Pondering the Pundits

“Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

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Dana Milbank: The sad suspicion about Trump’s shameful treatment of Puerto Rico

Suppose that the entire San Diego metropolitan area had lost electrical power, and it wouldn’t be restored for months.

Or, suppose that most of the ports, roads and cellular towers in the Seattle metropolitan area had been destroyed, and a major dam had failed.

Or, that most of the homes in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota were either damaged or destroyed in one day. [..]

Now, imagine that in response to any of these scenarios, the president of the United States variously ignored the plight of the affected Americans (in all of the above cases about 3.4 million people, give or take), blamed them for their own troubles and provided inadequate help. This is precisely what is happening right now to the 3.4 million U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico, an island territory more populous than about 20 states. Hurricane Maria essentially wiped out these Americans’ ports, roads, electricity, communications, water supply and crops and many homes. Yet, a week after the storm, the response from the American mainland has been paltry.

Ameer Hasan Loggins: We can’t hear Colin Kaepernick any more. He’s being drowned out by noise

Colin Kaepernick is everywhere. Like an icon, he is freeze-framed stoically kneeling for everyone to see. We see his image on stickers, T-shirts, graffiti and posters. It’s on magazine covers, television shows and social media sites. Oddly, the more we see Kaepernick’s likeness, the less we hear his message.

Colin Kaepernick first kneeled during a pre-game national anthem in 2016. His reasoning was simple: “[I’m] not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”

To Kaepernick his protest was: “bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Gary Younge: Remember this about Donald Trump. He knows the depths of American bigotry

Two Sundays ago, after a night of tense confrontations, police in St Louis trooped through the city chanting: “Whose streets? Our streets.” They were mocking marchers protesting at the acquittal of a former police officer, who had fatally shot a black man after a high-speed pursuit. This in the city just a few miles away from Ferguson, where Michael Brown was shot dead in the middle of the day in 2014.

Then last Friday, Donald Trump went to Alabama and branded NFL players who have been expressing their support for Black Lives Matter by kneeling during the pre-game national anthem, “sons of bitches”. To cheers from the crowd, he said: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. He is fired. He’s fired! … Total disrespect of our heritage, a total disrespect of everything that we stand for. Everything that we stand for.” This in the state that kept its local ban on interracial marriage until 2000.

The battle lines in America’s struggle against racism and white supremacy are become increasingly clear to a degree not seen since the 60s. With the balm of Barack Obama’s presence in the White House having so quickly evaporated, the contradictions of the post-civil rights era are once again laid bare. The codified obstacles to freedom and equality have been removed, but the legacy of those obstacles and the system that produced them remains. Black Americans are far more likely than white people to be stopped, frisked, arrested, jailed, shot and executed by the state, while the racial gaps in unemployment are the same as 40 years ago, the racial disparity in wealth and income is worse than 50 years ago. They have the right to eat in any restaurant they wish; the trouble is, many can’t afford what’s on the menu.

Paul Mason: The AfD’s breakthrough shows that parties of the left must get radical

Some of us are beginning to think it is the end of the project.” That was how a senior European social democrat spoke to me of the future of mainstream socialism last week. The German SPD’s abject failure in Sunday’s election will have done little to lift the gloom. After 12 years of playing sidekick to Angela Merkel, it will go into opposition, bereft of a strategy and rightly worried about the breakthrough of the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

If the leaders of German social democracy are feeling responsible for their own collapse and the far-right’s gain, they can at least take comfort that they are not alone. The French socialist party evaporated in the run-up to this year’s presidential election; the Dutch Labour party saw its vote slump to 5.7%; and the Austrian socialist party is facing defeat in next month’s election – which will likely bring to power the first coalition of mainstream conservatives and neo-fascists in the EU.

The accepted diagnosis among European centre-left parties is that they have either been too long in grand coalitions or become bland technocrats, easily outflanked by colourful populists of the left and right. But the problem goes deeper. The neoliberal economic model, which social democracy sought to soften and humanise, no longer works. It is on a global life-support system consisting of $12tn of central bank money.

Marisol LeBrón: Puerto Rico deserves a just recovery. Its debt must not stand in the way

During an emotional interview, San Juan’s mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz, implored those watching: “Do not forget us and do not make us feel alone.” The anxiety in her voice was palpable. It spoke to the concern shared by millions of Puerto Ricans that the long road to recovery from Hurricanes Irma and Maria might be a solitary one.

The decisions made in this moment will have far-reaching implications for Puerto Rico’s future and will shape the daily lives of residents for years to come. As efforts to restore power, potable water, and communication are under way, we must push for a recovery plan that does not exacerbate the already stark inequalities that exist within Puerto Rican society or between Puerto Rico and the rest of the United States.

One of the greatest factors shaping the recovery efforts will be the Fiscal Control Board installed by the federal government as part of the Promesa Act, which oversees Puerto Rico’s finances. The imposition of the Fiscal Control Board, or Junta, means that the local government is hamstrung in terms of its ability to allocate and disperse funds for disaster relief.