Umm... the curb sign protesting dude. In all seriousness, how is that person any different than the character of Derek Vinyard, the neo-Nazi leader from American History X?
Yeah it sucks. I'm a leftist but I'll readily admit there's people like this out there who really just want to be a different sort of brutal.
My whole philosophy is that if your politics is rooted in purely oppositional terms, you cannot be allowed to succeed. The only politics that ever lead to better outcomes are those rooted in the desire to build, to construct something new, to fix what is old, etc. Oppositional politics are how we get the holocaust, Stalin's brutality, Trumpism, Hamas, and yes, the equally exterminationist philosophy of some Israeli extremists.
That person with that sign doesn't want to build anything. They just want to be the one who gets to destroy.
The Bulwark should probably advertise as “A Never trump conservative, liberal and leftist walk into a bar….and come away with nuanced pro-America ideas/doscourse”.
Admittedly a lot of people on the left really don't like the concept of America but I was born in DC, I've seen what robust public funding for the national interest can do, and it's not a Soviet bread line, it's the Smithsonian. It's national parks. I want more of that energy.
I love this place, I want it to be better than it is, and I think that so long as everyone's willing to accept that we're all working toward that goal we can talk, we can disagree (I frequently do with the staff here!) and we can occasionally even learn something or come up with a new idea that might work better than anything we came to the bar with in the first place.
I think what you're describing is true patriotism. And it's about time we take the term back from the party that constantly refers to this great nation as a g-d-forsaken shithole. (Sorry, JVL - I probably should have said "shirthole" to keep things family-friendly.)
It's a little complicated, admittedly, in that while I love the place and the people, I will readily admit that there is a LOT of stuff both historically and in terms of our present governmental structure and ideology that I do not love in the slightest.
Patriotism, at least as far as love of country is concerned, has two forms. Al Franken was actually the first person I read who articulated it in a way that clicked for me. There's the "love it or leave it" sort of patriotism that is more akin to a child's love of their parents - Mommy and Daddy can do no wrong. It's pure, but it's immature. That's right wing patriotism.
There's also a patriotism that's more complicated, rooted more in the love of what could be, that acknowledges flaws and merits equally and seeks to defend the possibility of how we could be better in the future. That's the patriotism I'm more comfortable with. Franken called that liberal patriotism, and honestly I think he was off on that, liberals are just as prone to the immature version of patriotism that the right it, it's just they express it a little differently. Fukuyama is the platonic ideal of the liberal equivalent of an immature patriotism to my mind, there is no concept more ridiculous and indefensible on the merits as the End of History, especially from where we sit now. It's a bit more high-minded, it's a bit more progressive, but ultimately it's still a very uncomplicated "we're the best" mentality that I do wish more people would move past. We don't need to be the best and we shouldn't think of ourselves that way. We should just aspire to be better.
I've always been of the mind that many leftists (not you, fwiw) don't live in the "real world". That their notions of how the world should be are rooted in theory as opposed to basic reality. Or worse, their notions are rooted in what the Twitter/Reddit masses deem appropriate, which often harbors no room for nuance. If they were actually committed to their causes, they'd be volunteering at a soup kitchen or attending City Council meetings. Ya know, putting in time and effort to incrementally make the world a little bit better of a place.
Yeah, there is a tendency to get too caught up in theory and too navel-gazey to actually ever affect change among certain leftists. Theory is all well and good, mind you, it's important to think about things especially when you're trying to come up with new forms of government that may work better or achieve better outcomes - but you have to actually engage in the work at some point. A lot of the leftists I'm most fond of are the ones who build mutual aid organizations and such, they know the revolution isn't coming any time soon, but there are still things we can do.
As to social media, yeah, leftist discourse sucks there, same as all political discourse. Anyone who isn't exactly your flavor of communist is automatically a fascist, etc etc. Tiresome. I'm not an old man but I'm almost 37, I do not have the patience to put up with some teenager who just read Das Kapital telling me I'm the bourgeoisie.
So well said, Andrew! Such a good distinction being drawn. It's so easy to tear down. It takes a lot of talent and character to build for the whole nation, left AND right.
Political horseshoe. The violent extremists are at both ends. (Of course, it is not a symmetrical distribution; the right has way more at this point in history.)
This is an accurate horseshoe description. I like to showcase it to fellow politics nerds like how we color dots for the house. Theres a lot more concentrated red dots on the furthest right tip of the horseshoe. There are still a decent and extremely noisy set of them on the left, but they’re nothing compared to the right wing fringe (which is now the mainstream of MAGA).
You are correct. But the number of extremists and antisemites on the far-left has dramatically increased in number following the completely unhinged response by Israel to the horrific pogrom perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
The issue of Israel-Palestine has the potential to break the anti-fascist coalition in two, if it is not resolved during what I believe will be the Harris presidency.
VP Harris and Governor Walz must continue to run like they are the underdogs, even if this is not really the case so that Democrats do not get complacent.
No voter acting in good faith should be taken for granted or written off. VP Harris will have to stride the right balance on Israel-Palestine both as a candidate for President and as President.
What is your source for this claim: "the number of extremists and antisemites on the far-left has dramatically increased in number . . . since Oct 7th"?
I disagree- there are also violent extremists in the center as well! The distinction between violent extremists and nonviolent extremists is usually a matter of personality type.
In simplified terms, you find people who want to feel like they are unique, fringe, and an embattled minority and people who want to feel normal, mainstream, and common-sensical.
Even among the the center-left, there are clearly some who are attracted to the idea that they are in a tiny minority of people who sees how close we are to a complete totalitarian state and who engage in politics in a totally wild-eyed way. The precise nature of the incipient totalitarianism seems to drift year to year for these people, but their approach to political engagement, which is fringe and bizarre, does not change and they seem to relish being among the few seers.
Grew up in Saudi Arabia w/Palestinian families given 1 hour to get off the West Bank in 1967. Am as sympathetic to P cause as I am to Israel, and attitudes like that sign are why I stay far away from pro-Palestinian protests. Before you know it, the person next to you is screaming “Kill All the Jews!”
Great report....glad to see the protesters aren't exactly overwhelming.
Despite having some mixed feeling about Biden I'm looking forward to his speech tonight. And hoping he gets a warm and emotional sendoff from the party. Whatever you think of his presidency he is an honorable man who devoted half a century of service to the country and party...he deserves the moment in the convention hall he didn't quite get in 2020.
And I do wish them Dems would give up this silly "celebrity hosting" concept. Not sure how that helps us connect to working class voters and shed our coastal elite vibes....
Back when Mayor Daley was the Genghis Khan of Chicago, the Democratic Party Convention was electric with dissention and Democrat Daley decided to do something. Circling the perimeter to the convention sixteen blocks out, Daley ordered city buses, large police vans, semi-trailor trucks etc to completely block any possible escape from the 16 block police enclosure. Scores of police with shields and clubs (but no guns or nametags) then moved in towards the convention center and clubbed anyone they encountered, arrests were made only in the pick-up after the initial onslaught. I was in a car watching and was not noticed. A feeble old lady, unable to run, was clubbed down by a grinning, wild-eyed cop. He looked on speed. Other witnesses reported similar sightings from upper story windows. The reports in the papers were somehow misinformed, and put any blame on the protestors. I was there. The right to protest in America has never been easily allowed. DeSantis put forth in Florida laws to virtually make it illegal to protest. Trump, told he could not order them shot, responded by asking if they could be shot in the legs. Once protesting is choked out in America, fascism will own the game.
I’m in the hall working Access Control! No heckler is getting by me. Not even the 5 innocent looking young women who told me the Secret Service said it was ok 🤣
General observation: the media spin about the Dems in Chicago for 2024 and 1968 is really beginning to annoy me. There are, at best, subtle overlaps (as in Chicago and the Dems having their convention there). But there is no draft for an unpopular war. To connect the two as if there is an equal parallel us simply ignorance masquerading as historical insight.
Joe- Long time Chicago resident here. You may have heard about the long term pizza fight- traven style or deep dish? Deep dish, of course. Lou Malnati’s or Giordano’s? Lou Malnati’s, for sure!
Hope you get to enjoy the city while you are there.
If the Gaza protesters disrupt the Democratic convention, it will be the fault of media like MSNBC, the NYT, the Washington Post, Vox, the Nation, and the like. These strongly left-leaning media outlets took the history of the Levant with all its gray areas and controversies and forced it to be black-and-white. They made the Palestinians cause célèbre. Never mind the antisemitism they were fomenting. Never mind the blockheaded mutation of Marxism they entertained, this binary worldview and false dichotomy of oppressor-versus-oppressed. They couldn't look past the Palestinians' skin color and they immediately concluded the Palestinians were the good guys. They're people of color. Of course they're the good guys. False.
