MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Netanyahu now officially joins Kim Jong Un as a Trump soulmate and mini-me! Congratulations, Israel!
Comments
From Jennifer Rubin
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/15/israel-brink-grave-misstep/
From a former Reagan and Bush I consultant
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/15/israel-barring-omar-tlaib-is-good-democrats-bad-republicans/
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 08/15/2019 - 7:31pm
Israel, the nuclear armed colossus of the Levant, is so threatened by a small young Muslim woman they can't risk having her visit.
This is like Trump and the Republicans fear mongering that poor desperate Guatemalan families will destroy America, while Moscow Mitch and the GOP loot the Treasury to pay back Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers and all their rich oligarch backers with deficit exploding tax cuts. Antidemocratic conspirators, who spend billions aiding the Republicans mission to destroy American democracy, institutions, healthcare, environment and any government program that protects or aids common citizens.
by NCD on Thu, 08/15/2019 - 9:03pm
There is no honor in being non-partisan. There is a clear choice between good and evil. The Republicans are a clear threat to the United States of America. Netanyahu is a crook, just like Trump. Israel has now been made an accomplice.
Edit to add:
Even AIPAC thinks this is insane
https://www.mediaite.com/news/aipac-protests-israels-decision-to-block-ilhan-omar-rashida-tlaib-from-visiting-the-country/
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 08/15/2019 - 11:20pm
I'm confused by your edit as I thought AIPAC was one of the clear evil guys, if there's this nice clear line of good/evil, I was under the impression that AIPAC = evil. (Maybe even from Ms. Omar herself.) Likud has got the same nice and clear good/evil thing going on, too, works for them like this: BDS = evil. With Netanyahu cynically supporting whenever it's convenient.... if you are gonna play the good/evil thing, you want war, you got it. Those chickens do come home to roost, when you ramp up the Manichaeism.
by artappraiser on Thu, 08/15/2019 - 11:50pm
The statement includes the word “even” which should have aided your understanding.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 08/16/2019 - 7:36am
Israel’s Massive Self-Own: Trump’s racism and Netanyahu’s dependency have driven a bulldozer through the bipartisan consensus.
By Daniel Shapiro Former U.S. ambassador to Israel, @ TheAtlantic.com, AUG 15
Daniel B. Shapiro is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. He served as U.S. ambassador to Israel and senior director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council during the Obama Administration.
excerpt, summary graphs:
by artappraiser on Fri, 08/16/2019 - 3:54am
Israel's interior ministry announced Friday that it would allow Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., to enter the country as a private citizen to visit her aging grandmother, reversing an earlier decision to bar her amid pressure from President Trump
and
There was no word on whether Israel had changed its position on Omar, a Somali-born American. She had been scheduled to arrive on Saturday in Israel, where she and Tlaib planned to tour the West Bank and visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/16/751674684/israel-says-it-will-grant-visa-...
Edit to add::
Predictably, Tlaib cancels her trip citing Israel’s oppressive government.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-grants-permission-congresswoman-tlaib-visit-west-bank-n1043026
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 08/16/2019 - 9:54am
It's very clear to me that it's all about the noise level one either plans to create or creates just because they have become a celeb surrounding an ideological cause. The opposition feels they have to respond with equal noise, do a propaganda war. Trump is deeply instinctively good at this, he knows what will cause a commotion. At the same time he doesn't have the brains to use this wisely and strategically, it's all knee jerk and instinctive ruled only by his narcissist goals. He sees an entity like "the squad" develop P.R. power, and he's going to try to use it. He often does so without advice from political handlers who are more expert as to manipulation goals. Bibi is smarter, he grabbed at this one because his own base would like it.
by artappraiser on Fri, 08/16/2019 - 1:54pm
Israel’s long term problem is that re-electing Netanyahu is making the debate in the United States a partisan issue. In this case, even Democratic supports of Israel can’t justify denying Tlaib and Omar entry. Both Hoyer and Sanders are on the same page. This was stupid on the part of Trump and Netanyahu.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 08/16/2019 - 3:04pm
Actually, Israel's only long term problem is tribal partisanship, promoting one's own tribe above another tribe. A quality which you ironically laud on this very same thread, without any seeming awareness of the irony, as being desirable and honorable one in Americans. In Israel and Palestine,the end game of that kind of tribalism and partisanship: segregation and fighting each other any way possible, even to the death of the other. Where each tribe thinks the other hopelessly evil.
And AIPAC, ironically often in service to Israeli tribalism, gets it: they are always trying to get a majority of Americans on board with their agendas, and therefore go as non-partisan as possible whenever possible to advance their agendas.
by artappraiser on Fri, 08/16/2019 - 11:12pm
You consider yourself nonpartisan and non-tribal. You have deluded yourself. You are the white tribalist described by Roxane Gay. You think Gay is on your side You have obviously not read Ibram X Kendi. Neither Gay or Kendi would accept your white tribalist term “pity olympics”. You rush to defend Trump voters specifically because you identify with their whiteness. These white people are redeemable. Ethnic minorities are complaining about nothing according to your disgusting term, pity olympics.
What does Kendi think about reparations or criticizing black culture?
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 08/16/2019 - 11:56pm
It seems to me that mostly people defend Trump voters as a reaction to your attacks that seem so extreme and irrational to us. As if the white supremacist Trump voter is the same as the person who voted twice for Obama before voting for Trump. As if all Trump supporters are white supremacists. Of course people will push back against that sort of extremism.
by ocean-kat on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 12:05am
This > Of course people will push back against that sort of extremism has always been my main point! His recommended political methods are maddeningly counterproductive on all levels! Including by him, on a personal level. It gets him nothing but grief. Why o why would one see his proposed methods as the way to go? Failing everywhere, continually failing to convince no one but maddeningly irritating many, from the teeny little dagblog group to the whole world and inbetween. Basically a belief in feeding all the trolls by trolling back in kind.
And when it gets into the cut and paste of showing how history has "proven" such counterproductivity is actually productive, oh boy. As if John Brown's body doesn't lie amouldering in the grave...or trying to splain MLK as a tribalist, right, probably the most famous anti-tribalist the world has ever seen...etc.
by artappraiser on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 12:25am
Apart from Ms. Tlaib wanting to see her grandma, which seems quite genuine,
the whole "but these are Congresspersons just wanting to see how American money is spent" thing is a dog and pony show, I don't believe it, precisely because it's distracting from
India's pretty outrageous suppression of Muslim Kashmir going on at the same time.
(not to mention China's continual brutal suppression of virtually all of its Muslim citizens.)
I am not arguing whattaboutism. I am arguing that these two have shown a preference for pushing the anti-Israel cause. Which is fine if that's what they want to do but don't complain like innocents when it doesn't work out.
That wouldn't be diplomacy, that's not how ambassadors act. I suspect they wanted Trump's reaction to draw more attention. To complain about that when you planned a political op yourself is pot calling kettle black. Plenty of congresspersons push foreign policy agendas, one most notable example was Charlie Wilson getting us involved in Afghanistan. But don't tell me you are a fair minded Congressperson just inspecting what's going on with one of our allies, that's not what they were going there for, I don't buy it. They were going to ramp up sympathy for BDS. I don't like the dishonesty about that kind of lobbying. And I aso think they wanted Trump to react. They just didn't expect the Netanyahu complication.
by artappraiser on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 12:47am
Current headline story at TheHill.com, big and bold: Trump finds consistent foil in 'Squad'
Not an op-ed. Political news reporting by reporters Scott Wong and Mike Lillis - 08/16/19 05:10 PM EDT
by artappraiser on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 1:09am
Tho a reminder - MLK marched on Birmingham because he *knew* Bull Connor would pull out the big dogs, would attack in front of cameras, a feature, not a bug - part of advocacy. If no one cares, a protest fails.
But in general yes, I'm bored with Israel and have been for decades. If the government would tone it down just a bit we'd have forgotten by now, and yes, could pay attention to more pressing atrocities.
The worst is having to give Israel attention as if it deserved respect - just make it go away, go back to being kibbutz or new tech wonderkids, it's not all about you and never has been. Even the Brits just wanted the squabbling to calm down. In a virtualized age do we care about temples?
