Tag: Biden

How to Beat Trump

W.J. Astore

A Winning Platform

News that the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that Trump is ineligible to be included on the presidential ballot due to his encouragement of and participation in “insurrection” during the January 6th Capitol riot is being greeted as tidings of comfort and joy in many quarters, especially among Democrats facing lengthening odds in the 2024 election. Is this the way to beat Trump: to bar him from the ballot due to his alleged crimes against the Constitution and the country?

Readers of Bracing Views know that I’m not a Trump supporter, nor for that matter do I support Joe Biden. Trump, I wrote back in March of 2016, disqualified himself from office when he boasted during a debate that U.S. troops would follow his orders irrespective of their legality. The man is most definitely an ignoramus and therefore is a menace to himself and to others.

That said, being an ignoramus is not disqualifying for the presidency.

After a swift appeal, I’d wager the U.S. Supreme Court will reverse the decision of the Colorado Court, putting Trump back on the ballot. What then? 

I think it’s relatively easy to defeat Trump in November 2024: run a candidate whose views and deeds correspond to the views and desires and priorities of the vast majority of Americans. The working and middle classes.

Cartoons like this one are frankly unconvincing

If I were a candidate for the presidency, and wanted to maximize my vote vis-a-vis Trump, here are a few things I’d support:

  • Higher wages for American workers. A hike in the federal minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.
  • Health care for all. Use the common wealth for common health.
  • “Free” college education at state colleges and universities. (By “free,” I mean subsidized at a tolerable level for students, with tuition and fees capped at $2000 a year.)
  • Legalization of marijuana for personal use across the USA.
  • Criminal justice reform that would greatly reduce the number of non-violent offenders held in prison.
  • Major reductions in military spending and a commitment to peace and diplomacy.
  • With the hundreds of billions saved from reductions in war spending, a major commitment to rebuilding American infrastructure, including the creation of a new Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) tied to alleviating damage due to climate change.
  • An end to divisive rhetoric and talk of “deplorables” and “blue and red” America. A national celebration of and renewed commitment to the U.S. Constitution.
  • The salute of brave people willing to inform Americans of crimes being committed in their name. The return of Edward Snowden to America and a celebration of his patriotism and service to America. The pardon and release of Daniel Hale from prison. The dropping of all charges against Julian Assange. A commitment to freedom of speech, the press, and indeed of all Constitutional rights.
  • Privacy for the people; transparency for the government.

That’s ten positions that I believe would garner the support of a majority of Americans in the 2024 election.

The problem is that the main rival to Trump in 2024, Joe Biden, is a “nothing will fundamentally change” guy who lacks the will, energy, and wherewithal to motivate and unify the American people behind these and similar popular positions.

What does Biden have going for him? Well, he’s not Trump. That’s seemingly the beginning and the end of Democratic messaging. And it’s not enough. Which is why Democrats are so excited about the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling.

That court ruling isn’t going to stop Trump. What will stop Trump is a candidate of courage and conviction who truly wants to serve the people. All the people, equally. The obstacle to be overcome is a Washington establishment, including most especially the corporate owners and donors, the big money people, that is determined to block any candidate or any party that is truly dedicated to the Constitution and to the needs of the people writ large.

15,000 Bombs Equivalent to Two Hiroshimas

W.J. Astore

The Israeli Annihilation of Gaza

After dropping 6000 bombs in six days, the Israeli Air Force has now reached the staggering sum of at least 15,000 bombs dropped on densely populated areas of Gaza. The bomb tonnage is already equivalent to two Hiroshimas, notes Joshua Frank at TomDispatch. As he puts it:

[W]ell over 25,000 tons of bombs had already been dropped on Gaza by early November, the equivalent of two Hiroshima-style nukes (without the radiation). Under such circumstances, a nuclear-capable Israel that blatantly flouts international law could prove a clear and present danger, not only to defenseless Palestinians but to a world already in ever more danger and disarray.

Israel is the only power in the Middle East with nuclear weapons; it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the right-wing government of Netanyahu would choose to use one or more if cornered.

