Playing a Weak Hand of Trump Cards

 

Trump has been saying that Ukraine "doesn't have any cards" but I've noticed that Trump kept publicly sweetening the deal (no NATO for Ukraine? cede territory?) just to get Putin to this point--a phone call, as if suspecting Putin is the actual harder person to bring to the table and hoping he could do it with an "all carrot, no stick" approach. 

People sometimes ask what Lincoln or Reagan would have made of the peculiar character who leads their party. Today I'm thinking of Theodore Roosevelt, who said, "Talk softly and carry a large stick." Trump might talk loudly, but who knows what "big stick" he would ever use on the one man he never criticizes? 

 He got his phone call, though--after being made to wait and being cut up by Putin amongst his real homies. His 30-day ceasefire was pretty much rejected, as Putin heaped thoroughly unacceptable conditions into the mix. Trump seems unfazed that he has been disrespected, again. 

Trump, the irascible, the petty, the critic of or his critics--he doesn't feel any need at all to respond to Putin? What gives? 

Benghazi, Beirut or 9/11

 

“The Trump administration is not refusing to share power with an opposing party. It is refusing to follow the constitutional limits of a government that its own party controls completely,” @jonathanchait argues. https://t.co/BLf6KSSlSs pic.twitter.com/wPtTTdgW2i

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) February 11, 2025

I know there's good reason to just reminisce about when bipartisan shit was possible, but my biggest problem with this Trump infestation is the epistemic closure--the failure to have any light that lets in the darkness that is absofuckinglutely going to happen. You can disobey the laws of man--but not gravity.

So, the Bush folks felt ecstatic when they got the White House--finally! In 2001. After two long terms of the Bubbas! The grown-ups were in charge! And they pretended the little thing with the missing "W"'s was a big old riot of Democrat malfeasing--

And they didn't have their eye on the ball about the PDB that said Bin Laden was planning an attack on our soil. 

The "Riviera of the Middle East"

 

There's something hilariously ghoulish about Trump's desire to own Gaza. We've gone from MAGAs claiming he's for America First and against war, to him talking about re-taking the Panama Canal, Greenland, and maybe making Canada the "51st state"--and now he has dreams of turning Gaza, a place he says is associated with so much death--

And turning it into the "Riviera of the Middle East." 

That's right, we will have to first permanently relocate the people already in Gaza. Then remove all the rubble and rebuild. And of course there will need to be a military presence....

Trump Discusses a Back-Stabbing

 

Trump: If I don’t win this election.. the Jewish people would have a lot to do with that if that happens pic.twitter.com/N9skHU0hnu

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 20, 2024

This reminds me of so much history that as human beings, we all should shudder to repeat. Trump has moved on from how US Jewish people would be crazy not to support him, to possibly threatening them that they should support him, if they understand what's up. 

There's an ambiguity there, as the threats of strongmen sometimes contain--a plausible deniability, Maybe the "blame" won't be repaid by anyone associated with Trump at all.  But maybe he wants people thinking about that. 

Here's what I'm not going to do--pretend I don't notice it. That was a threat. Maybe he meant that a Democratic administration would not be as supportive of Israel as his would be--but that is also conflating Jews with the state of Israel--not the same thing at all. He's basically saying what a "good Jew" is vs. someone who might "have it coming." 

I need not tell you what it reminds me of because most of us won't ever forget. 

TWGB: All the Bad Guys

 

Convicted Felon Trump bragging about colluding with Russia in front of all our faces because his supporters are rubes that will support him no matter how treasonous. pic.twitter.com/TKaQfkcZpG

— Tim Hannan (@TimHannan) June 4, 2024

It is fitting that convicted felon Trump chose to once again advise us that he was colluding with Russia just as we hear President Biden make a very clear statement regarding Trump: "All the bad guys are rooting for Trump, man." Putin is a bad guy who has taken a prisoner--effectively a hostage. He's a terrorist. And Trump says, basically, that his terrorist friend will release the hostage if he wins the election. 

Imagine that kind of friendship. "My hostage is your hostage." It sounds like...Trump is a goddamn terrorist too. A hostage taker. 

