelly Podcast, host Bill Kelly discusses the recent appointment of Pete Hoekstra as the American ambassador to Canada. Bill expresses concern over Hoekstra's alignment with Trump administration policies, particularly regarding trade and tariffs. He highlights the impact of these policies on Canadian industries and the government's response, including looking for alternative trade partners. The conversation also touches on historical misrepresentations of Canada's contributions in global events and emphasizes the need for Canada to assert its sovereignty in international relations.Become a YouTube channel member to hear Bill's stories and life lessons from 50+ years as a broadcast journalist in his members-only series, MORAL OF THE STORY: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeUbzckOLocFzNeY1D72iCA/joinDon't forget to like, follow and subscribe across our channels! Thank you.Listen to The Bill Kelly Podcast everywhere: https://kite.link/the-bill-kelly-podcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBillKellyPodcast/featuredBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thisisbillkelly.bsky.socialFacebook: https://facebook.com/TheBillKellyPodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisisbillkelly/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisbillkelly/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebillkellypodcastSubStack: CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction to Ambassador Hoekstra02:23 Canadian Response to American Trade Policies07:17 Historical Context and Misunderstandings15:26 Conclusion and Call to Action16:13 Injured? Call Wissenz Law! 905 522 1102FURTHER READING‘It's Outrageous That You Banned American Products From Your Shelves'https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/16/canada-ambassador-trump-51st-state-interview-00353689Canadian Caper, escape of six Americans from Tehran during the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79.https://www.britannica.com/event/Iran-hostage-crisisWho won the war in Europe? Historians weigh inhttps://legionmagazine.com/who-won-the-war-in-europe-historians-weigh-in/HASHTAGS#News#Politics#BreakingNews#politicalnews#newsupdate#canadanews#CanadaElection#canadianpolitics#CanadianNews#podcast#NewsPodcast#PoliticalPodcast#PoliticalNews#PoliticalCommentary#Election2025#NewsUpdates#PoliticalDebate#PoliticalInsights#CurrentAffairs#NewsCommentary#PoliticalCommentary#TodayNews#NewsToday#Liberals#LiberalParty#TrumpTariffs#Tariffs#CanadaUSRelations This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit billkelly.substack.com/subscribe

John's guest this week is John Nay. He is a guest from a previous show where they talked over Nay's life journey, including 36 years in the US Foreign Service. In this show they talk over the wide range of experiences of such a career. Also, he talks over the murder of the American Ambassador to Libya in Benghazi, and the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, leading to 444 days as hostages before being released.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

                                     REVOLUTION!                           Phase One - Trump/Zelensky                The Black Spy Podcast, Season 19, Episode 0004   The Trump/Zelensky debacle in the Oval Office, showed as clearly, as did the Vietnam or Afghanistan end of US engagement optics did, that the United states has ended its adventure in the Ukraine. However, in addition to just this sign that an incoming President wanted to divest himself of a losing, frankly unwinnable war, President Trump is showing a true revolutionary zeal to change the whole US military, industrial and congressional complex. Now transactional business and not secret intelligence driven covert and overt warfare is no longer the preferred model to retain US world-wide hegemony. At least not with a military pier equivalent nation. Russia's "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine, initiated in February 2022, has been framed by the Kremlin as a response to various historical and geopolitical factors. One narrative emphasizes the presence of far-right elements in Ukraine, drawing connections to nationalist groups active during World War II. However, although most western experts reject the portrayal of Ukraine as a neo-Nazi state, noting that while far-right groups exist, they do not hold significant influence in the government or military, they nevertheless have little to say about such far right units killing 14,000 Russian heritaged Ukrainian civilian citizens since 2016. In the early stages of the Cold War, Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA and MI6, reportedly collaborated with former Ukrainian nationalist fighters to undermine Soviet authority. These covert operations aimed to exploit anti-Soviet sentiments. This lasted 10 years and saw the reported death of up to a 100,000 Soviet Citizens. In the end though, it has been stated by the west, that this had limited long-term impact. The 2014 Maidan uprising, which led to the ousting of Ukraine's pro-Russian president, is viewed by Russia as a Western-backed coup that shifted Ukraine towards Euro-Atlantic integration. This assertion is backed up by Sigint in which, Victoria Nuland, the officer in charge of Eastern Europe in the US State Department discussing which Ukrainian's leaders should or shouldn't rule the country with the American Ambassador to the Ukraine The recording ends with Nuland saying she'll have president Biden slap the person they chose to lead Ukraine on the back when they take power! NATO's eastward expansion since 1991 has been perceived by Russia as a direct threat to its security interests. Despite assurances in the 1990s about limiting NATO's growth, to not one inch outside of the then East Germany, the alliance has incorporated several Eastern European countries, heightening tensions, as it attempted to incorporate the Ukraine. The Minsk agreements, brokered by Germany and France, aimed to cease hostilities in Eastern Ukraine. Critics argue that, rather than fostering peace, these accords allowed Ukraine to strengthen its military capabilities, which was confirmed by both the German Chancellor Merkel and French President Holland after they left office. This act intensifying conflicts in regions with significant Russian-speaking populations, such as Donbas and Crimea. In summary, President Trump appeared to validate everything that Russia has hitherto stated is its reason for military actions in Ukraine. The Oval Office statements of President Trump and administration seemed to agree with the justification previously articulated by the Kremlin through a complex interplay of historical grievances, security concerns over NATO's expansion, and perceptions of Western interference in Ukraine's political trajectory meaning their is now little dispute between the US' causes for war and Russia's. As Trump continually states, there would have been no war if he were president! As always, please don't be afraid to contact us and put any questions you might have to any of the Black Spy Podcast team concerning this or any other of our fascinating subjects. And, if you want to continue learning whilst being entertained, please don't forget to subscribe to the Black Spy Podcast for free, so you'll never miss another episode. To contact Firgas Esack of the DAPS Agency go to Linked In To contact Dr. Rachel Taylor please use her Substack account. To contact Carlton King by utilising any of the following: To donate - Patreon.com/TheBlackSpyPodcast Email: carltonking2003@gmail.com Facebook: The Black Spy Podcast Facebook: Carlton King Author Twitter@Carlton_King Instagram@carltonkingauthor To read Carlton's Autobiography: “Black Ops – The incredible true story of a (Black) British secret agent” he incredible true story of a (Black) British secret agent”

The road to the TRUMPIAN revolution (Part 2) The Black Spy Podcast, Season 19, Episode 0003   Russia's "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine, initiated in February 2022, has been framed by the Kremlin as a response to various historical and geopolitical factors. One narrative emphasizes the presence of far-right elements in Ukraine, drawing connections to nationalist groups active during World War II. However, although most western experts reject the portrayal of Ukraine as a neo-Nazi state, noting that while far-right groups exist, they do not hold significant influence in the government or military, they nevertheless have little to say about such far right units killing 14,000 Russian heritaged Ukrainian civilian citizens since 2016. In the early stages of the Cold War, Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA and MI6, reportedly collaborated with former Ukrainian nationalist fighters to undermine Soviet authority. These covert operations aimed to exploit anti-Soviet sentiments. This lasted 10 years and saw the reported death of up to a 100,000 Soviet Citizens. In the end though, it has been stated by the west, that this had limited long-term impact. The 2014 Maidan uprising, which led to the ousting of Ukraine's pro-Russian president, is viewed by Russia as a Western-backed coup that shifted Ukraine towards Euro-Atlantic integration. This assertion is backed up by Sigint in which, Victoria Nuland, the officer in charge of Eastern Europe in the US State Department discussing which Ukrainian's leaders should or shouldn't rule the country with the American Ambassador to the Ukraine The recording ends with Nuland saying she'll have president Biden slap the person they chose to lead Ukraine on the back when they take power! NATO's eastward expansion since 1991 has been perceived by Russia as a direct threat to its security interests. Despite assurances in the 1990s about limiting NATO's growth, to not one inch outside of the then East Germany, the alliance has incorporated several Eastern European countries, heightening tensions, as it attempted to incorporate the Ukraine. The Minsk agreements, brokered by Germany and France, aimed to cease hostilities in Eastern Ukraine. Critics argue that, rather than fostering peace, these accords allowed Ukraine to strengthen its military capabilities, which was confirmed by both the German Chancellor Merkel and French President Holland after they left office. This act intensifying conflicts in regions with significant Russian-speaking populations, such as Donbas and Crimea. In summary, Russia's military actions in Ukraine are justified by the Kremlin through a complex interplay of historical grievances, security concerns over NATO's expansion, and perceptions of Western interference in Ukraine's political trajectory. However, many of these justifications have been contested by Western leaders, officials and the western mainstream mass media albeit now, President Trump is accepting that all of Russia's grievances are indeed TRUE! As always, please don't be afraid to contact us and put any questions you might have to any of the Black Spy Podcast team concerning this or any other of our fascinating subjects. And, if you want to continue learning whilst being entertained, please don't forget to subscribe to the Black Spy Podcast for free, so you'll never miss another episode. To contact Firgas Esack of the DAPS Agency go to Linked In To contact Dr. Rachel Taylor please use her Substack account. To contact Carlton King by utilising any of the following: To donate - Patreon.com/TheBlackSpyPodcast Email: carltonking2003@gmail.com Facebook: The Black Spy Podcast Facebook: Carlton King Author Twitter@Carlton_King Instagram@carltonkingauthor To read Carlton's Autobiography: “Black Ops – The incredible true story of a (Black) British secret agent”

The road to the TRUMPIAN revolution (Part 1) The Black Spy Podcast, Season 19, Episode 0002   Russia's "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine, initiated in February 2022, has been framed by the Kremlin as a response to various historical and geopolitical factors. One narrative emphasizes the presence of far-right elements in Ukraine, drawing connections to nationalist groups active during World War II. However, although most western experts reject the portrayal of Ukraine as a neo-Nazi state, noting that while far-right groups exist, they do not hold significant influence in the government or military, they nevertheless have little to say about such far right units killing 14,000 Russian heritaged Ukrainian civilian citizens since 2016. In the early stages of the Cold War, Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA and MI6, reportedly collaborated with former Ukrainian nationalist fighters to undermine Soviet authority. These covert operations aimed to exploit anti-Soviet sentiments. This lasted 10 years and saw the reported death of up to a 100,000 Soviet Citizens. In the end though, it has been stated by the west, that this had limited long-term impact. The 2014 Maidan uprising, which led to the ousting of Ukraine's pro-Russian president, is viewed by Russia as a Western-backed coup that shifted Ukraine towards Euro-Atlantic integration. This assertion is backed up by Sigint in which, Victoria Nuland, the officer in charge of Eastern Europe in the US State Department discussing which Ukrainian's leaders should or shouldn't rule the country with the American Ambassador to the Ukraine The recording ends with Nuland saying she'll have president Biden slap the person they chose to lead Ukraine on the back when they take power! NATO's eastward expansion since 1991 has been perceived by Russia as a direct threat to its security interests. Despite assurances in the 1990s about limiting NATO's growth, to not one inch outside of the then East Germany, the alliance has incorporated several Eastern European countries, heightening tensions, as it attempted to incorporate the Ukraine. The Minsk agreements, brokered by Germany and France, aimed to cease hostilities in Eastern Ukraine. Critics argue that, rather than fostering peace, these accords allowed Ukraine to strengthen its military capabilities, which was confirmed by both the German Chancellor Merkel and French President Holland after they left office. This act intensifying conflicts in regions with significant Russian-speaking populations, such as Donbas and Crimea. In summary, Russia's military actions in Ukraine are justified by the Kremlin through a complex interplay of historical grievances, security concerns over NATO's expansion, and perceptions of Western interference in Ukraine's political trajectory. However, many of these justifications have been contested by Western leaders, officials and the western mainstream mass media albeit now, President Trump is accepting that all of Russia's grievances are indeed TRUE! As always, please don't be afraid to contact us and put any questions you might have to any of the Black Spy Podcast team concerning this or any other of our fascinating subjects. And, if you want to continue learning whilst being entertained, please don't forget to subscribe to the Black Spy Podcast for free, so you'll never miss another episode. To contact Firgas Esack of the DAPS Agency go to Linked In To contact Dr. Rachel Taylor please use her Substack account. To contact Carlton King by utilising any of the following: To donate - Patreon.com/TheBlackSpyPodcast Email: carltonking2003@gmail.com Facebook: The Black Spy Podcast Facebook: Carlton King Author Twitter@Carlton_King Instagram@carltonkingauthor To read Carlton's Autobiography: “Black Ops – The incredible true story of a (Black) British secret agent”

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How the hostage demonstrators are misguided Gazan civilians are enemies and the South Lebanese population is cared for by Hezbollah and supports them. Why the present American Ambassador to Israel is not welcome here. What should Gaza's future be? American Democrat's clear sign of panic. Hear why. And much more. The Walter Bingham File 29OCT2024 - PODCAST

On this week's Spectator Out Loud: James Heale interviews Woody Johnson, the former American Ambassador to the UK, about a possible second Trump term (1:19); Lara Prendergast reflects on the issue of smartphones for children and what lessons we could learn from Keir Starmer's approach to privacy (6:35); reviewing Patrick Bishop's book ‘Paris '44: The Shame and the Glory', Patrick Marnham argues the liberation of Paris was hard won (12:37); Laura Gascoigne examines Ukraine's avant garde movement in light of the Russian invasion (20:34); and, Michael Simmons provides his notes on venn diagrams (28:33).    Presented by Patrick Gibbons.  

