Thought for the Day

[Stavros]

"Should the U.S. Stop Paying for the U.N.?"
https://www.newsweek.com/are-we-real...pinion-1840836
https://www.newsweek.com/rep-luna-it...pinion-1840266

Nothing new here. Trump wants it gone, Israel wants it gone, and those States strong enough to survive on their own probably don't care. But since States have been organizing themselves into international unions since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. if the UN were thrown out of the US by Trump, or the US left the Union, or any perm of these things, it would not take long for States to reconvene the UN under another name, as the UN succeeded the League of Nations, the League of Nations succeeded the Concert of Europe, and so on.

So some mentally lame American doesn't like the decisions the UN makes -and blames the UN not the members voting for or against. Israel will probably achieve its long standing objective to remove UNRWA from Gaza, while the fate of 4 million Palestinians hangs in the balance, subject to the incoherent 'strategy' of Likud and its mass murdering leader Netanyahu, whose alliance with Hamas brought to Israel yet another cycle of violence, a dire situation the UN could not prevent, but one expects the UN will station 'peace keeping' forces in Gaza, as they did in Southern Lebanon, and so on and so on, a bandage on a suppurating wound.

[KnightHawk 2.0]

Surprise Surprise! Eric Trump can't remember stuff, and anyway he left the financial statements to the others. As for those emails and the signatures....maybe someone in his office wrote them. Did either of those sons of the almighty ever ask how much money was coming in and where it came from? They sure as hell like spending it. In the UK Executive Officers are responsible for the conduct of the Company, I assume this is also true in the US -isn't that one reason Executive Officers are paid millions a year? Or is the case that they have decided the trial is a waste of time and they can say anything they like as the guilty verdict is a foregone conclusion, and they will spend the next 5 years in appeals?

Eric Trump testifies he wasn’t aware of dad’s financial statements | AP News

That is the same defense his brother Donald-LMJA-Trump jr used when testified. Eric-Dopey Assclown-Trump defense will also get blown to smithereens.

[KnightHawk 2.0]

US Representative Rashida Tlaib accuses President Joe Biden of supporting genocide againist Palestinians,and repeated her calls for President Biden to back a ceasefire in the almost a month conflict. She also said The American People will not forget,Biden support ceasefire now or don't count us in 2024. Mr.President the american people are not with you on this one. We will remember in 2024. I wonder how President Joe Biden is going to respond to her remarks,and what is he going to do. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...1_00010101_1_1

[Stavros]

It is a pity that people like Rashida Tlaib are allowing their emotional reaction to replace a more rational approach to a conflict that is now over 100 years old. It would have been better for her to make a case for what happens next rather than add to the litany of grief and anger that has erupted since the 7th of October. She might ask what on earth Hamas intended with its sickening violence, and may or may not be aware of division in the movement which I suspect will see it splinter and become a spent force in Gaza, though I don't doubt some militants will regroup and rebrand.

The US has taken sides with Israel since 1967, a fact Americans must deal with, but deal with through the democratic process. It cannot be right that such tensions threaten the security of Jews and Muslims in their own homes, when the focus right now must be on the negotiations required to release the surviving hostages. The future looks bleak right now, but if Rashida Tlaib and other members of the House and Senate were to take a more inclusive view, they might understand the predicament Biden and Blinken are in, and also if they want to, make political capital out of the fact that we are living, on the one hand, with a century of denial of Palestinian rights, and in just the last decade the disastrous Middle Eastern policy of Donald Trump whose uncritical view of Israeli policy, his endorsement of Israel's illegal annexation of Syrian territory -as blatant a crime as Russia's annexation of Eastern Ukraine, also supported by Trump- has fed into the nihilistic despair we saw on the 7th October.

Together, Netanyahu and Trump strutted around the region as if they owned it. It may be the case that they acknowledged power has shifted from Egypt, Syria and Iraq to the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, but Kushner's business deals, designed to protect his family's investments in Israel and the West Bank, were never going to create a new Middle East as long as they concluded the Palestinians are powerless and irrelevant.

