The fact that both Dick and Liz Cheney have endorsed Harris is not a good sign. They are incorrigible warmongers and authoritarians themselves. But they want *efficient* militarism, not bumbling personal corruption and blowhad posturing, which is about all Trump is capable of.
If Harris wanted to distance herself from them, she could adapt the line Ronald Reagan used to (pretend to) distance himself from the far-right John Birch Society, along the lines of: if they are endorsing me, it means that they are endorsing my policies, not that I'm adopting theirs. But she won't do that. At least I haven't noticed her emphasizing "bipartisanship," aka, doing what Republicans want.
To adapt another Reagan phrase ("trust but verify"), my view on Harris' foreign policy is hope-but-verify. But the US will keep blundering into military conflicts unless her administration can inject a new dose of pragmatism into foreign policy. That's most important with nuclear weapons proliferation. But the support of Israel's chronic war policies is a real detriment to the US - and funding an actual genocide is intolerable. Also, if the US really believes its own official policy that China is the biggest strategic threat, then it has to make a big change from getting caught in endless wars in the Middle East and get the Ukraine conflict settled rather dragging it out indefinitely. I really hope Harris and her team do take a "next generation" approach to foreign policy and stop trying to replay either the Cold War or the post-1989 world. But it will take real public pressure to move her in that direction.
Excellent again Punditman! While Harris clearly won the debate, they both lied outrageously. Imagine Harris saying that no American soldiers are at war right now. Of course the Blob's (or Deep State's) preference is for proxy wars like the one that's killed more than 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers but even that one has killed many American mercenaries and the strike against electronic warfare trainers and trainees in Poltava killed several NATO Swedes, Poles and at least one American in addition to many Ukrainians. Thanks for pointing out the Hannibal Directive which means the Zionists killed many Israelis themselves and the war didn't begin on Oct. 7th but at least 75 years ago with the first Nakba. You could also have emphasized that the 2014 coup and ensuing civil in Eastern Ukraine meant that Russia's invasion in Feb. 2022 did not start that war. Is Putin a war criminal for removing as many as 16,000 children from the Donbas war zone to cultural camps inside Russia with their parents permission? I don't think so, nor does ICC signatory Mongolia which declined to arrest Putin when he was there last week. I agree with most everything else you've said. See https://thegrayzone.com/2023/03/31/iccs-putin-arrest-state-dept-report/
Clear-eyed as always, Punditman. It's discouraging how anything more than a cursory glance at the illusion of choice we're presented with in an election brings into focus the monolithic sameness that runs the show. Even a race like this one, in which the reality show contestants are supposed to be wildly different (threat to democracy vs. generational change) shows us that there's not a lot of daylight here.
And let's not fool ourselves that this is just a function of a two-party system (down there in the US) or first-past-the-post in the Westminster countries. If we equate democracy with elections, we truly are limiting ourselves to a choice between a hot dog and a sausage (and now veggie dogs!)
At his excellent "Goads and Prods" stack, Slavoj Zizek makes the excellent point that we don't really want choice anyway, we want a range of alternatives, but we also want to be told what to do.
For all their racist blather and witless adherence to snake oil salesmen who pretend to be radical truthtellers, the energy from the MAGA crowd (and convoy adherents in Canada) is admirable if misguided. If we all were that devoted, the bland candidates we see before us today wouldn't even be able to make themselves heard. And let's not forget, they're right to be angry. We should all be angry.
Well written Wayne.... Life is becoming more surreal all the time, in a Charles Lutwidge Dodgson way but with bad zeitgeist.
Thanks David. It's bizarro world for sure. Hey, I just noticed Punditman shares a birthday with Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll.
The fact that both Dick and Liz Cheney have endorsed Harris is not a good sign. They are incorrigible warmongers and authoritarians themselves. But they want *efficient* militarism, not bumbling personal corruption and blowhad posturing, which is about all Trump is capable of.
If Harris wanted to distance herself from them, she could adapt the line Ronald Reagan used to (pretend to) distance himself from the far-right John Birch Society, along the lines of: if they are endorsing me, it means that they are endorsing my policies, not that I'm adopting theirs. But she won't do that. At least I haven't noticed her emphasizing "bipartisanship," aka, doing what Republicans want.
To adapt another Reagan phrase ("trust but verify"), my view on Harris' foreign policy is hope-but-verify. But the US will keep blundering into military conflicts unless her administration can inject a new dose of pragmatism into foreign policy. That's most important with nuclear weapons proliferation. But the support of Israel's chronic war policies is a real detriment to the US - and funding an actual genocide is intolerable. Also, if the US really believes its own official policy that China is the biggest strategic threat, then it has to make a big change from getting caught in endless wars in the Middle East and get the Ukraine conflict settled rather dragging it out indefinitely. I really hope Harris and her team do take a "next generation" approach to foreign policy and stop trying to replay either the Cold War or the post-1989 world. But it will take real public pressure to move her in that direction.
Excellent again Punditman! While Harris clearly won the debate, they both lied outrageously. Imagine Harris saying that no American soldiers are at war right now. Of course the Blob's (or Deep State's) preference is for proxy wars like the one that's killed more than 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers but even that one has killed many American mercenaries and the strike against electronic warfare trainers and trainees in Poltava killed several NATO Swedes, Poles and at least one American in addition to many Ukrainians. Thanks for pointing out the Hannibal Directive which means the Zionists killed many Israelis themselves and the war didn't begin on Oct. 7th but at least 75 years ago with the first Nakba. You could also have emphasized that the 2014 coup and ensuing civil in Eastern Ukraine meant that Russia's invasion in Feb. 2022 did not start that war. Is Putin a war criminal for removing as many as 16,000 children from the Donbas war zone to cultural camps inside Russia with their parents permission? I don't think so, nor does ICC signatory Mongolia which declined to arrest Putin when he was there last week. I agree with most everything else you've said. See https://thegrayzone.com/2023/03/31/iccs-putin-arrest-state-dept-report/
Clear-eyed as always, Punditman. It's discouraging how anything more than a cursory glance at the illusion of choice we're presented with in an election brings into focus the monolithic sameness that runs the show. Even a race like this one, in which the reality show contestants are supposed to be wildly different (threat to democracy vs. generational change) shows us that there's not a lot of daylight here.
And let's not fool ourselves that this is just a function of a two-party system (down there in the US) or first-past-the-post in the Westminster countries. If we equate democracy with elections, we truly are limiting ourselves to a choice between a hot dog and a sausage (and now veggie dogs!)
At his excellent "Goads and Prods" stack, Slavoj Zizek makes the excellent point that we don't really want choice anyway, we want a range of alternatives, but we also want to be told what to do.
For all their racist blather and witless adherence to snake oil salesmen who pretend to be radical truthtellers, the energy from the MAGA crowd (and convoy adherents in Canada) is admirable if misguided. If we all were that devoted, the bland candidates we see before us today wouldn't even be able to make themselves heard. And let's not forget, they're right to be angry. We should all be angry.