Netanyahu’s goal seems clear: make Gaza uninhabitable to Palestinians through a combination of massive bombing, blockades (water, food, medical supplies, and other essentials), and invasion and occupation. Palestinians are to be “pushed” into the Sinai Desert, with Gaza absorbed into Israel. All this is being justified in the name of neutralizing Hamas, a terrorist organization that has no ability to hurt Israel in a major way. (The brutal attacks of October 7th were a one-off made more brutal by Israeli helicopter gunships whose counterattacks killed friendlies as well as the Hamas attackers.)

In the name of destroying Hamas, Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza so it can be absorbed into Israel. Apparently, there are enormous gas reserves off Gaza, possibly worth $500 billion, which were to be shared between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza. With the Palestinians either dead, severely wounded, or evicted from Gaza, Israel will likely claim total ownership over those gas fields. Israel may yet become a major gas supplier to Europe, replacing much of the gas lost when Putin blew up his own gas pipelines to Germany. (Just kidding: America did that, as President Biden promised he would.)

Meanwhile, Joe Biden penned an op-ed to the Washington Post equating Hamas with Putin as “pure, unadulterated evil.” Hamas is allegedly trying to wipe Israel off the map with its “ideology of destruction,” but of course Hamas has no military ability to do this, whereas Israel does indeed have the power to wipe Gaza off the map. So where does Biden see the future heading? Consider this passage:

There must be no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, and no reduction in territory. And after this war is over, the voices of Palestinian people and their aspirations must be at the center of post-crisis governance in Gaza.

As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution.

He may as well wish for puppies and unicorns for everyone. Israel doesn’t want a two-state solution with a thriving Palestinian state. Netanyahu’s goal, to repeat myself, is clear: Gaza absorbed into Israel, with Palestinians displaced in another Nakba, along with the West Bank slowly absorbed into Israel as illegal Jewish settlements are extended.

This is, essentially, what Thucydides meant when he said: the strong do what they will; the weak suffer what they must.

What Biden’s op-ed was really about was justifying his $105 billion package in giveaways, mainly for Ukraine and Israel, with more than half that money flowing to U.S. weapons makers, the merchants of death or, as Biden calls them, job creators. In short, Biden celebrates the creation of a few jobs in America in the name of killing tens of thousands of Russians and Palestinians with American-made weaponry paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

Biden calls that “democracy” in action, the work of the world’s “essential nation” in contrast to the “murderous nihilism” of Hamas.

“Murderous nihilism”? Well, as we used to say as kids, it takes one to know one.

Speaking of murderous nihilism …

When Collateral Damage Is the Strategy

W.J. Astore

Buildings destroyed, civilians killed, millions made refugees: mission accomplished

In Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, so-called collateral damage (a terrifying euphemism) isn’t a regrettable cost of destroying Hamas. It’s the very strategy and goal of Israel’s response.

Israel* has already killed five thousand Palestinian children, but that’s spun as the regrettable price of destroying Hamas. More than 11,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed already, and I’ve seen reports of 46 journalists and 190 doctors and nurses among the dead. Babies are dying in hospitals due to Israeli attacks on the same and disruptions in power and medical supplies.

International law doesn’t seem to matter. What matters to Israel is expelling the Palestinians; to paraphrase what Tacitus once said of the Romans, Israel is creating a wasteland of rubble in Gaza and calling it “peace.”

They create a wasteland of rubble and call it “peace”

Israel’s goal is simple: the creation of new facts on the ground. Gaza is being rendered uninhabitable for Palestinians even as Hamas is being hunted down and decimated.

Israel recognizes Hamas is both an idea and the people who represent that idea; far easier it is to kill people than the idea, but if you can’t kill the idea, at least kill Hamas members and push Palestinians out of Gaza, mainly by bombing, blockade, and further invasion.

The end game is a land grab. Israel wants to annex Gaza after it’s made Palestinian-free. Palestinians will be pushed into the Sinai Peninsula or elsewhere. Collateral damage doesn’t matter because it’s inseparable from the strategy. In some sense, it is the strategy.

Since the US government has defined no “red lines” for Israel while promising a $14 billion gift in deadly arms, I’m not surprised Israel’s government assumes it can do whatever it wants. After all, President Biden has pledged his total and unconditional support to the right-wing rulers of Israel.

