What if people of Michigan had turned their attention to Netanyahu to stop him? Or to the Muslim and Arab countries that won't help the Palestinians? What if people of Michigan had turned their attention to the radical religioius sects (both christian and muslim) who believe in killing (and have for 2000+ years). How many millions upon millions have been killed for 2000+ years and recently because of radical islamic sects and NOW white christian nationalists have been planning to bring forth the End Times using Israel? They had trump move the Embassy to Jerusalem as one step closer and working with Russia as 'the last white christian country.. Why are they not up in arms about those things? And why didn't the people of Michigan put pressure on the United Nations to step in? There are SO many things the people of Michigan could be doing other than what they have 'chosen' to do. By going after Biden, then open the door to Trump and Trump is going to put a ban on all Muslims coming into the country nd could even deport people of Michigan! And he's tied at the hip with Netanyahu and The End of Days radical christians and don't forget Project 2025. I'm old (woman), not of the 3 Abrahamic faiths and despair at the stupidity of this action. It serves no one and makes our future much more vulnerable.
The voters of Michigan should be careful of what they ask. If, somehow, we are cursed with the second coronation of T****, they will have to shoulder a good portion of the blame. I hold out hope that the people of my home state are not that stupid. I will have to put my faith in the army of grandfathers who will not allow T**** to get anywhere near the Oval Office.
For those who want to blame Michiganders, look in the mirror. Because they are no more to blame than you are. This is the action of our government. And it’s horrifically apparent now that there is no foundational difference between the Ds and the Rs. Because both will engage in slaughter if it serves their end games.
If the DNC wakes up, there is time for a better person to be raised up. The real problem is AIPAC is so deeply embedded in our political system that there’s no one who will be raised up that isn’t compromised.
AIPAC should be ruled a foreign agent and banned from campaign contributions.
I wish the Wiki page about the "2025 Project" were required reading for every American. I had never heard about it until now, so I had to look it up. Shame on anybody included in a list with Stephen Miller, the Latter Day Joseph Goebbels.
At this point, a vote for any Republican is a vote for a Nazi America. I have always been an Independent voter, because I don't like our two-party monopoly. Right now, I believe that life-long Repuplicans must step up and reject the morphing of their party into a Neo-Nazi nightmare. The "2024 Project" is to vote for people who don't dishonor the sacrifices made by people who died fighting fascism in WW2. And don't let Trump become the AntiChrist... America can do better.
We can choose to do better. Yah, Biden, so can you.
Biden has helped to expose the amorality and hypocrisy of American empire for all to see. He is part of the problem that ushered in the era of Trump, not a remedy for it. Biden has been a dyed-in-the-wool racist his entire career, from segregated busing to his 1994 Crime Bill to his decades long support for the Hyde Amendment to all of his actions in foreign policy and apparently liberals love him for it. He has caused more tangible harm to black and brown people here at home and around the world than Republicans have, and that's no praise for Republicans. He is a Zionist through and through and does not see the Palestinian people as human, and neither does his Trumpaphobic base.
I was born and raised in Michigan (Dearborn) and have lived here in Georgia for nearly 40 years now. Understand that Biden won GA's 16 electors in 2020, but it's going to return to red this year. The odds are high that AZ's 11 votes will go red too. That' leaves a state like Michigan as the deciding factor.
The world witnessed, prior to October, a process of normalization by Israel and many powerful Arab states. We know that Iran would have none of this and has been supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organization in a bid for control in the region. We now know that Netanyahu allowed Hamas to exist by allowing money to pass to Gaza for years prior to the October war, thinking that he was buying them off. He was outsmarted and now we will have an entirely new generation of Palestinians who hate the Jews and feel justified when Jews are killed by terrorist acts. So much for normalization.
My problem with your premise and the premise of voters who might hold back their vote for Biden in 2024 is that you assume that Biden has the power to dictate to Netanyahu how to conduct his policy toward Gaza and the Palestinians.
I believe in Biden and his people. I believe that, unlike arrogant Hillary, he will listen to his people on the ground in Michigan and figure out a way to reach out to all sides to get the Israeli hostages back, to get both sides to agree to a cease fire, and to start the process of creating a Palestinian state that has the ability to sustain itself.
