Thanks, as always, Simon! And...the disconnect between the good news and good data, and the emotions of many voters, can be found here, I think: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/election-politics-front-pages.php?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email Robert Hubbell posted this today and it was an "aha" moment. I've been feeling and aware of the spin and lack of information of these two newspapers of record, but the data from the Columbia Journalism Review was validating and revealing. Looking forward to tomorrow night...Anderson Clayton rocks! And we here in NC need all the help we can get.
Fellow North Carolinian here. I'm also looking forward to tomorrow's meeting with Anderson Clayton. Thanks, Simon for the link to the Politico article about her. It's good background for tomorrow.
I like her focus on getting Dems on the ballot in more rural places - I really think it helps with voter turnout. A friend who also lives in the metro-Charlotte area (but just over the county line in a much redder county) told me that for the 2022 primary, the only race on his entire Democratic ballot was for the US Senate seat. That means that either there was no Democrat running or someone was running unopposed.
Thank you Simon, for this paragraph -- probably the most important message in today's column:
"The Insurrection Never Ended - events of the past few months suggests the attack on the US government, American democracy and the Congress didn’t end on January 6th, that it has now just taken a different form. Consider what Trump allied Republicans are doing now:
Repeatedly preventing, in unprecedented ways, both the House and Senate from performing essential duties. The disabling of the House is far worse than is understood."
In his book, "On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century", Timothy Snyder reflects on how fascist, communist and nazi authoritarians took power in 20th century Europe. It's a remarkably practical guide to preserving our freedoms.
The twenty lessons referred to in the book’s subtitle appear as 20 chapters, each chapter heading worded as a specific instruction.
Chapter two is called “Defend Institutions”.
“It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about — a court, a newspaper, a labor union — and take its side.”
As you say, the January 6 attack never ended. It has just taken a different form. Specifically, MAGA extremists in the House of Representatives proudly support convicted insurrectionists, and publicly advocate a coming civil war.
They are not are just another minority voting bloc like Libertarians, or even the Tea Party. Unwilling to work within the system, according to established norms and procedures, they use the forms of parliamentary procedure as a smokescreen. Their real intent is to obstruct and disrupt, not to legislate.
A network of citizen activists at www.FeathersOfHope.net have chosen to act on behalf of the People’s House, using only our voices to build support for marginalizing and isolating extremists in the chamber. So far as I know, there is no other network focused on the task of helping to defend the House of Representatives against MAGA extremism.
Worth remembering what Trump's initial response to the war was: to praise Hezbollah as 'smart' and renew a personal grievance against Netanyahu. He has been all over the map since then, uttering incoherent things that vary by the hour. Only the fealty of right-wing media and failures of traditional media keep this dangerously incompetent display from being a huge obstacle for him. He has yet to say anything that reconciles his pro-Russia and supposedly pro-Israel views at a time Russia's ally Iran is backing Hamas and other Iran-backed groups are firing on US Navy vessels in the region.
Simon, normally I rely on your Hopiums to give hope and to keep my activism going. But I do need to ask you and Biden to be on the side of humanity in the Israel-Gaza war, rather than on the side of one tribe or another while blind to the suffering of the other side.
What Hamas did against Israeli civilians are atrocities and war crimes on Oct 7. All the hostages should be freed.
But when the Israeli government:
1.immediately enforced no water, no food, no electricity, no life-giving fuel to 2 million Gazans - that is collective punishment. Israeli govt. has the right to monitor the aide supplies, but they have no right to deny the aide under international humanitarian law.
2.if a warring party drops a bomb on Manhattan, we can be assured there will be massive civilian casualties no matter who they are aiming for. There have been over 12,000 civilians killed in Gaza, 6,000 of whom are children. If we don’t trust those figures, then consider that the UN says over 100 UN workers have been killed in the weeks of war in Gaza (the most of any conflict), and over 50 media workers have been killed (from Committee to Protect Journalists). Bombings and shootings of schools, mosques, ambulances and hospitals are war crimes. Not taking care to minimize civilians casualties is against international humanitarian law.
