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Dr.Who's avatar

Everyone and anyone justifying this genocide has relinquished their right to be referred to as human.

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Megan Baker's avatar

That is a bridge too far for me. That’s the kind of talk employed by the Nazis and now by Israel and it can’t lead anywhere good. Justifying Israel is utterly despicable, but every derangement has a story behind it. I prefer to inquire into that instead of dehumanizing.

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Joy in HK fiFP's avatar

If you don’t like what they are doing, why emulate their thinking. Dehumanising is wrong no matter by or to whom.

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Mike Flugennock's avatar

They aren't being dehumanized BY anyone; they've given up their humanity by supporting fascist genocide. Remember what Fred Hampton tells us about appealing to the humanity of adversaries who HAVE NONE.

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Too much work's avatar

Yup; that's what my friends and family did; for what tiny infraction did they get caught up in that turned them in hired killers for the Empire?

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Megan Baker's avatar

Whose thinking, and how am I emulating it?

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Joy in HK fiFP's avatar

Good question. My reply ended up under your reply instead of the one you replied to, and for whom it was intended. Sorry. Not at all sir why/how that happened.

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JennyStokes's avatar

Megan. I have just been in Italy (driving from France) and from Pisa to Siena there are Palestinian flags flying from major buildings. THE PEOPLE know this is a HOLOCAUST.

We might go about our business BUT let me tell you: at least 75% of people are pissed off and meanwhile the US keeps rejecting a ceasefire?

How is it that no person is talking about the 100-1000's of Palestinians held in Jail in Israel?

If you want to talk about dehumanizing................every Jewish person who does not speak out about this attrocity is sub-human.

In Pisa (italy) there were hundreds of Jews protesting!

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Megan Baker's avatar

Wow. There is so much wrong with this comment.

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George Cornell's avatar

It is however what every lifer in prison says. No matter how heinous their atrocity. Sometimes the story is that they are screaming psychopaths, devoid of human empathy.

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Megan Baker's avatar

I'm curious what you would think of the work of Alice Miller. You don't say it, but the clear implication of your comment is that some people are born evil and that's all there is to it. I don't believe that, and I think Miller does a better job than anyone of illustrating how wrongheaded that thinking is. It's a religious idea, really, and one that I would have hoped we'd outgrown, though it doesn't surprise me that we haven't.

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George Cornell's avatar

Don’t really know. But the adoption studies on sociopathic personality disorder indicate it’s biologically determined in large part. But a large part must also be environment, rearing and peer group. Human behaviour is still largely intractable.

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Megan Baker's avatar

I would have to be convinced. As long as our understanding of the impact of childhood trauma on adult behavior is as rudimentary as it is, and as long as we decline to study child abuse among any classes but the materially poor and working class, as we do, we will continue to have a very partial picture of the problem. Americans love to study and talk about (and drug) ostensibly organic causes of dysfunction; we're much more reluctant to study the nurture side of the question. As long as this is the case it's like an OB/GYN saying she's an expert on childbirth after only ever having performed C-sections. It's invalid. I'm not sure what "Human behavior is still largely intractable" means. Certainly behavior we don't understand cannot be changed or improved, and we simply don't understand the impact of 18 years of powerlessness on the remainder of a human life.

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Too much work's avatar

Two and the same; that's why. They talk about alley rats the same way just before winter sets in; it's astonishing.

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Mar 26, 2024
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Megan Baker's avatar

You seem to drastically underestimate the percentage of the population that does deranged things, much less how many of them appear high-functioning.

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John Mann's avatar

On the contrary, they are very human. One might even say too human.

Are they humane? Of course not. But that is different.

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Feral Finster's avatar

Ursula K. LeGuin, who could be accused of many things but not of being an apologist for the current system, remarked that, while human women are capable of extreme cruelty on an individual level, only men and ants make war.

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jamenta's avatar

I can attest to the "extreme cruelty" statement.

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Too much work's avatar

That was my mother & father, that's how I learned to slow my breathing and heart rate to nearly imperceptible just to avoid the beatings in the event that the noise from it all was too much for them.

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Dr.Who's avatar

I am truly sorry to read this. I hope you are in a peaceful place today.

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Megan Baker's avatar

We live in a country that refuses to understand the ordeal that is childhood. Those of us who survive it seem to vow never to go back there, even mentally. Unfortunately your story is all too common, but that fact would shock people who take refuge in their adultist bubble. I also grew up in hell, and could talk all day about the banality of evil, or at least evil behavior, which is how I know that every derangement has a story behind it. I congratulate you on surviving and on whatever awareness you have that you deserved much better. Every American should read Alice Miller. Her work is a revelation and a comfort too.

