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It appears from the comments that not many were alive during the 60's and especially 1968. LBJ stepped aside, Robert Kennedy killed, Martin Luther King killed. The only difference now is that we have Trump and his BS and a lot more immigrants from the middle east who are fired up about Gaza.

This to will pass as it did back then.

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I was alive then, Dick. In fact, I volunteered at the Dem convention (I was NOT in Grant Park with the radicals). I think there is a greater difference now. Trump has mobilized what some call the George Wallace faction in American politics. It used to be Democrats, now it's Republicans. That faction has existed since colonial days (see "Illiberal America: A History" by historian Steven Hahn). Every time it rose up, it was defeated. What's different now is it NEVER controlled one of the two parties.

It will pass ONLY if Trump loses. If he wins, it's a break in our history.

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The immigrants could permanently alter the previous pro-Israel stance of the administration.

ps: I remember the 60’s (born in 1951).

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Me too...

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founding

What the hell happened to Ari Fleisher? Has he always been like this?

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Yes.

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Given the a lot of the negativity towards Biden, I appreciated a more measured and thoughtful analysis.

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This from Andrew

"For many Americans, it is increasingly difficult to reconcile Biden’s soaring rhetoric about America with such scenes of civil disorder. What happens if America is an idea a growing number of its younger people no longer believe in—or actively despise?"

This from Vote.org

I have big news, Since Sunday’s shakeup in the presidential race, Vote.org has hit record-breaking traffic to our voter registration tools! We’ve seen a 700% spike in voter registrations this week — with younger people accounting for 83% of those registering.

This from me

In 2022, the NC Democratic Party had 44 state house and senate slots with no candidate. The party cleaned house and elected 25 yo Anderson Clayton as it's new chair. The party goes into 2024 with only two house/senate seats uncontested.

I'll just let ya'll sit with that contrast.

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FYI, for anyone interested: Tommy Vietor had a really interesting Pod Save America about Netanyahu's visit. He was SO PISSED.

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The photo in WAPO of the Netanyahu and Biden meeting spoke volumes. Bibi smiling in a very smirky, self-satisfied way, looking to his right. And Biden, looking slightly to his left, with an obvious unease, and no pleasant emotions whatsoever. This seemed the perfect snapshot of this never-ending middle east mire.

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founding

Disorderly, destructive demonstrations, which can easily become violent, have no place in our society. They are anarchy, not speech, and are rightfully condemned. However, it was grossly irresponsible for the Republicans to invite a divisive, inflammatory figure like Benjamin Netanyahu to the Capitol in the midst of an election taking place in a crisis atmosphere. It was selfish and irresponsible of Netanyahu to come, gratuitously meddling in our politics on the side of trump. This was not a state visit. We have only one president at a time. Why should Vice President Harris "respond to the news" after the insulting treatment her boss has received from Netanyahu? The sooner he goes home where he belongs, the better.

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Correction requested. Harris in fact did condemn the protests, see Harretz:

VP Harris condemned what she described as "despicable acts by unpatriotic protestors and dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric" at Union Station in Washington, D.C., during Netanyahu's Congress address. "I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews … I condemn the burning of the American flag," Harris said in a statement, adding that "antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation."

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3 burnt flags and a bit of paint on a monument...hell yeah...thats justification enough to let israel to slaughter as many more palestinians as they need to, and start another war in Lebannon . Go america! [sarcastic sigh] :( For what are people worth against flags? although i did actually think it had been settled that burning flags[even the american one]was settled under the first amendment[did not even Antonio Scalia agree!] .but anyway its israel so 3 flags is plenty enough,for israel is always a exception...especially when many politicians palms have been greased :(

"On the contrary,twenty five members of the jury gave me credit and thirty one gave you none - they demanded their money in advance" - Cicero, clodius case :(

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Yes. I don't understand why Bill thinks this issue is simple. We should expect Netanyahu to strive for lasting stability in the region that minimizes the suffering of civilians. Israel's actions today are just deepening the divide in that part of the world.

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my guess , bibi is planning to open a new front next month,for he has to solve the Hezbollah problem, to free northern israel to get his people that were evacated back..and he will want to do that before the next school year starts...the israel miltary think they will do a "blitzkrieg" [their words]..i think they will get bogged down, in Lebannon much like the situation in gaza which will last to next year.....in these areas, hezbollah and hamas dont have to "win" ..they just need to survive and hang on for victory :( {sad sigh]

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There's something I've been meaning to post since Kamala's announcement and that is...."What planet is Joe Manchin on?" He declares he's a Dem again and floats his POTUS candidacy?

Being ex-GOP...I've been inclined to give Joe a bunch of slack about some of his antics during the MAGA times but this latest and probably greatest CLUELESS and FOOLISH move was beyond me.

It just demonstrates how out of touch he is with the Dems and some seriously misunderstanding of how low his reputation is among Democrats these days. Not to mention completely missing that the Kamala path is probably the only thing keeping Trump out of office. One wonders....where is Manchin at with Trump anyway? Is Trump simply a very popular GOP candidate to Joe? Does he get it? Sometimes I don't know if he does or, at least, if he does...he's terrible at communicating it.

He's another one of the "I have to be in office to stop Trump" but he rarely ever actually does anything like that.

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Don't worry. Manchin's already gone where he needed to: away. It seems no one was buying any tickets to his All About Me Show.

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Yah...I was aware of that...but my point was how clueless he was to even float the balloon at all...ESPECIALLY after he gave the Dems the finger by going independent. He could have re-registered as a Dem and kept it at that if he was really interested in the Dem party. He was ONLY interested in himself in an "only I can fix it" moment.

