THE DUOPOLY WATCH |
Steven
Jonas, MD, MPH
Note to the reader: I
originally wrote this column shortly after the debate. So, you might ask,
isn’t it a bit dated now? Only if you expect something new, other than
more lies and insults, to be coming forth at the next one, whenever it will
be. Republican politics don’t change much. And so, here ‘tis.
Well, I said to myself, just
about every other political commentator has chimed in on this one. And I
keep saying, to myself and others, that I’m not going to do this this time
around. But the pickings are so rich that I cannot resist.
Chris Christie talked about
the despair of the 55 –year-old. unemployed construction worker — who would
have plenty of work if the Repubs. had even modestly funded a national
infrastructure repair and infrastructure construction/reconstruction program
that Obama proposed, and if Christie himself, in 2009, hadn't turned down Federal
funds to aid in the construction of the critically needed trans-Hudson rail
tunnels for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. But the last thing that
Christie wanted to do at that time was have a photo of him standing with Pres.
Obama at the announcement of the commencement of construction. (He
has only now come around to it almost ten years later.) Christie then
highlighted his experience as U.S. Attorney — to equip him as President to go
after Hillary Clinton, especially on the criminal side. Finally, he would
maintain the totally failed “Drug War.” Over the 45 years since Nixon
launched it, it has totally unaffected the use of the targeted drugs while
costing an estimated $2 trillion. (See my book forthcoming next spring
from TGP’s Punto Press entitled Ending the Drug War; Solving the Drug
Problem.) Some manager he is.
Carly Fiorina would spend much
more money on the VA. One wonders how much of the $1.4 billion VA
increase requested by President Obama that the Repubs. in Congress are refusing
to fund Fiorina would restore and just how she would manage that trick as
President. She did allow that she would save money by reforming the U.S.
Tax Code from 70,000 pp. down to 3 and firing bunches of IRS employees.
Dunno if that would save $1.4 billion. She would vastly expand the
military — being very specific about such things as brigades and ships —
without saying how she would pay for it. Nor did she say in detail what the
mission would be, except to “stand up to Putin” (with whom she would refuse to
talk). She would do all of this, of course, while massively cutting the
debt and deficit. She explained away her failure at HP that got her fired
and tanked the stock by saying “some Board members supported me.”
Fiorina: GOP in
skirts—Disgraceful Pentagon pandering and tormented economics. Her current
spike in the polls may prove just a flash in the pan.
JEB told us how his brother
kept the country safe. Well, just about everybody on our side of the
political divide, that is the divide between those who live in the world of
real history and those who live in the Repub. alternate universe, has noted
that “W” did not become President on Sept. 12, 2001. He was actually the
President throughout the summer of 2001 when those warnings of imminent terrorist
attack(s) kept coming. JEB also noted that as Governor he served the
people of FL, not the special interests (except when those special interests
just happened to be the real estate developer class in Florida, who built their
very own real estate bubble that actually started collapsing in 2007, just at
about the time that JEB left office).
“Speaking of the Kochs, one wonders where there will go with their
money. My guess is to the quiet man on the set, Gov. John Kasich of
Ohio. He is truly far-right, but in that group he appears to be
“reasonable.”
Lindsey Graham wants to send
50,000 troops to Syria, but like Fiorina he shared with us neither a mission
plan nor a plan for paying for the enterprise. One does have to give the
Senator credit however, for coming down hard on Trump for his wordless nod to
the man who clearly stated that “Obama [was] a Muslim.” “Not
factual.” Well, of course it is not factual. But of course, too,
the real answer is “so what[?]” to the contrary notwithstanding Pastor, I mean
Dr., Ben Carson (whose reading the Constitution apparently never took him to
the “no religious test” section of Article VI).
Speaking of Carson, apparently
he was a fine and cutting-edge pediatric neurosurgeon, being the first to
successfully separate the brains of a pair of Siamese twins, and being chief of
the service at Johns Hopkins for quite some time. But his wiggling around
when Trump made his off-the-wall statement about vaccination and autism led one
to believe that pediatrician or not he has not kept up with the American
Academy of Pediatrics recommendation on the practice. As for his main
attraction in Iowa, his Dominionism, it is highly unlikely that any moderator
or interviewer will ever ask him, or Huckabee or Santorum or Cruz or Rubio, about
it. (Carson did later backtrack on the separation of church and state,
coming out as a strong supporter of the Constitutional requirement for
it. But one has to wonder a) if he recognizes just how inconsistent he
has been on the issue, and b) how that will go down with his Dominionist
supporters in Iowa.)
