The Conversation -- April 14, 2024
Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. Top News in the NYT, April 14, 2020: "The nation's food supply chain is showing signs of strain, as increasing numbers of workers are falling ill with the coronavirus in meat processing plants, warehouses and grocery stores. The spread of the virus through the food and grocery industry is expected to cause disruptions in production and distribution of certain products like pork, industry executives, labor unions and analysts have warned in recent days."
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** New York Times: "Iran mounted an immense aerial attack on Israel on Saturday night, launching more than 300 drones and missiles in retaliation for a deadly Israeli airstrike in Syria two weeks ago, and marking a significant escalation in hostilities between the two regional foes. The strikes caused only minor damage to one Israeli military base, and most of the airborne threats were intercepted, Israeli military officials said. The United States said it had helped to shoot dozens of drones and missiles. But the large-scale attack, aimed at targets inside Israel and the territory it controls, opened a volatile new chapter in the long-running shadow war between Iran and Israel." This is the pinned item in a liveblog. ~~~
~~~ Update. Here's today's NYT liveblog. ~~~
~~~ CNN's live updates for Sunday are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here: "Iran launched a massive attack of more than 300 drones and missiles toward Israel, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said, adding that 'more than 99 percent' had been intercepted. The ongoing barrage is the first full-scale military assault by Tehran against Israel. President Biden condemned the 'brazen attack,' saying he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and affirmed the United States' 'ironclad commitment' to Israel's security.... Hagari described the attack as a 'major escalation.' Iranian state media said it was retaliation for the Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building this month in Syria that killed seven members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two senior commanders. Israel and its allies are intercepting the strikes, but a number of Iranian missiles fell inside Israeli territory, causing minor damage to a military base. A young girl was injured in the attack, Hagari said." ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Lemire of Politico: "President Joe Biden on Saturday condemned Iranian attacks on the state of Israel and said he would convene fellow world leaders in the day ahead to coordinate a response. In a statement issued after he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said that, in conjunction with U.S. forces, Israel was able to 'take down' nearly all 'the incoming drones and missiles' launched by Iran 'and its proxies operating out of Yemen, Syria and Iraq.'... Earlier in the day, the president cut short a weekend trip to his Delaware beach home to return to the White House. His arrival roughly coincided with Iran and its proxies launching their drone and missile strikes."
Rebecca Picciotto of CNBC: "Donald Trump on Saturday took aim at two likely witnesses in his upcoming New York hush money trial, testing the boundaries of a gag order that prohibits such public statements. 'Has Mark POMERANTZ been prosecuted for his terrible acts in and out of the D.A.'s Office. Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING?' the former president posted on Truth Social. The social media post is the latest challenge to the limits of a gag order that forbids Trump from making public statements about likely witnesses and jurors." ~~~
~~~ Dear Justice Merchan: At the end of the day Monday, please remove Mr. Trump from the courtroom to a cell. Regards, Marie
Michael Gold of the New York Times: "Two days before his first criminal trial was set to begin in Manhattan..., Donald J. Trump on Saturday again framed the charges he faces as a broad attempt by Democrats to keep him from the White House, and he criticized a gag order placed on him by the judge in the New York case. 'Two days from now, the entire world will witness the commencement of the very first Biden trial,' Mr. Trump said at a rally in eastern Pennsylvania, alluding to his frequent and false assertion that President Biden orchestrated the New York case. The case, which Mr. Trump also called a 'communist show trial,' was brought by the Manhattan district attorney's office and has nothing to do with Mr. Biden." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump should be a big fan of the "communist show trial" since (a) it's a specialty of Trump's favorite dictator Vladimir Putin and (b) it's the type of fake trial Trump plans to hold against his perceived political enemies during his "retribution" administration.
Marie: Like me, Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times is not impressed that certain Supreme Court justices go on the lecture circuit to tout how famously the justices get along with one another, no matter how strongly they disagree in their court decisions. "What counts is not how the justices treat one another but how they treat the claims of those who come before them."
Tracey Tully & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "When Senator Robert Menendez was charged last year with corruption after investigators found $486,000 in cash stashed around his house in New Jersey, he offered a simple, 'old-fashioned' explanation: It had been his custom to withdraw cash from a personal savings account to keep at home, a habit he learned from his Cuban immigrant parents. But federal prosecutors, in papers filed late Friday, presented fresh details that they suggested undercut Mr. Menendez's claim. Some of the cash was wrapped in bands showing it had been withdrawn, at least $10,000 at a time, from a bank where Mr. Menendez and his wife 'had no known depository account.' This, prosecutors said, indicated 'that the money had been provided to them by another person.'"
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Reader Comments (10)
With a little more than 24 hours left until his trial begins Trump would seem to have gone through his bag of tricks at least twice, About the only thing left is to fire his legal team. This would cause the desired delay and you can be assured he'd be in no hurry to find another.
Bobby Lee: It would be fun to see DiJiT roll into the courtroom in a wheelchair, with a neck brace and a seeing-eye dog, asking for a medical delay. I'm sure he thought of it, but may have decided it would hurt his he-man image. Like injured soldiers.
Unless ... he could fake an injury perpetrated by someone else, where he gets "hurt" bravely and successfully defending himself. Some of those wrestling kayfabe associates of his could help, but may not be willing to put up with the resulting assault charges (which he would bring ... help DiJiT and he bites your hand anyway.)
Anyway, he's creative, so let's see what entertainment he tries.
All Politics, All the Time: A Sunday sermon.
We’ve all been told that when we’re with people we don’t know well, we should avoid talking about politics. It’s a sensible recommendation, I suppose, but tough to follow for someone who believes, as I do, that virtually everything we do is political, even if we don’t realize or admit it.
Every time we jockey for social or economic position or decide who gets how much of what, we’re engaging in politics. The political process is how we distribute power and resources. In families, at work, on school playgrounds, and in the halls of Congress, we can’t escape it.
Politics can be as straightforward and easy to understand as the way personal power is assigned among family members. Or it can be as indirect and complicated as the arrangements we’ve made to tax the very wealthy as a much lower rate than we tax wage or salary workers (oxfamamerica.org). When we formalize politics with candidates and elections at the local, state, or national level, we’ve only changed the reach of our choices.
Even when we think we’re not talking about politics, we often are.
Our local community met a week or so ago to review what we should do to prepare for a disaster. Thanks to the person who arranged the meeting, to those who attended and who shared their thoughts and expertise, we are now better prepared than we were before.
Disasters like floods, wildfires, earthquakes, and rail derailments (something our Conway community should be sensitive to) always seem to happen somewhere else--until they don’t. Even when the chance of disaster is small, when it happens, that small chance is suddenly one hundred percent, so being prepared just makes sense.
We watched a video, discussed what we learned, and heard from some professionals who had been called to disaster scenes as near as the devastating mudslide in Oso, a range of foothills and less than thirty miles away, to New Orleans and the horrific aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Each event overwhelmed local resources, and despite the emergency response, left devastation and death in its wake.
In addition to learning what should be in our disaster kits, where we should store them, and instructions about how we should behave when disaster strikes, I left the meeting with two thoughts seemingly far removed from fire extinguishers, flashlight batteries and hard hats—and both very political.
One was prompted by a trained emergency responder who related some of his experiences working disasters around the country. Disasters, he pointed out, pose difficult choices. Amidst danger and extensive devastation, with people dead or badly injured, responders must decide quickly what to do next or whom to help first.
To aid those decisions, the video we saw emphasized that when disaster strikes, communication is key. It told us to place signs in our windows, letting neighbors and responders know if we needed help or not. But even when fully informed, responders must make difficult decisions. One fire might have to be allowed to burn if another fire that threatens a more critical facility demands their attention. Or they might have to ignore one injured person if a greater number of people are possibly dying some distance away.
In short, a disaster heightens our community consciousness. Beset by hard choices, we do what is best for the greatest number of people. We think in terms of the entire community, not just of individuals.
Though we didn’t talk about it at the meeting, I recalled that in the aftermath of many disasters, that same sensitivity to our social lives and responsibilities is prominent. Disaster survivors commonly report that no matter how terrifying and destructive the disaster they experienced was, they will always remember how it brought the community closer together.
Heart-warming as those reports may be, they always make me a little sad. It shouldn’t take disasters to remind us that everyone benefits when people work together for the common good.
Turns out, our disaster preparedness meeting was political, too.
Policing themselves
"Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a controversial bill Friday stripping civilian oversight boards of their power to investigate police misconduct.
The bill, HB 601, instead allows local chiefs of police agencies to create their own “civilian oversight” boards composed of three to seven members, all appointed by the chief or sheriff. But these boards can only review policies and procedures, not oversee use-of-force complaints or internal affairs investigations.
“You have review boards, that’s fine, but it’s got to be done in ways where you have the Sheriff or Chief of Police appointing people,” the governor said. “It can’t be people that have an agenda.”"
RAS,
I guess the police themselves don't have an agenda...
and when, I wonder, did "agenda" become a dirty word?
Ron's right. You need only look to the Supreme Court to see what mischief can be wrought by people with an agenda.
Ken,
Especially when the agenda is fewer people being shot and killed. Unfortunately the Republican death cult does not see that as a positive outcome. They would rather streamline the process and roll the judge, jury and executioner all in one for a quicker, cheaper process. As long as it is their lessers ending up in the pine box they don't care. And the kind of police officers that are okay after shooting someone who was no real danger to anyone are their kind of people anyway. And will be useful when they get enough power to start rounding up the ungrateful rabble that oppose their great plans for society.
Making sure cops are never held accountable to those they are supposed to protect and serve is itself an agenda, Rhonda..
That headline "Are you better off than you were four years ago" is
probably going to get me a bloody nose, or worse.
Anytime I hear someone complain about how bad things are under
the present administration, I just can't keep my mouth shut.
Replying to one neighbor---'but you just bought one of those seventy
thousand EVs and had your own charging station installed, so the
economy can't be that bad."
And a grand-niece is in Ireland for spring break saying how great the
Guiness is over there. How can that part of the family think the
economy is so bad?
Another neighbor, who is a died in the wool Biden hater, bought a
cottage on a lake in New Jersey so she can run into Manhattan every
day to shop and eat. The economy must be doing quite well.
I could go on and on, especially about all those friends who are just
returning from a winter in Puerto Vallarta or Palm Springs.
My agenda is to remind as many people as I can how we're much
better off now than four years ago.
How is the chicken cooked?