6000 bombs in six days. That was the initial sign that Israel had far more ambitious goals in sight than neutralizing Hamas. Gaza may yet cease to exist, its territory absorbed into Israel, the Palestinians forced out into tent cities or worse. With unconditional US support, Israel may well prevail in this ethnic cleansing, but at immense cost not only to Palestinians but to Jews as well.

*I realize many brave Israelis have resisted and condemned the actions of their right-wing government. I wish to acknowledge their clarity of purpose and moral courage.

When Is a Stalemate Not a Stalemate?

W.J. Astore

When Zelensky Says So

The Russia-Ukraine War is stalemated. Even Ukraine’s top commander concedes this point, as the New York Times reported here:

World

Ukraine’s Top Commander Says War Has Hit a ‘Stalemate’

Ukraine’s Top Commander Says War Has Hit a ‘Stalemate’

By Constant Méheut and Andrew E. Kramer

In a candid assessment, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said no “beautiful breakthrough” was imminent and that breaking the deadlock could require advances in technological warfare.

*************

(As an aside, I should note that back in July we saw articles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal using that dreaded word, “stalemate,” as I wrote about here:) 

The Russia-Ukraine War and the Management of Expectations

BILL ASTORE

JUL 25

The Russia-Ukraine War and the Management of Expectations

It can’t be coincidence. In the past few days, I’ve seen articles at mainstream media outlets like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal that the much-hyped and much-delayed Ukrainian “spring” counteroffensive has stalled, and at high cost to Ukrainian troops. Here’s a quick online headline from the NYT on Monday:

Read full story

Nice to know Ukrainian officials are finally being “candid.” Yet Zelensky is having none of it. In my CNN feed this morning, I saw this response from Ukraine’s leader: “People are tired. Everyone is tired … But this is not a stalemate.”

Truth is that Russia-Ukraine War will enter its third year in February of next year, even as the U.S. government has provided more than $130 billion in weaponry and other forms of aid to a Ukrainian government that’s known for its corruption. Meanwhile, the Biden administration wants to send another $60 billion in weaponry and aid to Ukraine. Many Republicans, notably new House Speaker Mike Johnson, are on record as being against scores of billions to perpetuate a stalemated war, though their motivation seems less “America first” than “Biden sucks.”

Things are so bad with the war that I now see articles at NBC News arguing for diplomacy! When NBC News, a reliable mouthpiece for Neo-con Democrats, suggests negotiations and the possibility of Ukraine making territorial concessions to end its war with Russia, you know the situation on the ground in Ukraine is likely worse than we’re being told.

Interestingly, this photo of a grim Zelensky accompanied the NBC article. No more hero-worship from the mainstream media? (Timothy Clary, AFP-Getty Images)

The U.S. government, obviously distracted by the crisis in Gaza and the potential for a much wider war in the Middle East, may be near the point of cutting its losses in Ukraine, though obviously the military-industry-congressional complex (MICC) wants to keep sending weaponry until the final bullet and cluster munition is fired. After which Ukraine will have to “rebuild” its military, so you can count on more military “aid” going to Kyiv.

Yet, for the MICC there are bigger fish to fry now. Republicans in particular are obsessed with China. Democrats and Republicans are obsessed with Israel. Ukraine has become something of a distraction. Sure, you may continue to fly blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags, but it’s time to back Israel unconditionally while threatening Iran with the full might of the U.S. military. Looming in the background is the alleged threat of “near-peer” competitor, China. After all, you can’t justify a massive U.S. war budget that’s approaching $900 billion with a stalemated war in Ukraine.

If nothing else, perhaps the U.S. warmonger obsession with empowering Israel and encircling China may provide an opportunity for diplomacy between Ukraine and Russia. With Ukraine apparently no longer enjoying a blank check of support (that’s now reserved for Israel), a grim-faced Zelensky may come to conclude that jaw-jaw is better than war-war.

Biden’s BS Bundling

W.J. Astore

Why Not Add Medicare for All or Aid for the Unhoused?

