Daily Archives: June 1, 2022

Good Sunday morning, and welcome back to Brunch, a pop-up email about Florida politics.

I hope you are enjoying this extended weekend. As much as youre probably enjoying BBQ, boating, and baseball, please dont forget the true meaning of Memorial Day.

As a reminder, just read this tweet from veteran Mac Stipanovich:

Remember them. Now, lets have Brunch.

Supreme Court: Now hiring

Applications roll in: The Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission has received 17 applications from individuals hoping to become a Justice on the Florida Supreme Court.

The pool: The applicants include Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Renatha Francis, who Gov. Ron DeSantis tried to appoint to the Supreme Court in 2020. Theres also 1st District Court of Appeal judges Adam Tanenbaum and Thomas Winokur, and 4th District Court of Appeal Judges Jeffrey Kuntz and Edward Artau. Two more Appeals Court judges also applied, including Eric Eisnaugle II and Meredith Sasso. A slew of Circuit Court judges also sent in applications, including Robert Long, Stephen Everett, Steve Berlin, Tarlika Nunez Navarro, Hunter Carroll, Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe and Cymonie Rowe. The remaining three applicants include former Circuit Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan, Golden Scaz Gagain firm lawyer Jeffrey Albinson and Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer Denise Harle.

Vacancy: The applicants are seeking to fill a vacancy on the court created by the retirement of Justice Alan Lawson, who announced his decision in April. Former Gov. Rick Scott appointed Lawson, and his retirement is effective Aug. 31.

Getting to know you: The Judicial Nominating Commission will provide a list of nominees to DeSantis, who is expected to interview candidates on June 11 in Tampa.

Selection: This new appointment will give DeSantis four appointees on the Florida Supreme Court.

Read on redistricting

Times running out on any glimmer of hope plaintiffs have of tossing Floridas congressional map ahead of 2022.

Shot down: The 1st District Court of Appeal made clear a lower court should not have replaced the cartography with a new map entirely. Judge A.C. Tanenbaum said that didnt just undo DeSantis decision to sign a favored plan, but introduced a remedy from left field

What then? That begs the question, however, of what should have taken place after Leon Circuit Judge Layne Smith found the map unconstitutional. One intriguing suggestion: Hold the new map and run on Floridas old 27-district map, then hold a statewide election to fill Floridas new 28th Congressional District.

But really: Tanenbaum makes abundantly clear, though, that making such a determination before a full trial marked the true lapse. Throwing a map out after a three-hour hearing seemed a step too far.

Now what? There are still five days for more to be presented to the appellate court to sway minds. But now the question is whether the Florida Supreme Court will respond to a request from plaintiffs to step in. So far, theres only silence.

Condo associations gotta step up

Industry insiders are praising the Legislature for their work on the condominium inspection bill (SB 4D) last week.

Margaret Peggy Rolando is a real estate attorney at the Miami office of Shutts & Bowen LLP and a member of Florida Bar leadership when it comes to condos. She has over 40 years of experience in condo law and policy, meaning some condos that came up under her watch will be subject to the legislations inspection requirements.

Milestone inspections: With the new milestone requirements, older condos will have to start lining up structural health checks, or else theyll have to warn buyers that they havent completed the inspections. Rolando says that thats a good thing, but condo associations will have to be on the ball.

Free your calendars: Its really important for associations to understand they need to take care of this immediately and get busy, because theres a limited number of architects and engineers in their state, Rolando said. With the construction boom thats going on. Most of them are pretty busy.

Sticker shock: Condo associations will also have to keep certain levels of reserves to address structural maintenance. It will be easier for newer buildings to raise the cash because theyll have more time to do it. But residents of older condos might face a bit of sticker shock.

What the Legislature did is the right thing to do. Its the right policy, Rolando said. The only difficulty is it has a disproportionate impact on basically the working-class condo.

Renner endorses Leek

Now for an item youll see first in Brunch: Speaker-designate Paul Renner is officially backing Republican Rep. Tom Leek in his re-election bid.

Facing a Primary: Leek is running in the newly remapped House District 28 for his fourth and final term before facing term limits. Hes facing a GOP Primary challenge from Liberty Caucus member Alex Newman, endorsed by former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. Leek, however, has courted support already from DeSantis. Democrat John Navarra has also filed to run in HD 28.

Principled conservative: We need principled conservatives like Tom Leek in Tallahassee. I am proud to serve with Tom and honored to call him a friend and ally in the fight for making Florida the best state for children, families, and workers to succeed, Renner said. I stand with Gov. DeSantis in endorsing Tom Leek. Tom is the leader we need in the Florida House to fight alongside the Governor and advance our conservative agenda.

Parents and students first: I look forward to standing beside my friend, Speaker-designate Paul Renner, and am honored to receive his endorsement, Leek added. Together, we will continue to put parents and students first, protect small businesses, strengthen our elections, stand up for the unborn, back the blue, and take on the out-of-touch special interests to keep Florida open and free.

The new HD 28 covers parts of Volusia County. Leek served as Chair of the House Redistricting Committee during this years Regular Session.

Memorial Day roundup: Part 1

Memorial Day isnt just a time for barbecue, but a moment to honor the sacrifice of Americas fallen soldiers. Here are events throughout Florida on Monday honoring these men and women.

Boca Raton Memorial Day Concert: Music will be performed by the Fort Lauderdale Highlanders, Coastmen Chorus and Krescendo Brass. Doors open at Mizner Park Auditorium at 6 p.m., with the concert at 7 p.m.

Bushnell National Cemetery Memorial Service: The Veterans Affairs Department will host an event at 11 a.m., including wreath-laying, speeches and a rifle salute.

Clearwater Memorial Day Ceremony: The Tampa Bay Veterans Alliance will host its annual Memorial Day Ceremony from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Florida Veterans Memorial Plaza at Crest Lake Park. Author Gary King will speak.

Coconut Creek Memorial Day Ceremony: The American Legion Post 170 and the city host this event, which features the Coconut Creek Police Department Honor Guard and Monarch High School Junior ROTC, among dignitaries and other speakers. It starts at Veterans Park at 9 a.m.

Davie Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony: A parade featuring Boy Scout troops starts at the Davie Fire Station at 10 a.m.

Fort Lauderdale Memorial Day Ceremony: Held at the Lauderdale Memorial Ceremony, the event begins at 9 a.m. and features a laying of flowers on graves and a dove release.

Gotha Memorial Day Service: Woodlawn Memorial Park and Funeral Home will host a 72nd annual ceremony with veteran groups, Boy Scout troops and civic organizations. The event begins at 10 a.m.

Jacksonville Memorial Day Ceremony: An event at the landmark Veterans Memorial Wall will begin at 8 a.m. with performances by the Navy Band Southeast and Jacksonville Childrens Choir. The observance should conclude at 10 a.m.

Sarasota Memorial Day Parade: A parade will start at Main Street and Osprey Avenue and conclude at Chaplain J.D. Hamel Park, located at Main Street and Gulfstream Avenue, where the ceremony will begin at approximately 11 a.m.

Tallahassee Memorial Day Celebration: The Centre of Tallahassee will host a free celebration, with music provided by Brown Goose. It kicks off at the Pavilion at 5 p.m.

Tampa Memorial Day Service: Mayor Jane Castor and Central Command Vice Admiral James Malloy will speak at an event at 11 a.m. at MacDill Park downtown.

Orlando travel torrent

Orlando International Airport (MCO) expects nearly 800,000 passengers to fly within the six-day travel window for the Memorial Day holiday.

Plan accordingly: Traditionally, Memorial Day has not been the busiest travel period at Orlando International; however, we are staffing up and are prepared for more passengers this year than usual, said Kevin Thibault, CEO of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, in a statement. If you are planning to travel, please give yourself plenty of extra time to navigate through the parking, check-in and security processes.

Projections: MCO expects this years Memorial Day figures to be only 10,000 departures less than 2019 pre-pandemic numbers for the holiday. The numbers are also up 11% from 2021s Memorial Day weekend. The busiest travel day will be Friday, May 27, with 68,200 people departing, the airport said. Both Saturday, May 28, and Monday, May 30, more than 67,000 people are expected to depart the airport daily. Travelers should arrive inside the airport terminal at least two hours prior to flight departure time, according to an airport news release.

Still growing: With more than 40 million passengers in 2021, Orlandos airport was ranked one of the busiest in the country and No. 1 in the state. Capacity at the airport is only growing too. Orlando International Airport plans to open its new $2.75 billion Terminal C in September. International flights are scheduled to begin Sept. 19, with domestic operations starting Sept. 26, the airport announced last month.

World Cup coming?

Orlando and South Florida are among 17 locations still in the running to host games in 2026 when soccers biggest show, the World Cup, comes to the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Announcement soon: Soccers governing body, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), is expected to announce the winning cities on June 16. If chosen, games would be played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Sixty games are to be played in the U.S., including all after the quarterfinals. Canada and Mexico are to host 10 games each. Its the first time three nations will serve as co-hosts for the event.

Orlandos pitch: Orlando has already established itself as one of the premier sports destinations in North America and enhancing Camping World Stadium only adds to our ability to host premier events, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said. I am proud that weve achieved exceptional value throughout the entire reconstruction. Our strategy continues to be validated by the lineup of marquee sporting events that are being scheduled for the months and years ahead as Orlando thrives as the Soccer Capital of the South.

Ftbol en Miami? The Palm Beach Post reported that Miami Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel is pushing to host the World Cup championship game at Hard Rock Stadium. Garfinkel was instrumental in bringing the recent, widely successful Formula 1 race to Miami. Ive had a couple of meetings in the last week or so on World Cup 2026 with high-ranking officials from FIFA, and we certainly want the World Cup here in 26, Garfinkel told the Post. We told them we want the final here in 26. So thats what were trying to shoot for.

Can it happen? Probably everybody else wants it, too, Garfinkel said. But I think theyre impressed with the venue. They understand the importance of Miami as a global city and as a great soccer city and as a dynamic city.

Brunching out

Mass-produced bread lacks the aroma and homey goodness of fresh bread. Thats why its a treat to have breakfast or lunch, now available daily, at The Hawthorn Bistro & Bakery. The restaurant turns fresh brioche, sourdough, ciabatta, herb focaccia, and croissants. These delectable choices are a slice of home.

Backstory: The restaurant is owned by the Seven Hills Hospitality Group, founded by chef Jesse Edmunds, which also operates the local restaurants El Cocinero, Bar 1903, and the new Black Radish.

Setting: Its casual and contemporary, a good pick for an early morning meeting, lunch date, or a solo excursion. You order at the counter, and your food is brought to your table. Takeout and outdoor dining are available.

The menu: One of my favorite dishes is the French toast, which features two thick slices of brioche, nicely done and served with a scoop of honey mascarpone, syrup, fresh berries and either turkey sausage or bacon. Another hit was the Eggs in a Basket (there are dozens of names for this creation), which involves cracking the eggs into a circle carved in the bread. You can pick your choice of bread for this hearty dish plated with confit fingerling potatoes, fresh fruit and bacon or turkey sausage. Among other breakfast selections: steak and eggs, a breakfast burrito, tofu grill and avocado toast. Pair with a hearty brew from Grassroots Coffee Roasters located in Thomasville. If you want to grab a loaf of bread right from the oven, stop by daily after 4 p.m.

Details: The Hawthorn Bistro & Bakery, 1307 N. Monroe St., Unit 1; 850-354-8275. Breakfast is served from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and bakery counter service is available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

What else is going on?

Give a little, get a little: The Revenue Estimating Conference is set to hold an impact conference to provide estimates on potential costs of legislation. The docket includes specialty license plates, title fees and abatement measures for disaster victims. The meeting starts at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Room 117 of the Knott Building.

Naranja Townhall: Homestead Democratic Rep. Kevin Chambliss will host a town hall meeting Tuesday in Naranja. Chambliss is running for a second term to represent House District 117. The town hall begins at 6 p.m. at Naranja Park, 14150 S.W. 264th St.

Raising funds: Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Sanford Republican, is hosting a fundraising reception this Wednesday in Heathrow to support his re-election campaign for Senate District 10. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. at Heathrow Country Club, 1200 Bridgewater Dr.

More raising funds: Fellow state Sen. Ray Rodrigues is also hosting a fundraiser this Wednesday at The Sidney and Davis Berne Art Center starting at 5:30 p.m. Rodrigues is running for Senate District 33. His host committee includes Senate President Wilton Simpson and Senate President-Designate Kathleen Passidomo.

