The whole fakakte in Arizona goes a long way to proving two things: one, you have to be sooo stupid to be a far right winger that you flunk the preliminary IQ test with a score lower than ambient room temperature. The other is that the people calling themselves "conservative" nowadays are the furthest thing from actually conservative. Hofstadter's term "pseudo-conservative" comes to mind - or that one-word synonym for the term "far right radical revolutionary." Seven letters, starts with "f" and ends with "t."
With the breaking news tonight that the Mac-Munching Mango Mussolini of Maga Lardo just tripped over his own shoe laces into a third criminal investigation, with the announcement by the NY Attorney General that his neighborhood wannabe mafia gang, er, I mean the Trump Organization, has been informed the AG is joining the NYC DA's criminal investigation, the chances are very good he's going to be an indicted defendant by the time the 2022 election comes around and a jumpsuit-wearing resident of The Big House by 2024. Which will make watching the Dumbest Fcking Okiefornian in Dumbfuckingokiefornia, Kevin McCarthy, twist slowly in the wind one of the great spectator events of the Roaring 2020's.
Loved watching President Biden "floor it" in the F-150 today 0-60 in 4.0 seconds flat, came back past them doing 80. Unlike Lardo, who could only sit in a truck looking like the overgrown 5 year old his is, going "vroom! vroom!" Reminded me of watching Joe and his original-owner 1967 Corvette having fun on Jay Leno's Garage 4 years ago. He "floored" that, too. Definitely a "car guy."
Speaking of "car guys" Rachel's coverage of the new electric F-150 was really good tonight - how the best-selling vehicle in America going electric may really change things. Also liked the interview with the Chinese-immigrant woman who arrived here 30+ years ago knowing no English, who is the Chief Engineer at Ford responsible for the electric F-150 (watching her use the prototype to pull 10 freight rail cars full of 42 F-150s - weighing over a million pounds total - 1,000 feet without putting a strain on the prototype was interestng all on its own if you too are a "car guy." (Since Rachel called herself a "car guy" I'm now assuming that term is unisex).
The Ford Chief Engineer reminds me of an Indian gentleman I met about 10 years ago. I was working on a large retaining wall on my property and the company selling the concrete block couldn't answer all my questions. They gave me the phone number of one of their customers who they said would be able to answer my questions and then some. I gave him a call and he invited me over. Turns out he was in his 90's at the time... he was brought over to this country from India in 1958 as a Engineering Geologist to design Interstate 5 going through Washington State. The government at the time viewed this Civil engineering position as too 'delicate' to allow a non-US citizen to operate... so this Indian gentleman was hired by the Department of Fisheries and 'loaned' to the Department of Transportation. Not only did he end up designing I-5 through Washington State, he also designed most all of the major intersections in Seattle. This humble man gave me hours of his time for free explaining everything I would need to know about earth-retaining walls.
Stephen, I was reminded of your last line this week when it was reported a researcher at Duke University, an Indian doctor, whose name I unfortunately don't remember, is close to developing a vaccine that would protect women against urinary tract infections. What a boon that would be!
What an amazing story! My folks lived in Medford, OR as I-5 was being built through there. The ground situation in Seattle must have made that construction something else to behold through there. Immigrants indeed have bettered this country in incredible ways.
I was thrilled to see the chief engineer for the electric F-150 is an Asian woman. I was so happy Rachel conveyed what a big deal it is to be the chief engineer on that project. She's changing the world and looks like she's doing a very good job at it! Love the idea the F-150 Lightning can be used as a generator for instance if one loses electricity in an ice storm. Just drive the truck up to the house and plug things into the outlets on the truck although it does mean using the hybrid trucks gas engine.
Just think of the ENORMOUS amount of potential that is wasted by greedy transactional people who view any person of color as “less than”. Linda Zhang is in the ranks of Katherine Johnson and the brilliant young woman, Kizzmekia Corbett, who worked on the COVID vaccine. For years the United Negro College Fund has said, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” How true!
It was also a ball to watch Rachel be so excited, dare I say giddy? About this new (Biden super power) electric truck. All around fun watching him drive it earlier in the day, too.
Thanks for your post TC, it was a great verbal romp. One point of disagreement though. Stupidity is not required to go along with the Republican shenanigans, willful ignorance will always suffice.
"Willful ignorance" seems to be an oxymoron. Not that it matters, but I recall a radio program from years and years ago (the 40's ?) called "It Pays to Be Ignorant," on which a crew of second level comedians discussed matters from the same viewpoint of ignorance that the Republican Party actually does seriously today, where its payoff indeed comes from the votes of the ignorant.
Morning, TC!! What you say, all of it! We're a Ford family here, with 3 trucks and 2 SUV's. We have the original 1993 Ford Lightning which has always gotten ooohs and ahhs over the years. Saw that video with Jay Leno and Joe, too.
We here of the female persuasion have always referred to ourselves inclusively as "guys." No worries there!
Morning, Lynell! I've been a Ford "guy" all my life, until my wife suggested (!) that we get a half-ton pick up after years of a (well, several) Ford Rangers. She preferred the suspension of the Chevy's, and I am now on my second (and probably last) half-ton, a 2019 Silverado. My knowledge of vehicles in general and pick-ups (which I have owned since 1979) is that I pay mechanics to work their magic.
Morning, Ally!! Sounds like your wife knows more than we do! I bought my first Ford Explorer in 1995, had it til 2007 when we bought an '03 which we still have. For me, their claim to fame is they never left me stranded in all those years. Suspension? What's that?
Hi TCinLA— it’s just short of 5am on the east coast and I thank you for your very funny post and I think you’re right . I’m happily picturing chunky Cheeto wearing the orange jumpsuit by 2022 and Kevin flapping in a breeze.
That was one of the best segments on TRMS I have seen. Not being a "car guy" but having a lot of them in my life, her lede talking about Susan's "straight 6 CJ" was perfect.
Thank you TC, for your way with words today and for the wonderful images. I love the idea of seeing Joe in his bomber glasses muscling it in an EV truck. That’s the perfect image we need to promote of a strong, “green,” America. Europe is beating us to the punch in this area and it’s time to Vroom Vroom!
Thank you for the chuckles and lovely mental images this morning, TCinLA. LOL We can bet that #45 doesn't even own a driver's license let alone have any knowledge of driving a big truck. He probably was denied the keys for that truck he sat in for publicity photos. We have seen him drive a golf cart so there's that.
Actually it’s a common misspelling and is derived from a Yiddish verb “kakn” meaning to poopy doop. And it can be the noun “shit” according to sources.
Thanks for the education. We Hollywood Gentiles are always sort of halfassed with our uses of Yiddish. That's always been used as a stand-in for the word it sounds so close to, to which some take exception when used in general company.
So glad to see Maricopa County officials stand up for their election and call for the "audit" circus to stop. I owned a condo in Maricopa County for a couple of decades although I was living and voting in Massachusetts then. If the Republicans would stand together, DT couldn't ruin them one at a time. As Benjamin Franklin put it "We must, indeed, all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
And no matter how we feel about Liz Cheney, she is giving the Rs a place to rally against Trump's influence. I think the January 6 commission may also demonstrate where the fractures are in the party. Interesting times!
The last paragraph contains the news for which I’ve been waiting. I’m looking forward to announcements of indictments, perhaps even marshals with an arrest warrant crashing the gates of Mar-a-Lago and perp-walking the handcuffed former president into a waiting van. That last is unlikely I know, but it cheers my heart thinking of if.
If you think "walking" DT is the solution beware. You will have Joe, Hunter, Hill, etc... at risk when the winds change. That would not be good for anybody. As they say, be careful what you wish for.
In regards to the Supreme Court agreeing to take the abortion case this year. I came across a political cartoon with the title "Things to Regulate". A GOP elephant is using a pointer to point to the abdomen area on a picture of a woman with YES underneath the picture. A second picture shows a factory spewing smoke and pollutants into the atmosphere with NO beneath this picture. I am a believer in the sanctity of a women's body. Tucker Carlson on FOX made the argument is pro choice on whether to take the COVID vaccine. He said the government should have no role in this -- Your body, your choice! https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-if-you-let-democrats-force-you-to-get-the-vaccine-theyll-have-complete-control-forever If he really believes what he is saying he should be pro-choice on the abortion decision and support Roe vs. Wade. There are so many different religious views on when the soul enters the body and what happens to the soul when one dies, it would seem impossible to have a argument that the so-called Pro-Life position is promoting one single religion's view on it. I like what Barbara Bush said in her biography, The Matriarch, saying that abortion was the toughest issue she had to deal with. “When does the soul enter the body is the #1 question,” she wrote. “Not when does life begin, as life begins in a flower or an animal with the first cell. So the question is does the life begin (soul entering the body) at conception or at the moment the first breath is taken? If the answer to that question is at conception, then abortion is murder. If the answer to that question is the moment the first breath is taken, then abortion is not murder.” She also concluded that no matter what, God would take care of the soul. I want government to stay out of my body. Perhaps someday this will all be a moot point when a fetus could come to full term outside the body -- in a test tube perhaps.
There were a few times I found myself agreeing with Barbara Bush. This was one of them. Religious zealots want to rule over women as in biblical times. They have convinced their brethren that an abortion is a sin, a woman’s sin. Never is the man held responsible, mind you. When you ask people if they will take care of the unwanted child, they just shrug. Of course, they wouldn’t! Women and men have choices for birth control. You force women to have and care for these babies, then men should be obligated to have vasectomies. They also should not be able to have the government pay for their erection drugs.
I think it’s as much about regulating women and their fertility as it is about outrage over “murder.” Many don’t have the same outrage over “murder” in capital punishment cases.
Yes! Projecting themselves as pro-life is a shameful sham. If they were pro-life they would advocate for an improved social safety net; universal, free birth control; and an end to capital punishment. But it's blatantly clear that what they really want is to control women's bodies.
It needs to be more than a vasectomy to stop a rapist. That only stops him from producing more fetuses. A rapist especially one committing incest should have his weapon removed so he can not go on raping. The medical term is penectomy. (Just looked that up and will use it now instead of vasectomy from now on when this issue comes up.)
My mother was of the same generation as Barbara Bush and also a Republican. She championed women’s rights in all sectors. She fully supported a woman’s right to choose. She told me stories of women forced to get illegal and dangerous abortions before Roe vs Wade. She marched in Tallahassee with my daughter.
Great points, Cathy. It's incredibly dizzying and frustrating to see how the GOP and its FOX enablers spin an argument to fit their agenda of the moment. Too bad their supporters can't recognize these schemes--or worse: pretend ignorance!
I'd love to see a political ad with Tucker speaking his Pro Choice on vaccine right next to a Pro Choice woman on women's rights side by side speaking the same words! Maybe even FOX would fire him then.
The thought is intriguing. Maybe we should start the rumor that Tucker Carlson is Pro Choice! Oh, but that might take his words out of context...ya think...
I'd love to see a political ad with Tucker speaking his Pro Choice on vaccine right next to a Pro Choice woman on women's rights side by side speaking the same words!
Cathy, A clip containing that rap from both sides would have a good shot as going viral. Can you share the idea with pro choice org in your area. and or The press offices of NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Abortion Federation, National Organization for Women, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), etc.!
Nicely stated, Cathy! I enjoyed listening to "The Matriarch". I thought her thoughts on abortion were quite powerful. While I seriously disagreed with Mrs. Bush on a lot of things, she was a wonderful First Lady.
Yes, she was a wonderful First Lady. I went to high school with Susan page, the author, who also has a biography of Nancy Pelosi out. Glad to see her success. She has always been a very nice and very smart person.
We of the Animal Kingdom have a variety of ways to terminate a fetus. Rabbits for example will absorb the fetus if they sense the environment is not safe. Science day by day is learning from other members of the Animal kingdom information that was not available when the scriptures were written.
I wish I were a member of the Texas Legislature so I could propose a bill that any man found guilty of rape or incest will have a penectomy as punishment. That sure would make these men squirm a bit ... Keep thinking of my little dogs who instinctively disarm scorpions by biting them at the base of the tail so the tail becomes useless.
My soon-to-be-98-years-old mom, of the same cut as Barbara Bush (one of her heroes), worked as a nurse (R.N.) for over 40 years. She is solidly pro-abortion and pro-choice. She always remarks that if men were the ones having to have abortions there'd be clinics on every street corner. "WHY are all these anti-abortion nuts men??? What the hell do they know about having a baby??"...and similar things are what she notes every time this subject comes up. She knows.
Yes, if the tables were turned... I think Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas should recuse themselves from the abortion case as prejudiced against women -- except as sex objects. Also think you could make a case that super majority male state legislatures should have no standing with the court to bring any case on women's rights before them since it doesn't affect them.
Barrett is the one who should recuse herself since she was a paid speaker at events sponsored by the same group in Mississippi that is bringing this to the Supreme Court. That's a very clear violation. But WHO will force a SC justice to recuse themself? Does anybody seriously think that Barrett will take herself away from being able to weaken Roe v Wade?? If they end up slashing Roe and 21 states then make abortion illegal (a further 5 have abortion laws classified as "vulnerable"), and 24 allow it, there's going to an enormous backlash like we haven't seen in ages. I dread the SCOTUS ruling. Again, consider the timing...2022 midterms are looming.
