As Bulgaria Elects A Pro-Putin Populist President, Trumpists Here Warn Obama To Stay Out Of Foreign Affairs

Americans don't think much about Bulgaria. There are less than 100,000 Americans of Bulgarian ancestry-- and we've never fought a war there. Most of the Bulgarian-Americans that there are live in 4 cities where hyphenated Americans don't stand out: New York, L.A., Chicago and Miami. After the collapse of communism in 1989, over a million Bulgarians left their homeland, but most scattered through Europe, especially Greece and Spain, but also to Canada, Germany, the U.K., Italy and Latin America. Most Americans would be hard-pressed to point to Bulgaria on a world map.

In the summer of 1969, I was driving a shiny new VW camper van to India from London. The conventional wisdom along the Hippie Trail was to drive straight through Bulgaria without stopping-- from the Yugoslavian border crossing at Dimitrovgrad through Sofia and then straight down the A-1 motorway to the Svilengrad border crossing west of Edirne (historically, Adrianpolis) in Turkey-- and then immediately on to Istanbul. It was a 2 or 3 day drive from Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Coast... and I was having done of it. I was eager to explore Bulgaria and not just Sofia. And it was my first lesson about the worthlessness of Hippie Trail conventional wisdom. When the A-1 forked north to the Black Sea, I was on it-- while my passengers all eager to get to Istanbul, complained noisily. We were soon in Burgas where I met some random Bulgarian kids. We took a 2 week tour of the country and months later I was still eating dried and canned fruits and vegetables we had gotten on communal farms in the part of the country few American tourists ever went to. So... I for one have fond memories of Bulgaria.

I was sorry to see that on Sunday they elected a Trumpist type-- a pro-Putin, right-wing populist, Rumen Radev-- as president. And he won big as the anti-establishment, anti-immigrant, anti-corruption, pro-Putin candidate. Yesterday the pro-NATO prime minister, Boiko Borisov, resigned. Awkwardly, Bulgaria has been a member of NATO since 2004.

Radev, who has never held political office and who was educated in Alabama, is outspokenly pro-Putin and pro-Trump. Borisov told the media after his party was pulverized at the polls that "in this election, the people showed us that something is not as it should be. That our priorities may be good, but obviously there are better ones. So the most democratic thing, the right thing to do is to (resign)."

Coupled with political instability, Bulgaria's tilt toward Russia is a blow to the country's western European allies and underscores Moscow's growing influence in southeastern Europe.

In Moldova, another ex-communist state near the Black Sea, voters were expected to install a pro-Russian candidate as president and slam the breaks on seven years of closer EU integration in an election also held on Sunday.

While most of the key decisions in Bulgaria are taken by the government, the president, who leads the armed forces, can sway public opinion and has the power to send legislation back to parliament.

Radev is not advocating NATO member Bulgaria abandon its Western alliances, mindful of the financial impact of EU aid and the country's long history of divided loyalties.

But he has called for an end to EU sanctions against Russia and said Sofia should be pragmatic in its approach to any international law violations by Moscow when it annexed Crimea.

"We listened (to the voters') concerns. We said that we will work for Bulgarian national interests, that's what gave us broad support," a jubilant Radev told reporters.

Many in the Balkan country are keen to see restored trade with their former Soviet overlord, hurt by economic problems and sanctions, and to protect vital tourism revenues.

Speaking on Sunday evening, Radev said he hoped for good dialogue both with the United States and Russia and expressed hopes that with a new president in Washington, there will be a drop in confrontation between the West and Moscow.

"In his election campaign (Donald Trump), already elected, said clearly that he will work for a better dialogue with Russia. That gives us hope, a big hope, for a peaceful solution to the conflicts both in Syria and in Ukraine and for a decrease of the confrontation," Radev said.

Although Bulgaria's economy is expected to grow at a relatively healthy rate of about 3.1-3.3 percent this year, having shaken off recession, it remains the EU's poorest member, with average wages about 470 euros per month.

Rampant graft in public administration is seen as a key factor slowing the small Black Sea state's progress in catching up with its wealthier EU peers.

According to a report in Politico yesterday, Trump aides are telling Obama to immediately stop interfering in any foreign policy and that its all up to Putin Trump and his crew of misfits now.

EU Suspends Aid For Bulgaria-- Corruption, Graft, Conflict Of Interest... Hmmmmm

How different are Paulson and Bernanke from Bulgarians?

As Obama and the lame duck Bush Regime make a show of working together to stave off complete economic paralysis and financial collapse, is anyone watching to see where the billions and billions of dollars-- taxpayer dollars-- are winding up? I don't know if you noticed but the last time the Bush criminals got their hands on this kind of money, immense amounts "went missing." I'd feel a lot better if newly elected Florida congressman, Alan Grayson, were sworn in and hunting the profiteers. He's one of the people in government we can trust to not have sticky fingers-- or friends with sticky fingers-- or be bamboozled by banksters and slimy lobbyists with sticky fingers.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic a not unrelated kind of corruption scandal is unfolding. The EU just stripped nearly $300 million in rescue aid from Bulgaria, the poorest of all the EU countries. It's also the most corrupt, or at least the most blatantly corrupt. (Corruption usually follows the big money and I'm guessing that if you strip away the niceties you'd find the most corruption in the richer countries like England, Germany, France and Italy where they're more practised at covering it up.) Anyway, the stunning announcement that Bulgaria isn't getting the much-needed dough would be like if Bush were to say, that he'd handing out all this cash to stave off disaster but because one of our own most backward and corrupt states-- say Louisiana, which is very similar to Bulgaria when it comes to corruption-- isn't getting any.

Like Louisiana, the Bulgarian government hasn't done anything to fight the systemic corruption that pervades their society. And, like Louisiana, it is widely suspected that that is because the entire government, from top to bottom, is in on the scam. Another $400 million is also is suspended until Bulgaria can show that it is addressing the problems. Does this sound like Louisiana or what? (Or maybe Nevada?)

The fate of a further 340 million euro, which have been contracted and payment of which has been frozen at the request of the European Commission, remains unclear.

The EC suspended the accreditation of the two agencies in July, saying that Bulgaria's administrative capacity was weak and that there were strong suspicions of fraud and conflict of interest in awarding the funds. Furthermore, the EC said at the time, there appeared to be no political will to eradicate fraud, while the lack of tangible results in the fight against corruption was causing serious concerns.

Bulgaria's Cabinet answered with a bloated action plan that comprised more than 350 pages of measures it would undertake to address the issues highlighted by the EC, which now appears to have fallen of the Commission's expectations.

AP is reporting that "the action against an EU member state is without precedent in EU history." The money was meant to aid farmers and go into infrastructure projects which has been a source of fraud, conflict of interests and graft. Bulgaria responded last month by setting up a special investigation unit to look into "mismanagement of E.U. money" and Sofia also passed the country's first conflict-of-interest law. No one took these moves any more seriously than the Bush Regime's investigations into the mismanagement and theft of billions of dollars in Iraq War funds.

So who's watching the Citi Banksters again? Let's hope it isn't Paulson or we're all likely to end up living like Bulgarians.

Conventional Wisdom... And Meet Ilya Sheyman

I was just a teenager-- and a huge Dostoevsky fan-- when I got my first indication of the worth of conventional wisdom. I was mesmerized by Dylan's lyrics on his new single "Subterranean Homesick Blues," released a couple weeks later on Bringing It All Back Home, but it took a few years before I connected all the dots. That happened when I sold a bunch of hash so I could buy a new VW camper at the Volkswagen factory in Wiesbaden, Germany ($2,500) and drive to India.

