Back in the U.S.S.R.

There are a lot of good writers out there these days, and you have to be lucky to catch them all. MSNBC gives a lot of leads to various opinionators from the NYT and WaPo, but there are many good writers beyond those two publications. Check out Substack, Alternet, Mother Jones, and so many others. Even in this era of internet aggregators, it's hard to catch everything worth catching. Damn near impossible. Despair is not an option.

'Back in the U.S.S.R.'

by Noel Casler

Feb 17, 2024

Pour one out for Alexei.

 

I don’t say this to be glib. 

I am quite serious that at this moment Americans need to take stock.

Alexei Navalny represented a spirit of bravery and stoicism in standing up to corruption - and the oppression that always follows it - with a steadfast and unwavering resoluteness. 

An example and hero to millions of Russians and freedom-loving people all over the world. 

He was the sort of person that the Republican Party at one point in their existence would have seen as a hero and a role model.

 

They would have lauded him from every angle.

 

Now they will have to laugh along as Trump undoubtedly makes Navalny’s death into some sort of punchline while praising Putin at the next MAGA rally.

 

That Navalny’s death came in the same week that Speaker Johnson blocked a vote in the House on the Senate’s Ukraine aid package is no accident.

Nor is it any coincidence that it came on the heels of Tucker Carlson’s fawning and propaganda-filled interview with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. 

And the subsequent pro-Russia content Tucker has been furiously uploading to his twitter account all week.

 

His pro-Putin hagiography tour finding an eager hype man in the salivating retweets by Elon Musk.

 

Carlson’s own comments when confronted this week at the World Governments Summit with Putin’s brutality, ’every leader kills people….’

 

It’s disgusting stuff but should sound familiar to anyone paying attention.

 

Russian talking points always follow the same script: see Trump’s ‘Super Bowl’ interview with Bill O’Reilly in February of 2017 when he was asked about Vladimir’s brutality, ‘You think our country is so innocent..there are lots of killers’.

Tucker becoming Russia’s foremost content creator comes as people are being rounded up and arrested in cities all over Russia right now for memorializing and gathering in remembrance of Navalny. 

Russian forces are removing the flowers left at monuments and arresting journalists covering the scenes. 

Putin wants to make Alexei Navalny disappear from the consciousness of the millions of Russians who supported him - and there are many members of the American conservative movement that would gladly help him. 

It’s a sad day indeed: one in which people who value democracy and love freedom need to stand up and take stock of where we are headed as a nation. 

The GOP has been in the pocket of Vladimir Putin for some time - this is no secret to even casual observers of American politics. 

The former Soviet Union started spreading cash around D.C. in the ’90s with no surfeit in sight. 

Their investments have paid dividends in the MAGA era. 

So much so that Putin has been able to completely change the narrative around Russia within the Republican Party. 

Vladimir Putin is practically celebrated on Fox News and in the halls of the GOP Congress. 

Republicans have gone out of their way to both cut support and rhetorically undermine Ukraine and minimize Russia’s horrific invasion.

This is accomplished by outright Putin toadstools in the GOP firmament. 

In both the Republican House and Senate there are no shortage of Putin apologists.

 

From the obvious lap dogs like the poodle-permed Rand Paul, to the lasciviously greedy like Ron Johnson. 

Over on the house side of the Hill it’s smarmy frat bros like Matt Gaetz who proclaim things like ‘Russia’s never done anything to me…”; using his stalling of Kevin McCarthy’s Speakership to leverage cutting Ukraine aid (to the detriment of his own state and constituents, as Florida earns billions from manufacturing weapons used by Ukraine). 

We should also remember the recent snub of President Zelensky when he requested to address Congress on a U.S. visit in September and was denied by then Speaker McCarthy.

Bravery isn’t a good look for the modern GOP so they try to avoid any examples of it at all costs.

Men like Zelensky and Navalny are examples of real leadership and selfless service - which is the polar opposite of the cult of personality that has formed around Donald Trump. 

The GOP’s aim is the constant massaging of Trump’s delicate and very damaged ego. 

‘Trump works for Putin and we work for Trump’ could be the modern Republican mantra. 

There is no easier way to distill what I am trying to say than saying it like that. 

I do feel it is important to meditate on this moment and see very clearly what many of our fellow countrymen have become and where we are heading collectively as a nation. 

For anyone that lived through the Cold War era this turnaround in the Republican Party is quite shocking. 

I’m in my early fifties now, so I only caught the last 20 years of the Cold War but it was enough of a taste to realize - it is hard to believe we are even talking about the same Republican Party. 

But we are not talking about the same party and I guess that is the point. 

The party of Rambo and Ronnie Reagan has become the party of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and a thousand other Russian sycophants looking to suck up and follow the model of Putin’s kleptocracy and set up shop for an American oligarchy. 

Trump will of course assert himself at the top of that food chain and his minions will become his version of the Russian billionaires who bled their country dry while their daughters shop in Palm Beach and buy apartments in New York City that cost more than most Russians will make in a lifetime. 

