I am in Europe where the numbers are very different. In the USA there are 5-6 million jews and about 3-4 million Muslims. In Germany, the country where I am living right now, there are about 100-116,000 Jews and while the Palestinian community with around 100,000, the total Muslim community is more like 5.5 million. So, while the government may officially support Israel, and many of the pro-Palestinian protests have not gotten permission to convene, there is still huge support for the Palestinians in the Muslim community. Being pro-Palestinian is not seen as supporting Hamas, but supporting everyday Palestinians. I don't know what the everyday German thinks because most of the protests are made up of Muslims and maybe some leftist Germans. My daughter has an Israeli student and an American Jewish student in her classes in Berlin, and no one has even mentioned the conflict/war in class. With so many Ukrainians and Russians in her classes it seems to be a war free zone. France, a smaller country has around 5 million Muslims and 442-650,000 Jews depending on how you look at it. In any case, all proPalestinian protests are banned in France, but in both countries they are taking place. Hamas accomplished this rift that they wanted to effect, but will it eventually help the Palestinian people? Since Hamas is not just in Gaza, but has leaders in other countries, I don't think bombing Gaza will get rid of all of Hamas, so I don't know where this will lead. Apparently Hezbollah is in collaboration with Hamas. I feel like I am looking at the situation through a fog. I want a humanitarian solution that saves as many lives as possible and ends with peace in the region, but don't know how that can be brought about. I think our general lack of understanding of the Middle East necessitates our getting ambassadors into the region, and that Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are blocking them needs to be subverted. We also need our military appointments. It is ludicrous that we have sent ships to the region where they are in danger of being in battle, and there is no head of the navy. Tommy Tuberville should be thrown in prison for practicing treason as should Paul and Cruz too. They are traitors to our democracy and undermining our global security.
Are you sure it must happen? Republicans, especially chump, want the government shutdown now, primarily to shut down the efforts to hold chump legally accountable for his illegal and ruinous activities. But also as a “policy,” of sorts. According to Bannon, that is the goal. The cult agrees. How many others?
As the House continues to fall into self-inflicted ruin since it needs a Speaker to function, the Republican'ts should be reminded of the role of the Speaker as stated succinctly in the House Practice Guide: "The Speaker's role as presiding officer is an impartial one, and his rulings serve to protect the rights of the minority." Among those rights is the right to serve the people who elected them. The only path forward is a bipartisan one, with a Speaker who understands that and works to get everyone in the boat rowing in the same direction instead of beating each other with the oars.
First off-- I remember finding this newsletter in he depths of the pandemic, prior to the 2020 election when the whole world seemed off and while I don't remember much, the core of the message was "it will be okay. The bad people will lose, the good people will win." And it very much helped me get through each day.
Feels like we are this point again, so thank you Robert. I am back to hearing "bad people lose, good people win as I read your daily missives.
Second-- and in s sort of similar vein As you see the images coming out of Gaza in the coming days and weeks, bear in mind that there are no Western reporters in Gaza. The few who are there are local stringers who provide news to Western media.
The Hamas terrrorists control every single word and image they say and shoot and film and if they don't like what is being said and filmed, it is not good.... Hamas is incredibly media savvy. Tthat means many of the photos and video scenes you will see are staged. That sometimes the "dead bodies" are not all actually dead bodies. That people are crying and shreiking on cue and repeating Hamas talking points on cue. That the numbes of dead and wounded are being reported by the terrorists, not an independent third party or a government entity with oversight. That a missile will hit a hospital and within minutes it will be a "fact" that it was an Israeli missile and that the number of dead was ascertained within that same 15 minute window. and also reported as fact.
Hamas s incredibly media savvy.
Which is not to say that terrible scenes will not unfold or that war is pretty. But just remember that one side is presenting a carefully scripted and edited version of events while the other is being reported on freely by CNN, The New York Times, The BBC and dozens of other western news organizations who have hundreds of people on the ground.
It's fascinating to watch the crazies shoot themselves so publicly, in the broad daylight that the Big Crazy brags has no consequences. Most of them are election deniers and they appear to have lost touch with reality across the board. They are forging a labyrinth without a way out.
There are now three parties in Congress: the Democrats, the remains of the pre-Trump GOP, and the Trump Party. It's time for the pre-trump GOP to become the junior partner in a coalition government that promotes the values they claim to still believe in.
