• magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    I think this is as strong as could reasonably be expected from Harris. It’s also brilliant politically. People who wouldn’t have voted for Biden because of Palestine may be willing to go with Harris.

    In addition to age, this makes two of Biden’s biggest drawbacks crushed in one week. I like it.

    • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Dems actually executed a plan shockingly well. Get the Republican anti-Biden propaganda machine to load up on specific issues, then swap Biden with someone that doesn’t have those issues. Now that the populace has been agitated on those issues, point out that Trump is the candidate who is old and fucks with Palestine. Classic bait and switch. Trump fell for the trap.

      Kamala isn’t perfect, but she seems to be running on prosecuting and cleaning up the Trump crime spree. I can get behind that. A relief to see the dems pull something like this off. Acting like they were completely blowing it was just so believable. Biden’s debate performance really sold it.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        4 months ago

        I am at least 90% sure it wasn’t an act. They actually were just blowing it. You have to recognize Biden is the head of the party currently, even still as Harris is taking over. He spent his entire life gaining power. He didn’t want to give it up. He just had enough people around him tell him he wasn’t going to keep power no matter what and was just going to fuck over the party that he eventually listened. This wasn’t some genius play by the Democrats, rather just the Republicans fucking up in their strategy assuming Biden was the only possible opponent.

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          He spent his entire life gaining power. He didn’t want to give it up.

          I’ve always been mystified by people that old wanting to cling to power. I’m a generation younger than Biden and I mainly just want a nap.

          • Zink@programming.dev
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            4 months ago

            It makes me ponder how mentally ill I would have to be to be a rich 80-year old healthy enough to get around and do things with my grand kids, and not just have a job but dedicate my entire fucking life to it.

        • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          True, but the playing field surely influenced the decision of Biden to drop out at this point. This was a great move by him. His debate performance, intentionally bad or not, set this up. He stayed in through the joke of a primary to avoid divisiveness and in-fighting. He didn’t prepare for the debate because he’s too old to both campaign and govern properly. Unity in the party intact, and all Republican attacks focused on Joe The Man, Joe was easily pulled out from in front of the charging media machine with unity and the party intact to regroup against the overcommitted enemy.

          The replacement, hand picked by Biden 4 years ago, is a prosecutor ready to carry out the American Dream of locking up the “bad guys”. Most of the country agrees that there is a major corruption issue in our government. I hope Kamala has a clear plan for fixing it that goes beyond the standard punishment fetish of the criminal justice system of which she was an agent. To get systemic change, we need to change the system. I want to hear what upgrades she has in mind. We need a more sophisticated system of checks and balances.

          The stories of giving up power for the good of all is a solid subset of the good impacts this country has had in the world. We haven’t always done it. We have done and are doing a lot of bad in the world. But when we do good, the story of giving up or sharing power is an American classic.

      • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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        4 months ago

        I’m not even sure the debate was a performance. I thought they really were completely blowing it, but just recovered incredibly well. I never even considered your idea of an unusually organized Democratic Party! Organization is not something they’re typically known for.

        • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          He answered the Roe V Wade question by talking about migrant crime, and handed Trump an easy response/diversion on his hardest question. Total flag maneuver. He threw the debate and hammed it up. Let Trump’s head get big and let the Republicans overcommit and overspend against the straw man before saying psyche.

          A subversion of the “democratic” primary process, perhaps, but those have been a joke the past few cycles anyway. Not to mention “Superdelegates”. We need a constitutionally protected primarying and election process that isn’t run by the largest parties. I hope that it gets included in Kamala’s electoral reform package. Europe can hold snap elections, why can’t we? Europe has a sane system of parties that form alliances instead of an artificial binary choice. We need to upgrade our democracy to the 20th century advancements that we promoted elsewhere, and add further 21st century enhancements like ranked choice voting.

          I am not saying it was orchestrated as much as navigated well.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Yooooooooo I am just so wrong this year and I’m all about it! Her AIPAC overseers won’t be happy about that

    • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      And if it weren’t for those ‘tankies’, you’d still have your genocidal baby murdering loser on the ticket.

