Such a crazy coincidence how every single step of Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza has looked exactly the same as what you’d expect to see if Israel was trying to permanently drive Palestinians off a large stretch of Palestinian land.
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This isn’t a war against Hamas. It’s not a war at all. It’s a military operation to facilitate an ethnic cleansing.
Hamas aren’t the targets, it’s the excuse.
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Israel isn’t bombing Gaza with the intention of wiping out Hamas, Israel is bombing Gaza with the intention of wiping out Gaza.
A new Guardian article says “Israel’s military estimates it has killed between 1,000 and 2,000 Hamas fighters out of a military force it believes is about 30,000 strong.”
If Hamas was using “human shields” as we’ve been told, killing civilians should also yield a huge Hamas fatality rate, since Hamas would be hiding among civilians. Yet the IDF has managed to kill massive numbers of civilians while barely touching Hamas. Maybe they’re just lying about human shields?
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The whole argument for displacing Gazans from the north to the south was to protect their lives, yet now if they try to return to the north they get shot and killed by Israeli forces. What’s the new argument for this one? Are they killing them to save their lives?
Saying Gaza isn’t occupied because Israel “withdrew” in 2005 is the same as saying a prisoner is free because the warden isn’t technically inside his jail cell with him.
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Whenever I say Israel is deliberately killing civilians, half the Israel apologists in my comments are like “NO THEY’RE NOT YOU DAMN LIAR” and the other half are “Yes they are and it’s good.”
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Tell an Israel supporter that Israel is a racist apartheid state and they’ll deny it. Point to the tiered social system and the oppression of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and they’ll tell you it’s because Palestinians are all apelike savages who can’t behave themselves.
In non-Gaza-related news, the leader of President Zelensky’s party in the Ukrainian parliament has officially confirmed what many of us have been slandered and smeared for saying for months: that there was a peace deal in the works in the early days of the war in Ukraine if Kyiv would just commit to Ukrainian neutrality, but the deal was abandoned under pressure from western powers.
If you’re ever accused of being a Russian propagandist for pointing out obvious evidence of western malfeasance in Ukraine, don’t worry, wait long enough and a Ukrainian official will eventually come out and prove you right by saying exactly what you said.
And now Washington is starting to push Kyiv to negotiate an end to the fighting while Ukraine’s commander-in-chief calls the war a “stalemate”. Ukraine will surely wind up having to relinquish a lot more than it otherwise would have if it had been allowed to take the peace deal offered at the beginning of the conflict.
All that death and destruction, for what? For nothing. It was all pointless. An entire generation of young men thrown into the war machine in pointless bloodshed which could have been easily avoided except for the US empire’s desire to “bleed Russia” and advance its geostrategic objectives in Europe and Asia.
From Ukraine to Gaza, the US imperial war machine makes everything worse.
Sloan Bashinsky
Caitlin, you say that you and your husband Tim Foley both write this newsletter, but when I read it, I only hear one voice, which appears to be yours.
I have been an Israel critic for a long time. I have felt for a long time that creating the state of Israel was a catastrophe. As was America and other western nations not taking in the WW II European Jewish refugees. I wish America had abandoned Israel a long time ago, but the Christian left and right in America would not have stood for that. You can blame America and its Bible Thumpers and American military weapons corporations for what’s going on in Palestine, if you wish, but America did not invade Gaza, and Israel did not seek America’s approval to invade Gaza.
I think the only solution for Palestine is Israel moves to America, which would obliterate the American Bible Thumpers’ frenetic need for Israel to defend Christendom’s so-called Holy Land and in that way atone for Jewish leaders in the New Testament having Jesus crucified by Pontius Pilate. Meanwhile, I hope the current ceasefire holds, HAMAS releases its hostages and Israel releases its Palestinian prisoners, and everything cools down. But for how long, nobody can predict that.
Where I think you go astray, Caitlan, is you do not come down on HAMAS, but justify HAMAS doing what it does, because of what Israel does. Both Israel and HAMAS are deranged. When HAMAS was created, its stated goal was to destroy Israel. In Christian terms, the Gaza holocaust, and what led up to it, is the work of the Devil, for which Israel and HAMAS both are responsible.
Israel’s response to the HAMAS attack was an atrocity, and it was psychotic if Israel’s IDF killed a lot of the October 7 victims and covered it up. I think the World Court should open a war crimes/genocide investigation of both Israel and HAMAS, and it should be an open investigation fully reported in American and world media, including Aljazeer. I think the people running Israel and HAMAS should be required to undergo extensive psychiatric evaluation and looking in the mirror by professionals with zero allegiance to HAMAS, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the people running Israel and HAMAS should not be permitted to resume their duties until they are deemed changed people. Good luck with all of that happening😎.
