Political Behavior Commentary

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Why was it so difficult to realize that Trump was going to run WH the same way he ran all his businesses that he drove to the ground with 6 BKs, frivolous lawsuits to avoid paying workers and contractors, and just sheer laziness and wilful stupidity?

[𝙰𝚕𝚎𝚡 𝙱𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕 @alexrblackwell]

One might think that Trump’s experience at fleecing golf course architects and building constructors didn’t prepare him for negotiating with a terrorist nation-state.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

In other words, shut the fuck up so that Bibi Lindsey Levine etc can’t whisper in Trump’s ears and get him all riled up and have him kill this 1000th effort at a viable deal.

[jeremy scahill @jeremyscahill]

🔺Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi: An MOU "has never been closer," calls on media to refrain from speculating on details.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Hmmm. Do u think Wall Street fixed the rules so that the company could inflate its value was because someone got a call from White House?

[𝙰𝚕𝚎𝚡 𝙱𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕 @alexrblackwell]

@nytimes How many shares is Trump being gifted?

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

What fucking rot by .@MarkHalperin .@LarryOConnor .@melissadderosa .@2waytvapp. U clearly have no idea the deep rage we .@TheDemocrats voters have for .@SenSchumer .@RepJeffries .@HouseDemocrats .@SenateDems for their genocide support. Ignoring 100s/1000s of deaths will do that.

[2WAY @2waytvapp]

“I will tell you, over Israel, over Epstein and over Platner, Ro Khanna has inspired deep ire,” says @MarkHalperin about senior Democrats’ antipathy toward the progressive congressman from Silicon Valley, who’s emerging as a Democratic presidential contender. “I’m not talking about casual ire,” Mark says, “but deep ire on the part of many people I know. Are they gatekeepers to the nomination? Traditionally, many of them are — political operatives, elected officials and donors — but maybe Ro Khanna doesn't need the traditional folks.” @RoKhanna @LarryOConnor @melissadderosa @2waytvapp

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Who the fuck ru working for, .@SenSchumer .@RepJeffries .@dccc .@dscc .@SenateDems .@HouseDemocrats .@SenGillibrand, if u have to be pushed to talk about the #1 issue not only for @TheDemocrats voters but swing/r-wing voters? I know one major backer is genocide supporting .@AIPAC

[Nicholas Wu @nicholaswu12]

new - Dem-aligned group is pushing party leadership to link affordability and corruption through a “Cost of Corruption” messaging plan. They're arguing that costs have to be married w/ "corruption in govt," Defend the Vote executive director Brian Lemek told me.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Hey .@mkraju .@CNN .@CNNPolitics, see this? Instead of being a patsy for .@GOP .@realDonaldTrump .@WhiteHouse46 effort to gin up fake ele fraud narrative prep for midterm, ask .@SpeakerJohnson why he’s swearing in this CA elected rep if he claims LA ele was rigged?

[Kadia Goba @kadiagoba]

NEW: Speaker Johnson will swear in Rep.-elect James Gallagher (R-CA-1) today who secured enough votes to avoid an August runoff.

Gallagher replaces the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa and was expected to face a runoff in the district which would have delayed filling the seat until later this year.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Wow! I know one of its founder, Trump luvving .@realkenlangone, is as stupid as wealth makes humans stupid. Let the boycott begin, .@HomeDepot!

[Jason Bassler @JasonBassler1]

Home Depot: The only place where buying a light bulb gets your face scanned like your a suspect and your car's plates tracked like a fugitive.

Facial recognition at checkout.
Flock cameras in the lot = hard pass.

Boycott Home Depot. Vote with your wallet.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

@AbdulElSayed should do an ad that clips her word salad in sections, after each section state his policy plans that are concrete/clear/detailed, the way Zohran did, hammering his policy for M4A, plans for affordability, abolish ICE, to contrast her empty words to actual policies.

