The Return of Colonial Empire

It is indisputable at this point that we are losing our democracy.  That includes whatever you want to qualify it with - constitutional republic, representative democracy, or just plain old reliance on a system of checks and balances.

Much of it has disappeared.  What is left is quickly receding.

Many of us have used different terms to describe what is replacing it - authoritarianism, fascism, oligarchy, dictatorship. All are about the same thing - the consolidation of power into one person, and the wealthy, entrenched interests behind him.

What we may be less familiar with is how they're ushering in a new era of Colonial Empire. 

It's very accurate to say that developed nations have always sought to exploit the resources of the less developed world.  It often involves corporate interest, both American and multinational conglomerates.

But what is now happening is taking it to a new level. A raw, ugly level that barely hides its true purpose.  The lust to control other nations' resources is no longer disguised.  There is little pretense that is for the purpose of freedom or democracy.  It is for acquiring resources.  And it is not for the benefit of mankind, or even a nation.  It is to enrich the greed and control of a small number of super-wealthy individuals.

The idea that we want to go into Venezuela to end drug trafficking or free the populace would be laughable if it weren't so deadly and dangerous.

Trump and friends want to control Venezuelan oil, the largest reserve on the planet.  They also want more of their rare-earth minerals and elements that tech bros lust after. They don't care whether the daily lives of Venezuelans are improved - they would just as soon they were left impoverished and controllable. Because, yes, my friends, there is more to exploit than the earth's resources.  They are also people, people who can do the dirty work necessary at as little as you can get away with paying them.

In the US, under the pretense of cracking down on undocumented workers, the idea is to actually imprison them (and others) and then reintroduce them into society as prison labor. They know Americans aren't doing fieldwork or other menial, physically intense labor, especially at the pay rates the wealthy want to pay them.  

Another part of the New Colonial Empire is the perversion of the Monroe Doctrine - the US has the right to control and dominate the Western Hemisphere.  That's what all the imperial mutterings mean about South America, Central America, Mexico, Canada, and Greenland mean.  For many rational and decent Americans, these rantings seem insane.  But we dismiss them at our peril.

We are no longer on the side of good and democracy.  We are on the side of authoritarian control and exploitation.

Sorry, MAGA! Everything You Thought Was Wrong

 

You thought you were electing Donald Trump President of the United States.

Surprise!

Instead, you got a foreign-born billionaire, one whose very citizenship is questionable, controlling what gets funded and what doesn't, using a small squad of barely adult hackers to break into secure systems and pillage all our data. And you were worried about unelected bureaucrats? HA!

Nothing he is doing is to combat fraud and abuse. Like  Trump, all Musk is doing is petty grievances. FAA had fined Space X for safety violations! FIRE HIM! Fire all those in aviation safety!  Offer buyouts to stressed, overworked air traffic controllers. If planes collide and go down, who cares.

USAID dared to investigate some of his StarLink sales to Russia?  Destroy their agency!  If people in other countries starve because of it, or farmers lose some $2 billion in sales, so what?  LET THEM STARVE!

You thought Trump was going to root out corruption.

In addition to the actions of President Musk, Trump has eliminated all the inspector generals who monitor such things, leaving us more open to government corruption.  He's fired other government-efficiency people. He is determined to weed out people from the Federal government not to save money but to replace them with people loyal to him over the Constitution.

Private corruption will soar now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, our only protection against bank and corporate overcharges, has been dismantled and kneecapped. Executive orders have eliminated many climate change regulations and others designed to protect us from corporate greed.  

Think that's a good thing?  You may be less enthused when you get tainted meat, when you find your workplace unsafe (they want to eliminate OSHA), when you find there is an outbreak you can't get information about because the CDC and NIH have been censored and we have left the WHO, when you no longer get weather notification because the National Weather Service and NOAA have been destroyed.

You thought he would mass deport all those undocumented aliens you rail against.

So far, even with all the noise and thunder, the rate of actual deportations is not much different from what it was under Biden.

But have no fear!  He still may pull ahead.  Of course, the economic consequences of this will be catastrophic.  But do not despair!  Those jobs may be replaced by PRISON LABOR.  Some may come from the undocumented held in concentration camps.

Isn't that a pretty picture for the United States?

You thought he was going to lower prices, specifically mentioning eggs and gas.

Psych!

Fooled you, didn't he?

You can't entirely blame the President.  Economic events are not always under their control.   I mean,  you sure cut Biden some slack for the Pandemic-caused global inflation that he got under control quicker than virtually every other country on Earth, didn't you?  No, things weren't perfect. However, the fact remains that Biden generated the best economy in decades.

Trump promised he would lower prices from day one.  When he was elected, he immediately switched course and said that would be hard for him to do.

Of course, he may still impose more tariffs, but only those who have never studied economic history would believe that this is a good thing.

You thought he was going to get rid of DEI and we would return to a merit-based system.

Yeah, he's succeeded in dismantling DEI (including a lot of cooperation from a pathetically weak business community), but he is galloping as far away from merit-based as you can get.  Think Not?  Look at the qualifications of his cabinet nominees compared to those in the past. 

This cartoon sums up best what DEI is really all about -

DEI means Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Anti-DEI means Discrimination, Exclusion, and Intolerance.

I know what side I'm on.  How about you?

You thought he would end our endless wars and bring our troops home. No more foreign adventures for us!

This may be the thing you were most wrong about.

One of the ways we knew Hitler was such a danger was when he wanted to invade and annex his neighbors. Whether it was an excuse or not, he tried to bring any nation with any German population back into the fold of the Germanic Empire.  Putin wants to do something similar to restore the Soviet Union.

What Trump wants to do is worse. He makes no pretense of wanting to reunite with countries that have roots in us. He doesn't want to improve the lives of those places' citizens, and he doesn't even really care about the benefits to the American people.

He wants to exploit and consume their resources, and he wants himself and his billionaire buddies to profit big time.

He wants the Panama Canal back so he can control the shipping lane and profit from the traffic that passes through it.

He wants Greenland and Canada because he knows GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL, and underneath the ice, tons of natural resources, fuels, and rare earth minerals await.

He wants Gaza because he wants to turn it into a real estate development, Trump Hotels, and a place for the ultra-rich to party.  The Palestinians?  He doesn't give one whit about them as long as they are GONE.

Even in Ukraine, he's dangling the carrot of getting the rights to the country's rare earth minerals to provide them any aid whatsoever.

I have no qualms about my next statement - everything he does is monstrous.  Everything he is doing is unrepentantly evil. Many will die. Many will suffer.

Yes, MAGA. You've been had. Everything you thought was wrong.

And we will suffer for many years because of it.  

The least you can do is admit your error and join us in resisting it.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

Strait's State of the Union: Saturday Political Soap Box 283

 President Biden's State of the Union address was solid.  It might not have been the highest state of rhetoric, one for the ages, but it was mega-light years ahead of the most recent former occupant.

He said little I disagree with.  He was far more bipartisan than I would have been.

Without the high flown rhetoric, here is where I see as the State of the Union:

We're in trouble, but not as far off course as we could have been.

1)  The number one concern of our times continues to be...global warming.

