Showing posts with label Barton Swaim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barton Swaim. Show all posts

Friday, September 4, 2020

A Final End To White Male Grievance Support of Trump? Maybe Now After He Dismissed Fallen Troops As 'Suckers' & 'Losers'





"It doesn't matter much whether Trump is crazy, crazy like a fox, an incompetent boob who keeps getting lucky - or all three. What matters greatly is stopping him now before it is too late.  This is a tipping point, a time of trial for the soul of America.  We will protect our democracy from Trump's frontal assault or we will lose it."  - Allen Francis, 'The Twilight Of American Sanity', p. 101.


"How dare this guy make such comments when he, his kids, and the rest of the whole Trump clan never served one minute in the military, or the Peace Corps,  or sacrificed for this country in any capacity.

This guy Trump is disgusting and those who continue to support him are in the same category.  We are now in a new low in this country when we tolerate degrading the very people who sacrificed their lives to defend our country."  - Stan Hrincevich, Denver Post letters, Sunday, Aug. 6


"Donald Trump has falsely told us that only 9,000 people have died of the coronavirus in the United States, that shooting an unarmed man in the back seven times is like a bad putt at golf, that protests are being led by an airplane full of black-jacketed "thugs," and refused to condemn a vicious murderer who killed two people and blew the arm off a third. Now, he is threatening the Mayor of Portland with federal troops again.


Which raises the question, is this the America the majority of voters want to live in?  A country where the police act as an occupying force and are immune to oversight or discipline? A president who pits people against each other based on their religion or the color of their skin? An administration that lies about science as over 200,000 people die? Corrupt former lobbyists in charge of virtually every federal agency? Cutting the Social Security tax so the entire program collapses by 2023?

If the polls are any indication, almost half of America is right there with him.  WHY is This?"-  Thom Hartmann, ' Why Are So Many Americans Willing To Support Hate And Division?'

"The last four years have been deeply traumatizing to millions of Americans as we have watched our nation in the stranglehold of a maniacal, dictatorial and compulsively deceptive president. But it is worth examining the relationship that President Donald Trump has with his voters in order to understand why he won the 2016 election and why he continues to command such fervent loyalty a few months ahead of the next election. Willing to overlook his lies, improprieties, and corruption, Trump’s voters have a transactional relationship with the president that is practical, powerful, and surprisingly instructional to the rest of us.


While a majority of Americans might be stunned and horrified by Trump’s casual racism, unscientific claims, sexist attacks and more, his rambling rhetoric matters little to his base, and perhaps Trump voters don’t even bother trying to make sense of his words. To them, it matters what he does and how loyal he is to them. Trump’s reelection campaign website is literally called “Promises Kept.” Although several of his claims of promises are not true, the point is that he touts decisive action and convinces his supporters that he has fulfilled his pledges to them. He works for them and they know it. They are willing to overlook the ugliness that accompanies his rule. It is a practical and effective approach to transforming America into the country they want."  -  Sonali Kolhatkar, on smirkingchimp.com

It is beyond belief in these maddening times, that more than 2 in 5 Americans accept the surreal Trump-RNC Lie fest  and if the polls tighten in crucial "swing states" (WI, MI, PA) Trump could sneak into power again and wreak total havoc as an authoritarian, fascist dictator.   Thus, blogger Thom Hartmann's plaintive question in the caption at the top 'Why is this?' And his additional question from his full text:   

 Is this the America the majority of voters want to live in?

Well, maybe not an absolute majority but perhaps a majority of  working class, less educated Whites who remain filled with white grievance.  This lot are terrified of the massive BLM protests and also believe - following the RNC lies and propaganda- the poor blacks are coming for them in their (mostly) white suburbs.   They continue to feel, for some odd reason, that Trump has their back or sympathizes with them or wants to protect them. All of which is bunkum given Trump hasn't done one damned thing to protect them from the coronavirus. 

Most recently, WaPo reporter David Ignatius warned the white grievance and rage are still simmering, e.g.