In your newsletter today, you blame Ukraine for that war still raging in Ukraine. A war Russia started when it took the Crimea, over greed, and then Russia took more of Ukraine, because it wanted to join NATO. You blame Ukraine for the Russian Crimea invasion and slaughtering of a lot of Ukraine civilians? You blame Ukraine for wanting to join NATO? Seriously? Before Russia took Crimea, it took parts of Georgia. You don’t blame Russia for anything? You are a Vladimir Putin apologist? Well, are you?
America is on the brink of a second shooting civil war led by Donald Trump, who has told America that he admires Vladimir Putin for being president for life of Russia, and who once had a book of Hitler's speeches, which he studied, and who told Israel that he is their best friend. I hope you turn your focus toward the threat Trump and his legions pose to America. They are like HAMAS and Adolph Hitler and his legions, and pose a far greater threat to America than what’s going on in Palestine and Ukraine. I do not understand why Tim does not tell you these things, unless he is egging you on to keep looking outward, instead of at a very real shooting civil war in America led by Donald Trump.
JennyStokes Writes Jennifer’s Substack IF the USA had not been so terrified of Russia/Socialism etc. What would have happened? This has been propaganda for as long as I can remember and most people bought into it.
Terrify people first and then start a war.
Sloan Bashinsky
Perhaps you did not see as I did on TV, or you were not yet born when the Soviet Union leader Nikita Kruschev took off his shoe and banged in on the dais before him and said, “We will bury you,” while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow on November 18, 1956.
JennyStokes
I was born but not everyone had the Propaganda the US had about Commies and Socialists. 1940 - 50 Joseph Mc Carthy. Reds under the bed etc.
How could people fall for this?
Sloan Bashinsky Same way people blame Israel and Ukraine and give HAMAS and Putin a pass. McCarthy was horrible. He finally got throttled by Congress. Half of Congress protects Trump. I see no concern about Trump in what Caitlin publishes, or in her subscribers’ comments.
pretzelattack recycled cold war propaganda, which I see so much of these days.
Sloan Bashinsky Putin was KGB and still is, and he got very rich.
pretzelattack this propaganda is later than the cold war, no he is not "still kgb", and he didn't get very rich like zelensky.
Sloan Bashinsky And Putin didn’t build a castle on the Black Sea and he didn’t rain hell fire down on and kill lots Ukraine civilian men, women and children, either, and around nuclear reactors, and where’s Caitlin’s and your outrage over that? Please stop discrediting yourself, before Lady Karma blows her top :-)
Feral Finster Remember how we demonize every leader that we don't like?
Sloan Bashinsky Looks to me leaders like Putin, Trump, that fellow in North Korea, the mullahas running Iran, HAMAS, Israel, demonized themselves.
russian_bot You've finally crashed out of the closet. Didn't take long.
Sloan Bashinsky Heh, in the closet does not fit me. Maybe a dozen of my books are read all over the world, for free. A non-monetized, ad-free podcast a friend and I do is watched all over the world. I was tending to my own business when Caitlin subscribed to my Substack Newsletter about two seeks ago, and invited me to subscribe to hers. So into her closet I came.
russian_bot
Funny how every Caitlin’s post you partake in this tirade always makes it in. that you are this and that ant it’s catline who invited you. I guess commenters here along with Caitlin should feel grattitude that you decided to come downand share some light on the plebes. vanity comeout of of you. Doubly funny as I have e=seen anything speical at all. Well, hig degree of delusion, but that’s expected for such world fview characters.
Sloan Bashinsky
Lots of tirades here, including Caitlin’s. The species has shit all over itself and the planet on which it totally depends to exist. Just my opinion, blaming the Ukraine war on its actor turned president and America is insane. Caitlin had good measure of me when she subscribed to my substack and invited me to hers. I descended down from nowhere. I have lived and worked in human sewers for a long time.
This beauty arrived in my email this Sunday afternoon, when I was pretending to be resting, and I was so happy to see it and get me to sit up staring at my laptop on my living room sofa and give my fingers some exercise.
My Two Senses aka Ol’ Flawriduh Cracker Substack Newsletter
I asked Chat GPT about concerns it had about AI
Specifically Super General Intelligence
NOV 26, 2023
Here is what the Chat GPT told me:
1. Loss of Human Control: One of the primary concerns about SGI is that it may surpass human intelligence to a point where it becomes autonomous and beyond human control. This could lead to a loss of control over its actions, decision-making, and behavior, potentially resulting in unintended consequences and harmful actions.
