This is perfect — bravo, Rep Casar:
How much Elon Musk makes from the government a day: $8 million.
How much a senior on Social Security gets a day: $65
Guess which budget Musk and Trump want to cut?
— Congressman Greg Casar (@repcasar.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 1:07 PM
I like the way he smuggled in the reference to the committee’s chair, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Also, it’s the corruption, stupid:
CORRUPTION: Musk is abusing his position to block investigations into his own corporations⬇️
— Congressman Greg Casar (@repcasar.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Will people hear about it or care? I don’t know. But there’s a corrupt heist by billionaires going down on the ceremonial (and alleged billionaire) president’s watch, and it’s great to see elected Dems calling it out here and elsewhere. More of this, please.
Also, fellow red-staters, our calls to congressional offices may be having an effect. Rachel Maddow covered it in last night’s show, and Josh Marshall is collecting responses to constituent complaints about Musk’s takeover from Repub reps. They’re getting a wee bit more circumspect in their responses instead of the initial “suck it, libturd.” Read more at this TPM gift link.
Open thread!
Trump’s Candidate Lost – Too Bad, So Sad
Elizabelle
Someone — Andy Borowitz? — snarked that Trump’s tariffs would make MTaylor Greene’s tin foil hatting more expensive.
Utterly disgusted the GOP (minus Turtle) voted en bloc to approve Tulsi Gabbard. A pox upon their side of the House.
Proud of all Democrats and Independents, who stood firm. Turtle, I guess, was posturing. He already ruined the Supreme Court and Senate; gets no glory for this principled stand.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Now there’s a pithy, easy-to-digest message! Of course that’s only half the battle, now how to get that drilled into the collective heads of the masses 24/7/365.
sentient ai from the future
@Elizabelle: there is one way turtle would get credit from me, and that were if he along with three other R senators switched sides to caucus with the Dems.
Never happen, and it wouldn’t be much, but we live in very strange times
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: Gabbard confirmed as DNI while the Fox & Friends weekend couch ballast who’s running the Pentagon signals a huge cave on Ukraine. I imagine Adam will have a lot to say about it. If he’s not too disgusted to address the topic. I don’t see how NATO remains a going concern after this shit-show.
Librarian
Alternately, there are signs that Musk is getting stronger and more entrenched- like yesterday’s EO. Also, there’s the 80 million dollars that Musk has apparently taken from NYC’s bank accounts. Just stole it.
Captain C
@Elizabelle:
I hope that the defense and intelligence communities start figuring out en masse that Republicans are not only not on their side but are happy to sell them out for small bribes, or even shits and giggles.
No Nym
When will Elon be rich enough that he can leave us the fuck alone?
Captain C
@No Nym: Never. There’s nothing that will fill the rotten hole where his heart should be.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Tragic, and did not have to happen. I admire the Ukrainians way more than I do us.
@sentient ai from the future: You know, it’s not inconceivable that Trumpkins will want to do something so outrageous, particularly on foreign affairs, that Turtle and a few GOP Senators might switch sides.
Disgusted with Lisa Murkowski. Susan Collins is a big furrowed fake to begin with.
Murkowski can now see a Russian asset. From her office.
Captain C
@Elizabelle:
Maybe an “Independent Republicans” caucus, the mirror image of the NY State Senate “Independent Democrats” group that caucused with the Republicans on Cuomo’s behalf until they got voted out/rendered irrelevant.
Belafon
@Captain C: Independent Republicans got voted out a long time ago.
Scout211
Topic adjacent: I am in the middle of preparing our passport renewals and I asked Google if I could put both of ours into one envelope. Google AI told me no, no, no. You can’t do that. This is serious, no you cannot.
Then immediately below the AI bot info was the U.S. Department of State telling me yes, yes, yes. You can do that. And you can send one check to pay for both fees, also too.
I’m so happy that President Musk is planning to use AI to help him run the government. It will be lit. So much winning!
FDRLincoln
NATO is as dead as the Constitution. Still existing on paper but no longer operative. A ghost. A zombie.
Jay
@Betty Cracker:
NATO has not really been a going concern since Dolt 45. Biden’s escalation fears did not help.
Everybody but the US, Slovakia and Hungary in NATO and the EU started signing bipartisan security deals several years ago, with each other, Ukraine and Moldova.
SEATO is also toast, along with NORAD.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: And. A 13 year old student, and her peers, showed more courage than GOP Senators.
WaPost: Hegseth’s visit to U.S. base in Germany met with student walkout
The civil disobedience by dozens of middle-schoolers — and some adults who booed the defense secretary — was aimed at the Trump administration’s rollback of DEI initiatives.
Belafon
@Jay: What do you mean by “Biden’s escalation fears”?
cmorenc
@Librarian:
Link? At least a tumbnail of details?
frosty
Hi BC! I passed a street today called “Cracker Swamp Dirt Road”. Sez I, BC must live down this road! Then it occurred to me that Palatka is probably on the wrong side of Florida from you.
Oh well. We’re enjoying sitting outside and not shoveling snow. I wish we could do it without contributing to DeSantis’s economy though.
(since it’s an open thread)
Citizen Alan
@Belafon: There is a school of thought that Joe was not as helpful to Ukraine as he could have been because he was afraid that if “the Ukraine conflict” became a “NATO conflict,” leading to an escalation of the scope of engagement possibly to WMD levels. I think those fears were entirely overblown given how weak Russia appears to be, but they weren’t irrational.
Chris
It makes me deeply sad, in the pettiest geekist kind of way possible, that Auric Goldfinger was so cool and that the real-life Billionaires Stealing The Country are such pathetic twerps.
Jay
@cmorenc:
https://www.aol.com/news/donald-trump-elon-musk-illegally-173333782.html
sentient ai from the future
@Belafon: probably stuff like not giving ukraine f-16s, and not allowing them to launch attacks using US munitions on targets in russian territory until after the election was called. or something like that.
FDRLincoln
I’ve lived 57 years as a free person in a free country.
I’m not going to live my remaining years in an autocracy.
One way or another.
Jay
@Belafon:
Ask Adam tonight, or reread any of his past posts.
Trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Even fucking BoJo got Ukraine right but this lot? So far up Vlad’s butt they reached the small intestine.
Gretchen
@Belafon: Biden was reportedly reluctant to do too much to help Ukraine for fear of getting into a direct war with Russia, and didn’t want Ukraine hitting targets within Russia for that reason.
Trollhattan
@Chris: He did fail as an airplane window plug, though.
Belafon
@Citizen Alan: What Russia could actually do wasn’t really understood until the attack occurred.
But he was also working with one hand tied behind his back because Americans kept being stupid and going to Russia.
Belafon
Thanks for the explanation.
Chris
@Captain C:
Our defense and intelligence communities are already crammed with people who believe whatever the hell the Republicans say is reality, and even far too many of those who aren’t like that are full of their own hangups with regards to anyone left of the GOP.
Gretchen
I’m more afraid that we’re stuck with Elon permanently after watching the video in the last comment thread of Elon’s 3 year old verbally abusing Trump, who just sat there and took it. He must be being blackmailed or something. Who lets a 3yo tell them to shut their f-ing mouth and just sits there and takes it, with video cameras rolling?
Trollhattan
@Gretchen: He was not alone in that regard, e.g., UK, Germany and France limiting the range of their missiles.
Russia’s armed forces are deeply depleted but that would not stop him from going for, say, Lithuania and daring NATO to invoke Charter 5.
Elizabelle
@Chris: Apparently so. Very sad.
I was hoping The Deep State would release some damaging information before The Felon took office, but no.
Penetration at all levels, plus stupidity. And shallow thinking. And no understanding of history.
It is a civic sin that our military allows Fox News Channel in its broadcast lineup.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Chris: Every single Bond villain is more cool – AND more likeable/respectable – than the real-world equivalent.
Take Elliot Carver vs. either Rupert Murdoch or Roger Ailes, for example.
Jay
@sentient ai from the future:
Sending 32 obsolete/export model M1A1 Abrams in May, 2024, years after the ROW and other NATO members had sent Ukraine 720 modern/ized MBT’s starting in 2022, when the US has over 2000 mothballed.
Australia sent 49 M1A1’s to Ukraine.
Limiting for years what Ukraine can strike with not only US supplied weapons, but any NATO/EU, others, supplied US Weapons, or domestic weapons containing US technology.
Slow walking deliveries of weapons and money to Ukraine for years, to the point that by the start of December 2024, only 34% of promised US aid packages had actually been delivered to Ukraine.
And that’s just a few examples.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Elizabelle: I take the fact that the Deep State did absolutely nothing to protect itself from a foe sworn to its termination as proof that the entire thing is nothing more than a Randian Libertarian pipe dream concocted to make the oi polloi believe that Big Gummint is out to get them unless they vote for the Tear It All Down ticket.
Jay
@Belafon:
Since 2022 and the reinvasion, ruZZia has threatened to “escalate” in response to proposed arms for Ukraine or ruZZian red lines 473 times, including 143 nuclear threats.
They have escalated 0 times.
Chris
@Gretchen:
I don’t think he’s being blackmailed. I think Elon Musk is one of the few people in the world with enough clout to stick it to Donald Trump and get away with it, and Trump knows it.
Musk has a gigantic noise machine and his own fanatical fandom, which largely overlaps with Trump. If they’re forced to choose between them, it’s not at all clear that the fans would side with Trump over Musk.
A lot of the henchmen Trump relies on to enact his regime, similarly, are Musk henchmen. If he tries to force the issue and give them orders, again, it’s not at all clear that they’ll take his orders rather than Musk’s.
As President, there are of course a ton of things Trump can do to fuck over Elon Musk. But Elon Musk has the noise machine to actually fight back in the court of public opinion, and he has the lawyers to actually fight back in the courts of law. And if any Musk vs Trump case ends up in front of the Nine, there is, again, no way at all of knowing for sure who they’ll side with. This isn’t a Republican vs Democrat dispute.
All of this might still be weatherable, if not for the extremely well-publicized fact that Trump is, at heart, an absolute coward. The man is so pants-shittingly terrified of confrontation that despite his TV catchphrase, he can’t even fire his own subordinates in person, they have to learn about it from Twitter or CNN. I think he simply doesn’t have the huevos rancheros for a showdown with Musk.
Another Scott
@Citizen Alan: +1
Also, Biden made it pretty clear from the beginning, and even before the beginning, that keeping NATO united was his number one priority, (because Ukraine couldn’t win if NATO were divided).
I think he was right there, and Ukraine will have a tougher time than it should going forward because of 47’s current and future machinations.
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Belafon
@Jay: I’m on the side that we should have sent more if we were capable, and that, after a few battles where Russia wasn’t conquering, we should have added more.
Belafon
@Chris: Also, remember when Trump was asking for a VP that would do the work while he got to play president? Now he’s got that.
Jay
@Trollhattan:
Germany*, (still) France and Britain could only remove limitations on StormShadows and SCALP missiles, once the US removed restrictions on Patriots, HIMARS and ATACMS, because the StormShadows and SCALP’s use US technology, and as a result even the UK and France need express permission from the US to use the weapons in their own defense.
*Germany because Scholz is an asshat stuck in the 90’s.
