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Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Rotting in the sun



The Times of Israel's daily news briefing discusses the humanitarian aid problem in Gaza, as well as discussing what a Trump presidency will mean for the war.

About the humanitarian aid, there's been a lot in the news about the US trying to get Israel to let more into Gaza. What hasn't been addressed by the press is the fact that some aid trucks that have gone into Gaza ... currently at least 900 trucks ... are just sitting on the other side of the crossing points, with no UN or other agency picking them up and distributing them.

Why are they not being picked up and distributed? First of all, it is a war zone, which makes ditribution difficult. But another problem is that not only Hamas, but civilian gangs, steal the aid to sell on the black market. The press seems to ignore this aspect.

Surreal

UPDATE: Matt Gaetz? Sex-trafficking Matt Gaetz? Apparently the sole qualification for being in Trump's administration is being an enthusiastic suck-up.



I guess this is better than a riot? I would expect nothing less from Biden - I think he always tries to do the right thing.

About Trump's possible picks so far for his administration ... Maybe Marco Rubio is not too bad. Kristi Noem, the climate-denying dog-murdering gun-nut, seems a horrible choice. Kash Patel - ongoing nightmare.

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Amsterdam again



From an opinion piece in The New York Times today by Brett Stephens ...

A Worldwide ‘Jew Hunt’

If any doubts remained about the motives of the Amsterdam thugs who last week terrorized and assaulted Israeli soccer fans in droves, an investigation in The Wall Street Journal should settle the questions.

It wasn’t merely a reaction to provocative behavior by some of those fans. It wasn’t just overflowing anger over the war in Gaza. It was something altogether darker ....

Which makes it even more remarkable how strenuously some people initially tried to obscure the nature of the Amsterdam pogrom. The media are rarely shy about calling out certain kinds of hate crimes as racist. Yet for days the word “antisemitic” was either put inside quotation marks or attributed to Dutch officials when talking about the violence. The identity of the attackers has been treated as a mystery, or a secret, beyond delicate references to people with “a migration background,” in the words of Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof ...


Sunday, November 10, 2024

Bernie on why we lost

Bernie was on Meet the Press today and he really told it like it is for many of the "lower class". I share his opinion that this is how the Democratic party failed to win the election ...



The political autopsy

- my grandpa

After a terrible defeat, political parties often have an "autopsy" to figure out what went wrong ...

More Democrats fear the party’s image isn’t just damaged – it’s broken

Some Democrats are saying the party went to far to the middle or right, with trying to win over disaffected Republicans. Some say Harris didn't try to appeal to working class and lower class voters. Etc, etc, etc.

When I think of what the Democratic party should be, I think of how it was when my grandfather was a Democrat, and what it was like when I was a kid.

Back then, the Republican party was the party of educated wealthy conservatives, business interests, with a touch of nutball (John Birch Society).

But the Democrats were for the working class, unions, the poor, women, racial minorities (civil rights) and religious minorities (Jews, Catholics). It was what they called the New Deal Coalition, and they tried to help people after the Great Depression with programs like the New Deal ...

The New Deal was a series of domestic programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, with the aim of addressing the Great Depression, which began in 1929. Roosevelt introduced the phrase upon accepting the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination, and won the election in a landslide over Herbert Hoover, whose administration was viewed by many as doing too little to help those affected. Roosevelt believed that the depression was caused by inherent market instability, and that massive government intervention was necessary to rationalize and stabilize the economy.

The Democratic party of today has changed a lot. Now we are (also) the ones affiliated with the rich, with Ivy League universities. I assume (hope) Democrats are still trying to help the poor, the elderly, the homeless, but they act as if they are ashamed of doing so, and politicians like Harris leave those groups completely out of their speeches and promises - they don't believe those people vote, and they don't want to estrange the "working middle class".

And the Democratic party has adopted stances that seem extreme to me ... why must every person who wants to liive in America be able to? We have more than 600,000 homeless people here living in terrible conditions who never get a word from Democrats (except Bernie) ... shouldn't we be helping them first?

And why does being a Democrat now mean we would rather side with Middle Eastern terrorists than with Israel?

Oh well, I'm sure there's a lot I don't understand about all this, and of course times have changed. But I just remember that I used to be proud to be a Democrat like my grnadfather. I don't feel that way anymore.

Saturday, November 09, 2024

Amsterdam



Amsterdam is in the news. I've actually been to Amsterdam but it was long ago, on my family's one trip to Europe in 1976. What I recall ... the houseboats, the Heineken museum, and especially the Rijksmuseum ...

- The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn

But I digress.

People in the press have been noting the history of Amsterdam's mistreatment of Jewish people before and during WWII (Kristallnacht, Anne Frank), and connecting that to this recent attack.

But the attack after the game does not seem to have been by right-wing Dutch people (neo-nazis). The attacks were carried out by pro-Palestinian Middle Eastern immigrants living in Amsterdam. I guess it's not politic to mention that, but it is relevant.

Women and the election



Yes, a rapist is soon to be our president, voted in by a majority of men.

