The Tribune

with CHARLIE HARPER

It’s Thanksgiving in America this morning. Our neighbours have a lot to be thankful for today.

First, it appears that the world has moved at least a step back from the brink of a wider war in the Middle East that could have and still might engage the US, Iran, the Gulf States and perhaps others in yet another bloody struggle with no end in sight.

There was an announcement this week that Israel and Lebanon have reached a tentative accord on a cease fire that would restore vestiges of peace to the south of Lebanon, a historic, beautiful country whose capital of Beirut was not so long ago celebrated as the “Paris of the Middle East.”

The ceasefire was bad news indeed for Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy terrorist group that has infiltrated and intimidated Lebanon’s government for decades and made that country constantly fearful of Israeli reprisals for cross-border attacks launched by Hezbollah.

Now, Israel is claiming that Hezbollah has been routed and its renaissance will take decades to accomplish. Perhaps. But in any case, many people around the world – there is a wide Lebanese diaspora in many countries – should feel a measure of calm relief today.

Secondly, Americans of all political and ideological persuasions can feel better that yet another lucrative, endless US political campaign has finally, at long last, been concluded. Even the millions of disbelieving liberal Democrats who still cannot imagine how the country elected Donald Trump again have expressed relief that the election has been decided.

Democrats, long derided by their opponents as determined to play fair in elections while their opponents play to win, may find hollow consolation in the fact that neither Kamala Harris, Joe Biden nor any other prominent Democrat has cried foul at the election results. They have all conceded and moved on.

Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith, who was still being compared two months ago to legendary federal agent Eliot Ness (who sent to jail Depression-era gangster Al Capone) in his much-lauded judicial pursuit of Trump, has folded his tent and abandoned the remaining federal cases against the new president.

Trump, who often railed during his successful campaign against the numerous efforts to convict him of an impressive range of alleged crimes, now is almost fully vindicated. No one seems to have any further appetite for the effort to hold him accountable for his obvious and unprecedented disregard for American political and judicial institutions.

In one sense, Trump should be praised for identifying and braying on about the basic corruption of those hallowed US institutions. He has succeeded in publicly corrupting many of them including the nation’s highest judicial body, the Supreme Court and the long-revered Senate tradition of ‘advise and consent’ with respect to presidential nominees for cabinet and other very senior level positions.

Those who say that Trump has sullied heretofore pristine traditions and institutions are simply not paying attention. Democrats as much if not more than Republicans have tried to not only ‘pack’ the Supreme Court with their ideological allies but also to circumvent pesky Congressional attempts to interfere with presidential policies and prerogatives.

Third, it does seem that at least in the realm of foreign affairs generally, the Biden administration is trying to keep the peace and hand off to the new administration a world situation at least no worse than before the recent election.

While no cease fire in Gaza has yet been attained, some diplomatic sources are reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may soon move to end the assault on his Palestinian neighbour. It does seem clear that Biden is much less likely than Trump to be able to influence Netanyahu to agree to a cessation of hostilities.

And it is getting harder to find stories on the nearly three-year-old war in Ukraine, even in the national American mainstream press. While winter will likely bring with it a lull in the fighting on Ukraine’s frozen eastern fields, senior NATO and European officials are whispering to favoured journalists that they are now prepared to countenance some ceding of Ukrainian territory to secure at least a cease fire in Europe’s longest war in 80 years.

A sense is growing that both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky may have recognized that Trump and his new American government will no longer tolerate or support endless Western support for Ukraine in a war that seems virtually impossible to win without risking nuclear war.

Admitting Ukraine to NATO or at least extending to Kiev the alliance charter’s Article Five protections against future foreign invasions would justify Ukraine’s sustained sacrifices in defending itself against Russia. But there are hints that Trump & Company won’t insist on such guarantees as a condition for a cease fire.

If they don’t do that, this new administration will open itself to criticism of appeasement. Hopefully, Trump’s foreign policy team will keep this in mind.

While Putin is not Adolph Hitler and the Russian military is certainly not equivalent to Nazi Germany’s powerful Wehrmacht, it seems highly probable that if Putin succeeds in annexing ten percent of Ukrainian territory without Western security assurances for Kiev, he will, like Hitler, remain aggressive and unsatisfied until much more territory is conquered.

Meanwhile, Biden seems to be forgotten, but not gone. His continuing attendance at multinational conferences goes almost unnoticed, including by the leaders of other nations who have spent the past four years praising his engagement with the world.

But Americans can also be thankful on their special day for the enduring musical and entrepreneurial gifts of Quincy Jones, the legendary horn player and impresario who passed away at age 91 last month just before the US general election.

Google Quincy Jones. Music and film are America’s most enduring gifts to recent world culture. This brilliant man influenced the course and development of American music more than any other creative figure of the latter half of the 20th Century.

A search for Jones will reveal “We Are the World,” the astounding 1985 group video that brought together dozens of the most celebrated and accomplished musical stars of the era in support of an effort to raise money for the children of Africa.

At the center of this unprecedented effort was Quincy Jones. Here are some of the superstars who performed under Jones’ baton: Lionel Richie; Stevie Wonder; Paul Simon; Kenny Rogers; James Ingram; Tina Turner; Billy Joel; Michael Jackson; Diana Ross; Dionne Warwick; Willie Nelson; Al Jarreau; Bruce Springsteen; Kenny Rogers; Huey Lewis; Cyndi Lauper; Bob Dylan, and Ray Charles.

If you find the video of the recording session for this multi-Grammy award-winning session, you’ll find these stars all falling in line under the calm, unspoken authority of “Q,” who had already arranged “Fly Me to the Moon” for Frank Sinatra and the Count Basie orchestra 21 years previously.

Trumpeter Jones had played with Lionel Hampton, Basie, and Dizzy Gillespie. He was the mastermind producer behind Michael Jackson’s 1982 hit album “Thriller,” which became the greatest selling album of all time and spawned a video widely regarded as the best video of all time.

He collaborated with Eddie Van Halen and Tupac Shakur. From bebop to hip hop, from jazz to rock to funk, this American genius leaves behind a legacy that few if any will match.

In an unmatched musical career that spanned seven decades, Quincy Jones somehow also lent vital early support to the burgeoning careers of Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith. Q’s rolodex contained the names of a Who’s Who in American culture.

Just over three weeks ago, the front page of the Washington Post featured pictures of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris at their last campaign appearances of the 2024 presidential race. “A Historic Race, down to the Wire,” the headline shouted. A subtext announced: “Divided: A marriage, a town, a nation.”

Down below the fold of the front page on this momentous election day, another story was featured. “Quincy Jones: Savvy Artist, Executive Raised Pop Music to New Heights. Producer who made history with ‘Thriller,’ also left Indelible Mark on Movies and TV.”

In the worlds of American culture, Quincy Jones was for decades a brand that stood for quality and memorable performances. Everything he touched musically turned to gold. It’s a shame his passing was lost in the haze of the election.