We are unable to pass even the most basic legislation to reverse course. This is mostly symbolized by the resistance of Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, but he is really just the frontman for corporate and wealthy interests who are more concerned about the NOW instead of tomorrow.

We also are faced with the likelihood that even mild executive actions will be reversed by one the most reactionarily conservative Supreme Courts in American History.

The clock is ticking.  It is already too late to stop.  We can only mitigate.  Perhaps Russian belligerence will finally move us to free us of our dependence on fossil fuels.

But I'm guessing it won't. 

I applaud Biden's efforts.  But without Congressional and judicial support, there may be little that can be done.

2) The conflict between autocracy and democracy is now front and center.

I don't want having to stand down Putin to be the primary focus of global reality.  But we don't always get to choose.  Our grandparents/great-grandparents certainly didn't want to be focused on Hitler.  But they didn't have any choice, and they rose to the occasion.

Now, we are being called to do the same.  For four years we had a President who worshipped at the feet of autocrats. One who dismissed NATO and withheld $391 million dollars worth of military aid to Ukraine as attempted blackmail.

We must rejoin the ranks of nations who believe in democracy.  We must turn our backs on those who would encourage coups and insurrections, those who refuse to accept the results of elections out of petty narcissism and fear of retribution for their crimes.

It is a dangerous action that the Russians have taken, and we must be cautious not to fire up World War 3.  But we need to do everything we can to support the Ukranian people -  diplomacy, supplies (humanitarian and military), shared intelligence, sanctions, sacrifice.  

I have a special message for Republicans and Trumpists who want to complain about gas prices right now - SHUT UP.  Now is not the time or place.  We must leave no economic sanction unturned, and if that means patriotically handling higher gas prices - SO BE IT.

3) The macro-economy is hitting gangbusters!

The greatest increase in jobs under any President, super-charged GDP growth, virtual full unemployment - it's all about as good as it gets. If this was under a Republican administration, we'd hear about it 24/7 blasted from the rooftops.

Yes, there are people falling through the cracks.  Child care, college expense, health care, inflation - all remain obstacles to a secure middle class life.  I insist that passing the proposed human infrastructure bill would go a long way to solving these problems - Joe Manchin, are you listening?

I'm hitting some time and length limits, so I will do my best to continue this I the near future.

God bless the Ukranian people.  I pray for a peaceful and democratic solution.

T. M. Strait

sorry for any uncorected grammar flaws.  Grammarly is having trouble functioning this morning.

Our Democratic Imperative

 

President Biden gave his first State of the Union address last night.

Was it a perfect speech? No. Most speeches are rarely completely perfect. We remember significant lines that ring with us forever ("Ask not what your country can do for you," "I have a dream," "Not red states or blue states, but the United States of America"). Still, we don't remember that even those speeches may have had less memorable moments, maybe even mistakes.

Biden's speech was a poignant calling for the restoration and primacy of democracy. From his opening, supporting a democratic Ukraine valiantly fighting against the autocratic despot, Vladimir Putin, and to the end with a call for a Unity Agenda.

The resistance of the Ukrainian people has been inspiring and brave. Not since Churchill have we seen a political leader as defiant and strong as President Zelenskyy.  

The courage of the Ukrainian people is both ennobling and scary. Ennobling to see a people stand so firm against an invading tyranny, and scary because we all know what's coming - a 40-mile ling convoy coming to obliterate their capital city, Kyiv. Many of these brave souls will lose their lives, and it's breaking my heart.

President Biden emphasized his administration's many accomplishments, including unprecedented job growth, a rapidly rising GDP, infrastructure improvements underway at last, and much more.

President Biden repeated the things he wants to pass and has not been able to do so. I object to nothing he brought up, and I daresay once you remove the political blinders, do most of the American people. Despite his frustration at being blocked by two Democratic Senators, I applaud that he is not surrendering and will continue to fight. It is so easy to fold in politics if you meet resistance like Clinton did when he couldn't reform health care.

President Biden presented a unity agenda, four things he thought could pass with bipartisan support. Again, they are things a majority of us support, even Republicans.

I know where Biden's instincts are. Despite their unprincipled opposition, he thinks he can still garner Republican support. I love Biden. I think he is a good President, the leader we need at this perilous time.  

But he is wrong. Republicans will not support country over Trump. Yes, there are still a few reasonable Republicans left (Cheney, Kinzinger, Romney*), but the vast majority are still in thrall to two-time popular vote loser and twice-impeached narcissistic fraud, Donald J Trump.

The Trumpian core of the Republican Party is at heart an anti-democratic, authoritarian party. January 6th was just a symptom of their efforts to remove democratic choice from our system. The level of delusion in these people is startling and has been and will be discussed in other posts.

Thank you, President Biden, for being the source of reason, hope, and democratic fervor in these darkening times.

God bless you. God bless the troops. God bless the Ukrainian people.

T. M. Strait

*reasonable in supporting democracy and opposing Trump, not necessarily in supporting the Democratic legislation designed to help the American people. But that's ok. At least they're fighting in the marketplace of ideas, not in the cesspool of authoritarian wet dreams.

Mistakes Will Be Made: Saturday Political Soap Box 276

 When I voted for Biden to become President and the reign of Trump, I did not expect perfection.  I believed that Biden was a good man who would work hard for the American people.  I did not expect a flawless administration.  I did not expect everything to be puppy dogs and ponytails.  I did not expect him to fart rainbows and wave a magic wand that evaporates all our problems.

I did expect us to move away from the vile and contemptible Trump years, where every morning, I dreaded looking at the news for fear of what horrible thing had happened.  Day after day, his words and actions ate at the base of democracy and decency that is supposed to identify us as the greatest nation on Earth.  And no matter what he said or did, no matter how much his actions hurt them, I was surrounded by people who would not wake up to his madness.

I was hoping for a return to normalcy.  I prayed for the reestablishment of democratic norms and civil disagreements.  And that I believe Biden has delivered on.

Biden ended our 20-year fiasco in Afghanistan.  No one was ever going to "win" that conflict.  It was unwinnable.  The country is unconquerable, as others throughout history have found out. Even Trump wanted us out, even though he didn't have the stones or planning skills to actually do it.

President Biden held firm and completed the withdrawal.  Parts of it were not pretty.  Parts of it went wrong.  But overall, we evacuated more people out in as short of time as had ever been done before, well over 100,000. Yes, the Taliban took over more quickly than some anticipated, and there were some terrible visuals.  But we did get out.  We did end our military involvement.

Drone strikes have always been more inaccurate than portrayed in the media.  This has been true of whichever administration is using them.  Sometimes they work as they should.  Sometimes they go awry.  I don't like that.  You don't like that. 

Domestically, Biden has surprised me by being a bit more progressive than I thought he was.  The legislation that has passed, and what he has proposed are significant and needed changes and investments.  But he has also waffled on eliminating the filibuster, and whether reality or perception, he has let Joe Manchin take too much control of things.

I wish he would do more to reduce student loan debt.  I wish he would endorse Medicare For All. I would have hoped that Vice President Harris was given a more prominent role (although that may just be the usual ignoring that the media does of any Vice President).

