In American Jews start to think the unthinkable Dana Milbank talks about a recent service in Temple in which about half the congregants admitted to giving serious consideration to developing an exit plan for when the MAGA Republicans come for the Jews, as Nazi-types tend to do. The recent attack on the Pelozi household (see Assailant shouted ‘Where is Nancy?’ in break-in at speaker’s home, attack on Paul Pelosi) was a reprise of the treasonous “Where’s Pelosi/kill Pelosi/Where’s Pence/Kill Pence” January 6th insurrection. It reminds us of other ongoing threats, such as the incessant so far mostly verbal attacks and threats against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (see In wake of Pelosi home invasion, Omar attacked online for hiring security.)
The MAGA Republican Party is a terrorist organization, but one that has infiltrated enough of the Justice Department, State Department, and Congress to not allow our country to classify it correctly as such. Hopefully in a few days, enough voters will realize this that they won’t be allowed to take over our country.
It will be a very sad day if we wake up on November 9th and realize that Americans have chosen to end democracy.
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Meanwhile, in Texas:
“Texan politician reminds people to vote for ‘the only Christian on the ballot'”
– his last name is Christian
– his opponent is Jewish
As we’ve seen, they aren’t even trying to pretend they’re decent people
Pretty ironic to mention Ilhan Omar one sentence after talking about antisemitism, as she is a purveyor of same. Lest we forget, she remarked that AIPAC was “All about the Benjamins” at a time when AIPAC had never spent a dime on political contributions, and insinuated that US Jews had “allegiance to a foreign country”.
It’s not just the extremists on the right that are causing American Jews to consider leaving the country.
Well no, Omar is not antisemitic. Pointing out Israel’s flaws doesn’t make you an anti-Semite, although that’s what the right wants you to think.
Remember, when someone tells you they support the trump cult this is the type of crap they are supporting (in addition to the racism, bigotry, white supremacy, etc )
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1586899524823535616?s=20&t=a2SlozUMibuTvvdvzeiwDg
I’m Jewish. I got a pretty good handle on what is antisemitic. Omar’s statement about Benjamins is a money libel against Jews that has been around for more than a thousand years:
https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2019-03-20/ty-article-magazine/.premium/jews-seen-as-all-about-the-benjamins-for-2-000-years-new-exhibition-shows/0000017f-e878-da9b-a1ff-ec7f4d480000
Now, some criticism of Israel is fine, but some of it IS antisemitic according to the IHRA standards, and what Omar said – both about money and the national affiliation of Jews – is textbook antisemitism:
https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism
This is about what Omar says herself, and has absolutely nothing to do with Trumpism.
You could make a case for that remark of Ilhan Omar’s being antisemitic. But the more important issues, in my opinion, are that Israel too often gets a pass from the U.S. and that our conservatives reflexively label any criticism of Israel antisemitic.
Trump is tight with Netanyahu, who is also trying to win another term in spite of corruption charges. I recall when Netanyahu said Arabs in Israel are second-class citizens. And how about that settlement on the Red Sea named Trumpville or Trumptown or some such?
“Israel too often gets a pass from the U.S. and that our conservatives reflexively label any criticism of Israel antisemitic.”
It is understandable to think that if your familiarity with the Israel/Arab issue is not one of depth. But once you understand the real situation (which is not easy to find), then you would not think that “Israel too often gets a pass from the U.S.”
Indeed, my opinion is that Israel is the victim of a propaganda campaign unrivalled by even Global Warming, because the disinformation campaign against Israel has been going on for over 100 years. Virtually every criticism of Israel that I have seen, and I have been looking now for about three years, is indeed antisemitic – just look at my reply to Dean re Omar.
Every criticism is antisemitic? Propaganda about global warming?
Not signs of thinking critically there. There is no doubt that far too many people are antisemitic (as with most bigotries, one is too many) but Omar doesn’t fall into that camp.
“Every criticism is antisemitic? …
Not signs of thinking critically there. ”
That’s not what I said. I said: “Virtually every criticism of Israel that I have seen…”.
I have interacted with at least 100 people on Twitter about the Israel/Arab question, and I have yet to see a single person interested in the Israeli side of the issue. Nor have I seen opinions that are not antizionist or couched in illiteracy of the historical vicissitudes or International law.
Israel has a valid case to make for herself and most people have not heard it due to the constant Gish Gallup of disinformation from Palestinian propaganda mills. Do you know what makes up Israel’s case?
(It takes critical thinking skills.)
After your disinclination to process the case against Omar, I don’t think you have much interest in it.
“There is no doubt that far too many people are antisemitic (as with most bigotries, one is too many) but Omar doesn’t fall into that camp.”
Adam Schiff would disagree:
https://schiff.house.gov/news/press-releases/schiff-statement-on-anti-semitic-comments-made-by-rep-ilhan-omar
Let’s recap the statements she has made about Israel – statements that she refused point-blank to regret:
1. Accusing American Jewry of possessing dual loyalty.
2. Alleging that Jews buy their influence with money, infamously stating “It’s all about the Benjamins.”
3. Accusing Israel of having hypnotized the world.
4. Submitting a resolution in the House of Representatives comparing boycotting Israel to boycotting the Nazis.
Yeah…. nothing to see here at all. Sigh.
“It is understandable to think that if your familiarity with the Israel/Arab issue is not one of depth.”
I’m willing to be educated on this point. But much of what I’ve seen lends weight to my opinion. Consider one incident: Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty, Numerous American sources have questioned the reason for the attack and Israel’s subsequent statements about it. Here’s one:
https://cnionline.org/liberty/
I fail to see what the USS Liberty has to do with the Israel/Arab question. And I have already highjacked the thread, so…. sorry.
Christopher
I first read about this in depth in James Bamford’s ‘Body Of Secrets: How America’s NSA & Britain’s GCHQ Eavesdrop On The World’ (that being the title of my copy) in the Chapter ‘Blood’. An alternative edition has the title ‘Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency’
Since reading that I have delved into the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and online have been denounced for anti-Semitism this by my simply describing the horrors perpetrated by the sate of Israel on ordinary Palestinians. Israel from the begging in 1948 has carried out policies of terror and ethnic cleansing as it steals territory allowed to Palestinians by UN resolutions and other agreements.
I hope the illustration linked next will provide a sense of my study on this issue. I particularly recommend the writings of Ilan Pappe and Norman Finkelstein especially the latter’s ‘Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History’.
Collation of book cover images which could be printed out and sliced up for book marks
Neither Pappe nor Finkelstein can pass for scrupulous or ethical scholars.
I assure you that Israel also has a narrative which refutes their, and your, position.
The very fact that you think UN Resolutions have any bearing on legal borders indicates to me that you bloody well don’t know what you are talking about, sadly.
You have not disappointed, I expected such handwaving dismissal from your side of the fence.
Unfortunately for you the history speaks for itself. As for legal borders, since when was it legal for one group to expand out of their allotted zone as if the country was uninhabited. This argument can go back as far as Biblical times when a nomadic tribe decided that they could take over the land putting the inhabitants, including women and children to the sword. Handy to have a god to tell them that this was OK and the thing to do. BTW archaeological evidence suggests that Jericho did not exist let alone have a wall at the time. See that Penguin ‘Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations’ for info on this.
I note that you have not dismissed ALL of the titles illustrated. You do realize that both Pappe and Finkelstein were former members of the IDF and I have other sources here where Israelis themselves speak out against the asymmetrical warfare inflicted on the Palestinians in order to rid the land of them completely, i.e. genocide.
Sorry, from my perspective you have no valid arguments.
“to expand out of their allotted zone”
Tell us what you think the “allotted zone” was. What were its borders? What entity did the “allocating?
If you don’t know then go read and find out and stop wibbling, the hisitory is clear.
A revised collection of book cover images
Gideon Levy and Noam Chomsky wrong too? How about that interesting volume by Shlomo Sand?
One cannot get away from the fact that Israel under hardliners such as Sharon and Netanyahu is a terrorist state.
“What were its borders? What entity did the “allocating?
If you don’t know then go read and find out and stop wibbling, the hisitory is clear.
A revised collection of book cover images
Gideon Levy and Noam Chomsky wrong too? How about that interesting volume by Shlomo Sand?
One cannot get away from the fact that Israel under hardliners such as Sharon and Netanyahu is a terrorist state.”
I asked you some very specific questions about your allegations. I notice you refuse to answer my questions, instead you are ranting and spewing slogans. Do you want to have a conversation or not?
It is looking like we will wake up on Nov. 9th to a republican majority house AND senate, which will have been democratically elected by the voters rejecting democratic policies.
People are fed up with the money printing (both parties are guilty of this – but Biden really shouldn’t have pushed through that last 2 trillion of spending). People are fed up with the woke nonsense, the cancel culture, the government guided censorship, the mandates, the lockdowns, the open border, overdose deaths, dropping school scores, the craziness happening in schools (CRT and trans mania), rising crime created by liberal DA’s and non money bail – and a whole host of other issues – which they are blaming democrats for.
Will the republicans pick up 5 seats? 20 seats? or maybe even 50 seats? I will use that to measure how big the red wave is.
Will the republicans pick up 1 senate seat? 4 senate seats? 5 senate seats? That will also be a measure of how big the red wave is.
Will the republicans pick up a governorship? or 2 or 3? That will also be a measure of how big the red wave is.
I am really looking forward to this election and the aftermath. I hope the red wave is huge. I hope the republican investigations check into Biden, covid-19 and all the other issues democrats have been suppressing. Playing by the rules the democrats set forth – Biden should be impeached just for asking the Saudis to delay lowering crude oil exports until after this election cycle. Quid pro quo anybody?
I will have my popcorn and will be having a ball Tuesday night and Wed. – looking forward to actually seeing if democracy is really ended with a red wave. Spoiler – no democracy won’t end just because democrats lost.
Half the Republicans running for office have refused to acknowledge that Democratic President Joe Biden won the 2020 election – yet you are looking forward to this election ? You must love flirting with fascism.
Roger:
It is not fascism to want to investigate if voter fraud happened.
I would like somebody to talk to the ballot mules identified by cell # in 2000 mules. I would like somebody to talk to the 503(c) they worked for. If illegal ballot harvesting happened in any state and exceeded the margin of Biden’s victory in that state – that would be interesting (and not surprising). Nobody investigated that issue – they just recounted the votes and didn’t check to see if any were illegally run through ballot harvesters hands.
Nobody thinks we can undue the 2020 election. But that is no reason not to make sure every vote in future elections is legal.
I bet there will be plenty of cries of fraud after the Nov. 8th election (because democrats will lose) – but by democrats. Will that be fascism? We will see. I suspect it will not be considered fascism to question the 2022 election, unless it is republicans doing it.
William Barr himself scoffed at the ridiculous assertions of Dinesh D’Souza.
Trump had 61 opportunities to prove election fraud in full court. He presented zero evidence – b/c there IS no evidence. And so said his own lawyers and so said his own political advisors, and so said the FBI and so said the Republican AG’s of the swing states. Give us all an effing break.
I have left that to you. What a strange tack to take.
Only with somebody not so blinded by ideology and received information and who acts in a rational manner. That accusation about ranting and spewing indicates that you are not. Maybe you have not been challenged enough on this.
In other words, you can not actually defend your assertions, preferring to cast personal insults and posting book covers by a rogue’s gallery of antizionists.
Not surprised.
Minnesota:
https://minnesotareformer.com/2022/05/10/fateh-volunteer-convicted-of-lying-to-grand-jury-about-his-handling-of-absentee-ballots/
Michigan:
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-03-12/elections-official-in-michigan-charged-with-ballot-tampering
Another Michigan case involving a republican who voted absentee in Michigan and also voted in Florida:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/13/florida-voter-fraud-2020/
Florida:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/florida-officials-looking-into-allegations-of-widespread-ballot-harvesting-operation_4823734.html
That is with just a few minutes of google searching. I don’t want anybody to be able to sell their vote to a third party and it seems to be happening in many states. Don’t you want to stop voter fraud? Don’t you want the system changed to prevent people from selling their vote? Don’t you want the system changed to stop someone from gathering absentee votes and then mailing them in late (if they are for the wrong party)?
I think there is a whole bunch of cheating going on and I would like the system to be changed to prevent it. Everybody eligible should be able to vote – but vote legally and only once. Every legally cast vote should be counted and not discarded or sent in late by a third party. I really worry that this is happening and I hope that the states investigate for ballot harvesting and put a stop to it if it is occurring and change the system to prevent it in the future.
We know republicans are trying to commit fraud – they are open about it. They get caught because they are stupid, which is what you need to be to still be a republican.
The things you rent about are not happening. You think that because, well,. Because you’re Republican.
And now we see that trump’s goons tried to falsify the threat of “terrorists” linked to the “antifa organization”.
Who would be stupid enough to believe that had they succeeded? (Well, other than the one moron here who thinks antifa is a terrorist organization)?
https://gizmodo.com/donald-trump-homeland-security-report-antifa-portland-1849718673?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&
Rick, I know the situation in Minnesota intimately. First, Fateh thing was not voter fraud. No inappropriate votes were cast. It is also a little hard to understand why the Fateh campain would try to cheat since they were destine to win by a large margin, and did so.
There is, however, a certain amount of embarrassing and annoying infighting among members of that particular community. I suspect bullshit going on having nothing to do with elections, but just to get someone in trouble. In any event, thousands of hours of investigation turned up not illegal votes.
It is easy to irresponsibly throw up a link and crow like a fool, but your link says nothing relevant to this discussion other than the possibility that you are a crowing fool.
Michnigan: The case is real, it was an attempt to keep a bunch of ballots from being counted in the hopes to sway the outcome of a local election. The outcome was not altered, a later audit and recount showed, but James Donald Holkeboer was found to have actually done the deed, he did try to change the outcome of the eleciton.
James Donald Holkeboer was a Republcian operative. That was tampering with an election by a Republican.
Florida case also Republicans.
Truth is, it is very hard to find actual election tampering other than that done by Republicans.
It is almost as if the US is suffering from the effects of a collective brain tumour, one lodged firmly in the Republican demographic. This presents a very real danger to democracy, what little of that that remains given the power of moneyed interests. Much of which latter has already been used demonstrably used in hindering progress on avoiding severe climate change.
The rise of socio-path like personalities who both strut their stuff whilst displaying a clinical coldness, empty of empathy or higher moral values is described here:
If wrong headed Republicans manage to gain more power and traction in the US leading to a Trump re-run then I am afraid the US will be lost to the ideologues and wilfully ignorant. The religious right seem set to take the USA back to the stone age being just another variant of the Taliban.
So many guns, so many hot headed idiots willing to use them and worse.
Trump and Elon Musk are dangerous narcissists tailored to 2022 America
” This presents a very real danger to democracy,”
Yes, modern republican leaders and the folks who blindly support then and swallow every lie they spout (as does rickA) are huge dangers to democracy. Small example: this afternoon trump started lying about “serious problems with absentee ballots in Detroit” and “many people showing up to vote and being told they’d already voted — huge problems”. Voting sites and personnel now need protection from the dirtbags who listen to him.
reagan started the country down the “facts don’t matter if you repeat lies enough” strategy, bolstered by racism and bigotry. We’re just seeing the culmination of that philosophy.
It’s going to be a dark, dangerous few years in this country for anyone who isn’t a well-off white guy when the scum running republican party take power: it won’t be at all good for minorities, women, or the poor. That means, of course, it’ll suck for anyone that has a shred of decency — so the republicans won’t care at all.
Greg:
Congratulations on the blue wave in Minnesota yesterday! I had hoped the republicans would do better in Minnesota – but victory is yours.
The problem in Minnesota for Jensen-Birk was that they criticized, and claimed that they could do better on issues such as inflation, pandemics, and crime. They also wanted people to think that the cities are still burning and being destroyed by roving gangs of BLM thugs, and that it was all Keith Ellison’s fault.
When reality doesn’t match your rhetoric, it’s hard to win elections and even the last-minute endorsement by Herr Trumper didn’t get enough people out to vote against their own interests.
Also, to those who make political commercials: Get a new theme. No one is buying your fear-mongering that every politicians is “Too extreme for (state.)” One-trick ponies lose their appeal after 10 shows.
Dean:
Congratulations on the blue wave in Michigan yesterday! I had hoped Gretchen Whitmer would lose – but she won.
Considering Whitmer was running against a walking potato who believed the 2020 election was stolen and that the covid vaccines were tools to inject microchips into people to control them, it’s scary that anyone voted for the right’s candidate. The fact that people did speaks volumes about the intelligence and integrity of people who back republicans.
The same is true about our contest for Secretary of State and Attorney General: the republican sec state candidate believes in demons and that premarital sex spreads them. The Attorney General candidate was fired from his job at a law firm for overcharging clients (“padding” their bills) and was investigated for physically assaulting a client. However, both of those clowns were good little trump humpers and pushed the “stolen election” and “voting procedures aren’t safe” crap that gullible republicans love: lack of ethics and intelligence be damned, they got votes.
It’s lucky for us that sanity prevailed. It wasn’t at all clear that it would.
One of the better memes floating around Michigan yesterday said “Truck nuts In rural Michigan are at half staff today”
Mike Haubrich
Once again Robert Reich nails the sheer nastiness that is at the top of Republican, sure earning the alternative of Repuglican, politics. Note the real nastiness of Trump Jr.
Indeed, ‘still on the brink’.
America is still on the brink of Trumpism fueling hate, paranoia and violence
Kari Lake, (AZ) referred to Katie Hobbs as a “Basement candidate and no one voted for her.”
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1590807551150796800
They’re just the nasty “cool kids,” those Republicans. Tell me again why Democrats make such a thing about “reaching across the aisle” to work with them?
More evidence that the “voter fraud” desantis went on about was the result of a scam run by his administration.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/charges-dropped-against-another-man-swept-up-in-desantiss-voter-fraud-stunt?