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The Daily Show has released the second installment in its new profile series, The Daily Showography, this time examining the life and times of Ted Cruz, not-so-endearingly referred to as The Booger on the Lip of Democracy. (That sub-title is a nod to a nod to a 2016 Republican presidential debate, during which a small object ostensibly a booger dangled from Cruzs lip as he spoke. And then he swallowed it, on national television, for all to see.)

The clip traces Cruz rise from a Texas teen obsessed with boobs and world domination to an irritating Princeton student to a new husband whose first act after returning from his honeymoon was to buy 100 cans of Campbells Chunky Soup. After all that, he became a high-powered attorney, arguing in front of the Supreme Court for the right to execute mentally ill prisoners and to ban the sale of sex toys.

Thats right, the segments narrator quips, in a show of selfless devotion to the law, Ted Cruz defended a ban on sex toys, even though he himself is a complete dildo.

The segment goes on to discuss Cruzs 2012 Senate run and his rise during the Tea Party era, while it also pays tribute to his rather unfortunate penchant for doing bad impressions of everyone from Yoda to Ned Flanders. And then, of course, it revisits Cruzs failed 2016 presidential bid, where Donald Trump brushed him aside by calling him a liar and his wife ugly while implying that his father had a role in the John F. Kennedy assassination. After briefly standing up for himself at that years Republican National Convention, Cruz was soon phone-banking for Trump.

The segment ended with a parade of voices from across the political spectrum noting how unlikable Cruz is. It also showed Cruz uneven attempts to rehabilitate his image, helping to stoke the January 6th insurrection and then taking an ill-advised trip to Cancun while his home state, Texas, was facing a historic winter storm. But these are just small bumps on the road to his ultimate goal: world domination, the narrator says. To Ted Cruz, the Earth is a mere booger dancing on his lips, tantalizing, mesmerizing, repulsive, waiting until the day when he can swallow us whole and hope that no one saw it.

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The Daily Show Tells the Story of Ted Cruz, The Booger on the Lip of Democracy - Rolling Stone

EU Commissioner for Values and Transparency Vra Jourov addresses the EU Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on March 25, 2021. Photo by Yves Herman/Pool via Reuters.

The challenges of economic upheaval and threats posed by China and Russia, common to both the European Union (EU) and the United States, are increasing the urgency on both sides of the Atlantic of proving to citizens that democracy is the ticket to a better lifea notion that is no longer a given, according to Vra Jourov, vice-president for values and transparency at the European Commission, and US Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). Doing so will require a more robust social-safety net, Murphy argued, along with an aggressive defense against misinformation, Jourov said.

Jourov and Murphy were speaking at the Atlantic Councils EU-US Future Forum during a session moderated by Fran Burwell, a distinguished fellow at the Councils Europe Center, on how to defend democracy in turbulent times.

Below are some of the key takeaways from the conversation.

Daniel Malloy is the deputy managing editor at the Atlantic Council.

Tue, May 4, 2021

The forum, which runs from May 5 through May 7, intends to provide a new platform to discuss trade, tech, energy, space, defense and security, and the recovery from COVID-19.

New AtlanticistbyBenjamin Haddad

Mon, May 3, 2021

Russian and Chinese threats all seek to exploit gaps in Western cyber defenses and digital and information governance. To close these gaps as a part of its defense strategy, the United States should develop a strong collaborative relationship with the European Union in the digital and information sphere.

Seizing the advantagebyHarry I. Hannah

Fri, Feb 5, 2021

For French President Emmanuel Macron, the number-one priority in relations with the new US administration is clear: to boost results-oriented multilateralism.

New AtlanticistbyKatherine Walla

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The urgent task before the US and EU: To craft democracy that 'delivers' - Atlantic Council

Those of us who see these as dark times for Indian democracy can take heart from the recent elections, not only because of the way regional parties stood up to the Centres ruling party machine but also because of the highly unusual nature of their win in the key battleground state.

