benfell – Page 5 – Irregular Bullshit

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,^[1] fair use.

It’s still all words and no action to rein in Israel’s war on Gaza.^[2]

Times of Israel, “Israel acknowledges killing 7 aid charity workers in ‘tragic, unintentional’ airstrike,” April 2, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-promises-probe-as-slain-aid-workers-home-countries-demand-explanation/

Yasmeen Abutaleb and Matt Viser, “Biden rebukes Israel over aid workers, but his Gaza policy is unchanged,” Washington Post, April 3, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/03/biden-world-central-kitchen-tough-statement-israel-policy/

Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry

Haroon Siddique, Eleni Courea, and Patrick Wintour, “Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law,” Guardian, April 3, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/former-supreme-court-judges-say-uk-arming-israel-breaches-international-law

Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel’s ‘unintentional’ strike on aid workers stirs global outrage,” Washington Post, April 3, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/03/israel-strike-world-central-kitchen-aid-workers-global-outrage/

Yasmeen Abutaleb and Matt Viser, “Biden warns Netanyahu the situation in Gaza is ‘unacceptable,’” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/04/biden-warns-netanyahu-situation-gaza-is-unacceptable/

Trinidad Deiros Bronte, “The unpunished deaths of other civilians question Israel’s willingness to clarify the attack on WCK,” El País, April 4, 2024, https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-04-04/the-unpunished-deaths-of-other-civilians-question-israels-willingness-to-clarify-the-attack-on-wck.html

Michael R. Gordon and Nancy A. Youssef, “Biden Ties Support for Israel to Civilian Protection in Gaza, ” Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-set-to-talk-as-gaza-aid-worker-deaths-add-to-pressure-on-israel-9dee3793

Jacob Magid, “Senior Israeli official warns of growing ‘shoot first, ask later’ culture in IDF,” Times of Israel, April 4, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/senior-israeli-official-warns-of-growing-shoot-first-ask-later-culture-in-idf/

Kate Sullivan, “Trump says Israel needs to ‘finish what they started’ and said war with Hamas is ‘taking a long time,’” CNN, April 4, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/04/politics/trump-israel-comments/index.html

Adam Taylor, “Biden’s ‘red line’ on Gaza is nowhere to be found,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/04/biden-wck-world-central-kitchen-israel-policy-change/

Dov Lieber, Rory Jones, and Margherita Stancati, “Israel Says Troops Lacked Grounds for Strike That Killed Aid Workers in Gaza,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-to-allow-more-aid-into-gaza-after-biden-warning-over-u-s-support-49bc42e4

Michael Tomasky, “Is Biden Really Going to Let Netanyahu Lose Him the Election?” New Republic, April 5, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180481/biden-israel-netanyahu-lose-election

Lazar Berman, “Israel’s begrudging approach to humanitarian aid could cost it the war in Gaza,” Times of Israel, April 6, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-begrudging-approach-to-humanitarian-aid-could-cost-it-the-war-in-gaza/

Karen DeYoung, “Six months into Gaza war, Biden confronts the limits of U.S. leverage,” Washington Post, April 6, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/06/gaza-israel-biden-war/

Emanuel Fabian, “IDF chief says withdrawal of troops from Gaza doesn’t mean war is close to end,” Times of Israel, April 7, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-says-withdrawal-of-troops-from-gaza-doesnt-mean-war-is-close-to-end/

M. J. Lee, “Inside President Biden’s pointed phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu,” CNN, April 7, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/06/politics/biden-netanyahu-israel-gaza-war-phone-call-details/index.html

David Horovitz, “Israel’s major ground war in Gaza is over; the state of war inflicted by Hamas is not,” Times of Israel, April 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-major-ground-war-in-gaza-is-over-the-state-of-war-inflicted-by-hamas-is-not/

Katie Polglase et al., “Dying for a bag of flour: Videos and eyewitness accounts cast doubt on Israel’s timeline of deadly Gaza aid delivery,” CNN, April 9, 2024, https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/09/middleeast/gaza-food-aid-convoy-deaths-eyewitness-intl-investigation-cmd/index.html

Times of Israel, “US Sen. Warren: World Court has ‘ample evidence’ to find Israel guilty of genocide,” April 9, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-sen-warren-world-court-has-ample-evidence-to-find-israel-guilty-of-genocide/

Guardian, “Netanyahu making a ‘mistake’ on Gaza, says Biden, as he urges Israel to push for ceasefire,” April 9, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/10/benjamin-netanyahu-joe-biden-gaza-mistake-ceasefire-israel-war-palestine

Neoliberalism

Banking

Commercial real estate

Fig. 1. The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, with the “Golden Triangle” and downtown Pittsburgh. Photograph by author, October 15, 2023.

San Francisco has been the poster child for a possible “doom loop.” But there, apparently, artificial idiocy is coming to at least a partial rescue as technology firms take up office space. Saint Louis, however, is an entirely different story as a doom loop has taken hold in parts of downtown.^[3]

Konrad Putzier, “The Real Estate Nightmare Unfolding in Downtown St. Louis,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/doom-loop-st-louis-44505465

^[1]Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
^[2]Guardian, “Netanyahu making a ‘mistake’ on Gaza, says Biden, as he urges Israel to push for ceasefire,” April 9, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/10/benjamin-netanyahu-joe-biden-gaza-mistake-ceasefire-israel-war-palestine ↩
^[3]Konrad Putzier, “The Real Estate Nightmare Unfolding in Downtown St. Louis,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/doom-loop-st-louis-44505465 ↩

Hypocrisy and the ‘rules-based order’

April 10, 2024April 10, 2024benfell

I have all but severed my connection with Google. There are remnants left, but as part of my unsubscription project, I have canceled the Voice (phone) and Enterprise (cloud storage and email) subscriptions which I have been working on phasing out. I should no longer be paying them anything.

Google has been problematic for privacy reasons, especially relating to abortion.^[1] And I stopped buying Pixel phones following an absolutely appalling customer service experience.

Having moved into the Apple ecosystem, I had been maintaining the Google ecosystem while recovering my data. This project was hopefully complete because if it wasn’t, that data is now forever lost.

