The imminent disaster which is going to be the American elections

[Legio_Italica]

Uh, you're citing the Oversight Project of the Heritage Foundation on Twitter (X) for cell phone data of the assassin? What?

It’s not known who the phone belongs to. Anyone can access location specific mobile ad data, and if you read the tweet, that’s what they did. You can probably track down the same data if you want to fact check. Reeee critical thinking skills etc.

https://www.404media.co/heritage-fou...ers-movements/

The point is the likelihood someone would visit Crooks work, home and FBI in DC is low. Yet it appears this is what happened. The likelihood this would be a coincidence is therefore even lower.

[Alastor]

Much as I dislike Kamala Harris and consider her to be one of the worst possible picks for president, it is undeniable that her nomination has thrown the MAGA-camp into disarray. No matter how loathe they'd be to admit it, so far, it doesn't seem like they know how to deal with her which is rather embarrassing, as it shouldn't be too hard. They seem to be trying to attack her from the right, calling her a far-leftie and a communist and other such laughable things, while fearmongering that she'll start giving maternity leaves (the horror), or more universal access to Medicare (the terror). This is just not smart, Trump is a populist he should know better than to let his right-wing cohorts play the "think of the poor corpos" card and instead continue playing the "think of the poor average joe" one. The issue isn't that Harris is a leftie, the issue is that she is LARPing as a leftie while being an incompetent, lying, self-centered opportunist that has accomplished next to nothing her whole political career. The sooner Trump and co focus on her record the sooner she'll fold like the house of cards she is. But for that they need to rise above their lesser instincts and I do wonder if they have it in them to do that. Trump himself has been making one wrong move after the other since his RNC speech, he doesn't even have a catchy insulting nickname for Skamaliar yet. And no, herr präsident, "dumb as a Rock Kamala" is the very opposite of catchy.

[Kyriakos]

But it's the Gop, they can't exactly attack her for chronically putting people to prison for minor offenses.
Besides, Trump is a bit too old to change tune/adapt that quickly.
It will be funny if they manage to lose.

[Alastor]

But it's the Gop, they can't exactly attack her for chronically putting people to prison for minor offenses.
Besides, Trump is a bit too old to change tune/adapt that quickly.
It will be funny if they manage to lose.

It is Trump, not just the GOP. Such attacks wouldn't cost him his base, but it would weaken her support among independents who will decide this vote. And even if they can't focus their attacks on that for whatever ideological reasons, they have immigration delivered to them on a silver platter to latch on to. They have cards and many smart ways to play this, it's just that this past week they haven't been playing the game very smart at all.
If they do manage to lose it will be quite something.

[Roma_Victrix]

But it's the Gop, they can't exactly attack her for chronically putting people to prison for minor offenses.
Besides, Trump is a bit too old to change tune/adapt that quickly.
It will be funny if they manage to lose.

Yep. One of the biggest criticisms people have of Kamala as a lawyer/district attorney is that she prosecuted parents for having truant kids who failed to attend school. The left hates it, but what is the GOP going to say about it? LOL. Republicans love that sort of thing and they would agree with jailing more people in general, especially if they're not white. Basically anything the left dislikes about Kamala the GOP is basically fine with in terms of her record.

I'm telling you, if Harris picks Senator Mark Kelly as her VP, it's over for Trump and Vance. It's bad enough they are already floundering on the messaging against Kamala, which as Alastor says should be a somewhat easy layup (she has plenty of weaknesses, but so far she's been on the offense and Trump doesn't know what to do about it). However, if she picks Kelly as VP, good luck to Trump/Vance with the messaging campaign against a former NASA astronaut/space shuttle pilot/engineer and Navy war veteran/fighter pilot/test pilot/aviator. That sort of resume is like catnip to straight white male Boomers.

[Alastor]

Yep. One of the biggest criticisms people have of Kamala as a lawyer/district attorney is that she prosecuted parents for having truant kids who failed to attend school. The left hates it, but what is the GOP going to say about it? LOL. Republicans love that sort of thing and they would agree with jailing more people in general, especially if they're not white. Basically anything the left dislikes about Kamala the GOP is basically fine with in terms of her record.

