#donald's fire survival plan

[ducklooney]

Sorry to ask you, but first I want to congratulate you for having 1000 followers, and secondly, one question. Who do you think would best play Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie? Since I saw you complained about their voices? It's just purely out of curiosity. Thank you. 😁

Hi and sorry for the late reply, and thank you very much for these words of yours.

I assume you saw my post about my comments for Donald's nephews at House of Mouse. I absolutely do not like how they sounded there. Yes, it's a bit of a complicated topic, but I think Donald's nephews would sound best like boys their own age. After all, the boys are smart, albeit naughty, but they would sound much better that way. They were at their best in these educational cartoons like "Scrooge McDuck and Money" from 1967 and "Donald's Fire Survival Plan" from 1965. Dick Beals played them and I know Mellomen played them too.

However, even though many people don't like her, I think Russi Taylor voiced them as well as Webby in OG Ducktales. And then she gave their voices in several cartoons. And she gave voices so that if you listened carefully you could tell by the tone which was which Donald's nephews. It sounds funny, but those who followed the OG Ducktales closely would certainly know. You could imagine their voices while reading Donald Duck comics. Of course, Clarence Nash's voice wouldn't be bad, but that would be more true for old comics, while for newer ones more voices than Russi Taylor or boys of their age. Unfortunately she passed away five years ago and the big question is who could replace her to do her voice for Huey, Dewey and Louie. I hope they find some good voice actresses for it.

Of course, actresses like Jeannie Elias, Pamela Adlon and Elizabeth G. Daily did a great job of portraying Donald's nephews in the Quack Pack and did a good job of voicing Donald's teenage nephews. Too bad they didn't give them another chance to play Donald's nephews properly afterwards. As for Ducktales 2017, I know everyone praises that version, although I didn't like it, but that doesn't mean it's not a good version. However, the most I dislike about them are their voices, which absolutely did not sound like boys of their age, but as if they were 20 years old. I know it's pretty trendy in modern cartoons to have famous TV and movie actors play boys, but somehow it doesn't always work. You know about Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz, and Bobby Moynihan who played Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck in Ducktales 2017. Let's face it, those actors are very good, but they just kind of gave me bad voices in a way that didn't even sound like boys from 11 years old, already from 21 and older, which is quite annoying. For me, I wouldn't want Donald's nephews to sound like that in the future. Although with how Disney treats all these characters, I can only say that I expect only negative experiences and nothing more.

This is only for the original version, while for the dubbing of other countries Donald's nephews are mostly played by boys or female actresses and they did a good job. In my opinion, the best Latin American Spanish, Spanish and Hungarian dubbing. Another interesting fact is that for the German dub a male voice actor voiced Donald's nephews in Quack Pack, while in the French dub the voice actors who voiced Dewey and Louie in Quack Pack also voiced the same characters in Ducktales 2017. Although they have totally different personalities. XD But I hope you understand what I'm talking about.

Certainly, in my opinion, it would be preferable if in the future Donald's nephews are played by someone who knows how to do children's voices or do voices like the late Russi Taylor did or they are played by boys their own age. That's how I imagine them talking while reading Donald Duck comics. However, this is just my opinion. I hope you are happy with this and I apologize to others if this bothered them, I was just stating my opinion.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

It is hard to imagine a worse candidate for the American presidency in 2024 than Donald J Trump. His history of dishonesty, hypocrisy and greed makes him wholly unfit for the office. A second Trump term would erode the rule of law, diminish America’s global standing and deepen racial and cultural divides. Even if he loses, Mr Trump has shown that he will undermine the election process, with allies spreading unfounded conspiracy theories to delegitimise the results. There are prominent Republicans – such as the former vice-president Dick Cheney – who refused to support Mr Trump owing to the threat he poses. Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under Mr Trump, calls his former boss a “fascist”. America was founded in opposition to absolute monarchy. The Republican nominee models himself after the leader he most admires: Russia’s autocratic president, Vladimir Putin. Mr Trump’s authoritarianism may finish US democracy. He has praised and promised to pardon those convicted in the January 6 insurrection. He has suggested bypassing legal norms to use potentially violent methods of repression, blurring the lines between vigilantism, law enforcement and military action, against groups – be they Democrats or undocumented immigrants – he views as enemies. His team has tried to distance itself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and its extreme proposals – such as mass firings of civil servants and erasing women’s rights – that poll poorly. But it is likely that, in office, Mr Trump would adopt many of these intolerant, patriarchal and discriminatory plans. He aims to dismantle the government to enrich himself and evade the law. If Republicans gain control of the Senate, House and White House, he would interpret it as a mandate to silence his critics and entrench his power. Mr Trump is a transactional and corrupting politician. His supporters see this as an advantage. Christian nationalists want an authoritarian regime to enforce religious edicts on Americans. Elon Musk wants to shape the future without regulatory oversight. Both put self-interest ahead of the American people. Democracy erodes slowly at first, then all at once. In office, Mr Trump appointed three supreme court justices, who this summer blocked efforts to hold him accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 election: their immunity ruling renders the president “a king above the law”, in the words of the liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor. Since Kamala Harris stepped into the spotlight following Joe Biden’s exit, her campaign has been a masterclass in political jujitsu, deftly flipping Mr Trump’s perceived strengths into glaring weaknesses. With a focus on joy, the vice-president sharply contrasted with Mr Trump’s grim narrative of US decline. In their sole televised debate, Ms Harris skillfully outmaneuvered Mr Trump, who fell into her traps, appearing angry and incoherent. She is confident and composed. He sounds unhinged. [...] Political hope fades when we settle for what is, instead of fighting for what could be. Ms Harris embodies the conviction that it’s better to believe in democracy’s potential than to surrender to its imperfections. The Republican agenda is clear: voter suppression, book bans and tax cuts for billionaires. Democrats seek global engagement; the GOP favours isolation. The Biden-Harris administration laid the groundwork for a net zero America. A Trumpian comeback would undo it. A Harris win, with a Democratic Congress, means a chance to restore good governance, create good jobs and lead the entire planet’s climate efforts. Defeating Mr Trump protects democracy from oligarchy and dictatorship. There is too much at stake not to back Ms Harris for president.

The Guardian Editorial Board's endorsement of Kamala Harris for the 2024 US Presidential Election (10.23.2024).

The Guardian’s editorial board gave a powerful endorsement for Kamala Harris, as our democracy’s survival depends on her winning.

[mariacallous]

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid drew gasps this month when he told the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, “We are much closer to Israeli settlements being built in Gaza than hostages coming home from Gaza.” This is hardly news to anyone paying attention to Israeli governmental policy, but it introduced an unwanted chill into a conference that aimed to focus on “Jewish unity” and unspecified “support for Israel.”

Like other American Jews with strong connections to Israel, and dozens of friends and family members there, I have spent many a sleepless night worrying about the fate of the country, and furiously WhatsApping loved ones there to check on their safety. We may want to believe that Israeli leaders are trying to do what is best for their country and its residents. When we see news of yet another teenage soldier killed in Gaza or Lebanon, we want to believe that their sacrifice is not in vain but is making Israel safer.

But this is not a moment for surprise or for more rousing shows of vague “support for Israel.” It is a moment for anyone who cares about the future of the country and the people who live there to sound the alarm and wake each other up.

The settler movement has achieved a full takeover of the Israeli government, and they make no secret of their intentions: to resettle Gaza and officially annex the West Bank. Israeli leadership views the election of Donald Trump as clearing the path for this goal. Israel’s Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich said as much explicitly earlier this month. This past Sukkot, Likud members of Knesset took part in a conference on resettling Gaza held in a closed military zone meters from the strip, with the IDF protecting participants while pushing back hostage families who had come to protest.

High level Israeli officials have testified that Netanyahu has entirely abandoned the hostages and torpedoed any attempt to free them. Instead, he is continuing the war to advance his political survival and to allow for the reoccupation and resettlement of Gaza. One of his high level aides has been arrested on suspicion of passing information to a German newspaper, allegedly at the  prime minister’s behest, in order to sway public opinion against a hostage deal. Even former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, fired apparently for supporting such a deal, has said publicly that there is no reason for the war to continue and that Israel is on its way to military occupation of Gaza.

There is increasing evidence that the army is implementing the “Generals’ Plan,” which aims to displace all 300,000-400,000 residents of Northern Gaza by preventing any humanitarian assistance from entering, bombarding the territory, preventing residents from returning and re-establishing an Israeli military occupation, followed inevitably by resettlement.

Meanwhile, Gaza itself has become a humanitarian disaster. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed — yes, including militants and terrorists, but also including thousands of children and entire families. The U.N. estimates that women and children make up 70% of those killed. Large-scale hunger and disease will likely only grow worse if and when Israel implements its recently passed laws that would prevent UNRWA,  the main U.N. agency serving Palestinians, from operating there. In the West Bank, settlers carry out near daily violence against Palestinian villagers and farmers, with near complete impunity, often with the protection or assistance of the army.

The news that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant (along with Hamas’s Mohammed Deif, who is likely dead) engendered the expected cheers from the global left and defensive outrage from the Jewish and Israeli establishment. But for anyone who cares about Israel’s future, these arrest warrants should be cause for deep sadness and alarm. It is a tragic moment when the prime minister of the Jewish state has sunk so low — and brought the country so low — that he can credibly be accused of war crimes, while simultaneously torpedoing any internal inquiry that could have staved off the ICC warrants.

In early 2023, it seemed like the electoral ascendency of Israeli extremist parties, combined with the mass anti-government protests that rocked Israel, might shock mainstream American Jewry out of their usual uncritical support. A September 2023 protest against Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations drew thousands of Israeli expats and American Jews, including prominent rabbis and communal leaders. Even some legacy Jewish organizations, not accustomed to criticizing Israel, registered their disapproval of the attempted judicial overhaul.

