The Interesting Times We Live In

   I don't know a more diplomatic way to describe the current global, and US economic situation as "interesting," because it's a reference to an old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." Things are not going well for much of the world, but there are those that are prospering amid the economic and physical devastation. Some of my friends, as well as Pres. Biden, are quick to cite "big oil," or "big business" in general for the inflation affecting us all. My response always is "why didn't they price oil and other goods this high two, five, or ten years ago, if they could do it?" No one has an answer for that, because the reason prices are rising is much more complicated. It's a combination of factors, a "perfect storm," if you will, of bad US policies and global market conditions. Right now, it appears that the Biden team is continuing to choose all of the wrong policy decisions.

   What else is interesting is the shifting global balance of power, and the change of the US' role as the dominant global power. America has ceded power to the UN, and other international organizations for decades, and turned a blind eye to aggressive actions by Russia and China, both of whom are UN Security Council members. Allies find us unreliable, which is actually nothing new. I'm old enough to remember when "politics stop at the shores" was a saying, but it was BS, even back then. It just wasn't as open as it is today. In today's America, undemocratic allies like the Saudis get snubbed, while undemocratic adversaries like Iran get catered to. Democratic allies are treated according to US "left vs. right" politics, as well, and very openly. Democratic Israel, which has just made the historic Abraham Accords with several Arab/Muslim nations, is still getting short shrift from the Biden administration, while they still try to revive the suicidal Iran nuclear deal. China, who supports Iran and Russia, is the new partner of choice for many smaller nations that used to be nominal US allies. They just don't trust us anymore, and who can blame them? The disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal actually defines Biden's foreign policy and security objectives, and everyone got the message.

   That's one major aspect of how the Biden team are making global security an "interesting" issue. What they're doing in Central and South America could fill a whole different post, but suffice to say they are supporting Communists over non-Commies. It actually fits in with what they are trying to do domestically, which is to destroy our Capitalist economic system, and try to create a "command economy," as well as controlling every aspect of our lives through excessive regulation. It's of a whole cloth, and it will take more more than the '22 midterms to start changing it. The problem is clear: the increasing number of far-left Democrats are trying to use US influence to support Socialist/Communist dictators in South and Central America, because Republicans support their opponents. I think this one is backfiring, because enough Latino voters are seeing what's happening, and leaving the Dems for the GOP. 

   The "culture wars" in the USA have taken an interesting turn, as well. I'm old enough to remember when radical abortion opponents firebombed abortion clinics, in the '80's. Today, it is radical abortion supporters that are attacking clinics that are supporting women to have their babies. I remember when gay people first sought to "come out of the closet," and the backlash and struggles they went through. Today, same sex marriage is legal, and the "struggle" that gay people went through has been transferred and transformed into a "more inclusive" designation, LGBTQ+, which has even more letters now. Instead of just supporting the "lesbian, gay, and bisexual" population, this movement supports giving puberty blockers and sex change surgeries to minors, without their parents' consent. This is not a struggle that any rational person would support, but Pres. Biden just compared questioning minors' "transitioning" to the past attempts at "reorienting" gay people to being heterosexual. It's not comparable, but the federal government is supporting irrevocable medical treatments for minors, because of politics. I'm not sure that "transsexuals" should even be lumped together with LGB people. In Iran, of all places, they now support sex change operations, just to keep anybody from being lesbian or gay. Bisexuals still are breaking the law, of course. Of course, none of this matters to the Biden team. They have to be as far as possible on the left side of the progressive spectrum, whether it's a good policy or a harmful one. That's also why they support abortion through the third trimester, as well, and won't enforce the federal law against protesting at the homes of Supreme Court justices, even after a man was arrested for attempting to murder Brett Kavanagh. He was appointed by a Republican, so Biden has nothing to say about it. Interesting.

