To him, it’s win-win. Either he expands territory and genocides Ukraine, or her consolidates power as a wartime dictator and commits internal genocide by purging dissidents, ethnic minorities, etc. All the while further concentrating power.

Our modern Hitler.

Israel is a terrorist state. No different than Russia.

No, not all; just more so than you.

Yes he is. He’s pretty much Hitler in every way. What, are you waiting for 1940s Hitler and literal gas chambers to pop up until the dots become connected?

• Invading foreign nation under the false pretenses of protecting Ethnic minorities.
• All the while actively purging dissidents inside Russia.

Seems pretty Hitler-like to me. You’re right, Hitler didn’t listen to calls for him to step down either.

It would be great if we stopped spending money on fighting Hitler, but why can’t we all just adopt an anti-war position and give Hitler what he wants rather than out-warmonger him!?

Genius plan.

You want the warmongering to stop? Then get on Telegram and starting telling that to Russians. Tell Putin.

Reminder that Zelenskyy basically called Trump’s bluff on his plan, encouraging him to share it now.

“I could make a deal with Hitler to stop this war tomorrow!”

No they’re not the good guys, but it’s also important to understand radicalization doesn’t manifest out of thin air. Like a child who suffers abuse and abuse and abuse, there can often come a breaking point, whether that’s suicidal or homicidal ideation. Oxford shooter comes to mind. Radicalization/terrorism is effectively this at a larger collective scale. People don’t just suddenly wake up one day wanting to murder a bunch of civilians. Such animosity is trans-generational and deeply rooted.

What are some of the ingredients to radicalization?

• Lack of opportunity. (infrastructure in rubble)
• Lack of education. (schools now in rubble.)
• A deep feeling of being oppressed or a perceived injustice unresolved. (lack of free travel, blockades, territorial annexation)
• Pure desperation or loss of all hope. (orphans, parents who lost their kids).

That isn’t to excuse it, but to understand it and hint at solutions.

Ultimately religion to paraphrase Seneca is a source of hope for the downtrodden, a tool for the powerful, and an excuse for the wicked. It’s why you see such an overlap with extremism.

I’m pro-civilian above all else. When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, I condemned it. When Israel inflicted dozens of October 7ths upon civilians of Gaza, I too have continued to condemn it.

Is… Is there a Hamas command center under me right now?

I’m seriously getting close to saying they should ask for forgiveness than permission.

Alternatively, the US should just give permission and publicly deny, no differently than Russia’s little green men of 2014. “Oops, how did that long-range ATACMS missile get there!?”

Pretty sick and tired of giving Putin the edge while Bibi is getting anything he wants as he absolutely annihilates civilians.

What they usually do, just relabel who is who in the video. Or yes, claim this is staged.

Thanks for the good discussion.

Well I think it’s pretty lighthearted. See, you put them in a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t situation. After all, how many times do you hear about how distant from the people politicians are? How unrelatable. Too little and they’re not “one of us,” and too much and it’s, “This is inappropriate, get back to work!” To me this shows a more human aspect of a personality, and certainly this was less-than-official business — and Blinken is still human after all.

We’re sort of trying, but not on the same level as if it was happening in Philly or Austin or something (or in Tel Aviv.)

Well to be fair, it is happening in Philly and Austin. From drug addiction to childhood homelessness — maybe not to the extent of what is depicted in Gaza, naturally, but there is certainly a massive amount of dissonance at play when you juxtapose the Olympics and some rich man’s 5th yacht and what our bottom 1st percentile is going through. Still, I get what you’re saying. In that respect, it is indeed a duty of the people to hold their leadership to account.

From the position of Blinken, with their experience and with what intelligence reports and conversations they’ve had behind closed doors, I again can’t say I envy their position — especially when public-facing positions cannot always give the full story on what is classified behind the scenes.

Keep in mind the intermittency of our support to Ukraine falls almost eentirely on Republican opposition; after all, it was Trump who directed Mike Johnson to block aid — and ultimately, aid to Ukraine was blocked for an entire year. So we can nitpick the low-hanging fruit of whether X system or capability should’ve been granted sooner, but again, I’m not the one responsible for American lives both here and abroad first and foremost. (and with that, I seriously doubt Mike Pompeo and a Trump administration would’ve negotiated such an impressive prisoner swap for innocent Americans). Arguably if Republicans wouldn’t backstab us for eScalAtiOn and stop spreading Russian propaganda among their media outlets (having a conversation with my FIL last week, he parroted this exact shit), then we’d have complete solidarity. Not unlike Obama’s Syrian red line on chemical weapons, which then Republican Congressmen refused to support a response.

Ultimately let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good; especially when the alternative is evil. Nobody is perfect, and if you put yourself or me in that position I guarantee the bluster would change on a dime.

