Hamas and Israel have reached a cease fire. According to Haaretz, all Israeli hostages are to be released. (Note: We don’t know how many of them are alive.) The IDF will withdraw from Gaza. Finance Minister Smotrich and Defense Minister Katz are opposed to the deal.
Haaretz (Israeli newspaper 1/15/25)
Palestinian PM says Palestinian Authority should run Gaza.
Trump’s decision to push hard towards a cease fire has “triggered turmoil in Israel’s far-right Religious Zionism party. The Religious Zionism Party is led by Bezalel Smotrich.
Smotrich’s far-right archrival Itamar Ben-Gvir, called for Smotrich to join him in toppling the government if the deal goes through.
According to Ravit Hecht, writing in Haaretz,
Smotrich is a “respected cabinet member, to whom others attribute sound judgment.” He was leaning towards partnering with Netanyahu on the deal, but a “storm has ben brewig within Religious Zionism” which led him to adopt a “more defiant stance.”
Sweeteners like expanding West Bank settlements or annexing part of the West Bank may be offered as a consolation.
The far right believed that annexation was “in its pocket,” but Trump seems to be headed towards “Saudi normalization…in which Palestinians would receive some form of diplomatic payoff – the complete opposite of…annexation…”
The take over the country and the economy by Trump et. al. looms large. California is being destroyed by fire. I have no idea where all these people whose homes have been destroyed will even live.
I just finished the first in my 50 books in a year series: Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House by Craig Unger. It is an amazingly relevant book now. Every person in the country should read it.
The home insurance industry is, of course, getting out of the insurance business in those areas where climate change is causing problems like the fires in California. In some areas, insurance companies (read, rip off artists) are simply refusing to renew insurance policies. Insurance companies are allowed to invest enormous amounts of money in the fossil fuel industry. Why? This question is being asked on Ari Velshi’s show. (Note: Who knew this was even possible? The former Insurance Commissioner for California , Dave Jones, said “in this country alone” insurance companies are allowed to invest…Does that mean that in other countries they are not allowed in invest? How exactly do they invest? Research.)
Jones says that because of strict legislation, the private insurers will have the coverage to pay these claims. (Note: I don’t believe it.)
Trump: Supreme Court
It is likely that Roberts and Barrett joined the sane members of the Supreme Court because Merchan telegraphed that he was not going to put Trump in jail. Why certain members of the punditocracy (Joyce Vance, for example) take heart from this decision, I don’t know. It is clearly yet another demonstration of the inequity of the justice system when it comes to the rich and the powerful. (Ohhhh Jesus, nine days).
Lisa Rubin (MSNBC) “We want our rule of law to mean something.” “We want people to take that summons for jury duty seriously.” Why should they? (Why was there no penalty here?) Mentioned as factors against Trump were premeditation, lack of remorse, a campaign against the rule of law in the form of threats, efforts to intimidate. But these were not allowed to beconsidered mitigating factors. Good God.
MEDIA
Of course, the pundit class on CNN and MSNBC spent the night praising Merchan (the judge) and talking about how he was a splendid example of the upholding of the rule of law. Bull. Just Bull. And, I can’t even get started on Garland.
Bit Coin
O.K. Let me just get started by saying, I do not understand Bit Coin, or anything about it, but I suspect we must learn about Bit Coin before Bit Coin takes over us. I was just listening to a random podcast about bit coin, and they were encouraging their listeners to mortgage their homes to buy bit coin. OMG.
One of the things I did not know was how much these guys invested in getting Trump elected. After they get the banking restrictions which control them lifted, they will had a field day in this country. They want banks and otherwise “legitimate” markets to be able to invest in bitcoin. It will be the ruin of the economy. (Big research issue).
We are going for a 50 book year here at Law, Power and Justice. This morning, we add to the list “The Myth of American Idealism” by Noam Chomky and Nathan Robinson
You can listen to an interview of Nathan Robinson on the newest episode of The Majority Report by Sam Seder. (1/6/25).
When I was growing up, my best friend’s grandmother, Mrs. C.S., would show up to church every Sunday, decked out in fine, elegant clothes and flaming red hair. That’s me. I said to myself. That’s how I want to be. I want to have red hair until the day I die. And, so, here we are. I’ll be 74 in March, and I have flaming red hair, long, almost the same haircut I had in high school. And, I have a temperament to go with it. I just have just enough rage to send along…
LIFE AND NEWS NOTES FROM AN ELDERLY CAT LADY IN THE MINISTRY OF SNARK
WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2025
Culture of Violence
While people were celebrating New Year’s in New Orleans, a pickup truck drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street. The driver got out of the truck and started shooting at people, the people he hadn’t managed to get with the truck. He is dead as are an estimated ten people. Happy New Year (NYT).
Merrick F…ing Garland, issued a statement that his “heart was broken.” My heart is f…ing broken for a country that has descended to this level of violence and hatred in part because Merrick F…ing Garland refused to prosecute the powerful and wealthy. They, consequently, have been allowed to spread their perversions and delusions. Thanks there Merrick
Ukraine
Ukraine has finally refused to renew the transit of Russian gas through its territory. (Note: Yipeeeeeeee). Russia has refrained from bombing the pipeline up until now. Slovakia one of the European countries that most relies on the Russian gas, threatened retaliation against Ukraine (NYT).
Hungary, Austria and several Balkan countries are also affected, as is Moldova. In December, Moldova declared a state of emergency amid fears of an end to supplies of gas. On Wednesday (1/1/25) the energy company in Transnistria told its customers it would stop providing heating gas for private houses. There are Russian troops in Transnistria (NYT, 1/1/25).
Russia had spent more than fifty years expanding its share of the European gas market. The main conduit was the Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary/Uzhgorod pipeline from Siberia to Ukraine’s border with Slovakia.[1] It brings gas via the town of Sudzha, now under the control of Ukraine, in Russia’s Kursk region. At its peak, Russia supplied nearly 40% of imported gas consumed in Europe. Europe had cut back so much since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that this pipeline in December only accounted for 5% of the European Union’s gas imports (NYT, 1/1/25).
However, Slovakia threatened to cut Ukraine off from “vital energy supplies…to sustain its battered power grid.” This grid relies on power imported from the EU to function after “years of Russian bombardment,” (NYT, 1/1/25).
President of Ukraine, Zelensky, said: “We are fighting for our lives, Fico is fighting for money.” (NYT, 1/1/25).
The move is a blow to the Kremlin-controlled gas company, Gazprom, which lost $7 billion in 2023 largely as a “result of being driven out of EU gas markets.” (NYT, 1/1/25)
Syria
Research: Situation with the Kurds in Northeastern Syria.
(Note: Even if the various rebel groups join together, there is still the problem of the Kurds (guarding ISIS fighters), the IS extremists who are controlling parts of central Syria an the remnants of Assad’s security forces (NYT, 1/1/25).
Podcast: Real Dictators “Benito Mussolini Part 3: Murder in Broad Daylight. (12/31/24)
This is a good podcast. If you ever thought Trump’s “assassination” attempt was staged, try listening to this episode and the description of the way in which Mussolini used an assassination attempt to mobilize the populace. He even showed up the next day on a balcony sporting an enormous bandage.
[1] Slovakia’s Prime Minister, Robert Fico, traveled to Moscow in December of 2024. The trip was a “blow to European unity…” (NYT, 1/1/25).
Here are some of the appalling details of the allegations against the Alexander brothers of South Florida, luxury real estate moguls arrested last week in a sprawling bombshell of a sex-trafficking case: According to the indictment, the brothers lured dozens women to parties, hotels and homes, drugging and raping them, sometimes paying for the women’s transportation across state lines or to other countries such as Mexico.
The scope of the case alone is awful. So far, there are 40 women — yes, 40 — with credible rape complaints against at least one of the three Alexander brothers, the lead FBI agent testified recently.
Nothing has been proven. Lawyers will make their arguments, most likely in New York courts. And yet there’s a deja vu feeling at play. Here we are again watching another sex-crime case unfold that involves men with wealth and position in South Florida — from Jeffrey Epstein to Sean “Diddy” Combs — who seem, if the allegations are true, to see women as less than human.
The alleged sexual assaults stretched over 20 years, though the brothers are just 37 (twins Oren and Alon) and 38 (Tal.) That means in some instances the alleged attacks would have happened while
Law, Power, and Justice 