This was what mattered most in Gorilla’s world this week:
*The march for LGBT equality continues. Equal justice under the law may take another decade, but it’s clear this will not go away. Gorilla thinks we’ll start with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, get rid of DOMA, and get a civil rights bill through Congress by 2020.
*Bilateral negotiations with Iran seem inevitable. After Hillary Clinton’s trip to Russia, it’s clear that the ball’s now in our court; there’s no support for further sanctions short of an Iranian refusal to negotiate. Gorilla thinks Hillary will be landing in Tehran by the end of 2010.
*Health care reform made it out of the Finance Committee and should be passed by the Senate soon. The Senate bills are all woefully inadequate, and there’s no guarantee that the public option will survive. Gorilla believes you could see this as a down payment on further reform, but he’s more convinced there’s no real momentum to avoid the bigger balloon payment before 2015-2020.
*America’s educational system continues to fail its students. The mathematics test scores were appalling and inexcusable. Gorilla has little confidence things will improve soon, for the same reason he has little faith in health care reform: goring vested interest oxen is not a pleasant occupation for any politician.
*The world grows hungrier. Gorilla doesn’t see much solution to this until we, the Japanese, and the EU are willing to give up our amoral and unnecessary farm subsidies. More Doha and less dough will make America more of a beacon to the poor and hungry.
*Afghanistan looks ever more like a quagmire. The fraudulent election produced the result we wanted, but not in the way we wanted. It appears the President will throw in more troops, with no clear strategy. Pakistan, where the threat of extremism is far greater than in Kabul, is descending into chaos at nearly as fast a rate, but we can’t do anything much about it. Gorilla still believes we’ll be on our way out by the end of 2010.
