“Did Our Sarcasm Save Ukraine?.....” – The subject of our 2-21-2025 weekly e-mail

[johnkarls]

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There are two reasons for posting our Feb 21 weekly e-mail.


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FIRST, although the overwhelming majority of our weekly e-mail recipients receive our e-mails directly from us – ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com, a dozen or so have signed up via https://livingliberally.org.

For the Feb 21 weekly e-mail, https://livingliberally.org was malfunctioning.


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SECOND, this is a good opportunity to carpe the diem and alert users of our website that the face of Sec. 1 of www.-ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org is entitled --

Section 1 – General Info + Info Re Next Meeting --

and has five sections which, in turn, are entitled –

NEXT MEETING

WHO/WHAT WE ARE

40 SIX-DEGREES-OF-SEPARATION E-MAIL CAMPAIGNS, 4 REPORTS & 9 REPRISES

SIGNING UP FOR OUR WEEKLY E-MAIL

SIGNING UP TO POST ON THIS BULLETIN BOARD


The fourth section says --

If you would like to receive our weekly newsletter, please send an e-mail to ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com with a subject, “Please Add Me To Weekly E-mail List.”



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Subject: Did Our Sarcasm Save Ukraine? + Second Short Quiz entitled “The World’s Wealthy Old Widow (i.e., the U.S.) Selling Her Crown Jewels To Survive” – Kevin Rudd’s “On Xi Jinping: How Xi's Marxist Nationalism is Shaping China & the World” for March 19 Zoom Mtg
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Fri February 21, 2024
To: To Each of Our 232 Members One-By-One
Attachments:
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To Each of Our 232 Members One-By-One – for reasons explained in the 4 postings in Sec. 2 of www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org.


Dear Friends,

Our next meeting is Wed March 19 – 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm MST via Zoom.


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THE SECOND SHORT QUIZ (and whether our sarcasm saved Ukraine)

Entitled “The World’s Wealthy Old Widow (i.e., the U.S.) Selling Her Crown Jewels To Survive,” the Second Short Quiz is available at viewtopic.php?f=841&t=2609&sid=d1a0936f ... e000d46d84.

BTW, two e-mail exchanges were posted by Solutions during this past week --

(1) Donald “The Art of the STEAL” Trump – DISHONORING AMERICA’S 1994 SACRED DEAL With Ukraine (INDUCING UKRAINE TO SURRENDER ITS 1,900 MULTIPLE-WARHEAD NUCLEAR MISSILES) So Can Taiwan Be Far Behind??? available at viewtopic.php?f=841&t=2610&sid=d1a0936f ... e000d46d84.

(2) Donald “Gun-Boat-Diplomacy Wannabe” Trump available at viewtopic.php?f=841&t=2611&sid=d1a0936f ... e000d46d84.

Yes, each of the two e-mail exchanges dealt with both Ukraine as well as China, while calling President Trump –

Donald “The Art of the STEAL” Trump
Donald “Beauty Pageant” Trump
Donald “Gun-Boat Diplomacy Wannabe” Trump
Donald “Tariff” Trump

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THE IMMEDIATE RESULTS

UNLIKE our 1/8/2025 polite letter to President-Elect Trump re Ukraine (available at viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2593&sid=f07b75be0 ... 558b270c39) --

OUR WEBSITE which normally has 100 or so simultaneous users HAD OVER 3,000 SIMULTANEOUS VIEWERS ALL WEEK NIGHT AND DAY with the phpBB-website software currently reporting at the bottom of the first page of www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org that a HIGH POINT OF 4,339 SIMULTANEOUS VIEWERS was reached Tuesday evening.

YES, many of the 232 recipients of our weekly e-mail are media members who are NOT content to merely log onto our website periodically, but this appears to have been a word-of-mouth wild-fire.

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TODAY’S RESULTS – PRES. TRUMP’S SURRENDER

President Trump “back tracked” on several key policies today including --

He admits his error in claiming that Ukraine invaded Russia three years ago.

He will not go to Russia to meet with Putin in May.

He claimed that he has not been siding with Putin (if you believe that one).

Any deal will have to come from face-to-face negotiations between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy RATHER THAN Trump’s one-sided “negotiations” with Putin in Saudi Arabia last week.

Etc., etc. – including, impliedly, that he, Trump, will not end the Ukraine war “on Day One” after all which, based on the evidence of all his actions and comments, would have been to “cut Ukraine off at the knees” and force a surrender.

NEVERTHELESS, we must be vigilant re whether Pres. Trump starves Ukraine for weapons.

AND WHETHER HE CONTINUES TO REFUSE TO FORCE RUSSIA TO WITHDRAW by treating Russia like “a gas station masquerading as a country” (as the late Sen. John McCain loved to call Russia) and shut down Russian oil exports -- à la Trump’s first-term shut down of Iran’s oil exports.

AFTER ALL, Putin has been profiting handsomely from his Ukrainian War even if he has to sell his oil to China at a slight discount FROM THE HIGHLY-INFLATED OIL PRICES caused by Putin’s Ukrainian War.


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MARCH 19 FOCUS BOOK

“On Xi Jinping: How Xi's Marxist Nationalism is Shaping China & the World” by Kevin Rudd (Oxford University Press 10/15/2024 – 407 pages sans notes & index – Hardcover $26.91 or $14.39 Kindle from Amazon.com).

Neither the Salt Lake City Library nor the Salt Lake County Library has any copies available.

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NYC Harvard Club Book-Promotion Notice –

[The NYC Harvard Club conducted an in-person webinar at the Club (i.e., NOT available via Zoom) with the author on 10/23/2024.]

Even if you ignore the headlines, it’s difficult to miss China’s march toward a more assertive foreign policy, at a time when the US has been in retreat. Leading commentators on China’s significant change in worldview, point to Xi Jinping and his retooled Marxist – Leninist doctrine. What does that mean? Let’s ask Kevin Rudd.

Kevin is generally recognized as a studied, articulate, informed China expert. You might know him as a 15-year Member of the Australian Parliament, Leader of the Labor Party, twice his Country’s Prime Minister, and now Ambassador to the United States. His hobbies have included Senior Fellow at the Kennedy School and a Distinguished Fellow at the University of Chicago, President of the Asia Society, and most recently a return to school, where he received a PhD from Oxford in 2022. Interesting guy?

Time to get real about China’s ambitions.

David Wagener
Co-Chair, Program Committee


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Book Description per Amazon.com (usually quoting from the book’s dust jacket)

An authoritative account of Xi Jinping's worldview and how it drives Chinese behaviour both domestically and on the world stage.

In his new book, On Xi Jinping, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd provides an authoritative account of the ideological worldview driving Chinese behaviour both domestically and on the world stage--that of President Xi Jinping, who now holds near-total control over the Chinese Communist Party and is now, in effect, president-for-life. Rudd argues that Xi's worldview differs significantly from those of the leaders who preceded him, and that this ideological shift is reflected in the real world of Chinese policy and behaviour.

Focusing on China's domestic politics, political economy, and foreign policy, Rudd characterises Xi Jinping's ideological framing of the world as "Marxist-Leninist nationalism." According to Rudd, Xi's notion of Leninism has taken the party and Chinese politics further to the left in comparison to his predecessors. Also, his Marxism has also taken Chinese economic thinking to the left-in a more decisively more statist direction and away from the historical dynamism of the private sector. However, Chinese nationalism under Xi has moved further to the right- towards a much, harder-edged, foreign policy vision of China and a new determination to change the international status quo. Xi's worldview is an integrated one, where his national ideological vision for China's future is ultimately inseparable from his view on China's position in the region and the world. These changes in worldview are also reflected in Xi's broader rehabilitation of the concept of "struggle" as a legitimate concept for the conduct of both Chinese domestic and foreign policy--a struggle that need not necessarily always be peaceful.

Finally, Xi's ideological worldview also exhibits a new level of nationalist self-confidence about China's future--derived from China's historical and civilizational strengths but reinforced by his Marxist-Leninist concept of historical determinism and the belief that the tides of history are now on firmly China's side. A powerful analysis of the worldview of arguably the most consequential world leader of our era, this will be essential reading for anyone interested in how Xi is transforming both China and the international order, and, most importantly, why?


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Author Bio per Amazon.com

Kevin Rudd is former Prime Minister and former Foreign Minister of Australia. He is also former President of the Asia Society and the current Australian Ambassador to the United States. He has a PhD in politics from Oxford University and is the author of The Avoidable War (2022), among other books.


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Book Review Excerpts per Amazon.com

"Xi Jinping is one of the most important, but most unknowable leaders of the modern world. Kevin Rudd uses meticulous readings of Chinese sources and deep knowledge of Beijing politics to interpret Xi's thinking in a fascinating and revealing way that is both deeply scholarly and informed by Rudd's own understanding of leadership."
-- Rana Mitter, ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations, Harvard Kennedy School

"Public servant, prime minister, diplomat, scholar--Kevin Rudd's resume is also a stellar CV for the elite caste of scholar-bureaucrats that managed the Chinese empire for over a millennium. On Xi Jinping focusses the experience of a political practitioner engaged with China since his teenage years to analyse Xi Jinpingâs Party Empire and its global ambitions. Rudd also attempts the seemingly impossible by offering words of guidance and hope in this darkling age."
-- Geremie R. Barmé, editor of the China Heritage

"Understanding Xi Jinping's worldview and what it means for China and us, is more crucial now than ever. Rudd's superb analysis provides the reader with a comprehensive guide to Xi's thinking on domestic policy and global affairs. Rudd takes Xi's words seriously and teases out the consequences: a politics and economics that has moved to the left and a foreign policy that has turned to a form of rightist nationalism. Rudd encapsulates these processes with the phrase 'Marist-Leninist Nationalism.' This work is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding where China has come from, where it is heading and the consequences for all of us."
-- Anthony J. Saich, Daewoo Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

"How has Xi Jinping's 'Marxist-Nationalism' shaped China and its relations with the world? No one is better placed than Kevin Rudd to answer these questions, and he does so convincingly in these illuminating pages. This is an essential book for everyone interested in the future of China."
-- Joseph S. Nye, Author of A Life in the American Century

"In this book, Kevin Rudd provides all who care about peace a huge service. Drawing on his extraordinary knowledge of China and the Chinese system, Rudd reveals a side of Xi Jinping only comprehensible through his extensive ideological writings--giving us all unique insights into a man upon whom much of the future depends and helping scholars and policymakers alike better understand Xiâs motives and anticipate his actions. A remarkable read!"
-- Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Jeane Kirpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government

"Understanding Xi Jinping, his plans for China, and how they will affect the world, is the central challenge for the United States and policymakers everywhere. As a foreign policy practitioner, a scholar, a Chinese language speaker, and a former world leader himself, Kevin Rudd is uniquely well placed to answer the question of what Xi Jinping actually believes. He does so brilliantly by drawing on Chinese primary sources, in-depth research, and a lifetime of experience dealing with China's leadership."
-- Stephen J. Hadley, National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush

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MARCH 19 MTG INFO –

Wed March 19 – 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm MST via Zoom.

Please RSVP by hitting your Reply Button and typing RSVP.

There is nothing further you need to do such as any special Zoom training. We will send all RSVP’s a few days in advance a URL and meeting name/password.


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We look forward to seeing/hearing each of you on Wed March 19!!! Please be well!!!

Your friend,

John K.

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