The Delta Variant has caused havoc and death in America. But I am hard-pressed to blame the President for the immature and selfish actions of the unvaccinated (primarily led and cheered on by media and politicians of the far right).

Speaking of the far-right, it is deeply saddening that Trump may be out, but Trumpism is still alive, a disease still eating away at this country's soul.

Overall, though, I am grateful that we can argue over issues now instead of whether or not we will continue democracy or persecute those who we perceive as "the other."  

Yes, mistakes have been made.  And more mistakes will be made.  But at least now, they are the common flaws we see in all men of goodwill.

May we continue in that direction.

 

Be Careful What You Wish For: Saturday Political Soap Box 233

There is no doubt about it.

I wanted President Trump to be impeached.  And, yeah, I'm one of those who've felt he's been committing impeachable offenses since Day One.  Not everyone felt that way, particularly Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a good chunk of the Democratic House.  But the evidence of Ukranian extortion was so blatant, even Pelosi could not shunt it aside.

So, yes, I wanted our narcissistic, racist President to be impeached.

I also want him convicted and removed.  Furthermore, I want to see him perp-walked and imprisoned for his many crimes.

These parts of this are not likely to happen.

Or are they?

The big news last week is that John Bolton is now willing to testify in the Senate trial.

Granted, McConnell is reluctant to allow any such thing, but if four Republican Senators say they would like witnesses, particularly Bolton, he might not be able to stop it.  It takes a simple majority of 51 to set up/revise trial rules.

So, whether he gets to or not, Bolton wants to sing.

Why now?

Why?

John Bolton, former National Security Advisor (and other related roles in his career as the nation's leading war hawk), cheered the Trump decision to take out a prominent General of another sovereign state, one who is perceived to be the number two person in his country, just behind the Ayatollah.

Should not this make Bolton happy and supportive of Trump?

Well, the fuse is lit now.  He knows, better than the rest of us, that no matter how skittish Trump is for future actions, that the chain of events flowing from this is unstoppable.  We will spiral to a war with Iran, and for someone like Bolton, the sooner, the better.


I despise Trump, with every fiber of my being.  But the truth is, he is not in the same war hawk league as some of the people that have been around him.  Trump's foreign policy is chaos personified, but he is instinctively an isolationist, and a big 'greed is good' guy.  He looks at the quivering in the stock and oil markets and thinks, hey - maybe this destabilizes the economy and puts my re-election at risk.

Don't get me wrong.  Trump is a dangerous child who has no idea what kind of harm his destructive actions can lead to.  The shooting down of a Ukranian airliner is an indirect result of the instability he caused. And that will hardly be the end of it.

Now that the fuse is lit, it makes it more critical than ever that, in Bolton's view, we are guided through the fire properly.  He has seen up close, and personal how erratic and ignorant Trump is.

Who are the major figures behind the desire for a war with Iran?  Outside of Bolton, they include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Vice President Mike Pence (two Mikes! It's a shame that Bolton's first name isn't also Mike - that would make it a triumvirate of Mikes!  The name Micheal Bolton isn't taken, is it?).  Bolton has geopolitical neocon philosophy reasons for wanting it.  Pompeo and Pence?  It also has something to do with Christian Reich theology that, I am sorry, completely escapes me - I'll have to do more research.  Something to do with fulfilling biblical prophecy?

The bottom line is, it may be in the best interests of these three to replace the erratic Trump with the simple-minded but laser-focused Pence.

We may be witnessing a coup, a manipulation that will lead us further into war and the nightmare world of Christian dominionists and neocon war hawks.

I've understood for a long time that Pence is no prize.  But I thought he would at least be more restrained than Trump and would have trouble mounting an effective campaign to win outright in 2020.

But I may be wrong.  Pence may be more dangerous than Trump.  He would continue all of Trump's policies and lead us more surely into war.

This is a nightmare.

There is no good way out of it.

We may have to pray that the election results in November end and repudiate this insanity.

We have to win in November.  It won't be easy, but we have to.

Everything is at stake.

On the Dark Side of the Force: Saturday Political Soap Box 232

I started out right.  I promise.  I woke up, put on my positive pajamas, wished everyone a Happy New Year, posted positive things, and was ready for the hope of a shiny new decade.  Maybe this year would be the conclusion of the Trump nightmare (resignation, conviction, 25th Amendment, defeat in November), and perhaps we would start grappling with the issues that dog us (climate change, universal health care, income inequality, racism, the cost of college, the influence of big money in politics - just to name a few).

But by the third day of the year, all my optimism had fled.

One of the biggest stories of recent years, the vast wildfires and heatwave engulfing an entire continent, Australia, is barely a blip on our American radar.  How many more warnings do we need before we wake up to the devastation that global warming will cause AND IS CAUSING NOW?

I just finished the book On Fire: The Case for the Green New Deal by Naomi Klein.  It makes it clear what needs to be done, and that the time for half measures is over.  It will require a lot of coordination between countries and a complete overhaul of our economic system.  It will change the way we live - but not for the worst unless you think happiness only comes from excess consumption and swimming in waste and pollution.

Is there a way out?  Yes, at least to make it considerably less worse than our current course.  Will we take that way out?  Sadly, no. No, we will not.  There are too many wealthy and selfish interests pushing us the other way.  We have an administration that is not only not working to fight against global warming, they are galloping steadily in the opposite direction - they are gleefully making it worse.  And the United States is not the only problem.  The Australian Prime Minister is a climate denier, blithely fiddling while his nation burns.  The fascist President of Brazil is accelerating the burning of the Amazon rain forest, destroying the lungs of the planet.  And it is hard to tell new developing nations to slow down and be cautious when major industrial nations refuse to do the same.


This was quickly followed by the initial steps towards, if not World War III, at a minimum a bloody regional conflict across the Mideast.  President Trump, without authorization or consultation with Congress (not even informing Democratic leadership, which he is obligated to do), unleashed this hell.  Was General Soleimani a bad guy?  From our perspective,  yes, he was.  Will this stop Iranian aggression?  No, of course not.  It will do the opposite.  It will spark and intensify the flames of hatred.  They will retaliate, and then what will we do?  We will respond, but most likely not in kind - we will disproportionally atttack, with ever moe intensified violence, creating an uncontrollable spiral that will lead us all into madness.

You think this was okay?  We've killed, in the last 18 years or so, hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners, and not of all them have been hardened terrorists.  I daresay 90% or more have not been terrorists. How would you feel if they retaliated by a drone strike that took out our Vice President or the military head of the Joint Chief of Staffs?  You think we would go, "Oh, my!  We need to stop our military aggression and behave now!"  I DON"T THINK SO.

I doubt if Trump has thought through what this means.  He just followed a wag the dog instinct and thought this little incident would take impeachment off the front page, and give him a few days of positive headlines.  I'm not sure, as incredibly disgusting as Trump is, that he fully understands that this will lead to things he can't control.  Trump is disgusting and vile, but he also has the added bonus of being dangerously incompetent.


