++President Obama was interviewed by Reuters press today and outlined why a negotiated deal with Iran actually serves both America's and Israeli's national interests. He finally put a number on the years the agreement would extend--ten years of no enrichment and another five where Iran could enrich. He still only says a deal is 50-50.
++But he did go into how Bibi got the interim agreement wrong. His technique was familiar to any of his recent speeches about why the GOP got the economy and Obamacare wrong. He noted that Bibi said that Iran would continue enriching, which they did not. He claimed tyne US would be giving Iran $50 billion which it did not. And on and on.
++Elizabeth Warren said to day that she was not attending Bibi's speech. In her answer she described her meeting in Israel with Bibi and her concern about Iran having nuclear weapons but she didn't think it was useful to attend this speech. So that means no Obama,no Biden, no Kerry, no Sanders, no Warren, and no Hillary.
++Richard Cohen writes tonight about what Bibi risks in the speech. Israel is beloved by America but is not essential. The equation in support for Israel shifts when it is politicized. He faults Bibi's tone deafness about the insult to President Obama and as a result the African-Americans are boycotting as well as Jewish Democrats. Cohen writes that Iran isn't an existential threat to Israel but an indifferent America is.
++Noam Chomsky appeared on Amy Goodman show for an hour today discussing Bibi and the Ukraine. His point about the Iranian talks was that Bibi doesn't want Israel's nuclear dominance challenged in the Middle East. Chomsky quoting US intelligence sources says that Iran's defense posture is one of deterrence and that they know launching a nuclear weapon would lead to Iran's destruction.
++Military planners have always speculated that Israel and the United States would have second-strike capabilities which iran doesn't have.
++The Israeli audience is a little jaundiced about seeing Bibi treated like a rock star at AIPAC. Members of the Knesset have been posting Facebook notes to the American Jewish Democrats urging them to keep backing Israel despite Bibi's offensive behavior.
Showing posts with label Richard Cohen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Cohen. Show all posts
Monday, March 2, 2015
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Interesting News
++Prince Talal, the Saudi billionaire sold his majority shares in News Corps.
++Zacharias Moussaou, a 9-11 plotter serving time in a SuperMax prison, reveals that bin Laden had him keep a log of Al Qaeda donors on his computers. Among them were members of the Saudi Royal Family. He also testified that officials at the Saudi embassy were involved in 9-11.
++Does this make Fox News, a 9-11 collaborator?
++It's time that the Saudi section of the 9-11 report be declassified. In answering today's news, the Saudis said the 9/11 report exonerated them. Senator Graham says that isn't so.
++Meanwhile in the perpetual snafu that is Bibi, the Israeli Ambassador has been meeting with Jewish Democratic members of Congress. There is only 1 Jewish Republican. The reason is damage control to the max. At least 34 Democrats threatened to boycott Netanyahu's speech.
++It has been announced that Joe Biden will not be attending. He's the highest officer of the Senate. I guess Dermer will have to select Dick Cheney.
++Richard Cohen, who wrote a lovely memoir about his mother who suffered from depression,alerts us in the Imperial Post that Israel is not the cause of the latest rise in anti-semiticism. Indeed,as we have seen the far-right parties of Europe have it as their heritage. That's why the Bibi ploy is so frustrating because the rise again of anti-semiticism deserves a serious discussion.
++Bernard-Henri Levy wrote a strange but totally appropriate column about reading Martin Heidegger and anti-semiticism. I also felt embarrassed for Hannah Arendt for her life-time loyalty to Heidegger. As Levy points out,Heidegger's papers have finally been released and they show--yes, he was not only anti-semitic but a believing Nazi.
++In my prowls through my storage unit, I found today a pristine copy of "Eichmann and the Holocaust" by Hannah Arendt, which was published as a compete essay by Penguin Books in their great ideas series.
++I will read it again with the knowledge Hannah Arendt worshipped Heidegger, even after being warned off by other German philosophers of Heidegger's generation.
++I will close by complimenting Bibi on his political ad "The Bibi-sitter", where he arrives a young couple's apartment to baby sit their child. When the couple comes home, the young father greets him with "Shalom" and Bibi says "But not unconditional."
++Zacharias Moussaou, a 9-11 plotter serving time in a SuperMax prison, reveals that bin Laden had him keep a log of Al Qaeda donors on his computers. Among them were members of the Saudi Royal Family. He also testified that officials at the Saudi embassy were involved in 9-11.
++Does this make Fox News, a 9-11 collaborator?
++It's time that the Saudi section of the 9-11 report be declassified. In answering today's news, the Saudis said the 9/11 report exonerated them. Senator Graham says that isn't so.
++Meanwhile in the perpetual snafu that is Bibi, the Israeli Ambassador has been meeting with Jewish Democratic members of Congress. There is only 1 Jewish Republican. The reason is damage control to the max. At least 34 Democrats threatened to boycott Netanyahu's speech.
++It has been announced that Joe Biden will not be attending. He's the highest officer of the Senate. I guess Dermer will have to select Dick Cheney.
