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In the waning months of 1992, Al Qaeda’s military chief Mohammed Atef arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia.When Atef reached the battle-scarred city, Somalia’s vicious civil war had been raging for more than a year. After the overthrow of President Mohamed Siad Barre in January 1991, rival warlords had carved up the capital city into their own territories.[1] The most brutal of the clan leaders, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, seized United Nations food shipments bound for hungry refugees. Aidid intended to use every weapon in his arsenal, including mass starvation.[2]Hundreds of thousands were already dead from combat and famine.[3]Atef cared little for internal Somali politics. When the Al Qaeda deputy met with Aidid, he promised to help the warlord strike back at the newest players in the Somali power structure.[4]American officials did not fully grasp the event’s magnitude until years later.[5] In this small meeting, held inside Aidid’s bullet-riddled headquarters, unlikely combatants launched a new world war.The ripples from this conflict would spread across continents, with tremors still felt to the present day.Photo: “Osama bin Laden, center, with his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, left, and Mohammed Atef in an undated photo.” What's next for al Qaeda?United Nations peacekeeping efforts failed to halt the weaponization of starvation. President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. troops to Somalia in support of ongoing humanitarian efforts there in August 1992.[6]Ten U.S. C-130s began airlifting supplies to refugee camps. The 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit landed in December, ready to secure the airport and surrounding areas in an effort to reach throngs of displaced, starving civilians.[7]Photo: Scene Camera Operator: TSGT Marv Lynchard. UN troops from Pakistan board USAF C-130 bound for Mogadishu, Somalia - PICRYL Public Domain ImageThis massive military buildup was watched with profound disdain by American’s newest, yet still largely unknown enemy: the Saudi militant Osama bin Laden.Bin Laden believed that he and his guerilla fighters (the mujahideen) had already defeated one superpower that invaded an Islamic state.[8] In the 1980s, the mujahideen had faced down the mighty Soviet military in Afghanistan.Now another infidel power dared to send its soldiers yet again into Muslim lands.Al Qaeda would not be unprepared against this new threat. Bin Laden issued a fatwa against the American presence in Somalia, ordering holy warriors everywhere to attack United States forces stationed in the Horn of Africa.[9]The Al Qaeda chief dispatched his emissary Atef on a new mission: reach out to their brothers-in-arms in Somalia. Atef’s initial meeting with Aidid was the beginning of months of preparation.[10]After U.S. troops deployed to Somalia in late 1992, al Qaeda leaders formulated a fatwa demanding their eviction. In December, bombs exploded at two hotels in Aden where U.S. troops routinely stopped en route to Somalia, killing two, but no Americans. The perpetrators are reported to have belonged to a group from southern Yemen headed by a Yemeni member of Bin Ladin's Islamic Army Shura; some in the group had trained at an al Qaeda camp in Sudan.Al Qaeda leaders set up a Nairobi cell and used it to send weapons and trainers to the Somali warlords battling U.S. forces, an operation directly supervised by al Qaeda's military leader.Scores of trainers flowed to Somalia over the ensuing months, including most of the senior members and weapons training experts of al Qaeda's military committee.[11]Armed with Al Qaeda’s weapons and training, Aidid’s militia seethed with impatience, waiting for a chance to strike at the American invaders.Aidid’s militia continued to defy the United Nations. The warlord decided to escalate his assault on coalition forces.In June 1993, Aideed’s men slaughtered two dozen Pakistani troops who were operating under the new U.N. command.If the Somalis thought they could get away with killing the Pakistanis, it would be all over for the international relieft effort. Aideed needed to be arrested and his militia smashed.[12]U.S. AC-130 aerial gunships launched strikes against Aidid’s infrastructure, to little effect.[13] The militia retaliated with more attacks on the coalition, killing three American soldiers in September.[14]Photo: Black Hawk pilot Michael Durant, before the Mogadishu raid. Durant would later be held hostage by Aidid’s forces for 11 days. Shot Out Of The Sky And Surrounded: The Unbelievable True Story Behind 'Black Hawk Down'This was the final straw for the American command. On October 3, 1993, 19 Black Hawk helicopters filled with U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force commandos lifted off, intent on arresting two of Aidid’s lieutenants in central Mogadishu.[15]The plan was to surround a white three-story house in the capital city of Mogadishu where leaders of Aidid’s Habar Gidir clan were gathering. Rangers would helicopter in, lower themselves on ropes and surround the building on all sides. A ground convoy of trucks and Humvees would wait outside the gate to carry away the troops and their prisoners. Altogether, the operation would involve 19 aircraft, 12 vehicles and around 160 troops.The operation didn’t go as planned. The ground convoy ran up against barricades formed by local militias. One helicopter landed a block north of its target and couldn’t move closer because of groundfire. A ranger fell from his rope and had to be evacuated.Insurgents shot down two American Black Hawk helicopters with rocket-propelled grenades. When about 90 U.S. Rangers and Delta Force operators rushed to the rescue, they were caught in an intense exchange of gunfire and trapped overnight.