On 10/18/2024 at 6:00 AM, usagi said:

nothing will change. congrats, you killed tens of thousands of innocent people to get the top Hamas guy. the circumstances that created and supported Hamas have not changed, have in fact been further entrenched, so someone else will just step in. you've done little to make Hamas a nonviable entity.

the only thing that could put a pause on the killing and force the parties back to the negotiating table is if a greater power makes that happen, and that's not likely when that power is in the pocket of one of those parties. I say again, at least half the responsibility for this mass murder is on the US because of its - not even silent - but open endorsement.

yeah.. it sucks.  there's been times when a president could get israel to walk back from the abyss and chill out but no one is doing that. reagan did it.. eisenhower too i think.. also, netanyahu is a complete asshole and psycho w/all the right wingers all too happy to use oct 7th as an excuse to accelerate the ethnic cleansing plans and grab more territory and erase more palestinians who seem to only be thought of as an inconvenience to israel.  it's a sick sick sick... everything. 

there's a lot of people, young people, who learned what america is over the last year. this is business as usual. korea, vietnam, SE asia in general... south america etc.. lot's of dead civilians. 

as for hamas.. yeah.. nothing will change w/the death of that guy. israel had already decapitated the organization. they'd killed the top leaders already months ago except for that guy. 

there's a lot of people speculating about israel's future and how they don't really have one. so many people have left. young people are still leaving. young jews in other countries aren't supportive.. they're losing a generation who they thought would be zionists. this USA liberal rabbi had a melt down of sorts about it. 

i'm not full of predictions.. anything can happen.. but israel is a rogue state at this point and USA is just giving them whatever they want... at least until the election.. then who knows wtf..  biden isn't going to back away from israel and harris isn't going to break from this policy in a hard way until after the election if at all.. 

Here's an IDF soldier smilingly and proudly confessing to shooting civilians in the head, legitimizing his actions through the bible.

A Belgian is now under investigation for this kind of war crimes. There are also American, French, German and Italian nationals in these 'elite units'. Sounds like the IDF is welcoming psychopaths.

Relate that to this story of medical personnel describing what they saw in Gaza:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/09/opinion/gaza-doctor-interviews.html

I worked as a trauma surgeon in Gaza from March 25 to April 8. I’ve volunteered in Ukraine and Haiti, and I grew up in Flint, Mich. I’ve seen violence and worked in conflict zones. But of the many things that stood out about working in a hospital in Gaza, one got to me: Nearly every day I was there, I saw a new young child who had been shot in the head or the chest, virtually all of whom went on to die. Thirteen in total.

At the time, I assumed this had to be the work of a particularly sadistic soldier located nearby. But after returning home, I met an emergency medicine physician who had worked in a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. “I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,” I told him. To my surprise, he responded: “Yeah, me, too. Every single day.”

65 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza

44 doctors, nurses and paramedics saw multiple cases of preteen children who had been shot in the head or chest in Gaza.

63 doctors, nurses and paramedics observed severe malnutrition in patients, Palestinian medical workers and the general population.

52 doctors, nurses and paramedics observed nearly universal psychiatric distress in young children and saw some who were suicidal or said they wished they had died.

25 doctors, nurses and paramedics saw babies who had been born healthy return to hospitals and die from dehydration, starvation or infections caused by their malnourished mothers’ inability to breastfeed and a lack of infant formula and clean water.

53 doctors, nurses and paramedics saw many children suffering from easily preventable infections, some of whom died from them.

64 doctors, nurses and paramedics observed that even the most basic medical necessities, like soap and gloves, were usually unavailable in Gaza.

interesting talk w/a guy who was born in israel, lived in zionist household, left israel and gave up his citizenship. wide ranging discussion of economy, politics, culture etc. 

Would be interesting if he was around today  I don’t know if he’d be getting much air time but who knows  media landscape is weird and does unexpected things

Hitchens sucked dick.

  On 10/27/2024 at 5:16 AM, usagi said:

Hitchens sucked dick.

but not in the good way

oh yeah, I should disclaim: no offense to anyone who enjoys sucking dick.

