I completely missed that Macklemore released Hind’s Hall 2 a couple weeks ago; with Palestinian artists and a Palestinian choir to boot. I’m guessing if I missed it than other did too, so sharing here. It’s just as good as the first one IMO. The line they can bury us, but they will find out we are seeds hits quite hard.

“The US realized that in order for a country to fight to the last Afghan, the last Israeli, the last Ukrainian, you really need a country whose spirit is one of hatred.”

Seems right to me. If there was an “Israel” next to Cuba or Venezuela then the people of those countries, I think, would be experiencing lives not unlike those of the people of Palestine. It doesn’t quite work on the Korean Peninsula since you don’t have that fundamental hatred there, no desire by either side to reunite if it means incredible amounts of bloodshed.

I might quibble with calling it “hatred” only because to me that implies some sort of ancient grudge or something. I just think hatred and settler colonialism are dialectically related. Feeling as those you are entitled to someone else’s land because you are deserving and the other isn’t. I have read accounts of settlers in North America in the 19th century, and they are every bit as hate-filled, bloodthirsty and savage as Zionist settlers in the West Bank are today.

Lebanon's National News Agency has reported that internationally banned white phosphorus bombs were deployed in the recent Israeli strike on #Beirut.

White phosphorus is notorious for its devastating effects on human flesh, as it is highly soluble in tissue and can inflict deadly thermal and chemical burns that reach deep into the bones.

Victims of white phosphorus exposure endure excruciating pain and may suffer long-term damage to internal organs. Even inhaling the vapor can lead to severe inflammation of the trachea, making the use of such weapons a grave violation of international law and human rights.

Source

It’s Israel’s play to get American Evangelicals to demand the US military puts boots on the ground there. Goad Russia into declaring war on Israel. The evangelicals will think we are seeing Gog and Magog fight - Armageddon! Absolutely brilliant 4D chess on the part of Israel.

(Please don’t think I actually believe this)

this shit just threw american boys into a meatgrinder against their will for NOTHING

I wouldn’t say nothing. Before the US entered the war, it was looking like the Central Powers were gonna win. England and France had a ton of loans outstanding with the US in order to finance the war effort. Had they lost to Germany, then those loans would have never gotten paid. So those red-blooded Americans died for a good cause - making sure American capital didn’t lose that money.

It’s just blaming the Palestinians for not accepting any “deals”, ignoring the face that post-1948 at no point have the Palestinians been offered anything close to a fair deal (or a state). There actually was one time - I think the late 90s - that the Palestinians did accept a deal that wasn’t great, but it was something. Once they did that Israel just straight up left the bargaining table.

I’m literally a communist.

Sometimes I just like to look at that sentence. It actually means a lot to me.

Last week in the news mega, I made a comment about how state department narratives get laundered through network news by having incompetent "journalists" asks terrible questions with no follow up to state dept pros. The fact these news anchors don't actually know anything is the point. The people they have on to interview just work them over and reinforce the narratives that they want Americans to fully accept. Was watching another clip today of the same news anchor team (CBS Mornings) give a somewhat hostile interview to Ta-Nehisi Coates. I was getting annoyed so I decided to look up the bios of these three news anchors. The point isn't to pick on them specifically, they are just indicative of a wider issue in one the main ways Americans get their news (I would suspect more Americans watch network news than cable news).

First of the three anchors is Gayle King. She has some professional experience as a local news reporter but what she's really famous for - and presumably why she's an anchor on CBS' morning news show - is being Oprah Winfrey's best friend. By the way, I was acquainted with a local news reporter. She was a very nice person but would make Ron Burgundy look like Walter Kronkite.

Second, we have Nate Burleson. Nate is not in any way a journalist. He is actually... a former American football player (WR for the Minnesota Vikings). I am not making that up.

Finally, we have ostensibly the most qualified "journalist" Tony Dokoupil. He was the one who was asking the hasbara questions to Ta-Nehisi ("why have the Palestinians turned down every offer for peace?" and "Does Israel have a right to defend itself?") By the way he has two kids and an ex-wife who live in Israel, no bias there. He did get a degree in "Media Studies" and wrote for Newsweek for a few years... but honestly so have a lot of people. This guy seems completely unremarkable as a journalist and he doesn't seem to have won any awards or written anything memorable other than a book about what is was like to have a father who was a drug dealer. But he's in control (to an extent) of how millions of Americans get their news.

Having incompetent journalists who don't ask hard questions is just how capitalism and imperialism reproduces itself in the minds of Americans.

I can definitely see the fascist turn politically and military. Putin is a moderate. In 25 years in his position, the SMO is really the only “offensive” war he’s started. The man is far more dovish than most western politicians - certainly American presidents. Without Putin I can see Russia turning more fascist and militarily aggressive (though only by degrees, as I don’t know if I think Putin is singe-handedly plugging the dike with his finger).

I do wonder though about how the economy would or would not change. I tend to think that when people find something that works, they stick with it. It has to be clear to everyone in Russian leadership that they’ve really hit on a successful strategy with their sort of anti-imperialist, military based industrial policy. I can’t imagine anyone there would want to upset that apple cart.

Yeah this is what I was gonna say. In 2024 it sure is hard to find people who admit they supported the war despite the fact that it had an overwhelming amount of support from the public at the time.

“In dark times, should the stars also go out?”