President Biden’s “aid”—or, to be honest, weapons packages—for Ukraine and Israel also bundles together other weapons wish lists, or trigger treats, for Taiwan and border security. Here’s a quick summary, courtesy of Heather Cox Richardson:

Today [Friday] the administration asked Congress for a little over $105 billion in funding for national security. The package would devote $61.4 billion to support Ukraine (some of it to replenish U.S. stockpiles after sending weapons to Ukraine); $14.3 billion to Israel for air and missile defense systems; $9.15 billion for humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Gaza, and other places; $7.4 billion for initiatives in the Indo-Pacific; and $14 billion for more agents at the southwestern border, new machines to detect fentanyl, and more courts to process asylum cases. 

It’s more than absurd to call these weapons exports “funding for national security.” The United States is not made more secure by funding permanent war in Ukraine or genocide in Gaza; quite the reverse, actually.

Scenes of destruction in Gaza sure make me proud to be an American. Let’s bundle more bombs and missiles for Israel.

Of course, the Biden administration knows there are elements in Congress who are against scores of billions for more war in Ukraine, hence its decision to bundle it with aid to Israel, Taiwan, and border security. It’s a cynical exercise to bundle all these packages together and to demand that Congress vote “yea” or “nay” on the entire bill.

Revealingly, polls show that slightly more than half of Americans are against more weapons shipments to Ukraine and Israel, despite all the propaganda about how killing Russians and Palestinians is vital to U.S. national security. What Americans are in favor of is humanitarian aid, the comfort of warm blankets rather than warm guns. Americans have a lot more sense and compassion than their government.

Speaking of the wonders of bundling, if Congress is so eager to send aid to Israel or perhaps to beef up Taiwan (those “Indo-Pacific initiatives”), let’s bundle a few more proposals into this bill.

How about a $15 or $18 federal minimum wage? Student loan debt forgiveness? A public option for health care or even medicare for all? How about humanitarian aid for America’s unhoused, the people living in tent cities?

Sorry, I don’t believe my “national security” is enhanced by more weapons for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, or even at America’s border with Mexico. Bundling all these weapons packages together, to the tune of $105 billion plus, isn’t just cynical. It’s total bullshit. BS, to be technical.

It makes me almost glad Republicans can’t elect a speaker because you just know most in Congress are eager to enable more killing overseas—in the cause of national security, naturally.

We’re making America a greater democracy one major weapons shipment at a time. Bundling them together is truly the sign of the “indispensable” nation.

Biden’s Trigger Treats for Ukraine and Israel

W.J. Astore

The Exceptional Nation Promises More Bullets, Bombs, Guns, and Missiles

In an address to the nation from the Oval Office last night, President Biden promised more trigger treats* for Ukraine and Israel: at least $60 billion for Ukraine and at least $10 billion for Israel in an “aid” package that may reach $100 billion.

President Biden urges Americans to send more weaponry overseas so America’s allies can kill more evildoers. Trigger treats!

Biden repeated several tired cliches about America. That we’re the essential nation, the indispensable one, and also the arsenal of democracy. But maybe what we’re really truly “essential” for is guns and more guns, war and more war?

Biden assured us that sending scores of billions in weaponry was good for America: that those artillery shells and so on that shred Russian and Palestinian bodies are made right here in the USA. They’re job-creators, not body-manglers! Rejoice as America adds more jobs by providing more guns and ammo to Ukraine and Israel.

Biden, like so many in the Pentagon and the U.S. military, resorted to business-speak, explaining that this massive package of “aid” was an “investment” in national security that will pay Americans “dividends” down the road. Actually, all this weaponry will be bought the real American Way, with deficit spending, and the “dividends” will most certainly be more death and destruction and possibly even World War III.

Biden apparently sees only one course for both Ukraine and Israel: total military victory over their opponents. There was no mention of diplomacy, of ceasefires, of negotiation, of compromise. The only way out is through a massive number of dead, full stop.

Biden, who has a bad habit of pointing at the camera, and therefore America, for emphasis, did implore us not to give into hate in its various forms, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. Yet it’s not easy to square an anti-hate message with $100 billion in mostly military aid so that Israel and Ukraine can squash and kill all the evildoers in their midst.

