Hezbollah isn't intentionally bombing civilians. They are lobbing missiles into illegal settlements. Literally shooting at violent international criminals. They're not even meant to kill (as evident by the lack of civilian deaths), just annoy and force the terrorists out of the region.

And wtf are you talking about? Israel has been routinely bombing Lebanon for 50+ years. They literally took over half the country for like 20 years.

I’m good with figuring out why we’re spending $600 million per year under FEMA for illegal immigrants. But you are right, we need to recalibrate the government for priorities that actually help Americans.

Where does the $600 million figure come from?

The GOP is twisting it as FEMA funds being diverted. Considering the sources pushing this are Greg Abbott, Dan Crenshaw, and Trump, you can guess the accuracy.

The Shelter and Services Program is a Congressionally funded program that provides money to non-federal agencies to provide humanitarian aid for non-US citizens. It was approved for $640 million this year. That's it. You could play transitive property-like games with the budget until the end of times to twist the narrative.

It was spent because Congress directed FEMA to spend it.

From NBC:

Jewish people lived there and have historically lived there long before Muslims did. They were getting back what was rightfully theirs, similarly Istanbul is rightfully Christian territory, but, they lost the war with the Turks and so that settled it.

In 1947, Israel declared their independence. The Arab nations declared war and attacked them. Israel won. That settled it.

In 1967, Egypt, Jordan and Syria prepared themselves to destroy Israel once and for all, but Israel bombed the shit out Egypt’s fueling Air Force and decimated them all military. Israel agreed to give the Suez Peninsula back as part of the agreement after they won the war. They settled it.

In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack and Israel won again. That settled it.

In 1982, the PLO attacked Israel from Lebanon, and Israel won. That settled it.

In 1987, the first Intifada began with suicide bombers killing Jewish people, the USA and the Oslo accords under Clinton ended it. That settled it.

In 2000, the second intifada was launched with countless suicide bombers killing Jewish civilians. I don’t remember how that ended, but it was settled.

In 2006, Hezbollah started taking Israeli soldiers captive, Israel invaded and won. That settled it.

In 2008, Hamas conducted missile launched against Israel, Israel went in and forced them to stop. That settled it.

In 2012, Hamas began shooting tons of munitions into Israel. Israel defended itself until they quit. That settled it.

In 2014, Hamas ramped up their attacks on Israel once more and Israelis once more had to go in and stop them. Hamas quit again. That settled it.

In 2021, more rocket fire rained down on Israel from Gaza, Israel was forced to defend itself once again. Settled…

Last October, Hamas invaded Israel’s and slaughtered 1,400 civilians. Hezbollah started firing rockets the next day.

When the Arab governments say, “From
The River to the Sea”, they mean genocide. They want all Jewish people expelled or destroyed. It’s the same mentality Christians had 500 years ago and the Nazi had 85 years ago.

The Israeli people aren’t doing anything wrong by living on the lands they possess. While there have been agreements, those were meant to appease the Arabs, but when the remaining holdouts of the Arab world (Iran, Syria, Qatar) refuse to agree to any peace terms, well, they gonna get what they get. It’s not a genocide, it’s defense and you can’t play defense if there isn’t an offense.

And last year it was $700 million. I’ve seen the figure of $1.4 trillion thrown around a lot but I think it covers two years.

Where do you see 1.4 trillion being thrown around at?

Last year it was $360 million.

Shelter and Services Program is part of the CBP budget, not FEMA. FEMA is just the one who distributes the money for them. At least get your agencies right in your dumb talking points.

Most Jewish people in Israel are from Europe. And the religion of a person on that land thousands of years ago doesn't matter to me. I don't think I should be able to declare I'm Jewish tomorrow and steal someone's olive farm in the West Bank. Just as I don't think someone who says they're Midewiwin should be able to bulldoze my home and kill me.

What you're describing is an ethnostate. Something I oppose. I don't think land should belong to a particular racial or ethnic group.


That phrase is literally in the charter of Israel's ruling party. Netanyahu says it all the time. Sort of seems like you're upset that someone with some darker skin is using it.


This is a lie. All 22 Arab countries got together and offered terms to Israel. They asked for a 2-state solution and the end of the genocide.

