She's only the second person in the world to have run the seven of the most difficult environments in seven different continents But the first to do it within seven months in 2014 she swam Biked and ran 3,762 miles from Cancun, Mexico to Washington DC and set a world record for the longest trials on ever her records her awards and her story of how she did this despite a late start And being a mom of two is a remarkable story of human Ingenuity human spirit human energy, but it all actually pales if you compare that to where she Comes from and how she even got here Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the Iklif leader leaders room My name is Rajiv and I'm very pleased to have with us today Norma Bastidas all the way from Canada Norma great to have you with us. Hi. Thank you so much Tell us Let's start right from the beginning. Tell us a little bit about your early years and you know getting up to where you've got to you know I was born in Mexico was born and raised in Mexico And now it's it's a well-known area because of the cartels I'm from a place called Culiacan Sinaloa. So, you know, just a regular upbringing, I guess the only thing is From the beginning being raised by a single mother because my father died very very young and that kind of you know The lack of opportunities that the lack of resources having my mom now a single parent of five That's what really led me into a life of you know, incredible hardships But also, you know a lot of successes just because the opportunities weren't given to me So I had to find them. So you were growing up in the family of five Yes, and How what for the early years like, you know, I It's it's you know, like typical to a family in Mexico. I mean my parents didn't have a lot, but you know, they were caring and My my father was a you know, unfortunately was an alcoholic But you know, he had a lot of problems But he also instilled a sense of that education was important And I think I have to really talk about that and give him the credit because for a man who was in Uneducated my dad did not have an opportunity opportunities for education He wanted that for us and so he makes sure that we always had books. So I you know Now looking back, we were very very poor But I mean the things that they weren't pouring in my dad always make sure that even though we didn't have money That there were books in the house. I Think I learned to read at four, you know, my sibling was education was was definitely very important My mom was like any other parent in Mexico, you know, overwhelmed and educated as well You know how to marry young both of my parents were 16 17 with a married So I mean from the start it wasn't the ideal situation But I think is what they did give us is the desire to a better life and that was probably You know what it made me want to continue fighting for you know, the opportunities Unfortunately, like I like I said my dad was an alcoholics in taunta young so that really set the tone for a life of Unfortunately of violence because once you're introduced to that, you know, I always say that they want One door opens and violence and especially when it is a family member Families tend to not deal with it and kind of try to cover up and You know for us, we didn't get the help that we needed So he just kind of snowballed into one kind of violence leads to all the types of violence so you you know You went through a lot of difficulty and personal assaults when you were young How did that happen and how did you cope with all of that? You know, it's hard for me to you know To really kind of make sense of it because you know, my life is so different now, right? And I am the same person. So it's difficult for me to explain to To people that that could happen to somebody like me that it's now Strong in a leader and expeditions and get tackle the most difficult. So how do you go from victim to champion? Exactly, right because I am the same person But it is a lot of the circumstances is it's not being able to talk about violence Especially when when it is something like that that is shameful. It is a violent family member and silence Breeds violence, you know, and that's why now I speak against all these things to educate because that's the best way to fight it Unfortunately was you know, it was a family member and you know, it escalated from physical violence to sexual violence a very very young age Unfortunately the younger that it happens the boundaries get get interrupted and get broken into so you you're really not equipped to be able to reinforce violence to to kind of you know, very Being able to kind of reinforce and say Don't you can do that to me, you know, because your boundaries have been broken You know have been trouble on in that probably now looking back It's it's what led into, you know one type of violence and why it kept happening so many times is because I was not taught The event you know isn't giving the tools to protect myself and when when these things were happening to you You did mention that to your family or you kept it all to yourself.   It's you know now It's a bit different but backed in Sexual education wasn't taught, you know or something that it wasn't discussed So it was just kind of one of those things. I wasn't able to talk. I mean, I just Especially when you know, if it's a family member then you have also that that you know The the family member has some sort of control. It was it was it was my grandfather And you're taught, you know to respect and it is somebody who is supposed to protect you And then it now is telling you that you can't say anything about it So it is a very difficult thing for a child to go through right because I mean I didn't know how to You know, you're taught about stranger but not about a family member, you know And when the family member you taught it's you know, it's especially when he's It's a it's a male and it is It has a status and you watch everybody else Not standing up to him and he has a certain level then, you know, I wasn't able to You know just because he told me not to It seems crazy, but that's why I never said anything for a long time and then your Your your escape came years later or so you thought it was Unfortunately is every single time I tried to escape one, you know one type of violence I ended up in conjuring another because the opportunities weren't there, you know I wasn't able to just kind of say well I'm just going to go to the police and find help because you know There's nobody you can turn to family are all kind of you know trying to protect the secret So when you are even when I even when you are asking for help I just simply say let's just not talk about it and you can't tell anybody else and then so what I do is I try to leave home, you know when I was old enough I left home But then unfortunately I end up being kidnapped in Mexico City, so I you know It just because I didn't take the opportunity wasn't taken in in the highest You know standards it was just you know, it's not like I got a great job offer We just simply trying you know calling my brother that had moved out and I said I you know Can I come and live with you and I was unsupervised when I was 17 and it just happened that randomly I was you know Grabbed on a bus stop and thrown into a car and kidnapped for the first time I was 1718 around that time so you know being from province and like I said, I wasn't you know able to Speak against these bluntly to say why are you doing this to me? I just simply every single time something like that happened or somebody Exercise your authority.  I managed to escape about 24 hours after they had me in a house I managed to convince somebody who came into the house before I was sold to help me out And he did and so now my role was to leave, you know, my understanding of it's like, okay It's not only home. It's Mexico. So What I did is I accepted a job offer to go to Japan and the same thing it was I put myself in a vulnerable position Just because I I mean I needed to continue working because I had to help my family My mom had no money and I was at that point that the highest earner in my family Even though I was only 19 years old and I was the youngest I was the one with the most potential in in our home and so I did and I found myself in The same situation that I try escape and he was not being able to understand the kidnapping and human trafficking Happens and in a different forms, you know I always thought it was like in the movies mask man with a trench coat not a nice person that you know from your neighborhood that you know, she seems Friendly and and and ask you to you know, she says hey, you know, you you are a model You should go to Japan and it happens so subtle and so on scary that you let your guards down and I now understand the grooming process Also, which is enables you to be controlled Which is they become your best friends that became your saviors. They giving you what you need, which is all you need You need to leave Mexico Japan is different such a safe country and you have lots of opportunities and then you do and they taking you in so they they pray they Pretend they're protectors and they pray and vulnerable it is and then that's when then Once they start chipping away at your confidence by taking your passport by Isolating you not understand of the language and all that that's when the pressure starts and you're unable to really help yourself Because by this time you consent it to so many things and now that's how I know that that that's how Predators operate, you know, they make you do something the later, you know You have a hard time going to the police because you either lie or you consent it to something, you know And then make it difficult for you make it very difficult. I accepted knowing that it was Accepted as working visa and Knowing that it wasn't the type of visa that I needed they said don't worry about it You're not an entertainer your model But we're gonna give you so I couldn't go to the police because now I entered the country legally and there are different visa that I needed So I'm in trouble So, I mean it seems simple now. Yeah, but Those are the kind of things they do. Yes. That's that's how it happens and when did you realize? How long into your stay in Japan? Did you realize that things were not what they were supposed to be what they were promised? It was I would say three four months also for the first three four months you didn't realize well I I knew we wasn't but I didn't really end up being in the trouble That I didn't send the extent of what they were going exactly working at a bar Wearing a bikini for example, it is not what I consented and he was absolutely terrifying for somebody like me I was 19 and you know being paraded with little clothing on those and talking and being spoken in it in a different manner.  You're young and if you want something There's some how an exchange it is I'm dignifying for but if you know we place such a value on certain women.  It was just simply and now I didn't know I was called human trafficking back then. There was no such a thing You know, there was no law against it.  He became a law 2002 We're talking about 1986-1987 and then how did you manage to get out of that? Yeah, I just simply pay my debt. It was a long time for me nine ten months Something like that. I Had nowhere to go. So I just simply did what they wanted me to do and that's the case for most victims There's no such a thing like the movie that taken where need Liam Neeson comes to your rescue You know, there's not just the things a lot of women there find themselves in those situations have to find a way out So without opportunities You know, I The only reason why it ended is because I was able not only to pay my debt But a school offered to give me a student visa and legal way to say in the country Legal so I had I could ask for for help legally. So What I did is when I was working at a bar, they they were giving tips So I I remember somebody saying that there was they had they were there in the country as a student so I went to their school and start paying for classes and They knew they knew from the moment that I that I walked in that there was something that I found myself in a Situation that I didn't want to be and they said, you know what we can give you a student And then they that became that kindness that kindness of somebody who was able not question They didn't ask me. Are you sure?  I mean, we're just talking about Years and years and I'm just talking in general I mean, even in at school when they found out that I had been kidnapped and In Mexico City and I came back all my classmates I mean all of some I was drugged and raped several times just because I was not a virgin anymore So for them their value, I mean, I had no value So I've been treated like that so many times with people that I knew that I trusted that When I went to Japan by being treated like that By somebody that I didn't know it's terrible but you know and and then I had these Teachers and these people that had a International Japanese school there that they sold the value they they just so past that they just simply said if you don't want to Be there, you don't have to we can give you a student visa We can sponsor you and that's how it happened and so fast forward now a little bit to you then from there Went to Canada and then how did you start running? How did this life start? I mean it really You know and I think that the it is incredible how I mean We're talking about you so many years ago and in my life I was was so different that when I actually start talking about these most people that know me now had Absolutely no idea and I think that's my biggest success and that's a biggest misconception, right that we have that victims are damage and vulnerable in weak and and My life was completely different and I went back to the same thing when I went to Canada became a single parent very very soon I divorced and I had two young boys at three year old and a baby when I became a candidate You did get married. I didn't marry a comedian. That's how I ended up going to Canada And same thing. I kept suffering violence in Japan even after leaving the club. They still you know That's what mafia does, you know, you you never really escaped so I ended up marrying Canadian and moved to Canada See you met him in Japan. Oh, I see. Okay. Yes, and I wanted to leave like I said It's always but fortunately for me Canada was a bit it was very different though my marriage didn't last You know, I was able to find opportunities I went back to school Earned a business administration diploma. I entered the workforce. I was being very very within three years You know, I was climbing the ranks and I was finishing a bachelor of management as well I was on full force to make sure that you know I was going to take care of my kids and they weren't going to suffer what? We suffer as kids having a mom who couldn't work I was going to provide for my children and they never had to find themselves in a vulnerable situation Fortunately for me a few years into in my You know just as I was waiting for a promotion as a manager My son my oldest son became was diagnosed with something just called conrad dystrophy and started to go blind That just absolutely changed everything everything. I lost my job. I Couldn't really get out of bed. I had a very hard time for many reasons It just because the first person to ever rape me was a blind relative that I had to look after You know my son was gone like it was just a bit too much for anybody And he just kind of one of those things that even though I I never really wanted to talk about it now I couldn't deny. I mean I even now I have a hard time because I always say that I sometimes one The lies that I said that never happened to me to be true You know once I decided that I was gonna I needed to confront what happened to me all of it If I was able to help my son, I couldn't just have Burry I couldn't do what my family did which is deny not talk about it So I have to really really face it, but I couldn't just stand up and talk about it So what I I couldn't I couldn't sleep and I needed to be there for my son So I just went for a run one day, you know 3 a.m. 4 a.m My mom came from Mexico to help me out and I just didn't want her to help me to hear me crying so I just went for a run and And that just kind of happened that the difference between handling the trauma of in the past with with drinking Was that I found myself in a bigger hole Running on the other hand and make clear my head I felt better every single time I came from from Iran I was like 6 a.m. Waking up everybody and I felt better.  I'm gonna play for another job And so that's how it happened He was so stressful because my son, you know how to help him and he went back to school and you know I had to kind of Teach him how to live differently because now it was a child with a disability that needed accommodations and so It was so much stress that I just kept running within six months somebody noticed that My best friend noticed that I was you know running incredible and I've never really out 38 almost 39 and And she was like wow, you know, you really are running incredible and she just kind of on a dare said You know, maybe you should try to qualify for Boston. It's a long shot. She said, you know Most people have to try for years and that's all I needed. I needed something that I could control I couldn't control so many things that were happening in my life, you know But I could control that I and I it gave me something to look forward in something that I could also I did I build my schedule and I did and I did I qualify for Boston within eight months I run my first ultra marathon 125 kilometer race And he just kind of happened like that. He just you know, I just went full-on doing ultra races how I connected is because I was Going online talking about my training because there was people going to donate for me for one of my races And I said in the poor in my soul And I just kind of you know, it was about Talking about all these things so I made you know My weakness my strength Instead of saying this is something that I should be ashamed Now I'm going to turn it around because I'm tired of carrying these a shame. I'm gonna turn it around I'm gonna be proud of it and that's what I did and but what happened is now People weren't afraid to ask me about how is he doing because they saw that I was trying to you know I was doing something positive about it and that's how the the activism in the sports connected and that was my first time that I Realize that people really connected to the story better when I gave them something that they could Look, you know kind of talk about a difficult topic like my son gone blind and A race because instead of I was thinking about maybe two hundred dollars for the Canadian National Institute for the blind end of collecting 3500 and That's when I went bingo. This is it. This is how people are going to listen to my message You know, they came for one thing and I also educated them. So you gave yourself a purpose I did and that gave you the energy. Yes fantastic and so You know at 39 when you start preparing for these kinds of races and then we haven't even come to your triathlon yet There must have been times when it felt like giving up Because what's couldn't have been easy at 39 and 40 to train yourself? What did you do to keep going? you know the beauty of finding yourself At the bottom is you have nothing to lose. I have something nothing to lose So I just went and didn't focus on anything. I mean there were times I mean the giving up part happened long before You know like when I found myself almost killed at 24 in Japan that I had left my life behind And I had bought my passport and I was in and You know, I was working as a Spokeful fluent Japanese and I was working translator movies and then you know Somebody put something on my drink and I walk up completely Unconscious and disfigured and I just felt the heaviness I thought you know because they just wanted me to remind me that I Couldn't escape my past that it was always going to come back. They just want to revenge That's giving up. That's the moment when I thought I am so tired Race is only on the hand I'm I get tired, but I don't feel like quitting You know, it's a difference between pain and suffering pain. It's a wonderful thing because Because it's tied to a success to a goal pain is sometimes what it takes to accomplish something great University, I mean if you want to be a doctor You're gonna spend lots of you know, painful nights studying or you know, so there's a difference between pain and suffering So once you understand both one is tolerable.  You have to have a strategy plan. I Am so glad I'm not in the suffering stage anymore. So that's why I can I can take the goals But the the catalyst to do something became your son's Eye condition, but you had been in difficult situations before as we were just talking about But it took the situation with your son Yes, that that became the turning point not all the things that terrible things that happened to you my son Any was the desire this was greater than myself and that's what I do now This is the purpose once I went this is for somebody else not for me You know so even in a situation that kind of situations that you found yourself in What I'm hearing is that the purpose once it's greater than yourself That's when it gets exactly and that's why everything I do is tied up to you know Not to myself and I mean I could do these things and now I'd be public and it's fine but once I get You know an organization or talking about human trafficking like for example that the world record Triathlon was falling the human trafficking route and I have survivors telling the story as I'm crossing all these areas. I mean I had to swim 122 miles and I couldn't swim before that. I had to learn to swim to break the record but because I encounter such a And so lack of empathy to tell the story a lot of people didn't want to talk about human trafficking They were like well, we feel bad, but this is ugly We just talk about I mean, let's talk about sport and that kind of make me angry. I see him You know, we're so willing to give medals to people who do and I mean I think they do but but also people that survive incredible odds You know, those are the people that we also be celebrating So it was their inability to want to talk about that they wanted to talk and that's why I just went bigger I just said, okay Let's do a triathlon. I'm gonna learn to swim and I almost Treffled the record because I mean the more resistance and the more people that I wanted to help the better I get I Couldn't do these things for myself and so To conclude what's next for you?  Wow? I mean, there's so many things. I just you know, I really want to continue You know finding things they're scaring me, you know, like going tours. That's where growth happened You know if every time I'm trying to and I'm always trying to be in tune and where the opportunity is like not to be so Busy just just would you know with the goals, but and I listened in every time I find myself in a situation that I just I cannot possibly comprehend how I'm gonna do it That's what I do. That's where I go every single time I Feel this is impossible then that's I put everything on the side that gets you going Wonderful well, thank you so much for sharing So openly and so intimately what you what you what you've gone through and I Commend you for for doing that because not only is that an inspiration for a lot of people I hope everybody that's listening and watching today There's so many lessons that you can get out of this But the one that's that remains with me is once the purpose that you define for yourself is greater than yourself Then absolutely nothing is impossible So with that normal. Thank you very much. It was great to have you with us. Thank you. It was a pleasure. Thank you Thank you