If you have spent anytime in Monte Carlo or Mayfair or Miami you can find them everywhere, the duck-lips and Balenciaga bags, bleached blonde, plucked and coiffed with that dead-eyed look that always comes from placing money above morality. 

That recipe looks pretty tasty if you’re in line to become an oligarch yourself. Many of the billionaires who bought up judges and politicians at Trump’s behest have no problem with the conspicuous consumption of other people’s money. 

Jared Kushner, who lives the high life with Vanky on Indian Creek, a private island in Miami designed solely for billionaires, will play an outsized role in this burgeoning kleptocracy.

He was the chief architect of the initial Trump administration’s designs on turning the USA into an oligarchy - and also the one who has seemingly gotten away with it.

 

He can now direct his evil minions with the smugness of a hairless cat luxuriating the in the South Florida sun. 

Many forget that while Trump was still just a president-elect, Jared set up a back channel with the Kremlin, going around U.S. intelligence agencies. Naturally this came to light, so when Trump assumed office Kushner’s original security clearance was denied, only to be overridden, against our intelligence and security agencies wishes by Trump himself. 

Kushner then steered his father-in-law’s foreign policy decisions based on how much they would benefit Vladimir Putin and of course MBS.

Given Trump’s recent comments on NATO and allowing Putin’s Russia to “do whatever the hell they want….” when it comes to invading European allies, the GOP’s blocking of Ukraine aid and Putin’s murderous impulses and imperialistic designs, we are quite clearly in a moment of peril and pathos.

Brave men do not die in vain: Alexei Navalny was astoundingly brave and not unaware of how his story would end. 

His life should serve as an example to all of us to light and stoke the fires of fierce non-violent, political opposition to any and all enemies of freedom.

Even when those threats appear to be homegrown.

I will stop writing now and let Alexei Navalny’s words speak for themselves: 

“Listen, I’ve got something very obvious to tell you. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong.” 

And this quote from a letter he wrote upon his return to Russia, “Everything will be all right. Even if it isn’t we’ll have the consolation of having lived honest lives.” 

May his memory inspire and guide us all, rest easy, Alexei Navalny.

Original.

Jamelle Bouie

Jamelle Bouie is an Opinion Columnist for the New York Times. 

I would say Jamelle has a progressive bent. Many on the left have turned on the New York Times and have cancelled their subscriptions apparently because the NYT has been "hard" and "unfair" on the topic of Biden's age. Some purists reach back to the NYT's checkered past - as in being somewhat sympathetic to Hitler in the 1930's (like a whole lot of Americans were); pushing the Whitewater bullshit about Bill and Hillary Clinton; helping, intentionally or inadvertently, Bush promote his lies about WMD; and flogging Hillary Clinton in the much-ado-about-nothing emails episode - to justify their disgust. Sure, they have published some bullshit as news before, and they have apologized in some cases and not apologized in others. 

Still, to me, the NYT is a valuable asset to have available. Some of their Board and Opinion Columnists may have a right-wing axe to grind, but certainly not all of them. And so what? It helps to see what garbage is coming from the right. 

Trump Is Losing It

by Jamalle Bouie, Opinion Columnist

Feb 13, 2024

It is unclear whether Donald Trump has forgotten the precise nature of NATO or whether he ever fully grasped it in the first place.

What is clear, however, is that Trump — who ostensibly spent four years as president of the United States — has little clue about what NATO is or what NATO does. And when he spoke on the subject at a rally in South Carolina over the weekend, what he said was less a cogent discussion of foreign policy than it was gibberish — the kind of outrageous nonsense that flows without interruption from an empty and unreflective mind.

“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’” Trump said, recalling an implausible conversation with an unnamed, presumably European head of state. “‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recounted responding. “‘No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”

The former president’s message was clear: If NATO members do not pay up, then he will leave them to the mercy of a continental aggressor who has already plunged one European country into death, destruction and devastation.

Except NATO isn’t a mafia protection racket. NATO, in case anyone needs to be reminded, is a mutual defense organization, formed by treaty in 1949 as tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union hardened into conflict. “The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” states Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

According to the terms of an agreement reached last year, member states will work to spend at least 2 percent of national G.D.P. on military investment.

But let’s set this bit of fact-checking aside for a moment and look at the big picture.

It is not just that Trump is ignorant on this and other vital questions; it is that he is incoherent.

Consider his remarks at a recent gathering of the National Rifle Association in Harrisburg, Pa. “We have to win in November, or we’re not going to have Pennsylvania. They’ll change the name. They’re going to change the name of Pennsylvania,” Trump said.

Who, exactly, is going to change the name of Pennsylvania? And to what? I don’t know. I doubt Trump does either.

Or consider the time, last November, when Trump confused China and North Korea, telling an audience of supporters in Florida that “Kim Jong Un leads 1.4 billion people, and there is no doubt about who the boss is. And they want me to say he’s not an intelligent man.”

