A few days ago, someone subscribed to my Substack Newsletter and invited me to subscribe to her Substack Newsletter, which I did and found I had leaped into in yet another anti-Israel hornet nest.
This Is The Real Face Of The US Empire
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): Someone uploaded one of those viral “help identify this racist jerk” clips featuring a man accosting a street vendor with awful Islamophobic vitriol, and it turned out he was the former US State Department Deputy Director in the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs.
This Is The Real Face Of The US Empire
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/this-is-the-real-face-of-the-us-empire/comment/44100650?r=8wjd3
Bill
One of the few good things to come out of this war is the gradual exposure of the truth as more expose their true colors.
Sloan Bashinsky
I’m from Alabama and have lived in America for 81 years, and have had plenty of dealings with white supremacists and Christian and right wing extremists, but I have had no dealings, of which I am aware, with Jewish or Muslim extremists.
I think creating the state of Israel was a terrible mistake, and I think the religious history of that region should have caused anyone even half awake to see it would be a terrible mistake.
It looks to me that the American Christians, especially the more conservative American Christians, are why America has given money and weapons to Israel, because Palestine is Christendom’s Holy Land, and those American Christians want their Holy Land defended against Islam, and Israel does that for them. Those American Christains don’t say it, but they think Israel should defend their Holy Land because in the New Testament Jewish leaders persuaded Pontius Pilate to have Jesus Crucified. Also, in places in the Old Testament part of their Bible, God promised that land in that region to Israel. But what they don’t say is, the Israellites kept pulling away from and displeasing God, and they breached the covenant God had made with them in their Scriptures.
The American right is using the help Israel trump card to help Donald Trump get elected president again. Trump only cares about himself and his family and money and power, and he knows how to pull the American religious right’s strings to get them to dance for him.
That all said, after Caitlin subscribed to my newsletter and invited me to subscribe to her newsletter, it has seemed to me that what she writes about what’s going on in Gaza today is 100 percent on Israel and its backers in America, and has nothing to do with HAMAS, who attracked and massacred a whole lot of people in Israel, and took a lot of hostages back to Gaza, and boasted and celebrated it, like they had done something wonderful. HAMAS did it to provoke Israel to do what it is now doing in Gaza, to turn world opinion against Israel. HAMAS didn’t care for the Gaza people, who would be massacred by Israel. HAMAS would have been really disappointed if Israel had not invaded Gaza.
russian_bot
"Trump only cares about himself and his family and money and power..." - good thing Biden doesn't.
Sloan Bashinsky
I am all for Hunter Biden and his father being fully investigated regarding Hunter’s Ukraine affairs. There is no way Hunter could have gotten so rich off Ukraine, but for his father being Obama’s vice-president. Biden should have told Israel not to invade Gaza and to let the UN deal with it. That said, how to you think it would be going if Donald Trump was president, and his right wing hordes were shrieking for him to send American troops to join IDF in Gaza to rid it of HAMAS and protect their so-called HOLY LAND? Israel has nuclear weapons. If it feels sufficiently threatened, Israel will unleash those weapons where it thinks best for Israel, and there is nothing America, the UN, HAMAS, Iran or Islam can do to stop that. I can see Trump saying, if he was president, none of this would be happening, because HAMAS would not have dared to do what it did on October 7, which was my 81st birthday.
russian_bot
How curious it is that it's been so difficult to get to Biden family and we don't really know if anyone ever will. Or if they're not going to get pardoned when their buddies get to steer the wheel.
As to your speculating what would happen if Trump won second term, it's just that - speculation. The facts for now are that bookend presidencies - both Democratic - created wars and havoc of the scale Trump didn't come close to. Those are facts.
And I'm not for any scumbag politician no matter where they come from so no need wasting any space here trying to turn me into some kind of a trumper. Though, as my name and profile says: "I'm a bot, Russian bot. I elect Trumps." Meaning any one of them, anywhere, clones and all. Call me at 1-800-I-elect-trumps. But that's just business, nothing personal.
Sloan Bashinsky
You at least have a sense of humor. I think Hunter and Trump, and Hillary, should be locked up in adjoining cells. And Hunter’s daddy, too, if he had a hand getting Hunter so rich off Ukraine.
Kudjoe
Both are oligarchs. Many confuse battles among the oligarchs for democratic politics, and they take sides in what is actually not their fight at all.
Trump is a major figure in one wing of the oligarchy. Biden is another and is backed by the deep state, after their favourite horse mrs Clinton, who they also backed, lost the race. What you see is a battle among these camps. But all of them are rotten, corrupt and deeply misogynstic - they hate the common man on the street.
Sloan Bashinsky
I view both sides a cults, but the left side does not remind me of Nazi Germany leading up to the Holocaust, and the right side does remind me of that, and I fret for my children and their children having to suffer that. I don’t want anyone to suffer that. But I don’t get to decide how that goes.
Kudjoe
“Both sides” ? There is no both sides in oligarchy, and certainly no “left”.
