Tag Archives: Rubio

Next, the voters.

Getting a late start on this. I had to turn the TV off – MSNBC was showing the ass-clown Trump again. Beats the hell out of me why they feel compelled to give the man so much free airtime, but there you go. In any case, Iowa votes, in a manner of speaking, next week and Trump may walk away with his first big victory … or not. Can’t say that I care which of those strange political objects receive the enthusiastic endorsement of some of corn country’s biggest bigots. It’s basically the same general deal with any one of the Republicans. They like to pretend not – that there are moderates and more serious candidates as well as the extremists and the very silly alternatives – but that’s a lot of gas. They’re all a major threat to peace and prosperity; just listen to them.

Cold war throwbackWho’s the moderate in that race? Christie? Don’t say Christie. He’s vehemently anti choice, wants to provoke war with Russia, and has all the racial sensitivity of Nixon during his drunk period (to say nothing of being a shill for the Peterson Institute, which advocates for privatizing Social Security). Forget Jeb Bush. He’s easily as bad as his brother on the issues, only with less raw political talent. Rubio? He’s the bold “young” candidate who seems to have his head stuck in decades-old Cold War strategy like a bug in amber. Frankly, any one of these candidates would be an unmitigated disaster as president.

How about the other side? I’m a bit agnostic with regard to that, as well. Of course I support Bernie Sanders – he’s certainly the closest the Democratic Party has ever come to someone I can agree with. But a Bernie presidency would only work if it came in ahead of a vociferous mass movement for positive, progressive change. That takes work, way beyond just getting out to vote. I’ll vote for Bernie and encourage others to do the same, but unless we march into Washington on his inauguration day with him on our shoulders, it’s not going to amount to much more than a mild braking action on the downward spiral of American capitalism. Which, come to think of it, is Hilary Clinton’s platform in a nutshell. Saving capitalism from itself, as she puts it. All well and good, but who the hell is going to save us from capitalism?

I’ll tell you who: Nobody but us.

luv u,

jp

News dump.

Lots going on this week, so I’ll comment on a few random things. Stop me if it gets confusing.

Cuba vs. Cuba. The spectacle of Cruz and Rubio spouting anti-immigration rhetoric in a kind of xenophobic pissing match is hypocritical beyond belief. Here are two examples of the offspring of Cuban exiles, their parents having arrived in the United States under the extremely preferential terms that have been in effect for Cuban immigrants since the early 1960s, an experience nothing like what immigrants from other Central American nations have to deal with. When you leave revolutionary Cuba and go to the U.S., you have a golden ticket. You’re practically guaranteed a green card and a place in the exile community. Compare that with what you face when you run here escaping the drug gangs in El Salvador – a cell in an outsourced cinder-block detention facility and an eventual boot out the door.

Pick the hypocrite. (Hint: black suit)The Cuban exile policy is the perfect illustration of what these GOP pols complain about with regard to incentivizing the influx of undocumented immigrants, and yet they have no problem with folks flocking here from Cuba because they can’t earn a lot of money back home. But when it comes to families running for their lives from the hell holes we helped destroy during the 1980s, that’s different. If the likes of Cruz and Rubio had had their way, Cuba would be a free market basket case like El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and every other disaster area we “helped” over the years. Of course, then the legions of exiles fleeing drug gangs would find no red carpet on these shores.

Get the lead out. The water crisis in Flint Michigan reminds me of the slow motion disaster that was New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, when every level of government seemed paralyzed by a kind of neoliberal lethargy. We are not seeing government rushing to the aid of the people their austerity programs have poisoned. Who says austerity doesn’t ruin lives? For chrissake, it doesn’t even save money. The financial cost (to say nothing of the staggering human cost) of a generation of young children stricken by lead poisoning far outstrips the amount of funds it would have taken to keep Flint on marginally potable water. Someone needs to go to jail over this, but since the crisis mostly affects people of color, that seems doubtful.

Iran lets the neocons down. They were hoping for another hostage crisis, but were sorely disappointed, I expect, when the Iranian government released captured U.S. naval personnel after 16 hours. This is the sort of touch point that would have started the neocons’ much sought-after war with Persia back a few years ago. No such luck, boys and girls. Though my principal question is, what the fuck were our sailors doing there? Who sent them on this fool’s errand and why? No answers yet.

luv u,

jp

Points made.

Think of this as a slow-motion commentary on the Republican debate from last week. None of this is particularly in-depth, but I think it’s worth raising a few points about certain participants.

(Late) King of JordanLindsey loves Georgie. At the kid’s table, Lindsey Graham got a little carried away over his bro-mance with ex-president and hopefully future convicted war criminal George W. Bush, saying in essence that he misses W and wishes he were still in office to handle the big-as-the-sky threat known as ISIS, which Lindsey previously said wants to “kill us all!!” Not hard to work out why Senator Graham’s poll numbers, even in a highly reactionary GOP primary race, hover somewhere between zero and zero point five. Not a majority position.

War of the Cubans. Whoa – someone waved a red rag between Senators Cruz and Rubio. Either that or somebody called somebody else’s mommy a commie. Fascinating how the supposedly “establishment” candidate Rubio is working hard to outflank Cruz on the right (!) with appeals to nativism and McCain/Graham-like warmongering.

Meet the King. Note to the often wrong, never in doubt Chris Christie: King Hussein of Jordan is long dead. It helps to know these things when you’re running for president. I still think anyone who wants to be president should have to fill in the names of countries on a blank map on live television, then tell the audience some relevant thing about our foreign policy with respect to each one they name.

He said what? It’s the law of a stopped clock being right twice a day. Trump’s comments about the Iraq war – at least the first portion of them, before he talks about “taking the oil” – were hard to argue with. It’s interesting that the majority of Republican party voters seem to back candidates who are skeptical of the notion of regime change. Carpet bombing, sure, but no regime change. (Interestingly, Cruz appears to think you can selectively carpet bomb combatants, as if they will voluntarily stand out in the open when your bombers fly by.)

That’s all I’ve got. This is kind of long in the tooth, but again … it’s been a long ten days. More later.

luv u,

jp