In surviving the BJP onslaught in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee also beat overwhelming odds. She became only the 10th CM to win a third term in more than 200 major state elections held since the mid-1970s when India became a true multi-party democracy. BJP had many advantages from voter hostility towards a long-serving incumbent to the brute power of its heavily financed machinery but still fell short.

Indias problem right now is not a broken democracy, it is a broken state. In the late phases of the balloting in West Bengal, BJP lost more momentum as the pandemic started spinning out of control. This turn is likely explained at least in part by growing popular anger at the central governments handling of the rising caseload.

In recent weeks India has suffered one of the biggest surges of any country so far. Cases rose roughly twelvefold, according to official figures, and the real toll may be considerably higher. A crisis of this magnitude would stress even the worlds best healthcare system. In India, it has exposed pre-existing frailty a broken state.

A few developed countries, such as France and Italy, also suffered rapid second waves but managed to lower death rates from the first wave. Their health systems had readied for the shock. In India, the second wave has brought with it scenes of devastation reminiscent of the dark ages.

When I watch overwhelmed hospitals turning away patients at the gates, leaving them to die at home or suffer in the streets, I am haunted by thoughts of my grandfather. He died of a heart attack under similar circumstances, turned away from a public hospital in Uttar Pradesh, where there was no doctor on night duty and an orderly tried but failed to install a pacemaker. That was 1993. Indias underlying tragedy is how little progress has been made since.

Among the worlds 25 biggest emerging markets, India ranks last for the number of hospital beds per 1,000 citizens, fifth from last for doctors, fourth from last for nurses and midwives. Even if you drop richer emerging markets and compare India to other large countries with per capita incomes between $1,000 and $5,000 which includes Pakistan and Bangladesh India still looks mediocre on these basic healthcare measures.

Government spending generally rises as a share of the economy as countries grow richer. Indias government spends the equivalent of about 30% of GDP, which is roughly in line with other nations in its income class. So the problem is not the size of Indias state, but how it spends.

When Modi brought BJP to office in 2014, he mocked the welfare populism of his predecessors. Yet soon he was vying with them in his promises of generous freebies, from gas to food and pucca homes. Today, welfare spending accounts for 9% of GDP far higher than the miracle economies India would like to emulate, like South Korea and Taiwan, when they were at similar levels of development.

The government has meanwhile done little to modernise the basic structure of Indias state, which harks back to British rule. Many of Indias laws, and the structure of its federal ministries, including home and finance, dating back to the late 1800s. The corruption in public works that author Munshi Premchand was vividly described in his novels a century ago has yet to abate.

Our healthcare system was supposed to be revamped along lines described by the Bhore commission of the 1940s, but its comprehensive blueprint for hospitals and clinics throughout the country has yet to be realised. Instead, we have the sad reality of underfunded clinics, featuring operating rooms without surgeons, x-ray machines without radiologists. Some have beds without nurses, others have nurses without beds to attend. Economists who say India needs to spend more often have little to say about how badly our resources are currently deployed.

It is no surprise this unfinished and uncoordinated health system would falter in the face of a global pandemic. What was promised was minimum government, maximum governance, but rather than reforming Indias outdated state, power has been centralised to a greater degree than in a long time.

The PM set himself up as the nations saviour, who would solve its every problem. But it was a tall order, even a Formula 1 driver would not have made much progress in an Ambassador. The reality is that BJP can no longer claim to offer a superior model of governance, and that reality is starting to catch up to it at the polls.

The good news is that private groups, as they have before, are rushing in to provide what the government does not. Expats are sending money and medical resources from abroad. Residential associations are providing whatever assistance they can muster to ailing neighbours. So far, the Indian stock market has barely flinched over the rising death toll, perhaps reflecting a collective intuition that India will survive this crisis too despite its broken state.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Sickly state, healthy democracy: Elections held during deadly pandemic surge expose Indias real flaws and s - The Times of India Blog

Theres a quote often attributed to Winston Churchill, the former British premier: Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.