I think a ruling against Roe might generate a lot of anti-GOP sentiment. An action generates an equal and opposite reaction--in politics as it is in physics.
"Our creator endowed us with the right to life, and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion. In Texas, we work to save those lives,” Abbott said in a private bill-signing ceremony Wednesday morning. No, Gov. Abbott, millions more children lose their lives because their moms have no health care, no money to buy good food, no good paying job to provide nutrition...etc.
And I would add that Gov. Abbott and people of his mind would rather the kid grow up unloved, unsupported, and unsupervised, and allow them to drift into a life of crime, and they end up killing somebody. Then THEY (the state) will kill them. It's better and more "pro-life" that way...
Whilst we are talking about whipping, let us talk about the smarmy group of playground bullies that whipped off their masks in the House in response to a CDC GUIDELINE. These people are legislators with no respect for rules. Jamie Raskin told them that Democrats who have all been vaccinated have to wear masks because of those republicans who have not been vaccinated. The same goes for the rest of us. Charlie Baker is in for a big surprise if he thinks everyone is whipping off their masks on May 29 because he wants everything normal again. The minority of selfish bullies are holding us hostage still led by the great orange iDJT. They should not be allowed into the building until they have been vaccinated or come to their senses. If they miss a vote, too bad.
They told Raskin something like mask wearing was a violation of personal choices about their bodies and he then said "well then surely you are pro-choice" and they told him it was not the same issue. They were each fined $500 and then went out on the Capitol steps and took a group photo. So gross! The fines should be $5,000 and then let's see how they react.
As long as you have these GOP fuckwits saying they'd be happy to get a fake "vaccine passport" or shot card, we are not going to be able to go about life "normally" again. I just wish the anti-vaxxers would all catch it and that it was 100% fatal. That would really Make America Great Again to have them all gone.
Heather's Letter is vibrating with news. Yesterday was a day to remember, and that could be true of today as well.
Trucks first: Is there a car manufacturer in the world to match the name of The Ford Motor Co.? The company made it through the Depression and has been a family business continuously for the last 110 years. Let's jump from the Model T to the The Ford F-150 pickup truck. It has been the best-selling vehicle in the US since 1981.
'The president's visit to the historic Rouge complex preceded Ford's planned unveiling of the
e l e c t r i c version of the F-150 pickup, ...'
This pickup truck, such a winner, may be a much bigger winner. It may mean a great deal for Biden's infrastructure and jobs plan, Climate Change, the workers, the Ford Motor Co., Michigan and everyone who loves pickup trucks.
'U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, and Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, greeted Biden at Detroit Metro Airport, where Air Force One landed shortly before noon. Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, discussed the ongoing violence in Gaza with the president, questioned the planned $735 million weapons sale by the U.S. to Israel, and told him that Palestinian human rights are not a "bargaining chip," a Tlaib aide told The Detroit News. He later promised he'd "do everything" to keep her family in the West Bank safe.' The Israeli and Palestinian conflict is a very serious story, forever old and new again. It is not for LFAA at this time, but it is one that we need to address as human beings.
Back to America.
'Finally, Linda Zhang, chief engineer for the electric F-150, showed Biden the vehicle's underbody and talked him through some of the vehicle specs. The president showed strong interest, quizzing her about the weight of the battery (1,800 pounds) and the pickup's tires.' (Detroit News) Linda Zhang, is a shining example of the women engineers at Ford. At the bottom of the comment there is a link to Ford commemorating them.
As for Trump will he ever get his comeuppance? How do you like that old fashioned word for his punishment; it's not the word you'd use is it? Here is as much of what we'll today from the NY Times.
It was early for such an announcement to be made by New York's AG, according to legal experts. Some of them have been saying that the reason for it may be to smoke out someone like the Trump's accountant, Allen Weisselberg..
This brings me to the subject of fear. Everyone has been talking about it -- possibly a contributing factor for the obsequiousness of Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans who know the BIG LIE from the truth. Weisselberg has reason to fear.
I don't know the facts but have made a connection between fear and Carol Leonnig's book, Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service. It is '...a history of the agency by the Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig,, a devastating catalog of jaw-dropping incompetence, ham-fisted mismanagement and frat-boy bacchanalia. The Secret Service’s tradition of drunken debauchery goes back to at least November 1963, in Dallas, when some agents apparently got so hammered in a gin joint just hours before the fateful motorcade that they could barely walk, much less leap to the president’s defense. More recently, on a trip to Cartagena, Colombia, to prepare for Barack Obama’s visit in 2012, 11 members of his Secret Service advance team were shipped home after a night of boozing and cavorting with prostitutes.' (NY Times, book review).
The book is coming out today and is already No. 1 on Amazon. In a couple of interviews last night, writer Leonnig said that the entire Secret Service detail at he White House was swapped out over concerns about the loyalty by members to the former president. She also said that fears of possible assignations of both Harris and Biden were of foremost concern. She didn't say who was suspected of possibly committing such acts.
Fear... can that be part of the explanation for the behavior of some Republicans? I'm not giving them a pass but for a few, perhaps, there is more to the story. This idea isn't coming from social media. Carol Leonnig is a fine journalist with the Washington Post. Elected officials have been threatened and require protection. These are dangerous times, indeed.
I watched several interviews on MSNBC with Ms. Leonnig and the information she gave was terrifying and disgusting. Secret Service agents with red MAGA hats on their desks! Really???? I already ordered the book; it will be here Sunday.
I work in healthcare and right before the 2016 election, had a patient who was former/retired SS and he had many visitors who were active and they were all rabid MAGA heads.
'assassinations' is the word that Carol Leonnig used when discussing the fear of what could happen to the President and VP. You are a kind group, subscribers. You probably saw through my typo, without any nasty replies to me. Thank you.
Thank you! I feel a bit more hopeful. I keep thinking give enough rope to the Trump Republican sycophants and they might hang themselves.
By the way, my husband and I were watching a CNN show about how the GOP has basically gone from reputable to something almost unbelievably awful, and there you were giving a historical perspective. Nice job!
Wish I could get this. Unfortunately, no matter what I try, I can't access it. I am not on cable, but even tried the pay streams. I hope CNN will make this freely available at some point.
Israel was founded as a result of the Holocaust. After President Truman supported the move in the UN, the US pretty much kept hands off Israel until after the 1967 war. In fact, we almost went to war with them in 1967 over their illegal attack on the Liberty. The commander of Sixth Fleet was 20 minutes from launching an air strike on the IAF airfields when LBJ decided we wee on Israel's side and issued an order stopping it.
The Soviets originally supported the foundation of Israel knowing it would create nothing but trouble in the Middle East, and that it would give them the "in" with the emerging independent Arab states that it did. A move only someone as cynical as Stalin could love - he even proceeded after the foundation to make money off it by overcharging the Israelis for purchase of the worst version of the Messerschmitt-109 ever created, when no one else would sell them airplanes for their new air force.
The attitude in the US toward Israel changed in the late 50s after the publication of the novel "Exodus", which was a huge best-seller and then went on to be a huge hit as a movie. That and the trial of Adolf Eichmann a year or two later really brought up the Holocaust.
I can remember living in the segregated city of Denver, and a new Jewish temple was founded just outside the borders of East Denver (where the Jews lived) in South Denver (where the Jews didn't live) and kids calling the hill "Kike's Peak" with no one thinking anything of it. That summer, my churh youth group all learned about the Holocaust when the rabbi of that new temple came to our church camp, where he told us his story of being a secular Jew before the war, becoming an officer during the war and being in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (the Japanese-American unit - they had white officers, all of whom were newly-"whitened" Jews, Italians, Poles, other Eastern Europeans) when they liberated Dachau. And then he took out a small box full of little Kodak Brownie photos that he had taken at Dachau - they weren't the ones that the censors approved, let me tell you - and passed them around and told us how being there and seeing what had happened had made him come home and become a rabbi. Kids were crying, looking at the pictures as they were passed around.
All of that happening in the country in the 10 years before the '67 war, changing the minds of people about their Jewish neighbors, plus the Soviet penetration of Egypt, Syria, etc., was what brought the US around to supporting Israel after the Six Day War.
When I was in grad school a few years later, I knew an israeli Sabra who was there who had been a platoon leader in the company that liberated the Wailing Wall. He told me when they all stopped to worship, the first Jews to do so in 20 years, he heard his company commander pray "Help us, God. We won." Unfortunately a few years later they let the crazy American Jews in to become settlers in the West Bank.
Your last sentence says it all. My parents were victims if the Holocaust, which you may already know. My dad happened to be in Israel visiting the Yad Vashem memorial when the 12 Day War broke out. That was 1967. It was a tense time as it is now. a lot of the ultra orthodox Jews living in the West Bank are from the U.S.. Hamas is an offshoot of the PLO which harbor terrorists. Also Israel is dealing with Netanyahu who is the equivalent of Trump. So it is just as unstable as we are. There will never be peace in the Middle East. Too many egos, too many men who think they’re right...
Thank you for the history lesson, TC. Actually, calling Palestinian groups "terrorists" plays into pro-Israeli propaganda. Palestinians were robbed of their homes, businesses and property by the Israeli nation the same way that the American government confiscated the real estate owned by Japanese-Americans in the 1940s, and the same way that the German government confiscated belongings of Jewish (and other) Germans. When I was in aircraft mechanic school, I had a Palestinian classmate named Hawazen. Hawazen's family lost everything when the Israeli nation took over Palestine, and they fled to Jordan. They are now Jordanian citizens. Palestinians who are aggrieved by the loss of their property do not have any recourse for restitution in the Israeli nation, not that I know of. It's a tragedy all around. No one wins in these scenarios. But before you label Palestinians as so-called terrorists, give a thought to how their families have been treated and gutted of all they own. Not condoning rocket attacks and acts of violence, obviously. Just sayin'. There is a reason for that madness, that violence.
One side's terrorist is the other side's freedom fighter. I'm sure the Nazis called European resistance fighters terrorists. The Myanmar/Burmese military treats the contra-military people as terrorists. The Thin Blue Line, pro-law enforcement Trumpster establishment calls BLM protesters "rioters," and then turns around and hypocritically blames BLM for the January 6 attack, refusing to own that their own side produced the riot that got Ashli Babbitt killed and resulted in the deaths of several Capitol police, whatever the actual cause of their deaths, like that really matters. Are Babbitt, Brian Sicknick, and the other police officers any less dead because of the nature of how they died?
Beware always of the propaganda battle being fought. Names, terms and labels usually benefit one side or another. The objective is to see the big picture, to view clearly the morality and truth, and call things accurately.
There is plenty of tragedy all around. In the early years after Israel survived being attacked by 5 neighboring countries in 1948, about 800,000 Jews were expelled on short notice from Middle Eastern and North African countries where their families had lived for hundreds of years. Their homes and other property were seized and they have no recourse.
[The value of that seized property could have been used to help Palestinians financially, but the point was revenge not assistance. ]
Morning, Roland!! Thanks for your perspective and your classmate's history. I tried to trace the history of who owned what when. It was a futile attempt on my part. But agree that there is a reason for the madness, as you say.
I didn't really know much of this until now (or that my great grandfather was Jewish - learned that at my grandmother's 100th birthday in the 1990's). Thank You TC and Marlene.
I have wondered if some of what is behind the current situation is Netanyahu's attempt to deflect attention from his inability to form a new government after 2 or 3 elections and his corruption trial which is happening simultaneously.
One also should look at the attitude of the surrounding arab states to the Palestinians. Anybody who remembers Beirut as it was before the "troubles" will recall that Palestinians were the educated middle class of the arab world; the engineers and the bankers. They were not exactly appreciated by their previously "nomadic" neighbours. It has always been in the interests of the Arab states that the 2 most "advanced" groups in the region fight each other rather than combine to dominate them and the rest of the region. The Palestinians clearly got the raw end of the deal.
My father had returned to college in the late 60s and became friends with a Palestinian woman getting her degree. They lost everything when Israel was created. No compensation and her father was a banker.
Then during the First Gulf War, I was sent to the Kuwaiti airport where the US established it Army headquarters. There was a Palestinian area just outside. As we'd drive through, we give the kids MREs. Our Kuwaiti guide told us we were encouraging them. Called them scum. They were the real problem in the Middle East. Interesting given what the Iraqi's had done when they occupied Kuwait during their short tenure.
Yes I had a Very interesting Palestinian boyfriend in my twenties— his family was very successful and well educated— he was the baby of a large family. His oldest brother was an engineer. They fled to Beirut and then to Cambridge MA. For the Palestinians who couldn’t flee, they’re living in hell.
I got friendly with and asked a couple of Palestinian women out when I was in my early 40s. Both were living in the DC area, as I was at the time. One accepted, but before we had the chance to go out, her father came to town, and put the kibbosh on it. Both women seemed very intelligent and thoughtful.
