Tacking Right

 The fact that the establishment Democrats want to tack to the right on most issues, supposedly to win the "next election" is beyond arguing anymore (and it's not a new thing). There are two problems with this strategy. One, it doesn't seem to work. And two (more importantly) it is morally bankrupt.

What happens is that every tack to the right concedes issues to the Right. Take the border. The public posture as presented is that, yes, the border is in crisis, but we Democrats have a better way of dealing with it. My contention is that there is no crisis. Maybe there are problems to be solved on the border and immigration, but every "problem" is not a "crisis". Once you have conceded the fiction that there is a crisis, you have greased the wheels for those who want to use the most extreme measures to solve it.

Trans athletes? Yeah, there are some issues to be discussed. But the dozen or so actual trans athletes out of 300 million Americans hardly amount to even a big deal, much less a crisis, but you wouldn't know that from the politicians and NY Times columnists. You have just given Trump and Hegseth and Mace permission to persecute trans people all over the country.

Is there antisemitism on colloege campuses? Probably. There is antisemitism everywhere. Is there a crisis of antisemitism on campuses? I call bullshit. The real crisis is the genocide and war crimes being committed by the US and Israel in Gaza and the West Bank. But Schumer, Jeffries, Pelosi, Biden, Hillary Clinton are all in with ADL and AIPAC (both of which are now just supporters of evil). Any criticism of Israel is antisemitic to the Dems in 2025.

The Dems can keep going rightward to satisfy Third Way and AIPAC and the popularists, instead of supporting what is right simply because it's right. But I am looking elsewhere.

 

 

Quote of the Day

 "Gaza is and should be the dividing line in our history, because all of the beliefs that we once had about the moral order of the world — about international law and human rights — have been deliberately pulverized. Together the Israelis and the United States have destroyed it."

--Author/Journalist James Robins, Jacobin interview 

Random Bullets

Random thoughts

• Costco Colombian coffee has gone up about 40% since Trump took office: 12/2/24--$14.99; 8/5/25--$20.99. I view it as a tax increase for me to help "pay for" Trump's billionaire tax cut. Tariffs on coffee are pretty stupid: it can't be grown in the continental US. It's just a tax paid by consumers, plain and simple. 
• The overtly racist Trump ICE secret police are now racially profiling (violating a court order) and publicly bragging about it.
• Trying to figure out by what stretch of the imagination the FBI has any jurisdiction over a state if Texas poliical dispute where no law has been broken. I know--stuoid question in 2025.
• I am a big sports fan, but am losing interest when the leagues start mimicking Ivy League schools and bending their knees to Trump by joining his phony sports council.
• As expected, Netanyahu announced that Israel plans to occupy Gaza.
• Also saw today that 1.5% of Gazan farm land is damaged and/or unfarmable. We knew from the outset that Israel's goal was to make it uninhabitable, and here we are. According to the ADL, if you find this unacceptable, you are antisemitic. (Actually, both parties seem to agree with the ADL.)

 

 

Israel the Occupier

Netanyahu plans to occupy Gaza. It appears that he may be meeting some opposition, so we will see what happens in the end.

It was clear, however, since shortly after the Hamas attack in October 2023, that occupation was the ultimate plan. Eveyone knew that, and a great proportion of Western governments publicly and dishonestly denied it.

Most notable among these governments, of course, was the US administration of Joe Biden. It is his administration that owns this. He could have stopped it at any time. Not only did he not do so, but he actively and vocally supported the genocide throughout, and actively and dishonestly labelled any US opposition as antisemitic. He was silent when Congress went after American college campuses where protests occurred.

But Biden was not alone. To this day, a majority of elected Democrats in Congress (in opposition to the actual grassroots of the party) have totally supported the genocide. They were also silent--and therefore complicit--when Elise Stefanik lied about antisemitism on campus. There have been a few notable exceptions, but the national elected Democrats are totally guilty in this. It's pretty hard to put the blame in the lap of Donald Trump.

Any Democrat running for national office who does not (1) explicitly condemn the genocide and (2) support some form of Palestinian statehood--now--will not receive my vote.