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David Rubenstein's Interview of Heather Cox Richardson about the Revolutionary War after 1776 and the Civil War under Lincoln, and about American democracy in 2026, as a podcaster and a newsletter for Substack. She reaches a large audience in the northeastern, states and is based at Boston College where she is professor of American history. She says here most historians do not agree about history, and this shows as she has a unique interpretation of history. A reading of Abraham Lincoln's letters and speeches from the books published by Library of America shows a different Lincoln. Heather Richardson says Lincoln was hesitant about slavery and moved to abolition only as political situations required action. Our own reading at Lyrarc.com shows Lincoln in his debates with Douglas taking on the role of stewardship of the Nation Jefferson and Washington helped create with the Declaration of Independence, and Washington's conduct of the war (as a war of attrition that would be finally won with divine providence in the form of the aid from the French naval and military power.) His heart was with the Nation following the British example and abolishing slavery (as Britain had done under Witherspoon's leadership in parliament in 1807), and he was the principal proponent of that vision. All over Europe, from France to Britain the emancipation of man from feudalism, from slaveholding or holding people tied to the land was on the way out, and Lincoln believed that this direction was established and it was God's will expressed through his skills in debating the issues for the Nation to bring these ideas already established in Europe to the American continent. Nowhere, not even in one sentence unless taken out of context do we find Lincoln moving from his firm view, using every skill he had to push his vision forward to transform America step by step, almost as if God's own hand was guiding him in this task all the way. One has only to understand the mood of Britain to know that Lincoln knew in his heart that he would prevail. In 1772 Lord Mansfield in the Somerset vs Stewart case declared that chattel slavery had no basis under English Common law. In 1807 the British parliament abolished slavery. And in 1834 the Abolition of Slavery Act abolished slavery in the whole British Empire. By 1800 with the French Revolutionary Wars the mood was all over Europe for emancipation from feudalism, from slavery, for freedom. Lincoln was himself an expression of the mood of the time coming from a log cabin in Kentucky with little schooling and believing in the best British values in a new frontier country including its system of common law and freedoms guaranteed by an unwritten constitution. In 2026 there are views that show an hesitant ambivalent interpretation of America's resolve under Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, in the fight for freedom of all people by projecting the founders into the current situation. Living in their time they fought the hardest to change what they saw, no less than William Wilberforce in the British parliament for the freedom of man in 1807. Britain's parliament abolished slavery in 1807 by 283 votes to 16 to standing ovation and an emotional parliament. Wilberforce said at the time-"God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners." Lincoln was no less a force for good under God Almighty on the American continent than Wilberforce was in Britain. Carl Sandburg's biography of Lincoln shows this on every page. ...

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Slovenian Pogacar leads in Tour de France 2025 including an effort up the Pyrenees mountains.

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The place is Spain, see adjacent article on places within Spain. If you know Spanish that is an added advantage to talk to the locals. It has changed over the years. In the 1990's one could go to Madrid and freely walk out of the Puerta de Atocha main train station there with little traffic. Over the years after the financial crisis Madrid and Spain suffered. Under PM Pedro it has recovered. Yet it is not the same with international tourism from China, India, US having made visits crowded and less friendly. There is the garbage can index for tourism that tells you something is wrong when garbage cans are overflowing- it happened as tourism jumped to France in the last 2 decades- with garbage overflowing outside Notre Dame before renovation. (After 1993 Japan removed all garbage cans from streets.) About 100 million tourist visited France in 2024 and 80 million to Spain. It brings $100 billion in tourism receipts to Spain and about $80 billion each for France and UK, so that it is a key source of revenue for countries. How to make trips that avoid the rush - careful planning for season and month, finding the right places depending on one's interests nature, history, science, or other, and avoiding tours as there are plenty of resources to do it on one's own, finding right places to stay and visit, using local transport, tram and speed trains in Europe, giving enough time for each place, talking to locals and taking a lesson on Rocket languages online which uses locals and practices word pronunciation so you sound like a local. ...

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Carapaz from Ecuador wins  2024 Stage 17 of the Tour de France in the Alps on a steep climb leaving behind Yates.

