Blog/August 2020/Aug 14th
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We made a pilgrimage to Sarah’s place, yesterday. A two-hour car trip (which would normally have been just over an hour). Nevertheless, we managed to get my mom up the stairs, and had an enjoyable visit with Sarah and Yarin. Sarah seemed to be in relatively less pain, so that’s good; we’ll know more next week.
While there, Jeremy messaged us asking what we thought about the Israel/UAE peace deal. Well, we hadn’t heard anything until then, so we didn’t have much to say about it.
Since then, I’ve some thoughts on it. First, going after a deal with the UAE was a smart move on Trump and Netanyahu’s part, since they’re the most moderate of the surrounding Arab states, and Israel’s had quiet and surreptitious relations with them for a long time. So in that regard, such a deal is “low-hanging fruit”.
Next: it might possibly help Trump’s chances in November, though Americans in general care very little about anything outside their own town’s borders.
And then: Bibi reneged on his frequently repeated promise of “annexation”. A promise he cynically made in order to cement the right-wing parties’ support. It was clear from the beginning he had no intention of keeping that promise, especially when he went out of his way to alienate the Yamina party and keep them out of the governmental coalition. So by dropping annexation in order to get the UAE deal, he angers the right-wing (and once again drops a load on the 300K+ Israeli residents of the “disputed territories”, such as Your’s Truly).
However, 300K is a drop in the bucket compared to 9M overall, and the UAE insisting on something they don’t care about at all (the annexation) allowed Bibi to make a concession he doesn’t care about at a relatively small risk to his leadership. Both sides “save face” and can make a deal. None of that will help Bibi with his legal troubles (which are not going away), but it’s possible it will help him if we go to elections soon (which unfortunately is possible). It’s certainly a “win” for the Netanyahu Doctrine.
Other stuff:
- A Rabbi was too pro-Israel to be allowed to remain head of a Berkeley seminary.
- Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris as his running-mate is not being well-received by Blacks. In fact, she is the least popular of all the candidates amongst Black voters. Perhaps because she put so many of them in prison and kept them there beyond their allotted times.
- Nothing to see here! Laura Loomer, a right-wing Jewish congressional candidate in Florida, has been banned by Comcast from sending out campaign mail.
- Seattle (again!). In an extraordinarily woke move, the Seattle City Council made it untenable for police chief Carmen Best, a Black woman (and well respected by her peers), to remain police chief. I am so glad we left that area!
- China’s put the kibosh on any Chinese trying to access secure websites with particularly strong settings.
- NASA has awoken! They are ditching insensitive nicknames for celestial objects. Progress!
- All those “smart locks” you thought were secure? Think again.
We all know that our various mobile devices can be used to track our movements. Please read this important document from the NSA on “limiting location data exposure”. It’s eye-opening to say the least.
Esther and I were working as usual. I’m trying to figure out how to convert MJPEG frames using a library I’m already using (it should be trivial, but apparently not). Various other fixes and improvements are in the works, as well.
The weather’s hovering around average for the season, so 30C during the day, 20C at night. No further surprises expected this week. But then, surprises never are expected, are they?
Comestibles this shabbat include:
my rye-sourdough rolls,
sticky wings,
roast,
roasted fingerling potatoes,
roasted butternut squash,
roasted eggplant,
various salatim,
and banana cake.
Until next time,
shabbat shalom!
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