And then I see that Democratic moderates are trying to propel themselves forward by unfairly demonizing and savaging my SIGNATURE issue, true universal healthcare - Medicare For All.  I have to accept the reality that my favorite candidate, Elizabeth Warren, is fading in large part because of her stand on Medicare For All, a lot because she is being maligned by Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is rising in the polls because he is willing to sacrifice decent health care on the mantle of fear-mongering and embrace the spirit and support of the wine cave (please understand if Mayor Pete becomes the nominee, I will support him enthusiastically - every Democratic contender is light years ahead of Trump and any Republican).

The one bright spot is the resurgence of Bernie Sanders. I would prefer a female nominee, but there is no denying the strength and consistency of Bernie.  He outraised all others, including Mayor Wine Cave, by almost TEN MILLION DOLLARS ($34.5 vs. the next closest's $24.7 million).  And he did it from small donors, more total donors than has ever contributed to a campaign.

Back on the dark side of the force, the establishments are aligning against him, and no matter how popular, they will not allow him to be the nominee.

So, we're back in the dark again.  I'm scared, and I don't know how we're getting out of it.

Sometimes, I think we're just marking time until AOC is eligible to be President.

If we can hang in that long.

Post #2004 Monday Musing

Who's ready to party?

Ellie and Pixie are!

Their favorite kind of party?  Cheerios party!  Cheerios are thrown on the floor, and the dogs go to town celebrating.  To them, food is celebration.

Come to think of it, it kinda is for me too.

-------------------------

Speaking of celebration, I recently blew by a significant milestone - I now have over 2,000 posts on my blog.  If nothing else, an impressive display of endurance and persistence.  A decade of effort.  Ten years of hard work trying to make this blog a household name.  And if you narrow it to just the Strait household, I have succeeded. 

Traffic to the site has remained relatively steady at between 2,000 to 3,000 views a month.  I had hoped there would be at least an incremental rise over time, but you can't always get what you want, I guess.

There are a lot of interesting sub-numbers under that.  This is my 180th Monday Musing.  I have posted 221 Saturday Politval Soap Boxes.  I have hundreds of fiction pieces and even 115 fake poems.

Quantity over quality.  It's my middle name.

--------------------------------------

Football was in full roar this weekend, and it is remarkable our level of disinterest, even with our favorite teams winning.  I don't think we watched a single complete game. 

Michigan remains unbeaten, probably helped by the fact that they did not play this weekend.

---------------------------------------

The media and others seem to be discovering something that I thought we already knew - that Brett Kavanaugh is a lying pervert.  One of the more repulsive claims against him has proved out to be true - based on independent verification and research done by journalists for the New York Times.

Democrats and anyone with at least half a consciousness and functioning moral compass want him impeached.  Good luck with that.

Spoiler alert: Republicans and their evangelical allies already know that Kavanaugh is scum in a bucket.  THEY DON"T CARE.  They only care about dominating the Supreme Court for the next generation.  They don't care how they got there.

Thank you, Susan Collins.  Maine, please let her insensitive decision be her career-ender.

---------------------------------

So, the Saudis have been killing hundreds in Yemen, leaving tens of thousands on the verge of starvation, and the USA does not care?

But the Saudi Oil fields get attacked, and we are ready to go to war to defend the killer of Khashoggi?

Oil over people.  Oil over people.  Oil over people.

Is that our new mantra?

Until next time (Monday Musing #181),

T. M. Strait

Return to the Issues: Saturday Political Soap Box 211

Please forgive me.  It has been since April 27th that I have done a Saturday Political Soap Box, one of the longest gaps since I started doing these.  Saturdays have been very busy lately, what with one son marrying and another son graduating.  Less romantically, Saturday lawn work has come back too.

It may be just as well.  As usual for the last few years, most of it would have been about Trump and his massive dump on this country and its values.

Don't get me wrong.  He should be impeached, and his bad behavior needs to be continually called out.  But the noise around him is causing some real dangerous issues to be ignored.

Could we solve these issues if Trump wasn't President?  I don't know.  There's a lot of division and intolerance in play even without Trump.  But maybe they could get more attention beyond the bitter circus that Trump has created for himself.

Here are some issues that need to be focused on starting YESTERDAY:


1) Climate Change

Global warming is my preferred moniker.  Whatever you call it, the central concern is this - the Earth's average global temperature is rising.  Polar ice caps melt, sea levels rise, agriculture is jeopardized, swaths of the planet are becoming unlivable.

Of all the problems before us, this is the most crucial.  We have already waffled to the point that damage is going to occur, even in the unlikely event that we were finally able to step up and do the drastic measures necessary.  Now, every day we delay makes things worse and worse. 

We all need to think about what we need to do, conservative and liberal alike.  If we allow this to remain a partisan issue, there will be no hope for mankind.

The best blueprint to move forward is the Green New Deal.  The best way for conservatives to handle it is to participate in shaping it rather than fighting it.


2) Nuclear Proliferation

The excellent HBO mini-series, Chernobyl, recently drove home the dangers of nuclear materials, even those in power plants.  We came close to a world-changing event of destruction, and one that still left parts of the Ukraine uninhabitable.

We are dancing on the head of a very slippery pin with nuclear power and weapons, and we have a President who has asked the Pentagon questions about why we haven't used nuclear weapons and why couldn't we use them? 

More and more countries are developing these weapons, and we seem to do very little to stop their growth.  Trump's North Korean friend, the one he has professed being in love with, is playing Trump like a fiddle, barreling ahead towards a nuclear future.  And somehow, Trump has come to believe that an Iran unchecked by an international treaty, is somehow less likely to build nuclear weapons.

The major lesson of the US invasion of Iraq (and additionally the toppling of Libya's Quaddafi) has been that the only way to protect yourself from the United States is to actually have weapons.

We also tend to ignore that one of the most likely exchanges of nuclear weapons is between Pakistan and India.  Flashpoints that could alter the planet are everywhere.

There is no magic solution.  Global connectivity and diplomacy are a bigger help than nationalistic movements, like America First, or religious extremism.

3)  The International Rise of Fascism

It's not just Trump.  The growth of nationalism and me firstism is rising around the world.  Trump gleefully supports dictators from all over while bad-mouthing remaining democracies.

The fear of the other is gripping the planet, and it's scaring the hell out of me.  From the brutal dictators in countries ranging from the Philippines to China,  to the calls for Brexit and the angry intolerance of immigration in Europe and other places, we seem to be galloping backward rather than forwards.

4) The Concentration of Wealth

Money is concentrating in fewer and fewer hands, and more and more of us are slipping in living standards.  It's challenging to balance the needs of almost 8 billion people, but we don't need to be doing as badly at it as we are now.

We don't need to have a model where a handful hold most of the world's wealth while billion starve, living on the edge of survival.

We need to have a better tax model.  We need better food distribution.  We need anti-trust laws.  We need to update our economic model.  And yes, we need to lower the birth rate, through birth control and education.  The more educated and empowered women are, the more stable a country is.

5) In the USA, Universal Health Care is Way Past Due

The coupling of health care to your job needs to be done away with.  Private health insurance and it's resultant profiteering and overhead needs to go to the way of the dinosaurs.  Thousands die each year because of the lack of basic health care.  Hundreds of thousands go medically bankrupt.

