Foreign Policy Decisions

1) Carl Hulse, Michael S. Schmidt, Reid J. Epstein, Peter Baker and Luke Broadwater, “Biden Called ‘More Receptive’ to Hearing Pleas to Step Aside; The president has given no indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race but is said to be more willing to listen to the case for bowing out,” New York Times, July 17, 2024(updated 11:19 pm ET);

Following President Joe Biden’ disastrous performance in the presidential debate on June 27, 2024 and his failure to ease doubts in his interview on ABC with George Stephanopoulos on July 5, Democratic panic over Biden’s candidacy for the presidency has only grown.

Democratic leaders have voiced grave concern in private, but hidden behind the oft-repeated mantra that is is up to Joe Biden to decide whether to withdraw from the race.

That is like saying that a drunken steamboat captain who is steering the boat towards a waterfall has the sole power of decision over whether he should yield the ship’s wheel to the first mate or someone else who is sober. Instead, the passengers, whose deaths becomes more probable each minute as the steamboat approaches the waterfall, need to rush the captain and wrest the ship’s wheel t from his drunken grasp.

We in America face a similar moment, as Joe Biden threatens ton take the steamboat of America over the waterfall that leads to a Trump victory in November and the triumph of the fascist movement led by Trump and the tpro-Russian Republican Party that believe neither in democracy nor the rule of law.

Democrats, like the the passengers on the steamboat, need to rush President Biden and seize the Democratic ticket from the death grip of a vain and stubborn old man with diminishing mental faculties.

One obstacle holding them back has been widespread uncertainty about who could replace Biden and Kamala Harrus on the ticket.

The answer has been sitting on the bench and hiding in plain sight,

Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer, two governors of large and important states, would make up a powerful Democratic ticket that could blow Trump put of tje water along with with Republican candidates for the House and the Senate

Newsom and Whitmer could lead the Democrats to a landslide in the presidential election, retention of and even gains in the Senate, and a large majority in the House.

Gavin Newsom (b. 1967) has served as governor of California since 2019, Previously, he was Lieutenant Governor from 2011 to 2019, and Mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011.

Newsom is handsome, charming, hihgly intelligent, and extremely well-spoken. He is governor of a state with 39 million people and the fifth largest exonomy in the world. If it were a country, California would be the 39th most populous nation in the world. He also has international experience of the kind that is sorely needed in Washington.

Gretchen Whitmer (b. 1971) has served as governor of Michigan since 2019. She served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 and in the Michigan Senate from 2006 to 2015.111

She won reelection as governor in 2022 by a margin of some 11 points. With Michigan and Wisconsin being among the seven swing states that will be critical in the Noveber, 2024 elections, she would add significant electoral strengh to the Democratic ticket.

Will the Democrats rush the drunken steamboat captain and wrest control of the ship’s wheel from his stubborn determined grasp? Will they nominate Newsom and Whitmer to be their candidates on the Democratic ticket? This would be a powerful ticket that could lead to a Democratic sweepin 3024.

The future of democracy in America and of a civilization based on the U.N. Charter-based international legal order may depend on the answers to these questions.

1) Suzanne Moore, “The Democrats are denying reality by refusing to admit Biden is unfit; The party are fooling themselves and the electorate that the 81-year-old is up to the job. Is this the best they have to offer?” The Telegraph, July 2, 2024 (3:10 pm);

2) Matt Viser, “Biden is seeing a different world than other Democrats; At his rallies, he is embraced by enthusiastic crowds. Outside, others in the party want him to step aside, Washington Post, July 8, 2024 (6:49 pm ET);

“Everyone in the party concedes that it is Biden’s decision — and his alone — whether to continue his reelection bid.”

Everyone can see the Captain is drink–with is own power, his own ambition, his own illusion that “Only I can fix it”–and that he is steering the steamboat towards the waterfall. If no one wrests the steering
wheel from his death grip, the steamboat will go over the waterfall. and everyone will perish.

His delusions and hus iron-willed resistance to hearing rational arguments demonstrate, beyond a doubt, that the steering wheel must be wrested from his grip.

1) No byline, “Kamala Harris worried Democrats will replace Joe Biden with white candidate; Vice president’s team say it would be ‘offensive’ to black voters if she were ignored,” The Telegraph, July 1, 2024 (3:56 pm);

Harris lost me in the prmary debate where she ambushed Joe Biden on racial busing, greatly distorting tge historical context.

Now she has played tge race card, revealing again the inherent racism and fatal flaws in the “identity politics” of the current Democratic Party.

Harris, despite a lackluster candidate in the 2020 Democratic primaries, was picked by Joe Biden to be his running mate to placate Jim Clyburn and the African American minority in the party, because she was black.

Lloyd Austin appears to have been chosen as Defense Secretary, despite recent service in the military requiring a waiver under the law prohibiting military officers from serving as Defense chief if they been on active dut in the last seven years, because he was black.

