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[Culise]

What's up with Israel I've been focused on everything else but that.

What, are we deliberately alienating them now too? Specifically in a targeted fashion, I mean.

I'm not sure about how the US plays into it, but the Knesset dissolved for snap elections in September rather than accept the possibility of a government led by Gantz (Blue and White party - a new merger of three liberal, secular, and centrist parties) after Prime Minister Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition back in April.  Some allegations of misconduct like vandalized ballots, falsified ballots, and as I recall, Netanyahu conducting two radio interviews in violation of Israeli electoral laws barring political propaganda the night before and day of the election later, Blue and White narrowly came out ahead by a single seat due in significant part to support from Israeli Arabs. 

Netanyahu was then given first shot at forming a coalition government again by President Rivlin: a plurality of the Knesset as a whole recommended Netanyahu first, it seems.  Rivlin's also come out in support of a Blue and White/Likud coalition, which neither Netanyahu nor Gantz are likely to accept.  Both parties are basically hobbled by lack of popular support right now.  Netanyahu can pick up most of the seats he needs for a majority from the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox far-right), but that religious crutch is what alienated Lieberman (hardcore secularist/ultranationalist) and makes it difficult to form a majority government.  Gantz is looking at more potential policy conflicts if he picks up the leftist parties who Netanyahu cannot hope for, but he's still coming from behind.  The Joint List (Arabs) has weighed in against Netanyahu, but not necessarily in support of Gantz (who has come out in support of existing Israeli West Bank settlements, keeping the Golan, and unilaterally implementing a permanent two-state solution in order to prevent Palestine from "endanger[ing] our identity as a Jewish state").  Even combining Blue and White, Labour-Gesher, the Democratic Camp, and the Joint List would still fall short of a majority, though: here as well, Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu hold the final kingmaker position, but he also considers allowing the Joint List into government tantamount to treason (because Arab menace).

So, basically, things are interesting, and Israel may end up with a third set of Knesset elections.  For America's involvement, as I mentioned, it's been negligible to the best of my knowledge.  Trump loves Netanyahu (which tells you quite a bit about Netanyahu), but it doesn't follow at all that Gantz is anti-American.  The only thing I can think of is that this pull-out may shake Israeli confidence in US support, but even there, I'm not sure Israel was any more or less confident in US support before Trump's declaration.

EDIT: Sorry, a plurality rather than a majority.  After all, if it was a majority, we'd already be talking about Prime Minister Netanyahu again.

[smjjames]

Given how dependent they are on US aid and the relationship, the US would have to do something truly horrible to them to make them anti-US. Probably even the ultranationalists who would have an anti-American streak just for ultranationalisms sake would be hard pressed to be utterly anti-US diplomatically and policy wise.

I don't know much about Gantz other than that he's a former military officer and that he is leftwing. The fact that he is leftwing will definetly clash with Trump though.

[Dunamisdeos]

Here's an article on that Blizzard Hong-Kong thing.

I feel like is more important than it initially seems. A major corporation is publicly sanctioning someone for their views. The player is from Hong Kong, they have every right to talk about it.

Mind you the part of the agreement they claim he violated doesn't state that he can;t talk about polarizing issues or has to run anything by them first. It says that he “any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages the Blizzard image.”

Blizzard decides what statements are offensive or damages their image, and Blizzard decided that support for Hong Kong was offensive.

https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/blizzard-hong-kong/

[Egan_BW]

They were just following the rules that they made which say they can do whatever they want for any reason! It's the streamer's fault for breaking those rules by doing something they didn't like!

[Mephisto]

I love that the Blizzard shitshow drew ire from senators on both sides.

I hate, however, that this receives bipartisan support while the president chews holes in the constitution.

[MrRoboto75]

Its been happening in most media these days.  China has more eyes, and more importantly, more money.

[smjjames]

The logic of some people just astounds me, Trump is saying that we shouldn't help the Kurds because they didn't take part in Normandy and other WWII battles, which he got from a conservative op-ed article (shown in the link). By that op-eds logic, we shouldn't be allies with Israel, because they didn't exist as a nation to take part in WWII! Or for that matter, any number of countries that didn't exist or directly take part in the battles mentioned in that op-ed.

Just some absolutely bonkers logic.....

[MetalSlimeHunt]

This is what happens when you spend your youth huffing leaden gasoline before your dad gets home so you can tune out the daily domestic abuse.