There was also the time that Trump mistook Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations, for Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House.

“Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it, because of lots of things like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people,” Trump said, repeating his false claim that Pelosi was responsible for the failure of Capitol security on Jan. 6.

If you would like, you can also try to make sense of the former president’s recent attempt to describe a missile defense system:

“I will build an Iron Dome over our country, a state-of-the-art missile defense shield made in the U.S.A.,” Trump said, before taking an unusual detour. “These are not muscle guys here, they’re muscle guys up here, right,” he continued, gesturing to his arms and his head to emphasize, I guess, that the people responsible for building such systems are capable and intelligent.

“And they calmly walk to us, and ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. They’ve only got 17 seconds to figure this whole thing out. Boom. OK. Missile launch. Whoosh. Boom,” he added.

I assume Trump is describing the pressure of actually manning a missile defense system. Even so, one would think that a former president — currently vying to be the next president — would at least try to be a little more articulate.

But this gets to one of the oddest things about this election cycle so far. There is no shortage of coverage of President Biden’s age, even if there’s no evidence that his age has been an obstacle to his ability to perform his duties. Indeed, it is plainly true that Biden has been an unusually successful president in areas, like legislative negotiations, that require skill and mental acuity.

Coverage of Biden’s age, in other words, has more to do with the vibes of an “elderly” president — he isn’t as outwardly vigorous and robust as we would like — than it does with any particular issue with his performance.

In contrast to the obsessive coverage of Biden’s age, there is comparatively little coverage of Trump’s obvious deficiencies in that department. If we are going to use public comments as the measure of mental fitness, then the former president is clearly at a disadvantage.

Unfortunately for Biden, Trump benefits from something akin to the soft bigotry of low expectations. Because no one expected Trump, in the 2016 election, to speak and behave like a normal candidate, he was held to a lower effective standard than his rivals in both parties. Because no one expected him, during his presidency, to be orderly and responsible, his endless scandals were framed as business as usual. And because no one now expects him to be a responsible political figure with a coherent vision for the country, it’s as if no one blinks an eye when he rants and raves on the campaign trail.

It’s not that there aren’t legitimate reasons to be concerned about Biden’s age. He is already the oldest person to serve in the Oval Office. The issue here is one of proportion and consequence. Biden may be unable to do the job at some point in the future; Trump, it seems to me, already is.

One of those is a lot more concerning than the other. 

Gifted Original.

Based in Charlottesville, VA., and Washington, Jamelle Bouie became a New York Times Opinion columnist in 2019. Before that he was the chief political correspondent for Slate magazine.

Jill Biden

Even First Lady Jill Biden had a few things to say about this recent hit job, I mean, Special Counsel report:

Friend,

I’ve heard from so many of you asking about the Special Counsel's report this week. Thank you for your love and support. 

You probably know the basics: Joe cooperated fully with a Special Counsel’s investigation and they found he did nothing wrong -- no criminal charges were warranted. I thought Heather Cox Richardson wrote about it eloquently here.

The reason I’m writing is because of what else was in the report: Inaccurate and personal political attacks about Joe. Rather than just saying the case was closed, as they have for others, the Special Counsel claimed that Joe “couldn’t remember the year his son died.” Believe me, like anyone who has lost a child, Beau and his death never leave him.

I hope you can imagine how it felt to read that attack -- not just as Joe’s wife, but as Beau’s mother.

I don’t know what this Special Counsel was trying to achieve. We should give everyone grace, and I can’t imagine someone would try to use our son’s death to score political points. If you’ve experienced a loss like that, you know that you don’t measure it in years -- you measure it in grief.

May 30th is a day forever etched on our hearts. It shattered me, it shattered our family.

So many of you know that feeling after you lose a loved one, where you feel like you can’t get off the floor. What helped me, and what helped Joe, was to find purpose. That’s what keeps Joe going, serving you and the country we love.

Joe is 81, that’s true, but he’s 81 doing more in an hour than most people do in a day. Joe has wisdom, empathy, and vision. He has delivered on so many of his promises as President precisely because he’s learned a lot in those 81 years. His age, with his experience and expertise, is an incredible asset and he proves it every day.

Look at all he’s accomplished: He brought our country back from COVID. He brought our economy back from the brink. He created 14 million jobs. Gas prices are down. Inflation is down. Energy costs are down. He got bipartisan legislation passed -- even in the midst of this hyper-partisan environment. The media may not give him credit, but I’m thankful you realize all he’s done for this country.

Joe is the most resilient person I’ve ever known. When he gets knocked down, he gets back up and gets back to work. That’s what he’s doing.

It is just so meaningful to both of us to have you behind us. Your support is what keeps this campaign moving forward.

At some point in our lives, we’ll all experience grief or loss. We’ll go through challenging moments and twists and turns. But we find joy together, we persevere together, and ultimately we’ll prevail together.

Thank you for being part of our campaign. 

Love,

Jill