Category: Politics

I Did Not Think that This Would Happen

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I know that the deal had been made, and Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו) 12 year long reign as Israeli PM supposed to end, but I did not want to comment about this, because I was afraid that Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו) would find some way to pull a rabbit from the hat and stay in power, and out of jail.

Thankfully, I was wrong.  The Knesset has successfully had a vote of confidence in a new government that does not include Binyaman Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו).

So he is out, and there is no way that the current parliament will grant him immunity.

In fact, I rather expect that this government, with it’s “eclectic” group of ideologies and one vote majority, won’t survive more than a month beyond Netanyahu’s (יִמַּח שְׁמו) conviction and jailing.

Still that corrupt demagogue is out, and he is very likely going to jail:

The long and divisive reign of Benjamin Netanyahu, the dominant Israeli politician of the past generation, officially ended on Sunday night, at least for the time being, as the country’s Parliament gave its vote of confidence to a precarious coalition government stitched together by widely disparate anti-Netanyahu forces.

Naftali Bennett, a 49-year-old former aide to Mr. Netanyahu who opposes a Palestinian state and is considered to the right of his old ally, replaced him as prime minister after winning by just a single vote. Yair Lapid, a centrist leader and the new foreign minister, is set to take Mr. Bennett’s place after two years, if their government can hold together that long.

It won’t.  Bennett is a real horror show on his own, but he lacks the political acumen and native cunnint of Binyamin Netanyahu’s (יִמַּח שְׁמו), is a better alternative.

There is no one and nothing that Binyamin Netanyahu’s (יִמַּח שְׁמו) would not sacrifice to his own power and impunity, as he has proved over the years.

………

Members of the bloc agree on little but a desire to oust Mr. Netanyahu, the longest-serving leader in the country’s history, and the need to end a lengthy political gridlock that produced four elections in two years; left Israel without a stable government or a state budget; and formed the backdrop to a surge in interethnic mob violence between Jewish and Arab citizens during the recent 11-day conflict with Hamas.

Violence which was aggressively fomented and encouraged by Binyamin Netanyahu’s (יִמַּח שְׁמו) to further his political aims.

………

During 15 years in power, the last 12 of them uninterrupted, Mr. Netanyahu helped shift Israel further to the right and presided over the dwindling of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, collapsing hopes of a two-state resolution to the conflict. He was also accused of undermining the rule of law by staying in office while standing trial for corruption. It was a decision that divided the Israeli right and contributed to Mr. Bennett’s decision to side with Mr. Netanyahu’s opponents.

Mr. Netanyahu, 71, simultaneously scored several diplomatic triumphs, including agreements with four Arab countries that upended assumptions that Israel would only normalize relations with the Arab world after it sealed peace with the Palestinians.

………

Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, approved the new government by the slimmest of margins — the vote was 60 to 59. In a sign of challenges to come, one lawmaker who had originally agreed to support the coalition balked at the 11th hour, deciding to abstain instead of voting in its favor. To ensure the coalition’s victory, a second lawmaker left a hospital to vote — and then returned to her hospital bed.

………

One celebrant, Shoval Sadde, expressed relief that the coalition had come together after weeks of uncertainty.

“Today is final,” she said. “There are no secret magics anymore that Bibi can pull out of a hat. It’s final.”

My feelings exactly.

I’m glad that I was wrong about my misgivings.

Your Moment of Schadenfreude

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West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, who is at the forefront of cutting benefits from the unemployed in his state, is personally liable for nearly $¾ billion in loans from the collapsed dodgy non-bank loan company Greensill Capital.

It could not happen to a nicer guy:

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is personally on the hook for nearly $700 million in loans his coal companies took out from now-defunct Greensill Capital, according to people familiar with the loans and documents described to The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Justice’s personal guarantee of the loans, which hasn’t been reported, puts financial pressure on the popular Republican governor. He is also dealing with unrelated lawsuits alleging parts of his sprawling network of coal companies breached payment contracts or failed to deliver coal.

