National Democraps still refuse to address the Zionist element in their room

After the DNC's 2026 meeting last week, many attendees said Israel isn't on their constituent radar. They mentioned these three:

But party leaders say once they’re back home, the conversation shifts dramatically. In interviews, many state party chairs, candidates and elected officials did not name AIPAC or Israel funding as a top-three concern they’re hearing from rank-and-file voters. Instead, it’s the nuts and bolts of the economy that are weighing down their constituencies, they say, with the cost of housing and food and the availability of health care all top of mind.

Really? Inflation isn't caused in part by high gas prices caused by a war against Iran waged at the instigation of Israel? And, at least part of your grassroots constituents know that.

I mean, later on, the story even directly calls out national Democraps' lie by omission: 

During recent focus groups observed by NBC News (produced by Syracuse University and the research firms Engagious and Sago), Democrats in Michigan and Maine voiced significant criticism of Israel’s government around its conduct in the war with Hamas in Gaza, with a handful calling Israel’s actions “genocide.”

The lies were called out more explicitly by one of their own Congresscritters, for doorknob's sake! THIS:

Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., said she polled her own district after the contentious March primary, and her internal survey showed 80% of respondents had heard of AIPAC. “It’s higher than some members of Congress’ name ID in their own districts,” she said. 

Ramirez, of Chicago, said the average voter in her district is mostly concerned about the cost of gas and groceries as well as immigration enforcement overreach. But the “more informed voter,” she said, is agitating against any Democratic alliance with AIPAC. She said DNC leaders would be wise to reconsider how its handling the issue, particularly as it attempts to cultivate a younger generation of leaders.

Denial is a river that doesn't just flow through 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I guess. Neither is peeing on someone's leg and telling them it's raining. 

It's called gaslighting, like that by the Democratic Majority for Israel that I told to fuck off on Substack:

“We’re pleased that the DNC Rules Committee rejected a set of divisive, anti-Israel resolutions. These measures would be a gift to Republicans, would further fracture our party, and do nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to peace," Democratic Majority for Israel president and CEO Brian Romick said in a statement. "The DNC and party advocates need to keep focus where it belongs — on building a united Democratic Party that can win back Congress this November.”

 It's "divisive" because Zionist genocidalists make it so while appealing to duopoly tribalism.

There you are. And, it's why I said "duopoly exit" on Substack while telling Romick et al to fuck off.

Unpacking Joe Kent's resignation

The big news, seen via The Dissident?

Joe Kent has resigned as Trump's head of counterintelligence, the guy who runs the National Counterterrorism Center. 

Several thoughts.

First,  per the Tweet/Shit on Shitter by Kent, that link above, even Looney Laura Loomer has enough brains on this one to dig up an old Shit and show him to be more than a bit of a hypocrite, arguably. Go read all the responses; it’s the old chimps eating a human face.

In the letter he does claim "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation." He says that the US had essentially neutralized Iran since Trump's 2020 assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Loomer calls up a September 2024 Shit of his, after the domestic assassination attempt on Trump, in which Kent says:

Iran has been after Trump since January of 2020, when he ordered the targeted killing of the terrorist Qasem Soleimani.

Dead to rights. 

Well, not totally human.

Per his Wikipedia page, Kent is kind of a political whore. If he had really had integrity and less whoredom for political office, whether elective or appointive, he would never have taken the counterterrorism job in the first place. But, he decided to whore himself out.

And, he's obviously not well-read, either. Per James Bamford, Israhell was very much behind Trump's 2016 election, and his 2020 bid for re-election, too. (And surely, 2024, though Bamford's book came out in 2023.) I'm sorry your wife was killed in an arguably stupid war — setting aside whether it was "Israel-manufactured" or not —, but you had five-plus years since then to be reflective, and you still took this job.

And, you still stayed on this job after the start of the war. (That said, contra the Blue Anon yappers, you quit before anybody quit Team Biden after Oct. 7, 2023 and his blank checks to Israel.) 

Now, in terms of the war, pivoting from him to Demented Donald? How does he spin this one? Not very well, I'm sure. 

And, our answer came in quickly. Like Demented Don's wont, it involved no pause for actual thought. 

Before we get to Trump's response, let us note Kent claimed that Trump had been duped by a "misinformation campaign." No mention of names, but we all know he's talking about Satanyahu, the person formerly known on Shitter as Netanyahu, as he did mention "high-ranking Israeli officials." I love it, and am stealing it, while also being pissed I didn't think of it myself. (But, it also includes the self-inflicted wounds mentioned above.)

Now, Demento Don:

Trump later told reporters "it’s a good thing that he’s out because he said Iran was not a threat. Every country recognized Iran was a threat."

Shock me. Actually fairly low on his bluster scale. (And, per Loony Laura Loomer, Joe Kent claimed Iran was a threat 18 months or so ago, and presumably felt the same way when taking Trump's job offer.)

Meanwhile, at Vox, Zack Beauchamp says we shouldn't align ourselves with other claims in Kent's letter to Trump, either. And, for this, you have to look at Bamford, you have to look at Kent's own background, and take this all in.

You also have to look at what came in Kent's letter after "high-ranking Israeli officials," which was:

[I]nfluential members of the American media ...

Now, that's not necessarily accusing them of being all Zionist. And, it's not antisemitic. Nonetheless, that, plus the other things I mention, lead us to Beauchamp. 

Here's Beauchamp:

In fact, Trump has been hawkish on Iran for decades. Back in the 1980s, he called for troop deployments to the country and a US-led campaign to seize control over Iranian oil. In his first term, he tore up a nuclear deal designed to prevent war and assassinated a top Iranian military leader. 

Moreover, Israeli leaders have lobbied every president in the 21st century to go to war in Iran; Trump is the only one who said yes. This suggests the key variable is less Israeli power over US foreign policy generally than the specific preference set and worldview of this president.

I think he protests a bit too much. But maybe not too too much.

Beauchamp then reminds us that we were in Syria in 2019 when Shannon Kent was killed was under President Trump.

I think a Candace Owens running with this letter is indeed antisemitic. I think that there may be some people already crafting a "framing story" for when the finale of this war indeed turns stupid. I know Kent has himself flirted with white nationalists.

But, I don't think this is all about antisemitism in Republican opposition to the war. Also, whether Kent is right or wrong on his framing, one can say that intervention in Syria was, if not "manufactured" by Israel, then at least "pushed" by it and not be antisemitic. 

Beyond that, Syria under the Assads was long seen as an ally of Iran and a conduit for Iran to work with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Beauchamp either knows that and is protesting too much, or doesn't know that and should shut up. That's rhetorical; I know he knows this. So, why is he doing something that is gaslighting, or at least halfway there? 

The Dissident, in his second piece about Kent's resignation yesterday, in large part focusing on Beauchamp, reminded us of what Seth Harp said in the must-read "The Fort Bragg Cartel": 

Washington’s efforts to overthrow Assad, who, like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi, was an outspoken and belligerent foe of Israel, redoubled amid the Arab Spring protests. One of the most expensive CIA programs in history, a billion-dollar fiasco code-named Timber Sycamore, plowed thousands of tons of guns and ammo fresh from German and American factories into Syria. ... Chief among the Sunni extremist groups that benefited from the instability in Syria and the flood of black-market arms into the country was the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known by the acronym ISIS.

There's that. 

Also undercutting Beauchamp? Klippenstein weighs in. Re the current war?

