Analysis by Nic Robertson
CNN Newsource

US President Donald Trump came late to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday morning. And within moments, he had the gathered world leaders laughing.

By the time he finished, it was a far more somber mood in the hallowed chamber, in which Trump himself said “so much history has transpired”.

But on this day, he was making a history of his own.

The levity he sparked so soon into his address came, perhaps, because he was doing exactly what his audience had come to expect — plenty of ego; little humility: “I stand before the United Nations General Assembly to share the extraordinary progress we’ve made. In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”

He boasted that America is stronger and more powerful than ever before: “Our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before. In other words, the United States is stronger, safer and a richer country than it was when I assumed office … We are standing up for America and for the American people.”

He stated, clearly, his administration’s view of the world: “America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control and domination.

“The longer he spoke, the more portentous it became: “We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy. America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism. And we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.”

And Trump made it clear he is happy to divide the world into nations he sees as his friends and those he sees as undeserving enemies: “We are taking a hard look at US foreign assistance … whether the countries who receive our dollars and protection also have our interests at heart. Moving forward, we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends.”

And when he gave a shout out to some of those friends, he gave yet more insight into the sort of nations he considers allies. Many former friends were missing — indeed, erstwhile ally Germany even came in for criticism.

Somewhere near the top of the friends list this year — an astonishing turnaround from being the leader Trump criticized so readily from this very platform last year — was North Korea.

“I traveled to Singapore to meet face-to-face with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Since that meeting, we have already seen a number of encouraging measures that few could have imagined.”

South Korea and Japan both got a shout-out, too. He singled out Saudi Arabia as a key ally, specifically piling praise on its autocratic rulers, King Salman and his son Mohammed Bin Salman. Other autocratic Gulf states got praise, too: “The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have pledged billions of dollars to aid the people of Syria and Yemen.”

He praised Poland, whose right-wing President Andzrej Duda met with Trump a few days ago, offering to help build a new US military base that he would call “Fort Trump.”

The Polish leader, who faces possible sanctions from EU leaders for firing judges as part of sweeping political meddling in the country’s judiciary, got a double helping of praise.

Trump explained that Poland found favor with him for the way in which it is standing up to Russia: “We congratulate the European states such as Poland for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia … Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.”

There was a ringing endorsement of India’s tough leader, Narendra Modi. Trump highlighted Modi’s efforts on poverty, rather than his record of failing to curb sectarianism in India.

He also praised Israel: “There is Israel, proudly celebrating its 70th anniversary as a democracy in the Holy Land.”

This, of course, was Trump talking up his reasons for announcing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last year, while making no mention of his cuts to UN budgets supporting Palestinians.

The obvious implication: If the Palestinians are losing funding, they are not friends who respect the US. As his speech drew to its close, Trump drew his thoughts together.

Just in case we missed it, he made clear once more his belief that though we might all share this planet, we live on it separately: “The whole world is richer, humanity is better, because of this beautiful constellation of nations, each very special, each very unique. And each shining brightly in its part of the world.”

An hour or so before, the same audience listened to another worldview from the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

He seemed to foreshadow Trump’s darker leaning with a lesson from history:”Today, with shifts in the balance of power, the risk of confrontation may increase… In assessing the Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece, Thucydides said, and I quote, ‘It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable’.”

Trump offers a different worldview, one that keeps nations apart. In his words, “We must defend the foundations that make it all possible. Sovereign and independent nations are the only vehicle where freedom has ever survived.”

There will be some who listened to Trump today and heard echoes of the 1930s.

Ironic, as the UN came into existence to overcome the global horrors from that dark moment in history.

By the time he finished, it was a far more somber mood in the hallowed chamber, in which Trump himself said “so much history has transpired.”

But on this day, he was making a history of his own.

The levity he sparked so soon into his address came, perhaps, because he was doing exactly what his audience had come to expect — plenty of ego; little humility: “I stand before the United Nations General Assembly to share the extraordinary progress we’ve made. In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”

He boasted that America is stronger and more powerful than ever before: “Our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before. In other words, the United States is stronger, safer and a richer country than it was when I assumed office … We are standing up for America and for the American people.”

He stated, clearly, his administration’s view of the world: “America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control, and domination.”

The longer he spoke, the more portentous it became: “We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy. America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism. And we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.”

And Trump made it clear he is happy to divide the world into nations he sees as his friends and those he sees as undeserving enemies: “We are taking a hard look at US foreign assistance … whether the countries who receive our dollars and protection also have our interests at heart. Moving forward, we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends.”

And when he gave a shout out to some of those friends, he gave yet more insight into the sort of nations he considers allies. Many former friends were missing — indeed, erstwhile ally Germany even came in for criticism.

Somewhere near the top of the friends list this year — an astonishing turnaround from being the leader Trump criticized so readily from this very platform last year — was North Korea.

“I traveled to Singapore to meet face-to-face with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Since that meeting, we have already seen a number of encouraging measures that few could have imagined.”

South Korea and Japan both got a worldview, too. He singled out Saudi Arabia as a key ally, specifically piling praise on its autocratic rulers, King Salman and his son Mohammed Bin Salman.

Other autocratic Gulf states got praise, too: “The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have pledged billions of dollars to aid the people of Syria and Yemen.”

He praised Poland, whose right-wing President Andzrej Duda met with Trump a few days ago, offering to help build a new US military base that he would call “Fort Trump.”

The Polish leader, who faces possible sanctions from EU leaders for firing judges as part of sweeping political meddling in the country’s judiciary, got a double helping of praise.

Trump explained that Poland found favor with him for the way in which it is standing up to Russia: “We congratulate the European states such as Poland for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia … Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.”

There was a ringing endorsement of India’s tough leader, Narendra Modi. Trump highlighted Modi’s efforts on poverty, rather than his record of failing to curb sectarianism in India.

He also praised Israel: “There is Israel, proudly celebrating its 70th anniversary as a democracy in the Holy Land.”

This, of course, was Trump talking up his reasons for announcing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last year, while making no mention of his cuts to UN budgets supporting Palestinians.

The obvious implication: If the Palestinians are losing funding, they are not friends who respect the US.

As his speech drew to its close, Trump drew his thoughts together.

Just in case we missed it, he made clear once more his belief that though we might all share this planet, we live on it separately: “The whole world is richer, humanity is better, because of this beautiful constellation of nations, each very special, each very unique. And each shining brightly in its part of the world.”An hour or so before, the same audience listened to another worldview from the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

He seemed to foreshadow Trump’s darker leaning with a lesson from history: “Today, with shifts in the balance of power, the risk of confrontation may increase… In assessing the Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece, Thucydides said, and I quote, ‘It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable’.”

Trump offers a different worldview, one that keeps nations apart. In his words, “We must defend the foundations that make it all possible. Sovereign and independent nations are the only vehicle where freedom has ever survived.”

There will be some who listened to Trump today and heard echoes of the 1930s. Ironic, as the UN came into existence to overcome the global horrors from that dark moment in history.

By Eric Levenson and Aaron Cooper
CNN Newsource

Bill Cosby, once known as “America’s Dad,” was sentenced Tuesday to three to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home 14 years ago.

Cosby’s bail was revoked and he was escorted from the courthouse in handcuffs.

“This was a serious crime,” Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Judge Steven O’Neill said. “Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The day has come, the time has come.”

Cosby, convicted in April of aggravated indecent assault, declined to speak to the court prior to the sentence. His attorneys have filed an appeal.

He also was ordered to pay a fine of $25,000 plus the costs of prosecution as part of the sentence. In addition, O’Neill ruled that Cosby will be classified as a “sexually violent predator,” a determination that requires lifetime registration, lifetime mandatory sex offender counseling with a treatment provider and notification to the community that a “sexually violent predator” lives in the area.

Cosby was booked into Montgomery County Correctional Facility and will be transferred to SCI Phoenix, a state prison in Collegeville, according to Corrie Emerson, public affairs manager for Montgomery County.

The lengthy path to this moment began in 2004 when Cosby, the groundbreaking actor, gave Constand pills to incapacitate her and then sexually assaulted her. 

She told police in 2005 about the incident but prosecutors declined to press charges, and they settled the case in civil court a year later.

A decade later, dozens of women came forward to say Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them over his decades as a powerful media figure. Constand’s was the only one of those cases that occurred within the statute of limitations.

A new team of prosecutors took up the case and, relying on Constand’s and Cosby’s statements in a civil deposition, arrested him in December 2015.

A first criminal trial against Cosby ended in a hung jury. But in April, Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and assaulting Constand in the first high-profile celebrity criminal trial of the #MeToo era.

“No one is above the law, and no one should be treated differently or disproportionally,” O’Neill said.

Cosby’s spokesperson Andrew Wyatt unleashed on the media, judge and prosecutors after the sentence, calling the prosecution “the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States.”

He also said Cosby was doing well because “he knows that these are lies” and even compared it to the sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“They persecuted Jesus and look what happened. (I’m) not saying Mr. Cosby’s Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries,” Wyatt said.

Gloria Allred, the victims’ rights attorney who represents several women who say they were assaulted by Cosby, praised the sentence as a long journey to justice.

“We’re glad that judgment day has finally come for Mr. Cosby,” she said. “Mr. Cosby has shown no remorse and there has been no justice for many of the accusers who were barred from a court by the arbitrary time limits imposed by the statute of limitations.”

Ahead of the sentencing, Constand wrote a five-page letter to the court explaining how Cosby’s assault — and the ensuing legal battle — had changed her life.

As a Temple University employee, she looked up to Cosby, a Temple trustee, as a mentor and friend. He used that position of power and trust, as well as his public persona as Dr. Huxtable, to take advantage of her, she testified at trial.

“Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it. He robbed me of my health and vitality, my open nature and my trust in myself and others,” she wrote in the impact statement.

O’Neill cited Constand’s statement in deciding on the sentence.

“I have given great weight to the victim impact testimony in this case, and it was powerful,” he said.

Kathy McKee, a former actress who has accused Cosby of raping her, told CNN that listening to the news about Cosby’s sentencing stirs up some “very difficult and deep emotions.”

“I’m happy that the judge sentenced Bill Cosby accordingly and I’m grateful to Andrea for standing strong,” she said.
Chelan Lasha, another of Cosby’s alleged victims, also praised the sentence.

“I am very happy to know that Mr. Cosby will do time in prison. That he is touchable, like he touched us unwillingly,” she said.

The prison sentence drew praise from victims and advocacy groups like the nonprofit Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, known as RAINN.

“We are grateful that the court understood the seriousness of Cosby’s crime and sentenced him to prison,” said Jodi Omear, vice president of communications at RAINN. “Let’s hope that the legacy of this case is that victims feel empowered to come forward, knowing that it can truly make a difference in bringing perpetrators to justice.”

Prosecutors had asked the judge on Monday to sentence Cosby to five to 10 years in state prison for the assault, saying he had shown “no remorse” for his actions. However, Cosby’s defense attorney, Joseph P. Green, asked for a sentence of house arrest, citing Cosby’s advanced age and blindness.