6)  More Jobs Will be Lost to Automation than Immigration

Is this good or bad?  I don't know.  But it's going to happen, and many will be thrown out of the jobs they're familiar with.  We'll need to redefine what works is, and how people define their self-worth.  It's going to be a big change, but developing an economy around dead business models, like coal and other fossil fuels, is not the answer.

--------

There are many other issues of urgency, including environmental destruction and contamination(beyond global warming issues), women's health issues, our crumbling infrastructure, college debt, large corporations controlling our media and internet, and many more.

But hey, that's what future Saturday Political Soap Boxes are for!

Yes, there will still be plenty of Soap Boxes focused on Trump.  He's too great of an evil to ignore.  But I'll try to address issues more.  Yes, most of my discussion will center on progressive solutions.  But I welcome participation by my more conservative brethen, AS LONG AS they recognize that these issues are real and they need to be addressed.  No more ostriches, please.

All Dare Call It Treason

On July 13th, the case of  Russian interference was closed.  The Mueller investigation, with its new indictments of Russian officials and the paper trail that supported it, locked in that Russian interference did occur.  The case against the Trump administration was strong but implicit, and not yet direct.

Monday's press conference closed the case on Trump's involvement.  Given opportunity after opportunity, Trump continued to choose the dictator Putin over his own country.  He did not defend his own intelligence community. 

He spent the first part of his trip trashing the European Union and NATO.  It wasn't just the press conference, it was the whole trip spent in service of a foreign dictatorship.  The press conference just made it crystal clear to all what many of us have known for years.  Trump's behavior is treason.  He has sold us out to Russia.

But we don't have to accept it.  We don't have to blindly follow him off the autocratic cliff.

We have to take off our partisan pants and come together to take care of this, including Congress. ESPECIALLY Congress.

Congress needs to act immediately:

Pass legislation to protect the Mueller investigation.

Reach out to NATO, the European Union, and other countries not yet possessed by dictators, that despite the President's vile ramblings, we support them 100%.

Put the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on hold, or at least get a public pledge that he will recuse himself on any questions that relate to the Mueller investigation, or the President's power to pardon himself.  A traitor to this country should not get to select Supreme Court nominees whose primary purpose is to keep the treasonous in power.

And they need to compel the President to surrender tax returns and financial information to find out what his level of financial entanglement is with the Russians.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  The American people need to know.  We have a right to know!  Whether it is by investigatory committee, or by a vote of the Congress as a whole, it is now a matter of patriotic duty and national security interest that this be done.  And done NOW

No more partisanship.  Republicans and Democrats must band together and show a united front.  Or all may be lost.

To paraphrase what I heard Rachel Maddow say last night on her top-rated TV program:

Usually, when we have a national security crisis, we look for the President to lead us. This time, the President IS the national security crisis.

Me again:

We have met the crisis.  The crisis is him.

Let's do something about it.

While we can.

Party in the DMZ: Saturday Political Soap Box 183

Given the alternative, this is great news.  North Korea and South Korea have met, and have made substantial progress towards officially ending their war, and the potential denuclearization of the area.

Will it happen?  I don't know.  There have been diplomatic setbacks before.  But nothing has been as public or as on the line as what has happened this week.  So there is a reason for cautious optimism.

How did this happen?  How were we able to move to this point?

Was it the belligerent, racist, and semi-unintelligible ramblings of Trump?  Does might really make right?  Is blathering the world to the brink of nuclear armageddon a great role model for moving the world forward?

Was it the quiet, effective diplomatic diplomacy of South Korean President, Moon Jae-In?  Carter-like in quiet persistence, does openness and dialogue win the race?

Was it the role China played?  They surely don't want a big conflict on their doorstep.  China is now the defacto economic leader in the world.  No, at this point their economy is not as strong as the United States, but it is growing by leaps and bounds every year.  And as the US withdraws from the world, China will continue to rush in to take our place.

Was it the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un?  Did he have an epiphanic revelation that resulted in a cold, hard decision that made him see reconciliation with South Korea, in part or in full, as the most rational course of action?  Was it a recent cave-in at a nuclear site that made him realize his nuclear program was not viable?  Hard to say.  It's true that Kim Jong Un is a vicious dictator, as were his predecessors, but that does mean he is completely irrational.

Was it the economic sanctions that have been imposed on North Korean, in varying degrees over the decades, going all the way back to Truman and the war that caused their split?


The answer?

I don't know.

World history and international events are not always explainable by one event or answer.  People still argue what the true reasons were we fell into the madness of WWI.  Scholars still debate what could have been done to avoid the rise of Hitler.    Nothing is simple.  Everything in world conflict, and preventing it, is like 3D chess from Star Trek,

Military might and belligerence can sometimes lead to temporary solutions.  Sometimes, for short periods, it can look like it is ascendant.  Hitler can control most of Europe - for a few years. We can take over Iraq and chase out a dictator - but it can't control Iraq forever, or prevent the rise of other destabilizing forces.  Iraq begat ISIS.  And on and on it goes.

Diplomacy and negotiation are also tricky.  It certainly got a bad name with Chamberlain in trying to negotiate an end to Hitler's land grabs.  But in the long run, if done right, these efforts can lead to a more stable and lasting peace.  Carter's efforts in creating peace between Egypt and Israel is the one part of the Middle East puzzle that has consistently held true.


I am concerned about President Trump's visit to the North Korean leader, and what it may do to what is going on.  He is ill-prepared for it, and he is now surrounded by hawkish military advisers.  His belligerence could jeopardize all the forward progress.  I hope not.  Call me naive, but I am hoping that he leaves without having slowed progress towards peace, even if he leaves irrationally bragging about how he is the one responsible for it all.

That won't be a good thing.  It will confirm to him that he can behave very badly in world affairs.  But that will be another problem for another day.

Right now, I can sleep slightly better knowing that there is, at long last, the promise of better relations between the two Koreas.

Only time will tell how real it is.

Fighting Through the Noise: Saturday Political Soap Box 182

At this point, the U.S. strike seems somewhat limited.  It appears that the last semi-sane official in Washington, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, may have talked Trump down from a larger strike.  It's still not clear how militarily significant the strike was. Plenty of notice was given to the Russians, Iranians, and Syrians to move people and stuff out of harm's way.  So much for the theory that Trump will never telegraph his military moves.

Syria continues to be a very messy problem, compounded by the actions of many nations, including us.  I don't have any magic answers.  I always think diplomacy is vital, as is accurate intelligence.  Sometimes, rarely, the judicious use of force is required.  Was it required here?  I'm not sure. 

What is required is for the international community to provide as much humanitarian aid as possible. That includes the need to take on Syrian refugees, to remove as many innocents from harm as we can, especially children.  I have never been more ashamed of our country as when the Trump administration bucked at receiving any Syrian refugees.  It is a low point in our nation's history. 

Well. low point may be an adept description of the entire Trump administration.

There is the whole question of Congressional authority.  They are supposed to have the power to declare war.  But that is an authority that has eroded in recent decades.  President Obama sought authority to act more directly in Syria, and Congress denied it to him.  I'm not sure about a targeted strike, but sustained action would definitely need to be authorized.  Whether it will be or not is a different story.

