DL Open Thread: Thursday, December 22, 2022

There ya’ go.  Hatred becomes institutionalized when people who should be institutionalized go viral.

Zelenskyy & Biden. Perfect Together:

“We understand in our bones that Ukraine’s fight is part of something bigger,” Biden said in a joint news conference with Zelenskyy, amid Christmas decorations in the East Room. “The American people know that if we stand by in the face of such blatant attacks on liberty and democracy and the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, the world would surely face worse consequences.”

Trump/Biden: Extorter/Supporter.

Everything You Wanted To Know About ‘Honorary Consuls’ And ‘Shadow Diplomats’. If, that is, you even know what they are. Which I didn’t:

Shumake was among at least 500 current and former honorary consuls in the United States and around the world who have been implicated in criminal investigations or other controversies — including scores named to their posts despite past convictions or other red flags, ProPublica and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists disclosed in a series of stories this year.

Reports of exploitation, scandal and criminal behavior by the little-known volunteer diplomats have surfaced for years. But the vast majority of governments have failed to strengthen oversight or press to reform the international law that protects thousands of honorary consuls worldwide, a new review found.

All told, the “Shadow Diplomats” investigation identified criminal or controversial consuls connected to at least 168 governments, including Russia, which has leveraged the system to install dozens of pro-Kremlin advocates on foreign soil as a soft-power strategy.

ProPublica and ICIJ identified more than 150 current and former consuls accused or convicted of tax evasion, fraud, bribery, corruption or money laundering. Nearly 60 were tied to drug or weapons offenses, at least 20 others to violent crimes and 10 to environmental abuses. Thirty honorary consuls have been sanctioned by the United States and other governments; nine have been linked to terrorist groups by law enforcement and governments. Once accused, dozens of consuls have invoked their status to avoid prosecution, police inquiries or fines.

Which reminds me: Have you contributed to ProPublica, Mother Jones, The Guardian, and/or your favorite independent journalistic sources yet? They’ve all got year-end deadlines which determine next year’s budgets.  Please do.  We need them.

American PR Firm Sanitizes Saudi Arabia’s Rep.  Money talks, and the Saudi prince has an unlimited supply of that:

Over that same period, however, the picture presented by the Saudi government to influential American audiences has been brightened with the help of key contractors, including Edelman. Since Khashoggi’s murder, the powerful PR firm has received or is contracted to receive $9.6m (£7.9m) in fees from Saudi government agencies and companies controlled by the regime, according to a Guardian analysis of US Department of Justice documents made available by the watchdog group OpenSecrets.

Most of Edelman’s work for the regime has focused on rehabilitating its reputation in the United States, an effort that the kingdom had begun before Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents. In February 2020, Edelman registered as a foreign agent representing the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, a chemicals manufacturer that is majority owned by the government, to promote the “Business 20” gathering of executives, which took place that year in Riyadh.

The work, which was directed at American audiences and was projected to net Edelman more than $5.6m (£4.6m) in fees, included sending regular press releases that celebrated topics such as “mainstreaming women in business” and “doubling down efforts to empower women and youth”. One release featured a quote from Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, who “commend[ed] the B20 Saudi Arabia’s deep commitment to the empowerment of women”, including an “inclusive policy development process” that she hoped would “remain as one of the Saudi presidency’s lasting legacies”. The Saudi regime continues to imprison women’s rights activists, sometimes sentencing them to decades in prison for posting tweets critical of the government.

What do you want to talk about?