Fred's Failure

Leadership

Regardless of the failure, President Donald J. Trump tells us again and again: "No, I don’t take responsibility at all."

Trump Donors: Don't Be Don's Next Con

Why Kamala Harris Is a Historic VP Pick for Joe Biden – BBC News

Presidential candidate Joe Biden has chosen California Senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate. Ms Harris also ran for the Democratic nomination for the top job. If Joe Biden is elected in November, Ms Harris will be the first female, the first black and first Asian-American vice-president.

Brahms Piano Concertos with Krystian Zimerman and Leonard Bernstein

Brahms piano concertos nos. 1 and 2 played by Krystian Zimerman with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker. Piano Concerto No. 1 - 00:31 Piano Concerto No. 2 - 56:10

China and Iran Draft a $400 Billion Pact

Didn’t Trump and Pompeo do well? – Mark

Ivanka: “Find Something New”

The billionaire's daughter is telling unemployed Americans to "find something new." Thanks for the advice, Ivanka.

Chyna

China made Trump roll over like a dog.

Donald Trump : Names

Learn. Their. Names.

Grifters: Episode One

We all know Trump’s a scammer. Stiffed contractors. Ripped-off business partners. False advertisements. Bankrupted businesses. But the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Consequences for Trump

#ConsequencesForTrump

America’s Greatest Mistake

#AmericaGreatestMistake

Don Winslow Films »

Is the US-Saudi Arabia Relationship Falling Apart? | Inside Story

Former Saudi intelligence agent Saad Al Jabri is suing the Saudi Crown Prince in the US, alleging Mohammed Bin Salman sent the 'hit squad' that murdered Jamal Khashoggi to kill him in Canada.

In a rare rebuke, the State Department praised Jabri and demanded answers about the safety of his children.

Will President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter for Bin Salman, be forced to take action?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan; Guests: Khalil Jahshan - Executive Director, Arab Center Washington DC; Mahjoob Zweiri - Director, Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University; Rami Khouri - Senior Fellow, Issam Fares Institute, American University of Beirut

Mary Trump: The President's Anti-LGBTQ Policies Are Not Surprising

After growing up in the Trump family, Mary Trump says Donald Trump's discrimination against LGBTQ people is not shocking. In her new book "Too Much and Never Enough," she recounts many instances of bigotry she witnessed, including from her grandmother, who once referred to Elton John using a gay slur. Mary Trump says the remark stopped her from coming out to her family. "I wasn’t happy about it, certainly, that my grandmother had those attitudes, but it didn’t exactly surprise me in a household that was so racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic," she says.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Says Russia Is Trying to Boost Trump’s Candidacy | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

“We’ve never seen such faithlessness to the ideas and ideals of the country.” Steve Schmidt reacts to the ODNI’s findings and certain Republican senators who seem to be helping disseminate Russian talking points. Aired on 8/7/2020

Brexit Behind Him, Boris Johnson Tries to Stop Scotland From Leaving U.K.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Scottish polling shows a majority favor independence. The prime minister is concerned.

LONDON — Barely six months after Britain broke away from the European Union, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is increasingly consumed with trying to stop the breakaway of restive parts of the United Kingdom.

On Friday, Mr. Johnson sent his popular Treasury chief, Rishi Sunak, to Scotland, to tamp down nationalist sentiment that has surged there in recent months. Another top minister, Michael Gove, went to Northern Ireland with nearly $500 million in aid to help frustrated companies deal with new checks on shipped goods.

Experts have long predicted that Brexit would strengthen centrifugal forces that were pulling apart the union. But in Scotland, in particular, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated those forces, forcing Mr. Johnson to mount an elaborate — some say belated — charm offensive with the Scottish public. » | Mark Landler | Friday, August 7, 2020

"The World's Most Dangerous Man": Mary Trump on Her Uncle, President Trump, & Why He Must Be Ousted

"In my family, being kind was considered being weak," says Mary Trump, President Trump's niece, a clinical psychologist and author of "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man." We spend the hour with Mary Trump, discussing her book the president doesn't want people to read, in which she describes his upbringing in a dysfunctional family that fostered his greed, cruelty and racist and sexist behaviors — which he is now inflicting on the world. Mary Trump also discusses the president's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, his long history of lies and misrepresentations, and the dangers of his reelection. "I believe that this country is on the knife's edge, and I don't want anybody going to cast their vote in November being able to claim that they just don't know who they're voting for," she says.

Saudi Crown Prince Accused in Lawsuit of Sending Hit Squad to Canada

THE GUARDIAN: US lawsuit by ex-Saudi intelligence official accuses Mohammed bin Salman of plotting to kill him

A former senior Saudi intelligence official with close ties to western intelligence agencies has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of plotting to kill him, claiming in a US lawsuit that one such attempt was thwarted by Canadian officials in 2018.

A lawsuit by Saad Aljabri against the Saudi crown prince and other Saudi officials, which was brought in a district court in Washington DC, claims that the Saudi state launched a campaign to target the former high-ranking official in Canada because he was viewed as a threat to Prince Mohammed’s relationship with the US and his eventual ascendancy to the throne.

The complaint includes several jaw-dropping and unverified details about the alleged plot to target Aljabri, including a claim that a team of Saudi assassins were sent to Canada to kidnap the former Saudi official just two weeks after the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. » | Stephanie Kirchgaessner, US investigations correspondent | Friday, August 7, 2020

The Guardian View on the Beirut Blast: A Tragedy within a Crisis

THE GUARDIAN: The world owes solidarity to a people exhausted by decades of corrupt and negligent government

Beirut has come to know the sound of explosions too well in its recent past, but none looked or felt like the blast that laid waste central districts of the city on Tuesday. The devastation is on a scale more usually wrought by earthquakes. The port at the heart of the Lebanese capital was annihilated. Shock waves ripped the facades from every building in neighbouring districts – and behind every shattered window are shattered lives. There are not enough hospital beds or a reliable supply of electricity. Infrastructure for storing and importing many of the city’s essential goods has been destroyed, making scarcity of food an imminent threat. A vast crater at the site of the detonation scars the coastline, but deeper still are the wounds to a nation that was already reeling from economic crisis, debilitated by pandemic and weary from political chaos and corruption. » | Editorial | Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Juan Carlos Has Fled Spain, But Questions Over His Past Will Follow Him

THE GUARDIAN: The immunity once afforded the former Spanish king won’t protect him any more against allegations of graft and fraud

For the past century and a half, job security has not been part of the Spanish monarchy’s experience. When former king Juan Carlos announced that he was packing his bags and heading into a form of exile on Monday, he was really following a family tradition.

No one would be more aware of that than 82-year-old Juan Carlos himself, who was born in exile and – reportedly – in relative impecunity (by royal standards) after his grandfather Alfonso XIII fled the country in the face of popular revolt in 1931.

It took General Francisco Franco, who came to power with the help of Hitler and Mussolini after turning a failed coup into the Spanish civil war in 1936, to restore the monarchy. But this only came after a vengeful Franco had himself ruled with absolute power, while violently suppressing democrats and making liberal use of death sentences, for almost four decades.

To secure the restoration, Juan Carlos had first to suck up to Franco, agree that the proper heir to the crown (his own father, Don Juan) should be leapfrogged, and then wait patiently for the dictator to die. When that finally happened in 1975, Juan Carlos received a dictator’s powers – and refused to criticise his predecessor as head of state. » | Giles Tremlett | Wednesday, August 5, 2020