When I First Got the Fox News Alert Re the Email Chain....

I did not feel like reading about it, since I thought that Donald Trump, Jr. would release a Wikileaks-style (i.e., decontextualized) email chain. Then I saw the "New York Times" article as I was browsing. I read the Fox News article afterwards, and I realize that even newly-hired Tr**pite Cody Derespina can't spin this one. (By the way, I've noticed that the Tr**pite reporters like Cody Derespina put their names on their "hard news" articles, in contrast the objective Fox News reporters whom often—if not usually—just put "Fox News".)

Methinks that Donald Trump, Jr. passed up his opportunity to plea the Fifth on this one. He might as well testify against his father during both the Senate hearings and "United States v. Donald J. Trump"—and he'll have to take a plea deal in "United States v. Donald J. Trump, Jr." if he wants even partial prosecutorial immunity.

Argument Summed Up: It Isn't About Israel vs. "Palestine"...

It's about Agudat Yisra'el vs. 'Am Yisra'el. What's already clear—and what even self haters such as Gideon Levy know—is that "Palestine", including Gaza—was long under Israeli/Iudean control before the Romans entirely took over Israel/Iudea and renamed it "Palestina".

What isn't as clear is that it's the Haredim—and the "Palestinians"—vs. 'Am Yisra'el—and the supporters of the Haredim, including Netanyahu and Likud, are obscuring the issue. The worst part is that even well-intentioned and in-denial people are playing into Haredi hands—after all, few (or at least relatively few) know (and fewer even want to know, let alone even try to research or somehow else find out) how Haredim and Netanyahu:

1. Demonize all Arabs as Anti Semites at various levels
2. Paint Non-Haredi Jews as self haters
3. Believe that Zionism is treif drek—basically, secular trash ("secular" in a pejorative sense)

No wonder, then, that those whom expose (far-from-)"Chabad" Lubavitch and other (far-from-"Hasidi") Haredim are demonized as self haters whom want to destroy the Jewish people and the Jewish nation state—the Haredim want to cover their own tracks as they try to lure people in supporting the idea of a Haredi state which will be governed by whomever Mashiach is or is supposed to be in the eyes of the Haredim.

Until people understand that, the Israeli-Arab conflict will never be resolved. 

Ted Bauer, Insularity, and Industries—Including the Technology and News Industries

With dread about the electrical grid being struck and Luddite sentiment, Ted Bauer's article about the technology industry is relevant. After all, many industries indeed become like the technology industry—"insular", monopolized, hegemonic, nepotistic, and oligarchical. For example, where in the news-reporting world is one going to find a muckraker who's willing to expose many under-the-radar matters anymore? As has been noted in many different ways, many people want complacently-sensationalistic soundbites and graphics from "trusted" veteran reporters (whether or not they are actually trustworthy and willing to produce work that at least meets journalistic standards).

One example is with regard to PM Netanyahu, Congress, and the President of the United States. Very few reporters, analysts, commentators, and other news-connected figures would care to bring up, let alone report, that PM Netanyahu is actually violating Section Three of Article Two of the U.S. Constitution by addressing Congress without first having President Obama convene the House and/ore the Senator. When one commentator/analyst and one journalist (the former being Baruch Maoz and the latter being Geraldo Rivera) did bring that point up, they were sorely lambasted (Geraldo Rivera in particular and directly was lambasted. Anyone who concurred with Baruch Maoz was through whom the lambasters attempted to excoriate Pastor Maoz.).

The "report to support Netanyahu and Congress" line was expected to be toed. Never mind that the Constitution should have been brought into the reporting of PM Netanyahu's addressing Congress without being received by the President.