Daily Aggregation 2

Beyond "Best of the Web Today", Part II

A bitter brew. (Photo by me)

After my first news aggregation post, I found that I enjoyed writing that kind of post — perhaps too much! It certainly doesn’t take the effort that the lengthy posts on NATO or the upcoming one on the Pacific Theater do (and will), and it still gives me a chance to make snarky comments (including snarky captions) about The Former Guy. If I’m going to do these aggregation posts as a regular feature, I need to give them an appropriate name, so if anyone reading this has any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

Cinco Sink-o de Mayo Moskva

The biggest news of the last few days was that Ukrainian missiles apparently sank the Russian Black Sea flagship Moskva, which is the name “Moscow” in Russian, on Thursday. The Moskva was the ship involved in the internationally-famous incident at the start of the war, when it demanded the surrender of the Ukrainian forces on Snake Island, and the Ukrainians responded (in Russian, not English), “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.” Unfortunately, it didn’t — so the Ukrainians ultimately did.

Although Russia publicly denied the Ukrainian claims and said the Moskva was damaged by a fire, its multiple-missile retaliation against Ukraine belies that claim. As the Russo-Ukrainian War drags on, it has become clear that the outcome of the Battle of the Donbas will decide this war, either for Russia (and its allies China and Belarus) or for Ukraine (and its allies in the U.S. and EU). Consistent with the higher stakes now involved in this battle, the U.S. has approved providing “heavier” equipment to Ukraine, including helicopters and armored personnel carriers.

The current Western theory is that Putin would like to declare victory in Ukraine by 9 May — which is a Russian holiday celebrating victory over the Nazis in WWII. Since Russian media has regularly claimed that the current Ukrainian government is comprised of Nazis, the timing would provide a great propaganda boost for Putin. Thus, the next three weeks are likely to be even more brutal than the war so far.

“Celebrity Apprentice” from TFG

On Friday, TFG endorsed J.D. Vance, who is currently running a poor third in the upcoming Ohio primary for its open U.S. Senate seat behind two devoted supporters of TFG who had also sought the endorsement. He previously endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary for its open U.S. Senate seat, although Oz appears to be trailing David McCormick, who has been an ardent Trump loyalist and currently employs a number of former TFG aides. He endorsed Sarah Palin in the upcoming Alaska primary for its open U.S. House seat, although more than 50 candidates have filed for that race. And, of course, TFG previously endorsed former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL star Herschel Walker for the Democrat-held U.S. Senate seat in Georgia.

Other than Palin, these candidates are all political novices. But they do have something in common other than their devotion to TFG: they are all celebrities who could have appeared on TFG’s “Celebrity Apprentice”. Celebrities have long had power as political influencers, of course, but TFG seems to have taken that to a new level. Is “government by celebrities” a form of kakistocracy?

Candy Crowley lives on

On Thursday, the Republican National Committee voted to block party candidates from appearing in debates organized by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates without prior permission from the RNC, which is quite different from “withdrawal” from such events, although that was how it was characterized by a range including NBC, CNN, and the RNC itself. Certainly the fiasco with the chosen moderator of the second 2020 debate, Steve Sculley from C-SPAN (who had once worked as an intern for Joe Biden, then lied about his Twitter account being hacked after the story broke, before the debate was cancelled and he was suspended by C-SPAN), could have played a role in that posturing . . . if anyone still remembered it.

But it seems from here that the real impetus behind the RNC’s deliberate mischaracterization was the 2012 debate “moderation” from CNN’s Candy Crowley. Crowley may have retired from CNN in 2015, but she is unlikely to be forgotten . . . except by her former network, who ran a long piece lamenting the “withdrawal” that showed clips from various debates over the years — but nothing from Crowley, whose name wasn’t even mentioned during the piece.

Gerontocracy

One of the leaders of California’s transition to an exclusively Democratic enclave in the 1980s and 1990s was Dianne Feinstein, the intelligent and ambitious former mayor of San Francisco. In particular, the 1992 and 1994 U.S. Senate elections — in which she first became California’s first female senator ever and then won a huge, very expensive (the most expensive non-presidential race in the U.S. ever at the time), and very nasty showdown with Michael Huffington (Arianna’s ex-husband) — made her a force to be reckoned with in American politics.

However, Feinstein was 59 when first elected to the Senate and has now served there for 30 years, making her the oldest current member of the U.S. Senate. Her husband (and former chairman of CB Richard Ellis) passed away after a long battle with cancer in February. And current reports are that age and its stresses recently have taken a toll on her ability to serve, with several other senators questioning her mental acuity. Although Sen. Feinstein’s office issued a statement denying any cognitive decline, she declined a request for an in-person interview.

If the reports are true, I admit to feeling very sorry for Sen. Feinstein. Even though I worked against her re-election in 1994 and voted against her, I had to admit that I would rather have had her running as my party’s candidate than Huffington. She was both brighter and better-spoken, and at the time, it seemed far more likely that she would be the first female president or vice-president than someone like Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris.

Her current term runs until 2024 — but she isn’t alone in the current composition of the Senate. Republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is just a few months younger, is running for re-election this year. Democratic senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont, currently Senate president pro tempore as the longest-serving Senator in the majority party (47 years) is 82. So is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is 80. And Joe Biden (79) is the oldest president in American history — but had TFG won, he also would have become the oldest president in U.S. history. By contrast, Clarence Thomas, who will become the oldest member of the U.S. Supreme Court in July, will then be a relative spring chicken in Washington terms . . . at 74.

D.C. has long been a gerontocracy. Yet right at the moment, it seems to be more of an issue than ever before. It almost makes sense that, at a time of heightened partisan divides, citizens would seek out experienced leadership — but haven’t we taken it a little overboard? Besides, as both TFG and Joe Biden have proven, age is no guarantee of competence.

Be seeing you.