SocraticGadfly: Disagreeing more with Mondoweiss on Biden

May 13, 2024

Disagreeing more with Mondoweiss on Biden

A month ago, I offered my critical thoughts ("critical" in the more technical, more than psychological) on Mondoweiss claiming that President Biden's knee-jerk support of Bibi Netanyahu and Zionism in Israel seemed to be just politics as usual. I said that, in my opinion, to some degree, he was really "in" on what I called on Twitter being "a Zionist fellow traveler." I joked that maybe he read Leon Uris' "Exodus" too many times, or saw the movie too often. I don't know. (Somebody else on Twitter noted he — as is Trump — is older than the nation of Israel.)

Every think I've seen since then supports my contention.

One of the latest was a Substack from Ken Klippenstein May 8. The whole focal point of the piece is Biden's outright and undisguised hostility toward campus protestors, right from the start of the piece:

Yesterday, President Joe Biden addressed the college protests for the first time in days, not even bothering to lend his support to the most moderate of demands, that civilians be protected and Palestinians get their long-promised homeland. Instead he focused solely on antisemitism, citing the protests as an example thereof.

Sorry, Phil Weiss, but that sounds like more than "fear of AIPAC."

Ken continues:

It was Biden’s first public mention of the campus movement since last Thursday, when he gave a blistering speech on the demonstrations, striking a law-and-order tone reminiscent of Richard Nixon during widespread anti-Vietnam War protests.
In the speech, Biden decried “chaos” and declared that “order must prevail.” He repeatedly condemned threats of violence, again failing to address the substantive demands of the protesters, reducing the problem to antisemitism and threats to ‘national security.’

Agreed.

My currently pinned Tweet has a link to a WaPost article and says:

What else is there to say?

Well, there is more from Ken, comparing and contrasting Genocide Joe to Dear Leader:

The irony of Biden’s speech is that it took place in the Roosevelt Room of the White House — the same place former President Obama once addressed protesters over an issue that was also fraught: police brutality. But instead of exclusively focusing on the instances of vandalism and unrest, Obama met with demonstrators to discuss criminal justice reform (even though he did almost nothing).
Police brutality is obviously politically safer territory than Israel, but polling consistently shows police enjoy some of the highest public approval of any institution in the U.S., as well as overwhelming opposition to efforts to “defund the police.” Yet despite that, Obama at least engaged in dialogue with the protesters, inviting them to the Roosevelt Room.
That’s not to say that Obama went along with all or even most of their demands, as any veteran of police reform efforts at the time can tell you. But he talked to them, at times even defended the general thrust of the movement, and offered some concessions, like the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, created in response to the protests against police brutality after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
By contrast, President Biden hasn’t met with any of the college protesters and declined to even address them beyond castigating the unrest and buying into the purported “national security” dimensions of the protests.

So, is Biden Tricky Dick Nixon reincarnated, as far as hiding what he knows about arms sales? Or is he LBJ?

On Sunday, Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California and Biden defender, told Face the Nation that he thought Biden should visit some college campuses.
“I think the president should and will get out there on campuses,” Khanna said, adding that “young people are upset at what’s going on in the Middle East.”
It’s perhaps not surprising that Biden, an octogenarian so old he literally predates the state of Israel, is out of step with how youth see the world — a problem I’ve previously written about.
But if Biden is going to win a looming election against someone he’s repeatedly cast as a threat to democracy, you’d think he might be interested in addressing his youth problem.

Ken doesn't address the issues of maybe whether, like LBJ, he's AFRAID to walk on a college campus. Wouldn't surprise me.

That's even as we've gone beyond protests to hunger strikes. Mondoweiss profiles one hunger striker at Princeton.

Then there's this, straight-up Zionist-type racist tropes:

 This only further reinforces my stance that Mondoweiss is wrong. (I await an update.)

And, there's this.

#GenocideJoe leaves himself a Mack truck sized loophole: He will cut back arms for Israel if Bibi launches a "major invasion" of Rafah. And, guess who will define "major"? And "cut back," since I Heart Zion Biden didn't say "none"; cut back what? Two percent? 

And, there's a House staffer, already a semi-careerist with 12 years for three Congresscritters, criticizing Ryan Grim for criticizing Genocide Joe. My take on that?

Finally, per the latest from Klippenstein? Reading this rightly, new IRS powers would, in Tricky Dick fashion, let them go after pro-Palestinian protestors.

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at Monday, May 13, 2024 Posted by Gadfly

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