Comment of the Day: A plague on both your houses, by noappforthat

(fiddler by Moshe Harosh courtesy of pixabay.com)

Today, the revival of “Comment of the Day” because I’m too lazy to write another post about the virus:

(By “noappforthat” in Washington Post, commenting on a column about the firing of the Inspector General for the State Department– which column appears to pin the firing on investigations that the IG has been doing about the $8 billion arms sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, OK’d by the State Department despite the murder and dismemberment of the renegade Kashoggi in the Saudi Embassy in Turkey… )

These petty details don’t matter. How about the illegal wars waged against Iran, China and Venezuela? How about the systematic undermining of international institutions from WHO, to the EU to NATO to the WTO? How about the 100,000+ dead Americans attributable to a combination of incompetence and deepening social inequalities? How about an administration loaded up with sycophants that openly engages in the worst forms of nepotism and cronyism, making even the worst tinpot dictatorships look like paragons of democracy and accountability? How about routine violations of the rule of law? Patent corruption? Abuse of powers? Undermining the independence of the judiciary? Radical worsening of income disparities and racism in America fuelled by toxic politics and right-wing policies? The debased and puerile reporting of it all? The US media and the political opposition wax indignant over various follies, insults and misdemeanours, opine on matters partisan and personal, and turn blind eyes to the complete failure of US democratic institutions, the vulgarity and venality of president and congress alike, and the disgraces that both the Democratic and Republic political parties have become. It isn’t the presidency in America that’s been taken ill; the entire nation is deeply diseased. Americans may not regard matters this way, but assuredly the rest of the world looking on does. A deeply flawed electoral process pitting an inept, decrepit and disgraced Biden against a buffoon incumbent will scarcely put things right. The presidential election is another symptom, not a cure.

That’s some pretty harsh sentiments!   I would not go so hard on ex-Vice President Joe Biden, as he is the only electable alternative to He-who-must-not-be-named.  Mr. Biden may not be a highly competent young man with vigor and verve, but he is an alternative.  If you can’t see a difference, you are not paying attention.  Remember that personalities count (that’s about the only thing that distinguishes the candidates, in fact).  Mr. Biden’s personality is sweet and tolerant, whereas the other one is a sociopathic, malignant narcissist… and the “Democratic Socialist” Sanders is almost as much a narcissist as our buffoon-in-chief.