Slog AM: TERFs at the Library, Bird Flu Suspected at Woodland Park Zoo, Anti-Vaxx RFK Jr. Selected to Helm Department of Health and Human Services

1. “the worm
   
   in RFK’s brain
   
   on his way to day one
   
   as deputy health secretary”

   looks
   
   to me like
   
   Someone got
   
   a Promotion! well-played!

   sociopathy
   
   just got itself
   
   a great Big Boost

   (have they scheduled
   
   the next Pandemic
   
   as of Yet?)

2. RFK’s selection at least has a little upside like his stance on junk food and I assume a more prevention heavy approach to medicine whereas I fail to see any positives about Trump’s other picks. Hey, I am trying to remain positive here.

3. Twenty-five more felony convictions and maybe the I.D. stabber could become President of the United States.

4. vaccines, hmmm. PEDs, yummm.

5. @2 ???? Vaccines are the pinnacle of prevention-heavy medicine, second only to water sanitation in terms of their public health impact, and getting rid of them has been his mission for over a decade. I’m not even sure what else could be considered prevention-heavy medicine other than PrEP and I wouldn’t be surprised if they came for that, too. Everything else is just feel-good gibberish for hippies. No one is going to make a dent in disease rates by removing pesticides from the food supply or whatever magic bullets he’s promising.

   Our best hope for RFK’s appointment to HHS, short of not being confirmed at all, is that he is in so deep over his head that he just spins his wheels until he quits or gets fired. He does not understand anything about the subjects he claims to be an expert in. He doesn’t need to understand how things work, only how to leverage people’s fear and ignorance to believe him, because he is a conspiracy crank. He is probably the greatest menace to public safety of Trump’s appointments so far because health touches everyone’s lives.

6. @thrirteen12,

   “It’s so convenient for the IDF that every time they blow up a children’s hospital they can just assert there was someone from Hamas in the vicinity and dimwits around the world eat it up.”

   You have it backwards my friend. The burden of proof in the ICJ, another legal body, or the court of public opinion is on the person asserting wrongdoing. I.e. It must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, or more probable than not, that there was no one from Hamas (or Hezbollah) in the vicinity, the IDF knew it, and the IDF struck anyway. Hard to prove all those required elements.

   It’s why international human rights cases are rarely brought and rarely succeed.

   Then you have the overcome the intuitive aversion to establishing a global right denying the right of to self-defense. That is the result if the attacker strikes so from amongst human shields, and striking back its found to be a war crime by the IDF, or another party. The precedent would end the right to self-defense unless future attackers are dumb enough not to use human’s or non-combatant infrastructure as shields.

7. “If you feel like disagreeing, loudly, and supporting trans people at a time of rising hatred, you can join Seattle Public Library workers for a protest outside the Central Library Plaza on Sunday at 6 pm and/or speak at the SPL Board of Trustees meeting next Thursday, November 21st.”

   What current or future outcomes would change? The group renting the library space has the 1st Amendment on their side. The library’s board is bound by the 1st Amendment. Is this publication, which relies on the 1st Amendment, proposing its repeal? Is the group that would protest, which relies on the 1st Amendment to guarantee its right to protest, proposing the repeal of the 1st Amendment? If not, what outcomes would change from the protest?

8. “Lee, who has nine prior felony convictions …”

   If prior criminal history (rightly) isn’t admissible at his criminal trial, why is it admissible in the court of public opinion? We have democratically created that rule via elections, so why would we violate it?

   Why would a publication that repeatedly says its committed to civil rights print that prior criminal history?

9. “Donald Trump has officially selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. …. Washington’s Sen. Patty Murray called it “catastrophic” and said RFK Jr. at this post “could not be more dangerous.”

   Correct.

10. I trust these protestors won’t release crickets into the library.

11. Go UW protesters/spray painters/vandals – hooray! It was only a matter of time.

12. I can’t wait for the anti-vax PSAs featuring Jennie McCarthy splaying her boobages of vaccine nonsense all over my Wednesday evening programming. I read that RFK went to Samoa and helped cement people’s fears of vaccines and later 86 kids died during a measles outbreak. But the good thing was none of those kids had autism… phew! See they have point… eeeerg-snag.

13. 8, The court of public opinion isn’t an actual court, dipshit. Courts have stringent standards for evidence and procedure for reasons that should be self-evident, but public opinion is just, like, people’s feelings about stuff.

    Just as no one is under any obligation to be fine with people burning alive in hospitals and refugee camps because there may have been a terrorist in the vicinity and some legal document says this is fair game, we are also allowed to know about someone’s criminal record as it is a matter of public record, regardless of what is allowed in court.

14. A worthwhile read:

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/how-seattle-cop-witnesses-worked-together-to-arrest-stabbing-suspect/

    It shows the interaction between mental health, homelessness, general street disorder and crime, and the value of a pro-active crisis intervention trained officers. It also shows the limits of police response.

15. @5 You make a very good point about vaccination being central to preventative medicine. I do disagree about the rest being just hippie gibberish (what is PrEP?): I’ll just take the example of routine exercise and massage therapy as an alternative to medication and surgery.

16. “you will not know peace until you meet the demands of our movement”

    You can’t negotiate with terrorist – there’s always someone more pure that will never sign-off on the group’s previous agreements. If I was UW I would threaten revocation of the Palestinian scholarships if the damage continues.

17. @13, The most important norms of society are democratically adopted into laws, legal procedures, etc.

    So why would we depart from the most important norms to evaluate cases in the court of public opinion.

    That is anti-democratic. It’s substituting a non-democratic standard for a democratic standard of evaluation. Is the court of public opinion a fascist (non-democratic) body? Kind of contradicts the idea of “public” when using a standard of proof that the “public” has not enacted into law.

18. More unbearable reporting by The Stranger.

    “Bear attacks were actually just insurance fraud:”

19. 17, freedom of information is also an important norm in a democratic society, dumbass. That’s why court documents are a part of the public record. Withholding people’s criminal history would be a greater threat to the social order than whatever high and mighty bullshit you’re on. You are making an argument against the free press and the first amendment itself.

20. JFC. Wasn’t helping get Trump elected enough for the People’s Front of Judea? I’m no fan of Cauci this little “action” of theirs is bullshit. I’m hoping that at least there was a UW cop standing there correcting their grammar.

21. 15 PrEP is a drug cocktail people take to prevent them from catching HIV and there is some concern that they will find a way to deny coverage of it just as they did with birth control, another form of preventative medicine conservatives hate

22. The public, through its elected officials, weighs in on things like what kind of criminal laws and responses we want to have. Whether we want the law to allow repeat felony offenders to walk the streets instead of being locked up is a legit topic of public concern. The criminal history of people committing this kind of attacks is relevant to that decision and the public should have that information. I have no opinion as to whether this particular guy should have been locked up for more time for his earlier convictions, but it’s a legitimate topic for public discussion.

    It is not, however, relevant to the decision a jury has to make about whether or not he committed THOS PARTICULAR crime. That is why it’s not admissible in court.

23. The UW vandalism was almost certainly caused by members of the recently banned UW SUPER, after their refusal to cooperate with police following the HUBub of last year, where thousands of dollars of damage was done to the building that hosted them. And lest we forget, many pieces of student art that was on display was inexplicably vandalized.

    What is puzzling is that people on campus must know who these cats are. At some point admin needs to realize they need to be booted from the community.

    Does TS, or anyone, think this behavior is advancing the cause?

24. THIS crime. Autocorrect is failing me.

25. How dare those horrible people hold a meeting at a public library? Everyone knows that the proper way to engage in political speech is to break into a private residence under cover of darkness, spray-paint threats onto a minivan, slash the tires, and then run away before the cops arrive.

26. “The group renting the library space has the 1st Amendment on their side.”

    So do the protesters, dear. You’re concern trolling is very trolling.

27. Oh feathers! That should be “Your concern trolling”, not “You’re concern trolling” (although you are one of our most prominent concern trolls, NotMyopic dear).

28. @21: One would think. But don’t you recall that in his first administration Trump actually addressed HIV/AIDS prevention.

    https://abcnews.go.com/Health/trump-administration-unveils-program-provide-hiv-prevention-drugs/story?id=67498264

29. @6 for enough I accept your paradigm. Are you able to prove that no high value IDF targets were in the vicinity of the music festival raided by Hamas on 10/7? Are you able to prove Hamas didn’t mistakenly believe all the hostages kidnapped were Mossad agents, and that they were only acting in self defense? Guess nobody’s to blame.

30. @19, Lots of things are public record that are not reported. E.g. The names of sexual assault victims and domestic violence victims, which by policy, the media doesn’t report, with very limited exceptions.

    It isn’t relevant to the public debate.

    There are also things that are public record that are not admissible in court. The fact that allleged perpetrator “x” does, or doesn’t, have nine prior convictions isn’t evidence for or against the current alleged crime. So why poison the public, 12 of whom may be selected to decide on the suspect’s liberty? Why stereotype the homeless and the poor?

    After he is convicted, the criminal record becomes admissible to argue about sentencing. In the court of public opinion it becomes relevant to evaluating the rehabilitative or punitive nature of what we do with people post-conviction.

    We should follow the civil liberties norms, so important to society that they have been codified in law, in what is admitted into the court of public opinion, and when. The same kind of self-restraint used in domestic abuse case reporting and public debates to balance the rights of those involved in the case and necessary public debate about what to do about domestic violence.

    The accused is a human being with human rights and civil liberties. Those will be respected in judicial court and should be respected in the court of public opinion as well, including by The Stranger and its readers.

31. @22, See @30.

32. @27: I commend your corrections; however, I wouldn’t bother with obvious typos and errors – unless the meaning is altered. Also any commenter who makes fun of the error looks childish.

33. @26, The counter-protesters have 1st Amendment rights as well.

    So counter-protest the positions of the group renting the space. Rent the space another time to have a counter-gathering to organize opposition to the first group.

