My company left Saturday afternoon, so I didn't really get started on this until then. Sunday I started feeling sick, and ran out of energy. No idea whether Monday will be better or worse, so I figured I might as well post this while I can. Maybe I'll circle back later. Big news stories are pretty much the same as they've been of late, so you pretty much know where I stand on them.
Not a lot of music this week, but if I'm up to it, I'll try to post what I have sometime Monday. Another pending problem is that I'm unable to send email, and Cox doesn't seem to have anyone competent to work on the problem until Monday.
Notable tweets:
Yousef Munayyer
[04-03]:
Joe Biden knows backing Israel's genocide in Gaza could cost him the
election he says American democracy depends on.
Joe Biden doesn't care.
Imagine hating Palestinians so much as a US president that you'd
throw away American democracy for it.
Steve Hoffman [04-10]: [meme]: Christians warn us about the anti-Christ for 2,000 years, and when he finally shows up, they buy a bible from him.
Rick Perlstein [04-10]: I mean, protecting criminal presidents from accountability actually is perfectly on-brand for an organization devoted to the legacy of Gerald Ford. [link: Famed photographer quits Ford over Liz Cheney snub]
Initial count: 188 links, 6,611 words.
Israel:
Mondoweiss:
[04-08] Day 185: Israel withdraws from Khan Younis, Palestinian icon Walid Daqqah dies in Israeli prison: "Palestinians describe 'destruction and smell of death' upon returning to Khan Younis, as Israel withdraws from the city to reportedly prepare for the invasion of Rafah. Palestinian leader and writer Walid Daqqah dies in Israeli prison at age 62."
[04-09] Day 186: Hamas maintains calls for permanent ceasefire as Netanyahu 'sets date' for Rafah invasion: "Negotiations are set to continue in Cairo between Hamas and Israel, as Hamas holds to demands of a permanent ceasefire and the return of Palestinians to north Gaza. Meanwhile, Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah."
[04-10] Day 187: Hundreds of bodies recovered at al-Shifa Hospital: "Palestinian civil defense teams charge that Israel intentionally buried Palestinian bodies under the rubble of al-Shifa Hospital to hide evidence of a massacre."
[04-11] Day 188: Tensions rise over potential Iranian response to Israeli attack on consulate in Damascus: "Israel and Iran escalated threats of war as the U.S. central command chief visited the region on Thursday. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes intensify in the central Gaza Strip."
[04-12] Day 189: Israel and US brace for Iranian retaliation as ceasefire talks stall: "The U.S. and Israel intensify preparations for a potential Iranian strike in response to Iran's Damascus consulate attack. Meanwhile, Hamas has conditioned a ceasefire and prisoner swap on the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza."
[04-13] Day 190: : No post.
[04-14] Day 191: Iran launches retaliatory strikes on Israel as Israeli settlers rampage in the West Bank: "Iran said that its retaliation for Israel's April 1 attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus would be 'deemed concluded,' while Biden reportedly told Netanyahu that the U.S. would not back an Israeli counterattack."
Eman Alhaj Ali: [04-10] This year, Eid in Gaza is bittersweet.
Ruwaida Kamal Amer:
[04-08] Six months of this cruel nightmare: "Is the destruction in Gaza beyond repair? Will our friends try to start anew elsewhere? How will we get used to life without the places we love?"
[04-11] 'The colors and joy have disappeared': Gazans return to decimated Khan Younis: "After the withdrawal of Israeli troops, displaced Palestinians flooded back into the city to see what remained. Many were shocked by what they found."
Michael Arria: [04-11] The Shift: Are the Dems shifting on Israel? "More Democrats are beginning to criticize Israel, but it will add up to an actual policy shift?"
James Bamford: [04-12] How US intelligence and an American company feed Israel's killing machine in Gaza. "Now, soldiers and intelligence specialists are being trained at Camp Moshe Dayan to finish the job -- to bomb, shoot, or starve to death the descendants of the Palestinians forced into the squalor of militarily occupied Gaza decades ago."
Ramzy Baroud: [04-12] Killing humanitarian workers as a strategy: Israel's endgame in Gaza.
Isaac Chotiner:
[03-21] The brutal conditions facing Palestinian prisoners: Interview with Tal Steiner, of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI).
