The View from Right Field

Biden Has Defined Success in His Afghan Exit: Nobody Pulled Off an Embassy Roof By Helicopter

When Joe Biden was asked last week if there was any similarity between Kabul today and Saigon in 1975, he said no:

“None whatsoever.  Zero.  What you had is you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our Embassy.  Six if I’m not mistaken.  The Taliban is not the South, the North Vietnamese army.  They’re not – they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability.  There’s going to be no circumstance where you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy [in Afghanistan].”

He also defended the withdrawal by asking:

Hunter Biden’s Paintings Tell Us How to Handle Disclosure of Contribution

Joe and Hunter Biden may have solved the problem of how we handle disclosure of contributions to political causes.  For Hunter Biden’s paintings, the Bidens are considering a plan whereby the paintings will be sold by a third-party art gallery.  The art gallery won’t tell Hunter or President Biden – or the public – who buys the paintings or even who bids on them.  Therefore, there is no possibility of corruption or improper influence.

Which seems like the solution to contributions to political causes, too.  California wanted to know the names of contributors to charities, including ones that take political positions, so it could ensure nothing untoward happened.  But the U.S. Supreme Court said no because of concerns about confidentiality and retaliation.  The Bidens may have given us the solution.

The “Why Should Anybody Trust Us” Version of Leaving Afghanistan

As we leave Afghanistan, the question (or at least one of the questions) is what about the people who we are leaving behind.  Maine Senator Angus King (I, but really D), among others, is worried we aren’t going to be getting our Afghan translators and interpreters out with us.¹  These people helped us.  They worked with us.  They took a big risk in doing so, because the Taliban, who are not nice people, will come after them if they can.  They already have in some cases.  When we leave, they’ll do it more.

We promised these people we would get them to the United States, but guess what, it’s not going to happen.  Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told CNN:

“We’re determined to make good on our obligation to those who helped us, who put their lives on the line, put their families’ lives on the line working with our military, working with our diplomats”

Liz Cheney, Donald Trump, 2020, and the Republican Party

Liz Cheney was ousted as head of the House Republican Conference last week, mostly (entirely-?) because she wouldn’t sign up for former President Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen.  The decision to remove her was taken by a voice vote.  Which was either because almost everybody agreed or because, if one wants to be cynical (which I often find is the best way to look at things, especially politics), people didn’t want to go on the record. 

In any case, here are a few comments on Donald Trump, the 2020 election, and the future of the Republican Party:

Bringing Us Together: We Have to Do It Ourselves

In his Inaugural Address, Joe Biden talked about how he wanted to bring us together:

“My whole soul is in this.  Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. And I ask every American to join me in this cause. …

And so today at this time in this place, let's start afresh, all of us.  Let's begin to listen to one another again, hear one another, see one another.  Show respect to one another.”

I hope he can do it.  He seems like a nice guy (I talked about this before, so I won’t repeat myself).  What I would say, though, is while I hope President Biden can help to bring us together, it’s not something he can do himself.  It’s something we have to do ourselves.

Are Joe Biden’s Problems Greater Than Franklin Roosevelt’s?

In Monday’s Financial Times, Rana Foroohar, in defending Joe Biden’s tightening of “Buy American” rules for federal government purchasing, said “the political challenges facing the Biden administration … are arguably greater than Franklin Roosevelt faced in the 1930s.”¹

While I understand President Biden faces challenges, to compare today’s problems with the 1930s is to not appreciate the situation then.  The unemployment rate in 1933 was 24.9%.  With no nationwide unemployment insurance system, no job meant no money.  When thousands of banks failed in 1933, people’s money was gone because there was no national deposit insurance scheme.  While these might be called economic problems (as opposed to political problems), if they were not dealt with to at least some extent, they would have resulted in real political problems.

On President Biden’s First Week

I have not posted since Joe Biden was inaugurated last Wednesday, so maybe I will now.  I thought President Biden’s inaugural address was pretty decent.  It did not get into details, but it hit a lot of things I believe in.¹  Whether he is going to be able to do those things, who knows.  It depends on him, his team, and the other team(s)².

I don’t agree with some (a lot-?) of the executive orders, etc., that President Biden has issued/signed, but I have not commented because, well, it is early.  Also, the way Donald Trump left the presidency, especially since the Electoral College met in December, has bothered me so much that it is hard to criticize what President Biden is doing.  I don’t know if President Trump “incited an insurrection” on January 6 in the legal meaning of those words, but what he said was not, in my opinion, acceptable.³

Just Because I’m Glad Trump Is Leaving, Doesn’t Mean I Agree With Biden

A comment on the upcoming change in administrations that many in our polarized America may not appreciate: Just because someone is incredibly glad Donald Trump is leaving the White House, doesn’t mean they think Joe Biden will wind up being a good president or that the Democratic Party has the right policies for the United States.

President Trump has been a terrible president; possibly the worst in our history.¹  His administration did some good things (I’ve talked about them before), but the farther we got into his term and the more the decisions were made by him, rather than some of the people he appointed, the worse things got.²  While the last two months would not have happened if he had won re-election, a second Trump term could have been even scarier, perhaps especially in foreign policy and other areas where he could have acted on his own.

Farewell to Attorney General Barr – And Thank You

Attorney General William Barr is resigning effective December 23.  Who knows why.  You can never tell with Donald Trump, except when the President says so in a nasty tweet.  President Trump’s tweet about Attorney General Barr was nice, so you can’t tell anything from it.  In any case, Attorney General Barr has done an excellent job, and he deserves a thank you as he leaves.

Attorney General Barr was appointed by President Trump in January of 2019.  Early on, the mainstream media began calling him a “Trump loyalist” because of things he did.  For example, when he initiated an investigation into the question of whether the FBI investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign, Democrats and the mainstream media went crazy.  (See my post from back then here.)  After all, President Trump had been complaining about surveillance on his campaign for a long time.