Thursday, July 31, 2025
New Reuters Poll Shows Trump Job Approval Has Dropped To 40%
The charts above are from the Reuters / Ipsos Poll -- done between July 26th and 28th of a nationwide sample of 1,023 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.
Only 32% Of Americans Support Israel's Military Action In Gaza
The charts above are from the Gallup Poll -- done between July 7th and 21st of a nationwide sample of 1,002 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
Israeli Actions In Gaza Are A Betrayal Of Holocaust Victims
The following is an article by Israeli law professor Orit Kamir that appeared in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz:
In her childhood, my mother was starved by a dark regime. When the Nazi army occupied Poland and Jews were pushed into ghettos, they were forced to make do with less and less food. Eventually, food disappeared almost entirely. My mother was seven years old when the Lvov ghetto closed in on her. Fortunately, both her parents were alive and did everything to ensure her survival. The nutrition they managed to obtain for her was very meager: lengthy searches in the streets and trash cans sometimes yielded potato peels or edible plants. My grandmother would cook them and the water was drunk as soup. Proteins, sourced from various insects, were rare. Nevertheless, my mother was lucky. Other children wasted away and died.
The Nazi regime reduced the ghetto's boundaries and squeezed its residents, whose numbers dwindled daily, into increasingly smaller areas. My mother and her parents found themselves sharing an apartment with a family named Mintzer, consisting of two parents and four children. Both parents and the eldest son were captured in aktions and sent to extermination. Another son, hungry and weak, fell ill and languished for many days until he breathed his last. My grandparents tried to revive the two orphaned children who remained, but they couldn't help: they had nothing to give. The entire Mintzer family was annihilated. Bella, the youngest daughter, was ten years old when she died.
My mother somehow survived the starvation and the war, but the Mintzer children who wasted away before her eyes remained with her always. They accompany me to this day. The survivors' guilt doesn't dissipate and the scar still burns. On my first visit to Lvov, I searched for that building in the ghetto and lit memorial candles for them. Who would have believed that eighty years after they were starved to death, my country, the Jewish state, would decree that I bear real guilt for the starvation and extermination of tens of thousands of children like them. The state that arose from the ruins of that destruction has brought a hundred thousand children in Gaza to the danger of death from starvation.
Whether our mother was there in body or not - we are all second, third, and fourth generation to victims of starvation and extermination. And the one commandment the victims left us, all of us, is simple: never again. Because every person, as a human being, has absolute and inviolable value, "human dignity," and our supreme duty is to recognize and ensure it. Simply because they are human. All the more so for children. They are always entitled to life, to protection, without question and without qualification. This is the entire Torah and there is nothing else. And it dictates our responsibility and our moral duty.
But in 2025, the Israeli army, on orders from the political echelon, is destroying Gaza and exterminating its population. Neighborhood after neighborhood and city after city in the Strip are destroyed to the foundations, and people are expelled with nothing and pushed to crowd into increasingly smaller areas. Like then. After we destroyed all infrastructure, including hospitals, the mortality is relentless. Families constantly shrink and thousands have already been erased from the face of the earth. Others leave behind hopeless orphans, abandoned to their fate. Like then.
Since Israel broke the ceasefire in March, Gaza's besieged population has also been deliberately and systematically starved. Israel allows only very little food to enter the Strip, and what little is allowed in is brought in a way that cannot reach all residents. Children, the sick, the elderly, people weakened by hunger - cannot reach the four food distribution stations Israel created, instead of the 400 stations that operated before. We have decreed their fate to languish until they die of hunger, weakness, and disease. Relatively strong young people who do reach the distribution stations to get some relief are shot to death daily by Israeli soldiers.
There is no electricity, no gas, no clean water; if someone finds a potato peel - there isn't even a way to cook it. And all this time, Israel prevents the entry of food, medicine, and other vital supplies that could save lives, and which are available in large quantities at hand (because they are held by UN organizations that Israel decided to boycott), and denies its actions - even now, as it tries to make minor corrections at the margins.
This is conduct of incomprehensible cruelty. It creates horror beyond the ability to imagine, and this allows most Israelis to deny it: if it's too terrible to be true - it's probably not true. And so they allow the horror to continue happening.