Calm before the storm: The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season is set to start this Wednesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts an above-normal season this year, with 14-21 named storms expected. The season will run through Nov. 30.

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Here's Brunch, a pop-up, weekend email during the 2022 Special Session 5.29.22 - Florida Politics

Ron Rice, a high school chemistry teacher who had been trained to explore for oil, but who instead made a fortune by concocting coconut-laced suntan lotion in a 20-gallon garbage can in his garage and seductively branding it Hawaiian Tropic, died on May 19 in Daytona Beach, Fla. He was 81.

His death, in a hospital, was announced by his family on Facebook. No cause was specified.

A dirt-poor boy from North Carolinas Blue Ridge Mountains, Mr. Rice became smitten with Floridas ocean shores while on a family vacation in the 1940s. Years later, after a visit to Hawaii, he was inspired to take on Coppertone, a leading brand of suntan lotion, which promised naturally pale sunbathers like himself that they would tan, not burn, if they slathered themselves with the products zinc oxide, alkyl benzoate, isopropyl palmitate and other ingredients.

After graduating from college in 1964, he transplanted himself to Florida, taught for eight years (in fleeting positions at seven schools, but long enough to acquire a draft deferment) and worked part time as a football coach and a lifeguard, positions well served by his 6-foot-3 height.

On the side, he blended myriad combinations of coconut oil, exotic fruits, aloe, avocado, kukui, mineral oil and cocoa butter until they combined into a lotion that a few 11-year-olds he enlisted from the neighborhood poured from that foundational garbage can into bottles labeled Hawaiian Tropic and sold for the first time on the beach on July 20, 1969. (Coconuts werent native to Hawaii and were probably originally cultivated on islands in Southeast Asia, but the name Tropic Tan was already trademarked.)

By 2006, after years of unabashed promotion through beauty pageants judged by celebrities (Donald J. Trump met his second wife, Marla Maples, when she was a Hawaiian Tropic pageant contestant), automobile races (the company name was on a Porsche driven by Paul Newman at Le Mans in 1979), and cunning and not-so-subtle placements in films and on television shows along with various other stunts sales of Hawaiian Tropic had topped $110 million, making it the second-largest sun-care product company in the world.

A year later, Mr. Rice sold it to Playtex Products for $83 million.

Suntan is sex, he once said. Thats what it all boils down to. Sex and vanity.

Ronald Joseph Rice was born on Sept. 1, 1940, in Asheville, N.C., to Clyde and Pauline (Crosby) Rice.

The family lived on a mountain. From the time Ron was 5, he would join his siblings at their roadside stand selling apples, cider, honey, grapes and Christmas wreaths to supplement their fathers income as a civil engineer.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where, according to several accounts, he was studying to explore for oil and uranium, and to be a teacher.

I used to teach school and I used to make $4,300 a year. Four thousand of that was the teaching part, $300 was the coaching part, he once told a TV interviewer. I did that for eight years. I could go back to that if I had to, but Im not saying I want to go back.

Its fun, he said of his balmy lifestyle, lubricated with Hawaiian Tropic, and theres a lot of extra toys involved, and a lot of fun times, and I drink a little better-quality wine, of course, but Im still a country boy.

Information on survivors was not immediately available.

Mr. Rices 12,000-square-foot home in Ormond Beach, just north of Daytona Beach and not far from the lifeguard stand where he once worked, housed a disco and an indoor-outdoor pool. He owned an 80-foot yacht and a Lamborghini that he lent to Burt Reynolds for the film The Cannonball Run (1981).

As a reminder of his roots, and a testament to his success, Mr. Rice placed in his living room the garbage can in which he had perfected the formula for Hawaiian Tropic. He had it silver plated.

Read the original:
Ron Rice, Creator of Hawaiian Tropic Lotion, Is Dead at 81 - The New York Times

The United States, as the near-unanimous vote to provide nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine illustrates, is trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism. No high speed trains. No universal health care. No viable COVID relief program. No respite from 8.3% inflation. No infrastructure programs to repair decaying roads and bridges, which require $41.8 billion to fix the 43,586 structurally deficient bridges, on average 68 years old. No forgiveness of $1.7 trillion in student debt. No addressing income inequality. No program to feed the 17 million children who go to bed each night hungry. No rational gun control or curbing of the epidemic of nihilistic violence and mass shootings. No help for the 100,000 Americans who die each year of drug overdoses. No minimum wage of $15 an hour to counter 44 years of wage stagnation. No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.

