Great article Owen, thanks again for your work. I'm not surprised about the polling showing Gaza was a reason for the Democrats' loss last year. The position Harris took made her look genocidal, because she was, and cowardly, because she wouldn't stand up to Biden or to Israel. And you're right, in a true democracy you should not have to choose between two pro-genocide candidates.
Can you believe this? They are not even trying to hide their unhinged murderous depravity anymore - they’re actively celebrating it with their head enabler.
Report: Netanyahu gifted Trump a golden pager; US president: 'That was a great operation'
Doug, a lot to agree with. Owen’s right about the immorality of it all on both sides of the US - and our UK Labour Government isn’t much better. But what’s the answer? Better politicians, taming the party apparatus, taking big money out, a tough code of conduct based on old fashioned virtues such as honesty, integrity, public service, reform of the voting system and starting down the path to real democracy - rule by the people, not by oligarchs, plutocrats, professional politicians. But I’ve no idea how we can achieve this before global heating finishes us off. And make no mistake, Trump’s next 4 years is going to make climate change worse, perhaps irreversibly.
I like Chomsky’s view: roughly: they’re all monsters, with a few exceptions, but some monsters are worse than others. So you vote against the worst every couple of years while spending the rest of your time trying to force change by a variety of means. The usual means.
That’s it. It’s not an opportunity to virtue signal or fall in love or hate with a dear leader. Keep the worst out; move on.
They are genocidal monsters, for sure, but due to leftist idiocy, they unfortunately have a point. Even if you limit the choice to just Palestine—bring in fascism and carbon and…well...they only have more of a point.
That’s how smart we are. And I’m at about Chomsky on the proverbial scale. Not even close to a centrist Democrat. I’d’ve North Korea-ed Israel out of the global system—and bombed military targets in Israel if that didn’t stop them and make them accept an immediate two state solution. Hardly “soft.”
But Trump IS worse, and that was blindingly obvious. On Palestine and everything else. Our choice sucked but was a clear choice. We fucked up badly.
Will we learn? Nah.
Love your work, Owen, and keep it up! I know you disagree with me on this but I’ll keep funding you. 😊 But I think we should all own our mistakes. Even angry, grieving Arabs and Muslims in Dearborn, et al.
“Maybe voters shouldn’t have to suffer the eternal moral stain of having voted for a candidate they believe is complicit in genocide because it’s the ‘lesser evil’. When we’re talking about facilitating genocide, even discussing the concept of a lesser evil is warped.”
It was the lesser evil. Sad and infuriating as that is, it’s true. Trump and his merry international band of fascist carbon-burners are going to literally destroy the possibility of semi-decent organized human existence. It’ll all likely spiral to nuclear war as resources tank. Ya think crazy nuclear-armed India and Pakistan’ll just nobly divvy up the starvation as their populations riot as the Himalayan glacier-river system tanks? Full exchange between just those two minor nuclear powers kills photosynthesis for two fucking years. I’ll find the study and post below.
So, yes, omnicide is worse than genocide in Gaza. Again, even if you limit it to Gaza—Trump is worse. Sucks, but that’s reality.
We have to face it. The more it’s put off, the worse it gets, and the less likely we are to face it, rise up, and stop it. That’s what these billionaire cocksuckers—all of whom will be dead before we inherit the whirlwind—want. Total docility.
Donald Trump won Dearborn, Michigan, a traditionally Democratic Arab American enclave, thanks largely to outrage over Kamala Harris and the Biden administration’s stance on Israel.
Some are starting to have regrets.
After Trump unveiled a plan to “take over” Gaza and relocate nearly 2 million Palestinians to neighboring countries, two mayors in the region who had stumped for Trump have gone silent. And some Dearborn residents have been left horrified by the president’s attitude toward Palestinians.
After Trump made his comments, people in Dearborn are responding “with extreme anger and disappointment with this president who lied to this community to steal some of their votes,” said Osama Siblani, editor of Dearborn’s Arab American News.
Siblani, who declined to endorse in the presidential race, predicted that the proposal will “fail” and that Trump is “acting like a leader of a gangster group and not the most powerful nation in the world. Disgrace.”
One leader in Dearborn, granted anonymity to speak candidly, described a sense of remorse among some in the Arab American community who voted for Trump or sat out the election but now “think we screwed up but we’re not going to admit it.”
——
Full human equality means equal capacity for smart and stupid, good and bad.
“For those of us who voted against the Democratic Party, in whatever form that was … we understood that we would get this guy, and we understood that we would have to deal with this kind of stuff,” said Amer Zahr, a progressive activist in Dearborn. “But ultimately we don’t believe that we are to blame for this. The Democrats could have solved this problem back in the summer. Our price for supporting Harris was really low — all we asked for was, ‘Say that you would consider an arms embargo against Israel.’ And she wasn’t willing to do that.”
——
Harris would have been hammered for it, hysterically, and Zahr knows it.
Great article Owen, thanks again for your work. I'm not surprised about the polling showing Gaza was a reason for the Democrats' loss last year. The position Harris took made her look genocidal, because she was, and cowardly, because she wouldn't stand up to Biden or to Israel. And you're right, in a true democracy you should not have to choose between two pro-genocide candidates.