Yes, exactly right on all points, Stuart. I had Palestinian friends in the 70s who told me they came here because this was the only country where they didn't get shafted, as they did in the other Arab states. There was particular animosity to Jordan.
Totally agree Marlene— it’s very sad and disgusting what Bibi is doing now. He’s clearing the land for more settlements and to save his ass. And for sure he’s equivalent in ego size to idjt.
Great comment! There was a really interesting Tom Friedman column in the last couple of days where he basically says that Netanyahu and Hamas need each other to keep their power.
Biden has abandoned the Abraham Accords, restarted the failed Iranian deal, and signaled to Iran its OK to begin destabilizing and expanding its presence in the Mid East. Expect endless conflict and war. Israel, detested by the Progressive left in America, is seen as vulnerable which is why Hamas fired 2000 rockets at Israel. 2000. For them attacking Israel and playing the victim...is winning. Hamas, and other Iranian proxies, could care less about the Palestinian people. Their goal is “from the River to the Sea”. They smell that the US is now a weak hand and bad friend to the only Democracy in the region. Sad. Scary for the Israeli people and Nation as well as the Palestinians.
You seem to making a lot of unsourced, unbacked assertions. Why do you think that Biden has "abandoned" the peace agreement between Israel and UAE, called the "Abraham Accords?" Why do you assert that the "Iranian deal," presumably the one where they agreed to limit their nuclear materials program, was "failed?" When you say that the "Progressive left" detests Israel, are you referring to the nation of Israel, a particular Israeli administration, an Israeli restaurant, or something else altogether?
When making sweeping assertions like this, please be more complete with your comments. They would be more persuasive and easier to engage with.
Iran is a state sponsor of Terror. We handed them billions that they used to destabilize the Mid East. For some insane reason Joe is going back to the future. And we see bombs being lobbed at our so called ally. And what does Joe immediately do? Call for a cease fire. Who was it that accosted him on the runway in Detroit? A ringleader of the left wing anti-Israel gang. Always the victims you know. Another point of view. https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-the-democrats-and-israel-11621376744?st=pzpzjw365kosm1z&reflink=article_copyURL_share
Thanks for the link, which I was amazed to be able to access (I'm not a subscriber, so I usually can't get past the paywall). Not that the opinion so contained therein was new, it's been the same point made for the past 50 years or so.
Of course, Israel has the "right of self defense," at least in the sense that their country has been existence long enough that the current generation as the justifiable interest in not getting bombed by Palestinians. In a similar vein, the current generation of Americans have a justifiable interest in not being bombed by Native Americans, either, despite the fact that, like Israel, the United States exists because they conquered and displaced the former inhabitants. And like the United States of the last centurty, Israel is dealing with their indigenous conquered population by a cruel combination of exclusion, continued displacement, and killings.
Unlike the United States of old, Israel and the Palestinians live in a much more connected world and they don't have a huge swath of desert oblivion into which they can drive the Palestinians. The world, at the moment, is less sanguine about genocide, but Israel seem quite willing to have a few million stateless people living on their border in what amounts to a large concentration camps. That's not a solution -- it's a longterm torture for an entire ethnic population.
The two statements are not incompatible. Yes, Israel has the right of self-defense, and yes, there should be an immediate ceasefire. The WSJ editorial writer's assertion that Hamaz and Hezbollah are gaining some kind of political capital that they will use in some future war is entirely speculative; I've seen no sign that either group has either the resources or the will to mount a war of conquest on Israel. None of their neighbors would support it, even though Iran would probably send money and cheers.
What must be addressed -- by Israel, not us -- is that the Netanyahu government and Hamas have developed a tragically dysfunctional symbiosis whereby both sides rely on violence in order to bolster their own political standing. Civilian deaths are the coin they use to buy their domestic support. While it seems impossible now, those two people must somehow coexist, if not merge; Palestinian children deserve prosperity just as much as Israeli children.
As for Iran being a "state sponsor of Terror," so is the United States from the point of view of all too many people in that part if the world. Just ask the Paletinians, or the Yemeni, or the Iranians both before and after the Shah. And those "billions" we handed them, I assume you are referring to the Iranian money impounded in American banks which we returned to them, by agreement, when they complied with the nuclear reduction agreement we both signed. Perhaps you think we should have simply stolen their money?
Please don't claim some kind of moral high ground here, since it seems to be built on blood-soaked sand.
I deeply wish we could find another way forward, one that doesn't rely on bombing people. Perhaps such a new path is impossible for us, for we are, in fact, the meanest apes ever to migrate out of Africa.
Thank you for engaging, I've found your posts much easier to follow, although I wish you wouldn't use first names like "Joe." There are too many Josephs out there and I'd appreciate better identification. (I also hate it when people refer to Trump as "Donny," for similar reasons.)
Good observations of how we got here. However, you left out that before 1948, Palestine was a British Colony. Palestinian Jewish rebels shot and bombed occupying British troops, civilian establishments including hotels as ruthlessly as Palestinian Arab rebels do to Israeli occupiers. The difference is that Palestinian Jews gained their independent state of Israel at the expense of Palestinia Arabs. And now Israel is the colonial occupation force doing to Israeli and Palestinian Arabs what the British, Germans and other antisemitic countries have done to Jews. Money and power win and corrupt even when you survive the Holocaust.
The Palestinian Jews who bombed the King David Hotel in the 1940s committed acts of terrorism. When Hamas deliberately sends thousands of rockets at civilians, that is also terrorism. In both cases, the related political problems do not justify the terrorism.
The 1948 UN plan was for two states dividing what was left of the British Mandate after over half was taken out to create the kingdom of Jordan. 5 Arab countries went to war to prevent the existence of any Jewish state. When that failed, instead of creating the UN-intended Palestinian Arab state in the Arab controlled area - which was all of the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and a chunk of Jerusalem - the Arab countries divided the territory amongst themselves and left the Palestinian Arabs in refugee camps. That was the status quo until 1967.
Indeed, the Palestinians have been betrayed over and over by both their allies and their leaders. If Jesus ever does return to Earth, and is anything like his last incarnation, he will appear among the Palestinians, not the Israelis or the Americans.
Backing up a little, it is good to remember a little more of the history. In 1917, during the war against...amongst others...the Ottaman Empire which covered all this territory the British Foreign Secretary made what is called the Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschilde, then head of the UK jewish Community. The declaration gave the UK government's support to the founding of a National Home for the Jewish People alongside the Palestinians in Palestine. In 1918 Clemenceau ceded Palestine/Cis-Jordan to the UK in exchange for sole control of Lebanon/Syria. The San Reno Conference confirmed this division of responsibilities in the post-Ottoman world under the auspices of the League of Nations (referencing Article 22 of the founding Covenant of the League. The UK government managed the growing Jewish immigration to the territory with "some difficulty" and declared in 1939 that they would hand over the territory to its majority Palestinian residents within 10 years.....hence the 1948 uprising.
Back up a little more. The British promised the Arabs their own country if they fought against the Turks, which they did. The Brits then broke that promise and the Sikes Picot agreement divided the Middle East up between the French and British .
Lawrence of Arabia rides again. The promise to the Ibn Saud family was, I think, that they would rule the whole unified region! It got them fighting and gave the British and the French the regions oil and gas nonetheless....until the second war which effectively turned it all over to the American oil cos.
Saudi oil has always been American. Aramco is a contraction of Arab American Company. The US was in there in the 1930s and Ibn Aud was given a red-carpet welcome here during World War II.
yes, there is that. The Balfour Declaration was the "inciting event" that led to the push for creation of Israel. I would still put forth that the world's collective sense of guilt at the Holocaust is what made it reality. Past that, I was referencing how American views of Israel changed. We should remember this country was sufficiently anti-Semitic in the 1940s to turn back the liner "St. Louis," knowing the Jews aboard would suffer an "uncertain fate" (how uncertain no one knew at the time).
I think the guilt came later. The holocaust of course engendered a massive and illicit exodus (see the film) of the remaining Jewish population to Palestine which the Brits and other countries resisted as much as possible, if not to effectively.
The way the Israelis conduct themselves, they have to milk "anti-Semitism" for all it is worth. Personally I see no connection but those pushing the "anti-Semitism" propaganda sure want me to feel guilty.
So 1 1/2 hours ago I read "the Ottaman Empire which covered..." and so had to look it up, which led me to ... and eventually back to Gaza and now. Thanks for the history lessons Stuart & All!
TC, I agree with you about the impetus for the 1948 State of Israel, but the seeds for establishing a white European "plantation" (this is something the Brits have liked to do since about 1605) in the Middle East were the steps leading to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the British takeover of Palestine and the Transjordan. The Balfour Declaration was blatantly racist in its rationale and Antisemitic in its desire for a "Jewish Homeland." The dismay of the Brits because the people who took it seriously were mostly socialists, on the one hand, and radical orthodox Jews, on the other, became clear in the years between the wars. They presumed that the Europeanized Jews they hoped would emigrate would ally with the British Empire and not France in gaining control of the petroleum in the region. They were miffed when that did not occur.
The descendants of Jews ejected from Arab countries are a large if not majority portion of Israelis today. The Jews of Europe were mostly murdered by the Nazis, in part because other countries refused them refuge. Neither the British nor most Europeans have ever seen Jews as 'us', which makes the whole idea of Israelis as European invaders all the more ironic and sadder.
Yes, excellent points. Again, the "inciting event" of my response was a question about how the US came to be Israel's mentor/supporter/arms dealer/ally.
Yes, I should have done that. Netanyahu thought he could harness the crazy settlers, and get American political support through the End Times Evangelicals - both of who turned into a tiger he's had to cling to.
This is what I dislike about the mechanics of Substack. The above comment about Netanyahu was intended to refer to TCinLA's earlier post about crazy American settlers coming to Israel.
I wasn't covering that particular period. Netanyahu began getting US popular support during the first Gulf War when he was all over CNN - he had the advantage of speaking unaccented American English so he didn't seem like a "furriner" to an American audience. I have to admit I didn't think he was going to be so awful. As to the Gaza business, there has always been the issue of "proportionality." Hamas does something and a handful of Israelis get killed while the IDF responds with war crimes with their bombing campaigns that insure Palestinian numbers are 20x.
Media reports with concern that Americans are seeing through the AIPAC propaganda, which is a good thing. There wouldn't be this big push to get Re;publicans to declare support of BDS illegal if it wasn't having an effect.
'JERUSALEM — The Israeli Supreme Court delayed on Sunday a decision on whether to expel six Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem after the attorney general requested more time, in part because of the tensions the case has stirred.'
'The court was to decide on Monday whether to uphold an expulsion order for the families in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, in a hearing that many feared would set off a wave of unrest. Instead, the case was delayed by up to 30 days to allow the attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, to review it.'
'For many Palestinians, the families’ plight has become emblematic of a wider effort to remove Palestinians from parts of East Jerusalem and of the past displacements of Arabs in the occupied territories and within Israel.' (NY Times, 5/12/21)
'JERUSALEM — Twenty-seven days before the first rocket was fired from Gaza this week, a squad of Israeli police officers entered the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, brushed the Palestinian attendants aside and strode across its vast limestone courtyard. Then they cut the cables to the loudspeakers that broadcast prayers to the faithful from four medieval minarets.
It was the night of April 13, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was also Memorial Day in Israel, which honors those who died fighting for the country. The Israeli president was delivering a speech at the Western Wall, a sacred Jewish site that lies below the mosque, and Israeli officials were concerned that the prayers would drown it out.
The incident was confirmed by six mosque officials, three of whom witnessed it; the Israeli police declined to comment. In the outside world, it barely registered.
But in hindsight, the police raid on the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, was one of several actions that led, less than a month later, to the sudden resumption of war between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, and the outbreak of civil unrest between Arabs and Jews across Israel itself.' (NY Times, 5/15/21)
Yup, When the white settlers massacred the Indians they were taking territory given them by God (manifest destiny). When the savages fought back, the white settlers massacred them to 'defend themselves', regardless of what they had done to the Indians before hand
'The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel.' (Wikipedia)
Not actually "against Israel" (Israeli propaganda in action here) - it's against Israeli businesses operating in the occupied West Bank, in contravention of international law.
Jews certainly deserved reparations for the atrocities committed against them in WWII, but the reparations should have been paid by the perpetrators, not Palestinians. Perhaps control of a region in Germany or Austria. Maybe everything within a hundred miles of Vienna. Something like that, but not Palestine. The people there took no part in the Holocaust.
The Jewish claim to Israel has nothing to do with WWII. It is based on a two-thousand year desire to return to the land after being ejected by the Romans following a failed rebellion. In the meantime, other people moved in, who have their own claims.
Rex: Actually, during WW2 the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, their spiritual leader, allied himself with the Axis powers. Be that as it may, today's advocates of a one-state solution between the Palestinians and Israel, which cannot be a peaceful solution, take that position only because of the refusal of Hamas and their Iranian supporters to back any solution which does not do away with the State of Israel. Getting rid of Hamas re-opens the door to a viable two-state solution which would include a prospering Palestinian state.
