The Politics Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

So, after the head of the FDA resigned, no replacement has been named-- meanwhile, there have been instances of asbestos found in makeup.

 

This is not normal yet seems to happen all the time under the Trump administration as the high turnover within Trump Inc. "The White House edition" continues.

[Khan]

 

"Word" to everything said here, @marceline.

[Vee]

I like Joe Biden a lot and always have but I think his time has come and gone for this, and he has too much baggage in the past to go forward in the party. People making him out to be Satan are trying too hard, but there is too much divisive smoke being blown there regardless.

 

I do think a white guy will need to be on the ticket, but as of now I am trending to Harris as the frontrunner.

[Khan]

I, for one, would not mind a ticket that includes Kamala Harris and Sherrod Brown.

[DRW50]

 

There's so much visceral hatred and fear toward Harris on both sides I'm not sure what will happen with her, but I do think she benefits from a number of the 'names' being around for too long or being overexposed. 

 

I have a lot of respect for Joe Biden, but he should have run 4 years ago or not at all. There's also so much focus on his psyche and personal reasons. It's giving me Hillary flashbacks. 

[Vee]

[Juliajms]

No.  His twitter from that time is full of tweets explaining why she was exactly wrong about AIPAC.

And speaking of Yair, here are some more good points he makes on this topic

 

[marceline]

 

I'm trying to stay neutral on that until he decides whether to announce but yes, I think Brown/Harris is a solid winning combination.

[Juliajms]

I would love that or if need be Biden Harris.  I certainly understand people's instinct to go the safe route.  We have to win this time no matter what.

[Vee]

This is one Jew who is beyond over the casually antisemitic faction of the left that thinks complaining about Rubio, Bari Weiss or Israel gives them a pass to brigade Jews on Twitter who have a problem with Omar's behavior.

[JaneAusten]

I apologize and acknowledge I was wrong about Yair. I was reading through some tweets between he and Mehdi and did not go back further to look at past writings. And honestly that article equating King to Omar set me off.

 

I'll just say I don't know if Omar is a bigot but if I apply the same standard to her as I apply to Jim Jordan or Meadows from the GOP who I do believe are bigots, than the answer would be yes. Tribalism I guess - I let my own allegiances shape how I saw her versus these others. That was wrong. And I'll admit to having a ton of animosity still for anyone who participated in any way or to staying silent, including the media, for not quickly condemning and squashing the birther lie.

 

I think the question I have is AIPAC as an advocate for Israel, are they advocating on behalf of Israel or the current government. Maybe the 2 cannot be separated. But is it ok to oppose Netanyahu's leadership and government and not being considered anti-Semitic?  Part of the problem is we the US have allowed this to fester for years with no real solution, probably a good reason as to why AIPAC exists, because of our own ambivalence.

 

I do have an issue pushing legislation to make it criminal to boycott Israel . And I hope no one considers it anti Semitic to believe this to be wrong. We can boycott Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, even our own states in this country, but what is the purpose of making it illegal to boycott Israel? And this is legislation AIPAC has been advocating for.

 

So I do apologize that I allowed my own incorrect biases to influence here. And I certainly don't want to be seen as far left. That's definitely a toxic label. And this will be my last comment on this issue.

Edited March 6, 2019 by JaneAusten

[Khan]

I'll be honest: I'm not sure what to think about Omar.

[Vee]

I don't believe Omar is a Steve King. I hope she is not an antisemite, and I do agree with her on many issues. I also think she's a very foolish young rep who too often equates stunting on Twitter with direct action. I've just had quite enough of her statements which - whether she realizes this or not - traffic in ancient 'Jews run the world/have bewitched the world' statements which pre-date Israel and Palestine, and I've had enough of her getting high on her support for them after the fact.

 

I do not support AIPAC, Netanyahu or Israel's foreign policy towards Palestine. I am all for criticizing them at any and every opportunity. But we can and have done all of that without resorting to antisemitic stereotypes about divided loyalties, global financial dominance and evil supervillainy that have plagued the Jewish people since at least the Russian Revolution.

[Juliajms]

Yeah, I didn't address the comparison to Steve King because I think it's completely off the wall.  I don't even think Omar should lose her committee position, but she needs to stop throwing red meat out there immediately.  The GOP is full of shameless hypocrites who will come after her without a second thought about all the hate they spread themselves.

[marceline]

At this point Omar is either being duplicitous or stupid and I'm not interested in defending either of those things. I'm tired of watching these freshman stepping on rakes because they don't realize that real life isn't Twitter.