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The Mumbai Ahmedabad Bullet Train project is shown here on the Rail Minister Ashwani Vaishnav site in You Tube Video. Rapid buildup is progressing use new technological methods with Japanese help. The first undersea rail tunnel of this kind under Thane Creek for 21 kilometres on the Mumbai side. The 508 kilometer distance cuts travel time between two major commercial cities in western India from 7 to 2 hours. It will then be replicated after completion in 2027 and 2029 (final), across other Indian cities north to south east to west. PM Modi has emphasized this in vist to Surat last week talking to engineering personnel that the important aspect is what can be learnt from this section of bullet train engineering that can be replicated or improved across many Indian cities, over a land mass almost the size of European Union (3.3 million square kms India to 4.3 million EU). Technology: India uses the Japanese Shinkansen E10 Series. In comparison Kawasaki Steel technology of an earlier generation used for China's earlier bullet trains and redeveloped for the newest CR450. Germany uses ICE 3 neo of Siemens, France 5th generation TGV M Avelia Horizon of Alstom. Stations- Mumbai (Bandra-Kurla), Thane, Virar, Boisar on Maharashtra side and on Gujarat side Vapi, Bilimora, Bharuch, Surat, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati Cost: $17 billion through a loan from JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency. A key achievement stemming from close relationship of PM Shinzo Abe 2012-2020 and Modi of India starting when Modi was CM of Gujarat. Significance:  Just as it did for China this will dispel the notion that Indians could not borrow technologies and capital and with its own engineering capabilities build high speed rail infrastructure across a terrain the size of EU. The naysayers are both in India as they were with China in 2000 period and in US/Europe. It requires a special determination, persistence, vision and leadership as happened in Japan in 1960's, in China in 2000's, and India by 2030, to show what can be done to their people oppressed by the sense that failures of the past could not be overcome. Note that it was Japan that stepped up its help to setup the bullet train system in China by 2004. Japan's Hideo Shima and Shinji Sogo were the chief engineers for Japan's first bullet train in 1964, invented by Japan as first in the world to do this.  Next bullet trains and travel time cut to: Ahmedabad to New Delhi through Jaipur Mumbai- Pune will be a mountain tunneling exercize as much of it goes through mountainous terrain. Cut travel to 45 minutes. Pune to Hyderabad Hyderabad to Bangalore cut travel to 2 hours Bangalore to Chennai or Madras cut travel to 3 hours  (Shanghai has always remained Shanghai so has Ahmedabad, its all about what can be done not names) Chennai  to Bangalore cut travel time to 1 hour and 13 minutes Delhi to Varanasi Varanasi to Siliguri through Patna From the Alps to the North Sea in the EU, in India bullet trains can take one from Indian Ocean at Sri Lanka to the Himalayan mountains terrain and Nepal. ...

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  We show her the view from Europe on Ukraine in Feb 2025. Francois Hollande leader of the Socialists in France and former president says that the United Kingdom, France and Germany must be at the forefront of genuine European security. In this long interview he answers questions from Le Monde. He says US may withdraw its 80,000 troops from Europe in NATO. This will require European forces and European nuclear deterrent. In 1966 De Gaulle's successor president Pompidou said- "France must be returned to itself. Thus we are serving Europe and preparing the re-emergence of Europe so that it can play its part. Do not imagine that we are changing sides. We are against hegemony and so do not intend to favour Soviet hegemony, nor does our attitude towards the war in Vietnam encourage Chinese hegemony in that part of the world." Hollande says if this US withdrawal of troops from NATO happens will Article 5 will then apply to Europe? Hollande's answer is "it is upto us to prepare. Even without him."   On Merz's election as Germany's leader- Hollande says we will have to broaden the geographic scope of our deterrent force. Merz has expressed interest in nuclear deterrent from partners UK and France, France having proposed to Germany a mutual nuclear deterrent under president Pompidou, a successor to president De Gaulle in the 70's. ...

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US policy is to end war as soon as nuclear threat is over- DJT on Iran war on March 31 2026. When the US feels Iran 'won't be able to come up with a nuclear weapon, then we'll leave,' says DJT. US is self sufficient and exports oil to Europe. It doesn't need Iranian oil. DJT makes that clear to allies in Europe who have not taken a stand in the war and limited access to their airbases, saying as Starmer did yesterday that Britain did not want to expand the war. Really, the US does not want to expand the war. DJT's MAGA base does not want this war, and Biden's base does not want this war. US does not need Straits of Hormuz- it is Britain, Italy and EU countries, mainly China, Japan, South Korea that need the Straits of Hormuz. Speaking for the US DJT tells these countries in Europe to get the oil themselves in the Straits. He also tells China to get the oil from the Straits- if they need it and are so complacent as to get 90% of their imports from Hormuz after 40 years of disruptions and wars, as China does. DJT said- "If France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they'll go up through the Hormuz Strait, they'll go right up there, and they'll be able to fend for themselves. What happens with the strait we're not going to have anything to do with, because these countries, China, China will go up and they'll fuel up their beautiful ships... and they'll take care of themselves. There's no reason for us to do it." "The USA won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!" ...