Imperialism

United States

Fig. 1. “American Progress,” painting by John Gast, 1872, digital version 2006, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The truth is that there’s little new in Ishaan Tharoor’s piece today. It’s about western hypocrisy in the so-called “rules-based order” that undermines its appeals to that order on Ukraine and elsewhere.^[2] This has been said before.^[3]

More fundamentally, we have a clash between morality and the intentionally amoral ‘realism’ or ‘realpolitik’ theory. The latter posits that countries act according to their own interests with little regard for justice or for moral considerations. The trouble is that this is indeed how the U.S. and other major powers have operated, pretty much forever. So to paraphrase Tharoor (and the scholar he moderated at a conference), smaller countries who are often subject to major powers acting capriciously are less impressed when those same powers appeal to “morality.” But the colonizers refuse to recognize their own hypocrisy, setting up conflict that gets reduced to “the West versus the rest.”

I don’t argue with any of this. And Tharoor does valuable work in highlighting it yet again. But we need to move toward a solution:

“Rather than fictionalize the differences between an Enlightened West and a backwards rest around a ‘standard of civilization,’ should we not be pushing for a universal ‘standard of truth’ instead?” [Matias] Spektor asked.

This would force politicians and wonks to develop “some ability to see the world through the eyes of others,” he said. That may seem now a perhaps uncomfortable and unattainable level of empathy to expect of elites in power in Western capitals.^[4]

The trouble here is in the doing, in the discrepancy between such words and actual deeds. We can say we uphold international law and human rights, but until we actually do it, these are empty words, which amount to, really, the same problem we started with.

Tharoor mentions Gaza only in passing in this article,^[5] but he has previously written repeatedly, eloquently, and at length about the suffering there, and would surely agree that that would be a place to start.

Ishaan Tharoor, “The fallacy of the ‘West versus the rest’ worldview,” Washington Post, April 9, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/09/liberal-west-versus-illiberal-rest-worldview-analysis-matias-spektor/

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 2. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,^[6] fair use.

CNN’s analysis of dozens of videos from the night [February 29, 2024] and testimonies from eyewitnesses’ casts doubt on Israel’s version of events [in the ‘flour massacre,’ killing more than 100 Gazans and injuring more than 700]. The evidence, reviewed by forensic and ballistic experts, indicated that automatic gunfire began before the [Israel Defense Forces] said the convoy had started crossing through the checkpoint and that shots were fired within close range of crowds that had gathered for food.^[7]

Most of the people that were killed were rammed by the aid trucks during the chaos and while trying to escape the Israeli gunfire.”^[8]

Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry

Michael Tomasky, “Is Biden Really Going to Let Netanyahu Lose Him the Election?” New Republic, April 5, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180481/biden-israel-netanyahu-lose-election

^[1]Meghan Bobrowsky, “Google Says Maps, Searches Will Identify Clinics That Provide Abortions,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-says-maps-searches-will-identify-clinics-that-provide-abortions-11661457587; Darryl Coote, “N.Y. AG to Google: Stop directing people seeking abortions to anti-abortion centers,” United Press International, June 30, 2022, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/06/30/New-York-Google-Maps/9871656579373/; Jennifer Gollan, “Websites Selling Abortion Pills Are Sharing Sensitive Data With Google,” ProPublica, January 18, 2023, https://www.propublica.org/article/websites-selling-abortion-pills-share-sensitive-data-with-google; Poppy Noor, “Google targets low-income US women with ads for anti-abortion pregnancy centers, study shows,” Guardian, February 7, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/07/google-targets-low-income-women-anti-abortion-pregnancy-center-study; Runa Sandvik, “How US police use digital data to prosecute abortions,” TechCrunch, January 27, 2023, https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/27/digital-data-roe-wade-reproductive-privacy/; Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert, “Facebook and Google are handing over user data to help police prosecute abortion seekers,” Business Insider, March 4, 2023, https://www.businessinsider.com/police-getting-help-social-media-to-prosecute-people-seeking-abortions-2023-2 ↩
^[2]Ishaan Tharoor, “The fallacy of the ‘West versus the rest’ worldview,” Washington Post, April 9, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/09/liberal-west-versus-illiberal-rest-worldview-analysis-matias-spektor/↩
^[3]Adam Taylor, “The United States and ICC have an awkward history,” Washington Post, March 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/03/16/icc-us-cooperation-international-criminal-court-history/; Ishaan Tharoor, “20 years later, U.S. invasion of Iraq hangs over war in Ukraine,” Washington Post, March 17, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/03/17/iraq-invasion-ukraine-history-shadow/; Ahmed Twaij, “Bush did what Putin’s doing — so why is he getting away?” al Jazeera, March 28, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/28/putin-should-be-punished-so-must-bush ↩
^[4]Ishaan Tharoor, “The fallacy of the ‘West versus the rest’ worldview,” Washington Post, April 9, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/09/liberal-west-versus-illiberal-rest-worldview-analysis-matias-spektor/↩
^[5]Ishaan Tharoor, “The fallacy of the ‘West versus the rest’ worldview,” Washington Post, April 9, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/09/liberal-west-versus-illiberal-rest-worldview-analysis-matias-spektor/↩
^[6]Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
^[7]Katie Polglase et al., “Dying for a bag of flour: Videos and eyewitness accounts cast doubt on Israel’s timeline of deadly Gaza aid delivery,” CNN, April 9, 2024, https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/09/middleeast/gaza-food-aid-convoy-deaths-eyewitness-intl-investigation-cmd/index.html ↩
^[8]Khader Al Za’anoun, quoted in Katie Polglase et al., “Dying for a bag of flour: Videos and eyewitness accounts cast doubt on Israel’s timeline of deadly Gaza aid delivery,” CNN, April 9, 2024, https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/09/middleeast/gaza-food-aid-convoy-deaths-eyewitness-intl-investigation-cmd/index.html ↩

A partial eclipse of the sun

April 8, 2024April 8, 2024benfell

I did have an eclipse adventure today, of sorts.

Understand that I really don’t care about eclipses. I can understand that astronomers find them valuable for looking at the sun’s corona. But fundamentally, we’re talking about the moon in front of the sun, which just isn’t that interesting to me. And I’m completely mystified that anyone thinks this is really that big a deal.

My calendar had the eclipse timed possibly for when it began in Texas and that was the time for the eclipse I had in my head when I happened to come out of a shop and see people gazing upwards. I noticed too late that the girl among them was wearing eclipse glasses that looked like they might have come from Amazon. The adults with her were not.

People were looking up. I looked up. It had been a cloudy day and I wasn’t thinking of the eclipse. I saw a partial eclipse. The moon’s occlusion had reached about halfway across the sun. I realized what I was looking at and quickly looked down.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough if I have eye damage.

