The Real timschochet

So if this is correct, the dude is an anti-abortion nutcase. But you know what? There are millions of Americans who are pro-life and believe that abortion is murder. (I don’t agree). These people are NOT responsible for this nutcase.

You have a point for sure. But on the other hand suppose I really do believe that some of the words you used apply? I’ve always thought Fascist, Nazi, Hitler, is over the top, but I honestly do think that white supremacy does apply to parts of the MAGA movement, and that Tom Homan’s ICE behave like the Gestapo. You’re free to disagree but that’s what I think. Should I hide those thoughts because some idiot nutcase might run with them? Sorry but I’m not going to do that. And neither I nor the MSM are responsible for that nutcase.

Honestly I don’t think China cares too much about this sort of thing. They want us to be a market for their imports and otherwise leave them alone.

Big crowd on PCH; lots of “Stop ICE raids” signs along with “No Kings”. Last week Huntington Beach soundly defeated the MAGA attempt to censor our libraries. Which was heartening. So maybe there’s a change in the air around here? I hope so.

This “he’s one of your crowd” argument is so asinine. Maybe this killer is a flaming liberal. Maybe he’s a MAGA conservative. I really have no idea. What I DO know is that he’s a frigging nutcase and even if he agreed with me 100% of the time, I don’t take ownership of him, I’m not responsible for him, and his insanity doesn’t prove me wrong or right.

Some real ugliness in this thread. From both left and right. Friendly tip: just because somebody here is behaving like an a$$hole doesn’t mean you should imitate him.

OK thank you. Unaware of that part.

I don’t understand how Walz can know for sure at this stage that these murders were politically motivated. The story doesn’t explain that. Usually motivation takes a long time to determine, even when the culprit has been captured.

No you’re right from that perspective. But there is still a significant difference. I think that shortly Iran and Israel are going to stop bombing each other and this latest incident will be exactly that, an incident. On the other hand, for Ukraine-Russia to be over, Russia is going to have to pull their forces out of Ukraine, or Ukraine is going to have to surrender territory, or some combination of the two.

I missed this post earlier but it’s not very smart. Iran has twice the population of Iraq, 6 times the land area, and incredibly more resources. There is a reason we have never tried to invade Iran. (Among other things, Iran if it chose could block the Strait of Hormuz, threatening the entire world’s supply of oil. Israel does not have the ability to invade Iran. We do, theoretically, but it would take millions of men and lead to mass casualties. It would not be easy at all.

No this is a poor analysis. I don’t really want to speak for leftists but I don’t believe they think as you describe. Personally as a liberal I have never been comfortable with the idea of the Iranian mullahs having a nuclear weapon. I would rather they didn’t have one and I think military intervention is justifiable to prevent them from having one. But that said I’m not convinced they would use it if they had it; after all Pakistan, a fundamentalist Muslim nation, has had nukes for 40 years and never used them. Certainly they hate India as much or more than the Mullahs of Iran hate Israel. So I reject your assertion as absolute. Even so it’s too big a risk to take in my estimation.

We are not. A “full blown war” means the army of one side invades the land of the other side, as Russia has done with Ukraine. What’s going on is serious but it’s not a war.

Do you really think it’s outlandish to argue that Gavin Newsom is currently the frontrunner to be the next Democratic Party candidate for President?

I don’t agree but in any case I wasn’t addressing any question here but the Democratic Party race for 2028. Would you agree that he’s the early frontrunner?

Anyhow if you look at the three most likely candidates according to the market: AOC certainly is a fine speaker, has charisma, has the Bernie crowd. But in the end Democratic politicians that are as leftist as she is NEVER win the nomination. Not one ever has to my memory. That doesn’t mean she couldn’t. 9 years ago I would have told you that an extreme conservative populist like Trump could never win the GOP and that happened. But I think this is even more unlikely. Buttigieg faces the same problem he faced in 2020: he’s gay. That makes his candidacy problematic in the southern Democratic primaries, which are dominated by black women voters who are for the most part religious conservative. I wish it were otherwise but it would be foolish to ignore it. Other people could emerge of course: Shapiro, Bashear, someone I’m not considering. But none have the name recognition of Newsom and it’s really blown up after this weekend. He has to be the frontrunner.

I don’t think you’re looking at this very objectively. But let’s look at what the markets say: https://kalshi.com/markets/kxpresnomd/democratic-primary-winner

Sad to hear this. He was, at his peak, the best WR in the NFL and he might have gone down among the best ever to play that position. All lost.

After this weekend I think Gavin Newsom has emerged as the leading Democratic politician and the frontrunner for 2028 for the Democratic Party. It’s interesting because only a week ago if you had asked me about him I would have told you that he had lost the base, and that therefore it seemed unlikely he’d be the guy. But circumstances have changed that. For better or worse he is being seen as the man who stands up to Trump, and that puts him way ahead of the pack.

There is some truth to the idea that the LAPD might not be able to handle stuff on their own. They don’t have a great reputation, after all. For going on 70 years they have been as bigoted, racist, fascist as practically any police force in the USA. I’d like to think that this has changed in the last two decades but only to a certain degree. As late as 2007 they were culpable in brutally beating up protestors. The problem is that the National Guard hasn’t behaved any better particularly in Los Angeles. And of course the bigger problem is that this entire kerfuffel began because ICE under Tom Homan behave like Gestapo thugs. That’s at the root of things.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5177420-supreme-court-blocks-trump-funding/ This is a great result; the guardrails are creaky but intact. Hopefully it will lead to more limitations on President Trump’s attempt to consolidate too much power in the White House. Maybe next we can challenge his ability to break solemn treaties by enacting tariffs?

Imagine if the Clippers ever win anything, then we’d all better hide.

Hey New Girl hope you are well. We’re talking over each other and I don’t want to do that. I will note only that every conservative I read, here and elsewhere, seems to think these incidents were a lot worse than they were presented and that Trump’s action of calling in the National Guard was well justified. And every liberal I read, here and elsewhere, think that these incidents were a lot more minor than they were presented. And that happens to be my own view. Now to be fair I was not in downtown LA last weekend so like you I can only depend on what I watched on TV. Though I suspect we watched different networks. But I WAS in the middle of the Rodney King riot (I was in downtown when that actually happened) and I was in Long Beqch during the Floyd protests and subsequent riots. And this latest event does not compare to those.

Well that’s your prerogative. And you may turn out to be right, I don’t think it’s a wise deternination at this point.

Hope you are well RLLD. But of course I take issue with your narrative of events. There was never any widespread rioting; 99% of it took place over two square blocks in downtown. It was nothing like Rodney King, or even George Floyd. There was not even as much violence as occurs after the Lakers win a championship. There WERE some violent acts (mostly a few cars set on fire) but these were quickly handled by the police. The national guard were completely unnecessary and by the time they actually arrived almost all of action was already finished.

I think being for or against this attack, at this stage, is premature and rather foolish. We don’t have enough information, and we don’t know what the consequences will be. That being said I think we should all be willing to agree on the following two points: 1. The government of Iran is an oppressive, evil theocracy and it would be better for the world, and us, if they ceased to rule. 2. It is better for the world, and us, that Iran not have nuclear weapons.