++Richard Cohen, who wrote a lovely memoir about his mother who suffered from depression,alerts us in the Imperial Post that Israel is not the cause of the latest rise in anti-semiticism. Indeed,as we have seen the far-right parties of Europe have it as their heritage. That's why the Bibi ploy is so frustrating because the rise again of anti-semiticism deserves a serious discussion.
++Bernard-Henri Levy wrote a strange but totally appropriate column about reading Martin Heidegger and anti-semiticism. I also felt embarrassed for Hannah Arendt for her life-time loyalty to Heidegger. As Levy points out,Heidegger's papers have finally been released and they show--yes, he was not only anti-semitic but a believing Nazi.
++In my prowls through my storage unit, I found today a pristine copy of "Eichmann and the Holocaust" by Hannah Arendt, which was published as a compete essay by Penguin Books in their great ideas series.
++I will read it again with the knowledge Hannah Arendt worshipped Heidegger, even after being warned off by other German philosophers of Heidegger's generation.
++I will close by complimenting Bibi on his political ad "The Bibi-sitter", where he arrives a young couple's apartment to baby sit their child. When the couple comes home, the young father greets him with "Shalom" and Bibi says "But not unconditional."
Thursday, June 5, 2014
He Ran Away to Join the Circus
++Fox News reports that Sgt. Bergdahl became a jihadist in 2010 and was part of the Haggani network. They claim that the reports were provided by one Dewey Clarridge of the Iran-Contra fame who runs a company that serves as a defense contractor in Afghanistan. This followed a Fox interview with Ollie North, who has "considerable experience in hostage negotiations" suggesting President Obama sent millions of dollars to the Haggani network for Bergdahl's release. Ollie said the difference between Reagan and Obama was that Reagan did it secretly.
++The Tea Party Nation called on President Obama to be arrested and impeached for brokering the release of Sgt. Bergdahl. They are asking Andrew B. "Dean" Willison,the current Sergeant at Arms of the Senate to issue an arrest warrant and arrest President Obama. The Tea Party calls for a minimum of 15 years in prison for the President or as long as life in prison.
++The Tea Party Nation also filed an ethics complaint against Harry Reid for his attack on the Koch Brothers.
++Why do I get a sense this is not going to go well for the Conservative Entertainment Complex?
++Richard Cohen of the Imperial Post thinks President Obama will be a diminished figure at Normandy Beach unlike other Presidents. He laments his foreign policy of not doing something Stupid and says Americans want their President to stand up for freedom and liberty. He blasts the President on his policies in Syria,Egypt and the Ukraine. He acknowledges America is tired of war but they want their President to fake it. Mr. Cohen seems not to have known about Ike's return to Normandy Beach where he wistfully talked about a day when we could have peace. He looked rather ragged that day.
++The Tea Party Nation called on President Obama to be arrested and impeached for brokering the release of Sgt. Bergdahl. They are asking Andrew B. "Dean" Willison,the current Sergeant at Arms of the Senate to issue an arrest warrant and arrest President Obama. The Tea Party calls for a minimum of 15 years in prison for the President or as long as life in prison.
++The Tea Party Nation also filed an ethics complaint against Harry Reid for his attack on the Koch Brothers.
++Why do I get a sense this is not going to go well for the Conservative Entertainment Complex?
++Richard Cohen of the Imperial Post thinks President Obama will be a diminished figure at Normandy Beach unlike other Presidents. He laments his foreign policy of not doing something Stupid and says Americans want their President to stand up for freedom and liberty. He blasts the President on his policies in Syria,Egypt and the Ukraine. He acknowledges America is tired of war but they want their President to fake it. Mr. Cohen seems not to have known about Ike's return to Normandy Beach where he wistfully talked about a day when we could have peace. He looked rather ragged that day.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Political Notes On A Rainy Day
One more time on Cy Twombly. The New York Times had a wonderful long review of his work today as promised. He was nicknamed Cy after Cy Young and was in cryptography during his military service, which probably explains his fascination with coded writing in his paintings. While he lived in Italy most of his adult life,a woman here in Virginia talked on the radio about having dinner with him recently in Lexington, Virginia where he grew up. In the past couple of years, he alluded to his staying in Lexington for months a time.
If you want a good book on his work, including color plates of details of his paintings, Richard Leeman's Cy Twombly, A Monograph (Flammarion) fills the bill. Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish today highlighted Twombly's work approvingly quoting art critic David Sylvester saying that his paintings recalled the marks on one's bed after making love. Interesting observation or fixation as the case may be.
Steve Benen at Washington Monthly had a power outage today so he couldn't keep the heat on Williard Romney. At the appropriate time, the Obama campaign should make Steve the head of opposition research of Mitt--he has him down pat. Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune picked up the slack today criticizing Romney's meanderings on the economy. Think Progressive nails him for his statements that the Dodd-Franks financial reform bill went too far but then he couldn't say what was in it. This seems to be a regular pattern with the GOP. They don't even know what's in the Health Care bill for instance.
