Biden and Bibi Beef While U.S. Policy Remains Unchanged - The Monday AM Quickie 3/11/24
The Hollywood labor story that has our attention is the alleged plagiarism surrounding The Holdovers. -Jacob
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THE BIG NEWS
Netanyahu, Shrugging Off Biden's Criticism, Vows to Invade Rafah
In an interview with NBC News, President Joe Biden discouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from invading Rafah, the town in southern Gaza where more than 1.5 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge. "It is a red line, but I'm never going to leave Israel," said Biden. "The defense of Israel is critical." He added that he could not tolerate "30,000 more Palestinians dead" – the kind of awkward Bidenism that manages to express some humanitarian concern while also seeming to imply that the 30,000 killed up to this point hadn't bothered the president.
Netanyahu didn't seem to know what to make of Biden's remarks (the Times called them "muddled"). Or perhaps he doesn't care that his chief sponsor is expressing reservations in public. Speaking to Politico, Netanyahu claimed that his policies were popular with the Israeli public and stated, once again, that he could not tolerate the establishment of a Palestinian state. As for Rafah, Israel will do what it wants.
"We'll go there. We're not going to leave," said Netanyahu. "You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is, that October 7 doesn't happen again. Never happens again."
Israel's post-October 7 campaign in Gaza has killed about 31,000 people, according to Gazan health authorities. Children are starving to death as Israel continues to lay siege to the strip while allowing right-wing activists to block the entrance of aid vehicles. Several countries have airdropped meals, but they're not nearly enough, and in a perverse twist, an aid package whose parachute didn't open struck and killed five people on Friday. A US Army ship left port yesterday on its way to Gaza, where it's supposed to be part of a contingent of 11,000-plus US service-members building a pier to receive and distribute aid. It's another insufficient U.S. response that's expected to take at least two months to get operational.
"Stopping American humanitarian aid is in violation of the law. That should be clear," said Senator Bernie Sanders yesterday. "No more money to Netanyahu’s war machine to kill Palestinian children."
Whatever Biden might be saying in public, he's shown little appetite for real political confrontation with Netanyahu and his supporters. Since the latest war began on October 7, the US government has approved 100 arms transfers to Israel.
MORE STORIES TO WATCH
Government Shutdown Averted. Again. For Now.
With a few hours to spare, the Senate passed a bill Friday to avoid a government shutdown. The new bill funds "roughly 30 percent of the federal government for the next six months," according to the Washington Post. President Biden was expected to sign it immediately.
The problem with this kind of piecemeal appropriations process – besides revealing our governing class's incompetence – is that they'll have to do it again very soon. Like today. There's a March 22 deadline to fund other parts of the government, including the massive national-security apparatus, and Republicans are especially divided on a range of measures, from military aid for Ukraine and Israel to border security to earmarks. Senators now have 12 days to negotiate over six spending bills to cover the rest of the government.
Biden Wants to Ban TikTok. Does Congress?
The bipartisan political campaign against TikTok has gained energy, with a vote expected as soon as this week in the House on a bill that would ban the app if it doesn't divest from its Chinese parent company. TikTok has been cast a national security danger, though the company has tried to reassure politicians and users that Chinese authorities have no access to customer data. It's also rallied its users to call Congress on its behalf.
With political pressure increasing, potential buyers are starting to emerge. As perhaps the only upstart social-media platform to challenge American dominance in recent years, TikTok should attract serious acquisition interest.
America's leading politicians seem to form their opinions on TikTok based more on influence peddling and financial interests than political affiliation or ideological belief. Former Donald Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway is now lobbying for TikTok on Capitol Hill, and she's reportedly spoken about the app to Trump, who recently made a u-turn and said that a ban would only help "Facebook and Zuckerschmuck." Republican mega-donor Jeff Yass, who's chummy with Trump, is a major TikTok investor and also donates to the Club for Growth, which hired Conway. Kentucky Senator Ron Paul, a big recipient of Yass political donations, has been a vocal opponent of a TikTok ban. Prominent Democrats like Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Adam Schiff have said they're unsure about supporting a ban.
President Biden said he would sign a law to ban TikTok. His administration has issued warnings about TikTok's security and banned it from federal devices. For his 2024 electoral prospects, there is, however, one slight problem: Biden's campaign joined TikTok last month.
QUICKEST QUICKIES
- Princess Kate Photo Apparently Manipulated Kensington Palace issued a photo of Kate, the Princess of Wales, who has been little seen since undergoing abdominal surgery two months ago. News agencies soon pulled the photo after it became clear that it had been awkwardly (and inexplicably) manipulated in several spots. via Associated Press and BBC News.
- Elon Musk's Huge Charity Spends On Pet Projects – Or Not At All Elon Musk's charitable foundation has billions of dollars in assets from its namesake donor. But the charity has failed some years to distribute the amount of money that the law requires. In other years, it's simply given to projects that are likely to benefit Musk and his network of companies. via New York Times.
- Biden Touts 81 Years of Experience In a new campaign ad, President Biden has embraced his age, saying that he knows how to get things done in Washington. With age concerns ever present, Biden and his surrogates have begun to acknowledge the issue more, including by pointing out Donald Trump's chaotic behavior and bizarre elocutions. via Politico and Biden-Harris HQ/X.
- Big Business Is Trying to Kill the NLRB SpaceX, Trader Joe's, Amazon, and Starbucks are among the companies supporting a legal effort that argues that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional. If these corporations are successful in diminishing the already limited power of the NLRB, they would deal a catastrophic blow to labor rights. via The Guardian, Reuters, and Bloomberg.
SOME NUMBER
600
That's about how many workers at Activision, a major video-game company owned by Microsoft, voted to unionize last week under the auspices of the Communications Workers of America. The workers come from Activision's quality assurance (QA) department. The new Activision QA union would be the largest bloc of organized workers in the gaming industry In 2022, Microsoft agreed to a "neutrality agreement" with the CWA that was expected to smooth the path to unionization. Last December, 300 workers at ZeniMax, which is also owned by Microsoft, announced that they were organizing.
ON THE SHOW TODAY
3/11: Happy Monday! Sam speaks with Dr. Peter J. Hotez, Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, to discuss his recent book The Deadly Rise of Anti-science: A Scientist's Warning.
DON'T MISS MR CLIPS
Ryan Grim Breaks Down the State of the Union
The Intercept's Ryan Grim joins us to talk about Biden's SOTU speech and the administration's refusal to intervene more forcefully in Gaza.
Why Flying Is Miserable
Law professor Ganesh Sitaraman talks about his recent book "Why Flying Is Miserable: And How to Fix It."
PARTING WORDS
"We back Trump."
-- Billionaire Republican donor Liz Uihlein speaking to the Financial Times after Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential primary race. Uihlein and her husband collectively donated $3 million to support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but like many Republican elites, they now plan to line up their significant financial resources behind Donald Trump.
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