#THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

[tomorrowusa]

What Putin is doing in Ukraine is not just reckless, not just a war of choice, not just an invasion in a class of its own for overreach, mendacity, immorality and incompetence, all wrapped in a farrago of lies. What he is doing is evil. He has trumped up any number of shifting justifications — one day it was removing a Nazi regime in power in Kyiv, the next it was preventing NATO expansion, the next it was fending off a Western cultural invasion of Russia — for what ultimately was a personal flight of fancy that now requires his superpower army turning to North Korea for help. It’s like the biggest bank in town having to ask the local pawnshop for a loan. So much for Putin’s bare-chested virility.

[ ... ]

Putin lately has stopped even bothering to justify the war — maybe because even he is too embarrassed to utter aloud the nihilism that his actions scream: If I can’t have Ukraine, I’ll make sure Ukrainians can’t have it, either.

[ … ]

This is as obvious a case of right versus wrong, good versus evil, as you find in international relations since World War II.

[ … ]

Ukraine needs to inflict as much damage on Putin’s army as fast as possible. That means we need to massively and rapidly deliver the weaponry Ukraine needs to break Putin’s lines in the country’s southeast. I’m talking the kitchen sink: F-16s; mine-clearing equipment; more Patriot antimissile systems; MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, which could strike deep behind Russian lines — whatever the Ukrainians can use effectively and fast.

— New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, just back from a visit to Kyiv. (archived)

If you're in the US, contact your representative in the House and urge him/her to support the proposed $24 billion in aid to Ukraine.

Representatives | house.gov

If you have the misfortune to be represented by a dumb-ass MAGA zombie like Matt Gaetz and they say no, write back and ask: "Why do you hate freedom?"

Wars don't end just because people in third countries get bored with them.

[doctorbuzzard]

The Truth Comes Out

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” -John 8:32 When Tyranny Becomes Law, Rebellion Becomes Duty How this twisted tale started is difficult to say but most of the events seem to pinpoint to the Covid coming to a head and the patented pieces of the Moderna Vaccine being discovered and independently confirmed. The next day we are engaging the Russian Tanks already…

[vote-democrat-president-congress]

Just One Question for Trump and Vance: What Is Wrong With You People?

By Thomas L. Friedman, NYTimes Opinion Columnist, July 25, 2024

Ever since President Biden’s Sunday announcement that he would not seek re-election, clearly because of age, I keep thinking about Donald Trump’s and JD Vance’s contemptuous reactions to one of the most difficult personal decisions a president has ever made, and what it says about their character.

“The Democrats pick a candidate, Crooked Joe Biden, he loses the Debate badly, then panics, and makes mistake after mistake, is told he can’t win, and decide they will pick another candidate, probably Harris,” Trump wrote on social media on Monday. He later added: “It’s not over! Tomorrow Crooked Joe Biden’s going to wake up and forget that he dropped out of the race today!”

Not to be out-lowballed by his boss, Vance wrote on social media: “Joe Biden has been the worst President in my lifetime and Kamala Harris has been right there with him every step of the way.”

All they had to say was: “President Biden served his country for five decades and at this moment we thank him for that service. Tomorrow our campaign begins against his replacement. Bring her on.”

I can guarantee you that is what Biden would have said if the shoe were on the other foot. Because he is not a bully.

Biden’s good character shone through on Wednesday night in his dignified, country-before-self address at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. As I watched and listened, I remembered a lunch I had with him in May 2022 in the dining room next to the Oval Office. After we were done and he was walking me past the Resolute Desk, I mentioned to him a reading-literacy project that my wife, Ann, was working on that she thought might interest Dr. Jill Biden. The president got totally excited about the idea and said, “Let’s call your wife. What’s her number?”

He then took a cellphone out of his pocket, dialed it and handed it to me.

“Honey,” I said, “I’ve got someone here who wants to talk to you."

“I’m in a meeting,” Ann replied. “I can’t talk now.”

“No, no, you’re going to want to talk to him. It’s the president.”

Then I handed the phone back to Biden, who engaged her in a conversation about reading and how much his wife was passionate about that subject, too.

Look, I’ve been to the rodeo — this is what smart politicians do. But there is one difference with Joe Biden that I observed over the years: It’s how much he authentically enjoyed it, how much he enjoyed talking to people outside his bubble and giving them a chance to say, “I got to meet the president. He talked to me!”

That sort of kindness came naturally to him. It brought him joy. And I have no doubt that Trump’s and Vance’s venomous first reactions to Biden’s resignation came naturally to them too.

I’m sure it brought them joy. But it sure left me wondering: What is wrong with you people?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/22/opinion/trump-vance-biden-speech.html

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

mike luckovich :: [@mluckovichajc]

* * * *

"America last."

February 8, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

On Wednesday, the dysfunction of congressional Republicans plumbed new depths: Senate Republicans blocked a procedural vote to advance funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Supporting each of those nations is in America’s vital interest. Failing to do so undermines global order and brings America closer to active confrontation with Russia, China, and Iran, at least.

The defeat was expected because Donald Trump wants to continue the crisis at America’s southern border to advance his partisan political interest. But the move also advanced the partisan interests of another politician—Vladimir Putin. Like Trump, Putin is temporizing, biding time in the hope that the clock will run out on Ukraine’s resources to resist Russia’s invasion. In Donald Trump's world, the hierarchy of interests is Trump first, Putin second, and America last.