Greensill packaged the loans and sold them to investment funds managed by Credit Suisse Group and Greensill ran $10 billion in supply-chain finance funds that extended financing to a range of borrowers.

………

[Governor Justice’s company] Bluestone hadn’t expected to begin repaying the Greensill loans until 2023 at the earliest, it said in a lawsuit brought in March in a New York federal court alleging Greensill committed fraud in its lending practices.

………

Greensill was a once-hot private finance firm whose bankers said could have been worth $40 billion in a potential initial public offering. It attracted investment from SoftBank Group Corp. before collapsing into bankruptcy in March when it lost a key type of insurance that backed up its loans.

………

Credit Suisse in a recent notice to investors said Bluestone owes nearly $700 million in loans.

………

The guarantees were provided by Mr. Justice as well as his wife and covered unlimited amounts, some of the people familiar with the loans said. Mr. Justice’s son and Bluestone’s chief executive, James C. Justice III, guaranteed the loans up to a certain limit, one of the people said, though that figure couldn’t be learned. All three are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Greensill.

………

Forbes this year dropped Mr. Justice from its billionaires list, owing to Greensill’s failure. It now pegs his net worth at $450 million, down from $1.2 billion in April 2020. His wealth stems from dozens of coal companies, farms and other businesses he and his family oversee, including the famed Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

$450 million – $700 million = -$250 million dollars.

He’s rich, so he is not going to have to pay it all off, rich people never pay their bills, but this is going to take a significant bite out of his wallet.

I would also note that Greensill’s model was to make to make supply chain loans, where suppliers would get the cash while their customers dragged their feet on paying them.

Their special sauce was in using complex financial instruments to mask the risk involved in these transactions, which allowed them to offer lower rates.

If you were into Greensill for 700 Extra Large, it means that you company was already in serious trouble.

Here’s hoping that Justice will need to get an honest job after he leaves the Governor’s mansion.

Of Course They Did

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A bipartisan group in the Senate has come up with a new infrastructure bill. 

Why am I not surprised that whenever you add Republicans to a group, their first move is to put the kibosh on any tax increases for the rich?

Basically, the Republicans in the group with the acquiescence of the corporate “Democrats” in the group, are determined to make their bill as meaningless as possible:

A bipartisan Senate group is taking tax increases off the table as lawmakers try to craft an infrastructure proposal after GOP talks with the White House collapsed Tuesday.

Raising taxes on high-income earners and corporations has been a key part of President Biden‘s infrastructure plan, making it nearly impossible to garner enough GOP support for legislation that can clear the Senate.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who is in the bipartisan group, said tax increases are not under consideration as senators attempt to reach consensus on how to pay for their plan.

………

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), another member of the bipartisan group, also told reporters on Wednesday that Republicans won’t agree to tax increases as part of infrastructure talks.

The group is expected to be looking at a proposal of around $900 billion, but they’ve been careful not to publicly release a number, saying the level of spending isn’t yet locked in. Biden’s initial infrastructure proposal exceeded $2.2 trillion.

This is why you don’t waste your time trying to cut a deal with Republicans. 

They are never going to agree to raising taxes on the rich, one of the most popular policies in the United States right now, and they don’t want the country to succeed, because it would hurt their electoral chances.

Negotiating in good faith is in opposition to core Republican values.

 

Why Is This a Surprise?

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I was not surprised when it was revealed that an Oregon State Representative let terrorists into the state house on December 21, 2000, but I am surprised that he was expelled from the state house by a near-unanimous vote. (The terrorist state legislator, Mike, Nearman, voted against)

I’m surprised that there were not at least 3 or 4 pro-insurrection Republicans who voted no:

The Oregon House voted 59-1 Thursday to expel Rep. Mike Nearman, the first time it has ejected a sitting representative.

