Community Affairs Consultants

An apparent inherent weakness of democracy has been its genuine kindness; its gentleness; its strong reliance upon diplomacy as a problem solver; its willingness to compromise and to be empathetic with others, while often offering an olive branch to wolves to join the flock of passive and forgiving sheep. Such was the circumstance of the Summit between United States (US) President Joe Biden and the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, yesterday, at Geneva, Switzerland. A Summit of two worlds - democracy and diplomacy pitted against authoritarianism. 

And as is often the case with the "nice guy" getting the worse of any outcome, it might appear in the short-run that Putin got the best of Biden at the meeting in Switzerland. He got a prime showcase spot on the world stage thanks to the invitation of President Biden. Putin made no concessions or admissions of Russian guilt to any meddlings and agitations or to cyber crimes. He dscribed the meetings as "constructive". 

Amid facts and allegations of Russian meddling in many areas from the US Presidential Elections, to the security of Ukraine, to agitations across Europe and elsewhere along with involvement in assassinations and attempted poisonings at home and on foreign sovereign soils, Putin was still invited by President Biden, who being a seasoned politician, former Vice-President, now President and an avid believer in democracy, hoped diplomacy extended to a bad actor could better global security and cooperation. 

In the long-run, history could show that Biden's overture to Putin did better the general security of humanity. If that is not manifested, and eventually, the US and allies are forced to counter Russian actions, then Biden will have justification for any reactions taken since he first waved an olive branch at Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021.

When United States (US) President Joe Biden meets tomorrow with Vladimir Putin, in Geneva, Switzerland, Biden should make no concessions to the Russian leader.

In lieu of coincessions, President Biden should seek to caution Putin of greater Russian isolation, along with possible broader and more in depth sanctions on top of some already in placed, as punitive acts for Russian meddlings and agitations against international peace and security. 

It is imperative the American leader not overlook clearly established Russian links to assassinations and attempted poisonings on foreign sovereign soils, Russian meddling in Ukraine, agitations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as Russian connections to escalating cyber crimes. 

In recent years, humanity has suffered greatly at the hands of despots and authoritarians. Russia annexed Crimea and supported armed conflict in eastern Ukraine; Bashar al-Assad has prevailed in Syria amid tens of thousands of deaths and explicit evidence of crimes against humanity; Alexander Lukashenko has made a mockery of international law and the rule of law and human rights in Belarus; the Myanmar military has thrown democratic principles to the curb; allegations have sufaced of Russian torture of Africans in Central African Republic (CAR); all these events and others have a common link - Russia.

Therefore, no concessions should be made to Russia in light of established Russian actions. Westerners held illegally should be freed by Moscow. The international community should demand accountability and responsible world citizenship from Russia as the US and allies stand firmly and united against Russian meddlings and agitations.

The 31st Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting in Brussels, Belgium, represents the re-affirmation of the unity of the Alliance as evident by President Joe Biden, having succeeded an unassuring Donald Trump, firmly re-committing the United States (US) to transatlantic security and collective defense. 

And the need for Alliance surety was later made known via a communique issued by the 30 NATO allies that acknowledged a "threat" from Russia and "challenges" from China as real threats to the group. As reported by CNN, NATO confirmed: "We face multifaceted threats, systemic competition from assertive and authoritarian powers, as well as growing security challenges to our countries and our citizens from all strategic directions."

The NATO communique added: "Russia's aggressive actions constitute a threat to Euro-Atlantic security..."China's growing influence and international policies can present challenges that we need to address together as an Alliance." NATO concluded: "We will engage China with a view to defending the security interests of the Alliance."

After four-years of insecurity and unsurety within NATO during the one-term presidency of Donald Trump, new US President Joe Biden and the 30 NATO allies have now strongly re-affirmed the unity of the Western Alliance.

Ever since the election of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States (US), American confidence of a better tomorrow has soared. So has global confidence to the real prospect of a returned rational American ally to help yield broad world security.

Moreover, the nationally and internationally accepted level-headedness of the new Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration in Washington, DC, has made marked early success in setting a global backdrop toward sustaining newly recaptured global confidence and security. This has been accomplished in stark contrast to the tone once set by the one-term Donald Trump, whose foreign policy veered significantly from the historically sound and ally-faithful policies of all other administrations, in Washington, DC. Trump was unpredictable, often appearing irrational as he ranted and feuded with traditional American allies in deference to despots Vladimir Putin of Russia and Kim Jong-un of North Korea.

President Biden's current and his first overseas trip as president affirms actions toward sustaining international confidence and world security. His visit with allies the United Kingdom (UK), NATO and the European Union (EU), underscores decades of American friendship and partnership with trusted and loyal allies. What these friends accomplish and agree to over the next five-days, will go a long way in sustaining a re-claimed world security and confidence.

United States (US) President Joe Biden will arrive in the United Kingdom (UK) today, June 9, 2021, on the initial-leg of his one-week first overseas trip as President - a visit, which among other elements, will re-affirm America's commitment to its European allies, while cautioning Vladimir Putin about numerous Russian agitations.

President Biden's arrival in Cornwall, England, will add a much needed sigh of relief to allies, who suffered four-years of confusion under former one-term President Donald Trump, who repeatedly quarreled with allies, instigated trade feuds with some of them and even appeared to put the welfare of Russia and Putin ahead of historically loyal and trusted European friends.

Ahead of an in-person G7 Summit on June 11 and 12, Biden will meet with his British counterpart, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on Thursday. The President and First Lady Jill Biden will be received by British Monarch Queen Elizabeth II, on Sunday before he attends the first NATO Summit since 2018, in Brussels, Belgium, next Monday. President Biden will also sit at the first United States - European Union (EU) Summit next Tuesday, the first such event since 2014.

President Biden will meet Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, next Wednesday, when the US leader is expected to caution Putin on Russia's many agitations.

With the trip of President Biden to Europe, four-years of American unsurety in foreign policy toward the continent, is thereby reversed into a sound re-affirmation of US commitment to allies including the UK, NATO and the EU.

Many Americans readily boast of the right to free speech as allotted to citizens under the social contract of the First Admendment to the Constitution of the United States (US).

Ranging from not wearing facial masks in the midst of a deadly pandemic to the spewing of inflammatory words and actions aimed at insurrection, some callous Americans have elected to place their personal fallible political controversy theories ahead of the sound well being and reputable, international and influential sphere of the Republic. 

Spearheaded by a sore-loser and one-term former president, a minority number of Americans continue to raise false damning rumors about the course of the Republic's leadership and government that on their faces, in any other jurisdiction, would amount to high treason at the very least. Yet, this ill-led group continues to function in the US because they believe their right to free speech is non fathomable even if matched against the national security of the Republic. The January 6, 2021 insurrection upon the US Capitol is an example of violent non measurable free speech with no regard whatsoever for national security.

But free speech is not limitless. There are boundaries to free speech and especailly when the security of any nation stands threatened by such speech. Therefore, with the precedent of the event of January 6, 2021, as a deliberate and real attack upon American national security, US intelligence agencies as well as defense and justice departments are directed by law to protect the national security of the American Republic. National security trumps free speech.

The gut-wrenching recent discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 Indigenous children in a mass grave, at a site of a former state-ran residential school for the forced assimiliation of First Nation children, is damning proof as to why the spirit of humanity could never find peace while historical wrongs against innocents - both people, and nations, remain non atoned.

I offer it as a speculation that the reason humanity remains troubled even in the face of many beneficial events and deeds, is because of the too many historical wrongs, especially those committed by colonial powers, which have never been atoned. 

With regards to the recent grim discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children found in a mass grave in British Columbia, the event serves as yet another painful reminder of sufferings of Indigenous people at the hands of religion, independent governments and colonial powers. In Canada, from the 1870s to 1997, thousands of First Nations children were forced into residential schools by authorities in a willful plan at the cultural genocide of the Indigenous people. 

Some 6,000 Indigenous children in Canada died in these schools from abuse by priests, nuns and teachers. The recent sad discovery of 215 remains of children raises the likelihood that there may be more dead children than officially tallied. While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government appear genuinely sorry about this horrible aspect of Canada's past, the official Catholic Church, which played a major role in the operation and management of these schools of cultural genocide, is yet to atone for all the wrongs.

Canada is not alone in the historical notoriety of having committed crimes against innocents. Belgium, Australia, the British Empire, France, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Germany and others are very guilty. And until such a time that most historical wrongs are atoned, humanity will continue to be bothered by a restless spirit - a spirit of all the historical innocent victims of the acts of empire, nation and religion.

One-term former United States (US) President Donald Trump, who oversaw the greatest division since the Civil War within the American Republic and marked by his absurd lies to supporters about the legitimate Joe Biden-Kamala Harris victory in the 2020 Presidential Election, his blatant fallible attacks upon the American voting system, his connection and responsibility to and for the violent and deadly insurrection at the Capitol, January 6, 2021, and exacerbated by his mere polarizing presence and continuing agitations, stands as a real major threat to democracy in America - a system, still reeling from the wounds he inflicted upon a historically respected and trusted Repuiblic with a sound track racord of being faithful to allies and friends.

While the election, present and continuing Executive leadership of President Joe Biden has brought welcoming measures of stability, hope, normalcy, respect, trust and rationality back to the American Republic, persisting agitations from Trump, his supporters and surrogates, including those in the US Senate, House of Representatives and State governments, continue to pose a significant threats to the well being of democracy in America. Careless lies among the Trump camp falsely suggesting he could return as president in August 2021 is a prime example of one of the troubles being forced onto a bruised and shaken democracy in America.

That a country once hailed as the epitome of democracy would seek to restrict and to impede ease of voting to its citizens is current testimony of yet another danger posed to freedom by Trump and his accomplices against full democratic voting rights in the US. Voter restricting drives by Republicans across the many US States stand to tarnish democracy in America.

Therefore, protectors and stalwarts of democracy must stand to end all agitations against democracy by Trump and his gang across the US in order to ensure the continuity of the United States as a world leader of freedom, opportunity, equality and the rule of law.

Cyber crimes appear to becoming mega sized and more prevalent, thus more threatening to the national security and sovereignty of targeted nation states. Therefore, any such criminal and malicious acts upon the privacy of citizens, governments, banking, energy, retail, other areas and now, most recently, on the food industry, should be construed as acts of war on victimized nations. Ransomware attacks and other cyber crimes targeting the secure function and operation of a nation should be met with the same response a nation state would give to a 'hot war'.

In the past decade, cyber crimes, perpetrated by apparent unidentified actors operating under, or not under the sponsorship of some rogue state, have moved from credit card swipes and government eavesdropping to now include ransomware attacks on sectors ranging from health, to energy and now to food. Such attacks are acts against a country's national security and its sovereignty.

The energy sector in the past couple of weeks, according to media reports, paid some $4.4 million to cyber hijackers after their gained control of a large gas pipeline in the Southeast United States (US). And as reported today by media outlets, the world's largest meat supplier has now become the latest victim of ransomware hijackers, thus putting in jeopardy the livelihood of thousands of workers in the US, Canada and Australia, while threatening the meat supply equation amid a risk of higher meat prices.

The time has arrived for intelligence communities to identify these cyber criminals and for governments to exact just punishment upon at least one guilty group in order to deter others from attacking the national security and sovereignty of nations via this modern criminality.

[NB: Hello again. it's been a self-decided two months since my last writing, but my bestwishes for your prosperity and that of your loved ones, have always remained a high hope each and every day.]

Meteorlogical Summer dawned in the Northern Hemisphere, today, June 1, and ahead of the actual Summer Solstice 2021 at 11:32 p.m. EDT, June 20. Yet, with a risen new season, events past and present, events good and events bad and their considerations have remained very evident in experiments and effects toward defining modern humanity.

Among the many foci demanding action from humanity will be the stark option of self-destruction or to elect the employment of progressive activities aimed at fostering the continuity of the human species. War, apathy, division, inequality, agitation, non mitigated health issues and failure to protect the environment are evidential of a road leading to the collapse of humankind. On the other hand, peace, unity, empathy, equality, environment protection and international cooperation on a myriad of concerns spell the healthy continuity of humanity.

Recent events, especially on January 6, 2021, in the United States (US)  along with a host of others in the past four-years; a military coup in Myanmar; events in Belarus; the tragedy of Gaza and of the Palestinian people; ongoing suffering of children and innocent civilians in Yemen, Syria and in other places across the globe; the human toll of the COVID-19 pandemic; all against a background of sadly too wide an acceptance of lies and political tales, have combined to translate into the fragility of the human moment. 

However, a new President in the US, justice for George Floyd illegally killed by American police, a ceasefire in Gaza, the availability and use of COVID-19 vaccines as well as a renewed world effort now also involving the US, to address Climate Change, all offer sound hope toward the continuity of the human species over grimm divisions toward self-destruction.

Many events are present and coming toward defining modern humanity. And as democracy and world health both have been severely tested over the past many months, yet emerging very resoluite and poised to defeating foreign and domestic enemies, as well as an invisible pathogen, the newly dawned Summer 2021 and beyond stand to bring but just trials to humanity along the path to human continuity.