Biden Presses Netanyahu to Accept Netanyahu Peace Plan
June 4: Gaza plan … Racist anti-racism ruling … Biden vs. asylum-seekers … Alex Jones wept …
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The White House yesterday said that Pres. Joe Biden released the details of a cease-fire/hostage-return plan proposed by Israel in hopes that it will lead to the plan being agreed to by Hamas. (And by Israel.)
The plan pitched by Israel to Hamas last week involves, first, a six-week cease-fire, during which Israel’s military leaves Gaza’s population centers and Hamas starts exchanging its hostages for hundreds of Palestinians being held by Israel. Israel would permit more humanitarian aid to go into the areas of Gaza where it’s not now blocking humanitarian aid at all in any way.
In the second stage of the plan, Hamas releases all remaining hostages and Israel leaves Gaza entirely. At this point, according to the Israeli proposal, we’d see “the cessation of hostilities permanently,”
But the Israeli plan is no longer good enough for, uh, Israel. Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials said it was just a preliminary plan, to start the process and, oddly, that it’s a non-starter. Any day now, Netanyahu will call the Israeli plan antisemitic.
So yesterday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said they didn’t release the details of Israel’s plan to pressure Israel into accepting Israel’s plan. “This wasn’t about jamming the prime minister, the war cabinet,” Kirby said, further jamming the prime minister, the war cabinet.
Still keeping a straight face, Kirby said the White House released the plan so everyone could see what a good job cute little Israel did with it, as if the plan were constructed with Elmer’s and glitter.
“This was about laying bare for the public to see how well and how faithfully and how assertively the Israelis came up with a new proposal,” Kirby said. “It shows how much they really want to get this done.”
The war-mongers in Netanyahu’s cabinet responded by showing how much they really don’t want to get this done. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said war is “the only language understood in the Middle East.” Which is weird, because Israel used to communicate with Hamas pretty well in the language of suitcases stuffed with money.
Smotrich and other mongers of war have threatened to bolt from Netanyahu’s ruling coalition if Netanyahu caves and agrees to Netanyahu’s plan. That would leave Netanyahu with a non-ruling coalition, opening the door to someone else ruling, and, possibly, to a judge closing a prison door on Netanyahu for the corruption charges he’s not having to face while he keeps mongering war.
On the other hand, more centrist factions are (a) also threatening to bolt if Netanyahu doesn’t plot an end to this shit, while others are (b) offering to join Netanyahu’s coalition, ensuring he’d stay in power even if the war-mongeriest do bail.
Like Biden, the G7 industrial nations are also pretending that Netanyahu’s agreed to his plan. In a statement yesterday, the G7 pressured Hamas to accept the plan — while in effect, amusingly disingenuously pressuring Israel to accept it by treating Israeli acceptance as a done deal. “We call on Hamas to accept this deal, that Israel is ready to move forward with…” Shyuh!
The U.S. is also now seeking U.N. support for the peace plan, which would carry about as much weight as the U.N. court’s charges against Netanyahu.
Netanyahu has been invited by both parties’ leaders in Congress to address a joint session. No date has been set, but whenever it is, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has plans. Sanders, who is Jewish, explained why he won’t be there, saying succinctly: “Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal.”
Trump Judges Block Grants to Black People
In an order that is both temporary and likely to be revisited in court, two judges appointed by then-Pres. Donald Trump ruled yesterday that a venture-capital firm can’t dedicate grants solely for businesses owned by Black women.
Because that would be racist.
“This is the first court decision in the 150+ year history of the post-Civil War civil rights law that has halted private charitable support for any racial or ethnic group,” said Jason Schwartz, an attorney for the venture-capital firm, the Fearless Fund.
The Fearless Fund focuses on businesses launched by women of color. Edward Blum, a serial attacker of anything that smacks of moving the needle the tiniest bit back from favoring white people, sued the fund, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which prohibits racial discrimination.
While it’s true that the law’s language is color-blind — Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote that it applies to “all people” — the intent, the original intent, you might say, was clear. How clear?
