hundreth

Understood. I think for me, it's less about a leftist candidate, and more about alternate candidates vs. Biden. In another post I mentioned that a normal decent party member who is younger would be ideal. I feel that the bar to do better than Biden is very low. But then, I looked at the polls. https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/only-michelle-obama-bests-trump-alternative-biden-2024 What in the world is happening here?? Michelle Obama?? WHY? Harris?? She's horrendous. I literally just don't understand who these people are who vote in these polls. Yes, we have a corrupt DNC. Yes, we have corporate lobbyists influencing elections. Yes, we have many other issues. However, it seems the greatest problem of all is that our population at large is braindead. The 3 leaders our society has picked out of 300 million citizens are Biden, Trump, and RFK jr. It's hopeless.

They didn't treat Jews well at all. You keep repeating the same rhetoric, and it's never been true. Just because they were better than literal Nazis, doesn't mean anything. That doesn't mean we should hate them, but you need to understand the context of Jews living in Arab nations, they were treated dismally. The one state solution is the most ridiculous of all paths forward. These two peoples don't share a common vision for how things should be. Let's say you had a magic wand and Israel was destroyed over night in favor of this one state. First agenda item, what is the name of the new state? All hell will break loose. The conflict would devolve into a population war where both sides become more religious extremist to have more children and influence the path of the country. Before one side wins said population war, an all out civil war would break out and lead to mass violence. Both people require their own self determination.

I have my issues with Breaking Points, they can have very biased coverage at times. That said, they're really only pointing out what's already happening. They don't have enough influence to sway much.

Blow. Out.

When I brought it up I specifically mentioned March of return / right of return and from the river to the sea. Both of which have double meanings, half violent in nature. In many ways they are veiled calls for violence because they inevitably lead to war and present visions which are irreconcilable among both sides. Is that a reason to shoot them in a vacuum? Of course not. That said, I would not say this is really a great example of a non violent movement. I think if Palestinians were acting in good faith and had slogans that revolved more around their sovereignty and own independent state alongside Israel you would see a different reaction.

I don't believe we necessarily need to bring in the wokes, but there are other left-center candidates out there we can push forward. I remember around 2007 / 2008 when Barack campaigned almost no one had ever heard of him. He was fresh, he was well spoken, and he won. We don't need a known quantity or a radical extremist - just someone younger, normal and decent. I also find it amusing that before last week it was all about Trump & Biden. Now suddenly we're all hearing about project 2025, the supreme court ruling, it's justices and all that. We're going to hide Biden behind these fears. The fears are valid, but may not be enough to counteract the fears around Biden himself. Is he even capable of running the country this very minute? Who the fuck is in charge right now?? It's a rudderless ship. What happens when he dies midway through his next term? This creates a lot of uncertainty and doubt, arguably as bad or worse than the fears around Trump and the supreme court justices.

It is more or less a technicality. His ideas most closely align with the Democratic party, most of his allies are in the Democratic party, and he's running as a Democrat. The only thing he doesn't do is pay the exorbitant fees of some bullshit. If it was actually about electability, which is what they were talking about, they should let the people decide and may the best man win. That they shoot themselves in the foot and derail their own kind shows how little input we have as a population.

- Please apply this reasoning universally. It is at best inflammatory in nature. We've heard how the peace talks were doomed because Israel was still building settlements. One isn't directly connected to the other, but it is inflammatory and symbolic. When Ariel Sharon visited the temple mount, it triggered an intifadah. Symbolics matter. By naming your movement and slogans in inflammatory ways, they aren't inspiring peace. - Who is "they" that don't want peace? There are different administrations, leaders, groups, movements. We've seen Israel make strong gestures towards peace depending on circumstance. - I will look into this list and educate myself. - I never said Hamas wasn't violent as well. I don't know what the ceasefires have to do with what we're talking about. Israel directly funded Hamas before the PLO declared non violence in 1993. Not after. Since then, they've allowed funds to flow through Qatar during times of ceasefire.

- We know what right of return entails, a population war that ends Israel. If you're objective is peace with your neighbor, you don't have a movement with the destruction of your neighbor in it's name. That would be like Russia having a "Ukraine belongs to Russia" non violent movement. - Agree, Israel needs to work closer with moderate actors. Two things can be true at once. - Which peaceful figureheads did they assassinate? Sincere question, I'm not aware. The whole funding Hamas thing is another red herring. Israel funded Hamas when the PLO was a violent movement to undermine them. Now, Hamas is the violent movement. In some way it makes sense, but it is a bad strategy which backfired. That doesn't mean Israel would prefer violent movements.

You can stop quoting me btw, I don't respond to your nonsense.

