Good-Bye Bibi (At Last) / Paraguay’s Crypto Canary in The Mineshaft / J.D’s Favorite Poster Boy is A Convicted Rapist (Surprise!) / TEACH YOUR CHILDREN
67 Knesset Members Back Eisenkot for Prime Minister, Meaning the Fall of Netanyahu Is Now Underway
Ha’aretz
Elected Knesset members from Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar, from right to left, businesswoman Inbar Harush Gity, MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen, former head of the Finance Ministry’s budget division Shaul Meridor and former Shin Bet director Yoram Cohen, arrive at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Thursday. Photo: Itay Cohen
Scott: While the consensus view of most US observers of Israel was that Netanyahu had pulled a rabbit out of the hat and would stay on as prime minister at least on a caretaker basis, this reveals a certain amount of innumeracy. I’m no expert on Israeli politics, but I can count. I know that 61 MKs are needed to make a prime minister, and as of last Thursday, Gen Eisenkot had 65. And as of this morning he has picked up a further 2, for 67. Meaning that Isaac Herzog is now required to task him with the chore of putting together a new government and the Knesset when it convenes will elect him as prime minister. The chore of constituting a government, however, remains extraordinarily complicated.
The Yashar party recommended its leader, Gadi Eisenkot, to form Israel’s next government during consultations with President Isaac Herzog at the President’s Residence on Thursday.
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The recommendation brings the number of elected lawmakers backing Eisenkot to 67 out of 120, giving him a majority in the Knesset and likely securing the president’s mandate to form the next government.
According to custom, if a candidate is recommended by at least 61 elected Knesset members, the president tasks him with forming a government. If no candidate receives 61 recommendations, the president will task the candidate whom he believes has the greatest chance of succeeding in forming a government.
In the meeting, Herzog asked Yashar’s representatives how they plan to form a government. “As soon as Gadi [Eisenkot] receives the present’s mandate, we will first sit down with the parties that share the vast majority of our positions,” replied Yoram Cohen, a former Shin Bet director representing the party.
“In our view, we can reach common ground with them very quickly. This will also serve as the baseline for any joiners from any party that wishes to move forward with us.”
Cohen added that “the main obstacle to forming a national unity government is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
President Herzog announced that he would issue the mandate for formation of a new government on Sunday.
Paraguay Seizes Major Digital Bank Leading to Resignation of President Peña
Los Angeles Times / Associated Press / Reuters
The headquarters of Ueno Bank, a major digital lender, in Asunción, Paraguay, after the nation’s Central Bank seized it due to its solvency ratio. Photo: Jorge Sáenz / Associated Press
Scott: Paraguayan president Santiago Peña is a big fan of Trump and his MAGA movement, and indeed, he takes guidance from the Trump White House all the time. And this goes particularly to the operational mechanics of government, and particularly the management of funds intake through crypto that avoids having to answer embarrassing questions about the source of those huge wads of cash connected chronologically with recent government decisions. Ueno Bank, the country’s leading digital currency institution thus filled an acute need for Peña, much along the lines of Trump Jr’s World Liberty Financial. Imagine therefore his consternation when Ueno failed to meet critical solvency tests, forcing the Central Bank to intervene… only a few hours later, President Peña is forced to resign, because he apparently knows what the bank examiners are about to discover.
Paraguay’s central bank seized a major digital lender with close ties to President Santiago Peña early Tuesday, throwing the savings of millions of customers and hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds into limbo. The central bank’s board voted unanimously Monday to put Ueno Bank into resolution after its solvency ratio — a measure of a bank’s capital against its risk-weighted assets — fell below half the legal minimum, the regulator said.
Later Tuesday, central bank President Carlos Carvallo, who ran the lender before Peña appointed him to the post, said he had signed his resignation letter but would stay on for now to oversee the takeover. “The central bank needs calm to do its job,” he said.