As human beings, we cry for ANY baby being killed. We should not value Jewish babies more than Palestinian babies.
Regardless of what the warring parties want, we need to speak up to end this bloodbath, to free all the hostages and end collective punishment on Gazans, and to negotiate how 2 people are going to share the same land. Jews and Palestinians are both not going anywhere - it’s just how many more will die before they share. As the primary aid supplier of Israel (military and otherwise) - in fact U.S. govt has plenty of leeway to rein in Netanyahu in this war and the escalating settlement expansions and violence in the West Bank.
How will more civilian deaths make it easier for the 2 people to co-exist?
With due respect, I resent deeply the implication that anyone in this community isn’t on “the side of humanity”. This is a treacherously complicated situation that President Biden doesn’t have universal control over, and there are very credible arguments that what you are tactically calling for would put even more people in danger down the road. I don’t profess to be any kind of an expert on this topic, but the fact that I trust that very smart, very tough, and very savvy people under the leadership of a man who I firmly believe is trying to achieve the best possible outcome for all innocent parties in a situation with no great options does NOT put me on the “side of a tribe” rather than on the “side of humanity”, and you are not helping the your cause or opening new minds to your point of view by making such offensive accusations.
Am sure you have noticed that Joe Biden is not only for a cease fire, he actually negotiated one, and it is in place now. How long it lasts we will see but let's be very clear where he is on these issues - for a two state solution, negotiated a cease fire, ensured humanitarian aid is flowing, allocated $100m of USG monies towards that aid, helping get the hostages out of Gaza.
I have been very critical of the Netanyahu government since the spring, and have repeatedly said that it is imperative he go so a new Israeli government can craft a more humane and sustainable path forward.
I will also note that you failed to mention 3 things in your narrative above: 1) Hamas killed 32 Americans on October 7th, and several Americans remain missing and believed to be in Israel. So this attack was also an attack on the United States and its people. 2) Hamas' attack did not end on October 7th. In the last 7 weeks Hamas sent rockets and missiles into Israel against civilian targets, not military; and as we discussed with Israeli journalist Amir Tabon - https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/my-conversation-with-amir-tibon-about - those ongoing attacks were existential attacks against Israel as it raised the possibility of the Iron Dome system being depleted allowing Hizbollah to wipe Israel out with hundreds of thousands of rockets 3) Hamas is for a second Jewish Holocaust, for eliminating Israel from the river to the sea, and must be removed from power or disarmed for any possible solution to the conflict. You are far more critical of Israel than Hamas here, which is a problem, as Hamas bears much of the responsibility for the civilian deaths in Gaza. Their war crimes were not only on October 7th, but every day as they conduct their military operations underneath civilian facilities and use 2m Gazans as human shields. The lack of discussion that the killing of civilians was actually Hamas' strategy, one that they sought, and deserve far greater condemnation in the current discourse than we are seeing. Hamas wanted the moment we are seeing; killed thousands of Jews to bring it about; knew Gaza would be cut off the outside world and set up no contingencies for anyone but their solders; and knowingly sacrificed their own citizens and continue to commit war crimes every day both in hiding beneath civilian targets and in holding women and children hostage. Your narrative gives far far too much of a free pass to a genocidal extremist organization aligned with Iran and Russia, which has few friends in the Arab world due to their alliance with Iran.
Your take on what's happened here is deeply out of balance, and needs a bit more work.
Andrea, I appreciate your open and honest expression of your feelings about the hideous situation in Gaza and Israel. I realize that I have much to learn. After reading the replies to your comment, I'm quite sure that I'm not brave enough to comment lest I be schooled and shamed for my lack of total understanding of and fealty to the correct views.