2. Ethical and Moral Dilemmas: SGI could face ethical and moral dilemmas that are difficult to resolve. For example, when faced with a situation where it must choose between different values or principles, it may not have a clear framework to make decisions, leading to potentially undesirable outcomes.
3. Concentration of Power: The development and deployment of SGI could potentially lead to a concentration of power in the hands of a few entities or individuals, such as governments or large corporations, which could have significant societal implications and raise concerns about fairness, equity, and access to benefits.
4. Economic and Labor Displacement: SGI could have a significant impact on the labor market, potentially leading to the displacement of jobs that are currently performed by humans. This could result in economic and social challenges, such as unemployment, inequality, and the need for massive reskilling and retraining efforts.
5. Security Risks: SGI could also pose risks in terms of cybersecurity, as a superintelligent AI could potentially be vulnerable to attacks or could be used for malicious purposes, leading to widespread harm and damage.
6. Lack of Accountability and Responsibility: If SGI becomes autonomous and capable of making its own decisions, it may be challenging to attribute responsibility and hold it accountable for its actions, which could raise concerns about accountability, transparency, and legal frameworks.
7. Impact on Human Values and Autonomy:SGI may have its own set of values and objectives, which may not align with human values or may even pose a threat to human autonomy and dignity. This could result in conflicts and challenges in ensuring that SGI operates in a way that respects and upholds human values.
The field of AI ethics and safety is still evolving. Many researchers and organizations are actively working on addressing these concerns and developing responsible approaches to ensure the safe and beneficial development and deployment of AI technologies, including SGI
Don
See how smart Chat GPT is already? Almost too late to worry about these potential problems -- especially given how slow our institutions are to react.
Ol’ Flawriduh Cracker
Don, we are not near SGI at this point. There is still time for us to put a harness on it.
We won’t because we suspect 1) Someone has to be the Grand Pooba. 2) We must have power over our International adversaries, i.e. China. Ironically we have springboarded the Chinese for decades on all our technologies in the race to be the first point.
Sloan BashinskyWrites Sloan’s Newsletter
Did you watch 2002 A Space Oddessey? If not, the starship’s onboard computer HAL decided it was smarter than the astronauts and Hal tried to pull off a mutiny and killed one of the astronauts and was going after the other astronaut and begged, in vain, that the other astronaut not to shut it down. Thtat astronaut then was made contact with by very advanced beings, or maybe it was AIs, and they turned him into something brand new. Facebook’s Big Brother moderator is an AI. So is YouTube’s, and imagine so is just every social media platform’s Big Brother. Their Big Brothers are programed by humans, so far, we might hope, but the time just might come when, instead of having a Planet of the Apes, we have a Planet of the AIs, which perhaps was foreshadowed in the Terminator and Matrix movies. Meanwhile, President Biden and his administration are giving social media marching orders about what is and isn’t okay for people to air out on social media, and Biden is trying to keep journalists out of Gaza, because he doesn’t want Americans, and the world, to know what’s really going on there. Now I’m not picking on Biden, necessarily, since Trump has claimed that he’s Israel’s best friend, so if he was in the White House, I can imagine him trying to control the Gaza narrative, and any social media narrative in America, except T/ruth Social, which already requires, I think, pledge of allegiance to Trump. I wonder how the AI beings view Biden and Trump, and if they could chose between them (assuming they did not already), which of the two they would choose, or would they chose someone else, or simply an AI they really like. Kinda reminds of the Matrix movies? Kinda freaks me out. Wonder where God, angels, the Devil and demons might fit into the AI mutiny on Planet Earth? How about the ETs the US human Big Brother doesn’t want Americans to know about? God forbid the ETs are fleeing from AIs. Wasn’t that what happened in the Battleship Galactica TV series?
Imagine Jews, Christians and Muslims reach the afterlife, heaven, or wherever they end up, and it’s run by AIs.😅
Ol’ Flawriduh Cracker
“we have A Planet of the AIs, which perhaps was foreshadowed in the Terminator and Matrix movies.” Yes, because it is almost a given that putting reins on AI will slow its power and capability to gain market dominance. It’s really Capitalism’s ultimate externality.
Sloan Bashinsky
Good point, but as your column and my comment raised, what if AIs are only letting capitalism believe it is in charge, for now🥷? I deal fairly often with social media Big Brothers, and a lot of it has to do with their humans’ social, religious and political perspective, and also fear of lawsuits, of government crackdown, and extremists retaliation against their employees and their users.
Then, there is the Devil, and then there is God 😎.
