Biden’s Eclectic Agenda

  • However persistent the partisanship and however awkward the optics, there should still be enough overall support for the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. In fact, polls show that large numbers of Americans in both parties support leaving Afghanistan. President Joe Biden put it into a context that even (no more “endless wars”) Trumpsters should agree with. “We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build,” stated Biden. “And it’s the right and responsibility of Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country.”
  • “If the Russian government cannot or will not take action against (cyber) criminal actors residing in Russia, we will take action on our own.” That was White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who knows the president is under growing pressure to take some kind of public action. It’s also a given that cyber attacks originating in Russia, even if not directly linked to the Kremlin, can be halted by an authoritarian.

Speaking of, the advice of Russian chess grandmaster and political activist Garry Kasparov, could be instructive. “The only language that Putin understands is power, and his power is his money,” said Kasparov. “The U.S. should wipe out oligarchs’ accounts, one by one, until the message is delivered.” Stay tuned.

  • Yes, this president’s agenda is top heavy with domestic challenges ranging from insurrection fall-out, a MAGA mentality, filibuster governance, vaccination expedience and infrastructure needs to racial disparities, gun violence, voter suppression and border chaos. But foreign policy is increasingly in the cross hairs: from Russia and China to North Korea, Iran and Afghanistan to Central America, Cuba and Haiti. It helps that the commander in chief has foreign policy chops—from chairing the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee to two vice presidential terms with important international portfolios.
  • “Let me be clear: Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation.” President Biden, in signing an executive order targeting monopolies.
  • The DNC is making a $25 million infusion into efforts to combat new laws passed by Republican state lawmakers that restrict voting.
  • “(The economy) is booming so strongly that Republicans have pivoted from claiming (falsely) that we’re experiencing the worst job performance in decades to lauding the employment numbers and giving credit to … Trump’s 2017 tax cut.”—Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.
  • “Dear Sen. Manchin: You’ve not helped the Senate get things done; you’ve helped Mitch McConnell block the Senate from getting anything done. … Yes, you’re elected to serve the people of your state, but once you take the oath of office, your primary obligation is to do what’s best for the entire country.”—Bill Press, author of “Trump Must Go” and a former co-host of CNN’s “Cross Fire.”

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