Much positive energy Re: campaign donations and youth-led groups. Promotional publicity from TV networks. Endorsements from: Democratic politicians at the highest levels, Hollywood celebrities, entertainers, and sports figures.
Bracing Views – July 26, 2024
W.J. Astore
They’re Everywhere in America
“Another lie being told about Kamala Harris is that her candidacy is the result of democracy in action. She’s the people’s choice! Except almost nobody voted for her as a presidential candidate. She’s been elevated and selected by the DNC and the donor class. She is a packaged product of the so-called elites within the party, the very opposite of a candidate chosen by the people. And yet I’m told this packaged product is going to “save democracy” from Trump, who was actually selected as a candidate in a more democratic process.”
“U.S. troops’ deadliest enemies, I’d argue, are most often the lies told by the U.S. government, abetted and amplified by senior officers in the military. Think here of Iraq and Afghanistan, or go back further to Vietnam.”
A Year From Now
If all the positive energy holds together in the months ahead, and VP Harris becomes POTUS, how will issues be handled a year from now?
Will hard questions be asked before the election? I’d love to play a fantasy newsperson, I would ask:
US Armed Forces Recruiting Crisis
Decades of undeclared/unwon DOD wars is now the norm. Have new military aid packages for foreign governments created any wave of enthusiasm to sign up?
Thousands of US families have now had a loved one who did one or more tours in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Will those families encourage new enlistments?
What happens when American families no longer send the young ones to enlist and will not support a draft?
Would any newsperson ever ask:
Candidate ____________,
Decades after the lessons of Vietnam, it feels like the people who run the Pentagon specialize in undeclared/unwon wars.
What would be your role in all this?
Freedom?
In the news:
Biden honors Americans who ‘stood on the front lines of freedom’ in Veterans Day remarks
CNN Nov 11, 2023
Would any newsperson ever ask:
Candidate ____________,
Going back to the 1990 Operation Desert Shield,
How would American freedoms today be any different if US troops were never sent to Iraq?
Democracy?
Will newspeople ask:
If we have a democracy (we do not) when do we vote on decades on undeclared/unwon wars?
The Dept. of Defense has a truly poor track record with undeclared wars. This record goes back to 1949, the year DOD was established.
Huge Spending on Homeland Security
Candidate ____________,
Has a $51.6 billion (every 12 months) US Dept. of Homeland Security created any shortage of opioids/cartel product anywhere in the US?
Homeless Drug Addicts Camping on the Sidewalk
Oak Bay Starfish April 6, 2023:
Sequim – Ongoing Breakdown of Society Update – Try This At A State Park & See What Happens
Where are the success stories?
Whatever issues there are in WA, 49 other states have experience with what works and what doesn’t. Pick a few jurisdictions that have had success and go with it. The WWII Generation had success. What were they doing? Seattle has had problems for years, what did they learn from it? How much public money was spent to make improvements in Seattle?
What I see now from various city and county governments is about collecting tax money to pay for affordable housing, converted motels and hotels for housing. Housing Housing Housing. A spaced out and incoherent drug addict is going to get along in what version of housing? Who is the landlord?
Not against public assistance here. When the experts have had several years to work a problem with public funds and that problem does not seem to improve, newspeople should be asking tough questions.
Lessons Learned?
Whatever may have gone wrong at the federal level during the current White House administration is fair game for the newspeople who may ask questions.
Will newspeople ask how youth-led progressive organizations feel about decades of undeclared/unwon DOD wars? Are young people headed over to the recruiter’s office to sign up?
Second-Class Citizens
Will newspeople ask how youth-led progressive organizations feel about 18-20 year old adults who are prohibited from stoping off at the mini-mart to legally purchase a six pack of beer?
National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984
Related:
NATO – Newspeople refuse to ask:
Would any newsperson ever ask:
The people of Alaska need services in the Middle East
Hostile Forces in Distant Lands
The country struggles with:
Possibly of interest:
Podcast 9 Defending The Constitution?
How Do The Troops Defend The Constitution?
Not asking about the oath of enlistment. Asking about what happens after the oath has been taken.
Love to see newspeople interview elected officials and let us know how sending US Troops to Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, etc., is somehow defending the constitution.
Look for newspeople and school teachers to ask zero questions in these areas.
Both major US political parties may be forced to downsize their ambitions for various overseas military operations. Things are slow over at the recruiting office.
Newspeople refuse to ask:
What happens when American families no longer send the young ones to enlist and will not support a draft?
NATO – Newspeople refuse to ask:
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