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Chris Christie courts Sheldon Adelson

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From the Las Vegas Sun August 1: “Chris Christie finds a reason to visit Las Vegas in the dead of summer:”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to visit Las Vegas today for a private fundraiser hosted by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson at the Palazzo.

A December report on how much Adelson gave in the last presidential election cycle:

By far the largest donor during the 2012 election cycle, Adelson pledged to give up to $100 million to see that Obama was defeated. Now, in the wake of the president’s re-election victory, two Republican sources close to the businessman claim that he not only met his fiscal pledge, but that he exceeded it by $50 million. According to the these unnamed fundraisers, the billionaire gave a whopping $150 million toward Romney’s electoral efforts.

In 2010 Adelson said that his giving was largely related to Israel:

All we care about is being good Zionists, being good citizens of Israel, because even though I am not Israeli born, Israel is in my heart.

Liam Hoare in Haaretz attacked me this week for talking about money in American politics– and says it is anti-Semitic to do so in the context of Israel, because Israel makes a person’s brain go on fire:

For Israel, this anti-Semitic attention manifests itself in theories pertaining to The Jewish Establishment or The Israel Lobby, for example – the notion as perpetuated by Walt and Mearsheimer that a homogenous bloc consisting of Israeli and Jewish individuals and pressure groups is steering the course of American foreign policy. Support for Israel is sometimes achieved through traditional lobbying, yet often through bribery. “Remember that old political adage, Follow the money! I wish the press would follow the money on our country’s Israel policy,” states  Philip Weiss, founder and co-editor of the anti-Zionist site Mondoweiss.

But as a nation, and moreover as an idea or a dream, Israel as a Jewish state and the fulfilment of Zionism can never be normal. Israel will always be a subject of interest and fascination, a cause to be taken up or combated, and the target of unwarranted and undesired attention from those who’d rather it did not exist or wish use it for their own destructive and malicious ends. The perception of Israel as exceptional can bestow rewards – but at a price.

I wonder if that goes for The Hill, too? Last month:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said he will visit Israel this October, the clearest sign yet he is considering running for president in 2016.

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From Liam’s opening sentences–

“Whether it is desired or not, Israel will always be an exceptional nation.

It is in the nature of Israel’s birth – of Israel as the manifestation of a dream, or several dreams, and the yearning and investment those dreams hold. The awakening of a Jewish national consciousness within the galut, the revival of the Hebrew language, the founding of Tel Aviv and the kibbutzim, the greening of the land, the victories in existential wars fought on multiple fronts – it is a secular, pioneering achievement unparalleled in modern history.”

One can almost picture a little demon sitting on Liam’s shoulder as he stares blankly at the computer screen urging “Come on, Liam, this hasbarist twaddle won’t write itself.”

Actually, it almost could.

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I suspect that Israel is undermining national security by inviting all those morons on “educational tours” (like Rick “Oops” Perry). Check the number of google hits for “stupidity is contagious”.

Christie wrote (said) two years ago that only stupid people go to Las Vegas in the middle of the Summer. I guess smart people go to Moscow.

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Sheldon Adelson spent $150 million on the last election? Yikes.

Is Adelson still hoping the Palestinians will simply disappear?

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RE: “New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to visit Las Vegas today for a private fundraiser hosted by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson at the Palazzo.” ~ Las Vegas Sun, August 1

RICK PERLSTEIN’S DISCOURSE ON “CRAZY BILLIONAIRE” SHELDON ADELSON:
“Why GOP Mega-Donor Sheldon Adelson Is Mad, Bad and a Danger to the Republic”, By Rick Perlstein, Rolling Stone, 4/10/12

[EXCERPTS] . . . Adelson’s anti-union mania (I would argue) is the most important thing to know about him. For it reveals just how crazy, and how unscrupulous, the man is.
Let’s start at the very beginning. Adelson remembers meeting Gingrich in Washington in 1995, when Gingrich was House Speaker and Adelson was lobbying to get the U.S. embassy in Israel moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Other reports have them being introduced in 1996 by a far-right anti-union operative in Nevada who worked for Adelson. Details of the subsequent courtship are murky, although the huge favor Gingrich did for Adelson in 1996 by turning off a federal investigation of the gambling industry probably did a lot to cement their friendship.
Two years later, Nevada conservatives sponsored a “Paycheck Protection” ballot initiative – the right-wing term for measures weakening unions by banning them from automatically deducting dues from members’ pay. Adelson was gung-ho for it – and “would spend any amount of money,” D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Las Vegas’s Culinary Workers Union Local 226, told me . . .
. . . In 1999, Adelson closed one casino, the Sands, and completed work on a new one, the Venetian, stiffing so many contractors that there were at one time 366 liens against the property. Taylor, of the Culinary Workers, said he and his colleagues presumed that “like every other casino that had done that, workers in the [closed] hotel would be given priority when the [new] hotel was built.” Instead, Adelson refused even to talk. All this, in a union town like Vegas, was unprecedented. “Even when you’re having battles, you continue to have talks. Shit, we’re talking to the North Koreans right now!” he told me. “The Israelis talk to the Arabs. Talking doesn’t necessarily solve anything, but at least you understand the other guy’s position.” Adelson, not much interested in understanding the other guy’s position, proceeded to launch a campaign against the Culinary Workers that Taylor calls “beyond aggressive.”
Right before the grand opening of the Venetian, in 1999, the Culinary Workers staged a demonstration on the public sidewalk out front. Adelson told the cops to start making arrests; the cops refused. Glen Arnodo, an official at the union at the time, relates what happened next: “I was standing on the sidewalk and they had two security guards say I was on private property, and if I didn’t move they’d have to put me under ‘citizen’s arrest.’ I ignored them.” The guards once again told the police to arrest Arnodo and again, he says, they refused. The Civil Rights hero Rep. John Lewis, in town to support the rally, said the whole thing reminded him of living in the South during Jim Crow. . .
. . . Did I mention Adelson is nuts? But don’t take my word for it – it was George W. Bush who called him “some crazy Jewish billionaire.” . . .

ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/why-gop-mega-donor-sheldon-adelson-is-mad-bad-and-a-danger-to-the-republic-20120410

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Am actually both surprised and very disappointed by this. Not that Christie would quarrel Rand Paul, that’s politics. But he has (I could find the link with time) stood up for Muslim civil rights in NJ and mocked those who opposed them. He kind of endorsed Obama, as much as he could at least, last election. I assumed it was, at least in part, because he understood the neocon haters were crazy. But now this?

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