The notion that Trump has re-ordered the national interests to put America last is not mine. It belongs to Thomas L. Friedman, who wrote an op-ed in the NYTimes, The G.O.P. Bumper Sticker: Trump First. Putin Second. America Third. (Accessible to all.)

Friedman writes,

There are hinges in history, and this [aid bill] is one of them. What Washington does — or does not do — this year to support its allies and secure our border will say so much about our approach to security and stability in this new post-post-Cold War era. Will America carry the red, white and blue flag into the future or just a white flag? Given the pessimistic talk coming out of the Capitol, it is looking more and more like the white flag, autographed by Donald Trump. “Trump First” means that a bill that would strengthen America and its allies must be set aside so that America can continue to boil in polarization [and] Vladimir Putin can triumph in Ukraine . . . .

A meme is developing that asserts that the GOP has surrendered to Trump. While that may be true, the deeper truth is that Trump has delivered the GOP into the hands of Vladimir Putin. The GOP is no longer serving the interests of the Americans who elect Republicans to Congress but instead acts as a skulk of useful idiots who unwittingly advance Putin’s interests.

Just ask Tucker Carlson, the poster boy for MAGA’s Putin Caucus. He traveled to Moscow to interview Putin because Carlson believes that major media outlets have not reported the truth about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Tucker Carlson believes that Putin will “tell the truth” about Russia’s invasion.

Remember that time when Putin assured the world he had no intention of invading Ukraine? See CBS News (2/24/22), Putin attacked Ukraine after insisting for months there was no plan to do so. Shortly after issuing those denials, Putin brutally attacked the civilian populations and infrastructure in Ukraine and kidnapped hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children. The International Court of Claims has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for the war crime of unlawful transportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

It is that Vladimir Putin—the fugitive war criminal and inveterate liar--that Tucker Carlson is preparing to lionize in an interview that will be lapped up by useful idiots who skitter at the mere arching of an eyebrow by Trump. As Trump prolongs a crisis at the US border and delays aid to Ukraine, he is serving Vladimir Putin’s interests first. Commentators are right in asserting that a megalomaniac has engineered a hostile takeover of the GOP—but it is not Trump. It is Putin.

How should we react? Should we despair? Should we shrink from another story that seems to turn the world on its head? No. We need only recognize that the rot in the GOP is beyond repair and that electing Joe Biden is a necessary condition to preserving democracy.

There is no gray area in the 2024 election. A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin. A vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for Putin. A vote for No Labels is a vote for Putin. Staying home is a vote for Putin. A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Democracy. It’s that simple.

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Jason L. Riley

Published: Oct 6, 2023

Thomas Sowell is best known for his insights on racial controversies, but race isn’t the main topic of most of his books in a career that spans more than six decades. Mr. Sowell, 93, is an economist who earned a doctorate from the University of Chicago, where his professors included Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek and other future Nobel laureates. His specialty is the history of ideas, and his most recent book, “Social Justice Fallacies,” harks back to his writings on social theory and intellectual history, which include “Knowledge and Decisions” (1980), “The Vision of the Anointed” (1996) and “The Quest for Cosmic Justice” (1999).

In his 1987 classic, “A Conflict of Visions,” Mr. Sowell attempted to explain what drives our centuries-old ideological disputes about freedom, justice, equality and power. The contrasting “visions” in the title referred to the implicit assumptions that guide a person’s thinking. On one side you have the “constrained” vision, which sees humanity as hopelessly flawed. This view is encapsulated in Edmund Burke’s declaration that “we cannot change the nature of things and of men—but must act upon them as best we can” and in Immanuel Kant’s assertion that “from the crooked timber of humanity no truly straight thing can ever be made.”

The opposite is the “unconstrained,” or utopian, view of the human condition. It’s the belief that there are no inherent limits to what mankind can accomplish, so trade-offs are unnecessary. World peace is achievable. Social problems such as poverty, crime and racism can be not merely managed but eliminated. Mr. Sowell begins “Social Justice Fallacies” with a quote from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who expressed the essence of the unconstrained vision when he wrote of “the equality which nature established among men and the inequality which they have instituted among themselves.”

Mr. Sowell has been a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution since 1980. In a phone interview, he describes the central fallacy of social-justice advocacy as “the assumption that disparities are strange, and that in the normal course of events we would expect people to be pretty much randomly distributed in various occupations, income levels, institutions and so forth.”

He says that’s an assumption based on hope rather than experience or hard evidence. “We can read reams of social justice literature without encountering a single example of proportional representation of different groups in endeavors open to competition—in any country in the world today, or at any time over thousands of years of recorded history,” he writes in the book’s opening chapter on “equal chances fallacies.” He acknowledges that exploitation and discrimination exist and contributed to disparate outcomes. But he notes that “these vices are in fact among many influences that prevent different groups of people—whether classes, races or nations—from having equal, or even comparable, outcomes in economic terms or other terms.”

For Mr. Sowell, the tremendous variety of geographic, cultural and demographic differences among groups makes anything approximating an even distribution of preferences, habits and skills close to impossible. The progressive left holds up as a norm a state the world has never seen, and regards as an anomaly something seen in societies all over the world and down through history. “There’s this sort of mysticism that disparities must show that someone’s done something wrong” to a lagging group, Mr. Sowell says. The social-justice vision “starts off by reducing the search for causation to a search for blame. And for so much of what happens, there is no blame.”