On this week's Spectator Out Loud: James Heale interviews Woody Johnson, the former American Ambassador to the UK, about a possible second Trump term (1:19); Lara Prendergast reflects on the issue of smartphones for children and what lessons we could learn from Keir Starmer's approach to privacy (6:35); reviewing Patrick Bishop's book ‘Paris '44: The Shame and the Glory', Patrick Marnham argues the liberation of Paris was hard won (12:37); Laura Gascoigne examines Ukraine's avant garde movement in light of the Russian invasion (20:34); and, Michael Simmons provides his notes on venn diagrams (28:33).    Presented by Patrick Gibbons.  

At the American Ambassador's residence in Dublin last week, there was an extraordinary event. Many of the main architects of the peace process gathered to talk about how it was done and what the world can learn from it as the horrors of Gaza continue. Joe was among the invited audience and it reminded him of a time when politicians were serious. On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at the recent election results. What do they mean for Sinn Féin and the country? As Nigel Farage hijacks the U.K. election, has the far right in Ireland done something similar? Is the country heading down the same road as Britain and the US?This episode of Free State is sponsored by Manscaped. Visit https://www.manscaped.com/ and get 20% off and free shipping by using code freestate20Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The Dubs"#458 - Tim VanSwol joins Chris with a special research project on Disney's most famous fiery fowl...Donald Duck! Donald's 90th birthday is approaching soon so we wanted to share his full backstory including his creation, his contribution as an American Ambassador in the War effort and to South America, his career accomplishments and his status as a beloved Disney Icon! Join us in Show #458 to hear more!  Find The Dub Dee Dub Revue @ TheDubDeeDubRevue.com   Twitter (X) @dubdeedubrevue Facebook @thedubdeedubrevue Instagram @thedubdeedubrevuepodcast  Lastly, Thank You to our sponsor for making this show happen:  Disney Vacation Club Resales and Point Rental (DVC-Rental.com & buyandselldvc.com)  We appreciate your support...AND...as always, we appreciate YOU spending a little of your time with us.  We know that you have lots of options for Disney-based podcasts, but for including us...Thank You!

Senior International Counsel Ambassador Robert Kimmitt joins In the Public Interest host Felicia Ellsworth to talk about his storied career in public service. Through his service as the first General Counsel of the National Security Council, the first American Ambassador to a united Germany in over 50 years, General Counsel and Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and more, Ambassador Kimmitt has played a leading role in some of the most high-profile international events in recent history, and he shares that perspective with listeners.Ellsworth and Kimmitt also discuss his private practice at WilmerHale, including how he and the firm have become go-to resources for journalists and others who have been taken hostage in difficult countries around the world. He shares the role he played in bringing home The Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, among others.

This episode features Dominique Petit-Wagner discussing her masters thesis entitled: "Briefing the Ambassador: Joseph Davies and the U.S. Press Corps in Moscow, 1936-1938."  Our discussion focuses on American Ambassador Joseph E. Davies and a few American journalists who bought into the socialist realist presentation of the Soviet Union during the tumoulotus 1930s. We talk about what socialist realism was, why and how these eminent Americans supported the Soviet Union, and what this tells us about modernization during the Stalin period. Dominique Petit-Wagner is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Soviet, Canadian, and intellectual history. Whereas her MA thesis explored American perceptions of the Soviet Union and their controversial immersion in socialist realist culture in the late 1930s, her doctoral research seeks to contrast and compare these findings against the experiences of Canadians touring the USSR in the interwar period. Link to Dominique's paper: https://ruor.uottawa.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/175e024b-31d4-478f-8453-39578212230e/content To support the show you can join the patreon at patreon.com/aesthepodcast You can follow the show on twitter @aesthepodcast  

Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd   FULL TRANSCRIPT: Announcer (00:06): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Wilmer Leon (00:14): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. And I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they happen in a vacuum, failing to understand the historical context, the broader historic context in which these events occur. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This enables you to better understand and analyze events that impact the global village in which we live on today's episode. The issues before us are, what are the anticipated results of the most recent China Russia meetings is the US pivoting from Ukraine and Russia to China, and is the US independent is the US as an independent actor in Haiti as it claims, and we'll also discuss some other issues. My guest for this iteration of Connecting the Dots is a man who I am very proud to call a friend. His analysis is always spot on, and he's really just cool people. He's an author, two time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Knight Fellowship recipient with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He's a former Washington Post Bureau chief and award-winning foreign correspondent on two continents. John Jeter. John, my brother. Welcome to the show. Jon Jeter (01:51): My pleasure, brother. Thank you. That's an outstanding introduction. I really appreciate Wilmer Leon (01:56): It. Well, I know my check is on its way, so I'll sit by the mailbox. So, hey, so earlier this week, the Global Times reported Chinese President Xi meets Russian foreign Secretary Lavrov and reaffirms China's emphasis on partnership with Russia and Chinese analysts said the meeting sends a strong signal that China will firmly develop its strategic partnership with Russia despite pressure from the West, and that the China Russias partnership continues to be key for the global strategic balance and the hope of promoting a multipolar world in which countries in the global south will have greater roles to play. John, your thoughts? Jon Jeter (02:49): Yeah, no, this is a tectonic shift and we've been talking about this for quite a while on your show, and it's like a tanker. And of course it takes a while for that tanker to move, but it is moving. It is in motion. We see that geopolitical shift from the west as the United States, as France, as the UK gets increasingly desperate as they grow increasingly out of favor with what they're doing in Gaza and backing Israel's genocide. And we see this is a victory lap for Russia, what they've done in Ukraine. It is all over. But the shouting, if I can use a phrase from my southern cousins, and this is, from what I understand, it's very rare for the president of China or any other country to entertain the foreign secretary. Usually it's foreign secretary or foreign secretary. (03:48) Yeah, exactly. So this is a big deal. Again, it's like a tanker movement. It takes a while. And if I can sort of mix metaphors, like Lenon said, history moves and spiral. So this thing is not just sort of a linear thing, but it's just kind of moving in a certain direction. And we see Russia and China starting to sort of take charge, starting to ascend very much like the United States did almost exactly a century ago. After World War I we're seeing China and Russia start to make their rise as this geopolitical force, the geopolitical almost like a ruling party for the global elite. And it's almost inevitable. It's almost inexorable at this point. The only real question is how will the United States respond? It can sort of go kicking and screaming or it can negotiate sort of its dissension into second place. So we'll see what happens. I think history says, of course it will go kicking and screaming, but hopefully cooler heads will prevail at some point and we'll see what happens. But this thing is going in a very definite direction. I don't think it's at this point, I don't think you can put the genie back in the bottle. And I think China and Russia see the future and it's theirs. Wilmer Leon (05:13): I think people really need to pay attention to the next statement that I'm going to read because the western narrative of this is militarism. The focus of the West as it relates to this rising partnership is militarism. But Lee Ong, a professor at the Chinese Foreign Affairs University, said China and Russia will not target any third, but if hegemonic forces threaten China and Russia or threaten world peace, China and Russia will stand together and fight to protect their own interests and safeguard world peace together. And I want to reiterate, they will not target any third party. So I take this as they're saying, don't start, nothing Jon Jeter (06:17): Won't be, won't be none. Wilmer Leon (06:20): We're going to handle our business. Jon Jeter (06:22): Yeah, yeah, (06:26) I think so. I don't know if you've ever seen Oliver Stone's history of the world was the history world or history of the United States, I can't remember. But he talks at length about the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States and the Soviet Union, despite the depictions by Reagan and other presidents of the Soviet Union as this sort of aggressively hostile evil empire that want to take control of the world. The Soviet Union was really just terrified of the United States. They thought that the United States was insane that it was run by mad men. I think that still very much holds true. I think Putin understands that his error, if he made any his error, was entrusting the United States to some extent and hoping I think that he could sort of find some common ground within United States. I think he sees now that that is not possible. Although he said, interestingly enough, he said, apparently in a speech sometime ago, I heard someone else say this. I think it was Ray McGovern, former CIA operative who said that Putin said, Wilmer Leon (07:30): Analyst. Jon Jeter (07:31): Yes, analyst. I'm sorry. Yeah. He said in a speech recently that Putin had once said, or very recently said that the United States and Russia at some point will find common ground, but the EU in Russia will never find common ground. I think very interesting, but I think don't think the Putin, I don't think he's ever read Maya Angelou when she wrote, when someone tells you who they are, believe them, believe them. But I think he believes them now. I think he believes in the United States. And so we see this alignment where China and Russia, and this is our shock in all moment really. Right? We are not looking for the smoke, but we here for it. If you've got some, for us, I think this is a very direct message at Washington. At France, this thing in Ukraine is over. I mean, it's all over, but the shouting again, there's some loose ends to wrap up, including this terrorist attack that was very likely staged by Ukraine and Russia a few weeks ago. So there's some loose ends to wrap up, but this thing is all over, and I think the Russia and China are now turning to the next phase, which is this inevitable rise to the top of the geopolitical order. Again, it's not a linear thing. Take some time. We see them sort of orchestrating bricks and bricks has not really been the dynamo that we expected, but what we see is that other, Wilmer Leon (08:56): It's coming. Jon Jeter (08:57): It's coming though. And we also see that there are other countries, particularly in Africa, particularly in Latin America with Mexico and Venezuela has been there for a while, but we see countries sort of mimicking bricks, parroting bricks in terms of Zimbabwe is talking about a gold back currency. And we see, of course, what South Africa is doing, which is sort of defining itself outside the US orbit, the Western orbit. So we see some things that are in motion, and Russia and China are at the center and the United States and the West, the collective West is increasingly being pushed to the outer margins. Wilmer Leon (09:38): Well, and I'm going to stay with that pushed, let me just say, because people, I'm glad you brought up bricks because people have to understand that this isn't just China and Russia. This is China and Russia, and the Bricks is an acronym for Brazil, India, China, I'm sorry, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. And then you have the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. So there are a number of countries that, Venezuela, Iran, there are a number of countries that are looking to join this group as well. And I'm glad you used the point that the United States is going to be pushed to the margins because what a lot of people really, particularly in the West really have to pay attention to is the fact that it's the sanctions regime of the United States. It's the threat of militarism by the United States. It's the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline by the United States that has really forced this relationship to develop and to grow, and now to become to the part where you've got G and Lavrov meeting for what will eventually be a meeting and a signing of documents between G and Putin. It's the United States fault that they have come to the point that they have John G. Yes. Jon Jeter (11:16): No, that's exactly right. And a couple of things I think it would be important to note. One is that Janet Yellen was just in China and compare her meeting with, I don't know if she met with G or not, but she met with, I know she met with her finance people. Wilmer Leon (11:35): She met with the finance people, and I think she met with Wang Lee, the foreign minister. Jon Jeter (11:39): Yes. And so her message was, you're overproducing and it's hurting us, which is foolish. And I'm being generous by saying that it's fool. That's a foolish message. It's almost like Rip Van Winkle waking up after 50 years saying, you're over producing too much. It's hurting us. What did you think was going to happen? Do you not understand how this capital system works? So you compare Wilmer Leon (12:05): That minute. And also I thought that the United States was all about free markets. Jon Jeter (12:12): Right, exactly. Wilmer Leon (12:16): I thought the market was supposed to determine what succeeds and what fails. The invisible hand and all Jon Jeter (12:25): This. Yeah. Jack Young's a socialist who knew, right? I think that's amazing though that we see this desperation. Wilmer Leon (12:35): She was begging Jon Jeter (12:37): Yes and no. I said this before, but I keep returning to it. It's amazing how this self adoration and self worship by the United States doesn't lead to self-awareness, right. This idea how this looks like to the rest of the world. The other thing too, I think this is a perfect segue. It is what the rest of the world is starting to see. And you might argue that it's late even for that to happen for them to see what's happening, but at least they are starting now to see that this world that was defined by the United States with neoliberalism, beginning with Ronald Reagan, really pushed by Bill Clinton, this whole neoliberal idea has failed, has failed. The idea was that if you do these things to open up your markets to us, you'll look like the United States one day. You will be as rich and prosperous as we are. (13:36) That hasn't happened anywhere, not even in the United States. It has not happened anywhere. No one looks like the United States in some ways. That's very good. And so the world is seeing that this was a snake oil, right, being sold by the snake oil salesman. And so we're at this pivotal point, and this is very much like what did Mike Tyson used to say? Everybody has a plan. You get smack in the nose, you get punched. Yeah. The United States has been smacking nose in Ukraine, and let me end with this. And the other thing in terms of it not working, and everyone else sees this, everyone else in the world, especially China and Russia, the United States, we have stolen money. We've stolen oil from in Syria. We are in Iraq, and they have problem, I think is at least two times, told the United States, one of the United States to leave Iraq. (14:33) And we're still there, like the guests from Hurricane Katrina who never want to leave. That's what the United States is there in Iraq. And now we've stolen money from Afghanistan, stolen money, we've stolen money from Venezuela, and now we're about to steal money. The international reserves from Russia. And so this is going to destroy the United States as a reliable or trusted partner in any kind of commercial transaction. If they're just going to steal money, no one's going to trust them. So they're really in a very difficult spot. The rest of the world sees what's happening. The United States has no idea, or at least the American people don't. I think our leadership knows, but they have no way out. Wilmer Leon (15:20): To your point about stealing money, for those that may not understand what you're referring to, many people remember the United States froze Iranian assets and was slowly returning some of those assets to Iran. Then the United States, when Juan Waid do became, was forced on the Venezuelan people in the world. Then the United States froze Venezuelan assets that I think were held in British banks, and now the United States is talking about freezing some of the Russian sovereign wealth fund that is being held in banks around the world. But the interesting thing is, a lot of those banks are telling the United States, that's not a good idea. Don't drag us into this because we don't want to have to deal with the repercussions of what Russia will do to us if we steal their money. And I think some of that perspective is coming from the reality that the United States is not the only game in town anymore. That's right. And Debo, if we go back to the movie Fridays, Deebo got hit with a brick, Jon Jeter (16:46): Right? That's right. He got knocked the F out, Wilmer Leon (16:51): Laying out on Craig's front lawns. So this is, man, this thing is unraveling. It is unraveling quickly, and folks really need to pay attention. President Xi said, he said, China and Russia have embarked upon a new path of harmonious coexistence and win-win cooperation between major countries and neighbors, which has benefited the two countries and their peoples and contributed wisdom and strength to international fairness and justice. A couple of things in that statement. One, win-win cooperation. A lot of people need to understand that win-win is not just some euphemism that is thrown around carelessly win-win is an actual international cooperation strategy that Russia tries to reach with the countries it does business with. They don't go in and overthrow your government. They don't come in and tell you how to run your country. You have resources, they have money. They want to buy your resources at relatively fair market value, and they want you to be happy and they'll be happy. And that's how they do business. And they contribute wisdom and strength to international fairness and justice. That's not just rhetoric that they hide behind as some kind of excuse for overthrowing your government. That's right. (18:48) People need to listen to Xi. People need to listen to Putin because you listen to what they say, and then you look at what they do. And those things seem to be simpatico, John. Jon Jeter (19:01): Yeah, there's no doubt. I just think as someone who considers himself a Pan-Africanist, I think this is a very exciting time. It's not written in stone yet, but there's a very real opportunity, I think for, we see things happening in Africa now, some bad things with the militarization of Africa by Africa in the United States, but we also see in some ways that has backfired. So we see this militarization as a result of, in these cos by soldiers who have been trained by the United States, but who are representative of their people, particularly in Burkina Faso with this young man. And these, we see Africa turning more towards Russia, which is actually where it was during the Cold War. But we see it turning back towards Russia finding these Wilmer Leon (19:52): Ties. Where is Patrice Lumumba University? Jon Jeter (19:56): It's Wilmer Leon (19:56): In Moscow. That's Jon Jeter (19:58): Right. That's right. And the Chinese, I don't think it's a thing where African countries can sort of just lay back and be passive and say, oh, China's going to save us. And I think they know this. I think China has cut a better deal than the United States, but one that's so far has not necessarily been favorable and has led to economic development, which is what Africa most needs is economic development. Their own industrial sector at this point, one that is more environmentally sustainable, but they need their own industrial sector. They, they grow coffee, but they don't actually roast the coffee. Things like this. This is what they need. But I do think this, Wilmer Leon (20:36): They need to wait a minute to that point, because that's a brilliant point. People need to understand that we all know that the continent of Africa is the repository of minerals, but in most instances, they don't process the minerals from raw form, raw ore, for example, into a marketable commodity Jon Jeter (21:10): Value added. Wilmer Leon (21:11): In fact, I think it was either Ghana or Guyana that makes cocoa, cocoa Jon Jeter (21:19): Beans, Ghana, I believe it's Ghana. Wilmer Leon (21:20): Okay. So Ghana had been selling the unprocessed cocoa beans to Switzerland, and Ghana decided we're going to start processing our own cocoa bean into cocoa powder domestically. Switzerland said, well, then we won't buy your product. China said, we'll buy it. You processed it, buy it. Jon Jeter (21:51): That's what I'm talking about. Yes, yes. That's a very different relationship. That's one where there's an opportunity to grow to, because these value added industries are where the money is, right? Correct. They raise wages for people. I'll tell a very quick story about my time in South Africa about 25 years ago when I was a young man, and I had a girlfriend at the time, and I was famously cheap. I'm still famously cheap, although I'm also broke, but I thought, I'm going to South Africa, so I'll buy some gold. And they have diamonds here, so I'll buy her a nice tennis bracelet. I thought thinking it would be cheaper there actually turned out it costs more there because while they mine the gold and the diamonds in South Africa, they have to send it all the way to Antwerp to get it cut, then send it back to South Africa. (22:33) That's where the money is. So this is what I think can happen if Africa, they have to be strategic, they have to cut better deals with China. But China, there's some daylight with China that did not exist with the United States or the West, where China is a better grade of capitalism, and they get very much like what China did with the United States, beginning with the Nixon administration, where China basically cut these deals. They knew what they were doing, and I don't think they knew that they were playing into the United States racism. And I'm not saying that China is racist like the United States, but they cut this deal knowing that eventually it would lead to this industrialized economy, right? Africa can do the same thing with China's investments. If they're strategic, I don't think that China's going to offer it just off the top of their head, but they can negotiate these things. I think China is willing a willing partner in this enterprise. So we're on the cusp of something I think that is transformative, not just for the United States, but for the world. And so it's exciting at the same time, of course, it's sort of traumatizing to see what's going on in the world, but it's just, what did KY say? This is the interregnum, the oldest dying and the new Wilmer Leon (23:46): Cannot be born, has yet been born or cannot be born. Cannot Jon Jeter (23:51): Be born, right? Yet Wilmer Leon (23:54): Two things, and we'll move on to talking about what's happening in Haiti. And that is, I was listening to Lloyd Austin, secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and his testimony before the Senate, and I don't remember the senator, but one of them asked him, can you tell us that you'll support our move to break the ties, the supply chain with China? Because the Department of Defense, all of this rhetoric about China is our enemy, and we hate China. The Department of Defense buys critical components from China for defense equipment, for drones. And it's not just as easy anymore as saying, we're not going to get this stuff from China because some of these things, China is the only place you can get them. That's right. So on the one hand, we're standing here beating our chests about screaming at China, and at the same time, we're getting key military components from them. And by the way, Janet Yellen is there meeting with them about trade and finance. Why? Because they hold so much of our debt. That's right. That's right. And so those are elements, that's why I say, folks, you've got to connect these dots and things don't happen in a vacuum. There's a much broader historical context in which these things are operating, but CNN and M-S-N-B-C-I-A and the Washington Post, they won't give you the context. That's one of the things that is so invaluable, I believe about this show. And guests like my good brother John Jeter. (25:59) Oh, before we get to Haiti, one final point on this too, and that is there was a piece in the South China Morning post, the United States leaves a mess in Ukraine and moves on to China as the State Department, I'm sorry, at the State Department, the Ukraine girl is out, and the China guy is in. From Washington's perspective, it was a right assessment, whether that's good for Asia and world peace is a different matter. So basically what they're talking about is the United States has decided that Ukraine basically is lost, and they're now trying to pivot, going back to Barack Obama and the pivot towards Asia. They're trying to pivot away from Ukraine the same way they did in Afghanistan. 25 years of getting your hin parts whooped in Afghanistan, then you cut and run. And was it ironic that you then start the fight of Ukraine? And in fact, in listening to Lloyd Austin, they said since 2014, the United States has spent 300 billion in Ukraine. And I know that's a low estimate, but it's the number they quoted during the hearings, 300 billion. Jon Jeter (27:33): What did Tupac say? You got money for wars, but can't feed the poor. There you Wilmer Leon (27:37): Go. And what did Dr. King say? War is the enemy of the poor. Jon Jeter (27:43): That's right. John Jeter. Yeah, no, that's exactly right. I was listening to Jeffrey Sacks the other day. I spent half my time just listening to these podcasts with people like Jeffrey Sacks. But he was saying he was answering, he was on that show Rising, I think, and he was answering a question about his critics who said that he was a Putin apologist. And the anchor asked him, what do you say to your critics? He said, I told you so. (28:08) That's how I answered. I told you so. Right. Ukraine is wrecked, and the money they're trying to send over there now, it's not going to make any difference on the battlefield. This is war profit change. This is how the United States makes its money now. And this is all, it's very seamless too. You won't hear it in the press, but it's very seamless. We began to ship our manufacturing sector overseas, beginning with China in the seventies under Richard Nixon, in part to punish the radical black political movement that was kryptonite to capital, very much like Kryptonite. What kryptonite is the Superman, the radical black political movement was to our oligarchs. And so we started sending this. Wilmer Leon (28:56): How so explain that for the audience, Jon Jeter (28:58): Because what you'll see, and you'll see this actually cyclically going back to even radical reconstruction, where this radical black political tradition, what it's allowed to express itself freely as a way of galvanizing the people, or if you are Marxist or Marxist friendly, the working class, that's just what it is. And so I've interviewed people like Bernadine Dorn who was with the Weather Underground. She says she spent her first year as the head of students for a Democratic society going around to these white college campuses telling them the first thing you need to do is get in touch with the black college, the historically black college down the street. You need to get in touch with them, see what they're talking about. So this is, that's Wilmer Leon (29:48): Part of what Bois was writing about in reconstruction in America. Jon Jeter (29:53): That's exactly right. That's exactly, it goes back to that reconstruction. If you look at that era, right? A lot of things happened, but there was Confederacy in the former Confederate states. There was a interracial political party of some type in every Confederate state in the union after the Civil War. And they all had varying degrees of success, but they all redistributed wealth from the top to the working class. They have some success in doing that. And so it is that black political voice that really has shaped and modernized this country, especially when you look at the New Deal. We look at the blacks who are allowed finally to join the labor unions. And together we fought. And of course, I mean, honestly, whites just went back to being white after that battle was won or after we were winning the battle, they started going back to being white in the seventies. That's what Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were about. Really fast, Wilmer Leon (30:46): But minute, minute. Wait a minute. Just take a step back there, because I think it's important for people to realize that post the abolition of enslavement, you had newly freed Africans that were actually joining forces with poor whites. Oh, no question. And the industrialists realized that's a force that we cannot allow to grow in this country. And they then started injecting the whole construct of race into that relationship to draw a wedge between the two. So when you say that in the seventies, whites went back to being white, I wanted to be sure that people understood where that mentality came from. Jon Jeter (31:36): And just to be clear, if you understand, people who are of a certain age will remember in the seventies when we started to see these movies, I love Paul Newman, but he was in that movie, what was it? Ford, Apache, the Bronx, these movies and these television shows, which starts to show basically, blacks is unfit for public office or blacks is unfit for public to participate in public affairs. That's what it was, right? So we're criminals, we're drug dealers, we're unpatriotic. Just as one example, if you remember the movie Alien from 1980, the most dangerous thing, that movie, other than the monster that had crept on board was Koda, who didn't want, who was just concerned about his pay, right? So this image is what has shaped modern politics. The black as unpatriotic, as unfit to lead is unfit to participate. And so this is what we're really dealing with at bottom. This is why there's never been a socialist movement or working class movement in the United States the way there's been, even in Europe. Wilmer Leon (32:38): And Point could take us into a eugenics conversation. Yes, Dr. Chantel Sherman, I'm going to give you your props here and now, in fact, I got to get Dr. Chantel Sherman on, because you're talking about the way that we were misrepresented in the films. That's also been a history of eugenics supporting the whole argument that scientifically, that biologically, we are incapable of managing and blah, blah, blah, because our brains are too small, our heads are too big and all that. So anyway, again, connecting the dots, folks, this is why you watch this show. I'm sorry, go ahead, John, you. Jon Jeter (33:28): No, no. Yeah. So I was just saying, I think the understanding these connections are what really helps us find a way forward. I don't know, honestly, if black and white can unite and fight the United States at this point, but I do believe that as Fred Hampton said, we can achieve black power for black people, white power for white people, yellow power for yellow people, and X power for all the people we left out. I do think that's possible if we can start to eradicate this tribalism, or at least put it aside long enough to work together and understand that we're at war Ukraine, not because Putin is trying to Wilmer Leon (34:07): Take Jon Jeter (34:07): Over Europe. Yeah, he's not trying to. There's no history of that, right? Either the Soviet Union or for Putin, this is about the Wall Street profiteering. They don't have any way to make money. They shipped all the jobs overseas. They killed the goose, delayed the golden egg, and now they're trying to make money. That's what I'm just looking at at a television ad. I was watching the NBA game. They had an ad about gambling, and the gambling is illegal everywhere. Now why is that? Where Cuba is, like Cuba was in 1958, right? It's because they can't make money any other way or through gambling through these Uber, which is basically just rent seeking what the French call rent seeking, looking to profit off something that already exists. This is how they make money, and war is part of that. So you really do have to connect the dots. Your show is aptly named. You really do have to connect the dots historically and contemporaneously to understand what's going on, because that's the only way you can actually work your way out of this. As my father would say, my late father would've said this trick bag that we find ourselves in, Wilmer Leon (35:09): And the new Deputy Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, to