Where We Are This Week 09/29/2023
Fall is here, the second Republican debate, violence in Nagorno-Karabakh, and a Nazi in Canadian Parliament.
Bust out your long socks and unfold your sweaters, fall is here.
Before you know it, everything will taste of pumpkin - whether you like it or not - the crisp breeze will encourage you to wrap your scarf around your neck and the crunch of fallen leaves will be underfoot.
And if that doesn’t happen in the next few days, you can act like it’s all already happening anyway. When I worked as a barista, there would be a marked uptick in business the first day there was any semblance of colder weather.
Women would order hot drinks - pumpkin flavored as I said - draped in their cozy sweaters and tall boots. Men wore beanies and corduroys and pretended to order the same pumpkin latte ironically.
Then the sun would come out, and once again, nature would make a fool of us all
.I can empathize with the temptation, though. If you don’t embrace the fall season immediately, you’ll quickly be inundated with Christmas music and curiously pagan winter solstice imagery. Such is the impatience of modernity, I suppose.
It rained today, so I’m sure coffee shops everywhere were enduring the same craze I had become to which I had become accustomed. But don’t be misled, my friends, we’ve got a few more 85-degree days in store, I’m sure.
I think one of our worst sins is wishing time away. Mums are already out on doorsteps but I’m trying to find one more sunny day I can get in the kiddy pool with my wife and daughter. Let’s enjoy today while we have it and think about tomorrow when it’s today.
The Debate Pt.2
The second GOP Primary debate was hosted by Fox Business on Wednesday of this week. You might be surprised to learn that it was an even bigger waste of time than the first one. If you had the pleasure of having something better to do, or you couldn’t budget two hours of your precious time to view finger-pointing and right-wing virtue signaling, don’t worry! I did it for you.
Inside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the top seven candidates (in polling and fundraising) took the stage - Asa Hutchinson, everyone’s favorite dark horse candidate from Arkansas, failed to qualify for the second debate. So little was his impact on the first one, his absence was barely noted.
Moderated by a trio of hosts from the Fox family of networks and Univision, and live-streamed by Rumble, the event was billed to be a hard-hitting, candidate-revealing enterprise.
What ensued, however, was incoherent shouting matches, countless Ronald Reagan references, and the least edifying thing you could have watched on television on Wednesday night.
Even more disappointing though, is that I figured the two hours of the debate would provide enough detailed content to fill the pages of my weekly newsletter; boy, was I wrong.
I think I wrote this after the last debate but I’ll mention it again at the risk of repeating my same old talking points - not unlike the GOP hopefuls on Wednesday night! This season of primary debates is a constant reminder that the citizens deserve more than a panel of mostly milquetoast candidates desperately hoping for a sound byte or a viral quip to shoot them into the stratosphere.
Here’s the breakdown.
Ron DeSantis - He came off alright, he played peacemaker between the rest of the quarreling candidates. He brought his ‘veto’ pin on stage. Has no one told these people it’s not show and tell? DeSantis also claimed he was the only candidate that served in the military overseas. He was a lawyer, not a soldier; he also spent a decent chunk of time as a military JAG at Guantanamo Bay - a place that held Abdul Nasser for 19 years without charge.
Mike Pence - Pence has the unique predicament of at once needing to take credit for the Trump / Pence Administration and disparaging his running mate from 2020. He does neither of them with any elegance.
Chris Christie - Christie has great criticisms of Donald Trump - but not a ton else - although he did refer to him as Donald Duck on Wednesday night. I’ve seen literal lame ducks get off the ground better than that joke.
Vivek Ramaswamy - I was probably the most disappointed with his performance. During the first round of debates last month, Ramaswamy was combative and unabashedly criticized his opponents for dancing the tune called by donor and corporate interests. This time, he struck a more conciliatory tone, trying to play nice with his fellow presidential hopefuls even while constantly being interrupted.
Nikki Haley - She told Vivek, “Every time I hear you, I feel dumber.” A well-crafted circular insult that would leave viewers wondering if it was an attack or an admission. Regardless, Haley didn’t stray from direct conflict with her opponents and generally handled herself well.
Tim Scott - Came out of the corner swinging. Scott wanted airtime therefore he decided he’d argue or shout over anyone who dared to speak during their own allotted times. At one point, while DeSantis and Ramaswamy were already speaking simultaneously, Scott thought it was a good opportunity to spell out his policy positions to the American public - a great time to do so because no one could hear him.
Doug Burgum - Burgum just barely qualified for Wednesday night’s debate and was determined to not let that opportunity go to waste. Unfortunately for him, he was rarely directly asked a question, and when he tried to interject, Fox’s Dana Perino threatened to cut his mic off. I hope they listen to him in North Dakota.
Donald Trump - Was not there. And no candidate, despite trying, was able to capitalize on the former president’s absence and complete lack of respect for the American people and the primary process. Yes, we might deserve more than the options on the stage, but at least they had the consideration to show up.
Best and Worst Moments - Discernible, cogent interactions were few and far between but this segment is made easy as the debate’s best and worst moments were the same instance.
