What Michael Brooks Said

This segment in which Michael Brooks analyzes his own performance in a so-called debate with a smear artist on Israeli TV seems so familiar to me from my own experience with getting smeared while saying the same things that Brooks does.  I agree with almost everything he said and I especially agree with his analysis of the smear tactics that have been used against Jeremy Corbyn and British Labour so effectively  and how the Israel lobby and Republican fascists are trying to reproduce that here using Ilhan Omar's identity as a Muslim Woman.   I've got my own critique of Corbyn as an ineffective opposition leader but that's got nothing to do with the smearing of him by the Israeli propaganda campaign.   As a short instruction of how not to be cowed by the terrifying prospect of having someone smear you as an antisemite in the typical late 20th century Commentary crowd way, it is worth reviewing a few times.   That prospect is what accounts for Democrats in leadership and elsewhere, I hope temporarily, running for cover in regard to Congresswoman Omar, though I will note there have been notable exceptions to that, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky has handled it fairly well, pointing out that Ilhan Omar apologized for saying that support for Israel was "all about money" while pointing out that Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said the same thing without anyone calling him out for it.

“STOP IT! It is bad enough that anti-Semitism has dramatically increased in the United States, but it certainly has no place in Congress,” Schakowsky said. “I am glad Rep. Omar apologized, as she should, for saying support for Israel is just about money, but we have yet to hear from Minority Leader McCarthy who citied well-known Jewish donors in the same way.”

As Michael Brooks pointed out,  Ilhan Omar has hardly been one-sided in her criticism of countries that spread money around to American politicians.  She has taking some radical positions in regard to Saudi wrong doing, including saying people should consider not participating in the Hajj over the Saudi establishment's appalling violation of rights. 

No doubt this will go on, it will take years for people to start handling these issues rationally and for them to get a clue as to the nature of these well established tactics.  Don't worry, the PR industry is cooking up new ones as people get wise to the old ones.  Duping people is what the PR and advertising and media industries do, governments only hire them to do it for them.  That, as Paul Manafort's trial shows, is all about money. 

I've got to go sit with a relative this morning, I'll try to write something substantial later. 

Update:   And What Samantha Bee Said, Too