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Cake day: November 6th, 2023

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  • Except that basically every angle except geopolitics, MIC profits, and AIPAC money, pointed towards curbing Israel/Bibi as a a good move. Even a free and independent Palestine has supermajority support - from a Nov-Oct poll of American Jewish voters:

    Jewish voters… priorities include a major speech proposing a Palestinian state and diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab states (72 percent) and increasing humanitarian aid to Palestinians (71 percent). There is also significant support (66 percent) for sanctioning Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for aiding violent settler attacks against Palestinians.

    Emphasis mine. Review the data if you care, but the continuation of Bidens policies was a huge self own. Resolve the issue and Republicans/Russian messaging of ‘Genocide Joe’ falls flat.





  • And yet, when she was served up an easy gimme question at the last town hall debate, she shied away and waffled about bipartisanship.

    CAROL NACKENOFF, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR AT SWARTHMORE COLLEGE: Good evening… My question is this: if you could accomplish only one major policy goal that required congressional action, what would it be, and why?

    HARRIS: Well, there’s not just one. I have to be honest with you, Carol. There’s a lot of work that needs to happen.

    But let’s – let’s – I think that maybe part of this point that – I how I think about it is we’ve got to get past this era of politics and partisan politics slowing down what we need to do in terms of progress in our country. And that means working across the aisle.



  • The fact that this letter was leaked - unlike alleged similar communiques prior this year - screams that Israeli leadership doesn’t intend to comply, or wants to reinsert “leaving Israel defenseless ” into the US media cycle.

    Biden proved with the JLOTS pier and aid airdrops that he wouldn’t couple significant aid distribution with continued weapons deliveries, and instead ran ineffectual workarounds to “be seen doing something”. Remember that 500 trucks a day was the purported minimum required aid in the spring/summer.



  • Yeahhhh this one seems fishy. Unlike the “Handala Hacks” group (seemingly 100% an Iranian state affair) who basically doxxed Israeli citizens and security industry heads, where’s the play in this?

    • No ransomware attempt, just DDoS and data grab
    • Email and handles compromised, not major info like bank details or SSNs
    • VERY publicly pro-Palestine/Palestinian, makes zero mention of occupation, apartheid, civilian suffering, etc
    • Tortured ‘link’ between a non-profit .org and the US:Israel alliance as justification

    Psyops gonna psyop


  • Maybe stop sending them billions in weapons then, eh?

    I see at least three actions in that statement:

    1. Stop giving them billions in free weapons
    2. Stop giving them any weapons
    3. Stop them

    #1 should have happened a long time ago imo, if not used as a leverage to prevent an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, the West Bank, Lebanon, striking enrichment at Natanz. “Free bombs for crimes against humanity” is a bad moral play, bad politics, and bad diplomacy outside the US:Israel sphere.

    #2 Is politically hard normally, impossible in an election cycle. I hate it, but here we are in the house we built. Make FEC the only campaign funds - it’s OUR government, not the highest bidder’s.

    #3 The US’s geopolitical track record shows that we’ll tolerate some awful, terrible people if they’ll get ‘on our side’ even if there’s a trend of massive and foreseeable blowback, the diplomatic corps don’t learn lessons.


  • So we throw away the “rules based international order” and return to the pre-1914 unilateral rules and all the brutal wars that bought? So much better, amirite? Might makes right, and we’ve got the might for now!

    The US stance on Israeli leadership is decimating our ability to wield soft power influence. We are global hypocrites blocking ANY action, whilst expecting the world to fall in line to support Ukraine against Russian revanchism - even NATO members dissent from the US position. The global south is turning to China/OPEC+ trading blocs. They already tried to break the petrodollar, which would be a huge blow if successful.

    Even taking a realpolitik approach, without soft power all those US military bases used for ‘power projection’ lose their local consent, and become occupation sites inside non-allied nations. The Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan is a chill spot for launching COIN drone missions - whereas the Conoco base in Syria is constantly under drone and rocket attack.

    Supporting Bibi’s wars of aggression is a stupid play on multiple levels.


  • They already did surrender to both sides. UNFIL had/has a mandate to preserve the blue line, and afaik does not actively permit Hezbollah to cross - they’re just not too bothered about seeking them out. And they backed down from enforcing it against the Israelis…

    On 31 October 2006, eight Israeli F-15s… came in at what was interpreted as an attack formation, and the peacekeepers were “two seconds away” from firing at the jets with an anti-aircraft missile.

    Which clearly sparked some back-room diplomacy, because soon after:

    On 6 September [2006], during a European Union meeting in Brussels, the French Defense Minister announced that the Israeli Air Force had stopped mock air attacks over UNIFIL positions. On 17 November, two Israeli F-15s overflew UN positions at low altitude and high speed while two reconnaissance planes circled the headquarters of the French battalion. French peacekeepers responded by readying their anti-aircraft batteries, and warned that Israeli warplanes conducting mock attacks could be fired on.

    The IAF continued its reconnaissance flights over Lebanon, and despite strong protests, UNIFIL peacekeeping forces did not follow through on their threats to fire at Israeli aircraft.







  • You are not part of the community of Israel… You are not part of the national democratic camp which we all belong to in this house, and many of the people despise you. You are not partners in the Zionist enterprise. You are a foreign implant. You are an errant weed. Sensible Judaism spits you out. You placed yourself outside the wall of Jewish law… We say to this horrible man and those like him: you are a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism.

    Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, after the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.

    I’ve haven’t seen such a strong condemnation of Jewish extremism or terrorism since from any MK or PM. The current lot are instead fanning the flames actively, and I’m glad to see someone in the government call Itmar out publicly.


  • Per the Tesla patent, they took the approach of laminating dissimilarly toughened layers with a special adhesive. Unlike actual ballistic glass using a polycarbonate/polymer layer in the stack, Tesla’s 100% glass and glue is just better than tempered:

    …at most a 10% chance of failure with an impact of 2 J.

    However this glass type is rejected on the side and rear windows by everyone else, because it slows emergency rescue efforts - laminated windshield glass is difficult enough when no other rescue path is available.