Hey, hello everyone. This is Kimon. I'm going to tell a little bit about how to use the zoom Tool as part of your life teaching just in case you would like to have a live session with a student Now just go to zoom.us and you will see this page Zoom is not totally free, but the free account allows you to interact with up to 100 participants or 100 students And it's limited to 40 minutes all right, so just sign up if you have if you don't have an account yet and then Login, so I'm going to log in because I have an account already So you can sign in using a manual way or sign in with Google or Facebook. I do recommend Sign in with Google Login, you will see this blank page. So just click schedule a new meeting and type in the topic for example week 8 online class or PBL give a bit of description Set the time It's highly recommended that you use the normal lecture hours so that the student can come and lock in at the same time Zoom basic has only 40-minute limit. So you might want to change it to 45 so because it will end by 40 minutes So what you can do is if you need to talk more than 40 minutes, all you have to do is to have two sessions So for example, you can name this as part one Give a break maybe and then ask them to log in again for part two Just assume that you have a break in between so that you don't have to schedule Very long sessions This is for those who need to talk for more than 40 minutes or need to interact more than 40 minutes So you can chunk them up into part one part two and part three even multiple meetings That would solve the problem of the limitation in terms of the time So the rest of the setting you don't have to change much except for all this I do recommend you to Tick enable to join before host means student can join before you They can wait for you so you can enable reading room and also mute participant upon entry means that they can't talk until you allow them to talk and This is also highly recommended record the meeting automatically on the computer so you can record and save the video in your computer and then If you need to upload it to somewhere then you can still upload it or better student review for those who Means the session for example, right? This is a very good option to enable safe and You will have this you would just have to share the URL to your students right Copy this and share it on your elite for example or even share it to the WhatsApp group and so on all right if if they If they don't want to use the direct URL They just have to click join the meeting up here and then key in the meeting ID Either way is same right? So let's say I'm finding this out start this meeting You will see this It will prompt you to install zoom meetings. So just open zoom meetings if they are using chrome Which is highly recommended if you are using zoom chrome is the best browser for zoom Then this will pop up All right, so student will see the same thing so they can decide whether they want to join the computer audio or not Do they want then you can just click join? Notice that zoom is already recording the session so you can enlarge this right? So the speaker icon is down here Video is disabled. Let's say if I enable then you'll be able to see me for a while And then you can invite Discipline by clicking this one if you want to do manual invitation or else just give them the link You can manage participant. You can see the participant here so far is me of course the host You can chat this is good for those who I do not want to show your face So you can just say hello everyone they can have the question there and From time to time you can see the questions that they ask You can also see the pause and record button here where you are Recording the whole session right if you click share You can decide to share the screen that you are using so you can also use whiteboard Where you will able to scribble anything right and Then the student will be able to see the same thing so you can stop share and Back to Other things for example share you can also share files if you are using PowerPoint. You can upload a PowerPoint to Google Drive Advanced setting will allow you to share other control like second camera and all that but basically this is what you can do is Zoom All right. I hope this is useful for you. Try it out All right zoom has been doing quite well allowing live teaching to work for For quite some time so you might want to consider using zoom for your live teaching. That's all for me. Thank you very much for watching


How many friends do I have now? Right now. Group? Well, I'm just going to wait here for a sec for things to load. But no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. OJ Photo. Yup. Oh my god, so many people. Oh my god. was automatically a bad decision. This was a bad decision. I can't target it either. This was such a bad idea. This is just funny watching, to be honest. This is just fire. This is actually quite funny. I'm not opening up chat. This is quite funny. Okay, I defeated it. Good. Yeah, the skin gets really laggy. Oh, this is great. Oh my god, all the lag. People are getting so annoyed.  This is great. Oh my god. Honestly, the lag is like crazy. Oh, it's actually eased up now, which is really good. Okay, we're actually gonna fight this thing. We're gonna fight this one. We're gonna fight this one, I think. We just continually just do this. I think we're in range of it, but I'm not sure. I think we are. I don't actually know where it is, but I'm hoping I can't get it still. It's like moved, but oh, it's over this. It's over the other side. Ah, so much lag. We'll go to this one here, actually, you know, you might go to this one here.  It just crashed. Oh, now everyone's coming. Oh, here we go. Assault station, our mother. Okay, let's do this. This is gonna be great. Amazing. No, don't turn around. Just stay still, mate. Ah, so much lag as everyone joins. Oh my god.  Heals, heals, heals, heals. No, heals. Quickly, heals. Ah, heals. Okay, that was close. I'm like close. I think I'm taking like all the damage.  Actually, don't run. Let's stay in range of them so I can continue to kill. Actually, so good. Oh my god, we're actually doing it. We're so good at this. Here we go. Heal, heal, heal, heal. Thank you. Let's just do our, what even is this? Yes, we did it. Oh my god. No, target the thing. Let's, there we go. Sweet. Yay. All the script. Oh, the lag. Oh, the lag. Oh, the lag is real. Oh, the lag is real. Actually, this is a really good way to get a whole, this is actually a real good way to level up my nautical level to level, um, like this is, oh, that was a nice heal. This is actually a real good way to friendly Thomas. I think that's the, I can't click on this. Ah, do, do. Yeah, there's, there's, I don't know, maybe. This is crazy. All the people are online. It's for those. Oh, it's a shame. Oh my god. This is great. What are we doing here? Let's see. There's actually not many people here, which is good. Oh, there's one. Quickly. Target it, target it, target it, target it. There we go. Press spacebar. I healed for some reason. I don't know why, but I healed. Okay. This is actually amazing. So much lag though. It's actually better. I switched my laptops to my other one, so it's actually better on this one now, which is great. Um, honestly though, so many people, this is crazy. Oh my god. Oh, there's a cool ranch one over there as well, which is cool. Get it? Cool, cool ranch hat. I'm so good at this. Um, target, targeting, targeting. Sweet. I think I'm doing the cool ranch hat. I kind of want to do the mission. Yeah, let's do the mission, because that will probably give me more XP because it's higher level. Not sure though. Oh, this is crazy. It's actually really cool seeing all the people though. And people say this game's dead. Oh my god. This is great, honestly. Oh, lag is, I get all the experience. It's such a good game. It's a good game. Oh, people say this game's dead. Oh my god. This is great, honestly. Oh, lag is, I get all the experience. It's so true though. Oh, there's another one. Is that the same one? No, we're doing, no, um, wild bunch now. I healed because I can. Okay. This is great. Oh, lag again. Oh, I got golden cannons that's cool I got one script from that okay those ones there are just visual I think because you can't actually target them follow that oh this is great oh this is so good this is amazing all the people I don't have a bottom layer when I spawned them like this this is so cool though so yeah anyway I'm on my witch doctor which you have never seen before because I never do videos of my witch doctor visual glitch let's not look that way


How normal people eat a hamburger?  That's a good burger. This is how a project manager eats a hamburger. I did not order this. Seriously, check the email. I never ordered this. I didn't order pickles!


Everybody forced here got a big order here for for a grouse. Thanks again for the order graph Second try to make sure it's correct get 2022 gold standard one box of that in one box of 21 22 NT basketball hobby right here Let's start with gold standard Lorma Lorma for the big hitter Start with a Jalen Tolberg rookie number 30 of 75 a trail ants 4 of 99 Marquise Brown Gold Rush Jersey 284 of 299 white gold Jersey AJ Dillon 216 of 299 Dude, that's your name just Dylan Dylan paid manning patch card 6 of 25 on the Hall of Gold Why does this bus look feel like he's concerned? interesting What's he so concerned about? 24 karat auto Jim Kelly beautiful hit Nice card there in the 24k the acetate auto designs and gold standard are just awesome They are great nice Jim Kelly and a Wanda Robinson rookie Jersey out of number 29 of 199 Think that's a second Wanda Robinson. He hit tonight. I think I know I pulled another one of these earlier Wanda Wanda Robinson WR for wide receiver and an NT basketball Come on big RPA 21 22 You can get the gold standard in Chronicles basketball at least you like RPAs in the base Yeah, gold standard basketball. I think it would be a pretty good addition to be honest Zach Levine 10 of 10 on the gold printing plate Lamarcus Aldridge from NT last year clutch factor Jumbo Jersey James Worthy 30 of 99 again vets should all be game use an NT basketball And it is game war in Jumbo Jersey The Laker legend James Worthy 39 of 99 That's sick. Look at that patch six and 25 RJ Barrett a four color Knicks patch Game war and that's beautiful great RJ Great hit here rookie clutch factor signatures Franz Wagner 29 of 49 Grats gruff on the Franz Got the gray pinstripe going across the blue jersey there nice rookie Jersey auto next one to Red RPA Jared Butler 27 of 75 that is his 75th anniversary parallel Pretty solid box here. Red RPA Jared Butler 27 to 75 See there's a big vet hit on the back. Maybe Jersey card Kyle Lowry 66 of 99 probably game use of the Raptors Exactly yep game use of the Raptors on that Jersey another Jersey card here Adrienne Danley 66 of 98 Why would that be 60s? 86 of 99 what am I doing here? To be fair you could easily read it like that like that's not out of the ordinary like that's not it's not as bad It's like a backwards three and I'm like, why is that three backwards? Oh I'm reading it back Signatures spud web a nice spud Makes me think about some potatoes 21 to 25 on the spud web on card auto and NBA greats auto emerald Alex English three of five Alex English That is gonna do it for the couple of bucks for your graph. Thank you again We will get those cards out to you shortly


So, can I have your attention for a second? Our Governor, Governor Brown here, I wanted to say a few words to you. I just want to thank you and commend you for all you're doing. Obviously, this is not only serious, but getting more serious. I know people's homes and lives have been totally disrupted. I know everybody in the state appreciates all you're doing to try to mitigate this really huge disaster. So, I don't want to slow you down. I just want to encourage you and thank you very much.


Manuel Preston Mohammed Barri says he is disappointed with the intelligence system and utilisation at the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kudrin, Abuja. He said this today while speaking to journalists during his visit to the Correctional facility which came under attack by terrorists last night. Soon after he arrived at the facility, the president was briefed about the attack by the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Interior and the control or general of the Nigerian Correctional Service Ali Runababi. But men showed precedent behind the mom-out section and the records office which was set on fire adding that the invaders thereafter launched an attack on all cells in which Boko Ram terrorists were held.