Gratitude...that is supposed to be one of the most powerful things for happiness and success.
So I ask "Should I be grateful for the 3 separate groups in Missoula that marched against Jews and were in favor of Palestine" over the weekend.
It was horrific. I drove past the Reform Temple and there were 20 white supremacists, all covered up, armed, and with their signs. "no refugees", "whites only", and "name that Jew."
At least there was a police presence.
And downtown there were 2 other demonstrations.
Missoula is my home. I have lived here for 46 years. Now my life is in danger. I will be carrying bear spray. I will have to pay for security around my house.
Is this America where I have to fear?
Is this America where I have to worry about the increase in attacks of anti-Semitism.
"You" people who dare compare Israel to the Nazis.
"You" people who dare talk about Israel committing genocide....
Let's talk about the Spanish Inquisition.
Let's talk about Czarist Russia. Under the Czars, Jewish men were conscripted into the army from age 15-45. So the villages were mostly women, boys, and old men. My great grandmother sent her children over to America one at a time. That is my maternal side.
The Palestinians turned down a 2 state solution. In 1948, Israel surrounded on all sides, fought for survival. I would say the Arabs were trying to commit genocide.
Hezbollah, in Lebanon, bordering Israel has 150,000 rockets. Potential Genocide. Syria, who gasses their own people, borders Israel.
Do not talk to me about Genocide.
What happened in Missoula over the weekend was horrifying. I am crying. This is not the America I grew up in.
Or am I naive and just seeing hatred that has been bubbling below the surface.
I want to thank the Missoula Police Department and the FBI for giving a heads up to the Rabbis that there might be a problem.
I want to thank my friends for looking out for me.
We all need to take a deep breath just like Robert suggested. The Republicans quest for a speaker again defines who they really are. Most of the candidates who are running are election deniers and active MAGA supporters and the one viable candidate Emmer is being attacked because he is not 100% dedicated to Trump and MAGA. Republicans today don’t want a non MAGA speaker. I think it is perfectly clear that for us and our Democracy we need to focus on voter registration and turnout and give younger voters something to believe in and get behind. Our strength has to be in mobilizing a grassroots army and winning elections the old fashion way. Everything else is just noise.
Robert, I am not sure I see the inevitability of a coalition in the House. Instead, I see it as inevitable that the House returns to the status quo as it had been under McCarthy. Granted, that was nonfunctional, but Republicans seem to like it that way. One of the oft-repeated lines by House GOP members is that their constituencies elect them to prevent laws from being passed. To rational actors, that’s the definition of dysfunction, but to these people, it would seem to be the endgame.
I would also like to bring to everyone’s attention the horrific gerrymandered NC maps that will be voted on this week. NC is split 7-7 yet the NC legislature in secret created 2 maps…one gives Republicans 10-4 majority and the other 11-3. I guess they couldn’t create a 14-0 House majority for themselves. They pitted 2 Black US Rep against each other. They diluted the large Dem cities with rural etc This is all possible because a Dem Tricia Cauthen a lifelong Dem switched to Republican 3 months after she was elected to give NC House a 1 vote majority. NC is the poster child for gerrymandering. These maps were declared unconstitutional in 2022 and NC got 7-7 maps for one election cycle. So for 2024 they are back to their gerrymandered maps.
The first time I became overwhelmed with the news (just Walter Cronkite or Huntley Brinkley because you couldn’t get the NYT in central PA) was during Vietnam. That news blackout lasted years for me. However, I became an obsessive newsie during Watergate and realized the importance of not shutting it off. However, on Wednesday I decided I need to take another news break--it’s just so relentlessly terrible and I’m starting to spiral. So on 72 hours notice I’m going to Antarctica for 3 weeks. No internet, no phone. Please try to have everything fixed by the time I’m back. If you can’t pull off world peace in that time, at least make sure 11 spending bills have been passed! Thanks for your continued efforts to make sense of it all.
Contempt for the law, wholesale disregard for the common good of the community which interferes with personal greed and power, and imposing violent solutions to enforce their demands are the fingerprints of criminal mobsters. Criminal organizations terrorize their community and prey on the population by provoking fear.
"Alliance with the aggressor" is a psychological concept that colludes to feel empowered by the aggressor and to avoid becoming a target of his rage. This capitulation is met with emotional numbing, relinquishing of independent thinking and passive subservience to the will of the aggressor.