Opinion | The rage that fuels Trumpism still burns - The ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-rage-that-fuels-trumpism-still-burns/2020/08/27/f76f554e-e898-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html


Warning:

"When historians try to understand what happened to the United States in these years, they will study what spawned the Trump spasm of rage. Perhaps the most striking demographic change in the years preceding his election was the catastrophic decline in the health, income and cohesion of White men without college educations. That group voted 64 percent for Trump in 2016, making it one of his largest voting blocs, according to the Pew Research Center. 

The best account of this White collapse is “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism,” published this year by economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton. Deaths from drug overdoses and other poisonings, suicide and alcohol-related diseases (which they grouped together as “deaths of despair”) among White people aged 45 to 54 “tripled from 1990 and 2017.” White men in particular were dying earlier; they were getting married less; they lost jobs and dignity."

Which makes my head spin just reading it. As for Janice, her understandable reaction was: "What is their problem, anyway? It's black men getting shot and smothered and choked, not white men! The cops give young white terrorists water bottles while they walk down the street with long guns!"

Ouch!

For me it's difficult to process all this white rage because my dad was also a young white man without any college education.  But he didn't piss and moan about any imagined plight, his Arkansas background, or blame black men or other minorities for grabbing jobs he wanted. No, he joined the WW II war effort - before Pearl Harbor- and ended up fighting in the Battle Of Buna - Gona in New Guinea. He lived to relate his war experiences in a diary which I read from time to time.

What's noteworthy is there's no self pity, no feeling sorry for himself - even after contracting malaria in the New Guinea jungles.  Nor did PTSD from his war experience make him turn to drink or drugs on his return to the states.  He had a million excuses to become an  angry a-hole and bum but he didn't.  No, he manned up, sucked it up and worked hard for his family.  Nonetheless, I am very glad he was not killed in that horrific battle (which rivaled Guadalcanal) .  Because - irrespective of my not being around to write this -  Trump would  be calling him a "sucker" or "loser" as he referred to those who put themselves out there (like coward Dotard didn't) but didn't come through.  See e.g.

Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are 'Losers ... - The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

According to the piece:

"When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” .....In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed."

 Trump insisted in the wake of the ensuing firestorm:  " I'd be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes!"  But of course there is nothing, nada, available to support this thug's lies.   So of course, Trump denies having ever said these things, because he knows there is nothing, no one to hold him to account. What would you expect of a  guy who's reeled off over 9,000 lies and counting?  That he'd suddenly acknowledge the truth of  those deplorable claims?   Of course not!  His defective character makes it 1,000 times more likely he'd deny that "losers" remark than admit it.    After all, look what he said about John McCain 4 years ago, i.e. "Sorry but I like heroes who don't get captured!"   So given Dotard Donnie's lying streak it's just as probable he'd spew out a negative lie (denial) as a positive one.  See e.g.


by Cody Fenwick | September 4, 2020 - 8:26am | permalink

Besides, James LaPorta - senior correspondent for Newsweek, has received confirmation from two top Defense Dept. officials who "confirm the Atlantic story in its entirety".   He made that known in an interview on Maddow Thursday night.  So if there's any "grieving", non-college white man, that should be all he needs to know about the character of the 2-legged  cockroach fouling the White House. Indeed, even FOX News' own national security correspondent (Jennifer Griffin) has verified  she was contacted by official sources confirming  what Trump said. See:
  And that begs the question: Why in hell's bells would anyone even remotely consider supporting such a roach given his disrespect and disdain for our nation's war dead?  And if he has no respect for them, or their grieving families - like those Marines that fought at Belleau Wood- why would he have a scintilla of respect for you?  As Alex Wagner put it on All In last night.

"Trump has a categorical aversion to empathy.  He was asked what words he'd have for the family of Jacob Blake. He couldn't even muster a shred of kindness and just said, 'it's bad for anybody'.   This goes back to the Atlantic article.  The cruelty is the point. The cruelty has always been central to Trump's brand and empathy is a rebuttal to cruelty.  So for personal and other reasons  he's just unable to open himself up to the crushing humanity of this moment. "

This is what I'd like all those millions of non-college educated white men -  with all their axes to grind -  to think about when they cast votes in the coming election.  Also, how Trump and his fascist brigade are trying to deliberately heap on risk for vulnerable citizens (grandparents of the aggrieved white men)  to vote by condemning the use of mail ballots. This, despite Trump encouraging his voters in NC to vote twice, and Toad Barr insisting that mail voting carries "substantial voting fraud" - which is an outright lie.  The  Brennan Center for Justice notes the actual fraud rate below 0..00006%- over years..  White men now in Trump's corner should consider all of that.  

