The Rational Progressive

24/07/2024

So Bibi comes to Congress and calls Americans idiots. Real nice.

21/07/2024

Kamala is a NO too. Get serious DNC. No unreformed criminals!

18/07/2024

Republicans are laying down markers and vying for cabinet positions.

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high-ranking Republicans have never felt so optimistic this year about their prospects. That confidence, along with the selection of Vance, accelerated conversations here about who should fill Trump’s cabinet, the sort of discussions that usually begin taking place in the fall.

By choosing the Ukraine-skeptic Ohio senator, Trump accelerates his party’s rejection of its Reaganite roots.

18/07/2024

It's not just about age.

18/07/2024

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

And now they want me to shut up and vote for Genocide Joe. American Indians, African Americans, and now Palestine. Three strikes, you're out.

17/07/2024

I know, the polls are skewed 🤷🏿‍♂️

15/07/2024

Democrats will try to downplay what two years of rapid price increases have meant to people and how long it may take for memories to fade.

Though prices of individual goods or services may fall, the price level - the more general concept economists have in mind when they talk of inflation - rarely goes down. Once price level jumps occur, like the one just experienced, life stays more expensive. A cup of coffee is never going to cost a nickel again, or even $2.

If the deep split in U.S. politics makes characterizations of economic data a dependable tell about party affiliation, the coming Republican and Democratic conventions will put that phenomenon on steroids, amp it to 11, and leave little room for shades of gray.

12/07/2024

Well I guess he isn't going to drop dead any minute. Still don't get waiting two weeks.

09/07/2024

An arthritic status quo, unable or unwilling to respond in any way to the concerns of voters, who just received new and urgent information about their candidate, also erodes confidence and faith in the system of government," he railed. "Get on board or shut the f--- up is not ... a particularly compelling pro-democracy bumper sticker." -Jon Stewart

29/06/2024

There was no vote Ruth Bader Ginsburg cast and no decision she authored that was as consequential as her decision not to retire.

The President’s supporters have long treated his age as a superficial issue. The Times commentator explains why that position has become untenable.

23/06/2024

22/06/2024

Palestinians were killed in areas of southern Gaza that the Israeli military had explicitly designated as safe zones, including Al-Mawasi. In May, 21 people were killed in a strike on the camp, according to Reuters

The tent camps at Al-Mawasi have been repeatedly struck by the Israeli military, including two strikes this week.

22/06/2024

Hamas is stronger today than it was on October 7.

Since Hamas’s horrific attack last October, Israel has invaded northern and southern Gaza with approximately 40,000 combat troops, forcibly displaced 80 percent of the population, killed over 37,000 people, dropped at least 70,000 tons of bombs on the territory (surpassing the combined weight of bombs dropped on London, Dresden, and Hamburg in all of World War II), destroyed or damaged over half of all buildings in Gaza, and limited the territory’s access to water, food, and electricity, leaving the entire population on the brink of famine.

Although many observers have highlighted the immorality of Israel’s conduct, Israeli leaders have consistently claimed that the goal of defeating Hamas and weakening its ability to launch new attacks against Israeli civilians must take precedence over any concerns about Palestinian lives. The punishment of the population of Gaza must be accepted as necessary to destroy the power of Hamas.

But thanks to Israel’s assault, Hamas’s power is actually growing.

Why Israel’s failing strategy makes its enemy stronger.

22/06/2024

I guess that's one way to put it. Another way is "Because Fascism"

18/06/2024

“Turning away someone who is asking for refuge is called refoulment and international law regards it to be a serious human rights violation,” he said.

CIUDAD JUÁREZ — National Guard members on the Texas-Mexico border have added pepper ball guns to their arsenal, firing at migrants who are gathering on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande or trying to break through the tangle of concertina wire strung along the border. Migrants interviewed in Mexico ...

18/06/2024

The tribe pointed out that a corporate predecessor of BNSF laid the tracks in the late 19th century over its objections. The tribe sued in the 1970s, alleging decades of trespassing, and only in 1991 was that litigation settled, when the tribe granted an easement allowing limited use of the tracks.

A federal judge has ruled that BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state. U.S.