“What you're describing is an ethnostate. Something I oppose. I don't think land should belong to a particular racial or ethnic group.”

It is, but let’s be real.

Israel is 74% Jewish.
Syria is 92% Muslim
Egypt is 90% Muslim
Jordan is 97% Muslim
Iran is 99% Muslim
Iraq is 95% Muslim
Saudi Arabia is 100% Muslim

One of these is more accepting than others on that front and to ever give way to a Muslim rule would accomplish what, exactly? I’ve got a pretty good idea, not sure if we want to talk about or not.

Seems like a gross escalation. Perhaps Hezbollah/Hamas/Palestine should try to de-escalate the illegal settlers?

Not sure I'd call Israel accepting of others. It's nearly impossible to become a citizen if you are not a Jew, and if you are visiting, you have to abide by their apartheid rules. And they recently were involuntarily sterilizing darker-skinned Jews who were entering the country.

Regardless, I don't want tens of billions of tax dollars directly supporting the regimes above either. I don't want trillions of tax dollars indirectly supporting those countries too.

For someone upset about $150 million of humanitarian aid going to an ally, it's a bit odd you're not upset about the trillions spent on Israel's behalf.

If anyone cares, here's my rebuttal to the claim. Always good to define terms like sterilization vs birth control.

Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Israeli-Hamas War (Oct 2023)

They could, if the US asked. We are the richest country in the world though, and haven't "run out of money", the GOP has decided that paying politics is more important than actually helping people. The Republicans took $10 billion dollars out of the CR that was targeted disaster relief on the eve of this hurricane. Congress holds the purse strings, and if we don't have money for disaster relief it is because a GOP lead congress thought that it was more important to spread the fear of the brown people than to actually help citizens in need.

And lack of any critical thinking is why this is even being discussed.

“GOP said brown people bad and are stealing our money. Ahhhh!”

With the continued conversation playing out all the time.

Mindless idiots repeat the nonsense. Critical thinkers then actually research, spend time to educate and refute the falsehoods only to be ignored or ridiucled.

Rinse and repeat

don't forget they are eating the pets!

Mike Johnson said FEMA has enough money and they don't need to recall congress to vote on additional funding so I don't know what the GOP is upset about.

I like this, hope it gets official.

I hate being referred to some sort of retention specialist like when I quit cable. Print magazines that automatically renew are a pain.

The federal government just made it much easier to cancel your gym membership | CNN Business

Elon now offering 100 dollars to anyone in battleground states who signs his petition and promises to vote. He's basically paying voters and nothing will come of it.

This is the defense: "While federal law dictates that paying individuals to vote or accepting payment for voter registration or voting is an offense, compensating people for signing petitions or for convincing others to sign petitions is not against the law."

A fool and his money...

How do I sign up?

He has the link on his twitter feed.

He'll also give you 100 for referring people to sign.

The fact that he's checking the petition info against the registered voter list seems dicey.

another example of Florida behaving badly and getting smacked down by a judge.

Free state of Florida my ass

Federal judge blasts DeSantis administration for threats against TV stations | CNN Business

Judge Chutkan has released Special Counsel's Smith trove of documents


Edit: Sorry didn't post this in right thread

You can tell which businesses had the scummiest methods based on their stock dropping yesterday. Planet Fitness dropped a few points right after the announcement.

Sadly, I think the next administration is going to boot Khan from the FTC and all this stuff will be reversed.

There's a House Rep here in Illinois who was calling the police because he didn't like a billboard. Our company had to sign a contract with a state that forbids our company from speaking out against fossil fuels. Meanwhile "free speech warriors" who never shut up about social media bias are silent when actual first amendment violations occur.

Bastards

Industry groups are suing the FTC to stop its click to cancel rule - The Verge

Nice farewell gift from Joe and this Congress.

Bill was passed in House and will pass in the Senate. I don't know if it really is "fair" or not but pretty sure it impacts me when we take SS and pension. So not immediately but for the future.

My wife, worked as a public school teacher and also private sector. She was going to have some sort of "offset/subtraction" from either her pension or social security (I looked into it but never could figure out what it was but think about 50% of pension amount).