As I drove on, I noticed lots of folks viewing the eclipse, completely without eye protection. I guess we’ll find out soon enough if they suffered eye damage.

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,^[1] fair use.

William Booth and Lorenzo Tugnoli, “Inside the ruins of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital,” Washington Post, April 1, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/01/gaza-al-shifa-hospital-israel/

Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry

Michael Tomasky, “Is Biden Really Going to Let Netanyahu Lose Him the Election?” New Republic, April 5, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180481/biden-israel-netanyahu-lose-election

Electric vehicles

Fig. 1. “A Toyota bZ4X electric sport utility vehicle: EVs currently on the market are fitted with batteries that use liquid lithium-ion electrolytes.” Photograph by Kiyoshi Ota, n.d., via Financial Times, fair use.

[Elon] Musk’s attention, meanwhile, has sometimes been elsewhere. He bought Twitter, sold some Tesla stock along the way and started an artificial-intelligence company. Of late, he has been picking fights with everyone from OpenAI to Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger. Surveys suggest his public persona has alienated some would-be Tesla buyers.^[2]

Nobody disagrees with me when speaking of Elon Musk’s various ventures, I say that I prefer to do business with grownups.

I’m hearing a fair amount of punditry that suggests, as Rebecca Elliott does, that “[c]onsumer appetite for electric vehicles is cooling”^[3] Musk denies this,^[4] but I started hearing it soon after Toyota announced a substantially better battery that will be available in a few years.^[5] And yeah, I have to think this “cooling appetite” is really about a bunch of people like me who want that better performance.

We will see, of course, when that battery actually makes it to market.

Rebecca Elliott, “The Inside Tale of Tesla’s Fall to Earth,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/tesla-sales-decline-elon-musk-20613265

Steve Gelsi, “Elon Musk stands his ground on EV adoption, but admits threat of Chinese competition,” MarketWatch, April 8, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/musk-stands-his-ground-on-ev-adoption-but-admits-threat-of-chinese-competition-908408e6

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Finances

Fig. 1. Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas, undated image credited to https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/ [bad link], via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Apparently the loan shark who backed Donald Trump’s bond 1) doesn’t have the money to actually do so, and 2) isn’t licensed in the state of New York.^[6]

David McAfee, “’They had a duty’: Experts erupt over Trump lawyers’ potential ‘deception’ on fraud bond,” Raw Story, April 7, 2024, https://www.rawstory.com/trump-lawyers-deception-fraud-bond/

Ben Metzner, “The Shady Company Backing Trump’s Bond Somehow Just Got Even Shadier,” New Republic, April 8, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180525/company-backing-trump-bond-just-got-shadier

^[1]Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
^[2]Rebecca Elliott, “The Inside Tale of Tesla’s Fall to Earth,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/tesla-sales-decline-elon-musk-20613265 ↩
^[3]Rebecca Elliott, “The Inside Tale of Tesla’s Fall to Earth,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/tesla-sales-decline-elon-musk-20613265 ↩
^[4]Steve Gelsi, “Elon Musk stands his ground on EV adoption, but admits threat of Chinese competition,” MarketWatch, April 8, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/musk-stands-his-ground-on-ev-adoption-but-admits-threat-of-chinese-competition-908408e6 ↩
^[5]Akito Tanaka et al., “Toyota bets on solid-state as CATL eyes Thailand,” Financial Times, June 15, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/09e23ac9-f73a-4104-aa2e-33ea48eba67a ↩
^[6]Ben Metzner, “The Shady Company Backing Trump’s Bond Somehow Just Got Even Shadier,” New Republic, April 8, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180525/company-backing-trump-bond-just-got-shadier ↩

Backsliding in Poland?

April 8, 2024benfell

Illiberalism

Poland

I had thought, with Donald Tusk’s victory,^[1] the story on illiberalism in Poland was over. I was wrong.^[2]

Vanessa Gera, “Conservative opposition leads Prime Minister Tusk’s party in Poland’s local races, exit poll says,” Associated Press, April 7, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/poland-local-elections-tusk-democracy-coalition-government-dde253d9ab1ccdf10d44644388e8309f

Gilead

Donald Trump

Finances

Fig. 1. Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas, undated image credited to https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/ [bad link], via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The irony of Donald Trump possibly trying to sell his hotel in Las Vegas^[3] (figure 1) is that I would think gaudy Las Vegas is much more his style than New York or even Florida.

That said, to read the story, there’s no apparent substance to the speculation. If anybody knows anything about a possible sale, they’re not talking. And that’s pretty much it. There’s apparently nothing more to it than that.^[4] So where does this come from? As near as I can tell, ex nihilo.

Richard N. Velotta, “Officials mum about potential sale of Las Vegas Trump Hotel,” Las Vegas Review Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/tourism/officials-mum-about-potential-sale-of-las-vegas-trump-hotel-3029352/

Abortion, reproductive freedom and health

Fig. 2. Sign at demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, May 3, 2022. Janni Rye, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Alex Leary and Catherine Lucey, “Trump Says States Should Chart Their Own Path on Abortion,” Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/politics/abortion-donald-trump-2024-election-fe641cc5

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 3. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,^[5] fair use.

Is this how the war ends? Not with a bang, or even a whimper, but with the [Israel Defense Forces] pulling its ground forces out of Khan Younis, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asserting, in defiance of reality, that Hamas has “stopped functioning as a military organization throughout the Gaza Strip,” contradicting himself in the next breath, and clarifying a few hours later?^[6]

At the Times of Israel, David Horovitz thinks Binyamin Netanyahu has capitulated to Joe Biden, all but ending the war on Gaza without having achieved Israel’s goals.^[7] This, of course, would be the victory that Hamas sought. Skepticism is more than warranted.

Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry

Michael Tomasky, “Is Biden Really Going to Let Netanyahu Lose Him the Election?” New Republic, April 5, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180481/biden-israel-netanyahu-lose-election

^[1]Monika Scislowska, “Eight years of conservative rule in Poland ends as Donald Tusk becomes prime minister,” Associated Press, December 13, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/poland-prime-minister-tusk-government-warsaw-8fd0ac25be8fee9f51ece920f493dc1f ↩
^[2]Vanessa Gera, “Conservative opposition leads Prime Minister Tusk’s party in Poland’s local races, exit poll says,” Associated Press, April 7, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/poland-local-elections-tusk-democracy-coalition-government-dde253d9ab1ccdf10d44644388e8309f ↩
^[3]Richard N. Velotta, “Officials mum about potential sale of Las Vegas Trump Hotel,” Las Vegas Review Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/tourism/officials-mum-about-potential-sale-of-las-vegas-trump-hotel-3029352/↩
^[4]Richard N. Velotta, “Officials mum about potential sale of Las Vegas Trump Hotel,” Las Vegas Review Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/tourism/officials-mum-about-potential-sale-of-las-vegas-trump-hotel-3029352/↩
^[5]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
^[6]David Horovitz, “Israel’s major ground war in Gaza is over; the state of war inflicted by Hamas is not,” Times of Israel, April 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-major-ground-war-in-gaza-is-over-the-state-of-war-inflicted-by-hamas-is-not/↩
^[7]David Horovitz, “Israel’s major ground war in Gaza is over; the state of war inflicted by Hamas is not,” Times of Israel, April 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-major-ground-war-in-gaza-is-over-the-state-of-war-inflicted-by-hamas-is-not/↩

If at first you don’t succeed in killing the U.S. Postal Service, try, try again

April 7, 2024benfell

Illiberalism

Gilead

U.S. Postal Service

Fig. 1. Caricature of Louis DeJoy by DonkeyHotey [pseud.], August 10, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Shannon Pettypiece, “Major mail delivery delays raise concerns about voting in the 2024 elections,” NBC News, April 6, 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/major-mail-delivery-delays-raise-concerns-voting-2024-elections-rcna146479

Pennsylvania

Fig. 2. When you get outside urban centers, Pennsylvania is very much a white Christian nationalist kind of place. Photograph by author, January 5, 2023.

John Hayes, “Parasitic wasps, vibrating traps and other ways science is trying to destroy the spotted lanternfly,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 7, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/life/outdoors/2024/04/07/spotted-lanternfly-what-scientists-know/stories/202404070041

Imperialism

Israel

Fig. 3. John Bolton and Binyamin Netanyahu at a press conference. Office of U.S. National Security Advisor, August 20, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

I’ll be honest: I don’t see how this works. The nature of a parliamentary system is that the politicians in power necessarily have a majority in parliament: They can’t form a government without it—and if they lose it, a vote of no confidence can turn them out of power. Ruling coalitions break up when political differences among the ruling parties arise. But here the parties in power—especially Binyamin Netanyahu—all have a far greater interest in remaining in power than they do in giving it up, which would leave them subject to what they see as existential threats.

Now we have massive demonstrations calling for elections.^[1] But I don’t see their leverage. How are they going to get a government that is terrified of elections to acquiesce to them?

Al Jazeera, “Thousands of Israelis protest against government, urging captive deal,” April 6, 2024, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/6/thousands-of-israelis-protest-against-government-urging-captive-deal

Bethan McKernan, “Isolated at home and abroad, but Netanyahu isn’t about to go quietly,” Guardian, April 7, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/07/isolated-at-home-and-abroad-but-netanyahu-isnt-about-to-go-quietly

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 4. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,^[2] fair use.

Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry

Michael Tomasky, “Is Biden Really Going to Let Netanyahu Lose Him the Election?” New Republic, April 5, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180481/biden-israel-netanyahu-lose-election

^[1]Al Jazeera, “Thousands of Israelis protest against government, urging captive deal,” April 6, 2024, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/6/thousands-of-israelis-protest-against-government-urging-captive-deal; Lorenzo Tondo and Quique Kierszenbaum, “Tens of thousands of Israeli protesters call for Netanyahu’s removal,” Guardian, March 31, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/31/israeli-protesters-call-benjamin-netanyahu-removal ↩
^[2]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩

An Israeli ‘public relations’ problem

April 6, 2024April 6, 2024benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,^[1] fair use.

It’s because of the humanitarian issue that we [Israel] are isolated from the world. We already lost image-wise.^[2]

Lazar Berman argues that Israel has made concessions to the U.S. and the rest of the world on the Gaza War. He thinks any operation in Rafah will be much less than promised. But he thinks that the concessions have been made far too begrudgingly, that this is making the defeat of Hamas untenable.^[3]

The concession that will count will be a full, unconditional ceasefire. Until we have that, I’m not really buying Berman’s “concessions.” But what’s important is a recognition that Israel has lost, indeed squandered its advantages in the war for world public opinion. Zionists won’t admit it, but they know their hands are being slapped, that they will not soon be able to do again what they are now doing in Gaza.

Even Donald Trump, hardly a friend to the Palestinians, sees it, which is why he urges Israel to finish the war quickly. Of course, part of that is that “[t]he former president has held personal animosity toward [Binyamin] Netanyahu ever since the prime minister publicly acknowledged Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election” but it’s also clear he sees a public relations problem.^[4]

Whether you view the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a public relations problem or as genocide, Israel needs to stop it. The country will bleed regardless—nobody can seriously believe the war on Gaza will solve anything. The question is whether the country will do so with any world support at all ever again.

Maegan Vazquez, “Michigan lawmaker says Gaza should be approached ‘like Nagasaki and Hiroshima,’” Washington Post, March 31, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/30/michigan-lawmaker-gaza-hiroshima/

Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. Youssef, “U.S. and Israel’s ‘Unprecedented’ Intelligence Sharing Draws Criticism,” Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/u-s-and-israels-unprecedented-intelligence-sharing-draws-criticism-a85979b4

Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry

^[1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
^[2]Einav Levy, quoted in Lazar Berman, “Israel’s begrudging approach to humanitarian aid could cost it the war in Gaza,” Times of Israel, April 6, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-begrudging-approach-to-humanitarian-aid-could-cost-it-the-war-in-gaza/↩
^[3]Lazar Berman, “Israel’s begrudging approach to humanitarian aid could cost it the war in Gaza,” Times of Israel, April 6, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-begrudging-approach-to-humanitarian-aid-could-cost-it-the-war-in-gaza/↩
^[4]Kate Sullivan, “Trump says Israel needs to ‘finish what they started’ and said war with Hamas is ‘taking a long time,’” CNN, April 4, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/04/politics/trump-israel-comments/index.html ↩

Joe Biden ramps up his words on Gaza, still not his deeds

April 6, 2024benfell

Fig. 1. Photograph by author, April 4, 2024.

