This was a different president, a different time, a different day and though we had been attacked, bloodied and were suffering we were united. Will we ever get back to being united? Not if we continue to have radicals amongst us and we fear to put them down and/or vote them out of office.
Remember this was just after 9/11 http://www.youtube.com/embed/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++JOKE have been throwing rocks at Trump's windows but keeps missing and have offered nothing by way of how they would do better. In fact they are unwilling to allow questions because they need to get back to the basement.
Consequently smart money starting to shift?
Trump campaign starting to become smart money, another notable figure predicts his victory
And:
So it goes.
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Is Japan tired of having their territory challenged? I would love to see them stand up to China and see what kind of response China is prepared to make. I suspect it would be more rattling bellicosity. Time to stare them down.
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Who is K? Kim offers her thoughts.
Kamala Harris’s First Campaign
A few months ago, Democrats scorned her for her botched presidential run.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
Joe Biden sure knows how to pick ’em. The Democratic nominee had the opportunity to name a competent female running mate, one who would excite his base and reassure undecided voters. He instead chose California Sen. Kamala Harris, the definition of political mediocrity.
Don’t take Donald Trump’s word for it. Take the left’s—at least a few months ago, when it had no stake in creating a legend. The media and Democrats this week can’t roll out enough praise for the veep pick: She’s brilliant, savvy, seasoned, vetted, smooth, forceful, appealing, authentic, powerful, a fighter. This is the same woman the media and Democrats rightly skewered in 2019 for running one of the most bungled and disorganized presidential campaigns this cycle.
In that run, Ms. Harris had about 50 seconds of fame—from a June 2019 debate in which she accused Mr. Biden of being too friendly to racists. Her “That little girl was me” moment and other practiced phrases led to a “Saturday Night Live” impersonation that, as SFGate noted, “mocks” the candidate for her “ ‘viral moments’ desperation.” A New York Times story about how her campaign “unraveled” described one such quest for a memorable catchphrase, noting that her aides had become “given to gallows humor about just how many slogans and one-liners she has cycled through.”
If commentators are now struggling to define Ms. Harris, it’s because she offers little that is truly defining. The party establishment quickly closed ranks around her 2016 Senate race, allowing her to run a standard liberal campaign that the Los Angeles Times described as “carefully orchestrated” and “overly cautious and scripted.” In her 3½ Senate years, she’s done little by way of legislation, preferring to showboat at hearings. The lack of an animating agenda helps a explain a presidential campaign in which she bounced from left to far-left position, whatever she thought most helpful at the moment. She twice called to eliminate private health insurance—and twice reversed herself the next day after backlash. As Vox noted, the “combination of policy reversals and botched rollout . . . undermined faith in her ability to govern on the issue Democrats rate as most important.”
The campaign was a mess, rocked by infighting, leaks, restarts and financial problems. After the campaign announced layoffs in early November, its veteran Iowa operations manager wrote a scathing resignation letter in which she said she’d “never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly” and expressed dismay at its ability to make “the same unforced errors over and over.” Ms. Harris didn’t even make it to the first contest, dropping out—broke and with embarrassing poll numbers—two months before the Iowa caucuses. The only other “top tier” candidate to implode as quickly or spectacularly was Beto O’Rourke. The Washington Post campaign obituary bluntly called Ms. Harris an “uneven campaigner” who was “engulfed by low polling numbers, internal turmoil and a sense that she was unable to provide a clear message.” The Post this week lauded Ms. Harris as “vibrant and energetic” and a “vessel for Democratic hopes.”
Biden watchers insist the nominee fulfilled the cardinal rule of veep picks: First, do no harm. Possibly, but it’s pretty clear it did no good either. Mr. Biden’s biggest concern remains his lagging enthusiasm numbers. Polls consistently show the majority of Democratic voters notably unexcited about his candidacy. One fix would have been a running mate hailed as a fresh and rising Democratic star. Ms. Harris has alienated key elements of her party, in particular progressives who despise her as a “top cop” from her six years as California’s attorney general. In a poll this week by the Economist/YouGov, Ms. Harris was viewed favorably by only half of African-Americans and very favorably by only 26% of liberals. Will that keep people from pulling a Biden-Harris lever? Maybe not, but she won’t likely be a poll driver.
And there’s still a possibility she’ll do harm. Mr. Biden’s age and questions about his mental acuity guarantee an outsize focus on his running mate, who could end up president. Ms. Harris’s own presidential run proves she has a propensity to make mistakes—potentially big ones. The Trump campaign is eager to define her as a Bernie Sanders liberal, and she’s got a track record that helps—having endorsed Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and gun bans. Many Americans will also remember her leading role in the character assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, matched only in political theater by Cory “Spartacus” Booker. This has the potential to turn off some suburban and independent voters. Even if they don’t rush into Mr. Trump’s arms; they may simply not vote.
It was preordained the media would gush over any Biden pick, and it is a given the press will continue to provide cover to the ticket. But Democrats do themselves no favors in pretending Ms. Harris is a super-pol. Mr. Biden reduced his presidential choice to box-checking: woman, minority, progressive. Ms. Harris checks the boxes but not much else. That could matter if this race keeps tightening.
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A little bit gushing but worthy of posting because the author captures the significance of what has happened unlike America's mass media because it would enhance Trump and they remain in he JOKE's pockets.
My "winglady" asked if she and Willie could spend a couple of nights in the Lincoln Bed Room. I had to check with the Secret Service. Have not heard back but think they may say no as long as we are sleeping in The WH.
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A little bit gushing but worthy of posting because the author captures the significance of what has happened unlike America's mass media because it would enhance Trump and they remain in he JOKE's pockets.
A Dream of Peace Made Real
To say that Israel is reeling today is a cosmic understatement.
All of Israel–left, right, center–was dealt a knockout blow by the indefatigable Netanyahu on Thursday when the Oval Office announced on Thursday the agreement between Israel and the UAE to immediately formalize “full normalization” of diplomatic, economic and all relations.
The revelation was so surreal, in fact, that in this hopelessly gossipy nation, where everything leaks, nothing did. It was the equivalent of an atomic bomb. In terms of sheer force, not devastation. A good atomic bomb.
For the Emiratis to engage openly, fully, and proudly has left this nation stunned. In the best way. It was totally unexpected.
Perhaps it was best expressed in a tweet by former MK Einat Wilf, who wrote: “Israeli Jews are keenly aware of their minority status in an Arab and Islamic region and so yearn for peace with the Arab and Islamic world. The #UAE showed today yet again that when the Arab world comes to us with offers of genuine peace, they always find in us willing partners.”
Mired in an evergreen domestic political morass, PM Netanyahu, “the magician,” has clearly worked for years to pull off the impossible, as he was sliced and diced six ways to Sunday by local scandal and subterfuge.
Peace, in the vernacular. With one of the most important, progressive, influential Middle Eastern countries, the UAE.
Israeli media reports that this agreement has been brokered by Jared Kushner, Mossad Chief Yossi
“Full normalization.”
Peace, in the vernacular. With one of the most important, progressive, influential Middle Eastern countries, the UAE.
Israeli media reports that this agreement has been brokered by Jared Kushner, Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen, and others. But foremost, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, ruler of the UAE, has boldly led the Middle East into what will not just re-align the region’s geopolitics, but quite likely those of the world. And, in a flash, the notoriously aggressive Israeli media was rocked back on its heels, collective mouths agape, at the unsurpassed brilliance of Bibi.
If Shakespeare were alive, he would have to reinvent his canon, which has become the literary foundation of Western story-telling. With Bibi, there simply is no Act V–no denouement. We are stuck in Act III, where the hero is unstoppable. Where his brilliance and unsurpassed triumphs continue, mere human frailties notwithstanding.
This moment is no less astonishing than the breakthrough peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, for which President Anwar Sadat paid with his life. Every Israeli remembers that time, when President Sadat spoke to Israel–and the world–from the Knesset dais. They remember it with total clarity, as they will do with this momentous occasion.
There are dissenters, to be sure, but they are marginal and increasingly irrelevant. Hardline leadership of Jewish West Bank settlements (not all) and certain hard-right political figures are decrying Bibi’s “treason.” In June, they were beyond pumped by his bellicose calls for the full annexation of the West Bank. The global community responded and bellowed in protest.
But the UAE led the hollering pack with muted sophistication and brilliance. Bibi has been known to say that while everyone else plays checkers, he’s busy at the chessboard. And so, it seems, is Sheikh MBZ.
His vision, pragmatism, and courage have landed the defining move in the best way. Check. Mate.
As Bibi’s push for annexation was building momentum in Israel in May and June, the UAE Ambassador to the U.S., Yousef al Otaiba, was out front in a very public way, urging Netanyahu to reconsider.
On Thursday night, Israeli expat and influencer, Haim Saban, spoke to Yonit Levy, an anchor on Israel’s most-watched television station. Saban recounted his conversation with al Oteiba in the midst of the annexation hubbub. As he tells it, al Oteiba intended to publish an op-ed in the Washington Post about the certain calamity that annexation would bring. He warned that it would set back all progress between Israel and its Arab neighbours, irreversibly and incalculably.
Saban said that he suggested to al Oteiba that he reconsider and publish his views in the Israeli press, in Hebrew, and speak directly to the Israeli people.
He did just that. On Friday, June 12, in a stunning op-ed that ran in the largest circulation Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot.
It was, then and in retrospect, a game-changer, to put it mildly. Set aside any thoughts of annexation, he wrote, and look to a future with the possibility of “normal” relations with your Arab neighbors.
It seemed impossible. A pipe dream.
And yet, here we are.
Annexation is not happening. But Bibi, never one to raise the white flag, has been adamant with the Israeli media that annexation is not dead, just deferred. It may never happen. It may. But, he told the nation on Thursday night, that any future annexation of West Bank territory will occur only in a manner consistent with the terms set out in the Trump Peace Plan.
Israeli pundits are in collective shock. Across the board, they have celebrated Bibi’s truly historic achievement. And any significant domestic challenges he faced yesterday are now pulverized. The reign of King Bibi is quite secure.
There is, however, an intransigent fringe in Israel that is enraged. They accuse Bibi of treason, as did so many with Prime Ministers Begin, Rabin, and Sharon.
Palestinian leadership, not surprisingly, is apoplectic. Hopefully, they will process this shift and understand that their “zero-sum,” absolutist approach to negotiations with Israel will only yield bitterness and defeat, as it has done until now.
May this extraordinary moment truly herald a brighter future for all. War and hatred do no good for anyone.
Sala’am Aleikum.
Shabbat shalom.
May peace be upon us all.
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Biden Diary - Day 15
My "winglady" asked if she and Willie could spend a couple of nights in the Lincoln Bed Room. I had to check with the Secret Service. Have not heard back but think they may say no as long as we are sleeping in The WH.
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