Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson

More than 50 ministers and officials in British prime minister Boris Johnson’s administration quit their jobs because they finally became fed up with BoJo’s antics, buffoonery and scandals that rocked the UK during his nearly three-year reign.

“Them’s the breaks,” said the delusional Johnson, in announcing that he will step down once his successor has been chosen, a process that could take months.

John Major, former PM and elder statesman of the Conservative Party, went a step further than members of Johnson’s team. He said BoJo should quit now for the good of the country and the Tories.

The political upheaval in the UK sets the stage for Republicans in the US.

It offers a roadmap to redemption for Republicans who served in the Trump administration.

After enabling Donald Trump’s deceit, lies, disinformation, political attacks and treachery, they should have resigned.

They now have an opportunity to warn the nation of the dangers posed by a Trump II White House.

Your country needs you: Mike Pompeo (Trump’s Secretary of State), Steve Mnuchin (Treasury), Wilbur Ross (Commerce), Alex Azar (Health & Human Services), Betsy DeVos (Education), Elaine Chao (Transportation) and Ben Carson (Housing & Urban Development).

Speak now or forever remain in shame. Time is running out.

Wake up, America. Republican Senator Mitt Romney wrote an eloquent essay for the July 4 Atlantic blog in which he criticized the nation for its blithe dismissal of “cataclysmic threats.”

He cited the prepared statement of renowned conservative judge Micheal Luttig who called the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol a stake driven through the heart of American democracy.

Luttig told the Jan. 6 committee:

January 6 was but the next, foreseeable battle in a war that had been raging in America for years, though that day was the most consequential battle of that war even to date. In fact, January 6 was a separate war unto itself, a war for America’s democracy, a war irresponsibly instigated and prosecuted by the former president, his political party allies, and his supporters. Both wars are raging to this day.

Romney wrote that MAGA loyalists “snickered” that Luttig speaks slowly and celebrated the fact that most people didn’t watch or read about his testimony.

The Utah Senator called president Biden “a genuinely good man” though unable “to break through our national malady of denial, deceit and distrust.”

The return of Trump “would feed the sickness, probably rendering it incurable.”

Romney prays for a leader to emerge with the stature of Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Lech Walesa, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Volodymyr Zelensky “to rise above the din to unite us behind the truth.”

There are plenty of Americans praying with Mitt.

One might as well use a dartboard or ouija board. Wall Street’s economic forecasters are either bullish or bearish on the prospects of an recession.

Goldman Sachs says there is a 50 percent chance of a recession over the next year, which means there is a 50 chance that there won’t be one.

Wells Fargo believes a recession in 2023 “seems more likely than not.” Duh.

Citibank expects the economy will slow but not shrink, although it sees recession probabilities “as appreciable and rising.”

Morgan Stanley puts the odds of a recession happening over the next year at around 30 percent.

Deutsche Bank says head for the hills as a “somewhat more severe recession” is on the way sometime soon. Stay tuned.

These advisers get paid big bucks for their savvy.

Prop up propaganda. The Atlantic Council’s Irina Plaks chides the US for neglecting its propaganda efforts, while Russia has built a formidable operation.

She believes Team Biden needs a propaganda strategy focused on Russia’s people, military and contested publics throughout the world.

The US needs outreach to expose Russians to the endemic corruption in their country, its cratering economy and the horrors in Ukraine.

Soldiers should be made aware of their rights to reject orders and the lies behind Putin’s “de-Nazification” narrative, according to Plaks.

US messaging should be aimed at Central Asian nations to warn them that they may be the next targets of Putin’s aggressions, while those in Hungary or France who mouth Kremlin talking points must be called to task.

Plaks wrote that America’s propaganda must advance democratic values and prioritize transparency and truth to ensure that the world understands what Putin is doing in Ukraine.

PR firms can play a leading role in that effort.

‘Nyet’ to Russia’s propaganda. Canada on July 8 imposed sanctions against 45 Russian propaganda agents and disinformation outlets for enabling and supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The roster of sanctioned media outlets includes RT, TASS, Sputnik, Gazprom Media, All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Co., NTV Broadcasting and Rossiya-24 TV channel.

Melanie Joly, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said Russia’s propaganda machine must answer for its lies. “Canada is committed to fighting disinformation wherever and whenever it is found,” said Joly. The sanctions “make it clear to those who peddle deception: you will be held accountable.”

“Can American Democracy Survive the 2024 Elections” is a great question and the theme of a public symposium planned early next year by the Safeguarding Democracy Project, which was launched July 7 by UCLA’s School of Law.

The Project’s goal is to promote research, collaboration and advocacy aimed at ensuring continued free and fair elections in the US.

UCLA professor Richard Hasen, a top election law scholar, heads the Project.

He called Donald Trump’s “stolen election” lies and the Capitol Hill riot as “the opening salvo of a concerted effort to subvert our election system.”

He said the Project will “use an all-hands-on-deck approach to address and challenge threats to our democracy, working to ensure that all eligible voters can freely cast their vote, that those votes will be fairly and accurately counted and that the election winners will undergo a peaceful transfer of power.”

Among the Project’s first events is a Sept. 20 discussion by Supreme Court journalist Adam Liptak (New York Times), Dahlia Lithwick (Slate) and Joan Biskupic (CNN) about the High Court’s role in persevering America’s democracy.