When it comes to Gaza, Biden is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. He’s made the right move, however. Now the Israeli people need to do the same and get rid of Netanyahu and seek a peace plan that includes a Palestinian state.
The most effective way to control, or even remove Netanyahu is to elevate Benny Ganz. Even if the primary motivation of the protests may not be antisemitism, antisemites took advantage of the situation. MSM does not mention Ganz, who leads in the polls in Israel, would displace Netanyahu, supports a two state solution, which is US policy, is at 85 %. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Gantz
From onset, the Knesset had the ability to do a deal in principle on the table. There was a pause, but Hamas would not deal. Qatar, Egypt etc are not principals and are not honest brokers. Qatar is NOT a mediator. Qatar grants amnesty to murderers, rapists. Egypt and Jordan, only a few miles from the action refuse to accept innocent Gazans.
To me, card carrying Semite, the acid test is whether the leaders of the protests would support Ganz. to achieve removal of Netanyahu?
Congress makes appropriations. Besides Gaza, we were close to war with Iran, and some of the hostages in Gaza are US citizens. US ships have been attacked by Yemen, who says they did it to support Hamas. Hamas is a proxy of Iran and maybe Russia.
Meanwhile the Trump blueprint is laid out in Heritage foundation Project 2025. Reinstate Muslim bans. Concentration camps. Mass deportations. Trump allies want a country where only "Christians" have full citizenship.
MSM misrepresents the nature of Israel, which has an Arab Party, Arab members in the Knesset, and Arab Druze voluntarily serving in the army. I do not know this as a fact but I bet the Arab Party supports Ganz. What about the mayor of Dearborn? The leaders of the Columbia protests? What about the Republicans?
Nobody is protesting the hundreds of thousands of Arabs killed by their brethren in Syria and Yemen.
Daniel S., re. “Hamas is a proxy of Iran and maybe Russia.” I was thinking Netanyahu is a proxy for Russia. What do you think?
If Netanyahu had had a more measured and more strategic response to Oct. 7th, we’d be a lot more focused on Ukraine these days. Netanyahu’s response benefits Putin.
(Netanyahu’s actions to wipe out the enemy — Hamas— has created far more enemies. His is a bad strategy for Jews in Israel and everywhere — as well as horribly inhumane towards Palestinian civilians.)
I think of Netanyahu as being a proxy for Russia too. I look at who has most benefitted from this war between Hamas and Israel, and I see Russia getting to get rid of Biden, sending Bots to rile up the youth (not saying they cannot be on their own, but who of them is not influenced by social media these days), and then we have the distraction from Ukraine.
Linda, I have wondered the same thing and sent a question to "Beau of the Fifth Column" youtube which he did not answer. (He gets hundreds of questions a week, so it was a chance he'd answer.
I wondered WHY students are protesting this particular issue. I totally am a pacifist and sickened by war, and have donated to World Food Kitchen. Beau did have a clip where a young protestor wrote in, upset by the her perceived actions of some of her fellow students. He addressed this, and also mentioned that in the US, there is a ready-build audience for the issues in Gaza.
Ok, I get the audience thing, but I still wonder why this conflict? The horrors of war in the Ukraine did not send US students into the street. I don't recall any students in the past decades protesting genocide in Africa. (in the Trump labeled "shit countries") I am sure that there are students with family ties to victims in Gaza, and I am very sure that anti-Semitism is on the rise, but unlike the 60s where young men were drafted to fight in a foreign war, or BLM protests where people protested against the murder of fellow Americans, I haven't seen this type of anger. I haven't seen this type of protest against the separation of families at the border, or the way asylum seekers are treated.
It is causing some young people to seemingly turn against Biden. I admire that young people care about humanity halfway across the globe, but I wonder if they believe Trump would be a better option? I wonder if they realize what they--the US youth--would lose if Project 2025 in put in place?
I wonder how many of those protesting cared about foreign policy before they, as you put it, saw it on social media? How many of them truly care about this foreign conflict, and how many of them are there to click a selfie to post?
I know that this sounds cynical, but I have wondered WHO benefits the most from these protests? At the risk of sounding as though I am donning a tin-foil hat, is there some effort to gin up opposition to Biden through this?
Miselle, I have been wondering about the same things. Certainly could be upset about wars all over the planet that have US involvement, but the press is not covering that so openly. The story that has been made of this is very interesting. I still think Russian bots are stirring up more people. I do understand that the protest is the injustice of our tax dollars going to support a government that the students see as undeserving. It also means that they have an idea that our allies must be perfect or else. I know that for a lot of Black students, and non-White students it looks in the press like the White people (Israel, which is multicolored and diverse as far as I know), and suppressing the Brown people (Gazans). I assume that Russian bots are stirring things up, because if they were not they would be being less competent than we know they are. This is what Putin does, from his KGB days, he stirs up trouble, and manipulates people. Social media is easy for Putin to exploit. For anyone for that matter. Again, Hitler was carefully crafting his image and using media in new and different ways to get his campaign message across. Tiktok is coopted in this way too. The protests seem to have made Biden shift his Israel policy so in that they are seeming to have an effect. Also, places like Northwestern made an agreement with students that they would be open about their investments and have a student advisory committee. They also will fund 5 Palestinian students. How that will help most of the people starving in the streets I don't know. People need to be more clear on how ugly war is. I am not promoting war, but I think we should stand by our allies. Palestine has not really had a chance to be an ally because they have not been an official state. It is a troubled region for sure. There are many others that could draw student ire and support too, but do not. I would say coverage of them makes all the difference.
No, Putin is just making lemonade. Too complicated for Putin. When there is a war situation made, you cannot predict. The protests here are mostly real I believe... they don't need the riling up. I am not a fan of conspiracy in this situation.
I don't say it is definitely so, but when my suspicions rise, I listen to them. There is a lot that is unknowable. In the Stasi Files, I see the discussion of Putin along with his East German ID from when he lived in Dresden. What is written sounds really like he was playing the KGB against the Stasi, to get his own way. So, just looking at the long history of who he is, I believe he is involved in some way, even if it is indirectly with Bots.
Yes, and Netanyahu was rumored to have had a meeting with Putin shortly before Oct.7. I think the tactics N has used are similar to the relentless bombings of Ukraine's civilians. What's in it for Putin? There was a massive distraction from Ukraine by the US' delayed funding, world condemnation of the US and Israel, and chaos everywhere.
What do we know about Ganz, other that he is an ambitious politician and sees an opportunity to replace Netanyahu. I see Ganz giving lots of hugs and mixing in the crowds when he has an opportunity.
Good and decent leaders are hard to come by. President Joe Biden's character and experience and genuine love and respect for our country and all that we are supposed to represent is a rare and precious gift.
Israel deserves better than it has, yet Netanyahu was elected????!!!!!
It is alot easier to foment hatred of our fellowman/woman than to work for peace.
YET...how wonderful and productive to live in peace.
When we say "Arabs"...when we say "Iranians", do we fill our hearts with negative images from the news? And YES, there is plenty of evil going on.....but often this dehumanizes people and we begin to see this group...this country as an enemy.
We need to see more families getting up in the morning , having a meal ....maybe morning prayers together....dispersing to walk, drive, bike, etc to work. We need to understand that there are moms, dads, grandparents just like us trying to survive....to care for their families with hope that their children will have a better world in which to live.
Daniel, as a Christian, it has personally become difficult for me to find a place of worship. Look at the bunch Jesus chose. Only one remained at the cross with His mother, Mary, when Jesus was crucified. They were there for the miracles but they couldn't understand "the cross". The others scattered. Jesus came to redeem the lost and broken and those whom His love and grace and steadfast presence will not abandon though, belonging to such a great salvation does not eliminate pain and suffering or poverty ,etc.
I find it difficult when those who have been "saved from hell" want to send everyone who doesn't fit in "their Christian box" there????
Thanks for the peacemakers...of all faiths...or those who choose not to belong to a faith.
Check out Combatants for Peace: https://cfpeace.org/. It's "a grassroots movement of Israelis and Palestinians, working together to end the occupation and bring peace, equality and freedom to our homeland." They've got two events coming up, both of which will be livestreamed: the 19th Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Day Ceremony this Sunday, May 12, and the Joint Nakba Remembrance Ceremony next Wednesday, May 15. There's also an U.S. support group called American Friends of Combatants for Peace: https://www.afcfp.org/.
Hamas and others like Islamic Jihad are murderers. They've murdered not only Jews but their own people. Christians are next. B'hai. All infidels. Israeli Arabs are the only Moslems in the entire region that have due process.
We don't get to vote in Israeli elections. They have an Arab party. Arab members of the Knesset. About a million Israeli Jews speak Arabic as their first language, because their families were expelled to Israel in 1948. More than 100,000 speak Farsi. 99% of the Arab Christians fear Islamists more than Jews. Arab Druze serve voluntarily in the Israeli army. I keep waiting for them to stand up.
Some cities like Haifa are diverse, Jews and Arabs living together since the crusades. Jerusalem was like that until 1948, when the Arab Legion/Jordan attacked. Restored in 1967.
Start with the proposition that Ganz is not Netanyahu. Do not look a gift horse in the mouth.
Great post, Daniel, Gantz sounds like a good route to peace. Iran must be brought under control. The Ayatollah is NOT Allah, in fact he's not even good to his own people, he has more in common with the southern fundamentalist so-called Christians than he does with other Muslims.
I'm right with you. I had such a surge of hope until Netanyahu managed to weasel his way back in around Gantz. His undercover support system has the same feedlines as that of Trump.
Yes. I tell people who don’t “get” Putin, “once a KGB, always a KGB.” If that doesn’t hit home I mention his time in East Germany as Stasi. But KGB training isn’t clear to most Americans. Actually, Trump with the oilmen sounds as close to KGB as anything I’ve ever heard by an American. The oilmen whose companies knew about climate change even before 1988 (Hansen of NASA’s infamous 15 minutes to explain climate change to an uncomprehending Congress—excepting Al Gore who had already written a book with the information, which, as a farmer he could understand the implications) are even more guilty than Childe Trump.
A kitchen sink analysis- you got it all in Daniel S. I did not know that semites carry cards. I had better get mine. I disagree with your rant dragging in all that is disreputable about every country involved. Those, regardless, are needed to make a peace or at least ceasefire happen, including Hamas. Hamas is needed for peace.
The protests "acid test"? Here our support especially the weapons, precipitates the protests. Protests here and elsewhere are the result of photos and reports that Israelis hardly see in their MSM unless they go looking. They don't want to see the damage and know Gazan suffering, the numbers, nor know of their plight; many reason they are guilty for supporting Hamas. So is Netanyahu. Protests in Israel, are reported as being for hostages return. Maybe some want to end the war. Many Israelis have died - over 600 soldiers.
The Arabs( Palestinians) in Israel are not allowed to have much influence regardless. But many identify with the plight of Gazans and must have to keeps their heads down in an increasingly repressive Israel.
Anti-Semitism is ever present. Jewish people have cried anti-Semitism at every opportunity. This is ultra-sensitivity to a point of cancelling concern when people have to be so careful about what they say or what group they support because it criticizes Israel. The conflation of Israel with Judaism is objectionable to many Jews who are not Zionists, or not what Zionism has become politically, two separate feelings about Israel.
That you bring up blood libel is telling. The REAL anti-Semites want to engage you and are happy to have the Israel critics to attach themselves to.
Do me a favor and don't send me cherry picked links about the bad things that Hamas did in the past as part of this ongoing war between Israel and Hamas ( and all Palestinians) UNLESS you are going to balance this.. which you are not going to I gather.
Where do I apply for my semite card? What do I need paper/record-wise?
As my father said some 50 years ago, "stay out of the middle east and they will all kill each other." May he rest in peace. But the Trump situation surely has him turning over in his grave. He knew that the most important thing about America was the peaceful transistion of power. Where have all the flowers gone?
Unfortunately, you are not speaking to Reich and his newsletter subscribers, who have done as much damage to Israel's standing in the world as MSM. It's a coordinated effort to eliminate the only democratic state in the Middle East.
A brilliant response, Daniel. Truth in packaging #1: there are points of disagreement. Truth in packaging #2: said points are utterly marginal.
Daniel. the tragedy too many of us take for granted is that of 07oct23. The subsequent tragedy of what is occurring now dates back to 08oct23. As a philo-Semite and one who reveres Judaism as the one large Western faith that makes sense to me except Unitarianism (i.e., my faith, a safe harbor for 'slackadaisical' agnostics like me), my blood ran hot on 08oct23. Vengeance flowed through me and I wanted hamas to be crushed and did not think about those Gazans, some of whom, after all, cheered in the streets as gangsters paraded hostages and bodies by them.
Since my feelings are inconsequential in the world beyond a five foot radius around me, they did not matter. The Israelis -- all Israelis -- did not enjoy the luxuries of insignificance, detachment, and leisure on 08oct23. They knew that hamas practices -- has even stated openly -- an eliminationist ant-Semitism, as catalogued by Dr Goldhagen in "hitler's willing executioners".
When the spectre of a repeat Holocaust looms first and foremost, impulse control likely fades, especially in the case of Netanyahu who has an interest in retaining leadership through a potential long-war. Add to that the near certainty of a permissive Gazan populace -- by affiliation or resignation -- necessary for an attack on the scale of that blood-drunk orgy of 07oct23 to proceed, concerns for the Gazan street fade also, at least temporarily.
Looking back now, what I believe the world witnessed on 07oct23 was a six-to-twelve month intifada compressed into a day through careful planning and technology. The result of a longer intifada would be no less atrocious, yet the response that the situation itself would elicit would be different. A perverse affirmation of timing being everything. That is to say: instead of pursuing a contentious counter-insurgency in an urban environment, Netanyahu has replicated something like a total war on miniature scale. Sadly, until now, the U.S. has become complicit, at least by shipping bunker-busting bombs for use in a densely populated area.
A counter-insurgency in an urban environment requires working with the population in a manner consistent with principles of community policing. It also requires changing the treatment of Palestineans with the concomitant respect entitled to fellows, not felons. The locals must understand that they have a better future with the Jewish state than with a Palestinean gangster régime. My sense is that there were enough Gazans willing to work with the I.D.F. to hunt down the worst of hamas and to seal the tunnels, at least the key ones. My conviction remains that there are far more than enough Israeli Jews willing to welcome such a change.
What we have seen, sadly and instead, is Israël, perhaps the far-right coalition, lapsing into war crimes. As I learned in Iraq, good people can do bad things; it is what they do afterward in making amends and what lessons they learn that counts more going-forward. I am beginning wonder if I passed judgement too hastily about the war crimes; after all, lsraël must complete the mission of eliminating hamas. What a horrid dilemma for our democratic kin.
Another reason why I must pause about accusing Israël of war crimeis that I have assumed that the thirty-five thousand slain Gazans are all innocents, albeit tainted and killed in addition to hamas fighters. BIG ERROR on my part. Additionally I have accepted that thirty-five thousand number though it might be biassed by hamas-influence in the counting.
While my first reaction to your number 17,500 hamas fighters killed (versus the fourteen thousand I have read) is one of skepticism, if I am willing to accept the total number of people killed at thirty-five thousand, I am willing to accept that half are comabattants. Either way, however, by the reckoning of most urban warfare scenarios, the percentage of civilians killed is not higher, likely lower, than those witnessed in recent conflicts.
