18 Nov 2023

Former Trump adviser O’Brien slams Biden for attacks on U.S. troops in Syria, Iraq

by | posted in: Politics | 0

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Robert O’Brien, former President Donald Trump’s last national security adviser, accused President Joe Biden of failing to prevent dozens of attacks in recent weeks by Iranian-backed proxies on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

In an interview with POLITICO on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum, O’Brien called on the Biden administration to do more to protect American troops. He criticized Biden’s retaliatory U.S. airstrikes on facilities used by the militants in Syria, calling them “a couple of minor pinprick attacks.”

“The attacks against American troops continue. Iran is not deterred, their proxies are not deterred, so that question answers itself,” he said Friday on the sidelines of the forum, a major annual national security conference attended by Western diplomats, officials, military leaders and democracy advocates. “We’re not doing enough to protect our troops … more needs to be done.”

The Biden administration has sent a massive amount of American firepower to the Middle East since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, with the aim of preventing a wider conflict in the region. The Pentagon deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups, additional aircraft and air defenses, as well as hundreds of troops.

But the attacks on U.S. troops have continued: Since Oct. 17, Iranian proxies have targeted American forces with drones and rockets at least 60 times in Iraq and Syria, injuring at least 60 U.S. personnel. Many of those service members were diagnosed withtraumatic brain injury.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh on Thursday defended the administration’s response, saying the attacks have mostly been “unsuccessful” and have not caused “significant” damage to infrastructure or “significant” injury to any service members. She also defended the retaliatory airstrikes, saying they have “significantly downgraded and degraded” the militia groups’ access to weapons.

“We’re not waiting on something to act. We have responded, and if there are more attacks, we will certainly respond at a time and place of our choosing.”

O’Brien also seemed to pin some blame on the Biden administration for the Oct. 7 attacks, which killed more than 1,000 Israelis, and for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The U.S. failed to deter Iran and Hamas in Israel. We failed to deter Russia in Ukraine,” O’Brien said. “Those are two major failures of the current administration.”

O’Brien has previously criticized Biden’s Iran policy, voicing concern in September that a recent deal to free five imprisoned Americans in exchange for unlocking $6 billion in frozen funds for Tehran will encourage other nations to continue detaining U.S. citizens.

O’Brien was serving as national security adviser when Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the former leader of Iran’s elite Quds force, in January 2020.

O’Brien also said Biden’s White House could do more to support both Israel and Ukraine. On Israel, he said Biden must “remain resolute” in the face of criticism by the Democratic party’s progressive wing.

“We cannot let world public opinion, which has been turning against Israel because of terrible antisemitism abroad, undermine our efforts,” he said.

On Ukraine, he criticized Biden as being “too little, too late on delivering the weapons systems that Ukraine needed to win.”

18 Nov 2023

Inna Faliks: Where have all the pianos gone? No one has time for them anymore

by | posted in: Adventure | 0

The students have too many activities and academic deadlines, the Montessori school principal informed me. This is not a good time for piano recitals, and the piano wasn’t needed either.

“Please feel free to take the piano and donate it” elsewhere, the email said.

Several months ago, with help from my favorite piano technician, I had found a free upright piano and arranged for its delivery with the school principal. It had stood against the back wall of the classroom, used as a table for lunches and backpacks, and now it was no longer wanted.

As a pianist, I wanted my children, who attended the elementary school, and their friends to hear the sound of a real piano at school. The kids have one music class a week, which involves a few pop songs played on a keyboard. There is nothing wrong with pop songs or keyboards. But I had imagined the kids’ delight at hearing the full sound of chords on a piano, the storm of a Beethoven sonata, the mist of a Debussy prelude, the bouncy bass of Scott Joplin.

After helping to arrange the piano delivery, I offered to play for the children, and to tell them about adventures in music and piano. But I never got the chance.

I have a soft spot for upright pianos. I learned to play on an upright of the brand Red October as a child in Soviet Odesa. Upon coming to the U.S., my parents bought an upright piano for me with the $200 they carried with them through months of immigration, so that I could continue my musical training. It was the only money they had.

On that piano, I learned Chopin’s etudes, Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven’s sonatas. An upright can sound intimate and warm but also quite powerful in a small room. As a penniless immigrant kid in Chicago, I struggled to assimilate into the privileged North Shore. While classmates told me to “go back to Russia” (nobody knew the difference between Ukraine and Russia back then), music was my respite, thanks to that piano.

Classical music is losing audiences because of its perceived elitism. I believe this stems from the lack of early music education in schools, among other factors. Classical music stops being a closed world when the music is shared generously and with passion. And music’s most eager audiences are children. But how do we musicians share music with children when it’s so hard to do so?

