Three people were arrested Sunday as hundreds of
pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-protesters gathered at a bike ride
boycott that targeted several Philadelphia businesses for their alleged support
of Israel.
The bike ride organized by Philly Bike On Your Left targeted
businesses that have "materially and ideologically supported the state of
Israel and its ongoing genocide in Palestine."
Crowds started gathering before noon in Rittenhouse Square.
Protesters carrying Palestinian flags were seen and were met by
counter-protesters at some businesses targeted in the protest. Supporters of
the businesses carried signs and Israeli flags, waving them as riders went by.
Police said there were roughly 300 pro-Palestinian
demonstrators, including 200 on bikes, and 200 pro-Israeli counter-protesters.
Three people were arrested during the protests....
Police said two officers were treated for minor injuries
during an apprehension, but neither required medical treatment. ...All demonstrations dispersed around 1:15 p.m. and no
property was damaged, police said.
Around 1:15 p.m.? It was a Sunday in autumn and even in an extremely disappointing season, there was an Eagles game to watch.
Nonetheless, the counter-protestors deserve a lot of credit, as do those local and state officials who condemned the attack on businesses on the basis of the religious affiliation of the owner. In a triumph of timing, the boycott was called for a day before the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, when "members of the Nazi movement, who espoused racist and antisemitic beliefs and were led by Adolf Hitler, looted 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses in Germany and destroyed Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools and homes. They also burned more than 1,000 synagogues."
The organizer has no website or Facebook page while operating through its Instagram account.There and in a statement sent to CNN, it maintained early Saturday moring that the group had been "grossly misrepresented" and is a "non-violent social cycling page" which is "firmly against racism and opporession of all forms, including fascism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and colonialism." But not cancellation of opposing political views or religious beliefs, apparently.
We all anticipate an upcoming protest against Russian and Chinese colonialism, fascism in Myanmar, and against oppression of Muslims (Islamophobia?) in India, Pakistan, Russia, and dozens of other countries.
I won't say that it is ironic that an organization which claims it is anti-anti-Semitic is demonstrating virulent hostility toward Jews Nor does it have anything to do with rcism because Judaism is not a religion and Jews are not characterized by race. But it is curious that among its opposition to all the isms- fascism, antisemitism, colonialism, anti-Islamism- Philly Bike On Your Left omitted Trumpism.
Trump strikes back at his enemies and it'a nor surprising that this organization exhibits cowardice as well as other faults. Little else needs to be said other than what Micahel Smerconish did within minutes of the opening of this display of hatred
If you take Twitter seriously, you would think that the centrists, center-left, or liberals in the Democratic Party are willing to sacrifice a House or Senate majority in order to make sure that anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian Democrats aren't elected. One tweeter argues about the el-Sayed vs. Rogers race in Michigan:
The only dignified choice is to leave the Senate race
blank—an undervote representing a rejection of ideological absolutism. This
makes me no less a Democrat. I refuse to be complicit in excusing or accepting
extremism to beat extremism. The madness has to stop somewhere.
Unsurprisingly, there is virulent criticism of this position, as indicated by the tweeters who responded to him.
The rule is blue no matter who, not blue only if they are
ideologically centrist enough for me.
You’ll then spend the next couple of years blaming the left
wing of the party for losing and not being able to do anything. I thought it
was vote blue no matter who?
"Blue no matter who, unless they're brown"
“I’d rather the republican won than Israel possibly face
sanctions.” "I value Israel more than my own country." That is you.
Islamophobia needs to stop.
Bigotry needs to stop. Racism
needs to stop. Just admit it, you are
not a Dem you are an Islamophobe who hates this one person for his faith. Disgusting.
Two of the last three mistakenly believe that the Democrats who oppose el-Sayed's candidacy are motivated by race, an odd notion given that Muslim is not a race. The other believes that opposing a candidate with a burning hatred of Israel makes the critic unpatriotic. That is disgusting.
Nonetheless, the first two make a valid point. To be clear: supporting an anti-Semite is preferable to the possibility of giving Donald Trump a Senate majority, which would allow him to make the most atrocious appointments imaginable not only to the Supreme Court, but to other federal courts.
But also to be clear: Abdul el-Sayed does not agree with those of us who are committed to a Democratic majority. In the video tweet below, the Michigan Democrat states in part
Allies are supposed to care about you implicitly- not just use you. The government of Israel has done nothing but use us. Allies are supposed to care about you. They use us for our tax dollars. They use us to run cover at the United Nations. They use us to run cover at the I.C.C. to cover up their war crimes. Now they use us to go and fightr a war we have no business fighting. We're paying more in gas. We're paying more for groceries.....
This clarity is so important. This akin to Zohran's 'no apartheid state has a right to exist' moment. It moves the goal posts & permanently changes the conversation. Good on AES. Stay the course.
I also appreciate that he didn't fall for the 'Bibi's the real problem' misdirect.
Do you see what is happening here? We have a Democratic candidate who is not blaming President Trump for the troubles we're in. He's blaming Israel. (Gee, I wonder why.) Donald Trump, the leader of the Free World and one of the three most powerful individuals on the planet has no agency. He is the puppet of Israel, which always uses us. Affordability? That's not caused by tariffs President Trump imposed or the war in Iran he started. Those damn Jews!
And it's not because of Israel that we, the USA, are fighting this war. Trump already had decided to attack Iran but decided on the timing because of Israel- and Saudi Arabia, Iran's mortal enemy. Yet el-Sayed mentions nothing about Saudi Arabia which is, possibly though not probably, because the Kingdom is Muslim. (All sorts of leftists blame Israel for pushing Trump into the war.)
Abdul el-Sayed believes, or purports to believe, that Israel manipulates or intimidates the USA. However, a law professor at George Mason University asks "what does Israel do for us, I keep hearing people ask." He answers
Without Israel, Lebanon falls to Hezbollah, Jordan falls to Islamists, the PA falls to Hamas, Hamas links up with the MB to threaten Egypt, Iran gears up to dominate Iraq, the Houthis take over Yemen and along with the new government in Jordan threaten Saudi Arabia, and so forth.