Biden, in sum, had a very grim message for America, and therefore for the world, one that embraced war and more killing as “essential” and “indispensable” because that’s the only course one can take when confronted by “pure, unadulterated evil.” And, anyway, war creates good-paying jobs in America. Trigger treats for all!

*I took the idea of “trigger treats” from a local gun shop that is displaying a sign for Halloween that reads “No tricks just trigger treats.”

Can We Agree on a Few Basics?

W.J. Astore

Sides in War Are Not “Teams”

1. Killing civilians and especially children is wrong.

2. Cutting off water, food, electricity, and fuel to millions of vulnerable people is wrong.

3. Forced mass evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people in preparation for a destructive invasion is wrong.

4. Dropping thousands of bombs and killing thousands of innocents is wrong. So is launching hundreds of unguided rockets and killing scores of innocents. 

5. Holding hostages and threatening to slay them is wrong.

Whether Hamas or Israel are doing these things, they are wrong.  Putting an end to such wrongs through a ceasefire is right.  Certainly, it’s less wrong.

In going to Israel and embracing Netanyahu, President Biden is obviously choosing one side, that of Israel, and empowering it to do whatever it wants in Gaza. Interestingly, Biden claimed that yesterday’s destruction of a hospital in Gaza was done in his words by the “other team,” meaning Hamas.

The terminology here is striking. Israel and Hamas are not sports “teams” in which we choose to root for one side against the other. Israelis and Palestinians are people equally deserving of human dignity and human rights.

I’ve written about the invasion (so to speak) of war terms into sports and vice-versa. Biden’s dismissal of Hamas as the “other team” that’s allegedly responsible for the hospital’s destruction and the deaths of hundreds of innocents trivializes a deep human tragedy.

Are we ever going to move beyond this “team” mentality where we root for the total victory of one “team” over another?

What, Exactly, Is “Repugnant” About Efforts to Stop Mass Killing?

W.J. Astore

The Biden Administration Embraces War and Israel

Remarkably, the press secretary of the Biden administration stated that calls for deescalation of conflict in Gaza, calls for restraint, calls for a ceasefire, are “disgraceful” and “repugnant.” There are not two sides to the conflict, the press secretary said. There’s only the Israeli side of righteousness. And Israel must be given a blank check, as well as plenty of U.S. weaponry, to strike back. And so Israel has, dropping 6000 bombs in six days. Obviously, Israel had a prepared list of targets; you don’t drop one thousand bombs a day on Gaza in “precision” strikes without being long prepared to do so.

Sure looks “precise” to me. Jabalia, Gaza Strip, 10/11/23 (Hatem Moussa/AP) 

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said he had seen photos of Hamas attackers beheading Israeli babies. No such photos exist. Indeed, the initial claim of Hamas beheading babies was false, a frontline rumor that was debunked by the reporter who put it out there.

By recklessly repeating an unsubstantiated battlefield rumor of heinous atrocities and inventing “photos” to support it, President Biden demonstrated his complete lack of fitness to serve as president.

Think about it. In what world is it acceptable for America’s president to claim he’d seen actual photos of beheadings of babies when no such photos exist? How could the president be so recklessly confused, assuming it was simply confusion?

As far as I know, the only candidate for the presidency in 2024 who’s acquitted himself with dignity is Cornel West. West actually accepts that Palestinian babies and children are just as precious and worthy of life as their Israeli counterparts. Every other “name” candidate, e.g. Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as well as all the Republicans, are at pains to support Israel without reservation or qualification.

Indeed, far more debate is allowed in Israel about the actions of the government there than is allowed in the U.S. mainstream media and in Congress. Congress is far more obedient to Netanyahu than the Knesset. Perhaps he should be nominated as the new House Speaker? He’d win in a landslide.

Of course, I deplore the Hamas attacks and the deaths of innocent Israelis, just as I deplore the deaths of innocent Palestinians caught in the reprisal bombings. It’s horrible when innocent people die. Isn’t this how any normal and sane human being would feel? Shouldn’t we all unite in calling for a ceasefire, an end to the killing, and some kind of way forward that doesn’t end in mass death and the total destruction of Gaza?