One can argue that Israël is showing restraint, at least kinetically. So, the dilemma continues. Israël will survive, though Netanyahu is likely doing more to jeopardize her long-term security than to aid it by alienating peace-minded Palestineans and likely proving to be the best recruiter hamas ever had. For peace to triumph and for the Jewish state to prosper in righteousness will require deep cultural changes toward Palestineans. More than my faith, history tells me that, if there is a people out there with the capacity for justice, resilience, and charity to make that change, it is my Jewish brethren.
As an oldster who has faith in your faith, Daniel, I close with these two verses from the Tanakh brought to me through Episcopal schooling: "And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." --Leviticus 33-34.
The quality of the team (and appointments to the SCOTUS/ federal judges) is what is so crucial for any presidential election and administration. As HCR has noted a number of times, the group Biden has brilliantly put together is top shelf. When it comes to walking the international gauntlet, the team led by Blinken is the best! I shudder to think of the chaos and perhaps nuclear holocaust that would be with trump occupying the WH. We barely survived (and many did not!) the last round.
Agreed Janet - "As HCR has noted a number of times, the group Biden has brilliantly put together is top shelf."
Compare this with what TFG sent to the MidEast in the worst case of nepotism in history,...his son-in-law, Kushner w/o security clearance, experience or a plan so, surprise!,...came home instead with a $2b "Trust Fund" having done nothing for the cause of peace. Add to that how TFG's daughter applied for and got over forty (that's 40) trademarks from China that were fast tracked and it's clear their intent was never for the good of the US or world but, personal grift.
Agree, Janet. I am happy with the team Biden has put together in foreign affairs, but other cabinet posts and agencies as well. For a while, we had people here in Salem who label themselves progressives regularly dissing Biden. Always I would point out the diversity and ability of his cabinet. As for the protests, the one at Portland State has a small number of students and a large percentage of Portland's small group of people who love vandalism and destruction. Many of the students there have voiced their unhappiness about this because it is still getting in the way of their education because the library is a mess and closed and it will take some time and considerable money to fix it. Even people who should know better sometimes have tunnel vision. We have a friend who is veery knowledgable politically and yet she recommended a vote in the 6th district primary for McLeod Skinner who cannot win in the general here in Marion County over Bynum who has beaten the incumbent R twice in other elections. I want a D house and it will deal with different problems than local land use. And death star....why would decent patriotic real Christian chose this dangerous criminal who is showing signs of dementia over a decent and savvy pol like Biden.
Up until last week, I would have entirely agreed. But it has become clear that Blinken is ignoring State Department analyses of past and current IDF violations of US and international
law. And instead, accepting as credible Netanyahu regime assurances that they are in compliance. It seems Blinken may be at odds with Biden's policy - the pause in delivery of offensive military aid was announced by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austen.
As part of Pres. Biden's National Security Memorandum 20 (issued in February at the urging of Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris VanHollen, and which expands the Leahy Laws) the State Department was to give Congress a report on Israeli compliance with US and international law. State has asked for an extension.
The Biden memorandum requires nations in line for support to provide, in writing, credible evidence that they are in compliance with the laws of war and humanitarian law. Among others, there are serious questions about whether Israel is violating these laws by blocking the delivery of food to Gaza. Blinken is expected to say, as with the earlier events that Israel is in compliance. That currently, while there are suspected violations Israel is not misusing weapons or blocking aid.****
I understand that evidentiary requirements of the law are different than what seems apparent to other observation and investigation. But in this dispute within the State Department, I am inclined to agree with the analysts. But I may be biased - it is hard for me to imagine that the Netanyahu regime could/would provide credible assurances.
*"Blinken Says Israeli Units Accused of Serious Violations Have Done Enough to Avoid Sanctions. Experts and Insiders Disagree. The secretary of state told Congress that Israel had adequately punished a soldier who got community service for killing an unarmed Palestinian. Government officials call it a “mockery” and inconsistent with the law."
**"It is part of a new policy instituted by US President Joe Biden in February requiring foreign aid recipients to provide written assurances that they are using that aid in compliance with international law and not obstructing the provision of humanitarian aid."
*** "The overdue filing, which could be sent as early as Friday, will use critical language to describe suspected violations, but won't find Israel misusing arms or blocking aid, Axios says"
**** "Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to submit to Congress as soon as Friday a highly critical report about Israel's conduct in Gaza that stops short of concluding it has violated the terms for its use of U.S. weapons, three U.S. officials said."
Both the State Department and the Department of Defense provide US funded assistance to foreign security force units. Both departments have Leahy Laws. Both departments gather/analyze evidence of violations. Determinations of whether corrective measures are sufficient is done in consultation between the departments.
Thank you. So the executive (Biden) must have decided that this is the case where the Leahy Law applies to the DOD and not the DOS. That alone must be sending a signal to Israel.
I have not been able to work out all the pathways by which military aid can be delivered. And by which it can be paused.
By law the funds go to American suppliers of equipment and expertise. Sometimes through collaborative US and Israeli research entities. The assistance is provided to individual national security units. And it is the behavior of the units which can result in a pause in aid.
But how the president, the agencies, and Congress come into the logistics of who gets (or doesn't get) what and when. I have not figured it out.
The Leahy Laws and Biden's National Security Memorandum 20 only apply to offensive military aid. All those screaming about Biden compromising Israel's ability to defend itself are mistaken. 1) Aid for Iron Dome, David's Sling (who makes up these names?) et al is not affected. 2) Israel has stock piles munitions.
Biden has criticized Israel's settlement policies for decades. This has long put him at odds with Netanyahu. Netanyahu's characteristic truculence has been compounded by decades of unconditional support from AIPAC and the Evangelicals - and cemented by the Trump administration's outrageous policies (moving the US embassy to contested Jerusalem, the Abrahamic Accords which pretend Palestinians do not exist.)
Thank you. I had worried about the very subtleties that you are writing about. But hoping that Congress and the president will guide Blinken where he needs it successfully.
He's a diplomat. Subtlety is a major qualification for the job. The French term for the equivalent of the American Secretary of State is "chef de la diplomatie".
what amazes me is after two massive anti Netanyahu demonstrations that they have not booted him The man is a fascist. And in NYC the police are brutally cracking down on peaceful protesters. While the fossil fuel companies are pumping money into Congress like never before. They know the end zone for them is in sight! I did the research for a Climate report for the Italian govt. in the 80s.. and it was obvious what would happen. Still, it's hard to watch as it continues to unfold.
Since the Likud party has basically been in power in Israel since 1977, it is not super likely that the majority population is voting in some other party. Gantz has started a new political party, the Resistance Party. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benny-Gantz
Does Gantz have a chance now. Will propping him up look like US interference, something we are infamous for.
Netanyahu has been a disaster. His need to stay out of prison (sound familiar) has made him subservient to the ultra-orthodox. They don't even have to be in the army. The sooner N is gone, the sooner a real workable solution can begin to be discussed.
I agree that Biden has no good solutions for how to be an appropriate ally to Israel. I also believe strongly in being loyal to one's allies. Israel has been dogged by right-wing leaders for a long time. The Likud party came to power in 1977 and Netanyahu is emblematic of what the party represents. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Likud
I don't think Israelis can so easily get rid of Netanyahu and if they do, won't he just be replaced with some other right wing leader? I also wonder what happens in Gaza. Under Hamas things have not been good, not all of that is attributable to Israeli oppression. I am thinking for women Hamas was never good, but regionally women are second class citizens. Is this self determination, or systems of patriarchy that we can not overcome if we cater to their leaders? I support not killing civilians (in this case mainly women and children). Things are volatile, and a lot of mediation needs to happen to hash out a peaceful co-existence between Palestinians and Israelis. I am skeptical wether it can happen. History has preceded us to make that very unlikely as long as Jews have to worry about their very existence dying out. Palestinians are also looking at their country being made very unlivable, but the reality is this is not a good time in the world to immigrate somewhere else. The hostility to foreigners is growing around the world. A right wing agenda coming to fruition. I would like to know if the youth protesting Biden supporting our ally Israel has some ideas of how to solve the problems in addition to stopping weapons from going to Israel? Will Biden just defunding the Israeli military solve the problems in the region to make both Israelis and Palestinians safe? Israel has been a haven for about 7 mil of the 15.3 mil Jews in the world, and it does not seem like they will feel safe in Israel. A big concern is that they are dying out with so much intermarriage of Jews to non-Jews as more and more are secular. Palestinians also have about 15 mil in the world, with 7 mil in Palestine. They have the same worry of dying out or losing their culture as they disperse in the world. I respect the right for both groups to feel safe. Still, neither country is helped by not voting for Biden.
Good points. I was wondering why the Israelis don't trust our system of separation of church and state and freedom of religion since Jewish people have done well in the US? I know the Holocaust really happened although I can't imagine how they and their descendants feel.
There is amongst jews, especially in Israel a second and third generation trauma, passed on from the Holocaust. The reaction and attendant feeling causing trauma to the Palestinians who have their Nakba trauma, living it every day.
I would say the US has been an enabler( weak) for years as well as an ally, and helped get Israel and us, in this election year, into this mess. Israel has turned majority right and unfortunatey they have and will suffer for that agenda's impunity.
Hamas can moderate. I think they would want to and have shown they can. IF Palestinians do not have their freedom and independence to fight for they will want to survive. They will survive as a fighting force otherwise. Again, they will have to moderate to survive. They have indicated they accept Israel. And they can control their militants. But of course this is ignored and it is accepted in Israel that they will "win". Israelis, many of them, believe they should have "river to the sea".
I know that Israel has had a right wing government for a while. However, Hamas is not a liberal government either, or a democratic one. In any case, we are involved in negotiating and trying to see what happens after. That seems super murky to me. Should we decide this or let the Israel and Palestinians decide? Also, who decides that Palestine is a state and what will that change for them? That is what I think should be discussed. Today the UN says. Palestine gots to be a non voting member. https://apnews.com/article/un-resolution-palestinians-membership-rights-us-assembly-875560e897f27d6600090420f36404e4
Palestinians will declare they are a state when there is agreement w Israel, perhaps guaranteed by others. Back to negotiating and this time reasonably and sincerely. People have lost faith because of the process's past.
I don’t judge Hamas as being illegitimate because they are not liberal. I think that is for Palestinians to decide. Right now they are fighting for liberation. They are governing; they exist tolerated or/and because of repression or support as a resistance group that has taken charge. This is also w Israel’s tolerance. We have a lot of complicity in this having helped Israel to dominate the situation to no good result. This is what I think the protests are about. Either Israel allows Palestinians self determination in a state or we must retreat from our unconditional support including military aid. Israel has to change internally to survive. In the meantime political opposition on the right here could win and indulge Israel even more postponing the inevitable or helping Israel destroy itself. This is what I believe.
I think Biden likely waited til the Ukraine aid got through the House before selectively withholding Isaeli aid, esp given the vitriolic Republican response. Pressure negotiations have not worked with Netanyahu's government.
Right on. Except every peace plan before was broken by Hamas. They are not interested in peace or protecting Palestinians as though they were not Palestinians. They planned that Israel's counter-attack after the Oct massacre would take many lives, they could not care less. Using civilians as human shields? All to garner anti-Israel sentiment. A big win for Hamas. If there are demonstrations they should be against Hamas. It is Hamas that has stood in the way of peace.
It's always better to do the right thing than calculate politically. I am voting for Biden. But Biden, though this (and Stormy) might save him politically, came late after all the unbelievable destruction using our bombs. And who is going to fix and pay for Gaza in time to help the people IF Israel ends the occupation. Big if. Nothing will bring back the 34,000 + or minus (plus plus probably) plus the trauma it leaves especially with no state of their own to compensate... something to live for. Netanyahu is saying he can go it alone without our help. Well good! Then do! We'll see how that goes.
Are we seeing the beginning of a blue wave, not of Democratic voters, but of Republicans who are starting to prefer voting for a decent human being rather than an immoral (maybe amoral is a better descriptor) alleged criminal?
A few months ago, when being interviewed by Jen Psaki or Rachel Maddow, Hutchinson said she would not vote for T💩p, but wouldn’t commit to voting for Biden. She’s seen the light. Let’s hope she becomes more vocal about this because she is an exemplar to others.
I am thinking she saw the light after her experience working with the outstanding Democrats on the J6 committee and saw how they focused, worked, and debated among themselves and then realized that her window to history in the Whitehouse was filled with boobs and children pretending to play government.
Thank you for “boobs and children.” I want to add James Clyburn’s “groupies of Putin”thinking that covers the crowd who will vote for a child for president and go to Congress quite incapable of thinking or behaving as internationally informed adults. Then there is climate change, which adds that science hasn’t impressed them either.
I read her book as well. It was very interesting and I was a bit sad for her by the end. She is very young to have already had so many hard lessons. And that father - egads!
Since 1996, character is my first criterion since a President is as likely as not to face an off-the-wall crisis for which a world view and political ideas have no ready solution. Then the country must rely upon what that President has on the inside.
@Betsy. We can't rely on Republicans. We have the capacity to expand our base. To protect American democracy, reach out to millions of unregistered likely Democrats using a dedicated database using every outreach method possible (phone and text, postcard, email and targeted ad, and in-person too), where new Democratic voters will make the most impact – in the most flippable states and districts.
I think that another strategy is to simply get already registered Democrats to the polls to vote. I don't remember the exact percentages...but in Texas' last election, the number of registered Democrats who didn't vote was closer to 50% than 25%.
We have seen what both Trump and Biden can do. Biden ‘s hands are tied by the DNC. He didn’t do enough to stop the corporations from taking over our government.He censored RFkJR his first week in office and demonstrated that he doesn’t recognize democracy is rooted in free speech. RFKJR is a greater champion of democracy than either Biden or HCR.
Biden censored RFKJR? RFK Jr. seems able to air his viewpoints in profusion and at great length in multiple forums. As David Freedlander pointed out in Politico: "There really is no government censorship as commonly defined — that the government neither really coerces nor threatens private citizens or businesses. As for his (RFK Jr.) complaint that the government sometimes flags information on social media platforms as incorrect, after which those platforms remove certain posts, I suggested that presumably the government has as much right to flag suspect content as any other entity, that no one was being killed or imprisoned for their statements or their views and that in fact there were more avenues to reach more people now than ever before."
RFK Jr. says that this supposed censorship is a much greater threat to democracy than the Jan. 6 riot/insurrection and prospective mischief this fall hinted at strongly by MAGA world. Utter nonsense, as is most of his platform as "articulated" online.
My hope is that RFK Jr will siphon some of the wackadoodle vote from Trump; don't really see him as a threat from the left at all.
He said he could make the argument that Biden’s censorship is a greater threat. I take that to mean government censorship is a big deal like the J6 uprising was.He was just rightfully pointing out that Biden isn’t as strong on democracy as he claims to be.Censorship is a slippery slope to authoritarian government. Not nonsense to me bro!
RFKJr "could make the argument"? Is he making the argument or just hinting, Trump-style, that there's some argument to be made, based on a story of Gummint censorship. From what I've seen the Government hasn't censored anyone in the classic sense of authoritarian censorship. Flagging BS/paranoid notions about vaccine, frinstance, is not censorship. The media platform can make the decision to remove bogus, even dangerous, misinformation, without violating First Amendment rights. RFK himself hasn't been silenced, or jailed, or assaulted by Federal agents. Nor have any print publications that might repeat these canards been shut down.
