Neoliberalism
Democratic (neoliberal) Party
Joe Biden
Fig. 1. Joe Biden and Pope Francis, unknown photographer, April 29, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
In 2020, Joe Biden proved that not even the Democrats could lose to COVID-19. In 2024, that argument has lost steam and even when I thought Biden would win, it was largely because of abortion (and Donald Trump’s obsessive denial of his 2020 defeat):
Democratic critics of the campaign’s approach — while agreeing that abortion should be a winning issue — said they’re challenged when pressed by friends to make the case for why [Joe] Biden will win.
“There’s still a path to win this, but they don’t look like a campaign that’s embarking on that path right now,” said Pete Giangreco, a longtime Democratic strategist who’s worked on multiple presidential campaigns. “If the frame of this race is, ‘What was better, the 3.5 years under Biden or four years under Trump,’ we lose that every day of the week and twice on Sunday.”[1]
It keeps coming back to the Democratic Party’s evident strong preference for sitting in opposition, where they can complain about the Republicans and where no one expects them to actually accomplish anything. Until this week, I’d have said Biden wants to win. Now, I can’t even see how it’s possible that he does. He’ll lose because he desperately wants to lose.
Christopher Cadelago, Sally Goldenberg, and Elena Schneider, “Dems in full-blown ‘freakout’ over Biden,” Politico, May 28, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/28/democrats-freakout-over-biden-00160047
Imperialism
Israel
Palestine
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[2] fair use.
It was just a few days ago that I wrote,
A little more than a week ago, Ann Wright criticized the pier built by the U.S. to help aid get to Gazans, calling it a Rube Goldberg design.[3] The Wall Street Journal is more charitable, writing that “[t]he maritime corridor is a cumbersome system with multiple potential bottlenecks.” So, unsurprisingly, the pier is indeed not working out so well.[4]
But in the first week of operations, only 820 tons of aid was delivered through the pier, of which around two-thirds reached distribution points within Gaza, the Pentagon said Thursday. That is roughly equivalent to 71 truckloads—far below the initial target of 90 truckloads a day, and about 15% of the estimated minimum daily need for a population of more than two million people facing crisis-level acute food insecurity.[5]
Put simply, this looks a lot more like an intentional boondoggle than a serious effort. The priority clearly isn’t getting necessities of life to Palestinians but military and financial aid to Israel and its genocide operation. It’s $320 million[6] against $300 billion annually in U.S. financial and military aid[7] for genocide. And it’s part of the lie in which Joe Biden pretends to rein in the Israelis.[8][9]
You heard it here first. The pier broke up today (May 28), after only about a week in service.[10]
The Pentagon said Tuesday that it has suspended the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza via its floating pier after separate mishaps in which four U.S. military vessels were beached, one U.S. service member was critically injured and sections of the structure were ripped free in bad weather.[11]
The pier, which cost $320 million, had only begun operating on May 17 when heavy seas forced the maritime shipments to stop one week later on May 24, two days before part of the pier disconnected. It is unclear when shipments will resume.
The temporary pier, called the Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS), requires very good sea conditions to operate. [Cable News Network] reported previously that JLOTS can only be operated safely in a maximum of 3-foot waves and winds less than approximately 15 miles per hour.
Heavier sea conditions delayed the deployment of the pier for several weeks, as the system sat docked in the Israeli port of Ashdod waiting for favorable conditions.[12]
The damage will require the U.S. military, with Israeli assistance, to disassemble pieces of the pier attached to the Gazan shore, rebuild them in the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod, then transport them back to the Gazan shore and reconnect them, said Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman. That process will take at least a week, temporarily eliminating the pier as an option to deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza as Israel continues its months-long military campaign against the militant group Hamas.[13]
It was a crappy design to start with.[14]
While the U.S. military has been able to deliver more than 1,000 tons of aid over the pier this month, according to officials, its initial installation was delayed for days by bad weather, and it is unclear whether the refurbishment in Ashdod may render it less susceptible to storms.
Singh, asked whether the pier deployment, with an estimated cost of more than $300 million, is not viable under such conditions, said that heavy seas in recent days and a North African storm system had combined to create “not an optimal environment” to operate the pier.
“Look, I can’t predict the weather,” she said. “But we believe that given the time of year, we will be able to re-anchor this pier and it will be able to be operational, and hopefully weather conditions won’t hinder it anymore.”[15]
This would be a joke if it weren’t an absolute catastrophe. These people aren’t even remotely serious. And they’re the same people we’re hoping will rein in Binyamin Netanyahu.
