Because
I don’t have TV (no patience to sit to watch it), I missed the Democratic presidential
candidate debates, as I could not find them on radio. Perhaps it would have
been too cumbersome to try to broadcast them on radio. Instead, I heard
excerpts, including of Beto O’Rourke speaking accented, but intelligible
Spanish. I’ve already said I would vote for any one of them, but maybe
front-runner Joe Biden as a centrist has the best chance of appealing to
disillusioned Trump supporters. I would love to see him with a female VP, if
that can happen, and also to win in a landslide against Trump, despite the
quirks of the Electoral College that cheated us so disastrously last time. This
time voters cannot afford to be so quite picky, as some were about Hillary. For
better or worse, it’s a binary contest, so never mind about 3rd party
choices this time. It’s either the Democrat or Trump.
President Obama offered more
of a carrot than a stick to adversaries Iran and Cuba. Trump prefers
threats and confrontation, inflicting economic pain and risking violence and
war. There is no guaranteed method of influencing the actions of other nations
and their leaders, who are simply other people, after all. Trump’s tactics are
scary and have not proved successful so far, increasing not reducing tensions. If
other leaders feel under attack, they will fight back and resist. Trump never
gave Obama’s approach to making a deal a chance to increase mutual trust and
reduce the likelihood of conflict with political adversaries, whether in other
countries or here in the US.
The standoff with Iran is entirely
of Trump’s making. He has goaded the Iran regime into resistance and
self-defense. He came perilously close to starting a war there, perhaps pushed by
his advisers, but reportedly pulling back at the last minute after perhaps realizing
it would hurt his reelection chances, which it would. If it was an impulsive decision
to go ahead and then equally impulsive to pull back, we dodged a bullet that
time. Shooting down an unmanned drone, however costly the device, doesn’t merit
all-out war. Meanwhile, Trump has reportedly lost interest in Venezuela, where
the US could have some influence if it played its cards right, which is
unlikely.
Trump’s approach to
trade is similarly heavy handed and mercurial. Don’t try
talking first, just slap some tariffs on products from another country and
then, as he likes to say, “Let’s see what happens.” The man has no imagination,
no foresight, no ability to put himself in another person’s shoes. His taunts of
other lawmakers are worthy of a third-grade playground bully, hence meaningless.
When poll numbers from his own pollsters were leaked, showing him falling
behind major Democratic presidential hopefuls, he fired the pollsters. Don’t give
that guy any bad news! Of course, even if he falls far behind in the popular
vote in 2020, we now know that may not be definitive. Depending on how
Electoral College votes fall, he could still pull it off again. Can lightning
strike twice in the same place?
If Trump loses reelection, which I fervently expect
and hope he will, he and his supporters will certainly cry foul. Some of them
have even expressed the wish that he might have a 3rd term. Would
the man even live that long? Will I survive that long? The fact that Trump is
still in office now is certainly eroding my mental health. Or how about “President-for-Life”
like former Haitian dictator Baby Doc? It’s hard to imagine why so many
Republican lawmakers and fellow Americans continue to slavishly support the
guy. Maybe it’s due to a cult-like psychology
that drinks the Kool Aid even though it results in certain death. In traveling
abroad, I’m pretty understanding and accepting of cultural differences and
clashes, but seeing such a sharp divide within our own country and being part
of it is proving very unnerving.
As for the migrant crisis, it’s easy
for Trump to try to demonize the so-called hordes of criminals trying to crash
the border to invade our country. But, as always, an individual case is easier
to understand and pulls more on the heart-strings. A little refugee boy’s body
washed up in Greece caused more outrage than the sinking of a boatload of refugees.
Likewise, there is less sympathy here for crowds waiting at the border gates
and much more for the man and little girl whose bodies were found drowned on
the shores of the Rio Grande. In both cases, the bodies being shown face-down
seems to have increased their poignancy. A single human photographic example
makes it easier for the viewer to identify with the victim than the sight of a
crowd.
