Unacceptable

 

Joe Biden is very, very angry.  He says this is "unacceptable," and that Israel must take "concrete action" to protect civilians and aid workers, or further American largesse will be "curtailed."  Easy, Joe!

Wisconsin Democrats are also angry.  Forty-eight thousand of them went out in the rain and cast ballots for "uninstructed" in last Tuesday's primary.  They may have all kinds of problems with their party leader, but I suspect most of them no longer want to be complicit in Israeli atrocities.  In a state Biden won by 21,000 votes, he can't afford for them to stay angry.

One ray of hope came from the Republican primary, where twenty percent voted for anyone but Trump.  In this case, it was a message of disgust with the candidate and not with any one of his threats, delusions, positions or crimes.  They still seem to think the party will come to its senses and return to the halcyon days of Ronald Reagan.  More delusions.

The deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers has finally focused attention on the more than 190 relief workers previously killed, not to mention over a hundred journalists.  I would hate to attribute this to the international celebrity of Chef Jose Andres but if that's what it takes, fine.  This morning an official of Doctors Without Borders was on CNN talking about the overwhelming job of caring for the wounded and starving and I didn't even catch her name.  Where are Bono and Bob Geldof?  Has Paul McCartney written a song yet?  It sounds callous and frivolous but that's how public outrage gets created and focused.  Based solely on network airtime, more people are mesmerized by next week's eclipse.  

When not wringing its hands, the Biden administration continues to supply Israel with bombs.  Could we at least demand something in return?  In 1941 the Roosevelt administration's Lend-Lease provided Britain with destroyers in return for 99-year leases on bases in Newfoundland and the Caribbean.  For every bomb, Israel should have to admit a caravan of food trucks or allow a set number of people to be evacuated to hospitals that have not been reduced to rubble.  At the very least let's hold up the F-15 sales until this happens.  Or let the Ukrainians try them out for a few months.  (Since the jets would be used, we could give Bibi a break on the price.  Work with me here.)

Speaking of arming our democratic allies, the Australians have been waiting three years for some nuclear submarines we promised them under AUKUS.  The point of the pact is to deter China from trying to invade Taiwan.  It's not clear why US shipyards are falling behind.  Pandemic, supply chains...eclipse?