The first leg of the trip was from London to Istanbul. Yugoslavia was still a country but now I consider myself having driven through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro. I just loved it, especially driving along the Dalmatian Coast. After that came a quick jaunt through Bulgaria to the European sliver of Turkey and down into Istanbul which straddles both continents. Here's where the conventional wisdom started-- the conventional wisdom of the Hippie Trail. "Everybody" knew Bulgaria just sucked and the way to do it was to drive straight from Nis, through gray, Communist Sofia and then 300 miles down the main highway through Plovdiv and right into Istanbul. Do not stop; do not even look out the window. The Bulgarians are Stalinist creeps and the country should be avoided except that it's on the way to Istanbul and Asia (and, the real crux, as I soon learned, hashish). That was the conventional wisdom.

I didn't mean to rebel or anything but I had a feeling I wasn't going to get another chance to wander around Bulgaria and I was in no rush. So I stopped in Sofia, explored the city, didn't find it forbidding at all and then decided to head due east to the Black Sea instead of southeast to Edirne and Istanbul. I had hardly parked my van at the seaside at Burgas before I had two new best friends. They couldn't wait to show me their country and I wound up spending two weeks driving around Bulgaria, staying on communal farms, seeing towns that never got any Hippie Trail traffic, like Varna, Novi Pazar, Targoviste. It was amazing but it still didn't dawn on my that conventional wisdom was worthless, especially not that conventional wisdom from groups you identified with was worthless. Months later in Afghanistan I was still eating delicious fruits and veggies and kefir farmers had given me in Bulgaria. (I had kefir for breakfast today, over 40 years later.)

Istanbul is where I finally got it. The conventional wisdom was that the Turks, like the Bulgarians were assholes to be avoided. The only way to enjoy Turkey was to hole up in the hippie enclave around the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet). So I did. I was actually in the pudding shop when the real Midnight Express was going down!



The Turks were assholes? All seventy million of them? It was then that I started watching my parking meters instead of following leaders. Sure, the cops and robbers drawn to Sultanahmet to pray on drugged out hippies were assholes-- cops and robbers are assholes everywhere. But you didn't have to drive far to meet the greatest people in the world: Turks. It was there that I realized how worthless conventional wisdom is. I've tried to studiously ignore it ever since-- in all aspects of my life.

The hippies-- relatively much more open-minded than your average Joe-- only liked people they could do drugs with: Afs, Nepalis, Indians... Everyone else was an asshole. I thought the Turks were among the most amazing, hospitable, empathic people I had ever met and I lingered for months in Anatolia-- and have been back a dozen times since then-- something "everyone" knows is a waste of time. And, like I said, I learned the worth of conventional wisdom. I guess that's why I hate the Republican Party and have nothing but contempt for Inside-the-Beltway Democrats.

The above paragraphs could be an introduction for almost anything we post here at DWT. Let's make it... about our evil foes at the DCCC. The political consultant class in DC has been trying to recruit a hackish state legislator, Susan Garrett of Lake Forest, or-- worse-- recently defeated corporate shill Melissa Bean (from the 8th CD)-- to run against Republican freshman Robert Dold. Inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom is that only a professional politician is worthy of their support. Meanwhile, grassroots activists in Illinois and hoping to persuade Ilya Sheyman, former Field Director for Democracy for America and, more recently, National Mobilization Director at MoveOn, to run for the seat.

Conventional wisdom always comes down on the side of money, never on the side of people power. The DCCC will claim neutrality, of course (they usually do) and then attempt to undermine the grassroots candidate in favor of the worst Chamber of Commerce shill in the Democratic Party (Bean) if she makes a try for the seat, or else state Senator Garrett if she's the Establishment candidate. And Ilya? Let's hear what he has to say about himself. Is this the kind of guy you'd like to see Blue America endorse and work for?

I believe in a simple idea at the heart of progressive politics-- an idea best articulated by the late Senator Paul Wellstone:

“Politics is not just about power and money games, politics can be about the improvement of peoples lives, about lessening human suffering in our world and bringing about more peace and more justice.”

As I travel around the 10th Congressional District, I look forward to listening to you and learning from your stories about the issues and values that are important in your lives. Here are a few of my thoughts on critical issues to start off our conversation:

Jobs:

It is time to invest in our shared prosperity by passing a new jobs bill that would provide a life vest of unemployment assistance to those drowning without work, that would guarantee state aid, so that communities wouldn’t have to continue letting go of cops, firefighters or teachers, and that would stimulate public and private sector job creation through direct hiring for infrastructure projects and the creation of a national green jobs bank that will provide loans directly to small businesses.

Investment:

I support a fixed timetable to extricate ourselves from the quagmire in Afghanistan and to finally bring every brave man and woman home from Iraq-- so that we can start building bridges and roads, schools and hospitals, mass transit and a green economy right here in Buffalo Grove and North Chicago instead of Kabul and Baghdad.

Security:

I will defend our commitment to Health and Retirement Security with a plan that asks the wealthy to pay their fair share into Social Security, keeping its promise to future generations. And I support gradually expanding Medicare to cover every single American, and stand behind the promise that quality, affordable health care should in fact be a birthright of every single American.

Opportunity:

I will fight for real immigration reform that finally takes 12 million of our neighbors out of the shadows and gives them a pathway to citizenship and an ability to realize their dreams and aspirations right here in the United States of America.

Equality:

I will work with allies in our community and in Congress to introduce a Civil Rights Act for the 21st Century that guarantees the full spectrum of over one thousand rights, responsibilities and privileges that come with equal citizenship to all our LGBTQ brothers and sisters.

The Sludge Known As Conventional Wisdom-- From Bulgaria To The Cook Report

After college, I spent a couple years on the "Hippie Trail," the overland route from London to New Delhi and Kathmandu. There were places, primarily in western Turkey and eastern Iran where the idea of "road" was theoretical. But overall, a few hundred of us made it through every year from the late '50s into the mid '70s. Someone's coming over either this weekend or next weekend or soon-- I forgot to write it in my calendar-- to film me for a documentary biopic. I think this Hippie Trail stuff is mostly what the producer is interested in. So I've been thinking about it lately. The 2 years were fundamental to everything that has happened to me in the ensuing 5 decades. One lesson I learned early on-- first in Bulgaria and quickly confirmed in Turkey-- was about conventional wisdom. Forget it. It's not ever where you want to start.

One of my traveling companions was a hitchhiker, Joël, I picked up outside of Niš, then the biggest town in eastern Yugoslavia on the road to Sofia, now the third largest city in Serbia. Joël was following his older brother-- who had been back and forth a couple of times and was now in Kathmandu. So Joël had a lot of useful info about what was before us. But he also had, as it turned out a lot of useless conventional wisdom. Just because it was hippie convention wisdom, it wasn't any more accurate. "Let's just skip Bulgaria," was his advise. "Take the A1 straight to Svilengrad on to Edirne and into Istanbul... There's nothing in Bulgaria."