Oh I have more than that to level against that fake leftie when it comes to her DA past and don't even get me started on her scumbag husband. But that's the problem, I'm basically a leftie. The GOP is trying to attack her from a direction she is not really that vulnerable. Particularly as far as independents are concerned. Again though, that's the GOP, Trump is not the GOPiest GOPy guy out there, not by a huge margin. Trump is much more of a centrist than he is given credit for. He can have his team focus on things like that with minimal cost to his base. Provided he plays this smart. Of course Trump, being Trump, is not exactly the reserved and restrained type so who knows what he'll end up doing. And Harris is basically goading him to go low, because she knows she has the advantage on the ad hominem, just like she knows she is at a disadvantage when it comes to record.

Whatever the case, I think this race is still Trump's to lose at the moment. But considering how rapidly things are changing, who knows what we'll all be thinking in 1 or 2 weeks from now, much less come November.

[Legio_Italica]

The Republicans are experts at fumbling the ball on the one yard line. It was Biden himself who made Harris the Admin’s poster child/scapegoat for the border fiasco. If the GOP can’t leverage Trump’s strongest issue to go after her, they deserve to lose. There’s endless hours of content to run with the billions spent on accommodating millions of illegals since 2021, rapes, murders, drugs, gang violence, black markets and human trafficking, entire neighborhoods reduced to third world hellscapes, etc, all of which Kamala is directly responsible for.

But that’s also why the liberal establishment is doing everything they can to make it about everything except her twin roles as chief propagandist covering for Biden’s soup brain and open border facilitator. Democrats refuse to address those issues publicly and the media is making sure to drown out any negative coverage with fawning puff pieces about how cool and diverse she is. That’s less about the effectiveness of GOP messaging, and more about the left’s institutional dominance.

Bipartisan House Resolution Condemns Harris for Border Crisis

Harris Now Refuses to Say Whether Biden is Fit for Office

Harris Champions Sanctuary City Policies Amid Migrant Crime Surge

[Ludicus]

Much as I dislike Kamala Harris and consider her to be one of the worst possible picks for president, it is undeniable that her nomination has thrown the MAGA-camp into disarray.

I think I have to give Kamala the benefit of the doubt.She said,

I will not be silent (...) “And I will close with this: it is important to the American people to remember, the war in Gaza is not a binary issue. However too often the conversation is binary. When the reality is anything but. So, I ask my fellow Americans to help encourage efforts to acknowledge the complexity, the nuance and the history of the region.

We'll soon know if what she says is what she thinks. As Shahid put it,

“The White House’s policy to continue to supply American bombs to Netanyahu is like a bartender serving drinks to an alcoholic while repeatedly urging them to stay sober,” Waleed Shahid, a progressive Democratic strategist and an adviser to the Uncommitted National Movement, said after Harris spoke on Thursday. “Empathy for Palestinians from the vice-president is a step in the right direction but people just want a policy change to stop the supply of American bombs to Israel’s war.

Guardian news,

Uncommitted voters who protested Biden over Gaza ‘need to see action’ from Harris

More than 700,000 Americans voted “uncommitted”, or its equivalent, in state primaries as a message to Biden that he risked losing significant support in November if he did not shift away from his support for Israel. As next month’s Democratic national convention inches closer, the movement has turned its sights to pressuring Harris to shape a new course on Gaza policy. Its demands of Harris include an arms embargo on Israel and support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Israel’s far-right lawmakers have criticised Kamala Harris’s call for a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, Associated Press reports.

“There will be no end to the war, Mrs candidate,” the Israeli national security adviser Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote Friday on X.

“Mrs. candidate”, ouch.

[Alastor]

I think I have to give Kamala the benefit of the doubt.

Well, in that case you are way more trusting than me.

[sumskilz]

An update on that. Not sure if a ceasefire deal for the release of hostages will go through any time soon (probably not), but Biden and now Harris are putting pressure on Netanyahu following his speech to Congress:

Giving that impression publicly may play well to their constituents, but it will probably backfire if actually reaching a ceasefire is the goal, because Sinwar always increases his demands every time he gets the sense that the American admin is anxious to make a deal and willing to pressure Netanyahu to achieve it.

Although, he’s not the easiest guy to negotiate with anyway:

For months, Yahya Sinwar has resisted pressure to cut a ceasefire-and-hostages deal with Israel. Behind his decision, messages the Hamas military leader in Gaza has sent to mediators show, is a calculation that more fighting—and more Palestinian civilian deaths—work to his advantage.

“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Sinwar said in a recent message to Hamas officials seeking to broker an agreement with Qatari and Egyptian officials. …

In dozens of messages—reviewed by The Wall Street Journal—that Sinwar has transmitted to cease-fire negotiators, Hamas compatriots outside Gaza and others, he’s shown a cold disregard for human life and made clear he believes Israel has more to lose from the war than Hamas. The messages were shared by multiple people with differing views of Sinwar. …

In one message to Hamas leaders in Doha, Sinwar cited civilian losses in national-liberation conflicts in places such as Algeria, where hundreds of thousands of people died fighting for independence from France, saying, “these are necessary sacrifices.”

In an April 11 letter to Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh after three of Haniyeh’s adult sons were killed by an Israeli airstrike, Sinwar wrote that their deaths and those of other Palestinians would “infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honor.” …

Despite Israel’s ferocious effort to kill him, Sinwar has survived and micromanaged Hamas’s war effort, drafting letters, sending messages to cease-fire negotiators and deciding when the U.S.-designated terrorist group ramps up or dials back its attacks.

His ultimate goal appears to be to win a permanent cease-fire that allows Hamas to declare a historic victory by outlasting Israel and claim leadership of the Palestinian national cause. …

Even without a lasting truce, Sinwar believes Netanyahu has few options other than occupying Gaza and getting bogged down fighting a Hamas-led insurgency for months or years.

It is an outcome that Sinwar foreshadowed six years ago when he first became leader in the Gaza Strip. Hamas might lose a war with Israel, but it would cause an Israeli occupation of more than two million Palestinians.

“For Netanyahu, a victory would be even worse than a defeat,” Sinwar told an Italian journalist writing in 2018 in an Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth. …

When he became leader of Hamas in Gaza in 2017, violence was a constant in his repertoire. Hamas had wrested control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in a bloody conflict a decade earlier, and while Sinwar moved early in his tenure to reconcile Hamas with other Palestinian factions, he warned that he would “break the neck” of anyone who stood in the way.

In 2018, Sinwar supported weekly protests at the fence between Gaza and Israeli territory. Fearful of a breach in the barrier, the Israeli military fired on Palestinians and agitators who came too close. It was all part of the plan.

“We make the headlines only with blood,” Sinwar said in the interview at the time with an Italian journalist. “No blood, no news.”

Gaza Chief’s Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas

Netanyahu’s political career would be over if he makes a permanent ceasefire deal that’s acceptable to Sinwar, and Sinwar is no doubt safely surrounded by hostages, whether Israeli intelligence knows where he is or not.

I’m not sure why Sinwar would agree to a temporary ceasefire, but in any case, I doubt the Biden admin has much influence on whether or not it happens.

[Ludicus]

Well, in that case you are way more trusting than me.

...at least for now.
Bad news for a war criminal. Britain drops its challenge to ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders

Labour government announces its biggest step yet in overhauling the UK’s approach to the Middle East... dropping its opposition to an international arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu despite pressure from Washington not to do so.
The move makes it more likely that the ICC will now grant Khan’s request, in what would be a stunning international rebuke for Israel over the way it has conducted the war in Gaza and put Netanyahu at risk of arrest if he travels abroad.

[Coughdrop addict]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/x-sus...b0a3cd43f73fe1

The social platform X, formerly Twitter, suspended a “White Dudes for Harris” account following a fundraising video call that attracted nearly 200,000 supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris’ run for the Oval Office.

The account, @dudes4harris, was suspended Monday night for violating X rules “due to a user report,” according to a screenshot from Mike Nellis, one of the account’s operators. As of Tuesday morning, @dudes4harris was still suspended and “permanently in read-only mode.”

“We scared @elonmusk and @DonaldJTrumpJr so much tonight they suspended our account and won’t let us back in,” Nellis wrote on his own X page, using the handles of X owner Elon Musk and the son of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. “These guys are running scared of the success we’ve had tonight, but we’re not going to quit.”

Celebrities like Jeff Bridges, Josh Groban, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lance Bass, among others, joined the White Dudes for Harris fundraising call, which raised $4 million for Harris’ Democratic campaign. On X, the White Dudes for Harris account describes itself as “Just a few dudes who support Kamala Harris.”


When HuffPost asked for comment, X sent an automated reply: “Busy now, please check back later.”

So as we see with incidents like this, along with Musk blocking access to the Harris campaign account and boosting deepfakes of her, all of his supposed concern for free speech was nothing but lies and the only reason he bought Twitter was to become Trump's Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment.

[PointOfViewGun]

Giving that impression publicly may play well to their constituents, but it will probably backfire if actually reaching a ceasefire is the goal, because Sinwar always increases his demands every time he gets the sense that the American admin is anxious to make a deal and willing to pressure Netanyahu to achieve it.
Although, he’s not the easiest guy to negotiate with anyway:
Gaza Chief’s Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas
Netanyahu’s political career would be over if he makes a permanent ceasefire deal that’s acceptable to Sinwar, and Sinwar is no doubt safely surrounded by hostages, whether Israeli intelligence knows where he is or not.
I’m not sure why Sinwar would agree to a temporary ceasefire, but in any case, I doubt the Biden admin has much influence on whether or not it happens.

Your source doesn't really substantiate the highlighted idea. Have anything to back it up that Hamas keeps on increasing their demands?

[Ludicus]

Well, in that case you are way more trusting than me.

You were right, Alastor. Gaza ceasefire was assassinated by Netanyahu in Iran. Today it is clear that it is not the release of hostages that drives the Israeli government, but the idea of making any hope of an independent Palestinian state impossible.
In the wake of recent events, Kamala Harris has returned to the mantra of Israel's right to defend itself, guaranteeing that whatever Israel does, it will always have her unwavering support. Her policy towards Israel is no different from that of Biden or Trump. I don't see how she can secure the votes of the American Muslims in the upcoming presidential elections. Meanwhile, of much greater interest to the American media is the endless discussion about Kamala's skin color.

[Kyriakos]

The only good thing is more intelligent stuff about Turkey invading Israel - because it is known to be humanitarian etc.
One has to assume that at one point the US politicians will need to side with one of the two, and they have given ample proof that they won't ever go against Israel.

[Ludicus]

Kiriakos, the accelerated and visible degradation of the political system in Washington raises concerns for those who know the constitutional history of the USA and its contribution to modern republicanism and federalism on a global scale. In the past, the role of the USA made a decisive contribution to resolving crises such as the two world wars. Today, however, self-destructiveness reigns in its institutions and could contribute to precipitating a conflict of Dantean proportions in the short to medium term.
Take, for instance, Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race, which has all the hallmarks of a palace coup. He was likely promised that in exchange for not declaring his incapacity to hold office, in light of the 25th Amendment (promulgated following the assassination of John Kennedy), he should support Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate, which he did after resisting the enormous pressure exerted on him for some time. Biden is today a ghost wandering the corridors of the White House until the day he is replaced.
A second point, which I return to once again: the spectacle that astonished me the day Netanyahu addressed both chambers of the American Congress. The leader of the carnage in Gaza, deliriously applauded, spoke as if he were the President of the USA. A shame for the USA and a danger for the world. Under the current circumstances, given the foreseeable escalation of war in the Middle East, so desired and masterfully provoked by Netanyahu (by ordering the assassination of the Hamas leader in the Iranian capital), the military might of the USA will be unconditionally at the orders of a war criminal. Today's American politicians ignore or seem to ignore the warning written by Hans Morgenthau in his 1948 international relations masterpiece: “Never allow a weaker ally to make decisions for you.” (*)
Yes, it is significant that the UK has already given up contesting the ICC arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.

(*) Morgenthau, On Diplomacy
---
The following article will help to understand the deep connection between the American and Israeli political regimes. There is no hope, nor will there ever be, for the Palestinians, whoever the US President is.
US-Israeli soldier posted videos showing detonation of Gaza homes and mosque.

An American Israeli man deployed in Gaza with a combat engineering unit of Israel’s armed forces posted videos online that show indiscriminate fire at a destroyed building and the detonation of homes and a mosque.
One video posted by the man, Bram Settenbrino, and filmed from the shooter’s viewpoint, shows dozens of rounds being fired into the ruins of a building. Another video shows what appears to be an armored vehicle’s fire-control system trained on a mosque before it is razed to the ground. Others depict the detonation of several homes as soldiers cheer.
It is not clear whether Settenbrino personally filmed the videos or was involved in the acts depicted in them, but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Settenbrino did not dispute the videos’ authenticity.
The soldier’s father said his son had “sent a congratulatory video dedicating a detonation to honor a friend’s new marriage”, and that the family business had received threats since the videos began circulating.
Settenbrino has been deployed in Gaza since the beginning of the war with the Handasah Kravit, the IDF’s engineering corps.
An Eagle scout raised in New Jersey, he moved to Israel as a teenager, becoming one of an estimated 600,000 US citizens who live there.
Last year, he received an “Outstanding Soldier of the Year” award from his division,

An estimated 60,000 US citizens live in settlements in the West Bank. Many are deeply ideological, inspired by extremist figures like Brooklyn-born Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994, and Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose party was designated a terror group in both the US and Israel. The justice department did not answer questions about whether it is considering any action against settlers who are US citizens.

An estimated 23,380 US citizens serve in Israel’s armed forces, according to the Washington Post – a figure the IDF did not confirm but probably includes both Americans traveling to Israel for the purpose of service and Israeli-raised soldiers holding dual citizenship.
Settenbrino’s videos were first circulated in July by a prominent X account under the name Younis Tirawi that regularly surfaces videos posted by soldiers. Israeli soldiers have also shared videos of themselves playing with children’s toys and women’s underwear, the burning of Palestinian food supplies and rounding up and blindfolding civilians. Another video recently shared by Tirawi and originally posted by a member of Settenbrino’s unit showed the deliberate destruction of a water facility in Rafah.
One video by an IDF soldier, depicting a huge explosion in Gaza City as the soldier says “Shuja’iyya neighborhood gone … peace to Shuja’iyya” was screened in January before the ICJ as part of the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel and others were cited during the proceedings.
“There is now a trend among the soldiers to film themselves committing atrocities against civilians in Gaza, in a form of ‘snuff’ video
Whether the US would ever prosecute American citizens fighting for Israel is as much a political question as a legal one.
“The US government could prosecute these US citizens if they participate in war crimes,” Oona Hathaway, director of the Center for Global Legal Challenges at Yale Law School, told the Guardian. “Politically, however, that’s unlikely, for all the obvious reasons.”

[Kyriakos]

I do view the Biden affair as a coup, then again it's not as if the Gop can refer to that with any effect when Trump had another kind of coup (albeit one due to recklessness, while the Dem one was entirely planned).
The political situation in the US does continue to deteriorate, and I think it's past the point of no return; though maybe they would prefer a world war to secession.

[Roma_Victrix]

Damn! I thought for sure Kamala Harris, being more of a centrist Dem, would pick Arizona Senator Kelly or Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro, but she went with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate and choice for Vice President on the ticket. He's far more of a progressive, but at the same time appeals to Midwesterners with his life story.

Quick summary on Walz's career and background:
* Born in Nebraska, served in the US Army National Guard as a non-commissioned officer
* Got a BS in social science and an MS in teaching, and then taught English in China for a year, and can still speak some Mandarin Chinese
* Taught geography and social studies as a schoolteacher in the US
* On top of being a teacher, he was a high school football coach who led his team to a state championship in 1999
* Is a gun owner, outdoorsman, and goes hunting regularly, like a real Murican in the vein of Teddy Roosevelt
* Got elected to Congress serving as a Representative for a rural Minnesota district where he was reelected several times before becoming governor
* Also became a Ranking Member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee before serving as governor

That is one salt of the Earth guy. Yes, he's not a NASA astronaut or former Navy fighter pilot like Kelly, but he's a regular Midwestern dad who can appeal to average Joes. He also has a progressive policy record when it comes to marijuana decriminalization, criminal justice reform, LGBTQ rights, women's rights and abortion rights, paid sick leave for workers, paid family leave for workers, funding public education and needs of schoolchildren, tuition-free college for students from low-income households, gun reform with stiffer background checks (though is a strong advocate for responsible gun ownership), and fiscal reforms that favor average American workers and small businesses rather than the big banks and multinational corporations.

It would be very interesting to see a debate between him and Trump's pick for VP: Senator J. D. Vance of Ohio. I'm actually stunned that Harris is making these kinds of moves. She actually picked someone who is an effective communicator and public speaker to go up against Trump's pick, a venture capitalist and author who graduated from Yale Law School after serving as a combat correspondent in the Marines. Dare I say the Dems are in array rather than disarray for a change. LOL.

Plus, Harris doesn't have to worry about the Arizona special election for Kelly's senate seat in 2026 now that she has passed on him being her VP. Minnesota is a fairly safe blue state now and Walz will most likely be followed by another Democrat. Pennsylvania is far shakier as a swing state and there would be no strong guarantee that Shapiro's elected successor would be a Democrat (Trump did win the state in 2016 against HRC and only narrowly lost it in 2020 to Biden by a couple percentage points).

[Legio_Italica]

I think the sudden focus on VPs is weird. Probably an effort by the liberal establishment to take Trump out of the spotlight. Hopefully the GOP doesn’t fall for it and waste air time defending theirs. Vance is the only one of the two options who might be relevant, and that’s only because Trump might die in office. Apparently the propaganda is strong enough for DC activists to protest outside his office at the Capitol as though he isn’t from Ohio or is running for POTUS.

The idea Walz’s selection is a mid-America moderate play seems far-fetched, but it’s quite telling the Democrats are trying to present him that way (they know he isn’t). Given his record it would make more sense if he were a red herring brought onboard to take heat off Kamala’s record from the right or obscure criticism from the center or left that she’s nobody, knows nothing and doesn’t have any real policy positions beyond political expediency.

- Walz publicly celebrated as far left mobs pillaged Minneapolis.
- Defunded the police and stalled their requests for help from the national guard to quell the riots
- Championed sex changes for kids and abortion on demand
- Aided and abetted illegal immigration by making it easier for them to get IDs, while raising taxes on legal workers.
- Backed COVID lockdowns - which likely put George Floyd out of work and back on the streets as a criminal in the first place - and set up a hotline for people to spy on and report their neighbors for wrongthink
- Set aside state funds to give bonuses to “frontline workers” during COVID, only for the money to go to thousands of dead people (criminals) while only 60% of recipients were verified to qualify. This is just one of the initiatives he was behind that cannot account for up to tens of millions in public spending, and he “lost” related records
- Backed universal mail in voting
- Mandated critical race and gender theory in public schools while half of students can’t even read at grade level

Plenty of red meat there and Republicans are unfortunately lunging at it already.

I still think Trump has a shot but the real impact of his campaign will be similar to that of his presidency, win or lose. His mere presence in Washington pulled back the curtain on the extent to which the deep state and the liberal establishment coordinate to manufacture Orwellian conspiracy theories and make them like truth, as in Russiagate. After his presidency, his mere presence on the campaign trail exposed the extent to which law enforcement has the power to make politically motivated charges stick .

In the wake of the failed assassination, his continued existence revealed how coordinated and controlled political and social reality is. No other feasible reason the least popular VP in modern history and former presidential candidate who didn’t even make it to the last primary has achieved record fundraising as the darling of the press and pop culture just a couple weeks after facilitating a coup against her own president.

[PointOfViewGun]

'They are weird people': Walz breaks down the GOP's 'weird ideas'



Hear, hear!