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Megan Baker's avatar

Yes, we don't like to talk about abusive and negligent mothers but I've heard stories about them (and have one of my own) that would make your hair stand up. Time to break that taboo, and others.

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jamenta's avatar

Commit a crime and the world is made of glass ...

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Sam's avatar

Yeah, but that was before Thatcher, Albright, Hillary, Nuland, ect.. I once thought that if women ran the world there would be more peace…now I can’t believe how naive I was.

😕

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russian_bot's avatar

Hopefully, if you ever thought minority reps ruling the world would make a difference - you got rid of that as well.

Believing those sorts of thing is akin to racism, genderism, whatever-ism. People are people. And the system pushes up those who will serve it. Women, minorities, LGBTQ with however pluses, etc., - I'd argue it's even worse when those types are put in positions of power, since they'll be eager to show they are no less "competent" than the historical master race. Hence, being appreciative, ready and willing to go unlimited extra miles in serving the system that "progressed" so far as to notice them.

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Feral Finster's avatar

Power selects strongly for sociopathy.

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Too much work's avatar

Blessed are the ants, for they shall inherit the Earth (LOL) Did you know that ants are suspected of making up 70% of the earth's biomass? That's a lot of elephants.

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Feral Finster's avatar

I am friends with a colony of ants.

Proverbs 6:6-8

King James Version

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."

I find the 70% figure hard to believe, considering how much plant and sea life there is out there.

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Too much work's avatar

Yeah, it probably is a lie, most science is I remember reading an article in a science journal years ago that claimed that 50% of methane emissions came from termite farts, and therefore, supposedly the other half came from cows.

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Feral Finster's avatar

As a member of the feline community, I resent that remark!

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Too much work's avatar

I love that !! So, where I live, I talk to the panhandlers and I've noticed that they, some of them anyway, are like cats, the way that they'll pump your flesh like they did their mother for milk shortly after birth; unconditionally, for many panhandlers, I think that the funds they receive are a form of the love that they believe they never received from their parents; is that possible? Are killers just acting out displaced anger, better directed toward their abusive parents? Although, of course, that would hardly be productive, but I see psychopaths all the time, and it's really quite heartbreaking because everything in this world that they love and cherish, they unconsciously destroy, but nothing you say can ever get through to them.

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Feral Finster's avatar

As to whether psychopaths and sociopaths are born or made, it's probably some of both.

Power strongly selects for sociopathy, because sociopaths are precisely the humans who will do whatever it takes to get power.

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Megan Baker's avatar

Sociopaths are made. Everything they do goes against the imperatives installed in us by evolution. This conversation--nature versus nurture--proceeds with a ludicrously bad, or completely missing, understanding of trauma. Get up to speed on that and then we can have an intelligent conversation.

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JULIA WILLE's avatar

Humans commit genocide, not animals. Or as Hannah Arendt put it: "The banality of evil"

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Dr.Who's avatar

It is interesting to see comments that assume that a characterization of not human immediately implies a sub-human or animal label. There are several inhuman characteristics humans can assume, many without even knowing they have assumed them. For example, are droids human? In the hyperconnected deceptive world of today, can humans assume the characteristics of droids? I would argue the answer is yes, and we are witness to such humans all around us every day.

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Too much work's avatar

You've got a time machine; why don't you do something; or did you sell it to by groceries with the proceeds?

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George Cornell's avatar

Subhuman primate comes to mind.

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Fran's avatar

Why are you insulting primates that are not humans? Chimps. gorillas, monkeys even lemurs are in this group, and non would give a thumbs up for genocide. I left out Bonobos, kiss, kiss, kiss.

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George Cornell's avatar

I take your point, Fran. But do look at how chimpanzees murder.

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JennyStokes's avatar

Why is anyone talking about Apes?

These are humans committing this atrocity.

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Fran's avatar

Thought I answered this and your right, their behavior can be extremely aggressive especially in their encounters of others groups. Too bad they are our closest relatives. Explains a lot.

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DomeLord's avatar

Still human from a biological perspective but my view indicates Bronze Age primitives with an opposing 'morality' to the rest of us who have evolved in a different direction. This is due to really bad memes* like the very deliberate and utterly agonising mutilation at 8 days old and the constant supremacy brainwashing to ultimately acquire more territory for the unhinged elders to preside over. These tragic people who are tormented by the commonality of circumcision related Cluster B personality disorders have now been armed by very bad people of all descriptions with the intent of stealing the entire world for their own maximum pleasure without conscience indicating as common ground an absence of the superego leading to exposure of the Id and rampaging egomania/megalomania. But that's just my take and I could easily be wrong as psychology is only one of my interests in life & I'm far from being an expert.