The permanent war economy, implanted since the end of World War II, has destroyed the private economy, bankrupted the nation, and squandered trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. The monopolization of capital by the military has driven the US debt to $30 trillion, $6 trillion more than the US GDP of $24 trillion. Servicing this debt costs $300 billion a year. We spent more on the military, $813 billionfor fiscal year 2023, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined.

We are paying a heavy social, political and economic cost for our militarism. Washington watches passively as the U.S. rots, morally, politically, economically and physically, while China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India and other countries extract themselves from the tyranny of the U.S. dollar and the international Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a messaging network banks and other financial institutions use to send and receive information, such as money transfer instructions. Once the U.S. dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency, once there is an alternative to SWIFT, it will precipitate an internal economic collapse. It will force the immediate contraction of the U.S. empire shuttering most of its nearly 800 overseas military installations. It will signal the death of Pax Americana.

RELATED:Pimps of war: Neocons who fueled 20 years of carnage in the Middle East are back for more

Democrat or Republican. It does not matter. War is the raison d'tre of the state. Extravagant military expenditures are justified in the name of "national security." The nearly $40 billion allocated for Ukraine, most of it going into the hands of weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, is only the beginning. Military strategists, who say the war will be long and protracted, are talking about infusions of $4 or $5 billion in military aid a month to Ukraine. We face existential threats. But these do not count. The proposed budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in fiscal year 2023 is $10.675 billion. The proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is $11.881 billion. Ukraine alone gets more than double that amount. Pandemics and the climate emergency are afterthoughts. War is all that matters. This is a recipe for collective suicide.

War is the raison d'tre of the state. Extravagant military expenditures are justified for "national security." The $40 billion allocated for Ukraine mostly goes to weapons manufacturers. Strategists talk of sending $4 billion more every month.

There were three restraints to the avarice and bloodlust of the permanent war economy that no longer exist. The first was the old liberal wing of the Democratic Party, led by politicians such as Sen. George McGovern, Sen. Eugene McCarthy and Sen. J. William Fulbright, who wrote "The Pentagon Propaganda Machine." The self-identified progressives, a pitiful minority, in Congress today, from Rep. Barbara Lee who was the single vote in the House and the Senate opposing an open-ended authorization allowing the president to wage war in Afghanistan or anywhere else to Rep. Ilhan Omar are now dutifully lining up to fund the latest proxy war. The second restraint was an independent media and academia, including journalists such as I.F Stone and Neil Sheehan along with scholars such as Seymour Melman, author of "The Permanent War Economy"and "Pentagon Capitalism: The Political Economy of War." Third, and perhaps most important, was an organized antiwar movement led by religious leaders such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr. and Phil and Dan Berrigan, as well as groups such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). They understood that unchecked militarism was a fatal disease.

None of these opposition forces, which did not reverse the permanent war economy but curbed its excesses, now exist. The two ruling parties have been bought by corporations, especially military contractors. The press is anemic and obsequious to the war industry. Propagandists for permanent war, largely from right-wing think tanks lavishly funded by the war industry, along with former military and intelligence officials, are exclusively quoted or interviewed as military experts. NBC's "Meet the Press" aired a segment May 13 where officials from Center for a New American Security (CNAS) simulated what a war with China over Taiwan might look like. The co-founder of CNAS, Michle Flournoy, who appeared in the "Meet the Press" war games segment and was considered by Biden to run the Pentagon, wrote in 2020 in Foreign Affairs that the U.S. needs to develop "the capability to credibly threaten to sink all of China's military vessels, submarines and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours."

