Cuba Sí, Haiti Non

With Fidel Castro dead and Raul Castro retired, the Cuban revolution doesn't seem as noble or as glamorous as it once did.

Cubans took to the streets this week to demonstrate against shortages, power outages, and economic conditions worsened by COVID, many demanding freedom and the resignation of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who blamed the crisis on six decades of American sanctions.  White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan expressed support for the Cuban people, and - as soon as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) bitched about the lack of response from the Oval Office itself - so did President Biden. 

I know I'm going to lose a lot of friends among the progressive movement who regard U.S. policy toward Cuba as imperialist and paternalistic, but I'll be happy to see the Cuban Communist government go.  Yeah, yeah, I know that Castro was for the people and overthrew a corrupt dictator supported by the Mafia and all that, but if Communist Cuba was so wonderful, why did so many Cubans escape to Miami?  I don't agree with sanctions and tourist bans - they've only hurt the people and strengthened the Communist government's hand - but I can easily agree that communism is a failed economic system.  Capitalism - real capitalism, regulated capitalism, not the racketeering system we have now - is the best way to allocate and manage goods.  If you want to see how capitalism is supposed to work, look at any country - like Canada - that doesn't impose sanctions against Cuba. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Windward Passage, Haiti is dissolving into chaos yet again, but I don't think it's ever been this bad.  President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated last week, and the whole country has gone into a state of anarchy that makes previous eras of Haitian political instability look like mere trifles.  A Haitian doctor in Florida is rumored to have orchestrated the assassination, as Moïse was killed by mercenaries; seems he wanted to make himself president.  

Meanwhile, demonstrations run rampant in the streets of Port-au-Prince, gangs are more trusted to maintain order than the police, and there's practically no government - except for two guys both claiming to be prime minister.  I think it's time for the United Nations to send peacekeeping troops and set up a new system of government.  The United States can't do it.  No one country can.  Heck, the Americans had the Marines there to set things straight, from 1915 to 1934, and that didn't work.

It's hard to believe that Haiti is the second oldest independent country in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States.

Biden Nails It Again

Joe Biden has been under pressure to respond to Trump's attacks on him and his depiction of Biden as a radical leftist bent on encouraging violence and seeking the support of extremists while turning a deaf ear to the cornerstone of people worried about the growing chaos and lawlessness in the country.  Yesterday, Biden responded aggressively and forcefully  to Trump's claims that a Biden administration would make America less safe in a twenty-minute speech in Pittsburgh.

"I want a safe America: safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops," Biden said, adding, "Let me be crystal clear: safe from four more years of Donald Trump." 

Biden clearly condemned the violence emanating from protests against racial injustice and warned demonstrators that allowing violence to get out of hand destroyed the very communities they were trying to help.

"Rioting is not protesting," Biden said.  "Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple, and those who do it should be prosecuted." He also said, “Violence will not bring change. It will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way. It divides instead of unites ... it makes things worse across the board, not better. It’s not what Dr. King or John Lewis taught and it must end."

He also laid into Trump on how he let the COVID-19 pandemic to spiral out of hand, making Americans less safe even without civil unrest, as well as how Trump's handling of  COVID-19 decimated the economy.  He even cited Kellyanne Conway's observation that more violence helps Trump and how Trump supporters incite violence on their candidate's behalf.

Biden then asked voters to answer whether they're safe after four years of Donald Trump.

"Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames rather than fighting the flames," Biden also stressed.  "But we must not burn. We have to build."

Needless to say, Biden made a few comments that might not sit well with progressives in his efforts to appeal to the center.  He said that most cops are good, decent people, a characterization that progressives might have a problem with.  Biden tried to cast aside Trump's insistence that how would ban fracking, saying that he would not.  Yes, and the left definitely has a problem with that!  (And in spite of his clean-energy program, which, of course, satisfies no one among the far left.)  And he quoted Pope John Paul II in urging people not to be afraid.  (If you're a Democrat and you want to shore up your own base, John Paul II is probably the last pope you want to quote, not just because of his mishandling od the Church sex-abuse scandal but also because of his own cultural conservatism.)

Biden's biggest mistake would not be anything he said yesterday.  His biggest mistake would be thinking that he doesn't have to say any of that again, because Trump lies so much and so often that this speech will hardly be the last word.  Biden has to keep up his rhetoric because Trump will keep up his rhetoric.  For now, though, Biden has more numbers on the scorecard.   

Days of Reckoning

It takes something pretty serious to push the COVID-19 story off the news for a week or more.

Protests against the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis, like the protest in New York City shown above, have turned violent in many cities, and they've been flaring up in the least likely places, such as the Mormon citadel of Salt Lake City, and protesters against police brutality have included Amish elders and . . . active police officers.

As soon as the violence subsides, COVID-19 should regain the public's attention, but more importantly, the legitimate demonstrations against the Floyd killing will keep the fact of racial injustice in the news as well.  And Donald Trump will have to deal with all of it. I'm sure some Republicans are secretly delighted with the violence and the rioting, as similar unrest got Nixon elected President in 1968, but if Trump thinks he can run on re-election on a platform of law and order, why hasn't he been able to provide either?

I think the picture above is indicative of those Americans who are determined to end racial injustice in the middle of a pandemic. The young woman in the picture above arrived at a demonstration protected by a mask in this social-distancing-unfriendly situation, but the fact that she doffed her mask long enough to make her voice heard and show her face means that she is all too happy to identify herself for the world as a person ready to change America for the better.  Expect young people like her to show up at the polls - or, if they have the opportunity, mail-in ballots - five months from now.