Lawmakers removed Nearman because he let far-right demonstrators, some of whom were armed, into the Capitol on Dec. 21 while lawmakers were holding a special session. The Capitol was closed to the public due to the pandemic and remains so.

………

Surveillance video captured Nearman, a four-term Republican, opening a door and exiting the building, stepping aside so that demonstrators waiting at the entrance could quickly slip into the building. The demonstrators clashed with police who attempted to expel them from the building and allegedly sprayed police with bear mace.

………

Last week, a video from earlier in December surfaced which showed Nearman instructing viewers how they should wait outside an entrance to the Capitol and text his cell phone. Then, “somebody might exit that door while you’re standing there,” Nearman said, a plan he dubbed “Operation Hall Pass.”

In an interview Monday with a conservative radio host, Nearman said the group he instructed on how to text him when they arrived outside a door at the Capitol were “mostly blue-haired old ladies.”

That did not accurately describe the group that showed up at the Capitol and entered the door Nearman opened. Rather, the demonstrators included the right-wing, Vancouver-based group Patriot Prayer known for street brawls, people wearing clothing with Three Percenters militia logos and a Confederate flag hat and people armed with rifles and wearing military gear.

Nearman already faces criminal misconduct charges for the incident and in a committee hearing on the expulsion proposal earlier Thursday, he declined to answer questions on the advice of his attorney. However, he said it was against the state Constitution to close the building to the public and it was “a place they had a right to be, a place the legislative assembly had no right to exclude them from.”

Democrats gave Nearman unlimited time to speak during the House floor debate on the resolution to remove him. But Nearman, the lone “no” vote against his removal, kept his comments brief and reiterated that “the citizens of Oregon should be able to instruct their legislators” and industry and interest groups should have in-person access to lobby lawmakers.

Seriously, why did this take 7 months? 

There are only about 2 or 3 thousand more Republican elected officials who are guilty as hell, and they need to be pursued to the full extent of the law.

Consider the Source

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The second most contemptible Democratic think tank in Washington, DC, Third Way, has an analysis of why Democrats performed poorly in the 2020 elections, and it comes down to the fact that Democrats stand for nothing.

When one considers the source, a group who has fought for years to ensure that the Democratic Party stand for nothing, this is telling:

In the months since the Democrats’ underwhelming performance in last year’s election, we’ve more or less been able to figure out why the party did so poorly despite a historically unpopular opponent and the two world-historical crises he presided over.

………

Surprise, surprise: a new 2020 postelection autopsy comes to many of these same conclusions — conclusions that observers on the Left have been stressing for months, pulling their hair out as the Democratic Party’s CIA caucus sought to publicly put the blame on the party’s handful of socialists, and popular, commonsense ideas like Medicare for All. But what genuinely is a surprise is who authored this particular autopsy: Third Way, the corporate- — especially Wall Street– — funded think tank that exists to shape Democratic policy for the benefit of tycoons like the Kochs.

………

Finally, there was the decision to cancel in-person canvassing, at the same time that the GOP launched a furious door-knocking and voter registration effort. “Many of those included in this analysis said in hindsight Democrats could have been on doors safely in more places — and Democrats would have won several close races if they had gone back on the doors either sooner or in a more robust way than they did,” states the report. This point was made repeatedly on the record by a host of the party’s leading lights after the election and was almost certainly responsible for not just the drop in support among Latinos but for the Republicans’ crucial triumphs at the state level.

Silly rabbit, the consultants don’t get their vig with door to door canvassing, and their payday is WAY more important than winning elections.

This is yet another confirmation of the Harry S Truman quote, “Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.”

Mixed Emotions

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Surreal

French President Emmanuel Macron was working a crowd line, and someone in the crowd slapped the crap out of him.

At first, I thought that this was the feel good story of the day, because Macron has serious  Backpfeifengesicht.*

Unfortunately, this man who slapped him is someone who is in serious need of a kick in the ass.

Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face by a man during a walkabout in southern France.

