You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard that fifty-some Congressional soup hounds — including eight senators! — had actually boycotted Netanyahu. Truly we live in an age of miracle and wonder.
Liberal commentary on this startling phenomenon has been self-stultified to a degree. The only thing that seems to matter is that Boehner, by inviting Bibi without consulting an individual always respectfully referred to as ‘the President’, had been guilty of disrespect to the latter. The fact that Bibi, who was of course applauded to the echo by the rest of Congress, is a mass murderer and also, remarkably enough, a crashing bore, was apparently of no consequence.
Rachel Maddow, needless to say, was the wettest of the various media hens who took a peck at this topic. The good part starts at 2:50 or so:
A fine example of the essential authoritarianism of the respectable liberal mind.
Netanyahu is an odd-looking fellow, isn’t he? Was he assembled out of Legos? A sort of prefab Golem?
Surely Obie could have prevented him from coming. Just say no, eh? No such luck, of course. It would have been fun to see Bibi’s big cinderblock of a head barking at the Congressional applause machine via Skype: projected on a screen, ten feet high, like Oz The Great And Terrible, each plug-ugly twitch and glare and grimace taking up more space than a frisky Labrador in a studio apartment.
I had to quit watching at the part about the Democrats having to “save” the Republicans.
It took none other than Brian Lehrer to ask the question that doesn’t seem even to enter the liberal-authoritarian mind: What exactly is *wrong* with Congress challenging the Authority of the President? Wouldn’t some of us had loved it if Chirac had addressed Congress before the Iraq disaster? How about a dissenting voice during Vietnam time? Do we *want* a “unified front” behind Der Furh…um, the president?
Of course, Bibi’s stemwinder was a cliché fest, with the inevitable — and comically caricature-ish — shout out to the Weasel, who had box seats in the balcony.
And of course, “our” representatives followed this playbook flawlessly: http://davidsisler.com/04-01-2000.htm
I couldn’t listen long enough to get to the Wieselfestgeschrei. Thanks for alerting me to that. Perfect.
Apropos of not much: as an erstwhile Democrat voter, have you shareable thoughts about the “progressive” agenda anent Eliz. Warren — ? would one vote again…?
I can sorta understand why people who are still committed to the DP might get excited about Warren, qua alternative — theoretical alternative — to the unspeakable Hillary. But it all looks like the old pattern to me: Dem candidates make noises to excite the base until they’ve got the nomination. Then they triangulate during the campaign, trying to keep the base happy while nibbling away at the heteroclites (who can bend either way). Then once elected, rule from Wall Street.
This seems to me like a structural feature of our system, not to be altered by the impulses of any one person, even a potential president.
So no, my response to the Warren craze is, more or less, ho-hum. Though she was one of those who boycotted Bibi, I think, which surprised and impressed me in spite of myself. She’s always been so careful to make her fealty to Israel unmistakably clear.
Would someone please name an actual office seeker/holder the utterance of whose name generates within you something akin to a thrill or even just a warm feeling of mild affection? I cannot think of anyone. And generally the mention of anyone in the category puts me into a sour frame of mind. I am limiting this request to the class of US persons.
Among foreign politicians and policy makers the name of Sergey Lavrov puts a smile on my face occasionally….but he is valorized by contrast with the company he keeps…. Clinton, Kerry, Biden, etc. And he isn’t an elected official.
Do others who read here feel a similar disaffection. I feel that the US policy makers are trying to provoke a nuclear exchange with Russia and feel quite good about doing so. Meanwhile the legislative types generally have little or nothing to say about what such an exchange would do to their districts. Sure Paul Craig Roberts and others talk about it a lot, but Senators and Representatives avoid the issue unless they are actively promoting the approach to the slippery slope. One writes a letter and all you get in reply is a (generally fabricated) charge sheet against Putin. As if encouraging several million joyous Crimeans to rejoin Russia is some sort of “nuclear” level crime.
This rant should hold me for the next quarter. May we all gather here in safety in 3 months.
Stop me if I’m wrong, but didn’t most of the boycotters stay away from the speech not because of any issues with Bibi’s barbarity in Palestine, but because Mr. N insulted “our President”, or some shit?
Also, the idea of Rachel Maddow getting wet over anything would surprise the hell out of me. I thought that nasty old crack had dried up years ago, if you know what I mean.
That’s true about the reason they stayed home. Time was, though, they wouldn’t have dared.
Personally, I can’t wait for the balancing-out that comes when Maduro and his top ministers get to come up here and tell us, via CNN and the Congressional Podium, what to do in Latin America. Oh wait, that won’t be happening? Huh?
Herman and Chomsky are barfing all the way to the Royal Bank of QED.
What, after all, do they want? Israel wants “love”, or at least approval, yes. And protection from the U.N. Security Counsel. But they listen to no one anyway, so what they really want is — wait for it — MONEY!
Our Congress has been on intravenous Cool Aid for so long it thinks it can afford to send them a few dozen of our incredibly feeble quarter billion dollar F-35 jet planes. In addition of course to the $30 billion over ten years gift. And all of that must be only the tip of the handout iceberg.
Well, Israeli citizens do have fully government funded free social medical care. But the quality is said to be rapidly declining. All indications seem to point toward total economic collapse. The water is mostly tapped out and the “blooming deserts” are wilting. Israeli citizens are leaving for ‘Merika and Russia in droves.
Maybe Obama knows things that the Congressrodents don’t: ‘Merika is going broke too, so we can’t keep sending money and weapons to Israel.
Maybe Israel is en route to a South Africa style collapse, and these odd events are mere harbingers.