  On 10/27/2024 at 5:16 AM, usagi said:

Hitchens sucked dick.

i disagree w/him plenty but i enjoy some of the interviews about certain things but do have some issue w/one or two things... i like some of his thoughts on religion and find him pretty hilarious sometimes. 

is there something in particular that cancelled him for you? 

the fact that he helped give intellectual legitimacy to the War on Terror and the Iraq War specifically.  more broadly, the fact that he and his ilk trade in the same thing that any garden variety racist or religious nutjob do: othering people. except his kind couch it in 'rationality'.

I despise polemicists on general principle, they're useless learned idiots who are happy to debate endlessly while the world burns. it's how they make their bread.

https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/a-cartography-of-genocide

US Secretary of State Blinken was in Tel Aviv today and had to enter underground bunker because Tel Aviv was targeted by rockets (not sure if rockets came from Hezbollah, Houthis, or possibly from Iraq) and the rockets were intercepted close to the hotel Blinken was staying at. Also a Palestinian rammed a van into a large group of Israeli military members in west bank, and there was another separate vehicle ramming in Tel Aviv killing one person and injuring several others, this one seems to have targeted civilians.

Israel also struck targets in Iran this weekend, seems like they hit military targets but I have not seen much precise info on those attacks which took place on Friday I believe

*edit* - there actually does not seem to be any reliable information at all about the ramming incident when using google search to find info, so not sure whether or not it was meant as an attack on military personnel or civilians. saw this on social media but am undistrustful of using social media as a news source:

  On 10/27/2024 at 9:57 AM, usagi said:

the fact that he helped give intellectual legitimacy to the War on Terror and the Iraq War specifically.  more broadly, the fact that he and his ilk trade in the same thing that any garden variety racist or religious nutjob do: othering people. except his kind couch it in 'rationality'.

I despise polemicists on general principle, they're useless learned idiots who are happy to debate endlessly while the world burns. it's how they make their bread.

that's solid.

his take on iraq was bullshit of course and is my main issue w/him. I haven't read any of his books so the idea of "othering" probably doesn't really land for me but i can see that it's probably there based on some of the longer interviews where he goes off on islam which really gets a bit close to the edge at times. otherwise i've mostly seen him as an agitator.. wasn't really aware of him while he was active. i didn't really pay attention to people like him and only noticed them since the internet and youtube came to exist. 

  On 10/27/2024 at 4:16 PM, Silent Member said:

https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/a-cartography-of-genocide

it's unreal how much ordinance they dropped on Gaza. 

  On 10/27/2024 at 4:27 PM, decibal cooper said:

*edit* - there actually does not seem to be any reliable information at all about the ramming incident when using google search to find info, so not sure whether or not it was meant as an attack on military personnel or civilians. saw this on social media but am undistrustful of using social media as a news source:

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found out that the video in this tweet was from a 2017 attack in jerusalem where 4 idf soldiers were injured, so it fake news essentially, not related to whatever happen this weekend with vehicle attacks.

^good on you pointing out & clarifying tho. 

live avoided almost all social media ‘news’ regarding the I/P shit, it’s absolutely rife with bullshit from every angle. that’s what many want tho, muddy the waters of public opinion.

  On 10/27/2024 at 4:16 PM, Silent Member said:

https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/a-cartography-of-genocide

fucking hell

i know it's al jazeera but it's not like they aren't talking to jews and zionists. 

International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for netanyahu for alleged war crimes

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/21/icc-issues-arrest-warrant-for-benjamin-netanyahu-israel

  Quote

The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, had requested the arrest warrants in May, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for causing mass starvation in Gaza that constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On Thursday the court said it had found reasonable grounds to believe that Deif was responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, torture, rape and hostage taking.

this is more of a post-mortem but it gives you an indication of how strongly the media and establishment are keyed to support the Israeli narrative.

Edit: interesting way to tell this story… over three hours long knowledge bomb

world historical irony

  On 12/20/2024 at 10:10 PM, decibal cooper said:

world historical irony

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They day I saw holocaust survivors baying for Palestinian blood in the Israeli press after October 7th was the day I finally admitted to myself that enduring some kind of individual or collective trauma does not incur any special insight whatsoever upon the sufferer.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-ethnic-cleansing-doctors-without-borders-hrw-rcna184978

doctors without borders argues that ethnic cleansing happening in gaza:

  Quote

“Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza,” the aid group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said in the report published Thursday.

honestly kind of surprised that NBC news is publishing stories that are this critical of israel

also 60 mins did a segment on those israeli pager attacks in lebanon