You argue, then, that because a spiritual leader of Palestinians backed Axis powers, albeit powerlessly, Palestinians should bear the entire brunt of reparations for crimes committed by an Axis power?
Rex, No, that is not what I said. It is not about reparations. Germany has paid, and continues to, pay them. But that does not negate the historical facts that (1) the Balfour Declaration offered Palestine as a national home for Jews (it was then a British protectorate after years of Ottoman rule) and that (2) in November of 1941, the Grand Mufti met with Adolf Hitler discussing spreading his anti-Jewish programs to Palestine, since they both were for getting rid of Jews. At that point, a German victory in WW2 was not out of the question. The Grand Mufti's 1941 position was not unlike that of Hamas today, one of advocating eliminating Jews from Palestine, which explains why Netanyahu, in response to the rocket attacks initiated by Hamas, takes every opportunity to destroy Hamas. And the Palestinians suffer because they are being used by Hamas, financed and armed by Iran. Without Hamas, there probably would be a successful, independent, Palestinian State by now including agreements about problems involving Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli settlers. Aside from opposing Hamas, Israeli support of Netanyahu is far from universal.
Also look up the Sykes-Picot Treaty of 1916 - the real organizing reason for 100 years or Middle East crapola. There's a good article on it at Wikipedia - well-sourced and all.
Another reader asked Dr. Richardson last week if she would write about Israel and Palestine, and she said that, as an American historian, it isn’t her field of expertise, so she doesn’t have deep enough knowledge about the middle east to write about it.
In reply to "Hairy Toddler”; Well yes, and then she clearly and rationally states why present policies are “good” and past past policies are “bad” and draws a connection from history to the current moment that we all might learn from it.
It is a lot easier though to just gut your ideas of what is happening today from Fox and not have to trouble yourself with exposure to facts, history and a variety of perspectives.
"Nonetheless, Politico reported tonight that dozens of Republicans are considering supporting the commission despite how much it would infuriate Trump, because it would provide them political cover in 2022." Something about the GOP just pi$$es me off. Okay, pretty much everything. Republicans considering doing this in order to have political cover?! Fah! Is there a verifiably functioning moral compass among them? As in all the time, and not just situationally? Rhetorical. As you were.
I’m waiting to see how the Senate votes on this, especially that twit, Marco Rubio. With the threats that face us now from white supremacists and others of their ilk, who is Rubio focusing on? Well in this morning’s paper the big story is his pushing to release the government’s information on UFO sightings. No joke.
It was fun watching Biden take off in the truck but what is great is that he is as good as his word. He told us in his acceptance speech what he wanted to accomplish. He is doing that with the American Jobs act.
Just tonight, it was reported that Letitia James. NY’s AG, is saying the Trump Organization is one leaning towards criminality. Her office will more than likely work in tandem with Cyrus Vance to bring these people down. I pray it happens and soon.
Regarding the news that Letitia James is now cooperating with Cyrus Vance Jr. on a criminal investigation of Trump, there could not be better news than that while the Republicans are turning themselves in side out to avoid an investigation into the January 6 insurrection. That SOB former president is a crook and to quote him "Everyone knows it."
Biden's visit to River Rouge in Detroit today was smart politics, in several dimensions:
Remember Trump PRETENDING to drive a semi on the White House lawn during one of his many "Infrastructure Weeks"?
Biden, in contrast, actually went to Detroit to pitch his infrastructure/green jobs plan, got on a test track and DROVE the F-150 electric truck 80 miles an hour on camera.
As I watched Biden today, I was happy about the move to green transportation he talked about, but I also admired that he did it in a way that should appeal to blue-collar male voters as well as us green libs. Much smarter that Trump's infrastructure non-event and so much smarter than Hillary Clinton's "putting a lot of coal miners out of work" gaffe.
I think the video of Biden in that car will have a greater impact on those voters than all the yammering in DC about a 9-11 commission.
A lot of F-150 pickup trucks are Fleet vehicles, used for company everyday work trucks, and for municipal, and other government agencies, that need work trucks. For example, I work for a municipality public works, and we have approximately 50 plus fleet F-150 trucks for work (gasoline). I could see the electric F-150 version being used for Fleet vehicles, but not with out a lot of belly-aching from non-progressives people who have a dislike of change, or having management "shove" change down their throat.
Actually it would be really awesome to see our public facility work yard, incorporate renewable energy to help charge eclectic fleet vehicles. Yes this all expensive, but this is where, (and I could be wrong) using government grants and or funds to upgrade a facility with renewables. The problem I have experienced with "new" comes with going from design, to installation, to maintenance. Nothing ever works out to plan, which is fine, however I see people getting frustrated and start to complain with government waste and spending when the long-term maintenance for "new" does not come to fruition. And components break down. This is where local government and other agencies need to bridge the gap. It's the long term maintenance and the materials and equipment needed to maintain new charging stations to the new education and training to making sure "new" infrastructure functions as it needs to be.
There are a lot of charging stations mounted on the street in Philadelphia by individuals, in front of our houses. They get a lot of weather and some abuse. I've never heard of one breaking.
Yes, you are correct, it's the long term maintenance plan and the shift to a different type of long term maintenance plan that can be overlooked, giving employees time a training can be overlooked when agencies work on their budgets. We have installed new charging stations as well, and the thought of having more and more is great, this can decrease the amount of spilled fuel on the pavements.
I agree, but even in municipalities like Seattle that have made a concerted effort to generate more clean energy, the ratio of green to dirty energy is still extremely low. We just haven't discovered the capacity in renewables to get to even 20% of the total power used. On the other hand, more electric vehicles means more pressure to innovate in the renewables field, which is a net positive, I hope.
“You have rented out the once good name of the Arizona State Senate to grifters and con-artists, who are fundraising hard-earned money from our fellow citizens even as your contractors parade around the Coliseum, hunting for bamboo and something they call ‘kinematic artifacts’ while shining purple lights for effect.” Yeah, this one got oxygen in my regular Facebook feed today.
Josh Marshall on the GOP opposition to a January 6 Commission. Yeah, they are all "accessories after the fact":
Yesterday in a close door Senate GOP caucus meeting, Mitch McConnell announced he can’t support the Jan 6th commission deal which Kevin McCarthy’s negotiator negotiated apparently because McCarthy assumed nothing would ever come of it before it blew up in his face. According to Axios, McConnell hasn’t yet come up with any clear reasons why he opposes such a commission other than vague suggestions about its work interfering with the DOJ’s probes. The main concern is that the commission might subpoena members or “alienate members of the GOP base, as well as former President Trump.”
Earlier this week, the number two GOP Senate leader John Thune expressed support for the Commission and said he expected it to pass. Yesterday he said that after hearing that McCarthy had pulled his support he wasn’t so sure.
Meanwhile, Punchbowl says that as many as a few dozen House Republicans may vote for the commission and that many more are miffed that McCarthy has put them in a bad position by not giving them any good reasons to oppose it. For clarity here, those folks will oppose it but they wish McCarthy had managed the situation so they could have excuses that wouldn’t make them look silly. As Punchbowl puts it, “McCarthy’s [reason for opposing] was lame to many House Republicans. He said this commission should be focused on other political violence, not just Jan. 6. A lot of Republicans found this excuse incredibly weak, especially since most GOP members had called for a Jan. 6 commission months ago.”
Meanwhile, ex-President Trump, as I noted below, has made his position clear. On his new blog, he said last night that “unless the murders, riots, and fire bombings in Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and New York are also going to be studied, this discussion should be ended immediately.”
The best way to understand the current situation is the legal concept of ‘consciousness of guilt’. Perpetrators never support investigations into their crimes. Republican members of Congress aren’t all perpetrators in the sense that Donald Trump is. But virtually all of them are determined to cover up his crimes. They are best seen in legal terms as accessories after the fact. The US Criminal code defines this as “Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.”
I seem to remember McConnell standing up on the Senate floor I saying that iDJT hadn’t escaped justice....yet... and encouraging a probe into his culpability in the insurrection. Now he is standing against the very commission that could, in fact, bring these crimes to light. I hope one of the never-T groups like the Lincoln Project or Republicans for Accountability have a video ready to go. Hypocrite is too mild a word for this creature.
“...they wish McCarthy had managed the situation so they could have excuses that wouldn’t make them look silly.” LOL. That horse left the barn long ago. Seeing them at the impeachment trials, not listening to facts and repeating ridiculous lies, I saw way past silly—incompetent, childish and abusive.
The whole fakakte in Arizona goes a long way to proving two things: one, you have to be sooo stupid to be a far right winger that you flunk the preliminary IQ test with a score lower than ambient room temperature. The other is that the people calling themselves "conservative" nowadays are the furthest thing from actually conservative. Hofstadter's term "pseudo-conservative" comes to mind - or that one-word synonym for the term "far right radical revolutionary." Seven letters, starts with "f" and ends with "t."
With the breaking news tonight that the Mac-Munching Mango Mussolini of Maga Lardo just tripped over his own shoe laces into a third criminal investigation, with the announcement by the NY Attorney General that his neighborhood wannabe mafia gang, er, I mean the Trump Organization, has been informed the AG is joining the NYC DA's criminal investigation, the chances are very good he's going to be an indicted defendant by the time the 2022 election comes around and a jumpsuit-wearing resident of The Big House by 2024. Which will make watching the Dumbest Fcking Okiefornian in Dumbfuckingokiefornia, Kevin McCarthy, twist slowly in the wind one of the great spectator events of the Roaring 2020's.
Loved watching President Biden "floor it" in the F-150 today 0-60 in 4.0 seconds flat, came back past them doing 80. Unlike Lardo, who could only sit in a truck looking like the overgrown 5 year old his is, going "vroom! vroom!" Reminded me of watching Joe and his original-owner 1967 Corvette having fun on Jay Leno's Garage 4 years ago. He "floored" that, too. Definitely a "car guy."
Speaking of "car guys" Rachel's coverage of the new electric F-150 was really good tonight - how the best-selling vehicle in America going electric may really change things. Also liked the interview with the Chinese-immigrant woman who arrived here 30+ years ago knowing no English, who is the Chief Engineer at Ford responsible for the electric F-150 (watching her use the prototype to pull 10 freight rail cars full of 42 F-150s - weighing over a million pounds total - 1,000 feet without putting a strain on the prototype was interestng all on its own if you too are a "car guy." (Since Rachel called herself a "car guy" I'm now assuming that term is unisex).
TC, you had me cracking up! 😆 Thank you, I sure needed that laughter.
I was watching Rachel when she introduced the chief engineer of the electric F-150 and was surprised that she was a woman and thrilled she was Asian.
The Ford Chief Engineer reminds me of an Indian gentleman I met about 10 years ago. I was working on a large retaining wall on my property and the company selling the concrete block couldn't answer all my questions. They gave me the phone number of one of their customers who they said would be able to answer my questions and then some. I gave him a call and he invited me over. Turns out he was in his 90's at the time... he was brought over to this country from India in 1958 as a Engineering Geologist to design Interstate 5 going through Washington State. The government at the time viewed this Civil engineering position as too 'delicate' to allow a non-US citizen to operate... so this Indian gentleman was hired by the Department of Fisheries and 'loaned' to the Department of Transportation. Not only did he end up designing I-5 through Washington State, he also designed most all of the major intersections in Seattle. This humble man gave me hours of his time for free explaining everything I would need to know about earth-retaining walls.
Immigrants made this country what it is.
Stephen, I was reminded of your last line this week when it was reported a researcher at Duke University, an Indian doctor, whose name I unfortunately don't remember, is close to developing a vaccine that would protect women against urinary tract infections. What a boon that would be!
Yes!!
What an amazing story! My folks lived in Medford, OR as I-5 was being built through there. The ground situation in Seattle must have made that construction something else to behold through there. Immigrants indeed have bettered this country in incredible ways.
💞
I was thrilled to see the chief engineer for the electric F-150 is an Asian woman. I was so happy Rachel conveyed what a big deal it is to be the chief engineer on that project. She's changing the world and looks like she's doing a very good job at it! Love the idea the F-150 Lightning can be used as a generator for instance if one loses electricity in an ice storm. Just drive the truck up to the house and plug things into the outlets on the truck although it does mean using the hybrid trucks gas engine.
Her name is Linda Zhang
Just think of the ENORMOUS amount of potential that is wasted by greedy transactional people who view any person of color as “less than”. Linda Zhang is in the ranks of Katherine Johnson and the brilliant young woman, Kizzmekia Corbett, who worked on the COVID vaccine. For years the United Negro College Fund has said, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” How true!
You are so right!! Yay for women!
YES! 💜
It was also a ball to watch Rachel be so excited, dare I say giddy? About this new (Biden super power) electric truck. All around fun watching him drive it earlier in the day, too.
I love how Rachel ‘waxed poetic’ about Susan’s car!
TC and Marlene, I was cracking up, too! Thanks for the morning joy!