However, I must observe, based on my own recent conversations
in Honduras, that the rumor there is that getting into the US is easier with a
child in tow, one reason so many adult migrants are traveling with children.
Push factors include lack of work, crop failures, and rampant crime
in their own countries, while pull factors are the demand
for workers in the US, especially in agriculture, hospitality, and construction
which depend most on foreign workers (even Trump properties have relied on undocumented
workers).
It is noteworthy that Trump has been traveling abroad,
both to the UK and now to Japan, without Melania in tow. Nor has
she been visible here in the US. Perhaps she’s just fed up and awaiting her welcome
release in 2020.
Meanwhile,
Honduras protests: Military deployed after
violence
Anger has been building in recent weeks over proposals to
restructure the ministries of education and health. Opponents say that the
changes are the first step towards the privatization of education and health
services. Two people were killed recently.
On our Amnesty Int’l USA Facebook
page for Latin America, a couple of guys posted there that Venezuelans
are making up stories against the Maduro government just to gain asylum here
and that the whole Venezuelan problem was made in Washington. I have helped
some of those Venezuelan asylum applicants and assured them their stories were
credible. I asked if the millions of Venezuelans fleeing to other South
American countries have been merely trying to get asylum in the US? Really,
some AI members are as boneheaded as Trump supporters, lots of conspiracy
theories floating around, amplified by the internet.
Jared Kushner’s plan for
the Palestinians (put together without their input) takes a page
from communist China and Viet Nam, namely emphasizing economic development without
parallel political development. Most people anywhere would accept that as a cup
half full, as it allows them some freedom and agency in their daily life while giving
them no role in choosing their leadership or governing laws.
My granddaughter was up from
Florida, visiting us and her 11-year-old son, who is staying here for the summer.
She was also taking care of a local friend’s 8-month-old baby, a very precocious
child, not only showing teeth in a broad smile, but who can stand and walk a
few steps alone, pick up tiny snips of food to eat, and even bring a spoon to
his mouth, in stark contrast to most children I’ve seen when working as an interpreter
in home therapy.
Riding with my daughter to go meet my granddaughter,
we were involved in a fairly minor 5-car chain accident. The driver
of a car ahead had apparently changed his/her mind about turning off, veering
back onto the highway, then speeding off, causing 5 cars behind to slam on
their brakes, crashing slightly into each other. The back of my daughter’s car
was hit pretty hard and we were jolted, but not injured. The driver of the car ahead of us, who at first had been walking around, decided that a previous back
injury had been aggravated and left in an ambulance. My daughter laments that
her insurance will rise. The car that hit us from behind has the same insurance
and faces the same fate. But the errant driver who had caused all this chaos had
gone ahead scot-free.
While
I am not fond of hot peppers myself,
the potted plant grown from seeds by previous Bhutanese visitors, continues to
bear fruit. I can only give them away.
While many Catholics adhere to a seamless
support of life from prenatal through natural death and in
opposition to capital punishment, it is also true that some advocates for the
unborn still support executions for those who have committed capital crimes. At
the other end of the political spectrum, many vociferous opponents of capital
punishment are equally adamant in supporting a woman’s “right to choose.” There
is often little middle ground, at least among activists for both sides. Yet a
growing number of people are voluntary vegetarians because they oppose killing
animals for food. And a woman stomping on a turtle-egg nest was arrested, apparently
for endangering unborn turtles. What does the “right to life” encompass? It
seems to depend on the consensus of the tribe you consider that you belong to. I
have no problem with voluntary euthanasia by someone with a terminal illness
who is cognitively and emotionally sound. Where does that put me on the political
spectrum if I am also not so supportive of 2nd trimester abortions? I do think
the 2nd and 3rd trimesters are where “pro-life” folks
should put their efforts and where the Supreme Court might rule to further
parse the broad and somewhat vague outlines afforded by Roe. But the subject of
abortion has grown so contentious and partisan that it is not an issue the
politicians on either side should be willing to tackle in any depth or nuance
right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment