3/27/23

 Monday, March 27, 2023

In bed at 9, awake at 3:52, up at 4:20, with some CPP.  Lilly came out for me to let her out w/o waking Geri.  30℉, high 39℉,  wind NNE at 11 mph, gusts up to 21 mph, wind chill is 20℉, no precip today.  Sunrise at 6:42, sunset at 7:12, 12+29.

Israel.  The NY Times and WaPo lead this morning with the goings-on in Israel.  NYT: Turmoil Engulfs Israel Over Plan to Overhaul Top Court.  WaPo:  Israel faces airport closure, strikes as rage mounts over courts overhaul.

I have been thinking of Israel as 'the canary in the mineshaft,' a warning to the U.S. of what we are in for as the polarization here grows.  It struck me this morning that perhaps my pessimism about both Israel and the US is missing a hopeful point.  While right-wing forces have grown more powerful in the Western world (Hungary, Poland, Italy, Turkey), Israel appears to be the only country where tens of thousands of citizens are on the streets protesting and resisting the fascist aims of its government.  Significantly, the Israeli protesters include important components of the Israel Defense Forces, the business/corporate/technical community, and workers' unions who have called for a general strike, including shutting down the national airport to outgoing flights.  Even Israel's main physicians union has announced its members would suspend non-emergency medical services.  The Israelis who have taken to the streets in opposition to the government's plan to gain control over the judiciary deserve much paise.  They shame me for my own indolence in kvetching about the fascist forces in our country but doing nothing it.  I still fear for Israel knowing that, as of now at least, Netanyahu is still in power and under the thumb of ultraorthodox and ultranationalist/settler parties.  I still wonder whether the creation of the state of Israel was a mistake, perhaps an unavoidable mistake after the Holocaust, but the Shoah didnt justify the Nakba and the region seems doomed to perpetual enmity, oppression, hatred, and lethal conflict.  There is enough blame to spread around on both sides of conflict but for the last 75 years, Israel, propped up and backed up by the United States, has been in the catbird seat vis-ȁ-vis the Palestinians and the situation gets only worse with the passage of time.  The idea of a "two-state solution" now seems a pipe dream as more and more Israeli settlers make their homes in the West Bank, their Samaria and Judea under a claim of right ordained by God.  And the inherent contradiction of a single state that is both Jewish and democratic seems clear.  What can we hope for without being Pollyannish?

LTMW at a red-bellied woodpecker vigorously poking the suet cake until he gets the chunk of suet plus seed that he wants, then flying off with it in his long beak.  The sun is shining on the bright white snow, another morning intimating Spring.

Cancelling, unsubscribing.  Two of the most difficult, often impossible, tasks in our digital age are canceling a subscription to an online service and unsubscribing from marketing messages we receive in our increasingly useless email.  The FTC is considering a rule to make these efforts easier and more likely to succeed, but consider what this situation says about the ethics of modern internet-based businesses.  It is SO easy to sign up for a 'free trial' of some subscription service, providing the service with our credit card data, and SO hard to cancel online.  And forget about making contact with a human being to effect the cancellation.  And ditto the "click here to unsubscribe" from endless marketing emails.  It's all a form of corporate, capitalist thievery and exploitation and we can be certain that corporate America is doing all that it can to lobby against the FTC's interest in protecting consumers.

Borrowing from Peter Short Term to Lend to Paul Long Term.  Can it be any surprise that anyone would have little faith in the banking industry that is said to be the lifeblood of our capitalist economy?  Have we forgotten the astounding corruption that underlay the 2008 financial catastrophe?  today's WaPo has a feature headlined "The initial banking crisis is easing. Another may be around the corner: Commercial real estate could become a problem for midsize banks" ["heading for a crash over the next two years"]  Another headline: "Hundreds of banks would be vulnerable in SVB-style runs, researchers say" [" A study published Friday found that U.S. banks hold $2 trillion less in assets than they appear to have on paper."] And a third: "Bye, banks: Recent turmoil is spurring many to move their money:  An estimated $550 billion has moved out of smaller banks to big institutions and money market funds, JPMorgan Chase says"  15 years ago we learned that our banking system was a house of cards.  Dodd-Franks was supposed to take care of that.  Then Congress gutted Dodd-Franks in the Trump administration and eventually, SVB and Signature Bank failed sending tremors throughout the system and requiring another government bailout.  Then Credit Suisse failed.  When will the next shoe drop?  When will we learn?  When will we care?