President Joe Biden is taking fresh steps to help keep gas prices from climbing. For Republicans to see this as “disgusting” and “disgraceful” is bizarre.
Whether the US is a net importer or exporter of oil and gas is actually pretty irrelevant to gas prices. It’s important for other reasons, but oil is a global market regardless of where it’s produced.
Advocates for the use of trigger warnings suggest that they can help people avoid or emotionally prepare for encountering content related to a past trauma. But trigger warnings may not fulfill either of these functions, according to an analysis published in Clinical Psychological Science.
Israel is a state actor that has not signed on to the ICC, just like the US. Hamas is a non-state actor over which the ICC claims jurisdiction, just like the Taliban and any number of other terrorist groups. The US is really afraid of setting a precedent here that might impact it in the future.
How specifically are US interests served by a genocide of Palestinians? They aren’t. The US doesn’t care about Palestine at all, but it would be better off if Israel weren’t doing the indefensible. The US just wants Israel as an ally to assist in projecting power in the Middle East.
I sympathize with the desire to end what Israel is doing, but the first step is understanding the national interests at play. It’s not an excuse for anything, but it’s necessary to understand the dynamics at play in order to try and change those dynamics.
I think the US could get by just fine with no presence in the Middle East at all. But if we are going to be in the Middle East, Israel is a far more capable ally than Qatar. And what do we do if Qatar does something horrific tomorrow? Pack up and move to Saudi Arabia? Is there really anyplace in the world we can form serious alliances without unsavoury partners? Could we even ally with ourselves?
I think the US could be a lot more honest about what Israel is doing, and we could put a whole lot more pressure on them to stop doing it. We should be doing more of both, but our alliance is exactly what gives us the leverage to do that. That is, unless we want to get involved militarily. But if we are going to do that, there are plenty of other places in the world that are just as worthy.
The US and Israel are still allies even though the US hasn’t supported Netanyaho’s actions, so no. The fact that the US is still being an ally is the very evidence people are using to say the US supports Netanyaho.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Netanyaho as a bad apple. Netanyaho is massively unpopular, but the genocide is not. Israel’s actions in Gaza have broad support among citizens of Israel.
But the US can’t/won’t pick up and move it’s military bases every time the winds shift and someone else is committing atrocities.
I personally agree that I wish we were more selective with whom we form alliances. It’s not like Israel just started abusing Palestine last year anyways. That’s just not how foreign policy works today. There are other models that could be used, but the US isn’t likely to do so unilaterally. Right now, every country in the world makes foreign policy decisions based almost exclusively on their own interests and to maximize their power and influence.
Yes, I also agree the US can and should be doing more to pressure Netanyaho. Even in the current foreign policy landscape it’s pretty obvious that this genocide does not serve US interests. Biden is unfortunately a relic of the 80s/90s and is honestly not the president we should have elected. He’s miles better than Trump (who’s policies helped ignite this “war”), but that’s a low bar
Exactly what percent of the US weapons industry output do you think has been dropped on Gaza? It’s almost nothing. The money is in stock piling high tech weaponry to counter major militaries. The sales that matter have nothing to do with Gaza.
We had military presence in Israel before the genocide. The apartheid is irrelevant to that presence. Why would the US care about “testing and aligning police standards”? You think Gaza serves as a model for something we want to do in the future? No, it’s a repeat of ineffective strategies and tactics we used in the past. We know how to do urban warfare, and we’re pretty damn good at knocking down buildings.
The US has counciled restraint on Israel since day one, and that is genuine. We have simply declined to force restraint through anything but the most meager of pressure campaigns. We ignore the injustices because doing otherwise is inconvenient. My purpose in saying so isn’t to exonerate the US, because I don’t think it does. I just think that understanding national motivations is important to trying to impact future policy.
For me, the difference between nationalism and patriotism is that patriotism is about what a country could be. It’s a willingness to sacrifice some portion of one’s own prosperity to make a better country for all. That’s certainly not what right wingers call patriotism though.
