Welcome to The Now

 When I think about the failed candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, as well as the attempts of the likes of JD Vance or Ron DeSantis to reach the White House, I'm left with a reoccurring question: why? Sure, the President of the United States can command the military and federal agencies. But other than using them to protect yourself, what good is that? How did Bill Clinton, GW Bush, Barack Obama Donald Trump or Joe Biden use their powers as president to help their citizens in a way that uplifted the country? Not individual people who already had the means or companies/corporations who already had access to power, but people in the 99%?  Who did the Crime Bill ultimately help? What about the Patriot Act? The Affordable Care Act? The Build Back Better Act? The Big Beautiful Bill? And that's just domestically. Not one of these presidents could resist the temptation to attack another nation under the guise of "protecting American interests" which is code for...

 

 "Political Hubris" is on point: Imagine screwing up so bad, you risk losing the gerrymandering-in-progress state of Texas. It's like in their blind embrace of Donald Trump, Republicans forgot that George W. Bush's overture to Latino Americans helped to rebuild their base . But the facts about immigration escape these people.

If this social media experiment is to be believed, the odds are, sadly,  "No, they wouldn't." A woman in Kentucky has gone viral online after posting a series of videos where she asks churches if they will help to feed a starving baby. The results have shocked social-media users, and the videos have amassed views by the million. Nikalie Monroe, who describes herself on TikTok as a left-wing Army veteran and a lesbian, has been filming the series as a social experiment—the “starving baby” she refers to is not real. Monroe does not have a child; instead, she uses the scenario to test how churches respond to pleas for help. [SNIP] About 35.9 million in Americans were living below the poverty line in 2024, according to data from Statista. Poverty, and in particular food insecurity, has been prominent in the headlines in recent weeks due to significant disruptions in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history...

 Aside from the fact that 22nd Amendment to the Constitution limits US Presidents to two terms, if one were to find some type of loophole through it, it means that the following could run for a third term: Donald Trump Bill Clinton George W. Bush Barack Obama (Joe Biden only served on term, so he's still Constitutionally eligible).   So if anyone is trying to push for any of these four to run again, they'll be hard-pressed to reason why the other three can't run also. 

 

Watching (and reading about) people defending the Trump Administration's actions (take your pick) as it becomes evident that said actions are not producing the promised results ("your life will get better!") reminds me of the times Biden's supports defended him, or Trump's during his first term. Or Obama before that, or George W. Bush before that or Clinton before that.  What do they all have in common? They're worse people than their supporters. Their supporters are either smarter, kinder or braver than they are; sometimes more than one of these things (and in a rare case, all three).  Clinton supporters claimed that Republicans going after him for "just a blow-job" was a witch-hunt, ignoring the abuse of power (a boss having a relationship with his employee) and the slander that was being thrown at the other party. NAFTA was cheered on despite the long-term impact on the economy and immigration. The Crime Bill was lauded despite the fact it condemn...

 

 Apparently being a nuclear power for 80 years makes you a bit arrogant. Since WWII, America has, militarily-speaking, had little to brag about. As professor Dominic Tierney put it  : " Since 1945, the United States has very rarely achieved meaningful victory. The United States has fought five major wars — Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan — and only the Gulf War in 1991 can really be classified as a clear success ." This has not stopped the Military Industrial Complex, however. America is a war economy, as in , it's economy is completely dependent on war to survive . Politicians , entertainment and other entities are caught up in it. Preparations are being made for future wars . One problem with war running a nation's economy is that the conflict has no moral ground to stand on; the purpose is simply to keep the system alive. Because the military is now simply a mechanism to generate wealth, things like "history" "diplomacy" and ...

 Of course, after the election both sides show their true colors:

(via Jimmy Dore): What part did Obama/Biden presidency play in the Russia/Ukraine conflict , and what other key US-related factors are in play?  (via Common Dreams): What part did George W. Bush play in Ukraine? (via WSWS): The entertainment world is becoming increasingly anti-Russian .  (via Alan MacLeod on Twitter): watch how the media's inner racist comes out when a European country faces war . (via Jimmy Dore): Speaking of which, even supposed alternative news media can't help but fall into the honeytrap of misinformation and ignoring historical content .