The president’s security detail immediately pulled the man to the ground and moved Macron away from the crowd, though the president appeared unhurt and determined to continue meeting the public.

Afterwards, the French leader said the assault was “an isolated act” that should be “put into perspective”.

“We mustn’t let ultra-violent individuals take over the public debate … There can be no violence, no hatred, not in speech or action. Otherwise it’s democracy itself that is threatened.”

A video of the incident showed the president, in a white shirt and tie, approach onlookers waiting behind metal barriers at Tain-l’Hermitage in the Drôme department.

Macron, wearing a mask, is seen reaching out to shake hands with a man in a green T-shirt wearing glasses and a mask.

Reuters reported the man was heard shouting “à bas la Macronie” (down with Macronism) before he grabbed the president’s right arm and delivered a slap to the left side of his face. He was also reported to have shouted “Montjoie Saint Denis”, the battle cry of the French armies when the country was a monarchy.

The guy was almost certainly a right wing racist French Royalist.  You know, the folks who still think that Albert Dreyfus was guilty, and they make Marine Le Pen (who, to her credit strongly condemned the attack) look like Rachel Maddow.

So, Macron gets slapped, and this douche bag ends up in the slam for a few months.

I can live with that, I guess.

*It’s German for, “A face that begs to be slapped.

Why the Democratic Party Fails

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Mike the Mad Biologist says something that I have been saying for years that the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) is more interested in corruption and self dealing than they are in winning or governing:

To follow up on yesterday’s post about Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s decision to tank Senate bill S1, making it highly unlikely Democrats will hold either the House or the Senate in 2022, there is one way to still win elections. That is to massively increase voter turnout through organizing.

The problem is that the consultants picked by the Democratic Party leadership–and which are forced on Democratic candidates–have no incentive to do this. They don’t want to give ‘their money’ to a bunch of local and state organizers, who are typically unaffiliated with specific candidates or even the Democratic Party. That’s not the business model–the business model is running TV ads (sometimes online ads too) and getting a cut of the expenditure. Meanwhile the people on the ground who bang on doors are shortchanged.

With a Chief Justice on the Supreme Court who has dedicated his entire career to making sure that n*****s don’t vote, the old ways are not going to cut it.

Howard Dean’s 50 State Strategy, which devolved power and resources to state and local party groups, worked, but he was unceremoniously dumped by that avatar of establishment thinking Barack Obama, and everything went back to the dysfunctional normal.

The Democratic Party needs to:

  • Have a 24/7/365 get out the vote and registration effort.
  • Recognize that the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) is DC is dysfunctional and incompetent and:
    • Move critical party infrastructure from private firms like NGP VAN to internal personnel.
    • Move as much of the power and money in the party to state and local party organizations.
  • Stop trying to choose candidates in state and local races. 
  • Rein in expensive and incompetent consultants.

It would also be nice if they could stop being afraid of their own shadows, but that’s probably too much to ask.  

Welcome to the Handmaiden’s Tale

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A woman had a miscarriage in Spokane, Washington and Spokane police treated it as a crime, and swore out a search warrant against her.

This sort of sh%$ needs to be slapped down hard by the Feds.  The local US Attorney should make their lives hell:

In March, a woman miscarried in a Spokane hotel. Police investigated. They searched her room, told her they’d meet her at the hospital and found it suspicious when she did not show up. They filed a search warrant in hopes of finding her.

Considering the fetus her dependent, officers suspected that the woman could be guilty of criminal mistreatment of a child if she did not call 911 soon enough to potentially save her pregnancy, according to a warrant filed at the time.

Police later closed the investigation without pursuing criminal charges, but to Paul Dillon, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, the move to investigate was “a huge violation of privacy and very stigmatizing.”

………

“Under Washington law, everything about this is discriminatory and potentially violating of constitutional rights,” Ainsworth said.

