I write about the IDF air and ground assault on the people in Gaza and elsewhere in Israel who can't get out of harm's way. I read the remarks by Biden and I do not see what I need to see: his compassion toward Palestinians currently being slaughtered by the 1000s. Words are cheap. The optics are horrible: US supports the white Ukrainians against Putin's invasion and supports Netanyahu doing the same thing slaughtering innocent civilians, women, children, everyone, destroying their homes and cities. This is no way to accomplish peace. This is no way to win a war against guerrilla fighters - a lesson the US learned the hard way in Vietnam. The escalating war in Israel is far more dangerous with Arab countries weighing in, the UN secretary-general begging for a ceasefire, the Pope begging for mercy. Eye for an eye is a horrible code of ethics to begin with, but unleashing the American military against the Palestinians is inexcusable. It is likely to escalate. Biden has the power to stop the transfer of weapons - he can reconsider given the violence against unarmed people, directly defying the rules of war and the UN that the very same US government is using to call out Russia's ongoing genocide. Since when is genocide against brown people ok and genocide against white people not okay? Biden, in my opinion, is likely to start the war to end all wars while also tanking his presidency. His domestic accomplishments are amazing, his diplomatic alliances has been excellent, but now he is ruining his own peace mission by supporting Netanyahu and his military. This is not self-defense, it is aggression in the name of self-defense. It is NEVER okay to kill unarmed people. And the intentional cruelty! Hamas and Hezbollah have resolve, based in large part on the cruel colonialist policies of the Israeli government. From my reading of the news, a majority of Israel hates Netanyahu's policies - against the judiciary, his financial corruption, etc: sounds a lot like Trump and Putin. I think Biden needs to do more than defending the Palestinian people with words. They are being slaughtered. They have no food, water, fuel to run their hospitals, they have no medicines, anesthesia for surgery. Etc. The situation in Gaza and the West Bank is worse than Ukraine, and that says a lot. I love Biden's domestic policies and his diplomatic efforts internationally, but he is wrong about defending the Israeli government's rage. It is likely to bring down his presidency because he is losing the black vote, the youth vote, the vote of liberal Jews (like myself), the vote of many independents and others who are sickened by this display of American aggression. it's also damaging the environment at an ungodly scale - the last thing we need. Why doesn't Biden listen to the UN? The entire idea of a Security Council has failed miserably. We need the UN to be effective, that means we should support their resolutions.
I do hope Robert is right that the Republicans will come to regret their electing Mike Johnson as House Chair. I am going to go back to read the sources Robert mentioned. In the meantime, here is an Persuasion piece about “The Complete Magafication of The Republicans given this selection.
Truly everything I read about Mike Johnson suggests we are going to have to brace ourselves in the weeks and months ahead of Mike Johnson survives, which I suspect he will. Living in Colorado I was quite surprised when I heard CPR explain that all our Republican Reps had voted for Johnson. This was particularly disconcerting when CPR offered a clip with Ken Buck explaining away his previous objections to someone who was an election denier. Maybe the landlord asking him to vacate his rental office was just too much to bear. Yeah! Right! All who previously opposed candidates caved because they surely have no stomach for furthering their efforts to put democracy above party. UGH!
"As Republican lawmakers celebrated finally getting a speaker, Republican strategists in Washington said Wednesday that they felt that something irreparable has happened to the party. Healthy parties don’t completely freeze an entire legislative chamber and struggle among themselves to reopen it.
“They fought so hard to be a governing majority,” said strategist Alice Stewart, referring to House Republicans, “and they can’t even agree among themselves. And that’s bad.”
Others think the House speaker drama reflects a broader problem for the Republican Party, one that has been metastasizing for decades. Depending on how you look at it, almost every Republican speaker since Newt Gingrich in the mid-1990s has been pushed out or has stepped down over deep ideological splits within the party between moderates and the hard right.
“The party has been damaged for years,” said one Republican strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations with party leaders. “And it’s not recoverable.”