[16]Photo: Wreckage of Black Hawk helicopter, October 14, 1993. Scott Peterson/Liaison. Shot Out Of The Sky And Surrounded: The Unbelievable True Story Behind 'Black Hawk Down'The Battle of Mogadishu, soon to be known as Black Hawk Down (based on the title of author Mark Bowden’s account), tore through the Rangers’ careful planning. A planned 30-45 minute operation transformed into an overnight firefight.[17] The running battle through the streets of Mogadishu was the most intense firefight for U.S. soldiers since Vietnam.[18]The Rangers raced to save their comrades trapped near the crashed Black Hawks.The city was shredding them block by block. No place was safe. The air was alive with hurtling chunks of hot metal. They heard the awful slap of bullets into flesh and heard the screams and saw the insides of men's bodies spill out and watched the gray blank parlor rise in the faces of their friends, and the best of the men fought back despair.They were America's elite fighters and they were going to die here, outnumbered by this determined rabble. Their future was setting with this sun on this day and in this place.[19]The militia had carefully studied the daylight raids led by the Rangers. The Black Hawks had a weakness that Aidid’s men exploited; according to Bowden, the Al Qaeda trainers “coached the [Somali militia] rocket-propelled grenade guys to aim for the tail rotors of U.S. Black Hawks.”[20]Photo: “A group of young Somalis chant anti American slogans while sitting atop the burned out hulk of a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter in Mogadishu, Somalia on Oct. 19, 1993.” Dominique Mollard, AP. 'Black Hawk Down' Anniversary: Al Qaeda's Hidden HandWhen U.S. forces finally escaped the city, 18 American soldiers had died, with 73 wounded.[21] Their mission was a success; the Aidid lieutenants were successfully captured.[22]Two Delta Force snipers, Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart, protected one of the downed Black Hawk pilots (Michael Durant) until the crash site was overrun by Somali forces. Both men died in the battle, and were awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.[23]President Bill Clinton was shocked by the carnage, but did not want to immediately withdraw. He ordered a show of force for six months until the U.N. was ready to take over the humanitarian aid mission.[24] American tanks and snipers flooded the streets, leading to frequent clashes with Somali gunmen. The U.S. suffered no more casualties until U.N. peacekeeping forces took control.[25]Clinton was determined not to retreat under fire, and he largely kept his promise.Al Qaeda, however, drew a different conclusion. According to U.S. counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke, the terrorists were not impressed by the “additional six months stay and orderly handoff to the U.N. The failure to flatten Mogadishu had registered.”[26]In bin Laden’s infamous 1996 fatwa, Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holiest Sites, he concluded that the United States was nothing more than a paper tiger.Mogadishu was the proof.But your most disgraceful case was in Somalia, where after vigorous propaganda that lasted few months, regarding the power of America and its post cold war leadership of the new world order; you moved tens of thousands of international force, including twenty eight thousand American soldiers into Somalia.However, when dozens of your troops were killed in minor battles, and one American pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu, you left the area defeated, carrying your dead in disappointment and humiliation.Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge. But these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. God has dishonored you when you withdrew, and it clearly showed your weaknesses and powerlessness. It was a pleasure for the heart of every Muslim and a remedy to the chests of faithful nations to see your defeat in these three Islamic cities of [Beirut, Aden and Mogadishu].[27]In March 1997, journalist Peter Bergen landed the first television interview with bin Laden. During the hour-long taping, the elusive terrorist railed against the injustices visited upon the Ummah by American military power.[28]Bin Laden pointed to thousands of dead Iraqi and Palestinian children, laying their deaths at the feet of the U.S. He then called for jihad against U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, and promised that he would make no distinction between civilian and military targets.[29]Photo: Bergen with bin Laden, after his interview. Osama Bin Laden's Final DaysThe interview aired in the United States on May 12, 1997. According to Bergen, other than standard Saudi censorship and scattered wire services running the story, the interview had “little impact.”Still, Bergen was haunted by bin Laden’s closing remark.[30]But a line kept resonating in my mind, the final words in our broadcast. When asked about his future plans bin Laden had replied:“You’ll see them and hear about them in the media, God willing.”