To illustrate the point, the book’s chapter on racial fallacies cites recent census data on poverty. “Statistical differences between races are not automatically due to race—either in the sense of being caused by genetics or being a result of racial discrimination,” Mr. Sowell writes. Liberals argue that higher black poverty rates are mainly a product of slavery, Jim Crow and of lingering “systemic racism.” Yet there are pockets of the U.S. populated almost exclusively by white people who experience no racism and who nevertheless earn significantly less than blacks.

The book cites Clay and Owsley counties in Appalachian Kentucky, places “that are more than 90 percent white, where the median household income is not only less than half the median household income of white Americans in the country as a whole, but also thousands of dollars less than the median household income of black Americans in the country as a whole.”

It’s been true for some time, Mr. Sowell says, that black behavioral patterns play a bigger role in racial disparities than racism does. Black married couples have had poverty rates in the single digits for more than a quarter-century. And black married couples “in which both husband and wife were college-educated earned slightly more than white married couples where both husband and wife were college-educated.” He adds that in a landmark 1899 study of blacks in Philadelphia, the race scholar W.E.B. Du Bois “said that if white people were to lose their prejudices overnight, it would make very little difference to most black people. He said some few would get better positions than they have right now, but for the mass it would be pretty much the same.”

Noting today’s black-white wealth disparities, authors including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ibram X. Kendi have advocated reparations in the name of social justice. So have such prominent organizations as the NAACP and Black Lives Matter. Mr. Sowell can’t take their arguments seriously. “The situation of slavery in some ways is much like the situation of conquered people,” he says. “There’s no question whatsoever that conquered people have been treated in a terrible way. Being conquered by the Romans was not a fate you would wish on anyone. But the fact is that the net result has been that those parts of Europe conquered by the Romans have been the most advanced parts of Europe for centuries.

“Similarly, when someone black says . . . ‘I’m worse off because of slavery,’ there’s no way in hell you can say that with a straight face. If you’re going to base reparations on the difference between where blacks today would be if it were not for slavery, then blacks would have to pay reparations to white people.”

Mr. Sowell is no stranger to poverty, prejudice or discrimination. He was born in segregated North Carolina in 1930, orphaned as a toddler and raised in Harlem from age 9. He never finished high school and earned his GED after serving a stint in the Marines during the Korean War. The GI bill enabled him to enroll in college, first at historically black Howard University, before moving on to Harvard, Columbia and finally the University of Chicago.

He says that whether social-justice proponents are pushing for slavery reparations or higher taxes on the rich, their real agenda is the confiscation and redistribution of wealth. Enthralled by what he calls the “chess-pieces fallacy,” progressives treat individuals like inert objects. “I got that from Adam Smith, who had a very low opinion of abstract theorists who feel they can move around people much as one moves around chess pieces,” he says.

“That fallacy takes many forms, and taxation is a classic example.” The fallacy is assuming that “tax hikes and tax revenues automatically move in the same direction, when often they move in the opposite direction.” Liberals say, “ ‘We need more money, so we’ll make the wealthy pay their fair share,’ which is never defined, of course. But the wealthy are not just going to sit there and do nothing.”

A historical example is when “the British decided they would put a new tax on the American colonies. It turns out they not only didn’t get any more revenue, but they lost the tax revenue they had been getting.” In modern times, Mr. Sowell says, studies have shown repeatedly that people and businesses move their money to avoid high tax rates, and that includes migrating from states with higher levies to states with lower levies.

Although the social-justice vision isn’t new, Mr. Sowell observes that these ideas didn’t have much currency before the 20th century, in an era when intellectual elites mostly talked among themselves and reached a far smaller segment of the population. Mass communication changed that by greatly expanding their ability to shape public opinion and, by extension, government decisions: “One example was the period between the two world wars, when intellectuals managed to convince a lot of people that the way to avoid war was to avoid an arms race, and therefore that disarmament was the key to preserving peace.”

The growing influence and arrogance of the social-justice crowd bothers Mr. Sowell, which is one of the reasons he wrote the book. “Someone once said that people on the political left think that they would do what God would do if he were as well-informed as they are,” he says. He’s especially vexed by the quashing of dissent. “The fatal danger of our times today is a growing intolerance and suppression of opinions and evidence that differ from the prevailing ideologies that dominate institutions, ranging from the academic world to the corporate world, the media and government institutions,” he writes. “Many intellectuals with high accomplishments seem to assume that those accomplishments confer validity to their notions about a broad swath of issues ranging far beyond the scope of their accomplishments.”

Mr. Sowell’s own accomplishments cover a broad swath. He’s published more than 40 books, and “Social Justice Fallacies” is his sixth since he turned 80 in 2010. What recommends it is what recommends so many of the others: clear thinking, a straightforward prose style that combines wide learning with common sense, and an uncanny ability to take our preening elites down a notch.

Mr. Riley writes the Journal’s Upward Mobility column and is author of “Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell.”

