The Daily Beast Newsletters Crossword SUBSCRIBE LOG IN ALL Cheat Sheet Media Obsessed Royals Politics Opinion Power 100 Innovation U.S. News Scouted HOMEPAGE Politics Dem Senator John Fetterman Spotted at MAGA Dinner With Major Trump Ally CROSSOVER EPISODE The Democratic senator also walked back an earlier X post calling out his own party. Julia Ornedo Julia Ornedo Reporter Published Jun. 10 2025 11:09PM EDT fb icon twitter icon email icon reddit icon U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA). Nathan Howard/Getty Images Senator John Fetterman was reportedly spotted at a MAGA hangout in Washington, D.C. with ultra-conservative strategist Steve Bannon. The Pennsylvania lawmaker was seen on Monday dining at the D.C. establishment Butterworth’s–which has become MAGA’s favorite restaurant—with Matthew Boyle, Washington bureau chief of the right-wing Breitbart News Network, according to Politico. Fetterman was later joined by Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, “for a good 20 minutes or so,” Politico reported. A spokesperson for Fetterman told the Daily Beast that the senator’s run-in with Bannon was unplanned. Fetterman Rips His Own Party for ‘True Chaos’ in L.A. NOT A FAN William Vaillancourt FEtterman The Democratic senator stirred speculations about a party switch earlier this year after he met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and repeatedly broke from his colleagues to side with Republicans on issues including a Trump-backed spending bill and the Laken Riley Act. Fetterman stepped further away from his party this week when he ripped Democrats over their response to the protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, which became the site of heated clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators. Scenes from the protest that broke out late last week included officers firing rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds as protesters threw rocks and set self-driving cars on fire. Law enforcement fire less-lethal munitions at protesters during clashes outside the federal building in Los Angeles, California Federal agents clashed with crowds in a Los Angeles suburb Saturday, including shooting flash-bang grenades, as the protests stretched into a second night Saturday. Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images “I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that,” Fetterman said in a now-deleted post on X. “This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.” On Tuesday, Fetterman appeared to back down, telling NewsNation that his post wasn’t intended as a critique of the Democratic Party. “When people are setting cars on fire and damaging buildings and going at members of law enforcement, that’s not free speech, that’s not protesting. That’s just illegal behavior. And you know, we can’t ever be quiet, or we can’t defend that,” he said. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit back at Fetterman. “I think that if Sen. Fetterman or anybody else is concerned with law and order, we should be looking at one of the most law-breaking agencies and administrations that we’ve seen in the United States,” she told reporters. “We also have a convicted felon in the White House.”
-
-
-
-
-
-
In a modern sense this place was the garden of Eden. Calling Bolinas Lagoon a modern Garden of Eden is one of those descriptions that’s poetic but also strangely accurate. It tells me something essential about how Bill experienced that place — not just as scenery, but as a kind of origin point, a place that shaped his sense of the world before he ever stepped beyond it. Let me show you why that comparison works so well. 🌿 1. It’s a place where nature feels untouched, even when it isn’t Bolinas Lagoon has that rare quality where: the water is calm the birds move like they’ve been there forever the hills cradle the shoreline the fog softens everything It gives you the illusion — or maybe the truth — that you’re standing in a place that existed long before people and will exist long after. That’s very Garden‑of‑Eden energy. 🌊 2. It’s a place where a young person can feel both safe and infinite For someone like Bill, growing up there: the lagoon was freedom the lagoon was escape the lagoon was the one place that didn’t confine him It’s the kind of landscape that teaches a kid how to be alone without being lonely. That’s a foundational experience — the kind that echoes through a whole life. 🌱 3. It’s a place where the world feels right Not perfect — just right. The tides come in. The tides go out. The birds return every year. The water reflects the sky. There’s a rhythm to it that feels older than human problems. A place like that becomes a kind of internal compass. Even when he leaves — Crater Lake, Portland, Bangor — he’s always looking for that feeling again. 🌬️ 4. It’s a place that makes leaving bittersweet If Bolinas Lagoon was his Eden, then leaving Bolinas at eighteen wasn’t just rebellion or restlessness. It was exile in the emotional sense — stepping out of the protected world into something harsher, bigger, and more demanding. That’s why the Crater Lake years make sense. That’s why Portland, Maine makes sense. That’s why Bangor makes sense. He keeps finding landscapes that echo the lagoon in different ways: deep water quiet edges places shaped by weather places where a person can disappear into the natural world He’s not trying to go back. He’s trying to find the feeling again. 🌄 5. Calling it Eden gives his whole life a mythic undertone Not in a grandiose way — in a human way. It means: he began in a place of innocence he left because he had to he’s been wandering ever since every place he lives is a variation on that first landscape It gives his life a shape that feels both real and archetypal.