However, one must acknowledge there are some white men (even college educated)  in Trump's camp, who are beyond redemption or help.  One such is the truculent Barton Swaim of the WSJ:


Swaim like the rest of the hacks in the WSJ op-ed stable has a problem with critical thinking as well as discerning when a leader (like Trump)  is a piece of crap and when he is for real.  Swaim, for example, attributes all Trump's abhorrent - even traitorous behavior- merely to quirks of his "celebrity personality".   He yearns to  see Trump as a "complex, multi-layered person, self-regarding and sometimes mean"..  Not as the inhuman, shit-eating pestilence he is, a living Turd who locks infants in cages and dismisses war dead as "losers" and "suckers".  SO why would any thinking person take anything Swaim writes seriously?   Just as he recently dismissed Trump's collusion, cooperation with the Russians (Aug. 15-16) as "a bloody minded conspiracy  theory rooted in machinations of bumbling FBI officials hyped by gullible journalists".  As opposed to what it really was - a deliberate, concerted effort to corrupt the American democratic experiment via the use of a foreign enemy state. 

All of which was amply born out in  recently released 966 -page Senate Intelligence Committee report, entitled :  Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities,”

The report "leaves no doubt that an extensive network of Russian operatives with intelligence ties worked with Trump's operatives to torpedo Hillary Clinton's campaign four years ago."

That opinion from Timothy O'Brien writing in Bloomberg News.  What every white man thinking of voting for Trump again needs to do is read as much of the report as possible. He will then see first hand why this  maggot traitor finds it so easy to dismiss U.S. war dead - who fought for all men's liberties - as "suckers" and "losers."

Amidst the  unending confusion, chaos, simmering anger and strife infecting the nation and the prospect of the most critical election in modern times, it is fair to ask are non-college white men really considering giving Trump 4 more years? Especially if it means turning our governance over to the truth slayers at FOX News?   What would be a genuine tragedy is to have millions of  non-college educated white men - mainly in the 5 swing states that swung the Electoral college to Trump 4 years ago - do so again. Despite how the man has already proven himself an incompetent traitor and perpetually dyspeptic 5- year old in a 74 year old's body. Not a leader who can steer this nation to more stable times over the next four year.

 Under Adolf Hitler the German state  became an agent of criminality as well as the principal perpetrator of  heinous atrocities, e.g. the slaughter of 6 million Jews and many others.  It is a state the U.S. is rapidly approaching under Adolf Jr. Trump.  Most distressing to read was the opening paragraph of a recent review of the book, 'Hitler- Downfall: 1939-1945', in The Denver Post,  showing glaring similarities between Hitler's deformed character and Trump's,  e.g.

"The impulsiveness and grandiosity, the bullying and vulgarity, were obvious from the beginning.  If anything, they accounted for Adolf Hitler's anti-establishment appeal for Germany's unpopular conservative elites.  Hitler's energy and theatrics made him an enticing partner when they appointed him Chancellor in 1933.  But anyone who thought Hitler and the Nazis would rise to the occasion were summarily purged from the system as an utter impossibility became indomitable reality: The Weimar Republic had become the Third Reich.

It would take another world war, a genocide and millions of dead before the dictatorship finally collapsed in 1945, a full 12 years after Hitler was invited into power.""

A kind of repeat of history is on the verge of happening again with Trump. if U.S. citizens (especially white males lacking college educations)  become too besotted by his bullying, fake macho and authoritarianism to think clearly. Or believe this criminal tyrant really has their interests - and safety - at heart.  Newsflash, he doesn't, he only has his interests at heart.  Which is why he signed a set of executive orders as a PR stunt but with precious little Covid benefits delivered. 