The horrific massacres of Oct. 7 moved many American Jews back into the more familiar narrative of “Israel under attack.” The shocking willingness of some pro-Palestine activists to justify or deny Hamas’s atrocities and to dehumanize Israelis, coupled with a rise in violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, channeled communal energy into fighting antisemitism. And the real threat from Iran, including direct missile attacks as well as more than a year of rocket fire from Hezbollah before this week’s truce, has generated existential fear for Israel.

Mourning and fear must not distract us from the reality that the biggest existential threat to Israel, and indeed to Judaism itself, is coming from Israel’s governing coalition. Israel is not an object of worship or vehicle for Jewish identity. It is a real country with an increasingly authoritarian government committed to perpetual war and settlement. This is both a moral travesty and a danger to the state and to Judaism.

More than 50 years ago, the religious Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned, “A calf doesn’t necessarily need to be golden; it can also be a people, a land, or a state.” Jews wearing kippahs and tzitzit who ransack Palestinian villages, sometimes even violating the basic laws of Shabbat to do so, who recite Shema while burning down a mosque, or who build a sukkah in a Palestinian village or in the middle of Gaza, have replaced worship of God with worship of power and sovereignty. They would happily destroy the actual state of Israel in order to achieve their dangerous vision of Jewish control over the entire biblical land of Israel, no matter the human or political cost.

Three decades ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu famously accused the left of “forgetting what it means to be a Jew.” But it is Netanyahu and his allies who have forgotten the basic foundations of Judaism. These include pidyon shevuyim — redeeming captives — considered one of the most important commandments, and the most basic commitment of a Jewish state, not to abandon its own people.

Some American Jews believe that we have no right to comment on matters of Israeli security, or that any criticism of Israel fuels antisemitism. And yet, too much of the American Jewish community gives a pass to organizations that have supported Netanyahu’s drive toward autocracy and settlements, and even refused the pleas of hostage families to call for a deal that will end the war in Gaza and bring their loved ones home. American Jews must not stand by as Israel descends into authoritarianism and messianism which are doing irreversible, generational damage. Supporting Israel can no longer mean sporting flag pins, attending “unity” rallies, or trying to shut down any speech critical of Israel.

Rather, support for Israel and its people must mean standing with the Israelis desperately working to save their country from fanaticism, never-ending war and the settler agenda. Painful though it certainly is, supporting Israel today requires setting aside our disbelief that Israeli leaders could act with total disregard for the wellbeing of Israelis, let alone Palestinians. It means no longer giving Netanyahu and his ministers the endless benefit of the doubt.

American Jews can begin by sending our charitable dollars to the brave Israeli civil society organizations rather than to groups that explicitly or implicitly promote settlement and anti-democratic legislation. It means putting pressure on both the Netanyahu government and the U.S. administrations — outgoing and incoming — to end the war. We can demand that the U.S. follow its own laws and require Israel to adhere to the same guidelines for military aid that other countries do, including ensuring transparency in how aid is used. This includes enforcing the deadline for increasing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Such measures are not an abdication of the security of Israelis, but rather a means of pressuring Netanyahu to end the war and bring home the hostages, allowing Israel to move toward internal investigations and new elections. And we can insist that our communal organizations stop burying their heads in the sand and instead push back on the Israeli government’s dangerous agenda.

It’s time for American Jews to take a strong moral stance for human life and human rights. This would be the truest expression of support for Israel and Israelis, as well as Torah and Judaism.

[carrots-bear]

Fire and Rain, written by Bear(aka me)

A rottmnt au where Donnie is the last survivor of the Kraang-pocalypse and is sent back in time. (More or less the peepaw leo aus, except it's donnie.)

Prologue

A tall, green figure crashed into another green figure with a large, clonky, prosthetic, knocking him out of the way of a Kraang laser. (This second figure was also shorter than the first one.)

“Leonardo, I swear, if it were not for us, then you would have died already,” the first figure said, tears forming in his eyes. He had just watched his little brother disintegrate, giving all of himself to send Casey Junior back in time, so that there might be a future that his stupid, selfless sensei doesn’t lose an arm, that April could have lived longer, that Raphael could have lived longer, that Donatello could still see out of his right eye, have somewhat adequate hearing without an aid, have his lower leg, and actually have his ninpo. I mean is that really so much to ask for? thought the Donnie, as he fought off Kraang dogs and tried to find shelter for them. Well, apparently the universe said yes, yes it is.

He was yanked back to the present when Leo said, “Heh, yeah. But you know that that’s just as true for you, Donald.” He was wearing the dumbest smirk— and bleeding an extremely concerning amount alright alright…alright.

Donatello scanned the area with his mono-ggle¹, and when he found somewhere sufficient, he dragged his brother over, going unnoticed by any enemies, I hope… He laid Leonardo down in the rubble gently, making sure that no stray pieces of metal could further injure him. ”Hold tight, Leo. I am going to get you all fixed up.” But then he looked closely at the wound, and his face tightened in a sort of grimace.

“That bad, ay?”, Leo said, still sporting that same old, dum-dum smirk. He winced when Donnie put pressure on the wound. “Okay, yeah. It’s that bad.”

“Of course it is, you dum-dum! Those Kraang hounds banged you up; it’s a miracle you’re still alive…”, Donnie said as he shook his head.

“How will I ever survive?”, Leonardo said, throwing his head back dramatically and putting his hand up to his forehead.

Donnie’s jaw clenched and he froze a moment, then resumed his work, saying, “Without proper medical attention… you might not.” He grimly whispered the last part, as if doing so would make it less true.

Leo put his hand down and faced towards his twin, though his eyes were looking down at his wound. “I know. But I know that you’ll be with me when it happens, and that was one of my ‘the-Great-Master-Leonardo-is-dying!’ requirements. So yay! You accidentally met one of my requirements, Dee!” He said it with a smile on his face, and Donatello didn’t know how.

“There, that should do,” Donnie said, wiping the crimson liquid on his hand onto a piece of rusty metal nearby. “And don’t joke about that,” he snapped coldly.

“Out of curiosity and boredom though—“

“Boredom?”

Donnie glared and sat down more comfortably beside his twin as he continued. “Yes, boredom; listen to my small talk question. Deep inhale and sigh. What are slash² were your other ‘re-qui-re-ments’?” (In case you were wondering, yes, air-quotes were heavily implied.)

“Well…”, and the brothers talked together for a good long time. Donatello checked how secure their shelter was so that he could sleep and ‘Nardo take watch. Yes, both realized how risky that was, putting the person who was slowly bleeding out on watch, but Donnie made Leo promise to wake him up if anything was happening.

• * • * Two weeks later * • * •

The brothers were on the run from the Kraang. Both were completely unsurprised; this was the Kraang-pocalypse, as some liked to call it, after all. At the moment, Donnie’s heated compression sock for his real foot had stopped working— again, so that’s working out great form him, slowing their pace.

Leo coughed, the running not being very good for his current state. “Donnie, I have a plan, but you might not like it.” He stumbled as he coughed again.

It didn’t take long for Donnie to know what Leo was thinking. ”Oh no, uh-uh, nope, not gonna happen. I don’t know exactly what you’re planning, but I do know it’s gonna be that load of self-sacrificing dirt again.”

As he spoke, Donnie pressed a button on his wrist-tech to activate a cloaking device. They got ahead of the Kraang long enough for Donnie to locate a safe place and get there unnoticed. Donnie eased Leo down. He could tell by what his mono-ggle was telling him, Leo was… Donnie was going to lose… Donnie was going to be an only ‘child’ very soon. His eyes wanted to tear up, but Donnie didn’t want to cry, so he forced them back.

Leo was having trouble breathing as it was, so it didn’t help the situation that he was about to give a speech to his twin. “Donnie, I know you know I’m dying. It’s okay! I have a plan remember?”

“Is that plan you dying, the Kraang killing everything, and sparing me to make my life miserable?”

“Well, I mean, I would prefer it if I could live too. If there was another way, I’d take it, but there’s not. I want you to see the good timeline, so you can tell me about it once you die, probably sitting in a rocking chair and solving the ancient puzzle of— The Rubix Cube. You have to promise me that you’ll come back to us when you die, alright? Not a bunch of Master and Uncle wanna-be’s.”

There was that smirk again. Oh, that smirk. Donnie was going to miss it. Welp, here come the water-works. You couldn’t even hold it in for his— “Wait, why didn’t I point this out before? What do you mean? You can’t actually be planing to send me to the same timeline as Casey Junior. You can barely use you ninpo in this state. That killed Mikey, it’s going to kill you too. I didn’t want to watch my family die before, and I still definitely don’t want to now. Please don’t do this, Leo.” Yup, the water-works have arrived everyone! Aw man, why?! Donatello felt his purple mask absorb the tears. They were coming in an onslaught; it would soon look like he just dipped the lower half of his mask in water. He sniffed and looked away from his brother. Donnie was holding his twin’s hand, just to make sure he was still there; he squeezed it, craving any sort of comfort, yet still unsure how to ask for it.

“Aw, Dee. C’mere.” Leo opened his free arm for a hug, and Donnie gladly took the opportunity, knowing it would likely be the last time for him to do so. They stayed like that for a bit, hugging and crying. Then Leonardo pulled back, slightly reluctantly, and said, “If you want, you can take my mask and katanas…”

Dee looked at his twin’s face for a moment before reaching up to untie the blue mask. He wrapped it around his right hand like a fingerless glove, just above a black choker on his wrist. Then he reached for the strap for the blue-hilted twin katanas.

“Does this mean you’re on board with my plan?”

“I know you’ll never let me hear the end of it if I don’t go along,” Donnie said grimly as he strapped on the sheath.

