FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Trending -with style!- at Hallandale Beach Blog: Maria Sharapova and her knowing, nuanced and amusing tweets about sports, food, fashion, travel and the unusual under-the-microscope life she leads; @MariaSharapova, #Sugarpova, #Stockholm: ABC News Nightline video of her 2010 trip to Chernobyl







Trending -with style!- at Hallandale Beach Blog: Maria Sharapova and her knowing, nuanced and amusing tweets about sports, food, fashion, travel and the unusual under-the-microscope life she leads; @MariaSharapova, #Sugarpova, #Stockholm: ABC News Nightline video of her 2010 trip to Chernobyl
Here at the blog we love her because she's STILL so remarkably level-headed and thoughtful despite all her great success, on and off the court! 
If @MariaSharapova is NOT playing in the finals of a Women's Grand Slam, like this morning's Wimbledon finals, chances are high that we won't watch it for more than 15-20 minutes at a time.

 The other crazy thing is that for reasons not worth getting fully into here, because of Maria Sharapova's upbringing via her parents, despite her being born in Russia, she's demonstrably more pro-American and down-to-earth -and better informed- than most members of the current U.S. (and European) Mainstream Media that's covering Wimbledon on TV/cable and which you'll be reading online over this Fourth of July weekend, especially the jaded and  blasé under-40 women
Some of us really appreciate that aspect of her winning personality.
My last blog post on Maria Sharapova featured a very good ABC News Nightline segment that originally aired on August 17, 2010.called Out of the Ashes: Maria Sharapova .
It dealt with her visiting the general area near where she might've been born, about 100 miles from Chernobyl -correct, THAT Chernobyl- where her parents lived UNTIL AFTER the 1986 nuclear accident that led them to western SIberia, due to radiation fallout and concern with birth defects.
Maria was born about 51 weeks after the disaster.
The second part of the video focuses on her first yisit there since she was 13 years old.

That November 28th, 2010 blog post was titled, Anna Poslavska, 2010 Miss Ukraine, has a doppelgänger who frequently hits the Panera in Hallandale Beach; Maria Sharapova in The Ukraine
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/anna-poslavska-2010-miss-ukraine-has.html
E:60 Maria Sharapova From Russia With Love Chernobyl, 2010.
Narrated by then-ESPN correspondent Rachel Nichols. 






 which is more interesting when you remember that three months ago, she tweeted about fictional Swedish literary icon, Pippi Longstocking...




































The thought that popped into my head while writing this:
Longest legs, Maria Sharapova vs. Stacey Keibler? 
Hmm-m...
I think we might need a Tale of the Tape to figure that one out for sure.

 http://www.mariasharapova.com/
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Friday, July 5, 2013

More on Broward County politicians' residency ruse: Is intentionally violating & evading the Florida Constitution 'the new normal' for ethical standards in the Sunshine State? Latest facts & chronology regarding at least 5 Florida legislators from Broward -and one Broward Commissioner- who DON'T live full-time in the districts they were elected to represent

More on Broward County politicians' residency ruse: Is intentionally violating & evading the Florida Constitution 'the new normal' for ethical standards in the Sunshine State? Latest facts & chronology regarding at least 5 Florida legislators from Broward -and one Broward Commissioner- who DON'T live full-time in the districts they were elected to represent
Why would you expect an individual who values power more than integrity and who doesn't really live full-time where they do, to care as much about the actual day-to-day Quality of Life and problems of those constituents and small business owners as someone who does?
It's part of why it's called representative democracy.

 It's supposed to be a lot more than just any old job you drive to from somewhere else.
Sometimes, things are exactly what they look like.
This is just such a time.
























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Local10 News video: 
Senator caught on video staying outside district, Maria Sachs has home in Boca Raton, claims to reside in Lauderdale condo
Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published June 26, 2013 04:45:07 PM EDT



















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Local10 News video: 
Broward Commissioner's residency claims don't hold up, 
North Miami mayor sued over city's residency rule
Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published June 25, 2013 03:07:21 PM EDT
Updated June 25, 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT, 
Related article at: http://www.local10.com/news/more-elected-officials-living-outside-districts/-/1717324/20709398/-/pok1gcz/-/index.html



Media Trackers Florida
City Commissioner in Florida Resigns Under Residency Questions
By Tom Lauder
June 21, 2013

Local10 News video: 
Florida Democratic leader caught living outside district
Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published June, 12 2013 03:34:55 PM EDT, 

Media Trackers Florida
Florida State Rep. Joseph Gibbons Avoided Making Residency Claims Under Oath
By Tom Lauder
May 3, 2013

Media Trackers Florida
Florida Residency Games Are A Family Affair for Florida State Rep. Joseph Gibbons
By Tom Lauder
May 2, 2013

Media Trackers Florida
Florida Rep. Joseph Gibbons Appears to Violate Constitution's Residency Requirements
By Tom Lauder
April 16, 2013

Media Trackers Florida
Florida State Rep. Hazelle Rogers Flaunts Constitution's Residency Requirements
By Tom Lauder 
April 15, 2013

-Related ethical problem
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
State attorney probed Gibbons' campaign funds
By Brittany Wallman
11:14 a.m. EDT, April 15, 2013
Office of Broward State's Attorney closeout document re Joe Gibbons commingling campaign funds and personal funds, where he blamed his staff for all the problems.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
County Commission candidate's ties to Broward questioned
Gibbons' wife, young kids live elsewhere
By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel
April 12, 2013

Media Trackers Florida
Florida House Minority Leader Claims to Live With Felon to Meet Residency Requirement
By Tom Lauder
April 11, 2013

Media Trackers Florida
Florida Senator Maria Sachs Thumbs Nose at Residency Law
By Tom Lauder
April 4, 2013

Media Trackers Florida
Florida Legislator Claims to Live Separately from His Wife to Meet Residency Law
By Tom Lauder
April 1, 2013

-Related ethical problem
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Ethics commission: Rep. Gibbons cleared
By Brittany Wallman
11:05 a.m. EST, February 7, 2013 

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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

#Gettysburg -150 years ago today, Gen. George Meade saved the Union at the Battle of Gettysburg, repulsing Pickett's Charge, and preventing Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia from sweeping south into Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Meade prevented a defeat that would have given the British and French an excuse to declare an impasse, with President Lincoln and the U.S. Congress on the run; Dr. Allen C. Guelzo, brilliant Lincoln scholar, shares his knowledge about that momentous day; Doris Kearns Goodwin picks a bad time to show a lack of humility and class


Ken Burns YouTube Channel video: The Civil War: Gettysburg. On July 3, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the Union lured the Confederate troops out into the open field. Pickett charged and the tide of the war changed in the Union's favor. Uploaded August 2, 2012. http://youtu.be/jsszvmuZBR4
#Gettysburg -150 years ago today, Gen. George Meade saved the Union at the Battle of Gettysburg, repulsing Pickett's Charge, and preventing Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia from sweeping south into Baltimore and Washington, D.C.  Meade prevented a defeat that would have given the British and French an excuse to declare an impasse, with President Lincoln and the U.S. Congress on the run; Dr. Allen C. Guelzo, brilliant Lincoln scholar, shares his knowledge about that momentous day; 
Doris Kearns Goodwin picks a bad time to show a lack of humility and class

New York Post
The hero of Gettysburg
Hardly anyone knows his name, but 150 years ago, one of America’s greatest generals, George Meade, saved a nation
By Ralph Peters
Last Updated: 3:37 AM, June 30, 2013
Posted: 12:39 AM, June 30, 2013
One hundred and fifty years ago tomorrow morning, two great armies slammed into each other outside a crossroads town in Pennsylvania. Neither army’s commander intended to fight at Gettysburg, but the battle took on a life of its own as reinforcements rushed to the sound of the guns. Soldiers in blue and gray would fight for three days, leaving almost 7,000 Americans dead and 30,000 wounded.
At the close of the battle on July 3, 1863, the Army of the Potomac, led by Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade — the most underrated soldier in our history — had won the Union’s first indisputable victory in the east. With Gettysburg’s strategic effect compounded by news of Grant’s capture of Vicksburg, Miss., on July 4, the Confederacy was left with no realistic chance of winning the war militarily (although the South’s valiant, stubborn troops would fight on for two more years). The secessionist government in Richmond could only hope to conjure a political settlement.
Read the rest of the column at
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_hero_of_pWV5Jk81PHW48jHMYLYf7H




And while some people like Rob Lowe get it, some don't.
People whom you don't expect to be so uncouth, partisan and self-possessing of a moment.
Did you hear about this?




DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN AT GETTYSBURG: A FEW INAPPROPRIATE REMARKS
by TONY LEE  
1 Jul 2013
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/07/01/Doris-Kearns-Goodwin-A-Few-Inappropriate-Remarks-At-Gettysburg

GettysburgCollege YouTube Channel video: Allen Guelzo on July 3, 1863.
http://youtu.be/bjfqYdAksxo
New York Times 
Opinionator blog
What Gettysburg Proved
By Allen C. Guelzo
July 1, 2013
It took no more than a few days after the Battle of Gettysburg for the men who had fought there to realize how important it had been. “The Battle of Gettysburg, like Waterloo, must stand conspicuous in the history of all ages,” wrote a staff officer, Frank Aretas Haskell, who himself would die less than a year later in a much less conspicuous battle at a place called Cold Harbor. And even by the most remote measure, Haskell was right.
Read the rest of Professor Guelzo's essay at
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/what-gettysburg-proved/

 Dr. Guelzo is one of the world's foremost Lincoln scholars, an amazing writer and before he was at Gettysburg College, he used to be on the Planning & Zoning Advisory Board in the Pennsylvania town he lived in over ten years ago, which is how I first met him, at one of their meetings.

Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg by tour guide Gary Kross

 If you missed it over the weekend, see my post about Gettysburg, with some really great and informative videos featuring something you've probably never seen before, but which I'm 100% sure you'll enjoy:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/gettysburg-place-where-you-really-feel.html

 Some of my pre-Ohio Territory paternal ancestors grew-up not far from Gettysburg and are buried nearby. 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Meade
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickett's_Charge
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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Is Kristin Jacobs poised to become 'the last straw' and the cynical face for voters of the ever-expanding Broward candidate residency scandal? Yet MORE residency problems in Broward County per Media Tracker Florida: Jacobs wants to run for FL House 96 while living in House 93, even while convincing evidence suggests that at least 5 current members of the Broward Legislative Delegation may be knowingly breaking state law, practically daring Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz & Co. to actually do something; Videos by Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman show he's NOT afraid to go after South Florida's unethical pols and ask the hard questions



Is Kristin Jacobs poised to become 'the last straw' and the cynical face for voters of the ever-expanding Broward candidate residency scandal? Yet MORE residency problems in Broward County per Media Tracker Florida: Jacobs wants to run for FL House 96 while living in House 93, even while convincing evidence suggests that at least 5 current members of the Broward Legislative Delegation may be knowingly breaking state law, practically daring Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz & Co. to actually do something; Videos by Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman show he's NOT afraid to go after South Florida's unethical pols and ask the hard questions 
Could Kristen Jacobs really be dumb enough to think that she can get away with it, too?
Yes.


Media Tracker Florida
Florida House Candidate Kristin Jacobs Tries to Hide Residency Problems
By Tom Lauder 
July 1, 2013
House of Representatives District 96 candidate Kristin Jacobs asked state election officials to hide her address from the public in the wake of new evidence that suggests she lives outside District 96.
In an affidavit filed with the State of Florida, Jacobs asked state elections officials to redact her home address. The Florida elections website shows Jacobs’ paperwork for the District 96 seat, but her address is blacked out. Jacobs filed for the District 96 seat, but numerous public records show Jacobs actually lives in District 93, which is represented by George Moraitis (R-Fort Lauderdale).
Read the rest of the post at:

Anyone want to guess how many Broward state legislators actually LIVE full-time in the district they were elected to? Anyone?

 It's another one of Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz's lasting legacies to all of us as Broward citizens that he and his crew are unwilling to make an example out of someone breaking the law he is sworn to enforce and prosecute lawbreakers.

Maybe if Sazt & Company had actually gone hammer-and-tong after one of these legislative miscreants a few years ago who thought they could pull the rug over voters' eyes and knowingly violate the Florida Constitution -and told Broward County Commissioners that he'd 'no longer accept their wink-wink residency, too- and abandoned their See No Evil/Hear No Evil/Speak No Evil mindset, the problem wouldn't have mushroomed to the extent that it clearly has while he has been in charge and done NOTHING.

 Yes, Black & White carpetbaggers everywhere you look in Broward!

Unethical politicians hiding in plain-sight are Bob Norman's favorite kind of people to bring the hammer down on: Joe Gibbons, Perry Thurston, Jared Moskowitz, Hazelle Rogers, Maria Sachs...

 Local10 News video: 
 Broward Commissioner's residency claims don't hold up, 
North Miami mayor sued over city's residency rule
Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published On: Jun 25 2013 03:07:21 PM EDT   Updated On: Jun 25 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT, 
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Related article at: http://www.local10.com/news/more-elected-officials-living-outside-districts/-/1717324/20709398/-/pok1gcz/-/index.html


Local10 News video: 
Florida Democratic leader caught living outside district
Author: Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com

Published On: Jun 12 2013 03:34:55 PM EDT   Updated On: Jun 12 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT

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 Related article: http://www.local10.com/news/investigation-finds-elected-officials-with-houses-outside-their-districts/-/1717324/20516720/-/bwp40jz/-/index.html

Local10 News video: 
Senator caught on video staying outside district, Maria Sachs has home in Boca Raton, claims to reside in Lauderdale condo
Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published On: Jun 26 2013 04:45:07 PM EDT   Updated On: Jun 26 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT
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Related article at http://www.local10.com/news/south-floridabased-state-senators-residency-debated/-/1717324/20726464/-/r2lhe4z/-/index.html








And as if there weren't already serious ethical issues involving her, Florida state Senator Maria Sachs sets a now LOW in unethical behavior among South Florida pols.
 Democrat Sachs, who defeated Ellyn Bogdanoff in 2012 and who was endorsed by the Miami Herald, is so lazy & unethical that she even failed to disclose her legislative salary on her required disclosure forms three years in a row.

Palm Beach Post

Editorial: Sachs case shows why ethics laws remain too lax.

Posted: 4:33 p.m. Sunday, June 16, 2013
BY ANDREW MARRA - PALM BEACH POST STAFF WRITER

For three years, state Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, skirted state law by failing to publicly disclose all of her financial assets on mandatory state disclosure forms. When questions were raised before her election last year, she brushed them off as “negative campaigning” and said she had not even bothered to go back and look at the reports.

The Florida Commission on Ethics was not so dismissive. Last week, it announced that it had found probable cause that Sen. Sachs had violated Florida’s disclosure rules for elected officials by not properly reporting her net worth or her ownership of a Tallahassee condo. According to the commission, she failed even to disclose her legislative salary.

These transgressions occurred from 2008 to 2010, and by 2011 Sen. Sachs had begun including the omitted information in her new financial reports. After the ethics commission began an investigation, Sen. Sachs also filed amended forms for the years in question. As a result, the ethics commission said it will not seek to impose fines or take further action.

The senator has said the omissions were unintentional. Accidental or not, she is hardly the first elected official to fail to properly disclose her finances as required by law. Indeed, last week the ethics commission faulted four other current and former legislators for similar failings.

Questions about Sen. Sachs’ financial disclosures were raised last October by Sid Dinerstein, then the chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party. His complaint to the ethics commission was baldly political, but Sen. Sachs was wrong to dismiss it out of hand. The requirement that candidates and elected officials disclose their assets reveals to voters any agendas that otherwise would be hidden, and is so fundamental a concept that it is included in the state’s constitution.

The Legislature passed a sweeping ethics reform package this year. But the bill actually makes it easier for officials to correct flawed financial disclosure reports without penalties, and it failed to give the ethics commission the much-needed ability to initiate its own investigations, even into disclosure reports that are obviously flawed. Until that authority is granted, one of the few ways for it to investigate omissions like Sen. Sachs’ will be politically motivated complaints.

Andrew Marra for The Post Editorial Board

-----
After her victory, 
"State Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith sent out a statement congratulating Sachs on her campaign and called her a "rising star" in the state Democratic Party."


 The news directors at CBS4, NBC-6 and 7News and the editors at the Miami Herald need to wake-up from their summer coma and admit that they've been completely asleep on this scandal from the very beginning, and need to acknowledge that there are LOTS of people all over South Florida who HAVE noticed this failure.
And also noticed their complete failure to make a serious effort to catch-up.
Why?

 Why so much resistance to doing hard news?
Of pushing back against elected officials and putting them in their place?
Why are you in your job if you don't want to cover and investigate what people are genuinely interested in that is also important to society?

 And don't think we forgot about you down in Miami-Dade, Frank Artiles, and the way blogger Elaine de Valle caught you a few years ago still living at the home you said you would move out of if you got elected.
My April 21, 20111 blog post on this subject was titled, Elaine de Valle's Political Cortadito blog channels Sherlock Holmes and catches the crook red-handed: FL Rep. Frank Artiles. Blogger 1, Lying Pol 0
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/elaine-de-valles-political-cortadito.html

 Speaking of how many of Broward's legislators live elsewhere, why is it that the website of the Florida Conference of Black State Legislators is managed by a company located in Spain? http://fcbsl.org/  http://www.arsys.es/
When you go to a list of members, on my computer Google Translate pops-up and asks you if you want to translate Spanish. http://www.fcbsl.com/#!/members 
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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Gettysburg, a place where you really feel the full weight of history all around you: the history we've experienced and the very different one we could've had instead; On the 150th anniversary of the battle, the continuing wonder that is MGM's Oscar-nominated 1955 documentary two-reel short, 'Battle of Gettysburg,' narrated by Leslie Nielsen; History Channel's 2011 documentary "Gettysburg" narrated by Sam Rockwell

If you've never been to Gettysburg yourself, much less, like me, visited after spending LOTS of time brushing-up on the various aspects of the 1863 three-day battle that you once knew pretty well, but which has since gotten a bit hazy, it's hard to fully comprehend what took place there. 
Even more so then when as a kid without much knowledge or context, I visited Shiloh around 1967, and actually met someone whose grandfather had fought there.

How so many different aspects of our everyday life -as Americans- we now take for granted that could've been completely different if this battle had turned out differently.

In some ways, the more you actually know in detail about what happened there before visiting, the even harder it is to imagine, since when you are walking around there on a very warm day, all the details just seem like... well, an unbearable weight.

Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg by tour guide Gary Kross

Little Round Top at Gettysburg by tour guide Gary Kross

Five minutes from disaster!

As far as I'm concerned, nobody should ever contemplate running for president of this country who hasn't spent some quality time there absorbing the atmosphere and the might-have-beens.
And talking about it publicly.

It's a genuine eye-opener in ways that you can't really imagine until you actually see it yourself, away from the tours, standing in the middle of an immense field.

The other thing that immediately is noticed by many first-time visitors are the large number of foreign visitors you meet there at the battleground, reminding you all over again -as if you needed reminding- that many other people far from this small Pennsylvania town realize its monumental importance, too.


Gettysburg - Pickett's Charge: The Plan

Video History Today video: Picketts Charge, Gettysburg, PA
-Gives present-day orientation of what took place and how it looks now.

Civil War historian Edwin Bearss - Receding Tide (National Geographic)


Gettysburg National Military Park homepage

See other present day video of Gettysburg and other historical events at

-----
Repeal1913 YouTube Channel video - MGM's 1955 documentary short: 'Battle of Gettysburg,' narrated by Leslie Nielsen. Filmed entirely on location at Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania. 
Director: Herman Hoffman, Producer/Screenwriter: Dore Schary, with Music Adapted and Conducted by Adolph Deutsch, Orchestrated by Alexander Courage.
1 of 3. Uploaded August 16, 2008. http://youtu.be/byG8wb1Pwzo
AcmeFilmCorporation YouTube Channel video: Gettysburg (2011).
History Channel Civil War documentary depicts the battle thru the eyes of eight men. Uploaded March 20, 2013. Director: Adrian Moat, Narrated by Sam Rockwell.
http://youtu.be/WEZrAmFSCEA
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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Claire Berlinski is our prescient eyes-and-ears in Istanbul, front-and-center on the battle between the past and the future -and what comes next- in a very important place: Turkey. With a smart and knowing Twitter feed that's exploding -and golden for journalists- she's now wrapped up the past few months in one great piece in The Tower magazine: "The Gezi Diaries: Can We Still Call Turkey Civilized?"; @ClaireBerlinski


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For months I've been closely following American writer Claire Berlinski's incisive writing from Istanbul, via her various online pieces and her very intensive and very popular Twitter feed, @ClaireBerlinski

 Berlinki's like a one-woman wire service the way the timely and useful information just flows in and out of her feed every few seconds for what often seems like hours at a time.
It's quite impressive in its scope in ways that Florida media websites and Twitter feeds aren't and never have been, but ought to be, given their greater resources.
Yet she's the one who pulls it off.

 Berlinski reminds us again thru her hard work and diligence that the wonders of technology are useless unless the people using it are both savvy and energetic, not one-note town criers.

That Berlinski lives four blocks from Taksim Square and knows the ins-and-outs of everything, plus speaks the language and is NOT one of the many foreign correspondents there who are forever having to get everything second-hand even while they're eyewitnesses, gives her the effect of knowing things before they happen.
In my opinion, she's lapping the field, which is why I've sent multiple emails out over the past two months with links to particular tweets of hers that were prophetic and spot-on.

Now that she's been front-and-center for months on what's really going down in Taksim Square, and with Prime Minister Erdogan's imperious march to the past, just as Turkey finally has the well-educated and dynamic population it's long needed to take its full place on the stage, the West's fear of Turkey finally going a bridge-too-far -and a subsequent brain drain- is more than just an idle threat as she tells below in a great essay that captures what's really animating the push against Erdogan.

 Here's a taste:
According to legend, when the great historian Robert Conquest was asked if he wanted to rename the updated edition of The Great Terror, his history of the Stalinist purges, he replied, “How about, I Told You So, You F***ing Fools.”
And that’s what I’m saying now to every single lazy journalist and policy wonk, professional sycophant, diplomat and idiot pundit who’s never so much as visited this place, the duly-funded social scientists and craven Western politicians and everyone else who for years swallowed Erdoğan’s nonsense and helped to manufacture the fantasy that Turkey was getting more and more democratic by the day.

That's what I'm talking about!

The Tower magazine
The Gezi Diaries: Can We Still Call Turkey Civilized?
By Claire Berlinski
Some see it as a modern democracy with an Islamic tint, an improving, reforming country. But if you were in Istanbul during the last month and a half, you’d have seen something completely different: a violent, authoritarian, increasingly suppressive and brutal regime. Tales from the Dark Side, Turkish style.
I’ve always been a critic of armchair reporting. But when your armchair is four blocks away from Taksim Square, it has one of the best views of the uproar in Istanbul any diligent reporter could ask for. I’m now able to calculate with great precision the time between the beginning of the screaming, the sound of the shot, and the entry of the gas through my window. It’s two and twelve seconds respectively.
Read the rest of her great essay at 
http://www.thetower.org/article/the-gezi-diaries-erdogans-turkey-goes-medieval/
------

 The Tower, http://www.thetower.org/ You can see the whole Middle East from here

 Claire Berlinski, @ClaireBerlinski, https://twitter.com/ClaireBerlinski

 http://www.berlinski.com/
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