[Dylan Williams @dylanotes]

This is really the whole package of what’s wrong with Democratic establishment politics.

The complete capture by a monied special interest hostile to Democratic voters’ actual views and values.

The word salad to avoid saying anything substantive.

The canned, inauthentic vibe.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Wow! Hmmm. Interesting move after getting ousted by pro-Israel $Ms.

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

“The Israelis were intent on leaving no survivors.”

US Congressman Thomas Massie has urged the US to reopen its investigation into the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty that killed 34 service members, suggesting that the assault was not an accident https://t.co/3yFIoZTHQw

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

I’m sorry but ever since David Ellison .@Skydance his fathers .@Oracle bought .@CBS FOR THE VERY PURPOSE OF CURRYING FAVOR FROM .@realDonaldTrump by putting .@bariweiss as head twit of .@CBSNews, can’t trust any of their news posts AT ALL. Ex: Did Bari review this post b4 sent?

[Jennifer Jacobs @JenniferJJacobs]

The US military didn't take part in the Israeli attacks against Iran, the first since the ceasefire, and the Trump admin didn't order any US defensive action to shield Israel from incoming Iranian missiles, per a US official. @CBSNews

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Let’s see, I can get ev/th from .@bradlander that .@RepDanGoldman offers but w/o .@Netanyahu genocide w/all those Palestinian/Lebanese deaths. There rnt 100s/1000s of deaths between Lander and me as there are between Goldman and me.

[Russell Berman @russellberman]

Rep. Dan Goldman is no Joe Manchin or John Fetterman. He votes w/ Dem leaders, backs Medicare for All, has called to abolish ICE. But that's not enough for progressives in his district. My new piece looks at why he might lose his NY primary this month: https://t.co/cnZj06RbnO

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

3 amplification layers of bullshit: 1st-.@JaredEMoskowitz crying anti-semitism. 2nd-best laundramat .@axios. 3rd-patsy .@PollTracker2024. Hey Jared there's 72k+ Palestinian and 3200+ Lebanese deaths btwn u and me. Am I supposed to walk over those dead bodies to give u a hug?

[Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 @PollTracker2024]

Axios: Jewish Dems sound alarm about antisemitism and 2028

A growing number of Jewish Democrats tell Axios they feel shunned — like unwelcome strangers in their own party.

They warn that the constant and escalating hostilities over Israel's actions in Gaza have at times veered into hostility toward Jewish Americans that could hurt Democrats in 2028.

"Jews are starting to feel scared again," said Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who's Jewish. He said Jewish voters are beginning to leave the Democratic Party but that it's not yet a "mass exodus."

Moskowitz added that party leaders are "not taking it seriously. Words are irrelevant; condemnation statements are irrelevant."

Link to article: https://t.co/wJrMobGqBV

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Does Trump know what the "shots" are? Highly, highly doubt it. Does he know when to call those shots? Highly, highly doubt it.

[Edward Luce @EdwardGLuce]

"I call all the shots. Netanyahu doesn't call the shots." My telephone interview with Trump this afternoon. https://t.co/l4OSrFYw6z

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

WHY IS THE WEST SURPRISED? .@netanyahu .@Israel .@IDF expanded their Palestinian Holocaust to Lebanon. Just like England/US knew they had to stop Hitler sweep across Europe, Iran is the only one that knows they c/n allow Israel to spread its Holocaust across ME.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

There is a surprising level of surprise in the West that Iran was serious about its demand for a region-wide ceasefire and that it would act against Israel if it continued attacking Lebanon.

I explain here: https://t.co/1tpxvwHAC2

...why Tehran was dead serious about forcing Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon and how it might respond.

Part of the reason Iran's insistence on defending Lebanon has surprised Western observers may lie in their erroneous belief that Hezbollah is nothing but an Iranian proxy.

Indeed, Hezbollah is consistently described in the Western discourse as an Iranian proxy. And it appears that this statement was genuinely believed by Western observers.