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With the government goal of a $5 trillion economy in the next five years, India is expected to be the fourth largest economy in the world by 2026 after the U.S., China and Japan. India moved past France and Britain and will move past Germany by 2026, making the U.S. the only non-Asian economy in the top four. Britain is holding its own and its economy is expected to be larger than France's in five years.

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Meticulous preparations in France for the Olympics. This report shows Macron at the Olympics Aquatics Centre built at cost of 188 million euros. The budget in 2012 Olympics in London overspent by 200%, France will do it for about 20% overspend, says the Sports Minister. Macron says "Everything is a cause for vigilance and attention, nothing is a cause for worry or paralysis, that is my and our state of mind." When the Olympics open on July 26 this year it will be on the river Seine, with hundreds of flotilla boats. It is a unique effort as even the housing complex was built so that after the Olympics are over the housing could be reused to serve residents of a poorer neglected suburb of Paris. The river Seine is being cleaned up for swimming

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Where do you place a winner of the Democratic primary in Maine, Graham Plattner, an oyster farmer who dropped out of college at George Washington University, served briefly in the Middle East wars of Bush and Obama, and had PTSD. Is he working class, middle working class or is he from a downwardly mobile professional class considering he has parents who are well educated and father a prominent lawyer in Maine? Plattner easily defeated a 3 term governor of Maine with his average working class demeanor and language. He is for universal health care, (Medicare for All) universal child care, affordable housing, affordable college. Politics in the US has been moving away from the simple divisions before 1950 created by the Industrial Revolution- the workers in factories and the owners of capital allied with the professional middle class. The few owners of capital mostly college educated allied with people from the non college educated workers in factories who are conservative in their values and beliefs and on the other side the college educated professional middle class now downwardly mobile because of the many recessions and high unemployment from frequent financial crises, with college costing $80,000 a year putting them in deep debt. There is today in the WSJ a story of a professional worker who at $194,000 a year salary is not able to payoff $15000 debt which owners of capital have set at 26% interest and is in downward spiral. Some of this comes from large college and other debt. There is says WSJ Analysis $1.25 trillion in credit card debt alone with highest delinquency rates in decades in 2026. Cost of living has only made things worse and some of this happened as Biden poured money into the economy to help people hurt by the pandemic, yet with some short run consequences with demand strong businesses including hotels, restaurants and grocery stores, auto dealers, jacking up their prices by over 20% in 1 year and Biden failing to respond, getting overwhelmed by open borders migrants under Mayorkas and Harris (also hit by a sudden Venezuelan migrant influx). This is the America one has today- a confusing mix. This in reality means Democrats may take issue with Democrats, Republicans take issue with Republicans, and Democrats join with Republicans on issue by issue basis. It might actually be rational than irrational. On cultural issues if the country has gone over its head and moved too fast on some issues that are not for the general public good, people of different backgrounds can come together to get the best path. On economic issues things are never so straightforward, there are unpredictable consequences and the rules of economics are really not so straightforward either.  Providing relief can mean the government shouldering the burden as during the pandemic which it should, yet with caution as businesses can use the excess demand to raise prices and one is back to square one with everybody worse off as happened with Biden. Migrant flows and fears of insecurity in public spaces can lead to a severe public "discomfort that can waylay the best intentions of a Harris or Biden, leading to public "backlash." In fact the title of a recent book is "Whiplash." Current books include Floridan Marco Rubio's "Decade's of Decadence- How our Spoiled Elites Blew America's Inheritance of Liberty, Security and Prosperity." Rubio means it. Its authentic because as Rubio says repeatedly, his parents could make a living in the 1960's working in a factory with decent wages, low cost of living and low cost of college, the arithmetic between salaries and what you needed for decent home in suburbs and sending children to good public schools, then to college, all adding up. The result is that Rubio could go to college and serve in the Florida legislature. Rubio says in 2026, after the elites under Bush and Obama and faulty economic theory shipped all of our factories to China, that the story of his parents and his education would simply be impossible. This is what he told people in India on his first visit last week. His parents were Cuban immigrants, yet he identifies with Spain and with western civilization, a devout Roman Catholic. Rubio is a Republican, and is in large contrast with Alejandro Mayorkas, also from Cuba, and Biden's Head of Homeland Security. This is the mix of people and representatives in Congress,  business people, small business owners, professionals, that we have today in 2026 in the US. Plattner and Rubio, one a Democrat and one a Republican- both have something in common. Plattner also has general disdain for "the corporate interests, the billionaires, the Washington DC elites, and the establishment politicians."  The winds are blowing in the direction of getting things right- remembering that Eisenhower continued the work of the Kennedy and LBJ administrations (Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System for instance, and LBJ gave America Social Security and Medicare). Before that Franklin Roosevelt a Democrat built on the work of his uncle Republican Theodore Roosevelt (TR gave America the idea of good governance and built the US Navy, FDR fought the Depression and stabilized a faltering economy after mistakes made by Republican Herbert Hoover could have happened even if Hoover was a Democrat. FDR was himself from a wealthy New York family and when he first met fellow New Yorker Frances Perkins before his struggle with polio, a haughty New York gentleman. That was before Frances Perkins as FDR's Labor Secretary joined forces with Roosevelt to give New York a modernized administration governance structure by 1940 that was applied to all 51 states after 1950. It allied labor with capital with fairness for all, and was the first such modern structure of this size the world had ever seen, which was the fundamental strength of the United States of America. It was imitated in Asia, first in the Shanghai region then China, and first in the Ahmedabad region and now India. The US is faced with the challenge of recreating and rebuilding this today, as first China, then India remind America of its roots which they have followed in their own style and culture.  First good governance, then good institutional structures, alligning labor and capital with fairness for all, strong affordable + accessible educational and healthcare systems, and investments of capital and labor for infrastructure + industrial development. ...