This is something people need to understand about Trump--in fact, it's something that our foreign allies already do. David Rothkopf, writing for The New Republic, describes the fear of a Trump presidency folks in the former eastern bloc countries experience, knowing he's willing to bargain away their freedom. McKay Coppins in the Atlantic reports in a similar vein: allies are worried that we do not appreciate the threat of a transactional and authoritarian leader inimical to the concept of democracy. 

We Support Our Allies

 

To make a connection that I've certainly made before, while Iran has launched Shaheds in the direction of Israel, those same weapons are used by Russia in Ukraine. I still see the connection of the particular date that Hamas made their horrific terrorist attack on Israel with a certain anniversary. My feeling about our support for Israel and Ukraine is that they are a part of the same war against western-style democracy, and we support our allies, even if we do not always agree with them. I don't think that's unreasonable. This is simply what we must do to demonstrate our word as a nation means something. 

President Biden has made clear that he supports our allies. Republicans, who have dithered and lied and used assorted rationales for holding up aid to Ukraine and Israel and Taiwan, now want to say things escalated, somehow, some way, because of something to do with this administration. 

I don't actually even beg their pardon to hear them repeat what they no doubt will--it's obscene. They have literally demonstrated the weakness of this country by way of their being hyperpartisan obstructionists standing in the way of progress because they see it as a "win" for Joe Biden. While our actual allies could and are suffering harm. 

The Very Discriminate Assault on WCK Humanitarian Workers

 

I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday.

Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen.

Here is my full statement. pic.twitter.com/Nl2jq8wqTt

— President Biden (@POTUS) April 3, 2024

With respect to my president, whom I continue to support, I lack faith in the ability of the IDF to investigate what they did wrong here and be honest about it, because they keep saying they are NOT indiscriminately bombing or attacking journalists or aid workers or children, and since the results are that aid workers and journalists and children keep being assaulted, I am going to have to take them at their word:

It isn't indiscriminate. If these are the results they are getting, and they insist they are targeting precisely, I must assume these are the results they want. 

I'm not an infant--I get that even innocents die in wartimes all the time. Privations are a part of the deal. But famines can be planned, and the deliberate starvation of Gazans over the decisions of their terrorist government is a bridge way too far. 

Hamas does not give a shit. Hamas rejects ceasefires. Hamas won't give up the hostages. They continue to fire missiles. I am not immune to the call for Israel to self-defense. I am long past immune, however, to the idea that the IDF is being disciplined in the process of this conflict or that they are taking necessary steps to minimize non-combatant casualties. I have begun to see the civilian population of Gaza as a kind of hostage as well. They seem to have decided on behalf of these innocent civilians to go ahead and let Israel to their worst, because when it comes to Palestinian liberty, well okay, they will also take death. For them. Those guys who aren't in the tunnels and end up paying for the privilege of eating intercepted aid to terrorist mafiosi. 

The Fine Red Line

 

I think it was an act of moral courage for Senator Schumer to express criticism of Israel PM Netanyahu and concern for the lives of innocent Palestinians. Leaving aside whether he was the best person to make this message because of his own Jewishness and long-standing support of Israel, that there needed to be daylight between what the United States supports and what Netanyahu's government is carrying out was a necessity, because OUR US government must be accountable. The ongoing suffering of people who had no choice in the horrific and malicious actions of 10/7 is inhumane. The idea of so much suffering on both sides without a clear path to reconciliation, and ultimately peace, feels unthinkable. 

There have been protests in Israel that suggest that many people do not feel like Netanyahu has done everything he can to get the hostages home and end the current war. Although Schumer called for elections what he did not do is imply who should win them--rather, he indicated that a referendum on the desires of the people in our democratic ally would settle what their vision is for the future of the Israeli state--without leaving it in the hands of someone who had done everything he could to prevent a two-state solution. 

I Guess You Can't

 

I know. Things you see on Twitter might just be for provocation and engagement and not serious. But my stars and garters:

You can't hijack planes. You can't throw Molotovs. What is this world coming to? 

Look, I'm all for a good boycott, a march, a strongly worded letter to the editor, a ripping blog post, and some bang-up trolling, but yeah, how you do protest--the medium, if you will, is the message. I don't really have a problem with hunger strikes, for example. I just think like, a 12 hour fast is humorous when that's normal. Some people diet doing a 18 hour fast.  Every day. I think blocking streets is fucked up if you block ambulances. I am not sure how stopping people from getting home at rush hour is supposed to influence them to do anything in particular but be mad at being inconvenienced. Ditto messing with holiday parades and church functions--I mean: Give people their own spaces. Respect.

I also think heckling politicians is mostly great because they signed up for some trouble, but people who dump manure on the property of someone who isn't even Speaker of the House anymore is disgusting. Trying to co-opt every event is kind of disrespectful to other causes. Also, what if people were working on a solution, and activists were just barking up the wrong tree and slamming the ones who were, actually, doing the work? 

What if self-immolation was the waste of a life where so much good could be done besides? 

I just think you should put your good where it will do the most. It just won't matter if your heart is in the right place if your ass isn't. 

TWGB: Trump is Immuno-Compromised

 

Claims of executive privilege and presidential immunity have been something like Citizen Trump's "Rosebud"--they represented a fantasy of unaccountability and lack of responsibility that might just afford an old crook some peace of mind, and that specter of hope has now been taken away. Someone of course will have to pay for this--and it will be his little rubes. When he goes sniveling that "they" (the Deep State, Biden, black hats--whatever) have singled him out, maybe they won't consider this:

Why is Trump the only president who ever had to make this case regarding immunity? Over 200 years of presidents, and not one had this problem. Maybe they were all previously completely capable of doing the job without just rolling in criminality. Trump apparently is not, because this is how he lives his life.

It's a thought! 

However, in TrumpWorld, Trump can only be failed. That's why it was time again for another really futile and stupid gesture on the part of Matt Gaetz et als.  Marjorie Taylor Greene took up the spotlight in explaining:

"And then when Joe Biden was inaugurated, and this entire Capitol complex was surrounded with 30,000 National Guard troops, none of you stood there and called that an insurrection. No, you all stayed silent."

God damn. She's right. When Joe Biden was inaugurated because he was the lawful winner of the 2020 election, and duly constituted authority were placed as security at the inauguration in case Trump and Marge's little friends started trouble again, no one DID call that perfectly lawful act an "insurrection". Will the wonders of correct syntax never cease?  

Clickbait, Context and Code Pink

 

The above picture is a screenshot of a 25 second video that got a lot of clicks--10M views! A lot of well-meaning people had a strong response to it and so did I--just, not the same one they did. See, in light of the comments that Nancy Pelosi made Sunday which I alluded to in my previous post, it's possible for some people to assume Pelosi had become unhinged or something--what is she even talking about?  Russian influence, now "go back to China"? You could forgive someone for assuming that protesters were trying to get commentary out of her just NOW over what she said in the interview. 

As for me, I thought it might be the case. but it's just a 25-second clip with no context. If someone showed up to protest me at my home, after it had been my spouse not so long ago attacked by a madman in my home, I'd be rude as hell to uninvited "guests". "Go back to China" sounded to me maybe like a way to suggest these guys were commies or something. 

But it's from an earlier protest and the protesters are Code Pink, who ARE funded by CCP money. And Pelosi is used to them haunting her lawn--they did it in 2007, and they do it today.  And my humble opinion is they are assholes. 

Stopping Pirates and Terrorists is Actually Good

 

There's something very opaque to me about the politics of places like Yemen, where there has been a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iranian-backed group Ansar Allah (Houthis), and I'm by no means an expert, but when a group has been attacking international trade at sea--private ships flying under the flags of multiple nations! and also taking shots at US military targets, it makes sense for the US to respond so they knock that shit off. We aren't really being given a choice. 

Doing nothing means they keep doing that. To use a homey little analogy, if I was a business owner and my store was getting robbed and my employees were physically threatened, yes, I would want protection, and violence against the perpetrators would be a part of that defense. 

This isn't just about what's going on in Israel--although Ansar Allah is similar and has the same kind of ethos it seems as Hezbollah.  First--they have been a problem. They are not "freedom fighters" and there's a difference between being in control of Yemen and being a government. The Houthis own a share of the blame for rampant famine in that country. 

Don't Look Away From These People

 

Food is at the heart of Palestinian culture — Laila El-Haddad, author of the award-winning cookbook ‘The Gaza Kitchen,’ shares how it helps maintain humanity while under Israeli occupation pic.twitter.com/I7LcXUPo1G

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) December 4, 2023

I am not articulate enough to explain what I feel about the horror of this war, because while what happened on 10/7 was certainly not an act of resistance, what has happened since has gone long past defense to retribution, to something atrocious. It's hard not to feel like journalists are being targeted and that outspoken parts of Palestinian culture are being forever silenced. Like the city of Gaza is being razed so that no one can live there. Just like the settlers of the West Bank try to erase the Palestinian past and present.

Fine, I say, if you want to counter that this is the fault of Hamas. Tell me why Hamas is the boss of what Israel's government does? How is the moral depravity of the terrorists specifically at cause for every murderous and foolish decision that the Israeli government makes? I don't want "explaining". We hear a lot of "because". I want a real vision for what the aftermath is. Every school, every hospital, every government building they destroy, they remove the possibility of anyone living there: how can we assume it isn't intentional? That they are purposefully making a place where these people cannot live? That so many of these people already are not able to live under the current dire situation of collapse of water and food supplies. 

Or under the collapse of buildings. 

I've talked about why the language of "from the river to the sea" was noxious to the state of Israel and its right to exist. Israeli propaganda mocks the dead of Gaza by claiming they will take that beach. They will remove all of the people in their way to owning all the land. 

What the fuck is it worth? 

Nearly Speechless (added a little more)

 

The above picture is the kind of thing I'm seeing on Elon's Musk's digital landfill, and I don't know what's worse:

1) Someone can actually take a look at a still PR photo from a terrorist group's hostage exchange and project bilge like "this is a look of appreciation and thanks."

2) That someone is anti-Semitic enough to not believe any such thing, but will use it for trolling purposes anyway.

or

3) Someone is just out there saying: "I like engagement and I don't care how I get it!" 

Each of these ways of posting is deeply wrong, and that it could be a combo platter of them is also pretty disturbing.

And yes, I'm seeing things like that on both sides of the issue, but this example was particularly egregious. 

Would it KILL people to try not to be disingenuous attention freaks on the damn internet? Because when nothing a person says can be trusted as even one's actual belief, just a nasty little play, it's just noise....

Living In Very Normal Times

 

Protesters in support of Palestine glued their hands to the street in the middle of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, temporarily halting the event. There were other instances of protests on the sidelines as well ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/D0TWKrsdov

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 23, 2023

Usually, the husband and I have steak because wow. Turkey. Very boring. But we did have turkey this time--turkey liver! This was his surprise for me, because he knows I like organs. So wait up, before I lose anyone:

A lot of Boomers in the US have bad experiences of offals because they were cooked up by well-meaning parents who learned to cook during the Depression and didn't have full access to all the spices and whatnot organ meats deserve. Also, there's a notion that organ meats are just "dirty" and need all kinds of soaking and preservation, and for things like chitterlings--yeah! Tripes--sure! But stuff like kidneys and livers? Eh? I just care they are seasoned a lot and cooked thoroughly. Throw in lemon while sautéing--it more quickly does what soaking is supposed to do. 

This is a Start

 

There is, at least, a temporary ceasefire and hostage exchange deal. 

The deal will see Hamas release 30 children, eight mothers and 12 other women, according to Axios and Haaretz. There will be a temporary cease-fire that will begin with four days and be extended by an another day for every 10 additional hostages released by Hamas, The Associated Press added.

Israel is expected to release about 150 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Israel will also allow 300 aid trucks to enter Gaza per day during the pause in fighting in the Palestinian enclave.

The start time of the exchange will be announced in the next 24 hours, Qatar, the lead mediator in the agreement, said.

“After many days of difficult and complex negotiations, we announce, with the help and blessing of God, that we have reached a humanitarian truce,” Hamas said in a statement obtained by The New York Times.

This means less death and devastation, and I hope we can all agree that's a good thing, even if getting to that admission was probably the sticking point in the negotiations. I am pretty much persuaded there are people on both sides who, despite the reality that preservation of life and the restoration of people to their families and/or homes should be considered a blessing, still want violence. As if that is what will bring a good resolution.

Is this satisfactory for everyone? No. Diplomacy has long struck me as being the fine art of eating shit to not 100% please everyone but to establish the goal of getting far less stupid and harmful things to happen. And it's necessary and too often unsung, because who celebrates that worse didn't happen when disasters are so memorable? 

President Biden isn't Sleeping on This

 

A lot of folks won’t read past the first couple paragraphs of Biden’s op-ed today - but don’t sleep on it.

In addition to calling out Hamas, it is a direct refutation of Netanyahu’s policies - almost unheard of from an American President.

free/🎁 link:https://t.co/vov74JkGI1 pic.twitter.com/DVhPuKNjlv

— ClearingTheFog (@clearing_fog) November 19, 2023

I had something utterly different in the pipeline for this evening's post, but it's late, and I will get to it tomorrow, and I did a deep dive into Christian Nationalism and eschatology (wish I didn't!) and did you know I'm already writing one poem a day as a November challenge to myself? But I digress--this is important.

And also, when I've been hearing the Palestinian rights protesters call my president "Genocide Joe" and going after liberal politicians for their support of Israel, I've been incensed: You don't know what is happening behind the scenes, what Biden is working towards, or how maintaining aid is a kind of leverage to accomplish that. Those things aren't going to take place wholly transparently, because that isn't how such negotiations do. Biden isn't in charge of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is. There is an assumption that withdrawal of support necessarily makes Israel "make nice" as it were--and then nothing else fucking horrible happens. 

This isn't the assumption I would roll with. 

Senator Ossoff Threads a Fine Needle

 

Sen. Ossoff addresses the U.S. Senate on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza: pic.twitter.com/fzApPP7xwV

— Ossoff's Office (@SenOssoff) November 17, 2023

What the Senator from Georgia has done here is so important--given both sides their due, but to advocate for those who are most grieviously injured and imperiled in the current situation, to plead for the humanity of those who are oppressed but suffering the wrath intended for the oppressor. He is a young man speaking a lot of wisdom. We could do with more like him in the Senate.

This is Stupid. Don't be This.

 

There's simply no condemnation of Hamas that is not at the same time a condemnation of the Palestinian resistance. pic.twitter.com/FzZmsqUlQO

— Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) November 9, 2023

No, actually, you can condemn Hamas because they have not accomplished shit. If being a terrorist entity that lobs missiles all over the place, and most recently did a pogram and raped and mutilated Israeli and other people and went on to kidnap hostages and are the kinds of unstable fucks who don't care if literally tens of thousands of Palestinians die as a result because it's all GOOD PRESS, then actually, I would not call this shit "resistance" but "sociopathy."

If one was really interested in the cause of Palestinian liberation but didn't care if the people lived or died, I'd be skeptical. So let's talk stupid numbers: if the IDF has killed 10,000 people to get to 60 Hamas fighters (and they've killed more UN aides and journalists including their families) you probably see 500K Gazans dead before the government thought they were done routing out Hamas. MAYBE.

Don't ask what number of Gazan dead is OK for the Israel government: what is OK for the supposed liberators of Palestine? What the fuck are they doing? I condemn what is supposedly a "Palestinian resistance" because they aren't shit. They are not shit. The Palestinians dying all over the place? The way Hamas has fuel for rockets but not generators and all that? The way there is tunnels for terror, not to save lives? 

Heritage, Not Hate, You Guys

 

There were lovely peace marches today around the world only somewhat marred by counterprotests and, you know, antisemitic hate messages under the guise of liberation. I'm a simple human, so I have to ask you all: if you knew that for Israeli Jews, and for the founding statements of Hamas and as was actually dropped from the PLO platform back in the 1980s, that "from the river to the sea" actually was literally intended to mean "throw Jews into the sea because this is Arab land"--would you be shocked if many people interested in peace thought that slogan was uniquely unhelpful? Would you try to retcon it to mean something different? Can we make that statement more "All Lives Matter"-ish? 

Sure, it's got a rhyme and a good marching cadence, but would it be helpful? Would people chanting about "intifada" be helpful, or no? If it literally antagonized the people you want peace with who also have a fear of genocide? What does the chant "Palestine 48" mean to people? Why throw red paint like blood at the White House? 

See, I get that for people who have gotten deep into this conversation, anti-Zionism means a lot of different things, but Israel is as old as my dad. To me, 75 years old is old enough to have earned the right to be acknowledged. If Zionism is basically the thing where there is a Jewish state in the Middle East: here it is! There are people there! They have a government and guess what: the people know that what the Netanyahu government is doing is wrong and are protesting it. They want to acknowledge human rights and Palestinian dignity--not all Israelis are right-wing settler colonialists. Like, we can't at this point argue about Jews living there. They do. The alternative to that is a war crime.