She should prepare for the debate like a prosecutor prepares for an unsound witness for the defense. Go after his flaws, and make him dread being in her presence.
Exactly, Harris has to be prepared for any nastiness or chicanery he will attempt. This debate is about persuading the. uncommitted or independent voter to our side. Harris has the skills, the facts, the temperament, not to mention the momentum, to boldly lay out the choice voters have.. Only one candidate stands for democracy and the other candidate stands to destroy it.
The only thing I fear in the debate is the 'moderator'. That person must control the trumpster/dumpster, prevent him from pacing behind Kamala as he did with Hillary. Tell him to sit down and shut up when Kamala is speaking (although she is capable of that much, herself). In other words a true debate, not a circus act - the only form of entertainment at which trump is better than bad.
It is also to let Republicans know it is okay to sit out this election. If I was a Republican I’d be ashamed to vote for Trump the rapist, etc. I just couldn’t do it.
DJT will 'Gish Gallop'... That is his MO... Kamala will have to pick 1 or 2 points per Segment to push back on... She will have to remain 'Kool'... DJT will not listen... Kamala's push back will be for the Audience... The Moderators will be near useless... DJT is a tired, Old, Semi-Senile, 1-Trick Pony, that can only 'Gish-Gallop' ever more slowly... I predict that DJT will have a Melt-Down being Humiliated by a Strong, Smart Black Woman...
Let him flee ; Putin would probably soon lock him up in the gulag ; he would have nothing to offer if he can't sell anything more of our country than he has already sold.
Daniel : the worst thing for tRUMP was getting into the Presidency in the first place. But justice may finally be done in this case of a career criminal, enabled by system lawyers and general corruption. Justice may return and be strengthened in the United States of America.
I am CONFIDENT the rest of his days will be nothing but pain, humiliation and court date after court date before his ETERNAL torment. (I'm a Christian and he's a fake Christian Atheist.) Couldn't happen to a nicer a-guy. Just remember America: we New Yorkers despised him FIRST, so we get the first pound of flesh!
Harvey Hild : There is nothing in my comment to suggest that this is not a priority. Another topic. One post is not going to cover every concern, for sure. Don't get me started about our broken "justice" system either.
My Question is, Why did it take so long to charge him with Insurrection after January 6th?? After he wasn't impeached, he should have been put before a grand jury on January 21st, 2021 after President Biden was sworn in!!!
Robert E. Richards : In the media, we all heard the repeated contradictions that "no one is above the law" followed by " a sitting President cannot be investigated or charged with any crimes". It's like the frequently heard or read " lifetime tenure is enjoyed by members of the Supreme Court". Bunk! there is a vague statement that they can serve " as long as they have good behavior". Interpretation is everything, I guess. Our media is owned by those with great wealth. They must like the big tax breaks given to them by tRUMP, who reliably raids the treasury for them.
Robert E. Richards ; Very good obvious question. As an independent, not involved with the DOJ, nor any law enforcement body, I have no idea why there was foot dragging for so long. It was frustrating to witness. The payola at the top was most likely a factor.
That's his SOLE option, just like the Nazis he worships. Poopin will 130,000% kill him and I imagine Liddle Rocket Man will do the same. No safe harbor for traitors!
Elizabeth - well it would need to be a surgical strike, maybe the weather channel could figure out how to do that for us. wouldn't want to harm others.
Todd - do felons get to keep their passports? also, someone explain again why his sentencing was postponed? oh yeah, the quidproquos on the supreme court.
It's impossible to debate someone who has their own facts. He will gish gallop all over her if she thinks this is a typical debate. Biden came ready for an honorable debate and got a no rules cage match.
As of 2021, the Washington Post had counted over 30,000 lies and distortions. She needs to present or state the evidence of the epic lies to discredit him. How many lies has he told since 2021? Over 50,000 yet? How many lies during the Biden debate? 21? She can be brief, "politifact states..." Narcissists snap when presented with the truth.
She should ask for his evidence of "the Big Steal," after stating the facts. She should recite the evidence and court cases. Link his lies to J6. She must recite the sworn oath to uphold the Constitution. She should recite the words of his Cabinet members who have worked with him, like his SOS, Chief of Staff and the JCS. (Narcissists plus truth equals explosion.)
She cannot go into it with flowery language about concepts like decency, honor and integrity. "Just the facts, mame." She needs to show how he has DQ'd himself by breaking the oath of office and is unfit.
She must state the proof that investing in infrastructure and the workforce works. She must briefly explain the climate crisis and explain why renewable energy is necessary for sustainably and security. She must point out the his go-to stategy of deregulation creates unsafe workplaces, pollution and total disasters like East Palestine, OH.
She cannot get angry. She must stay composed and Presidential. Sounds easy... But it's a lot of pressure to debate for the most important job in the World AND the fate of humanity.
I expect her to comment, "another Lie, Donald." and go on to comment on the issue asked. She's not a dumb politician. Remember she was the AG of California.
That was not a debate Danny. "Moderators" did not hold Trump to the clock, but they did Biden. His microrphone was cut off, but he kept over talking Biden. The only way to "debate" Trump is for them to be in two different rooms with a Zoom connection.
I’m not worried because attorneys & especially Kamala are accustomed to dealing with the likes of him AND she also has extensive experience dealing with politicians.
Todd, For what it’s worth, I plan to write ABC’s co-moderators and urge 1) that questions be tough, 2) that candidates have to be able to square their campaign rhetoric with facts, 3) that candidates have to be stopped when they’re not answering the question, and 4) that candidates have to be called out when their answers contradict the facts.
Lots of luck Barbara writing ABC.The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is owned by The Walt Disney Company through its subsidiary, Disney Entertainment
Major individual investors in the Disney company include Christine McCarthy, Bob Iger, and Safra Catz Here is Robert Iger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Iger
he is also the CEO, and hires and fires all important staff like Editors in chief, Chief Producers, people who know where to tread and where not to tread
The Walt Disney Company owns 21st Century Fox, and 21st Century Fox is owned by the Fox Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch.
So lots of luck. Guess who walks onto stage hobbled,it ain't Trump.
William, Thanks for writing. I will cc the Harris/ Walz campaign and include a postscript pointing to how Harris can fill in where the co-moderators fall short. The foregoing notwithstanding, I believe, with or without our help, our gal knows how to prosecute the case against Trump.
When Trump starts rambling about his mass deportations, his elimination of taxes on Social Security, etc., she should continuously ask, "How will you pay for it?" That would continue her theme that he is not a serious man.
Exactly, why I voted for her in my state's primary in 2020 before she dropped out. After watching her "prosecute" Brett Kavanaugh as to whether there are any laws on the books pertaining to the male body.... I knew then that some day she would run. She was ruthless, he was tongue tied....... It's why I can't understand how ppl could say she didn't present well in the past. For me, she's always been a "bad-ass!" https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=690568951342357
I believe that there are three groups that the Democrats must focus on and understand the dynamics behind the possible election of Donald Trump. First of all are the mega wealthy donors who will pour millions into flooding the media with misleading advertisements created by brilliant public relations people well-versed in swaying public opinion. Second are the power-hungry group that wrote the playbook for Donald Trump known as Project 2025. Lastly, are those that cast their votes for Donald Trump. They are not swayed by logic, reasoning or even facts. They are easily duped by propaganda and the debate outcome will not sway them.
One needs to know who your true enemy is to be able to overcome them. Enemy number one is the ultra-wealthy capitalists who will gain the most from a Trump win.
I figure her advisors or handlers ought to angle for, "Listen carefully to the questions and address them. Direct your answers to the moderators. Ignore Trump and anything he says; don't engage. Answer the moderators' questions, don't be distracted. Don't make any effort to debate the opponent, let them make their own case" [Trump cannot make a case, he'll debate the last election, or Obama who he never ran against, or topics within the last presidential debate, that's where his memory left off ...].
Get the best minds in a room and come up with the sharpest zings for the debate. "Where's the beef?" and all that. Because that's what American politics has come down to, sadly. Sound policy recommendations don't move the needle. That's why Bernie ain't President. We only pay attention to "couches" and "Comrades". I think some very direct questions that Trump is never asked (out of politeness) would be helpful, e.g. "Why are you so negative about immigrants, referring to them as vermin, when you've married women from Slovakia and Slovenia?", "Why did you make that interpreter tear up his notes from that private meeting you had with Putin in Helsinki? What are you hiding?", "Why haven't you apologized to those innocent men wrongly imprisoned in New York for those newspaper ads you bought urging for their death sentences?", "Has that investigator you sent to Kenya 15 years (?) ago found Obama's African birth certificate yet? Or now maybe you want to tell the American people now that you just made up that terrible lie?". "Are you going to admit that the health care plan you were going to present to us was just BS now, or are you going to tell us right now what you've come up with almost ten years later?" "Donald, do you have an explanation why almost everyone in your last administration, including your own vice president, has said they won't vote for you? Your Chief of Staff? Your Generals and Admirals on the Joint Chiefs? Your own Press Secretary? Even your own lawyer hates you. Why is that? They know you better than most."
You need to send these questions to the news station hosting the debate! These are excellent questions. I would add, Are you planning to get those you have embedded in state election offices to throw out results until it is in your favor?
I agree with you. These questions should be asked.
As for the states trying to disqualify voters, Juist look at Texas. They continue almost daily. Last reported the AG has spent millions in tax payer funds trying to find voters that voted illegally. He found four for last year. This year he has found one on the last report I saw.
Send this to Harris, who will no doubt have her own amazing zings. You’re right, he’s never been asked because he’s a sociopathic narcissist and difficult to confront. Right up Harris’ alley. She “knows the type” and looks forward to skewering him. I’m totally looking forward to the debate.
The war in Israel and attacking the Billionaires will not influence the working class voter who wants a living wage, able to pay their utilities, rent, AND buy groceries. They don’t have (or take the time) to worry about much else. The Harris/Walz campaign offers hope and positivity and if they can appeal to the working class, offering answers for an economy that is failing so many, they will win in November.
Patricia the working class, the middle class, America is already divided, up for grabs is the fictional undecided.
I don't see how anyone can be undecided in this day and age.
The DNC convention was indeed full of joy, but it hardly moved the needle, according to the polls, because people have their minds made up.
The obstacle are the obstinate blacks and Muslims who threaten not to vote, and the voter suppression laws enacted by Republican legislatures, the 100,000 amred poll watchers trained by the RNC, the law suits already drafted and waiting to be delivered to courthouses by the RNC, the fake electors, picked and signed waiting to be sent to state capitols. and the MAGAt election officials that have taken the place of honest election officials drivenby terror out of office.
Here is what I am talking about: Trump and the Republican party are hijacking Georgia electionshttps://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-georgia-maga-election-takeover-1235080073/
The only way to counter all of this is for the DNC to have an army of lawyers standing by, in all relevant districts, counties and states. I hope that they have done so and aren't sitting on their ass in the belief that we still have an honest system.
This made me feel better: In 2020 and 2021, on behalf of the Biden campaign and the DNC, attorney Marc Elias oversaw the state-by-state response to lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign contesting the 2020 presidential election results. Of the 64 cases, he won all but one minor case, which was later overturned in his favor. Elias was hired by the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign to focus on potential recounts and post-election litigation.
Yeh Susan we are going to need a brigade of lawyers, or the Republicans are going to steal the election, like they tried to do, last time.
You can always tell what they are planning and what is their motivation or on their mind, because they accuse Democrats of exactly what they are doing and planning.
The DNC not the Harris Campaign. It is the DNC that has to have an army of lawyers at the ready. I hope you are correct, but as of this moment, I have heard nothing about the DNC having an army of lawyers at the ready in every crucial county and state. The elections are actually determined at election districts, where the voting is done and tabulated, then forwarded to the county, then the state.
That is where the electors are assigned, and a State Attorney General could refuse to recognize a slate of electors. That is what Georgia and Arizona was all about, especially Arizona
Can you even believe that they could when so many have billions of dollars in this country. There is no shame. And, there should not be anyone with billions of dollars. Jesus!
These are the main issues of everyone in the country.. I'm sure the Israel/Gaza issue will be solved by election. I am concerned about Taxing the rich and raising the living wage for all. The economy will always be a problem.
Israel Gaza is only an issue because the media, Arab oil money and feckless people have made it an issue. More alarmingly for democracy is that it has pushed a real threat to democracy and an actual ongoing genocide off the front page and out of the public mind and I am talking about Ukraine.
And if one is truly concerned about suffering women and children,there is Sudan where a million are being starved to death,yet we see no campus protests, no kvetching from supposed liberals and students.
A terrific DNC. Historical. Kamala and Walz inspiring. BUT do we really not care about a genocide happening with our financial/materiel encouragement? Torture, thousands of women and children and innocent men killed and injured. Cities razed to the ground. And West Bank... Horror, horror, horror. We are complicit. I pray that Harris and Walz win, but this issue cannot be sidelined
She did mention it in her speech; did you miss it? (I'm not being snarky.) I'd have to listen to it again, but she did say Israel has a right to defend itself, but she also said the slaughter in Gaza is totally unjustified. We have to get her elected, then press her to stop aid to Israel--and I believe she will. She boycotted Netanyahu's speech, after all. She's really in an impossible position here, but let's also remember that if TFG wins, I'm sure he'll let Nutty do "whatever the hell he wants."
