The GOP was quick on the draw with the blame game. I guess that's just what they do. They sure got we on "the left" feeling like we have to denounce violence we had nothing to do with.
I support people figuring out ways to live together that don't involve one person's religion or ethnic origin or political party trumping the other person's property rights, bodily autonomy, or overall freedom.
I don't support kicking a group of people around Europe and the ME for hundreds of years. I don't support those people kicking other people around. I don't support retaliation.
But... but... what's your PLAN, huh? I like how the people who have no power to change anything are always the ones who are supposed to have a PLAN in their back pocket. Give me the actual power to redraw the map, then I'll give some serious thought as to how the map should be drawn.
You mean what has already gone wrong. We’re here today because Kushner gave away the store. Netanyahu had free rein to continue to build illegal settlements and allow his right-wing government to impose harsher penalties on the Palestinian people.
As far as I can tell, settlement expansion has been going on for decades, the difference is Democrats make mild noises of disapproval while Republicans cheer it on enthusiastically. But it's unlikely a thug like Netanyahu cares which sounds come from Washington as long as the weapons shipments keep arriving on time.
Well, to my mind, all of this could’ve been avoided if instead of Palestine, we made the Catskills the Jewish homeland. There’s your Plan, now where’s your Time Machine.
WW I was the cause. The British rewarded Weizmann Palestine for his development of acetone from carbohydrates. Videlicet Balfour. Cf ethnic cleansing of e.g. Amerindians, Armenians, Sudeten Germans, etc.
If you look carefully in the background of the Ramblin Jack Elliott photo you can see an adult Roy Edroso , just like Jack Nicholson in that photo at the end of "The Shining" . Since Roy is obviously here with us today, it's evident that sometime in the future Roy will be able to travel back in time.
That's pretty cool! I saw the photo and thought to myself "Well if anybody can-"
I'm hoping that with the Mideast problems now at the forefront of things that Joe Biden needs to deal with, we have a better shot of getting something accomplished there then I could ever recall.
Those are great pictures! The New York I remember (before that I was too young to lay down many long term memories). Men in jackets and hats. Women in dresses.
"But Olwë answered: ’ We renounce no friendship. But it may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend’s folly.'"
So wrote Tolkien, and so say I. Through the decades I have watched in horror-stricken awe as Israel has made life for the Palestinians ever worse, ever more unbearable. And then there is surprise when the Palestinians lash out.
While I cannot and definitely do not condone what Hamas has done, Israel would do well to heed the words of JFK: "Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
God doesn't mind taking in some women and children, but he really has a thing for young men, especially of a prime age and in peak physical condition. Unfortunately, the young and fit don't die at a fast enough rate to satisfy his desires, so he needs to do a little... um... arranging to get them to send one another his way.
And for those on the receiving end of the oppression, the question is whether you're going to pass quietly into history: "Hey, whatever happened to..." The Palestinians might have felt that when they saw Israel and the Saudis talking all friendly-like.
Old Twitter/New X was jam full of bad takes this weekend, to the point I started getting depressed. Just because Israel (especially under Benji) has been horrible to the Palestinians does not at all justify what Hamas did to innocent people, and what Hamas did does not justify what the IDF is currently doing to Innocent people in response.
There were far too many people justifying dead children this weekend. Elon must be proud.
And Roy, I'll piggyback with you to NY 1955, but I'll be doing to circuit of Ebbetts Field, the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium.
"Dozens of babies were brutally murdered — some even decapitated — by Hamas terrorists inside a kibbutz in southern Israel during Saturday's shocking assault on Israeli civilians, according to journalists who were let in to see the aftermath of the massacre and corroborated by the Israeli Defense Forces, in the most ghastly war crime committed in the conflict thus far." - Carlo Versano, The Messenger, October 10, 2023
“Since our preferred nexus of propaganda has switched from CNN and Scud Studs to Social Media and Disinfo Elmo, that’s where I’ve been seeing the current insane expressions of bloodlust and eliminationism against Palestinians — sometimes from Israeli officials and U.S. Senators.”
