The Politics Thread

[DRW50]

The biggest joke is many of the people who are upset over this would not be saying a word if he had their position on Gaza. As you've said before, he was always what he is now, it's just this was seen as their idea of a blue-collar Bernie hero. The story of how he treated that jogger was all I needed to know.

[janea4old]

New Pope has taken the name Leo IV .
Correction:  Leo XIV.
He was born Robert Provost, comes from Chicago, and spent many years working in Peru, and has or had Peruvian citizenship.
Due to all of Provost's work in Peru, I think the late Pope Francis may have regarded him as a fellow South American, symbolically.

February 2025 tweets from the new pope regarding politics:

https://x.com/drprevost/status/1886469097560719594

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article cited in tweet:
https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/jd-vance-wrong-jesus-doesnt-ask-us-rank-our-love-others

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https://x.com/drprevost/status/1889907998753173882

article cited in tweet:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250213055438/https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2025/02/12/bishops-pope-francis-trump-deportation-249919

Edited May 9 by janea4old

[Khan]

What gets me is this attitude that Fetterman must be suffering from some sort of mental collapse.  Take it from me: you could be mentally well and still be an [!@#$%^&*].

[Vee]

I mean, he is but he's also still an ásshole.

[janea4old]

2017 retweet from the new pope under his birth name Robert Provost.
He was retweeting Connecticut senator Chris Murphy
after the mass shooting in Las Vegas

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[Maxim]

https://time.com/7283887/pope-leo-lgbtq-women-migrants-rights/

Where Pope Leo Stands On Specific Issues

"In a report assessing his opinions regarding queer couples, The New York Times cited a 2012 statement from Leo in which he expressed dismay at the way media and pop culture expressed “sympathy for beliefs and practices that contradict the gospel.”"

 

 

[Khan]

Exactly!

[marceline]

I'm just curious how this ends for him. From where I sit these are the options:

1. He resigns and Shapiro names his replacement (my preference). In my perfect world, he's replaced by a Black woman but I'm not going to pretend that I understand internal PA politics so I defer to people on the ground. I've noticed nobody has called for him to step down the way they did for Al Franken. Perhaps they learned a lesson there.
2. He stays and is primaried in 2028. That's exactly the kind of ugliness we don't need and it's exactly what the far left wants. They are obsessed with primaries. Bernie taught them primaries are all that matter. Another drawback is that there's no telling how much harm Shrek could do in the meantime given that he's clearly a danger to himself and others.
3. They could expel him from the Senate. That's not going to happen.
4. Mother Nature takes care of this for us which brings us back to Shapiro naming his opponent.

 

Edited May 9 by marceline

[DRW50]

I could see the second as happening. I could also see him switching to independent like Manchin and Sinema and Eric Adams.

[Classic Cars 425]

Amen to that. 

Anyway, what's going on with the USA shipping ports during the USA-China trade war on tariffs? 

[marceline]

I'm not gearing this at you specifically but I wish people would stop talking about Manchin and Sinema. They're gone. The haters got what they wanted. Fetterman and Adams are the problems in front of us now. I'm hoping Fetterman can be convinced to resign and as for Adams, I think Andrew Cuomo will be the next mayor of NYC.

 

[janea4old]

Apology for my error. That should say Leo XIV.

[Maxim]

Apology accepted.  

[janea4old]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/11/trump-accept-luxury-plane-gift-qatar
Donald Trump is reportedly ready to accept a luxury plane described to be a “palace in the sky” being offered to the US president as a gift from Qatar’s royal family, almost immediately igniting accusations of bribery and corruption as well as commensurate criticism.

citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, ABC reported (link) that the Trump administration was preparing to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8, a jumbo jet from the Qatari royals that was estimated to be about $400m. Trump would then use the 13-year-old plane as the new Air Force One until shortly before the conclusion of his second Oval Office stint, at which point it would be transferred to his presidential library foundation no later than 1 January 2029.

The luxury gift from Qatar is expected to be announced next week during Trump’s three-day tour of the Middle East that includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, ABC reported.

Trump toured the opulent plane in February while it was parked at the West Palm Beach international airport, ABC added.

According to ABC’s sources, Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi and his top White House lawyer David Warrington have pre-emptively concluded that it is “legally permissible” for Trump to accept the luxury gift and then transfer it over to his presidential library.

[janea4old]

There is suffering everywhere you look, says mother of emaciated baby girl trapped in Gaza

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czrv5rl73zdo

Quoting excerpts from BBC article:

The baby's mother Najwa, 23, is changing Siwar's nappy. She weighs just over 2kg (4lb 6oz). A baby girl of five months should be around or over 6kg.

"There was no food when I gave birth to her," says Najwa.

"If I wanted to feed myself so I could breastfeed her, I had no nutrients to make my health better... She now only drinks formula milk, and we don't know how we'll be able to provide it for her."

Israel has banned international journalists from entering Gaza to report independently.

According to Siwar's doctor, Ziad al-Majaida,
"Nothing enters through the borders, no milk, food or anything. This leads to big problems here for the kids. This baby needs a specific type of milk. It was available before, but because of the border closure, the stocks have run out for a while now."

Since the beginning of the year, according to the UN, about 10,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children have been identified. Food prices have rocketed by as much as 1,400%.

Charity kitchens, which have helped hundreds of thousands of Gazans, are shutting as food supplies run out. Twenty-five bakeries supported by the World Food Programme have been forced to close.

Israel cut off all humanitarian aid and other supplies from entering Gaza on 2 March, and resumed its military offensive two weeks later

The United Nations has said the Israeli blockade constitutes "a cruel collective punishment" on civilians.
The UN's humanitarian director, former British diplomat Tom Fletcher, said that international law was unequivocal.
"As the occupying power, Israel must allow humanitarian support in... Aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip," he warned.

From the BBC reporter: I put this point to Boaz Bismuth, a leading member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.
He (Bismuth) denies there is an aid crisis caused by the blockade.

"There is food in Gaza... Israel wouldn't do such a restriction if the population didn't have food. I mean, I know my country perfectly well," he (Bismuth) said.

BBC reporter: I put it to Bismuth that he was denying the evidence of people's eyes, that children were starving.
"There are not starving children. I repeat again." He (Bismuth) said that there had been allegations months ago of famine, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza "which was crap".

----  ----  ----

A UK-based advocacy group for Israel has the nerve to claim war may reduce obesity in Gaza
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/10/uk-lawyers-for-israel-condemned-over-claim-war-may-reduce-obesity-in-gaza

Edited May 11 by janea4old