Yes she did. I heard that, too. But there was no mention of genocide (after 10 months) and no mention of an arms embargo. I do understand that all the right things are being said to get people out and vote (please!) but unless they are more courageous about the genocide, an important block of voters will be lost.
She's right, Israel does have the right to defend themselves BUT it ends there, at the border, not to invade the country of Gaza. At this point I think Israel needs to secretly infiltrate the country to find their enemy. Of course we do not have the authority to dictate to them what they can do.
That’s what I was going to say Harvey. No one can “make” Netanyahu do something he doesn’t want to do—even if it’s the U.S. President. If we stop sending military weapons to Israelis, they have weapons of their own & from other countries. Per Michael McFaul, (former ambassador to Russia)Putin has close ties with BOTH Netanyahu and Hamas.
I disagree about stopping aid to Israel. Israel needs the kind of aid that will tell the rest of the Moslem world to think before you act; this country doesn't play. Yes, I want the very best for the people of Gaza and the entire world; sometimes to give people the very best you have to be an SOB.
We've always backed Israel since their beginning. There is no reason to stop mow. This was an attempt to make a country for the Jewish people of the world. Just look at the amount of Jews that Hitler killed. The Jewish people are people just like us. A lot of their "religion" does not exactly agree with us but there in nobody making you agree with them. Our democracy makes everyone free to adopt any religion we choose.
I guess you didn't catch the purposeful sarcasm, because what I said was essentially what the Karla's, Tom Highs, Gunnars and other supposedly liberals say. If not outright in so many words, but in their arguments and condemnations.
Go back and read Karla's comment, and then my response
Why use false and loaded language like "encouragement." That's utter nonsense. I refuse to let anyone spread lies about our leaders like that. If you really think that, you need to check your sources because it sounds a lot like Russian disinformation to devide the party to help Trump.
Make no mistake: Netanyaho and Hamas are responsible for Gaza. Netty will be held accountable by HIS citizens. We sell them arms because they are surrounded by terrorists and it's our duty to stop terrorism. Why do you care about a million people that Netanyaho is responsible for when the US President is responsible for 330 MILLION Americans?
You don't care about our HEALTH CARE? You don't care about poor kids starving at school? You don't care about the environmental nightmare that Trump would unleash that likely would cause irreparable climate change and doom humanity? You don't care about American workers? Women's rights that have been stripped away and caused women unimaginable suffering in some states since Roe was over-turned? You think they're stopping there? I've got news for you! Birth control and IVF are next, along with criminalization of women needing health care! Trust me... I could go on for hours about domestic issues our President will fix, or will not fix if Trump is elected.
Have you considered that you're no friend of Americans with URGENT and IMMEDIATE NEEDS? Have you considered that you're a self-entitled narcissist, and/or tool of Putin's KGB operation to sow disinformation in the USA? Seriously! Because that's what your misinformed opinion and misplaced priorities add up to.
I have an idea for you! Tell Gaza protesters to denounce the Hamas leadership that started the war on Oct 6. Work for peace with both sides. We must arm them because Israel is surrounded by terrorists, sadly.
Stop blaming Biden for Hamas' terror and Netty's reaponse! Biden has done more to save the World from Trump and Putin than anyone! ANYONE! He's made 330 MILLION Americans' lives much better and brighter futures. He's a SAINT! Show some respect, please!
You always try to make yourself sound like the "expert" on everything. BTW: Trump told 35,000 lies, not 30,000. Check your facts. And please . . . learn how to spell and edit yourself before posting.
I've copied this from an "Open Democracy" blog in the UK
"But certain events on the last day unfortunately undercut that message. The Uncommitted Movement, which encouraged hundreds of thousands of Americans to vote “uncommitted” in party primaries (a purely symbolic statement, broadcasting their view that Biden must do more to secure peace in the Middle East), sent thirty delegates to the Convention. They represented about 700,000 real Democratic voters
These delegates were not random, outside protestors but Democratic party insiders, people who support Kamala Harris but also want to speak up on behalf of America’s Middle Eastern community in favour of a ceasefire and release of all hostages. The spokesperson the Uncommitted delegates put forward, Georgia state congresswoman Ruwa Romman, was not permitted to take the main stage – despite her speech being pre-vetted by DNC staff.
It shows that, while Democrats increasingly seem to understand the power of party unity and intra-party democracy in some ways, they still have a lot to work on. Many have made a compelling case since the incident that listening to voters on the issues they care about – even if others in the party may disagree or find it hard to hear – is a crucial way of building the party unity everyone is so impressed by. Some debates are certainly hard to have – but that’s democracy, and it’s no excuse to ignore them entirely."
The US has pushed hard for a cease-fire. The parties involved in the conflict, in which many innocent Palestinians are suffering, do not want a cease fire for many self serving reasons. There can be no "two state solution" unless the parties who will be living in the 2 states agree to co-habitate. I support a 2 state solution but it cannot be mandated by outside countries. And the rest of the Arab world must also support it. Palestinians should be vetted and allowed to enter the US as refugees
Arabs countries need to allow Palastinians to flee into their countries and provide aide to them until this war is over. But none of this can be accomplished solely by any US President.
Well Constantine, Middle East, Middle East, all the attention on the Middle east as if that is the only problem, and Ukraine and the ongoing real genoide is forgotten.
Putin could not be more please, What a birthday present Iran gave Putin on Oct 7th.
You did not that that Oct 7th was Vlad's birthday didn't you, and what a gift he got. Now the feckless in the west are distracted, and Gaza has replaced Ukraine in the media.
There are, in the west, certain elements that have an affectionate memory for the Russia they remember when it was the USSR, and that affection still lingers.
In their minds eye all of the evils in the world are the result of imperialistic capitalism, and Russia, and now Israel,are the victims. They ignore of course that the only active imperialist and ruthless capitalist are Putin and the oligarchs, they cling to their memories and sentiments.
Why use false and loaded language like "encouragement." That's utter nonsense. I refuse to let anyone spread lies about our leaders like that. If you really think that, you need to check your sources because it sounds a lot like Russian disinformation to devide the party to help Trump.
Make no mistake: Netanyaho and Hamas are responsible for Gaza. Netty will be held accountable by HIS citizens. We sell them arms because they are surrounded by terrorists and it's our duty to stop terrorism. Why do you care about a million people that Netanyaho is responsible for when the US President is responsible for 330 MILLION Americans?
You don't care about our HEALTH CARE? You don't care about poor kids starving at school? You don't care about the environmental nightmare that Trump would unleash that likely would cause irreparable climate change and doom humanity? You don't care about American workers? Women's rights that have been stripped away and caused women unimaginable suffering in some states since Roe was over-turned? You think they're stopping there? I've got news for you! Birth control and IVF are next, along with criminalization of women needing health care! Trust me... I could go on for hours about domestic issues our President will fix, or will not fix if Trump is elected.
Have you considered that you're no friend of Americans with URGENT and IMMEDIATE NEEDS? Have you considered that you're a self-entitled narcissist, and/or tool of Putin's KGB operation to sow disinformation in the USA? Seriously! Because that's what your misinformed opinion and misplaced priorities add up to.
I have an idea for you! Tell Gaza protesters to denounce the Hamas leadership that started the war on Oct 6. Work for peace with both sides. We must arm them because Israel is surrounded by terrorists, sadly.
Stop blaming Biden for Hamas' terror and Netty's reaponse! Biden has done more to save the World from Trump and Putin than anyone! ANYONE! He's made 330 MILLION Americans' lives much better and brighter futures. He's a SAINT! Show some respect, please!
Oh, dear. That's a rant that totally misses the point. Of course I want Harris/ Walz to win. Of*course* I care about the issues you raise. It's not either / or, though. A recognised Democrat, with a pre-approved speech, should have been given a platform, just like all the others from different viewpoints. It's called inclusivity. That's all I shall say on the subject. I don't want to get into an argument with you
Fair enough. We will call a truce. I hope people realize 3 things:
1. Don't blame Biden for Gaza.
2. Don't put Gaza before all crucial domestic issues.
3. Don't fall for Russian/RT psy-ops to ferment anti-Dem hostility to help elect Putin's asset, Trump.
Please don't take it personal. I think that it's important to make a spirited defense of Biden and Harris, especially when Russian talking points are used. Thank you! Have a good day!
💯 Constantine. It would have been an easy gesture for the DNC to recognize families affected by the Palestinian horror, generational injustice & xK civilian slaughter, dehumanization+++++++. Foreign policy is not just a matter of military strenghth, protection of troops & USA 'interests', if not rooted in human & international justice for all. Russian/DT propaganda & politics be damed. A suppression of the Palestinian Holocaust is a profound contradiction of Kamala's/Dems stated core values. It was an easy 2 minute opportunity to affirm these values & community recognition. Now it is an open personal(communal) wound, not just an unforced political error. It was an unnecessary 'bite'.
"We sell them arms because they are surrounded by terrorists and it's our duty to stop terrorism." A good point. The world has us over a barrel. Clowns to the left of us, jokers to the right...
Here is what pisses me off Smokey. The present situation is caused by the aggressors, Putin and HAMAS, every building destroyed, every life lost, every life ruined can be laid in the lap of Putin and HAMAS.
What is one suppose to do when attacked by an aggressor, surrender, invite them in for tea and crumpets.
Long winded arguments about history will not solve the problem,,it is a chicken and egg debate, and who started it all depends on your ideology and thus beliefs.
The Hatfields and McCoys, it didn't matter how the feud started.
Gaza is a distraction from the more important, to the world and to America, threat of Putin., and the foolish bleeding hearts on the left are playing into it.
Danny Your response shows up under mine, as if you are responding to me. I know that you aren't but it doesn't look that way. I have the same problem with substack and have to force myself to remember to mention by name the commenter I am responding to. this case I assume it is Constatine, and assume good faith that is not a Putin troll, he is unaccountabily fixate and distracted by Gaza and there is a lot of that here, the real threat to world peace is Putin and his real genocide in Ukraine, but these bleeding hearts are easily distracted.
When he was running for president, Hubert Humphrey was opposed to the Vietnam War but didn't feel he could, as LBJ's vice-president, say so. He planned to end the war once he was president--except he never got to be president, at least partly because most voters who were against the war didn't vote for him.
Very true Maureen. We will never know if Humphrey would have stopped the war in Vietnam, but we do know Nixon and Kissinger kept it going for another six years with about 25,000 more Americans killed. In addition millions more in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Their egos, tactics and stupidity destabilized the entire region and the effects are still being felt today. Remember, he promised to end the war in one year! Don't get me started on their "open China" policy and the wreck it has caused to the economy and jobs for working class folks in the US and other countries. The threats, current and future destabilization of the world by China can be laid directly at the feet of N & K and our greedy American businessmen. Just goes to prove we can not trust, ever, any Republican with our economy and foreign policy decisions. If the Gaza protester think Biden has done a bad job and they sit out the election and don't vote for Harris, they will get T. Good luck to the Palestinians then. VOTE BLUE! Cheers... GH
I think most of the pro-Palestinian protesters would rather have Harris and Walz promise a more even-handed approach so that they can morally bring themselves to vote Blue.
Well spotted. A tragic political mistake that does not need to be replicated. This playing upon the righteous rage of those witnessing the awful genocide and needless suffering in Gaza is a potential Achilles heel that MAGA will assuredly aim for. Trump’s well publicised recent fêting of Netanyahu at Mar a Lago and his sweet talking of Netanyahu’s wife Sara will have been a politically strategic move. It lays the groundwork for Trump to claim he could save Palestine when in the Whitehouse because of his close friendship with Netanyahu.
We may be the most powerful state in the world BUT it stops there. We are not a 'dictator state', as you may suggest. we are a democratic state. Presently we are doing everything in our power to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas.
No, we are NOT "doing everything in our power to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas." Previous US Presidents (both Republicans and Democrats) have threatened to stop sending offensive weapons to Israel or have actually stopped sending such weapons to Israel when Israel has violated international law, and Israel has complied with international law as a result. It is within our power to do so again.
A little more on the subject: Hezbollah is exchanging a lot of firepower with Israel. We could stop arms flowing to Israel but then where would we be. At this point our only option is negotiation. Let's all hope we can end the fight over there. A lot of civilians are suffering and dying.
Which is meaningless, of course. We've already seen his idea of how to "save" Palestine in Kushner's plan for the West Bank (when Trump was President) & Kushner's plan for making Gaza a resort area.
True. Also Trump and MAGA are all deep in hock to their global oligarch paymasters who have their ever greedy eyes on the beachfront land of Gaza for hedge fund seeding of profitable terminal crop (Holstein style overpriced housing and tourist resort development) as well as the offshore Tamar oil field. Follow the big money rather than the noisy mass mediated political spin.
Maureen, If I may step back a bit, I wish to note that the Democratic Party’s ultimate refusal to allow a Palestinian American to speak from the DNC stage was an unforced error with potentially dire electoral consequences. Consider, for example, the Polin’s moving speech delivered from the main stage about their son who was taken hostage during Hamas’s attack on October 7th. If I didn’t know better, I might conclude, viewing the denial of anyone the right to speak for the suffering in Gaza, that Democrats value Israeli lives more than Palestinian lives.
Adding insult to injury, as if we weren't already working hard enough, now we have to consider the affects on Arab and Muslim communities in particular that largely reside in battleground states, let alone the affects on young people overall who are largely supportive of Palestinian rights advocates.
Last, I should note that the 30 uncommitted DNC delegates at the heart of this movement have returned to their communities and have invited Harris to meet with them and their constituents by September 15th. I hope others will join me in urging Harris to attend that meeting. The Harris/Walz Campaign address is
I agree. I’m glad she raised the issue and personally I take that paragraph as a signal she is aware that she’s going to have to directly address the issue BUT I am concerned she personally is not able to see and articulate the path through. I hope someone in her orbit is.
At this moment Israel army is massacring children; bombing hospitals and school with people inside! Maybe Hamas is using these sites a human shields, but that doesn’t matter! There are still people inside. Tens of thousands have died and I feel we are watching a remake of the Warsaw uprising.
I do not want to see this level of devastation leveled on Israel; how can I support it being leveled on Gaza?
BTW Netanyahu has to go in order to allow the peace seeking people in Israel find a stable path forward.
Muslim Americans have only one true loyalty and that is to the Ummah Barbara.
There are internecine squabbles for power, but when the enemy if the kufr,they circle the wagons.
American Muslims have said on TV and in print, they will not vote for Biden (hence Democrats) because of support for Israel, and while non votes in red rand red leaning states are inconsequential, non votes in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (and maybe even Minnesota)will throw the vote to Trump.
You mean like Catholic Americans have only one true loyalty and that is to the Pope? I thought the US got over that kind of anti-immigrant essentialist nonsense over a century ago.
So you believe that Catholic Americans have only one true loyalty and that is to the Pope?
Maybe you should tall the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that, they routinely defied the Pope.
Muslims indeed have their first loyalty towards the religion. It is called the Ummah: the whole community of Muslims bound together by ties of religion
It has nothing to do with immigrants either, you are either stupid or narrow minded. There are millions of Muslim Americans, and they aren't all Arabs either. I know a few who are of European ancestry, even a couple who are Europeans.
I don't believe that all Catholic Americans have only one true loyalty and that is to the Pope any more than I believe that all Muslims have their first loyalty to their religion--both are outdated "racist" ideas.
Muslim and Catholic don't equate. Yet many a Catholic hold their religious belief superior to the Constitution. I only mention Leo Leonard,Kevin Roberts,Neil Gorsuch, Amy Comey Barrett, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and millions of rad trad Catholics.
You don't see Protestants or Catholics rise up as one in defense of a protestant or Catholic peoples at war, do you?
You don't even see Jews rise up as one in defense of Israel, do you?
But you do see Muslims rise up in defense of Muslims, even when they are the instigators.
Palestinians and their advocates are divisive, they aren't loyal to America their loyalty is to the Ummah. If they don't vote,, as they have threatened to, Trump will win, and then they will most surely regret their feckless and chauvinistic behavior.
I don't believe in dual citizenship. One cannot be loyal to two countries, especially when those countries are in conflict.
It wasn't only Japanese Americans that were rounded up, but German Americans and as well. The Justice Department oversaw the internment of over 31,000 civilians, including about 11,500 people of German ancestry. These detainees were held in army and Justice Department camps across the country, such as Crystal City, Texas, Sand Island, Hawaii, and Ft. Lincoln, North Dakota.
And there were in fact a very large pro Japan sentiment among Japanese Americans.
And a pro NAZI sentiment among German Americans and Americans in general.
Were it not for the bombing of Pearl Harbor America could have elected a NAZI government, .
You said, "One cannot be loyal to two countries, especially when those countries are in conflict." Are you now saying that American Jews are exceptions to this rule of yours?
The Atlantic's Adam Serwer has done a very good piece expressing disappointment with the DNC for not including a Palestinian-American speaker.
Let us note also how the "other" party -- a cult indeed -- is now using the world "Palestinian" as an epithet. Trump, for example, has referred to Harris by that moniker several times now.
The failure to find "refuge" for a single speaker as the world witnesses the first live-streamed genocide called to mind the ill-fated voyage of a steamship called the "St. Louis" in the early summer of 1939.
As Tel Aviv-based journalist Gideon Levy (Ha'aretz) has put it, there may have been more cruel and brutal occupations in history, but NEVER one where the cruel occupiers presented themselves to the world as the victims.
As Serwer writes: "Student groups have been banned by colleges and universities, and students suspended, for pro-Palestinian advocacy and rhetoric. American politicians frequently characterize any pro-Palestinian speech as anti-Semitic, regardless of whether it can be fairly categorized as such...
"That has left little space for the Palestinian version of the story, which by nature will be different when told by actual Palestinians. Yet it is precisely that version of the story that has the most potential to show Palestinians as real human beings, as your friends and fellow citizens, rather than as crude stereotypes or casualty numbers tallied in a distant war."
The status of "human beings" is what the Nazis denied to the Jews of Europe, which is why I recalled the St. Louis. A minister in the current cabinet of Israel has advocated for the starvation of Gaza's entire population -- calling it a "moral" thing. Meet the new Nazis.
Growing up in the UK in the 1950’s/60’s I saw many documentary’s on WW2. The most compelling parts of these documentary’s was the war footage and photographs of hitlers concentration camps. And never forgot what I saw and had great sympathy for the Israelis. However, the Israelis lost me 42 years ago this September, in Beirut Lebanon. Led by Ariel Sharon the IDF instigated the massacre of up to three thousand men, women and children in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla. The IDF used Lebanese Christian militia to attack those camps on the pretext that the PLO had assassinated their leader. For four days the militia committed the most horrific crimes imaginable while the IDF closed all possible route out of the camps. If you think what happened on October 7th was horrific read the accounts of those journalists that entered the camps in 1982 found. Ultimately, a UN commission found the Israelis guilty of a form of genocide, and the Israeli government commission very reluctantly admitted to their role in the massacres, but blamed Sharon. It was also found that the killer of the Christian militia leader was a Christian in the pay of Syria. Since that time I have believed that the abused became the abuser and that the abuse has never stopped.
Thank you, Lesley. (Like) -- since my like function does not work.
Thanks to Christian Nationalism, it makes it easier to contrast Zionism to the religion of Judaism.
A resource that might be helpful to you and others is the site created by Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro -- called "Committing High Reason." There's a series of lectures there that explains in detail how Zionists stole the identity of the religious Jew.
He just added the latest in the series of why religious Jews will NOT serve in the IDF. I've seen YouTubes of Israeli police really beating up on them, and it's horrific.
Thank you, Thomas, for a calm and reasoned response. I want to understand the pro-Palestinian point of view. But some people on this website have MAGA brain: "I'm right, you're wrong, end of story."
Lesley: You seem reasonable and well-informed. So educate me:
1) I have always believed it was the Arabs who started up every new bloody incident starting all the way back to 1948. Am I wrong?
2) I am as troubled as most Americans by genocide. But why should I give a good goddamn about the Arab world that attacked my country on 9/11 and continues to say “Death to Israel, Death to America”. Why?
Please respond with civility. I am giving you an opportunity to change a mind.
Unfortunately your anger is very evident and doesn’t show a lot of civility. The history of the Palestinians didn’t begin in 1948, their ancestors go back into prehistory at least 4000 years to the levantine peoples. They were there when the Hebrews crossed the Jordan and moved down into the planes of what was then Canaan. The two Hebrew kingdoms that are used to justify Israeli claims to the land were just two of many that came and went over the millennia, Egyptians, Romans, Byzantine (Christian), Ottoman, Muslim. The religions of the indigenous peoples changing each time they were concurred. As recently as the 19th century the Palestinians shared the land with the Jewish people whose ancestors did not leave in the diasporas, in reasonably peaceful, tho not always, circumstances. That changed after the second war with the influx of Jewish refugees. From this point on I suggest to do your own research and do it with an open mind. What you find might surprise you.
Lesley, yours is an incomplete, but popular understanding of the history of the peoples.
Regardless, history is used to justify the present,and history is shrouded in myths, Remember that history is written by the victors.
It really doesn't matter if the chicken came before the egg (biology says chicken first, something laid the egg.
Hashing and rehashing history is useless and only self justifying.
I don't believe the narratives of the Jews,the Arabs, and America has it's own mythical history.
The present situation was caused by HAMAS, when it flew out of Gaza, raped and slaughtered women, infants, toddlers, elderly and disabled. and Ismael Haniyeh said it ain't over yet, He declared that Islam is a nation of martyr's and will keep coming back and again and again, and the HAMAS covenant says as much.
So what were the Jews suppose to do.
"That's ok Ishamail, perfectly understandalbe, we apologize for provoking you, and we understand that we are sitting on sacred Muslim soil, so we will surrender and accept second class status, and those that can't will migrate to America and Europe.
Because that is the reality of the situation. Enough of this kvetching, moralizing, hypocrisy
I am familiar with the longterm history of the region - less so with the details since Zionism. The Jews had no more claim to the area than the Arabs, I admit. I AM NOT ANGRY, DAMMIT! I liked what you wrote and I could relate to it, and I wanted to hear you elaborate upon it.
First, ‘the Arab world’ did not attack our country on 911, a fringe group did and we invaded two countries and killed tens of thousands of people in response. And the Taliban is back in power.
Second, if the Middle East explodes over these long simmering conflicts, how many american soldiers will die? Will the ocean protect us from the nuclear fall out?
1) You are right, I am broad-brushing the Arab world. And I'm still pissed that "they" conquered Constantinople. So I may be a little out of touch. But "fringe" group? I believe 19 of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, no?
2) I agree -- war is not the answer. But what happens if Hamas agrees to a ceasefire and 6 months or 6 years later does it again? This is my impression of how this has gone since 1948. Maybe I'm wrong. The Zionists might have done a better job of moving into the region, but it's done now. I want to hear the Arab world say "Peace! We accept Israel's right to exist."
Do you like your standard of living, Do you enjoy the ability to move freely, to go the store and select from a variety of food, clothing, to warm your home in winter and cool it in summer.?
Are you prepared to give up your comfy life, your toys, your TV, your cell phone, computer and internet?
Well all of that depends on the supply of energy, and as it stands at the moment, the major source of that energy is from petroleum and liquid gas (LNG).
And who controls the worlds oil production and hence supply?
Answer is OPEC and who are founding members of OPEC and it's most important members ? Iran, Saudi Arabia, Arab and Muslim states.
If you answer yes to my questions, you are being reactive and not honest.
We bitch about global warming, but then bitch about inflation as if they were too separate things.
we bitch about global warming, but would die if we didn't have a car or public transpiration.
We bitch about global warming, but would bitch worse if there were no cereal boxes on the supermarket shelf, or beer and milk in the refrig, in fact there wouldn't be any supermarkets at all, how about returning to a pre 1850 life style.
My grandparents lived that way, so did I during WWII. I don't think that others are willing, I certainly am not.
There will always be tension in the middle east, take the Jews out of the equation and you have the very serious Sunni vs Shia conflict, and were it isn't religious it is over territory and oil
The first gulf war started because Kuwait was stealing Iraqi oil, via slant drilling.
Smokey. The United States is a sectarian democracy, where religion is, supposedly a private thing.
Americans see the world through their eyes, everything is a secular conflict, Republican vs Democracy, left vs Right, Democracy vs Authoritarianism.
We also see it in economic terms, Capitalism vs Communism.
Free enterprise vs Socialism.
The idea, that others are motivated by religion is beyond their ken.
Yet the world is rife with religious conflicts.
Islam is not a benign faith, it is triumphalist, exclusionary, demanding of strict obedience and dissent is not allowed, and is in fact punishable by death. Disrespect their demigod, Muhammad and you will be beheaded or burned to death, same with their Holy book the Quran(Koran)
Christianity, when it suffered under the monopoly of the cult or Rome was the same, non believers were put to the sword, heretics and apostates were burned to death, as a Pope forbid the shedding of Christian blood, even heretics, except in battle of course.
Islam and Christianity are evangelical. Christian evangelicalism is personal, Islamic evangelicalism is tribal, national, they don't so much proselytize, as conquer a peoples and convert by force or coercion. In the past, as in Present day Bosnia, the Ottoman Turks levied a poll tax (Jizzyah) on the Bogomil Christians that was so onerouse that they converted to get out from under the tax.
When the Arabs flew out of the Peninsula and subdued the Greco Roman Emprire in Anatolia and the Levant, they imposed a poll tax on the peoples of the book (Christians and Jews). to escape the poll tax, most converted, a group of Jews, converted but kept their traditions (the Druze)
Islam permits Christians and Jews to follow their faith, so long as they accept second class status as dhimmi's and pay the poll tax jizyah.
Shia Islam accepts Zoroastrians (good god, bad god duality, some say the foundation of judaism and Christianity)
Atheists and polythestis (Hindus, Buddhists) don't have that option,it is convert or die.