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 2:54am
I think it's a unsolvable problem in that it works this way with those that don't support Bibi style of Likud over there , when that kind are not in power: they like to put out wunnerful secular Tel Aviv as the narrative to the world of what Israel is, and just ignore all that ugly stuff going on elsewhere.
But we do the same thing with the U.S? When the global left is in power, they want the world to ignore our religious right wingers and all the cruel things happening in our society and sell the shining city on the hill thing. That there's a significant number of the world's people that are still vehemently religious or tribal in other ways and are anti-globalist is the main problem we all are dealing with right now everywhere. Steve Bannon is one making a living off them. Israel is just not the only one. What they are, though, is proven hopeless on this front. So the solution to similar problems elsewhere cannot be found there? And it is wise for rest of the world, like wise diplomacy has always done, is, like you suggest, to just react when it boils and try to keep it on simmer there, and work on something else. Rather than draw attention to it all the time by ramping up outrage over everything? Because there are still too many there who refuse to change and react to outside outrage by more than digging in their heels. Time will heal or it won't and there are always the NGO's working quietly to improve things over time.
by artappraiser on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 2:03pm
On your MLK comment: sure, he knew the basics of drawing attention, but overall, after attention was drawn, it was of the utmost importance to do it Ghandi style where you are the ones who are seen by the majority as wanting peace and justice among diversity, and your enemies are seen as the provokers defending their tribe. Hence the more radical black activists of the time leaving him behind, seeing him basically as doing the Uncle Tom thing, they saw more agitation as the solution, and a few even saw separatism as the solution (i.e. the current Israel, but with equally armed Palestinians), having given up on the human race.
by artappraiser on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 2:14pm
Yes, he was overall amazingly reasonable - just wanted to point out that he still had to draw out tension & conflict to succeed. Such as the NAACP's painstaking planning on how, when & with whom to carry out the bus strikes. Having a BDS protest diluted because 1 of the protesters is somehow tainted kills the momentum - and of course the other side on that is always looking for some way to dismiss & marginalize any criticism for whatever reason, real or contrived. A big cynical game in the end.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 2:37pm
Bill Maher rails against anti-Israel boycott movement: 'A bulls--- purity test' for Democrats
@ TheHill.com - 08/17/19 08:36 AM EDT, text along with this 4:03 video clip which includes Maher discussing the topic with Rick Wilson, Carl Hulse of the NYTimes, and Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast:
by artappraiser on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 11:45pm
When ever Maher speaks I usually think, " “It’s predicated on this notion, I think — it’s very shallow thinking." It's great that there's this popular comedian who mostly supports progressive ideas and attacks republicans in funny ways but he's definitely not one of the deep liberal thinkers in America.
by ocean-kat on Sat, 08/17/2019 - 11:59pm
Tlaib and Omar have clearly decided to go with beating their drum on this, the opposite of letting it die down:
Omar, Tlaib blast Israel for blocking their visit
The two congresswomen used a rare news conference during congressional recess to try to highlight the situation facing Palestinians under Israeli policies.
Also see @ WaPo
by artappraiser on Mon, 08/19/2019 - 11:54pm
by artappraiser on Tue, 08/20/2019 - 3:59pm
It's the GOP patriot schtick - "the troops are Republican because Republicans love America", & its various incarnations. Sad that it often works in defying reality.
by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 08/20/2019 - 4:16pm
Trending in the U.S.:
#DisloyalToTrumpby artappraiser on Wed, 08/21/2019 - 12:57am
Interestingly, at Fox they are twisting themselves into more complicated knots than that over this:
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/21/2019 - 2:39pm
Just for the record, I have copied the troller-in-chief's tweets this morning on topic (he moved on to many more tweets about the economy, trade, China, the Fed, how to sell cars, Denmark, Germany, vets, Kentucky, California car regs., so it was just a passing thing for today, no big deal):
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/21/2019 - 7:38pm
A very important Likud member doesn't like what Netanyahu did:
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/21/2019 - 8:51pm