Did he do this to distract from his other mounting problems?  I don't know.  I'm sure it had an influence, but I don't know how great.  He'll be upset if he's not showered with praise for doing it.  I don't know how didn't understand how much criticism any President is in for, especially one as uninformed and incompetent and corrupt as he is.  He has the thinnest skin of anyone who has ever served in that office.

But beyond the noise and fury surrounding Trump, mostly of his own making, we need to stay grasped on some important things -

The climate is being degraded and global warming accelerated by the actions of the EPA and the administration.

The tax reform package has created a humongous additional deficit that Republicans will attempt to balance by reducing or eliminating programs aimed at the working poor and the middle class, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

College expenses are still out of control, getting further and further out of reach of most Americans, unless they are willing to acquire Student Loans at increasingly higher rates of interest.

Medical expenses are also out of control, with Obamacare under attack, and fewer and fewer people able to afford insurance, and the nightmare of the medical system before Obamacare returning worse than ever.  It is unconscionable that we leave so many with inadequate care, and allow so many to go bankrupt just trying to provide healthcare for their families.  

The number one concern shouldn't be the stock market, but providing a living wage.   

These are just a few of the problems we lose track of when we focus our concern on what the latest tweet from the Mad King says, or who is sleeping with which Kardashian.

I don't mean Syria is a problem that should be ignored.  Diplomacy and humanitarian aid are vital, and the judicious use of military force should not be ruled out.

But it can't ever be used as cover or distraction.  Never that.

Let's pray that General Mattis sticks around.


 

Wednesday Weatherings

That is not a picture of Houston.

It is a picture of Mumbai.

Yesterday, Mumbai received a record amount of rainfall.  This from an area prone to monsoons.  A record.

We are recording more 100 year weather events all around the world.

Global warming increases, in places, the moisture content in the air and clouds, and when it comes down, it comes in record amounts.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Sit'n'Spin (Harvey) is coming back shore again, after a brief visit to the Gulf, and is aimed at both Texas and Louisiana.

Recovery efforts from this storm will likely reach in excess of $100 billion dollars.  Texas conservatives are putting their socialist hats on.  They'll put their conservatives hats back on when the damage is done to them damn Yankee lands.

Speaking of hats, President "Buy my beautiful $40 campaign hat" Trump came in for a quick sit'n'spin of his own.  He is giddy with delight that he gets to deal with this big storm - THE BIGGEST EVER!!! -  and is thrilled with the RATINGS and ATTENTION.  Wow, FEMA guy! You're on TV so much you're going to be FAMOUS!!!  Because that's what it's all about, isn't it? Ratings and fame.

With weather patterns changing, with storms intensifying, I fear this will not be the only storm that brings horrific damage and threat to life.  We choose not to spend on global warming, developing saner methods of energy.  Some of us even waste the Earth's time and resources denying its very existence.

The cost from the damages of these storms will far exceed the cost of becoming world leaders again in the fight to halt and reverse global warming.  Catastrophe is more expensive than greening the economy.

Mumbai.  Houston.  New Orleans.

Who is next?

Parents Going Nuclear

"I brought you into this world.  I can take you out."

This utterance by frustrated, angry parents, was made popular via situation comedies and social media.  It's kind of funny, but also something you can't take seriously.  Nobody in their right mind would "take out" their child (at least we pray not).

Parenting can be a rough business. It is easy to make a threat that you can't back up.  "If you do that, I will ground you until you're 25!"  Or even something like, "Try me.  You will experience fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen!"

The problem with using rhetoric like this is that kids learn to tune it out.  They know you can't go there, so you might as well be bleating sheep noises, or sound like Charlie Brown's parents (Wah! Wah! Wah!).  Some stubborn children may even be inflamed and challenged by the impossible-to-enforce threats, and decide to challenge or one-up you. "I'll show you how late I can stay up!"

The parental threats can't be carried out.  If they are, it would result in the complete destruction of the family.  The whole nuclear family would go...nuclear!  There is no recovery from the violence and harm that would be caused.  Not to mention one or more may have violated the community standards and laws we live by, and that some jail time might be involved.

This is not a diatribe about spanking.  Every parent has to make their own decisions about the careful and cautiously applied use of corporal punishment.  But nobody wants to do real physical harm to their child.  No wants to do permanent and scarring damage that leaves a family broken, unable to be put back together.

Families are complicated things.  They require a balance of techniques, including diplomacy, negotiations, rewards and incentives, and yes, discipline and for some, the judicious use of corporal punishment.

And so it is with the family of nations.  Extremist rhetoric and empty threats only cause more harm than good.  Two national leaders, yelling and screaming and taunting and threatening each other, does no good, and may only lead to an error everyone will regret.  They are playing games with not only the lives in their own nations, but those neighboring them as well.

A nation that blindly threatens, a nation that celebrates the expulsion of it's diplomats as a "cost-saving measure", a nation that does not have the patience for more structured solutions involving the participation of other national actors, is risking blowing up the entire family of nations.

Foreign policy and national security is always a maze.  Every action (or inaction) leads to consequences, both intended and unintended. But the world has to be engaged in - isolation leads to as much or more danger as involvement does.  Like with the our own families, it takes a mix.  It takes diplomacy and negotiation.  It takes carrots and sticks.  It takes the cooperation of other nations.  And yes, sometimes it takes the judicious use of military force.  Emphasis there on the word "judicious".

When a family goes nuclear, and carries its threats too far, it is a sad and horrible thing to see.  When it happens to the family of nations, it is a terrible and world-altering thing to witness, one that could scar and jeopardize us all.

Play's End Monday Musings

Two first rate up and coming young thespians, with an old, aging slice of ham.

Why do I continue to do this thing called theater?

Why do I continue this, in the face of my advancing age and declining abilities to memorize?

Why do so many of us, so devoted to our craft, put so much energy into a show that only around 50 people attended?

Because.

For me, there is nothing like the thrill of getting into character, opening up another world, connecting with an audience (be they a thousand or a dozen).  And with a play like Anne Frank, there is the knowledge of conveying a powerful, important message, especially important in this age of Trump and the swirling intolerances all that has brought forth.

But there is something special now, too.  I am witnessing the new generation come into it's own.  I cannot begin to tell you what a joy it was to perform with my talented son, Benjamin, and Emily Beck, the consummate young actress in this area.  I have watched, with each of them, their talent grow more and more each year.

-------------------------------------

I usually am depressed after a play is over, struggling to make the adjustment back into the real world.  It is especially difficult given the time of year.  I don't want to get back in the submarine.  I don't.  I don't.  I don't.

But I get back in anyways. No one has secretly paid off our mortgage, and no one has given me a six figure advance for one of my books.  So.....periscope down!

-----------------------------------------

Syria.  What can I say?  I'm not a foreign policy expert.  I can only guess that Trump did the bombing he did based on solid intelligence - you know, from those same agencies he has so vastly disrespected.  And it was also mighty nice of him to warn the Russians ahead of time.  You would think, since he cares so much about Syrian children, that he would be more open to refugees, but I guess that concept escapes him.