I came home tonight (April 4) to find this (figure 1). I’ve seen a robin hanging about and all I can say is it took some real determination to build this nest. I don’t know what you call that thing that connects the light to the wall, but it’s small and round, not a favorable platform. I had seen from nesting material that had fallen on the floor that someone was trying to build a nest there and I had judged this impossible.

The location is obviously attractive: It’s a sheltered location that will be extraordinarily difficult for predators to reach. The big problem is that I come and go from time to time. I guess I’m gonna find out how this goes.

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 2. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,^[1] fair use.

It’s still all words and it’s really not clear that this is anything more. But the words Joe Biden uses with Binyamin Netanyahu are becoming more threatening.^[2]

Hours after the call [between Joe Biden and Binyamin Netanyahu], Israel announced that it would increase the amount of aid going into Gaza “to prevent a humanitarian crisis,” according to Netanyahu’s office. The U.S. welcomed the announcement.

Israel agreed to allow use of Ashdod port in southern Israel for delivery of assistance for Gaza and to open the Erez border crossing, which has been closed since the Oct. 7 attacks, as a new route for aid to reach north Gaza. Israel will also allow a significant increase in deliveries from Jordan into Gaza, the U.S. said.

“These steps…must now be fully and rapidly implemented,” White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.^[3]

We’ll see about that. What I’m finding interesting is that Netanyahu appears to be climbing down. There’ll be a price for that and guess who the scapegoats are? The drone pilots who launched the attack, of course: “The Israeli military said it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three.”^[4]

Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Fig. 3. The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, with the “Golden Triangle” and downtown Pittsburgh. Photograph by author, October 15, 2023.

I haven’t been very much affected by the weather. I’ve been driving for DoorDash recently and in a zone that’s mostly high and . . . well, still pretty fucking wet, but certainly not underwater. I did cross a bridge over Chartiers Creek, which meanders from Washington, Pennsylvania, to the Ohio River there along the Pittsburgh-McKees Rocks boundary, however, and noticed that an adjacent parking area was partly underwater.

One thing I am adamant about is not moving into a flood plain. A whole bunch of folks now have some clean-up and repairs to do.^[5] I don’t. And that’s why.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Large swaths of the Pittsburgh region remain under water as scope of Western Pa. flooding comes into focus,” April 4, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/weather-news/2024/04/04/pittsburgh-flooding-updates/stories/202404040056

Joe Napsha, “Too familiar: Residents near creeks, streams begin flood cleanup,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 4, 2024, https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/too-familiar-residents-near-creeks-streams-begin-flood-cleanup/

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Photos: Pittsburgh region flooded after days of heavy rain,” April 4, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/weather-news/2024/04/04/photos-pittsburgh-region-flood-heavy-rain/stories/202404040074

Joe Napsha, “Westmoreland flood damage may not be bad enough for disaster declaration,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 5, 2024, https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/westmoreland-flood-damage-may-not-be-bad-enough-for-disaster-declaration/

Neoliberalism

Academic repression

Student loans

Fig. 4. Unattributed and undated image via James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,^[6] fair use.

The proposed regulation is expected to outline several categories that would qualify borrowers for debt relief, including financial hardship, the people said. For example, borrowers with high debt loads and low incomes could see their loan balances reduced or eliminated under the plan. It could also outline a path to relief for borrowers who have carried their debt for decades; who now owe more than their initial loan amount because interest has piled up; or who are eligible for relief through other federal programs, but haven’t applied.^[7]

This would certainly cover me, but of course, it will be tied up in the courts for who knows how long.^[8]

David Dayen, “Congress Poised to Prevent One Form of Student Debt Relief,” American Prospect, April 5, 2024, https://prospect.org/education/2024-04-05-congress-prevent-student-debt-relief-flight-faa/

Andrew Restuccia, “Biden to Make Second Attempt at Large-Scale Student Loan Forgiveness,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-to-make-second-attempt-at-large-scale-student-loan-forgiveness-ef1da5fe

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

2024

Fig. 5. Cartoon by Ben Jennings, January 24, 2024, via the Guardian,^[9] fair use.

Hafiz Rashid, “Another One Bites the Dust: Trump 2020 Lawyer Officially Disbarred,” New Republic, April 2, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180365/eastman-trump-2020-lawyer-disbarred

Heather Cox Richardson, “April 2, 2024,” Letters from an American, April 3, 2024, https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-2-2024

Sarah Fortinsky, “Ty Cobb says 11th Circuit may remove judge from Trump documents case,” Hill, April 3, 2024, https://thehill.com/homenews/4573686-ty-cobb-says-11th-circuit-may-remove-judge-from-trump-documents-case/

Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, “Judge Cannon shoots down Trump’s presidential records act claim,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/04/cannon-trump-jack-smith-presidential-records-act/

Hafiz Rashid, “Yet Another One of Trump’s 2020 Attorneys Could Be Disbarred,” New Republic, April 4, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180473/another-trump-attorneys-jeffrey-clark-disbarred

Human Science

Inquiry

Quantitative

Artificial intelligence idiocy

Fig. 1. Image credited to David Blaikie from Hampshire, UK, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Henry Mance, “AI keeps going wrong. What if it can’t be fixed?” Financial Times, April 6, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/648228e7-11eb-4e1a-b0d5-e65a638e6135

^[1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
^[2]Yasmeen Abutaleb and Matt Viser, “Biden warns Netanyahu the situation in Gaza is ‘unacceptable,’” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/04/biden-warns-netanyahu-situation-gaza-is-unacceptable/; Michael R. Gordon and Nancy A. Youssef, “Biden Ties Support for Israel to Civilian Protection in Gaza, ” Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-set-to-talk-as-gaza-aid-worker-deaths-add-to-pressure-on-israel-9dee3793 ↩
^[3]Michael R. Gordon and Nancy A. Youssef, “Biden Ties Support for Israel to Civilian Protection in Gaza, ” Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-set-to-talk-as-gaza-aid-worker-deaths-add-to-pressure-on-israel-9dee3793 ↩
^[4]Dov Lieber, Rory Jones, and Margherita Stancati, “Israel Says Troops Lacked Grounds for Strike That Killed Aid Workers in Gaza,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-to-allow-more-aid-into-gaza-after-biden-warning-over-u-s-support-49bc42e4 ↩
^[5]Joe Napsha, “Too familiar: Residents near creeks, streams begin flood cleanup,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 4, 2024, https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/too-familiar-residents-near-creeks-streams-begin-flood-cleanup/↩
^[6]Richard K. Vedder, “Eliminate or Radically Restructure Federal Student Loans,” James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, September 16, 2020, https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/09/eliminate-or-radically-restructure-federal-student-loans/↩
^[7]Andrew Restuccia, “Biden to Make Second Attempt at Large-Scale Student Loan Forgiveness,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-to-make-second-attempt-at-large-scale-student-loan-forgiveness-ef1da5fe ↩
^[8]Andrew Restuccia, “Biden to Make Second Attempt at Large-Scale Student Loan Forgiveness,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-to-make-second-attempt-at-large-scale-student-loan-forgiveness-ef1da5fe ↩
^[9]Ben Jennings, “Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s progress along the Republican nomination trail – cartoon,” Guardian, January 24, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/jan/24/ben-jennings-on-donald-trumps-progress-along-the-republican-nomination-trail-cartoon ↩

A gap so vast the Andromeda Galaxy could pass right through it

April 4, 2024April 4, 2024benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

Fig. 1. Graphic by Roya News,^[1] March 3, 2024, fair use.

A few issues ago, I remembered a book I had read long ago, that I haven’t a prayer of being able to locate and cite properly, that explained that the underdog in asymmetric warfare wins when the colonizer commits some outrage that turns public opinion overwhelmingly against it. Of all the outrages Israel has committed in its war on Gaza, I would not have picked an attack on a World Central Kitchen convoy^[2] to be the one. Honestly, I wouldn’t even have guessed.

But I’m beginning to suspect—and indeed, if we’re to believe a Wall Street Journal report—this might be it;^[3] at the very least, I think this prefigures a crisis and a shift that will inevitably come. The discrepancy between western rhetoric on getting aid to Gazan civilians and western support for Israel’s genocide^[4] is clearly drawing more attention because of it and a lot of western policies that enable that genocide simply don’t withstand any kind of scrutiny whatsoever.

At some point, it has to be embarrassing:

[John] Kirby added that the State Department has so far “not found any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law,” a legal designation that could cause the United States to block military exports to the country.^[5]

Except that we know this is a bald-faced lie.^[6] The Joe Biden administration is simply in denial of the evidence it has. And an awful lot of people have noticed this.

At this point, the discrepancy between what Biden and other western leaders say about Israeli atrocities and what they do is so vast, the Andromeda galaxy could pass right through it. This is simply not a tenable position and the only way it can last is if something else comes along to divert public opinion, which would, in other circumstances, be an entirely reasonable if entirely lamentable expectation. But Israel keeps committing these outrages, trapping western leaders in a very embarrassing position.

This issue ain’t going away. Western politicians can’t fudge, simply because Binyamin Netanyahu won’t allow them to. They need to get on the right side of it.

Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry

Michael R. Gordon and Nancy A. Youssef, “Biden Urges Immediate Gaza Cease-Fire in Call With Israel’s Netanyahu,” Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-set-to-talk-as-gaza-aid-worker-deaths-add-to-pressure-on-israel-9dee3793

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

2024

Fig. 1. Cartoon by Ben Jennings, January 24, 2024, via the Guardian,^[7] fair use.

Former White House attorney Ty Cobb predicted Wednesday that the 11th Circuit Court could ultimately decide to remove Judge Aileen Cannon from the case involving former President Trump’s mishandling of classified documents at his estate in Florida.

In an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront,” the former Trump administration official pointed to special counsel Jack Smith’s most recent filing and said he thinks it makes clear that Smith could take the case up to the 11th Circuit if Cannon does not rule promptly.

“I think that Jack Smith — I think the filing today makes it plain that she has to rule, and if she doesn’t rule under either scenario, they’ll be in a position to take her up to the 11th Circuit. And I think the 11th Circuit will likely take her off the case,” Cobb said.^[8]

I can only imagine that if we actually got a real judge on this case, Donald Trump would be in very, very, very deep trouble. I’m guessing that’s why Aileen Cannon ruled the way she did, saying that “the [Presidential Records Act] ‘does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss’ either the mishandling charges or the related obstruction charges against Trump.”^[9] I’ve yet to see informed reaction to Cannon’s decision, but what I see in the Washington Post account of her ruling^[10] doesn’t seem terribly coherent.

Hafiz Rashid, “Another One Bites the Dust: Trump 2020 Lawyer Officially Disbarred,” New Republic, April 2, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180365/eastman-trump-2020-lawyer-disbarred

Heather Cox Richardson, “April 2, 2024,” Letters from an American, April 3, 2024, https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-2-2024

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Fig. 1. The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, with the “Golden Triangle” and downtown Pittsburgh. Photograph by author, October 15, 2023.

Photographs show the 10th Street Bypass deeply underwater^[11] and I gather it’s the same story with the Parkway by the Monongahela Wharf.^[12]

^[1]Roya News, “Exposé reveals list of essential aid items banned by ‘Israel’ from entry into Gaza,” March 10, 2024, https://en.royanews.tv/news/49795/2024-03-03 ↩
^[2]Times of Israel, “Israel acknowledges killing 7 aid charity workers in ‘tragic, unintentional’ airstrike,” April 2, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-promises-probe-as-slain-aid-workers-home-countries-demand-explanation/↩
^[3]Michael R. Gordon and Nancy A. Youssef, “Biden Urges Immediate Gaza Cease-Fire in Call With Israel’s Netanyahu,” Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-set-to-talk-as-gaza-aid-worker-deaths-add-to-pressure-on-israel-9dee3793 ↩
^[4]Trinidad Deiros Bronte, “The unpunished deaths of other civilians question Israel’s willingness to clarify the attack on WCK,” El País, April 4, 2024, https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-04-04/the-unpunished-deaths-of-other-civilians-question-israels-willingness-to-clarify-the-attack-on-wck.html; Jacob Magid, “Senior Israeli official warns of growing ‘shoot first, ask later’ culture in IDF,” Times of Israel, April 4, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/senior-israeli-official-warns-of-growing-shoot-first-ask-later-culture-in-idf/; Adam Taylor, “Biden’s ‘red line’ on Gaza is nowhere to be found,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/04/biden-wck-world-central-kitchen-israel-policy-change/↩
^[5]Adam Taylor, “Biden’s ‘red line’ on Gaza is nowhere to be found,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/04/biden-wck-world-central-kitchen-israel-policy-change/↩
^[6]Julian Borger, “State department official’s resignation highlights rifts over US Gaza policy,” Guardian, March 27, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/27/state-department-resignation-gaza-biden-policy ↩
^[7]Ben Jennings, “Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s progress along the Republican nomination trail – cartoon,” Guardian, January 24, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/jan/24/ben-jennings-on-donald-trumps-progress-along-the-republican-nomination-trail-cartoon ↩
^[8]Sarah Fortinsky, “Ty Cobb says 11th Circuit may remove judge from Trump documents case,” Hill, April 3, 2024, https://thehill.com/homenews/4573686-ty-cobb-says-11th-circuit-may-remove-judge-from-trump-documents-case/↩
^[9]Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, “Judge Cannon shoots down Trump’s presidential records act claim,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/04/cannon-trump-jack-smith-presidential-records-act/↩
^[10]Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, “Judge Cannon shoots down Trump’s presidential records act claim,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/04/cannon-trump-jack-smith-presidential-records-act/↩
^[11]Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Photos: Pittsburgh region flooded after days of heavy rain,” April 4, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/weather-news/2024/04/04/photos-pittsburgh-region-flood-heavy-rain/stories/202404040074 ↩
^[12]Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Large swaths of the Pittsburgh region remain under water as scope of Western Pa. flooding comes into focus,” April 4, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/weather-news/2024/04/04/pittsburgh-flooding-updates/stories/202404040056 ↩

