Now that you’ve had some time to rest, “Imagine you woke up after the 2024 U.S. presidential election and found that Donald Trump had been re-elected and chose Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, Michael Flynn for defense secretary, Steve Bannon for commerce secretary, evangelical leader James Dobson for education secretary, Proud Boys former leader Enrique Tarrio for homeland security head and Marjorie Taylor Greene for the White House spokeswoman. ‘Impossible,’ you would say. Well, think again. As I’ve noted before, Israeli political trends are often a harbinger of wider trends in Western democracies — Off Broadway to our Broadway. I hoped that the national unity government that came to power in Israel in June 2021 might also be a harbinger of more bipartisanship here. Alas, that government has now collapsed and is being replaced by the most far-far-right coalition in Israel’s history. Lord save us if this is a harbinger of what’s coming our way. The coalition that Likud leader Bibi Netanyahu is riding back into power is the Israeli equivalent of the nightmare U.S. cabinet I imagined above.” Tom Friedman in the NYT (Gift Article): The Israel We Knew Is Gone.

+ The America we knew a couple years ago could be back soon and looking even worse. If the GOP takes the House, we’re in for a nonstop period of whacked out investigations and impeachment efforts. This will be augmented by Trump’s presidential run which will start in a couple weeks and is sadly inevitable. It’s the only way for him to reposition the effort to bring justice to his treacherous lawbreaking as political attacks, and winning would be the most effective way to get himself off the hook. Meanwhile, a recent poll found that 44% of registered voters think the federal government is controlled by a secret cabal. If it is, it’s the least effective cabal ever.

+ Meanwhile, the total cost of the 2022 state and federal elections is projected to exceed $16.7 billion. It’s sad. That money could be put to much better use as kindling.