THE DESPERATE TRUMP GOP CULT ESCALATE AUTOCRACY AND EVIL

 

 In the last blog Jay H. Ell argued that the GOP had morphed into a Racist, Amoral, Selfish Hypocritical, (RASH), cult. In the past fortnight the process has escalated exponentially as Trump and his intellectually and morally bereft followers have upped the ante as it looks more and more that they could never regain power in a free and fair election. The three key planks in their approach, which Republicans are expected to accept and not deviate in the slightest are: that Trump was robbed of the Presidency and Biden’s legitimacy must be fought with a view to introducing legislation that ensures Trump will be elected in 2024: that Biden’s Covid thrust must fail and abortion under any circumstances must be banned. 

It is irrelevant that in all three issues that Biden has broad public support in addition to his efforts at narrowing the massive wealth inequity. The central theory of the cult is that by further manipulating the voting system, that already favors them, that they can easily regain power with a significant minority of votes. With the current state of parties the legislature is easily within reach in the 2022 midterm elections.

The factors exacerbating the cult’s panic are multiple. They include  the outcome of the recall election of the Californian Governor election; the pathetic nation wide response for the  Trump backed "Justice for J6" rallies held throughout the country - a hundred and fifty participants in Washington,  fifteen in Seattle, and twenty in Charlotte for example; the devastating revelations contained in Robert Woodward’s latest expose which inter alia questions Trump’s mental stability and lets him know in no uncertain terms that the military is not behind him; the defendants in the post January 6 insurrection trials all pleading in mitigation of sentence that they were either inspired by Trump or did it for him and most importantly the Republican Governors failure to mitigate Covid as the deaths mount up. The cult Governors are in effect arguing that Biden is hindering their support of the right to allow citizens to die and kill others in the process while overwhelming the health care system thereby hampering the management of normal medical emergencies.

Trump and the GOP cult’s cause is further being hindered by the few vocal non believing Republican legislators and Trump’s desire to rid the party, aka cult, of anyone not a hundred percent supportive of him, including notably Mitch McConnell and those seventeen Republican legislators that voted to impeach him. McConnell is a cult member who just has some reservations about its leader.

KEY CULT WOES: COVID CRISIS AND CALIFORNIAN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR’S OVERWHELMING ENDORSEMENT FROM THE ELECTORATE. 

The overwhelming Republican albatross at the moment, is the Covid crisis where the cult has slavishly followed Trump’s criminal neglect and sabotage of scientific management. Their hope however is that the USA's overall poor performance will reflect rather on Biden than them even though they are causing it. The outcome of the Governor’s recall race in California where the two central issues were “Do we want another Trump” and Governor Newsom’s strong support of Covid control however must give them pause for thought.. Significantly Newson expanded his attack on his main rival Trump’s alter ego Larry Elder to the two most powerful Republican Governors, possible 2024 cult Presidential contenders, Florida’s De Sanctis and Texas’s Abbott who also are Trumpists to the hilt and Covid mitigation deniers. 

On the face of it Governor Newsom faced an uphill battle albeit in the bluest of blue states. The way the recall was set up is if the incumbent doesn’t receive fifty percent of the votes, the leading opponent, ie,  Elder, could win with as little of twenty - five  percent. Inevitably in these affairs the opponents are far more motivated to go to the polls than the incumbents. Newsom had some cardinal handicaps. First of all he was a card carrying member of the elite. His children attended private schools when the public schools were under Covid lockdown. In addition at the height of the indoor mask recommendations he was photographed, maskless, in a cordon bleu French Restaurant. All this was mounted on top of the uncontrollable fires, never ending droughts and economic woes California was experiencing. A month before the election the odds were even that Newsom would be recalled. 

Newson went into top gear and it was all about Covid and Trump. Added support to his full court press were Biden, VP Harris, Elizabeth Warren and messages from Obama and Bernie Sanders. The Democrats were turning this into a National race. This is not normally their approach but the stakes were high. The effort paid off Elder in effect got a vote total of twenty - three percent and the Democrat sixty - seven. 

WHAT DID THE CALIFORNIAN RACE MEAN?

Elections in America are usually characterized by being a referendum on the incumbent with the opposers being more motivated than the defenders. The reverse occurred in the Californian encounter. While California isn’t Texas the Trump coalition is made up by the same constituencies everywhere.. Most significantly none of the crossover vote such as Republican women and Independents gave Elder the nod. On the face of it there couldn’t even have been a full Republican turn out. 

The Republicans have no where to go other than following the cult’s mantra - the Big Lie that Trump really won the Presidency and organizing ersatz “recounts” in the key states of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. That will all come to a row of beans but will keep their electorate minority involved. They are then banking on redistricting, voter suppression legislation, that Biden and company are communists and more importantly fighting for “your freedom” not to have a drug forced into your arm against your will. As the Democratic Majority in the House is only six and the Senate deadlocked with Vice President being the tie breaker this is still a very feasible objective. 

Notwithstanding the low bar the Republicans face to regain the Legislatures they could face a backlash from their Covid policy that is nothing short of evil which for whatever reasons they are hanging on to for dear life. In addition Trump mixing in to close races with only one objective to seek revenge on deviators and to nominate his own sycophants in Primary Races where Trumpists have less chance of winning in 2022 legislature races, might kibosh their plans.

COVID TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICAN CULT

More Americans, six hundred and seventy five thousand have died from Covid than the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918. While the country vaccination rates are sixty - four percent with at least one shot and fifty - five percent fully covered the Republican States are responsible for pulling these rates down from the seventies as their figures hover in the forty percentage. Death rates are four times higher from Covid  in the Republican States. 

