Politics Corner, August 20th

"Lady Freedom" by skpy is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0


We've got lots of news today and I'm mostly ignoring Trump. We've got news that dates back to our last worst President and fine there's a quick story about Trump mucking up foreign policy too. Then we've got local stories and really local stories.


Remember Afghanistan? That place we went to war in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks? We're still at war there and it's just as messy as it's ever been. We initially went to war there because the Taliban was sheltering Al Qaeda and we really didn't want to go to war with Saudi Arabia or Pakistan and we wanted to beat someone up. It's no accident that Afghanistan is known as the place empires go to die. Our most recent predecessors were the Soviet Union and the British Empire. Don't say you weren't warned. So almost twenty years later the Taliban is still there and so is the Afghan government and Isis and Al Qaeda and a bunch of others who might belong to one or more or none of the factions. Now we want to leave for all the wrong reasons and one right one - we can't win. We'll never admit that last one. What's happening on the ground? Weddings are still getting blown up and it's only sometimes our bombs.

CNN has some disturbing video and a distressing story: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/19/asia/afghanistan-kabul-wedding-attack-peace-talks-analysis-intl/index.html

Meanwhile there's Venezuela. Trump really wants a war of his very own. He thinks it's remotely possible to set up a naval blockade. That's about as winnable as Greenland is buyable.

Axios has the rundown: https://www.axios.com/scoop-inside-trumps-naval-blockade-obsession-555166b0-06f9-494c-b9fb-9577a589e2ac.html?utm_source=WTF+Just+Happened+Today%3F&utm_campaign=b60af83f24-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_08_19_10_51&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9813b73b1a-b60af83f24-176450229

By now you probably have heard that the police officer who killed Eric Garner has been fired. Of course he has already filed suit for reinstatement.

Here's Reuters on the firing: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-police-garner/white-new-york-police-officer-fired-for-deadly-chokehold-of-eric-garner-idUSKCN1V91E2

and the New York Post with the lawsuit: https://nypost.com/2019/08/19/fired-nypd-cop-daniel-pantaleo-to-sue-commissioner-to-get-his-job-back/

NYC too far from home for you? How about LA? Los Angeles is not alone in having a widespread and surprisingly vibrant homeless population. No one has seemed to come up with a right answer yet though we've tried a few wrong ones.

NPR weighs in: https://www.npr.org/2019/08/19/751802740/amid-homelessness-crisis-los-angeles-restricts-living-in-vehicles

Our last story tonight is right outside my door. Netflix show Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj discusses problems with public transportation and uses Milwaukee as an example. Much of the blame is rightly laid at the feet of the wrong Scott Walker who happened to be my neighbor when we were kids and is my neighbor again now that he's been kicked out of the Governor's mansion. We're all amused that the streetcar that he tried to kill runs right by where he lives.

I found the story at Milwaukee Record which is an outgrowth of the Milwaukee satellite of the <i>AV Club</i>: https://milwaukeerecord.com/city-life/new-episode-of-netflixs-patriot-act-explains-why-milwaukees-public-transportation-sucks/

Political discussion welcome.