    Don’t protest the library board’s renting the space to the first group and the library board’s content neutral policy in making space available for assembly and speech. The library boad should no more ban a gathering of the group in the library than they should ban a book by the group or one of its ideological adherents.

    The answer to the objectionable or reprehensible speech isn’t to cancel acces to public forums, its more speech, including counter-protest. Counter-protest the vial ideas of the group, not their access to the public space to express their vial ideas.

34. 30, the “court” in court of public opinion is a metaphor. It should be obvious why victims’ names are not disclosed but the accused is, and why priors are not always admissible, but you seem to be taking an obvious metaphor so literally that you think it’s more important than the first amendment, something you have also erroneously applied in a completely different context in this very thread. It’s remarkable how little you understand about everything you discuss.

35. Getting Trump elected may wind up destroying what’s left of the Palestine’s chance at any kind of self governance. Remember the damage you helped bring about with your protest votes against Israel. Good job Kristofarian. Just this alone makes anything you say laughable.

36. @35 we all (and by “we” I do not mean tensorna) live in Washington so our protest votes did zero “damage,” better luck next time

37. @35: kristo’ won’t even criticize Sawant’s stumping for Trump.

    Good luck getting anyone in that crowd to take any responsibility for going All Gaza, All the Time, and continuing to do so, even after the Stranger explicitly told them, “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes.”

38. @34, The 1st Amendment is not at issue here. The reason victim names in sexual assault and DV are not reported is not because of a government law, but because of the self-restraint of print media like The Stranger and its readers.

    We need to expand that self-restraint. The information is and needs to continue to be public record for those who seek it. No law exists, or should exist, restricting publication.

    It’s an editorial decision, and a decision by the “court of public opinion” to confine the discussion to that which is relevant while respecting the liberty of those publicly arrested. His name and information about the alleged crimes is relevant. Until he is convicted, if he is convicted, in a court of law, his criminal record is just prejudicial both in that setting, and in the broader court of public opinion. It also stereotypes the poor, homeless, and mentally ill, 99% of which don’t go around stabbing people, and most of which don’t have felony records.

    Editorial and public restraint.

39. NotMyopic dear, if you keep splitting hairs in your comments, you’re going to need a cream rinse.

    Our Dear Nathalie clearly laid out two options:

    1) “If you feel like disagreeing, loudly, and supporting trans people at a time of rising hatred, you can join Seattle Public Library workers for a protest outside the Central Library Plaza on Sunday at 6 pm”

    2) “….Speak at the SPL Board of Trustees meeting next Thursday, November 21st.”

    Speaking during public comment periods of public meetings is not “protest”. It’s an opportunity to let one’s opinions be known before a (hopefully) appropriate governing body, preferably in a civil way. One may speak in agreement or speak in opposition.

    I agree with you that the library should not discriminate against groups when operating a public venue, no matter how distasteful their position may be. The only time they should refuse accommodation is if there is a potential threat to public safety.

40. Gaetz, RFK Jr and the Temu General should take Trump’s advice and inject bleach in their veins

41. @39: Sorry to belabor this Catalina, but option 2 taking issue with the board is incongruent with “library should not discriminate against groups when operating a public venue, no matter how distasteful their position may be” – unless one wants to attend the board meeting to commend the library’s civic fairness and responsiblity.

42. 38 dude. Are you drunk?

    Restricting the free press over the non-existent “civil right” to not have your criminal record published is an argument against the first amendment rights of the free press. It’s the argument YOU MADE.

    Your opinion about the stranger’s “editorial decision” is just that, your opinion, and not supported by some lofty legal/ethical principle that you just invented to make your personal feelings seem more substantial than “I don’t like this.” Or more accurately, “I don’t like the stranger,” which is the underlying motive behind nearly everything you say here.

43. Also fwiw there are laws on the books that prohibit the disclosure of victim’s names unless the victim waives their rights.

44. I’m wondering where Xina is? She should be overjoyed that Harris-Walz lost, as things are obviously going to be so much better for the Palestinians now that we will have an ambassador to Israel who is a Christian Nationalist who does not believe a Palestinian people even exist, and wants to see Armageddon in his life. Not to mention a Christian Nationalist SecDef. Things are going to be so much better for the Palestinian people.

45. Nine felony convictions and he was out on the street able to stab people.
    
    Nice work Seattle.

46. @44 — I highly doubt xina’s
    
    Overjoyed to see Evermore
    
    Suffering all just to keep
    
    bibi’s arse tF Outta Jail

    but to see Humanty
    
    wiped Out, our Giant
    
    Brains overfucking-Ruled
    
    by the Least of Us may seem
    
    to some like Poetic fucking Justice

    Happy
    
    Fawking
    
    Armageddon
    
    Everyone! enjoy

    and then
    
    there’s this:

    “kristo’ won’t even criticize
    
    Sawant’s stumping
    
    for Trump.”

    so That’s
    
    what all this
    
    Anti-Sawant tirade
    
    you’ve gone on And ON
    
    With for the Past fucking Month

    was
    
    about?

    getting
    
    ME to say
    
    Kshama, WTF
    
    you Workin’ For?

    & it coullda all
    
    been Over,
    
    Instantly?
    
    wow.

    @
    
    wormmy
    
    gotta Say, I
    
    am Flattered!

    I guess I owe
    
    an Apology
    
    To tS’ Com
    
    -Entariat.

    my
    
    Sympathies,
    
    fellow readers.

    (Insert clever, cun-
    
    ning cutting insult
    
    right Here. okay,
    
    Wormtongue,
    
    it’s all Yours)

47. @2

    I share your sentiment
    
    there’s tonnes of Overlap
    
    between the Reds and the Blues.
    
    perhaps, instead of Wrecking everything
    
    eltrumpfster might be Tricked* into doing a few
    
    of Bernie’s Proposals — if not, the MAGAs’re gonna
    
    be Pissed. we’re gonna Need Someone to Lead that Brigade

    *and
    
    Somehow
    
    Distracted. perhaps
    
    we might send ol’ wormmy
    
    down to D.C. $$$! two birds; One stone

48. @45: The most important thing is that he not be stigmatized.

49. It is getting harder to tell the real news from The Onion. I mean holy shit, RFK Junior for HHS? What the fuck? He has absolutely no experience heading a large organization and he doesn’t know shit about health and human services. I could see EPA. He is an environmental lawyer by trade. The EPA is a relatively small agency and it is mostly lawyers suing people for violating environmental laws (he is actually good at that).

    But Health and Human Services? That is a 1.6 trillion dollar agency, with dozens of high level staff and numerous powerful, gigantic agencies. I bet he can’t name them all. I bet he has no fucking clue how to handle a bureaucracy that big. Not to mention he has absolutely no experience with health or human services! None.

    It is total bullshit. Remember, this appointment comes from Trump — a guy who criticized DEI hires. Does anyone actually believe that Kennedy would be where he is today if his name wasn’t Kennedy? A rose by any other name… wouldn’t get this job. He is the poster child for unqualified assholes being promoted because of their family name. Trump doesn’t give a fuck about merit, but the idiot voters think he does.

50. @49

    the ‘right”s
    
    Goal has been to
    
    dissasemble the Administrative
    
    State. with dipshitdonny @the Helm
    
    with his Loyal band of big govvy home-
    
    Wreckers, he can run up a Massive, UN-Payable
    
    Debt in NO time. they’ll buy (or swap) America Off
    
    for pennies on the Dollar maybe get a little Armageddon

    “we” Sold the USofA
    
    down the fucking
    
    River. welcome
    
    aboard.

51. @35

    Perfect:
    
    don’t Blame
    
    the Candidate*

    Blame the
    
    Victims.

    *sleepy Joe
    
    gave Kalmala
    
    Just Enough Time
    
    to run a Very short
    
    Campaign, running
    
    on Hillary’s platform

    covering all those
    
    Swinging states with
    
    ‘the Right”s brightest
    
    star & the Endorsement
    
    of her War Criminal daddy

    Ignoring the Plight of so
    
    Many stretched Thin by
    
    a price-gouging gang
    
    of Profiteers & left to
    
    Their Own Devices.

    whilst OUR TAX DOLLARS
    
    bomb to Smithereens a Captive
    
    Population and you Wonder why so
    
    Many Stayed home? you sound like maybe
    
    you Work for the ‘democratic’ national committee

    tho I could
    
    be Mistaken.

    lol

52. @45

    45

    & 47!
    
    had SIXTY
    
    FUCKING FOUR
    
    Convictions & He’s
    
    out on the Street — or
    
    Worse but yeah, wtf, seattle?

53. Phoebe dear, you Tories are so docile. While the position that the library board should discriminate in facility booking is, in my opinion, wrong, there’s nothing wrong about going to a board meeting and speaking one’s mind. As has been pointed out, it’s free speech.

54. ASaxman5537 dear, Our kristofarian is right. Republicans and “conservatives” in the United States can no longer claim to be for “law and order” and tsk-tsk Seattle – a town that overwhelmingly voted not to elect a felon and rapist to the highest office in the land.

    You and your contemporaries have proven yourselves to be nothing but a bunch of mealy-mouthed hypocrites. You should be ashamed of yourself.

55. Its highly irresponsible for the Seattle Library to rent to anti-Transgender groups that have a documented past of incitement and violence and directly contradicts Seattle’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Its insulting to the transgender and LGBTQAI community that have fought for years for awareness, recognition and equality. The very fact that the Library has to evacuate staff, move the meeting to after hours and bring in security should give them pause – and a big wake up call that they just need to simply cancel the meeting. People should be asking why Lynnwood’s Olympus Spa wants to challenge the court’s ruling and contest the Human Rights Commission instead of working with local and state law on solutions instead of allowing alt right groups to campaign for them. It doesn’t just look bad – it is bad! And for all the world that SPD says they are under staffed and stressed, why isn’t interim Chief Sue Rahr asking the Library to cancel this event?
    
