#Political blowback

[simply-ivanka]

#EU #Palestinans #Israel #Political blowback #just the beginning #Gaza #Hamas #Iran

[hussyknee]

You are right on every account in that tiktk reblog tags, except for one thing. Putin maybe didn't veto humanitarian corridors, but he sure did shell them. Several times.

Oh. I knew he'd sabotaged them somehow but I forgot how. Hard to keep track of all his war crimes. I didn't mean to imply that he was better for allowing one, just that he knew how to play the optics better, which is what I meant by "how is Biden WORSE at spinning a narrative than Putin". I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I was giving him any credit whatsoever.

Also I started out by saying that the previous Israeli governments colluded with the US and conceded to ceasefires so that they could pick civilians off one by one while the US played up their PR by playing the mediator. I meant that context to be carried into Putin's actions too but I realize that wasn't obvious. The man only tries to look like he's playing ball if it serves his agenda better.

Imperialists are all like that tbh. If you want to know the difference between a fascist and an imperialist, it's that the fascist thinks too small.

#also i am so sorry for having to hear the constant comparisons to ukraine #from so much of the pro-palestine left #yes victims tend to be humanized more if they're white #but it overlooks the fact that it would still not have mattered if putin wasnt an enemy of the west #that's what separates ukraine from palestinians. y'all happened to become victims to the political interests of opposing imperialists #none of these people give one good goddamn about what happens to the countries themselves and the people in them #y'all are all just pawns in these fuckers expansionist colonial agendas and their sympathies are all just as fake #it breaks my heart to see people who are suffering the same way under the same power structures to be pitted against each other #as though there's only so much empathy and moral conscience to go around #i really hope the blowback against the biden administration for palestine doesnt sabotage the single good cause the US has backed since WWII #it's like usamericans think the only two choices are imperialism or apathy #asks #wintersmitth #war in ukraine #putin #free palestine #imperialism #knee of huss

[kaelio]

#really clever structuring on this #well hope it holds up #otoh the SC is nakedly political #and might not want the blowback #student loans #loan repayment

[warwickroyals]

Torn between admonishing Ontario for not voting and allowing a Conservative majority and the threat of a more privatized health care system becoming a reality for me as a disabled person . . . And then seeing how a Democratic Presidency, House, and Senate could not codify Roe v Wade despite having ample opportunity to do showing that voting really does not prevent these things from happening. Feels bad, man.

#warwick.text #non-sims #anyway if you're canadian and you think the blowback from roe v. wade being repealed won't have an impact here . . . you're wrong #google 'the americanization of canada' and you'll see what i mean #there are violently anti-abortion candidates running for federal conservative leadership RIGHT NOW #we import and adopt far-right political discorse from the us all the time #fucking educate yourself before getting on here and posting about how canada is better for the love of god

[sanstropfremir]

As a fan, the members def also feel this break was long overdue. They announced it casually in a dinner & drinks video for their anniversary. They were planning this back in 2019 since they felt burned out but covid & they implied that they wish they had gone on break back then. I do think we are going to see them in like 3-4 years and they're still are doing their variety content show. They were pretty insightful about how they feel they've lost sight of why they're doing this and who they are.

tbh i think it's likely going to be closer to the outset of four years because they all still have to enlist. it's not probable that they'll release any music with members missing so they'll have to wait until they're all back, so unless they all go for active duty all at the same time literally right now, the shortest plausible time frame is at least three years. exo is in their third year of military era and there's still two of them that have to go, so its going to be another two years at least before they're all back. and that's with exo still having incomplete comebacks every year and change. if all the members want to put out solo projects they either have to have them all planned and executed already so they can fire off all seven of them in six months, or they'll stagger them out slowly with enlistment and everyone will be back in around four to five years.

