The Conversation -- June 17, 2024
AP: "Israeli officials say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the influential War Cabinet that was tasked with steering the war in Gaza. The three-person War Cabinet was dissolved a week after Benny Gantz, a popular opposition lawmaker and former military chief, quit Netanyahu's governing coalition in frustration over how the war was being handled. In the early days of the war, Gantz demanded a small Cabinet with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant be formed as a way to sideline far-right lawmakers in Netanyahu's government."
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Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "The United States Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, announced on Monday that he would push for a warning label on social media platforms advising parents that using the platforms might damage adolescents' mental health. Warning labels -- like those that appear on tobacco and alcohol products -- are one of the most powerful tools available to the nation's top health official, but Dr. Murthy cannot unilaterally require them; the action requires approval by Congress. No such legislation has yet been introduced in either chamber." ~~~
~~~ Here's Dr. Murthy's New York Times op-ed on the subject.
Presidential Race
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The Biden campaign on Monday launched a battleground state ad that lambasts former President Trump as a 'convicted criminal,' highlighting his numerous legal problems and his recent felony conviction in New York." ~~~
Brett Bachman of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: "Donald Trump issued an angry and confrontational Father's Day message Sunday, using the occasion to lash out at his enemies and issue a hyperbolic plea for votes in November's presidential election. The former president ... [wrote] on Truth Social: 'HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE RADICAL LEFT DEGENERATES THAT ARE RAPIDLY BRINGING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTO THIRD WORLD NATION STATUS WITH THEIR MANY ATTEMPTS AT TRYING TO INFLUENCE OUR SACRED COURT SYSTEM INTO BREAKING TO THEIR VERY SICK AND DANGEROUS WILL....'... Trump did not mention any of his five children during his Father's Dayrant, nor did he write about his feelings for his own family. He did, however, mark the day by nodding to the neck-and-neck election currently unfolding -- calling Nov. 5 'the most important day in the history of our country.'"
Not Surprising. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "According to a report from the Daily Beast, the pastor of Texas megachurch who was appointed to Donald Trump's 'spiritual advisory' group in 2016, has admitted that he fondled a 12-year-old when he was 20 and was staying with her family in 1982. That admission, made in a statement to the Christian Post, came after the woman, identified as Cindy Clemishire, spoke with The Wartburg Watch and accused Pastor Robert Morris, who is now a senior pastor at the Gateway Church in Dallas- Ft. Worth, of sexually assaulting her."
Marie: We often complain about headline writers for the MSM & their misleading headlines, but I think we'll give this AP writer a solid "A": "Trump challenges Biden to a cognitive test but confuses the name of the doctor who tested him." I think I'd make that "his own doctor who tested him."
Are You Better Off Today Than You Were Four Years Ago? Here's a New York Times headline posted June 17, 2020: "Here Are the 100 U.S. Cities Where Protesters Were Tear-Gassed." The Lede: "At least 100 law enforcement agencies -- many in large cities -- used some form of tear gas against civilians protesting police brutality and racism in recent weeks, according to an analysis by The New York Times." Of course it could have been worse. Axios (May 2022): "Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper charges in a memoir out May 10 that former President Trump said when demonstrators were filling the streets around the White House following the death of George Floyd: 'Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?'"
Leftist Protesters = Scary Militias. Insurrectionists = Sweet Grandmas. Mary Astor the New York Times: "Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who is a contender to be ... Donald J. Trump's running mate, on Sunday described left-wing protesters as 'street militias' who had not been prosecuted enough. He also said that prosecutors were unfairly charging 'every grandma and MAGA hat who was within a country mile of the Capitol' on Jan. 6, 2021. As Mr. Cotton was interviewed on CNN, Senator Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who is also a vice-presidential contender, made similar arguments on ABC News. With less inflammatory phrasing than Cotton used, he distinguished violent Jan. 6 rioters who should be imprisoned from people who 'came into the Capitol because the doors were open,' while also calling Democrats weak on crime." This is an item in a liveblog.
RAS links this morning to a Daily Kos story that highlights the "work" of a software company called RealPage. The company provides software for major realtors, and as part of the package, it appears RealPage helps these realtors fix rental prices in various markets throughout the country in violation of anti-trust laws. One of the major developers of RealPage: Clarence Thomas' billionaire real estate tycoon buddy Harlan Crow. Some law enforcement agencies -- including the FBI -- are taking action. MB: Not mentioned in the in the Daily Kos story: Arizona AG Kris Mayes (D) filed an action against Phoenix & Tuscon realtors for "illegally collud[ing] with RealPage to artificially raise rents and concealed their conspiracy from the public."
~~~ Marie: Clarence Thomas can keep on pretending he loves nothing more than hanging out in Walmart parking lots across America with "regular people." But it looks as if his biggest benefactor -- the provider of Clarence's luxury vacations and private jet travel -- is a major part of a national scheme to artificially raise rents (and make life more difficult) for those "regular people."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: Robert "Winnett[, a London-based newspaper editor,] is now poised to take over the top editorial position in The Post's core newsroom, scheduled to start after the November U.S. presidential election.... [In 2010,] John Ford, who has ... admitted to an extensive career using deception and illegal means to obtain confidential information for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper..., [called Winnett when it appeared he would be arrested for trying to steal an advance copy of former PM Tony Blair's memoir].... Winnett moved quickly to connect Ford with a lawyer, discussed obtaining an untraceable phone for future communications and reassured Ford that the 'remarkable omerta' of British journalism would ensure his clandestine efforts would never come to light, according to draft chapters Ford wrote in 2017 and 2018 that were shared with The Post." Over the years, Ford assisted Winnett on other stories using questionable means. "I was nothing more than a common thief," he told the Guardian in 2018.