Seems to me that Biden is doing what he CAN by supporting defense of Israel from terrorists while at the same time recognizing the complexity of the whole situation and decrying actions based on revenge rather than sober planning. Anyone who makes this a "single issue voter" stance while also refusing to consider complexity is most welcome to join the trumpites, their true home if that is how their cookie crumbles.
I thoroughly appreciate your ability to stay focused on reality and taking the high ground in standing with Biden with an excellent command of the broader and deeper challenges he and all of us face.
By the way, my wife and I were among some 10,000 participants listening in to Heather. Cox-Richardson & Katie Couric last night. It was excellent. Thank you for promoting the event.
Clarence Thoms is making a mockery of our laws, as this exerpt from Robert Hubbell's Newsletter indicates: "The New York Times reported in August that Justice Thomas purchased a luxury recreational vehicle with a “loan” from a wealthy friend. Justice Thomas never reported the loan on his financial disclosures and the lender (Anthony Welters) said that the loan was “satisfied.” Keen observers noted that “satisfying” a loan is not necessarily the same thing as “repaying” the loan.
The Senate Finance Committee investigated the loan and has concluded that there is no evidence that Justice Thomas repaid the loan. See Business Insider, Clarence Thomas never paid back a $267,230 loan from a rich friend used to buy a luxury RV, Senate committee finds.
Per Business Insider,
Documents reviewed by the committee included a handwritten note from 2008 in which Welters told Thomas he would no longer seek further payments on the loan. The committee said the note also said Thomas had only made interest payments on the loan.
The evidence suggests that a wealthy friend of Justice Thomas forgave a $267,000 loan, and Thomas failed to report that gift on his financial disclosure forms. This is merely the latest development in an unfolding scandal involving Justice Thomas. Meanwhile, Chief Justice Roberts does nothing."
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!
Is there nothing we the people can do to rein in this crooked judge?
This has nothing to do with partisan issues; it is about integrity, about meeting a basic ethical standard. Clarence Thomas fails to meet even the lowest bar for ethics. Because of him (although there are other offenders of this standard on the court) the Supreme Court of the United States is corrupt. It is dishonest, unethical, and incompetent to dispense 'justice'. This deprives all of us of a critical branch of the government, without which Democracy does not work.
There is no more important issue with our country. We need to fix this without further delay, while we still have a country and at least the intention of a Democracy.
Long Dong Silver, as he said eloquently referred to himself when working for the gipper ((aka the gypper) rides again - not on a glorious stead but on an expensive RV that no of us could afford, nor could he. And feckless john roberts just looks away.
First of all, if you are anything but Indigenous in America, you are living on occupied land.
Second, I am just pointing out the hypocrisy of people who point fingers. "Look at how horrible those people are over there. How dare they!" when they are doing the same thing or following in the footsteps of those that came before them.
Third, Living here in Montana I am well aware of the Natives being "screwed." Native Americans, for example, were not allowed in bars until around 1965.
One of the 501c3s I donate to reminds us at the end of each email that we live on Indigenous lands and to respect it.
In Missoula, a main thoroughfare bridge was renamed "Bear Tracks Bridge" to honor where we live. There was a celebration with the renaming with Native Americans leading the way.
One mountain here was renamed because the original white name given was a reference to an insult to a female part.
So, if someone wants to come to place, be a good citizen, and participate in dialogue, they should be educated as to how to be a good citizen. They should not be fomenting hate and violence.
I am not anti-Palestinian. I am just pointing how their hypocrisy and prejudice.
Please read Native American author Vine Deloria. Read Aayan Hirsi Ali's "INFIDEL" and her op ed piece in the WSJ from 5 years ago. Ali is native Somalian.
The rise of Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House is another tactical attack in the Republican coup.
This Congressman led an effort to enlist 124 other Republicans on the behalf of Donald Trump to eviscerate millions of votes by filing an amicus brief in support of Texas in Texas v. Pennsylvania where the Great State of Texas claimed that it had the right to challenge (and change) the results of elections (and, therefore, the appointment of electors) in the states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. Johnson's amicus brief was based on "the concern. . . shared by untold millions of their constituents, that the unconstitutional irregularities involved in the 2020 presidential election cast doubt upon its outcome and the integrity of the American system of elections."