[ Via: https://archive.md/onp5S ]

[brookston]

Holidays 6.13

Holidays

Beyond the Solar System Day

Dia de Exu (Brazil)

Flag Day (Palau)

International Albinism Awareness Day (UN)

International Axe Throwing Day

International Community Association Managers Day

Inventors’ Day (Hungary)

Jason Voorhees Day

Kitchen Klutzes of America Day

Loeys-Dietz Day of Giving

Miranda Day

National Albinism Awareness Day

National Chamoy Day

National Dance/Movement Therapy Advocacy Day

National Day of Abortion Storytelling Day

National Day of Productive Business Civility

National Doe B Day

National Elderflower Day

National Frances Day

National Jane Day

National Pigeon Day

National Productive Business Civility Day

National Random Acts of Light Day

National Weed Your Garden Day

Outdoor Marketing Day

Random Acts of Light Day

Roller Coaster Day

San Antonio Day (Ceuta, Spain)

Sewing Machine Day

Suleimaniah City Fallen and Martyrs Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)

Swiftie Day

Tench Day (French Republic)

Weed Your Garden Day

The Wicket World of Croquet Day

World Softball Day

Yawn-a-thon

Yeats Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Cupcake Lover’s Day

National Cucumber Day

Rosé Day [also 2nd Saturday]

2nd Tuesday in June

Broadcast Good Day [2nd Tuesday]

Call Your Doctor Day [2nd Tuesday]

National Forklift Safety Day [2nd Tuesday]

National Time Out Day [2nd Tuesday]

Waldchestag (Forest Day) [Tuesday after Whit Sunday]

World Pet Memorial Day [2nd Tuesday; also 2nd Sunday]

Independence Days

Princian Commonwealth (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Annie Sprinkle Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church (Christian; Saint) [Portugal]

Aquilina (Christian; Saint)

Buddha's Parinirvana (Bhutan)

Cetteus (Peregrinus; Christian; Saint)

Damhnade of Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Day of the Living Children of Nut (Ancient Egypt)

Feast of Epona (Celtic; Pagan)

Felicula (Christian; Saint)

Festival of Jupiter Invictus (Jupiter the Unconquered)

G. K. Chesterton (Episcopal Church (USA))

Gerard of Clairvaux (Christian; Saint)

Gin Day (Pastafarian)

Gotthard Graubner (Artology)

Green Day (Pastafarian)

Ides of June (Ancient Rome)

Leon Chwistek (Artology)

Psalmodius (Christian; Saint)

Quinquatrus Minusculae (Old Roman Festival to Minerva)

Ragnebert (a.k.a. Rambert; Christian; Saint)

The Spaniel (Muppetism)

St. Theresa (Positivist; Saint)

Thomas Woodhouse (Christian; Blessed)

Triphyllius (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Premieres

The Apocalypse Watch, by Robert Ludlum (Novel; 1995)

Back to School (Film; 1986)

Backwoods Bunny (WB LT Cartoon; 1959)

BrainDead (TV Series; 2016)

Day of Infamy, by Walter Lord (History Book; 1957)

Faith and Courage, by Sinead O’Connor (Album; 2000)

Forever Your Girl, by Paula Abdul (Album; 1988)

Hercules (Animated Disney Film; 1997)

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Animated Film; 2014)

The Incredible Hulk (Film; 2008)

Jagged Little Pill, by Alan’s Morrisette (Album; 1995)

Kind Hearts and Coronets (Film; 1949)

Lolita (Film; 1962)

Make It With You, by Bread (Song; 1970)

Mona Lisa (Film; 1986)

Pat and Mike (Film; 1952)

Post, by Björk (Album; 1995)

The Prince and the Showgirl (Film; 1957)

Prozac Nation (Film; 2003)

Roadie (Film; 1980)

Texas Flood, by Stevie Ray Vaughan (Album; 1983)

22 Jump Street (Film; 2014)

…Very ‘Eavy …Very ‘Umble, by Uriah Heel (Album; 1970)

Vida La Vida, by Coldplay (Song; 2008)

The Washout Chronicle, by John Cheever (Novel; 1957)

Wholly Moses (Film; 1980)

The World is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman (Economics Book; 2005)

Yodeling Yokels (WB LT Cartoon; 1931)

You Only Live Twice (US Film; 1967) [James Bond #5]

Today’s Name Days

Antonius, Bernhard (Austria)

Antonija, Antun, Toni (Croatia)

Antonín (Czech Republic)

Cyrillus (Denmark)

Monika, Mooni, Moonika (Estonia)

Raila, Raili (Finland)

Antoine (France)

Anton, Antonius, Bernhard (Germany)

Trifilios (Greece)

Anett, Antal (Hungary)

Alice, Antonio (Italy)

Ainārs, Tautvaldis, Tobijs, Uva, Zigfrīds, Zigrids (Latvia)

Akvilina, Antanas, Kunotas, Skalvė (Lithuania)

Tanja, Tone, Tonje (Norway)

Antoni, Chociemir, Herman, Lucjan, Maria Magdalena, Tobiasz (Poland)

Achilina (România)

Anton (Slovakia)

Antonio (Spain)

Aina, Aino (Sweden)

Kalyna (Ukraine)

Ivey, Ivy, Lara, Larissa (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 164 of 2024; 201 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 24 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Duir (Oak) [Day 2 of 28]

Chinese: Month 4 (Ding-Si), Day 26 (Red-Yin)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 24 Sivan 5783

Islamic: 24 Dhu al-Qada 1444

J Cal: 14 Sol; Sevenday [14 of 30]

Julian: 31 May 2023

Moon: 20%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 24 St. Paul (6th Month) [St. Theresa]

Runic Half Month: Dag (Day) [Day 4 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 85 of 92)

Zodiac: Gemini (Day 23 of 32)

[now-that-i-saw-you]

Short reviews of everything I read in October! 🎃

Dracula - 3.5 stars

This is probably one of the most well-known and influential horror books in European history. It was nice!! And I liked how that it was an episolatry novel, but it was so slow. I'm going to reread it next year and I'm curious to see how my opinion changes.