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The handful of anti-militarists and critics of empire from the left, such as Noam Chomsky, and the right, such as Ron Paul, have been declared persona non grata by a compliant media. The liberal class has retreated into boutique activism where issues of class, capitalism and militarism are jettisoned for "cancel culture," multiculturalism and identity politics. Liberals are cheerleading the war in Ukraine. At least the inception of the war with Iraq saw them join significant street protests. Ukraine is embraced as the latest crusade for freedom and democracy against the new Hitler. There is little hope, I fear, of rolling back or restraining the disasters being orchestrated on a national and global level. The neoconservatives and liberal interventionists chant in unison forwar.Joe Biden has appointed these warmongers, whose attitude to nuclear war is terrifyingly cavalier, to run the Pentagon, the National Security Council and the State Department.

Since all we do is war, all proposed solutions are military. War will cripple Russia. War will curb the growing power of China. These are demented and dangerous fantasies of a ruling class severed from reality.

Since all we do is war, all proposed solutions are military. This military adventurism accelerates the decline, as the defeat in Vietnam and the squandering of $8 trillionin the futile wars in the Middle East illustrate. War and sanctions, it is believed, will cripple Russia, rich in gas and natural resources. War, or the threat of war, will curb the growing economic andmilitary clout of China.

These are demented and dangerous fantasies, perpetrated by a ruling class that has severed itself from reality. No longer able to salvage their own society and economy, they seek to destroy those of their global competitors, especially Russia and China. Once the militarists cripple Russia, the plan goes, they will focus military aggression on the Indo-Pacific, dominating what Hillary Clinton as secretary of state,referringto the Pacific, called "the American Sea."

You cannot talk about war without talking about markets. The U.S., whose growth rate has fallen to below2%, while China's is8.1%, has turned to military aggression to bolster its sagging economy. If the U.S. can sever Russian gas supplies to Europe, it will force Europeans to buy from the United States.U.S. firms,at the same time, would be happy to replace the Chinese Communist Party, even if they must do it through the threat of war, to open unfettered access to Chinese markets. War, if it did break out with China, would devastate the Chinese, American and global economies, destroying free trade between countries as in World War I. But that doesn't mean it won't happen.

Washington is desperately trying to build military and economic alliances to ward off a rising China, whose economy is expected by 2028 to overtake that of the United States,according tothe U.K.'s Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The White House has said that Biden's recent visit to Asia was aboutsendinga "powerful message" to Beijing and others about what the world could look like if democracies "stand together to shape the rules of the road." The Biden administration has invited South Korea and Japan to attend the NATO summit in Madrid.

But fewer and fewer nations, even among European allies, are willing to be dominated by the United States. Washington's veneer of democracy and supposed respect for human rights and civil liberties is so badly tarnished as to be irrecoverable. Its economic decline, with China's manufacturing 70% higher than that of the U.S., is irreversible. War is a desperate Hail Mary, one employed by dying empires throughout history with catastrophic consequences. "It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable," Thucydides noted in "The History of the Peloponnesian War."

A key component to the sustenance of the permanent war state was the creation of the all-volunteer force. Without conscripts, the burden of fighting wars falls to the poor, the working class and military families. This allows the children of the middle class, who led the Vietnam antiwar movement, to avoid service. It protects the military from internal revolts, carried out by troops during the Vietnam War, which jeopardized the cohesion of the armed forces.

The all-volunteer force, by limiting the pool of available troops, also makes the global ambitions of the militarists impossible. Desperate to maintain or increase troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military instituted the "stop-loss"policy that arbitrarily extended active-duty contracts. Its slang term was the "backdoor draft." The effort to bolster the number of troops by hiring private military contractors as well has had a negligible effect. Increased troop levels would not have won the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the tiny percentage of those willing to serve in the military (only7%of the U.S. population are veterans) is an unacknowledged Achilles heel for the militarists.

"As a consequence, the problem of too much war and too few soldiers eludes serious scrutiny," writes historian and retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevichin "After the Apocalypse: America's Role in a World Transformed":

Expectations of technology bridging that gap provide an excuse to avoid asking the most fundamental questions: Does the United States possess the military wherewithal to oblige adversaries to endorse its claim of being history's indispensable nation? And if the answer is no, as the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq suggest, wouldn't it make sense for Washington to temper its ambitions accordingly?

This question, as Bacevich points out, is "anathema." The military strategists work from the supposition that the coming wars won't look anything like past wars. They invest in imaginary theories of future wars that ignore the lessons of the past, ensuring more fiascos.

