Law, Power, and Justice

WEDNESDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2024

NEWS NOTES

My Take

I’d rather have a president who is tonguing an ice cream than tonguing Putin.

Michigan Primary

• A little over 100,000 Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the Michigan Primary.  This is not insignificant.
• These people cannot understand just how cataclysmic a Trump victory in 2024 would be.  The attitude (among the young and the media elite) seems to be, just another election.     
• Steve Bannon knows this is a war even if the Democratic Party doesn’t.  A lead speaker at CPAC recently announced that a Republican victory would mean the end of Democracy.  The elite refuses to believe it.  They cannot conceive of a world in which their contacts and career patterns mean nothing.  The rest of the population has no idea what an authoritarian country means for their lives.

Supreme Court

• Being challenged before the Court is a ban implemented by the Trump administration after a gunman killed 60 people in Las Vegas.  The challenge is not a Second Amendment claim, but a part of a campaign to undermine the authority of administrative agencies.
• The undermining of the authority of these agencies (FDA, EPA) will bring about chaos.
• This specific case, Garland v. Cargill, could legalize a device that allows an ordinary (and legal) semiautomatic firearm to mimic a fully automatic machine gun that can spew multiple bullets every second (Vox News)
• Implications of the Chevron case https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-happens-if-supreme-court-ends-chevron-deference

Israel

• A group established by returning military personnel tries to find a middle way for Israeli politics, a way to unify the country. 
• They are proposing, for example, that rather than calling for new elections immediately, which many would see as a way of getting rid of Netanyahu and his government, they call on the country’s main political parties to “form an emergency unity government” which includes Netanyahu and agree on a date for elections by the end of the year.
• Opinion polls show a leap in support for the centrist party led by Benny Gantz at the expense of Netanyahu’s Likud party.
• Critics call the vision of this group of returned reservists, Tikum 2024, naïve.
• These reservist soldiers played an important part in the protests against Netanyahu’s judicial “reforms.”  Thousands of them threatened not to show up for reserve duty when called, arguing that the judicial plan endangered democracy.
• https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/world/middleeast/israel-reserve-soldiers-gaza.html

MSNBC: Richard Haas

•  First of all, remember that Richard Haas in an off-the-cuff interview on television, referred to the fact that the Biden administration had a policy of “open borders.”  This is not, in fact, true.
• I have never heard him say anything like that on Morning Joe.  He pretends (like so many) to be a nonpartisan centrist, expert, professional.  Just be aware.
• Haas:
• Biden’s prediction of a temporary cease fire in Gaza was a “tactical error” because he (Biden) doesn’t control anything.
• Israel and Hamas are not “on the same page.”
• Biden has been saying we are sympathetic with Israel and trying to encourage them to do what we want.  Don’t deny aid but condition its use.  (Note: Employee who resigned at the beginning of the war because the administration was going around the normal channels which placed conditions on the use of military aid).
• Haas also recommends making restrictions on how Israel is able to market goods made in settlement communities.  At some point (I think it was during the Trump administration) they were allowed to sell goods made in the occupied West Bank as “made in Israel.”
• US must chart an independent policy.  This government is not going to be “brought around.”
• Netanyahu has backed away from any two-state solution.  He will “run against Joe Biden” saying I’m the only thing that stands between you and Hamastan, a radical state the US wants to establish.
• The whole world is playing a waiting game to see if Trump will come to power.  If Trump was back in power, there would be no pressure on Israel. 
• Saudi Arabia wants to normalize relations with Israel, but they will do this at a price.  Now, that price incudes something done for the Palestinians.  This is necessary to protect themselves politically.
• Ignatius Interview
• Scarborough: Other Arab countries are saying help us get some Palestinian leaders who are technocrats and not corrupt.  Don’t expect us to support another corrupt group. 
• Ignatius
• Palestinians are also upset over corruption.  
• Israelis are angry about the hostages, and angry with Netanyahu’s policy of waiting out this situation.
• Netanyahu has created a situation he can’t control. 
• Katty Kay
• Where is the political plan from Israel.  There is a potential for a major realignment.  Can they pull it off?
• Haas
• What is the political situation for Netanyahu in Israel.  Two ways he could lose power, a parliamentary reshuffle.  Unlikely.  The election scenario, if there was a general strike, but also “it’s a reach.”
• He has the advantage of momentum.  Under the pressure of war, it’s unlikely that he gets pushed out.
• We have to plan under the backdrop that this government will be there in place for the foreseeable future.
• The center of Israeli politics have moved to the right.
• Scarborough
• Gantz would probably be the successor.  He would continue what Netanyahu is doing.
• They feel this war should be continued until Hamas is destroyed.
• Aalexi Mccammond (reporter)
• Young people support Palestinians and think this is genocide.  (Note: Young people are being mobilized for the first time about Israel and the Palestinians.  Who knows why?)