Hi Kathleen, thank you for your comment. It means a lot that we maintain a community where we can discuss these different viewpoints in a civil way, try to listen and feel for the other side. I can improve on how I communicate, but to me the killing of 10,000 to 14,000 people in Gaza (so far, half of whom are children) is so disproportionate - this has to stop immediately. Sending in aid after the fact does not cover up the bloodbath. The dead children on both sides, they didn’t deserve to die. Their killing is equally shocking. As for civilians being human shields - if there is a school shooter using the students as human shield, would we bomb the whole school?
I draw inspiration from Parents Circle (Israeli Palestinian parents working together, who have lost immediate family in the conflict https://www.theparentscircle.org/ ) - who say:
“We express our deepest and heartfelt condemnation of the ongoing violence in the region.”
“Some day Israelis and Palestinians will coexist, and the question is simply how many corpses will pile up before that happens.”
“We must share this land as one state or two states or five states, otherwise, we will share this same piece of land as the graveyards of our kids. We don’t see success. But things will eventually change. Because there is no other option.”
Again, this is community to me, and I appreciate us being able to raise views and listen, compromise and move forward.
Kathleen, I find this comment offensive. Here on this site we try very hard to fight misinformation and distortions of all kinds. It is a central part of our mission. This line in Andrea's thoughtful comment - "What Hamas did against Israeli civilians are atrocities and war crimes on Oct 7. All the hostages should be freed" is as I say above deeply problematic as a portrayal of what has happened. This is a fact issue, not feelings or opinions. Hamas' attack on Israel and the United States and its citizens did not end on October 7th. Hamas continues to commit war crimes daily. It fired tens of thousands of rockets into Israel after October 7th, which was creating an existential crisis for the Israeli state. I could go on. I engaged Andrea's comment with respect by taking the time to explain what was wrong with it, and to remind all of our readers the position I've staked out here over the past few weeks. As a general rule, I am not going to allow things that I think are untruthful or distortions, willing or unwilling, to stand here unchallenged, nor should you expect me too. Our goal is to get to the truth here, and it is no secret there is a lot of false and bad information flying around on Israel-Gaza, on all sides.
If this answer is unsatisfactory to you I am happy to refund your subscription and call it a day.
Simon, It was not and is not the purpose of my comment to be offensive. If you reread what I said there is no misinformation or distortion of facts. I've never doubted the brutality of Hamas. I am so proud of our president and grateful that he is the person leading the US. I stated that I have much to learn, and I do. In the pursuit of knowledge, I listened to Amir Tabon among many other conversations that I believe came from credible sources. However, I didn't like what I read to be resentment being aimed at Andrea. That's all and I told her that. I didn't endorse Hamas or Hezbollah. I am beginning to be more sensitive to the nuance and complexity of everything relating to Hamas and Israel and the concurrent deep feelings, especially around October 7. You know much more about this than most. You misread my meaning and I don't care for half-assed apologies because it wouldn't be sincere. I do regret that I said schooled and shamed in the comment, which was stupid and rude. If you and the community believe that I'm not a good fit, ask me to leave. I trust that any balance would be put to beneficial use. I hope you will read on to understand that I'm fairly innocent.
Initially, my interest in your Substack was based on your positivity and political knowledge. I'm active in a grassroots group in the North Shore of Milwaukee, WI. (GRNS) We have made an enormous impact on the successes of the last few years in WI, and we slogged through the discouraging decades preceding that. We are tired but determined to keep working. Hopium was recommended to me by other women in our group because it offered positivity, energy, and unity, which we need to face all the elections, referenda, fair maps (there will be much push-back from the legislature), and whatever else comes up in 2024. I am seventy-one years old, married, a mother, a grandmother, and a naturalized US citizen. I was a landscape designer before I retired, and an artist.
Thanks for this great Stephanie Rhule clip. Building on that, this "She-covery" story needs to be a much louder part of our narrative: https://wapo.st/47SPOQ8
Thanks, as always, Simon! And...the disconnect between the good news and good data, and the emotions of many voters, can be found here, I think: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/election-politics-front-pages.php?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email Robert Hubbell posted this today and it was an "aha" moment. I've been feeling and aware of the spin and lack of information of these two newspapers of record, but the data from the Columbia Journalism Review was validating and revealing. Looking forward to tomorrow night...Anderson Clayton rocks! And we here in NC need all the help we can get.
