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TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2024
Well, I’m 73 now, and especially since I’m retired, I cannot stop watching the network, or cable news. I wrote a book about media coverage of the invasion of Panama and the twists and turns of political coverage fascinate me even though I know it is not as important as it once was in shaping opinion.
This mea culpa is to ward off what I expect to be a deluge of criticism for even watching something as ridiculous as “Morning Joe” in the first place not to mention spending time writing about it. But…
This morning, I saw Joe Scarborough once again, virtually stop a cable news program because one of the regulars, Jonathan Lemire, (who does Way Too Early) was a second late getting from the set of WTE over to the Morning Joe set. That was rude enough to provoke comment,, but I have seen Scarborough do this to Lemire before.
A few months ago, Scarborough actually walked off the set and reentered, shaking hands with all the guests to make the point that he, too, could saunter onto the set late (lLemire did not “saunter.”). This display, designed to embarrass Lemire and imply that his late arrival had been selfish and self-indulgent (two things Joe Scarborough is notorious for being). This display went on for roughly 10 minutes as Scarborough ambled around the Morning Joe set and even over to another set while advancing arguments for making the other set a sports set. It was mean and it was unnecessary. It reminded me of high school bullies, who ruthlessly ridicule other, always less powerful, boys. These guys always punch down.
Joe Scarborough is just a grown up, more egoistical, and much more powerful version of the high school A-team bully. And, MSNBC has now given him free run of FOUR HOURS of time to fully display in all its glory, his misogyny, his obsession with his brief time in Congress, and his gleeful long discussions of sports. By the way, he thinks that talking over the dreadful Mika while she is trying to do the news, to converse with Willie Geist about sports is outrageously funny. The more disconcerted the dreadful Mika beomes, the funnier he thinks his behavior is. And, Willie Geist (like all hangers on) of course, plays along. Geist, as every other guest on the show, knows that you play along or you get summarily ousted (Refer to Harold Ford, Jr., who has to his shame, descended to Fox. Does this sound like a grown man to you?
As a side note: The only person on cable television worse than Joe Scarborough is the dreadful Mika Brezenski. I can never get over the fact that she has made a fortune hawking a “Know your Worth” self help, or self glorification package for women. This is the woman who had a secret, adulterous affair now turned marriage with her boss which assured her a life-time job on Morning Joe. That’s sure knowing your worth. This is not to mention having participated with Scarborough in a slavering display of support of Trump for the entire first year of his campaign. Unlike almost every other guest, they allowed Trump to call in his rants every morning during that year. Then, there was the famous dreadful Mika off-mike incident beseeching Trump for permission to ask him a hard question.
But, back to bully-boy Scarborough. The first time I saw him ridicule Lemire was before Joe took him on the show to provide daily sadistic pleasure. Lemire was reporting from home and when he was on, there would be framed paper silhouettes on the wall behind him. They looked like silhouettes of two children. Scarborough ridiculed the silhouettes relentlessly until Lemire finally took them off the wall. “What kind of old lady pussy are you?” was the general tenor of the ridicule. Again, It was mean and it was unnecessary.
But, if you credit Keith Olbermann, who has a segment on his podcast I am unreasonably jealous of, called “Things I Promised Never to Talk About” Joe Scarborough is a viper and much more powerful at MSNBC than any of us sitting at home realize.
While I am at this vicious little exercise, I will unnecessarily add my theories about this marriage made in hell. I am guessing that, for Scarborough, this relationship was a temporary convenience. What man doesn’t have an affair with any colleague or subordinate he spends a lot of time at work with? (This was one of the reasons why I could not get hot and bothered about Fani Willis. I am, as I said 73, and I can’t even remember how many of my male colleagues or professors were sleeping with secretaries, colleagues, students the janitor, basically anybody they could get their hands on. But, let a woman do it? In the case of Fani Willis, a single woman sleeps with a single man? You would think the world’s coming to an end. I can’t remember how many people, oh wait, my God I can remember: JOE SCARBOROUGH WHINGED ON AND ON ONE MORNING ABOUT FANI WILLIS’ “POOR JUDGEMENT.”)
This is the Joe Scarborough whose intern died in such strange circumstances people were publicly accusing him of murder years later. This is the Joe Scarborough who supported Donald Trump until Donald Trump 1) did not make him chief of staff and 2) outed his adulterous affair with the dreadful Mika when it was a secret from her children. This is the Joe Scarborough who had the affair and then wound up having to marry someone for whom he has little respect and is obviously now stuck with for both professional and personal reasons. This is the Joe Scarborough who is on MSNBC lecturing Fani Willis about bad judgement?
I know I should get back to something more intellectually challenging and interesting and significant. My cats?
