Saturday, June 29, 2024

The pundit class turned on Biden. Does it matter?

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/29/biden-debate-2024-campaign-drop-out-step-aside-00165914

Friday was a story of the D.C. class that chatters versus the D.C. class that matters. The pundits abandoned President Joe Biden in droves, while elected officials stayed silent or stuck with him.

It is surely more significant that Biden won support from Clinton and Obama Friday, that he delivered a well-received rally speech, that polls showed only minor movement in the race and that not a single Democratic elected official called for Biden to drop out of the race.

CNN's Daniel Dale fact checks Trump's and Biden's claims made in debate

Friday, June 28, 2024

Supreme Court Tosses Mayor’s Bribery Conviction, Again Raising Bar for Public-Corruption Prosecutions

 https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/supreme-court-tosses-mayors-bribery-conviction-again-raising-bar-for-public-corruption-prosecutions-6df10a88?mod=us-news_lead_story

In dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that “Snyder’s absurd and atextual reading of the statute is one only today’s Court could love.” Joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, she argued that by using the word “rewarded” Congress intended to cover past acts, and said that lawmakers excluded innocent courtesies from prosecution by specifying the measure applied only to gifts accepted “corruptly.” 


Jackson noted the evidence prosecutors presented against Snyder: He appointed a friend to oversee the bidding process, which was tailored to favor Great Lakes Peterbilt, a company owned by two brothers who Snyder was frequently calling and texting. Dealership employees “testified that Snyder never performed any consulting work” and no contract, invoice or other documentation was produced relating to any such work, Jackson wrote.

Thursday, June 27, 2024

The Supreme Court rules that state officials can engage in a little corruption, as a treat

 https://www.vox.com/scotus/357170/supreme-court-snyder-united-states-corruption

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion in Snyder v. United States for the Court’s Republican-appointed majority. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the dissent on behalf of the Court’s three Democratic appointees.

Snyder turns on a distinction between “bribes” and “gratuities.” As Kavanaugh writes, “bribes are payments made or agreed to before an official act in order to influence the official with respect to that future official act.” Gratuities, by contrast, “are typically payments made to an official after an official act as a token of appreciation.” (Emphasis added.)

The US supreme court just basically legalized bribery

 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/27/supreme-court-bribes-gratuities-snyder-kavanaugh

The case concerns James Snyder, who in 2013 was serving as the mayor of small-town Portage, Indiana. Late that year, the city of Portage awarded a contract to Great Lakes Peterbilt, a trucking company, and bought five tow trucks from them; a few weeks later, Snyder asked for and accepted a check for $13,000 from the company. Snyder was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. He argued that the kickback was not illegal because it came after he awarded a contract to the company that ultimately paid him off, not before.

Absurdly the US supreme court agreed, classifying such payments as mere tokens of appreciation and claiming they are not illegal when they are not the product of an explicit agreement meant to influence official acts in exchange for money.

Bowman ouster underscores political danger for progressives

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4741675-jamaal-bowman-new-york-cori-bush-israel-hamas-george-latimer/

Bowman’s criticisms of Israel amid the ongoing war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks made his race a referendum on how palatable his stance is, especially since his district has a strong Jewish population. Now Democrats are trying to determine what the lessons from his race are for the party nationwide.

“You never can lose touch with your district,” said one Democratic lawmaker, speaking without attribution to express a critique of Bowman. “You’ve got to know who your voters are. And so when you lose touch with your voters, this is what happens.”

“Of course there was a ton of money put into the race, but I think primarily he lost touch with his district,” the lawmaker added.

Dems to Biden: You must out-populist Trump at the debate

 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/26/biden-debate-anti-corporate-billionaires-00165178

Biden advisers contend that the president has increasingly leaned into his populist credentials. They also pointed to stepped-up efforts in recent months to portray Trump as out of touch with the working class and Biden — by contrast — as focused solely on policies that will make Americans’ lives better.

