DL Open Thread Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024
What is Israel doing? Is it genocide? Ethnic cleansing? Forced migration? A crime against humanity? Such distinctions don’t matter. Even those who support Israel are in agreement: It’s wrong. But it won’t end until Benjamin Netanyahu is removed from power.
The source problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. In Israel, two things are simultaneously true: Very few people support Netanyahu, but very many support the assault on Gaza. Netanyahu stays in power only with the support of far-right anti-Palestinian extremists, so he has to keep them happy, and they want Palestinians out of Israel. It’s a situation similar to the GOP in the U.S. House, except Netanyahu is trying not just to keep his job but to stay out of jail.
The most recent polling on the conflict that I could find showed about 40% of Americans think the U.S. should be doing more to resolve the conflict, a result consistent across Republicans, Democrats and independents. But the other 60% is split between giving Israel carte blanche and staying the current course.
So what should Biden do? This Haaretz analysis lays out six potential courses he could take to maneuver around Netanyahu, which would open a path to deescalation. He ought to take an option soon. The longer he dawdles, the weaker he looks.
I wonder if any future civilization will realize the destruction of ours came at the hands of the fossil fuel industry? The greed-driven industry, far from trying to curb global warming, intends to keep pumping at all costs – or at least the cost of an enormous election-year advertising campaign that will preach to the gullible that fossil fuel is good for the economy and lie about job losses if pumping is curtailed (job growth in renewables well outpaces fossil fuel extraction). Will it work? Do morons and assholes vote for Trump?
I’ve seen several headlines about the increased use of child labor since the pandemic, but until I saw this story I didn’t realize that the biggest violators by far are fast-food restaurants franchisees. The Labor Department is cracking down, levying six-figure fines that wouldn’t faze the parent companies, who aren’t happy about the bad publicity but can’t crack down on franchisees, because the whole franchising business model – basically a way to let other people take the risk while the corporation reaps the reward – depends on an arm’s-length relationship.
One labor-saving solution that’s coming up short: Self-checkout technology. Retailers are finding that loss rates, meaning shoplifting, doubles through self-checkout “skip-scanning.” On top of that, the labor savings aren’t that great because employees are still needed to help when something goes wrong. This is an example of why I’ve learned to dread the words “new and improved.”
The floor’s yours.
History will record Netanyahu as a monster, but History will be safely out of range of Palestinian rockets and pogroms.
“It’s wrong” [the assault on Gaza]. But not more wrong than allowing an intact Hamas to return to intact tunnels to begin planning its next attack.
Everybody including me wants Netanyahu gone, and to kick the far right kooks out of the coalition. But anyone who assumes he will be replaced by a surrender-crat will be disappointed. Israel’s security concerns will remain the same, and voters have been radicalized by the barbarity of Palestinian terror attacks, which will not be forgotten soon.
At best, Netanyahu’s legacy will be to grant Israel a future without a network of terror tunnels next door, and without a neighbor run by a gang of nihilist warlords. The challenge will be to keep it that way. Don’t expect much help from the “international community.”
I’m always leery of people who feel comfortable issuing predictions. You don’t know.
You don’t know what’s actually happening on the ground there, because nobody does, including the people on the ground there.
One thing you consistently ignore: Hamas is in power there because Netanyahu wanted them in power there, so they wouldn’t join forces with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Oversimplification is the enemy of valid analysis.
Joe Biden’s legacy will ending the bodily autonomy of women because he refused to stop enabling a genocide. The sad part will be seeing people insist that he didn’t want either to happen
Democratic Presidents are constrained by norms, the constitution, congress, media displeasure, budgets, the phases of the moon. Republican Presidents can rule by fiat. Them’s the rules.
Then how do you excuse the college loan forgiveness?
Well, you see how hard Republicans are fighting for those poor beleaguered loan servicers.
Not an answer. The president is ignoring the SC. That by definition is unconstitutional.
No, dearie, it’s not unconstitutional. There is nothing in the Constitution saying the president or Congress have to obey the Supreme Court.
Read it and see. Oh, wait, you’re a Republican, it seems. Get someone to read it to you.
We have our first campaign finance haul press release.
Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, who is running for Lt. Governor, reports having raised over $200,000.
Here’s some context, because I don’t have a life. At the end of 2019, when BHL was running for reelection as LG, she reported $52,025 as her year-end balance. She reported as having raised $55K during the year.
When you contrast that with over $200K raised for a campaign that only started on August 30, 2023, you gotta conclude that Kyle’s haul is quite impressive.
It looks like all the reports will be made public on January 22. Why the Department of Elections doesn’t post them when they receive them is beyond me.