But even if a cease fire is achieved, peace in Gaza can never assured as Hamas has beat the Palestinian Authority before, partly due to internal corruption, partlty due to support of Hamas by Iran, and other Arab states in the region. If the Palestinian Authority can be resurrected, there is no guarantee without a lot of cooperation and engagement by Arab states in the region and the West that the same thing will not happen again. There has to be some intermediary body composed of nations (like England, the US, Germany, and so on who have influence in the region and powerful countries in the region (like Saudi Arabia) to be serious about maintaining peace and building an infrastructure that will be enduring.
The case has to be made to right leaning American Jews that the equation of an eye for an eye has been satisfied (2K Israelis killed, maimed, tortured, and raped against the over 50K Palestinians that have been killed and maimed, entire communities destroyed). Enough is enough. But making that case to people that I know in the US is not as easy as it sounds. There is a political reality here that comes into play. I have to hope that Biden's people have their work cut out for them. We can all yell and scream at Biden, but he is not the culprit here. People in the entertainment love their causes, but for all the money that they have raised and the awareness of unfairness and cruelty, the world is not much better off or safer. Now, it seems less safe, less fair, and authoritarian regimes seem to be winning as fear of diversity become the major issue.
We have seen what happened with the bi-partisan border bill. The most conservative Republicans got much of what they wanted in a very serious bill that was DOA in the House, not on its merits but because Trump does want Biden to chalk up another victory in his bid to restore America to its former greatness as the leading world power in the West. It is this same kind of stalemate that exists around the issue of Gaza, the long and terrible history since the State of Israel was established in 1948.
I know your heart is in the right place, but I fail to see that demonstrations in Michigan and warnings from voters that they may not vote in 2024 is going to do anything more than mobilizing Biden's damage control people to try to find a solution that satisfies enough people to get him elected, save our democracy, prevent millions of people from diverse backgrounds from being deported, prevent authoritarian regimes like that of Netanyahu, Putin, and so on to persist. Biden has shown that his heart is in the right place giving aid and comfort to millions of Americans who simply want to share the America dream in a very toxic environment BECAUSE people who know Biden trust him and know that he is honestly looking for solutions.
There has to be an adult in the room. If it is you, then I believe you need to rachet down the rhetoric and come up with real solutions to the complex issues around Gaza, the Palestinians, the Israelis, and the two million Israelis living in the settlements.
My final word is that I believe the only hope is that men of goodwill, include the Saudis who do see an advantage in normalizing relations with Israel, will work quietly in the background to craft solutions that not only address the current situation, which is not acceptable to anyone, which stops the killing by the Israelis, get the hostages back, and begins the long and arduous process of establishing a Palestinian state. One important part of that solution is the commitment by all nations involved of billions of dollars of aid to the Palestinians to build a stable infrastruction a military presence to prevent Hamas from gaining control.
One important thing to remember is that before the October attack, 65% of the people who lived in Gaza were receiving humanitarian aid. That means the 65% of the people of Gaza did not have enough food and water to survive on their own. Why, one must ask the Arab American community were th three current leaders of Hamas able to amass fortunes of $11 billion dollars while the majority of their people were starving? It is easy to decry the brutal policies of Israeli military engagement currently being practiced in Gaza, but the end result is not a solution.
There are only a few news sources that I trust totally (you, Heather Cox Richardson, Rachel Maddow (but I cannot watch her because I get too upset about the particular issue she is reporting on -- on the advice of my doctor, I need to limit the time I spend with cable news).
I listened to your podcast, and I agree that what you say. However, I have a few things to say in response.
I have my doubts that Biden has the power to stop the killing. He and Netanyahu are not buddies as you would have us believe. I trust that Biden's people will not make the same mistake that Hillary Clinton made when Donna Brazille, the chairman called her and asked for additional funds for the rust belt states and Clinton refused saying "our computer models tell us we are just fine." Such arrogance! Brazille said she got off the phone and cried because she knew that Hillary would lose the election.
I do not have the same fear that Biden's people are not aware of the issue with Israel and the people of Gaza and hope that they will heed the warning signs that Biden must find a way to walk a very difficult tightrope between hard-line Jews in America and most everyone else.
It is most important for Arab Americans, Jewish Americans, and everybody else not supporting Trump that Trump is evicerated in 2024 and a blue sunami will take back the Houseand prtovide a comfortable majority. No less than 20 moderate Republicans -- some are committee chairpeople -- have had enough and will not run. There is a serious lack of money in the Republican war chests at the local, state, and at the RNC. New issues that effect not only women's reproductive rights but the ability to have a family via invitro will help Democrats to keep the Senate, and for Biden to win the electoral vote by a wide margin.
However, there are some facts that need to be mentioned.