Macbeth - 5 stars.

This was perfect. There was so much tension and suspense that I didn't want to stop reading, and I enjoyed every single character in this play.

The Monk / Matthew Lewis - 4.25 stars

This is a horror book about a corrupt monk's attempts to rape a young girl. This book presents a look into the psyche of a really terrible man, a critique of religious institutions, and chivalrous, horny knights. The only downfall is the painfully slow beginning, but sticking with this book was really worth it.

Young Jane Young / Gabrielle Zevin - 3.5 stars

So after finishing The Monk, I needed a palette cleanser, and this book was perfect. It's about a young girl who had an affair with a congressman and all the women/girls who were affected by this affair. It's very fast-paced, dialogue-focused, and short, which basically means everything was a little surface level. Still, I had a really good time reading this, and I'd definitely recommend it.

Honorary mention: From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman

OK, technically, I only read 250 pages of this during October, but I can't not include it. This is a nonfiction book about an American journalist who lived and worked in Beirut and Jerusalem in the 80s. I read the first part about his life in Beirut, which included an explanation and an overview of the civil war in Lebanon and the Israel-Lebanon war. I thought this was very informative and interesting. 300 more pages to go!

[yourreddancer]

How Netanyahu Is Trying to Save Himself, Elect Trump and Defeat Harris

Opinion

Thomas L. Friedman

Sept. 3, 2024

If President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris needed any reminder that Benjamin Netanyahu is not their friend, not America’s friend and, most shamefully, not the friend of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, the murder by Hamas of six Israeli souls while Netanyahu dragged out negotiations should make that clear. Netanyahu has one interest: his own immediate political survival, even if it undermines Israel’s long-term survival.

Madam Vice President, have no doubt, this will lead him to do things in the next two months that could seriously harm your election chances and strengthen Donald Trump’s. Be afraid.

Meanwhile, Mr. President, please, please tell me that Netanyahu has not played you for a fool. You have had repeated conversations with him, each followed by your optimistic predictions about an imminent cease-fire in Gaza — and then he tells his followers something else.

Netanyahu is one reason that I coined this rule about Middle East reporting: In Washington, officials tell you the truth in private and lie in public. In the Middle East, officials lie to you in private and tell the truth in public. Never trust what they say to you in private — especially Netanyahu. Listen only to what they say in public to their own people in their own languages.

In his phone calls, Netanyahu has been whispering to America’s leaders in English that he is interested in a cease-fire and a hostage deal and is considering the necessary precursors for what I call the Biden Doctrine. But as soon as he hangs up, in Hebrew, he says things to his base that expressly contradict the Biden Doctrine, because it threatens the Bibi Doctrine.

So, what is the Biden Doctrine, and what is the Bibi Doctrine, and why do they matter?

The Biden administration has built an impressive set of regional alliances with partners stretching from Japan, South Korea and the Philippines in the Asia Pacific region to India and the Persian Gulf, up to NATO in Europe. They are security and economic coalitions, designed to counter Russia in Europe, contain China in the Pacific and isolate Iran in the Middle East.

Alas, though, a keystone for all these alliances — meant to connect Asia, the Middle East and Europe — was Biden’s proposed defense alliance with Saudi Arabia. The key to getting such a deal through Congress would be Saudi Arabia agreeing to normalize relations with Israel. And the key to getting the Saudis to do that would be Netanyahu agreeing to discuss — just discuss — the possibility of a two-state solution with the Palestinians one day.

Since the Gaza war started last October, the Biden team has been wisely trying to meld the Biden Doctrine with a Gaza cease-fire and hostage deal, by stressing the significant advantages for both Israel and America: It could lead to a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, bring about the return of the hostages and give the exhausted Israeli standing army and reserve force a much-needed break, since a Gaza cease-fire would almost certainly compel Hezbollah to cease firing from Lebanon as well. If Israel then would agree to open talks with the Palestinian Authority on a two-state solution, it would pave the way for normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia — a huge strategic asset for Israel — and create conditions for the U.A.E., Morocco and Egypt to send peacekeeping troops to Gaza in partnership with an upgraded Palestinian Authority, so Israel would not need a permanent occupation there and Hamas would be replaced by a legitimate, moderate Palestinian government — Hamas’s nightmare.

In one move, Biden has been telling Netanyahu, Israel could find sustainable Arab partners for a secure pathway out of Gaza and find Arab allies for the regional alliance it needs to counter Iran’s regional alliance of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and Iraqi militias. Biden’s point: Israel’s security today has to be seen in a much wider context than just who patrols the Gaza border.

But the Biden Doctrine ran directly into the Bibi Doctrine, which centers on doing everything possible to avoid any political process with the Palestinians that may require a territorial compromise in the West Bank that would break Netanyahu’s political alliance with the Israeli far right.

To that end, Bibi has made sure for years that Palestinians remain divided and unable to have a unified position. He ensured that Hamas remained a viable governing entity in Gaza by, among other things, arranging for Qatar to send Hamas more than $1 billion for humanitarian aid, fuel and government salaries from 2012 to 2018.

At the same time, Netanyahu did everything he could to discredit and humiliate the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, who has recognized Israel, embraced the Oslo peace process and partnered with Israel’s security services to try to keep the peace in the West Bank for nearly three decades.

Netanyahu’s survival doctrine became even more important after he was indicted in 2019 on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. Now he must stay in power to stay out of prison, if convicted. (American readers, does this have a familiar ring?)