#im not entirely sure that intl fans understand the severity of military service #it's serious business and they can't keep putting it off without there being some serious domestic blowback #political opinions aside im absolutely not advocating for it but it is an integral part of korean society rn #the four oldest have to enlist by the end of this year by law and jin is overdue at this point #answers #text #875 #also thanks for the confirmation! glad to know my foresight is just that good lmao #please accept my condolences i'm sure this day has been rough for you #idk maybe they can expedite production processes bc they have absurd amounts of money and it will be shorter. idk #with got7 it still took a year for all of them to solo debut and that was with two of them overlapping a promo period #sorry this answer is so granular abt things that dont matter but my brain is not working any more i need to go to bed lmao #im so very tired

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Blowback

At the beginning of June 2017, the Conservative Party won my local seat by 346 votes. It had been Corbyn fever in the town all year and there had been a big drive to, for once, get the young people out to vote, it was almost a forgone conclusion that the seat would go to Labour… and then some local idiots ruined everything. For some bizarre reason, a bunch of very organised fools thought is…

View On WordPress

#blowback #negative publicity #noble cause corruption #Politics #spite

[immaculatasknight]

What you can't unsee

#Ukraine #CIA #Nazi #war criminals #ratlines #recruitment #cold war #politics #fascist networks #blowback #books

[aspiringbelle]

Washington: "Let's arm the mujahedin to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan! What could go wrong?"

(Results: Eastern Bloc demographic reversal, 9:11)

Washington: "Let's take out Saddam! We'll be welcomed as liberators!"

(Results: Rise of Daesh, destabilization of Mideast)

Washington: "Let's go after Libya! Nobody cares about them!"

(Results: Arms to Daesh in Syria, Terror attacks from Mali to Manchester. Refugee Crisis.)

Washington: "Let's back the rebels in Syria! They're on our side!"

(Results: Daesh attacks Europe, USA, Canada. Refugee Crisis.)

Washington: "Let's force out Yanukovich!"

(Results: Nazis rise, from Charlottesville to Christchurch)

Washington: "Let's get Prighozin to fight Putin!"

(Me preparing to duck and cover)

#politics #tw blowback

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

I've made this post way too many times already but again, any analysis of Russian state-sponsored homo/transphobia is incomplete without considering 1) the disastrous fallout of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the political ascendancy of US-backed reactionaries such as Putin, and 2) the blowback effect the use of LGBTQ rights by US imperialism to justify itself has had not just in Russia but throughout the world, is incomplete and incorrect.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Bennett Closely Guarded Since Communist Threat,” Toronto Star. May 16, 1932. Page 1. ---- Rides 200 Yards From Hotel Suite to His Office ---- ESCORTED BY R.C.M.P. ---- Special to The Star Ottawa, May 16 - Ever since the Communists threatened to come to Ottawa and take possession of the Commons chamber while they presented their demands for a repeal of section 98 of the Criminal Code, Premier Bennett has enjoyed the protection of secret services attending, according to a report concerning which R.C.M.P. authorities refused to comment. It could not be learned today whether the assassination of Premier Doumer of France and Premier Inukai of Japan had resulted in any addition to these bodyguards.

Premier Bennett used to make a habit of walking to and from his residence to his office in the parliament. He seldom does this now, except when escorted back and forth by authorities, although the distance is only a couple of hundred yards. Sometimes he walks down from the front entrance of the parliament buildings to the main gate, 100 yards in front, and is there picked up by his chauffeur.

On occasions when the prime minister had dines at the Rideau Club a plainclothesmen of the R.C.M.P. has been observed standing by the main gate, evidently waiting for Mr. Bennett to return to his offices in the parliament buildings.

#ottawa #prime minister of canada #house of commons #section 98 #bennett government #r. b. bennett #bodyguards #political protest #communism #communists #communist party of canada #canadian labor defence league #royal canadian mounted police #iron heel #blowback #great depression in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #crime and punishment in canada

[zvaigzdelasas]

The defeat of a liberal Portland prosecutor at the hands of a tough-on-crime challenger has hardened a view among top White House officials that Democrats need to further distance themselves from their left flank on law-and-order issues.[...]

The White House is banking on the idea that voters will reward them for public efforts to crack down on immigration and boost spending on law enforcement — and, perhaps as importantly, that the liberal forces that so effectively moved the party away from those planks in 2020 won’t punish the president come November.[...]

But the president has not needed much convincin[sic] [...] having personally favored an approach that emphasizes more traditional support for law enforcement alongside criminal justice reforms. Biden spent much of his half century in politics as an ardent advocate for law enforcement and anti-crime measures, a reputation that complicated his path to the 2020 Democratic nomination amid scrutiny over his role in passing a controversial 1994 crime bill.

And even as the broader party shifted leftward [sic] on issues like police funding and immigration during that period, Biden sought to stake out a middle ground that often put him out of step with his progressive base — perhaps most notably using his first State of the Union address in 2022 to exhort lawmakers to “fund the police.”

In recent months, Biden has warned advisers that scenes of chaos at the border or crime in cities pose an increasing political danger. They risk turning off the independent and suburban voters, he’s said, who may be repulsed by much of Donald Trump’s policies and personality but could be willing to vote for him anyway in the name of public safety.[...]

Biden and his senior-most aides are united on the need to push for greater border security. [...]

“The narrative about Democrats on crime became deeply distorted after Defund the Police became kind of a thing,” [sic] said Matt Bennett, executive vice president for public affairs at the center-left think tank Third Way. “In fact, [Biden] has been very aggressive about funding the police, and has flipped around that narrative in ways that I think are really helpful.”[...]

The White House, to that end, has battered Republicans in recent days over their abandonment of a bipartisan border security bill that would’ve imposed strict new limits on immigration.

The legislation, which Senate Democrats are forcing a vote on for the second time this week, has fueled blowback among progressive and Latino lawmakers who blasted its “extreme and unworkable enforcement-only policies.”

But Biden has fully embraced the measure, repeatedly emphasizing the tough restrictions it’d put in place and criticizing Republicans for stalling the bill solely to avoid handing him an election-year victory. The White House is also preparing an executive order on immigration as a fallback, in a long-germinating [sic] display of his commitment to a border crackdown.

The president has also made a point of voicing support for law enforcement in recent weeks. He refused to criticize police conducting mass arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, even as he backed the right [sic] to peacefully protest. And he’s repeatedly touted a plan to invest $37 billion in crime provision [...]

There is also deep-seated fear throughout the party of the alternative: A Trump presidency that has made clear it would prioritize mass deportations and sharp shifts away from the progress [sic] Biden has made on other criminal justice issues like gun violence prevention.

23 May 24

[vague-humanoid]

also it was Israel who chose Hamas

This isn’t a conspiracy theory. Listen to former Israeli officials such as Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s. Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”)“The Israeli government gave me a budget,” the retired brigadier general confessed, “and the military government gives to the mosques.”“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than two decades, told the Wall Street Journal in 2009. Back in the mid-1980s, Cohen even wrote an official report to his superiors warning them not to play divide-and-rule in the Occupied Territories, by backing Palestinian Islamists against Palestinian secularists. “I … suggest focusing our efforts on finding ways to break up this monster before this reality jumps in our face,” he wrote.They didn’t listen to him. And Hamas, as I explain in the fifth installment of my short film series for The Intercept on blowback, was the result. To be clear: First, the Israelis helped build up a militant strain of Palestinian political Islam, in the form of Hamas and its Muslim Brotherhood precursors; then, the Israelis switched tack and tried to bomb, besiege, and blockade it out of existence.In the past decade alone, Israel has gone to war with Hamas three times — in 2009, 2012, and 2014 — killing around 2,500 Palestinian civilians in Gaza in the process. Meanwhile, Hamas has killed far more Israeli civilians than any secular Palestinian militant group. This is the human cost of blowback.“When I look back at the chain of events, I think we made a mistake,” David Hacham, a former Arab affairs expert in the Israeli military who was based in Gaza in the 1980s, later remarked. “But at the time, nobody thought about the possible results.”They never do, do they?

#Palestine #child murder

[mariacallous]

you don't have to answer if you think it'll give you too much blowback but I think Biden's Israel strategy is that he thinks Bibi is likelier to listen to him if he gives US support than if he pulled the plug on support entirely, and he thinks Bibi would be even more unhinged if the US turned on him, so it's a harm reduction approach to diplomacy . There aren't any good options so he's taking the option that'll lose him the least votes domestically and what MIGHT result in Bibi being less awful. People can disagree with this strategy but it's frustrating to see the people who call him Genocide Joe not reading the news stories of the Biden administration putting immense pressure on the Israeli gov't behind the scenes. like idk maybe real diplomacy might work better in foreign policy than performative slogans and speeches ...

Unfortunately I think that’s exactly the calculation, and I do also think that it’s probably the best option available. Netanyahu and his government have made no secret of how extreme they are, and how little they care, both about people they disagree with/are opposed to and things like norms and morals. His government is also one that is prone to disproportionate reactions, both militarily and otherwise. All of that is to say that the options available and the outcomes are limited.

