More polls and more confusion. This time it’s the kids and how they feel about the candidates. They don’t get specific about who and how old these young people are, but they show a significant lead for Biden on women’s rights, LGBT rights, and student loan debt while they show good readings for Trump on the border, the economy, and America’s image overseas. That’s the one that stopped me. How anyone can be so uninformed as to think we had a better image with Trump in the White House than we do with Biden? It’s just incomprehensible. Where do these kids get their information?
When I think of Trump involved in international affairs, I think of him fucking up a perfectly good Iran nuclear deal. I think of him stating that he was falling in love with the tubby little leader of North Korea while that fat troll was rolling out nuclear weapons to threaten us and our allies in the Pacific corridor. I think of Trump all but going down on Putin in public and his turning most of our European allies against us by his opposition to NATO. I think of Trump’s trade policies of imposing tariffs on imports that raised the consumer cost of our imported goods which generated the growth of inflation. And by the way, where do those kids who are for Trump’s economy think the high prices came from if not from Trump’s tariffs? Four years of watching Trump make a fool of himself in front of the leaders of all our enemies and the world at large, should have been enough for anyone, but the young voters were so locked into their phone apps and online games that their pathetic education wasn’t enough to make up for their lack of insight and the information gap. Result: they just don’t know what they’re talking about.
*****
I watched interviews with a group of southern voters, all of whom were prepared to vote for Trump. They all believe the last election was rigged and it seemed they were prepared to feel the same way about the next election unless Trump won. One woman stated emphatically that the only way she would believe it was a fair election was if Trump won.
Of course, that flies in the face of all logic. You can’t base your belief in the outcome, or the result of the outcome. It’s not logical, or reasonable, but then no one has accused these fools of being either. Their intellectual process is equal to a childish desire for that sweet treat that is destined to make them sick. Their intellectual capacity is limited to a desire with no ability to deduce how that desire will be satisfied or whether or not it should be.
*****
The campus demonstrations over the Gaza problem go on and on. People keep equating them with the demonstrations of the 60’s but they are nothing alike. The 60’s demonstrations were definitely more violent especially those in Chicago, but more to the point the 60’s were more intelligently motivated. They were against a phony war, and the demonstrators could enumerate their points of contention as to why we should be out of that war.
Today’s demonstrators seem unable to grasp the truth of the situation. They are driven by a wild combination of enthusiasm, prejudice, and ignorance. Most seem blissfully unaware of the facts or the problems of the Gaza invasion and are often driven by religiously controlled concepts that definitely have an ax to grind.
The schools have completely surrendered their franchises, and instead of attempting to teach or lead, they have stepped aside and allowed the outside influences to take over their campuses.
University Presidents are not chosen in this day and age for their abilities as generals, but more often for their ability to raise money, so seeing what has transpired it appears that there is a definite need for other skills. Most of the university presidents who haven’t bought the Muslim creed, have just whimpped out. The teachers instead of teaching have jumped on the popularity train and are out there demonstrating with their equally uninformed students. It’s a mess and with a Chicago convention of our own coming up it just looks like it’s going to get worse.
*****
Margaret Brennan interviewed Mitch McConnell this past Sunday and he registered an apology to Ukrainian president Zelenskyy for the delays caused to the release of the weapons money finally voted to Ukraine last week. But then they got into politics and, crafty, dishonest ole Mitch really hasn’t changed one iota. Every question was answered by the mantra of his only goal being the strengthening of the GOP in the Senate. He avoided any interpretation of his feelings about Trump like the plague. Mitch is getting old and a little shaky, but he is as obstinate as ever and still the double dealer that poisoned the Supreme Court.
*****
Bret Stevens and Bruce Robbins, a professor at Columbia appeared on GPS this weekend discussing the student demonstrations. These are two very intelligent men, led by probably the most intelligent host on TV and still the discussion went nowhere.
I have always felt that the reason we cannot have sensible discussions about the Gaza problem is that there is no viable solution as to how to eliminate Hamas without killing civilians, when Hamas is dug in among all the Palestinians. But they must be eliminated as long as they continue to swear to kill all the Jews in the Middle East.
But these two, very intelligent, thinkers weren’t hindered by the lack of a solution, they were unable to recognize the problem. They talked around the problem, bringing up the ills that the Israeli government had imposed on the Palestinian people, dealing with the fact that the Jews in Israel have suffered through the holocaust, worrying about the fact that of all the countries that have like problems with humane violations, Israel is the only one with the backing of the United States. These are all valid complaints but none of them matter until someone comes up with a solution as to what Israel is supposed to do about stopping Hamas without killing civilians who are all mixed up with them in the field.
Even more ridiculous is the tsunami of feeling aimed at Biden and the Israelis over the hostages and the fact that they have not been returned. Does any sensible person really think that anyone, but Hamas and Netanyahu are responsible for that, or that after over 200 days there are still hostages, and it’s not going to change. Hamas can’t negotiate even though it wants a cease fire to give it time to reconstitute its forces, because a large percentage of those hostages are probably dead, and when that’s discovered the world in general is going to come down on them with both feet. Netanyahu doesn’t want any agreements because the longer he drags this out the longer he stays out of jail. It’s a problem with no solution and for those who want to give a bigger seat at the table to the PLO, forget it. They have had many chances to have their own country under a two-state solution and have always walked away from the table.
Looks hopeless doesn’t it. Well, it is, and it’s not going to get any better until some very smart or very lucky leader comes up with a solution to the real problem of how to save the civilians in Gaza without Israel getting massacred by Hamas. And it will probably involve getting rid of Bibi.
I have never trusted the Likud Party or their leaders — starting with BiBi. No matter how I fear Hamas and the international terrorist actions they have committed, in part I blame Netayahu and the Likud Party for the freedom of their establishment and the weakness pf the Palastinian Authority.
To you, my dear friend,
Arlen the Snar
I have never trusted the Likud Party or their leaders — starting with BiBi. No matter how I fear Hamas and the international terrorist actions they have committed, in part I blame Netayahu and the Likud Party for the freedom of their establishment and the weakness pf the Palastinian Authority. To you, my dear friend, Arlen the Snar
Yes, Please. Night night Bibi.*
Snar
*My sweetest dreams