AS I NOTED HERE THE OTHER DAY, the IHRA corruption of the "A" word, "antisemitism" is so meaningless that it is regularly hurled at Jews, the example I pointed out was the leader of the British Green Party, the only Jewish leader of a major political party in Britain, Zack Polanski.
That is being reproduced here many times over, one of those being one of the three Zoran Mamdanh supported candidates, Brad Lander, who is Jewish and is being presented to the public as antisemitic by conservatives and Zionists as an antisemite because he has spoken out against the genocidal actions of the Israeli government. And there is no doubt that the US media, which is, in fact, with some ineffective lefties and others exempted, trying to hand the mid-terms to Republicans.
I haven't been following the obsession with those three candidates, which will get endless air-time and endless media distortion on behalf of the Republican-fascists AND THAT REALLY DOES MEAN FASCIST PARTY. I have read mostly about the sometimes appalling statements of one of them, Darializa Avila Chevalier, posted on online message boards and, or comment threads. The ones I read are pretty stupid and, though made about six years ago, would give me pause as to whether or not she's got potential to be an effective member of Congress BUT THEY PALE IN CONTRAST TO THOSE TRUMP AND HIS FACISTS TWEET OUT EVERY DAY, AND NOT WHILE THEY'RE DOPEY KIDS IN THEIR LATE TEENS, which these days seems to extend will into the 20s. I have seen no political price being paid for the statements of any of those who I listed in the title of this post or, in fact, scores and scores of Republican-fascist politicians and candidates who I could list if I had the time. And that wouldn't be anything hard to do, it would be easy as anything. Yet that task seems to elude, not only the American free press, which will obsess over this as it does a few of the dumber statements of Graham Platner for exactly the same purpose.
I'll say something radical, American journalism as it is and as it long has been, most of it for most of the history of the United States is a servant of and tool of the oligarchs, the racists, the fascists, the Republican-fascists and they, like the legal profession, exists mostly to service them like the most jaded of prostitutes. Presstitution is the second oldest profession an unlike the oldest one, it doesn't have First Amendment protection for its business practices. Though, come to think of it, it might only be third on that list, lawyers were in the same business even before there was anything like journalism.
And the media will, certainly, have all the conservatives and typical Democrats who get called on to wag their tongues against progressive Democrats. That's a branch of the same media.
Would I vote for Darializa Avila Chevalier? For a primary election, her opponent would have to be pretty bad for me to give her that kind of confidence that she would be the better choice. She may have grown up enough in the past six years but I'd like to see the evidence of that.
Would I vote for her in the election that really counts, the one that will fill a seat in the Congress, there isn't a Republican who I would vote for even if they were better than her because their just being in the Congress empowers the fascists in that party. The Comers, Foxxes, Jordans, Johnsons, etc. etc. etc. etc. There isn't a member of the Republican caucus who doesn't empower fascists, it is a fascist party. Any independent who ran against her would have to convince me they had A BETTER CHANCE to beat the Republican and, frankly, when I've done that in the past it has not generally worked as I hoped it would. The largely ineffective Angus King, who I didn't vote for when he ran and won the governorship but who I have voted for for the Senate, has been the one exception to that. And I didn't like his governorship much at all. So, yes, I would probably vote for her though with the same reluctance I voted for Angus King. Voting for the least bad which the voters in the primary gave us is the most moral thing to do, THAT IS LEAST BAD IN OUTCOME, not in some abstract sense of morality or even intellectual coherence.
Who knows, maybe she'll prove to have grown up and do something good.
The IHRA is not a credible organization, it is a false front that promotes lies and genocide and apartheid. The members that came up with that definition deserve to be considered as flacks for the Israeli criminal regime as certainly as those lobbying and propagandizing on behalf of the South African Apartheid government were and, I'll say it because it's true, the German American Bund. They and their "definition" are tools of racism and murder.
I rise no to protest, but to demur. I was a pastor when 9/11 happened, and my congregation of old people (reliable voters, reliably Texas Republicans, before the Texas GOP became rabid culture warriors) simply didn’t care. That was in NYC. As they said in “Greater Tuna”: “Texas not included!” And that’s the end of that news.
ReplyDeleteNow 9/11 led to war, but the media also crowned Giuliani “America’s Mayor” because of it. The NYC based national media went with it, like the pack of lemmings they are, but the country never really bought it. And what career did Giuliani have after that? None in politics, until he hitched his wagon to another New Yorker. But that’s another story.
Aside from Dan Patrick using AI Paul Revere to scare the rubes, East Coast politics don’t have much sway in the hinterlands. In politics NYC is more seen as Sodom and Gomorrah than the new Jerusalem. An example to be avoided, which means largely ignored. In Texas politics recently (and it’ll probably come back before November), the battle cry was “Don’t California my Texas!” Mostly because so many Californians were moving here.
The major media thinks “As goes NYC, so goes the nation.” Because they’re in NYC, and it’s so hard to find out what’s going on in the land across the Hudson (see, e.g, the brief NYT career of the late, lamented Molly Ivins). Besides, nothing important happens out there. Texas is the second most populous state in the union, and yet national TeeVee coverage is limited to the last natural disaster.
Which is fine. I’m quite sure more people watch podcasts than the Sunday Morning shows where the conventional wisdom and approved narrative is chewed like gristle. They, and FixNews, can say all they want about three Democratic nominees in New York, I recall the same consternation over the “gang” of Ilhan Omar and Tlaib (?), and was the third AOC? Despite becoming FoxNews scarecrows, everyone moved on. And all that screaming has been heard, deferred, and discounted. They used it against Platner. No longer national news. Against Talarico: ditto. And against Osoff. As Mamdani says: “Look at what we’ve accomplished, when “they” said we couldn’t.”
The media are lapdogs. They’ll follow the crowd. Even if the crowd abandons the GOP. Broadcast media is dying, anyway. I remember when the nation turned to “Uncle Walter” for reassurance (that was the CBS media narrative, anyway). Those days are gone forever.
Paddy Chayefsky foretold it all. 😎
NYC, especially the media, is so frickin' full of itself. I doubt anyone who listens to FOX Lies is ever going to vote for anyone but a fascist, or the other supposedly even more right-wing than those, though the TV stations in Maine probably have enough influence to reinstall Queen Susan with the help of the national media. We will see.
DeleteI have a growing feeling that there's an enormous amount of desire for even the more conservative parts of the Democratic Party and maybe even more Independents who want what the Democratic Socialists are adocating, I think a lot of the like believed Barack Obama was going to be a real change candidate when he was only interested in being a character as written by Aaron Sorkin. If Biden had been ten years younger, hadn't gotten roped into supporting the Israeli genocide in Gaza and hadn't been such a sentimental fool to make Garland the AG, he would have done what Obama just sold him self as intending to do without any intention of doing it. Rahm Emanuel had a lot to do with that, I really don't go for a president who is so green that they appoint from their geographic base to such important offices.. Both Clinton and Carter did the same thing, which made me skeptical of governors with no DC experience becoming president.