So, anyone/spouse that is a public school teacher expecting a school pension, and you/spouse also is eligible for social security will probably benefit from this.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/13/hous...ficiaries.html

If I was under 50, I'd be pissed. Actually, I'm over 50 and I'm pissed.

As expected, Hunter Biden has been pardoned for all offenses he committed or may have committed from 2024-2024. Not sure if this would cover any of the family treason accusations, but all the crack and the sex offender stuff has been forgiven, and some tax and gun stuff too. Congrats to all who have supported him in these trying times. He’s officially innocent on all counts.

Oh just wait until all the J6 convicted are pardoned, then you can really celebrate your boy.

Oh fuck right off....Trump pardoned way worse people and is a convicted felon himself.

“ Of the pardons and commutations that Trump did grant, the vast majority were to persons to whom Trump had a personal or political connection, or persons for whom executive clemency served a political goal.[2][3][4] A significant number had been convicted of fraud or public corruption.[5] The New York Times reported that during the closing days of the Trump presidency, individuals with access to the administration, such as former administration officials, were soliciting fees to lobby for presidential pardons.[6]”

Really, spare me the pearl clutching.

He's gotten a free get-out-of-jail card, but pardon does not mean he is officially innocent.

I don't like it, but it's legal, I expected it, and I would not begrudge anyone from doing the same for their children if they had that power. Joe should never have said "read my lips, no new taxes" and just said "I love my son" and leave the options open.

But yeah, I understand it. Rich people get away with things that regular people don't, that's life. Both sides do it. Joe lost the moral high ground for the Libs but it's his son and bottom line, that's what's really, really important.

Have a great retirement, Joe.

I agree as well, it’s not the fault of Joe Biden to protect his family. It’s part and parcel with politics. It’s not right, it’s never right, it is what it is.

Now, things we can take away from this.

The Democrats ran on, “No one is above the law,” and “We need to all pay our fair share”.

Both of those things were calculated lies, we all saw it for what it was, so it failed to rally the votes they wanted. Score 1 for the American voters.

The choice of pardoning his son now leaves open the conversation similar to why Biden hosted Trump for a debate well before the typical debate season. Are their plans in place to declare him incompetent in the works? Which could open a can of worms, obviously, was he competent enough to write this pardon? I don’t think he was. The only saving grace would be if Hunter was set to be scheduled for prison before Jan 6th.

And the timeline, all federal crimes from 2014-2024. Wow, that’s a pretty blatant acceptance that his Burisma ties are exactly as bad as the conspiracy theorists said it was.

The silver lining, however, is Hunter Biden could be called as a material witness and he can’t plead the 5th. Which would make him a prime target of a tragic drug overdose to protect the family.

It’s a wild situation for sure.

Or he felt it was necessary to deter Republicans from investigating him over and over whether there is anything there or not, which they very well could do as a harassment/revenge tactic.

Trump’s Awful FBI Pick Is Already Revealing What’s Coming

Dutch has always been conservative, but he's been marinating in Q level bullshit for too long. How can anyone seriously think Joe Biden would murder his son to prevent him from testifying?

This, from the Bulwark, is basically on-point my thoughts from yesterday:

lol. I can assure you I’m just a regular dude. Definitely a conservative and have never been a Democrat (though in the past I have abstained from voting as a nod to Clinton’s second term).

I’m not predicting or suggesting Joe Biden would be the one to murder or even call for his murder.

If the 10-year period of immunity was a “just in case” call by Biden’s team. This could literally all be a nothing-burger. I don’t know and neither does anyone at this point.

But if it’s protecting him from any sort of treasonous activity that extends beyond Hunter Biden, I can see how Hunter could be in danger from those who might feel the heat. Hopefully, any inquiries into that wouldn’t need to affect the Biden family at all.

It certainly didn’t set a new standard in POTUS politics as promised. So I think it’s fair to expect more of the same in four years.

So I've been told that in order to accept a pardon the person must admit guilt.

Has Hunter admitted to being guilty to anything?

Does anyone else think that Dutch has only returned to troll the board?

Probably, yeah.

You don't have to admit guilt to receive a pardon. The court has said there can be an assumption of guilt with a pardon, but a person can still claim innocence and receive a pardon.

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For now. Until they change their mind.