What value does our freedom have if we don't use it to stop dispossession, killing, and starvation? What do we need the rule of law for if not to ensure human dignity?
The Israeli public's silence is a betrayal not only of the entire world of values it claims to hold; it is an absolute betrayal of Holocaust victims, in whose name we demanded a state for ourselves where we could ensure our existence. It is a betrayal of the Mintzer family and the millions of other families who were slaughtered and perished throughout Jewish history. It is a betrayal of the entire long legacy of Jewish existence as a persecuted minority. It is a betrayal of humanity in general - and of our collective identity in particular. It is such a monumental betrayal that it's hard to contain.
I don't usually invoke the name of the Holocaust, because too many bear it in vain, but now it's unavoidable.
Those who rejoice in Gaza's destruction and annihilation, those who justify or rationalize the horror with talk of revenge for the terrible massacre of October 7 - have lost their souls. But those who can still feel human emotion must wake from the paralyzing slumber and shake off this unforgivable betrayal.
You who cry out against the firing of the Shin Bet chief and the attorney general and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee - but fill your mouths with water regarding the extermination and starvation we are carrying out in Gaza: your concern for Israeli democracy and the future of the state pales against your silence in the face of mass extermination. What value does our freedom have, which you fight for, if we don't use it to stop dispossession, killing, and starvation? What do we need the rule of law for if not to ensure human dignity?
You who organize rallies to bring back the hostages, whom the government wickedly abandons with unbearable evil - but don't address the destruction of the lives of another two million women and men who are also languishing in Gaza alongside the hostages: what kind of human solidarity is this, that applies only to the twenty "our" hostages, and closes its eyes to the fate of millions?
You who run WhatsApp groups with many participants and broadcast hope for a healthier and saner future - and close your eyes to the unforgivable crime: what rosy future can there be here, when the tens of thousands of children who died through our fault will accompany us wherever we go?
And you who presume to lead, in various ways, the sane public - but are careful not to say "controversial" things that might upset someone: shame on you. If children dying of hunger don't disturb you enough to cry out without political calculations, what alternative are you offering? What leadership?
Where are the Holocaust researchers from Yad Vashem? The Medical Association? The nurses? Professional associations - of psychologists, sociologists, lawyers, social workers? Where are the student organizations? When children become Muselmänner and die in agony because of us - don't you think it's your duty to cry out until the horror stops? So what are you here for?
If a million Israeli women and men took to the streets, as one person, with an uncompromising demand to end the war immediately - this horror would end. Even a monstrous and disconnected government cannot ignore the entire public. When a million Israelis took to the streets, the hostages will finally be returned to their homes; the lives of soldiers, 896 of whom have already been sacrificed, will be saved; their souls will be saved from the insane trauma their state imposes on them; and two million people in Gaza will be rescued from the inferno Israel has trapped them in.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
New Poll Shows The Epstein Controversy Is Not Going Away
The charts above are from the Washington Post Poll -- done on July 28th of a random nationwide sample of 1,089 adults, with a 3.3 point margin of error.
We Are Living In An Age Of Bullies
This excellent post is by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich:
We are living in an age of bullies. Those with power are less constrained today than they have been in my lifetime, since the end of World War II.
The question is: How do we lead moral lives in this era?
Putin launches a horrendous war on Ukraine.
After Hamas’s atrocity, Netanyahu bombs Gaza to smithereens and is now starving to death its remaining occupants.
Trump abducts thousands of hardworking people within America and puts them into detention camps — splitting their families, spreading fear. His immigration agents target people with brown skin and Mexican-sounding names.
He usurps the powers of Congress, defies the courts, and prosecutes his enemies.
He and his Republican lackeys cut Medicaid and food stamps — lifelines for poor people, including millions of children — so that the wealthy can get a tax cut.
Hate-mongers on right-wing television and social media fuel bigotry against transgender people, immigrants, Muslims, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people.
Powerful men (such as Trump) sexually harass, abuse, and rape women. Some of the abused are children.
Powerful male politicians make it impossible for women to obtain safe abortions.
CEOs rake in record profits and compensation while giving workers meager wages and firing them for unionizing. Billionaires make large campaign donations — legalized bribes — so lawmakers will cut their taxes and repeal environmental and safety regulations.
Each such abuse of power encourages other abuses. Each undermines norms of civility.
Every time the stronger bully the weaker, the social fabric is tested. If bullying is not contained, the fabric unwinds. Those who are bullied — who feel powerless, vulnerable, bitter, and desperate — become fodder for “strong men” demagogues who lead them into violence, war, and tyranny.
This is hardly new. Throughout history, the central struggle of civilization has been against brutality by the powerful. Civilization is the opposite of brutality. A civil society doesn’t allow the strong to brutally treat the weak.
Yet in my lifetime, I’ve witnessed a breakdown. I’ve seen a change occur — from support of decency and constraints on brutality, to tolerance of indecency and support for unconstrained cruelty.
Trump is not the cause. He’s the culmination.
So how do we lead moral lives in this age of bullies?
We do everything we can to stop the brutality, to hold the powerful accountable, and to protect the vulnerable.
Putin and Netanyahu are war criminals whose criminality must be stopped. Trump is a dictator who must be deposed.
Right-wing politicians who encourage white Christian nationalism must be condemned and voted out of office. Pundits who amplify racism and xenophobia must lose their megaphones.
Powerful men who sexually harass or abuse women or children must be prosecuted.
Women must be given full control over their bodies, including access to safe abortions.
Police who kill innocent people of color must be brought to justice. Immigration agents must be prohibited from abducting people off the street or from their homes or courthouses or places of work.
CEOs who treat their employees like manure must be exposed and penalized. Billionaires who bribe lawmakers to cut their taxes or exempt them from regulations must be sanctioned, as should lawmakers who accept such bribes.
This isn’t a matter of “left” or “right.” It’s a matter of what’s right.
Living a moral life in an age of bullies requires collective action; it cannot be done alone. Each of us must organize and participate in a vast network of moral resistance.
This is what civilization demands. It’s what the struggle for social justice requires. It’s why that struggle is so critical today, and why we all must be part of it.
There Is No Place In The U.S. To Be Safe From Gun Violence
In the last couple of days, there have been two more mass shootings making the national news. In a Reno (Nevada) casino resort, a gunman killed three people and wounded three others. And in downtown New York City, a gunman killed four people (including an armed policeman) and critically wounded another.
While these are the first mass shootings to make the national news in a while, they are not an anomaly. So far this year, there has been 253 mass shootings in this country - more than one for every day. Sadly, mass shootings (a shooting in which at least four people are shot) are a common thing in this country.
It used to be that if you avoided certain high crime areas and didn't engage in high risk behaviors, then you were pretty safe in the United States. That is not the case anymore. The shootings can happen anywhere - retail stores, office building, workplaces, nightclubs, schools, churches, concerts, and any other places where people congregate. There is no place that can now be considered safe from gun violence anymore - not in large cities or small ones, not in blue states or red ones, and not in any region of the country. Innocent people are being gunned down all over the country.
It doesn't have to be that way. Other developed countries don't have anywhere near the level of gun violence that happens in the United States. That's because those countries have reasonable gun laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
It's different in the United States, where there are more guns that people. And our lax laws allow anyone (criminal, terrorist, or dangerously mentally ill) to legally buy any kind of gun they want - including assault weapons which can kill or wound many people in a short period of time. This is because Republican officials block any kind of reasonable laws that could make it harder for dangerous people to get a gun.
That's not likely to change anytime soon. Republicans control our national government, and they've made it clear they prefer to protect the rights of gun manufacturers and criminals over saving the lives of innocent citizens.
The gun violence carnage will continue until they are voted out of office.
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Trump Is Waging War On Blue States
Jennifer Rubin (In The Contrarian) exposes Donald Trump's war on blue states and cities:
A federal judge in the Northern District of Illinois on Friday threw out the government’s lawsuit claiming federal law preempts local laws limiting cooperation with Trump’s mass deportation effort. (The latter are improperly labeled “sanctuary city laws.” Localities are not claiming federal law is inapplicable, but rather, as discussed below, are declining to provide shock troops for Trump’s police state.) It was the latest round, and latest MAGA defeat, in Donald Trump’s war against states that resist his cruel, lawless, and dangerous agenda.
Trump’s war against blue states is central to his dictatorial ambitions. To achieve unlimited control, he must subjugate independent sources of power and information—from TV network news operations to universities to civil servants to Congress itself. Ironically (for a party that once fetishized states’ rights), Trump’s MAGA GOP consistently seeks to obliterate federalism and force states—generally blue ones—to do his bidding.
The scope of Trump’s onslaught against blue states is stunning. His vendetta against them played out in his determination to override California’s emissions regulations. His war continued with the big, ugly bill, which prevents states from filling the $1T hole in federal Medicaid spending by raising their own funds. (The bill originally contained another provision to prevent states from regulating AI, an infringement on state authority that Democrats narrowly defeated.) Most recently, Trump’s homelessness diktat threatens to yank funding from cities and states that do not follow his command to criminalize homelessness.
Moreover, Trump’s assault on federalism is a critical aspect of his militarized mass deportation operation. (Under the executive decree that he first directed against California, Trump deployed Marines—who have since withdrawn because they had nothing to do—and nationalized the California National Guard against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wishes.) On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Lindsay Jenkins for the Northern District of Illinois slapped down Trump’s effort to force Illinois and local jurisdictions to facilitate Trump’s vicious mass deportation plan. The Trump regime sued Illinois, Cook County, the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the City of Chicago, and individual officials including Gov. JB Pritzker, claiming that federal law preempts state and local policies that prohibit state and local government officials from “complying with detainers [administrative warrants], communicating with immigration agents before releasing noncitizens, providing immigration agents access to noncitizens in custody, and giving immigration agents information (such as contact information and release dates) about noncitizens.” In its bogus legal action, the Trump regime misapplied federal immigration law permitting local cooperation with Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to argue that states and localities are obligated to do the feds’ bidding.
After dismissing claims against individual officials and local entities on procedural grounds, Jenkins knocked down the government’s attempt to deprive Illinois of the autonomy to set its own law enforcement priorities and direct its own personnel. First, Jenkins rejected the government’s attempt to demand information not even covered in the federal law at issue. “[T]he court is not persuaded that the information the United States seeks—noncitizens’ contact information, custody status, and release dates—is linked to their status such that it is within the scope of even a slightly broader reading of [federal immigration law],” he determined. It is worth noting that courts have consistently rejected the government’s interpretation, yet the Trump team has not stopped using the same discredited interpretation.
As for compelling the defendants to hand over the specific information that is covered by federal law (i.e., immigration status), Jenkins reminded the parties: “Congress may only legislate upon individuals, as is reflected in the Framers’ debates during the Constitutional Convention and their deliberate rejection of a plan that would have allowed Congress to legislate on States.” Jenkins found that the Trump regime was impermissibly attempting to wield federal immigration law against local entities, “prohibiting [local] restrictions on their ability to share certain immigration-related information with DHS.” And that, as stated in the Constitution, the federal government cannot do.
In sum, states have protection under the 10th Amendment to set their own policies. In demanding that blue cities and states follow the feds’ direction, the Trump regime impedes localities from translating “voter preferences into policy.” And, Jenkins wrote, such action denigrates state autonomy by seizing control over local jurisdictions’ employees (unconstitutionally “commandeering” them)—something at the heart of state sovereignty. (States’ refusal to be dragooned into manning Trump’s police state does not, as the government claimed, amount to impairing federal policy; rather, it constitutes exercising constitutionally protected sovereignty.)
Despite Trump’s executive decrees and legally dubious suits, states have every right to make their own law enforcement priorities and fund the policies they select. As Pritzker put it in a written statement, “Illinois ensures law enforcement time and energy is spent fighting crime—not carrying out the Trump Administration’s unlawful policies or troubling tactics.” Jenkins’ ruling protected its right to do so.
Local and state authorities going forward can cite as much, using Jenkins’s reasoning. (The feds filed a suit similar to the one before Jenkins against New York City.) Blue states will need to defeat more of Trump’s frivolous legal actions and block his impermissible executive edicts that attempt to bully them into carrying out his cruel, ineffective, and often illegal initiatives.
Protection of state and local sovereignty is more than just an arcane constitutional debate; it is one more critical battleground in the fight to block Trump’s quest for dictatorial power.
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