* Memes as described in "The Meme Machine" - Susan Blackmore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meme_Machine

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User's avatar
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Mar 26, 2024
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DomeLord's avatar

Heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, etc., yep, really!!

Even if of a majority or high proportion of Neanderthal stock, I'd still say human.

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The Revolution Continues's avatar

"If you say this is a genocide and then you support the people who are backing this genocide, it means either (A) you’re fine with genocide or (B) you only called it a genocide to score progressive political points and don’t actually believe what you said."

The hypocrisy of the genocide enablers is astonishing at times. Do they not realize that we can see their actions, hear their speeches, and read their words? We have 170+ days of their gaslighting recorded to prove they never gave a damn about the health and safety of the people of Gaza. They're not fooling us now.

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Andrew Thomas's avatar

As usual, you have nailed it. Bravo.

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dennis hanna's avatar

Ms. Johnstone,

You asked, "So what can the Palestinians do?"

Israel, Israeli's and Zionists want Palestinians to "do" one thing and only one thing: "leave."

If you were to read, the Balfour "correspondence and 3 amended Balfour Declarations, the private and record writings of David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and Lord Balfour as well as

the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, among others, you would know the initial initial intent and the present intent is drive the "Palestinians " (whom Israeli's don't acknowledge exist, merely Arabs) out of Israel.

That is what the British Empire intended, what the America Empire intends and what the Anglo-American Israeli Empire is in the process of

"do ing!"

Nothing new!, Nothing to see, Nothing to say, except for the Palestinian People to "do," which is to leave.

Why?

Israel is the United States.

The United States is Israel.

A settler-Colonial land.

The Promised Land.

Manifest Destiny is our stand.

A land with no people for

A people with no land.

Indian Territory(ies)

Palestinian Territory(ies)

Occupied Palestinian Territory(ies)

Illegally Occupied Palestinian Territory(ies)

Indian Reservations

Palestinian Reservations

“Area C”, Palestine?, you pray.

“Not reservations, Bantustans,” you say.

Apartheid is the only way.

Different names for the same thing, ethnic cleansing and Genocide.

The truth you can’t hide.

One and the same.

The Principle of Identity,

A difference only in name.

dennis hanna

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Jim Jackson's avatar

It is a misconception that Palestinians are Arabs. They speak Arabic since the conquest of the Levant early in the Islamic expansion, but Palestinians are the modern group that is genetically closest to the inland Levantine population of Biblical times. Bedouin are Arabs, Palestinians are not. The supreme and disgusting irony is that Zionists make a historical claim to Palestine when they themselves are much less Judean than the Palestinians.

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Joy in HK fiFP's avatar

Palestindians you mean?

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

This stuff makes my blood boil, especially the UN resolutions and the lies being told by the USA. Makes me furious!

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Literally Mussolini's avatar

Well, if you'd like to try to control your temper, maybe the example in this short (1:30) clip from the 1971 movie Billy Jack will help set a good example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnmDhuuPrJc&ab_channel=InsideTheRopes

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Mikhael's avatar

GW Bush always reminded me of Benard.

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Literally Mussolini's avatar

I think you're onto something there!

Now interestingly, GW Bush's dad, GHW Bush does not remind me of Bernard's father, Posner. Papa George Bush was way too wimpy.

But thinking about it, you know who does remind me of Posner? Dick Cheney!

---

This ice cream shop scene and the one shortly following in which Billy Jack kicks Posner must come to my mind at least once a week as I scan the news. In fact, I dropped a meme on my own little Substack relating that kicking Posner scene to the Biden Administration's lamentations about the difficulty of getting aid to the Gazans. I could make another one just like it about their complaints about how difficult it is to get a cease fire.

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Mikhael's avatar

Ha ha! You're right (on both counts!)

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

The sad thing is how many people are believing what is being said by the Biden administration.

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Indu Abeysekara's avatar

Caitlin, You have so many amazing ways to tell the truth.

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art guerrilla's avatar

lockdowns a double-edged sword

one thing elites find untoward

when gerbils got off their wheels

found time to think and not just feel

.

they had time to question why

they had time to suss out lies

they had time to research facts

better to repel attacks

.

when you're not in the rat race

and your brain is given space

you can see the big picture

and elite's evil stricture

.

