Politics: National Archives - Page 10 of 35

We need to talk about Bernie

Much of the pushback I received over the previous post on Hillary Clinton took place on Facebook. The pushers were fervent Bernie Sanders fans who argued I wasn't taking him seriously as a candidate. So I hope we can continue the debate here where many more thousands of readers will see it.

I get it. I love the way Sanders talks about the oligarchy that has taken over our politics, the inequality that has destroyed the middle class, the financialization that has wrecked the economy. He's right about all this.

I just don't see how he's electable.

My concerns were similar in 2004 with John Kerry. The Democratic establishment saw him as the "electable" candidate, even though a Democrat from the Northeast, from Massachusetts no less, had not won the presidency since 1960. And John F. Kennedy probably didn't honestly win that one.

Kerry was properly "swift boated" as an anti-war traitor by members of the vast right-wing infrastructure who had sat out the Vietnam War on repeated deferments. And we got another four years of the worst president since James Buchanan.

Jon Talton August 27, 201575

Politics: National

Thinking about Hillary

I don't want to but the media make it almost impossible. They have been fixated on her, and mostly in a malicious way, since 1992. The New York Times keeps floating trial balloons for the mediocre Joe Biden to get in the race.

Biden? I'm sorry the man lost his son, Beau, but as a presidential candidate he would be a disaster in a race trending populist, what with his vote for the 2005 bill that made it much more difficult for working people to declare bankruptcy and his son, Hunter, on the payroll of a credit-card giant. Good old Amtrak Joe hasn't done anything to expand or improve passenger rail during the past six-plus years. And this is before the vice president opens his mouth to give one of his blunder-filled speechathons.

Then there's Bernie Sanders, whose popularity is supposedly rattling the Clinton camp. As much as Bernie gives 'em hell and tells is like it is, he would win one state in the general election. One. If you don't believe me, you need to get out of the progressive echo chamber.

Benghazi is a dead end except for the Republican dead-enders who wouldn't vote for Clinton anyway. The private email account is a different matter, one of those reminders of the inexplicable things Bill and Hill do — the crazymaking we've forgotten during these years of No-Drama Obama. Why on earth did she do this? It might be nothing. But it looks bad — at the least bad judgment that is so at odds with the solid record she has built.

It does say something about the state of our republic that poor-boy-from-Hot-Springs (oh, Hope!) William Jefferson Clinton spent much of his adult life seeking and holding elected office in a poor, Southern state. Then he served two terms as president (salary at the time, $200,000 a year). And he ends up a zillionaire. He and the Candidate have been renting a lil' summer place in the Hamptons for two weeks costing $100,000.

And this is supposed to be the tribune of the average American?

Jon Talton August 24, 201563

Politics: National

Bomb Iran?

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran — John McCain, channeling the Beach Boys

Republicans are dead set against President Obama's plan, worked out with Russia, China, the UK, France, Germany and Iran, to at least forestall the Islamic Republic from making nuclear weapons.

Israel doesn't like it! It's not verifiable! It won't succeed! It's not what Ronald Reagan would do!

In fact, it's exactly what Reagan would do. Dutch happily did business with Iran to finance the Contras. And as his horror of nuclear weapons grew, he came very close to making a deal with Mikhail Gorbachev to completely eliminate them.

As usual, the Republicans don't have a real alternative. It's like repealing Obamacare.

Jon Talton August 13, 201539

Politics: National

Send in the clowns

Tonight, the clown car of Republican presidential contenders will drive into the ring of the Fox "News" circus and they will all pile out, with enough hot air to do in the dodgy New York developer's combover. (One of my vows is not to mention him by name).

Today, I wrote a column at the Seattle Times on the economic questions that should — but won't — be asked. Earlier this week, Kunstler had a superb piece on "matters that serious candidates should dare to talk about." It's really worth a read, even for those of you who are Kunstlered-out.

Yet it says something about out Cold Civil War that nearly half the nation will look at the fools tumbling out of the clown car — not one of whom has done anything constructive for the public good — and see the next president.

Behold, the heirs to Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ike. These "conservative" voters will view this not for sport or comedy, but with ultra-seriousness.

Anybody but that Islamo-fascist socialist (pssst Negro) in the White House. Lord, if this is socialism, where are my high-speed trains, free university education, universal health care and month's paid vacation?

Jon Talton August 6, 201563

Politics: National

Confederacy of dunces

So we're agreed that the Confederate battle flag is an outrage and no small contributor to…what happened again?

Oh, yes, the monstrous act of domestic terrorism that resulted in nine martyrs at one of the nation's most historic, and consequential, African-American churches.

