For the Record

Hi folks, relief crew here, with a Bluesky roundup for the week, addressing some of those awful moments where somebody was wrong on the Internet...

TV lawyers keep fretting about how key witness Michael Cohen is a noted liar—he's even got a felony conviction for it—so juries might have trouble believing him. I don't know, if it's a "he-said-he-said" between him and Trump and he's explaining the deceit Trump was paying him to practice...

Also, the only important Cohen lie in this case is the one COVERING UP FOR TRUMP in his guilty plea, when he claimed he'd made an illegal campaign contribution (the Stormy payment), hiding the fact that Trump had reimbursed him (as Cohen proved in 2019 with the canceled checks).

[image or embed]

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) May 16, 2024 at 9:34 PM

(cite from Politico in August 2018 www.politico.com/story/2018/0...

[image or embed]

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) May 16, 2024 at 9:41 PM

***

Response to somebody going by "Leftist Renegade" who was complaining about Biden proposing new tariffs after making fun of Trump's tariff mania in 2019:

There's no inconsistency. Trump tariffs were random and basically harmful. Biden's are carefully targeted in support of a huge and vital industrial policy. bsky.app/profile/yast...

[image or embed]

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) May 15, 2024 at 1:38 PM

The most exciting part to me is that Biden has given up the neoliberalism that Democrats have been subscribing to for 50 years. He openly *has* an industrial policy instead of praying to the market gods to take care of everything.

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) May 15, 2024 at 1:41 PM

And that's consistent with his efforts to reduce economic inequality through the tax system, to involve federal government in drug pricing, to revolutionize the national infrastructure on the Eisenhower scale (but with more attention to trains and wifi), and so on.

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) May 15, 2024 at 1:47 PM

***

Remember how Joe Biden has been kicking back against Israeli mamzer behavior in the West Bank for FORTY-TWO YEARS? Because I certainly didn't:

I didn't remember this www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/m...

[image or embed]

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) May 16, 2024 at 9:44 AM

***

And finally, on the Wall Street Journal report (leaked to WSJ by a couple of congressional aides, not announced by the administration) that the Biden administration had suddenly decided to send Israel a billion dollars worth of war, right in the middle of refusing to send them a bunch of bombs (here's AP's version), I had a feeling they'd gotten it badly wrong: 

It's not an arms shipment. It's the package (tank rounds, mortars and armored tactical vehicles) that the state department "moved into the congressional review process" www.yahoo.com/news/us-stat... according to the "two U.S. officials" who leaked the story to Wall Street Journal. I think it...

[image or embed]

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) May 15, 2024 at 12:39 AM

has to be the immediate followup to the report State sent to Congress on Friday www.scribd.com/document/731... on Israel's compliance or noncompliance with international humanitarian law, for Congress to make its determination, but the "two U.S. officials" don't want you to understand that...

[image or embed]

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) May 15, 2024 at 12:50 AM

It does not mean that (in the words of the NBC headline) "Israel is still sending some weapons to Israel despite holding up bomb shipment over Rafah assault plans". It means that this process is taking place and will eventually come to an end (which could be literal years from now). Thanks.

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) May 15, 2024 at 12:56 AM

I'm pleased to note my speculation seems to be confirmed, in an excellent, and sober, post by Lara Seligman for Politico on the:

potential $1 billion tranche containing tank ammunition, tactical vehicles and mortar rounds that the administration reported to Congress on Tuesday....

There are other potential foreign military sales to Israel that are moving through the State Department’s approval process. Those sales are between the U.S. government and a foreign government and typically involve a more complex and lengthy process. It’s not unusual for the administration to take its time approving these types of weapons, which include engines for the F-35 fighter jet, tank rounds, mortar rounds and medium tactical vehicles.

Once approved by the administration and Congress, these weapons will likely take months or even years before they are produced and delivered.