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 […]
Six reactionaries will make sure Trump is not disqualified from the 2024 election under the Fourteenth Amendment
Two legal scholars have made a robust case (http://deliverypdf.ssrn.com) for using Section 3 of the 14TH Amendment to disqualify Trump from the 2024 election: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, […]
Jack Goldsmith applies for a job by waffling on prosecuting Trump: An exchange
I recently struggled to understand this Jack Goldsmith piece about prosecuting Trump for January 6. The piece is exasperating in its fatuous logic and weak-kneed “analysis”. I asked a former law partner — a former prosecutor and experienced litigator — to check my math. My view Goldsmith sets the scene by referring to “the Biden […]
And the rest of the world watches: Part 2
Why do the countries with the means to compel a change in Israel’s course — a course Western leaders routinely describe as counter-productive to peace and even contrary to Israel’s long-term interest — limit their role to hand-wringing? Is their helplessness feigned or real? There are four elements that maintain the status quo, variously playing […]
The self-styled “civilized” world continues to watch, bemused: Part 1
If the demographic curve’s against you, resort to more direct means of righting the imbalance. Always ready to off Arabs, Netanyahu decided, to the cheers of his countrymen, that it was time for another round, this time through an assault on the refugee camp in Jenin (northern Israel), a squalid place since 1953. But for […]
Stefanik and Greene: Queens of fiction, not legislators
Two Republican stalwarts have introduced House resolutions to expunge the Trump impeachments. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s version deals with December 2019 (Impeachment 1), Elise Stefanik’s with January 2021 (Impeachment 2). Although mere expressions of sentiment, not legislation, in our hyper-ventilating age obsessed with feelings and much as non-Republican critics mock them as yet more exercises in […]
Trump didn’t “mishandle;” he stole.
Hyperventilation over Trump’s indictment gives us the latest example of how media pervert language. Almost universally, headlines refer to his being charged with “mishandling classified documents”. This mischaracterizes what he’s done, and it’s not clear why media — versus Trump voters and his acolytes in Congress — want to sugar-coat the offense. “Mishandle” means, Oops; […]
MTG: Even a pox on humanity can offer benefits.
Hard to imagine that someone who contributes less than zero to humanity has done something useful. But Marjorie Taylor Greene — enamored of the public attention that finally has come her way after nearly 50 years’ obscure existence in central Georgia — has done it. She has proposed to divorce red states from blue states. […]
The 11th Circuit panel missed the chance to highlight Trump’s obstruction of DOJ’s criminal investigation.
The Mar-a-Lago documents case has been briefed and argued; all we need now is a decision from the 11th Circuit to undo the nonsense generated by Judge Cannon so that DOJ can proceed with its prosecution of Trump for pilfering government documents, including highly classified ones. In the recent oral argument, the misleadingly named Trump lawyer, Trusty, […]
Even civic decay is Hillary’s fault?
Yet another both-sides-do-it claim: “MAGA faithful have taken election denial to the extreme, but both parties have nurtured the problem for decades.” Seriously? Democrats’ assertion — backed by facts in the Mueller Report — that Russia interfered in the 2016 to help Trump is characterized, bizarrely, as the equivalent of some 70 post-2020 lawsuits challenging […]
Trump: 7 Crimes and 73 Years
People who loathe Trump ask: Why hasn’t DOJ indicted Trump yet. Isn’t there a mountain of evidence proving guilt? The absence of an indictment is seen as Garlandian cowardice, typical liberal squishiness and the misplaced impulse not to offend Republicans. (Newsflash to Garland critics: He probably knows that you can’t offend something that, by definition, […]