It is true that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agitated for war, but the Israeli military is operating more and more of one mind with the U.S. military. The two countries have shared a common war plan against Iran since the Biden administration. That level of cooperation has solidified under Trump, driven more by a true affinity and affection for the technologically and operationally sophisticated friend than anything Donald Trump (or Benjamin Netanyahu) has ordered.

There you go. He doesn't mention what Kent says on Syria, or Kent's odious personal background, but talks about larger objections to the war in both parties.

He does agree with me that this is inside baseball. On that? How Kemp phrases the letter? 

Finally, was this a smear attempt? Max Blumenthal indicates so, noting that Beauchamp was once co-president of "Brown Students for Israel," an avowedly Zionist organization:

Brown Students for Israel aims to be a big-tent community united by the belief in Israel’s right to exist as a state for the Jewish people in all or part of their ancestral homeland. By hosting Israeli cultural events, organizing political programming that reflects a range of pro-Israel perspectives, and commemorating Israeli days of significance, BSI aims to create a place for Zionists — and those curious about Zionism — to connect, celebrate, and engage with one another.

Also, Zack was an intern for Andrew Sullivan (yeah, that guy) when Sully was still at The Daily Beast. Was he forced to intern for him? Probably not. 

As for where Beauchamp stands? Per his own essay at Vox, it would be as a liberal Zionist, I think. But, even before Oct. 7, 2023, one-time liberal Zionists like Peter Beinart realized that modern Israel — and not just Bibi — had narrowed the grounds for that so much as to make it purely aspirational. Beauchamp, assuming he identifies with his essay, obviously doesn't agree, all the more so since it was written after the attacks.

Here's a good critique of his piece, and how unrealistic the idea is given current Israel, not just the middle-aged and older ruling class, but even more, younger Israelis. 

The real, real issue was raised by Beauchamp but not pursued more fully by him — the idea that Trump is an empty vessel.

This is a tool to allow MAGA loyalists, Trumptards, whatever, to maintain allegiance to Trump while calling out specific actions of him. It doesn't have to be Israel who's called out. It could next be Volodymyr Zelensky and the nation of Ukraine, if Trump asks for big new defense spending. It could be the prime minister of Denmark or the EU's Ursula von der Leyen if Trump formally agrees to take his hands off Greenland. 

In other words, you have members of a cult enabling Trump, or the idea of Trump, or the eikon or idol of Trump, because they're still afraid of Trump, and the rest of the cult. 

That said, even Klippenstein may have "bit" a little, or at least not questioned someone else advancing that same idea:

“For a Hegseth who only wants the ‘warrior’ answer, Israeli swagger and combat competence is catnip,” the officer says. 

The source adds that while Trump loves a winner, and he loves action, it is Hegseth and his “impetuousness” that pushes the relentless destroy-the-target, no-rules. no-quarter style of warfare that has unfolded.

Isn't that doing what Kent did? I mean, we all know that "impetuous" is Trump's middle name. Trump has no rules, but will give quarter if you punch back enough and others don't support him. And that's where we are right now.

Is Kent a rat deserting a sinking ship? As of March 11, 17 percent of Republicans said Trump was prioritizing Israeli interests over American ones. Per the Beeb, and other polling a day or two later, 90 percent of self-professed MAGAts were still backing the war.

I otherwise quote from the AP about the reality of what this means:

A special forces combat veteran with ties to right-wing extremists, Kent was considered as much of a loyalist as Trump could have in the government’s top counterterrorism post.

That's about right. Nobody on the left should be running Joe Kent up the flagpole and saluting him. He's a 2020 election "truther," palled around with white nationalists and is a COVID semi-denialist or worse.

Coming up: One red heifer, without blemish or spot?

Per the old bible verse of Numbers 19:2, Texas Monthly reports on the efforts of rancher Jerome Urbanosky and businessman Byron Stinson to raise just such animals. (Another rancher, Ty Davenport, eventually has his ranch looped in by Stinson, too.)

Stinson is a Christian Zionist wingnut. Urbanosky raises Santa Gertrudis, which caught his eye. The story says Stinson also looked at Red Angus.

The entire red heifer and purification water ceremony is in Numbers 19. Not all Christian Zionists, nor all religiously Orthodox Jewish Zionists, believe the red heifer is necessary to build a new Jewish temple, but many do. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are generally non-Zionist to outrightly anti-Zionist; their stances on temple rebuilding in general as well as the need for a red heifer can vary. Within Christianity, amillennial Christians reject the entire temple rebuilding nuttery as being necessary to bring on the apocalypse. On paper, this is the official stance of Catholicism, Orthodoxy and all mainline Protestant churches. In reality, it's not so clearcut among the laity. Outside of this, postmillennialists also generally reject this.

Shockingly, the Monthly gets several things wrong.

First, technically, it's to enter the tabernacle, not the temple. TM quotes Numbers 19 as saying "temple"; it does not.

Second, as with much of Numbers, there's no indication on how much this was ideal and aspirational vs being real, per Yonathan Adler's book.

Third, it was for general purification as much as anything. 

Fourth, there's no indication in either the Tanakh or the New Testament that it was specifically necessary for temple rebuilding. (The Monthly does note that Orthodox Judaism sees a temple already ready to come down from heaven; see also Revelation.)

Yitshak Mamo, Stinson's partner, is an ultra-Zionist Israel settler colonialist nutter. 

Related to that, the Monthly does tell you this:

Urbanosky told me he knew “doodley-squat” about the significance of a perfect red heifer. “You’re Christian, and they’re Jews,” Urbanosky said to Stinson. “So when the Temple gets built, who’s coming back, Jesus or the Jewish messiah?”

There you go. Millennialist Christian Zionist and Zionist Jews figure that, like other things, they'll fight it out after they kill the last Palestinian and finish making Eretz Israel Arab-rein. 

Cut to the chase: Five heifers eventually got sent to Israel in 2022. (The Monthly and other sites have reported on this before.) Hamas noticed and mentioned this in early 2024, after the start of the current intifada; and the Israeli rabbi who will have the last word on making the purity call says they're not.)

According to [Rabbi Joshua] Wander, Rabbi Azria Ariel, of the Temple Institute, is the world’s foremost authority on the red heifer and perhaps the only figure with the clout to compel the necessary consensus to move forward. Ariel wasn’t satisfied with the candidates. “At this moment, it is unclear whether we have in our possession in Israel a red heifer that is verifiably kosher and suited for the ceremony,” Ariel announced in March 2025. One of the five heifers had sprouted white hairs; another grew warts on the side of its neck.

There you are. Perhaps it's a stall tactic, too. 

It gets nuttier from there, with Stinson eventually finding some Israeli Jews, including an alleged priest raised for this moment, to do a practice red heifer ceremony. From there, Stinson goes MAHA with the ashes.

The author does note that the claims of Stinson and his ilk are rejected by mainstream scholars, but not until the last paragraph. 

The Iran War so far — calling out both duopoly parties and the MSM

First, per Klippenstein, and contra many Democraps as well as Rethuglicans (he calls out both), it's a war.

Mondoweiss notes the lamestream media, whether calling it a war or not, is lining up as cheerleaders. It then doubled down, and said that even people who know about previous such cheerleading are shocked by how blatant it is this time.

As The Dissident notes, Iran was prepared for an attempt to force regime change by assassinating Ayatollah Khamenei and adds the likely backfiring effect in that this will increase the likelihood it builds a bomb.

Per another Klip? I said that Trump cut off both his balls, and gave one to Netanyahu and the Zionists and the other to the U.S. military version of the Deep State.  