There's more than one "slippery slope", by the way. Another that comes to mind is the one where there's no such thing as objective factual information, alternate realities about large Inauguration crowds and nano-sensors being injected into our bodies; hell, Jewish space lasers. Against that, there are government public health agencies trying to get valid info out there while a pandemic is on. Yes, that information evolved as we learned more week by week about COVID19; so too did the guidance on offer.
Just read your comment about government censoring. Have you listened to anything Doctor Peter McCullough has said?Do you think it’s true that the Covid vaccines have presented risks to our immune system and elevated myocarditis ? Why would RFKJR want to say such things and write a book denouncing Faucci?I for one regret taking the vaccine because COVID was unlikely to kill me and the vaccine weakened my immune system.I’m not convinced the vaccine was the prime cause for declining COVID deaths. I think it was the herd immunity and weakened strain as time went on that did that.
I am hoping that even if they are signaling that that they will write in or just not vote, their better character will vote for Biden once in the secrecy of the voting booth. Biden will need a decisive win to break this MAGA mind virus.
I hope so, too, as a hedge against R.F.K., Jr. Though I suspect, Bobby K. will woo away more voters from Trump's base, filled as it is with those feeling 'unheard' (with some legitimacy) but voting against their interests, one can not be too sure.
In 2020, Georgia Republicans voted for Biden on the presidential ticket, but for other Republicans in down-ballot races. This trend is continuing. What is coming is not a red blue wave, it is an anti Trump/MAGA wave.
NH was ground zero for the alpha test of this tactic (he lost to Clinton by 0.3% of the vote), where he alleged thousands of MA liberals were bussed into NH to vote - no proof, just bluster. Now, the MAGAs are trying this on a national scale, this time alleging that non-citizens are voting for Democrats in large numbers, again based on nothing. We need to call out this 'tactic' for what it is - cynical, anti-American BS, targeting those least able to defend themselves. i agree - character DOES matter.
Dr Richardson predicted the big lie in July or August of 2020, arguing that Trump was laying the ground-work to unveil it in his stump speeches. I felt she was pre-mature; boy, oh boy, was the good professor right on that one. We can not be cocky about Trump.
I certainly hope that a blue wave of Republicans is coming but I won't hold my breath. Like someone on here said earlier that if even just a small portion of Rs vote for Biden or sit out, it will make a difference. A good friend of mine texted me that she truly believes that the higher gas prices that we are seeing is a trick to get Trump back in the WH. She thinks Big Business is jerking our chain and controlling elections. Something to think about.
Interesting, as I remember reading (Bulwark?) sometime back that the “October Surprise” could be a sharp increase in gas’s prices by OPEC in order to affect the election.
Maybe this is how Big Oil is going to raise the 1$ billion donation to Trumps campaign that he is proposing they put up for him? He told them if they give1$ billion to his campaign that he will rescind the regulations that Biden has put on them.Said he would do it” starting on day one” of his new presidency.Hmmmm
Transactional government is Trump's m.o., but reneging on his part of a deal is also his m.o. Big Oil may have written up their agenda for him to sign, but if he's elected, he's going to be awfully busy on Day 1 rounding up and deporting millions of folks, making abortion illegal everywhere, and who knows what else.
And my question for the polluters is always: don't they have kids and grandkids? Why do they prefer profits over people, including their own family?
Yes, I agree with you. He rarely ever does what he says he will do. He's mainly all talk and very little action. All of these people helping to pollute the planet have family and friends that I guess don't mean as much to them as the immediate$$ from destroying the earth.smh
The oil companies may be jerking our chain, but I have faith in the American people. (Truth be told: I have that faith because I have to have it lest I slide into despair.) Hopefully, we can hear a message: first came the big lie and now comes the GREAT BIG BRIBE.
MTG won’t be so easily silenced, unless House Republicans follow through with changing the rules. And Democrats are making a deal with the devil’s associate in Johnson. Vote Blue in November, and return the House majority to Democrats. Increase the Senate majority, and change the undemocratic filibuster rules. Keep Biden, Hutchinson’s statesman, in office to assure the further recovery and stabilization of our democracy. Just imagine further healthcare and tax reforms, a return to the support of public education, investigations into the corruption of the SCOTUS, continuing economic investment, and ethical, principled governance. How refreshing.
I hope the democrats are wary of Johnson, who I believe is the most fake Christian in the country. He gets a group together on the Capital steps and outright lies about illegals voting in federal elections!! Then qualifies his lies by saying, we have no evidence but we know it’s true. Outrageous behavior by a Christian or anyone for that matter. He’s just getting their base riled up. How can their base be so gullible? He has no moral character like his hero Cheetolinni!!
I think the house Democrats are wary of Johnson and are manipulating Johnson...using him and House Republicans to further their strategies. And I think their strategy is working on two fronts. Republicans are being manipulated by Democrats so rather than be seen as being manipulated , they are breaking ranks with the likes of MTG, Massy, and Roy. And it is spreading to other high ranking Republicans . I am impressed by Jeffries and many of the younger Democrats seem to be paying attention and seem to be using advantage to bring good to the American population.
Outrageous indeed, Sharon. May I just paraphrase his statement: “We all know, intuitively, that trump is a criminal. And it’s been something that is easily provable. We have that number." I mean, just use your intuition.
I recognize that. But Johnson is a danger to democracy. A Christian nationalist, he needs to lose the role of Speaker because Democrats take over the majority.
Well, at some point some other Republican can call for his removal and the Dems can refuse to step up for him that time. Or, some Republican who has just had it can declare themselves done and switch parties. Instant change. And there is of course the chance that Jesus will speak directly to Mr. Johnson and he will see the error of his ways. I expect that having lots of close personal contact with Hakeem Jefferies and comparing those conversations to the ones he has had with Citizen Trump is causing Mr. Johnson some sleepless nights.
There isn't much else needed before the election. Except maybe something about seating new members that makes it impossible for MAGAMike to keep power.
I always think of her as a howler monkey. Those pics of her during President Biden’s State of the Union speech confirm she’s related to said monkeys. (Just sayin’. 😉)
Thanks. I'm trying hard to imagine it. But I don't think MAGA Mike is going to give up power and his fever dream of the Christian suppression of women so easily.
The disbanding of FreedomWorks and some recent Republican disavowals of Trump give me some hope of “good karma”—that the most divisive President ever is finally deeply dividing his own party. The GOP should never have hitched its wagon to such a terrible human being in the first place, but please, unhitch now!
Hey Siri, Give me an example of "the quiet part out loud."
~ "Trump appears to have tried a more direct approach to reelection. ..., last month at Mar-a-Lago, Trump told about two dozen top oil executives that if they gave him $1 billion to get reelected, he would immediately reverse the environmental regulations the Biden-Harris administration has put into place and stop any new ones."
Again, this is the only form of negotiation Dumpy understands. Taken one way, it's quid pro quo with him, while taken the other way, it's straight up extortion.
Perhaps that “gut feeling” was just indigestion after all…think Rudy and Jenna had a bad case of it a few years back. It is ludicrous to think that someone here illegally would risk being caught & deported by taking a chance to vote….I can just hear Spock intoning “that is illogical”.
Recent Immigrants appear to statistically be more law abiding than us US born. Prominent Republicans tell slanderous lies without shame or hesitation. If Dominion Voting Systems got some measure of justice for mean-spirited, made-up smears, somehow immigrants should too. A class action law suit?
JL, Neal Casler (sp?) used to be a “handler” on the Apprentice TV show—reading a couple of interviews w/ him was jaw dropping, if not really surprising in retrospect (his attitude was take this old NDA and shove it). Anyway, I gather he now does standup comedy and one of his “jokes” (paraphrasing) is about a small business owner seeing to hire someone & interviewing them….he asks one fellow if he took the bus to get to the interview. No, the fellow said, I walled 1100 miles from x-country & across the USA to get here. HIRED!!!, exclaimed the business owner
I use intuition all the time, and I don't thinks its woo woo, it's a impression with too little evidence to nail down. But that's all it is. I'd never bet the farm on it. It's certainly no basis for law.
JL, many years ago, late 90’s I think, a friend gave me a book “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin de Becker on trusting one’s intuition and “gut feelings” on a whole lot of issues, but being primarily safety related. Anyway, I found it interesting, yet made me think of complicated issues such as beliefs, opinions, prejudices, how we are raised (thinking mostly girls/women), and inclinations coloring our “perceptions”….nonetheless, a worthy read IMHO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_Fear
Yes, I'm not knocking intuition. I've had a lot of luck with it, and in my late teens theorized it was based on gestalt pattern recognition. I believe that my intuitions in certain categories have been substantially better than randomly useful, but can also be dead wrong. It's not a fit basis, in and by itself, to guide policies that affect human lives. Where intuition shines is when you can imagine a possibility and then build an examinable, continuous, empirical path to get there. I think it's the principal process of innovation.
My devious ex husband gave me that book. My gut feeling told me he was a liar but I didn't pay attention until I saw his $50K in credit card debt. Irony, eh?
Jen, been there myself…when first married he’d had a judgement lien against him (gave a “perfect” explanation why of course)….at the sunset of our time together, tho’ I knew the issue, it wasn’t until reading the required information in the marital settlement agreement that I found he had (via being a couple & me w/ an excellent credit rating) amassed some 27 credit accounts, only a couple I was aware of. Surprise! being in a community property state. That was ages ago, lesson learned.
I think I became aware of deBecker when I went to a training class put on by a guy who was teaching Officer Safety. He said that book had completely explained a phenomenon that many cops experienced which is "I don't know why I thought that xxx would happen, I just knew it" (this was in reference to taking a subject into custody and "just knowing" he was armed; he was). The other, more telling one was "I thought he was going to be trouble but didn't know why, so I didn't handcuff him" and ended up almost being killed by the arrestee.
I gave that book to my sister, and every other woman that I was close to, plus bought several "loaner" copies for deputies to read and take home to their families.
I have yet to read the book, but I know the feeling. Some people just exude creepiness; that their aim is manipulation. My first impressions of people are not always accurate. Sometimes people who seemed cold were just guarded and some people I thought were OK enough betrayed me in some way. But some just give off predatory vibes, and I think my spidey sense has been pretty accurate with those. One clue is that those who shamelessly screw unto others will screw unto you. I gather from the the Wikipedia description of the "Fear"book that that it breaks down traits of predatory sociopathy, whether or not is uses that language.
My creep-o-meter was pinned with Trump long before he took office, but others see him as "Dear Leader". I think the best chance for survival of our species is a mass effort to become way better informed about the whole compass of human nature and reactions,, as a species and as ourselves. I continue to struggle with that.
JL, I live in a rural area on the other side of the country….knew a bit about TFFG from the news/mags & Apprentice (tho never watched it). My initial and still held opinion is “what a gold-plated faker”—-did learn, however, the gold-plating covered much more rot than I knew.
Intuition is the result of unconscious processes that are often more accurate than the rational.
Speaker Kennedy's intuition, in the face of overwhelming evidence and logic to the contrary of his 'intuition', is merely political fantasy that he knows is false but caters to MAGAs.
Buckminster Fuller is attributed with defining intuition as "high-speed intellect" and my experience resonates with that sometimes, but only sometimes. Other times, I agree with 100Panthers, "Intuitively = Faith = I fabricated it because I want it to be".
While I agree with MaryPat 'intuitively', I think too many *claimed intuitions are bluffs *(or wishful thinking) masquerading as reason. That is why someone like Representative Moskowitz is needed to call Chairman Comer's bluff-as-'intuition' that President Biden is corrupt. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5116947/user-clip-hooray-jared-moskowitz
That false intuition can happen to anyone. Why l changed from pro-life to pro-choice, though I never favoured over-turning Roe v. Wade. Intuitions are tricky things.
Republican fantasists cite intuitive claims over inconvenient truths, aka, those laughable “alternative facts.” It’s almost as ludicrous as TFG with his “people are saying,” and “this has never happened before in all of history, etc. They probably all had parents whose primary reason for behavioral expectations was “Because I said so.”
It's the use of the interior rhyme that's so inspiring. Language is about sound and sense. We so often underrate the value of sound! Rhythm is more obvious in speechifying, especially when the speaker practices out loud. Cadences stand out. A writer with his ears on, however, can appreciate the power of: "there is are cows on Mars." I'm considering writing a song or perhaps a Far Side musical based on this line. In my family where children can quote entire collections of Calvin and Hobbes we sometimes underestimate the power of a well-turned phrase in political discourse! Underestimate it at your peril!
I'm unfamiliar with your work, J.L. By any chance, should you be poetically inclined, we fans of your line : "is are cows on Mars" are hoping it is a line quoted from an existing work. If not, we'd love it if you'd leap on the opportunity to make it one line in, say, a 14 line sonnet?
The very idea that oil executives would draw up executive orders for a president to sign which would remove public health and safety standards or regulations is a crime in two ways.
First, the billion dollar bribe to the president, if they made it.
Second, for the treason associated with knowingly endangering and compromising our climate which is in an existential crisis. I say treason because it does intentional irreparable harm and injury to our nation. A betrayal that can ruin our existence. States are working on legislation or lawsuits to hold fossil fuel companies responsible for damages caused by extreme weather that these states have and expect to suffer.
We need more not less liability for all businesses so that when they are found to have damaged or are damaging lives, health and environment, they can be held accountable. The immunity laws that have passed seem to mostly protect the more dangerous industries like gun manufacturers and distributors. Industries that can be sued are more likely to abide by laws, better practices and be more self improving. Liability to be effective must aim at practiced or reckless perpetrators, and should not be allowed to be used to profit lawyers and clients on frivolous claims.
Based on the established fact that fossil fuel companies KNEW that their product would lead to negatively altering the environment, there should be some punishment. And some action to prevent further campaigns of lies. I'd start with prosecuting top executives for wanton destruction of Planet Earth.
Then I would nationalize the whole industry with a goal of diverting profits to the development of more and more sustainable sources of energy like fusion and geothermal. Rather than enriching shareholders and top management via stock buybacks, hundreds of billions could be pumped back (pun intended) into the economy with new jobs and infrastructure investment - like a world class electric grid that is less vulnerable to nature's wrath and sabotage.
The oil and gas under the Earth's surface is owned by just a few people. The laws enabled that. The laws gave the oligarchs that gift. But I make the case that it belongs to all of us. Including the flora and fauna that created it. Petroleum and its byproducts should have a steward that respects the planet. To do otherwise is to cede its future to money grubbing, intellectually challenged thieves. Change the laws. Change the future.
Does the specific offer to reverse regulations in return for money rise to the level of soliciting a bribe? It seems obvious to me, a layperson, that the answer is yes. Let's say I am the head of the planning commission for a city and I approach a developer and say "I will approve a new subdivision for you to build if you give me a $10,000 campaign fund donation.
If an oil company now gives money to Trump or his campaign does that constitute a bribe or do we have to wait for Trump to actually reverse the regulations before we can call it a crime?
Heather was going in the best direction for a good while here.
Story after story of men underestimating women -- or of women fools such as marble mouth Marge who continually exhibit, reinforce the worst men's most vulgar stereotypes of women.