Sorry to offend, but from my Twitter and Facebook feeds, heavily populated by liberals ("progressives"), I might think the chief problem is the Confederate battle flag. The reality is more troubling.

The two elections of Barack Obama to the White House brought out something momentously ugly in parts of America. The radical right has proved more dangerous than jihadists, but the Southern Poverty Law Center focused on the "lone wolf" phenomenon of both in a prescient April report.

Beyond the assassins are the effective racist dog whistles that have sounded for the past six years, especially on talk radio and Fox "News." As recently as this year, a poll showed 34 percent of Republicans think it is "likely" Mr. Obama is not a U.S. citizen. This polarization has also been paid for by the wealthy oligarchs and corporate "persons."

I hesitate to say that the GOP and the tea party have the blood of Charleston on their hands. But even in the aftermath of the attack, Republican officials couldn't state the obvious: This was a deliberate attack on black people by a white racist.

Jon Talton June 22, 201549

Politics: National

That seventies show

Over the weekend, I posted this comment on Facebook:

Jimmy Carter, at 90, was in the area to attend the change of command of the attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter.

He was a failed president. I remember him as the holier-than-thou Baptist. He frustrated even his chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan, who later became my friend. But along with John Quincy Adams, he has been our best former president.

He was the only president to graduate from the Naval Academy, was a protege of Admiral Hyman Rickover, and intended to make the Navy his career until his father died. He was also the only president to "qualify in submarines."

Only years later did I understand what an achievement this was. Sailors and officers (like Carter) were trained before being assigned to subs. But to "qualify" meant learning every job, skill and task aboard a submarine. So it's a huge accomplishment and the mastery that makes a submariner special.

So no chickenhawk has standing to criticize Carter.

Now, I was simply trying to say something nice about the man. But as is often the case with "social media" — god, I hate the 21st century — it didn't end there.

Jon Talton June 1, 201586

Politics: National

‘Til Kingdom come

After spending more than six years with Republicans questioning whether he is an American citizen and likening him to Hitler, the snub by the Saudi king was just another day at the office for Barack Obama.

But I can't help thinking what Harry Truman would do. More than once, confronted by the infamous "Do Nothing" Republican Congress, which is the Constitutional Convention by comparison with their successors today, Truman said in various iterations, "You may not like me, but you sure as hell will respect the office of the President of the United States."

I've got no problem doing the Full Harry on the House of Saud.

In 2010, Mr. Obama agreed to sell $60 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. I'm sure that made the Military Industrial Complex happy, but think how much $60 billion would do to rebuild our lethally decrepit passenger rail system? (Amtrak's subsidy — and all modes of transportation, especially airlines and roads are subsidized — will be $1.1 billion if the GOP House has its way.

And let's quit buying Saudi oil — nearly $58 million a day as of February. Sure, they can sell to the Chinese, but that will be more problematic when we withdraw the U.S. Navy from the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. Let the People's Liberation Army Navy or David Cameron's tiny Royal Navy pick up the slack.

Most of that Saudi oil, like carbon all over the world, needs to stay in the ground if we are to avoid leaving our grandchildren a planet out of a science-fiction nightmare. This is a good start. It would likely speed conversion to renewables, greater conservation, energy innovation and, yes, more trains. We have a surplus of oil to see through the transition.

Jon Talton May 14, 201530

Downtown & central Phoenix Phoenix Politics: National

Writing off the news*

So wealthy Republican Cara Carlton Sneed, aka "Carly Fiorina," is running for president. She represents everything wrong in an America run by oligarchy, including running venerable Hewlett Packard into the ground and laying off tens of thousands of people.

The two businessmen who became president were Warren G. Harding and George W. Bush. In fact, government can't and shouldn't be run like a business. A business, especially a big business today, seeks only its own growth and increasing stock price. Too many of its leaders, Fiorina included, are sociopaths with no notion of the public good. So she'll fit right with the Republican contenders.

It tells us something that this supposed titan of technology forgot to register her domain name.

Now, on to Arizona…

• I read that McDowell Road in Scottsdale is "continues (its) resurgence." With what little capital that metro Phoenix attracts clustering to the eastside — which should be a hair-on-fire issue at Phoenix City Hall — this isn't surprising. Here's what McDowell won't be: walkable, livable, or accessible to frequent transit. Make it shady, narrow it by four lanes or so, extend light rail, and plant mature shade trees and then you're talking.

• Narrowing a portion of 32nd Street is a good start in Phoenix. Unfortunately, it is outside the Salt River Project so the shade trees that would make it walkable for all but those seeking skin cancer is impossible. It is also served only by the 16 bus, not enough. So one-and-a-half cheers.