Benen's writing on Romney reminded me that I find Mitt somewhat creepy and can't put my finger on why. Maybe it's the story of him tying his labrador retriever to the roof of the car when the family went on vacation. Or his recent remark that he loves to read L.Ron Hubbard sci-fi. Maybe it is his Mormonism. One of the more interesting stories coming out of Mormonland is the dislike of the Huntsman clan for the Romneys. Is any reporter going to ask either man how much of the Book of Mormon they believe?
To reacquaint myself with the orgins of Mormonism, I am currently reading Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith", who also declared he was running for President. This book allegedly got Fawn Brodie thrown out of the Mormon religion. But reading it, I was struck how much Glenn Beck with his conspiracy theories resembles Joseph Smith, whose work of fiction/divine revelation contains all the conroversies of the time--anti-Catholicism, the whole Masonic conspiracy and the religious fights within the protestant movement. Smith was literally someone who dug for treasure in Vermont and New York State,reminding us that Beck sold gold on his show. Later he even created a bank and printed his own money. It's actually perfect Beck is a Mormon. His embrace of David Barton makes sense also as Joseph Smith was for a theocracy and didn't believe in the separation of church and state, much like Barton.
President Obama had his first tweeter on-line townhall meeting. He's good at it. He's mastered the form in responding to questions. John Boehner even tried to sneak into the act by asking "Where are the jobs?" He's a good one to ask. At the present rate, the current Congress will go down as the least productive in modern history,surpassing the record of Harry Truman's famous "Do Nothing Congress" of 1948. Compare it with the first two years of Obama's presidency. Which do you prefer?
The Obama Administration would like to play down the possibility of invoking the 14th amendment to resolve the debt ceiling issue. He even avoided the question today in his townhall meeting. But the legal community is beginning to write about this. The question then becomes what is the national debt. According to Republicans, it is what is owed bond holders. To normal Americans, it's everything owed by the government, including Social Security and pension payments. A teabagger in the House vowed that the House would impeach Obama if he invoked the 14th amendment. That would be interesting. The last two Democratic Presidents impeached. Think that wouldn't be a story.
Talk shows are commenting that Wall Street simply is not acting as if there will be a problem. Financial analysts have said they expect the Republicans won't give on tax hikes so the budget cuts will be lower than has been discussed in the negotiations, the ceiling will be raised and we go on from there.
The Washington punditry has finally caught on that the GOP might actually be mad. It's taken them over a year to realize this. Richard Cohen wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post the other day about how the GOP has become the Grand Old Cult. He remarked about the penchant of Republicans to sign on to strange lists like a pledge not to raise taxes, a pledge to prohibit abortion even in cases like incest and rape. Previous positions on climate change have gone by the board. But this town seems genuinely worried that the GOP will continue their hostage-taking because none of the GOP leadership will stand up against the teabaggers. Rand Paul has turned out to be even more unruly than his father,vowing to filibuster the debt ceiling vote until he gets his way on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I don't have the time or inclination to explain why that is an absolutely insane idea.
David Brooks must have just gotten off his book tour and finally realized that the GOP was actually nuttier than he believed. Brooks noted what Michael Steele said last year that the GOP is not fit to govern. Steele had warned Republicans in 2010 that they might win the by-election but they were not ready to lead. Brooks finally woke up to the fact that his party has no regard for academics, scholars and policy analysis of any sort.
What put him over the edge was that the budget deal offered by Obama was a no-brainer to "normal" Republicans--minimal tax hikes and massive spending cuts. David Frum weighed in that President Obama should never have gotten himself into this situation in the first place, offering to negotiate with hostage takers. I actually agree. But Brooks' remarks actually generated push-back from conservative talk show hosts and resident Very Serious Person, Paul Ryan, who touted head Wahhabist Grover Norquist's line about no tax increases. Bloggers have begun to question whether Republicans who take his pledge not to raise taxes are violating their oath of office by pledging their allegiance to a private citizen. Interesting question.
The Willard juggernaut released his fund-raising figures. We were told to expect between $25 and $30 million but the number came in at $18.5 million, less than Romney's take in the first quarter of 2007. Although this puts him light years ahead of anyone else in the field, it underlines how the Romney people play fast and loose with numbers. I guess they got the hang of the new GOP.
A 14-year old blogger going under the tag "Youngprogressive" posted his experience of asking a question of Romney in New Hampshire. He could give Steve Benen a run for his money. The blogger wanted to find out whether there was any moderate left in Romney. He said he hesitated to ask his question in the public forum because Romney was trying to imitate a teabagger. But after the presentation he went up to the candidate and asked him about his statements on repealing "Obamacare" when he had passed a similar program for Massachusetts.
Romney gave his state waiver answer but the youngster started asking him whether he would repeal the section on prohibiting exclusive of insurance for preconditions. Romney said he didn't think so and then the blogger asked about repealing life time caps, which would penalize senior citizens. Romney couldn't give him a straight answer and that's what made the boy conclude Romney was a phoney because he was too afraid of his own party to give a straight answer. Sharp judge of character. It's going to be interesting to see where Romney goes as he has to articulate real answers to real questions.
