Laughing to Keep from Crying

I'd forgotten how important the Colbert Report and Daily Show were for getting me through the Bush years and beyond. Truth is I've never been able to take conservative media straight, ever; too cruel and enraging and bad for my peace of mind. I need filters. So I've gone back to watching Colbert's opening monologues for his Late Show. These days they're almost always about the latest stupid affront to human decency perpetrated by the current regime and make it easier to laugh when you might otherwise feel like crying. Clearly a fan favorite are Colbert's impressions, mostly of Grump, but this one includes a hilariously spot on rendition of Bernie Sanders. For some much needed comic relief to our rolling disaster, I would like to suggest. 

Likewise, I feel increasingly out of step with my age cohort on Israel and Palestine. When a longtime favorite music writer issued a hysterical post about the protests on college campuses against the war in Gaza last year I felt initially some sympathy for his obvious duress as a Jew but also felt increasingly alienated by the intransigence of his position. I believe Israel has a right to exist; I believe it has a right to defend itself against the violent attacks of its Arab Muslim neighbors. But I don't think it has a right to settler colonize the West Bank, or even the Muslim sections of Jerusalem, which it has been doing for decades. And I don't think it is has the right to indiscriminately bomb civilian targets in Gaza, as part of any military mission to remove Hamas, or win the return of hostages; and which, let's stipulate, nearly two years later has NOT achieved either of those goals but has resulted in over 50,000 deaths, many women and children, and, I'm sorry to say, at this point looks exactly like a genocidal terror campaign to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Arabs and Muslims. That is fucked up and wrong. And, of course, we shouldn't be harassing and jailing or even deporting people in the US for protesting Israel's war in Gaza. One of my go-to journalist sources, Josh Marshall @ TPM (might be behind a paywall; so subscribe, essential perspective on the news), shared the other day the longwinded reflections of a Jewish friend, worried about the impact of Mamdani's possible election as mayor of NYC. Not as hysterical as my music writer last year but my takeaway from this person's remarks was more or less the same: any opposition or protest of Israel or Zionism or Judaism has its way, even if unintended, of expanding antisemitism and so random violence and acts of terror against Jews. Maybe. There is certainly no lack of evidence of that in history. And I do think that terrible history does lend credibility to Zionism, the Jewish aspiration for a national homeland, even when I don't think Ethnonationalism as a rule is a very good idea. But this history can't exempt or pardon Israel from turning that same kind of violence and terror on others. Obviously, that is not okay and, equally obviously, it is only isolating Israel in the world. I hope Mamdani can reassure the Jewish community in NYC, while not abandoning the plight of Palestinians, because, to me, a Muslim-American mayor of NYC, the most populous center of Jewry outside Israel, a Muslim-American mayor that allies with Jews like Lander, and one that opposes all violence and war and terror in the Middle East between Muslims and Jews, might be in fact one of the best things that could possibly happen to the Israel vs Palestine conflict, or outside Israel anyway. Netanyahu is all pumped up with Israel's recent military success but Israel can't bomb their way out of their problems with their neighbors. Maybe some cooperation between Muslim and Jewish Americans can demonstrate a better way.   

Anyway, now that I've heard Mamdani speak a little I'd have to say he sure doesn't sound like an antisemitic terrorist to me. Hear him for yourself. 

What War by A.I. Actually Looks Like, By David Wallace-Wells, NY Times

 IDF Bombing in Gaza Ran by AI

    Skynet is a network based computer system that goes rogue and turns on humans in the Terminator movie franchise that began way back in 1984. Hal the computer in 2001, even further back, 1969, was an iconic precedent for this creepy sci-fi story premise: What if our technology, machines, computer intelligence, or AI turned against us? Hard to think of a more ominous real world analogue than Israel using AI to bomb Gaza to rubble without seriously degrading Hamas's political authority, as would appear to be the case at the moment. At any rate, looks like AI warfare promises to expand our notion of collateral damage significantly, and tragically. Or maybe provokes reforms, limiting the use of AI as a weapon. Wish I felt more optimistic about the latter possibility.  

Middle East on Edge

Israel and Palestine have been stuck in a violent stalemate, with lopsided results favoring Israel for going on 3/4 of a century now. Here's an interesting discussion giving context to the Iran's massive assault over the weekend. It was provoked by Israel's recent hit against an Iranian general in Syria but the scale of Iran's barrage of bombs shot at Israel was unprecedented. 

Only two things seem relatively clear to me about Israel vs Palestine: Israel cannot be trusted to honor a two-state solution and the Palestinians cannot be trusted to build a state that won't make its primary directive the military destruction of Israel. Israel has fought to forestall a two-state solution for decades, and the Palestinians fight to save their claims to statehood from Israel's efforts to erase them. 

It would seem inescapable at this point that if any two-state solution is salvageable it would now necessarily involve some large, independent, international peace-keeping force. This is something I'm guessing Israel would not welcome but a wider war in the Middle East, with Iran, would almost certainly guarantee. On the other hand, Netanyahu and Israel have been goading the US into a wider war with Iran for years. 

Anyway, this has a Cuban Missile Crisis kind of geo-political tension about it. There will be a lot of pressure on Biden to handle it, while still not clear how much influence over Netanyahu or Israel he has. This has been an area of strength for him, though, so far. (BTW, Trump would escalate the crisis, don't be ridiculous.) 

Back to central paradox of the situation: Israel has a right to exist and defend itself but its ongoing dehumanizing treatment of Palestinians also guarantees it will continue to be attacked by Palestinians and those sympathetic over the rotten deal they get from Israel. 

Curiously, a lot of observers I know seem to think getting rid of Netanyahu could deescalate the violence-- and it certainly seems worth a try, Netanyahu is a smooth-talking thug and crook-- but the Israeli in this discussion thinks Benny Gantz (who looks like Netanyahu's little brother, no?) would make little difference in quelling the violence against Palestinians or Iran. 

Anyway, it's a mess and here's hoping the violence in Gaza and the West Bank stops and cooler heads, on all sides, prevail. Seems pretty clear Iran and US don't want a wider war. Not yet sure about Netanyahu and Israel. 

Suggesting Republicans Better than Biden on any Humanitarian Issue Is Not Credible

Protesters Target Biden Administration 

Samraa Luqman: “I voted for Bernie Sanders, which tells you where I was on the spectrum. And to have a person like me to go from that extreme to say that I’m now willing to vote for Trump in order to oust Genocide Joe, it’s really a testament to how Biden has lost big time within my community.”

And, sadly, an even bigger testament to how dumb and tragically self-destructive is this Arab community in Dearborn, Michigan, or at least its leadership as represented by this moronic spokesperson. 

By all means, protest Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza; and protest Biden's tacit support for that campaign. Demand a ceasefire and negotiated peace. 

But suggesting that Netanyahu's felonious buddy in the U.S. would be any better for the Palestinians, might reduce by even an iota Israel's violence or the humanitarian crisis in Gaza (or the West Bank), or even improve conditions in the U.S. for Arab-Americans, is beyond dumb and full-on Darwin Awards stuff. 

Even as a political gambit it stinks of another Putin election interference campaign. And shame on Democracy Now! for not calling out this idiocy but instead amplifying it. 

And, last, here we are again smearing Bernie Sanders by portraying his supporters as halfwits, when anybody that has actually followed at all what the guy says knows he would never equivocate Biden with the violent fascist Orange Dump in the way this spokesperson has.