DIFP1 Andrew Johnson said the law’s effect was “in favor of the colored and against the white race.” Congress overrode Johnson’s veto, because everyone understood that the law was a remedy for systemic discrimination, especially the so-called “Black codes” implemented in the south. (And the north.)
Surely, you may think, such remedies are no longer necessary. Well, that’s what the right-wing Supreme Court thinks, gutting the Voting Rights Act despite obvious impediments to Black voters.
But the Fearless Fund’s modest grants — $20,000 — are intended to offset still-prevalent racism in the business world. How still-prevalent? As of last year, according to the Washington Post, the Fortune 500 had eight Black CEOs — and that was the most ever. Congrats to the Fortune 8!
And when it comes to venture capital, $214 billion in venture-capital funding went out in 2022. One-and-one-tenth of a percent of it went to start-ups that were started-up by Black people.
The difference, of course, is that the Fearless Fund says what it’s doing, in order to offset however modestly, the vastly greater discrimination that the rest of the financial world doesn’t say it’s doing but just does.
The two judges who ruled against the Fearless Fund were both appointed by Trump, whose very first appearance in the news was for discriminating against Black renters in the 1970s, when that was still illegal.
The ruling itself is just the latest iteration of a trend Democrats have yet to fully counter: Billionaire-funded right-wing litigants upending anti-discrimination laws to permit discrimination in courtrooms run by Republican judges. We’ve seen this when it comes to religion, where laws intended to block religious discrimination are now being used to shield discrimination against LGBTQ+ people on the basis of religion.
If yesterday’s ruling is upheld, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will, of course, have to reimburse his billionaire friends for the value of all the stuff they’ve given him but didn’t give to white judges.
Meanwhile, Because Timing Is Everything
About 22 out of every 100,000 live births ends in maternal death, according to a new study out today.
Unless you’re Black.
Then the fatality rate is more than double: 49.5 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
Racial discrimination, and new mothers dying? We know how much the right cares about both issues, so where are all the pro-family, pro-life, anti-discrimination, billionaire-funded lawsuits against this actually deadly discrimination? I’M WAITING, BILLIONAIRE LAWSUIT-FUNDERS.
And it’s not just the United States. Oh wait it totally is.
The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any wealthy nation, the Commonwealth Fund found. And more than 80% of those deaths are preventable. How preventable? In Norway, the maternal mortality rate is zero maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
In fact, 65% of America’s maternal deaths occur after birth, as long as 42 days later. How come? Because without precious unborn babies inside them, they’re no longer mothers, they’re consumer units. Which means their lack of health care isn’t a problem, it’s a business opportunity!
In those Norway-ish countries, new parents have guaranteed paid parental leave, after-birth home visits (if you’re a classic-movie buff, you may know that doctors here used to come to your home!) and actual maternity-care providers. Not to mention superior prenatal care during pregnancy.
Of course, what those living, healthy, cared-for Norway parents don’t have is freedom!
Biden to Raise U.S. Crime Rate, Hurt Economy by Barring Asylum-Seekers
Pres. Joe Biden today is expected to announce that the U.S. will stop accepting asylum requests at the Mexican border. This will mean denying asylum even to legitimate asylum-seekers — many of them seeking asylum from conditions in their own country created by the very country in which they’re now seeking asylum.
The expected executive order would magically create the presidential ability to stop taking asylum requests once the number of daily border encounters tops the totally made-up magic number of 2,500 per day. Which we’re already at now.
In fact, as the A.P. points out, the order says that the U.S. will only resume considering asylum requests again once the number of daily encounters averages 1,500 per day or fewer. Which hasn’t happened since the early days of COVID.
In other words, the nation of immigrants, the one with that whole Statue of Liberty “give me your tired” bullshit, will simply stop even considering requests for asylum from people seeking it lawfully.
The administration says it wants to encourage asylum-seekers to apply using the federal government’s app. Y’know, on the cellphone the asylum-seekers definitely have.
Some context:
Illegal crossings have been on the decline for months.
Immigrants commit fewer crimes here than Americans do — many are fleeing crime that our corruption-fueling deregulatory fetish has unleashed in their own countries.
Immigrant labor is a big part of the reason we survived COVID as well as we did (economically, not literally, obvi) and benefits every single person here to the tune of more than $1,000 per year.
Biden’s running for president.
The asylum-denial order is lifted largely from the bipartisan immigration “reform” bill that DCC3FRFP2 Donald Trump intercepted at the border of passing Congress. But it relies on the same legal authorities claimed by Trump when he clamped down on asylum.
The American Civil Liberties Union will scrutinize Biden’s order once it’s released to determine exactly how to sue its ass. “[A] policy that effectively shuts down asylum would raise clear legal problems, just as [it] did when the Trump administration tried to end asylum,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt.
American Manufacturing on the Decline
Sure, billions of new private and public dollars are getting invested in all kinds of American manufacturing, especially related to infrastructure and clean energy. But in one area where America’s been the absolutely uncontested leader for years, we’re now experiencing a severe decline.
By this time last year, the United States of goddamn America had manufactured an estimated 246 mass shootings, because only in America! This year, however, the Gun Violence Archive says, we’re way off pace. As of last week, there were only 177 mass shootings in the U.S.
And while mass shootings usually increase in warmer months — because the Invisible Hand doesn’t build free things to do outside — May last week was on track to have fewer than 60 mass shootings, the lowest since 2019, when Pres. Donald Trump kept us all safe before the invention of crime on Jan. 20, 2021.
Naturally, the drop in mass shootings coincides with a massive invasion of a caravan of criminals streaming over our southern border. Told you they were bad for American manufacturing!
Uplifting, Life-Affirming Human-Interest Story…About Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch got married on Saturday to a willing participant, according to a romantic announcement issued by his corporation.
The allegedly consensual, totally non-transactional ceremony took place at the enchanted vineyard estate that Murdoch owns in lovely Bel Air, CA, known to his viewers as an irredeemable hellscape where no one should live if they can afford to escape.
Murdoch, whose network champions family values for the families they deem of value, has been married five times now. That we know of. The 93-year-old’s blushing bride is Elena Zhukova, a 67-year-old molecular biologist, who says she’s looking forward to spending the rest of her his life with him.
She’s retired now but expects to set her skills to use learning how her husband is still alive.
Funny, Upbeat Kicker Video
Your typical local newscast used to end on a frivolous, fun note, so you wouldn’t leave its buffet of fires and crime with a bad taste in your mouth. The platonic ideal of this would be video of a waterskiing squirrel. So, what’s the political Newsfucking equivalent of a waterskiing squirrel?
That would be video of Alex Jones crying and/or pretending to cry over the loss of his ranch, which he lost due to the lawsuits against him for turning the parents of kids killed in the Newtown, CT, school shooting into harassment targets. Here ya go, and don’t forget to join Bill and Alexis for your morning traffic and weather.
TCB
NICOLE SANDLER Catch me every Monday with the weekly “The Fucking News” segment on The Nicole Sandler Show, which you can watch/listen to live every Monday at 5pm, or on demand, here.
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Take care, TCB [emphasis added for self-vindication]
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Go get ‘em, kids…!
DIFP = Disgraced, impeached former President.
DCC3FRFP = Disgraced, criminally convicted, tridicted, fraudster, rapist, former President.
TFN is the only news source that I know of where you get the WHOLE story presented with engaging wit and bold truth-telling.
I worked in Mexico for parts of six or seven years in the 1990's, traveling back and forth across the border at Columbus, New Mexico many times. I became familiar to several Border Patrol Agents, and noticed that how they processed immigrants varied over the course of the seasons. Sometimes they checked the paperwork of just a few people, and other times they would check everyone. I asked them about it. They told me that during harvest season in the U.S, they were told not to be firm with paperwork because farms would need the labor. One time I asked it was apple picking season in Washington State, and they let many people through. Another rush was celery season in California. The informality of it seemed to work then. The U.S. economy needs more workers, and immigrants are part of the solution. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/opinion/immigration-states.html