You have a ruling class that battles among itself to lord over the other 99% of the people. There is nothing “left” about it.
And yes what you think is the left is just as murderous as nazi germany - in fact more murderous globally:
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/summary
And they oversee a police state and police brutality and mass incarceration domestically. Under Joe Biden this is reaching all time high levels of murderousness:
2023: https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
2022: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/06/us-police-killings-record-number-2022
Sloan Bashinsky
Well, I live in America, and I deal with both sides daily, and they detest each other. I view both sides are religious cults, incapable to crawling out of their own tiny kingdoms. To fix that requires fumigating America :-)
Kudjoe
They are not “both sides” as in any kind of “right” or “left”. They are an oligarchy. A mob of gangsters.
They change alliances as the wind blows. Hillary Clinton attended the wedding of Trump’s daughter and Trump used to donate money to Hillary when she was running for Senate in New York. Bush pals around with Obama. ALL of them are funded by AIPAC and the various PACs flooded with money by various camps of the superrich, which keep betting on various “horses” in the scramble for power. if you think they actually “hate” each other, as opposed to operating in a constant scramble for power, then you must really believe “professional wrestling” when you see it on TV.
Sloan Bashinsky
I agree, globally, America has done awful harm, regardless of who controlled the national government. I’m speaking of inside America, because that’s where I live.
Another WorldView Is Possible
Hamas served the Zionist-Apartheid Entity just a SMALL TASTE, of its own medicine - exactly what the Zionists have doing to them, for more than 100 years of Terrorism, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation. It's tragic and awful, but amounts to only a small fraction of what was done to them, before and after. And let us not forget that Hamas is only one tendency within the Palestinian Resistance. A third of Palestinians are/were Christians (at least at one point). Hamas is the same brand of Takfiri Wahabi Jihadist Islam, that is promoted by Saudi Arabia, and several other Gulf Monarchies, with the full blessing of the UK and US (MI-6 and CIA).
Netanyahu is quoted in Haaretz as saying that Hamas must be supported - to prevent a 2-State solution. And this strategy goes back to the late 1980's - when the same kind of militants were fighting on the side of the NATO Empire in Afghanistan, as the Mujahedin. https://www.thehandstand.org/archive/jan2002/EdcellJan2002/rezeq/
Hamas took ~ 220 hostages - because they wanted to get 6000 Palestinians (including women and children, too) being held in "Israeli" Administrative Detention (without trial or charges), released. They were for bargaining power. And from what's been told by the few to be released - they were being treated and living better, than the civilian population in Gaza, and no doubt better than those in Zionist custody. Of the ~1200 killed on October 7th - it appears roughly half were killed by the Zionist Military, exercising what they call "the Hannibal directive" (kill your own people or soldiers - so you don't have to bargain with Palestinians).
It sounds like you know the difference between Judaism and Zionism already... But here's this, too. https://youtu.be/JGEuI8072NY
Sloan Bashinsky
I understand HAMAS taking prisoners to swap back for Palestinians in Israeli jails. But was killing 1,200 people during the hostage raid worth IDF killing several times more Gazans than Israel had in its jails? Where did HAMAS learn arithmetic? The plain obvious is, HAMAS wanted Israel to do what it did in GAZA, to cause the world to view Israel like it views Nazi Germany. Imagine how the world will view Israel, if it gets to the point that it feels sufficiently threatened to unleash its nuclear weapons on its enemies. If you think Israel is not capable of that, then you do not understand religious fanaticism, of which there is plenty on both sides.
Another World View is Possible
If you've been reading Caitlin's newsletter for more than a few days, then you should not be amplifying the 1,200 killing meme. Current evidence support finding that IDF killed most of the civilians. Israel intentionally lied to obscure that Hamas executed a military action on October 7 against military targets. It was IDF who killed military and civilians under an extreme application of the Samson Option and in order to be able to lie outrageously to support their Gaza genocide.
Sloan Bashinsky
Caitlin invited me a few days ago, after she subscribed to my newsletter. I also read Chris Hedges’ newsletter, and other stuff. In none of the Israel bashing, which is justified, do I see any criticism of HAMAS or Islam. It’s all Israel’s fault. If that’s your view, then so be it. It’s not reality, however.
Another WorldView Is Possible
If the Zionist State "goes nuclear" it will be the end for them, as well. Pakistan has the bomb, too. And it will be impossible under US Law for them to get another penny, at that point.
Sloan Bashinsky
If Israel goes nuclear, it might be the end of the entire Middle East, and maybe the end of a great deal more than that. Does HAMAS not know that? Does Islam not know that? Apparently the American pro-Israel cabal doesn’t seem to know.gypsyIt IS Israhell’s fault.
If you keep a tiger in a tiny cage, deprive it of sufficient food and water, and constantly poke it with a sharp stick, what the hell do expect when the tiger finally escapes?
