A continuation of events surrounding the drug war and related social issues of Baja California and Mexico. Keeping an eye on Seig Heil Trump. We are still trying to restore all blogs from 2006 which were hacked by Linton Robinson and his team, famous for supporting the Baja Trump Towers on one of his real estate sites. Highlights of Paris-Simone's favorite music !!
Does anyone remember Sputnik I, circa 1957 ? Mike said he and his Uncle John (who actually had built a home made telescope to view the satellite, but it didn't work) swear they both saw it (or its tail) in the night sky. I mention this because Sputnik has returned to our vocabulary in the form of a COVID vaccine from Russia with love. But here is the good news:
A big problem down here is that no one is really talking about or mapping the variants of this virus plus not even mentioned by the Times are the vaccines which will be used in Mexico; namely, CasinoBio, Astrazaneca and Sputnik V.
Perhaps there aren't any variants in Baja, but I doubt it. Will Sputnik be effective against the variants ? The Mexican authorities are saying that on social media, there is massive disinformation regarding Spunik V. How about any information at all ? I found these:
"Sputnik V appears to be a sound vaccine, but Russia damaged its scientific credibility with premature and exaggerated claims of success.
Russia’s signature Sputnik V (for “Victory”) Covid-19 vaccine has been enmeshed in controversy from the moment of its launch. Western analysts have questioned Sputnik V’s safety, efficacy, and most of all its leapfrogging of established clinical trial hurdles in a rush toward national regulatory approval last August. The Russian government has grown increasingly and visibly irritated with this external criticism. But they’ve brought it on themselves.
It’s not that the product itself is bad. Sputnik V is grounded in well-established adenovirus vector technology.
Its clever design bases its two doses on different viral vectors, in principle producing a strong, long-term immune response. Unlike the available alternatives, it’s cheap — reportedly less than $10 per dose—and it doesn’t require expensive ultra-refrigeration.
Given the sadly predictable extent to which the United States and other Western countries have gobbled up supplies of the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca/Oxford, and other leading vaccine candidates through advance purchase agreements that have left poor and lower-middle-income countries on the sidelines, this could have been Russia’s time to shine.
But throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russians have damaged their own scientific credibility with premature and exaggerated claims of success.
The habit isn’t a new one; Russia-watchers will remember their haughty declarations of wins in developing an HIV/AIDS vaccine (that still doesn’t exist), or an Ebola vaccine (that’s never been administered in the field).
Why should anyone be surprised, then, when the world’s dominant reaction to the Sputnik V announcement over the summer was a chuckling “there they go again”?
It’s a reverse boy-who-cried-wolf scenario: when you’ve stretched the truth to the breaking point so often in the past, you shouldn’t act surprised when nobody believes you this time around.
The overclaims have spanned the pandemic’s entire lifetime.
First, there was the reporting of obviously deflated basic numbers on the pandemic itself — case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths.
Russia is far from alone in underestimating the severity of its Covid-19 situation and overstating the speed and success of its response, but it’s widely speculated that politically motivated manipulation of the data, in addition to misreporting based on more benign factors like counting rules and administrative error, plays an outsize role in Russia’s case.
Then there was the Aug. 11 first-in-the-world registration of Sputnik V. That much-heralded launch, complete with a ready-to-go website now in nine languages, happened just as the vaccine was entering large-scale clinical trials. The process wasn’t yet close to amassing important data and therefore clearing key milestones that are prerequisite for emergency use authorization in most other countries.
Later, across late November and early December — as other vaccines made their way through phase-three trials more quickly — Sputnik V’s developers engaged in an almost comical display of one-upmanship on efficacy, responding to Pfizer’s early reports of 90% effectiveness with an announcement the very next day that its results hit 92%, and then to Moderna’s 94.5% data a couple of weeks later with revised findings that vaulted Sputnik V one point higher.
And from then through January, we’ve seen repeated misrepresentation of both the speed of Sputnik V’s production rollout (which ran into trouble launching bioreactors for the second dose) and the numbers of Russians who have actually been vaccinated.
Why do they keep doing this? It’s a baked-in feature of the system dating back to the Soviet period: political leaders set outlandishly high targets, and implementers do whatever it takes to make it look like those targets have been achieved.
The behavior also finds roots in Russia’s fervent desire to reclaim its Soviet-era great-power status both scientifically and politically, as well as more immediate aims for diplomatic and financial gain via vaccine licensing and export deals.
In the longer term, they’d surely love to leverage a successful Covid-19 vaccine into international acceptance and expanded market share for other Russian pharmaceutical products.
Underlining it all is Putin’s immediate need for a solid political win, which is why cheerleading for Sputnik V — served with a hearty side of snarky bashing of Western vaccines — has saturated state-controlled Russian media.
