BeaverFever

I tried to only post the most salient portions of the article but really there are too many to copy. People really need to read the entire article Anyone claiming that the Israeli government is just a bunch of decent honourable reasonable guys who just want to live in peace and only take actions against Palestinians defensively is deluding themselves. Reasonable intelligent people should be able to acknowledge that their state is a brutally oppressive apartheid regime without being falsely and dishonestly accused of endorsing Palestinian terrorism. BOTH san and should be condemned.

Israel turbocharges West Bank settlement expansion with largest land grab in decades JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades, a settlement tracking group said Wednesday, a move that is likely to worsen already soaring tensions linked to the war in Gaza. Israel’s aggressive expansion in the West Bank reflects the settler community’s strong influence in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the most religious and nationalist in the country’s history. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, has turbocharged the policy of expansion, seizing new authorities over settlement development and saying he aims to solidify Israel’s hold on the territory and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. Authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (nearly 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley, according to a copy of the order obtained by The Associated Press. Data from Peace Now, the tracking group, indicate it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process. It is in an area of the West Bank where, e ven before the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war,settler violence was displacing communities of Palestinians. That violence has only surged since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza. Settlers have carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Palestinians since October in the West Bank, causing deaths and damaging property, according to the U.N. The land seizure, which was approved late last month but only publicized on Wednesday, comes after the seizure of 8 square kilometers (roughly 3 square miles) of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) in February. That makes 2024 by far the peak year for Israeli land seizure in the West Bank, Peace Now said. By declaring them state lands, the government opens them up to being leased to Israelis and prohibits private Palestinian ownership. … Most of the international community considers settlements illegal or illegitimate. Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state. Israel’s current government considers the West Bank to be the historical and religious heartland of the Jewish people and opposes Palestinian statehood. Israel has built well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, some of which resemble fully developed suburbs or small towns. They are home to over 500,000 Jewish settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule. The Palestinian Authority administers enclaves scattered across the territory, but is barred from operating in 60% of the West Bank, which includes the settlements as well as areas with a population of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. …. https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-07-03-2024-033deab379a16efdf9989de8d6eaf0f8

Nice try this thread is about the absurdity of the law and what’s being prescribed not about teachers right in the classroom. This theory would not exist if it was about teachers being forced to teach some new math method Hilarious that you think people objecting to compulsory bible instruction in public school have no argument and nowhere to go as if it’s some routine non/controversial topic in a secular democracy Republicans gin up phoney sex ed hysteria about grooming children all the time. Some CLAIM they’re for “reasonable” sex ed but in practice denounce everything as grooming. They do it here in Canada too. Republicans Declare War on Sex Education Republican lawmakers in several states are seeking to impose dramatic restrictions on sex education amid an ongoing culture war over the teaching of topics like contraception and gender identity in public schools. In Texas, a school superintendent in Fort Worth recently abandoned the district's proposed $2.6 million adoption of a sexual education curriculum after the state's Republican-led Legislature passed legislation in 2021 requiring a parent's written consent for their children to receive sex education. In neighboring Oklahoma, Republican lawmakers filed numerous bills this session looking to impose or otherwise expand on existing restrictions of certain expressions of gender identity and blocking teachers from teaching subjects like sex ed, with some seeking to outlaw a state-funded sex education initiative started in 2020 to address high teen birth rates in various hotspots around the state. And in Florida, Broward County school officials already find themselves modifying their sexual education curriculum as a direct result of 2022's so-called Don't Say Gay bill, duplicates of which have recently emerged in states like Wyoming and Indiana. … https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-declare-war-sex-education-seek-restrictions-public-schools-1777650 Lack of sex education in GOP states puts students at risk …According to an Associated Press article, GOP-led states are at risk of losing sex education curricula in their schools. This idea was amplified after the emergence of the “parents’ rights” movement, whose main concern is dismantling inclusive LGBTQ+ sex education. Republican leaders and parents are trying to ensure that it is the parents’ choice to allow their children to take part in any sex education. … GOP-led states are especially at higher risk; out of the top 10 states with the highest rate of STDs, eight are Republican-controlled states…. https://sbstatesman.com/125855/opinions/lack-of-sex-education-in-gop-states-puts-students-at-risk/ Some GOP-led states are chipping away at sex education in K-12 schools … “You were never going to teach a first grader a trigonometry lesson, right?” she said. “But they have to have foundational knowledge in first grade to be able to get to that in high school.” “Sex education is exactly the same,” Macklin continued, suggesting young people aren’t prepared for puberty if they haven’t already learned “foundational things like correct terminology for body parts.” Puberty for girls begins between ages 8 to 13 and typically two years later for boys. To comply with the new law in Kentucky, for example, the state’s education agency advised schools eliminate fifth-grade lessons on puberty and reproductive body parts. …. https://apnews.com/article/sex-education-us-laws-kentucky-florida-mississippi-bd6fffcb3a9a25babc32a143001f4ae1 And on and on it goes Cite here or its bullshit If you don’t want to dig through the forum, do a google search for the source of this highly dubious claim Don’t forget the part where you said the book was for first graders, which is DEFINITELY bullshit I disagree. Do you think that if you want to teach that black people must he accepted then you can’t get mad that someone wants to preach that god has an issue with that? Wrong again. Civil rights, tolerance and equality are not religious beliefs They are core concepts of our secular democracy and have played just as much if not more of a role than Christianity in shaping our nation of immigrants Pride is just another manifestation of that Second of all you completely fail to address the elephant in the room that this order requires teachers to elevate Christianity above other religions even though many teachers and students may be Jewish or some other religions, which again violates the principle of separation of church and state and teaching Christian supremacy is harmful to those kids who belong to a different religion Lastly you fail to understand that there’s a difference between: - teaching students about all the various cultures, religions and beliefs, including LGBTQ in healthy ways, which is what already happens in the sane parts of the world, and - this edict, which is about promoting and proselytizing only one specific religion and belief system above all other religions