………

The case arises as reproductive freedoms have been restricted in Republican-led Legislatures from Texas to Idaho, and with the U.S. Supreme Court seemingly poised to curtail or even overturn the abortion rights enshrined in the landmark Roe v. Wade case. While abortion remains legal in all 50 states, Ainsworth said under Washington’s Equal Rights Amendment, investigating pregnancy losses could be discriminatory as such investigations are necessarily biased against women, Ainsworth said.

“Here this person is suffering, an ambulance is called to make sure they’re OK, then the police show up and the police are surprised they didn’t check themselves into a hospital,” Ainsworth said. “This person needed their autonomy and grief to be respected and instead there’s a search warrant.”

The goal here is to eventually make a miscarriage a matter for law enforcement, and it must be aggressively fought at every level, because any step back will be occupied by people who want to keep women in chains.

So Not a Surprise

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Oregon State Represenstative Mike Nearman was indicted a month ago for allowing right wing terrorists entry into the state house.

Well, now we have video evidence that he he was coaching his constituents on the invasion of the Oregon Capitol.

While correlation is not causation, I wonder if perhaps there were  US representatives at the US Capitol who were similarly involved in the January 6 insurrection:

Just days before Rep. Mike Nearman helped armed protesters enter the closed Oregon Capitol building in December, endangering fellow lawmakers and Capitol employees, he coached constituents on the exact steps to get his help breaking in.

A video shows Nearman, a Republican from outside Independence, walking constituents through the step by step process of where to stand, how to text him and what help he would provide that would allow them to break the rules and get into the Capitol during the Dec. 21 special legislative session.

He does so with a wink and a nod, interspersing the instructions with disclaimers that he’s not giving out a real cell phone number (he is and it’s his number), that he knows nothing about the planned “Operation Hall Pass” and that nothing like that will actually happen.

In fact, exactly what he described did occur, prosecutors and investigators say. Protesters gathered outside the Capitol’s west entrance in obvious protest of the closure, Nearman left the House chambers where lawmakers were gathered doing state business and he walked out a Capitol entrance, leaving the open door hanging long enough for angry citizens to grab it and enter.

He can’t be alone in this.

Flip him, make him talk, and expose the whole rotten edifice.

He Does This Because They Let Him

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And they let him because they don’t want to get anything done.

I am referring, of course, to Joe Manchin, who latest Jihad for moderation literally threatens the right to franchise in the United States.

Seriously, Manchin can throw a monkey wrench into the works because it feeds his ego, and there are on consequences.

It’s one thing to have an big tent and working with conservative Democrats, and it’s another to work with disloyal Democrats.

Make him face consequences, and if he wants to bolt to the Republican Party, let’s see how he fares in a Republican primary in 2024: (He won’t, particularly since he voted for impeaching Trump)

Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia said on Sunday in no uncertain terms that he would not vote for the Democrats’ far-reaching bill to combat voter suppression, nor would he ever end the legislative filibuster, a written promise that imperils much of President Biden’s agenda.

The bill, which all the other Senate Democrats had supported and the party had portrayed as an urgent effort to preserve American democracy, would roll back dozens of laws being passed by Republican state legislatures to limit early and mail-in voting and empower partisan poll watchers. The measure, known as the For the People Act, would also restore many of the ethical controls on the presidency that Donald J. Trump shattered.

………

The 818-page bill would end partisan gerrymandering, tighten controls on campaign spending and ease voter registration. It would also force major-party candidates for president and vice president to release 10 years’ worth of personal and business tax returns and end the president’s and vice president’s exemption from conflict-of-interest rules, which allowed Mr. Trump to maintain businesses that profited off his presidency.

With Mr. Manchin’s vow, passage of the full For the People Act appears to be impossible, though parts of it could pass in other ways if Democrats are willing to break up the bill, a move that they have resisted. Mr. Manchin’s blockade of filibuster changes makes other Biden initiatives far less likely to pass, including any overhaul of immigration laws, a permanent expansion of the Affordable Care Act, controls of the price of prescription drugs and the most serious efforts to tackle climate change.