Thanks for your post TC, it was a great verbal romp. One point of disagreement though. Stupidity is not required to go along with the Republican shenanigans, willful ignorance will always suffice.
"Willful ignorance" seems to be an oxymoron. Not that it matters, but I recall a radio program from years and years ago (the 40's ?) called "It Pays to Be Ignorant," on which a crew of second level comedians discussed matters from the same viewpoint of ignorance that the Republican Party actually does seriously today, where its payoff indeed comes from the votes of the ignorant.
Morning, TC!! What you say, all of it! We're a Ford family here, with 3 trucks and 2 SUV's. We have the original 1993 Ford Lightning which has always gotten ooohs and ahhs over the years. Saw that video with Jay Leno and Joe, too.
We here of the female persuasion have always referred to ourselves inclusively as "guys." No worries there!
Morning, Lynell! I've been a Ford "guy" all my life, until my wife suggested (!) that we get a half-ton pick up after years of a (well, several) Ford Rangers. She preferred the suspension of the Chevy's, and I am now on my second (and probably last) half-ton, a 2019 Silverado. My knowledge of vehicles in general and pick-ups (which I have owned since 1979) is that I pay mechanics to work their magic.
Morning, Ally!! Sounds like your wife knows more than we do! I bought my first Ford Explorer in 1995, had it til 2007 when we bought an '03 which we still have. For me, their claim to fame is they never left me stranded in all those years. Suspension? What's that?
LOL! She loves the ride in the Chevy. She does NOT miss the ride of the Ranger.
As regards the "Mac-Munching Mango Mussolini of Maga Lardo," it's quite a relief to see that Karma might still get him after all!
Thanks for your comments, TC; always enjoy reading them, but you outdid yourself today!
Hi TCinLA— it’s just short of 5am on the east coast and I thank you for your very funny post and I think you’re right . I’m happily picturing chunky Cheeto wearing the orange jumpsuit by 2022 and Kevin flapping in a breeze.
Her name is Linda Zhang!
Thank you!
That was one of the best segments on TRMS I have seen. Not being a "car guy" but having a lot of them in my life, her lede talking about Susan's "straight 6 CJ" was perfect.
Sizzling TC, sizzling!
Vroom, vroom. I’m sure that visual was on the minds of Biden and his people. It really said it all- adult vs.toddler.
Thank you TC, for your way with words today and for the wonderful images. I love the idea of seeing Joe in his bomber glasses muscling it in an EV truck. That’s the perfect image we need to promote of a strong, “green,” America. Europe is beating us to the punch in this area and it’s time to Vroom Vroom!
Maybe not " Vroom Vroom," Pamsy, since that's 45's vocabulary; but rather, hotfoot or hot tail it, like Joe.😂😂😂
TC, you are too funny, and right on target! Thank you for the early morning laugh.
Thank you for the chuckles and lovely mental images this morning, TCinLA. LOL We can bet that #45 doesn't even own a driver's license let alone have any knowledge of driving a big truck. He probably was denied the keys for that truck he sat in for publicity photos. We have seen him drive a golf cart so there's that.
And, the engineer behind the wheel probably has an IQ greater than the entire group at a Drump rally.
Nailed it!
YAY FORD & DETROIT & JOE & LINDA ZHANG & RACHEL! https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2021/05/17/chief-engineer-linda-zhang-ford-f-150/5107698001/
"Fakakte" is an adjective, not a noun. What is going on in Arizona is a "crappy thing," not a "crappy."
ToMAYto, toMAHTo. I’m with TC on this.
Actually it’s a common misspelling and is derived from a Yiddish verb “kakn” meaning to poopy doop. And it can be the noun “shit” according to sources.
A rose by any other name...?
Everyone I know who uses it has it as a stand-in for the old "Anglo-Saxonism" it sounds so close to.
And I believe the proper spelling is "verkakte" (similar to verklemmt"
"Crappy"
No wonder I couldn't find it in the dictionary!
Thanks for the education. We Hollywood Gentiles are always sort of halfassed with our uses of Yiddish. That's always been used as a stand-in for the word it sounds so close to, to which some take exception when used in general company.
I learn so much from this forum. Happy to be able to give something back, besides out and out snark :-P
don't forget Devin Nunes' cow-self, also flapping in the breeze
https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1394035812455514113?s=20
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1394610733913190401?s=20
@DevinCow
So glad to see Maricopa County officials stand up for their election and call for the "audit" circus to stop. I owned a condo in Maricopa County for a couple of decades although I was living and voting in Massachusetts then. If the Republicans would stand together, DT couldn't ruin them one at a time. As Benjamin Franklin put it "We must, indeed, all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
And no matter how we feel about Liz Cheney, she is giving the Rs a place to rally against Trump's influence. I think the January 6 commission may also demonstrate where the fractures are in the party. Interesting times!
The last paragraph contains the news for which I’ve been waiting. I’m looking forward to announcements of indictments, perhaps even marshals with an arrest warrant crashing the gates of Mar-a-Lago and perp-walking the handcuffed former president into a waiting van. That last is unlikely I know, but it cheers my heart thinking of if.
I was waiting for the perp walk on January 20. Dawn out of the WH. Didn't happen then so there is still a chance in Act 2.
It is a cheerful thought, indeed.
If TFG is in Florida De Santis will do all he can to stall the "perp walk". Will it be easier to do this if TFG is in New Jersey as he is currently.
The case has to be ready. In the meantime, how about an enormous mosquito net over his property, whichever one he is occupying?
If you think "walking" DT is the solution beware. You will have Joe, Hunter, Hill, etc... at risk when the winds change. That would not be good for anybody. As they say, be careful what you wish for.
The difference being with El Lardo that his crimes are actually demonstrable.
In regards to the Supreme Court agreeing to take the abortion case this year. I came across a political cartoon with the title "Things to Regulate". A GOP elephant is using a pointer to point to the abdomen area on a picture of a woman with YES underneath the picture. A second picture shows a factory spewing smoke and pollutants into the atmosphere with NO beneath this picture. I am a believer in the sanctity of a women's body. Tucker Carlson on FOX made the argument is pro choice on whether to take the COVID vaccine. He said the government should have no role in this -- Your body, your choice! https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-if-you-let-democrats-force-you-to-get-the-vaccine-theyll-have-complete-control-forever If he really believes what he is saying he should be pro-choice on the abortion decision and support Roe vs. Wade. There are so many different religious views on when the soul enters the body and what happens to the soul when one dies, it would seem impossible to have a argument that the so-called Pro-Life position is promoting one single religion's view on it. I like what Barbara Bush said in her biography, The Matriarch, saying that abortion was the toughest issue she had to deal with. “When does the soul enter the body is the #1 question,” she wrote. “Not when does life begin, as life begins in a flower or an animal with the first cell. So the question is does the life begin (soul entering the body) at conception or at the moment the first breath is taken? If the answer to that question is at conception, then abortion is murder. If the answer to that question is the moment the first breath is taken, then abortion is not murder.” She also concluded that no matter what, God would take care of the soul. I want government to stay out of my body. Perhaps someday this will all be a moot point when a fetus could come to full term outside the body -- in a test tube perhaps.
The greatest advantage of being a test-tube baby is that you have a womb with a view...
Bwahahahahahaha Bwahahahahahaha
You didn’t!
Here is an article on Barbara Bush's thoughts on abortion. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/how-barbara-bush-decided-she-was-pro-choice/585589/
There were a few times I found myself agreeing with Barbara Bush. This was one of them. Religious zealots want to rule over women as in biblical times. They have convinced their brethren that an abortion is a sin, a woman’s sin. Never is the man held responsible, mind you. When you ask people if they will take care of the unwanted child, they just shrug. Of course, they wouldn’t! Women and men have choices for birth control. You force women to have and care for these babies, then men should be obligated to have vasectomies. They also should not be able to have the government pay for their erection drugs.
I think it’s as much about regulating women and their fertility as it is about outrage over “murder.” Many don’t have the same outrage over “murder” in capital punishment cases.
Yes! Projecting themselves as pro-life is a shameful sham. If they were pro-life they would advocate for an improved social safety net; universal, free birth control; and an end to capital punishment. But it's blatantly clear that what they really want is to control women's bodies.
It needs to be more than a vasectomy to stop a rapist. That only stops him from producing more fetuses. A rapist especially one committing incest should have his weapon removed so he can not go on raping. The medical term is penectomy. (Just looked that up and will use it now instead of vasectomy from now on when this issue comes up.)
My mother was of the same generation as Barbara Bush and also a Republican. She championed women’s rights in all sectors. She fully supported a woman’s right to choose. She told me stories of women forced to get illegal and dangerous abortions before Roe vs Wade. She marched in Tallahassee with my daughter.
Great points, Cathy. It's incredibly dizzying and frustrating to see how the GOP and its FOX enablers spin an argument to fit their agenda of the moment. Too bad their supporters can't recognize these schemes--or worse: pretend ignorance!
I'd love to see a political ad with Tucker speaking his Pro Choice on vaccine right next to a Pro Choice woman on women's rights side by side speaking the same words! Maybe even FOX would fire him then.
I would watch every minute you are on the Tucker Carlson show. Just the two of you for as long as you could stand. You would be sensational.
The thought is intriguing. Maybe we should start the rumor that Tucker Carlson is Pro Choice! Oh, but that might take his words out of context...ya think...
I think we should start a rumor that there's a gal in Texas, an unmasked, highly respected Ranger, who's very eager to talk to him.
I'd love to see a political ad with Tucker speaking his Pro Choice on vaccine right next to a Pro Choice woman on women's rights side by side speaking the same words!
Cathy, A clip containing that rap from both sides would have a good shot as going viral. Can you share the idea with pro choice org in your area. and or The press offices of NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Abortion Federation, National Organization for Women, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), etc.!
Sounds like a good idea.
Nicely stated, Cathy! I enjoyed listening to "The Matriarch". I thought her thoughts on abortion were quite powerful. While I seriously disagreed with Mrs. Bush on a lot of things, she was a wonderful First Lady.
Yes, she was a wonderful First Lady. I went to high school with Susan page, the author, who also has a biography of Nancy Pelosi out. Glad to see her success. She has always been a very nice and very smart person.
We of the Animal Kingdom have a variety of ways to terminate a fetus. Rabbits for example will absorb the fetus if they sense the environment is not safe. Science day by day is learning from other members of the Animal kingdom information that was not available when the scriptures were written.
I know pioneer women and even back to Babylon abortifacients were known and used to purge the uterus.
This just happened in Texas a little while ago:
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/554319-texas-governor-signs-fetal-heartbeat-abortion-bill
I wish I were a member of the Texas Legislature so I could propose a bill that any man found guilty of rape or incest will have a penectomy as punishment. That sure would make these men squirm a bit ... Keep thinking of my little dogs who instinctively disarm scorpions by biting them at the base of the tail so the tail becomes useless.
My soon-to-be-98-years-old mom, of the same cut as Barbara Bush (one of her heroes), worked as a nurse (R.N.) for over 40 years. She is solidly pro-abortion and pro-choice. She always remarks that if men were the ones having to have abortions there'd be clinics on every street corner. "WHY are all these anti-abortion nuts men??? What the hell do they know about having a baby??"...and similar things are what she notes every time this subject comes up. She knows.
Yes, if the tables were turned... I think Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas should recuse themselves from the abortion case as prejudiced against women -- except as sex objects. Also think you could make a case that super majority male state legislatures should have no standing with the court to bring any case on women's rights before them since it doesn't affect them.
Barrett is the one who should recuse herself since she was a paid speaker at events sponsored by the same group in Mississippi that is bringing this to the Supreme Court. That's a very clear violation. But WHO will force a SC justice to recuse themself? Does anybody seriously think that Barrett will take herself away from being able to weaken Roe v Wade?? If they end up slashing Roe and 21 states then make abortion illegal (a further 5 have abortion laws classified as "vulnerable"), and 24 allow it, there's going to an enormous backlash like we haven't seen in ages. I dread the SCOTUS ruling. Again, consider the timing...2022 midterms are looming.
I think a ruling against Roe might generate a lot of anti-GOP sentiment. An action generates an equal and opposite reaction--in politics as it is in physics.
"Our creator endowed us with the right to life, and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion. In Texas, we work to save those lives,” Abbott said in a private bill-signing ceremony Wednesday morning. No, Gov. Abbott, millions more children lose their lives because their moms have no health care, no money to buy good food, no good paying job to provide nutrition...etc.
And I would add that Gov. Abbott and people of his mind would rather the kid grow up unloved, unsupported, and unsupervised, and allow them to drift into a life of crime, and they end up killing somebody. Then THEY (the state) will kill them. It's better and more "pro-life" that way...
HORRORS
Whilst we are talking about whipping, let us talk about the smarmy group of playground bullies that whipped off their masks in the House in response to a CDC GUIDELINE. These people are legislators with no respect for rules. Jamie Raskin told them that Democrats who have all been vaccinated have to wear masks because of those republicans who have not been vaccinated. The same goes for the rest of us. Charlie Baker is in for a big surprise if he thinks everyone is whipping off their masks on May 29 because he wants everything normal again. The minority of selfish bullies are holding us hostage still led by the great orange iDJT. They should not be allowed into the building until they have been vaccinated or come to their senses. If they miss a vote, too bad.