The Newt is having money woes--the campaign seems to be running a deficit at this stage of the game. I browsed through his American Exceptionalism tonight and just couldn't buy it. Alot of it is just rehashed arguments about how liberals crushed America and that Obama doesn't appreciate the uniqueness of America and basically that we must recapture our sense of our unique destiny as a nation. It's basically an update on his Obama book that criticizes the President for trying to create a socialist, secular society. With assaults on every part of our social safety nets, we might need more socialism at this time.
Pat Buchanan on Morning Joe said that the American Empire is stretched too thin and that it is going down. He gave his pithy isolationist chant that we are borrowing from Japan to defend Japan, we're borrowing from the Middle East to defend the Middle East, we're borrowing from Europe to defend Europe. Actually there is alot of truth in his sentiments. When Eisenhower faced large deficits, he cut defense dramatically. It's being suggested that this is what Panetta's mandate will be . But already the defense industries are mounting an attack against defense cuts, even though the defense budget has tripled since 1999.
Zbig showed up on Morning Joe and because his daughter is co-host, he doesn't get guff. Zbig is the first well-known figure that I can recall that has said that the enormous disparity in wealth in this country is potentially destabilizing. His point was that this glaring social fact raises questions about social justice, fairness and the nature of our society. Failure to address this creates very bad optics that lead people to question other elements of our society. He neglected to say when the tipping point would be but he suggested other such societies experience political violence. I'm glad he said it because outside the Beltway one can sense the deep frustration and anger that is building about the economy and the failure of our political system to respond to the current economic challenges. Poll after poll shows people think that the wealthy must pay a greater share than they do today.
Maybe these right-wing governors elected in 2010 know something about today's American I don't. But how long will people put up with something like Scott Walker in Wisconsin using prisoners to perform jobs once performed by public workers? How long can people tolerate Rick Scott's various give-aways to the private sector when public education in Florida is being eviscerated? And John Kasich's crimes in Ohio are too numerous to list. Does the average American continue to be rolled by these guys or will there be more than just political pushback?
Francis Fukuyama continues on his political rehabilitation. In his latest book, he describes how under the Han dynasty the wealthy actually went so far to protect their privilege and riches as to cause the collapse of China. This chapter is being dissected on the political blogs as a lesson for today's America.
Not helping his momentary rehabilitation, David Stockman, who had been approvingly quoted for challenging current GOP orthodoxy on tax cuts, appeared on the Diane Rheim show and gave a bloodless position on why a debt default might not be too bad a thing. He said that the only way Obama could overcome our economic situation is to eliminate the tax cuts for everyone,including the middle class, and convening the military to say he wanted $250 billion cut over the next five years. In the meantime, Stockman argued that a default would raise interest rates and screw those on Wall Street holding Treasury Bonds but tough. In his scenario, it was just a matter vof math, not human beings.
A book that has nice parallels today is Scott Miller's "The President and the Assassin--McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century"(Random House). Aside from the Lincoln assassination, we tend to forget other political assassinations. The book covers the election of William McKinley over William Jennings Bryan as the first election where American corporations poured money straight from their business into the campaign because of their fear of Bryan's populism. Miller reports on the 100,000 person rally in New York organized by business--the first Freedomworks Teaparty--to rally against Bryan's assault on the gold standard. The financial backing and corporations coming right out and suggesting they would layoff their workers if Bryan won overcame Bryan's lead. If 30,000 votes had switched in key states, McKinley would have lost.
But the other side of the story was that corporations were so dominant in American society that the average American faced little mobility and faced sweeping changes threatening their livelihood. One such man was the assassin Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist who was inspired by the anarchist killing of the King of Italy. The assasssination did little but bring Theodore Roosevelt to power, who did embark on efforts to change the situation. The campaign funding laws restricting corporate financing of political campaigns came to past a few years later. Those were the laws overturned by the Roberts Court and we have seen the results.
If you want a good book on his work, including color plates of details of his paintings, Richard Leeman's Cy Twombly, A Monograph (Flammarion) fills the bill. Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish today highlighted Twombly's work approvingly quoting art critic David Sylvester saying that his paintings recalled the marks on one's bed after making love. Interesting observation or fixation as the case may be.
Steve Benen at Washington Monthly had a power outage today so he couldn't keep the heat on Williard Romney. At the appropriate time, the Obama campaign should make Steve the head of opposition research of Mitt--he has him down pat. Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune picked up the slack today criticizing Romney's meanderings on the economy. Think Progressive nails him for his statements that the Dodd-Franks financial reform bill went too far but then he couldn't say what was in it. This seems to be a regular pattern with the GOP. They don't even know what's in the Health Care bill for instance.
