While the proposal for a global ceasefire during a disease pandemic has done the opposite of catching on, there are a few small signs of sanity and even of successful activism. While most big military spenders (including the super-mega-biggest one) have increased or kept their spending steady, the SIPRI numbers show a serious reduction from 2019 to 2020 in military spending by Brazil, and reductions as well by China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey (the only NATO member stepping out of line on this), Singapore, Pakistan, Algeria, Indonesia, Colombia, Kuwait, and Chile.

Chile is reducing its military spending by 4.9% in order to better address the health crisis. I did say “small,” but small percentages tend to be significant amounts of money when you’re talking about military spending.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Tiny Palau invited the Pentagon to build ports,
bases and airfields on its Pacific islands, after Chinese President Xi
Jinping bullied Palau by destabilizing its fragile economy, according
to defiant President Surangel Whipps.

"President Whipps' frank assessment of Chinese pressure -- and
invitation to host U.S. bases -- are unusually blunt for a Pacific
leader," Australia Pacific Security College Director Meg Keen said in
an interview.

There is a "high-stakes rivalry going on," between China and the U.S.,
said Ms. Keen.

"Pacific nations may have small populations and landmass, but should
be seen as 'large ocean states' intimately connected to other island
nations of the 'Blue continent'.

"China is wanting to bring as many Pacific nations into their Belt and
Road network as possible, so it has access across the Pacific to the
Americas and Antarctica," she said.

Pacific island nations could be exploited by either side if hostile
military action erupts between Beijing and Washington, analysts said.

As with many other aspects of government policy, overfishing and other fishing-related environmental issues are a real problem, but it’s not clear that government intervention is the solution. Indeed, it might be one of the main drivers of overfishing and other conservation and sustainability issues stemming from commercial fishing. Much like drone fishing, there are serious ethical issues of interest to the average angler. 

There’s another commonality that overfishing has with environmental issues more broadly: The Western companies primarily concerned with serious efforts to curb overfishing are not the ones who are most guilty of overfishing. What this means is that the costs of overfishing are disproportionately borne by the countries least engaged in practices that are counter to efforts to make commercial fishing more sustainable while also promoting conservation of fish biodiversity. 

It’s the job of progressive advocates and activists to tell inconvenient truths, without sugarcoating or cheerleading. To effectively confront the enormous problems facing our country and world, progressives need to soberly assess everything -- good, bad and mixed.

Yet last week, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal, made headlines when she graded President Biden’s job performance. “I give him an ‘A’ so far,” Jayapal said in an otherwise well-grounded interview with the Washington Post. She conferred the top grade on Biden even though, as she noted, “that doesn’t mean that I agree with him on every single thing.”