………

House liberals were more scathing. “Manchin’s op-ed might as well be titled ‘Why I’ll vote to preserve Jim Crow,’” Representative Mondaire Jones, Democrat of New York, wrote on Twitter. 

Senate Democrats should kick Manchin loose and stop obliging his narcissism.

First, Manchin has no where else to go, and second, it’s better to have him outside the tent pissing in than to have him inside the tent pissing in.

There is literally no upside to making even the smallest accommodation Joe Manchin.  It makes Democrats appear weak, and reinforces the belief among the electorate that Democrats cannot be trusted to deliver on their promises because they are cowards.

Cowardice is not a good look for any political institution.

Speaking of Delicate Snowflakes

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It should surprise no one that the Stanford chapter of the Federalist Society attempted to get a law student expelled for making fun of them.

I guess that in the Federalist Society, they only believe in the 1st Amendment if it applies to union busting businesses and themselves.

I’m pretty sure that the OED has “The Federalist Society” as an alternate definition of hypocrisy:

Facing forceful criticism and many questions, Stanford University moved Wednesday to allow a law-school student full graduation privileges after the student’s “satirical” letter, sent months ago, provoked the ire of a conservative student organization and a strong defense from a student-rights group.

Law student Nicholas Wallace was poised to graduate June 12, but his degree was held up while the school probed the missive, which took the form of a flyer advertising a made-up event titled “The Originalist Case for Insurrection,” supposedly sponsored by the campus chapter of the right-wing Federalist Society. According to the flyer, the “event” would include appearances by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton “to discuss violent insurrection.” It added that “riot information” would be emailed the morning of the event.

“Violent insurrection, also known as doing a coup, is a classical system of installing a government,” the flyer said. “Although widely believed to conflict in every way with the rule of law, violent insurrection can be an effective approach to upholding the principle of limited government.”

………

Despite Wallace’s flyer being sent January 25 and advertising an event to be held three weeks earlier, on January 6, Stanford put his upcoming degree on hold two weeks before he was to graduate, after Stanford Law’s student Federalist Society chapter complained about the flyer.

After a Slate report Wednesday on the school’s action went viral on social media, and this news organization asked the university to explain its actions, Stanford announced Wednesday that its investigation was done, the flyer was

………

The school’s Federalist Society chapter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Of course the, “school’s Federalist Society chapter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”  Bullies hate it when you fight back.

Also: Shame on Stanford University not laughing this out of the in-box.

Candace Owens is the Worst Minstrel Show Ever

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It’s not fair to mock Candace Owens for not knowing Lee Harvey Oswald was a marine.

In her defense, she is a moron. pic.twitter.com/fFVMG8xli0

— JDP (@petee224) June 1, 2021

Candace Owens who has gone from not particularly talented actress to right-wing joke, just doubled down on the joke part.

You see, an internet prankster sent a (real) picture of a (real) US Marine to various right-wing figures, asking them to wish a happy memorial day on behalf of his (fake) grandfather.

It was a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald, a man who every US Marine would condemn, even if he had not shot JFK, because he also defected to the USSR.

Candace Owens was in high dudgeon about this, claiming that it was disrespectful to Photoshop his picture into a photo of a US Serviceman.

Of course, anyone who knows who Oswald was should know that he was (a pretty horrible, twice court martialed) US Marine.

You can object to the prank, I find it hilarious, but claiming that it is a Photoshop is beyond stupid.

I guess that this is what comes from a decade or so of channeling Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (Aka Stepin Fetchit).

It rots the mind.

Your Mouth to God’s Ear

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It appears that Israeli opposition parties may have cut a deal to replace Benjamin Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו) as Prime Minister.  Your mouth to God’s ears.

Netanyahu has been awful for Israelis, the Palestinians, and pretty much everyone else involved in Israel and the Middle East except for Benjamin Netanyahu.