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Shabana Mahmood UK Home Secretary  says -UK "will do whatever it takes to secure our borders," as the Labour Party seeks to meet the challenge from UK Reform Party. Across Europe, in the Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany and UK public opinion is shifting for a tight immigration system. Shabana Mahmood plans to adopt some aspects of Denmark's tight immigration system for UK. Labour MP's in the Red Wall and in places in the Midlands and northern England see this as action needed to prevent UK Reform from winning in this region of England. This has one problem in that Labour has taken too much time to arrive at this point when opinion on illegal immigrants has shifted for many years starting in Denmark. Even Wilders movement in Netherlands is now three years old and DJT's in the US is in its second term going back to 2016 and in a new phase in 2025. One could say that patience is wearing thin among the people in Europe and the US with all forms of illegal immigration whether across the Rio Grande or across the English Channel or across the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy, or across Hungarian border to Germany.  ...

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Most of the media has failed to cover this aspect, yet the Collective agreement is a big, a huge plus on June 17 2026 at the G-7 Summit (G-9 expanded with India and Brazil). There was discussion and effort to convey different points of view which was an healthy aspect of this G-9 meeting in Les Bain, France, near Geneva. German chancellor Merz described the atmosphere as very constructive with lots of open thoughtful discussion- "This is the ​first ‌time since [US] President [Donald] Trump took office that we ‌have issued a joint ‌declaration ​at a G7 summit and found common language on the major ​foreign and security policy issues of our time. ⁠I ​consider that ​a real success."  "This ⁠sets a new tone, including ⁠regarding ​trans-Atlantic unity and resolve." Merz says all issues on the summit agenda were talked about "very openly" and "very constructively." Merz  says he will support a peace deal in the Middle East, including a possible military mission if there is "a lasting ceasefire."  A series of "preconditions that are not yet fulfilled, so there is no immediate hurry." What this means, as most of the media has failed to cover this aspect including NYT, WSJ and Washington Post, is that the US and the EU, India and China, Brazil, the poorer countries  Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, are now in a lot better positions, coming at it from different angles,  and are all aligned for their own interests, to push hard to support the US effort to get to the Memorandum of Agreement with Iran, and future settlement in Ukraine. The onus is for Iran and the entire Middle East to collectively come to an agreement to live with harmony among the neighbors for the mutual interest- including a nuclear free Middle East that is in their mutual interest- so that the rest of the world's people, a massive 5 billion compared to 500 million in the Middle East can industrialize, modernize, and make economic progress that benefits all the people of the world. ...

