I think this comment wasn’t supposed to be an argument for the existence of Israel, but rather directed at the initial premise. They are challenging the assumption that support for the Israeli state and support for the conflict in Gaza are one in the same.
That was very Mr. Rodgers of you.
RIP my bank account
Musicians curse.
I’m a multi-instrumentalist and I now have 3 guitars, a bass, a banjo, two ukuleles, a sousaphone, trombone, trumpet, soprano trombone, bugle, clarinet, tenor sax, Roland keyboard, melodica, cajone, stylophone, otamatone, ocarina, concertina, and a recorder. My goal is 50 instruments by the time I’m 50.
I have a problem.
I worked at a preppy catholic school in Chicago. Every year they had a Gala with an auction where people would throw around $60k like it was nothing. Afterwards all the parents of students I taught were plastered and grinding on each other on the dancefloor, and then I was invited to a sex party in the hotel they stayed at. Being 20 years younger than these folks, I was really weirded out.
Catholics go hard.
I’ve had good and bad interactions with them, so I just think “hey they are flawed (hopefully) human beings that have good days and bad days”. Chances are if I treat them (or anyone) kindly, the interaction will be positive.
My goal online is to try and be a wholesome user, although that doesn’t always happen. I usually delete my comments when I don’t like how I acted with someone else as I want to remind myself to take a kinder approach to Lemmy. There’s enough toxicity online.
I think “would Mr. Rodgers approve?”
Actually the little button sends an SOS to local authorities, so chances are the little button works fine and you have an incoming SWAT raid with paramedics and police surrounding the building.
Here’s a video to show you how primaries work.
Might want to take a look before freaking out about some sort of democratic coup.
Nope, they confirmed it was him.
My take though is that it was ~4 years ago- he was 17. My politics between 17 and 20 did a 180 so I don’t see it as any damning evidence of his political affiliation.
They looked at his search history and he also was looking up Biden and other politicians of different political affiliation- this is just conjecture but he may have chosen Trump merely because he was the easiest to get to. The kid was angry at the world and wanted to kill someone in power.
The only thing we know for sure, is that we don’t know and can’t know the whole truth. It died with him. That take generally too scary for most people to accept, so any explanation gives us comfort.
Do you remember the feeling of hope frodo?
Personally if it were my magic wand, we would nominate the 🥾 (Buttigieg)
He would STOMP that orange.
I mean I get it. We’re all people, we want our dignity. I was diagnosed bipolar and my biggest fear was having a mental breakdown and being locked away for the rest of my life. I hate the thought of not being able to be my own person with the freedom to navigate my destiny. I take my meds, I eat right, I exercise, I go to therapy, and I do so so I don’t end up involuntarily sanctioned. I want to build my own career, find love, see the world and experience what there is to experience and I don’t want that to go away.
Older folks are still humans who experience the same emotions as we all do, and they also want their dignity like we all do. It’s easy for us to pass these off as grumblings of senile folks, but from their perspective they were at the top of their careers yesterday and now they are being shoved out by society.
Biden needs to drop out, but I understand his hurt.
First- I actually really like seeing AOC not being one of those “burn the house down” politicians as I knew her when she started. It seems like she’s learned what it takes to get a large group of people to do one thing, and outrage politics does not do that. Frankly this is the restraint I would look for in a future presidential nominee.
Second- at a base level I’m very for Biden stepping down and giving us the opportunity to escape this hellhole of an election cycle. John Stewart put it pretty well to the DNC- “Do you understand the opportunity you have here? Do you have any idea how thirsty Americans are for any hint of inspiration or leadership, and a release from this choice of a megalomaniac and a suffocating gerontocracy?”
I always look for reasonable takes from opposing viewpoints, and I did find American Historian Allan Lichtman’s argument for why Biden stepping down would not be the best idea. Here’s the 6 minute video of his 13 keys to the Whitehouse which has predicted 9 of the past 10 elections.
TL;DW:
Party mandate: After the midterm elections, the incumbent party holds more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than after the previous midterm elections.
No primary contest: There is no serious contest for the incumbent party nomination.
Incumbent seeking re-election: The incumbent party candidate is the sitting president.
No third party: There is no significant third party or independent campaign.
Strong short-term economy: The economy is not in recession during the election campaign.
Strong long-term economy: Real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms.
Major policy change: The incumbent administration affects major changes in national policy.
No social unrest: There is no sustained social unrest during the term.
No scandal: The incumbent administration is untainted by major scandal.
No foreign/military failure: The incumbent administration suffers no major failure in foreign or military affairs.