    I always wonder where the line is drawn if known violent hate groups such as the KKK (Renton 1925), Proud Boys (Westlake Immigration March 2017) and militia groups (3%ers Lynnwood Event Center 2023) want to meet in a public space and are not called out? Seattle should do better – because they know better.

56. bulletin: WDI USA are heroes. defending women from the trans industrial complex is actually true feminism. educate yourself, and stop being bullied by very small subgroup of the patriarchy.

57. @44 “Things are going to be so much better for the Palestinian people.”

    No they’re going to be exactly the same, which was the point

58. If you hate trans people then sure I guess WDI are great but according to their website they’re just another far-right astroturf campaign (pun unavoidable, sorry) targeting LGBTQ people.

59. @49 “A [R]ose [Kennedy] by any other name… wouldn’t get this job.” In fairness, she didn’t fawn, flatter, or campaign for Trump.

60. from the Daily Kos:

    Watch AOC unpack what drove voters to back Trump

    Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered some election post-mortem analysis on Thursday after much of America swung for Donald Trump last week.

    “There is universal frustration in this country—much of it I actually think [is] justified—that is raging at a political establishment that centers corporate interests, billionaires, and puts their needs ahead of the needs of working Americans,” she explained on MSNBC Thursday.

    Ocasio-Cortez recently used her social media to ask her followers who backed both her and Trump why they did so. And in her post-mortem, she referred to the trends she’d seen in those responses, though she noted that all the election data is not yet available.

    “There is something to be said about—it doesn’t matter that [Trump’s] lying. He’s saying that ‘I’m fighting for you,’” she added after being asked about the seeming incongruence of being angry at billionaires and still voting for Trump, a billionaire.

    Ocasio-Cortez felt that while the many millions that Trump spent on anti-transgender advertising was “effective in certain areas,” that shouldn’t be the lesson Democrats take away.

    “What I think people are paying too much attention to is the first half of that ad, which says … ‘Kamala Harris is for they/them,’” she said. “They’re not focusing on the second half of that ad, where he said, ‘Donald Trump is for you.’”

    “Political races are not about one candidate versus another candidate,” she added. “Too often it gets pigeonholed like that. It is a race to convince a person about who cares about you more.”

    –by Walter Einenkel

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/15/2286500/-Watch-AOC-unpack-what-drove-voters-to-back-Trump

    “There is universal frustration in this country—much of it I actually think [is] justified—that is raging at a political establishment that centers corporate interests, billionaires, and puts their needs ahead of the needs of working Americans.”

    –Alexandria Occasio Cortez (D, NY)

    see: the ‘democratic’ national committee
    
    unharmed whatsoever by the re-
    
    Election of the Fraudster

    oh
    
    and
    
    AOC
    
    for President
    
    in 2028. or bust?

61. Behind every TERF is a man who hates the alternative sexualities.

62. @58 why do you hate women so much? Why are you and your group of thugs acting no different then the proud boys protesting a drag queen story time? Something, something, pot, kettle.

63. @54: Yes, but what’s the value in “speaking one’s mind” when it’s from an unconstitutional stance? But yeah, they have the right to do it but good citizenship includes letting other groups have their say. That’s a Liberal position.

    @58: Nobody hates trans people here. Let’s just have the discussion free from vitriol.

64. 62, I don’t hate women I hate bigots who weaponize far-right “think of the children!!!!” politics against vulnerable minorities. Ironic of you to bring up the Proud Boys in their defense when these TERF groups are their women-led counterparts. Many of them don’t even try to hide their affiliation with fascist militia groups.

65. @46: Commenting here upon Sawant’s stumping for Trump is always really directed at the Stranger, since they always were the biggest offenders in enabling her. They relentlessly supported her, no matter how badly she failed. The Stranger (and you supportive commenters here) absolutely won’t criticize Sawant, even when you (supposedly) have every reason to do so. Hence, you’re going to get called on it, at least for as long as Trump remains in the White House. @35 mentioned you as an example, so I expanded upon the comments.

    tl;dr: Get over yourself.

66. @61: Behind every slur there’s an insult.

67. @65: What has Sawant said now that her plan to “deny Kamala Harris the White House” has come to fruition? I can’t bear to google her myself, lol!

68. “Behind every TERF is a man who hates the alternative sexualities.

    CDizzle dear, since TERF stands for trans exclusionary radical feminist, I think it’s a pretty sure bet that we can lay this at the feet of the ladies. Women-who-hate-other-women is a known thing. This is taking that and cranking it up a bit.

69. “No they’re going to be exactly the same, which was the point”

    Promise me you’ll never lose your childlike naivete, thirteen12 dear. It’s really quite charming.

    But you might want to get a legal guardian to make important decisions for you.

70. @69 the residents of Gaza are currently getting ethnic cleansed, how do you imagine it will get worse?

71. from the Chris Hedges Report:

    Lee Lakeman and The Whoredom of the Left

    The radical feminist Lee Lakeman has spent her life calling out patriarchy for its oppression, the left for its bankruptcy, neoliberalism for its cruelty and organizing women to fight back.

    I just got off the phone with the Canadian feminist and activist Lee Lakeman. She is in hospice. The battles she has spent her life fighting, including her advocacy for impoverished aboriginal women prostituted in desolate urban landscapes such as the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, which once had the highest HIV-infection rate in the West, lay behind her.

    When she is gone, we are the ones who will be impoverished, bereft of her searing intellect and unwavering fight for justice. She will leave in her wake a sterling example of what it means to live the moral life, a life of meaning.

    “Everything you and I have spent our life fighting for is worse,” she said to me ruefully over the phone.

    Yes. Worse. But her clear, steely-eyed view of the world, her understanding of power and how it works, never dampened her commitment or passion.

    To fight battles in the face of almost certain defeat, to demand justice for the oppressed no matter the cost, and to know that despite all your efforts, the forces of oppression are growing stronger and crueler, is the essence of nobility.

    Prostitution, she argues, is the quintessential expression of global capitalism. Our corporate masters are pimps. We are all being debased and degraded, fleeced economically and stripped of basic civil liberties and political agency, to service the cruel and lascivious demands of the corporate elite.

    Jeffrey Epstein surrounded himself not only with prostituted underage girls, but the powerful, including Donald Trump, who 27 women have accused of sexual misconduct, along with Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.

    The hard drives found in Epstein’s safe at his Manhattan mansion, which purportedly included videos of sexual encounters filmed on his properties, have disappeared. It is unlikely they will reappear.

    The wretched of the earth are reduced in the neoliberal model to serving the desires and fetishes of the wealthy and the privileged.

    –by Chris Hedges; Nov 16, 2024

    oodles more:
    
    https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/lee-lakeman-and-the-whoredom-of-the

    nevermind the chorus
    
    of the Status Quozers
    
    here to disrupt and
    
    discredit to steer
    
    the convo Away
    
    from the Reality
    
    of America Inc
    
    LLC etc lolz

72. @69/70: Greenwood Bob in @44 was being very sarcastic in his last sentence.

73. “To fight battles in the face of almost certain defeat, to demand justice for the oppressed no matter the cost, and to know that despite all your efforts, the forces of oppression are growing stronger and crueler, is the essence of nobility.”

    Wormtongue:

    ‘you Protested
    
    and the “War” on
    
    Palestinians hasn’t
    
    even Ended. see how
    
    Futile your Efforts Are?’

74. @70: They’re not actually. 😁

75. @74

    just for Spite,
    
    apparently, wormmy
    
    tossed in a little dewdrop
    
    into his ChatterboX. pay it no Heed.
    
    🧨

76. @74 hmm a prominent international NGO says yes, a weird internet commenter says no, what to decide what to decide…

77. @68. It’s not mutually exclusive. What I mean is that the Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (the abbreviation is not a slur, similar to “cis”) movement has been piggybacked by such types who wormtongue their ethos into the discussion. I’m not saying they are the movement, but they are co-opting it.

78. thirteen12 dear, I’m assuming that you are a resident of The United States and grew up here, so let me use a word that I hope you are familiar with: Gentrification.

    Now, take your ethnic cleansing and add Gentrification to it, along with President-Elect Rapist/Felon’s directive to Netanyahu to “finish the job.”

    To assist in that finishing, add Religious Sociopath Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel and ordinary
    
    Sociopath Elise Stefanik at UN Amabassador as willing participants.

    As a cherry on top, along comes Jared with his 200 billion in Saudi money and the stated desire/intention to force the residents of Gaza to yet another settlement camp (this one in the desert) in order to annex and redevelop the West Bank and Gaza.

    This is not a late-night debate at a coffee shop in the U District about genocide versus ethnic cleansing versus self-determination. This is a cold-blooded real estate transaction with big money and religious zealotry as window dressing.

    You, as an American, should understand the implications here.

79. @77: Whenever there’s a debate about whether a word is a slur, such a debate never comes to rest.

80. @78 I agree the Trump team will be terrible for Gaza and do nothing to prevent atrocities against Palestinians. The point of disagreement is that Biden/Harris are also terrible for Gaza and are doing nothing to prevent atrocities against Palestinians.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/15/biden-israel-gaza-palestine

81. @80: When you just don’t want to get it, You Just Don’t Get It. (As opposed to your ordinary brand of Not Getting It.) Thanks to the All Gaza, All The Time focus of the hard left when it was actually time to unite and defeat Trump, everything is now in place to bulldoze what’s left of Gaza into the Mediterranean, force-march the inhabitants to an even more miserable place, and upon the seafront of the now-cleared Gaza Strip, erect huge, tacky, cheaply-built (yet extremely expensive) hotel-casinos with TRUMP on them.

    Here, visit again (in toto) a comment wherein Our Very Own Divine Mrs. Vel-DuRay tried to explain this to you:

    trump has concepts of a plan for Gaza, and Miriam Adelson just gave a trump pact ninety-five million dollars. She is in favor of annexation of Gaza, and wants a return on her investment.

    Oh, and David Duke endorsed Jill Stein.

    https://www.axios.com/2024/10/08/trump-gaza-israel-monaco-rebuild

    Catalina Vel-DuRay on October 16, 2024 at 8:45 AM

    (https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2024/10/16/79742139/slog-am-navy-jet-crashes-near-mount-rainier-the-strangers-endorsements-dropped-spokane-rabbit-horde-wreaks-havoc/comments/1)

82. @81 imagine thinking that, after they’re all dead, Gazans will care whether a Trump casino is built over the rubble of what used to be their homes. Imagine thinking Genocide + Gentrification is somehow worse than just plain Genocide. I struggle to, but maybe I’m “naive.”

83. @79. Your ability to find offense in the innocuous is pathological and largely a projection of guilt.

    That being said, Eleanor Roosevelt said that no one can offend you without your consent. You give consent to take offense to meaning where none exists in order to deflect from actual discussion and intentionally hijack its meaning to one of bad faith.

84. @81. Like you give a shit.

85. @82: You’re demonstrating one of the many problems with abusing language. “Ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” are real terms with real meanings, and those real meanings have nothing to do with how you’ve (ab)used those words.

    You’ve sensationalized those terms right out of their real meanings, and now you have left yourself nothing with which to describe what might really happen: an actual ethnic cleansing of Gaza, as part of the real-estate deal Mrs. Vel-DuRay repeatedly warned you about.

    If the current inhabitants of Gaza do get cleansed right out of their current homes, I somehow doubt you loudly telling them how things would have been just as bad under Harris will provide them with much in the way of comfort.

86. @85 don’t be silly, when the IDF continues killing and/or displacing every living soul in Gaza under Trump you’ll continue to insist it’s not actually “ethnic cleansing” or “genocide” and actually it’s Hamas’s fault and (blah blah). You of anyone are least able to argue Palestinians will be more severely mistreated under Trump because you refuse to admit that they’ve ever been mistreated or Israel has ever done anything wrong in its history.

87. “imagine thinking that, after they’re all dead, Gazans will care whether a Trump casino is built over the rubble of what used to be their homes. Imagine thinking Genocide + Gentrification is somehow worse than just plain Genocide. I struggle to, but maybe I’m “naive.” “

    thirteen12 dear, that’s not naive, that’s rather sociopathic, don’t you think?

    Read what you wrote, and think about it. One of the characteristics of genocide is that it never works. The “enemy” is never fully vanquished. There are always survivors, and there are always friends and family who are someplace safe, mourning those they lost. And there’s always the quest for vengeance.

    At least some people – people who actually have heart-and-soul involvement, and aren’t just political ideologue – who are seeing the writing on the wall, and feeling like they may have been wrong. It takes an adult to be able to do that.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/muslims-who-voted-trump-upset-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-picks-2024-11-15/

88. The commenter who has countless times justified the murder of 10,000s women and children, and authored more comments than anybody else by far about Gaza over the last 6 months keeps accusing Israel’s critics of commenting too much about Gaza and of being divisive? I guess it’s just another routine day in tensorna’s twisted reality where he should be free to spew his sociopathic hatred of Palestinians without rebuttal for an entire year

    Remember also how tensorna continuously denied the impact of pro-Israel policies on voter turnout, especially among youth and Arab Americans while claiming that polls, conducted by reputable polling outfits, which predicted the outcome should be dismissed as garbage. While more important issues like the economy had a greater impact Harris undeniably performed poorly compared to local candidates who called for an arms embargo in key districts, which isn’t surprising given that Democratic constituencies overwhelmingly disagreed with the Biden administration’s unconditional support of Israel

89. @87 “At least some people … are seeing the writing on the wall, and feeling like they may have been wrong. It takes an adult to be able to do that.”

    And I would hope the Dems would be adult enough to realize maybe the Harris campaign blowing off these concerns, sending Richie Torres to campaign and Bill Clinton to give an inflammatory pro-Israel speech in Michigan, and touting Dick Cheney of all people’s endorsement were wrong–but I’m not holding my breath.

90. @86: If the IDF wanted to kill or displace Palestinians from Gaza, why wouldn’t the IDF just do that? Why move them around inside Gaza first? To paraphrase Mrs. Vel-DuRay, your chronic failure to ask that very simple and obvious question makes you quite charming, dear.

    Please let me know when you might like to read the answer. (Trigger warning for you: said answer will very prominently feature the word, “Hamas.”)

91. @90 they are killing them, and internal displacement is still displacement. I’ve never encountered any person as aggressively ignorant as you.

92. @82: “after they’re all dead [in Gaza]”

    Ha ha, no. 😄 There is precisely zero chance of everyone in Gaza being killed. In fact, the population of Gaza won’t even decline as a result of war deaths, because the birth rate in Gaza is higher than the death rate from the war. You’ve been screaming “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” for so long, you’ve forgotten what those words mean, lol!

93. @92 tensorna I take it back, I HAVE encountered a person as aggressively ignorant as you

94. @91: So, what exactly would be the point of the IDF internally displacing a population on a territory twice the size of Seattle? What purpose do you believe this internal displacement might serve for the IDF?

95. Several German courts have banned the use of the phrase “Fom the River to the Sea” at protests as part of an effort to expunge the presence/influence of Samidoun.

    I don’t believe doing likewise here would be wise, useful, or even legal but it is clear that the mentality/approach of the pro Palestine movement needs to abandon its current approach. Explicitly raging against Israel while very publicly rationalizing Hamas violence is perhaps the only aspect of Hamas political plan that has succeeded.

    Wouldn’t it be better to accept the fact that Hamas must be removed from power before any political settlement can reached? Wouldn’t having a unified concept of a just peace be a more effective vector as a movement than focusing almost solely on real or perceived misdeeds of one party? Think about this – even if the protest in the West succeeded in isolating Israel, what is the next expected result, especially if the political leadership of the other belligerent still clings to maximalist claims and execrable means?

    Does anyone claiming solidarity toward Palestine even have a concept of a durable peace? I sure hope you do, because the next administration doesn’t give a wit whether you deface university presidents vehicles or parade around in your kaffiyeh. Ominously, they have peace plans of their own, and durable and just they are not.

96. @95 “Wouldn’t it be better to accept the fact that Hamas must be removed from power before any political settlement can reached?”

    Now do Likud

    “Wouldn’t having a unified concept of a just peace be a more effective vector as a movement than focusing almost solely on real or perceived misdeeds of one party?”

    Oh the irony

97. @95: I actually think the current Israeli model of “mowing the grass” every couple of years might be durable on a scale of a century or more. It’s peace but with stochastic outbreaks of small-scale wars, on the scale of thousands to tens of thousands killed per war. It’s not exactly an ideal solution, of course, but in a world where the Islamic resistance remains massively popular, it’s probably the best achievable state. As they say, not every problem has a solution.

98. @83: Bad faith? How is it not bad faith to refer to a group by a disparaging acronym rather than the title they chose? Inclusivity, respect, and acceptance has to work both ways.

99. It’s ok to use disparaging acronyms to talk about bigots. You’re not supposed to respect them.

100. @96: “Now do Likud”

     Likud uses Israelis as human shields? When did that start?

101. “An anti-trans group has rented the Central Library auditorium for an event this Sunday,…”

     Wrong. They are not anti-trans. They are pro-women and girls having their own spaces, in sports, in shelters, in prisons, etc. Go to their website and read what they write instead of copying what others say.

     “We are a dedicated group of volunteer women from across the country focused on protecting women’s sex-based rights.”
     
     https://womensdeclarationusa.com/about/

102. @29

     “@6 f[ai]r enough I accept your paradigm. Are you able to prove that no high value IDF targets were in the vicinity of the music festival raided by Hamas on 10/7?”

     now
     
     why on
     
     Earth are you
     
     holding Israel to the
     
     Same fucking Standards?

     that is Not
     
     how This
     
     Game’s
     
     played.

     “Are you able to prove Hamas didn’t mistakenly believe all the hostages kidnapped were Mossad agents, and that they were only acting in self defense?”

     there is no
     
     Need. ffs
     
     it’s Israel
     
     you fool

     “Guess nobody’s to blame.”

     thirteen12 on November 15, 2024 at 12:43 PM

     huh.
     
     you know
     
     I never Thot*
     
     about it quite
     
     like that ~ & worm-
     
     my’s never Mentioned it

     funny,
     
     cuz he’s
     
     such a Stickler

     @93

     thee
     
     rotten
     
     apple falleth not
     
     Far from thy rotten tree

     *thnx for the
     
     New Word
     
     wormmy!

103. No they’re an anti-trans/LGBTQ astroturf campaign. They can describe themselves however they like but anyone with a brain can see what they’re all about by looking deeper than their self-flattering about page. Why is a “sex-based rights” group concerning itself with kids being taught about the existence of LGBTQ people? They’re a hate group, plain and simple.

104. @96. To extent I agree that Likud is an obstacle to a durable peace, Israel has elections. Gazan political leadership does not. Besides, you are avoiding my overall my point. The “Pro Palestinian” movement in the West is doomed unless they pivot. Or perhaps you really are a “From the River to the Sea” sort, in which case, by all means, continue advocating for intifada at home and abroad.

     @97 Thumpus. You are absolutely correct, though regrettable (not to you but the state of affairs). You and I have more than occasionally cited the longitudinal trajectory of this conflict, specifically how Israels opponents have dramatically atrophied, making the flashpoints increasingly asymmetrical. But I believe there is a moral and strategic imperative for parties outside the immediate theater to seek a lasting peace. The US, for all its failures in the region, has occasionally had successes. We need another.

105. Kristofarian and all of you other fools helped Trump get elected president. Keep making excuses instead of looking in the mirror. It’s laughable that you make excuses for not backing Harris. There are Russians on everything. This , Reddit, everything. You were manipulated and got on your knees to take it. What does that say about you?

106. @100 “Likud uses Israelis as human shields?”

