Biden’s Steady Hand
President Joe Biden has provided exactly what we need at a time such as this. A steady hand. We need this. The country needs this. There’s no daily or hourly spewing of insults or denigrating our nation’s institutions, intelligence community, allies or armed forces. No spewing of perceived slights or grievances against all and sundry on Twitter. There aren’t any despots being praised. Biden’s doing what needs to be done.
The daily chaos is gone.
He is using his time in office to put our government back together and get it functioning properly. He hasn’t put people in charge that have the opposite agenda and goals of the departments they’re in charge of. So far he has avoided the revolving door turnover of personnel that President Trump’s Administration had.
President Biden hasn’t attacked news media as being “fake”, like Trump and his idol Putin do, or the “enemy of the people” even though media has been critical of Biden’s Presidency and the missteps that he has made. President Biden is the polar opposite of Trump in how he presents himself. He doesn’t go on ad nauseam about how he’s being treated and play the victim nor is he a braggart.
President Biden is a journeyman. Years of experience in government have taught him his craft. He understands the nuts and bolts of our Republic and how to conduct business in a way that befits our place in the world arena. He has worked behind the scenes and in public to repair our relations with our allies that President Trump had undermined. He succeeded in pulling NATO back together. Some people have conveniently forgot that Trump undermined NATO at every turn and held up military supplies to Ukraine that had already been approved. Trump questioned the very usefulness of NATO and threatened to pull out.
Then Putin invaded Ukraine.
State of War
An expert on Russia and Putin commented that we were already engaged in World War Three. I really had to stop and think about that. It’s a comment that definitely gives one pause.
The last time the United States declared War was World War Two. Constitutionally Congress reserves the right to declare war. We’ve been at war a lot of times since then but war was never declared. Kind of hard to believe isn’t it? Well, perhaps not but that’s the way it is.
World War Two started well before the US declared war. Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Japan seized Manchuria in 1931 and allied with Germany and Italy on September 27th, 1940. The United States didn’t declare war until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 followed shortly thereafter by our declaring war on Germany on December 11th, 1941.
Putin has invaded Ukraine. Nations are choosing sides. Other nations, including ours, are supporting the war effort of Ukraine against Russia. Once again a state of war exists in Europe without declarations of war being made. The same thing happened and is ongoing in the Middle East. The technicalities don’t really make any difference.
We are at war.
The state of the state of.I watched President Biden’s “State of the Union” address to Congress. In addition to fulfilling a Constitutional requirement of the President the “State of the Union” is grand theatre! The President’s party cheers them on while the other party sits mostly on their hands. The President touts their accomplishments both real and perceived and provides their agenda to achieve goals they have deemed important.
It is important. We get to see the President unfettered before a captive audience. We get to hear what they want out of life. Sometimes we even learn things about them on a personal level. For instance I did not know that President Biden was a college professor. So I looked it up. He was a for real adjunct professor.
What he did that’s really important to the world is present a calm, measured response to what is taking place in Ukraine. No hyperbole or unnecessary personal posturing in a time of worldwide crisis. President Biden laid out what we would and would not do as much as others might want to have us set in motion an escalation that no one will win anywhere. I’m talking about the use of nuclear weapons. The old cold fear is now upon us again.
Putin did that.
Where to from here?Man! That is the question du jour for quite a while. Republicans and some Democrats are wanting to shut off oil purchases from Russia because that is a major source of income. What that will do is raise fuel prices in this country. Prices are already climbing and nothing has happened to supply lines or production yet. It’s hard to even hazard a guess as to what diesel and gas could cost other than to say records will be broken. So far Biden is saying no.*
The world economy is going to tank. Okay, that’s a strong statement but I don’t see any way around it if history provides any kind of a guide. Just to up the ante Putin is now saying that sanctions amount to a declaration of war. As I already mentioned above I certainly believe that we are now at war even though people will go to great lengths to say that we aren’t. Technicalities.
War brings hardship. Hardships are coming. Are people ready for them? The Ukrainians certainly are. They’re living them. They are living with the horror visited upon them through no fault of their own. Europe is being flooded with soon to be millions of Ukrainians fleeing the horror that Putin brought upon them. They are without food and water. They have lost it all because of Putin.
Will people in this country be willing to put with higher prices of anything, everything? The very Republicans clamoring for Biden to stop the purchase of oil from Russia are and will continue be the ones blaming him for the higher prices at the gas pump and elsewhere. (Only 2% of our oil imports come from Russia.) I base this upon some Republicans taking credit for the good done by popular bills that they have voted against.
Hardship always hits the poor the hardest. EVERYWHERE. Traditionally Republicans aren’t all that great when it comes to helping the poor. They would rather give money to the wealthy pretending that they will give it to the poor.
They don’t.
God takes sides
Evangelicals that claimed Trump is a man of God are also claiming that Putin is a man of God called to invade Ukraine. Putin also doesn’t like Muslims or LGBTQ people. Putin is tailor made for them! Hard to believe but true nevertheless. Actually it isn’t that hard to believe. They have created a mythology to support their outrageous beliefs along with the white nationalists that supposedly want to help Evangelicals establish a Christian theocracy.
Then we have all the millions of Republicans that say they trust Putin over Biden. Putin. The guy that invaded Ukraine and threatens the world with nuclear war. That’s the guy they trust. They worship a man that even 50 years ago they would have been calling a “Godless Communist.” While they do that, they also call our free press fake news just like their hero Putin does. They have created their own news sources that validate their beliefs. What’s more they will continue to attack the institutions of our Republic and our form of government.
It’s what their comrade Putin wants.
*3/8/22, The Biden Administration has now shut off oil purchases from Russia.