Seriously Ed, Greenwich Village 1975 is the best you’ve got? For a Time Machine, that could take you anywhere, and to any time in history? The drugs you took must have been spectacular!...:)
That said, these senators and right-wing politicians continually use the same page, from the same old playbook.
It reminds me of “thoughts and prayers” after every mass shooting. Now’s not the time to lay blame, it’s time for mourning. Now’s not the time to attack Netanyahu and his right-wing government, it’s time for revenge.
Let’s make sure we send Israel into that same “rabbit hole” that has destroyed any trust between Americans, the government, and each other. It’s worked so well, so far.
And in the end, republicans will tell you it’s Biden’s and Obama’s fault. I’m not sure how it’s Obama’s fault; it just is. Just like he was responsible for COVID. And how can Biden can have such low cognitive abilities, yet possess the sense to mastermind such evil destruction mayhem?
The truth is it’s Bibi and Trump’s fault. I’m making no apologies to Hamas. Killing two hundred and sixty people at a music concert is atrocious. Taking innocent civilians, including three year olds hostage is despicable. Hamas is a terrorist organization, plain and simple, and needs to be eradicated completely. And the people who blame Israel alone for this, are just plain ignorant of the facts.
That said, did you actually expect a different result when Trump and Kushner were in charge? Two amateurs who have monetized the presidency for their own selfish wealth and power. They moved the US embassy to Jerusalem without any concessions to the Palestinians. They annexed the Golen Heights, without a peace deal with Syria. And they allowed Netanyahu who expand the illegal settlements in the West Bank, while constricting the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, and put a stranglehold on Gaza.
The seeds were sown long ago. And the results predictable. I’m just shocked the attack didn’t happen sooner.
Let’s hope this ends sooner than later with a minimum loss of life as possible for both the Israeli’s and Palestinians.
"did you actually expect a different result when Trump and Kushner were in charge?"
Practicing his specialty, making bad situations worse, Trump was in New Hampshire yesterday to tell us that if the election hadn't been stolen and he had been President, this would never have happened, nor would the war in Ukraine have happened, giving the negative subjunctive a workout from which it will not soon recover.
And WHY would these things not have happened with Trump as President? Fool, explanations are for weak men, strong men only need to assert and it is true. Who are you, mere voter, to demand explanations from a Great Man like Donald J. Trump? Begone, peasant!
Well, look at who's puttin' on his lil' army boots and soldier's cap! So adorable when the lil' fella wants to play General. "Why, any Southern Gentleman is worth any TEN Yankee conscripts!" he says confidently in the library at Tara when Rhett Butler suggests the war might not go as well as he hopes.
“She had the impression Americans on the left did not believe that ‘Jewish lives matter,’...” Citation please. Where did this impression come from? The TV, the Internets, the relentless GOP spin machine?
These people are like opportunistic infections of the spirit, finding where people are wounded and vulnerable and rushing to infect them with hate." Nobody gets to the heart of the matter like Roy.
If we're condemned to see the same horrible shit happen over and over again until we die, the least we can ask for is someone who can describe the situation in a fresh way.
Got called a Jew-hater for wishing aloud that Trump and Bibi were on a pair of rocket sleds fired from opposite directions. Did I not hear (horrifying atrocity here)? Did I not care that more Jews died in one day then in any time since the Holocaust? Yeah, I saw this movie in 2001, and I don't care for a reboot.
Well, to be fair, it is easy to understand the accuser's feelings when you think how heinous it would be to fire Queens-Man-on-a-rocket-sled* at anyone...
*the new "Hunter Biden's Laptop!"**
**But not potent enough to displace "Three-handed Mother of God!"
This is yet another example of an issue about which the Dems could slaughter the Republicans but will bungle it and get slaughtered themselves. Iran supports Hamas, Russia supports Iran, Republicans support Russia, hence Republicans support Hamas and are 100 percent responsible for the attack on our beloved Israel. I mean, like Duh.
