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#twitter is the enemy of the american people
eretzyisrael · 2 days
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For those who don't have X/twitter:
IMPORTANT TO READ
How much money does every American citizen pay to Israel every year out of his taxpayer's money?
US population is approximately 300 million, or 0.3 billion people.
US government invests approximately $3.8 billion per year into Israel. Do the math: $3.8 / 0.3 = $12.6 — that’s more or less the price of a 2 x 6-pack of Budweiser in 16-oz cans, a year.
75% of the aid must be spent in the US, which means the purchase of US military technology.
HOWEVER, HERE COMES THE IMPORTANT PART TO READ AND SHARE BECAUSE YOU WON’T GET IT FROM JOURNALISTS.
1.) The aid money sent as coupons to be spent in the US returns to the US as wages. Wages to workers at various companies, who then purchase from local business in the US, food, goods, entertainment and other items and services. It comes with further strings attached preventing Israel competing with US firms and further enhancing US profits.
2.) The US in return gets billions a year in recommendations for improvements to that technology as the Israelis use it—some of those improvements are saving US lives in other places. (Israel gets weapons, do thousands of man-hours to upgrade it for the Americans.
Since often the opponents of Israel use Russian weapons, the US gets the intelligence on the capabilities of those Russian systems as to keep ahead of Russian technology that might be used against the US. Similarly the US gets the benefit of Israeli technology in missile defense, which has saved the US billions in development.
In other words, Israel is a significant test bed for US military hardware. For example, it was mostly Israeli-flown but US-built F-15 fighter jets that accrued the F-15’s enviable record.
Further, Israeli intelligence services augment the CIA and have been considered VASTLY superior to the CIA capabilities in our part of the world—saving the US billions.
Further Israel has been a tool for US policy, such as mobilizing to prevent the overthrow of Jordan’s government during a planned Syrian intervention in a civil war, and information to governments as to terrorist attacks and assassinations planned on friendly nations.
The US has no troops in Israel, like it does to protect allies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan, Germany, South Korea. The aid to Israel is cheaper, and no US soldiers are put in harms way.
(The cost of maintaining a US military presence in Germany and Japan, very wealthy nations which exist in much less volatile or strategic regions, is estimated to cost US taxpayers at least $20 billion per year for each nation. Israel is quite a bargain in comparison.)
BUT THAT’S NOT THE END.
3.) If America will stop the aid, the US military production will collapse. Tens of thousands of Americans (approx. 50,000) will loose their jobs, and US military will be required to use outdated military equipment because America doesn’t have wars and won’t create wars in order to test weapons.
For this purpose America has Israel, Ukraine, and other places including Colombia, Ethiopia.
4.) Note that Israel is a wealthy country. $3.8 billion of aid is about 1% of Israeli budget, and about 10% of Israeli defense budget. Without American taxpayer money, Israeli army would be almost as powerful as it is now. We don’t really have a powerful army because of an over-abundance of wealth from foreign aid.
We have a powerful army much because of an over-abundance of enemies.
Food for thought. So to all the “journalists” fearmongers who warn about some crisis between the states, not gonna happen. Chill. 🫵🏻
Send this to Kamala Harris and to pro-Hamas ISIS rioters and ignorants from New-York.
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sarasade · 4 months
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One of the most generally useful things to come out of Hbomberguy's plagiarism video and Todd in the Shadows' similar video on misinformation is how they bring transparency to the internet phenomenon of "I made up a guy to get mad at".
Seriously, I've seen people make up a lot of stupid shit on the internet over the years and it's often just a manipulative attempt to paint a group of marginalized people in a bad light.
That's the TL;DR version of this post. 
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ANYWAY here is the long version
Those videos are mostly about James Somerton's plagiarism of other queer people's work. However I'd like to talk about that 20-30% of Somerton's original writing- and oh boy. It's mostly about complaining about White Straight Women and misgendering well-known trans creators such as Rebecca Sugar and calling Becky Albertalli a straight woman while it's pretty common knowledge that she was forced to out herself as bi because she received so much harassment over "being a cishet woman who appropriates LGBT+ stories".
One thing that irks me especially is how in his Killing Stalking and Gay Shipping videos Somerton brings up how straight women/ teen girl shippers exploit gay men for their personal sexual fantasies. This gets brought up several times in his videos.
Being all up and arms about Somerton being a "White Cis Gay Who Hates Women and Queer People tm" is not that useful because the kind of rhetoric he's using is extremely common in fandom and LGBT+ spaces on Tumblr, TikTok and Twitter. We really don't need to bring Somerton's identity to this since he is in no way an unique example.
It's hypocritical to make this about an individual person when I've seen A TON of posts, tweets and videos where queer people talk about these Sinister Straight Women who are supposedly out there fetishizing and exploiting queer men. It's pretty clear to me that this is just an excuse to shit on women and queer people for having any sexual interests. At worst these comments are spreading misinformation about BL, a form of media that has been excessively studied by both Asian feminists and Asian queer women.
This all sounds really familiar and I think it's good that people are calling it out as what it is: misogyny and transphobia. I'd also point out the potentially racist motives behind being this hypervigilant about Asian media.
People can absolutely be misogynist regardless of gender or orientation. I really don't know why we need to create some kind of made up enemy to get mad at. I actually think it's almost sinister how "anti-fujoshi" people call Slash shippers and fujoshi misogynists or claim that they have internalised misogyny while being dismissive about women's interests and creative pursuits under Japanese obscenity laws, China's censorship, book bans in American schools and various other disadvances that are part of being a queer and/or female creator.
I think we shouldn't be naive about the bad faith actors who want to turn queer people against each other. For example Fujoshi.info mentions anti-gender (TERF, GC etc) movement using this kind of rhetoric as well.
Anyway if you want to read more:
- about the false info around BL fandom fujoshi.info
-There is the scholar Thomas Baudinette who studies gay media in Japan. Here is a podcast with him and the scholar Khursten Santos
-James Welker is a BL scholar as well. Here is a podcast interview about the new international BL article collection he edited.
-I've already talked about this Youtube channel by KrisPNatz and his great Killing Stalking video that actually engages with the themes of the manhwa
- There is also HR Coleman's thesis DO NOT FEED THE FETISHIZERS: BOYS LOVE FANS RESISTANCE AND CHALLENGE OF PERCEIVED REPUTATION where she interviews 36 BL fans and actually breaks down why fetishization has become such a huge talking point in the fandom discourse. Spoilers, it's mostly about young queer people and women being worried that they will get judged and pathologized for their interest in anything sexual.
