Girls crossing the desert in Rajasthani, India. From National Geographic.Normally, I do not post stories relating to Israel. Why? Thomas Friedman captures succinctly my sense of resignation about what their government has been up to.
Israel: Adrift at Sea Alone (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"I’VE never been more worried about Israel’s future. The crumbling of key pillars of Israel’s security — the peace with Egypt, the stability of Syria and the friendship of Turkey and Jordan — coupled with the most diplomatically inept and strategically incompetent government in Israel’s history have put Israel in a very dangerous situation."
A related item:
The Tsuris (John Heilemann) from New York Magazine
"Barack Obama is the best thing Israel has going for it right now. Why is that so difficult for Netanyahu and his American Jewish allies to understand?"
The End of an Era in Iran (Ray Takeyh) from the Washington Post
"As with the Soviet Union, the theocratic regime needs more than brute force to survive. Its viability rests on its ability to permeate society with its hypocrisy. ... In clerical mystification, fabricating electoral results is called safeguarding elections. The regime’s manufactured reality rarely observes limits. The state claims to uphold human rights standards, yet it presents show trials and other transgressions as sanctioned by divine ordinance. The regime claims to seek diplomatic accord with the West, yet its conduct is an affront to international convention. The clerical oligarchs claim to fear nothing, yet in fact they fear everything: their citizens, their neighbors, each other. The real question is: Why does the regime hold so tenaciously to a narrative that convinces no one?"
Predators and Robots at War (Christian Caryl) from the New York Review of Books
"Drones are not remarkable because of their weaponry. There is nothing especially unusual about the missiles they carry, and even the largest models are relatively lightly armed. They are not fast or nimble. What makes them powerful is their ability to see and think."
There Will Be Oil (Daniel Yergin) from the Wall Street Journal
A good long-form examination from a pulitzer-prize winning analyst!
"For decades, advocates of 'peak oil' have been predicting a crisis in energy supplies. They've been wrong at every turn, says Daniel Yergin. ... Things don't stand still in the energy industry. With the passage of time, unconventional sources of oil, in all their variety, become a familiar part of the world's petroleum supply. They help to explain why the plateau continues to recede into the horizon—and why, on a global view, Hubbert's Peak is still not in sight."
When the Parts are More Popular than the Whole (Steve Benen) from Washington Monthly
"A CNN poll this week found similar results — the public generally approved of the American Jobs Act, but really approved of what’s in the Americans Jobs Act. This may seem counter-intuitive — if people like the parts, they should like the whole — but it makes a lot of sense."
Can Obama Calm Democratic Panic? (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"Obama and his party are grappling with the “tragedy of the commons” in a classic form. Obama, who has been so happy to stay distant and above the concerns of his Democratic allies, cannot afford to lose them now. Democrats in Congress have a long list of reasons for being resentful. The special elections will aggravate their fears of embracing the president too closely. Yet if Obama’s presidency is weakened further, the resulting damage will afflict Democrats as a whole. However justified their past grievances might be, they have a powerful collective interest in seeing the fighting Obama get his new act off the ground."
Obama and the Art of Picking a Fight (Steve Kornacki) from the Salon
"Obama’s only recourse is to do everything he possibly can to convince swing voters that their anxiety is mainly a product not of his own stewardship but of Republican obstructionism. The jobs plan fits into this nicely. "
Usually, I am loath to post items from hyper-partisan blogs such as Daily Kos -- I rarely find them very edifying. But today there are TWO (2) exceptions! Check out the following:
Political Strategery: It is About Getting More Votes from Daily Kos
"Earlier this week, Matt Yglesias continued his argument that presidential speeches do not matter: ... I think this type of thinking is emblematic of a serious failing in Beltway Democratic political thinking in two ways."
The Tea Party Death Cult from the Daily Kos
"Don't get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly." This gave the DC chattering class a massive case of the vapors and resulted in calls for Grayson to apologize. Grayson did apologize, of course: to those who have died because they lacked health insurance. ... It's now a simple fact that a good number of tea party voters actively like to see people die. It doesn't matter if they're innocent or guilty. It doesn't matter if there were circumstances beyond the control of those they hope will soon be deceased. It doesn't matter if sane public policy could have prevented them from dying of a painful disease. They just need to die. And die quickly."
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