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Maryland. Erin Cox, et al., of the Washington Post: "Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will issue a mass pardon of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions Monday morning, one of the nation's most sweeping acts of clemency involving a drug now in widespread recreational use. The pardons will forgive low-level marijuana possession charges for an estimated 100,000 people in what the Democratic governor said is a step to heal decades of social and economic injustice that disproportionately harms Black and Brown people. Moore noted criminal records have been used to deny housing, employment and education, holding people and their families back long after their sentences have been served."
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Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.
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Reader Comments (12)
Bribery
"The GOP's Finely Tuned Bribery Machine
It's playing out right before our eyes, but the secret 2025 agenda it's facilitating is even more scandalous."
BRIAN BEUTLER
Clarence's buddy
"FBI raid on real estate company linked to Harlan Crow's RealPage rental price fixing"
New York Times
"White House Announces Strategy to Keep Edible Food Out of Landfills
The government will look at ways to extend the shelf life of foods and to create more composting and other facilities, as well as urge companies to donate more food.
The Biden administration on Wednesday issued, for the first time, a national strategy to combat a major national problem: food waste.
Roughly 30 percent of the country’s food supply isn’t eaten, but thrown away or otherwise wasted. In fact, food is the single largest volume of material sent to landfills and incinerators in the United States. When uneaten food goes into landfills, it breaks down and produces as much greenhouse gas emissions annually as dozens of coal-burning power plants, according to the federal government.
The White House strategy involves efforts to change the behavior of both businesses and individuals to reduce waste, as well as to fund research into extending the shelf life of perishable foods, expand food donations and turn food waste into usable commodities like compost, gas or animal feed."
Atlantic
"The Overlooked (But Real) Possibility of a Big Democratic Win
Both moderates and progressives are pushing the Biden campaign to get more ambitious.
By Russell Berman
Democrats have spent the past year talking much more about the prospect of a Donald Trump victory than about their own. The relentless focus on Trump is understandable, but it has obscured a central reality of the 2024 election: Democrats have a real chance to sweep the presidency, House, and Senate. And if they do, their congressional majority would likely be more cohesive and progressive than during President Joe Biden’s first two years in office.
Biden’s deficit in the polls is much smaller than the party’s panic suggests and has narrowed since Trump’s felony convictions. Democrats need to flip only a few seats to recapture the House. Holding the Senate won’t be easy, but thanks to the retirements of a pair of maverick Democrats, even a small majority could open a path to substantial legislative achievements such as the passage of a comprehensive voting-rights bill, a federal guarantee for abortion rights, lower drug prices, and an expanded social safety net."
What climate change? That's what lots of deniers keep saying.
Here in West Michigan we're under a week long heat advisory and
it's only June. We're having August weather already.
We used to say 'cooler near the Lake', but now the lake has heated
up so much that it really doesn't help anymore.
And I haven't seen any news reports of Donald's spawn getting
together to celebrate their father on Father's Day.
Don't they realize that they won't be able to get together with him
next Father's Day as he will be in prison. Only one visitor at a time
please.
If anyone should have been celebrating Fathers' Day, it should have been the Pretender.
After all, his father set him up in a very nice life by showering him with hundreds of millions of dollars and teaching him how to lie, cheat and steal.
And because he is a very stable genius, the Pretender learned those lessons very well.
Maybe the court room time could be transferred to the Father's Day company time and Eric drew the short straw to rack up enough face time to cover the rest of the family's holiday obligations.
We've all heard family members repeat the same stories over and over again. What must it be like to be with Donald? "Yes dad, I know the election was stolen from you. Yes, you Are the most persecuted man in history. Yes, even better than Lincoln...." Even his social media posts are mostly the same every time. "Happy ... to all, Even the Radical Left Degenerates blah blah blah."
Monster Revival
The Traitor Tractatus, aka the 2025 Project, if you squint a bit, sounds very much like Plan 9 From Outer Space , the Ed Wood masterpiece of kitschy horror involving aliens who, in an effort to stop humanity from endangering the universe by building a Doomsday Device, initiate Plan 9, which brings dead people back to life (stay with me here…) in the hopes that the ensuing chaos will put the Doomsday doohickey on the back burner.
Talk about back from the dead, the movie even features an aging, narcotically numbed Bela Lugosi performing a last gasp Dracula redux.
As weird as it is, Plan 9 is much closer to the 2025 Project than one might think.
There’s the plan to conquer through chaos. Check! The potential exporting of body and soul killing policies. Check! The spreading of fear and paranoia. Check! And the use of an aging, mentally deficient blood sucking monster. Check!
The difference is Plan 9 is funny, and completely fictional. The 2025 Project is neither.
Oops, meant to add that it’s worth a few minutes to read the Brian Beutler piece RAS linked up at the top. Beutler’s mention of Plan 9 From Leonard Leo prompted the riff about monsters, chaos, and a demented old vampire
"Greek coastguard threw migrants overboard to their deaths, witnesses say
The Greek coastguard has caused the deaths of dozens of migrants in the Mediterranean over a three-year period, witnesses say, including nine who were deliberately thrown into the water.
The nine are among more than 40 people alleged to have died as a result of being forced out of Greek territorial waters, or taken back out to sea after reaching Greek islands, BBC analysis has found.
The Greek coastguard told our investigation it strongly rejects all accusations of illegal activities."
We haven't heard from the American "Right to Extreme Stupidity League" for quite some time, although clearly it's been active for the past four decades. Here's one of their old PSAs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-5FwVv5Udo