ewsieg

10 minutes ago, oblong said:

I am pretty sure Israel has made that offer with regard to hostages and a cease fire but Hamas doesn't actually want a cease fire.  They don't care if Palestenians die.

That is true, but Hamas also wanted insight in to what that would mean after the hostages are back and were given nothing.  Cease fire for a few days and it starts all over again?  I'm not saying it'll work, but if it comes with world backing that Israel leaves Gaza, presumably for good, that might change their opinion.  

With Netanyahu in charge, it's a moot point anyway as he would never agree to that.

45 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Not really breaking through this AM, but worth noting that some of Biden's best margins are in Pontiac and Southfield, with Detroit not far behind (UC in mid single digits)

There's work to be done on AA turnout, but the margins suggest he's still reasonably strong with this group

But Trump just saw so many black people recently, and the shoes too.  AA's love shoes.  Why isn't it working?!?!?!

11 hours ago, pfife said:

Biden bypassed congress twice.  

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-biden-administration-once-again-bypasses-congress-on-an-emergency-weapons-sale-to-israel#:~:text=WASHINGTON (AP) — For the,Gaza under increasing international criticism.

This is not real.  All of you folks get your news from unfettered sources and I've been told time and time again that Biden can't do anything in regards to getting weapons to Ukraine, it's the GOP that's at fault.

11 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

I never hear what Israel was supposed to do other than just give up. 

I mean, Netanyahu could have chosen not to prop up Hamas for years.... but yes, hindsight is 20/20.  

Right now though, demand Hamas give up the remaining hostages/bodies and a cease fire starts.  Israel backs out of Gaza but maybe they could demand the UN get involved.  

https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-economy-ukraine-war-moscow-military-spending-inflation-worker-shortage-2024-2

This may now be a forever war at least from Russia's standpoint.  Quite possible that even if Ukraine gave up currently held territory, Russia simply couldn't afford to that agreement.   Additionally, winning the war and taking over Ukraine could be just as bad for them.  

19 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

These asshats voting uncommitted will also do the media huge favors. 

Agreed.  I always planned on voting for Haley, but now I'm thinking of voting for Biden because of this.

So the only condition on that money is a directive pointing out what we could already do.  Quite some constraints there.   

50 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Like I said, Republicans will come around.

 

John Sununu is the one I've been waiting for.  He's still on his kick that Trump won't be the nominee, thus allowing him to say he'll support the GOP nominee, but isn't supporting Trump.

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

yes the Palestinians have been screwed, but how you chose to fight back matters. Gandhi got the Brits out of India without acting like Hamas, Mandela broke the Apartheid government without acting like Hamas, MLK fought hard to keep his movement non-violent, rejecting the Panther's militant direction. There is a level at which it is unavoidable that populations have to be responsible for the outcomes in their midst. It is never fair on the individual level, but that is how the world works.

I certainly wish Hamas would be taking the path of some of those you noted.  I also wish Netanyahu was taking the path of those same people as well.  There are only several possibilities

1) You have peace between both, but that would mean you can't have Hamas or Netanyahu

2) You have peace because there are no Palestinians left.

3) You don't have peace.

I'm not trying to compare Hamas to Netanyahu, but screw Netanyahu too.

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

Biden has said there will be conditions on military. He has been pretty clear about. Just stop with this unconditional aid. Biden has never said it. 

What conditions?  Netanyahu has been publicly flipping Biden off for months and saying he doesn't care what we say.  I get that our native language is English, but even Google translate can be used to easily see what Netanyahu is saying within his country.   I will argue with every Palestinian sympathizer about how the vast majority of the problems have been caused by Palestinians, but at this point going forward, you can't claim you want peace in that region and continue to support Netanyahu.
 

18 minutes ago, romad1 said:

I think "dementia don" is starting to become absorbed by the media as a thing.   

Drudge has been pushing that for awhile now.  I know many on the left hated the 'free campaign ads' of him doing his stump speech last time around, but there definitely is a decline with him as well.  I don't see how he can run on Biden being too old and then speak gibberish and independents will just go along with it and vote for him anyway.

Unrelated to above, I feel like I'm moving towards a lot of you folks in regards to how I handle Trump in my head.  I find myself not posting as much as frankly, even if I disagree with something, I don't care enough to address it.

Like did Fani Willis do something corrupt and illegal - I mean, obviously, but who really cares right now.  Let's get back to the Trump case, GA can deal with her after, if at all, I don't care.