I feel like all that women have been trying to do sicne the dawn of time is to just be seen and treated as people in the same way men are. And we've never gotten there. Maybe we never will.

And men don't have to do all the work of keeping us down. Many women project themselves as meat puppets in order to get ahead in this world ... think of Kim Kardashian, wealthy and famous, whose main "achievement" in life is that she has an unusually huge butt.

I despair.

Thursday, November 07, 2024

Trump and Israel



The Times of Israel's editor, David Horovitz, talks about Trump winning the election.

What do the Israelis think of Trump winning? They are mostly happy. Why? When he was president before, he did a lot of stuff they liked, including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, being ok with the settlements, and doing the Abraham Accords.

There is a reason, though, why almost 80% of Jewish Americans voted for Kamala Harris - they live here and they know the damage Trump has and will cause to the US.

I hope more Israelis realize that Trump doesn't actually care about Israel, that he has helped them in order to help himself, and that he could turn on them in a minute if it made his own outcomes better.

The news that's fit to print

All the News That's Fit to Print

The press is reporting that the IDF is ordering evacuations from northern Gaza and that civilians will not be allowed to move back to their homes afterward ... The Guardian: Palestinians will not be allowed to return to homes in northern Gaza, says IDF ... CBS: Israel expands offensive in northern Gaza with new ground operation, says civilians won't be allowed back

But that's not true.

The truth is ...

UK’s Guardian appears to muff general’s quote on return of north Gaza civilians

Contrary to a Wednesday report in The Guardian, the commander of the IDF’s 162nd Division did not say that Palestinian civilians will be prevented from returning to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip and that no humanitarian aid will be delivered there.

The British newspaper appears to have mistakenly taken a somewhat inaccurate paraphrase of comments by division commander Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen from a report in Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, presenting it as a direct quote from the general ...


I offer this as an example of the predjudice against Israel which seems to inform most of the European and American press. They have a belief about Israel and the war, and appear more open to stories that will support that opinion. That isn't "news". The press is supposed to be impartial.

Time to save the country



Rachel Maddow points out that those of us who didn't get the election result we had hoped for now have a lot to do.

We could spend time trying to figure out why we failed ... what was wrong with our party, our candidate. I do have my opinion ... that the party has ignored the underclass, the disabled, the elderly, the homeless. All the campaign events with the rich and the famous bothered me.

But maybe we should also figure out how we can try to protect what we fear a Trump presidency will damage or destroy. I myself worry about the environment and the animals most. Trump will roll back every environmental protection he can, and I recall him promising to open the national park system to hunting, mining, and drilling. Maybe it's time for me to join The Suerra Club or The Human Society.

As Rachel says, it's time to save the country.

Wednesday, November 06, 2024

Trump wins

I'm stunned. I knew it was possible but somehow still didn't believe it would happen.

Goodbye vaccines, goodbye environment, goodbye Ukraine.

Who to blame? People the Democratic party has depended on for decades ... racial minorities and young people.

Trump eroded Democrats’ traditional advantage among key groups

Trump picked up a small but significant share of younger voters, Black voters and Hispanic voters, many of whom were feeling down about the economy. Majorities of younger Black voters and Latino voters said the economy is not working well.

Yes, the economy. As I mentioned in many past blog posts, the Harris campaign seemed to only care about the middle and upper classes but seemed to ignore those who actually most needed help. Did they just not know we existed or is it that they didn't care?

The sad thing is, Trump will not help the poor and he has no idea how to fix the economy. The stupid selfish people have voted for a terrible candidate in order to get more for themselves. They will be disappointed, and the rest of us will have to suffer along with them.

Monday, November 04, 2024

Election eve



Worth watching for the end, in which Seth catalogues all the awful things Trump has done since he became president in2016. People really need to remember this stuff.

Trump in Michigan

- Dearborn, Michigan

Trump courts divided Arab-American voters in must-win Michigan

One might wonder why Trump would bother courting Arab American voters, he being the originator of the Muslim ban and constantly voicing his support of Israel.

But we know that Trump doesn't have any true religious convictions and has been on Israel's side in order to get conservative Christian approval. And we know that he has often been on the side of anti-Semitites, from Kanye West to the marchers at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. And we know that he is an opportunist, who is buddies with wealthy Arab leaders like MBS who can enrich him. And we know that the father of his son-in-law, a Lebanese American businessman, has been helping Trump with voters in Michigan ...

Trump’s In-Law Is Trying to Exploit Democrats’ Weakness With Arab American Voters

[...] Since early this year, a pair of unofficial Trump emissaries — Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman and an in-law of Mr. Trump, and Richard Grenell, Mr. Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting intelligence chief — have been crisscrossing Michigan, trying to repackage and sell Mr. Trump to skeptical Arab American and Muslim voters there ...

As weird as it may sound, I thiink that Trump and the Republican party is actually a better fit with many Arab American voters ... the shared emphasis on a social and religious conservatism that restricts women's rights and condemns gay people is just one example of why.

Friday, November 01, 2024

Nooooo



Just watching the news, where Trump is in Michigan meeting with Arab Americans. And who is by his side? RFK Jr., crazy as a bedbug and the soon to be head of everything health and science in the government, if Trump wins. God help us all.

Thursday, October 31, 2024

"Whether they like it or not"



Texas woman died after being denied miscarriage care due to abortion ban, report finds

Yep, thanks to Trump, women now will sometimes have to die "whether they like it or not".

The Rapist



The rapist running for president has vowed to "protect" the women of America from immigrants, "whether the women like it or not". After all, those women are his property, and he's the only one who should get to rape them.

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

The F word

I saw this tonight at General Barry McCaffrey's twitter. It's a short video by Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale, who is probably most well known for his book On Tyranny. I've seen him on the news a lot, especially during the Trump presidency when the subject of authoritarianism often came up.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Bye bye UNRWA

In the news ...

Israel's potential ban on Palestinian aid agency UNRWA raises concerns in U.S., Europe

If you want to understand why this is happening, listen to today's Times of Israel's daily news briefing on UNRWA and the move to ban it ...



Here's some context - a relevant news story from a few days ago, which helps to explain why Israel wants to get rid of the UN agency ...

UNRWA confirms terrorist killed by IDF who led Re’im shelter massacre was a staffer

And we will recall that the UN fired a number of its UNRWA employees for being Hamas members who took part in the October 7 attack. This led to the US defunding UNRWA ...



Monday, October 28, 2024

In the Garden



I think what defines Trump's followers is their hatred of others. And there's nothing like a shared event with your own kind ... a mosh pit of racism, misogyny, and homophobia ... where you can fearlessly let it all hang out. But oops, the rest of us were watching.

Sunday, October 27, 2024

The Pope and women

Catholic church reform process expected to disappoint hopes of more equity for women

A yearslong process to reform the Catholic Church closes Saturday with recommendations that are expected to fall far short of hopes that women would be given more equity but that reflect the pope’s aims for a church that at least listens more to its flock.

The Vatican’s top doctrinal officer, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, told the extraordinary assembly of bishops and laypeople this week that Pope Francis said the moment for allowing ordination of women as deacons in the church “is not ripe.”...


Women can't be deacons, much less priests? Gee, I'm shocked! I mean, isn't Francis the most liberal pope ever? Isn't he a big fan of women and fairness and everythig good? Wake up! He is and always has been a very conservative person, priest, pope, and sexist. That's just the truth, one that anyone would know if they had ever paid attention to his history, his own words over the years, and of course, his actions or lack thereof.

As long as he is pope, there will be no women deacons, no women priests, and women will be preached as little more than baby-makers.

And if you are thinking that maybe the pope who comes after him will be diferent, think again. The system is built for conservatism .... people are chosen as bishops because they please the conservative higher-ups, and it is from this pool of yes-men that the papal candidates are chosen.

Those guys don't want change - they are happy in their own little country, where pedophile priests are protected from presecution, where the incredible property wealth* the chirch owns around the world supports their lifestule, and where women will always be nuns, housekeepers, and the people who do the flowers at Mass. There won't be any change.

* Vatican owns over 5,000 properties globally

Saturday, October 26, 2024

Democracy Dies in Darkness

"Democracy Dies in Darkness" is the motto of The Washington Post ...

[...] "Democracy Dies in Darkness" was the first slogan to be officially adopted by The Washington Post in its 140-year history. According to the newspaper, the phrase was popularized by investigative journalist Bob Woodward. Woodward used the phrase in a 2007 piece criticizing government secrecy, and referenced the phrase during a 2015 presentation at a conference when he talked about The Last of the President's Men, his book about the Watergate scandal. Woodward said he did not coin the phrase himself, instead attributing the phrase to a judge ruling on a First Amendment case, believed to be from Circuit Judge Damon Keith. The paper's owner Jeff Bezos, who attended Woodward's 2015 presentation, also used the phrase in a May 2016 interview. The newspaper said it decided to adopt an official slogan in early 2016 ...

Ironic, now that The Post (and The Los Angeles Times) has decided not to endorse a candidate for president in 2024 ...

Washington Post Says It Will Stop Endorsing Presidential Candidates

A debate inside The Washington Post continued for days among its top leaders: Should it make an endorsement in the presidential race, continuing a decades-long tradition? In the end, Jeff Bezos, the paper’s billionaire owner, decided that the answer was no ...

And ...

L.A. Times Editorial Chief Quits After Owner Blocks Harris Endorsement

The head of The Los Angeles Times’s editorial board resigned on Wednesday after the paper’s owner quashed a presidential endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris. In an interview with Columbia Journalism Review, Mariel Garza, who held the title editorials editor, said she had quit because “I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.” ...

So, at the end of the day, the rich businessmen who own these papers, afraid Trump will win, have decided not to incur his wrath by taking sides against him.

Cowards.

Friday, October 25, 2024

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame



Yes, I liked him :) Yes, I had his albums :) Underappreciated. Glad he finally gets his due.

From 1975 ...



And here is Frampton playing guitar as David Bowie sings Let's Dance, 1987, Glass Spider tour ...