The Worlds Most Dangerous Poet

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Jane Day's avatar

This slaps. I concur with the Neitzchean philosophy to remove from the empire's capitalist lifestyle and take the spacetime to reflect on what will to power can mean for autonomy, community, and connection with existence. When the propagandized neoliberal grindmind and religiously indoctrinated dogma lenses are removed, they are shattered beyond reusability. It's a matter of coersive complacency over generations of systemicly generated reliance on the state, state authorized agencies, and control of survival resources behind paywalls that take many forms. Rant over. Your poetry speaks to my soul. Take care out there.

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art guerrilla's avatar

nietze-wha ?

8^)

whoa, man/woman/whatever, that was way too densely packed for me to digest even that small serving all in one sitting !!!

i'd probably have to translate it into metered rhyme to grok it completely...

i did like "grindmind", though, i always love a good neology...

you stay strong, too...

.

Komrade ! Onward To Glorious Future !

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George Hazim's avatar

RFK Jr - the man who the US sees as their great white hope - is a shill a captured politician who purports to be a humanitarian yet endorses genocide. Come on America it’s time to start getting serious about the quality of your political representatives.

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Min Molloy's avatar

Your anger is my anger. I feel it daily. I can’t listen to British main stream news as the narrative is so false. Thank you for your words.

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Klaus Hubbertz's avatar

Just listen to Neil Oliver, very relaxing ...

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John Day MD's avatar

Israeli occupation executes Palestinian doctor inside Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza [Dr. Al-Nono upheld his honor, and died with his patients.]

Israeli occupation forces executed Dr. Muhammad Zaher Al-Nono, who works at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Strip.

This came after Dr. Al-Nono refused to leave the hospital and insisted on continuing to treat the wounded.

https://en.ypagency.net/321935

​ 'Israel' kills Palestinians waiting for aid in another Flour Massacre

​ The Ministry of Health in Gaza said Israeli occupation forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for aid at the Kuwait Roundabout in north Gaza once again, killing 19 people and injuring 23 others.

​ The Government Media Office in Gaza reported that thousands of starved Palestinians had been waiting for flour and aid trucks when the Israeli occupation forces and military tanks opened fire and shot them down.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--kills-palestinians-waiting-for-aid-in-another-flour

RFK Jr. says that despite Israel’s genocidal bombing of 30,000-plus Gaza civilians, Israel is still a “moral” nation

https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-03-24-rfkjr-israel-genocide-30000-gaza-civilians-moral.html

​ War on Gaza: More young Americans favour Palestinians than Israelis, new poll says​ [Main 3 POTUS candidates: Same Genocide, different excuses.]

Pew poll finds that half of Americans don't know the Palestinian or Israeli death toll in Gaza war

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-more-young-americans-favour-palestinians-israelis-new-poll-says

​ Majority of Biden Voters Now Want Michelle Obama to Run

​ According to a Redfield and Wilton Strategies poll, “46 percent of eligible voters would support the attorney and wife of former President Barack Obama if she decided to run for the White House.”​ The survey found that three-quarters of Biden voters support Michelle Obama.

https://www.dailyfetched.com/majority-of-biden-voters-now-want-michelle-obama-to-run/

​ US funding cut harms Palestinian refugees: UN agency

​ “In Gaza, the humanitarian community is racing against the clock to avert famine,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X.

​ “As the backbone of the humanitarian response, any gap in funding to UNRWA will compromise access to food, shelter, primary health care & education at a time of deep trauma.”

​ The US is the largest donor to UNRWA, providing the refugee agency with $300-$400 million annually.

​ In January, Washington and several Western countries “temporarily paused” funding to the agency following Israeli allegations that some of UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.​ [Later clarified as confessions-under-Israeli-torture]

​ On Saturday, the US Congress approved legislation banning UNRWA funding until March 2025.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240324-us-funding-cut-harms-palestinian-refugees-un-agency/

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Contrarian 33's avatar

Israel is still a moral "nation". RFK must have had this approved by his controllers in Tel Aviv.

Moral........

1. concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour.....(not applicable)

2. holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct........(not applicable)

He's still at it. If you can't beat them, join them.

How disappointing from a man who, based on his name alone and his respected father and uncle, could have made it as a candidate....... until he sold his soul for a shekel.

You cannot trust him now or ever in the future.. A Catholic but also a Zionist.

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russian_bot's avatar

"A Catholic but also a Zionist" - is Catholicism calling for support of anything like Israel is doing? If not, then RFK Jr is not a Catholic. The Zionist he is indeed.

One can call oneself anything but if one can't or won't do what that anything calls for, then one's not it. One's a phony instead.