I thought that was strange. But it was absolutely conventional wisdom for the Hippie Trail: there's nothing in Bulgaria. I didn't come all the way from New York to not see places. It was my VW van and anyone was free to offer their advice, but I was the captain of the ship. A few miles outside of Plovdiv, the A1 offers you a choice, the southeast A1 goes to Turkey and the northeast A1 goes Burgas on the Black Sea. A lot of grumbling from the peanut gallery when I headed off to the Black Sea. I spent a couple fantastic weeks between Burgas and Varna with some kids my age I met in Burgas. We were a novelty and everyone wanted to meet us. There were no tourists back then. Everyone was on their way to Istanbul. But this was a beautiful, friendly area and we stayed at communal farms and in small towns and it was a great trip. The fruits and vegetables we were given by farmers lasted us through Turley, Iran and into Afghanistan. Conventional wisdom was wrong, wrong, wrong. But I didn't know it yet.

A couple of days ago I was having an endless kerfuffle with Google's advertising department. You know how hard Google makes it to speak to an actual human being on the phone? And when you finally break through it's invariably someone in India who can't help unless they can put you in a predetermined box. However... eventually I wound up with someone in Boulder. He solved the problem and it only took 3 days. He was 25 and his grandmother had once taken the family on a Mediterranean cruise that had included Istanbul, which he loved. Something we had in common. Istanbul in 1969, my first time there, and 2012, when he went is pretty different, But we were both attracted to the same part of town, Sultanahmet-- which includes the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sohia and Topkapi Palace. I told him to watch Midnight Express, a film made in 1978 about what happened in 1969. I was there-- in the Pudding Shop-- when it happened.



Part of conventional wisdom was that the Sultanahmet area of Turkey was fabulous and cool but that the rest of Turkey was horrible and should be gotten through as fast as Bulgaria. As usual-- ass-backwards. Imagine you're from Europe and you go to America... but never get beyond, say Times Square. And then say "America sucks." Like Times Square at the time, Sultanahmet-- and the Pudding Shop in particular-- was a place where hippies came to buy hash, where crooks came to rip off hippies and where the cops came to extort or arrest everyone.

That's when it finally added up to me. I realized how Sultanahmet was the worst place in Turkey to be-- it's gentrified and fine now-- and how every other place in Turkey was way better. I loved Turkey. I've been back a dozen times-- sans conventional wisdom.

I could write about Turkey for hours but I've done that for my travel blog and when I started writing today it was supposed to be about political conventional wisdom. So... let me get into that. Political conventional wisdom is created by the party committees-- like the NRCC and the DCCC-- feeding their versions of reality to David Wasserman at Cook. It gets worse from there, especially when the mainstream media starts regurgitating it as wisdom handed down from on high. The DCCC and David Wasserman are why Alexandria Ocasio's race came as such a surprise to everyone-- even to lunkheads like Joe Crowley, Ben Ray Lujan, Ann Kuster and Nancy Pelosi. Those 4 were charged with keeping Crowley in his seat but now of them knew this young woman who wasn't born when he first started "winning" elections had already eviscerated him. And if they didn't know-- believe me, David Wasserman didn't know. Didn't know, as in "never heard of." Is the Bronx north of Queens or is Queens on Long Island. NY-14, why I we never heard of that before?

Yesterday, Wasserman defined the big anti-red wave that's headed to DC by prognosticating that "Democrats remain substantial favorites for House control." You think? "A"-- at least he was smart enough not to say "the"-- big reason: Republicans are defending 42 open or vacant seats, a record since at least 1930. The retirements of Speaker Paul Ryan (WI-01), as well as powerful committee chairs like Reps. Ed Royce (CA-39) and Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-11) and popular moderates like Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27) and Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02), have given Democrats stellar pickup opportunities." No mention of why these gents and Ileans are retiring. Just a coincidence. Ryan's seat was already lost before he "decided." So was Royce's, LoBiondo's Ros Lehtinen's and, probably, Frelinghuysen's.

Wasserman would rather talk about hocus pocus-- like historical trends and fundraising. "Of Republicans' 42 incumbent-less seats, eight are in districts that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and an additional 13 are in districts where President Trump received less than 55 percent. History is working against the GOP in many of those seats: we found that since 1992, in situations when a president's party was stuck defending an open seat two years after the president failed to carry it, that party has batted zero for 23 keeping it in their column."

He's caught on to the Blue Wave-- just when smarter people have realized what's happening is more an anti-red wave than an actual blue wave. He'll get there... by January.

To some extent, the focus on a "blue wave" has overshadowed an equally important 2018 trend: the steady purge of Trump skeptics from the congressional GOP. Retirements are the single biggest factor, but so are GOP primaries. Not only did Rep. Mark Sanford (SC-01) lose his, but loyalty to the president has emerged as the dominant theme in primaries for dozens of safely GOP open seats. November losses promise to further thin the moderate herd.

Fundraising deficits are a growing GOP problem: in 20 of the 42 seats, the leading Democrat raised more than the leading Republican between April and June, including in seven of eight Clinton-carried districts (Rep. Dave Reichert's open WA-08 was the only exception) and 13 of 34 Trump-carried seats. That's especially problematic because the NRCC and Congressional Leadership Fund are already stuck defending dozens of vulnerable incumbents.

The most immediate open seat test is the August 7 special election in Ohio's 12th CD, north of Columbus. It's in the Toss Up column, and if Democrat Danny O'Connor defeats Republican Troy Balderson in a seat Trump carried by 11 points in 2016 (R+7 PVI), it would be another piece of evidence that Democrats are pushing the House battleground deeper into Trump territory.

Funniest lines in Wasserman's reports:

Unabashed

Talking about AZ-02 and carpetbagger Ann Kirkpatrick, one of the most far right Democrats running anywhere: "Kirkpatrick is an unabashed liberal, who proudly voted for Nancy Pelosi and Obamacare, and she's running with the support of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly." Only in DC would anyone define "unabashed liberal" as someone who "proudly voted for Nancy Pelosi." Certainly in 2002. But in 2018? Uh... no. Obamacare? Kirkpatrick broke ranks with the Democrats and voted with the GOP to kill it, which is why she lost her seat and then lost a Senate race. And support from Gabby Giffords? I'm sorry Gabby got shot but she was a right-of-center Blue Dog before that tragic incident and to this day always bends over backwards to support right-of-center Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, not progressives. Do "unabashed liberals" have A+ ratings from the NRA? How about being the only AZ-02 candidate to support ICE? Is that what Wasserman meant? Dave... today we use Medicare-For-All, Job Guarantee, free state universities, green energy transition, living wage... to define "unabashed liberals." It's 2018; you should give it a try. It won't hurt you.

His column is filled with DCCC/NRCC junk. Kansas-- Bernie and Alexandria were just in Wichita and Kansas City campaigning for James Thompson and Brent Welder, progressives who have caught fire. Wasserman instead sticks to the DCCC script, promoting the race with the DCCC's vomitous GOP-lite Blue Dog, Blue Dog instead. Wisconsin-01... maybe he was taking a crap and someone from the NRCC logged onto his computer and wrote that section of his post. Sure sounds like that. Anyway... warning about Wasserman: conventional wisdom is junk, whether if it's about Bulgaria or congressional politics.

"Unprecedented Ecological Catastrophe" On The Danube... Although We Could Possibly Still Avoid One In Nevada

See all that red stuff? It can kill you... fast or slow

Hungary seems so very far away, and after all only four people are dead in this flooding, not nearly as bad as the thousands who died in Pakistan on CNN. And look, the Danube is only Europe's second-longest river. Now the Volga... that's a river! But it does flow through a bunch of countries, even if most Americans couldn't find them on a map if their lives depended on it: Germany (where it starts), Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine and Romania (where it empties into the Black Sea).

