Monday, September 30, 2024
Speaking of Which
As expected, I've had very little time to work on this all week.
The idea of starting each week's post with an evolving executive
summary will have to wait until next week, at the earliest.
Trying to wrap this up Monday afternoon, but I soon have to take
a break to buy some lumber and tools, and I should spend most of
the day working on the upstairs room (having wasted my weekend on
what should have been a simple wiring job, and, well, much of the
bulk below. I probably won't post this until late, so I'll likely
find more, but in lieu of trying to summarize my main points, let
me just emphasize two:
I've tried very hard for very long to be as understanding as
possible to Israelis, even though I never embraced the nationalist
movement that founded and led the "Jewish State" (never mind the
crypto-religious settler cult that currently holds sway over it).
Nor have I been reluctant to criticize when I've sensed similar
(correlative?) movements among Palestinians, even when I saw in
them reflections of the dominant Israeli trends. I believe that
people of all sides deserve human rights, and I'm sympathetic to
those who are denied them, regardless of whose fault that might
be (even when the fault is one's own). However, at this point
Israel alone -- by which I mean the current governing coalition
and all those who support them (not all Israelis, but most; not
most Americans, but some) -- bear exclusive responsibility for
all pain and suffering in the region, even their own. One thing
that follows from this is that every violence from any side is
properly viewed as a consequence of Netanyahu's incitement and
perpetuation of this genocidal war. Just for the record, I don't
approve of Hamas or Hezbollah violence any more than I approve
of Israeli violence, but I understand that when Israel acts as
it has been doing, human nature will respond in kind. Israel
alone has the power to end this conflict. That they refuse to
pay even the minimal rights of according Palestinians a right
to live in peace and dignity puts this all on them.
I have very little new to say about the US elections.
Trump, Vance, and virtually every other Republican have proven
to be even more boorish and benighted than previously imagined.
Honest and decent American voters have to stop them, which means
electing Democrats, regardless of their flaws. I will continue
to note some of these flaws, but none of them can possibly alter
the prime directive, which is to stop the Republicans. To that
end, I will continue to note pieces that expose their failures
and that heap derision on them, but I don't see that doing so
here makes much difference. I, and probably you, know enough
already. Aside from voting, which is the least one can and
should do, I wouldn't mind tuning out until November, when we
can wake up and assess the damages.
I could write much more about each of these two points, but
not now.
Top story threads:
Israel: Israel dramatically expanded its
genocidal war into Lebanon this week, which warrants yet another
section, below
Mondoweiss:
[09-23]
Day 353: Israel launches bombing campaign on Lebanon as Hezbollah
retaliates: "Israel's intensifying bombardment of Lebanon has
killed at least 274 people so far, while Hezbollah retaliates with
rockets across Israel. The Israeli army also raided and forcibly
shut down the Ramallah office of Al Jazeera."
[09-26]
Israel's Genocide Day 356: Netanyahu denies accepting US-French
ceasefire proposal with Lebanon: "As Israel expands bombing
in Lebanon, Hezbollah rockets have reached reached Akka, Haifa,
Tiberias, and the lower Galilee. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israel
returned a truckload of decomposing bodies without identification
that it had abducted from Gaza." First thing to note here is that
they've changed the headline here: all previous entry titles
started with 'Operation al-Aqsa Flood' (their quotes)
before "Day." I've always dropped that part, as I found it both
unnecessary and unhelpful: "Operation al-Aqsa Flood" lasted at
most four days; everything since then, as well as most of those
first four days, has been Israel's doing -- and I wasn't about
to impose Israel's own declaration ("Operation Swords of Iron,"
which in itself says much about Israeli mentality). I'm not going
to repeat the new title either (beyond this one instance), but
I do consider it truthful, and have since about one week into
the operation, by which time it was clear what Netanyahu had in
mind (look back for quotes about Amalek; e.g.: Noah Lanard:
[2023-11-03]
The dangerous history behind Netanyahu's Amalek rhetoric: "His
recent biblical reference has long been used by the Israeli far right
to justify killing Palestinians").
[09-30]
Day 360: Israel tells US Lebanon invasion 'imminent' as Hezbollah
says it is 'ready to engage' Israeli forces: "Hezbollah's
Deputy Secretary General said Hezbollah's military capacities
remain intact, while Israel has reportedly informed the U.S. that
an Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon is 'imminent.'"
Ahmed Abu Abdu: [09-25]
Waste is piling up in Gaza. The public health implications are
disastrous. "I am in charge of waste management in Gaza City.
The Israeli occupation has launched a war on our sanitation
facilities and waste management systems, creating an environmental
and health crisis that will take years to recover from."
B'Tselem:
The pogroms are working - the transfer is already happening:
This is mostly a report on events in the West Bank prior to the
Oct. 7 Gaza revolt, after which settler violence in the West Bank --
"in the past two yeras, at least six West Bank communities have
been displaced" -- only increased.
For decades, Israel has employed a slew of measures designed to
make life in dozens of Palestinian communities throughout the West
Bank miserable. This is part of an attempt to force residents of
these communities to uproot themselves, seemingly of their own
accord. Once that is achieved, the state can realize its goal of
taking over the land. To advance this objective, Israel forbids
members of these communities from building homes, agricultural
structures or public buildings. It does not allow them to connect
to the water and power grids or build roads, and when they do, as
they have no other choice, Israel threatens demolition, often
delivering on these threats.
Settler violence is another tool Israel employs to further
torment Palestinians living in these communities. Such attacks
have grown significantly worse under the current government,
turning life in some places into an unending nightmare and
denying residents any possibility of living with even minimal
dignity. The violence has robbed Palestinian residents of their
ability to continue earning a living. It has terrorized them to
the point of fearing for their lives and made them internalize
the understanding that there is no one to protect them.
This reality has left these communities with no other choice,
and several of them have uprooted themselves, leaving hearth and
home for safer places. Dozens of communities scattered throughout
the West Bank live in similar conditions. If Israel continues this
policy, their residents may also be displaced, freeing Israel to
achieve its goal and take over their land.