[31]Footnotes[1] Somalia profile[2] Black Hawk Down[3] Timeline: Somalia, 1991-2008[4] Readings | Ambush in Mogadishu | FRONTLINE | PBS[5] National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States[6] The United States Army in Somalia, 1992-1994[7] The United States Army in Somalia, 1992-1994[8] https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2013/10/Declaration-of-Jihad-against-the-Americans-Occupying-the-Land-of-the-Two-Holiest-Sites-Translation.pdf[9] Readings | Ambush in Mogadishu | FRONTLINE | PBS[10] Readings | Ambush in Mogadishu | FRONTLINE | PBS[11] National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States[12] Against All Enemies[13] Against All Enemies[14] Against All Enemies[15] Black Hawk Down[16] The Legacy of Black Hawk Down[17] What A Downed Black Hawk In Somalia Taught America[18] What A Downed Black Hawk In Somalia Taught America[19] Black Hawk Down[20] 'Black Hawk Down' Anniversary: Al Qaeda's Hidden Hand[21] What A Downed Black Hawk In Somalia Taught America[22] The Legacy of Black Hawk Down[23] Medal of Honor Monday: Army Master Sgt. Gary Gordon[24] Against All Enemies[25] Against All Enemies[26] Against All Enemies[27] https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2013/10/Declaration-of-Jihad-against-the-Americans-Occupying-the-Land-of-the-Two-Holiest-Sites-Translation.pdf[28] Holy War, Inc.[29] Holy War, Inc.[30] Holy War, Inc.[31] Holy War, Inc.

There seems to be no limits to the extent that people are willing to stand up for the guy.There is no accounting for human stupidity or ignorance https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/464018517733024/Some people consider the right to shop and get a haircut more important than the right to breathe and think they have a perfect legitimate right to do these things because they are Americans.Is it karma or irony that John McDaniel, a vocal protester against the Governor of Ohio's shutdown orders, has recently died of COVID-19?Somehow carrying a semi automatic loaded weapon into the Michigan senate has something to with personal liberties and being able to leave the house during a pandemic.People will support him even though he blatantly acts against the interests of the people who vote for him.Americans seem to think they can ban imports from China but still be able to buy cheap Nikes or clothing at Walmart and somehow don’t see the connection between the two.Many people think its perfectly OK to impose their religious dogma on the rest of the country, even though it may be oppressive or discriminatory to minority groups.Now I know what it must feel like to belong to a massive personality cult.Many Americans will say he is the best President ever without actually being able to articulate why and back it up with solid numbers and facts.America is not a democracy but an oligarchy where the many are ruled by a few.Rather than a United States, the U.S is more like a collection of small independent countries run by governors who happen to be controlled by Washington. This pandemic has shown that states are largely autonomous in their power..As of June 2019, the top 10 percent held 69.4 percent of total U.S. net worth (that is the value of all assets a person holds minus all their liabilities)Americans are unaware that Mexicans didn’t steal your jobs, technology did and the majority of people are simply wage slaves working for the 1%. Companies move to Mexico because its cheaper to produce goods there or the jobs in the US have been replaced by machines.If a guy is rich enough and brags about how much money he has people will actually believe that hes a successful businessman despite seven bankruptcies and three wives.Trump can not even borrow money from a US bank but somehow he is in charge of the US Treasury and Central Bank. Go figure.America is the only country where you can lose an election but still become President.Farmers are having to throw out millions of gallons of milk and produce rots in the fields as they have no way of harvesting or getting the product to the market. People no longer have jobs, no money and cant buy anything at the store anyway.People whose sole means on making a living on tips from being paid $2 an hour are now unemployed and homeless, and most do not have health insurance.Millions of Americans believe Fox News is actually real news and not just entertainment.Americans believe that a gaudy rich real estate developer living in a gold palace in New York understands what its like to be poor and living paycheck to paycheck.You talk a great game about what a great country you are but cant seem to score enough PPEs and ventilators for everybody. Governors have to smuggle in supplies from Korea without the Federal government finding out.The country grinds to a halt as soon as people miss one paycheck.And yes, Fundamentalist Christians are the worlds biggest hypocrites.The health system is a joke.Trump has spent over 100 million dollars on his security detail to visit his Mar-a-Lago resort. That works out to about 250 times his annual salary.He has spent about 1 day in 4 playing golf while on the job. Or about the same as Obama did in 8 years as President.Probably the first time in history that some one who dodged the draft for Vietnam gets to make the commencement address at West point.Trump wants to build a wall to keep out immigrants even though 40% of illegals come in legally and overstay their visas. there is also such a thing as airplanes that immigrants use.Speaking of the wall, in Texas some parts of the border run through private property, and a wall would put some parts of United States on the Mexican side of the border. The government is trying to take peoples land off them by force to build the wall.Trump took credit for the wall that was mostly built by Obama. He was simply adding to it, maybe a few hundred miles out of a 2000 mile border.Trump said the new wall panels would be impossible to climb but video records show it being scaled in under 3 minutes.Trump said he would drain the swamp. All he has done is fill it with alligators.Steven Miller’s father or grandfather was a Hungarian Jew who came to America to escape the Nazis. if Miller had been around the time of his grandfather in WW2 he would likely have ended up in Auschwitz, not be allowed to enter the US and Miller not have been born.Ivanka Trump signed over 500 business patents for her company with the Chinese government while campaigning to buy American.Trump called Jeffrey Epstein a “ terrific guy”. Said Epstein liked his girls “really young”Trumps mother was an immigrant from Scotland and his grandfather ran a brothel in Oregon in the early part of the 20th century. Grandfather was kicked out of Germany for avoiding the draft.Trump pushed for the use of an anti malarial drug that actually increased the death rate and many people died from taking it.Trump received about $480 million from his father and probably would have made more money if he had just invested it in the stock market.Trump is estimated to have personally lost over a billion dollars in 10 years.Trump is reportedly known to cheat at golf.If you are a daughter-in law or girlfriend to the son of the President. You can get a $180,000 dollar a year paying gig without reporting it to Congress as a political donation.Stormy Daniels got 130,000 dollars from Trump. All we get is a fucking T-shirt.Its amazing what you can get people to lie about if you pay them enough or give them enough authority they are not qualified for.Jared Kushner failed his security clearance a dozen times, had multiple omissions and finally got clearance on Trumps say-so.No one, including White House staff, knows what Ivanka Trump does all day.To make money on his casinos Trump would have had to bring in close to a million dollars a day to break even. That was impossible and the casinos folded within 6 months.Trump actually wanted Marla to abort Tiffany (she was unplanned) and hoped she’d have nice breasts.Steve Muchnin the Secretary of the Treasury believes that its possible to make a $1200 subsidy check from the government last 10 weeks.This is the same guy who used a government tax-payer funded jet to go on his honeymoon.Best one I heard yet: “If we are going to have a dictator in America, i want it to be Donald Trump”.Donald Junior seems to have spent the best part of his adult life trying to gain his fathers respect and admiration while the Donald regards him as a bit of a failure and a disappointment. Going on safari shooting rhinos just made him look like a bit of an insensitive tone-deaf jerk.14 year old Barron Trump has a whole floor to himself in Trump Tower and favors wearing suits to copy his dad.Not commonly known but Trump wears platforms in his shoes to appear taller. Has bragged that he is 6′2″ but he is the same height as Barack Obama who is 6′1″.The states that scream most loudly about being anti-government and anti-Washington are largest beneficiaries of federal Aid, including Kentucky, the home state of Mitch McConnell and many are Republican.Jared Kushner’s sister-in-law was in China selling US visas to rich Chinese for $500,000 a pop until the government got wind of it.Jared Kushner’s father is a convicted felon who paid a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law as payback for a bad business deal. He did 2 years in a federal penitentiary. The guy who put his father in prison was none other than Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie.Trump canceled the health insurance on his grand-nephew who had a serious life-threatening illness, as revenge for a dispute over a family will..Mike Pence’s wife told reporters her husband didn’t know he had to wear a Mask at a visit to the Mayo clinic even though he was specifically told by the hospital everyone had to wear a mask.Trump suffers an affliction (Dunning-Kruger) where he believes he is the smartest guy in the room knows better and more than all the experts, including generals and doctors and called himself a “natural” at medicine despite no training or expertise in the field.Stupid people often lack the cognitive awareness that they are actually stupid. This is why Trump is unaware that telling people to drink bleach is not only stupid but he just doesn’t understand why it’s stupid.When asked if she married Trump for his money Melania said he wouldn’t have married her if it wasn’t for her looks.Former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry didn’t know America’s nuclear missiles came under his department.After 3 years in office Trump has still not released his tax returns.Melania is NOT fluent in five languages. In televised shots she says hello in Italian and then reverts to English. She spoke English to a bunch of French school children and relied on an interpreter for the rest. Probably speaks some Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian and some heavily accented English.Its possible to have bone spurs and play college level football when you are the President.Trump say often he attended Wharton business school but he was in the less well-known undergraduate school, not the graduate MBA program. One of his teachers said Trump was one of the laziest students he had ever taught. Penn was relatively easy to get into in 1965 when Trump was there.Trump said he was one of the smartest students in his year but there is no record of him coming anywhere near the top 50 students and his name is not listed anywhere in the summa cum laude class of 1968.So far the president has said little if anything to comfort the families who have lost loved ones due to the corona virus. What he has said is perfunctory and brief and lacking in any real compassion.Recent headline. Melania has been having a long time affair with the head of security at Tiffany in Trump Tower and he looks like Michael Avenatti. Trump knows about it and is perfectly OK with it.Trump and Melania were planning a divorce but it has been put on hold since he became the President. Watch this space.4 people died in Benghazi, the hearings lasted 2 and half years and cost 5 million dollars. 60,000 people have died in the last 2 months and Trump is still President. No charges were ever filed against Hillary Clinton.Trump is still waiting on that 3 am phone call.When Mike Pence went to Germany they flew back via Scotland where Trump has a golf course and airport is about a 2 hour drive from the course. Pence and his security detail were pretty much ordered to use his boss’ hotel as accommodation.The Trump International Hotel in the Federal Post Office building recently petitioned the federal government i.e. the President for a break in the rent, so basically you have the owner of a private hotel business petitioning himself for a rent break.Trump apparently likes to eat pizza with a knife and fork.There is something wrong when 30 million people sign up for unemployment assistance one month into a lock down.Kelly Anne Conway actually though there was a Covid 1–18, not realizing “19” stood for 2019.Report: Trump Hired 200 Illegal Workers in NYC and Paid Them $4 an Hour, if they Got Paid at AllStarted a fraudulent university bearing his own name, which was then sued by thousands of its students, subsequently closed down, and to settle the suits, agreed to pay $25 million (!) in restitution.Was captured on video saying “And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.”Paid off porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay silent about their affair, then lied about it repeatedly.Used his fraudulent Trump Foundation to buy a portrait of himself, pay off porn stars, and bribe Florida Attorney General to drop a lawsuit against him. Then was forced to close up said fraudulent foundation.Hired Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, who was paid millions of dollars by Russian oligarchs, subsequently indicted, and found guilty of tax evasion and money laundering.Perpetuated the known false “birther” conspiracy against President Obama for years.Endorsed known pedophile and child molester, Roy Moore, for US Senate.Repeated the absurd campaign promise countless times that “Mexico will pay for the wall”. Then, when he took office, blamed Democrats for not giving him money for the wall.Campaigned on “Lock her up,” which was ridiculous at the time, and turned into another broken campaign promise.Continually called the Mueller investigation a “witch hunt”, even after it resulted in 35 indictments, convictions and guilty pleas. All while this investigation was conducted by people who reported to him in his own Justice Department.Falsely proclaims all news he doesn’t like to be “fake news.”Routinely tramples the First Amendment by attacking and insulting reporters.Locked immigrant children in cages.Appointed to the Supreme Court a man who was, very credibly, accused of sexual assault.Commuted the sentence of disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and pardoned disgraced Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.Sided with Vladimir Putin over America’s Intelligence agencies.Withheld aid to Ukraine in exchange for a personal favor that Ukraine investigate his political rival.Impeded, and continues to impede, oversight investigations by Congress.Repeatedly promised to release his taxes when elected, then refuses to release his taxes as promised.Has told over 16,000 lies or misleading claims while in office.When you are Donald J Trump Jr. You write a book about how your father has been victimized and bullied by the media and the Liberals. May as well be useful for something.Ivanka said she was going to work for all women when her father became president. So far she has done squat for working mothers, maternity leave and went so far as to say it was not her responsibility. Pretty easy to be a working woman when you can afford nannies and maids.When your daddy is President its “take your daughter to work day” at international summits where you hobnob with the foreign heads of state and pretend to be one.When the Trumps meet the Queen its a family affair as even Eric’s and Junior’s wives and children went along for the ride.Be publicly made the butt of jokes when other world leaders gather and talk about Trump. Justin Trudeau was laughing about how Trump made his own staff’s collective jaws drop at his behavior.Trudeau admits to talking about Trump after President calls him 'two-faced'Trump refused to attend a Veterans Memorial service because it was raining.Ivanka and her husband declared a personal income of $120 million dollars last year while working as unpaid advisors in the White house.Many of the apartments in Trump Tower are owned by shell companies backed by Russian oligarchs and Putin’s cronies. One paid close to double the market rate for his apartment.Trump pulled out of a security deal with North Korea without first telling his Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of State. Japan’s Shinzo Abe almost had a heart attack.The US government had been working very closely with the WHO in China overseeing the pandemic in China before Trump pulled its funding saying they had been working with the Chinese and had not warned the US about he pandemic. The US has known since January but did nothing till late March about it.Bill O’Reilly was one of the biggest blowhards and loudmouths on Fox News until he got fired for sexually harassing his staff. He had to pay a $20 million dollar settlement.Fox News pundit Sean Hannity is a college dropout.Melania herself only finished one year of architecture school in Slovenia and did not graduate. She tried to make out she had a degree in design until it was shown to be a lie on her CV.She likely worked illegally on a tourist visa, used a special visa for “geniuses” to gain her green card and then went on to sponsor her parents for residency in America. her husband wants to ban all illegal immigration. But not if you are a Slovenian trophy wife.Trump tried to sue the Scottish Parliament when they built windmills in front of his property n Scotland saying they ruined his view. His case was thrown out of court.Tiffany is probably the only member of the family to have gone to graduate school, with a Law degree from Georgetown University in Washington.Ivanka, Donald and Donald Junior all attended Penn University with Ivanka attending the Wharton school of Business.Donald Junior was known best for partying hard at college and not known for his scholarship or brains. Mostly majored in beer pong.Trump held up the distribution of subsidy checks so he could put his name on them. The checks are tax payer money, not specifically from the Donald.The CDC spent weeks working on a detailed report including flow diagrams, on how to deal with the pandemic but once it reached Trump’s desk it was promptly shelved.Trump watching a solar eclipseTrump has no dress sense or sense of sartorial style. His jackets and pants are too big, his ties are worn too long. He wears baggy clothes to hide his protruding gut. When he went to a white die dinner with the queen his white vest was lower than his jacket lapels and he looked like a huge penguin. He can afford to get bespoke suits but prefers off-the-rack or perhaps has his own tailor.Trump could not name a single book that he had read apart from his own, nor name any newspapers that he reads.On one occasion he wished out loud that he wished Melania could have been there, except she happened to be standing right next to him.Trump has a very peculiar way of standing. He will lean forward, stick his bum out and hang his hands in front of him as if holding two hot irons.THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY ITBy: Fintan O'TooleOver more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into corona virus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemicAs the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted … like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party, and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.Abject surrenderWhat used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3 that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities.”Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic.It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the virus draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providential-ism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralyzed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.Fertile groundBut this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St. Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.THIS WAS ON A FRIEND’S PAGE: An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse:That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/04/10/trump-university-settlement-judge-finalized/502387002/)That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay." (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hotel-paid-millions-in-fines-for-unpaid-work)That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem." (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410)That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/22/donald-trumps-outrageous-claim-that-thousands-of-new-jersey-muslims-celebrated-the-911-attacks/)That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you exclaimed, "He sure knows me." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/23/president-donald-trump-could-shoot-someone-without-prosecution/4073405002/)That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, "That's cool!" (https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-howard-stern-story)That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-criticized-after-he-appears-mock-reporter-serge-kovaleski-n470016)That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/americas-first-post-text-president/549794/)That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/19/what-trump-has-said-central-park-five/1501321001/)That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!" (https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trump-campaign-protests-20160313-story.html)That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!" (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/donald-trump-orders-protesters-coat-is-confiscated-and-he-is-sent-into-the-cold-a6802756.html)That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/why-cant-trump-just-condemn-nazis/567320/)That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be." (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-insult-foreign-countries-leaders_n_59dd2769e4b0b26332e76d57)That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!" (https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/12/29/138-trump-policy-changes-2017-000603)That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!" (https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2018-03-05/how-is-donald-trump-profiting-from-the-presidency-let-us-count-the-ways)That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/26/the-very-big-ocean-between-here-and-puerto-rico-is-not-a-perfect-excuse-for-a-lack-of-aid/)That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!" (https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/politics/donald-trump-dictators-kim-jong-un-vladimir-putin/index.html)That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “Well, OK then.” (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-5-400-children-split-border-according-new-count-n1071791)That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise. (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2018/06/04/451570/confronting-cost-trumps-corruption-american-families/)What you don't get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable.Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.- Adam-Troy Castro

I think I have answered a similar question before. For those who have gone through AAP Meter: Interactive Manifesto Tracker, this might be redundant, however even that website isn’t been kept up to date.The following promises have been fulfilled:Delhi Janlokpal Bill: It is passed and now with the MHA for approval.Citizen’s Charter Bill: It is now passed and now with the MHA for approval.Local Governance: The mapping of 3500 Mohallas done and Rs 350 Crore allocated.Citizen’s Local Area Development Fund: As mentioned in (3), money allocated.Electricity Bill reduced by half.Free Lifeline WaterAbolishment of Mixed Use Water Category: “As per the revised policy, if mixed-land use involves activities which do not use water in its process undertaken, it will now be placed in the Domestic Category”.Water From Munak Canal: Yeah done, with 2 water treatment plants started as well, and the water from the flood plains to be used as well soon.Fine On Disposal Of Construction Debris: Yeah done.Higher Education Guarantee Scheme - Done Delhi government rolls out education loan schemeTransparency in School Admissions: Yeah, there were attempts with Delhi government rejecting about 69 criteria, however Delhi HC stayed the ban on few criteria. Also, the Delhi government has asked all private schools to upload their admission criteria and details about selected students online.Increased Spending on Education and Healthcare: This, plus huge progress in the state of healthcare and education with about 10 new schools, 8000 new classrooms coming up. Also, 105 new mohalla clinics and 20 odd upgraded polyclincs have come up as well.No FDI in Retail. ~ Yeah, done.Better policy for E-Rickshaws - A law was actually passed in the LS, however the add on from Delhi government is it would give subsidy of Rs 15,000.Freehold Of Resettlement Colonies ~ Delhi government in the budget resolved in the DUSIB that original allottees and their legal heirs will get freehold rights at the rate of Rs.10,000 per square metre and all others at the rate of Rs.50,000 per square metre.Justice For Victims Of Anti-Sikh 1984 Carnage: Attempted, but rolled over by the Central government. Just a day before the SIT on the 1984 Sikh riots was to be formed, the Union government did it. Although the Central government had announced relief of Rs 5 Lakh to the carnage victims, it was eventually distributed by the Delhi government. The total relief given by the Delhi government is of Rs 130 Crore.Loans to Scheduled Castes to Start Businesses: Now, no guarantors are needed for loans less than Rs. 50,000 is required for the SCs. PLUS, few universities have been given entrepreneurship funds which can be given to students (irrespective of the caste) to start their business.Promote Sport Culture: Pay and Play scheme started in Delhi government controlled stadiums.That’s 23% of promises fulfilled.And a considerate amount of work is being done on thesePiped Water: More colonies were added to pipeline supply in last 1 year than ever in the history of the Delhi Jal Board. 120 KM of water pipeline was laid.Crackdown of Water Mafia: DJB started to monitor the water tankers with GPS. 414 water tankers are now equipped with GPS. Of the 380 tankers that have been hired by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), 250 have GPS devices while the rest 130 will be phased out if not equipped with GPS devices by this summer.Revival of Yamuna: Yamuna Aarti started to increase awareness, along with that, Delhi govt to adopt Seechewal model for cleaning Yamuna: Kapil Mishra. And this was presented to Uma Bharti as well, who appreciated the plan Yamuna clean-up plan presented to Bharti. One machine worth Rs 6 Crore was also bought to clean out the surface of the river.New government schools - 8000 new classrooms and about 10 new schools would start soon. Plus read What are the 40+ schools that the AAP Government of NCT of Delhi has proposed to construct?Regulate Private School Fees - A team of CAs have been enrolled by the Delhi government which would look into the books of the schools. Also, all the schools which are built on the government land, were asked to not increase their fees, and they obliged.Ramp Up Government Schools to Provide Quality Education: For the first time of the history of Delhi, the result of government schools was better than that of private schools. Friends and families in Delhi tell that kids of their maids are very happy with the teaching now. Summer School camp was a huge success. The teachers and principles are being sent to IIMs/Harvard/Cambridge for training to become mentors who would train other fellow teachers.Expand Health Care - 105 new mohalla clinics, 20 upgraded polyclinics, addition of 100s of beds in existing hospitals and better quality ensured.Quality Drugs For All At Affordable Price: This is rather done. After saving about 350 Crore in the flyover projects, this money was diverted for guaranteed free medicines.Effective Last Mile Connectivity: Ah, the e-rickshaw policy is helping over here.Governance On The Mobile Phone: A large number mobile apps have been started including DVAT M SEWA app, water bill app (more at Arjun Gulyani's answer to How much progress did Delhi Government made in M-Governance? )Delhi's Villages To Receive Special Attention: Well, farmers did get a hefty compensation this year around. New schools, WiFi etc are in progress.Single Window Clearance: India’s ease of business ranking improved because of this. DIPP lists AAP govt steps in ease of doing biz achievements. The single window clearance in the entertainment sector also got featured Delhi is finally gig-friendly with single-window clearance. Just yesterday was Delhi building bylaws revised after 33 years! And this is going to be a single window law as well.Starting business In One Week: The DVAT M SEWA app mentioned above is a huge step towards that. VAT registration and TIN number registration is now also done on same-day basis.Lowest VAT Regime: No, not yet. Although VAT was cut drastically (Delhi Budget 2016: Govt set to cut VAT, and your bills as well), it is still high in few other commodities.Simplifying VAT Rules: Yeah, again that mobile app. Plus of course a DS-1 form which complicated things was taken back.Delhi Skill Mission: A new ITI has come up. For higher education, the government has become a gurantor for loans upto Rs 10 Lakh.Reducing Pollution: Two Odd Even drives, closure of 2 power plants, banning trucks till 11PM, planting 15 Lakh trees, and more details at Amit Sinha's answer to What are the long term steps the AAP led Delhi government has taken for combating pollution?Large Scale Expansion in Bus Services: 25 new electric buses are undergoing trial and by year end 3000 normal buses would be added to the fleet.Setting Up A Network Of Water Kiosks: This has started too - Draw water from ATMs for 30 paise under Delhi Jal Board’s new initiative, however I guess not a lot of people are using it.CCTVs in Public Spaces and Buses: This was finally declared yesterday, as the Swaraj fund would be used to start installing CCTVs CCTVs to be put up soonAdequate Street Lighting: WIP!WiFi: The most glamorous promise, but only few DTC buses, some part of Burari and Dilli Haat have WiFi. Pretty slow progress, if you ask me … Update [June 24th, 2016] ~ By December 2016, East Delhi would get 1000 WiFi hotspots. The Delhi PWD is laying the optical fiber network for that ~ Delhi Govt to Set up 1,000 Free WiFi Hotspot Zones by End of 2016.Create 8 Lakh Jobs: Although there were a couple of job fairs, most of the job regulated initiatives are stuck in technical matters. However hopefully encouragement to private sector would help Delhi with time.Fair Arrangement for Auto Drivers: Plans for stands held up due to unavailability of land. Government plans to issue 5,500 new auto permits, but recently, more than 900 letters of intent were scrapped and three transport department officials were suspended after allegations of corruptionRegularization And Transformation Of Unauthorized Colonies: The AAP government has relaxed the regularisation policy and has waived off the penalty/regularisation charges from unauthorised colonies of F, G and H category (90 per cent of unauthorised colonies in Delhi fall in these categories). Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has connected eight new unauthorised colonies. Now, 205 of 1105 unauthorised colonies have piped water connection The government has approved a budget of Rs 800 crore for development work such as roads, street lights and storm water drainsTaking Care Of Our Senior Citizens: For the 1,10,000 pension applications that had been stuck, re-verification camps were conducted in the months of April, May and June and about 70K came. Now such camps would be held at Mohalla Sabha level with inputs from community members. 38 new recreational centers for the elderly are being planned.Controlling Price Rise: e-ration card was introduced. 5.5 lakh people availed benefit. 2400 fair price shops will soon be equipped with PoS (Point of Sale) device. Delhi was the only state which had government shops selling onions at Rs 30/- when it was about 100 across India.Drug-Free Delhi: Not much that the state can do, however Anganwadis are being used to ensure that kids don’t fall into the drug abuse. In fact the anganwadis have been upgraded as well.Empowering The Disabled: A policy for the disabled - State Policy and Action Plan for People with Disabilities - had been prepared and put up on the govt website inviting suggestions. 20 hospitals in all districts of Delhi have been notified as Medical Authority for Issuance of Disability Certificate for general disabilityDignity To The Safai Karamchari: The government has started a process to regularise more than 50,000 employees working on contractual basis in its different departments (subjected to approval from LG, of course). Safai Karamchari have been treated as a Skilled Worker in the Minimum Wages Act.Caste Certificate Process Simplified: The process has been simplified by doing away with affidavits and now only self-affidavits are required. Also, certificates can now be availed online via e-ditsrict platformTransgender Community: Delhi government announced setting up district level screening committee that will issue certificate of being a transgender person.Public libraries: Government is renting rooms to create space for libraries and getting the infrastructure in place. East Delhi gets 10 ‘mohalla’ libraries. It is collaborating with NGOs and even asking books for donations and getting awesome response (A library for the homeless in Delhi)That’s about 47% of good progress on the promises given to the Delhiites.So, overall, 70% of promises are either done, or in good progress. Given that 80% of the AAP government’s tenure is remaining, the work on the other promises would be finished as well.Of course, Arvind Kejriwal is the most useless CM in Indian history, the most annoying politician, the most irritating Indian and the best joke to crack on ;-)Adding few electricity bills as in comments people are calling it a fake promise