😂😂 Yeah sure it will Christian Taliban. Bible thumping is the answer! The kids live it! “Christianity is cool you f-cking slut!” You should put that on a T shirt and wear it next time you’re picking up a hooker

Holy Christ are you serious? I need to be the one typing slowly for you. International memos spelling out the legal arguments supporting the legality of the strike BEFOREHAND made no mention of Presidential immunity There was a civil suit that was dismissed without mentioning Presidential immunity With all the controversy and demands for justice from civil liberty groups etc and there were many….and the explanations provided in response SOMEONE would have pointed out the obvious that they’re immune if that was the case But it’s not the case there was no blanket immunity Stop being so dense, it’s annoying

NOT ONCE IN ALL OF THE INTENSE DEBATE AMD CRITICISM DID ANYONE SUGGEST OBAMA HAD PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY How hard is that to understand???? FFS stop being so obtuse

Mitch McConnell, 2021 on Trump’s role in the Jan 6 attack and why congress should not impeach him….because he is still civilly and criminally liable for it impeachment is not the right course of action. Oops “There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day…The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president," he said, "and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office…still liable for everything he did. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation and former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.” Mitch McConnell, February 13, 2021 Oops.

Haha nice try. They were loudly criticized and were forced into justify the legality of the strike, including a court -ordered release of internal memos on the topic and its legality….not once did they claim presidential immunity applied which would have been a much easier way to shut down the discussion.

No it about lawmakers compelling religious instruction Republicans and conservatives generally are. And they spread completely false bullshit lies like: Cite please. Those aren’t the same thing at all. Pride is about teaching tolerance for minority groups like LGBTQ and bible thumping is about teaching intolerance for minority groups who are non-Christian. As per my above comment.

Lol you’re the bottom of the society’s barrel and you know it. I bet if most people took one look at how you live they’d be disgusted. You ask to give one reason why “bibles shouldn’t be in schools” but you miss the plot as usual. You should give one reason why the government lawmakers should force ever teacher in the land to teach the bible under threat of legal sanctions from the state Party of freedom and local decision making my ass. You’re the Christian Taliban.

if your definition of who “Obama” killed is anyone ordered by officials from his administration then AFAIK this was the only one. There were 3 more individuals who were terrorists or family members of them but they were collateral damage. Also did you know that under the Trump administration the same terrorist’s 8 yr old daughter was later killed in a special forces raid personally approved by Trump himself? Will you say Trump killed her? Where’s the outrage now?

If they could have they would have, they simply don’t have the evidence. Trump is dirtier than most politicians, the Dems are no dirtier than the rest, so anything that would take them down would also take down a lot of powerful republicans and Trump allies if not also Trump himself. That’s absolutely false, checks and balances abound, especially considering republicans have rigged the courts. What you want is Russia style dictatorship where the President is above the law

To my knowledge nobody including anyone in the Obama administration claimed they had immunity under language covering official acts They argued, apparently successfully, that Congress’s 2001 Authorization to use lethal military force against Al-Qaeda and a court eventually dismissed a lawsuit against the US government If you have knowledge of someone claiming official act immunity please share

I didn’t understand the reference because it’s completely dishonest to say that Obama personally ordered or oversaw the drone strike against an Al Qaeda target And it’s even more dishonest to say that a CIA drone strike against a legitimate Al Qaeda target overseas is the exact same as a president personally ordering the murder of his political rival.

Wow spoken like a true Christian LMAO!!! I also highly doubt you're successful, you talk like a poorly educated person with a low paying job. All the swearing and vulgarity, emotions and very little in terms of actual facts or arguments tou couldn’t possibly have gone far. Like so many MAGAs you seem to be someone who’s mad at the world due to your own lack of success.