Biden named Ketanji Brown Jackson, who may well have been the most qualified person for the position, to the Supreme Court because he had promised Jim Clyburn, who was largely responsible for his winning the Democratic nomination, that as president he would name a black woman to the Court.

Harris has demonstrated that being black doesn’t mean you’re necessarily the best person for the position.

Now she has played the race card in a most blatant and unforgivable manner.

The Democrats will not win in November unless they put aside their “identity politics” and what is in effect anti-white racism, and return to a policy of naming officials, including vice-presidential and presidential candidates, on the basis of merit and qualifications, without regard to race. In zmartin Luther King’s words, “on the basis if their character and not the color of their skin”.

On some great and glorious day the folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
–H.L. Mencken

That day took place on November 3, 2020 when the American people elected Donald Trump to be President of the United States of America.

Mencken was right. As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson blurted out to colleagues as he exited his first major meeting with Trump, “The man’s a fucking moron.”

But he is a particularly dangerous moron, a convicted felon who led a conspiracy and attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election and with it the Constitution, and the Leader of an American fascist movement
which today seeks to take over the presidency and undermine the rule of law in the world’s oldest current democracy.

On Trump’s crimes, see,

Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann, The Trump Indictments; The Historic Charging Documents With Commentary (New York: W.H. Norton & Company, 2024).

How did America come to this point, in which a President of the United States, a man with an unblemished record of over 40 years, is constrained to enter into a modern-day gladiatorial contest with a dangerous convicted felon, in order to pursue re-election to the presidency in November, 2024?

One is reminded of the title of Gary Sick’s book on the failed Iranian hostages rescue attempt in 1979, All Fall Down 1980). Indeed, it seems that many sectors of society and many leaders have contributed to the deterioration of our political system to its present low point, in which a gladiatorial battle between the two principal candidates seeking election to the presidency will be judged by voters in part on how well they perform as gladiators in this combat. The contest will be viewed or read about by voters who may decide the outcome.

In reporting in the match-up the media completely ignore the context and treat the battle as if were between two reputable candidates. They will continue to ignore this context during and in the days and months after the debate.

Rational voters will largely ignore how the two gladiators perform, and won’t ignore the analytical conclusions that should be drawn about the character and crimes of the the convicted felon who is campaigning to become president again.

The problem is that perhaps half the country, and potential majorities in seven swing states, do not fit within the category of rational voters dedicated to upholding democracy and the rule of law. Many are Trump cult followers and nothing can persuade them not to vote for the convicted felon. Many are wealthy businessmen who are willing to overlook deep character flaws and a troubling criminal record, too.

Viewers who watch the gladiatorial contest tonight and voters wh read about ut tomorrow should bear this context in mind.

The race for the presidency is not a horse race between two legitimate candidates. One is a convicted felon and leader of a fascist movement which does not respect truth or the rule of Law.

1) Simon Tisdall, “The Middle East is drifting leaderless to catastrophe. War is just an airstrike away; From Netanyahu to Nasrallah, the region’s politicians are flailing. Will no one stop the lunacy?,” The Guardian, June 22, 2024 ( 17.00):

1) “Putin wirft G 7 „Diebstahl“ vor – und fordert von Kiew Rückzug aus vier Regionen,” Die Welt, den 14. Juni 2024;

2) “Putin accuses G 7 of “theft” – and demands Kiev’s withdrawal from four regions,” Die Welt, June 14, 2024;

3) “Zu hohe Wellen – US-Pier für Hilfslieferung muss abgebaut werden; Um mehr humanitäre Hilfe in den Gaza-Streifen liefern zu können, hatte das US-Militär einen Behelfshafen in dem Küstenstreifen errichtet. Wegen rauen Seegangs muss dieser nun abgebaut und verlegt werden.” Die Welt, den 15 Juni 2024 02:49 Uhr);

4) “Too high waves – US pier for aid delivery must be dismantled; In order to be able to deliver more humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the US military had built a makeshift port in the coastal strip. Due to rough seas, this must now be dismantled and relocated,” Die Welt, June 15, 2924 (02:49 a.m.);

I. See James Rowles, “SATIRE: Putin meets with Lavrov–the legal wheels spin in a KGB mind,”Trenchant Observations September 22: 2022.

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Ii.

If you follow events closely with a historian’s eye, even the smallest fiasco may suggest the utter incompetence and lack of cleat thinking at the highest level of government,

The fact tgat tge White Hiuse decided to build a pier in order to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza directly by sea as iyself ludicrous, as if it be a waynaround Israel’s intransigence without using the levers of real power tge use controls to force Israel to open up its border crossings to allow massive amounts of humanitarian aid that are urgently neeed to counter the effects of Israel’s siege and quasi siege if tge Gaza Strip.