Of course, the claims of "unconstitutional irregularities" were lies and had already been dispensed with in over 90 other lawsuits claiming such irregularities. As the State of Pennsylvania put it in its response brief, the lawsuit by the State of Texas was a "seditious abuse of the judicial process."
And fortunately, as corrupt as they are, enough of the Republican Supreme Court justices (excluding Alito and Thomas) declined to hear the case "for lack of standing under Article III of
the Constitution." The denial went on to say "Texas has not demonstrated a judicially
cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections."
So now we have a vowed Seditionist, elected by 200 of his fellow Seditionists, acting as the Speaker of the House, who now is second in line to the Presidency, and who will oversee the 2024 presidential vote count.
As I said, the coup continues.
Finally, my heart breaks for the suffering of those in Israel, Gaza and now Lewiston, Maine, just miles from where I went to summer camp.
Thank you for your continued commitment to changing federal gun laws to protect us all. It’s alarming to witness the overall “normalization” of these frequent mass shootings as the price for being an American. It’s a willful disregard of the slaughter of our fellow citizens.
We all must make our voices heard come Election Day.
The first thing that Biden should have done in this impossible situation was to state to Israel that they would get not one more cent of aid from the US until Israel agreed to sit down and talk about how to live alongside the Palestinians. Israel has so much money tied up already in its military preparations, and yet, it was so focused on supporting illegal settlements that it totally blew it! No, not one more cent until sanity can once again lift its head!
I agree totally with your remarks/observations regarding President Biden. Voters should pose a serious question to themselves... What actions and statements would we expect if Donald Trump were president during this entire crisis? How would the world react to his reactions as the "leader of the free world?" God only knows the state we would be in. Heaven (and Robert Hubbell) help us.
I write about the IDF air and ground assault on the people in Gaza and elsewhere in Israel who can't get out of harm's way. I read the remarks by Biden and I do not see what I need to see: his compassion toward Palestinians currently being slaughtered by the 1000s. Words are cheap. The optics are horrible: US supports the white Ukrainians against Putin's invasion and supports Netanyahu doing the same thing slaughtering innocent civilians, women, children, everyone, destroying their homes and cities. This is no way to accomplish peace. This is no way to win a war against guerrilla fighters - a lesson the US learned the hard way in Vietnam. The escalating war in Israel is far more dangerous with Arab countries weighing in, the UN secretary-general begging for a ceasefire, the Pope begging for mercy. Eye for an eye is a horrible code of ethics to begin with, but unleashing the American military against the Palestinians is inexcusable. It is likely to escalate. Biden has the power to stop the transfer of weapons - he can reconsider given the violence against unarmed people, directly defying the rules of war and the UN that the very same US government is using to call out Russia's ongoing genocide. Since when is genocide against brown people ok and genocide against white people not okay? Biden, in my opinion, is likely to start the war to end all wars while also tanking his presidency. His domestic accomplishments are amazing, his diplomatic alliances has been excellent, but now he is ruining his own peace mission by supporting Netanyahu and his military. This is not self-defense, it is aggression in the name of self-defense. It is NEVER okay to kill unarmed people. And the intentional cruelty! Hamas and Hezbollah have resolve, based in large part on the cruel colonialist policies of the Israeli government. From my reading of the news, a majority of Israel hates Netanyahu's policies - against the judiciary, his financial corruption, etc: sounds a lot like Trump and Putin. I think Biden needs to do more than defending the Palestinian people with words. They are being slaughtered. They have no food, water, fuel to run their hospitals, they have no medicines, anesthesia for surgery. Etc. The situation in Gaza and the West Bank is worse than Ukraine, and that says a lot. I love Biden's domestic policies and his diplomatic efforts internationally, but he is wrong about defending the Israeli government's rage. It is likely to bring down his presidency because he is losing the black vote, the youth vote, the vote of liberal Jews (like myself), the vote of many independents and others who are sickened by this display of American aggression. it's also damaging the environment at an ungodly scale - the last thing we need. Why doesn't Biden listen to the UN? The entire idea of a Security Council has failed miserably. We need the UN to be effective, that means we should support their resolutions.