Major foreign/military success: The incumbent administration achieves a major success in foreign or military affairs.
Charismatic incumbent: The incumbent party candidate is charismatic or a national hero.
Uncharismatic challenger: The challenging party candidate is not charismatic or a national hero.
If 5 or fewer of these statements are False, then it is predicted that the incumbent will win. His take is that replacing Biden will do nothing but make point 2 & 3 turn from True statements to False statements, and increase the chances of Trump winning.
While crystal balls are everywhere and you could point to other political scientists who would say different, I was looking for a decent take on the counterpoint. I would also say that in political science, we like to have tools to help us make predictions so we can make actions. Just going on deep gut feeling won’t cut it. Having a tool whose measurements don’t always align with how you feel an outcome should be doesn’t necessarily mean the tool is bad, it means it works independently from your biases. If you watch the video, I think he puts it well as the election is a thumbs up or thumbs down on the party more than it is the individual leader. It might be a helpful thought exercise to change the words “Trump” to “Republican” and “Biden” to “Democrat” when discussing the race as charisma and celebrity only goes so far in politics, but that’s what we get caught up in the most.
I think the reason I don’t follow that idea is that it sounds so similar to Neville Chamberlain’s “Peace for our Time”. The slaughter would just be put on pause, but would last longer and become more dangerous in 2 years time.
I see a difference between that and the handling of Gaza, which Trump would very much continue supporting Israel on. He wouldn’t put American troops on the ground, but he’s been saying his peace plan is for Israel to “get the job done”. This is very much what we did in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we saw how that played out. I understand there is a belief that stopping support for Israel means the death of Israel, but with BB, he is only accelerating this by continued genocide of Palestinians.
There are idealists (and I will fully admit some anti-semites) who would love to see the end of a Jewish state, and there are those who would look for a two state solution. Trump and BB have made it clear that they are not for a two state solution and are pushing for complete annihilation of the Palestinian people. Trump is not a peacemaker.
I can’t speak for Elizabeth, or for many other supporters, but I can tell you why I supported her and not Bernie.
While I agree with so much of Bernies platform, I just wasn’t convinced he was a pragmatic candidate. When asked how he would handle Mitch McConnell, his response was essentially “Our revolution will take care of that- voters will listen to my message and I won’t have to deal with him”. That wasn’t really the question, and I just didn’t see that as a good answer. It solidified my thoughts that he was an idealist who was pushing for great things and was very much needed, but when it came to the cold realities of getting things done, he wasn’t someone who I thought could negotiate with republicans.
I also was very wary of populists. Bernie was very much a left wing Trump only in that he built a very deep cult of personality. Everyone who I talked to, every poll I saw, every post I read cemented the idea that it was Bernie or bust. Especially now as I am terrified of a Civil War 2 breaking out, the stance of non-negotiation is not only ineffective, but dangerous.
Idealists play a very important role in any movement. They create the energy needed to push things forward. However in the position of Commander in Chief, the virtue needed is restraint. I wanted to find a balance between progressive policy and pragmatic restraint, and so I saw Warren as the better of the two options. 4 years later I’m not as excited about her as I was then, and much of the details are fuzzy, but I know this is broadly what I thought.
I know in this thread there will be a lot of mud slinging and calling those who disagree with Bernie of 2020 or their supporters as stupid and/or evil, but that stance is exactly what I saw as divisive and dangerous in a time we need to avoid division and violence. Not all of it was Bernie’s fault, but I also know Idealists can push other idealists further to extremes. We are in a prisoners dilemma, where if we choose the path of getting everything, we will get nothing.
Edit Just to clarify, most of my friends supported Bernie, and they are not stupid. There are a million reasons why he was the best candidate, and many times he worked with republicans. At the time, I saw Warren as more of a 70/30 progressive and Bernie more 80/20.
deleted by creator
I’m with Hunter Biden. Dude straight up got a lap dance while smoking crack and listening to Fleet Foxes. We need to bring the radness back to the Whitehouse.
I very much remember Liz was the last hold out on endorsing Biden. I was on her campaign.
Edit to add evidence:
Bernie Endorsed Biden Monday, April 13th 2020
Elizabeth followed 2 days later on Wednesday, April 15th 2020
Also she wasn’t even really interrupting him. If you watch the clip, she was muted and he was easily heard over her. It wasn’t as if she was really steamrolling.
You can tell it got under his skin in 2020, and this was just a pathetic way to “get back” at her for being a woman who asserted herself in a debate.