Sen. Rubio has a nice
explanation for his frequent absences from the Senate: it’s more important to
be running for President.
Former New York State Governor
George Pataki? One wonders why he was there; except to somehow qualify
himself for a cabinet post.
Bobby Jindal is continually
talking about criminalizing abortion (although of course he doesn’t use that
term). Of course, everyone up there wants to do that too (moderator
question, please) but Jindal makes a special point of it, as if that were the
most important issue on the nation’s agenda.
Mike Huckabee was invisible, again.
His Iowa poll numbers are related to his Dominionism.
Donald Trump (can’t
resist. Sorry.) Last week was name calling week (although not at
the debate). The Club for Growth was crazy, Karl Rove was useless.
One wonders what he would call Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Cameron,
President Xi Jinping, President Putin, or President Hollande when they called
him to tell him that they were not going to enter into any renegotiation with
Iran. I haven’t heard Trump take a position on the “Drug War,” but of
course he is a major promoter of gambling, just as much of a life/family
destroyer as the use of any drug, legal or not. And of course he never
seems to tell us in detail just what the present “American” (that is U.S.)
defects are (except that whatever they are is all the undocumented immigrants’
fault), what “America” needs to be made “great” at again, and just how he plans
to do that and pay for it. But nobody asks him either.
They all talked about the US
as if it were in a Depression. Now, readers of my columns know that I am
not a fan of President Obama. But, unemployment continues to drop (and I know
the problems with the counting), the GDP remains decent, and many of the major
problems domestically arise from Repub. policies: no infra-structure spending,
no National Health Insurance, the continuing rich-poor gap widening, the export
of capital, drug war/massive incarceration, police violence, and so on and so
forth. But as I said above, and it is worth repeating, the Repubs. have a
genius at creating/not-solving problems and then blaming them on the President
(while they also have a President who has not fought back much [although lately
his game has been picking up a bit]).
Of the remaining ones, there
was Ron Paul, a real outlier who, if he were not a total contra-libertarian on
abortion rights, could be a Democrat. He is totally into the Tenth
amendment. Too bad he isn’t equally into the Ninth (which Robert Bork,
remember him [?] once labelled an “ink blot on the Constitution”). Ted
Cruz is apparently always angry, about everything, which is probably why he has
that crooked grin permanently implanted on his face.
Of Scott Walker, in the Sept.
17, 2015 New York Times, columnist Gail Collins noted that he “repeated
his previous debate trick of vanishing entirely into the scenery.” And
now he has vanished from the race. I guess the Koch Brothers pulled the
plug on him.
And finally, speaking of the
Kochs, one wonders where there will go with their money. My guess is to
the quiet man on the set, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio. He is truly
far-right, but in that group he appears to be “reasonable.” He is still my pick
for the Repub. nomination, with Fiorina for Vice. And I think that after
due consideration, the Kochs will go there, too.
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Senior Editor, Politics,
Steven Jonas, MD, is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook
University (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 30 books.
In addition to being Senior Editor, Politics, for The Greanville Post,
he is: a Contributor for American Politics to The Planetary Movement
(http://www.planetarymovement.org/);
a “Trusted Author” for Op-Ed
News.com; a contributor to the “Writing for
Godot” section of Reader Supported News; and a contributor to
From The G-Man.
He is the Editorial Director and a Contributing Author for TPJmagazine.us.
Further, he is an occasional Contributor to TheHarderStuff newsletter,
BuzzFlash Commentary,
and Dandelion Salad.
Dr. Jonas’ latest book is The
15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S.,
1981-2022: A Futuristic Novel, Brewster, NY, Trepper & Katz Impact Books,
Punto Press Publishing, 2013, (http://www.puntopress.com/jonas-the-15-solution-hits-main-distribution/),
and available on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+15%25+Solution).
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