     Of course not, their army uses Palestinians as human shields. Although I doubt they’d use that term since it’s not at all clear they consider Palestinians to be human.

     https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/21/palestinians-describe-being-used-as-human-shields-by-israeli-troops-in-gaza

107. @102: lol, look at you two struggling to perceive any difference between dropping bombs on armed militiamen versus shooting civilians in the face in front of their kids. It’s no surprise that two so-called “anti-Zionists” [wink wink] would have such broken moral compasses. 😃

     I believe in rehabilitative justice, so I sentence you both to re-read all 1,254 pages of the Department of Defense Law of War Manual and attachments and appendices thereto. You can come back and thank me after you have learned the difference between right and wrong. 😁

108. @104: It’s possible that Gaza will come to accept an Oslo-like peace process, if they receive a sound enough thrashing at the hands of the Israelis. I’m not sure the current war is big enough to get there. It might take another couple of rounds of warfare over the course of a couple more decades.

     Hizbollah presents in some ways a thornier problem. There’s no land-for-peace, peace-for-statehood type deal available with Hizbollah. Lebanon already has land and statehood, but Hizbollah has still rejected peace! With Hizbollah, the Israelis might just have to wait for regime change in Iran.

     In the meantime, keep the lawn mower gassed up and sharpened, I’m afraid! 🤪

109. @104 “you are avoiding my overall my point. The “Pro Palestinian” movement in the West is doomed unless they pivot”

     I didn’t avoid your point. My response, to make it explicit, was that the Pro-Israel movement is equally susceptible to the critiques you leveled. The Israel government has no plan for peace and it’s supporters gloss over that fact as well as their rampant abuses.

     The Pro-Palestinian movement is doomed because Israel is a strategic ally so, like with Saudi Arabia, the US transparently chooses to ignore all the awful things they do.

110. @103 “Why is a “sex-based rights” group concerning itself with kids being taught about the existence of LGBTQ people?”

     Just because you say this doesn’t make it true.

111. @103: So emphatic. So intolerant of others’ views.

     Concern over an unfair advantage in girls sports and the danger of injury on the field is a valid concern and has nothing to do with transphobia. Nobody’s objecting to gender affirming care or respect and love for transsexuals. This is not transphobia. Repeat. This is not transphobia.

     Recently a trans golfer, Nicole Powers, realized how unfair it was and stoped competing. And track and field with the muscles and lung capacity of their former selves, …, give me a break. Where’s the sportsmanship or fun of the competition? It’s downright cruel. Maybe in some sports it’s okay, but not in the ones with physical competition.

     And stop using the LGBTQIA+ umbrella in an attempt to add credence to your argument, because it doesn’t. When you say “concerning itself with kids being taught about the existence of LGBTQ people” that is a downright ridiculous lie.

112. Kristofarian and thirteen12 say it’s Harris fault for not getting elected when the reality is the movement they continue to push against Israel has definitely helped bring us Trump. Do you vote a straight Republican ballot? Does anyone else believe that movement was funded by the far right?

113. @109: From 10/7 onwards, the pro-Palestinian movement has advocated war, over and over and over again. They went out into Seattle’s streets, demanding their “one solution, Intifada revolution,” they marched around on the campus of Columbia University shouting “Israel shall fall,” they vandalized the UW HUB whilst threatening fellow students, and defacing students’ artworks. They demanded Harris impose an illegal embargo upon Israel, and threatened to prevent her election if she did not kowtow to them, even though “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes.” They have won nothing and lost everything, and (as you pointedly ignored) now get to watch helplessly as Trump fills every diplomatic office with someone from Bibi’s American Goyim Fan Club.

     With friends like the pro-Palestinian movement, the Palestinians do not need enemies.

114. 110, I’m not just saying anything, I read it on their little terf website that you linked to

     https://womensdeclarationusa.com/gender-identity-indoctrination-in-our-schools/

     111, I thought you had enough transphobic sock puppets to keep “Phoebe’s” hands clean but I guess you can’t help yourself. This is supposed to be your breezy, open-minded drunk rich lady account, dude.

     if it were just about “fairness in sports” they would be a “fairness in sports” group and not concern themselves with trans people existing anywhere in public life. They’re an anti-LGBTQ hate group, it’s all over their website. If you’re going to the mat to defend bigots guess what that makes you, “Phoebe”.

115. Granny D Goes to Washington

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFlSomHHChk

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Haddock

     Probably the most important champion for democracy of our time, and her message has never been more timely and urgent.

116. so many Uncommitteds
     
     and Undecideds choosing
     
     to stay Home and not Vote
     
     for the Status Quo but Yeah
     
     blame Progressives like Bernie
     
     whose Platform the donold stole
     
     in 2016 but never mentioned again

     here’s a reader’s comment from today’s nyt:

     I have lived in authoritarian nations, where there is no such thing as a successful or failed leader. Once a dictator is in power and can wield the state apparatus against anyone who gets in his way, no one will be allowed to critique or dissect or analyze the success or failure of his administration.

     We will all fall in line and applaud every heinous thing, because we will have no choice and our lives and livelihoods will depend on it. Americans are still basking in the theoretical.

     Wake up- this is a takeover. The erosion has begun and it’s only A matter of time. Our children will look back on this time in history and think, how in the world did they allow this man through.

     –Marni; Midwest

     https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/opinion/trump-kennedy-gaetz-hegseth.html#commentsContainer

     due Credit to those
     
     having enabled Joe’s
     
     backing of bibi’s genocide
     
     pulling an eltrumpfster and
     
     blaming the Victims projecting
     
     Their actions onto Progressives

     Well-Played!
     
     your Authoritarian
     
     Dictator will See you now.

     oh and say
     
     Adios to the
     
     Stranger. Donold
     
     hasn’t the Patience
     
     for This sort of thing.

     you’re
     
     gonna get
     
     your Wishes:

     Long
     
     & Hard.

117. from The Needling, Seattle’s
     
     Only* Real Fake News:

     Microsoft Day of the Dead Celebration
     
     Reaffirms Commitment to Diversity
     
     and Inclusion for Anyone
     
     but Palestinians

     In a touching display of allyship to communities of color, today Microsoft encouraged its employees and customers to celebrate the Mexican holiday of Day of the Dead on its Redmond campus as long as they never mention Palestinians exist or matter.

     “Here at Microsoft, diversity is our strength and any mention that Palestinians exist will get you fired,” said CEO Satya Nadella. “Inclusion is innovation, and that’s why we celebrate beautiful cultural traditions like Day of the Dead as long as they don’t involve publicly mourning the slaughter of over 200,000 Palestinian civilians or anyone advocating for their ‘human’ rights.

     I swear to God if you so much as mention that Seattle woman and recent UW grad Aysenur Ezgi Eygi that an IDF sniper shot in the head while she was standing under an olive tree even once I’ll have you deported to the Siberian steppe faster than you can say ‘Azure Cloud-powered IDF drone strike.’”

     Microsoft executives flocked to social media on Día de Los Muertos to extol the virtues of diversity and inclusion as long as it’s still okay to sometimes make shit tons of money helping to wipe out a whole country, culture and ethnicity off of the face of the Earth.

     “It’s so touching the way families will set up these beautiful altars—ofrendas—with pictures of people they want to love and honor forever,” said Microsoft Azure VP Erin Chapman.

     “We did have to fire two extremely talented employees for basically doing the same thing last week at a vigil for Palestinians because they were unfortunately publicly mourning the only race, culture and country that’s so okay to erase from existence you’re not even allowed to mourn their deaths and keep your job here.”

     Microsoft said valuing cultural traditions like Day of the Dead is just one way its Global Diversity & Inclusion Report released last week shows the company is making strides in representation and equity for anyone but Palestinians.

     getchyur Oodles here:
     
     https://theneedling.com/2024/11/01/microsoft-day-of-the-dead-celebration-reaffirms-commitment-to-diversity-and-inclusion-for-anyone-but-palestinians/

     *well, there’s also Sinclair’s KOMO tho it Looks
     
     Like the Needling’s gonna legitimize even
     
     that far right mouthpiece by Buying it
     
     but that’s a completely
     
     Different article:

     https://theneedling.com/2024/09/21/the-needling-buys-komo/

118. From Mrs. Catalina’s excellent link @87, which our pro-Palestinian and progressive commenters have since carefully ignored:

     ‘U.S. Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump to protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon have been deeply disappointed by his cabinet picks, they tell Reuters.

     ‘”Trump won because of us and we’re not happy with his secretary of state pick and others,” said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump.’

     That was just the first two paragraphs! Tonnes more, failingly and flailingly, at https://www.reuters.com/world/us/muslims-who-voted-trump-upset-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-picks-2024-11-15/

     Even though “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes,” and therefore an Abandon Harris campaign could have had no other possible effect than election of Trump, nobody on the Progressive or pro-Palestinian side told these fools what their advocacy would do. Somehow, to progressives, being pro-Palestinian meant obediently maintaining an absolute silence in the face of another Trump presidency. (There’s no need to wait for dictatorship, when you can self-censor right now!) Enjoy the hell you’ve created, guys.

119. @114: “trans people existing anywhere in public life.”

     Do you hear yourself?

120. from the New Republic:

     Trump
     
     Stole Bernie’s
     
     Working-Class Story.
     
     Dems Should Steal It Back.

     Sanders’s time as a presidential candidate
     
     has passed, but his ideas are still valuable
     
     for a party that needs to persuade voters
     
     to return home from MAGA.

     The Democratic Party is once again in the wilderness. Donald Trump won not only the presidential election but the popular vote. The scale of short-term and long-term harm that is about to be unleashed on our communities, our country, and our planet is genuinely difficult to comprehend.

     To work our way out of this hell, it
     
     should be clear that Democrats
     
     need to chart a new path.

     What does that path look like? There is one man in particular whose ideas need to be reckoned with: Bernie Sanders.

     Bernie has spent his entire career telling the same story about America, and it may just be the antidote to the one that Donald Trump successfully wielded in his return to power.

