First off, it’s not about majority, it’s about plurality. But that’s just nitpicking.

The disagreement here is about how a party achieves pluralities. They could follow a strategy of running toward the positions in their opposition, or they can do it by attempting to convince members of their opposition about the merits of their principled positions. Some compromises will frequently be practical, but enshrining compromise itself as a core principle, as opposed to policy, is only a strategy for maintaining power for power’s sake. Democracy should be more than team sports IMO.

Again, just look at what happened in the last 40 years. Asymmetrical consensus seeking has fueled the march of American fascism. Unless you want to argue that democracies will always inevitably slide toward fascism, I refuse to accept your characterization of democracy.

This is the strategy that Democrats have followed since 1988. In that time, the Overton window has relentlessly shifted to the right. It is the dynamic that makes it politically practical for Republicans to also relentlessly shift further right. It’s a positive feedback loop that eventually spirals toward fascism. Just examine the last four decades. It’s right there.

It’s not ‘consensus building’ when the other party has a principled opposition to consensus. It’s just a pre-negotiated concession. It is a lack leadership. That is the Democratic Party in a nutshell.

And just think, President Biden is just sorta okay with this.

Israel is a cancer.

Netflix, Ford, Tesla, T-Mobile, AIG, NextEra, Darden, MetLife, Duke Energy, First Energy, DISH, Principal Financial, American Electrical Power, Kinder Morgan, Dominion, Oneok, Williams, Xcel Energy, NRG Energy, Salesforce, DTE Energy, Ameren, Sempra Energy, U.S. Steel, Entergy, AmerisourceBergen, PPL, CMS Energy, Evergy, Voya Financial, Atmos Energy, Alliant Energy, Match Group, UGI, Agilent Tech

Why should it feel a need to respond? This administration and congress have shown nothing but breathless support for every illegal and inhuman action they’ve taken and imposed exactly zero meaningful consequences for violating the few feckless ‘red lines’ Biden has feigned to impose. They have nearly complete ideological and/or monetary capture of the administration and congress, and the US professional media is salivating about having more wars to cover. Both presidential candidates have promised no change in policy. Furthermore, the international community seems to be largely unwilling to meaningfully intervene and challenge US hegemony.

I’m willing to argue that the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor was replete with war crimes by modern standards. I’ve cited some documentation above. Since doing that I’ve learned that there are also specific prohibitions against booby-trapping: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/ccw-amended-protocol-ii-1996/article-7 Turns out that Israel has violated many international standards for war crimes and terrorism. It’s simple mystifying to me that any of this is controversial.

First of all, there was no way for Israel to know whether the people they claim to be targeting were combatants when the attack occurred since Israel had no information about the status of these bombs when they chose to detonate them.

Secondly, placing a bomb in a common device that you have every reason to believe will spend much of its time in the proximity of civilians, in homes, markets and other public spaces, and choosing to detonate it without knowledge of the location of the bomb, or it’s proximity to your supposed target, is actively avoiding distinguishing between ‘combatants’ and civilians. I can’t believe that western brain rot requires this to be spelled out for it.

On the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks:

“© those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol; and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.”

https://www.justsecurity.org/81351/the-prohibition-on-indiscriminate-attacks-the-us-position-vs-the-dod-law-of-war-manual/

It’s important to note that this is the consensus of much of the international community and the US (and I presume its surrogate Israel) have not signed on to the above provision despite speaking to support it. The weasely approach we (the US) have taken to these standards really demonstrates how hollow our sentiments are when we feign moral authority in international affairs.

18 U.S. Code § 2441 - War crimes

Prohibited conduct: “(D) Murder.— The act of a person who intentionally kills, or conspires or attempts to kill, or kills whether intentionally or unintentionally in the course of committing any other offense under this subsection, one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause”

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2441

It’s literally a war crime to attack people who are not actively participating in combat. That includes people who are members of your enemy’s military.

Apartheid. Ethnic cleansing. Genocide. Terrorism. Israel and its benefactor are just awful.

Well, that’s terrorism right there. Wish I lived in a country that had a problem with such awfulness.

“Ethically and follicly challenged” Frank Luntz

The all-encompassing ethos of malicious self-interest that both trump and the crypto community embody makes them a perfect match for each other.

Biden is ideologically committed to Israeli apartheid and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, via genocide if necessary. trump, most Republicans, and most Democrats support or at least tolerate it for political expediency. It’s so gross. Because Biden has faced very few political consequences for all this, the Harris campaign, and presumably a Harris administration will just continue on with the hypocrisy, injustice, and violence. I cannot over emphasize that, given the distribution of power in the region, this is a US endeavor.

People will downvote this comment because it is uncomfortable to accept, not because it’s untrue.

Maybe she’d have done better if she’d taken the opportunity to distance herself from Biden’s genocide policy.

RFK is basically that brain worm piloting a vaguely human-shaped mecha. Tulsi is literally a cult princess. In these regards, they are perfect additions to the shit gibbon’s rogues gallery.

Never once did I ‘bait’ or even suggest that people not vote. I’m calling out a candidate’s policy position which is what people do in healthy democracies, but, uh whatever.

Oh. Advocating for a policy and calling out a candidate for their position is anti democratic. Got it.