-Great podcast about Danmei and censorship with Liang Ge
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fiercynn · 5 months
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palestinian poets: rasha abdulhadi
rasha abdulhadi is a queer palestinian southerner with long covid who cut their teeth organizing on the southsides of chicago and atlanta. rasha's writing has appeared in speculative city, liminality, strange horizons, shade journal, mizna, room, itap| magazine, beltway poetry, and lambda literary. their work is anthologized in essential voices: a COVID-19 anthology, unfettered hexes, halal if you hear me, stoked words, and luminescent threads: connections to octavia butler. rasha is a member of justice for muslims collective, the radius of arab american writers, and alternate ROOTS. their small book of poetry is WHO IS OWED SPRINGTIME (neon hemlock press). you can find rasha on twitter.
RASHA'S CALL TO ACTION
"rasha abdulhadi is calling on you, dear reader, to join them in refusing and resisting the genocide of the palestinian people. wherever you are, whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now. if it's a handful, throw it. if it's a fingernail full, scrape it out and throw. get in the way however you can. the elimination of the palestinian people is not inevitable. we can refuse with our every breath and action. we must."
IF YOU READ JUST ONE POEM BY RASHA ABDULHADI, MAKE IT THIS ONE
"Casting Runes" was originally published by fiyah literary magazine in the palestine special issue, which was curated, edited, illustrated and comprised entirely of palestinian creators, in december 2021. the collection was edited by guests nadia shammas and summer farah, and featured cover art by leila aboutaleb.
if you have the means, you can purchase the e-book of the fiyah lit palestine special issue for USD $5.99, the proceeds of which go to medical aid for palestinians.
OTHER POEMS ONLINE THAT I LOVE BY RASHA ABDULHADI
Rabbits at lambda literary
Picking up Rocks at split this rock (also read aloud)
Dad's Combs at beltway poetry
Table of Contents for a Manual of Pandemic Response Protocols at poetry.onl (also read aloud)
Safe Harbor in Enemy Homes at get lit anthology
Build the Graves at the deadlands
How to Build a Dad Out of Bricks at electric lit
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spacelazarwolf · 6 months
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I went to her blog and I think the reason she is calling you (and basically anyone in the jumblr tag) zionist is actually because you are anti-hamas. Here's a few recent posts & reblogs. I'm particularly noting the "single jewish person who agrees with me" and "stop separating gazans (who overwhelmingly hate hamas) from hamas!!" Honestly, I think she sucks and I'm gonna block anyone who likes her posts while I still can, I'm sure I'll be blocked after (if) you post this.
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absolutely shocked that the pro russia tankie who denies the holodomor supports a terrorist group that is actively making palestinians’ lives worse.
also this is so painfully indicative of how little american leftists actually know about what’s going on. they get all their info from other western leftists who get all their info from western leftists who get all their info from twitter. because i don’t know how else so many people can be SO incredibly disconnected from what actual palestinian citizens, particularly gazans, have been trying to speak out about for years regarding hamas. typical tankie “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” activism.
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erik-even-wordier · 1 year
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I really don’t owe my Trump-supporting friends an apology. I’ve been critical of Trump these last several years, and am still exhausted from the experience.
But to be fair, Trump wasn’t that bad…………..other than when:
1. he incited an insurrection against the government,
2. mismanaged a pandemic that killed a million Americans,
3. separated children from their families, lost those children in the bureaucracy,
4. tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church,
5. tried to block all Muslims from entering the country,
6. got impeached,
7. got impeached again,
8. had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history,
9. pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden,
10. fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia,
11. bragged about firing the FBI director on TV,
12. took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community,
13. diverted military funding to build his wall,
14. caused the longest government shutdown in US history,
15. called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate,”
16. lied nearly 30,000 times,
17. banned transgender people from serving in the military,
18. ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions,
19. vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers,
20. refused to release his tax returns,
21. increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion,
22. had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history,
23. called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers,
24. coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist,
25. refused to concede the 2020 election,
26. hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House,
27. walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl,
28. called neo-Nazis “very fine people,”
29. suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID,
30. abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey,
31. pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans,
32. incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic,
33. withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords,
34. withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal,
35. withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances,
36. insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter,
37. pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op,
38. failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies,
39. called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries,
40. called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation,”
41. claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere,
42. forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader,
43. believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,
44. berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe,
45. suggested the US should buy Greenland,
46. colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges,
47. repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people,”
48. claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases,
49. violated the emoluments clause,
50. thought that Nambia was a country,
51. told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public,
52. called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p---y” for following the Constitution,
53. nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet,
54. nominated a corrupt head of the EPA,
55. nominated a corrupt head of HHS,
56. nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department,
57. nominated a corrupt head of the USDA,
58. praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies,
59. refused to allow the presidential transition to begin,
60. insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death,
61. spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president,
62. falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote,
63. called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser,”
64. falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year,
65. considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions,
66. mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID,
67. locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones,
68. used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus,”
69. hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser,
70. pardoned several of his shady associates,
71. gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressmen who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories,
72. got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!),
73. had a Secretary of State who called him a moron,
74. forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history,
75. botched the COVID vaccine rollout,
76. tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him,
77. charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties,
78. constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate,
79. claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear,
80. called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas,”
81. used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise,
82. opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling,
83. got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers,
84. claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US,
85. ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings,
86. blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining,
87. redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle,
88. got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters,”
89. threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution,
90. botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico,
91. threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them,
92. pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes,
93. thought that the Virgin islands had a President,
94. drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane,
95. allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing,
96. rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos,
97. pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID,
98. rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers,
99. held blatant campaign rallies at the White House,
100. tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man,
101. refused to attend his successors’ inauguration,
102. nominated the worst Education Secretary in history,
103. threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted,
104. attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci,
105. promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t),
106. allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues,
107. struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble,
108. called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ,”
109. threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders,
110. went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic,
111. claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,”
112. seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution,
113. demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director,
114. praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles,
115. completely gutted the Voice of America,
116. placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service,
117. claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower,
118. suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country,
119. suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public,
120. overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported,
121. reduced the number of refugees the US accepts,
122. insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames,
123. gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address,
124. named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties,
125. eliminated the White House office of pandemic response,