Tareq S Hajjaj: [09-26]
In Gaza, all eyes are on Lebanon: "People in Gaza hoped that
an expansion of the Lebanese front would ease pressure on Gaza.
Instead, Israel has escalated its massacres while global attention
is elsewhere. They still hope the resistance in Lebanon will make
Israel pay."
Vera Sajrawi: [09-25]
In Israel's prisons, skin diseases are a method of punishment:
"Prison authorities are allowing scabies to spread by restricting
Palestinian inmates' water supply and depriving them of clean
clothes and medical care."
Erika Solomon/Lauren Leatherby/Aric Toler: [09-25]
Israeli bulldozers flatten mile after mile in the West Bank:
"Videos from Tulkarm and Jenin show bulldozers destroying
infrastructure and businesses, as well as soldiers impeding
local emergency responders."
Oren Ziv: [09-23]
Settlers attacked Bana's village. Then a soldier shot her through
her window: "After Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinians with
rocks and Molotov cocktails, soldiers raided Qaryut and killed a
13-year-old as she stood in her bedroom."
Israel targets Lebanon:
Following last
week's stochastic terrorist exercise -- detonating thousands of
booby-trapped pages and walkie-talkies -- Israel escalated its
bombing of Lebanon, Israel targeting and killed senior Hezbollah
leadership, including long-time leader Hasan Nasrallah. In many
quarters, this will be touted as a huge success for Netanyahy in
his campaign to exterminate all of Israel's enemies, but right
now the longer-term consequences of fallout and blowback are
incalculable and probably even unimaginable. We should be clear
that Hezbollah did not provoke these attacks, even in response
to Israel's genocide in Gaza.
(In 2006, Hezbollah, which had
been formed in opposition to Israel's 1982-2000 occupation of
southern Lebanon, did act against Israel, as a diversion after
Israel launched its first punitive siege of Gaza. Israel shifted
attention to Lebanon, and conducted a horrific bombing campaign,
as well as an unsuccessful ground incursion.)
Rather, Israel has
repeatedly provoked Hezbollah -- which has tried to deter further
attacks by demonstrating their ability to fire rockets deep into
Israel, a strategy I regard as foolish ("deterrence" only deters
people who weren't going to attack you in the first place; it
works for Israel against its hapless neighbors, but when others
try it, it just provokes greater arrogance and aggression by
Israel). As I've stressed all along, Israel's expansion of the
war into Lebanon serves two purposes: to provide "fog of war"
cover for continuing the genocide in Gaza, and expanding it into
the West Bank; and to lock reflexive US support in place, which
is tied to the supposedly greater regional threat of Iran. The US
could short-circuit this war by denouncing Israel's aggression, by
demanding an immediate cease-fire, and by negotiating a separate
peace and normalization with Iran (which Iran has long signalled
a desire for). Instead, the Biden administration continues to let
Netanyahu pull its strings.
Note that I haven't tried to subdivide these links, but events
unfolded quickly, so dates may be significant.
Al Jazeera: [09-28]
Israel kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in air strike on
Beirut: "Hezbollah confirms Nasrallah's death as Israel says
it hit the group's leaders at their headquarters in south Beirut."
Seraj Assi: [09-24]
Israel is extending its genocidal war to Lebanon.
Elia Ayoub: [09-23]
With page blasts and airstrikes, Israel unleashes its terror on
Lebanon: "Israeli leaders have threatened to replicate the 'Gaza
model' in south Lebanon. But Hezbollah may prove to be an even more
challenging foe than Hamas."
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor:
Israel escalates its military attacks in Lebanon, targeting
residential areas and civilians with intense raids.
Khader Jabbar/Abualjawad Omar: [09-27]
From Gaza to Beirut: Abdaljawad Omar on the ripple effects of
Israel's attack on Lebanon: Interview, from [09-25]. Omar
has written several articles for
Mondoweiss that I've been highly critical of. On the other
hand, I see little to quibble with here:
I may be exaggerating at some level, but those are the contours
of how Israel viewed October 7. Not because it was really an
existential risk. We already saw that in only two or four days,
Israel was able to regain the Gaza envelope and the settlements
surrounding Gaza. But on the level of the psyche, that's how it
felt for most Israelis. So they want to regain the initiative.
They saw October 7 as an opportunity to exact a price from
everybody in the region who supports resistance. They want to
destroy societies that are challenging them, whether in Gaza,
Lebanon, or other places.
The real desire is for an ultimate form of victory, this kind
of awe-inspiring victory that will give them an answer to their
existential questions.
I think that on some level, the Israelis won the war, they won
the victory. They want to create these awe-inspiring moments, like
we saw with the pager and walkie-talkie attacks, which they have
severely missed in contrast to how they were caught with their
pants down on October 7.
October 7 was a moment that not only stuck in the Israeli psyche,
but the Palestinian psyche as well. Israel's genocide in Gaza inspired
shock and horror, but didn't inspire a lot of awe. It didn't give
Israelis the taste of power that Israeli identity was built on. But
with Hezbollah, we've seen this awe factor come back, like the
penetration of the communication devices and blowing them all up at
once. This includes some of the operations that Israel has conducted
in Gaza, like the extraction of some Israeli prisoners held by the
Palestinian resistance.
That's on a level of, if you want, psychological and aesthetic
analysis. But on a political level, Israel finds this as an opportunity.
It's already way deep into a war for 11 months, a war that is costing it
a lot economically, socially, politically, and diplomatically. It sees
that only more war will bring about better results in those domains.
It will be able to establish what it calls deterrence. It will be
able to put a line in the sand and say, if you ever challenge us again,
this is what will happen to you. It will burn into the consciousness of
the people of the region that Israel shouldn't be played with. All of
these motivations coexist all at once in Israel's conduct -- and of
course, for the settlers specifically.
The only ones who have a real solution for this whole Palestinian
question, instead of managing the conflict or shrinking the conflict
or destroying the possibilities for two states or one state, are
the settlers who say that we should change the paradigm with the
Palestinians. They say, we should destroy Palestinian existence in
the land of Palestine.
So for the settlers, the "ultimate victory" is to get rid of as
many Palestinians as possible from the river to the sea, including
Palestinian citizens of Israel, and establish the kind of pure
religious Jewish state that they have always dreamed of. For them,
war is desirable. It maintains the possibility for ethnic cleansing,
it maintains the possibility for genocide. It means it still keeps
the possibility of total victory open. Of course, even in their
wildest dreams, even if they clear out all of the Palestinians
from Palestine, I think the Palestinian question will not go away.
I don't have time to ruminate on this right now, but there is
a lot to unpack here.
Ken Klippenstein: [09-23]
Beep, beep! "Israel's pager caper is a Wile E. Coyote vs. Road
Runner exercise in futility."
This is the less cinematic but no less depressing reality of the
pager attack: it is just another version of the latest weapon in
the never changing battlefield, one typified by these kinds of
tit-for-tat attacks that never bring about a decisive ending or
a new beginning.
Before long, other countries and terrorist groups will buy or
develop their own Acme Exploding Pagers, as Panetta hinted. The
media's uncritically declaring Israel's latest caper a success
creates an incentive for countries to do just that. Absent an
honest assessment, hands will again be wrung, chins scratched,
ominous warnings issued, and beep, beep! -- perpetual war will
zip right on by.
And of course when Hezbollah or some other group attacks our
devices, the national security state will happily label it terrorism.
Edo Konrad: [09-20]
What Israelis don't want to hear about Iran and Hezbollah:
"For years, Israeli expert Ori Goldberg has tried to challenge
commonly-held assumptions about the Islamic Republic and its
allies. Will anyone listen?"
Andrew Mitrovica: [09-28]
The peace appeals of Israel's Western enablers are a cynical
charade: "For the West, Lebanese lives are as disposable
as Palestinian lives. Its calls for a ceasefire are no more
than a sham."
Qassam Muaddi:
Nicole Narea: [09-28]
Hezbollah's role in the Israel-Hamas war, explained.
Liz Sly: [09-29]
Nasrallah's assassination shreds illusion of Hezbollah's military
might. What military might? In 2006, Hezbollah was effective at
repelling an Israeli ground incursion, which wasn't all that serious
in the first place. But Hezbollah has no air force, no effective
anti-aircraft defense, no tanks, few if any drones, a few small
missiles that while more sophisticated than anything Hamas had in
Gaza have never been able to inflict any serious damage. Sure, they
talk a foolish game of deterrence, but no one in Israel takes their
threat seriously.
Mohamad Hasan Sweidan: [09-20]
No one is safe: the global threat of Israel's weaponized pagers.
America's Israel (and Israel's America):
Michael Arria:
[09-24]
The Shift: Biden team admits they won't get ceasefire done.
Cites the Sanger and Ward pieces below.
David E Sanger: [09-23]
Biden works against the clock as violence escalates in the Middle
East: "President Biden is beginning to acknowledge that he is
simply running out of time to help forge a cease-fire and hostage
deal with Hamas, his aides say. And the risk of a wider war has
never looked greater." It's hard to make things happen when you
don't have the will to exercise your power. Still, it's pretty
pathetic to think that a sitting US president needs more than four
months to demand something as simple and straightforward as a
cease-fire. (The hostage exchange is an unnecessary complication.)
While I'm sure there are limits to presidential power, the problem
here appears to be that Biden and his administration don't have
the faintest understanding of what needs to be done. Nor do they
seem to care.
Alexander Ward: [09-19]
US officials concede Gaza cease-fire out of reach for Biden:
"Biden administration is still pushing talks, but a breakthrough
appears unlikely.
Arria also quotes Alon Pinkas in
Haaretz:
[Netanyahu] has a vested interest in prolonging the war for his
political survival and in making it an election issue that could
potentially harm Vice President Kamala Harris. It seems that the
US finally and very belatedly realized it last week, which is why,
however unfortunate, there is little the US will do until the
election, unless it's forced to act in the case of a major escalation.
[09-26]
The Shift: Tlaib target of (yet another) smear campaign: "Rep.
Rashida Tlaib is being targeted by yet another smear campaign, after
she criticized Michigan's AG for pursuing charges against Palestine
protesters."
[09-27]
Netanyahu defends Gaza and Lebanon attacks in UN speech:
"Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations on Friday, vowing
to continue waging war on Gaza and Lebanon. Israeli media reports
the Israeli Prime Minister ordered massive strikes on Beirut just
before giving the speech."
Sam Bull: [09-23]
US sending more troops to the Middle East: "Now close to 50,000
American service members in the region as the threat of a wider war
looms."
Tara Copp: [09-23]
US sends more troops to Middle East as violence rises between Israel
and Hezbollah: I've been saying all along that Israel's attacks
on Lebanon (aka Hezbollah) are designed to trap the US into a role
of shielding Israel from Iran. The thinking is that if the US and
Iran go to war, the US will become more dependent on Israel, and
more indulgent in their main focus, which is making Gaza and the
West Bank uninhabitable for Palestinians. US troop movement prove
that the strategy is working, even though it's pretty obviously
cynical and deranged.
Dave DeCamp: [09-26]
US gives Israel $8.7 billion in military aid for operations in Gaza
and Lebanon.
Fawaz A Gerges: [09-30]
The rising risk of a new forever war: Title from jump page: "The
United States has not been a true friend of Israel." This is the
relevant paragraph:
Nevertheless, it is the only way forward. Israel's hubris in its
attacks on Lebanon has been enabled by America's "ironclad" military
support and diplomatic cover for its ally. In this regard, the United
States has not been a true friend to Israel. Israel will not know
lasting peace until it recognizes that its long-term security depends
on reconciliation with the millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West
Bank and East Jerusalem. Its leaders must find a political compromise
that will finally allow Israel to be fully integrated into the region.
Top-down normalization with Arab autocrats is not enough.
Jamal Kanj: [09-27]
Israel's war on Lebanon and Netanyahu's October Surprise to pick the
next US president.
Yousef Munayyer: [09-25]
How Anthony Blinken said no to saving countless lives in Gaza:
"The secretary of state overruled his own experts, allowing bombs
to continue to flow to Israel. How many more people would be alive
today if he hadn't?"