Benen's writing on Romney reminded me that I find Mitt somewhat creepy and can't put my finger on why. Maybe it's the story of him tying his labrador retriever to the roof of the car when the family went on vacation. Or his recent remark that he loves to read L.Ron Hubbard sci-fi. Maybe it is his Mormonism. One of the more interesting stories coming out of Mormonland is the dislike of the Huntsman clan for the Romneys. Is any reporter going to ask either man how much of the Book of Mormon they believe?
To reacquaint myself with the orgins of Mormonism, I am currently reading Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith", who also declared he was running for President. This book allegedly got Fawn Brodie thrown out of the Mormon religion. But reading it, I was struck how much Glenn Beck with his conspiracy theories resembles Joseph Smith, whose work of fiction/divine revelation contains all the conroversies of the time--anti-Catholicism, the whole Masonic conspiracy and the religious fights within the protestant movement. Smith was literally someone who dug for treasure in Vermont and New York State,reminding us that Beck sold gold on his show. Later he even created a bank and printed his own money. It's actually perfect Beck is a Mormon. His embrace of David Barton makes sense also as Joseph Smith was for a theocracy and didn't believe in the separation of church and state, much like Barton.
President Obama had his first tweeter on-line townhall meeting. He's good at it. He's mastered the form in responding to questions. John Boehner even tried to sneak into the act by asking "Where are the jobs?" He's a good one to ask. At the present rate, the current Congress will go down as the least productive in modern history,surpassing the record of Harry Truman's famous "Do Nothing Congress" of 1948. Compare it with the first two years of Obama's presidency. Which do you prefer?
The Obama Administration would like to play down the possibility of invoking the 14th amendment to resolve the debt ceiling issue. He even avoided the question today in his townhall meeting. But the legal community is beginning to write about this. The question then becomes what is the national debt. According to Republicans, it is what is owed bond holders. To normal Americans, it's everything owed by the government, including Social Security and pension payments. A teabagger in the House vowed that the House would impeach Obama if he invoked the 14th amendment. That would be interesting. The last two Democratic Presidents impeached. Think that wouldn't be a story.
Talk shows are commenting that Wall Street simply is not acting as if there will be a problem. Financial analysts have said they expect the Republicans won't give on tax hikes so the budget cuts will be lower than has been discussed in the negotiations, the ceiling will be raised and we go on from there.
The Washington punditry has finally caught on that the GOP might actually be mad. It's taken them over a year to realize this. Richard Cohen wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post the other day about how the GOP has become the Grand Old Cult. He remarked about the penchant of Republicans to sign on to strange lists like a pledge not to raise taxes, a pledge to prohibit abortion even in cases like incest and rape. Previous positions on climate change have gone by the board. But this town seems genuinely worried that the GOP will continue their hostage-taking because none of the GOP leadership will stand up against the teabaggers. Rand Paul has turned out to be even more unruly than his father,vowing to filibuster the debt ceiling vote until he gets his way on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I don't have the time or inclination to explain why that is an absolutely insane idea.
David Brooks must have just gotten off his book tour and finally realized that the GOP was actually nuttier than he believed. Brooks noted what Michael Steele said last year that the GOP is not fit to govern. Steele had warned Republicans in 2010 that they might win the by-election but they were not ready to lead. Brooks finally woke up to the fact that his party has no regard for academics, scholars and policy analysis of any sort.
What put him over the edge was that the budget deal offered by Obama was a no-brainer to "normal" Republicans--minimal tax hikes and massive spending cuts. David Frum weighed in that President Obama should never have gotten himself into this situation in the first place, offering to negotiate with hostage takers. I actually agree. But Brooks' remarks actually generated push-back from conservative talk show hosts and resident Very Serious Person, Paul Ryan, who touted head Wahhabist Grover Norquist's line about no tax increases. Bloggers have begun to question whether Republicans who take his pledge not to raise taxes are violating their oath of office by pledging their allegiance to a private citizen. Interesting question.
The Willard juggernaut released his fund-raising figures. We were told to expect between $25 and $30 million but the number came in at $18.5 million, less than Romney's take in the first quarter of 2007. Although this puts him light years ahead of anyone else in the field, it underlines how the Romney people play fast and loose with numbers. I guess they got the hang of the new GOP.
A 14-year old blogger going under the tag "Youngprogressive" posted his experience of asking a question of Romney in New Hampshire. He could give Steve Benen a run for his money. The blogger wanted to find out whether there was any moderate left in Romney. He said he hesitated to ask his question in the public forum because Romney was trying to imitate a teabagger. But after the presentation he went up to the candidate and asked him about his statements on repealing "Obamacare" when he had passed a similar program for Massachusetts.
Romney gave his state waiver answer but the youngster started asking him whether he would repeal the section on prohibiting exclusive of insurance for preconditions. Romney said he didn't think so and then the blogger asked about repealing life time caps, which would penalize senior citizens. Romney couldn't give him a straight answer and that's what made the boy conclude Romney was a phoney because he was too afraid of his own party to give a straight answer. Sharp judge of character. It's going to be interesting to see where Romney goes as he has to articulate real answers to real questions.