126. used soldiers as campaign props,
127. fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him,
128. demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade,
129. hired a shit ton of white nationalists,
130. politicized the civil service,
131. did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government,
132. falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts,
133. claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won,
134. insulted reporters of color,
135. insulted women reporters,
136. insulted women reporters of color,
137. suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs,
138. attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him,
139. summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election,
140. spent countless hours every day watching Fox News,
141. refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas,
142. hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer,
143. tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him,
144. acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney,
145. attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a prominent lady who accused him of sexual assault,
146. held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present,
147. didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media,
148. stopped holding press briefings for months at a time,
149. “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power,
150. led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform,
151. claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers,
152. tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course,
153. suggested that the government nuke hurricanes,
154. suggested that wind turbines cause cancer,
155. said that he had a special aptitude for science,
156. fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure,
157. blurted out classified information to Russian officials,
158. tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida,
159. fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban,
160. hired notorious racist Stephen Miller,
161. openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them,
162. interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel,
163. abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war,
164. tried to get Russia back into the G7,
165. held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden,
166. seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive,
167. lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated,
168. falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t,
169. shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies,
170. still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan,
171. still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks,”
172. forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID,
173. told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,”
174. fucked up the Census,
175. withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic,
176. did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,”
177. allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act,
178. seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican,
179. stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win,
180. constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump,
181. claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened,
182. said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake,
183. claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him,
184. claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President,
185. created a commission to whitewash American history,
186. retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain,
187. claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there,
188. hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims,
189. had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others,
190. bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties,
191. apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House,
192. stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians,
193. falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police,
194. said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about,
195. tried to rescind protection from DREAMers,
196. gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic,
197. tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax,
198. said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states,
199. deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented,
200. claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln,
201. touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all,
202. retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile,
203. forced through security clearances for his family,
204. suggested that police officers should rough up suspects,
205. suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs,
206. tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender,
207. suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher,
208. nominated a climate change sceptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy,
209. retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden
210. had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event,
211. hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags,
212. accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address,
213. claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia,
214. mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault,
215. obsessed over low-flow toilets,
216. ordered the rerelease of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release,
217. called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek),
218. hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech,
219. took advice from the MyPillow guy,
220. claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists,
221. said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure,
222. never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign,
223. falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent,
224. announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest,
225. insulted the leader of Canada,
226. insulted the leader of France,
227. insulted the leader of Britain,
228. insulted the leader of Germany,
229. insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!),
230. falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues,
231. blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually,
232. continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders,
233. said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked,
234. left a NATO summit early in a huff,
235. stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that,
236. called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary,
237. refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise.
238. Don’t forget that he took many classified & top secret documents with him when he left the White House, many of which have not been recovered & may have been compromised.
I’m sure there are a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment.
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Plz copy and paste. Whoever wrote this deserves credit but I don't know who it is.
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I was shelving some books when the American journalist walked in… The journalist asked me for the best book I had on the Middle East. I generally try not to judge people who ask such questions: it often comes from a tourist, on a one-off, long-planned trip or pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But coming from a journalist, it was unsettling.
I wearily suggested he try T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom. He earnestly replied that he was looking for a book about the current situation. I was struck by the word ‘current’ – after all, we’ve been going through this for 75 years – but I proposed either Hamas Contained by Tareq Baconi or The Palestine Laboratory by Antony Loewenstein.
It isn’t new for me or other Palestinians to see waves of journalists make their way here when there is a ‘major development’. They visit my bookshop because they’re hoping for a sense of the ‘word on the street’ or the ‘Palestinian mood’. It has been noted before that the spread of unmanned vehicles in the Middle East makes it harder for journalists to rely on the opinions of local taxi drivers. They’ll be really stuck if our bookshop goes out of business too.
According to recent Israeli data, 2050 foreign journalists have arrived since the beginning of the war, including 358 from the United States, 281 from Great Britain, 221 from France and 102 from Germany. Many of them are based in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, some are in the north, and a few venture out to Ashkelon, the closest they can get to the Gaza Strip. Only a very few agencies, such as al-Jazeera, have reporters actually in Gaza.
The Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) has members of the foreign press on a WhatsApp list, and they are ‘kept informed’ of the situation. Their names have also been added to other Israeli ‘independent resource groups’ lists, which send them contact details of experts they can interview. Unable to enter the destroyed Strip, they are covering the story using three main resources: the GPO and its affiliated sources for ‘updates’, taxi drivers for opinions, and the bookseller for all other business. Some of them will also check X (formerly Twitter), and maybe even ‘share’ some of their ‘reflections from the ground’.
After a brief chat with another foreign journalist who came into the shop, I learned that she was being rotated out after a couple of weeks ‘on the ground’ (i.e. stuck in a hotel). I asked about her assessment of the situation and she said things were really awful. I agreed. She asked me for a book to help her understand the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I recommended The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (three hundred pages) or Enemies and Neighbours by Ian Black (six hundred). She said they sounded a little long. I suggested Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer by Phyllis Bennis. ‘It’s a great book,’ I said, ‘makes things really simple and short, and it’s only two hundred pages.’ That was a successful sale for a proud bookseller on a quiet day.
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papirouge · 1 year
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What the fuck does Romanian police arresting a sex trafficker have anything to do with American bullshit? Why does the swedish teen climate change activist that laughed at him on twitter trigger them so much lmao
IKR? They are straight up asking for Biden to pardon him, like......THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. AND YOU CAN'T PARDON SOMEONE WHO HAS YET TO GET A SENTENCE!!! If they had a brain, they'd rather talk about extradition, but these idiots think Romania is the 51st state of the USA somehow... Honestly USAmericans deserve their reputation of being absolute idiots.
And yes, Greta got them real shook. Watching them navigate through the 7 stages of grief to cope with that trainwreck was hilarious.
First they spread straight up misinformation saying Tate got released....by posting months old videos of him partying. Bold of them to pretend to escape from "the matrix" when they are so kin to drown themselves in their own delusion by crafting a whole another reality to fit their own bias....like b, shut up about the "eScApInG fRoM tHe mAtRiX" YOU ARE THE MATRIX!!