Despite the skepticism, demand for Sputnik V is increasing. Initially anemic uptake at home — surveys have shown widespread mistrust in the vaccine, and there were plenty of no-wait opportunities to get the shot in Moscow in December — is morphing into more robust acceptance.
Dozens of countries have signed up for direct purchase of Sputnik V and/or licensing and materials for their own production. Several have passed emergency use authorizations.
Some began to use it in late December.
It’s still not clear, though, whether these foreign deals are more attributable to the lack of an available, affordable alternative than to a firm judgment that Sputnik V is and will remain the best product on the market.
All in all, Sputnik V appears to be a sound vaccine, Russia’s likely route out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over time, experience with its safe, effective administration will probably erode the aura of doubt that surrounds it.
The politically driven hyperbole that’s cast such a shadow on its integrity does a disservice to the hard work and reputations of the Russian scientists who made Sputnik V happen.
And the world needs as many good vaccines as it can get. A little less hype and a little more candor would go a long way toward establishing Sputnik V as a credible element of the global pandemic response."
~~~~~
Governor Bonilla stated that it was not forbidden (or illegal) for a person to go to another country to be vaccinated after head of the State Commission for Protection Against Sanitary Risks David Gutierrez Inzunza received the COVID vaccine Moderna in Chula Vista at the Von's pharmacy - same as we did. We later learned that Sr. Inzunza suffers from a respiratory disease.
Initially, I wasn't going to say anything, fearing this would ignite the rednecked vigilantes on the US side, but then after thinking about it, I thought okay great...now how about vaccinating all of those Maq workers from last year who were forced to keep working despite being sick and many of them dying from COVID at the insistence of the U.S. Government ? Remember them ? We should just bus them across and vaccinate them, period. And apologize.
Sr. Inzunza, please get your follow up shot and stay alert for the booster from Moderna to cover the variants.
Meanwhile, here's hoping Sputnik V covers all the bases (right) and will not leave the Mexican people feeling like "Second Hand Rose".
Stay Safe and Get Your Shots ! And, I checked the California site, there are no restrictions on who can get a vaccine in California, you do not have to be a resident.
~~~~~
UPDATE/edit 02/03/20:
You really cannot argue with The Lancet who gave SPUTNIK CINCO the green flag...although I haven't seen anything regarding variant control, or if in fact any variants exist in Mexico. I have a sneaking hunch they do, but oh well.
Does anyone remember Sputnik I, circa 1957 ?
Mike said he and his Uncle John (who actually had built a home made
telescope to view the satellite, but it didn't work) swear they both saw
it (or its tail) in the night sky. I mention this because Sputnik has
returned to our vocabulary in the form of a COVID vaccine from Russia
with love. But here is the good news:
A big problem down here is that no one is really talking about or mapping the variants of this virus plus not even mentioned by the Times are the vaccines which will be used in Mexico; namely, CasinoBio, Astrazaneca and Sputnik V.
Perhaps there aren't any variants in Baja, but I doubt it. Will Sputnik be effective against the variants ? The Mexican authorities are saying that on social media, there is massive disinformation regarding Spunik V. How about any information at all ? I found these:
"Sputnik V appears to be a sound vaccine, but Russia damaged its
scientific credibility with premature and exaggerated claims of success.
Russia’s signature Sputnik V (for “Victory”)
Covid-19 vaccine has been enmeshed in controversy from the moment of its
launch. Western analysts have questioned Sputnik V’s safety, efficacy,
and most of all its leapfrogging of established clinical trial hurdles
in a rush toward national regulatory approval last August. The Russian
government has grown increasingly and visibly irritated with this
external criticism. But they’ve brought it on themselves.
It’s not that the product itself is bad. Sputnik V is grounded in well-established adenovirus vector technology.
Its clever design bases its two doses on different viral
vectors, in principle producing a strong, long-term immune response.
Unlike the available alternatives, it’s cheap — reportedly less than $10 per dose—and it doesn’t require expensive ultra-refrigeration.
Given the sadly predictable extent to which the United States and other Western countries have gobbled
up supplies of the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca/Oxford, and other
leading vaccine candidates through advance purchase agreements that have
left poor and lower-middle-income countries on the sidelines, this
could have been Russia’s time to shine.
But throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russians have damaged
their own scientific credibility with premature and exaggerated claims
of success.
The habit isn’t a new one; Russia-watchers will remember their
haughty declarations of wins in developing an HIV/AIDS vaccine (that
still doesn’t exist), or an Ebola vaccine (that’s never been
administered in the field).
Why should anyone be surprised, then, when the world’s dominant
reaction to the Sputnik V announcement over the summer was a chuckling
“there they go again”?
It’s a reverse boy-who-cried-wolf scenario: when you’ve
stretched the truth to the breaking point so often in the past, you
shouldn’t act surprised when nobody believes you this time around.
The overclaims have spanned the pandemic’s entire lifetime.
First, there was the reporting of obviously deflated basic numbers on the pandemic itself — case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths.