“Heh, you—“, Leo was interrupted by another fit of coughs before he could continue. “You got that right, is what I was going to say.” Donatello finished getting his belongings together and thought, My twin is actually insane. I mean, this could work, since Leo does have portaling abilities, and Mikey did it, so I suppose it’s feasible… “You ready, Don?”, Leo asked, interrupting Donnie’s thoughts.

“Yeah, just a few things first. One:” Donnie leaned forwards and hugged his leader again; he hugged back. Donnie pulled back and said, “Two: I know I don’t say it a lot, because, well, y’know, but I hope you know that I do love you, ‘Nardo.”

“Aw, I love you too, Don-Tron.” His tone was playful, but his words and undertone were loaded, so that helped Donnie a lot with suppressing his tears for number three.

“And three….I don’t blame you for this ‘Nardo. Any of this. I never have. The world was resting in the hands of an egotistical child who didn’t even know what was at stake, not to mention you weren’t the one who wanted to open the portal in the first place. We can definitely blame this one on the Foot. I’ll say this one more time, though, because you don’t look like you believe me.” Donatello rested a hand on his brother’s shoulder and said, “I don’t blame you.”

Leo’s eyes filled with tears, and one slipped down his cheek as he said, “I…Thank you, Donnie. I really needed to hear that.”

“I know,” Donnie stated matter-of-factly as he leaned forwards and touched his own forehead to his brother’s as a last goodbye. “Okay,” Donnie sighed. “Now I’m ready.”

Leo nodded and concentrated hard on his ninpo. He summoned all his strength before there was a burst of light, and a crackling, swooshing, blue portal appeared, though it was small at this stage. Well, at least for a seven-foot three-inch tall mutant who had a few extra weapons that he probably didn’t need on him. Leo let out one last battle cry before he disappeared, disintegrating into thin air. Another tear left Donatello’s eye as he watched the portal grow. He put his bō staff in its sleeve and took out the twin katanas, then looked around at the demolished place he had called home all his life. “Good-bye New York of twenty-forty-four. Sigh.” As he stepped into the portal he murmured, “New York, what a town,” and disappeared into— not next week, but roughly one-thousand-one-hundred and forty-four weeks previous³.

_____________

Prologue is out!!!🥳 I have not told the internet about this au, barely at all, yet. I've already written a few chapters, but I'm saving those for a bit.

So, a few things I'd like to note:

Everything is platonic/familial unless otherwise stated.

It is probably going to be extremely hurt-comfort/comfort/fluffy despite it being Donatello-centric, and the main characters being reptiles;) [ho-ho, ha-ha, he-he, I am the Queen of Daughter Dad-Jokes]

I know nearly nothing medical; mostly stuff I hear my dad(a doctor) talk about, stuff in media/books, and the science I do in school

The numbers that you see by the text(e.g. Hello¹) are what I will use as footnotes, more or less

-=_=-=_=-=_=-=_=-=_=-=_=-

Footnotes:

Donnie’s goggles meet a monocle

/

This is Donnie; I made sure the number of weeks were accurate

=================

Edit: Prologue | Chapter 1

[notwiselybuttoowell]

The election of Donald Trump as president for a second time and the Republican takeback of the U.S. Senate could undo many of the national climate policies that are most reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to climate solutions experts. When they list measures that are making the most difference, it lines up with policies Trump has said he’ll target. These rollbacks will come as more lives are being lost in heat waves, record amounts of climate pollution are accumulating in the atmosphere, the United States has been hit with what may be two of its most expensive hurricanes, and nations, which will meet in Baku, Azerbaijan next week for climate negotiations, have failed to take strong action to change these realities. [at time of posting COP29 has begun] Here are some of the measures.

The Inflation Reduction Act, the nation’s landmark climate law This law is significant because it is expected to reduce U.S. emissions by about 40% by 2030, if it unfolds as planned in the coming years. It funnels money to measures that substitute clean energy for dirty. One major way it does so is by giving credits to businesses people who build new solar and wind farms. But it’s not limited to that. It encourages developers of geothermal energy and businesses that separate the carbon dioxide from their smokestacks and bury it underground. It incentivizes the next generation of nuclear power. It gives a $7,500 tax credit to people who buy electric cars. People who buy their cars used can get a credit too, as long as they don’t earn too much to qualify. Trump, by contrast, has summed up his energy policy as “drill, baby, drill” and pledged to dismantle what he calls Democrats’ “green new scam” in favor of boosting production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, the main causes of climate change. He vows to end subsidies for wind power that were included in the landmark 2022 climate law. If Trump does target the climate law, there are provisions that are likely safe. One is a credit for companies in advanced manufacturing, because it is perceived as “America first and pro-U.S. business,” said David Shepheard, partner and energy expert at the global consultant Baringa. Incentives for electric vehicles are likely most at risk, he added. In a call Wednesday morning, Scott Segal, head of a communications group at the law firm Bracewell LLP, which represents the energy industry, said the climate law is not likely to be repealed. Dan Jasper, a senior policy advisor at Project Drawdown, said repealing parts of the climate law could backfire because most of the investments and jobs are in Republican congressional districts.

Pollution from electric power plants The main U.S. rule aimed at reducing the climate change that comes from making electricity at power plants that burn coal is also considered vulnerable. This rule from the Environmental Protection Agency, announced in April, would force many coal-fired plants to capture 90% of their carbon emissions or shut down within eight years, Shepheard said. It was projected to reduce roughly 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2047, along with tens of thousands of tons of other harmful air pollutants. Industry groups and Republican-controlled states have filed legal challenges to a host of EPA rules including this one and Trump’s victory means the Justice Department is unlikely to defend it. Under a Trump presidency, it is unlikely to survive, Shepheard said. The United States has been reducing carbon dioxide emissions primarily by replacing coal-fired power plants with clean, renewable power, said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries’ carbon dioxide emissions. “I hope that we don’t lose sight of the benefits of clean energy,” he said. “It’s not just about the climate. It’s about our lives and our health.”

Limiting leaks from damaging methane, or natural gas The Biden administration was under pressure to reduce one of the main pollutants contributing to drought, heat waves, flooding and stronger hurricanes — methane or natural gas. It leaks out of oil and gas equipment, sometimes deliberately when companies consider it too expensive to transport. The Biden administration issued the first national rules on this. Industry groups and Republican-leaning states have challenged the rule in court. They say the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority and set unattainable standards. The EPA said the rules are squarely within its legal responsibilities and would protect the public.

Fuel-efficient vehicles The Environmental Protection Agency has issued its strongest rules on tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks under the Biden administration. While it is unclear who will head the EPA under Trump, the agency is considered likely to begin a lengthy process to repeal and replace a host of standards including the one on tailpipe emissions, which Trump falsely calls an electric vehicle “mandate.″ Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental laws as president and that number is likely to grow in a second term. Trump has said EV manufacturing will destroy jobs in the auto industry and has falsely claimed that battery-powered cars don’t work in cold weather and aren’t able to travel long distances. Trump softened his rhetoric in recent months after Tesla CEO Elon Musk endorsed him and campaigned heavily for his election. Even so, industry officials expect Trump to try to slow a shift to electric cars.

Drilling in Alaska refuge Trump is almost certain to reinstate oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, continuing a partisan battle that has persisted for decades. Biden and other Democratic presidents have blocked drilling in the sprawling refuge, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife. Trump opened the area to drilling in a 2017 tax cut law enacted by congressional Republicans. No drilling has occurred in the refuge, although the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday proposed a lease sale by the end of December that could lead to oil drilling. The sale is required under the 2017 law.

Transition to cleaner energy, transport will continue Trump, who has cast climate change as a “hoax,” has said he will also eliminate regulations by the Biden administration to increase the energy efficiency of lightbulbs, stoves, dishwashers and shower heads. Dan Jasper, a senior policy advisor at Project Drawdown said climate action will continue to move forward at the state and local level. Zara Ahmed, who leads policy analysis and science strategy at Carbon Direct, agreed. While there may be an abdication of leadership at the federal level on climate, she’s optimistic that states including California will continue to lead. Clean Air Task Force Executive Director Armond Cohen said on Wednesday that states, cities, utilities and businesses that have committed to net zero emissions will keep working toward those goals, driving record installations of wind and solar energy. Governors of both parties are also interested in ramping up nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of electricity, Cohen said. Trump has said he, too, is interested in developing the next generation of nuclear reactors that are smaller than traditional reactors. Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who was Biden’s first national climate adviser, said Trump will be unable to stop clean energy such as wind, solar and geothermal power. “No matter what Trump may say, the shift to clean energy is unstoppable and our country is not turning back,″ McCarthy said. Advocates for clean energy are bipartisan, well-organized “and fully prepared to deliver climate solutions, boost local economies, and drive climate ambition,′ she said.

[mightyflamethrower]

25 reasons Trump won’t pay a dime to E. Jean Carroll

That eye-popping $83 million judgment will not survive an appeal. A proper settlement would subtract at least $82,972,000.

In 2019, a strange woman named E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of raping her in a changing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Midtown Manhattan. Trump called her crazy, and a jury found him liable for both sexually abusing her and defaming her with the “crazy” talk. Last week, a New York jury decided Carroll deserves $83 million for defamation.

Here are 25 reasons why that’s nuts.

1) Carroll has said rape is “sexy”

She backs up this insane statement with, “Think of the fantasies” (which my wife and I can’t stop saying to each other). For the record, having someone forcibly violate you against your will is the exact opposite of “sexy.”

2) She’s already bragging about shopping sprees

Remember in “Goodfellas” when that idiot shows up at the party with his wife wearing a $20,000 fur coat and De Niro tells him to “bring it back”? When you run a scam, you need to lay low for a while. Carroll, conversely, is making appearances on national television telling Rachel Maddow she’s going to buy her a “penthouse in Paris” as well as fishing gear and a motorcycle for her counsel (could she pick weirder presents?). Her lawyer awkwardly murmured, “Uh, that’s a joke.”