The MAGA mobster's lieutenants have captured their voting district communities, convinced their constituents to forego the civil societal rules and our democratic processes to reap the false promises of a new and better social order.
The rule of law is being dismissed as a deep state contrivance to suppress this new revolution. The show down in the House is now a real time direct assault on our governing processes. The insurrection from within now holds the speakership hostage. No elected speaker stops governing completely while the gun to the head rules allows for continued chaos and upheaval unless the extremists' demands are met.
The only workable solution requires a bipartisan coalition with Democrats and willing Republicans to craft new rules and a compromise speaker. The MAGA merry-go-round will only inflict death with a thousand cuts.
One of the actions I took over the weekend was to check up on someone who might be vulnerable target.
A lot of people don't realize that bigotry has collateral damage. If someone comes after me they put my neighbors at risk too. I would say the majority of my neighbors are good people.
People need to check out their own prejudices and values.
I think that it would make sense for Democrats in an act of 100% solidarity in the House to pull together perhaps 20 reasonably minded Republicans proposing Liz Cheney (or some other similar sort of person holding real American values while still allowing the Republican present majority to save face shy of trying to convince them to support Hakeem) as House Speaker quashing forever more the entirely unAmerican no-compromise pledge started by Tea Party sorts and get America back to its classic debate and balancing act between conservative and liberal ends of the spectrum and finding our magic in the middle. Doesn’t that make sense given the exigency of the moment and the growing claims of democracy’s ineptness being proven,out by this debacle in the minds of way to many gullible folks..?
Hamas should be squashed unmercifully and decapitated. Afterwards, I'd hope that a consensus would develop in support of Israel and moderate Palestinians and their Arab neighbors to get behind a two state solution with boundaries honored by both sides. That seems the only workable end-game to end the decades long cycle of Mideast violence. This means continuing settlement expansion would have to stop. Meanwhile, Putin is thrilled by the conflict.
I am in Europe where the numbers are very different. In the USA there are 5-6 million jews and about 3-4 million Muslims. In Germany, the country where I am living right now, there are about 100-116,000 Jews and while the Palestinian community with around 100,000, the total Muslim community is more like 5.5 million. So, while the government may officially support Israel, and many of the pro-Palestinian protests have not gotten permission to convene, there is still huge support for the Palestinians in the Muslim community. Being pro-Palestinian is not seen as supporting Hamas, but supporting everyday Palestinians. I don't know what the everyday German thinks because most of the protests are made up of Muslims and maybe some leftist Germans. My daughter has an Israeli student and an American Jewish student in her classes in Berlin, and no one has even mentioned the conflict/war in class. With so many Ukrainians and Russians in her classes it seems to be a war free zone. France, a smaller country has around 5 million Muslims and 442-650,000 Jews depending on how you look at it. In any case, all proPalestinian protests are banned in France, but in both countries they are taking place. Hamas accomplished this rift that they wanted to effect, but will it eventually help the Palestinian people? Since Hamas is not just in Gaza, but has leaders in other countries, I don't think bombing Gaza will get rid of all of Hamas, so I don't know where this will lead. Apparently Hezbollah is in collaboration with Hamas. I feel like I am looking at the situation through a fog. I want a humanitarian solution that saves as many lives as possible and ends with peace in the region, but don't know how that can be brought about. I think our general lack of understanding of the Middle East necessitates our getting ambassadors into the region, and that Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are blocking them needs to be subverted. We also need our military appointments. It is ludicrous that we have sent ships to the region where they are in danger of being in battle, and there is no head of the navy. Tommy Tuberville should be thrown in prison for practicing treason as should Paul and Cruz too. They are traitors to our democracy and undermining our global security.
Are you sure it must happen? Republicans, especially chump, want the government shutdown now, primarily to shut down the efforts to hold chump legally accountable for his illegal and ruinous activities. But also as a “policy,” of sorts. According to Bannon, that is the goal. The cult agrees. How many others?
