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Re Egypt: Is it a coup, or isn’t it?

This would simply be a case of an unsolicited language police technicality, except for one thing: the news media and politicians won’t give it a rest.

Politically, it matters because an official finding that it’s a coup would trigger a cut-off of military aid to Egypt. To the rest of us, it matters because all the time wasted on the pointless distraction of bickering would be better spent on substantive issues.

A few of the real answers the American people need:

• What was Morsi doing that critics charge amounted to his own overthrow of democracy?
• How much does the Egyptian military actually do without the Pentagon’s knowledge and approval?
• What proportion of their top officer corps grew up attending US and British schools?
• What other Egyptian institutions, if any, are as westernized as the military?

So, was it, then, a coup?

Those who answer yes argue that since the military overthrew the elected government, that makes it a coup.

Those who answer no argue that, even though the military ousted the government, they then installed an interim civilian government rather than seizing power for themselves, therefore it’s not a coup.

It turns out, there’s a perfectly good label that applies to that sort of situation: putsch – a sudden and decisive change of government illegally or by force.

A coup may or may not be a putsch, and a putsch may or may not be a coup.

But as of today, with the military’s declaration of a de facto state of martial law, it’s a distinction without a difference.

Apparently, there really is a Bumphuc, Egypt.

Old Southern joke: A state trooper pulls over a little old lady and asks her, “Ma’am, do you have any I.D.?” and she answers, “‘Bout whut?”

Yes, Hillary Clinton is right: North Carolina enacted legislation made up of the Who’s Who of voter suppression efforts.

And yes, the Suppressitories are right about one thing: all voters should have to present a valid picture ID at polling places.

But (cue the drumroll, please) both sides are also utterly clueless: neither side says absolutely anything about addressing the underlying problem, namely that there are millions of Americans – actual citizens – many if not most of them poor, elderly, with limited transportation and mobility, who lack a valid, universally accepted, identification card.

Republican silence reinforces the charge that they’re flagrantly targeting those people in order to make it more difficult for them to vote.

Democrats’ silence invites the charge that they’re simply grandstanding to their base.

Here’s a novel proposal: FIX THE DAMN PROBLEM!

If census takers can go door-to-door and count them, someone can go door-to-door and help them get proper IDs. If state and local governments won’t undertake the task, then local Democratic parties and civil rights groups should pounce on this opportunity.

Look at just some of the things, not even counting voting, you can’t do without a valid picture ID:

• Fly on a commercial airline
• Buy a ticket for an inter-city bus line, such as Greyhound
• Open a bank account
• Cash a check at a bank
• Rent a USPS post office box

If you really care about these unfortunate Americans, get off your butt, get organized, and actually help them.

Because meanwhile, the little old lady still has no I.D.

After weeks of schoolyard taunting by China and Russia, President Obama flexed his muscles and refused to sit at the lunchroom table with Vladimir Putin.

Yee-ouch! That’ll teach ’em a lesson!

This isn’t the first time Putin has orchestrated a humiliatingly awkward moment for an American president. Remember the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, with Putin sitting next to George Bush on stage, elbowing him and making jokes while Bush looked like a helpless douchebag?  Probably not, but that’s what happened.

In the zero-sum game of international power politics, anything that makes the US or its president look weak makes China and Russia look stronger, hence the high-stakes game of keep-away played with Edward Snowden substituting for Barack Obama’s science homework, complete with the ruffians’ minions standing in the shadows waving and shouting, “Ooh, ooh, throw him to me! I wanna play!”

So, like it’s not bad enough that Putin makes Obama look like the class wimp, now the chickenhawks in Congress are prodding him to cancel America’s participation in the 2014 Winter Olympics, ostensibly because of Russia’s criminalization of homosexuality, among other issues.

What a stupid idea!  I say, let the gays begin!

Imagine the possibilities:

• American medalists on the winners’ stand waving rainbow flags
• Women figure skaters performing to the music of Pussy Riot
• Bare-chested male figure skaters doing a medley of Vladimir Putin’s macho photo ops, choreographed to the Village People’s greatest hits

If Putin wants to play the part of a Bond movie arch-villain, he deserves some good ol’ American in-your-face ridicule!

Today it was revealed that Florida congressman Ted Yahoo, R-Yoho — or is it Ted Yoho, R-Yahoo? Yeah, that’s it. No, wait, I think they’re both right; they’re interchangeable — told a hometown Tea Party revival meeting that Obamacare’s 10% tax on tanning salons “is a racist tax” as it only affects white people.

According to one newspaper report, the audio from the meeting shows, “At that point, the crowd at the joint meeting of the [local] Tea Party groups erupted in cheering, laughter and clapping.”

Another elected nitwit defended Yahoo/Yoho, “It’s not racist. It’s not that somebody’s superior to another, but it’s discrimination in that it only taxes one group … which is light-skinned people that usually like the tanning beds.” (That didn’t help.)

Clearly, the body politic’s squamous cell carcinoma has metastasized and is eating its brain…

The old Cotton Belt’s eponymous congressman, Tom Cotton, announced his candidacy for the US Senate seat from Arkansas now held by Mark Pryor.

In his not-quite-screwed-on-straight self-nomination speech (watch it – you’d think somebody just shot his hound dog) he actually said, “It’s time to say enough [sic]. Arkansans need a senator who will stand with them and stand up to Barack Obama. A senator who will say no more to the crony capitalism…”

This, from a politician whose election in 2012 was bought and paid for by America’s ultra-right-wing extremist billionaire boy’s club!

(Update 2013/08/11: Today’s New York Times ran a front page report on newbie congressmen receiving copius campaign cash from their capitalist cronies on Wall Street.  Take a wild guess who’s on the list.)

Where he’s from it used to be considered a personal disgrace to even have a Republican in the family.  I guess some aspects of the 1950’s weren’t so bad after all…