Yeah, this whole thing is a joke.

3) The scenario she described came from her favorite TV show

She is a self-described “Law & Order” fan, and there is an episode wherein a man muscles his way into a changing room at Bergdorf Goodman and sexually molests a woman. This is likely where she got the idea. She’s also a big fan of “The Apprentice.” Would you like to watch your rapist on TV?

4) She didn’t want to press criminal charges

Being on the cover of New York magazine is one thing, but taking your BS story into an actual courtroom is a whole other level of fraud. When Bill de Blasio said he would change the law to make the case admissible, Carroll kept awkwardly repeating, “The experts told me … the time has passed.”

5) They changed the law

The case had no merit because the statute of limitations on civil action had passed. So what happened? The New York State Legislature changed the law. Is there anything that screams “witch hunt” more than that? What are we, Zimbabwe?

6) The man who backed the lawsuit is a major DNC donor

Leftist activist billionaire Reid Hoffman is the money behind this operation. His motive is obviously to bankrupt Trump so he can’t run again. Carroll denied this at first because she’s a liar, but her lawyer was forced to come clean.

7) The whole thing was George Conway’s idea, apparently

Though she denies it, it’s clear this entire plan was concocted by “conservative lawyer” Conway at a radical leftist cocktail party in Manhattan.

8) Carroll’s lawyer is desperate to fix her reputation as a rape-enabler

Roberta Kaplan was supposed to champion victims of sexual assault with her #TimesUp movement, but she used it instead to run cover for perverts such as Andrew Cuomo. She got caught and she got fired. Her comeback included representing Ashley Biden (A Biden lawyer going after Trump? Is anyone surprised?), but this case could permanently rescue her Google results.

9) Carroll’s dress didn’t exist back then

Carroll said the rape happened in the early 1990s. We just learned the particular dress she said she was allegedly wearing did not exist at the time.

10) She cannot remember when the rape happened

We’re not talking about the exact date. She can’t tell us if it was 1993 or 1995.

11) She won’t let anyone test her coat for DNA

Carroll calls the dress her “bad luck dress” and told CNN she will never make a talisman out of it — as though the idea had occurred to anyone. Why did she keep it around? This could be the left’s Monica Lewinsky dress, but she refuses to let anyone analyze it.

12) She doesn’t know if Trump ejaculated

I don’t know if anyone reading this has engaged in sexual intercourse, but evidence of the male orgasm is almost impossible to hide.

13) She is a serial accuser

Despite being a 3.5, she has claimed men have sexually assaulted her at least a half-dozen times. This isn’t proof of Trump’s innocence in and of itself, but it becomes relevant when surrounded by 24 other points.

14) She said it wasn’t sexual

Carroll has said pretty much everything that you could say about this encounter, from “it was not sexual” to “it was the definition of rape.” She said she would not press charges, however, because it would trivialize the experience of illegal aliens who are being “raped around the clock.”

15) She’s not his type

Trump is into elegant Slavs. This woman is like that hysterical chicken lady from “The Kids in the Hall.”

16) The judge and Carroll’s lawyer are pals

We’re told Judge Lewis Kaplan was Roberta Kaplan’s (no relation) mentor back when they both worked at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Roberta Kaplan denies this, but it can’t be denied they worked at the same firm at the same time. That alone is a conflict of interest.

17) Carroll didn’t talk to anyone about the alleged assault, until she did

If a woman is sexually assaulted, she is morally obligated to report it immediately, so the rapist doesn’t do it again. Carroll did not do this. What’s more, she didn’t talk to any of her friends about it. At least not at first. This is peculiar behavior for a blabbermouth.

18) Even if it’s all true, the settlement would be tiny

Carroll alleged that Trump cost her a columnist job at Elle, but the magazine made it clear it ended her contract as an advice columnist based on nothing more than lack of interest. But let’s assume Elle fired her because Trump wrote a mean tweet. A good price for an advice column would be a couple of hundred bucks per piece. That’s $2,000 a year for Elle. Assuming Carroll lives as long as “Dear Abby” columnist Pauline Esther Friedman, who died at 94, that would be a whopping total of $28,000 (Carroll is 80).

So, we’re off by about $82,972,000.

19) She said women “love” being abducted

She told Charlie Rose (remember him?) in 1995 that women love the idea of a caveman knocking them unconscious with a club and then dragging them — by their hair — back to the cave. I’m no feminist, but I’m pretty sure the cerebral contusions from this kind of violence are not a turn-on.

20) She said it wasn’t a big deal

“I’m a mature woman,” she said. “I can handle it.” OK, then why does she need $83 million to recover? That’s four times the amount of money you get when your kid is decapitated.

21) She lives in a Mouse House

Anyone who doubts this lady’s mental state needs to check out her house. She calls it “The Mouse House” because it’s infested with rodents (to whom she has given individual names, such as “Terbrusky”). She has painted the trees blue. She has printed out 27 years of advice column questions and stacked them all over the place. Yes, writers can be weird. But it is impossible to look at her place and not think, “This is nuts.”

22) She is a hoarder

Hoarding is a mental disorder. You can’t sue someone for calling you “crazy” if you have a mental disorder.

23) Her cat is called “Vagina” — seriously

E. Jean Carroll is obsessed with sex and her vagina. She said she lives in the woods because if she lived in the city, she’d have 16 boyfriends. She’s 80, remember?

Her dog “Tits” has blue hair, and her cat is named “Vagina.” The left-wing media thinks this is irrelevant. “Among the stranger complaints made by the former president … was that the jury wasn’t informed about the name of his accuser’s cat: Vagina T. Fireball.” Uh, when the charge is “calling a sane woman crazy,” Vagina T. Fireball matters.

24) She writes notes to herself

Wait, doesn’t everyone do that? Not like this. “The Mouse House” is festooned with bizarre messages. Her microwave says, “Burn Baby Burn.” Her bookshelf says, “Always amused never angry.” And, in a moment of deranged honesty, she taped a note to a lamp that says, “Hold your nerve. Pursue your radical options to the bitter END!”

25) Carroll said she wanted to “rape” Trump

Apparently, she thought having rough sex with him in the changing room would make for a “funny story.” (Wait, I thought she didn’t tell anyone about what happened to her out of fear.) She also suggested she’d do it for $17,000 if he was unable to speak. Sounds awfully rapey, doesn’t it?

Anyone who takes this case seriously and doesn’t see E. Jean Carroll as a complete basket case is a complete basket case.

[oldshowbiz]

1966,

Donald's Fire Safety Survival Plan.

[skjam]

Pulp Fanfic Crossover Fodder: Dr. Goldfoot

Note: This is primarily based on Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965).

Little is known of the background of Dr. Goldfoot. This includes not knowing his full name, if that even is his birth name, and where if anywhere he got his doctorate. He claimed descent from a pirate, a member of the Inquisition, and Attila the Hun's mentor in violence.

As of 1965, he appeared to be physically in his fifties, and had resided for some years in San Francisco operating a private cemetery and funeral home as a front for his other activities. It was in this year that he invented his best-known device, the Bikini Machine. The Bikini Machine created humanoid female-shaped robots with fairly complex programming, allowing them a limited ability to pass as human women. Each came with a gold-fabric bikini; it's not clear if they had actual female anatomy underneath that cloth.

Dr. Goldfoot supplemented the basic programming by downloading data from computer tapes directly to their memory banks. This was used primarily for giving them the ability to speak knowledgably about their targets' areas of interest.

The plan was to have these "girlbots" marry wealthy men, strip them of their assets, and transfer the wealth to Dr. Goldfoot. His goals beyond that are unclear.

Due to poor instructions by Dr. Goldfoot's henchman Igor. girlbot #12 "Diane" mistook Secret Intelligence Command (SIC) agent Craig Gamble for her target, millionaire Todd Armstrong. Craig, a nitwit only employed by SIC because his uncle Donald J. Pevney was the San Francisco office chief, only understood that the bizarre-acting woman he'd instantly fallen in love with had suddenly abandoned him (when Dr. Goldfoot corrected her commands) but this was enough to put him on the case.

Diane "met cute" with Todd and quickly persuaded him to marry her. At no time was the marriage consummated, but it's not clear if this was due to incapacity on #12's part or a part of a strategy to string Todd along until she possessed all his assets. Eventually, Craig and Todd teamed up to "rescue" Diane from Dr. Goldfoot, despite the fact she'd already been reprogrammed to forget she ever met them.

After a number of hijinks and a chase through San Francisco, Dr. Goldfoot and Igor were seemingly killed by naval bombardment. In reality, they survived, and the two men and Diane replaced the flight crew on a passenger jet to France.

By 1966, Dr. Goldfoot had become separated from Igor and Diane (the latter of whom may have married the German man she was flirting with on the plane) and was operating out of Italy. (Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs) He'd accepted Chinese funding to rebuild his Bikini Machine. This new version created "girlbombs" that could impersonate specific people and explode on command.

This time, the plan was to disrupt NATO war games by assassinating the various generals involved. The plan was thwarted by another SIC agent, Bill Dexter, and two Italian doormen named Franco and Ciccio. Dr. Goldfoot then attempted to detonate a nuclear bomb in Moscow to start World War Three, but this also failed and he was believed killed in the explosion. In fact, he survived, but no further activity of his has been recorded.

By the 1990s, Dr. Goldfoot's girlbot technology had been acquired by Virtucorp, the front organization for Dr. Evil, and somewhat improved. (See Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.)

Girlbots are very sturdy, able to take a collision with a small automobile without being moved or taking noticeable damage. They can be pierced by small arms fire, but unless vital areas are specifically targeted, this does not impair their function in any way. They're also far stronger than they appear. (Fortunately, most of Dr. Goldfoot's girlbots were not programmed to use violence.) They have radio receivers which allow them to receive commands directly from a console Dr. Goldfoot also invented.