Brett Murphy: [09-24]
Israel deliberately blocked humanitarian aid to Gaza, two government
bodies concluded. Anthony Blinken rejected them.
Ishaan Tharoor:
[09-20]
A broader Israel-Lebanon war now seems inevitable: "This week's
pager explosions in Lebanon represent a tactical victory for Israel.
They also appear to lock the region into an escalatory spiral." I
thought that tactics were meant to facilitate strategy, but it's
hard to discern either in such massive, indiscriminate mayhem.
Unless the strategy is to convince the world that Israelis are
insane as well as evil, in which case, sure, they're making their
point.
[09-23]
World leaders gather at a UN desperate to save itself: "Ongoing
crises in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine have underscores the inefficacy
of the world's foremost decision-making body. Great power competition
may be to blame." You think? The UN has no power to enforce judgments,
so the only way it can function is as a forum for negotiation, and
that only works if all parties are amenable. There is nothing the UN
can do about a nation like Israel that is flagrantly in contempt of
international law. In many ways, the US is even more of a rogue force
on the international scene. America's disregard for other nations has
pushed other countries into defensive stances, further disabling the
UN. Now it's just a big gripe session, as the speeches by Netanyahu
and Biden made abundantly clear.
[09-24]
Biden walks off the UN stage, leaving behind a world in 'purgatory':
"In his last speech from the dais of the UN General Assembly, Biden
highlighted his efforts to resolve the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Others remain skeptical."
[09-27]
At the UN, overwhelming anger at Israel: "At the United Nations,
world leaders cast Israel's heavy-handed campaigns in Gaza and the
inability of the UN system to rein it as a danger to the institution
itself."
Robert Wright: [09-27]
Biden and Blinken, Israel's lawyers.
Israel vs. world opinion:
Kyle Anzalone: [09-27]
Israel is fighting a war on seven fronts: "The Israeli leader
called the UN General Assembly a 'swamp of antisemitic bile'.
The UN published a
statement summary of Netanyahu's speech. Two fairly obvious
points here: (1) most leaders would seek to divide and diminish
their enemies, but Netanyahu conflates and aggrandizes them, to
make them look more ominous to Israel's patrons in America, to
keep them in line; (2) relentlessly conflating any criticism of
Israel's apartheid and genocide with anti-semitism is a sure-fire
way to promote generic Judeophobia.
Jonathan Cook:
Jim Debrosse: [09-21]
Interfaith delegation shows solidarity with Palestinians facing
Israeli apartheid, violence, and displacement: "The 30-member
US Interfaith Journey for Justice visited the West Bank in late
August to show solidarity with Palestinians facing Israeli apartheid,
violence, and displacement."
Amira Jarmakani/Emmaia Gelman: [09-24]
Zionist organizations' latest strategy to criminalize Palestine
advocacy: weaponizing civil rights: "The recent avalanche of
civil rights lawsuits in response to Palestine campus protests is
the result of an intentional Israel advocacy strategy: criminalizing
anti-Zionist politics by contorting the idea of civil rights."
Natasha Lennard: [09-26]
Meet the first tenured professor to be fired for pro-Palestine
speech: "Maura Finkelstein was terminated by Muhlenberg College
for an Instagram repost."
Neil MacFarquhar: [09-24]
Furious over the continuing war in Gaza, world leaders castigate
Israel.
Craig Mokhiber: [09-28]
How Israel attempts to justify indiscriminate attacks on civilians
(and why it's failing): "Israel's mass terror attack in Lebanon that
led to the death and maiming of hundreds of civilians also served as
a playbook for how Israel seeks to justify its war crimes. But as
the attack's aftermath showed, these tricks are beginning to fail."
This is a big and important subject, including "collateral damage
defense," "magic-word defense," all sorts of canards, many of which
inadvertently expose underlying prejudices.
But calling someone a "terrorist" or saying that they are affiliated
with a group that you dislike or consider to be terrorist, is not a
legal argument. At the very heart of international humanitarian law
is the distinction between combatants and non-combatants.
Superimposing another label on top of a civilian population that
you do not like does not make them legitimate targets.
Indeed, even attempting to re-label combatants in this way does
not relieve Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian
and human rights law. Unlawful weapons and tactics remain unlawful,
regardless of the labels the attackers apply to their targets.
James North: [09-25]
CNN's dishonest duo, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, strike again:
"The latest dishonesty from CNN's Biased Duo, Jake Tapper and Dana
Bash, about Rashida Tlaib prompted an intense critical reaction.
The solution? CNN should ban them from reporting on Palestine."
Yumna Patel: [09-22]
Weekly Briefing: Israel shuts down Al Jazeera's West Bank Bureau.
Why are we surprised? "The raid on the Al Jazeera office in
Ramallah is the latest in a string of attacks on the network. But
it's not just an attack on Al Jazeera, it's an attack on all those
bearing witness to genocide."
Mitchell Plitnick:
Nicky Reid: [09-27]
Israel is f'ing crazy: "and they have nukes."
Derek Seidman: [09-29]
Using research to uncover campus complicity in genocide: "Across
the US, students organizing against Israel's assault on Gaza have made
essential use of power research, uncovering financial ties between the
Pentagon and campus labs and mapping out connections between university
trustees and the war machine."
Saad Shahriar: [09-28]
The German Left's complicity in the Palestinian genocide:
"While the German left passionately supports many international
causes but remains conspicuously silent on the ongoing genocide
of Palestinians, conveniently overlooking its own complicity in
Germany's military-industrial ties to Israel."
Kate Wagner: [07-09]
The awful plan to turn Gaza into the next Dubai: "The Netanyahu
administration seems to have learned from neighboring petrostates
that spectacle can distract from ethnic cleansing." I missed this
when it came out -- not long, just a few months ago -- but it's all
smoke and mirrors, so hardly matters. Reminds me, though, that it
wasn't all that long ago with Hamas (although I'm hard pressed to
find a suitable link).
Michael Walzer: [09-21]
Israel's pager bombs have no place in a just war: Not even the
patron saint of modern warmongery can conjure up an excuse for Israel
this time.
