Browsed by
Category: Politics

The Biden problem: A populist message won’t do much to elevate a deeply unpopular candidate

The Biden problem: A populist message won’t do much to elevate a deeply unpopular candidate

The Washington Post reports: In private conversations over the past several weeks, aides to President Biden have discussed proposing new taxes on the wealthy this year to help fund Social Security benefits as the presidential election looms, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. With former president Donald Trump again vowing to protect Social Security if elected, some advisers to Biden’s team believe pushing to bolster the program’s…

Read More Read More

Van Hollen and other Democratic senators say Biden needs to abandon ‘quiet diplomacy’ with Netanyahu

Van Hollen and other Democratic senators say Biden needs to abandon ‘quiet diplomacy’ with Netanyahu

Politico reports: Democratic lawmakers are furious with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for rejecting the idea of creating an independent Palestinian nation after fighting in the Gaza Strip ends. Netanyahu was blunt about his intentions during a news conference on Thursday, saying that Israel “needs security control over all territory” west of Jordan after the war, he said. “This collides with the idea of sovereignty.” A two-state solution has been a key goal of the Biden administration as it plans…

Read More Read More

King Bibi, false messiah

King Bibi, false messiah

David Stromberg writes: Watching Bibi speak ever since October 7, one senses that, for far too long, he has been told that he is King Bibi—and that he truly believes in the prophetic claims of his role as Israel’s unrivaled and divinely installed leader. Even though Bibi is not religious, he presides over the most religiously extreme and messianic coalition in Israel’s history, a throwback to the kind of ideologically tainted mysticism invoked by Nathan of Gaza to elevate Sabbatai…

Read More Read More

Palestinian journalists are being imprisoned by Israel in record numbers

Palestinian journalists are being imprisoned by Israel in record numbers

🔴 CPJ’s 2023 prison census shows that Israel is among top jailers of journalists worldwide, as imprisonments globally continue unabated. Read the report: https://t.co/GTeGIRhA6K#FreeThePress #JournalismIsNotACrime #PressFreedom pic.twitter.com/Nje3ABoLb6 — Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) January 18, 2024 Committee to Protect Journalists reports: In October, when the Israel-Gaza war began, Alaa al-Rimawi snapped into action, covering developments on J-Media, the West Bank-based news agency he directs, as well as on TikTok and Facebook. But his conflict coverage would be short-lived. Less than…

Read More Read More

‘Please guys, wake up’: European leaders push Biden, Congress on Ukraine

‘Please guys, wake up’: European leaders push Biden, Congress on Ukraine

Politico reports: A group of European parliamentarians who are in Washington to drum up more support for Ukraine have a message for lawmakers and the White House: Get your act together. The group is wrapping up a frustrating week spent meeting with policymakers and lawmakers, and is ready to leave town unsure of America’s place in European security after finding their U.S. counterparts unable, or unwilling, to act on important issues. The parliamentarians spent the week “pleading with Americans to…

Read More Read More

Hakeem Jeffries bucks AIPAC, endorses Squad member Summer Lee

Hakeem Jeffries bucks AIPAC, endorses Squad member Summer Lee

The Intercept reports: Bucking pro-Israel lobby groups, the top three members of House Democratic leadership endorsed Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., on Wednesday. Like other progressive members of the Squad, pro-Israel groups are seeking to oust Lee in 2024. Members of the House Democratic leadership have mostly remained close to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee even as it sought to unseat Democratic incumbents. On Wednesday, though, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., bucked AIPAC, a major donor, and endorsed Lee….

Read More Read More

Jamie Dimon joins the Trump normalizers

Jamie Dimon joins the Trump normalizers

Dennis Aftergut and Walter H. White, Jr. write: Jamie Dimon issued what CNN characterized as a “warning to Democrats” this week. During a CNBC interview on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the JPMorgan Chase CEO said that “Donald Trump was right about some critical issues,” so Democrats should not too quickly dismiss Trump’s base as a cult of personality. The danger in Dimon’s remark lies as much in what he did not say as in what he…

Read More Read More

Netanyahu: ‘Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea’

Netanyahu: ‘Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea’

BREAKING: Netanyahu just declared “Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea.” Ruling Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza forever, until they’re killed or driven out. Endless occupation, apartheid, and genocide. Will this be your legacy @JoeBiden? pic.twitter.com/e2DcSaIhTK — IfNotNow🔥✡️ (@IfNotNowOrg) January 18, 2024 The New Republic reports: Invoking a phrase that has recently touched off moral panics whenever it’s been uttered by a college sophomore, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday promised…

Read More Read More

Democratic lawmakers plan push to get controversial Biden adviser, Brett McGurk, out of office

Democratic lawmakers plan push to get controversial Biden adviser, Brett McGurk, out of office

HuffPost reports: Democrats in the House of Representatives are discussing asking President Joe Biden for the resignation of Brett McGurk, his deeply controversial Middle East adviser, according to a Democratic lawmaker and a senior congressional aide. Led by progressives who see McGurk as driving a counterproductive Middle East policy with an unacceptable human rights toll, the effort would take the form of a letter to Biden from a group of House Democrats, they said. A draft has already been written…

Read More Read More

Iran strikes conciliatory tone amid escalating tensions with Pakistan

Iran strikes conciliatory tone amid escalating tensions with Pakistan

RFE/RL reports: Iran has condemned what it called a “disproportionate and unacceptable” attack by Pakistan on its territory, which came in response to an Iranian strike, raising fears of escalating military exchanges between the two neighbors. While criticizing Islamabad for the scale of the attack, Iran’s Foreign Ministry also appeared to try and allay concerns of rising tensions, striking a conciliatory tone in its statement on January 18 by referring to Pakistan as a “friend and brother.” Pakistani warplanes launched…

Read More Read More

Supreme Court case could result in a major victory for capitalism at the expense of democracy

Supreme Court case could result in a major victory for capitalism at the expense of democracy

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in a set of cases that could pave the way for its conservative supermajority to undercut how American society imposes rules on businesses, advancing a key goal of the conservative legal movement. Such a ruling would make it easier to challenge regulations across a gamut of issues, like keeping the air and water clean; ensuring that food, drugs, cars and consumer products are safe; and much more. The…

Read More Read More

The ‘sleeping giant’ case that could upend Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump

The ‘sleeping giant’ case that could upend Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump

Kimberly Wehle writes: There’s been a lot of attention paid to the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for actions taken while president, a judgment that will have big implications for the 2024 presidential campaign and special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of the former president on charges related to Jan. 6. But there’s a sleeping giant of a case also percolating in the Supreme Court that’s even more likely than the immunity issue to…

Read More Read More

Netanyahu accused of risking WWIII to save his own skin

Netanyahu accused of risking WWIII to save his own skin

The Daily Beast reports: The Middle East is sitting on a powder keg and the longer the tensions continue to escalate the greater chance of the region spiraling to a point where Iran and the U.S. could be drawn into a full-blown war through their respective proxies. Iran entered the conflict directly for the first time Monday night, hitting Israeli and ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria. While U.S. and U.K. forces have carried out strikes on Houthi military targets…

Read More Read More

Iran strikes Syria, Iraq and Pakistan as Middle East tensions spike

Iran strikes Syria, Iraq and Pakistan as Middle East tensions spike

CNBC reports: Within 24 hours, Iran launched missile and drone strikes on targets in three countries — Iraq, Syria and Pakistan — and took the extraordinary step of announcing its responsibility for the attacks, triggering anger from its neighbors. The developments have heightened concerns over the possibility of a wider Middle East conflict, as the Israel-Hamas war and daily Israeli bombardment of the Gaza enclave passes the 100-day mark. Baghdad recalled its ambassador to Iran after the Monday night attack…

Read More Read More

Putin is making his plans brutally clear

Putin is making his plans brutally clear

Nataliya Gumenyuk writes: New Year’s Eve is an important holiday in Ukraine. At the end of December, I asked my sister how she would be celebrating this year. “In the bomb shelter,” she said, matter-of-factly. She planned to cook sandwiches, which would be easier to carry down to the safe room from the 10th floor if there was an air-raid siren. In 2023 there were more than 6,000 air alerts in Ukraine. Last month alone, Russia launched some 624 drones…

Read More Read More