Nobody can be indifferent to Palestinian rights now, but finding a way to achieve them will require sound minds to step back,stop the shouting, and start the talking.

[KnightHawk 2.0]

It is a pity that people like Rashida Tlaib are allowing their emotional reaction to replace a more rational approach to a conflict that is now over 100 years old. It would have been better for her to make a case for what happens next rather than add to the litany of grief and anger that has erupted since the 7th of October. She might ask what on earth Hamas intended with its sickening violence, and may or may not be aware of division in the movement which I suspect will see it splinter and become a spent force in Gaza, though I don't doubt some militants will regroup and rebrand.

The US has taken sides with Israel since 1967, a fact Americans must deal with, but deal with through the democratic process. It cannot be right that such tensions threaten the security of Jews and Muslims in their own homes, when the focus right now must be on the negotiations required to release the surviving hostages. The future looks bleak right now, but if Rashida Tlaib and other members of the House and Senate were to take a more inclusive view, they might understand the predicament Biden and Blinken are in, and also if they want to, make political capital out of the fact that we are living, on the one hand, with a century of denial of Palestinian rights, and in just the last decade the disastrous Middle Eastern policy of Donald Trump whose uncritical view of Israeli policy, his endorsement of Israel's illegal annexation of Syrian territory -as blatant a crime as Russia's annexation of Eastern Ukraine, also supported by Trump- has fed into the nihilistic despair we saw on the 7th October.

Together, Netanyahu and Trump strutted around the region as if they owned it. It may be the case that they acknowledged power has shifted from Egypt, Syria and Iraq to the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, but Kushner's business deals, designed to protect his family's investments in Israel and the West Bank, were never going to create a new Middle East as long as they concluded the Palestinians are powerless and irrelevant.

Nobody can be indifferent to Palestinian rights now, but finding a way to achieve them will require sound minds to step back,stop the shouting, and start the talking.

Completely agree 100% with your post.

[Stavros]

The Guardian has a useful round up of last nights election results in the US, though I expect there are better reviews in the US media.

One notes the failure of a mother of one of the Uvalde, Texas victims to get elected in that city, is this a comment on Texas in general? Maybe she was not a persuasive candidate?

Yusef Salaam elected in Harlem -be interested to hear from Donald J, Trump who once took out a full page ad in the NYC press calling for the execution of the 'Central Park Five'. Guess that makes Trump the Central Perk Jerk.

And Abortion....is this the tide turning against the GOP in 2024?

Abortion rights and historic wins: key takeaways from the US’s off-year elections | US politics | The Guardian

[Stavros]

Why do Republicans like Vivek Ramaswamy have a problem with Tik-Tok? Isn't it just 90 second videos of people showing off? Lipsyncing to some pop music and stuff like that?

[blackchubby38]

Why do Republicans like Vivek Ramaswamy have a problem with Tik-Tok? Isn't it just 90 second videos of people showing off? Lipsyncing to some pop music and stuff like that?

Its not only Republicans who have a problem with Tik-Tok, some Democrats have an issue with it as well. I think its one of the only few things that both parties can agree on. There have been Congressional hearings on the matter.

The two reasons both parties have a problem with the app.

1. Its a Chinese owned company and there is the fear of who has access to people's personal information.

2. The negative impact that apps like Tik-Tok, Instagram, Facebook, etc has had on teenagers.

[Stavros]

Its not only Republicans who have a problem with Tik-Tok, some Democrats have an issue with it as well. I think its one of the only few things that both parties can agree on. There have been Congressional hearings on the matter.

The two reasons both parties have a problem with the app.

1. Its a Chinese owned company and there is the fear of who has access to people's personal information.

2. The negative impact that apps like Tik-Tok, Instagram, Facebook, etc has had on teenagers.

Thanks, Blackchubby for the clarification. Unfortunately, it only increases the confusion.

1) The obsession with things Chinese seems to me to be part of a broader problem with global supply chains, as exposed by the Covid Pandemic. It appeared the world had become too dependent on China as a manufacturer given it is also beyond political control. I understand the anxieties with regard to China's claims on Taiwan, and its behaviour in the Pacific where it has taken control of disputed islands, and clashed with the Philippines, but see the sanctions on Huawei as showing concern more with China's global influence rather than being a technological issue.

This is because in terms of people snooping on your computer or your phone, Israel poses the greater threat through the Pegasus technology that has already been sold and used around the world, thus

"Pegasus is military-grade surveillance software created by NSO Group, a company headquartered in the district of Tel Aviv, and sold to foreign government agencies. Developed by former Israeli intelligence operatives, Pegasus gained a reputation as the “world’s most powerful cyberweapon” for its ability to infiltrate a target’s smartphone without requiring the user to click a link to activate the malware. Once installed, Pegasus can collect all the device’s data undetected."
How Israel’s Pegasus Spyware Stoked the Surveillance Debate | Council on Foreign Relations (cfr.org)

Needless to say, Israel has not, and probably never will be sanctioned by the US or any other Govt for its 'useful' technology given that most Govts probably already have it and use it.

2) Is the hysteria over tik-tok any different from social media in general that is 'warping' the minds of 'our kids'? From computer games to online porn, online gambling, body fascism on Instagram etc I wonder if this is just flavour of the month stuff and cannot take it seriously.

I am not a user of tik-tok and admit the little I have seen is made up of short videos of people jumping around their bedroom pretending to be a global pop superstar, or in the case of 'Hungangels', walking up and down a street or a beach while looking sexy, and there is nothing wrong about that.

But this made me laugh this morning. I don't really know much about Taylor Swift. I know what she looks like but have never googled her or YouTubed here so I have never heard her music, which doesn't interest me. But I do note this hysterical response from a Republican who blames her for their election losses this week, even though all she did was encourage people to vote.

So I leave you with this, and wonder, can tik-tok really be a threat to the American Way of Life? To Family, God and Country?

"Far-right commentators are putting the blame for the GOP's major election losses during Tuesday's races on one celeb: Taylor Swift.On Tuesday, the pop superstar encouraged her fans to vote in their local elections, writing on Instagram: "Voters gonna vote!"
"It's Election Day! If you are registered to vote in Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas or Virginia, it's time to use your voice," Swift wrote, sharing a link to Vote.org.
Though Swift didn't explicitly endorse anyone in this election, right-wing hosts bemoaned the power of the Swifties.
Activist Jack Posobiec said in a Wednesday post to his more than 2.3 million followers on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, that the billionaire global pop sensation was "influencing an army of voters."
"Republicans still haven't internalized that the Left promotes abortion as a pro-feminism issue. They aren't voting to kill babies, they're voting bc of feminist movies like Barbie and pop stars like Taylor Swift influencing an army of voters," Posobiec wrote.
He fumed in another all-caps post that "THE CHILDLESS, UNMARRIED ABORTION ARMY MOBILIZED BY BARBIE, TAYLOR SWIFT, AND TIKTOK" was "CRUSHING REPUBLICANS AT THE BALLOT BOX.""
Far-right hosts are blaming the GOP's big election losses on Taylor Swift (yahoo.com)

[MrFanti]

Its not only Republicans who have a problem with Tik-Tok, some Democrats have an issue with it as well. I think its one of the only few things that both parties can agree on. There have been Congressional hearings on the matter.

The two reasons both parties have a problem with the app.

1. Its a Chinese owned company and there is the fear of who has access to people's personal information.

2. The negative impact that apps like Tik-Tok, Instagram, Facebook, etc has had on teenagers.

Exactly!
Democrats come around on TikTok ban, reflecting willingness to challenge China
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiktok-...ina-challenge/