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No, Manchin said he is not going to challenge Harris.

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Yah...my point was that he re-registered as a Dem and floated his name so fast after Biden declared he wasn't running for re-election. He flipped off the Dems less than a year ago and then when it appeared good for his career (he thought)....all of a sudden he's re-registering as a Dem. He's a little bit like Nikki Haley in how he tries to ride the center, but this wasn't very elegant or smart in this particular case.

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IMO his ego is almost as big as TFG's.

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Much bigger. Like the size of Mt. Etna. Only all he contains is hot air. No lava that anyone could be impressed by. Just go, Joe.

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centre right ex-republican : "these new MAGA republicans are insane, all their policies are just extreme"

MAGA -republican : "Yeah , lets hear Bibi speak and give him our full support"....

centre right ex-republican :"yeah, i dont agree with you virtually anything else, but go israel"

my thinking is that if all trumps policy positions are a little mad, then perhaps the republican support for israel is telling you something about the peoples ideology :( its not a exception, its the rule :( So if you invite Bibi to speak, you will get what you will expect :( there are always a few extremists who do stupid things, but you shouldnt use that as a excuse to give israel a blank cheque :(

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founding

I am always enlightened by the contrast of righteous indignation of those respectable Americans, at a fringe component of protestors defacing buildings, yelling mean epithets etc,

while staying silent about the murder and massive destruction our country is funding: 40,000 dead and multiples of that number maimed and facing starvation and disease. Mostly children.

The contrast to me is stark.

“How dare these young upstarts get upset & participate in a protest that is not completely proper & respectful of property.”

This happened with The 2020 protests, with the Vietnam protests etc. Jump on them for not doing their protest correctly. Ignore the content of their message.

Meanwhile you are silent and accepting of the documented atrocities of the American funded IDF.

Something is wrong in the Village.

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Tons of hypocrisy for sure. You can't kneel for the National Anthem but you can manipulate the flag all you want in the cause of MAGA. Or...the summer riots of 2020 were really bad things but the assault on the Capitol was an anomaly and shouldn't be a big concern. The resulting investigation was partisan therefore we support anyone who refused to comply with subpoenas about simply answering questions regarding anything they knew about the attack. You would think that would NOT be a partisan thing...but if you have stuff to hide...it becomes one.

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Consider the pot stirred on two topics:

"For many Americans, it is increasingly difficult to reconcile Biden’s soaring rhetoric about America with such scenes of civil disorder. What happens if America is an idea a growing number of its younger people no longer believe in—or actively despise?"

So a few hundred protestors show up to DC to protest and exercise their 1st Amendment rights and do some dumb stuff. Horrible stuff, actually. But it is their right to protest (not to destroy property obviously). Do I agree with their extreme stance? Nope. Do most Democrats? I would tend to doubt it. In fact, I don't know anyone who would waste their spit on them if they were on fire. So how are you conflating this to the level of a "growing number" that "actively despise(s)" America? I've seen the videos. These are NOT representative of most young people or members of the left.

"On a more practical level, the incident highlighted some of the choreography-related challenges Biden and Harris will face in the months ahead. At this moment, the Democrats find themselves a party with two leaders: When events demand a response, who will take the lead on setting the tone?"

I assume the unified Administration will set the tone. This situation is not new. There have been Presidents who have reached the end of their second term and their VP is running for President at the same time. You seem to be itching for a Biden-Harris split on some important issue.

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its almost as if israel gets a exception in america....to be honest, its in action in some of the southern states,for when you work for the state, down there you have to sign and accept their rules that you cannot boycott israel nor be criterical of them , so its the first amendment for all things[even burning flags] but critercising israel is not allowed :(

My fear is that this sudden surge in the black and young voters for harris might wether if biden/harris team still give isreal a blank cheque for the future. Even the UK seems close to stopping their protections of israel against the ICJ ruling, and may even be close to banning weapons to israel[of which there is little to ban, i guess :(]

https://novaramedia.com/2024/07/25/uk-poised-to-halt-arms-to-israel-and-withdraw-objections-to-netanyahu-arrest-warrant/

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Odd! Those two statements got my attention too. Good observations.

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It was a wonderful speech from a fine man who has dedicated his life to public service. He is still POTUS and he made it clear that he is dedicated to his work until the day it ends.

His support of and respect for VP Harris was clear. He is passing the torch to the person he believes will succeed in carrying it forward.

You are too kind. The post-speech Zoom was a disgrace. Your colleagues were childish and unkind and disrespectful.

A shanda.

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founding

“Hamas is coming.” Really? They do know we’re highly armed, right?

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Egger wrote:

"For many Americans, it is increasingly difficult to reconcile Biden’s soaring rhetoric about America with such scenes of civil disorder. What happens if America is an idea a growing number of its younger people no longer believe in—or actively despise?"

"For many Americans" ... How many? Where do they live? This writing is pablum.

Egger forgot to mention Minneapolis, Portland and the George Floyd protests.

Egger writes like a Time magazine writer from the late 60s and 70s.

You guys keep writing ____. When are going to stop?

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I bet a lot of Israelis wish Bibi Netanyahu had stayed in America and become an American politician. Because his speech was a real barn burner even as 80% of Israelis now think letting Hamas's sadistic murderers run Gaza after all would be worth it, if it just gets the hostages back. https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-811731

Needless to say, the chance they'll get their second wish is only marginally better than that of getting their first.

As for Harris, if forced to opine on such matters, she probably prefers to stick to bromides. Given her more pressing priorities, well she should.

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