The Newt is having money woes--the campaign seems to be running a deficit at this stage of the game. I browsed through his American Exceptionalism tonight and just couldn't buy it. Alot of it is just rehashed arguments about how liberals crushed America and that Obama doesn't appreciate the uniqueness of America and basically that we must recapture our sense of our unique destiny as a nation. It's basically an update on his Obama book that criticizes the President for trying to create a socialist, secular society. With assaults on every part of our social safety nets, we might need more socialism at this time.
Pat Buchanan on Morning Joe said that the American Empire is stretched too thin and that it is going down. He gave his pithy isolationist chant that we are borrowing from Japan to defend Japan, we're borrowing from the Middle East to defend the Middle East, we're borrowing from Europe to defend Europe. Actually there is alot of truth in his sentiments. When Eisenhower faced large deficits, he cut defense dramatically. It's being suggested that this is what Panetta's mandate will be . But already the defense industries are mounting an attack against defense cuts, even though the defense budget has tripled since 1999.
Zbig showed up on Morning Joe and because his daughter is co-host, he doesn't get guff. Zbig is the first well-known figure that I can recall that has said that the enormous disparity in wealth in this country is potentially destabilizing. His point was that this glaring social fact raises questions about social justice, fairness and the nature of our society. Failure to address this creates very bad optics that lead people to question other elements of our society. He neglected to say when the tipping point would be but he suggested other such societies experience political violence. I'm glad he said it because outside the Beltway one can sense the deep frustration and anger that is building about the economy and the failure of our political system to respond to the current economic challenges. Poll after poll shows people think that the wealthy must pay a greater share than they do today.
Maybe these right-wing governors elected in 2010 know something about today's American I don't. But how long will people put up with something like Scott Walker in Wisconsin using prisoners to perform jobs once performed by public workers? How long can people tolerate Rick Scott's various give-aways to the private sector when public education in Florida is being eviscerated? And John Kasich's crimes in Ohio are too numerous to list. Does the average American continue to be rolled by these guys or will there be more than just political pushback?
Francis Fukuyama continues on his political rehabilitation. In his latest book, he describes how under the Han dynasty the wealthy actually went so far to protect their privilege and riches as to cause the collapse of China. This chapter is being dissected on the political blogs as a lesson for today's America.
Not helping his momentary rehabilitation, David Stockman, who had been approvingly quoted for challenging current GOP orthodoxy on tax cuts, appeared on the Diane Rheim show and gave a bloodless position on why a debt default might not be too bad a thing. He said that the only way Obama could overcome our economic situation is to eliminate the tax cuts for everyone,including the middle class, and convening the military to say he wanted $250 billion cut over the next five years. In the meantime, Stockman argued that a default would raise interest rates and screw those on Wall Street holding Treasury Bonds but tough. In his scenario, it was just a matter vof math, not human beings.
A book that has nice parallels today is Scott Miller's "The President and the Assassin--McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century"(Random House). Aside from the Lincoln assassination, we tend to forget other political assassinations. The book covers the election of William McKinley over William Jennings Bryan as the first election where American corporations poured money straight from their business into the campaign because of their fear of Bryan's populism. Miller reports on the 100,000 person rally in New York organized by business--the first Freedomworks Teaparty--to rally against Bryan's assault on the gold standard. The financial backing and corporations coming right out and suggesting they would layoff their workers if Bryan won overcame Bryan's lead. If 30,000 votes had switched in key states, McKinley would have lost.
But the other side of the story was that corporations were so dominant in American society that the average American faced little mobility and faced sweeping changes threatening their livelihood. One such man was the assassin Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist who was inspired by the anarchist killing of the King of Italy. The assasssination did little but bring Theodore Roosevelt to power, who did embark on efforts to change the situation. The campaign funding laws restricting corporate financing of political campaigns came to past a few years later. Those were the laws overturned by the Roberts Court and we have seen the results.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Bibi's Big Dud
The Washington Post's Richard Cohen gave it the old college try,cajoling Bibi Netanyahu by invoking his 101-year old historian and Zionist father, Benzion, and Dov Weissglass, Ariel Sharon's chief of staff, to get off the dime on the peace process. Cohen wrote that today's moderate Palestinian leadership may disappear tomorrow and the 1967 borders are no less defensible than the current ones. Referring to Ze'ev Jabotinsky,a militant Zionist leader and journalist, whose essay "The Iron Wall" encapsulates Bibi's doctrine, Cohen writes," A doctrine enunciated in 1923 is out of date. You can not build an iron wall high enough anymore."
Josh Marshall writing before the speech said that Bibi isn't interested in a two-state solution. never was and never will be. It's time for everyone to face that fact.
The Christian Science Monitor earlier in the day hinted that Zionists were known for taking great risks and getting out ahead of events. It was clear that the Israeli embassy had done their background work and earlier in the day had promised "surprises" in the Prime Minister's speech.
