That an opinion lacks evidence does not alleviate the requirement that its factual allegations be supported by evidence. “I don’t think the surface of the earth is curved” may be an opinion, but it’s a provably wrong assertion, and adding a disclamitory phrase to it doesn’t excuse the statement from evaluation.
Citation needed.
It’s a safe bet. The number of voters Biden loses if he were to change positions enough to appease any authentic anti-Zionists (as opposed to agitprop elements, for whom no position would be good enough to silence) would dwarf the number of voters he might gain. That might not mean he gets reelected, but hell, changing positions at all would cost him votes. Like I said: all choices are bad. It would have been a political disaster for any president, because every voter who cares enough about it to be a single-issue voter is entrenched enough to not be swayed at all unless the other side is completely alienated.
He can’t find a way to appease both sides? Well what does that look like? What’s the position that appeases both staunch Zionist voters and the subsection of the anti-Zionist protestors who vote? That’s not a rhetorical question. Every other US politics-adjacent post on Lemmy recently has been OP or one of their comrades criticizing Biden for his position on Israel, and I’m genuinely interested to hear someone articulate the nuanced position that Biden should supposedly take that he’s currently failing at, and how he’s supposed to do that and not immediately lose all prospects of reelection. FFS, even characterizing this as a division between “pro-Israel” and “against genocide” is already throwing nuance out the window. From where I’m sitting, Joe Biden has as nuanced a position as he can, because the nature of foreign relations in the Middle East in 2024 is itself nuanced and, for US interests, profoundly precarious. If you want nuance, you better be prepared to swallow a healthy dose of realpolitik alongside it, and that’s something that as of yet I’ve not found any noble armchair advocates and red-shadowed “patriots” willing to do.
It’s a safe bet, by a lot, and the calculus doesn’t really change no matter how much nuance you apply, because with every statement you’re always trading some nebulous number of single-issue pro-Palestine/anti-Zionist voters for a much larger group of pro-Israel/Zionist voters.
Then you have folks like the OP who are essentially working as a thinly-veiled propaganda arm of Hamas/Russia/etc., and it really muddies the signal-to-noise analysis on the issue.
It’s a problem for Biden, but there’s no winning. Trump doesn’t have the problem only because he’s not the incumbent right now, so he can hem and haw and try to deflect from the reality that he’s much worse on the issue–like every other issue–for people who align even a little bit with any policies left of center.
So Biden just has to basically take the hit, because the Democrats care about functional government and stable diplomacy and foreign policy relationships, whereas the GOP, as the party of dysfunction, white grievance, and ethno-religious fascism, isn’t saddled with the same considerations. Biden actually tried–and partially succeeded–in slowing down arms shipments to Israel, and the GOP threw a shitfit in Congress because they want those arms shipments: Their donors want them, and they can hang it on Biden’s neck no matter what, because people like OP will continue to go to bat for them.
These are all really excellent questions. My son skipped a grade early in gradeschool, and I am fortunate enough to have a friend who had a similar experience as this young lady (albeit not to the same extent) being hyper-accelerated through school, so we were able to interview him about his experience when making decisions about how to handle our exceptional kiddo’s education.
It was not a fun conversation, and as a result we elected to just let our son take advanced classes when possible and not really push to have him skip additional grades or do any of the wacky stuff with enrolling in college as a child or what have you. Of course we’re going to push him to take stuff that is challenging whenever possible, and I’d love for him to graduate high school with as much college credit as possible–but I’m not about to steal his youth in pursuit of putting a PhD on his wall before he’s old enough to vote.
The short version is that our friend was a very miserable child. His advancement essentially meant he had no peers, and especially among teenagers, the acceleration just put a bullseye on his back, since the people who surrounded him either resented him or saw him as a target for bullying. Even professional educators at times resented him. He was adamant that it was a thing he would never put his own children through.
Is that a typical experience? I have no idea; after all, being a child in higher education is already well outside ordinary experience. But the story was enough to make me worry for the child whenever I read a headline like this.
The nepo babies wouldn’t serve–same as always. And the political unpopularity of conscription has never changed. The last war draft is still in living memory, and US current military activity hasn’t been an improvement in terms of public appetite.
