Chicagoland Pro-Israel Political Update

Calling balls and strikes for the pro-Israel community since 2006



May 3, 2020
184 days till Election Day

If you remember nothing else, remember this:

  • Americans are dying and losing their jobs because Donald Trump ignored intelligence reports and then covered them up in a futile effort to prop up the stock market.
  • Trump is not an aberration; he is the culmination of Republican disdain for facts, science, and evidence that political scientists have noted for nearly a decade.
  • Trump is absurdly claiming that even though he unilaterally left the Iran Deal while Iran was still in compliance, the U.S. can still snap back sanctions against Iran (even though opponents of the Iran Deal told us that the snap back mechanism would never work).
  • Trump's policies have not made Israel stronger, healthier, or more secure.

Read to the end for fun stuff and upcoming events, including one with me this Wednesday, May 6 . I love when you tell me about mistakes--consider it a quid pro quo.

You're welcome to read for free, but if you'd like to help defray the cost of the newsletter, please click here and fill in the amount of your choice . You don't need a PayPal account; the link will allow you to use a credit card. Or you can Venmo @Steven-Sheffey (last four 9479).

Friends,

We now know that had Trump listened to intelligence briefings in January and February, he could have taken action to limit the spread of COVID-19, saving tens of thousands of lives, reducing the duration of shelter in place, and preventing the loss of millions of jobs. Instead, when Trump finally listened toward the end of February, he covered up the information to avoid upsetting the markets and China.

If you’re upset about cancelled graduation plans, delayed wedding and bnai mitzvah celebrations, loss of income, or worse, loss of health or life, you should be. You should be outraged. It matters who is at fault because we have an election in November, and elections matter. If you vote for Trump or any Republican, or if you stay home, you’re saying that you don’t care. And if your friends aren’t voting Democratic, be a friend and ask why they don’t care--and help them understand.

Remember how outraged we were when terrorists killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11? We reelected the president who ignored the warnings and led us into a pointless, unnecessary war that killed even more Americans. Now we have a president who ignored the warnings and the result is not 3,000 Americans dead, but 60,000 and counting, plus more damage to the economy than Bush caused.

In 2016, nearly half the country voted for a man Republican Jewish Coalition Chairman Norm Coleman accurately described as "A bigot. A misogynist. A fraud. A bully." Donald Trump is the culmination of a trend political scientists Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein described in 2012 : "[The Republican Party] is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science ; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition."

Paul Krugman is right: " No, Trump isn’t an aberration. He’s unusually blatant and gaudily corrupt, but at a basic level he’s the culmination of where his party has been going for decades. And U.S. political life won’t begin to recover until centrists face up to that uncomfortable reality."

This is nothing to celebrate . I would love to be proven wrong. But the only difference between Trump and other Republicans is that he says out loud what they say privately. Of course Republicans in Congress don't stand up to him--they agree with him.

Should we be surprised that the only major political party in the world that denies climate science is skeptical of epidemiological science? Admitting the reality of climate change would mean admitting the necessity of international cooperation and government regulation. Admitting the science of COVID-19 would mean admitting the necessity of government action, appropriating money for vote-by-mail, and helping everyone, not just the wealthiest--and what would Ayn Rand say about that?

We have a presidential election system that doesn’t necessarily reflect the preferences of the electorate, a Senate that by design doesn’t reflect the will of the nation, a House whose members spend hours a day dialing for dollars instead of dialing their constituents, and a judiciary increasingly packed with partisan hacks selected by a president and confirmed by a Senate that is more concerned about regulating how women choose health care than about whether all Americans have access to health care.

But despite our broken system, despite a population nearly half of whom vote like extras from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, we can still make things right if enough of us vote in November. Even with all of Hillary’s baggage, real and imagined, if only 80,000 votes across three states had shifted, she’d be our president, and while counterfactuals can never be proven, it would now be unlikely Lysol would be telling consumers not to ingest its products because the president said it might be worth a try.

Don’t let a flawed system get you down and don’t let Zombie Republicans discourage you. Enough of us still value science, reason, and decency to win in November. All we have to do is let the daily news motivate us to not accept any of this as normal.