But some women surprise. Cassidy Hutchinson for one. Nikki Haley another. Both escaped from the downward-spiral-of-the-toilet that too many men have joined in huckstering their low-life Trump -- and too many cowardly suckers-up-to-powers women Republicans, too.
Not Cassidy. Not Nikki.
I'd have loved Heather to have picked up on the greatest show of all today -- Stormy Daniels turning on festering bully Trump's effort to have his female attorney sex-shame her. Like Cassidy, like Nikki, Stormy wasn't having it. She got the Trump female attorney (yes, she has a name, Susan Necheles) to sink deeper into her sex-shaming, when Stormy got her to introduce the final coup of all -- setting up clear identity of Trump as the orange turd deserving to be flushed down the toilet. By Stormy, and by too many fool women ever sucking up to the low-life to whom too many sick men have also sucked up.
But Lawrence also highlighted his own delight in how it was Stormy who negotiated the unwitting elite-talking Trump lawyer, Susan Necheles, into translating some legalese jargon behind which she'd been hiding her fealty to Trump's vulgarity -- and for Stormy, for judge and jury, and for all of us translating it into the orange turd down the toilet meme that will now live forever so long as English at its best may live.
LOL…George, I will await the mass marketing of products on my TeeVee to remove “Orange Turd” stains from my toilet…..after, hopefully, a successful flush!
That was so nasty. I had found myself thinking "you went into a man's hotel room, what did you expect?" Following her testimony. And then realized I was doing it too. Because the entire culture sex shames women.
Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out how that attitude gives men permission. Women should expect everywhere that consent is given. We need to make sure our girls know that ALWAYS consent is required. And the boys club that is law enforcement needs to know it too.
Jen, in my childhood, I was raised on the belief that it was the woman’s job to keep men under control because men’s urges were so strong. Boys were only told to use protection so that a girl wouldn’t use pregnancy to trick them into marriage. The Eve story (tricking Adam into eating the apple) and the story of Jezebel (using sex to lure men into idolatry) paint bad women (anyone who has sex outside of marriage) as vipers luring powerless men into “bad acts”. By this logic, if men commit sexual assault, it’s the woman’s fault for luring them. Promiscuous men are “studs” and are congratulated for their actions; promiscuous women are “sluts” who deserve to be punished with STD’s and unwanted pregnancy.
And if you observe religion, it's bs written by men to excuse their behavior and blame someone else. Look at Islam, women can't even show their hair. Add in the fact men are physically bigger and stronger, you've just made my case for gelding males. We don't need but a few of them.
I get you're just kidding (at least I hope so), but your comment about "...gelding males... don't need but a few of them" is offensive and blatantly sexist. From this comment and others you've made in the past, the lens you see men through is troubling and its expression doesn't belong in this forum. I'm disappointed you even got several Likes from it.
Very much appreciate, Mary, both your and Jen's notes on male permissiveness.
I saw all that you say when I was in the U.S., both growing up and then in school and public life. Later on I spent many years in European countries. Recently, the past 15 years in Japan.
So please let me add to your good comments that males even more also lose out from any patriarchy that privileges them. Worse in Japan than in either U.S. or Europe. Please note three first-rate books by Japanese women on this:
1: "All She Was Worth," by Miyuki Miyabe;
2: "Out," by Natsuo Kirino;
3: "The Fall of Language in the Age of English," by Minae Mizumura.
...."boys club that is law enforcement..." 100% accurate. Boy, do I have a bunch of examples for that. But my favorite one was this:
Dispatched to a call of a violation of a Restraining Order. Caller said "my friend just called and there's no one on the line. She has me set up on speed dial (this was in the early 90's, kids) and is afraid her husband will violate the restraining order. I was primary on the call (it was in my half of our 4600 square mile county), but both of us went. In this case, hubby had violated the R/O and climbed in the window on the back side of the residence, and raped her, leaving by the front door. At the time, it was our policy to call out detectives for these types of calls. Our sergeant wasn't going to call them out because "a man can't rape his wife". Both of us deputies crossed the line of insubordination in demanding that he call out detectives AND treat this as a Rape I, although we did get a detective (who wanted to know why we called him out to investigate, they were married) that responded to the scene. I went with her to the hospital for the medical exam, and the other deputy handled the on scene investigation, including evidence gathering that the detective did not want to do.
Long and the short of it is the hubby was prosecuted for Rape I, pled to Rape II and got 8 years in prison. The other deputy on duty that day was, later in his career, a detective, detective sergeant, and retired as the Police Services Captain. He was able to change the culture quite a bit.
It's hard to hit like on that story. But the ending is a reason.
My father, when after 50 years I finally told I had been raped as a child living under his roof, said "how did you manage to get yourself raped." And then wondered why I didn't tell my mom.
I don't know how you managed that career. Hats off to you.
I am so sorry that your father said that to you. Just disgusting, in my book.
How I managed that career was that I was able to balance the good with the bad, avoid engaging in destructive coping skills, and not being overinvested in my role as a cop.
All benefit, Ally, from all efforts to see and respect "others" better.
I teach English to all ages of people here in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan. Some very fine adults. Many kids. Many of the girls (again, all ages) have especially wonderful nuances, subtleties, observation skills, senses of humor, as well as physically delightful variations. So good to see and interact with them.
I'm sorry for any society whose schools and other institutions fill with those who've learned stereotyping, grouping (groping?), and the other types of labeling and categorizing that leave them stupid, blind, insensitive -- and thus too often also dangerous.
The fat but famous celebrity orange guy invited Stormy to dinner. She was hungry. She was also a worker in a very public field, so an invitation to dinner from an older but famous, well-placed man then deserved venturing yes.
They had no dinner. The fat orange guy had other plans. Stormy had good reason to regret then how things developed. Better reason today for contempt for the orange turd.
You found the perfect quote for you closing, Heather. Biden is a stronger thinker than most people realize, and a towering character compared to the sleazy, lizard brained former President.
Good, experienced, pragmatic President. BBC Radio news this morning was all alarming fire-and-brimstone reactions to "first time since 1982" that the US has failed to support Israel...now let me see: who was president then? Oh yes. The one who used to be a film actor.
Best news in a long time, with a glimmer of hope that perhaps some Republicans have come to their senses and/or mustered up the courage to stand up for democracy and for the good of the country over party.
Jen, Graham, like the woman at the McCain rally who believed the birther claims, needs McCain to tell him that what he’s bought into is a load of horse pucky. Since McCain died, he’s rudderless, spinning in the MAGA wind.
It took Biden long enough to decide that using our weapons by Israel to bomb, kill and destroy civilians was terribly wrong. But I am glad he has said it. I hope he follows through. We can thank our university students for turning up the heat to accomplish this. They have been our pressure cooker release valve. Waiting any longer would have been a catastrophe.
I would also like Biden and the American people to clearly say that our university students are not antisemitic. Those who demonstrated to withhold weapons, to draw a clear line for peace. Many of these students are Jewish. They should be acknowledged for standing up for the lessons of the Holocaust. “Never Again” anywhere!
I am sure Biiden knew very early on that "using our weapons by Israel to bomb, kill and destroy civilians" was terribly wrong. His conundrum included the requirements written into our historical treaties to support Israel, the political support Nitwit had in both Israel and in the U.S., and the fact that Hamas is immersed in the civilian populations. As you say, the American student demonstrators are not antisemetic. They are effective, and they now give Biden the political support he needs to curtail our military allocations to a murderous Israeli dictator. Student protests worked for Vietnam for the same reason.
Mary Pat, you know your history. But if you have not read Jimmy Carter's 2006 book "Palestine: Peace of Apartheid", it is a good book to share with those who have no factual idea what has been going on with the Israel Palestinian issues for the past 50 years. Yes, we gave Israel veto power over every peace initiative with the Palestinians, which made every negotiation on Israel's terms. There has never been an equitable peace negotiation, and no serious US support for the Palestinians getting a realistic and equitable chance, though we claimed to be impartial.
"The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017" is a 2020 book by Rashid Khalidi, an older Palestinian American teaching at Columbia University, whose family goes back generations in Jerusalem dating back to the Ottoman Empire. This is a more thorough description of the conflict written in a scholarly manner with failures and weaknesses pointed out for all parties. Probably not the first book to read by those trusting everything they hear from Israel.
I also found this Ezra Klein Show interview discussion to be very effective. Ezra Klein asked very good questions and made well founded comments. He helped demonstrate whether intentional or not, how difficult it is for even scholarly peace supporting Israeli's have a difficult time standing back from the Israel state narrative that the burden of peace falls on the Palestinians who have no power and who are asked Israel to accept terms that Israel would never accept.
Exactly, but this divide is the landscape in US politics. The country is pretty equally divided between Dems/Indies/Repubs - but the states' numbers are shifting.
Until the 2022 election, AZ never in our lifetime had Dems hold the two 2 Senate seats AND the Governorship. 60 yrs ago this was the place of Goldwater, further right than Reagan. So, the fact that current polls have Rueben Gallego ahead is an astonishing shift in AZ. BUT, this shift has been expected, as people hoped AZ would have gone Hillary in 2016.
In GA., Stacey Abrams had realistic hopes to be elected Gov. in 2018, but narrowly lost. Then, the Dems won four successive Senate races and it flipped not only the US Senate, but every political observer! Now, we have sights on the Gov seat.
The fact that Kerry Lake is down to the low 40s is significant, and Gallego has all of the advantages in his favor right now. As is the case with ALL of the races in the chart.
Thank you, Professor. It gives one a bit of hope to think that some of these blind followers in the cult of trump may be regaining their sight. But I’m not holding my breath!
Trump must never be forgotten but the legislators who sold out and enabled his criminality must also be remembered and held to account. They made him possible.
All of which makes Paul Ryan saying “Character is too important to me,” grimly laughable.
This is not a direct comment about today's letter, but so relevant anyway! Below is a link to a piece written by Steven Beschloss, the author of the Time Magazine article/interview of Trump. Please check this out and send far and wide as it starkly shows Trump's idiocy and unfitness for office, as well s highlighting some of the onerous policies of Project 2025!
Joan, thank you so much for sharing this article. Really-thank you. It’s a clear insight-and startlingly frightening insight-into the complete lack of intelligence or self awareness or competence that is Trump.
When it comes to Gaza, Biden is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. He’s made the right move, however. Now the Israeli people need to do the same and get rid of Netanyahu and seek a peace plan that includes a Palestinian state.
So glad he's got Blinken there.
The most effective way to control, or even remove Netanyahu is to elevate Benny Ganz. Even if the primary motivation of the protests may not be antisemitism, antisemites took advantage of the situation. MSM does not mention Ganz, who leads in the polls in Israel, would displace Netanyahu, supports a two state solution, which is US policy, is at 85 %. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Gantz
From onset, the Knesset had the ability to do a deal in principle on the table. There was a pause, but Hamas would not deal. Qatar, Egypt etc are not principals and are not honest brokers. Qatar is NOT a mediator. Qatar grants amnesty to murderers, rapists. Egypt and Jordan, only a few miles from the action refuse to accept innocent Gazans.
Both the US and Israel say half of the numbers of dead are Hamas. And Hamas has a history of killing its own people and blaming Israel. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/05/gaza-palestinians-tortured-summarily-killed-by-hamas-forces-during-2014-conflict/
To me, card carrying Semite, the acid test is whether the leaders of the protests would support Ganz. to achieve removal of Netanyahu?
Congress makes appropriations. Besides Gaza, we were close to war with Iran, and some of the hostages in Gaza are US citizens. US ships have been attacked by Yemen, who says they did it to support Hamas. Hamas is a proxy of Iran and maybe Russia.
Meanwhile the Trump blueprint is laid out in Heritage foundation Project 2025. Reinstate Muslim bans. Concentration camps. Mass deportations. Trump allies want a country where only "Christians" have full citizenship.
MSM misrepresents the nature of Israel, which has an Arab Party, Arab members in the Knesset, and Arab Druze voluntarily serving in the army. I do not know this as a fact but I bet the Arab Party supports Ganz. What about the mayor of Dearborn? The leaders of the Columbia protests? What about the Republicans?
Nobody is protesting the hundreds of thousands of Arabs killed by their brethren in Syria and Yemen.
Daniel S., re. “Hamas is a proxy of Iran and maybe Russia.” I was thinking Netanyahu is a proxy for Russia. What do you think?
If Netanyahu had had a more measured and more strategic response to Oct. 7th, we’d be a lot more focused on Ukraine these days. Netanyahu’s response benefits Putin.
(Netanyahu’s actions to wipe out the enemy — Hamas— has created far more enemies. His is a bad strategy for Jews in Israel and everywhere — as well as horribly inhumane towards Palestinian civilians.)
I think of Netanyahu as being a proxy for Russia too. I look at who has most benefitted from this war between Hamas and Israel, and I see Russia getting to get rid of Biden, sending Bots to rile up the youth (not saying they cannot be on their own, but who of them is not influenced by social media these days), and then we have the distraction from Ukraine.
Linda, I have wondered the same thing and sent a question to "Beau of the Fifth Column" youtube which he did not answer. (He gets hundreds of questions a week, so it was a chance he'd answer.
I wondered WHY students are protesting this particular issue. I totally am a pacifist and sickened by war, and have donated to World Food Kitchen. Beau did have a clip where a young protestor wrote in, upset by the her perceived actions of some of her fellow students. He addressed this, and also mentioned that in the US, there is a ready-build audience for the issues in Gaza.
Ok, I get the audience thing, but I still wonder why this conflict? The horrors of war in the Ukraine did not send US students into the street. I don't recall any students in the past decades protesting genocide in Africa. (in the Trump labeled "shit countries") I am sure that there are students with family ties to victims in Gaza, and I am very sure that anti-Semitism is on the rise, but unlike the 60s where young men were drafted to fight in a foreign war, or BLM protests where people protested against the murder of fellow Americans, I haven't seen this type of anger. I haven't seen this type of protest against the separation of families at the border, or the way asylum seekers are treated.
It is causing some young people to seemingly turn against Biden. I admire that young people care about humanity halfway across the globe, but I wonder if they believe Trump would be a better option? I wonder if they realize what they--the US youth--would lose if Project 2025 in put in place?
I wonder how many of those protesting cared about foreign policy before they, as you put it, saw it on social media? How many of them truly care about this foreign conflict, and how many of them are there to click a selfie to post?
I know that this sounds cynical, but I have wondered WHO benefits the most from these protests? At the risk of sounding as though I am donning a tin-foil hat, is there some effort to gin up opposition to Biden through this?