[04-02] Biden's increasingly contradictory Israel policy: Interview with Aaron David Miller, who was one of Clinton's negotiators.
[04-12] Inside Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza: Interview with Yuval Abraham, on "his investigations of the IDF's use of AI-backed targeting systems and the dire cost to Palestinian civilians."
Jonathan Cook: [04-09] Israel's killing of aid workers is no accident. It's part of the plan to destroy Gaza.
Dave DeCamp:
[04-11] Gantz says middle school-aged Israeli children will one day fight in Gaza. Also in "Judea and Samaria" and in Lebanon. It's not just the far-right that can't imagine Israel ever enjoying peace.
[04-11] Israeli MK says there are secret plans to establish Israeli settlements in Gaza
Keith Gessen: [04-13] Is this Israel's forever war?: "Foreign-policy analysts whose careers were shaped by the war on terror see troubling parallels." The way I'd put it is that Israel has been in a "forever war" since 1948, and they were psychologically prepped for "forever war" much earlier. They say they always have to fight because of antisemitism, and there's certainly been lots of that, but their wars since 1948 have just generated more antisemitism, and more war -- even when you seem to be winning, they just go on, like, forever.
Especially when you set out to conquer other people, they fight back, and if you beat them down, they fight back again. Britain went to war in the 16th century, and was almost continuously at war somewhere or other until they gave up on their colonies in the 1960s (or the 1990s before they settled the "troubles" in Northern Ireland). The US was continuously at war from the day Henry Luce proclaimed the "American Century" until, well, still working on "forever." In time, Americans walked away from several wars -- most obviously, Afghanistan and Vietnam, which were never going to surrender their independence.
Sahar Ghumkhor: [04-08] For Israel's TikTok serial killers, there is a pleasure in inflicting racial terror in Gaza.
Faris Giacaman: [04-10] The Palestine Walid saw, from the little prison to the big prison.
Eliza Griswold: [03-21] The children who lost limbs in Gaza: "More than a thousand children who were injured in the war are now amputees."
Tareq S Hajjaj: [04-11] 'Come out, you animals': how the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital happened.
Tony Karon/Daniel Levy: [04-11] After the carnage: "Solutions crafted by outsiders to avoid, suppress, and restrict Palestinian agency are bound to fail. Palestinians should decide their own future." How dumb (or senselessly cruel) do you have to be not to understand this? Back on Oct. 8, I dusted off my plan for a free Gaza, the only real requirements being that Israel has no control or presence and that the people of Gaza be free to select their own leaders and organize themselves as they see fit. Democratic processes and individual rights could be conditions for receiving aid, which Gaza needed sorely even then, but the right to select their leaders, form of government, etc., is theirs and theirs alone. Otherwise, they'll never be wholly responsible for their own actions. If they elect Hamas, I'll pity them, but I shouldn't be able to stop them. And Israel, having shown nothing but contempt and inhumanity to Gaza and its people ever since 1948, doesn't deserve any hearing at all.
Menachem Klein: [04-09] Netanyahu isn't the only one interested in prolonging the war: "A broad coalition of political forces, from Israel's far right to the Zionist left, have different motivations for turning the war into the new normal."
Ibtisam Mahdi: [04-10] Against the magnitude of death, our pens feel powerless in Gaza: "Israel's onslaught made me a refugee, a bereaved sister, and a mother to starving children. My journalistic endeavors have become almost impossible."
Nina Martin: [04-13] How famine and starvation can affect generations to come: "Research on WWII's Dutch 'Hunger Winter' has terrifying implications for Gaza's children -- and for their children."
Qassam Muaddi: [04-14] Unleashed: Israeli settlers rampage through West Bank villages, kill two people, injure dozens: "Israeli settlers went on a two-day rampage in the region northeast of Ramallah when a settler teenager was reported missing on Friday. They burned dozens of houses and killed two Palestinians, while effectively blockading some ten villages."
James Ray: [04-12] The killing of Ismail Haniyeh's children exposes Israel's weakness: "Israel has always punitively killed the families of leaders and resistance figures as collective punishment. It is a sign of Israel's inability to extract a military victory on the ground." Doesn't it also suggest some "soft" targets for the "eye-for-an-eye" crowd? My own way of thinking is that identifying a credible opposition leader like Haniyeh presents an opportunity to negotiate, to find common grounds and convert an enemy into a partner. Killing his family just makes any such resolution more difficult. It sends the message that you can never trust us, because we'll never be satisfied until we kill you and everything and everyone you hold dear. As long as that's Israel's position, it's hard to blame Hamas for any form of resistance, even acts that out of context seem completely abhorrent.
Fayyha Shalash: [04-11] Israel shuts down a town in the occupied West Bank, cancelling Eid for Palestinians.
Jeffrey St Clair: [04-13] Intolerable cruelty: Diary of a genocidal war.
Mosab Abu Toha: [02-24] My family's daily struggle to find food in Gaza.
Maknoon Wani: [04-09] Israel's spy-tech industry is a global threat to democracy.
Robin Wright: [03-22] What it takes to give Palestinians a voice: "A new poll conducted during war in Gaza and escalating tensions in the West Bank allows Palestinians to tell the world what they want for their future." I'm pretty skeptical of this, partly because it's pretty easy to rig polls to produce certain results, but also because Palestinians have no real sense of what can be done -- nearly everything one can imagine is proscribed by Israel -- and also no real accountability from their leaders.
Israel vs. Iran:
Will Porter:
James Carden: [04-14] Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to drag the US into war with Iran.
Juan Cole: [04-14] Netanyahu, empowered by Biden's grant of impunity, baits Iran into his genocidal Gaza war.
Dave DeCamp: [04-14] Israel's missile defense against Iran attack estimated to cost over $1 billion.
Kevin Drum: [04-13] Iran sues for peace:
Drones? And a few small missiles? All of which Iran knew would be routinely shot down? This was obviously intended to be a pinprick attack, just enough to save face but not to do any serious damage. It couldn't be more obvious if Iran spelled out a message on the moon.
This is similar to Iran's measured response to Trump's assassination of General Soleimani: one flurry of firepower that was inconsequential, then Iran announced they were satisfied as long as they didn't have to respond to further attacks.
Belén Fernández: [04-14] Sorry, but Iran is not the aggressor here: "Amid the Israeli genocide in Gaza, Western condemnation of the intercepted Iranian attack on Israel is sickeningly cynical."
Mel Gurtov: [04-14] The Israel=Iran confrontation: Episode or war?
Michael Hirsh: Iran's attack seems like it was designed to fail. So what comes next?
Murtaza Hussain: Israel and Israel alone kicked off this escalation -- in a bid to drag the US into war with Iran.
Patrick Kingsley: [04-14] Strikes upend Israel's belief about Iran's willingness to fight it directly: "Israel had grown used to targeting Iranian officials without head-on retaliation from Iran, an assumption overturned by Iran's attacks on Saturday." Also in the New York Times, their idiot-savant columnists offer what they imagine to be helpful advice while reassuring us of their loyalties:
Thomas L Friedman: [04-14] Iran just made a big mistake. Israel shouldn't follow.
Bret Stephens: [04-14] For Israel, revenge should be a dish served cold.
Daniel Larison: [04-12] Biden should not follow Netanyahu into war with Iran: "The Israeli government appears to want to goad Tehran into a military response to divert attention from the slaughter and famine in Gaza and to trap the US into joining the fight."
Aaron Maté: [04-14] Seeking Middle East 'quiet,' Biden fuels regional carnage.
Trita Parsi: [04-14] Iran launches risky attack on Israel: "Biden could have thwarted it, but chose to put Netanyahu before US, which is now at risk of getting dragged into war tonight."
Vijay Prashad: [04-12] Violating diplomatic missions.: "From Israel's bombing of Iran's embassy in Damascus to Ecuador's raid on the Mexican in Quito, leaders feel emboldened by the impunity granted by the Global North."
Barak Ravid: [04-14] Biden told Bibi US won't support an Israeli counterattack on Iran. Scrolling down I see earlier posts: "Iran launches retaliatory drone and missile attack on Israel"; "Iran warns US to stay out of fight with Israel or face attack on troops"; "Biden returns to the White House as imminent Iranian attack on Israel is possible."
Ali Rizk: [04-09] Hezbollah leader ups ante after attack on Iranian consulate.
Israel vs. world opinion:
Nadeine Asbali: [04-12] Does anyone in the UK really know what 'British values' are? Perhaps not, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that people in Ireland, India, Palestine, and dozens of other former colonies have a pretty good idea of "British values." I even know a few things about them from 1775 America.
Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand/Bayan Abu Ta'ema: [04-13] Jordanian protesters demand ending normalization with Israel, despite arrests.
Ellen Cantarow: [04-14] Dead on arrival: Israel's blowback genocide.
Helena Cobban: [03-18] It's past time to end the demonization of Hamas.
[02-15] Shockwaves in the global order: "While the US-Israel alliance has become isolated, new ones are emerging." A longer, more "big view" article, which the blog introduces here. Cobban's previous posts are also worth a look:
[01-30] The Red Sea in history and today.
[01-18] To the people of Gaza: Empathy and admiration, not 'pity'.
[2023-12-31] The politics of ending Gaza's misery.
Marjorie Cohn: [04-14] Nicaragua takes Germany to the World Court: "Germany is second only to the US as the largest supplier of weapons to Israel."
Jack Crosbie: [04-09] l Inside the pro-Palestine movement bird-dogging Biden everywhere he goes: "These activists turned Biden's ritzy New York City fundraiser into a night of protests against Israel's war in Gaza."
Richard Falk: [04-12] Western powers never believed in a rules-based order.
Saleema Gul: [04-10] Debate over political response to Gaza genocide marks pivotal moment for Muslim Americans.
Ali Harb: [03-11] 'Reject AIPAC': US progressives join forces against pro-Israel lobby group: AIPAC is the dominant American lobby for whichever faction is currently in power in Israel -- effectively it is a tool of Israeli foreign policy, as tightly controlled as the diplomatic and espionage efforts -- and it has built such vast influence over both US parties that nearly every politician in Washington follows whatever line they' are given. One way they enforce their power is by recruiting and funding primary challenges, especially to progressive Democrats who recognize social injustice even when it's practiced in Israel. So this is, in jargon Israelis should understand, self-defense, or as those behind Reject AIPAC put it, "a crucial step in putting voters back at the center of our democracy."
David Dayen: [03-11] Progressive groups form counterweight to AIPAC's electoral push.
Jacob Kornbluh: [03-11] 'Reject AIPAC' launches to counter pro-Israel spending in 2024.
Nikki McCann Ramirez: [04-11] Wallace Shawn narrates ad for coalition opposing America's biggest Israel lobby.
Rafi Schwartz: New coalition goes after the mighty lobbying power of AIPAC.
Katherine Hearst: [04-09] Naomi Klein enters the mirror world of conspiracy, colonialism and fascism: On the use of Klein's Doppelganger for understanding "the current Israeli onslaught on Gaza."
Abir Kopty: [04-13] Police raid Berlin conference as repression of Palestine activism escalates in Germany.
Robert Kuttner: [04-08] If not now, when?: "Has Biden's pressure finally ended Israel's war on Gaza's civilians? O4r is the US allowing Bibi one more head fake?"
Blaise Malley: [04-09] Samantha Power: Aid workers says crisis in Gaza 'unprecedented'.
Branko Marcetic: [04-13] Biden's attempt to get tough on Netanyahu quietly failed.
Mitchell Plitnick: [04-13] The liberal Jewish community is beginning to fracture over the Gaza genocide: "J Street is reportedly losing staff and support as they prioritize Israeli militarism over Palestinian rights. The Gaza genocide is revealing the tension between Zionism and liberal Jewish values, a divide which will only continue to grow more stark."
Dahlia Scheindlin: [03-26] Inside Israel's disturbing denial of starvation in Gaza.
Rick Sterling: [04-09] From Six Day Victory to Six Month Failure: "As Israel's international stature grew after the Six Day War, it is collapsing after the Six Month Siege and Massacre in Gaza."
Ramsey Telhami: [04-11] I resigned from World Central Kitchen because it refused to tell the truth about the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Yanis Varoufakis: [04-13] The speech that got me banned from Germany. "Judge for yourselves what kind of society Germany is becoming if its police ban the sentiments below."
Philip Weiss: [04-08] Biden has no emotional attachment to Israel, it's about politics.
America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:
Bruce Fein: [04-08] Kagan's latest bugle for ruinous Empire.
Julia Gledhill: [04-11] DOD budget reform panel's elephant in the room: Bad strategy.
