I’ve been robbed by George Santos! He’s not running for re-election next year. How does this impact me personally, you might ask? HE’S MY CONGRESSMAN. I’m going to miss an entire election cycle with funny ads and four thousand Democrats jumping into the primary trying to get national news coverage. It’s hard to believe that it took this long, but apparently the House Ethics Committee finished up the report and even Republicans were like...
Vegas, spas, Botox...splurging at Ferragamo, Hermès, Sephora. Bro has great taste, for sure. But it was all on campaign donors. Now he’s saying that he won’t stand by and “be stoned by those who have flaws themselves.” Grrrr. I want to hate him so badly, but then he goes and says stuff like that and I just love him. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a piece of shit and a con man through and through…but it must have taken about 10 minutes to realize that he was in the right place when he got to DC amirite?
You know, we used to know how to throw down in this country. Like that time Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat the living shit out of Charles Sumner from Massachusetts in the Senate because Sumner was in favor of abolishing slavery. That’s when men were “real men” fighting for what they believed. Oh, how far we’ve fallen.
This week, Senator Mullin once again exchanged heated words with Teamster President Sean O’Brien at a committee hearing, only this time things nearly got physical. At one point they taunted one another with the bone chilling phrase, “stand your butt up” before being broken up by 82-year old Bernie Sanders.
Not to be outdone, over in the House, Republican Rep. Tim Burchett said Kevin McCarthy elbowed him in the hallway with a “clean shot to the kidneys” then proceeded to whine about it on CNN for eight full minutes.
Come on, people. Do better. Bring us back to pistols at dawn! A proper caning on the floor! You’re not legislating, so you might as well get creative and bring the pain.
So who won the temporary spending bill negotiation? Mike Little Johnson? Sleepy Joe Biden? Hakeem Jeffries? Once again reverting to running the country by continuing resolution, House Republicans had to rely on Democrats to get the spending resolution across the finish line. It was just signed by President Biden, so we’ve averted a government shutdown. The bill did not include new military spending for Israel and Ukraine or relief aid for Palestinians.
The Supreme Court passed a new ethics code to solve the issue of Clarence Thomas receiving free loans, luxury trips, private school tuition for family members and extravagant gifts from wealthy donors who happen to have cases in front of the court. Problem solved! I didn’t realize that SCOTUS didn’t have a code of conduct, so that was the problem all along! If that’s how they get to operate, it’s almost like we don’t need laws and courts. Hmm.
The split between liberals and progressives is surfacing over Israel/Palestine. The progressive call for a ceasefire has drawn the ire, attention and money of AIPAC, which is promising to primary anyone who opposes aid to Israel and supports calls for a ceasefire.
Inflation was flat in October, though as you’ll see in the Chart of the Week, the consumer is pretty much fucked. The cost of money has forced spending on essentials through the roof pushing household debt to historic heights.
“Mortgage balances shown on consumer credit reports increased by $126 billion during the third quarter of 2023 and stood at $12.14 trillion at the end of September. Balances on home equity lines of credit (HELOC) increased by $9 billion, and now stand at $349 billion in aggregate. Credit card balances, which are now at $1.08 trillion outstanding, increased by $48 billion (4.7%). Auto loan balances increased by $13 billion, continuing the upward trajectory that has been in place since 2011, and now stand at $1.6 trillion. Other balances, which include retail cards and other consumer loans, were effectively flat, with a $2 billion increase. Student loans balances grew by $30 billion and now stand at $1.6 trillion. In total, non-housing balances grew by $93 billion.”
This is a really, really bad trendline. Literally everything is going up and up and up in the household debt sector. Credit cards, auto loans, home loans, student loans, you name it. As interest rates remain stubbornly high (thanks and, sincerely, go fuck yourself Jay Powell), there’s no way this reverses anytime soon. This may be the campaign equivalent of catching Capone on his taxes. Of all the things that could derail Biden’s re-election bid (and there’s plenty), this may be the one that truly bites him in the ass.
Headlines
Not sure who needs to hear this, but…
This is a quick read from Spencer Ackerman, but it’s important. As I’ve said before, Ackerman is one of the (very) few foreign affairs reporters I trust in western media. Anyway, apparently TikTok is helping promote the idea that maybe Osama (he spells it Usama, so fine) Bin Laden might not have been all that terrible and that his policy of retribution was maybe, possibly, just a little justified. As a resident of Manhattan at the time, Ackerman and I have the same relationship to the smell of “burning human corpses.” But it’s been more than two decades, and younger generations don’t have the same relationship to Bin Laden as we do. And history has a way of revising itself. After all, Nazis are still a thing.
From the article:
“Usama bin Laden was a billionaire who did the thing billionaires do: play with the lives of others. He made his preoccupations and pathologies everyone else's problem. Bin Laden deserves zero credit for recognizing that American foreign policy had for decades immiserated and oppressed millions throughout the Middle East. Lots of people recognized that and managed not to become mass murderers.”
A while back, we did a two-parter on the FCC (Part 1 | Part 2) that I’m pretty sure no one listened to. But that’s okay. It’s important stuff, so we soldier on in the wilderness! Anyway, periodically, the country remembers to give a shit about net neutrality. Now, this isn’t full net neutrality, but it’s an important regulatory step that allows the FCC to monitor and police access to prevent cases of digital redlining that discriminates against poor and rural areas. Now, it’s important to recognize that this is procedural and passed due to a recent democratic majority on the commission, so it can be just as easily unwound as it was when Trump reversed course from Obama’s FCC. So temporary, but a win.
From the article:
“Under the new rules, the FCC can fine telecom companies for not providing equal connectivity to different communities ‘without adequate justification,’ such as financial or technical challenges of building out service in a particular area. The rules are specifically designed to address correlations between household income, race, and internet speed.”
In our third installment of our Palestine series this week, we cover the turning point of Israel’s invasion in Lebanon in 1982. This article does a great job placing this event in historical context and compares it to what is unfolding in Gaza right now. The parallels are disturbing and, as the article notes, if they persist it portents terrible things going forward. The ‘82 war hardened antipathy toward an increasingly right-wing Likud Party in Israel among Arab nations and quite literally gave rise to Hezbollah, among other things.
From the article:
“If Lebanon is any guide, Israel’s war in Gaza will end poorly for both Palestinians and Israelis. Despite its military superiority, Israel never succeeded in eradicating the PLO. Instead, the IDF’s primary accomplishments were killing tens of thousands of civilians; fragmenting Palestinian groups into smaller cells that spent years conducting hit-and-run operations; inspiring the rise of a new Lebanese militant party, Hezbollah; and losing over 1,000 of its own citizens in an occupation that stretched until 2000. It is a pattern that is already playing out again. As of November 12, when the IDF’s assault cut off communications with many Gazan hospitals, at least 11,000 Palestinian civilians had died due to the fighting, a figure that will keep rising. Hamas’s October 7 attack massacred around 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, and Hamas has claimed that some of the 240 Israeli hostages taken during the incursion have perished in IDF bombings. The Israeli military has lost at least 39 soldiers in Gaza, as well.”
Derek speaks with Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, about the Biden administration’s decision to continue construction of a border wall through the Rio Grande Valley. They discuss the impact this will have on the region’s ecology, wildlife, and indigenous and local communities, how it fits into the larger trend of border militarization, and more.
“‘Once there was a little tree...and she loved a little boy.’ So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.”
“Looking at the narrow definition of ‘genocide’ according to the UN Convention on Genocide, it seems that the actions and statements of the government of Israel do, in fact, meet both the intent and four of the five physical acts that are listed. As your stated intention is to present only the facts relating to the history and current situation, it seems that you can safely call the Israeli government guilty of genocide rather than just sticking with the less inflammatory ‘ethnic cleansing.’”
This Week on the Pod
Palestine: Part Three.
The final installment of our series on Israel/Palestine covers the Arab Revolts of the late 1930s through present day, highlighting the agreements, wars, uprisings and accords that explain how the chasm widened between Jews and Palestinians, and why every attempt at reconciling the two sides has failed. It’s a sweeping narrative that involves generational actors, imperial interests of neighboring countries and acts of violence, bravery and betrayal.
Here’s a snippet from the pod:
“In the wake of the war, the United Nations drafted the infamous Resolution 242. Once again, the British had a heavy hand in the language, as if they hadn’t drawn enough maps around this region. Resolution 242 stated that Israel must withdraw ‘armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict,’ and called for the ‘termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.’”