The Donald J. Trump Presidency

undo wrote:Even most Trump voters distrust and/or hate North Korea

chrondog wrote:It's not anti-Hillary revisionism (which is the subtext of your hmmmm...).

Hillary was super in bed with the Israel lobby and they wrote her a resolution redefining anti-semitism that was codified by her State Department. The Clintons have never ever ever been progressive on Israel and it was a huge criticism I leveled at her during the campaign. This issue has been of particular interest to me for almost 10 years.

Here it is: https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/fs/2010/122352.htm

It was then codified by international bodies in 2016: https://www.state.gov/s/rga/resources/267538.htm

It's extremely problematic because it defines anti-semitism very loosely as any number of criticisms of Israel or Israeli influence. So many of these phrases are open to huge interpretation:

"allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective"
"Blaming Israel for all inter-religious or political tensions"
"denying Israel the right to exist"

In the case of Omar, they seize on "Making...stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective--especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government, or other societal institutions."

In the case of Omar, it didn't matter that she specifically references Israel or pro-Israel groups. Because of the systematic attempt to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-semitism, making a comment about pro-Israel money in politics is AUTOMATICALLY about Jews, despite the fact that the Israel lobby is made up for Evangelical Christians and foreign policy hawks as well.

The resolution is so mealy and imprecise because it was designed to invite these types of controversies. That any remark critical of Israel, AIPIC, or the foreign policy consensus in the Middle East instantly devolves into race-baiting serves the interests of the lobby. We can't have a conversation about the policy.

The campus Hillel at my college was pushing this idea back in 2009-10 and I used to get into arguments with other students about it all the time. Part of their argument (and the argument of the State Department's resolution) is that we apply an unfair "double standard" to Israel and don't condemn violence by Palestinians. So much to say about that:

1. Power is asymmetrical and there will ALWAYS be different standards applied to different nations, that doesn't make it ethnic hate.
2. The overwhelming majority of people condemn Palestinian violence, but that doesn't matter to bad faith pro-Israel partisans because they don't actually care about that, only advancing their own interests (which, as an interest group, more power to em I guess).
3. The United States is the most violent nation-state in history and applying double standards about human rights issues is our bread and butter. Anything Israel is doing, we've done worse. If the US can't apply double standards, we can't have a foreign policy critical of anything (and maybe that's the most fair, honestly).
4. We can have whatever fucking standard we want for Israel because we give them well over $3 billion in military aid annually

This is why the Left needs to take on the Democratic Party every single day.

zappo wrote:Did you see that Israel itself is now antisemitic?  Disgusting.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-indicted-bribe-fraud-charges-n977571

Duff... wrote:Might want to see Bibi behind bars more than even Trump.

That this stroke is making nice with actual white supremacists in Europe really underscores how ridiculous this "controversy" is.

zappo wrote:No room for hate speech 'round these parts.

The Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people is still being investigated, but what is becoming clearer is that there may have been issues with the make of the plane itself, the Boeing 737 Max 8, which also crashed in Indonesia in October of last year.

In that flight, investigators determined that a faulty instrument reading forced an automated “safety feature” to send the plane into the sea, according to QZ. All 189 on board that flight died.

Although the U.S. has deemed the Boeing 737 aircraft safe to fly, several countries have grounded the fleet, including China, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Australia.

According to QZ, Boeing said on Monday that it has been working on a new software update for the planes with US officials for “the past several months” and planned to release it “no later than April.”

What makes that especially interesting is those upgrades could have happened in January but were delayed until next month because of “engineering challenges,” “differences of opinion” between federal and Boeing officials, and the 35-day government shutdown, during which “consideration of the fixes was suspended,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

QZ reports:

During the shutdown, the longest in US government history, FAA activities deemed crucial, including air-traffic control and safety oversight, continued, although the workers involved were unpaid. Many other activities were stopped.

After the Lion Air crash, the FAA—which, with EU airline regulators, generally sets the tone for aviation safety worldwide—issued a new “airworthiness directive” to US operators of the Boeing 737 8 and 9 planes, warning that an “unsafe condition” exists on the models and providing flight crews “with runaway horizontal stabilizer trim procedures to follow under certain conditions.”
…
The 61,000-member pilots association warned Trump of the dangers in a letter on Jan. 2, noting specifically that complicated oversight of manufacturing activities had stopped or were “significantly reduced”…

The pilots, sounded the alarm again Jan. 10, in a letter to Trump, House speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

And then, on March 14, all 157 passengers and crew perished after Ethiopian Airlines flight 302—a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft—came down six minutes after taking off from Bole Airport.

Although we cannot know conclusively if the software fix could have prevented the tragedy in Ethiopia, it’s probably not ever a good idea to mess with air travel or people’s lives (and livelihoods) for a fucking wall that no one wants.

BGwaves wrote:new games have good soundtracks too:


Ive listened to this whole thing at work a few times. Drexyia fans take note

Nick wrote:It’s only Tuesday & the Republican victory lap along with what will apparently be a complete white washing of all the corrupt shit Mueller actually did uncover by the media has made for a rough 48 hours.

Throw in the awful news about the Parkland & Sandy Hook suicides & Schumer equating Omar’s comments to Trump’s in Charlottesville at AIPAC...

Fuck everything.

Duff... wrote:So the good news is that the final word on this topic hasn't been said yet, and indeed the narrative is already changing.