Then they said Greta should be ashamed of making fun of the size of his peepee (funny, bc this whole anti bodyshaming thing came from the "woke mob" that Conservatives usually looove clowning for resorting to emotionalism...🤔)
And now they're seething saying that the Greta joke wasn't funny and that the narrative of him being doxxed by his own pizza was fake.....when those are actually just details in this whole fiasco, and tbh people being nitpicky about this just proves even further how they are too embarrassed to handle the bigger picture so they try to deflect onto small details. Whether Tate doxxed himself or not doesn't retrieve anything to the pathetic irony of him being arrested moments after making a lame 2 minutes video comeback bc he got his fee fees hurt by a one liner comeback on Twitter. What truly made people lose their mind was 1)that (low blow) clapback was out of character for Greta. She usually barely engages with anyone on her twitter account, so the fact she chose violence like that is unprecedented 2)the timing of him getting in a stupid twitter beef flexing about his wealth & lifestyle just before getting arrested was just perfect 3)the irony of him being dragged by an autistic girl half his age when his whole brand his the strong unbothered Alpha male is peak poetic cinema. Only stupid moids think they are doing something being like "sO yOu Admit yOu Have a sMalL peNis GrEtA?? tHat'S yOur oWn AdDreSS aMiRitE???🤪" ....like, that's such a typical boomer-tier brand of 1st degree level reading comprehension..... By making a stupider comeback to an already stupid post Greta took the piss out of Tate and there are no configuration in which he could possibly make a compelling come back. Brillant. Sometimes, you have to lay as low as your enemy, and considering the unpredicted consequences of this stunt, that's what made her move retrospectively outstandingly funny. Moids, scrotes and Tate-sexuals can seethe, Greta won💚
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politicsofcanada · 1 year
Note
Do you think it’s racist to ban TikTok? There is a vague bill like the Patriot act called Resist act that will give the National Security orwellian parts of the government, the ability to ban any foreign company seen as bad. And some parts of the bill are vague enough where they could become abused. And the bill could be used to ban VPNs.
to be clear, I don't like tiktok and I don't use it. HOWEVER:
I think that the panic about tiktok and subsequent attempt to ban it result in part from rising anti-chinese sentiment
people are more worried about tiktok than other social media sites because the company is chinese, even though domestic companies are more capable of being a threat to personal freedoms, because it is your own government that has the power to directly limit your rights due to accessing your data from social media companies.
for example, using social media data to prove someone had an illegal abortionin the states. the risk of that is far higher with domestic (american) social media companies, because they are more likely to collaborate with the american government. if you live in the states, twitter can exploit your personal information more than tiktok can
a lot of people see tiktok as the face of china and the people who live there. politicians and the media in both the usa and canada are stoking the flames of sinophobia, leading people to fear and reject anything that they can associate with china (I'm not trying to take away individual responsibility for sinophobia by referencing politicians and the media- people are still accountable for their bigotry)
the government likes to have an enemy. propaganda relies on identifying an enemy and working people into a frenzy over a caricature of the so-called enemy. this works especially well if the "enemy" is already marginalized
right now the government, media, and ruling class in canada and the united states have identified china and the chinese people as the enemy. they can and will stoke sinophobia, increase military funding, pass bills and sanctions targeting chinese people, and more. they have their scapegoat and they will use sinophobia to their benefit as they see fit
about what you said regarding the vagueness of the bill in the states, it seems that it is vague on purpose:
the government can use it to ban social media sites that compete with american social media sites, increasing the profit of the american ones. they likely will do this on some scale, considering the benefit to their corporate donors
it also can be used to limit what people in the usa have access to online. whether that be communicating with people from other cultures, or accessing foreign news media. I don't think I have to explain why that's dangerous.
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Text
I keep seeing posts from people in the US debating whether to vote for Biden in their upcoming elections to stop Trump from winning again or to punish the democrats for aiding Israel in the genocide of Palestine.
I'm argentinian and as far as I'm concerned, you should vote for whichever candidate you think will benefit you more, because you're from the US and that's all it's good for. The rest of the world will continue to suffer at your hands no matter what. Let me explain.
Democrats and republicans are not a representation of left and right wing politics: both parties are on the right side of the spectrum, only the GOP is more honest about it.
Republicans, as right wing parties do, run on promises of austerity, reducing taxes and being tough on crime. Democrats run promising to use tax money to ease your life: affordable healthcare, education and housing, all guaranteed so you can live the life of a first world citizen.
And then, they don't deliver.
You still have school shootings, massive incarceration, corruption in all levels of government, and the poorest pay a higher proportion of taxes than the richest. Healthcare, education and housing are extremely expensive and often require people to get into heavy debt to afford to have their most basic needs met, and that's only possible if you have good credit.
It's a reductive analysis for the sake of brevity, but you get the gist. The point is that having you be poor and afraid is the goal: it's a feature, not a bug.
You want to go to college? You need to buy a house? You want to start a family? Well, the military complex needs bodies! The US has far too many enemies to their way of life, so they'll need people to defend it! In exchange, they'll "guarantee" just enough money that you won't be destitute.
The US spends the most amount of money on their military in the world, by a long shot. To justify spending that kind of money, you HAVE to have wars. To have wars, you need enemies.
So, you get propaganda. "Muslims are extremists and hate our way of life." "Latin americans want to come to our country and steal our jobs." "China and Russia are communist countries that are waiting to destroy us." And you gobble it up.
You love it so much. It's in your news, in your videogames, in your movies and TV series and comic books. So, when they ask you to fight, you go running! You'll get some money out of it and you'll get to live your life the way you were promised. Sure, PTSD from the horrors is a given, but there's pills for that! And award winning movies about how difficult it is to go to war! It's all covered.
So the small, poor countries that you invade lose their money, natural resources, and their sovereignty but HEY, you brought democracy there! And the US is protected from this many enemies! Mission accomplished, right?
Well, as a citizen of a third world country whose current president is an insane pawn of the GOP, I'd like to say fuck you. He was placed so that the US could take our recently discovered lithium, and you'll get it. Enjoy your shitty iPhone 5000 I guess. It'll come at the small price of the hunger of my countrymen, but since Twitter user dan91883719 says argentinians all descend from escaped nazis, I guess it's alright.
Israel has killed Palestinians and illegally expanded its borders for over 70 years. Both democrats and republicans have sent aid and weapons to make this possible. It's in the US best interests to have conflict in the Middle East and have an ally control the area. Israel is a feature, not a bug.
And those of you who vote blue? You're trapped. Even if you know it's shit, you're unable to organize. Instead of rallying to form a new party, or a at least get a better candidate, you keep voting bad instead of worse and pat yourselves on the back for a job well done. Democrats are well aware of this and that's why they run on platforms that promise to make your life better and then sit back and say "our hands are tied" when you lose rights.
So, if you're still doubting it, vote for whoever the fuck you want. The war machine that you call 'country' won't stop no matter who's president, because those who hold the real power are already getting exactly what they want from it. Your suffering as US citizens is just as planned as the suffering of those who live outside of it.