When Mike Johnson said homosexuality is a “dangerous lifestyle” that would lead to legalized pedophilia, did he mean like the Catholic church?
If Mike Johnson is the architect of the electoral college objections and the stealing of the election, why isn't he charged with the crime?
I do hope Robert is right that the Republicans will come to regret their electing Mike Johnson as House Chair. I am going to go back to read the sources Robert mentioned. In the meantime, here is an Persuasion piece about “The Complete Magafication of The Republicans given this selection.
https://open.substack.com/pub/persuasion1/p/the-magafication-of-the-gop-is-complete?r=39h2h&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Truly everything I read about Mike Johnson suggests we are going to have to brace ourselves in the weeks and months ahead of Mike Johnson survives, which I suspect he will. Living in Colorado I was quite surprised when I heard CPR explain that all our Republican Reps had voted for Johnson. This was particularly disconcerting when CPR offered a clip with Ken Buck explaining away his previous objections to someone who was an election denier. Maybe the landlord asking him to vacate his rental office was just too much to bear. Yeah! Right! All who previously opposed candidates caved because they surely have no stomach for furthering their efforts to put democracy above party. UGH!
"As Republican lawmakers celebrated finally getting a speaker, Republican strategists in Washington said Wednesday that they felt that something irreparable has happened to the party. Healthy parties don’t completely freeze an entire legislative chamber and struggle among themselves to reopen it.
“They fought so hard to be a governing majority,” said strategist Alice Stewart, referring to House Republicans, “and they can’t even agree among themselves. And that’s bad.”
Others think the House speaker drama reflects a broader problem for the Republican Party, one that has been metastasizing for decades. Depending on how you look at it, almost every Republican speaker since Newt Gingrich in the mid-1990s has been pushed out or has stepped down over deep ideological splits within the party between moderates and the hard right.
“The party has been damaged for years,” said one Republican strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations with party leaders. “And it’s not recoverable.”
- Amber Phillips, WaPo
Seems to me that Biden is doing what he CAN by supporting defense of Israel from terrorists while at the same time recognizing the complexity of the whole situation and decrying actions based on revenge rather than sober planning. Anyone who makes this a "single issue voter" stance while also refusing to consider complexity is most welcome to join the trumpites, their true home if that is how their cookie crumbles.
I thoroughly appreciate your ability to stay focused on reality and taking the high ground in standing with Biden with an excellent command of the broader and deeper challenges he and all of us face.
By the way, my wife and I were among some 10,000 participants listening in to Heather. Cox-Richardson & Katie Couric last night. It was excellent. Thank you for promoting the event.
Today I sent this letter to both of my Senators:
Clarence Thoms is making a mockery of our laws, as this exerpt from Robert Hubbell's Newsletter indicates: "The New York Times reported in August that Justice Thomas purchased a luxury recreational vehicle with a “loan” from a wealthy friend. Justice Thomas never reported the loan on his financial disclosures and the lender (Anthony Welters) said that the loan was “satisfied.” Keen observers noted that “satisfying” a loan is not necessarily the same thing as “repaying” the loan.
The Senate Finance Committee investigated the loan and has concluded that there is no evidence that Justice Thomas repaid the loan. See Business Insider, Clarence Thomas never paid back a $267,230 loan from a rich friend used to buy a luxury RV, Senate committee finds.
Per Business Insider,
Documents reviewed by the committee included a handwritten note from 2008 in which Welters told Thomas he would no longer seek further payments on the loan. The committee said the note also said Thomas had only made interest payments on the loan.
The evidence suggests that a wealthy friend of Justice Thomas forgave a $267,000 loan, and Thomas failed to report that gift on his financial disclosure forms. This is merely the latest development in an unfolding scandal involving Justice Thomas. Meanwhile, Chief Justice Roberts does nothing."
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!
Is there nothing we the people can do to rein in this crooked judge?
This has nothing to do with partisan issues; it is about integrity, about meeting a basic ethical standard. Clarence Thomas fails to meet even the lowest bar for ethics. Because of him (although there are other offenders of this standard on the court) the Supreme Court of the United States is corrupt. It is dishonest, unethical, and incompetent to dispense 'justice'. This deprives all of us of a critical branch of the government, without which Democracy does not work.