     And it’s not just his fans who are saying so. David Brooks, formerly one of Bernie Sanders’s most vehement centrist critics, admitted this week that “maybe the Democrats have to embrace a Bernie Sanders–style disruption—something that will make people like me uncomfortable.”

     Donald Trump won this election by winning the working class, massively improving his margins among voters without college degrees, young men, and Latinos.

     These are precisely the groups that Sanders managed to inspire and win in each of his campaigns. Trump dominated the online and new media ecosystem exemplified by Joe Rogan; in 2020, Bernie went on Rogan’s show and won him over.

     Trump ran on rage, performing solidarity with the many Americans who feel anger right now; Bernie, too, is extremely angry, and he’s never been afraid to show it.

     But this is perhaps the most vital thing to understand about Sanders’s approach. Human beings need stories. Stories, to be compelling—to anyone, but especially to people who are unhappyz—need villains.

     Trump has a story that features clear villains; like every fascist and rightwing authoritarian before him, he directs, channels, and amplifies voters’ anger towards groups that are easy to scapegoat, like immigrants and transgender people, as well as institutions that they feel have failed them, like the elites of both the Democratic and Republican parties.

     It’s simple, it’s visceral, and it works. Or at least, it works in a vacuum, when unhappy voters are not offered any other story about why their lives are harder, less secure, or more painful than they should be.

     more:
     
     https://newrepublic.com/article/188184/bernie-winning-back-working-class

     yeah
     
     BUT: the
     
     Corporate Dems/
     
     ‘Centrists’ will NOT
     
     Allow the democrats
     
     Any leftward drift whatsoever.

     see: all those
     
     RW ‘Dem’
     
     Clowns,
     
     above

121. 119, is this supposed to be an argument. I am getting my information directly from their website. They do not only concern themselves with “fairness in sports,” dude.

     Rule of thumb: if the phrase “gender ideology” shows up anywhere on your website without criticism or scare-quotes, you’re an anti-LGBTQ hate group. Trans people aren’t an ideology, they are human beings who deserve respect and affirmation like everyone else.

     These terfs and fascists have just repackaged the anti-gay “indoctrination” panic for a new generation of assholes. They even recommend books on conversation therapy on their reading list! It couldn’t be more blatant that they think trans people should not exist.

     Queer people existed long before anyone taught about them in school. You don’t make queer kids by having LGBTQ books in your school curriculum, but what you can do with those books is teach kids not to be hateful, and that’s what this little terf org is trying to stop, because they’re a hate group.

122. @113. Tensorna and/or Thumpus. You scrap with these cats regularly. So may I ask, have you ever seen any of them actually describe the terms of a lasting peace deal? I haven’t.

123. @121: I am Phoebe, a woman, and this is my only account.

124. @118 Arab-Americans were forced to hope against hope that Trump might work for peace only because Harris made abundantly clear that she, like Biden, would not.

     As I’ve asked repeatedly: if her Gaza stance cost her enough votes to lose the election why didn’t she take a different stance, and if it didn’t then what are we even talking about about?

125. 123, You’re not clever enough to pull this off dude, sorry. You’re just not. It’s really obvious from your writing style and your posting habits when your main accounts have been suspended. This isn’t even the only profile you’re posting from in this thread, I can tell. You’re no Meryl Streep, that’s for sure.

     Why does “Phoebe” of all people know so much about trans women in sports? Why does she know anything at all about women’s sports? Doesn’t fit the vibe or anything she’s ever posted over the years.

     Also there is an obvious tell in the language you use. You have a very specific verbal tic, using unusual fluff words that you think make you sound smart, like “credence” or “conflation.” You just have an extremely specific signature to your writing style and it shows up all over Phoebe’s history, especially when you don’t have an active main account because you were banned for posting hate.

126. @127: Anyone who cares about humans would care about trans women in physically competitive girls sports. That says nothing about gender ideology but rather just simple common sense. Now, people have different views on school curriculums but that’s not the debate I’m referring to. Mere discussion is not hate.

     I don’t care what you think of my writing style. Why don’t you take peoples’ words at face value instead of making sock puppet theories whenever someone triggers you?

127. 126, Bro, we’re having a conversation about a hate group advocating for a wide-ranging assault on trans rights that extends well beyond women’s sports, and you’re obviously down with the cause if you’re using the term “gender ideology” and unmoved by their promotion of conversion therapy. Your insistence that it’s all about athletics is not supported by the facts available on their website nor your own commentary.

     I have been taking your words at face value the whole time. I’ve been responding directly to your arguments while also explaining how I can tell that you’re raindrop in drag, because it’s really obvious and really strange behavior.

128. @127: Gender ideology or gender studies or gender philosophy? They’re malleable and interchangeable terms. You can’t blame us for not keeping up with the latest accepted terminology.

     Please stop extrapolating everything as “hate”.

129. @122: Off the top of my head, I can recall only two, very similar proposals. One was from Greenwood Bob, with the usual requirement that Israel start by giving up all of the territory it had ever acquired via repeated successful self-defenses (euphemistically stated as Israel’s “return to 1948 borders”) with absolutely no guarantee of Israel ever getting anything at all in return. Caitlin Johnstone (copypasted, as usual, at ludicrous length by kristo’) stated pretty much the same thing, but with insultingly belligerent condescension (as if she was actually in negotiations with Israelis, wanted those ‘negotiations’ to fail, and wanted to blame Israel for said failure).

     @124: At some point, actual adults will eventually come to understand they will not ever get everything they want. Sometimes, the only choice in life is between “bad,” and “a lot worse.” If the ‘leaders’ quoted in that story could not understand how electing Trump could make things a lot worse for both Gaza, and their own communities here in the US, then I’ll do nothing but laugh at those ‘leaders’ subsequent bitter whining. (Hopefully, members of those immigrant communities won’t suffer overmuch from another four years of Trump’s unapologetically nativist demagoguery.)

     Also, what evidence shows they wanted “peace”? Everything I’ve seen for thirteen months says the pro-Palestinian side in the US just wants war, war, and yet more war, no matter how many more children die in Gaza as a result.

130. 128, Gender studies is an academic field concerned with the sociology of sex and gender. Gender ideology is a term used by haters who believe trans people are mentally disturbed/challenged individuals who have been coopted by an ideology tricking them into thinking they are a different sex than they were assigned at birth. It was coined by haters for hateful reasons, and it is of a piece with conversion therapy, the belief that psychiatric professionals can talk kids out of being gay or trans.

     This is how I know the terf group is an anti-LGBTQ hate group, and you’re a hater too. You keep telling on yourself, dude.

131. @129 if Kamala’s Gaza stance cost her enough votes to lose the election why didn’t she take a different stance, and if it didn’t then what are we even talking about about?

132. @130 – No, I am not a hater. See @123. Saying otherwise doesn’t buy you credibility.

133. 132,
     
     you: [hateful ignorant comments about trans people]

     me: here is why your comments about trans people are hateful and ignorant

     you: my hateful ignorant beliefs about trans people are not based in hate

     me: here is why your comments about trans people are hateful and ignorant

     you: […]

     The whole reason you’re in this thread is because you were insisting an obvious hate group is not a hate group. You have offered zero arguments in their or your defense beyond your insistence that you are not motivated by hate for trans people. Needless to say you’re unconvincing.

134. @131: One of the demands made was for Harris to unilaterally impose an arms embargo upon Israel. No president can legally do this, because federal law requires the United States to maintain Israel’s military edge in the region. So, you’re essentially accusing Harris of having integrity sufficient not to promise lawbreaking.

     If that does not work for you, try re-phrasing your question. For example, Sawant campaigned for Trump in Michigan, to “punish” Harris, and “to defeat her.” So why didn’t Harris just do everything Sawant wanted?

135. @119,

     Do you believe Gender Identity Disorder is real? Because they don’t.

     I copy/pasted the link from @114. There’s probably no more than a dozen or two sentences on that entire page and one of them explicitly reads, “Children are inundated by gender identity ideology from all sides, over and over again, as though “gender identity” were real…”

     That really sounds to me like they pretty clearly don’t believe trans people exist. I mean, I’m not even super passionate about this issue, if only because I think it’s been blown far out of proportion in terms of the actual impact it has on people’s lives, but that seems to me a pretty fucked up group of people you’re defending there.

     Do you believe gender identity exists?

136. @134 do you believe Kamala’s stance on Gaza cost her the election yes or no? If no then stfu about it

137. @135: Of course I believe that gender dysphoria is real. I’ve seen the transformation into happiness first hand from people in my life who have transitioned.

     I advocate that adults just let children grow into their identities without meddling in their lives with agendas, while providing guidance to children who have gender dysphoria on an individual basis. It’s a multifaceted issues where common ground is found in the “Venn diagrams”.

     Is such a stance transphobic? Hardly.

138. @122: They are right-of-return one-staters. They want an “Israel” in which Arabs are a governing majority and Jews are a powerless minority. That is to say, they want an Israel that isn’t Israel anymore. It is specifically the Jewish character of Israel that offends them, so it is the Jewish character they wish to eliminate.

     The language I’m using to describe their position isn’t the language they use to describe their position, of course, but the outcome I’m describing is exactly the outcome they hope for. I’ve only presented it in its bare, hard essence.

139. @134: The Arab-American community leaders quoted in the piece explicitly said they helped get Trump elected. Sawant explicitly stated her purpose in campaigning for Trump was to “punish” Harris, by denying her the presidency. So that is what they believed they had done, or were trying to do. Therefore, by your logic, Harris should have tried to placate them. What should Harris have done to placate Sawant? Should Harris have lied to the Arab-American community leaders, and promised them she’d impose a (completely illegal) arms embargo upon Israel? What would have been the response of the vast majority of voters, had she declared her intent to violate our federal law, and stop the flow of legally-purchased weapons sold to a democratic ally? (I mean, voters who approve of lawbreaking are far more likely to vote for the felon candidate anyway, right?)