First, we all know that the reason Netanyahu remains in power is because there are over two million Israeli settlers that make up one third of the population of Israel. That is a powerful and overwhelming block of potential voters who think nothing of actually attacking Palestinians.
Netanyahu is a virtual dictator and has enough support to stay in power and has stacked the Israeli Supreme Court. Only a few key members of the Israeli government need to switch sides in order for there to be a new government formed, but that has not happened yet, and given the carnage in Gaza, if it has not happened by now, it will not happen anytime in the near future. Like Putin, Netanyahu is hoping for a Trump win in November.
The three top leaders of Hamas live in luxury in Qatar and are worth $11 billion dollars, money that could be spent to help the Palestinians in Gaza but is not and never will be. Until the world leaders force these three top Hamas leaders too spend that money building infrastructure in Gaza, give up their insistence that Israel does not have a right to exist, and would, if it had the means and the opportunity commit genocide on the Israelis, there will never be peace.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations have realized that there is more money and the ability to finally have lasting peace in the region by normalizing relations with Israel. The Saudis want to be the China of the region and see the future much differently than Palestinians who live in terrible conditions in places like Gaza.
However, the powers that be who are benefitting financially from the continual wars in the Middle East, not only with Israel, but with each other, will never give up their position on the total annihilation of the Jewish State of Israel. The other problem is that the Palestinian Authority in Gaza went head to head with Hamas and lost for lots of reasons including their own corruption. The bottom-line is that for many in power in the Middle East, it is simply a business. Follow the money and it becomes obvious that the average person living in the MIddle East wants peace and a good life for themselves and their children. But the powers that be will never allow this to happen. Tjhe Arab Americans who are horrified at the carnage in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli army also need to consider that the Palestinians themselves were at war with each other and the bad guys won.
Also, prior to the October war 65% of Palestinians in Gaza required humitarian aid. [I refer to it as a "war" but it seems more like, as you point out in your podcast, an extermination by Netanyahu of Palestinians, a non-solution that will keep Israel at war with the people of Gaza, Hamas, and even people who would like to see a Palestinian state emerge.
I liked these comments from Robert B. Hubbell's blog:
A comment about the Michigan primary on Tuesday
Some Democratic leaders in Michigan are urging Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the upcoming primary to signal their disapproval of President Biden’s continued support for Israel in its war against Hamas. (In particular, they want Biden to call for an unconditional cease-fire and to suspend military support for Israel until that happens. See USA Today, Rep. Rashida Tlaib urges Michigan Democrats to vote 'uncommitted' in protest against Biden.
A common question I get from readers is how to talk to younger family members about supporting Joe Biden given strongly held views about the war in Gaza. One reader sent a link to post that included a post by Stephen Miller on Truth Social about Trump's Project 2025. The link shows Trump's plan to systematically exclude, interrogate, and deport Muslim and Arab Americans, students, and refugees.
Stephen Miller begins with this note: “Ladies and gentlemen, It doesn’t get any better than this,” and then describes “Trump's plan to keep jihadists and their sympathizers out of America.”
Stephen Miller then lists the elements of Project 2025 that are directed to “jihadists and sympathizers” as follows:
Reinstate and Expand Trump Travel Ban on Entry From Terror-Plagued Countries, Territories, and Places.
Reimplement a Full Suspension of State Dept Refugee Resettlement (this include Gazan refugees).
Implement Strong Ideological Screening for All Immigrants to the United States—Sympathy for Jihadists, Hamas, or Hamas Ideology Will Be Automatically Disqualifying.
Aggressively Deport Resident Aliens With Jihadist Sympathies
Revoke the Student Visas of Radical Anti-American and Anti-Semitic Foreigners at Colleges and Universities.
Proactively Send ICE to Pro-Jihadist Demonstrations to Enforce Our Immigration Laws and Remove the Violators From Our Country.
Continue and Expand Denaturalization of Criminals, Terrorists, and Immigration Cheats.
Invoke the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Domestic Deportations
We witnessed in 2017 how Trump's “Muslim ban” worked in practice—it effectively shut down travel from eleven Muslim-majority nations into the US. One of Joe Biden’s first acts was to reverse those travel restrictions. See NPR (3/6/2021), Biden Has Overturned Trump's 'Muslim Travel Ban.' Activists Say That's Not Enough.
As one Muslim leader (of Emerge Action) said at the time,
The Muslim communities are thrilled that [Biden] upheld his promise to our community, but we need to recognize that more needs to be done, specifically through congressional action, to ensure that no future administration can abuse the presidential authorities we saw Donald Trump abuse.
Bringing political pressure to bear on President Biden is understandable and fair. But within that political struggle over policy, we must ensure that Trump does not regain the Oval Office—otherwise, he will not only reinstitute his “Muslim ban,” but he will take dozens of other steps to discriminate against Muslim and Arab Americans, students, and refugees.
H.L. Mencken writing on American democracy compared it to a man who when faced with a banquet table turned away to eat grubs from the floor. In a similar vein witness Joe Biden: after a mostly mediocre political life he is gifted with the Presidency, the hero who slew Trump. Seventy seven years old, his career safely behind him, he has the opportunity of greatness! Does he shake off the shackles of Corporate Dems careerist timidity, prepare for the transition he promised, do the big things with courage? No! He turns from the banquet table and runs to embrace his shallow ego that needs re-election validation and then literally runs to Israel to embrace a tin horn money grubbing dictator wannabe who’s flushing any pretense of morality down the shithole and taking American democracy with him. Voting uncommitted is a gentle kindness to Biden, he needs to be bid farewell and sent ti his rocking chair where he can reflect on all he and we have lost.
Hi Nida. I read your passion and not certain how to respond or what to say. Presently, the US is biggly funding Ukraine and Israel/Hamas. From what you are saying is that funding both of these isn't what you favor. Complex. Killing others or funding others to kill others is very complex.
The killing of other human beings is so common that it's expected and mostly ignored.
While all the killing of each other is the Insanity, how does that match up to our killing our Planet? I don't know. That's my freak-out and I have no idea how to be effective in changing that.
You've now said it 'I won't vote for Biden" ... and all of xtrump's supporters are applauding you. They want you doing this. They don't care what 'This' is? They are using lots of 'This' to peel off people like you. They just want you and others NOT to vote for Biden.
When covid started, I was at home in New Zealand. I caught the first variety, spent months recovering and mostly focused on how Asian was responding. A year later, I sat down with a friend. We wrote down everything we had heard (no judgment ... only 'what have you heard/read'). it ws 3 pages, single-spaced at 12 font. I'd never experienced anything in my 80 years that had such a Litany.
Your response is like that. There are lots of factors. There are a huge number of factors. you've put them together in a certain manner. Even another person who puts the same information together might not come up with the same type of protest.
All I've done is to give you the 1 reason that not voting for Biden may be a vote for xrump. What you are doing is talking points for the xrump campaign. In other words, you're not protesting 'Inhumanity' and "insanity". You're doing a political action that may benefit the other political group ... in a 2 group system. That's the choice when there are so many choices to protest Human's Inhumanity to Other Humans.
Mike, you speak of 'protecting our Jewish brethren' but, considering history still within living memory, can you or anyone blame them if they no longer trust us to do that? Maybe they never will again? This is war, not genocide. Hamas deliberately used, and is still using, the Gazans as human shields and an alarming percentage of THEM are OK with that! Some speak still of visiting more October days on Israel! And how many Arab/Muslim Wolverines, secretly or openly, WANT to give Hamas the victory they seek with such a ceasefire and then finish the Shoah sooner or later? I wonder, myself.
Because Bibi will never agree to such a ceasefire. Do these Wolverines hope we will, once Bibi tells us to get lost, switch sides and make war on Israel? I wouldn't be too surprised if they do. Such an ultimatum from Biden to Netanyahu would only be spat upon, we would lose much (at least) of our influence with Israel AND, here, we would lose how many Jewish funders and foot-soldiers?
That actually might be an even surer way of ensuring Trump's return this fall and probably start to kill democracy around the world. I'm sorry to see these people between a rock and a hard place, but if they know what's good for them AND the rest of the world besides, they'll transcend their personal wounds, take some good long looks around, maybe swallow hard, and stay with Biden in the knowledge and understanding that the Democrats are the only way out of Trumpian darkness for all of us in this planet!
Not to mention how strengthened Netanyahoo would be at home by his defiance of us! Has anyone thought of that yet?