Trump suggests his mug shot and indictments appeal to Black voters

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/23/politics/trump-biden-racist/index.html

Former President Donald Trump suggested Friday that his criminal indictments and mug shot appeal to Black voters and claimed that “what’s happening to (him) happens to them.”

“I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing. They were doing it because it’s election interference and then I got indicted a second time, and a third time and a fourth time. And a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges across the cases, told a gathering of Black conservatives here, on the eve of the state’s first-in-the-South Republican presidential primary.

IDF officer who secretly filmed female soldiers nude convicted of dozens of sex crimes

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-officer-who-secretly-filmed-female-soldiers-nude-convicted-of-dozens-of-sex-crimes/

A former senior Israel Defense Forces officer accused of filming his female subordinates while nude without their knowledge was convicted on Wednesday by a military court of dozens of counts of sex offenses and invasion of privacy.

Lt. Col. Dan Sharoni was arrested in 2021 for his actions, which included collecting sexual images of soldiers and some civilians over the course of at least eight years. He was dismissed from duty that year.

A military court convicted Sharoni of 67 offenses in total: 23 counts of indecency, 39 counts of privacy violation, three counts of illegally hacking a computer, one count of attempted indecency — for a case in which he installed a hidden camera in someone’s room but ultimately only photographed them fully clothed — and one count of conduct unbecoming a soldier.

IDF: Slain Gazan named as Doctors Without Borders staffer was Islamic Jihad rocket maker

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-slain-gazan-named-as-doctors-without-borders-staffer-was-islamic-jihad-rocket-maker/ 

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket expert, named by Doctors Without Borders as a staffer, was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Gaza City on Tuesday, the military said.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, reported on Tuesday morning that Fadi al-Wadiya was one of its staffers.

The organization said in a post on X that al-Wadiya was killed along with five other people, among them three children, while riding his bicycle to the MSF clinic where he worked.

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

The rape allegation against Bill Clinton, explained

 https://www.vox.com/2016/1/6/10722580/bill-clinton-juanita-broaddrick

In their 2000 book The Hunting of the President, Joe Conason and Gene Lyons note that the FBI investigated the allegation for Kenneth Starr's Independent Counsel office, and found the evidence "inconclusive." There are no direct witnesses and no physical evidence to back up the accusation. "It’s important to note — and Broaddrick concedes — that aside from her, there are no witnesses and as far as we know, no one saw Clinton enter or leave Broaddrick’s room, or even the hotel," Myers said in the NBC broadcast. "She took no photos, kept no evidence and the hotel has no records to confirm that she stayed there." That said, there are plenty of rapes where the victim has no physical evidence or good witnesses with which to back up their story. The lack of those categories of evidence makes the key question in the case, "Do we believe Broaddrick, or do we believe Clinton?"

In his memoir The Clinton Wars, White House aide Sidney Blumenthal notes that when Paula Jones's lawyers first approached Broaddrick, she refused to cooperate, and upon being subpoenaed signed an affidavit saying, "I do not have any information to offer regarding a nonconsensual or unwelcome sexual advance by Mr. Clinton." Only after that did she file another affidavit insisting the assault did occur, at which point, Blumenthal argues, she "had no standing as a reliable witness." That's one interpretation. But it often takes a while for rape accusers to come forward, so Broaddrick's initial unwillingness to relay the allegation is hardly airtight proof she's lying.

No one besides Bill Clinton and Juanita Broaddrick knows the true story here — and ultimately, the matter comes down to which of their two accounts one believes. There is certainly not enough here to convict Clinton in a court of law, even if there weren't a statute of limitations. There's no physical evidence. There's just Broaddrick's and her friends' words against Clinton's.

Cures are Harmless but are prohibited

 Chinuch (231) And Rambam,  said  as the reason of the commandment that it is in order that the soul of the one that curses not be moved to vengeance and that he not become used to anger. And he wrote at further length about this in his book. And it appears to me from his words that, in his opinion, he does not see any injury to the one cursed from the curse, but rather that the Torah is distancing the matter from the perspective of the one that curses — that he not accustom himself to vengeance and anger and to lowly traits. And we shall accept all the words of our rabbis, though our hearts hold more of what we have written.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death

Postman distinguishes the Orwellian vision of the future, in which totalitarian governments seize individual rights, from that offered by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where people medicate themselves into bliss, thereby voluntarily sacrificing their rights. Drawing an analogy with the latter scenario, Postman sees television's entertainment value as a present-day "soma", the fictitious pleasure drug in Brave New World, by means of which the citizens' rights are exchanged for consumers' entertainment.

Trump isn't a politician, he's an entertainer

 https://www.salon.com/2017/10/14/the-entertainer_partner/

Trump is unquestionably our worst president. Yet, in terms of air time and occupying mental space, he is our most successful entertainer ever. He doesn’t care about the first. He clearly obsesses over the second.

Trump’s address proved he is a genius entertainer. Democrats ought to worry.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/05/trumps-address-proved-he-is-genius-entertainer-democrats-ought-worry/

Whatever else I think of President Trump, and almost none of it is favorable, I know this much is true: He is an incredibly gifted entertainer. And his skills have almost never been more effective than during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, when Trump’s flair for reality television met up with his penchant for stories of bloody violence, sentimental anecdotes and bromides. You don’t have to like it to acknowledge that it’s a powerful thing for a president to function as a one-man television network.

Trump’s endorsement is starting to show its limits

 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/26/trump-endorsement-losses-00165023

Mainstream GOP groups — who have spent big in primaries trying to cull hard-liners from the House Republican Conference — sought to block Williams and Burns. In those instances, Trump’s preferences clashed with Republicans’ desire to avoid adding to the group of rabble-rousers who have derailed their legislative agenda and ignited intraparty wars over the last two years.

Conservatives for American Excellence and America Leads Action, two super PACs that have played in safe-seat Republican primaries across the country this cycle in an attempt to thwart potential troublemakers, dropped about $2 million to boost Crank over Williams. Burns was also the target of more than $500,000 in outside spending from those two groups.

The loss of Williams and Burns is a huge relief to mainstream Republicans, as was attorney Jeff Hurd’s win in another Colorado district. He beat the far-right Ron Hanks, who proved so controversial that the top House GOP super PAC spent against him because it worried he could lose the red-leaning seat.

The Reason U.S. Arms Shipments to Israel Have Slowed

 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/the-reason-u-s-arms-shipments-to-israel-have-slowed-ac43749e?mod=hp_lead_pos5

The current delivery pace is only a slowdown compared with the massive airlift of tens of thousands of weapons in the initial months after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, a State Department official said, and is currently similar to or even higher than peacetime levels. 

“Our pace is normal, if not accelerated, but slow relative to the first few months of the war,” said a State Department official.  

Jewish parents join suit challenging Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments in schools

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-parents-join-suit-challenging-louisiana-law-requiring-ten-commandments-in-schools/

The text of the Ten Commandments mandated by the law is a Christian version and “does not match any version or translation found in the Jewish tradition.”

Jews and different Christian denominations do number the commandments differently. The version prescribed by the bill omits part of the first commandment in Judaism, the section of the first verse about God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt.

Exasperated Biden Spokesperson Swats Away Trump’s ‘Silly’ Drug Test Demand

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/exasperated-biden-spokesperson-swats-away-trumps-silly-drug-test-demand?ref=home

Trump, after setting the bar quite low for Biden by questioning his acuity, has recently reversed course by priming viewers to view the president as on some sort of stimulant. This about-face has been dutifully echoed on Fox News and other MAGA-friendly outlets. Similarly, Trump and his allies pushed the baseless narrative after Biden’s State of the Union address back in March.

Jamaal Bowman’s Defeat Is a Fatal Blow to the Anti-Israel Left

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/jamaal-bowmans-defeat-is-a-fatal-blow-to-the-anti-israel-left?ref=home?ref=home

Democratic voters made their voices heard in New York’s 16th congressional district. Now all eyes will be on Missouri’s 1st, where another “Squad” member, Rep. Cori Bush, faces a competitive primary challenge.

And after that, the spotlight will be on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. There, we hope true progressives will stand up and stand strong for the values that reject hate, embrace justice, and can work to rebuild a truly inclusive movement that welcomes all who want to fight for progress—including Jews and Zionists.

Jamaal Bowman was a Democratic Trump. Now he’s gone

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/06/25/jamaal-bowman-democratic-donald-trump/

Bowman will soon be gone, and good riddance. There will inevitably be more like him; the right has no monopoly on bullies and demagogues. But it’s an encouraging sign that, at a time when the country is losing its collective mind, there is still a critical mass on the left who can say: Stop.

Israel critic Jamaal Bowman loses New York primary

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/392123

New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a notorious critic of Israel, will lose his Democratic primary to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, CNN and multiple other networks projected on Tuesday night.

His defeat is a first for a member of the so-called “Squad” of progressive lawmakers who are known for their anti-Israel stance.

The result in New York’s 16th Congressional District is also a victory for pro-Israel groups, which backed Latimer with historic levels of spending during the campaign.

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Trump presented plan to halt US military aid to Ukraine unless peace achieved with Moscow

 https://www.jpost.com/international/internationalrussia-ukraine-war/article-807710

Under the plan drawn up by Trump's former advisers, a ceasefire would be established based on prevailing battle lines during peace talks.

MAGA World Now Wonders Whether Biden’s Doped Up on Mountain Dew

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-world-now-wonders-whether-bidens-doped-up-on-mountain-dew?ref=home

After spending the past few weeks peddling so-called “cheap fake” videos to depict Biden as senile and setting expectations for the president’s debate performance extremely low, MAGA media and Trump himself are now reversing course and preemptively providing a built-in excuse. The ex-president has even gone so far as to claim that Biden would be using illegal drugs and steroids during the debate.

Key food security org finds no famine in Gaza, says previous assumptions wrong

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/key-food-security-org-finds-no-famine-in-gaza-says-previous-assumptions-wrong/

There is currently no famine in Gaza, a new report by the key Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) organization has found, despite the IPC having predicted in March that a full-blown famine would break out in the territory between March and July 2024.

The study released on Tuesday stated that assumptions the previous projection had made about the amount of food that would enter the territory turned out to be wrong, and that the supply of food to Gaza has increased instead of decreased during recent months.

“In this context, the available evidence does not indicate that Famine is currently occurring,” the report said.

Attorney General: 3,000 haredim must be immediately drafted into IDF

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/392105

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara published her position after the Supreme Court's ruling regarding the Draft Law stating that there is no legal basis to allow haredi yeshiva students to avoid being drafted into the IDF like other parts of Israeli society.

"The security system must act immediately to implement the Supreme Court's ruling om the recruitment of yeshiva students who are obligated to serve in the military, in accordance with the needs of the army and its capabilities. In accordance with this framework, the security system has already committed to act to recruit 3,000 yeshiva students in the current recruitment year, and this is in addition to the average number of recruits in recent years," Baharav-Miara wrote.

She clarified that "this is an initial number for immediate recruitment, which does not fully reflect the current needs of the army and the promotion of the principle of equality in the burden, and the defense system must act to present a recruitment plan that includes an increase in this number."

The attorney general also warned against continuing to provide funding to yeshivas or students who avoid conscription following the court ruling.

Israel's Own Religious War is Deepening as it Fights Hamas

 https://www.newsweek.com/israel-haredi-gaza-jews-muslims-hamas-war-orthodox-religious-1917253

The country's Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Ultra-Orthodox Jews known as Haredim must join the Israel Defense Forces for the first time. It also states that male Haredim will no longer receive government funding to study Jewish texts at schools called yeshivas and in adult study halls called kollels.

The ruling — and an immediate pledge by some Haredi Jews to defy it — underline Israel's internal battle between secular and religious forces as it wages war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the October 7 attacks and faces an intensifying conflict with Hezbollah guerrillas on its northern border.

Supreme Court: Draft haredim, end funding for yeshivas

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/392080

The Supreme Court on Tuesday morning published its decision regarding the Draft Law.

In its decision, which was unanimous, the Supreme Court wrote that, "At this time, there is no legal framework which allows differentiation between yeshiva students and others who are eligible for enlistment."

MAGA Furious Over Donald Trump, Joe Biden Debate: 'Rigged'

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-maga-joe-biden-debate-cnn-abc-rigged-1901329

Trump's daughter-in-law Lara said Wednesday on Fox News: "It's rigged so heavily in Joe Biden's favor but everything always is. You've got Hollywood against Donald Trump, you've got the music industry against Donald Trump, mainstream media and even the judicial system at this point."

Multiple other supporters have also made the allegation, including financial services professional @Pro__Trading, who often posts pro-Trump and pro-Conservative content online. He says on X, formerly Twitter: "The majority of the country already knows CNN is in the tank for Joe Biden and the debate will be rigged to favor him. But I think many people out there are underestimating how impressive it will be for Donald Trump to do the debate anyway."

Unmasked: The GOP Operative Making Those Viral Frozen Biden Videos

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-one-gop-31-year-old-is-leading-the-biden-clip-wars

Just recently, Biden, 81, has been shown supposedly pooping himself (he did not); supposedly wandering away from other world leaders (fact-checkers and aides say he did not); supposedly “freezing” at a White House concert (aides said others stood still too); and supposedly “wandering” offstage at a fundraiser with Barack Obama (aides say he stopped to take in a cheering audience).

Steve Bannon Alleges Upcoming Presidential Debate '100 Percent Rigged'

 https://www.newsweek.com/steve-bannon-alleges-cnn-presidential-debate-biden-trump-100-percent-rigged-1916760

Conservative media personality Steve Bannon alleged on Monday that this week's upcoming presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is "100 percent rigged."

"This Thursday debate is totally 100 percent rigged," Bannon claimed on his War Room podcast, hosted by Real America's Voice, on Monday. "The organizing principle of CNN is a hatred of Donald Trump and the MAGA [Make America Great Again] movement to the core of their being, they hate, not disagree, not have policy differences, they hate Donald J. Trump and they hate the MAGA movement."

Trump’s Wild Biden Debate Conspiracy Exposes His Own Hypocrisy

 https://newrepublic.com/post/183019/maga-biden-debate-conspiracy-trump-hypocrisy-drugs

Presidential prescriptions aren’t exactly unusual: John F. Kennedy Jr. used his White House doctors to fight off back pain, and Richard Nixon relied on his doctors to treat bad moods. But no previous administration has matched the level of debauchery of Trump’s, when in-office pharmacists unquestioningly handed out highly addictive substances to staffers who needed pick-me-ups or energy boosts—no doctor’s exam, referral, or prescription required.

MAGA prepares for Biden Winning Debates

 Just as we saw before elections Trump world is laying the groundwork to explain a Trump defeat by a senile incompetent Biden.  

After a strong and dishonest campaign to convince the world that Biden is senile, they have succeeded in lowering the bar so that if Biden stays awake for the whole debate he will be the clear winner

However since Trump can't simply say the debate was stolen like he did for the election. They are claiming that Biden will take some mysterious drug that cures his "senility". Hence the bizarre demand for drug tests. Even the MAGa doctor Ronny Johnson can't identify it. Another strategy even before the debate starts is that the moderators are totally biased against Trump and that Trump is so heroic going into the lion's den of fake news to proclaim the "Truth"


In sum MAGA is anticipating a clear loss to Biden in the debates but that will give them the excuse to say he was crucified by the deep state so please donate generously so he can rise again and save the World