The US has also very poorly handled things in the Middle East (huge “no shit” moment there, I know, and obviously not just in the Middle East) historically and recently, and between the Trump administration left things in general and their specific actions re: Israel, the cards the US holds are very weak, and completely pulling support for Israel and doing the political and policy equivalents of chanting “from the river to the sea” a) makes Netanyahu and his government even more extreme and unresponsive and therefore they *really* can just go off and do what they want, since any restraining or moderating influence is completely gone, b) pushes them even closer to Russia and other powers who would welcome that kind of realignment and split, c) will cause Iran and its proxies (Hezbollah and Hamas) to be even more active and empowered and violent and d) is completely unhelpful for both Israeli and Palestinian civilians who would suffer more.

Because of how Biden has been handling things, we’ve gotten more aid in to Palestinians, more pressure to stop harming them, and more credit and support among the Israeli citizens, which puts even more pressure from above and below on Netanyahu, and it’s being done in a way that makes it difficult for Netanyahu and his government to try to use it or publicize it, plus it’s a steady pressure.

Is there more he could and should be doing? Absolutely. More aid and support going to Palestinians. Pushing even more on Egypt to open relief corridors. Less military aid being sent to Israel currently. But there’s no button or switch that can be used which just stops what’s happening.

[phoenixyfriend]

A lot has been happening today that rep calls could affect. UN vetoes, KOSA, Julian Assange, UNRWA's funding crisis and Israel's demands that it be completely dismantled, the large number of bills we just learned are on the docket for the coming week, and even the good news that is recent successes by the BDS movement.

And like... I care about this stuff. I want to talk about it. But it takes an emotional and mental toll to do it, and it takes time, and... there are two reasons to write up reference, update, information posts:

Compensation. I'm not a journalist, but if I were, I would in theory be getting paid for the information I collect and share to my audience. However, I am not, and am doing this for free. I have gotten maybe $5 in donations since I started this project, and while I recognize that this is probably because people are (quite rightly) donating instead to Palestinian charities or local campaigns or something, it's a basic fact that I am not actually being compensated for this work.

Promoting change and activism. This is in fact my main goal: to have a positive impact on current events by giving people a guide on the news and politics because there's so much happening that's hard to keep track of, and if I'm already doom-listening to half a dozen political podcasts, I might as well save other people the trouble, right?

The thing is, like... most of the reblogs on my guidelines and helpful posts are from me, to me. I am the one reblogging. I am desperately trying to get these things to circulate so I can make a difference, but... no dice. Some of the posts are admittedly pretty long (my 'how to call your reps, here's some verbiage' post is 3.4k words), and I can imagine some people are saving it for later, and then maybe forget, or they don't want to share something controversial, and like... I do get that. I do.

But it does mean the posts aren't circulating, and thus they're having less of an impact, and I can't help but feel like there are other things I could be doing to help that would be more effective. More bang for my buck, except it's my time and effort instead of my money. Like, maybe it would have more an effect if I hunted down a wider variety of elected officials I could bother instead of instructing other people on how to bother theirs? Maybe going to protests (which would be a huge commitment due to distance) would be more effective than trying to help ensure that the effectiveness of "I actually have a vote and you are losing it" of calls has the weight of numbers behind it.

Especially since I did try to blaze it, and tumblr mods rejected the post. I don't know why. It's not against ToS, since none of it was disinformation or election interference, which is the only reason given on the FAQ for why things might not be approved for blazing, but who knows.

Maybe tumblr just decided the possible blowback on them for blazing a pro-ceasefire post would be too much.

I don't know. I just... it's just really disheartening to try to help and it gets stymied because, as much effort as it might be, it doesn't reach more than a (comparatively) tiny audience, especially when my relatively low-effort polls and shitposts get easily ten times as many notes with way less energy put in.

EDIT: This is not a post that I need to have reblogged. this is just me bitching. This a vent post. What I am asking people to reblog is my activism posts that I spend hours on to try and help nudge things in a better direction. Please reblog THOSE. This one doesn't need reblogging unless you have an actual comment. Reblogging this post just to reblog, with neither useful comment nor encouragement, is not helping me with my issue of 'not paid, not making an impact' or helping with any important causes.