17/06/2024

The water from Mexico goes to the Falcon and Amistad Reservoirs which straddle the border and provide water to homes as well and farms. Both reservoirs have slumped to historically low levels — in mid-June, Amistad was at less than 26% capacity and Falcon was at only 9.9%.

The US-Mexico water crisis is highlighting the immense difficulties of navigating how to share shrinking water resources in a hotter, drier world.

16/06/2024

On Thursday, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller described Smotrich’s order as “not appropriate” and “an extraordinarily wrongheaded decision by the minister.”

Smotrich described the order as an act of “historical justice,” saying that the PA “encourages and favors terrorism by paying the families of terrorists, prisoners, and released prisoners."

14/06/2024

The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II, its leaders and experts told The Associated Press.

The U.S.-led campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.

12/06/2024

Supplies from the pier aren’t flowing to Palestinians, and never really have.

They say food is ‘flowing’ to the people, but data shows the opposite. Pull the curtain down on this theater now.

31/05/2024

"It pains me to see the women from my country going through unimaginable losses themselves during the current genocide in Gaza," Jabr said in the video of her speech that she posted online.

A New York City hospital fired a Palestinian American Muslim nurse after she called Israel's war in Gaza a "genocide" during an acceptance speech for an award for her work with bereaved mothers who lost their children during pregnancy and childbirth.

31/05/2024

The comments by Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, first made public by Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster, sent shock waves through the hostage family community nearly eight months after their loved ones were kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack.

“The Israeli government made a conscious and deliberate decision to sacrifice the hostages,” the Hostage Family Forum said.

31/05/2024

President Joe Biden announced Friday that Israel has offered a “comprehensive new proposal” that provides a “roadmap” to a ceasefire in the war with Hamas in Gaza and the release of all hostages held by the terror group.

29/05/2024

No international eyes, no international assistance. There is no war in the West Bank. What legitimate, legal, and humane rationale could there be for Israel to cut off the West Bank from Spain, who has a consulate there?

29/05/2024

The bottom line: Prices are high, therefore inflation is high. Get used to it.

Every time Americans go food shopping they feel the sting of higher prices.

28/05/2024

Now, an investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call can reveal how Israel has run an almost decade-long secret “war” against the court. The country deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries.

Israeli intelligence captured the communications of numerous ICC officials, including Khan and his predecessor as prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, intercepting phone calls, messages, emails and documents.

Exclusive: Investigation reveals how intelligence agencies tried to derail war crimes prosecution, with Netanyahu ‘obsessed’ with intercepts

28/05/2024

According to accounts shared with ICC officials, he is alleged to have told her: “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”

One individual briefed on Cohen’s activities said he had used “despicable tactics” against Bensouda as part of an ultimately unsuccessful effort to intimidate and influence her. They likened his behaviour to “stalking”.

The Mossad also took a keen interest in Bensouda’s family members and obtained transcripts of secret recordings of her husband, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Israeli officials then attempted to use the material to discredit the prosecutor.

Mossad director Yossi Cohen personally involved in secret plot to pressure Fatou Bensouda to drop Palestine investigation, sources say

28/05/2024

Railroads are significantly expanding their remote operations, part of a cost-cutting effort that has seen the railroad industry cut its workforce by nearly one-third and shift to longer and heavier trains. The companies now routinely operate remote trains not just inside rail yards, as initially envisioned when they debuted two decades ago, but also between them. Many now run through residential and commercial neighborhoods, sometimes carrying hazardous cargo such as petroleum or hydrochloric acid.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — One evening last June, as Esther Iradukunda set the table for dinner at her home in Buffalo, she heard a high-pitched cry through the kitchen window. She rushed outside and followed the screams to the train tracks that ran about 100 feet away from her house. She found her young bro...

27/05/2024

The joint announcement by Spain, Ireland and Norway last week triggered an angry response from Israeli authorities, which summoned the countries’ ambassadors in Tel Aviv to the Foreign Ministry, where they were filmed while being shown videos of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and abductions.

Relations between the European Union and Israel are in a nosedive on the eve of the diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state by EU members Ireland and Spain.