Thus in spite of the higher overall American vaccination rate the USA still have the highest death per 100,000 population, in the OECD countries  - 0.6 versus’s for example Germany’s 0.1.

These statistics are reflected in the chaos of the Health Care systems of the Republican States. Idaho, for example, where the percentage of those receiving two shots is only forty percent, the hospitals are over a hundred percent full and there are no ICU beds available because of unvaccinated Covid patients. Most critical patients are being flown out to contiguous states, particularly Washington. The latter have stated that Idaho must get its act together because they are overwhelming their system. The Idaho Hospitals Organization states that they will have to ration care. Two other Republican States, Montana and Alaska, have also declared they too have to decide who and who not to admit to Hospital and the ICU. Democratic Washington is on the verge of crisis due to pressure on beds from Idaho transfers. 

However true to form the State of Idaho have signaled that they will sue the Biden Administration to abandon one of the aspects of its vaccine mandates for companies with more than a hundred workers. All indications point to twenty three other Cult controlled states to join them.

The Great State of Mississippi, if it was a small nation, would have the second highest death rate in the world. However there is no way that the Governor is going to usurp the freedom of his electorate. He blamed Biden for not giving him enough monoclonal antibodies. “These decisions must be discussed with your doctor,” he opined. (To think Mississippi have as many senators as California). The Governor of New Hampshire declined moneys from the Federal Government to make their vaccination effort more efficient. 

However the center pieces of the RASH cult’s desire to thwart the Biden Administration’s desire to rid the country of Covid, are the key states of Texas, (Governor Abbott) and Florida, (Governor DeSantis). Both these Governors, will be the cult’s key presidential contenders should The Man himself not stand. Both are trying to outdo one another so as to allow their respective dominions to have their “freedoms”. Both have banned school districts from mandating masks. Florida has gone one better in that it has court injunctions to enforce their madness and threatening to remove pay from school officers enforcing a mask mandate. Also in Texas and Florida you can go into bars and restaurants maskless, All this lunacy in the wake of the fact that the two Republican states for an extended period of time were responsible for one third of the country’s new Covid cases. Both Governors asked for outside help as their plague raged. Florida asked for portable morgues and ventilators from the Federal Government while Texas asked for out of State Health personnel. 

While DeSantis has the lead on Covid evil in Florida, Abbott has outdone him on abortion by legislating against all abortions past six weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest. When challenged about this outcome of the legislation he claimed Texas would get rid of every rapist. To indicate what an utter hypocritical lie that was he has full knowledge that there over five thousand rape kits hanging around not having being analyzed for years. One story related to the kits - when one of the backlog was finally analyzed and the perpetrator identified, he could not be prosecuted as the statute of limitations had run out. Not to worry he was in prison anyway having been found guilty of raping two other women afterwards.

Bottom line of the Covid story is that from the get go Trump spun it regardless of the toll on lives it was taking. He added kerosene to the flames of quack remedies, held and is still holding Covid spreading events and lied and lied about about anything and everything related to mitigation of the pandemic. He even really couldn’t take any credit about his “Operation Warp Speed” because the cult are ambivalent, to say the least, about vaccinations. He hypocritically hid the fact that he had been inoculated for a long while. His appointed head of the Covid response Dr. Deborah Birx, who shut up for as long as she could, sadly reflected on “Sixty Minutes” that had his leadership been different hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved. The Republican controlled states are just more of the same - a continuation of evil for supposed political ends.

THE BIG LIE AND WOODWARD AND COSTA’S BLOCKBUSTER “PERIL”

John F. Kennedy is reported to have answered the question as to what was his biggest shock upon entering the WhiteHouse, “That things were as bad as he had said they were”. The lengthy tome with Woodward’s impeccable imprimatur shows that “things” on January 6 and the events leading up to it were even worse than we already knew. If the Speaker of the House and the Trump appointed Chief of Staff Milley agree that “Trump was crazy” and Milley dramatically responded with actions that would prevent a coup or a nuclear war, when the Vice President is continuously and aggressively pressured to commit treason and two of the Trump’s most conservative Senate supporters believe that the plan to overturn a legitimate election is bunkum you know that in spite of whatever was out already in the public square, American Constitutional Democracy had hung by a thread. 

The problem is the Big Lie is still being perpetuated and has become reality. Nearly eighty percent of what is left of the Republican Party believe that Joe Biden is an illegitimate President. Republican States have initiated nearly three hundred voter suppression laws that may well ensure that thirty - five percent of the electorate elect the next administration. And the former President and his RASH cult don’t care. Their tactics are coupled with threats and recounts of State elections that would make a Gilbert and Sullivan satire look plausible. Much the same as the Covid evil the Big Lie has become enshrined into legislation in the Republican controlled states. When the results of the bizarre Trump supported “independent” audit of the Arizona vote becomes public the MAGA crowd will once again be reinvigorated whatever the outcome.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The Republican Party that has morphed into a cult with only white power as the objective is abandoning any pretense at being democratic. Their game plan lacks public support, for example, - a recent poll showed that seventy percent of the participants backed vaccine mandates and masks. The cult are reliant on gerrymandering and voter suppression to regain legislative power with a minority. The latter is a distinct possibility with the Democratic majorities being so thin.

The Democrats need to get their act together otherwise they will have no act to get together.

