A few more observations on the Israeli election. Avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu wrecked Netanyahu’s shot at forming a government last time. He bet it all on that and he won big. His seat total went up substantially. If you assume he will again not join a Netanyahu coalition, then Netanyahu really doesn’t appear to have the seats to form a government. If the exit polls are roughly accurate the rightist bloc has 56 seats.
The first exit polls from today’s Israel elections came out almost two hours ago. They show Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party coming two seats behind Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party. They also show the right-wing bloc in a difficult position to form a government. But there is an ocean of tears of Bibi-haters who put their faith in Israeli exit polls. We have seen repeated examples of narrow Likud defeats which overnight turned into narrow victories. This is definitely looking like a tough situation for Netanyahu. But I’ve been Charlie Brown and seen this football teed up far too many times to put much stock in these numbers. If you’re obsessed, keep watching the results. If you just want to know how it all turns out, see where things stand tomorrow morning.
Some of the most important work of government happens down at the city and county level. So it’s no knock on Boards of Supervisors, city councilors and the like. But the latest Republican retirement from the House – Paul Cook (R-CA) – is a remarkable commentary. He’s leaving the House to run for the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. I think you’d have to look pretty long and hard for a similar retirement really anywhere.
This note is for everyone who is a TPM Reader. But it’s particularly for our regular readers who are not members or who maybe were members but lapsed or unsubscribed. We have our annual sign up drive coming up later this month. It is an absolutely critical one. If you’re a regular reader and you value TPM we literally need you to sign up and become a member. I’m going to explain below why it’s so important both in negative and positive terms.
Josh Kovensky has a fascinating look at how white nationalists are glomming onto and pressing climate change hysteria to advance their goals of a walled-off, whites-only America. This makes me think of a central part of how I see the future of climate change.
Starting today and continuing for a week, TPM will be joining more than 250 news organizations in amping up our coverage of climate change and the political realities that surround it.
There was a thread in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings about a then-girl he and his friends shamed as promiscuous in their school yearbook. Unlike so many other accusations that were raised in the hearing we didn’t need to credit a victim’s account or those of other witnesses. The yearbook itself made what happened crystal clear. Kavanaugh simply lied about it outright. From the point of view of the hearings process this always struck me as a key moment. There was no ambiguity. He was being scrutinized for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court and he was perfectly willing to lie under oath. The conduct was less egregious than the assault allegations. But the unambiguous evidence of willful and malicious deception was clarifying.
Here was a key part of that exchange …
A tranche of emails sheds new light on the chaos surrounding President Trump’s voter fraud commission debacle, the most illuminating and comical parts are real government officials who deal real non-criminal things trying to distance themselves from the commissions work, others not being clear on what it even was or whether it was something intended to look at actual election security issues versus generating propaganda to make it harder for people to vote. Tierney Sneed has the story.
Pro-Trump media is an increasingly odd place. The personality cult aspect of it is nothing new. But this is the kind of “SMILE BE HAPPY OUR LEADER IS POWERFUL” loudspeaker talk is something worth just taking a few minutes to listen to. It’s wild. Note also that the script is played in real time in the graphics.
"The joint is hoppin'. There is sunshine on almost every face and our president is at the top of his game." You simply HAVE TO WATCH this edition of Dear Leader Watch. pic.twitter.com/LZm8h1vnA4
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 13, 2019
10:31 PM: Biden’s answer to the resilience question captured a lot of him, both some incoherence, jumping at several different ways of coming at the question, but coming back to something very core and genuine, compelling.
10:31 PM: Both Biden’s and Warren’s answers on resilience captured a lot about them, both approaches to the question and the substance.
9:45 PM: This is a really good answer from Warren on Afghanistan and more broadly about the militarization of American foreign policy.
9:41 PM: Booker’s the only one making a really good point: if you are going to get into a trade conflict with China, you need all your allies on side. It’s insane to be picking battles with our allies too at the same time.
9:33 PM: Striking to me how incoherent most of the candidates are on the China tariffs issue.