The Biden administration in recent days quietly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel despite Washington’s concerns about an anticipated military offensive in southern Gaza that could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter. The 2,000 pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. These officials, like some others, spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because recent authorizations have not been disclosed publicly.
The 2,000 pound bombs, capable of leveling city blocks and leaving craters in the earth 40 feet across and larger, are almost never used anymore by Western militaries in densely populated locations due to the risk of civilian casualties.
Electoral Boycotts are actually kind of what you do when your government goes off the rails. They help build legitimacy for changing the system. Browbeating people to vote just manufactures consent. They’re not going to turn around after the election and suddenly start listening to you. They’re going to loudly proclaim the percentage of votes they got in relation to people who voted and call it a mandate to continue fucking us.
Election Boycotts are the stupidest thing ever. Those in power fucking LOVE when upset people don’t vote. It makes it so much easier to ignore them.
Lmao, yes I’ve definitely gotten the sense that nobody cares if a group of us is refusing to vote.
Sure. When it’s just a couple people. As the numbers grow though it becomes a thing. Once the official party loses legitimacy it opens the door for actual reform.
They’re not going to turn around after you don’t vote and start listening to you. I can’t say it enough, it’s a terrible situation we’re in. We have no good options. Voting isn’t a good option. But it’s the only option we really have.
I say again, abstaining does not help the people you think aren’t being helped. It only serves your own self interest. There’s a difference between organizing an electoral boycott and just pissing and moaning and saying you’re better for not voting. None of us like that we feel we have to vote for this asshole. But to get to say, “well, I’m gonna not vote because it can’t get any worse!” Maybe that feels true for you, but tell that to trans people fighting for the right to exist, for people living hand to mouth trying to keep their family fed. Are these people thriving under neoliberal fuckface rule? Fuck no. But they’re not actively on the chopping block marked for death.
I’m not going to tout Biden’s accomplishments and tell you he’s doing a great job. Because I don’t think he is. But there is something called harm reduction. I don’t want people addicted to heroin. But I’ll give them clean needles to avoid a worst case scenario. I’ll happily test their drugs or legalize them and give them a safe place and a doctor’s dosing to make sure they don’t die, gulping for air in the fucking gutter while people step over them because the current option is either arrest them or ignore them. Addiction is so goddamn far from ideal that it’s out of sight from way down there. But an addiction where they can be safely guided to manage their disease without all of the added risk is a better case scenario.
When we’re staring down the barrel of a LITERAL GODDAMN FASCIST, I just can’t stomach the idea of holding my head high while I let it happen. Believe me, the younger me would’ve kicked my own ass for this position I take now.but guess what, I didn’t actually know everything back then and I didn’t used to be less self-centered than I am now. Believe me, I still struggle with this, because I’m not 100% there. I’m arguing with myself as much as I’m arguing with anyone else on this topic. I’m an anarchist. But I guess as I’ve gotten older I see more what Chomsky says about it, where I used to think he was just sooo far from “getting it.” Me. Some asshole 25 year old thinking this professor and thinker didn’t get it.
These are not normal times. But allowing countless communities and our last scrap of a chance to avert an even more disastrous climate disaster just pass us by because we didn’t want the guy supporting genocide to get our vote…so the other guy who will more callously and vociferously engage with the genocidal state can take power back…just doesn’t make sense. No matter how you slice it. And it’s hard to get there. Because it puts the sacrificing our own principles on us. Not on the people doing wrong. And that, of course, isn’t the way it should be at all. But they have us over a barrel whether we like it or not.
Nobody is saying they will suddenly listen to us. That’s the point. There’s no point in participating. Immigrants and minorities are already in danger in red states and the Democrats are busy worrying if removing the filibuster or balancing the supreme court are too extreme. They aren’t riding in to save the day. You think the red states are waiting for a Republican president? This isn’t a video game and I’m tired of people treating it like one. Biden winning is not some kind of block unless he actually fucking does something. And he’s currently trying to enact the toughest measures we’ve had on immigrants since Operation Wetback. He’s not an ally.
Harm reduction is supposed to open the door to a better option later as well. If that better option never comes then you’re still just stuck with harm. We don’t have a doctor for the country. We have a lesser prison sentence that was sold as harm reduction.
And the Fascists are already here. They are not waiting for your permission. They are not waiting for the permission of any level of government. They are already taking over towns and schools. They’ve been elected all the way up to governor in some states. They aren’t going to sit and do nothing for the mere presence of a democratic president, and that’s all Biden offers. A calming presence while women are charged with murder for miscarriages.
And you know what? We’ve been here before, and we will get out of it again. When we have a liberal/left party worth a damn.
Before you stands two paths. One goes straight, the other swings WAY off to the right. There is not a third path at this crossroads.
Which path is better if your eventual goal is to move to the left? You can sit down and cry about how neither of the current paths goes left and say that you refuse to decide. But if you do this, a path will be chosen for you.
Maybe it doesn’t really matter to you. Maybe you’re privileged enough that you can’t see a difference in your life between going straight and turning far right. But for me, turning far right could literally lead to my persecution and death. I can not tell you how pissed I will be if that unfolds because of some misguided protest against voting.
That’s a terrible analogy, no wonder you don’t understand the point.
There are 7 months until election day, and 7 months for Biden to decide if funding Israel’s genocide is worth beckoning Trump into the white house. Biden is a shit candidate, and we’ll need to deal with the fascists either way, but why should we be committing ourselves to voting for Biden when he needs our votes and he’s actively complicit in evil?
In your analogy, does either path have time to change before you are forced to walk down it?
Of course not because it’s not a good faith analogy.
Ignore the evidence of your eyes. Pay attention only to the false either/or presented to you.
So gaslighting us. We’re not stupid.
And I’m okay with putting my life on the line for my country, it wouldn’t be the first time. I’m not going to let them hold me hostage just to watch the GOP do it no matter who gets elected.