   I'm going to mention one more cultural issue that has been interesting for some time, and that is the "black-white" political dialogue. There are many other races in America, but Democrats and progressives love to focus on that one. Often, they refer to "the legacy of slavery," which is a very real thing. The most frequent reference I see is about "systemic racism," which seeks to condemn pretty much every American institution. I also notice that the progressives often use the term "black and brown," to include other minorities than African Americans in their definition of who is "oppressed" by the "systemic racism." That expands the dialogue to millions of people who never had any enslaved ancestors in this country. They still are oppressed, the theory goes, because they are not "white." That bring up another term that is often used by Pres. Biden, as well as his progressive advisors: "White supremacists," who are alleged to be in powerful positions throughout the country, enforcing "systemic racism." Pres. Trump was one, as are the Proud Boys, even though their leader is not white. This is not only interesting, it's confusing. Pres. Trump ran for office asking black voters to vote for him, saying "what do you have to lose?" He said that because they, as a group, had not prospered under eight years of Pres. Obama, our first black president, or under previous Democrats. By the end of Pres. Trump's term, those economic numbers had changed, for the better. In fact, the percentage of blacks that voted for him in 2020 was higher than in 2016. The same for Latinos, notwithstanding his supposed hatred of them, as well. 

   Meanwhile, candidate Biden was caught saying "If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” Hmmmm, interesting. Who's the racist?

   It looks to me as if all of this talk about "white supremacy" and "systemic racism" is an invention of the progressive Democrats, to explain why their policies have harmed minority communities that they claim to be helping. The best examples are on two issues: crime, and illegal immigration. The progressives think that high minority arrest rates are because of biased policing, so they have enacted policies like "decarceration," and "no bail," thinking that black and other minority communities will support that. They don't think about the non-criminal minority communities, that don't want these criminals back on their streets. The same goes for illegal immigration. Why would progressives think that any legal immigrant, or minority of immigrant descent would support allowing thousands of illegal immigrants to flow into America? The criminal element is also in play, here. Gangs and terrorists are taking advantage of the Biden border fiasco, and now even the Democrats in South Texas are voting for Republicans. That's interesting, as well.

   What's even more interesting is what's happening to the Asian and Jewish communities. Anti-Asian hate crimes have increased since Pres. Biden took office, but he gets no blame. Pres. Trump criticized China's government, rightly, over the COVID outbreak, as well as their economic malfeasance, and military buildup. Somehow, the media used that to blame him, and "white supremacists," for a rash of attacks that were mostly committed by other minorities. Interesting. Progressives also are defending Harvard's anti-Asian admissions policy, which is almost a carbon copy of what they did to Jews in the 50's and 60's. They also support ending "gifted and talented" programs at public schools, another avenue where Asians excel. It started with trying to devalue testing as a measure of academic proficiency, and has gotten worse since then. They are fighting back, even though they are being accused of being "white-adjacent" for doing so.

    Also, the frequency of antisemitic attacks has been rising for years, and this also was blamed on Pres. Trump. His daughter converted to Judaism, to marry Jared Kushner. Mr. Kushner brokered the unprecedented Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and several Arab states. Meanwhile, progressive Democrats support the BDS movement against Israel, and have repeatedly expressed antisemitic rhetoric. Who hates Jews, and Asians, exactly? Who is oppressing them?

   We live in very interesting times. Some aspects are terrifying, and others are hopeful. I am a firm believer in America. I have faith that if the shit hits the fan, these younger generations that many of us older folks see as "pansy-asses" will step up, as their forebears did. What's happening now is a moment of clarity, where the pendulum swings so far to one side that almost everybody agrees it's time for a change in almost all US policies. What's even more interesting to me is how the Biden team thought that was the case in 2020. Trump may have been rightly despised for many things, but his actual policies were not one of them. I don't want to see a second term of Pres. Trump, but there are quite a few Republicans that appreciated what his policies did, and will reinstate them. First, the Republicans need to capture both the House and Senate, to neuter the Biden people. I don't think we can survive another two tears of this kind of "interesting."