Luke Goldstein: [04-10] The final act on government surveillance: "The House leadership in both parties is poised to expand, not reform, warrantless spying on Americans."
David Klion: [04-09] The great humbling: "How did Joe Biden's foreign poilcy go so off course? Review of Alexander Ward: The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump. The book ends a few months before the Oct. 7 revolt in Gaza, so it's already missing important lessons both about how toxic Trump's foreign policy was and how inadequate and in many ways ill-advised Biden's attempted correction was.
John Lechner/Sergey Eledinov: {04-11] What Washington got wrong about Niger and Russia.
Andrew P Napolitano: {04-12] The CIA wants more power to spy on Americans.
Election notes:
Rebecca Gordon: [04-09] Class warfare will be on the ballot this November: "Republicans have plans for working people: And you're not going to like them."
Dan Hopkins: [04-10] The less you vote, the more you back Trump: "A new poll suggests it's Republicans who should be rooting for higher turnout."
Eric Levitz: [04-13] Don't sneer at white rural voters -- or delude yourself about their politics.
Robert F Kennedy Jr: And suddenly we have a cluster of stories on the third-party candidate:
Nikki McCann Ramirez: [04-11] RFJ Jr. campaign fires staffer who said the quiet part out loud: "RFT Jr.'s campaign has dismissed a staffer who said a Trump reelection was all right because her 'number one priority' was defeating Biden."
Tessa Stuart: [04-11] RFK Jr. seeks endorsement of political party he once called a 'treasonous cabal': Now he wants to run on the ballot line of the Alaskan Independence Party.
Trump, and other Republicans: But first, let's open up some space to talk about abortion politics:
David W Chen/Michael Wines: [04-10] How the GOP molded the Arizona court that upheld the abortion ban: "Arizona's former governor, Doug Ducey, expanded the court to seven justices. All solid conservatives, they upheld a 160-year-old abortion ban that presents a political risk to Republicans."
Rachel M Cohen: [04-11] Florida and Arizona show why abortion attacks are not slowing down: "The judges aren't done."
Susan B Glasser: [04-11] Donald Trump did this: "On abortion, Arizona, and the 2024 Presidential election."
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling: Kari Lake is trying to make people forget her real abortion stance.
Sarah Jones: [04-11] Abortion opponents can't be 'pro-family'.
Ed Kilgore: [04-10] In a first, Arizona Republicans rush to dismantle a total abortion ban.
Eric Levitz: [04-09] Arizona's ban spotlights the fraudulence of Trump's "moderation" on abortion.
Dahlia Lithwick: [04-12] Arizona's atrocious abortion law is just the latest example of what Roe didn't protect.
Harold Meyerson: [04-11] On the origins of Arizona's new old abortion ban. If Dobbs had been less of a political hatchet job, they would have started by clearing the field of all pre-Roe bans, and also of the recent "trigger bills," forcing states to at least think about what they were doing. Still, even people who anticipated such rude shocks were taken aback by this case, a law passed 48 years before Arizona had enough [white] people to qualify as a state, even before the end of slavery.
Anna North: [04-08] Trump may sound moderate on abortion. The groups setting his agenda definitely aren't.
Nikki McCann Ramirez: [04-10] Fox News' prime-time shows mentioned Arizona's abortion ban exactly zero times.
Bill Scher: [04-09] Trump can't run from his biggest accomplishment: Overturning Roe.
Michael Tomasky: Trump's abortion gambit proves he's bad a politics.
Bob Topper: [04-14] Roe v. Wade: Reasoned v. the right.
Ali Breland: [04-13] Kamala Harris isn't letting Trump dodge on abortion.
We can also group several stories on Trump's court date on Monday in New York:
Eric Lach: [04-14] Donald Trump's trial of the century.
Ruth Marcus: [04-14] Why did this seamy Trump trial have to be the first?
David Corn: [04-12] Why a porn star-payoff is exactly the right first criminal trial for Donald Trump: "It will showcase the trashy and misogynistic world from which he emerged."
Amy Davidson Sorkin: [04-14] Donald Trump's very busy court calendar.
Erica Orden: A porn star, a president and a publisher named Pecker: The key potential witnesses at Trump's criminal trial.
James Romoser: How Donald Trump gets special treatment in the legal system: "The former president rails against a 'two-tiered system of justice.' But he's the one benefiting from it."
Mark Joseph Stern: I was a skeptic of the Stormy Daniels prosecution. I was wrong.
That hardly exhausts their capacity for senseless cruelty, starting with their Fearless Führer:
Jessica Bennett: [04-14] Stormy Daniels and the comeuppance of Donald Trump.
Charles R Davis: [04-09] Jared Kushner's "unusual" dependence on foreign money shocks other investors: "99% of his cash came from foreign sources."
David Dayen: [04-12] Republicans are objectively pro-junk fee.
Alan Feuer/Maggie Haberman: [04-13] Inside Donald Trump's embrace of the Jan. 6 rioters: "The former president initially disavowed the attack on the Capitol, but he is now making it a centerpiece of his general election campaign."
Jill Habig/Jonathan Miller: How the right is taking over state courts with judicial gerrymandering.
Marianne LeVine/Yasmeen Abutaleb: [04-14] Trump supporters echo pro-Palestinian 'genocide Joe' chant: "It's unclear what they meant by it, as Trump has pledged similarly strong support for Israel." Actually, Trump has pledge even stronger support, totally unflinching, while ridiculing Biden as weak. But the chant hits a note that even Trump heads recognize as inherently damning, and that exposes a real weakness that Biden has.
Charisma Madarang: [04-10] Lara Trump peddles 'massive fraud' 2020 election claims in RNC robocall.
Heather Digby Parton: [04-08] "His enemies are America's enemies": Trump is getting help preparing his revenge list.
Rick Perlstein: [04-10] Fascist state: "There are degrees of political insanity. After its recent Republican primary elections, Texas approaches a psychotic break."
Tobi Raji: [04-13] Kansas governor vetoes a ban on gender-affirming care; GOP vows override: Thanks to gerrymandering, they seem to have the votes to do so.
Nikki McCann Ramirez: [04-10] Former Trump money man sentenced to five months for perjury: Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's former chief financial officer.
Greg Sargent: Trump's weird moment with Mike Johnson reveals a deeper GOP sickness.
Prem Thakker: The vicious things Republicans have said about Palestinians since October 7.
Li Zhou: [04-09] What's behind the latest right-wing revolt against Mike Johnson.
Biden and/or the Democrats:
Jonathan Chait:
[04-09] The left-wing authoritarians shutting down the Democratic Party: Is there any such thing as "left-wing authoritarians"? Chait seems to think that anything you can criticize the right for must have a symmetric analogue on the left, which is the flank he's always most enthusiastic to attack from his conceited liberal perch. [Need to write more on this.]
[04-10] The media did not make up Trump's Russia scandal: "Liberal bias mostly exists outside politics coverage."
David Dayen: [04-10] TSMC chips deal promotes the logic of Biden's industrial policy.
John Nichols: [04-05] More than half a million Democratic voters have told Biden: Save Gaza! "The campaign to use 'uncommitted' primary votes to send a message to Biden has won two dozen delegates, and it keeps growing." I'm sorry, but these are not impressive numbers. And it is telling that you don't actually have a candidate -- one more credible than the underappreciated Marianne Williamson, that is -- leading the challenge (as Eugene McCarthy did in 1968). The obvious difference is that Americans were more directly impacted by war in Vietnam than they are now in Gaza: even though many of us are immensely alarmed by Israel's genocide, its impact on our everyday life is very marginal. Also, Biden is widely seen by Democrats (if rarely by anyone else) as the safe option to defend against Trump, who most Democrats do regard as a clear and present danger. The main reason there is that the all-important donor class seems to be satisfied with Biden, but would surely throw a fit (as Bloomberg did in 2020) if anyone like Sanders or Warren made a serious run for the nomination. Also, perhaps, that back in 1968, few people really understood how bad throwing the election to a Republican would turn out to be.
Evan Osnos: [04-06] Joe Biden and US policy toward Israel.
Matt Stieb: [04-11] Biden's leverage campaign against Bibi isn't producing dramatic results.
Legal matters and other crimes:
Jeff Asher: [04-02] It's early, but murder is falling even faster so far in 2024. I don't see, and cannot find, comparable numbers for Wichita, which had a record high number of homicides in 2023 (almost all gun-related).
