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[Doomblade187]

I feel like this would be a good time to point out that a large portion of republican support for Israel stems from Evangelical Christianity varietals which believe that Israel must be united under Jewish rule before the whole Revelations thingy happens. This also happens to result in the death of much of the population of Israel in many interpretations, so take that is you will.

[McTraveller]

I'm generally sad that the Dispensationalists somehow co-opted the term "Evangelical."

[Doomblade187]

I'm generally sad that the Dispensationalists somehow co-opted the term "Evangelical."

I mean there's a reason I specified varietals. Evangelical Christianity is a very vague term inherently and spans many denominations. The dispensationalists just happen to be very heavily represented on this issue, and you see their theology pop up in some representatives even.

[dragdeler]

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[Rolan7]

What stops the next majority from expanding the courts again, to get their packed court?

They're already taking what they want.  But if we move to stop them, they take what they want even more!

I know that's flippant, sorry.  But people are sick of Democrats talking a big game and then refusing to actually fight for anything.  Frankly, their strategy appears to involve not delivering on their promises.  When they actually accomplish anything, they stop getting to promise it.

What happens if both sides get to pack the court?  I don't know, but we lose nothing by finding out.  Republicans can't game the system any harder than they already do.  They are completely and utterly without honor, standing behind Trump and Mitch McConnell to do ANYTHING in service of their agenda.  What we need is people to do that for progressive policies.

But it's more profitable to speak about progressive policies, then conveniently lose at almost every turn.  To only get elected because the other side is threatening actual 100% fascism, then do nothing and blame those mustache-twirling villains across the aisle.  The status quo is a deadly game being played with our lives, so I'm sick of Democrats playing things safe.  Damn the Supreme Court, damn the founders of America, and damn the Democratic and Republican parties.

(Damn fascist populism too.  Who sees this charade and thinks "Darn those brown people!  Let's elect a fake millionaire!")

[Vector]

Damn the Supreme Court, damn the founders of America, and damn the Democratic and Republican parties.

Sing it, my friend.


On the topic of Israel, this seems not great. (Twitter)

[voliol]

What does it take to revoke democracy once you have both the SC and the President? I don't know, but that's something to lose. Not that you can expect a future fash president to play by the rules and not pack the court regardless of whether Biden did it, so the winning strategy should be to make it harder to revoke democracy even if it takes the packing of the court now .

[dragdeler]

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[Vector]

I remember how, in this very forum, possibly in this very thread, there were a number of people advocating to elect Trump basically "for the lulz" and "to see what would happen." And because he was "better than Hillary." My butt.

[martinuzz]

That's just me playing association games, the album label is even called psychik genocide. No deeper meaning though. Just two neurons that randomly connected in my brain.

Ah, okay, just the title makes sense.

I listened to the text, and even though right-wing xenophobe populism has increased over the years, the message the song sends is still pretty fringe, and in no way representative for Dutch society.

[dragdeler]

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[The_Explorer]

Looks like biden is officially pressuring israel to ease down, which is what a president should do. Israel definitely has taken it too far really, and hamas has been set back multiple years so not a threat to israel anymore. Though it still to me is "status quo", iran funds hamas, US funds israel...like a shadow war? I guess could call it? Sounds like a good term to name it to me, but maybe not accurate.

[Iduno]

Looks like biden is officially pressuring israel to ease down, which is what a president should do. Israel definitely has taken it too far really, and hamas has been set back multiple years so not a threat to israel anymore. Though it still to me is "status quo", iran funds hamas, US funds israel...like a shadow war? I guess could call it? Sounds like a good term to name it to me, but maybe not accurate.

They aren't a threat anymore? One of the major complaints from the people shooting civilians with fighter jets is that Hamas had rocks stockpiled.

We're still funding them, and preventing the UN from stepping in.

I assume this is like pressuring ICE to quit putting kids in cages: saying the right thing publicly, while spending extra money to make sure nothing changes. I assume there will also be more efforts from the US to keep journalists away like there was the concentration camps. We don't need people finding out what we're actually doing.

[dragdeler]

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[martinuzz]

They aren't a threat anymore? One of the major complaints from the people shooting civilians with fighter jets is that Hamas had rocks stockpiled.

Don't be ridiculous. Hamas even has their own rocket production facilities nowadays, according to themselves. They even bragged about that they now have the Ayyash missile, with 250km range, enough to hit targets everywhere in Israel, and that they have more underground tunnels than the communists had in the Vietnam war.

3500 missiles were fired at Israel so far. 90% were intercepted by the iron dome (impressive). If they hadn't been intercepted, let's just interpolate and say that the death toll in Israel would have been 120, not 12. Not so very assymetrical, especially considering that Israel at least tries to hit military targets, with sadly many civilian collateral. Hamas doesn't warn where they are going to strike. Hamas does 'encourage' it's civilians to stay despite warning and be meatshields.

Don't get me wrong.
I oppose Israeli settlement behaviour.
I oppose extreme religious right zionism (and islamism for that matter).
I am saddened by the segregation of the Gaza. But cannot see any other way (except for the termination of Hamas, and those that create it) at this time to defend Israeli civilians from (suicide) attacks sponsored by extremists who want to drive every last jew from Israel into the ocean, such as happened before the segregation.

I can understand (and even support) peaceful protest against all of those, from humanitarian perspective.

I can agree that Israeli police using stun grenades and rubber bullets against rioters throwing rocks, molotovs and fireworks is a bit excessive (hey, Israeli police, learn from us Dutch and just use a water cannon).
 
I cannot however accept Hamas firing military grade missiles in response to Israeli police using non-lethal force (said stun grenades and rubber bullets) to disperse not-so peaceful protesters, even if they do hide in front of a mosque (imagine: if some football hooligan rioters were to retreat to church grounds somewhere in Europe, throwing bottles and fireworks at the police, and the police dispersed them using water cannons and batons.. Would we say 'the police attacked a church' or would we say 'police dispersed a riot?).

I support Israel's right to defend itself against that, and strike to eliminate that threat for hopefully years to come, so peace can have a chance (not that I am overly optimistic on that matter).

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/hamas-heeft-meer-en-betere-wapens-dan-eerder-maar-de-ijzeren-koepel-omzeilen-lukt-nog-niet~be25e272/?utm_source=link&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=shared%20content&utm_content=free

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/de-ondergrondse-stad-van-hamas~b4242a9e/?utm_source=link&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=shared%20content&utm_content=free