It's charming you think facts and logic are going to make an impression, let alone sway, the pure and unfettered mind of the Swing Voter, especially that 3-way bank shot there. I salute your faith and intention.
Who said anything about facts and logic? I’m talking theater and of course it can work. It just baffles me why people have just surrendered the field to these toxic cretins.
What does "work" mean? Serious question. I see nothing coming from this other than the smug satisfaction watching someone throw a pie in the face of a stuffed shirt. Maybe that's enough in these troubled times.
By “ work” I mean both taking over the narrative and winning elections. Theater put the Republicans in power, theater can certainly be used to oust them. And who has the best theater people? Eh? But nooooo. It seems to me that Dems and leftists don’t understand that the clowns driving the government car or the Trucks with the Trump flag and “Fuck Joe and the Ho” stickers are a tiny minority of Republicans. Dems should ridicule those asshats mercilessly until normal people are embarrassed to vote for a party that has them in it. That really shouldn’t be that difficult.
Fair enough. I don't believe taking over the narrative is any kind of game changer. I also think the Republicans not in the clown car don't like the clown car at all, but they hate Democrats a lot more, because taxes racism and freedom. Rather than a gimme. I believe slamming the Republicans for supporting Hamas simply makes Republicans the victims, their happy place, and won't be taken seriously by the people you want to reach. But hey, I could be very wrong. I've probably voted for more losing candidates than you, so my analysis could be way off.
I'm old enough and tired enough and cynical enough that I've given up on persuasion. Find someone who's inclined to vote for your team no matter what you say and then check that they're registered and know how and where to vote. It's the Wisconsin Way.
Just be sure you've got your talking points straight: 1) When Palestinians kill civilians, it's a war crime. 2) When Israelis kill civilians it's "Palestinians using their own people as human shields." That is all.
Well put.
The default, for these ghouls, is “the left” likes anything bad.
The GOP was quick on the draw with the blame game. I guess that's just what they do. They sure got we on "the left" feeling like we have to denounce violence we had nothing to do with.
To be fair, it takes almost no effort to put Democrats on the defensive, it's their natural state.
Ah, blowback from over 75 years of unjustifiably lousy foreign policy.
Not like we'll learn any lesson from any of this.
The Lebanese father of the missus always shot down her hopefulness when anything positive-ish popped up in the ME. He knew better/worse.
If Netan-yahoo is Old Guard, Israelis need some new guards...
I'll say what I said on Facebook yesterday.
I don't support Israel.
I don't support Palestine.
I support people figuring out ways to live together that don't involve one person's religion or ethnic origin or political party trumping the other person's property rights, bodily autonomy, or overall freedom.
I don't support kicking a group of people around Europe and the ME for hundreds of years. I don't support those people kicking other people around. I don't support retaliation.
But... but... what's your PLAN, huh? I like how the people who have no power to change anything are always the ones who are supposed to have a PLAN in their back pocket. Give me the actual power to redraw the map, then I'll give some serious thought as to how the map should be drawn.
My PLAN is to let Jared handle it. Is that a bad idea?
Love it, what could possibly go wrong?
You mean what has already gone wrong. We’re here today because Kushner gave away the store. Netanyahu had free rein to continue to build illegal settlements and allow his right-wing government to impose harsher penalties on the Palestinian people.
As far as I can tell, settlement expansion has been going on for decades, the difference is Democrats make mild noises of disapproval while Republicans cheer it on enthusiastically. But it's unlikely a thug like Netanyahu cares which sounds come from Washington as long as the weapons shipments keep arriving on time.
That is an ancillary gripe of mine. If I were in charge in any of the affected countries? Like, how would THAT happen?
"Here, take all the responsibilities associated with power but without any actual power, no need to thank me!"
Well, to my mind, all of this could’ve been avoided if instead of Palestine, we made the Catskills the Jewish homeland. There’s your Plan, now where’s your Time Machine.