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Veering between reckless intervention and doing nothing has led to some of the problems the US faces even today.  Barrack Obama created the hope for Arab Spring at Cairo University in 2009, which he failed to follow up on. Ronald Reagan and his Arab envoy Donald Rumsfeld, Defense minister Weinberger, supported a reckless intervention on the Iraq side against Iran in 1980 after winning the election following the capture of hostages in the American Embassy in Iran. Reagan was reckless in such intervention not understanding what was happening in a religious sectarian and Arab Socialist ideologies war in which US interests were not involved. Le Monde of France recounts how Barrack Obama hesitated to followup on his warnings in 2011 after the Arab Spring. This led to Obama doing nothing in the face of just what he had stated at Cairo University of people "having the ability of speaking their mind and having say in how they are governed," and US intention "we will support them everywhere." Another instance of no action was with a failed state situation and  millions of refugees in Venezuela after a Bolivarist Chavez ideological economic collapse similar in some ways to Arab ideologies Iraq and Syria. US did not follow the Monroe Doctrine on non intervention of foreign European powers on the American continents. Obama's speech and then inaction may be at the root of today's problems of migration and the divisions it has caused. Millions of Syrian refugees left for Greece, Hungary and Germany in 2015-2016. It was followed by Brexit again on migration. And in 2016 migration and the Border in the US election. And again in 2022 and 2024 the Border and migration the big issue in the US election. In a speech at Cairo University in 2009 during a visit to Egypt. Obama said: "I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. These are not just American ideas; they are human rights. And that is why we will support them everywhere." On September 11, 2012 following the death of Libyan dictator Muammar Khadafi and the beginning of civil war in Libya, the Libyan mission in Benghazi was attacked with US ambassador Christopher Stevens killed just 2 months before the US presidential election.  Faced with use of chemical weapons Obama issued a warning to Syrian regime in Damascus- then following the Libyan experience did nothing. Le Monde cites an interview with president Hollande of France in 2015 who expressed his frustration with France willing to act.  Obama underestimated the ISIS in the region says Le Monde, leading to the situation by 2015 of the eastern part of the country linked to the region around Mosul going under ISIS. By 2016 the problem of ISIS was left to next US president DJT to tackle by Obama, a result of the inaction in 2012-2013 on Syria, says Le Monde. And like Angela Merkel in Germany on migration, Barrack Obama simply rationalized his action, with the US and the EU left to tackle the results of these actions.     ...

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Crowley home to Gatwick airport- situation of migrants in UK in one English town, shown in The Guardian. Migrants has become a divisive issue in Britain with Labour shifting to new policy on migrants, many Conservative party leaders joining Reform UK party. The situation is similar across the continent in Italy, Germany and France, Netherlands and Nordic countries. It is also a divisive issue in the US in January 2026, and has been since the Operation Wetback under President Eisenhower in 1954 as the US Border at the time was not secure following large migrant flows similar to the last decade. The issues of citizenship are still what they were in 1904 when US president Teddy Roosevelt in his Annual Message to Congress said- "The citizenship of our country should not be debased. It is vital that we keep high the standard of living of our wage workers, and therefore we should not admit masses of men whose standards of living, customs and habits, are such that they tend to lower the level of the American wage worker, and above all we should not admit any man of an unworthy type, any man of whom we can say that he will himself be a bad citizen, or his children and grandchildren will detract from instead of adding to the sum of the good citizenship of the country."    ...

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This France24 report looks at the question of whether the policies of four term German chancellor Angela Merkel emboldened Russia under president Putin to launch the invasion of Ukraine. FR24's interview with the vice president of the German Marshall Fund and head of its Berlin office, Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, shows there are many reasons why Merkel's policies were serious errors that ignored caution from past experience and from other western leaders in the US and Eastern Europe. Kleine-Brockhoff says that "Europe did not go wrong, Germany and France did. France and Germany tend to speak for the rest of Europe. Bit these mis-assessments were made in Paris and Berlin, not elsewhere. Eastern Europe didn't go wrong. Northern Europe did'nt go wrong."  Kleine-Brockhoff says the war in Ukraine calls for an urgent re-assessment of the German and French policy towards Russia. "Not only is the post Cold-War order crumbling before our eyes, so are the strategies employed by Germany and France." Under particular scrutiny comes Merkel's policy, and policy supported by Steinmeier of the SPD, that took German dependence on Russian energy supplies from 36% during the annexation of Crimea to 55% in March 2022 with the invasion of Ukraine. Germany's conservative Die Welt has this to say- "What Germany and Europe have experienced over the last days is nothing short of the reversal of the Merkel policies of guaranteeing peace and freedom through treaties with despots," describing Merkel's policies as "an error." About France Kleine-Brockhoff says there were lofty ambitions under Sarkozy and Macron of European strategic autonomy, which did not correspond to reality, to fantasies of European armies when there was nothing but NATO. It is not dialogue with Putin and Russia that was a problem, says Laure Delcour, international relations expert at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. Some form of dialogue is necessary she says, but the dialogue has to have clear objectives. We must not confuse cause with consequence, she says. We know  that NATO enlargement had a big impact on Russia's perceptions, but the real problem is how Russia responded to enlargement. "In this case the problem is the consequence."  ...

