And They're Off! The Democratic Candidates for 2020

[drogulus]

     The Wall Streeters who actually like Elizabeth Warren

Supporters also trust her in the event of a potential recession. They see her as an experienced economic hand who would seek to spend more money at the lower ends of the economic spectrum rather than at the top, and they assume the deficit is going to continue to balloon whoever the next president is, Republican or Democrat. "At the macro level, the redistribution of wealth back into consumer's pockets will positively impact equity markets," said a State Street vice president. "It's just what side of the ledger you want to look at."

     Yes, Wall Streeters speak crackpotese. It came from one of their own and now it's going back to them. The money system should feed customers first, and through them the capitalists, while a better regulated financial sector profits from the increase with less vampirism.

     

[Florestan]

BDS is "the latest iteration of antiSemitism" for dumb people brainwashed by the corporate media.

I let the Israeli Government itself brainwash me.


TERRORISTS IN SUITS
The Ties Between NGOs promoting BDS and Terrorist Organizations

February 2019

How terrorists came to hold key positions in NGOs promoting the Boycott Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign against the State of Israel; and how, through these NGOs, they exploit Western  governmental  funding,  philanthropic  foundations,  financial platforms and civil society to advance their goal of dismantling the State of Israel.

In  this  report,  the  Ministry  of  Strategic  Affairs  and  Public  Diplomacy exposes the ties between 13 European, Palestinian, American and South African NGOs and the designated terror organizations Hamas and The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Hamas  and  PFLP  operatives  have  infiltrated  and  adopted  seemingly  benign  NGOs  for  the  purpose  of  advancing  their  ideological goal: the elimination of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Concealing ties to terrorist organizations has often led Western authorities, especially in Europe, to view former and current terrorist operatives and the NGOs of which they are part of as legitimate civil society actors. This report aims to expose the terrorists working for the anti-Israel BDS campaign.

The  State  of  Israel  calls  upon  Western  countries,  financial  institutions,  NGOs,  and  private  philanthropic  foundations  to  examine  the  activities  of  such  NGOs  and  activists  and terminate any funding granted to them

[drogulus]

     Bibi has Israel firmly planted in the TrumPutin "Axis". If war comes to Israel it will be through Iran, and so an insurance policy is required.

     The Palestinians are as much a football for the main players as the Kurds are. The rights they have are subject to the same national interests as control the fate of Kurds who also desire a state, only Palestinians get more support from Arab/Muslim exploiters while the Kurds are ethnic and religious pariahs.

     I opposed the Biden scheme for Iraq at the time. An independent Kurdish state seemed more risky than an Iraq jealous enough of its own sovereignty to impose limits on Iranian encroachment. Kurdistan could be another Israel everyone would go to war against on religious and ethnic grounds. Was Sleepy Joe right?

[drogulus]

     Say this for Biden, not only does he know foreign policy, he spearheaded the Obama anti-corruption drive in Ukraine. Everything he did was consistent with U.S. national interests and fully coordinated with State Dept. efforts.

     Trump has defunded anti-corruption efforts. He doesn't care about corruption, he cares about Biden and a nonexistent server.

[drogulus]

     Will Democrats Become Born-Again Neocons?


     That's not how I would put it, or how Dems will put it. Internationalism will be different with plenty of cross pollination.

On America's global role, Obama was lauded by Democrats for pursuing geopolitical "retrenchment" for the sake of "nation-building at home." Trump has made the identical false promise in the name of "America First." Only now it's being condemned as a derogation of America's global responsibilities.

All of this raises the possibility — faintly — that while Trump steers the American right toward a foreign policy of retreat, appeasement, and non-intervention, liberals might rediscover their Trumanesque faith in the necessity of Pax Americana. The world quickly becomes unsafe in the absence of U.S. power and will. Ceding ground to dictators is destined to work about as well today as it did when it was last tried in the 1930s.

     History is available to all who wish to draw on its lessons. 

[JBS]

BDS is "the latest iteration of antiSemitism" for dumb people brainwashed by the corporate media. For non-brainwashed people it's about the human rights of Palestinians. It is actions against the GOVERNMENT of Israel, not Israel as a country, people of Israel or Jews. People who were against the Obama administration were not anti-USA. They were anti-Obama.

BDS is a movement that advocates on behalf of entities whose goal is ethnically cleansing "Palestine" of Jews, or even in the case of Hamas outright genocide, and whose preferred method of operation of killing Jews. The BDS movement not only condones or outright supports this, it claims Israel has no right to defend itself.  The aim of BDS is not to support the human rights of Palestinians. That is easy to demonstrate, since it supports the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which suppress human rights in all areas they control to a far greater extent than anything the Israeli government does.

But if a movement supports organizations dedicated to killing Jews because they are Jews,  anti-Semitism is an accurate description.

[Daverz]

BDS is a movement that advocates on behalf of entities whose goal is ethnically cleansing "Palestine" of Jews, or even in the case of Hamas outright genocide, and whose preferred method of operation of killing Jews. The BDS movement not only condones or outright supports this, it claims Israel has no right to defend itself.  The aim of BDS is not to support the human rights of Palestinians. That is easy to demonstrate, since it supports the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which suppress human rights in all areas they control to a far greater extent than anything the Israeli government does.

But if a movement supports organizations dedicated to killing Jews because they are Jews,  anti-Semitism is an accurate description.

Where do you get this crap?

[Florestan]

the Palestinian Authority and Hamas... suppress human rights in all areas they control to a far greater extent than anything the Israeli government does.

Excellent observation.

[milk]

Excellent observation.

