Most Commented Politics Blogs (943)

70 tears ago today Israel was recognized as a sovereign state. Today President Trump follows through on a promise made bu numerous other presidents to move our Embassy to Jerusalem but never followed through with.

Israel regards Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided" capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem - occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war - as the capital of a future state.
Mr Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital broke with decades of US neutrality on the issue and put it out of step with most of the international community.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the embassy move was a reason for celebration and called on other nations to follow suit.
"I call on all countries to join the US in moving their embassies to Jerusalem," Mr Netanyahu said, adding: "It's the right thing to do... because it advances peace."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has described Mr Trump's decision to move the embassy as the "slap of the century".

“Thank You President Trump.” That was the message projected onto the ancient walls of Jerusalem, together with the American and Israeli flags, on the eve of the formal transfer of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem on Sunday evening.

this time coming as close as ever to calling it as it is. While qualified- educated -solvent- vetted applicants for US citizenship exist in Haiti (worked there-I know it) and in almost all of dark Africa (I know west Africa), he knows that if he doesn't succeed in his honorable and just (especially to applicants who patiently apply and obey rules) work to reconfigure US immigration policies, mostly by just enforcing existing law, the USA will one day resemble Germany. Female German friends talk of how they now have large dogs for protection just for walking at night in their OWN TOWNS! Sure, even though these places really are mostly s...holes, ---decaying in infrastructure, definitions of corruption, rarely stabily governed, etc., he should better use his words. His use of scatological terms, especially when referring to non whites, may expend his base, but is unnecessary and unhelpful. He should simply say that immigration policies should reflect workforce needs primarily, and other factors much less. He's quite capable of such talk, but often gets taken up in moments, especially if the venue engenders emotional issues close to his heart, and deep love for the USA. Biased media and liberal pols now have learned this, and can push buttons, to their perceived benefit. V-A.

For more than a year, there were predictions that votes for Republicans would send a 'Red Wave' for the mid-term elections. If you stand back and look, it's pretty purple. The predicted wave didn't come as predicted.
I've seen a few difference of opinion reports as to why... candidates supported by former president Trump didn't do so well at the polls. Was it him or was it because voters didn't want to see vocal right-winged overly confident candidates like Lauren Boebert in office?

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors on Friday moved to drop charges against the last 39 people accused of participating in a violent protest on the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Chris Christie announced he's formally suspending his campaign for the GOP nomination for the 2024 presidential election. I've seen a few of his public meetings and news casts where he was asked to speak. His goal was clear and his statements accurate, however he didn't have the campaign funds and more importantly never had the polling numbers to continue.

Trump is on the campaign trail and staged a rally in Waco, Texas where it's reported his speech was filled with lies. He condemned Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and told his followers "They're not coming after me, they're coming after you."
How so Donald? You're the one who had an affair with a porn star and paid hush-money. The American public had nothing to do with it.
He predicted with warnings of “death and destruction” and called for his supporters protest should he be indicted.
Right... I get it. If HE is found guilty, THEY should protest.

His logic is flawed, but his followers don't complain.

When I was a kid growing up in Detroit I remember GM, Ford and Chrysler all closing down for the summer to retool their factories for the autumn new car runs. Leading into the retool, designers, engineers and planners like my father and vendors spent months going over blueprints and cost sheets, getting ready for the changeover.

But Trump, our most stable genius, knows better. He needs but to issue a tweet order and GM will there the next day shipping ventilators to hospitals in overnight express.

Get real, Donald. GM is working on it -working on it day and night. Just because you screwed up, doesn't mean GM will.

I've long felt Amy Klobuchar is the sleeper candidate(i put a few € on her last week) for the Dems. She's a moderate, (fairly) sensible policy proposals compared to other candidates, and is more positive when it comes to messaging.

Could she win the nomination?

The first paragraph of the US constitution reads :: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

It does not read We the white people, certainly not the We the White Male People or We the Trump Supremacy . America is an immigrant nation. It is a land populated not just by Northern White Europeans, but the full spectrum of humanity the world around.

It is time the Trump Trumpeters got over themselves. Time for them to become lawful members of We the People - accept the US constitution in its entirety instead of picking and choosing the parts they like.

October 23, 2021|

12:38 pm
Rod Dreher

To mark the anniversary of the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary, I’m publishing in this space an essay from Stephen Sholl, an American academic living in Budapest, and a friend I made this summer:

Today will mark the 65-year anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. For many Americans, this anniversary will go unnoticed, yet the lessons that this episode holds are important ones for Americans to understand.

The Hungarian Revolution was the most serious challenge to Soviet Rule in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. In late October 1956, demonstrations, often beginning at universities, erupted throughout Hungary. Within a week, these demonstrations had evolved into an outright popular revolt, with the revolutionaries demanding major reforms and calling for the Soviet Army to leave Hungary.
Initially it appeared to be successful, with previous Prime Minister and reformer Imre Nagy being reinstated and the Russians withdrawing from Budapest. Once Nagy, however, declared his intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, the Soviets quickly returned and crushed the Revolution in Budapest and in Hungary’s other major cities after intense street fighting. By November 10, the Soviets had decisively squashed the Revolution. More than 2,000 Hungarians died in the fighting, and hundreds of thousands fled to the West in the aftermath.

The lesson for Americans, lies not with the defeat of the Hungarian freedom fighters — though their bravery and courage in the face of insurmountable odds is a trait worth emulating — but rather the path that led Hungary to 1956.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Hungary, while war-ravaged, was not decisively on the path to dictatorship. The Soviets appeared to follow through on their promise to establish democracies in their occupied areas, and introduced parliamentary democracy into Hungary. While the Soviet Army intimidated opposing parties and falsified ballots, other parties were allowed to compete, and their votes were recognized. In Hungary’s first election in 1946, the Communists were defeated by an overwhelming number of votes, only earning around 17 percent.

The Independent Smallholders Party, which represented the center-right, secured an outright majority, and was even allowed to form a government. The Communist Party asked only to be allowed into the governing coalition, and was granted the Ministry of the Interior. Unfortunately for the young Hungarian Republic, the ruling party accepted the coalition. Granting the Communists control over the Interior ministry meant they controlled the country’s police.

Using the martial power of police authority, Communists began a systematic takeover of Hungarian institutions — this, despite the fact that a formally “non-Communist” government was in power. The police intimidated political opponents and local leaders into joining the Communist Party; those who refused were labeled ‘fascists’ and forced out of the public sphere. In institutions such as courtrooms, schools, universities, churches, and unions, those expelled would be replaced by loyal Communists, slowly turning these bodies into extensions of the Communist Party. This institutional dominance, by a people and ideology that were not held by the vast majority of Hungarians, eroded any notion of real democracy in Hungary (at the time, the CIA estimated only 10 percent of Hungarians were Communist).

more at the link