        • fern@lemmy.autism.place
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          3 months ago

          Damn I was wondering when the person against Biden dropping out who I talked to bit ago went. You’re certainly still convinced Biden was the choice right?

          • Omega_Man@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, I don’t recall our conversation. My opinion has definitely changed on this topic though. I’m glad he dropped out.

        • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          Considering anyone who criticized Biden was labeled as a “tankie,” I’d say the tankies at the NYT and CNN probably played a role in it, yes.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        You actually think Biden dropped out because of opposition from Stalinists and Leninists?

        Once again, horseshoe theory prevails. Both the far left and the far right think that Biden answers to communists.

        • GulbuddinHekmatyar@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          No, that’s just a plain-out exceptionally right wing American-brain dead theory, the same it would be if you replaced “Biden” with “Trump” in that text, for Communists, especially outside the West…

          Of what illusion were their stances not antithetical to each other, in foreign policy especially?

        • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          I mean it pretty much contradicts her statement about not being silent. The protestors are not being silent, and she condemns them more harshly than the genocide they protest. Also, she has been conspicuously silent thus far as her administration acts in full support of the genocide.

    • hark@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      How? First off, Harris isn’t Biden. No one is confused by this, but maybe you are because you think Harris must have the exact same stances and opinions as Biden. Second, it wasn’t just “tankies” who were upset at Biden’s enthusiastic support for genocide. Anyone with any shred of decency is against genocide. Finally, people like you claimed that Biden was our best chance to beat Trump and insisted that we all had to throw our support behind him because Trump is worse and that anyone criticizing Biden for supporting genocide is a tankie. Turns out that him dropping out to make way for a better candidate actually works and many Americans are excited that we don’t have to support such a garbage candidate just because the other side has a worse candidate. The positive reaction to Biden dropping out was immediate and clear.

        • hark@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Biden was sending weapons and billions of dollars to israel while faking support to Palestinians (the shitty pier which didn’t help much or last long was the biggest sign) in an attempt to contain backlash just so he could keep sending the weapons and billions of dollars to israel. Noticing something so obvious doesn’t make me high, it just means I have a brain.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Well its about fucking time. Reuters/ Ipsos results will be in next week.

    Lets see if MI/ WI get back on the table and if MN is still a toss up. Its good strong rhetoric but the US has been on the wrong side of this issue for 9 months. One speech doesn’t change that and there is damage to be fixed, but its always a first step. We froze Russian assets to fund the rebuilding of Ukraine. Should we freeze Israelli assets to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza? Lets hear some policy proposals.

    • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Lets hear some policy proposals.

      Here’s one simple trick that Harris can do on Day 1: Support the full inclusion of Palestine as a member at the United Nations.

      (It’s possible that the UK or France might veto, but the US has generally been the obstacle to full recognition of Palestine at the UN.)

      Once Palestine has international recognition as a state, it can start to benefit from international law, like the Geneva Convention.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Man if we could close the gap in Georgia or North Carolina that would be great. We’d have a much higher chance then.

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I’m way, way, way less worried about those states than I am MI, and WI.

        MI and WI should lnt even be competitive for Trump. The speech was a good start, we’re gonna need actual action to bring Muslim voters back into the fold.

        The black community has rallied around Harris in a way not seen since 2008. I’ve got too much day job work rn, but my first pass on some data says “fuck it, shoot for Florida too”. Obama won Florida twice and Trump really only won it in the margins.

        But without WI and MI, it’s all for naught.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          There’s not much policy action she could take. Other than the words, she’s probably going to meet with community leaders, but there’s really not much more she can do on that front.

          • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            She’s still part of an administration that can do policy. The job of president is a purely rhetorical position. Her job is and will be to move people to policy positions.