The first batch of girlbots, including #12, were mostly able to impersonate human women, but came off as eccentric. They relied on their good looks and aggressive courting tactics to distract targets from realizing there was anything odd.

In addition to the Bikini Machine, Dr. Goldfoot's technology included: opera glasses that sprouted poison spikes (never used on camera), laser lipstick, the ability to remotely control motorcars, and either remote viewing or multiple miniature cameras placed throughout San Francisco. The latter two were incorporated into the same console he used to communicate with the girlbots. He had some way of reviving the (recently?) dead, but the only person he is known to have used it on was Igor.

Dr, Goldfoot bore a strong resemblance to the actor Vincent Price. He always wore gold-fabric slippers, and it was implied at one point that his actual feet were also golden in color. He was fey in his mannerisms, although he did seem to appreciate the aesthetics of his Bikini Machine creations. He put little value on human life, and was fully willing for his girlbots to eliminate competition the hard way.

The mad scientist's grasp of geopolitics may have been a little shaky. He sent a girlbot with the appearance of a black woman to marry a person who would have been a white man in South Africa at the height of apartheid.

Crossover potential: A rather silly mad scientist who specializes in creating femi-form robots can have many uses, as long as the story is okay with that kind of humor. Assuming nothing else happens to him, Dr. Goldfoot would die of old age in the early 1990s.

Notably, Dr. Goldfoot's headquarters was not destroyed in the movie, so the U.S. government was presumably able to access his technology and study it. ("Top men.") Also, several girlbots were already out on assignment at the time of his defeat, and are presumably loose ends.

SIC is one of the many splinter intelligence agencies the fictional U.S. government sponsored during this time period to increase plausible deniability. The budget was apparently tiny, with the San Francisco office being headquarters in a two-room office, Craig and his uncle being the only two operatives, and Craig not having access to any spy gadgets or even a gun. (His salary was also miniscule--he considered a cheese sandwich at the cafeteria a suitable date meal.)

The fictional agency your main characters belong to may have absorbed SIC and its records if the story is set post-1966.

Have fun!

@krinsbez

[rjzimmerman]

New rules will slash air, water and climate pollution from U.S. power plants. (Washington Post)

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday finalized an ambitiousset of rules aimed at slashing air pollution, water pollution and planet-warming emissions spewing from the nation’s power plants.

If fully implemented, the rules will have enormous consequences for U.S. climate goals, the air Americans breathe and the ways they get their electricity. The power sector ranks as the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change, and it is a major source of toxic air pollutants tied to various health problems.

Before the restrictions take effect, however, they will have to survive near-certain legal challenges from Republican attorneys general, who have been emboldened by the Supreme Court’s skepticism of expansive environmental regulations.

Another wild card is the November election, which could hand the White House back to former president Donald Trump, who has pledged to scrap dozens of President Biden’s green policies if he returns to office.

One of the most significant rules will limit greenhouse gas emissions from new natural gas-fired power plants and existing coal-fired power plants. It will push all existing coal plants by 2039 to either close orcapture 90 percent of their carbon dioxide emissions at the smokestack.

A second regulation will reduce releases of mercury and other toxic air pollutants from the smokestacks of coal plants nationwide. Exposure to mercury, a powerful neurotoxin, can cause serious health effects, especially for developing fetuses and children.

A third rule will expand federal oversight of coal ash, the waste from coal plants that often contains a mix of chemicals linked to increased cancer risk. A fourth will limit the levels of toxic metals in the wastewater that coal plants candischarge into rivers, lakes, streams and other waterways.

Each rule will yield huge benefits for public health and the planet, according to the EPA. The greenhouse gas standards alone will prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths, 870 hospital visits and 1,900 asthma cases in 2035, the agency said. They will also reduce carbon emissions through 2047 by 1.38 billion tons — equivalent to the annual emissions of 328 million gasoline-powered cars.

Together, the rules represent the culmination of an aggressive plan that EPA Administrator Michael Regan first outlined in 2022. Speaking to an energy industry conference in Houston that year, Regan promised an array of regulatory actions to tackle pollution from power plants, which he said often hits poor and minority neighborhoods the hardest.

Jody Freeman, who directs the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School, said she thinks the rule is on solid legal ground, because EPA lawyers crafted it to comply with the 2022 decision and the Clean Air Act. But it is difficult to predict what the conservative justices will decide, she said.

“The Supreme Court will do what it wants, and it’s shown a particular hostility to EPA rules,” Freeman said.

[warningsine]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump was the target Sunday of “what appears to be an attempted assassination” at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, the FBI said, just nine weeks after the Republican presidential nominee survived another attempt on his life. The former president said he was safe and well, and authorities held a man in custody.

U.S. Secret Service agents posted a few holes up from where Trump was playing noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away.

An agent fired and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. The man was later taken into custody in a neighboring county.

It was the latest jarring moment in a campaign year marked by unprecedented upheaval. On July 13, Trump was shot during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a bullet grazed his ear. Eight days later, Democratic President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, giving way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s nominee.

And it was sure to add to the questions about Secret Service protective operations after the agency’s admitted failures in preventing the attempted assassination of Trump this summer.

In an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!” He wrote: “Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”

He returned to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach where he lives, according to a person familiar with Trump’s movements who was not authorized to discuss them publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately clear whether the incident would affect his campaign schedule. He was set to speak from Florida about cryptocurrency live on Monday night on the social media site X for the launch of his sons’ crypto platform. He planned a town hall Tuesday in Flint, Michigan, with his former press secretary, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, followed by a rally Wednesday on New York’s Long Island.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said in a post online: “I’m glad President Trump is safe. I spoke to him before the news was public and he was, amazingly, in good spirits.”

Biden and Harris were briefed and would be kept updated on the investigation. The White House said they were “relieved” to know Trump is safe.

Harris, in a statement, also said “violence has no place in America.”

In the aftermath, Trump checked in with allies, including Vance, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and several Fox News hosts.

Fox News host Sean Hannity recounted on air his conversation with Trump and the former president’s golf partner, Steve Witkoff.

They told Hannity they had been on the fifth hole and about to go up to putt when they heard a “pop pop, pop pop.” Within seconds, he said Witkoff recounted, Secret Service agents “pounced on” Trump and “covered him” to protect him.

Trump had returned to Florida this weekend from a West Coast swing that included a Friday night rally in Las Vegas and a Utah fundraiser. His campaign had not advised about any public plans for Trump on Sunday. He often spends the morning playing golf, before having lunch at the club, one of three he owns in the state.

He has had a stepped-up security footprint since the assassination attempt in July. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, parked dump trucks have formed a wall outside the building. At outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind an enclosure of bulletproof glass.

The Florida golf course was partially shut down for Trump as he played, but there are several areas around the perimeter of the property where golfers are visible from the fence line. Secret Service agents and officers in golf carts and on ATVs generally secure the area several holes ahead and behind Trump when he plays. Agents also usually bring an armored vehicle onto the course to shelter Trump quickly should a threat arise.

The Palm Beach County sheriff said the entire golf course would have been lined with law enforcement if Trump were the president, but because he is not, “security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”

“I would imagine that the next time he comes to the golf course, there will probably be a little more people around the perimeter,” Bradshaw said. “But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done, they provided exactly what the protection should have been and their agent did a fantastic job.”

Former presidents and their spouses have Secret Service protection for life, but the security around former presidents varies according to threat levels and exposure, with the toughest typically being in the immediate aftermath of their leaving office.

Trump’s protective detail has been higher than some other former presidents because of his high visibility and his campaign to seek the White House again.

The man in custody was Ryan Routh, three law enforcement officials told the AP. The officials who identified the suspect spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

The FBI was leading the investigation and was working to determine any motive. Attorney General Merrick Garland was receiving regular updates. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were helping investigate.

“The FBI has responded to West Palm Beach Florida and is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump,” the bureau said.

News reporters were not with Trump on Sunday. Bucking tradition, Trump’s campaign has not arranged to have a protective pool of reporters travel with him, as is standard for major party nominees and for the president. Harris does not have a protective pool at all times, but does allow reporters to travel with her for public events.

Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said the suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or “be on the lookout” alert detailing the specific vehicle sought, license plate number and description of the occupant.

Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line to the north.

“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said, “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody.”

Snyder told WPTV that the suspect “was not armed when we took him out of the car.”

The man had a calm, flat demeanor and showed little emotion when he was stopped by police, Snyder said, saying the suspect did not question why he was being pulled over.

“He never asked, ‘what is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it,” Snyder said.

[dragoneyes618]

As American betrayals of Israel go, the Biden administration's failure to veto UN Security Council Resolution 2728 calling for a Gaza cease-fire during Ramadan leading to a "lasting" cease-fire does not begin to compare to the Obama administration's failure to veto UNSC Resolution 2334. The latter declared all land held by Israel beyond the 1949 armistice lines to be occupied territory. Passed in the waning days of the Obama presidency, weeks prior to Donald Trump's entry into office, it was designed to hamstring the incoming administration.

As the late Yale professor and former State Department chief of staff Charles Hill wrote at the time: "The first thing Obama did when entering office was to derail all hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement by declaring all settlements to be illegal. Now, the last thing he's done is to enshrine that anti-Israel position into international law in language that can be followed up with sanctions to delegitimize Israel's existence itself."

That resolution made it impossible for any Palestinian leader ever to make concessions to Israel regarding Jerusalem or on so-called "settlement blocs," for to do so would be ceding "stolen Palestinian lands." And Obama knew full well that Israel would never agree to return the Kotel or transfer over 750,000 citizens, including 300,000 in new neighborhoods of Jerusalem, or to go back to its pre-1967 "Auschwitz borders." (Then–vice president Joe Biden personally lobbied Ukrainian president Petro Proroshenko not to withdraw Ukrainian sponsorship of the resolution, after Egypt did so at Trump's request.)

