What’s best for the country is that we come up with policies that bring order to the chaos at our southern border. That would also be good for Pres. Joe Biden and Democrats who are just getting killed on this issue.
That’s why I was so pleasantly surprised that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was bargaining in good faith with Democrats on a border deal that would also include aid to Ukraine and Israel as well as humanitarian support in Gaza. Senators worked for months on a deal that angered both hard-right Republicans and hard-left Democrats. Details were announced yesterday.
But Donald Trump blew it up. McConnell is now reportedly telling his caucus to vote against the agreement when it comes up for a test vote tomorrow because of Trump’s opposition. At least credit Trump for stumbling upon a little bit of honesty. He’s basically saying that he has a golden issue here against Biden and so he’ll oppose any deal at all because even one that would give him everything he wants would help his opponent. Trump has never had the least bit of interest in what’s good for the country, but he’s always been laser focussed on what’s best for him.
So, what happens now? Biden was smart to link aid to Israel to help for Ukraine and border security. The idea was to make Republicans compromise on the border and Ukraine so that they could get to vote for money for Israel. Now it looks like that was a good idea that just didn’t pan out, thanks to Trump and to Republicans’ fealty to him.
One tack would be for the Dems to just completely cave on the immigration bill. Build more border wall. Reinstate ‘remain in Mexico.’ Whatever they want. Then have them vote against that, which they will. to reveal just how uninterested they are in actual policy. Then try to blame the Republicans for standing in the way of fixing the problem.
But there are two problems with that. The first is that the Democratic brand is so badly damaged on this issue that it’s doubtful that even that gambit would change the perception that they’re weak on the border. And the second is that adopting the hard-right positions would further push away hard-left voters in the Democratic base, who are already upset with Biden over his support for Israel — as well as every other detail of every policy in which he doesn’t agree with them 100%.
So, what’s the answer? Wish I had one. The only thing I’d suggest is to not allow any aid for Israel to pass without a deal on the border and Ukraine. If you give the hard-right what they want they’ll have no reason at all to bargain on anything else. So, just wait ’em out as long as you can.
And on another matter… Is the Madison school district shielding their superintendent candidates from the press? Sure looks that way. When the State Journal tried to interview them for a profile piece they ran on Sunday none of the three would talk to the paper. Maybe they just all decided individually not to speak to the press, but I think it’s more likely they were advised or told not to by the school board. Now it turns out that two interview sessions today, one with students at noon and another with parents at 6:30 PM, will be online only. In other words, again, the press will have no access to the candidates. The reason given by board member Ali Muldrow is that not everybody can get to a meeting. That’s ludicrous. Not everybody can get to any meeting. So, should we make all public meetings online only?
Anyway, you can go to the MMSD website to watch the livestreams today at noon and 6:30 this evening.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
Trump kills Forever war deal.
National debt 34 trillion and climbing. That and inflation have turned 60 billion into chump change.
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This debt issue is interesting. Capitalism is synonymous with debt. An essential way bankers (using the term broadly) make money is debt. Workers shouldn’t have to worry about the bankers’ problems (lending more than will reasonably be paid back), except for the fact that the bankers have held us captive. They’ve made the laws and intertwined their fate to the rest of us – if their ship goes down they’ll make sure we all go down.
For over 2000 years we’ve been warned about this. Rather than bailing out the bankers by worrying about the debt, I believe we should decouple our fate from theirs.
Rs & Trump will not do anything to reduce the national debt, nor to dent the forever war footing. Trump had 2 years of full government control. Did our military or “intelligence” budgets go down? Did our debt reduce? There are so many reasonable paths towards reducing war on earth and for reducing the danger of the national debt (both policies I support), it is quite strange for anyone to think electing Trump would be an effective path.
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Trump has successfully neutered Congress, so there will be no help from there. I’m not at all sure that the Biden administration will make it to the Democratic National Convention. And the hot mess on the southern border will guarantee a Trump victory long before the election.
So here’s a crazy thought: Biden drops out and the Democrats decline to run a ticket, leaving the race between Trump and Kennedy (now running as an independent). Does anyone have a better idea?
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Let’s see now, Richard. List of better ideas than Trump v. RFK, Jr. Suicide. Root canal without anesthetic. New Coke. The Edsel. Everything Elon Musk. Ted Cruz v. Elizabeth Warren… actually, I can think of a lot of horrible ideas that aren’t as bad as that one.
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Ha! Thanks for a bit of cold water in the face. At least we know where the boundaries of sanity lie. Biden and Dems still need major surgery on border policy or Trump will stroll right into the White House in January (if not sooner).
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“Everything Elon Musk”
Everything? Perhaps you are joking but if not I encourage you to read Walter Issacson’s book on Musk. There’s plenty to dislike about him but I think the book will give you a better appreciation of his accomplishments.
In particular it’s fascinating to see how he went about creating a car company and a space rocket company from scratch.
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Starting off rich definitely helps. He is certainly a good salesman, knows how to raise capital, and latched onto technological waves at the right moment (yet to be seen with Twitter). All of the most wealthy people in US history cluster around particular significant technological milestones. They are never the ones who actually discover or refine these technologies, they are always people with access to capital at the right moment in history, where they can employ these people that actually do the scientific and technological work. There’s nothing extraordinarily special about Musk, Zuck, Bezos, Gates, etc. beyond being reasonably intelligent-enough, in the right position, the right place, and right time. If not them, others were/are around as well who would have done similar things.
In the US we build god-myths around people who are essentially financiers and managers, and leave the talented scientists who actually discover and create the these new technologies in the pages of the academic journals.
I bet Walter Issacson’s book on Musk is an entertaining read. I’d also bet it’s a propaganda piece to prop up the god-myth and keep raising capital.
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