TL,DR: Vote for whichever candidate you feel will defend your interests best. Lord knows it won't make a lick of difference for the rest of the world, because both political parties have the same plans when it comes to foreign policy.
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baeddel · 11 months
Note
Discourse— Tumblr for a long time was the discourse site. Other sites have kinda taken that role; Twitter, fb.. the list is endless (2 or more). But do you think that Tumblr is still a place to talk about the Issues (american politics, which kinks are correct, etc)?
hi friend :3 oh good question... there was a time when tumblr was integrated with a lot of irl organizing. people would be on here arguing over issues that were lines within their organization, and they would be influenced by the perspectives they heard here (and also the enemies they made, who they'd try to hurt). there were also a lot of housing situations tied to tumblr. a lot of people experimented with communal living and squatting, to house their homeless or housing-unstable friends, but also with the promise that it would be better than bourgeois living and its atomization, and so forth. but usually because only one or zero people owned the house nobody had legal rights, so if people in the house turned against someone they could just kick them out and make them homeless. this was often the context of callouts and political feuds in early tumblr—to manage irl milieus where time and space were scarce. so that discourse was often high stakes, but they were personal rather than political stakes. i saw through it eventually, but i kept participating as a bad habit. now it seems less important as you say, ambitious people went to twitter, but also people on tumblr have seen a few cycles of discourse and are cynical about it, and people are better educated about how public discussion can be used dishonestly, so people are more careful. i've tried to stop getting involved in discourse personally, but it's not even because the stakes are lower. the things people talk about on tumblr don't matter to me. as you say kink, US party politics, also things like AI, fanfiction, etc. who cares enough to argue about that stuff? we used to argue about the nature of the revolutionary subject, the relationship between anti-colonial paramilitaries and the revolution, the structure of the city and so forth. there used to be people who would push back on me on interpreting Theodore, remember that's why i started learning OE, LOL. i'd get into discourse if it was like that!
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taggedmemes · 8 months
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SENTENCE MEME ⟶ SORROW-SCOPES FROM TWITTER (PART TWO) always feel free to tweak the sentence to fit your muse.
"Is this the best you can do? Seriously?"
"You will undergo a series of tests today, and you will fail all of them by simply showing up."
"Start a new chapter in your life, but pick a less boring central character."
"The void is tired of your constant screaming, and is requesting you take your complaints elsewhere, like Olive Garden for example."
"You don't need to reinvent yourself. There's only one you and you're chained to it like a lead ball pulling you down to the bottom of the sea."
"This is a lucky day to spend time in nature. Stray from the footpath. Enter the forest eaves. Follow the flickering light, the one that almost sounds like a child's laugh. Go on, do it."
"You may feel overwhelmed by the maddening screams of evil spirits, but your ability to get along with others will get you through to the next circle of hell."
"You only get one chance at life and what a terrible mess you're making of it."
"All the sexy selfies in the world won't fill the emptiness inside you."
"In every potato patch, there's at least one that's malformed. That's you. You're the malformed potato."
"Good things are coming your way. They won't stop until you're dead."
"Your therapist will once again cure another patient by using you as an example of what not to do."
"Every new day is a gift. Returns are not accepted without a receipt."
"You may be an army of one, but no one said you were well-trained or properly equipped."
"Someone's going to start mailing you hair. Check back next week to find out who."
"Clear your mind, take a deep breath. This is going to hurt a lot."
"The ghosts of your past are no match for the killer robots of your future."
"Your positive outlook will make you feel foolish when things inevitably turn to shit."
"It would be a great day for people to listen to you. After midnight they won't be able to, as that's when your voice will be repossessed by the sea witch."
"They key to living a happy life is to avoid being dragged screaming into a subterranean lair."
"You'll find a severed foot this week. Thankfully, in your Applebees entree so you'll score a free meal."
"Focusing on small, manageable goals is a great way to avoid the grim specter of your own looming mortality."
"Today's a good day to exorcise your demons. Wipe the slate clean and make a whole new bunch of terrible life choices."
"If you can't help yourself, nobody else can, so you're basically screwed."
"The exact minute of your birth tells us so much about you. None of it is good."
"Someone will hack into your dating profile, but won't touch a thing because they think you've already been hacked. You haven't."
"Take heart in knowing that what befalls you next week will eventually lead to what Buzzfeed calls 'American's next true crime obsession'."
"Air travel is in your immediate future. Stay away from open windows this week."
"Given the choice between being rescued from drowning and fighting the ocean itself, you'll punch the sea every time and we respect the hell out of that."
"You'll play a key part in the invention of interdimensional space travel after NASA announces it's the most permanent way to get rid of you."
"Due to focus grouping, your part will now be played by a more attractive and intelligent player."
"You will bear witness to the majestic beauty of nature this week but all you really care about is your phone."
"The darkness that has haunted your past gives way to a new light. Which will make it easier for your enemies to find you."
"You've been feeling restless lately, and it's because your skeleton hates you and wants out."
"You pissed off the moon. You're on your own."
"They say the blood of your enemies is a powerful elixir but let's face it, you just like the taste."
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drstonetrivia · 6 months
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🦇 Ever wondered why Asagiri Gen is sometimes compared to a bat?
Me too, so I did some research! :)
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Firstly: the origin.
The usage of "bat" to describe Gen seems to mainly be in the first half of the series, and it's not a nickname given by only one person. Several people use it, including Gen himself.
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Chronologically, the first instance was when Gen wandered back to the science shed alone after they'd completed the Sulfa drug, as he wasn't allowed inside the village. This happens in chapter 40/episode 15.
The Japanese word for bat is コウモリ (koumori).
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However if you were watching either the English dub or reading the manga, this reference would have been completely gone! Instead, Gen refers to himself as an "opportunist", and the dub replaces "bat" with "rat".
The next instances were both during the katana fight against Hyoga, in chapter 48/episode 18. First, Kohaku calls him a bat after she assumes he'd gone and betrayed them.
(In Japanese, bat can also be spelt as 蝙蝠, and is pronounced the same way)
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Again, the dub replaced "bat" with "rat", and the English manga translation uses opportunist instead.
The final instance I found was from Hyoga a short while later, when he gets betrayed by Gen, but for real this time. Both Kohaku's and Hyoga's usages are very negative and insulting, especially in the subs.
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(For completeness again, I'm adding Hyoga's manga translation which is similar to his dubbed line, "filthy turncoat". As @DrStoneShots on Twitter said, Hyoga can be surprisingly eloquent lol)
So now the question is, why "bat bastard"? Why not "slithering snake" or "wriggly worm"? They've all got the same negative connotation of a crafty conman, right?