Fellow North Carolinian here. I'm also looking forward to tomorrow's meeting with Anderson Clayton. Thanks, Simon for the link to the Politico article about her. It's good background for tomorrow.
I like her focus on getting Dems on the ballot in more rural places - I really think it helps with voter turnout. A friend who also lives in the metro-Charlotte area (but just over the county line in a much redder county) told me that for the 2022 primary, the only race on his entire Democratic ballot was for the US Senate seat. That means that either there was no Democrat running or someone was running unopposed.
Thank you Simon, for this paragraph -- probably the most important message in today's column:
"The Insurrection Never Ended - events of the past few months suggests the attack on the US government, American democracy and the Congress didn’t end on January 6th, that it has now just taken a different form. Consider what Trump allied Republicans are doing now:
Repeatedly preventing, in unprecedented ways, both the House and Senate from performing essential duties. The disabling of the House is far worse than is understood."
In his book, "On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century", Timothy Snyder reflects on how fascist, communist and nazi authoritarians took power in 20th century Europe. It's a remarkably practical guide to preserving our freedoms.
The twenty lessons referred to in the book’s subtitle appear as 20 chapters, each chapter heading worded as a specific instruction.
Chapter two is called “Defend Institutions”.
“It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about — a court, a newspaper, a labor union — and take its side.”
As you say, the January 6 attack never ended. It has just taken a different form. Specifically, MAGA extremists in the House of Representatives proudly support convicted insurrectionists, and publicly advocate a coming civil war.
They are not are just another minority voting bloc like Libertarians, or even the Tea Party. Unwilling to work within the system, according to established norms and procedures, they use the forms of parliamentary procedure as a smokescreen. Their real intent is to obstruct and disrupt, not to legislate.
A network of citizen activists at www.FeathersOfHope.net have chosen to act on behalf of the People’s House, using only our voices to build support for marginalizing and isolating extremists in the chamber. So far as I know, there is no other network focused on the task of helping to defend the House of Representatives against MAGA extremism.
We invite your readers to join us at www.FeathersOfHope.net or www.jerryweiss.substack.com
.
Thanks Jerry. Here's something I wrote in the spring which references Dr. Snyder's work. He has been one of my great teachers as we work our way through this MAGA era. https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/not-obeying-in-advance
Worth remembering what Trump's initial response to the war was: to praise Hezbollah as 'smart' and renew a personal grievance against Netanyahu. He has been all over the map since then, uttering incoherent things that vary by the hour. Only the fealty of right-wing media and failures of traditional media keep this dangerously incompetent display from being a huge obstacle for him. He has yet to say anything that reconciles his pro-Russia and supposedly pro-Israel views at a time Russia's ally Iran is backing Hamas and other Iran-backed groups are firing on US Navy vessels in the region.
IOW direct comparison to Biden's handling of situation would be and will be devastating to Trump if MSM ever actually gets around to reporting it.
Jen Rubin has a good opinion piece on this topic in this morning's Washington Post.
Here is a link to the article (free from the paywall): https://wapo.st/46zQxF1
Thanks!
Simon, normally I rely on your Hopiums to give hope and to keep my activism going. But I do need to ask you and Biden to be on the side of humanity in the Israel-Gaza war, rather than on the side of one tribe or another while blind to the suffering of the other side.
What Hamas did against Israeli civilians are atrocities and war crimes on Oct 7. All the hostages should be freed.
But when the Israeli government:
1.immediately enforced no water, no food, no electricity, no life-giving fuel to 2 million Gazans - that is collective punishment. Israeli govt. has the right to monitor the aide supplies, but they have no right to deny the aide under international humanitarian law.
2.if a warring party drops a bomb on Manhattan, we can be assured there will be massive civilian casualties no matter who they are aiming for. There have been over 12,000 civilians killed in Gaza, 6,000 of whom are children. If we don’t trust those figures, then consider that the UN says over 100 UN workers have been killed in the weeks of war in Gaza (the most of any conflict), and over 50 media workers have been killed (from Committee to Protect Journalists). Bombings and shootings of schools, mosques, ambulances and hospitals are war crimes. Not taking care to minimize civilians casualties is against international humanitarian law.
As human beings, we cry for ANY baby being killed. We should not value Jewish babies more than Palestinian babies.
Regardless of what the warring parties want, we need to speak up to end this bloodbath, to free all the hostages and end collective punishment on Gazans, and to negotiate how 2 people are going to share the same land. Jews and Palestinians are both not going anywhere - it’s just how many more will die before they share. As the primary aid supplier of Israel (military and otherwise) - in fact U.S. govt has plenty of leeway to rein in Netanyahu in this war and the escalating settlement expansions and violence in the West Bank.
How will more civilian deaths make it easier for the 2 people to co-exist?
With due respect, I resent deeply the implication that anyone in this community isn’t on “the side of humanity”. This is a treacherously complicated situation that President Biden doesn’t have universal control over, and there are very credible arguments that what you are tactically calling for would put even more people in danger down the road. I don’t profess to be any kind of an expert on this topic, but the fact that I trust that very smart, very tough, and very savvy people under the leadership of a man who I firmly believe is trying to achieve the best possible outcome for all innocent parties in a situation with no great options does NOT put me on the “side of a tribe” rather than on the “side of humanity”, and you are not helping the your cause or opening new minds to your point of view by making such offensive accusations.
Am sure you have noticed that Joe Biden is not only for a cease fire, he actually negotiated one, and it is in place now. How long it lasts we will see but let's be very clear where he is on these issues - for a two state solution, negotiated a cease fire, ensured humanitarian aid is flowing, allocated $100m of USG monies towards that aid, helping get the hostages out of Gaza.
I have been very critical of the Netanyahu government since the spring, and have repeatedly said that it is imperative he go so a new Israeli government can craft a more humane and sustainable path forward.
I will also note that you failed to mention 3 things in your narrative above: 1) Hamas killed 32 Americans on October 7th, and several Americans remain missing and believed to be in Israel. So this attack was also an attack on the United States and its people. 2) Hamas' attack did not end on October 7th. In the last 7 weeks Hamas sent rockets and missiles into Israel against civilian targets, not military; and as we discussed with Israeli journalist Amir Tabon - https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/my-conversation-with-amir-tibon-about - those ongoing attacks were existential attacks against Israel as it raised the possibility of the Iron Dome system being depleted allowing Hizbollah to wipe Israel out with hundreds of thousands of rockets 3) Hamas is for a second Jewish Holocaust, for eliminating Israel from the river to the sea, and must be removed from power or disarmed for any possible solution to the conflict. You are far more critical of Israel than Hamas here, which is a problem, as Hamas bears much of the responsibility for the civilian deaths in Gaza. Their war crimes were not only on October 7th, but every day as they conduct their military operations underneath civilian facilities and use 2m Gazans as human shields. The lack of discussion that the killing of civilians was actually Hamas' strategy, one that they sought, and deserve far greater condemnation in the current discourse than we are seeing. Hamas wanted the moment we are seeing; killed thousands of Jews to bring it about; knew Gaza would be cut off the outside world and set up no contingencies for anyone but their solders; and knowingly sacrificed their own citizens and continue to commit war crimes every day both in hiding beneath civilian targets and in holding women and children hostage. Your narrative gives far far too much of a free pass to a genocidal extremist organization aligned with Iran and Russia, which has few friends in the Arab world due to their alliance with Iran.
Your take on what's happened here is deeply out of balance, and needs a bit more work.
Andrea, I appreciate your open and honest expression of your feelings about the hideous situation in Gaza and Israel. I realize that I have much to learn. After reading the replies to your comment, I'm quite sure that I'm not brave enough to comment lest I be schooled and shamed for my lack of total understanding of and fealty to the correct views.
Hi Kathleen, thank you for your comment. It means a lot that we maintain a community where we can discuss these different viewpoints in a civil way, try to listen and feel for the other side. I can improve on how I communicate, but to me the killing of 10,000 to 14,000 people in Gaza (so far, half of whom are children) is so disproportionate - this has to stop immediately. Sending in aid after the fact does not cover up the bloodbath. The dead children on both sides, they didn’t deserve to die. Their killing is equally shocking. As for civilians being human shields - if there is a school shooter using the students as human shield, would we bomb the whole school?
I draw inspiration from Parents Circle (Israeli Palestinian parents working together, who have lost immediate family in the conflict https://www.theparentscircle.org/ ) - who say:
“We express our deepest and heartfelt condemnation of the ongoing violence in the region.”
“Some day Israelis and Palestinians will coexist, and the question is simply how many corpses will pile up before that happens.”
“We must share this land as one state or two states or five states, otherwise, we will share this same piece of land as the graveyards of our kids. We don’t see success. But things will eventually change. Because there is no other option.”
Again, this is community to me, and I appreciate us being able to raise views and listen, compromise and move forward.
Kathleen, I find this comment offensive. Here on this site we try very hard to fight misinformation and distortions of all kinds. It is a central part of our mission. This line in Andrea's thoughtful comment - "What Hamas did against Israeli civilians are atrocities and war crimes on Oct 7. All the hostages should be freed" is as I say above deeply problematic as a portrayal of what has happened. This is a fact issue, not feelings or opinions. Hamas' attack on Israel and the United States and its citizens did not end on October 7th. Hamas continues to commit war crimes daily. It fired tens of thousands of rockets into Israel after October 7th, which was creating an existential crisis for the Israeli state. I could go on. I engaged Andrea's comment with respect by taking the time to explain what was wrong with it, and to remind all of our readers the position I've staked out here over the past few weeks. As a general rule, I am not going to allow things that I think are untruthful or distortions, willing or unwilling, to stand here unchallenged, nor should you expect me too. Our goal is to get to the truth here, and it is no secret there is a lot of false and bad information flying around on Israel-Gaza, on all sides.
If this answer is unsatisfactory to you I am happy to refund your subscription and call it a day.
Simon, It was not and is not the purpose of my comment to be offensive. If you reread what I said there is no misinformation or distortion of facts. I've never doubted the brutality of Hamas. I am so proud of our president and grateful that he is the person leading the US. I stated that I have much to learn, and I do. In the pursuit of knowledge, I listened to Amir Tabon among many other conversations that I believe came from credible sources. However, I didn't like what I read to be resentment being aimed at Andrea. That's all and I told her that. I didn't endorse Hamas or Hezbollah. I am beginning to be more sensitive to the nuance and complexity of everything relating to Hamas and Israel and the concurrent deep feelings, especially around October 7. You know much more about this than most. You misread my meaning and I don't care for half-assed apologies because it wouldn't be sincere. I do regret that I said schooled and shamed in the comment, which was stupid and rude. If you and the community believe that I'm not a good fit, ask me to leave. I trust that any balance would be put to beneficial use. I hope you will read on to understand that I'm fairly innocent.
Initially, my interest in your Substack was based on your positivity and political knowledge. I'm active in a grassroots group in the North Shore of Milwaukee, WI. (GRNS) We have made an enormous impact on the successes of the last few years in WI, and we slogged through the discouraging decades preceding that. We are tired but determined to keep working. Hopium was recommended to me by other women in our group because it offered positivity, energy, and unity, which we need to face all the elections, referenda, fair maps (there will be much push-back from the legislature), and whatever else comes up in 2024. I am seventy-one years old, married, a mother, a grandmother, and a naturalized US citizen. I was a landscape designer before I retired, and an artist.
Thanks for this great Stephanie Rhule clip. Building on that, this "She-covery" story needs to be a much louder part of our narrative: https://wapo.st/47SPOQ8