News/Current Events, discussion (Bullets, Ballots & Bombs)

[rublev]

[rublev]

[ramseames]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35869254

hope none of the belgians on here /anyone anyone here knows who lives in belgium was at the airport today

[Syeknom]

I'm ok. Metro attacks occurred while I was on the train into Brussels, was forced to go to a different station and catch a bus which promptly got evacuated by police. Walked the remaining 2km to work.

Metro is the line (and time) I would normally take when working at my usual office - fortunately I'm on project in deep Anderlecht right now, and was running 10 minutes late. Very scary stuff.

No idea yet how I'll get home. Brussels is on lockdown.

[ramseames]

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/ ... good-thing

^^^^ Read this

[rublev]

[rublev]

[rublev]

[Ques]

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/20 ... nti-racism

nytimes discussion piece on anti-zionism and anti-semitism. I've been trying to educate myself over the past few months about the history of the conflict, and the arguments of the different sides, as my campus becomes more and more polarized on the issue (with almost everyone on one side), so that i have the arguments ready to defend myself the next time i get jumped for being jewish and not a self-professed anti-zionist. currently reading thomas friedman's from beirut to jerusalem, but the major problem that i'm encountering is that almost everyone touching on the subject is so plainly biased, including the five POVs in the nytimes piece. sifting through all the different narratives that people provide and trying to figure out which set of facts I should believe is proving very difficult, more so is trying to determine where i should stand on it all. my entire extended family is extremely pro-israel, and very zionist, and to them the wounds of history are still fresh and close to home, so i don't feel comfortable discussing this with them.

anyone else struggling with this? or have book/article/reading recommendations?

[rublev]

[rublev]

foreign affairs on israel's 'anti-solution' strategy. interesting read but his characterisation of netanyahu is far too complementary - he is not just 'pessimistic about change', he has continually eroded trust and deliberately hampered any attempts to foster a more conducive environment for even just talking about talking.

on another note, i don't know what the press has been like in the US or other places, but the fact that an israeli soldier can shoot an already injured and incapacitated palestinian attacker in the head at point blank range and it not make the news is pretty unsettling but perhaps tantamount to the fact that the world is no longer shocked by IDF cruelty.

[rublev]

[Naka_]

[rublev]

is this the new series of veep?

[rublev]

still the best correspondents dinner

the late show makes me forget how scathing he could be. relentlessly roasting bush and that pin drop silence is still great to watch.

[ramseames]

[Cowboy]

Hillary brought a mariachi band out to an East LA Latino neighborhood on Cinco, peroooo no escuchamos nada...Lmfao

[rublev]

[Cowboy]

Stay Safe if you are near UCLA!!!

Very worrisome, anyone nearby please update when you can.

[rublev]

jo cox mp yesterday campaigning for 'remain' on the thames with her husband and two children, shot and stabbed to death in her constituency today.

sorry this is just so sad. devastating.

what a truly terrible week.

[rublev]

also

this referendum is a vile, crippling divisive and depressing political exercise

farage unveiling his nazi esque of syrian refugees crossing the croatian border with 'breaking point' in capital letters

i can't even watch the news anymore

leave campaign = loose canon narratives catering to a skepticism much deeper than anything to do with the EU, not sure how 'politics' goes back to normal after this

[ramseames]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/vi ... n-control/

^ this is refreshing, despite being sad that this is what it finally took to start having a real conversation

Politics will be fine, this is probably the worst few years of populism on both the left and the right we'll have in a long time and now that the Germany and northern Europe are starting to try to slow the flow of migrants they'll start to cease to be fuel for all these gross political parties who would otherwise be receiving more scrutiny from the general public (who don't want this many migrants but also aren't actual white supremacists, racists, Nazis etc).

Edit: turkey keeps doing stuff that will prevent it from being an Eu member so that fear will go away, despite what boris says

On the other side of the pond, the #bernieorbust idiots are thankfully a much smaller group than it previously appeared. Clinton is going to win by landslide and things will return to normal.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-p ... story.html

[bels]

You're right, thank goodness populist demagogue Bernie sanders is out of the US Presidential race. Now American politics can go back to normal without anyone crazy and extreme running for office.

[Cowboy]

https://www.facebook.com/rememberorlando/

Incredibly smart debater who has taught me more than one lesson is attempting to, with support, create here. Grassroot support creates change.

[rublev]

[rublev]

buzzfeed in one image

[ramseames]

This was before he thought it could lead to him being PM

[posh_somme]

the best arguments for both and i've read so far. i've already voted but these go to show how this debate is tricky. kind of comes down to remain wanting to protect the UK from a conservative government that doesn't have its anti-worker/pro-business legislation blocked by the EU and leave arguing that the EU is still set on a campaign of austerity and neoliberalism and won't get any better. the public debate seems to really be centred around immigration and nationalism though and has been almost left vs right

[rublev]

hmmm they're certainly takes on what is going on... but for me they're definitely not the core reasons for either campaign. it's pretty difficult to miss the economy vs. immigration (which is a crude reduction anyway). remain has mostly been 'the alternatives are worse' in relation to trade (and the subsequent consequences). leave is almost entirely based around a hostility to immigration and an attack of the bureaucratic 'elite'. i've also not heard anyone from the leave campaign mention EU austerity and neoliberalism in that way, but probably not surprisingly considering it's full of free market tories. pretty much every other concern has been pushed into the margins.

[posh_somme]

i agree that those aren't the primary concerns for most people. i was mostly addressing the article itself and my own thoughts. those articles are probably worthless to a die hard "brexiteer" who wants to reclaim the country from europe's grasp