You say this, and I have no animosity toward individual Jews at all.
But it is a simple fact that the Israeli citizens, who are mostly Jews, are nearly fully behind all of the atrocities their country is committing. They overwhelmingly supported the Gaza Genocide, and they support the civilian bombings of Iran and Lebanon.
I don't blame Jews around the world in general, but the Israeli CITIZENS shouldn't get a pass for their support of their government's atrocities just because they are Jews.
Who would have thought that the lesson the Jews would take from the Holocaust would be to "Pay It Forward?"
You're not confused, they're confused. Your befuddlement is a perfectly reasonable response to their incongruity.
It is the responsibility of our elected representatives to do our bidding, and fight for us, and defend us. Unfortunately, they tend to need us just for our votes, and once they're in office, they tend to favor those who donated to them, not those who voted for them.
Thats the primary thing that needs to change. We voted for them, and they need to obey US. How do we do it? By making them fear for their jobs, and their personal freedom. We have to start throwing our collective weight around, and making them consider us first. Once they have learned to fear us, we have to exploit that, and make them do our bidding, or they can fear us even more.
The Dems are already learning that lesson. They had a government shutdown last Fall, and it got to the point that people were really suffering over the end of food assistance. Then it hit the airports, and the Epstein Class couldn't move their operatives around the country, and the Dems folded immediately, and got nothing. People were OUTRAGED, and it pretty much ruined any chances of the MAGA comedy act of Schmuck & Jeffries continuing on as leaders when this is over.
So when the partial shutdown hit the airports this time, the Dems remembered how outraged everybody got when they surrendered last time, and they've held tight this time. It won't help Schmuck & Jeffries, they still have to go. When we take power back, we need leaders who know how to wield it, and know how to bludgeon MAGA to death with it.
So that's the first step - elect Democratic leaders who are brave, angry, and want to take the fight to MAGA, instead of the insipid cowards we have now.
Once the estate passes to her, she can will it to anyone she wants, and it probably won't be the dead husband's family members if they gave her a hard time about it. They can't allow the family fortune to go to the late-to-the-party widow, hoping she'll die soon and get it from her.
We have to elect representatives who take that title seriously, and actually represent US, not their campaign donors.
That will require taking all money out of campaigns, and highly regulating campaign financing and speech. No more PACs, Dark Money, etc. All of that are just excuses and vehicles to manipulate elections and bribe politicians. The only proper answer to some Sociopathic Oligarch whining "That violates my freedom of speech!" is "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" We have no obligation to be polite to bad people.
And if they keep it up, we investigate what kind of scam they're trying to run. They'll learn to go along with the process that filters out corruption, and go ply their criminal occupations in the streets like normal criminals. Our government is off limits to crooks.
Like I said, NOBODY is investigating it, so there is very little except lots of things from lots of sources.
Here's something that points to what I'm talking about:
in the seven swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – there was an inverse trend: the Democratic vote dropped very slightly but held up quite well compared to 2020, but Trump made enough gains to give him the White House. A large part of Democratic campaign spending was focused on the swing states, suggesting that this helped buoy up Democratic support – but not enough to overcome a wave of additional Trump voters.
...
In the swing states – Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina – the story was one of increasing Republican votes. About 303 counties had seen larger increases in the Trump vote than any major change in the numbers voting Democrat. Meanwhile, 66 counties saw outsized shrinkage of Democratic votes.
Swing states: how Democratic vote stayed flat while Republican gains won it for Trump
So the story in the Swing States was that the Democratic vote stayed strong, while the Trump vote increased...why? What was the reason for the sudden rise in Trump voters in those states? Why weren't they there in 2016, or 2020? After not voting for him twice, they saw him throw an Insurrection and steal hundreds of documents as thought they'd vote for him for president, even though they were going to continue to vote Democrat for everyone else?
Florida, which was an evenly split state for decades, is no longer considered a swing state because so many MAGAs moved there, that they now have a 600K lead. But that doesn't seem to be the case with these states. Their Democratic voter base stayed relatively consistent, but suddenly there were a lot of Trump voters.
All they had to do was flip less than 1% of the vote, and both Musk and Putin openly contributed their experienced professional hacking teams. Lean on the the Doge Douchebags, and they'll spew the whole sordid scheme.
The best we can do is reverse everything the cheaters did, as much as possible.
That means that nobody gets to benefit by the corruption and treason of the administration.
We take the government back, and we rebuild it the right way, so it serves the people, not the wealthy.
That starts with declaring MAGA to be a serious, ongoing National Security Threat, which is an easy case to make, considering their proven history of Insurrection, corruption, bribery, election fraud, and treason. MAGA needs to be prohibited from existing.