Just ask yourself: Do I really want four more years of this rage -tweeting crybaby,  and wannabe  authoritarian dictator?  A guy who calls your Vietnam war dead relatives "suckers" and "losers".  Really?  As Princeton Emeritus professor of politics Nancy Bermeo put it, in a NY Times piece by Farhad Manjoo:

"He’s doing things that are reminiscent of authoritarians in much less-developed countries with much shorter histories of competitive politics.

Which reinforces what John Dean told Chris Hayes on Wednesday night, in conjunction with his new book:

Do white guys really want this nightmare?  Do the white men who've counted themselves as Trump's bosom buddies truly relish a future - at least the next 4 years- with this orange cockroach's  pro-Putin paws on the nuclear codes? 

 If so, there really is no hope for this nation, and evidently  my dad fought all those WWII battles, and came home with malaria and PTSD for nothing.  But maybe now as word and confirmation of Trump's denigration of military vets killed in action spreads we will finally see retribution, political payback and an end to this vile fungal  excrescence.   We will see if the Atlantic story gets enough 'legs' and takes the maggot down once and for all, especially with the white male fans.  Is white nationalism and authoritarianism more powerful than vile putdowns of the fallen as "losers"?  That's the question to be answered in coming days.  Still, as Amanda Marcotte notes - as she writes (first link below):


"The Trump base, which is stable enough to keep Trump within stealing range of the 2020 election, loves to talk about how patriotic they are and to make a big show out of how much they supposedly love the troops. As this unquestioning loyalty to Trump makes clear, it's all nonsense. Given a choice between white supremacy and support for the men and women of the military, Trump voters will pick racism every single time."

The issue may already be settled for many Trump followers-  who are as shameless, gutless and unpatriotic as the roach they worship.

See Also:

And:
by Amanda Marcotte | September 2, 2020 - 7:46am | permalink


by Dave Lindorff | August 30, 2020 - 5:00am | permalink


AND:
by Dave Lindorff | September 3, 2020 - 5:25am | permalink

AND:


Trump is ‘Fox’s Frankenstein,’ insiders told CNN’s Brian Stelter — and here’s the toll it’s taken


AND:

by Bob Burnett | September 5, 2020 - 6:59am | permalink

Friday, July 10, 2020

Trump Derangement Syndrome "The Next Pandemic"? Don't Make Me Laugh!



"Da Donald can do no wrong! He da man! It da left dat derange!"

One of the tropes still circulating amongst the Trumpkins is that the Left is hysterical and over-reacting to their beloved, brain dead buffoon - manifesting in TDS or "Trump Derangement Syndrome".  In the fantasies of these Right wing pundit knuckle draggers, most of the Left  as well as Democrats are in the throes of TDS and now even going through "five stages".  So writes the latest imp to make such a claim, Joseph Epstein (WSJ, July 10, p. A17,  'The Next Pandemic: Trump Derangement Syndrome' )

  This balmy bozo-  because that's precisely what Epstein is-   given  his reputation for sloppy thinking and misleading  journalism precedes him, e.g.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/22/when-misleading-op-ed-wall-street-journal-irks-academics-its-time-fact-check-faculty


Trots out this latest codswallop as all Trump's poll  numbers are sinking, even eroding among his  base.  This has incited them to flail and render any kind of crappola to try to convince us it's all the Dems' fault,  or else that this animated pustule isn't as degenerate as we know he is.  Anyway in his WSJ op-ed  Epstein confabulates five "stages" as integral to the TDS   onset  and I cite these below:

Stage (1) The "afflicted decides before 2016 that Trump has serious, even strenuous character flaws that disqualified him from the presidency or any other public office".

Well, let's see. How about advocating pussy grabbing (in that 2005 'Access Hollywood' tape with Billy Bush)  as well as assaults on various women including at Miss Universe pageants?  One of the women  (Summer Vernos)  even brought a lawsuit after Trump "thrust his genitals at her."  Sounds disqualifying enough to me and I will take Summer at her word 1 million times before the lying Trump.  (Who's now amassed over 16,000 lies according to the running WaPo tally over the last 3 1/2 years.)

Stage (2) "One dwells upon Donald Trump's looks", the hairdo and golf apparel.