Iran Amok Again

The conditions in the Middle East that existed before the assassination of Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani seem to have been restored, now that the Iranian government has admitted to shooting down a Ukrainian jet airliner by accident after having denied it.  The Iranian people are mad at the government for not being straight with them, and they're tired of being taken for fools by their authoritarian leaders.

And all the world is wondering and watching . . . not watching Iran, but watching Donald Trump and wondering how he's going to screw this up.

Every time something happens in the Middle East to the United States' advantage, Trump seems to undermine the very country he promised to put first and restore greatness to.   And the Democrats still haven't figured out how to respond to unfolding events either, if Nancy Pelosi's convoluted effort to criticize Trump for escalating tensions with Iran that may have led to the downing of this jetliner - with a lot of Iranian students - while making clear that she does not support the actions of Iran's government is any indication.  She was immediately attacked as pro-Iran, which, as I warned, is a good strategy in a culture that favors slogans over nuance.

Fortunately, Pelosi doesn't have to worry about that so much when Trump and his Cabinet are stepping on their own and each other's toes.  They can't even agree on whether or not multiple embassies were targeted by Soleimani before they took him out, and Trump reportedly authorized the operation back in May or June of 2019 and waited for the right (read politically expedient) moment to carry it out.  Yet, while a majority of Americans agree that the assassination of Soleimani makes the country less safe, a plurality of Americans supported the operation.  And the Iranian government has made it clear that they're not done with avenging his death just yet.

I think the best thing for America to do is let events in Iran run its course while keeping an eye out for possible proxy retaliations for Soleimani's death in the near future.  The protests in Iran right now could lead to a new regime in a relatively short time because that's more or less how the revolution against the Shah transpired - strikes and protests against his reign that began in late 1977 and picked up steam in late 1978 led to the Islamic Republic in early 1979.  This time I suspect that the timetable will be quicker.

Climate Change Change?

After all of the global climate change protests held this past Friday, am I more optimistic about the future of this planet?

No, I'm not.

Because the truth of the matter is that old habits die hard and new movements die quickly, as Occupy Wall Street in the earlier part of this decade (which, thankfully, is ending very soon) proved.  The protests were held primarily by teenagers, who, owing to their age, are too young to vote, and there simply aren't enough people who are old enough to vote for whom climate change is a top priority, If there were, Jay Inslee's presidential campaign here in the United States wouldn't have failed and he'd be the front runner.

It is also because of the United States, the world's most powerful nation and the world's greatest environmental outlaw (there, I said it!), the only country that doesn't recognize the Paris Agreement and the only country run by a climate-change denier - Charles Koch.  But Donald Trump happens to agree with the last surviving Koch brother on the subject, which is why he's been working overtime - or having his aides due the work for him while he plays golf - to roll back environmental regulations and make sure that no state or private corporation can do anything to fight the climate crisis.  His efforts to keep fuel economy standards low helps the profits of oil companies more than even the profits of automakers, many of whom actually support the since-rescinded Obama-era fuel economy regulations and are ready to go ahead with higher standards that California has pursued - including Ford, which is currently pushing SUVs and crossovers in its home market.  

Trump's absence from the climate conference the United Nations is holding this week makes it clear that the U.S. Government, the same government I was taught revere when I was in first grade (Nixon was President then!), is on record as refusing to do anything about the planet's health.  The U.S. corporations who will be represented at the conference only make it even more embarrassing that this country relies on profiteering capitalists more than our elected representatives (including Democrats - remember how Dianne Feinstein tried to blow off young climate activists in her Senate office this past winter?) to do the right thing.

But it's not just the American government, and it's not just lunkheaded American consumers buying Chevrolet Suburbans and eating steak every other night.  It's the French objecting to fuel taxes the encourage them to drive less.  It's the Australians voting in a more conservative government that is more skeptical of climate change.  It's the Chinese still using too much coal.  Oh, sure, the media are taking climate change more seriously.  MSNBC devoted a whole week to climate change stories.  But who cares when America's number one cable news channel is Fox News?

As the old MySpace marital status said, I don't want kids.  This is why.  One of them might even grow up to be a climate change denier.

Wall Street: Activism Never Sleeps

Like the grunge revolt of twenty years ago in popular music, no one knows exactly what sparked the Occupy Wall Street movement, which started in September and has been growing ever since.  But the main cause boils down to one simple condition: Americans have seen their socioeconomic standing undermined by corporate greed, and they're not going to take it anymore.  Now they're fighting back.

Occupy Wall Street held a demonstration in New York this past Saturday that threatened to shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and today they held a march in Lower Manhattan.  Occupying a pocket park near the World Trade Center site, they've brought a diverse array of grievances ranging from diminished wages and merciless creditors to poor health care options and lack of economic opportunity. They're not as well-organized as the Tea Party, but they are a more universal and more unifying message of social and economic justice.  It's not just Woodstock hippie types; teachers and construction workers have joined the movement in New York, and similar demonstrations with a similar mix of people have sprouted up nationwide.  It won't be long before Middle America realize that this movement is their movement too.

Right now, many pundits are predicting that Occupy Wall Street is too unformed and too unfocused to last.  The media have treated the Tea Party more seriously despite their bad principles and bad ideas, and they're laughing off Occupy Wall Street as if it were a fad, like, say, Beatlemania.  As with those who scoffed at that phenomenon nearly half a century ago, they laugh at this movement at their own peril. This movement isn't a movement launched by a loudmouth TV business reporter ranting on the air.  This movement is for real.