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All the extreme rhetoric on how Project 2025 is going to be adopted under a DJT administration has led to unease that there will be deterioration in the government and society.  Yet it simply may not work that way.   A second objective look at Project 2025 and how it's value to Republicans will be carefully evaluated piece by piece by DJT is needed. Keeping in mind 2026 House and Senate elections, winning broad support for the traditional Republican conservative line of thinking, and maintaining the support of all Republicans in the business, government, media and other sectors.  1. Replacing federal employees with party loyalists. This happens at the top of every agency of the government for every government in the US and Europe after an election for the last century. At today's unemployment level of 4 percent, adult males actually 3.9% and adult females 3.6%, and considering the higher salaries paid in the private sector, the tenuous nature of joining as a party loyalist as the national mood can shift at any time and things change again in 2027; where was the federal government going to find employees to be replaced at mid and lower levels? There is also the situation seen in 1928 when a Republican Hoover victory made Democrat NY Governor Al Smith compel a reluctant Franklin Roosevelt, who was just recovering from polio, to run for NY Governor. By 1931 over 3 years Franklin Roosevelt and Columbia University's Frances Perkins tested programs to stabilize employment in the US, introduce unemployment insurance as a new concept, and a 40 hour week also new, in the entire northeastern + midwestern states, all governors working together. By 1931 in just 3 years Franklin Roosevelt was on the clear path to sweeping victory in 1932 with a tested program to stabilize employment. 2.  The No. 1 goal is to restore the traditional family. It is clear in 2024 that the vast majority of Americans, whites, women as well as men, of all age groups, whites as well as Latinos and Asians, blacks, see that things like transgender "have somehow gone too far." 3. Cultural Literacy is needed for any nation to long survive. This is not even on any platform. Yet knowledge about America's history of settlement of the continent -correcting for treatment of American Indians, blacks, Chinese, Japanese without pointless race controversies- is being rapidly lost, and with it an understanding of America's civic institutions and Constitution, its founders and presidents, and evolution of the nation over the 20th century with the Industrial Revolution. The very terminology that has defined public knowledge about these United States is fast disappearing. It is a cause for unease in the minds of people in rural and urban, conservative and other parts of the political spectrum alike of what will happen to America as this is lost. 4. On immigration  a consensus was reached by president Biden that migrant flow was mishandled and the Lankford legislation offered by Republican leaders accepted by both parties to stop the flow. During his first term president Eisenhower conducted a program of returning illegal migrants to their home countries, Germany is doing this now and the UK's Labor party has made it No. 1 priority to stop migrant smuggling. 5. An effort to increase oil and gas production. This will help bring down the cost of living by reducing energy costs in the US and also helping Europe to do the same. Biden had already accepted the idea of the temporary need to do this to ease cost of living burden on the people of this Nation. The economic cost of wind and solar, are ultimate drivers for expanding renewable energy as major form of climate change action. In the first term of DJT 2016-2020 the lower cost of natural gas made it economical to switch from oil to gas. In the Biden term 2020-2024 all the effort to increase EV's on the road ran into the problem of lack of charging stations. It is possible that spread of charging stations could reverse this in the second term of DJT. It is the private sector and also the local governments that play a big part, climate change action will continue, and new R&D breakthroughs will happen to jump start it again.    ...