Israel,in short,is a linchpin of US security interests in the Mideast, keeping Islamists from seizing power region-wide, and keeping out Russian and Chinese influence.
Three minutes. In this three minute clip, there were three minutes without the words "Donald Trump", "the President", or "Trump" escaping el-Sayed's lips. That's because notwithstanding his most sensible supporters realizing that defeating Donald Trump's agenda is the most important objective, Abdul el-Sayed disagrees. He believes that above all, it is Israel which must be defeated.
An important American ally in the Middle East again is encouraging President Donald Trump to join its forces in escalating conflict. CNBC reports that the President
said he is considering joining Saudi Arabia in its
retaliation against Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen after a deadly attack on
Riyadh’s main airport, a move that could draw the U.S. further into a second
front in the Iran war.
“We may. We’re going to look at it,” Trump told reporters
outside the White House on Saturday when asked if the U.S. would back Saudi
Arabian strikes. “We just found out about the recent attack. So, we’ll make a
decision. We move very quickly.”
Two Saudi Arabian government officials told MS NOW that the
kingdom is requesting “urgent defense support” from the U.S. following the
attacks.
The officials, including a senior member of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, did not want to be identified because of the matter’s
sensitivity. They added that the U.S. needs to intervene “as soon as possible”
to help the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen fight the Houthis.
This is nothing new because on September 10, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a real sweetheart kind of guy called President Trump twice
urging him to launch strikes against the
Houthis as the Iran-backed group closed in on a vital Red Sea chokepoint, two
U.S. officials told Axios. Trump declined, and U.S. officials stressed the
administration has no plans to intervene directly against the Houthis for now.
And that was nothing new, as applied elsewhere in the Mideast, for in February Trump launched a
wide-ranging attack on Iran after a weeks-long lobbying
effort by an unusual pair of U.S. allies in the Middle East — Israel and Saudi
Arabia — according to four people familiar with the matter, as Israeli and U.S.
forces teamed to topple Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after nearly four
decades in power.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made multiple private
phone calls to Trump over the past month advocating a U.S. attack, despite his
public support for a diplomatic solution, the four people said. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, continued his long-running public
campaign for U.S. strikes against what he views as an existential enemy of his
country.
The combined effort helped lead Trump to order a massive
aerial campaign against Iran’s leadership and military, which in its initial
hour led to the death of Khamenei and several other senior Iranian officials.
In March,Daniel C. Kurtzer and Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace explained
Netanyahu was not the only foreign leader pushing for Trump
to attack Iran. Foremost among these was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin
Salman. Other reports indicate Arab Gulf leaders have been urging Trump not to
stop before further degrading Iranian military capabilities. The difference
between Netanyahu and Arab leaders was that the latter told Trump quietly what
they wanted but would not be honest with their own people. Still, Trump alone
is responsible for the United States’ participation.
Trump and Netanyahu are skilled politicians, and both are
adept in the art of the con. In this case, however, there was no con. Trump
proved to be a willing and full partner. He was risk-ready and caught up in a
self-generated aura of military power and invincibility after taking President
Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela. He was poorly advised by a coterie of advisers
unwilling to say anything to him other than yes— perhaps with the exception of
Vice President JD Vance, who has backed Trump publicly but has expressed
reservations in the past.
Netanyahu may have determined the timing of conflict, but
Trump was likely already on his way to war…
Whatever accountability Netanyahu should face for the Iran
war, the fact is that the conflict the United States is now fighting against
Iran is Trump’s doing. It is a war based on a false and unproven threat
assessment of “imminent threats” to the United States. It is a war being waged
without bipartisan support, congressional authorization, or the buy-in of
allies or the majority of the American public. And it is a war being prosecuted
without the president thinking through potential costs and consequences.
It's a wonder that Israel is often blamed by the ultra-left and the ultra-right for getting the USA to start the war against Iran. To be fair to Marco Rubi ( which he generally doesn't deserve), when the Secretary of State in early March pointed to Israel's role in facilitating our involvement, he was referring to the timing of our attack" He remarked “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
Nonetheless, Netany and those evil "Zionists" get a lot of the blame on social media and otherwise for President Trump's disastrous mistake.But then, it's Israel's own fault that it has a lot of Jews.
Hey, everybody! Let's make it more painful! Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City starts his tweet of three years since Hamas Genocide Day by noting "This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7." Then he goes profoundly downhill from the sewer in which he lurks.
This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss.
The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children. Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them – all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.
Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.
To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.
Eight days after the attack, Robert Satloff of The Washington Institue for Near East Policy noted that it
killed more than 1,300 Israelis and third-country
nationals, including at least 29 Americans, in a country whose population is
less than 10 million. In America, that would be equivalent to killing nearly
40,000—13 times more than the number of Al Qaeda victims on 9/11....
As terrible as 9/11 was, tens of millions of Americans woke
up the following morning in our vast country not knowing any of the victims or
their families. In Israel, a country whose width is less than the daily commute
of many Americans, not a single family was untouched by the attack, either
directly, through a neighbor, friend or classmate....
Americans sadly recall how the taking of a much smaller
number of hostages—diplomatic personnel at the American embassy in
Tehran—paralyzed the U.S. government and dominated daily life in our country
for 444 days. Obviously, the hostage factor was never a component of 9/11.
And yet, Zohran Kwame Mamdani decided to celebrate the massacre of October 7, not only by repeating the debunked charge of "genocide" but by going on in detail about the suffering of Palestinians he blames on the Israeli government. Though mentioning (once) Hamas, the mayor did not acknowledge that none of the death and destruction he claims to be distressed by would have taken place without the terrorist group. The word "terrorist," nor any derivative, escapes his lips, nor does "Jew" or any of its derivatives. Yet, he wields the term "Palestinian" with no concern about any Palestinian outside of Gaza. Hatred is made no more credible mixed with ignorance.
If Mamdani had any sense of decency, any denunciation of Israel would have been suspended for days- or at least one. When a human being dies, there is no public criticism of the deceased before, nor during, the day of the funeral. When grieving on the anniversary of the death, out of respect, no one airs grievances against the person.
The best thing, given the mayor's hostility to Jews, would have been for him to say nothing on this anniversary. I checked- it's legal. Admittedly, in the age of individual self-absoprtion, he would have been denounced. So he could have issued a minimalistic statement, including the first four sentences of his tweet and ending with "we now must redouble our pursuit of peace and justice for all peoples of the Middle East". The statement would not have been much dissimilar to that issued by the governor of New York State.
There has been much speculation as to why Mayor Mamdani and President Trump appear to like each other personally. It's now clear that they see some of themselves in each other. Lack of character is a defining feature of both men.
There is a time and place for most things, and the time for condemnation of Israel on October 7 is not the time. Not the time, that is, for any decent person, which leaves Zohran Kwame Mamdani out.
On the "New Rules" segment of Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night, the host praised the decline in Fetanyl use and death from the drug, attributing it to action taken by each party. He commended President Trump for closing the border and then-President Biden and other Democrats for "fast-tracking" Narcan and Republicans for "closing the border and deporting gang bangers and disrupting supply." There is some truth to that. However, the drop in both supply and demand has many causes.
Trump’s border policies are SAVING LIVES! Fentanyl deaths are down 55%, meth down 34%, and heroin down 89%. Even Bill Maher had to admit that closing the border, deporting gangbangers, and disrupting drug cartels worked! Secure the border, protect the kids! 🇺🇸…
Supply declined beginning in early 2024 because, as this news organization explained
Both the first Trump administration and the administration
of former U.S. president Biden had pressured the Beijing government to attack
the illegal precursor trade, leading to a formal agreement in November 2023.
Many experts initially doubted China’s ability to corral thousands of precursor
producers. Now, some theorize its government may have decided that disciplining
such manufacturers— a tiny part of its economy—could have outsized benefits in
its relations with the United States....
Cartel conflicts in Mexico could also be contributing to the
fentanyl shortfall. The U.S. government had regarded the Sinaloa cartel as the
number one producer of the highly addictive opioid. For the past 19 months,
though, the group has been locked in a bloody civil war, weakening its
operations and at times cutting off transit routes to the U.S. border. Both
Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have boasted of the results of
their aggressive drug policies. Sheinbaum has broken with the more hands-off
approach of her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and
reported surging arrests and seizures.
And demand declined as
Fentanyl killed off many of its customers. Meanwhile, young
people in their 20s don’t appear to be taking up fentanyl the way older
Americans did. They may be more aware of its dangers, highlighted in news
reports and public-health campaigns.
Sometimes an enforcement action yields benefits years after
it occurs. Starting in the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies introduced
painkillers like OxyContin that addicted millions of Americans. When
authorities tightened access to those pills a few years later, they
inadvertently triggered a new round of the crisis, as desperate users turned to
other opioids—first heroin, then fentanyl. But the stricter controls on
prescription drugs ultimately had another effect. Many people didn’t even start
using them, and so never got to fentanyl. “Fewer people have been exposed to
prescription opioids in recent years, potentially curbing the development of
opioid use disorder,” said a recent analysis in The Lancet Regional Health –
Americas, a medical journal, by drug specialists at the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers point to other possible factors in declining
demand. Fentanyl vendors have increasingly adulterated the opioid with less
lethal substances, such as the animal tranquilizer Xylazine. That reduces
overdoses but also demand: Xylazine puts users to sleep, keeping them from
injecting as often. Public-health initiatives also ramped up in recent years,
with the Biden administration increasing federal funding for addiction
treatment by tens of billions of dollars. Federal and local governments, as well
as local harm-reduction groups, have widely distributed the medication
naloxone, which quickly reverses overdoses.
And then there are the factors which are speculative. Evidently
Scientists and law-enforcement officials acknowledge there’s
still a lot they don’t know. One senior U.S. drug enforcement official said
fentanyl seizures may have fallen, in part, because the Trump administration
has reassigned thousands of FBI, DEA and Homeland Security Investigations
agents from narcotics work to arresting immigrants in the country illegally.
“Yeah, seizures are down,” said the official, speaking on the condition of
anonymity. “But we’re not looking anymore.”
This is a far cry from President Trump claiming full credit. Maher noted the decline in deaths from other illicit drugs- cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine- and accurately remarked
Part of it is reasons beyond politics.... But mostly, it's because Democrats did some things and Republicans did other things. And by not actually working together, they stumbled upon positive change or as Trump put it, "it was all me".
Circumstances for a plunge, though more intentional than serendipitous, amounted to a reversal of a perfect storm. The Chinese recognized their self-interest and negotiated a deal with the Biden Administration; Mexican cartels turning their attention inward; stricter controls on legal drugs; adulteration of opioids by Fetanyl vendors; increased spending by the Biden Administration for drug treatment; shutting down the border by the Trump Administration. These are reasons both of "politics" and beyond politics, and may continue well into the future. Or not.
President Trump on September 18 remarked (emphasis obviously his) on Untruth Social that he is
banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW.... and Politico.... directly from the United States Government.... from the White House as a result of their constant "reporting" FAKE NEWS! Media Outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow....
Three days later:
Vice President @JDVance: "If you're going to engage in what effectively far-left propaganda, why would a Republican White House give you special access?"
"They still have the access to free speech. They're just not going to get an office in the White House anymore."
Perhaps the 92% figure cited by Vance is totally made up. Or maybe he means only 8% of stories from Politico, MSNOW, and CNN kiss Trump's posterior.
In either case, it appears that the Vice President was not asked what constitutes "negative", though it would have nice if he had been asked. But we do know what the President believes is not a "fake news media outlet" because we learned two months ago from Fox News that
President Donald Trump is striking a noticeably softer tone
toward China just days after delivering a public address to the nation accusing
Beijing of "sinister election meddling."
The fresh set of accusations levied on July 16 raised new
questions about the Trump administration's posture towards China, especially as
it moves to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. while warning against the
hostility of the world power against America.
"President Trump just told the nation that China tried
to influence the 2020 election and weaken his presidency. During that same
year, the intelligence community identified TikTok as a primary vector of CCP
influence in the United States," Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Michael
Sobolik, who specializes in U.S.–China relations, told Fox News Digital
"Beijing still controls the algorithm, which means that
the very dangers Trump raised persist today," Sobolik added.
Trump has long taken a hard line on China, using tariffs,
trade pressure and national security warnings to frame Beijing as one of
America's chief adversaries.
In his recent address to the nation, the president accused
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of running a "sinister" campaign to
interfere in U.S. elections and influence Americans and undermine his
presidency.
Yet just five days later, on July 21, Trump suggested
"China is maybe a little bit different today." It struck a softer
tone that falls more in line with the president's backing of a deal to keep
TikTok operating in the U.S., despite seeking during his first term and at the
start of his second to force the app out over national security concerns.
"The CCP hasn’t changed. Xi Jinping hasn’t changed. But
President Trump has," Sobolik detailed.
"He’s much more conciliatory toward China in his second
term than he was in his first. He risks telegraphing significant weakness to Xi
by letting China off the hook."
Trump downplayed Beijing's past election interference,
suggesting both countries engage in similar tactics and indicating he was more
focused on future negotiations than revisiting China's actions.
The partiality toward TikTok has had real-world implications. Exactly two years after Hamas started the present war with Israel, The Washington Post (possibly behind a paywall) reported
U.S.-based TikTok posters still show overwhelming support
for Palestinians as the war rages on in Gaza, according to a report published
Tuesday by the nonpartisan research center Cybersecurity for Democracy. It
found that for every pro-Israel post that appeared on TikTok in September there
were roughly 17 posts supporting Palestinians. That finding, based on an
analysis of hashtags that users attach to their posts, is roughly the same as
what the center found nearly two years ago.
Not to worry, though. With the expected sale to an American company, the platform probably will go in the opposite direction. An intensely anti-Israel news outlet last year noted that President Trump had singed
an executive order for a deal
allowing ByteDance to retain less than 20% of TikTok's ownership in the U.S.
In return, American investors will control more than 65% of
TikTok's ownership, along with the Emirati investment fund MGX, headed by
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which will acquire a 15% stake.
Among the American investors who will acquire TikTok's US
operations is Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who donated more than $26 million to
the Friends of the “Israel” Defense Forces.
Oracle has also cooperated with the Israeli government in
technology and military infrastructure, and Ellison previously offered
Netanyahu a seat on the company's board and invited him to his private island
in Hawaii.
The United Arab Emirates during the first Trump Administration signed the Abraham Accords and recognized Israel's existence and reportedly informed the Israeli government of an impending attack prior to Hamas' terroristic invasion of 10/7/23. Larry Ellison is staunchly pro-Israel, as allegedly are a couple of other investors.
So we may be in the process of converting an extraordinarily powerful social media platform from one antagonistic to Israel to one very friendly not only to the nation, but also to its right-wing government.
This is an improvement primarily because the Butchers of Beijing will, presumably, have less influence on the videos TikTok makes available, especially to impressionable, ill-informed youth. Additionally, it's very likely that the pro-Israel slant will be not as ridiculous as the anti-Israel bias has been.
Nevertheless, this is not good. The remedy for effective, extremist propaganda castigating a democratic nation is not contrary propaganda, just as reverse discrimination is not dramatically superior to discrimination.
TikTok is bad news, both literally and figuratively. It has been extremely bad news and in the future, probably only very bad news. It has presented alternative facts which have become alternative reality for a good chunk of young Americans who cannot be bothered by the front page of The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, or practically anything not accompanied by video. So of course Donald Trump is partial to it: "I like TikTok. It helped get me elected."
Trump loves himself some TikTok while Politico, MSNOW, and CNN are "fake news" precisely because they report fact, detail, and occasionally context, all things alien to TikTok. Donald Trump frequently whines about imaginary fake news outlets. But when it comes to hogwash, he's like a pig at the trough.
Last December, defense analyst Alex Alfirraz Scheers wrote
Turkey is the most mercurial member of the NATO alliance and
often undermines alliance cohesion.
Pointing to the threat posed by Iran, Turkey, like Saudi
Arabia, has stated that it will pursue an independent nuclear capability if the
Shiite country develops its own. Turkey has also expressed concerns about
Israel's nuclear weapons.
'We have Israel nearby, as almost neighbours,' stated
President Erdogan. 'They scare (other nations) by possessing [nuclear
weapons.]'
Currently, there are roughly 50 American tactical nuclear
weapons already deployed to Turkey, suggesting that a Turkish bomb is not
needed for Ankara to protect its vital interest.
Unless a severe rupture were to happen between Turkey and
its fellow NATO allies, such as the expulsion of Turkey from the alliance, a
Turkish nuclear bomb is a low-probability prospect.
approved a landmark 30-year civilian nuclear cooperation
agreement with Saudi Arabia, paving the way for American companies to play a
big role in building the kingdom’s nuclear energy infrastructure…
The agreement has prompted strong reactions from
non-proliferation experts and members of Congress. Many analysts argue that
uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing represent the two principal
technological pathways towards producing weapons-grade nuclear material.
They warn that even a civilian enrichment capability could
provide Saudi Arabia with what is known as a latent nuclear weapons capability.
Experts also caution that moving away from the IAEA
Additional Protocol could weaken established global non-proliferation standards
and encourage other countries to seek similar exceptions.
“Whither goes Saudi Arabia, so goes the United Arab
Emirates, Turkey and Egypt. The idea that this will have a happy ending is
delusional,” Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy
Education Center, told WSJ.
And now saying the quiet part out loud:
Trump ADMITS He Would BOW TO IRAN if They Had NUKES
Trump on Iran: If Iran had a nuclear weapon, I would be calling the Supreme Leader.
I would be saying, "Mr. Supreme Leader, how are you, sir? Is there anything we can do for you?" pic.twitter.com/c81YwORoOd
We knew that Donald Trump is a bully and fascist, from his threats against Cuba and Greenland; the police action and control over the Venezuelan government; and his favoritism toward Russia and Saudi Arabia. In his speech Tuesday evening at the Republican Party's mid-term convention in Dallas, the President made dangerous comments about Iran- more generally, about nuclear weapons- encourage a nuclear conflagration..
The media focused on Donald's promise that every American adult (or every American adult citizen) would be given $5,000 if Republicans retake the House and Senate in November. Possibly illegal, it is a deeply unethical bribe which will never come about but is possibly illegal and is deeply unethical and worthy of attention. It would go by the wayside, as did Trump's promises of a DOGE dividend, rebate for tariffs, and compensation for Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Even if the President were to follow through, the impact, though harmful, would not be existential. By contrast, these words about Iran from the leader of the world's greataest superpower will live on beyond his presidency. He wouldn't be around to answer for the consequences.
If they had a nuclear weapon, I'd be calling the Supreme Leader. And I'd be saying "Mr. Supreme Leader, how are you , sirIs there anything we can do for you?"- as opposed to bombing the crap out of them.
It's understandable, albeit reprehensible, that Trump would make these comments. He will not have to pay a political price for them, not only because they're largely being ignored but also because by the time they'd have a devastating impact, he would be deceased. However, message received- by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other bad actors. As Ana Kasparian, taking a moment's leave from hating on Israel, accurately noted, "greatest ad for going nuclear."
Someone who frequently tweets from the perspective of a transgendered, moderate Democrat married to a man is properly concerned. But about the wrong individual.
I have very real fears that the Democratic Party has nominated a candidate who is a danger to the national security of the United States.
Here are the objective facts. Abdul El-Sayed is closely connected, through his family, donors and political network, to senior figures at… pic.twitter.com/cn79pWvMXK
El-Sayed, who appears to have a 50-50 chance of defeating Mike Rogers to fill the seat of retiring senator Gary Peters, is highly-educated, accomplished, and charismatic, articulate. He is a nimble campaigner and ally of the anti-Jewish, anti-American Hasan Piker. However, if elected, el-Sayed will be only one of 100 senators, the upper chamber of a branch of government which has been increasingly emasculated the past few decades. On the other hand:
#BREAKING: Jen Psaki pressed Maggie Haberman on the Natalie Harp bombshell: Harp reportedly serves as a conduit for outsiders to get information directly to Trump, feeding him unvetted material in the way he prefers, while sitting in Oval Office meetings and remaining one of his… pic.twitter.com/4AJ566bfli
is a conduit for other people to reach him as an outside source of information on vetting information, which is really the way he likes things. He does not like the processes of government and there is a question about, you know, her own background and her service in government. If she were not sitting in the Oval Office for so many different meetings, if she were not somebody who put pieces of information in front of the President, this wouldn't be especially interesting.
But the fact that his colleagues are among the people who have had concerns about her, not just the Secret Service. not just during the campaign, that has come up over and over again. And while I understand that the White House is upset about some of the reporting around this, you know, this is an issue they should be asking themselves as opposed to suggesting that it is inappropropriate tha reporters are writing about somebody who is one of the top advisers to the President.
The old question was: Donald Trump- sex or no sex with Harp? The new question should be: is Natalie Harp compromised and if so, by whom?
There are two very talented elected public officials in the Democratic Party. There also is one who is not yet an elected official, though he may be in the near future. Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el-Sayed of Michigan, New York City mayor Zohran Mandami, and Georgia senator Jon Ossoff. I very much don't like the first, am not particularly fond of the second, and am unsure of the third.
All three are "political athletes". However, born in Uganda, Mandami never can be President of the USA and el-Sayed even isn't elected yet. But the Republican Party is afraid of the third, and should be.
His conduct here is antithetical to his message. He’s not a man of morals, he’ll throw a female staffer’s name into the media without proof or caution for her to be thrown to the wolves.
While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he
fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through
his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do the job.
He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently
defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.
MAGAT Julie Kelly with allegedly 911,111 followers tweets "shame on him. What a vile thing to suggest. God forbid a young, attractive woman works her butt off every single day for the president and for the country she loves. (Natalie Harp is paid by American taxpayers, but as a personal aide/advisor to the President, she works not for the country but for Trump.) CNN pundit Scott Jennings, believed to be on the President's list to succeed Karoline Leavitt as press secretary, remarks "This is quite a message for the Democratic Party to end to young women working in politics. Party of women? Pretty ugly stuff".
Former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer calls Ossoff "a bottom feeder" who "should be ashamed". Ex-GOP congressman Peter Meijer of Michigan, who believes the truth is actionable, tweets "just say the thing you're saying and take the resulting defamation sit on the chin like a man". Prominent MAGAT congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna calls the Senator an "sexist arrogant jerk". White House communications director Steven Cheung bleats "Jon Jackoff," or as Trump called him "Pee-wee Herman," "has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics".
A business owner contends Ossoff is a "sweeb" who is"an entitled, trust fund do-nothing". Roman Catholic nationalist Greg Price ("St. Michael the Archangel, Defend us in Battle", "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum") argues that Harp's role, "according to extremely online leftists," "means that she must be sleeping with her boss. In most cases, you'd think a male Senator making a comment like that about a female staffer would be considered sexist, but I guess it's okay if it's the Democrat Party's new favorite mediocrity.".
Republicans get an A for effort trying to turn attention away from Ossoff's criticism of Trump by pretending that the Senator was attacking a woman. Republican wokeism is a sight to behold.
Of course, Ossoff wasn't condemning Ms. Harp. He said of Donald "He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar."
As John Oliver would say: "excellent." Ossoff slams Trump for his kingly aspiration of a ballroom. He refers to travel with Natalie, a coup for a guy who once stated "when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy," and who is the star of the Epstein files, which he has moved heaven and earth to avoid releasing. And he takes a swipe at Trump for being given a jet by the Qataris, which may eventually cost the taxpayers 41 billion dollars. All in the space of 22 words.
Ossoff didn't say that the 80-year-old who has boasted of his sexual prowess is having an affair with the 34/35 year-old Harp. He didn't claim that even though, as revealed by "Regime Change" co-author Jonathan Swan on CNN, the aide
has written him numerous letters that she's left for him, including one that says,"You are all that matters to me" or some version of that. It raised the eyebrows of the Secret Service during the campaign....
Some of these letters that were left in some of his private quarters...Ssusie Wiles asked, "where am I" upon learning about the letters.
"Nothing to see here, folks. Move on." At least, it appeared there was nothing to be seen here, nothing particularly controversial in Jon Ossoff's remarks, even though Natalie's "Most Favored Aide status was confirmed when it was Harp, and
not Karoline Leavitt or Marco Rubio, who was asked to share the beverage cart
that covertly transferred the president from one plane to another" in Turkey.
But, alas, now I've been persuaded by the deluge of attacks from Republicans upon Senator Ossoff for a remark which, with no hint of self-awareness, they complain is "sexist" or "misogynist". It's as if they themselves believe that Trump is indulging his sexual thirst in his relationship with Ms. Harp. It's also as if they know that they should be very concerned about one particular senator from Georgia.
Release the Epstein files and then we can have a serious conversation about young women and the creeps who stalk them. Until then, and unless you cut loose the adjudicated sex criminal in the WH, sit this one out. https://t.co/cHuk1WwEtu
For those who understand what "genocide" truly is, Israel is not committing genocide. However,Israel hater Mehdi Hasan at least does seem to ask a good question:
Glad to hear Buttigieg describe what happened in Gaza as war crimes, but if that’s what he believes, then why didn’t he resign from the Biden administration in protest? Why would he want to be part of a government that was arming and funding what he believed to be war crimes? https://t.co/fBP3Vs9tCM
Buttigieg didn't resign in part because he is a careerist, which characterizes most prominent politicians. However, there may be at least a couple of other reasons.
According to an analysis by U.S. War Explained, the law governing war crimes "is a complex tapestry woven from international treaties and domestic statutes". The latter include the Geneva Conventions; the Rome Statute (the founding charter of the International Criminal Court); and U.N. Security Council Resolutions. Therefore, to determine whether something is a "war crime," then, we should consider the source and intent (where the allegation is coming from); the principle of distinction (whether the target is civilian or military); the principle of proportionality (a question of balance); evidence of intent (e.g., purpose of the attack); and command responsibility (which individuals along the chain should be held accountable).
Whew! That's a lot for one paragraph. And that's the point. Accurately distinguishing a war crime from bad act by someone we don't like is not a simple matter, despite the wish of activists. Laws and regulations typically are written by lawyers and often are very hard to interpret. That's not a coincidence
In such cases, there is, somewhere, an objective truth. However, in the absence of a declaration from God, what one views as the truth is in the eyes of the beholder. Most likely, Israel has committed war crimes, though the vast majority of its actions probably don't qualify.
One of the factors cited by US War Explained, the matter of proportionality, illustrates another reason Buttigieg didn't find the Biden Administration's policy toward Gaza horrendous. The Biden Administration had been supplying Israel with the relatively precise 500-pound bombs, as well as with 2,000-pound bombs, with a significantly greater blas radius and collateral killing of unintended bystanders. However, in May of 2024
the White House announced a decision to withhold a
shipment of 1,800 2,000-lb bombs and 1,700 500-lb bombs, with then-US president
Joe Biden threatening to freeze additional offensive weaponry if Israel
launched a major military offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where
over one million Palestinians were sheltering at the time.
In July, the 500-lb bombs were eventually released by the
Biden administration after the IDF entered Rafah. The Palestinian civilian
population in the Strip’s southernmost city had largely evacuated by then.
The Biden administration had asserted that only the
2,000-pound bombs were withheld, over concerns that Israel would use them in
densely populated parts of Gaza, and that all other shipments had been
processed.
That was a politically tricky decision to make, for soon after the Trump Administration returned, Donald & Co. hastily shipped 1800 of these heavy bombs to Israel. Suspending shipment in 2024 upehld both the principle of distinction and the principle of proportionality. Pete Buttigieg was part of an Administration which understood that our ally must defend itself, including killing Hamas fighters, while avoiding extraneous deaths.
That's never addressed by critics of Israel, those who blithely accuse the nation of "genocide," a policy they don't understand; of the apartheid they don't understand; and of war crimes, which are extraordinarily difficult to figure out. (August is semi-colon month.) Hatred of the only democracy in the Middle East blinds them to complexities and to truth, neither of which captures their interest.
If, God willing, Abdul el-Sayed loses his bid to become the Democratic nominee to replace retiring Democratic senator Gary Peters of Michigan, he can always take up a career in storytelling.
Here, Haley Steven's opponent states "I don't hate anybody but I love everybody." Presumably, that would include Benjamin Netanyahu, whom el-Sayed has reason to dislike. Yet we do not know becuase el-Sayed speaks a few lines which bear as little resemblance to reality as "I love everybody".
Abdul El-Sayed: “When AIPAC drops $30M on a race, you know why that is? It’s a $30M downpayment on a vote to send $3B somewhere else. And where does that go? To a foreign government that’s done genocide and apartheid and now has taken us to a war for the goal of annexing Southern… pic.twitter.com/RfZGcrsXPt
It's astonishing that a nuclear power would commit genocide while ignoring Palestinians in Jordan and the rest of the Palestinian diaspora. The habit of warning residents to vacate ahead of a ground assault or air strikes? This is no way to conduct genocide. As explained in 2021 by Raphael Cohen-Almagor of the Middle East Study Group of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs
Unlike the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Israeli
Palestinians are entitled by law to enjoy the same citizenship rights as the
Jewish citizens of Israel. The Israeli Palestinians constitute a significant
minority in Israel: 21% of the population. I will differentiate between full
citizenship and formal citizenship, arguing that the Israeli Palestinians enjoy
formal but not full citizenship. I detail the areas in which Israel needs to
invest to make the Palestinians full citizens. It is argued that while Israeli
Palestinians are discriminated against, there is no apartheid in Israel.
Apartheid exists in the occupied territories....
Critics of Israel should clearly distinguish between the
Israeli occupation of the West Bank, where Palestinians are separated from
Israelis who reside there and where Palestinians are routinely subjected to
oppressive regulations of the occupation, and the condition of Israeli
Palestinians inside the Green Line. As far as Israel’s Palestinian citizens are
concerned, the apartheid argument does not stand. While Israeli Palestinians do
not always receive equal treatment and they de facto at times are discriminated
against, Israeli Palestinians do not live under anything that resembles South
African apartheid.
According to Open Secrets, as of 2024, AIPAC was the 191st largest lobby in Washington, D.C. and from 2016-2026, nine countries spent more on lobbying than did Israel. But with the anti-Israel obsessives, it's always "AIPAC" and "foreign government."
And it has become widely accepted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the strings that pulled Donald Trump into the war in Iran. However, the President's decision to launch Operation Epic Fury in lae February
in a joint operation with Israel followed
weeks of behind-the-scenes pressure from Israel and Saudi Arabia, the
Washingron Post reported on Sunday, citing accounts from officials and regional
sources.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly pushed for
strikes against Iran, whileSaudi Arabia's role appeared more complex.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly made
several private phone calls to Trump over the past month, pushing for an attack
despite publicly endorsing a diplomatic solution, the Washington Post reported.
Simultaneously, Riyadh released a statement that the state
would not allow its territory to be used in the event of an attack.
Salman reportedly warned US officials that if the strike
didn't happen soon, Iran would come away stronger and more dangerous.
That shouldn't have been surprising given that both Israel and Saudi Arabia consider Iran their mortal enemy. And it didn't hurt that the president's son-in-law has extensive financial involvement, including a $2 billion infusion of funds from the Saudi Public Investment Fund to the Kushner's Affinity private equity firm, with the Kingdom. Good work, if you can get it.
There is a lot to dislike about the foreign policy of the Israeli government, beginning with the guy, the Prime Minister, ultimately responsible for it. However, a distinction needs to be made between that nation's current leaders and the nation itself, just as there are differences between the Trump Administration and the United States of America. There are a few Democrats who understand that, but their voices are being drowned out.
Abdul el-Sayed, Hasan Piker's pal, is not among those making a cogent and rational argument against current Israeli policy. There are varied reasons for that, but we should acknowledge that one of them is the Jewish thing.
To be fair, this fellow posted his tweet on Monday, July 20.
I'll tell you what kind of Democratic Party I don't want. I don't want a Democratic Party that denies Israel's right to exist, supports Hamas and Hezbollah, questions Western values and engages in Kremlin apologia. If my party starts hugging tankies and anti-Zionists, I am out. https://t.co/877P51Zval
Ben Rhodes probably doesn't care whether Israel comes or goes. Melat Kiros, who defeated progressive incumbent Diana DeGette in Colorado for the Democratic nomination for US Senate, would like t see Israel evaporate. Dariza Avila Chevalier, the anti-Semitic, anti-interracial marriage, pro-Hamas Democratic nominee for the House of Representatives, would love to see both Israel and the USA destroyed. Then there is Zohran Mandami, who on October 8, 2023 posted
I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and
Palestine in the last 36 hours. Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli
government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling
for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the
days and weeks to come. The path to a just and lasting peace can only begin by
ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid.
And he is the reasonable one, compared to Kiros,Chevalier, and a host of others. The day after Israel gets pummeled by terrorists who killed more than 100 people because the latter were Jewish, the man who would go on to become mayor of the largest city in the country condemns Israel. Hey, it's not Mamdani's fault those partygoers were Jewish!
The way things are going, Israel may not be around in twenty years. However, that's not because of anti-Semites of the left because, as was announced on Wdenesday
The Trump administration signed an agreement with Saudi
Arabia to develop a nuclear program, even as the White House escalates its war
in Iran aimed at destroying that it's nuclear capabilities.
The U.S. Department of Energy described the agreement as one
that would allow Saudi Arabia to develop its civilian energy nuclear program
and give U.S. companies "great access" to related commercial deals.
Few details about the arrangement, which Congress has not
yet approved, have been made public. But former officials and members of the
nuclear community said it is a major shift in U.S. policy and risks
accelerating a nuclear arms race in an already volatile region. Here's what to
know about the deal and its potential impact on the war in Iran.
The agreement may allow U.S. companies to build uranium
enrichment facilities in Saudi Arabia to supply its nuclear reactors. U.S.
companies would provide additional technical expertise. The deal could mean
Saudi Arabia would not have to import its nuclear fuel and it could provide a
pathway for it at a later date to enrich uranium on its own.
The agreement would last for 30 years. If enacted, it could
make U.S. companies billions of dollars.
Enriched uranium can fuel power plants. It can also be used
to make nuclear bombs. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the agreement
upholds "the highest standards of nuclear safety and
nonproliferation," but the deal abandons key nonproliferation benchmarks,
including by limiting inspections by international nuclear experts.
Thomas Countryman, a former assistant secretary of state for
international security and nonproliferation, said the deal "reverses 50
years of U.S. leadership in the global nonproliferation architecture."
Laura Kennedy, a former U.S. ambassador and acting U.S.
representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned that the
agreement "would set a dangerous precedent" across the region.
After Trump decided to give the Wahabbi regime in Saudi Arabia a thoroughfare to a nuclear weapon, thus gravely endangering Israel's long-term security , Wednesday brought better news as presidential presss secretary Karoline Leavitt declared "if they don't join the Abraham Accords, the deal is off."
Brainchild of the first Trump Administration, the Abraham Accords include Israel, the United Arab Emitates, and Morocco. Sudan, Kazakhstan, and Syria have expressed interest. So, too, did Saudi Arabia, at least until the Hamas-Israel war, whereupon the Kingdom decided that Israel would have to be serious at creating a Palestinian state before it would join.
History, hopefully, won't repeat itself. But it's valuable to recall, as the Times of Israel reported last month, that
The Hamas terror group carried out its October 7, 2023,
attack on Israel partly in order to thwart the Jewish state’s rapprochement
with Saudi Arabia, according to seized documents.
The internal Hamas materials were published by the Meir Amit
Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, a government-controlled think
tank, and then aired by the Kan public broadcaster on Sunday.
In the years and months leading up to the attack, it was
widely reported that the oil-rich kingdom was considering normalization with
Israel, along the lines of the US-brokered Abraham Accords with other Arab
states.
A Times of Israel report last year confirmed that, on the
eve of the October 7 attack, Washington and Riyadh had already reached
understandings regarding concessions Israel would have to make vis-à-vis the
Palestinians for Riyadh to normalize relations with Jerusalem.
In a meeting held by Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip in
February 2022, the Iran-backed terror group, which had long functioned as the
enclave’s de facto government, decided to establish a new office, tasked with
overseeing efforts to thwart normalization between Israel and its erstwhile
enemies.
Hamas decided to heat up the conflict in Gaza as well as the
West Bank and East Jerusalem, “in order to thwart the Saudi kingdom’s process
of normalization,” according to the minutes of the meeting.
The terror group noted, as precedent for its campaign, that
the Second Intifada – a deadly, years-long campaign of suicide bombings and
other terror attacks in the early 2000s – was “one of the chief factors leading
to the blow-up of the normalization process presented through the Arab Peace
Initiative.”
In 2023, the group decided that its renewed attempt to stir
disorder in the region was not bearing enough fruit. In late September, the
group’s leadership held another meeting, chaired by Gaza chief – and October 7
mastermind – Yahya Sinwar….
On October 2, 2023, Sinwar told assembled leadership that,
in light of the threat posed by normalization with Saudi Arabia, there was no
way around what he described as “an exceptional action” by Hamas and its
partners in the “Axis of Resistance,” referring to Iran and its regional
proxies.
At this meeting, the Hamas leadership decided to move
forward with the surprise attack on Israel.
Hamas deserves full blame for the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023. However, it would not have taken place- at least not at that time- had there not been a serious effort to bring Saudi Arabia into the Abrahma Accords. Nor would the time been ripe had not some one or ones in the Israeli government ignored the warning signals about an incipient attack from Hamas.
Israel, and especially its Prime Minister, believe a nuclear armed Iran is a grave threat to Israel, and it probably is. However, that will probe to have been child's play- with or without the Abraham Accords- if Saudi Arabia, the largest country in the region by area, obtain weapons-grade uranium. If it begins to enrich uranium for weapons, Saudi Arabia could choose to drop out of the Abraham Accords. And irony triumphant, the threat posed by that nation would be at the initiative of Benjamin Netanyahu's bestie, one Donald J. Trump
I guess it depends on the meaning of "pretty well".
BREAKING 🚨 Bill Maher: “We did the move in Venezuela, which that one you have to say worked pretty well.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA): “Yeah, well remember people lost their sh*t over Venezuela. Nobody talks about Venezuela anymore... We’re not talking about Gaza anymore, and… pic.twitter.com/i7oUOvAaI0
Nicholas Maduro was snatched from Caracas on January 3 and brought to Washington, D.C. to be prosecuted for being a "narco trafficker." He was replaced, as required by constitution in Venezuela and Donlad Trump, by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who like Maduro has been a part of the Chavista regime, which has ruled the country for over a quarter century. The ousted president
was not the head of a drug trafficking organization, but
rather the facilitator and protector of a corruption system that allowed
generals and senior political figures to profit from the drug trade. That
system – the Chavista regime – remains in place, although the architect of the
hybrid criminal governance model is now on trial in New York.
Rodríguez, though outside the praetorian core of the
Chavista regime and not facing any US indictments, is believed to have been
involved in criminal activity, corruption, and even drug trafficking. The
criminal dimension of the tightrope she is walking involves preventing public
scandals of corruption and drug trafficking that might provoke further US
intervention, while still allowing the flow of criminal rents to regime figures
to preserve loyalty.
That doesn't sound like "pretty well." On a positive note, the Trump Administration has been assisting disaster relief in Venenzuela. However
David Smilde, a Venezuela researcher at Tulane University,
said the earthquake has exposed a deeper weakness in the Venezuelan state.
“They’ve had the capacity to repress people and jail
people,” Smilde said, “but they don’t seem to be in a position to offer even
some of the most basic elements of disaster relief."
The military is one of the most powerful and well-funded
parts of the Venezuelan state. But Smilde added that it has been shaped less
around emergency response than around regime survival.....
Smilde said Rodríguez’s government moved quickly at first —
declaring a state of emergency, communicating with allies and accepting aid
offers from different countries, including former political foes. But what came
after, he said, revealed a government with very little capacity to deliver
basic disaster relief.
I don't attribute the view of Maher and Fetterman that things have worked out well in Venezuela to anything but ignorance. There has been little attention paid to that nation since Maduro was arrested in what could be considered a law enforcement operation rather than an intervention in a foreign, sovereign state. No American life was lost and in our country, we would applaud anything the military does as long as Americans aren't killed.
But there is a lesson here. Maher referred to the $330 million for Donald's new ballroom as "couch money" and Fetterman quipped "if he came out for ice cream and lazy Sundays, we would f*ckin' hate it." The Senator has stated "right now, our party is governed by the TDS (i.e., Trump Derangement Syndrome) and now it's made it virtually impossible without being punished as a Democrat to agree something's good, or I agree with the other side."
The Venezuelan operation, quick and dirty, painless and innocuous, was the foreign policy equivalent of ice cream and lazy Sundays, politically incorrect to question. Yet, it accomplished nothing of value and helped reinforce our nation's reputation as a malign bully. It stands as an example of how the default position for a Trump action should be that it is self-serving and likely to harm ourselves and others.
We need to replace Trump Derangement Syndrome with Trump Is Deranged Syndrome.