So yeah and welcome back to my channel and for today's video I'm going to be talking to you guys about some of my recent reads. In this video I have five books to share that I have read in the past little bit and my thoughts on them and a general synopsis for you guys. I've also been doing a ton of reading vlogs so I'll have those linked down below where I do like you will see me reading these books and talking about the more in-depth in those vlogs. Starting off here I have The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston. This is a companion to the novel Guerrilla that came out last year or the year before. The story takes place in a convention center and it's all about this fandom called Starfield which is kind of like a Star Wars Star Trek kind of fandom thing. In this book we follow two characters Imogen and then Jessica. Imogen is a hardcore fan girl that does campaigning for the show and like tries to save a certain character and is just super is the fangirl in this little thing. Jessica is the this girl who plays the princess in the TV show. She doesn't really care about her role much and Imogen is the one who is like campaigning to bring Amara back which is who Jessica plays. Afterwards it's come to their attention and everyone's attention that the manuscript for the next Starfield like episodes are leaking so Jessica has to deal with this and but she has other priorities like her panels and all that stuff that she has to attend at this convention center. Imogen and her meet-up they look very similar so Imogen takes her place and they kind of swap lives it's that whole swapping live kind of thing where Imogen becomes a famous person for a bit and Jessica gets a taste of what a kind of like normal life looks like. This was a really fun and enjoyable book. I still prefer Geekerella as opposed to this one I just think Geekerella is a stronger read than to the first third of this book on audiobook and I really did not like the audiobook so I would not recommend it because that made this extremely boring to me. So after I picked it up physically is when I really started to enjoy the book and appreciate it more. There is also a female female romance in here which I feel like not many people mentioned in their reviews so that was really nice to see as well. Overall I think this was an enjoyable read it was nothing like too extraordinary or it's not anything too new but I do think this had some good messages about conventions and a bit about sexual harassment in relation to celebrities and how that happens at conventions and how celebrities do have to deal with that so it gives some insight to that. I overall gave this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. I think it is like a cute fun read so if you're looking for something cute and fun that has a fan fandom kind of element to it I think you'll enjoy this one but again I would read Geekerella before just because I think that's a stronger book as a whole. Next up here I have Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds. I read Jason Reynolds book long way down and absolutely loved it so when I saw this arc at BEA for a middle grade novel by him I was super excited to pick it up.  This does have some trigger warnings for things like homophobia so be aware of that. It was good that stuff like this was addressed in this book that is for middle grade audience. I think if it was longer it would have had been more impactful and when I say this is like a middle grade book I really mean it because a lot of the things were just like about like boogers and like all this stuff that is just really juvenile which I get the target audience so just thought I mentioned that. Overall this was like not fleshed out enough and it just didn't give us a chance to like it didn't give me a chance to connect with any of the characters or the plot or the story and there wasn't like a there was kind of a message at the end but it wasn't like a big overall like wham like book like it wasn't like you know damn. I just have read a lot of middle grade books that are that were more impactful than this one and that I just think are better to recommend but this one I still ended up giving a 2.5 out of 5 stars just because the writing was still decent and I could appreciate the storyline and some of the messages in this book. Next one is one that you will not be getting a super in-depth synopsis from me because this is not really my forte and I learned this one for school. This one is edepis rex. This is a play by Sophocles. I am probably saying that wrong.  This story follows a king who finds himself in a really tragic position and realizes some things and I don't even know how to describe this properly but it was so good in my opinion. It was such an interesting play. It kept me engaged the whole time. It was pretty easy to understand in comparison to things like Shakespeare in my opinion. Yeah this was super fun to study. I enjoyed the writing style and like it was a really weird but like a super interesting play to study so I really enjoyed it. I gave it four stars. Next I have two graphic novels for you. So these are also talked about a ton but this is Little Witches. This is an arc that I got from BEA. This one comes out at the end of August but this is basically Little Women a retelling of Little Women but Little Witches. The story follows five girls who live with their parents and their father is like oh and I believe he's at war yes so this takes place during the time of the civil war and things like that. Of course involves some witchcraft components and there's a little romance in here. So this is basically about people abusing magic. Civil war talks a bit about abuse abuse in schools. BEA pacing wasn't that great. I just didn't really enjoy that about it. If you're wondering about the art style it was pretty cool. It was pretty decent so it was like a decent art style and I felt like a lot of the characters just molded together. They all felt like the same person. I was like what? So I just felt like big disconnect with this one. I did enjoy the romance and the art style but yeah I don't know how this would compare to I haven't read Little Women so I don't know how this compares as like a retelling so if any of you have read this and Little Women definitely let me know. Overall I gave this three stars. It was just like okay. Last but not least I read Raven and this is by Candy Garcia. This is about a girl named Raven who is 17 years old and gets in a car accident. From the car accident she loses her memory and has to move into a foster home where she is meeting new people trying to learn about who she was or who she is in general and also her experience going to a new school. I received this art from a dc ink event that I was invited to at book cons. Thank you so much to them. This one I believe is already out now so you can probably already get your hands on it but this had a black purple and white gray kind of art style that I was obsessed with. I love the art style in this. The romance was really good as well in this and I just loved the overall concept of this graphic novel. I think it was so like I think it was really well done. Like it was a big surprise to me how much I enjoyed this one and there's going to be a second book about Beast Boy I believe so I'm really excited to read the rest of this series. The only reason why I adopted Donna star was just due to the ending. I just think it fell a little flat for me but overall this story was really good and I really like the characters. I gave this one a four out of five stars. So there you guys have it those are some of the books that I read recently. Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below what you've been reading recently. Let me know. Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter all that stuff is always linked in the description box and if you enjoyed this video make sure to give it a like and subscribe down below. I also have a Patreon for those of you who are wondering where you can support me on another platform if you wish to do so. Thank you guys so so much for watching and I'll see you super soon. Bye!


All right, good afternoon everybody. Good to see you here and welcome to our conversation on defining the US and the changing world, which we concluded is something we should be able to settle in about 45 minutes, so that's about how long we're gonna be here, so thanks for coming for that. Now, I don't think I need to say much on it for this room because it's obviously an incredibly vital topic. Sometimes I think when you live in the United States and you're thinking about the rest of the world, you forget that one of the central questions where does the United States stand? And of course we've been through a series of tumultuous events in the last 20 years, from 9-11 to the US-China relationship as the century began. The US was working to help China enter the WTO 22 years later, there's a new rivalry. We've been through some tumultuous years in US foreign policy the last few years, whether it was COVID or Afghanistan. Through all this, the US remains the most powerful economic force in the world, the dollar remains the central currency of the global economic system, and as Davos is here to demonstrate on lots of fronts, we're dealing with all kinds of new and oncoming crisis, whether it be COVID or future pandemics or the food crisis that seems to be looming around us, as well as of course the Ukraine war. So today we're gonna try to talk about where the US stands amid all of these shifts, both in trade and diplomacy as well as politics, and also I hope where it should stand. Very pleased today to have a very distinguished panel here. We've got US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who's leading the US delegation at Davos this year. Seth Moulton, a Democratic Congressman from the Sixth District of Massachusetts. Henry Slaughter, who's the CEO of New America, the Washington think tank, and among other roles in your long career, was Director of Policy Planning for Hillary Clinton when she was the Secretary of State, and Tom Donilon, who's currently Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute, but also has served a number of roles in a long career, including as National Security Advisor for Barack Obama. So I'd like to welcome you all. Again, I didn't introduce myself, but I'm Matt Murray. I'm the Editor-in-Chief of the Wall Street Journal. Just before we get started, I'd like to remind our online audience out there that if you're sharing any thoughts on the session through social channels, you should use the hashtag WEF22. Thanks again for being here. Secretary Raimondo, I want to start with you. We are nearly three months now into Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Can you talk a little bit about how you think you've seen America's security and economic priorities shift in those three months, and how they continue to shift right now? Yeah. Good evening. It's great to be here. Wonderful to be with all of you. And thankful not to be in boots. I think we can agree. That's a benefit of Davos and May, not boots, in any event, I would say a few things. First, I think it really drives home how high the stakes are. And that has never been lost on us, but there's a shared sense of how high the stakes are. And I think you see that in how quickly the world has come together to react decisively and boldly as against Russia's aggression. I think it underscores the vitalness of having strong relationships with our allies. So, and President Biden has been very focused on this from day one. He wants to shore up our relationships with our allies. As you know, I've just spent the weekend with the president in Asia, shoring up our allies in the Indo-Pacific. Week before that, I was in Paris with the USEU Trade and Technology Council. The fact that the United States was able to build a coalition with three dozen other countries in the matter of a couple of weeks to align our export controls and deny Russia technology is extraordinary. We have never before in history seen the US lead a coalition as it relates to technology and export controls that's that broad and that fast. So I think the point of it is allies matter. If you have that relationship continuously, then when something happens, you can swing into action. I mean, you could say this. Does it surprise you, in a sense, given how people were talking about the US and the allies or some of the challenges, the speed with which that came together when you look at it now? Somewhat, yes. Yes, I was obviously at the tip of the spear of that, trying to get our export controls to line up with other countries. We were prepared, as I said to you earlier, the United States was prepared to go it alone if we had to, but we didn't have to