Dispatch #59 February 12th 2020
Day 1188 Post-Ascendency of White Supremacy & Misogyny Day 1116 Post-Installation of White-Supremacist-Misogynist-Pussy-Grabbing-Self-Aggrandizing-Demagogic-Bully-Illegitimate-PeeeOTUS & his White-Nationalist-Fascistic-Christian-Supremacist-Quislings
I have to agree with Biden’s comments in South Carolina, made after the polls closed in New Hampshire. To wit: Iowa and New Hampshire voters represent 2% of the US population and just about 0% of the black and brown population.
Breathless pundits claim that the path to the Democratic nomination is revealed?! PUHLEEZE!! Get a grip and get some informative analysis and perspective.
Elie Mystel, new columnist at The Nation, asserts that candidates who have no real support from people of color should not be viewed as serious contenders for the nomination. He explains further in his column titled “They rocked New Hampshire but Pete and Amy still can’t win over black voters.” http://www.thenation.com/article/politics/buttigieg-klobuchar-privilege/
Lest you might be inclined to think that Bernie Sanders holds substantial appeal to black voters, consider this piece by Dan Balz in the Washington Post that reports on recent polling results for African American Democrats. Biden stands at 48%, Sanders at 20%, Warren 9%, and Buttigieg 2%. Biden leads among men and women, liberals and moderates, and all educational groups. Sanders leads in one group — African Americans under 35 — at 42% to Biden’s 30%. This deficit to Sanders among younger black Democrats is more than offset by Biden’s 60-point lead among those over age 65. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/two-polls-frame-the-democratic-race-and-the-power-of-african-american-voters/2020/01/11/556e24b4-3498-11ea-91fd-82d4e04a3fac_story.html
Let’s turn to ‘Mayor Pete’ – I think of him as the gay version of Bento Box OOPS! Beto O’Rourke – the latest flavor of the youngish white male warrior/savior. Pundits have claimed that black voters are put off by Buttigieg’s gayness. Benjamin Dixon nails the real issue in his column in The Guardian titled “Pete Buttigieg is the embodiment of white privilege – and black voters know it.” Ask any black person across the south and they’ll say the same thing: Buttigieg has less experience in office than our local church deacons. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/11/pete-buttigieg-black-americans-democrats
For a more trenchant discussion about why Buttigieg identifying as a gay man doesn’t mean ANYTHING about his politics, Masha Gessen’s piece in The New Yorker is excellent. Yeah, gay white men who appear heterosexual have always benefitted from white supremacy and misogyny. Just ask any lesbian active in LBGT movements. http://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-queer-opposition-to-pete-buttigieg-explained
And for Dispatches readers not familiar with radical queer activism and who don’t understand that this movement has never been about gay marriage and military service, Urvashi Vaid’s July 2019 piece in The Nation titled “It’s Time to Reembrace a Politics of Radical, Queer, Outsider Activism” is a MUST read. http://www.thenation.com/article/archive/stonewall-radical-queer-activism/
So Mike Bloomberg, billionaire willing to step in and help the Democrats throw out the PeeeOTUS, are you another white male wolf in sheep’s clothing? Does supporting you involve overlooking your horrific white supremacist record as New York Mayor? For two views on this, Charles M Blow of the New York Times says Bloomberg cannot be forgiven, whereas, in the Washington Post, Michele L Norris says forgiveness might be possible, might be necessary. http://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/opinion/michael-bloomberg-stop-frisk.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/12/can-mike-bloomberg-be-forgiven/
And while we were all distracted by impeachment, primaries, and the coronavirus, in late December 2019 the US deployed a submarine armed with a low-yield Trident nuclear warhead estimated to have about a third of the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima. Listen to Democracy Now! program with William Arkin’s comments: What’s important for people to take away from this development is that the United States has a new usable nuclear weapon, what the military itself considers to be more usable for a “limited nuclear war.” And it’s also a weapon that can be stealthily and covertly deployed in the oceans. http://www.democracynow.org/2020/2/7/us_new_low_yield_nuclear_weapons
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