They told Raskin something like mask wearing was a violation of personal choices about their bodies and he then said "well then surely you are pro-choice" and they told him it was not the same issue. They were each fined $500 and then went out on the Capitol steps and took a group photo. So gross! The fines should be $5,000 and then let's see how they react.
As long as you have these GOP fuckwits saying they'd be happy to get a fake "vaccine passport" or shot card, we are not going to be able to go about life "normally" again. I just wish the anti-vaxxers would all catch it and that it was 100% fatal. That would really Make America Great Again to have them all gone.
Heather's Letter is vibrating with news. Yesterday was a day to remember, and that could be true of today as well.
Trucks first: Is there a car manufacturer in the world to match the name of The Ford Motor Co.? The company made it through the Depression and has been a family business continuously for the last 110 years. Let's jump from the Model T to the The Ford F-150 pickup truck. It has been the best-selling vehicle in the US since 1981.
'The president's visit to the historic Rouge complex preceded Ford's planned unveiling of the
e l e c t r i c version of the F-150 pickup, ...'
This pickup truck, such a winner, may be a much bigger winner. It may mean a great deal for Biden's infrastructure and jobs plan, Climate Change, the workers, the Ford Motor Co., Michigan and everyone who loves pickup trucks.
'U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, and Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, greeted Biden at Detroit Metro Airport, where Air Force One landed shortly before noon. Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, discussed the ongoing violence in Gaza with the president, questioned the planned $735 million weapons sale by the U.S. to Israel, and told him that Palestinian human rights are not a "bargaining chip," a Tlaib aide told The Detroit News. He later promised he'd "do everything" to keep her family in the West Bank safe.' The Israeli and Palestinian conflict is a very serious story, forever old and new again. It is not for LFAA at this time, but it is one that we need to address as human beings.
Back to America.
'Finally, Linda Zhang, chief engineer for the electric F-150, showed Biden the vehicle's underbody and talked him through some of the vehicle specs. The president showed strong interest, quizzing her about the weight of the battery (1,800 pounds) and the pickup's tires.' (Detroit News) Linda Zhang, is a shining example of the women engineers at Ford. At the bottom of the comment there is a link to Ford commemorating them.
As for Trump will he ever get his comeuppance? How do you like that old fashioned word for his punishment; it's not the word you'd use is it? Here is as much of what we'll today from the NY Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/nyregion/trump-ny-ag-investigation-vance.html
It was early for such an announcement to be made by New York's AG, according to legal experts. Some of them have been saying that the reason for it may be to smoke out someone like the Trump's accountant, Allen Weisselberg..
This brings me to the subject of fear. Everyone has been talking about it -- possibly a contributing factor for the obsequiousness of Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans who know the BIG LIE from the truth. Weisselberg has reason to fear.
I don't know the facts but have made a connection between fear and Carol Leonnig's book, Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service. It is '...a history of the agency by the Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig,, a devastating catalog of jaw-dropping incompetence, ham-fisted mismanagement and frat-boy bacchanalia. The Secret Service’s tradition of drunken debauchery goes back to at least November 1963, in Dallas, when some agents apparently got so hammered in a gin joint just hours before the fateful motorcade that they could barely walk, much less leap to the president’s defense. More recently, on a trip to Cartagena, Colombia, to prepare for Barack Obama’s visit in 2012, 11 members of his Secret Service advance team were shipped home after a night of boozing and cavorting with prostitutes.' (NY Times, book review).
The book is coming out today and is already No. 1 on Amazon. In a couple of interviews last night, writer Leonnig said that the entire Secret Service detail at he White House was swapped out over concerns about the loyalty by members to the former president. She also said that fears of possible assignations of both Harris and Biden were of foremost concern. She didn't say who was suspected of possibly committing such acts.
Fear... can that be part of the explanation for the behavior of some Republicans? I'm not giving them a pass but for a few, perhaps, there is more to the story. This idea isn't coming from social media. Carol Leonnig is a fine journalist with the Washington Post. Elected officials have been threatened and require protection. These are dangerous times, indeed.
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/img/me/en/news/2020/06/23/heartening-stories-of-female-engineers-at-ford-celebrating-inter.pdf
Oh, I’m definitely in favor of “comeuppance” coming their way. I’m also a fan of “opening a can of whoop ass”.
Me too Christine— whoop ass sounds like strong stuff.
As long as we get to apply it in the "woodshed".
The woodshed in the sky. I would normally say —a gin and tonic. Now it’s whoop ass.
Hahahahahahaha
Good title! First laugh of the day.
I watched several interviews on MSNBC with Ms. Leonnig and the information she gave was terrifying and disgusting. Secret Service agents with red MAGA hats on their desks! Really???? I already ordered the book; it will be here Sunday.
About Ford being a leader ... they also gave us lead in gasoline. Lead that will be with us forever:
http://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead
Oh. And GM.
I work in healthcare and right before the 2016 election, had a patient who was former/retired SS and he had many visitors who were active and they were all rabid MAGA heads.
Great post, Fern!!
I agree!
'assassinations' is the word that Carol Leonnig used when discussing the fear of what could happen to the President and VP. You are a kind group, subscribers. You probably saw through my typo, without any nasty replies to me. Thank you.
Enlightening and helpful. Thanks, Fern.
Fern thank you— well order that book. And yes these are dangerous times.
Thank you! I feel a bit more hopeful. I keep thinking give enough rope to the Trump Republican sycophants and they might hang themselves.
By the way, my husband and I were watching a CNN show about how the GOP has basically gone from reputable to something almost unbelievably awful, and there you were giving a historical perspective. Nice job!
This? A Radical Rebellion: The Transformation of the GOP – A Fareed Zakaria Special
https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2021/05/13/cnn-special-report-a-radical-rebellion-the-transformation-of-the-gop-a-fareed-zakaria-special/
One of those interviewed:
- Heather Cox Richardson, professor of history, Boston College; author, To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party (2014)
"The special will encore...Friday, May 21 at 11:00pm, and Saturday, May 22 at 9:00pm, all times Eastern."
Well worth watching. Fareed Zakaria is excellent.
Wish I could get this. Unfortunately, no matter what I try, I can't access it. I am not on cable, but even tried the pay streams. I hope CNN will make this freely available at some point.
Me, too, Annie. No cable for us. No Netflix. LFAA, you folks and digital news are all I got...thank you!!
Thanks Ellie!
Yes
Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, you are a finely tuned instrument of the English language, analytical wordsmith and a sage. You do us readers honor.
Dr. Richardson, would you consider a letter about the US involvement in the establishment of Israel and subsequent policy, to the current moment?
Israel was founded as a result of the Holocaust. After President Truman supported the move in the UN, the US pretty much kept hands off Israel until after the 1967 war. In fact, we almost went to war with them in 1967 over their illegal attack on the Liberty. The commander of Sixth Fleet was 20 minutes from launching an air strike on the IAF airfields when LBJ decided we wee on Israel's side and issued an order stopping it.
The Soviets originally supported the foundation of Israel knowing it would create nothing but trouble in the Middle East, and that it would give them the "in" with the emerging independent Arab states that it did. A move only someone as cynical as Stalin could love - he even proceeded after the foundation to make money off it by overcharging the Israelis for purchase of the worst version of the Messerschmitt-109 ever created, when no one else would sell them airplanes for their new air force.
The attitude in the US toward Israel changed in the late 50s after the publication of the novel "Exodus", which was a huge best-seller and then went on to be a huge hit as a movie. That and the trial of Adolf Eichmann a year or two later really brought up the Holocaust.
I can remember living in the segregated city of Denver, and a new Jewish temple was founded just outside the borders of East Denver (where the Jews lived) in South Denver (where the Jews didn't live) and kids calling the hill "Kike's Peak" with no one thinking anything of it. That summer, my churh youth group all learned about the Holocaust when the rabbi of that new temple came to our church camp, where he told us his story of being a secular Jew before the war, becoming an officer during the war and being in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (the Japanese-American unit - they had white officers, all of whom were newly-"whitened" Jews, Italians, Poles, other Eastern Europeans) when they liberated Dachau. And then he took out a small box full of little Kodak Brownie photos that he had taken at Dachau - they weren't the ones that the censors approved, let me tell you - and passed them around and told us how being there and seeing what had happened had made him come home and become a rabbi. Kids were crying, looking at the pictures as they were passed around.
All of that happening in the country in the 10 years before the '67 war, changing the minds of people about their Jewish neighbors, plus the Soviet penetration of Egypt, Syria, etc., was what brought the US around to supporting Israel after the Six Day War.
When I was in grad school a few years later, I knew an israeli Sabra who was there who had been a platoon leader in the company that liberated the Wailing Wall. He told me when they all stopped to worship, the first Jews to do so in 20 years, he heard his company commander pray "Help us, God. We won." Unfortunately a few years later they let the crazy American Jews in to become settlers in the West Bank.
Your last sentence says it all. My parents were victims if the Holocaust, which you may already know. My dad happened to be in Israel visiting the Yad Vashem memorial when the 12 Day War broke out. That was 1967. It was a tense time as it is now. a lot of the ultra orthodox Jews living in the West Bank are from the U.S.. Hamas is an offshoot of the PLO which harbor terrorists. Also Israel is dealing with Netanyahu who is the equivalent of Trump. So it is just as unstable as we are. There will never be peace in the Middle East. Too many egos, too many men who think they’re right...
Thank you for the history lesson, TC. Actually, calling Palestinian groups "terrorists" plays into pro-Israeli propaganda. Palestinians were robbed of their homes, businesses and property by the Israeli nation the same way that the American government confiscated the real estate owned by Japanese-Americans in the 1940s, and the same way that the German government confiscated belongings of Jewish (and other) Germans. When I was in aircraft mechanic school, I had a Palestinian classmate named Hawazen. Hawazen's family lost everything when the Israeli nation took over Palestine, and they fled to Jordan. They are now Jordanian citizens. Palestinians who are aggrieved by the loss of their property do not have any recourse for restitution in the Israeli nation, not that I know of. It's a tragedy all around. No one wins in these scenarios. But before you label Palestinians as so-called terrorists, give a thought to how their families have been treated and gutted of all they own. Not condoning rocket attacks and acts of violence, obviously. Just sayin'. There is a reason for that madness, that violence.
One side's terrorist is the other side's freedom fighter. I'm sure the Nazis called European resistance fighters terrorists. The Myanmar/Burmese military treats the contra-military people as terrorists. The Thin Blue Line, pro-law enforcement Trumpster establishment calls BLM protesters "rioters," and then turns around and hypocritically blames BLM for the January 6 attack, refusing to own that their own side produced the riot that got Ashli Babbitt killed and resulted in the deaths of several Capitol police, whatever the actual cause of their deaths, like that really matters. Are Babbitt, Brian Sicknick, and the other police officers any less dead because of the nature of how they died?
Beware always of the propaganda battle being fought. Names, terms and labels usually benefit one side or another. The objective is to see the big picture, to view clearly the morality and truth, and call things accurately.
There is plenty of tragedy all around. In the early years after Israel survived being attacked by 5 neighboring countries in 1948, about 800,000 Jews were expelled on short notice from Middle Eastern and North African countries where their families had lived for hundreds of years. Their homes and other property were seized and they have no recourse.
[The value of that seized property could have been used to help Palestinians financially, but the point was revenge not assistance. ]
The descendants of Jews ejected from Arab countries are a large if not majority portion of Israelis today.
Morning, Roland!! Thanks for your perspective and your classmate's history. I tried to trace the history of who owned what when. It was a futile attempt on my part. But agree that there is a reason for the madness, as you say.
Do you think the Palestinians, I mean Iranian’s , will accept a separate state with a Marshall plan?
Who are you?
Exactly, Roland. He is a nuisance. His other post today also insulting.
Answer smart guy?
Didn't Jared try for that, and get turned down?
Actually, Hamas was originally created by Israeli intelligence to harass the PLO. But the monster soon turned on poor Dr. Frankenstein.
I did not know that tidbit.
Me either.
Nor I
I didn't really know much of this until now (or that my great grandfather was Jewish - learned that at my grandmother's 100th birthday in the 1990's). Thank You TC and Marlene.
I have wondered if some of what is behind the current situation is Netanyahu's attempt to deflect attention from his inability to form a new government after 2 or 3 elections and his corruption trial which is happening simultaneously.
I think deflection is one of his goals.
That and obfuscation.
Here is a great analysis of exactly that, by Will Bunch: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/israel-war-on-gaza-united-states-reaction-20210516.html
Thank you, Jeff. Clearly stated commentary.
Thank You. I re-posted.
TY
Me, too. Deflect, deflect.
There's a reason why the Middle East has been a "bubbling pot" ever since Abraham decided to leave the city-state of Ur.
One also should look at the attitude of the surrounding arab states to the Palestinians. Anybody who remembers Beirut as it was before the "troubles" will recall that Palestinians were the educated middle class of the arab world; the engineers and the bankers. They were not exactly appreciated by their previously "nomadic" neighbours. It has always been in the interests of the Arab states that the 2 most "advanced" groups in the region fight each other rather than combine to dominate them and the rest of the region. The Palestinians clearly got the raw end of the deal.
Wow, thank you all for this amazing impromptu history lesson.
I echo this. Another example of what makes this group special.
Spot on.
My father had returned to college in the late 60s and became friends with a Palestinian woman getting her degree. They lost everything when Israel was created. No compensation and her father was a banker.
Then during the First Gulf War, I was sent to the Kuwaiti airport where the US established it Army headquarters. There was a Palestinian area just outside. As we'd drive through, we give the kids MREs. Our Kuwaiti guide told us we were encouraging them. Called them scum. They were the real problem in the Middle East. Interesting given what the Iraqi's had done when they occupied Kuwait during their short tenure.
Yes I had a Very interesting Palestinian boyfriend in my twenties— his family was very successful and well educated— he was the baby of a large family. His oldest brother was an engineer. They fled to Beirut and then to Cambridge MA. For the Palestinians who couldn’t flee, they’re living in hell.
😔
I got friendly with and asked a couple of Palestinian women out when I was in my early 40s. Both were living in the DC area, as I was at the time. One accepted, but before we had the chance to go out, her father came to town, and put the kibbosh on it. Both women seemed very intelligent and thoughtful.
Yes, exactly right on all points, Stuart. I had Palestinian friends in the 70s who told me they came here because this was the only country where they didn't get shafted, as they did in the other Arab states. There was particular animosity to Jordan.
One should be also aware of some of the undercurrents in the present schermozzle: https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/14/pipeline-politics-from-afghanistan-to-gaza/
https://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/gaza-marine-gas-field/
Ahhhh yes, the matter of oil...
Totally agree Marlene— it’s very sad and disgusting what Bibi is doing now. He’s clearing the land for more settlements and to save his ass. And for sure he’s equivalent in ego size to idjt.
Great comment! There was a really interesting Tom Friedman column in the last couple of days where he basically says that Netanyahu and Hamas need each other to keep their power.
Oh. That makes terrible sense David.
Biden has abandoned the Abraham Accords, restarted the failed Iranian deal, and signaled to Iran its OK to begin destabilizing and expanding its presence in the Mid East. Expect endless conflict and war. Israel, detested by the Progressive left in America, is seen as vulnerable which is why Hamas fired 2000 rockets at Israel. 2000. For them attacking Israel and playing the victim...is winning. Hamas, and other Iranian proxies, could care less about the Palestinian people. Their goal is “from the River to the Sea”. They smell that the US is now a weak hand and bad friend to the only Democracy in the region. Sad. Scary for the Israeli people and Nation as well as the Palestinians.
Another old gaga boomer troll appears.
You seem to making a lot of unsourced, unbacked assertions. Why do you think that Biden has "abandoned" the peace agreement between Israel and UAE, called the "Abraham Accords?" Why do you assert that the "Iranian deal," presumably the one where they agreed to limit their nuclear materials program, was "failed?" When you say that the "Progressive left" detests Israel, are you referring to the nation of Israel, a particular Israeli administration, an Israeli restaurant, or something else altogether?
When making sweeping assertions like this, please be more complete with your comments. They would be more persuasive and easier to engage with.
Iran is a state sponsor of Terror. We handed them billions that they used to destabilize the Mid East. For some insane reason Joe is going back to the future. And we see bombs being lobbed at our so called ally. And what does Joe immediately do? Call for a cease fire. Who was it that accosted him on the runway in Detroit? A ringleader of the left wing anti-Israel gang. Always the victims you know. Another point of view. https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-the-democrats-and-israel-11621376744?st=pzpzjw365kosm1z&reflink=article_copyURL_share
Yes, we should all read media owned by Rupert Murdoch because it's such "fair and balanced news."
Thanks for the link, which I was amazed to be able to access (I'm not a subscriber, so I usually can't get past the paywall). Not that the opinion so contained therein was new, it's been the same point made for the past 50 years or so.
Of course, Israel has the "right of self defense," at least in the sense that their country has been existence long enough that the current generation as the justifiable interest in not getting bombed by Palestinians. In a similar vein, the current generation of Americans have a justifiable interest in not being bombed by Native Americans, either, despite the fact that, like Israel, the United States exists because they conquered and displaced the former inhabitants. And like the United States of the last centurty, Israel is dealing with their indigenous conquered population by a cruel combination of exclusion, continued displacement, and killings.
Unlike the United States of old, Israel and the Palestinians live in a much more connected world and they don't have a huge swath of desert oblivion into which they can drive the Palestinians. The world, at the moment, is less sanguine about genocide, but Israel seem quite willing to have a few million stateless people living on their border in what amounts to a large concentration camps. That's not a solution -- it's a longterm torture for an entire ethnic population.
The two statements are not incompatible. Yes, Israel has the right of self-defense, and yes, there should be an immediate ceasefire. The WSJ editorial writer's assertion that Hamaz and Hezbollah are gaining some kind of political capital that they will use in some future war is entirely speculative; I've seen no sign that either group has either the resources or the will to mount a war of conquest on Israel. None of their neighbors would support it, even though Iran would probably send money and cheers.
What must be addressed -- by Israel, not us -- is that the Netanyahu government and Hamas have developed a tragically dysfunctional symbiosis whereby both sides rely on violence in order to bolster their own political standing. Civilian deaths are the coin they use to buy their domestic support. While it seems impossible now, those two people must somehow coexist, if not merge; Palestinian children deserve prosperity just as much as Israeli children.
As for Iran being a "state sponsor of Terror," so is the United States from the point of view of all too many people in that part if the world. Just ask the Paletinians, or the Yemeni, or the Iranians both before and after the Shah. And those "billions" we handed them, I assume you are referring to the Iranian money impounded in American banks which we returned to them, by agreement, when they complied with the nuclear reduction agreement we both signed. Perhaps you think we should have simply stolen their money?
Please don't claim some kind of moral high ground here, since it seems to be built on blood-soaked sand.
I deeply wish we could find another way forward, one that doesn't rely on bombing people. Perhaps such a new path is impossible for us, for we are, in fact, the meanest apes ever to migrate out of Africa.
Thank you for engaging, I've found your posts much easier to follow, although I wish you wouldn't use first names like "Joe." There are too many Josephs out there and I'd appreciate better identification. (I also hate it when people refer to Trump as "Donny," for similar reasons.)
Good observations of how we got here. However, you left out that before 1948, Palestine was a British Colony. Palestinian Jewish rebels shot and bombed occupying British troops, civilian establishments including hotels as ruthlessly as Palestinian Arab rebels do to Israeli occupiers. The difference is that Palestinian Jews gained their independent state of Israel at the expense of Palestinia Arabs. And now Israel is the colonial occupation force doing to Israeli and Palestinian Arabs what the British, Germans and other antisemitic countries have done to Jews. Money and power win and corrupt even when you survive the Holocaust.
The Palestinian Jews who bombed the King David Hotel in the 1940s committed acts of terrorism. When Hamas deliberately sends thousands of rockets at civilians, that is also terrorism. In both cases, the related political problems do not justify the terrorism.
The 1948 UN plan was for two states dividing what was left of the British Mandate after over half was taken out to create the kingdom of Jordan. 5 Arab countries went to war to prevent the existence of any Jewish state. When that failed, instead of creating the UN-intended Palestinian Arab state in the Arab controlled area - which was all of the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and a chunk of Jerusalem - the Arab countries divided the territory amongst themselves and left the Palestinian Arabs in refugee camps. That was the status quo until 1967.
Indeed, the Palestinians have been betrayed over and over by both their allies and their leaders. If Jesus ever does return to Earth, and is anything like his last incarnation, he will appear among the Palestinians, not the Israelis or the Americans.
😔
Looking back I think it's safe to say the British really f-ed things up (with help, of course).
Backing up a little, it is good to remember a little more of the history. In 1917, during the war against...amongst others...the Ottaman Empire which covered all this territory the British Foreign Secretary made what is called the Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschilde, then head of the UK jewish Community. The declaration gave the UK government's support to the founding of a National Home for the Jewish People alongside the Palestinians in Palestine. In 1918 Clemenceau ceded Palestine/Cis-Jordan to the UK in exchange for sole control of Lebanon/Syria. The San Reno Conference confirmed this division of responsibilities in the post-Ottoman world under the auspices of the League of Nations (referencing Article 22 of the founding Covenant of the League. The UK government managed the growing Jewish immigration to the territory with "some difficulty" and declared in 1939 that they would hand over the territory to its majority Palestinian residents within 10 years.....hence the 1948 uprising.
Back up a little more. The British promised the Arabs their own country if they fought against the Turks, which they did. The Brits then broke that promise and the Sikes Picot agreement divided the Middle East up between the French and British .
Lawrence of Arabia rides again. The promise to the Ibn Saud family was, I think, that they would rule the whole unified region! It got them fighting and gave the British and the French the regions oil and gas nonetheless....until the second war which effectively turned it all over to the American oil cos.
Saudi oil has always been American. Aramco is a contraction of Arab American Company. The US was in there in the 1930s and Ibn Aud was given a red-carpet welcome here during World War II.
The British created several Arab countries within their area of imperial control, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
yes, there is that. The Balfour Declaration was the "inciting event" that led to the push for creation of Israel. I would still put forth that the world's collective sense of guilt at the Holocaust is what made it reality. Past that, I was referencing how American views of Israel changed. We should remember this country was sufficiently anti-Semitic in the 1940s to turn back the liner "St. Louis," knowing the Jews aboard would suffer an "uncertain fate" (how uncertain no one knew at the time).
I think the guilt came later. The holocaust of course engendered a massive and illicit exodus (see the film) of the remaining Jewish population to Palestine which the Brits and other countries resisted as much as possible, if not to effectively.
The way the Israelis conduct themselves, they have to milk "anti-Semitism" for all it is worth. Personally I see no connection but those pushing the "anti-Semitism" propaganda sure want me to feel guilty.
Yes, they wield it as a weapon. It's not "anti-Jewish" (which is what anti-Semitism is) to politically oppose actions of a government.
Thank you.
So 1 1/2 hours ago I read "the Ottaman Empire which covered..." and so had to look it up, which led me to ... and eventually back to Gaza and now. Thanks for the history lessons Stuart & All!
TC, I agree with you about the impetus for the 1948 State of Israel, but the seeds for establishing a white European "plantation" (this is something the Brits have liked to do since about 1605) in the Middle East were the steps leading to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the British takeover of Palestine and the Transjordan. The Balfour Declaration was blatantly racist in its rationale and Antisemitic in its desire for a "Jewish Homeland." The dismay of the Brits because the people who took it seriously were mostly socialists, on the one hand, and radical orthodox Jews, on the other, became clear in the years between the wars. They presumed that the Europeanized Jews they hoped would emigrate would ally with the British Empire and not France in gaining control of the petroleum in the region. They were miffed when that did not occur.
The descendants of Jews ejected from Arab countries are a large if not majority portion of Israelis today. The Jews of Europe were mostly murdered by the Nazis, in part because other countries refused them refuge. Neither the British nor most Europeans have ever seen Jews as 'us', which makes the whole idea of Israelis as European invaders all the more ironic and sadder.
Amid all the tragedy, some people are still working on mutual cooperation not mutual destruction: https://www.israel21c.org/pain-and-hope-fill-hearts-of-israeli-coexistence-activists/
Yes, excellent points. Again, the "inciting event" of my response was a question about how the US came to be Israel's mentor/supporter/arms dealer/ally.
Thanks, Linda.
Your final sentence should have continued saying, "and Netanyanu continues to use their votes to remain in power."
Yes, I should have done that. Netanyahu thought he could harness the crazy settlers, and get American political support through the End Times Evangelicals - both of who turned into a tiger he's had to cling to.
This is what I dislike about the mechanics of Substack. The above comment about Netanyahu was intended to refer to TCinLA's earlier post about crazy American settlers coming to Israel.
I find it helpful, Jacob, to type in the person's name in my replies to them.
Thanks, Lynell. Helpful to the human screeners perhaps or to the system which scans the comment for a hint as to where to place it.?
Substack needs all kinds of things - most particularly an edit function. But as an alternative to FleeceBlock, I'll still take it.
Good ploy, Lynell(VA by way of DC)!
See how easy that was MaryPat Sercu Randall - MI?😉
Well, probably not the radical socialists . . . 🤪
Sizzling on the spit, TC.
Thanks for putting this all together and yes reminding us about that incredibly popular book Exodus.
Why didn't you write anything about Netanyahu? Do you want to tie the horrific tragedy in Gaza to some 'crazy American Jews?
