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Menendez Faces a New Accusation: Aiding the Qatari Government
Federal prosecutors said Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, accepted tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to help Qatar’s government.www.nytimes.com
Good ****ing grief
He needs to resign at this point
“Blast”Bombing in Iran Kills Over 100, Sowing Confusion and Speculation
No one claimed responsibility for the bombing at a memorial for Qassim Suleimani, the top commander killed by a U.S. drone strike four years ago.www.nytimes.com
The best part is he didn't qualify for the debate.
great points famA lot of people are rightfully terrified of what a close US ally is doing to two million extremely vulnerable people right at this very moment.
A lot of people are rightfully terrified of what a second Trump presidency would mean for a lot of vulnerable people within and without the borders of the US.
And there’s obviously a ton of overlap.
The tricky part is that the same guy both plays a role in what Israel is doing to vulnerable people and is the bulwark against Trump. And too much of intra left discourse has become rooted in the idea that you can only act on of those truths.
Either you vote for Biden and you accept what’s happening in Gaza or you decide that , understandably, the notion of harm reduction is out the window and Gazas gotta die in order to prevent Trump from getting elected and causing more total damage.
The fact that we even have to make these choices speaks to deep systemic failures which must be addressed and addressed very soon.
Moreover, if you care about Gaza, you must do everything you can do to pressure the Israeli regime and it’s principle Allies. And if you care about civil rights here in the US, you must do what you can to build countervailing power structures and not rely solely on the state as a guarantor of civil rights since the state is vulnerable to reactionary takeover. Thankfully, those two goals are often interlinked.
On the narrow question of voting, just vote for the most viable challenger to the GOP at every level. Voting is just one item in the tool kit. Sadly, the question of US foreign policy towards Israel will not be on the ballot in 2024 (foreign policy as well as the major questions about the economy are largely immune to popular opinion) but a good deal of civil rights issues will be on the ballot. Vote on those and use direct action to save Gaza because voting/not voting won’t save them.
Vote blue in the morning and then get right back to boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning Israel over Palestine. We can address those two things at the same time. We can and we must.
great pointsI see we've reached the point in the cycle in which single issue non-voters begin affecting a cynical disgust for candidate quality, despite sitting out every single primary election - as if the best way to “teach the DNC a lesson” is to forfeit your vote when it’s time to choose a candidate. (Yes, let the Boomers decide. That’ll show them.)
The same nihilists who told us that there was no point to voting in prior elections (because the President is just a figurehead and corporations control everything) are suddenly discovering that Presidents have power after all.
Oddly, their newfound outrage for the evils of settler colonialism has thus far failed to produce any fresh vitriol for their beloved techno-kings:
Pronomos Capital’s New VC Idea: Colonies of Tech Bros
Pronomos Capital has raised at least $13.3 million from free-market evangelists including Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen.www.thedailybeast.com
The synchronicity of self-professed “independent thinkers” is nothing if not ironic.
great points fam
what they are allowing in gaza makes me not wanna vote at all
famI know it’s 2024 so I know that reading few paragraphs online is like reading a dense 19th century novel that somehow throws in several pages of u translated French of Russian.
Believe me, I’ve got the attention span of a gold fish thanks to a steady diet of color contrasting, rapid fire, short form videos.
So it’s understandable that you skimmed this and saw a criticism of Biden and assumed I was telling people not to vote.
But I think if you read to the bottom, the take away would be more like “vote for Biden in the morning, apply direct pressure to Israel and to pro Israel elements in the US in the afternoon.”
What you do in the evening is your business though.
This is all a witchhunt. The honorable Sen. Menendez already explained why there was $480k in cash stuffed throughout random drawers, jacket pockets, safes, ... in his home, in addition to around $100k in gold bars. It was "for personal use", because he doesn't have complete faith in the banking system.what's amazing to me about this, is the supreme court has gutted corruption laws.
you really gotta try hard to explicitly provably corruptly perform a "official act"
yet Menendez found a way.
By all means, enlighten us how describing what a bomb does is somehow nefarious“Blast”
“Explosion”
By all means, enlighten us how describing what a bomb does is somehow nefarious
Sure, but blast/explosion are routinely used in this context.Media bias is pretty clear when on side gets the benefit of the doubt, the media uses their preferred terms, and uses passive voice. Meanwhile, the official enemies do not get similar treatment.
Hamas kills Israelis by firing rockets at Israeli civilians but “Palestinians die in blasts, sone militants killed.” Or Homeless man attacks tax payer but when a rich guy kills unhoused people for fun it’s something like “ vagrant dies of wounds in the hospital.”
And of course there’s the Crown Jewels of media passive voice used in service of power, which are pretty much any headline the media writes after a cop shoots someone.
Weird how many people die of gun shot wounds from guns that discharge bullets and it’s odd how these guns always seem to belong to officers.
Sure, but blast/explosion are routinely used in this context.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/02/world/asia/philippines-explosion.html
Al-Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government, for reference.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/28/isil-group-claims-blast-that-killed-four-in-afghanistan
ISIL group claims blast that killed four in Afghanistan
The article in question that I responded to is about a terrorist attack in Iran though, and no group has claimed responsibility so far. Even Iran's Supreme Leader hasn't pointed the finger at a particular nation or terrorist organization.I’m sure you are aware but others may be slightly confused so I feel the need to say,
Not all Arabs are pro Palestinian and not all Arab owned news outlets are pro Palestinian, neutral, or even anti Zionist.
But more importantly, this article is about a bomb going off that was convertly planted, it wasn’t initially clear who left the bomb, and then ISIL took “credit” for it.
That’s when passive voice is fine.
But if you’re in Gaza, especially Gaza after October 7th, there’s a 99.9% chance that a blast or explosion in Gaza was indeed caused by deliberate Israel military action. There’s little to no mystery about the blasts prominence.
Imagine writing a headline for the Tulsa riots. What’s more descriptive?
“White mob loots and burns down thriving black neighborhoods.”
Or “stockbrokers lose businesses in clashes.”
Plug in other groups in these headlines and the nefariousness (however unintentional) is pretty obvious.
The article in question that I responded to is about a terrorist attack in Iran though, and no group has claimed responsibility so far. Even Iran's Supreme Leader hasn't pointed the finger at a particular nation or terrorist organization.
Specifically that Iran bombing headline. As you pointed out, passive voice should be reserved for particular instances where it is appropriate.If the journalists truly don’t know who fired or planted the bomb, of course passive voice is not only OK but also the best option available.
If you’re defending that head about Iran, I’m with you. But if you are broadly defending the use of passive voice in writing headlines, I’d have to disagree with you and say that in most cases, a passive voice headline is proof that the journalist who write it, is biased towards hegemonic institutions who dispense violence.
It’s based on the idea that members of certain groups are just meant to die and suffer so the aggressor who shot or bombed them is seen as being unimportant.
Plus, I also usually hate passive voice because I grade papers and open ended test questions. So there’s that.