Election notes:
Trump:
Chris Bohner: [09-28]
How bad would a Trump presidency be for labor?
Jamelle Bouie: [09-18]
Trump knows what he's doing in Springfield. So does Vance.
Jonathan Chait:
Kevin Collier: [09-26]
Independent journalist publishes Trump campaign document hacked by
Iran despite election interference concerns: "Other media outlets
that obtained the document hadn't published it in full." The
journalist is Ken Klippenstein, formerly of
The Intercept.
Margaret Hartmann:
Ken Klippenstein:
Sarah Jones: [09-25]
The protector of no one. Opening paragraph, and then some:
On Truth Social, Donald Trump recently posted a special message to
American women. "WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE!"
he announced. "YOU WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION, BECAUSE
IT IS NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS HAD TO BE, WITH THE STATES." The first
sentence sounds like an Always commercial; the second is a bit more
pernicious. It is difficult to be "happy, healthy, confident and
free" as women
die from abortion bans in states such as Georgia. Nevertheless,
Trump is fond of his new pitch. At a
campaign event in Pennsylvania on Monday, he called himself a
"protector" of women, adding that ladies will no longer be "abandoned,
lonely, or scared." How wonderful. . . .
The rhetoric is characteristically authoritarian in the sense
that Trump admires strongmen and wishes to become one. He will thus
deliver further subjugation, not liberation. Not even his female
supporters will be safe from the anti-feminist backlash heralded
by his party. If it's dangerous to be pregnant in America, then
it's dangerous for anyone who can conceive; a doctor won't check
a patient's political views when he refuses to perform a D&C
under the threat of prosecution. That is the world that Trump's
supporters have signed up for; it is a world that social
conservatives have labored to create. . . .
We can review the facts, and
polling suggests that most of us are inclined to reject Trump
as our improbable protector. Trump is not capable of protecting
anyone, let alone women, from himself or from anyone else. He is
the wolf in the pasture, the threat in the dark. We can run, or
we can fight.
Lydia Polgreen: [09-14]
Trump has crossed a truly unacceptable line.
Josephine Rozzelle: [09-20]
Trump Media closes at a new 5 2-week low on heavy trading after
lockup expires.
David Wallace-Wells: [09-18]
When we try to explain the rise of Trump, we don't look back far
enough. This mostly takes off from a recent book,
Richard Beck: Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life,
which seems likely to be worth further study. One quibble I have here
is when Wallace-Wells talks about the Cheney/Gonzales endorsements of
Harris:
Not that long ago, endorsements like these would have been rebuffed]
by Democrats as valentines from warmongers.
I can't recall any such time, certainly not since Clinton picked
Gore as his VP in 1992 because both were Gulf War hawks, then Gore
picked the even more hawkish Lieberman as his VP in 2000. Obama kept
much of Bush's war cabinet on board after 2008, especially Gates, who
he later replaced with another Republican before finding an even worse
Democrat in Ash Carter. Hillary Clinton didn't shy away from Kagan
endorsements -- see Ben Norton: [2016-06-10]
Another neocon endorses Clinton, calling her "2016's real conservative"
and "the candidate of the status quo". Before Nixon and Reagan,
the party with the reputation for fighting wars was the Democrats
(Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Johnson).
Brett Wilkins: [09-25]
Trump condemned for 'genocidal' threat to destroy Iran: "Trump's
threat to blow Iran's largest cities and the country itself 'to
smithereens' is an outrageous threat that should be widely condemned,"
said the National Iranian American Council."
Vance, and other Republicans:
Kiera Butler:
To understand JD Vance, you need to meet the "TheoBros": "These
extremely online young Christian men want to end the 19th Amendment,
restore public flogging, and make America white again."
Chas Danner: [09-23]
Mark Robinson's campaign is imploding: Republican lieutenant
governor, campaigning for governor, and much in the news of late.
Also:
Thomas B Edsall: [09-18]
The man behind the end of Roe v. Wade has big plans for America:
Leonard Leo:
Political advocacy and charitable groups controlled by Leo now have
far more assets than the combined total cash on hand of the Republican
and Democratic National, Congressional and Senatorial committees:
$440.9 million.
Leo is a 58-year-old graduate of Cornell Law School, a Catholic
with ties to Opus Dei -- the most conservative "personal prelature"
in the church hierarchy -- chief strategist of the Federalist Society
for more than a quarter century and a crucial force behind the
confirmations of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett
Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. He has emerged over the past five
years as the dominant fund-raiser on the right.
As Leo has risen to this pinnacle of influence, he has become
rich, profiting from the organizations he has created and from the
consulting fees paid by the conservative advocacy and lobbying
groups he funds.
Margaret Hartmann: [09-24]
JD Vance eggs video is mostly wrong, totally awkward.
Sarah Jones: [09-22]
JD Vance and the rise of the 'postliberal' Catholics: Interview
with Kevin Vallier, "a professor at philosophy at the University of
Toledo's Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership,
and the author of
All the Kingdoms of the World."
Ed Kilgore: [09-27]
JD Vance embraces Trump's scary Christian nationalist fans.
Ezra Klein: [09-24]
What Pete Buttigieg learned playing JD Vance: An interview.
Beth Macy: [09-29]
I grew up much like JD Vance. How did we end up so different?
Matt Stieb: [09-25]
Tucker Carlson is touring America with malevolent kooks like Alex
Jones.
Harris:
James Carden: [09-25]
When odious foreign policy elites rally around Harris: "We
should take seriously those responsible for some of the bloodiest,
stupidest national security decisions in recent memory." Cheneys,
of course, and a few more mentioned, as well as reference to this:
Adam Jentleson: [09-28]
Kamala Harris said she owns a gun for a very strategic reason:
"She has been doing an effective job of vice signaling from the
left." First I've heard of "vice signaling," and this definition
doesn't help: "Vice signaling means courting healthy controversy
with the enforcers of orthodoxy -- the members of interest groups
who on many critical issues have let themselves off the hook for
accurately representing the views and interests of those they claim
to speak for." I have run across "virtue signaling" before, which
is a term used to deride views from the left as mere ploys to make
one seem more virtuous -- an implicit put-down of anyone who doesn't
agree. "Vice signaling" has the same intent, but opposes virtue by
embracing its opposite vice. Why these terms should exclusively be
directed against the left is counterintuitive -- throughout history,
"enforcers of orthodoxy" have nearly always come from the right,
where "holier than thou" is a common attitude, and snobbery not
just accepted but cultivated.