Unlike bankruptcy proceedings in court, resolution allows regulators to transfer a failing bank’s deposits to more stable banks before its remaining assets are liquidated to repay creditors…
Paraguayan President Santiago Peña resigned on Thursday following the collapse of a prominent digital lender to which he had former business links, putting him under intense pressure as nearly half the population was left without access to their bank accounts.
MAGA Poster Boy Russell Brand is Convicted of Rape and Sexual Assault
The Times
Prisoner in the Dock in Southwark Crown Court: Russell Brand, as a verdict of guilty is handed down
Scott: Russell Brand is a MAGA posterboy, and is literally the face picked by JD Vance, RFKJr and Mehmet Öz to associate with their MAHA health initiative. When he recently appeared in the White House in connection with a MAHA promotional event, Brand and his hosts traded jokes about the fact that he was preparing to stand trial in London on rape charges (which in MAGA world is, apparently, something side-splitting funny). Thursday morning he stood silent in the dock in Southwark Crown Court as a verdict of guilty was handed down against him on rape and sexual assault charges.
Two peas in a pod. Today Russell Brand was convicted of rape and sexual assault in Crown Court Southwark, as JD Vance launched his campaign for president
Russell Brand has been found guilty of one rape and three sexual assaults
The actor was acquitted of two counts of rape, and one count of attempted indecent assault
Brand, who has been remanded in custody, faces a ‘significant custodial term,’ according to the judge
Police are also investigating two further rape allegations, including one of a 16-year-old schoolgirl. This investigation may lead to further charges and another trial.
Brand’s bond has been revoked and he has been remanded into police custody, meaning he will not be available to participate in further promotional events in the Trump White House.
The Elon Musk Era of Politics Is Just Beginning
Bloomberg News
Scott: On Election Day, 98% of the candidates funded by Elon Musk went down to defeat. What lessons will he take away from this? Elon Musk never takes away lessons from his failures. He will likely increase the quantum of resources he devotes to keeping the GOP in power, and he will work hard to make it more difficult for people to learn who he’s supporting and how.
Elon Musk spent close to $500 million in the midterm cycle, making him the biggest 2026 donor and the biggest outside donor to any US election ever.
Musk’s donations were focused on helping Republicans, but Democrats retook both houses of Congress, winning six of the seven most closely watched Senate races where Musk spent the vast majority of his money.
Despite his failure to help Republicans win, Musk’s net worth has soared to close to $1 trillion, and he may continue to spend heavily in politics, potentially even more in the next election, as a Democratic-controlled Congress may investigate his business empire.
Midwestern City Lights
City lights from the Midwestern United States to the East Coast sparkle across the landscape a couple of hours before sunrise on Oct. 18, 2026. Major urban areas visible in the photograph include Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; and the New York metropolitan region. The International Space Station was orbiting 259 miles above Earth when this photograph was taken.
Image credit: CSA/Joshua Kutryk
Your Online Moment of Zen
Teach Your Children
Written by Graham Nash.
Peformed by Crosby, Sills and Nash
First released on Déjà Vu in May 1970.
Charles: I will have much more to say about the best week in America since November 8, 1932, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president and America felt its first real hope since the beginning of the Depression.
For the last two years it has been almost impossible for any of us to be truly hopeful about anything.
That Great National Nightmare ended last Tuesday.
For today I’ll let this Zen Moment speak for myself.
About the original version of Teach Your Children, per Wiki:
Band Members: Graham Nash, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Neil Young.
Guest Musician: Jerry Garcia played the distinctive pedal steel guitar. In exchange for his contribution, CSNY helped the Grateful Dead work on their vocal harmonies for Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty.
Inspiration: The song was inspired by Diane Arbus’s 1962 photograph Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park.
I never knew about this photo’s connection to the song until last night.
This is the sublime version from the No Nukes concerts, either from Madison Square Garden, sometime between September 19 and September 23, 1979, or the massive rally in Battery Park City, Manhattan, on September 23.
Graham is still firing on all cylinders at 84.
Just last week he released a lovely PSA commanding America to VOTE!
It seems to have been quite effective.
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