#personal #vent post #phoenix politics

[hotvampireadjacent]

Just started listening to the blowback podcast about the Iraq war. Good stuff. I never knew the full story bc. You know I was like 6 when it happened and not keeping up with world politics then.

Of course I knew America did a shit ton of horrible thing in Iraq but hearing the details and how we got there is still a lot.

#hurff durff

[grison-in-space]

Wrapping up the Guards! Guards! reread, I hit this passage from Vetinari to Vimes and have to pause to snicker because Vetinari is just so damn young here:

“A great rolling sea of evil,” he said, almost proprietorially. “Shallower in some places, of course, but deeper, oh, so much deeper in others. But people like you put together little rafts of rules and vaguely good intentions and say, this is the opposite, this will triumph in the end. Amazing!” He slapped Vimes good-naturedly on the back. “Down there,” he said, “are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don’t say no. I’m sorry if this offends you,” he added, patting the captain’s shoulder, “but you fellows really need us.” “Yes, sir?” said Vimes quietly. “Oh, yes. We’re the only ones who know how to make things work. You see, the only thing the good people are good at is overthrowing the bad people. And you’re good at that, I’ll grant you. But the trouble is that it’s the only thing you’re good at. One day it’s the ringing of the bells and the casting down of the evil tyrant, and the next it’s everyone sitting around complaining that ever since the tyrant was overthrown no one’s been taking out the trash. Because the bad people know how to plan. It’s part of the specification, you might say. Every evil tyrant has a plan to rule the world. The good people don’t seem to have the knack.”

Ah, yes, sir: because you are very evil, what with the assuming power largely, as far as I can tell, because you're offended by how poorly the system works; you whose first career move was to work to create stability in the city in a bid to minimize blowback, you who are above everything else practical and focused on utilitarianism. Uhhuh.

He's so young. Almost everyone in Guards! Guards! is, of course--Carrot with his law book most obviously--but with Vimes the alcoholic depression and the despairing cynicism has its hooks in so deeply that the overall impact is hard to see. By contrast, moving from Making Money to Guards! Guards! reveals a Vetinari who is almost embarrassingly green relative to the Vetinari who trains Moist: he is constantly making arrogant mistakes (ie "there's no dragons, that's nonsense") that his older self would be mortified to see, and then there's little pronouncements like this.

And for that matter, Vetinari himself should know full well that his "bad people" don't necessarily bother with much planning, either; just look at Mad Lord Snapcase. It's possible to view this through a Doylist lens--we just know a lot more about the history of Ankh Morpork by later books than Pterry did when he was writing this one. But I like to integrate Watsonian interpretations into my readings of the text, and so I enjoy thinking about this as partly a bid to undermine any support Vimes might be lending to any bids for power Carrot might make. After all, Carrot hasn't made any commentary about his sword one way or another; it's unclear to both Vetinari and the reader whether Carrot knows about the long lost heir of the city thing, and even more unclear what Carrot might choose to do in the absence of a giant flaming dragon having declared itself king.

Vetinari is in a fairly precarious place in this book, having been Patrician for only a relatively short time as far as I can tell, and after all there has just been an extraordinarily popular movement to replace the entire office of the Patrician with a hereditary king. If Carrot chose to, he could make life quite difficult for Vetinari: he might not win a theoretical power struggle, but he could certainly cost quite a bit of political capital and considerable public belief in Vetinari's ability to create stability. And Vimes, as Carrot's immediate supervisor and erstwhile human mentor, is the single person most likely to be able to influence Carrot away from that leg of the Trousers of Time.

It's an interesting way to plea for the support of a man like Vimes, I'll put it that way. It's wholly truthful and quite earnest, and it's not particularly manipulative: if anything, it paints Vetinari in quite a lot worse light than he could make a reasonable claim to being. It also avoids tugging on at least one equally truthful argument that could be expected to tug on Vimes' own sentiments: Vetinari is, for all his flaws and autocratic opinions, at the very least not a king. While he holds power, there will be no monarchs, no Lorenzo the Kinds to claim divine right to rule. I suppose it's also possible that Ventinari simply didn't know, of course, but--it's such an interesting little speech from a character perspective.

#discworld #guards! guards!