Russia is far from alone in underestimating the severity of its
Covid-19 situation and overstating the speed and success of its
response, but it’s widely speculated that politically motivated
manipulation of the data, in addition to misreporting based on more
benign factors like counting rules and administrative error, plays an
outsize role in Russia’s case.
Then there was the Aug. 11 first-in-the-world registration of
Sputnik V. That much-heralded launch, complete with a ready-to-go
website now in nine languages, happened just as the vaccine was entering
large-scale clinical trials. The process wasn’t yet close to amassing
important data and therefore clearing key milestones that are
prerequisite for emergency use authorization in most other countries.
Later, across late November and early December — as other
vaccines made their way through phase-three trials more quickly —
Sputnik V’s developers engaged in an almost comical display of
one-upmanship on efficacy, responding to Pfizer’s early reports of 90%
effectiveness with an announcement the very next day that its results
hit 92%, and then to Moderna’s 94.5% data a couple of weeks later with
revised findings that vaulted Sputnik V one point higher.
And from then through January, we’ve seen repeated
misrepresentation of both the speed of Sputnik V’s production rollout
(which ran into trouble launching bioreactors for the second dose) and
the numbers of Russians who have actually been vaccinated.
Why do they keep doing this? It’s a baked-in
feature of the system dating back to the Soviet period: political
leaders set outlandishly high targets, and implementers do whatever it
takes to make it look like those targets have been achieved.
The behavior also finds roots in Russia’s fervent desire to
reclaim its Soviet-era great-power status both scientifically and
politically, as well as more immediate aims for diplomatic and financial
gain via vaccine licensing and export deals.
In the longer term, they’d surely love to leverage a successful
Covid-19 vaccine into international acceptance and expanded market
share for other Russian pharmaceutical products.
Underlining it all is Putin’s immediate need for a solid
political win, which is why cheerleading for Sputnik V — served with a
hearty side of snarky bashing of Western vaccines — has saturated
state-controlled Russian media.
Despite the skepticism, demand for Sputnik V is increasing.
Initially anemic uptake at home — surveys have shown widespread mistrust
in the vaccine, and there were plenty of no-wait opportunities to get
the shot in Moscow in December — is morphing into more robust
acceptance.
Dozens of countries have signed
up for direct purchase of Sputnik V and/or licensing and materials for
their own production. Several have passed emergency use authorizations.
Some began to use it in late December.
It’s still not clear, though, whether these foreign deals are
more attributable to the lack of an available, affordable alternative
than to a firm judgment that Sputnik V is and will remain the best
product on the market.
All in all, Sputnik V appears to be a sound vaccine, Russia’s
likely route out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over time, experience with
its safe, effective administration will probably erode the aura of doubt
that surrounds it.
The politically driven hyperbole that’s cast such a shadow on
its integrity does a disservice to the hard work and reputations of the
Russian scientists who made Sputnik V happen.
And the world needs as many good vaccines as it can get. A
little less hype and a little more candor would go a long way toward
establishing Sputnik V as a credible element of the global pandemic
response."
~~~~~
Governor Bonilla stated that it was not forbidden (or
illegal) for a person to go to another country to be vaccinated after
head of the State Commission for Protection Against Sanitary Risks David
Gutierrez Inzunza received the COVID vaccine Moderna in Chula Vista at
the Von's pharmacy - same as we did. We later learned that Sr. Inzunza suffers from a respiratory disease.
Initially,
I wasn't going to say anything, fearing this would ignite the rednecked
vigilantes on the US side, but then after thinking about it, I thought
okay great...now how about vaccinating all of those Maq workers from
last year who were forced to keep working despite being sick and many of
them dying from COVID at the insistence of the U.S. Government ?
Remember them ? We should just bus them across and vaccinate them,
period. And apologize.
Sr. Inzunza, please get your follow up shot and stay alert for the booster from Moderna to cover the variants.
Meanwhile,
here's hoping Sputnik V covers all the bases (right) and will not leave
the Mexican people feeling like "Second Hand Rose".
Stay Safe and Get Your Shots ! And, I checked the California site, there are no restrictions on who can get a vaccine in California, you do not have to be a resident.
~~~~~
UPDATE/edit 02/03/20:
You really cannot argue with The Lancet who gave SPUTNIK CINCO the green flag...although I haven't seen anything regarding variant control, or if in fact any variants exist in Mexico. I have a sneaking hunch they do, but oh well.
Mike took that picture from the park in front of us during a lull in the wild wild storm we just made it through, and talk about wild, that was one for the books. We lost power only once due to a pole being blown down by the howling winds over on Cantil, the roof is still on, but mucho flooding around us and freezing cold.
Other than that, we have been making plans for several much needed major home improvement projects for the New Year and watching as Joe Biden flips the books on Trump. Due to the increased insecurity here and an increased schedule of projects, I still have not decided whether or not I will return to instant replays of the drug war in our region.
Speaking of that subject, two people were executed in their home in neighboring Baja Malibu, and there was more gunfire at SADM close to where Mike took the picture a few nights back. Not just a little, a lot. It's spooky and it is happening up and down the coast. Tijuana is inching up to and may reach 150+ people executed this month. All of that information, plus national and international events including both AMLO & Carlos Slim coming down with the COVID Virus go here:
You may already be aware that they have opened up vaccines for COVID in San Diego for folks 65 and older. What we found is working for us is going to the Von's pharmacy instead of trying to get through to our primary physicians. Mike had the first Moderna shot, the second is scheduled in another 28 days; I am on the waiting list. But, I wish they would hurry up, have been reading that Moderna may have to develop a booster shot due the variants, and I'm not particularly thrilled to be going grocery shopping unprotected without a shot anymore.
"Today is climate day at the White House, which means that today is jobs day at the White House," Biden told reporters as he sought to tie his environmental push to American job creation.
Here's the executive action Biden took Wednesday and what each item does:
'Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.' This order seeks to cement the climate crisis at the center of US foreign policy and national security. Most notably, it directs the secretary of the interior to pause on entering into new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters.
The order also:
Instructs Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to prepare a national intelligence estimate on the security implications of the climate crisis and directs all agencies to develop strategies for integrating climate considerations into their international work.
Establishes the National Climate Task Force, assembling leaders from across 21 federal agencies and departments.
Commits to environmental justice and new, clean infrastructure projects.
Kicks off development of emissions reduction target.
Establishes the special presidential envoy for climate on the National Security Council.
'Executive Order on Establishing President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.' This order reestablishes the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Moving forward, the council will advise Biden on policy that affects science, technology, and innovation.
Presidential Memorandum on Scientific Integrity. This memorandum charges the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy with the responsibility of ensuring scientific integrity across federal agencies
Agencies that oversee, direct or fund research are tasked with designating a senior agency employee as chief science officer to ensure agency research programs are scientifically and technologically well founded.
Is this Biden's first action on the climate crisis?
"Unlike previous administrations I don't think the federal government should give handouts to big oil to the tune of $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies," he told reporters.
Biden will additionally host a Leaders' Climate Summit on Earth Day, April 22, and the US will reconvene the Major Economies Forum.
What executive action is expected tomorrow?
Health care is set be the the theme on Thursday with Biden planning to rescind the Mexico City Policy and review the Title X rule on abortion referrals. There may also be an executive action on Medicaid, as well as the initiation of open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act."
"Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden plans to create a million auto-worker jobs by replacing the enormous fleet of some 650,000 vehicles owned by the federal government with electric cars. He specified EVs that emit no carbon dioxide, which suggests he wants the government to buy pure EVs like General Motors’ Chevy Bolt or the Tesla 3. So reports Kate Duffy at Business Insider. Biden called it the biggest government infrastructure procurement program since WW II.
In the United States, 650,000 EVs is a lot. Sales of all kinds of EVs (hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure electric) in the U.S. were expected to reach 1.6 million in 2020.
Biden’s step is important because of Wright’s Law.” Aeronautical engineer Theodore P. Wright posited in 1936 that “for every doubling of airplane production the labor requirement was reduced by 10-15%.” The falling labor requirement means falling production costs.
So Biden’s big buy, along with an expected huge ramp-up of EV sales to private consumers this year and next, will likely lead to a significant cost reduction for electric vehicles. GM already has made a battery breakthrough that should allow it to sell EVs more cheaply by 2025 and possibly by 2023 than gasoline automobiles.
Biden pledges to put $5 billion into research and development in bringing down battery costs, which could also impel an explosion of electric car buying. He will also restore tax breaks for EV buyers and will award new tax credits to Tesla and GM. Further, he wants to put a network of thousands of fast-charging stations around the country. Some states, like California, have similar plans, so that the federal and the state programs could complement and accelerate one another.
A lot more EVs could have been sold in the US in 2020 if more had been available. But never fear. Rolling Stone’s Jesse Will previews 12 new EV models coming this year, and some predict nearly twice that many.
Some analysts suggest that electric cars are not as green as they seem, because they use electricity from the grid, and the grid is sometimes dirty, using e.g. coal. But EVs run cleaner than gasoline cars even in heavy coal states like Pennsylvania, studies have shown. Further, some EV owners have solar panels on their roofs, and don’t depend on the grid. And another thing. Coal plants are closing like crazy and over the life of an EV the owner can expect it to burn cleaner and cleaner (not true of a gasoline vehicle). In my own Michigan, the proportion of our electricity from coal has halved from 65% in 2010 to some 35% today. (And, I have solar panels anyway). As for the carbon used to make EVs, that is becoming cleaner too, with the advent of e.g. green steel.
