Open Thread
DL Open Thread: Thursday, October 19, 2023
I think that President Biden’s trip to Israel was inspirational and substantive. He has genuine empathy, and he demonstrated it both on a one-to-one basis, and in his attempts to get the parties to cool down. It looks like he’s had some success–securing an agreement to get supplies to Palestinians through Egypt, and getting Israel […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023
The hospital bombing in Gaza has convinced his handlers that Joe Biden won’t meet with Arab leaders in Jordan on his Middle East trip today. I’m not sure how yet, but the media is sure to conclude this is bad news for Biden. The Previous Guy, meanwhile, is bad news for everyone he comes into […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023
The media news-scape is cluttered with war porn, but not so much that it pushed the Trump porn out of the picture. Horse-race stories about the House speakership round out the only news that fits. The big Middle East news is that Joe Biden will travel to Israel and Jordan on Wednesday. He’ll probably find […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Oct. 16, 2023
Whatever you think about the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you have to admit that U.S. media picks and chooses its obsessions, and that dwelling on those stories stirs the deranged to action. Which is how you end up with a landlord stabbing a Palestinian woman’s 6-year-old child to death in that hotbed of ethnic strife that […]
DL Open Thread: Sunday, October 15, 2023
Louisiana Goes Full-On Right-Wing Crazy. Guess I won’t be visiting N’Awlins soon: Jeff Landry, the Louisiana attorney general and a hard-line conservative, trounced a crowded field of candidates on Saturday to become the state’s next governor, cementing Republican control of Louisiana after eight years of divided government. Mr. Landry, a brash conservative who repeatedly fought […]
DL Open Thread: Friday, October 13, 2023
Scalise Boomlet Crashes. Looks like Jordan is up next. We can only hope that his candidacy suffers the same fate: The fractious Republican conference has rejected a second speaker hopeful in eight days — this time, Kevin McCarthy’s longtime heir apparent, Steve Scalise. While Republicans appear to be turning next to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), […]
DL Open Thread: Thursday, October 12, 2023
Best Thing Dubya Ever Said: Word. Just remember this before you demand to know ‘Whose side are you on?’ That kind of intimidation says a lot more about the intimidator than about the intimidated. End of lecture. If there is one redeeming feature about the Israel/Hamas War, it’s that Donald Trump has not been on […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023
Whether you’re rooting for Israel or Hamas, the media has plenty of atrocity stories to stoke your righteous ire. I’m not linking to any of them because I don’t think war porn serves any useful purpose. For an overview of what the fighting is about, refer to this editorial cartoon. Saddest part of the Israel-Hamas […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, October 10, 2023
I’m not following the Hamas-Israeli conflict, but as sportswriter Hugh Keough (not Damon Runyan) observed, “The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that is the way to bet.” An even safer bet: Palestinians in Gaza will bear the brunt of the human cost. Another sure winner: The […]
DL Open Thread Monday, October 9, 2023
Do House Republicans hand out Speaker of the House bonus points for being a kiddie diddler? Dennis Hastert, former high school wrestling coach, served in the office. Now America’s drooling class wants to put Jim Jordan in the job, and while nobody has implicated him in the actual molestation that took place while he was […]
DL Open Thread: Sunday, October 8, 2023
Rep. Cole: Deals That McCarthy Cut With RWNJ’s ‘No Longer Operative’. Revenge of the (all things are relative) moderates?: With Kevin McCarthy out as speaker, House Rules Chair Tom Cole says Republicans are free to step back from the deep appropriations cuts dictated by McCarthy’s backroom deal with the far right last June. “This agreement […]
DL Open Thread: Saturday, October 7, 2023
Wag The Dog: Netanyahu Proclaims ‘We Are At War’. Only question is, how many Palestinians will be killed by American weapons?: Israel and Gaza were at war on Saturday after Palestinian militants launched an early morning assault on southern Israel that had few precedents in its complexity and scale, invading several Israeli towns and firing […]
DL Open Thread: Friday, October 6, 2023
Almost Penniless Rethugs, Part 1. Mike Lindell: Almost Penniless Rethugs, Part 2. Rudy Giuliani: Sadness. Trump & Jim Jordan: Perfect Together: There was only one way the chaos in the Republican-led House – likened Thursday by one of its members to a “stupid clown car” – could get more extreme. Enter Donald Trump. The ex-president […]
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