www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2024-08-28/ty-article/.highlight/will-the-u-s-hold-ben-gvir-smotrich-accountable-for-trying-to-set-the-mideast-on-fire/00000191-9a0e-d290-a5b3-fe9e8c690000

Excerpts

the announced target of these sanctions sends an undeniable message that the U.S. is circling the two ministers, widely viewed as the impetus for much of the current unrest in Israel.

It is impossible to separate these sanctions – or any previous round of sanctions, for that matter – from the ongoing internal debate within the U.S. government on whether it should expand its already unprecedented sanctions regime to include Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Jack Kirby directly called out Smotrich for potentially compromising efforts to release the hostages, saying his rhetoric “would in fact sacrifice the lives of Israeli hostages – his own countrymen, and American hostages as well – and flies in the face of the national security interests of Israel at this critical stage of the war.”

TUESDAY 27 AUGUST 2024

Russia is pounding Ukraine and we still have restrictions on how they can respond.  I have no idea why any of them still speak to us anymore.  I am ashamed.  The Russians are targeting the energy infrastructure, trying to bring about a disastrous winter for Ukraine.

• Slava Ukraini.
• Ken Paxton, who should have been in f…ing prison years ago, has organized a unit to target election leaders and volunteers.  They are conducting raids of people’s houses, primarily Latino political activists and election volunteers.  This is a blatant move to suppress the Latino vote.  Paxton is just another example of how incapable this society is of holding the powerful to account.  Trump and his ilk are a daily reminder of the fact that we have a legal system that caters to the rich and powerful.  If we had a functioning white collar and corporate crime legal system, Trump would have been in prison long before Paxton and he would never have been running around for Putin to coopt into running for president.
•  
• Article: Your Cat Could get Bird Flu
• https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/16/health/pets-disease-surveillance.html
•  

CURMUDGEONLY NEWS NOTES

Corporate Media

• Nicolle Wallace is, once again, not there to do her show.  Do any of these people work anymore?  I am beginning to agree with a twitterer, i.e., that everybody at MSNBC is drunk.
• Alicia Menendez is taking over for Nicolle Wallace.  I find this woman impossible to listen to.  She is boring, she never changes expression, she never says anything worth listening to.
• Mara Gay is on the panel of “Deadline white House.”  She is either wearing shorts, or a skirt that is 90% up her thigh.  Absurd.  I just don’t get why women dress like this. 
• MSNBC is using the entire first block on Deadline White House talking about whether Trump is going to do a debate with Harris.  That’s it?  That is the most important story MSNBC could come up with?  Absurd.  What a waste of time corporate news is.

Israel

• Egypt is claiming that there are no tunnels between Egypt and Gaza that can be used to smuggle arms and people can be smuggled.  This contradicts what high level officials in Israel have maintained.  The Egyptians claim that they blocked any tunnels six years ago.  This is one of the sticking points in the cease fire talks, whether as Israel claims, it has to maintain a presence in the Philadelphi corridor (the stretch of land running between Gaza and Egypt.)
• Hamas sees agreeing to Israeli control of the strip means normalizing Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip. 

www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/26/israeli-minister-itamar-ben-gvir-jews-pray-temple-mount/

www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2024-08-25/ty-article/jewish-terror-has-exploded-and-nothing-is-standing-in-its-way-it-may-bring-israel-down/00000191-85d2-d1a4-abbf-8df6bfe60000

But as long as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich remain in the government, it will be impossible to fight Jewish terror. As long as the former is in charge of the police and the latter is in charge of the occupied territories, Jewish terror will know that it has the backing of higher authorities.

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