Juliajms

^ Yep. I think this UN resolution is unfortunate in a number of ways, but Netanyahu tried to go around President Obama twice, so I can't be sorry he got his hand slapped. I do worry about Trump and the Republicans using this as an excuse to defund the UN and who knows what it means for the future of Jews in the Democratic party. What's done is done though and I guess we'll see how things play out. I'm a little skeptical of the idea that settlements preclude a two state solution. Israel has an Arab population of over 20%. Is there some reason the land Palestine uses for it's state has to be totally devoid of Jews? Why would the international community think it's ok to support that?

^ I think that's a stretch. It sounds to me like they are still talking about Jesus. Every year his birth (when he became the new King or King of Kings) is celebrated. Otherwise the implication is we had an old King and I'm pretty sure no one in the Republican party saw President Obama as a King. Nor do I think many people in the Republican establishment think of Trump as a King or even like him all that much.

I think undocumented immigrants have unrealistic hopes sometimes, but don't we all? A year of his life spent in detention and then back to pay the debt of a lifetime. All after that insane trek through jungles and hostile territory. That's a hell of a price to pay. I hope word spreads that coming her illegally under Trump is a bad idea. I'm legitimately worried about how people are treated with him in charge, not that they got the red carpet this time around either, but it can get worse.

The way I see it if he gets us nuked we have no more problems. If he doesn't we are going to be billions more in debt, while his defense contractor buddies rake in cash hand over fist. Meanwhile, poor kids go hungry and sick people aren't treated and the social safety net is being gutted. It's ridiculous to spend money on an arms race when we already can blow up the planet 100 times over. It's so frustrating that it's come to this.

^ "Let's make it an arms race". Brilliant! Let's waste a lot of money on nuke we don't need.

I'm sure most of you saw this case in Texas where the black mother was arrested after calling the police when her son was assaulted. I'm really at a loss on how these types of bad police can be reigned in or how the system can be changed to prevent them from getting this kind of power over people. Then again maybe under Trump no one is even going to try. The officer is just so calm and collected, which I suppose his way of baiting this woman, it's really upsetting to watch. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/12/22/a-black-mother-told-police-a-white-man-assaulted-her-child-they-arrested-her-instead/?utm_term=.619b3091aa2e

I wonder how Ms Quartermaine is doing? I know she was having a hard time with the election results. Michelle Obama is certainly right. Now we really now what it is not to have hope. Not that I'm completely hopeless, I don't think this dark time is forever.

How the Republicans are afraid of Trump and his minions. I find this article very disturbing. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-congress-republicans-232800

^ Israel doesn't trust the UN. Even the Secretary General just came out and said that an unfair number of resolutions have been brought against Israel and I don't think anyone would call him pro Israel. And let's be real, the United States would never leave it's fate in the hands of the UN, so why would any other nuclear power? The population of Gaza is exploding, so something is going to have to happen, I just don't think there is any solution that leads to peace. I hope I'm wrong. The occupied territories are a small space full of children. I hate to even think about what a large scale war would mean for them, after we saw the carnage summer of 2014 brought. Meanwhile instead of leaving bad enough alone Trump is determined to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Obviously, I'm pro Israel, but why on Earth stir the pot? I imagine Kushner is behind this. Maybe they want to push the conflict forward so he is President when it happens, I don't know. It's pure folly from my perspective. As to Carl's article, wow. I had no idea things were getting that ugly in the Florida democratic party. I'm getting less hopeful that we can get our s*it together and rebound from this loss anytime soon.

And a large number of major donors, not just in Florida. It seem obvious to me that after the Holocaust the number one priority of the Jewish people is having and protecting a homeland. No matter what. This tends to be a topic where I keep my mouth shut in real life and discuss only very lightly online. As far as I can see there is not a good solution. Eventually there will almost certainly have to be two states and that will almost certainly lead to a terrible war. I bet if we could check in on planet Earth in 200 years this conflict will still be going on.

Safe is a relative thing. Of course we are safer than war torn countries, but we still have a target on our backs. Just because most of the people who have tried to attack us have mostly failed doesn't mean our luck will hold out. It's only a matter of time before someone manages to pull off another major attack. Especially when you consider some of these terrorist are state sponsored. That's way more dangerous than a guy with a truck who can only kill a few people at a time. Of course, I don't think we are safer under Trump, quite the opposite.

^ Got it. I looked her up and saw she was in Clueless. How appropriate.

I have no idea how Stacey Dash is, so I'll take your word for it.

Yep. I don't remember him being a troll when he posted years back, but obviously times have changed.

