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U.S. Politics: The Biggest Trade in WNBA History

Scammel

Well-Known Member
Oh, sure thing. One thing you're forgetting though: the UNHRC was established in 2006. Even if that wasn't the case, you're still telling with a straight face that (altogether now) Israel's record on human rights is infinitely worse than Russia and China's?

Do you hate gay people, or something?
 

Bananarama

The light is coming
Oh, sure thing. One thing you're forgetting though: the UNHRC was established in 2006. Even if that wasn't the case, you're still telling with a straight face that (altogether now) Israel's record on human rights is infinitely worse than Russia and China's?

Do you hate gay people, or something?

This idea that the UN is unfairly biased against Israel is especially ridiculous considering how the US (pretty much Israel's biggest vocal ally) uses the fact that it contributes a large portion of the UN's funding to force the UN to retract reports they consider too damning. The fact is that America contributes millions in US tax dollars every year to a country that refuses to be transparent with their nuclear weapons capabilities and that much of the world sans the US and Israel considers that the country is committing genocide and maintaining an Apartheid state. Maybe it's the US that's biased?
 

Skiks

MUCH RESPECT
Oh, sure thing. One thing you're forgetting though: the UNHRC was established in 2006. Even if that wasn't the case, you're still telling with a straight face that (altogether now) Israel's record on human rights is infinitely worse than Russia and China's?

Do you hate gay people, or something?
Are you high? Or do you like to ignore what actually happens in the world. You can't tell me with a straight face Israel doesn't treat certain countries like dirt. If you can again go work at the Whitehouse they could use you.
Also not sure how you pull gay bashing out of all that.
 

bobjr

You ask too many questions
Staff member
Moderator
It should be noted Jewish people outside of Israel are having a more and more unfavorable view of Israel now.
 

Scammel

Well-Known Member
Are you high? Or do you like to ignore what actually happens in the world. You can't tell me with a straight face Israel doesn't treat certain countries like dirt. If you can again go work at the Whitehouse they could use you.
Also not sure how you pull gay bashing out of all that.

No, it's quite simple. Israel has an internationally-renowned Pride parade. Russia has all but criminalised homosexuality. If you think Israel's human rights record is infinitely worse than Russia's, in line with the view of the UNHRC, then you must be very comfortable with homophobia (forced organ harvesting too, in China's case).
 

Bananarama

The light is coming
No, it's quite simple. Israel has an internationally-renowned Pride parade. Russia has all but criminalised homosexuality. If you think Israel's human rights record is infinitely worse than Russia's, in line with the view of the UNHRC, then you must be very comfortable with homophobia (forced organ harvesting too, in China's case).

9VVf1ce.jpg


Let's not act like there isn't a lot of homophobia in Israel.
 
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bobjr

You ask too many questions
Staff member
Moderator
You really couldn't provide a better example of gaslighting. If she'd worn a jacket that said "**** MEXICO" they would've had the same response.
 
I have to agree with Scammel. Yes, it's clear that Israel's record on human rights is spotty. Yes, settlements shouldn't be continued. Yes, the blockade on Gaza is awful. But actively committing genocide? No, that's straight up bombast. If you can answer with a straight face that you'd rather live in China or Russia than Israel, a liberal democracy with gauranteed rights to all of its citizens, then something is clouding your judgment. Lastly, a single person committing a homophobic hate crime is a far cry from state sanctioned homophobia.
 

Scammel

Well-Known Member
On a completely different note, just got back from an audience with James Comey. Most interesting quote of the evening, delivered without a hint of humour or schadenfreude:

"I didn't believe a word of it at first, but having met the President I now believe there is a greater than zero chance that (the thing with the Russian prostitutes) is true".
 

Gamzee Makara

Flirtin' With Disaster
LGBTQA+ people aren't allowed to adopt children legally in Israel, and the community just lost the ability to use surrogates.

There's your state-sponsored homophobia.

And I guess hundreds of protestors dead at a protest site isn't enough killing for the title of "genocide", but it's still a mass killing.

I'd probably be able to eke out a living in Israel, as I can pass for cishet despite my pansexuality due to my current monogamous relationship with my girlfriend.

I'd rather not live in ANY human rights abuse country, thank you.

...and if the UN council was to drop all members with "spotty" human rights records prior to this, the US would have been dropped in a heartbeat over Guantanamo, ICE and many other unanswered crimes.

The point isn't anti-Israel bias:That is an excuse and distraction given by John Bolton and Mike Pompeo for Trump to use...it's that we're sending the message that ONE ALLIANCE MATTERS MORE THAN HUMAN RIGHTS.

And fun fact:The Republican party could care less about Jewish people ever since it traded platforms with the Democrats during the 60s, and the Dixiecrats became the Republican Party of today.
 

Bananarama

The light is coming
I have to agree with Scammel. Yes, it's clear that Israel's record on human rights is spotty. Yes, settlements shouldn't be continued. Yes, the blockade on Gaza is awful. But actively committing genocide? No, that's straight up bombast. If you can answer with a straight face that you'd rather live in China or Russia than Israel, a liberal democracy with gauranteed rights to all of its citizens, then something is clouding your judgment. Lastly, a single person committing a homophobic hate crime is a far cry from state sanctioned homophobia.

Israel is basically a theocracy. There are anti-miscegenation laws keeping people of different religions from marrying, and LGBTQ rights have consistently been blocked by religious officials affiliated with Halachic law. There is a large sector of the country that is extremely hostile to queer people, and a pride parade won't mask that.

As a person of color living in a white country, I can attest that just because you get "guaranteed" rights, that doesn't mean that you are treated equally. Tell that to the millions of members of the Palestinian diaspora that are waiting for their right to return, Gazans who are trapped in an "open-air prison", or Arab citizens who are actively discriminated against in education. Or how about the Ethiopian residents (most of whom are Jewish, by the way) who are forcibly given birth control and racially profiled and subjected to police brutality on a regular basis.

Just because a country is a "liberal democracy" doesn't mean it isn't subject to criticism about its human rights record.
 

Scammel

Well-Known Member
More text that completely skirts the question

'There is no unique feature of the Israeli state that could possibly account for the fact that this organisation thinks it has an infinitely worse record on human rights than Russia and China.' Yes or no?

LGBTQA+ people aren't allowed to adopt children legally in Israel

About to change literally any day now.

Israel is basically a theocracy.

Uhh, you're thinking of Iran. Israel is a parliamentary democracy.

It's weird what tribalism does to people. You're up in arms when Trump is patently brown-nosing Putin, but the moment criticism of Russia might make a Trump decision look good you're inhaling Vlad's sphincter.
 
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Gamzee Makara

Flirtin' With Disaster
Goddammit, I addressed this. There IS BIAS in the council, but it's due to bloated membership adding undue specific biases. IT WASN'T THERE UNTIL COUNTRIES WITH OBVIOUS ANTISEMITISM WERE ADDED STARTING AFTER THE BERLIN WALL FELL.

But us leaving doesn't help us, Israel or anyone else.

It only helps those the council was made to fight before membership got bloated with anti-semitic nations.
 

Scammel

Well-Known Member
Oh, great, so you agree that the UNHRC is a flawed and anti-Semitic organisation. Considering how patently useless it is and its lack of any actual powers or authority, I really don't see what the fuss is about.
 

Gamzee Makara

Flirtin' With Disaster
It didn't start that way. But yes, in its CURRENT form, it's bloated with patently antisemetic members.

Trim down the membership to exclude complaint spammers and problem states(including US), give it some muscle, and maybe it could be fixed.

Doesn't change the unofficial but patently obvious message we are sending by leaving, though. "Israeli politics matters more to the US than human rights, because Donald Trump is President. He'd like to assert that."
 

bobjr

You ask too many questions
Staff member
Moderator
Honestly I just get that all of this is bad, and going "Well X is bad but so is Y" I'm just not a fan of because then people get apathetic towards bad things unless it's crossing moral lines, waiting to see what's worse. Those countries absolutely need punished for that, but that doesn't absolve Israel of blame.
 

Poke Trainer J

Well-Known Member
So the U.S. Supreme Court finally reached a verdict today on the South Dakota v. Wayfair case involving Online Sales Taxes which was ruled on a 5-4 decision that struck down the longstanding legal precedent that businesses don't have to collect internet sales taxes on behalf of states where they don't have a physical presence. Only Congress can save them from drowning in a paperwork flood that money-hungry state and local governments will be directing their way.

If the decision is correct on the law, then it must be taken as a signal that the law must change. Otherwise it would mean that small online retailers on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy could no longer do business unless they're willing to keep records and make regular tax payments, even If the amounts are trifling, to as many as 9,998 different state and local sales tax jurisdictions that each have their own forms and tax rates.

To make matters worse, the various jurisdictions don't even agree on what gets taxed. Using its power to regulate interstate commerce, Congress can create a new standard, or restore the old one, in black-and-white, replacing a less-certain judicial creation, and prevent state and local governments from burying the national market under a landslide of tax paperwork.
 

Bananarama

The light is coming
Uhh, you're thinking of Iran. Israel is a parliamentary democracy.

Nope, totally talking about Israel. Religion is a fundamental factor in Israeli law. Businesses close on the Sabbath, and even secular Jewish couples are legally required to be wed by a rabbi, and to divorce they need to go to a rabbinical council (not to mention they're only legally permitted to marry another Jewish person of the opposite gender). Being a parliamentary democracy doesn't keep it from being a theocracy.
 
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