As the House continues to fall into self-inflicted ruin since it needs a Speaker to function, the Republican'ts should be reminded of the role of the Speaker as stated succinctly in the House Practice Guide: "The Speaker's role as presiding officer is an impartial one, and his rulings serve to protect the rights of the minority." Among those rights is the right to serve the people who elected them. The only path forward is a bipartisan one, with a Speaker who understands that and works to get everyone in the boat rowing in the same direction instead of beating each other with the oars.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-HPRACTICE-108/html/GPO-HPRACTICE-108-35.htm)
First off-- I remember finding this newsletter in he depths of the pandemic, prior to the 2020 election when the whole world seemed off and while I don't remember much, the core of the message was "it will be okay. The bad people will lose, the good people will win." And it very much helped me get through each day.
Feels like we are this point again, so thank you Robert. I am back to hearing "bad people lose, good people win as I read your daily missives.
Second-- and in s sort of similar vein As you see the images coming out of Gaza in the coming days and weeks, bear in mind that there are no Western reporters in Gaza. The few who are there are local stringers who provide news to Western media.
The Hamas terrrorists control every single word and image they say and shoot and film and if they don't like what is being said and filmed, it is not good.... Hamas is incredibly media savvy. Tthat means many of the photos and video scenes you will see are staged. That sometimes the "dead bodies" are not all actually dead bodies. That people are crying and shreiking on cue and repeating Hamas talking points on cue. That the numbes of dead and wounded are being reported by the terrorists, not an independent third party or a government entity with oversight. That a missile will hit a hospital and within minutes it will be a "fact" that it was an Israeli missile and that the number of dead was ascertained within that same 15 minute window. and also reported as fact.
Hamas s incredibly media savvy.
Which is not to say that terrible scenes will not unfold or that war is pretty. But just remember that one side is presenting a carefully scripted and edited version of events while the other is being reported on freely by CNN, The New York Times, The BBC and dozens of other western news organizations who have hundreds of people on the ground.
Edited to Add new NYT story on hospital bombing. Again, note who is providing stats ("Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry" as per NYT) and how staged the photos are. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-hospital-evidence.html
It's fascinating to watch the crazies shoot themselves so publicly, in the broad daylight that the Big Crazy brags has no consequences. Most of them are election deniers and they appear to have lost touch with reality across the board. They are forging a labyrinth without a way out.
There are now three parties in Congress: the Democrats, the remains of the pre-Trump GOP, and the Trump Party. It's time for the pre-trump GOP to become the junior partner in a coalition government that promotes the values they claim to still believe in.
Gratitude...that is supposed to be one of the most powerful things for happiness and success.
So I ask "Should I be grateful for the 3 separate groups in Missoula that marched against Jews and were in favor of Palestine" over the weekend.
It was horrific. I drove past the Reform Temple and there were 20 white supremacists, all covered up, armed, and with their signs. "no refugees", "whites only", and "name that Jew."
At least there was a police presence.
And downtown there were 2 other demonstrations.
Missoula is my home. I have lived here for 46 years. Now my life is in danger. I will be carrying bear spray. I will have to pay for security around my house.
Is this America where I have to fear?
Is this America where I have to worry about the increase in attacks of anti-Semitism.
"You" people who dare compare Israel to the Nazis.
"You" people who dare talk about Israel committing genocide....
Let's talk about the Spanish Inquisition.
Let's talk about Czarist Russia. Under the Czars, Jewish men were conscripted into the army from age 15-45. So the villages were mostly women, boys, and old men. My great grandmother sent her children over to America one at a time. That is my maternal side.
The Palestinians turned down a 2 state solution. In 1948, Israel surrounded on all sides, fought for survival. I would say the Arabs were trying to commit genocide.
Hezbollah, in Lebanon, bordering Israel has 150,000 rockets. Potential Genocide. Syria, who gasses their own people, borders Israel.
Do not talk to me about Genocide.
What happened in Missoula over the weekend was horrifying. I am crying. This is not the America I grew up in.
Or am I naive and just seeing hatred that has been bubbling below the surface.
I want to thank the Missoula Police Department and the FBI for giving a heads up to the Rabbis that there might be a problem.
I want to thank my friends for looking out for me.
We all need to take a deep breath just like Robert suggested. The Republicans quest for a speaker again defines who they really are. Most of the candidates who are running are election deniers and active MAGA supporters and the one viable candidate Emmer is being attacked because he is not 100% dedicated to Trump and MAGA. Republicans today don’t want a non MAGA speaker. I think it is perfectly clear that for us and our Democracy we need to focus on voter registration and turnout and give younger voters something to believe in and get behind. Our strength has to be in mobilizing a grassroots army and winning elections the old fashion way. Everything else is just noise.
Domestic terrorists in our House of Representatives, terrorists in the world. Violence never brings peace, only more violence.
Robert, I am not sure I see the inevitability of a coalition in the House. Instead, I see it as inevitable that the House returns to the status quo as it had been under McCarthy. Granted, that was nonfunctional, but Republicans seem to like it that way. One of the oft-repeated lines by House GOP members is that their constituencies elect them to prevent laws from being passed. To rational actors, that’s the definition of dysfunction, but to these people, it would seem to be the endgame.
I would also like to bring to everyone’s attention the horrific gerrymandered NC maps that will be voted on this week. NC is split 7-7 yet the NC legislature in secret created 2 maps…one gives Republicans 10-4 majority and the other 11-3. I guess they couldn’t create a 14-0 House majority for themselves. They pitted 2 Black US Rep against each other. They diluted the large Dem cities with rural etc This is all possible because a Dem Tricia Cauthen a lifelong Dem switched to Republican 3 months after she was elected to give NC House a 1 vote majority. NC is the poster child for gerrymandering. These maps were declared unconstitutional in 2022 and NC got 7-7 maps for one election cycle. So for 2024 they are back to their gerrymandered maps.
The first time I became overwhelmed with the news (just Walter Cronkite or Huntley Brinkley because you couldn’t get the NYT in central PA) was during Vietnam. That news blackout lasted years for me. However, I became an obsessive newsie during Watergate and realized the importance of not shutting it off. However, on Wednesday I decided I need to take another news break--it’s just so relentlessly terrible and I’m starting to spiral. So on 72 hours notice I’m going to Antarctica for 3 weeks. No internet, no phone. Please try to have everything fixed by the time I’m back. If you can’t pull off world peace in that time, at least make sure 11 spending bills have been passed! Thanks for your continued efforts to make sense of it all.
Contempt for the law, wholesale disregard for the common good of the community which interferes with personal greed and power, and imposing violent solutions to enforce their demands are the fingerprints of criminal mobsters. Criminal organizations terrorize their community and prey on the population by provoking fear.
"Alliance with the aggressor" is a psychological concept that colludes to feel empowered by the aggressor and to avoid becoming a target of his rage. This capitulation is met with emotional numbing, relinquishing of independent thinking and passive subservience to the will of the aggressor.
The MAGA mobster's lieutenants have captured their voting district communities, convinced their constituents to forego the civil societal rules and our democratic processes to reap the false promises of a new and better social order.
The rule of law is being dismissed as a deep state contrivance to suppress this new revolution. The show down in the House is now a real time direct assault on our governing processes. The insurrection from within now holds the speakership hostage. No elected speaker stops governing completely while the gun to the head rules allows for continued chaos and upheaval unless the extremists' demands are met.
The only workable solution requires a bipartisan coalition with Democrats and willing Republicans to craft new rules and a compromise speaker. The MAGA merry-go-round will only inflict death with a thousand cuts.
One of the actions I took over the weekend was to check up on someone who might be vulnerable target.
A lot of people don't realize that bigotry has collateral damage. If someone comes after me they put my neighbors at risk too. I would say the majority of my neighbors are good people.
People need to check out their own prejudices and values.
Thank you Alan, for your articulate support.
I think that it would make sense for Democrats in an act of 100% solidarity in the House to pull together perhaps 20 reasonably minded Republicans proposing Liz Cheney (or some other similar sort of person holding real American values while still allowing the Republican present majority to save face shy of trying to convince them to support Hakeem) as House Speaker quashing forever more the entirely unAmerican no-compromise pledge started by Tea Party sorts and get America back to its classic debate and balancing act between conservative and liberal ends of the spectrum and finding our magic in the middle. Doesn’t that make sense given the exigency of the moment and the growing claims of democracy’s ineptness being proven,out by this debacle in the minds of way to many gullible folks..?
Hamas should be squashed unmercifully and decapitated. Afterwards, I'd hope that a consensus would develop in support of Israel and moderate Palestinians and their Arab neighbors to get behind a two state solution with boundaries honored by both sides. That seems the only workable end-game to end the decades long cycle of Mideast violence. This means continuing settlement expansion would have to stop. Meanwhile, Putin is thrilled by the conflict.