To your point on the song choice, you can look at it like that; but you can also look at it that Blinken is the type of guy who grew up listening to Neil Young; to Crosby Stills; to Buffalo Springfield; to Bruce Springsteen, etc. And that may signal exactly where he’s coming from. That if you sat down with him, I suspect you’d get some poignant answers as to why he chose that song. I’m just saying, don’t be so quick to judge without hearing his perspective — for just like, “Why are we still giving aid to Israel?” is far more complicated as I tried to show. I like the guy. I think he’s down to earth and I’m just so thankful we have thoughtful minds in office as opposed to that shit-stain Pompeo who preceded him.

Edit: I got curious and I watched this. JESUS CHRIST MAKE IT STOP. As with many things, George Carlin said it far more succinctly than I could.

LOL. No comment.

The US State Dept does a lot of good work and I’m not going to subscribe to this notion that they’re some inherently evil entity; sounds like tankie pro-CCP thing to say, if I’m being honest. The state department is a tool whose use is dependent on the party that is in power. The vast majority of “imperial” criticism I have revolves around its use under Republican administrations; chiefly the neocons of the Bush era, and the Trump administration. If you’ll remember:

• Bush was responsible for Iraq
• Bush was responsible for Afghanistan
• Obama & Biden was responsible for withdrawing (and getting Bin Laden in the first place)
• Trump killed more civilians in one year (2017) than Obama & Biden’s presidencies combined.
• There has been no “imperial” ambitions under the Biden administration; quite the opposite, really in countering imperial ambitions of Putin, while also coming down harder on Israel than quite literally any past Presidential administration in history, with more to come I guarantee.

Now to the real source of what’s pissing you off:

WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SENDING WEAPONS TO ISRAEL STILL

I’ll tell you the cold, hard, honest brutal truth why:

1. Because the election is 62 days away. Withdrawing aid from Israel will immediately by framed by right-wing media, Republican opposition, AIPAC, Russian and Israeli troll farms as being “Antisemitic.” Forget the fact that the Jewish-American group who normally votes Democrat is far larger (and sympathetic to Israel) than the vehemently Anti-Aid group.

2. Nuttyahoo will conveniently ignore “intelligence reports” (again) of an impending terrorist attack by Hamas, then immediately point the finger at Democrats, “Why did the evil Democrats leave us defenseless!?” — And allllllllllllll the gullible low-info voters will fall for this hook, line, and sinker. <- Hint: This would be this election’s October Surprise.

3. It seems blatantly obvious that the second this election is over and Harris is in power that the tone is going to shift drastically both with Putin and Bibi.

4. Ultimately, 62 days of trying to carve the largest electorate possible to defeat Trump is more important than acting now only to lose to Trump and then have him immediately reverse and cause hell in both Ukraine and Israel for 4 years… Or more. Battles vs. Wars thinking at play, here.

Now I don’t think Blinken or Biden or Harris are some evil psychopaths akin to Trump or Putin who do not care. Do you really have that impression? Hopefully not. If so, then you need to ask yourself, “Why would they support this?” Do you really think they like to be associated with Bibi’s war crimes? And herein lies one’s first lesson in an administration not being able to outright say the 4 points I listed above to the public and why there seems to be a disconnect between what we see and what they’re doing.

(Also Blinken can actually jam pretty well and is pretty well known around DC. Yeah, he’s politician first, musician third but you know… At least he’s got good taste in music and at least he’s got the balls to go to Kyiv in the first place unlike his predecessors.)

I don’t think people realize just how disastrous all these fires in the world would be if it was still Mike “Pomous” Pompeo still in charge. If I’m honest I think Blinken is one of the best Secretary of States that I can remember. I’d pretty much mirror his approach were I in his shoes. But I don’t envy his position.

Bonus: Blinken playing, “Rockin’ in the Free World” in a Kyiv night club a few months ago.

They did. They’re just announcing some of what they’ve been doing now.

Since when did Bibi ever listen to the courts? Keep going.

You’re absolutely right. I thought about this later and meant to come back and edit.

I saw more than I should’ve with the recent Kharkiv bombings by Russia.

Ukraine should absolutely be able to strike as far as they desire into Russia.

After all, it’s not escalation; it’s parity.

These Fuckers made the exact same excuse when they struck the World Central Kitchen convoy back in April.

All their rhetorical damage control speaks exactly like the Kremlin.

Even if it turns out true, boy, have they lost all trust.

Gaza, mostly thanks to Israel, remains the most dangerous conflict for aid workers now and perhaps in history.

• USAID - Samantha Power: "The United Nations recently described Gaza as the “most dangerous place in the world for aid workers,” and in my own engagements with partners working there, aid workers have consistently described the conditions and dangers they face as among the worst they have ever seen throughout decades of responding to crises. "

• UK Guardian - Amy Neilson: "I have worked in the world’s most dangerous combat zones. Never have I felt as unsafe as I did in Gaza.

Don’t forget when IDF killed 3 Israeli hostages escaping Hamas who were shirtless, unarmed, and waving a white flag.

At every turn, Israel and Bibi need to be associated with Russia and Putin — for that’s exactly how they behave.