I wasn't covering that particular period. Netanyahu began getting US popular support during the first Gulf War when he was all over CNN - he had the advantage of speaking unaccented American English so he didn't seem like a "furriner" to an American audience. I have to admit I didn't think he was going to be so awful. As to the Gaza business, there has always been the issue of "proportionality." Hamas does something and a handful of Israelis get killed while the IDF responds with war crimes with their bombing campaigns that insure Palestinian numbers are 20x.
Media reports with concern that Americans are seeing through the AIPAC propaganda, which is a good thing. There wouldn't be this big push to get Re;publicans to declare support of BDS illegal if it wasn't having an effect.
'JERUSALEM — The Israeli Supreme Court delayed on Sunday a decision on whether to expel six Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem after the attorney general requested more time, in part because of the tensions the case has stirred.'
'The court was to decide on Monday whether to uphold an expulsion order for the families in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, in a hearing that many feared would set off a wave of unrest. Instead, the case was delayed by up to 30 days to allow the attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, to review it.'
'For many Palestinians, the families’ plight has become emblematic of a wider effort to remove Palestinians from parts of East Jerusalem and of the past displacements of Arabs in the occupied territories and within Israel.' (NY Times, 5/12/21)
'JERUSALEM — Twenty-seven days before the first rocket was fired from Gaza this week, a squad of Israeli police officers entered the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, brushed the Palestinian attendants aside and strode across its vast limestone courtyard. Then they cut the cables to the loudspeakers that broadcast prayers to the faithful from four medieval minarets.
It was the night of April 13, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was also Memorial Day in Israel, which honors those who died fighting for the country. The Israeli president was delivering a speech at the Western Wall, a sacred Jewish site that lies below the mosque, and Israeli officials were concerned that the prayers would drown it out.
The incident was confirmed by six mosque officials, three of whom witnessed it; the Israeli police declined to comment. In the outside world, it barely registered.
But in hindsight, the police raid on the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, was one of several actions that led, less than a month later, to the sudden resumption of war between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, and the outbreak of civil unrest between Arabs and Jews across Israel itself.' (NY Times, 5/15/21)
Yup, When the white settlers massacred the Indians they were taking territory given them by God (manifest destiny). When the savages fought back, the white settlers massacred them to 'defend themselves', regardless of what they had done to the Indians before hand
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
'The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel.' (Wikipedia)
Not actually "against Israel" (Israeli propaganda in action here) - it's against Israeli businesses operating in the occupied West Bank, in contravention of international law.
Jews certainly deserved reparations for the atrocities committed against them in WWII, but the reparations should have been paid by the perpetrators, not Palestinians. Perhaps control of a region in Germany or Austria. Maybe everything within a hundred miles of Vienna. Something like that, but not Palestine. The people there took no part in the Holocaust.
The Jewish claim to Israel has nothing to do with WWII. It is based on a two-thousand year desire to return to the land after being ejected by the Romans following a failed rebellion. In the meantime, other people moved in, who have their own claims.
Rex: Actually, during WW2 the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, their spiritual leader, allied himself with the Axis powers. Be that as it may, today's advocates of a one-state solution between the Palestinians and Israel, which cannot be a peaceful solution, take that position only because of the refusal of Hamas and their Iranian supporters to back any solution which does not do away with the State of Israel. Getting rid of Hamas re-opens the door to a viable two-state solution which would include a prospering Palestinian state.
You argue, then, that because a spiritual leader of Palestinians backed Axis powers, albeit powerlessly, Palestinians should bear the entire brunt of reparations for crimes committed by an Axis power?
Rex, No, that is not what I said. It is not about reparations. Germany has paid, and continues to, pay them. But that does not negate the historical facts that (1) the Balfour Declaration offered Palestine as a national home for Jews (it was then a British protectorate after years of Ottoman rule) and that (2) in November of 1941, the Grand Mufti met with Adolf Hitler discussing spreading his anti-Jewish programs to Palestine, since they both were for getting rid of Jews. At that point, a German victory in WW2 was not out of the question. The Grand Mufti's 1941 position was not unlike that of Hamas today, one of advocating eliminating Jews from Palestine, which explains why Netanyahu, in response to the rocket attacks initiated by Hamas, takes every opportunity to destroy Hamas. And the Palestinians suffer because they are being used by Hamas, financed and armed by Iran. Without Hamas, there probably would be a successful, independent, Palestinian State by now including agreements about problems involving Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli settlers. Aside from opposing Hamas, Israeli support of Netanyahu is far from universal.
Was just learning about the Balfour Declaration from 1917. If not familiar with it, it is interesting history related to the conflict.
Also look up the Sykes-Picot Treaty of 1916 - the real organizing reason for 100 years or Middle East crapola. There's a good article on it at Wikipedia - well-sourced and all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement
Another reader asked Dr. Richardson last week if she would write about Israel and Palestine, and she said that, as an American historian, it isn’t her field of expertise, so she doesn’t have deep enough knowledge about the middle east to write about it.
I didn't ask her to write about Israel and Palestine but rather the history of American involvement. Also, I didn't ask everyone here to comment.
You got some good ones though, so pat yourself on the back for being a good "inciter."
Dr. Richardson is stuck on 'Biden policies good' 'Trump' bad'.
In reply to "Hairy Toddler”; Well yes, and then she clearly and rationally states why present policies are “good” and past past policies are “bad” and draws a connection from history to the current moment that we all might learn from it.
It is a lot easier though to just gut your ideas of what is happening today from Fox and not have to trouble yourself with exposure to facts, history and a variety of perspectives.
Clearly this forum is not for you.
Why don't you go back to FleeceBlock, where the fact you're a gaga old boomer moron troll won't be so blindingly obvious.
"Nonetheless, Politico reported tonight that dozens of Republicans are considering supporting the commission despite how much it would infuriate Trump, because it would provide them political cover in 2022." Something about the GOP just pi$$es me off. Okay, pretty much everything. Republicans considering doing this in order to have political cover?! Fah! Is there a verifiably functioning moral compass among them? As in all the time, and not just situationally? Rhetorical. As you were.
Narcissism makes having morals a struggle.
I’m waiting to see how the Senate votes on this, especially that twit, Marco Rubio. With the threats that face us now from white supremacists and others of their ilk, who is Rubio focusing on? Well in this morning’s paper the big story is his pushing to release the government’s information on UFO sightings. No joke.
OMG
Short answer to moral compass: No.
It was fun watching Biden take off in the truck but what is great is that he is as good as his word. He told us in his acceptance speech what he wanted to accomplish. He is doing that with the American Jobs act.
Just tonight, it was reported that Letitia James. NY’s AG, is saying the Trump Organization is one leaning towards criminality. Her office will more than likely work in tandem with Cyrus Vance to bring these people down. I pray it happens and soon.
Morning, Marlene!! Here's a NYT article that addresses this: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/nyregion/trump-ny-ag-investigation-vance.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210518&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta®i_id=103820600&segment_id=58410&user_id=c2f4f50a36dc90a23a014672d0f1f5b5
Regarding the news that Letitia James is now cooperating with Cyrus Vance Jr. on a criminal investigation of Trump, there could not be better news than that while the Republicans are turning themselves in side out to avoid an investigation into the January 6 insurrection. That SOB former president is a crook and to quote him "Everyone knows it."
Biden's visit to River Rouge in Detroit today was smart politics, in several dimensions:
Remember Trump PRETENDING to drive a semi on the White House lawn during one of his many "Infrastructure Weeks"?
Biden, in contrast, actually went to Detroit to pitch his infrastructure/green jobs plan, got on a test track and DROVE the F-150 electric truck 80 miles an hour on camera.
As I watched Biden today, I was happy about the move to green transportation he talked about, but I also admired that he did it in a way that should appeal to blue-collar male voters as well as us green libs. Much smarter that Trump's infrastructure non-event and so much smarter than Hillary Clinton's "putting a lot of coal miners out of work" gaffe.
I think the video of Biden in that car will have a greater impact on those voters than all the yammering in DC about a 9-11 commission.
And let's just say it: Biden looks GREAT behind the wheel. He does love a good ride and it shows.
It is clear that he is the real deal behind the wheel.
Yes, Cathy!! And fully in charge of his "faculties!"
True ‘dat!
Anyone know how Faux played Biden's zero-to-60 mph in 4.4 seconds story?
Don't know on-air, but here's what they ran on their website, which seems targeted at car/truck lovers -- just the demo Biden targeted https://www.foxnews.com/auto/electric-ford-f-150-lightning-biden
Yes, thanks. And shows Biden in a good light!
A lot of F-150 pickup trucks are Fleet vehicles, used for company everyday work trucks, and for municipal, and other government agencies, that need work trucks. For example, I work for a municipality public works, and we have approximately 50 plus fleet F-150 trucks for work (gasoline). I could see the electric F-150 version being used for Fleet vehicles, but not with out a lot of belly-aching from non-progressives people who have a dislike of change, or having management "shove" change down their throat.
Actually it would be really awesome to see our public facility work yard, incorporate renewable energy to help charge eclectic fleet vehicles. Yes this all expensive, but this is where, (and I could be wrong) using government grants and or funds to upgrade a facility with renewables. The problem I have experienced with "new" comes with going from design, to installation, to maintenance. Nothing ever works out to plan, which is fine, however I see people getting frustrated and start to complain with government waste and spending when the long-term maintenance for "new" does not come to fruition. And components break down. This is where local government and other agencies need to bridge the gap. It's the long term maintenance and the materials and equipment needed to maintain new charging stations to the new education and training to making sure "new" infrastructure functions as it needs to be.
There are a lot of charging stations mounted on the street in Philadelphia by individuals, in front of our houses. They get a lot of weather and some abuse. I've never heard of one breaking.
Yes, you are correct, it's the long term maintenance plan and the shift to a different type of long term maintenance plan that can be overlooked, giving employees time a training can be overlooked when agencies work on their budgets. We have installed new charging stations as well, and the thought of having more and more is great, this can decrease the amount of spilled fuel on the pavements.
I agree, but even in municipalities like Seattle that have made a concerted effort to generate more clean energy, the ratio of green to dirty energy is still extremely low. We just haven't discovered the capacity in renewables to get to even 20% of the total power used. On the other hand, more electric vehicles means more pressure to innovate in the renewables field, which is a net positive, I hope.
“You have rented out the once good name of the Arizona State Senate to grifters and con-artists, who are fundraising hard-earned money from our fellow citizens even as your contractors parade around the Coliseum, hunting for bamboo and something they call ‘kinematic artifacts’ while shining purple lights for effect.” Yeah, this one got oxygen in my regular Facebook feed today.
Josh Marshall on the GOP opposition to a January 6 Commission. Yeah, they are all "accessories after the fact":
Yesterday in a close door Senate GOP caucus meeting, Mitch McConnell announced he can’t support the Jan 6th commission deal which Kevin McCarthy’s negotiator negotiated apparently because McCarthy assumed nothing would ever come of it before it blew up in his face. According to Axios, McConnell hasn’t yet come up with any clear reasons why he opposes such a commission other than vague suggestions about its work interfering with the DOJ’s probes. The main concern is that the commission might subpoena members or “alienate members of the GOP base, as well as former President Trump.”
Earlier this week, the number two GOP Senate leader John Thune expressed support for the Commission and said he expected it to pass. Yesterday he said that after hearing that McCarthy had pulled his support he wasn’t so sure.
Meanwhile, Punchbowl says that as many as a few dozen House Republicans may vote for the commission and that many more are miffed that McCarthy has put them in a bad position by not giving them any good reasons to oppose it. For clarity here, those folks will oppose it but they wish McCarthy had managed the situation so they could have excuses that wouldn’t make them look silly. As Punchbowl puts it, “McCarthy’s [reason for opposing] was lame to many House Republicans. He said this commission should be focused on other political violence, not just Jan. 6. A lot of Republicans found this excuse incredibly weak, especially since most GOP members had called for a Jan. 6 commission months ago.”
Meanwhile, ex-President Trump, as I noted below, has made his position clear. On his new blog, he said last night that “unless the murders, riots, and fire bombings in Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and New York are also going to be studied, this discussion should be ended immediately.”
The best way to understand the current situation is the legal concept of ‘consciousness of guilt’. Perpetrators never support investigations into their crimes. Republican members of Congress aren’t all perpetrators in the sense that Donald Trump is. But virtually all of them are determined to cover up his crimes. They are best seen in legal terms as accessories after the fact. The US Criminal code defines this as “Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.”
I seem to remember McConnell standing up on the Senate floor I saying that iDJT hadn’t escaped justice....yet... and encouraging a probe into his culpability in the insurrection. Now he is standing against the very commission that could, in fact, bring these crimes to light. I hope one of the never-T groups like the Lincoln Project or Republicans for Accountability have a video ready to go. Hypocrite is too mild a word for this creature.
“...they wish McCarthy had managed the situation so they could have excuses that wouldn’t make them look silly.” LOL. That horse left the barn long ago. Seeing them at the impeachment trials, not listening to facts and repeating ridiculous lies, I saw way past silly—incompetent, childish and abusive.