because all of Europe, Taiwan, much of Asia came along with us. The final thing I'll say on this topic of what have we learned and what's changed, war is no longer just about tanks and military equipment. Ground Zero is technology. The United States is hobbling Putin's ability to conduct war by denying technology. Semiconductors. You wanna talk about having an ability to have a military operation. It revolves around semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, which means it's time for the US to invest in that and lead in that more than we ever have. So when you think now, versus even three or four months ago, what are the top US security and economic priorities? Are they the same as they were, or have they shifted at all because of what's been happening here? I don't think they've shifted, but they've become so much more urgent. Right now, the United States Congress is debating a bill called the CHIPS Act. It's investments in basic research and development, investments in semiconductor production in the United States. They have been considering that bill for over a year. Pass the bill. Pass the bill. Imagine what would happen to the United States if Taiwan denied us semiconductors. We purchase 70 plus percent of all of our advanced semiconductors from Taiwan. That is an untenable, vulnerable situation, and Congress needs to pass the CHIPS Act immediately. So we knew that a year ago, but if we're gonna compete globally, we have to invest now in technology. Congressman, I think you and your colleagues are getting heavily lobbied here on the stage at Davos. I wanna- Well, the Secretary's right. We need to pass it, I think we will. But even if we pass that act, it's gonna help with domestic chip production. It's not gonna help us with the highest end chips. Taiwan's still gonna control that. So it's an important first step. It doesn't get us all the way. I wanna ask about a specific thing about our goals of you. You got some pushback from the White House recently because you talked about Ukraine becoming more of a proxy war with Russia. You got a little bit of pushback from them on that. Of course, Mike, I have two questions really. One, isn't there truth to what you said given what Secretary in Austin and others have been saying about the evolving US aims? But secondly, can you explain what you meant, how you see the conflict, how you see the US aims and are they the right aims and goals right now? Well, look, of course it's a proxy war in the sense that Ukraine is doing the fighting, we're providing all the munitions and much more technology and other things. And in so many ways, this is a battle between Russia and the West. The West largely represented and led by us. But look, I understand the White House wants to be careful about provoking Putin so they had some pushback. The majority of the pushback really came from Tucker Carlson who of course is a Russia apologist so I'm not too concerned about that. But look, I think that we're doing a few things absolutely brilliantly in Ukraine and I'd start with the alliance work which is just incredible. The way the administration has pulled everybody together. But when we think about the implications of this going forward and what this means for another potential real fight or proxy fight in Taiwan down the road, we have to have this all done in advance. We can't just respond to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, we have to deter and prevent it. That means not only providing Taiwan with all the military supplies that we're now rolling into Ukraine after the conflict started, but it also means preparing the alliances in the Pacific that don't really exist right now. That's why I think President Biden's recent announcement that he's forming at least a loose economic alliance in the Pacific is an incredibly important first step. I think a lot of our policy early on in Ukraine was all about response and not enough about deterrence and we've got to get that right for China. Do you, on the alliance and taking your praise of the administration, in a certain sense is Russia an easier thing to ally everybody around rather than other potentially harder causes.  People are hesitant to talk about China too much, even if they do it privately. So how much does Russia point the way to the future and how much does it not point the way to the future? It's absolutely an easier job to align against Russia. We've had NATO in existence for a very long time since 1946 with that explicit purpose in mind. So we were a little bit concerned about how united NATO would be, but we had a very strong alliance with a very strong history of work together and cooperation throughout a lot of other issues including post-911. That kind of alliance doesn't exist in the Pacific. In fact, some of our key partners like Japan and South Korea don't even really get along very well. So there's a lot of work that we have to do. It's also, I think, it was very easy for Europe to see the threat that Russia presented when it invaded Ukraine. We've all learned, I hope by now, that if you don't stop Putin there, he'll go somewhere next. How do you get countries like Switzerland to be aligned with us if it comes to preventing China from invading Taiwan? That's much harder. We're gonna come back on the Asia. I wanna talk, Ann Marie Slaughter, the first more about Europe. Picking up on that thought, is this the beginning of a new era of US and European relations or is this a Russia one off? No, I think this is a new era in US-European relations, but less because of what the administration's done, although I very much also would applaud the administration's real kind of shula, their diplomacy, or it's probably finger-typing diplomacy these days in terms of pulling lots of allies together. But Europe has pulled itself together and Europe is at a moment when Britain is no longer part of it, very important there. That creates more space for France and for Germany. Germany, I mean, that was, I don't think the Biden administration expected the Schultz announcement, but that was Germany saying, wow, Russia's right there, we have to make a choice, but also saying, and I think people did not pay enough attention to this, a lot of the Germans were saying, we've gotta do this ourselves with other Europeans because we can count on the Biden administration right now, but we're not sure we can count on the United States in 2024. So when you say that, though, that's a key thing is that inconsistency on the part of the United States has been an issue, and to be fair, even before President Trump, it's been something people have talked about for some time and our panel's on defining the US role in the changing world, so Europe's pulled itself together, but what's the appropriate stance for the United States with Europe in a way that's consistent? What role should we play or could we conceivably be seen to play? Oh, I would say just more generally, the US should think of itself as an equal partner with Europe, that Europe economically is an equal partner and militarily, NATO will remain the primary military alliance, but Europe is trying to do much more on defense and to be able to have that particular European blend of military and non-military, military and civilian power, it's very striking that Europe is now talking about bringing Ukraine into the EU, that's been Europe's great sort of superpower in terms of integrating nations. Europe's talking about the Marshall Plan for Ukraine, not the United States, and as Secretary Ramondo certainly knows, Europe has an order of magnitude more trade with Russia than the United States does, right? So they take a bigger hit and they've got more at stake. Going forward, if I'm advising Europe, I think I say, you look, you really do want to realize the full potential of integration and being a superpower. If I'm advising the United States, I think we want to stand with Europe always, but realistically, and this also goes to the America we're becoming, a country that will not have a white majority, which means not a European American majority. It'll have lots of folks who are looking to Asia and looking to Latin America. I think we don't think of ourselves so much as the major partner, but the equal partner. Tom Donilon, I want to bring you in, particularly on a couple of economic questions, but you've obviously got a lot of experience, a lot of friends, but one place the US could be a leader with Europe and seems to be poised if it wants to, is on energy now, particularly with what's happened with Russia. But of course, here we have differing views on the energy situation we've got. Should we open it up? How do we balance that against climate? So is the US doing the right things it needs on energy to be a leader in Europe? Should it be doing more? Should it be doing less? How do we find the balance with that on climate? Well, I mean, one of the, the Ukraine crisis that has a global crisis with a lot of knock-on effects, right? And it has effects on commodities, on inflation, has effects on emerging markets, and it has had a serious effect on the geopolitics of energy. Essentially, I think we have the prospect here of rewiring the geopolitics of energy globally as a result of the crisis and the crisis in Ukraine. And I think a couple of things about it. Number one, the United States resources in this area, right, which are substantial and do give the United States strategic advantage has been important for us to be able to support Europeans as they decouple themselves from Russia, which is, by the way, I think gonna be one of the acid tests of the European Union and the Europeans going forward, is whether or not they can correct the mistake that the Europeans have made over the last decade, plus including, by the way, since even 2014, of becoming overly dependent on Russian fossil fuels, which has been a lot of leverage, obviously, in this, and this war has provided a lot of the revenue, if you will, for Putin's ability to carry on the war. So I think the United States energy position is an important strategic asset, at first point. The second is that there are short-term and long-term challenges, I think. You know, in the short term, we do have challenges as the European Union decouples itself from Russia, of providing backfilling the energy that Europe needs in the short to medium term, and oil and gas. And the United States can help, especially, in the gas front. It can help, I think, backfill with respect to Europe's needs, and that's important to do going forward. The energy transition is that. It's gonna be a transition. And the third piece of this, I think, is that this is an opportunity. It's an opportunity for us to get quite serious about investment in a cleaner energy future. So there are shorter-term, medium-term challenges that we have, and there are longer-term challenges and opportunities, I think, which this crisis presents for the United States and Europe to work together on. Are we taking advantage of those opportunities, Secretary, do you think? I think we're starting to. Yes, I do. I think we're starting to. I mean, I agree with Tom around clean energy. You're seeing a greater sense of urgency and momentum around making these investments. I mean, this is true in our politics, I suppose, to some extent, but why is it that clean energy and gas are oppositional instead of two holsters in the same set of weapons? Well, why does that seem to be the way that we frame the debate? Because what you're saying, I think, Tom, is we should be rushing, including bringing energy in right now for the U.S. for the short-term to build the void while thinking the long-term. Yeah, there's gonna be a rewiring, as I said. Essentially, that the supply for Europe in the medium-term, right, it may be a little longer than that, right, is gonna be from Australia and the United States and Qatar and others because it won't have that energy from gas from Russia. My own view is that it is a transition, Matt, right?  