As the night was wrapping up, the moderators proffered one final prompt to the candidates. Perino asked the panel to write down the name of the candidate they would like to see ‘voted off the island’ - meaning which candidate they would like to see drop out of the race.
It’s a request that reveals the bruising reality that our politics are just weaponized as entertainment. The debate wasn’t enough? Find out who each candidate hates the most! American voters are already working double time suspending their disbelief when it comes to the legitimacy of our electoral process, but this breaking of kayfabe is an absolute insult to the American ideal, the public, and the contestants candidates.
Credit where credit is due, however. Ron DeSantis immediately refused to satisfy the prompt and lambasted the moderators for their attempt at reality television. Every other candidate followed in the Florida Governor’s footsteps by not answering the question. Except for Christie, that is.
Christie said Trump - which is perfect because it’s true, and it plays into Christie’s image as the archetypal villain to every diehard Trumper who was watching.
Last Words
The debate wasn’t so much about determining policy positions - the candidates spent the majority of their time deriding and campaigning against the Biden Administration. This seems like a poor strategy as they first have to set themselves apart from the rest of the field. Any wet blanket not named Donald Trump could beat Joe Biden at this point but they didn’t seem interested in detailing why they’re the wettest blanket in all the land.
Rather than do that, it was a competition to see who was the most Republican - or more specifically, who was the most like the conservative superhero Ronald Reagan.
It’s a critical symptom of conservatism as a political philosophy. By its nature, conservatism is not a productive, visionary enterprise - so it would stand to reason that the politicians who claim to represent it can only model themselves off of the legends of the past.
Under Reagan, the United States armed the mujahideen forces in Afghanistan, fomented a bloody civil war in the Middle Eastern state, and created a power vacuum that saw the Taliban rise to prominence. During the former California governor’s tenure, the government supported the totalitarian Somoza regime in Nicaragua, and invaded Grenada, a dot in the Caribbean, under the pretext of shoring up our own ‘national security.’
Yes, Reagan, in his two terms, led the United States to victory in the Cold War as the USSR began its collapse - but I think we can do better.
And on to the news!
Okay, so the debate took up more real estate than I initially thought it would, so we’ll keep these brief. Off we go.
Conflict in Nagorno - Karabakh
In January, I wrote about the impending humanitarian disaster that was set to occur in Nagorno-Karabakh, the separatist, ethnically Armenian geographical region inside of Azerbaijan.
For centuries, the area has been occupied by a predominantly ethnically Armenian population, and ever since the post-Soviet era, Armenia and Azerbaijan have routinely skirmished over the control or autonomy of the region.
In the late fall of last year, Azerbaijan officials established a blockade on the region, also known as Artsakh, and began its strategy of slowly starving the population. For some time, Russia was helping to enforce a peace deal between the two former Soviet states, but as of this past week, it appears as if they are no longer operating within those confines.
As the people of the region became weaker and more desperate, Azerbaijan launched an attack on the territory. The onslaught only lasted one day but as drone strikes and gunfire killed an estimated 200 citizens, the gulf of power between the states was displayed. As a result of starvation and a lack of resources, the separatist movement has been forced to capitulate.
Now, it’s reported that more than 60,000 ethnic Armenians are being forced to abandon their ancestral lands to flee an oppressive regime. For now, the violence has subsided but there is no guarantee that the region will reach a stasis anytime soon.
Not to toot my own horn, but I saw this coming at the beginning of the year. If some guy blogging from his living room was able to predict an inevitable human catastrophe, surely, our world leaders could have done more to prevent the ethnic cleansing that is underway.
Canada Celebrates a Nazi
In one of the funnier, most depressing stories to emerge this week, the Canadian Parliament honored a former member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.
Currently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is on a tour of the West, panhandling for more funding for the war against Russia. The opening act for Mr. Zelenskyy in Canada was a celebration of Yaroslav Hunka; a 98-year-old World War II veteran who, according to the Canadian Speaker of the House, was a “hero.”
Hunka was honored in the House of Commons and was hailed as a ‘Ukrainian freedom fighter against the USSR’ during WWII. Now, it doesn’t exactly take a history buff to ascertain what truth is behind that poorly crafted euphemism.
There were only two sides to that theater of war and if you weren’t a member of the Soviet Union’s army - and you were fighting against the commies - you were a Nazi.
Hunka, our hero, is no exception. The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS was a volunteer unit in a region that saw some of the most brutal pogroms of the Jewish people. Speaker Anthony Rota at least acknowledged his inexcusable gaff and has subsequently stepped down from his role in Parliament.
As shameful as the entire incident was, the irony is palpable. The Canadian government is forced to admit that it mistakenly celebrated a former Nazi but neither Canada - nor the West writ large - has been able to confront the palpable neo-Nazi presence active in the Ukrainian government and military today. Ukraine has an entire Nazi battalion in its fighting forces, and images of swastika-emblazoned tanks and other armaments frequently surface.
And yet, mum’s the word from Western media. But, at least, this error was so blatant that the corporate media apparatus and the Canadian government were forced to address it. It’s not much, but you take the wins where you can get them.
To a better next week,
Cheers,
~FDA