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Questions Of The Day (Politics)
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Mick Harper
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In the dog days of the Trump presidency, Jared Kushner did the rounds of the Arab countries. At each stop he said, "If you recognise Israel, we will reward you; if you don't, we will punish you." When he got to Morocco, they said, "Righty-ho, recognise our sovereignty over the Western Sahara." "Righty-ho," said Jared Kushner.

And there ends our tale. It will be a practical impossibility for Biden to reverse the policy since 'recognition' is an act-of-state. The Western Saharans, like the Palestinians, now know they are not just in their camps for the long haul but things can only get worse. It is possible (according to AE principles) that all this may unlock log-jams to the benefit of all but this is not the purpose of the Kushner Plan, which is to benefit Israelis. Not, in my judgement, Americans.
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Mick Harper
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Some fascinating juicettes are emerging in the wake of the Israel/Morocco deal

Item: there are 'hundreds of thousands' of Moroccan Jews in Israel who constantly visit the old country. Now they've got direct flights.
Item: there were eight Moroccan Jews in the Barak government even though his was a Labour (i.e. Ashkenazi) administration and Moroccan Jews are Sephardis
Item: the Moroccans 'normalised' relations once before in the wake of the Oslo Accords but un-normalised them when Netanyahu came to power and torpedoed the peace plan
Item: only 'between seven and twenty per cent' of the Moroccan 'street' support the new policy
Item: the USA is the only country in the world that recognises Moroccan Western Sahara.
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Mick Harper
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The liberal corpse continues to twitch to the Trump current right up to the end. Let’s get a few facts straight. The assault on the Capitol was not an insurrection, it was not the Storming of the Winter Palace, it was a few nutters having fun when lax security let 'em in for a bit. Donald Trump did not incite them, he had told them to demonstrate outside Congress because those inside were – in his and their view – mounting an insurrectionary coup. But, please, by all means, get rid of Trump hours before he's due to go anyway rather than conduct hearings on the new administration's appointees and stuff like that. You've just wasted four years on this so a few more days won't hurt.

And, FBI, if you think American right-wing nutters can foment revolution by doing something similar again or doing it locally in the fifty states, I suggest you consult your files. Right wing nutters can do two things: a) cause embarrassing mayhem from time to time and (b) conduct vainglorious campaigns on the internet. Unless you and the rest of the American establishment absolutely insist on giving them the oxygen of fearful publicity.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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it was a few nutters having fun


It was a random section of relatively normal and eccentric individuals, exhibiting herd behavior after having been herded. The fact is, that this is universal, whether left or right, but heyho we continue to seek alternative explanations, unless it's a storming we agree with.
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Mick Harper
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It is wondrously fitting that, after four years of committing endless high crimes and misdemeanours, Trump is to be impeached for 'inciting insurrection'. With no insurrection and no incitement this will sail through. The worst of it, if successful, is that Donald Trump will then be the only American who ever lived who is not allowed to run for president. I can think of no better rallying cry for Americans who think themselves disenfranchised by the system. Where it all started.
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Grant



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And what were these “high crimes and misdemeanours?”
The problem with Trump is that he talked big but didn’t seem to understand that he was indeed the president. He also was the very worst recruiter in human history. Every person he employed was either a dud or a traitor - sad.
He only really got a handle on what was going on when he realised he had been cheated. Read his speech before the “insurrection.” It’s masterful, but for most of the four years he was more interested in showboating
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Wile E. Coyote


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Grant wrote:
He also was the very worst recruiter in human history.


To surround yourself with people that are good at their jobs, and quickly get rid of those who are under-performing, must surely be one of the most important parts of being a President. If he couldn't do even this, this must mean that Trump himself was totally unsuited for the Presidency.
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Grant



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I agree he was unsuited. But 70 million Americans clung to him like Titanic survivors clinging to a deckchair. Must tell us something about the state of the USA
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Mick Harper
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He may have been unsuited to the presidency but we shall have to wait and see whether he was unsuited to the times. Nobody can deny that the post-war western one-world liberal model has been in chronic desuetude for many, many years. Biden does not seem the sort of person to trigger a radical renewal so neo-Trumpism may still have legs. Not forgetting Hegel's advice, "And always keep a-hold of Nurse for fear of finding something worse."
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Wile E. Coyote


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I am not so sure that Trump's first couple of years, the "showboating years" as Grant puts it, were so bad, essentially he just vetoed huge piles of government over-regulation, and treaties that ortho said needed renewing. The economy started booming, employment went up. No, the problems occurred when he started trying to be a hands-on President. Had he stuck to his twitter, pissing off liberals, he would have been fine.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Mick Harper wrote:
He may have been unsuited to the presidency but we shall have to wait and see whether he was unsuited to the times. Nobody can deny that the post-war western one-world liberal model has been in chronic desuetude for many, many years.

There has been a lot of ridicule that Uncle Sam has become a Banana Boat republic. Maybe that contains an inner truth, ie Democracy finishes as it starts, with the unhappy losers always questioning the result? It is a cycle.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Mick Harper wrote:
He may have been unsuited to the presidency but we shall have to wait and see whether he was unsuited to the times. Nobody can deny that the post-war western one-world liberal model has been in chronic desuetude for many, many years.


No, global liberalism, measured in progress, is slowly destroying the western nation state model, which is stagnating.
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Mick Harper
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Yup, we've all got our theories. Nobody can know the precise source of the problem or the precise solution to it. You just have to use the old Applied Epistemology method of throwing spaghetti at the wall until something sticks. Which, as you know, is the one policy nobody is prepared to countenance.
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Mick Harper
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An example of the problem was today's column from Marina Hyde. She's whingeing on about fishing problems despite it being too early for anybody to know whether there is a problem. She refers to Scottish 'fishers'. I assumed this was a biblical allusion -- fishers of men and all that -- but when she uses the term again, and then again, I realise she (or the Guardian style book) does not allow 'fishermen' and it's too early for 'fisherpersons'. I suppose that means fishwives will have to go too. Though not to sea I hope, it's tough enough as it is.

She screeches at Toby Young for being a Covid dissident. It's just not allowed apparently. Everyone here would get slaughtered. She even castigates Young for improperly holding his hand up for being wrong on Newsnight. We have reached the stage when you are not allowed to be right about being wrong. Decent intellectuals, of whom Toby is one and Marina used to be one, are supposed to be wrong half the time.

The left are always fulminating about partisanship on the right but it takes both sides to be dug in to create trench warfare. The US and the UK currently have a right-wing that is stupid but prepared to ring the changes and a left-wing who are not stupid but think it's the 1950's (liberals) or the 1850's (socialists).

There's nothing for it but to hand over the intellectual high ground to the Chinese and trust they have enough re-education centres for us round-eyes.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Wiles' beef is against capitalist snowflakes. It's bad enough having liberal snowflakes, but they do serve the important function in a democracy of taking up lowly postions as state officials and counter-balancing those contemplating dictatorship, whether Monarchy, Marxism or Fascism. But you can't have capitalist snowfakes who bleat on about Covid, the Weather (climate change), Fair trade, Ethical investments etc as their job is to crack on and produce things for profit, not to engage in Lefty feel-good Utopianism.

We are truly knackered.
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