Therefore, when Netanyahu won re-election by a razor-thin margin in 2022, he was ready to climb into bed with the worst of the worst in Israeli politics to form a governing coalition that would keep him in power. I am talking about a group of radical Jewish supremacists whom a former Israeli Mossad chief called “horrible racists” and “a lot worse” than the Ku Klux Klan.

These Jewish supremacists agreed to let Netanyahu be prime minister as long as he retained permanent Israeli military control over the West Bank and, after Oct. 7, over Gaza as well. They effectively told Bibi that if he ever agreed to Biden’s U.S.-Saudi-Israel-Palestinian Authority deal — or agreed to an immediate cease-fire for the return of Israeli hostages and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails — they would topple his government. Because those things would be precursors for implementing the Biden Doctrine and a possible territorial compromise one day in the West Bank.

Netanyahu got the message. He declared that he would end the war in Gaza after Israel achieved “total victory,” but never defined exactly what that would mean and who would govern Gaza in its wake. By establishing such an unattainable goal in Gaza — the Israeli military has been occupying the West Bank for 57 years and, as the daily clashes demonstrate, has not achieved “total victory” over Hamas militants there — Bibi set things up so he alone can decide when the war in Gaza is over.

Which will be when it suits his political survival needs. That is certainly not today.

On Monday, Netanyahu declared that he is ready to sacrifice any cease-fire with Hamas and hostage return if it means Israel has to give in to the Hamas demand that Israel vacate its military outposts on the 8.7-mile-long Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, long used by Hamas to smuggle in weapons but which the Israeli military did not think important enough to even occupy for the first seven months of the war.

Israeli generals have consistently told Netanyahu there are many alternative effective means for controlling the corridor now and that supporting Israeli troops marooned out there would be difficult and dangerous. And they could retake it any time they need. Staying there is already causing huge problems with the Egyptians, too.

No matter: Netanyahu publicly declared Monday that the corridor “is central, it determines all of our future.”

The whole thing is a fraud. As the Haaretz military correspondent Amos Harel explained, what is really going on is that Bibi’s right-wing allies dream of resettling Gaza, while “Netanyahu, under cover of security interests, is mainly protecting his political position. He is fighting for the integrity of his governing coalition, which might crack if a deal is approved.”

Which is why Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant — the only honest, courageous person in Netanyahu’s cabinet — reportedly told the prime minister and his right-wing sycophants that their vote last Thursday to “prioritize the Philadelphi Corridor at the cost of the lives of the hostages is a moral disgrace.”

Now back to America’s presidential election.

Netanyahu clearly knows that he has Harris in a bind. If he continues the war in Gaza until “total victory,” with more civilian casualties, he will force Harris either to publicly criticize him and lose Jewish votes or bite her tongue and lose Arab and Muslim American votes in the key state of Michigan. As Harris will likely find it hard to do either, this will make her look weak to both American Jews and American Arabs.

Based on my reporting and all my years watching Netanyahu, I would not be surprised if he actually escalates in Gaza between now and Election Day to make life difficult for the Democrats running for office. (The murderous Islamo-fascist leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, also wants to see the war continue because it is tearing Israel apart and isolating America in the region.)

Netanyahu may do this because, I believe, he wants Trump to win and he wants to be able to tell Trump that he helped him win. Netanyahu knows that many in the rising generation of Democrats are hostile to Israel — or at least to the Israel he is creating.

Then, if Trump wins, I would not be shocked if Bibi declares that his “total victory” in Gaza has been achieved, agrees to some cease-fire to get back any hostages still alive, mumbles a few words about Palestinian statehood in the far-off, distant future to get the Saudi-Israel normalization deal and tells his craziest far-right partners to get lost while he runs for re-election without them. His likely platform: I brought total victory in Gaza and, with Trump, forged a historic opening between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu wins. Trump wins. Israel loses. Gaza will still be boiling, of course. Israeli troops will still be occupying it. Israel will be more of a pariah state than ever, with more and more talented Israelis leaving for jobs abroad, but Bibi will have another term — and that is all that counts.

(If Harris wins, Bibi knows he just needs to snap his fingers and the pro-Israel lobby in Washington — AIPAC — and Republicans in Congress will protect him from any blowback.)

Then, one day down the road, I fully expect that Bibi will organize a ceremony to honor his “dear friend of many years, President Joe Biden.” It will be a new settlement in Gaza, called, in Hebrew, Givat Yosef. In English: “Joe’s Hill.”

[bunnchaa]

NẾU KHÔNG MUỐN TOI ĐỜI, HÃY CỐ MÀ MỌC NANH!

1. Trí thông minh của chúng ta bắt nguồn từ kinh nghiệm, còn kinh nghiệm có từ sự ngu dốt của chúng ta. - X.Gitri

2. Ước mơ mà không kèm theo hành động thì dù hy vọng có cánh cũng không bao giờ bay tới đích. – Shakespeare

3. Thà làm một bông hoa sen nở khi thấy mặt trời bị mất hết nhụy còn hơn giữ nguyên hình nụ búp trong sương lạnh vĩnh cửu của mùa đông. – R.Ta-go

4. Hãy tin rằng đời đáng sống, và niềm tin của bạn sẽ giúp thiết lập sự thực đó. – William James

5. Thay đổi sẽ không đến nếu chúng ta trông chờ vào người khác hay đợi thời điểm khác. Chúng ta chỉ là sự thay đổi mà chúng ta đang tìm kiếm. – Barack Obama