Andrea Beaty/Emma Sarsano: [04-11] Justice's slow prosecution of Trump is just the start of their sluggishness: "The top leadership at DOJ, including deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco, has failed to take available steps to hold white-collar criminals accountable."
David Dayen: [04-09] Reform groups home in on lack of corporate prosecutions at DOJ: "In particular, the corporate defense record of the acting number three at Justice, Benjamin Minzer, is put under scrutiny."
Hassan Ali Kanu: [04-09] The truth about the Comstock Act: "The anti-obscenity law is unenforceable and probably unconstitutional. Conservatives still want to use it to ban medication abortions."
Ian Millhiser: [04-09] The Supreme Cour will decide if states can ban lifesaving abortions: "The Court's decision in Moyle is likely to determine whether some women live or die."
Climate and environment:
Rebecca Burns: [03-12] Against the wind: "Climate science deniers, right-wing think tanks, and fossil fuel shills are plotting to foil the renewable-energy revolution."
Kevin Drum: [04-08] Global sea temps continue to go nuts.
Benji Jones: [04-09] What the Ohio train derailment teaches us about poisoning public trust: "Long after the disaster, residents of East Palestine still fear for their safety."
Jonathan Watts: [04-13] As monthly heat records tumble, scientists are increasingly alarmed: "If the anomaly doesn't stabilize by August, 'the world will be in uncharted territory.'"
Economic matters:
Dean Baker:
[04-04] New York Times likes to readers about student loan debt (and yes, the lie helps Trump).
[04-10] March CPI: Should we be worried? "The inflation hawks took March's CPI as cause for celebration, inflation may not be dead yet."
Suzanne Gordon/Steve Early: [04-11] Privatization warning: "A VA advisory panel issues a red alert on outsourcing." Subheds: "Higher costs, less quality"; "Cost overruns"; "No training or accountability"; "Red team recommendations"; "DOD's example?"
Paul Krugman:
[04-09] Stumbling into Goldilocks.
Ukraine War:
Connor Echols: [04-12] Diplomacy Watch: Ukraine risks losing the war -- and the peace: "It's now unclear if the US Congress will ever manage to send more aid to Kyiv."
Dave DeCamp:
[04-11] Russia destroys one of Ukraine's largest power plants: "Moscow has stepped up strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries."
[04-14] US General says Russia's military is bigger than before Ukraine invasion. Remember the line about extending the war to "degrade" Russia's military?
John Mueller: [04-09] Ukraine war ceasefire may require accepting a partition: "Kyiv wound likely see significant economic and political benefits -- and move closer to the West -- from a cessation of hostilities." This has become obvious a year ago, but after Ukraine recovered territory along the northeast and southwest fronts in late 2022, they held out big hopes for their much-hyped "spring offensive" of 2023. Nine months later, the "gains" were slightly negative. Since then, most of the action has been away from the unmovable front: notably drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and on Ukrainian power plants. Which is to say, punitive terror attacks, reminders of the ongoing cost of war that have no bearing on its conclusion. Before the war, there were two basic options: one was the Minsk agreements, which would have unified Ukraine but given Russian minority rights that could have kept western Ukraine from moving toward economic integration with Europe; the other was to allow secession following fair referendums, which would almost certainly have validated the secessionists in Crimea and Donbas (but probably not elsewhere). In a divided Ukraine, the west could more easily align with Europe, while the east could keep its Russian ties. Either of these would have been much preferable to the war that maximalists on both sides insisted on.
John Quiggin: [04-03] Navies are obsolete, but no one will admit it: Examples here start with Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which seems to have provided little beyond Ukrainian drone target practice, and the US Navy in the Red Sea, which hasn't been able to thwart Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping (Suez Canal traffic is down 70%).
Around the world:
Sara Ather: [04-11] This Eid, Muslims in India face repression and erasure of their cultural identity.
Christophe Jaffrelot: [04-12] Is India still a democracy? "Narenda Modi has hollowed out institutions and targeted opponents, all the while sowing interethnic tensions."
James Park: [04-10] South Korean president faces setbacks in elections: "Yoon Suk-yeol's foreign policy agenda is likely on ice as the opposition party wins control of parliament."
Boeing:
Matt Stieb: [04-10] New Boeing whistleblower alleges another plane may also be faulty: Sam Salehpour, "who has worked at Boeing since 2007, claimed that the fuselage of some 787 Dreamliners has been improperly fastened together -- a flaw that could cause the plane to tear open in air after thousands of flights."