The first Caliphate, the Rashidun, founded by abu Bakr, gave way to the Umayyad Caliphate, which expanded east into Afghanistan and the Indus Valley. There they encountered Buddhist and Hindus, but by that time the Umayyad Califphate saw Islam as an Arab only religion,Muhammad ibn al-Qasim led the first Muslim expedition to India in 712 AD. The Umayyad Caliphate sent Qasim, who was a general, to lead an expedition to Sindh and Baluchistan. Qasim defeated Sindh's ruler, Dahir, in a battle and captured his capital, Alor. He then extended his conquest to Multan, which is near the Indus River and parts of lower Punjab. Qasim established Islamic rule in the region and served as Sindh's governor from 712 until his death in 715.
He slaughtered the infidel population save for those whose strengths and skills made them a commercial property, those he marched over the mountains that bear their name The Hindu Kush.(Hindu Slaughter)
But Islam was Arab only, and the Hindu were polytheist and had no choice but convert or die, but conversion was out of the question, the solution was that since dhimmi's are a protected people, instead of wasting an economic commodity (slaves) the Hindu slaves had to convert to Christianity or Judaism, and Judaism was out of the question it takes instruction by a rabbi, Christianity on the other hand only took a dunking in a stream or river.
The majority of Arab Christians are descendants of Slaves.
My ancestral lineage is that of one such and I have the DNA to prove it. Outside of the 13th Century "immigrant" to Yorkshire, my YDNA relatives are an Iranian and two Kuwaitis, and we are descendants of a man who had at least one son who settled in India.
Arab is not a race, but an ethnicity based on the native language.
William, you are generous with your insight and I appreciate it. Also interesting about your Y-DNA! I have ancestors from Yorkshire also. In my work life I actually met and liked a couple Arabs, an Iranian, a Serbian and I first heard this anti-Israeli message back in the 1980's. Re Arab culture -- how can you respect people that have to be shown how to wipe their ass in the desert?
Why use false and loaded language like "encouragement." That's utter nonsense. I refuse to let anyone spread lies about our leaders like that. If you really think that, you need to check your sources because it sounds a lot like Russian disinformation to devide the party to help Trump.
Make no mistake: Netanyaho and Hamas are responsible for Gaza. Netty will be held accountable by HIS citizens. We sell them arms because they are surrounded by terrorists and it's our duty to stop terrorism. Why do you care about a million people that Netanyaho is responsible for when the US President is responsible for 330 MILLION Americans?
You don't care about our HEALTH CARE? You don't care about poor kids starving at school? You don't care about the environmental nightmare that Trump would unleash that likely would cause irreparable climate change and doom humanity? You don't care about American workers? Women's rights that have been stripped away and caused women unimaginable suffering in some states since Roe was over-turned? You think they're stopping there? I've got news for you! Birth control and IVF are next, along with criminalization of women needing health care! Trust me... I could go on for hours about domestic issues our President will fix, or will not fix if Trump is elected.
Have you considered that you're no friend of Americans with URGENT and IMMEDIATE NEEDS? Have you considered that you're a self-entitled narcissist, and/or tool of Putin's KGB operation to sow disinformation in the USA? Seriously! Because that's what your misinformed opinion and misplaced priorities add up to.
I have an idea for you! Tell Gaza protesters to denounce the Hamas leadership that started the war on Oct 6. Work for peace with both sides. We must arm them because Israel is surrounded by terrorists, sadly.
Stop blaming Biden for Hamas' terror and Netty's reaponse! Biden has done more to save the World from Trump and Putin than anyone! ANYONE! He's made 330 MILLION Americans' lives much better and brighter futures. He's a SAINT! Show some respect, please!
Danny, Nobody is recognizing that more people have died prematurely in the past year due to our disorganized patchwork of the for-profit healthcare mess than have died in Gaza. it's just not as visible. That doesn't take away from the tragedies in Gaza or Israel, but it compounds the fact that humans still don't have a way to regulate capitalism's greedy monsters.
People write essays and books about the domestic and foreign policies. Only two things matter now, IMO. Trump wants to end the ACA that saves 40,000 lives a year. Trump is Putin's puppet.
I don't care if domestic and foreign policy are not all my way... As long as they are not Trump's way. The latter is totally unacceptable.
Oh, fuck yes: "Tell Gaza protesters to denounce the Hamas leadership!" And if Hamas did not hide behind innocent men, women and children, there would be no genocide of non-combatants.
I recommended blocking only offensive weapons, like bombs. That would not block defensive weapons like the Iron Dome or surface to air missiles, nor would it block direct US aid if Iran or an OBL-type despot tried to wipe them off the globe.
That's not a bad idea, but perhaps over-simplified. What about a truck load of munitions and bombs that Hamas is moving into place for an attack? The old saying, "the best defense is an offense," is true because it prevents the other side from preparing an offensive strike.
If the other side does not have to play defense, they remain on the offense. Correct? The opponent must remain on defense, or they are on offense. Correct?
Rep Cori Bush didn't have the resources to defend from the attacks and she lost. Zelinski is smart to go on the offense. You can bet that Ukraine is getting the best military advice in the World, and they've recently gone on the offense in Russia. Do you respect Zelinaki's advisors and understand the logic to go on the offensive in Russia?
I think it's fair to say that you can't win a game or battle just playing defense.
I'm a total pacifist. However, I've realized that you can't win just playing defense. Muslim extremists (and some well-founded corporate fascist entities) are relentless, ruthless, and operate above the law. (That is directed at the US driverless car cabal, which may include Uber.)
As the NYT quoted, "we should spend a million dollars to destroy her (tech reporter Sarah Lacy) life." It's doesn't sound like Uber's "war room" was content playing defense, does it?
I chose focus on more swing state voter turnout. They have a wonderful momentum going now and should continue with their message of helping middle class/lower class Americans neglected too long. Trump has become such a degenerate clown, he is in self-destruct mode and hopefully will melt down, becoming insignificant. Well, I doubt it but mocking him without putting the entire spotlight on him is the best way to go.
Dems other than Kamala should pursue a combination of george's "hound" and smokey's "dick jokes" (further below). Also, like Ronny Chieng's "dick jokes" skit on the recent Comedy Central show. I've made the point before, too. Taunt Trump, to make him further weird, unhinged, reactive and loony. Make all the MAGA loyalist Senate and House candidates defend their support for Trump's instability, Hannibal Lecter, Putin, Kim and Trump's embrace of RFKJr & his anti-vaxx positions
You're right. No one cares about policy specifics in the campaign stage. If they really did then Elizabeth Warren would have been president already. Also Donald hasn't actually done a real press conference since he did not answer a single actual question at his supposed press conference. Kamala is under no obligation to kow tow to the press that is just trying to mess with her and is giving Donald a pass. Kamala needs to talk with the voters and that is what she is doing.
I saw and heard two women give speeches at the DNC that blew me away! One was by Kamala, of course. I thought she told us who she was, what her goals are, and did a good job of diminishing Trump. The other woman was Michelle Obama. She reminded me of those great black preachers who really get people up and with them. I didn't know what a great speaker she is. I hope she'll be campaigning with Kamala. What a pair they'd make!
This time I voted with the majority. But, this time we need to make sure the voters are still registered, assure they have a ride to the polls, make sure they are allowed to vote. Then we'll have to be vigilant that EVERY vote in every State is counted and added to the total vote count in that State.
Maybe we needed that slight sojourn in hell from 2017 to 2021 to remind us how fortunate we are to have the world's longest lasting democratically run Republic. As Ben Franklin was reported to have said a Republic, if you can keep it. I would be delighted to get 90% of the vote, but would be satisfied to get 70%
I have long admired and followed Kamala since she was DA in San Francisco, she was criticized for prosecuting too many people of color. Her response was something to the effect of I don't prosecute people I prosecute the crime. Likewise as Attorney General, when other States caved in to the oligarchs and took what they offered for ruining ordinary citizens in the Great Recession, Kamala insisted AND GOT more. As President she will be remembered for her strength for the people, not for the oligarchs. Whether Americans or Ukrainians - she will fight for RIGHT and Justice. Never will you hear Kamala brag about what a good friend she is of Vladimir Putin or the "love" letters she received from Kim Jong Un. Without braggadocio she will strengthen our ties to Europe through NATO and the United Nations.
And, like Joe Biden, a man she admires and trusts, she will be for all of us as citizens. I can pretty much guarantee she will never be a fan of Elon Musk.
Robert, Heather. you made a lot of comments comparing the RNC to the DNC. And I, like you, believe they stand in very stark contrast BUT your words fall flat as quick quips and anybody listening to those comparisons, especially those on the fence, will just ignore the comparisons. I hope you might have the tech support to do something that would have a real impact: >>>>> Put the RNC side-by-side in SPLIT SCREEN with the DNC and use commentary on the split screen to show the real difference between Democratic values and Republican values! They created a wealth of visuals that can be directly compared. They did the real work in the two conventions. You two can resolve that into REAL, visualized comparisons.
She should prepare for the debate like a prosecutor prepares for an unsound witness for the defense. Go after his flaws, and make him dread being in her presence.
She needs to be ready to resurrect Ronald Reagan's " there you go again" with a wry smile when he tells his first whopper of a lie.
“Don’t change the subject. You are unqualified for so many reasons. That’s what we’re talking about.”
Exactly, Harris has to be prepared for any nastiness or chicanery he will attempt. This debate is about persuading the. uncommitted or independent voter to our side. Harris has the skills, the facts, the temperament, not to mention the momentum, to boldly lay out the choice voters have.. Only one candidate stands for democracy and the other candidate stands to destroy it.
The only thing I fear in the debate is the 'moderator'. That person must control the trumpster/dumpster, prevent him from pacing behind Kamala as he did with Hillary. Tell him to sit down and shut up when Kamala is speaking (although she is capable of that much, herself). In other words a true debate, not a circus act - the only form of entertainment at which trump is better than bad.
I don't know, let Kamala do it.
Yes, but, some moderators skew the debate to favor trump - Matt Lauer in 2016, Jake tapper in June of his year.
Yup! and you know who's preparing him for his performance? Tulsi Gabbard ....
Talk about a "Lobster-back!"
It is also to let Republicans know it is okay to sit out this election. If I was a Republican I’d be ashamed to vote for Trump the rapist, etc. I just couldn’t do it.
DJT will 'Gish Gallop'... That is his MO... Kamala will have to pick 1 or 2 points per Segment to push back on... She will have to remain 'Kool'... DJT will not listen... Kamala's push back will be for the Audience... The Moderators will be near useless... DJT is a tired, Old, Semi-Senile, 1-Trick Pony, that can only 'Gish-Gallop' ever more slowly... I predict that DJT will have a Melt-Down being Humiliated by a Strong, Smart Black Woman...
Hurray
Who’s bringing the fly to this debate?
Totally agree.
Exactly!
And if Trump tanks in the debate, he might just flee the country before his sentencing where they could take his passport.
Let him flee ; Putin would probably soon lock him up in the gulag ; he would have nothing to offer if he can't sell anything more of our country than he has already sold.
That was my thought. If Bunkerboy flees into the arms of his lover, Poopin WILL finish him.
Daniel : the worst thing for tRUMP was getting into the Presidency in the first place. But justice may finally be done in this case of a career criminal, enabled by system lawyers and general corruption. Justice may return and be strengthened in the United States of America.
I am CONFIDENT the rest of his days will be nothing but pain, humiliation and court date after court date before his ETERNAL torment. (I'm a Christian and he's a fake Christian Atheist.) Couldn't happen to a nicer a-guy. Just remember America: we New Yorkers despised him FIRST, so we get the first pound of flesh!
And may he take all his enablers and synchophats with him.
Daniel L. : New York got it with the help of Letitia James, another capable Prosecutor.
That's a lot of "poundage!" (coming from a fellow New Yorker! Ha..) I'm old enough to remember him being a manipulator in the mid-70s.
I am sure he's regretting ever leaving real estate.
We would still have to continue negotiating for the release of ALL American citizens,
Harvey Hild : There is nothing in my comment to suggest that this is not a priority. Another topic. One post is not going to cover every concern, for sure. Don't get me started about our broken "justice" system either.
My Question is, Why did it take so long to charge him with Insurrection after January 6th?? After he wasn't impeached, he should have been put before a grand jury on January 21st, 2021 after President Biden was sworn in!!!
The A.G. M. Garland, was dragging his feet bc he didn't want anything to look partisan. Big mistake....
Robert E. Richards : In the media, we all heard the repeated contradictions that "no one is above the law" followed by " a sitting President cannot be investigated or charged with any crimes". It's like the frequently heard or read " lifetime tenure is enjoyed by members of the Supreme Court". Bunk! there is a vague statement that they can serve " as long as they have good behavior". Interpretation is everything, I guess. Our media is owned by those with great wealth. They must like the big tax breaks given to them by tRUMP, who reliably raids the treasury for them.
Robert E. Richards ; Very good obvious question. As an independent, not involved with the DOJ, nor any law enforcement body, I have no idea why there was foot dragging for so long. It was frustrating to witness. The payola at the top was most likely a factor.
I'm sure by election time there will be every subject covered on this site. I'm sure Trump's MAGA's will be watching this site also.
Harvey Hild ; So what!? Let them be afraid, very afraid. This is not Putin's Russia.
No. Keep him right here in a nice solid prison where his admirers can send cookies.
Trump is never going to prison no matter how many felonies he’s committed and convicted. He’ll tie those convictions up in appeals courts for years.
They'll try to strip him of all his assets. Let's hope they can do it.