The US introduces conscription again, and there’ll be riots–and I don’t mean “some kids camped at college and the jackboots locked them up” protests; it’ll be government-building burning, widespread-looting riots.
If you want to do conscription, the kids have to trust the government not to kill them for oil.
Alright, don’t everybody talk at once now. Tell us how this is Joe Biden’s fault.
Hear, hear! This is fantastic. The people who can change the state of Israel are the Israeli people. I hope their voices are heard.
That’s a surprise. In most US schools they’ll cut STEM and language and have rolling blackouts before they cut sports.
That’s a chicken and egg problem, though, isn’t it: Netanyahu’s government wants Hamas because the conflict keeps Bibi out of prison, and Hamas wants to remain relevant. All the same, the Israeli and Palestinian people are the ones who suffer due to both regimes being in power, and Hamas doesn’t shed its guilt just because Israel doesn’t want a reasonable Palestinian government. Neither side wants to blink because they have multi-generational hatred for the other side, and that means popular support for further violence probably isn’t going anywhere. You back down! No, you back down!
The result is that neither side is going to take real steps to deescalate, because both sides benefit from the conflict. That the Palestinians are suffering more, by orders of magnitude, doesn’t make either side’s position any less entrenched: Bibi wants to stay in power (and free), and Hamas wants to remain relevant and in power, and they’re more justified now than ever. Both regimes need to be replaced.
He meets the kids and hands them each a Coke as a way of presenting himself as friendly and generous–and it looks like a marketing money shot; I wish I could find a gif of it. Those Cokes look like ambrosia from heaven.
And then a few scenes later he’s putting out kids’ eyes to make them more effective beggars.
I can’t ever think about Coke marketing anymore without being reminded of the most evil thing I’ve ever seen committed to film.
https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/Slumdog-Millionaire/images/Slumdog-Millionaire-0272.jpg
But asking a party to amend the contract after you’re in breach and the other party doesn’t know it is a good way to get your contract rewritten by the court or worse.
Free Palestine.
Netanyahu and many of the leaders of the IDF should stand trial for war crimes (and the US should continue to be a close ally to the Israeli people and their new government).
That said, what’s fascinating about this to me as an American is the success with which the US evangelical political right has convinced its base that the Israel of 2024 is one with the Israel of 1000 BC. As much as I appreciate the reality that the US is somewhat stuck, geopolitically (a fact that many well-meaning American “leftists” fail to recognize), that American Christians aren’t the ones raising hell about the genocide of Palestinian Christians really betrays where their true allegiance lies.
No war but the class war.
Because Trump isn’t the only one who would be harmed. The CIA has a duty to protect the country and the office of the president. No one in the US government is going to reveal that a sitting president was an agent of a foreign power except in the presence of overwhelming public evidence.
Just how bad it really is will be declassified in 50 years or so, just like every other major, damaging government secret. National stability and credibility is just too important.
Violence. I hate it, but that’s the plan. Fight to survive by any means necessary. Things are going to get real scarce.
Community is definitely the winning ticket though. Get neighbors you trust.
I mean, sure, this is a propaganda piece by a not-at-all-trustworthy rag that might as well be an extension of the IDF in this context.
But anyone who thinks women aren’t getting raped in war has never studied history. Are Oct 7 captives being sexually assaulted? Of course they are. Are Gazans also being sexually assaulted? Again, yes. Are female Ukrainian POWs being sexually assaulted? Almost certainly. Russian female POWs? Also yes. Anywhere there’s regular violence, sexual violence doesn’t follow far behind.
Every state, paramilitary, terrorist organization, and militia that has ever fired a shot in anger wants to be seen as honorable fighters with a righteous cause who respect the rules of war, and yet there’s not a single one of the same groups who hasn’t also been shown to torture and kill children, civilians, and POWs, and rape and sexually abuse women, both combatants and civilians.
No war but the class war.
Christ, this asshole.
It’s actually Rama, this asshole, apparently.
US bad. Got it.
Yeah, my bad. I forgot how cool it is to just spout whatever bullshit you want. Hurray for ignorance.
No wonder humanity is doomed.