There is no more important issue with our country. We need to fix this without further delay, while we still have a country and at least the intention of a Democracy.
Long Dong Silver, as he said eloquently referred to himself when working for the gipper ((aka the gypper) rides again - not on a glorious stead but on an expensive RV that no of us could afford, nor could he. And feckless john roberts just looks away.
Let me expound.
First of all, if you are anything but Indigenous in America, you are living on occupied land.
Second, I am just pointing out the hypocrisy of people who point fingers. "Look at how horrible those people are over there. How dare they!" when they are doing the same thing or following in the footsteps of those that came before them.
Third, Living here in Montana I am well aware of the Natives being "screwed." Native Americans, for example, were not allowed in bars until around 1965.
One of the 501c3s I donate to reminds us at the end of each email that we live on Indigenous lands and to respect it.
In Missoula, a main thoroughfare bridge was renamed "Bear Tracks Bridge" to honor where we live. There was a celebration with the renaming with Native Americans leading the way.
One mountain here was renamed because the original white name given was a reference to an insult to a female part.
So, if someone wants to come to place, be a good citizen, and participate in dialogue, they should be educated as to how to be a good citizen. They should not be fomenting hate and violence.
I am not anti-Palestinian. I am just pointing how their hypocrisy and prejudice.
Please read Native American author Vine Deloria. Read Aayan Hirsi Ali's "INFIDEL" and her op ed piece in the WSJ from 5 years ago. Ali is native Somalian.
Thinking of moving. I mean, why should I live in Hungary if I don’t have to???
The rise of Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House is another tactical attack in the Republican coup.
This Congressman led an effort to enlist 124 other Republicans on the behalf of Donald Trump to eviscerate millions of votes by filing an amicus brief in support of Texas in Texas v. Pennsylvania where the Great State of Texas claimed that it had the right to challenge (and change) the results of elections (and, therefore, the appointment of electors) in the states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. Johnson's amicus brief was based on "the concern. . . shared by untold millions of their constituents, that the unconstitutional irregularities involved in the 2020 presidential election cast doubt upon its outcome and the integrity of the American system of elections."
Of course, the claims of "unconstitutional irregularities" were lies and had already been dispensed with in over 90 other lawsuits claiming such irregularities. As the State of Pennsylvania put it in its response brief, the lawsuit by the State of Texas was a "seditious abuse of the judicial process."
And fortunately, as corrupt as they are, enough of the Republican Supreme Court justices (excluding Alito and Thomas) declined to hear the case "for lack of standing under Article III of
the Constitution." The denial went on to say "Texas has not demonstrated a judicially
cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections."
So now we have a vowed Seditionist, elected by 200 of his fellow Seditionists, acting as the Speaker of the House, who now is second in line to the Presidency, and who will oversee the 2024 presidential vote count.
As I said, the coup continues.
Finally, my heart breaks for the suffering of those in Israel, Gaza and now Lewiston, Maine, just miles from where I went to summer camp.
Thank you for your continued commitment to changing federal gun laws to protect us all. It’s alarming to witness the overall “normalization” of these frequent mass shootings as the price for being an American. It’s a willful disregard of the slaughter of our fellow citizens.
We all must make our voices heard come Election Day.
The first thing that Biden should have done in this impossible situation was to state to Israel that they would get not one more cent of aid from the US until Israel agreed to sit down and talk about how to live alongside the Palestinians. Israel has so much money tied up already in its military preparations, and yet, it was so focused on supporting illegal settlements that it totally blew it! No, not one more cent until sanity can once again lift its head!
And Johnson seems to have no leadership ability in terms of bringing the parties together to act—on anything. Not really any better than Jordan.
I agree totally with your remarks/observations regarding President Biden. Voters should pose a serious question to themselves... What actions and statements would we expect if Donald Trump were president during this entire crisis? How would the world react to his reactions as the "leader of the free world?" God only knows the state we would be in. Heaven (and Robert Hubbell) help us.
I hope they will regret sooner rather than later.