Middle and high schools in Los Angeles and other places pride themselves on expanding their STEM curriculum and budget. School ratings are primarily determined by STEM scores; art and music are lowest on the totem pole. Are kids paying for adults’ lack of support for the arts? Hearing music in childhood can be a game-changer for them.

Playing for children is immensely gratifying for a musician, because nobody absorbs with greater speed, responds with more excitement or explores the nature of music with fewer preconceptions.

Leonard Bernstein’s 53 Young People’s Concerts greatly increased children’s exposure to music through national televised broadcasts. Nothing of this magnitude exists in the U.S. today.

In Venezuela, El Sistema, the world-renowned national music program that nurtured the L.A. Philharmonic’s conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, provides a musical upbringing to children in a politically and economically challenged landscape. Surely, the world’s richest country could commit to enriching its children’s lives in a similar way.

The lack of classical music in schools is emblematic of a larger trend. We have become tethered to quantifiable, competitive ways of judging how we educate our kids. Classical music and most other art don’t fit into that box.

It’s the escape from the box that challenges, inspires and allows the expression of genuine individuality. Getting to know classical music early on can serve as preparation for a life in the music industry or theater, or not. It can simply be a creative, sensory immersion that engages one’s emotions and expands the mind. It’s our responsibility to educate our children. But perhaps even more important is our duty to nurture their souls.

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Inna Faliks is a professor and head of the piano department at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. She is the author of “Weight in the Fingertips – A Musical Odyssey from Soviet Ukraine to the World Stage.” She wrote this column for the Los Angeles Times.

18 Nov 2023

Working Strategies: Career management for middle-aged tweens

by | posted in: News | 0

Amy Lindgren

If you’re between 9 and 12 years old, you are a tweenager –not quite a teen, but almost. And if you’re a tweenager reading this column, holy cow — you’re also precocious and amazing.

Now go find your grandparents, because they’re the tweens who need today’s advice.

Or maybe the great grands? It’s hard to keep track of generations, but for folks somewhere between their mid-50s and perhaps their mid-70s, I’m devising a new moniker: Second-age tween.

Well, that’s not exactly catchy, which explains why I don’t write slogans for a living. Let’s just say that you’re in a tween state, careerwise.

When it comes to work, there is something terribly awkward about this span of 20 years or so, largely because of the elephant always tromping around the room: Retirement. Whether or when or how to retire tends to dominate career and work choices at this stage of life.

The awkward aspect of the second-age tween stage can be sorted into at least three categories: Personal, social and vocational. On the personal side of the equation, you may have mixed feelings about how much longer you want to work, or with what kind of intensity. If you can afford to retire, doing so can feel like an unwanted imperative; if you can’t afford to retire, you may be resentful about needing the income.

While all of this personal drama is unfolding, the social awkwardness kicks in. As you and your cohort age and some in your group stop working, lifestyles become mismatched. Pretty soon, organizing even simple get-togethers becomes complicated and friends start to drift away. Likewise, if your spouse no longer works but you still do, there’s bound to be complications and even friction around whose lifestyle takes precedence.

Perhaps the knottiest issue of the three is the vocational awkwardness that dominates this tween stage. For example, your skills or stamina may have diminished, leaving you unsure about what you still can do. Or your skills and stamina may be fine, but your interests may have shifted. In either case, your timeline has definitely shortened, which can complicate career planning.

There’s even a gender component to consider, based on traditional roles still followed by men and women. If you’re a 60-year-old man whose spouse has sometimes stepped out of the workforce for child rearing or caretaking, you may have been the financial mainstay of the family. In that case, you’ve probably worked continuously through three or four decades, making you more than ready for retirement.

On the other hand, if you’re the 60-year-old woman in this couple, you may be catching your second wind, professionally speaking. Having missed one or two decades of your career, you might still be on the ascent and not nearly as ready to quit the workforce. Or you may simply need more years to build your Social Security and retirement funds.

These patterns may change as the next generations hit their tween years, but for today’s tweens, the gender construct still matters. Even without gender in the mix, managing this last career stage is clearly not a one-size-fits-all situation.

If you’re in this phase of life yourself, there are at least four things you’ll want to assess as you consider your options:

Health / longevity: Those who are relatively healthy or come from a long line of centenarians might feel justified in making career plans even into their 80s. Conversely, those on borrowed time, so to speak, might decide that accelerating retirement takes precedence.

Finances: Now is the time to learn the ins and outs of Social Security, including what it will take to reach the maximum payout. Now is also the time to organize retirement accounts and learn the rules for required distributions. This information will naturally impact decision-making.

Bucket lists: The tween years are an excellent time to revise your bucket list. What seemed important in your 20s may no longer matter, while things you never considered in your youth might feel essential. The most pressing items on the revised list could end up directing your career planning now.

