Why Did It Take Them More Than Three Years To Do This?:
The United States on Friday restored its longstanding policy that settlements are inconsistent with international law, reversing a stance implemented by the former administration, hours after Israel announced a plan to advance the construction of thousands of new settlement homes in response to a terror shooting in the West Bank.
“We’ve seen the reports and I have to say we’re disappointed in the announcement,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in response to a question on the matter during a press conference in Argentina.
“It’s been long-standing US policy under Republican and Democratic administrations alike that new settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace.”
Despite pressure from progressive pro-Israel organizations, the Biden administration had held off for over three years in revoking the Pompeo doctrine, as it avoided moves seen as overly confrontational with Jerusalem.
But the swift nature in which the US moved with Friday’s announcement highlighted Washington’s ever-shrinking patience with Israel’s policy in the West Bank, as the administration continues to come under fire from progressives at home and many allies abroad over its broad support for Israel in the war against Hamas.
OK, now the settlements are illegal again. What’s Feckless Joe gonna do about it? Or, for that matter, anything having to do with Netanyahu?
Is Supreme Court Justice Sotamayor OK? She’s reportedly the only Justice who travels with a medic. Where have I seen this movie before? Ah, yes. Here:
Her dissents, with their trademark clarity and righteousness, have made her a favorite of many liberals. But the window in which President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats have an all-but-guaranteed ability to appoint her replacement is rapidly closing. Polls show Biden neck and neck with former President Donald Trump in their likely November rematch, and Democrats face hostile odds of holding on to their slim majority in the Senate, which approves Supreme Court appointments.
Looming over it all is Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s fateful decision not to retire from the court under Democratic President Barack Obama, and the minimal party pressure she faced to do so. When Ginsburg ultimately died in September 2020, with Trump in the White House and only weeks before an election he would lose, Trump seized the opportunity to replace her with her ideological opposite.
Even Rethugs Realize That The IVF Ruling Is A Political Bridge Too Far. Someone even put words into Trump’s mouth:
“Like the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, including the VAST MAJORITY of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-Life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Let the scrambling begin.
Speaking Of Trump (aren’t we always?), when will the press cover and show evidence of his declining mental state? It’s all right there. Feel free to click on each and every except from his ‘speech’ to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention.
Memo to any would-be self-respecting news outlet: How about paying attention and reporting on this?
Chris Coons At The Yamaha. Neither Coons nor the ‘reporter’ say anything of substance. He wants to be Secretary of State so-o-o-o bad.
What do you want to talk about?