radius777
radius777's JournalProbably. The term 'working class' is hazily defined,
as someone who is (a) non college educated and (b) works with their hands, ie blue collar and (b) is generally struggling economically.
The reality is that many blue collar workers make more money (and thus inhabit a higher economic class, live in the suburbs) than many white collar workers.
Another false narrative is that of the 'coastal elites' as if everyone who lives in cities is wealthy or educated. Most urbanites are working class, just diverse - so it doesn't fit the media image of the rural white guy in the plaid shirt.
Biden was the most pro white working class president
in decades, in terms of the policies he enacted which heavily helped the red states and rural areas. Did they appreciate this? No, of course not. Most are upset about woke, trans etc - that's what drives them - white identity politics.
We need to confront this idea that somehow we are the identity politics party and they are for 'normal Americans'. No, we are for everyone, and that's what they don't like. They want it to be all about them, like it was before the Civil Rights era.
Harris ran a very generic campaign focused on economics, ran on the Biden platform etc. She rarely spoke about her race or gender, rarely even responded to ugly attacks on her as not to get into that conversation. So this idea (that even comes from some on the left) that she ran on identity is absurd. Her identity mattered - to the racist and misogynists.
Of course those like Tulsi would have us believe
that Mr. Putin only seeks peace for the world, and it's the big bad West that 'makes' him do things like this.
The West's problem is not that it has been too hard or unfair to Russia - but that it has been too accommodating. Russia lost the Cold War - losers don't dictate the terms. Ukraine should've been in NATO a long time ago.
There's a misconception that a woman can't win.
Hillary (who was hated by Maga more than anyone) would've easily won if not for Comey's last minute betrayal, which moved the independents away from her. Biden won because he did better with blacks and the suburbs, and due to Trump's mishandling of covid. Hillary did much better than Biden with Latinos. Both did poorly with white rurals, which Trump owns. Both elections were a flip of the coin. Hillary lost the deciding swing states very narrowly, as Biden won them very narrowly. Biden being a white man did not give him any advantage. If Kamala can reassemble the Obama coalition she can easily win this thing.
And Netanyahu long enabled Hamas
in a cynical strategy of divide and conquer, to prevent the possibility of a two state solution:
GROSS: Netanyahu's 2008 campaign slogan was strong against Hamas. And in a campaign video he pledged, we will not stop the Israeli Defense Forces, we will finish the job. We will topple the terror regime of Hamas. But you write that over Netanyahu came to see Hamas as a way to balance power against the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank. And the Palestinian Authority has sought a peace agreement with Israel in return for a Palestinian state. So over time, Netanyahu started to, in his own way, support Hamas - like, help Hamas. Can you explain how he did that - like, what he gave Hamas and why?
MAZZETTI: Sure. This was, in essence, a kind of divide-and-conquer strategy for Netanyahu. But it was a sort of cynical strategy by Netanyahu that was very controversial in the past, and some past ministers of his resigned over it. But it was a sort of way to balance Hamas from - with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, to sort of allow Netanyahu to say publicly, well, I have no real partners. I've got Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. They're indistinguishable. Hamas wants the eradication of Israel. And so therefore, we can never really have peace with the Palestinians. And so by strengthening Hamas, he sort of put them on the same plane as the Palestinian Authority. And it allowed him, in essence, to sort of slow roll the peace process and sort of make it - kick it down the road so there was never real pressure on him to sit down at the table and talk about a Palestinian state.
His RW gov't in the leadup to 10-7 terror attack had been antagonizing Palestinians culminating in the IDF's raid of the sacred Al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan, which Hamas named their terror attack after:
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” and aimed at refuting Israel's claims, said Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was a necessary step and a natural reaction against Israel's plans to eliminate the Palestinian cause, seize lands, Judaize the Palestinian lands, and establish complete control over Al-Aqsa Mosque and holy sites.
A series of violent confrontations occurred between Palestinians and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem in April 2023. After the evening Ramadan prayer, Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the mosque, prompted by reports that Jews planned to sacrifice a goat at the site (which is forbidden by Israeli law). In response, Israeli police raided the mosque in riot gear, injuring 50 people[1] and arresting at least 400.[3]
In the aftermath of the clashes, Palestinian militant groups[4] fired rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon – acts broadly construed as a response to the events at Al-Aqsa.
...
On 7 October 2023, Hamas launched a major surprise attack on Israel with rocket barrage and an incursion. The commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, claimed the attack was conducted in response to "desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque".
So while Netanyahu may not have LIHOP, it's surely an event he contributed to and used as a pretext for his aims, in the same way that Bush admin used 9-11 to justify their wars.
Netanyahu and RW Likud officials can only act tough because
they know the US has their back - that's the fundamental problem here - but western voters (especially youth, PoC, women etc) are waking up and are not going to stand for the status quo position regarding this issue anymore.
No western country should ever support Israel unless they agree to a two state solution, that recognizes the right of Palestinians to also exist.
Both Hamas (1200 killed in 10-7 attack) and IDF are evil (30k killed and counting, including many children). The difference is one is a stateless terror group and the other has the backing of western superpowers, that is now using the terror attack as a pretext for ethnic cleansing.
And for years Netanyahu empowered Hamas:
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/02/1210076717/everybody-got-it-wrong-how-did-israel-fail-to-detect-hamas-planned-invasion
MAZZETTI: Sure. This was, in essence, a kind of divide-and-conquer strategy for Netanyahu. But it was a sort of cynical strategy by Netanyahu that was very controversial in the past, and some past ministers of his resigned over it. But it was a sort of way to balance Hamas from - with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, to sort of allow Netanyahu to say publicly, well, I have no real partners. I've got Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. They're indistinguishable. Hamas wants the eradication of Israel. And so therefore, we can never really have peace with the Palestinians. And so by strengthening Hamas, he sort of put them on the same plane as the Palestinian Authority. And it allowed him, in essence, to sort of slow roll the peace process and sort of make it - kick it down the road so there was never real pressure on him to sit down at the table and talk about a Palestinian state.
The IDF is intentionally targeting civilians,
told them to hold white flags then shot them dead.... told them to go one direction that would be safe then bombed that direction... starving mothers and babies without medical care...
IDF/Netanyahu is working from the Putin playbook of attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure - to maximize misery and drive them off their land so he can claim it for himself.
Unfortunately for him - the world is seeing what is going on. Many key constitutencies (youth, women, PoC, etc) are rejecting the typical Western knee-jerk support for Israel - which cannot be allowed to conduct this one-sided brutality.
Civilians (including women, babies, etc) should not be forced to 'pay a price'
for the actions of terrorists. The terrorists themselves should've been surgically targeted. But of course that is not what IDF/Netanyahu wants - he wants to use this as an excuse to destroy/remove Palestinians so he can claim the territory for himself.
Hamas's attack killed 1200 Israelis - IDF has killed 30,000 Palestinians and displaced many more. That is not a proportionate response - unless one believes that the lives of brown-skinned Muslims are worth far less than the lives of white skinned Judeo-Christians.
From Michelle Goldberg (who is Jewish) from the NYT:
25.01.2024 | Michelle Goldberg - The New York Times.
America must face up to Israel’s extremism
The resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza is slowly becoming a key official policy of the Israeli government.
Two far-right members of Israel’s Cabinet – the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich – caused an international uproar this week with their calls to depopulate the Gaza Strip. ‘If in Gaza there will be 100 000 or 200 000 Arabs and not two million, the entire conversation on “the day after” will look different’, said Smotrich, who called for most civilians in Gaza to be resettled in other countries. The war, said Ben-Gvir, presents an ‘opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza’, facilitating Israeli settlement in the region.
...
But it’s not clear, because we’re writing a blank check to a government whose leader is only a bit more coy than Ben-Gvir and Smotrich about his intentions for Gaza. According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu told a Likud faction he is searching for countries that residents of the Gaza Strip can be sent to. ‘Our problem’, he reportedly said, is finding ‘countries that are willing to absorb Gazans, and we are working on it.’ The newspaper reported that ‘the “voluntary” resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza is slowly becoming a key official policy of the government, with a senior official saying that Israel has held talks with several countries for their potential absorption.’
...
Pro-Israel Democrats want to back a war to remove Hamas from Gaza. But increasingly, it looks as if America is underwriting a war to remove Gazans from Gaza. Experts in international law can debate whether the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza can be classified as genocidal, as South Africa is claiming at the International Court of Justice, or as some lesser type of war crime. But whatever you want to call attempts to ‘thin out’ Gaza’s population – as Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom described an alleged Netanyahu proposal – the United States is implicated in them.
...
True. Alot of those who go along with Big Lies are not
simply brainwashed (although many are) but are willing parties in sustaining the illusion. Nationalism is what Putin (and Trump) play to, ie ethnic grievance, which has always depended upon fictional narratives to justify evil.
Russians do however have limited information, so it would be interesting to see how/if their opinions would adjust if they were exposed to real news.
Rule number one of war - hit the enemy's weakness - which we are doing.
Russia's greatest weakness is their economy and its' dependence on the West. We need to ramp up the sanctions to include oil/gas, which much of their (weak) economy is based upon. Make them a pariah state. Get real news somehow (via satellite, 5G, internet - however) to the population to let them know the truth about Putin's regime. IOW, get his own people to take him out.
Russia's greatest strength is their military and nuclear power. It would be foolish to confront them directly, especially to invade their homeland which would be certain to trigger nuclear war.
If he ever attacks NATO territory (very unlikely IMO, he's a coward) then we would be compelled to defend the alliance, likely in a non-escalatory way, to prevent nuclear war.
Our biggest failure vis a vi Russia/Putin was a failure of imagination. He played us, by getting the gullible/corrupt/traitorous to buy into his victimhood narratives, which prevented us from being more forceful about admitting countries like Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. Putin tested us by gradually compromising the borders of neighboring countries. It was a test run for what he is doing now. He knew nobody would defend Ukraine and is taking advantage. He will never attack a NATO nation as he knows it likely would be the end of him.
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