Biden wants the EVs bought by the government to be made mostly in the U.S., not just 50%. It seems to me that the big beneficiaries of that policy would be GM, with its Chevy Bolt, Ford, and Tesla. Ford’s big entry is an electric Mustang. Wouldn’t it be a lucky USPS delivery guy that gets to drive one of those!"
"The election of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States was received across much of the world with a mixture of relief and exuberance, though often laced with apprehension. A common theme in news headlines and Twitter feeds was that normal service was being resumed in the US and in international affairs.
In France, the newspaper Le Monde ran with the headline: “American Elections 2020: Joe Biden’s victory sparks huge relief in Europe.” On Twitter, Paris’ mayor, Anne Hidalgo, tweeted out: “Welcome Back, America.” In Germany, the cover of the news magazine Der Spiegel depicted Biden putting the severed head of the Statue of Liberty back on the torso (referencing an infamous cover from 2017 that depicted Trump severing the head). The image is accompanied with the ironic text “Make America Great Again.”
The theme of an American restoration was repeated in news and social media across the world. The symbolism is strong, but it is less clear what is being restored. In this it echoes the “return to normalcy” theme in Biden’s election campaign in the US, a nostalgic nostrum that vaguely promises a reset of American principles and policies. What is at issue in these desires to go back to a pre-Trump America?
In the US, the desire for normalcy surrounding the election of Biden reflects an existential anxiety – that Trump ignited a devastating attack on liberal democracy that may prove epochal.
The contradictions and tensions in American liberal democracy have been forcefully revealed with his presidency, which took advantage of the gap between declared liberal values and political reality. Trump not only exploited that gap, he spoke to latent desires and emboldened expressions of identity in both politics and people that had long been marginalised or silenced.
With Trump’s ousting, the liberal desire for a return to normality has been amped up via the figure of Joe Biden. It was clearly articulated by the new president at his inauguration, in his pleas for national unity and his promise to end the “uncivil war” in the US. David Sanger, in the New York Times, noted that: “Mr Biden’s inauguration was notable for its normalcy, the sense of relief that permeated the capital over an era of constant turmoil and falsehood ending.”
But there was little that was normal in the scene of a scaled-down inauguration taking place with only a handful of socially distant, masked participants and surrounded by the militarised landscape of a post-riot Capitol. The image was not of national healing but of a national emergency.
Accompanying the desire for normalcy and sense of relief is the implication that the “Trump era” was an aberration, a temporary deviation in the natural political order of things.
This is an attractive and tempting palliative for those who resisted Trump’s spell and disavow the significance of his political rise and appeal to millions of Americans. In this view, Trump was “the cat in the hat” – an unwelcome visitor and unruly avatar of instincts for disorder, evicted once the parents return. Enter Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
But Trump (and Trumpism) was and is something more than a temporary eruption in the order of things or mere symptom of a malaise in American public life. Trump unleashed the libidinal forces of “illiberal democracy”, undermining America’s commitment to constitutionalism, the rule of law and individual rights. He supported these forces in the US and encouraged them elsewhere, transforming the landscapes of American political culture and foreign affairs in ways we are still trying to understand.
American myopia
Americans pay little heed to external perspectives on their country and by and large do not respond well to critical views of it or of their leaders. That may be viewed as stubbornly patriotic, but it is more fundamentally due to a deep-seated ignorance founded on a myth of national exceptionalism, a myopia that is quintessentially American.
Trump’s presidency should remind Americans of the fragility of the social and political order that so many take for granted. Is it not a little shocking that Americans should need to be reminded of this? Perhaps not, perhaps the amnesia is a component of the American worldview, which commonly displaces the most serious challenges to democracy on to others elsewhere.
As the American writer Tom Wolfe once quipped, the “dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.” Of course, “it can’t happen here”.
Might it be that the importance of Trump’s election and presidency has been better or at least more readily understood in other countries where there is a living memory of the pains of populist authoritarianism, where people are more familiar with how reality can be dismantled?
The Slovenian-American writer Aleksandar Hemon suggests as much when, in the wake of Trump’s election, he commented:
In America, a comfortable entitlement blunts and deactivates imagination – it is hard to imagine that this American life is not the only life possible, that there could be any reason to undo it.
Hemon filters his perspective through his experiences and insights from living in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war “through a time when what cannot possibly happen begins to happen, rapidly and everywhere”. Observing the disorienting impact of the early days of Trump’s presidency, he wryly notes that: “‘Reality’ has finally earned its quotation marks.”
Reality did indeed earn its quotation marks in “Trump’s America”, a fantasy world in which Trump supporters imaginatively and emotionally invest. It’s a world in which conspiracy theory and social media combine to create an alternative reality, a world that is self-contained and self-reinforcing – and impervious to facts.
Galvanised by Trump’s near messianic leadership, the fantasy has become pervasive and is deeply embedded in the imaginations – the fears and desires – of millions of Americans. It cannot simply or swiftly be undone.