Librarian
@cmorenc: FWIW, the NYT says that the money was actually taken by FEMA. FEMA Seizes $80 Million in Approved Funding for N.Y.C. Migrant Shelters – The New York Times
Chris
Let me add one thing to the above:
I’ve said for years and years that any prominent Republican who actually wanted to end Trump’s career, at least any one of them who was ever in a room with cameras with him, could have done so in about ten seconds. All he would’ve had to do is this: 1) walk up to Donald Trump while all the cameras are running, 2) bitch-slap him right in his stupid face, 3) walk back to wherever he was standing while visibly laughing, and 4) never apologize. (For the rest of your life, if anybody ever brings it up, never apologize: just start laughing again at how hilarious that moment was. “Oh my God, did you see his face! Just priceless!”)
The right thrives on a pro wrestling type view of politics full of dominance displays. A Democrat might not have been able to pull this off. (And then again they might have: we haven’t heard a peep out of Richard Spencer in the last eight years, have we?) But a Republican absolutely could have. It would’ve ended Trump’s mojo forever, because a person who’s publicly humiliated like that simply can’t stay the Alpha Male of that particular pack. At best he’d have ended up pitied, which is so much worse in that world than being hated.
(Someone like Andrew Jackson would’ve simply beaten the slapper to death right then and there, and in so doing reasserted his dominance beyond question. Trump… ain’t Andy Jackson).
So, yeah. To bring this back around to Trump vs Musk, I think Trump senses that Musk is the kind of person who could in fact bitch-slap him on national television (or whatever the verbal or social media equivalent would be), and he’s trying to avoid that moment at all costs.
Geminid
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): The term “Deep State” was borrowed from Turkiye, which really did have a Deep State in the latter half of the 20th century. This was a network of Army officers, prosecutors, judges, institution heads, and even organized crime bosses. They repressed leftist and Islamist forces and curbed the independence of civilian governments.
That’s how Turkiye’s military exerted its influence before and after its coups in 1960 and 1980. Each time, the military stepped down within two years after resetting civilian politics. But they relied on the Deep State network to keep everyone in line. Policians knew better than to complain.
Chris
@Elizabelle:
The thing with the Deep State is that about 90% of their political power comes simply from their alliance with the right wing. As long as they stay on their side and keep publicly shitting on their political enemies, the right wingers’ll let them do pretty much everything they want.
As soon as they run into an enemy that the right wingers don’t want them to go after, all their political clout is instantly gone, and they have no idea what to do next.
Elizabelle
@Chris: The rightwing has not been a friend to our world, has it? In any country that I can think of.
Chris
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq):
I’m very fond of Brad Whittaker from The Living Daylights, precisely because he’s so pathetic. Unlike most Bond villains, he isn’t in fact much cooler than the chickenhawks he’s meant to parody. Give him a pair of glasses and he’s basically Tom Clancy.
FelonyGovt
Via Reddit, protest at SpaceX HQ yesterday. DOGE= Deranged Oligarchs Grifting Everything. “Stop the Nerd Reich”. Sorry about the naked link…
https://www.reddit.com/r/SouthBayLA/s/cITr54PJWs
suzanne
@Chris:
I said, back in 2016, during one of those godawful Republican “debates”…. that Please Clap Jeb should have walked across the stage and punched FFOTUS right in the face, and he would have won the primary and spared us all this horror.
Some of these people have never kicked any ass and it shows.
Chris
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq):
Something I’ve been terrified of for years is the extent to which people from our security state keep popping up in service to our enemies. We’ve already had at least one big defense contractor (Erik Prince) and one former spymaster (Michael Flynn) spend years in the service of governments that are unreliable allies at best (the Gulf monarchies, Turkey) or outright hostile at worst (China, Russia). We’ve had a former FBI director (Bill Sessions) turn up as legal counsel to the biggest mob boss in Russia (Semion Mogilevich). We’ve had, of course, Elon Musk using Starlink to help the Russians in their war against Ukraine at the same time that we’re trying to back the Ukrainians.
It’s a real problem that more and more, our military and security services are no longer viewed as a career in themselves, but rather as a resume-builder from which you can go on to your real career in private contracting. And inevitably in today’s globalized economy, that eventually came to mean that the future bosses that our soldiers, spies, and cops are looking to impress are no longer just Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, or Halliburton, but the Kremlin, the CCP, and the Saudi court. It’s no wonder James Comey and the New York FBI office were falling all over themselves to help the Russians win the 2016 election.