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Jay H. Ell wonders what it will take for the penny to drop for Senators Manchin and Sinema that the Republicans are not interested in bipartisanship. Former Republican Treasury Secretaries Mnuchin and Paulson literally begged McConnell to co operate on the debt ceiling because of the dire consequences it could have on the nation’s economy, but he refused. What hope has good old Joe the Smoe got? Cults just don’t compromise they drink Kool Aid,

RACIST AMORAL SELFISH HYPOCRITICAL CULTISM - A NEW ISM

The monumental hypocrisy and blatant anti democratic actions being displayed and undertaken over the Afghanistan withdrawal, voter suppression, the January 6 insurrection, the barbaric anti abortion legislation with its Nazi like vigilantism, with the Supreme Court’s acquiescence, threats of violence by Trump supporters, and the bizarre cynical response to the Covid crisis is enough to fear that American democracy has finally run its course. In its place there is cult leadership, minority rule, abandonment of the rule of law, wild conspiracy theories, the creation of a bogus reality and belief in the white master race. 

There is the pretense of democracy and the mantra that

authoritarian legislation being enacted at a state level is in fact democratization. A cardinal feature of this new political order is that they have thrown off all the trappings of liberal democracy to the extent that they don’t care that they are unashamedly accepting that they are a minority who to gain power have to suppress the will of the majority. By hook or by crook they will rule society.  They will pack the Supreme Court with those who Trump has guaranteed will vote with him and sabotage the efforts at ending the Covid Crisis. In fact a new ism has been created,

WHAT CAN STOP THE MARCH TO AUTHORITARIANISM?

What stands between this revolution and a return to normalcy is the Democratic Party who are fighting by the Queensbury rules as the opponents kick them in the groin. Currently they have narrow legislative majorities and a President who is hoping that somehow or another the old order will return. He won what was considered to be the most crucial Presidential election since the civil war. Now he has to oversee what arguably will be the most consequential mid term legislative battles in a life time. It is not a fight for who is to rule in a liberal democracy it is a struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. 

The other hope is that the Republicans in their frantic attempt to cling to white supremacy have overreached to ensure that their base remains firm, all in all thirty - five to forty percent of voters. There is no attempt to retain the white suburban Republican women, independents or win over people of color in any meaningful numbers. There are just the good old white men, the Evangelicals and the attempt to create enough paranoia to get the white blue collar workers who defected back to Biden in 2020 back in the fold. Then together with gerrymandering of the constituencies, naked voter suppression, control of the electoral process, voila, white civilization will be saved. The latter scenario is well within the realms of possibility. The belief that Churchill had that the Americans always do the right thing after they have tried everything else is just that a belief albeit backed up by history. 

Biden has been a savvy political operator - always slightly ahead of the curve. It will take genius and good fortune to lead America out of this abyss. He has with the help of Nancy Pelosi a political master, Chuck Schumer and Jim Clyburn to hold his fragile coalition together. His public position of not giving up on the Republicans has kept the independents firmly in place. To a large extent his and his party’s future is bound up in what he can achieve and the outcome of the pandemic.

THE NEW ISM - DRIPPING WITH HYPOCRISY

All the dysfunction which is accompanied by flagrant hypocrisy and the rationalization of their actions - home grown insurgents and terrorists are patriots for example. - contribute to creating a new ism. It is closest to Soviet style “democracy” but the latter has no pretense at free and fair elections open to everybody.  This Ism maintains the pretense of democracy by propounding that its legislation is in fact to further democracy when it does just the opposite - voter suppression is to avoid non existent voter fraud. Thus to compare it with fascism where the latter abandoned all pretense at democracy is inaccurate. For example, Fascism did not hold that its race purification laws were to protect the jews. The doctrine was designed explicitly to protect the master race. 

Another startling difference to current authoritarian is that its philosophy rests on unbelievable conspiracy and fantasy - that there is an underground Deep State that Q,Anon is exposing and that the Democrats kill children to drink their blood. Not since the anti semitic The Protocols of Zion has such falsehood been unchallenged by a political party, 

The intent of the Republican maneuvers is exactly the same as all totalitarian states. but it is all clothed in hypocrisy. A ten dollar prize to give this new political order a name. Populism only covers one a few of the  components such as a cult leader with a disgruntled following. Perhaps? ……. “Racist amoral selfish hypocritical cult” or RASH CULT.

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY INTO A CULT

In this surreal era magnified by the digital social media RASH CULT promises a return to a Utopian past that never was other than it represented racial dominance. World wide the number of populists, dictators or religious bigots who are being followed by the disillusioned, those who have lost hope, feel left out or angry at the growing disparity between the haves and have nots, has increased. In the USA they are allied with the Evangelicals, neo Nazis, racists of all stripes, sexists, homophobes white supremacists and nativistic groups.This unholy alliance has taken over the Republican Party to the extent that Trump may not survive but the RASH CULT that he has crystallized into a reality has become the official doctrine of the Republican  Party. The insanity that we are witnessing is that every one swears fealty to Trump. It is political suicide if you don’t. Within the space of a decade the fiscally conservative, globalistic and liberal, in the broadest sense of the word, GOP, has become a cult.