MAGA is certifiably a cult. But the Palestinians are a death cult. They are victims of jihadism, and at the same time are abettors of jihadism.
I'm not going to rehash history. I'll leave my fellow Bulwark commenters with an anecdote. When these fools descend on Chicago this week, remember the name of one Palestinian, Ahmad Abu Marhia. He was a young gay guy living in the West Bank. He sought asylum in Israel. Why Israel, land of the evil oppressor? As a gay man in Palestine, he feared for his life. Unfortunately, Israel did not process his request in time. He was beheaded. His body and severed head were dumped by the side of a road.
There are still 6 Americans held hostage in Gaza.
I look on those falsely accusing Israel of "genocide" as the intellectual and moral equivalent of MAGA. You'd think by now these "feminists" and "LGBTQIA+" people defending justice, peace, and reproductive rights would have gotten the memo that Islamism opposes all of the above!
Since my computer died 2 weeks ago, I've been watching CNN and MSNBC on DirectTv's News Mix. I end up on MSNBC most of the time. MSNBC has been pretty selective about the protestors they're covering. But Fox and CNN have been practically salivating over the Gaza protestors almost hourly, linking them continuously with 1968 - a far different era. And CNN is starting to sound a lot like Fox in their "even-handedness". There's a MAGA apologist on every panel, and they're allowed to get away with outright lies all the time. MSNBC isn't doing that at least when I've watched.
When I refer to them collectively, I am indeed generalizing, and I understand how such language can be too blunt. Some Muslims don't speak out because to do so is fraught with danger. But I'm going to respectfully disagree. Think about all the people from around the world who come to America to escape tyranny. Most denounce the tyranny the fled, almost to a person. That's why they're here. Not the Palestinians, except but shockingly few. And when they speak, they excoriate their Palestinian brethren. Here most are apologists for jihadism. If Trump is the most successful con man in history, the Palestinians are the most successful propagandists in history. They have bamboozled the U.N. and the western world. I find it utterly revolting.
Do you know how hard it is to get the song “One of these things is not like the others” out of your head??? I’m in my late 50s, so actually too old to have benefitted from Sesame Street at the right age, and a proud “childless cat lady” but I have a younger brother so I learned the song. It exists in my head and cannot be eradicated!
"A grab-bag of progressive desiderata" -- I remember how much I disliked that back in the Reagan era (omg that was like two weeks ago, right?), which I think is the last time I ever went to a demonstration. You'd show up because you cared about one thing and before you knew it people would be chanting about something you couldn't get behind. When they started in with "today's pigs are tomorrow's bacon" I just left.
Some (SOME) of these kids just really seem too into themselves -- and if you want to take a culturally sensitive progressive lens to it, "appropriating" the Palestinian cause in an ethically questionable way. I don't know what a serious person concerned about Gaza could do that wouldn't seem like either being a good German (in the bad sense) by ignoring it or undermining your own cause by participating in questionable theatrics.
It would be great if the establishment Ds could make SOME kind of big-tent statement to address this. Things we can more or less all agree on, like it is a heartrendingly difficult issue, people of goodwill can disagree, Palestinian rights matter. Find some proactive not reactive way to acknowledge the issue. I hope they don't just ignore it, no matter how tempting that would be.
It is imperative for the Harris-Walz campaign to continue to run as underdogs, like they are five to ten pints behind, so that Democrats do not get complacent. Also, I was pleased to see that all of the protesters had their constitutional rights upheld during the rallies and marches today and there has been no violence thus far in Chicago, unlike 1968.
This is a testament to the strength and resiliency of American democracy, the leadership of Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, the professionalism of the Chicago Police Department, and the good judgement of the protesters themselves.
However I was disturbed by the virulently antisemitic chants that I read about during at least one of the rallies and the vicious attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris’s character during at least one the rallies.
And I write this as someone who is appalled by Israel’s operation inside Gaza in response to the horrific pogrom that Hamas perpetrated on October 7, 2023, President Biden’s almost unequivocal support of it, and the situation in the West Bank with the settler thugs. This issue, more than any other, if not handled properly by the Harris-Walz campaign, has the potential to sink it.
She will have to strike essentially a perfect balance between advocating for the safely and security of Israel and the human rights of Palestinians. This is an extremely difficult task given how complex this issue is, how strongly and emotionally people feel about it, and how people tend to take extreme positions, one way or the other, around it.
But if anyone is up to this task, Vice President Kamala Harris is. I was so impressed with how she diffused a tense situation a few weeks ago with pro-Palestinian protesters at a rally in Michigan who were accusing her of genocide, by using humor. For the sake of our nation’s 248 year-old democracy, I hope that she is able to continue doing this.
Amateurs will tell you about the overrated pizza, but I’m here to tell you that Harold’s Chicken’s Shack is a true Chicago original you can’t get anywhere else. There’s one just down the street from the United Center. Get the half white with both regular and hot sauce.
This report is, frankly, missing the kind of shoe-related reporting we come to expect from Mr. Perticone. Is there a preferred shoe of choice for today's stylish protester?
Umm... the curb sign protesting dude. In all seriousness, how is that person any different than the character of Derek Vinyard, the neo-Nazi leader from American History X?
Yeah it sucks. I'm a leftist but I'll readily admit there's people like this out there who really just want to be a different sort of brutal.
My whole philosophy is that if your politics is rooted in purely oppositional terms, you cannot be allowed to succeed. The only politics that ever lead to better outcomes are those rooted in the desire to build, to construct something new, to fix what is old, etc. Oppositional politics are how we get the holocaust, Stalin's brutality, Trumpism, Hamas, and yes, the equally exterminationist philosophy of some Israeli extremists.
That person with that sign doesn't want to build anything. They just want to be the one who gets to destroy.
This is what the Bulwark does well.
The Bulwark should probably advertise as “A Never trump conservative, liberal and leftist walk into a bar….and come away with nuanced pro-America ideas/doscourse”.
Thank you for this and love the perspective.
Admittedly a lot of people on the left really don't like the concept of America but I was born in DC, I've seen what robust public funding for the national interest can do, and it's not a Soviet bread line, it's the Smithsonian. It's national parks. I want more of that energy.
I love this place, I want it to be better than it is, and I think that so long as everyone's willing to accept that we're all working toward that goal we can talk, we can disagree (I frequently do with the staff here!) and we can occasionally even learn something or come up with a new idea that might work better than anything we came to the bar with in the first place.
I think what you're describing is true patriotism. And it's about time we take the term back from the party that constantly refers to this great nation as a g-d-forsaken shithole. (Sorry, JVL - I probably should have said "shirthole" to keep things family-friendly.)
It's a little complicated, admittedly, in that while I love the place and the people, I will readily admit that there is a LOT of stuff both historically and in terms of our present governmental structure and ideology that I do not love in the slightest.
Patriotism, at least as far as love of country is concerned, has two forms. Al Franken was actually the first person I read who articulated it in a way that clicked for me. There's the "love it or leave it" sort of patriotism that is more akin to a child's love of their parents - Mommy and Daddy can do no wrong. It's pure, but it's immature. That's right wing patriotism.
There's also a patriotism that's more complicated, rooted more in the love of what could be, that acknowledges flaws and merits equally and seeks to defend the possibility of how we could be better in the future. That's the patriotism I'm more comfortable with. Franken called that liberal patriotism, and honestly I think he was off on that, liberals are just as prone to the immature version of patriotism that the right it, it's just they express it a little differently. Fukuyama is the platonic ideal of the liberal equivalent of an immature patriotism to my mind, there is no concept more ridiculous and indefensible on the merits as the End of History, especially from where we sit now. It's a bit more high-minded, it's a bit more progressive, but ultimately it's still a very uncomplicated "we're the best" mentality that I do wish more people would move past. We don't need to be the best and we shouldn't think of ourselves that way. We should just aspire to be better.
I've always been of the mind that many leftists (not you, fwiw) don't live in the "real world". That their notions of how the world should be are rooted in theory as opposed to basic reality. Or worse, their notions are rooted in what the Twitter/Reddit masses deem appropriate, which often harbors no room for nuance. If they were actually committed to their causes, they'd be volunteering at a soup kitchen or attending City Council meetings. Ya know, putting in time and effort to incrementally make the world a little bit better of a place.
Yeah, there is a tendency to get too caught up in theory and too navel-gazey to actually ever affect change among certain leftists. Theory is all well and good, mind you, it's important to think about things especially when you're trying to come up with new forms of government that may work better or achieve better outcomes - but you have to actually engage in the work at some point. A lot of the leftists I'm most fond of are the ones who build mutual aid organizations and such, they know the revolution isn't coming any time soon, but there are still things we can do.
As to social media, yeah, leftist discourse sucks there, same as all political discourse. Anyone who isn't exactly your flavor of communist is automatically a fascist, etc etc. Tiresome. I'm not an old man but I'm almost 37, I do not have the patience to put up with some teenager who just read Das Kapital telling me I'm the bourgeoisie.
Amen, Baby!
“…if your politics is rooted in purely oppositional terms….” An interesting frame to think about it.
“…purely oppositional terms,” as in Whatever it is, I’m against it!”
https://youtu.be/xHash5takWU?si=v7DSbs0yBJ0xhIG4
So well said, Andrew! Such a good distinction being drawn. It's so easy to tear down. It takes a lot of talent and character to build for the whole nation, left AND right.
Thank you for that.
Political horseshoe. The violent extremists are at both ends. (Of course, it is not a symmetrical distribution; the right has way more at this point in history.)
This is an accurate horseshoe description. I like to showcase it to fellow politics nerds like how we color dots for the house. Theres a lot more concentrated red dots on the furthest right tip of the horseshoe. There are still a decent and extremely noisy set of them on the left, but they’re nothing compared to the right wing fringe (which is now the mainstream of MAGA).
You are correct. But the number of extremists and antisemites on the far-left has dramatically increased in number following the completely unhinged response by Israel to the horrific pogrom perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
The issue of Israel-Palestine has the potential to break the anti-fascist coalition in two, if it is not resolved during what I believe will be the Harris presidency.
VP Harris and Governor Walz must continue to run like they are the underdogs, even if this is not really the case so that Democrats do not get complacent.
No voter acting in good faith should be taken for granted or written off. VP Harris will have to stride the right balance on Israel-Palestine both as a candidate for President and as President.
Kol Tuv,
David Hurwitz
Chicago, IL
What is your source for this claim: "the number of extremists and antisemites on the far-left has dramatically increased in number . . . since Oct 7th"?
They may not have increased but they certainly are noisier.
I'm still not positive that it wasn't somebody's op. I'm just not sure whose!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more.
Yes indeed. Way more.
I disagree- there are also violent extremists in the center as well! The distinction between violent extremists and nonviolent extremists is usually a matter of personality type.
In simplified terms, you find people who want to feel like they are unique, fringe, and an embattled minority and people who want to feel normal, mainstream, and common-sensical.
Even among the the center-left, there are clearly some who are attracted to the idea that they are in a tiny minority of people who sees how close we are to a complete totalitarian state and who engage in politics in a totally wild-eyed way. The precise nature of the incipient totalitarianism seems to drift year to year for these people, but their approach to political engagement, which is fringe and bizarre, does not change and they seem to relish being among the few seers.
Yeah that’s my first reaction too. Is there some less hateful message we’re missing somehow?
I immediately thought of that movie too! That sign is abhorrent and I hope protestors carrying signs like that were in the minority.
Grew up in Saudi Arabia w/Palestinian families given 1 hour to get off the West Bank in 1967. Am as sympathetic to P cause as I am to Israel, and attitudes like that sign are why I stay far away from pro-Palestinian protests. Before you know it, the person next to you is screaming “Kill All the Jews!”
Pretty sure that's not a dude. But of course I could be wrong.
Pretty hairy chest, then.
And wearing a mask in an open space. I mean, kind of highlights ideology over pragmatism.
Wearing a mask in an open space codes, to me, at least, as either terrorist or coward.
Maybe both? Or just a knucklehead.
Same
"I got sunburned for nothing." "And who doesn’t love Chicago in the summer?" Have a fun convention, Joe. I feel like you are down for it.
The capital of the Midwest. But not so much fun in winter.
True. However if I was going to live in a big city, it would be Chicago.
Great report....glad to see the protesters aren't exactly overwhelming.
Despite having some mixed feeling about Biden I'm looking forward to his speech tonight. And hoping he gets a warm and emotional sendoff from the party. Whatever you think of his presidency he is an honorable man who devoted half a century of service to the country and party...he deserves the moment in the convention hall he didn't quite get in 2020.
And I do wish them Dems would give up this silly "celebrity hosting" concept. Not sure how that helps us connect to working class voters and shed our coastal elite vibes....
Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Megan Thee Stallion appeal to way more than coastal elites.
All three are mainstream cultural icons.
I agree about the celebs with the exception of Ana Navarro.
Ana Navarro is one of the funniest women in political commentary from any party.
No need to worry
Back when Mayor Daley was the Genghis Khan of Chicago, the Democratic Party Convention was electric with dissention and Democrat Daley decided to do something. Circling the perimeter to the convention sixteen blocks out, Daley ordered city buses, large police vans, semi-trailor trucks etc to completely block any possible escape from the 16 block police enclosure. Scores of police with shields and clubs (but no guns or nametags) then moved in towards the convention center and clubbed anyone they encountered, arrests were made only in the pick-up after the initial onslaught. I was in a car watching and was not noticed. A feeble old lady, unable to run, was clubbed down by a grinning, wild-eyed cop. He looked on speed. Other witnesses reported similar sightings from upper story windows. The reports in the papers were somehow misinformed, and put any blame on the protestors. I was there. The right to protest in America has never been easily allowed. DeSantis put forth in Florida laws to virtually make it illegal to protest. Trump, told he could not order them shot, responded by asking if they could be shot in the legs. Once protesting is choked out in America, fascism will own the game.
It was called a “police riot”. The convention floor this time around promises to be a lot less fractured.
Daley was a Southern Democrat masquerading as a Northern Democrat.
I’m in the hall working Access Control! No heckler is getting by me. Not even the 5 innocent looking young women who told me the Secret Service said it was ok 🤣
Thank you for your service! I hope you're keeping an eye out for mustacheless Mike lindell!
General observation: the media spin about the Dems in Chicago for 2024 and 1968 is really beginning to annoy me. There are, at best, subtle overlaps (as in Chicago and the Dems having their convention there). But there is no draft for an unpopular war. To connect the two as if there is an equal parallel us simply ignorance masquerading as historical insight.
Long time ago we referred to these groups as CAVE people, Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
Joe- Long time Chicago resident here. You may have heard about the long term pizza fight- traven style or deep dish? Deep dish, of course. Lou Malnati’s or Giordano’s? Lou Malnati’s, for sure!
Hope you get to enjoy the city while you are there.
Lou Malnati's OF COURSE!!!!!
Yes!!!!
If the Gaza protesters disrupt the Democratic convention, it will be the fault of media like MSNBC, the NYT, the Washington Post, Vox, the Nation, and the like. These strongly left-leaning media outlets took the history of the Levant with all its gray areas and controversies and forced it to be black-and-white. They made the Palestinians cause célèbre. Never mind the antisemitism they were fomenting. Never mind the blockheaded mutation of Marxism they entertained, this binary worldview and false dichotomy of oppressor-versus-oppressed. They couldn't look past the Palestinians' skin color and they immediately concluded the Palestinians were the good guys. They're people of color. Of course they're the good guys. False.
MAGA is certifiably a cult. But the Palestinians are a death cult. They are victims of jihadism, and at the same time are abettors of jihadism.
I'm not going to rehash history. I'll leave my fellow Bulwark commenters with an anecdote. When these fools descend on Chicago this week, remember the name of one Palestinian, Ahmad Abu Marhia. He was a young gay guy living in the West Bank. He sought asylum in Israel. Why Israel, land of the evil oppressor? As a gay man in Palestine, he feared for his life. Unfortunately, Israel did not process his request in time. He was beheaded. His body and severed head were dumped by the side of a road.
There are still 6 Americans held hostage in Gaza.
I look on those falsely accusing Israel of "genocide" as the intellectual and moral equivalent of MAGA. You'd think by now these "feminists" and "LGBTQIA+" people defending justice, peace, and reproductive rights would have gotten the memo that Islamism opposes all of the above!
Since my computer died 2 weeks ago, I've been watching CNN and MSNBC on DirectTv's News Mix. I end up on MSNBC most of the time. MSNBC has been pretty selective about the protestors they're covering. But Fox and CNN have been practically salivating over the Gaza protestors almost hourly, linking them continuously with 1968 - a far different era. And CNN is starting to sound a lot like Fox in their "even-handedness". There's a MAGA apologist on every panel, and they're allowed to get away with outright lies all the time. MSNBC isn't doing that at least when I've watched.
Observation: saying “the Palestinians are a cult” is akin to blaming Jewish Americans for the IDF’s actions in Gaza.
When I refer to them collectively, I am indeed generalizing, and I understand how such language can be too blunt. Some Muslims don't speak out because to do so is fraught with danger. But I'm going to respectfully disagree. Think about all the people from around the world who come to America to escape tyranny. Most denounce the tyranny the fled, almost to a person. That's why they're here. Not the Palestinians, except but shockingly few. And when they speak, they excoriate their Palestinian brethren. Here most are apologists for jihadism. If Trump is the most successful con man in history, the Palestinians are the most successful propagandists in history. They have bamboozled the U.N. and the western world. I find it utterly revolting.
Thanks for respectfully disagreeing,
But any time I see “the” preceding a national group, it gives me the heebie jeebies.
Do you know how hard it is to get the song “One of these things is not like the others” out of your head??? I’m in my late 50s, so actually too old to have benefitted from Sesame Street at the right age, and a proud “childless cat lady” but I have a younger brother so I learned the song. It exists in my head and cannot be eradicated!
"A grab-bag of progressive desiderata" -- I remember how much I disliked that back in the Reagan era (omg that was like two weeks ago, right?), which I think is the last time I ever went to a demonstration. You'd show up because you cared about one thing and before you knew it people would be chanting about something you couldn't get behind. When they started in with "today's pigs are tomorrow's bacon" I just left.
Some (SOME) of these kids just really seem too into themselves -- and if you want to take a culturally sensitive progressive lens to it, "appropriating" the Palestinian cause in an ethically questionable way. I don't know what a serious person concerned about Gaza could do that wouldn't seem like either being a good German (in the bad sense) by ignoring it or undermining your own cause by participating in questionable theatrics.
It would be great if the establishment Ds could make SOME kind of big-tent statement to address this. Things we can more or less all agree on, like it is a heartrendingly difficult issue, people of goodwill can disagree, Palestinian rights matter. Find some proactive not reactive way to acknowledge the issue. I hope they don't just ignore it, no matter how tempting that would be.
It is imperative for the Harris-Walz campaign to continue to run as underdogs, like they are five to ten pints behind, so that Democrats do not get complacent. Also, I was pleased to see that all of the protesters had their constitutional rights upheld during the rallies and marches today and there has been no violence thus far in Chicago, unlike 1968.
This is a testament to the strength and resiliency of American democracy, the leadership of Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, the professionalism of the Chicago Police Department, and the good judgement of the protesters themselves.
However I was disturbed by the virulently antisemitic chants that I read about during at least one of the rallies and the vicious attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris’s character during at least one the rallies.
And I write this as someone who is appalled by Israel’s operation inside Gaza in response to the horrific pogrom that Hamas perpetrated on October 7, 2023, President Biden’s almost unequivocal support of it, and the situation in the West Bank with the settler thugs. This issue, more than any other, if not handled properly by the Harris-Walz campaign, has the potential to sink it.
She will have to strike essentially a perfect balance between advocating for the safely and security of Israel and the human rights of Palestinians. This is an extremely difficult task given how complex this issue is, how strongly and emotionally people feel about it, and how people tend to take extreme positions, one way or the other, around it.
But if anyone is up to this task, Vice President Kamala Harris is. I was so impressed with how she diffused a tense situation a few weeks ago with pro-Palestinian protesters at a rally in Michigan who were accusing her of genocide, by using humor. For the sake of our nation’s 248 year-old democracy, I hope that she is able to continue doing this.
Kol Tuv,
David Hurwitz
Chicago, IL
Amateurs will tell you about the overrated pizza, but I’m here to tell you that Harold’s Chicken’s Shack is a true Chicago original you can’t get anywhere else. There’s one just down the street from the United Center. Get the half white with both regular and hot sauce.
Always preferred the quarter dark but to each their own
Anyone who denigrates Chicago food never had real Chicago food.
This report is, frankly, missing the kind of shoe-related reporting we come to expect from Mr. Perticone. Is there a preferred shoe of choice for today's stylish protester?
Your footnote made me laugh. Thanks for the update!
Can you hip me to the meaning? It was a swoosh over-my-head.
Ana Navarro is a political commentator/pundit. The others are in the entertainment industry.
Thank you! They are all so different in other ways I couldn't zero in on Joe's meaning.
Thanks for the reporting on the protesters.