And natural gas provides, at this point, an important bridge fuel. Now, there's some controversy around that, right, because it will involve investing in infrastructure, particularly in Europe right now, in order to meet the needs. But there are practical needs here. We've had a war, a crisis. We're gonna have, actually, Europe move to a more productive stance, both in terms of its lack of dependence and the lack of leverage that Russia can have on them in energy, and also, ultimately, to a cleaner energy future. But yeah, I don't, I mean, I'm not in that camp that sees it as an absolute, you know, kind of either or. I think this is a process that we need to go through, particularly in light of the crisis, to get there. I mean, if you listen to Congress, we see it either or. And I'm not proud of that. I don't understand why you can't hold two ideas in your head at the same time, the first of which is that we should not be addicted to oil, and in the long term, we've gotta get off of it, and we can transition to a cleaner energy future, and that's very good for our national security. It will make us a stronger country. But in the short term, we should be buying oil and gas from Americans, not from autocrats. But Democrats are only allowed to believe the first, and Republicans seem to only be allowed to believe the second, and we really have to do both. Tom, I wanna ask you one more thing, and then I'm gonna come back to the secretary, but it's, it affects, it's tangential to your current job a little bit. One of the things that we saw here was a, I think everybody thinks a remarkable response by American and to a large degree Western companies isolating Russia very quickly. The secretary referred to that earlier. I think the speed and the scale surprised everybody. In some cases, might have almost awed them, in some cases of potential American adversaries. I think Larry Fink said in his annual letter that this marks a new era, a new era of combat, and really that we're seeing a swift change. What does the current state of U.S. economic might and the mobilization of that and soft American power tell you about the U.S. influence in future conflicts? Yeah, well, it's been very important, as the secretary said with respect to this conflict, the United States has been organized, been able to organize a multi-dimensional effort. And that's, and I don't think this happens without U.S. leadership, frankly. Even on the military side, you know, Emery, the 80% of NATO's kind of military might still comes from non-EU members, right? It needs to change. I said that I think that one of the acid tests for the EU will be getting off Russian oil and gas. Another key test going forward here, kind of correcting what has been kind of a cardinal fault, I think, is also getting right on level of military spending going forward. But I think it's not just the company's getting out mad, but I think it's a more general thing. I mean, the effort by the United States involved diplomatic efforts, right? To isolate Russia with very large votes, for example, with the United Nations in opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It involves military supply, right? This has been an important part of this. You know, if you think about why has Russia failed thus far to achieve its plan A, right? Which was to take Kiev quickly, right? Decapitate the government, put a new government in place that was more, it was beholden to Moscow and had that be their operation. That failed. The first plan failed. Why is that? It failed because there was poor planning on the Putin side who's become an increasingly isolated, I think, and poor decision-makers as a result. It obviously involved a better than expected, incredible efforts by the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian military, right? It also involved failure of the Russian military in ways that we can talk about, but it also required the United States and NATO and the world to provide the arms that were required to push back the Russians. And that had to be organized. Now, I still have in my mind, thinking about this, you know, the picture of Secretary Austin at Rammstein Air Force Base, right? You know, kind of organizing this kind of broad appeal conference, if you will, right? For providing necessary arms to Ukraine. And the last piece is on the economy. And I think you're right. Part of this effort has been to deny Russia the benefits of the global economy. That's essentially, I think, Madam Secretary, kind of the idea which is basically deny this actor, right, who has behaved in the most atrocious ways the benefits of being a member of the globalized and financial system in the world. And we organized that, right? And that shows you the power of the global financial system. If it's organized, but it's not unilateral. This is one of the most, I'll say one thing. You can never, these sanctions can't be implemented effectively unilaterally, right? It has to be kind of the entire West that's had to kind of get behind this. And for companies, I think you're exactly right. We say one of the surprises, at least for me, and I think for lots of people is it's six or 700 companies who were not mandated to get out, got out of Russia, suspended operations. I think that's because of the kind of the ESG right now, the ESG has become a really important piece of this in terms of reputation. And the last thing I'll say as you referenced it is that this will get a lot of attention, I think, in the East where other countries who may have disagreements, who may have what the West will think hard about what the West is able to muster. Madam Secretary, I want to talk about that. As you mentioned, you came back there, a couple of questions. But the first one is it's an important one, I think, here at WEF this year. Is globalization over, as we've known it, and is it different now? Or are there different globalizations? I mean, on the one hand you've got, as all of you have said, this potent alliance. On the other hand, some actors are gonna be outside it. And there is kind of some decoupling and competition going on, as we'll talk about. But the theory of globalization certainly doesn't seem to have brought Russia into the society of nations as it helped. So what is globalization now? I wanna start there and then we can talk about Asia. Yeah, globalization is not dead at all. I mean, I agree with everything Tom said, and I think that fortifying our relationships with our allies is more important than ever. Now it will look different, right? So the reason that I was just in Asia is because the president launched this Indo-Pacific economic framework. And it's not a traditional trade agreement. From World War II until now, when you say globalization, what do you think? You think trade, you think trade agreements. And there have been many challenges with trade agreements for workers of the United States and many countries. So yes, of course we still want trade and yes, we want to work across borders, but it's also time for new kinds of innovative frameworks so that our economies can work better together. For example, around supply chains. Trade agreements and globalization did not work very well during COVID when supply chains went down. We need, in order to have resilient supply chains, we have to have new forms of economic relationships with our partners and allies. By the way, part of the Indo-Pacific economic framework is a supply chain pillar. So no, I think we have to be innovative in the way that we form economic relationships with our allies and work with allies who share our values. So the subtext of the visit to Asia, and sometimes it was not the subtext as yesterday on the subject of Taiwan, is China. And I think everybody agrees, one, the US-China relationship is the most strained that it's been certainly in the century and has stayed that way. And second, it's pretty bipartisan feeling now in Washington to be concerned about China. It is the most important relationship in the world, the US and China. So the administration is there making alliances, thinking about how to help allies in Asia, but that relationship, of course, remains central. So where do you think the US-China relationship is and should go, and what does stability in that relationship look like? Yeah, so it is, as you say, strained. But again, in the same way when people say globalization, you think of trade, when you say the relationship with China, you think of defense. And I suggest we have to think a lot more about offense in our relationship with China. China spends more as a percent of their GDP on industrial policy than they do on their military. Think about that for a minute. They are spending more money, billions of dollars a year, investing in, strategically, in industries, in technology, in semiconductors, in artificial intelligence than they do on their military. The United States needs to pick up its pace investing in our workers, in our infrastructure, in emerging technologies, in talent, in semiconductors. So the relationship with China, I mean, we need to do that for America. But frankly, if we're going to compete in the global, you know, in the world, if we're going to have leverage with China and compete with China, if we're going to have our allies in the Indo-Pacific want to have a close relationship with us, we have to strengthen America, and that means investing in these critical areas. Congressman, do you think that, well how seriously do you take the concern that the US is in danger of losing? We think of as our technological or corporate edge that way because of the kinds of things the Secretary is talking about. I think it's a serious danger for exactly the reasons the Secretary said, and I couldn't agree more, Madam Secretary, that we need to invest a lot more in winning. And it's not just about building up our military presence, it's about winning the AI race. It's about winning the biotech race. I represent a district just north of Boston, which is the biotech capital of the world, our number one competitor is Beijing. And guess what? It's Chinese Communist Party federal policy to make Beijing win. We have an amazing private sector, but we don't have the federal government saying that we're going to win this biotech race, and we probably should. But to your core question though about globalization, I mean, I think globalization is alive and well, but it's becoming increasingly bifurcated in between the democracies that we represent in the West and the autocracies that China and Russia represent. China and Russia have little in common culturally or economically, but they absolutely have two common enemies, the United States and democracy itself. And so just in the last few months, we're seeing this increasing move towards decoupling our economy from theirs, making sure we have our own resilient supply chains. And we're also seeing, we've been seeing with China's Belt and Road Initiative over the past decade, that them trying to build those key alliances, though all the China, Africa partnerships and whatnot, they're trying to construct their own set of global alliances that are separate from our own. So that presents a whole new set of challenges for globalization. And it's incredibly important that we win this race because it's not just about us versus China. It's about ultimately whether democracy prevails over autocracy. Ann Marie, you have something to say, but I wanna ask you one thing about it. Does the United States show up consistently as a permanent presence around the world on these kinds of things? Are we there regularly, consistently with our allies? Obviously we weren't there from 2016 to 2020. And again, I'm a Democrat, we're all Democrats on this panel. Realistically, you have to tell anybody you're advising to give us about a 50-50 shot. At least that's not what I want. That's what I worry about in terms of 2024 in term. And it's not just about Trump. It's about a whole wing of the Republican Party that has decided that the things we held, that I always thought we held most dear in terms of being in the world are not as important. But I have to challenge what is a consensus here. And I was sitting here thinking, this is the difference between being an American and being a Russian or a Chinese, right? I get to disagree. Even with folks in my own party and folks I really admire. But I wanna challenge, I mean, we're defining the US in a changing world. It's also a changing US. I'll start by saying, I do not think the most important relationship in the world is the US and China. I think it is US and Europe for values, for finance, for trade, for military. Where would we be right now if we were not aligned with Europe? And when the United States and Europe together are aligned, we're over 50% of world GDP. And we can do anything, particularly in terms of all of our allies. Point one, point two, we have done, I was really interested to hear Secretary Ramondo talk about export controls. We've done a lot with our other allies. But if anybody listened to Ian Bremmer's panel yesterday, when he was talking to Alex Stug, the former foreign minister of Finland, and I forget who else was on the panel, but there was a prominent head of an Indian think tank who just said, you know, we're not buying this democracies versus autocracies. No way. And look at who abstained in the human rights vote. Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and to the point of Asia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Those are countries that abstained from pushing Russia out of the Human Rights Council at a time when Russia is committing gross war crimes. I'd say the rest of the world, lots of democracies who we want to stand with us don't have as clear a view of what's at stake here as the United States does, and I think Europe does. I do agree very strongly that we need to be investing at home, that we do absolutely need to be shoring up everything domestically to play the role we want to play. But I would say, thinking about the role in the United States going forward, again, we should think about a very large, very powerful group of countries that have the regulatory power in the world, much more in the United States. And the last thing I'll say is, if you think, as I think, the national security threat in this century is not China, it is climate. Europe has a plan, Europe has a path, and we are still fighting about it. Okay, I'm overstating a little just for the sake of the panel. That's okay, it's okay. I'm gonna follow up on one thing. By the way, for the record, I'm the moderator, I'm not on the panel, so I'm a political independent, and I think that's important to me. That's wish is true. But so there's a lot of what you said, both about the global implications of climate, but also what's working and what's not. You've been thinking a lot about renewal. Obviously, one thing we're seeing is NATO is getting a big shot in the arm right now, but there's also an ongoing act of debate about a lot of other institutions. We saw what happened with the WTO and China, for instance. How seriously do you think we need to rethink some of the institutions that were set up after the war for the world that we're in today, and where would you focus attention if you do think we need to rethink that? What's not working and what needs to be fixed? Where do we start? I mean, look, in 2045, the world can't be run by the victors of World War II, and that's really how the rest of the world sees it, right? The UN Security Council are the victors of World War II, and that would be like our being run in 1945 by the victors in 1845. The UN knows that, and the UN's been pretty irrelevant in this particular conflict, at least if you imagine how the original authors of the UN thought about it. The other problem is, it's, I'm thinking about Layall-Brain or Spaghetti Bowl, it's just a mess. If you map global institutions on any big issue, take health, you've got the traditional ones, the UN ones, the regional ones, then you have all the public-private ones that come together, you have all these smaller initiatives, you have then the ways of N running the UN, all the G groups. So, effectively, you've got to align, you've got to abolish, you've got to rationalize, you can't, I don't think you're gonna reform the UN in some grand global concert, I just don't think that's gonna happen. I do think there are ways, and actually, investment has a lot to do with this, taking the institutions that work, particularly the ones that bring all three sectors together, measuring how well they work on very defined goals, and then putting the money there. Tom, as somebody who is in government, defending these, and now you're in the private sector and you're free to say what it was like, what's your response, what would you fix out there? Well, the most important thing that I would focus on for the United States is rebuilding its domestic strength, and any national. What does that mean? It means a lot of things, and any national security advisor would say that I think today, it means investing in, I don't get to why in a second, it means investing in core capabilities that we have. You look back and think what it's meant to the United States' prosperity and security to have been the tech leader in this world since World War II, and think about that and think about how to preserve that and extend that leadership is absolutely critical. We also have to think very hard about the health of our people and health of our society, I think is absolutely critical. And if you do a balance sheet on assets and liabilities of the United States, if you go, we have tremendous assets, we can go through them, but on the liability side, it is mainly about, I think, investing, it's about the health of our people and our society, it's about the health of our system and the ability of our system to recognize, take on challenges and do something about it. I think those are the critical, I wanna talk about, just pretend I'm talking about Anne-Marie's point on China version. You were doing, I was nodding vigorously. We're gonna talk about China and Europe for a second here, but I think as a national security professional, those would be the things I think that you would focus on first, on domestic. On the China and Europe piece, the world is not monolithic, Anne-Marie, I agree with that, and you can see that in the discussion about the Western response and pressure on Russia, and the world is gonna fracture as a result, I think, of this entire, ultimately the structure of the world will be a more fractured place, I think, and it is absolutely important for the United States to pay a lot of attention to the middle powers and should be an important thrust of what the United States does, but Europe is our most important partner, bar none, but I do think China's our most important challenge at the end of the day and security front. Now, we can have a conversation about climate, right? But that was, as you know, I agree with you on, but I think as a force to be reckoned with in the world and the main game there is, we have military issues, as Seth was saying in Asia, but the main game there is technology at the end of the day. So Congress, why don't we pick up on one thing if I can, because, and I wanted to do it, but when we talk about institutions, one of the things that people talk about a lot in democracy is where you sit, the Congress, and the political polarization and challenges we have here, and that's obviously a source of huge debate. It plays around the world in different ways. In some ways, the United States is designed to be a system of conflict and then work through, but first, what do you think the polarization in the United States, how does that play for us around the world and how does it affect our reputation? And second, realistically, what, if anything, could we do about it now? So candidly, the polarization is a big problem. And during the Trump administration, we spent a lot of time going around the globe with bipartisan codels to show our allies and our adversaries that despite what you might hear about going on in the White House and see on TV, here you have Democratic and Republican representatives from the House and the Senate saying that we're aligned on key issues. And going to Asia was a very important stop on those types of trips to really show that Congress will outlast this administration and we're aligned on key issues, like supporting NATO, for example. But in the long term, there's no question that this divide is a big problem, and I think that candidly, it's a huge weakness of the United States. There are reforms that you can make to Congress structural reforms to improve it. I think a different primary process, probably ranked choice voting, getting money out of politics. I argue that we should increase terms in Congress from two to four years, you're not spending your entire time fundraising, and I think you might even wanna consider term limits because it's amazing how much political courage people tend to develop when they're in their last term. So there are a lot of things, but the problem with all those changes that I just mentioned is most of them, I'm no constitutional scholar, but most of them probably require constitutional changes. But at the same time, despite all the divides, there is some important bipartisan work that's being done. And I co-chaired a future defense task force on the House Armed Services Committee, where some of our most important conclusions on this very defense-focused panel were about the things that you hear talked about more broadly in terms of our economy, investing in AI, investing in biotech, and winning that race, developing a whole new generation of alliances, because NATO is great for defending Europe, it doesn't do as much with China. NATO is great for preventing a Russian invasion in a traditional sense, yet Russia invades us all the time through the internet, and NATO was not designed in 1946 to stop that. It's also about developing, winning this game in terms of modernization of our weapons systems. The first symbolic thing that we did to reinforce NATO was send a bunch of tanks to Poland, but we're all watching on TV as tanks get eviscerated by drones, so it's wonderful that NATO is stepping up and all these EU members are investing more in defense, they've got to invest in the future of defense in things like drones and not things like tanks if they're gonna be an effective deterrent. And then finally, another key point was developing a new generation of treaties, because I'll give you just a narrow example. Yes, and I'll give you a narrow example to illustrate what I'm talking about. The future of warfare is highly dependent on artificial intelligence. We're gonna have a lot more autonomous fighting vehicles in the air, on the ground, and certainly under the sea than we do now. How we set the rules, the rules of the road for the use of AI is incredibly important not just for the future of humanity, but for our strategic advantage, because if China sets the rules of the road for AI, and we don't have some sort of Geneva Convention like we did in response to the use of chemical weapons in World War I to deal with this new era of warfare, we're gonna be at a big disadvantage because China doesn't care about collateral damage, China doesn't care about killing civilians, but we do. And so if we adhere to our values, our essentially our robots will be more constrained and we'll be more likely to lose that fight. So we have got to get ahead of this issue and we're not doing enough of that today. Oh, you said trees. Treaties. Treaties. Treaties. I love trees. Absolutely love trees. I'm a huge fan of trees, but I think we need to do more for trees too.  So we've talked a lot here about a lot of the shifts that are happening. Russia, Ukraine, the expansion of NATO, I wanna ask one specific question on Russia, but then I wanna finish on a broader one, which is thinking about the US role in the world, can the US and Russia find some way back or is Russia, is it just different? And we can't go back there. We cannot even begin to have that discussion now. I mean, Putin needs to end this war and it's premature to even think about that. What I will say is, and I know President Biden is very committed to this, Russia needs to pay a serious long-term price for the way they're behaving. Including reparations for Ukraine? Absolutely. Definitely, at least. Everybody thinks so? Yes. Yeah, but even more than that. I mean, to Tom's point earlier, they need to be denied the benefits of the global economy and the global economic order for a long time. These export controls, they're not going away anytime soon. So, you know, your question is hard for me to even get my head around, given where we are now. Step one is we need to end this war. Well, I think that does say something about US power and that we still have power to leverage. There's no doubt we have power. There's been so much to respond to, but you know, Tom made the comment that the export control coalition wouldn't have been built without US leadership. Absolutely true. I think so much of what we're doing. Yes, Europe is a partner. They are there, they were strong, they were swift. This was because of US leadership. To the point of Indo-Pacific versus Europe or China, I will simply say this. I don't want to take anything away from the US-EU relationship, but you know, we rolled out this announcement yesterday. It was the US plus a dozen economies in the Indo-Pacific. It represents 40% of the world's GDP and it's the fastest growing. So where are we today? I agree with you about Europe. Where are we going to be in 10 years? We better pay close attention to the Indo-Pacific countries. And you say, and I agree with you, Singapore and these other countries should have been with us on human rights. They're in a tough zip code with China as their neighbor. And if the United States doesn't show up more and have a proactive economic strategy in that region, they'll continue to vote with China, which is why we do need to really show up consistently. And economics is the coin of the realm, along with technology. I think that's the last word, Madam Secretary, but it's been a great panel, a great discussion. Tom Donilon, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Seth Bolton and Secretary Romondo, thank you very much for being here today and thanks for the conversation. Thank you.