All of the leaders claim that whatever they are perpetrating is in the "best interests" of the people. However the Republican Party led by Donald Trump have abandoned all semblance of serving all the citizenry, the rule of law and science. They encourage selfishness - why should they get vaccinated, it is their bodies. Yet hypocritically they back the most barbaric restrictions on abortions - even denying them to a thirteen year old who has been raped by her grandfather. And this abomination has been enshrined by Justices of the Supreme Court, the final arbiters of what is law in America, who Trump reassured us is what he specifically nominated them to do.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SOCIETY TO COUNTERACT RASH CULT 

The institutions of society with its checks and balances continue to exist as if this lunacy is non existent. Lawyers who present this rubbish to the courts are sanctioned. Rudi Giuliani has been disbarred. The lawyers who presented Trump’s “arguments” as to an election that was stolen have been referred to their governing bodies for misusing the courts to present falsehoods. 

The narrow Democratic legislative majorities have introduced enquiries to “get to the bottom “of the January 6 insurrection. (No doubt they will be met by the same disregard for political convention, constitutional defiance and legal road blocking that has been used to date). Trump and various members of his entourage are under criminal and civil litigation. For practical purposes the lower courts, with the flagrant exception of the Fifth Circuit of Appeals have maintained the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

Notwithstanding the argument that January 6 was a "peaceful protest" the presiding Judges are complaining that the prosecutors are being too lenient on those that have pled guilty to riotous behavior.  With six hundred arrests the guts have been taken out of The Proud Boys and Ten Percenters and the like. The Military have made it quite clear that they are there to defend the republic  against internal and external threats.

The media have maintained their drumbeat of exposure and opposition. Contrary to all expectation The Washington Post and New York Times have grown in strength and through digital media become truly national media. The RASH CULT have dominated the social media and have their pundits such as Tucker Carlson and Fox News unbelievably echoing the “philosophy” of this new political creed.

Corporate America represent the biggest stumbling block to the Covid spreading and denial policies of the Republican administrations. Gradually it is becoming the norm to be vaccinated to do anything, whether it be to attend or play sport, fly in a plane, ride in a train, watch a play or even attend a concert. However with the delta variant that does not appear to be good enough.  The business sector have also in large numbers voiced their disapproval to voter suppression and there are the beginnings of opposition to the blanket abortion ban.  

Sport generally have found it difficult to go along with the RASH CULT agenda. Other than ice hockey it is dominated by those of color. In Football and basketball African Americans and baseball Hispanics are dominant forces. The packed US Tennis open in NY required proof of vaccination by the attendants as did the Lapolozza Festival in Chicago.

All in all RASH CULT is running upstream to American recreation, commerce and culture. But doing enough to mobilize their base.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The GOP as it has been understood for well over a century is dead. It has been taken over by the elements that have never relinquished a return to white supremacy. The latter are going against every value the American Republic purports to aspire too. However it remains to be seen whether the new ISM - RASH CULT  will triumph. They have shown they are willing to trash every covenant in the Declaration of Independence to achieve their aims.

In the forthcoming months Biden will be central to the outcome. However much is out of his control as the past few weeks have shown. It is no use telling him to take off the gloves and dump the filibuster when, as matters stand, several of the team just want to spar. Crucial to his standing is the fight against Covid. However he is not going to stand around and let the Republican Governors literally allow their citizens to die and blame him for the outcome. In addition the health care system is being overwhelmed by unvaccinated Covid cases. Biden has now gone as far as he legally could in mandating vaccination. This is going to create hysteria amongst those who are using the issue to rally their selfish base. Apparently they all believe in their democratic right to drive drunk without seat belts. 

On September 18 Trump’s, right wing coalition aka RASH, (Racist amoral selfish hypocritical), CULT are gathering in support of the January 6 insurrectionists, This is not going to end well for anyone, least of all RASH. More of them will get locked up and narrow Trump’s base's leadership even further. 

AFGHANISTAN - A STAIN ON BIDEN’S PRESIDENTCY? - GARBAGE!

Before even beginning on the human disaster unfolding in Afghanistan the context has to be taken into account. In early 2020 Trump unilaterally signed a "treaty" with the Taliban to pull American troops out of Afghanistan. He simultaneously was responsible for the release of five thousand terrorists several of whom were members of the ISIS K. A month later the processing of Special Visas for Afghani allies was stopped. He unilaterally withdrew American forces to a nominal two thousand five hundred. With this go ahead signal the unchallenged Taliban took over the provinces. When Biden announced the final withdrawal of a war he had wanted to stop ten years ago Trump claimed he had forced him into it and vehemently, with the support of the Fox echo chamber, opposed the settlement of any Afghani allies that America had promised shelter. According to the cult all the aforementioned and subsequent upheaval is owing to Biden's incompetence.

With everyone numbed by a daily digest of horror, largely as a result of climate change causing and exacerbating natural disasters, yet another human tragedy vies for the attention of the weary frustrated concerned.  The difference between the Afghanistan tragedy and all the other catastrophes is the belief that there is a simplistic solution to the Afghanistan “problem”. All that had to happen was that the American President had to hang in a bit longer than the twenty years to prop up the corrupt Afghani Government whose forces had folded quicker than a tent, fight off the Taliban and the newly energized ISIS K for yet another month or so and then find a way for half of the Afghan citizenry to orderly march to the airport and this would never have happened.  

For those that have forgotten, USA’s Bush and UK’s Blair removed the Taliban from their six year reign and replaced them with a succession of corrupt regimes. It just hasn’t worked out after two decades. 

 It is painfully obvious that the Afghanis are unable or incapable of sustaining  democracy. This inescapable fact and the withdrawal of American and NATO troops has led to the heart wrenching scenes with desperate men clinging onto planes as they take off and women locking themselves indoors only to emerge covered from head to toe in burkas. Inevitably some are going to be left behind. In anguish the world points a finger at Biden. At least in this calamity there is a scapegoat. The blame too for the fact that the Taliban can’t control their sworn internal enemies ISIS -K, has to be squarely placed on Biden.   

