Of all the news this week, I most closely followed the closing of the PLO’s mission in Washington, DC.
The Palestinian leadership confirmed Monday the embassy would close soon, following reports of a leaked draft of a speech by National Security Advisor John Bolton last Sunday night that said the PLO mission would be shut down in the course of penalizing nations that seek prosecution against the U.S., Israel, or other allies at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Bolton, a long time critic of the ICC, indicated the following day at a summit for the Federalist Society that the measure against the PLO was both a sanction for its insistence jurists open an investigation into Israel, and for present unwillingness to engage the White House in its attempts at brokering an agreement with Israel.
First thing I’ll mention is that I have no special love for Israel. I’m not really a huge supporter of that country. From my perspective, our foreign policy in the region is far too suppliant to their needs and we don’t get much in return for all the trouble. That aside, I don’t much care what they do internally. It’s not our concern and beyond our ability to resolve anyway.
In that vein, I agree with the Trump Administration’s decision to close the PLO’s embassy. Yes, I know it doesn’t look good if we’re trying to look like fair brokers of a peace deal, but really, I have to wonder if we can do that or even should try.
The Palestinian people have had the most self-serving and irresponsible leaders on Earth for several decades now. I can absolutely believe that Israel behaves like an apartheid state and also acknowledge that an independent Palestine would be a complete disaster, right? The two opinions aren’t mutually exclusive.
If the Palestinian leadership doesn’t want to work with the US on a lasting peace deal with Israel, then screw them. The choice to doom their people to poverty and marginalization is theirs alone. It’s clear that they’re not getting the hint and even this step won’t convince them that they need Israel to make a deal with them than the other way around.
I feel bad for the Palestinian people, but I have to admit that I’m enjoying this current era of American foreign policy that amounts to, “We have no obligation to be nice or fair. Do what we say or eat a dick.”
Open thread with a twist! Let’s share and discuss news stories on the topic of the unfairness of life. Anybody got anything?
Guilty until proven Innocent.
The accuser’s RateMyProfessor page is gold.
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1352705
From 2014:
And….
Finally…
Yep. This is going to go well for the Democrats.
Mark Judge denies:
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/16/exclusive-classmate-named-in-kavanaugh-sexual-assault-accusations-stands-by-denial-of-absolutely-nuts-allegations/
Why now?
https://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/09/16/tillis-why-on-earth-were-allegation-against-kavanaugh-not-discussed-earlier/
It was perfectly played by the Democrats. Sit on it right past the confirmation hearings, wait until the eve of the vote, then release the anonymous story, then have the person come forward five days before the vote, and ask to testify. Now either they postpone the vote, risking making it an election issue for 2018, and possibly losing the Senate and not confirming Kavanaugh, or ram through the vote anyway, giving liberals even more firepower for the mid-terms.
Anybody calls shenanigans on the Democrats, and suddenly it’s, “See, they really don’t care about women!”
It was 35 years ago, the accuser is shaky on the basic details of what happened, another witness says it didn’t happen, and it has nothing to do with whether or not he’s qualified to serve. She should be ignored.
I was curious. Here’s the history of SCOTUS Confirmation votes in the Senate. I wonder if we will ever have another unanimous vote again…or even one not closely aligned to party.
As long as the Supreme Court, rather than the states and people, is responsible for resolving all social issues that affect everyone then the process is guaranteed to be partisan and starkly divided.
look like trump is gonna declassify some of the russia investigation docs.
will this be a earth shaker. or a big nothing burger?
Regardless, everyone should be able to agree that the transparency is a good thing. Whatever your opinion on Trump, it’s right to know why an American citizen who apparently did nothing wrong was spied on.
Mississippi State Police boycotting Nike over the Kaepernick ad.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/09/17/mississippi-state-police-other-agencies-ban-nike-products-following-controversial-kaepernick-ad
Nobody should buy Nike anyway. I’ve always considered them an especially evil corporation for using slave labor to manufacture their products and them marketing them directly to poor people in the inner cities at vastly inflated prices.
