'Nil nisi bonum' and Biden

With most US Press and Media including its most incisive reporters and interviewers, "De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est' - "Of the dead nothing but good is to be said" - seems to apply equally to outgoing US Presidents as much as to the dead.  Biden is no exception, and his treatment now by the media is also in line with our American jingoism that our President (sorry SCOTUS, should I say monarch?) can only be good.  Biden indeed does have a number of achievements in his one term Presidency, and some will bear fruit soon in what is hopefully to be a Kamala Harris presidency. Our American press and people will mainly focus on those, leaving what happened, or happens, around the world almost out in any consideration in the evaluation of  any administration.

The unfortunate fact, however, is that the Biden-Blinken-Austin trio has acted in ways showing little regard to non-American lives (except may be of some close allies) and pursued a policy of hegemony of the 20th Century that, in a highly changed environment obtaining now, compromises the long term interest and standing of our nation for short term gains.  The callousness shown towards the genocide in Gaza and the neighboring areas, the way the Afghan retreat was handled, the continuation and feeding of the flames of the Ukraine war, and the arbitrary seizures of Russian assets will all  be judged quite differently and negatively by history than it is in today's environment where, if one may quote Cholmsky and Co, both content and consent are manufactured.  The last of these seems to have already shaken the trust in the US as a banker with dire consequences for the primacy of the US dollar.  The world can indeed breath a sigh of relief that this trio will be gone, but that relief can be validated only in the policies of the new administration to come.

America, as always, is focused mainly on internal affairs - the economy, continuing second class treatment of women who can't even own a right to their own bodies, religion, and of course pocketbook issues.   Most have probably not heard of Bangladesh or the recent allegations that an elected leader has been ousted there, and that is suspected to be our machination as a reprisal for not giving us a military base. No one asks why we repeatedly side with autocratic governments, monarchies, and dictators and let in people suspected of high handed terrorism against other democracies (eg Rana against India).  No one seems to challenge Kamala Harris on what her foreign policy would indeed appear to look like.  Is she going to continue the international policies of Biden that have tarnished the American image and credibility significantly around the world and caused serious supply chain and other problems hurting our economy?

By all means, we should pray for Trump's loss in the election since the alternative will throw the world into greater chaos.  For now, Kamala Harris' foreign policy details  remaining obscure can work to her favor where the oppositon's slogan 'America First' is bought with no examination of how it may get rolled out.  Also, given the conflicts going on, it is best if America plays with its hand not fully exposed (quite contrary to Trump's unwise comments in this area.)  But the American intelligentsia and the Press and Media do owe  us Americans to challenge the leadership and move this nation, supposedly with 'a government of the people, for the people, and by the people,' in the right direction, not only in its internal affairs but also in its external affairs.  The stakes are too high for America in the world stage, and it is high time that some fair time is allocated to foreign affairs and the like too in interviews and debates.