Back to reality
“America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it”, Biden stated in November as he introduced his foreign policy team. The “America is back” refrain has been repeated ad nauseum by Biden’s surrogates in the past few months.
What it means in terms of policy remains unclear. More symbolically, it is declared as a rebuttal of Trumpist foreign policy, infamously sloganed as “America First”, suggesting a renewed era of US global engagement and leadership. But the meaning remains open and opaque and, as Julian Borger observes in The Guardian: “How a slogan as all-encompassing as ‘America is Back’ is received around the world will inevitably be a Rorschach test for what is perceived to be the ‘real America’ that has been absent in the past four years.”
The perception of what constitutes the “real America” is both a domestic and foreign policy dilemma for the US. Assumptions about liberal democracy at home and about a liberal world order abroad are no longer acts of faith.
As we head into a “post-American world”, global enthusiasm for democracy cannot be assumed, nor can the ability of the US to set an example, for that has been undone by the spectacles of civil unrest and the disastrous handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The domestic “uncivil war” will, as political scientist Francis Fukuyama warns, have “consequences for global democracy in the coming years”.
Biden’s foreign policy team are talking up democratic solidarity between states as the basis for a new internationalism but this cannot be a restoration of liberal hegemony. It must reckon not only with the damage done by the starkly nationalist “America First” doctrine: it must also acknowledge the failings of liberal internationalism before Trump became president. After all, neoliberal globalisation gave rise to the political and cultural blowback called Trumpism in the US and its ethnonationalist cousins across the world.
Making a fetish of normalcy is a form of American exceptionalism. “America is back” may prove as myopic and delusional as “Make America Great Again”.
I don't want to be delusional, I want Joe Biden to succeed, but Christ how can it be the Republicans don't even want to impeach Trump, two Q-Anon are members of Congress , what about this BIMBO and one of Trump's judges just gave Biden the shaft ?
Surprise us all Joe, don't ever stop. Never ever ever stop.
Mike took that picture from the park in front of us during a lull in the wild wild storm we just made it through, and talk about wild, that was one for the books. We lost power only once due to a pole being blown down by the howling winds over on Cantil, the roof is still on, but mucho flooding around us and freezing cold.
Other than that, we have been making plans for several much needed major home improvement projects for the New Year and watching as Joe Biden flips the books on Trump. Due to the increased insecurity here and an increased schedule of projects, I still have not decided whether or not I will return to instant replays of the drug war in our region.
Speaking of that subject, two people were executed in their home in neighboring Baja Malibu, and there was more gunfire at SADM close to where Mike took the picture a few nights back. Not just a little, a lot. It's spooky and it is happening up and down the coast. Tijuana is inching up to and may reach 150+ people executed this month. All of that information, plus national and international events including both AMLO & Carlos Slim coming down with the COVID Virus go here:
You may already be aware that they have opened up vaccines for COVID in San Diego for folks 65 and older. What we found is working for us is going to the Von's pharmacy instead of trying to get through to our primary physicians. Mike had the first Moderna shot, the second is scheduled in another 28 days; I am on the waiting list. But, I wish they would hurry up, have been reading that Moderna may have to develop a booster shot due the variants, and I'm not particularly thrilled to be going grocery shopping unprotected without a shot anymore.
"Today is climate day at the White House, which means that today is
jobs day at the White House," Biden told reporters as he sought to tie
his environmental push to American job creation.
Here's the executive action Biden took Wednesday and what each item does:
'Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.' This
order seeks to cement the climate crisis at the center of US foreign
policy and national security. Most notably, it directs the secretary of
the interior to pause on entering into new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters.
The order also:
Instructs
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to prepare a national
intelligence estimate on the security implications of the climate crisis
and directs all agencies to develop strategies for integrating climate
considerations into their international work.
Establishes the National Climate Task Force, assembling leaders from across 21 federal agencies and departments.
Commits to environmental justice and new, clean infrastructure projects.
Kicks off development of emissions reduction target.
Establishes the special presidential envoy for climate on the National Security Council.
'Executive Order on Establishing President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.' This
order reestablishes the President's Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology. Moving forward, the council will advise Biden on policy that
affects science, technology, and innovation.
Presidential Memorandum on Scientific Integrity. This
memorandum charges the director of the Office of Science and Technology
Policy with the responsibility of ensuring scientific integrity across
federal agencies
Agencies that oversee, direct or fund research
are tasked with designating a senior agency employee as chief science
officer to ensure agency research programs are scientifically and
technologically well founded.
Is this Biden's first action on the climate crisis?
"Unlike
previous administrations I don't think the federal government should
give handouts to big oil to the tune of $40 billion in fossil fuel
subsidies," he told reporters.
Biden will additionally host a
Leaders' Climate Summit on Earth Day, April 22, and the US will
reconvene the Major Economies Forum.
What executive action is expected tomorrow?