your point about profiteering quote, I would argue that working closely with other nations, not just diplomatically, but in defense avenues, has the consequence of strengthening peace and stability more generally. So what he's saying is dumping more military hardware into already very tense situations and making them more volatile somehow is going to strengthen peace and stability. Or as Orwell said, in terms of doublespeak war is peace. Jon Jeter (35:54): Right? I think Obama said the same thing. Did he not? Wilmer Leon (35:57): Yes, he did, Jon Jeter (35:59): Basically, which tells you a lot about Obama and why he was put in that place, why he was installed. It says a lot about Obama and this country. Wilmer Leon (36:08): So let's quickly move to Haiti because there's been a lot happening over the last, a lot of negative things happening for Haitians in Haiti. The Washington Post of all places had a piece. When Haiti's gangs shop for guns, the United States is their store. Now, there's a lot of crap and a lot of garbage in this piece because again, it is the Washington Post. But Jon Jeter (36:38): My former employer, I should, I should. Wilmer Leon (36:40): There you go. So am I wrong? Jon Jeter (36:43): Not at all. Wilmer Leon (36:44): Okay. Not Jon Jeter (36:44): At all. Wilmer Leon (36:46): So heavily. This is the Washington Post. Heavily armed gangs controlled 80% of Port-au-Prince, according to a un estimate where they rape, kidnap, and kill with impunity. Haiti doesn't manufacture firearms, and the un prohibits importing them. But that's no problem for the criminals when they go shopping, the US is their gun store. And what there is so much context and so much reality that is omitted from this piece. For example, Haiti doesn't manufacture weapons, but that's no problem for the criminals because the elite in Haiti that control the ports A, allow the weapons into the country. John Jeter. Jon Jeter (37:34): Yeah. And I even take issue with that phrasing, the criminals who exactly are the criminals. Wilmer Leon (37:38): That's my point. That's why I mentioned the elite. Jon Jeter (37:41): Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, the problem with Haiti, people think it's just these sort of animalistic Haitians who are always fighting. And this guy named Barbecue was just this crazy maniacal cannibal Haitian. Yeah, cannibal. Right, right, right. They Wilmer Leon (38:03): Were talking about him eating people last week. Jon Jeter (38:06): Yeah. Well, but if you ask the Haitian people, right? I mean, really the Haitian people, right? Not the elites, but they'll tell you if you really, everybody of course knows what happened with Haiti and Napoleon and then the debts and the United States going in in 1915. But they'll tell you, people in Haiti will tell you, well, you can trace this back to when they got rid of John Tron Air, Steve Credit elected president, who is I think still Wilmer Leon (38:34): You said they, who was the they? Jon Jeter (38:36): Oh, the United States. Thank you. Who at gunpoint. At gunpoint went in. They Wilmer Leon (38:41): Kidnapped him, Jon Jeter (38:43): Kidnapped him, and then would not, Obama did this first black president, my president is black, would that allow him back in the country to run for president? But when let baby doc back in to run for president? And then part of the reason was, and they've got all these arrangements sweatshops there. They're taking land that can be used for agriculture. Your Wilmer Leon (39:05): Levi jeans are probably made in Jon Jeter (39:07): Haiti, baseballs are made, Wilmer Leon (39:09): Baseball are made in Haiti. Jon Jeter (39:11): And this is a company apparently that Hillary Clinton fought to keep the wages low to make these baseball. I can't even watch baseball anymore knowing that. Right. And so we always, Wilmer Leon (39:22): Hang on a second, because you talk about the wages. So let me make this point so I don't forget it. So they talk about the arms that are trafficked, however you say it to Haiti, are purchased by straw purchasers in states such as Florida, a 50 caliber sniper rifle that sells for $10,000 in the US can get as much as $80,000. In Haiti, a 50 caliber sniper rifle that sells for $10,000 in the US can fetch $80,000 in Haiti. What is the average annual gross income per capita income for a Haitian, Jon Jeter (40:21): I don't think it's $8,000. I don't think it's one 10th of that. It's Wilmer Leon (40:25): 1000 as of 2022, which is the last time the data was collected, $1,247 and 89 cents, which averages $3 and 42 cents per day. So how is somebody who makes on average $3 and 42 cents per day going to buy an $80,000 50 caliber sniper rifle? Jon Jeter (41:07): Right? Right. Who's buying these weapons? Wilmer Leon (41:09): Thank you, John G. Who's Jon Jeter (41:11): Buying these weapons? The job of the media today is to, and it's always been this way, but now it's worse than ever. The job is to decontextualize the news is to disconnect it from the history. And that's why you get this sort of constant barrage of, well, the economy's doing great. I don't know why people are so upset because they're broke, fool. That's why people saying Wilmer Leon (41:34): To the position of decontextualization. So you see these pictures, or you see this footage of these Haitian young men roaming the streets with AR fifteens, AK 40 sevens. 40 caliber Berettas, which will run you close to a 40 caliber Beretta, depending on a model will run, you say between $700 and a grand. And nobody asks the question, where'd that kid get their pistol from? That's Jon Jeter (42:10): Right. That's right. That's right. Wilmer Leon (42:12): He's making $3 and 42 cents a day, $1,200 a year, and he's walking around with, and we aren't even talking about putting bullets in the thing. Nobody's asking that question. Jon Jeter (42:29): Right? Right, right. Jon Jeter (42:31): Yeah. Well, we are right. But the media doesn't want to ask because the answer is very uncomfortable. The answer is very discomforting. It's the Wilmer Leon (42:38): Core group. They're called the core Jon Jeter (42:40): Group. That's right. That's right. They're Wilmer Leon (42:42): Called Montana Group. Jon Jeter (42:44): Was it six families that run Haiti basically? Right. None of them black, by the way. None of them black. I think they're Lebanese and something Wilmer Leon (42:52): Else like that, that I'm not sure of. I think, Jon Jeter (42:55): But they're not black. Maybe some of them are, but most of them are not. Wilmer Leon (43:01): Most of 'em are not. Okay. So folks, you've got to understand the context here. And now, I can't remember the guy's name, but the United States has just appointed a new ambassador to Haiti. But here's the trick bag. If I can quote the late Mr. Jeter, in order for an ambassador to be recognized, he or she has to present his or her credentials to the president of the country that he's going to. Jon Jeter (43:43): There's Wilmer Leon (43:44): No Jon Jeter (43:44): President. There's no president. How does that work? So Wilmer Leon (43:48): How does an American ambassador land on the ground in Port-au-Prince? Who does he turn to? Jimmy Rizzi. Jon Jeter (43:59): Right? Barbecue. Right. Who Wilmer Leon (44:01): Does he turn to? There's nobody home. But again, I didn't hear Rachel Maddow asking that question. I didn't hear Joy Reed asking that question. And folks, look, you can look in the US Constitution article under Article two where they described the responsibilities of the president, one of the responsibilities of American president is to what? Recognize ambassadors from other countries. That's how the international diplomatic game is played. The American Ambassador to China presents his or her credentials to Xi Jinping and Xi Jinping goes, okay. Or Get out of my country. Jon Jeter (44:55): I don't think so. Right, right, right. Wilmer Leon (44:57): Don't play that. Jon Jeter (44:58): Right. And on another note, I related, but not quite at the point, but I just think this is so interesting. I was reading a recent piece, I cannot remember where, but they were talking about the origins of Hades gangs, and if you read it, they didn't mention this, but I know the history. It's the same as the gangs in Chicago, Los Angeles. They were formed to protect the community from the police, right? From harassment. The Black Wilmer Leon (45:23): Panthers. Jon Jeter (45:24): Exactly. Wilmer Leon (45:25): The Black Panther party for self-defense, for Jon Jeter (45:28): Self-defense. That's exactly right. And Huey Newton and Bobby Seale got their start getting a traffic signal on a particularly dangerous stop in Oakland. So this was, now, I'm not saying that they're still necessarily representing the people, but that's how they got their start. They filled this void that was left by the state because the state was just serving the interest of rich people and the United States and the West Canada and France and all that. So I just wish people was such a dumb down nation. I don't mean that to be judgmental, but it's just the case. Wilmer Leon (46:00): What was one of the major actions that the Panthers in Oakland performed every day on the street? They were policing the police. Jon Jeter (46:12): That's right. That's right. That's Wilmer Leon (46:13): Right. So when they came across cops in a traffic stop, they would pull over, locked and loaded. Right? Right. No, you couldn't have a round in the chamber, but they were armed, and they would stop and be sure that the traffic stop was proper and that the person being pulled over, usually the African-American driver of the car was not going to be. In fact, folks need to understand what was the Mulford Act in California? The Mulford Act was the law that was passed in California, I want to say 71, 72, when the Panthers went into the California State House, state House armed, legally armed, so long as you didn't have one in the chamber, legally armed. And the folks in California said, oh, no, we can't have this anymore. Jon Jeter (47:20): Gun control. Wilmer Leon (47:21): Gun control. That's why I've been saying for years, if you want gun control in the United States, let the government see law abiding black people legally buying and legally training with firearms. You'll find gun control, as they would say, liquidity split. Jon Jeter (47:45): It is gun control in the United States is very similar to our edict that Iran can't possess nuclear weapons. Why can't they? They're a sovereign country, right? Because we know we don't want them to defend themselves. That's why, just like we don't want black people to defend themselves. We've got this plague of black people being shot by the police, and we don't want black people to be able to shoot back. Wilmer Leon (48:06): And quite as it kept, Ron is a signatory to the nuclear nonproliferation Jon Jeter (48:11): Degree, read the Israel Is Right, Israel, and they got, I think something like 300, 400 nuclear warheads. Iran don't even want nuclear weapons. They want nuclear energy. They've said that they banned, they had a fat wall that banned or needed from the, I told it banned nuclear. But on the news here, including one of my former colleagues of the Washington Post Gene, I can't remember his name now, but he says, well, of course I ran once nuclear weapons. Really? So you know something that the intelligence agencies of the United States don't know because they say that there's no such nuclear weapons programmed by Iran. Wilmer Leon (48:48): There isn't, and they don't need one because of the missile technology, the hypersonic missile technology that they have developed. And also they don't want a nuclear weapon because they understand the attention that brings to them, and it's negative. They don't want none of that smoke because also their military perspective is defensive, not offensive. Right, Jon Jeter (49:23): Right, right. Very protect the Soviet Union. Very protect the Soviet Union. Wilmer Leon (49:28): That's why Ukraine is being turned into rubble. Jon Jeter (49:30): Right? That's exactly Wilmer Leon (49:31): Right. Is because Russia has been planning for 25 years for this very type of ground ballistic missile ground or artillery driven ground war, war of attrition. I will just send missiles into your bathroom all day, every day for the next 10 years, and eventually you'll call and ask me, will you please stop sending missiles into my bathroom? I do Jon Jeter (50:03): Appreciate it. I don't know much about militarism and war strategy and things like that, but I've been reading up a little bit on Russia, and what I've concluded is you don't want nothing to do with Russia. You don't want no smoke for Russia. Look, Wilmer Leon (50:20): When the United States sent, I think it was the Eisenhower, I think it was USS Eisenhower into the Mediterranean about three or four months ago. No, it was in October in response to October 7th. Oh, right, Jon Jeter (50:37): Right. That's right. I Wilmer Leon (50:38): Remember that. The Biden sent, I think it was the Eisenhower Aircraft carrier group into the Mediterranean, and Putin called Biden and said, Joe, why did you send that aircraft carrier group into the Mediterranean? He says, you're not scaring anybody. Because he said, these people don't scare. And oh, by the way, I can sink your aircraft carrier from here with our SU 35 fighter jets with hypersonic Ken Jaw missiles. I can sink the thing before you even know the missile has been fired, Jon Jeter (51:24): Joe. Whatcha doing? Wilmer Leon (51:25): Yeah. Jon Jeter (51:26): We started by talking about Mike Tyson's theory about everybody's got a plan. I think it's appropriate to mention, just like Mike Tyson, he beat all these people, all these other boxes because they were afraid of him until he met Buster Douglas. Wilmer Leon (51:40): Buster Douglas. Jon Jeter (51:41): Buster Douglas was not afraid. He did not back up. He kept coming. And I don't want no smoke from Mike Tyson, but Buster Douglas was ready for him. And so yeah, this is the United States. Now we're Mike Tyson, but we're in the ring now with Buster Douglas. Putin is not afraid. Right. Wilmer Leon (51:57): And to your Mike Tyson analogy, the thing that Mike Tyson was always susceptible to was a jab. The problem was he didn't come across an opponent that was big enough in stature that had the jab until he fought Buster Douglas. That's Jon Jeter (52:20): Right. Wilmer Leon (52:21): What's his name from Easton, Pennsylvania, the heavyweight he was in. Jon Jeter (52:31): Larry Holmes. Wilmer Leon (52:32): Larry Holmes. Larry Holmes. Larry Holmes would've wiped the floor. Oh, is that right? Hands down. Yeah. Man, Larry Holmes had a jab. Jon Jeter (52:44): Oh, I remember Larry Holmes. Yeah, I know. He was a bad man. Wilmer Leon (52:50): I didn't mean to turn this into a boxing conversation, but just for the point. Larry Holmes' problem was he came in the shadow of Ali. Of Ali. Right. But you go back and look at footage of Larry Holmes in his day, man, that brother, he would've wiped the floor because that's, and I go through all of that here. I'm going to connect the dots, is you have to understand the weakness of your opponent and exploit that weakness. And that's what Russia does. That's what Iran does. That's why President Raisi of Iran, in response to the Syrian bombing of the embassy in Syria, he said, we will respond when we are ready. The United States Intelligence Services told us last week, expect a response within 48 hours from Iran. I said, no, we'll get to it when we're ready. And what has Israel already done? Closed 30 embassies around the world. So in Iran's mind, we've already won. You've closed 30 embassies. We didn't have to strike one of them. We skewed you into action. Jon Jeter (54:20): And from what I understand, again, I'm new to this sort of military strategy, but from what I've understood that the weakness of the United States is this overconfidence, it's arrogance that beginning, I think with, what was it? North Korea and China, when they lured them into the United States, lured them in and basically just, they just trapped. They knew they would come because they're so arrogant. They knew they would take the bait. And that's the Achilles tea of the United States is their overconfidence. Wilmer Leon (54:49): Look, that's what Iran isn't doing. They're not taking the bait. Russia did not take the bait as they went into Ukraine, but they went into Ukraine, not in the manner in which the United States thought they would. They didn't take the bait. China as it relates to Taiwan. They're not taking the bait. They hence the adage, you have the watches, but we have the time. Jon Jeter (55:20): We got the time. That's right. Wilmer Leon (55:22): We'll handle this our way when we are ready. Look at what's going on right now in Gaza. You've got Hamas, right? Hezbollah hasn't really jumped in like everybody thought they would. Right? You've got the Houthis or Ansar, Allah in Yemen. They're handling the Red Sea, but they aren't really in it. Not everybody's in the pool yet. And see, this is something that folks really need to understand is they are biding their time. All of those entities are sitting back watching the show, and there's a reason that Hezbollah hasn't jumped in because Hamas is winning. Jon Jeter (56:08): Yeah. I'm a big fan of all the podcasts. The one that I watched the most is Ali Abu Ma with the electronic ada. And from everything I'm getting from there, and they seem to really know what they're talking about. Hamas is handling this business. Wilmer Leon (56:21): And when I say Hamas winning, folks could look at this and scratch their head and say, Wilmer, have you seen Gaza lately? Yeah. Here's the thing. Hamas wins by not losing. When they live to fight another day, they win. Israel comes into Gaza. What is Israel saying? Now? We're getting out of Gaza. They come in, they get thumped, they get out. When the dust settles, Hamas will still be in existence. And by being in existence, they will have one. Jon Jeter (56:58): That's right. And I think this was all very calculated by Hamas. I'm not sure if they even understood this kind of blowback, but again, they were trying to pull Israel under this war because they realized they Wilmer Leon (57:08): Knew what Israel would do. I'm glad you brought this up because when you talk about that, I was trying to get that together in my head, and that was a point that I was trying to make, was that Hamas lured the IDF into strategy. They knew what their response would be because of their arrogance, and they are thumping them, Jon Jeter (57:36): And there's no way out. I can't repeat the lyric. I want to, I think it was Ice Cube said, I don't want to hear that. I ain't mean it. Right. That's what Hama is saying to Israel right now. I don't hear none of that. I ain't mean it. Right. I don't. Don't gloat for anyone's death. And what's happening there is horrific, and I'm not sure if it's worth the cause. It's a period victory if it is one for Hamas, but this is the way it's going to end. Israel is not going to exist as we have long known it. If I can quite a phrase from Bill Clinton, Wilmer Leon (58:13): Let's wrap up with this. The Nation magazine reports more than half a million Democratic voters have told Biden Save Gaza, the campaign to use uncommitted primary votes to send a message to Biden has won two dozen delegates. More than 500,000 Americans in states across this country have cast Democratic primary votes for either uncommitted, unconstructed or no preference. Jon Jeter (58:48): That's right. That's Wilmer Leon (58:48): Right. I think the Democrats are shaking in their diapers. Jon Jeter (58:55): It's a wrap for the Democrats, certainly for the Biden administration. And of those 500,000 votes, I believe a hundred thousand are in Michigan. Joe Biden can't win Michigan. Joe Biden does not win reelection. Wilmer Leon (59:07): And Joe Biden only won Michigan by about 130,000 votes. Jon Jeter (59:11): That's right. Yeah. If the vote was today, he would not win Michigan. Not because everybody would vote for Trump, but because a whole Wilmer Leon (59:18): Lot of people, a lot people stay home Jon Jeter (59:20): And Michigan, lemme just say this very quickly, Michigan and the Arab community and the board, I lived in Detroit for a couple of years in the early nineties. They are really impressed in terms of their organization, and they're showing us a roadmap for how we can fight back as a people. Wilmer Leon (59:34): Exactly. Jon Jeter (59:36): Organized, Wilmer Leon (59:37): Organized. And I've listened to a number of interviews from Arab Americans in Michigan, and the reporters will say, well, don't you realize that your uncommitted movement could wind up resulting in the election, the reelection of Donald Trump? And they look in the camera and say, we know. And we don't care about that. We have a bigger point than Donald Trump that we are conveying. And plus they realize, is it a blue car or a green car? It's still a car. You're going to wind up basically. And for the most part, in the same circumstance, because to a great degree, and you are much more adept at this than I am to a great degree. It's not Trump policy. It's not Biden policy. It's American foreign policy. Jon Jeter (01:00:37): That's right. That's right. Wilmer Leon (01:00:38): Irrespective of who the president is, John G. Yeah. Jon Jeter (01:00:42): No, and I just don't think they understand. What part of genocide. Don't you understand? I'm not voting for a genocide. Wilmer Leon (01:00:48): Well, if you ask Lloyd Austin, he doesn't understand it at all. He said during the Senate hearings, there's no genocide in Gaza. Jon Jeter (01:00:56): If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck Wilmer Leon (01:01:00): And it dies like a duck, it's genocide. Jon Jeter (01:01:03): Right. That's the genocide, man. It just is. You're a lawyer. So what is it low? Wilmer Leon (01:01:09): I went, I went to law school. I went to law school. I'm not Jon Jeter (01:01:11): A lawyer. Okay, okay. I mean, I didn't mean to defame you like that, Wilmer Leon (01:01:16): But I did stay at Holiday Inn Express last night. So what you got, Jon Jeter (01:01:20): So what is it, low ipso Ur, is it? The B is as it appears? It is as it looks. No, Wilmer Leon (01:01:29): You just combine two phrases, rest ips, aquir. Jon Jeter (01:01:33): Okay. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't even go to law school and I didn't understand the Holiday Inn Express Wilmer Leon (01:01:39): Rest ips. Aquir, I think is what is the Latin you were going for? Jon Jeter (01:01:42): Yes. The thing is, as it appears, right, it is as it looks, yeah, that's the genocide. But it's most horrific thing I've seen in my lifetime, and it's just nothing else to say. I don't know how anyone's going to pull the lever for Joe Biden seeing the horror that's happening in Gaza. It's traumatized. It's traumatized. So I don't think there's a path victory. I didn't think there was a path of victory to victory for Joe Biden before October 7th. I certainly don't think there's one now. And I still think people laugh at this. I know Joe Rogan said, and I don't know that I believe very much in Joe Rogan's political acumen, but he said that he thinks that Democrats are going to replace Biden in May. I don't know if they're going to do it. I don't know if they're going to do it in May, but I still, Wilmer Leon (01:02:24): I've been saying that for a year and a half. Jon Jeter (01:02:26): Yeah, I think they might. I think they're looking to, I'll say that I think there's a fact of the Democratic party that's looking to, I think a year and a half ago, they were actively looking at Michelle Obama. I know that, as a matter of fact, I don't think she's going to do it. I'm not sure if that's still a movement, but I think because they know he can't win and it's too important, it's money that they will lose if he's not president. Because Trump, for all his flaws, is not the war profiteer that Obama was. And the Bidens, Wilmer Leon (01:02:55): I've been saying for almost a year and a half that I don't think that when you come out of the Democratic convention in August, I think right now it's the 19th, but we just found out that Ohio has told the Democratic Party that if it's held on the 19th, Joe Biden can't be on the Ohio. Oh, Jon Jeter (01:03:18): I heard that. Wilmer Leon (01:03:19): Yeah, because it has, you have to be the nominee 90 days before the election to be on the ticket in Ohio. And so Ohio has told them. But anyway, no, I've been saying that, I said almost a year and a half ago that when you come out of the convention, it's not going to be Biden. It's most likely going to be Gavin Newsom and what's her name from Michigan, Gretchen. And I said, the top of that ticket could go either way. Jon Jeter (01:04:01): That would be the best foot they could put forward. If they can't get Michelle Obama, that would be, and I don't think they can beat Trump, I'll be honest. But Wilmer Leon (01:04:07): No, I'm not saying that's going to win. I'm not saying that's going to win. But when you look at the numbers, and since I said this, Biden's numbers have only gotten worse. And Gretchen Whitmer most likely brings the Democrats, Michigan, the governor of Michigan. And because they're also, when you get rid of Biden, you got to get rid of Kamala Harris as well. Oh, yeah. So then you're going to wind up with a bunch of angry women, and you're going to wind up with a bunch of angrily black women. Jon Jeter (01:04:40): Oh, that's good. Yeah, that's good. So Wilmer Leon (01:04:42): Gretchen Whitmer brings the women back into the game. And I think, and I'll probably get bricks thrown at me for saying this, but I think a majority of black women will fall in line with the Democratic party. I seriously doubt that they would get so angry that they would abandon the party. I think they would be convinced to fall, because Kamala will be convinced to go away quietly and be a team. They'll offer her, Jon Jeter (01:05:20): Oh yeah, like they did with Al Gore. They'll offer her a bunch of money Wilmer Leon (01:05:24): Or something, or tell her, this is not your time, Jon Jeter (01:05:28): Dean of some university where she can go and Oh, Wilmer Leon (01:05:32): They might make her secretary of, I mean, ambassador to, I don't know, Botswana or, Jon Jeter (01:05:38): Right, yeah. I can play the Botswana might run her outfit into the seat though. Wilmer Leon (01:05:44): That's why they'll send her there. So anyway, so Gavin Newsom, young white cat, governor of California looks good in a suit, is articulate, can raise money, can raise his own money. And so I'm not advocating this. I'm looking at the landscape and saying they have no arms in the bullpen. I Jon Jeter (01:06:07): Wouldn't bet against that. I would not be. Wilmer Leon (01:06:08): This is baseball season. They have no arms in the bullpen, but Biden is behind in seven of the nine battleground states. Jon Jeter (01:06:20): Yeah. He can't, I think Pennsylvania's tied, but even that is trending Wilmer Leon (01:06:24): And trending in the wrong direction Jon Jeter (01:06:28): Because Wilmer Leon (01:06:29): In a lot of these states, in a lot of these states, Donald Trump is now ahead outside the margin of error of the Jon Jeter (01:06:39): Polling Wilmer Leon (01:06:40): And growing. So no, I've been saying that Joe Rogan, and I agree on that, and I've been, I'm on record for a year and a half saying Joe Biden is, and I don't think they can do it in May because the voters will cry foul at then. Why did we have primaries? You haven't had any debates. So I think they have to make the switch at the convention. I think the vote has to go down to the floor and it'll be the way it used to be when we were kids watching the conventions on television where there was all of this tension and all of this anxiety over how were the votes going to go as they did the roll call for the states from the floor. I think it's got to go that way. I don't know how they make the switch now before the convention. Jon Jeter (01:07:39): Yeah, I don't either. I don't know this though. What they don't want, their worst nightmare is for Joe Biden to appear on a debate stage with Donald Trump. They not, can't have that. They don't want that. That's just Wilmer Leon (01:07:53): No. Yeah, Jon Jeter (01:07:55): That can't happen. No, can't happen. Wilmer Leon (01:07:58): You don't even want to see, and I mean this very seriously. You don't even want to see Joe Biden, walk to the podium versus Donald Trump. Just the appearance of that. Stiff. Jon Jeter (01:08:13): Yeah. Oh, I, Wilmer Leon (01:08:15): No, no. You think Jon Jeter (01:08:16): About that. Yeah. Donald Trump is a dinosaur, but he still looks better than, he still is. More commanding than Joe Biden. Mr. That's, Wilmer Leon (01:08:28): Do you want pterodactyl or do you want, anyway, so I want to thank my guests and my dear brother John Jeter for joining me today. And John, when I say that you say, Jon Jeter (01:08:40): Thank you, brother. It was wonderful to be here. Wonderful. Wilmer Leon (01:08:44): And folks, thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wimer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share, share, share, share, share the show, subscribe. Doing this every week is not cheap, trust me. We need your help. Also follow us on social media. You can find all the links below in the show description. Go to Patreon. Please contribute to the Patreon account. And remember, folks, that this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we do not chatter on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Have a great one. Peace. I'm out Announcer (01:09:41): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

