US Politics #2 - March, 2024
US Politics #2 - March, 2024: The Biden Doctrine
The Biden doctrine; or the reactionaries and relativists
Following Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Israel, the conflict raises questions: has the leading nation truly stopped violence, war, and hostilities? There has been no progression of democracy, only the resurgence of extremists and terror, further dividing nation-building and economic development. Finding common ground in politics seems reserved for "friends" only. At home, crime no longer appears as such, making statistics look favorable. Essentially, ideology (DEI, Green) trumps logic, favoring autocracy over people power. The Biden administration's doctrine appeases supporters but divides others. This strategy for re-election seems to target the electorate math, while condemning the rest, and has been evident throughout the campaign.
Instead of being celebrated as popular and successful, however, what the Biden team soon encountered was a series of rude surprises. The planned withdrawal from Afghanistan turned into an embarrassing fiasco. Vladmir Putin refused to be parked, and instead invaded Ukraine. Iran slapped away the hand of accommodation, continuing its campaign of violent proxy warfare in the Middle East. And the rallying cry of multilateral cooperation around rules-based liberal order turned out to be less powerful than the Biden team had anticipated. Internationally, the president quickly alienated key allies and partners such as Saudi Arabia. The Chinese were uninterested in cooperating on respectably liberal US terms. And at home, much of the American public remained unimpressed by Biden’s foreign policy leadership, awarding him low grades on this issue as on most domestic matters.
The Orwellian Candidate -
George Orwell, in his famous novel "1984", predicted the consequences of the information wars of our time: "And if everyone else believed the lie spread by the party [the warring parties and the media] – if all the records were the same – then the lie went down in history and became the truth."
As the Presidential election enters its final stages, it seems that instead of a democratic process, there will be individual contests to determine the winner. On one side are the defenders of democracy: the Democratic Party, the administration, and the President. They are crafting a strategy focused on incriminating Trump and dividing the GOP with their right-wing/Nazi rhetoric. Simultaneously, they label JFK Jr. as a non-democratic candidate due to his views on vaccines and other core issues of the Democrats.
No Label's candidate has yet to be produced but we can expect the poison to flow as soon as the name is known. The founding fathers probably had it right with the
democratic republic and the
electoral college, assigning proportional voices.
Thomas Jefferson once remarked,
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." While unfortunately true, direct democracies can also function effectively, with referendums serving as checks and balances.
Swiss referendums take three forms:
- Popular initiatives, which are citizen proposals to create a new law and require 100,000 valid signatures on a petition to get on the ballot.
- Facultative or optional referendums, which are citizen proposals to approve or reject a piece of existing law and require 50,000 valid signatures on a petition to get on the ballot.
- Mandatory referendums, which are required to revise the constitution, join an international organization or introduce emergency federal legislation for over a year.
Any member of the electorate who is opposed to a new or amended law passed by the Swiss parliament can launch an optional referendum. Individuals can join forces with other people to form a referendum committee.
A democratic republic is a form of government operating on principles adopted from a republic and a democracy. As a cross between two similar systems, democratic republics may function on principles shared by both republics and democracies.
While not all democracies are republics (constitutional monarchies, for instance, are not) and not all republics are democracies, common definitions of the terms democracy and republic often feature overlapping concerns, suggesting that many democracies function as republics, and many republics operate on democratic principles, as shown by these definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary:
- Republic: "A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch."[1]
- Democracy: "A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives."[2]
Imagine if the popular vote decided the election -- Would that really change the outcome? Below is a summary and a reminder of how the 2020 elections went, along with a summary just to show how tight it can be.
What are the real differentiators the Democrats want to win on? Well, if you listen to the pundits, it's POT (legalizing) and Abortion, and trash talk. There is no coherent strategy internationally or domestically, a green agenda that is doctrine and authoritarian, reflecting the global climate concerns of the religious zealots with no real thought about feasibility or economic impact. Immigration and the economy are not topics because of no results and negative polling. Then there is the Infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act, big spending but nothing to show for yet. So, as Mr. Biden, the transparency candidate, holds secret fundraisers with an elect crowd in New York and touts a massive money haul, his advertising campaigns seem to end in no man’s land, the trust factor other than to his 30%ers is long gone. And by all means, should not the public have a right to know who the elect crowd are, here a Biden loyal reporting, a little about what but nothing about who? And you can see more on the architect of the financial machine here.
Need more proof that the rich and powerful are dominating the democratic party? Democracy or a secret society?
The morning after President Biden’s fund-raiser with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, his campaign has planned a daylong retreat on Friday for 175 of his biggest financiers and fund-raisers in New York.
The gathering of what the campaign calls Mr. Biden’s national finance committee will feature a half-dozen briefings from his top political advisers, including his campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, and two former top White House advisers who have moved over to help lead his campaign, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon and Mike Donilon.
The meeting at the
InterContinental New York Barclay hotel is a sign of how the president has drawn his financial strength not only from grass-roots contributors but also from major donors who can cut checks as large as $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund, a shared venture of Mr. Biden and the national and state Democratic Parties.
To qualify as a member of Mr. Biden’s national finance team, donors are asked to write a check for at least $47,900.
But that is just the entry level. To be considered a “presidential partner,” donors have been asked to raise $2.5 million, while a “principal shareholder” is asked to raise $750,000.
While there was a
bridge collapse in Baltimore, which was not truly a bridge collapse but rather a takedown by a container ship, the President was quick to promise government funding for the rebuild and announced plans to visit the scene within a week. This gesture may be seen as nothing short of support for a blue, bankrupt city and his allies. However, is there any clarity on what
Buttigieg is enforcing (Boeing, etc.)? Perhaps as long as the unions have a say, safety is not deemed as important.
Note, you pay $4.00 to cross the Bridge, (one way) + Port fees, but it seems inspecting a ship before entering a port is not included? It leaves you to wonder what control mechanisms are implemented in Washington DC. Is it only the Lobbying Industry that handles all Government affairs? Let me know if you find one lobbying on behalf of the people -- And even more importantly - where the money goes.
So, the real Biden message is that he can spend money without results. There was an infrastructure bill, but not on measures and budgets based on
state input. You would think that each state would submit a budget based on documented needs, along with an annual
priority plan with completion dates, to allocate money. It seems simple, but politics about party achievements take priority.
2) Investment
If the United States is serious about achieving an infrastructure system fit for the future, some specific steps must be taken, beginning with increased, long-term, consistent investment. To close the nearly $2.6 trillion 10-year investment gap, meet future need, and restore our global competitive advantage, we must increase investment from all levels of government and the private sector from 2.5% to 3.5% of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025. This investment must be consistently and wisely allocated, and must begin with the following steps:
a. Congress should fully fund authorized infrastructure programs.
b. Infrastructure owners and operators must charge, and Americans must be willing to pay, rates reflecting the true cost of using, maintaining, and improving infrastructure.
c. The surface transportation investment gap is the largest deficit in the categories of infrastructure that ASCE evaluates. Continuing to defer maintenance and modernization is impacting our ability to compete in a global marketplace and maintain a high quality of living domestically. Congress must fix the Highway Trust Fund.
d. All parties should strive to close the rural/urban and underserved community resource divide by ensuring adequate investment in these areas through programmatic set-aside.
e. All parties should make use of public-private partnerships, where appropriate.
So, here is one of
Biden's 2024 achievement campaigns: he takes credit for a bipartisan bill with lots of money, but do we have results?
Roads and bridges: Headlining the 2,702-page bill’s spending, roughly $110 billion of new funds would go toward improving the nation's roads and bridges, and investments in other major transportation programs.
Rail: Today, the Federal Railroad Administration announced its Northeast Corridor Inventory, outlining major backlog projects that will get funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including the East River Tunnel in New York, the Connecticut River Bridge, and the Susquehanna River Bridge and Frederick Douglas Tunnel.
More about Trump and Kennedy, no label in the next issue.
Just for an introduction,
"There is no comparison to summoning a mob to the Capitol and promising to be a dictator on day one. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid to rest tonight any doubts that he's a spoiler candidate by pushing his MAGA talking points in prime time," she said.
In the interview, Kennedy added: "People who say that the election is stolen … we shouldn't make pariahs of those people. We shouldn't demonize them. We shouldn't vilify them. What we should be doing is saying, Let's all get together, Republicans and Democrats, and fix the election system."
Just to show how sinister Congress can be; another
bill that is all-inclusive as a money distributor and a
border bill, basically comprising a million words and a sieve built in that allows everyone to come in -- with lawyers waiting to stamp the green card w/ a ticket price $20 million. All while we still deliver aid to Israel and Zelensky, but have no power over their proceedings -- Both running as totalitarians and autocrats. Note: Zelensky, in Ukraine, did not hold its presidential election -- so much for democracy, as the available candidates may choose talks with Putin, but more on that in the geopolitical issue.
It's all money for democracy - Everyone seems have the same priorities, yet no detail. Who is really running this show; Zelensky, Netanyahu, and the Mexican President? Nothing have been provided that is thought out or is credible.