Health care is set be the the theme on Thursday
with Biden planning to rescind the Mexico City Policy and review the
Title X rule on abortion referrals. There may also be an executive
action on Medicaid, as well as the initiation of open enrollment under
the Affordable Care Act."
"Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden plans
to create a million auto-worker jobs by replacing the enormous fleet of
some 650,000 vehicles owned by the federal government with electric
cars. He specified EVs that emit no carbon dioxide, which suggests he
wants the government to buy pure EVs like General Motors’ Chevy Bolt or
the Tesla 3. So reports Kate Duffy at Business Insider. Biden called it the biggest government infrastructure procurement program since WW II.
In the United States, 650,000 EVs is a lot. Sales of all kinds of EVs (hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure electric) in the U.S. were expected to reach 1.6 million in 2020.
Biden’s step is important because of Wright’s Law.”
Aeronautical engineer Theodore P. Wright posited in 1936 that “for
every doubling of airplane production the labor requirement was reduced
by 10-15%.” The falling labor requirement means falling production
costs.
So Biden’s big buy, along with an expected huge ramp-up of EV sales to private consumers this year and next, will likely lead to a significant cost reduction for electric vehicles. GM already
has made a battery breakthrough that should allow it to sell EVs more
cheaply by 2025 and possibly by 2023 than gasoline automobiles.
Biden pledges to put $5 billion
into research and development in bringing down battery costs, which
could also impel an explosion of electric car buying. He will also
restore tax breaks for EV buyers and will award new tax credits to Tesla
and GM. Further, he wants to put a network of thousands of
fast-charging stations around the country. Some states, like
California, have similar plans, so that the federal and the state
programs could complement and accelerate one another.
A lot more EVs could have been sold in the US in 2020 if more had been available. But never fear. Rolling Stone’s Jesse Will previews 12 new EV models coming this year, and some predict nearly twice that many.
Some analysts suggest that electric cars are not as green as they
seem, because they use electricity from the grid, and the grid is
sometimes dirty, using e.g. coal. But EVs run cleaner than gasoline cars
even in heavy coal states like Pennsylvania, studies have shown.
Further, some EV owners have solar panels on their roofs, and don’t
depend on the grid. And another thing. Coal plants are closing like
crazy and over the life of an EV the owner can expect it to burn cleaner
and cleaner (not true of a gasoline vehicle). In my own Michigan, the
proportion of our electricity from coal has halved from 65% in 2010 to
some 35% today. (And, I have solar panels anyway). As for the carbon
used to make EVs, that is becoming cleaner too, with the advent of e.g. green steel.
Biden wants the EVs bought by the government to be made mostly in the
U.S., not just 50%. It seems to me that the big beneficiaries of that
policy would be GM, with its Chevy Bolt, Ford, and Tesla. Ford’s big
entry is an electric Mustang. Wouldn’t it be a lucky USPS delivery guy
that gets to drive one of those!"
"The election of Joe Biden
as the 46th president of the United States was received across much of
the world with a mixture of relief and exuberance, though often laced
with apprehension. A common theme in news headlines and Twitter feeds
was that normal service was being resumed in the US and in international
affairs.
In France, the newspaper Le Monde ran with the headline: “American Elections 2020: Joe Biden’s victory sparks huge relief in Europe.” On Twitter, Paris’ mayor, Anne Hidalgo, tweeted
out: “Welcome Back, America.” In Germany, the cover of the news
magazine Der Spiegel depicted Biden putting the severed head of the
Statue of Liberty back on the torso (referencing an infamous cover from 2017 that depicted Trump severing the head). The image is accompanied with the ironic text “Make America Great Again.”
The theme of an American restoration was repeated in news and social
media across the world. The symbolism is strong, but it is less clear
what is being restored. In this it echoes the “return to normalcy” theme
in Biden’s election campaign in the US, a nostalgic nostrum that
vaguely promises a reset of American principles and policies. What is at
issue in these desires to go back to a pre-Trump America?
In the US, the desire for normalcy surrounding the election of Biden
reflects an existential anxiety – that Trump ignited a devastating
attack on liberal democracy that may prove epochal.
The contradictions and tensions in American liberal democracy have
been forcefully revealed with his presidency, which took advantage of
the gap between declared liberal values and political reality. Trump not
only exploited that gap, he spoke to latent desires and emboldened
expressions of identity in both politics and people that had long been
marginalised or silenced.
With Trump’s ousting, the liberal desire for a return to normality
has been amped up via the figure of Joe Biden. It was clearly
articulated by the new president at his inauguration, in his pleas for
national unity and his promise to end the “uncivil war” in the US. David
Sanger, in the New York Times, noted
that: “Mr Biden’s inauguration was notable for its normalcy, the sense
of relief that permeated the capital over an era of constant turmoil and
falsehood ending.”
