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Czy można uznać, że Vaclav Havel to czeski odpowiednik Lecha Wałęsy? A Vaclav Klaus Leszka Balcerowicza? Czy czeska lewica, nim prawie zupełnie zniknęła, miała coś wspólnego z polskimi postkomunistami? I gdzie byłby polski PPS, gdyby właśnie postkomuniści nie opanowali swojej części sceny politycznej.O tej i innych kwestiach rozmawiam w najnowszym, 72-gim odcinku Czechostacji z dr Janem Škvrňákiem. Do tej pory Janek - historyk średniowiecza, gościł w Czechach kilkukrotnie, opowiadając właśnie o wydarzeniach i postaciach sprzed ponad pół tysiąca lat. Tym razem jednak pochyliliśmy się nad współczesnością, wychodząc od książki, którą opublikował właśnie w Czechach - "Polsko na rozcestí" - Polska na rozdrożu". To obraz ostatnich czterech dekad politycznych przemian nad Wisłą, widziany oczami czeskiego autora. Książka jest tylko po czesku, ale jeśli ktoś czyta w tym języku, to wiem, że kupić ją można na pewno w księgarni Czeskie Klimaty.O samej książce rozmawiamy jednak raczej niewiele. W pewnym sensie dzisiejsza rozmowa jest kontynuacją tej sprzed tygodnia, tyle, ze wówczas z Pavlem Trojanem opowiadaliśmy o tym, w czym Czesi są podobni do Polaków a czym się różnią. Tym razem, wg tego samego schematu - zestawiamy życie polityczne obu krajów, od początku lat 80-tych do współczesności.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jeśli podcast Wam się podoba i chcecie pomóc go rozwijać, możecie zostać Patronami lub Patronkami Czechostacji w serwisie Patronite. W tym tygodniu zdecydowali się na to:dwóch Bartków, Karina, Kateřina, Krystian, Marcin, Marek, Mirosław i PrzemysławBardzo Wam dziękuję

Few Americans have been as explicit in their warnings about Donald Trump than the St. Louis based writer Sarah Kendzior. Her latest book, The Last American Road Trip, is a memoir chronicling Kendzior's journey down Route 66 to show her children America before it is destroyed. Borrowing from her research of post Soviet Central Asia, Kendzior argues that Trump is establishing a kleptocratic “mafia state” designed to fleece the country of its valuables. This is the third time that Kendzior has been on the show and I have to admit I've always been slightly skeptical of her apocalyptic take on Trump. But given the damage that the new administration is inflicting on America, I have to admit that many of Kendzior's warnings now appear to be uncannily prescient. As she warns, it's Springtime in America. And things are about to get much much hotter. FIVE TAKEAWAYS* Kendzior views Trump's administration as a "mafia state" or kleptocracy focused on stripping America for parts rather than traditional fascism, comparing it to post-Soviet oligarchic systems she studied as an academic.* She believes American institutions have failed to prevent authoritarianism, criticizing both the Biden administration and other institutional leaders for not taking sufficient preventative action during Trump's first term.* Despite her bleak analysis, Kendzior finds hope in ordinary Americans and their capacity for mutual care and resistance, even as she sees formal leadership failing.* Kendzior's new book The Last American Road Trip follows her journey to show her children America before potential collapse, using Route 66 as a lens to examine American decay and resilience.* As an independent voice, she describes being targeted through both publishing obstacles and personal threats, yet remains committed to staying in her community and documenting what's happening. FULL TRANSCRIPTAndrew Keen: Hello everybody, it is April the 18th, 2025, a Friday. I'm thrilled today that we have one of my favorite guests back on the show. I call her the Cassandra of St. Louis, Sarah Kendzior. Many of you know her from her first book, which was a huge success. All her books have done very well. The View from Flyover Country. She was warning us about Trump and Trumpism and MAGA. She was first on our show in 2020. Talking about media in the age of Trump. She had another book out then, Hiding in Plain Sight, The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America. Then in 2022, she came back on the show to talk about how a culture of conspiracy is keeping America simultaneously complacent and paranoid that the book was called or is called, They Knew. Another big success. And now Sarah has a new book out. It's called The Last American Road Trip. It's a beautifully written book, a kind of memoir, but a political one, of course, which one would expect from Sarah Kendzior. And I'm thrilled, as I said, that the Cassandra of St. Louis is joining us from St. Louis. Sarah, congratulations on the new book.Sarah Kendzior: Oh, thank you. And thank you for having me back on.Andrew Keen: Well, it's an honor. So these four books, how does the last American road trip in terms of the narrative of your previous three hits, how does it fit in? Why did you write it?Sarah Kendzior: Well, this book kind of pivots off the epilog of hiding in plain sight. And that was a book about political corruption in the United States and the rise of Trump. But in the epilogue, I describe how I was trying as a mom to show my kids America in the case that it ended due to both political turmoil and corruption and also climate change. I wanted them to see things themselves. So I was driving them around the country to national parks, historic sites, et cetera. And so many people responded so passionately to that little section, especially parents really struggling on how to raise children in this America that I ended up writing a book that covers 2016 to 2024 and my attempts to show my children everything I could in the time that we had. And as this happens, my children went from relatively young kids to teenagers, my daughter's almost an adult. And so it kind of captures America during this time period. It's also just a travelog, a road trip book, a memoir. It's a lot of things at once.Andrew Keen: Yeah, got great review from Ms. magazine comparing you with the great road writers, Kerouac, of course, and Steinbeck, but Kerouak and Steinback, certainly Kerouack was very much of a solitary male. Is there a female quality to this book? As you say, it's a book as much about your kids and the promise of America as it is about yourself.Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, I think there is in that, you know, I have a section actually about the doomed female road trip where it's, you know, Thelma and Louise or Janet Bates and Psycho or even songs about, you know, being on the road and on the run that are written by women, you know, like Merle Haggard's I'm a Lonesome Fugitive, had to be sung by men to convey that quality. And there aren't a lot of, you know, mom on the Road with her husband and kids kind of books. That said, I think of it as a family book, a parenting book. I certainly think men would like it just as much as women would, and people without kids would like just as people with kids, although it does seem to strike a special resonance with families struggling with a lot of the same issues that I do.Andrew Keen: It's all about the allure of historic Route 66. I've been on that. Anyone who's driven across the country has you. You explain that it's a compilation of four long trips across Route 66 in 1998, 2007, 2017, and 2023. That's almost 40 years, Sarah. Sorry, 30. Getting away my age there, Andrew. My math isn't very good. I mean, how has Route 66 and of course, America changed in that period? I know that's a rather leading question.Sarah Kendzior: No, I mean, I devote quite a lot of the book to Route 66 in part because I live on it, you know, goes right through St. Louis. So, I see it just every day. I'll be casually grocery shopping and then be informed I'm on historic Route 66 all of a sudden. But you know it's a road that is, you once was the great kind of romanticized road of escape and travel. It was decommissioned notably by Ronald Reagan after the creation of the interstate. And now it's just a series of rural roads, frontage roads, roads that end abruptly, roads that have gone into ruin, roads that are in some really beautiful places in terms of the landscape. So it really is this conglomeration of all of America, you know of the decay and the destruction and the abandonment in particular, but also people's, their own memories, their own artistic works, you know roadside shrines and creations that are often, you know pretty off beat. That they've put to show this is what I think of our country. These are my values. This is what, I think, is important. So it's a very interesting journey to take. It's often one I'm kind of inadvertently on just because of where I live and the direction I go. We'll mirror it. So I kept passing these sites again and again. I didn't set out to write this book. Obviously, when I first drove it when I was 19, I didn't know that this was our future. But looking back, especially at technological change, at how we travel, at how trust each other, at all of these things that have happened to this country since this time, it's really something. And that road will bring back all of those memories of what was lost and what remains to be lost. And of course it's hitting its 100th anniversary next year, so I'm guessing there'll be a lot of reminiscing about Route 66.Andrew Keen: Book about memories, you write about that, eventually even your memory will just or this experience of this trip will just be a memory. What does that suggest about contextualizing the current moment in American history? It's too easy to overdramatize it or perhaps it's hard not to over dramatize it given what's happening. I want to talk about a little bit about that your take on America on April the 18th, 2025. But how does that make sense of a memorial when you know that even your memories will become memories?Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, I mean it's hard to talk frankly about what's happening in America now without it sounding over dramatic or hyperbolic, which I think is why so many people were reluctant to believe me over my last decade of warnings that the current crises and catastrophes that we're experiencing are coming, are possible, and need to be actively stopped. I don't think they were inevitable, but they needed to be stopped by people in charge who refused to do it. And so, my reaction to this as a writer, but just as a human being is to write everything down, is to keep an ongoing record, not only of what I witness now, but of what know of our history, of what my own values are, of what place in the world is. And back in 2016, I encouraged everyone to do this because I knew that over the next decade, people would be told to accept things that they would normally never accept, to believe things that they would normally, never believe. And if you write down where you stand, you always have that point of reference to look back towards. It doesn't have to be for publication. It doesn't have to for the outside world. It can just be for yourself. And so I think that that's important. But right now, I think everyone has a role to play in battling what is an authoritarian kleptocracy and preventing it from hurting people. And I think people should lean into what they do best. And what I do best is write and research and document. So that's what I meant. Continue to do, particularly as history itself is under assault by this government.Andrew Keen: One of the things that strikes me about you, Sarah, is that you have an unusual background. You got a PhD in Soviet studies, late Soviet studies.Sarah Kendzior: Anthropology, yeah, but that was nice.Andrew Keen: But your dissertation was on the Uzbek opposition in exile. I wonder whether that experience of studying the late Soviet Union and its disintegration equipped you in some ways better than a lot of domestic American political analysts and writers for what's happening in America today. We've done a number of shows with people like Pete Weiner, who I'm sure you know his work from the Atlantic of New York Times. About learning from East European resistance writers, brave people like Milan Kundra, of course, Vaclav Havel, Solzhenitsyn. Do you think your earlier history of studying the Soviet Union helped you prepare, at least mentally, intellectually, for what's happening in the United States?Sarah Kendzior: Oh, absolutely. I think it was essential, because there are all sorts of different types of authoritarianism. And the type that Trump and his backers have always pursued was that of a mafia state, you know, of a kleptocracy. And Uzbekistan is the country that I knew the most. And actually, you what I wrote my dissertation about, this is between 2006, and 2012, was the fact that after a massacre of civilians... A lot of Uzbekistan's journalists, activists, political figures, opposition figures, et cetera, went into exile and then they immediately started writing blogs. And so for the very first time, they had freedom of speech. They had never had it in Uzbekistan. And they start revealing the whole secret history of Uzbekistan and everything going on and trying to work with each other, try to sort of have some impact on the political process in Uzbekistan. And they lost. What happened was the dictator died, Islam Karimov died, in 2016, and was replaced by another dictator who's not quite as severe. But watching the losing side and also watching people persevere and hold on to themselves and continue working despite that loss, I think, was very influential. Because you could look at Václav Havel or Lech Walesa or, you know, other sort of. People who won, you know, from Eastern Europe, from the revolutions of 1989 and so forth. And it's inspiring that sometimes I think it's really important to look at the people who did not succeed, but kept going anyway. You know, they didn't surrender themselves. They didn't their morality and they didn't abandon their fellow man. And I think that that's important. And also just to sort of get at the heart of your question, yes, you the structure of it, oligarchs who shake down countries, strip them and sell them for parts. Mine them for resources. That model, especially of what happened to Russia, actually, in particular in the 1990s of these oligarch wars, is what I see as the future of the United States right now. That is what they're trying to emulate.Andrew Keen: That we did a show with Steve Hansen and Jeff Kopstein, both political scientists, on what they see. They co-wrote a book on patrimonialism. This is the model they see there. They're both Max Weber scholars, so they borrow from that historic sociological analysis. And Kopstein was on the show with John Rausch as well, talking about this patrimonials. And so you, do you share the Kopstein-Hansen-Rausch analysis. Roush wrote a piece in the Atlantic about this too, which did very well. But this isn't conventional fascism or communism. It's a kind of 21st century version of patrimonialism.Sarah Kendzior: It's definitely not traditional fascism and one of the main reasons for that is a fascist has loyalty to the state. They seek to embody the state, they seek to expand the state recently Trump has been doing this more traditional route somewhat things like wanting to buy Greenland. But I think a lot of what he's doing is in reaction to climate change and also by the way I don't think Trump is the mastermind or originator. Of any of these geopolitical designs. You know, he has a team, we know about some of them with the Heritage Foundation Project 2025. We know he has foreign advisors. And again, you know, Trump is a corporate raider. That is how he led his business life. He's a mafia associate who wants to strip things down and sell them for parts. And that's what they wanna do with the United States. And that, yes, there are fascist tactics. There are fascists rhetoric. You know there are a lot of things that this country will, unfortunately, and has. In common, you know, with, say, Nazi Germany, although it's also notable that of course Nazi Germany borrowed from a lot of the tactics of Jim Crow, slavery, genocide of Native Americans. You know, this has always been a back and forth and America always has had some form of selective autocracy. But yeah, I think the folks who try to make this direct line and make it seem like the 20th century is just simply being revived, I've always felt like they were off because. There's no interest for these plutocrats in the United States even existing as a sovereign body. Like it truly doesn't matter to them if all of our institutions, even something as benign as the Postal Service, collapse. That's actually beneficial for them because then they can privatize, they can mine resources, they can make money for themselves. And I really worry that their goal is partition, you know, is to take this country. And to split it into smaller pieces that are easier to control. And that's one of the reasons I wrote this book, that I wrote The Last American Road Trip because I don't want people to fall for traps about generalizations or stereotypes about different regions of this country. I want them to see it as a whole and that our struggles are interconnected and we have a better chance of winning if we stand by each other.Andrew Keen: Yeah, and your book, in particular, The View from Flyover Country was so important because it wasn't written from San Francisco or Los Angeles or D.C. Or New York. It was written from St. Louis. So in a way, Sarah, you're presenting Trump as the ultimate Hayekian b*****d. There's a new book out by Quinn Slobodian called Hayek's B******s, which connects. Trumpianism and mago with Neoliberalism you don't see a break. We've done a lot of shows on the rise and fall of neoliberalism. You don't say a break between Hayek and TrumpSarah Kendzior: I think that in terms of neoliberalism, I think it's a continuation of it. And people who think that our crises began with Trump becoming the president in 2017, entering office, are deluded because the pathway to Trump even being able to run for president given that he was first investigated by the Department of Justice in 1973 and then was linked to a number of criminal enterprises for decades after. You know, that he was able to get in that position, you know that already showed that we had collapsed in certain respects. And so I think that these are tied together. You know, this has a lot to do with greed, with a, you know a disregard for sovereignty, a disregard human rights. For all of this Trump has always served much better as a demagogue, a front man, a figurehead. I do think, you he's a lot smarter. Than many of his opponents give him credit for. He is very good at doing what he needs to do and knowing what he need to know and nothing more. The rest he gives to the bureaucrats, to the lawyers, et cetera. But he fills this persona, and I do wonder what will happen when he is gone because they've tried very hard to find a successor and it's always failed, like DeSantis or Nikki Haley or whoever. And I kind of wonder if one of the reasons things are moving so, so fast now is they're trying to get a lot of things in under the wire while he's still alive, because I don't think that there's any individual who people have the loyalty to. His cult is not that big. It's a relatively small segment of the country, but it is very intense and very loyal to him. I don't think that loyalty is transferable.Andrew Keen: Is there anything, you know, I presented you as the Cassandra from St. Louis, you've seen the future probably clearer than most other people. Certainly when I first came across your work, I wasn't particularly convinced. I'm much more convinced now. You were right. I was wrong. Is there, anything about Trump too, that surprised you? I mean, any of the, the cruelty? Open corruption, the anger, the hostility, the attempt to destroy anything of any value in America, the fact that they seem to take such great pleasure in destroying this country's most valuable thing.Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, it's extremely sad and no, he doesn't surprise me at all. He's been the same guy since I was a little kid. You know, he was a plot line on children's television shows in the 1980s where as a child, I was supposed to know that the name Trump was synonymous with corruption, with being a tax cheat, with being a liar, you know, these were just sort of cultural codes that I was expected to know. What surprised me more is that no one stopped him because this threat was incredibly obvious. And that so many people in power have joined in, and I'm assuming they're joining in because they would rather be on the side with all that power than be a target of that power, but that they feel apparently no sense of loss, no sense grief for things like the loss of national parks, public education, the postal service, things that most folks like, social security for your elderly parents. Most Americans... Want these things. And most Americans, regardless of political party, don't want to see our country torn apart in this fashion. And so I'm not surprised by Trump. I'm surprised at the extent of his enablers at the complicity of the press and of the FBI and other institutions. And, you know, it's also been very jarring to watch how open they are this time around, you know, things like Elon Musk and his operation taking out. Classified information. The thing is, is I'm pretty sure Trump did all that. I mean, we know Trump did this in his first term, you know, and they would emphasize things like this box of physical written documents in Mar-a-Lago illegally taken. But, you know my mind always just went to, well, what did they do digitally? Because that seems much easier and much more obvious. What did they with all of these state secrets that they had access to for four years? What kind of leverage would that give them? And I think now they're just kind of, they're not bothering to hide anything anymore. I think they set the stage and now, you know, we're in the midst of the most horrible play, the most terrible performance ever. And it's, you can be still crushing at times.Andrew Keen: And of course, the real question is whether we're in the last act. Your book, The Last American Road Trip, was written, mostly written, what, in 2024 from?Sarah Kendzior: 2023.Andrew Keen: 2023. So, I mean, here's, I don't know if you can answer this, Sarah, but you know as much about middle America and middle Americans as anyone. You're on the road, you talk to everyone, you have a huge following, both on the left and the right in some ways. Some of your books now, you told me before we went live, some of your previous books, like Hiding in Plain Sight, suddenly become a big hit amongst conservative Americans. What does Trump or the MAGA people around him, what do they have to do to lose the support of ordinary Americans? As you say, they're destroying the essential infrastructure, medical, educational, the roads, the railways, everything is being destroyed, carted off almost like Stalin carted of half of the Soviet Union back into Asia during the Second World War. What does he have to do to lose the support of Middle America?Sarah Kendzior: I mean, I don't think middle America, you know, by which like a giant swath of the country that's, that's just ideological, diverse, demographically diverse supports him. I mean some do certainly. He's got some hardcore acolytes. I think most people are disillusioned with the entire political system. They are deeply frustrated by Trump. They were deeply frustrated. By Biden, they're struggling to pay bills. They're struggling. To hold on to basic human rights. And they're mad that their leverage is gone. People voted in record numbers in 2020. They protested in record number throughout Trump's first term. They've made their concerns known for a very long time and there are just very few officials really listening or responding. And I think that initially when Trump reentered the picture, it caused folks to just check out mentally because it was too overwhelming. I think it's why voter turnout was lower because the Democrats, when they won, didn't make good on their promises. It's a very simple thing. If you follow through with your campaign platform that was popular, then you're going to retain those voters. If you don't, you may lose them, especially when you're up against a very effective demagogue who has a way with rhetoric. And so we're just in such a bad place, such a painful place. I don't think people will look to politicians to solve their problems and with very good reason. I'm hoping that there are more of a sense of community support, more of sense that we're all in this together, especially as financially things begin to fall apart. Trump said openly in 2014 that he intended to crash the American economy. He said this on a Fox News clip that I found in 2016. Because it was being reprinted all over Russian-language media. They loved this clip because it also praised Putin and so forth. And I was astounded by it. I was like, why in the world isn't this all over every TV station, every radio station? He's laying out the whole plan, and now he's following that plan. And so I'm very concerned about that. And I just hope people in times like this, traditionally, this opens the door to fascism. People become extremely afraid. And in their fear they want a scapegoat, they are full of rage, they take it out on each other. That is the worst possible move right now from both a moral or a strategic view. People need to protect each other, to respect each other as fully human, to recognize almost everyone here, except for a little tiny group of corrupt billionaires, is a victim in this scenario, and so I don't see a big difference between, you know, myself and... Wherever I go. I was in Tulsa yesterday, I was in San Francisco last week. We're all in this together and I see a lot of heartache wherever I go. And so if people can lend each other support, that is the best way to get through this.Andrew Keen: Are you suggesting then that he is the Manchurian candidate? Why did he say that in 2014?Sarah Kendzior: Well, it was interesting. He was on Fox during the Sochi Olympics, and he was talking about how he speaks with Putin every day, their pals, and that Putin is going to produce a really big win for us, and we're all going to be very happy about it. And then he went on to say that the crashing of the economy and riots throughout America is what will make America great again. And this is in February 2014. Fox has deleted the clip, You know, other people have copies. So it is, it's also in my book hiding in plain sight, the transcript of that. I'm not sure, like a Manchurian candidate almost feels, you know like the person would have to be blackmailed or coerced or brainwashed somehow to participate. I think Trump is a true volunteer and his loyalty isn't to Russia per se. You know, his loyalty is to his bank accounts, like his loyalty is to power. And one thing he's been after his whole life was immunity from prosecution because he has been involved or adjacent to such an enormous number of crimes. And then when the Supreme Court granted him that, he got what he wanted and he's not afraid of breaking the law in any way. He's doing what all autocrats do, which is rewrite the law so that he is no longer breaking it. And he has a team of lawyers who help him in that agenda. So I feel like on one sense, he's very. All-American. It's kind of a sad thing that as he destroys America, he's doing it in a very American way. He plays a lot of great American music at his rallies. He has a vernacular that I can relate to that and understand it while detesting everything he's doing and all of his horrific policies. But what they want to turn us into though, I think is something that all Americans just won't. Recognized. And we've had the slipping away of a kind of unified American culture for a while, I think because we've lost our pop culture, which is really where a lot of people would bond, you know, movies, music, all of it became split into streaming services, you know. All of it became bifurcated. People stopped seeing each other as much face to face, you know, during COVID and then that became kind of a permanent thing. We're very fragmented and that hurts us badly. And all we've kind of got left is I guess sports and then politics. So people take all the effort that they used to put into devouring American pop culture or American civic life and they put it into this kind of politics that the media presents as if it's a game, like initially a horse race during the election and now like, ooh, will the evil dictator win? It's like, this is our lives. Like we have a lot on the line. So I wish they would do, they would take their job more seriously too. Of course, they're up paywalled and on streaming sites, so who's watching anyway, but still it is a problem.Andrew Keen: Yeah, it's interesting you talk about this death wish, you mentioned Thelma and Louise earlier, one of the great movies, American road movies, maybe in an odd way, the final scene of the Trump movie will be similar to the, you seem to be suggesting to, I'm not gonna give away the end of Thelmer and Louise to anyone who's watching who hasn't seen it, you do need to see it, similar ending to that movie. What about, you've talked about resistance, Sarah, a one of. The most influential, I guess, resistors to Trump and Trumpism. You put up an X earlier this month about the duty of journalism to resist, the duty to thinkers to resist. Some people are leaving, guys like Tim Snyder, his wife, Marcy Shaw, Jason Stanley, another expert on fascism. You've made it clear that you're staying. What's your take on people like Snyder who are leaving this country?Sarah Kendzior: Well, from what I know, he made a statement saying he had decided to move to Canada before Trump was put in office. Jason Stanley, on the other hand, explicitly said he's moving there because Trump is in office, and my first thought when I heard about all of them was, well, what about their students? Like, what about all these students who are being targeted by ICE, who are being deported? What about their TAs? What about everyone who's in a more vulnerable position. You know, when you have a position of power and influence, you could potentially do a lot of good in helping people. You know I respect everyone's decision to live wherever they want. Like it's not my business. But I do think that if you have that kind of chance to do something powerful for the community around you, especially the most vulnerable people in it who at this time are green card holders, people here on visas, we're watching this horrific crackdown at all these universities. My natural inclination would be to stay and take a stand and not abandon them. And I guess, you know, people, they do things in different ways or they may have their own personal concerns and, you know that's fine. I just know, you know I'm not leaving, you know, like I've got elderly parents and in-laws. I've got relatives who need me. I have a lot of people who depend on me and they depend on me in St. Louis and in Missouri. Because there aren't that many journalists in St. Louis. I think there could be, there are a lot of great writers in St Louis, you know, who have given a chance, given a platform, you could really show you what it's actually like here instead of all these stereotypes. But we're always, always marginalized. Like even I'm marginalized and I think I'm, you know, probably the most well-known in terms of being a political commentator. And so I feel like it's important to stand my ground but also You know, I love this, this state in the city and I love my community and I can't fathom, you know, leaving people in the lurch at a time like this. When I'm doing better, I'm on more solid ground despite being a target of various, you know organizations and individuals. I'm at a more solid down than somebody who's a, you know a black American or an immigrant or impoverished. Like I feel like it is my job to stand up for you know, folks here and let everyone know, you know what's going on and be somebody who they can come to and feel like that's safe.Andrew Keen: You describe yourself, Sarah, as a target. Your books have done very well. Most of them have been bestsellers. I'm sure the last American road trip will do very well, you're just off.Sarah Kendzior: It is the bestseller as of yesterday. It is your bestseller, congratulations. Yeah, our USA Today bestsellers, so yeah.Andrew Keen: Excellent. So that's good news. You've been on the road, you've had hundreds of people show up. I know you wrote about signing 600 books at Left Bank Books, which is remarkable. Most writers would cut off both hands for that. How are you being targeted? You noted that some of your books are being taken off the shelves. Are they being banned or discouraged?Sarah Kendzior: I mean, basically, what's been happening is kind of akin to what you see with universities. I just think it's not as well publicized or publicized at all, where there's not some sort of, you know, like the places will give in to what they think this administration wants before they are outright told to do it. So yes, there is an attempt to remove hiding in plain sight from circulation in 2024 to, you know, make the paperback, which at the time was ranked on Amazon. At number 2,000. It was extremely popular because this is the week that the Supreme Court gave Trump immunity. I was on vacation when I found out it was being pulled out of circulation. And I was in rural New Mexico and I had to get to a place with Wi-Fi to try to fight back for my book, which was a bestseller, a recent publication. It was very strange to me and I won that fight. They put it back, but a lot of people had tried to order it at that time and didn't get it. And a lot of people try to get my other books and they just can't get them. You know, so the publisher always has a warehouse issue or a shipping problem and you know, this kind of comes up or you know people notice, they've noticed this since 2020, you know I don't get reviewed in the normal kind of place as a person that has best selling books one after another would get reviewed. You know, that kind of thing is more of a pain. I always was able to circumvent it before through social media. But since Musk took over Twitter and because of the way algorithms work, it's more and more difficult for me to manage all of the publicity and PR and whatnot on my own. And so, you know, I'm grateful that you're having me on your show. I'm also grateful that, you Know, Flatiron did give me a book tour. That's helped tremendously. But there's that. And then there's also just the constant. Death threats and threats of you know other things you know things happening to people I love and it's been scary and I get used to it and that I expect it but you know you never could really get used to people constantly telling you that they're gonna kill you you know.Andrew Keen: When you get death threats, do you go to the authorities, have they responded?Sarah Kendzior: No, there's no point. I mean, I have before and it was completely pointless. And, you know, I'll just mostly just go to people I know who I trust to see if they can check in on things. I have to be very vague here who are not in the government or in the police or anything like that. I don't think anyone would protect me. I really just don't think anyone could help. You know, one thing is, you know, yes, I'm a prominent critic of Trump and his administration, but I was also a prominent critic of. The DOJ and Merrick Garland for not doing anything about all of these threats and also a critic of Biden and the Democrats for not impeaching quickly, for not being more proactive, for not acting with greater urgency. So I'm targeted by kind of everyone except for people who don't have any power, which is a strange situation to be in because I love my readers and I think that they're wonderful and I'm incredibly grateful for them because my books largely spread through word of mouth. It is scary for me, just as like a mom in Missouri without a lot of resources to be targeted by all of these kind of high profile, wealthy, powerful people. But all I have is my voice and my writing. And so I just do what I can. And that's just the way the cards have been dealt for me and it is what it is, so.Andrew Keen: Later historians write about this period in 50 or 100 years time. How do you think you mentioned the Biden administration, you were critical of them. We haven't talked about Kamala Harris's failed presidential term, which I wasn't particularly impressed with. How much moral responsibility do you think that Biden and Harris should be accused of for Trump too?Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, I'd be delighted if we have historians in the future. Well, I will be, even if I don't.Andrew Keen: Well, there will be, even if, I don't know, in America, there'll be somewhere.Sarah Kendzior: I is where it'll be some sort of AI creation that just, you know, belches out, make America great again, like, you know, like in The Shining or something, just over and over and over again. But assuming we have real historians that actually assess the situation, I think they are going to be tremendously critical of the Biden administration. I think it may in fact go down as one of the worst of all time. And he will be seen as a Neville Chamberlain-like figure who had the opportunity to stop or slow A number of autocratic practices and either chose to look the other way or to enable them. Because the thing is, in 2016, people were very doubtful that America could become an autocratic state. They hadn't seen this before. A lot of this was new to them. From 2016 through 2021, we saw all that Trump was capable of, and he committed a large multitude of crimes,RetryClaude hit the max length for a message and has paused its response. You can write Continue to keep the chat going.AKplease continueEditHere's the continuation of the transcript:Sarah Kendzior: ...and those crimes, not just him, but his cohort were never held accountable. And what they did during the Biden years was plan all of their next moves. Like you don't suddenly have a gulag for Americans in El Salvador, like just off the top of your head. You know, all of this takes planning. We knew about a lot of the plans, you know, the Democrats campaigned about combating Project 2025. And my question to them was, well, what what if you lose? How are you going to combat it then? You know what, if he gets back, what are you gonna do? They would be so offended. They're like, how dare you, you question us. How dare you question, you know, our plans? They're, like, well, I don't, you don't have a plan. Like, that's my question is what is the plan? And they didn't. And they could have spent those four years creating a bulwark against a lot of the most horrific policies that we're seeing now. Instead, they're kind of reacting on the fly if they're even reacting at all. And meanwhile, people are being targeted, deported, detained. They're suffering tremendously. And they're very, very scared. I think it's very scary to have a total dearth of leadership from where the, not just the opposition, but just people with basic respect for the constitution, our civil rights, etc., are supposed to be.Andrew Keen: You mentioned Project 2025, we've got David Graham on the show next week, who's written a book about Project 2025. Is there anything positive to report, Sarah? I mean, some people are encouraged by the behavior, at least on Friday, the 18th of April, who knows what will happen over the weekend or next week. Behavior of Harvard, some law firms are aggressively defending their rights. Should we be encouraged by the universities, law firms, even some corporate leaders are beginning to mutter under their breath about Trump and Trumpism?Sarah Kendzior: And it depends whether they actually have that power in wielded or whether they're just sort of trying to tamper down public dissent. I'm skeptical of these universities and law firms because I think they should have had a plan long ago because I was very obvious that all of this was going to happen and I feel so terribly for all of the students there that were abandoned by these administrations, especially places like Columbia. That gave in right away. What does hearten me though, you know, and I, as you said, I'd been on this tour, like I was all over the West coast. I've been all over, the Midwest and the South is, Americans, Americans do understand what's happening. There's always this like this culture in media of like, how do we break it to Americans? Like, yeah, well, we know, we know out here in Missouri that this is very bad. And I think that people have genuine concern for each other. I think they still have compassion for each other. I think there's a culture of cruelty that's promoted online and it's incentivized. You know, you can make money that way. You could get clicks that that way, whatever, but in real life, I think people feel vulnerable. They feel afraid, but I've seen so much kindness. I've been so much concern and determination from people who don't have very much, and maybe that's, you know, why people don't know about it. These are just ordinary folks. And so I have great faith in American people to combat this. And what I don't have faith in is our institutions. And I hope that these sort of in between places, places like universities who do a lot of good on one hand, but also can kind of act as like hedge funds. On the other hand, I hope they move fully to the side of good and that they purge themselves of these corrupt elements that have been within them for a long time, the more greedy. Aspects of their existence. I hope they see themselves as places that uphold civic life and history and provide intellectual resistance and shelter for students in the storm. They could be a really powerful force if they choose to be. It's never too late to change. I guess that's the message I want to bring home. Even if I'm very critical of these places, it's never to late for them to change and to do the right thing.Andrew Keen: Well, finally, Sarah, a lot of people are going to be watching this on my Substack page. Your Substack Page, your newsletter, They Knew, I think has last count, 52,000 subscribers. Is this the new model for independent writers, journalist thinkers like yourself? I'm not sure of those 52,00, how many of them are paid. You noted that your book has disappeared co-isindecially sometimes. So maybe some publishers are being intimidated. Is the future for independent thinkers, platforms like Substack, where independent authors like yourself can establish direct intellectual and commercial relations with their readers and followers?Sarah Kendzior: It's certainly the present. I mean, this is the only place or other newsletter outlets, I suppose, that I could go. And I purposefully divorced myself from all institutions except for my publisher because I knew that this kind of corruption would inhibit me from being able to say the truth. This is why I dropped out of academia, I dropped out of regular journalism. I have isolated myself to some degree on purpose. And I also just like being in control of this and having direct access to my readers. However, what does concern me is, you know, Twitter used to also be a place where I had direct access to people I could get my message out. I could circumvent a lot of the traditional modes of communication. Now I'm essentially shadow banned on there, along with a lot of people. And you know Musk has basically banned substack links because of his feud with Matt Taibbi. You know, that led to, if you drop a substack link in there, it just gets kind of submerged and people don't see it. So, you know, I think about Twitter and how positive I was about that, maybe like 12, 13 years ago, and I wonder how I feel about Substack and what will happen to it going forward, because clearly, you Know, Trump's camp realizes the utility of these platforms, like they know that a lot of people who are prominent anti authoritarian voices are using them to get the word out when they are when they lose their own platform at, like, say, the Washington Post or MSNBC or... Whatever network is corrupted or bullied. And so eventually, I think they'll come for it. And, you know, so stack has problems on its own anyway. So I am worried. I make up backups of everything. I encourage people to consume analog content and to print things out if they like them in this time. So get my book on that note, brand new analog content for you. A nice digital.Andrew Keen: Yeah, don't buy it digitally. I assume it's available on Kindle, but you're probably not too keen or even on Amazon and Bezos. Finally, Sarah, this is Friday. Fridays are supposed to be cheerful days, the days before the weekend. Is there anything to be cheerful about on April The 18th 2025 in America?Sarah Kendzior: I mean, yeah, there's things to be cheerful about, you know, pre spring, nice weather. I'm worried about this weekend. I'll just get this out real quick. You know, this is basically militia Christmas. You know, This is the anniversary of Waco, the Oklahoma City bombings, Columbine. It's Hitler's birthday. This is a time when traditionally American militia groups become in other words,Andrew Keen: Springtime in America.Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, springtime for Hitler. You know, and so I'm worried about this weekend. I'm worry that if there are anti-Trump protests that they'll be infiltrated by people trying to stoke the very riots that Trump said he wanted in order to, quote, make America great again and have everything collapse. So everyone, please be very, very careful this weekend heading out and just be aware of the. Of these dates and the importance of these days far predates Trump to, you know, militia groups and other violent extremist groups.Andrew Keen: Well, on that cheerful note, I asked you for a positive note. You've ruined everyone's weekend, probably in a healthy way. You are the Cassandra from St. Louis. Appreciate your bravery and honesty in standing up to Trump and Trumpism, MAGA America. Congratulations on the new book. As you say, it's available in analog form. You can buy it. Take it home, protect it, dig a hole in your garden and protect it from the secret police. Congratulations on the new book. As I said to you before we went live, it's a beautifully written book. I mean, you're noted as a polemicist, but I thought this book is your best written book, the other books were well written, but this is particularly well written. Very personal. So congratulations on that. And Sarah will have to get you back on the show. I'm not sure how much worse things can get in America, but no doubt they will and no doubt you will write about it. So keep well, keep safe and keep doing your brave work. Thank you so much.Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, you too. Thank you so much for your kind words and for having me on again. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