[Trolldefender99]

its reddit and owned by tencent, but here is a good post of all the US companies (hence why I'm putting it here) that are pro-concentration camps and anti-hong kong freedom

https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/dfc6qi/disneyowned_espn_forbids_discussion_of_chinese/

I didn't look at every single entry, but I looked at the first 9 and looked legit. I read the rest of the post and didn't see anything wrong with it

[Trolldefender99]

In other news outside of so many organizations and companies bending the knee to china...

I donated 5 dollars to andrew yang's campaign. It isn't much, but every bit helps. All the other candidates are more white power, none of the popular ones are like obama. Mostly racists want another white president, so andrew yang is the best candidate to screw the racists over. I like biden, but I came to the conclusion that what the US needs is someone not white in office especially when so many racists want to vote for more white power. I've seen some darker parts of the web where KKK resides (no I didn't visit, but I've seen screenshots and glimpses of it from screenshots people post on reddit. I don't visit the dark web, not even remotely interested in that in being my search history lol), anyway they've said even if trump loses at least a white person will be elected in office. However one candidate isn't white. And andrew yang is the best candidate to screw people like that over.

Plus even if its pretty much a bribe, I like the idea every person that works and all the companies making so much money have to give me and many others a part of that 1k a month income. Time to pay up and help me get a new PC!

Plus his policies seem pretty good overall, I like them quite a bit. And it be better than another white person in office, we've only had one non-white president so its time to do it again, but in this case an asian american. Obama was most popular democrat president of all time, and so many racists hate him or/and talk bad about him which makes me want to spit in their face if I ever saw them in real life. Andrew yang to me would be like obama, maybe not equal to obama, but one of the best presidents we can have and it can show so many asian americans they can have a future in america even a future where they lead the most powerful country in the world.

Even if andrew yang isn't listed on the ballot, I'm writing his name in. I don't want to help make racists happy by electing someone white. So I'm really hoping andrew yang gets steam and starts polling better, but he isn't doing the worst by far so there is that.

[Doomblade187]

I would like to note that Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Julian Castro are also running. Kamala is a cop, however, and Julian and Cory aren't polling great.

[Folly]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-record-support-for-trump-impeachment

According to Fox News poll, more than half of voters now want Trump impeached AND removed from office.

[Trolldefender99]

I would like to note that Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Julian Castro are also running. Kamala is a cop, however, and Julian and Cory aren't polling great.

Kamala was and maybe still is a good contendor, though supposedly on my local news and LA times her support has slowed down and LA times interviewed people on the street and no one even knew who she was. In the interview by LA times, most people would vote for warren. Warren seems like she'll probably be the choice in the end. There was a couple asians though who'd vote for andrew yang.

I actually forgot tbh about julian and cory. In fact in the LA times interview they didn't even mention him, and haven't seen them talked much about elsewhere. That isn't a very good sign outside their poor polls...or maybe that is a direct reason for their poor polling cause none of the media talk about them. Thats actually pretty disappointing tbh. Do they not get enough funding to advertise or something to get the medias attention? I need to see how their donations look.

Cause with andrew yang who I gave 5 dollars to, he is talked about quite a bit in the media (especially as far as the "smaller" candidates go) and widely discussed in asian communities that I visit. So he gets a LOT of attention from there (bad and good). Yet I actually see little discussion in regards to julian and cory, are people just not attracted to them as candidates or something?

[Trolldefender99]

They're all fairly comparable, actually, in terms of news coverage. Booker get a bit more than Yang, Castro a bit less.

Thanks for the link. Thats interesting actually, all pretty equal really besides the top 2 with biden still having by far the most coverage if I understand the link right. Yang doesn't get as much as I thought, maybe I see him more often since I'm part of a few asian community groups on facebook so maybe could be more popular with them. I don't actually have a TV, so I mostly rely on news stories from CNN or NYtimes news website. There I see a ton about warren and biden the most, but I suppose maybe TV its a bit more equalized looking at that link. (edit: I did see the website portion in that link. But maybe because there is so much coverage of warren and biden the other articles gets drowned out. Cause I hopped on CNN real quick before I leave for dinner, and first article I see scrolling down is about warren)

[thompson]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-record-support-for-trump-impeachment

According to Fox News poll, more than half of voters now want Trump impeached AND removed from office.

Interesting that Trump is viewed mote positively than the Republican party. Must be some cognitive dissonance going on there. It won't last. At this point the Republicans appear completely ****ed. Democrat control of the senate come 2021 looking a little more likely. Once the "usual suspects" start trying to prop up Biden in the Democrat primaries you know the end is near.