First Ukraine, then Europe will pay a price for Donald Trump’s capitulation; first Gaza, than Joe Biden will pay a price for Israel’s genocide

April 4, 2024benfell

I am not even remotely caught up. Look for more, later.

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,^[1] fair use.

There will be no Iftar celebration at the White House this year:^[2]

The American Muslim community said very early on that it would be completely unacceptable for us to break bread with the very same White House that is enabling the Israeli government to starve and slaughter the Palestinian people in Gaza.^[3]

The cancellation comes on the heels of better than expected results for a protest vote in Wisconsin’s Democratic presidential primary elections Tuesday. Voters who selected an “uninstructed” option on their ballot instead of voting for [Joe] Biden or Representative Dean Phillips (who has suspended his campaign) currently make up 8 percent of the results, or just over 48,000 votes, exceeding organizers’ goal of at least 20,000 votes, which was Biden’s margin of victory over Donald Trump in 2020.

Wisconsin’s results follow similar efforts in states across the country, which began with Michigan’s “uncommitted” movement, spearheaded by the state’s Arab and Muslim American communities. The results on Super Tuesday in March shattered expectations in the swing state, also exceeding Biden’s 2020 margin of victory.^[4]

It would seem there are a few people who won’t vote for a war criminal, at least in the primaries. But I’m thinking something has to give—and soon.

First, there is the obvious issue that Joe Biden’s re-election may well hinge on getting Gaza right, somehow threading a needle between Zionist voters’ demands and the demands of, overwhelmingly, just about everyone else.^[5] But as well, if it is illegal under international law for the United Kingdom to supply aid to Israel,^[6] it follows—even if we ignore the administration’s own evidence^[7]—that it is just as illegal for the U.S. to do so. And the law here simply follows a moral imperative. Biden’s policy is out of step both with international law and with international and domestic opinion.^[8]

That’s very difficult ground for any politician to hold. The lesson for Republicans on abortion, which they refuse to heed, is really very similar. The question here will be whether Biden will be smarter than Donald Trump and how long it will take for him to be so.

Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry

Russia

Ukraine

Fig. 2. Historic Russian empire, from the New York Times, possibly March 6, 2014, fair use.^[9]

Germany and Europe have a lot more riding on Ukraine’s survival than the U.S. does. For the Europeans, a Ukrainian defeat could be disastrous for the Continent’s security.

European leaders fear that if [Vladimir] Putin wins in Ukraine and [Donald] Trump returns to the presidency, countries like Latvia or Moldova might be next.

Discussing that prospect, a senior European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, recently told POLITICO and other media outlets: “These are the things that keep me up at night.”^[10]

It’s worth remembering that, as I’ve long pointed out,^[11] Vladimir Putin’s ambition almost certainly exceeds Ukraine.^[12]

“There’s nothing that can help Ukraine now because there are no serious technologies able to compensate Ukraine for the large mass of troops Russia is likely to hurl at us. We don’t have those technologies, and the West doesn’t have them as well in sufficient numbers,” one of the [anonymous] top-ranking military sources told POLITICO.^[13]

Will we finally take this seriously when Russian tanks are in Paris? Where’s the line?

Heather Cox Richardson, “April 2, 2024,” Letters from an American, April 3, 2024, https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-2-2024

Jamie Dettmer, “Ukraine is at great risk of its front lines collapsing,” Politico, April 3, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-great-risk-front-line-collapse-war-russia/

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

2024

Fig. 3. Cartoon by Ben Jennings, January 24, 2024, via the Guardian,^[14] fair use.

Hafiz Rashid, “Another One Bites the Dust: Trump 2020 Lawyer Officially Disbarred,” New Republic, April 2, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180365/eastman-trump-2020-lawyer-disbarred

Heather Cox Richardson, “April 2, 2024,” Letters from an American, April 3, 2024, https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-2-2024

Competitive authoritarian regime project

Fig. 4. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Clarence Mitchell during signing ceremony of the voting rights act. Yoichi Okamoto, August 6, 1965, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Rick Perlstein, “Joe Lieberman Not Only Backed Bush’s War; He Also Helped Make Bush President,” American Prospect, April 3, 2024, https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-03-joe-lieberman-helped-make-bush-president/

Heather Cox Richardson, “April 3, 2024,” Letters from an American, April 4, 2024, https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-3-2024

Neoliberalism

Democratic (neoliberal) Party

Fig. 5. “Well, for once they can’t blame me.” Photomechanical print, art by John S. Pughe, 1907, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

