Welcome to the Cutting Through Newsletter

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the “Cutting Through” newsletter. I plan to send out one or two of these per week, sometimes less depending on how busy I am and how much I’m really burning to say!

In “Cutting Through” I will let you know about my latest writings, media appearances, and podcasts. This way, you can keep up with my work at all my blogs. I’ll also include some short pieces exclusively for the newsletter.

This newsletter is my attempt to help us all cut through the fog of double-talk, ambiguity, and, too often, dissembling that is all too common in this age where the quantity of information has surged in inverse proportion to the quality.

For those who don’t know, I run three blogs, two of which I have only recently revived. At my main outlet, ReThinking Foreign Policy, I focus almost exclusively on world affairs and the United States’ role in them. My strongest focus there is on the Middle East, especially Israel and Palestine, but also on Iran, the Persian Gulf, Syria, and other regional hotspots.

At High Crimes and Misdemeanors, I focus more on American politics and culture, hence the name. I have also revived my old sports blog, Diamonds and Gridirons, for those who enjoy such things, even though these days I have even less time to write, or even think about sports than ever before.

I also do a semi-regular podcast named after ReThinking Foreign Policy, which covers both foreign and domestic politics.

As you can see, that’s a lot to maintain. This newsletter is my latest, and biggest, step toward trying to find ways to do this full time and give this work the attention it needs to be done well. I hope you’ll support my efforts now and in the future, when I try to monetize this job more than I have to date. I hope to be able to expand it to include the work of some of my friends and colleagues, as well as bring in guests, do in-depth research and policy papers, and other ambitious endeavors that will help in all of our efforts to elevate the political discourse in this country.

Subscribing to this newsletter is the first and most important step in that support. There will be others, but a main feature of my efforts is to ensure that, in expanding to offer more, I always keep it open to everyone. The massive loss of revenue in recent years in journalism and political analysis and commentary is one of the biggest reasons we find ourselves in the dangerous situations we face in 2020. Paywalls make that situation worse, so I will do all I can to avoid that.

So, please, subscribe to this newsletter. It will not be a burden to your inbox, and it is a way to fight back against the shallow discourse of the mainstream media and the lies of Fox News and its cohorts.

THE LATEST FROM MITCHELL

There’s going to be a new episode very soon of the ReThinking Foreign Policy Podcast, but in the latest one, recorded on September 18, I examined the horribly mislabeled “peace agreements” the Trump administration brokered between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Israel. I also discussed the wild, unfounded rumor that Iran was targeting the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, and spent a few minutes reflecting on a shameful display of racism from fans at then first NFL game of the 2020 season.

On September 25, I published a piece for the Quincy Institute’s online magazine, Responsible Statecraft where I examined Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s recent trip to Washington. The proposed arms sales to the UAE mean that arms sales to Israel are likely to increase significantly as well. I examined the dynamics of these arms deals in the context of American commitments to Israel and what this means for an already volatile Middle East.

On September 28, also at Responsible Statecraft,I looked at the controversy stirred up by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s decision first to attend and then to withdraw from an event commemorating the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. I took the opportunity to examine the disparate ways in which Israelis and their supporters, on one hand, and Palestinians and their supporters on the other view Rabin’s legacy.

On September 20, I appeared on Middle East In Focus on KPFK in Los Angeles. The topic was the deals between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain and what they really represent. You can find an audio recording here, just click on the September 20 episode.

At my newly-revived Crimes and Misdemeanors blog, I brought it back with two posts about the aftermath of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. On September 18, I rang an alarm bell about Mitch McConnell’s intentions. ON September 19th, I looked at what we the people might do about the underhanded effort to stack the Supreme Court for decades to come.

Thoughts on some current events

The New York Times and Trump’s Taxes

While it seems that people, and media, across the spectrum are treating the New York Times story about Trump’s tax returns as a political earthquake, I have not had cause to rethink my initial reaction: “The time for this story was three or four years ago, when it mattered, not now while we're desperately trying to avoid a coup.”

I do not believe this story is going to move the needle even a little, particularly since the Times is still unable to publish the documents that serve as the basis for the story. The majority who think Trump is a crook already know it, and the minority who haven’t believed it until now still won’t.

But my friend Karin Ryan raised a particularly good point about the response to the Times report. She tweeted, “Amusing to hear all the Bernie haters getting their hair on fire about how the rich have rigged the system and don’t pay taxes. Same people derided his ‘socialist’ views and passion about the unfair distribution of wealth to 1%.”