Endowment Justice Collective: [03-29] Rutgers profits from Boeing airstrikes launched on Gaza.
OJ Simpson: Famous football player, broadcaster, convicted criminal (but famously acquitted on murder charges), dead at 76. I'm not inclined to care about any of this, but he did elicit another round of articles:
Jeet Heer: [04-12] OJ Simpson proved that with enough money you can get away with murder: I don't think it was that simple, but sure, money often tilts the scales of justice, as does race, and in Simpson's case celebrity mixed them up in ways that were hard to anticipate at the time, or clearly disentangle even now.
Will Leitch: [04-11] Thankfully, OJ Simpson was one of a kind: "Only someone who straddled the fault lines of race, culture, and sports could've produced such a spectacle."
Emily Yahr/Elahe Izadi: [04-14] After OJ Simpson's trial, an insatiable appetite for reality TV.
William J Astore: [04-11] There is only one spaceship earth: "Freeing the world from the deadly shadow of genocide and ecocide."
Charlotte Barnett: [04-10] Declutter, haul, restock, repeat: "The content creators making a living by cleaning one purs tower, acrylic plastic box, and egg organizer at a time."
Emmeline Clein: [04-12] How capitalism disordered our eating: "From Weight Watchers to Ozempic, big business profits off eating disorders and their treatments."
Russell Arben Fox: [04-10] Thinking about Wendell Berry's leftist lament (and more). The Berry book is The Need to Be Whole: Patriotism and the History of Prejudice. Also segues into a discussion of Ian Angus: The War Against the Commons: Dispossession and Resistance in the Making of Capitalism. The destruction of the commons is a major theme in Astra Taylor's The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, including a critique of the famous "tragedy of the commons" theory that I was unaware of but long needed. Scrolling down in Fox's blog, I see a couple pieces I had read in the Wichita Eagle. (He teaches here in Wichita, and I believe we have mutual friends, but as far as I know he's not aware of me.)
Robert Kuttner: [04-09] The political economy of exile: Searching for safe havens from Trumpism, or escaping from "shithole countries" if you're rich enough.
Michael Ledger-Lomas: [04-14] The outsize influence of small wars: Review of Laurie Benton's book, They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence. These "small wars" were mostly directed by European powers against their would-be colonies, most fought with a huge technological edge which complemented their legal scheming, distinguishing them from the large wars Europeans fought against each other. That's pretty much the same definition Max Boot used in his book, The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power.
Walter G Moss: [04-14] 2024 US anxieties and Hitler 1933: "Here is a friendly reminder that all it would take for Trump to be elected is a series of mistakes by the electorate -- many of them not especially earthshaking." I figured this was a bit far-fetched to include in the section on Trump, the Republicans, and their more mundane crime interests, but Hitler-Trump comparisons are a parlor game of some interest for those who know more than a little about both. Speaking of parlor games for history buffs, Moss previously wrote:
Yasmin Nair: [03-27] What really happened at Current Affairs? This looks to be way too long, pained, deep, and trivial to actually read, but maybe some day. And having thrown a tantrum or two of my own way back in the days when I slaved for someone else's parochially leftist journal, it may even hit close to home. From my vantage point, Nathan J Robinson is a smart, sensible, and prodigious critic, and Current Affairs is one of my more reliably insightful sources as I go about my weekly chores. That such qualities can go hand-in-hand with less admirable traits is, well, not something I feel secure enough to cast stones over.
John Quiggin: [03-29] Daniel Kahneman has died.
Ingrid Robeyns: [04-13] Limitarianism update: Author of the recent book, Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth, with links to reviews, interviews, etc. Comments suggest that the concept is better than the title.
Luke Savage: [04-13] The rich: On top of the world and very anxious about it: "The small handful of ultrawealthy winners are firmly ensconced in their positions of privilege in power. Yet so many of them seem haunted by the possibility that maybe they don't deserve it."
Robert Wright: [04-12] Marc Andreessen's mindless techno-optimism.
Li Zhou: [04-10] The Vatican's new statement on trans rights undercuts its attempts at inclusion.
Paul Elie: [04-13] the Vatican's statement on gender is unsurprising, and a missed opportunity.