38 thoughts on “So Long BeJerk”

  2. the guardian:

    The Israeli opposition leader has told the country’s president that he can form a government, a critical step that places Benjamin Netanyahu in his most precarious political position for more than a decade.
    After days of frenetic negotiations, Yair Lapid told President Reuven Rivlin less than an hour before a midnight deadline that he had the support of a majority of opposition parties for what has been called a “government of change” – a mix of bitter ideological rivals united by a shared desire to oust Israel’s longest-serving leader.
    Under the proposed deal, Lapid will not immediately take high office. Instead, his former rival the far-right politician Naftali Bennett, whose support was vital to the coalition’s success, will become prime minister for the first two years.
    “I am honoured to inform you that I have succeeded in forming a government,” Lapid told the president. He added: “I commit to you Mr President, that this government will work to serve all the citizens of Israel – including those who aren’t members of it – will respect those who oppose it, and do everything in its power to unite all parts of Israeli society.”
    Crucially, Lapid secured backing from a small party of Arab Islamists who signed roughly two hours before the deadline. In doing so, the United Arab List became the first party from Israel’s sizeable Arab minority to join a government. Its leader, Mansour Abbas, is a pragmatist and has sought greater resources and rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel.
    The step by Lapid does not immediately end Netanyahu’s 12-year stretch in power or conclude a political deadlock that has brought four snap elections since 2019. Before that happens, lawmakers will need to vote on the deal, which is expected next week. Then there will be a swearing-in.
    Until that happens, Netanyahu is expected to continue his attempts to get any lawmakers to defect so Lapid does not have a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
    […]
    … unlikely assortment of parties, including the establishment Labor and anti-occupation Meretz but also Yisrael Beiteinu, a hardline secular party led by a Moldova-born settler, Avigdor Lieberman.
    Abbas, the leader of the United Arab List, said his party had made a “difficult decision” to join the coalition.
    “This is the first time an Arab party is a partner in the formation of a government,” he told reporters. “This agreement has a lot of things for the benefit of Arab society, and Israeli society in general.”

  3. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/world/2021/06/03/netanyahu-out-bennett-in-what-israels-new-government-means-us/5290705001/

    Bennett sounds worse than Bibi, but this is where having a set-up that lacks energy (two heads) is helpful.

    And while Bennett would be a very “awkward partner” for Biden because of his far-right views on Palestinian issues, Lapid will be more simpatico, Sachs says. “

    “The settlement machine is going to keep on rolling,” Elgindy said, referring in part to a legal case pending before Israel’s Supreme Court. That case involves an effort by Jewish settlers to evict Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem. The settlers say the land was owned by Jews before Israel became a state in 1948.”

    Occupation and apartheid will continue with the support of the US. There needs to be a two-state solution. Can POTUS Joe help? IDK if it will ever be resolved.

    Interesting that far-right politicians seem to have gained a foothold everywhere.

  6. Democrats won control of the Senate, House, and White House in the last election but STILL can’t get anything done. Why? Because while the Senate filibuster lives, no progressive agenda can survive.

  7. more on filabuster and mitch’s evil impact. as our fav former senator al says 

     “It’d Be Mitch McConnell Who Ended Our Democracy”

    On the filibuster and the Senate voting rights bill, Former Sen. Al Franken tells Joy Reid, ‘This is about our democracy. If we lose this one, if we allow elected Republican officials to overturn elections, our democracy goes away.’ Dr. Christina Greer also joins The ReidOut to discuss.

  14. Bibi, good luck and good riddance. His feckless “Israel first” and apartheid policies are IMHO the reason Hamas rockets rain down on Israel’s cities.
     
    Poobah, let me check that editing function….  BTW is there an option in the editing function software you are using to have the button bar that is in the reply section be active when editing?  

    Looks like it’s an hour and 5 minutes. Good job. I have to admit that the 5 minute fix yesterday was, ummmmm, challenging.

  15. George.

    Republican senators’ failure to investigate Jan. 6 is worse than their impeachment performance

    Republican senators have managed to outdo themselves in cowardice — which is quite a feat.

    Last week’s Senate vote blocking a national commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol was even more appalling than either of the Senate’s impeachment trial acquittals of former president Donald Trump.

    With few exceptions, Senate Republicans shirked their duties at both trials, despite the oaths they took to defend the Constitution, and, in an impeachment trial, to “do impartial justice.”

    * * * 

    There was no excuse — none — for what they did last week.

    They weren’t being asked to remove anyone from office; they weren’t being asked to pass judgment of any sort. They were merely being asked to allow a bipartisan commission to look into what happened on, and led to, Jan. 6.

    Even worse: They actually weren’t voting on whether to create a commission; they were voting on cloture — on whether even to allow a voteon the issue. Using the filibuster, a Republican minority refused to allow a majority (which would have included seven Republicans) to hold that vote.

    And they did so out of raw political fear, this time without fig leaves. McConnell’s own leadership colleague, minority whip Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), actually admitted that Republicans feared that the commission’s findings “could be weaponized politically and drug into next year,” a midterm election year.

    * * * 

    With that, the Republicans’ policy of appeasing Trump prevailed once again. But if Republicans are worried about what would happen if the public learned more of the truth about Jan. 6, they have only themselves to blame.

    They quiver in fear of the man who cost them the presidency and both houses of Congress. As they continue to quake, the “big lie’s” cancer upon democracy grows, with spurious election audits in pursuit of fantasies of fraud, and with some insanely claiming — reportedly including Trump himself — that he’ll be “reinstated” in due course.

    Four years of Trump have led to the Republican Party becoming a threat to democracy, a declining sect dominated by crackpots, charlatans and cowards. Of these, it’s the cowards, including the senators who killed last week’s legislation, who bear the most blame.

    Mr. Conway, thank you for pointing out the obvious. I saw Mitch in an interview on the subject, and he is such an apparent liar it hurts to watch him and think he believes we might find his reasons for voting not to  debate a commission the least bit credible.

  16. Yeah…  12 years of running a democracy is a looooooong time.
     
    BiD…   an aide to Obama, Ben Rhodes has written a new book that takes a stab of explaining why authoritarianism has taken hold around the world…  “After The Fall”.  He’s been making the usual rounds on tv lately.  It sounds interesting…

  17. Pogi, sorry but i don’t understand your question: “is there an option in the editing function software you are using to have the button bar that is in the reply section be active when editing?” 

  18. Poobah,
     
    When you’re using the editing function there’s no option I can see to use the Bold, Italics, Underline, strike through, quotation … options that appear at the top of the comment block.  I wondered whether those can be made accessible when we use the editing function.  If not, NBD.

  19. Pogo, as I usually do I went with a really simple plugin with as little coding as possible, otherwise the site gets bogged down or plug-ins conflict with each other. So this one doesn’t include those options, although it might accept your own coding for those features

  22. That’s a good and simple workaround, Poobah.  And no, it doesn’t accept my coding if I try to do it while in the edit box.  I’ll try it in Word and see if the coding pastes with the text.

    BOLD not bold underlined (Nope)

  23. I dunno Pogo, experiment with that, but Microsoft puts so much code in their stuff it might be a mess. One reason I keep our site smoothly functioning is simple code. Fewer bells and whistles like pop-ups etc but also fewer glitches 

  24. The dude is staggeringly ignorant. Instead of just letting the blog go on just being there, he calls in massive attention to the fact that it’s failure.  

  27. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/03/texas-pandemic-government-bills/

    “Left in the ashes of the session, which ended Monday, were proposals that would have updated the state’s immunization registry, created an emergency mass vaccination and distribution plan, prioritized first responders in vaccine rollouts, and funded research into health equity issues to address racial inequities in the system that were exposed by the pandemic.“

    Let’s encode not learning anything from the pandemic. Wouldn’t want anyone to get any bright ideas about making things better.

    Dumbest state in the Union. TeQas will have to secede to lose that title.

  30.  “the Republican Party … a threat to democracy, a declining sect dominated by crackpots, charlatans and cowards”

    george’s words should be carved on the entrance to moscow mitch’s office along with “abandon hope all ye who enter here”

  32. Coming soon to a theater near you:   “Tonight we settle all family business”.
     

  33. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/03/texas-greg-abbott-veto-article-x/

    “…Gov. Greg Abbott flexed his executive muscle Monday — vowing to defund a co-equal branch of government…”

    “On top of funding the two chambers of the Legislature, Article X of the state budget also funds nonpartisan agencies that are crucial for policymaking…”

    “Several of these agencies would be crucial for the all-important redrawing of political maps.. “

  34. https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/03/politics/white-house-no-january-6-commission/index.html
    POTUS Joe should get some help from Republicans for not creating a commission to investigate Jan 6th.
     

    Alright, real journalists and filmmakers/documentarians, it’s up to you to shine a light on this so brightly that it can’t be ignored.

    RR – I head Rhodes on NPR this afternoon and wow, when he talked about how democracy in Hungary went down the drain…perfect blueprint for Orange Adolf and those who will follow in his unpatriotic footsteps.

  35. Biden has spoken favorably about the two state solution.  Other Arab states especially Jordan should be part of the solution.

  36. Every time I see that Danté quote I smile. Apropos of nothing I played the role of the devil in my HS senior play in the Don Juan in Hell segment of Shaw’s Man and Superman. Somehow some of my friends and not so friendly classmates thought my drama teacher nailed the casting. 

  37. I have detested Netanyahu since day one and if this finally goes down, it will be a joyous day.  A 2-state solution is desperately needed and Palestinians need to be free from terror .  The extreme right wing aspect coming in power is frightful but left and centrist cooperation can make this horrible situation better.  ~ Night Watchman Out.   

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