Trump now wants to try to get Kurdish militias involved, which risks Iraq and/or Turkey attacking them. 

As for the results? Let's quote the dean of foreign policy realists, John Mearsheimer:

Remember that in the Vietnam War, the US won virtually every battle and lost the war.

Couldn't have said it better myself. 

Meanwhile, former Air Force Academy would-be flyboy Paul Skenes is a disgusting militarist. 

As for the Gulf Arab states getting attacked? As Palestine Will Be Free notes, they brought this on themselves, and Merikkka is going to hang them out to dry just as much as the Gulf Cooperation Council has hung out both Hamas and the rest of Gaza, and Abu Mazen and the rest of the West Bank, to dry. A new post there notes many of them are talking about yanking money from their sovereign wealth funds out of the US to pay for the economic damage Iran has already caused. If a quarter of what's threatened actually happens, it's recession time.

As for Merikkka's Zionist genocide enabling NATO toadies in the UK, France and Germany?

The leaders of France, Germany and the UK issued a joint statement Sunday that appeared to indicate they may get involved directly with the U.S.-Israeli war. “We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source,” they wrote. “We have agreed to work together with the US and allies in the region on this matter.“

Fuck 'em. 

That's even as Israel has now barred the Al-Aqsa Mosque, during Ramadan no less. 

Merikkkans on the street, meanwhile, are worried about high gas prices — prices that have jumped 50 cents a gallon in a matter of days. Dottering Donald the Zionist has staff, like chief of staff Susie Wiles, worried about the fallout even as they continue warmongering:

President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is telling his advisers to bring ideas to the Oval Office to lower gasoline prices in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran, according to two energy industry executives familiar with the conversations. 

The White House is “looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices,” said one of the executives, who was granted anonymity to describe internal administration discussions.

What's coming, coal gasification? The old Fischer-Tropsch process? Don't you laugh; somebody will surely mention it.

Meanwhile, per Bruce Schneier?  

Remember, both American Zionist fellators of Israel, and anti-Zionists as a caution note, if Israel can hack traffic cameras in Iran, just maybe it can do the same in Merikkka. 

Only 53 Democraps in the House voted against calling Iran the world's leading sponsor of state terrorism. ALL Rethuglicans except 3 non-voters voted yes, as did 157 Democraps.

The real answer, of course, is Merikkka is the world's leading sponsor of state terrorism. And, No. 2? No hints.

Update: Whether on accident or deliberately, Iran's Dena, sunk by the US sub, was taking part in a US-coordinated military exercise when it was off the coast of India. TNR notes the exercise required ships to be unarmed, so the start of the preceding sentence is purely rhetorical.

Update, March 10: Here's what might happen in days ahead. 

Texas "Progressives" — active on ICE and Hispanics, silent on Gaza

I pulled part of this week's Texas "Progressives" items from the normal weekly Roundup put together by Charles Kuffner of Off the Kuff for just that reason.

We start with something I picked up, as, contra former member of the Texas Progressives Alliance Brains, I have long done my own additions (and subtractions) to Kuff's material.

Kuff will surely talk somewhere about Texas public school ICE protest walkouts, even as he remains radio silent on collegiate pro-Palestine protests. Ditto for Neil Aquino, the hypocrites.   

And now, to all of last week's roundup as organized by Kuff. 

The Current catches Greg Abbott trying to squirm out of his ICE fetishism.  

José R. Ralat gave his account of being accosted by ICE.

G. Elliott Morris shows why immigration as an issue has hit a tipping point in public opinion.

Isaiah Martin cheers on the athletes who have called out Alex Pretti's murder by ICE. 

Deceleration gives ten rules of resistance against ICE. Finally, as a public service, the two major immigrant-run organizations who are resisting ICE in Minnesota are Unidos MN and Monarca.

For more specific places to donate to, Stand With Minnesota is a clearinghouse for ways to help.

And now, to Gaza. And the United States ties with the Zionism that continues to kill Gazans. 

Even as Israel continues to break the cease-fire in Gaza, even as Israel and Trump's Peace Force or whatever he calls it plan biometric-controlled gated communities in Gaza that will surely come back to Merikkka, even as Jeffrey Epstein's connection to Mossad in particular and the Zionists running Israel in general becomes ever more clear, even as, as late as the end of last month, people continue to demand the release from ICE detention of Leqaa Kordia — held HERE IN TEXAS — Kuff, Neil Aquino etc remain silent. Maybe it's because the Biden Administration's complicity in genocide becomes ever more clear.

Texas Democrats — including elected ones! — are demanding Kordia's release. Where are Texas "progressives"? 

That's The Barbed Wire. Elsewhere, I have linked to the Texas Observer. Kuff uses both in the Roundup, which means he deliberately refuses to talk about her. That's anti-anti-Zionism, which is Zionism on the down low.

 

Leqaa Kordia remains a political prisoner here in Texas over Palestine, even as some progressives ignore her

Unfortunately, too many Texas "progressive" bloggers still won't write about anything related to Israel and Gaza, whether because of timidity, or outright Zionism, and therefore won't tell you a thing about Kordia, imprisoned at the Prarieland Detention Center in North Tex-ass since last March.

Here's her story:

The last remaining Columbia University protester left in confinement, Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia, has been in detention since her arrest in March 2025 after accidentally overstaying her student visa. 

“I came here as a tourist, and I changed my visa to student visa. And later, after about six years, I received kind of bad advice from a friend,” Kordia said. “Not intentionally, of course. But I dropped out of school thinking that I had lawful status in the United States.” 

Since her arrest, an immigration judge has twice ordered her release, deeming her eligible for bail. Despite this, repeated filings with the Board of Immigration Appeals have left Kordia in a state of continuous legal limbo. If deported, Kordia will be turned over to the Israeli government, which has killed almost 200 members of her family during the genocide in Gaza. 

Kordia’s experience in detention has reportedly been wrought with pain and hardship. According to her lawyer’s statements and court filings, Kordia has been sleeping on a thin mattress in a facility currently overcrowded while refusing to provide religious accommodations. The filings also say Kordia suffered a skin rash amid unsanitary conditions.

Besides Mondoweiss, Kordia and her plight have also been featured on Democracy Now and elsewhere. 

But, no, certain "pergressuves" don't write about her. They're well-enough informed otherwise, since at least one story was written about her before in Texas media, namely The Barbed Wire, back in October 2025, as I noted at the time in a Texas Progressives roundup.

I haven't named names, but people know who they are. 

I haven't named names in a piece submitted to a Roundup. But, next time, I can. One of you has an easy-to-use search box on your site, so that's how I know you've said nothing. 

That's despite this, also from the Mondoweiss link at top:

On December 5, a group of U.S. Senators, including Cory Booker, Nellie Pou, LaMonica McIver, Andy Kim, Chris Van Hollen, and Bonnie Watson Coleman, submitted a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. 

“As the record shows, [Kordia] has broken no laws and has been convicted of no crimes. Her only ‘offenses’ were an honest mistake that caused her to inadvertently lose her legal status and that she participated in a peaceful, nonviolent demonstration to mourn her loved ones and honor their lives,” the letter reads. 

“Rather than punishing speech protected by the First Amendment, this Administration should be defending it, particularly when the individual is acting peacefully, has no criminal history and poses no threat to national security or public safety. We urge you to follow the recommendations of both a Magistrate Judge and an Immigration Judge and immediately release Ms. Kordia.” 

