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While we’re all having a good yuk about the “commiefication” of Charlie Sykes, let’s not lose sight of the fact that this is often done to diminish the speaker. Most of those condemning Sykes have never heard the reporting he’s referring to because they only listen to sanitized media that never actually reports on Trump but just plays his sound bites.

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The truth hurts at times, so they call people names to try to make themselves feel better. Sad & more sad that the gop’s fearful leader is who they emulate.

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Nov 15, 2023·edited Nov 15, 2023

Re: campus (and elsewhere) antisemitism, from the Boston Globe:

"The "Kidnapped" fliers are intolerable to the haters because they so urgently challenge the antisemitic paradigm. They make it vividly clear that in the war between barbarism and civilization, between oppressor and oppressed, it is Jews who are under attack. That infuriates those whose worldview revolves around the certainty that Israel and its supporters are the victimizers. The outpouring of sympathy for Jews kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists — and the moral force of that sympathy — is anathema to them.

"That explains as well why the atrocities committed on Oct. 7 immediately triggered so many vehement public demonstrations in support of the Palestinians. Precisely because the massacre and abductions had been so unspeakably horrific, it was necessary to reinforce the narrative of Jewish villainy. At times, denunciations of Israel gave way to naked antisemitsm. At a pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney, a chorus of voices chanted "Gas the Jews! F*** the Jews!" Others expressed their hatred by rejoicing in the slaughter of Israelis. A professor at Cornell, for example, told a crowd he was "exhilarated" by what Hamas had done.

"In the wake of terrible mass shootings like the one that took at least 18 lives and convulsed Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday, grieving family and friends often display pictures of their loved ones. It is a way of reinforcing the humanity of the victims and of evoking compassion from passersby. Who, seeing such a display, would destroy or vandalize it? Some norms are so ingrained as to be all but inviolable. When someone puts up an image of a missing or murdered child, no decent person rips it down."

https://aish.com/why-they-rip-down-the-kidnapped-from-israel-fliers/

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founding

"Far-left commentator Charlie Sykes" LOL. If you're far-left, Charlie, I must be so much further left I'm on the right again!

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Charlie and Will, I don't think that Trump is making a cognitive mistake calling the Biden Administration the Obama administration in his diatriabes. Trump is trying to conflate the two and simply remind his maga's how much they hated Obama, when some of those voters might consider the lesser of two evils in their minds, Biden, during 2024. We're not dealing with simple performative insanity, it's worse, it's a choice of embracing the evil of lying.

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Nov 15, 2023·edited Nov 15, 2023

Well, if dbcooper'sparachute said it...

Sorry, Charlie.

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I am thinking back to Hillary and her stupid comment about t***p supporters being deplorable. That caused major pearl clutching on both sides. And yet t***p calling Biden supporters vermin hardly caused a blip. t***p still is and has always been held to entirely different standard and that is very very dangerous.

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MAGA cousin said "deplorable" was worse. (!)

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Well, according to the woman now buried under a golf course by you know whom, Herr Donald "Obergruppenführer" Trump did keep a relaxing bedtime reading copy of Mein Kampf on his nightstand.

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I don't think Trump reads much. Also I guess he knows little of U.S. history. His staff writes his speeches probably including Stephen Miller.

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A few comments…

1) So CS is “far-left”, not to mention a “Democrat communist”. But he’s also a “complete neo-con Chamber of Commerce Republican”. Wow! He’s a one-man “Big Tent”.

2) If life were like the movie “Annie Hall” the author of the NYT story about Trump’s plans would come from off-screen, confront one of the bloggers, and say something to the effect of “I just heard what you said and as my article clearly documents, this just shows that you have no idea what you are talking about”. Alas, no “Annie Hall” moments here.

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Just in: "BREAKING NEWS The House passed legislation to avert a government shutdown after Democrats rescued a temporary spending plan that many Republicans opposed. " The vote was something like 365 to 95. Wasn't Kevin's similar to that? Any bets on how long Mikey gets to keep his job?

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I think democrats came to the conclusion that though odd, this was a clean CR and worth supporting. Especially since they could marginalize the crazies. If the crazies go after Johnson, I still do not think democrats will save him, but if they get rid of Johnson, I think there are a number of republicans that will vote for Jeffries.

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We'll see what tomorrow's news will bring. Will Gaetz open his big mouth again, or has he learned nobody likes him any more?

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Nov 15, 2023·edited Nov 15, 2023

Good evening (night, day) Ms Seifert,

"Will Gaetz open his big mouth again, or has he learned nobody likes him any more?"

Yes, and yes. The first because he can't help himself and the other because he just doesn't give a rat's patoot, he's still auditioning to be a seven figure-paid talking head on one of the far right networks (he's probably got wetdreams that he is the next Tucker Carlson).

fnord

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LOCK ME UP!!?? More like, shoot me in the head! Sorry thing is, there are tens of millions of Americans that believe all the crap that comes from Trump, Lake and Romney McDaniel. When I become president I will force every Republican to read, watch and listen to the Bulwark!

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Ha ha ha, welcome to the club Charlie, it's ok, we know you aren't what they say you are, but, I love you anyway.

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Hearing about Trump's 'vermin' comments reminded me of this article on the book he kept on his night stand. https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trumps-ex-wife-once-said-he-kept-a-book-of-hitlers-speeches-by-his-bed-2015-8 How did this not get traction?

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Congratulations Charlie, you have arrived! It had to be the Daily Caller, I am sure each cult group has one person who reads, then they relay the outrage to those designated to tweet.

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The article says that these will be "sprawling" camps. Charlie definitely failed reading comprehension when he equated this with "concentration" camps.

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“Far-left Charlie Sykes” word salad... interesting... were these people born yesterday?

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No. That level of whackadoodle takes practice.

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As far as looking at information from outside of their bubbles? Probably. You think some MAGA type reads the Bulwark? They hear about him appearing on MSNBC and trashing Trump's plan. Gommunism confirmed!

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on campus "anti-semiticism"===I'm not sure that I can agree that classic antisemitism can apply to most of the protestors. For those who have shown other anti-Semitic behavior by word or deed before the recent crisis, OK. But I really doubt many have. They are juvenile and mindless, yes, because they are not considering the total complexity of the issues, and as so many Americans on ALL issues see this as a matter of taking sides in a binary, no grey, way.

They see the slaughter of 10 times as many Palestinians as Israelis died in the Hamas attack and they see the Palestinians as the underdogs... and the young love underdogs. Take it from someone who wrote in Eugene McCarthy in her first election without contemplating the effect of electing Nixon.

And so they chant slogans--gee, are they the only Americans who chant slogans?--without thinking them through. They have just been deluged with stories about the invasion with civilian slaughter in Ukraine, and has anyone beyond our home-grown proto-fascists sided with Putin?

Here's a hypothetical: We know Orban hates immigrants. Suppose he perceived a threat real threat from a particular group and started bombing their communities. Would any on college campuses here support him? Suppose the group happens to be of a Christian sect he doesn't approve of and is opposed to his form of Christian rule--say Persian Christians from Iran. Would our talking heads be full of stories about how people who opposed the bombing are necessarily Anti-Christian?

There is a rise in Anti-Semitic crime in the US. American has a huge Anti-Semitic chunk of its population and has for forever. Trump has given permission from the elevator ride onward for people to express views that previously they had not dared to say in public. The Holocaust was beyond horrible (there are no words) but you simply cannot label students opposing a Jewish government's actions with the same word that fueled that horror. Their motives are far from those of the Nazis.

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