SpankyMcFarland

I understand the expression causes offence and I have never used it myself. Here is some more background on it and how it is perceived by different people: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/us/politics/river-to-the-sea-israel-gaza-palestinians.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare Many insurgencies have similar sayings and songs. In Ireland, for example, people talk of Four Green Fields, A Nation Once Again, Our Day Will Come. These are perceived very differently by the other, Protestant, side in Northern Ireland.

Ramaswamy has a talent for publicity or perhaps notoriety might be closer to the truth. What he’ll do with this name recognition is anybody’s guess.

Vivek has a plan to build a big, beautiful wall on America’s northern border. That noise you hear is Canadian feathers being ruffled: As regards stopping the flow of fentanyl into the US, the potential benefits seem fairly modest: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67372909

Ah Jaysus, are you saying that no Muslims were killed during the Partition of British India? That would come as a considerable surprise to many families who mourned them for decades. Why are so many posters unencumbered by facts here?

Do you accept that Israel already extends from the river to the sea? Yes or no?

You really need to read something beyond the premasticated pap that is served up for those cheap dentures of yours to gnaw on. Britain didn’t ’own’ the Mandated Territory of Palestine. The intent from the League of Nations mandate was administer the territory until its people could run it themselves. Unfortunately, the open borders policy of the British - yes, think on that for a second - led to an explosion in migrants and the current mess.

The slaughter and exodus went both ways across that new border. Millions were driven from their homes. And there are Hindus today in Canada who will make anything Islamophobic said on a campus seem utterly harmless by comparison.

And you didn’t answer mine BTW. Yes, I understand how people can be offended by that slogan and I would never say it myself. But in the end it’s a slogan, not facts on the ground. Palestine does not exist as a state - that is the more offensive thing, I think. Actions matter more than words in my book. And I prefer whataboutery. Whataboutism is such an ugly, clumsy word. It starts and peters out. There’s no rhythm to it.

It matters a great deal. We’re talking about holding an election within a political party to unseat a highly popular politician. It is well known that much of AIPAC’s funding, a closely affiliated group, comes from wealthy Republicans. That has no place whatsoever in a Democratic Party election. Just imagine in Canada if Liberal money helped elect Poilievre as leader of his party.

From that veritable thicket of bald assertions, let me make two points: Firstly, forget about the rest of the region. They don’t live there and haven’t lived there. They don’t care about the result. Secondly, not every country is as big as Canada. Take yourself off to an atlas and look at how many countries are smaller than Israel, even without the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza. The result may surprise you.

Together, Palestinians and Israelis constitute 0.2% of the world’s population but have taken up a lot more global attention than that over the last 70 years. It’s high time they got serious about sorting out their problems and agreeing how to divide up the land they share.

Like the Pirate’s Code, the instructions in holy books should be seen more as guidelines than literal to-do lists:

Ashkenazi Jews are of mixed ancestry, both European and Western Asian. And any Canadian of European ancestry talking about ‘historic claims’ would be well-advised not to put too much store in them for obvious reasons.

And what does it mean when Israelis say something similar, given that they have done it already? It’s not an aspiration for them.

Actually, nobody can say for sure where all the funding for these ads is coming from although some of it is identifiable. I would say it is highly unlikely that much of it arises from Democrats within her electoral district. What we are seeing here is an attempt by outsiders to buy an election. More trouble for the Dems on the Israel/Palestine front: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/07/house-vote-censure-rashida-tlaib-palestine-criticize-israel Some Democrats joined the Republicans here.

Here is the Tlaib link. Could not post it above for some reason. https://www.newsweek.com/democrat-attack-ad-against-rashida-tlaib-sparks-fury-dangerous-1840568 Six figure sums already being spent a year in advance to unseat a sitting Democratic Congresswoman. Has that ever happened before?

She’s in the strongest position, of course, which is why they didn’t challenge her last time out. Still, an AIPAC-affiliated group is spending large amounts of money against her already. Others are much more vulnerable and their opponents’ campaigns will be given millions to beat them. At some point the party may have to put rules on this. Attitudes to a single foreign policy issue should not be a litmus test to determine who can represent the party. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/11/aipac-israel-gaza-netanyahu-mark-pocan.html

I presume we’ll hear more about what is alleged. Clicking on that link I came across another video of Mr. Eby looking miserable.

No they won’t. Trump deserves some credit for the Warp Speed program but can you look me in the eye and tell me he spoke about the pandemic in a responsible fashion from the beginning, avoided discussing ineffective treatments and promoted vaccination as vigorously as he possibly could? The message from the Biden administration was much more coherent. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/20/trump-vaccines-ex-aides-483387 Also bear in mind that the US has the leading biotech industry in the world. It would be deeply weird if they didn’t produce vaccines rapidly. Here’s a review of the Trump administration’s response to Covid: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9115435/

People concerned about Covid (and pandemics in general) or climate change are going to vote for Trump?

I think the Democrats do have a serious problem over Israel/Palestine. The energy in the party is with young left-wing candidates like the Squad but they are being targeted by a massively funded campaign involving AIPAC and other Israel-affiliated organizations that aims to defeat them in the Democratic primaries. Last time out several critics of Israel like Donna Edwards and Andy Levin were defeated but this time they are aiming at high profile targets like Tlaib, the only Palestinian in Congress. If money brings these candidates down there will be hell to pay in the party.

Most people don’t know PP yet. They’ll really decide whether they like him if and when he becomes PM and has to make unpopular decisions.

Eby isn’t the sunniest of politicians, is he? He seems to be constantly unhappy or disturbed about something, at least in the tiny snippets about him that come my way. I hope he’s really more cheerful than that. Politicians are also salesmen. Sunnyways are part of what they need to project.

I fear the very last people denying climate change will be found on this forum.

I suspect things will carry on as they are but worse. The oligarchs will be far richer and more powerful but they’ll still want a handful of workers around: 1. Police, judges, prison officers. That will continue for quite a while. 2. Artisans. It will still be fun to see handmade stuff. 3. Celebs. They’ll be the whole world to most of us. 4. Politicians. People to make things seem like they were. I was listening to The Man Who Sold The World and I wondered will such a person eventually exist? Somebody who sells the world. Given the way wealth is being concentrated, it could happen.