I predicted at the time that UNSC Resolution 2334 would legitimize the BDS movement and its repercussions would be felt on every college campus. How true that has proven. In addition, it vindicated the strategy outlined by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, as outlined in a 2009 meeting with the Washington Post editorial board: Eschew direct negotiations with Israel and rely exclusively on American pressure on Israel.

The March 25 "Ramadan cease-fire" resolution, and the American failure to veto it, was not as malevolent. But it was plenty bad enough, and similarly vindicated Hamas's longtime strategy. David Brooks, in a lengthy essay in the New York Times, quotes MIT professor Barry Posen, who describes Hamas's strategy as "human ammunition." In other words, "maximize the number of Palestinians who die, and in that way build international pressure until Israel is forced to end the war before Hamas is wiped out." Hamas's survival depends on "making this war as bloody as possible for civilians."

And UNSC Resolution 2728 shows that strategy is working. Hamas, naturally, "welcomed" the resolution, though it immediately rejected the resolution's demand for "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages." It was free to have its cake and eat it too, because unlike previous cease-fire resolutions drafted by the United States, and vetoed by Russia and China, this one did not make the cease-fire contingent on the release of hostages. It also did not condemn Hamas's October 7 invasion and massacre of Israeli civilians, as had the US-drafted resolutions.

Russia and China got their way, and pressure on Hamas to release the hostages was reduced in two ways: First, by giving Israel pause before launching a major operation in Rafah, where the remaining Hamas battalions are hunkered down; second, by delinking the hostage release from the cease-fire.

Typical of American foreign policy over the past three and a half years — e.g., the hasty and ill-planned withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the continued transfer of tens of billions of dollars to Iran, even as that regime masterminds attacks on America and American allies — the message of the US abstention was one of confusion and weakness.

Spokesman John Kirby insisted that the abstention on the resolution did not represent a shift in the American position. But if that was the case, it is only because, as Matthew Continetti wrote, "to change a policy, you must first have a policy. And it is increasingly clear that the Biden administration has no coherent Israel policy, nor a coherent policy for the Greater Middle East." Rather it is buffeted between its recognition that no peace can be had as long as Hamas remains in power and its desire not to lose Palestinian-American voters in Dearborn, Michigan.

After surveying all possible alternatives to a large-scale Israeli action in Rafah, the Times' Brooks concludes, "I'm left with the tragic conclusion that there is no magical alternative military strategy." He quotes Raphael S. Cohen of the Rand Corporation, writing in Foreign Policy, "If the international community wants Israel to change strategies in Gaza, then it should offer a viable alternative strategy to Israel's announced goal of destroying Hamas in the Strip. And right now, that alternative strategy simply does not exist."

Moreover, there can be no serious discussion of any postwar political solutions for Gaza or the larger Palestinian-Israel conflict, "as long as Hamas is still governing Gaza or commanding a coherent military force," argue Robert Satloff and Dennis Ross in American Purpose. If Hamas survives the war intact, the global community will have little incentive to invest in rebuilding Gaza, as "Hamas would rebuild its military to continues its efforts to exterminate the Jewish state," says Brooks.

It is hard to gainsay Seth Mandel's conclusion in Commentary that the biggest loser of the US abstention was President Biden himself. That abstention confirms his image as "doormat not a doorstop," and that he can simply be waited out, as Russia and China did at the UN, in their insistence that a cease-fire not be conditional on the release of hostages or the condemnation of Hamas.

Once again, the president has shown himself no match for the Iranians, who have consistently and shrewdly opened up a seven-front war on Israel. They have a clear goal — the elimination of the "Little Satan," Israel, before moving on to the "Big Satan," the United States — and a clear step-by-step plan for achieving it. Were Israel not to eliminate Hamas now, its deterrent power against the many enemies on its borders would be shattered.

The consequences of such a failure would be felt first and foremost by Israel, just as Czechoslovakia first felt the Nazi boot, but they would reverberate across the world. As Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute writes, "The White House and its allies in Europe... face two options: engage in a region ever more dominated by Iran and its proxies, or cede Iranian dominance, replete with a lethal nuclear weapons program. The choice should be obvious." Yet it appears once again that the US and its European allies on the UN Security Council have chosen wrongly.

I WANT TO FOCUS on one other aspect of the recent resolution because it points to a much larger problem in American foreign policy. The resolution explicitly calls for a cease-fire during Ramadan. As the US ambassador to the UN explained, "This should be a season of peace. This rightly acknowledges that during the month of Ramadan, we must recommit to peace."

What beautiful solicitude to the sensitivities of Muslims, right? Well, not so fast. For one thing, the emphasis on Ramadan casts Israel as waging a religious war rather than one of straightforward self-defense. And Israel's Muslim enemies have not exactly been solicitous of Jewish religious feelings — or rather, they have been acutely aware of Jewish holidays. Egypt and Syria chose Yom Kippur to launch surprise attacks on Israel in 1973, and fifty years later, almost to the day, Hamas attacked on Simchas Torah.

Nor is Ramadan exactly a month of peace for Muslims. It commemorates, inter alia, Muhammad's defeat of Meccan tribes at the Battle of Badr; Saladin's defeat of the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin; the Muslim conquest of Andalusia, and the defeat of the Mongols by Mamluks in the Battle of Ain Jalut. In 1982, Iran launched human wave attacks against their fellow Muslims in Iraq in the Ramadan Offensive. And in 2006, Iraqi insurgents dramatically increased attacks on occupying American forces during Ramadan, including many suicide attacks. Many of the attackers believed that death in jihad, or holy war, during Ramadan would confer special merit upon them.

This extreme deference to Muslim religious sensitivities is directly proportional to the ignorance of Islam, for which the West has been paying a heavy price in recent years. President Obama's misbegotten belief that deference to Iran would somehow turn Iran into a status quo power totally failed to take into account the Islamic Revolution's designs on spreading the rule of Islam internationally. As the name "Islamic Revolution" implied, and as Ayatollah Khomeini repeatedly stated, its sights were upon the entire world, the very opposite of a status quo power.

When German chancellor Angela Merkel opened the gates of Europe wide to Muslim refugees, it is doubtful that she had much awareness of the factors that might make their absorption into Europe a difficult project, if not impossible. For one thing, most of the refugees had spent their entire lives in majority Muslim lands and had no experience of living as a religious minority or of showing tolerance to those of other faiths, other than as submissive dhimmis. Moreover, Islam has nothing comparable to the Torah's rule of dina d'malchusa dina, which allows Jews to function as loyal citizens of their host countries.

Just last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) instructed employees to avoid terms like "radical Islamists" or "jihadists," as they are hurtful to Muslim-Americans. But banning words not to be mean does not make phenomena disappear. If radical Islam describes a certain congeries of belief, if Islamofascism is a phenomenon, then banning use of these terms only makes the phenomenon more dangerous. For that which we cannot discuss, we cannot take action against, either.

Martin Gilbert, the great biographer of Winston Churchill, wrote that Churchill felt his greatest failure was to alert his countrymen to the nature of Nazism in time, as that might have spurred them to action. And toward the end of his life, Gilbert saw the same thing repeating itself with respect to radical Islam. 9/11 was a brief wake-up call, but much of the West has returned to a peaceful somnolence, out of the most exquisite sensitivity. But it does so at its peril.

The "Ramadan" cease-fire is but one example of the dangers that lurk in too great, and misplaced, sensitivity.

[shuemori]

AND THE STORY GOES ON....

[ Contain Spoiler for Ch.13 ]

Hello, fellow Chief. How are you faring after this chapter? As for myself, i'm quite satisfied with recent story. So much lore, meta, and others term which enrich our understanding of PTN world. 🥳

WAY TO GO, DONALD!! 🫡 My man support The Chief all the way until the end. No fire, bullets, and reprimand from Matilda could stop him and his clownery to bring back his Bros.

...yeah, despite what happen to him, he is quite dependable in loyalty area. :') I thank AISNO for releasing a male sinner. The game is lack on that part haha...🤭

CHIEF...!!! Oh god, i hope you got therapy + massage after what you experience 🥲 your shoulder must be quite heavy with all that burden and tensions... Paraidesos or whatever enemies out there will pay greatly for their conduct toward you 🤯

Nightingale must be furious if she heard what they did to you in 8 months.

But look!! your babies are grown. Hella and Hecate 🤧 Aaa ... I'm so proud of them, especially Hecate. She has found her own 'Voice'.

AND THE LONG AWAITED ONE FINALLY RETURN! But hold on, Zoya, what happen to your face?? Is that remnants of Black Ring??

You are not become their test subject... right?? 😱😱 anyway, about that Rust Guy... is he also a BR's victim? Maybe another unlucky crew from Parma Group, secretly survived? 🤔

But this is a great development, so human who change into a corpseborn could survive? Hm... very interesting. I really hopes Julien could survive, but he is pretty stubborn to make sure Rustfire revival. And probably he would choose the same option again and again. ☹️ RIP Hero...

Zoya... have you seen Horo?? She is a true born leader 🥺🥹 You and Earl must be proud of her... also she increase in height, that Milk binge drinking finally reached its goal.

And who are you guys? Why No.01 has Parma-like voice?? Are you secretly rejuvenating yourself with Mania?

Also GIVE US BACK SHALOM AND RAHU!! I don't accept that mysterious soldier and never EVER touch them with your hands 😡😡

Hi from the other side, Elder Sister. Are you the one who wreck havoc to your little sister? 🤗 what a splendid flower you have, must be evil....

Am I to assume that AISNO are planning to create animation film? That would be great, ☺️☺️ Please do it, Aisno!!

So... this chapter are quite satisfying. I can't wait to see another chapter and meet other sinners. I'm also curious about that elderly woman and the Chief past.

