Does French Jewry have a future?
As you can see, one of two unfolding hostage situations in Paris is at a kosher supermarket where gunman have already killed two people and appear to be holding five hostages, including women and children. On a Friday afternoon, such a venue would be filled with mothers and children. (As I wrote this piece, the hostage standoff ended; there are still conflicting reports about how many of the hostages survived.) This comes after a series of attacks on French Jews over recent years and a series of crowd actions and riots last year during the latest Gaza War which were more ambiguous but still contributed to a climate of generalized menace. A leader of French Jewry predicted late last year that the number of French Jews emigrating to Israel (making ‘aliya’) would reach 6500 in 2014, double the number in 2013. The estimates of the total population of Jews in France range between just under 500,000 and 600,000. So while these numbers are small, they are substantial for a single year. And they appear to be growing, rapidly.
Our follow up inside look at the GOP’s new long game to manufacture a funding crisis over Social Security. A big, big deal.
As you can see, we’ve got multiple police and hostage situations unfolding in France which we’re following closely in LiveWire. But don’t miss today’s feature on Dem progressives demanding their turn running the Democratic Party.
As we noted yesterday, to the surprise of even me, House Republicans have put in place a new rule aimed at manufacturing a Social Security funding crisis – with the apparent aim of returning (a decade later) to efforts to start pruning the program. We’ve been digging in to find out just what the plan seems to be and we’ll be bringing you a follow up tomorrow. Stay tuned.
FBI looking for a motive behind that firebomb set off outside an NAACP building in Colorado Springs. They are reported looking for a “Caucasian male, approximately 40 years of age, and balding.”
Boehner signals an ugly fight – possibly including shutting down the Department of Homeland Security – to overturn President Obama’s immigration order.
Alana Levinson asks an uncomfortable question over at Cafe today: Do liberals excuse Joe Biden’s lecherous, sexist behavior just because we like his policies?
Now that Dems are in the minority, what will they do about the filibuster? Daniel Strauss reports it out.
As you can see from my note below, I’m extremely interested in this House Republican rule change which appears aimed at triggering a manufactured crisis in Social Security financing – and laying the groundwork for cuts in the program. We’re going to follow up on this story aggressively today and going forwar and try to find out and share with you as much as we can about what’s behind it, what’s likely to emerge from it and more. Stay tuned. I’m also very interested – over the next couple years – in finding out what is going in the states.
Sen. Warren (D) blasts new GOP effort to manufacture a Social Security funding crisis.