Wednesday Open Thread

7 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. 1. Website is still slow.

   2. svg-2-Colorado-Pols-Logo-min.svg is still a bitmap image

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   1. We're getting close to rolling out the next major round of improvements.

      We're not going to stop until you personally are happy. Yes, you.

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      1. I have to sign in each visit. That's annoying enough, but the site should automatically take me to the threads. I shouldn't need to click on "home" to get there. We'll keep fussing 'til it works as it used to.

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2. One State, Two State, No State? By Josh Marshall at TPM.

   https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/one-more-one-two-state-discussion-before-thanksgiving

   As always very interesting and thoughtful. The whole piece is worth reading.

   Israel’s not a country that functions as a democracy while controlling occupied territories whose final status will be decided at some point in the future. It’s a single country in which all Jews have political and civil rights and most Palestinians have limited civil rights and no political rights. Given that the post-67 occupation has persisted for 67 years this argument has many merits to it. But what is the import of that assertion. In itself it’s simply a definitional claim. It’s an actually an argument for the withdrawal of US support and some escalating framework of sanctions to compel Israel to come up to international standards in which one ethnic group or most of it facing systemic legal discrimination just isn’t okay.

   I have myself long subscribed to or at least did subscribe to a version of this withdrawal of support argument. Control over and access to the whole of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean is core to most variants to Zionist ideology just as it is to Palestinian nationalism. For any kind of historic compromise both sides have to give up a lot of concrete stuff and a lot of national aspirations. But unflagging US support has in very real ways protected Israel from the need to make those compromises. No person and no country gives up things that are deeply important to them if it’s easy not to.

   My point here isn’t to get into the rights and wrongs of this compulsion approach. It’s something a bit different. If you read the article it doesn’t really make any case that a single state can be viable in operation or acceptable to either national group.

   The core paragraph of the whole piece is this one.

   A better U.S. policy would advocate for equality, citizenship, and human rights for all Jews and Palestinians living within the single state dominated by Israel. Theoretically, such a policy would not prevent a two-state solution from being resurrected in the unlikely event that the parties moved in that direction in the distant future. But starting from a one-state reality that is morally reprehensible and strategically costly would demand an immediate focus on equal human and civil rights. A serious rejection of today’s unjust reality by the United States and the rest of the international community might also push the parties themselves to seriously consider alternative futures. The United States should demand equality now, even if the ultimate political arrangement will be up to the Palestinians and the Israelis to determine.

    

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3. This is about as political as I’m going to get on the conflict: 
   #AyahuascaNotBombs #TripForPeace

   Welp, Alva, no way to add a jpeg or embed a url from my iPhone today (icons missing from bar).

    

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   1. We're working on different WYSIWYG editor options to resolve the persistent issue with iPad users being unable to comment. Once we've found an editor that works we can work on restoring those functions.

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4. Where are Faux News and MAGA World when it comes to the real crisis at the border?

   Rainbow Bridge between US, Canada closed following vehicle explosion: FBI (aol.com)

   Remember, the 9/11 terrorists came into the U.S. through Canada and not by swimming the Rio Grande.

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