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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Tulsi Gabbard is a mixed bag.
Not long after she was sworn in, she joined with Republicans to vote for a short-term spending bill that most of her Democratic colleagues opposed. (She said that she wanted to insure uninterrupted funding for the military.) And in 2015 she went on Fox News and accused the Obama Administration of not recognizing that “Islamic extremists are our enemy.”
...
In April, after Trump ordered an attack on a Syrian airfield, Gabbard accused him of behaving “recklessly,” and suggested that he had fallen under the influence of “war hawks.” More often, though, she has seemed reluctant to antagonize Trump. Given the overwhelmingly Democratic makeup of her district, this approach cannot be explained by electoral calculation, and it has complicated her relationship with some of the grassroots activists who might otherwise be inclined to support her.
When Gabbard appeared in Syria, last January, many wondered whether she was carrying a message to Assad from Trump. She says that she was not, and that she didn’t even tell the incoming Administration that she was going there. She met twice with Assad, who wanted to convince her of the threat posed by groups like isis and Al Nusra. She travelled with her husband, Abraham Williams, a cinematographer, who made a couple of stark but stylish videos of the trip: Gabbard talking to university students in Damascus, assuring them that she wants to stop the United States from supporting “terrorist groups”; Gabbard touring the rubble of a destroyed church with a local pastor, who said that Christians were being targeted by “rebels” loyal to the Islamic State. The videos conveyed the impression that these outsiders had brought chaos to Syria, and that the only path to peace was to put down the insurgency.
Upon her return, Gabbard gave an interview in which she intimated that she and Assad—who is known to viciously punish dissent—had negotiated an agreement to bring democracy to Syria. “I challenged him, and talked to him about having fair and open elections, objective international observers, and making it so that the Syrian people can determine the future of Syria for themselves,” she told a reporter. “And these are things that he agreed to.”
Gabbard’s trip was widely regarded as a political disaster; Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman from Illinois, called Assad a “mass murderer,” and accused Gabbard of having “legitimized his genocide against the Syrian people.” After reporters revealed that the trip had been funded by a pair of Lebanese-American businessmen with ties to a pro-Assad political party, Gabbard agreed to repay her travel costs. And yet, instead of distancing herself from this episode, she has embraced it. In April, after a sarin-gas attack in Syria, Gabbard said that she was “skeptical” of claims that Assad’s government was to blame. Howard Dean, the former D.N.C. chair, responded on Twitter, “This is a disgrace. Gabbard should not be in Congress.”
Edited by wisewillow on Nov 22nd 2018 at 10:54:39 AM
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She and a lot of her staffers also cut their teeth in politics fighting marriage equality, and she's got ties to nationalist groups in India.
Gabbard is not our friend, and isn't even a decent person let alone a tolerable politician. And considering that Hawaii would elect anyone with a D beside their name federally at this point, she's also totally disposable from a strategic point of view. Sadly she's probably entrenched in the district.
Edited by Rationalinsanity on Nov 22nd 2018 at 12:07:14 PM
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.![]()
Yeah, she's one of those people who's so against "western imperialism" that she sides with the murderous dictators the US opposes. It's sad to see so many left-wing politicians I would usually support take this nonsensical stand on foreign policy.
Yeah, we've seen basically everyone, including other Republican leaders, condemn Trump's foreign policy. I'm going to say that no one gets points for doing the bare minimum to condemn his obviously corrupt policies on that front, so much as they don't lose points for supporting it.
After reading the article, I think I agree with Wise Willow with 'a mixed bag'. I agree with her on a lot of economics, but a some very important things, like elements of her foreign policy, her reluctance with LGBTQ rights, her seeming distrust of or snideness towards Muslim people, etc, are essentially dealbreakers. Perhaps not to the same extent as Ojeda, but still going to make any of my support for her an uphill climb.
Edited by AzurePaladin on Nov 22nd 2018 at 12:29:48 PM
The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer... oh for god’s sake, Hillary.
No. No no no.
“I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,” Clinton said, speaking as part of a series of interviews with senior centrist political figures about the rise of populists, particularly on the right, in Europe and the Americas.
“I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message – ‘we are not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support’ – because if we don’t deal with the migration issue it will continue to roil the body politic.”
Racists throw a fit about accepting refugees; therefore, stop taking refugees. What the HELL?!?!?!!?!?
Edited by wisewillow on Nov 22nd 2018 at 12:36:44 PM
Quoth Parable:
I distinctly remember at least, people on this thread complaining about Berniebros giving her a free pass because they measured "progressive" Dems by how much they sucked up to Sanders.
Edit:![]()
I was talking about Gabbard, it hadn't clicked to me that "AOC" was a person's initials.
Edited by Medinoc on Nov 23rd 2018 at 9:55:54 PM
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."Yeah, I had bile in my throat when I read that. Rule 1: never agree with the racists that immigration is a huge problem. You just give them a weapon. Instead focus on how you can ACTUALLY make the live of your voters better.
In US terms: Don't run on immigration, run on healthcare.
In EU terms: Don't run on immigration, run on affordable housing, job-creation and digital infrastructures. Also, on repopulating villages. There you can even argue that immigrants can be very helpful.
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Are you talking about AOC or Gabbard?
Yeah, "Don't just give the crypto-fascists what they want" is a pretty basic step to take as a decent human being. Although I'd argue that you should also take the time to combat harmful narratives about refugees instead of ignoring the issue altogether.
I could actually understand if this was back in 2015, when the crisis hit its peak and EU leaders needed to find a solution quick. But right now, the issue is being handled responsibly, a deal with Turkey reached, no need to rekindle it with a bad proposal to boot.
Life is unfair...Well, the crisis isn't really over yet. There is a reason why Germany is now pumping a lot of money in projects designed to give people perspective in their respective home countries. Another movement of this kind can happen again any day. Especially if Turkey's economy fails. But it is also in a lot of ways a side issue. I think the housing crisis in some EU countries and the demographic shift are both more pressing.
Edited by Swanpride on Nov 22nd 2018 at 11:25:13 AM
That's a real shame, I still admire Clinton's record and I don't regret supporting her but that's just a gross position. Ceding ground to the fascists won't cause them to lose initiative or become contained, they'll just get bolder and take more for themselves.
That's not a good look.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yangyeah, if you give them an inch, they'll try to take a mile.
In other news
(Specifically CNN), Trump decides to spend Thanksgiving by calling the military (as all presidents do during that time) and breaking yet another presidential norm that should had been a law.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Nov 22nd 2018 at 11:42:28 AM
As for that Missionary thing on Sentinel Island - yeah, kind of stupid of him to try and land there. The fact that he's a missionary (who, due to several factors, are super unwelcome in the subcontinent) is probably yet another strike against sympathy for him from even the local government.
You know it's a terrifying zone of alienation around the island when even the Government there decides it's not worth the hassle landing there and leaves the island of jerks alone.
I hold the secrets of the machine.That was exactly the game most of the Tories thought they were playing for the past forty years.
If you play that game for long enough, it will backfire on you.
That's because it's not really a centre-left position. Tony Blair was originally on the hard right wing of the Labour Party until he pushed the Labour Party rightwards to chase after the Thatcherite Tory Party. Thatcher herself had been fringe right wing of the Tory Party when she came to power. She pushed the Tory Party rightwards enough to make the fringe right the new centre ground. Tony Blair then legitimised what she did by pushing the Labour Party rightwards, which bedded in the new centre ground. By the old standards, Tony Blair is more right-wing than many Tories were in the 1970s.
It does, however, explain why he supports this position: Clinton's using the same logic that won him three landslide elections. It worked for him so well that he believes it will always work.
Completely ignoring, of course, that there's a reason why Thatcher said her greatest political legacy was Tony Blair.
Regarding the article on Trump politicising his Thanksgiving military message...
... in other words, the thing that Trump is most thankful for is himself.
I'm shocked.
Shocked.
Cue tumbleweed.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Nov 22nd 2018 at 8:48:02 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Edited by Swanpride on Nov 22nd 2018 at 7:53:54 AM