In the 20th episode of ROPESCAST, hosts Ibrahim and Ksenia are joined by Israeli diplomat and former Member of Knesset, Danny Ayalon. He served as the Deputy Foreign Minister and the American Ambassador to the United States. Danny discusses the current Israeli diplomatic challenges, and the future of Israel's foreign relations. What relations have been damaged? Could this actually be a momentum for dramatic changes in the Middle East? For all the answers, tune in! Email: info@ropes.org Website: www.ropes.org Twitter: @ROPESorg

Pope Francis sent a wave through the Catholic Church this week, giving priests permission to bless same-sex couples. What did he actually mean by that? A close reading of the documentation behind this decree shows this isn't the embrace of the LGBTQ+ community you might think.Also, today the UN Security Council approved a resolution calling for more humanitarian aid in Gaza. What does it do, and how did the U.S. react to it? You'll hear what the American Ambassador had to say after the vote.And, 2024 is going to be an insane year with our presidential election. Lots of folks are worried about the future of democracy. Anyone got ideas to improve it? The Washington Post just published a list of them. We'll show you what they have to say — see what you think.This is the last episode of 2023. Thank you so much for your support this year. New episodes return on Wednesday, January 3rd for paid subscribers... Friday, January 5th for free listeners. Happy Holidays, and I'll see you in the New Year! Liked this episode? Show your support as A PAID SUBSCRIBER (https://nightlightjoshua.supercast.com/) or in my online TIP JAR (https://tr.ee/DfdCdiTBhy). --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nightlightjoshua/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nightlightjoshua/support

