This week on POLITICAL MOTIVES we review President Biden’s G7 trip and the success of his summit with Vladimir Putin. We will also discuss the rather disingenuous pronouncements of some US Catholic Bishops who are threatening to stop giving communion to President Biden given his pro-choice stance, a move that is quickly angering rank and file members of the Catholic Church. We will get into the latest dinner theatre, oh I mean bipartisan talks on the Hill, concerning the American Jobs Act and the For The People Act and discuss how bipartisanship doesn’t seem to be working so well for Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). We will also look at the over 500 criminal court proceedings against the 1/6 Capitol Insurrectionists and look at how it appears that a case for conspiracy is being built against some of the ring leaders including none other than Roger Stone. Finally, we will say goodbye to Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu as a coalition government removes the hard right leader from office for the first time in 12 years.
President Biden received a warm welcome from our allies abroad at the G7 having productive and cordial discussions with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Announcing America was back and reclaiming our rightful leadership in the G7 and NATO, President Biden had a perfect first foreign trip reassuring the G7 leaders that the US would be returning to more “normal” relationships with our NATO allies. President Biden signaled that the period of chaos under Trump was over, and he was focused on rebuilding our alliances that were tested with the corruption and autocratic behavior of the Trump Administration. A collective sigh of relief was heard around the world and President Biden capped it off with a commitment of sending over 500 million Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to be distributed via the World Health Organization on top of the previous commitment of 80 million doses. Unlike China and Russia who had been leveraging access to less effective Covid-19 vaccines in exchange for trade and military access, President Biden made the “no strings attached” commitment recognizing that the biggest threat to global economic growth was the continued risk presented by the Covid-19 virus.
President Biden also held a Summit with Russia’s President Putin. Putin looking small and cowed was clearly on his back foot having been confronted by President Biden on several issues from the political prisoner Navalny, to continued cyber-attacks on US businesses and organizations, to the strengthening of sanctions. Putin for his part resorted to lame “whataboutisms” concerning the 1/6 Capitol Insurrection attempting to reframe the prosecutions of the violent insurrectionists as some sort of human rights issue. Putin was called out on the carpet in his separate press conference by several US reporters, including one who pointedly highlighted that Putin attacked and jailed his opposition asking whether he was afraid of those who stand in opposition to his autocratic rule. It was clear that Putin was defensive and unable to control the American journalists who bombarded him with tough questions on human rights abuses, jailing of political opposition leaders and continued aggression in Ukraine. Putin looked like a boy who was caught red handed, desperate to deflect attention from his crimes by using the “dog ate my homework” excuse for the murder and mayhem he supports and enables.
President Biden made clear that Putin would face increasing sanctions and potential cyber responses that would serve to further isolate him from the world community. The Biden Administration should ratchet up sanctions, freeze foreign assets of Putin’s oligarch buddies and provide continued support for Ukraine. Additionally, we should be encouraging Germany to lessen their reliance on Russian oil with the new pipeline being built. It’s dangerous and short-term thinking in an era of green energy alternative. Continued engagement with Russia should be minimized given their long-standing human rights abuses and continued occupation of Crimea in Ukraine. The only way to deal with Putin is to point out the widespread corruption and just how much wealth he and his oligarch cronies have extracted from the Russian economy. Ramping up public pressure and isolating Russia from financial markets and global supply chains will easily bring Putin to heel. One need only remember that Russia has about the same GDP as the state of Texas. They have a decaying military and nuclear program and a country that is tired of the widespread criminality and corruption of Putin. The clock is running out on Putin’s reign, and Putin clearly knows how weak he is.
Overall a great week for President Biden on the foreign stage including time spent with Queen Elizabeth. It was clear that America was back and that under Biden’s apt leadership had successfully reclaimed our position of respect in the world.