The fact is that this has been in an an astonishing logistical and diplomatic feat, under dangerous circumstances as over a hundred thousand souls, most of them Afghans, have been airlifted out of Afghanistan by August 25. That this is a scenario not of Biden’s design is totally ignored. Also largely unreported is that for months the State Department has been advising American citizens to leave. Sadly the predictable terrorist attacks have begun as witnessed at the airport which of course Biden will be blamed for. 

BIDEN’S CHALLENGE IN THE USA

As the world reacts in anger at the fact that Joe Biden the American President is not doing enough to stop Afghanistan from slipping back into the Middle Ages they have no insight into the fact that he is fighting on the home front to maintain power and influence against the forces of darkness in his own country. The latter led by Donald Trump don’t give a hoot about the Taliban in fact they are directly responsible for the current mess and as far as they are concerned the Afghanis, all of them, can rot in hell. If Biden doesn’t come out on top in the USA,  Western values will totter. Populism will have triumphed in the world’d most powerful and rich country.

In addition the nay sayers are totally underestimating the political and practical balancing act that Biden is effecting at the moment between his domestic and international challenges. Afghanistan ranks fourth in Democratic priorities at the moment in their political struggle. Firstly there is the massive voter suppression efforts by Trump’s GOP cult. Secondly is the rampage of Covid which the cult are in fact flaming and then blaming Biden for not ending. Thirdly, is their humungous financial packages which will go a long way in closing the gap between the have and have nots. 

Joseph Biden, who has been President of the United States for less than nine months, as a result of the chaotic scenes to rescue Americans, foreign nationals and Afghani allies, has had his Presidency written off as a disaster. The fact that the tragedy unfolding in Kabul is even remotely being regarded as a pivotal point in his fifty year long political career is reflective of the superficiality of analysis of reality and the instantaneous media world that currently exists. It is the equivalent of taking one frame out of a movie reel and claiming that defines the story. The frame itself is blurred and needs a timeous process to evaluate and analyze the true picture represented in that fragment. That will be done by at least five Congressional investigations. Incidentally as the picture begins to appear slowly into focus victims are being airlifted out of Kabul in unprecedented numbers and the CIA Director has already been in one on one talks with the Taliban. All this while a mind boggling logistical feat is being effected under the most dangerous circumstances as the Taliban’s enemy ISIS- K has just shown with its suicide bombings. 

RUSH TO JUDGEMENT ON BIDEN

In America there is also been a rush to judgment by some liberal pundits to show how truly unbiased they really are by hammering Biden.The world wide reaction illustrates further that political pundits wherever they regard what is happening in America as more important than their own homegrown politics. The tragedy playing out in Afghanistan is a small piece of a large dysfunctional puzzle and focussing on it as if it is the be all and end all of whether Biden is a bumbling idiot or the man of the twenty second century and potentially the most transformative American president of a life time is disingenuous and destructive. 

Take a deep breath everyone before sounding off. Biden on the American and world stage has reversed a trend in the West of populism that has spread as rapidly as the Covid virus. He is navigating a return to almost normalcy in a world that is undergoing an economic, industrial. political, ideological and social revolution, in addition to coping with the greatest pandemic in a century. This he has done in an America that is witnessing an attempt to overthrow its democracy by one of the two political parties, one of which now operates as a white supremacy cult. He is battling to unite the country over their heads and has already forced the representatives of the Republican party into a significant bipartisan piece of legislation. He has attempted to rejoin the world and is in word and deed committed to combatting climate change. In America he is trying to effect historic transformative programs to combat the deficiencies the free market has created.

BIDEN AFGHANISTAN  POLICY EVACUATION AND COOPERATION

Jay H.Ell blogged last week on the Afghanistan crisis and outlined that the fix was in for the chaos that has ensued. (Blog: BIDEN’S AND THE GOP CULT’S CHOICES ON AFGHANISTAN AND COVID). There really was very little Biden could  have done to prevent what has transpired. The moment he actually started withdrawing his troops inevitably half of Afghanistan would want to get out. The Afghani government was corrupt, the army were not prepared to fight and the President fled so what was Biden supposed to do? 

Biden has for over a decade believed, stated and campaigned that the American philosophy of Neo colonialism, albeit it for altruistic nation building. was counter productive, paternalistic and wrong. This is now being interpreted as abandoning the world. Biden in the teeth of criticism has owned his decision to evacuate by August 31. His explanation as to how he derived at that outcome is interpreted in some quarters as placing the blame on his intelligence and military. The fact that he is not defensive about his actions and his repeated assertion that the buck stops with him gives the lie that he is trying to duck responsibility.

The Biden administration has put out comprehensive documentation as to the fact that they were in constant contact with American allies, NATO, the UN Security Council and the G7. In one of his several public appearances, Biden clarified, “….everyone of them knew and agreed with the decision I made to jointly end involvement in Afghanistan…” 

Biden, on August 24, had yet another publicized meeting with the G7, the outcome of which he announced in yet another effort at transparency. He stated that the troops would be withdrawn on August 31, (to keep the Taliban happy) but has asked the Pentagon to make contingency plans, (to answer the concerns of the G7 and everyone else).  Secretary of State Blinken clarified what Biden meant in no uncertain terms  -  the rescue of those eligible will continue past August 31 should it be necessary. In an obvious diplomatic sop he withdrew some of his troops as of August 24, by which time he had airlifted a staggering hundred thousand out of Kabul. He mobilized commercial as well as military aircraft in the effort. In addition the CIA were flying helicopters all over the country to bring refugees to the airport.

