Looking around: UK Lockdown Files; Netanyahu wanted to backtrack on judicial “reform”; bye, Felicia Lightfoot; a devout wish

(a) In the UK, former Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock had hired a ghostwriter to write a book about the COVID crisis from his perspective. To get her started, he turned over to her an archive of 100,000 WhatsApp messages within the government and with senior officials. (Why anybody in their right minds — let alone senior government officials — would rely on WhatsFap as a secure messaging platform is beyond me, but that’s neither here nor there.)

She realized she was sitting on a bombshell and turned over the entire archive to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, which is having a field day with it. This is their dedicated site:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/lockdown-files/

The files reveal no conspiracy, but all the more chickens running around the barnyard with their heads cut off, decisions being made for purely political reasons (e.g., so they wouldn’t look “heartless” next to the supposedly “caring” image of Nicola Sturgeon), knowingly telling falsehoods for public consumption,…

Anyway, read and make up your own minds.

(b) According to an unsourced Channel 13 report quoted by the Times of Israel, PM Netanyahu was all set to pause the judicial “reform” process to enable a dialogue brokered by (most ceremonial) President Herzog. Justice Minister Yariv Levin, however, threatened to quit if the process was paused “for even one day” — and Netanyahu, afraid of being out of power and then convicted/railroaded [depending on your POV] in his corruption investigation, backed down. This adds to the widening perception that Netanyahu — undeniably a crafty practical politician — is not really in control of this coalition. The Hebrew expression is: “the golem that arose against its maker”,.

Also in the TOI, Haviv Rettig Gur has a long analysis of which element of the coalition can compromise on what part of the “reform”.

• Shas primarily cares about enabling party leader Aryeh Deri to serve as a senior minister, despite multiple corruption convictions (including one for which he served prison time). [My own note: he’s not the only crook in the party, but has more brains than all the rest of it put together, and has personal charisma to boot.]
• Yariv Levin (Likud) and Simcha Rothman (“Religious Zionism”) cares above all about judicial appointments, that more right-wing and religious judges be appointed
• In contrast, United Torah Judaism (the Ashkenazi counterpart to Shas) does not really care about who sits on the court or how they rule, just that it can be overridden for laws favoring the chareidi (“ultra-Orthodox”) community, particularly in terms of state subsidies and exemptions from army service

He also points out that, for all the complaining about former Chief Justice Aharon Barak’s “judicial revolution” of the 90s, the Likud appropriated one part of it when it suits it — Basic Laws being given quasi-constitutional status. The right claims this shoudl exempt them from judicial review, since no constitutional court anywhere else can declare the constitution to be unconstitutional. At the same time, it has no enthusiasm for the supermajorities required everywhere else for changes to the constitution (typically 2/3) — a simple 61/120 majority suffices, and Gur points out that Basic Laws have been changed 22 times in 5 years (the changes ranging from the trivial to the more substantial).

He thinks Netanyahu has no choice but to plow ahead if he is to stay in power, but does not think the end result will be “the end of democracy” here.

Meanwhile, I’m not falling for Sara Netanyahu’s pathetic attempt at manipulation either. And a colleague forwarded me this, saying Sara’s eldest son Yair makes even Sara look sane: “Tel Aviv protesters are terrorists, must be jailed“.

(c) So Chicago’s horrible “Mayor” Lori Lightfoot was primaried out, and predictably is blaming racism, sexism, homophobia,… in a word, everything other than her own stupendous incompetence. Are we finally reaching a tipping point about DIE “box-ticking” appointments?

Then I read that United Airlines cares more about having flights with all-LGBTQWERTY crews, and about getting more women and minorities as pilots regardless of competence… and make a note to myself never to fly that airline again. (I have drastically cut back on business travel since COVID normalized video conferencing, but still airlines make money off me ;)) People of all colors, genders, orientations, political worldviews,… can all agree on one thing: when our plane takes off, we want to arrive at our destination safe and sound.

(d) Let me end this post on a hopeful “note” that can do double-duty as a Sabbath musical delight. One of my favorite Tool songs is about communication between opposing views, about finding commonality while acknowledging difference. Much of their output features unusual meters: this song (symbolically?) alternates between 5/8 and 7/8 meters in much of the verse.

[…] The light that fueled our fire then
Has burned a hole between us so
We cannot seem to reach an end
Crippling our communication

I know the pieces fit
‘Cause I watched them tumble down
No fault, none to blame
It doesn’t mean I don’t desire
To point the finger, blame the other
Watch the temple topple over
To bring the pieces back together
Rediscover communication

The poetry that comes from
The squaring off between
And the circling is worth it
Finding beauty in the dissonance

[…]

Have a great weekend and Shabbat shalom