Does this have an effect on our national security? … gee, I wonder.
eclare
@suzanne:
It’s ridiculous. As an eight yo girl I hit another girl who had been bullying me. She never did again.
I didn’t even get into trouble because the teacher said that he was aware of what was going on. This was before schools realized that if they were aware, they had to do something.
Leto
SwastiKar now available in “Public Backlash” edition
opiejeanne
@Jay: That money was allocated by Congress. It’s an illicit money-grab.
eclare
@Leto:
Love it. Gee I’d hate for that to catch on…
Jay
@opiejeanne:
On paper only
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2025/02/12/some-fries-with-your-stupid-alina-habba/
King Musk and his Consort Diaper Don have staked out their position.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Geminid: While believable, and likely accurate, that says nothing about the US’ Reichwing’s fixation on some US federal sector equivalent.
lowtechcyclist
@frosty:
I hope you took a photo! That needs to be part of one of Betty C’s posts where she’s writing about her house and its surroundings.
Betty Cracker
@frosty: I wish that was the name of our road! Palatka is north and east of us, but the countryside is very much the same.
Betty Cracker
@Gretchen: For real? Hadn’t heard that.
lowtechcyclist
@Gretchen:
Given what we already know about Trump that hasn’t made a damn bit of difference, and given that he’s already won his second term, honestly what could one possibly blackmail him with? He may be the most blackmail-proof person in the history of this nation, if not the world.
cain
@Chris:
I’m not so sure. Trump has star power that Elon doesn’t quite have. Trump has the evangelicals on his side. The religious zealots are not going to go for Elon. They think Trump is their new God and those folks have their own significant noise machine.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Chris: Agreed.
But that becomes a threat from the RIGHT. There’s no grand Leftist machine thwarting Reichwing wet dreams of power; there are just normal checks and balances, and regulation (much of it rational) that has withstood assault from both extremes.
It feels like the anti-Deep-State campaign is Chaotic Evil pursuing Lawful Evil while misrepresenting the Lawful Evil as Chaotic Good.
Old School
@lowtechcyclist:
Courtesy of Google Maps.
opiejeanne
@eclare: My son came home from 8th grade one day and told me I needed to talk to his principal. My first thought when I saw the kid was, “Oh, hell, he’s been in a fight.” He was a pretty passive kid, didn’t get into fights, and maybe that’s why he was a target.
When I got hold of the principal there was a pause before he said, “We are all so proud of Bill for fighting back for a change.” The office staff and some of the teachers knew some kids had been picking on him but nothing physical that they knew about. What set him off was a financial attack, catching a kid taking a book from his backpack and putting it into the trash, which Bill would have had to pay for (we would have had to pay for it and would have been pissed that he’d lost a book).
No one picked on him the rest of the year, and my memory is that aside from an asshole French teacher, his HS years were pretty peaceful.
opiejeanne
@Jay: Oh, FFS!
Melancholy Jaques
@Chris:
Normies seem to enjoy them as well.
Sister Golden Bear
@lowtechcyclist: Not sure this is the same road, but photo here.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Not just Hegseth but Trump underbussed Ukraine. Ukrainian reaction is, um, not supportive.
Chris
@cain:
I’m not saying that Elon can steal Trump’s breakfast, per se. (Not saying he can’t either). But he’s just big enough that Trump is afraid that he can, or even afraid that he might and that these odds aren’t good enough for him to take. Especially since Trump has tied his boat so solidly to Musk’s now.
If the two of them were to really go at it, I’d give Trump good odds. But as I say, I don’t think Trump has the stones to risk that fight.
Chris
@Melancholy Jaques:
Yes, unfortunately. As I said a whole bunch of times last summer even before the debate, presidential debates are the nerd version of pro wrestling.
Geminid
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): I did not try to explain the connection of the Deep State to the US, just the term’s origin. But the implication pretty much tracks your conclusion that there is not in fact a Deep State here.
Jay
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/eby-says-us-economic-integration-last-thing-bc-wants-ahead-of-white-house-trip/
Jay
In the US, for over a decade, the “Deep State” has consisted of Civil Servants, Judges, etc, upholding the law and legislation.
Now the US has a Derp State.
Melancholy Jaques
@Geminid:
Nevertheless, there is a popular genre of novels that are based on its existence.
suzanne
@Melancholy Jaques:
Honestly, I can watch people hit one another with folding chairs for ten minutes.
Ruviana
@Captain C: He apparently has the goal of becoming the world’s first trillionaire so he’s probably not slowing down any time soon.
Belafon
@Jay: We were THE world’s producer of cotton until the Civil War. Other countries had to step up during that time, and we never truly recovered afterwards.
Jay
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy08z28wpvdo
As was foretold, Dolt47 traded a convicted Crypto Scammer, thief and criminal, for Marc Fogel,
with another ruZZian criminal to be named later.
eclare
@opiejeanne:
Yep. Bullies back down. I only hit the ringleader, there was a group of four girls who bullied me relentlessly as I was the “new girl” whose family had just moved to town.
The straw that finally broke this camel’s back was when the teacher stepped out for a few minutes, and the girls started playing “keep away” with my pouch of pencils, markers, etc., throwing it back and forth over my head. Funny how with both your son and me the final straw came down to theft!
Good for your son.
pat
Can we please start calling it the Department of Gutting Everything?
Jay
@Belafon:
As Premier Eby pointed out, there is no other source globally for the alloys of aluminum that BC produces, (specialty aircraft, missile and space grades) and as Alcan has reported, they have already cancelled US orders and found other customers, globally.
NotMax
@opiejeanne
Stop the steal.
jonas
This is why we’re where we are right now: low info voters not knowing/not giving a shit about what happens in Washington or why. They do care about the price of eggs and gas, though, and neither of those are going in the right direction now. As folks have been saying, ever since Republicans made up the rule that POTUS can totally control prices whenever he wants, screaming bloody murder about Trumpflation 24/7 in every media venue we can may be our best hope.
catclub
I missed when the FBI was being assaulted by leftist extremists. Frank Church?
opiejeanne
@eclare: I was really sad when I learned who the thief was, but he’d learned to be a stinker from the kids in the school. Our United Methodist Church had sponsored him and his family, boat people from Vietnam. There were 5 little boys and their parents, and he was the oldest child. We donated a winter coat that our son had outgrown, and we watched it as it passed from the oldest down to the youngest; they must have been half-starved when they arrived because those kids grew so fast. I knew a lot of their family history and what the parents had been through.
They left our church after about a year because they were Catholic.
eclare
@opiejeanne:
Oh that is sad, what a gut punch.
opiejeanne
Adding this comment here: My foot is now officially broken, finally showing up on X-ray 4 weeks later, as it heals. I am very relieved that it was a break rather than something far worse, and that it’s healing properly.
Going to choir practice tonight because I’m finally over the cold, or whatever that was. I don’t know how I’ll get through it without weeping openly, because we’re working on Omnia Sol: https://youtu.be/0MZdTIy7qQE?si=iQ2y8iLrGJ1VAJ3a
Gretchen
@Betty Cracker: tizzy ent has the video on X. It’s possible that it was altered but the words :at h the ‘id’s lip movement. Someone linked it in the last comment thread.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@catclub: There’s been plenty of heated rhetoric from Dems over the years. Nothing physical of course. And not a whole lot since 2000.
opiejeanne
@eclare: It really was.
Captain C
@Chris:
John McCain could’ve done it, and from then on referred to him as “Bone Spurs.”
Unless it was Abe Lincoln, who would have suplexed Jackson to death like it was nothing.
Geminid
@Melancholy Jaques: Speaking of Deep States, Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky relays reporting from Maariv’s Ben Caspit:
In Netanyahu’s case, the problem is not some shadowy Deep State but rather public state institutions. He wants to fire Attorney General Galit Miara Baharev, but she has a 5-year appointment and is not controlled by the Prime Minister or his Justice Minister.
Likewise, security agency Shin Bet’s leader Ronen Bar will not knuckle under to Netanyahu’s bullying and won’t resign. Among other disputes, Bar and Netanyahu are at odds over the ceasefire negotiations. Plus, Bar’s agency just brought charges against three of Netanyahu’s subordinates for passing classified material to a friendly German newspaper, with the intention of shoring up Netanyahu’s political postion.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@opiejeanne: Sorry about the foot
sab
@Geminid: Even in their weird parliamentary system with many parties voting wherever, basically Israelis voted for him, and have kept doing it for more than a quarter of a century.
If they valued democracy and objected to corruption, they would stop him. But over and over again they can’t be bothered.
Geminid
@sab: The last election, in November of 2022, showed a 50-50 split between pro-and anti-Netanyahu voters. But two anti-Netanyahu parties fell short of the 3.25% threshold, leaving 6% of the vote stranded and allowing Netanyahu to form a coalition with 64 of 120 MKs . Meretz finished with 3.24%;if they’d gotten that last .01 percent or if Labor had agreed to run a joint slate, Netanyahu likely would not be Prime Minister today.
He was out of the Bennet/Lapid government that preceded this one for a year and a half. He also was out of the governments formed in the first decade of this century. Netanyahu has not led Israel for 25 years; he’s been Prime Minister 17 out of the 28 years since 1997, when he was first Prime Minister.
Polls show Israelis would not reelect Netanyahu now. That’s been the case for a year or more. This is why he’s so desperate to keep his rotten coalition together, at all costs.
sab
@Geminid: I live in Ohio. Like Israel, we have also been voting for extreme Republican corruption for twenty years. I don’t know why. We just do.
sab
@Geminid: Israelis like the corruption. Before October 7 the fear of Hamas was just a projection. Convenient to legitimisze the corruption.
They just reaped the whirlwind. Oops.
I would be more sympathetic if the death toll had been more balanced, or preferably just smaller
Palestinians haven’t ever had a choice in their government. Israelis every election barred or actually arrested the Palestinians who might actually be able to govern.
Israelis every election do have a choice on their candidates.
opiejeanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks, but I’m relieved that’s all it is. 2-3 more weeks in the boot is great news, compared to how badly it hurt and some of the much worse things that could have caused the pain.
It’s funny, doctors get the idea that it’s this One Thing, and have trouble letting go of that diagnosis. The walk-in doc decided it was plantar fasciitis, even though none of the pain was in my heel or the bottom of my foot. The podiatrist listened to me and agreed that it sounded like it might be a broken bone based on how I described it, but then suggested it could be gout. So I got tested, and whenthe uric acid level came back perfectly normal he said false readings were common and had I considered an injection of a steroid to ease the pain.
Even odder was the radiologist who remarked that my foot isn’t broken, when even I can see the place where the bone is knitting together.
My NP has ordered a body scan for bone density since there is apparent bone loss in those itty bitty metatarsals. I’ve always had little birdie-bones in my feet and hands, so I’m not sure I’ve lost much but I am of age for this test.