But there was little that was normal in the scene of a scaled-down
inauguration taking place with only a handful of socially distant,
masked participants and surrounded by the militarised landscape of a
post-riot Capitol. The image was not of national healing but of a
national emergency.
Accompanying the desire for normalcy and sense of relief is the
implication that the “Trump era” was an aberration, a temporary
deviation in the natural political order of things.
This is an attractive and tempting palliative for those who resisted
Trump’s spell and disavow the significance of his political rise and
appeal to millions of Americans. In this view, Trump was “the cat in the
hat” – an unwelcome visitor and unruly avatar of instincts for
disorder, evicted once the parents return. Enter Joe Biden and Kamala
Harris.
But Trump (and Trumpism) was and is something more than a temporary
eruption in the order of things or mere symptom of a malaise in American
public life. Trump unleashed the libidinal forces of “illiberal democracy”,
undermining America’s commitment to constitutionalism, the rule of law
and individual rights. He supported these forces in the US and
encouraged them elsewhere, transforming the landscapes of American
political culture and foreign affairs in ways we are still trying to
understand.
American myopia
Americans pay little heed
to external perspectives on their country and by and large do not
respond well to critical views of it or of their leaders. That may be
viewed as stubbornly patriotic, but it is more fundamentally due to a
deep-seated ignorance founded on a myth of national exceptionalism, a
myopia that is quintessentially American.
Trump’s presidency should remind Americans of the fragility of the
social and political order that so many take for granted. Is it not a
little shocking that Americans should need to be reminded of this?
Perhaps not, perhaps the amnesia is a component of the American
worldview, which commonly displaces the most serious challenges to
democracy on to others elsewhere.
As the American writer Tom Wolfe once quipped, the “dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.” Of course, “it can’t happen here”.
Might it be that the importance of Trump’s election and presidency
has been better or at least more readily understood in other countries
where there is a living memory of the pains of populist
authoritarianism, where people are more familiar with how reality can be
dismantled?
The Slovenian-American writer Aleksandar Hemon suggests as much when, in the wake of Trump’s election, he commented:
In America, a comfortable entitlement blunts and deactivates
imagination – it is hard to imagine that this American life is not the
only life possible, that there could be any reason to undo it.
Hemon filters his perspective through his experiences and insights
from living in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war “through a time when what
cannot possibly happen begins to happen, rapidly and everywhere”.
Observing the disorienting impact of the early days of Trump’s
presidency, he wryly notes that: “‘Reality’ has finally earned its
quotation marks.”
Reality did indeed earn its quotation marks in “Trump’s America”,
a fantasy world in which Trump supporters imaginatively and emotionally
invest. It’s a world in which conspiracy theory and social media
combine to create an alternative reality, a world that is self-contained
and self-reinforcing – and impervious to facts.
Galvanised by Trump’s near messianic leadership, the fantasy has
become pervasive and is deeply embedded in the imaginations – the fears
and desires – of millions of Americans. It cannot simply or swiftly be
undone.
Back to reality
“America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it”, Biden stated in November as he introduced his foreign policy team. The “America is back” refrain has been repeated ad nauseum by Biden’s surrogates in the past few months.
What it means in terms of policy remains unclear.
More symbolically, it is declared as a rebuttal of Trumpist foreign
policy, infamously sloganed as “America First”, suggesting a renewed era
of US global engagement and leadership. But the meaning remains open
and opaque and, as Julian Borger observes
in The Guardian: “How a slogan as all-encompassing as ‘America is Back’
is received around the world will inevitably be a Rorschach test for
what is perceived to be the ‘real America’ that has been absent in the
past four years.”
The perception of what constitutes the “real America” is both a
domestic and foreign policy dilemma for the US. Assumptions about
liberal democracy at home and about a liberal world order abroad are no
longer acts of faith.
As we head into a “post-American world”, global enthusiasm for
democracy cannot be assumed, nor can the ability of the US to set an
example, for that has been undone by the spectacles of civil unrest and
the disastrous handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The domestic
“uncivil war” will, as political scientist Francis Fukuyama warns, have “consequences for global democracy in the coming years”.
Biden’s foreign policy team are talking up democratic solidarity
between states as the basis for a new internationalism but this cannot
be a restoration of liberal hegemony. It must reckon not only with the
damage done by the starkly nationalist “America First” doctrine: it must
also acknowledge the failings of liberal internationalism before Trump
became president. After all, neoliberal globalisation gave rise to the
political and cultural blowback called Trumpism in the US and its
ethnonationalist cousins across the world.
Making a fetish of normalcy is a form of American exceptionalism.
“America is back” may prove as myopic and delusional as “Make America
Great Again”.
I don't want to be delusional, I want Joe Biden to succeed, but Christ how can it be the Republicans don't even want to impeach Trump, two Q-Anon are members of Congress , what about this BIMBO and one of Trump's judges just gave Biden the shaft ?
Surprise us all Joe, don't ever stop. Never ever ever stop.