As Kordia spent her birthday and the holidays in detention, her legal team was hoping for a decision on either her asylum or habeas case, which are both awaiting further action from the court, so that she could be freed in time for family celebrations. As no decision was made, her case currently remains at a standstill. 

“Leqaa has marked another holiday and now a birthday in ICE detention, her punishment for daring to speak up in support of Palestinian rights. Her continued detention in the face of two rulings from an immigration judge that she could be released could not be clearer evidence of retaliation. We continue to hope for a swift decision in her habeas. In the meantime, Leqaa and others suffer in an overcrowded facility, deprived of basic dignities,” said Amal Thabateh, another one of Kordia’s lawyers and staff attorney with the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) Project at Columbia University. 

Kordia’s case has attracted the attention of activists, journalists, and human rights advocates, earning her story wide coverage following initial apprehension to reach out to the media.

Are you more Zionist than Cory Booker? Is your outrage against ICE limited to violations of Hispanic human rights and not inclusive of Palestinian human rights violations?

J'accuse, per Zola. 

(And, I'm sure Kuff didn't even read this, even though it was submitted for this week's Texas Progressives Roundup. Ditto Neil Aquino, who loves to talk about weekly protests at John Cornyn's office, but doesn't ask if any of the Democrat Congresscritters in greater Helltown, like Training Wheels Jasmine Crockett in the Metromess, are Zionist or Zionist-lite.) 

Ed Buckner, unfollowed as not my idea of a secular humanist

I recently unfollowed Ed Buckner on Substack, for running Clinton Tankersley's dreck. I had lumped this with others I've unfollowed recently, but decided to pull it out as a separate piece, as it had gotten longish.

Why?

See this piece, "Gaza: Two Years Before the Mast," for details on why. And with John Ratcliffe, another of Teh Stupidz running Trump's spy shacks, revealing that 2014 at the Maidan was indeed a coup, a good reason to unfollow a Uki-tankie and block another who had other reasons to be blocked. But, unskeptical blank-check Zionism was the biggie.

Buckner, after a bit or more of goading on my part, has responded:

Here’s an even better idea: use your actual critical reasoning faculties and discover that despite your confident assertions, considerable well regarded evidence supports the opposite view. Of course Palestinians deserve reasonable and decent treatment and of course there is real evidence that Benjamin Netanyahu has been less than honest about the war in Gaza. But also—and also of course—there is overwhelming evidence that Hamas egregiously and unilaterally violated a ceasefire on 7 October 2023 with sadistic terrorism, that Hamas hides behind civilians and admits no civilians into its extensive and expensive system of tunnels under Gaza, that Hamas held for over two years innocent hostages it kidnapped, and more. One need not hate or love Jews to discover actual truth in these matters. And to any interested in my Letters to a Free Country blog (subscriptions are always free): I welcome readers who disagree with me or other readers, though I prefer they maintain civility. SocraticGadfly left of his own accord, though he’s not been missed overmuch. And I personally see no evidence whatever that he is at all competent to judge whether others are true humanists, secular or otherwise.

He even had a second comment:

I neglected to add, by the way, that supporting religious states is unreasonable in the cases of those being Islamic states—and there are many of these, some merely nominally religious and generally supportive of separation of religion and government—others quite outrageously destructive of civil rights for non-Muslims.

Hmm, where to start? 

First, I never said that Hamas was perfect. I did say Clinton Tankersley was lying, and Buckner was lying by uncritically giving him his Substack space. I stand by that, Ed. 

Second, there's plenty of evidence that Israeli leadership knew Oct. 7, 2023, was coming in advance, so why did they let it happen?

Third, violating a cease-fire? In reality, Israel had already been violating it. And, cease-fires with Lebanon in the past year as well.

Fourth, Israel holds hostages when it arrests Palestinians without charges and holds them indefinitely in such status. This has long, long been an Israeli practice. "Administrative detention" of Palestinians in Israel is considered the equivalent of hostage-taking by many human rights groups, and as of this time, nearly 5,000 Palestinians are so held. I quote:

According to B'tselem, since the outbreak of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023, Palestinian prisoners with Israeli citizenship have been stripped of many of their rights.[5] It further found that abuse of detainees is so institutionalized that the prisons should be called 'torture camps.'

There you are. 

Fourth, I'd say repeating lies that one people tells about another people as part of dehumanization is anti-humanist, and that participating in it yourself is also the same. 

Fifth, on the whole background of Hamas, including Israel helping create it, I'm not even going to waste time here. But yes, that first part is true:

Initially, Hamas was discreetly supported by Israel, as a counter-balance to the secular Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) to prevent the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Most my regular readers know the background, but I'll bet Buckner doesn't. The rest of that Wiki link is worth reading.

YOU invited Tankersley to do all of this and so stand in the dock yourself. Simple truth, Ed. YOU, with these responses, refuse to use YOUR critical reasoning faculties.

Sixth, to the second note.

And, supporting Israel, which has fused religious Judaism and secular Jewishness, isn't doing the same? 

 

Texas Progressives — climate change, SNAP, Palestinians

SocraticGadfly noted that there are no magic silver bullets on climate change and agriculture. (But, contra ignoring or denialism by the likes of Suzanne Bellsnyder, there is the need to do something.)

Off the Kuff rounded up the latest finance reports from the CD18 special election. 

Strangeabbott sloughed off pressure to do something about SNAP.  (The federal judge's ruling was relevant only to states that sued Trump.) 

In Texas Progressives news that the Palestinian-hating, tacitly Zionism-backing Charles Kuffner of Off the Kuff won't tell you, ONE pro-Palestinian protestor from Columbia University remains in ICE detention — here in Texas. 

Jeffrey Nall reminds us that true humanism includes some sort of conscientious disobedience at times, and that, (contra Ed Buckner) this includes support for Gaza. 

El Paso Matters talks to several high school students who have been negatively affected by recent legislation.

G. Elliott Morris rebuts some claims about the value of political moderation.

Israeli organized crime operating in the US is a big deal — even officially tied to leaders of Israel's Likud party. 

Olivia Messer reminds us that Texas is a lot more queer than you might think.

Deceleration is tracking an upward trend in San Antonio's carbon emissions.

Miranda Williamson and other students like her will suffer greatly if SNAP benefits are turned off.

Alice Linahan warns that the state's literacy plan is not what it's cracked up to be.

Alison Cook wished you a happy Cabbage Night. 

Neil Aquino wrote about the Metro's erasure of the Pride sidewalk and No Kings in Houston. 

Jimmy Wales the Zionist comes out from hiding again

I wrote six years ago about how Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was a Jeremy Corbyn slandering Zionist. (Wales owns, or then owned, a residence in greater London as well as one or more in the U.S.)

Well, we aren't getting six more weeks of winter, but after six years, the groundhog has popped up again. 

Now, he has personally intervened at Wikipedia to "freeze" its article on the genocide in Gaza. (Edit: Perhaps, if we're kind, we call it a semi-intervention.)

Why? This: 

Calling the page a “particularly egregious” example of an issue with neutrality on Wikipedia, Wales added: “At present, the lede and the overall presentation state, in Wikipedia’s voice, that Israel is committing genocide, although that claim is highly contested.” He said this was a violation of Wikipedia rules requiring neutrality of voice and attribution for claims.

And, it's pissed off editors. 

Before I get to some of their comments, very few people who aren't Zionist hasbara flak-runners highly dispute this claim. The International Criminal Court, and here in the U.S., Human Rights Watch and its former executive director, Kenneth Roth, have long called it genocide.

Or, per the piece at hand?

Experts including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, B’Tselem, and a UN Human Rights Council commission led by former president of the Rwanda genocide international tribunal Navi Pillay, have all concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

There you go, "Jimbo." 

But, per that first link? 

Wales, whether because he hates Labour's anti-neoliberal turn under Jeremy Corbyn, or he really does believe that antizionism is antisemitism, promoted  smears running around Corbyn. And even signed a group op-ed in The Guardian about that.

When I called him out on Twitter, he claimed to not be conflating the two, but posted a new piece from Medium that did just that.

I responded with:

Read this: https://t.co/Ee7X737yqf
And this: https://t.co/gzXf8OSK6u
And this: https://t.co/t7w3unLI7j
Maybe you just hate Corbyn and a non-#neoliberal Labour?

— reallyDonaldTrump  🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) December 10, 2019

And he blocked me.

 

Now let's quote those editors. Here's one:

The intervention has been met with anger by other Wikipedia editors, with one accusing Wales of coming “under political pressure and asking us to betray scholarship”.

And others:

Another editor responded: “There's also an ‘ongoing controversy’ over whether mRNA vaccines cause ‘turbo cancer’ and whether [Donald] Trump actually won the 2020 Presidential election. Do you want us to be [bold] and go edit those articles as well” 

Another said: “I have been editing in the [Israel Palestine] area for just over 20 years, and [as far as I know] there has never been as much outside focus on Wikipedia's cover of the area as now. Much of it negative, from pro-Israeli opinionators, X.com, blogs, you name it … 

“Jimbo Wales writes: ‘The neutrality of this article is disputed, and there are very good reasons for that’. Could you please tell us one or two of those ‘good reasons’?”

There you go. 

 

This is not the only case of Wales putting his thumb on the scales of a Wikipedia article in service of Zionism. Here's another from four years ago. 

Because he went to private prep school in the US, the dual-citizenship Wales may be a New Labour version of a Tory toff as much as anything. That still doesn't excuse him. Oh, Jimmy? The Guardian piece I link has about 5x the signatures of yours.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg of sleaziness in the name of Wales and his empire. That link is longform, but WELL worth reading. Wales personally seems to have a decade-plus of sleaziness that means his Corbyn smears are par for his course. No, it does more than that.

 [Tony] Blair is a close friend of Wales, whose wife Kate Garvey previously worked as his diary secretary. Wales is fiercely defensive of his famous friends, and Blair’s own Wikipedia entry barely mentions Blair’s vast financial wealth (37 homes — 10 houses and 27 flats — worth £27 million, plus millions of pounds distributed through a network of companies); his PR work on behalf of dictators and human rights abusers in Kuwait, the UAE, Colombia, Egypt, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan; his utter failure to support Palestinian rights during his time as Middle Eastern peace envoy; and the human consequences — over half a million civilian casualties — of the Iraq invasion he continues to defend.

Well, there you have it. Read on. There's lots of good stuff about him palling around with dictators, stiffing winners of prizes he has created, and more. (You can skip most of the last one-quarter; the author, Helen Buyniski, is pretty much wrong about alt-medicine, most of which is actually pseudomedicine. [She's also, per Google search, a bit of a nutter. She's written for places like Global Research, which is, for the unknowing, full-on nutbar.] The rest, though, is spot on.) I'll add that it used to be at Medium, that piece, but the corporate overlords deleted the account.

Sounds like Jimmy Wales never really moved beyond his Bomis roots. 

TACO enablers are caving themselves in on Iran

I'm talking primarily about Trevor Lawrence, aka Marjorie Taylor Greene (think about it, think about it, look at it, look at it) and Thomas Massie, aka Squirrel Hair Junior (after Rand Paul, and look at it, look at it).

Some never-Trumpers and even a few BlueAnon yesterday were talking about them being "courageous." 

Yeah, per Acyn, Massie may have called out his colleagues on the Sunday news talking heads. He may also have called out AIPAC. Did he mention by name warmonger Bagger Vance? Hypocrite Tulsi Gabbard? Dementia Don himself? No, no and no. 

MTG is at least said she would "fight anyone" on this, and included Trump by name.

Show me what you'll do on the floor of the House. Both of you.

Of course, Dem leadership is no better. House Mouse Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he hasn't looked at Ro Khanna's legislation yet. Even if it somehow got past the full House, one of the top senators from AIPAC, Chuck Schumer, is Senate minority leader. 

OR hell, where is Dear Leader, Kamala is a Zionist Cop or Dementia Joe? Slickster?

Meanwhile, Trump is back to lying, claiming about 5:30 US CDT that there was a ceasefire and Iran saying "we haven't heard a proposal." 

Per Klipp? "Speak loudly and carry a big schtick." Yep, that's Trump to a T. 

As for the Iranian attack on Qatar? AS IS USUALLY THE CASE, Trumptards, neocons and general warmongers, and Zionist schmucks, Iran provided advance notice. That's related to the general schmuckery on the part of Congressional Democraps leadership.

Beyond leadership, the usual AIPAC fellators on the Dem side, like Fetterman, are out in force, per Mondoweiss. 

Zionist Dems trying to "own" Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, John Ratcliffe

Yeah, for shits and giggles, its "fun" watching Senate Democrats call out the trio of the Department of Defense Drunkards, Department of National Intelligence Israeliness, and Central Intelligence Agency, respectively over Hegseth's — or somebody else's — looping Jonah Goldberg into a Signal chat. (It would have been overkill to do the "Intelligence" strikethrough a second time.) A kudo, with surprise, to Goldberg for having the Atlantic run the basics of what he had.

But? John Warner, Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Jimmy Gomez in the House?

All Zionists.

All cutters of blank checks for #GenocideJoe and Kamala is a Zionist Cop over the genocide in Gaza — a genocide to which the Houthis reacted with their Red Sea maritime patrols.

In other words, these Zionist Democrats are the reason that Trump and his national security advisor Mike Waltz — the person who reportedly actually screwed the pooch — are making war plans against Yemen.

And, for #BlueAnon on Shitter? "Whiskileaks" may sound funny as a trending item, but, since Mike Waltz — who now has been shown to have left a Venmo account unsecured — is the problem, not Hegseth, it's another swing and a miss.

Oh, and since the Nat-sec Nutsacks™ class within Blue Anon hated the actual Wikileaks long before Julian Assange rightly earned hatred over Seth Rich conspiracy theory promotion, it's a swing and a miss that way, too. 

On the more serious side? Waltz is a Green Beret, Bronze Stars, not going through life "(fat), drunk and stupid," etc., the level of incompetence is more scary than if it were him rather than Hegseth.

Also on the more serious side, which the Zionists in national Democrats' contingent will also NOT like? The clusterfuck, called Signalgate now by many of them, or Signalghazi by Brian Beutler, had one good thing — it outed an Israeli spy. 

That said, per Beutler? The real issue is the one of administrative competence in general — and Trump cluelessness in general, like on not knowing about US troops dead in Lithuania.

Consider this to also be a post about The Resistance 2.0, to the degree it, as a subset of BlueAnon, applauds these callouts in Congressional testimony while ignoring the hypocrisy.

It's more important than ever to bust myths about Hanukkah

As promised, I am pulling this from last week's Texas Progressives roundup, with today being the last day of Hanukkah.

Kuffner found this piece, and it's all wrong.

Rabbi Levi Greenberg writes about Hanukkah's message that evil can be defeated. 

It's got a picture of Chabad at the top of the column, plus Greenberg being a Lubavitcher. It's Zionist just from the Chabad angle, and it's also messianic (and not in that "Messianic Christian" sense) with the Lubavitch angle, especially if Greenberg holds to the Schneerson as Messiah cult within the Lubavitcher world.

Also, since Hanukkah was adapted from an already existing Persian winter solstice festival, it's a lie; more thoughts on that and related here. (A bit more here; more myth and legend in general deconstructed here.) And, reading between the lines about the celebration of the fall of the House of Assad in Syria, and the silence on something else, it's anti-Palestinian. Shock me that Kuff, who passes by the plight of Palestine and pro-Palestinian protestors in silent contempt, would like something like this

Finally, some Hanukkah alt-history, riffing on the first "here" link, here.

Looking at the LA Times butt-hurt opinion world once again

Harry Litman, a legal columnist for the LA Times, announced he was resigning from its op-ed board over the paper's non-endorsement in the presidential election and related matters.

My comment?

Lemme see. If I recall correctly, Dr. Soon-Shiong admitted that, per his daughter, the non-endorsement in this year's presidential election was in part over Gaza. What's YOUR take on genocide, Harry Litman? (My one problem was that Doctor Daddy didn't nudge the editorial board into considering third-party candidates)

Followed by a link to my previous look at reality at the LAT and the non-endorsement. (That comment drew one quick comment from "Andy in Burbank":

Endorsing democracy with Harris/Walz should've precedence over not endorsing anyone, which helped electing Herr Drumpf, who's taking sides with Israel.

To which I replied:

You either didn't read or ignored the sentence in parentheses in my comment. And, as a third-party voter who's seen plenty of Democratic Pary ballot suppression efforts, don't try to make the "protecting democracy" claim that way, either.

And, that's that.

With that? Who's Harry Litman? Per Wiki, someone who's a definite Democratic Party apparatchik, which is not disclosed in the piece.

That includes:

• Deputy AG under Janet Reno in the Clinton administration.
• USDA for the Western District of Pennsylvania under Clinton.
• Legal counsel in 2004 in Pennsylvania for the Kerry campaign in 2004 and Obama in 2008.

Other op-ed board members there and at other papers have GOP backgrounds, of course. That said, this should be mentioned. He has motive for protesting the non-endorsement.

Now, the biggie? This video episode of his podcast, and various comments like this on Shitter make clear he's some sort of Zionist. How deep-fried of one, I don't know. But, some level? Yes. Read the comments on the YouTube for basic background.

Now, that said, I'm not in agreement with owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong's most recent actions. His wanting advance screening on op-ed headlines is ridiculous micro-meddling. His "bias meter" idea will have its own bias — toward the duopoly more than toward Trump per se.

Beyond the above? Hanging out with the likes of Tim Snyder on Shitter, plus apparently indicating he's going to the blue skies of Blue Sky?

Weaponizing anti-Chinese sentiment as hasbara deflection on Motorola and Lenovo

By now, you've probably heard about the weaponized pagers that killed several apparent Hezbollah members, and one child and counting.

You've probably heard the speculation that this was by Mossad, asserted by Hezbollah and not denied.

(Update: "Someone" blew up Hezbollah walkie-talkies Wednesday.)

You've probably heard that these all may have been Motorola pagers.

And, you may have heard that Motorola is owned by Lenovo.

And, you would have heard either ignorance or misinformation — possibly hasbara. Or whatever the Farsi equivalent of hasbara is. Or just laziness by US Twitter. Or some combination of all of the above.

That's because about all you've heard, from a Motorola ⇒  Lenovo connection claim at a lower level, to the idea that Motorola pagers were involved? It's all wrong.

Let's unpack, from lower to higher levels.

Motorola Solutions is one half of what emerged from a 2009 split of Motorola. The OTHER half, Motorola Mobility, which is NOT in the pagers business (AFAIK) was eventually acquired by Lenovo. Motorola Solutions includes the Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd., founded in 1964.

It took me a minute of Googling to find the background info on the Israeli company, confirm it was true, then go to the Wiki page for Motorola and see the split. The Wiki for the parent company adds that Motorola Solutions is the legal successor to the old Motorola, too.

And, a subpage on Motorola Solutions specifically documents their ties to Zionist settlements.

I don't know whether the Motorola ⇒  Lenovo was started purely out of ignorance or not. Even if it was, it soon became weaponized. Knowing Zionists could use it as deflection and knowing US Cold War 2.0 types could use it to bash China.

At the same time, just because wingers and  Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ bash China doesn't mean things like labor camps in Xinjiang aren't true.

And, this is why I identify as a skeptical leftist. And, if other leftists don't like being called out for not connecting the dots correctly here? I'm not sorry.

That said, Motorola almost certainly is involved in NO WAY.

(Update: Fortunately, we now have a detailed AP story with actual facts. The biggies? Hezbollah decided to go away from cellphones in February, giving Mossad [presumably] nearly 8 months of work time. Second? A British expert says explosive as small as a pencil eraser would be enough, and he also details how they were likely triggered.)

Now, if these were Motorola pagers, yes, then why did Hezbollah buy them? Mondoweiss says they were ditching cellphones due to security issues, so pagers, but why Motorola? Were they Motorola? Motorola laundered through another brand name? The Mondoweiss piece doesn't mention Motorola, so this whole issue may be a red herring.

Rolling Stone links to a Tweet and claims that they resemble Motorola pagers, when the Tweet says no such thing and respondents mention Gold Apollo. And, so says Wiki. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Command is claiming Motorola, but it has "good reason" to do so. 

Gold Apollo is also headquartered in Taiwan, not Lenovo's China.

Now, per a Google Images search, Motorola services can be and are provided over Gold Apollo pagers, it appears. But, that's by the US paging service company Metrotel. Somehow, I highly doubt that Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd provides either pagers or paging service in Lebanon. Or other countries in the Middle East, like Iran. 

What that, in turn, means, is that Mossad really did some infiltration work. And, in addition to the actual killings and maimings, the fear of what it could do next is the key. (Update: The "next" has dropped with the walkie-talkie explosions, obviously.)

And, were I Rolling Stone, I'd be editing that page ASAP. Ditto any other major media outlets. And, maybe talking to legal counsel.

As for cutting through rumors and innuendo? ALL of this took just an hour or so of off-and-on checking during what's normally my busiest work day of the week. And, getting more shit right than at least one major media outlet.

Beyond that, per the Mondoweiss link at top, if these were implanted explosives, it would have likely been timer-detonated, not wifi-triggered, I'd think. Getting back to Motorola Solutions, that might imply something in a factory, or at least in a packinghouse area.

So, what's up with the pseudo-Trots of the Socialist Workers Party supporting Zionist genocide?

And, support it they do, per a long string of comments by unhinged SWP entry-ist Cort Greene on this blog post.

Support it they do, per Wiki's page on the SWP, which notes that from Greens on left, they're basically the only party that supports it. Even their Trot cousins at the Socialist Equality Party, while being Xi Jinping tankies and other nuttery, reject Zionism.

WHY, I don't know. This IS a turning. In the 1970s, the SWP was strongly anti-Zionist. That said, per its SEP foes, by the 1980s, it might have been anti-Zionist, or not, but it was also antisemitic. Jack Barnes, called out by the SEP back then, is STILL head of the SWP, and per his linked Wiki page, has led all of the various expulsions within the SWP within the last 50 years. AND, per Louis Proyect, as of 2017, at least, it was BOTH Zionist AND antisemitic. And also, per Proyect and this piece, Jack Barnes has no more than 1,000 or so acolytes including Cort Greene. Also per that piece, the SWP has been, per Cort Greene calling me a fascist, quasi-fascist supporters of US imperialism for at least 20 years.

Think Stalin's various twists and turns over 25 years, double the length and shrink it down to a political group 1/100, nay, 1,1000, if that, as big as the CPSU. It's no wonder the remaining true believers are paranoiacs, even by the standards of left factionalism.

It might be tempting to tie it back to Zionism's roots, namely its roots in Palestine, not Europe, and especially in Poland, but it's not that. It's Jack Barnes.

That said, the rest of that "strongly antisemitic"? The SEP, a bunch of actually doctrinaire actual Trots, is truly nutters itself.

Marxists insist that the temporary strengthening of Zionism is the historical outcome of the catastrophic defeats of the European labor movement that led to the annihilation of six million Jews by the fascists. Without the combined betrayals of Stalinism and Social Democracy which prepared these defeats, the Zionists could never have attained the influence they acquired during the post-World War II period.

That ignores that much of Zionist migration to Mandatory Palestine happened before the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. It often happened LONG before that. Ben-Gurion? 1906. Jabotinsky, the most racist and virulent of old Zionists? Pre-WWI.

To put it bluntly? Today's Socialist Workers Party is the LaRoucheites of alleged leftist groups.

That said, beyond Zionism being a particular virulent and particular virulent form of nationalism, today's Israel is nowhere near socialist. Zibbutzes are more hasbara than reality. And, the Labor Party? A nothingburger, and as much influenced by the "Third Way" in the last thirty years as many other such parties.

NOT so #RIP on Noam Chomsky the duopolist, backdoor Zionist and dated intellectual

This isn't going to be as fierce of a takedown obit as I did on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, aka the Notorious RBG, aka here, the Neoliberal RBG, a few years ago. (And, yes, as of 3 p.m. CDT here in the USofA, he may be, per Monty Python, "not quite dead" yet. But, re the stroke that hit him last year? If he's speechless and communicative only by body gestures, to go "meta" on linguistics issues, there's no way of knowing how much of the world he understands anyway. And, to go quantum-meta, maybe whether he's dead or not depends on who's observing. Schrödinger's Chomsky, anybody?)

But, per the header, and, on the idea that he is dead, there's that issue staring us in the face. And, the two others that I added to the original.

Update, 4:10 p.m. CDT:

Noam appears quite alive, even if, per his stroke, how "alive" is he? (Is his second wife acting like Clarke Abbey to Ed Abbey, a legacy-protector, and legacy-hawker, as much as anything? And, sadly, one of the early push-backs on the "he's dead" came from Glennwald; the sadly is the degree to which Chomsky cozied up to Greenwald, which only increased, AFAIK, after he moved to Brazil and his second marriage.

So, do NOT "bring out your dead" if they're still alive.

Anyway, he's still, dead, alive or undead, a duopolist and a backdoor Zionist.

And, we now have the issue of egg on your face, tribalism, and questions of who's a Chomsky insider these days and who's not. I tackle all of that.

Noam shoved it in the political public intellectuals' faces four years ago when he cosigned a public letter telling Green Party presidential nominee Howie Hawkins to "run a safe states strategy." Hawkins told him, Barbara Ehrenreich (a Maoist duopolist!) and others, politely, to STFU, after first critiquing their errors and bad assumptions. I doubled down on the STFU and the critique of the thought behind it. 

Worse? None of these duopoly sheepdoggers offered Hawkins any quid pro quo.

But, that was nothing new for Noam, who, to be honest, was a hypocrite. I mean, you have to be, to offer near-blanket condemnations of US foreign policy under presidents of both duopoly parties, rightful condemnations of human rights violations and more, and then go sheepdogging, even as a Hillbot in 2016, and then getting somewhat self-righteous after 2016 election day. Chomsky refused to look at Democrats' Overton-window shifting, which, on foreign policy, has seen the chickens come home to roost with #GenocideJoe after Oct. 7, 2023. (It may have been in part due to health issues, but Chomsky seeing the chickens come home to roost himself had been pretty quiet in the past 8 months.)

That said, even in 2012, he couldn't bring himself to talk about third-party candidates. But, he did like Democrat in DSA Rosey clothes Bernie Sanders.

==

Speaking of? Noam has been chickenshit on BDS, as Mondoweiss details. Refusing to support the Right of Return is chickenshit 101, and yes, it's backdoor Zionism. (And, in turn, it probably ties back to his duopoly sheepdogging.) Beyond that, the idea that Israel breaks international law on other issues anyway, so, we are asking for something that won't happen anyway, is Zionism 202. Imagine if, on the United States, somebody had told that to Chomsky as justification for not pushing for UN resolutions about the US.

Here's the nutgraf, down at the bottom, of that piece:

But perhaps Professor Chomsky’s strangest statement of all, a rather terrifying statement on the face of it, is that “There is no reason to expect Israel to accept a Palestinian population it does not want.” There you have it, all condensed into one sentence, an admission that Israel is a racially predicated state and that the rights of the Palestinians themselves must remain subservient to it. There is no reason to expect a settler nation to accept the people whose land it took. Everything is framed in terms of what Israel wants, or what Israel will or will not agree to. Is this the same Noam Chomsky whose Manufacturing Consent and Fateful Triangle sit on my bookshelf?

That's Noam Chomsky, folks. (Per the first segment, above, let's not forget that St. Bernard of Sanders is also anti-BDS. No wonder Chomsky puffed him as a smokescreen to hide the fact that he was at bottom line still a duopoly guy.)

I had glanced at that Mondoweiss piece a few years back, when trying to run to ground just how much off the wall (I knew they were at least somewhat off the wall) Margaret Kimberly's claims about Chomsky were. (His death will probably bring some more of that out of the woodwork.) But, I looked at it in more depth today when I saw Chomsky trending on Twitter and the first claims that he had passed away. Noam really does not look very good in that piece, even with his "nuances."

Side note: Per his Wiki bio, in the late 1930s, he considered moving to a kibbutz in then-Mandatory Palestine. And, a newspaper in Brazil, where he moved to a few years ago, says he did live on a kibbutz in 1953. So, his later "backdoor Zionism" was of a piece. (And, we can't even blame Leon Uris' "Exodus," or the movie, which I do blame in part, and semi-seriously, for Biden's stance.)

And, people on the r/Chomsky subreddit didn't like me calling him a backdoor Zionist.

Is it any wonder he was a duopoly sheepdogger?

Interesting side note: In an old interview with Al Jazeera, Chomsky notes that Israeli leaders, including Bibi, would usually ultimately, at least on the surface, fall in line when a US president staked out a certain stance. That stopped with Obama, he says. But, Chomsky doesn't seem to ponder the likely Israeli racism behind that.

==

Dated intellectual?

Yes, part 1 ties with the above. Here's a brief rundown of his other foreign policy pulled-punch stances.

But, we've already covered that.

Sidebar: He came off as clueless (and in hindsight, was he having mental problems?) when he suggested, three months after Putin's invasion of Ukraine, that Trump would be a great peace negotiator.

==

Let's look at part 2. He was also a dated intellectual on linguistics. The brain is not massively modular, and that was known long ago. But, as far as I know, Chomsky never updated his theories of language and linguistics, but just moved on. The idea of a universal grammar was also put on at least somewhat tentative grounds.

He also, as I note there, got lucky to attack behaviorism publicly on the issue of language development just as it was already caving in. And, by presenting his thoughts as what seemed to be the only option?

Chomsky also was ...

A duopolist on theories of language. No wonder he moved on.

In reality, many of his ideas have been out of date, or at least partially out of date, for 30 years or more. If behavioralism overstate external influences on language development, his quasi-Ev Psych ideas (it's why people like Steve Pinker ran with his "massive modularity" ideas about the brain) understated said influences, and understated both how classical neo-Darwinian evolution could produce gradual, graduated language development, especially in conjunction with cultural evolution.

Beyond that? Carl Zimmer reports that new research indicates language evolved primarily for communication, and NOT for thinking. Fun sidebar? This is another overturning of Chomsky's claims about language. (I can't say "research," since Chomsky did basically none.) Also, this would tie in with people like Michael Corballis stressing cultural evolution's role in the development of language.

 

==

So, non-rhetorically like Marc Antony, I came to bury Chomsky, not to praise him.

And, I have saved an even broader version of this in the hopper, post-dated enough that I can pull out out of storage for when he actually dies, when "the icy hand of death" grips him.

Texas Progressives talk state GOP, Uvalde, abortion, lizards

I'm a secularist, so no thoughts and prayers, or tots and pears, for people in Valley View, but yes, sympathy for the families, remembrance of the dead, and finally, recognition of the frailty, and absurdity in a Camus way, of life in general.

==

The Texas GOP has gone even more batshit crazy, per state convention resolutions, plus shown that, more than ever, it's afraid of competition. (Don't be shocked; both duopoly parties are.) Plus, not that it's ever stopped either Tex-ass GOP voters or its leadership before, but, the "win a majority of counties for statewide office" is clearly unconstitutional — until and unless SCOTUS wants to undo Baker et al. More batshitness starts with the election of Abraham George as party leader. That's even as the disarray increases, and the money, other than Wilks and Dunn type drops, slows down.

Meanwhile, everybody there had fun kicking Dade "Dade" Phelan.

After getting a settlement against the city of Uvalde, parents are now suing Daniel Defense, Activision and Facebook's parent. They're also suing the DPS. Good luck on both.

The Monthly casts a sharp eye on the Board of Pardons and Paroles work in getting Daniel Perry off the hook.

Off the Kuff is not surprised that no one likes the guidance on abortion provided by the Texas Medical Board. 

SocraticGadfly salutes the potential, though not environmentally guaranteed, Endangered Species Act listing for the dunes sagebrush lizard.

New Mexico has a state ethics commission that actually works, contra ours here in Tex-ass. 

Liberal American Zionism is dead, dead, dead. Maybe here in Tex-ass, Kuff will write about Zionist repression of pro-Palestinian student protestors. (Nahh, would undercut his BlueAnon tribalism.)

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said that traitors don’t honor brave service & Memorial Day. (Note: Aquino's definition of "traitor" is #BlueAnon tribalist. But, rather than delete, I'm leaving it here with that note.)

Space City Weather explains what a derecho is.

The New Atlantis uses the proposed I-35 expansion in Austin as an illustration of "induced demand".

CultureMap previews an imminent docuseries on the history of the Texas Renaissance Festival.

Texas Monthly interviews Colin Allred, and annotates their interview as they go. (And doesn't push as hard as it could.)

Finally, congratulations to the Harris County Public Library system and the Houston Children's Museum for winning 2024 National Medals for Museum and Library Service.

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:

On Israel's genocidal actions in Gaza, I think we're back at Watergate times with Joe Biden:
"What did the president know, and when did he know it?"https://t.co/v4cqfHqc7p

— TheRealSocraticGadfly 🥝☢️🌻🌲 (@real_gadfly) March 20, 2024

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:

Biden says Hamas is motivated by “ancient desires” to eliminate Jews pic.twitter.com/BA2yIf8C0F

— barbarism critic 🇵🇸 (@SxarletRed) May 7, 2024

 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?

False framing in Aaron's 2nd & 3rd Tweets. Pro-Palestinian protestors did NOT do Option 2 at start. Things like "uncommitted" vote in Dem primaries happened mths after Biden was told.
Besides, it remains to be seen how many of these ppl sit out the general or vote 3rd party 1/x https://t.co/mulVc9pdMp

— TheRealSocraticGadfly 🥝☢️🌻🌲 (@real_gadfly) May 9, 2024

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

By his silence, Charles Kuffner of Off the Kuff is a Zionist

Charles Kuffner of Off the Kuff as in the organizer of the Texas Progressives: Zionist by silence over saying nothing about the DPS crushing of pro-Palestinian protestors at UT. Nor, at that link, about Strangeabbott's applauding the DPS. Nor has he said anything about UT faculty planning to give president Jay Hartzell a vote of no confidence over HIS applauding the DPS. (Nor did the Trib mention, as did Truthout, that this is really a faculty call for a teaching strike.) Nor has he said anything about UT administration spouting hasbara bullshit. Or, it's spouting more hasbara bullshit, namely, the conflation of antizionism and antisemitism. And, the protest was peaceful, period and end of story.

Moved from this week's Texas Progressives roundup? As written: The Austin Chronicle reports on UT faculty's reaction to the protest debacle, with Kuff not talking about WHICH protest.

Nor has Kuff said anything about Zionists "phoning in" a discrimination complaint to prevent students from voting on divestment measures. (Sadly, neither has the Trib.)

Kuff is a straight-up #BlueAnon who wouldn't dare to call out President #GenocideJoe Biden, ConservaDem Senate candidate Colin Allred or anything like that.

And, Rice and UT-Austin are both in Tex-ass, and Rice is even in Kuff's backyard in Houston, so no excuses on the claim this is something "national."

That's as Stace calls out elected officials in the Helltown area for their silence. Stace, do Kuff next. (I mentioned this Wednesday evening, commenting on a Kuff piece where he wrote about SCOTUS refusing to do an emergency review of Texas' online porn-age verification law.)

This is all as a new leak of a State Department memo indicates four bureaus within it say Israel's in noncompliance, or appears to be, on human rights violations. SoS Tony Blinken, per the piece, is supposed to report to Congress by May 8 whether or not Israel is in violation.

Kuff has had more than a full week since I wrote this to write about something other than early voting updates for non-partisan local elections in Houston.

And, with the House passing the fraudulently named "Antisemitism Awareness Act," HR 6090, Kuff also faces a point-blank political issue, namely in ConservaDem butt-sniffer and Senate nominee Colin Allred, as well as the increasingly fraudulent Sheila Jackson Lee, from right down there in Houston, both voting for the bill.

(That said, Kuff never updates the peripherals of his blog. He's got sites on his blogroll that have been dead since COVID hit, or earlier. He doesn't have me on there, even though I've been part of the Texas Progressives Alliance for a decade or more. That's said as lead-up to the fact that I don't think he ever even looks at comments.)

Update, May 8: The University of Houston is also cracking down on pro-Palestinian protestors. Right in Kuff's backyard. Crickets from him. He has had his friend of some sort Ginger, from Dallas, post about crackdowns there in what seems to be a weekly post from her. But, he himself has yet to write one post about any of the protests.

Update, May 19: Kuff still can't talk about the thuggish repression here in Tex-ass of pro-Palestinian protestors at Texas public universities, but CAN talk about Ernie Johnson helping a bar mitzvah.