We’re going to Europe in May and the idea of hobbling around in a cast was disheartening, if it hadn’t been healing so well or if it needed surgery to correct. And if this intense pain had been simply the result of arthritis, Wow! That would have made me an invalid in short order.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
I hardly grew from 6th grade through 11th. In HS first year I went to an all boys technical school and second week we had an all student assembly where they called each freshman class to pick the shortest member of each shop to come up to the stage. I knew exactly what VP Father Schaffer was going to do, make fun of the shortest. Part of how I knew this was I was the shortest and the years ahead of us had snickers on the their faces, they’d seen this before. I of course got selected and told my class mates that if I stand up I will be walking out the back door of the auditorium/chapel with my middle finger raised as high over my head as possible. My class mates didn’t understand this till Father Schaffer started making fun of the kids that went on stage. They all turned and looked at me. It’s a good idea that eyeballs can’t start a fire. But they also respected my telling them NO, and no one ever disrespected me after that.
I’ve told this here prior because I think it’s an invaluable lesson that many humans need to learn, easy way or hard way. We don’t control how tall or short we are, we don’t control our innate intelligence, but we can control our actions and words and respect for our fellow humans. Or lack thereof. And we can make a far crappier world if we don’t, or a far better one if we do. I haven’t listened to my CDs in a while and had put Bruce Cockburn in and as I type this Making Contact came on. Perfect song for this comment. And just to clarify I am now just a bit under 6 ft tall so I actually did grow. Just had a bit of a rest period.
Ruckus
@sab:
I lived in OH for 10 yrs. Ending a not insignificant number of yrs ago. It was not all that good then. I believe that it got worse. My take was that there is a large enough segment of conservatives living in the countryside who enjoy the quiet and will always vote for the least amount of government possible. Now as I said it’s been well over 20 yrs ago so it’s quite possible I’m wrong.
Jeffro
@FDRLincoln: same here
My kids and future grandkids are NOT going to grow up in a country where trumpov & Co, and/or Musk, skim directly off of their tax dollars in order to line their already overstuffed pockets.
We’ll take this fight all the way to the bell, MAGAts
Jeffro
@Chris: what’s rich is that Musk would make the same observations about trump – that he’s an orange-hued dementia-riddled utter moron of a human being – and it would LAND with the RWNJs
exact same things we on the left have been saying for 8+ years now
only it would be coming from MAGAville, and so it would register with the MAGAts
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
Elon’s are, I’m not sure that shitforbrains pockets are all that full. He claims they are but he seems to misunderstand knowing what money is and knowing how much he has vs how much his properties are supposedly worth, which has always seemed to be a rather inflated number. Pulled seeming out of an outgoing orifice located – well for him his face. Most of us have that orifice in the crack of our ass.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
Which is why he is supporting him, he thinks he can make a bundle off this.
elon has ALWAYS been about money and him having a hell of a lot of it, the more the better. And seemingly is not all that concerned about where he gets it. A lot of uber wealthy are this way (not all of them for sure) he’s just more open about it. Being he’s top of the heap, he’s got nowhere to go but down or inherit a country. Which is what I think his goal is. Own his own country.
sab
@Ruckus: You are wrong. They don’t want peaceful non-government anymore. They want intrusive interfering government.
How many actual trans people are there out in the world? Hardly any, and they never bother anyone. Now we are authorizing every asshole to challenge butch gay women in every bathroom in Ohio.
It will be scary just to pee. What partisan group is out there policing. Do I need full makeup to even go pee? I am a cis white woman who hates the feel of makeup so I don’t wear it. Am I still a woman on their terms?
Ebony
@Ruckus: How about we expect people not to pick on others? Some people are timid. Not everyone is as tough as you? Are you saying that the boy that went on stage deserved to be picked on?
Ebony
@suzanne: What is wrong with not being in a fight? Not everyone is fighter. Not everyone has to be like you.
Paul in KY
@Chris: The Secret Service may have shot them, if they tried that gambit.
donnah
@sab: I’m an Ohio native. The state used to bounce back and forth between red and blue, but we’d survived fairly well because we had Sherrod Brown in the Senate. But that is no more, as we have two blood-red Republicans now. Ohio has a gerrymandering problem with the likes of Gym Jordan, and we also have a massive Evangelical base. It’s now difficult to uproot the Rs who took over Cincinnati and Columbus, but we have to keep fighting. It’s daunting.