Take my homeland, please!
Then how would we know when it's Rapturegeddon?
WW I was the cause. The British rewarded Weizmann Palestine for his development of acetone from carbohydrates. Videlicet Balfour. Cf ethnic cleansing of e.g. Amerindians, Armenians, Sudeten Germans, etc.
https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/photos/14-photos-of-greenwich-village-in-the-1950s
If you look carefully in the background of the Ramblin Jack Elliott photo you can see an adult Roy Edroso , just like Jack Nicholson in that photo at the end of "The Shining" . Since Roy is obviously here with us today, it's evident that sometime in the future Roy will be able to travel back in time.
That's pretty cool! I saw the photo and thought to myself "Well if anybody can-"
I'm hoping that with the Mideast problems now at the forefront of things that Joe Biden needs to deal with, we have a better shot of getting something accomplished there then I could ever recall.
Wait, what about Jared?!
This is probably his fault.
I like the way you think.
He walked away with $2 billion and a smirk.
I’m generally opposed to violence, but it sure would be satisfying to smack that smirk into next week.
Those are great pictures! The New York I remember (before that I was too young to lay down many long term memories). Men in jackets and hats. Women in dresses.
"But Olwë answered: ’ We renounce no friendship. But it may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend’s folly.'"
So wrote Tolkien, and so say I. Through the decades I have watched in horror-stricken awe as Israel has made life for the Palestinians ever worse, ever more unbearable. And then there is surprise when the Palestinians lash out.
While I cannot and definitely do not condone what Hamas has done, Israel would do well to heed the words of JFK: "Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
I've never been crazy about" this land is mine God gave this land to me."
"God told me to" never seems like a good excuse for anything.
It's a fight nobody can win.
Nobody except the weapons manufacturers and the morticians.
God told you he was giving the land to you. But he told the other guy something else. God likes to mess with people that way.
Just tryin' to insure a steady flow of souls into Heaven. It's a management thing.
Our Lord is a mighty MBA!
"That MRNA vaccine seems to be cutting into our intake numbers, better start another war."
God doesn't mind taking in some women and children, but he really has a thing for young men, especially of a prime age and in peak physical condition. Unfortunately, the young and fit don't die at a fast enough rate to satisfy his desires, so he needs to do a little... um... arranging to get them to send one another his way.
There's an 'Oof' in there somewhere...
This is my one and only religion, and I'm stickin' to it.
I prefer the Woody Guthrie version.
Was thinking of Langston Hughes' "Harlem" last night.
"Or does it explode?"
The problem with people who have no future is they have nothing to lose.
Problem?
Well, I mean from the perspective of those who'd rather have peace and quiet while they oppress. Ain't gonna happen.
And for those on the receiving end of the oppression, the question is whether you're going to pass quietly into history: "Hey, whatever happened to..." The Palestinians might have felt that when they saw Israel and the Saudis talking all friendly-like.
Old Twitter/New X was jam full of bad takes this weekend, to the point I started getting depressed. Just because Israel (especially under Benji) has been horrible to the Palestinians does not at all justify what Hamas did to innocent people, and what Hamas did does not justify what the IDF is currently doing to Innocent people in response.
There were far too many people justifying dead children this weekend. Elon must be proud.
And Roy, I'll piggyback with you to NY 1955, but I'll be doing to circuit of Ebbetts Field, the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium.
I don't know about '55. Too many cops. I'll take '77
I already had that.
Who wouldn't want to relive the summer of '77 blackouts?
77 blackouts is a fine band name.
You aren't wrong.
I'm increasingly glad I walked away from Xitter; I'm sure the anti-Semitism is off the chain over there.
Never been on it, at times my JOMO reaches astronomical levels.
Innocent people? Only innocents are those who vote for peace party and demonstrate for two state, etc. The rest are complicit.
That's a pretty good example of a bad take, but next time add in "they deserved to be sexually assaulted and murdered" for extra impact.