The Tech Bros., like Elon Musk and JD Vance puppetmaster Peter Thiel, see Trump as a means to an end: to build their own tech-state fiefdoms as they usher in the A.I. age, at the expense of us peasants. But can this unholy alliance survive Trump's disastrous trade war? And why do they fetishize hating Ukraine?  This week's special guest, Adrian Karatnycky, has been on the frontlines fighting for democracy both at home and abroad. In his critically acclaimed book Battleground Ukraine, Adrian traces Ukraine's struggle for independence from the fall of the Soviet Union to Russia's genocidal invasion today, drawing important lessons for protecting democracies worldwide. He has worked alongside civil rights legend Bayard Rustin and the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in America. He also supported Poland's Solidarity movement, which helped bring down the Iron Curtain, and played a key role, along with iconic Soviet dissident, writer, and Czech statesman Václav Havel, in preserving Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in the 1990s, when many thought the Cold War had ended.  In part two, we discuss the PayPal Mafia's war on Ukraine as part of a broader global assault on "wokeism" (a.k.a. Empathy and democracy), Adrian's impressions of meeting Curtis Yarvin, and how the war in Ukraine can ultimately end. For part one of their discussion, available in the show notes, Andrea and Adrian explore how Europe and the free world can survive the chaos of Trump's America First isolationism and Russia's weaponized corruption and election interference.  Thank you to everyone who joined the Gaslit Nation Salon live-taping with Patrick Guarasci and Sam Roecker, senior campaign advisors for Judge Susan Crawford, discussing their victory against Elon Musk in the pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The recording will be available as this week's bonus show.  Thank you to everyone who supports Gaslit Nation–we could not make the show without you!  Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!   Show Notes: Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia by Adrian Karatnycky https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300269468/battleground-ukraine/ Part I of Our Discussion: Can the Free World Survive Putin and Trump? https://sites.libsyn.com/124622/can-the-free-world-survive-trump-and-putin   EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: April 28 4pm ET – Book club discussion of Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower   Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon. Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon. Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community   

This podcast discusses the true power of the hope we all have naturally within us. Vaclav Havel quote: https://havelcenter.org/2015/05/04/disturbing-the-peace/

This is an important interview. I've always thought of the political essayist Peter Wehner as representing the conscience of conservative, religious America. Wehner, who writes both for the Atlantic and the New York Times, has been offering a moral critique of Trump's MAGA movement since 2015. And now that many of his direst warnings are being realized, his voice is amongst the most important in America. In this conversation, Wehner, a religious conservative who worked in several Republican administrations, reiterates his moral critique of Trump, explaining how revenge has become an obsessive emotion that is corrupting both MAGA leaders and followers. He expresses concern about how Trump's behavior is "emotionally rewiring" otherwise decent people, and contrasts this with a figure like the Czech dissident Vaclav Havel who stood defiantly for truth in the face of petty, revengeful authoritarianism. Five Key Takeaways from the Wehner Interview* Revenge as Trump's driving force - Wehner identifies revenge as Trump's core motivation, describing it as an insatiable appetite that crowds out noble emotions and justifies destructive actions.* Moral corruption spreads - Wehner warns that Trump's behavior is "emotionally rewiring" his supporters, with many now taking pleasure in cruelty and transgression rather than just tolerating it.* Religious hypocrisy - Wehner expresses deep disappointment in white evangelical Christians' embrace of Trump, noting the contradiction between their professed faith values and their celebration of Trump's cruelty.* Truth-telling as resistance - Inspired by dissidents like Vaclav Havel, Wehner emphasizes that speaking truth is essential resistance to authoritarianism, even when institutions and leaders are capitulating.* Institutional courage matters - Wehner contrasts organizations and leaders who stand firm (like The Atlantic) with those making "deals with the devil" (like The Washington Post), highlighting the importance of courage during this "stress test" for democracy.Peter Wehner, a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, is a contributing Opinion writer for The New York Times and a contributing writer for The Atlantic, two of the most prestigious media journals in the world. He writes on politics and political ideas, on faith and culture, on foreign policy, sports and friendships. Mr. Wehner served in three presidential administrations, including as deputy director of presidential speechwriting for President George W. Bush. Later, he served as the director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives. Mr. Wehner, a graduate of the University of Washington, is editor or author of six books, including The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump, which The New York Times called “a model of conscientious political engagements.” Married and the father of three, he lives in McLean, Virginia.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Eric and Eliot discuss the most recent example of jackassery by the Trump Administration national security team which appears to have conducted a sensitive Principals Committee meeting on bombing the Houthis in Yemen over Signal, an unclassified commercial phone app. To discuss this and much more they also welcome Katie Stallard, the Senior Editor for Global Affairs for the New Statesman magazine in the UK. They discuss Katie's book Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, North Korea and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022) and how authoritarian regimes have used the history of World War II (and in China and North Korea's case the Korean War) to shore up their legitimacy and to short circuit criticism. They discuss how, as the late Alexei Navalny suggested, the focus on the past is used to "displace thoughts about the future and questions about the present." They discuss how the interpretation of WWII has changed over the years to suit the needs and interests of the ruling clique in all these countries and the resonance of Vaclav Havel's observations that these regimes falsify everything the past, present and future and the only way to combat such mendacity is "living in truth." Finally, they discuss the disturbing resonances of these discussions about history that are now manifesting themselves in the United States. Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea: https://a.co/d/iywWYPT Katie Stallard's latest in the New Statesmen: https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/geopolitics/2025/03/us-foreign-policy-return-of-america-first Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

In this conversation, host Corey Nathan welcomes back Peter Wehner, contributing writer at The Atlantic and The New York Times, senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, and author of multiple books including The Death of Politics and City of Man. A former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Pete brings a unique perspective shaped by his deep political experience, Christian faith, and unwavering moral compass. Together, Corey and Pete engage in a wide-ranging conversation on the 2024 election, the moral health of our nation, the role of the church, and the constitutional implications of a second Trump presidency. What We Discuss: How Pete Wehner processed the pivotal moments of the 2024 election, including Biden's withdrawal and Kamala Harris's campaign Why Donald Trump's reelection reveals unsettling truths about American society and the church How constitutional crises might unfold under Trump's second term Why thinkers like Vaclav Havel, Solzhenitsyn, and Tocqueville are essential guides in this political moment How to have more effective and empathetic conversations across political and religious divides Episode Highlights: [00:01:00] – Introduction to Pete Wehner's background and career [00:02:00] – Pete reflects on Biden's debate performance and why he felt Biden should have withdrawn sooner [00:05:00] – Analysis of Kamala Harris's campaign, debate performance, and what ultimately cost her the election [00:09:00] – The moral reckoning: what Trump's reelection says about American voters and the church [00:14:00] – Pete dissects why evangelicals have remained loyal to Trump and how rationalizations took hold [00:27:00] – A 30-page email exchange: Pete's attempt to reason with a high-profile Trump supporter and what it revealed [00:34:00] – Trump's “appetite for revenge”: Pete outlines troubling actions already taken in just 60 days of Trump's second term [00:41:00] – Defining a constitutional crisis and what happens when a president defies court rulings [00:46:00] – Finding hope and moral clarity through leaders like Havel, Solzhenitsyn, and Tocqueville [00:50:00] – The TP&R question: Pete's insights on how to build better conversations across our differences Featured Quotes: “Donald Trump is president because of the white evangelical vote. He touched something deep in the hearts of many Christians—and that should trouble us.” – Peter Wehner “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well; it's the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” – Vaclav Havel (quoted by Pete) “We're moving toward a constitutional crisis... If Trump defies a court order, we may find out how many divisions Chief Justice John Roberts really has.” – Peter Wehner “We have to prioritize human relationships. The ripple effects for the country can be healthy.” – Peter Wehner Resources Mentioned: Peter Wehner's articles in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/peter-wehner/ Peter Wehner's columns in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/column/peter-wehner “The Power of the Powerless” by Vaclav Havel: https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/resource/the-power-of-the-powerless/ The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: https://www.amazon.com/Gulag-Archipelago-1918-1956-Experiment-Investigation/dp/0061253804 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/815/815-h/815-h.htm

Le 4 décembre 1971, lors du Festival de Jazz de Montreux, Frank Zappa et les Mothers of Invention donnent un concert au Casino de Montreux, bondé de 2800 spectateurs. En plein show, un fan tire avec un pistolet lance-fusée, mettant feu au plafond en rotin. Les issues de secours étant verrouillées, une catastrophe semble inévitable. Gardant son sang-froid, Zappa organise l'évacuation en guidant la foule vers la scène et les coulisses, évitant ainsi un drame. Le Casino est entièrement détruit par les flammes, inspirant plus tard Deep Purple pour leur mythique "Smoke on the Water". Quelques jours plus tard, Zappa est agressé à Londres, souffrant de graves blessures. En 1990, il devient un symbole de liberté en Tchécoslovaquie, recevant un titre honorifique de Vaclav Havel, avant que les États-Unis ne forcent son retrait. Frank Zappa décède le 4 décembre 1993, 22 ans jour pour jour après l'incendie, laissant derrière lui une œuvre colossale et intemporelle. Merci pour votre écoute Vous aimez l'Heure H, mais connaissez-vous La Mini Heure H https://audmns.com/YagLLiK , une version pour toute la famille.Retrouvez l'ensemble des épisodes de l'Heure H sur notre plateforme Auvio.be :https://auvio.rtbf.be/emission/22750 Intéressés par l'histoire ? Vous pourriez également aimer nos autres podcasts : Un jour dans l'Histoire : https://audmns.com/gXJWXoQL'Histoire Continue: https://audmns.com/kSbpELwAinsi que nos séries historiques :Chili, le Pays de mes Histoires : https://audmns.com/XHbnevhD-Day : https://audmns.com/JWRdPYIJoséphine Baker : https://audmns.com/wCfhoEwLa folle histoire de l'aviation : https://audmns.com/xAWjyWCLes Jeux Olympiques, l'étonnant miroir de notre Histoire : https://audmns.com/ZEIihzZMarguerite, la Voix d'une Résistante : https://audmns.com/zFDehnENapoléon, le crépuscule de l'Aigle : https://audmns.com/DcdnIUnUn Jour dans le Sport : https://audmns.com/xXlkHMHSous le sable des Pyramides : https://audmns.com/rXfVppvVous aimez les histoires racontées par Jean-Louis Lahaye ? Connaissez-vous ces podcast?Sous le sable des Pyramides : https://audmns.com/rXfVppv36 Quai des orfèvres : https://audmns.com/eUxNxyFHistoire Criminelle, les enquêtes de Scotland Yard : https://audmns.com/ZuEwXVOUn Crime, une Histoire https://audmns.com/NIhhXpYN'oubliez pas de vous y abonner pour ne rien manquer.Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement. Distribué par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

In this conversation, host Corey Nathan welcomes back Peter Wehner, contributing writer at The Atlantic and The New York Times, senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, and author of multiple books including The Death of Politics and City of Man. A former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Pete brings a unique perspective shaped by his deep political experience, Christian faith, and unwavering moral compass. Together, Corey and Pete engage in a wide-ranging conversation on the 2024 election, the moral health of our nation, the role of the church, and the constitutional implications of a second Trump presidency. What We Discuss: How Pete Wehner processed the pivotal moments of the 2024 election, including Biden's withdrawal and Kamala Harris's campaign Why Donald Trump's reelection reveals unsettling truths about American society and the church How constitutional crises might unfold under Trump's second term Why thinkers like Vaclav Havel, Solzhenitsyn, and Tocqueville are essential guides in this political moment How to have more effective and empathetic conversations across political and religious divides Episode Highlights: [00:01:00] – Introduction to Pete Wehner's background and career [00:02:00] – Pete reflects on Biden's debate performance and why he felt Biden should have withdrawn sooner [00:05:00] – Analysis of Kamala Harris's campaign, debate performance, and what ultimately cost her the election [00:09:00] – The moral reckoning: what Trump's reelection says about American voters and the church [00:14:00] – Pete dissects why evangelicals have remained loyal to Trump and how rationalizations took hold [00:27:00] – A 30-page email exchange: Pete's attempt to reason with a high-profile Trump supporter and what it revealed [00:34:00] – Trump's “appetite for revenge”: Pete outlines troubling actions already taken in just 60 days of Trump's second term [00:41:00] – Defining a constitutional crisis and what happens when a president defies court rulings [00:46:00] – Finding hope and moral clarity through leaders like Havel, Solzhenitsyn, and Tocqueville [00:50:00] – The TP&R question: Pete's insights on how to build better conversations across our differences Featured Quotes: “Donald Trump is president because of the white evangelical vote. He touched something deep in the hearts of many Christians—and that should trouble us.” – Peter Wehner “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well; it's the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” – Vaclav Havel (quoted by Pete) “We're moving toward a constitutional crisis... If Trump defies a court order, we may find out how many divisions Chief Justice John Roberts really has.” – Peter Wehner “We have to prioritize human relationships. The ripple effects for the country can be healthy.” – Peter Wehner Resources Mentioned: Peter Wehner's articles in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/peter-wehner/ Peter Wehner's columns in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/column/peter-wehner “The Power of the Powerless” by Vaclav Havel: https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/resource/the-power-of-the-powerless/ The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: https://www.amazon.com/Gulag-Archipelago-1918-1956-Experiment-Investigation/dp/0061253804 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/815/815-h/815-h.htm

We’re talking about Resistance Theory and the life of Vaclav Havel.Your support sends the gospel to every corner of Australia through broadcast, online and print media: https://vision.org.au/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Allweiss, Marianne www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Lesart

Allweiss, Marianne www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Lesart