Jon Talton May 4, 201525

Politics: National

The left-wing bubble

If you follow the news through a certain group of Web sites (Huffington Post, Salon, Vox, etc. — even the New York Times)… If you run in circles where everyone is college-educated and progressive… Then events such as Ferguson and Baltimore fit a precise narrative.

Police are murdering unarmed black men in great numbers and getting away with it. The elites have turned their backs on African-Americans. Rioting is a rational response to despair. "Thug" is another word for n*gger. The war on drugs is a war on the underclass. Incarceration rates of black men are immorally high. Whites don't get it, none of it, from their position of privilege.

And some of this is even true.

Unfortunately, this is a rare case where there is equivalency between progressives and the right-wing. Both are operating in their distinct echo-chambers, their bubbles. For progressives, asking for a more nuanced and factual approach to understanding these problems risks losing friends and being labeled a racist.

The right-wing bubble sees things very differently. These are criminals, and the ones who aren't still live an adversarial gangsta lifestyle. They are "takers." Why do they have children they can't afford or support? Why are they on the street in the middle of the day, loudly taking up the sidewalk, instead of working? Why don't they obey police orders? Look how successful Asians are. Look how many blacks have advanced, even if it's through affirmative action.

Jon Talton April 30, 2015103

Politics: National

The woman and the moment

This marks the third presidential election since Rogue Columnist launched. And even though it is some 18 months before voters go to the polls, I'm already exhausted. I'm already missing the "front-porch campaigns" of the 19th century, when it was considered unseemly to appear to covet the highest office in the land.

The Republicans offer up the usual clown college, with even less experience. No new ideas. Just new countries to attack. Gone are the days when the GOP was a mass party and great debates between the likes of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller presented genuine choices. And yet the Republicans are highly successful in extending the governance of the New Confederacy.

That ever-more besieged and pushed-into- coastal-enclaves tribe of liberals would like to see Elizabeth Warren run for the Democratic nomination. I have the highest regard for Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders. They would also carry perhaps one state in the Electoral College.

That leaves the Democrats with Hillary Clinton. She faces serious obstacles. Some are of her own making. She's not a natural campaigner, lacks telegenic charisma (not as bad as Bruce Babbitt who was wonderful in small groups), and is attached to a real potential scandal (The Clinton Foundation, not Benghazi).

The corporate media can't report on issues. That leaves personalities, and Hillary is their catnip. But not like Reagan. For the worst kind of coverage. Recall that the pre-Murdoch Wall Street Journal virtually accused her of killing aide Vince Foster. Worse, the historic vitriol directed by the vast rightwing infrastructure and average working-class whites against President Obama will turn against Hillary with the ease of the old Soviet party line.

Jon Talton April 21, 201561

Politics: National

The callow field

The problem with wealthy Republican John Sydney McCain III running for a sixth term has nothing to do with his age. Far from it. In the past, age was prized for its experience and wisdom. Sen. Carl Hayden won funding for the Central Arizona Project when he was 91.

The shame is two-fold. Unlike Hayden and almost all of the congressional delegation during the 20th century, McCain has done nothing to help Arizona, a state deeply dependent on the federal government. Second, all of McCain's seasoning has been squandered on flip-flopping, opportunism, and working the Sunday news shows. What a waste.

The man he lost the presidency to in 2008 was another senator, freshman Barack Obama. I have a prediction: When Obama is out of office, he will be missed by most, not least for being No Drama Obama. But that is a column for another day, another year.

His unfortunate precedent was to make it appear legitimate for a freshman senator to run for the presidency (with an assist from McCain, who chose the half-term governor of Alaska as his running mate). Few people have Obama's intellect, maturity, and integrity — least of all (not so wealthy) Republicans Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz and Randal Howard "Rand" Paul, but they are running for the most powerful office in the world. (So, too, is Marco Rubio, another- first-term senator, who announced after this column originally posted).

Jon Talton April 9, 201554

Politics: National

Still Nixon to kick around

I was listening to a Fresh Air podcast the other day when the guest said that President Richard Nixon, elected as a conservative Republican, declared a federal "war on cancer" in 1971 with seed money of $100 million for research ($580 million in today's dollars). It started the trajectory that now has cancer-research funding at $4.8 billion.

That snippet reminded me that Nixon also created the Environmental Protection Agency and enthusiastically signed the Clear Air Act. He supported the Clean Water Act but vetoed the version Congress sent him based on cost (the veto was overridden). The similarly groundbreaking Marine Mammal Protection Act — also supported by Nixon and it became law in 1972.

These things happened not because Nixon was the prisoner of a Democratic majority in Congress — the Democrats were often divided and in those days Republicans had liberals, centrists and conservatives — but because he believed in them or thought they made good politics. He also largely funded LBJ's Great Society, albeit some cloaked in the rhetoric of his "New Federalism."