Or Ukraine, it's a disaster and the Ukrainian forces aren't getting enough artillery or other bull**** lines we're hearing in MSM because we haven't given them more money is bull****, but again, i'm apathetic now.  Give them some more, let them deplete Russia some more.  

Trump truly is making me apathetic to everything.  I feel like even if we win (by not electing Trump next term), the damage is still too much on the global stage....ugh, just hate this/him.

 

1 hour ago, mtutiger said:

Single income household with two kids, mid 30s.... we are affected by inflation.

But when I see a viral post on social media about someone complaining that a Giant Size box of Cheerios is $8.49 (when there are multiple other stores in the same area that carry the same item for $6.49), that's a sign of intellectual dishonesty and/or a lack of personal responsibility for poor financial choices.

Well, to a point.  Some of the poorest of the poor, both urban and rural, don't have easy access to another store in the area/region.  My mother in law has a lake house in Farwell, about 25 minutes north of Mt. Pleasant.  We try and bring all of our food whenever we go because the local mom and pop stores in Clare or the Dollar Generals aren't cheap.  Look at Detroit and how many folks get food out of gas stations.  

But yeah, if I see that on Facebook, it's probably my mom who goes to a specific meat market for her meat, gets most of her stuff at Aldi, and hits Meijer for a few items she consistently finds cheaper there.  

18 hours ago, mtutiger said:

I kind of approach all of these cases, both the civil and criminal, from the view that committed Trump supporters aren't going to be persuaded by any of them. For what it's worth.

For the Trump supporters now, you're absolutely correct.  He's getting 30% of the vote regardless.  Each party had about 10 % that doesn't pay attention but still usually votes for that party.  I hope to pull as many of those folks away from Trump as possible.

2 hours ago, mtutiger said:

I don't know the degree to which any of this impacts or doesn't impact the Presidential Election, obviously... but the point being made is that comparing the criminal cases and the civil cases against Trump are like comparing apples and oranges. We very well may not see anything come of the criminal stuff for many reasons, but even today, there are real world consequences playing out in the civil cases. That's just reality.

I'm not sure either, but it does worry me a bit that this Trump Org case and now the Bragg case looks like it's next.... I just think it'll be easy for Trump supporters to ignore it with simple but legitimate arguments like "of course he'll lose a fraud case when no one has been defrauded in a NYC court" and "really, Stormy Daniels still?"  My concern is by the time GA comes around some on the fence GOP'ers might just ignore it.   Hope not, but even as a never Trumper that thinks he's crooked as hell, I see that 300m+ fine and think it's a bit crazy.  

Maybe Trump will become a pastor and find ways to hide money like Kwame.

Without reading that article due to some time constraints, I suspect the E Jean Carrol and Trump org cases are different. (personal vs corporate responsibility) I would expect NY would be able to garnish profit from Trump org if they had to.  Plus they put a court appointed monitor to oversee all financial transactions.   I'm not sleeping on the idea that Trump and his family will try and stall or find a way to hide money away from the monitor, but I just don't think they'll be successful.  

3 hours ago, 1984Echoes said:

Who are you talking to?

The IDF? They're the ones reporting military deaths... and since they are a MILITARY organization that's all they are EXPECTED to do.

Did you have a bone to pick with their methodology?

Here's an idea:

Call them up and tell them to change their methods. That should work wonders.

As for me... why are you typing and telling ME to change the IDF's numbers? Because I'm not going to do it. I have a military background and I know EXACTLY what, and why, the IDF is reporting.

If you don't understand this, and clearly you don't... then I can't help you.

I didn't ask you to do anything.  I am not arguing about the numbers at all.  

My point that I choose your post as a catalyst was because you claim that as a military organization they are only expected to report military deaths.  I'm fine with that.  But wanted to point out there are high level members of Netanyahu's government that claims there are no civilians, it's only Hamas fighters and Hamas supporters.   I see no reason why Netanyahu can't give the world an answer on if that means he's planning on ridding all Palestinians/Hamas from Gaza.  If that answer is yes, then I do have an issue with the numbers, because he should be including the 'Hamas supporters' aka civilians, in those numbers.  If so, he should also be informed the US has stopped all aid to Israel.

On 2/15/2024 at 4:46 PM, 1984Echoes said:

You are making one mistake here. I agree with the top part.

But the IDF is a military organization. It is NOT their job to report on Gazan civilian deaths. Their ONLY objective is to complete their MILITARY objectives. They report military deaths/ casualties. Their own and the "enemies". That's it. 