            If she can move Joe Biden to a better policy on Gaze/Israel, she wins this election.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              That’s not how that works. Biden has very real power, not just rhetorical. For example he can deploy the military wherever he wants for 60 days. He can direct an agency to only do half of it’s job. (Trump famously removed all the furniture from the office meant to help people find immigration detainees) If you’re not American then think of him as a prime minister/CEO. The Vice President gets a portfolio from the president. Without that their only job is to break ties in the Senate and stay alive.

              Some administrations have had a division of labor for whipping votes, but that is primarily the job of the party whip and leader for each chamber.

              • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                Agree to disagree on the power she has, and I know very, very well how all this works.

                I think you are failing to appreciate the role of rhetoric in leadership and politics and how things actually work. The job is ENTIRELY rhetorical and the job of the President is to move public opinions in specific ways toward policy positions they want them to take.

                Everything after the rheotoric is an afterthought.

                • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  Rhetoric is a tool. But the powers of the presidency go well beyond them. A think tank spokesman is a rhetorical position. The president is a CEO. And I doubt you have the inside scoop on their specific working relationship. If you did and you were posting about it here then it would be news.

                  Saying she has to move Biden or else she’s complicit is just trying to guilt her by association. The only concrete thing she could do is resign and that’s political suicide in the US.

  • SuperCub@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    I listened to it. It was an OK speech, but it willfully ignored the agency of Israel in the destruction of the Palestinian people. She called Hamas terrorists, but what about Israel? What do you call an administration and a nation’s army that’s committing genocide? She gave no scoldings to Israel, which to me is weak sauce.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The 269 - 144 House vote barring the State Department from even reporting Gaza death statistics should make it clear to anybody how powerful the Israel lobby is.

        • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Okay cool, but it would still be electoral suicide if she goes all out, so she can’t do what you want her to do. She would have absolutely no power to actually do anything about it if she doesn’t win the election, and Trump has already said that he wants Israel to “win its war on terror” and imprison anti-war protesters, so Harris losing the election is decidedly the worst possible outcome for Palestine.

          So it’s time to put aside whatever ideals you want to demand, and start accepting that Harris is leaps and bounds ahead of most other politicians on Israel/Palestine, and she’s already making it part of her campaign in a way that Biden never did.

          These are critical moments. Before throwing criticism at the only person standing between Democracy and Dictatorship, consider everything that is at stake in this election, and ask yourself if it’s worth the effort to be fighting Harris when there’s literally a Neo-Nazi party trying to destroy the foundations of our country.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Huh? I’m agreeing with you completely - I mentioned the House vote to help illustrate why Harris can’t go hard against the Israel lobby.

    • Coelacanth@feddit.nu
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      4 months ago

      I think this was pretty much the best that could be expected from an american presidential candidate. Israel’s position in the geopolitical balance of power makes it impossible for her to just outright denounce them. She’s signalling that she’s (hopefully) going to be less limp-wristed than Biden was on the issue, but the US’s hands are largely tied when it comes to Israel - at least for as long as the forward outpost in the Middle East is as desirable as it still is to US interests.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Not just the strategic value, but also the fact that the Netanyahu camp and allies will cry “antisemitism” in the face of any significant criticism, which could be disastrous for an election campaign.

      • SuperCub@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        All she had to do was say “Two wrongs don’t make a right. End the genocide.” Netanyahu has a warrant for arrest by the international criminal court. Israel’s only remaining ally is the US at this point.

  • RealThunderhop@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    That 5 million dollars in terrorist Aipac money tells me she’s a lying piece of crap. That and her history of being a liar while actually having no principles. Classic establishment politician tbf

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Says ghoul who just sent out official public announcement denouncing pro Palestinian demonstrators.

    She should step up the finger wagging. Maybe try this:

    February 12, 2024: Biden Calls Benjamin Netanyahu an ‘Asshole’ in Private: Report

    President Joe Biden has taken to privately disparaging his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after months of not listening to his pleas for a cease-fire halting the country’s brutal assault on the Gaza Strip

    • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Off topic but Linkerbaan is such a strange name. It translates to “left lane” which could either identify you as somebody who is a lefty, or as somebody who likes speeding on the highway. Which one is it?