In an article "The Israel Reality That Obama Doesn't Understand" in today's Haaretz , Merav Michaeli, a member of Isreali peace Initiative delegation, fills in President Obama on Bibi's own reality show as "the leader of a persecuted people", a role he revels in. He cites Abe Foxman's statement that Obama has actually done alot of good for Israel and his proposals were good for Israel. But, according to Michaeli, there is " no reality in this world which has ever convinced our leaders to stop being a persecuted nation."
Michaeli recalls that nine years ago 22 Arab League countries submittted a proposal for ending the conflict with the Palestinians and for the full normalization with all of them. The result, the Israeli leaders simply chose to ignore the fact that 22 Arab countries would accept the right of Israel to exist in peace. Only 15% of the Israeli public even know that such an offer was made. When his delegation met with the Egyptian Foreign Minister to make the first response, he said "For 9 years the initiaticve has been on the table. Now you remembered?"
Michaeli in his address to President Obama writes,"The reality is that change is the thing that Israel in general and Netanyahu in particular fear the most. The reality is that the state of Israel has become accustomed to the present situation and does not recognize itself without it. Israel has existed longer with the occupation than without it; it has existed for most of its years with no borders and is deathly afraid of change."
"The Reality is that Netanyahu never wanted or thought to initiate change. He wants settlements. He wants occupation. He wants the situation as it is and sees no problem with it. And now, Netanyahu prefers confrontation. Confrontation with you, confrontation with the Palestinians, confrontation with anyone he sees as coming out against "the persecuted people". The Reality is simply that confrontation we already know,Mr. President, but peace we do not know at all."
Yossi Aphen, an adviser to Ehud Barack and a former Mossad officer, has said that there is panic in Israeli government circles about the United Nations Resolution and are concerned that European governments are leaning toward accepting it.
SO BIBI'S SPEECH. For his own domestic political purposes, Bibi probably thought he did terrific. He received over two dozen standing ovations from a pliant Congress. Harry Reid even appeared with Bibi and chastised the President for some of his comments and said , of course,the peace agreements have to be negotiated on the ground and can not be dictated--as if his own President said that. Remember great people have been asked to address a Joint Session of Congress-Winston Churchill, NelsonMandela, Yitzhak Rabin, Vaclav Havel to name a few. None that I recalled were invited by the opposition party, while the President was scheduled to be abroad.
I listened to the speech. Frankly, it was horrible. Bibi's delivery was a "just us guys" type. He was snide and flip at points and then he invoked the horrors of being constantly under threat. While he inserted positive references to President Obama's suggestions at points, he basically reiterated what everyone knew were his core personal beliefs. His "painful compromises" were simply that he would have to give back any land of "ancient Judea and Samaaria", not Palestinian land. He promised that the Palestinian nation would have ample space and that he would be generous in what he gives it.
But he inserted several deal breakers. The promise of Ehud Barak of two countries with capitals in Jerusalem vanished. To much applause, Bibi asserted that the only time Jews, Christians and Muslims could worship freely in Jerusalem was when it was under complete Israeli control. And he claims that it would always remains so and be the capital of Israel. He then said that as all Jews in the world could emigrate to Israel so to Arabs and Palestinians could emigrate to Palestine. So much for any discussion on the right of return. Then because Israel was giving up so much, it would have to have its own military presence in the Jordan Valley amidst a demilitarized Palestine.
Bibi claimed that 6 Israeli Prime Ministers had agreed to the idea of a Palestinian state. But that Israel could not negotiate with terrorists. So he demanded that President Abbas tear up his Pact with Hamas, which had be shelved until the Palestinians listened to President Obama's proposals. And that the Palestinians should shelve its efforts to go to the United Nations for recognition because only negotiations would produce a state. Then he said he would be generous with the size of such a state and be the first to support its membership in the United Nations.
Within minutes after his speech, President Abbas formally announced that Israeli military presence in Palestine would be unacceptable. Unnamed Palestinian advisers said that Bibi had virtually ignored every talking point mentioned by the Palestinians. He responded that the speech was in effect " a declaration of war". The Palestinians by the end of the day said they would not be coming back to negotiate until the settlements stopped.
So we are left with the status quo and not much hope that anything will change anytime soon. The King of Jordan after hearing last week's spat between Bibi and President Obama said that there would be no movement for at least a year. The problem with this is that the UN resolution will come up and the United States will have to be the country that kills it, even though Bibi gave absolutely nothing to his only ally, except heartburn.
Maybe it's just as well. The last time it looked like there would breakthroughs in the peace talks were the Wye Plantation talks under Clinton. Then it was the Palestinians , particularly Yasir Arafat who could not pull the trigger. Basically, the Palestinians got 90% of what they wanted and Arafat thought he couldn't agree because of dissent within the ranks. It's so strange to see Israel now afraid of a moderate Palestinian leader, when they were to cut a deal with their arch enemy and a real killer.
Josh Marshall writing before the speech said that Bibi isn't interested in a two-state solution. never was and never will be. It's time for everyone to face that fact.
The Christian Science Monitor earlier in the day hinted that Zionists were known for taking great risks and getting out ahead of events. It was clear that the Israeli embassy had done their background work and earlier in the day had promised "surprises" in the Prime Minister's speech.