I hope you guys enjoy the games too...😉

[justinspoliticalcorner]

AP, via NBC News:

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s prime minister on Saturday called a permanent cease-fire in Gaza a “nonstarter” until long-standing conditions for ending the war are met, appearing to undermine a proposal that U.S. President Joe Biden had announced as an Israeli one.

The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office came a day after Biden outlined the plan, and as families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas called for all parties to immediately accept the proposal. A major demonstration in Israel on Saturday night urged the government to act now. And a joint statement by mediators the U.S., Egypt and Qatar pressed Israel and Hamas, saying the proposed deal “offers a road map for a permanent cease-fire and ending the crisis” and gives immediate relief to both the hostages and Gaza residents. But Netanyahu’s statement said that “Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. Under the proposal, Israel will continue to insist these conditions are met before a permanent cease-fire is put in place.” In a separate statement, Netanyahu accepted an invitation from U.S. congressional leaders to deliver an address at the Capitol, a show of wartime support for Israel. No date has been set.

Biden on Friday asserted that Hamas is “no longer capable” of carrying out a large-scale attack on Israel like the one by the militant group in October that started the war. He urged Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement to release about 100 remaining hostages, along with the bodies of around 30 more, for an extended cease-fire. Cease-fire talks halted last month after a push by the U.S. and other mediators to secure a deal in hopes of averting a full-scale Israeli invasion of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah. Israel says the Rafah operation is key to uprooting Hamas fighters responsible for the Oct. 7 attack. Israel on Friday confirmed its troops were operating in central parts of the city. The ground assault has led around 1 million Palestinians to leave Rafah and thrown humanitarian operations into turmoil. The World Food Program has called living conditions “horrific and apocalyptic” as hunger grows. Families of hostages said that time was running out.

[...] Many hostages’ families accuse the government of a lack of will. “We know that the government of Israel has done an awful lot to delay reaching a deal, and that has cost the lives of many people who survived in captivity for weeks and weeks and months and months,” Sharone Lifschitz said. Her mother, Yocheved, was freed in November but her father, Oded, is still held.

Bibi is a genocidal bastard who will do anything to get Donald Trump elected.

[mariacallous]

Last weekend’s negotiations in Cairo for a cease-fire in Gaza collapsed as both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leadership refused to budge on key differences. An Arab official aware of the ongoing negotiations told Foreign Policy that the technical teams are meeting in Doha this week but that he didn’t expect a cease-fire “anytime soon.”

Both sides have been unrelenting. Despite coming under immense pressure from the families of hostages held in Gaza, Netanyahu insists on maintaining the Israeli military presence in Gaza and continuing the military operation against Hamas on the ground. Hamas, on the other hand, is refusing to hand over the hostages even as Palestinians, whose rights it claims to represent and fight for, are struggling to survive the deprivations inflicted by Israel’s incessant bombings. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Yet while both Netanyahu and Hamas have made it a habit to walk away from the talks, the United States seems more desperate for a cease-fire and hostage release than either party to the conflict.

Experts say the political imperatives driving Netanyahu and Hamas and the Democratic leadership in the United States are vastly different and partly explain the conundrum.

While Washington wants an end to the killings in Gaza to assuage the concerns of voters at home, Netanyahu is likely waiting for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to win in November’s election to have a freer hand in how he handles the conflict. And Hamas wants to make sure that any deal ensures it isn’t exterminated and continues to rule the Gaza Strip.

Joost Hiltermann, the Middle East and North Africa program director for the International Crisis Group, said it is not that Netanyahu or Hamas don’t want a deal but that they want it “only on their terms, which are incompatible.” While Israel doesn’t want any deal that prevents it from continuing the war, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar wants a complete Israeli withdrawal, returning to the status quo ante prior to the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel.

In contrast, the Biden administration “very much wants a cease-fire based on compromise, given the heightened political sensitivities before the U.S. elections,” Hiltermann said.

According to the latest Gallup poll, conducted in June, more Americans disapprove of Israel’s military action in Gaza than approve, even though public backing for Israel’s military operation has increased slightly since March, and a majority of Democrats and independents still disapprove of it.

The Democrats want—and want to appear to be making an effort—to save Israeli hostages and Palestinian lives, especially as it has a bearing on the vote counts in the five swing states where large communities of Arab Americans reside.

In May, U.S. President Joe Biden announced what he called an “Israeli proposal” split into three phases. In the first, six-week phase, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be exchanged for all women, older, and wounded hostages and in the second phase all remaining hostages. If all went to plan, the temporary cease-fire would become the “cessation of hostilities permanently.” In the third phase, reconstruction of Gaza would begin. But Netanyahu was never on board with this plan and never agreed.

Hiltermann said part of the Israeli establishment was willing to countenance the deal on the table—but Netanyahu was not. “This was a gambit to override Netanyahu through Biden’s imprimatur” and the U.N. Security Council endorsement of the “Israeli deal.” But “Netanyahu did not fall for it and successfully called Biden’s bluff.”

Hiltermann is probably right. Foreign Policy has learned that, over the last few months, the defense establishment in Israel has been calling for more flexibility to obtain a deal but there is a growing sense that Netanyahu is blocking it to appease his far-right allies.

A former high-ranking army officer who was until recently engaged in the military operations in Gaza told Foreign Policy that Netanyahu was beholden to far-right leaders Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir and was prioritizing Hamas’s defeat over the release of hostages on their behest.

“Netanyahu is speaking in three different languages: one to the Americans, one to families of the hostages, and one to his coalition allies,” the army officer said. “I think he is the truest to his allies.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was shipped off to the Middle East once again this month with a “bridging proposal,” to find a resolution to key sticking points including Netanyahu’s demand to keep Israeli soldiers in the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 9-mile stretch of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, and the Netzarim Corridor, which splits the strip into northern and southern zones.

While the details of the bridging proposal have not been revealed, the New York Times reported that a reduced number of soldiers could placate both sides.

Eran Lerman, a former Israeli deputy national security advisor, told Foreign Policy that there was more room for flexibility. “There are two questions: prevent the Philadelphi Corridor from becoming a web of smuggling tunnels once again and prevent armed men in the south of Gaza from going to the north with arms and rockets,” he said. “The defense establishment believes that we can install technical monitoring systems on both corridors, that means no humans, and reserve our right to go back in if we see or sense danger.”

“Earlier, it took much longer, but now with paved roads, the soldiers can be there in 20 minutes,” Lerman added. “Defense authorities say they can handle it.”

The former high-ranking army officer who is aware of the thinking in the defense establishment suggested that Netanyahu was pinning the responsibility of eliminating Hamas on the defense forces while ignoring his own political duty to find or create an alternative to Hamas in Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have “been telling the government for a while that any military action is only to serve a political plan, but if that’s not developed, then what’s the point? Let’s agree to a cease-fire now and get the hostages back, as long as we can go inside Gaza to carry out raids, if and when needed,” said the army officer.

“Like we do in the West Bank now,” Lerman added.

Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesperson now at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Foreign Policy that wars are not won only by killing the enemy “but by killing the enemy and breaking his will to fight and forging a diplomatic deal to create conditions you want on the ground.”

The differences between Netanyahu and the defense establishment are slowly coming to the fore, while Hamas, too, hasn’t received the kind of backing it hoped for from its allies.

Iran and its militias have struck Israel but not with the ferocity Hamas expected. Hezbollah in Lebanon has regularly carried out strikes in Israel, including an attack last week, yet not strong enough to rattle the Israeli forces. There hasn’t been a regional war, at least not yet, and many of Hamas’s own key leaders have been assassinated. But it is holding out against a deal and hasn’t surrendered as some in Israel expected.

“Hamas is unlikely to agree to Israel’s demand of continuing its presence in Gaza, especially not on the Philadelphi border,” the Arab official aware of the negotiations said. But they will also not leave.

At the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago last week, one of the most anticipated moments was nominee Kamala Harris’s statements on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

She said she will “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself” and always ensure it has the ability to defend itself, implying that she would not cut off weapon supplies. But she also called for an immediate cease-fire. Now is the time, she said, and backed Palestinians’ right to “dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.”

That is incomparably more than what Palestinians can expect from Trump. In fact, he has threatened to cut off all U.S. aid to Palestinians, expel immigrants who sympathize with Hamas—which activists believe could be misused and used against anyone who supports the Palestinian cause—and extend his Muslim ban to refugees from Gaza. In his last term in office, his solution to the intractable conflict was not support for a two-state solution but Israeli rapprochement with Saudis.

Even though he has warned Israel to “finish up” and “get the job done” as it loses the battle of global perception, or the “PR war,” as he described it, his call for peace appears to be more a reflection of growing opposition in the United States to the Israeli military campaign in Gaza—that goes against the incumbent Democratic Party—and less a marker of genuine empathy for Palestinians’ strife.

Harris may be better than Trump when it comes to offering U.S. support for a two-state solution and protection of the rights of Muslim Americans at large in the United States. Yet her balancing act on Gaza is too reminiscent of Biden’s policy and hasn’t fully succeeded in assuaging the concerns of uncommitted voters.

Michigan is a key swing state and the birthplace of the Uncommitted National Movement—a kind of a mutiny among Democrats to coalesce the protest vote to compel their party to not only achieve a cease-fire but also cut off weapon supplies to Israel.

Abbas Alawieh, a Michigan delegate and one of the leaders of the movement, was quick to express disappointment when a Palestinian was not allowed to address the convention. An Israeli American couple whose son is being held hostage in Gaza spoke at the gathering.

“We didn’t go to the DNC only to request a speaker. We went to push for lifesaving policy change: stop sending the weapons the Israeli govt is using to kill precious Palestinian babies + loved ones,” Alawieh wrote on X on Aug. 23. “DNC chose to discriminate. Their loss. Our movement is growing #NotAnotherBomb.”