Sloan BashinskyI’m no fan of Israel, as my comments here certainly prove. If I were the U.S. President, I would have told Israel to lay low and let others deal with the October 7 attack, and if Israel didn't lay low, then no more help from America, which I have the power to stop. I would not have sent my warships there. I would have pulled them back to safety. I would have left Israel alone. And, I probably would have been assassinated by Americans. It seems in this forum, that most, but not all the commenters, were thrilled with the October 7 attack. They feel it was okay, totally justified. They do not seem to understand that it was a clever bait laid by HAMA, your tiger. HAMAS could have cared less for the Gazans it put at risk to the IDF. So, keep cheering your tiger. Maybe it, or its Islamic relatives, will provoke Israel to use its nuclear weapons, and then they and you and many others will have a great deal more to blame Israel for.
pretzelattack
the US could walk away right now, we don't need any more fascists in the US, we have a surfeit already.
Sloan Bashinsky
If President Biden walked away and pulled back his warships to safety and stopped all aid to Israel over which he had control, he would be assassinated by Americans, and whomever the Democrats used to run for president would be defeated in 2024, regardless of whom the Republicans ran for president :)
Another WorldView Is Possible
'The Samson Option' is another name for suicide, albeit one that takes out your enemies with you. Frankly, as apocalyptic and crazy as some of the Zionists are, both Christian and 'Jewish' - it's not unthinkable that they'd press that button.
But I imagine that Hamas doesn't believe that they'll do it. And if they do - oh well, they get to go to heaven as martyrs - and the Zionists burn for eternity. That some small consolation, at least. At some point they probably feel that it's better to die fighting, standing up, with their boots on, than on their knees the way the PA let's those in the West Bank be killed.Sloan Bashinsky
Hmmm. Radical Islam thinks it's godly to be a suicide bomber and go straight to Allah, but that same element of Islam can’t imagine Israel using its nukes to defend itself? Israel wouldn't nuke itself, Gaza or the West Bank. It would nuke Tehran, parts of Lebanon and Syria, when the winds are favorable. You think Pakistan then would nuke Israel, and risk getting nuked while its nukes arre on the way to Israel, which had not attacked Pakistan? I think Vladimir Putin knows very well what Israel is capable of, and it scares the shit out of him.
Feral Finster
I detest Trump, but it's the Biden Administration that is calling for increased censorship, and the Great And Good among us are all aboard.
Sloan Bashinsky
I’m not aboard, and Trump slams anyone who disagrees with him.
Feral Finster
So? Slamming critics is hardly unique to Trump and his followers.
Sloan Bashinsky
No, but they appear a bit more eager to back up their distemper with physical violence. In fact, they remind me of both HAMAS and Israel.
Feral Finster
Helps when you have the state apparatus to do it for you.Sloan BashinskyWithout any help from the state apparatus, Trump nearly overthrew the American government on Jan 6, 2020, and since then he and his legions have threatened, frightened and terrified judges and their staff, prosecutors and their staff and witnesses, and their families, without any help from the state apparatus. Trump has threatened to use the state apparatus to get even with the people who have bothered him, if he gets elected again, and to pardon himself and anyone who was prosecuted for Jan 6. He and his legions remind me a great deal of Adolph Hitler and his legions. Trump told the lady leader of Germany that only one person drew greater crowds than he drew - Hitler. Ivana Trump told Vanity Fair, when she and Donald were married, he kept a book of Hitler’s speeches in a cabinet on his side of their bed, and sometimes she read it at night. Trump studied how Hitler wound up the German masses, and he modified it to wind up similar people in America. All the people in America freaking out about about Israel’s response to October 7 should be freaking out about Trump running for president again.
Pretzel Attackwho do you think helped LBJ pass the Civil Rights Act of 1965. The Dixiecrats were an integral part of the FDR coalition that ran the country from the New Deal to Ike, and they were vehemently opposed to Civil Rights. You are evidently unaware of the actual history of how that legislation got passed. The northern republicans were crucial in helping LBJ overcome the Dixiecrats. Subsequently, the solid democratic south gradually turned solid Republican. Biden and the neoliberals are awful for everybody in the middle class and on down, no matter what color. Read the Black Agenda Report if you don't believe me, and acquaint yourself with the so called black misleadership class. Have you forgotten who screwed Sanders in South Carolina? black support for Trump is growing for economic reasons, and also because Biden is right wing fascist, even more than Trump.Sloan BashinskyI’ve been pondering your last comment. I’m a white man, who cannot fathom any person of color voting for a white supremasist, Trump. His MAGA rallies and the Jan 6 insurrection are oceans of white people. A picture is worth a thousand words. When Trump says the 2020 election was stolen, his MAGAS understand he means, stolen by people of color. That you say Biden is more right wing than Trump causes me to wonder if you are yanking my chain, or simply are nuts.I’m an Alabama native, and I am acutely aware that back in time the Southern Democrats fought desegregation, and civil rights blossomed under two Democrat presidents. I’m also well aware of who those Southern Democrats''kin are now in Alabama, the Republicans and the MAGAs. I suggest you try to get as many votes for Trump as you can.
sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com
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