The political class is as self-deluded as the generals. It refuses to accept the emergence of a multipolar world and the palpable decline of American power. It speaks in the outdated language of American exceptionalism and triumphalism, believing it has the right to impose its will as the leader of the "free world." In his 1992 Defense Planning Guidance memorandum, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz argued that the U.S. must ensure no rival superpower again arises. The U.S. should project its military strength to dominate a unipolar world in perpetuity. On Feb. 19, 1998, on NBC's "Today," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave the Democratic version of this doctrine of unipolarity. "If we have to use force it is because we are Americans; we are the indispensable nation," shesaid. "We stand tall, and we see further than other countries into the future."

This demented vision of unrivaled U.S. global supremacy, not to mention unrivaled goodness and virtue, blinds the establishment Republicans and Democrats. The military strikes they casually used to assert the doctrine of unipolarity, especially in the Middle East, swiftly spawned jihadist terror and prolonged warfare. None of them saw it coming until the hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center twin towers. That they cling to this absurd hallucination is the triumph of hope over experience.

There is a deep loathing among the public for these elitist Ivy League architects of American imperialism. Imperialism was tolerated when it was able to project power abroad and produce rising living standards at home. It was tolerated when it restrained itself to covert interventions in countries such as Iran, Guatemala and Indonesia. It went off the rails in Vietnam. The military defeats that followed accompanied a steady decline in living standards, wage stagnation, a crumbling infrastructure and eventually a series of economic policies and trade deals, orchestrated by the same ruling class, which deindustrialized and impoverished the country.

Donald Trump committed the heresy of questioning the sanctity of American empire, calling the invasion of Iraq a "big, fat mistake." Told that Putin was "a killer," he retorted, "You think our country's so innocent?"

The establishment oligarchs, now united in the Democratic Party, distrust Donald Trump. He commits the heresy of questioning the sanctity of the American empire. Trump derided the invasion of Iraq as a "big, fat mistake." He promised "to keep us out of endless war." Trump was repeatedly questioned about his relationship with Vladimir Putin. Putin was "a killer," one interviewer told him. "There are a lot of killers," Trumpretorted. "You think our country's so innocent?" Trump dared to speak a truth that was to be forever unspoken, that the militarists had sold out the American people.

Noam Chomsky took some heat forpointing out, correctly, that Trumpis the "one statesman" who has laid out a "sensible" proposition to resolve the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The proposed solution included "facilitating negotiations instead of undermining them and moving toward establishing some kind of accommodation in Europe in which there are no military alliances but just mutual accommodation."

Trump is too unfocused and mercurial to offer serious policy solutions. He did set a timetable to withdraw from Afghanistan, but he also ratcheted up the economic war against Venezuela and reinstituted crushing sanctions against Cuba and Iran, which the Obama administration had ended. He increased the military budget. He apparentlyflirtedwith carrying out a missile strike on Mexico to "destroy the drug labs." But he acknowledges a distaste for imperial mismanagement that resonates with the public, one that has every right to loath the smug mandarins that plunge us into one war after another. Trump lies like he breathes. But so do they.

The 57 Republicans who refused to support the $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, along with many of the 19 bills that included an earlier $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine, come out of the kooky conspiratorial world of Trump. They, like Trump, repeat this heresy. They too are attacked and censored. But the longer Biden and the ruling class continue to pour resources into war at our expense, the more these proto-fascists, already set to wipe out Democratic gains in the House and Senate this fall, will be ascendant. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, during the debate on the aid package to Ukraine, which most members were not given time to closely examine,said: "$40 billion but there's no baby formula for American mothers and babies."

"An unknown amount of money to the CIA and Ukraine supplemental bill but there's no formula for American babies," she added. "Stop funding regime change and money laundering scams. A U.S. politician covers up their crimes in countries like Ukraine."

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin immediately attacked Greene for parroting the propaganda of Vladimir Putin.

Greene, like Trump, spoke a truth that resonates with a beleaguered public. The opposition to permanent war should have come from the tiny progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which unfortunately sold out to the craven Democratic leadership to save their political careers. Greene is demented, but Raskin and the Democrats peddle their own brand of lunacy. We are going to pay a very steep price for this burlesque.

Read more on the Ukraine war and its contradictions:

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A return to permanent war is here: First it will bankrupt America, then destroy it - Salon