Seasoned reporter, Judy Woodruff, legitimizes “fake news” claims by known liars.
PBS reporter Woodruff recently felt compelled to apologize. What sin had this veteran, if vanilla, journalist committed to warrant her to do that? While reporting from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, she said that Trump was “on the phone with [Netanyahu] urging him not to cut a [hostage] deal [with Hamas] right now because […]
Yet again liberals are blamed for attitudes and choices of Trump voters.
The academy has again blamed me for choices made by others. I’m an easy target; I’m an urban liberal. (Detractors throw in “elitist” but, as with much public discourse, it’s unclear what that means other than, naturally, that it’s intended as a slur. Whatever the case, I’m once more getting something wrong.) It happened before. […]
John Kirby: Imperial Clerk and Apologist for Moral Squalor
Israeli forces have taken out a convoy of three trucks that was bringing food to Gaza. Apparently, the 32,000+ civilians they’ve already offed in their Project Vengeance, now in its fifth month, haven’t been enough. Deliberate starvation is next on the menu for the unfortunates trapped there. As the IDF knows, its ability to destroy […]
Colorado v. Anderson: A panicked, reality-denying few will surrender to the mob.
The reasonable conclusion from the recent oral argument in Colorado v. Anderson is that nine people — in the name of 330 million fellow citizens — will subordinate the law to the mob. They won’t say that, of course, because they’ve convinced themselves that it’s solely for voters to choose, or not, an insurrectionist. Not […]
Dawdling Circuit judges risk abetting Trump’s crimes.
The November 2024 election looms over the three criminal cases in which Trump is the defendant. He has made it clear, by public statements and litigation tactics, that he wants none of these cases to go to trial before the election. If he avoids trial and wins in November, he will terminate all prosecutions of […]
Not-News News: Israel rejects two-state solution; press serves left-overs.
Or, as the kids would say, No shit, Sherlock. Menachem Begin told Ronald Reagan in 1980 — 1980! — that Israel would never agree to a Palestinian state west of the Jordan. How did the dolt of dolts, the god in the pantheon of Republican gods respond? Gosh; OK, then. Forty-four years of illegal Israeli […]
Look silly? Six justices don’t care.
At “Courting Ridicule” (snyder.substack.com), Timothy Snyder warns that the issue of Trump’s eligibility for office risks the Supreme Court’s “mak[ing] itself ridiculous.” “We stand on the threshold of comedy already.” Too late; ominous-yet-funny has been a feature of the Court’s jurisprudence for years. Snyder highlights the “originalism” and “intentionalism” (a/k/a “textualism”), which form the thinking, […]
“Absolutely Immunity”: The weird judicial deference to smoke-and-mirrors arguments from Trump continues.
Yesterday a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals entertained oral arguments from Trump’s attorney, D. John Sauer, as to a president’s “absolute immunity” from criminal liability for acts committed while president. Not heard in on-line recordings was, “Are you serious”? (1) Absolute Immunity Judge Pan did offer skepticism through her hypothetical: Can […]
US war crimes committed openly in Gaza aren’t war crimes unless we say they are.
Imagine the US as a gigantic elevator into which is piped background music that soothes riders with the affirmation that theirs is a society governed by laws. Their economic-military colossus of a country is “a nation of laws,” a place where “no one is above the law,” where “justice is blind”. Compared to other countries, […]
Senator Warner’s master class in justifying US participation in the criminal destruction of Gaza
Senator Warner (D-VA) answers a constituent who asked what he was doing to bring about an end to Israel’s destruction of Gaza, a destruction made only possible by the thousands of bombs—most of them “dumb” ones—that the US is delivering around-the-clock to Israel: “Thank you for contacting me regarding the horrific October 7 attacks carried […]
US bullshit continues to be world-class.
Some 15,000 American bombs and 18,000 dead (50,000 wounded) Palestinians later, the US president has opined that Israel is “starting to lose support by [its] indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza. He is said to have had “blunt private conversations with Netanyahu” about Israeli tactics, though how an American defines “blunt” likely differs markedly from the Israeli […]
The two-state solution is impossible because the US and Europe continue to help Israel make it so.
Gideon Rachman, a usually sensible commentator on world affairs for the Financial Times, has come out with “Israel, Palestine and the mirage of the two-state solution”. Its analysis is sober enough, but it does what one has seen for decades: it skirts the obvious, i.e., it refuses—in the name of (an illusory) objectivity—to call for […]
Israel kills Palestinian civilians by the thousands and tells itself — and the world — that it’s all legal.
It’s estimated that Israel has dropped some 15,000 bombs on Gaza and killed some 15,000 people. Quite a Jewish-bomb-to-dead-Arab ratio, if an expensive one. The bombs are American. They’ll continue to fall indefinitely or until the US and Israel run out of bombs. Jerusalem is pleased. Washington is pleased. They see themselves on the side […]
Wie sieht es in Deutschland aus?
Ein Freund aus Deutschland schreibt. Meine Frau aus Thailand macht sich Sorgen über die ca. 30.000 Thailänder in Israel. Viele sind bei der Terroraktion der Hamas getötet und auch entführt wurden. Die meisten arbeiten in Israels Landwirtschaft. Um die 5.000 wollen Israel derzeit so schnell als möglich verlassen. Die Bevölkerung in Thailand nimmt korrekterweise die […]
Another Boot-Licking Festival
As predictable as ever, Western leaders, politicians, and commentators have been lightning-quick in their response to the deadly cross-border raids from Gaza to swear undying fealty to Israel and “its right to defend itself against terror”. Headlines, often in 16-point font size, blare about the “unprecedented invasion”. Always first with one-sided and misleading stories, the […]