THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2024

7:30 AM

        Great.  Just great.  I wake up to Shermichael Singleton of CNN whining that “other people have nominated controversial appointments.” Jesus.  Now, Singleton’s saying that the report on Gaetz should not be released.  So that tells you everything about him.  This is as new information comes out about Gaetz and the “network” of payments he engaged in to keep these women from talking.  (See New York Times, NYT).

        I still don’t hear the “army of workers” we were promised to finish this remodel/demolition job outside.  Mike, my partner, dreamed that he had come home and found that they had torn the entire back of the house off.  They found moisture.  Mike, in the dream, said that there was good wood there.  That’s our level of anxiety just in our own lives not to mention the fact that the entire country has fallen apart. 

        I woke up from a dream that I was cat sitting, well baby sitting for two cats.  Another cat came over and told the young female cat that the world was coming to an end tomorrow and that everybody she knew was leaving her.  The female cat (orangey) was folded up in my lap terrified.  Her younger brother was sitting just to my left, cowering.  I started screaming at this Trump supporter man, father of the offending cat, sitting on a sofa in front of me, that no matter what you believed it was cruel to tell a child that the world was coming to an end and everybody she loved was leaving her.  Yep. Tells you where we are this morning.

        Shermichael Singleton, fucking Shermichael Singleton.  Men’s positions on Gaetz will tell you something about them, not Gaetz.  He’s a “Republican strategist?”  What, I thought he was a journalist.  He’s still a Republican strategist?  Jesus, he’s black in case you didn’t already know. 

        Ohhhhhh groan.  Now Singleton is arguing that it’s your job, as a strategist, to move the nomination along if that’s what the principle wants.  These people are acting like this is business as usual, Trump is a normal candidate, person, blob in the universe.  I hate this.  I just hate this. 

        Over 1000 days of war for the Ukrainians.  It exhausts me and I’m not even involved.  Russia has used some kind of new missile to attack Ukraine overnight.  This is, evidently, a response to allowing Ukraine to use longer range missiles.  They attacked Dnipro.

        Ohhhhhh (holds head in hands) Matt Whittaker.  Jesus, former Gen. Mark Hertling uses the fact that Whittaker played football (and Hertling tells us where) as evidence that he’s a “somewhat normal guy.”  Ohhhhhhhh  I just can’t take it.  I’m going back to bed.  This is an important position; they learn detailed military information. 

        The “Holiday shopping season,” that’s what they are covering next. Jesus H. Christ.

        Over on MSNBC we see animals that Putin has had trapped, fighting to get out of their cages, being transported as a gift to the leader of North Korea, a thank you gift, live animals, a bear and an African lion.  Bastard, fucking bastard.

ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Kim Ghattas, Financia Times, reports from Beirut.   She is talking about the noises of war, the constant destabilizing noise of war.  She says, it’s the idea, again, that you are going to remake the middle east (article in the Atlantic.) https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/11/middle-east-wars-opportunities/680497/

Israel is trying to solve a problem it created invading Lebanon.  1979 Iran decides it wants to be a player.  Israel invaded Beirut in 1982, this created Hezbollah.  This, she argues, is much like the U.S. invasion of Iraq when administration officials thought they were going to remake the Middle East.  Joe Scarborough is now saying that he thought the same thing (of course).  What we need is a strategy for the day after.  (Note: This is always the case, Scarborough has on this dynamite reporter just from Lebanon.  But, does he let her talk?  No, we have to listen to how Joe knew this was going to happen years ago.  Of course.  How could it be different?  I wish I had a program that ran for four hours every weekday to tell people that I told them so, years ago.)

Ghattas: They say “we are remaking the Middle East.”  There is tactical success, but this does not guarantee what will happen the day after.  In Gaza, there is no strategy.  “Does Israel want to go into eternal war?”  Do they want to “mow the grass” in Lebanon as well?  I don’t think Israelis want that. You need to address the core issues.  The Lebanese want a deal.

Lebanese see the U.S. as key in any deal for peace.  A ceasefire can be a gift to Trump. 

I’m going downstairs to see what’s going on.  Mike takes our nine former feral cats outside every morning to mill around the back yard.  Pooper is already back inside, upstairs staring at me from the storage cabinet at the foot of the bed.  I can see his little eyes just over the top of the bed, sussing up how I feel.  He’s my little guardian, monopolizing the second floor, keeping his mom and a safety zone for himself.  Cats, male cats, are a hoot.  There’s always something going on with them.  The girls, no problems at all.  They cuddle together (mother and daughter) on the sofa downstairs and talk about nail colors and never cause one single problem.  It’s the boys, always the boys, jockeying for power in the male dominance hierarchy.  Pooper’s part in this is to a very large extent, guarding the second floor where he would like exclusive occupancy.  The two roly polys, Cool Mustard and Short Change, are so big and so fat they can afford to ignore him, but he has the rest of the house bullied into submission.  Every once in a while Jake will come upstairs, but he doesn’t stay for long and is not comfortable.  It’s just too much trouble taking on the monster Hiram Bernard (Pooper’s real name).

9:30 AM

        O.K.  Everything’s fine downstairs.  Cats, most of them, came back inside on their own.  It’s too cold for them – these are coastal Georgia feral cats.  55 is too cold for them. 

        Back on MSNBC, Joe has spent almost a half an hour talking about the Gaetz nomination – such important lines of discussion as whether the Trump team was “blindsided” by the Gaetz revelations.  This is total drivel, who cares?  And, of course, the discussion is intended to skirt the real issue that Trump made these nominations to stick the finger in the eye of the administrative state.  Trump and his people are making a joke out of the existing state structure, but coverage like that of Morning Joe are normalizing these picks acting like they are politics as usual. 

        The Israelis have issued draft notices to some of the Ultra-Orthodox, despite demonstrations against it.  It will be interesting to see what happens with that. 

Podcast: You Decide.  “Understanding Trump’s Plan for Mass Deportation.”  (11/21/24)

Interview with Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director, American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project

• The use of the military is flatly illegal.  It has to be a foreign government invading.  People will also push back if they see military walking down the streets dragging people out.
• If they try to use the National Guard there are legal challenges.
• If he sends lots of ICE officers, there will be little to challenge in the courts, but there are only now around 6,000 enforcement ICE agents, total.
• It’s not illegal to be harsh with enforcement measures.
• You can deputize local law enforcement, but the local law enforcement agencies can push back. 
• There is a law Trump can invoke which allows summary removals even in the interior of the country.  This is a big problem because the immigrant will not even go before a judge.
• Can he end birth right citizenship, by executive order. This would involve the Supreme Court destroying 100 years of precedent. 
• Law enforcement has no right to deport American citizens, but what they will most likely do is to deport the parents and leave them with the choice of ripping their children up and taking them to another country or leaving them.
• There are other interviews in this podcast on the same subject.

Alright, I’m out for the morning.