Given Netanyahu’s extreme cunning on matters political, particularly in Israel’s extremely dysfunctional proportional representation system, I’m not going to declare that he has been vanquished until he takes up residence in a prison cell for his egregious corruption:

The far-right Israeli politician Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Yair Lapid have agreed to forge a coalition government that would oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from his 12 straight years in power.

“It’s my intention to do my utmost in order to form a national unity government along with my friend Yair Lapid, so that, God willing, together we can save the country from a tailspin and return Israel to its course,” said Bennett, a former settler leader and religious nationalist, in a televised address.

While further political negotiations are expected, the move by Bennett served a massive blow to Israel’s longest-serving leader, who is famed for his political wizardry and has survived repeated attempts to end his career.

Minutes after the speech ended, a stern-looking Netanyahu went on air to rail against Bennett. “He’s committed the scam of the century,” Netanyahu said of his former ally and senior aide, accusing him of abandoning rightwing voters.

Bennet is a complete horror-show, but he is less so than Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו).

Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו) is completely a completely amoral individual who would sacrifice anything and anyone to his own personal desire for power.

Why Do We Keep Choosing Neo-Nazis?

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I do not think that the interception of a Ryanair flight to detain Roman Protasevich in Belarus is a travesty.

I’m less concerned about this than the fact that once again, the US foreign policy apparatus, having confronted a broad based opposition to a despot, always seems to choose Neo-Nazi assholes.

I’m not a fan of our US regime change operations, but I wonder why these efforts always seem to pick Nazis.

It seems that the US State Security Apparatus has been very careless for a very long time:

There is more to say about the Ryanair incident in Belarus and the arrest of the ‘regime change’ operative Roman Protasevich.

We will start with the latter.

The sympathetic portraits of Protasevich in the New York Times and in the Guardian are only of interest for what they leave out.

FOIA Research and The Canadafiles have very well sourced and way more complete pieces on him. They link to a mountain of evidence in form of social media postings, photos and videos which support their findings.

From those we learn that Protasevich has long been a member of the fascist “Young Front” militia of Belarus. He has fought alongside the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine’s post-Maidan civil war.

………

Neither the NYT nor the Guardian mention Proasevich’s ideological position or his involvement with the neo-nazis of Azov. The London Times had originally reported that Protasevich was involved with Azov but later silently removed that passage from its report.

Another point missing from ‘western’ media is that Protasevich has long been on the payroll of various ‘western’ government financed propaganda media:

If this were an isolated case, I’d put it down to someone being lazy, and not doing a proper background check, but this happens over, and over, and over, and over again, so I have to conclude it’s deliberate policy.

This is worse than a crime, it’s a mistake, and it raises an obvious question:

Today in Stupid

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A group of counties in rural Oregon want to secede and join Idaho.

They call the movement, “Greater Idaho,” and it’s never  going to happen.

Even if they could, they would find their taxes (sales taxes) going up, and the money from the state going down, as these counties are net recipients of state money.

About the only reason to do this is if you REALLY love Basque cuisine:

Seven rural Oregon counties have voted in favor of an effort to become part of Idaho, and organizers of the Greater Idaho movement say more counties could soon have the option on the ballot.

“We want out from underneath Oregon’s governance and go underneath Idaho’s governance, which we tend to match up better with, as far as our values go,” the group’s president, Mike McCarter, told Insider. “Now for 20 years-plus we’ve been trying to change the makeup and improve the makeup of the Oregon Legislature, but when you haven’t got the vote, there’s not much you can do about it.”

What they mean by, “Match up with our values,” is a return to Oregon’s famously racist roots, and ensure that the state somehow overthrow, “One man, one vote.”

………

“We’re not saying that that is wrong. We don’t agree with it, but they’re dealing with those issues, and those aren’t the issues that we have. Rural Oregon is traditional, has traditional values. We’re more into our communities, more into our schools, more into supporting law enforcement. Right is right, and wrong is wrong,” he added.

