At some point, a utilitarian calculus has to enter into the Palestinian equation. The M.O.P. E (Most Oppressed People Ever) only ever break stuff. (But that, too, is Israel’s fault.)
Most sane Americans look askance at those who suggest that the real estate between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea should be turned over to the Palestinians.
President Trump is right about the fate of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, killed in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey: It’s not America’s bag.
But things get murky when the president tells the Nation that America First means we side with Saudi Arabia in its regional wars, among them the vanquishing of Yemen. (There, people are dying from disease and starvation in the tens of thousands, thanks to the House of Saud, also the perps implicated in 9/11.)
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday:
“Mr. Trump bizarrely devotes the FIRST paragraph of his shameful statement on Saudi atrocities to accuse IRAN of every sort of malfeasance he can think of. Perhaps we’re also responsible for the California fires, because we didn’t help rake the forests — just like the Finns do?”
While the Iranians get pointers for impolitic humor, they are still confused about one thing.
The Russians are responsible for the heartbreaking California fires, not the Iranians.
Among the planks of [Israel’s controversial Nation-State] legislation:
‘Hatikva’ is Israel’s national anthem. Hebrew is its official language. Jerusalem, ‘complete and united,’ is its capital. The flag and menorah its official symbols. The Sabbath its day of rest (with non-Jews having their own days of rest). Israel is open to Jewish immigration. Above all, ‘The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.’
The likes of Ben Shapiro and Dinesh D’Souza will be firstto object to the US having a Nation-State Bill Like Israel’s, likely on the ground that America is somehow not like Israel.
They’ll come up with some creative cuckservative excuses, in flowery prose, for why the US has to embrace a move toward a majority-minority “nation” united by NOTHING.
That’s how you tell—how you differentiate—an Israel Firster neocon from an authentic conservative, aka a paleoconservative or paleoliberarian.
Former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh is an idiot.
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is an idiot.
Ditto Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina.
Don’t know what’s up with Philip Van Cleave, the Virginian who heads a citizen’s self-defense league. But nobody would exhibit stupidity for the sake of politeness. His dumbness might just be a natural state.
Lobbyist Larry Pratt, director of Gun Owners of America: He certainly convinces one of his studied stupidity.
What did they do?
Obediently they recited the following lines in front of a camera:
“The way to stop a bad guy with a gun… is a good kid with a gun.”
“The intensive three-week Kinderguardian course introduces specially selected children from 12 to 4 years old to pistols, rifles, semiautomatics, and a rudimentary knowledge of mortars. In less than a month — less than a month — a first-grader can become a first-grenade-er. Happy shooting, kids.”
“Children under five also have elevated levels of the pheromone Blink-182, produced by the part of the liver known as the Rita Ora. This allows nerve reflexes to travel along the Cardi B neural pathway to the Wiz Khalifa 40% faster.”
“Toddlers are pure, uncorrupted by fake news or homosexuality. They don’t care if it’s politically correct to shoot a mentally deranged gunman. They’ll just do it.”
“… children can process images quicker than adults, meaning that, essentially like owls, they can see in slow motion.”
And they’re OK with their interviewer, Sasha Baron Cohen, chiming in on the merits of arming toddler: “My son, may he rest in peace, was in the first program, he died doing what I love. … They try [in the US] to stop 4-year-olds from having guns? What is the logic ???!”
Terribly funny.
But also an object lesson in what politicians would agree to recite and do, to benefit their agenda (good or bad) and their special interests.
In his latest skit, comedic genius Sacha Baron Cohen takes the mickey out of your typical, Fox News, Israeli “anti-terror expert.” His character is called Col. Erran Morad, and he has a recognizably hypnotic effect on US Republicans.
Cohen’s is also the type of satire American comedians no longer do for fear of disobeying the PC police. The reductio ad absurdum is bloody good.
This is certainly a worthy dig at politicians who’re both deeply stupid and will say anything if an Israeli krav maga knucklehead tells them to.
In any event, Cohen didn’t need to work hard to persuade “former and current Republican lawmakers [to endorse] the idea of arming school children as young as four with guns.”
The only honest-to-goodness smart representative was the Republican from Florida, Matt Gaetz. Incredulous, he asked scary Sasha:
“You want me to say on television that I support 3- and 4-year-olds with firearms? Is that what you’re asking me?”
No can do. I don’t think so.
This is wicked funny and good libertarian fun. Sacha Baron Cohen does a public service, exposing the stupid herd of politicians (and one smart one). Now let’s see Cohen mock the Left.
UPDATE I (7/18): Joe Walsh: “Sasha Baron Cohen gets people to say stupid things.”
No. Cohen gets stupid people to say stupid things.
UPDATE II (7/24): Cohen, who first coined the term “crap countries” before “shitholes,” courtesy Trump, needs now to offend the Left.
Someone—OK, my daughter—countered that #SashaBaronCohen was taking advantage of people who were trying to be nice & hospitable. Cohen certainly did that in spades with a Southern family in the film #Borat. @WalshFreedomhttps://t.co/WaF24F7gaV