You might not want to eat too much of that yummy Black Sea turbot, or even the mackerel or mullet. That's because this week a toxic red sludge that burst out of a Hungarian aluminum factory's reservoir flooded into the Danube, killing fish, threatening an ecological disaster and heading towards the Black Sea (and the six other countries between Hungary and the Black Sea). The chemical spill was the biggest ever in Hungary and pumped at least 35 million cubic feet of toxic, carcinogenic sludge (arsenic, cadmium and lead) into the river. Every single fish in a Danube tributary, the Marcal, has died.

As Danube nations such as Serbia and Bulgaria brace for contamination, Hungary is still struggling to deal with the devastation of the initial spill that flooded the villages of Devecsar, Kolontar, and Somlovasarhely in northwest Hungary. Emergency response teams, including the Hungarian armed forces, began to evacuate residents within hours of the spill, and staved off the contamination of a fourth village by treating and removing the sludge. Despite that good work, authorities say up to 7,000 people in these and four other villages have been directly affected. And leaders are struggling to measure the spill's human and environmental cost. "Nothing like this has happened in Hungary before," Tamas Toldi, mayor of Devecsar, told Time. "Right now the most important thing is to save people from the [flood]."

Toldi admitted that even those people who have been saved and evacuated face an uncertain future. Authorities reported on Oct. 6 that up to 2,000 acres of farmland and 8.6 acres of populated areas have been poisoned. "The [chemical] sludge has gone into houses and has destroyed and corroded everything," he says. "It's also going into the soil and we don't know how we'll produce healthy food in our fields."

Sounds disastrous, doesn't it? And it is... but the Hungarians and the regional authorities in central and eastern Europe are, by all reports, handling it extremely well. They're mobilizing whatever resources they can to battle the effects of the catastrophe, and I've been hearing on the radio that the deadly pH level is being dealt with efficiently-- hundreds of tons of alkaline-neutralizing plaster and acetic acid being dumped into the river system-- and is steadily declining. Reports are that the pH is now below 10 and expected to fall to 8, where it won't be as damaging. But Europeans can work together; they know social cooperation is how man moves forward.

Here, on the other hand...

We have a whole grab bag of freaks and loons who have taken over the poor old Republican Party with the latest and greatest ideas of the (early) 17th century. Joe Miller wants to abolish the EPA. Most of the extremists in what can generally be referred to as the "DeMint Caucus," or which will be the DeMint Caucus if enough of them get elected-- Pat Toomey, Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Christine O'Donnell, Ken Buck, Ken Buck, Joe Miller-- are convinced that government is a force for evil; not a force to protect society in general, but one that hampers the ability of the strongest and most aggressive to reach their full potential. It's a dark, Hobbesian view of the world, and most of them got it either directly or secondhand from Ayn Rand's cultish followers and her bitter, albeit silly and sophomoric, opus Atlas Shrugged.

How bad are they in the cooperation department? Yesterday Bill Raggio, the Nevada state Senate Republican Minority Leader, explained why he endorsed Harry Reid over his party's own nominee, Sharron Angle. Listen carefully. He knows her well, and this isn't something he did lightly. It will cost him. But what he says portends ill for America should Angle and the freaks like her wind up in public office:

"Only one of these candidates has sought my endorsement, Senator Harry Reid. I haven't heard from Sharron Angle or talked with her since long before she decided to run against me for State Senate two years ago. After losing to me in a primary, during which she ran a very negative campaign and distorted my record, referred to me as a liar and a RINO, I never heard one word from her, or a concession, or an offer of support. Instead, she lent aid and comfort to an effort to recall me as State Senator.

"Those are personal issues which I was willing to put behind me.

"What is difficult to overlook is her record of being totally ineffective as a four-term assemblywoman, her inability or unwillingness to work with others, even within her own party, and her extreme positions on issues such as Medicare, Social Security, education, veterans affairs and many others.

BUSH TO ALBANIA-- THE ONLY PLACE ON EARTH THEY ACTUALLY LIKE HIM, OTHER THAN UTAH

The first I ever heard of Albania, when I was just a small kid, was when I was figuring out what to do with a stamp that said Shqipëria. "Where the hell is that?," I wondered. It was between Yugoslavia, Greece and the Adriatic and we call it Albania. At the time it was neither a U.S. nor a Soviet ally, but a Red Chinese ally-- with a Chinese submarine base in Durres. And, on top of that, a Muslim country in Europe! And it was an authoritarian state ruled by a guy named Hoxha right out of Orwell's 1984. For me an interest developed that has, to this day, remained. In 1969 I was wandering around in that part of the world and decided to visit. Visas were hard to come by-- it was as much a Hermit Kingdom as North Korea is today-- and I ambled over to the Albanian Embassy in Belgrade. It was a dark, secretive and suspicious place. Someone opened a tiny window in the door and asked what I wanted. I said I wanted a visa so I could visit his country. He slammed it shut-- and that's the closest I've ever gotten to visiting Albania. (I went to Bulgaria instead and loved it; more recently the NY Times has promoted Albania as a hip, off-the-beaten-path tourist destination and I've been thinking about going.)


Suffering from severe diarrhea after drinking a beer with Tony Blair, George Bush is making a 6 hour visit to Albania tomorrow, the first sitting American president to do so. For historical reasons, Albanians love Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton. They don't understand that the historical anomaly that has illegitimately made Bush president has nothing to do with either. Sometimes you just gotta work with the U.S. president you've got, not the president you wish you had.

Thousands of young Albanians have been named Bill or Hillary thanks to the Clinton administration’s role in rescuing ethnic Albanians from the Kosovo war. After the visit on Sunday, some people expect to see a rash of babies named George.

So eager is the country to accommodate Mr. Bush that Parliament unanimously approved a bill last month allowing “American forces to engage in any kind of operation, including the use of force, in order to provide security for the president.” One newspaper, reporting on the effusive mood, published a headline that read, “Please Occupy Us!”

...While much of the world berates Mr. Bush for warmongering, unilateralism, trampling civil liberties and even turning a blind eye to torture, Albania still loves him without restraint.

Wherever I've wandered in the world in the wake of a trip by Bill and Hill, people were excited, even years later. President Clinton-- and even the less ebullient Hillary-- were the ultimate empathic, curious and interested visitors, eager to drink in as much of the local reality as they could. Bush has never been one for any kind of reality and he doesn't exactly get out among the teeming masses and shake hands the way Clinton always did. But in Albania... no matter. Just showing up goes a long way. And for Bush, it's one of the only pro-American countries left anywhere in the world after 7 years of him and his crew of cutthroats at the helm.

There are a lot of Albanians living in the New York City area and in Massachusetts. Teachers and social workers I know uniformly tell me they are by far the most dysfunctional ethnic group they ever come across. John Belushi was Albanian.

Bush’s visit is a reward for Albania’s unflinching performance as an unquestioning ally. The country was among the first American allies to support Washington’s refusal to submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. It was one of the first countries to send troops to Afghanistan and one of the first to join the forces in Iraq. It has soldiers in both places.

“They will continue to be deployed as long as the Americans are there,” Albania’s president, Alfred Moisiu, said proudly in an interview.

Most recently, the country has quietly taken several former detainees from the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, off the Bush administration’s hands when sending them to their home countries was out of the question. There are eight so far, and Mr. Moisiu said he is open to accepting more.

Albanians, where Mafia-like culture is as strong, if not stronger, than in Sicily, is perfect for someone like Bush. They hired one of his cronies, Tom Ridge, as a lobbyist and Bechtel won a no-bid contract-- which was questioned by even the pro-American Albanians-- to oversee Albania’s largest public spending project ever, a contract to build a highway linking Albania and Kosovo. President Moisiu said state prosecutors were now looking at the deal."

In preparation for Mr. Bush’s six-hour visit, Tirana has been draped in American flags and banners that proclaim, “Proud to be Partners.” A portrait of Mr. Bush hangs on the “Pyramid,” a cultural center in the middle of town that was built as a monument to Albania’s Communist strongman, Enver Hoxha. State television is repeatedly playing a slickly produced spot in which Prime Minister Sali Berisha welcomes Mr. Bush in English.

What Mr. Bush will get in return from the visit is the sight of cheering crowds in a predominantly Muslim nation. When asked by an Albanian reporter before leaving Washington what came to mind when he thought of Albania, Mr. Bush replied, “Muslim people who can live at peace.”

Albania is about 70 percent Muslim, with large Orthodox and Catholic populations. To underscore the country’s history of tolerance, President Moisiu will present Mr. Bush with the reproduction of an 18th-century Orthodox icon depicting the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus flanked by two mosques.

“President Bush is safer in Albania than in America,” said Ermin Gjinishti, a Muslim leader in Albania.

Maybe he can move there after 2009 if things don't work out for him in Paraguay.


Today Bush went to Rome and met the Pope, a right-winger like himself, but not as amenable to Bush's insane agenda as the Albanians. He then met with Prime Minister Prodi, who is also unhappy with Bush's disastrous leadership of the western alliance, and with Italy's disgraced ex-prime minister, neo-fascist criminal Silvio Berlusconi, a personal friend. Tomorrow: Albania and Bulgaria.

Has Trump's Bizarre Win, Enabled An Even More Aggressive Putin?

In the last couple of weeks, Putin allies have come to power-- with his help-- in Moldava, Bulgaria and the United States. (Yes, Obama completely failed to protect America from that menace... and now I'm worried that the brutal Russian dictator will turn Ed Snowden over to Trumpanzee the first time el Presidente Pepe The Frog needs a rabbit to pull out of a hat.) This morning the Financial Times reported about Putin's ties to the neo-Nazi far right in an increasingly fascist Hungary (whose leader, Viktor Orban, and Trump have already forged a bond). Last week, The Guardian reported that some Russian agents were expelled from Serbia-- Russia's traditional ally-- for trying to implement a coup in neighboring Montenegro-- a coup that would have cost the lives of Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Ðjukanović and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić.

The plotters were allegedly going to dress in police uniforms to storm the Montenegrin parliament in Podgorica, shoot the prime minister, Milo Ðjukanović, and install a pro-Moscow party.

The Russian fingerprints on the October plot have heightened intrigue about Moscow’s ambitions in a part of Europe hitherto thought to be gravitating towards the EU’s orbit.

A group of 20 Serbians and Montenegrins, some of whom had fought with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, were arrested in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital. In Serbia, meanwhile, several Russian nationals suspected of coordinating the plot were caught with €120,000 and special forces uniforms.

According to the Belgrade daily, Danas, the Russians also had encryption equipment and were able to keep track of Đjukanović’s whereabouts.

Diplomatic sources told the Guardian the Belgrade government quietly deported the Russians after the intervention of the head of the Russian security council, Nikolai Patrushev, who flew to Belgrade on 26 October in an apparent effort to contain the scandal. The country’s interior minister, Nebojša Stefanović denied the government carried out any deportations connected to the plot.

A source close to the Belgrade government said Patrushev, a former FSB (federal security service) chief, apologised for what he characterised as a rogue operation that did not have the Kremlin’s sanction. In Moscow, a Security Council official told Tass that Patrushev “didn’t apologise to anyone, because there is nothing to apologise for.”

The Serbian government was further rattled three days after Patrushev’s visit when a cache of arms was found near the home of the prime minister, Aleksandar Vučić. The weapons were discovered at a junction where Vučić’s car would normally slow down on his way to the house.

Stefanović said there were “strong suspicions” that an organised crime gang had been hired to kill Vučić for €10m, but he would not specify who was behind the alleged plot, saying further investigation would show whether people “outside the region” were involved.

...Đjukanović has been instrumental in pulling his country to the verge of Nato membership-- an accession protocol was signed in May-- which has dashed Russian hopes of securing a naval foothold on the Adriatic. According to the Montenegrin press, Moscow lobbied hard in recent years for transit and maintenance facilities at the ports of Bar and Kotor.

The importance of such facilities was demonstrated late last month when the Russian carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov and its battle group was denied refuelling in European ports along their way to support the Russian military effort in Syria.

In Serbia, Vučić has been seeking a delicate balance between Nato and Russia, and the country’s armed forces have conducted military exercises with both, although far more frequently in recent years with Nato. Vučić has also refused to grant diplomatic status to Russian officials staffing a Serbian-Russian humanitarian centre established in the city of Niš in 2012, infuriating Moscow.

...Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry wrote on Facebook: “The publication in the Guardian with a link to ‘sources’ saying that Patrushev apologised for ‘Russian nationalists’ who had planned to kill the prime minister of Montenegro is a classic provocation aimed at spreading knowingly false information.

“I declare you “liars of the day”. You can sew your own hat.”

In an OpEd for Al Arabiya, Hisham Melhem asked the question about what a Trump presidency will mean for th Middle East, fretting that "given the paucity of President-elect Donald Trump’s clear views on the Middle East’s myriad crises and challenges, after a long campaign of contradictory positions and since he has not fully staffed his National Security team, it is difficult to analyze with great certainty how the 45th American president will deal with a rapidly changing region that has been accustomed to strong American leadership. The president-elect will soon realize that his outlandish claims and demands during the campaign, such as taking over the oil resources of countries where the US is engaged militarily or extracting protection money from other allies, are not feasible or realistic... Trump’s views on Middle Eastern crises and problems are vague," he continued, "incomplete or simplistic declarative sentences such as 'we will bomb the hell out of them.' However, he has stuck to few positions during the campaign and based on what he said and did not say, one can make some preliminary, tentative observations. Somewhat surprisingly, some of his views are in sync with the Obama administration. Mr. Trump, like President Obama, does not see the removal of the Assad regime as America’s first priority in Syria, but rather to continue the fight against ISIS until it ceases to be a 'governing' authority. One of the few consistent views of Mr. Trump during the campaign was his lavish praise of the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin, including in Syria, where he would like to collaborate with Russia to 'knock out ISIS together.'"

Melhem warms that Trump is ill-informed and his claims about "Russia, the Assad regime and Iran are carrying out joint military operations against ISIS" are just plain erroneous-- and Russian propaganda that no one but Trump and other Putin puppets seem to believe.

President-elect Trump shares President Obama’s refusal to get involved more deeply and militarily in the Middle East. President Obama is tired of the Middle East and has been critical of the Egyptian government’s violations of human rights and issues across the region. President Trump, on the other hand, wants to restore relations with Egypt including restoration of economic support. The initial studied welcome of Arab, Turkish and Israeli officials of the election of Mr. Trump is also due to the fact that Trump rarely spoke about the need to foster and support human rights and human dignity in the world, including the countries of the Middle East. The election of Mr. Trump, whose autocratic tendencies are well known and documented, has coincided with the rise of a confederacy of strong men and/or autocrats all over the world, including a number of them in western Europe, catapulted by populist movements and right wing parties and strong opposition to new immigrants and refugees from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. President Putin is actively supporting this worrisome phenomenon and is familiar with the major players in it. Democracy as a system of governance is in a state of retreat. The silence of Mr. Trump during his campaign in the face of violations of human rights in Middle Eastern societies and beyond can only be welcomed by the autocrats who will not be subjected in the next four years to the usual cajoling and pressure that previous administrations imposed on America’s allies.

That’s in part what the Trump presidency means for the Middle East.

The "Tide Of Citizens" Washes Over Spain... As Italians Elect A New Government

Every corner of Spain was the scene of angry but still mostly nonviolent protest over the weekend-- students, doctors, unionists, young families, pensioners... all pissed off about political corruption inside the neo-fascist government of Mariano Rajoy and inside the so-called "royal family," privatization of public services, and the exact same kind of failed Austerity Agenda Paul Ryan and the GOP are demanding for our own country. Over half of Spain's young workers are unemployed. It's a familiar theme-- bailouts for the banksters paid for by massive cutbacks in healthcare. The right-wing government has very tepid support and is starting to panic.

Europe, whose elites largely bought into the Austerity bullshit, is in an economic tailspin, with recession getting deeper and deeper across the Continent. Moody's downgraded the U.K. after George Osbourne's Austerity program went bust again while he and other advocates of more pain to the people are drowning in a river of denialism.

The eurozone will remain mired in recession in 2013 and leading nations such as France and Spain will miss debt-cutting targets, the European commission has admitted, backtracking on forecasts that the 17-country bloc will grow this year.

The European Union's executive body blamed a lack of bank lending to households and businesses, and record joblessness, for delaying the recovery. Unemployment in the eurozone is set to peak at 12% in 2013, or more than 19 million people, it said. Greece and Spain will be the worst-hit countries, with jobless rates of 27% this year.

The estimate highlights the widening chasm between Germany and France, the two largest eurozone economies, amid warnings this week that France is drifting closer to the bloc's periphery than its main economic rival. The commission predicts that Germany will grow by 0.5% this year, while France is expected to eke out just 0.1% growth. Joblessness among the French is expected to hit 10.7%, compared with 5.7% in Germany.

Bulgaria's right-wing government fell last week and the economic news in Portugal, Greece and Ireland is dismal. Over the weekend, with very low voter turnout,  Cyprus elected-- and by a landslide-- a conservative, Nicos Anastasiades, campaigning on an Austerity agenda. They already agreed to German demands that they cut salaries and pensions for public workers and hike the regressive sales tax and are well on the way to replicating the failed plans destroying Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, etc. They'll be whining for help as they flush themselves down the toilet. And yesterday Italy had national elections-- which conclude this afternoon at 3pm, that's 9am EST. (Results are expected by tomorrow morning but right now European markets are reacting to leaked reports of a Bersani victory.) With 5 of the 7 main parties pledging to kick Austerity to the curb, the election really is being seen as a referendum on the much-hated system of pain to working families.

Berlusconi, who has still managed to evade prison while appealing his guilty verdicts, has been sounding more and more like Mussolini as he accused Pier Luigi Bersani's center-left Democratic Party (PD) of fomenting jealousy against Italy's job creators. Ironically it is Berlusconi-- who will say anything-- who is the harshest critic of Austerity, and it has made him a plausible candidate again. Bersani makes the left sound kind of... safe and conservative, insisting that Italy stick to its European commitments and urging internal reform that shifts the emphasis away from Austerity and towards investment and growth.

And while Europe writhes in agony from the failed Austerity agenda, Paul Ryan and John Boehner and the rest of the GOP are still pushing it 24/7. The latest installment of the pain they have in store for America is called Sequestration and yesterday Rob Zerban, the progressive Democrat who nearly defeated Ryan last November spoke about it to the annual Wisconsin Democratic County Chairs Association in Stevens Point. Rob sounded a lot like what many in Europe fighting back against Austerity sound like. Only the names change:

"Paul Ryan and his right-wing colleagues don’t understand the importance of investing in the American people.

"He recently tried to pin the blame for sequestration on President Obama, but we all know he has been a longtime supporter of these mandatory, arbitrary caps that would be so dangerous to the middle class and our economy.

"Paul Ryan wants to cut, reduce, downsize, marginalize. And that is somehow supposed to make America great? I think America needs to grow, expand, prosper. We can do that by investing in the things that will help our economy grow and making sure that every kid in this country has the same opportunities that I had growing up. Because it sure paid off for me.

"America is supposed to be a place of opportunity. Our country doesn't just exist for the wealthiest people in our nation. It should be a place where those who come from modest means can learn, grow, and contribute to making this country stronger than it is today."

UPDATE ITALIA

What a mess! The lower House went left (not really left, just kind of establishment-left) and the Senate looks like it went right. And the tiebreaker is the party started as a protest movement by a comedian, Beppe Grillo. The EU-- and, perhaps more important, Germany-- want a governing coalition headed by Bersani (the "leftist who isn't) and Monti, the guy the Germans installed last time to implement their Austerity agenda. Italian voters were less sure. So now the operative word is "deadlock," punto morto.

With returns from almost all districts processed, Mr Bersani's centre-left bloc had won 29.57% of the vote for the lower house (Chamber of Deputies) to 29.15% for Mr Berlusconi's bloc.

Mr Grillo's Five Star Movement had 25.54% and the centrist list led by Mario Monti 10.57%. "We've started a war of generations," Mr Grillo said in an audio statement on his website which taunted the leaders of the mainstream parties.

"They are all losers, they've been there for 25 to 30 years and they've led this country to catastrophe."

Mr Bersani was projected initially to win a majority in the Senate, where seats are decided region by region. However, as the results came in, Mr Berlusconi's bloc moved ahead in three of the four key swing regions.

He was set to win in the northern region of Lombardy, as well as the central region of Campania and Sicily.

Mr Bersani has pledged to continue with Mr Monti's reforms but suggests current European policy needs to do more to promote growth and jobs.

The election was called two months ahead of schedule, after Mr Berlusconi's party withdrew its support for Mr Monti's government.

DO DRUGS ACCOUNT FOR WORLD HAPPINESS INDEX RANKINGS?

Or do diminishing IQs make you happy?

Today when I was getting dressed I had CNN on and a screen crawl went by about some kind of world happiness index. The University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research just released a ranking of 97 countries on a "happiness index" (the World Values Survey). The 10 happiest are Denmark, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Iceland, N. Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada, and Austria and the 10 least happy places on earth are Zimbabwe, Armenia, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, Albania, Iraq, Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia. The U.S. was the 16th most happy place on earth. In general, the world is a lot happier than it was 20 years ago. China and India, each of which has experienced gigantic economic growth in the past 2 decades have much happier populations, according to the survey, although I suspect they didn't talk to the millions and millions of "invisible" little dark people who don't have fixed addresses in India.

Contrary to the saying that money can't buy happiness, the people of rich countries tend to be happier than those of poor countries. Improving economies is an important factor in the happiness index rising in an overwhelming majority of countries that have been surveyed from 1981 to 2007, researchers say.

...Researchers say there are other factors at work that are important. Political freedom has increased around the world. And in developed societies, tolerance for ethnic minorities and gays and lesbians is on the upswing, and there is more gender equity.

"The results clearly show that the happiest societies are those that allow people the freedom to choose how to live their lives," said Ronald Inglehart, a U-M political scientist who directs the World Values Survey, in a statement.