^[1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
^[2]Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry ↩
^[3]Edward Ahmed Mitchell, quoted in Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry ↩
^[4]Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry ↩
^[5]Adam Taylor, “Biden’s ‘red line’ on Gaza is nowhere to be found,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/04/biden-wck-world-central-kitchen-israel-policy-change/↩
^[6]Haroon Siddique, Eleni Courea, and Patrick Wintour, “Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law,” Guardian, April 3, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/former-supreme-court-judges-say-uk-arming-israel-breaches-international-law ↩
^[7]Julian Borger, “State department official’s resignation highlights rifts over US Gaza policy,” Guardian, March 27, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/27/state-department-resignation-gaza-biden-policy ↩
^[8]Adam Taylor, “Biden’s ‘red line’ on Gaza is nowhere to be found,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/04/biden-wck-world-central-kitchen-israel-policy-change/↩
^[9]New York Times, “Ukraine Crisis in Maps,” n.d., http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/27/world/europe/ukraine-divisions-crimea.html ↩
^[10]James Angelos, “Trump’s already back, America has ditched Ukraine. What does Europe do now?,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/olaf-scholz-joe-biden-united-states-support-ukraine-trump-return/↩
^[11]David Benfell, “Where does Vladimir Putin stop?” Not Housebroken, November 16, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/04/where-does-vladimir-putin-stop/↩
^[12]Julian O’Shaughnessy, “I’m reconquering just like Peter the Great, insists Vladimir Putin,” Times, June 10, 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/president-putin-creates-police-department-to-impose-martial-law-xqhlt79fn; Reuters, “Hailing Peter the Great, Putin draws parallel with mission to ‘return’ Russian lands,” June 9, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hailing-peter-great-putin-draws-parallel-with-mission-return-russian-lands-2022-06-09/; Ishaan Tharoor, “Putin makes his imperial pretensions clear,” Washington Post, June 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/13/putin-imperial-russia-empire-ukraine/↩
^[13]Jamie Dettmer, “Ukraine is at great risk of its front lines collapsing,” Politico, April 3, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-great-risk-front-line-collapse-war-russia/↩
^[14]Ben Jennings, “Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s progress along the Republican nomination trail – cartoon,” Guardian, January 24, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/jan/24/ben-jennings-on-donald-trumps-progress-along-the-republican-nomination-trail-cartoon ↩

Right-wing populism only gets Recep Tayyip Erdoğan so far. We’re finding out the limits.

April 2, 2024benfell

Illiberalism

Türkiye

Fig. 1. Map of the Ottoman Empire in 1914 attributed to Chamboz, March 26, 2021, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Elçin Poyrazlar, “Turkey’s Erdoğan suffers blow in crucial mayoral elections as secular opposition surges,” Politico, April 1, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/turkey-election-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan-suffers-blow-as-opposition-rpp-holds-five-cities/

Ishaan Tharoor, “Turkey’s shock elections offer another lesson for the world,” Washington Post, April 2, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/02/turkey-election-autocracy-global-lessons-democracy/

Gilead

Donald Trump

Finances

Fig. 2. Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas, undated image credited to https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/ [bad link], via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Zach Everson, “Trump Posts $175 Million Bond In New York Civil Fraud Lawsuit,” Forbes, April 1, 2024, https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2024/04/01/trump-posts-175-million-bond-new-york-civil-fraud-lawsuit/

Shayna Jacobs, “Trump posts $175M bond to keep N.Y. authorities from seizing property,” Washington Post, April 1, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/01/trump-new-york-bond-175-million/

Heather Cox Richardson, “April 1, 2024,” Letters from an American, April 2, 2024, https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-1-2024

Coup attempt

2024

Fig. 3. Cartoon by Ben Jennings, January 24, 2024, via the Guardian,^[1] fair use.

Hafiz Rashid, “Another One Bites the Dust: Trump 2020 Lawyer Officially Disbarred,” New Republic, April 2, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180365/eastman-trump-2020-lawyer-disbarred

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Hush money

Fig. 4. Cartoon by Jesse Duquette, undated, via “Minneapple23” [pseud.] on Imgur, April 1, 2023, fair use.

Hafiz Rashid, “Trump Completely Melts Down Over New Gag Order in Hush Money Trial,” New Republic, April 2, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180334/trumps-big-mouth-cost-again-hush-money

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Fig. 5. The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, with the “Golden Triangle” and downtown Pittsburgh. Photograph by author, October 15, 2023.

A tornado watch is up for Pittsburgh until 2 am.^[2]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Severe weather updates: Pittsburgh under tornado watch as powerful storm system gains steam,” April 2, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/weather-news/2024/04/02/pittsburgh-severe-weather-forecast-updates/stories/202404020059

Cheryl Vari, Cameron Knight, and Quinlan Bentley, “Severe storm warnings and tornado watches lifted in Cincinnati area as storms move east,” Cincinnati Inquirer, April 2, 2024, https://www.cincinnati.com/story/weather/2024/04/02/tornado-threat-in-ohio-kentucky-on-tuesday-april-2-severe-storms-national-weather-service/73175866007/

Imperialism

Israel

Fig. 6. John Bolton and Binyamin Netanyahu at a press conference. Office of U.S. National Security Advisor, August 20, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Binyamin Netanyahu might just have managed to widen the war on Gaza.^[3] Especially worringly,

[The Islamic Republic News Agency] said Iran holds the United States responsible for the strike, though Axios reported Tuesday that the US had told Tehran that it “had no involvement” in or prior knowledge of the attack on the consulate in Syria. A senior US official quoted in the report said the message had been “communicated directly” to Iran.^[4]

Times of Israel, “Iran and Hezbollah vow ‘punishment and revenge’ for strike that killed IRGC generals,” April 2, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-and-hezbollah-vow-punishment-and-revenge-for-strike-that-killed-irgc-generals/

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 7. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,^[5] fair use.

^[1]Ben Jennings, “Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s progress along the Republican nomination trail – cartoon,” Guardian, January 24, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/jan/24/ben-jennings-on-donald-trumps-progress-along-the-republican-nomination-trail-cartoon ↩
^[2]Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Severe weather updates: Pittsburgh under tornado watch as powerful storm system gains steam,” April 2, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/weather-news/2024/04/02/pittsburgh-severe-weather-forecast-updates/stories/202404020059 ↩
^[3]Times of Israel, “Iran and Hezbollah vow ‘punishment and revenge’ for strike that killed IRGC generals,” April 2, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-and-hezbollah-vow-punishment-and-revenge-for-strike-that-killed-irgc-generals/↩
^[4]Times of Israel, “Iran and Hezbollah vow ‘punishment and revenge’ for strike that killed IRGC generals,” April 2, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-and-hezbollah-vow-punishment-and-revenge-for-strike-that-killed-irgc-generals/↩
^[5]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