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Paulo Kirk's avatar

Yep, spend some time on X and see how the Israeli's profess their Judaism and how they rather enjoy lawns and Iron DOmes and mowing and white phosphorus, and alas, two Jews like Max and Aaron are ashamed of their Judaism as it is as it is. Zyklon B.B.B.B. Blinken and Bibi and this Final Solution, all of it, for Max Blumenthal, he is piping hot mad.

Now, the Poison Ivy League professors are in Israel at the Wailing Wall praying for more starvation.

https://paulokirk.substack.com/p/ahh-those-effing-stem-monsters-those

But not to discredit Judaism in you list? Wrong. There are Liberation Theologists and then their are Nazi-backing Catholics, so, the Catholic faith was discredited, and alas, Judaism as it is practiced and played out in Isra-Hell and now these S.T.E.M. majors going over to that hell hole, all based on their Judaism.

https://www.youtube.com/live/IGcOI_0EkgY?si=9x-1ZJz_AARRby8Y

31. 662 views ! Whew.

Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate discuss the worst terror attack in Moscow in two decades, and who or what could be behind it. They will then cover the latest from Gaza, where famine looms as Israel finds itself in a military and political boondoggle. They will also discuss Jeremy Loffredo's shocking video on the grassroots Israeli aid blockade, and Hekmat Aboukhater's undercover report exposing the anti-Syria lobby's latest push in Congress.

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Longtrail's avatar

One problem. WE SHALL NOT BE SILENCED!!!!!

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Robert Billyard's avatar

The biggest threat to America now is the empire pretends it is invincible, that it can wage war on the world without regard for cost or consequences when in fact the costs both fiscal and social are staggering and will affect the west for decades here after. In too many ways what is happening now is a sequel to WW ll.

One of the biggest "battles" being fought now is the corruptions and tyranny of the empire are so deeply embedded they are difficult if not impossible to expunge.

The longer war and chaos prevail the longer and rockier the road to redemption becomes.

Western political culture is so obliterated there is no political faction willing to stand tall and say enough is enough.

Its the new Titanic. The captain and crew are rushing for the life boats and pushing all others over board.

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Literally Mussolini's avatar

To be completely precise about it, many of the entries on the list are actually being "discredited YET AGAIN".

---

Speaking of which, despite the utter horror of the underlying situation, I did laugh when immediately following "the Democratic Party" on the list was "the Republican Party".

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Aleta W.'s avatar

Agree one hundred percent with every single bullet point. Thx for the outstanding compilation.

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Alanna Hartzok's avatar

yes Bravo for this astute analysis AND how come no wealthy humanitarian billionaire (there must be at least one or two) is sending in helicopters to rescue the people in Gaza and bring them to a place of safety where they can rebuild their lives? There is PLENTY of land for Palestinian new settlements in the world!

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The Revolution Continues's avatar

"Humanitarian billionaire" is an oxymoron like "military intelligence." You only get to be a billionaire by not giving a sh*t about other people.

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DLehman's avatar

Not to mention the wealthy billionaires that can lift the Zionists away to a garden of Eden so they don’t constantly need to ‘self-defend’ against the pesky Palestinians. I hear Elon is interested to whisking away all the Zionists to Mars so they can save themselves (& humanity). Would be such a befitting fate for god’s chosen people! There, they get their exclusive status and never have to interact with anyone but each other. Martians par excellence!

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Feral Finster's avatar

So if I evict you from your home at gunpoint, that's cool because there are still cardboard boxes and things you could still be living in.

Thanks. What's your address?

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russian_bot's avatar

"There is PLENTY of land for Palestinian new settlements in the world!" - you have it backwards. Read more Caitlin and much more closely.

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John Turcot's avatar

Aanna,

"rescue the people in Gaza and bring them to a place of safety"... Is there really a place of safety with 15,000 nuclear warheads aimed at our collective lot?

"There is PLENTY of land for Palestinian new settlements in the world!" Name one place....

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Literally Mussolini's avatar

I can name some places, but it is the Israelis who should do the moving.

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Megan Baker's avatar

Yes, but who would want these psychopaths for neighbors?!

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Alanna Hartzok's avatar

women children and families are psychopaths? we are all human beings and we need to focus on healing the people and the planet. may you find your way that is beyond hatred.

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Alanna Hartzok's avatar

The Israelis are not in the right state of heart and mind to do this. Compassionate people with the means to do so must do so, rescue the Palestinian people from the death camp of Gaza, same as if a building was on fire.

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russian_bot's avatar

"The Israelis are not in the right state of heart and mind to do this" - so it's they who must be "moved". And Megan Baker was talking about their being psychopaths, not Palestinians.

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Megan Baker's avatar

Thank you. This format is too conducive to misunderstandings.

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