RFK, Jr., may end campaign, back Trump, running mate says – National & International News – TUE 20Aug2024
RFK, Jr., running mate floats ending campaign, backing Trump.
Disney backs down on claim widower can’t sue over wife’s death because he signed up for Disney+.
Hamas rejects sham US-Israeli “ceasefire” proposal.
NATIONAL NEWS
RFK, Jr., running mate floats ending campaign, backing Trump
Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., may end his influential campaign and back former President Donald Trump, according to Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan. Unusually, Shanahan broke the news on a podcast. Shanahan, a billionaire who is also one of Kennedy’s principle financial backers, said they were weighing two options. One is to stay in the race and hope they get 5% of the vote (which would bring millions in funds from the federal government to form a party).
However, Shanahan says she doesn’t want to “risk” a win for Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris and VP candidate Tim Walz. This is probably due, in part, to the Harris’ campaign’s pro-labor and corporate accountability positions. Also, Shanahan has ties to Big Tech, which Trump has allied himself with by picking Sen. J. D. Vance as his running mate. Shanahan also admitted that the Kennedy campaign is now pulling more support from Trump than from Harris.
The other option is to “walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump” and “explain to our base why we’re making this decision.”
RFK himself has so far not commented on Shanahan’s public revelation. However, if he does decide to end his campaign, it could seriously dampen the momentum that is currently trending in Harris’ direction. Harris currently has an advantage in swing state polls that include RFK, even if he is only polling at 3-5%, depending on the state.
In recent weeks, RFK has reached out to both the Trump and Harris campaigns seeking a Cabinet position. Trump turned him down, and Harris refused to even meet with him. There’s also some bad blood between RFK, a registered Democrat, and the Democratic Party because Democratic operatives have sued in several states to try to keep him off the ballot.
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Disney backs down on claim widower can’t sue over wife’s death because he signed up for Disney+
Last October, Dr. Kanokporn Tangsuan was vacationing at Disney World with her husband Jeffrey Piccolo and dining at the Raglan Road Irish Pub, located within the park. Disney does not own or operate the pub, but it is a tenant within the park. Dr. Tangsuan suffered from severe food allergies and the couple asked several times to make sure her food would be allergen-free, and the staff assured them that it would be. Dr. Tangsuan unfortunately did suffer an allergic reaction and died of anaphylaxis shortly thereafter. Her death was ruled an accident and elevated levels of nuts and dairy were found in her system.
Piccolo sued both the restaurant and Disney for wrongful death, seeking in excess of $50,000 in damages. However, in May, Disney’s lawyers tried to block the suit, citing a forced arbitration clause in the terms of service Piccolo unknowingly agreed to when purchasing a Disney+ subscription and his Disney Work park tickets. After Piccolo’s attorneys appealed to the judge this month asking that this arbitration clause not be enforced, Disney has now agreed to proceed with the matter in court.
Arbitration clauses and terms nearly always favor the interests of a large corporation over a complainant. Many corporations will include arbitration clauses within the fine print of terms of service agreements, which few people read before signing. Despite this, these arbitration agreements are almost always enforceable, provided that all parties have proper notification when signing them.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Hamas rejects sham “ceasefire” proposal from US, Israel
Recently, US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have traveled to Israel and Qatar to try to hammer out what they’re calling a “bridging” proposal on a ceasefire agreement to end Israel’s 10-month long military campaign in Gaza. Hamas, now under the leadership of Oct. 7 mastermind Yahyah Sinwar, did not participate in these talks. Instead, Hamas called on Israel and the US to implement the agreement that Hamas had agreed to back in May, which supposedly was an Israeli proposal.
After Hamas agreed to the May proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backtracked and tried to introduce new conditions. These include a return of all Israeli hostages, no guarantee of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and a continued Israeli military presence both within Gaza and at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. The new US-Israeli proposal essentially capitulates to most of Netanyahu’s conditions, which of course Hamas would not agree too. Nevertheless, both the US and Israel are now painting Hamas as the obstacle to an agreement.
The timing of the introduction of this proposal is particularly cynical, given the divides within the Democratic party over the conflict. The Democratic National Convention is happening right now in Chicago, with thousands of protesters both outside and inside the convention. saying they will not back VP Harris unless there is a “ceasefire”. Having announced this agreement to much fanfare, the Democrats are apparently hoping this will be enough to get some of these hold-outs on board. However, not only is this proposal not actually a ceasefire, it ratifies indefinite Israeli military occupation of Gaza.
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Related: Israel perpetrating war crimes in plain sight in Gaza, says ex-UK diplomat
On RFKJr,
This is off subject, so if you reject this comment, you’d be justified. He is irrational and unbalanced. He believes and disseminates all the ani-vax propaganda that has been proven wrong by study after stud by reputable scientists. His extended family urge people to disregard him. Yet he has a few million fans. What is it that makes some people get a thrill from believing conspiracy theories?
From what I’ve been able to glean, RFK, Jr., voters are all over the map politically. There are some vaccine skeptics, but many are just generally skeptical of Big Pharma. There’s also a healthy percentage of “never-Trump” Republicans, disaffected Democrats, libertarians, etc. His written policy is fairly centrist with some nods to the left and libertarianism. But once it became clear he wouldn’t get anywhere running as a Democrat, RFK himself did more to court voters on the right. There wasn’t really a lane for him on the left because there are already several left third-party candidates (Greens, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Cornel West, etc.).
Many RFK supporters I’ve seen in various forums were voting for him simply because they saw him as the lead third-party/independent option. Those supporters weren’t always particularly interested in (or even well-informed about) his policies, though some were. Overall, I think RFK’s popularity signals how many people all over the political spectrum are just sick of not having a viable alternative to the Republicans and Democrats.
I don’t recall the source, but I recently read that, when he approached the Biden campaign about them giving him a high profile job if they won the election, they quickly rebuffed him. And then he approached the Trump campaign with the same offer and they were open to the possibility.