For the chef's kiss of dumb commentary, though, finish with "the victims of 9/11 weren't innocent because they were complicit in US foreign policy."
"Dozens of babies were brutally murdered — some even decapitated — by Hamas terrorists inside a kibbutz in southern Israel during Saturday's shocking assault on Israeli civilians, according to journalists who were let in to see the aftermath of the massacre and corroborated by the Israeli Defense Forces, in the most ghastly war crime committed in the conflict thus far." - Carlo Versano, The Messenger, October 10, 2023
“Since our preferred nexus of propaganda has switched from CNN and Scud Studs to Social Media and Disinfo Elmo, that’s where I’ve been seeing the current insane expressions of bloodlust and eliminationism against Palestinians — sometimes from Israeli officials and U.S. Senators.”
Seriously Ed, Greenwich Village 1975 is the best you’ve got? For a Time Machine, that could take you anywhere, and to any time in history? The drugs you took must have been spectacular!...:)
That said, these senators and right-wing politicians continually use the same page, from the same old playbook.
It reminds me of “thoughts and prayers” after every mass shooting. Now’s not the time to lay blame, it’s time for mourning. Now’s not the time to attack Netanyahu and his right-wing government, it’s time for revenge.
Let’s make sure we send Israel into that same “rabbit hole” that has destroyed any trust between Americans, the government, and each other. It’s worked so well, so far.
And in the end, republicans will tell you it’s Biden’s and Obama’s fault. I’m not sure how it’s Obama’s fault; it just is. Just like he was responsible for COVID. And how can Biden can have such low cognitive abilities, yet possess the sense to mastermind such evil destruction mayhem?
The truth is it’s Bibi and Trump’s fault. I’m making no apologies to Hamas. Killing two hundred and sixty people at a music concert is atrocious. Taking innocent civilians, including three year olds hostage is despicable. Hamas is a terrorist organization, plain and simple, and needs to be eradicated completely. And the people who blame Israel alone for this, are just plain ignorant of the facts.
That said, did you actually expect a different result when Trump and Kushner were in charge? Two amateurs who have monetized the presidency for their own selfish wealth and power. They moved the US embassy to Jerusalem without any concessions to the Palestinians. They annexed the Golen Heights, without a peace deal with Syria. And they allowed Netanyahu who expand the illegal settlements in the West Bank, while constricting the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, and put a stranglehold on Gaza.
The seeds were sown long ago. And the results predictable. I’m just shocked the attack didn’t happen sooner.
Let’s hope this ends sooner than later with a minimum loss of life as possible for both the Israeli’s and Palestinians.
"did you actually expect a different result when Trump and Kushner were in charge?"
Practicing his specialty, making bad situations worse, Trump was in New Hampshire yesterday to tell us that if the election hadn't been stolen and he had been President, this would never have happened, nor would the war in Ukraine have happened, giving the negative subjunctive a workout from which it will not soon recover.
And WHY would these things not have happened with Trump as President? Fool, explanations are for weak men, strong men only need to assert and it is true. Who are you, mere voter, to demand explanations from a Great Man like Donald J. Trump? Begone, peasant!
Notice, it’s always about Trump! He always has to insert himself into the conversation....:)
Inserts himself without consent.
Finger-bangs current events
The problem is that Hamas is not going to get bulldozed, it's Gaza.
And now, based on a bogus article from the WSJ, Lindsey Graham wants to bomb Iran. Sure, let's escalate things, worked so fucking well in the past.
Well, look at who's puttin' on his lil' army boots and soldier's cap! So adorable when the lil' fella wants to play General. "Why, any Southern Gentleman is worth any TEN Yankee conscripts!" he says confidently in the library at Tara when Rhett Butler suggests the war might not go as well as he hopes.
“She had the impression Americans on the left did not believe that ‘Jewish lives matter,’...” Citation please. Where did this impression come from? The TV, the Internets, the relentless GOP spin machine?
