Saturday, March 16, 2024

The Ides of March

Amazing that Chuck Shumer called for new elections in Israel. Finally saying that Netanyahu needs to be ousted as Prime Minister. This is a major development that I hope means that Biden's administration will defy Israel more. Is this really the moment that Democrats are no longer scared of AIPAC, and are willing to pressure Israel in public instead of behind the scenes? I can only hope so.

Airdrops are starting now, but much more needs to be done. They keep talking about ceasefire, but it looks like Israel is rejecting it and starting to invade Rafah, in open defiance. Beware the Ides of March. This cannot last forever. Already 8 senators are asking to cut military aid to Israel. The dam seems to be breaking finally. Israel cannot get away with war crimes forever.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Cabrini

I had no idea this movie was made by the same director and same studio as Sound of Freedom. I only realized it when most of the trailers were for Angel Studios films. Apparently it's a "family friendly" studio and streaming service that makes a lot of faith-based movies and TV shows. (However, this article claims it was already made before Angel Studios bought the film. I didn't realize that the movie had a religious angle either (Francesca Cabrini was made a saint in the Catholic Church). My main takeaway from the movie description was that it was a biopic about an important historical woman, and that she fought against poverty in 1880-1890s New York; that subject interests me because of my unfinished Sherlock Holmes novel, where I want to have Helen Stoner involved in charities in New York.

So anyway I went to see the Cabrini movie, and it was actually good. The movie had a feminist, pro-immigrant tone, and it pointed out how each wave of European immigrants, including Irish, Polish, and Italians, had been met with racism and discrimination from nativist New Yorkers. (There was no commentary on non-European immigrants, and no we don't see Chinatown.) The religious angle isn't pushed so much as a general humanitarian tone. John Lithgow even appears as a Mayor of New York, who keeps trying to sabotage Cabrini and drive her back to Italy. We also learn that Cabrini is chronically ill, due to her almost drowning as a child; but she refuses to be held back, pushing always against men who underestimate her.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Cheers for Progress

Well Super Tuesday happened, and Kyrsten Sinema announced that she won't run for re-election. It's surprising that she caused so much damage in one term. Good riddance to that Benedict Arnold.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, Biden finally decided to start airdropping humanitarian aid to Gaza, bypassing Israel's restrictions on aid trucks. Thank goodness. He finally caved to public pressure. Plus Daily Kos said something about Kamala Harris meeting with Benny Gantz as a way to piss of Netanyahu. So it seems they finally see that Israel's government is part of the problem. That's why I'm still voting for Biden this November. Because although he says things like he's a "Zionist" and he was slow to act against Israel, he can be moved to finally change policy. We've finally found his red line.

Maybe we can push him further to hold Israel accountable for war crimes, or to push to oust Netanyahu. Progress can be made with this administration. If he makes more progress, he can possibly win back the voters that he's alienated with this war.

Friday, March 1, 2024

Ranting

Fucking Israel attacking civilians waiting for food in Gaza. So much for ceasefire hopes. Why can't Biden do something? Would America tolerate this kind of behavior if we were helping fund any other nation's war? Like if Ukraine was committing war crimes, we'd just shrug and say that's their choice to defend themselves that way? Everyone keeps saying that Biden has to delicately negotiate behind the scenes and not inflame Netanyahu by publicly criticizing Israel. But don't all negotiations involve carrot and stick, both reward and punishment? I haven't seen any stick used whatsoever against Israel. Where are your fucking red lines?

In other news, apparently I missed Biden coming to the border in Texas and the news of wildfires out in the panhandle. I've stopped watching TV news as the morning shows devolve into pure entertainment fluff and advertisements disguised as news. I did see Biden on Seth Meyers, but was discouraged by him saying, with no prompting, that he's a Zionist. What the hell? Talk about a 2-state solution, but don't toady to Israel about their so-called divine right to the land. I thought you were trying to appeal to Arab Americans what with the protest in Michigan? Yet you use that loaded word "Zionist". Fuck.