I add a worthy read from Dan Rather's Substack:
https://steady.substack.com/p/bidens-big-dream-for-the-middle-east?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=247881&post_id=144487224&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ithz2&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Miselle, I have been wondering about the same things. Certainly could be upset about wars all over the planet that have US involvement, but the press is not covering that so openly. The story that has been made of this is very interesting. I still think Russian bots are stirring up more people. I do understand that the protest is the injustice of our tax dollars going to support a government that the students see as undeserving. It also means that they have an idea that our allies must be perfect or else. I know that for a lot of Black students, and non-White students it looks in the press like the White people (Israel, which is multicolored and diverse as far as I know), and suppressing the Brown people (Gazans). I assume that Russian bots are stirring things up, because if they were not they would be being less competent than we know they are. This is what Putin does, from his KGB days, he stirs up trouble, and manipulates people. Social media is easy for Putin to exploit. For anyone for that matter. Again, Hitler was carefully crafting his image and using media in new and different ways to get his campaign message across. Tiktok is coopted in this way too. The protests seem to have made Biden shift his Israel policy so in that they are seeming to have an effect. Also, places like Northwestern made an agreement with students that they would be open about their investments and have a student advisory committee. They also will fund 5 Palestinian students. How that will help most of the people starving in the streets I don't know. People need to be more clear on how ugly war is. I am not promoting war, but I think we should stand by our allies. Palestine has not really had a chance to be an ally because they have not been an official state. It is a troubled region for sure. There are many others that could draw student ire and support too, but do not. I would say coverage of them makes all the difference.
I have been wondering right along who is ginning up these protests. Miselle, you are far more clear-eyed than I on asking this question.
That's what I meant by the same feedlines.
No, Putin is just making lemonade. Too complicated for Putin. When there is a war situation made, you cannot predict. The protests here are mostly real I believe... they don't need the riling up. I am not a fan of conspiracy in this situation.
I don't say it is definitely so, but when my suspicions rise, I listen to them. There is a lot that is unknowable. In the Stasi Files, I see the discussion of Putin along with his East German ID from when he lived in Dresden. What is written sounds really like he was playing the KGB against the Stasi, to get his own way. So, just looking at the long history of who he is, I believe he is involved in some way, even if it is indirectly with Bots.
You underestimnate Putin.
I have said from the beginning that Russian secret services are involved through Iran.
Netanyahu's only conern is what is best for him. If Putin benefits so what, Putiin, Netanyahu and Trump are all cut from the same cloth.
Yes, and Netanyahu was rumored to have had a meeting with Putin shortly before Oct.7. I think the tactics N has used are similar to the relentless bombings of Ukraine's civilians. What's in it for Putin? There was a massive distraction from Ukraine by the US' delayed funding, world condemnation of the US and Israel, and chaos everywhere.
Daniel Solomon,
What do we know about Ganz, other that he is an ambitious politician and sees an opportunity to replace Netanyahu. I see Ganz giving lots of hugs and mixing in the crowds when he has an opportunity.
Good and decent leaders are hard to come by. President Joe Biden's character and experience and genuine love and respect for our country and all that we are supposed to represent is a rare and precious gift.
Israel deserves better than it has, yet Netanyahu was elected????!!!!!
It is alot easier to foment hatred of our fellowman/woman than to work for peace.
YET...how wonderful and productive to live in peace.
When we say "Arabs"...when we say "Iranians", do we fill our hearts with negative images from the news? And YES, there is plenty of evil going on.....but often this dehumanizes people and we begin to see this group...this country as an enemy.
We need to see more families getting up in the morning , having a meal ....maybe morning prayers together....dispersing to walk, drive, bike, etc to work. We need to understand that there are moms, dads, grandparents just like us trying to survive....to care for their families with hope that their children will have a better world in which to live.
Daniel, as a Christian, it has personally become difficult for me to find a place of worship. Look at the bunch Jesus chose. Only one remained at the cross with His mother, Mary, when Jesus was crucified. They were there for the miracles but they couldn't understand "the cross". The others scattered. Jesus came to redeem the lost and broken and those whom His love and grace and steadfast presence will not abandon though, belonging to such a great salvation does not eliminate pain and suffering or poverty ,etc.
I find it difficult when those who have been "saved from hell" want to send everyone who doesn't fit in "their Christian box" there????
Thanks for the peacemakers...of all faiths...or those who choose not to belong to a faith.
Check out Combatants for Peace: https://cfpeace.org/. It's "a grassroots movement of Israelis and Palestinians, working together to end the occupation and bring peace, equality and freedom to our homeland." They've got two events coming up, both of which will be livestreamed: the 19th Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Day Ceremony this Sunday, May 12, and the Joint Nakba Remembrance Ceremony next Wednesday, May 15. There's also an U.S. support group called American Friends of Combatants for Peace: https://www.afcfp.org/.
@ Emily Pfaff. Susanna Sturgis.
Hamas and others like Islamic Jihad are murderers. They've murdered not only Jews but their own people. Christians are next. B'hai. All infidels. Israeli Arabs are the only Moslems in the entire region that have due process.
We don't get to vote in Israeli elections. They have an Arab party. Arab members of the Knesset. About a million Israeli Jews speak Arabic as their first language, because their families were expelled to Israel in 1948. More than 100,000 speak Farsi. 99% of the Arab Christians fear Islamists more than Jews. Arab Druze serve voluntarily in the Israeli army. I keep waiting for them to stand up.
Some cities like Haifa are diverse, Jews and Arabs living together since the crusades. Jerusalem was like that until 1948, when the Arab Legion/Jordan attacked. Restored in 1967.
Start with the proposition that Ganz is not Netanyahu. Do not look a gift horse in the mouth.
Thanks for the info.
"Israel deserves better than it has, yet Netanyahu was elected????!!!!!" So was Trump.????!!!!!
In similar circumstances.
Great post, Daniel, Gantz sounds like a good route to peace. Iran must be brought under control. The Ayatollah is NOT Allah, in fact he's not even good to his own people, he has more in common with the southern fundamentalist so-called Christians than he does with other Muslims.
I'm right with you. I had such a surge of hope until Netanyahu managed to weasel his way back in around Gantz. His undercover support system has the same feedlines as that of Trump.
Russia/Putin.
Exactly. NKVD, KGB - very stringent training, lasts a lifetime.
Yes. I tell people who don’t “get” Putin, “once a KGB, always a KGB.” If that doesn’t hit home I mention his time in East Germany as Stasi. But KGB training isn’t clear to most Americans. Actually, Trump with the oilmen sounds as close to KGB as anything I’ve ever heard by an American. The oilmen whose companies knew about climate change even before 1988 (Hansen of NASA’s infamous 15 minutes to explain climate change to an uncomprehending Congress—excepting Al Gore who had already written a book with the information, which, as a farmer he could understand the implications) are even more guilty than Childe Trump.
A kitchen sink analysis- you got it all in Daniel S. I did not know that semites carry cards. I had better get mine. I disagree with your rant dragging in all that is disreputable about every country involved. Those, regardless, are needed to make a peace or at least ceasefire happen, including Hamas. Hamas is needed for peace.
The protests "acid test"? Here our support especially the weapons, precipitates the protests. Protests here and elsewhere are the result of photos and reports that Israelis hardly see in their MSM unless they go looking. They don't want to see the damage and know Gazan suffering, the numbers, nor know of their plight; many reason they are guilty for supporting Hamas. So is Netanyahu. Protests in Israel, are reported as being for hostages return. Maybe some want to end the war. Many Israelis have died - over 600 soldiers.
The Arabs( Palestinians) in Israel are not allowed to have much influence regardless. But many identify with the plight of Gazans and must have to keeps their heads down in an increasingly repressive Israel.
Dozens of Zionists are among the protestors who have been arrested. As if you speak for the Israeli Arabs who happen to serve in the Israeli army.
2 choices in Israel. Ganz or Netanyahu.
70% of US Jews are Democrats, and most opposed Likud, and especially Netanyahu. This is a replay of 2014. Here's a little history. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/05/gaza-palestinians-tortured-summarily-killed-by-hamas-forces-during-2014-conflict/
Here, this has been a window of opportunity for antisemites to take advantage of the situation. Shades of blood libel.
Anti-Semitism is ever present. Jewish people have cried anti-Semitism at every opportunity. This is ultra-sensitivity to a point of cancelling concern when people have to be so careful about what they say or what group they support because it criticizes Israel. The conflation of Israel with Judaism is objectionable to many Jews who are not Zionists, or not what Zionism has become politically, two separate feelings about Israel.
That you bring up blood libel is telling. The REAL anti-Semites want to engage you and are happy to have the Israel critics to attach themselves to.
Do me a favor and don't send me cherry picked links about the bad things that Hamas did in the past as part of this ongoing war between Israel and Hamas ( and all Palestinians) UNLESS you are going to balance this.. which you are not going to I gather.
Where do I apply for my semite card? What do I need paper/record-wise?
A lot to consider, Daniel! Thanks.
As my father said some 50 years ago, "stay out of the middle east and they will all kill each other." May he rest in peace. But the Trump situation surely has him turning over in his grave. He knew that the most important thing about America was the peaceful transistion of power. Where have all the flowers gone?
Why in the world should anti-occupation protesters support Benny Ganz? Netanyahu is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.
If they want to save lives, the immediate solution.
"Occupation" applies to the West Bank. Our policy is still the Oslo Accords. Land for peace. UN Resolution 242.
Unfortunately, you are not speaking to Reich and his newsletter subscribers, who have done as much damage to Israel's standing in the world as MSM. It's a coordinated effort to eliminate the only democratic state in the Middle East.
A brilliant response, Daniel. Truth in packaging #1: there are points of disagreement. Truth in packaging #2: said points are utterly marginal.
Daniel. the tragedy too many of us take for granted is that of 07oct23. The subsequent tragedy of what is occurring now dates back to 08oct23. As a philo-Semite and one who reveres Judaism as the one large Western faith that makes sense to me except Unitarianism (i.e., my faith, a safe harbor for 'slackadaisical' agnostics like me), my blood ran hot on 08oct23. Vengeance flowed through me and I wanted hamas to be crushed and did not think about those Gazans, some of whom, after all, cheered in the streets as gangsters paraded hostages and bodies by them.
Since my feelings are inconsequential in the world beyond a five foot radius around me, they did not matter. The Israelis -- all Israelis -- did not enjoy the luxuries of insignificance, detachment, and leisure on 08oct23. They knew that hamas practices -- has even stated openly -- an eliminationist ant-Semitism, as catalogued by Dr Goldhagen in "hitler's willing executioners".
When the spectre of a repeat Holocaust looms first and foremost, impulse control likely fades, especially in the case of Netanyahu who has an interest in retaining leadership through a potential long-war. Add to that the near certainty of a permissive Gazan populace -- by affiliation or resignation -- necessary for an attack on the scale of that blood-drunk orgy of 07oct23 to proceed, concerns for the Gazan street fade also, at least temporarily.
Looking back now, what I believe the world witnessed on 07oct23 was a six-to-twelve month intifada compressed into a day through careful planning and technology. The result of a longer intifada would be no less atrocious, yet the response that the situation itself would elicit would be different. A perverse affirmation of timing being everything. That is to say: instead of pursuing a contentious counter-insurgency in an urban environment, Netanyahu has replicated something like a total war on miniature scale. Sadly, until now, the U.S. has become complicit, at least by shipping bunker-busting bombs for use in a densely populated area.
A counter-insurgency in an urban environment requires working with the population in a manner consistent with principles of community policing. It also requires changing the treatment of Palestineans with the concomitant respect entitled to fellows, not felons. The locals must understand that they have a better future with the Jewish state than with a Palestinean gangster régime. My sense is that there were enough Gazans willing to work with the I.D.F. to hunt down the worst of hamas and to seal the tunnels, at least the key ones. My conviction remains that there are far more than enough Israeli Jews willing to welcome such a change.
What we have seen, sadly and instead, is Israël, perhaps the far-right coalition, lapsing into war crimes. As I learned in Iraq, good people can do bad things; it is what they do afterward in making amends and what lessons they learn that counts more going-forward. I am beginning wonder if I passed judgement too hastily about the war crimes; after all, lsraël must complete the mission of eliminating hamas. What a horrid dilemma for our democratic kin.
Another reason why I must pause about accusing Israël of war crimeis that I have assumed that the thirty-five thousand slain Gazans are all innocents, albeit tainted and killed in addition to hamas fighters. BIG ERROR on my part. Additionally I have accepted that thirty-five thousand number though it might be biassed by hamas-influence in the counting.
While my first reaction to your number 17,500 hamas fighters killed (versus the fourteen thousand I have read) is one of skepticism, if I am willing to accept the total number of people killed at thirty-five thousand, I am willing to accept that half are comabattants. Either way, however, by the reckoning of most urban warfare scenarios, the percentage of civilians killed is not higher, likely lower, than those witnessed in recent conflicts.
One can argue that Israël is showing restraint, at least kinetically. So, the dilemma continues. Israël will survive, though Netanyahu is likely doing more to jeopardize her long-term security than to aid it by alienating peace-minded Palestineans and likely proving to be the best recruiter hamas ever had. For peace to triumph and for the Jewish state to prosper in righteousness will require deep cultural changes toward Palestineans. More than my faith, history tells me that, if there is a people out there with the capacity for justice, resilience, and charity to make that change, it is my Jewish brethren.
As an oldster who has faith in your faith, Daniel, I close with these two verses from the Tanakh brought to me through Episcopal schooling: "And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." --Leviticus 33-34.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A33-34&version=KJV
Where do I get a card as a Semite?
Buy a tree.
The quality of the team (and appointments to the SCOTUS/ federal judges) is what is so crucial for any presidential election and administration. As HCR has noted a number of times, the group Biden has brilliantly put together is top shelf. When it comes to walking the international gauntlet, the team led by Blinken is the best! I shudder to think of the chaos and perhaps nuclear holocaust that would be with trump occupying the WH. We barely survived (and many did not!) the last round.
Agreed Janet - "As HCR has noted a number of times, the group Biden has brilliantly put together is top shelf."
Compare this with what TFG sent to the MidEast in the worst case of nepotism in history,...his son-in-law, Kushner w/o security clearance, experience or a plan so, surprise!,...came home instead with a $2b "Trust Fund" having done nothing for the cause of peace. Add to that how TFG's daughter applied for and got over forty (that's 40) trademarks from China that were fast tracked and it's clear their intent was never for the good of the US or world but, personal grift.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/22/ivankas-trademark-requests-were-fast-tracked-in-china-after-trump-was-elected/?sh=eac9c101d60f
Janet, if we all use "compare and contrast" logic to determine whom to vote for, the answer is simple: Joe Biden and any other D on any ballot.
Agree, Janet. I am happy with the team Biden has put together in foreign affairs, but other cabinet posts and agencies as well. For a while, we had people here in Salem who label themselves progressives regularly dissing Biden. Always I would point out the diversity and ability of his cabinet. As for the protests, the one at Portland State has a small number of students and a large percentage of Portland's small group of people who love vandalism and destruction. Many of the students there have voiced their unhappiness about this because it is still getting in the way of their education because the library is a mess and closed and it will take some time and considerable money to fix it. Even people who should know better sometimes have tunnel vision. We have a friend who is veery knowledgable politically and yet she recommended a vote in the 6th district primary for McLeod Skinner who cannot win in the general here in Marion County over Bynum who has beaten the incumbent R twice in other elections. I want a D house and it will deal with different problems than local land use. And death star....why would decent patriotic real Christian chose this dangerous criminal who is showing signs of dementia over a decent and savvy pol like Biden.
"So glad he's got Blinken there."
Up until last week, I would have entirely agreed. But it has become clear that Blinken is ignoring State Department analyses of past and current IDF violations of US and international
law. And instead, accepting as credible Netanyahu regime assurances that they are in compliance. It seems Blinken may be at odds with Biden's policy - the pause in delivery of offensive military aid was announced by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austen.