Because we didn't have "Jewish Lives Matter" signs out on our front lawns, duh.
What impressionist got inside her pristine little mind? If it was Rich Little, he's got a lotta 'splainin' to do!
These people are like opportunistic infections of the spirit, finding where people are wounded and vulnerable and rushing to infect them with hate." Nobody gets to the heart of the matter like Roy.
If we're condemned to see the same horrible shit happen over and over again until we die, the least we can ask for is someone who can describe the situation in a fresh way.
Yes. This is a perfect description of what they do.
Okay, I have to ask: Who's the cartoon character?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14889192/
Got called a Jew-hater for wishing aloud that Trump and Bibi were on a pair of rocket sleds fired from opposite directions. Did I not hear (horrifying atrocity here)? Did I not care that more Jews died in one day then in any time since the Holocaust? Yeah, I saw this movie in 2001, and I don't care for a reboot.
I, for one, endorse your bold plan to bring these two world leaders together (at high speed.)
Well, to be fair, it is easy to understand the accuser's feelings when you think how heinous it would be to fire Queens-Man-on-a-rocket-sled* at anyone...
*the new "Hunter Biden's Laptop!"**
**But not potent enough to displace "Three-handed Mother of God!"
Let Elon take them
Here is a funny story that has no practical application.
Shortly before Israel was founded, King Saud was grousing about his new neighbors to be with an American policy maker.
"Why don't you give them Germany as a homeland? You just conquered, after all."
"Considering the holocaust, your majesty, I don't think they'd be comfortable there."
"Obviously, you know very little about pacifying a country."
This is yet another example of an issue about which the Dems could slaughter the Republicans but will bungle it and get slaughtered themselves. Iran supports Hamas, Russia supports Iran, Republicans support Russia, hence Republicans support Hamas and are 100 percent responsible for the attack on our beloved Israel. I mean, like Duh.
It's charming you think facts and logic are going to make an impression, let alone sway, the pure and unfettered mind of the Swing Voter, especially that 3-way bank shot there. I salute your faith and intention.
Who said anything about facts and logic? I’m talking theater and of course it can work. It just baffles me why people have just surrendered the field to these toxic cretins.
What does "work" mean? Serious question. I see nothing coming from this other than the smug satisfaction watching someone throw a pie in the face of a stuffed shirt. Maybe that's enough in these troubled times.
By “ work” I mean both taking over the narrative and winning elections. Theater put the Republicans in power, theater can certainly be used to oust them. And who has the best theater people? Eh? But nooooo. It seems to me that Dems and leftists don’t understand that the clowns driving the government car or the Trucks with the Trump flag and “Fuck Joe and the Ho” stickers are a tiny minority of Republicans. Dems should ridicule those asshats mercilessly until normal people are embarrassed to vote for a party that has them in it. That really shouldn’t be that difficult.
Fair enough. I don't believe taking over the narrative is any kind of game changer. I also think the Republicans not in the clown car don't like the clown car at all, but they hate Democrats a lot more, because taxes racism and freedom. Rather than a gimme. I believe slamming the Republicans for supporting Hamas simply makes Republicans the victims, their happy place, and won't be taken seriously by the people you want to reach. But hey, I could be very wrong. I've probably voted for more losing candidates than you, so my analysis could be way off.
I'm old enough and tired enough and cynical enough that I've given up on persuasion. Find someone who's inclined to vote for your team no matter what you say and then check that they're registered and know how and where to vote. It's the Wisconsin Way.
Inside the mind of the Swing Voter: "Hummus? I hate that shit, can I get some onion dip? You know, the kind you make with that powdered soup mix."
Just be sure you've got your talking points straight: 1) When Palestinians kill civilians, it's a war crime. 2) When Israelis kill civilians it's "Palestinians using their own people as human shields." That is all.
Freedom Fighters: ours
Terrorists: theirs
Self-sacrificing patriot v. Crazy suicidal nutjob
Yeah, pretty much.
Which side are you on? as Flo Reece demanded...