I think it’ll backfire on them. When you got to go back to when Kavanaugh was a 17-year-old punk kid to find anything (assuming it’s even true to begin with, which it doubtful), that’s proof you got nothing.
Life is unfair. A recent conversation of this very topic brings me back to this Quote from the TV series Babylon 5.
You guys don’t need the Dems help to make you look anti-women. You’re ticking off every one of the usual awful arguments, like it’s still the 80s or similar. My favourite is the immediate character assassination of the wrong person.
Blowing up in their faces?
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/18/politics/ford-letter-fbi/index.html
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/18/feinstein-on-kavanaugh-accuser-fords-allegations-i-cant-say-that-everything-is-truthful/
Dictator eats so his people don’t have to:
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/09/18/videos-venezuelan-dictator-nicolas-maduro-feasts-at-salt-bae-restaurant/
In Berkeley, taking care of the important things:
https://abc7news.com/food/vegan-mondays-coming-to-berkeley/4263636/
Meanwhile:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/09/17/inside-edition-crew-gets-robbed-while-reporting-on-san-francisco-bay-area-crime.html
I guess now we know:
https://tvline.com/2018/09/18/bert-ernie-gay-confirmed-sesame-street-writer-interview/
There’s nothing anti-woman about any of it. I don’t believe this particular woman about this particular accusation. I have every right not to believe her.
Ford doesn’t represent all women nor do the Democrats speak for all women. It’s time to knock out that mentality that they do.
I thought this already happened years ago. Is this really new or am I experiencing some Mandela Effect shit?
We on the right look “anti-women” to the left no matter what we do. Or don’t do. Or say. Or don’t say.
It just doesn’t matter.
It’s the left who truly mistreat women, while pointing fingers at the right in sheer hypocrisy.
Changing my screen name to better reflect reality.
A new persona and a new verb!
While I’m being anti-woman, can we acknowledge that the whole Miss America thing panned out exactly as expected? I just now realized that it was last week. Apparently few fucks were given and fewer people watched.
No kidding. I just NOW found out that it even happened. Sailed right under my radar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pKjzmUEoiY
Cue accusations Martina Markota is anti-woman.
Checking to see if I still have to enter my Name and Email every time I comment.
Yup. Still looking into this a bit more before I bother zoom.
Something that I learned from the Merrick Garland nomination – there are literally no hard and fast rules when it comes to SC nominations. The Senate doesn’t have to do shit and there is no burden of proof for either side. There doesn’t even have to be nine justices. When the rubber hits the road, all anyone has to do is make a couple of Senators queasy enough to change his/her vote. Nothing more, nothing less. This is a job interview and not a criminal trial. If they are not successful then the vote can go forward. There are no rights to be violated here, as no one has a right to a SC life-time appointment. Brett Kavanaugh will either go on to the SC or back to his other judge job.
The only recourse that Democrats have to address this situation is to vote out Republicans wherever they can and hope that they eventually get the Senate back. We can then watch as Republicans suddenly recover their lost queasiness as they remember what high school and college parties were like in the 80’s when someone from the Democratic Party is nominated for something. In fact, the early 80’s are a gold mine for vague dirt on people in this age range. No one can remember details because it was so long ago and there was alcohol involved. I used to wonder if anyone from my generation would be able to successfully navigate politics. All those crazy parties were filled with someone, right?
Many of us know pretty much what happened to Dr. Ford back then and why she doesn’t want to discuss it. I agree, though, that proving it was Kavanaugh is challenging and she may not be able to sway enough Senators to make a difference. I can live with it. Whenever I see an opinion from Clarence Thomas I think “Long Dong Silver says …”. Next up, “Bart O’Kavanaugh says … “. It’s all good.