Now turns out that the U,S.-buikt pier must be dismantled because ut was not buukt high enough to prevent tge sea waves from wahingnover it.

One would be hard-pressed to imagine such sheer incompetence even in a science fiction movie.

Tge alternative to building this pier was to use American power tonforce Israel to open up its border crossings to allow massive humanitarian aid into Gaza.

he United coukd have dropped its vero in the U.N. Security Council to resolutions requiring Israel to open its border crossings for aid.

The U.S. could have actually halted military aid to Israel until it opened its border crossings for such aid.

The U.S. should has insisted–a long time ago–that Israel drop its incrediblely restrictive insoectiin requirements aimed at insuring non weapons not a single rifle get through to Hamas with the shipments. In this regard, Israel has no sense of proportionality between the potential harm and tge draconian restrictions that have costvand are costing thousands of Pslestinian lives.

The U.S. pier fiasco is eerily reminiscent of the Afghanistan withdrawal decision in April 2021, abd its calamitous implementation in August if tgat year.

We are witbessing in a micrcosm the of the muddled thinking and sheer incompetence of at the highest levels of the awhite House, i.e., President Joe Biden and his foreign policy tesm.

1) Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, “Kyiv’s wonder-weapons are decimating the Russian army; Their list of recent successes – apparently by cutting edge weaponry – show a turning point in the war may about to be reached,” The Telegraph, June 12, 2024 (3:19 pm);

1) Maria Varenikova, Constant Méheut and Aric Toler’Ukraine Strikes Into Russia With Western Weapons, Official Says; The official said Ukraine had destroyed missile launchers in the Russian region of Belgorod using an American-made rocket system,” New York Times, June 4, 2024 (Updated 5:57 p.m. ET);

1) Siobhán O’Grady and Serhiy Morgunov, “NATO chief and European allies urge U.S. to let Ukraine strike inside Russia; NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and a growing chorus of Western leaders are urging Washington and its allies to drop restrictions on how Ukraine uses donated weapons,” Washington Post, May 28, 2024 (Updated att 12:41 p.m. EDT);

2) Andrew Van Dam, “America’s best decade, according to data; One simple variable, more than anything, determines when you think the nation peaked,” Washington Posr, May 24, 2024 (6:00 a.m. EDT);

3) Warren Murray and agencies, “Ukraine war briefing: Macron, Scholz agree Kyiv should use allies’ weapons against launchers in Russia; Nato secretary general says alliance members should allow deep strikes, which White House says it doesn’t ‘encourage or enable’. What we know on day 826,” The Guardian, May 2o, 2024 (01.38 BST);

4) “Macron spricht sich für Erlaubnis für Ukraine aus, russische Abschussbasen anzugreifen; Nach Ansicht von Frankreichs Präsident Macron sollte der Ukraine ermöglicht werden, militärische Stützpunkte in Russland anzugreifen. Das sagte der Politiker am Dienstag in Meseberg. Auch Kanzler Scholz äußerte sich,” afie Welt, den 28. Mai 2024;;

5) “Macron advocates permission for Ukraine to attack Russian launch bases; According to French President Macron, Ukraine should be allowed to attack military bases in Russia. This is what the politician said on Tuesday in Meseberg. Chancellor Scholz also spoke,” Die zwelt, May 28, 2024;

6) “USA lehnen ukrainischen Einsatz amerikanischer Waffen auf Ziele in Russland noch ab; Bundeskanzler Scholz und Frankreichs Präsident Macron befürworten, dass die Ukraine militärische Stellungen in Russland mit westlichen Waffen angreifen darf. Die USA sprechen sich »zu diesem Zeitpunkt« dagegen aus,” Der Spiegel den 28. Mai 2024 (23.51 Uhr);

7) “USA still rejects Ukrainian use of American weapons on targets in Russia;
Chancellor Scholz and France’s President Macron advocate that Ukraine is allowed to attack military positions in Russia with Western weapons. The USA is against it ‘at this time’,” Der Spiegel, May 28, 2024 (11:51 p.m.);

UPDATES

May 30, 2024

8) John Hudson, Emily Rauhala and Robyn Dixon, “Ukraine setbacks nudge Biden toward allowing use of U.S. weapons in Russia; Washington’s reassessment of its policy follows the Kremlin’s assault on the city of Kharkiv and a chorus of pressure from European allies,” Washington Post, May 30, 2024 Updated at 1:57 p.m. EDT|;

9) Michael Birnbaum, John Hudson, Emily Rauhala and Ellen Nakashima,”Ukraine can use U.S. weapons for limited strikes in Russia, Biden says
The dramatic policy shift follows the Kremlin’s assault on the city of Kharkiv and a chorus of pressure from European allies.

By Michael Birnbaum, John Hudson, Emily Rauhala and Ellen Nakashima
Updated May 30, 2024 at 8:12 p.m. EDT|Published May 30, 2024 at 9:58 a.m. EDT