As part of Pres. Biden's National Security Memorandum 20 (issued in February at the urging of Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris VanHollen, and which expands the Leahy Laws) the State Department was to give Congress a report on Israeli compliance with US and international law. State has asked for an extension.
The Biden memorandum requires nations in line for support to provide, in writing, credible evidence that they are in compliance with the laws of war and humanitarian law. Among others, there are serious questions about whether Israel is violating these laws by blocking the delivery of food to Gaza. Blinken is expected to say, as with the earlier events that Israel is in compliance. That currently, while there are suspected violations Israel is not misusing weapons or blocking aid.****
I understand that evidentiary requirements of the law are different than what seems apparent to other observation and investigation. But in this dispute within the State Department, I am inclined to agree with the analysts. But I may be biased - it is hard for me to imagine that the Netanyahu regime could/would provide credible assurances.
*"Blinken Says Israeli Units Accused of Serious Violations Have Done Enough to Avoid Sanctions. Experts and Insiders Disagree. The secretary of state told Congress that Israel had adequately punished a soldier who got community service for killing an unarmed Palestinian. Government officials call it a “mockery” and inconsistent with the law."
https://www.propublica.org/article/blinken-israel-military-aid-human-rights-violations-leahy-law
**"It is part of a new policy instituted by US President Joe Biden in February requiring foreign aid recipients to provide written assurances that they are using that aid in compliance with international law and not obstructing the provision of humanitarian aid."
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/blinkens-report-expected-to-criticize-israel-but-confirm-its-using-us-weapons-in-line-with-international-law/
*** "The overdue filing, which could be sent as early as Friday, will use critical language to describe suspected violations, but won't find Israel misusing arms or blocking aid, Axios says"
https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-state-department-set-to-confirm-israel-not-breaking-international-law-in-gaza/
**** "Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to submit to Congress as soon as Friday a highly critical report about Israel's conduct in Gaza that stops short of concluding it has violated the terms for its use of U.S. weapons, three U.S. officials said."
https://www.axios.com/2024/05/10/israel-gaza-us-weapons-congress-report-blinken
Military pause is appropriately announced by Austen Defense Sect'y not the Sect'y of State.
Both the State Department and the Department of Defense provide US funded assistance to foreign security force units. Both departments have Leahy Laws. Both departments gather/analyze evidence of violations. Determinations of whether corrective measures are sufficient is done in consultation between the departments.
https://www.state.gov/key-topics-bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/human-rights/leahy-law-fact-sheet/
Thank you. So the executive (Biden) must have decided that this is the case where the Leahy Law applies to the DOD and not the DOS. That alone must be sending a signal to Israel.
I have not been able to work out all the pathways by which military aid can be delivered. And by which it can be paused.
By law the funds go to American suppliers of equipment and expertise. Sometimes through collaborative US and Israeli research entities. The assistance is provided to individual national security units. And it is the behavior of the units which can result in a pause in aid.
But how the president, the agencies, and Congress come into the logistics of who gets (or doesn't get) what and when. I have not figured it out.
The Leahy Laws and Biden's National Security Memorandum 20 only apply to offensive military aid. All those screaming about Biden compromising Israel's ability to defend itself are mistaken. 1) Aid for Iron Dome, David's Sling (who makes up these names?) et al is not affected. 2) Israel has stock piles munitions.
Biden has criticized Israel's settlement policies for decades. This has long put him at odds with Netanyahu. Netanyahu's characteristic truculence has been compounded by decades of unconditional support from AIPAC and the Evangelicals - and cemented by the Trump administration's outrageous policies (moving the US embassy to contested Jerusalem, the Abrahamic Accords which pretend Palestinians do not exist.)
Thank you. I had worried about the very subtleties that you are writing about. But hoping that Congress and the president will guide Blinken where he needs it successfully.
He's a diplomat. Subtlety is a major qualification for the job. The French term for the equivalent of the American Secretary of State is "chef de la diplomatie".
Blinken is excellent.. of course not perfect.
what amazes me is after two massive anti Netanyahu demonstrations that they have not booted him The man is a fascist. And in NYC the police are brutally cracking down on peaceful protesters. While the fossil fuel companies are pumping money into Congress like never before. They know the end zone for them is in sight! I did the research for a Climate report for the Italian govt. in the 80s.. and it was obvious what would happen. Still, it's hard to watch as it continues to unfold.
Since the Likud party has basically been in power in Israel since 1977, it is not super likely that the majority population is voting in some other party. Gantz has started a new political party, the Resistance Party. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benny-Gantz
Does Gantz have a chance now. Will propping him up look like US interference, something we are infamous for.
Netanyahu has been a disaster. His need to stay out of prison (sound familiar) has made him subservient to the ultra-orthodox. They don't even have to be in the army. The sooner N is gone, the sooner a real workable solution can begin to be discussed.
I agree that Biden has no good solutions for how to be an appropriate ally to Israel. I also believe strongly in being loyal to one's allies. Israel has been dogged by right-wing leaders for a long time. The Likud party came to power in 1977 and Netanyahu is emblematic of what the party represents. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Likud
I don't think Israelis can so easily get rid of Netanyahu and if they do, won't he just be replaced with some other right wing leader? I also wonder what happens in Gaza. Under Hamas things have not been good, not all of that is attributable to Israeli oppression. I am thinking for women Hamas was never good, but regionally women are second class citizens. Is this self determination, or systems of patriarchy that we can not overcome if we cater to their leaders? I support not killing civilians (in this case mainly women and children). Things are volatile, and a lot of mediation needs to happen to hash out a peaceful co-existence between Palestinians and Israelis. I am skeptical wether it can happen. History has preceded us to make that very unlikely as long as Jews have to worry about their very existence dying out. Palestinians are also looking at their country being made very unlivable, but the reality is this is not a good time in the world to immigrate somewhere else. The hostility to foreigners is growing around the world. A right wing agenda coming to fruition. I would like to know if the youth protesting Biden supporting our ally Israel has some ideas of how to solve the problems in addition to stopping weapons from going to Israel? Will Biden just defunding the Israeli military solve the problems in the region to make both Israelis and Palestinians safe? Israel has been a haven for about 7 mil of the 15.3 mil Jews in the world, and it does not seem like they will feel safe in Israel. A big concern is that they are dying out with so much intermarriage of Jews to non-Jews as more and more are secular. Palestinians also have about 15 mil in the world, with 7 mil in Palestine. They have the same worry of dying out or losing their culture as they disperse in the world. I respect the right for both groups to feel safe. Still, neither country is helped by not voting for Biden.
Good points. I was wondering why the Israelis don't trust our system of separation of church and state and freedom of religion since Jewish people have done well in the US? I know the Holocaust really happened although I can't imagine how they and their descendants feel.
There is amongst jews, especially in Israel a second and third generation trauma, passed on from the Holocaust. The reaction and attendant feeling causing trauma to the Palestinians who have their Nakba trauma, living it every day.
I would say the US has been an enabler( weak) for years as well as an ally, and helped get Israel and us, in this election year, into this mess. Israel has turned majority right and unfortunatey they have and will suffer for that agenda's impunity.
Hamas can moderate. I think they would want to and have shown they can. IF Palestinians do not have their freedom and independence to fight for they will want to survive. They will survive as a fighting force otherwise. Again, they will have to moderate to survive. They have indicated they accept Israel. And they can control their militants. But of course this is ignored and it is accepted in Israel that they will "win". Israelis, many of them, believe they should have "river to the sea".
I know that Israel has had a right wing government for a while. However, Hamas is not a liberal government either, or a democratic one. In any case, we are involved in negotiating and trying to see what happens after. That seems super murky to me. Should we decide this or let the Israel and Palestinians decide? Also, who decides that Palestine is a state and what will that change for them? That is what I think should be discussed. Today the UN says. Palestine gots to be a non voting member. https://apnews.com/article/un-resolution-palestinians-membership-rights-us-assembly-875560e897f27d6600090420f36404e4
Palestinians will declare they are a state when there is agreement w Israel, perhaps guaranteed by others. Back to negotiating and this time reasonably and sincerely. People have lost faith because of the process's past.
Then a UN vote.
I don’t judge Hamas as being illegitimate because they are not liberal. I think that is for Palestinians to decide. Right now they are fighting for liberation. They are governing; they exist tolerated or/and because of repression or support as a resistance group that has taken charge. This is also w Israel’s tolerance. We have a lot of complicity in this having helped Israel to dominate the situation to no good result. This is what I think the protests are about. Either Israel allows Palestinians self determination in a state or we must retreat from our unconditional support including military aid. Israel has to change internally to survive. In the meantime political opposition on the right here could win and indulge Israel even more postponing the inevitable or helping Israel destroy itself. This is what I believe.
So when is the earliest Netanyahu can be ousted?
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. Virtually everything he was left by 45 is the same.
I think Biden likely waited til the Ukraine aid got through the House before selectively withholding Isaeli aid, esp given the vitriolic Republican response. Pressure negotiations have not worked with Netanyahu's government.
Right on. Except every peace plan before was broken by Hamas. They are not interested in peace or protecting Palestinians as though they were not Palestinians. They planned that Israel's counter-attack after the Oct massacre would take many lives, they could not care less. Using civilians as human shields? All to garner anti-Israel sentiment. A big win for Hamas. If there are demonstrations they should be against Hamas. It is Hamas that has stood in the way of peace.
It's always better to do the right thing than calculate politically. I am voting for Biden. But Biden, though this (and Stormy) might save him politically, came late after all the unbelievable destruction using our bombs. And who is going to fix and pay for Gaza in time to help the people IF Israel ends the occupation. Big if. Nothing will bring back the 34,000 + or minus (plus plus probably) plus the trauma it leaves especially with no state of their own to compensate... something to live for. Netanyahu is saying he can go it alone without our help. Well good! Then do! We'll see how that goes.
Sadly, it seems that a substantial majority of Israelis will need to travel some distance before they will accept a Palestinian state.
Sounds so simple doesn't it?
Bales: YES!!!
Why did the US just vote against a Palestinian state at the UN? That's just a television headline. I need some facts on that.
Are we seeing the beginning of a blue wave, not of Democratic voters, but of Republicans who are starting to prefer voting for a decent human being rather than an immoral (maybe amoral is a better descriptor) alleged criminal?
Cassidy Hutchinson said it, in that clear voice of hers. She's looking for moral standards and statesmanship.
A few months ago, when being interviewed by Jen Psaki or Rachel Maddow, Hutchinson said she would not vote for T💩p, but wouldn’t commit to voting for Biden. She’s seen the light. Let’s hope she becomes more vocal about this because she is an exemplar to others.
Well, the light's grown even stronger since she said that. I hope so too.
I am thinking she saw the light after her experience working with the outstanding Democrats on the J6 committee and saw how they focused, worked, and debated among themselves and then realized that her window to history in the Whitehouse was filled with boobs and children pretending to play government.
Thank you for “boobs and children.” I want to add James Clyburn’s “groupies of Putin”thinking that covers the crowd who will vote for a child for president and go to Congress quite incapable of thinking or behaving as internationally informed adults. Then there is climate change, which adds that science hasn’t impressed them either.
Read 'Enough'. I think it shows what her motives were. She was very much afraid to testify, until she spent some time talking with Liz Cheney.
I read her book as well. It was very interesting and I was a bit sad for her by the end. She is very young to have already had so many hard lessons. And that father - egads!
Since 1996, character is my first criterion since a President is as likely as not to face an off-the-wall crisis for which a world view and political ideas have no ready solution. Then the country must rely upon what that President has on the inside.
Let’s hope so. Even if they decide not to vote, it will help Biden.
@Betsy. We can't rely on Republicans. We have the capacity to expand our base. To protect American democracy, reach out to millions of unregistered likely Democrats using a dedicated database using every outreach method possible (phone and text, postcard, email and targeted ad, and in-person too), where new Democratic voters will make the most impact – in the most flippable states and districts.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/actions
Been there, doing that, Daniel!
I think that another strategy is to simply get already registered Democrats to the polls to vote. I don't remember the exact percentages...but in Texas' last election, the number of registered Democrats who didn't vote was closer to 50% than 25%.
We have seen what both Trump and Biden can do. Biden ‘s hands are tied by the DNC. He didn’t do enough to stop the corporations from taking over our government.He censored RFkJR his first week in office and demonstrated that he doesn’t recognize democracy is rooted in free speech. RFKJR is a greater champion of democracy than either Biden or HCR.
Biden censored RFKJR? RFK Jr. seems able to air his viewpoints in profusion and at great length in multiple forums. As David Freedlander pointed out in Politico: "There really is no government censorship as commonly defined — that the government neither really coerces nor threatens private citizens or businesses. As for his (RFK Jr.) complaint that the government sometimes flags information on social media platforms as incorrect, after which those platforms remove certain posts, I suggested that presumably the government has as much right to flag suspect content as any other entity, that no one was being killed or imprisoned for their statements or their views and that in fact there were more avenues to reach more people now than ever before."
RFK Jr. says that this supposed censorship is a much greater threat to democracy than the Jan. 6 riot/insurrection and prospective mischief this fall hinted at strongly by MAGA world. Utter nonsense, as is most of his platform as "articulated" online.
My hope is that RFK Jr will siphon some of the wackadoodle vote from Trump; don't really see him as a threat from the left at all.
He said he could make the argument that Biden’s censorship is a greater threat. I take that to mean government censorship is a big deal like the J6 uprising was.He was just rightfully pointing out that Biden isn’t as strong on democracy as he claims to be.Censorship is a slippery slope to authoritarian government. Not nonsense to me bro!
RFKJr "could make the argument"? Is he making the argument or just hinting, Trump-style, that there's some argument to be made, based on a story of Gummint censorship. From what I've seen the Government hasn't censored anyone in the classic sense of authoritarian censorship. Flagging BS/paranoid notions about vaccine, frinstance, is not censorship. The media platform can make the decision to remove bogus, even dangerous, misinformation, without violating First Amendment rights. RFK himself hasn't been silenced, or jailed, or assaulted by Federal agents. Nor have any print publications that might repeat these canards been shut down.
There's more than one "slippery slope", by the way. Another that comes to mind is the one where there's no such thing as objective factual information, alternate realities about large Inauguration crowds and nano-sensors being injected into our bodies; hell, Jewish space lasers. Against that, there are government public health agencies trying to get valid info out there while a pandemic is on. Yes, that information evolved as we learned more week by week about COVID19; so too did the guidance on offer.
Just read your comment about government censoring. Have you listened to anything Doctor Peter McCullough has said?Do you think it’s true that the Covid vaccines have presented risks to our immune system and elevated myocarditis ? Why would RFKJR want to say such things and write a book denouncing Faucci?I for one regret taking the vaccine because COVID was unlikely to kill me and the vaccine weakened my immune system.I’m not convinced the vaccine was the prime cause for declining COVID deaths. I think it was the herd immunity and weakened strain as time went on that did that.
Perhaps a few (hopefully increasing) number of Republicans are thinking the wacky Wanabee Dictator is more than they bargained for .
yep
Copy that, J.L.
I am hoping that even if they are signaling that that they will write in or just not vote, their better character will vote for Biden once in the secrecy of the voting booth. Biden will need a decisive win to break this MAGA mind virus.
I hope so, too, as a hedge against R.F.K., Jr. Though I suspect, Bobby K. will woo away more voters from Trump's base, filled as it is with those feeling 'unheard' (with some legitimacy) but voting against their interests, one can not be too sure.
