Tag Archives: COVID-19

Political Rants

Unconventional.

I suppose you heard the big news this week. Excited? Well, you should be. It’s a tremendous accomplishment for a woman of color in this deeply racist nation. Tuesday’s big news practically guarantees another two years of Ihan Omar in the United States House of Representatives. Woo-hoo!

Oh, right … and Biden picked Kamala Harris. Thought as much. Frankly, that could have gone a lot worse. We were hovering very close to Klobuchar territory before the murder of George Floyd, and then it was all over. I’m terrible at predicting things like VP picks, but this one seemed pretty obvious – Biden needed somebody youngish with some star power, experience, and grit. He obviously feels no need to give a nod to the left, and that’s no surprise either. My biggest complaint about her is that she let Mnuchin off the hook over his foreclosure mill in California and that her criminal justice record is not the kind of progressive counterbalance you would hope for in a Biden-topped ticket.

Their announcement event was kind of dismal, largely owing to the fact that COVID is still running wild. I just wish the Biden Campaign would hire someone who can compose a shot. The two-shot as Harris spoke was just weird – Biden in profile, giving that SOTU squint of his, which from the side doesn’t look all that great. I’m not sure I heard anything encouraging in the torrent of platitudes, but be that as it may, I hope to hell they get over the finish line this fall. The Democratic Party is positively expert at shooting itself in the foot, and they may not know it, but they’re taking a big chance on Biden this year. The notion that Harris is going to help light a fire under the activist base is a bit of a stretch, but hopefully there’s something to it.

As we approach the non-Convention, scheduled for next week, there are some worrying signs. First, some progressive grassroots media outlets, like The Young Turks, have been denied press passes …. to a virtual event, for crying out loud. Even worse, anti-choice Bush administration alumnus and former Ohio governor John Kasich, last seen attempting to school yeshiva scholars on the Old Testament, has a major speaking role at the convention …. whereas Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), leading voice of the progressive left in the party, is being allowed … wait for it … sixty seconds to speak. This tells you all you need to know about their electoral strategy. They appear to be listening more to the partisan flacks on DNC-friendly media than to the masses of people their party depends on for any chance of victory this fall.

What the fuck. We’ve been to this dance before, and it didn’t turn out well. The so-called centrists in the Democratic party need to get their heads out of their 1990s asses and get a clear look at who their constituencies are. And they need to do it fast.

luv u,

jp

Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.
Political Rants

Muddle in the middle.

A snapshot from the day’s news – MSNBC is obsessing over Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s announcement that we’re withdrawing 12,000 troops from Germany. The various former Republicans that populate its talk show panels are lamenting Trump’s undermining of the NATO alliance. In real time, we are seeing the Biden foreign policy take shape. I won’t say it’s a more aggressive posture, as Trump is aggressively pursuing conflict with Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, China, and others. There is, however, a somewhat nostalgic turn to the emerging centrist doctrine Biden will no doubt pursue. It appears we may be in for a slight return of the cold war model, the east-west divide, the Russian menace. If that’s the case, it would be a bitter trade in exchange for the crap show we’re living through now.

I am tentative about this observation because it’s hard to be certain what a Biden foreign policy will be when the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has consistently avoided posting any details about it on his campaign site. Since it’s likely to be formulated by committee, I’m guessing it will be bellicose, but measured; assertive, but mindful of precedent; proactive, but not necessarily the first to any party. Where will we bomb, drone, invade next under a President Biden? One can only guess. Likely he will re-deploy those 12,000 troops to Germany, whether or not they pony up the Euros for costs associated with the posting. Indeed, the only net positives might be a return to some type of arms control regime with Russia, Iran, and others, and perhaps a re-commitment to the tepid, voluntary goals of the Paris Accord on Climate. Not nearly enough for my taste, but there you have it.

I think the most compelling case for this muddle in the middle, from a foreign policy standpoint, derives from the very nature of the presidency and who holds that office. The U.S. president is too powerful. It is an office that wields force, both military and economic, in unlimited magnitude. No one should be THAT powerful, particularly not someone who is accountable to an electorate that makes up less than five percent of the world’s population. Placing Donald Trump in the cockpit of that titanic killing machine is not only irresponsible, it’s sheer madness. Regardless of any minor departures from the hard-line Republican orthodoxy on foreign relations and national security, Trump has proven his propensity to flub his way through any situation, with disastrous consequences. We’ve seen this in his response to the Coronavirus. Even as he seems inclined to curry favor with Putin, we’ve seen him tear up crucial arms agreements with the Russians, hurtling us back into a deadly arms race.

Plainly, Biden’s foreign policy will likely be as imperial and neoliberal as he can get away with. But every moment Trump sits behind that so-called Resolute Desk, we are in mortal danger. He simply has to go.

luv u,

jp

Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.
Political Rants

Gaslight village.

There’s something the president has been saying repeatedly lately that probably shouldn’t be allowed to pass without challenge, like most of his insane utterances. (It amazes me sometimes how much this reminds me of the Reagan years, when old right-wing Ronny used to say truly bizarre things and journalists would just wanly shrug and move on.) He keeps claiming that, in responding to COVID-19, he saved millions of lives. The claim goes something like this: If I (Trump) had not acted as decisively as I did, more than 2 million people would be dead of COVID. Instead, it’s a measly 140,000. Aren’t I a hero, then?

I wish I were making this up, but you’ve heard it, I’m sure. I’m beginning to understand why Trump is so determined to save all of those Confederate monuments. He must have gotten a bunch of loser trophies when he was a kid. Actually, his entire life has been a series of loser trophies and mulligans, starting with the fortune that was dropped into his lap, his various bankruptcies and failed scams, then being shoe-horned into the presidency via America’s ultimate grandfather clause, the electoral college. And yet through all of this (and much more), he has insisted that he is a big winner, that no one could have done what he did, and so on … and so on. At the same time, he whines incessantly (like so many on the right do) about how unfair life is to him. Poor little Donnie!

This is some grade-school level gaslighting, to be sure. I mean, the man is saying that by doing the bare minimum required of him as president of the United States, he prevented a precipitous, uncontrolled spread of COVID that would have cost millions of lives, and for this he should be thanked. I hate to break it to fat boy, but not engaging in massive criminal negligence does not exactly place you in Medal of Honor territory. Next we’ll be expected to thank him for NOT randomly noodling with the nuclear football and accidentally launching World War III. That saved billions! No, as president, you don’t get rewarded for NOT blowing up the world this week. (That’s pretty much expected of you, Don.)

R.I.P. Michael Brooks. When political commentator and leftist thinker Michael Brooks died unexpectedly this week, I thought of the people I’ve known who left this world far too soon – people who seemingly had a brilliant future ahead of them. Brooks was one of those people, and he will leave an enormous hole. Condolences to his family and his colleagues on the Majority Report, TMBS, and elsewhere. This year is for shit.

luv u,

jp

Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.