But careful what I wish for. We awoke to the news that Trump has smashed it in Iowa, and I am a little worried that 51% of the world thinks that is good news.
Universities here are taking down students posters advertising marches in support of Palestinians, stating their position of 'impartiality' as the reason. How anyone can remain impartial over the deaths of 24,000 mostly innocent adults and children is a mystery to me.
The BBC does not usually cover these marches - presumably also through impartiality - but they covered one the other day which had been hi-jacked by a group of idiots shouting support for the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis hate Israel as much as Iran does and any excuse to attack its interests will do, but the reluctance of the rest of the world to get involved in any sort of peace process has given them a huge boost in confidence. They absolutely love war. It's what they do best.
Over 80 journalists have been killed in Gaza to date. Many of them specifically targeted. I saw one such killing on video right at the beginning. It was a missile hitting a car with three people standing outside it and one clearly wearing a flak jacket marked PRESS in large white letters. They were on an exposed ridge because they thought they would be left to do their job. Gaza is running out of journalists.
Meanwhile the marches continue and the vast majority of them do not support Hamas, despite what some people will tell you.
Heartbreaking...and if you look a bit further this started back in the 1980s when the Houthis were objecting to Saudi influence in Yemen.
ReplyDeleteNow look who are cosying up to the Saudis...and the Zionist government had been talking to them pre October 23.....
It is such a mess in Yemen...has been even further back, realistically
Some years ago I would have liked to visit Yemen. Mud brick high-rises and everything. I once had a Yemeni/Israeli girlfriend.
DeleteI watched the 1 o'clock news - 30 minutes long. Item 1 Headline - Post Office Scandal - rightly so - should have been headlined literally years ago before any suicide, ill health, loss of reputation/income. Was there a mention of Israel/Gaza war? No. Was there a mention of Ukraine? No. Who controls what is put on our News Bulletins? Is there a reason why I can usually no longer bear to watch the News regularly? You have it here.
ReplyDeleteH.I. cannot get enough of the news. She goes and watches other channels online and then becomes even more angry and depressed. She's made of harder stuff than me. Once you have heard the 6.00am BBC news you have heard it all and the rest is repeated all through the day - unless someone dies in the afternoon.
DeleteRe: the 51% 'win' for tRUMP. In the primaries, only republicans can vote for their nominee. That is to say, Democrats cannot vote against tRUMP. In Iowa, to put it in perspective, they had a very low voter turnout, the lowest since 2004. Most people eligible to vote in the election did NOT vote at all. (They are having an major cold snap there.) The voters that did turn out are going to be the hardliners, the ones determined to be heard, the ones that vow to army crawl through broken glass to cast their vote for the leader of their cult.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at it from an even larger perspective, 56% of Iowa men identify as Republican, 45% democrat. The women's results are different. 44% identify as Republican and 55% as democrats.
If you look at it from the big picture, once all the numbers are looked at, if the election was held in Iowa right now, Trump would (statistically speaking) lose to Biden.
I hope that helps reaffirm some sort of confidence in our sanity.
That has certainly made me feel a little less gloomy. I think that if the Democrats could change president now they would.
DeleteI'm glad Debby jumped in to explain. I wanted to but was getting ready for work and didn't have time.
DeleteI did know that Iowa only related to Republicans, but my fear was/is that the 51% would be in the election for president. It is still my fear.
DeleteI will own that I am very angry with Biden for his stance in Israel. Taking it down to its most simplistic level: you have a friend, and your friend is committing murder before your very eyes, and you say, "Well, he's been my friend for a very long time," and stand by, well, that makes you an accessory to murder. Yet this is what we are doing in the mideast. We've been attacked. We have had retaliatory strikes against Iran and Yemen. We should be standing with Nato and the rest of our allies to say that this is wrong. Our presence there is simply widening the conflict.
DeleteI think the Middle East would have radically changed through conflict anyway, but Gaza was the first catalyst.
DeleteAs Debbie explains, it is only Republicans voting in the Iowa Republican Caucus. This vote result, does not represents all of the US. BN might well be replaced in Israel. He is currently at the mercy of the far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties. 3/4 of Israelis want BN to resign. The main issue at stake would be BN's political survival. He has lots of baggage and Oct. 7 was another big blow.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main reasons that BN is pursuing this war so aggressively is because the longer it continues, the longer he will remain in power. The shit will really hit the fan if/when there is a resolution. As with most issues these days, the war against Palestine is divisive, even in Israel. There are many demonstrations against it in Israel, but we seldom hear about them. As I understand it, the Orthodox Jews here in Britain are against the carnage, but this is seldom reported on as well. BN and DT are fighting against going to prison.
DeleteThere has never not been war somewhere in the world. It's because men love it and women dead it.
ReplyDeleteDead it?
DeleteHi Tom, as usual, your commentary is spot on. I live in the U.S. and terrified of a the upcoming election. It's Hitxxr all over again.
ReplyDeleteAll this is a once in 100 years event.
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