Not to go back and forth about the march of return, as it becomes a bit of a rabbit hole... But I noticed some use the march of return as a blanket get out of jail card to say "look the Palestinians tried non violent and look what happened!" - therefore there is no other way. One thing about the march of return is that the destruction of Israel is implied in it's very name. Right of return = no Israel. It's also like this insistence to use "river to the sea" as some kind of "peace" call. It doesn't make sense, and doesn't inspire peace. There are many non violent movements the Palestinians can choose from. And even if you take this idea that Israel squashed a non violent movement at face value, that STILL doesn't mean you drop the entire idea and double down on violence.

You're both kind of talking past each other at this point, but I generally agree with @Raze that alternative candidates can and could have had a better chance in a general election. The part that is missing is that the DNC railroads their own candidates in favor of the establishment ones. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/us/politics/dnc-emails-sanders-clinton.html

It is not an overstretch at all. You can see how they did it, they live streamed it. Consider Israel's size and population and you can see how traumatic that is. Any nation would have a serious reaction to such an event.

I don't understand the logic. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2020/national/ Biden had an 8-9 point lead heading into the 2020 election and he barely won. Hilary had a 4 point lead heading into the election and she lost. You need at least a 7-8 pt lead in polling to beat Trump. He always outperforms the polls. The elections are close because Trump outperforms. If Trump is already ahead, then you're looking at a blowout. Yes, Biden is going to be blown out.

Why do you believe this? In 2020, Biden won the debates and was way ahead in the polling. Trump vastly outperformed the polls. The election was very close and came down to the wire. Now, Biden was already behind. That's why they took this hail mary debate initiative. It backfired tremendously. Now, he's even way further behind. He has no chance.

https://www.insidetracker.com/a/articles/dr-william-evanswhy-muscle-mass-is-a-marker-of-longevity#:~:text=If you think about it,mass is not at all." There's a lot more... but if you're being absolutely scientifically honest you can't dispute the massive importance of resistance training for the well being of the body. This isn't about becoming a gym bro and looking jacked. Most of us in our 30s have to try very hard already to retain the drive, willpower and energy to achieve those body types anyways. You shouldn't be pushing your body to extremes no matter what you do, but a moderate level of resistance training and cardio is very healthy. Diet is very important too. Obesity is the greatest predictor of illness. Michael Pollan's quote sums it up well:

To those desperately clinging to Biden because you worry about unintended consequences. Don't be afraid to do what needs to be done. Like a relationship in your personal life that is doomed to failure, it always feels safer to stay with what is known and comfortable. Coupled with sunk cost fallacy, the tendency is to remain inside this sinking ship. We need to drop Biden, now.

It almost doesn't matter. You can take a shot blindfolded and still have a better chance than going with Biden. Biden has a 0, ZERO percent chance of winning. Even if there are issues with running someone new this late, you take the chance 10 times out of 10.

Let's look at what's absurd. Before the debates, Biden was behind in the polling. After the debates, he's way behind in the polling. Trump consistently does BETTER than polling indicates. Biden has one foot in the grave and will be destroyed in the election. It is absurd to continue with him.

In my opinion, it absolutely does. This is being president of the United States, not the manager at McDonalds. It is the most demanding job on the planet. You have to be mentally acute. We've seen him drastically degrade over the past 4 years. He can barely walk down a few stairs now. Just imagine how much more he will deteriorate over the next 4 years. It's dangerous. This is elderly abuse and everyone around him should be ashamed of themselves.

Sorry Barack, too little too late. Biden isn't "someone" anymore - he is a frail old man with dementia.

The Democrats deserve to lose. They've shown their incompetence. How can you interact with Biden on a regular basis and not see this coming from 100 miles away? This was predicted by many. They asked for this debate. Trump is dangerous and unhinged... the Democrats are incompetent and delusional. ... and then the third most popular candidate is RFK Jr. What does that say about this country? It is absurd and embarrassing. Our leaders are a joke, our people are dumb as rocks. A true idiocracy.

I'm happy to see a perspective which highlights some of the U.S. agenda... That said, it reeks of gaslighting. The urging of moving away from the U.S., demonizing their interests, and pushing his agenda - it's fairly transparent. The U.S. influences and pushes Israel to carry out their agenda sometimes, and sometimes it's the other way around. Sometimes the initiatives are good, and sometimes they aren't. There isn't some black and white nefarious plot. We've had American leaders push us towards peace, and that is the closest we've been. Like friends in your personal life, you have good times, bad times, no one is perfect. And then he goes on to push the one-state solution. To me, this shows a misunderstanding of the dynamics there. Actually try to think about how that would play out. This region with two peoples who don't share a vision, with large constituents becoming more religiously extreme. Neither side will accept not being the majority, and a population war would ensue. That, or an all out civil war. Of all the ideas for how to move forward, the one state solution is the worst - and I don't know why it's pushed. I can kind of see why, because it leads to the elimination of present day Israel, for those who hate it... but it certainly does not lead to peace. And if peace is your northern star, you should change course.

Of course, I like most of you and often wonder how I would think if I was an outsider who didn't grow up in the environment I did and see what I've seen. I would likely think closer to you. Who knows to what extent.

The irony is that this is the reason we support Israel.