Tag Archives: diplomacy

Canada, we couldn’t agree more. Via ABC News: Canada’s Parliament broke into chants of “four more years” as President Barack Obama wrapped up the first address there by a U.S. leader since 1995. Four years for Obama amounts to wishful thinking. He’s nearing the end of his second term in office and speaks fondly of life after the presidency. His …

CNN reports: President Barack Obama announced Monday that the United States is fully lifting a decades-long ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam. In a joint news conference in Hanoi with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, Obama said that the removal of the ban on lethal weapons was part of a deeper defense cooperation with the country and …

Washington-based lobbyists who represent foreign governments say they are overwhelmed with questions about how a Donald Trump presidency might upend trade, tourism, security agreements, and other foreign policy deals. The Hill reports: The questions about Trump are “almost all-consuming,” said Richard Mintz, the managing director of Washington-based firm The Harbour Group, whose client list includes the governments of Georgia and …

As I’ve reported here several times, openly gay US Ambassador Wally Brewster is under attack in the Dominican Republic, where anti-LGBT activists and the Catholic Church have launched a joint campaign calling for his resignation for spreading “homosexual indoctrination.” Today US House Democrats launched a tweetstorm in support of Brewster using the hashtag #ImWithWally. Brewster stands accused in part because …

Teabagistan is aflame with the usual screaming today after President Obama posed for photos with a giant mural of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara visible in the background. Media Matters points out that Ronald Reagan once delivered a speech with a huge bust of Vladimir Lenin looming over his head. And then there was that time George W. Bush posed for …

President Obama has just landed in Havana for his historic visit to Cuba. Watch below. Via Yahoo News: The three-day trip, the first by a U.S. president to Cuba in 88 years, is the culmination of a diplomatic opening announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in December 2014, ending a Cold War-era estrangement that began when the Cuban …

Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and a cavalcade of clown car crackpots are rallying outside the US Capitol in protest of the pending Iran deal. At this writing Cruz is onstage ranting about Kim Davis, which somehow has something to do with nuclear weapons. Because Jesus, probably.

This scathing White House clip was going viral yesterday while most eyes were on Kentucky. Via Talking Points Memo: Timed to a speech given by former Vice President Dick Cheney slamming President Obama’s Iran deal, the White House released a video highlighting Cheney’s continual defense of the Iraq war. The two-and-a-half-minute video titled “Former Vice President Dick Cheney: Wrong Then, …

Cuban-American gay poet Richard Blanco is already winning raves for the poem he read today. The new work will be published in English and Spanish by the University of Pittsburgh Press late next month.

Live US-Cuban history happening right now. The BBC reports: Three marines who lowered the American flag for the last time on 4 January 1961 will raise it again during Friday’s ceremony in Havana. They are now retired and in their late 70s. “I’m gonna love seeing that flag go back up,” said former marine Jim Tracy, 78, in a US …

Via USA Today: Throngs of demonstrators gathered Monday to witness the raising of the Cuban flag over Cuba’s embassy, the first time it has flown here since the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with the communist country 54 years ago. As American and Cuban diplomats stood side by side, three Cuban guards in white uniforms marched out of the building, …

Politico reports: Beginning in May 2016, Carnival plans to run biweekly, seven-night “people-to-people” vacations to Cuba on the company’s 710-passenger Adonia ship that offer “cultural, artistic, faith-based and humanitarian exchanges between American and Cuban citizens,” according to a statement provided to USA Today. The company is still awaiting final approval from the Cuban government. Though pure tourism to Cuba is …

Tel Aviv Pride was yesterday and in the clip below US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro happily points out the gigantic rainbow flag adorning the US embassy.

Via White House press release: Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons Randy Berry will travel to Chile from June 1 – 2, Argentina from June 3 – 4, Uruguay from June 4 – 5, Brazil from June 6 – 9, and the Dominican Republic from June 10 – 11 to discuss the human rights of LGBTI persons …

Via Talking Point Memo: The New York Daily News on Tuesday used its front page to condemn Republican senators for signing an open letter to Iran warning that a potential nuclear deal could be null once President Barack Obama is out of office. The tabloid’s front page prominently featured Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), …

The State Department today appointed the first LGBT rights foreign envoy in US history. Randy W Berry, who is gay, has been appointed to the senior role within the US State Department by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. He has previously served as Consul General in Amsterdam, and has also had postings for the State Department …

From the editorial board of the New York Times: American officials have had few opportunities to support Cuba’s gay rights evolution and have been conflicted on how to handle Ms.[Mariela] Castro. When the Philadelphia-based Equality Forum nominated her for an award last year, American officials initially said they would not give her a visa. After the group protested, they relented. …

Charles Hunter, US Consul General to Turkey, has confirmed to the local press that he will marry his Turkish boyfriend with the ceremony to take place in Wisconsin. Hunter was at an event at the Dutch consulate the previous day where he sang at an a capella choir. He responded to reporters’ questions afterward. Naturally, almost all questions were about …