We have dismantled the State Department.  We have demoralized the intelligence community.  We have left as our only foreign policy saber-rattling and bullying.

Please forgive me, but I don't see how this ends well.

------------------------

Holy Week has begun.  It's a difficult week for me to participate, but I will do what I can.  I got nothing else to say about it right now, but I did want my fellow Episcopalians to know that I was at least aware of it.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

Walled In Wednesday

Is this what it comes down to?

We're going to waste billions on a wall that will accomplish absolutely nothing except make us look like paranoid haters who no longer believe in the American dream?  A wall that can be defeated by a ladder or a tunnel or a boat or anyone of many clever means?  To cut us off from a country that now has a negative emigration rate, with more returning than coming in? A wall that, trust me, YOU'RE going to pay for...BIGLY!

We have money for this ridiculous venture but none for expanding healthcare?  We're going to cut medicaid and medicare and social security and flush a fortune down the sewey hole for this?

This stupid wall is more important than the education of our children?  We're ready to eliminate support for the arts and humanities, public television and radio?  We can't afford food inspectors and environmental protection anymore?

Those who voted for Trump....this can't be what you voted for.  Are we this far apart in humanity and caring that none of this bothers you?  The corruption, the destruction of government functions, the pre-announced war crime of willing pirating the oil of another country,  the shutting down of White House phone lines and resources designed to aide and assist citizens in need of help - all this and more  - does it make you feel good about electing this narcissistic bully?

If he's lying about stuff like crowd size and "millions of illegals" voting, what won't he lie about?  Do you want to be lied into another war?

When you build that wall, you're building a wall that doesn't keep Mexicans out - you're building one that keeps out everything I love and cherish about this country.

If you're going to let this madman do this, then you must complete the mission.  You must take down the Statue of Liberty and turn it into scrap metal.

And then take that scrap metal and turn it into part of the Wall.

America, the land of opportunity, becomes the fortress of fear.

God help us all.

Good Morning, Comrades! Saturday Political Soap Box 153

Радуйся, Козырь! Новый лидер Союза советских Штатов Америки!

(Hail, Trump!  The leader of the Union of Soviet States of America!)

Good morning, Comrades!

No, this is not a scholarly treatise connecting all the dots and footnoting to oblivion and back.  I wish I had time for that.  Maybe when I retire....

But

There is enough there to make anyone question, even the most devout Trumpeteer.

There is enough there to make some Republican Senators demand a full investigation, and now the Senate Committee on intelligence will commence one.

There is enough there that an MI6 agent, one with a great reputation for accuracy and decades of experience in  Russia, has continued to work without pay to get intelligence agencies to look at what he found.

The only part of the Republican platform that Trump gave a flip about, enough to force it to be changed, is to insist that the United States would not give military insistence to Ukraine to defend it against Russian incursion.

He's had a series of prominent advisers who were close to the Russians and had made considerable money doing work for them.

His nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson (Exxon CEO), has at stake a deal with Russia that is worth a half a trillion dollars, and has been awarded the Order of Friendship by Putin.

Trump, no matter how pressed, will not say anything bad about Putin,  In fact, for Trump, Putin seems to be golden, and just showers him with praise.  Trump is already stating that he is likely to reverse sanctions.  Nothing Trump does lends one to think the allegations of collusion are not true.

His proposed National Security Chief, Michael Flynn, was on the phone to the Russian Ambassador a reported five times on the day of the sanctions,  This is quite unusual.  Well, maybe except Nixon with Vietnam or Reagan with Iran.  OK, maybe not so unusual for Republicans.  Still not good, though.

But like I said.  There are no citations here, no references.  I encourage you to check out these stories for yourself.  That's dangerous, as both sides have their own news filters, and the truth is often the victim.  But take a chance.  Go outside your bubble, alt-right or lefty progressive or whatever, and see if you can't smell the fire.

Hope y'all like vodka.

The Butterfly Effect: Saturday Political Soapbox 116

The butterfly effect.

It's a concept that permeates through most time travel stories.  The idea that changes, even minor ones, can have rippling effects throughout history.  It was articulated most clearly in a Ray Bradbury story, A Sound of Thunder, where time travelers travel to the Jurassic Era, and upon their return find things subtly different, with the English language with different words and spellings, and someone else as President of the United States. One of the travelers discovers that he crushed a butterfly, found on his boot, and that somehow led to a cascading chain of events.

Foreign policy is like that.  Often we are faced with a whole series of choices, and all of them lead to altering future history, often in ways that are unintended.  The hard thing to realize is, that often inaction leads to unintended consequences as well.  America's late interventions in World War I and World War II probably extended and made worse those wars.  Likewise, not intervening at all might have led to horrible consequences.  For example, we might all be speaking German now, at least those of us still alive after the purges.

It is clear now, that our unwarranted and unjustified intervention into Iraq has led to negative consequences that will reverberate for generations to come.  Our destabilization of that country has led to the creation of ISIS, the rise in power of our adversary Iran,  emboldened rebel movements in other Mideast countries, a massive debt that was off-budget and unfunded (at least until the Obama administration), and a loss of civil liberties here at home.

In Syria, we face a horrible situation that has no good answers.  Even though there are many decent Syrian citizens, their political factions are all a mess, and virtually none of them hold the promise of a better Syria in the future.  Right now they are in the hands of a bloody dictator, Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite Muslim, which is an offshoot of Shiar Muslims.  The vast majority of Syrians are Sunni Muslims.  The conflict between various Muslim groups creates terrible tensions within the country.  This is exacerbated when outside countries try to sponsor one group or another within the country.  Players inside Syria include us, the Chinese, the Russians Turks, Saudis, and the European Union.

If we come into the situation wrong, we risk destabilizing things even greater than they are, and empowering people that may not be friendly to the interests of the United States.  As dangerous as it is, we have to be a player.  Withdrawing completely may be as  dangerous as over-intervention.  I don't have any magic answers.  In such a volatile situation, I see no advantage to boots on the ground.  I do think that diplomacy and international coordination is vital.

ISIS is a monstrous organization, and needs to be defeated.  It, as are many of the terrorist and/or rebel groups we hear of, more political and social than religious.  Yes, many of them use Islam as a cover and excuse for their atrocities. but that only makes them more evil for their misuse of religion.  They are no more Muslim than our KKK or Christian militias are even remotely Christian.  We have to attack them in a way that  really defeats them, and does not inspire others and increase their numbers.  It's like the many headed beast Hydra - cut off one head (say, Saddam Hussein, or Al Qaeda), ten more emerge to take their place.


All of this upheaval has created one of the largest refugee movements of modern times.  If this is going to be a truly international effort, than everyone needs to do their part in taking them in.  I have been disgusted and ashamed of many in this country who have been fear mongering and reflecting a rabid, paranoid xenophobia over accepting a disproportionately small number of refugees - only 10,000, a pitiful number compared to the size of our country, and smaller ratio wise compared to many other countries.  It's just horrifying to think how little it takes for so many in this country to turn so brutal and uncaring.