Churchills tongue-in-cheek defense of democracy came just two years after the end of World War II. Totalitarian forces had vied for their chance to lead the world, but democratic powers in Europe and the United States ushered in decades of peace and prosperity instead.

The British leaders quote came to mind as I listened to President Joe Biden address Congress on Wednesday night on his first 100 days in office, because it was the same kind of full-throated defense of democracy that Churchill made. At a time when democracy around the world is under siege and authoritarian powers like China are on the rise, Biden made it clear that he wants to use his time in the Oval Office to prove democracy right.

We have to prove democracy still works. That our government still works and can deliver for the people, he said during his address on Capitol Hill. In our first 100 days together, we have acted to restore the peoples faith in our democracy to deliver.

Those who believe American democracy wont prevail are wrong, and we have to prove them wrong.

Its a theme Biden has returned to often. During his first press conference in March, the president said It is clear, absolutely clear ... that this is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies.

And just hours before his Wednesday evening address, Biden told CNNs Jake Tapper and other television presenters that historians would write about whether or not democracy can function in the 21st century. ... The question is: In a democracy thats such a genius as ours, can you get consensus in the timeframe that can compete with autocracy?

Its this idea that seems to animate everything Biden does. Whether its pushing trillion-dollar economic and infrastructure plans at home or especially working to outcompete Beijing abroad, the presidents main theme is that democracy is the best form of government, despite all the others.

For some experts, its the right note to strike.

China is arguing that their brand of authoritarian capitalism is predictable and produces prosperity, whereas the American model is socially divisive, politically unpredictable, and economically reckless, Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, told me. Hes right to keep bringing the issue up, she added.

Indeed, it makes sense for Biden to rally around this idea. Former President Trump attacked American democracy and often sided with foreign dictators, so championing democracy conveniently allows for a political separation between the two. Instead of appealing to rationality in an irrational and polarized time, the notion of boosting Americas democracy might calm partisan passions. And at a fundamental level, a functioning US is good for its international standing.

The American government and American society have to work if the US wants to retain its preeminent international position, said Justin Logan, a US foreign policy expert at the Cato Institute think tank in Washington, DC. It may not be able to keep that position, but in the short term, it shouldnt set its reputation for basic competence on fire, either.

But beyond being politically expedient, it appears Biden truly believes in his mission. The president, after all, was 3 years old when World War II ended. Biden grew up in a world where democracy was on the rise and bettered millions of lives (some more than others, of course). To lose the world that shaped him on his watch, no less is unthinkable, unacceptable, and unwelcome.

Yes, his first congressional address was a boilerplate political speech. It was full of the usual platitudes and wont change many minds.

But it may be remembered as Bidens earliest major plea to the nation to join him in proving democracy isnt as bad as all the other options. Its the core of the presidents domestic and foreign policy message and, increasingly, the driving force of his presidency.

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Bidens speech to Congress was about proving democracy right over autocracy - Vox.com

LONDON The Group of 7 was created to help coordinate economic policy among the worlds top industrial powers. In the four decades since, it has acted to combat energy shortages, global poverty and financial crises.

But as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with fellow Group of 7 foreign ministers in London this week, a key item on the agenda will be what Mr. Blinken called, in remarks to the press on Monday, defending democratic values and open societies.

Implicitly, that defense is against China and, to a lesser extent, Russia. While the economic and public tasks of recovering from the coronavirus remain paramount, Mr. Blinken is also employing the Group of 7 composed of the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan to coordinate with allies in an emerging global competition between democracy and the authoritarian visions of Moscow and Beijing.

One twist in the meeting this week is the presence of nations that are not formal Group of 7 members: India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa. Also in attendance is Brunei, the current chair of the Association of South East Asian Nations.

It is no coincidence that those guest nations are in the Indo-Pacific region, making them central to Western efforts to grapple with Beijings growing economic might and territorial ambition. China was the subject of a 90-minute opening session on Tuesday morning, and the schedule concluded with a group dinner on the Indo-Pacific.