O is for the Olympic Games. In this episode, you'll hear my first look ahead to the 2024 summer Olympics.  Given it is still so far away, this is more of a light intro to the topic, with the help of some great guests.  First, you'll hear from the American Ambassador to France, Denise Campbell Bauer, talking about Americans and their connection to Paris, then sharing some practical travel advice.  Then it's Coutume cafe owner Tom Clark, an Australian in Paris, who gives his thoughts on the Games from a business and local perspective.   Do you like this podcast? Become a Patreon member of The Earful Tower here to support this show and get extras. Want to do a tour? Get in touch on The Earful Tower's social media or book directly here: www.theearfultower.com/tours The music in this episode is from Pres Maxson, find his Substack here: https://presmaxson.substack.com/

Ukraine's president Volodymir Zelensky told his western allies at a summit in Granada, Spain, the importance of carrying on with their support to fight Russia. Today there's been another deadly attack by Russia leaving more than 50 people dead. American Ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, says she is sure the US is prepared to continue with support for Ukraine – but the politicians are signalling that this may not be the case. Also in the programme: We speak with a woman who fled Nagorno Karabakh with her three children; and the world has now seen the hottest September on record – just how hot is it? (Photo: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the European Political Community Summit in Grenada, Spain. Credit: EPA/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service)

Ewan Morgan boasts an impressive 28-year career in the spirits industry. A former Master of Whisky, Ewan has served as the National Director of Diageo's Masters of Whisky program. His career spans from Maltman and chemical analysis in a Speyside Distillery to online marketing and Scotch Ambassador. In 2016, Ewan was named World Whisky Ambassador. Ewan was also inducted into as a Keeper of the Quaich in 2013, the highest accolade in the Scotch Whisky Industry. Ewan has also been nominated for American Ambassador of the Year (2016) and Scotch Whisky Ambassador of the Year (2011-2016). Ewan is passionate about the power of education and being a valued part of the bartending and hospitality community.

Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner Books, 2022) is a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war. In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, its relationship with America was rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. His dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove prescient—for his time, and for our own. Drawing on Grew's diary of his time in Tokyo as well as U.S. embassy correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and firsthand Japanese accounts, Our Man in Tokyo brings to life a man who risked everything to avert another world war, the country where he staked it all—and the abyss that swallowed it. AJ Woodhams hosts the "War Books" podcast. You can subscribe on Apple here and on Spofity here. War Books in on YouTube and on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner Books, 2022) is a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war. In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, its relationship with America was rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. His dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove prescient—for his time, and for our own. Drawing on Grew's diary of his time in Tokyo as well as U.S. embassy correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and firsthand Japanese accounts, Our Man in Tokyo brings to life a man who risked everything to avert another world war, the country where he staked it all—and the abyss that swallowed it. AJ Woodhams hosts the "War Books" podcast. You can subscribe on Apple here and on Spofity here. War Books in on YouTube and on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner Books, 2022) is a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war. In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, its relationship with America was rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. His dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove prescient—for his time, and for our own. Drawing on Grew's diary of his time in Tokyo as well as U.S. embassy correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and firsthand Japanese accounts, Our Man in Tokyo brings to life a man who risked everything to avert another world war, the country where he staked it all—and the abyss that swallowed it. AJ Woodhams hosts the "War Books" podcast. You can subscribe on Apple here and on Spofity here. War Books in on YouTube and on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Trouble always seems to find Amanda Pennyworth, the American Consul to the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. While on an excursion to nearby Amapas Beach in the company of a tour group from the United States, one of the guests, Danielle Overman, a beautiful and enigmatic woman, is brutally murdered, and Amanda is called on to help find the killer. Unfortunately, no one among the group has a believable alibi; everyone is a suspect, and everyone has, as Amanda discovers, a motive. The Mexican police seem unwilling to conduct a thorough investigation, and the American Ambassador is only interested in avoiding an international incident. It's up to Amanda to uncover the mystery. But the killer has further mayhem in mind, and when the action shifts back to the United States, Amanda, who is home on vacation, is once again called on to pursue the person who wanted Danielle to die and who was willing to commit a further savage crime to cover their tracks. This is the third novel in the Amanda Pennyworth mystery series, all of which take place in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the U.S. was represented in Japan by Ambassador Joseph Grew: born from a patrician family, Harvard-educated, ran away to the foreign service, and deeply respected by his fellow diplomats and Japanese politicians alike. From his arrival in Tokyo in 1932 to when he was eventually repatriated back to the US in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, Grew dutifully reported to and advised the U.S. on what to do with an increasingly imperialist, militarist—and, at many times—dysfunctional Japan. And if officials had listened to Grew, as Steve Kemper tells it in his book Our Man In Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Marine Books, 2022), the history of US-Japan relations may have looked very different. In this interview, Steve and I talk about Joseph Grew, his time in Japan, and how U.S. obstinance, and Japanese imperialism, militarism and dysfunction, got in the way of his diplomacy. Steve Kemper is a journalist and the author of A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles through Islamic Africa (W. W. Norton & Company: 2012), A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham (W. W. Norton & Company: 2016), and Code Name Ginger (Harvard Business Review Press: 2003). He has written for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Outside, Wall Street Journal, BBC Wildlife, and many other magazines and newspapers. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Our Man in Tokyo. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the U.S. was represented in Japan by Ambassador Joseph Grew: born from a patrician family, Harvard-educated, ran away to the foreign service, and deeply respected by his fellow diplomats and Japanese politicians alike. From his arrival in Tokyo in 1932 to when he was eventually repatriated back to the US in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, Grew dutifully reported to and advised the U.S. on what to do with an increasingly imperialist, militarist—and, at many times—dysfunctional Japan. And if officials had listened to Grew, as Steve Kemper tells it in his book Our Man In Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Marine Books, 2022), the history of US-Japan relations may have looked very different. In this interview, Steve and I talk about Joseph Grew, his time in Japan, and how U.S. obstinance, and Japanese imperialism, militarism and dysfunction, got in the way of his diplomacy. Steve Kemper is a journalist and the author of A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles through Islamic Africa (W. W. Norton & Company: 2012), A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham (W. W. Norton & Company: 2016), and Code Name Ginger (Harvard Business Review Press: 2003). He has written for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Outside, Wall Street Journal, BBC Wildlife, and many other magazines and newspapers. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Our Man in Tokyo. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the U.S. was represented in Japan by Ambassador Joseph Grew: born from a patrician family, Harvard-educated, ran away to the foreign service, and deeply respected by his fellow diplomats and Japanese politicians alike. From his arrival in Tokyo in 1932 to when he was eventually repatriated back to the US in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, Grew dutifully reported to and advised the U.S. on what to do with an increasingly imperialist, militarist—and, at many times—dysfunctional Japan. And if officials had listened to Grew, as Steve Kemper tells it in his book Our Man In Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Marine Books, 2022), the history of US-Japan relations may have looked very different. In this interview, Steve and I talk about Joseph Grew, his time in Japan, and how U.S. obstinance, and Japanese imperialism, militarism and dysfunction, got in the way of his diplomacy. Steve Kemper is a journalist and the author of A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles through Islamic Africa (W. W. Norton & Company: 2012), A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham (W. W. Norton & Company: 2016), and Code Name Ginger (Harvard Business Review Press: 2003). He has written for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Outside, Wall Street Journal, BBC Wildlife, and many other magazines and newspapers. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Our Man in Tokyo. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the U.S. was represented in Japan by Ambassador Joseph Grew: born from a patrician family, Harvard-educated, ran away to the foreign service, and deeply respected by his fellow diplomats and Japanese politicians alike. From his arrival in Tokyo in 1932 to when he was eventually repatriated back to the US in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, Grew dutifully reported to and advised the U.S. on what to do with an increasingly imperialist, militarist—and, at many times—dysfunctional Japan. And if officials had listened to Grew, as Steve Kemper tells it in his book Our Man In Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Marine Books, 2022), the history of US-Japan relations may have looked very different. In this interview, Steve and I talk about Joseph Grew, his time in Japan, and how U.S. obstinance, and Japanese imperialism, militarism and dysfunction, got in the way of his diplomacy. Steve Kemper is a journalist and the author of A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles through Islamic Africa (W. W. Norton & Company: 2012), A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham (W. W. Norton & Company: 2016), and Code Name Ginger (Harvard Business Review Press: 2003). He has written for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Outside, Wall Street Journal, BBC Wildlife, and many other magazines and newspapers. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Our Man in Tokyo. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the U.S. was represented in Japan by Ambassador Joseph Grew: born from a patrician family, Harvard-educated, ran away to the foreign service, and deeply respected by his fellow diplomats and Japanese politicians alike. From his arrival in Tokyo in 1932 to when he was eventually repatriated back to the US in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, Grew dutifully reported to and advised the U.S. on what to do with an increasingly imperialist, militarist—and, at many times—dysfunctional Japan. And if officials had listened to Grew, as Steve Kemper tells it in his book Our Man In Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Marine Books, 2022), the history of US-Japan relations may have looked very different. In this interview, Steve and I talk about Joseph Grew, his time in Japan, and how U.S. obstinance, and Japanese imperialism, militarism and dysfunction, got in the way of his diplomacy. Steve Kemper is a journalist and the author of A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles through Islamic Africa (W. W. Norton & Company: 2012), A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham (W. W. Norton & Company: 2016), and Code Name Ginger (Harvard Business Review Press: 2003). He has written for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Outside, Wall Street Journal, BBC Wildlife, and many other magazines and newspapers. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Our Man in Tokyo. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Links from the show:* Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor* Connect with SteveAbout my guest:In November 2022, Mariner Books (HarperCollins) published my new book, Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor. It's a behind-the-scenes narrative about the volatile lead-up to the war with Japan, told from the perspective of the American who knew that country best at the time—Joseph C. Grew, the United States ambassador from 1932 to 1942. In 2019 the National Endowment for the Humanities gave me a grant through its Public Scholar Program to support the research and writing.My previous book, A Splendid Savage: the Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham (W. W. Norton, 2016), is the biography of a man once world-famous as "the American scout." Before that, I wrote A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles Through Islamic Africa (W. W. Norton, 2012), about Heinrich Barth, one of Africa's greatest explorers yet nearly forgotten today. The book is a nonfiction historical adventure that recreates Barth's incredible five-year, 10,000 mile journey in the 1850s. The Boston Globe named Labyrinth one of the best nonfiction books of 2012.My first book, Code Name Ginger: the Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World (Harvard Business School Press, 2003), was selected by Barnes & Noble for its Discover Great New Writers award. Harper published the paperback under the title Reinventing the Wheel: a Story of Genius, Innovation, and Grand Ambition.Other credits: Smithsonian, National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Outside, Wall Street Journal, Yankee, National Wildlife, The Ecologist, Plenty, BBC Wildlife, and many other magazines and newspapers. I have taught writing and journalism as an adjunct professor at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and at Fairfield University.I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. After graduating from the University of Detroit, I taught literature and writing at the University of Connecticut while earning a Ph.D. I've received several awards for my work, as well as a grant from the W. Alton Jones Foundation for an environmental investigation in Bolivia. Get full access to Dispatches from the War Room at dispatchesfromthewarroom.substack.com/subscribe

In 1932 career diplomat Joseph Grew was posted to Japan as the American Ambassador. At the time, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister, and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed. Not only was the country in turmoil, but its relationship with America was also rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy.  From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan and for the world in the run-up to WWII. To discuss Joesph Grew and Japanese American relations running up to the war, I'm joined by Steve Kemper. Steve is the author of Our Man in Tokyo, which draws on Grew's diary, correspondence, dispatches, and first-hand Japanese accounts to lay out Japan's road to the Second World War. Patreonpatreon.com/ww2podcast

The Million Pound Bank Note by Mark Twain词汇提示1.certificate 证明2.deposit 存款3.astonishing 令人吃惊4.stepfather 继父原文Chapter Eight: Back to Portland PlaceThe next day, all of London talked about the shares of the California gold mine.I stayed in my hotel and said to everyone who came tome, "Yes, I know Mr Hastings. He's a very honest man. And I know the gold mine, because I lived in the California Gold Country. It is a mine of great value."People were now interested in buying the shares.I spent every evening with Portia at the American Ambassador's house.I didn't tell her about the shares and the mine.It was a surprise.We talked about our love and our future together.Finally, the end of the month arrived.Lots of rich Londoners bought the shares of the mine.I had a million dollars of my own in the London and County Bank.And Lloyd did too.It was time to meet with the two old gentlemen.I dressed in my best clothes, and I went to get Portia.Before going to Portland Place, Portia and I talked about the job and the salary."Portia, you are so beautiful! When the two gentlemen meet you, they will give me any job and any salary I ask for.""Henry, please remember that if we ask for too much, we will get nothing. Then what will happen to us?""Don't be afraid, Portia."When we arrived, the same servant opened the door.There were the two old gentlemen having tea.They were surprised to see Portia.I introduced her to them.Then I said, "Gentlemen, I am ready to report to you.""We are pleased to hear this," said one gentleman."Now we can decide the bet that my brother Abel and I made. If you won for me, you can have any job in my power. Do you have the million-pound note?""Here it is, sir," and I gave it to him."I won!" he shouted."Now what do you say, Abel?""I say he survived, and I lost twenty thousand pounds. I can't believe it! "I have more to tell you," I said. "But, it's a long story. I'll tell you another time. For now, look at this.""What! A Certificate of Deposit for £200,000. Is it yours?""It's mine. I earned it by using the banknote you lent me for a month.""This is astonishing! I can't believe it." Portia looked at me with surprise and said, "Henry, is that really your money? You didn't tell me the truth.""No, I didn't. But, I know you'll forgive me.""Don't be so sure! You told me a lie, Henry.""Dearest Portia, it was only for fun. Come, let's go now.""But, wait, wait!" my gentleman said."I want to give you the job and the salary you choose.""Thank you, thank you with all my heart. But I don't want the job.""Henry, you didn't thank the good gentleman in the right way. Can I do it for you?" Portia said."Of course you can, my dear."Portia walked to my gentleman, sat on his lap and kissed him on the mouth.Then the two old gentlemen shouted and laughed.I was amazed.What was happening?"Papa," said Portia, "Henry doesn't want your job. I feel very hurt.""Darling, is that your father?"I asked. "Yes, he's my stepfather, a dear man. Now do you understand why I laughed when you told me your story?""My dearest sir," I said, "I want to take back what I said.T here is a job that I want.""Tell me!""I want the job of son-in-law.""Well, well, well. But you were never a son-in-law before.Do you know how to do this job?""Try me, please! Try me for thirty or forty years, and if-""Oh, all right. Take her!"Were Portia and I happy?There aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe our happiness.When the Londoners heard the whole story of my adventures with the banknote, they talked of nothing else.Portia's father took the banknote back to the Bank of England and cashed it. Then he gave us the cancelled banknote as a wedding present.We put it in a picture frame and hung it on the wall in our new home.And so I always say, "Yes, it's a million-pound banknote, but it only bought one thing in its life; the most valuable thing in the world - Portia!"

The Million Pound Bank Note by Mark Twain词汇提示1.Duke 公爵2.Duchess 公爵夫人 3.Earl 子爵4.Countess 子爵夫人5.Lord 勋爵6.Ambassador 大使7.precedence 优先原文Chapter Six: The Dinner PartyThere were fourteen people at the dinner party.The Duke and Duchess of Shoreditch, and their daughter, Lady Anne-Grace-Eleanorde Bohun, the Earl and Countess of Newgate, Viscount Cheapside, Lord and Lady Blatherskite, the Ambassador and his wife and daughter, and some other people.There was also a beautiful, twenty-two-year old English girl, named Portia Langham. I fell in love with her in two minutes, and she with me!After a while, the house servant presented another guest, Mr Lloyd Hastings.When Mr Hastings saw me, he said, "I think I know you.""Yes, you probably do.""Are you the -the - ""Yes, I'm the strange millionaire with the million-pound note in his pocket!""Well, well, this is a surprise. I never thought you were the same Henry Adams from San Francisco! Six months ago, you were working in the offices of Blake Hopkins in San Francisco. I remember clearly. You had a very small salary. And, at night, you helped me arrange the papers for the Gould and Curry Mining Company. Now you're a millionaire, a celebrity here in London. I can't believe it! How exciting!""I can't believe it, either, Lloyd.""Just three months ago, we went to the Miner's Restaurant - ""No, no, it was the What Cheer Restaurant.""Right, it was the What Cheer. We went there at two o'clock in the morning. We had steak and coffee. That night we worked for six long hours on the Gould and Curry Mining Company papers. Do you remember, Henry, I asked you to come to London with me. I wanted you to help me sell the Gould and Curry gold mine shares. But you refused." "Of course I remember. I didn't want to leave my job in San Francisco.And, I still think it's difficult to sell shares of a California gold mine here in London.""You were right, Henry. You were so right. It is impossible to sell these shares here in London. My plan failed and I spent all my money. I don't want to talk about it.""But you must talk about it. When we leave the dinner party, you must tell me what happened.""Oh, can I? I really need to talk to a friend," Lloyd said, with water in his eyes."Yes, I want to hear the whole story, every word of it.""Thank you, Henry. You're a true friend."At this point, it was time for dinner.Thanks to the English system of precedence,t here was no dinner.The Duke of Shoreditch wanted to sit at the head of the table.The American Ambassador also wanted to sit at the head of the table.It was impossible for them to decide, so we had no dinner.The English know about the system of precedence.They have dinner before going out to dinner.But strangers know nothing about it.They remain hungry all evening.Instead, we had a dish of sardines and a strawberry.Now it was time for everyone to play a game called cribbage.The English never play a game for fun.They play to win or to lose something.Miss Langham and I played the game, but with little interest.I looked at her beautiful face and said, "Miss Langham, I love you!""Mr Adams," she said softly and smiled, "I love you too!"This was a wonderful evening.Miss Langham and I were very happy. We smiled, laughed and talked.I was honest with her.I told her that I was poor and that I didn't have a cent in the world.I explained that the million-pound note was not mine.She was very curious to know more.I told her the whole story from the start.She laughed and laughed.She thought the story was very funny.I didn't understand why it was funny.I also explained that I needed an important job with a big salary to pay all my debts."Portia, dear, can you come with me on the day I must meet those two gentlemen? ""Well, yes, if I can help you," she replied."Of course you can help me. You are so lovely that when the two gentlemen see you, I can ask for any job and any salary. With you there, my sweet Portia, the two gentlemen won't refuse me anything."

The Million Pound Bank Note by Mark Twain词汇提示1.luxuries 奢侈品2.ambassador 大使原文Chapter Five: The Poor MillionaireThe impossible happened.I bought everything I wanted without money.I showed my banknote and asked for change, but every time the same thing happened.No one was able to change it.I bought all that I needed and all the luxuries that I wanted.I stayed at an expensive hotel in Hanover Square.I always had dinner at the hotel.But I preferred having breakfast at Harris's simple eating place.Harris was happy with all his new customers.I lived like a rich, important man.I had money to spend.I lived in a dream.But often, I said to myself, "Remember, this dream will end when the two men return to London. Everything will change."My story was in the newspapers.Everyone talked about the "strange millionaire with the million-pound note in his pocket."Punch magazine drew a funny picture of me on the front page.People talked about everything I did and about everything I said.They followed me in the streets.I kept my old clothes, and sometimes I wore them.It was fun when the shop owners thought I was poor.Then I showed them the banknote, and, oh, how their faces changed!After ten days in London, I went to visit the American Ambassador.He was very happy to meet me.He invited me to a dinner-party that evening.He told me that he knew my father from Yale University.He invited me to visit his home whenever I wanted.I was glad to have a new, important friend.I thought to myself, "I'll need an important friend, when the story of the million-pound note and bet comes out."I want the reader to know that I planned to pay back all the shop owners who sold me things on credit."If I win the bet for the old gentleman," I thought, "I will have an important job. With an important job, I will have a big salary."I planned to pay back everyone with my first year's salary.

A gripping, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war.  In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, its relationship with America was rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. His dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove prescient—for his time, and for our own. Drawing on Grew's diary of his time in Tokyo as well as U.S. embassy correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and firsthand Japanese accounts, Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner Books, 2022) brings to life a man who risked everything to avert another world war, the country where he staked it all—and the abyss that swallowed it. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

A gripping, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war.  In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, its relationship with America was rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. His dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove prescient—for his time, and for our own. Drawing on Grew's diary of his time in Tokyo as well as U.S. embassy correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and firsthand Japanese accounts, Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner Books, 2022) brings to life a man who risked everything to avert another world war, the country where he staked it all—and the abyss that swallowed it. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

A gripping, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war.  In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, its relationship with America was rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. His dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove prescient—for his time, and for our own. Drawing on Grew's diary of his time in Tokyo as well as U.S. embassy correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and firsthand Japanese accounts, Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner Books, 2022) brings to life a man who risked everything to avert another world war, the country where he staked it all—and the abyss that swallowed it. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

A gripping, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war.  In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, its relationship with America was rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. His dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove prescient—for his time, and for our own. Drawing on Grew's diary of his time in Tokyo as well as U.S. embassy correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and firsthand Japanese accounts, Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner Books, 2022) brings to life a man who risked everything to avert another world war, the country where he staked it all—and the abyss that swallowed it. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

A gripping, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war.  In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, its relationship with America was rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. His dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove prescient—for his time, and for our own. Drawing on Grew's diary of his time in Tokyo as well as U.S. embassy correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and firsthand Japanese accounts, Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner Books, 2022) brings to life a man who risked everything to avert another world war, the country where he staked it all—and the abyss that swallowed it. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

A gripping, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war.  In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister and conspiracies flourished. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, its relationship with America was rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists to the global rise of Hitler and the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. His dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove prescient—for his time, and for our own. Drawing on Grew's diary of his time in Tokyo as well as U.S. embassy correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and firsthand Japanese accounts, Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner Books, 2022) brings to life a man who risked everything to avert another world war, the country where he staked it all—and the abyss that swallowed it. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Hear: About my shock when I read the treacherous words of the caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, how he panicked to get votes, and how he grovelled to the Arabs to get theirs. And how he brought the sleeping Arab/Israeli conflict to the forefront of the UN agenda by supporting it during his speech to the United Nations Assembly. Another: Appeal to vote tactically with your head not your heart to get the government we need. We don't want to waste votes on small parties that get nowhere. Vote for the largest one, Likud. To make sure of a good right-wing majority. Why: The ridiculous notion of a two-state solution will never work. Presiden Biden who taks of ‘Palestinian' entitlement needs to learn history. You can hear about that in Walter's interview with the American Ambassador which is available now on 'The Walter Bingham File'. Also: Why Israel's President Isaak Herzog should not have accepted Biden's invitation to Washington, He is going next week. The: Foulmouthed Yair Golan, Knesset member for far-left Meretz party is at it again, calling Netanyahu with unparliamentary language. He also compares some events of antisemitic Europe with Israel. There: Is once more not unexpected news from the UN Commission of Enquiry into human rights, accusing Israel of war crimes and calling to arrest our leaders. And: More The Walter Bingham File 25OCT2022 - PODCAST

Listen: To the American Ambassador explaining to Walter in clear terms the Biden administration's policy on Israel and other international trouble spots. Whether you agree or disagree, it is important to hear how the Ambassador defends Biden's actions. The Walter Bingham File 18OCT2022 - PODCAST

Hooman “Mo” Tavakolian is a former Hofstra wrestler who now serves as the chief compliance officer at a Hedge Fund on Wall Street. Mo, who was born in Iran, was instrumental in bridging the gap between the Iranian and the US national teams at the 2017 world cup. For his efforts, he was named to the New York chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Mo also runs a nonprofit called Hoomanities with a mission to reinstate hope in humanity through sports. Mo has also written a book called Hoomans Hope. Enjoy! (Picture: Justin Hoch)

A Report from the conference discussing ‘New tools of combating Anti-Semitism', with the keynote address by the American Special Envoy to combat Anti-Semitism and highly respected Lawyer and activist Debora Lipstadt as well as remarks by the American Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides. And how Anti-Semitism has morphed into a new mode, using the policies and actions of the State of Israel as a cover. With Contributions and speeches from other internationally known activists. The Walter Bingham File 12JULY2022 - PODCAST

Did Ethiopian government forces kill MSF charity workers in the Tigray region last year? Also, the American Ambassador to the United Nations on why African countries cannot remain neutral in the war in Ukraine. Plus, Tanzania's President, one year into office - how is she performing? And of course, our Resident Presidents on the use of Swahili at the AU.

The American Ambassador to Israel declared that he is “infuriated” by settlement growth in the so-called West Bank, saying that it is impeding a two-state solution. A young Arab man was arrested by Israeli Police after he made a TikTok video declaring his intentions to carry out a terror attack. In the spirit of the holiday of Purim, the President of Israel visited children in the hospital to brighten their holiday by handing out Purim gifts.    All this and more on today's show!   The Israel Guys Daily is a podcast designed to give you the accurate headlines from Israel, straight from an on-the-ground source. Coming out every day, Monday through Friday, The Israel Guys Daily is designed to give you your daily update on what is happening in Israel in an easy 10-15 minute segment.   Tune in daily to get your accurate news from Israel.

*Chapter Discussion starts at 21:48* Cress and Iko pass the time playing games, while the rest of the Rampion crew prepares to head to Luna. Thorne is disappointed to learn his ship has been repainted, but quickly remembers Kai's reminder about who the ship actually belongs to. In a rare moment of humility, Thorne reveals another side of himself, only to cover it quickly with sarcasm.  Kai and Torin wait for Cinder and the crew to arrive, Kai with impatience and Torin with diplomacy. When the American Ambassador's ship needs a lift to Luna, Kai is less than hesitant to offer them a ride. As the glamours disappear, Cinder and Kai are reunited, but there's no time for pleasantries when they are about to invade Luna. This podcast is Hosted and Produced by Bethanie A. Finger, with special guest Leah Stuhler from YA Book Chat Podcast.  Logo Art was created by Sunlit Tangles on Instagram. Intro/Outro Music was written by Emma Pavvo on Instagram.