Nixon was no tax cutter. Instead, he instituted revenue sharing with states and cities, putting federal funds behind his conservative principle that they could use the money more efficiently. He proposed a federal health-care program that foreshadowed in many ways Obamacare, as well as a form of guaranteed income for all. Amtrak saved passenger trains, albeit imperfectly, on Nixon's watch.

For decades, Richard Nixon has been the devil to the left. But the left isn't politically relevant anymore (Jerry Ford Republicanism is what passes for "the left" in today's broken political spectrum). What's more consequential is that Nixon is now the devil to the right, which is more powerful than ever. So in the public square today, we are relitigating not Watergate but the domestic achievements of Tricky Dick.

Jon Talton March 30, 201550

Politics: National

Evil Frank Underwood

For at least the first two seasons, Netflix's House of Cards had plenty going for it: Kevin Spacey as conniving congressman Francis Underwood, Robin Wright as his equally devious wife, Claire, murder, suspense, and the breathtaking beauty of the nation's capital.

It was never troubled by reality. Underwood, a Democrat, represents the South Carolina district around Gaffney — white Southern Democrats are virtually extinct. He's Whip, but the real power in the House behind the nearly comatose Speaker and Majority Leader — no Whip would have that influence. A real hoot for Zonies was the character of Hector Mendoza, the Senate Republican leader and senator from Arizona — yeah, sure.

But this season, as Underwood has become president and the writing focuses to a dangerously tedious degree on policy, House of Cards has become something else. Now I am prepared to say, yes, Frank Underwood is evil.

Jon Talton March 23, 201567

Politics: National

Playing chicken Kiev

Insurgents, including perhaps Russian soldiers, in Donetsk, in contested eastern Ukraine.

Congressional Republicans, some Democrats, and the military-industrial complex want us to go deep in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Arm Ukraine. Send troops to nearby NATO countries. Even puts boots on the ground in Ukraine itself.

Or go deeper. Some believe Washington and the CIA played a significant role in destabilizing and ultimately ousting the elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. But this overlooks Yanukovych's blunders and mishandling of both foreign relations and brutality against demonstrators. If he was corrupt, welcome to Ukraine.

Contrary to the dSi narrative, Russia actually does have vital national interests at stake. Ukraine was for centuries a province of the Russian empire and then a "republic" in the USSR. Even when things were cozy between Washington and Moscow in the 1990s, Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared Ukraine part of his country's "near abroad."

The United States has no — no — vital national interests in Ukraine.

Jon Talton March 12, 201540

Politics: National

Republican-English Dictionary

If it's true that we live in a conservative country with a permanent Republican majority — or anywhere close — it is important to know what they're talking about.

So your humble servant offers this handy translation guide. I promise to update it as I think of new words and phrases or commenters offer up good ones. And enjoy more meaningful conversations with your red friends.

Activist Judges: Jurists who make rulings with which conservatives disagree. Antonyms: A Supreme Court that decides an election the Constitution insists should have gone to the House of Representatives or gives the rights (but not responsibilities) of citizenship to corporations, reversing decades of precedents.

American Exceptionalism: The United States is uniquely virtuous and commanded by God to work its will on other peoples. The greatest country in the world. Slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, the conquest and near extermination of 500 Indian nations, stealing half of Mexico in a slavery-driven war, Japanese internment, and the deaths of innocents in our wars of choice are not part of this exceptionalism. Nor do any other nations believe they are exceptional.

Birth Certificate: A forged document to allow the illegal election of Barack Hussein Obama.

Boondoggle: Any public investment that conservatives disagree with, which is pretty much anything. Antonym: Funding freeways and subsidies for defense contractors, fossil fuel companies, and other politically connected corporations.

Citizen: A corporation.

Christian Nation: The idea that not only the Declaration of Independence but the Constitution were grounded in the tenets of today's megachurch fundamentalism, and there should be no impediment to laws based on "Christian" beliefs. "Judeo-Christian" is allowed so long as the Jews agree with Bibi Netanyahu.

Christian Values: Male supremacy. Fundamentalism. "God hates fags." A family is a man, woman, and children. End Times theology. Might makes right. Antonyms: grace, compassion, forgiveness, peace, humility, and special attention to the poor.

Class Warfare: Any discussion of today's historic level of inequality or activism to raise the minimum wage, make unionization easier, or raise taxes on the wealthy.

Climate Change: A hoax perpetuated by liberals and climate scientists to make us ride light rail and live in city condos.

Communist: See Eisenhower, Dwight David.

Conservative: Someone who agrees with us. On everything.