Now look at who's happy again and specifically look at countries where there is the least effective social stigma for drug and alcohol use: Denmark, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Iceland, N. Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Canada-- 8 of the top 10. You may have even read that this weekend the Netherlands banned indoor tobacco smoking but kept pot smoking legal-- as long as no one mixes it with tobacco! The big flaw in my theory is the U.S., where cocaine use and marijuana use is highest of any country in the world but where the happiness rank isn't as high as the people. Maybe that's because the legal system responds so harshly. I have to figure that out.

Bigger Then Watergate? MUCH Bigger... Much, Much, Much Bigger

How did Obama allow Russia to set up a hacking operation powerful enough to threaten democracy in France, Holland, Germany, install puppet governments in Hungary, Moldava and Bulgaria and determine the outcome of the presidential election in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio? And why are-- usually investigation-happy-- congressional Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan determined to prevent thorough look into this?

Over the weekend Lindsey Graham (R-SC) unleashed a twitter storm obliquely warning of Russian intentions:

And yesterday, he joined with Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee, John McCain and Jack Reed, to issue a joint statement on the definitive Intelligence agencies assertions that Russia hacked the U.S. elections on behalf of Trump, implying that there is much more than the public has been told about Russian inteference with the election process, interference-- "grave threats... to our national security"-- being covered up by McConnell and Ryan. And by FBI Director James Comey.

Sunday McCain, who referred to Putin as a "thug" and a "killer," said that he will add a new subcommittee to the Senate's Armed Services Committee, dedicating to investigateing Russian hacks and chaired by Lindsey Graham. Ben Cardin, the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was on State of the Union and told Jake Tapper that "We need to find out exactly what has happened. What we do know is that Russia hacked us... What we need to do is have that type of investigation to find out what we should do about Russia... Russia," he repeated 3 times, "is not our friend." He referred to Putin's "corrupt regime" and said that "Whether they were trying to elect Donald Trump... that's something we need to take a look at. We need to find out and then take action."

Meanwhile, Alex Younger, the head of Britain's MI6-- their version of the CIA-- at a first-of-its-kind (for him) press conference at MI6 headquarters, told the press that "the connectivity that is at the heart of globalisation can be exploited by states with hostile intent to further their aims deniably. They do this through means as varied as cyber-attacks, propaganda or subversion of democratic process. The risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty; they should be a concern to all those who share democratic values."

Younger’s comments come after America has accused Vladimir Putin of trying to disrupt its presidential election by hacking political organisations and amid fears Russian spies will also try to undermine upcoming elections in Germany and France.

...Younger said the threat was posed by states “whose very survival owes to the strength of their security capabilities.”

British spies trying to defeat the threat faced complex and risky work “often with the full weight of the state trying to root us out,” he said.

By the way, Trump did not have a massive landslide victory. He lost the popular vote by the biggest number of any president in the modern era-- 65,746,544 (48.2%) for Clinton to just 62,904,682 (46.2%) for himself. 231,556,622 Americans were eligible to vote and 62,904,682 voted for Trump, which is just 28%. That means that 72% of eligible voters chose to not vote for him. That's a massive landslide. And his electoral college win (if they even all vote for him)-- 306 (56.9%) to 232 (43.1%)-- is certainly not a landslide. It was the 46th "biggest" electoral college win out of 58 elections. Compare Trump's win with how presidents did before Russia was permitted to hack elections for their puppet candidate:

If You Want To Take A Trip During The Pandemic, Try Acid Or Peyote

You know I have a travel blog too, right? In early February-- recently back from Thailand and having just canceled a summer trip to the Dordogne region of France-- I wrote a coronavirus travel post, much of it a warning about air travel. Hard to believe only month and a half has passed.

Now we find ourselves in a situation with airlines cancelling flights and governments closing borders and enforcing quarantines. Thousands of Americans are stranded overseas-- Senate Intel chair Richard Burr (R-NC) warned campaign donors but not the public of what was coming-- and the State Department has ruled out rescue flights. Basically, they have no option but to wait, probably for months before they can get home.

On Thursday, the State Department a global Level 4 travel advisory. That's as dire as it gets; there is no Level 5. The State Department is basically telling all Americans not to travel abroad at all and telling Americans who are abroad to either come home immediately-- mostly impossible-- or to "shelter in place." No new passports are being issued other than to people with "life or death emergencies." These are the latest dozen tweets from the Department's travel section-- all from Thursday morning:

• Due to #COVID19 related public health measures, effective March 20, passport agencies will only accept applications from customers with life-or-death emergencies who plan to travel within 72 hours. Some passport acceptance facilities may also suspend services. Due to #COVID19 related operational changes, we will not offer expedited passport service on or after March 20 and routine processing (normally 6-8 weeks) may be delayed. More information
• #Mauritius: Mauritius has barred admission to all travelers, including nationals, as of Mar. 19, GMT. U.S. citizens considering returning to the US are urged to work with their airlines to make travel arrangements while flights are still available. more
• #SouthAfrica: On March 18, South Africa barred admission to travelers who have recently visited the United States, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, and China. All US citizen visitors must have visas prior to arrival to enter. more
• #Croatia: All travelers barred from admission except Croatian citizens returning home, foreign citizens departing to their home countries, diplomats, law enforcement, medical workers, controlled shipments of goods, and others on a case by case basis. more
• #Angola: The Government of Angola announced that all international flights will be cancelled effective March 20. US citizens who are considering returning to the US are urged to work with airlines to make arrangements while flights are still available. more
• #Bulgaria: The Bulgarian government has banned the entry of third-country (non-EU) nationals, including U.S. citizens, into the country from March 20 to April 17. This includes all border crossing points and aviation, maritime, rail, and road. more
• #Laos: The Government of Laos announced the suspension of the issuance of visas on arrival, visas at Lao Diplomatic Missions, and eVisas, as well as visa exemption programs. These restrictions are scheduled to be in place for 30 days starting March 20. more
• #Bermuda: Effective March 20, at 11:59pm, L.F. Wade Airport will close for incoming passenger flights for 2 weeks. Only returning residents will be allowed on flights arriving March 19 & 20. If departing, work with airlines while flights still available. more
• #PapuaNewGuinea: Any traveler who has been to or transited through the United States, or any other restricted place, in the 14 days prior to their intended arrival will not be permitted to enter the country. Other restricted places listed here: more
• #Bermuda: Several airlines have reduced or suspended flight services between Bermuda and the US. US citizens who are considering returning to the United States are urged to work with their airlines to make travel arrangements while flights are available. more
• #Colombia: The Mayor of Bogota announced a drill from March 20-23 during which all people are ordered to stay off the streets or else face possible fines. Additionally, airlines have begun curtailing or ceasing operations in Colombia. more
• #Madagascar: All international flights will be cancelled effective March 20, 2020. The Government of Madagascar has also announced cruise ships may not stop in Madagascar. more

This was from the day before:

#Ethiopia: Rise in anti-foreigner sentiment revolving around the announcement of COVID-19 in Ethiopia. Reports indicate that foreigners have been attacked with stones, denied transportation services, spat on, chased on foot, and accused of being infected. more

As I mentioned Wednesday, Thailand is a heavily tourism-dependent country. Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that "Thailand's government is imposing stricter rules on international travel that require people arriving from all countries to have health certificates stating they do not have the coronavirus, along with medical insurance covering the disease. The measures fall short of the total bans on international flights many countries have enacted, but are expected to sharply cut the number of visitors. Thailand has been reluctant to endanger its large tourism industry, which accounts for about 12% of its economy, according to official figures."

