Law, Power, and Justice

CURMUDGEONY NEWS NOTES

Quote of the Day: “What a strange, selfish, jerky weirdo he was,”  Kurt Andersen talking about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., The Atlantic and Morning Joe.  “Evil Geniuses” is written by Kurt Andersen.

Morning Joe Interview (8/26/24)

• Article, The Atlantic “RFK, Jr. was my Drug dealer.”
• Kennedy sold Andersen cocaine in college.
• HHS or FDA head is a possibility for Kennedy after endorsing Trump. 
• “full of lying fantasies, mental disorder, selfishness…”
• He and Trump are similar “entitled rich boys…always gotten away…”
• (Note: Could we please, please put the word “conflicted” to bed?)
• Kennedy spread “dangerous falsehoods” about vaccines.
• Other students have shared “tales of recklessness” about Kennedy. 
• “It’s selfishness…then the recklessness.”
• Trump thinks global warming means “more ocean front property.”
• https://www.theatlantic.com/author/kurt-andersen/

Haaretz (8/26/24)

• Editorial: “Jewish Terror has exploded, and nothing is standing in its way.  It may bring Israel down.” The Chief of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, sent a letter to the PM warning that Jewish terror is a danger to the state’s existence.  “…a Jewish wild weed that has grown in the territories is now out of control…” Bar also noted “the police’s inaction” and “the covert support Jewish terrorists receive from the police.”   “Every day the super right-wing government continues to exist under Netanyahu is a day Israel is sinking deeper into an abyss from which it will be difficult to extricate itself. This government must be replaced immediately.”
• Journalist Amir Tibon (8/25/24) notes that “the country’s democratic foundations” are “under assault by our own government.”  Daniel Levy was appointed new police commissioner by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the “far-right national security minister in charge of the police.”  This appointment “signals the final collapse of the independence of Israel’s police and its complete subjugation to Ben-Gvir, a man with a rich past of criminal convictions and Shin Bet investigations.”  In his former position Levy’s “forces used brutal violence against civilians protesting peacefully against the Netanyahu government… “