The Christian Taliban is an apt insult and the only simpleton with no credibility is you Lets recap: you actually follow and believe Kremlin controlled news sources and you actually posted kiddie porn on this forum that had been poorly photoshopped with Hunter Biden’s face believing it was real.

You were talking about Obama’s drone strikes. Trump has the all-time record for the number of drone strikes. Must be one of those statistics that only matters when there’s a democrat in the White House. As for the supposed republican outrage over the death of the teenage son of an Al-Qaeda member at an al Qaeda base in Yemen it’s a pretty hilarious position for any conservative or republican to take. Obama didn’t personally push the button it was a CIA mission Considering Republican/MAGA’s hardened views on civilian casualties in Gaza, repatriation of ISIS brides and ISIS POWs, Omar Khadr, even Maher Arar…it’s pretty obvious you’re trying to gin up an argument of convenience that you really don’t care about. Are you really concerned about the rights and welfare of al-Qaeda members fighting abroad and their family members?

Well we would have to charge every Bush and Trump if that’s the case. BTW Trump had far more drone strikes than Obama and Biden did. And then they stopped reporting them under Trump as well. Some of these talking points you guys are recycling from the 2016 election need to be retired.

One thing we haven’t touched on in this thread is that the Republican SCOTUS also saw a small schism when Republican Amy Coney Barrett ruled disagreed witjher colleagues and joined democrats on part of their ruling The republican majority ruling said not only are official acts presumed to be immune but they can’t be raised as evidence in prosecutions for eligible non/official acts. For example let’s say Biden took a million dollar bribe to issue someone a pardon. You can prosecute him for the bribe but you can’t mention the pardon. It’s pretty hard to establish quid pro quo when it’s illegal to even mention the quo…and that’s probably the point. And now Trump wants his tweets considered official acts because they’re evidence in a number of his trials including his hush money conviction that je now wants overturned as a result.

No not at all. And if you’ve read today’s news Trumps legal team is mow claiming that even his tweets from his time in office are official acts. But how you can do the mentally gymnastics to claim that that him saying to a general “as your commander in chief I order you to do x” is not an official act. Lets be clear, hiring a hitman would not be an official act. Ordering the military to murder his wife would not be an official act, but designating someone to be an enemy of the United States and then issuing a kill order to the military in order to “defend” the USA is certainly an official act.

If the politician is suspected of a crime, as Trump is, they should be investigated and prosecuted if warranted Note that it not Biden bringing the charges against his opponent it is state and federal prosecutors, state prosecutors are not under federal jurisdiction and all prosecutors have broad independence and prosecutorial discretion. They might have their own anti-Trump agendas but it’s not Biden ordering Trump’s prosecution.

LMAO What is the lie you’re accusing me of in your hate-filled rant exactly? 😂😂😂😂😂 Do you say that before you call everyone a slut and a whore and jerk off to your rape fantasy porn?

Nice attempted deflection. This isn’t about teacher’s rights to decide the curriculum. And particularly hilarious response coming from the party of perpetually outraged by sex education. This about the religious indoctrination being forced upon the public taxpaying citizens upon threat of government sanction, in a country where there is meant to be a separation of church and state, freedom of religion, an mo one religion meant to be placed above another. It also yet another of the endless examples of heavy-handed micromanagement of granular local affairs by lawmakers in the far off state capital from the party which claims it abhors given and favours local decision-making

The protest action for teachers I guess, in order to comply with the law is teach how the bible was used to justify slavery, genocide of indigenous peoples, oppression of women and segregation and influence the leaders of those movements. The protest action to the Ten Commandments edict is to post them alongside scripture from the koran, the torah and other religions.

An understanding of what constitutes an official act already exists. The purpose of SCOTUS ruling is not to define what is an official act, other than it is anything “in the outer perimeter of his official responsibility” as long as it is "not manifestly or palpably beyond his authority." And the in the case of a specific prosecution the court will have to decide if the action in question was official. I think even you can understand that an Executive Order of the POTUS is an official act of the POTUS This is already the case and how could it be otherwise? Does anyone think that when Obama issued the kill order on Bin Laden or when Trump did the same for al-Baghdadi that wasn’t an official act of the president? Let’s say a radical terrorist Antifa/BLM/Trans Activist/Bud Light drinker is who is an American citizen is blowing up buildings amd the valiant hero Trump declares him am enemy of the state and issues a kill order even though BLM supporters think the terrorist is a heroic? Do you think that’s not an officials act subject to immunity? What if then a Democrat president after another Republican Jan 6 event and Gretch Whitmer plot declares his republican opponent a threat to democracy and issues his own draconian orders? Note that many of Trump’s scams and schemes such as the fake electors scheme don’t even come close to being official acts so he isn’t off the hook but he likely will face fewer charges as a result