The actual examples given, like embracing fracking and threatening
to shoot a home invader, may help Harris break away from cartoon left
caricatures, and that cognitive dissonance may help her get a fresh
hearing. That may be part of her craft as a politician -- as a non-
or even anti-politician, I'm in no position to tell her how to do her
job. Nor do I particularly care about these specific cases. But I am
irritated when leftists who've merely thought problems through enough
to arrive at sound answers are dismissed as "enforcers of orthodoxy."
Padma Lakshmi: [09-21]
As a cook, here's what I see in Kamala Harris. There's a lot in
this piece I can relate to, put my own spin on, and imagine her spin
as not being all that different.
Talking about food is a way to relate to more Americans, even those
uninterested in her politics. We've all been eating since we were
babies, and we're experts on our own tastes. Talking about food paves
the way to harder conversations. Food removes barriers and unites us.
Ms. Harris evinces clear delight in cooking and in talking about
almost any type of food -- a passion that is core to who she is, like
basketball for Barack Obama or golf for Donald Trump.
She is omnivorous and a versatile cook.
That Obama and Trump would go for sports is in itself telling
(as is that Trump went for the solo sport, vs. a team sport for
Obama, one that requires awareness of other people and the ability
to make changes on the fly). I've only watched one of the videos
(so far, making dosa masala with Mindy Kaling, which was chatty
with less technique than I would have preferred -- I understand
the decision to use the premix batter, after at least one stab
at making it from scratch).
John Nichols: [09-20]
Kamala Harris is winning the Teamsters endorsements that really
matter: "The national leadership may have snubbed her -- but
Teamsters in the swing states that will decide the election are
backing her all the way." They all matter. Not clear whether the
non-endorsement was reaction to the DNC snub, which I never quite
understood. Still, the choice for labor is so overwhelming this
time the national leadership appears pretty out of touch.
Walz, Biden, and other Democrats:
Ethan Eblaghie: [09-26]
The Uncommitted Movement failed because it refused to punish
Democrats: "The Uncommitted movement failed to move the
Biden-Harris administration policy on Gaza because unaccountable
movement leaders were unwilling to punish Democrats for supporting
genocide." They failed, if that's the word you want to use, because
they didn't get the votes. I doubt this was due to lack of sympathy
for their issue: most rank-and-file Democrats (as opposed to party
politicians, who of necessity are preoccupied with fundraising)
support a cease-fire, and many are willing to back that up with
limits on military aid[*]; but they also see party unity as essential
to defeating Trump and the Republicans, and they see that as more
critical/urgent than mobilizing public opinion against genocide.
I can see both sides of this, but at this point the ticket and the
contest are set, so all you can do is to pick one. While I have
little positive to say about Harris on Israel, it's completely
clear to me that Trump would be even worse, and I can't think of
any respect in which he would be preferable to Harris. As for
punishing the Democrats -- even with third-party and not-voting
options -- don't be surprised if they never forgive you. So ask
yourself, do you really want to burn the bridge to the people
you're most likely to appeal to?
[*] Michael Arria, in a piece cited
above, has some polling:
Recent polls show vast support for an arms embargo on Israel among
Democratic voters.
A March 2024 Center for Economic and Policy Research
survey found that 52% of Americans wanted the U.S. to stop
weapons shipments. That included 62% of Democratic voters.
A June
survey then from CBS News/YouGov found that more than 60% of
voters should not send weapons or supplies to Israel. Almost 80%
of Democrats said the the U.S. shouldn't send weapons.
Ken Klippenstein: [09-25]
Biden's ode to perpetual war: "In final UN speech, President
ignores a world on fire.
Supreme Court, legal matters, and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Economists, the economy, and work:
Ukraine and Russia:
Elsewhere in the world and/or/in spite of America's empire:
Other stories:
Obituaries:
Benny Golson:
Fredric Jameson: A critic and philosopher,
I remember him fondly from my early Marxist period, which certainly
meant his books Marxism and Form: Twentieth Century Dialectical
Theories of Literature (1971), and possibly The Prison-House
of Language: A Critical Account of Structuralism and Russian Formalism
(1972), but I haven't followed him since. Turns out he's written much
more than I was aware of, especially many titles published by
Verso Books.
Terry Eagleton:
Fredric Jameson, 1934-2024: "reflects here on Jameson's humility,
generosity, and unrivalled erudition."
Owen Hatherley: [09-28]
Fredric Jameson's capitalist horror show: "We still live in the
postmodern landscape defined by the Marxist thinker, who died this
month."
Jameson's work was both utopian and depressive, expansive in the
field of its analysis and trained almost entirely on culture rather
than politics. And he was rare among Marxist intellectuals in the
neoliberal era to have managed to speak firmly to the present day.
That is why his work affected so many. An entire strand of mainstream
political thought is unimaginable without the influence of Jameson's
fusion of hard cultural criticism, immense knowledge, refusal of
low/high cultural boundaries, and his endlessly ruminative, open-minded
dialectical curiosity, put in the service of a refusal ever to forgive
or downplay the horrors that capitalism has inflicted upon the world.
Jameson's Marxism was particularly tailored for our fallen era, a low
ebb of class struggle, an apparent triumph of a new and ever more
ruthless capitalism: "late", as he optimistically put it, borrowing
a phrase from the Belgian Trotskyist Ernest Mandel.
Also:
"The dialectic," wrote Jameson, "is not moral." In the sprawling
Valences of the Dialectic (2009), Jameson proposed "a new
institutional candidate for the function of Utopian allegory, and
that is the phenomenon called Wal-Mart". While conceding that the
actually existing Wal-Mart was "dystopian in the extreme", Jameson
was fascinated by its unsentimental destruction of small businesses,
its monopolistic mockery of the concept of a "free market", and its
immense, largely automated and computerised network of distribution
of cheap, abundant goods. Perhaps it was a step too far to extrapolate
from this -- as did Leigh Phillips and Michael Rozworski in their
2019 The People's Republic of Wal-Mart -- and portray the
megacorp as a prefiguring of communist distribution networks. But
what Jameson was up to, following Gramsci's and Lenin's fascination
with Fordism and Taylorism, was an attempt to uncover what the new
horrors of capitalism made possible. In the case of Wal-Mart, he
argued, the answer was: a computerised planned economy. Jameson was
a strict, 20th-century Marxist in remaining a firmly modernist thinker,
refusing to find any solace in imagined communal or pre-capitalist
pasts. But his unsentimental modernism did not preclude an outrage
at the ravages inflicted by colonialism and imperialism in the name
of "progress", an often overlooked thread in his work.
[PS: From this, my first and evidently only free article, I clicked
on Richard Seymour: [07-22]
The rise of disaster nationalism: "The modern far-right is not
a return to fascism, but a new and original threat." I could see
this as a reasonable argument, as evidence of the "thought-provoking
journalism" the publication touts, but I was stopped cold at the
paywall ("as little as $12.00 a month").
Clay Risen: [09-23]
Fredric Jameson, critic who linked literature to capitalism, dies at
90: "Among the world's leading academic critics, he brought his
analytical rigor to topics as diverse as German opera and sci-fi
movies."
AO Scott: [09-23]
For Fredric Jameson, Marxist criticism was a labor of love:
"The literary critic, who died on Sunday at age 90, believed that
reading was the path to revolution."
Robert T Tally Jr.: [09-27]
The Fredric Jameson I knew.
Kate Wagner: [09-26]
The gifts of Fredric Jameson (1934-2024): "The intellectual titan
bestowed on us so many things, chief among them a reminder to Always
Be Historicizing."
Verso Books: [09-23]
Jameson at 90: A Verso Blog series: "Our series honoring Fredric
Jameson's oeuvre in celebration of his 90th birthday."
Kris Kristofferson:
Maggie Smith:
Also note:
Nick Gravenites, mainstay of the San Francisco rock scene, dies
at 85.
Elias Khoury, master of the modern Arabic novel, dies at 76.
Disk Moss, who helped usher in baseball free agency, dies at 93.
Dikembe Mutombo, a towering NBA presence, dies at 58.
Pete Rose, baseball star who earned glory and shame, dies at 83.
Books
Patrick Iber: [09-24]
Eric Hobsbawm's lament for the twentieth century: "Where some
celebrated the triumph of liberal capitalism in the 1990s, Hobsbawn
saw a failed dream." Re-reviewing the British historian's 1994 book,
The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991,
which I started at the time, and have long meant to return to --
although after re-reading the first of what turned into his
tetraology, The Age of Revolution (1789-1948), I found
myself wanting to work through the intermediate volumes --
The Age of Capital (1848-1875) and The Age of Empire
(1875-1914) first. Iber teases us with his conclusion:
But if a classic is a work that remains worth reading both for
what it is and for what it tells us about the time it was created,
Hobsbawm's text deserves that status. It rewards the reader not
because a historian would write the same book today but precisely
because they would not.
Hobsbawm's previous books are dazzling for the breadth of his
knowledge, and his skill at weaving so many seemingly disparate
strands into a sensible whole. This one, however, is coterminous
with his life (into his 70s; his dates were 1917-2012), which
gives him the advantages (and limits) of having experienced as
well as researched the history, and having had a personal stake
in how it unfolded.
Sandip Munshi: [09-25]
Irfan Habib is one of the great Marxist historians.
Ryu Spaeth: [09-23]
The return of Ta-Nehisi Coates: "A decade after The Case for
Reparations, he is ready to take on Israel, Palestine, and the
American media." Coates has a new book,
The Message, coming out Oct. 1. I expect we'll be hearing
much more about this in coming weeks. To underscore the esteem
with which Coates is held, this pointed to a 2015 article:
Here's are several fairly long quotes from Spaeth's article:
In Coates's eyes, the ghost of Jim Crow is everywhere in the
territories. In the soldiers who "stand there and steal our time,
the sun glinting off their shades like Georgia sheriffs." In the
water sequestered for Israeli use -- evidence that the state had
"advanced beyond the Jim Crow South and segregated not just the
pools and fountains but the water itself." In monuments on sites
of displacement and informal shrines to mass murder, such as the
tomb of Baruch Goldstein, who gunned down 29 Muslims in a mosque
in 1994, which recall "monuments to the enslavers" in South Carolina.
And in the baleful glare of the omnipresent authority. "The point
is to make Palestinians feel the hand of occupation constantly," he
writes. And later: "The message was: 'You'd really be better off
somewhere else.'" . . .
His affinity for conquered peoples very much extends to the Jews,
and he begins the book's essay on Palestine at Yad Vashem, Israel's
memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. "In a place like this," he
writes, "your mind expands as the dark end of your imagination blooms,
and you wonder if human depravity has any bottom at all, and if it
does not, what hope is there for any of us?" But what Coates is
concerned with foremost is what happened when Jewish people went
from being the conquered to the conquerors, when "the Jewish people
had taken its place among The Strong," and he believes Yad Vashem
itself has been used as a tool for justifying the occupation. "We
have a hard time wrapping our heads around people who are obvious
historical victims being part and parcel of another crime," he told
me. In the book, he writes of the pain he observed in two of his
Israeli companions: "They were raised under the story that the
Jewish people were the ultimate victims of history. But they had
been confronted with an incredible truth -- that there was no
ultimate victim, that victims and victimizers were ever
flowing." . . .
The book is strongest when its aperture is narrow. There is no
mention of the fact that Israel is bombarded by terrorist groups set
on the state's annihilation. There is no discussion of the intifadas
and the failed negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders
going back decades. There is even no mention of Gaza because Coates
was unable to visit the region after the October 7 attack and he did
not want to report on a place he hadn't seen for himself. ("People
were like, 'Gaza is so much worse,'" he told me. "'So much worse.'")
What there is, instead, is a picture of the intolerable cruelty and
utter desperation that could lead to an October 7.
"If this was the 1830s and I was enslaved and Nat Turner's rebellion
had happened," Coates told me that day in Gramercy, "I would've been
one of those people that would've been like, 'I'm not cool with this.'
But Nat Turner happens in a context. So the other part of me is like,
What would I do if I had grown up in Gaza, under the blockade and in
an open-air prison, and I had a little sister who had leukemia and
needed treatment but couldn't get it because my dad or my mom couldn't
get the right pass out? You know what I mean? What would I do if my
brother had been shot for getting too close to the barrier? What would
I do if my uncle had been shot because he's a fisherman and he went
too far out? And if that wall went down and I came through that wall,
who would I be? Can I say I'd be the person that says, 'Hey, guys,
hold up. We shouldn't be doing this'? Would that have been me?"
Ta-Nehisi Coates: [08-21]
A Palestinian American's place under the Democrats' big tent?:
"Though the Uncommitted movement is lobbying to get a Palestinian
American on the main stage, the Harris campaign has not yet approved
one. Will there be a change before Thursday -- and does the Democratic
Party want that?" In the end, the DNC didn't allow a Palestinian
speaker, calling into question their "big tent" commitment, and
exposing how invisible and unfelt Palestinians have become even
among people who profess to believe in democracy, equal rights,
human rights, peace and social justice.
Chatter
Zack Beauchamp: [09-24]
The Israel-Palestine conflict is in fact complicated and difficult to
resolve fairly.
Invariably, posts like these attract the absolute stupidest people
who prove why it needs saying in the first place.
PS: I replied: Reminds me of a joke: how many psychiatrists does
it take to change a light bulb? One, but the light bulb really has
to want to change. Palestinians have tried everything; nothing worked,
so it looks difficult. But Israel has offered nothing. If they did,
it would be easy.
Many comments, preëmptively dismissed by Beauchamp, make similar
points, some harshly, others more diplomatically. One took the
opposite tack, blaming it all on Palestinian rejection of Israel's
good intentions -- basically a variation on the argument that when
one is being raped, one should relax and enjoy it. The key thing
is that Israelis have always viewed the situation as a contest of
will and power, where both sides seek to dominate the other, which
is never acceptable to the other. When dominance proves impossible,
the sane alternative is to find some sort of accommodation, which
allows both sides most of the freedoms they desire. That hasn't
happened with Israel, because they've always felt they were if
not quite on the verge of winning, at least in such a dominant
position they could continue the conflict indefinitely. Given
that presumption, everything else is rationalization.
One comment cites Ta-Nehisi Coates:
For Coates, the parallels with the Jim Crow South were obvious and
immediate: Here, he writes, was a "world where separate and unequal
was alive and well, where rule by the ballot for some and the bullet
for others was policy." And this world was made possible by his own
country: "The pushing of Palestinians out of their homes had the
specific imprimatur of the United States of America. Which means
it had my imprimatur."
That it was complicated, he now understood, was "horseshit."
"Complicated" was how people had described slavery and then segregation.
"It's complicated," he said, "when you want to take something from
somebody."
Zachary D Carter: [09-25]
Biden's Middle East policy straightforwardly violates domestic and
international law.
In just about every other respect Biden's foreign policy operation
has been admirable, but the damage he has done to international
conceptions of the U.S. with his Middle East program is on par
with George W. Bush.
PS: I replied: Funny, I can't think of any aspect of Biden
foreign policy as admirable, even in intent, much less in effect.
Same hubris, hollow principles, huge discounts for shameless
favorites (arms, oil, $$). Even climate is seen as just rents.
Israel is the worst, but the whole is rotten.]
I saw this in a Facebook image, and felt like jotting it down
(at some point I should find the source):
Banksy on Advertising
People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your
life, ttakle a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you
from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant
comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the
fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend
feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated
technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They
are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual
property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they
like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no chance
whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and
re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is
like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially
don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the
world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your
permission, don't . . .
Quite some time ago, I started writing a series of little notes
on terms of interest -- an idea, perhaps inspired by Raymond Williams'
book
Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, that I've
kept on a cool back burner ever since. One of the first entries
was on advertising, and as I recall -- I have no idea where this
writing exists, if indeed it does -- it started with: "Advertising
is not free speech. It is very expensive . . ." Williams would
usually start with the history of the word, including etymology,
then expand on its current usage. I was more focused on the latter,
especially how words combine complex and often nuanced meanings,
and how I've come to think through those words. Advertising for
me is not just a subject I have a lot of personal experience in --
both as consumer or object and on the concept and production side --
but is a prism which reveals much about our ethics and politics.
In particular, it testifies to our willingness to deceive and to
manipulate one another, and our tolerance at seeing that done,
both to others and to oneself.
In looking this up, I found a few more useful links on
Raymond Williams (1981-88) and Keywords:
Pietro Calogero: [2013-04-26]
Raymond Williams: Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society
(revised edition): PDF, a note by Calogero, the back cover
description, the keyword list, Williams' "Introduction" and
"Preface to the Second Edition."
Tony Bennett/Lawrence Grossberg/Meaghan Morris, eds: [2005]
New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society: In
2005, the editors released a revised edition of Williams' book.
It appears to be complete here (452 pp.)
The Raymond Williams Society:
Contemporary Keywords. "Every year our journal Key Words
includes a new "keyword," usually linked to the general 'theme' of
the issue, in the tradition of Williams's historical analysis."
These were written by Tony Crowley: class, commitment, crisis,
post-truth, privilege, scouse, the Raymond Williams Society also
publishes a
journal and a
blog.
Raymond Williams's Keywords: investigating meanings 'offered,
felt for, tested, confirmed, asserted, qualified, changed': A
28-page PDF, "an author's pre-final copy of an article published in
Critical Quarterly, 48/4 (Winter 2006)."
Stephen Heath:
Raymond Williams and Keywords, which is part of the
Keywords Project.
Local tags (these can be linked to directly):
music.
Current count:
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