All MAGA leadership should be extensively investigated, and indicted, prosecuted, and sentenced for their CRIMES. Their fortunes should be completely confiscated by the government, and quarantined to create the American Democracy Fund, which will be the seed investment for social programs like Medicare 4 All, UBI, College/Trade School, etc.
THE 2024 election should be extensively investigated, and the full range of their election fraud uncovered. When it is clear that it was stolen, Trump's ENTIRE second term should be invalidated. MAGA should not get to keep the spoils of their treason. All Executive Orders, Legislation, Appointments, etc., should be rolled back, and that includes Pardons. All those J6 Traitors will have to go back to prison to out their sentences, or have an additional 10 years added on for escape.
Of course Trump's trials for his Insurrection and his Stolen Documents will be revived, and added to the mountain of charges. He will have plenty of company, as anyone who supported him in those acts of treason will face charges as well, and than includes most of the Republicans who ran their mouths and amplified the Big Lie after the 2020 election. Those who actively helped with planning, giving speeches on Treason Day, etc. will get prison, the rest will be forced to resign their offices. Future politicians will learn that supporting treason is a very bad career move.
There will be impeachments followed by criminal trials, for anyone left like Clarence Thomas, Alito, and lots of charges for those who engaged in corruption while they had the chance.
And speaking of the Supreme Court, we should enlarge it to at least 21 justices, or even more, and impose term limits. It shouldn't be such a tight vote, that one bad faith person can end up controlling the direction of America for the next century.
And fuck that Electoral College bullshit.
The rich will be heavily taxed, in arrears, going back years, maybe decades. They will be heavily regulated and audited, and punishments will include harsh prison sentences, and confiscation of estates for the American Democracy Fund. They will declare all their offshore money, or they will suffer life prison sentences, and the full confiscation of their estates, leaving their families destitute. They will understand that they keep their money at the pleasure of the American people, and if they abuse that privilege, they will lose EVERYTHING. They will learn they exist to serve the American people, not the other way around.
Foreign Oligarchs will not be welcome in America without being heavily taxed and controlled. They will not enjoy the same freedoms as citizens, and operating your business in America will carry heavy fees. America is not where you come to abuse the system to your corrupt advantage. Those who have already done so will go to prison and lose their fortunes. Space X and Starlink will belong to NASA, since we paid for it anyway. That's another thing, they pay their own way. We can't afford to give money to wealthy people, our citizens come first.
It sounds radical, and some would think it's impossible, but we are in unprecedented times, and we will have to apply unprecedented solutions, and nothing I proposed would run afoul of the the Constitution. MAGA has enthusiastically embarked on a similar reconfiguring of America, but in their own evil image. We should follow their lead, but instead reconfigure America into a decent, moral image that honors the original promises of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
I'm still not sure I understand what "straight Democratic tickets" mean. Is it people who only voted Democratic before and this was their first time voting Republican?
No, it means they only vote for the candidates from their party.
Generally American voters are either Republican or Democrat (or Independent, like me), and they generally vote for all the candidates from their party. Not always, sometimes there's a candidate from you party that you particularly hate for some reason, or a candidate from the other party that you like, but generally people vote for their own party. That's a "straight party ticket."
The ballot always includes much more than just the presidential race. Every two years, every member of the House of Representatives runs for reelection. Every six years, Senators run. Governors are running, along with a lot of other state seats like state legislatures. Then there are municipal races for your county and city - mayors, councilmen, school board, tax collector, clerk of courts, judges, dog catcher, etc.
So if someone is a strong party voter, they'll just vote a "Straight Ticket," with every vote for their own party. In the old days, with the old voting machines, there was even a switch you could flip as soon as you started, that would automatically cast your party vote for every race, so you didn't have to flip 20 switches.
So it would be really weird for someone to be such a strong Democratic voter that they check off every Democratic box, and then cast their presidential vote for Trump. I could see them voting for their Republican neighbor for dog catcher, because he's kind to animals, but generally, the higher the election goes, the more likely you are to vote for YOUR party.
The idea that someone would vote a straight Democratic ticket, then vote for Trump as president, makes no plausible sense at all. Worse, literally nobody from either party has questioned it at all.
That's no excuse. Nobody gets fed more conservative propaganda than America, and yet a full 2/3 are absolutely against our War in Iran, and most of that remaining 1/3 are lying.
The Israelis have had ample opportunity to reign in their aggression toward their neighbors for years, and they've only gotten worse. In the beginning it was defensive, but somewhere along the line, they became the aggressor, and now it isn't Israel who has to worry about the Middle East, it's the Middle East, and indirectly, everyone else, who has to worry about Israel.