I don't know all the solutions.  No matter what we do this may not turn out well.  But there is some common sense things we can do, that to me, puts us on the right side of the spirit of a better world.  As boring as it is to some Americans, we need to continue to be at the forefront of diplomatic efforts.  We need to coordinate any military efforts with the rest of the world.  And we need to be at the forefront of humanitarian efforts, including assisting with the refugees.

Yes, whatever we do steps on butterflies, and will result in changes, some good and some bad.  The world has become increasingly related, and it is hard to do anything that doesn't effect us all.

Even if we can't be perfect, let us at least err on the side of doing good.  Diplomacy, coordinated international force, and humanitarian outreach.

And prayer.  Let's not forget prayer.

War without Justification: Saturday Political Sop Box 105

Sorry.  Sorry. Sorry.

Usually don't start with memes from the internet.  But this one engendered such a reaction on The Facebook Machine when I posted it, I felt I needed to make some important points about it.

Some thought I was just being amusing attacking the great and mighty Bush/Cheney.  I guess they still thought the Iraq War was a great and glorious and justified action.

Some thought the war was simply poorly executed and that we should have just gone harder, longer and with greater, I don't know...viciousness.

Some blamed Democrats as well, for this and other foreign policy/military failures.  A pox on both their houses!  As if these people had just appeared by magic and the American Electorate had nothing to do with it.

Let me first clarify where I am coming from.  I am not a pacifist.  I am not an isolationist.  And despite what many may think, I am not a Democrat (I am a Warren/Sanders progressive).

I am an internationalist who believes in the careful and judicious use of force used only when necessary.  I believe in diplomacy first, second and third.  But there are times, when in the interest of humanity (genocides and invasions) or in defense of the best strategic interests of the United States, that some military involvement may be necessary.

When 9/11 happened, as much as I despised Bush II, I thought maybe he would get the job done.  He wasn't a great thinker, but he was often single minded in what he wanted done.  He had just pursed drastic tax cuts to the wealthy, shifting his logic constantly to fit changing economic circumstances, like a dog with a bone that he would not let go of until his buddies who helped got him elected were rewarded.  I thought, well, at least he would use that same focused vigor to get Bin Laden and Al Queda.

I was wrong.

After an intense start, that I did not entirely disagree with, it suddenly shifted for the worst when we had Bin Laden cornered at Tora Bora in December of 2001, and we inexplicably stopped and let him go.  I was stunned.  It was not at all what I expected from Bush II.

Further surprises were in store, as he stated it wasn't all that important to him as to whether we got Bin Laden or not.  Suddenly, the conversation shifted to Iraq and Saddam Hussein, who was far from a saint, but who had nothing to do with 9/11.  He may have had weapons of destruction.  How do we know this?  Because Cheney told us so.  The fact that he was LYING to us was apparently something we were supposed to just overlook.

The cold fact is that the Iraq invasion was chosen to further the interests of OIL and corporations.  There were some neocon thought that Iraq could be turned into a laboratory to prove the value of extreme right wing economic philosophy, imposing corporate control disguised as free market capitalism.  The attempted imposition of this was one of the biggest failures in American history.

9/11 was not the reason we went into the Iraq War.  It was the cover.  It was the excuse used by Cheney and Rumsfeld to do something that they had wanted to do anyways.  The Iraq War did not begin with 9/11.  It began with a secret meeting of Cheney and energy industry insiders, plotting out the course of new oil pipelines.

Our soldiers fought bravely, valiantly.  They deserve all the credit and praise in the world.  The National Guard was used in a way that was never intended ( and Bush II should know that - it's where he hid out to avoid the Vietnam War).  The vets that have come back needed our support, our kindness, and yes, lots of resources and help.  Both parties have failed to live up to taking care of them.

Foreign policy is not a zero sum game.  The globe's inter-connectivity is increasing exponentially, and isolationism is no longer a valid response.  Every action we take has consequences that lead to other things.  Even well-intentioned actions can lead to negative consequences down the road.  But inaction leads to negative results as well.  We have to act, particularly diplomatically.

Our leaders have tough decisions to make.  We can pray that we do the right thing, and that when their actions are reasonable and just, we support them.

Have Democrats done the wrong things sometimes?  Sure.  Yes, it's true.  Both sides have.  But nothing that equals the strategic and immoral blunder of the Iraq War.  That is in a class by itself.   There have been individual atrocities and manipulations before, but I still rank this one the tops.  We will be paying for it for decades to come.

Yes, let's get involved.

But let's do it for humanitarian reasons.  Let's do it to defend this country and our NATIONAL interests.

Let's never do it again to promote CORPORATE interests.  Let's never be LIED into a war again.  Let's never do it to promote some half baked neocon theory about free market capitalism.

And let's put Cheney and his lying cronies where they belong....

...in prison.

Weekend under the Sea and Sun and other Monday Musings

Elizabeth Beck as The Little Mermaid.

Emily Beck in The Little Mermaid.

The Little Mermaid started this last weekend at Flying Dragon on Tebeau.  I saw it twice on Saturday.  There were two different casts this weekend, and I was happy to see the daughters of my good friends, the Becks, play prominent roles in each cast.  One cast featured Emily Beck as the delightfully evil Ursula, and the other Elizabeth Beck as a romantically soulful Ariel.

There are two more casts that perform this weekend, Thursday at 7 PM,  Saturday at 3 PM and 7 PM, and Sunday at 3 PM.  Flying Dragon prides itself in giving as many children as possible an opportunity to shine.

My son Doug has come down for a visit, and we are happy to have him this through Tuesday morning.  I am torn going to work today, but I did not plan ahead very well.  I also have play practice tonight.  Oy,  But I saw him yesterday, and will see him again tonight.  He is in good spirits, his job going well, and having just moved into a home/condo of his own up in metro Atlanta.

The OHC Writing Contest has me stressed.  I and my guild members have a done good job of organizing the basics, and, thanks to The Strait Line, it is well funded.  But my lack of aggression in promoting it ism I think, beginning to hurt it.  I just hope that what we have done has laid the groundwork for success in future years.

Rumblings of a greater war to combat the brutal organization ISSIS have me concerned.  I do believe we have to stand in opposition to it, and that it may take much more than diplomacy.  What I won't countenance is anyone no understanding who is to blame for the unrest centered around Iraq.  It is now and ever shall be the responsibility of Bush/Cheney and their ill advised war.  People sometimes ask, when can you stop blaming the prior administration for things still going wrong?  In the case of the Mideast instability centered around Iraq, the answer is clearly for decades if not centuries.  They broke it - they bought it.

It was an incredibly hot weekend here, with temps over 100 and feels like temps up to 114.  I don't do well in this kind of weather, so I stay inside as much as possible.  You could feel the waves of heat out there, as if you were opening an oven.  Individual hot days mean nothing regarding the reality of global warming, BUT the rise in global average temperature DOES.

No movies this weekend, not even with my son Doug here.

Benjamin had a tough week at school.  He is making some hard choices, and with love and strong discipline, we hope to see him through.  Every year you can get a new draw of classmates and teachers, and so far, I'm not really happy with this year's draw.  But Benjamin is a strong kid, and we hope he will find his place, and that he understands he has our support and unconditional love.  And that sometimes restrictions and punishments come out of that love.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait