The Epstein saga; The Israel-Palestine saga; MAGA's Authoritarianism creep

The NYT and lots of others report that the House Oversight Committee released some files turned over by Epstein’s estate. The release includes a copy of a sex note that djt wrote to Jeff. 

As expected for an embarrassment like this, the White House denies that it is a letter from djt. His letter to Jeff was in a book for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. It shows an imagined conversation between the two. In typical MAGA style, press secretary and shameless liar Karoline Leavitt claims the Wall Street Journal article "PROVES this entire 'Birthday Card' story is false". 

Once again, MAGA elites tell us that direct evidence of MAGA sleaze proves the sleaze is non-existent. By now, that is standard operating procedure for MAGA demagogues.

Last July, July, Vance dismissed the letter's alleged existence as "complete and utter bullshit," questioning its authenticity and asking "Where is this letter?" In response to Vance's question about the letter, Gavin Newsom snarkily commented "That aged well".

This Epstein thing has remarkable staying power. Quite unexpected.

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In a NYT opinion, Michelle Goldberg seems to tentatively reach the same conclusions about Israel-Palestine and the two-state solution that two authors assert in their new book, Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine. Goldber's opinion is entitled, These Peace Negotiators Say It’s Time to Give Up on the Two-State Solution. The author's conclusions are that (1) the possibility of any two-state solution has vanished, (2) it may have always been a futile goal, and (3) two state had no chance of succeeding while the United States refused to exert significant pressure on Israel.

The first two of those conclusions seemed pretty obvious in Nov. 1995 after Rabin's assassination by an Israeli Zionist zealot with a gun. By then decades of peace talks and negotiations had failed. In the last year or two, there has been a trickle of observers who have come to at least the first two conclusions. 

The third conclusion, US pressure was necessary but never came, raises a matter of profound moral significance. If it was up to the US to force the parties into a two-state solution and the US failed, what does that say about the two sides? They could have voluntarily come to an agreement on their own, but they did not. Staunch Israel supporters will blame the Palestinian people and terrorists. The Palestinians will blame the Israeli government and Israelis. At this point, the bitter disagreements and bloodshed will not end until the Palestinian side is crushed into complete submission. But it is a fact, or close to it, that the possibility of a two-state solution has vanished.

Goldberg asserts what is arguably obvious and undeniable:

I’m the sort of person [the authors] refer to in their book, someone who has lost faith that there will ever be a Palestinian state but can’t envision a workable, tolerable alternative. Israel is not going to dismantle itself.

Yup, Israel is not going to dismantle itself. A tolerable alternative is not on the horizon. Diplomacy failed. Brute force won.

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In some ways, embodied authoritarianism is like any other embodied ideal or ideology. Groups and institutions built around an ideology like MAGA's sacred kleptocratic authoritarianism can (usually do?) undergo mission creep if they can do so. When it happens, it almost always comes with an attendant expansion of scope and power. An example is the expansion of MAGA authoritarianism built on the ideal of illegal immigration as a fearsome enemy. Base human sentiments of intense bigotry and blatant racism mostly power the growth of this strand of MAGA authoritarianism.

The American Prospect reports that the DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) is now claiming that bystanders who videotape ICE agents and raids on targeted people and locations constitutes violence. Elite MAGA thugs and ICE agents use that expanded definition of violence to justify assaults on journalists who have documented detentions of allegedly illegal immigrants. ICE arrests and disappearances is happening on streets, workplaces, and courtrooms. ICE arrests and detentions now routinely occur without due process. DHS brazenly claims that recording such illegal activity is an act of “violence” and will be dealt with accordingly. 

According to the TAP article, last July MAGA DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that violence is "anything that threatens [DHS agents] and their safety. It is doxing them. It is videotaping them where they're at." A DHS spokesperson also commented: "We will prosecute those who illegally harass ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law." That videotaping 

This is an example of MAGA authoritarianism sweeping aside constitutional rights, e.g., the 1st Amendment guarantee of a right to criticize and report government abuse. This is what American authoritarian mission creep looks like as it kills democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties.