#for anyone who thinks harry will ever support palestine | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

meyhew · 10 months

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I remember when you first shared that you were distancing yourself from Harry because you didn’t vibe with him anymore and you also said you couldn’t see yourself turning into a person that completely hated him and wished him ill like other blogs had done. I don’t see the necessity of taking zayn’s wholesome interview and using it to completely hate on someone else. Those boys were so young when everything went down. I do agree that zayn suffered the most from those repercussions and I’m so excited to see him again and to have content from him. But none of us know the pull picture or all the nuances and emotions that went around during that time. I just don’t understand why the attention shifted from zayn making his come back! to now villanizing someone else. And I mean you don’t owe anyone an explanation, those are your feelings. I just don’t particularly enjoy seeing people call someone rotten or evil Ig.

i'm still not villanizing his actions from back then! i have a lot of sympathy and compassion for the kid who went through that experience and had to make very tough, long-term decisions at a very young age. like i have Never judged the choices he made regarding his career/friendships back then too harshly. however he's a grown man now and i dont need to have that same level of understanding for the decisions he makes Now. and even now i dont rly care about the business side of things All That Much bc like... he's selling a product. there's an entire marketing team behind him. whatever.

personally my biggest gripe with him is his lack of support for palestine. actually not even that. i can get over a lack of support bc a lot of artists simply never ever touch that topic but harry has, over the course of nearly 10 years now, consistently made it clear that he supports israel. or At Best, he supports a two-state solution, which is also the same as supporting israel as an independent nation and invalidating palestinian liberation. that's why i think he isn't a good person bc as far as i'm concerned, a person's stance on this particular issue says so much about their moral character. no amount of impeccable manners and philanthropy can make up for it.

i genuinely don't think about him enough to wish him ill and i hardly ever talk about him on this blog but if once in a blue moon someone wants to vent and i agree with what's being said then 🤷🏽‍♀️

#i did say what you're saying i said but people change. and i go out of my way to not talk about harry but im still allowed to!#anonymous #answered

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dungeonqueering · 2 years

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2021 Be Like

JANUARY

Bean Dad

Storming the Capitol

Impeachment 2

Reality Shifting Draco Malfoy Murder

Parler Hacked

Sea shanties are BACK BAY BEEEEEE

Inauguration outfits

BERNIE'S MITTENS

Militant Vegan Lady Tries to Bully Children and Gordon Ramsey

Executive Orders

Reddit Kills Hedgfunds with GameStonks

Politician openly believes California Wildfires were started by Jewish Space Lasers and somehow isn't removed from office for blatant antisemitism

Lady Dimitrescu,,, lady.... Tall

FEBRUARY

EEBY DEEBY

The Queen doing monarch shit on the DL

India Treating Farmers Very Badly

I promise I'm not a cat lawyer video

Trump Acquitted even though 57 / 100 voted against him.

Texas has no power, Cruz flies to Cancun for a vacay while ppl die

Rush Limbaugh dies, crab rave

WE LANDED PERSERVERANCE BAY BEE

Daft Punk retired. :(

Texas Freezes Over, Cruz goes to Florida this time.

March

Texas lifts mask requirements

Biden bombs Syria instead of helping people.

Dems pass the $1400 stimulus. No republicans support it, they could have included anything in that bill and the GOP couldn't have stopped them. They CHOSE to make it less.

Harry and Meghan on Oprah drag the royal family

NFTs enable art theft

Stimmy Time

The Pope says Catholics can get the J&J vaccine only if it's the only one available (it has stem cells)

Anti-asian hate crimes in Georgia

EverGiven runs aground in Suez Canal

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Montero)

Shrimp Tails in Cinnamon Toast Crunch

EverGiven freed six days later.

April

Prince Phillip dies, crab rave

Mars Helicopter Ingenuity

ON 4/20 THEY CONVICT DEREK CHAUVIN ON ALL COUNTS FOR MURDERING GEORGE FLOYD

May

This is the May

Israel somehow being EVEN WORSE to Palestine.

An oil pipeline company's financial systems are attacked, so they can't properly charge customers. They shut off the pipeline rather than risk anyone getting free gas. People put gas in plastic bags.

Israel now attacking news organizations.

CDC lifts mask recommendation foolishly.

Legendary children's author Eric Carle passes away.

June

Pride Discourse AGAIN

Annakin and Padme meme

Batman isn't allowed to eat pussy because "Heroes don't do that"

People are surprised the FNAF guy is a republican

Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years

John McAfee dies in a Mexican prison, where he was for tax evasion. It looks mildly sus, but Crab Rave.

Britney Spears fights her Conservatorship

July

TSR is back and they're transphobes

Britney Spears loses her fight. :(

Bill Cosby released from jail.

The Olympics are being HELLA racist. Banning swim caps for natural Black hair, banning two Black women for their natural testosterone levels, and banning one Black woman (who may very well be the fastest woman ever) because she smoked weed one time (in a place it's legal) to deal with the fact that an interviewer told her her mom had just passed away.

Ocean is literally on fire because a pipe broke.

Oh btw Israel is still doing human rights violations and denying vaccinations to Palestinians.

Catholic run Canadian and american residential schools found to have hundreds of bodies each of indigenous children taken from their parents to be indoctrinated into white society. As of July 2, 1505 at 7 out of 504 schools.

Right wing protests in Cuba

Olympic anti-sex beds

Popeye the Sailor, Nonbinary Icon??

Steam Deck (100k pre-orders)

Lmao Tumblr thinks we'll pay for premium content. Cute. Love that for them.

Australia hires furry artist to draw furries to promote the Olympics.

Texas puts $10,000 bounty on anyone who helps anyone get an abortion.

Chuck Tingle got DMCA'd for music on Twitter

Cleveland changes baseball team name to not be so racist

Jeff Bezos goes to space and, unfortunately, survives

Blizzard employees (and Activision employees, Blizzard's parent company) threaten to walk after it's revealed that, unsurprisingly, the company treats women like shit up to and including a culture of assault.

Frito-Lay workers end 20 day strike with inches gained.

August

Delta Variant of Covid is 'as contagious as chickenpox'. Mildly vaccine resistant, but still mostly affecting the unvaxxed.

Chrischan arrested on... Look, don't worry about it. Don't look it up. She did a very bad crime, leave it at that.

Idris Elba is gonna play Knuckles?

QAnon guy murders his family

Federal board of education decides to enforce masks in all public schools for '21-'22 school year.

Britney Spears' dad is gonna step down from her conservatorship maybe?

Taliban starts taking over Afghanistan

Places are probably going to shut back down due to Delta Variant not being taken seriously.

Governor Cuomo of New York steps down over sexual harassment allegations. (Fuck him)

OnlyFans getting rid of porn.

OnlyFans backs down obvi

Hurricane

By Talos this can't be happening

September

The Supreme Court refuses to see case about Texas abortion bounty.

ABBA releases new music

Ford Germany makes gay trucks

There Are Many Benefits To Being A Marine Biologist

Steve from Blue's Clues gives us all closure.

Suez canal blocked again (but only for a few hours)

Bongcloud chess move

MET Gala outfits, discourse (unfortunately)

Lil Nas X's first album, Montero

Nicki Minaj's Cousin's Friend's Balls

Epik, far right web hosting service, hacked. Embarrassingly weak security.

Gabby Petito goes missing, found dead.

Elvira comes out, has had a girlfriend for 19 years.

Chris Pratt cast as Mario for some godforsaken reason

Grimes and Elon Musk break up

China bans cryptocurrency

DnD 5.5e announced

Britney Spears' dad removed from her conservatorship, it's now run by an accountant chosen by Britney

"I can't believe you've done this." Taken down from YouTube after 14 years. Owner disputes. Denied. Heavy social media backlash gets them to manually re-allow it.

October

Grimes does stuff for attention I guess.

Facebook goes down briefly.

Squid Game

Dawn's Kidney Donation

Twitch breached massively.

Even bigger breach than the Panama papers shows what we already been knew. Pandora Papers.

Dave Chappelle actively a transphobe. People somehow forgot about his bigotry from, like, 2 years ago.

Alec Baldwin kills a cinematographer in an accident involving a gun firing blanks. Proper safety checks weren't done because of non-union being hired by the producer... Alec Baldwin.

Margaret Atwood makes a bunch of transphobic posts.

Brian Laundrie's remains found in Florida.

Kat Von D's anti-vax Nazi ass moving to Indiana

Facebook changing their name to Meta, Mark Zuckerberg shelf Barbecue sauce.

Marilyn Manson converting back to Christianity thanks to Justin Bieber and Kanye West???? Probably to deflect from him being outed as a sex pest tbqh

November

Zillow algorithm buys too many houses, record losses for the company, fires 25% of staff.

Turns out Meta is already a company and FB failed to buy the rights, so Meta is doing legal action against FB.

The IRS to start requiring NFTs report transactions over $10,000 just like they do for cash. Crypto Bros freak out

Travis Scott concert gets people killed (not of COVID)

Mercedes Lackey thinks trans people don't belong in fantasy

Brittney is free!!

Kyle Rittenhouse trial.

The Queen's New Phase

Kyle Rittenhouse ruled not guilty despite going to a place specifically hoping for violence.

Hillary Clinton-Kin fanfiction on the NYT Best Sellers

John Deere Strike doubles their raises among other successes

NFT Pirate Bay Funged the Tokens

Omicron Variant.

December

Ponder the Orb

Gen Zers on Reddit use algorithms and effort to crash Kellogg's website with bogus job applications , thereby preventing scabs from applying.

Ben Shapiro's sister tries to slut shame Madonna by comparing her to Nancy Reagan. Turns out Nancy Reagan was PROLIFIC at oral sex while working in Hollywood. Trending #throatgoat #superhead

Kellogg trying to hire scabs going VERY BADLY

Giant Tornado kills factory workers forced to keep working at 3AM directly in the path of the tornado despite the company knowing the dangers

Anne Rice died, AO3 goes wild

Kellogg strike ends, workers get a pretty good deal!!

Tumblr censors stuff in a very bad way.

Betty White dies. :(

#long post #improved the spacing #also #I made this as the year went including anything I thought notable #obvi I missed shit because I am one person but #I hope it gives some perspective on how much happens in a year

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ianworthy · 3 years

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Israel vs Palestine

What is really happening? And the bloody solution…

First off, I'm from a small town on the other side of the planet so I don't have any kind of agenda. If you want that B.S. there's lots of options. I realized more than ever over the last year that we are being lied to and manipulated on the daily, which led me down many rabbit holes. I've been "re-educating" myself and started writing in an effort to make some sense of the craziness.

History made shorter…

We should start around when the Ottoman Empire ended for some context, which was in the early 1920s in case you slept through History. If you rely on the ‘news’ you'd think this started a couple of weeks ago. Reality, if you go back far enough no one "owned" anyone, nor the land they occupied or any of the land you’re on right now. Humanity and its entire existence has involved one tribe/country trying to annihilate the other. It never works out, but here we are 200000 years later, give or take 194000 years, depending on whether your belief in Science transcends beyond vaccines and masks. In case you didn't catch that I’m referring to the 6000 year timeline outlined in the Bible. Breaking this down to the core revolves around religion used to create unnecessary animosity, so a relatively small proportion of a population can benefit. Isn't that every war ever?

After the Ottoman collapse, the land that's in dispute aka Israel and Palestine was given to the British. Interesting fact, if you look at all the atrocities and wars currently going on in the world, they are all countries that were "occupied" some way or another by the British or to a lesser extent, the French. Aren't we all curious for Harry's hot take on how he's the product of ruthless colonization of his great grandparents that its impact on global society is ever present? These former colonies are humanitarian disasters enslaved by whichever military coup at the time provides corporations with the most resources. But hey, as long as the Old B of England got the right biscuits to accompany her afternoon Tea that's all that matters, right?

When the British, or most powerful Army at the time called the shots, there was a movement referred to as Zionism that began to gain support from the Jewish people throughout Europe. Zionism basically means the nationalist movement to create a state for the Jews, not the jam by Damien Marley, which is my first exposure to the word Zion. I'm sure this rise was foreshadowing of what was to come. Not to get all conspiracy theory on you but none other than the Rothschilds (wealthiest family in history that created the global money supply that are apparently no longer wealthy) created a proposal that involved divvying up the land for a state in the future, which was after the war. Google the ‘Balfour Declaration’ if you don't believe me. From that point the amount of land occupied by the Palestinians has steadily decreased, according to the last map I checked it was looking pretty bleak. The land was divided not because they are physiologically different but because one group of parents parents parents were raised to believe in Abraham and the other a linkage to Abraham.

Up to the current point…

I'm sure that Jared Kusher's involvement in recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the Trump peace plan of supplying the middle east with more missiles played a supporting role, but more current, Ramadan. The Israelis like all of the World Leaders during the last year have been flexing too much during the lockdowns of COVID, which carried over to yet another Ramadan and evicted some families for further settlements. In addition to the evictions the Israelis broke up a Mosque gathering on Eid, Antifa style. Eid for Muslims is like Christmas for Christians, but instead of getting toys and gifts from Jesus swap, Santa Claus, you get to eat during daylight after a month of starving yourself. This Mosque is Islam's third holiest site, conveniently Jerusalem is Judaism and Christianity holiest site as well, coincidence? To relate, for Christians, if Jerusalem is the holiest, and the Vatican is the Second then probably a Church like Notre Dame would be third, or up there at least. I feel that the MSM coverage of the Notre Dame burning was little different than the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In retaliation to the Israeli raids, Hamas, the awful military leadership of Palestine launched missiles that had no real threat of reaching their target, being shot down half way by the Rafael Advanced Defense System (Iron Dome) that the US taxpayer supplied batteries for under Obama. In response to a “potential” desert storm attack from Palestine a bunch of USA made Lockheed Martin F-16s equipped with M61 Vulcans and Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles launched an Airstrike killing a bunch of innocent civilians, including kids. According to the death toll I just looked at, it was 241 dead Palestinians, including 5 top Hamas commanders, the media and a bunch of kids to 12 Israelis, no executives, consultants, shareholders or politicians were killed.

The Solution Is…

Two solid states, and no longer decreasing the amount of land occupied by the Palestinians and increasing of Jewish settlements. Palestinians and Jews both have the right to a home. With the help of the greedy boomers (worst leadership class in history) and the media making the next couple of generations hate each other, the rift is super deep. Every war is sustained by the industrial military complex. Lockheed Martin Raptors or Raytheon Heat Seeking Missiles do not magically appear in the Israeli Air Force. The corporations that run the United States are in the business of making money at all costs, in this case innocent lives mostly Palestinians. Humans need to stop providing the means to commit such acts of horror.

It also seems pretty convenient that Benjamin Netanyahu was recently unable to form a new government and is facing criminal corruption charges. Party leaders are always guilty of something, it’s just a matter of if they follow the most profitable line or not. He's obviously not the right person to run Israel, taking it in the extreme right position that’s trendy right now in politics. Extreme either way is no solution to anything, and the sooner Netanyahu goes the better. His father was an Ivy League Professor active in the Zionist movement, who's father was also a Zionists. Point here is people that grow up entitled with an unwavering ideology and no life experience make for horrible leaders. That applies to a lot of world "leaders", even the countries that don't have nonsensical inbred Royals in charge. Any peaceful long-term resolution involves leadership that recognizes that Jews and Palestinians have a right to a home. There also needs to be more fair coverage. I guess it doesn't help that the people running Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Lionsgate, Universal, NBC, The New York Times, The Tribune, Discovery, CNN, Google and Facebook are all Jewish. In Palestine, the Israeli Air Force blew up one of the main media buildings that housed Al Jazeera News and the Associated Press. No press or opinion vs all the colluding press and opinions.

As for Hamas, or any of these military coups that emerge are the result of instability and no leadership for its people, present more of a challenge. Israel can and hopefully soon, will function just fine with new leadership. My entire adult life, the Industrial Military Complex has been at war with the Middle East. The defense contractors that have been defending America from an “evasion” always seem to find some action. It's purely about Oil(Money) and strategic power, but we can leave that for another time. From the West perspective Hamas is a terrorist organization, which they are, but if you're living in Palestine having dinner with your family and a Raytheon heat seeker comes through the window and blows up your family into pieces. Wouldn’t that be a terrorist act? In order to have any kind of sustainable solutions the counties and corporations that pillage these places killing innocent people need to find a way to structure these de facto coups into a legit military that can serve as a National Army. At the end of the day these kids are just fighting for what they think or are forced to think is right. Given the option, and right identity, kids can redirect their frustration and hatred towards a national unity that respects and values its citizens. Not that I have much faith in non-secular rule, but I think as a starting point a country that can be run more or less by its people is better than this apartheid situation that’s going on now.

The ceasefire has been called, which is the necessary short-term solution, however not going to change much going forward. This game is being played with a zero-sum, and I think that they were premeditated targets that were going to be fired at some point in the future regardless of what the spark was. My position at the end of the day is that a handful of countries produce all the weapons used to blow everyone up, so it should start at the source and those who benefit the most. Which obviously isn't the everyday people of Palestine or Israel. The upside, with the media fighting for relevance the corporate narrative is being challenged. We just haven't figured out the right way. I have some thoughts, subscribe or follow please.

#israel vs palestine #news #tumblr #israel #palestine #war #peace #ramadan #mosque #zion

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quakerjoe · 5 years

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JOE BIDEN:

has been personally involved in nearly every bad policy decision of the last 50 years. Currently coasting on name recognition and association with Obama, he can only go down from here as people realize he is more comparable to Trump than he is to anyone else. With all the negatives of Hillary’s failed campaign but none of the positives, he would almost surely see us lose the general election again. If you love your grandchildren at all please do not vote for Biden.

TOP 5 HIGHLIGHTS:

Led the fight against desegregating schools

Voted for the disastrous Iraq War and still says he’d “do it again”

Wrote the racist Crime Bill that intentionally led to record-breaking mass incarceration, positioning himself to the right of even Reagan and Bush

Opposed Roe v Wade and voted to allow states to overturn it like they are now, worked to undermine the ACA’s coverage of birth control, does “not view abortion as a choice and a right” and still opposed federal funding for it multiple times including during this election

Long history of creepily groping/sniffing/kissing women and young girlsjust so many times, even including intimidation and continuing even now after his non-apology

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL:

Racist comments like this and fondness towards if not impassioned support for so many of the worst racists and segregationists like this whom he chose to work with, as well as Republicans like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Mike Pence, and Jeb Bush

As part of his crusade against desegregating schools he was the only member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to block two black appointees to the Department of Justice

Lies about marching in the Civil Rights movement

Horrible treatment of Anita Hill during Clarence Thomas hearing

Supports cutting Social Security and Medicare and raising the retirement age on multiple occasions, backing Paul Ryan’s efforts to do so, while voting to gut welfare

Led the disastrous War on Drugs, and somehow still opposes cannabis legalization, yet two of his children escaped consequences for drug use

Pushed to expand death penalty, even to those on drug charges

Sided with banks to overturn Glass-Steagall and deregulate, leading to financial crisis

Led the disastrous Bankruptcy Bill resulting in increased debt and dismisses the plight of Millennials who are now the most indebted generation ever

Defends billionaires hoarding wealth and promises to ensure it keeps happening at the expense of everyone else while voting to slash the top income tax rate and cripple the estate tax, resulting in $83 billion lost annually

Opposes Medicare for All, says he “doesn’t have time” to propose another healthcare plan, and wants to bring back penalizing those who can’t afford to pay for insurance [Expanded 7/6]

Opposed equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community until very recently

Supported NRA in passing massive anti-gun control legislation

Opposes meaningful action on the climate crisis like the Green New Deal, instead pursuing the “middle ground” while his campaign attacks publications for accurately reporting this. He’s rated D- by Greenpeace

Plagiarized fossil fuel groups’ language in his woefully inadequate climate crisis plan after his climate advisor made $1 million from one natural gas company alone

Voted to expand deportations and indefinite detention for immigrants multiple times, has opposed amnesty for immigrants and supports requiring them to learn English, and helped expand the system Trump now uses to commit human rights violations by 3,600%

Voted to build border walls and supported sending military to the border long before Trump

Voted to ban immigrants with HIV, locking Haitian refugees up in Guantanamo Bay

Spearheaded the Alliance for Prosperity which increased deportations, border militarization, privatization, and oil pipelines for American exploitation while worsening the refugee crisis

Architected Plan Colombia, internationalizing the War On Drugs resulting in mass death, displacement, and destruction of food crops, while opening the country to US business interests

Voted to authorize invasion of the Netherlands if an American is tried for war crimes by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, refusal to participate in UN peacekeeping unless the US obtains immunity, and withdrawal of aid to countries that ratify ICC treaty

Supports Israel’s right-wing regime and apartheid in Palestine purely to protect US interests. A self-described Zionist, he blames Palestinians for multiple US-backed Israeli massacres, including an attack that killed 9 peace activists. Calls BDS “anti-semitic” and has a 100% rating from AIPAC [Expanded 7/4]

Sides with Trump in backing right-wing coup in Venezuela

Recklessly threatens nuclear war with North Korea

Voted against abolishing the electoral college that undemocratically elected Bush and Trump

Took $200,000 to help a Republican beat a Democrat to Congressdespite being anti-abortion

Voted against enhancing labor protection enforcements

Voted for NAFTA, supports TPP, is generally to the right of Trump on trade

Works with union-busters and voted to cut union pensions and is generally bad for workers

Consistently sides with special interests and corporations against antitrust regulation and voted for the first antitrust exemption since 1922

Opposes net neutrality

Driving force behind the Patriot Act, supports warrantless wiretaps / mass surveillance while his son partially owns the Chinese government’s mass surveillance system

Personally tried to prevent Ecuador from providing asylum for Edward Snowden

Says the CIA torture report is not a “black stain on this country” but a “badge of honor”

Worsened the opioid epidemic and made it harder to treat

Wants to make up reasons to jail anyone associated with a rave and literally bulldoze it down while his RAVE legislation lets kids die from preventable drug overdoses

Has questionable electability based on receiving less than 0.22% in 3 previous Democratic primary elections. He has a history of insulting voters and is currently skipping major party events, hiding from the press, and holding only between a quarter and half as many public events as his rivals

Plagiarized law school papers and campaign speeches (in which he lied about having coal miner roots), which ended his 1988 presidential run

His anti-progressive campaign surrogate Ed Rendell is a sexist, pro-fracking, pro-AIPAC Fox News supporter who approved bombing a black neighborhood in Philadelphia, killing 5 children and 6 adults [Added 6/26]

Used Charlottesville as a prop in his campaign video despite never even visiting once

Is still openly courting Republican billionaires for donations, including John Catsimatidis, who’s compared taxing the wealthy to Nazi persecution of Jews

Endorsed by Alan Dershowitz, the millionaire Trump supporter accused of taking part in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex ring, after Biden’s son ensured a similar billionaire pedophile avoided prison after raping his own toddler

Voted to deregulate the credit card industry while a credit card company was his top donor from 1989–2000 and then hired his son

His administration awarded a $1.5 billion contract to his brother’s construction firm despite his brother having no prior residential construction experience

Funded by lobbyists and special interests, and very openly partakes in general corruption

Hasn’t released any tax returns since 2015, which people seem to care about now

Unconvincingly co-opted Bernie’s education plan and slogan, and a Biden PAC plagiarized Kamala Harris’ slogan for its name

“A lot of us sit around thinking up ways to vote conservative just so we don’t come out with a liberal rating. I’m really quite conservative…”

Meghan and the McCain family and Strom Thurmond have endorsed him, and Trump has donated to him

The worst part? He’s still not sorry for any of this (but wants a black man to apologize to him)

(READ MORE)

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hellofastestnewsfan · 5 years

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The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to condemn anti-Semitism, along with a litany of bigotries against Muslims, immigrants, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, LGBT people, and members of other religious minorities. The resolution followed a week of drama in the Democratic Party, with members clashing over yet another controversial comment on Israel by Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. In a recent panel discussion, she suggested that pro-Israel political groups in Washington “push allegiance to a foreign country,” seeming to echo the classically anti-Semitic allegation that Jews are more loyal to other Jews or to Israel than to the United States.

Thursday’s resolution was an attempt at compromise between House members who believe Omar has repeatedly dabbled in anti-Semitic tropes, and those who feel she has been unfairly berated for criticizing and singled out because she is black and Muslim. The resolution specifically condemns intimations of dual loyalty wielded against Jews in discussion about Israel, along with similar accusations made against Muslims in the wake of 9/11. This week, a poster connecting Omar to the September 11 terrorist attacks was displayed outside the West Virginia House of Delegates during a state GOP event.

While this vote passed 407 to 23, with unanimity from Democrats in attendance, the party was really voting on something much bigger: how to balance competing visions for the future of the party. The debate over Ilhan Omar reflects the radical shift happening in the Democratic base. The party’s young, multiethnic, definitively progressive wing has demonstrated its power to steer the country’s conversation on Israel and Palestine. Muslim political leaders have helped make this happen. Omar and her colleague from Michigan, Rashida Tlaib—along with activists such as Linda Sarsour, who helped lead the national Women’s March—have emerged as visible symbols of American progressivism. These leaders are pushing a vision of the Democratic Party as the unambiguous champion of the marginalized. Several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren, have expressed their support for Omar.

And yet, the firestorms over Omar’s Israel comments show that the party doesn’t have the tools to smoothly negotiate competing claims of marginalization, especially when it comes to Jews, Muslims, Israel, and Palestine. As the progressive wing of the Democratic Party continues to gain power and push for changes to American policies on Palestine, this problem of conflicting identities and convictions will return again and again, testing the Democrats’ ability to live up to their claim as the party of the marginalized.

In November, Omar and Tlaib became the first Muslim women ever elected to the U.S. Congress. Especially among young Muslims, their election was seen as a triumph, demonstrating that women like them—a Somali refugee and a Palestinian—have a place in America’s halls of power. Both women quickly emerged as vocal champions of an issue that many American Muslims care deeply about: dismantling the strong American alliance with Israel and defending the rights of Palestinians.

Although neither Tlaib nor Omar represents a predominantly Muslim congressional district, their politics reflect a major change in Muslim political identity in recent years. According to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, American Muslims tend to be much younger and more religious than other Americans. They are racially diverse and very progressive; they strongly support causes such as Black Lives Matter and immigrant rights. This is a big change from even two decades ago. “The first wave of the post-9/11 responses [was] to emphasize the Americanness … of the American Muslim community—a willingness to wrap ourselves in the flag, and to swear fidelity to the country,” says Omid Safi, the director of the Duke University Islamic Studies Center. “A shift has taken place where, increasingly, American Muslims … are expressing themselves in the language of being … unapologetically pro-justice.”

Compared with the past, American Muslims are also more politically involved—and willing to advocate vocally for Palestinian rights. “There was almost no conversation years ago … by any mainstream Democrats about the policies of any Israeli administration that was in power at the time,” says Dean Obeidallah, a Muslim comedian who hosts a show on Sirius XM and has family in the West Bank. And “up until a few years ago, there were almost no Muslims involved in politics. We weren’t there as human beings, to be a counter-narrative. Now we’re active.”

In terms of numbers, Muslims make up a small part of the Democratic Party—after all, they only account for roughly 1 percent of the American population. But especially under the Trump administration, support for Muslims has been a central part of the Democratic Party’s identity. Politicians have pledged to fight the president’s so-called Muslim ban, Islamophobic rhetoric, and attacks on immigrants. “I think Donald Trump woke everyone [up],” Obeidallah says. “His open bigotry has spurred people to get active, and understand that the stakes are too important to sit out.” Democrats’ rush to defend American Muslims from perceived and real political attacks is central to its claim as party of the marginalized.

The inconvenient flip side to being that party, however, is that Democratic leaders actually have to listen to its putatively marginalized members. In recent weeks, as Omar has repeatedly made comments that alarmed some American Jews, claiming that support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins” and seeming to flirt with the trope of dual loyalty, left-wing groups have vocally defended her, claiming that supposed fear of Omar’s anti-Semitism is being wielded to undermine her criticisms of Israel. Established Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have distanced themselves from Omar and called on her to apologize. But progressives have revolted on Twitter and in backroom meetings, delaying the House resolution on anti-Semitism that Democrats promised earlier this week. “We are not just to be paraded symbols of diversity,” Safi says. “This is our House. This is our country.”

Pelosi seemed a little shaken as she addressed the House floor on Thursday. “I salute all our members for demonstrating the courage to have this difficult conversation,” she said. “Disagreeing sometimes, but never questioning the patriotism or motivation of anyone with whom we serve.” Notably, Omar did not address the floor.

This is a huge shift in power and posture from just a few years ago, when a former representative from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, was accused of attacking Israel and supporting Louis Farrakhan, the notoriously anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam. Ellison, who is Muslim, was also called out by top Democrats, prominent Jewish leaders, and pro-Israel groups. But he didn’t get the same powerful upswelling of support—the progressive, largely pro-Palestinian wing of the Democratic Party didn’t have nearly as much power. Today, if Democrats’ support for Muslims “remains at the level of token celebration when it’s convenient, and then immediately throwing them under the bus, well that’s one option,” Safi says. “I think most American Muslims would say we have no interest in being part of that.”

As the Democratic Party tilts left, it faces hefty liabilities, which the controversy over Omar has powerfully illustrated. In progressive activist circles, support for Palestine is often part of the price of admission, along with support for LBGT rights and causes such as Black Lives Matter. This can foster a lack of sensitivity around language that tends to alarm American Jews, progressive and otherwise, including anti-Semitic tropes around Jews’ love of money, outsize influence on banks and governments, and divided loyalties. “We carry some responsibility on the left for not acknowledging that anti-Semitism just exists in American society,” says Eric Ward, the executive director of the Western States Center, which trains Jewish and Muslim leaders on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. “It is not simply a phenomenon of the right, nor a phenomenon of the left. It is in the air we breathe. If we aren’t conscious of it, we will sometimes act out anti-Semitism, in the same way that we may act out sexism or homophobia or racism.”

Anti-Semitism highlights the tension inherent in Democrats’ effort to be the party of the marginalized: Sometimes defending one group can come at the expense of hurting another. In general, it can be difficult for Jewish fear to be heard in progressive spaces. “We live in a society that is based off of the binary race definition of black and white. Most Jews are not people of color,” Ward says. “For the left, it has become very difficult to understand that there are people in the United States who aren’t people of color, yet still face a form of racialized bigotry.” On Thursday, several members of Congress, including the Democrat Eliot Engel of New York, criticized the fact that the House resolution grew over the past two days to include basically every form of discrimination against minorities, rather than specifically addressing anti-Semitism. The 23 Republicans who voted no ostensibly did so for this reason. Steve King, the Iowa representative who has been accused of supporting white nationalism, voted present.

The difficulty of any group being heard is exacerbated in conversations about Israel and Palestine, an issue that many Jews and Muslims see as a central part of their identity. Often, “Muslims and Jews come in with the biggest and best of intentions,” says Aziza Hasan, the head of NewGround, a group that facilitates Muslim-Jewish dialogue. But they “start to realize and uncover that [with] some of the things we say, we unknowingly walk into tropes and histories that we weren’t aware of.”

While this round of the ongoing Omar controversy has seemingly come to a conclusion, the underlying conflict is going to remain urgent for Democrats, especially in the lead-up to the 2020 election. “Part of the genuine, multiracial, multireligious coalition-building of today is recognizing that African Americans, Jews, queer folk, women, poor folk, Native Americans, Muslims, Hispanics—all of us have experienced a kind of marginalization,” Safi says. “At different points in time, the Trump regime is going to target one or more of us, or even try to pit us against one another.”

Many Jews and Muslims, across the spectrum of positions on Israel, have worked hard to form relationships and better understand the nature of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in America today. But others are more interested in calling out their opponents. “Being able to talk through and seek deeper understanding with integrity and honesty, with respect, isn’t in fashion—it’s literally … not expedient,” Hasan says. “My biggest worry is that if we are so focused on winning all the time, where is that going to lead us … ? … We’re going to be a minority-majority country here pretty soon, and we need to figure out how we’re going to interact in society.”

If nothing else, the Democrats will have to figure out how to negotiate the differences in their coalition on Israel and Palestine to avoid losing more days to headlines blaring another trope: “Democrats in disarray.”

“Whether it is antiblack racism, whether it’s Islamophobia, whether it’s anti-Semitism—it has no place within the halls of Congress. And we should have a party that is strong enough to hold one another accountable without demonizing one another, and without disparate treatment based off of race or religion or gender,” Ward says. “Two years [and] 44 days of Donald Trump find the political left in this country rearranging deck chairs on the [Titanic] … throwing each other overboard.”

from The Atlantic https://ift.tt/2HlvL3K

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become a breakout star in the Democratic Party since June, when she pulled off a stunning upset in the New York midterm primaries, beating Rep. Joe Crowley, a top Democrat in the House.

And, not coincidentally, she has also become the white-hot epicenter of not just derision, but blistering, nonstop criticism from conservatives and Republicans.

Ocasio-Cortez is a part of the new left flank of the Democratic Party that is fighting both Republicans and establishment Democrats (and, occasionally, the media) in advance of the fall midterms.

A Bronx native, she’s a democratic socialist, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as her political mentor. She’s become a welcome surrogate on the trail for progressive primary candidates; in fact, she’s seemingly everywhere, campaigning for left-leaning Democrats in Kansas, Michigan, and Hawaii.

And to some on the right, like Sean Hannity, Ocasio-Cortez and her politics are “downright scary.”

Former President Barack Obama is retired from politics, for all intents and purposes, and, to paraphrase Richard Nixon, not available for conservatives to “kick around” anymore. And blasting Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, whose name and image Republicans have used to try to terrify voters for more than seven years, just isn’t getting the job done.

Polls like this are why I tend to doubt the attacks on Pelosi do the GOP much good. Pelosi ranked dead last (out of 10) when people were asked whether something or someone was an impt factor in their vote choice for 2018. https://t.co/7L4kgqBYAJ pic.twitter.com/zYX98yMZrI

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) August 15, 2018

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is young, new to politics, and far to the left. And to many on the right, she is something else — a target.

Ocasio-Cortez has become ubiquitous in conservative media, a perfect character to represent a changing Democratic Party that is going hard on expanding the social safety net — in the conservative media’s view, too hard.

Though most Republicans have never heard of her, National Review, Breitbart, the American Conservative, and other right-leaning outlets have all written extensively on Ocasio-Cortez. National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke wrote that he was doing so “because she’s being hyped as the Next Big Thing. Because she’s now within the Vanguard of the Extra Serious Committee for Democratic Socialism in America. Because she’s making videos with Bernie, and being toasted on the Sunday shows.”

Two weeks ago, prominent conservative writer and podcast host Ben Shapiro offered Ocasio-Cortez $10,000 to debate him. “Miss Ocasio-Cortez, I’m really excited that you’ve been elevated to that position and I would love to have a real conversation with you about the issues,” he said, adding, “Not only am I eager to discuss the issues with you, I’m willing to offer $10,000 to your campaign, today, for you to come on our Sunday special,” concluding, “However you want to do it, I am more than willing to talk to you.”

(The Sunday Special is a special feature on The Ben Shapiro Show podcast and video series in which Shapiro interviews figures from politics and culture. For the sake of transparency, Shapiro has also invited me to be on the show.)

Though Shapiro told Fox Business that he didn’t expect a response, Ocasio-Cortez ultimately did. “Just like catcalling, I don’t owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions.” I reached out to the Ocasio-Cortez campaign, and was told that the tweet was Ocasio-Cortez’s full statement on the matter.

Just like catcalling, I don’t owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions.

And also like catcalling, for some reason they feel entitled to one. pic.twitter.com/rsD17Oq9qe

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) August 10, 2018

I reached out to Shapiro, too, and asked why he wanted to debate Ocasio-Cortez (who is running in a deep-blue district in a blue state) and what his response was to her tweet. He said he wanted to have “a discussion or debate — whichever she chose” with Ocasio-Cortez, “Because Tom Perez called her the future of the Democratic Party, and because she hasn’t done a single interview with anyone who didn’t vote Democrat, so far as I am aware.” In response to her tweet, Shapiro said, “Cross-partisan discussions make the country better. End of story. She had every right to say no, of course. But suggesting that this is in any way comparable to catcalling is patently ridiculous and insane.”

Shapiro has gained a massive online following, particularly on Twitter and YouTube, and his appeal with young conservatives has made him, according to the Washington Post, “the person who appeared to be doing the most to shape the thinking of the new generation of Republican leaders.”

And on DailyWire.com — of which Shapiro is editor-in-chief — there are six pages of stories on Ocasio-Cortez, with headlines including, “INSANE: Here’s How Much The Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez ‘Medicare For All’ Bill Would Cost” and “Ocasio-Cortez Makes Most Idiotic Statement Ever On Twitter.”

The laser focus on Ocasio-Cortez within conservative and right-wing circles is reminiscent of another Democrat who still looms large in the right: Nancy Pelosi, who to conservatives “epitomizes out-of-touch, liberal elitism” and whose image has been used in GOP campaign ads across the country since the late 2000s.

[embedded content]

But Pelosi’s ability to shape the opinions, and votes, of Republicans and independents with her mere presence in ads may have been overstated from the start, and especially in 2018. And with Donald Trump taking up considerable oxygen in the minds of voters, that effect may be even more muted.

As one campaign strategist who spoke anonymously with Politico said in June 2017, “There is zero evidence that linking a candidate to Nancy Pelosi is a meaningful, powerful message that will persuade swing voters or motivate the GOP base.”

That makes Ocasio-Cortez’s entrance into the political scene an important one — for Republicans.

To be clear, Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t become a “boogeyman for conservatives” just because of her ideas and political positions. As a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and someone who ran on Medicare-for-all and a federal jobs guarantee in a deep-blue district, that would have been par for the course.

And Ocasio-Cortez isn’t just a democratic socialist, she’s a democratic socialist who is young, female, and making headlines across the country as she attempts to lead progressive candidates like herself to victory in their primary races.

To many on the left, she’s an invigorating “rock star.” To conservatives looking to paint the new left as terrifying, she’s the perfect example. Plus, if Ocasio-Cortez wins in November, she, like Nancy Pelosi, could hold her seat in Congress for decades.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez greets supporters in Flint, Michigan, on July 28, 2018. Kainaz Amaria/Vox

So conservatives are framing their criticisms of Ocasio-Cortez and, in Shapiro’s words, the “howling at the moon branch of the Democratic Party,” through not just Ocasio-Cortez’s political platform, but through her gaffes and misstatements. One example: She argued that the cost of government-financed health care would be far outweighed by private health care if you added in “the cost of all the funeral expenses of those who died because they can’t afford access to health care.” Another: She said critics of her confusing answers on the Israel/Palestine issue were largely from the alt-right. (They weren’t.)

Michael Graham wrote for CBS News that “[her] gaffes have become so frequent—and harmful—that a cottage industry has risen up on the Right to trumpet them. She’s become a staple of talk radio and clips of her less-than-flattering moments frequent Fox News. Websites like the Washington Free Beacon and the Daily Caller delight in highlighting the latest misstep from the new poster person for American Progressivism.”

In a Free Beacon article titled “Five Idiotic Moments in the Most Recent Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Interview,” Alex Griswold put it more succinctly: “So yeah, conservatives are looooving this whole Ocasio-Cortez phenomenon.”

Some observers, like FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver, have argued that despite her mistakes, Ocasio-Cortez’s policy knowhow is “about on par with or maybe a bit ahead” of the average member of Congress.

The level of policy expertise isn’t great in Congress. And everyone says some dumb shit in long, extemporaneous interviews. Pick one of the random 435 members of the House out of a hat, have them do TV several times a week, and you’ll see much worse.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 9, 2018

And it’s worth pointing out that misstatements aren’t exactly uncommon in the world of politics, from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s “valiant but often unsuccessful struggles with the English language” all the way up to the president of the United States.

(Even though Trump frequently commits errors and gaffes and tells outright lies, one Republican Congress member said in July, “I don’t care … He has a different technique, that’s why I voted for him … [he] doesn’t want to act like one of those guys who you just played talking here, saying all of those words.”)

But within the conservative imagination, Ocasio-Cortez might not be that much like Nancy Pelosi, who does hold real political power and influence and has for decades, or even Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). Ocasio-Cortez is maybe more like the left-wing version of Tea Party candidates who flamed out hard in the 2010 midterms, a Todd Akin or a Christine O’Donnell.

More specifically, O’Donnell — the Tea Party candidate who stunned the country when she won the 2010 Delaware GOP primary — became national news not for winning her primary, but for gaffes widely (and gleefully) shared in mainstream media outlets, from a complete lack of knowledge regarding Supreme Court cases and the Constitution to her mistaken belief that scientists had created mice with human brains.

Within weeks of winning her primary, O’Donnell went from a shock victory to being parodied on Saturday Night Live — a fate many conservatives would love to see befall Ocasio-Cortez.

Christine O’Donnell’s book, Troublemaker, at a book signing after speaking at a Broward Republican Party fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on August 25, 2011. Carey Wagner/Sun Sentinel/MCT via Getty Images

But there’s something important to remember about Christine O’Donnell. Though she ultimately lost in the general election, her candidacy was a part of a larger wave election that put Republicans with policy positions like hers in the majority in the House and gave the GOP considerable power in states nationwide.

O’Donnell was a Tea Party candidate whose political generation included such figures as Mick Mulvaney (now Trump’s budget director), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), and Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) — all of whom didn’t just win their races in 2010, but reshaped their political party as a whole.

In short, though O’Donnell lost, her ideas and political perspective won. And the conservative concern about Ocasio-Cortez, and, more broadly, “an insurgent-led shift towards a more Sanders-esque Democratic party,” is still very much a possibility.

For her part, Ocasio-Cortez’s team has made it clear that she will not be slowing down her media appearances, arguing that the added attention will put the spotlight on her policy platform, which includes eliminating ICE and a federal jobs-for-all guarantee.

But conservatives will continue to hammer her, believing that by doing so, they can sink the most visible representative of the “new” Democratic Party.

Ocasio-Cortez speaks about income inequality, low minimum wage, and Medicare-for-all in Flint, Michigan, on July 28, 2018. Kainaz Amaria/Vox

Original Source -> Why conservatives love to hate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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goongiveusnothing · 2 months

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https://www.tumblr.com/sophism/743444927062605825/if-he-was-anything-like-the-people-he-hangs-out

So this is what harries actually think? Lol I can’t believe this. they really think he secretly supports Palestine but can’t be open about it because all his friends from when he was a teen “groomed him” to support Israel and he can’t leave those friends. He’s literally 30 and can learn more about the genocide (at a time where so much information is available mind you) and leave those friends any time, but he enjoys their company and he hasn’t even made new friends. They all hated Olivia because she was problematic, did she also manipulate him? Anyways the idea that he is secretly not a zionist is the funniest part to me. He is a zionist through and through and if he hasn’t changed that at 30 he never will.

The first part is also funny “if he was anything like the people he hangs out with we would know by now” like what is telling you otherwise? The people he hangs out with tell you exactly who he is period!!

it's so funny how they think he desperately wishes he could say something, but can't. that he's trapped somehow. that he has a whole notepad palestinian thing he could give.

he literally thinks the exact same way ben does about this issue!!!! the exact same way!!!! they both talk about israel a LOT, we can see that in how much harry styles LOVES israel. they're not avoiding the topic to be polite, they're both talking about the hostages, about how hamas are terrorists who are the only bad people involved, how all the protesters are pro hamas and maybe getting paid by iran or russia, and how one day harry would love to visit israel with ben.

when he releases H4 what we can expect is some mealy mouthed "i believe in peace and that the suffering for everyone ends" and that's it. his fans will celebrate claiming he did the greatest fuck you to israel in history, but he won't ever be name calling israel or slamming them or saying he wants a ceasefire. he'll just do the most mealy mouthed nothing a man has ever done.

it's been months and he could've signed one petition about palestine. donated one time publicly. made one public link about it.

he's done fucking nothing at all. didn't follow anyone about it. hasn't interacted with a single palestinian account or person or arab person. hasn't liked a single account or post about this. he literally doesn't care.

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