From your lips . . .
Good. Where will he flee to? Maybe Russia. I don't think North Korea though.
Saudi Arabia has all his money and friends.
I'll put my money on South America. He's had some very nice things to say about Venezuela lately. Maybe it's a ruse?
That's his SOLE option, just like the Nazis he worships. Poopin will 130,000% kill him and I imagine Liddle Rocket Man will do the same. No safe harbor for traitors!
Oh yes. The Saudis will BEHEAD him once he starts talking about "beautiful women."
LOL
If he does flee, he'd better make arrangements to pay his taxes. If he doesn't they will become the property of the state.
The opposite Cyrano. Trump has said Venezuela is run by a dictator, Venezuela is not a welcoming home for a billionaire, Trump needs is juice and will get it in Saudi Arabia, Russia or North Korea. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-says-venezuela-is-being-run-by-dictator-2024-08-05/
My Florida cousins say that Mar-a-Lago will be cut off by highway repairs for several months this winter. Elba-on-the-Beach?
Miriam, in my nightly prayers, i ask for a category 6 hurricane to take out maralago
I live a few miles from maralago & wish for either a hurricane or ocean rise to flood it!!
Elizabeth - well it would need to be a surgical strike, maybe the weather channel could figure out how to do that for us. wouldn't want to harm others.
Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen!
Napoleon came back from Elba, Waterloo followed I don't like the analogy.
Should he decide to winter in Russia….Anyone want to place wagers on which floor he takes a short walk off of?
Actually N.K has recently opened up some of it's country to tourism.
Let's all encourage him to head for N.K.
Fingers-crossed emoji..... hopefully a one-way ticket
Todd - do felons get to keep their passports? also, someone explain again why his sentencing was postponed? oh yeah, the quidproquos on the supreme court.
He got one of his appointed judges to delay it for him.
He said he's going to Venezuela if he loses.
Americans fleeing: Eldridge Cleaver, Tim Leary .. Oops, they didn't wear ties ..
It's impossible to debate someone who has their own facts. He will gish gallop all over her if she thinks this is a typical debate. Biden came ready for an honorable debate and got a no rules cage match.
As of 2021, the Washington Post had counted over 30,000 lies and distortions. She needs to present or state the evidence of the epic lies to discredit him. How many lies has he told since 2021? Over 50,000 yet? How many lies during the Biden debate? 21? She can be brief, "politifact states..." Narcissists snap when presented with the truth.
She should ask for his evidence of "the Big Steal," after stating the facts. She should recite the evidence and court cases. Link his lies to J6. She must recite the sworn oath to uphold the Constitution. She should recite the words of his Cabinet members who have worked with him, like his SOS, Chief of Staff and the JCS. (Narcissists plus truth equals explosion.)
She cannot go into it with flowery language about concepts like decency, honor and integrity. "Just the facts, mame." She needs to show how he has DQ'd himself by breaking the oath of office and is unfit.
She must state the proof that investing in infrastructure and the workforce works. She must briefly explain the climate crisis and explain why renewable energy is necessary for sustainably and security. She must point out the his go-to stategy of deregulation creates unsafe workplaces, pollution and total disasters like East Palestine, OH.
She cannot get angry. She must stay composed and Presidential. Sounds easy... But it's a lot of pressure to debate for the most important job in the World AND the fate of humanity.
I expect her to comment, "another Lie, Donald." and go on to comment on the issue asked. She's not a dumb politician. Remember she was the AG of California.
That was not a debate Danny. "Moderators" did not hold Trump to the clock, but they did Biden. His microrphone was cut off, but he kept over talking Biden. The only way to "debate" Trump is for them to be in two different rooms with a Zoom connection.
Trump doesn't debate, he harrangues endlessly.
Put tRump in a soundproof booth and turn his sound off when it is not his turn to speak.
I like that, the best answer, put them both in soundproof booths, that way the Humpers can't whine.
Danny,
1. She knows he is a Malignant Narcissist, Axis ll, Cluster B-4(google it!)
2.Biden is 81 years old, he was over prepped solid for a week,
& the debate started at 9 pm.
3. Kamala is a brilliant prosecutor. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=690568951342357
Danny - “Like”
I’m not worried because attorneys & especially Kamala are accustomed to dealing with the likes of him AND she also has extensive experience dealing with politicians.
Hope she will Gish gallop these facts right back at him…..would love to see her imitate him in her replies….. in a way even his cult recognizes.😄
Todd, For what it’s worth, I plan to write ABC’s co-moderators and urge 1) that questions be tough, 2) that candidates have to be able to square their campaign rhetoric with facts, 3) that candidates have to be stopped when they’re not answering the question, and 4) that candidates have to be called out when their answers contradict the facts.
Lots of luck Barbara writing ABC.The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is owned by The Walt Disney Company through its subsidiary, Disney Entertainment
Major individual investors in the Disney company include Christine McCarthy, Bob Iger, and Safra Catz Here is Robert Iger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Iger
he is also the CEO, and hires and fires all important staff like Editors in chief, Chief Producers, people who know where to tread and where not to tread
The Walt Disney Company owns 21st Century Fox, and 21st Century Fox is owned by the Fox Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch.
So lots of luck. Guess who walks onto stage hobbled,it ain't Trump.
William, Thanks for writing. I will cc the Harris/ Walz campaign and include a postscript pointing to how Harris can fill in where the co-moderators fall short. The foregoing notwithstanding, I believe, with or without our help, our gal knows how to prosecute the case against Trump.
When Trump starts rambling about his mass deportations, his elimination of taxes on Social Security, etc., she should continuously ask, "How will you pay for it?" That would continue her theme that he is not a serious man.
Carolyn - “like”
Exactly, why I voted for her in my state's primary in 2020 before she dropped out. After watching her "prosecute" Brett Kavanaugh as to whether there are any laws on the books pertaining to the male body.... I knew then that some day she would run. She was ruthless, he was tongue tied....... It's why I can't understand how ppl could say she didn't present well in the past. For me, she's always been a "bad-ass!" https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=690568951342357
Todd ; I would guess that tRUMP is already trying to figure out a way to get out of the debate with her.
He tried all this week by campaigning during the DNC so none of his people could watch the proceedings.
I believe that there are three groups that the Democrats must focus on and understand the dynamics behind the possible election of Donald Trump. First of all are the mega wealthy donors who will pour millions into flooding the media with misleading advertisements created by brilliant public relations people well-versed in swaying public opinion. Second are the power-hungry group that wrote the playbook for Donald Trump known as Project 2025. Lastly, are those that cast their votes for Donald Trump. They are not swayed by logic, reasoning or even facts. They are easily duped by propaganda and the debate outcome will not sway them.
One needs to know who your true enemy is to be able to overcome them. Enemy number one is the ultra-wealthy capitalists who will gain the most from a Trump win.
I can't wait till the debate. She'll kill him with his lies.
Hope so!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpsqCGP0fX4&t=120s
A Hopium Bender at the DNC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHky_Xopyrw
Fox News commentators are trying so hard to smile and be deferential to the crazy orange man! [ I'll watch the rest of it later. ]
I think he already does, hence why he's been BAAAAAWLING and WHIIIIIINING and BIIIIIIITCHING about his upcoming scheduled debate. Poor old man.:(
Overgrown 👶 baby.
I am sure she will. I expect her to tear him a new one too.
I figure her advisors or handlers ought to angle for, "Listen carefully to the questions and address them. Direct your answers to the moderators. Ignore Trump and anything he says; don't engage. Answer the moderators' questions, don't be distracted. Don't make any effort to debate the opponent, let them make their own case" [Trump cannot make a case, he'll debate the last election, or Obama who he never ran against, or topics within the last presidential debate, that's where his memory left off ...].
Yes!
Can't wait till the 10th.
Me either!
YES!
Absolutely!!!
Get the best minds in a room and come up with the sharpest zings for the debate. "Where's the beef?" and all that. Because that's what American politics has come down to, sadly. Sound policy recommendations don't move the needle. That's why Bernie ain't President. We only pay attention to "couches" and "Comrades". I think some very direct questions that Trump is never asked (out of politeness) would be helpful, e.g. "Why are you so negative about immigrants, referring to them as vermin, when you've married women from Slovakia and Slovenia?", "Why did you make that interpreter tear up his notes from that private meeting you had with Putin in Helsinki? What are you hiding?", "Why haven't you apologized to those innocent men wrongly imprisoned in New York for those newspaper ads you bought urging for their death sentences?", "Has that investigator you sent to Kenya 15 years (?) ago found Obama's African birth certificate yet? Or now maybe you want to tell the American people now that you just made up that terrible lie?". "Are you going to admit that the health care plan you were going to present to us was just BS now, or are you going to tell us right now what you've come up with almost ten years later?" "Donald, do you have an explanation why almost everyone in your last administration, including your own vice president, has said they won't vote for you? Your Chief of Staff? Your Generals and Admirals on the Joint Chiefs? Your own Press Secretary? Even your own lawyer hates you. Why is that? They know you better than most."
You need to send these questions to the news station hosting the debate! These are excellent questions. I would add, Are you planning to get those you have embedded in state election offices to throw out results until it is in your favor?
I agree with you. These questions should be asked.
As for the states trying to disqualify voters, Juist look at Texas. They continue almost daily. Last reported the AG has spent millions in tax payer funds trying to find voters that voted illegally. He found four for last year. This year he has found one on the last report I saw.
And if I remember correctly, a few years ago, the only voters caught attempting to cheat in Ohio were Republicans! Cheers... GH
Peggy - “Like”
Send this to Harris, who will no doubt have her own amazing zings. You’re right, he’s never been asked because he’s a sociopathic narcissist and difficult to confront. Right up Harris’ alley. She “knows the type” and looks forward to skewering him. I’m totally looking forward to the debate.
She’s going to squash him like a bug and I personally cannot wait!
Trump hates dogs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdOFk75p-lY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re51hMix8c4
Hahahahahahahaha!! The best answer to give when MAGA is screaming in your face about why you support Kamala Harris! Excellent, Daniel!
Daniel, I am really sick of hearing this comment from you. PLEASE COME UP WITH SOMETHING ELSE!
IT FRIGGIN WORKS ON MAGATs who own dogs!.
It's also funny. Take my wife ....please.
Thank you Kerry!!!! Just seeing the questions in print helped me start breathing again! Let’s put your comment on every media mode!! 🥰😇
Kerry - “Like” a lot!
The war in Israel and attacking the Billionaires will not influence the working class voter who wants a living wage, able to pay their utilities, rent, AND buy groceries. They don’t have (or take the time) to worry about much else. The Harris/Walz campaign offers hope and positivity and if they can appeal to the working class, offering answers for an economy that is failing so many, they will win in November.
Patricia the working class, the middle class, America is already divided, up for grabs is the fictional undecided.
I don't see how anyone can be undecided in this day and age.
The DNC convention was indeed full of joy, but it hardly moved the needle, according to the polls, because people have their minds made up.
The obstacle are the obstinate blacks and Muslims who threaten not to vote, and the voter suppression laws enacted by Republican legislatures, the 100,000 amred poll watchers trained by the RNC, the law suits already drafted and waiting to be delivered to courthouses by the RNC, the fake electors, picked and signed waiting to be sent to state capitols. and the MAGAt election officials that have taken the place of honest election officials drivenby terror out of office.
Here is what I am talking about: Trump and the Republican party are hijacking Georgia electionshttps://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-georgia-maga-election-takeover-1235080073/
The only way to counter all of this is for the DNC to have an army of lawyers standing by, in all relevant districts, counties and states. I hope that they have done so and aren't sitting on their ass in the belief that we still have an honest system.
This made me feel better: In 2020 and 2021, on behalf of the Biden campaign and the DNC, attorney Marc Elias oversaw the state-by-state response to lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign contesting the 2020 presidential election results. Of the 64 cases, he won all but one minor case, which was later overturned in his favor. Elias was hired by the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign to focus on potential recounts and post-election litigation.
Yeh Susan we are going to need a brigade of lawyers, or the Republicans are going to steal the election, like they tried to do, last time.
You can always tell what they are planning and what is their motivation or on their mind, because they accuse Democrats of exactly what they are doing and planning.
She has this army of lawyers who are also “armed and ready”. And she has the funds to pay for the best.
The DNC not the Harris Campaign. It is the DNC that has to have an army of lawyers at the ready. I hope you are correct, but as of this moment, I have heard nothing about the DNC having an army of lawyers at the ready in every crucial county and state. The elections are actually determined at election districts, where the voting is done and tabulated, then forwarded to the county, then the state.
That is where the electors are assigned, and a State Attorney General could refuse to recognize a slate of electors. That is what Georgia and Arizona was all about, especially Arizona
I totally agree. No one wants their kids to be hungry.
And, Anne,
Can you even believe that they could when so many have billions of dollars in this country. There is no shame. And, there should not be anyone with billions of dollars. Jesus!
These are the main issues of everyone in the country.. I'm sure the Israel/Gaza issue will be solved by election. I am concerned about Taxing the rich and raising the living wage for all. The economy will always be a problem.
Israel Gaza is only an issue because the media, Arab oil money and feckless people have made it an issue. More alarmingly for democracy is that it has pushed a real threat to democracy and an actual ongoing genocide off the front page and out of the public mind and I am talking about Ukraine.