Trump's Monty Python Approach to Foreign Policy. The next time you listen to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, imagine Michael Palin talking, piling on absurdity after absurdity with a straight face, never breaking character. Remember when the Trump administration made clear as clear could be that it withdrew the U.S. from the Iran Deal? Never mind that Iran was fully in compliance at the time; the U.S. withdrew.

Now the Trump administration is claiming that its withdrawal does not prevent it from exercising the " snapback" provision of the deal--the same provision that opponents of the JCPOA told us would never work--and reimpose sanctions on Iran that are not permitted under the deal.

Pompeo's absurd argument provoked " anger and disbelief from European allies who point out the US withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and have not participated in any meetings related to it since then." The irony is that the arms embargo that Trump wants to extend has not "significantly affected Iranian military capabilities, regional behavior, or ability to arms its proxies."

Didn't Trump tell us the Iran Deal was dead? Dead as a dead parrot, I guess.

Tony Blinken, Joe Biden's chief foreign policy advisor, said on last week's Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) Zoom conference that “It’s hard not to almost admire the sheer hypocrisy of the action that the administration is trying to take" and that pulling out the Iran Deal with no plan B in place was "one of the worst mistakes that this Administration has made."

Chemi Shalev asks the questions every pro-Israel advocate should ask: "What, in the final analysis, has Israel gained in tangible terms from Trump’s bounty of offerings? What advantages has it reaped from the transfer of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, from Trump’s recognition of its sovereignty over the Golan Heights, or from his son-in-law’s spectacularly inane 'Deal of the Century,' besides Netanyahu’s fawning tributes, alienation of the Palestinians and complete destruction of the peace process? Has Israel gotten stronger, healthier or more secure?" If you don't know the answers, read the article.



Tweet of the Week. Halie Soifer .

Facebook Post of the Week. Steve Sheffey (apologies to Allen Ginsberg).

Political Ad of the Week. Unfit. Unwell. Unacceptable .

Video Clip of the Week. Fox in Sox .

Upcoming Zoom Events--All Free, but RSVPs are required: 

On  Wednesday, May 6, from 3:00 to 4:00 CDT,  Steve Sheffey and  Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) will discuss "Progressive and Pro-Israel" at a Zoom event moderated by  Halie Soifer of JDCA and  Jill Zipin of Jewish Democratic Outreach of Pennsylvania (JDOP). Do you have questions about what it means to be progressive and pro-Israel in 2020? Do you want to understand where Biden and Trump really stand on Israel, Iran, anti-Semitism, and other issues of concern to the progressive and pro-Israel communities? Then sign up for this free Zoom event and submit your questions to me in advance or during the event.

On  Thursday, May 21, from 5:00 to 5:30 CDT,  Dana Gordon and I are hosting  Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL). RSVP here.

I guess this is a good problem to have: This list is now so large that while many people are local, even more live outside the Chicago area and have no interest in local news. If you want to be on a list that will receive infrequent newsletters about local issues and events, reply to this email and I'll add you.

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The Fine Print : This newsletter usually runs on Sunday mornings. Unless stated otherwise, my views do not necessarily reflect the views of any candidates or organizations that I support or am associated with. I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn more. Intelligent, well-informed people may disagree with me; read opposing views and decide for yourself. A link to an article doesn't mean that I agree with everything its author has ever said or that I even agree with everything in the article; it means that the article supports or elaborates on the point I was making. I take pride in accurately reporting the facts on which I base my opinions. Tell me if you spot any inaccuracies, typos, or other mistakes so that I can correct them in the next newsletter (and give you credit if you want it). Advertisements reflect the views of the advertisers, not necessarily of me, and advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their advertisements. I read, value, and encourage replies to my newsletters, but I don't always have time to acknowledge replies or to engage in one-on-one discussion. Don't expect a reply if your message is uncivil or if it's clear from your message that you haven't read the newsletter or clicked on the relevant links. © 2020 Steve Sheffey. All rights reserved.