Yes. I'm starting to think that perhaps the Republican fever has broken.
Amoral. TFG has no morals; none.
In 2020, Georgia Republicans voted for Biden on the presidential ticket, but for other Republicans in down-ballot races. This trend is continuing. What is coming is not a red blue wave, it is an anti Trump/MAGA wave.
NH was ground zero for the alpha test of this tactic (he lost to Clinton by 0.3% of the vote), where he alleged thousands of MA liberals were bussed into NH to vote - no proof, just bluster. Now, the MAGAs are trying this on a national scale, this time alleging that non-citizens are voting for Democrats in large numbers, again based on nothing. We need to call out this 'tactic' for what it is - cynical, anti-American BS, targeting those least able to defend themselves. i agree - character DOES matter.
Dr Richardson predicted the big lie in July or August of 2020, arguing that Trump was laying the ground-work to unveil it in his stump speeches. I felt she was pre-mature; boy, oh boy, was the good professor right on that one. We can not be cocky about Trump.
I certainty hope so.
I certainly hope that a blue wave of Republicans is coming but I won't hold my breath. Like someone on here said earlier that if even just a small portion of Rs vote for Biden or sit out, it will make a difference. A good friend of mine texted me that she truly believes that the higher gas prices that we are seeing is a trick to get Trump back in the WH. She thinks Big Business is jerking our chain and controlling elections. Something to think about.
Interesting, as I remember reading (Bulwark?) sometime back that the “October Surprise” could be a sharp increase in gas’s prices by OPEC in order to affect the election.
Maybe this is how Big Oil is going to raise the 1$ billion donation to Trumps campaign that he is proposing they put up for him? He told them if they give1$ billion to his campaign that he will rescind the regulations that Biden has put on them.Said he would do it” starting on day one” of his new presidency.Hmmmm
Transactional government is Trump's m.o., but reneging on his part of a deal is also his m.o. Big Oil may have written up their agenda for him to sign, but if he's elected, he's going to be awfully busy on Day 1 rounding up and deporting millions of folks, making abortion illegal everywhere, and who knows what else.
And my question for the polluters is always: don't they have kids and grandkids? Why do they prefer profits over people, including their own family?
Yes, I agree with you. He rarely ever does what he says he will do. He's mainly all talk and very little action. All of these people helping to pollute the planet have family and friends that I guess don't mean as much to them as the immediate$$ from destroying the earth.smh
Or the Saudis putting their finger on the scale.
Agreed. The big lie comes with a BIG BRIBE.
The oil companies may be jerking our chain, but I have faith in the American people. (Truth be told: I have that faith because I have to have it lest I slide into despair.) Hopefully, we can hear a message: first came the big lie and now comes the GREAT BIG BRIBE.
I sure hope so, Betsy.
How kind, amoral vs immoral and alleged criminal?
Kindness, understatement...I prefer them to gratuitous name calling.
I don't see why we need say Trump is an "alleged criminal". After all, it's "Crooked Joe Biden", not "Allegedly Crooked Joe Biden".
We don't need to say anything. But my comment to Harvey Kravetz fits here: Kindness, understatement...I prefer them to gratuitous name calling.
Yes but the blue wave is turning for RFKJR not the old man
Is it really you Sméagol ?
Why do you have to call me that? Why can’t you address the issues?
Why do you have to call the President "the old man." Why don't you just use his name or his title, or both?
He is an old man in reality. Actually it would be more fitting for you to call me Tom Bombadill and yourself a black rider!
MTG won’t be so easily silenced, unless House Republicans follow through with changing the rules. And Democrats are making a deal with the devil’s associate in Johnson. Vote Blue in November, and return the House majority to Democrats. Increase the Senate majority, and change the undemocratic filibuster rules. Keep Biden, Hutchinson’s statesman, in office to assure the further recovery and stabilization of our democracy. Just imagine further healthcare and tax reforms, a return to the support of public education, investigations into the corruption of the SCOTUS, continuing economic investment, and ethical, principled governance. How refreshing.
I hope the democrats are wary of Johnson, who I believe is the most fake Christian in the country. He gets a group together on the Capital steps and outright lies about illegals voting in federal elections!! Then qualifies his lies by saying, we have no evidence but we know it’s true. Outrageous behavior by a Christian or anyone for that matter. He’s just getting their base riled up. How can their base be so gullible? He has no moral character like his hero Cheetolinni!!
He has no evidence for pretty much anything he believes.
Because there isn't any
I think the house Democrats are wary of Johnson and are manipulating Johnson...using him and House Republicans to further their strategies. And I think their strategy is working on two fronts. Republicans are being manipulated by Democrats so rather than be seen as being manipulated , they are breaking ranks with the likes of MTG, Massy, and Roy. And it is spreading to other high ranking Republicans . I am impressed by Jeffries and many of the younger Democrats seem to be paying attention and seem to be using advantage to bring good to the American population.
Jeffries is confident, smart, strong, professional and hope inspiring.
Agree- Johnson is corrupt.
Outrageous indeed, Sharon. May I just paraphrase his statement: “We all know, intuitively, that trump is a criminal. And it’s been something that is easily provable. We have that number." I mean, just use your intuition.
They are not trying to deal with the devil but to get important legislation through before the election
I recognize that. But Johnson is a danger to democracy. A Christian nationalist, he needs to lose the role of Speaker because Democrats take over the majority.
Well, at some point some other Republican can call for his removal and the Dems can refuse to step up for him that time. Or, some Republican who has just had it can declare themselves done and switch parties. Instant change. And there is of course the chance that Jesus will speak directly to Mr. Johnson and he will see the error of his ways. I expect that having lots of close personal contact with Hakeem Jefferies and comparing those conversations to the ones he has had with Citizen Trump is causing Mr. Johnson some sleepless nights.
But Johnson said that God talks to him during the night.
Maybe when Johnson writes his memoirs, he will tell us what his God told him....
Lol.
There isn't much else needed before the election. Except maybe something about seating new members that makes it impossible for MAGAMike to keep power.
I always think of her as a howler monkey. Those pics of her during President Biden’s State of the Union speech confirm she’s related to said monkeys. (Just sayin’. 😉)
Don't diss the monkeys!
I know that exact unflattering photo.
Thanks. I'm trying hard to imagine it. But I don't think MAGA Mike is going to give up power and his fever dream of the Christian suppression of women so easily.
...and expand the court.
The disbanding of FreedomWorks and some recent Republican disavowals of Trump give me some hope of “good karma”—that the most divisive President ever is finally deeply dividing his own party. The GOP should never have hitched its wagon to such a terrible human being in the first place, but please, unhitch now!
Hey Siri, Give me an example of "the quiet part out loud."
~ "Trump appears to have tried a more direct approach to reelection. ..., last month at Mar-a-Lago, Trump told about two dozen top oil executives that if they gave him $1 billion to get reelected, he would immediately reverse the environmental regulations the Biden-Harris administration has put into place and stop any new ones."
Sounds like Cheetolini is openly soliciting bribes. Should be mighty illegal.
Should be but alas.
Again, this is the only form of negotiation Dumpy understands. Taken one way, it's quid pro quo with him, while taken the other way, it's straight up extortion.
Gary, found this history of money in politics interesting….and the beat goes on…same as it ever was…
https://www.opensecrets.org/resources/learn/timeline
The "Art of the Deal". But it's OK with SCOTUS.
TFG wants to “negotiate “ with NATO membership, too. That book should be renamed, “The Art Of The Con.”
You mean that ISN'T the title?! ;)
I'm thinking his bills are coming due...500 million of them and the TRNC is running low on cash.
Kind of the definition of quid pro quo. Take some depositions. Now.
Or, “ quid pro quo”.
I know, intuitively, that there is are cows on Mars. But it's not been something that is easily provable. I don't have that number."
Perhaps that “gut feeling” was just indigestion after all…think Rudy and Jenna had a bad case of it a few years back. It is ludicrous to think that someone here illegally would risk being caught & deported by taking a chance to vote….I can just hear Spock intoning “that is illogical”.
Recent Immigrants appear to statistically be more law abiding than us US born. Prominent Republicans tell slanderous lies without shame or hesitation. If Dominion Voting Systems got some measure of justice for mean-spirited, made-up smears, somehow immigrants should too. A class action law suit?
It'd not just hurtful. Hate crimes a way up.
JL, Neal Casler (sp?) used to be a “handler” on the Apprentice TV show—reading a couple of interviews w/ him was jaw dropping, if not really surprising in retrospect (his attitude was take this old NDA and shove it). Anyway, I gather he now does standup comedy and one of his “jokes” (paraphrasing) is about a small business owner seeing to hire someone & interviewing them….he asks one fellow if he took the bus to get to the interview. No, the fellow said, I walled 1100 miles from x-country & across the USA to get here. HIRED!!!, exclaimed the business owner
Good point JL! 'Intuitively = Faith = I fabricated it because I want it to be'...sort of like a child and their imaginary friends.
I use intuition all the time, and I don't thinks its woo woo, it's a impression with too little evidence to nail down. But that's all it is. I'd never bet the farm on it. It's certainly no basis for law.
JL, many years ago, late 90’s I think, a friend gave me a book “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin de Becker on trusting one’s intuition and “gut feelings” on a whole lot of issues, but being primarily safety related. Anyway, I found it interesting, yet made me think of complicated issues such as beliefs, opinions, prejudices, how we are raised (thinking mostly girls/women), and inclinations coloring our “perceptions”….nonetheless, a worthy read IMHO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_Fear
Yes, I'm not knocking intuition. I've had a lot of luck with it, and in my late teens theorized it was based on gestalt pattern recognition. I believe that my intuitions in certain categories have been substantially better than randomly useful, but can also be dead wrong. It's not a fit basis, in and by itself, to guide policies that affect human lives. Where intuition shines is when you can imagine a possibility and then build an examinable, continuous, empirical path to get there. I think it's the principal process of innovation.
My devious ex husband gave me that book. My gut feeling told me he was a liar but I didn't pay attention until I saw his $50K in credit card debt. Irony, eh?
Jen, been there myself…when first married he’d had a judgement lien against him (gave a “perfect” explanation why of course)….at the sunset of our time together, tho’ I knew the issue, it wasn’t until reading the required information in the marital settlement agreement that I found he had (via being a couple & me w/ an excellent credit rating) amassed some 27 credit accounts, only a couple I was aware of. Surprise! being in a community property state. That was ages ago, lesson learned.
I think I became aware of deBecker when I went to a training class put on by a guy who was teaching Officer Safety. He said that book had completely explained a phenomenon that many cops experienced which is "I don't know why I thought that xxx would happen, I just knew it" (this was in reference to taking a subject into custody and "just knowing" he was armed; he was). The other, more telling one was "I thought he was going to be trouble but didn't know why, so I didn't handcuff him" and ended up almost being killed by the arrestee.
I gave that book to my sister, and every other woman that I was close to, plus bought several "loaner" copies for deputies to read and take home to their families.
A worthy read, indeed.
I have yet to read the book, but I know the feeling. Some people just exude creepiness; that their aim is manipulation. My first impressions of people are not always accurate. Sometimes people who seemed cold were just guarded and some people I thought were OK enough betrayed me in some way. But some just give off predatory vibes, and I think my spidey sense has been pretty accurate with those. One clue is that those who shamelessly screw unto others will screw unto you. I gather from the the Wikipedia description of the "Fear"book that that it breaks down traits of predatory sociopathy, whether or not is uses that language.
My creep-o-meter was pinned with Trump long before he took office, but others see him as "Dear Leader". I think the best chance for survival of our species is a mass effort to become way better informed about the whole compass of human nature and reactions,, as a species and as ourselves. I continue to struggle with that.
JL, I live in a rural area on the other side of the country….knew a bit about TFFG from the news/mags & Apprentice (tho never watched it). My initial and still held opinion is “what a gold-plated faker”—-did learn, however, the gold-plating covered much more rot than I knew.
You've saved lives in many ways Ally!
Thank you!
Barbara, I suggest giving The Gift of Fear to all beginning college students—especially the girls.
Intuition is the result of unconscious processes that are often more accurate than the rational.
Speaker Kennedy's intuition, in the face of overwhelming evidence and logic to the contrary of his 'intuition', is merely political fantasy that he knows is false but caters to MAGAs.
MAGAs want a world where they are unquestionably superior beings; which requires delusion and/or lies.
Speaker Johnson, you mean.
I think it's your mind weaving together threads to make a pattern that you haven't documented.
Johnson just makes shit up.
Buckminster Fuller is attributed with defining intuition as "high-speed intellect" and my experience resonates with that sometimes, but only sometimes. Other times, I agree with 100Panthers, "Intuitively = Faith = I fabricated it because I want it to be".
Bucky named his boat INTUITION. I occasionally still encounter it in Maine.
I had a sinking feeling he would. 😉
EDIT: bad, Nedder, very bad. 🤭
Intuition goes far beyond intellect. We have 6 (or 8?) senses that automatically put us on alert. Pay attention to them!
While I agree with MaryPat 'intuitively', I think too many *claimed intuitions are bluffs *(or wishful thinking) masquerading as reason. That is why someone like Representative Moskowitz is needed to call Chairman Comer's bluff-as-'intuition' that President Biden is corrupt. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5116947/user-clip-hooray-jared-moskowitz
That false intuition can happen to anyone. Why l changed from pro-life to pro-choice, though I never favoured over-turning Roe v. Wade. Intuitions are tricky things.
It’s not actually intuition that’s making them sure of a targeted group’s bad actions without evidence, it’s racism.
Exactly!
Yes, who wants to admit (s)he is racist?
The cows may be on the Far Side.
Genius!
Republican fantasists cite intuitive claims over inconvenient truths, aka, those laughable “alternative facts.” It’s almost as ludicrous as TFG with his “people are saying,” and “this has never happened before in all of history, etc. They probably all had parents whose primary reason for behavioral expectations was “Because I said so.”
I stand in respectful awe of the use of "there is are cows on Mars." May I quote you?
It's the use of the interior rhyme that's so inspiring. Language is about sound and sense. We so often underrate the value of sound! Rhythm is more obvious in speechifying, especially when the speaker practices out loud. Cadences stand out. A writer with his ears on, however, can appreciate the power of: "there is are cows on Mars." I'm considering writing a song or perhaps a Far Side musical based on this line. In my family where children can quote entire collections of Calvin and Hobbes we sometimes underestimate the power of a well-turned phrase in political discourse! Underestimate it at your peril!
I'm unfamiliar with your work, J.L. By any chance, should you be poetically inclined, we fans of your line : "is are cows on Mars" are hoping it is a line quoted from an existing work. If not, we'd love it if you'd leap on the opportunity to make it one line in, say, a 14 line sonnet?
Speaker Johnson impresses me as a statesmen over the past month, though his prejudicial remarks against immigrants troubles me deeply.
The very idea that oil executives would draw up executive orders for a president to sign which would remove public health and safety standards or regulations is a crime in two ways.
First, the billion dollar bribe to the president, if they made it.
Second, for the treason associated with knowingly endangering and compromising our climate which is in an existential crisis. I say treason because it does intentional irreparable harm and injury to our nation. A betrayal that can ruin our existence. States are working on legislation or lawsuits to hold fossil fuel companies responsible for damages caused by extreme weather that these states have and expect to suffer.