In an article "The Israel Reality That Obama Doesn't Understand" in today's Haaretz , Merav Michaeli, a member of Isreali peace Initiative delegation, fills in President Obama on Bibi's own reality show as "the leader of a persecuted people", a role he revels in. He cites Abe Foxman's statement that Obama has actually done alot of good for Israel and his proposals were good for Israel. But, according to Michaeli, there is " no reality in this world which has ever convinced our leaders to stop being a persecuted nation."
Michaeli recalls that nine years ago 22 Arab League countries submittted a proposal for ending the conflict with the Palestinians and for the full normalization with all of them. The result, the Israeli leaders simply chose to ignore the fact that 22 Arab countries would accept the right of Israel to exist in peace. Only 15% of the Israeli public even know that such an offer was made. When his delegation met with the Egyptian Foreign Minister to make the first response, he said "For 9 years the initiaticve has been on the table. Now you remembered?"
Michaeli in his address to President Obama writes,"The reality is that change is the thing that Israel in general and Netanyahu in particular fear the most. The reality is that the state of Israel has become accustomed to the present situation and does not recognize itself without it. Israel has existed longer with the occupation than without it; it has existed for most of its years with no borders and is deathly afraid of change."
"The Reality is that Netanyahu never wanted or thought to initiate change. He wants settlements. He wants occupation. He wants the situation as it is and sees no problem with it. And now, Netanyahu prefers confrontation. Confrontation with you, confrontation with the Palestinians, confrontation with anyone he sees as coming out against "the persecuted people". The Reality is simply that confrontation we already know,Mr. President, but peace we do not know at all."
Yossi Aphen, an adviser to Ehud Barack and a former Mossad officer, has said that there is panic in Israeli government circles about the United Nations Resolution and are concerned that European governments are leaning toward accepting it.
SO BIBI'S SPEECH. For his own domestic political purposes, Bibi probably thought he did terrific. He received over two dozen standing ovations from a pliant Congress. Harry Reid even appeared with Bibi and chastised the President for some of his comments and said , of course,the peace agreements have to be negotiated on the ground and can not be dictated--as if his own President said that. Remember great people have been asked to address a Joint Session of Congress-Winston Churchill, NelsonMandela, Yitzhak Rabin, Vaclav Havel to name a few. None that I recalled were invited by the opposition party, while the President was scheduled to be abroad.
I listened to the speech. Frankly, it was horrible. Bibi's delivery was a "just us guys" type. He was snide and flip at points and then he invoked the horrors of being constantly under threat. While he inserted positive references to President Obama's suggestions at points, he basically reiterated what everyone knew were his core personal beliefs. His "painful compromises" were simply that he would have to give back any land of "ancient Judea and Samaaria", not Palestinian land. He promised that the Palestinian nation would have ample space and that he would be generous in what he gives it.
But he inserted several deal breakers. The promise of Ehud Barak of two countries with capitals in Jerusalem vanished. To much applause, Bibi asserted that the only time Jews, Christians and Muslims could worship freely in Jerusalem was when it was under complete Israeli control. And he claims that it would always remains so and be the capital of Israel. He then said that as all Jews in the world could emigrate to Israel so to Arabs and Palestinians could emigrate to Palestine. So much for any discussion on the right of return. Then because Israel was giving up so much, it would have to have its own military presence in the Jordan Valley amidst a demilitarized Palestine.
Bibi claimed that 6 Israeli Prime Ministers had agreed to the idea of a Palestinian state. But that Israel could not negotiate with terrorists. So he demanded that President Abbas tear up his Pact with Hamas, which had be shelved until the Palestinians listened to President Obama's proposals. And that the Palestinians should shelve its efforts to go to the United Nations for recognition because only negotiations would produce a state. Then he said he would be generous with the size of such a state and be the first to support its membership in the United Nations.
Within minutes after his speech, President Abbas formally announced that Israeli military presence in Palestine would be unacceptable. Unnamed Palestinian advisers said that Bibi had virtually ignored every talking point mentioned by the Palestinians. He responded that the speech was in effect " a declaration of war". The Palestinians by the end of the day said they would not be coming back to negotiate until the settlements stopped.
So we are left with the status quo and not much hope that anything will change anytime soon. The King of Jordan after hearing last week's spat between Bibi and President Obama said that there would be no movement for at least a year. The problem with this is that the UN resolution will come up and the United States will have to be the country that kills it, even though Bibi gave absolutely nothing to his only ally, except heartburn.
Maybe it's just as well. The last time it looked like there would breakthroughs in the peace talks were the Wye Plantation talks under Clinton. Then it was the Palestinians , particularly Yasir Arafat who could not pull the trigger. Basically, the Palestinians got 90% of what they wanted and Arafat thought he couldn't agree because of dissent within the ranks. It's so strange to see Israel now afraid of a moderate Palestinian leader, when they were to cut a deal with their arch enemy and a real killer.
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