Can you believe this? They are not even trying to hide their unhinged murderous depravity anymore - they’re actively celebrating it with their head enabler.
Report: Netanyahu gifted Trump a golden pager; US president: 'That was a great operation'
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-netanyahu-gifted-trump-a-golden-pager-us-president-that-was-a-great-operation/
I was literally just about to post that. Unfuckingbelieveable.
Doug, a lot to agree with. Owen’s right about the immorality of it all on both sides of the US - and our UK Labour Government isn’t much better. But what’s the answer? Better politicians, taming the party apparatus, taking big money out, a tough code of conduct based on old fashioned virtues such as honesty, integrity, public service, reform of the voting system and starting down the path to real democracy - rule by the people, not by oligarchs, plutocrats, professional politicians. But I’ve no idea how we can achieve this before global heating finishes us off. And make no mistake, Trump’s next 4 years is going to make climate change worse, perhaps irreversibly.
I like Chomsky’s view: roughly: they’re all monsters, with a few exceptions, but some monsters are worse than others. So you vote against the worst every couple of years while spending the rest of your time trying to force change by a variety of means. The usual means.
That’s it. It’s not an opportunity to virtue signal or fall in love or hate with a dear leader. Keep the worst out; move on.
They are genocidal monsters, for sure, but due to leftist idiocy, they unfortunately have a point. Even if you limit the choice to just Palestine—bring in fascism and carbon and…well...they only have more of a point.
That’s how smart we are. And I’m at about Chomsky on the proverbial scale. Not even close to a centrist Democrat. I’d’ve North Korea-ed Israel out of the global system—and bombed military targets in Israel if that didn’t stop them and make them accept an immediate two state solution. Hardly “soft.”
But Trump IS worse, and that was blindingly obvious. On Palestine and everything else. Our choice sucked but was a clear choice. We fucked up badly.
Will we learn? Nah.
Love your work, Owen, and keep it up! I know you disagree with me on this but I’ll keep funding you. 😊 But I think we should all own our mistakes. Even angry, grieving Arabs and Muslims in Dearborn, et al.
One other thing:
“Maybe voters shouldn’t have to suffer the eternal moral stain of having voted for a candidate they believe is complicit in genocide because it’s the ‘lesser evil’. When we’re talking about facilitating genocide, even discussing the concept of a lesser evil is warped.”
It was the lesser evil. Sad and infuriating as that is, it’s true. Trump and his merry international band of fascist carbon-burners are going to literally destroy the possibility of semi-decent organized human existence. It’ll all likely spiral to nuclear war as resources tank. Ya think crazy nuclear-armed India and Pakistan’ll just nobly divvy up the starvation as their populations riot as the Himalayan glacier-river system tanks? Full exchange between just those two minor nuclear powers kills photosynthesis for two fucking years. I’ll find the study and post below.
So, yes, omnicide is worse than genocide in Gaza. Again, even if you limit it to Gaza—Trump is worse. Sucks, but that’s reality.
Stop it Doug you’re scaring me.
We have to face it. The more it’s put off, the worse it gets, and the less likely we are to face it, rise up, and stop it. That’s what these billionaire cocksuckers—all of whom will be dead before we inherit the whirlwind—want. Total docility.
https://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/IndiaPakistanBullAtomSci.pdf
loved it!!
Hey, buyer’s remorse is spreading: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/06/trump-arab-americans-dearborn-michigan-00203018
Interesting:
Donald Trump won Dearborn, Michigan, a traditionally Democratic Arab American enclave, thanks largely to outrage over Kamala Harris and the Biden administration’s stance on Israel.
Some are starting to have regrets.
After Trump unveiled a plan to “take over” Gaza and relocate nearly 2 million Palestinians to neighboring countries, two mayors in the region who had stumped for Trump have gone silent. And some Dearborn residents have been left horrified by the president’s attitude toward Palestinians.
After Trump made his comments, people in Dearborn are responding “with extreme anger and disappointment with this president who lied to this community to steal some of their votes,” said Osama Siblani, editor of Dearborn’s Arab American News.
Siblani, who declined to endorse in the presidential race, predicted that the proposal will “fail” and that Trump is “acting like a leader of a gangster group and not the most powerful nation in the world. Disgrace.”
One leader in Dearborn, granted anonymity to speak candidly, described a sense of remorse among some in the Arab American community who voted for Trump or sat out the election but now “think we screwed up but we’re not going to admit it.”
——
Full human equality means equal capacity for smart and stupid, good and bad.
Just insane:
“For those of us who voted against the Democratic Party, in whatever form that was … we understood that we would get this guy, and we understood that we would have to deal with this kind of stuff,” said Amer Zahr, a progressive activist in Dearborn. “But ultimately we don’t believe that we are to blame for this. The Democrats could have solved this problem back in the summer. Our price for supporting Harris was really low — all we asked for was, ‘Say that you would consider an arms embargo against Israel.’ And she wasn’t willing to do that.”
——
Harris would have been hammered for it, hysterically, and Zahr knows it.
But of course Zahr isn’t to blame.
All too human. And appalling.