Allweiss, Marianne www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Lesart

De inauguratie van de 47e president begon bij steenkoud weer, zodat men de ceremonies schielijk naar binnen verplaatste. De priesters in het oude Rome hadden wel raad geweten met zo'n voorteken.Ook de verhoudingen in Washington zelf en met bondgenoten wereldwijd zijn ijzig, Sommige trouwe vrienden als Denemarken en Canada moeten vrezen of Donald J. Trump hen wil laten voortbestaan als soevereine naties. Wat staat het Atlantische bondgenootschap, de EU en ook NAVO-partner Nederland te wachten?***Deze aflevering is mede mogelijk gemaakt door de Atlantische Commissie en met donaties van luisteraars die we hiervoor hartelijk danken. Word ook vriend van de show!Heb je belangstelling om in onze podcast te adverteren of ons te sponsoren? Zend een mailtje naar adverteren@dagennacht.nl en wij zoeken contact.Op sommige podcast-apps kun je niet alles lezen. De complete tekst plus linkjes en een overzicht van al onze eerdere afleveringen vind je hier***Jaap Jansen en PG Kroeger wijzen allereerst op twee wezenlijke feiten. Met zijn tweede termijn begint Trump aan vier jaar waarin hij geen herverkiezing kan verwachten en hij sneller een 'lame duck' kan blijken dan hij nu verwacht of dan zijn ego aankan. Hij zal daarom heel precies zijn strategie moeten bepalen: wil ik een tweede termijn à la Dwight Eisenhower of een à la Ronald Reagan?Het tweede wezenlijke feit: de NAVO kent heftige fasen van identiteitscrisis gedurende heel haar 75-jarig bestaan. En daarin komen opvallend vaak dezelfde conflictpunten en actoren langs.Al onder Eisenhower koos Amerika voor een eigen strategie; vond dat Europa voldoende 'Wirtschaftswunder' kende en meer zelf kon betalen. Het Europese antwoord daarop flopte. De Cubacrisis toonde John F. Kennedy dat die strategie onhoudbaar was gebleken en dat zorgde vervolgens voor de 'flexible response' koers bij de kernwapens. Daarin moest Europa nadrukkelijker meedoen. De Franse president Charles de Gaulle zag dat een slag anders en trok zich terug.Onder Jimmy Carter en Reagan kwam de volgende identiteitscrisis. Ons land leende zijn naam er zelfs aan uit: 'Hollanditis'. Opnieuw moest Europa meer willen doen en wat Carter deed met de neutronenbom was opnieuw een plotselinge overval. Reagan gaf deels veel meer vastigheid, deels verbijsterde hij met zijn romantische science fiction van Star Wars. Opnieuw koos Frankrijk ervoor een eigen, Europees alternatief te ontwerpen: Eureka.Reagans vaste koers én romantiek ontregelden het Kremlin. Michail Gorbatsjov poogde een vlucht naar voren, maar zijn droom van 'een Europees Huis' na ommekomst van het Warschaupact én NAVO beide werd door George H. W. Bush én Vaclav Havel vakkundig weggespeeld. Oude rot Richard Nixon zag toen al wat in aantocht was: imperiaal autoritarisme vanuit Moskou.Daarin zijn we verzeild sinds MH 17, de Krim en de overval op Oekraïne. Wat wacht ons nu? Moet secretaris-generaal Mark Rutte zo'n volgende identiteitscrisis zien te managen? Moet premier Dick Schoof geopolitiek gaan bedrijven en gigantisch gaan investeren, terwijl PVV, BBB en NSC alle kanten uit schieten? Met wie dan en hoe?Opmerkelijk is wat EU-president Antonio Costa onderneemt. Hij wacht niet af en handelt, meteen al met een ingelaste top van EU-leiders mét Britten en mét Rutte. Een andere geest heerst in Brussel, mede aangemoedigd door Polen en de Balten. De gevolgen voor de perikelen rond de Voorjaarsnota in de coalitie laten zich raden.De NAVO-top in juni kon daarmee Den Haag niet alleen logistiek en qua veiligheidsmaatregelen compleet overhoop halen. We weten bovendien nog niet hoe - bijvoorbeeld door Trumps heffingenbeleid en deals met Vladimir Poetin - de verhoudingen binnen de NAVO zullen zijn. En moet het kabinet bijvoorbeeld dan al een helder lange termijn investeringsplan à 3,5% BBP voor Defensie klaar hebben, samen met de EU-collega's?Intussen lanceert Trump geopolitieke vuurpijlen die erop gericht lijken aan Xi Jinping en Poetin uit te stralen dat hij voor hen niet wil onderdoen in disruptieve ambities. 80 jaar geleden vertrok FDR na nog zo'n steenkoude inauguratie meteen richting de Krim. Daar verdeelde hij met Jozef Stalin en Winston Churchill de naoorlogse wereldorde in invloedssferen. Trump lijkt ook van zoiets te dromen, inclusief een Nobelprijs. Komt er een Jalta 2.0?***Verder luisteren469 – Nieuwe kruisraketten in Europa? In de jaren '70 en '80 zat topdiplomaat Boudewijn van Eenennaam in het brandpunt van de besluitvorming461 - Ruud Lubbers zag het een slag anders447 - Als Trump wint staat Europa er alleen voor434 – Vier iconische NAVO-leiders en hun lessen voor Mark Rutte427 - Europa wordt een grootmacht en daar moeten we het over hebben413 - "Eensgezind kunnen we elke tegenstander aan." Oana Lungescu over Poetin, Trump, Rutte en 75 jaar NAVO404 - 75 jaar NAVO: in 1949 veranderde de internationale positie van Nederland voorgoed361 - Vilnius, juli 2023: NAVO-top in het oog van de storm350 - 100 jaar Henry Kissinger339 – De geopolitiek van de 19e eeuw is terug. De eeuw van Bismarck298 - De Cubacrisis, dertien dagen die de wereld schokten. En: de angst voor nucleaire catastrofe nu279 - Jaap de Hoop Scheffer over Poetin, Oekraïne, de NAVO en de toekomst van de EU272 - Dankzij Poetin: nu écht intensief debat over de toekomst van Europa256 - Na de inval in Oekraïne: 'Nu serieus werk maken van Europese defensiesamenwerking'236 – Václav Havel, de dissident die president werd194 - Biden en Poetin kijken elkaar in de ogen. De historie van Amerikaans-Russische topontmoetingen***Tijdlijn00:00:00 – Deel 100:55:42 - Deel 201:14:36 - Deel 301:31:35 - EindeZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

V človeški zgodovini pridejo obdobja, ki človeku ukradejo njemu lasten pogled na življenje in svet. Velikokrat smo to videli, marsikdo pa je tudi sam to doživel. Strah je nekaj, kar ohromi človeka, mu je jemlje voljo, veselje in življenjsko navdušenje. Najsilovitejši strah je tisti, ki nas ohromi znotraj. Posebno nevarno je, ko se pojavljajo miselni tokovi, ki govorijo o naprednosti, modernosti, boju za človeka. In taki miselni tokovi ne prenašajo drugačnega pogleda na svet, na človeka, na njegove najpomembnejše vrednote. Tisti, ki drugače razmišlja, je zaostal, nazadnjaški in podobno. Pogumni ljudje, pokončni, zreli ljudje gledajo na življenje drugače. Pomembno je vprašanje: Ali imam pogum razmišljati in iskati resnico? Govorjenje o več resnicah je prineslo zmedo med nas. Resnica o življenju je samo ena. Ni več resnic! Kako nevarna in duha uničujoča je lahko tudi demokracija, ki skuša s preglasovanjem doseči svoj cilj. Na to je opozoril Aleksander Solženicin, človek, ki je preživel več let v taboriščih zaradi nestrinjanja z obče veljavnim in sprejetim razmišljanjem v totalitarni državi. Univerza v Harvardu mu je leta 1978 podelila častni doktorat. V svojem govoru je pogumno povedal svoje mnenje o dogajanju v demokraciji: "Upad poguma je morda najbolj izstopajoča značilnost, ki jo zunanji opazovalec ugotavlja danes na Zahodu, zlasti se kaže med vladajočimi in intelektualnimi elitami, to pa ustvarja vtis izgube poguma v celotni družbi. Ali je treba poudariti, da je bil v starih časih upad poguma prvo znamenje konca? In k temu dodaja: Preveč upanja smo položili v politiko in družbene reforme ter se navsezadnje zavedeli, da nam je bilo odvzeto najdragocenejše: duhovno življenje." Podobno razmišlja Vaclav Havel. V svoji knjigi ŽIVETI V RESNICI poudarja, da so vedno ljudje, ki pogumno razmišljajo drugače, kot nam predpisuje ali vsiljuje javno mnenje. Vprašanje je, ali si upamo ŽIVETI V RESNICI ali je bolje in enostavneje ŽIVETI V LAŽI. Mislim, da je prav, da si človek postavi vprašanje: Imam pogum iskati resnico? Marsikaj bi radi spremenili, z marsičim se ne strinjamo. Ni pomembno tisto, kar je povedano pod žarometi medijev. Pomembno je, kaj se dogaja v človeku, kaj človeka dela boljšega. Je to javno mnenje? So to novi zakoni? Morda pa je to resnica o življenju, ki jo človek iskreno išče in se ji spoštljivo približuje? Demokratično »glasovanje« v iskanju resnice ne pomeni nič. Pot k resnici je drugačna: je strma, naporna in malo ljudi si upa hoditi po njej! In vendar: Svet spreminjajo ljudje, ki gredo pogumno na pot iskanja resnice. Si upam stopiti na to pot?

Op deze memoires is met ingehouden adem gewacht. Angela Merkel schreef, samen Beate Baumann - haar assistente, al bijna 33 jaar - haar levensverhaal. De titel is een parool: Vrijheid. Het verscheen meteen ook in het Nederlands. Jaap Jansen en PG Kroeger vertellen over en analyseren dit 700 pagina's dikke boek en ook Merkels eigen woorden bij de presentatie ervan in Berlijn.Het boek en deze herinneringen zijn in twee opzichten eenmalig. Het bevat Merkels persoonlijke herinneringen en reflectie op een jeugd en Werdegang in een gruwelijke dictatuur én haar belevenissen na haar 35e levensjaar in die ongekende loopbaan in een Europese democratie. Deze bracht haar in eigen land, in Europa en op wereldschaal aan de politieke top. Geen vrouw en geen DDR-burger had ooit zo'n loopbaan en zo'n leven.***Deze aflevering is mede mogelijk gemaakt met donaties van luisteraars die we hiervoor hartelijk danken. Word ook vriend van de show!Heb je belangstelling om in onze podcast te adverteren of ons te sponsoren? Zend een mailtje naar adverteren@dagennacht.nl en wij zoeken contact.Op sommige podcast-apps kun je niet alles lezen. De complete tekst plus linkjes en een overzicht van al onze eerdere afleveringen vind je hier***Jaap en PG zien een opvallende analogie met het leven van Vaclav Havel. Ook hij was allerminst geboren om - als dichter, toneelschrijver en rebel - de president van zijn land te worden in een periode van vreedzame revolutie en Europese omwenteling, waarbij ook hij wereldwijd een moreel icoon werd.Merkels jeugdherinneringen zijn zonder twijfel het hoogtepunt van het boek. Adembenemend en vol nuances vertelt zij over het leven in een tirannie en de ingewikkelde levensomstandigheden van een West-Duitse dominee in een atheïstische dictatuur. Vol warmte en met oog voor detail schetst zij een kindertijd in een karig boerengebied waar zij genoot van de natuur en het buitenleven. Het vrolijke, onbekommerde kind Angela is een van de verrassingen in dit boek. Des te navranter zijn de verhalen over de repressie en permanente dreiging die het kenmerk vormden van de dictatuur. Hoe haar ouders in wanhoop waren toen op 13 augustus 1961 de Muur werd opgetrokken en zij letterlijk opgesloten zouden zijn zonder ooit nog hun familie te kunnen omarmen, laat zien hoe de almachtige partij en de geheime dienst in ieder leven gruwelijke sporen trok. En toch: “Das Leben in der DDR war mehr als nur dieser Staat.”Dat zij zich als jonge vrouw kon ontwikkelen, haar eigen begaafdheid en identiteit, haar 'waarden en normen' en haar onbekommerde vrolijkheid kon bewaren, noemt Merkel 'mijn eigen grote overwinning op dat systeem.' De val van de Muur is haar 'Lebensglück'. Ze was met 35 nog jong, maar ook voldoende gerijpt om een tweede leven in een volkomen andere wereld aan te durven.Over haar jaren in de politiek vertelt ze zakelijk, grondig en met haar kenmerkende rustige humor. Hoe zij haar patriarch Helmut Kohl ijskoud afserveerde en zelf de partijvoorzitter werd van de CDU vertelt ze vrij emotieloos. Zij moest dit doen, benadrukt zij, omdat haar CDU anders de geur van corruptie en stiekemdoenerij nooit meer kwijt zou raken en het lot van de Democrazia Cristiana in Italië zou ondergaan. Massale steun vanuit de gewone leden gaf haar de moed dit te doen.Merkel verstopt beslist niet dat zij in de politiek al snel ontdekte dat zij eerzuchtig was. Wille zur Macht was haar niet vreemd en waardeert zij ook in andere politieke leiders. Als jong Milieuminister ontdekte zij nog iets: haar passie voor wereldwijd overleg en beleid formuleren op mondiale thema's. Onbedoeld bereidde dit haar voor op die volgende stap, het bondskanselierschap.Over haar jaren als kanselier is zij nuchter, methodisch en zonder veel poeha. Opmerkelijk is hoezeer ze daarbij lijkt op Wolfgang Schäuble met wie ze bij duidelijke karakterologische verschillen heel wezenlijke politieke kenmerken deelt. Ze wil fair zijn in dit boek, rekent niet keihard af met vijanden of tegenstrevers, maar gaat ervan uit dat de lezer tussen de regels door de boodschappen wel mee krijgt. De Beierse CSU, de Israëlische premier Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump en de linkervleugel van de SPD zullen niet alles met vreugde lezen.Ze is wel degelijk zelfkritisch. Over de inzet voor het klimaat en over haar opstelling naar buiten toe in de eurocrisis bijvoorbeeld. Over de defensie, Russisch gas en Oekraïne benadrukt zij dat het vasthouden van dialoog met Vladimir Poetin in ieders belang was en wijst zij er soms fijntjes maar hard op, dat bijvoorbeeld haar linkse coalitiepartners de CDU geen ruimte gaven voor veel steviger beleid.Het is goed te beseffen dat memoires van staatslieden geen wetenschappelijk werk zijn op grond van historische analyse en diep graafwerk in de stukken en archieven. Ze geeft haar visie en beleving en dat levensverhaal is uniek.PG noteert daarbij het verhaal over een bronzen beeld op de laatste foto in het boek. Angela Merkel vertelt tegen het slot van haar herinneringen hoe zij spontaan besloot het te kopen. Het verbeeldt de Griekse god Kairos die symbool staat voor 'het goede moment, het goede doen op het juiste moment'.***Verder lezenAngela Merkel - Vrijheid (Arbeiderspers, 2024)Angela Merkel - Freiheit (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2024) ***Verder kijkenDe presentatie van het boek in Berlijn (26 november 2024)Angela Merkel in Buitenhof (1 december 2024)***Verder luisteren276 - 30 jaar politiek, 16 jaar bondskanselier en de hond van Poetin: Angela Merkel blikt terug218 - Angela Merkel, een bijzondere bondskanselier - gesprek met biograaf Ralph Bollmann42 - Merkels vertrouweling Elmar Brok: 40 jaar Europese geschiedenis421 - Bewonderd en gevreesd. De memoires van Wolfgang Schäuble111 - De onverwachte herrijzenis van Helmut Kohl – en van Truman, Merkel en Rutte122 - Voorzitten op z'n Duits. Hoe doet Merkel dat?302 - De Frans-Duitse motor hapert. Gesprek met Bondsdaglid Otto Fricke135 - 30 jaar Duitse eenheid: Carlo Trojan, de Nederlander die meeonderhandelde72 - 'Wir sind ein Volk!', December 1989: Helmut Kohl spreekt in Dresden + Geheim gifwapen Sovjet Unie61 - De val van de Muur, met Merkels eigen verhaal53 - 1989 - PG en de viering van 40 jaar Deutsche Demokratische Republik236 – Václav Havel, de dissident die president werd465 – Nederland en Duitsland, labiel en leiderloos. En: de opmerkelijke overeenkomsten met Noordrijn-Westfalen***Tijdlijn00:00:00 – Deel 100:54:48 – Deel 201:11:29 – Deel 301:40:08 – EindeZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of The Five Minute Advocate, Julie Macken reflects on a year of upheaval, from global politics to the challenges of democracy and humanity. Drawing inspiration from Vaclav Havel's ‘The Power of the Powerless', Julie reminds us that in dark times, small acts of decency—looking one another in the eye, saying hello, and refusing to give in to lies—are revolutionary acts that sustain our shared humanity.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

News, Signal Festival in Prague, Czech scientists develop atomic antibiotics, portrait of Vaclav Havel "in his own words".

​​I think if we can reimagine what matters to us and pursue that, then perhaps there's a chance that we can stop this truly self-destructive pursuit of infinite more, and in material terms, become happy with enough, without giving up the idea of personal growth and evolution, because I do think that is core to what it is to be human and even just alive. Life is about growth. The history of life on earth is one of ever more complexity and richness. And I think it would be like, I just don't agree with the argument that we have to stop growing. I think that's totally impossible and depressing. And I think that's often how economic arguments about degrowth versus growth get framed and understood is, well, we just have to sacrifice, and the good times are over, and now it's just less of everything for everybody. And I guess it's kind of depressing, but that's just reality. I don't think it needs to be depressing. In fact, I think it has to not be depressing for it to work. I think it has to be exciting. And the way that I can get excited about it is to think, wow, well, let's just tell better stories and let's focus on. Let's have some fun. Like, we can. Let's enjoy our lives and find ways to enjoy them that can be grown. And to me, art is just the best, most wonderful, inexhaustible resource in all of its forms.Hi listeners, This is the 3rd last episode of this 5th season of the conscient podcast. I have produced 54 regular episodes since February of this year plus 6 bonus episodes so that's a lot of content to digest and I invite you to take your time.  It's been a lot of fun and I thank all of my guests and their collaborators for their generosity. I'm going to take a break after the last episode, e208 with my daughter Clara Schryer. I'm going to take some time to breathe a bit and prepare for season 6 which will start in 2025 on the theme of ‘arts and culture in times of crisis and collapse'.So, back to episode e206. Meet Arno Kopecky who is, I think, an upbeat realist. Like I did with e196 alice irene whittaker (part 2) - homing, a book review I will read the introduction to the episode at the top of my conversation, with Arno present, but before we jump in to our conversation, I wanted to share a quote from that episode to give you a preview of what's coming: If we look into the past, when I think of what art has done to deal with political problems, for example, or social problems, I think of civil rights and I think of people like Nina Simone, I think of Billie Holiday, I think of Toni Morrison and people and all the so many people like them who produced just incredible music and works of art that absolutely had a message but also sort of transcended that message or found a way. It's so hard to put into words for me how they did what they did. But I feel like there is a whole rich body of work that emanated and proceeded from the atrocity that was slavery and racism and a clear social justice tragedy. But you didn't hear the word social justice in any of Mina Simone's songs or Toni Morrison's books. You know, you heard stories, you heard an outpouring, you felt an emotion, and that moved and transported people, and that operates on such a deep societal level. I feel like it's almost, you know, I think art has a way of seeding social awareness and imagination, and that is almost a precursor or a prerequisite for social change. That then also requires political movements and politicians and civil society and all kinds of the realm of reason and logic and journalism and fact and argument.So, with no further ado, here is my conversation with Arno, recorded on the morning of September 11, 2024 in Vancouver. Arno Kopecky's 2014 book The Oil Man and the Sea: Navigating the Northern Gateway won the 2014 Edna Staebler Award.Arno is a journalist and writer who lives just down the street from me here in east Vancouver so I invited him to talk, and to do a soundwalk with me about his most recent book, The Environmentalist's Dilemma: Promise and Peril in an Age of Climate Crisis, published by ECW press. I was also curious about Arno's thoughts on art, the ecological crisis and the multiple dilemmas that we face as we work our way through the trappings and self destructive tendencies of modernity, while trying to retain, in a sustainable way, some of its benefits.There are many great stories and tales in the book, such as the dilemma faced by people on a boat about to fall over Niagara Falls : should they ignore it, should they change directions or simply accept their fate and have a drink? I recommend the book, in particular the audiobook version narrated by Marvin Kaye, who really brings this set of essays to life.The Environmentalist's Dilemma confirms that our planet is dying due to gross misbehaviour, however, Arno also observes that humanity, ironically, is doing better than ever. What's that about?I enjoyed the book because it provided me with insights into a daily dilemma : how to live well and comfortably in this world while denouncing and rethinking it fundamentally. I remember listening to the book while biking to Victoria BC and having to stop to catch my breath at a passage in chapter 6 called ‘let's get drunk and celebrate the future', where Kopecky suggests that we get drunk and give up, to which I screamed out loud : yes, yes,! I'm in! It was a cathartic moment for me because I sometimes feel like giving up hope and just getting drunk or high or… It's actually quite sane to say these things out loud. It allowed a reader like me to break through emotional barriers and find ways to get on with the work of reimagining life on earth, one step at a time.I was happy to see that the book has been well received as witnessed by some of the positive reviews I read. For example, the Literary Review of Canada wrote that : In the author's hands, the book's titular dilemma emerges in all its richness, ambiguity, and tension as a foundational opportunity and challenge for contemporary environmentalism.Well said. I agree. Kopecky questions some of our most ingrained assumptions and biases with journalistic rigour and may I say humour. The Ormsby Review observed that :The value of The Environmentalist's Dilemma is this hope, that though we are in some ways stuck within a system that limits our options, we can make little acts of rebellion against the system. Our little actions may add to the little actions of millions of others, and may one day change the world.Now I have to admit that I've always believed that the accumulated impact of millions and even billions of small scale local actions can change the world. For example, in the final chapter 13 ‘Every Little Thing', Kopecky writes about Czech writer and politician Vaclav Havel and how his words and grit helped to ignite a seemingly impossible revolution in Eastern Europe in the 1980s.Can we do this again at a global scale?How can we laugh at our predicament and still do the hard work ahead of us? Fortunately, Arno is sitting right in front of me here in east Vancouver, on this morning of September 11th, 2024 and has kindly agreed to talk with me about all of this. Arno's recommendations were:Res Rules by Chief Clarence Louie Tarun Nayar (modern biology) *Episode Chapters (generated by AI and reviewed by Claude Schryer)IntroductionClaude welcomes journalist and author Arno Kopecky, setting the stage for a discussion on his latest book, ‘The Environmentalist Dilemma.' The conversation hints at the complex relationship between modernity and sustainability.The Environmentalist DilemmaKopecky explores the paradox of living well in a world facing environmental destruction, sharing personal reflections on the emotional struggles tied to ecological awareness. The chapter emphasizes the challenges of reconciling modern comforts with environmental concerns.Hope, Small Actions, and Personal BackgroundKopecky discusses the importance of hope through small, individual actions and shares his journey from a middle-class upbringing to becoming an environmental journalist. He highlights pivotal moments that shaped his awareness of environmental issues.The Housing Crisis and Urban DevelopmentThe conversation shifts to the housing crisis in Vancouver, where Kopecky supports urban densification as a potential solution. He acknowledges the complexities of balancing development with environmental concerns.The Paradox of Progress and Environmental CrisisKopecky delves into the paradox of modern life, discussing how improvements in quality of life coincide with unprecedented environmental threats. He articulates the conflict between enjoying modern benefits and confronting ecological degradation.Reimagining Growth, Happiness, and ArtKopecky challenges societal obsessions with growth, proposing a new understanding of happiness that values creativity and art. He explores the role of art in fostering resilience and community in times of crisis.Art and Social ChangeKopecky discusses the historical role of art in addressing social injustices, citing influential figures like Nina Simone and Toni Morrison. He argues that while art can seed social awareness, it must be complemented by political movements for real change.The Power of Individual Action and Navigating Modern FreedomKopecky reflects on the impact of individual actions through the story of Vaclav Havel's shopkeeper, illustrating the potential for broader societal change. He also discusses the paradox of modern freedom and the need for a collective shift towards sustainability.Personal Transformation and Literature in CrisisKopecky shares a personal narrative about his father's transformation into an environmental activist, highlighting the potential for change at any stage of life. He also references literature's response to the ecological crisis, calling for more storytelling on these pressing issues.Imagining a Sustainable Future and RecommendationsKopecky concludes with a hopeful vision for a future prioritizing relationships and community over consumption. He shares recommendations for further exploration, encouraging listeners to engage with diverse narratives that challenge conventional perspectives. *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESI've been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). It's my way to give back and be present.In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays about collapse acceptance, adaptation, response and art'. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.Also, please note that a complete transcript of conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 4 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on conscient podcast social media: Facebook, X, Instagram or Linkedin. I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on July 20, 2024

Mit dem Wort die Welt Bewegen(5) Der Dichter als Staatspräsident - Mit: Jiri Pesek Historiker, Karlsuniversität Prag - Sendung vom 4.10.2024

Vaclav Havel (4)

Mit dem Wort die Welt Bewegen(4) Die "samtene Revolution" - Mit: Jiri Pesek Historiker, Karlsuniversität Prag - Sendung vom 3.10.2024

Mit dem Wort die Welt Bewegen(3) Charta 77 - Mit: Jiri Pesek Historiker, Karlsuniversität Prag - Sendung vom 30.9.2024

Mit dem Wort die Welt Bewegen(2) Der Prager Frühling und Vaclav Havel - Mit: Jiri Pesek Historiker, Karlsuniversität Prag - Sendung vom 1.10.2024

Le Journal en français facile du lundi 30 septembre 2024, 18 h 00 à Paris. Retrouvez votre épisode avec la transcription synchronisée et des exercices pédagogiques pour progresser en français : http://rfi.my/B0Gf.A

Mit dem Wort die Welt Bewegen(1) Die Anfänge - Mit: Jiri Pesek Historiker, Karlsuniversität Prag - Sendung vom 30.9.2024

Les États-Unis abandonneraient leur projet de transformer la Mission multinationale de soutien à la sécurité dans en Haïti en mission de paix de l'ONU, selon l'agence de presse Reuters. L'information est relayée en Haïti par Radio Télé Métronome, qui reprend une dépêche de l'agence de presse Reuters : les États-Unis abandonneraient leur projet de transformer la Mission multinationale de soutien à la sécurité dans le pays en mission de paix de l'ONU - en tous cas pour le moment, précise le Miami Herald. En cause, selon certains diplomates : la pression de la Russie et de la Chine, qui auraient brandi la menace de leur veto.La proposition de transformation de la force a été enlevée du texte qui sera mis au vote ce lundi (30 septembre 2024), au Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, sur l'extension d'un an du mandat de la MMSS. Car si la police kenyane n'est arrivée sur place que fin juin 2024, la mission avait en fait été approuvée en octobre 2023.Pendant ce temps, en Haïti même, on ne sait plus vraiment si Edgard Leblanc Fils va passer comme prévu la présidence du Conseil présidentiel de transition samedi prochain (5 octobre 2024). Interrogé sur ce point, rapporte Gazette Haïti, Edgard Leblanc a évité de donner « une réponse claire, préférant rappeler son statut de ‘Président' du Conseil présidentiel de Transition sans pour autant confirmer ou infirmer une éventuelle continuité ou passation de pouvoir ».Rentrée des classes en HaïtiC'est la rentrée des classes cette semaine en Haïti, mais bon nombre de parents ne sont pas prêts : beaucoup ne vivent pas chez eux mais dans d'autres quartiers à cause de la violence des gangs, et de nombreuses familles n'ont pas les moyens de payer les frais scolaires sans une aide gouvernementale restée pour l'instant au stade de promesse. « Nous n'avons même pas le minimum pour faire face à nos responsabilités », se désole Carl, mécanicien et père de trois enfants rencontré par le correspondant de RFI Peterson Luxama. Philippe, qui habitait à Carrefour Feuilles, explique de son côté que son fils qui est en troisième année de médecine va devoir arrêter ses études.Le gouvernement prévoit cette année (2024) de verser l'équivalent de 150 dollars américains à 261 000 parents d'élèves. Une démarche critiquée par des organisations d'enseignants, dont l'Union de parents d'élèves progressistes d'Haïti (UPEPH), qui parle d'un geste uniquement symbolique.Helene dévaste l'est des États-UnisLe bilan provisoire de l'ouragan Helene est d'au moins 100 morts. Un lourd bilan humain, provoqué par « dévastation d'ampleur biblique », titre USA Today, sur près de « 1 000 kilomètres », de la Floride au Tennessee, précise le New York Times, qui a cartographié, en images et en vidéo, le chemin de destruction creusé par l'ouragan : dans le Tennessee, à Newport c'est une maison mise à nu, dont il manque toute la façade, ou encore, à Erwin, un hôpital submergé par les flots, jusqu'au toit. En Floride, la ville de Horseshoe Beach a vu une partie de ses maisons littéralement aplaties et réduites en copeaux de bois.Mais c'est la Caroline du Nord qui a payé le plus lourd tribut, avec au moins 37 morts. Le Washington Post raconte comment « Helene a avalé une ville située sur une montagne, l'effaçant totalement ». Car ce sont, en partie, les villes nichées dans les montagnes couvertes de forêts de l'ouest de l'État qui ont subi les destructions les plus importantes, explique le New York Times.Selon les scientifiques, le nombre d'ouragans de type Helene devrait augmenter, et c'est déjà le cas : « Ces désastres naturels qui ne semblent plus naturels », écrit USA Today, qui reprend les témoignages d'habitants de Floride mais aussi d'autres États qui voient le nombre de ces « catastrophes naturelles » augmenter, avec des coûts qui ont explosé : 18 milliards par an ces cinq dernières années, au lieu d'un milliard par an depuis le début des années 80.Donald Trump insulte Kamala HarrisAux États-Unis, la campagne électorale se poursuit, avec un Donald Trump fidèle à lui-même, peut-être un peu trop au goût de certains observateurs et responsables politiques. Le candidat républicain a clairement choisi sa ligne, pour conforter sa base : c'est la provocation, rapporte le correspondant de RFI aux États-Unis, Guillaume Naudin. Le candidat a ainsi décrit ce dimanche (29 septembre 2024) dans le Wisconsin une Kamala Harris née « déficiente mentale ». En Argentine, Javier Milei change d'avis sur la ChineLe président argentin, rappelle Clarin, était très critique de Pékin lors de sa campagne électorale : « Nous, nous ne signons pas de pactes avec les communistes ». Mais ce dimanche, lors d'une interview, Javier Milei a annoncé qu'il irait en janvier prochain (2025) en Chine : « J'ai été agréablement surpris par la Chine. La Chine est un partenaire commercial très intéressant car elle n'exige rien. Tout ce qu'elle demande, c'est de ne pas être dérangée ». Clarin note que déjà, depuis son élection, Javier Milei était resté prudent avec Pékin. Le prix Vaclav Havel pour Maria Corina MachadoLe Conseil de l'Europe attribue à Maria Corina Machado le prix des droits de l'homme Vaclav Havel. L'opposante vénézuélienne qui vit dans la clandestinité depuis la présidentielle de juillet et la réélection contestée de Nicolas Maduro a réagi en estimant que la dictature courait à sa « chute inévitable ». La gestion des déchets en BolivieEn Bolivie, un groupe d'étudiants d'el Alto tentent de protéger l'environnement en s'attaquant à la question des déchets. Aujourd'hui, seuls 16% des déchets sont collectés correctement, tout le reste finit dans des décharges à ciel ouvert ou brûlé en plein air par les habitants.Ces étudiants, eux, font le tri, récupèrent les déchets organiques pour les transformer et les réutiliser. Nils Sabin est allé à leur rencontre. Le journal de La 1èreEn Guadeloupe, situation toujours bloquée dans le conflit qui oppose EDF au syndicat CGTG… La mort de l'acteur et star de la country Kris KristoffersonC'est lui qui avait écrit la chanson « Me and Bobby McGee », dont Janis Joplin a fait un tube. Kris Kristofferson avait 88 ans, et, écrit Rolling Stone, « les paroles poétiques de ses chansons ont transcendé le genre » : « il a transformé les paroles des chansons en littérature, élevant son métier à une véritable forme d'art américain, comme peu l'avaient fait avant lui ». Dans le même temps, rappelle le Washington Post, « sa voix rocailleuse et son sex appeal » lui ont aussi permis de développer une carrière à Hollywood : il a entre autres joué dans «A star is born» aux côtés de Barbra Streisand, et dans le très beau film de Sam Peckinpah «Pat Garret et Billy le Kid», aux côtés entre autres de Bob Dylan.

====================================================SUSCRIBETEhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNpffyr-7_zP1x1lS89ByaQ?sub_confirmation=1=======================================================================VIRTUOSADevoción Matutina Para Mujeres 2024Narrado por: Sirley DelgadilloDesde: Bucaramanga, Colombia===================|| www.drministries.org ||===================30 DE SEPTIEMBREMANTÉN LOS PIES EN ALTO«Si lo que esperamos es algo que todavía no vemos, tenemos que esperarlo sufriendo con firmeza» (Rom. 8: 25).Mark McMinn* jugaba una vez con sus hijos a ver quién mantenía las piernas en alto más tiempo. Sus dos hijos varones se rindieron cuando empezaron a sentir dolor; Megan Anne, la pequeña, se quejaba, pero no bajaba las piernas. El mismo Mark se rindió antes que ella.No aceptando la derrota ante una niña de siete años, Mark propuso que el ganador sería quien lo lograra tres veces. Sin embargo, sucedió lo mismo: Megan Anne, a pesar de quejarse, aguantaba más que su padre. «¿Cómo lo consigues?», le preguntó él. «Cuando entendí que para ganar tenía que saber soportar el dolor, fue fácil», dijo ella. Esa es la verdadera esperanza: encontrarle sentido al dolor.Existe el concepto de que tener esperanza es ser optimistas de que las cosas van a mejorar o de que vamos a lograr lo que nos propusimos; pero ¿y si tenemos cáncer en fase cuatro, o cuidamos de un esposo que ha tenido un derrame, o nuestra madre murió de COVID? No hay razón para ser optimistas de que la situación va a mejorar (sabemos que no va a mejorar); ¿significa eso que no hay razón para la esperanza? De hecho, es ahí donde la esperanza tiene toda su razón de ser para el cristiano.Para que haya resurrección tiene que haber muerte primero; la esperanza es eso que nos permite encontrarle sentido a la muerte, precedida del sufrimiento, sabiendo que no va a desaparecer. En Teología de la esperanza, Jürgen Moltman escribe: «Desde el inicio hasta el fin, y no simplemente como un epílogo, el cristianismo es esperanza, es mirar adelante y marchar hacia delante, por tanto, revolucionando y transformando también el presente».** Lo transforma porque, como le sucedió a Megan Anne, nos permite encontrarle un sentido al dolor.El sufrimiento está garantizado, pero nuestra esperanza no se fundamenta en que las cosas mejoren aquí, sino en que Jesús llevó la cruz a sus espaldas hasta el Calvario. Él sabe adónde quiere guiarnos y, mediante la esperanza, nos va transformando en el camino. Por eso, mantén tus pies en alto, permite que la esperanza transforme tu manera de afrontar el dolor. Esa esperanza te mantendrá alejada del cinismo, de la hipocresía, de la frialdad del corazón y del deseo de darte por vencida.«Esperanza no es lo mismo que optimismo; no es convicción de que algo saldrá bien, sino certeza de que tiene sentido, independientemente de cómo resulte». Vaclav Havel.* The Science of Virtue (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos Press, 2017), pp. 125-126.**Citado en Teología bíblica, «Los últimos tiempos», ttps://teologiabiblica77.com/2020/09/22/losultimos-tiempos/. 

Bertrand Vergely est un homme ardent. Il est porteur d'une flamme qui a déjà illuminé trois épisodes précédents de Zeteo : Après nous avoir parlé d'abord de la divinité qui est la finalité de l'homme, ensuite de la puissance de l'âme, puis de l'émerveillement, il propose ici une démarche apparemment différente : Celle de la dénonciation des maux profonds qui plongent notre monde en crise et qui sont pour lui, ni plus ni moins, des arnaques : Elles sont financières, politiques, mais aussi et avant tout intellectuelles, morales et spirituelles. Bertrand Vergely s'appuie sur une vision spirituelle et anthropologique chrétienne. C'est le vrai Génie du Christianisme, qui révèle les fondements d'une sagesse universelle, qui comprend toute l'intelligence divine et l'intelligence humaine. C'est ce qui lui permet, ici, de dénoncer les erreurs, les fautes ou les perversions contemporaines, sans craindre d'être classé parmi les réactionnaires ou les complotistes. Parce que, selon Bertrand Vergely, la nécessité s'impose aujourd'hui pour une réaction, qui permettra de renverser les fausses croyances, et les puissances qui s'appuient sur elles. Une réaction qui consiste à répondre à la question la plus importante posée en nos temps troublés : celle de la vérité. Bertrand Vergely rappelle que pour retrouver le chemin de la vérité, il faut (ré)apprendre à penser, libérer la force de vie immense qui est en nous, aimer la vie et non la douleur... En évoquant les sages qui jalonnent l'histoire de l'humanité, de Socrate et Platon jusqu'à Soljénitsyne et Vaclav Havel, il nous dit comment il est vraiment possible de remettre le monde à l'endroit. Plutôt qu'un constat amer et désabusé, un Bertrand Vergely au meilleur de sa forme nous transmet ici un message plein de vigueur. L'enthousiasme et l'émerveillement, qui lui sont si caractéristiques, débordent largement les tourments et les mensonges qui nous accablent. La lumière finit toujours par l'emporter sur les ténèbres. -------------- POUR CHASSER LES NUAGES Cet été est marqué par des intempéries plus nombreuses qu'à l'habitude. À ce titre, le ciel de Paris, au cours de la Cérémonie d'Ouverture des Jeux Olympiques, était bien agité. Il en est ainsi des temps que nous vivons. À beaucoup d'égards, nous sommes en droit de penser que la période est plus troublée que celles que l'histoire a comptées depuis plusieurs décennies. Les incertitudes sont plus nombreuses. Les conflits se multiplient. Les fondements de nos sociétés, qu'ils soient politiques, sociaux et religieux, sont remis en question. Les confusions débordent les certitudes reléguées au passé. À ce titre encore, nous pensons aux contrastes de cette Cérémonie d'Ouverture d'avant-hier, faite de scènes parfois belles et heureuses, parfois dérangeantes et pénibles. Avec Bertrand Vergely, le nouvel épisode diffusé dès aujourd'hui, offre une réponse aussi vigoureuse qu'enthousiasmante aux troubles et aux confusions que nous vivons. Prévu de longue date, enregistré il y a deux semaines, nous n'avions pas pensé qu'il « collerait » tant à l'actualité. Nous nous réjouissons de le diffuser maintenant, et de retrouver aussi un Bertrand Vergely au mieux de sa forme, après une traversée difficile, ces derniers mois, dont il nous parle un peu. Nous pensons à tous ceux qui traversent l'été dans la solitude, ou dans la souffrance physique ou morale. Nous pensons particulièrement à ceux qui nous ont écrit ces derniers jours. Nous pensons à tous ceux que les temps actuels désespèrent. Avec le souhait que la douceur, la force et la lumière de la vraie Vie parvienne à tous, comme elles habitent tant de témoins de Zeteo, dont Bertrand Vergely. Ceux qui apprécient nos podcasts et qui souhaitent soutenir notre effort de gratuité entière d'accès à tous nos contenus, peuvent toujours le faire. Il est toujours temps, il n'y a pas de moment creux pour Zeteo qui continue son activité tout l'été. D'avance, un immense merci à ceux qui répondront à cet appel.  Pour faire un don, il suffit de cliquer ici pour aller sur notre compte de paiement de dons en ligne sécurisé par HelloAsso. Fraternellement, Guillaume Devoud Vos dons sont défiscalisables à hauteur de 66% : par exemple, un don de 50€ ne coûte en réalité que 17€. Le reçu fiscal est généré automatiquement et immédiatement à tous ceux qui passent par la plateforme de paiement sécurisé en ligne de HelloAsso Nous délivrons directement un reçu fiscal à tous ceux qui effectuent un paiement autrement (chèque à l'association Telio, 116 boulevard Suchet, 75016 Paris – virement : nous écrire à info@zeteo.fr ).   Pour lire d'autres messages de nos auditeurs : cliquer ici. Pour en savoir plus au sujet de Zeteo, cliquer ici. Pour en savoir plus au sujet de Bethesda, cliquer ici. Pour en savoir plus au sujet de Telio, cliquer ici. Pour en savoir plus au sujet de Canopée, cliquer ici. Pour lire les messages de nos auditeurs, cliquer ici. Nous contacter : contact@zeteo.fr Proposer votre témoignage ou celui d'un proche : temoignage@zeteo.fr

durée : 00:58:18 - Avec philosophie - par : Géraldine Muhlmann - Avant d'être président, Vaclav Havel fut une grande figure de la dissidence en Tchécoslovaquie. Dramaturge et penseur, il a livré une analyse fine des mécanismes du pouvoir totalitaire malgré la censure. Qu'est-ce que gouverner par la peur ? La violence est-elle nécessaire à la lutte ? - invités : Marc Crépon Directeur de recherche à l'Université Paris Sorbonne et directeur du département de philosophie à l'École normale supérieure; Jacques Rupnik Historien, politologue, directeur de recherche émérite au CERI/Sciences Po

词汇提示1.entangled 卷入2.skirmishes 小冲突3.prestige 声望4.quotation 引用原文Vaclav Havel: 'Contamination of morality' (3)There are free elections and an election campaign ahead of us.Let us not allow this struggle to dirty the so far clean face of our gentle revolution.Let us not allow the sympathies of the world which we have won so fast to be equally rapidly lost through our becoming entangled in the jungle of skirmishes for power.Let us not allow the desire to serve oneself to bloom once again under the fair mask of the desire to serve the common good.It is not really important now which party, club, or group will prevail in the elections.The important thing is that the winners will be the best of us, in the moral,civic, political, and professional sense, regardless of their political affiliations.The future policies and prestige of our state will depend on the personalities we select and later elect to our representative bodies .….In conclusion, I would like to say that I want to be a president who will speakless and work more.To be a president who will not only look out of the windows of his airplane but who,first and foremost, will always be present among his fellow citizens and listen to them well.You may ask what kind of republic I dream of.Let me reply; I dream of a republic independent, free, and democratic, of are public economically prosperous and yet socially just, in short, of a humane republic which serves the individual and which therefore holds the hope that the individual will serve it in turn.Of are public of well - rounded people, because without such it is impossible to solve any of our problems, human, economic, ecological, social, or political.The most distinguished of my predecessors opened his first speech with a quotation from the great Czech educator Comenius.Allow me to round off my first speech with my own paraphrase of the same statement: People,your government has returned to you!翻译瓦茨拉夫·哈维尔:“道德的污染”(3)我们面前有自由选举和竞选活动。不要让这场斗争玷污我们温和的革命迄今为止干净的面貌。让我们不要让我们如此迅速地赢得了全世界的同情，同样迅速地失去了，因为我们陷入了争夺权力的小规模斗争的丛林。让我们不要让为自己服务的欲望在为公共利益服务的欲望的美丽面具下再次绽放。现在，哪个政党、俱乐部或团体将在选举中获胜并不重要。重要的是，无论他们的政治立场如何，获胜者将是我们中在道德、公民、政治和专业意义上最优秀的人。我们国家未来的政策和声望将取决于我们选出的人物以及后来选出的代表机构.....总之，我想说的是，我想成为一个少说多做的总统。要成为这样一位总统，他不仅会从飞机的窗户向外看，而且最重要的是，他会永远和他的同胞们在一起，倾听他们的心声。你也许会问我梦想什么样的共和国。让我来回答;我梦想着一个独立、自由、民主的共和国，一个经济繁荣而社会公正的共和国，简而言之，一个为个人服务的人道的共和国，因此它希望个人也能反过来为它服务。因为没有这些，就不可能解决我们的任何问题，无论是人类的、经济的、生态的、社会的还是政治的。我的前任中最杰出的一位在他的第一次演讲中引用了伟大的捷克教育家夸美纽斯的话。请允许我用我自己对同一声明的解释来结束我的第一次演讲:人民，你们的政府已经回到了你们身边!

The ascension of Vladimir Putin - a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB - to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away from democracy. In the intervening years Putin has grown not only into a dictator but an international threat, but for too long the US and the world's other leading powers have continued to appease him. Now it's clear Putin is at the centre of a worldwide assault on political liberty and the modern world order. But will the Western allies mobilize too late to halt the rise of the authoritarians? ---------- Garry Kasparov is a Russian pro-democracy leader, global human-rights activist, business speaker and author, and former world chess champion. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the Soviet Union in 1963, Garry Kasparov came to international fame at the age of 22 as the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985. He defended his title five times, including a legendary series of matches against arch-rival Anatoly Karpov. His famous matches against the IBM super-computer Deep Blue in 1996-97 were key to bringing artificial intelligence, and chess, into the mainstream. In 2005, Kasparov retired from professional chess to join the vanguard of the Russian pro-democracy movement. In 2012, Kasparov was named chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, succeeding Vaclav Havel. He is now considered to be Russia's leading dissident. ---------- LINKS: https://www.kasparov.com/ https://x.com/Kasparov63 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov ---------- BOOKS: The World After Ukraine (2025) Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must be Stopped Hardcover (2015) Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins (2018) ---------- ARTICLES: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russia-arrests-former-world-chess-32669346 https://www.politico.eu/article/chess-garry-kasparov-russia-extremist-list-honor/ https://rdi.org/articles/garry-kasparov-the-real-reason-putin-killed-navalny/ ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube's algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

词汇提示1.legacy 遗产2.bequeathed 遗赠3.blunt 减弱4.slumbered 睡5.apathy 冷漠6.categorically 绝对的7.meek 温顺的8.totalitarian 极权主义的9.yoke 枷锁10.speculation 投机11.intrigue 阴谋 原文Vaclav Havel: 'Contamination of morality' (2)Why do I say this?It would be very unreasonable to understand the sad legacy of the last forty years as something alien, which some distant relative bequeathed us.On the contrary, we have to accept this legacy as a sin we committed against ourselves.If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us only, to do something about it.We cannot blame the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would be untrue but also because it could blunt the duty that each of us faces today,namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably, and quickly.Let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own.And it would also be wrong to expect a general remedy from them only.Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.If we realize this, then all the horrors that the new Czechoslovak democracy inherited will cease to appear so terrible.If we realize this, hope will return to our hearts.In the effort to rectify matters of common concern, we have something to lean on.The recent period - and in particular,the last six weeks of our peaceful revolution -has shown the enormous human,moral, and spiritual potential and civic culture that slumbered in our society under the enforced mask of apathy.Whenever someone categorically claimed that we were this or that, I always objected that society is a very mysterious creature and that it is not wise to trust only the face it presents to you.I am happy that I was not mistaken.Everywhere in the world people wonder where those meek, humiliated,skeptical, and seemingly cynical citizens of Czechoslovakia found the marvelous strength to shake from their shoulders in several weeks and in a decent and peaceful way the totalitarian yoke.And let us ask: from where did the young people who never knew another system take their desire for truth, their love of free thought, their political as,their civic courage and civic prudence?How did it happen that their parents- the very generation that had been considered as lost - joined them?How is it possible that so many people immediately knew what to do and, none of them needed any advice or instruction?Masaryk based his politics on morality.Let us try in a new time and in a new way to restore this concept of politics.Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community rather than of a need to cheat or rape the community.Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be not only the art of the possible, especially if this means the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue,secret deals, and pragmatic maneuvering,but that it can even be the art of the impossible, namely, the art of improving ourselves and the world...翻译瓦茨拉夫·哈维尔:“道德的污染”(2)我为什么这么说?把过去四十年的悲惨遗产理解为某种陌生的东西，是某个远亲留给我们的，这是非常不合理的。相反，我们必须接受这一遗产是我们对自己犯下的罪。如果我们这样接受它，我们就会明白，我们所有人都有责任，也只有我们有责任对此采取行动。我们不能把一切都归咎于前任统治者，不仅因为这是不真实的，而且因为它会削弱我们今天每个人所面临的责任、独立、自由、合理和迅速行动的义务。让我们不要误解:世界上最好的政府、最好的议会和最好的总统，单凭自己的力量是无法取得很大成就的。而且，仅仅指望从他们那里得到普遍的补救也是错误的。自由和民主包括参与，因此也包括我们所有人的责任。如果我们认识到这一点，那么新的捷克斯洛伐克民主所继承的一切恐怖将不再显得那么可怕。如果我们意识到这一点，希望就会重新回到我们的心中。在纠正共同关心的问题的努力中，我们是有依靠的。最近一段时期，特别是我们和平革命的最后六个星期，显示了我们社会中巨大的人性、道德和精神潜力和公民文化，它们被强加在冷漠的面具下沉睡着。每当有人明确地宣称我们是这样或那样时，我总是反对说，社会是一种非常神秘的生物，只相信它呈现给你的面孔是不明智的。我很高兴我没有弄错。世界各地的人们都想知道，那些温顺、受辱、怀疑和看似愤世嫉俗的捷克斯洛伐克公民，在几周内，以一种体面而和平的方式，从他们的肩膀上摆脱了极权主义的枷锁。让我们问一下:那些从不了解另一种制度的年轻人，他们对真理的渴望、对自由思想的热爱、他们的政治抱负、他们的公民勇气和公民审慎，是从哪里来的?他们的父母——被认为是迷失的一代——是如何加入他们的呢?怎么可能这么多人马上就知道该怎么做，而且他们都不需要任何建议或指导?马萨里克把他的政治建立在道德之上。让我们尝试在一个新的时代，以一种新的方式，恢复这一政治概念。让我们教育自己和他人，政治应该是一种为社会幸福做出贡献的愿望的表达，而不是欺骗或强奸社会的需要。让我们教导自己和他人，政治不仅可以是可能的艺术，特别是如果这意味着投机、计算、阴谋、秘密交易和务实操作的艺术，而且它甚至可以是不可能的艺术，即改善我们自己和世界的艺术……

✨ « Essayons d'être fous et de demander le plus sérieusement du monde que change ce qui est en apparence immuable ! » disait le dramaturge Václav Havel après 5 ans de prison en tant que dissident politique. Était-il vraiment fou ? Il faut croire que non puisque, au moment de la chute du mur de Berlin, poètes, philosophes et même chanteurs se sont retrouvés dans les parlements, au sein des gouvernements ou présidents. Ceux qui ont refusé de « faire preuve de raison » et ont continué à réfléchir sur la façon de construire un monde meilleur ont ainsi réécrit l'Histoire. Ils ont continué d'y croire, même si le combat semblait perdu d'avance. ✊ Havel est ainsi devenu président de la République après la chute du mur et il rappelle alors à ses concitoyens : « On m'a dit que ce n'était pas possible et que c'était une folie. Et pourtant : c'est possible et nous voici ici tous ensemble. L'espoir n'est finalement pas déraisonnable mais au contraire une victoire de notre raison commune sur les mécanismes politiques dans lesquels la force d'inertie a failli nous emprisonner ».

词汇提示1.contamination 污染2.morality 道德3.variation 变化4.flourished 繁荣的5.humiliates 羞辱6.exploits 剥夺7.obsolete 过时的8.bequeathed 遗赠的9.concepts 基本观念10.regime 政权11.autonomous 自主性12.inexorably 无情地13.totalitarian 极权主义者原文Vaclav Havel: 'Contamination of morality' (1)My dear fellow citizens, for forty years you heard from my predecessors on this day different variations of the same theme; how our country flourished, how many million tons of steel we produced, how happy we all were, how we trusted our government, and what bright perspectives were unfolding in front of us.I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you.Our country is not flourishing.The enormous creative and spiritual potential of our nation is not being used sensibly.Entire branches of industry are producing goods which are of no interest to anyone, while we are lacking the things we need.A state which calls itself a workers' state humiliates and exploits workers.Our obsolete economy is wasting the little energy we have available.A country that once could be proud of the educational level of its citizens spends so little on education that it ranks today as seventy-second in the world.We have polluted our soil, our rivers and forests, bequeathed to us by our ancestors, and we have today the most contaminated environment in Europe.Adult people in our country die earlier than in most other European countries...But all this is still not the main problem.The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment.We fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought.We learned not to believe in anything, to ignore each other, to care only about ourselves.Concepts such as love, friendship, compassion, humility, or forgiveness lost their depth and dimensions, and for many of us they represented only psychological peculiarities, or they resembled gone-astray greetings from ancient times, a little ridiculous in the era of computers and spaceships.Only a few of us were able to cry out loud that the powers that be should not be all-powerful, and that special farms, which produce ecologically pure and top-quality food just for them, should send their produce to schools,children's homes, and hospitals if our agriculture was unable to offer them to all.The previous regime - armed with its arrogant and intolerant ideology - reduced man to a force of production and nature to a tool of production.In this it attacked both their very substance and their mutual relationship.It reduced gifted and autonomous people, skillfully working in their own country, to nuts and bolts of some monstrously huge, noisy, and stinking machine, whose real meaning is not clear to anyone.It cannot do more than slowly but inexorably wear down itself and all its nuts and bolts.When I talk about contaminated moral atmosphere, I am not talking just about the gentlemen who eat organic vegetables and do not look out of the plane windows.I am talking about all of us.We had all become used to the totalitarian system and accepted it as an unchangeable fact and thus helped to perpetuate it.In other words, we are all - though naturally to differing extents - responsible for the operation of the totalitarian machinery; none of us is just its victim:we are all also its co-creators.翻译瓦茨拉夫·哈维尔:“道德的污染”(1)我亲爱的同胞们，四十年来的今天，你们从我的前任那里听到同一主题的不同变化;我们的国家是多么繁荣，我们生产了多少百万吨的钢铁，我们是多么幸福，我们是多么信任我们的政府，多么光明的前景展现在我们面前。我猜你向我推荐这个职位不是为了让我也对你撒谎。我们的国家并不繁荣。我们国家巨大的创造力和精神潜能没有得到合理的利用。整个工业部门都在生产人们不感兴趣的产品，而我们却缺乏我们所需要的东西。一个自称工人国家的国家是对工人的羞辱和剥削。我们陈旧的经济正在浪费我们仅有的一点能源。一个曾经可以为其公民的教育水平感到自豪的国家，在教育上的花费如此之少，以至于今天它在世界上排名第72位。我们污染了祖先留给我们的土壤、河流和森林，我们今天的环境是欧洲污染最严重的。我们国家的成年人比大多数其他欧洲国家死得早。但这还不是主要问题。最糟糕的是，我们生活在一个被污染的道德环境中。我们之所以道德上有问题，是因为我们习惯于说出与自己想法不同的东西。我们学会了不相信任何东西，忽略彼此，只关心自己。诸如爱、友谊、同情、谦卑或宽恕之类的概念失去了它们的深度和维度，对我们中的许多人来说，它们仅仅代表了心理学上的独特性，或者它们就像来自远古时代的误入歧途的问候，在计算机和宇宙飞船的时代有点可笑。我们中只有少数人能够大声喊出，权力不应该是万能的，如果我们的农业不能为所有人提供食物，那些专门为他们生产生态纯净和高质量食物的特殊农场应该把他们的产品送到学校、儿童之家和医院。前政权以其傲慢和不宽容的意识形态武装起来，把人贬低为生产力，把自然贬低为生产工具。在这一点上，它既攻击了它们的实质，也攻击了它们的相互关系。它把那些在自己的国家里熟练地工作的天才和自主的人，沦为某种巨大的、吵闹的、臭烘烘的机器的螺丝钉，而这些机器的真正意义谁也不清楚。它只能缓慢而无情地消耗自身及其所有的螺母和螺栓。当我谈到被污染的道德氛围时，我指的不仅仅是那些吃有机蔬菜、不看窗外的绅士们。我说的是我们所有人。我们都已经习惯了极权主义制度，把它当作一个不可改变的事实来接受，从而助长了它的延续。换句话说，我们所有人——尽管自然在不同程度上——都要对极权主义机器的运作负责;没有人只是它的受害者:我们都是它的共同创造者。

Leadership Lessons From The Great Books #102 - Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel w/Libby Unger------Opening and closing themes composed by Brian Sanyshyn of Brian Sanyshyn Music.---Pick up your copy of 12 Rules for Leaders: The Foundation of Intentional Leadership NOW on AMAZON!Check out the Leadership Lessons From the Great Books podcast reading list!---Check out HSCT Publishing at: https://www.hsctpublishing.com/.Check out LeadingKeys at: https://www.leadingkeys.com/Check out Leadership ToolBox at: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/Contact HSCT for more information at 1-833-216-8296 to schedule a full DEMO of LeadingKeys with one of our team members.---Leadership ToolBox website: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/.Leadership ToolBox LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ldrshptlbx/.Leadership ToolBox YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@leadershiptoolbox/videos.Leadership ToolBox Twitter: https://twitter.com/ldrshptlbx.Leadership ToolBox IG: https://www.instagram.com/leadershiptoolboxus/.Leadership ToolBox FB: https://www.facebook.com/LdrshpTlbx.

Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and essayist Jared Marcel Pollen to discuss Vaclav Havel's “The Power of the Powerless” and The Velvet Underground's second album, White Light/White Heat The Manifesto: https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/1979/01/the-power-of-the-powerless.pdf The Art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJy0LP8iYPg&list=PLaVHibd49QFIsKywss9Jh0rati5skWEYD Jared's essay, The Metaphysician-in-Chief, in Liberties https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/the-metaphysician-in-chief/

00:36 A pedofília járulékos veszélyei élő adásban. Somos András bukása. 02:16 Egyidősek vagyunk Navalnij hazatérésével. Gurijev cikke és az interjú Gurijevvel. Navalnij rituális öngyilkossága. 06:30 Jan Palach, Bauer Sándor és Thich Quang Duc. Mi volt a terv? A globálisan is rosszul álló bizonyos dolgok. 11:10 A szankcionált börtönőrök. Huckleberry Finn és Jim a néger egyébként a berkenyéről és a petrezselyemről mondtak le. A magyar börtönparancsnokok vagyona. 15:00 Navalnij halála után kevesebben figyelnek. A szocsi dácsa. Vaclav Havel nem gyújtotta fel magát. A lenini és a gdanski út. 19:39 A Navalnij-Gyatlov tengely. 22:10 Kamala Harris vélt és valós hibái. Öntökönszúrás Joe Biden, avagy nem? A Fitfth avenue-idézet. Joe Biden, a jó elnök. 27:33 Helyreigazítás: penicilin. Salvarsan. Ne legyél taknyos a lövészárokban! 31:07 Aki nem tud kantunusul, ne beszéljen kantunusul. IMMC: Breaktörvény 33:15 Gruevszkivel a Hongkongban. 35:14 Ki van kutatva a hibbant? Ki a hibbant? Top 3 magyar hibbant. És akkor mi Magyar Péter? 39:04 A romkocsma etimológiája: friss kutatási eredmények. Földes András 2003-as cikke. Ráckert, a pre-romkocsma. 44:44 A 444 történetének legtrágárabb epizódja, egyenesen Békéscsabáról. Dukon és Kvaszta. Az alulkutatott trágár gyerekrigmusok. Krúbi, de nyugdíjasoknak. 48:44 Na most lett elegem Nagy Feróból. Feró és Stefka. Pranknek azért sok. 53:13 Winkler Róbert saját Wikipedia-oldala. 47 kedvenc járművem. A WD-40 reklámarca. Most kik a szponzoraid? Ganxsta Zolee és a Nissan. 57:56 A macska megmenekül.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A startling headline lit up my screen: Russian dissident Alexei Navalny had been assassinated. The news shook me to my core, leaving me appalled at the apparent depths to which Russian leader Vladimir Putin would stoop, fully aware of the shockwaves it would send worldwide. Navalny's murder snuffed out a beacon of hope in the oppressive landscape of Putin's Russia. When a leader turns to such brutal tactics, it reveals not strength but profound weakness. Navalny epitomized everything the autocrat in the Kremlin was not. It is the nature of dictatorial regimes that they bring forth the best and the worst extremes in mankind. South Africa's apartheid regime had shining examples of courage and humanity in Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Steve Biko, and many others. Nazi Germany had Dietrich Boenhoeffer and dissidents such as Sophie Scholl. Czechoslovakia had Vaclav Havel and Poland Lech Walesa. Highlights in this episode: - What we need to learn in confronting evil - Why does God allow evil? #Reino Gevers #media #spirituality #selfawareness #selfdevelopment #truth More information:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Books⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mastermind Mentoring⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Blog⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Social Media: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

What if art and beauty were the most potent tools for evangelizing in the 21st century? Join me as we explore this intriguing concept with Emily and Isaac Gay, founders of Parallel Society. Through personal anecdotes and insights, Emily and Isaac shed light on the transformative power of artistry - how the triad of goodness, truth, and beauty can point to the divine. They highlight how their journey as artists led to the realization that artists can be today's evangelists, communicating gospel truths through their work.We don't just stop at understanding the potential of artists, we dive right into the role they play in society. Emily and Isaac elaborate on how artists, often undervalued within the church, have their fingers on the pulse of culture, shaping ideologies, impacting legislation, and education. Referencing insights from Vaclav Havel, the former Czech Republic president, they underline the power artists wield in shaping a nation's heart. Together, we envision a future where artists are nurtured both within and outside the church, enabling them to reach the lost.Our discussion takes a fascinating turn towards the power of art and beauty, especially in times of crisis, using real-life examples such as a video of a woman playing the violin in a Ukrainian war bomb shelter. We reflect on the importance of imagination and creativity in maintaining our humanity in the face of adversity, inspired by the experiences of Victor Frankl in a concentration camp. As we wrap up, we peek into the future of faith-based art, discussing how it can embody Christ's ethic and morality, and the potential for artists of faith in the future. Tune in for this enlightening journey through faith, art, and beauty with Emily and Isaac Gay.Learn more about The Parallel Society: https://www.theparallelsociety.co/Reach Isaac Gay @imisaacgay https://www.instagram.com/imisaacgay/ Order Stephanie's new book Imagine More: Do What You Love, Discover Your Potential Learn more at StephanieNelson.comFollow us on Instagram @stephanie_nelson_cmFollow us on Facebook at CouponMom

Here are some major historical events that happened on December 29th:1845: The United States annexes the Republic of Texas, which had gained independence from Mexico in 1836.1890: The Wounded Knee Massacre occurs in South Dakota, USA, marking the end of the Indian Wars on the American frontier.1934: Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930, leading to an arms race and increasing tensions in the Pacific.1940: During World War II, the Second London Naval Treaty is signed by the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, regulating submarine warfare and limiting ship tonnage.1972: Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, crashes in the Florida Everglades, resulting in 101 fatalities.1975: A bomb explosion at LaGuardia Airport in New York City kills 11 people.1989: Czech writer and dissident Vaclav Havel is elected president of Czechoslovakia, marking the end of 41 years of Communist rule.1992: Fernando Collor de Mello, the first democratically elected president of Brazil in 29 years, resigns amidst corruption charges.2001: A fire at the Mesa Redonda shopping center in Lima, Peru, kills at least 291 people and injures more than 200 others.2003: The fourth-largest inland oil spill in U.S. history occurs when a storage tank ruptures in the town of Lockhart, Texas, releasing approximately 460,000 gallons of crude oil.These events span different time periods and regions, reflecting the diversity of historical occurrences on December 29th.Podcast Website:https://atozenglishpodcast.com/a-to-z-this-day-in-world-history-december-29th/Social Media:WeChat account ID: atozenglishpodcastFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/671098974684413/Tik Tok:@atozenglish1Instagram:@atozenglish22Twitter:@atozenglish22A to Z Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/theatozenglishpodcastCheck out our You Tube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCds7JR-5dbarBfas4Ve4h8ADonate to the show: https://app.redcircle.com/shows/9472af5c-8580-45e1-b0dd-ff211db08a90/donationsRobin and Jack started a new You Tube channel called English Word Master. You can check it out here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2aXaXaMY4P2VhVaEre5w7ABecome a member of Podchaser and leave a positive review!https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-a-to-z-english-podcast-4779670Join our Whatsapp group: https://forms.gle/zKCS8y1t9jwv2KTn7Intro/Outro Music: Daybird by Broke for Freehttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Directionless_EP/Broke_For_Free_-_Directionless_EP_-_03_Day_Bird/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcodehttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Joplin/Piano_Rolls_from_archiveorg/ScottJoplin-RagtimeDance1906/https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-a-to-z-english-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dec. 18 marks the anniversary of the death of dissident, playwright, and first democratically elected president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel. Elisha and Casey discuss his life and legacy, the role he played in Elisha's formative years, and the prize the Human Rights Foundation created in his honor. In lighter topics of discussion, Casey and Elisha talk about the office holiday party, Casey's impeccable—read joyfully terrible—rendition of Prince's "Purple Rain," and somehow the 90s sitcom "Home Improvement." To learn more about the Havel Prize for creative dissent: https://hrf.org/havel-prize/ To learn more about the 2023 Havel Prize laureates: https://hrf.org/announcing-the-2023-havel-prize-laureates/ To read David Remnick's article in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/02/17/exit-havel To read Vaclav Havel's "The Power of the Powerless": https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/the-power-of-the-powerless-vaclav-havel-2011-12-23

On this day, November 24, in legal history, a pivotal event unfolded in Czechoslovakia, marking a significant turning point in the country's journey towards democracy. In 1989, the leaders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, under mounting pressure and facing an undeniable surge for change, resigned from their positions. This resignation was a direct response to the widespread protests and political movements demanding democratic reforms, a wave that had been sweeping across Eastern Europe following the decline of Soviet influence in the region.Central to this movement in Czechoslovakia was Vaclav Havel, a distinguished playwright and political dissident, who emerged as a leading figure in the opposition. Havel, who had long been an outspoken critic of the Communist regime, played a crucial role in the Velvet Revolution, a peaceful series of protests that ultimately led to the end of 41 years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. His actions, characterized by non-violent resistance and powerful advocacy for human rights, not only symbolized the yearning for freedom and democracy but also inspired a nation to strive for these ideals.The resignation of the Communist Party leaders on this day was a landmark victory for the Velvet Revolution and paved the way for significant legal and political changes in Czechoslovakia. This event marked the beginning of a transition from a one-party system to a parliamentary democracy, a transition that culminated in the election of Vaclav Havel as the first democratically elected President of Czechoslovakia in December 1989. His presidency represented not only a new era for Czechoslovakia but also symbolized the triumph of democratic principles over authoritarian rule in the post-Cold War era.The United Nations Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Marcos A. Orellana, has initiated an investigation into three companies historically linked to DuPont, along with the governments of the Netherlands and the United States. This probe concerns the human rights and environmental impacts stemming from the release of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from a Fayetteville, North Carolina plant. In letters sent to these entities, Orellana expressed deep concern over the apparent disregard for human rights and environmental protections demonstrated by DuPont de Nemours Inc., the Chemours Co. LLC, and Corteva Agriscience LLC in their handling of PFAS, known for their potential harmful effects.Chemours responded with details of their efforts to control PFAS release at their Fayetteville Works factory, including significant pollution control measures and water treatment systems, which have cost over $200 million. They also highlighted a barrier wall to prevent chemical migration to local waters and provided data showing decreasing PFAS levels in the adjacent Cape Fear River. Corteva, on the other hand, clarified that it is an independent agricultural company and has neither produced nor sold the PFAS in question, though it inherited some liabilities related to PFAS under a 2021 settlement.The Netherlands detailed its compliance with international law in its dealings with Chemours, including requesting U.S. EPA permission for PFAS waste export from a Dutch Chemours plant to the North Carolina facility, a move highlighted by Orellana as potentially exacerbating the problem.Orellana criticized the U.S. for inadequate health and environmental protections, alleging that American regulatory failures have deprived North Carolina communities of essential information to prevent harm and seek reparation. He pointed out that legal actions against the companies have been insufficient, with enforcement and remediation measures falling short. This, according to Orellana, undermines the community members' rights to information and effective remedies. As of the report, responses from the U.S. government and DuPont were not immediately available on the UN's website.You will remember we reported on 3M's $10.3 billion PFAS settlement back in September, it appears likely as more is learned about PFAS that more litigation and ultimately more settlements will be in the offing. UN Probes DuPont, Chemours Over Human Rights Harms From PFASA $25 million settlement between Apple Inc. and the Department of Justice (DOJ) over allegations of hiring bias against U.S. citizens has underscored a broader dilemma in Big Tech regarding compliance with immigration laws. The case highlights a disconnect between the Department of Labor (DOL) and the DOJ in enforcing these laws, particularly in the context of sponsoring foreign workers for lawful permanent residency. Apple's case is the second major enforcement action against a U.S. employer for biases in sponsoring foreign workers, following a similar case with Facebook in 2021.Under the PERM (Permanent Labor Certification) program, companies sponsoring foreign workers must meet additional DOL recruiting requirements, which some attorneys find outdated, such as advertising in Sunday print newspapers. Despite adherence to DOL regulations, companies like Apple find themselves scrutinized by the DOJ for potential recruitment failures. The DOJ alleged that Apple took measures to depress applications from U.S. workers, including requiring paper applications and not advertising PERM positions on its external website.Large tech firms are particularly vulnerable to such scrutiny due to their heavy use of the PERM process and the H-1B visa program. For many foreign workers employed in the U.S. on temporary visas, progress toward permanent residency is crucial for renewing their temporary status, especially given the long wait times for green cards. The DOJ's position is that employers are not permitted to deter job applications based on citizenship or immigration status. However, this has raised concerns among immigration attorneys who argue that complying with the letter of DOL laws might still invite DOJ enforcement actions, creating a challenging environment for employers to navigate.The Apple case, following the Facebook settlement, signifies a growing enforcement trend by the DOJ and raises questions about the consistency and clarity of regulations governing the sponsorship of foreign workers for permanent residency. It also suggests the need for federal agencies to harmonize their approaches and update recruitment mandates to reflect modern hiring practices.Apple's Hiring Bias Case Reveals Big Tech Foreign Worker DilemmaThe Biden administration has defended the race-conscious admissions policy of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in a recent legal challenge. In a brief filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the administration argued that the academy's affirmative action policies are crucial for ensuring a diverse and effective military force, which is integral to national security. This stance comes despite the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling that struck down similar race-conscious admissions policies used by civilian colleges.The lawsuit, filed by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a group founded by affirmative action opponent Edward Blum, alleges that West Point's practices discriminate against white applicants, violating the equal protection principle of the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment. However, the Justice Department contends that SFFA lacks legal standing to sue and points out critical differences between civilian universities and military academies in their use of race in admissions.The administration emphasizes that diversity in the Army officer corps, fostered in part by West Point's admissions practices, results in a more effective, lethal, and legitimate force in the eyes of the nation and the world. The lawsuit seeks to end an exemption that allows military academies to consider race as a factor in admissions, an issue the Supreme Court did not address in its recent ruling.The Justice Department's brief highlights the racial disparities in the Army, noting that while Black and Hispanic people make up a significant portion of active duty enlisted personnel, they are underrepresented in officer positions. In contrast, white individuals constitute a larger percentage of officers compared to their representation in the enlisted corps. The case, which will have arguments heard on December 21, raises crucial questions about the role of race in military academy admissions and its impact on the composition and effectiveness of the U.S. military.Biden administration defends West Point's race-conscious admissions policy | ReutersThe 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is proposing a rule requiring lawyers to certify their use of artificial intelligence (AI) in drafting legal briefs. This proposed rule, a first among the nation's 13 federal appeals courts, aims to regulate the use of generative AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Lawyers would need to confirm that any AI-generated text in court filings has been reviewed for accuracy, particularly citations and legal analysis. Failure to comply could result in filings being stricken and potential sanctions.This move comes as the legal community increasingly grapples with the implications of AI in the courtroom. The need for such a rule was highlighted by an incident in June, where two New York lawyers faced sanctions for submitting a brief with fictitious case citations generated by ChatGPT. The 5th Circuit's initiative follows similar actions by district courts in its jurisdiction, including the Eastern District of Texas, which recently announced a rule requiring lawyers to verify any computer-generated content.These measures reflect a growing awareness of the potential inaccuracies in AI-generated legal content and the importance of ensuring that AI tools do not replace the critical thinking and problem-solving skills required in legal practice. The 5th Circuit is currently seeking public comment on this proposal until January 4.US appeals court proposes lawyers certify review of AI use in filings | Reuters Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

durée : 00:57:53 - Avec philosophie - par : Géraldine Muhlmann - Avant d'être président, Vaclav Havel fut une grande figure de la dissidence en Tchécoslovaquie. Dramaturge et penseur, il a livré une analyse fine des mécanismes du pouvoir totalitaire malgré la censure. Qu'est-ce que gouverner par la peur ? La violence est-elle nécessaire à la lutte ? - invités : Marc Crépon Directeur de recherche à l'Université Paris Sorbonne et directeur du département de philosophie à l'École normale supérieure; Jacques Rupnik Historien, politologue, directeur de recherche émérite au CERI/Sciences Po

In this episode, Dinesh shows how the House GOP can flip the script by using the special counsel standard against Trump—“knowingly making false statements”—as the basis for impeaching Biden. Georgia House Representative Mesha Mainor joins Dinesh to reveal why she left the Democratic Party and became a Republican. Dinesh expounds Vaclav Havel's famous essay on tyranny and powerlessness, showing its contemporary significance. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First, can we talk about polling? Todd Rose can! Todd and his team at Populace are figuring out how to do better surveys to get more accurate information. No, really. It's all about methodology. And wow, do they have some surprising and encouraging takeaways! In particular, WE'RE NOT REALLY AS DIVIDED SO MUCH AS WE THINK WE'RE DIVIDED. So how much are the loudest, most extreme voices driving the conversation in public spaces? And how many of the rest of us are self-silencing? What about COLLECTIVE ILLUSIONS? What's the definition of collective illusions? And what are some of the most prevalent ones?   Todd Rose is the co-founder and president of Populace, a think tank committed to ensuring that all people have the opportunity to pursue fulfilling lives in a thriving society. Prior to Populace, he was a faculty member at Harvard University where he founded the Laboratory for the Science of Individuality and directed the Mind, Brain, and Education program. Todd is the best selling author of Collective Illusions, Dark Horse, and The End of Average.    Talkin' Politics & Religion Without Killin' Each Other is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.   www.democracygroup.org/shows/talkin-politics-religion   The Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel - https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/1979/01/the-power-of-the-powerless.pdf   http://www.populace.org/   http://www.toddrose.com/   https://www.amazon.com/Collective-Illusions-Conformity-Complicity-Decisions/dp/0306925680   https://www.threads.net/@coreysnathan

McAlvany Weekly Commentary Central Banks Accumulate More Gold Than Ever Chile Nationalizes All Lithium Assets Why Is China Aggressively Building out Its Railroads? Required Reading – Vaclav Havel “The Power of the Powerless” (1978) – Click Here https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/165havel.html The post The Early Bird Gets The Gold appeared first on McAlvany Weekly Commentary.

In an era of broad disappointment in the integrity of political figures, Dr. Daniel J. Mahoney, author of The Statesman as Thinker: Portraits of Greatness, Courage, and Moderation (Encounter Books, 2022) revives the idea of statesmanship, dwelling on figures ranging from Alexis de Tocqueville to Vaclav Havel, all of whom sought to preserve freedom in times of […]

Rod Dreher is a senior writer and editor for 'The American Conservative.' He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers: 'Live Not By Lies,' 'The Benedict Option,' and 'The Little Way of Ruthie Leming,' as well as the books 'Crunchy Cons' and 'How Dante Can Save Your Life.'In this episode, Rod Dreher and I discuss his latest book, 'Live Not By Lies,' the continuous emergence of Communism in the West, ideology as a substitute for religion, the importance of courage, and more. Thanks for watching.—Links—Follow Rod Dreher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/roddreherRead Rod Dreher's articles: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/author/rod-dreher/Order Rod Dreher's books, 'Live Note By Lies', and others on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Rod-Dreher/e/B00JV2IX3O%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share.—Chapters—[0:00] Intro[1:25] Live Not By Lies[2:32] A Story from Communist Czechoslovakia[4:55] Our Old Idea of New Totalitarianism[9:13] Czeslaw Miłosz and "The Captive Mind"[12:26] The Appeal of Communism[14:50] The Weaponizing of Original Sin[18:36] Applying the Story of the Kulaks[22:43] The Emergence of Woke Capitalism[27:37] The Line Between Good and Evil[29:48] Solzhenitsyn's Rules for Responsible Conduct[31:31] Scapegoating and False Morality[37:28] The Fragility of American Elites[42:06] Vaclav Havel, The Myth of the Green Grocer[48:34] Fighting for the Right to Be Unhappy[56:37] Ideology as Substitute for Religion[1:00:56] Heroism as Anti-Ideology[1:09:52] Preparing for Persecution[1:12:33] A Message from the Church to Men[1:13:39] Courage[1:18:04] Rod Dreher, "Live Not By Lies"[1:20:07] Jordan Peterson's Daily Wire+ Deal[1:21:15] Daily Wire+ Intro[1:21:54] History of Rod Dreher's Religious Belief[1:27:08] Sexuality as the Last Temptation[1:32:45] Kierkegaard's Three Stages of Life[1:34:45] Journey Through Catholicism[1:36:36] Becoming an Orthodox Christian[1:45:00] A Respite from the Political[1:48:11] The Purpose of Prayer[1:50:23] The Jesus Prayer[1:54:36] Closing Comments#roddreher #livenotbylies #aleksandrsolzhenitsyn #jordanpeterson #communism #christianity// SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL //Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/jordanbpeterson.co...Donations: https://jordanbpeterson.com/donate// COURSES //Discovering Personality: https://jordanbpeterson.com/personalitySelf Authoring Suite: https://selfauthoring.comUnderstand Myself (personality test): https://understandmyself.com// BOOKS //Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life: https://jordanbpeterson.com/Beyond-Order12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos: https://jordanbpeterson.com/12-rules-...Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief: https://jordanbpeterson.com/maps-of-m...// LINKS //Website: https://jordanbpeterson.comEvents: https://jordanbpeterson.com/eventsBlog: https://jordanbpeterson.com/blogPodcast: https://jordanbpeterson.com/podcast// SOCIAL //Twitter: https://twitter.com/jordanbpetersonInstagram: https://instagram.com/jordan.b.petersonFacebook: https://facebook.com/drjordanpetersonTelegram: https://t.me/DrJordanPetersonAll socials: https://linktr.ee/drjordanbpeterson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rod Dreher is a senior writer and editor for 'The American Conservative.' He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers: 'Live Not By Lies,' 'The Benedict Option,' and 'The Little Way of Ruthie Leming,' as well as the books 'Crunchy Cons' and 'How Dante Can Save Your Life.' In this episode, Rod Dreher and I discuss his latest book, 'Live Not By Lies,' the continuous emergence of Communism in the West, ideology as a substitute for religion, the importance of courage, and more. Thanks for watching. —Links— Follow Rod Dreher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/roddreher Read Rod Dreher's articles: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/author/rod-dreher/ Order Rod Dreher's books, 'Live Note By Lies', and others on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rod-Dreher/e/B00JV2IX3O%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share. —Chapters—[0:00] Intro [1:25] Live Not By Lies [2:32] A Story from Communist Czechoslovakia [4:55] Our Old Idea of New Totalitarianism [9:13] Czeslaw Miłosz and "The Captive Mind" [12:26] The Appeal of Communism [14:50] The Weaponizing of Original Sin [18:36] Applying the Story of the Kulaks [22:43] The Emergence of Woke Capitalism [27:37] The Line Between Good and Evil [29:48] Solzhenitsyn's Rules for Responsible Conduct [31:31] Scapegoating and False Morality [37:28] The Fragility of American Elites [42:06] Vaclav Havel, The Myth of the Green Grocer [48:34] Fighting for the Right to Be Unhappy [56:37] Ideology as Substitute for Religion [1:00:56] Heroism as Anti-Ideology [1:09:52] Preparing for Persecution [1:12:33] A Message from the Church to Men [1:13:39] Courage [1:18:04] Rod Dreher, "Live Not By Lies" [1:20:07] Jordan Peterson's Daily Wire+ Deal [1:21:15] Daily Wire+ Intro [1:21:54] History of Rod Dreher's Religious Belief [1:27:08] Sexuality as the Last Temptation [1:32:45] Kierkegaard's Three Stages of Life [1:34:45] Journey Through Catholicism [1:36:36] Becoming an Orthodox Christian [1:45:00] A Respite from the Political [1:48:11] The Purpose of Prayer [1:50:23] The Jesus Prayer [1:54:36] Closing Comments #roddreher #livenotbylies #aleksandrsolzhenitsyn #jordanpeterson #communism #christianity // SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL // Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/jordanbpeterson.co... Donations: https://jordanbpeterson.com/donate // COURSES // Discovering Personality: https://jordanbpeterson.com/personality Self Authoring Suite: https://selfauthoring.com Understand Myself (personality test): https://understandmyself.com // BOOKS // Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life: https://jordanbpeterson.com/Beyond-Order 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos: https://jordanbpeterson.com/12-rules-... Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief: https://jordanbpeterson.com/maps-of-m... // LINKS // Website: https://jordanbpeterson.com Events: https://jordanbpeterson.com/events Blog: https://jordanbpeterson.com/blog Podcast: https://jordanbpeterson.com/podcast // SOCIAL // Twitter: https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson Instagram: https://instagram.com/jordan.b.peterson Facebook: https://facebook.com/drjordanpeterson Telegram: https://t.me/DrJordanPeterson All socials: https://linktr.ee/drjordanbpeterson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices