The Full Belmonte, 10/11/2023
President Biden condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel as an ‘an act of sheer evil’ that left more than 1,000 civilians dead, including at least 14 American citizens.
“The Israeli military massed forces for a ground invasion of Gaza and warned of a lengthy, destructive war. Biden said the U.S. was providing additional military assistance. The fight has abruptly upended Biden’s efforts to bring stability to the region and is the latest foreign-policy setback for his first term as president. Hamas militants raised millions in cryptocurrency to fund the Saturday attack, according to a review of Israeli government seizure orders and blockchain analytics reports.” [Wall Street Journal]
Palestinians walk through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)
Israel strikes neighborhoods in Gaza as war looks set to escalate
“Residents of the Gaza Strip scrambled to find safety Wednesday, as Israeli warplanes hammered neighborhood after neighborhood in the tiny coastal enclave, retaliating for the deadly weekend attack by Hamas militants. Read more.
Recent developments:
Humanitarian groups pleaded for the creation of corridors to get aid into Gaza, warning that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded people were running out of supplies. Israel has also stopped entry of food, fuel and medicine into Gaza.
Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza hold about 150 soldiers and civilians hostage, according to Israel.
The war, which has claimed at least 2,100 lives on both sides, is expected to escalate, with new exchanges of fire over Israel’s northern borders with militants in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday pointing to the risk of an expanded regional conflict.” [AP News}
House Speaker
“House Republicans are hoping to pick their candidate today for a new speaker following Kevin McCarthy's dramatic ousting last week. On Tuesday night, a GOP candidate forum saw Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana giving their pitch as the best choice for the speakership, but some still say it will be difficult for either candidate to get the 217 votes needed to win the gavel. Rep. Mike Garcia of California, for example, said it was "50/50" on whether they would be able to elect a speaker today. House Democrats also held a similar conference to officially nominate their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, for speaker.” [CNN]
Hurricane Lidia
“Lidia has weakened into a tropical storm after making landfall in west-central Mexico Tuesday as an ‘extremely dangerous’ Category 4 hurricane. The hurricane's center slammed into the state of Jalisco, near Las Penitas, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph and heavy rain, according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters say Lidia is expected to dump between 4 to 8 inches of rain — and even up to 12 inches in some areas — likely fueling flash flooding and mudslides in higher terrain.” [CNN]
George Santos
“New York Rep. George Santos is facing 10 new federal charges, including allegations of stealing donors' identities and running up fraudulent credit card charges. He is already facing 13 other counts over alleged wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying to the US House. Following the new indictment Tuesday, the Republican lawmaker said again that he won't resign from Congress. Santos was part of a class of newly elected New York Republicans who helped the party win a narrow House majority in the 2022 midterms and whose fate will be key to holding that majority in 2024.” [CNN]
“Trump endorsed Kari Lake, who falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged, for Senate in Arizona.” [New York Times]
A self-proclaimed child sex trafficking rescuer was accused of sexual assault.
“What to know: Tim Ballard, who inspired the hit movie “Sound of Freedom,” was accused in a lawsuit Monday of manipulating, grooming and assaulting five women on his sting operations.
Who is he? Ballard has reportedly been seeking a U.S. senate run in Utah. The lawsuit alleges his organization, Operation Underground Railroad, was aware of his behavior.”
Read this story at Washington Post
The number of guns seized in U.S. schools each day is soaring.
“How many? 1,150 guns, more than six a day on average, were found on K-12 campuses last school year, according to a Post investigation. The true number may be higher.
What else to know: The number of gun seizures has surged since the 2018-2019 school year, alongside a rise in behavioral problems in schools following pandemic shutdowns.”
Read this story at Washington Post
A watchdog group found a big flaw in a major environmental policy.
“What’s happening: A factory in Louisiana was found to be releasing gases that damage the ozone layer, a vital atmospheric shield, a new report from a watchdog group said.
The treaty: For 35 years, the Montreal Protocol has phased out these gases. But they can still be used to make other chemicals, leading to inadvertent — and rising — releases.”
Read this story at Washington Post
New California law aims to force people with mental illness or addiction to get treatment
“More Californians with untreated mental illness and addiction issues could be detained against their will and forced into treatment under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a move to help overhaul the state’s mental health system and address its growing homelessness crisis. Read more.
Why this matters:
The new law expands the definition of ‘gravely disabled’ to include people unable to provide themselves basic needs like food and shelter due to untreated mental illness or addiction to drugs. Local governments say current state laws leave their hands tied if a person refuses to receive help.
The bill is also aimed at dealing with the homelessness crisis. California is home to more than 171,000 homeless people — about 30% of the nation’s homeless population – and the state has spent over $20 billion to help them, with mixed results.
Opponents of the bill, including disability rights advocates, worry the new law will result in more people being locked up and deprived of their fundamental rights.” [AP News]
Schools' pandemic spending boosts tech companies but the impact on US students is unclear
“An Associated Press analysis of public records found many school systems spent tens of millions of dollars in pandemic money on software and services from tech companies, including apps, games and tutoring websites. Schools, however, have little or no evidence that the programs helped students and some of the new software was rarely used. Read more.
Why this matters:
The full scope of spending is unknown because the aid came with few reporting requirements. Congress gave schools a record $190 billion but didn’t require them to publicly report individual purchases. That spending fed an industry in which research and evidence are scarce.
A team of international researchers reported that ‘edtech’ has generally failed to live up to its potential, and with little regulation, companies have few incentives to prove their products work. The federal government has also done little to intervene.” [AP News]
Caroline Ellison took the stand in the trial of FTX crypto exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
‘The former CEO of Alameda Research, a hedge fund he also founded, testified it loaded up on hard-to-sell cryptocurrencies, made risky venture investments and took out loans that could be recalled by lenders anytime. Ellison, who is also Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, told jurors that he ordered her to put FTX’s native cryptocurrency, FTT, on Alameda’s balance sheet which helped it obtain more loans from crypto lenders. Ellison also said that Bankman-Fried viewed political donations as a way to amass influence. He is facing more than half a dozen fraud charges for allegedly stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers and has pleaded not guilty. Ellison has pleaded guilty to several charges and is cooperating with the prosecution.” [Wall Street Journal]
At Harvard, a Battle Over What Should Be Said About the Hamas Attacks
After a student group blamed Israel for the violence, Lawrence Summers, a former university president, condemned the leadership for not speaking up.
By Anemona Hartocollis, Stephanie Saul and Vimal Patel
“Within a few days of the George Floyd killing and Russia’s war against Ukraine, Harvard and other universities issued statements, claiming solidarity with the victims. Immediately after the Hamas attacks in Israel — in which assailants killed women and children — Harvard was quiet even as criticism mounted over an open letter from a student coalition.
The letter, from Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, said it held ‘the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.’
The backlash to that letter turned Harvard’s silence into a roar.
On Monday, Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary and former Harvard president, condemned the university’s leadership, for not denouncing the pro-Palestinian letter.
‘In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,’ he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Harvard’s silence, coupled with the student coalition letter, he said, ‘has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel.’
On Monday night, and again with more force on Tuesday, Harvard spoke. Its president, Claudine Gay, issued two statements, ultimately condemning “the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas” as “abhorrent.” A spokesman said Dr. Gay was not available for comment.
The debate over Israel and the fate of Palestinians has been one of the most divisive on campus for decades, and has scorched university officials who have tried to moderate or mollify different groups.
But Dr. Summers’s pointed criticism raised questions about the obligation of universities to weigh in on difficult political matters.
A famous 1967 declaration by the University of Chicago called for institutions to remain neutral on political and social matters, saying a university ‘is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic.’ But students over the years have frequently and successfully pressed their administrations to take positions on matters like police brutality, global warming and war.
Dr. Summers said in an interview that he could understand the case for university neutrality in political disputes, but that Harvard had forfeited that prerogative by speaking out on many other issues.
‘When you fly the Ukrainian flag over Harvard yard, when you issue clear, vivid and strong statements in response to the George Floyd killing,’ he said, ‘you have decided not to pursue a policy of neutrality.’
But the controversy at Harvard is ‘a moment to think about the virtues of neutrality,’ said Tom Ginsburg, faculty director of the newly created Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Ginsburg said he looked at 17 major universities and found that all but two released a statement about Ukraine. (The University of Chicago did not.)
‘Not one had a statement about the Ethiopia conflict, which started a year before,’ he said, referring to a civil war that left thousands dead and displaced more than two million people.
Avoiding statements allows the university to channel its energy into ‘more important things,’ Dr. Ginsburg said. ‘But that’s not the trend. Schools seem to be speaking out. And that’s why they find themselves in political trouble.’
The Harvard student letter said, ‘For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison,’ and concluded that as the war unfolded, ‘the apartheid regime is the only one to blame.’ It was signed by groups including Amnesty International at Harvard, the Harvard Kennedy School Palestine Caucus and the Harvard Divinity School Muslim Association.
Several student groups that signed the solidarity statement did not respond to messages. By Tuesday afternoon, organizers concealed the coalition’s groups, citing safety.
In her response on Tuesday, Dr. Gay said that ‘while our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.’
That letter followed a more tepid letter on Monday, signed by Dr. Gay and 17 other deans and administrators, saying they were ‘heartbroken by the death and destruction,’ expressing condolences to members of the Harvard community who had lost loved ones, and calling for ‘an environment of dialogue and empathy.’
While Harvard faced heavy criticism from politicians, academics and Jewish groups, other universities braced for protest.
On Monday night, there was a vigil organized by pro-Israel students at the University of Florida. On Tuesday, at California State University, Long Beach, a student group held a ‘Protest for Palestine.’
And Bears for Palestine, at the University of California, Berkeley, has organized a campus vigil for Friday to ‘mourn the murder of our martyrs in Palestine.’
With a number of like-minded statements coming from pro-Palestinian student groups, a number of university presidents issued their own responses that seemed to place the blame for the conflict squarely on Hamas.
On Saturday, Ron Liebowitz, president of Brandeis University, issued a statement condemning ‘terrorism such as we have seen today perpetrated against innocent civilians.’
A statement on Tuesday from New York University condemned the “indiscriminate killing of civilian non-combatants” as ‘reprehensible,’ and acknowledged that the violence ‘will likely intensify the feelings of those on our campus who hold strong views on the conflict.’” [New York Times]
In Arkansas, a $19,000 Lectern for the Governor Draws Scrutiny
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is facing criticism over the expense, and a whistle-blower’s accusation that her office altered records to cover up how it was paid for.
By Anna Betts
Oct. 10, 2023
“Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas is facing some of the sharpest scrutiny of her early tenure after a public records request revealed that her office bought a lectern for $19,000 — and a whistle-blower accused the office of altering records to cover up the spending.
Late last month, it came to light that the state had purchased the lectern and an accompanying traveling case in June, paying $19,029.25 to Beckett Events LLC, an events management company with ties to Ms. Sanders, a Republican who took office in January.
The information was obtained by Matthew Campbell, a lawyer and blogger who had filed a broad public records request. Mr. Campbell posted the invoice for the lectern on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The purchase has been a matter of contention in Arkansas over the last few weeks, including among some of Ms. Sanders’s fellow Republicans. One of them, State Senator Jimmy Hickey Jr., has asked the state’s Legislative Joint Auditing Committee to investigate.
According to documents shared online by Mr. Campbell, the Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for the lectern with a $19,029.25 check dated Sept. 14, three months after the purchase. The reimbursement, according to Mr. Campbell, occurred several days after he filed the Freedom of Information Act request for the records, and a day before he received the state’s response, he told The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in an interview.
In late September, an anonymous whistle-blower claimed that Ms. Sanders’s office improperly altered and withheld public records related to the office’s spending on the lectern. The whistle-blower’s lawyer sent a letter to Senator Hickey on the day he requested the audit, offering his client’s testimony and documents.
To complicate things further, the lawyer, Tom Mars, served as the director of the Arkansas State Police under Ms. Sanders’s father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee.
In his letter, Mr. Mars said that his client had documents that could substantiate how people in the governor’s office ‘interfered with the production of nonexempt FOIA documents’ that were intended for Mr. Campbell.
Mr. Mars wrote that if the auditing committee found that his client’s allegations were true, it would appear to constitute a violation of two state public records laws….” Read more at New York Times
Airstrike Retribution
Buildings damaged and destroyed by Israeli airstrikes are seen in Gaza City on Oct. 10.Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
‘The Israel Defense Forces unleashed devastating airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, flattening entire neighborhoods, reducing streets and buildings to rubble, and flooding hospitals and morgues with the wounded and dead. The air campaign is part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘complete siege’ of Gaza, which he announced on Monday. Already, around 360,000 reservists have been called to the front lines.
‘The dynamic right now in Gaza is that the scope of this is going to be bigger than before and more severe,’ Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said at a briefing on Tuesday. ‘It’s not the regular, small, contained Gaza tit-for-tat.’
Israeli strikes targeted apartment buildings, mosques, and markets on Tuesday, despite Hamas pledging to kill one hostage every time an Israeli airstrike hits Gazans ‘in their homes without warning.’ The Islamist group is currently holding hostage more than 150 Israeli soldiers and civilians, as well as 11 Thai citizens and numerous Americans. The Israeli military also announced on Tuesday that it had regained full control over Israeli towns near the border with Gaza that had been seized by Palestinian militants in this weekend’s assault and that it was close to resecuring the breached border. Whether Israeli forces intend to launch a ground invasion of Gaza remains an open question.
In Gaza, retaliatory strikes are sparking a mass exodus of Palestinians reminiscent of 2014, when an Israeli air and ground offensive displaced around 400,000 Gazans. Of the region’s 2.3 million residents, one-tenth of the total population is now fleeing inward to seek protection from Israeli airstrikes. More than 180,000 Palestinians are now homeless, and at least 137,000 people are seeking shelter in United Nations-run schools, making Gaza’s already dire economic and humanitarian situation even more acute.
Late on Monday, the European Union reversed its decision, announced just five hours earlier, to halt all development funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The EU considers Hamas a terrorist organization and does not provide any funding to the group, but it does provide significant assistance to Palestinians through the PA. In the wake of Hamas’s latest assault on Israel, the EU initially announced it was suspending all aid payments to Palestinians, evidently out of concern that the funds could be misused by Hamas or other militant groups. But after several countries—including Spain, Portugal, and Ireland—objected to the aid suspension, the EU backtracked. Aid payments are now no longer suspended, but they will be ‘urgently reviewed.’” [Foreign Policy]
“One of the most striking things about Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel wasn’t just its scope—it included attacks by sea, air and land—but also the fact that it caught Israel’s national security apparatus off guard. Israel’s intelligence services have a reputation as some of the world’s most sophisticated. And the Gaza Strip, a densely populated, deeply impoverished slice of land next to Egypt, is one of the most surveilled places on the planet. How did Hamas do it? It went low-tech.” [Bloomberg]
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by intense Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip. Above, rescue workers carry away the dead in Gaza City on Tuesday. Photographer: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg
“While the GOP seeks to block American aid to Ukraine, Germany says it will send around $1 billion in air-defense equipment to help Kyiv shore up defenses ahead of winter. Meanwhile Russia’s bid to join the top human rights body at the United Nations was defeated again.” [Bloomberg]
“Liberians vote. As many as 2.4 million Liberians went to the polls on Tuesday to select the West African country’s next president. Nineteen candidates are vying to unseat incumbent President George Weah—who is up for reelection—by capitalizing on the former soccer player’s failure to tackle corruption. If no one wins a simple majority, the top competitors will face a runoff vote in November.
Currently leading the polls alongside Weah are former Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and businessman Alexander Cummings. Boakai campaigned on increasing domestic rice production, improving the country’s highway system, and tackling economic crimes. Cummings, on the other hand, has advocated a ‘buy Liberian’ business model as well as the establishment of funds to empower women and young people.” [Foreign Policy]
“Refugee camp massacre. Myanmar’s junta launched an artillery strike against a displaced person’s camp on Tuesday, killing 29 people, including children. The Kachin Independence Organization, an ethnic insurgent group seeking self-rule, controls the area where the refugee camp is located.
The strike was one of the deadliest attacks in Kachin state, where fighting over sovereignty has embroiled the region for 63 years. Myanmar’s ruling junta seized power in 2021 via a military coup and has increased airstrikes against opposition-controlled villages since.
South of Kachin, mass flooding displaced more than 14,000 people after heavy monsoon rains inundated towns and disrupted rail lines. Thousands of residents have sought aid at relief camps. Already this year, around 60,000 people were uprooted in July and August by floods across the country.” [Foreign Policy]
“Limping along.” Future economic prospects aren’t looking too hot, according to new International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections released on Tuesday. The IMF cut growth predictions for China and the eurozone, with the institution’s chief economist blaming poor COVID-19 recovery efforts, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and a global energy crisis for the world’s poor forecast.
Meanwhile, Israel’s shekel plummeted to record lows on Tuesday following a weekend of intense fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas militants. This year, the country’s currency has weakened by 11 percent, signaling its worst rate since early 2016. To try stabilizing the country’s economy, the Bank of Israel announced on Monday that it would sell up to $30 billion of foreign currency.” [Foreign Policy]
“Some thieves steal thousands of dollars to purchase luxury cars or fancy villas. Not British tax agent Robin Moss. The former chess player-turned-white-collar criminal spent more than $141,000 of his ill-gotten gains on collectible pottery. He was sentenced in abstention on Monday to 10 years in prison for tax, fraud, and theft offenses. That decorative vase better have been worth it.” [Foreign Policy]
Exxon Buys Pioneer in $60 Billion Deal to Create Shale Giant
“Exxon agreed to buy Pioneer for nearly $60 billion. The largest oil-and-gas deal in two decades ties the energy giant’s future to fossil fuels.”
READ MORE at Washington Post
SPORTS
“M.L.B.: The Texas Rangers defeated the Baltimore Orioles, 7-1, completing a Division Series sweep.” [New York Times]
“Hockey: Connor Bedard, the No. 1 pick in this year’s N.H.L. Draft, made a crucial assist in his regular-season debut. His team, the Chicago Blackhawks, beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2.” [New York Times]
Illness: “Mary Lou Retton, the gymnastics champion, has pneumonia and is “fighting for her life,” her daughter said.” [New York Times]
Kevin Phillips, 82, Dies; Political Analyst Predicted G.O.P. Resurgence
A conservative mastermind of the race-based “Southern strategy,” he later, as a writer, had second thoughts after assessing income inequality under three Republican presidents.
By Sam Roberts
Oct. 10, 2023
“Kevin Phillips, a self-taught ethnographer whose groundbreaking findings in the mid-1960s heralded what he called an ‘emerging Republican majority’ in national politics, based on a so-called Southern strategy that would help the party win five of the next six presidential elections, died on Monday in Naples, Fla. He was 82.
His wife, Martha Phillips, said the cause of death, in a hospice near his home, was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
Mr. Phillips was in his late 20s when he published his first book, “The Emerging Republican Majority” (1969), which, refining earlier studies he had done, predicted a rightward realignment in national politics driven by ethnic and racial divisions and white discontent.
With that book, he emerged as an influential, if controversial, conservative theoretician. (He called himself a ‘political analyst,’ not a strategist.) He would be credited with predicting and even masterminding the Southern strategy, which in large part enabled Richard M. Nixon to narrowly win the presidency in 1968 by appealing to the grievances of white voters in the South who had historically voted for Democrats. (Nixon said he did not read the book until after the election.)…” Read more at New York Times
Fat Bear Week has crowned its new queen.
(F. Jimenez/NPS)
“Who won? Bear 128, a.k.a. Grazer. She was voted this year’s fattest bear yesterday in the online competition run by Explore.org and Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.
What to know: Grazer is known as a protective mother and a gutsy, beautiful blonde. She trounced a much bigger bear — 32, a.k.a. Chunk — in the final, winning over fans with her ferocity.”
Read this story at Washington Post