 

Anthony Blinken Secretary of State in an interview with Fox News outlined some of the further contacts that the Biden Administration has had with nations and the work behind the scenes prior to the evacuation.”… we have a hundred and thirteen countries, thanks to our diplomacy, put on a clear understanding as to the Taliban’s requirements,…..(there has been) deep appreciation from our allies and partners for what we have done to bring our allies and partners out of harm’s way……”

Ned Price of the administration listed the countries that had offered to create transitory refuge and or accept the refugees. These included Bahrain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Kazakstan, Kuwait, Qatar, Tajikistan, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Albania, Columbia, Canada, Costa Rica, Chile. Kosovo, Mexico, Macedonia, Rwanda, Poland, Uganda and Ukraine. 

The continued presence in Afghanistan was as result of George Bush’s nation building effort, Obama never had the political heft to reverse it and Trump’s solution was to sabotage it and then kick the can down the road. Then he stopped the Special Visa application process to produce the crisis it did. Biden had the courage of his and every one else’s convictions and is now blamed for the mess.

IN AMERICA THE PROXY POLITICAL WAR IS OVER COVID

Joe Biden functions in a split America and as the de facto leader of a rudderless world. However to be able to do anything anywhere he has to maintain power. His own political party represents a spectrum in itself. At present it is narrowly in control of the legislature which does not function on a parliamentary system along strict party lines. He has to cope with powerful factions on the left and right that can upset his majority in the blink of an eye. This in addition to battling a cynical opposition that is quite prepared to abandon reality in an attempt to retain power and keep America a white autocracy. They are even prepared to pretend that Covid 19 does not represent a threat as literally tens of thousands are dying like flies around them. It is in this milieu that the evacuation of Afghanistan is taking place.

The rest of the world cannot understand why the Kabul calamity has not been front and center in American politics. It has been on the front pages of other international  media. The consensus of the American population is that America needed to get out for a host of reasons. The news, in the teeth of Kabul, is on Covid and its resurgence and the fact that it has become politicized. It is now the proxy for the battle between the cult and Biden. The former believe that if Biden cannot contain the pandemic, as it is the central focus of his agenda, they will win the mid terms and takeover the legislature. So when he offers a booster dose before the world has received two it has a political overtone as well as a medical significance. Those that are screaming at at him for doing so and claim that it is further evidence of him abandoning the world again have not the vaguest understanding of the American political situation. Currently Biden is donating more vaccine doses than the rest of the world put together, If the Secretary General of UNO wants that to stop then the way to do it would be to let Biden lose the legislature. 

How Biden has conducted the proxy war with the Republicans has in itself been an object lesson in restraint, organization and political genius. In America’s byzantine system of government he has been in no position to issue mandates. In any case that would have been just the battleground his adversaries would have enjoyed. Instead he has fought a public health battle. Furthermore he hasn’t belittled those who have for political reasons refused the vaccine or claimed that it is their selfish right to decide. The President hasn’t not made political capitol out of the fact that some of his most vociferous antagonists have come down with the virus. It is only now when the desperate Republican Governors have introduced legislation to prevent school boards for mandating mitigating strategies has he enjoined them just to get out of the way if they don’t want to help

For the moment Biden’s approval numbers have dropped a few percent. This is not for his handling of Afghanistan but, perversely, because he has not controlled the pandemic in the Republican areas that have wrested control of the management. 

BIDEN AND AMERICA 

America is far far far from being perfect, - just go through Jay H. Ell’s archive of blogs. In relation to the world it is like a rich paternalistic well meaning uncle who, more often than not, when doling out his largesse lets you know it is it’s way or the highway. So an ambivalent world accepts the handouts while it is resentful at some of the impositions and its dependence of American leadership. 

The US is a strange mixture of ingenuity generosity graft inequality and aspirational commitment to reach a perfect Union. It has see sawed throughout its history between the poles of white supremacy and being a leader in inclusiveness as reflected by the election of two succeeding Presidents  -  Barack Obama and Donald Trump. 

For better or for worse the trait that exists in America for entrepreneurship and inventiveness has resulted in it being the richest and most powerful country in the world. For the moment the outcome of power between America’s two factions hangs in the balance. Jay H Ell is of the belief that having Joe Biden at the helm allows it the best possible hope to bend the ark of history in the right direction. He is poised to join the Roosevelts, Reagan and Johnson as being one of the transformative Presidents of the past century and a half. 

It is almost insane to begin to write Biden off for a disaster he didn’t create. In fact he was trying to undo America’s hubris in thinking it can enforce its value system by a concoction of its own perceived interests and enforcing Western democracy through the barrel of a gun.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

In an unsettled world where the Western democracies are fighting for survival, Islamic fundamentallsm is growing stronger in certain Shia and even Sunni sectors, America sees its greatest threats from China and Russia. All this taking place at the time of a media and digital revolution while climate change threatens the planet. 

There is no doubt that Biden’s America will take a hit over his Afghani stance. It will take another defeat of the Trump cult to convince the world that “America is Back”.

The Taliban will find running Afghanistan a different kettle of fish than twenty years ago with a far more sophisticated, educated, politically aware citizenry and women who no longer know their place. Not to mention ISIS - K who have been challenging them since 2014.