6. Sự bình an trong tâm hồn nằm trong bản thân của mỗi người. Những vũ khí bảo vệ nó không phải là gươm giáo hay mộc đỡ, mà là một sự trung thực không một vết nhơ, trung thực ngay cả với lỗi lầm của mình. Đó là cuộc chiến đấu không kém phần dũng cảm so với bất kỳ cuộc chiến đấu nào. – Giăng Giắc-cơ Rút Xô

7. Mỗi buổi sáng ở châu Phi, một con linh dương thức dậy, nó biết rằng nó phải chạy nhanh hơn sư tử, nếu không nó sẽ bị giết. Mỗi sáng một con sư tử thức dậy, nó biết rằng nó phải chạy nhanh hơn linh dương, hoặc nó sẽ bị chết đói. Điều quan trọng không phải là việc bạn là sư tử hay linh dương. Khi mặt trời mọc, bạn nên bắt đầu chạy. – Thomas L. Friedman

8. Cách báo thù tốt nhất chính là thành công vang dội. – Frank Sinatra

9. Giấc mơ không phải là thứ bạn nhìn thấy khi ngủ, giấc mơ là những điều mà không cho phép bạn ngủ. – Cristiano Ronaldo

10. Muốn thoát khỏi bầy sói thì phải mạnh hơn cả sói, nếu không muốn chết thì cố mà mọc nanh. – Tây xuất Ngọc Môn | Vĩ Ngư

11. Trong trái tim mỗi người đều có một dòng sông nghẽn lại ở đó,nó chia trái tim chúng ta thàng hai bờ : bờ trái mềm yếu, bờ phải lạnh lùng; bờ trái cảm tính, bờ phải lý trí. Bờ trái chứa đựng những dục vọng ước mơ, đấu tranh và tất cả những hỷ nộ ái ố của chúng ta, còn bờ phải có những vết tích nóng bỏng của mọi quy tắc trên thế gian in vào tim chúng ta. Bờ trái là giấc mộng, còn bờ phải là cuộc sống. – Ánh trăng không hiểu lòng tôi | Tân Di Ổ

12. Trong thời đại này, trừ khi bị lũ lụt cuốn trôi hết tài sản, còn nếu bạn nghèo là do bạn lười. – Sống thực tế giữa đời thực dụng

13. Sự sống nảy sinh từ trong cái chết, hạnh phúc hiện hình từ những hi sinh gian khổ, ở đời này không có con đường cùng, chỉ có những ranh giới, điều cốt yếu là phải có sức mạnh để bước qua những ranh giới ấy – Mùa lạc | Nguyễn Khải

14. Dù cuộc sống có vần xoay thế nào, hãy sống thật tử tế – Gari

15. Thời gian một đi là không trở lại, không ai có thể tắm hai lần trên dòng sông cuộc đời – Rosie Nguyễn

16. Sức mạnh vĩ đại nhất mà nhân loại có trong tay chính là hy vọng. – Mahatma Gandhi

17. Khi bạn có tiền trong tay chỉ có bạn quên mất mình là ai. Nhưng khi bạn không có đồng nào cả, cả thế giới sẽ quên đi bạn là ai, đó là cuộc sống. – Bill Gates

18. Ai cũng có thể ngồi xuống để viết dù có thể chưa bao giờ dám đứng lên để sống. – Mari Tamagawa

19. Bạn có thể tốt hơn và tốt hơn vào ngày mai, nên đừng dừng việc hoàn thiện bản thân mình.

20. Bạn vẫn còn quá trẻ để thế giới này dễ dàng hạ gục bạn.

[buttercupkg66]

NYT columnist, who is close pals with Biden, says horrendous debate performance made him ‘weep’ as he calls for him to drop out of race

[arpov-blog-blog]

Progressives have been hammering Biden for his 180 degree turn on working with Saudi Arabian leader MBS. Here is what was in the works just before the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. Was Hamas, Iran, Russia, and Israeli Zionists complicit in trying to derail this effort by using the attack as a pretext for the war? ...."US President Joe Biden’s administration is homing in on a new doctrine involving an unprecedented push to immediately advance the creation of a demilitarized but viable Palestinian state, The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman reported on Thursday.

The plan, Friedman wrote, “would involve some form of US recognition of a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that would come into being only once Palestinians had developed a set of defined, credible institutions and security capabilities to ensure that this state was viable and that it could never threaten Israel.”

White House officials “have been consulting experts inside and outside the US government about different forms this recognition of Palestinian statehood might take,” revealed Friedman.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is homing in on a new doctrine involving an unprecedented push to immediately advance the creation of a demilitarized but viable Palestinian state, The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman reported on Thursday.

The plan, Friedman wrote, “would involve some form of US recognition of a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that would come into being only once Palestinians had developed a set of defined, credible institutions and security capabilities to ensure that this state was viable and that it could never threaten Israel.”

White House officials “have been consulting experts inside and outside the US government about different forms this recognition of Palestinian statehood might take,” revealed Friedman.

What he termed the new “Biden Doctrine” would include boosting US ties with Saudi Arabia alongside a normalization of ties between Riyadh and Jerusalem, and maintaining a tough military stance against Iran and its proxies.

Before the Hamas assault on October 7, Riyadh was bargaining hard for security guarantees from Washington, as well as assistance with a civilian nuclear program that would have uranium enrichment capacity, as part of a normalization deal.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in January that he was prepared to normalize relations with Israel as part of rebuilding the Gaza Strip after the war, two US officials relayed to The Times of Israel, noting that he indeed is conditioning that deal on Israeli steps toward Palestinian sovereignty.