The decision comes just two days after the government announced that medical certificates and insurance would be required only for people arriving from “disease infected zones”-- South Korea, China, Macao, Hong Kong, Italy and Iran-- or who had visited "ongoing local transmission areas"-- the United States, parts of Japan, Britain and eight other European countries.

The health certificates now required for all arrivals must be issued within 72 hours of departure, and the insurance must cover $100,000 in medical costs.

Thai citizens also need to have health certificates but not insurance policies. In addition they will have to self-quarantine for 14 days. Quarantine rules for arriving foreigners remain unclear.

"Today we are trying to block those who bring the disease into Thailand, so that's why I tell you that everyone who is about to enter Thailand should have a health certificate," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said. "That is an extension from four countries and two territories, but today we need it from every country as we attempt to control the outbreak in the country and lower the number of infected people as much as we can.

" Thailand on Thursday reported 60 new confirmed cases of the virus, bringing its total to 272. It has registered one death and discharged 42 recovered patients.

On Tuesday the government announced a raft of measures to combat the virus, including postponing a major holiday and shutting down schools nationwide. Provincial governors have been empowered to close venues where people gather, including massage parlors, entertainment places, gyms and sports venues. The popular tourist destination of Phuket on Thursday joined Bangkok and other provinces in applying such restrictions.

Postponing the annual public holiday of Songkran is meant to discourage the gathering and movement of large numbers of people. Millions of Thais normally travel from the big cities where they work to their hometowns during the three-day holiday to celebrate the traditional New Year. It will be rescheduled later this year.

Egypt is also heavily dependent on tourism (3rd biggest source of income)-- or at least they were until the industry evaporated entirely. The airports are shut down and the tourism minister announced he expects to lose a billion dollars a month for as long as there is an emergency situation.

On Wednesday, Forbes' travel write Christopher Elliott tried to look into the future of travel post-coronavirus but starts off with the absurd assumption that things may be headed back to normal in May. And he isn't the only one living in a fantasy world of everything getting back to normal.

Bill Patton wants to know what travel will be like after coronavirus. He and his family of 10 are headed to Antibes, France, in late May to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They've tried to cancel because of the coronavirus, but so far neither their airline or their vacation rental company will offer a refund.

"Our doctor advises we do not travel under the coronavirus conditions," says Patton, who is 76 and has a history of diabetes, allergies and asthma.

So what will France be like in May? What will travel be like after the coronavirus peaks? Will anyone be traveling at all?

A new survey suggests travel is alive and well. More than half of Americans (58%) are planning to travel between May and September 2020, as long as their destinations aren't in quarantine. But they're being careful. A quarter of participants will try to avoid big cities and public transportation, and 21% will choose domestic travel, according to the survey conducted by LuggageHero.

"Demand will come back stronger than ever once the situation is over," says Jannik Lawaetz, LuggageHero's CEO.

Here's how people will travel after the coronavirus:

1- They'll stay in the country. International travel will fall out of favor as people stay closer to the safety of home.

2- They won't travel far from home. "Staycations" and road trips will be favored over flying or cruising.

3- They'll make it quick. A softer economy will mean the traditional two-week summer vacation could turn into a long weekend. 

What will my destination be like this spring?

I know what Southern France is like now because I'm there.

I detoured to Nice, France, on my way to Italy and found an apartment on Vrbo to wait out the virus. It was a little scary at first. All the cafés and restaurants closed. There are police checkpoints in the streets.

But there's also a sense of normalcy and perspective that seems to be lacking in the United States. After all, France has survived its fair share of pandemics and world wars. People here are taking this crisis in stride and are confident it will be over soon-- certainly by the time Patton and his family arrive here.

The borders to Europe are closed for the next 30 days in an effort to contain the coronavirus. After that, things will probably return to normal quickly. By May, Patton and his family might really need that vacation in southern France.

For anyone else with spring travel plans, experts say the outlook is pretty decent. If the borders open up, your destination will happily welcome you.

But that's a big "if."

Will the travel industry come back from coronavirus?

Ask experts and they'll tell you that travel will come back quickly. Probably faster than anyone expects.

"Despite the challenges, it won’t be this way forever," says John Lovell, president of leisure travel and supplier relations and networks at Travel Leaders Group. "Travel and tourism is a highly resilient industry that has come back again and again from diseases and natural disasters."

Industry watchers like Lovell predict a quick bounce back for tourism, despite the current doom-and-gloom headlines. They point out that travel rebounded quickly after other pandemics and disasters, including 9/11.

"You have to assess your own risk tolerance, take reasonable and prudent precautions, and make smart decisions about your travel," he adds. "Right now, there are amazing travel deals to destinations all over the world."

What will travel be like after coronavirus?

Chances are, your destination will immediately begin an aggressive coronavirus recovery program the moment the "all clear" signal is given. That's the prediction of Wayne Smith, chairman of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the College of Charleston.

"Most destinations will institute a recovery strategy in which discounts may be a part of the overall enticement to return to travel," he says.

But don't look for deep discounts. Smith says the best strategies may not necessarily have cheaper prices but to offer more value.

"Examples I have seen in the past would be a hotel offering free meals with room purchase and maybe even packaging in attraction tickets," he says. "Instead of looking for the cheapest price, I would be looking for the best value. There are going to be plenty of high-value travel packages available."

Some parts of the travel industry might not survive

But it'll be a difficult, and maybe impossible, recovery for parts of the travel industry.

"It's going to be a long recovery," says Sophie Anderson, a marketing manager at Cruise Agency Australia, an Australian travel agency that specializes in cruises. "There are going to be collapses and bankruptcies when it's all over. At least one or two cruise lines might finally sink."

Anderson says for consumers there will be a silver lining-- cruises will be a bargain for the foreseeable future. Of course, if airlines, hotels and cruise lines start to go under, the lower prices will be irrelevant.

That's the most long-lasting-- and potentially disruptive-- effect on travel. Coronavirus will almost certainly claim several well-known travel brands, according to experts.

Yes, even with government bailouts. It's inevitable.

"History tells us that there will be fewer players in the wake of this event," says Paul Metselaar, chairman of Ovation Travel Group. "In the United Kingdom, we have already seen the demise of Flybe, and other carriers are at risk. It is entirely plausible that there will be other casualties in other segments as well.

Here are a few tips for traveling after the coronavirus outbreak

No question about it, people will travel after the coronavirus. But how?

Look for deals but focus on value. Assuming the coronavirus crisis is over, don't hesitate to book if you find a bargain for late spring or summer. But don't focus exclusively on price. Instead, look at the overall value of the deal. Are they throwing in attraction tickets or including meals?

Focus on longevity. Stay away from too-good-to-be-true offers from unknown operators. Chances are, these are fire sales from desperate companies on the verge of bankruptcy. Focus on well-known brands that are financially stable.

Consider travel insurance. A reputable insurance policy will protect you if an operator goes out of business. If you can't find a good policy, use a credit card to make your purchase. It can also offer protections from financial insolvency.

Bottom line: Travel will continue after the coronavirus outbreak. The industry will return sooner than you think, and with some great deals.

That swell bottom line ending indicates that Mr. Elliott, in all likelihood, takes free trips and hotel stays from the travel industry.

Chris Martenson didn't record his invaluable daily report today but his Peak Prosperity partner did a decent job on their home lockdown survival guide. So well worth watching: