Day: September 3, 2024

Is Biden Miffed?

The conflict (if we can call it that) in Gaza has been going on damn year a year….there have been many proposals to try and get Israel to stop the onslaught but so far no success….

Now Biden after butt licking Israel for all these months has seemed to get frustrated and irritated with BiBi……

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again was dismissive on Monday of calls to do more to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, though this time one of the voices came from the White House lawn. Netanyahu did not yield to demands for an immediate ceasefire despite pressure including work stoppages across Israel and a UK move limiting arms exports. At one point in a press conference, per the AP, Netanyahu said: “No one is more committed to freeing the hostages than me. But no one will preach to me.” Developments include:

  • Biden’s “No”: Asked by reporters after he landed at the White House in Marine One whether Netanyahu was doing enough to reach a deal for the hostages’ return, President Biden answered, “No.” He then went inside for a Situation Room meeting on the issue that included Vice President Kamala Harris and officials involved in the Gaza ceasefire talks, the New York Times reports.
  • Next US moves: Biden is considering presenting Israel and Hamas with a final proposal for an agreement this week, per NBC News. A White House readout shows Biden expressed anger in the meeting at the killing of six hostages and stressed the need to hold Hamas accountable. The group planned consultations with mediators Qatar and Egypt.
  • Netanyahu digs in: In his first press conference since the killings, the prime minister stuck to his plans for a continued Israeli presence on Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, a stance that has been blamed for delaying an agreement, per the Washington Post. Yielding after the hostage killings, Netanyahu said, would send Hamas the message: “Slay hostages and you’ll get concessions.” Asked when he would consider the war over, per the Times, Netanyahu said, “When Hamas no longer rules Gaza.”
  • UK decision: Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced Monday that the UK is suspending the export of some arms to Israel because of the risk that the weapons would be used in “serious violation of international humanitarian law.” About 30 out of 350 arms export licenses are affected, per the Post, including the sales of components for military aircraft including fighter aircraft, helicopters, and drones.
  • Domestic pressure: In the biggest such action of the war against Hamas, schools, local governments, hospitals, and transport networks slowed or stopped operations Monday in protest of Netanyahu’s government. The labor strike stopped at 2:30pm after more than eight hours, when a court decreed the labor leaders had provided insufficient notice of the stoppage.

I would take Biden more seriously if in his supposed anger he mentioned the thousands of innocents killed by the IDF or the numerous aid convoys that have also been attacked or the refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza…..but he is only outraged by something that he is paid to be outraged about…..

I believe this faux anger is a sham a way to try and quell the growing protests at our inaction to stopping a murderous machine.

Time for the US to start acting like the beacon of democracy that it claims to be.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Harris Interview

I apologize this post is a bit late…..life caught up with me and I had a bunch of personal stuff to get out of the way.

I know this event took place last week and I am late to the game….

With Republicans criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris first for not granting interviews, then for appearing with running mate Tim Walz at her first major interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, the bar for success wasn’t especially high in her CNN interview. Analysts say Harris—who did most of the talking—delivered a capable but unexceptional performance in discussing issues including her changes in policy positions with Dana Bash. Some takeaways:

  • “Comfortable and in command.” “From a strictly performance standpoint, Harris was clear, calm and didn’t get rattled when pushed about changes to her positions on certain issues,” Domenico Montanaro writes at NPR. He says Harris has seemed “defensive” in previous interviews, “but that wasn’t the case here. She seemed comfortable and in command, which is important for a presidential candidate who people are still getting to know.”
  • She makes it through to the next round. “Harris parried questions from Dana Bash … without causing herself political harm or providing herself a significant boost,” writes Reid J. Epstein at the New York Times. He says she was “methodical and risk-averse in the 27-minute interview, performing like a top seed in the early rounds of the US Open tennis tournament trying to hold serve, survive, and advance to the next round”—which for Harris, is the Sept. 10 debate with Donald Trump.
  • She defended policy changes. Pressed on her shifts on some major issues since she embraced progressive positions in 2019, Harris said the “most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” NBC News reports. She didn’t provide the “most edifying or enlightening explanations” for why she moved away from policies like the Green New Deal, Aaron Blake writes at the Washington Post, but she “suggested she’s still working with the same set of values in mind, but employing different tools in changing times.”
  • Boring is a bonus. Donald Trump described the interview as “BORING!!!” in a one-word Truth Social post, but Niall Stanage at the Hill says he was missing the point that “boring” is “probably just fine for Harris.” “The CNN interview won’t be going in any hall of fame for the art of political persuasion—but it won’t get close to the hall of shame either,” he writes. “For Harris and Walz, they ticked the box of having conducted a major interview. They didn’t do anything that seems likely to choke off their momentum.”
  • She defended Bidenomics. Instead of trying to put some distance between herself and President Biden’s economic policies, as some had expected, Harris defended the administration’s achievements and blamed Trump’s “mismanagement” during the pandemic for problems the administration had inherited, Montanaro writes at NPR. He says this “shows what a lot of Democrats have been crying out for—someone to make the case on the economy well, instead of how Biden often responded, which came off as him taking the attacks personally and acting defensively.”
  • A “serene” Walz. The interview showed that Walz is “good at sitting and smiling,” Epstein writes at the Times. Compared to his “excited cheerleader” role at joint rallies, his role here “was more serene,” Epstein writes. “He mostly sat there, silent, waiting for Ms. Bash to ask him to say something. At one point during the interview’s first segment, he went a full eight minutes without speaking.

This interview showed me that if elected very little will change in the White House from Biden.

Her ‘new way forward’ is nothing more than a minor change on the path forged by Biden.

I know, I know….whatever…..she is better than trump…..that whole thinking is getting a bit tiring….this election should be more about some sort of change and not a ‘hold your nose’ and vote.

I am not happy with this election at all.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”