You are in my book, assuming you’re ready to make sacrifices towards that potential future. I personally think nation states are a necessary step towards something that humanity is clearly not ready for in the future, but I think we could have come up with some far better implementations.
They do, but these drones are far cheaper to build than the missiles usually used to shoot them down. They are also being produced in massive quantities.
The official goal of defeating Hamas is not genocide. The actual goal, as described by multiple Israeli officials and demonstrated by IDF strategies, is genocide. Israel is intentionally and systematically destroying anything that binds the Palestinian people to the land of Palestine, including homes, schools, hospitals, universities, religious institutions, cultural centers, and even cemeteries. They want nothing left for people to return to.
The other side invested heavily in promoting that decrepit old man to represent their interests. The amount of backroom maneuvering it took to hand Biden the nomination was remarkable.
As Ukraine struggles to hold back Russian advances, the country’s officials say they are once again facing the formidable challenge of keeping electricity flowing as Moscow’s forces increasingly strike power plants....
It’s funny how one side of the conflict actively avoids critical civilian infrastructure, while the other focuses on it almost exclusively. It’s almost like there really are good guys and bad guys in this conflict.
Imagine the damage Ukraine could do to the Russian electric grid, given how ineffective Russian anti-air capability has proven to be. Talk about a target rich environment.
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would force President Joe Biden to send weapons to Israel, seeking to rebuke the Democrat for delaying bomb shipments as he urges Israel to do more to protect civilians during its war with Hamas....
This isn’t wrong, but this argument gets made over and over and over again in every political thread on almost every topic, whether or not it fits the flow of the conversation. People don’t want to be preached at and it’s going to be self defeating.
EDIT: Tone deaf establishment apologists are going to lose again and still not understand why. “Republicans suck more” is far less compelling than some people think, no matter how true. Winning elections and winning arguments are different things.
President Joe Biden and his administration have been accused of being complicit in enabling a famine in Gaza by failing to sufficiently act on repeated warnings from their own experts and aid agencies....
The question was what can we as individuals do? Anyways, US aid generally accounts for around ,15% of Israel’s defense budget, and there are plenty of other countries from which to buy bombs.
Where did I say it was beyond anyone’s feeble comprehension? I’m just pointing out that it is complex and people are treating it like it isn’t. “Peace in the Middle East is a difficult and complex topic.” shouldn’t be a controversial statement.
Republicans enraged by Biden’s efforts to keep gas prices lower (www.msnbc.com)
President Joe Biden is taking fresh steps to help keep gas prices from climbing. For Republicans to see this as “disgusting” and “disgraceful” is bizarre.
18+ (NSFW) Israel releases film of women soldiers being taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 (www.reuters.com)
The footage shows the young women, all of them stunned and some bloodied, being bound and bundled into a jeep....
Biden administration signals it will support push to hit ICC with sanctions (www.ft.com)
Moms for Liberty is coming for the swing states (www.motherjones.com)
The Supreme Court's new voting rights decision is a love letter to gerrymandering (www.vox.com)
Maybe Ukraine would win if we gave them bigger planes? (sh.itjust.works)
Biden: What's happening in Gaza is not genocide (www.gmanetwork.com)
Video on Trump Truth Social page references ‘unified Reich’ (thehill.com)
Faced With a Russian Onslaught, Ukraine Struggles to Keep the Lights On (www.nytimes.com)
As Ukraine struggles to hold back Russian advances, the country’s officials say they are once again facing the formidable challenge of keeping electricity flowing as Moscow’s forces increasingly strike power plants....
US House votes to force weapons shipments to Israel, rebuking Biden (www.reuters.com)
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would force President Joe Biden to send weapons to Israel, seeking to rebuke the Democrat for delaying bomb shipments as he urges Israel to do more to protect civilians during its war with Hamas....
Joe Biden has done more than arm Israel. He’s complicit in Gaza’s devastating famine (www.independent.co.uk)
President Joe Biden and his administration have been accused of being complicit in enabling a famine in Gaza by failing to sufficiently act on repeated warnings from their own experts and aid agencies....