What is so “repugnant” about that?

For the Children!

W.J. Astore

The Stunning Banality of Democratic Messaging for 2024

It’s not often I get a personal letter signed by former President Barack Obama. It came in yesterday’s mail, and of course it was a fundraising letter for the DNC and the Biden campaign for 2024. Obama is selling Joe Biden as “delivering a better future for our children and grandchildren,” but how the future will be better because of Biden is left unspecified.

Biden, I’m told, is for freedom and opportunity. He wants “a brighter, more inclusive, more hopeful future,” whereas the Republicans are “extreme” and want to give “even more tax breaks for billionaires” along with banning more books and attacking “our fundamental rights.”

Well, obviously the Democrats are against Republicans and for freedom, our children, and I suppose puppies and rainbows as well. And Biden, according to Obama, “feels the struggles of American families in his bones.” No wonder Biden looks so old and moves so slowly!

Seriously, nothing in the letter tells me how Biden is going to help those struggling American families. There’s not a word about raising the federal minimum wage, about single-payer health care, about student loan debt relief, about helping the unhoused, and so on. Remember LBJ’s ambitious “War on poverty” in the 1960s? Forget about anything like that. Just vote for Joe, “who truly knows how to get things done in Washington.” Really?

If American families are struggling, as they are, shouldn’t Biden be working his tail off to get them the relief they need? There’s no help in vapid phrases like Biden “carries your dreams with him wherever he goes.” No wonder he’s muddled and confused at times: he’s carrying all our conflicting dreams with him in his head.

I’m not sure the photo postcard included with this fundraising plea sends the message the DNC wanted to send. It shows Obama and Biden yukking it up. What about those suffering families, Barack and Joe?

Vote for Biden Because Trump

W.J. Astore

And don’t ask questions or demand action

At the presidential level, the U.S. political scene is grim. Donald Trump is the likely Republican candidate. No other Republican approaches him in terms of popularity. Yes, he’s been indicted four times, complete with a mug shot, but these indictments aren’t enough to derail his campaign. If anything, they may make Trump look like more of a populist gangster/rebel, instead of the billionaire tool that he is.

The mug shot seen ‘round the world

The Democrats are going all-in on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but there’s no platform of substance they’re selling. The basic message is vote Biden because Trump. In a fundraising letter I received from the DNC, the message was that Republicans are too dangerous, too extreme, and otherwise beyond the pale. So I was urged to give money to the DNC so that Joe and Kamala can “finish the job.” Which job they’re supposed to finish was left unspecified, though there were glittering generalities about freedom, safeguarding abortion rights, and the like.

Interestingly, Democrats continue to argue that any third-party candidate, and especially Cornel West of the Green Party, is a spoiler for the Democrats. The idea that more candidates might spoil Republican chances as well isn’t addressed. This tells us something about the reality Democrats are facing. Support for Biden is shallow and mostly unenthusiastic. Hence the tacit recognition that additional candidates will hurt Biden’s chances more so than Trump’s, whose supporters are more keen on their guy.

Maybe, just maybe, the Democrats should recognize this problem and run a new candidate that can garner stronger and more enthusiastic support at the polls? Nah, that’s crazy talk. Let’s go with Joe and see what happens. And if he loses, you can always blame the voters for voting for West or some other third-party candidate.

Honestly, the DNC would rather lose with Biden than win with a more progressive and charismatic candidate. This is because the DNC represents the corporate capture of the Democratic Party. To win with a truly progressive candidate is a loss for the party as it’s constituted today. To lose with Biden is a win in the sense they can fundraise off “resisting” Trump. The DNC goal is that nothing shall fundamentally change in the way they do business, meaning that Biden is the most “leftist” and “progressive” candidate Democrats are ever likely to see. (Biden, of course, is a pro-war, pro-business, pro-banker, pro-fossil fuels, pro-prison, pro-status quo president. In your heart, you know he’s right.)

What is to be done? As I’ve said before, I know what I’m going to get with Trump. I know what I’m going to get with Biden. And I know that’s not what I want. So count me among the “spoilers.”