That is part of the problem here.  The objective we hear is to completely rid out Hamas.  History should point out how unrealistic that is.  I mean 20 years of war and maybe Hamas will be gone and there will be a new name to deal with so I guess you got that.

The bigger issue with the objective is who defines Hamas.  Many folks in Netanyahu's part have publicly said Palestinians voted in Hamas, hence they are all Hamas.  If you don't really care about civilian casualties because you feel they are kind of just like Hamas, then report their deaths as well.  You can't have it both ways.

2 hours ago, 1984Echoes said:

Lara Trump is going to end up in prison if she doesn't turn her brain on.

Where she can join the rest of the Trump Crime Family.

There is nothing illegal with the GOP spending all their cash on the POTUS election.  There is part of me that wants to see it, to drain the rest of the GOP and keep them completely high and dry after Trump dies.  But there is part of me that doesn't want Trump have any more cash/ability to run his own campaign.

29 minutes ago, 1776 said:

I felt like this was going to be the outcome when they moved Navalny recently. 

I suspect the thought was let's hide him far away.  Hope folks ignore him and if so, he's free to rot forever.  If folks keep bringing him up, then we just bite the bullet and deal with the fallout and hope it blows over quick.

1 hour ago, GoBlue23 said:

Harris is scheduled to give remarks on Munich soon.  Will be interesting to see what she has to say on this news. 

edit:  Well that was disappointing.  She said that the USA is still working to confirm the news and that if true, Russia is responsible, that it's a sign of Putin's brutality and that the USA will have more to say.

Disappointing, but probably the correct thing to say at this time.

14 hours ago, 1776 said:

WSJ-

KYIV—Ukraine’s top military-intelligence officer said Russian invasion forces in his country are using thousands of Starlink satellite internet terminals, and that the network has been active in occupied parts of Ukraine for “quite a long time.” 

Damned if you don't, damned if you do.  Ukraine was pissed that Starlink wasn't allowing it's use in occupied Ukraine.  They apparently open it up and now it's painted like it's Starlink's fault because Russia has taken advantage of it.

21 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

So Robert Kraft ran an anti-hate ad during the Super Bowl? 

Hey, Bob,  you've had plenty of chances to distant yourself from the one man stirring up the hate.   Too late now.

You can take your ad and stick it up your arse, Bob.          You saw Nazis in Charlottesville back in 2017.    You still supported Trump in 2020.   Shut the f up, Bob.   Your words mean nothing now.  You helped create that monster.  Your greed got in front of your common sense.   Like your life is such a slog under Democrats.  Okay, Bob. 

 

I'm disappointed in a lot more folks than just Kraft, but if they are willing to come out now against Trump, i'll gladly accept them for this fight.  After Trump loses, then kick him back out.

34 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I am not following this case very closely, but the answer seems obvious to me.  The MAGAs probably feel as if they have more to gain politically from Biden being viewed as too old and weak than it is for him to be charged with a crime.  In MAGA world, being seen as weak is far worse than being a criminal.  

In Trumps view, you're probably right, but if the plan is to try and get Trump to win, I'd think the very last thing you'd want to bring up is age and mental ability and get people thinking about that as he's not going to fair too well either.  

8 minutes ago, pfife said:

There's a DOJ memo prohibiting the indictment of the sitting president.  Hur works for the DOJ.  He should not be pontificating about a jury having sympathy for Biden when the rules disallow charging the president let alone convening a jury.

So you're saying he should have left that out, which means if he was ethical and not a MAGA he would have simply said "President Biden illegally possessed and shared classified information with an unauthorized source, no charges can be filed as he's a sitting president, the end."  

1 hour ago, smr-nj said:

Let’s lay it out in mob terminology:

It was a hit job.

If Hur really is an ultra MAGA, and he believes Biden broke the law, why wouldn't he just recommend charges and force Garland to cover it up, take the political heat that he will not follow through on the recommendation, or say you think he should be charged (but can't as a sitting president)?  Instead he's not going to charge him, which allows all of his followers to say he's exonerated and for independents it allows the reinforcement that you can choose between a man with multiple indictments against him or zero.  

Instead, Hur's big mastermind plot it to say he doesn't recommend charges and goes further saying that would hold up even if he was allowed to charge him (sitting president), but figures a "slanderous" line like 'sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory' will be all that is needed to destroy his presidency?