Avuncular American

Coup anniversaries: Algeria 1992, US Capitol 2021

Soviet era BMP tank

Thirty years ago today, tanks filed past our window at the American consulate in Oran, Algeria's second city.  We'd put the kids to bed, said good night to our dinner guests, when I noticed that there was unusual traffic noise just below.  It was surreal: a tank was maneuvering to make a U-turn just in front of our venerable building.  Up and down the boulevard, a line of tanks and APCs.  Algeria's coup ousting its president, overturning an election, and jailing the winners was underway... triggering a bloody civil war that lasted a decade.  January 11, 1992: see LA Times report.

The January 6 anniversary of the Trump attempt to overturn the U.S. presidential election is barely over, but articles and interviews with scholars of authoritarianism, of democracy-ending regimes, and of civil wars continue to remind us that the danger has not passed.

Barbara Walter, a University of California San Diego political scientist who was part of a study commissioned by the CIA to identify precursors to political violence in other countries, has started to see some of the main signs in her own country.  Her podcast in the New Yorker makes sober listening.

I am not suggesting that the actual coup by the Algerian military, leading to a decade-long civil war that killed hundreds of thousands is akin to the attempted "constitutional" coup by defeated president Trump and his supporters culminating in the violence of January 6, 2021.  That embarrassing fiasco is being dealt with by the January 6 House Select Committee and by the Justice Department.  But Professors Walters' principal points - that civil wars are preceded by demonization of the opposing side and that the breakdown of democracy is a precursor to violence - make me very concerned about the Algerian "model" and its relevance to the US.

Contrary to the US, Algeria had no long history of democracy, and prior to the brief window of free elections in 1990 and 1991, it was always a foregone conclusion that the governing FLN party would win.  Until it didn't - twice losing to the Islamist party FIS in the country's first fair elections.  And it was the fear on the part of the privileged elite -- the army and oligarchs who'd been benefiting from Algeria's oil and gas riches -- that democracy would end their decades-long kleptocracy, which precipitated the coup.  After the ensuing bloodshed, they tried to rewrite history and made noises about the threat of "democratic terrorism" to justify their action.

In the US, we have a political party, the Republicans, which works to stoke fears of the end of privilege by a white, rural population on its way to becoming a demographic minority.  In state after state, laws are being put in place to cement minority rule through elections that will be tilted in their favor.  And political demonization has gotten literal, with Congressional and other prominent Republicans mouthing Q-Anon crazy talk about Democratic politicians.  Death threats against elected officials are in their thousands, and we've already seen in 2020 armed militias threaten state capitols.

"It could never happen here" is something that fewer Americans say with any certainty.  That's what I'm thinking about today, the anniversary of when I witnessed a "successful" coup.

Save our (overseas) US citizens - with Covid vaccine

Apple stock photo

Hey Biden administration: here's a soft diplomacy, old-fashioned goodwill way to win hearts and minds among foreign countries in need of Covid vaccine, AND, while we're at it, help overseas American citizens, some of whom are desperate about getting vaccinated.

It's what China is doing for its citizens:

The Associated Press says China had donated 500,000 doses, and Thailand then agreed to vaccinate Chinese expats. Around 150,000 Chinese nationals live in Thailand. “Spring Sprout” launched in March and so far, more than 500,000 Chinese nationals in more than 120 countries have been inoculated, according to the country’s official People’s Daily newspaper.

Here's the key phrase: "China had donated 500,000 doses, and Thailand then agreed to vaccinate Chinese expats."  Get it?  The US could easily do the same.  Win win, quid pro quo (not in the bad, Trump sense, but in the national and diplomatic interests of the United States).  We help your country, and in return you help our citizens.

The need is real, and it's urgent.  Full disclosure: my older brother is a longtime resident of Bangkok, and he's alerted me to the problem, including the efforts of expat Americans (a nod to Democrats Abroad Thailand) to lobby for help from the US government.  In this NPR report, I find that last week's response by White House press secretary Jen Psaki completely misses the point:

"We have not historically provided private health care for Americans living overseas, so that remains our policy."

Does administering millions of doses free of charge to Americans living on US soil amount to the provision of "private health care?"  I thought it was just sensible public health policy during a deadly pandemic.  And if it makes sense domestically, wouldn't it also be sensible internationally?  Aren't American expats part of the herd, so to speak?

A year ago, at the outset of the pandemic, the State Department pulled out all the stops to Bring#AmericansHome.  And proudly trumpeted (no pun intended, though I am surprised at myself for giving this credit to the previous administration)...  From June 2020:

"Our nation’s diplomats are serving on the front lines of the global COVID-19 pandemic as international first responders, as they have for 200 years. Their priority is to protect American citizens abroad during crises and bring them home, or repatriate them, if needed. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo initiated the social media hashtag #AmericansHome to signal his support for these heroic behind-the-scenes efforts. As of June 1, the State Department has repatriated more than 98,000 American citizens during the pandemic."

So how about somebody (Secretary Blinken - hint) coming up with a new hashtag, like "Bringing#AmericansVaccine?"  Not only is it the right thing to do, but it would be the smart thing.  Let's not forget this:

"Absentee ballots (domestic, overseas and military) were requested by far more Democrats than Republicans in the 2020 election. Democrats Abroad estimates that approximately 1.8 million eligible American voters living abroad received ballots in the 2020 election."

I daresay that many of those taxpaying, voting overseas US citizens would appreciate a little lifesaving recognition in their hour of need.

More disclosure: I live in Brussels, and have received my first vaccine shot, thanks to the European Union/Belgian government program.

My stamp suppression story

Listening to some furious questioning of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, let me tell you my own story of a lesser known DeJoy "improvement" since he took over the US Postal Service.  It's the story of me wanting to order "PhotoStamps" with the message on my mask, at left.  "I Voted By Mail."

The design of my face mask was done with the express goal of broadcasting the message that voting by mail might need to be the default option in the face of a pandemic whose virus has already been shown to infect voters who show up in person (see: Wisconsin primary).  Duh.  Thought that would be a simple message.

So I remembered that the US Postal Service ran a Photo Stamp program, where for the past 15 years, people could upload their own pictures of dogs, cats, Christmas trees, whatever.  And produce their own custom postage stamps to use for their mail.  My plan: I would use my face mask design and order First Class stamps (since I live overseas, I planned to have them shipped to family and friends in the States for their use).  I thought, maybe the idea would catch on and go viral.  Stamps emblazoned with the message "I Voted By Mail," how appropriate, how timely!

But when I went to finalize my order on the USPS website, the system just froze.  I wrote to the USPS help desk, but by the time I received their response, it was to inform me that the program had just been discontinued: 

Sadly, the U.S. Postal Service has ended its customized postage program and we are no longer able to offer PhotoStamps. All of us at Stamps.com would like to thank you for 15 memorable years and all your amazing PhotoStamps. From weddings to baby announcements to birthdays to grand openings, It's been our great honor to be a small part of your life through PhotoStamps. Your creativity, kindness and loyalty never ceased to amaze us. Thank you for the memories. It's been our pleasure to serve you.

I was disappointed, and cursed my timing.  But I didn't realize this: the Photo Stamps program ended just as Louis DeJoy began his job as Postmaster General on June 16, 2020.  So, a money-making operation that was very popular with stamp collectors, business people who wanted to use something other than a franking machine, and famously, TV comedian and activist John Oliver as a way of raising funds for a beleaguered USPS, was unceremoniously scrapped.

As I write this, the House Oversight Committee grilling of DeJoy continues.  No one will bring up this little discontinued Photo Stamp service, which only brought in $15 million in revenue in its last year.  And the stakes are so much higher than me getting my "face mask" stamps printed.  But the message is important, and so is the action that Congress - and American citizens and voters - need to take.  One suggestion for August 25 - tomorrow - at your local post office, brought to you by the American Postal Workers Union:

Aug 25 #SaveThePostOffice Day of Action

I rest my case.  Waiting now for House Oversight member AOC to use her ace questioning skills on Mr. DeJoy...

Democracy 2018: The 3,000 county strategy

http://lachazedepeyre.fr/election-presidentielle/

Are the Russians coming - back?  Just 10 months to go before the November midterm elections.  Don't count on Twitter Man to do anything about countering renewed Russian interference; he won't even admit to their tampering in the 2016 election.  More on that later.

Over a dozen years ago, Democrats launched the "50 State Strategy," an effort to rebuild from the grass roots.  Too soon to tell whether this will pay off in November, but early signs from Alabama and Virginia are encouraging.

But it really is more than 50 states.  When you realize that every single one of the United States' 3,142 counties (or parishes in Louisiana) run their own electoral system, the amount of organizing becomes prodigious.

Or how about a "117,000 polling place strategy?"  That's the number from the US Election Assistance Commission, which says that it's increasingly difficult to recruit and retain the some 900,000 poll workers deployed.  Most of whom are senior citizens, with a quarter of them aged 70 or more.

Now, I'm not saying that the front line against the KGB is composed of septuagenarians.  But the seven or eight poll workers per voting station have plenty on their minds dealing with the long lines of people who manage to make time on a Tuesday in November, squeezing in their democratic duty between the windows of going to work or school before polls open, or joining the last minute voters in the hours after work before polls close.

Why are the lines so long?  In some cases, it's for reasons of voter suppression.  Pesky minorities or young people might vote Democratic, so why not close polling places where they live?  In 2016, hundreds of such polling places were eliminated.

The American Way of Voting - always a working day, as opposed to weekend voting in most advanced democracies - is somewhat of a mess in the best of times, and the doubts about the reliability of the myriad systems in place among the 3,000 plus counties are compounded when you throw Russian meddling into the mix.  Money would help: two Democratic members of Congress have proposed using the $400 million left over from the 2002 Help America Vote Act to improve the security of electoral infrastructure.

That illustration at the beginning of this post?  It may be the best chance of beating hacking and manipulation by hostile foreign powers.  Yes, the very modern French use transparent plexiglass urns for all of their elections, with a paper trail consisting of... paper ballots.  And somehow, this works like magic, so much so that the results are tabulated nationwide and are announced at the outset of the evening news at 8:00 PM, without fail.

Don't count on the White House "Election Integrity Commission" for help; it is open to hacking, apart from its obvious slant in favor of voter suppression efforts.  UPDATE January 4: the White House just announced the dissolution of the Commission. 

So, what will it take, Congress, to make this the top bipartisan national priority, right now?  $400 million is a good start, and maybe trading in hackable voting machines for some clear plexiglass boxes?

It's that, or letting this man cast the deciding vote.  Your choice.

(image at right from The Daily Mail)

 

100 Days of Inaptitude

Apologies to Gabriel García Márquez ("100 Years of Solitude") for the title of this post.  Trump's first 100 days have been anything but literature, unless you're into comic books.  I found "words that end in tude" thanks to Freedictionary.com, and I was tempted to use "crassitude" or even "turpitude."  God knows there's been a daily dose of crass, and the turpitude, well, the FBI is looking into that.

But inaptitude, connoting unfitness, seemed particularly apt.  (Not to be confused with ineptitude, though there's been a fair amount of that too).

If we've learned one thing since January 20, it is that the Orange One is spectacularly unfit for the office of President.  And yet, he is (President, that is).  And he's unhappy that the "ridiculous" yardstick of 100 days in office is being applied to his record thus far.  However, who set the 100 day goal?  From donaldjtrump.com, the "100 day Action Plan"

The list ends with "This is my pledge to you."  Oh well, so who's counting?  I personally hope some of these things take a 1,000 days, or maybe never ("cancel billions in payments to UN climate change programs").

House of Un-American Hyperactivity

There was a time, weeks that seem like eons ago, when the White House was the very symbol of American steadfastness, stability, and respectability.  Many of us mourn the departure of Barack Obama from the premises, but it had to happen, we knew it would happen.  And Kennedy's "Camelot" was of course never such a thing, only a myth that became all the more romanticized once it all ended in Dallas.  In all the political dramas and thrillers we've seen on the screen, the White House is that pillar that exemplifies the United States.  Until, as in Mars Attacks! or Independence Day, aliens come to blast the place to smithereens.

Or, as with the current denizen of the place (on most weekdays), he turns it into something unrecognizable, a White House of Un-American Activities.

Upside down White House in Wisconsin Dells, photo by almiruh

There's no point in enumerating all the executive orders and declarations (bet you didn't know that Inauguration Day is now the National Day of Patriotic Devotion).  Some of them, like his Muslim Ban, are in a state of suspended animation, declared unconstitutional by Federal courts and under appeal by the Trump administration.  The Ban created such a worldwide uproar that it diverted attention from equally nefarious moves, like the elevation of conspiracy theorist Stephen Bannon to the National Security Council (and utter confusion over the role of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence, the experts and "adults in the room").

Then there's the sneaky little order - his very first, in the hours after his swearing in - where Trump the Populist added millions of dollars to the mortgages of American home owners.  Another, signed with some fanfare to the applause of lobbyists and brokers, makes transparency for Mom & Pop investments in retirement plans more opaque and could cost them billions.

Newt Gingrich, when he called last year for a reinstatement of the McCarthy era House Un-American Activities Committee or HUAC, had other things in mind of course.  For him, and for Trump, "un-American" activities are those done by immigrants, foreigners, judges and Democrats (probably).  When we know that the real un-American is Mr. President, who has already turned his back on all that is decent about the country, and who has become the one-man symbol, the world over, of rapaciousness and misogyny.  Thanks to Mr. Trump, we all know about narcissism and the ravages of sociopaths.  But until now, none of their ranks made it to the Oval Office.

So what to do?  Certainly not tweet or like or share your disdain for this man and his dangerous coterie of courtiers.  Or, do all of that, but first register to vote, and then vote in every single election for the next four years and more.  Complaining without consequent, effective action is not acceptable.

In the great World War II movie The Guns of Navarone, the Gregory Peck character, all angry righteousness, says to a cynical David Niven:

"You think you've been getting away with it all this time, standing by. Well, son... your bystanding days are over! You're in it now, up to your neck!"

Yes, "standing by" and not turning out to vote (at least in sufficient numbers in the right places) got us Donald Trump in the White House.  We're in it, up to our necks, and only we can get ourselves out of it.

Anne Frank, essential reading in these times

In the wake of the November US election, we happened to spend several days in Amsterdam.  One of my must-sees was the Anne Frank House, where one of the world's most read authors hid with her family from the Nazis from 1942 until they were captured and sent to concentration camps in 1944.

So many millions of people around the world read Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" as part of their school curriculum.  I hadn't, so I finally made up for it.  Since we know how the story ends, it's a heartbreaking glimpse into the hopes and fears of an aspiring teenage writer.  You dread that final diary entry.  And in the gift shop, I bought a diary with the same binding and plaid cover that Anne used.

Why? Because the story of this innocent girl, whose only "crime" that she was born a Jew, speaks volumes to our times.  I started my diary entries on the train back to Brussels, determined that I would write during these times that bode very ill for all that is decent and civilized.

Anne never got around to writing daily entries, and I'm even less diligent.  But we all should chronicle our reactions, and register our objections.  And not just in a diary.

As the assault on the weak gets fully underway by the bullies who are increasingly able to rise to power, people need to do everything they can to protect democracy.  Register to vote, and help others to do so too.  Contact elected representatives to ensure that the framework of a civilized democracy is not dismantled.

The Anne Frank Declaration, signed by world leaders from Nelson Mandela to Bill Clinton:

"Because prejudice and hatred harm us all, I declare that:

• I will stand up for what is right and speak out against what is unfair and wrong
• I will try to defend those who cannot defend themselves
• I will strive for a world in which our differences will make no difference - a world in which everyone is treated fairly and has an equal chance in life"

Today January 27 is Holocaust Memorial Day.  Anne Frank's father Otto was among those liberated by Soviet forces from Auschwitz death camp on this day in 1944.  He was the only survivor of those who hid in the "Secret Annex" in Amsterdam, and made his daughter's message his life's work.

Anne Frank died in Bergen-Belsen in 1945, just a month or so before the camp's liberation.  We now know that her father had unsuccessfully attempted to gain entry into the United States for the Frank family.

- - - - -

Update: The above post was written before we learned that the Trump White House declaration on the Holocaust specifically avoided stating that Jews were singled out for annihilation by the Nazis.  Many have seen "Holocaust Denial Lite" and the work of the far right in this omission.  On the same day, of course, Trump signed his Muslim Ban executive order, setting off a firestorm of protest worldwide and triggering unprecedented opposition from within his own executive branch, as well as judicial judgements deeming his actions unconstitutional.  What a way to honor the Anne Franks of 1945 and 2017.

Appel du 20 janvier

[Sorry, anglophones, but I had to write this one in French, an attempt to get it published in the Belgian press today.  Since that didn't happen, my readers get to see it here.]

Ceci a été inspiré par l'excellent "Appel aux Américains libres" d'Antoine Buéno, sur France Inter à la suite de l'élection du 8 novembre dernier aux Etats-Unis.  Ma tribune n'est pas drôle comme le podcast, mais s'adresse aux européens qui s'inquiètent - comme beaucoup d'américains - en ce 20 janvier 2017.

Appel du 20 janvier: un américain parle aux européens

Si aujourd'hui, vous vous êtes réveillé avec une vague angoisse, c'est peut-être en connaissance du fait qu'à la fin de journée, l'adulte intelligent qu'est le président Barack Obama sera remplacé par Donald Trump. Après la cérémonie d'investiture, le déni ne sera plus possible; Trump investit la Maison Blanche. Que faire?

Pour les américains ayant voté pour Hillary Clinton - près de 3 millions de plus que les électeurs du candidat républicain - Trump représente le plus grand clivage politique que le pays ait connu depuis la fin de la guerre civile en 1865. Certes, la Grande Dépression anéantit quasiment l'économie américaine dans les années trente, mais il n'y eut pas de véritable poussée extrémiste. Il y eut bien des charlatans engagés dans la politique, mais ils n'accédèrent jamais à la présidence. Des présidents médiocres aussi, mais jamais à la tête d'une superpuissance mondiale et nucléaire.

Quand il faut se référer aux magazines de psychologie pour essayer de comprendre un président ultra-narcissique, il y a problème: une dichotomie dans notre fascination pour Trump. Nous ne pouvons nous empêcher de regarder, tout en nous moquant du style "Louis Farouk", les photos des appartements couverts de dorures de la Trump Tower. L'internet nous inonde des sorties incessantes de Trump. Mais il ne faut pas nous laisser intimider par sa dernière tirade publiée sur Twitter; il dira sans doute le contraire demain. Gare aussi à ceux qui se contentent de se gausser du comportement bouffonesque de cette ex-star de télé-réalité. Aujourd'hui, il est président.

Aux Etats-Unis, la résistance à tout ce que représente Trump s'organisera surtout au niveau local. Ces villes qui passent des lois en faveur d'un salaire minimum décent, ces états qui continuent à installer panneaux solaires ou éoliennes face au réchauffement de la planète, nié par Trump. A Washington, la minorité démocrate au Sénat va peiner à restreindre la vague de nominations d'idéologues ou d'acolytes peu qualifiés aux postes les plus importants, où la tendance Trump est de mettre le loup dans la bergerie (un avocat des plus grandes banques d'investissement pour "contrôler" Wall Street; un promoteur de toutes les énergies fossiles à l'agence pour la protection de l'environnement, etc.). Le plus grand défi pour les Démocrates: préserver l'héritage des présidents Roosevelt, Johnson, et Obama, pour sauvegarder les acquis en matière de droits civiques, de pension vieillesse et d'assurance santé, ciblés de longue date par le parti républicain.

Et l'Europe, que peut-elle faire pour assurer que le choix malheureux d'une minorité des électeurs américains ne pénalise pas l'Europe et n'affaiblisse pas les institutions issues de la deuxième guerre mondiale? Si Trump approuve le Brexit, c'est son affaire, et ses commentaires anti-Union Européenne devraient inciter les pays membres à lui répondre "None of your business". Et barrer la route à ceux qui veulent imiter Trump ce côté-ci de l'Atlantique.

Les propos de Trump sur l'OTAN - il traite l'alliance atlantique d'obsolète, et a fait comprendre que la mise en oeuvre de l'Article V définissant la stratégie de défense commune en cas d'attaque serait assujettie à une participation financière accrue - ces propos devraient inciter les chefs d'état et de gouvernement européens à resserrer leurs liens. Non seulement à défendre l'OTAN (et à rappeler à Trump que l'Article V fut invoqué pour la première fois au lendemain des attaques du 11 septembre 2001, quand l'OTAN mobilisa des avions AWACS pour défendre les Etats Unis), mais aussi à renforcer une défense strictement européenne.

Ready or not, here he comes

This is it.  Tomorrow, January 20, is Inauguration Day in the United States, and you know what that means.  Donald Trump will change his acronym from PEOTUS to POTUS.  With that title go other titles like Commander in Chief, and unofficial ones like "leader of the free world."

Let's see if he comes to deserve them.  President Barack Obama famously said "words matter," so let's see if Mr. Trump, once he starts signing his name on White House stationery, can think before he tweets, or can link words to consequences.

Robin Wright in the New Yorker, writing about her conversations with diplomats in Washington trying to interpret Trump for their capitals, presents their dilemma: “Every day I send back the same cable saying, ‘We don’t really know’" what to make of Trump's pronouncements.  Friends are confounded and dumbfounded, foes can't believe their dumb luck.

How can you lead anything, like NATO for example, when you call the organization both "obsolete" and "important" in the same sentence?

When I wrote on November 9, the day after the 2016 presidential election, that we needed to bone up on our history books (especially one about the upset election by a minority German vote-getter who came to power in 1933), many readers wrote to share their concerns.

One referred to the next four years as the "new season of Presidential Apprentice," and several had awakened thinking that it was all a nightmare (see Nicolas Vadot's nice "Nightmare before Christmas 2016" dedication on my copy of his book).  Some admitted to crying, they were so distraught at this hard-right turn in American politics.  An Englishman, talking to Brexiteers who expressed solidarity with Trump voters, said he felt like a liberal in Munich in the 1930s.  And from Germany, someone who saw Stephen Bannon, the "alt-right" presidential counselor, as "the American Julius Streicher," the rabid anti-Semite who was judged at Nuremberg.  My book review apparently wasn't the only reminder of analogies with the dangers of the 1930s: Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, his 1935 novel on the rise of a crass, nativist populist in America, sold out on Amazon after the November 2016 election.

Only one reader (not an American voter) thought I had gone too far in the 1932-2016/Germany-US comparison.  He felt that Trump had some useful observations on the dangers of globalization, and on improving relations with Russia (more on that below).  Another, an American historian of 20th century Europe, took solace in the "checks and balances" in America that didn't exist in Thirties Germany.

Now, on those potential safeguards, a word of caution: given the collection of Trump appointees to head agencies and departments that they have a proven record of opposing (Rick Perry, named to the Energy Department, famously said he wanted it abolished - but couldn't remember its name), and the unseemly speed to confirm them before they even complete vetting procedures, can anyone seriously believe that his own party will provide checks and/or balance?  Despite winning a minority of the popular vote, Trump shows no inclination whatsoever to govern cautiously.  On the contrary, he sees his Electoral College victory as a landslide, and he and his party are pushing full steam ahead on ramming through appointees and policies that often are the antithesis of his own supposed "populist" campaign blather.  I would truly like to know if those who chose to regard Trump's election with equanimity have been reassured by anything he's said or done in the past two months.

And on that Russia thing... can anyone, given the overwhelming evidence of Russian meddling in the American presidential elections, still believe that Trump can be trusted to foster American interests - NATO and Western security - when dealing with Russia?  The man never misses a chance to praise Putin, for God's sake.  And Trump puts him on a par with Angela Merkel - seriously?

This may upset the reader who objects to my Thirties analogies, but there was another politician back then who promised great things: "Give me four years, and you will not recognize Germany." We know how that ended.

Be careful what you ask for.

Obamas, it's not farewell

 

Spot the orange-haired PEOTUS

How to say it?  Like the Von Trapp family in The Sound of Music, in a selection of languages?  If so, then it's not with the finality of adieu, but rather a cheerier au revoir to President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle, and the two first daughters.  These are the people who, in 2008, inspired the world (and some Cajuns who sang "Oui on peut") with Yes We Can.

We want to see them again, and we'll need them in the coming years.  Not in another Dynasty saga à la Bush or Clinton families (in any case, Michelle has ruled out running for office), and the post-Franklin Roosevelt 22nd Amendment long ago ended any possibility of more than two terms for Barack.  But as living references to an America that is decent, and one that represents what the future of America can be, after it has its fling with a 70 year old spoiled rich kid for the next 4 years.

As Brussels-based Nicolas Vadot entitled his end-of-year collection of political cartoons, Barack, Tu nous manqueras! (Barack, We'll miss you!), it's going to be hard not having an intelligent, articulate gentleman in the Oval Office amidst all the chaos besetting the world.  And a First Lady who is at least as intelligent, articulate, and who carved out such a special role as a presidential spouse who connected with Americans of all ages, classes, and origins.  "More than a "Mom-in-Chief" is how The Guardian described what Michelle Obama achieved.

Here's a moving collage of video clips, from children to celebrities, on their "Obama Moment."

Next Friday, Inauguration Day, while the nation and the world watch the ceremony in Washington, Americans living abroad will gather for "Thank you Obama" vigils

To show support for the principles of democracy and to thank the outgoing Obama Administration and U.S. Embassy & Consular officials for their service during the past eight years, steering the country through numerous economic and geopolitical challenges, improving our foreign relations and standing in the world community.

Nice idea, and a way of stressing the positive in the face of what millions in the US and across the world see as an unmitigated disaster, the transition of PEOTUS (President-Elect) to POTUS of one Donald Trump, AKA "@realDonaldTrump" to his Twitter fans.

In 2008, I labored in Brussels as spokesman for Democrats Abroad Belgium, appearing in a number of debates, sparring with my Republican counterpart on TV and radio, for the successful campaign of Barack Obama.  Ditto for the campaign of Hillary Clinton in 2016.  Had Hillary's 3 million vote lead in the popular vote translated to a win (as it would have been in any country not burdened with an 18th century anachronism called the Electoral College), my "It's okay to be an American again" fridge magnet would have lost none of its shine.  But I'm afraid that in the next four years (God forbid it last any longer than that!), it's going to be hunkering down time for Americans abroad.  Few want to be associated with the America that allowed Mr. Trump to come anywhere near the White House.

Yes, Barack, we will indeed miss you.  Stick around, please, and remain the conscience of a better America.