Actually, I could care less about this bloated buffoon's looks.. But I do castigate the orange imp for how he's consistently disparaged the appearance of women,   e.g.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-worst-insults-toward-women-2018-10


whether calling 2016 Reep candidate Carly Fiorina and  the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels "Horseface,"  or calling other women "sluts", "dogs" or worse.  All of these examples say more about this reprobate's basic character than anything any critic could say about his appearance.   Knowing that, it's incredible to me Epstein would even go there.

Stage (3)  "One is ready to believe anything- pernicious or salacious- about Mr. Trump - and to reject anything that might be good for the country."

Oh, oh, you mean like Stormy Daniels taking  the Donald across her knee and spanking him with a copy of FORBES?   E.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2018/01/why-do-white-evangelicals-worship.html

Image result for brane space, stormy daniels
Wherein we learn:

The spanking was revealed in a string of emails.  Subsequently,  Mother Jones basically confirmed all the sordid details that Daniels described from her 2006 encounters  For reference, see:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/stormy-daniels-trump-spanking-forbes-and-shark-week.html


"According  to a trove of  2009 emails exchanged between political operatives (advising Daniels at the time on a possible political campaign), the adult film actress claimed that her affair with Trump included spanking him with a copy of Forbes.  By one account,  a political consultant to Andrea Dubé related in an email that:

"He made her sit with him for three hours watching Shark Week. Another time he had her spank him with a Forbes magazine,

The magazine used evidently had Dotard's  face on the cover which no doubt provides endless material for any Freudian school psychiatrists and psychologists. "

Stormy having sex with this turd then whacking his fat ass?  Sounds pretty perverse - and convincing to me. Not to mention allowing Russian prostitutes to urinate all over him in a Moscow hotel while the Miss Universe pageant was held in Moscow in 2013.  All integrated into the dossier prepared by Christopher Steele - which the Right's  nitwits now try to disparage.

According to an earlier (2017)  AP report in the Denver Post ( 'Ex Spy Regarded as Dependable') :

"Three British intelligence agents interviewed by the Associated Press described Steele as well regarded in the intelligence community, with excellent Russian skills and high level sources."

According to one Financial Times account, Steele was the "UK intelligence expert on Russia".

James Nixey, the head of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program, informed the AP that sections of the dossier document created by Steele
"read exactly as reports from the secret services"

In other words, professional through and through, no exaggerations and no fillers that hadn't been  sourced.  So the Trumpkins and their hacks like Epstein,  Dan Henninger,  Holman Jenkins Jr. or Kim Strassel can squawk all they want about the "corrupt Steele dossier"  but I will make a Vegas bet on its veracity any day before anything coming out of Trump's piehole. Or that of his enablers and acolytes.


Epstein then inserts the example of TDS "afflicted" going so low and over the edge as to aver "he secretly admires King Jong Un's wardrobe"".   Actually, I  was more concerned with how he's openly professed love for the North Korean tyrant, i.e after saying numerous times he's "in love" with Kim.  And Kim sent him a "love letter."  These are all well documented, not fantasies or ideations.

Stage (4) "One imputes evil to Mr. Trump."

Actually, as an atheist I am averse to appending the term "evil" to anyone.  Having said that,  I do maintain a human can over time reach such a level of moral turpitude and character degradation he can at least asymptotically approach evil.  That is Trump, as when he had  migrant children locked up in cages, separated them from their parents.  Also, when he equated Charlottesville (2017) protesters with the Nazis and white nationalist scum who attacked them, including killing one woman (Heather Heyer).  Trump  claiming there were "some very fine people" on both sides. No, only on one!  As Nicole Wallace put it at the time:

"There are not two sides to this. There are hideous, hateful enemies of America, enemies of freedom, and there were people truly exercising their free speech."

Stage (5)  "One is weighted down with all the symptoms of the first four stages but brings to them an added choleric intensity of anger."