I often feel I'm in the very middle of everything on these issues. I don't agree with BDS, don't agree with efforts to ban or sanction people who DO agree with it, and DO feel Israel operates outside of human rights norms - So do many groups opposing Israel BTW. And the idea of eliminating Israel as the entity it is, and I know many many people around me who want to do just that, is counterproductive, a fantasy, and a disaster of an idea. These voices criticizing Israel are often right about Israel's moral and legal, from an international law perspective, failures. Yet those people, like Roger Waters, Brian Eno and AOC, who agree with BDS, have moved things in a very dangerous and sad direction. They've been aided by Netanyahu types too. The two extremes act in concert almost like a conspiracy, driving the debate to an extreme place where a solution seems less and less likely. The only sensible solution is a negotiated two-state agreement. And also BTW, I'm giving my two cents here but I really try my best to avoid thinking or caring too much about that region of the world. I was once told by someone who DID care that I had some kind of duty to be involved in that particular issue. It's fine for people to speak out as they believe they should.
Yet there are some people who are so arrogant that they think no other place or issue matters and there are also people who can't get their minds off Jews no matter where in the world they are or what the issue happens to be. Anyway, this high horse of thinking that it's racist to have ANY Jewish state there will never accept peace and the Israeli right wing is also fast missing the boat by not trying to find ways making an agreement, even if it comes to naught.

[Florestan]

don't agree with efforts to ban or sanction people who DO agree with it

The BDS is just a facade for good-willed but ill-informed Western people.

https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/generalpage/terrorists_in_suits/en/De-Legitimization%20Brochure.pdf

[drogulus]

     The problem with ethnic states is there's no universalist argument for them, and no universalist argument to destroy them. All of the arguments must presuppose the possibility of agreement, the recognition of a form of superseding principle such as those governing open societies with rights that don't depend on ethnic or religious identity. If that is deemed unsuitable it's a matter of might makes right. The possibility of settlement by common values is rejected in favor of non-negotiable claims.

     One hopes people decide on pragmatic grounds to adopt identities flexible enough for government work, keeping religious and ethnic identities under control. Jews and Muslims do that in the U.S. and elsewhere without abandoning their identities. So do Christians. It's common for people to have multiple identities running at once. I'm only an atheist when I want to discuss it, the rest of the time I maintain recognizably human form. Sometimes I'm an American in the English language philosophical tradition. I live a few miles from where the American branch was born.

     

[71 dB]

Where do you get this crap?

AIPAC-friendly corporate media perhaps? 

[drogulus]

AIPAC-friendly corporate media perhaps? 

     There's more to an argument than where it comes from. Satan told me that.

[Karl Henning]

     There's more to an argument than where it comes from. Satan told me that.

Dude, were you inviting him actually to read, and to address the issue?!

It is to laugh!

[JBS]

I often feel I'm in the very middle of everything on these issues. I don't agree with BDS, don't agree with efforts to ban or sanction people who DO agree with it, and DO feel Israel operates outside of human rights norms - So do many groups opposing Israel BTW. And the idea of eliminating Israel as the entity it is, and I know many many people around me who want to do just that, is counterproductive, a fantasy, and a disaster of an idea. These voices criticizing Israel are often right about Israel's moral and legal, from an international law perspective, failures. Yet those people, like Roger Waters, Brian Eno and AOC, who agree with BDS, have moved things in a very dangerous and sad direction. They've been aided by Netanyahu types too. The two extremes act in concert almost like a conspiracy, driving the debate to an extreme place where a solution seems less and less likely. The only sensible solution is a negotiated two-state agreement. And also BTW, I'm giving my two cents here but I really try my best to avoid thinking or caring too much about that region of the world. I was once told by someone who DID care that I had some kind of duty to be involved in that particular issue. It's fine for people to speak out as they believe they should.
Yet there are some people who are so arrogant that they think no other place or issue matters and there are also people who can't get their minds off Jews no matter where in the world they are or what the issue happens to be. Anyway, this high horse of thinking that it's racist to have ANY Jewish state there will never accept peace and the Israeli right wing is also fast missing the boat by not trying to find ways making an agreement, even if it comes to naught.

I would contend that Israel actually stays well within the norms of human rights....but otherwise I think that's a fair and reasonable statement.

[drogulus]

Dude, were you inviting him actually to read, and to address the issue?!

It is to laugh!

     Uhh....maybe?

[JBS]

Where do you get this crap?

Reality.
The BDS movement operates merely as a channel for Palestinian propaganda. To the best of my knowledge, BDSers have never challenged Palestinian terrorism and incitement of violence, never challenged Hamas's dictatorial rule over Gaza, never challenged the PA's suppression of rights in the areas it controls. They always seem to condone  or even outright apologize for those things.

[drogulus]

Reality.
The BDS movement operates merely as a channel for Palestinian propaganda. To the best of my knowledge, BDSers have never challenged Palestinian terrorism and incitement of violence, never challenged Hamas's dictatorial rule over Gaza, never challenged the PA's suppression of rights in the areas it controls. They always seem to condone  or even outright apologize for those things.

     That's why I think a human rights campaign directed equally at all violators and promoting democracy throughout Israel and the territories would be effective.

     Muslim supporters of Israel

     There are even Muslim Zionists in Israel and around the world.

[Madiel]

I would contend that Israel actually stays well within the norms of human rights....but otherwise I think that's a fair and reasonable statement.

I don't think it's normal, when someone commits a crime, to demolish the family's house.

EDIT: Nor frankly is it a sensible strategy, as it just creates a sense of grievance.

[JBS]

     That's why I think a human rights campaign directed equally at all violators and promoting democracy throughout Israel and the territories would be effective.

     Muslim supporters of Israel

     There are even Muslim Zionists in Israel and around the world.

Agreed.