The recent trifecta of far right-wing decisions from the Supreme Court delivered to an unwilling majority of Americans from strange bedfellows McConnell and Trump do not exactly meet the criteria of love, hope and charity cherished by their fundamentalist base. Now, 10-year-old pregnant rape victims must dodge bullets at school or church while gasping for air through the carbon polluted atmosphere. And with the unapologetic Donald preparing to announce his candidacy for 2024, the only cheek that seems to be turned is the half moon of his ample derriere. How many will line up to kiss it?
And let’s face it, as long as Republicans jam up Congress, we will never get needed gun safety legislation. Since a forward trajectory or progress is impossible with this crew, we might as well look back for a solution. In days of yore, most involuntary celibate dweebs found some way to blow of steam without resorting to gun massacres. Charles Whitman was an exception. Nowadays, too many are glued to their laptops watching porn and studying 4Chan. Naturally, they are bound to crack up. Here are a couple solutions that GOP leaders might find palatable: 1) Bring back military conscription; and 2) Legalize prostitution. Some discipline will be restored, tensions relieved across the board and Republican nostalgia for 1950s proto-Americana satisfied.
STEVEN ROSENZWEIG, Brooklyn, N.Y.
By the title, The Progressive Populist should be a magazine in the tradition of the great popular progressive leaders of the past who brought us social benefits such as labor rights, unemployment insurance, welfare programs, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. These leaders were anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-war. I assumed that readers and writers of this magazine would hold these same values.
What I find instead is articles and letters that foment the war in Ukraine, writing that is frankly warmongering and jingoistic. The same people who have decried US imperial wars and regime change adventures over the years, the most notable being the wars in Iraq and Libya for sheer destruction based on lies. We all reject those wars and have learned to not believe US propaganda ‘manufacturing consent’ for those wars. This stance is the essence of anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, and anti-war.
Since February 2022, perhaps earlier, much of the American Left has jumped on board with Russia-hating, Putin-hating, and Glory to Ukraine (which, by the way was the battle cry of the Ukrainian Nazi insurgency after WW II), thinking I suppose, that this time the US government is telling the truth. I suppose that this support for war is the fruit of decades of anti-Russian and years of anti-Putin propaganda, imbibed gracelessly with the morning coffee. But, these memes and tropes are factually flawed, contextually limited, or outright lies, and are the mother’s milk of the Democratic Party.
I personally believe the US government, especially the neocons in the Biden administration, is quite wrong about Russia in that the neocon goal is to use the Ukraine to enact regime change in Russia and subsequent neoliberal capitalist control. As such, I reject this war fever and ask my fellows on the Left to do so, too.
TED TRIPP, Apalachicola, Fla.
Editor replies: The Progressive Populist has published columns on both sides of the issue on US and NATO allies sending armaments to help Ukraine defend against the Russian invasion force sent by Vladimir Putin, who claimed he was intent on “de-Nazifying” Ukraine and insisted that Ukraine has no historical claim to independent statehood. We think the US is justified in rejecting Putin’s claims.
After the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, the newly independent Ukraine inherited a 780,000-man military force equipped with the third-largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world. In December 1994, leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Britain and the US signed the Budapest Memorandum, which provided security assurances to Ukraine in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons and joining the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Among other things, Russia, as well as Britain and the US, promised “to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.”
Those promises lasted 20 years before Putin, who became Russian president in 1999, in 2014 sent Russian forces to annex the Crimean peninsula and supported a rebellion by pro-Russian groups in the Donetsk and Luhansk areas of eastern Ukraine, collectively called the Donbas.
A FactCheck by the Annenberg Public Policy Center March 31 cited a statement signed by more than 300 historians who study genocide, Nazism and World War II, which stated Putin’s rhetoric about de-Nazifying fascists among Ukraine’s elected leadership is “propaganda” and noted that the far right in Ukraine has seen its proportional share of the parliamentary government drop from 10.4% of the popular vote in 2012 to 6% in 2014 and 2% in 2019. In comparison, we note fascists form the base of the Trumpist Republican Party in the US and the governing party in Russia.
As for “neocons in the Biden administration” using Ukraine “to enact regime change in Russia and subsequent neoliberal capitalist control,” Putin adopted neoliberal capitalism after he gained power in 1999 and he has since turned Russia into an oligarchic dictatorship. His invasion of Ukraine was part of his effort to consolidate power. Under the Budapest Memorandum, the US owes Ukraine support, and we think that includes the weapons to fight the invaders who are waging a scorched-earth campaign that has included bombing hospitals, markets and residential apartment buildings. If some military contractors profit from the transfer of weapons systems to the Ukraine defense forces, it just shows that sometimes the military-industrial complex is on the right side of history.