The broader context for these meetings is China, and the authoritarian challenge that China presents to the democratic world, said Ash Jain, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Mr. Jain noted the way the group is now emphasizing common values over shared economic interests. The G7 is being rebranded as a group of like-minded democracies, as opposed to a group of highly industrialized nations. Theyre changing the emphasis, he said.

Many of the countries represented at the meeting do big business with China and Russia, complicating efforts to align them against those nations. Chinas pattern of economic coercion was one specific topic of conversation on Tuesday, participants said.

But those efforts have been simplified by the departure of President Donald J. Trump, who repeatedly picked fights with Group of 7 allies and confounded them with calls to restore Russia, which was expelled in 2014 from what was then the Group of 8 after its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Nor is it likely a coincidence that the expanded guest list matches, with the additions of South Africa and Brunei, a group of 10 countries and the European Union, collectively short-handed as the D-10 by proponents of organizing them in a new world body. Those proponents include Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, the host of this weeks gathering and architect of its guest list.

Mr. Johnson has also invited India, Australia and South Korea to send their heads of state to this summers Group of 7 summit in Cornwall, citing his ambition to work with a group of like-minded democracies to advance shared interests and tackle common challenges.

President Biden has similarly suggested that the world is grouping into competing camps, divided by the openness of their political systems. In his address to Congress last week, Mr. Biden said that Americas adversaries, the autocrats of the world, are betting that the nations battered democracy cannot be restored.

As a candidate, Mr. Biden also committed to holding a Summit for Democracy during his first year in office, and officials say planning for such an event is underway. Asked in a Tuesday interview with The Financial Times which countries might be invited to such a summit, Mr. Blinken did not answer directly.

And Wednesdays agenda for the gathering includes a session on open societies, including issues of media freedom and disinformation. Other sessions over the two days include Syria, Russia and its neighbors Ukraine and Belarus, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.

Some Group of 7 nations are concerned about the creation of a new global body that might contribute to a Cold War-style polarization along ideological lines.

In a joint news conference on Monday, Mr. Blinken and his British counterpart, Dominic Raab, were cautious not to suggest that they were forming a new club.

Asked whether a new alliance of democracies might be emerging, Mr. Raab said he did not see things in such theological terms, but did see a growing need for agile clusters of like-minded countries that share the same values and want to protect the multilateral system.

Addressing the same question, Mr. Blinken was careful to insist that this weeks meetings did not amount to plotting against Beijing.

It is not our purpose to try to contain China, or to hold China down, Mr. Blinken said. What we are trying to do is to uphold the international rules-based order that our countries have invested so much in over so many decades, to the benefit, I would argue, not just of our own citizens, but of people around the world including, by the way, China. (The line is not just for public consumption. U.S. diplomats have relayed the same message privately, almost verbatim, to foreign counterparts.)

But in an interview with CBSs 60 Minutes broadcast the night before, Mr. Blinken made clear how the United States views Chinas rise.

I think that over time, China believes that it can be and should be and will be the dominant country in the world, Mr. Blinken said. China is challenging the international order, he said, adding that were going to stand up and defend it.

Jeremy Shapiro, a State Department official in the Obama administration who is now research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that informally expanding the Group of 7 was far easier than constructing a new body.

It is always a pain, from a governmental perspective, to invent a new forum, because you need to have an endless discussion about whos in and whos out, and how it works, and its relationship to the U.N., Mr. Shapiro said.

He added that the Group of 7, whose mission had grown nebulous in recent years, might have acquired a new sense of purpose as it tries to organize a post-Trump democratic world in the face of Chinese and Russian threats.

You would be hard-pressed to look back the past five years or more since they kicked out Russia to name a single thing the G7 has done of interest, Mr. Shapiro said. It didnt have much to do.

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Blinken and G7 Allies Turn Their Focus to Democratic Values - The New York Times