At Hot Air, "New poll on Israel a red flag for Democrats?":
The Squad might get headlines for its attacks on Israel during conflicts with Hamas, but they might end up marginalizing their party. A new Fox poll shows Americans back Israel by well over a 2:1 margin over the Palestinians, even while progressives in Congress accuse Israel of running an “apartheid state.” Majorities of respondents also favor military aid and direct sales of weaponry to Israel, too...
At Amazon, Robert Woodson, Ed., Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers.
He's on point, yet again.
Dennis Prager, at Fox News:
Excellent piece.
It's Peter Savodnik, at Bari Weiss's Substack, "The New Furies of the Oldest Hatred."
At Celeb Jihad, "ADDISON RAE SUNBATHING," and "ADDISON RAE LOVES FLAUNTING."
Plus, "Kara Del Toro Brings The Heat!"
I'm actually struggling to keep up with politics right now. I'm burnt out from teaching and I can't wait for the semester to end, first week of June. Then it's who knows what? I ain't got that big federal stimulus cash this summer, so my big Vegas vacations are definitely on hold. I might be chillin' in the O.C. till August, cruising the bookstores and libraries, and that's if they're gonna be open at all, sheesh.
Here's to hoping. I'll at least get to hit some local happy hours if Vegas ain't happening, so there's that.
At the video, longtime hottie Holly Williams reports for CBS News, and at L.A.T., "Israel’s Netanyahu, master of political survival, tested by conflict with Gaza":
TEL AVIV — Few politicians have quite the knack for turning adversity to advantage as does Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Before fighting erupted May 10 between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the country’s longest-serving prime minister looked set for a spectacular fall from grace. His political opponents were putting the finishing touches on a coalition agreement that would likely have seen him finally ejected from office after 12 years, and left him even more vulnerable to the criminal corruption charges he is currently battling in court. But the 71-year-old prime minister, famed for his Houdini-like ability to wriggle out of tight spots, now looks positioned to possibly remain in power — even though his hardline base is angry that the government agreed to a cease-fire rather than pressing ahead with the military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Before a cease-fire took hold early Friday, 11 days of intense cross-border aerial bombardment between Israel and Hamas left nearly 250 Palestinians dead, more than 60 of them children, and 12 deaths on the Israeli side. “The fire always breaks out just when it’s most convenient for the prime minister,” Netanyahu’s exasperated chief rival, opposition leader Yair Lapid, wrote on Facebook last week. Lapid had reason to be irate: The outbreak of conflict seemingly crippled his prospects for assembling a ruling majority in the Knesset, or parliament, perhaps the closest yet a rival has come to unseating Netanyahu. The crumbling of Lapid’s envisioned coalition came in part because a political party in the grouping represents Palestinian citizens of Israel, and what would have been its historic participation in an Israeli government is less feasible after the worst bout of violence in decades between the country’s Arab nationals and its Jewish majority. Far-right politician Naftali Bennett, another key partner in the odd-bedfellows opposition coalition, also backed away from talks after the conflict started. “The fire always breaks out just when it’s most convenient for the prime minister,” Netanyahu’s exasperated chief rival, opposition leader Yair Lapid, wrote on Facebook last week. Lapid had reason to be irate: The outbreak of conflict seemingly crippled his prospects for assembling a ruling majority in the Knesset, or parliament, perhaps the closest yet a rival has come to unseating Netanyahu. The crumbling of Lapid’s envisioned coalition came in part because a political party in the grouping represents Palestinian citizens of Israel, and what would have been its historic participation in an Israeli government is less feasible after the worst bout of violence in decades between the country’s Arab nationals and its Jewish majority. Far-right politician Naftali Bennett, another key partner in the odd-bedfellows opposition coalition, also backed away from talks after the conflict started. As Israel moved to a war footing, Netanyahu, with his background as an elite army commander, found himself on favorable turf: projecting toughness in the face of an external threat. The hail of Hamas rocket fire on Israeli towns and cities made it critical to degrade Hamas’ military capabilities, the prime minister and his military chiefs declared. “What helps Netanyahu is that it’s always good to be prime minister in time of war,” said veteran political analyst and former journalist Chemi Shalev. “The war rearranged the political map, and the woes hanging over his head have been removed. It opens up new opportunities for him.” Netanyahu has always been most comfortable branding himself as a leader who will risk world opprobrium in order to defend Israel. The Gaza conflict, the worst fighting in seven years between Israel and Hamas, drew sharp international criticism that was fueled to some extent by Palestinians’ growing place in a worldwide racial-justice movement that grew out of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States, made it clear to the prime minister last week that civilian carnage in Gaza due to bombardment — the Israeli military’s thunderous response to more than 4,000 rockets fired by Hamas since May 10 — had to stop, and the cease-fire took effect early Friday. But Netanyahu made certain to not acquiesce too quickly to President Biden’s truce call...
More.
I woke up singing this song. I don't know why. I also don't remember Mama Cass having her own show, but I was only 8-years-old in 1969, so I'ma cut myself some slack there, heh.
Joni Mitchell. What a beauty:
Here's a great piece, debunking the biggest fool in the debunking business. At the Washington Examiner, "PolitiFact retracts Wuhan lab theory ‘fact-check’" (via Memeorandum).
I no longer go out to cover these so-called "protests" for the blog. It was getting too dangerous. The war against the Jews comes back home every time violence flares in the Middle East. It's bad enough what's happening in Israel. What's happening here is sickening. I almost can't comprehend it. Almost. At least I understand what's happening, though I still shake me head.
At ABC News 7 Los Angeles:
Also, at CBS News 2 New York, "Tensions High as Protesters Clash Over Middle East Violence."
Added: At Instapundit, "IN THE BIDEN/DE BLASIO ERA, ANTISEMITIC MOBS RUN WILD: Unlawful assembly declared in Manhattan, pro-Palestinian caravan throws firework at Jews."
At USA Today, "Cease-fire in Gaza: What we know about the Israel, Hamas agreement."
And a great piece at Free Beacon, "The Revolution Comes for Israel":
Israel has battled Hamas four times since the terror organization seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Each battle unfolds the same way: Hamas launches rockets at Israel’s civilian population, Israel bombs Hamas targets, and the fighting continues until terrorist infrastructure is sufficiently degraded so that the rocket fire stops for a few years. Israelis call it "mowing the lawn." The last major clash was in 2014. In its origins, order of battle, and strategy and tactics, Operation Guardian of the Walls, which began May 10, resembles these previous flareups. So what’s different? Just about everything. The region has changed. In 2014 the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, legitimizing the nuclear program of Israel’s archenemy Iran, was a gleam in John Kerry’s eye. Its adoption the following year, and America’s withdrawal from the agreement in 2018, realigned the Middle East along the axis of Iranian power. The result was an Arab-Israel détente formalized in the 2020 Abraham Accords. From a regional perspective, the Palestinian cause is less important than Iran’s ambitions. Israel has changed. In 2014 Benjamin Netanyahu was at the outset of his third term and led from a position of strength. His indictment on corruption charges in 2019 initiated a political crisis that has led to four elections (and most likely a fifth) in the space of two years. On the eve of the latest violence, Israel’s bewildering politics became even more surprising when two of Netanyahu’s rivals enticed an Arab Islamist party to join a coalition government. That effort collapsed when the rockets blazed. The subsequent outbreak of intercommunal violence in cities with large Arab-Israeli populations is a reminder of Israel’s pressing domestic challenges. The security issue unites Israel. Just about everything else divides it. America has changed. In the summer of 2014, Barack Obama was a lame duck, the Republicans controlled the House and were on the verge of winning the Senate, and Donald Trump was the host of Celebrity Apprentice. Obama’s dislike of Netanyahu and willingness to expose "daylight" between the United States and Israel was no secret. But anti-Israel invective was limited to the fringe. And anti-Israel media bias was nowhere near as bad as it is today. Then came the Great Awokening. The dialectic of Black Lives Matter and Donald Trump drove the nation into its current obsession with race, culminating in the protests, riots, vandalism, cancellations, and iconoclasm that followed the murder of George Floyd one year ago. The Trump years brought a revolutionary fervor to American politics, radicalizing the left and burdening the rest of us with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her anti-Israel, socialist "Squad" of congressional Democrats...
Still more.
Charles Grodin wasn't a favorite of mine. In fact, I can barely remember watching him on film. I don't know why. I think when he was on film I wasn't going to the movies that much. Besides, I like hardcore drama --- tearjerkers --- more than I do comedy, though I'm for a good laugh as much as the next guy. (And I like war movies, and Grodin didn't star in those, as far as I can tell.)
L.A.T. has his obituary, "Charles Grodin, activist, author and actor who made grouchiness cool, dead at 86."
The fact is, though, I probably wouldn't be blogging this if I had seen this at Althouse: "Perfection."
Grodin's hilarious, so I can see why he starred in comedies.
Interesting, when you think about it, is that Althouse has disabled comments. She takes comments by email, which raises the question if that's better than taking them at the blog, moderating them. If people don't like you, they're going to attack you with hatred, so it's six-in-the-one-hand and half-a-dozen in the other. You'll be moderating either way. I don't pay attention to this stuff that much, but I think it's easier to block people in Gmail than it is at Blogger, so perhaps that's the payoff to the cost-benefit analysis. But that brings up another question? I thought Althouse's blog was all about the comments, or at least eliciting good comments, right? I mean, what's Althouse if you can't go in there a post your reactions? She's always prided herself on comments, to the point that she wouldn't (or couldn't) leave Blogger without them. Of course, that's not my problem, since I'm not a New York Times-profiled blogger. But blogs aren't as numerous as they used to be, so if you like reading 'em you might be bummed that Althouse has dropped the ball a bit on hers, or some folks might think.
But as noted, this is a laugh-riot. Maybe I should stream some old Grodin movies. Either that, or go back and find more "Tonight Show" episodes for the lolz.
You don't have to like Jonah Goldberg --- and I don't much, especially his NeverTrumpism --- but he's a good writer. Or at least I think so. And he's especially good when he's writing about Israel.
This piece is worth your time, at the Dispatch.
This sweetie's looking better than ever!
Here, "Kendall Jenner Sweaty in a Bikini and Cowboy Boots."
Plus, "LILY JAMES NUDE SCENE FROM 'THE PURSUIT OF LOVE," and "LILY JAMES NUDE SCENE FROM 'THE DIG'."
At Amazon, Nicole Saphier, Panic Attack: Playing Politics with Science in the Fight Against COVID-19.
At Celeb Jihad, "Dita Von Teese Ultimate Compilation."
And at the Fappening, "Dita Von Teese (7 Photos)."
The author claims that since the New York Post ran a story on him and his book, "*all* my Facebook ad accounts were banned. My Facebook profile was suspended. And Amazon has made the book impossible to order."
I can't confirm his allegations against Facebook (which I don't doubt), though his book's certainly available at Amazon, at least for now.
Here, Ashley Rindsberg, The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times's Misreporting, Distortions & Fabrications Radically Alter History.
At great piece from Mark Hemingway, at Real Clear Investigations, "The High-Pressure Business of Selling Woke Corporate Armor."