See, I agree with much of what you said in principle, pfluffy. But then there’s this:
It ought to be enough to try to delay a president’s nominees without destroying a man’s career and reputation over an unfounded allegation. This is exactly why I’m so disgusted by #MeToo.
Republicans did pull some shit with Garland’s nomination and it was unusual (but not totally unprecedented). I don’t deny it. But they never tried to personally destroy him either.
There was no need. Garland couldn’t even get lunch with a junior Senator. Republicans treated a “stand up guy” like kryptonite. Are you seriously contending that Republicans never trashed anyone’s reputation?
I have no real emotion regarding Bart-O’s situation. I think that he did what she said he did. I would never in a thousand years suggest charging him with anything and I don’t even think it appropriate to impeach him on his current Federal gig. I do think that Republicans can and should do better. There have to be better guys available for this. Maybe avoid anyone from a DC area prep school.
Right, just another unfortunate coincidence that you’re so strongly on ‘that’ side of things.
LOL, you didn’t even character-assassinate the right person – it appears you just passed on (i.e. enabled) the immediate right wing take-down of this woman
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/far-right-news-sites-smear-california-professor-after-misidentifying-kavanaugh-n910471
Non-sequitur.
Right, YOU’RE the poor victims. Again.
LOL.
All just a series of coincidences that your positions consistently appear to be anti-women.
And on and on and on it goes.
Damn punk kids and their attempted rapes. Now if he’d been 27……
Some of the metoo stuff is sketchy. I felt bad for Ansari, who had what could be called a very bad date with someone sending wildly mixed signals. I am not a fan of the whole written contract before having sex concept. I think that there is still value in spontaneity and that women should understand that men might want to have sex with them and if they don’t want it back they should just say so. Buyer’s remorse is not rape.
This is not what Dr. Ford is describing and I don’t think it is MeToo. Obviously, she was hoping that the allegation would prompt them to withdraw the nomination. She doesn’t want the spectacle and I don’t really blame her. I do think that if she doesn’t show for the hearing that the Senate has no choice but to proceed. Again, there are no rules, McConnell is just making it up as he goes along and this time the standard is show up for a grilling by old white men or go home. If it were a Democrat I have no doubt everything would grind to a halt and he would refuse to bring it to the floor.
No. I’m saying that they didn’t do it in the specific instance that you brought up.
No matter who, Democrats would still find someone to launch an unfounded allegation against him. Despite the numerous women who have come forward to speak well of Kavanaugh’s treatment of women both personally and professionally, there’s no way on Earth he should be denied a Supreme Court seat because of the word of a woman with highly dubious motives who can’t identify the month or even the city where she was supposedly assaulted by him 35 years ago.
She isn’t credible.
She doesn’t want to end up getting charged with perjury.
Yes, I’m on the side of believing that the women who know and have provably interacted with a man for several years are more believable than a single woman who can’t provide even the most basic details about an encounter she had with him over 35 years ago.
Why do you hate all those women who say nice things about Kavanaugh, CM?
You’re right. That was a misfire. Of course, everything on the Web from the correct Ford has been thoroughly scrubbed for some weird reason. I should’ve known that wouldn’t be true.
As an act of contrition and in the interest of setting the record straight, here’s this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/us/politics/christine-blasey-ford-kavanaughs-fact-check.html
I’ll throw in a quick defense here since I’m being character-assassinated by CM. Hey, speaking of new verbs, is that one?
Here are some of my past posts that speak to my supposed hatred of women.
http://www.ridiculousvikingstuff.com/2018/02/26/mona-charen-triggers-cpac/
And on the topic of politically motivated sexual assaults from decades ago:
http://www.ridiculousvikingstuff.com/2017/12/12/the-improbable-alabama-election/
Same post, I told you this was how it was going to be, incidentally. Didn’t think to apply it to SCOTUS nominees though.
But again. Here’s a summation of my views:
http://www.ridiculousvikingstuff.com/2017/11/19/scandalrama-4/
You threw up a link that proved I was wrong. I’ve put up three that prove you were wrongfully character-assassinating me. What are you going to do with it?
I guess now we know:
https://tvline.com/2018/09/18/bert-ernie-gay-confirmed-sesame-street-writer-interview/
I thought this already happened years ago. Is this really new or am I experiencing some Mandela Effect shit?
Yeah i get the same feeling, i swear there was a whole hub-bub, 10-15 years ago on this and it was accepted they were ina Gay Muppet relationship, with Ernie being an mentally challenged Gimp, and Bert being a Yellow power abuser type.
We have a bit of a perspective issue here. I start with the knowledge that this is not all that uncommon and I add up the supporting information. You do the same in reverse. I can just as easily say that his denials aren’t credible and I would be right. In this situation denials mean literally nothing. It is a stalemate and will be for the foreseeable future.
That is your interpretation and isn’t unrealistic. I can tell you though, that it will be excruciating for her if she testifies in front of a bunch of old men. I know that you think that there is this database of women willing to debase themselves in front of the country for the Democratic Party, but I just don’t believe that is even remotely possible. She has received death threats and all the other pleasantries that make this so much fun.
Another person unwilling to go in front of the Senate is Mark Judge. He probably doesn’t want to be charged with perjury himself.
It’s not though. In the #MeToo era, the accusation itself is the objective.
No, there’s a collection of Democratic lawyers who locate, coach, and finance women to do this. All they have to do is find one who will agree to make some statements that are impossible to verify either way, it builds up the “GOP hates women!” narrative, and mouthpieces like CM gleefully parrot it.
When it’s clear that his sort of tactic is being used because the accuser is unable to provide any proof whatsoever that she’s even ever been in the same city as the accused in a particular month, she should be ignored. It’s the only way to stop this irresponsible smearing.
At least one of Moore’s accusers could at least prove that she knew him. Ford hasn’t even met that low bar.
Grassley read the Democrats the Riot Act and scorched Feinstein. She really did screw this up completely.
Am I hating women by pointing that out? Can’t keep track with these new rules.
https://twitter.com/NumbersMuncher/status/1042570400096501761
So much bias demonstrated in a single sentence.
That isn’t what I’m saying at all. I’m just saying that left-wing opinions don’t mean anything because they’re whatever they need to be according to whim, actual circumstances don’t matter.
See? In your view, he’s guilty. No bothersome trial or evidence needed. Thanks for making my point for me.
Given that the left are simply using Ford as a pawn in an attempt to get political power, and given that Hillary did everything she could to discredit Bill’s various accusers, given how Ted Kennedy got away with letting Mary Jo Kopechne slowly drown in his car, and so on and so on, how we the right look to the left doesn’t mean jack. You can keep acting like it should mean something, but it doesn’t.
You’d be “right” in your own mind, sure. But not objectively right. The man has a long, clean track record. Ex-girlfriends have come forward in his defense, as have other women. The timing is suspect, being on the brink of his confirmation. She’s hazy on details, like WHEN it actually happened, and WHERE. There are too many “coincidences” to ignore, like the fact that her lawyer donated to the DNC, MoveOn, the Hillary campaign, etc., she’s a Trump-hater who donated to Bernie Sanders, her parents were in foreclosure on their house and his mother was the judge, and so forth.
They’re all leftists who want to derail the confirmation, plain and simple. His denials are more plausible than her accusations.
But sure, you’re right. In your own view.
I’ll just throw out the possibility that she really was sexually assaulted at a party when she was 15 and the guy wasn’t actually Kavanaugh.
The Browns finally won a game after two-year losing streak …
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2018/09/cleveland-browns-win-finally-rally-possum-baker-mayfield-fans-reaction
Did anybody kneel???? It’s unimaginable that we would discuss football on an open thread without discussing the national anthem.
Here’s what’s awesome:
I have no idea. I watched the game but, as far as I recall, nobody talked about it. Maybe everybody kneeled. Maybe nobody did. But, by the blessed rains of Africa, football was about football last night. And a team that hadn’t won a game in 635 days beat, on the strength of an exciting young quarterback prospect, a team that utterly dismantled my Lions on Monday Night Football a few weeks ago.
Kudos to the Browns! It’s going to be a long season here in Detroit.
Also, if you’d like to dive into the particular topic that you were alluding to, I had an interesting moment with my wife when the Nike commercial came on. She commented that she liked it. I said, “he’s still a douche”. She looked horrified.
I recoiled in shock. I asked her if she remembered how much she hated him 4 years ago when he would kiss his biceps after a big play. She said, “well, but I like what he’s standing for now”.
It occurred to me that this is part of the soup that’s being made of all of this. KC is now a binary lightening rod.
It’s apparently not possible to like him (or not) as a person while independently liking (or not) his message and that bums me out a bit.
I think it makes sense though. She didn’t like the egomaniacal attitude she felt he had by kissing his biceps and showboating. By sacrificing his career for a cause, he showed a denial of ego and recognition of something greater than himself.
Of course, I think he’s a doosh too, but I think I understand why her attitude has changed.
That sounds reasonable.
I’m still cynical. I think his kneeling wasn’t part of a greater plan but was simply a spontaneous (albeit sincere) gesture. He probably didn’t plan to become the hero that Gotham deserved but, once he couldn’t find work in the NFL, decided to take up the mantle.
Put differently, I think he was cornered into the position. He may not regret how it has turned out but I don’t think, in 2016, if you had asked him under risk of perjury if he was willing to sacrifice his career for the cause that he would have said yes.
Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t part of a plan when he started and I suspect that girlfriend of his is the one who put all this in head (there I go again, character-assassinating women).
However, sometimes people find their own “Road to Damascus”. They start off doing something and it turns into a bigger cause. No, I’m not comparing Kaepernick to a saint, just saying that whatever it is he has found himself in, he’s trying to make it count. And making millions of dollars at it, because why not?
It looked promising for, what, the first 10 seconds of the season.
By the way, I’m going to be in Ann Arbor the weekend of November 3. Believe it or not, we’re going to see Eastern Michigan (I somehow couldn’t convince my friends to take in the Wolverines this year). We got a house on north campus. Will you be around?
Still think he’s a dick, still won’t watch the NFL while kneeling is going on. Here’s an idea – if you rich pricks who make millions throwing a ball around want to really protest the police, don’t let them protect you with their scary guns. Turn down police protection whenever you make a public appearance. Let’s see how committed to your cause you really are.
That’s where I fall too. I guess the one sacrifice he’s made is that he doesn’t get to play football anymore, but he still might. A real martyr has to really sacrifice something, really take a risk, really lose something.
I don’t think Kaepernick qualifies as one. However, I can see why some would buy into the illusion that he has.
Now that this is back up and running, I hope it gets lively again. I’ve been thinking a lot about this the past few years. I was once a big supporter of defending Israel, but no longer. I think Ilhan Omar does have a point that big money does flow in for advertising and pressure to keep this cycle going. We’ve put way to much in way of lives and treasury to keep what amounts to an apartheid state alive. We gone from decent relations with the Arab world to constant confrontations. In the meantime, you have big name Jewish groups in this country that consistently bash the US, believe strong immigration policies are supremist, and believe anyone wanting to preserve the foundation of this Country is supremist. For their own interests, they are all for dividing people up, creating two states with one being a Jewish theocracy (they’ll call it democracy, but I doubt that will be the case if you’re not Jewish). They want far more controls on the Israeli borders and immigration than we’ve ever suggested for the States.
Time to put the double standard to bed, time to stop supporting true apartheid and fascism, time to make peace (hopefully the Arab world would be willing to consider it), and Israel can move forward and abandon the xenophobia, hate, and racism and allow for an inclusive one people state with equal rights for all.