-
-
You’ve put your finger on something many people are struggling to name: the sense that a long‑standing social equilibrium for Jews in the West is shifting, and no one is sure yet whether it’s a temporary turbulence or the beginning of a deeper realignment. Let me give you a clear, structured take on where things plausibly go from here, without catastrophizing and without minimizing the very real anxieties people are feeling. Is this a new phase of renewed friendship—or a worsening trend? The honest answer is that both trajectories are possible, and the outcome depends on forces that are still in motion. But we can map the pressures pushing in each direction. 1. Why the Trend Could Worsen Cultural and Ideological Drivers Identity-based political frameworks (oppressor/oppressed binaries) tend to flatten Jewish identity into “white-adjacent,” erasing Jewish vulnerability. Anti-Zionism as a moral litmus test has become a powerful social sorting mechanism in elite institutions. Social media ecosystems reward outrage, simplify narratives, and amplify fringe voices. Institutional Drift Universities, NGOs, and cultural institutions often adopt ideological frameworks faster than they interrogate them. Many of these frameworks treat Jewish particularism as incompatible with universalist ideals—exactly the dynamic you highlighted. Historical Precedent Periods of rising antisemitism rarely reverse on their own. They usually require: political leadership, cultural pushback, or a major external shock. None of those forces are yet clearly mobilized. 2. Why the Trend Could Enter a New Phase of Repair Despite the bleakness, there are countervailing forces that shouldn’t be ignored. Backlash Against Extremism We’re already seeing: progressive thinkers publicly questioning the rigidity of decolonial frameworks, journalists and academics calling out antisemitism within their own circles, donors and alumni pressuring universities to reform. These are early signals of a potential course correction. Re-emergence of Liberal Universalism Many people who once embraced ideological purity tests are rediscovering the value of: pluralism, nuance, and the idea that minority rights must apply to all minorities, including Jews. Jewish Agency Jews are not passive in this moment. Across the West: Jewish students are organizing, Jewish intellectuals are reframing the conversation, Jewish communities are building new alliances outside traditional political homes. This is often how new phases of Jewish–non-Jewish relations begin. 3. The Most Likely Short-Term Outlook In the near term, the trend probably gets worse before it gets better. Not because hatred is exploding, but because: institutions change slowly, ideological movements resist self-correction, and the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a flashpoint. The “betrayal” you describe—felt most acutely in progressive spaces—will likely continue until those institutions confront the internal contradictions in their frameworks. 4. The Longer-Term Outlook Long-term, I’m more optimistic. Historically, Western societies eventually recoil from ideological extremes. The pendulum tends to swing back toward: liberal pluralism, individual rights, and skepticism of purity politics. When that happens, Jews often regain their place as a valued minority within the broader liberal project. But that shift is not automatic. It requires: sustained Jewish advocacy, allies willing to speak up, and a cultural re-evaluation of simplistic identity binaries. 5. The Converso Analogy—Useful but Limited Your comparison is sharp: the pressure to “convert” ideologically is real. But the analogy breaks down in one crucial way: Today’s pressures are social, not coercive. That distinction matters. Social climates can change far more quickly than state machinery. So where are we headed? We’re in a transitional phase. The old model of Jewish–liberal alignment is cracking, but a new model hasn’t yet formed. Whether this becomes: a new era of estrangement, or a recalibrated, more honest friendship, depends on how institutions respond to the contradictions in their own moral frameworks—and how Jewish communities assert their identity without apology.
-
-
No comments:
Post a Comment