The Conversation -- April 21, 2024
Philip Nieto of Mediaite: "President Joe Biden's White House denounced Columbia University's pro-Palestinian protests as 'blatantly anti-Semitic and dangerous.' Over the last week, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered to demand an end to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The student protesters set up what they called a 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' and included tents, signs, and more. The actions have led to hundreds of activists being arrested, including the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I do realize that hot war and mass murder are not the best circumstances under which to try to foster nuance, but to folks on both sides: there is a stark difference between antisemitism and anti-war. And it is quite possible to be pro-Israel and anti-Bibi.
On the other hand, for the first time in my life, I am beginning to wonder if the very premise of a Jewish state is past its sell-by date. A more tolerant model of government could do a much better job at maintaining the peace by guaranteeing equal protection to Jews & non-Jews alike. I never thought I'd feel that way, but Netanyahu has showed me the cracks in my traditional views of Israel. If this be the Promised Land, I'd rather be in Sweden! Of course I don't think my Kumbaya premise holds much chance in a series of wars that predate history, so in the meantime, I'll go with the two-state "solution."
The Fascists Have Always Been with Us. Paul Rosenberg of Salon interviews author David Austin Walsh on the history of the far right in the U.S. Walsh tells Rosenberg: "... even after the so-called purge of the racists and the Nazis and antisemites in the mid-1960s, you still see these elements very close to the so-called mainstream of American conservatism.... [William F. Buckley, Jr.] is the conduit through which I found all the characters in my book.... Joe McCarthy ... doesn't emerge out of nowhere.... You already have, immediately after World War II, the growing power of the farthest fringes of the right.... There's a real danger in 2024 of nostalgizing the 20th-century conservative movement as 'responsible,' 'respectable' and 'about ideas.' The same features of what became MAGAism were embedded in the movement from the very beginning, and were broadly tolerated by conservative elites even if they found them to be slightly distasteful."
Catie Edmondson of the New York Times reports the official version of how Mike Johnson got to "yes" on aid to Ukraine: "Mr. Johnson's decision to risk his speakership to push the $95 billion foreign aid bill through the House on Saturday was the culmination of a remarkable personal and political arc for the Louisiana Republican.... As a rank-and-file hard-liner, Mr. Johnson had largely opposed efforts to fund Kyiv's war effort.... Mr. Johnson attributed his turnabout in part to the intelligence briefings he received, a striking assertion from a leader of a party that has embraced ... Donald J. Trump's deep mistrust of the intelligence community.... 'I want to be on the right side of history,' Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, recalled the speaker telling him." In today's Comments, Ken W. & I are more skeptical of the impetus for the Conversion of St. Michael of Shreve.
Michael Rothfeld of the New York Times: In the 2016 election interference criminal case against Donald Trump, "... prosecutors for Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, will try to show that the payment [to Stormy Daniels] was part of a larger effort to suppress negative news about Mr. Trump to sway the election. That scheme, they will contend, resulted in not just the hush-money payment at the center of the trial, but two others. Though the other episodes are not part of the formal indictment in the case, prosecutors will use them to argue that the true purpose of the Daniels payment was related to the election, making it a federal campaign finance violation, and that his company's records were falsified to cover it up. The accusation that Mr. Trump concealed another crime elevates charges that would normally be misdemeanors into felonies." Based on numerous sources, including court records, Rothfeld traces the schemes to quash stories that might hurt Trump's chances to win the 2016 presidential election. Rothfeld, who previously worked for the Wall Street Journal, was the lead reporter on the WSJ's Pulitzer Prize-winning reports on Trump's hush-money payments in 2018.
Marie: The headline planted on Stephen Markley's opinion piece in the NYT -- "A Planetary Crisis Awaits the Next President" -- made me suspect Markley would use his precious Sunday NYT space to make mild mitigation, both-sider suggestions to whoever got the top job next time around. Well, I was wrong. Markley really lets fly what a disaster Trump would be: "... everyone will fall short -- and, surely, I've fallen short -- in describing just how frightening a second Trump presidency could actually be...." And his attitude toward Biden is similar to what yours may be: "I fully admit, Mr. Biden was not my first, nor even my seventh, choice in the 2020 Democratic primary. Yet when it came to the immense challenge of confronting this crisis, I am forever grateful that he proved me wrong, delivering a game-changing victory with the narrowest of congressional margins." Thanks to RAS for the link.
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Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The House voted resoundingly on Saturday to approve $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as Speaker Mike Johnson put his job on the line to advance the long-stalled aid package by marshaling support from mainstream Republicans and Democrats. In four back-to-back votes, overwhelming bipartisan coalitions of lawmakers approved fresh rounds of funding for the three U.S. allies, as well as another bill meant to sweeten the deal for conservatives that could result in a nationwide ban of TikTok.... Minutes before the vote on assistance for Kyiv, Democrats began to wave small Ukrainian flags on the House floor, as hard-right Republicans jeered. The legislation includes $60 billion for Kyiv; $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region.
"It would direct the president to seek repayment from the Ukrainian government of $10 billion in economic assistance, a concept supported by ... Donald J. Trump, who had pushed for any aid to Kyiv to be in the form of a loan. But it also would allow the president to forgive those loans starting in 2026. It also contained a measure to help pave the way to selling off frozen Russian sovereign assets to help fund the Ukrainian war effort, and a new round of sanctions on Iran. The Senate is expected to pass the legislation as early as Tuesday and send it to President Biden's desk, capping its tortured journey through Congress." (Also linked yesterday.) An NPR story is here.
Maria Kostenko, et al., of CNN: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu have thanked US lawmakers after they voted in favor of new aid packages for their countries worth billions of dollars."
David McAfee of the Raw Story: According to David Frum of the Atlantic, the Ukraine vote shows that "'... Trump's party in Congress has rebelled against him -- and not on a personal payoff to some oddball Trump loyalist, but on one of Trump's most cherished issues, his siding with Russia against Ukraine.'... Trump still has strong GOP support, but 'the cracks in unity are visible,' according to [Frum]."
Jill Colvin of the AP: “Over the past week, Donald Trump has been forced to sit inside a frigid New York courtroom and listen to a parade of potential jurors in his criminal hush money trial share their unvarnished assessments of him. It's been a dramatic departure for the former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee, who is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation.... [At] Mar-a-Lago..., he is surrounded by doting paid staff and dues-paying members who have shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to be near him. Many days, Trump heads to his nearby golf course, where he is 'swarmed by people wanting to shake his hand, take pictures of him, and tell him how amazing he is,' said Stephanie Grisham, a longtime aide who broke with Trump after ... Jan. 6, 2021. When he returns to Mar-a-Lago in the afternoon, members lunching on the patio often stand and applaud. He receives the same standing ovation at dinner, which often ends with Trump playing DJ on his iPad, blasting favorites like 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' by James Brown."
Presidential Race
Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "At least 10 men wearing the uniform of the Proud Boys, a violent extremist group, appeared outside the entrance of a rally [in Wilmington, N.C.,] for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.... A spokesman for the Biden campaign condemned Trump for emboldening violent extremists.... It was not clear if the Proud Boys entered the event, which was subsequently canceled because of severe weather.... The crowd awaiting Trump on the airport tarmac was similar in size to the audience during a rally here in 2022. Vendors sold T-shirts, posters and lawn signs bearing varied renderings of Trump's mug shot; as well as vulgar signs; bumper stickers and shirts directed at Biden; knives; Confederate flag bedsheets; shirts for the QAnon online extremist movement; and MAGA visors with attached orange poufs."
Maeve Reston & Clara Morse of the Washington Post: Donald Trump's "legal expenses continue to be a tremendous burden on his campaign and its allied groups, the latest campaign finance records show, accounting for 26 percent of the spending in March by his political committees. New Federal Election Commission filings released Saturday show that Save America leadership PAC, a Trump-aligned group he has used to pay some of his lawyers, took in $5 million during March and racked up $4.6 million in legal bills for Trump and some of his associates.... Trump's political committees have spent at least $16.7 million on legal bills so far this year, and owe another $900,000 to various firms as of the end of March, bringing his overall legal fees since starting his campaign to around $86 million." CNN's report is here.
Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. Top News in the NYT, April 21, 2020. Bernie Sanders: "... supplies like personal protective equipment for health care workers -- seen as essential if coronavirus surges re-emerge -- remain in dangerously short supply. An intense and chaotic scramble continues to unfold as hospitals, cities and states go out on their own to compete for masks and gowns, with uneven and shifting coordination by the federal government." ~~~
~~~ Top News in the NYT, April 20, 2020. Bernie Sanders: "We are the richest country in the history of the world, but at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, that reality means little to half of our people who live paycheck to paycheck, the 40 million living in poverty, the 87 million who are uninsured or underinsured, and the half million who are homeless. In the midst of the twin crises that we face -- the coronavirus pandemic and the meltdown of our economy -- it's imperative that we re-examine some of the foundations of American society, understand why they are failing us, and fight for a fairer and more just nation." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Israel/Palestine, et al. CNN's live updates of developments Sunday is the Israel/Hamas war are here: "At least 14 people, including one child, have been killed in an Israeli military operation in Nur al-Shams refugee camp, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The military said the operation, which appeared to be one of the largest in the occupied West Bank since October 7, had killed 10 'terrorists.' Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli settlers killed an ambulance driver trying to transport Palestinians who had been attacked, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. A spike in violence by extremist settlers in the occupied territory has led to more sanctions by the US and EU. Officials in Tehran have sought to play down the Friday morning strike on Iran -- which has been attributed to Israel -- as tensions simmer from a significant escalation between the regional powerhouses."
News Lede
New York Times: "Terry Anderson, the American journalist who had been the longest-held Western hostage in Lebanon when he was finally released in 1991 by Islamic militants after more than six years in captivity, died on Saturday at his home in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. He was 76."
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Reader Comments (5)
"A Planetary Crisis Awaits the Next President"
See a lot of praise for Bible Mike this morning. Lots of talk about his "evolution" and such.
While I'm pleased he decided to work with Democrats on the Ukraine funding, I'm still skeptical. Until he renounces his participation in the 2020 election scam, and stops praying for guidance and listening to supernatural voices in his head, I'll remain unconvinced.
Until then, I'll think of him as just another R, maybe smarter than some in that he can read and understand the polls, taking care of Number One.
@Ken Winkes: I'm with you on Bible Mike. On Friday,* after the procedural vote -- which set up the final vote Saturday -- passed, Mikey made a statement to the effect that he just had to allow the funding to come up for a vote because if he hadn't, Democrats would have gone around him and brought up a funding bill (just like the Senate bill) on what's called a "discharge petition" signed by a majority of House members. Clearly, Mike thought the discharge petition could garner a majority of signatories.
So I'm going to believe Mike when he tells us he would not have done the right thing had it not been forced upon him.
I cannot imagine how Mike knew God had worked all that out, but he must figure She is a House parliamentarian (or, short of that, omnipotent).
* Update: Catie Edmondson of the NYT writes (linked above) that Johnson made the remarks on Thursday and that he was worried Republicans, not Democrats, would initiate the discharge petition. I'll defer to Edmondson on this.
One of the stories in this NYT round-up reports Gov. Noem's delivery of talking points on a Sunday TV show. She is really bad, showing how much she wants to be DiJiT's one and only. I suppose if you're a MAGAt, she sounds good, but to me it was word salad made of garbage. Such people exist. And they get on TV. Amazing.
I’m with youse guys on the Bible Mike evolution thingie (do Bible types think in terms of evolution? I thought that word was verboten).
I’m not sure I’d ascribe to him the credit for doing the right thing against all odds, though, despite his history of Christian nationalist folderol and election denialism, should it turn out that that was indeed the case, I’d be happy to give him a tip of the hat.
HOWEVER…
There is every possibility that some crafty cooker of moral books in the Trump camp decided that denial of all support to Ukraine could provide Biden and the Democrats with a big stick with which to smack the Orange Monster, so allowing the deal to go through as a loan might be a smart thing to do, also allowing Bible Mike to keep his job. Another speaker fight would draw attention away from Fatty, something he hates. Worse, he might be blamed for still more PoT chaos (he’s already to blame for 75% of it).
Whatever the reason for the switch, it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that Johnson still craves a theocracy, so even if he let the vote go through for all the right reasons, that doesn’t make him Abraham Lincoln. He’s still dangerous in many other ways. It’ll take a lot more than this vote to convince me that Bible Mike is a (small d) democrat, who believes in the separation of church and state, as written into the Constitution, and truly believes Fatty lost the last election.