     What is your basis for your claim @124, that the Arab-American community leaders, who worked to elect Trump, wanted “peace”? (Tip: formulas for “peace” which include, “From the river to the sea…” do not actually count as “peace” proposals.)

140. &inOthernews:
     
     Nyt:

     What’s New
     
     in the Case of the
     
     Document Leaks Roiling Israel

     A judge revealed more details about how
     
     and why an aide to Prime Minister
     
     Benjamin Netanyahu gave
     
     sensitive information to
     
     the news media.

     https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/world/middleeast/israel-document-leaks.html

     If you take out bibi*
     
     *thru Israel’s
     
     Justice
     
     system

     you
     
     Remove
     
     the Keystone
     
     from the Arch

     I believe his little
     
     War will soon
     
     Follow

     End the Massacre:
     
     End bibi’s reign
     
     of Terror.

     oh and this too
     
     OUR Tax Dollar $$$ :

     Israel Strikes Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

     The Israeli military said it had been targeting
     
     a loaded weapons launcher in the area,
     
     where thousands of displaced people
     
     are sheltering in a tent camp.

     The international aid group Doctors Without Borders said that one of its clinics, which was about 250 yards from where the strike hit, was also damaged and medical equipment destroyed.

     Gabriella Bianchi, a spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders, said that the aid group had not received any direct warning that a blast was imminent.

     Residents who received alerts on their phones from the Israeli military did inform the staff, Ms. Bianchi said, but that left only a few minutes to evacuate personnel and hundreds of patients.

     In a statement on social media, Doctors Without Borders condemned the attack, saying, “The use of heavy weapons in zones declared by Israeli authorities as safe, is further proof of the blatant disregard for Palestinian lives and humanitarian law.”

     –by Raja Abdulrahim and Nader Ibrahim; Nov. 14, 2024

     https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/world/middleeast/israel-airstrike-humanitarian-zone-gaza.html

     Our Tax Dollars
     
     HARD @ Work.
     
     infucking
     
     Sanity

     I suppose it’s
     
     not so bad
     
     living in a
     
     fucking
     
     Tent

     other
     
     than
     
     the

     Terror
     
     that is

141. ” (Tip: formulas
     
     for “peace” which include,
     
     “From the river to the sea…” do
     
     not actually count as “peace” proposals.) “

     –@Wormtongue,
     
     above, convincingly

     exactly the
     
     Phrase one of
     
     Israel’s War Cabinet
     
     chose to describe Israeli
     
     Intent in the opening salvos
     
     of bibi’s keepouttaprisongambit

     okay for him
     
     not for any-
     
     one Else
     
     tho?

     right,
     
     wormmy?

     oh and what
     
     the Fuck about
     
     @102, Wormtongue? here
     
     let me freshen your* memorys:

     @29

     “@6 f[ai]r enough I accept your paradigm. Are you able to prove that no high value IDF targets were in the vicinity of the music festival raided by Hamas on 10/7?”

     now
     
     why on
     
     Earth are you
     
     holding Israel to the
     
     Same fucking Standards?

     that is Not
     
     how This
     
     Game’s
     
     played.

     “Are you able to prove Hamas didn’t mistakenly believe all the hostages kidnapped were Mossad agents, and that they were only acting in self defense?”

     there is no
     
     Need. ffs
     
     it’s Israel
     
     you fool

     “Guess nobody’s to blame.”

     thirteen12 on November 15, 2024 at 12:43 PM

     so shall we just
     
     blame Sawant? cuz
     
     the IOF is ‘different’?

     *your lil
     
     sociopathic
     
     sock-puppy
     
     a i jr hi stooge
     
     Wormtongue, Jr.

142. @139 “The Arab-American community leaders quoted in the piece explicitly said they helped get Trump elected … Therefore, by your logic, Harris should have tried to placate them”

     No. You (and others) keep talking about people who care about Gaza costing Dems the election or “giving us Trump.” If you honestly think that then it’s important to have a conversation about whether not showing those people support, or really even acknowledging their concerns, was a poor strategic choice. If you DON’T actually think that was what caused Kamala to lose then your constant harping on the issue is as irrelevant as it is obnoxious.

     @138 “They want an “Israel” in which Arabs are a governing majority and Jews are a powerless minority. That is to say, they want an Israel that isn’t Israel anymore. It is specifically the Jewish character of Israel that offends them, so it is the Jewish character they wish to eliminate.”

     Oh, so the equal opposite of the Jewish position in the 1930s-40s?

143. hey @tS

     your comment counter at the end of the article
     
     says there’s 142 comments but your “readers’
     
     comments” only shows 134; my latest is
     
     (was) 141 at 7:53 . looks like it’s
     
     busted again.

144. from the Chris Hedges Report
     
     The Chris Hedges Report Podcast
     
     Genocidal Scorecard – Read by Eunice Wong

     The latest U.N. report chronicles Israel’s advances in its genocidal assault in Gaza. Israel is intent, the report warns, on expelling the Palestinians, recolonizing Gaza and turning on the West Bank.

     A United Nations report, published on Monday, lays out in chilling detail the advances made by Israel in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate “the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine.”

     This genocidal project, the report ominously warns, “is now metastasizing to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

     The Nakba or “catastrophe,” which in 1948 saw Zionist militias drive 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, carry out more than 70 massacres and seize 78 percent of historic Palestine, has returned on steroids.

     It is the next and, perhaps, final chapter in “a long-term intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.”

     Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, who issued the report, titled “Genocide as colonial erasure,” makes an urgent appeal to the international community to impose a full arms embargo and sanctions on Israel until the genocide of Palestinians is halted. She calls on Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire.

     She demands that Israel, as required by international law and U.N. resolutions, withdraw its military and colonists from Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

     At the very least, Israel, unchecked, should be formally recognized as an apartheid state and persistent violator of international law, Albanese states.

     The U.N. should reactivate the Special Committee Against Apartheid to address the situation in Palestine, and Israel’s membership in the U.N. should be suspended.

     Short of these interventions, Israel’s goal, Albanese warns, will likely come into fruition.

     –by Chris Hedges; text originaly published on Oct 30, 2024

     for even More on OUR Ongoing Genocide:
     
     https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/genocidal-scorecard-read-by-eunice

145. 137 it’s the part where you’re defending anti-LGBTQ astroturf campaign as being mere advocates for “fairness in sports” when they are a hate group

146. @124 there a simple answer to that and it’s because a different stance would have cost her even more votes. There was no position that would have appeased all groups so she took the one that appealed to the broadest audience.

147. is there a comment posting glitch?

148. @129. Thanks T. As I suspected.

149. @147: It works, but past 100 have the URL end with “comments?page=2” or “comments/147” with the comment number.

150. @142: ‘You (and others) keep talking about people who care about Gaza costing Dems the election or “giving us Trump.”‘

     You cared more about Gaza* than about defeating Trump. That’s how you gave us Trump. Trump has now selected only the most belligerent of pro-Israel hawks for his foreign relations team, so good work you did for your supposed cause there. With friends like you, the people of Gaza simply do not need enemies.

     *Not really; you just liked to signal virtue — and then got angry, when told what you were doing wasn’t actually virtuous.

151. @146 I think you’re right and that was their logic. In that case it doesn’t make any sense to blame the Gaza voters because the campaign made a conscious, calculated decision to forgo their votes. The question then is whether throwing Gaza voters a bone by emphasizing the need to end hostilities and restore safety and dignity for both peoples would really have cost her voters from the other side. I suspect not, because I can’t believe American Jews and other Israel supporters are really so deranged and bloodthirsty as to oppose peace short of the total eradication of the population of Gaza.

     @150 so just to be clear you think disaffected Gaza voters WERE the margin of victory. In other words if Kamala hadn’t completely alienated those folks she would have won. In that case do you not agree that she probably should not have completely alienated those folks?

152. @151: “The question then is whether throwing Gaza voters a bone by emphasizing the need to end hostilities and restore safety and dignity for both peoples would really have cost her voters from the other side.”

     The “Gaza voters” asked her to promise them an arms embargo against Israel, not just give them some vague feel-good statement.

     “…so just to be clear you think disaffected Gaza voters WERE the margin of victory.”

     Wrong again. If the electorate from 2020 had voted in 2024, she would have won. It was hard left’s constant focus on Gaza, to the exclusion of all else, which alienated enough voters (~10 million) to dump it back to Trump.

153. @152 “The “Gaza voters” asked her to promise them an arms embargo against Israel”

     First of all, “62 percent of respondents who voted for President Biden in 2020 agree with the statement, “The US should stop weapons shipments to Israel until Israel discontinues its attacks on the people of Gaza,” while just 14 percent disagree.”

     https://cepr.net/press-release/poll-majority-of-americans-say-biden-should-halt-weapons-shipments-to-israel/

     If 62% of your supporters are in favor of something it’s pretty stupid, electorally speaking, to do the opposite, would you agree?

     But also “The State Department said on Tuesday that it did not plan to decrease weapons aid to Israel, as a 30-day deadline set by the Biden administration passed without the country substantially improving the humanitarian situation in war-devastated Gaza.”

     https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/us/politics/israel-weapons-gaza-aid.html

     So Biden actually threatened to do exactly what his supporters overwhelmingly wanted if Israel didn’t take concrete steps in a designated timeframe, but when Israel did not Biden backed down. Which is why many people don’t see any difference between Biden/Harris and Trump on this issue. Trump may explicitly allow Israel to do whatever it wants but Biden/Harris only pretend to try to hold them accountable while in the end also allowing them to do whatever they want. Anyone who sees a meaningful distinction between those positions is a pathetic dupe.

     Finally, you wrote “It was hard left’s constant focus on Gaza, to the exclusion of all else, which alienated enough voters (~10 million) to dump it back to Trump.”

     But polling makes clear that it wasn’t just the “HaRd LeFt” that wanted Biden to work to stop the humanitarian disaster in Gaza it was a significant majority of his base. But either way if a candidate’s stance on an issue is so wildly unpopular that it costs them TEN MILLION VOTES, again, do you not agree that if they hope to win they should change that stance?

154. the ‘comment counter’
     
     shows 153 comments
     
     but phoebe’s (149) is
     
     the last one showing.

     it’s def
     
     busted.
     
     juat like
     
     America!

155. “But either way
     
     if a candidate’s stance on
     
     an issue is so wildly unpopular
     
     that it costs them TEN MILLION VOTES,
     
     again, do you not agree that if they hope
     
     to win they should change that stance? –@13,12

     gonna be
     
     a Gas watching
     
     ol’ wormmy Worm his
     
     way outta This one. thnx, thirteen12!

156. @152: It probably wasn’t Gaza. Gaza voters would have cost Kamala Harris a close election, but this election wasn’t close.

157. @156 he can’t hear you, he has to blame people he doesn’t like for this regardless of reality

158. @157

     wormmy
     
     ‘cannot hear’
     
     eldumbfer? he
     
     Manufactured it
     
     in His own image

     but the rest of your
     
     Comment is most
     
     Certainly True.

159. kristofarian,

     The American people have had enough. Poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose sending more weapons and military aid to fuel Netanyahu’s war machine. We should listen to the American people.

     [NOT Listening to them
     
     Cost the Dems this
     
     And maybe ALL
     
     Elections,
     
     Bernie.

     IF ONLY We’d
     
     Listened
     
     To YOU].

     Please read my op-ed in The Washington Post today:
     
     – Bernie

     oh, Look
     
     here it is Now:

     No more arms sales to Netanyahu

     The United States government must stop blatantly violating the law with regard to arms sales to Israel. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act are very clear: the United States cannot provide weapons to any country that violates internationally recognized human rights.

     Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act is also explicit: no U.S. assistance may be provided to any country that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.”

     According to the United Nations, much of the international community and every humanitarian organization on the ground in Gaza, Israel is clearly in violation of these laws.

     That is why I have introduced, with colleagues, several joint resolutions of disapproval which would block offensive arms sales to Israel. The votes will take place in the Senate on Wednesday.

     As I have said many times, Israel clearly had a right to respond to the horrific Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages, including Americans.

     But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has also waged all-out war against the Palestinian people. Within Gaza’s population of just 2.2 million, more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 103,000 injured — probably 60 percent of whom are women, children or elderly people.

     A recent U.N. assessment of satellite imagery found that two-thirds of all structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. That includes 87 percent of housing, 84 percent of health facilities, and about 70 percent of water and sanitation plants. Every one of Gaza’s 12 universities has been bombed, as have hundreds of schools.

     During the last year, millions of desperately poor people in Gaza have been driven from their homes, forced to evacuate again and again with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

     Families have been herded into so-called safe zones, only to face continued bombardment. The children of Gaza have suffered a level of physical and emotional trauma that is almost beyond comprehension and that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

     As horrific as the situation in Gaza has been over the past year, it is getting unimaginably worse. Humanitarian aid workers on the ground report that tens of thousands of children are now experiencing malnutrition and starvation because of Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid.

     The need is greater than at any other time in the conflict; the volume of aid getting into Gaza in recent weeks is lower than at any point since the war began. And Israel’s recent decision to ban the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza, will only make a horrific situation even worse.

     I have met with doctors who have served in Gaza, treating hundreds of patients a day without electricity, anesthesia or clean water, including dozens of children arriving with gunshot wounds to the head.

     I’ve seen the photographs and the videos. UNICEF estimates that 10 children lose a leg in Gaza every day. There are more than 17,000 orphans.

     All of this is unspeakable and immoral. But what makes it even more painful is that much of this death and destruction has been carried out with U.S. weaponry and paid for by American taxpayers.

     During the last year alone, the United States has provided $18 billion in military aid to Israel and delivered more than 50,000 tons of armaments and military equipment.

     In other words, as Americans, we are complicit in these horrific and illegal atrocities. Our complicity must end.

     I understand there are those who will argue that blocking these offensive arms sales will only embolden terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as their sponsors in Iran. I would respectfully disagree.

     You do not effectively combat terrorism by starving thousands of innocent children. You do not effectively combat terrorism by bombing schools and hospitals. You do not effectively combat terrorism by turning virtually the entire world against your country.

     Because of its immoral actions, Israel is less secure and increasingly isolated. Israel is becoming a pariah nation condemned by governments around the world, international institutions and humanitarian organizations.

     Britain recently suspended 30 arms export licenses after concluding there was an unacceptable risk they could be used in violation of international humanitarian law.

     Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands have taken similar steps. U.N. bodies have called for an end to the arms shipments fueling the conflict.

     Let’s be clear: Israel, like any other nation, has a right to defend itself and these resolutions will not endanger that defense. Instead, they specifically target offensive weapons that are responsible for thousands of civilian deaths.

     The American people have had enough. Poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose sending more weapons and military aid to fuel Netanyahu’s war machine.

     We should listen to the American people. The Congress must act now to stop these arms sales.

     –by Bernie Sanders; November 18, 2024

     and Instead of
     
     Bernie Fucking Sanders

     we had
     
     Joe fucking Biden
     
     shoved down our throats
     
     by the “democratic’ national committee

     Just
     
     THINK
     
     Where We
     
     Might Be today

     not to
     
     Mention
     
     Palestine

     ‘Thanks’ to the
     
     Wormtongues
     
     of the World

     who’re
     
     STILL advocating
     
     for Continuation of bibi’s
     
     Keep-the-Fuck-Outta-Prison gambit.

160. 149 you’re pretty tech savvy for a little old lady

161. @160: Ironically agist and sexist – think twice before you post to avoid further blemishing your reputation.

162. from nyt’s The Opinions:

     David Brooks: Maybe
     
     Bernie Sanders
     
     Is Right

     the first four comments:

     Of course Bernie has been right all along. The problem is that he’s been painted by the media as a radical when all he’s been espousing is providing American citizens with things that other industrialized countries have had for over half a century, and which are considered mainstream there.
     
     –Gary; Oslo; Nov. 13

     Yes, Bernie is what the nation needs. He is pro-working class, pro Veteran, pro fair taxation. He has never changed his position and is not beholden to the billionaires. People trust Bernie, even if they don’t support him. Look what he does in Vermont: he is always working for the next generation and supports democracy.
     
     –HF; US of Anxiety

     I personally know Bernie over these past forty years. He’s selfless, honest and completely genuine. Something that perhaps some people can’t imagine is even possible. Which says more about them than it says about him.
     
     –Lilly; Beautiful New Hampshire

     Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Workman’s Compensation, Worker Disability Benefits, The 40 hr. Workweek, Overtime Pay, Workplace Safty Standards (OSHA) Mandated Employer Paid Healthcare, Obamacare.

     The list goes on. All these were written and delivered to the working men and woman of America by the Democratic Party without the support or approval of the Republican Party.

     They were against it all. Name one thing the Republicans delivered for working Americans that made a difference. And yet they vote for Trump.

     Who has about as much in common with and cares as little for the working man as anyone can imagine.

     PT Barnum was right.
     
     –ed; geneva ny

     Bernie Sanders is always presented as the most ultra-left politician. Yet, you don’t hear him going on about identity politics, DEI, ERT, trans-genders, pronouns or other ‘woke’ topics.

     Bernie talks about living wages, affordable housing, better healthcare, reasonably priced prescription drugs, and more equity in corporate salaries.

     The Democrats need to win back the working classes. Bernie is old now, so they need to find a new Bernie Sanders.
     
     -Jill; Princeton NJ

     https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/opinion/united-states-education-divide.html#commentsContainer

     a New
     
     Bernie.
     
     AOC baby

163. latest comment:
     
     barth on November
     
     18, 2024 at 1:51 PM

     other than Posting
     
     How might one
     
     Get here to
     
     Read the
     
     Latest?

164. The Stranger’s commenting-thingy becomes unreliable after ~100 comments, so this will be my last comment in this thread. I may not have been able to see every comment made, so please accept my apologies in advance for redundancy; I mean no disrespect.

     @153: “First of all, “62 percent of respondents who voted for President Biden in 2020 agree with the statement, “The US should stop weapons shipments to Israel until Israel discontinues its attacks on the people of Gaza,” while just 14 percent disagree.”

     First of all, after reviewing the results of Washington State’s Democratic Primary elections, the Stranger concluded, “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes.” So nobody in power actually cares how many public-opinion polls you pull out of wherever.

     “If 62% of your supporters are in favor of something it’s pretty stupid, electorally speaking, to do the opposite, would you agree?”

     If what your supporters are asking you to do is flatly illegal, promising them you’d do it is pretty stupid, legally speaking, would you agree?

     (Please note that Harris and Trump would likely give opposite answers to that question.)

     “Anyone who sees a meaningful distinction between those positions is a pathetic dupe.”

     Or understands there’s actually a federal law which prevented Biden from carrying through on his threat.

     ‘But polling makes clear that it wasn’t just the “HaRd LeFt” that wanted Biden to work to stop the humanitarian disaster in Gaza it was a significant majority of his base.’

     “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes.”

     “But either way if a candidate’s stance on an issue is so wildly unpopular that it costs them TEN MILLION VOTES, again, do you not agree that if they hope to win they should change that stance?”

     Since (all together now), “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes,” that’s not what happened here. If obsessively focusing on an irrelevant conflict half a world away is going to get you Trump, then do you not agree you should have changed that stance, especially after you were told (one last time!) it wasn’t driving votes?

     I must say, on the question of popular* vs. legal, you’ve shown a downright Trumpian preference for the former. Little wonder Harris’ integrity angered you so much. You’ve also gone a long way toward showing how Sawant wound up stumping for Trump.

     *Not really

     @159: ICYMI, Bernie’s resolutions have since humiliatingly fizzled, getting all of 18 votes. (Oof, feel the bern!) So that was a lot of copypasta, just to have Bernie revealed as an old, weak, and irrelevant relic who can’t actually accomplish (or even influence) much of anything.

Comments are closed.