[Spokesman Keaton] Ems said that the majority had “no incentive” to include people in the rural parts in their decision-making and that people living in “concrete jungles” were telling those who live and steward the land how to run their own land.”

If you were racist dog whistling any harder, your spokesperson would be a Shiba Inu, Mr. Ems.

I’m sick to death of these Mayberry insurrectionists.

Tweet of the Day

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These are not the Tweets of the day:

The real poetry will come when the self-interested narcissist who weaponised falsehood realises he cannot inflict damage on the other self-interested narcissist who weaponised falsehood, because he undermined truth-telling as a functional quality in political discourse.

— Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) May 26, 2021

These are the two Tweets before the Tweet of the day.

The Tweet of the day is the one following, which I am quoting and Bowlderizing, because it reads, “It’s like Aesop’s Fables for c%$#s,” and I just don’t feel comfortable dropping the “C-Bomb” on the blog.

It is, however a perfect metaphor for Boris Johnson former senior political advisor, Dominic Cummings, testifying against the PM’s handling of the pandemic.

The man who made fecklessness the new normal in British politics is now complaining that Boris Johnson is a feckless git.

How Utterly Appropriate

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Why am I not surprise that former DNC chair and former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez has just joined the staff of a union busting law firm.

This is the guy that Barack Obama heavily lobbied to be head of the DNC in order to prevent Keith Ellison from assuming the role.

So the former Labor Secretary is going to work to bust unions.

So why am I not at all surprised?

Considering the Obama administration’s indifference, if not outright hostility, to organized labor, this seems to be a natural progression:

Former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez announced on Thursday that he’s joining the law firm Venable LLP, whose website boasts that its lawyers “regularly counsel and train clients on union avoidance.”

Perez, who was the Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair until January, joins a growing number of Obama officials who cashed in their government experience with jobs at union-busting companies. That list includes press secretaries Jay Carney, who became the top flack at Amazon, and Robert Gibbs, who spent several years as a top flack for McDonald’s. Obama senior advisor David Plouffe served as policy chief at Uber, while former senior adviser Valerie Jarrett has a board seat at Lyft.

Yeah, Obama also promised no revolving door in his administration, and we know how that worked out.

………

Perez served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under President Barack Obama, before serving as Obama’s Labor Secretary from 2013 to 2017.

Later, he served as DNC chair, after Obama and now-President Joe Biden reportedly worked the phones to help propel him to victory over progressive favorite Keith Ellison, who is now Minnesota’s attorney general.

The bright side is that Ellison worked assiduously to convict Derek Chauvin, while a more conventional prosecutor might have let the local DA throw the case.

It really is remarkable just how quickly former Obama Administration officials peddled their government connections for profit.  (How audacious)

Of Course They Did

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Is anyone surprised that Mitch McConnell and his Evil Minions™ have filibustered a bipartisan insurrection investigation?

I’m not, and this is a good thing:

  • It allows Democrats, if they have the guts, to use this as a hammer against the ‘Phants in 2022. 
  • It allows the House to set up a special select committee that won’t require Republican votes for a subpoena, so for example, House Minority Leader  Kevin McCarthy.
  • The committee staff won’t have half their members selected by Republicans and functioning as saboteurs.
  • The Democrats can set the rules, as opposed to the fiasco of the 911 commission, which never pressed the Bush administration, and, for example, allowed Condoleeza Rice to filibuster.

I hope that Democrats seize the opportunity, but I am not holding my breath.

Chile: 1 — Chilean Elites: 0

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Chile held elections for a constitutional assembly to rewrite their constitution this week, and it was a disaster for the right wing, where they failed to come even close to getting the ⅓ necessary to block changes to the constitution.

Hopefully, the privileged position of the military, indigenous rights, a completely dysfunctional pension system, elector reforms, the role of the Catholic Church, and taxation will be addressed.

It’s likely that what emerges will be better than what brutal dictator Agusto Pinochet forced on the nation, but that’s an awfully low bar.