A House Divided #257
By Hank Silverberg
Commentary
Our government is running out of money and could shut down in mid-November. The war in Ukraine rages on as supplies diminish, and now Israel has been attacked by a terrorist army and is fighting once again for its very life.
Our President has responded by pledging once again that the United States will help its friends and send a strong message to Iran, Russia and China about our commitment to defend the free world.
No aide can be approved for Israel and Ukraine, no help can be sent to our southern border to better manage immigration, and millions of Americans could face really hard times if the government closes. It's all because a small group of selfish, right-wing egotists in the Republican party can't do something as easy as electing a Speaker of The House. And Congress can not do its work without a Speaker.
Yes, I know there are Democrats in the House too. But as the minority party, they can only sit and wait for the people on the other side of the aisle to get their act together.
Most of the public seems to understand this. A USA TODAY poll finds 67% of the public wants the House to elect a Speaker as soon as possible. The newspaper describes that as an "overwhelming" number.
It's a good example of how few people know what is at stake here. It's not "overwhelming," it's embarrassing. That figure should be closer to 95%.
Other numbers from that poll, only 4%, have a "lot" of confidence in our leaders, with 32% having "some" confidence (both parties).
Congressmen Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz and a few others are basically destroying the way this country is supposed to work.
Frankly, millions of people, both in the United States and around the world, could pay a steep price for the the GOP's egotistical romp through inane rules to sustain their bloodstained ideology.
The GOP will try once more this week to pick a new Speaker and get the House working on the people's business. I wish I could be optimistic that will happen before the week is over. But as I have written before, the GOP is continuing its 40-year campaign as the "party of NO," and I see nothing that will change that.
Their victims this time are not just poor and middle class Americans who have been neglected by the Republicans for decades. This time the GOP's inability to function as a responsible political party is also destroying the future of Ukrainians, Israelis and Palestinians, and in the process severely injuring the image of America as the leader of the free world. And that doesn't even include the violence it may promote here at home.
You can bet they are smiling in Moscow, Beijing and Tehran.
News
The News Business
"In war, truth is the first casualty" --Aeschylus
This often-used quote comes from the playwright Aeschylus, who is also called the Father of The Greek Tragedy (455 B.C.E.).
It was accurate then, and it is even more so now in the internet age of 24/7/365 news and information.
All it took this past week was one video of an explosion near a Gaza hospital, in the dark, misinterpreted by one irresponsible reporter with questionable credentials, to set the Arab street on fire and produce protests by thousands of people across the globe.
It is probably true that the Arab and Muslim world was looking for an excuse to protest Israel's declaration of war on Hamas. That comes, even though the violence this time began with the gruesome murders of more than 1,200 innocent Israelis, including women, children and old people by Hamas-a group which does NOT represent the majority of Palestinians.
So when the first reports say the hospital was destroyed by an Israeli bomb, that's how most of the Arab media reported it.
Much of the free press elsewhere picked up on that
 |
| (Courtesy Univ of Texas Lib) |
It didn't take long for a more accurate description to come out--that the explosion was actually in a parking lot at the hospital. Many people had been staying there feeling it was safe. It was not, and the casualties were high. But as questions started to be asked it became clear that the explosion most likely came from a malfunctioning rocket fired nearby by Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group operating in Gaza.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-rcna120978
Clarifications on-line, on the air, and by intelligence agencies from several countries did little to change the original narrative that Israel was to blame.
I spent 42 years working in newsrooms. The first thing you learn in reporting violence and tragedy is that the first incomplete reports are rarely accurate. There is a need, therefore, to be cautious in instances like the hospital explosion. That is even more crucial today when so many purported "news" operations are actually run by governments or groups with a strong political agenda.
It is a lesson lost on much of the news media today. The fog of war is thicker than ever. Aeschylus is proven right once again.
Homicides Declining!
If you turn on the late local news in almost any significant TV market in the country, or if you watch the talking heads on Fox News on a regular basis, you might believe that murder and mayhem are on the rise across the USA.
But the actual numbers don't fit that narrative. An article in the Los Angeles Times has some good statistics to back it up (see link below).
Crime as a whole was up in 2020 and 2021, but the pandemic skews those figures.
New statistics show homicides dropped significantly in 2022, even as Conservatives and Republicans in general continue to blame the Biden Administration for violence in the streets.
https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend
According to the FBI report, violent crime was also down across the country in 2022 to about the same level as it was in 2019 before the Covid pandemic.
Violent crime had hovered around the same numbers for the last dozen years or so since a peak in 2011. So any decline this year is now notable.
Auto theft is the exception to the decrease trend. It is up significantly, perhaps driven by a surge in social media videos on easy ways to steal some types of cars.
Of note: the facts here don't gibe with the public's perception. A recent Gallup poll showed 56% of the public believe crime was up dramatically in their area.
That's somewhat understandable since most local newscasts, no matter where you live, lead their late night broadcast with the latest shooting, no matter how minor, instead of something more newsworthy.
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
This week's dumb quote comes from a very interesting source--a spokesman for The New York Times.
The Times had fired a freelancer named Soliman Hijjy last year after he had praised Hitler and Hitler's actions against Jews in his social media posts. Hijjy had been covering Gaza as a stringer for the Times when he was fired.
This week the Times rehired him and issued this statement:
“We reviewed problematic social media posts by Mr. Hijjy when they first came to light in 2022 and took a variety of actions to ensure he understood our concerns and could adhere to our standards if he wished to do freelance work for us in the future. Mr. Hijjy followed those steps and has maintained high journalistic standards. He has delivered important and impartial work at great personal risk in Gaza during this conflict.”
But what does this stringer really think? He seemed to express it in the now-deleted social media posts. Is that the kind of reporter you really want covering the Israel/Hamas war? The "Gray Lady" seems to be losing more and more respect these days, especially when those in charge make bad decisions like this one. I won't believe anything the Times publishes about Gaza and Israel from now on.
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome)
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