It has to be the toughest for those who lost love ones in this twenty - year war. Like all those left behind on the side that lost a war there has to be wondering whether their sacrifice was worth it. Certainly the pain of the family of the thirteen soldiers who have just succumbed to a terrorist attack. If it is any consolation their President has vowed to make them pay. They can rest assured that he will. 

BIDEN’S AND THE GOP CULT'S CHOICES ON AFGHANISTAN AND COVID

All hell broke loose and descended on the person of Joseph Biden President of the United States of America as the Taliban took over Afghanistan in the process of the United States withdrawal of two thousand five hundred troops. The, in retrospect, predictable chaos followed when literally thousands of Afghans some who qualified for special visas, Americans and other foreign passport holders rushed the Kabul airport in a desperate effort to flee from the barbaric Taliban. 

Most of the opprobrium emanated from the self same people who have stood by while six hundred and twenty thousand Americans have died as a result of their unwillingness to assist the mitigation and prevention of the outcome of a viral pandemic. Even worse they legislated, supported and  promoted non compliance of safety precautions and vaccine administration. 

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Both these responses were political to further the Republican Party cult. The aforementioned tragic shambles was a direct result of their cult leader’s sell out to the Taliban in his last year in office and the latter a cynical sacrifice of Americans in a last gasp attempt to assure minority white rule in America. The Republicans have lost their minds. Insanity has to be catchy. 

The Republican hypocrisy becomes even more in focus when the immediate genesis of this ignominious withdrawal is as a result of an agreement, in February 2020,  with the Taliban by the self same Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to unilaterally withdraw from Afghanistan. Then the cult offered no criticism. Those that shouted the loudest at Biden were the quietest when Trump did his deal in the " Peace Agreement"  in Douha, Qatar in February 2020. 

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Meanwhile the Republican Governors, particularly in Texas and Florida, have enacted laws to prevent entities from protecting  their customers or schoolchildren. It seemed like a scene from Mad Magazine to see the hypocritical thrice vaccinated, presumably immunocompromised,  Covid infected, Texas Governor Abbot in a wheel chair careering around among a jam packed maskless gathering of six hundred of the moneyed Republican cult. Nobody told him that he could be carrier and infect others with the Delta variant that could then mutate. In the words of former Bush operative Nicole Wallace “I keep wondering whether there is any lower the Republicans can go”.

As an aside all the ICU beds in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansa and Texas were said to be full. Nearly all the patients were suffering from Covid. The USA cases are now exceeding over a hundred thousand a day. The State Governments stuck to their guns that there were to be no school mandates for Covid mitigation as the number of pediatric cases rose exponentially. Two ICU’s were opened in parking garages in Mississippi. 

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TRUMP’S DEFENSE MINISTER ATTACKS TRUMP’S ORIGINAL SELL OUT TO TALIBAN

Former Defense Minister Mike Esper, claimed that Trump undermined his own misguided unilateral deal with the Taliban by attempting to get all the US Troops out before Christmas 2020, presumably Jay H. Ell guesses to help his re election campaign. Esper states he formally objected to Trump’s moves in a letter. The latter was based on recommendations of Esper’s military chain of command that they not reduce the American presence below four and a half thousand troops unless the conditions of the 2020 Douha agreement were met by the Taliban. “Otherwise”, Esper informed Christiane Amanpour, “we would see a number of things play out, which are unfolding right now in many ways”. Unsurprisingly Trump fired Esper in November 2020 just prior to the election.

The agreement that the former Defense Minister referred to was signed by the Trump government and the Taliban in Douha Qatar in February 2020.

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As another aside the Governor of Texas threatened school authorities that should they persist with their mask mandates State funds would be withdrawn. Biden promised to make good the withheld salaries. Simultaneously the Federal Government were sending temporary container morgues to Florida as well as ventilators. The Florida State Government also asked the School Board if they could use an empty school as a temporary hospital for Covid cases. Both in Florida and Texas school boards defied their governors.

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TRUMP’S RESPONSE TO THE AGREEMENT WITH THE TALIBAN IN FEBRUARY 2020

What should go down in infamy was supported by the Republican cult - Trump meeting with the Taliban in February 2020 without the  Afghan Government to pull the US troops out of Afghanistan. It’s all on tape. Trump declaring that his initiative would bring peace to the region, including that and the usual Trump tripe, “We have been killing terrorists by the thousands in Afghanistan. It is time someone else did the work. It would be the Taliban and it could be surrounding countries”. Yes Trump really said all that and more. How quickly his drivel is forgotten, But wait, as the commercials go, there is more. “I really believe the Taliban”, he opined with his usual authority. Not surprising really as he really believed Putin, Rocketman and other right wing fundamentalist leaders and countries on the planet.  As the forty fifth president concluded, “It has been a long and hard journey. It’s finally over after all these years to bring our people home”. 

So the die was set on one of the few issues that Trump and Biden agreed upon. However as Espen also stated the Taliban did not fulfill its obligations so Trump’s troop withdrawal to the bare bones should not have happened. By the time Biden was about to fulfill the agreement the Taliban had done its work on the ground ready to take over the country the moment the Americans packed their bags. Trump had given him them the go ahead.

Mike Pompeo, one of the few Trump lieutenants who lasted more than two years, was in Douha in person. His comment was that he “really hopes” that the Taliban cut ties with Al Qaeda. 

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The daily case rates of Covid are reaching new highs nearing a hundred and fifty thousand. Biden announced the necessity for a third shot of the vaccine when eighty million eligible Americans, predominantly of the cult, have refused even one.