But yeah, Republicans suck too. Governor Abbott ought to be working on the emergency wildfires instead of toadying up to Trump at the border. After all, a federal judge just blocked the Texas deportation law SB4 by pointing out there's no invasion. Who knows how the conservative appeals court will rule, though.

Meanwhile blogs like Daily Kos will scream about 1 news story--the Supreme Court taking the Trump immunity case--for dozens of diaries/posts for days, crowding out any other important news story. I don't need that many hot takes from different people on the same topic.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Primary Protest

Michigan had their primary last night and it looks like over 100,000 Democrats voted "uncommitted." They have a large Arab-American population and were trying to send a protest message to Biden about the Israeli war in Gaza. There are actually Democrats all over America, such as me in Texas, who want Biden to change policy on that war. It's just that Michigan has a significant concentration of such Democrats. It's certainly their right to protest that way. When I voted, I don't think there was an equivalent "uncommitted" option on my ballot, just 10 or so stupid candidates running against Biden. And it's not like any of them have better policies.

A lot of times on Daily Kos or on Wonkette, I see commenters acting like pro-Palestinian protesters are whiny babies or silly idiots demanding a pony, but that's not true at all. We want Biden to do concrete things like withhold funding and/or weapons from Israel, stop vetoing resolutions against Israel in the UN, and push for more humanitarian aid/access in Gaza. I am aware that Biden is still negotiating for a ceasefire in Gaza, and he promises that something will happen soon in March, but I'm skeptical since I heard that Israel rejected the previous ceasefire attempt, AND they are moving forward with more settlers in occupied territory. If anybody's being a whiny baby having a tantrum, it's been Israel.

There's a stereotype that the pro-Palestinian voters in America are ignorant college kids who know no history; that this is their anti-authoritarian fad to feel cool and important. But were the anti-Vietnam protesters in the 1960s a mere fad? They weren't principled in their anti-war stance? How can the anti-protest Democrats think that this is not about justice and humanitarianism? I'm not a college kid anymore, though college was where I read more about Israel's history and no longer liked it. (In middle school I liked Golda Meir and played her in a school project.) I'm not Muslim either. I'm Vietnamese, and was raised Buddhist, but I didn't understand a word of it in temple, so officially I'm unreligious and agnostic at best. Also I do believe that there is a large faction of Black Americans who sympathize with Palestinians and don't like Biden's Israel policies either. So apparently it's a coalition of lots of different people. It's not just Michigan Arab American voters who feel this way. Democrats shouldn't dismiss it as a tiny faction of spoilers like the No Labels people or the deluded Dean Philips. And Nancy Pelosi suggesting that we're Russian plants is even more insulting, saying that there aren't genuine reasons for real Americans to care about Israel decimating Gaza.

But I will state again that I will vote for Biden in November, as the alternative is unthinkable. I don't know if all the other pro-Palestinian people will, though, so maybe Biden can do something please? Hold Israel accountable instead of treating it like innocent Ukraine, merely "defending itself."

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Yuck

We're in the midst of early voting for the March primaries. I went yesterday as I work too late to make the weekday hours. I've seen some political ads on TV with abhorrent Republicans yelling about the border and praising Abbott. It's sick. I did see a couple of ads for Colin Allred; he's still trying to win against Gutierrez before going to the general election against Ted Cruz.

After voting, I went to a local outlet mall by the highway, and I passed a really obnoxious display of Trump signs, that said "Trump Won" and "Democrats are Communists." The weirdest thing was that it was in front of a random restaurant and I didn't even see a person there selling merchandise. What is even the point of that display? These are the primaries, not the general election in November. This current election is about Trump vs Nikki Haley right now, not that she has any chance. She lost her own home state. Who knows, there might still have been other Republicans on the ballot that have already dropped out. On my Democratic ballot there were still 10 or so people listed against Biden. Irrelevant people like Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson.

At least the Trumper signs were nowhere near the election polling site.