We need more not less liability for all businesses so that when they are found to have damaged or are damaging lives, health and environment, they can be held accountable. The immunity laws that have passed seem to mostly protect the more dangerous industries like gun manufacturers and distributors. Industries that can be sued are more likely to abide by laws, better practices and be more self improving. Liability to be effective must aim at practiced or reckless perpetrators, and should not be allowed to be used to profit lawyers and clients on frivolous claims.
Based on the established fact that fossil fuel companies KNEW that their product would lead to negatively altering the environment, there should be some punishment. And some action to prevent further campaigns of lies. I'd start with prosecuting top executives for wanton destruction of Planet Earth.
Then I would nationalize the whole industry with a goal of diverting profits to the development of more and more sustainable sources of energy like fusion and geothermal. Rather than enriching shareholders and top management via stock buybacks, hundreds of billions could be pumped back (pun intended) into the economy with new jobs and infrastructure investment - like a world class electric grid that is less vulnerable to nature's wrath and sabotage.
The oil and gas under the Earth's surface is owned by just a few people. The laws enabled that. The laws gave the oligarchs that gift. But I make the case that it belongs to all of us. Including the flora and fauna that created it. Petroleum and its byproducts should have a steward that respects the planet. To do otherwise is to cede its future to money grubbing, intellectually challenged thieves. Change the laws. Change the future.
"Imagine... it's easy if you try"
Follow the money or its equivalent.
always
David- this is a BIG story. This shows a real direct characteristic of fascism.
Is there a lawyer in the house?
Does the specific offer to reverse regulations in return for money rise to the level of soliciting a bribe? It seems obvious to me, a layperson, that the answer is yes. Let's say I am the head of the planning commission for a city and I approach a developer and say "I will approve a new subdivision for you to build if you give me a $10,000 campaign fund donation.
If an oil company now gives money to Trump or his campaign does that constitute a bribe or do we have to wait for Trump to actually reverse the regulations before we can call it a crime?
Heather was going in the best direction for a good while here.
Story after story of men underestimating women -- or of women fools such as marble mouth Marge who continually exhibit, reinforce the worst men's most vulgar stereotypes of women.
But some women surprise. Cassidy Hutchinson for one. Nikki Haley another. Both escaped from the downward-spiral-of-the-toilet that too many men have joined in huckstering their low-life Trump -- and too many cowardly suckers-up-to-powers women Republicans, too.
Not Cassidy. Not Nikki.
I'd have loved Heather to have picked up on the greatest show of all today -- Stormy Daniels turning on festering bully Trump's effort to have his female attorney sex-shame her. Like Cassidy, like Nikki, Stormy wasn't having it. She got the Trump female attorney (yes, she has a name, Susan Necheles) to sink deeper into her sex-shaming, when Stormy got her to introduce the final coup of all -- setting up clear identity of Trump as the orange turd deserving to be flushed down the toilet. By Stormy, and by too many fool women ever sucking up to the low-life to whom too many sick men have also sucked up.
I liked Lawrence O’Donnell’s description of Cheetolini’s attorney getting “Orange Turd” into the court transcript about a dozen times.
Brilliant lawyering there.
Sure, George, yes.
But Lawrence also highlighted his own delight in how it was Stormy who negotiated the unwitting elite-talking Trump lawyer, Susan Necheles, into translating some legalese jargon behind which she'd been hiding her fealty to Trump's vulgarity -- and for Stormy, for judge and jury, and for all of us translating it into the orange turd down the toilet meme that will now live forever so long as English at its best may live.
Maybe we can get an orange turd emoji.
I've seen 🍊💩quite a bit.
Feel free to use my appellation: T💩p.
I enjoy labeling as much as the next guy, Craig -- so long as it's savagely biting.
Emojis scarcely count as language, except maybe as the kind monkeys hurl at each other at the zoo, don't you think?
LOL…George, I will await the mass marketing of products on my TeeVee to remove “Orange Turd” stains from my toilet…..after, hopefully, a successful flush!
That was so nasty. I had found myself thinking "you went into a man's hotel room, what did you expect?" Following her testimony. And then realized I was doing it too. Because the entire culture sex shames women.
Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out how that attitude gives men permission. Women should expect everywhere that consent is given. We need to make sure our girls know that ALWAYS consent is required. And the boys club that is law enforcement needs to know it too.
Jen, in my childhood, I was raised on the belief that it was the woman’s job to keep men under control because men’s urges were so strong. Boys were only told to use protection so that a girl wouldn’t use pregnancy to trick them into marriage. The Eve story (tricking Adam into eating the apple) and the story of Jezebel (using sex to lure men into idolatry) paint bad women (anyone who has sex outside of marriage) as vipers luring powerless men into “bad acts”. By this logic, if men commit sexual assault, it’s the woman’s fault for luring them. Promiscuous men are “studs” and are congratulated for their actions; promiscuous women are “sluts” who deserve to be punished with STD’s and unwanted pregnancy.
And if you observe religion, it's bs written by men to excuse their behavior and blame someone else. Look at Islam, women can't even show their hair. Add in the fact men are physically bigger and stronger, you've just made my case for gelding males. We don't need but a few of them.
Jen, I’ve often asked men who make comments about revealing clothing on women “so, how do you feel about burkas?”
Curious what they say. Do they get the point?
They say that they’re not wanting “to go that far”, but they still feel that revealing clothing is false advertising.
I get you're just kidding (at least I hope so), but your comment about "...gelding males... don't need but a few of them" is offensive and blatantly sexist. From this comment and others you've made in the past, the lens you see men through is troubling and its expression doesn't belong in this forum. I'm disappointed you even got several Likes from it.
That was not what I was taught by my progressive parents, but that was the common belief in my peers in school.
Very much appreciate, Mary, both your and Jen's notes on male permissiveness.
I saw all that you say when I was in the U.S., both growing up and then in school and public life. Later on I spent many years in European countries. Recently, the past 15 years in Japan.
So please let me add to your good comments that males even more also lose out from any patriarchy that privileges them. Worse in Japan than in either U.S. or Europe. Please note three first-rate books by Japanese women on this:
1: "All She Was Worth," by Miyuki Miyabe;
2: "Out," by Natsuo Kirino;
3: "The Fall of Language in the Age of English," by Minae Mizumura.
Phil, thanks for you comments and book suggestions!
...."boys club that is law enforcement..." 100% accurate. Boy, do I have a bunch of examples for that. But my favorite one was this:
Dispatched to a call of a violation of a Restraining Order. Caller said "my friend just called and there's no one on the line. She has me set up on speed dial (this was in the early 90's, kids) and is afraid her husband will violate the restraining order. I was primary on the call (it was in my half of our 4600 square mile county), but both of us went. In this case, hubby had violated the R/O and climbed in the window on the back side of the residence, and raped her, leaving by the front door. At the time, it was our policy to call out detectives for these types of calls. Our sergeant wasn't going to call them out because "a man can't rape his wife". Both of us deputies crossed the line of insubordination in demanding that he call out detectives AND treat this as a Rape I, although we did get a detective (who wanted to know why we called him out to investigate, they were married) that responded to the scene. I went with her to the hospital for the medical exam, and the other deputy handled the on scene investigation, including evidence gathering that the detective did not want to do.
Long and the short of it is the hubby was prosecuted for Rape I, pled to Rape II and got 8 years in prison. The other deputy on duty that day was, later in his career, a detective, detective sergeant, and retired as the Police Services Captain. He was able to change the culture quite a bit.
It's hard to hit like on that story. But the ending is a reason.
My father, when after 50 years I finally told I had been raped as a child living under his roof, said "how did you manage to get yourself raped." And then wondered why I didn't tell my mom.
I don't know how you managed that career. Hats off to you.
I am so sorry that your father said that to you. Just disgusting, in my book.
How I managed that career was that I was able to balance the good with the bad, avoid engaging in destructive coping skills, and not being overinvested in my role as a cop.
Congratulations. We need more like you.
Ally, brava!
Thank you. My buddy told that story at his retirement when illustrating the changes that took place in his 30 year career.
All benefit, Ally, from all efforts to see and respect "others" better.
I teach English to all ages of people here in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan. Some very fine adults. Many kids. Many of the girls (again, all ages) have especially wonderful nuances, subtleties, observation skills, senses of humor, as well as physically delightful variations. So good to see and interact with them.
I'm sorry for any society whose schools and other institutions fill with those who've learned stereotyping, grouping (groping?), and the other types of labeling and categorizing that leave them stupid, blind, insensitive -- and thus too often also dangerous.
Thank you, Jen.
The fat but famous celebrity orange guy invited Stormy to dinner. She was hungry. She was also a worker in a very public field, so an invitation to dinner from an older but famous, well-placed man then deserved venturing yes.
They had no dinner. The fat orange guy had other plans. Stormy had good reason to regret then how things developed. Better reason today for contempt for the orange turd.
You found the perfect quote for you closing, Heather. Biden is a stronger thinker than most people realize, and a towering character compared to the sleazy, lizard brained former President.
If you do podcasts, the Daily one on Israel and Saudi Arabia is illuminating. Biden sees the whole picture. Most do not.
Good, experienced, pragmatic President. BBC Radio news this morning was all alarming fire-and-brimstone reactions to "first time since 1982" that the US has failed to support Israel...now let me see: who was president then? Oh yes. The one who used to be a film actor.
Best news in a long time, with a glimmer of hope that perhaps some Republicans have come to their senses and/or mustered up the courage to stand up for democracy and for the good of the country over party.
courage to stand up for democracy and for the good of the country over party.
What a concept.
Many are learning that Trump will not be “loyal” to them.
You just made me think of Dame Lindsay and what the ever loving h is wrong with him.
Jen, Graham, like the woman at the McCain rally who believed the birther claims, needs McCain to tell him that what he’s bought into is a load of horse pucky. Since McCain died, he’s rudderless, spinning in the MAGA wind.
That's as good an explanation as any. The man is a mystery to me, but rudderless is apt. Another reason South Carolina is off the habitable list.
It took Biden long enough to decide that using our weapons by Israel to bomb, kill and destroy civilians was terribly wrong. But I am glad he has said it. I hope he follows through. We can thank our university students for turning up the heat to accomplish this. They have been our pressure cooker release valve. Waiting any longer would have been a catastrophe.
I would also like Biden and the American people to clearly say that our university students are not antisemitic. Those who demonstrated to withhold weapons, to draw a clear line for peace. Many of these students are Jewish. They should be acknowledged for standing up for the lessons of the Holocaust. “Never Again” anywhere!
I am sure Biiden knew very early on that "using our weapons by Israel to bomb, kill and destroy civilians" was terribly wrong. His conundrum included the requirements written into our historical treaties to support Israel, the political support Nitwit had in both Israel and in the U.S., and the fact that Hamas is immersed in the civilian populations. As you say, the American student demonstrators are not antisemetic. They are effective, and they now give Biden the political support he needs to curtail our military allocations to a murderous Israeli dictator. Student protests worked for Vietnam for the same reason.
Mary Pat, you know your history. But if you have not read Jimmy Carter's 2006 book "Palestine: Peace of Apartheid", it is a good book to share with those who have no factual idea what has been going on with the Israel Palestinian issues for the past 50 years. Yes, we gave Israel veto power over every peace initiative with the Palestinians, which made every negotiation on Israel's terms. There has never been an equitable peace negotiation, and no serious US support for the Palestinians getting a realistic and equitable chance, though we claimed to be impartial.
"The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017" is a 2020 book by Rashid Khalidi, an older Palestinian American teaching at Columbia University, whose family goes back generations in Jerusalem dating back to the Ottoman Empire. This is a more thorough description of the conflict written in a scholarly manner with failures and weaknesses pointed out for all parties. Probably not the first book to read by those trusting everything they hear from Israel.
I also found this Ezra Klein Show interview discussion to be very effective. Ezra Klein asked very good questions and made well founded comments. He helped demonstrate whether intentional or not, how difficult it is for even scholarly peace supporting Israeli's have a difficult time standing back from the Israel state narrative that the burden of peace falls on the Palestinians who have no power and who are asked Israel to accept terms that Israel would never accept.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/07/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ari-shavit.html
Thanks, David, for the (terrible) insights. I will add these to my reading list, sadly.
from the substack page, < hopiumchronicles.org > May 7, 2024. Dems are listed first, leading their race
• WI Baldwin 48% Hovde 41% CBS News/YouGov
• PA Casey 46% McCormick 39% CBS News/YouGov
• NV Rosen 47% Gunter 33% The Hill/Emerson
• Rosen 45% Brown 37% The Hill/Emerson
• AZ Gallego 45% Lake 43% The Hill/Emerson (other recent polls have Gallego further ahead)
• NC Stein 48% Robinson 41% Quinnipiac (Governor)
Don't be fooled again, a tidal, Blue Wave, is gathering energy across this land, from "sea to shining sea"
So hope so
I can't fathom 43% for Kari Lake.
Exactly, but this divide is the landscape in US politics. The country is pretty equally divided between Dems/Indies/Repubs - but the states' numbers are shifting.
Until the 2022 election, AZ never in our lifetime had Dems hold the two 2 Senate seats AND the Governorship. 60 yrs ago this was the place of Goldwater, further right than Reagan. So, the fact that current polls have Rueben Gallego ahead is an astonishing shift in AZ. BUT, this shift has been expected, as people hoped AZ would have gone Hillary in 2016.
In GA., Stacey Abrams had realistic hopes to be elected Gov. in 2018, but narrowly lost. Then, the Dems won four successive Senate races and it flipped not only the US Senate, but every political observer! Now, we have sights on the Gov seat.
The fact that Kerry Lake is down to the low 40s is significant, and Gallego has all of the advantages in his favor right now. As is the case with ALL of the races in the chart.
Thank You, Frederick.
Thank you, Professor. It gives one a bit of hope to think that some of these blind followers in the cult of trump may be regaining their sight. But I’m not holding my breath!
Perhaps the fever is breaking.
Perhaps breaking for the semi-intelligent. The masses will still get their news from Trash Media.
Trash media needs to be trashed.
Thanks Heather. Day by day, every move towards erasing Trump and the GOP from memory is essential.
I see no reason why GOP treason should ever be forgot.
Trump must never be forgotten but the legislators who sold out and enabled his criminality must also be remembered and held to account. They made him possible.
All of which makes Paul Ryan saying “Character is too important to me,” grimly laughable.
Yeah, I thought that creepy Ryan get a point or two for even acknowledging at this point that Trump is decidedly NOT Jesus come again.
I'm surprised he didn't sprain his tongue saying that.
This is not a direct comment about today's letter, but so relevant anyway! Below is a link to a piece written by Steven Beschloss, the author of the Time Magazine article/interview of Trump. Please check this out and send far and wide as it starkly shows Trump's idiocy and unfitness for office, as well s highlighting some of the onerous policies of Project 2025!
https://america.substack.com/p/how-unfit-dangerously-unfit?r=izwml&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post&triedRedirect=true
Joan, thank you so much for sharing this article. Really-thank you. It’s a clear insight-and startlingly frightening insight-into the complete lack of intelligence or self awareness or competence that is Trump.
Good to see these details from Steven B. Thank you, Joan.