So if the belief is that Hezbollah is no more than a proxy, it also becomes more difficult to take Iranian threats that it will defend Lebanon seriously. A proxy, after all, is a piece on the chessboard whose fate almost invariably is to be sacrificed or consumed.

Iran would surely risk regional war to defend its queen on the chessboard, but would it do the same for a pawn, Western observers ask themselves?

But if from the outset the nuanced relationship between Hezbollah and Iran was more properly understood - a mutually beneficial alliance in which Tehran clearly is the bigger party but not one that can simply issue dictats for Hezbollah to follow - Iran's warnings against continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon would likely have been taken more seriously.

Yet another example of how the simplistic and unnuanced understanding of Iran's geopolitical calculations and perspectives perpetuated in the Washington discourse ultimately undermines US interests and America's ability to calibrate optimal moves in the region.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

About fucking time. Nobody else was going to help Lebanon. Nobody helped Gaza.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

The magnitude of what just happened may take some time to sink in.

This is the first time Iran has struck Israel after Israel struck another country's territory (that is, not Iran).

This means that the battle lines have been moved.

Iran's deterrence had already been restored in the sense that Israel knew that any strike on it would be responded to.

But now, Iran has proven that it will also respond to Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

This is the first time in decades that a regional power has the means, capacity, and willingness to put hard power against Israeli military maneuvers or aggression against a third party.

Read full analysis here: https://t.co/CPawJ4TYdr

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Oh, really?

[Al Jazeera Breaking News @AJENews]

BREAKING: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepts request from US President Donald Trump not to respond to Iran’s attack on northern Israel, Israeli media reports.

🔴 More on https://t.co/5H0QqpfIYw

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Collins voted no to inspect the inhumane ICE facility in Delaney. Go after her, Platner.

[Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine]

Thank you, Maine, for having my back.

I'll always have yours.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Ur father has better take. I c/n believe u report on Trump as all other media, like he's all other POTUS, when Trump d/n have the capacity to even understand the scope/magnitude of working in gvmt much less in WH, wh/protects Trump even when his incapacity is out in the open.

[Aaron Maté @aaronjmate]

Making a deal with Iran would require Trump to formally accept the defeat of his regime change war and return at least some of Iran's stolen ("frozen") assets. He hasn't been willing to do that, so has spent weeks stalling for time. That gave Israel an opening to act as a spoiler, which it seized by escalating its aggression against Lebanon.

Perhaps Israel and the US thought that Iran was desperate enough for a deal to stand down. By striking Israel today, Iran has shown that it will not abandon Hezbollah and south Lebanon.

Now the onus is back on Trump: is he willing to respect Iran and Lebanon as sovereign nations and have peace, or is the cause of Greater Israel worth continuing the war.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

This stmt more than a/th shows just how little u understand elections, INCLUDING u've no idea y .@realDonaldTrump got elected. Hint: it's that common-man energy that u a white, Ivy ed intellectual, privileged male r clueless about. Diff is Trump's a grift, Platner (so far) isn't.

[Nate Silver @NateSilver538]

Platner staff high on their own supply. Not that hard to win in a D +10 state in a D +8 year. And they still might? But their whole implicit electability argument is that Platner can appeal to apolitical disaffected white dudes, which is a heavy overlap w/the Fetterman demo.

[Political Behavior Commentary @PBCommentary]

Ur so knowingly disingenuous. We d/n care u d/n miss a vote. It's that ur votes critically enabled the rise of .@realDonaldTrump MAGA Project 2025 that has decimated agencies across the federal gvmt, which u were aware was literally their goal. Ur vote made abortion illegal.

[Susan Collins for Senator @SenSusanCollins]

Growing up in Aroostook County, I learned to work hard, persevere, and keep my commitments. Throughout my entire Senate service, I have never missed a single vote, because Mainers deserve a Senator who works as hard as they do.