Things to Keep an Eye On
Bolsonaro intel chief detained, profile of the former terrorist group member who's the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Justin Fairfax murder-suicide, motion to dismiss Asif Merchant case
Former Hamas hostage calls for treating Arabs as human beings
…and predictably receives a torrent of abuse from the Likud faction:
Former Hamas hostage Rom Braslavski says he has been inundated with hate messages from fellow Israelis after he published an Instagram story calling for treating Arabs with mutual respect.
Big Atlantic piece about the Kennedy Center falling apart
The author is a former manager for a queer dance troupe backed by the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs who was made head of visual art after the Trump takeover, which sounds like a joke that could get you cancelled. Spoiler, he decided it wasn’t for him.
U.S. immigration authorities detain former Bolsonaro intel chief
Alexandre Ramagem was the major guy involved in the integration of the Israeli spyware with Brazil’s government, and he’s been convicted and sentenced to hard time in Brazil. He fled to the United States, but the feds have now arrested him. The Israeli spyware is completely toxic even in the U.S.
Profile of Yechiel Leiter, former member of terrorist group JDL
In Al Jazeera, on the Israeli ambassador to the U.S.:
According to Israeli media reports, Leiter was once involved with the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in his youth, a US-based far-right pro-Israel group founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane that was later classified by US authorities as a “terrorist” organisation.
The JDL advocates for the annexation of the occupied West Bank and the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority. It has been linked to several violent attacks on US soil, including the assassination of Palestinian-American organiser Alex Odeh in California in 1985.
Leiter is handling the negotiations over Lebanon, which are causing Israel to freak out. There are Italian troops in harm’s way, so the Italian defense minister spoke out to condemn the Israeli aggression, and then the Israelis summoned the Italian ambassador. The Italian government has also as of this week suspended the renewal of a defense agreement with Israel, which is sound when your troops are downrange from the country you’re supposed to sign it with. Italy has historically been one of the most important countries for Israeli defense cooperation, but that’s changing.
Senate Dem caucus nearly united against an Israeli weapons sale
Times really are a-changin’. If you take away the New York and Nevada delegations only three Senate Dems favored it and Fetterman is braindead:
A war powers resolution failed by one vote in the House this week as well.
Wall Street Journal wins dismissal of Trump’s suit over Epstein reporting
Order here.
Orban government burning documents
A bunch of these reports this week:
Someone also surfaced some of the congratulatory reports from eight years ago from Stephen Harper to Orban, in the former’s capacity as head of the International Democracy Union, a network that is deeply weird and not at all viable today.
Joe Lonsdale’s jail-the-homeless bill passes Louisiana legislature
Lonsdale, who works with the children of top Russian officials, wants to treat Americans the way the Russian army treats their drunks, snatching them off the streets and sending them to the front. It even has a call-out to convict leasing:
This bill requires homeless people to pay for the very treatment they are forced into. And if the person cannot pay the cost of treatment, this bill requires them to perform unpaid labor for the government or a community organization to pay off their debt. Louisiana has a long history – and present – of chain gangs, prison labor, and entrenched white supremacy. This bill clearly evokes debtor’s prisons, convict leasing, and the ugliest day of Jim Crow.
Justin Fairfax shoots wife, self
Former Democrat lieutenant governor of Virginia:
State AGs win their Ticketmaster case
The FTC action was settled, but the state one has now won at trial:
A jury has found that concert giant Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues, dealing the company a loss in a lawsuit over claims brought by dozens of U.S. states.
A Manhattan federal jury deliberated for four days before reaching its decision Wednesday in the closely watched case, which gave fans the equivalent of a backstage pass to a business that dominates live entertainment in the U.S. and beyond.
The state AGs brought together a bipartisan group, Ken Paxton, in the running for senate in Texas, has been trumpeting his involvement in the suit.
Spanish socialist PM’s wife charged with corruption
In Madrid:
Begoña Gómez, the wife of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds at the end of a two-year investigation by a judge in Madrid.
Gómez, 55, has been accused of using her influence as the wife of the socialist prime minister to secure and manage a post at Madrid’s Complutense University, and of using public resources and personal connections to further her private interests.
New filing in Asif Merchant case asks for dismissal
On the grounds that no agreement to perform any service, let alone the service of killing the president, was ever made. Probably fine to dismiss because it’s accomplished the intended purpose of making it seem like the Butler incident had something to do with Iran because that happened around the same time as the Merchant charges. From Ken Silva.