Karin was, as she so often is, absolutely right. Trump’s tax evasion is loathsome, but do any of us really believe it is particularly unusual for someone with the wealth he was given? Sure, it’s worse when it’s the president, or someone running for any public office, but few people are so naïve as to think Trump is unique or even rare in this action. At worst, he does it more aggressively and sloppily than most. Which is one reason he might face prosecution when his term ends.

Yet when we have had the opportunity to change this, we demurred. Not just on Bernie Sanders, but also on Elizabeth Warren, and a whole range of candidates who promised more change than Biden does. The “electability argument” was incredibly flawed. The Democrats’ (Biden being far from the only culprit) inability to knock out a president who has presided over such a massive failure of public trust, national security, the economy, social order…pretty much any measure you’d ever want is manifest. If Trump still loses, as he we all know he must if there is to be any hope, it will absolutely not be because Biden’s “electability” won over a tiny handful of disaffected Republicans while risking far larger numbers of working class and progressive voters in key states.

It’s easy to scream at the monster that Trump is, and almost as easy to cringe at the horribly unfair class system he represents. What’s not so easy is to bring about real change, not the ineffective, incremental nonsense that far too many U.S. voters have always preferred, and which has rarely if ever brought fundamental, lasting change.

From the Light of RBG to the Utter Darkness of ACB

Speaking of the need for fundamental change…

I don’t have to tell you how grim the situation with the Supreme Court is. But as reprehensible and unethical as Mitch McConnell’s, Donald Trump’s, and the Senate Republicans’ behavior is, we must keep in mind that it is all legal, and, sadly, constitutional. This is the system we live under, and it has gaping holes.

One thing that authoritarian leaders all around the world have been doing in recent years is testing assumptions about what they can get away with. We see that with Trump all the time. He is not the first president who had the opportunity to cast doubt on the veracity of our voting system. Nor is this Senate the first to contradict the will of the populace so clearly and brazenly.

In the past, there was concern that if senators representing so clear a minority of the population as these 53 Republicans do that there would be mass protests, even a revolt. The nod to that thinking was usually framed as an acknowledgment of the desires of all their constituents, including those that did not vote for them. They are less concerned about that now, and the meek responses from the Democrats and too much of the public is eroding that caution even more.

Republicans know that they might lose the Senate and the White House over the Supreme Court shenanigans. But they might not, and it’s a gamble that is very much worth taking. That’s because, especially with a census that is going to underrepresent poor people, minorities, and immigrants even more than it has in the past, having a strong conservative majority on the High Court (in addition to the massive number of lower court appointees McConnell reserved for Trump) will mean they can make it even harder for working people to vote in future elections, they can redraw district maps to favor the GOP even more than they already do, and they can get away with all of it because they know the Court will side with them more often than not. So their loss of legislative and executive power will only be temporary, and when they get it back, it will be in a system even more tilted in their favor.

We have a basic, structural problem. The glaring imperfections of the Constitution are more impactful than they have ever been and are being exploited as never before. Incremental change is not going to be able to address these issues. There need to be fundamental and sweeping changes, which must lead to even bigger ones, and that demands bold leadership that can take small victories and show people who are voting against their own interests (as most Trump voters are) that there is a better way. It takes leaders who actually lead, rather than staying safe and “electable.”

There really isn’t another choice. More Bidens, Pelosis, and Schumers are not going to solve these problems. More AOCs, Omars, Bowmans, Tlaibs, and, yes, Bernies will.

Another Potential Entangled Conflict Developing

Finally, I just wanted folks to note a concerning development in Azerbaijan, where an enclave largely populated by Armenians called Nagorno-Karabakh has long been the site of tensions. Karabach declared its independence when the Soviet Union collapsed thirty years ago, but Azerbaijan still claims the territory.

Armenia back the claim of the Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh, while Turkey, whose long history of animosity with Armenia is a bitter one, backs its ally Azerbaijan. Russia, on the other hand, has a mutual defense agreement with Armenia which could be triggered if the fighting spreads into that country.

Russia and Turkey have a fraught relationship, one which is already tense over their involvement on opposite sides in Syria and, more importantly, in Libya. The last thing this region needs—especially with Trump doing all he can to pour gasoline on the smoldering fire in the Persian Gulf—is another powder keg.

Thanks for reading the newsletter. This is a sample of what you can expect from Cutting Through, several times per month. You can always offer feedback or comments directly.