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TRUMP’S “AGREEMENT” WITH THE TALIBAN

Within a hundred and thirty - five days Trump would decrease troops to eight thousand six hundred. According to the BBC the latter was to allow Trump to tout this as an achievement before the 2020 election.The full withdrawal would be in fourteen months - kicking it down the road - nor did he make any arrangements to get the State Department to issue the Special Visas. (Little did Trump know he would not be President). There was a prisoner swap  - five thousand Taliban terrorists for one thousand Afghan Security forces. Trump would lift the sanctions against the the Taliban there and then and get the UN to abandon its sanctions. There had to be an undertaking, by the Taliban, to have talks with the Afghan Government which they didn't and no firing on US forces which they stuck to. However they carried on their war with the Afghans and prepared for the takeover. Nothing about women’s rights in “The Agreement”

Following the “Douha Peace Agreement”, the Taliban initiated nearly five thousand attacks on the Afghans and killed nearly a thousand citizens. They refused to negotiate with the Afghan Government and quietly and methodically took control, bought off and bullied a large number of the leaders of the provinces. Needless to say the Afghan President was not happy about the deal, claiming that it was not up to the Trump Government to release prisoners among other criticisms. One of those released prisoners is about to become President or whatever of Afghanistan and President Rhani is no longer there. 

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A number of Southern States announced that they have run out of pediatric ICU beds. In Mobile, Alabama they have a permanent shortage of ambulances to transport patients as the health care system is close to collapse - yet another red state that requires Biden’s Federal Government assistance. Masks in schools are not mandatory there.

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WHAT BIDEN COULD AND COULD NOT DO

 As withdrawal had been a campaign promise Biden had no desire to go back on what Trump had set into motion. However he could not turn back the clock on how Trump stood by as the Taliban broke the agreement for his last year in office. Biden’s intelligence must have told him that the Taliban had made advances in the provinces and that it would be just be a question of time before they eventually took over. However he had been reassured again and again that the well equipped Afghan forces could hold off the insurgents.  General Milley subsequently admitted that they estimated it would take the Taliban at worst a number of weeks and at best a few years. Biden consulted with President Ghani and counseled him to form alliances with opposition parties. Needless to say he didn’t. Ghani did however reassure them that they would fight to the bitter end. Biden moved Trump’s deadline to August 31 presumably to get the evacuation ducks in a row.

Well it certainly didn’t end as Biden had hoped and his retrospective disclaimer that there had to be chaos rung a bit hollow. More to the point is his acceptance of responsibility, “the buck stops here”, and “there is never a good time to leave” being nearer the mark. The internal dressing down of the military and intelligence were left to private confrontation but his  public anger against President Ghani was for all to see. The folding of the Afghan forces and their President’s funk lent credibility to his claim as to why no more American or NATO lives should be lost defending Afghanistan when the Afghanis weren’t prepared to fight for their own country.

Whichever way this is looked at Biden did not come out of this well internationally. He does appear to have committed to evacuate the Afghans who assisted the Americans over twenty years, who are otherwise certain to be massacred by the Taliban. The doubts that Trump raised as to what type of an ally America would be in the twenty first century will linger on. 

But on the home front the assessment would be far different. He came through as “telling as it is", sticking to his story and at least once doing what he promised - get the Americans out of an unwinable war. He unlike those before him, including Trump, did not kick the can down the road. He told all and sundry he expected criticism and he could not have been disappointed. The veterans who knew on the ground how useless and corrupt the Afghan army and government were had one issue in the main - the rescue of their Afghan support. 

The pressure will be on Biden to do more for the Afghanis and families that have been left behind. He has some levers, Afghanistan's money has been frozen. The Taliban are going to need support and international recognition so there has to be a period where he can pressure them to deliver. He won’t send troops in for them as he might for the Americans he claims he has been begging to leave for months.  So far he has over sixty percent of the American population’s support as the majority of the cult mercilessly attack him. 

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Florida Republican Governor De Sanctis lied, akin to criminal negligence, that there was no science behind masks for children. He has opened clinics where Regeneron, the monoclonal antibody can be administered. Full disclosure, de Santis’s main backer stands to make a fortune as a result of the purchase thereof at fifteen hundred dollars a shot. 

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AT THE END OF THE DAY

It is hard to imagine that Taliban Two are going to be a much better model than Taliban One. The Afghani women are under no illusions and are nowhere to be seen. When they do emerge they do so in their newly acquired Burkhas. The fundamentalists are going to run the country on religious Shariah Law not democracy they have declared. Shariah Law encompasses everything from burkhas to murder. While it varies in different situations the Taliban holds extremist views that maintain, the rights, for example, of women, should be in the hands of Islamic men clerics.

There is some fluidity in the situation as Biden keeps his cards very close to his chest with negotiations and decisions of this nature with foreign leaders. There are ongoing negotiations going on with the Taliban leadership. Whichever way this is viewed the photo optics are heartbreaking. It is going to get uglier and uglier. In fact it is hard to see how American troops are not going to get involved. The Republicans will pile it on Biden forgetting the warning of the Defense Secretary who Trump fired a few weeks before the electorate in relation to Trump’s “Peace Agreement" with  the Taliban, that he, Trump, had set into motion what is happening today.

It is not hard to imagine that there is no fluidity in the Republican cult’s positions.They believe that with voter suppression they are poised to retake the House. At kindest they have all gone mad and at worse they have become a minority racist science denying cult that are using every possible stratagem to cling on to power including returning to the days of the Civil War combined with Jim Crow and disregarding the lives of American citizenry to a preventable disease.