Hello, this is Bo Cook here, and this is a short keynote presentation for all transaction analysis students who have completed their four years of psychotherapy training. This is a demonstration on how to write, or perhaps more, the case what goes in the certificate of transaction analysis case study, which all TA students are required to complete in their endorsement process for recognition of accreditation by UKCP and European Association of Transaction Analysis. Okay, so let's look at the overall structure of the case study. It's an integrated case study made up of sections A, B, C, and D. Integrated in the sense that all those for particular sections needs to refer to each one. Okay, let's look at section A, which is made up of four to five pages. It includes the personal profile of yourself. Don't over-detail at this particular stage, it's only four or five pages talking about your own history, the profile of where you're up to today in your professional life, and a little bit about yourself in terms of family, education, and history, etc. Section B, which is about learnings and reflections from the psychotherapy training. That simply means what you have learned, not only professionally, but personally throughout the psychotherapy training, and it is a time to be able to describe your reflections of your professional growth, and of course some of your personal learnings as well. Also in this section you are asked to look at what schools, approaches, models have influenced you, that you've learned in your training to be the psychotherapist you are today, or at least the beginning psychotherapist you are today. Please remember no more than nine to eleven pages at this juncture, and also please remember that section A and B only make up for a small amount of the marks, and the section C and section D make up for most of the actual marks of the case study. So don't spend too much of your time, or of the words really, in sections A and B, because you'll need the extra words in the more important sections in my opinion, in terms of points anyway, or marking, which is section C or D. Okay, so section C, which is really a case description and analysis of the client that you are presenting in this integrative case study. You'll start off with the historical profile of the client, and then developmental history of the client in terms of developmental milestones that the client has gone through. You'll be required in this section to demonstrate of how you do psychotherapy. Usually best way to demonstrate to the reader how you do transactionalised psychotherapy is through transcripts. So probably in this section you'll probably demonstrate through transcripts, three or four paps on some of the important moments in the psychotherapy treatment with your client. You don't have to use transcripts, but you do need to show some of your psychotherapy methodology in this section. Okay, a very important part of this section as well is the diagnosis of your client, and how you reached that diagnosis. Also included here would be a differential diagnosis, and this is an important part of this section because it gives the reader how many good knowledge that you're thinking clinically in diagnostic processes. Okay, and then also in section C at the end is the prognosis, where you are in the actual treatment of the client, and more importantly where you're planning to go with the client in future treatment planning. And please remember the section C carries a high proportion of marks in terms of pages. It needs to be about 25 to 30 pages. So it's a substantial section. Okay, section D, which is the fourth section, also carries a large amount of marks and it's a substantial number of pages, usually again 25 to 30 pages. I think in this section you need to write six out of 12 questions which are dictated in this section. So it's the theoretical section of the case study. You will be able to pick six of the questions from I think it's 12 or 13 questions. There needs to be an integration here, and you need to be able to show some integration between section C and D. So when you're asking some theoretical questions, you need to link it in to the theory that you showed in section C. Okay, it's really the section where you're describing theoretically your clinical practice, and it allows you to really show off your clinical thinking and your theoretical stance. Okay, so that needs to be a well thought out section as with the other sections of course, but it's more a theoretical process in this section. In terms of reflections, please once again remember it's an integrated case study and that the four sections need to be integrated. There needs to be at least 24,000 words, 60 pages or to 65 pages, and this type of case study takes some thinking, some time, takes quite a lot of writing, quite a lot of theoretical thinking as well, and takes most people perhaps a year to write. So good luck, hope it goes well. I founded a particularly important time in my training where I could put together in a substantial piece of work my psychotherapy methodology, how I did psychotherapy, and also being able to clinically describe what I did, what's important for me, and it'll be a great feeling when you get it back with a good good marks. So good luck, bye bye.


Good morning weirdos. Here it is Thursday March 30th. It's almost 9 a.m. Central time and it is D I know it now the final day for my road trip ruminations have finally almost home and This will probably be the last road trip ruminations until my next road trip, which will be Let me see here. Let me look at the calendar real quick. It's going to be Let's see here. I'm not doing anything next weekend. Oh yeah, but The weekend of April 15th and 16th. I'm going to be in Davenport, Iowa for the Quad Cities Comic-Con So that'll probably be by next road trip ruminations as I head towards that Probably on the 13th or 14th and then coming back on the 17th and and or 18th So you'll finally be done with me and my just Marlar Maniacal or maniacal that is not me and rings. There you go And I think that's enough alliteration for one morning You can tell I'm wired, but I don't know why because I haven't had my caffeine kick yet I know so I don't know why I am in Monticello, Minnesota Could not find a holiday in last night when it was time to pull over Usually I'll pull up my IHG app. I happen to be one of their gold members I found out that I just that seems to be the hotel chain that I like the best But I couldn't find them so I had to pull into a best Western, but you know what that's okay It's a good night's sleep got the job done. That's all I really needed. All I all I needed right last night Was a bed. I didn't even care about a shower or anything else I just wanted a bed to sleep in so I could jump back into the weird darkness beast and head back home I did have an odd thought last night With all the news going on about you know the guns and stuff like that The word antifa comes up quite often and I'm wondering why do we say antifa? Why is that the pronunciation? It's either antifa or antifa, which is which is odd because It is actually short for anti-fascist that's what it's supposed to be so Anti-fascist shouldn't we be saying antifa or antifa? Yeah, antifa that that's that's what we should be saying Okay, yeah, all right. I'll stop now. I might check in a little bit later on though Hey weirdos well, let's see here. It is almost 4 p.m. Central time and I'm at home In fact, I've actually been home for a little while. I just got out of the shower, which feels so great That's one of the downsides of being on the road You can't really find a really good shower until you get home So I actually feel myself again, which is really nice. I Got something pretty cool in the mail when I came home. I've been gone for so many days I had a lot of mail that had piled up, but one of those boxes was really special I received something from Hillsdale College Apparently because I was did a guest lecture there Well, I don't even I don't know if you could even call it a guest lecture, but I was a guest In class a few weeks ago for a Hillsdale College class and it was audio production Radio Podcasting stuff like that. So that's the reason that they had me in and I was there for about an hour And I just kind of told them about what I do and showed them a little bit about the process that I use And they were so thankful. They sent me not only a thank you card But they sent me a big box full of great Hillsdale College stuff. I got a baseball cap I got a pendant that I you'll probably see the pendant if you watch any of the videos that I record for Facebook and YouTube I'll have that in the background They sent me some stickers and pens and a Hillsdale College coffee mug couple of American flag keychains couple stickers So if they're listening right now the Hillsdale College class with Professor Scott Bertram Thank you so much. That was really really kind of you a nice surprise to come home to and That's it I'm gonna go ahead and call it a day because I got a lot of work to do in order to prepare for tomorrow's Friday Frights Live. You'd think I'd be able to take a couple of days off, but no Well, hang on one last update I just was sorting through all of the mail that was on my desk And there's one thing here that I thought was just left here accidentally by my bride, but no She borrowed a movie from a neighbor of ours and I was so impressed that he had it I asked if he would be willing to sell it and she asked him and he said add just take it It's yours to keep Wow What this is is the deluxe edition digitally remastered DVD of Disney's Song of the South Yes, the D the the the band movie the movie that they have tried to erase from history They're even removing the the rides at Disneyland that were based upon this or renaming them rebranding them The even the song zippity-doodle they're trying to get rid of Because of all of the quote-unquote racism in this film it is a wholesome fun film and You know if you look at it without Trying to be offended. It's a lot of fun. I can't believe though That this is a real DVD of song of the south. I am a minute. Hold on. I gotta open this up I haven't opened I have all I've seen is the is the the outside cover. Hang on. Oh my gosh. No, this is the real thing I Thought maybe it'd be a bootleg DVD or something But it's branded in the in the the the CD itself You know what I'm gonna take a video of this and post it online because this is just Amazing Wow, okay, I just had to share that but now I think I'm gonna make a video of it Just so everybody can see what I'm talking about. Okay. Well, we'll see you tomorrow night for Friday Frights