Columnist Ted Rall’s piece, “Our Culture of Violence Comes from the White House” [7/1-15/22 TPP], made for interesting reading. He managed to skip over Woodrow Wilson’s earnest desire not to get his country caught up in the foreign entanglement now known as the First World War.
As for George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware to attack hired soldiers (mercenaries) on Christmas, there was patent immorality on both sides. And in those days, George couldn’t be an Anglican and revolt against the King of England.
It’s unwise to inveigh against long-ago behavior by our contemporary sensibilities. While we aren’t a land of storybook saints, neither are we given to callous destruction and self-righteous mayhem.
WILLIAM DAUENHAUER, Willowick, Ohio
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.” Section 4 of Article IV.
Section 2 says, “The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.”
How many US citizens know this is in our Constitution? How many citizens know what the whole Constitution even says? How many citizens know American history? How many citizens know any history of anything before their time here on Earth? How many know how important knowing these things is to our present lives? We need to know how we got to these times so we can live in these times.
CHERYL LOVELY, Presque Isle, Maine
So, both the Federal Communications Commission and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are leaderless. In “If You Watch TV or Use the Internet, You Want a Functional FCC” [6/15/22 TPP], Julie Hollar points out that the FCC’s Board of Governors is deadlocked with four members, enabling communication companies to run rampant with mergers and rate increases. President Biden’s nominee for the tie-breaking fifth seat has not been confirmed by the Senate.
In “Gun Violence Threatens Our Fragile Democracy,” Katrina Vanden Heuvel states that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been without a director for seven years. SEVEN YEARS! How did that happen? Biden’s first pick for this post was rejected by the Senate. His second nominee is awaiting confirmation.
Also of note, Trump never bothered to appoint a director for the National Park Service. Biden’s nominee, awaiting confirmation, is a 40-year Park employee and a member of Oregon’s Umatilla tribe.
It’s not hard to see what’s going on here. A leaderless agency has no cohesive clout to stand up to greedy schemes that endanger our lives, economy and environment. By systematically rejecting nominees, or shouting “filibuster,” the Senate has reduced its duty in this process of filling essential jobs to politics as usual; stroking each other for votes or giving in to the guy with the fattest wallet.
BETTY CROWDER, Honeydew, Calif.
The Jan. 6 congressional committee not only hit a historic political home run with its public televised hearings in June, demoralized Donald Trump — who is clearly 100% guilty — has only further incriminated himself since then. Trump can forget about running in 2024.
If there’s one thing that we all can agree upon about that tangerine traitor is that dimwitted Donald Trump cannot keep his stupid mouth shut for more than a few seconds. Donald Trump is a blithering idiot!
Witness tampering and witness intimidation, for example, is just another series of felony crimes that the Department of Justice will be able to charge Trump with (along with Trump’s partner in capital crimes, Mark Meadows) after the Jan. 6 hearings conclude.
Lock these conservative cop killers up and throw away the keys! These traitors must pay, no matter how hard their cult members cry. The GOP is Jonestown, and Trump is just a fat, old, orange version of Jim Jones.
JAKE PICKERING, Arcata, Calif.
I agree with the Joan Retsinas article, “The Trifecta: Abortion, Contraception and Sex Education” [6/15/22 TPP]. However, I would like to add a subject that is rarely mentioned: “Overpopulation.”
With a population of 340 million, our country does not need more babies. We already have trouble dealing with pandemics, inflation, millions with no medical insurance, refugee immigrants seeking asylum, climate warming, increasing crime, plus more homeless in the streets because they cannot pay exorbitant increasing rents.
In my opinion, instead of making abortion illegal, women who choose to have an abortion should be honored as patriotic Americans and given tax credits for not adding to our already overpopulated nation.
GILBERT A. RUBIO, San Diego, Calif.
Trumpers and other Republicans use the cloak of great religiosity to keep their hold on the Court, to render pro-business and other right-wing-oriented decisions.
To maintain that cloak of religiosity, they’ve adopted, over time, their anti-abortion posture to show how religious they are.
WILLIAM A. MONTGOMERY, Cincinnati, Ohio
From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2022
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