Back at home a surprising and petty move by some U.S. Catholic Bishops provided a compelling reason as to why we should tax Churches. Several U.S. Bishops made public pronouncements indicating that they would not give communion to President Biden due to his pro-choice political stance. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego have called upon members of the Church to deny communion to politicians who maintain support for pro-choice policy. President Biden has always maintained that while he upholds the law giving women access to abortion, he is personally against it. These same clergy never saw fit to call out the former guy for his corruption, racism, and violence. They were happy to support him because of his appointments of pro-life judges to the bench in the hope of overturning Roe v. Wade. Cooler heads in the Catholic Church prevailed when The Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, made it clear that Biden is welcome to receive Communion at churches he oversees in DC while Bishop William Koenig, appointed April 30 to head the Wilmington diocese, where President Biden often goes to service when he is in residence at his home in Delaware said he would gladly speak with Biden about his views on abortion but did not say whether he would allow him to continue receiving Communion, as Koenig’s predecessor had done.
Now I am a Roman Catholic and I believe fervently in a women’s right to choose and to maintain complete autonomy over her body. Given the Catholic Church’s inability to protect many young students in their care from predatory priests who sexually molested young people and then had their transgressions covered up, I find the actions of the West Coast Catholic Bishops to be completely egregious. If Catholic Bishops want to weigh in on politics, then the U.S. Church should not be granted tax exempt status and should pay taxes on the largesse of Catholic boosters. Any attempt to embarrass President Biden or to somehow hold him to a different standard than the morally degenerate and corrupt former guy Trump is an affront to Catholic teachings. Trump never attended service and to see those Bishops attempt to manipulate him - as a woman and a Catholic I find it deeply offensive. The Church should look to repent for their own sins which are many and reflect on the pain caused by so many priests who betrayed the youth of their parishes.
While Biden had a very successful foreign trip his domestic agenda is weighed down by calls of bipartisanship. The American Jobs Act and the For The People Act were met with significant resistance from the Republican party, who are pushing to have the infrastructure investments paid for via usage taxes and gas tax increases which would hit average Americans. They have been unwilling to increase corporate taxes or place higher taxes on wealthy billionaires. It is time for President Biden to recognize that there will never be support from the Right on either of these two critical plans that are needed to continue to boost our economy as we slowly emerge from the pandemic.
It is critical that both pieces of legislation along with The John Lewis Voting Rights Act get passed now. Yes, this means rewiring the Filibuster. We are running out of time, and we must preserve access to the ballot box and remove dark money from politics. Get it done.
Finally, every day we are seeing new video footage being released as part of the prosecutions of the violent Insurrectionists who attacked our Capitol on 1/6. I would encourage you to follow the reporting being done by Scott MacFarlane who is the NBC4 Washington Investigative Reporter. He has been monitoring numerous court proceedings including sharing the harrowing and vicious attacks of the Insurrectionists on Washington Metro and Capitol police. This weekend, news began to leak that the FBI is looking into connections between Roger Stone and numerous participants in the violent coup attempt. Journalist Seth Abrahamson, has been tracking connections between Stone in the days prior to the 1/6 Capitol attack. It would appear that numerous planning meetings happened at both the Willard Hotel on 1/5 and at the Trump Hotel. In a bizarre twist some Right-wing prognosticators have been pushing the BS and utterly bizarre lie that the FBI planned the 1/6 attack. It’s ludicrous – from Antifa, to BLM to now the FBI, the right-wing conspiracy machine kicked into high (in more ways than one) gear making these idiotic and dangerous claims. Last week I encouraged Merrick Garland to continue to clean house at the DOJ of the remnants of the former Guy’s corrupt political appointees. I would suggest that we must pursue a vigorous investigation to look at the planning and financial payments for the Capitol Insurrection and prosecute all guilty parties. It is clear that they are guilty of conspiring to plan the seditious attack on the Capitol on 1/6.
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That’s it for this week. As always get your Covid-19 vaccine. We have surpassed 65% of all Americans having received at least one dose. Do your part for yourself and for your families. Remember to stay safe and wear a mask to save a life. Until next time this is Barb Kittridge at POLITICAL MOTIVES.