Hamas’s mass onslaught in Israel is “forcing a fundamental rethinking about the Middle East within the Biden administration,” Friedman wrote.

“If the administration can pull this together — a huge if — a Biden Doctrine could become the biggest strategic realignment in the region since the 1979 Camp David treaty,” he contended.

New York Times columnist, Thomas L. Friedman. (Rebecca Zeffert/Flash90)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Tel Aviv :: July 25 :: 2023 :: Eric Alterman

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

Today, Israel’s parliament passed a law that increases the power of the country’s right wing, headed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel does not have a written constitution, and the prime minister’s ruling coalition is in control of both the executive and the legislative branches of government. The only check on them was the courts, which could overturn extreme laws that did not pass a “reasonableness standard,” which means they were not made according to a basic standard of fair and just policymaking.

The new law aims to take away that judicial power, and it passed by a vote of 64–0 after opponents walked out in protest. Netanyahu’s coalition has indicated it intends to continue to weaken the institutions that can check it. “This is just the beginning,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

For 13 of the last 14 years, Netanyahu, who is under indictment for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, has been Israel’s prime minister. Israeli democracy has weakened under him, in part because, as Zach Beauchamp of Vox explains, his support for Israeli settlement of the West Bank has fed an aggressive right-wing nationalist movement.

Netanyahu was turned out of the position briefly by a fragile coalition in 2021 but returned to power in December 2022 at the head of a coalition made up of ultranationalist and ultrareligious parties. That coalition commands just 64 out of 120 seats, a bare majority, in the Knesset, Israel’s unicameral legislature, which passes laws and runs the government.

As soon as the coalition formed, it announced its intention of reforming the judiciary to weaken it significantly. It also backed taking over the West Bank and limiting the rights of Palestinians, LGBTQ individuals, and secular Israelis. In early July the government launched a massive attack on the refugee camp in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank that killed at least 8 Palestinians and wounded 50 others, saying the camp contained a militant command center.

Secular and center-left Jewish Israelis flooded the streets to protest as soon as the coalition announced its attack on the judiciary, and they have continued to protest for 29 weeks. Last Saturday, military leaders wrote to Netanyahu, blaming him personally for the damage done to the military and to Israel’s national security, and demanding that he stop. “We, veterans of Israel’s wars,… are raising a blaring red stop sign for you and your government.” Thousands of Israeli military reservists warned they would not report for duty if the judicial overhaul plan passed, dramatically weakening the country’s national security.

If the far-right coalition destroys the independence of the judiciary, it will have kneecapped the courts that could convict Netanyahu. It could also rig future elections by, for example, barring Arab parties from participating, thus cementing its hold on power.

The United States was the first nation to recognize Israel 75 years ago and has been a staunch supporter ever since, to the tune of nearly $4 billion a year. But the country’s rightward lurch is testing the strength of that bond.

Netanyahu has politicized the two countries’ bonds, openly siding with Trump and Trump Republicans, who continue to offer him their support. President Joe Biden has staunchly supported Israel for 50 years but recently has warned Netanyahu personally against pushing court reform, and last week he took the extraordinary step of inviting New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman to the Oval Office to make his message clear. Biden told Friedman that Israel’s lawmakers should not make fundamental changes to the country’s government without a popular consensus. The White House called today’s vote “unfortunate.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[lacopadeeuropa]

misiles portátiles

Ahmed Qureia. Mahmud Abbas. Marwan Barghouthi. Mohammed Dahlan. Rawhi Fattouh. Thomas L. Friedman sentencia que Arafat estaba más obsesionado por la tierra palestina que por la vida palestina. No sé si existe vida sin tierra o tierra sin vida, es casi como intentar averiguar que es lo que existió primero, si el huevo o la gallina, pero ese pueblo sin fronteras más que un gran muro de cemento debe ahora concienciarse en que va a seguir teniendo educadores, políticos como los misiles portátiles que han robado en Irak, que mantienen las premisas de la destrucción -se dice que uno de los supuestos sucesores ya ha quitado de su despacho la foto del rais para colocar la suya propia- ante los ataques incesantes de un Israel hinchado de rabia y dólares. Y continuar abandonado hacia un futuro incierto.

(publicado el 8 de noviembre de 2004)

2 COMENTARIOS

Adrián - 09 de noviembre de 2004 - 02:18

La metamorfosis del texto o del individuo.

luis ricardo - 08 de noviembre de 2004 - 20:16

Creo que Arafat siente el peso de su compromiso. El prometió devolver el lugar digno que perdió Palestina. Lo que parece ingorar es que está completamente fuera de sus manos.

[antonio-velardo]

Antonio Velardo shares: Why Ukraine and Gaza Are Even Bigger Than You Think by Thomas L. Friedman

By Thomas L. Friedman This is no ordinary moment in world affairs. Published: January 25, 2024 at 05:01AM from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/rkJiIzt via IFTTT

[now-that-i-saw-you]

"When it comes to discussing the Middle East, people go temporarily insane, so if you are planning to talk to an audience of more than two, you'd better have mastered the subjeft...a Jew who wants to make a career working in or studying the Middle East will always be a lonely man: he will never be fully accepted or trusted by the Arabs, and he will never be fully accepted or trusted by the Jews."

- Thomas L. Friedman