I am fiercely pro Israel, including its right to defend itself against terrorists. But I can also draw a distinction when leaders do bad things, including sanctioning armed vigilantes in the West Bank and pushing to annex more territory for settlements in a rebuke to Biden. 1 The millions of Israelis have demonstrated against Netanyahu's government, even during this war are not anti-Israel propagandists. What Bibi, Smotrich, Ben Gvir are doing will divide and alienate many of the remaining supporters of the country, further isolating Israel. 2

CNN, MSNBC et al are in their glory; horserace 24/7. They love it-- bloviate endlessly about who is up, who is down, using polls and analysts. But it is so dangerous. Normalizing Trump as just another candidate, ignoring the stakes and his open declaration promising autocracy. 1/ That he slaps the media in the face over and over, the enemy of the people has apparently made no difference in their frame of what matters. The focus needs to be on THE STAKES. A DHS run by Stephen Miller; DOD by Michael Flynn, DOJ by Jeffrey Clark; WH by Steve Bannon. 2/

Such utter nonsense from Megan McCardle, peddling GOP talking points. McCarthy as “relatively moderate.” He kissed Trump’s ass, punished Cheney & Kitzinger, embraced MTG and Santos, tried to blame Ds for a shutdown by cutting Ukraine aid. 1/ What would Democrats have gained by bailing out Kevin McCarthy? The answer is absolutely nothing. McCarthy had already reneged on the spending agreement. He would still have had the short leash of the lunatics. He would have been the same weak-kneed hypocrite. 2/

One again, NRA lickspittles like Lindsey Graham are returning to the "mental illness" talking point instead of confronting the gun issue. First, those with serious mental illness are much more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. 1/ Second, the small subset of those who do commit violence are almost all untreated. Our mental health system, esp. when it comes to those with serious mental illness (SMI) and even more if they have anosognosia, a lack of insight, is broken. But no solutions from Graham, et al. 2/

There is a lot of commentary on why Nancy Pelosi was able to succeed with the thinnest of majorities while Kevin McCarthy failed miserably. Of course, the biggest reason is Pelosi’s skill and tenacity. There is more. Democrats, who have many factions, want to solve problems 1/ As a group, they are willing to swallow, hard and accept tough compromises to achieve policy goals. Thus, no public option on healthcare, and a compromise on abortion for Obamacare. Perhaps another leader would not have pulled it off. But it still reflects the party culture. 2/

Here is the rich irony of what is happening in the House. Kevin McCarthy is being attacked by GOP radicals because he has been too much of an institutionalist. In truth, there has never been a speaker in our lifetimes more contemptuous of the institution. 1/ He sold out the institution and Constitution over January 6. He trashed Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger while protecting those who promoted a violent insurrection. He remove Democrats from Committee’s not because they had committed some offenses but because they were too strong 2/

I was privileged to know Jimmy Carter a bit. While consulting for the Carter/Baker Commission in Atlanta, I had lunch with him, just the two of us. I asked him about his work on river blindness. He told me how it had come about during one of many trips to Africa 1 How many lives had been destroyed, how a simple inexpensive cream could prevent it. He told me how he had gone about enlisting support, including from Pharma companies. No bragging, just a tale of how a former president could make things happen. The result? Countless lives saved

The late Bob Katzmann was a remarkable jurist, chief judge of the second circuit, and a dear friend of mine for several decades. A few years back, we went to lunch when I was in New York. An inexpensive lunch, but I picked up the tab. $25 apiece. Bob protested, I insisted. 1 I told him that I was very familiar with the ethics rules, that I didn’t have to live in Manhattan on a judges salary. Bob did not press the point. But a week later, I got a check in the mail from him for $25. Bob was a stickler when it came to judicial ethics. So are most judges

With my friend Judge Steve Leifman about to cross the Edmund Pettus bridge. We met with Joanne Blanton, who, as a child, crossed that bridge on Bloody Sunday. People bled and died for the voting rights that John Roberts and a partisan Supreme Court so cavalierly undermined. It was very sad to see Selma. The town is poor, and was devastated by the tornado. Going to Montgomery & Birmingham, I was deeply moved by the courage of those who fought against evil to provide simple equal rights for Black people in a state marked by centuries of oppression.

My best take on where we are going. First, odds that McCarthy will prevail are no better than 20%. There is no incentive for the hardest of hardliners to cave. They know if they do, Speaker McCarthy will find ways to punish them for subjecting him to this week of humiliation. 1 They also know if they hold out into the middle of next week, and if McCarthy offers even more concessions to the radical right, a large group of McCarthy supporters will begin to cave. They have personal stresses, and know the cost of this continuing indefinitely. 2

Of course, our focus has been on the horse race: who will finally get to be Speaker? Now let’s focus on the bigger picture. Whether it’s McCarthy, Scalise, Cole, or someone else, we will have the weakest speaker in modern history. 1 Rules changes, including all the concessions McCarthy has made, will cripple the office. House Republicans are dominated by radicals, who make up a majority. The speaker will have no margin for error; the leverage will be with Freedom Caucus bombthrowers.

Confirmation hearing
CHAIRMAN. I do have some obligatory questions I am going to have to ask.
First, is there anything that you are aware of in your background that might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the office to which you have been nominated?
Mr. RETTIG. No If confirmed, do you pledge to lead the IRS without regard to partisan political bias or inappropriate influence?
Mr. RETTIG. Absolutely

A classic example of journalistic malpractice, from @semafor “Last week, a McCarthy ally asked moderate Republicans to “push back hard” on the demand from House conservatives…”

There are no moderates! And the demand is not coming from “conservatives!” They are radicals. 1 The frame normalizes abnormal realities, that the differences are between moderates and conservatives. They are between the small number of conservatives and the vast majority who are radicals. 2/3 are election deniers. That is not conservative! Do better, @semafor

I fully understand the value of anonymous sources, and their importance to a free press, but when sources lie to you or feed you damaging and misleading information, the pledge to anonymity goes away and they need to unmask these sources goes up. 1 @NBCNews committed serious journalistic malpractice by reporting a story about Paul Pelosi that fueled conspiracy theories that continue to reverberate. They need to unmask the sources that gave them that false information. The same was true of the New York Times in 2016. 2

A thread about Twitter. First let us stipulate that Elon musk is a disgrace and a partner with the murderous Saudi regime. But at least for now I am going to stick it out on Twitter. I came to the platform very reluctantly years ago, pulled into it by my editor. 1 A great way to sell books and promote yourself, he said. I thought, what can you do in 140 characters that isn’t just trivial? But I quickly discovered that there is a lot more to Twitter than that, and that you can say a lot in one tweet and in multiple ones. 2

Of course, not just a third party review, as Trump apologist Turley says, but blocking DOJ from conducting its criminal investigation while this review goes on, potentially for many months. An unprecedented & outrageous action by a renegade against a core executive authority.

https://twitter.com/jimstinson/status/1567322827757424643

Call it bellicose, but that is because you are either blind to the clear and present danger we face to our constitutional system, or indifferent. Or worse.

While the debate continues to drag on with meaningless amendments that will all be rejected 50-50, Let us pause to acknowledge that this is an immense achievement. The broader public may not recognize it, But Joe Biden has had to navigate through treacherous terrain. 1 An obstructionist radical Republican Party with no interest in actually governing to help people, cooperating only when it was in their naked self interest. Delaying and blocking critical executive confirmations, not because of qualifications but simply to obstruct governance. 2

We now face two existential threats, both to the sanctity of our political system and to the fundamental well-being of the country. We need billionaires with moral values to fund a massive ad campaign leading up to November, targeting Republicans in swing districts & states. 1 House and Senate seats, Governor, secretary of state, sheriffs and state legislatures. Point out that to vote for them is to destroy both democracy and freedoms. It is to give a free rein to a renegade Supreme Court and to unleash gun violence. The antithesis of pro-life. 2

We now have a Supreme Court that is moving every aspect of our society in a radical direction, blowing up any reasonable reading of the Constitution to fit its radical ideological and partisan views. It spits on the actions of legislatures and preempts the other branches. 1 The Framers did not expect the judiciary to be the dominant branch of government. The Court has justices jammed onto the bench by violations of fundamental norms, dishonest in their confirmations and untethered to any precedent. Congress can curtail its jurisdiction and more. 2

@jacklgoldsmith in the NYT calls the 1/ committeels work “one-sided.” That is like calling the scientists who say the earth is not flat “one-sided.” The term is not neutral, it is pejorative. Itreflects a piece pushing against indicting or holding to account a lawless president. He purports to present a “balanced” case of the dilemma facing the AG—Garland does face a set of tough challenges— but it is a complement to the Times’s news analysis: Trump had to show intent, ignoring, eg, the Enron jury instructions saying willful ignorance is no excuse

Advice for Democrats for the fall: lots of ads showing consequences of a GOP majority. Tape of ranting key figures: Jim Jordan to be chair of Judiciary and No 2 on Oversight; Elise Stefanik, on Intel and senior party leader; Scalise as Majority Leader; Andy Biggs on Oversight. Make it clear that they will be a wrecking crew undermining America; sharing key intel with our adversaries, doing bogus investigations of House Ds and WH officials, blocking progress on legislation, denying $ for pandemic planning, trying to steal the 2024 election.