^ The outright fake news trend is disturbing. It's really true that certain lies get all the way around the internet before the truth gets it's shoes on. In both of today's terrorist attacks, I figured it was exactly what it looked like, but I do try to wait for the official word. One of these days it's just going to be a pissed off person who decides to drive into a crowd and not a jihadist. In the attack on the Islamic Center, I figured there probably aren't many random shootings in Switzerland, but I always hope these things aren't what they seem.

Then I stand corrected. Wow. Actually firing on people while they are praying. It almost makes me wish I believed in hell.

That wouldn't make a lot of sense. The authorities aren't even sure the Islamic Center was the reason for the shooting, since it was near it, but not in it.

^ That's pretty sad. I hope it's not true.

Interesting post by Robert Reich. I don't necessarily agree about what needs to be done about it though: It's important to be realistic about what we’re up against – not just Trump and his dystopian administration but also a Republican Senate that will be difficult to dislodge in 2018. Only 8 Republican senators will be up for reelection in 2018, but 22 Democrats and 2 Independents who caucus with Democrats will be up for reelection. 10 of those Democrats are from states that Trump just won. This requires a complete reinvention of the Democratic Party – not just a new “message” or a “shift to the middle,” as some Democratic strategists are urging. In the future, the real contest is between authoritarian populism (Trump) and progressive populism (epitomized by Bernie Sanders). Democrats must become progressive populists. What do you think? _____________________________ SENATE DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS UP FOR REELECTION IN 2018 SEATS IN STATES THAT TRUMP WON 1. Tammy Baldwin (WI) 2. Sherrod Brown OH) 3. Bob Casey: 2012 (PA) 4. Joe Donnelly (IN) 5. Heidi Heitkamp (ND 6. Joe Manchin (WVA) 7. Claire McCaskill: (MO) 8. Bill Nelson (FL) 9. Debbie Stabenow (MI) 10. Jon Tester (MT) OTHER DEMOCRATIC AND INDEPENDENT SENATORS UP FOR REELECTION IN 2018 11. Ben Cardin (MD) 12: Maria Cantwell (WA) 13. Dianne Feinstein (CA) 14. Tom Caper (DE): 15. Kristen Gillibrand (NY) 16. Martin Heinrich (NM) 17. Mazie Hirono (HI) 18. Tim Kaine (VA) 19. Angus King (I-ME) 20. Amy Klobuchar (MN) 21. Bob Menendez (NJ) 22. Chris Murphy (CT) 23. Bernie Sanders (VT-I) 24. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)

And that was what many liberals said when it came to Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and they were right. The Syrian civil war is nothing like World War 2, it's a lot more like the last three pointless, unwinnable wars. Hell, I guess it's four if you count Korea. The weight of the world is on the United States if we continue to be arrogant enough to think it's out place to stick our nose into ever regional skirmish that comes along. That hasn't worked out so well for us over the last 60 years and I don't see that anyone has been better for it, including the people we were supposedly trying to help. It's time to stop making the same mistakes.

I agree that history will judge The United States for not taking in more refugees. Another thing is Israel tried to bomb a bunker they thought Assad was hiding in a few weeks ago. You have to wonder if the Obama administration had a hand in that.

I think the only way I might be in tune with our country's zeitgeist is in thinking that we need to stay out of other people's wars. It certainly is sad when you come upon the limits of your country's power and realize you can't save everyone. Not even when many of those people are little children because if we had become involved a lot of people still would have died. We have to start learning our limits and stop making the same mistakes over and over. The day may come when we do have to do battle with Russia, but we don't have to do it over Syria.

And that's the problem. When we intervene people get pissed off, say we are trying to be the world's police and that we deserve the terrorism that results. When we don't, we've abandoned whatever vulnerable population that's involved in the conflict at hand. Someone on CNN yesterday was saying we should have armed the moderate rebels. How many times have we done that only to find we are arming the next wave of jihadists? I also don't think we should get involved in any more proxy wars unless we are willing to take it all the way. If we wanted to help we should have taken more refugees, but the country as a whole doesn't seem willing to do that.

I do love it when Obama uses the line "we'll respond at the time and place of our choosing". I'm no expecting him to do anything that changes Trump's presidency, but I do hope he hits the Russians back before he leaves office. I'm talking about cyber war here not conventional. We may never know even know what is done.

It's sad that we have to celebrate what should be an easy win, given that he flat out said he did it. Not even sure there there was a trial. Why didn't he just plead guilty? Of course given how some of these police officer's trials have gone even when there is a damn video a conviction isn't assured. Crazy days.