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Let's start with the western view of the bat. Normally they're associated with Halloween, and thus remind us of things like darkness, death, witchcraft, and malevolence.
Native Americans consider them tricksters as well.
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So far it sounds like it's suiting Gen's initial malicious mentalist persona quite well. I mean, he died, came back to life, uses poisonous flowers for his tricks and tricked Magma into thinking he'd die if he took so much as a single step.
…But then why call yourself a bat?
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As it turns out, the symbolism associated with the bat in China and Japan is slightly different. Up until the 20th century, bats were popular in Japan thanks to influence from Chinese culture, where they are seen as a symbol of happiness, good fortune, a long life and good luck.
(Side note: I wonder if bats being associated with good luck, and therefore Gen by extension, is a narrative foil for Senku's extraordinarily bad luck?)
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Now that we have both the bad and good of bats, why does the translation of bat->opportunist/turncloak arise when neither the western nor eastern interpretations mention anything about it?
Turns out, it's actually from one of Aesop's Fables, "The Bat, Birds, and The Beasts".
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If you're not familiar with the story: the Birds and Beasts were fighting, and asked the Bat which side they were on, as they could both fly like the Birds and were furred like the Beasts. The Bat, uncertain, fought on both sides—choosing whichever was winning at the time.
The result was that afterwards, the Bat had no friends as they'd betrayed both sides several times, and ended up getting attacked by both the Birds and the Beasts, who now had a common enemy.
The alternative ending is that the Bat was not allowed to partake in the peace party.
Sound familiar? On several occasions, especially early on in the series, Gen felt like he had to keep a certain distance away from everyone, otherwise he'd get injured. He kept himself closed off and his true intentions hidden to stay safe. (Although he still got stabbed…)
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The good news is that this particular bat's story ends happily, and with a whole kingdom's worth of friends. He learnt to open up and devote himself to a cause, even though it was risky to himself. His selfishness turned into selflessness when it truly mattered.
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End of thread!
This was actually a request from @obviously6969 (on Twitter), who wanted me to find out more about Gen + bats! Now the only question is, can someone relate Gen to the Miracle Cave via bats… 🤔🦇
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olderthannetfic · 7 months
Note
/727435364306976768
Anon I am agreeing with you so hard. I am a big eastern media fan and the amount out complaining and US centrism in the English speaking sections of these fandoms is starting to kill me. I am like, exclusively on reddit, tumblr, and ao3. Reddit is hell its full of nothing but complaining about age gaps, enemies to lovers, and characters that aren't always making the right and moral :tm: choices and if you try and point out that it's a authors job to tell a perfectly moral story but and interesting one your comments will get deleted buy mods. It feels like people just moved from Twitter to reddit.
And like so many of the stories they are complaining about are historical fiction/fantasy and they seeth and foam at the mouth over age gaps. Like if they hate them so much why do they keep reading them. It's so exhausting I just want to enjoy my eastern comics with other fans in peace not sit there through a bitch and moan fest. I now have the threads blocked cause I just can't take all the negativity anymore.
Like no I don't care about this adult/minor ship in this shoujo, it's a shoujo they are just like that. No I don't care that a royal in a historical story is rude to the FL and doesn't trust her on sight. No it doesn't bother me that this manga/manhwa has a slave character in it, it's just a plot point. No I'm not bothered that characters are being constantly manipulative because the plot has stated its either that or death. I'm not going to care that this adult yakuza is dating a high school girl that's like the most minor of the illegal things he's doing honestly. Like the idea of holding fictional characters to the same standards are living breathing people is frankly ridiculous.
And God so much of it is just so incredibly xenophobic like I am not going to expect a jp/kr author to write for an American audience that's fucking stupid. Frankly all of the above is also exactly why I like eastern writing more they can write a story that's actually interesting without being hung up on all this bullshit. Puritans are fucking exhausting.
-@botanicbones
--
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workersolidarity · 1 month
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🇵🇸 🔥☠️ 🔞 🚨
⚠️WARNING⚠️
FULL VIDEO OF AARON BUSHNELL'S SELF-IMMOLATION IN PROTEST OF GENOCIDE
📹 Aaron Bushnell, a servicemember with the United States Air Force recorded his self-immolation, recognized as the most extreme form of protest an individual can engage in.
Bushnell, 25yo, committed the self-immolation on February 25th, 2024 at approximately 12:58pm, in front of the Israeli embassy in protest of being forced and mandated into participating in an act of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
His last words were, "Free Palestine!" as the flames swallow him whole.
It is disgusting and criminal how the United States mainstream media is covering Bushnell's self-immolation by covering his death as some kind of accident or act of deranged man.
Amazing how the man who kills himself in protest of being forced to participate in a genocide is somehow mentally distubed, while the people committing the genocide are excused and covered-for the by the same media now attacking Bushnell.
Even more disturbing, the Israeli secret services agency, the Mossad, posted a photo of Bushnell's act of protest on their official Twitter account, writing, "our enemies kill themselves" of an American soldier, revealing what the Israeli entity truly thinks of their American allies.
Bushnell, as Hamas said in their response to Bushnell's act of protest, will be "immortalized as a defender of humanitarian values and the plight of the oppressed Palestinian people."
Rest in Peace Aaron Bushnell 🙏 🫡
We salute you comrade and we will not let your message be suppressed into silence.
END THE GENOCIDE NOW!
#source
@WorkerSolidarityNews
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battleangel · 5 months
Text
Truth, Justice & Northrup Grumman
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Four genocides are happening right now:
Palestine/Gaza
Sudan
Congo
Tigra
Last 3 are in Africa so no mainstream news coverage.
US is funding the 1st one because of Zionism (Israel).
There is a 3 front war coming due to US presidential election being next November: Palestine (siding with Israel, Russia (siding with Ukraine), Iran (siding with Israel vs Iran & Palestine).
Biden is asking for $100 billion -- $60 billion for Israel & $40 billion for Ukraine.
He refuses to say how long the US engagements in Israel & Ukraine would be or to give any kind of timetable yet he is demanding 100 billion US dollars fund the genocide in Palestine & the war in Ukraine.
Biden is already openly threatening Iran using very bellicose statements that they had better stay out of Palestine and essentially doing everything he can to start WW3.
Biden is already making an argument that wars in Palestine & Ukraine are good for the US economy in trying to get Congress to approve the $100 billion in aid to Israel & Ukraine.
He claimed that US weapons manufacturing plants that make the weapons in the Israeli and Ukrainian conflicts would be responsible for creating 15k+ US jobs.
It is the Iraq War all over again.
Trumped up, contrived, fake as fuck, only happening to prop up sagging presidential approval ratings, to assure reelection & to drum up jingoism, nationalism & virulent blind patriotism that leads to nihilistic militarism, warmongering, national bloodlust & endless empire building on the corpses of young men, some idealistic, many black brown & poor, endlessly exploited by the capitalist war machine.
Ads to Be All You Can Be while Uncle Sam pays for college education that should be free when student loans literally just went back into repayment will coincide nicely with the aggressive push for WW3.
American jobs. American corpses. American mothers weeping for their dead sons.
Caskets draped in US flags for 21 year old boys.
18 year olds dying in a country they've never visited for no fucking reason.
Hamas is the enemy. Russia is the enemy. Iran is the enemy.
Go die for your country.
Go die for Biden.
Go die to build Americas empire.
Go kill people you've never even met.
Go pull a trigger when your only experience with guns is Call of Duty.
Go destroy your innocence.
Go make your parents proud.
Go risk your life for $30k.
Go risk your life for the VA to treat you like shit if you manage to survive.
Go risk your life so you can have your college education paid for.
Go get PTSD and night terrors.
Go be a man.
Go fight for your country.
Go get permanently injured and disabled.
Go be a wounded warrior.
Go for the propaganda.
Go so people can "Thank you for your service."
Go for free burgers at Applebees on Veterans Day.
Go so you can see your best friend in your squad get blown to smithereens in front of you.
Go to see civilians used as gun fodder and pregnant women used as shields.
Go to see toddlers killed and babies exploded.
Go so you can be given orders that will kill you just so your CO can look good.
Go to get endlessly hazed, bullied, harrassed and almost killed by your fellow Marines so you can get a fancy certcomm later.
Go so you can add "US veteran Armed Forces" to your LinkedIn.
Go endlessly traumatize yourself as an infantryman for noone to hire you once the "conflict" is over and you come home.
Go so you can see endless horrors in war then have endless difficulties "transitioning to a civilian career" once you get home.
Go for the death squads and rape parties.
Go to be captured by the enemy and tortured.
Go to be a prisoner of war.
Go so your weeping mother can be handed a folded flag at your burial to be put inside a glass case.
Go so you can fill the burial plots at military cemeteries across the country.
Go so Biden gets reelected and Trump gets reinstated on twitter.
Go for the chevrons and the stripes.
Go to get pinned.
Go for the trauma and nightmares.
Go so your VA benefits can get cut later.
Go so you can blow your brains out in a VA parking lot since theres still a waiting list to see a psychiatrist for your PTSD, depression, suicidal ideation, insomnia and night terrors.
Go for the sleep demon paralysis.
Go for the disfigurement.
Go for the IEDs.
Go for the bombs on the side of the road.
Go to drive a Humvee.
Go for the Nazi dress blues and shining saber.
Go for valor.
Go for courage.
Go to brag at future Christmas dinners and family parties.
Go to be a dutiful son.
Go because America needs her sacrificial lambs.
Go to be a colonizer.
Go to build empires.
Go to liberate people by destroying their country.
Go to be dehumanized in boot camp.
Go to be broken down and never built back up.
Go to be hazed by the biggest fraternity in the world, the United States military.
Go for the toxic masculinity, stay for the lifelong traumatization.
Go to be a stone cold killer.
Go to kill without blinking or thinking.
Go for the brainwashing and endless conditioning.
Go for the psychological torture.
Go for the pseudosexual sadomasochistic ritualistic tortures and humiliations of boot camp.
Go for the endless mindless roll calls.
Go for the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.
Go to lose your humanity.
Go to have your sensitivity shredded in a blender.
Go to assert your manhood.
Go because the NFL had fighter jets fly over the stadium during Sunday Night Football.
Go because youre proud to be an American.
Go because its The American Way.
Go because of Pat Tillman.
Go because its what tough guys do.
Go because you cant find a job anyway.
Go because you can make a career out of it.
Go because of Modern Warfare III.
Go because of the Star Spangled Banner.
Go because of the Stars and Stripes.
Go because of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Go for the bald eagle.
Go for Reagan and the shining city on the hill.
Go for Dubya.
Go for the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in air.
Go for the Super Bowl honoring you at half time.
Go for the proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Go for the home of the free and the land of the brave.
Go for spacious skies and amber waves of grain.
Go for purple mountains majesty above the fruited plains.
Go to crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
Go for the blood on your hands.
Go to blow someones brains out.
Go to rape a local girl.
Go to vent some steam.
Go for the myth and to build your own mystique.
Go to build a persona.
Go to reinvent yourself.
Go for GI Joe.
Go for Captain America.
Go to be superman.
Go to be a boy scout.
Go for truth, justice and the American Way.
Go to spray nerve gas on a local population.
Go to commit war crimes.
Go for the genocide.
Go for chemical warfare.
Go for psychological warfare.
Go for espirit de corps.
Go for teen spirit.
Go for Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.
Go for Lockeed Martin.
Go for Skunkworks.
Go for the CIA.
Go because pain is weakness leaving the body.
Go to get your head shaved and humanity stripped away.
Go be a cog in the machine.
Go because you havent done anything for your country today.
Go for the military industrial complex.
Go so your father can Friday Night Lights you and vicariously live through your military experience.
Go to be a neighborhood small town hero.
Go to get your head blown off so your high school gymnasium can be named after you.
Go to be a local dead celebrity.
Go to be honored at your hometowns Memorial Day Parade next year.
Go for the NFL to have a collective moment of silence for you and the other dead boys before kickoff.
Go to be thanked in a random celebrity PSA.
Go for free pancakes at IHOP on Veterans Day.
Go to fulfill your fathers warped sense of manhood, masculinity and being a man.
Go to continue the US history of violence and patrimony.
Go for the blood.
Go for the foreign pussy.
Go for the horrors.
Go for the viscera.
Go for the spilled intestines.
Go for the agonizing screams.
Go for the panic attacks and endless insomnia.
Go be a paranoid android.
Go because you havent earned your freedom.
Go to write your name in future US history books.
Go to cotinue the endless cycle of war, terror and violence.
Go for the injustice and genocide.
Go for the inhumanity.
Go for bootcamp graduation.
Go for the framed picture in your dress blues.
Go to be brave and strong.
Go to be fearless.
Go to be John Wayne.
Go for Oppenheimer.
Go for 9/11.
Go for America.
Go because We're number 1!
Go for a US flag waving on a Ford pickup truck.
Go for a Budweiser commercial with galloping horses and amber waves of grain.
Go for the Korean War.
Go for Lyndon B. Johnson.
Go for Richard Nixon.
Go for General Dwight Eisenhower.
Go for the Department of Defense.
Go for the Vietnam War.
Go for Emperor Hirohito.
Go for Hitler, Mussollini and Stalin.
Go for General Franco.
Go for Lenin.
Go for Mao.
Go for Admiral Yamamoto.
Go for Pearl Harbor.
Go for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Go for Ferdinand being assassinated.
Go for the Hundred Years War.
Go for the Spanish Inquisition.
Go for Columbus.
Go for the Founding Fathers.
Go for the sweet land of liberty.
Go for the land where my fathers died.
Go for the Pilgrims pride.
Go for General Washingtons apotheosis in the rotunda as a American god.
Go to deify yourself as a war hero.
Go to make yourself a comic book character.
Go so Ben Affleck can play you in a war movie.
Go for Blackhawk Down.
Go for Napoleon Bonaparte.
Go for Ridley Scott.
Go to be a gladiator.
Go for Julius Ceasar.
Go because Rome was built in a day.
Go for Christendom.
Go for Alexander the Great.
Go for manifest destiny.
Go for militaristic expansionism.
Go for your corpse to be found on the side of the road in a foreign country you cant even find on a fucking map.
Go so your Humvee can be exploded.
Go to terrorize the local populace.
Go to put on the armor of God and breastplate of righteousness.
Go be a christian soldier.
Go climb Jacobs Ladder.
Go be a soldier of the cross.
Go to be baptized in the blood.
Go wade in the water.
Go for the homesickness and depression.
Go for the drugs and alcoholism.
Go for the panic attacks and anxiety disorders.
Go have your sensitivity, vulnerability and innocence destroyed.
Go to be violated.
Go for the smell of napalm in the morning.
Go for Apocalypse Now.
Go for the victory formation.
Go for the mushroom cloud.
Go for the blitzkrieg.
Go for Army vs Navy.
Go to be politely saluted by strangers at airports.
Go to be a commissioned officer.
Go for the honorable discharge.
Go help Biden beat Trump.
Go help the Democrats look tough.
Go help the Army go viral on TikTok.
Go so Sexyy Red names her baby after you.
Go be used and abused.
Go for Saving Private Ryan and Tom Hanks.
Go for Schindlers List.
Go for Braveheart and Mel Gibson.
Go to remeber the Alamo!
Go for General Custer and Henry Fonda.
Go for John Ford and John Wayne.
Go for Green Berets.
Go for The Last Samurai and Tom Cruise.
Go for Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Go for Star Blazers and the Battleship Yamato.
Go to rape comfort girls.
Go for Voltron.
Go to transform like Optimus Prime.
Go for the Gram.
Go for the likes.
Go for the follows.
Go for the LinkedIn reactions.
Go for a pinned tweet.
Go to blow up on the for you page.
Go for virality.
Go for the silver play button on Youtube.
Go for the blue checkmark and verified account.
Go for the clout.
Go to be respected and admired.
Go to be shipped home to your mother in a pine box.
Go to prove youre a man and unafraid.
Go to be a Roman gladiator in the arena.
Go to slay the dragon.
Go to be King Arthur.
Go for the Sorcerers Stone.
Go for the key to the Euphrates River.
Go for the Sword in the Stone.
Go to be a Knight of the Round Table.
Go for the Queen of England.
Go for King and Country.
Go for your rightful place on Mount Rushmore.
Go for E Pluribus Unum.
Go for the Iliad.
Go for The 300.
Go for Thermopylae.
Go to bring down the walls of Jericho.
Go for Numbers 31:18 -- "Kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves."
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reynita9 · 1 year
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I can’t stop thinking about how Cocomelon is damaging babies because the fast pace scene changes can “interfere with the development of executive functions”, and how thin parents are spread in capitalism that they rely on television to entertain/keep their babies company just so they have some time to complete domestic tasks. I am thinking about disintegrated Community Care/structure. I am thinking about how Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, Tumblr, all media are engineered to be addictive and alter the executive functioning of kids, tweens, teens, and adults of all ages. How malleable our minds are..bread and circuses. Everything we consume has the power to heal or destroy us. I think about Congress Bill 686, and feel discouraged and powerless. You may have heard of it as “The TikTok Ban” of course, the media intentionally oversimplifies it as a ban on TikTok, but really it is the means for The State to restrict the sharing of information on the internet and to censor us, keep us misinformed and suppressed. The State knows that knowledge is power so they keep us intentionally in the dark and distracted, plucking away human rights one by one while we are watching the stage. The Restrict Act would require the Department of Commerce to “identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, and mitigate transactions involving ICT products and services” 🤳🏼👁️ (ICT means Information and Communications Technology, ICT Products and services refers to social media) When COVID first hit, my friend said “this will be like 9/11, there was the world pre 9/11 and post 9/11” I am not one to believe we are “post-covid” because we are still in the grips of the Covidian information wars, which I feel will be one of the main long term take aways from The-Covid-Years. Bill 686 harms all, because any group of 1 million people organizing or sharing information online can be persecuted, banned and shut down under the guise of “prohibiting certain transactions between persons of the United States and foreign adversaries” Congress Bill 686 establishes both civil and criminal penalties for violations of the bill, meaning anything that they consider an “unacceptable risk to national security.” Please don’t forget we live in a police state which is meant to protect the empire. In The United States privacy is not sacrosanct, and actually American big brother corporations like Meta and Google are investing millions into anti-TikTok propaganda, because it clears their competition and allows them back into the palms of citizens, so they can personally be the ones to steal our time and data. It makes me angry, it’s painful. How can we organize against the faceless enemy? It’s all subversion and censorship, anything to get the undiluted power to be placed back into the hands of an American corporation. It will always be The State, Corporations, and Colleges keeping information tucked away and inaccessible to the masses. We must do what we can to preserve the internet as a place of free information sharing and connection. The infrastructure of our communities in real life are generally weak. Weekly I hit a paywall online, and I have seen my own words be instantaneously given an AI generated COVID misinformation banner before. It’s insane, and most people are not comfortable admitting out loud that we are alive during fascism. What’s funny in a way is, I have long hated TikTok, but now that it risks being banned in this “land of the free” I find myself urgently realizing how important it is to preserve and protect.. It is on the individual to use the internet wisely and with boundaries, not the state to restrict people’s access to information. Privacy is important and data-preservation is important, obviously, but if this is what 686 was truly about, we would be having different conversations. All legislation is created to build a precedent.
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