Purpose: Your sense of purpose doesn’t need to come from work, by any means. But understanding what you find meaningful can provide essential clues in the process of planning your tween years. Whether you choose a job that helps you achieve that purpose, or a retirement that lets you to pursue it, taking time to examine this question will pay off in the end.

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18 Nov 2023

Ravens WR Odell Beckham Jr., with legs back underneath him, is starting to look like his old self

by | posted in: News | 0

Ravens wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has always operated with the premise that his season in Baltimore is about where it ends, not necessarily where it is in the moment. In his often contemplative way, it’s about the journey and the destination.

Over the past few weeks, the two have finally started to come together.

That merging has been significant. In his past three games, Beckham has found a rhythm with quarterback Lamar Jackson as well as a level of speed that he had yet to display since joining the Ravens, with 10 catches for 212 yards and two touchdowns in that span. That included 116 yards in Baltimore’s 34-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night, the most he’s had in a game since Week 2 in 2019 when he was with the Cleveland Browns.

It was against the Browns on Sunday that Beckham also showed off his wheels, taking a short slant and turning it into a 40-yard touchdown. On the play, he hit 19.2 mph, according to Next Gen Stats, his fastest speed as a ball carrier since Week 14 in 2021.

The week before, in a 37-3 win over the Seattle Seahawks, Beckham had five catches for 56 yards, including his first touchdown as a Raven courtesy of backup quarterback Tyler Huntley after Jackson had been pulled amid a blowout.

With tight end Mark Andrews likely out for the rest of the season after suffering a severe ankle injury against the Bengals, performances like the ones Beckham has had in recent weeks will become more paramount. He’s finally having the kind of impact the Ravens had hoped for but weren’t sure he could deliver when they signed him to a one-year, $15 million deal in the offseason.

“Early on in the season, I was hurt, and I just couldn’t be myself,” Beckham said Thursday. “I didn’t have the explosion; I couldn’t move the way that I wanted to. I don’t think people really knew what I was dealing with.”

Initially, neither did the Ravens.

When Baltimore signed Beckham last April, it wasn’t even sure how well the 31-year-old receiver who tore his ACL in October 2020 and again in February 2022 could even run. The move was done in part to appease Jackson, who was embroiled in his own contract negotiations and had requested the team sign Beckham, and in part because the transcendent star was the kind of player who would sell jerseys and tickets.

Still, the Ravens liked enough of what they saw when they were one of several teams Beckham worked out for last March and hoped for the best.

“We saw everything we needed to see, knowing that it’s going to just improve,” general manager Eric DeCosta said in April. “That’s the thing — when a guy has a serious injury in general, it only gets better. It may take time; sometimes it takes longer, but it only gets better. What we saw was extremely encouraging.”

It’s also perhaps why when the two-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowl selection injured his ankle on the opening drive of the Ravens’ Week 2 game in Cincinnati and later exited for good in the third quarter, alarm bells weren’t going off inside the team’s Owings Mills headquarters — or in Beckham’s head.

“The best thing that DeCosta and [coach John Harbaugh] did [was when] we were playing the Bengals last time, and they were like, ‘It’s a long season. Just sit down,’” Beckham said. “That changed the entire trajectory of my season. I had the time to get my legs underneath me, and we’re just trying to go up from here.”

Still, the ankle injury Beckham suffered in Week 2 ended up keeping him out of the next two games. One of those was a loss to the Indianapolis Colts in which the Ravens led in the fourth quarter before losing in overtime.

When Beckham returned in Week 5 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he continued to struggle with his chemistry with Jackson and wasn’t explosive as the Ravens again lost despite leading in the fourth quarter. Beckham had just two catches on four targets for 13 yards, and he was unable to break free from rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. on a short fade route in the end zone in the fourth quarter that ended up being intercepted.

The following week against the Tennessee Titans in London wasn’t a lot better with two catches for 34 yards, as well as a dropped pass and a scuffle after the game with Titans defensive end Jeffrey Simmons. In Week 7 against the Detroit Lions, Beckham had five catches for 49 yards, but the next week he was held without a catch against the Arizona Cardinals. It was just the second time in his eight-year career that he didn’t record a reception, though he was at least the beneficiary of two pass interference calls and a holding penalty.

Then came the game against Seattle. Though it wasn’t Jackson who threw the touchdown pass to Beckham, the quarterback celebrated with the receiver after the play, which fittingly featured a route named “Odell” that the Ravens had put in their playbook last season. It also came on the receiver’s birthday.

“It’s just been a long time coming — a lot of hard work,” Beckham said. “It’s just a step in the right direction.”

And for the Ravens, perhaps just the beginning of the journey to where Beckham wants to ultimately help take them.

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