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FR24 gives this video of the televised national debate in France between Macron and Le Pen. Macron took up the challenge of not enough attention being given to Le Pen's ties with Russia and her position of skepticism when it comes to the European Union and climate change. "You are dependent on the Russian government and you are dependent on Mr. Putin. When you speak to Russia, you are speaking to your banker." Le Pen says she had taken that loan from a Czech-Russian bank only because French banks refused to lend to her. "I'm absolutely and totally free woman." The candidates also clashed over Le Pen's proposal for banning Muslim women from wearing headscarves. Le Pen described the veil as "a uniform imposed by Islamists." Macron sad that such a plan would violate France's secular rules and would trigger "civil war" in a country that has the largest Muslim population in western Europe. The Fench colonoized parts of North Africa during the period after 1830, with French colonies in Algeria, Morocco and other parts of the region, leading to immigration from this part of the Arab world. After a series of terrorist incidents the French public lost patience with Islamist tendencies leading to a general swing to the right in French politics including Macron. Yet mainstream parties such as Macron's continue to support France's secular values. The traditional parties from the period before Macron such as the Le Republicains of the De Gaulle period in the sixties and the Socialists from the Mitterand period (1981-1995) both failed to win more than 5% of the vote in 2022 showing the many changes happening in France.  During the Macron period as president Yellow Vest protests brought up the issues of working families having a hard time making ends meet. Macron has responded to such protests with some aloofness but also with a tendency to organize town hall meetings to listen to people express their frustrations.  France has established a stronger welfare state than the US and Britain, and for this reason issues related to the dislocation of smaller towns because of the shift of manufacturing to China are part of the general trend that had affected both the US and western Europe, requiring a more unified response. This now takes shape with the renewal of manufacturing in the US and all the western European countries. Candidates with platforms such as Le Pen's to provide relief for the current surge in the cost of living could offer temporary band aid solutions but not address the root causes that require a renewal of French manufacturing and bringing good jobs home or closer to home. The will and aspiration to bring a next generation industrial revolution to France and Europe is the kind of solution that is needed, one that would revive towns and communities across France and across Europe. Much of the technological capabilities are there in Europe, needed is the will and aspiration.  ...

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As the coronavirus pandemic reaches the 20 month mark in October 2021 and the government reaches a target of 1 billion vaccinations given in India, prime minister Modi talks about his experience handling the vaccination drive in this interview. It covers a wide range of topics from his initial experiences in development in Gujarat, translating this experience to the national setting, the multiple yojanas or projects from Swachh Bharat (Clean India), toilets for all, bank accounts for the whole population, cooking gas for women, decisions taken for Aadhar, digitization, GST. His 35 years spent in poverty as a social worker that gave him a clear idea of the aspirations of the working poor. On the achievement of one billion vaccinations- It was the careful preparation that happened as early as March 2020 that carefully anticipated all possible problems and tackled each one of them that made it possible. "Vaccinating such a large number of people comes with its own share of complexities. Ensuring proper temperature control of complexities, cold chain infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country, timely delivery from the manufacturing plant to the remotest vaccination delivery point, supply of needles and syringes, training of vaccinators and preparing for adverse reactions, from quick registration to certificate generation to reminder for next appointment. We needed to look at the entire logistics, planning, and progress of the vaccination drive." To understand the person completely one has to go back to the origins of his experience, skills learned, and his inspiration for the effort. Modi entered the chief minister's office in the western Indian state of Gujarat facing the Arabian sea in 2001. He entered office at the time of the Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat and describes his taking the chief minister's office as accidental as he had been a social worker for 30 years. "Let alone reluctance to join electoral politics, I had nothing to do with the political domain itself. My surroundings, my inner world, my philosophy- these were very different. Right from my younger days,my bent was spiritual. The philosophy of "Jan Seva Hi Prabhu Seva" Serving the people is akin to serving the Divine, which was propounded by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda inspired me. It became the driving force in whatever I did." In 2014 it was with the inspiration from Swami Vivekananda and taking up Vivekananda's vision for the Indian people that Modi began his campaign to lead the BJP party. It may be looking back that Vivekananda guided Modi in all his projects for a Clean India, Jal Jeevan, Indian infrastructure that benefits the last man in the queue in the country, commitment to hard work. "Global experience says government should be there for those whom nobody is there. Government's whole focus should be on helping them." To do this, to meet the needs of that last person left out in India, he could see that old notions of opposites had to be set aside. "Outdated theories such as the private sector vs the public sector, government vs. people, rich vs. poor, urban vs. rural, are still on people's minds and they try to fit everything into this." Governments since independence in 1947 followed the same political and economic thought. After Gandhi negotiated with the British government for self rule or Swaraj an experimental form was set up with provincial governments ministries with limited powers formed in the 1930's through elections. Many of these ministries had the same problems that were found after independence in 1947, as one sees in the writings in the Gandhi library. They lasted for a few years before they were dissolved by the British government. These problems were more evident under Nehru and Indira Gandhi right into the 1970's and beyond. This was followed by a period of relative stagnation. Most ministries failed to seriously address India's economic problems, urbanization issues and agricultural issues remained unaddressed, and industry building was done with a limited vision and scaled down goals. In some ways the elections created a political class interested in perpetuating itself and did not build administrations based on learning, hard work and delivering on projects with scaled up targets to match the dire needs of the country. One sees similarities with France before 1960, before De Gaulle. A mosaic of peoples all separate from each other, with agriculture the main occupation, and most agriculture done the way it was in the nineteenth century by hand and using horses and cattle- this is the picture of France shown in Nous Paysouns, We Farmers, a documentary on Le Monde French television in October 2021. It was De Gaulle who supported a shift to presidential form of government for France that helped with the transformation through modernization and infrastructure development. Tractors were introduced in 1960 to mechanize agriculture. Road, bridges, rail transport, logistics were planned in the way Gati Shakti master plan for India is now being executed. There can be no transformation without this. Unstable coalition governments in France and lack of clarity and decision making before 1960 made such development impossible. India entered such a period in the 1970's. "The politics of our country is such that till now, we have seen only one model in which governments are run to build the next government (sarkar banane ke liye chalayi jaati haye). My fundamental thinking is different. I believe we have to run the government to build the nation (desh banane ke liye sarkar chalani haye)."  Chalta haye, Chalne do. What is will not change. Families, farmers and workers in India, for a long time accepted this without questioning.  "I take decisions based on Gandhiji's talisman that sees how my decisions will benefit or harm the poorest or weakest person." "While taking decisions, I stop even if the slightest of vested interests is visible to me. The decision should be pure and authentic, and if the decision passes through all these tests, then I firmly move forward to implement such a decision."           ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Moderate far right, right and socialist have less meaning in the context of the French government of prime minister Michael Barnier. The NFP as the largest single party sees the turning down of it's moderate candidate Lucie Castets by Macron as not representative of the vote. Michael Barnier's choice as prime minister from the Les Republicains party with 47 members in the new National Assembly, the smallest of the top four parties NFP, Renaissance, RN and LR, means he will have to depend on Marie Le Pen's RN party to remain prime minister. Together the Les Republicains of Sarkozy and the Ensemble of Macron  have 213 members in the National Assembly representing the status quo, 168 for Ensemble Macron and 45 Les Republicians the Gaullist party. These two parties are the largest bloc combined compared to 182 seats for the socialist NFP Front Populaire and the Le Pen party with 143 seats. The strange twist is that Macron started out in the Socialist Party and was part of the Socialist administration of Francois Hollande, who formed his own party Renaissance (now Ensemble) to bring younger faces and replace the old political parties. This led to the decline of the Gaullist Les Republicains party. In 2024 Macron is back to the old parties- becoming part of an alliance with the old Les Republicains Gaullists. Yet the financial crises of 2009, the pandemic, and the inflation crises in France have changed France from what it was in the Gaullist De Gaulle period in the 60's to 90's, with a struggling lower and middle class who have shifted their support to Le Pen and to the Socialist Front Populaire. Barnier is left with the challenging job of combining new immigration policies (Le Pen) with socialist policies to help the middle and working class. A new consensus that says stopping migrants is part of helping working class (in Denmark and other EU countries) is how Barnier has to approach this situation to bring together different parties. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
President Hollande of France appoints Jean-Marc Ayrault, as the next prime minister. Hollande plans to set the priorities and direction of policies as President and work with Ayrault in getting this implemented. Ayrault, 62 years old, is a professor of German for 13 years. He was a three term mayor of Nantes, a city in western France, which is the 6th largest in the country. He is a member of the French parliament since 1986, experience that will be important to get legislation passed. Elections to the National Assembly will be held in June 2012. His German skills will be useful in reaching out to Germany to forge a common policy for the eurozone. The tone for this was set by the SPD Social Democratic party chairman, Sigmar Gabriel when he said about Ayrault: "He speaks excellent German and understands our political culture very well. This is a strong signal to Germany."