If Eppie means anger at the way Dotard has totally fucked up the response to the coronavirus so that over 130,000 if our fellow citizens are now dead- he has it right!  Or how Trump has not  only botched the initial U.S. response but is now actively inciting an even larger death toll by pushing for a premature opening of schools.  As Michelle Goldberg wrote(NY Times, 'Trump Threatens To Turn Pandemic Schooling Into Culture War'):


"Donald Trump has approached the extraordinarily complex challenge of educating children during a pandemic just as he’s approached most other matters of governing: with bullying, bluster and propaganda."

Reinforcing what Chris Hayes' timely take two nights ago:

"Also today he said he disagreed with the CDC guidelines for opening the schools. So he's now pushing the CDC to override their own guidelines.

So if I've got that right, we don't want the guidance of the nation's top health agency on how to stay safe in a pandemic to be the reason why we don't send our kids to school,  while we're suffering from the worst outbreak in the world.  So the president will tell them to change the guidance.  And it's not the first time he's done that.  He did it back in April and May when he didn't like the CDC reopening guidance for business.  He even pressured governors to ignore that guidance, just like he pushed the CDC to change their guidance for reopening churches. And now he's not happy with the CDC guidance on schools.

So what do you think is going to happen? Look, the last person in the world you can trust right now with the safety of your kids is Donald Trump."


 Epstein ends by saying those he fancies suffering from TDS can end the malady and "they don't even have to put on a mask" only "turn off the television set."  

Yeah, but see, Eppie, Trump will find a way to get back into our attention by again insinuating himself in some other outrageous way, whether via a new, demented executive order - maybe trying to fire Anthony Fauci, or threatening to send active military against Black Lives Matter protesters.

Methinks Eppie has got the wrong derangement syndrome and the wrong cast of victims who are afflicted.  

The great Dem Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once described ever lowered thresholds for accepting deviant and disreputable behavior in terms of "defining deviancy down."  With Epstein's article on a "TDS pandemic"  we now see just how low Trump's media apparatchiks are prepared to go to justify his deviancy.

Update:  We can now add WSJ columnist Barton Swaim to the stable of Trump defenders and  acolytes determined to 'define deviancy down' for their master.  This after his op-ed piece today ('Will Democrats Accept A Trump Victory', p. A13), writing:

"The president now seems likely to lose. But if he wins may I suggest an alternative theory (to stealing the election)?   A Trump victory in November will have nothing to do with the Russians, the Chinese,  the coronavirus or 'voter suppression'.

It will have everything to do with Democrats' foul behavior over the previous four years."

Democrats' foul behavior?  Is Swaim living on an alternate Earth, or simply blind and fucking nuts?  Did Dems lock migrant kids - often as young as two or three- in cages and separate them from their parents:? Did Dems side with marching Nazis and KKK'ers in Charlottesville?  Did Dems appoint a toady to foul any concept of justice and turn the DOJ into Trump's personal protectors?  Did Dems seek help from a foreign nation (Ukraine)  to take out his political opponent? Thereby violating his oath of office by using it for personal gain?  Did the Dems call the pandemic a 'hoax' for two weeks, wasting valuable time to control the virus, then upend CDC guidelines while also failing to organize a national response? Instead letting states compete with  each other for personal protective gear as is happening again now? Did Dems embrace the notion that masks are for 'elites'  - thereby setting the unmasked against the masked and enabling the virus to spread?

The answer to all the above is 'NO!' - leaving Trump as the only foul entity to be singled out.  As well as now Swaim in his perverse effort to defend him. And no, there is no way in hell we will accept a Trump election win, after the way this demented orange maggot has sought to undermine mail ballots-- which  elimination even he admitted would be the "only way to win".  


See Also:

And:



Excerpt:

"Think about all that has happened since April 5. That was before security forces attacked peaceful protesters  in Lafayette Square so that Trump could stage a bizarre photo-op. 

Before he pushed to send the armed forces into the streets. Before he embraced white  power and called Black Lives Matter a  symbol of hate.  Before he vowed to veto the defense authorization bill to prevent the renaming of military bases named after Confederate generals. Before he used the novel coronavirus as an excuse to  shut down immigration and threatened to revoke  the visas of college students unable to attend classes in the fall. 

Before he ignored reports that a Russian intelligence unit had placed a bounty  on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Before he moved to pull out of the World Health Organization."