SINCERETALK

President Donald Trump has earned a vicious new moniker: “commander in thief,” writes New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who chastised the president for his efforts to engage in a “brazen, in-your-face attempted heist of the U.S. Treasury to benefit himself, his family and his political allies.” Those allies, he said, could include Trump’s supporters who were present at the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — whom Friedman labels “phony defenders of freedom’s frontier.” Friedman also accused Trump of having “conspired with his own Justice Department, headed by his former personal lawyer, to use taxpayer money to create a $1.776 billion political slush fund.” Having a president who “behaves like a commander in thief — not a commander in chief — is costing us dearly at home and abroad,” he writes. “This perversion of the American presidency is undermining the very alliance structure that won two world wars and the Cold War and generated one of history’s longest ages of peace ...

An esteemed historian and foreign policy scholar argued that President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense is trying to walk back his boss’ geopolitical mistakes — but it’s too little, too late. “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stunned U.S. adversaries and allies at this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue of defense officials in Singapore,” The Wall Street Journal’s Walter Russell Mead wrote on Monday . “He did it in the most unexpected way: by delivering a thoughtful and sensible speech on the future of American defense policy in Asia.” After praising Hegseth for giving “coherent and well-informed answers to questioners from large and small powers across the region,” he added that Trump’s hostile rhetoric toward Asian countries has undermined the effectiveness of Hegeth’s message. Even as the Defense Secretary urged a balance of powers and increased military spending in part to promote stability in the region. “Conceptually at least, this approach is significantly more useful than Joe Biden’s...

President Donald Trump's long-running obsession with annexing Greenland is not about to get any closer to reality, per Politico , as the Danish leader who consistently snubbed his demands has retained power going forward. On Monday, Politico reported that Mette Frederiksen will remain prime minister of Denmark for the foreseeable future. This came after "drawn-out negotiations lasting more than two months" for the creation of a new government, culminating in the creation of "center-left coalition government." "The four-party coalition is expected to bring together Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, the Moderates, Green Left and the Social Liberals, according to the DR public broadcaster," Politico detailed. "The incoming PM met King Frederik X Monday evening to inform him." “I think everyone will be surprised by how much we want to do. It is a government platform that is good both for the people in Denmark, for the generations to come, and for...

Mcebisi Gugu Ndlovu went from washing pots at a Doppio Zero to owning his own small bakery in Khayelitsha that baked a cake for President Cyril Ramaphosa. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/6cB7Zwy via sinceretalk

The global environment will continue to throw us curveballs, writes Busisiwe Mavuso, but reform and institutional discipline make a huge difference to how SA weathers the storms. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/UPiFVEp via sinceretalk

In its landmark 6-3 immunity decision , the Supreme Court created a three-tiered framework under which presidents are absolutely immune from claims arising from their exclusive constitutional authority. They are entitled to presumptive immunity for all other official acts within the ‘outer perimeter’ of their duties, but have no immunity for unofficial, private acts committed while in office . Trump’s personal lawsuit against the IRS seeking a preposterous $10 billion in personal damages, his negotiated “audit immunity” forgiving his personal tax evasion, and the $1.8 billion he’s snatching from taxpayers to pay J6 criminals who broke the law in his name were unofficial, private acts merely cloaked under presidential seal. Suing an agency you control, seeking larcenous damages, does not flow from any ‘core constitutional functions’ of the presidency or their outer perimeter; they were undertaken to benefit Trump and his family personally. After Trump’s personal IRS lawsuit was dism...