[bopinion]

2024 / 03

Aperçu of the Week:

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts."

(Winston Chrchill, former multi- & prime minister of Great Britain, historian and Nobel Prize winner for literature)

Bad News of the Week:

NATO is launching a maneuver in the next days. With 90,000 soldiers, "Steadfast Defender" is the largest since the end of the Cold War. What is being simulated - seriously, according to the official announcement! - is the defense "against an attack by Russia on NATO territory". Ooph... That's how far we've come now. Or again.

At the same time, the Ukrainian government is planning a massive increase in the conscription of its men. Hundred thousands additional soldiers are to go to war. With no combat experience, hardly any training and a faltering supply of equipment. This also acknowledges what observers have long assumed: that Vladimir Putin is relying on a protracted war of attrition. Unfortunately, from a strategic point of view, he is right.

In contrast to Russia's well-oiled arms industry, the West's military support for Ukraine is decreasing. The most important supplier, the USA, in particular, no longer has a budget at its disposal due to the refusal of a group of arch-conservative Republicans. A group that absurdly calls itself the "freedom caucus" - which apparently does not apply to support for a country that has been innocently attacked and is ultimately defending its freedom.

A colleague told me about his assessment that the election of Donald Jessica Trump at the end of November this year would probably have its good side too. After all, he would strike a deal with Putin on the price he would be willing to pay for an agreement and, of course ("America first"), stop all support for Ukraine at the same time. Which would then have no choice but to hand over Crimea, the Donbas and the territories in between to Russia. Phew...

Good News of the Week:

People are standing up. In sub-zero temperatures, millions of Germans are actually gathering on streets and squares to stand up against right-wing extremists and for democracy. The motto is "Never again is now!". Many are attending a demonstration for the first time, bringing children with them, having painted posters - democracy at work. I have been waiting a long time for the silent majority to finally stop being silent in the face of rising poll figures for the right-wing AfD (Alternative für Deutschland / Alternative for Germany) - currently at 22%.

The trigger was a subversive meeting of right-wing extremists who discussed strategies to deport all non-Germans, to put it simply. Uncovered by investigative journalists. I learned the word "demigration" in the process. Don't get me started on how valuable the so-called guest workers (mainly Turks) were for the German economic miracle back in the 1960s. That care for the elderly in this country would collapse without Eastern Europeans. Or that neither commercial kitchens would be able to survive without Filipinos nor IT departments without Indians. That immigration is necessary to maintain prosperity in our ageing society. And that integration fails more often due to a lack of willingness to accept immigrants than a lack of adaptability of those.

We are all human beings. A species that only exists because it has perfected the principle of cooperation. When one person goes hunting, another has to take care of the fire. Today we call that specialization. Or when was the last time you milked a cow, tilled a field, forged a shovel or prepared a medicine? Exactly. Morally, this becomes a community of solidarity in which not only does everyone do what they do best for everyone else, but the strong also stand up for the weak. You simply can't be blind in the right eye.

It is fitting that last week the Bundestag decided to amend the legislation on citizenship for immigrants. Against the votes of the conservative CDU/CSU and - surprise! - the AfD. In short: it will be easier and quicker than before. Above all because dual citizenship will be possible. It is important to know that in Germany, out of a population of 84 million, at least 12 million do not have a German passport. And are therefore not allowed to vote, for example. This door is now open. For a good 1.5 million Turks. And my wife. I have a strong suspicion that the radical right-wing AfD will not score any points with these citizens with their degenerate values.

Personal happy moment of the week:

We got rid of a monster. Eight years ago, I took over a yucca palm from a friend that was getting too big for his home. And I had a good place for it. And then only problems. The stubborn thing grew in all the wrong directions, attracted vermin and for years dripped a sticky secretion that ruined the sofas next to it, rendered a lamp useless, smeared a window and disfigured a speaker on the surround sound system. Now I've finally got round to getting rid of it. Which was difficult, because I had no room for it. It's now on the patio and dying, because it's still January in the northern hemisphere.

But I got over myself. And then for hours - there were four! - of scrubbing and cleaning to remove the incredibly dirty, sticky corner that had formed behind the sofas over the years. I managed it. And now I enjoy my first espresso in a clean living room every morning. I'm just not allowed to look out of the window to see the slow death of a living thing. Doesn't help.

I couldn't care less...

...that the train drivers' union has announced another complete rail strike. This time for a whole six days, starting last night. Workers' rights with all due respect, but if you no longer show any willingness to negotiate and the action becomes an end in itself, you are taking the population hostage. And you lose all understanding, not to mention sympathy.

It's fine with me...

...that we've had quite a mild winter this year. Because now I can take the bike to get to the station. And I don't feel guilty when my neighbors get up earlier than me to clear snow from our shared yard. And I'm happy about lower heating costs. Nice, actually. If it weren't for the human-induced climate change, what causes this mild winter. Which makes me shiver again.

As I write this...

...I listen to the first live album of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Wow, what a joy these guys bring to the stage. The Boss really knows how to work a crowd. Nice.

Post Scriptum

Gaza is still hell on earth. Unfortunately, that's all I can say at this moment. When are the next elections in Israel again?

[abigailspinach]

DONALD TRUMP WANTS HIS CABINET nominees to “earn” their confirmation on their own.

But on Friday, the president-elect went out of his way to give an attaboy to Pete Hegseth just hours after the defense secretary pick scolded reporters who have been hounding him in the U.S. Capitol over accusations of sexual misconduct and drunkenness.

“Pete’s fighting like hell,” Trump told an adviser when he saw the video clip of Hegseth. “He’s a fighter.”

There are few political acts that Trump values more than defiance in the face of media scrutiny. And Hegseth’s charge on Thursday—clearly directed at an audience in Mar-a-Lago—bought him both time and goodwill. After rampant speculation that he could soon drop his nomination, there is little expectation of that now. In fact, Trump’s transition team has settled on two theories for why Hegseth should stay in: time and magnetism.

Aides believe that the longer Hegseth remains in contention for the post, the higher his chances of confirmation will be, simply because it subjects GOP senators to a sustained pressure campaign from the MAGA base, and because many will have a hard time scuttling him in a public vote. Those aides also believe that if Hegseth is drawing fire from critics, there will be less attention and heat on Trump’s other controversial nominees like Kash Patel (FBI), Tulsi Gabbard (director of national intelligence), or Robert Kennedy Jr. (HHS).

“Hegseth is a heatshield,” said a senior Trump adviser. “Pete can take the heat, and that’s better for everyone else.”

An adviser to a Senate Republican put it more bluntly: “Reporters are like flies at a picnic. If you put some food away from the picnic table, the flies will swarm that and leave everyone else alone to eat the barbecue.”

While Hegseth may have bought himself more time from Trump world, the president-elect is also famously prone to changing his mind with little warning. But the more daunting reality he faces is that cabinet confirmations don’t merely revolve around pleasing the audience of one. They’re about gaining the votes of 50 senators in a conference with 53 Republicans; and right now, Hegseth doesn’t have those 50 votes.

In hopes of changing that, Hegseth has headed to Capitol Hill for one-on-one meetings with crucial senators, where he has pleaded his innocence, pledged to teetotal if confirmed, and discussed his plans for overhauling the Defense Department. His presence has caused a media frenzy. And there are few aspects of the job that senators hate as much as swarms of reporters bird-dogging and asking them on camera if they’re going to confirm a nominee accused of salacious behavior. But Trump’s team is hopeful the dam won’t break before senators leave Washington for holiday break December 20.

“This is like any Trump crisis,” said a second senior Trump adviser. “It’s like the beaches of Normandy. Once you survive getting on shore, you go on offense. And you win.”

Behind closed doors, Hegseth has mostly been met with a positive reception, according to aides. But he had a tense discussion with Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican and combat-decorated veteran who disliked both Hegseth’s alleged moral failings and his opposition to women serving in combat.

MAGA influencers have launched a social media pressure campaign targeting Ernst by threatening her with a primary if she doesn’t back Hegseth. Ernst is up for reelection in 2026 in a state Trump won by about 13 percentage points. On Friday, Breitbart (the outlet leading the charge to confirm Hegseth) published a guest article by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird saying that Iowans wanted the Senate to confirm all Trump nominees.

For his part, Hegseth has denied the most serious allegations against him: sexual assault and alcoholism. And, while he has admitted he was a thrice-married serial philanderer, he has privately indicated to the senators that the sexual encounter he had with a married woman in 2017 was consensual. His supporters note that he was never criminally charged.

But merely having to present the details of his defense implicates the political maxim that when you’re explaining, you’re losing.

“The best set of facts for Hegseth is he fucked a married woman while he was hammered in his hotel room and she was embarrassed and [she] came up with this story that he drugged her to hide it from her husband,” said an aide to a senator who supports Hegseth’s nomination. “Of course, when he says all that, he has to admit that his latest baby mama was taking care of his kid. And, oh yeah, he knocked her up while cheating on his second wife. And he cheated on his first wife with the second one.”

Even the best spin, in other words, is suboptimal.

Some Trump advisers have referred to Hegseth’s situation as “Gaetz 2.0,” a reference to former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was so dogged by his own sex scandal that he and Trump pulled the plug on his attorney general nomination eight days after he was named. Trump replaced Gaetz with Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who is respected and liked by Republicans. Her confirmation is expected to sail through.

Similarly, Trump floated the possibility of replacing Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who would easily get the required Senate votes.

But unlike Gaetz, Hegseth hasn’t spent years torching Republican senators, and many have embraced him publicly (albeit, not enough have, at least not yet). There’s another important distinction, too: Trump’s transition team muzzled Gaetz with the press while it has allowed Hegseth to defend himself.

“We’ve had two full good days,” an adviser helping Hegseth said. “This guy has been under real fire. He knows that everyday you’re alive you realize you’re already dead. So fuck it.”