Šejla Ahmatović, “‘No longer justifiable’: European leaders condemn Israel’s strike on refugee camp,” Politico, May 27, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/refugee-camp-strike-israel-rafah-palestine-civilians-eu/
Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams, “Israeli attack on Rafah tent camp kills 45, prompts international outcry,” Reuters, May 27, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-attack-rafah-tent-camp-draws-global-condemnation-2024-05-27/
Harry Davies, “Revealed: Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry,” Guardian, May 28, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/28/israeli-spy-chief-icc-prosecutor-war-crimes-inquiry
Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, and Kareem Fahim, “Pentagon suspends aid deliveries via Gaza pier after repeated mishaps,” Washington Post, May 28, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/05/28/gaza-pier-pentagon-weather-damage/
Oren Liebermann and Natasha Bertrand, “US pier constructed off Gaza has broken apart,” Cable News Network, May 28, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/28/politics/us-gaza-pier-broken-apart/index.html
Illiberalism
Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Fig. 1. Donald Trump still has his fans. Photograph along Washington Road in Upper Saint Clair, Pennsylvania, by author, April 28, 2024.
Nick Coltrain, “Colorado suspends ex-Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis’ law license for 3 years over Georgia election lies,” Denver Post, May 28, 2024, https://www.denverpost.com/2024/05/28/colorado-jenna-ellis-law-license-2020-election-lies-donald-trump/
Perry Stein, “Judge rejects request to restrict Trump’s speech on FBI, says motion was faulty,” Washington Post, May 28, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/05/28/trump-fbi-comments-cannon-jack-smith/
- [1]Christopher Cadelago, Sally Goldenberg, and Elena Schneider, “Dems in full-blown ‘freakout’ over Biden,” Politico, May 28, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/28/democrats-freakout-over-biden-00160047↩
- [2]Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
- [3]Ann Wright, “Why Did the US Spend $320 Million on a Rube Goldberg Pier For Gaza?” Common Dreams, May 16, 2024, https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-military-pier-gaza↩
- [4]Stephen Kalin and Nancy A. Youssef, “The U.S. Built a $320 Million Pier to Get Aid to Gazans. Little of It Has Reached Them,” Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2024, https://apple.news/AE6vfFl5VS0Cs-jZgwST7Bw↩
- [5]Stephen Kalin and Nancy A. Youssef, “The U.S. Built a $320 Million Pier to Get Aid to Gazans. Little of It Has Reached Them,” Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2024, https://apple.news/AE6vfFl5VS0Cs-jZgwST7Bw↩
- [6]Stephen Kalin and Nancy A. Youssef, “The U.S. Built a $320 Million Pier to Get Aid to Gazans. Little of It Has Reached Them,” Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2024, https://apple.news/AE6vfFl5VS0Cs-jZgwST7Bw; Ann Wright, “Why Did the US Spend $320 Million on a Rube Goldberg Pier For Gaza?” Common Dreams, May 16, 2024, https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-military-pier-gaza↩
- [7]Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow, “U.S. Aid to Israel in Four Charts,” Council on Foreign Relations, April 11, 2024, https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts↩
- [8]Mohamad Bazzi, “Biden wants progressives to believe he’s reining in Israel. He isn’t,” Guardian, May 20, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/20/biden-weapons-israel-gaza-war↩
- [9]David Benfell, “U.S. aid to Palestine is for show (just don’t look at the genocide behind the curtain),” Irregular Bullshit, May 25, 2024, https://disunitedstates.com/2024/05/25/u-s-aid-to-palestine-is-for-show-just-dont-look-at-the-genocide-behind-the-curtain/↩
- [10]Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, and Kareem Fahim, “Pentagon suspends aid deliveries via Gaza pier after repeated mishaps,” Washington Post, May 28, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/05/28/gaza-pier-pentagon-weather-damage/; Oren Liebermann and Natasha Bertrand, “US pier constructed off Gaza has broken apart,” Cable News Network, May 28, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/28/politics/us-gaza-pier-broken-apart/index.html↩
- [11]Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, and Kareem Fahim, “Pentagon suspends aid deliveries via Gaza pier after repeated mishaps,” Washington Post, May 28, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/05/28/gaza-pier-pentagon-weather-damage/↩
- [12]Oren Liebermann and Natasha Bertrand, “US pier constructed off Gaza has broken apart,” Cable News Network, May 28, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/28/politics/us-gaza-pier-broken-apart/index.html↩
- [13]Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, and Kareem Fahim, “Pentagon suspends aid deliveries via Gaza pier after repeated mishaps,” Washington Post, May 28, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/05/28/gaza-pier-pentagon-weather-damage/↩
- [14]Ann Wright, “Why Did the US Spend $320 Million on a Rube Goldberg Pier For Gaza?” Common Dreams, May 16, 2024, https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-military-pier-gaza↩
- [15]Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, and Kareem Fahim, “Pentagon suspends aid deliveries via Gaza pier after repeated mishaps,” Washington Post, May 28, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/05/28/gaza-pier-pentagon-weather-damage/↩