Basically: Republican president rarely ask if they can do something, and Democratic president come up with excuses why they can't do anything.  Except increasing the military budget. They all agree to do that. Also, Democrats are very good with coming up with "liberal" arguments to do thing Republicans get pushback for even suggesting ( Crime Bill , Telecommunications Act , etc.)

 In America, there are self-proclaimed Democrats who praise Colin Powell yet despise Condoleezza Rice, despite the fact that both of them pushed the same foreign policies while in the GW Bush Administration.

  SNL "celebrates" one month after US invaded Afghanistan . Funny how this wasn't referenced in "A Closer Look" about Afghanistan . 

Instead of pretending to know what's going in Afghanistan or arrogantly trying to predict the country's future, why not take the time to reminisce about past and current America presidents trying to justify being there? Since we're talking about 20 years and multiple presidents (Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden) this will be broken up into four parts For this post: George W. Bush . Keep in mind that these are not every speech or even every speech about the country in question, just notable ones where the justification is mentioned. Because justifications vary, let's use a key: Humanitarian ("People are getting hurt!") Economic ("America/American businesses are either losing money because we're not taking action, or can gain money by taking action."  Political ("This will give us an advantage with our political adversaries," or "We must spread liberty/freedom.") Military/Strategic ("Better to fight them over there than figh...

 Let's take a trip back to 2013 :  George W. Bush went to bed at around 9pm every night when he was president — except for Cinco de Mayo, that is. It’s a fact that former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez says embodies Bush’s legacy with  Latinos . [snip] In the 2004 election, he won a record breaking 44 percent of the Latino vote. It’s a record that no Republican candidate has since topped. In the last presidential election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney garnered just 27 percent of  Hispanic  votes. Arizona State University  political science professor Rodolfo Espino  says that Bush worked the hardest to build a coalition of Latino voters. “Bush set the standard for what Republicans who want to be president need to do. We’ve seen Republican candidates not follow the guidelines for the platform he was pushing for and he paid the price,” Espino says citing John McCain’s lackluster performance with Latino voters. Members of Bush’s administration say...

The Afghanistan Papers story should be the Story of the Year . Yes, it should be a bigger story than impeachment.

There was a time when those left-of-center considered compartmentalization, incrementalism and pragmatic politics of the Democratic Party to be an acceptable alternative to the staunch conservatism of the Republican Party (who decided, with each election cycle, that appealing to voters who where either misogynistic, racist, Islamophobic or a combination was a necessary evil). [Before I delve to deep in the rabbit hole here, let me say that the Republican Party is not 100% full or bigots, racists and misogynists. If anything, the GOP is the Party of Old Money and Oil Money. But they learned long ago that playing into a person's biases can help generate a pretty good voter turnout. In the same vein, the Democratic Party is not a bastion for racial minorities, women, LGBTQ, non-Christians, etc. If anything, The Democratic Party is the Party of New Money and Tech Money. They are more cordial to the non-WASP voter because, why let those votes go to a third party? Also, both parties ar...

It's good to see that former 1st Lady Michelle Obama is urging voters to participate in this upcoming midterm election . It's disturbing to know that former President George W. Bush was calling wavering Senate Republicans about their Supreme court vote . It's confusing that Michelle Obama and George W. Bush get along the way they do , considering their opposing political views. Why? Because not too long before Michelle Obama started talking about why we should give "strangers power over our lives," Bush was convincing elected officials that someone who (allegedly) asserted his power over someone and consequentially wrecked her life would make an awesome judge over the most important issues facing America.   Basically it's the Team Politics Problem: for them and others like them, this is a game where there are predominately two sides (Democrat and Republican) and they take turns running our government. They play the game until an election, then they g...

As bad as George W. Bush was, he revolutionized the presidency. He was the first president who only served the people that voted for him. He ran the country like a cable network; he only catered to his subscribers . Obama's main fault is not realizing that's kind of what people want. That whole trying-to-make-everybody-happy thing is done. People who voted for him want him to do what Bush did. And whoever's the next president will do what Bush did. - - Chris Rock, in his Rolling Stone interview .