Oh, yes. There’s Israel, now blowing up a car full is aid workers and bombing the Iranian embassy in Syria? Thousands of protesters out on the street in the middle of a war, demanding that Netanyahu stand down. Then, there’s the fact that Netanyahu’s wife is setting up taxpayer funded hair salon visits because she is bothered by protesters. (This is the woman who once said, we don’t care if you don’t reelect Bibi, we’ll just leave the country.)
O.K. this is descending again.
But, even all that is easier to deal with than the reprehensible betrayal of Ukraine. The Republicans have blood on their hands over funding to Ukraine and the Democrats are hopeless because they have allowed it to happen.
I always wondered what it must have been like for people in the 1930s, gathered together in front of their radios at night, listening to the news from Europe, scouring the newspapers for any tidbit about the creeping fascism talking over democratic countries. What it must have been like to gather together to experience the ominous gathering storm building. Now, I know.
I just don’t have the comfort of gathering together with other people I love. I’m stuck with Joe and the dreadful Mika.
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Protests erupted in Israeli cities over the weekend, beginning on Saturday night. The families and their supporters, who have generally remained nonpartisan, made a rare decision to join antigovernment protests in Tel Aviv to call for a deal. Police said they detained several protesters and used water cannons to disperse the crowds.
On Sunday, leaders of the protest groups began a planned multiday demonstration at the gates of Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem to demand elections and a hostage-release agreement. Thousands of Israelis blocked roads and marched to Netanyahu’s residence in one of the most vigorous demonstrations since the war started, according to images released by protest organizations.
Israeli negotiators traveled to Cairo on Sunday for another round of cease-fire talks.
Meanwhile, the debate over military service for young ultra-Orthodox Israelis is coming to a head after Israel’s top court ordered the government to stop funding stipends for religious students who will be subject to the draft after a waiver expired Sunday.
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Protesters block major Tel Aviv highway, clashes erupt between police and protesters as families of hostages held in Gaza announce escalation in fight for hostage release deal and thousands demonstrate across Israel against the government, for early elections
Some 20 relatives of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza called to immediately replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday evening, while thousands of people protested against the government and in support of releasing the hostages in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Caesarea and other cities.
The families of hostages called on ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot, as well as other Knesset members, to join them in ousting Netanyahu, who they accused of intentionally undermining a deal to free their loved ones.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is being held in Gaza, said in a special media address that they “are forced today to begin a new phase in our just fight, from this moment on, we will take action to immediately remove [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] from power.”
After you abandoned our family members on October 7, after 176 days in which you failed to secure a hostage release deal, and because you are constantly torpedoing this deal – it is clear that you are the obstacle preventing this deal,” added Zangauker.
The main protest in Tel Aviv, where thousands of protesters have gathered, is taking place amid warning letters sent on Friday by the Tel Aviv District Police Commander to several prominent demonstrators. In the letters titled “Imminent Risk to Human Life,” the district commander warned the demonstrators against blocking roads and setting tires on fire.
Zangauker added later Saturday during her speech at the main Tel Aviv protest on Kaplan Street that “I voted for you, Mr. Prime Minister … You no longer have a public and moral mandate to determine such fateful matters for the State of Israel … I am revoking from you the mandate I gave you in the election.”
Yasmin Porat, who escaped from Pessi Cohen’s house in Kibbutz Be’eri before it was shelled, joined the anti-government protest in Tel Aviv and said that “For six months the government, which has the blood of my partner and thousands of others who were murdered on its hands, has been waging this cursed war. What are they thinking? That they’ll take 134 coffins out of Gaza and declare victory?”
“Without the hostages there is no victory, and there will be no hope for the country. Only when the last hostage is here will the State of Israel be resurrected … This is the most important struggle in the history of the country,” continued Porat.
Ran Har Nevo, a prominent leader of the anti-government protest movement, said at the protest – where demonstrators lit bonfires outside the Israeli army’s military HQ in the city – that the promotion of the judicial overhaul last year played a role in the October 7 attack: “They acted like madmen, with disdain for the rule of law, drunk on power, and they neglected our security.”
“In order to survive in power, [Netanyahu] trained the messianic fringes,” said Har Nevo, adding that even now, the prime minister continues to harm the country through the “evasion law,” by violating the police’s independence, and by attacking the judicial system.
Haaretz columnist and former Israeli Consul in New York, Alon Pinkas, said at the Tel Aviv protest that there is “One person who disrespects the hostages, disrespects the IDF, disrespects presidents of the U.S., clashes with the world.”
“What do you do with such a person? Elections,” said Pinkas. “When this person refuses to take responsibility … Openly lies about what he has been doing for years regarding Hamas … What do we do with him? Elections.
The weekly demonstration of the Hostage Families Forum took place simultaneous to the anti-government protests Saturday night at the Hostages Square, outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. After 20 minutes of fiery speeches, the family members and freed hostages implored the audience to take action: To take to the streets and make their voices heard. The crowd was directed to the Israeli army’s military HQ in Tel Aviv and Dizengoff Street in the city center.
The police had prepared Saturday in Tel Aviv with reinforced forces ahead of the expected protests, and Begin Road was later blocked by police. Lawmaker Gilad Kariv took to the microphone at the protest outside the military headquarters in Tel Aviv and asked police to remove the trucks from Begin Road and allow people to join the protest. Clashes broke out between the police and those arriving from Hostages Square to Kaplan street, during which one police officer pushed Eli Elbag, the father of hostage Liri Elbag.
The police attempted to disperse protesters from Begin Road and further clashes occurred, after which the police used water canons as well as sound cannons – strong loudspeakers – to break up the protests for around two minutes. Demonstrators pushed through a police blockade and blocked Ayalon Highway in central Tel Aviv later Saturday night.
Police announced that they have arrested 16 protesters for “attempting to block Ayalon Highway,” and fined nine for “disrupting traffic.”
Hundreds gathered earlier Saturday evening outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the Israeli town of Caesarea, demanding to hold an election ahead of its planned date.
Ex-IDF intelligence chief Amos Malka said at the Caesarea demonstration that “Netanyahu’s destructive mindset requires a declaration of cognitive and leadership incapacity,” adding that every additional day the prime minister remains in office poses “a clear and immediate risk” to Israel’s security.
For a whole week, Netanyahu is only concerned with the draft-dodging law to preserve the coalition, not with kidnappings, not with the day after, and not with the American initiative,” added Malka.
Hundreds of protesters also marched towards central Haifa calling for a hostage release deal. Noam Dan, a relative of hostage Ofer Kalderon, said at the protest that “For 176 days we have insisted on real change, to be rescued, for responsibility to be taken. I’ve spoken nicely and politely, and I’ve spoken angrily … I realized that nothing would help our hostages.”
We need agreements that will save lives, revenge is not a work plan,” continued Dan, adding that “we have 176 reasons to remove Netanyahu from power and save ourselves from ourselves.”
Fighter pilot Col. (res.) Nir Yarkoni said that “Netanyahu is dangerous not only for the hostages, but … for the existence of the State of Israel” and added that “the most efficient and safe way to return the hostages alive is to replace the prime minister immediately.”
“Emergency times call for emergency measures to be taken. We will not survive [until elections next year] … The hostages will not survive until then,” Yarkoni added.
In Be’er Sheva, speakers included a Bedouin-Israeli city council member, and a Knesset Member from the opposition party Yesh Atid. Protesters also blocked Rager Boulevard in the southern Israeli city. In Jerusalem, around two thousand people protested at Paris Square in the city center, some of whom later marched to the President’s Residence.
On Sunday, the major protest organizations are expected to demonstrate in Jerusalem, and some of them will camp in tents near the Knesset. In the evening hours, the demonstrators are expected to march to the prime minister’s residence on Azza Street in the city center.
In recent weeks, clashes have unfolded between police officers and demonstrators over attempts to block Begin Road and Ayalon Highway in central Tel Aviv. Last week, 15 demonstrators were arrested during protests in the city, and four demonstrators, including two relatives of hostages, were detained in Tel Aviv for blocking a road. According to protest organizations’ records, around 120 demonstrators were arrested, detained, or investigated in February and March.
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One of the largest thermal power plants in Ukraine’s east has been completely destroyed following Russian shelling, according to Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo.
The announcement came just a day after Moscow carried out a massive barrage of missile and drone strikes across central and western Ukraine, the latest in a series of escalating attacks targeting the already damaged energy infrastructure.
The Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant in Kharkiv region was badly hit on March 22, and the company has been assessing the damage since then.
“The consequences were destructive, the station is destroyed,” Andriy Hota, chairman of Centrenergo supervisory board told Interfax Ukraine news agency on Saturday.
“There were many direct hits. Everything we repaired in preparation for the winter was destroyed.”
Power outage schedules are still in place for around 120,000 people in the Kharkiv region. Some 700,000 people lost electricity in the immediate aftermath of the strike on the Zmiiv plant.
“We urge our partners to respond quickly and decisively to Russia’s intensified bombing campaign against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” Mr Zelensky said yesterday in a call for more air defences.
The Ukrainian president has said that his troops, already on a defensive footing, will be forced to retreat if the promised US aid package held up in congress is not delivered.
www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/30/russia-ukraine-war-latest-us-aid/
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Israel has seized the opportunity to intensify the occupation, with mass arrests of Palestinians, hundreds killed, a host of new illegal settler outposts and roads. Shepherds expelled from their homes, violent settlers rampaging in uniform. All under the aegis of the war