What if people of Michigan had turned their attention to Netanyahu to stop him? Or to the Muslim and Arab countries that won't help the Palestinians? What if people of Michigan had turned their attention to the radical religioius sects (both christian and muslim) who believe in killing (and have for 2000+ years). How many millions upon millions have been killed for 2000+ years and recently because of radical islamic sects and NOW white christian nationalists have been planning to bring forth the End Times using Israel? They had trump move the Embassy to Jerusalem as one step closer and working with Russia as 'the last white christian country.. Why are they not up in arms about those things? And why didn't the people of Michigan put pressure on the United Nations to step in? There are SO many things the people of Michigan could be doing other than what they have 'chosen' to do. By going after Biden, then open the door to Trump and Trump is going to put a ban on all Muslims coming into the country nd could even deport people of Michigan! And he's tied at the hip with Netanyahu and The End of Days radical christians and don't forget Project 2025. I'm old (woman), not of the 3 Abrahamic faiths and despair at the stupidity of this action. It serves no one and makes our future much more vulnerable.
The voters of Michigan should be careful of what they ask. If, somehow, we are cursed with the second coronation of T****, they will have to shoulder a good portion of the blame. I hold out hope that the people of my home state are not that stupid. I will have to put my faith in the army of grandfathers who will not allow T**** to get anywhere near the Oval Office.
For those who want to blame Michiganders, look in the mirror. Because they are no more to blame than you are. This is the action of our government. And it’s horrifically apparent now that there is no foundational difference between the Ds and the Rs. Because both will engage in slaughter if it serves their end games.
If the DNC wakes up, there is time for a better person to be raised up. The real problem is AIPAC is so deeply embedded in our political system that there’s no one who will be raised up that isn’t compromised.
AIPAC should be ruled a foreign agent and banned from campaign contributions.
I wish the Wiki page about the "2025 Project" were required reading for every American. I had never heard about it until now, so I had to look it up. Shame on anybody included in a list with Stephen Miller, the Latter Day Joseph Goebbels.
At this point, a vote for any Republican is a vote for a Nazi America. I have always been an Independent voter, because I don't like our two-party monopoly. Right now, I believe that life-long Repuplicans must step up and reject the morphing of their party into a Neo-Nazi nightmare. The "2024 Project" is to vote for people who don't dishonor the sacrifices made by people who died fighting fascism in WW2. And don't let Trump become the AntiChrist... America can do better.
We can choose to do better. Yah, Biden, so can you.
Biden has helped to expose the amorality and hypocrisy of American empire for all to see. He is part of the problem that ushered in the era of Trump, not a remedy for it. Biden has been a dyed-in-the-wool racist his entire career, from segregated busing to his 1994 Crime Bill to his decades long support for the Hyde Amendment to all of his actions in foreign policy and apparently liberals love him for it. He has caused more tangible harm to black and brown people here at home and around the world than Republicans have, and that's no praise for Republicans. He is a Zionist through and through and does not see the Palestinian people as human, and neither does his Trumpaphobic base.
I was born and raised in Michigan (Dearborn) and have lived here in Georgia for nearly 40 years now. Understand that Biden won GA's 16 electors in 2020, but it's going to return to red this year. The odds are high that AZ's 11 votes will go red too. That' leaves a state like Michigan as the deciding factor.
A permanent cease fire is only possible when Hamas is eliminated - completely, utterly, blissfully.
Ballots in the Rooney household marking uncommitted have been sent. It is not only Biden who needs to get a clue. It's all the corporate Dems.
Part TWO
The world witnessed, prior to October, a process of normalization by Israel and many powerful Arab states. We know that Iran would have none of this and has been supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organization in a bid for control in the region. We now know that Netanyahu allowed Hamas to exist by allowing money to pass to Gaza for years prior to the October war, thinking that he was buying them off. He was outsmarted and now we will have an entirely new generation of Palestinians who hate the Jews and feel justified when Jews are killed by terrorist acts. So much for normalization.
My problem with your premise and the premise of voters who might hold back their vote for Biden in 2024 is that you assume that Biden has the power to dictate to Netanyahu how to conduct his policy toward Gaza and the Palestinians.
I believe in Biden and his people. I believe that, unlike arrogant Hillary, he will listen to his people on the ground in Michigan and figure out a way to reach out to all sides to get the Israeli hostages back, to get both sides to agree to a cease fire, and to start the process of creating a Palestinian state that has the ability to sustain itself.
But even if a cease fire is achieved, peace in Gaza can never assured as Hamas has beat the Palestinian Authority before, partly due to internal corruption, partlty due to support of Hamas by Iran, and other Arab states in the region. If the Palestinian Authority can be resurrected, there is no guarantee without a lot of cooperation and engagement by Arab states in the region and the West that the same thing will not happen again. There has to be some intermediary body composed of nations (like England, the US, Germany, and so on who have influence in the region and powerful countries in the region (like Saudi Arabia) to be serious about maintaining peace and building an infrastructure that will be enduring.