And if one is truly concerned about suffering women and children,there is Sudan where a million are being starved to death,yet we see no campus protests, no kvetching from supposed liberals and students.
Also, there must continue to be monopoly-busting cases in courts and agencies (yay Linda Kahn)
A terrific DNC. Historical. Kamala and Walz inspiring. BUT do we really not care about a genocide happening with our financial/materiel encouragement? Torture, thousands of women and children and innocent men killed and injured. Cities razed to the ground. And West Bank... Horror, horror, horror. We are complicit. I pray that Harris and Walz win, but this issue cannot be sidelined
She did mention it in her speech; did you miss it? (I'm not being snarky.) I'd have to listen to it again, but she did say Israel has a right to defend itself, but she also said the slaughter in Gaza is totally unjustified. We have to get her elected, then press her to stop aid to Israel--and I believe she will. She boycotted Netanyahu's speech, after all. She's really in an impossible position here, but let's also remember that if TFG wins, I'm sure he'll let Nutty do "whatever the hell he wants."
Karla, I believe VP Harris also said there must be a 2 state solution to with regard to Israel and Gaza.
Yes she did. I heard that, too. But there was no mention of genocide (after 10 months) and no mention of an arms embargo. I do understand that all the right things are being said to get people out and vote (please!) but unless they are more courageous about the genocide, an important block of voters will be lost.
It’ll be interesting to see how she handles that.
I could not agree more.
Who are THEY going to vote for? Or will they express their strong beliefs by staying home?
she said "self determination for the Palestinians'. doe that equal 2-state? I think so.
Yes, that's the standing US policy... Until Trump came along.
She's right, Israel does have the right to defend themselves BUT it ends there, at the border, not to invade the country of Gaza. At this point I think Israel needs to secretly infiltrate the country to find their enemy. Of course we do not have the authority to dictate to them what they can do.
That’s what I was going to say Harvey. No one can “make” Netanyahu do something he doesn’t want to do—even if it’s the U.S. President. If we stop sending military weapons to Israelis, they have weapons of their own & from other countries. Per Michael McFaul, (former ambassador to Russia)Putin has close ties with BOTH Netanyahu and Hamas.
I disagree about stopping aid to Israel. Israel needs the kind of aid that will tell the rest of the Moslem world to think before you act; this country doesn't play. Yes, I want the very best for the people of Gaza and the entire world; sometimes to give people the very best you have to be an SOB.
We've always backed Israel since their beginning. There is no reason to stop mow. This was an attempt to make a country for the Jewish people of the world. Just look at the amount of Jews that Hitler killed. The Jewish people are people just like us. A lot of their "religion" does not exactly agree with us but there in nobody making you agree with them. Our democracy makes everyone free to adopt any religion we choose.
Yes, she did say it.
Yeh Karla, fuck Israel, cleanse it of Jews, that HAMAS, Hezbollah and Iran have promised.
No Jews, no problem,am I right?
Could we not waste time fighting with each other, please?
With comments like this I would think you to be a MAGA.
I guess you didn't catch the purposeful sarcasm, because what I said was essentially what the Karla's, Tom Highs, Gunnars and other supposedly liberals say. If not outright in so many words, but in their arguments and condemnations.
Go back and read Karla's comment, and then my response
Why use false and loaded language like "encouragement." That's utter nonsense. I refuse to let anyone spread lies about our leaders like that. If you really think that, you need to check your sources because it sounds a lot like Russian disinformation to devide the party to help Trump.
Make no mistake: Netanyaho and Hamas are responsible for Gaza. Netty will be held accountable by HIS citizens. We sell them arms because they are surrounded by terrorists and it's our duty to stop terrorism. Why do you care about a million people that Netanyaho is responsible for when the US President is responsible for 330 MILLION Americans?
You don't care about our HEALTH CARE? You don't care about poor kids starving at school? You don't care about the environmental nightmare that Trump would unleash that likely would cause irreparable climate change and doom humanity? You don't care about American workers? Women's rights that have been stripped away and caused women unimaginable suffering in some states since Roe was over-turned? You think they're stopping there? I've got news for you! Birth control and IVF are next, along with criminalization of women needing health care! Trust me... I could go on for hours about domestic issues our President will fix, or will not fix if Trump is elected.
Have you considered that you're no friend of Americans with URGENT and IMMEDIATE NEEDS? Have you considered that you're a self-entitled narcissist, and/or tool of Putin's KGB operation to sow disinformation in the USA? Seriously! Because that's what your misinformed opinion and misplaced priorities add up to.
I have an idea for you! Tell Gaza protesters to denounce the Hamas leadership that started the war on Oct 6. Work for peace with both sides. We must arm them because Israel is surrounded by terrorists, sadly.
Stop blaming Biden for Hamas' terror and Netty's reaponse! Biden has done more to save the World from Trump and Putin than anyone! ANYONE! He's made 330 MILLION Americans' lives much better and brighter futures. He's a SAINT! Show some respect, please!
You always try to make yourself sound like the "expert" on everything. BTW: Trump told 35,000 lies, not 30,000. Check your facts. And please . . . learn how to spell and edit yourself before posting.
I agree wholeheartedly
How about blocking offensive weapons to Israel?
That really can only be done after inauguration. It’s a pity, but it’s still Joe’s game until then.
I've copied this from an "Open Democracy" blog in the UK
"But certain events on the last day unfortunately undercut that message. The Uncommitted Movement, which encouraged hundreds of thousands of Americans to vote “uncommitted” in party primaries (a purely symbolic statement, broadcasting their view that Biden must do more to secure peace in the Middle East), sent thirty delegates to the Convention. They represented about 700,000 real Democratic voters
These delegates were not random, outside protestors but Democratic party insiders, people who support Kamala Harris but also want to speak up on behalf of America’s Middle Eastern community in favour of a ceasefire and release of all hostages. The spokesperson the Uncommitted delegates put forward, Georgia state congresswoman Ruwa Romman, was not permitted to take the main stage – despite her speech being pre-vetted by DNC staff.
It shows that, while Democrats increasingly seem to understand the power of party unity and intra-party democracy in some ways, they still have a lot to work on. Many have made a compelling case since the incident that listening to voters on the issues they care about – even if others in the party may disagree or find it hard to hear – is a crucial way of building the party unity everyone is so impressed by. Some debates are certainly hard to have – but that’s democracy, and it’s no excuse to ignore them entirely."
The US has pushed hard for a cease-fire. The parties involved in the conflict, in which many innocent Palestinians are suffering, do not want a cease fire for many self serving reasons. There can be no "two state solution" unless the parties who will be living in the 2 states agree to co-habitate. I support a 2 state solution but it cannot be mandated by outside countries. And the rest of the Arab world must also support it. Palestinians should be vetted and allowed to enter the US as refugees
Arabs countries need to allow Palastinians to flee into their countries and provide aide to them until this war is over. But none of this can be accomplished solely by any US President.
Well Constantine, Middle East, Middle East, all the attention on the Middle east as if that is the only problem, and Ukraine and the ongoing real genoide is forgotten.
Putin could not be more please, What a birthday present Iran gave Putin on Oct 7th.
You did not that that Oct 7th was Vlad's birthday didn't you, and what a gift he got. Now the feckless in the west are distracted, and Gaza has replaced Ukraine in the media.
There are, in the west, certain elements that have an affectionate memory for the Russia they remember when it was the USSR, and that affection still lingers.
In their minds eye all of the evils in the world are the result of imperialistic capitalism, and Russia, and now Israel,are the victims. They ignore of course that the only active imperialist and ruthless capitalist are Putin and the oligarchs, they cling to their memories and sentiments.
Why use false and loaded language like "encouragement." That's utter nonsense. I refuse to let anyone spread lies about our leaders like that. If you really think that, you need to check your sources because it sounds a lot like Russian disinformation to devide the party to help Trump.
Make no mistake: Netanyaho and Hamas are responsible for Gaza. Netty will be held accountable by HIS citizens. We sell them arms because they are surrounded by terrorists and it's our duty to stop terrorism. Why do you care about a million people that Netanyaho is responsible for when the US President is responsible for 330 MILLION Americans?
You don't care about our HEALTH CARE? You don't care about poor kids starving at school? You don't care about the environmental nightmare that Trump would unleash that likely would cause irreparable climate change and doom humanity? You don't care about American workers? Women's rights that have been stripped away and caused women unimaginable suffering in some states since Roe was over-turned? You think they're stopping there? I've got news for you! Birth control and IVF are next, along with criminalization of women needing health care! Trust me... I could go on for hours about domestic issues our President will fix, or will not fix if Trump is elected.
Have you considered that you're no friend of Americans with URGENT and IMMEDIATE NEEDS? Have you considered that you're a self-entitled narcissist, and/or tool of Putin's KGB operation to sow disinformation in the USA? Seriously! Because that's what your misinformed opinion and misplaced priorities add up to.
I have an idea for you! Tell Gaza protesters to denounce the Hamas leadership that started the war on Oct 6. Work for peace with both sides. We must arm them because Israel is surrounded by terrorists, sadly.
Stop blaming Biden for Hamas' terror and Netty's reaponse! Biden has done more to save the World from Trump and Putin than anyone! ANYONE! He's made 330 MILLION Americans' lives much better and brighter futures. He's a SAINT! Show some respect, please!
Oh, dear. That's a rant that totally misses the point. Of course I want Harris/ Walz to win. Of*course* I care about the issues you raise. It's not either / or, though. A recognised Democrat, with a pre-approved speech, should have been given a platform, just like all the others from different viewpoints. It's called inclusivity. That's all I shall say on the subject. I don't want to get into an argument with you
Fair enough. We will call a truce. I hope people realize 3 things:
1. Don't blame Biden for Gaza.
2. Don't put Gaza before all crucial domestic issues.
3. Don't fall for Russian/RT psy-ops to ferment anti-Dem hostility to help elect Putin's asset, Trump.
Please don't take it personal. I think that it's important to make a spirited defense of Biden and Harris, especially when Russian talking points are used. Thank you! Have a good day!
#Harris/Walz
#Harris2024!
Well said Danny, better than I ever could
💯 Constantine. It would have been an easy gesture for the DNC to recognize families affected by the Palestinian horror, generational injustice & xK civilian slaughter, dehumanization+++++++. Foreign policy is not just a matter of military strenghth, protection of troops & USA 'interests', if not rooted in human & international justice for all. Russian/DT propaganda & politics be damed. A suppression of the Palestinian Holocaust is a profound contradiction of Kamala's/Dems stated core values. It was an easy 2 minute opportunity to affirm these values & community recognition. Now it is an open personal(communal) wound, not just an unforced political error. It was an unnecessary 'bite'.
If that is what you want Constantine, for Harris/Walz to win, then stop carping. All that you are achieving is to demoralize the Harris voters.
And that serves Trump and Putin fine, as was intended when Iran gave Vlad a birthday present on Oct 7th.
Constantine, you go, girl! Don't let these know-it-all men run all over you!
"We sell them arms because they are surrounded by terrorists and it's our duty to stop terrorism." A good point. The world has us over a barrel. Clowns to the left of us, jokers to the right...
Here is what pisses me off Smokey. The present situation is caused by the aggressors, Putin and HAMAS, every building destroyed, every life lost, every life ruined can be laid in the lap of Putin and HAMAS.
What is one suppose to do when attacked by an aggressor, surrender, invite them in for tea and crumpets.
Long winded arguments about history will not solve the problem,,it is a chicken and egg debate, and who started it all depends on your ideology and thus beliefs.
The Hatfields and McCoys, it didn't matter how the feud started.
Gaza is a distraction from the more important, to the world and to America, threat of Putin., and the foolish bleeding hearts on the left are playing into it.
Danny Your response shows up under mine, as if you are responding to me. I know that you aren't but it doesn't look that way. I have the same problem with substack and have to force myself to remember to mention by name the commenter I am responding to. this case I assume it is Constatine, and assume good faith that is not a Putin troll, he is unaccountabily fixate and distracted by Gaza and there is a lot of that here, the real threat to world peace is Putin and his real genocide in Ukraine, but these bleeding hearts are easily distracted.
You're right. I will add the name next time. Sorry! And Thank you!
Thanks Danny I am glad to see that I am not the only one to see through the charade.
And thank you!
Blow it out your patootie!
But nothing stops her from saying she will.
When he was running for president, Hubert Humphrey was opposed to the Vietnam War but didn't feel he could, as LBJ's vice-president, say so. He planned to end the war once he was president--except he never got to be president, at least partly because most voters who were against the war didn't vote for him.
Very true Maureen. We will never know if Humphrey would have stopped the war in Vietnam, but we do know Nixon and Kissinger kept it going for another six years with about 25,000 more Americans killed. In addition millions more in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Their egos, tactics and stupidity destabilized the entire region and the effects are still being felt today. Remember, he promised to end the war in one year! Don't get me started on their "open China" policy and the wreck it has caused to the economy and jobs for working class folks in the US and other countries. The threats, current and future destabilization of the world by China can be laid directly at the feet of N & K and our greedy American businessmen. Just goes to prove we can not trust, ever, any Republican with our economy and foreign policy decisions. If the Gaza protester think Biden has done a bad job and they sit out the election and don't vote for Harris, they will get T. Good luck to the Palestinians then. VOTE BLUE! Cheers... GH
I think most of the pro-Palestinian protesters would rather have Harris and Walz promise a more even-handed approach so that they can morally bring themselves to vote Blue.
Well spotted. A tragic political mistake that does not need to be replicated. This playing upon the righteous rage of those witnessing the awful genocide and needless suffering in Gaza is a potential Achilles heel that MAGA will assuredly aim for. Trump’s well publicised recent fêting of Netanyahu at Mar a Lago and his sweet talking of Netanyahu’s wife Sara will have been a politically strategic move. It lays the groundwork for Trump to claim he could save Palestine when in the Whitehouse because of his close friendship with Netanyahu.
We may be the most powerful state in the world BUT it stops there. We are not a 'dictator state', as you may suggest. we are a democratic state. Presently we are doing everything in our power to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas.
No, we are NOT "doing everything in our power to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas." Previous US Presidents (both Republicans and Democrats) have threatened to stop sending offensive weapons to Israel or have actually stopped sending such weapons to Israel when Israel has violated international law, and Israel has complied with international law as a result. It is within our power to do so again.
A little more on the subject: Hezbollah is exchanging a lot of firepower with Israel. We could stop arms flowing to Israel but then where would we be. At this point our only option is negotiation. Let's all hope we can end the fight over there. A lot of civilians are suffering and dying.
Which is meaningless, of course. We've already seen his idea of how to "save" Palestine in Kushner's plan for the West Bank (when Trump was President) & Kushner's plan for making Gaza a resort area.
True. Also Trump and MAGA are all deep in hock to their global oligarch paymasters who have their ever greedy eyes on the beachfront land of Gaza for hedge fund seeding of profitable terminal crop (Holstein style overpriced housing and tourist resort development) as well as the offshore Tamar oil field. Follow the big money rather than the noisy mass mediated political spin.
You are a true cynic! Even I did not think that Gaza was Netanyoohoo's urban renewal program by another name. It's brilliant!
God! Hasn't Kushner laid his his snake-like JEWISH head to rest yet?? A "resort"! Eff Jared Kushner!
Good point, Maureen.
Thank you.
Maureen, If I may step back a bit, I wish to note that the Democratic Party’s ultimate refusal to allow a Palestinian American to speak from the DNC stage was an unforced error with potentially dire electoral consequences. Consider, for example, the Polin’s moving speech delivered from the main stage about their son who was taken hostage during Hamas’s attack on October 7th. If I didn’t know better, I might conclude, viewing the denial of anyone the right to speak for the suffering in Gaza, that Democrats value Israeli lives more than Palestinian lives.
Adding insult to injury, as if we weren't already working hard enough, now we have to consider the affects on Arab and Muslim communities in particular that largely reside in battleground states, let alone the affects on young people overall who are largely supportive of Palestinian rights advocates.
Last, I should note that the 30 uncommitted DNC delegates at the heart of this movement have returned to their communities and have invited Harris to meet with them and their constituents by September 15th. I hope others will join me in urging Harris to attend that meeting. The Harris/Walz Campaign address is
kamalaharris.com/contact-us/
I agree. I’m glad she raised the issue and personally I take that paragraph as a signal she is aware that she’s going to have to directly address the issue BUT I am concerned she personally is not able to see and articulate the path through. I hope someone in her orbit is.
At this moment Israel army is massacring children; bombing hospitals and school with people inside! Maybe Hamas is using these sites a human shields, but that doesn’t matter! There are still people inside. Tens of thousands have died and I feel we are watching a remake of the Warsaw uprising.
I do not want to see this level of devastation leveled on Israel; how can I support it being leveled on Gaza?
BTW Netanyahu has to go in order to allow the peace seeking people in Israel find a stable path forward.
Muslim Americans have only one true loyalty and that is to the Ummah Barbara.
There are internecine squabbles for power, but when the enemy if the kufr,they circle the wagons.
American Muslims have said on TV and in print, they will not vote for Biden (hence Democrats) because of support for Israel, and while non votes in red rand red leaning states are inconsequential, non votes in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (and maybe even Minnesota)will throw the vote to Trump.
If they follow through on their threats, then Bibi's brother from another Mother will be elected, and Trump has already said that he would round them up and deport them, 11 million immigrants, not just Mexicans, Central and South Americans, but Muslims as well, and you can bet Steven Miller i an immigration bypocrite https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/13/stephen-miller-is-an-immigration-hypocrite-i-know-because-im-his-uncle-219351/
You mean like Catholic Americans have only one true loyalty and that is to the Pope? I thought the US got over that kind of anti-immigrant essentialist nonsense over a century ago.
So you believe that Catholic Americans have only one true loyalty and that is to the Pope?
Maybe you should tall the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that, they routinely defied the Pope.
Muslims indeed have their first loyalty towards the religion. It is called the Ummah: the whole community of Muslims bound together by ties of religion
It has nothing to do with immigrants either, you are either stupid or narrow minded. There are millions of Muslim Americans, and they aren't all Arabs either. I know a few who are of European ancestry, even a couple who are Europeans.
.
I don't believe that all Catholic Americans have only one true loyalty and that is to the Pope any more than I believe that all Muslims have their first loyalty to their religion--both are outdated "racist" ideas.
Muslim and Catholic don't equate. Yet many a Catholic hold their religious belief superior to the Constitution. I only mention Leo Leonard,Kevin Roberts,Neil Gorsuch, Amy Comey Barrett, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and millions of rad trad Catholics.
You don't see Protestants or Catholics rise up as one in defense of a protestant or Catholic peoples at war, do you?
You don't even see Jews rise up as one in defense of Israel, do you?
But you do see Muslims rise up in defense of Muslims, even when they are the instigators.
Identity, identity, identity, religion, religion, religion, beliefs, beliefs, beliefs
Therein is the problem. Islam is just one facet.
Palestinians and their advocates are divisive, they aren't loyal to America their loyalty is to the Ummah. If they don't vote,, as they have threatened to, Trump will win, and then they will most surely regret their feckless and chauvinistic behavior.
I don't believe in dual citizenship. One cannot be loyal to two countries, especially when those countries are in conflict.
It wasn't only Japanese Americans that were rounded up, but German Americans and as well. The Justice Department oversaw the internment of over 31,000 civilians, including about 11,500 people of German ancestry. These detainees were held in army and Justice Department camps across the country, such as Crystal City, Texas, Sand Island, Hawaii, and Ft. Lincoln, North Dakota.
And there were in fact a very large pro Japan sentiment among Japanese Americans.
And a pro NAZI sentiment among German Americans and Americans in general.
Were it not for the bombing of Pearl Harbor America could have elected a NAZI government, .
So, you're saying that all American Jews should choose between the US and Israel?
I am not saying anything Maureen, you are, not me.
You said, "One cannot be loyal to two countries, especially when those countries are in conflict." Are you now saying that American Jews are exceptions to this rule of yours?
Thank you for submitting this post!
The Atlantic's Adam Serwer has done a very good piece expressing disappointment with the DNC for not including a Palestinian-American speaker.
Let us note also how the "other" party -- a cult indeed -- is now using the world "Palestinian" as an epithet. Trump, for example, has referred to Harris by that moniker several times now.
The failure to find "refuge" for a single speaker as the world witnesses the first live-streamed genocide called to mind the ill-fated voyage of a steamship called the "St. Louis" in the early summer of 1939.
As Tel Aviv-based journalist Gideon Levy (Ha'aretz) has put it, there may have been more cruel and brutal occupations in history, but NEVER one where the cruel occupiers presented themselves to the world as the victims.
As Serwer writes: "Student groups have been banned by colleges and universities, and students suspended, for pro-Palestinian advocacy and rhetoric. American politicians frequently characterize any pro-Palestinian speech as anti-Semitic, regardless of whether it can be fairly categorized as such...
"That has left little space for the Palestinian version of the story, which by nature will be different when told by actual Palestinians. Yet it is precisely that version of the story that has the most potential to show Palestinians as real human beings, as your friends and fellow citizens, rather than as crude stereotypes or casualty numbers tallied in a distant war."
The status of "human beings" is what the Nazis denied to the Jews of Europe, which is why I recalled the St. Louis. A minister in the current cabinet of Israel has advocated for the starvation of Gaza's entire population -- calling it a "moral" thing. Meet the new Nazis.
Growing up in the UK in the 1950’s/60’s I saw many documentary’s on WW2. The most compelling parts of these documentary’s was the war footage and photographs of hitlers concentration camps. And never forgot what I saw and had great sympathy for the Israelis. However, the Israelis lost me 42 years ago this September, in Beirut Lebanon. Led by Ariel Sharon the IDF instigated the massacre of up to three thousand men, women and children in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla. The IDF used Lebanese Christian militia to attack those camps on the pretext that the PLO had assassinated their leader. For four days the militia committed the most horrific crimes imaginable while the IDF closed all possible route out of the camps. If you think what happened on October 7th was horrific read the accounts of those journalists that entered the camps in 1982 found. Ultimately, a UN commission found the Israelis guilty of a form of genocide, and the Israeli government commission very reluctantly admitted to their role in the massacres, but blamed Sharon. It was also found that the killer of the Christian militia leader was a Christian in the pay of Syria. Since that time I have believed that the abused became the abuser and that the abuse has never stopped.
Thank you, Lesley. (Like) -- since my like function does not work.
Thanks to Christian Nationalism, it makes it easier to contrast Zionism to the religion of Judaism.
A resource that might be helpful to you and others is the site created by Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro -- called "Committing High Reason." There's a series of lectures there that explains in detail how Zionists stole the identity of the religious Jew.
He just added the latest in the series of why religious Jews will NOT serve in the IDF. I've seen YouTubes of Israeli police really beating up on them, and it's horrific.
Thank you, Thomas, for a calm and reasoned response. I want to understand the pro-Palestinian point of view. But some people on this website have MAGA brain: "I'm right, you're wrong, end of story."
Lesley: You seem reasonable and well-informed. So educate me:
1) I have always believed it was the Arabs who started up every new bloody incident starting all the way back to 1948. Am I wrong?
2) I am as troubled as most Americans by genocide. But why should I give a good goddamn about the Arab world that attacked my country on 9/11 and continues to say “Death to Israel, Death to America”. Why?
Please respond with civility. I am giving you an opportunity to change a mind.
Unfortunately your anger is very evident and doesn’t show a lot of civility. The history of the Palestinians didn’t begin in 1948, their ancestors go back into prehistory at least 4000 years to the levantine peoples. They were there when the Hebrews crossed the Jordan and moved down into the planes of what was then Canaan. The two Hebrew kingdoms that are used to justify Israeli claims to the land were just two of many that came and went over the millennia, Egyptians, Romans, Byzantine (Christian), Ottoman, Muslim. The religions of the indigenous peoples changing each time they were concurred. As recently as the 19th century the Palestinians shared the land with the Jewish people whose ancestors did not leave in the diasporas, in reasonably peaceful, tho not always, circumstances. That changed after the second war with the influx of Jewish refugees. From this point on I suggest to do your own research and do it with an open mind. What you find might surprise you.
Lesley, yours is an incomplete, but popular understanding of the history of the peoples.
Regardless, history is used to justify the present,and history is shrouded in myths, Remember that history is written by the victors.
It really doesn't matter if the chicken came before the egg (biology says chicken first, something laid the egg.
Hashing and rehashing history is useless and only self justifying.
I don't believe the narratives of the Jews,the Arabs, and America has it's own mythical history.
The present situation was caused by HAMAS, when it flew out of Gaza, raped and slaughtered women, infants, toddlers, elderly and disabled. and Ismael Haniyeh said it ain't over yet, He declared that Islam is a nation of martyr's and will keep coming back and again and again, and the HAMAS covenant says as much.
So what were the Jews suppose to do.
"That's ok Ishamail, perfectly understandalbe, we apologize for provoking you, and we understand that we are sitting on sacred Muslim soil, so we will surrender and accept second class status, and those that can't will migrate to America and Europe.
Because that is the reality of the situation. Enough of this kvetching, moralizing, hypocrisy
I am familiar with the longterm history of the region - less so with the details since Zionism. The Jews had no more claim to the area than the Arabs, I admit. I AM NOT ANGRY, DAMMIT! I liked what you wrote and I could relate to it, and I wanted to hear you elaborate upon it.
First, ‘the Arab world’ did not attack our country on 911, a fringe group did and we invaded two countries and killed tens of thousands of people in response. And the Taliban is back in power.
Second, if the Middle East explodes over these long simmering conflicts, how many american soldiers will die? Will the ocean protect us from the nuclear fall out?
It’s clear to me war is not the answer.
1) You are right, I am broad-brushing the Arab world. And I'm still pissed that "they" conquered Constantinople. So I may be a little out of touch. But "fringe" group? I believe 19 of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, no?
2) I agree -- war is not the answer. But what happens if Hamas agrees to a ceasefire and 6 months or 6 years later does it again? This is my impression of how this has gone since 1948. Maybe I'm wrong. The Zionists might have done a better job of moving into the region, but it's done now. I want to hear the Arab world say "Peace! We accept Israel's right to exist."
Joan Schiff, Let me ask you this.
Do you like your standard of living, Do you enjoy the ability to move freely, to go the store and select from a variety of food, clothing, to warm your home in winter and cool it in summer.?
Are you prepared to give up your comfy life, your toys, your TV, your cell phone, computer and internet?
Well all of that depends on the supply of energy, and as it stands at the moment, the major source of that energy is from petroleum and liquid gas (LNG).
And who controls the worlds oil production and hence supply?
Answer is OPEC and who are founding members of OPEC and it's most important members ? Iran, Saudi Arabia, Arab and Muslim states.
If you answer yes to my questions, you are being reactive and not honest.
We bitch about global warming, but then bitch about inflation as if they were too separate things.
we bitch about global warming, but would die if we didn't have a car or public transpiration.
We bitch about global warming, but would bitch worse if there were no cereal boxes on the supermarket shelf, or beer and milk in the refrig, in fact there wouldn't be any supermarkets at all, how about returning to a pre 1850 life style.
My grandparents lived that way, so did I during WWII. I don't think that others are willing, I certainly am not.
There will always be tension in the middle east, take the Jews out of the equation and you have the very serious Sunni vs Shia conflict, and were it isn't religious it is over territory and oil
The first gulf war started because Kuwait was stealing Iraqi oil, via slant drilling.
Smokey. The United States is a sectarian democracy, where religion is, supposedly a private thing.
Americans see the world through their eyes, everything is a secular conflict, Republican vs Democracy, left vs Right, Democracy vs Authoritarianism.
We also see it in economic terms, Capitalism vs Communism.
Free enterprise vs Socialism.
The idea, that others are motivated by religion is beyond their ken.
Yet the world is rife with religious conflicts.
Islam is not a benign faith, it is triumphalist, exclusionary, demanding of strict obedience and dissent is not allowed, and is in fact punishable by death. Disrespect their demigod, Muhammad and you will be beheaded or burned to death, same with their Holy book the Quran(Koran)
Christianity, when it suffered under the monopoly of the cult or Rome was the same, non believers were put to the sword, heretics and apostates were burned to death, as a Pope forbid the shedding of Christian blood, even heretics, except in battle of course.
Islam and Christianity are evangelical. Christian evangelicalism is personal, Islamic evangelicalism is tribal, national, they don't so much proselytize, as conquer a peoples and convert by force or coercion. In the past, as in Present day Bosnia, the Ottoman Turks levied a poll tax (Jizzyah) on the Bogomil Christians that was so onerouse that they converted to get out from under the tax.
When the Arabs flew out of the Peninsula and subdued the Greco Roman Emprire in Anatolia and the Levant, they imposed a poll tax on the peoples of the book (Christians and Jews). to escape the poll tax, most converted, a group of Jews, converted but kept their traditions (the Druze)
Islam permits Christians and Jews to follow their faith, so long as they accept second class status as dhimmi's and pay the poll tax jizyah.
Shia Islam accepts Zoroastrians (good god, bad god duality, some say the foundation of judaism and Christianity)
Atheists and polythestis (Hindus, Buddhists) don't have that option,it is convert or die.
The first Caliphate, the Rashidun, founded by abu Bakr, gave way to the Umayyad Caliphate, which expanded east into Afghanistan and the Indus Valley. There they encountered Buddhist and Hindus, but by that time the Umayyad Califphate saw Islam as an Arab only religion,Muhammad ibn al-Qasim led the first Muslim expedition to India in 712 AD. The Umayyad Caliphate sent Qasim, who was a general, to lead an expedition to Sindh and Baluchistan. Qasim defeated Sindh's ruler, Dahir, in a battle and captured his capital, Alor. He then extended his conquest to Multan, which is near the Indus River and parts of lower Punjab. Qasim established Islamic rule in the region and served as Sindh's governor from 712 until his death in 715.
He slaughtered the infidel population save for those whose strengths and skills made them a commercial property, those he marched over the mountains that bear their name The Hindu Kush.(Hindu Slaughter)
But Islam was Arab only, and the Hindu were polytheist and had no choice but convert or die, but conversion was out of the question, the solution was that since dhimmi's are a protected people, instead of wasting an economic commodity (slaves) the Hindu slaves had to convert to Christianity or Judaism, and Judaism was out of the question it takes instruction by a rabbi, Christianity on the other hand only took a dunking in a stream or river.
The majority of Arab Christians are descendants of Slaves.
My ancestral lineage is that of one such and I have the DNA to prove it. Outside of the 13th Century "immigrant" to Yorkshire, my YDNA relatives are an Iranian and two Kuwaitis, and we are descendants of a man who had at least one son who settled in India.
Arab is not a race, but an ethnicity based on the native language.
William, you are generous with your insight and I appreciate it. Also interesting about your Y-DNA! I have ancestors from Yorkshire also. In my work life I actually met and liked a couple Arabs, an Iranian, a Serbian and I first heard this anti-Israeli message back in the 1980's. Re Arab culture -- how can you respect people that have to be shown how to wipe their ass in the desert?
Why use false and loaded language like "encouragement." That's utter nonsense. I refuse to let anyone spread lies about our leaders like that. If you really think that, you need to check your sources because it sounds a lot like Russian disinformation to devide the party to help Trump.
Make no mistake: Netanyaho and Hamas are responsible for Gaza. Netty will be held accountable by HIS citizens. We sell them arms because they are surrounded by terrorists and it's our duty to stop terrorism. Why do you care about a million people that Netanyaho is responsible for when the US President is responsible for 330 MILLION Americans?
You don't care about our HEALTH CARE? You don't care about poor kids starving at school? You don't care about the environmental nightmare that Trump would unleash that likely would cause irreparable climate change and doom humanity? You don't care about American workers? Women's rights that have been stripped away and caused women unimaginable suffering in some states since Roe was over-turned? You think they're stopping there? I've got news for you! Birth control and IVF are next, along with criminalization of women needing health care! Trust me... I could go on for hours about domestic issues our President will fix, or will not fix if Trump is elected.
Have you considered that you're no friend of Americans with URGENT and IMMEDIATE NEEDS? Have you considered that you're a self-entitled narcissist, and/or tool of Putin's KGB operation to sow disinformation in the USA? Seriously! Because that's what your misinformed opinion and misplaced priorities add up to.
I have an idea for you! Tell Gaza protesters to denounce the Hamas leadership that started the war on Oct 6. Work for peace with both sides. We must arm them because Israel is surrounded by terrorists, sadly.
Stop blaming Biden for Hamas' terror and Netty's reaponse! Biden has done more to save the World from Trump and Putin than anyone! ANYONE! He's made 330 MILLION Americans' lives much better and brighter futures. He's a SAINT! Show some respect, please!
Danny, Nobody is recognizing that more people have died prematurely in the past year due to our disorganized patchwork of the for-profit healthcare mess than have died in Gaza. it's just not as visible. That doesn't take away from the tragedies in Gaza or Israel, but it compounds the fact that humans still don't have a way to regulate capitalism's greedy monsters.
People write essays and books about the domestic and foreign policies. Only two things matter now, IMO. Trump wants to end the ACA that saves 40,000 lives a year. Trump is Putin's puppet.
I don't care if domestic and foreign policy are not all my way... As long as they are not Trump's way. The latter is totally unacceptable.
#Vote4Harris
Oh, fuck yes: "Tell Gaza protesters to denounce the Hamas leadership!" And if Hamas did not hide behind innocent men, women and children, there would be no genocide of non-combatants.
Stop repeating yourself!!!!!
So Iran or an OBL-type despot can wipe them off the globe? Sorry, that's not an option. They are surrounded by more terrorist groups than you know.
I guess you don't know the difference between "offensive" and "defensive."
Explain, please?
I recommended blocking only offensive weapons, like bombs. That would not block defensive weapons like the Iron Dome or surface to air missiles, nor would it block direct US aid if Iran or an OBL-type despot tried to wipe them off the globe.
That's not a bad idea, but perhaps over-simplified. What about a truck load of munitions and bombs that Hamas is moving into place for an attack? The old saying, "the best defense is an offense," is true because it prevents the other side from preparing an offensive strike.
If the other side does not have to play defense, they remain on the offense. Correct? The opponent must remain on defense, or they are on offense. Correct?
Rep Cori Bush didn't have the resources to defend from the attacks and she lost. Zelinski is smart to go on the offense. You can bet that Ukraine is getting the best military advice in the World, and they've recently gone on the offense in Russia. Do you respect Zelinaki's advisors and understand the logic to go on the offensive in Russia?
I think it's fair to say that you can't win a game or battle just playing defense.
I'm a total pacifist. However, I've realized that you can't win just playing defense. Muslim extremists (and some well-founded corporate fascist entities) are relentless, ruthless, and operate above the law. (That is directed at the US driverless car cabal, which may include Uber.)
As the NYT quoted, "we should spend a million dollars to destroy her (tech reporter Sarah Lacy) life." It's doesn't sound like Uber's "war room" was content playing defense, does it?
"What about a truck load of munitions and bombs that Hamas is moving into place for an attack?"
What about the Iron Dome?
I chose focus on more swing state voter turnout. They have a wonderful momentum going now and should continue with their message of helping middle class/lower class Americans neglected too long. Trump has become such a degenerate clown, he is in self-destruct mode and hopefully will melt down, becoming insignificant. Well, I doubt it but mocking him without putting the entire spotlight on him is the best way to go.
Thank you for bringing us back to the main focus of Robert's poll and column!
Hound Trump into doing something more stupid that usual, into a massive stroke or both.
Dems other than Kamala should pursue a combination of george's "hound" and smokey's "dick jokes" (further below). Also, like Ronny Chieng's "dick jokes" skit on the recent Comedy Central show. I've made the point before, too. Taunt Trump, to make him further weird, unhinged, reactive and loony. Make all the MAGA loyalist Senate and House candidates defend their support for Trump's instability, Hannibal Lecter, Putin, Kim and Trump's embrace of RFKJr & his anti-vaxx positions
Devious! We could put LSD into his morning coffee! Oh, boy, would I love to see Donald on acid!
Funny!!! I think Donald might just jump off of Trump Tower. "I can fly! I can fly!"
Let's hope so.
Let's pitch in and get Donald a cape!
You're right. No one cares about policy specifics in the campaign stage. If they really did then Elizabeth Warren would have been president already. Also Donald hasn't actually done a real press conference since he did not answer a single actual question at his supposed press conference. Kamala is under no obligation to kow tow to the press that is just trying to mess with her and is giving Donald a pass. Kamala needs to talk with the voters and that is what she is doing.
The main thing I took from the convention: How DEEP the Democratic Party's "bench" is.
Tim Walz came off of the "bench" -- someone we hardly knew a few weeks go -- and quickly proved himself.
I saw and heard two women give speeches at the DNC that blew me away! One was by Kamala, of course. I thought she told us who she was, what her goals are, and did a good job of diminishing Trump. The other woman was Michelle Obama. She reminded me of those great black preachers who really get people up and with them. I didn't know what a great speaker she is. I hope she'll be campaigning with Kamala. What a pair they'd make!
This time I voted with the majority. But, this time we need to make sure the voters are still registered, assure they have a ride to the polls, make sure they are allowed to vote. Then we'll have to be vigilant that EVERY vote in every State is counted and added to the total vote count in that State.
Maybe we needed that slight sojourn in hell from 2017 to 2021 to remind us how fortunate we are to have the world's longest lasting democratically run Republic. As Ben Franklin was reported to have said a Republic, if you can keep it. I would be delighted to get 90% of the vote, but would be satisfied to get 70%
I have long admired and followed Kamala since she was DA in San Francisco, she was criticized for prosecuting too many people of color. Her response was something to the effect of I don't prosecute people I prosecute the crime. Likewise as Attorney General, when other States caved in to the oligarchs and took what they offered for ruining ordinary citizens in the Great Recession, Kamala insisted AND GOT more. As President she will be remembered for her strength for the people, not for the oligarchs. Whether Americans or Ukrainians - she will fight for RIGHT and Justice. Never will you hear Kamala brag about what a good friend she is of Vladimir Putin or the "love" letters she received from Kim Jong Un. Without braggadocio she will strengthen our ties to Europe through NATO and the United Nations.
And, like Joe Biden, a man she admires and trusts, she will be for all of us as citizens. I can pretty much guarantee she will never be a fan of Elon Musk.
It is very invigorating and heart-warming to see you two once again so enthusiastic and positive about our prospects for the future.
Thanks Heather for pointing out that Kamala Harris did Not become a new person. She was finally given the opportunity to shine her light.
Robert, Heather. you made a lot of comments comparing the RNC to the DNC. And I, like you, believe they stand in very stark contrast BUT your words fall flat as quick quips and anybody listening to those comparisons, especially those on the fence, will just ignore the comparisons. I hope you might have the tech support to do something that would have a real impact: >>>>> Put the RNC side-by-side in SPLIT SCREEN with the DNC and use commentary on the split screen to show the real difference between Democratic values and Republican values! They created a wealth of visuals that can be directly compared. They did the real work in the two conventions. You two can resolve that into REAL, visualized comparisons.
Heather and Robert, great Klatch today.
Always a part of my Saturday morning routine.
Heather, you have to get Robert a mic.
Oh ya, great Klatch again.