The case has to be made to right leaning American Jews that the equation of an eye for an eye has been satisfied (2K Israelis killed, maimed, tortured, and raped against the over 50K Palestinians that have been killed and maimed, entire communities destroyed). Enough is enough. But making that case to people that I know in the US is not as easy as it sounds. There is a political reality here that comes into play. I have to hope that Biden's people have their work cut out for them. We can all yell and scream at Biden, but he is not the culprit here. People in the entertainment love their causes, but for all the money that they have raised and the awareness of unfairness and cruelty, the world is not much better off or safer. Now, it seems less safe, less fair, and authoritarian regimes seem to be winning as fear of diversity become the major issue.
We have seen what happened with the bi-partisan border bill. The most conservative Republicans got much of what they wanted in a very serious bill that was DOA in the House, not on its merits but because Trump does want Biden to chalk up another victory in his bid to restore America to its former greatness as the leading world power in the West. It is this same kind of stalemate that exists around the issue of Gaza, the long and terrible history since the State of Israel was established in 1948.
I know your heart is in the right place, but I fail to see that demonstrations in Michigan and warnings from voters that they may not vote in 2024 is going to do anything more than mobilizing Biden's damage control people to try to find a solution that satisfies enough people to get him elected, save our democracy, prevent millions of people from diverse backgrounds from being deported, prevent authoritarian regimes like that of Netanyahu, Putin, and so on to persist. Biden has shown that his heart is in the right place giving aid and comfort to millions of Americans who simply want to share the America dream in a very toxic environment BECAUSE people who know Biden trust him and know that he is honestly looking for solutions.
There has to be an adult in the room. If it is you, then I believe you need to rachet down the rhetoric and come up with real solutions to the complex issues around Gaza, the Palestinians, the Israelis, and the two million Israelis living in the settlements.
My final word is that I believe the only hope is that men of goodwill, include the Saudis who do see an advantage in normalizing relations with Israel, will work quietly in the background to craft solutions that not only address the current situation, which is not acceptable to anyone, which stops the killing by the Israelis, get the hostages back, and begins the long and arduous process of establishing a Palestinian state. One important part of that solution is the commitment by all nations involved of billions of dollars of aid to the Palestinians to build a stable infrastruction a military presence to prevent Hamas from gaining control.
One important thing to remember is that before the October attack, 65% of the people who lived in Gaza were receiving humanitarian aid. That means the 65% of the people of Gaza did not have enough food and water to survive on their own. Why, one must ask the Arab American community were th three current leaders of Hamas able to amass fortunes of $11 billion dollars while the majority of their people were starving? It is easy to decry the brutal policies of Israeli military engagement currently being practiced in Gaza, but the end result is not a solution.
Part ONE
There are only a few news sources that I trust totally (you, Heather Cox Richardson, Rachel Maddow (but I cannot watch her because I get too upset about the particular issue she is reporting on -- on the advice of my doctor, I need to limit the time I spend with cable news).
I listened to your podcast, and I agree that what you say. However, I have a few things to say in response.
I have my doubts that Biden has the power to stop the killing. He and Netanyahu are not buddies as you would have us believe. I trust that Biden's people will not make the same mistake that Hillary Clinton made when Donna Brazille, the chairman called her and asked for additional funds for the rust belt states and Clinton refused saying "our computer models tell us we are just fine." Such arrogance! Brazille said she got off the phone and cried because she knew that Hillary would lose the election.
I do not have the same fear that Biden's people are not aware of the issue with Israel and the people of Gaza and hope that they will heed the warning signs that Biden must find a way to walk a very difficult tightrope between hard-line Jews in America and most everyone else.
It is most important for Arab Americans, Jewish Americans, and everybody else not supporting Trump that Trump is evicerated in 2024 and a blue sunami will take back the Houseand prtovide a comfortable majority. No less than 20 moderate Republicans -- some are committee chairpeople -- have had enough and will not run. There is a serious lack of money in the Republican war chests at the local, state, and at the RNC. New issues that effect not only women's reproductive rights but the ability to have a family via invitro will help Democrats to keep the Senate, and for Biden to win the electoral vote by a wide margin.
However, there are some facts that need to be mentioned.
First, we all know that the reason Netanyahu remains in power is because there are over two million Israeli settlers that make up one third of the population of Israel. That is a powerful and overwhelming block of potential voters who think nothing of actually attacking Palestinians.
Netanyahu is a virtual dictator and has enough support to stay in power and has stacked the Israeli Supreme Court. Only a few key members of the Israeli government need to switch sides in order for there to be a new government formed, but that has not happened yet, and given the carnage in Gaza, if it has not happened by now, it will not happen anytime in the near future. Like Putin, Netanyahu is hoping for a Trump win in November.
The three top leaders of Hamas live in luxury in Qatar and are worth $11 billion dollars, money that could be spent to help the Palestinians in Gaza but is not and never will be. Until the world leaders force these three top Hamas leaders too spend that money building infrastructure in Gaza, give up their insistence that Israel does not have a right to exist, and would, if it had the means and the opportunity commit genocide on the Israelis, there will never be peace.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations have realized that there is more money and the ability to finally have lasting peace in the region by normalizing relations with Israel. The Saudis want to be the China of the region and see the future much differently than Palestinians who live in terrible conditions in places like Gaza.
However, the powers that be who are benefitting financially from the continual wars in the Middle East, not only with Israel, but with each other, will never give up their position on the total annihilation of the Jewish State of Israel. The other problem is that the Palestinian Authority in Gaza went head to head with Hamas and lost for lots of reasons including their own corruption. The bottom-line is that for many in power in the Middle East, it is simply a business. Follow the money and it becomes obvious that the average person living in the MIddle East wants peace and a good life for themselves and their children. But the powers that be will never allow this to happen. Tjhe Arab Americans who are horrified at the carnage in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli army also need to consider that the Palestinians themselves were at war with each other and the bad guys won.
Also, prior to the October war 65% of Palestinians in Gaza required humitarian aid. [I refer to it as a "war" but it seems more like, as you point out in your podcast, an extermination by Netanyahu of Palestinians, a non-solution that will keep Israel at war with the people of Gaza, Hamas, and even people who would like to see a Palestinian state emerge.
I liked these comments from Robert B. Hubbell's blog:
A comment about the Michigan primary on Tuesday
Some Democratic leaders in Michigan are urging Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the upcoming primary to signal their disapproval of President Biden’s continued support for Israel in its war against Hamas. (In particular, they want Biden to call for an unconditional cease-fire and to suspend military support for Israel until that happens. See USA Today, Rep. Rashida Tlaib urges Michigan Democrats to vote 'uncommitted' in protest against Biden.
A common question I get from readers is how to talk to younger family members about supporting Joe Biden given strongly held views about the war in Gaza. One reader sent a link to post that included a post by Stephen Miller on Truth Social about Trump's Project 2025. The link shows Trump's plan to systematically exclude, interrogate, and deport Muslim and Arab Americans, students, and refugees.
Stephen Miller begins with this note: “Ladies and gentlemen, It doesn’t get any better than this,” and then describes “Trump's plan to keep jihadists and their sympathizers out of America.”
Stephen Miller then lists the elements of Project 2025 that are directed to “jihadists and sympathizers” as follows:
Reinstate and Expand Trump Travel Ban on Entry From Terror-Plagued Countries, Territories, and Places.
Reimplement a Full Suspension of State Dept Refugee Resettlement (this include Gazan refugees).
Implement Strong Ideological Screening for All Immigrants to the United States—Sympathy for Jihadists, Hamas, or Hamas Ideology Will Be Automatically Disqualifying.
Aggressively Deport Resident Aliens With Jihadist Sympathies
Revoke the Student Visas of Radical Anti-American and Anti-Semitic Foreigners at Colleges and Universities.
Proactively Send ICE to Pro-Jihadist Demonstrations to Enforce Our Immigration Laws and Remove the Violators From Our Country.
Continue and Expand Denaturalization of Criminals, Terrorists, and Immigration Cheats.
Invoke the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Domestic Deportations
We witnessed in 2017 how Trump's “Muslim ban” worked in practice—it effectively shut down travel from eleven Muslim-majority nations into the US. One of Joe Biden’s first acts was to reverse those travel restrictions. See NPR (3/6/2021), Biden Has Overturned Trump's 'Muslim Travel Ban.' Activists Say That's Not Enough.
As one Muslim leader (of Emerge Action) said at the time,
The Muslim communities are thrilled that [Biden] upheld his promise to our community, but we need to recognize that more needs to be done, specifically through congressional action, to ensure that no future administration can abuse the presidential authorities we saw Donald Trump abuse.
Bringing political pressure to bear on President Biden is understandable and fair. But within that political struggle over policy, we must ensure that Trump does not regain the Oval Office—otherwise, he will not only reinstitute his “Muslim ban,” but he will take dozens of other steps to discriminate against Muslim and Arab Americans, students, and refugees.
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/democrats-should-be-gaining-confidence
H.L. Mencken writing on American democracy compared it to a man who when faced with a banquet table turned away to eat grubs from the floor. In a similar vein witness Joe Biden: after a mostly mediocre political life he is gifted with the Presidency, the hero who slew Trump. Seventy seven years old, his career safely behind him, he has the opportunity of greatness! Does he shake off the shackles of Corporate Dems careerist timidity, prepare for the transition he promised, do the big things with courage? No! He turns from the banquet table and runs to embrace his shallow ego that needs re-election validation and then literally runs to Israel to embrace a tin horn money grubbing dictator wannabe who’s flushing any pretense of morality down the shithole and taking American democracy with him. Voting uncommitted is a gentle kindness to Biden, he needs to be bid farewell and sent ti his rocking chair where he can reflect on all he and we have lost.
Hi Nida. I read your passion and not certain how to respond or what to say. Presently, the US is biggly funding Ukraine and Israel/Hamas. From what you are saying is that funding both of these isn't what you favor. Complex. Killing others or funding others to kill others is very complex.
The killing of other human beings is so common that it's expected and mostly ignored.
While all the killing of each other is the Insanity, how does that match up to our killing our Planet? I don't know. That's my freak-out and I have no idea how to be effective in changing that.
You've now said it 'I won't vote for Biden" ... and all of xtrump's supporters are applauding you. They want you doing this. They don't care what 'This' is? They are using lots of 'This' to peel off people like you. They just want you and others NOT to vote for Biden.
With kind regards,
When covid started, I was at home in New Zealand. I caught the first variety, spent months recovering and mostly focused on how Asian was responding. A year later, I sat down with a friend. We wrote down everything we had heard (no judgment ... only 'what have you heard/read'). it ws 3 pages, single-spaced at 12 font. I'd never experienced anything in my 80 years that had such a Litany.
Your response is like that. There are lots of factors. There are a huge number of factors. you've put them together in a certain manner. Even another person who puts the same information together might not come up with the same type of protest.
All I've done is to give you the 1 reason that not voting for Biden may be a vote for xrump. What you are doing is talking points for the xrump campaign. In other words, you're not protesting 'Inhumanity' and "insanity". You're doing a political action that may benefit the other political group ... in a 2 group system. That's the choice when there are so many choices to protest Human's Inhumanity to Other Humans.
Mike, you speak of 'protecting our Jewish brethren' but, considering history still within living memory, can you or anyone blame them if they no longer trust us to do that? Maybe they never will again? This is war, not genocide. Hamas deliberately used, and is still using, the Gazans as human shields and an alarming percentage of THEM are OK with that! Some speak still of visiting more October days on Israel! And how many Arab/Muslim Wolverines, secretly or openly, WANT to give Hamas the victory they seek with such a ceasefire and then finish the Shoah sooner or later? I wonder, myself.
Because Bibi will never agree to such a ceasefire. Do these Wolverines hope we will, once Bibi tells us to get lost, switch sides and make war on Israel? I wouldn't be too surprised if they do. Such an ultimatum from Biden to Netanyahu would only be spat upon, we would lose much (at least) of our influence with Israel AND, here, we would lose how many Jewish funders and foot-soldiers?
That actually might be an even surer way of ensuring Trump's return this fall and probably start to kill democracy around the world. I'm sorry to see these people between a rock and a hard place, but if they know what's good for them AND the rest of the world besides, they'll transcend their personal wounds, take some good long looks around, maybe swallow hard, and stay with Biden in the knowledge and understanding that the Democrats are the only way out of Trumpian darkness for all of us in this planet!
Not to mention how strengthened Netanyahoo would be at home by his defiance of us! Has anyone thought of that yet?
Post Michigan I'm frighten Trump can win this
Rust belt state Michigan saw the primary results
Trump holds a huge voting margin I accept the
Protest vote of the uncommitted but Biden's tally
Was weaker than Trump..I did refer to your
Dr.Mike self help rumble with Munch scream
It reassured me about corporate media and
Their propaganda but deeply concern re. Michigan plus today Mitch McConnell stepped
Down from Senate majority leader he endorsed
Trump by this action i have been an old lefty
All my life and the Magas Trump and corporate
Capitalism billionaires Putin suppression of the vote seems to be prevailing We need another Dr
Mike session please help
Prevailing