A career State Department official resigned from her post on Tuesday, saying she could no longer work for the Biden administration after it released a report concluding that Israel was not preventing the flow of aid to Gaza.
Stacy Gilbert, who served as a senior civilian-military advisor to the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), sent an email to staff saying she was resigning because she felt the State Department had made the wrong assessment, The Washington Post reported, citing officials who read the note.
The report was filed in response to President Joe Biden issuing a national security memorandum (NSM-20) in early February on whether the administration finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons do not violate either American or international law.
The report said there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel on several occasions had used American-supplied weapons “inconsistent” with international humanitarian law, but said it could not make a definitive assessment - enough to prevent the suspension of arms transfers.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
George Orwell, 1984
… Biden and Co. can’t lose any more credibility than this. Do they think there’s a portion of the world civilization that lives in some sort of simulation that is controlled by the powers that be? lol smh.
But remember, we’re still supposed to vote for Biden even though his own cabinet members have lost faith in him. Because otherwise we get Nazi Trump.
Remind me again, is this what a functional, healthy, democracy looks like? The institutions that form our “political parties” are rotten to the core. The ideals don’t need to die, but the corrupt groups who stifle actual change and progress need to.
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Mass protests. Civil disobedience. The kinda of things that ended slavery and helped raise women’s rights. The things we used to do instead of sitting down and just taking it. Look at the French: they stage months/years long protests. Now check their labor laws and compare it to the US. Where would you rather work?
It’s not going to end until people accept that this change won’t be easy and won’t happen taking the easy way. It’s going to be a shit ton of uphill battles. But that’s the only way to take power back from the oppressors: you demand it.
You think Biden could keep his course of actions up if a large percentage of citizens were out on the streets protesting? I’m asking you to hold your elected representatives accountable. And if they arent doing as they should, you should damn well make it known. Not go “well, he’s not gonna do what I want, but he’s not a Nazi”. DONT ROLL OVER AND TAKE IT.
Do you realize how much you can slow the government down just by calling your representatives? Even if you don’t talk to them, every secretary and assistant taking calls instead of doing other things slows them down. Keep calling. Don’t stop. Send in letters. Show up to meetings whenever possible. Be visible and make your voice heard.
i hope these people are happy if they succeed in torpedoing biden and getting trump elected
Trump is a nightmare and must be stopped at all costs.
That doesn’t mean there can’t be calls for Biden to do better or call him out for blatant lies.
In what reality is the person refusing to lie to cover up human rights abuses the bad guy?
if biden wins the election, i’ll carry on shitting on him right along with everyone else.
at this point, people need to internalize the AT ALL COSTS part of of your first sentence. because drawing attention to biden’s problems does nothing but help trump
So Biden can do anything he wants up to the election? Why would he give a shit after the election?
Are you talking about the state department losing Biden the election? It would be amazing if they stopped lying to cover for Israel. That would increase Bidens chances of winning.
How can anyone say that we should vote for this administration in the fall? Its own staff are abandoning it!
It’s one thing for me to observe the machine from outside and say “gee, idk about this one, it looks to be going down the wrong path…” it’s entirely another for tactical and practical staff to come leaping out of various hatches and run the other way shouting “it’s ontologically evil!”
Voting is when you get to choose your opponent. Would you rather oppose the Democrats, who are clearly at least somewhat divided on the subject of Palestine, or the Republicans, whose only division is between “Bomb them” and “Nuke them”?
You’re not endorsing a government by voting for it. You’re just arranging the playing field in the way that is most tactically advantageous to you.
I’m not voting for either. The party for socialism and liberation has a platform of Palestinian statehood and an end to weapons shipments to israel among many other positions I align with.
My support for this party gives them material benefits and makes my position clear in no uncertain terms that the platforms of both democrats and republicans are unacceptable.
When the genocide is this obvious, and the ongoing consequences for the democrats and democracy this serious, it really makes me wonder what’s the political calculus behind it.
Is AIPAC really that big of a threat? Is netanyahu that important to our imperial interests in the middle east? Why choose full on putinesque post-truth politics over this?
I’ve never had much faith in the democrats, but I honestly just don’t understand what’s driving such terrible decision making.
Biden is afraid of the same Israeli political action networks that evaded registering as foreign agents for about half a year before JFK and Bobby were assassinated. Those networks never came into compliance and split into a parent and a subsidiary. The parent organization has disbanded. The subsidiary is now known as AIPAC. If he pulls support from Likudnik Israel those terrorists will instantly put two bullets in the back of his head.
Please tell me you aren’t spreading “jews killed the Kennedys” conspiracies
Do you think all Jews are Israelis?
Did I say the word Jews?
You said Israelis.
What other religion would these supposed Israeli assassins be?
There’s a world of difference between saying something was done by people who happen to be Jewish, and saying “the Jews” did it. Unless you think being Jewish should make a person immune to all criticism.
I don’t actually have an opinion on who killed Kennedy, but saying it was done by a group–the Israeli right wing–that’s openly committing genocide, has a history of committing assassinations, and has a stranglehold on US politics is not ridiculous or racist on its face.
There’s a world of difference between saying genocide was done by people who happen to be Israeli right wingers, and saying “the Israeli right wing” did it.
Here’s the political calculus for Democrats:
This appears to be a very unusual election. Normally Democrats lead with young voters, and Republicans lead with older voters. But this year, Biden has gained ground with older voters even while losing ground with young voters.
So the first thing to consider is that Biden is trying harder to appeal to older voters than usual for Democrats, and older voters are more likely to support Israel.
Furthermore, older voters are much more likely to vote, which is good news for Biden. This also means that Biden has less reason to maximize turnout than previous Democrats.
The obvious question is why doesn’t Biden try to win over young and older voters? I’m sure he would like to, but supporting Palestine isn’t the way to do it. Surprisingly, young voters actually don’t care that much about Gaza. Furthermore, according to that article “young voters who wanted Biden to pressure Israel to stop attacking Gaza would vote for him at about the same rate as those who didn’t.” So supporting Palestine might just be downside risk with older voters.
Putting all this together, and the political calculus favors appealing to older voters on Israel, and trying to find some other issue to win back young voters.
I think it’s the same short sighted calculus businesses use. They aren’t thinking about the long term. They just want to win this election. And there’s a path to victory by grabbing soft conservatives. They don’t care that they’re obliterating our reputation, the reputation of our intelligence community (who press F to doubt on Israel’s claims), and the reputation of the party.
but I honestly just don’t understand what’s driving such terrible decision making.
I mean, look around these comments sections and see the apologism. If you bring up any criticism of Biden, you must support Trump! Its 2016 all over again, where voters with legitimate concerns about the candidate are being told to basically stfu. Democrats of a certain vintage think they are owed your vote.
Yeah, and imagine where we’d be today if people had just sucked it up and voted for Hillary in 2016. Just the SCOTUS alone.
But sure, it’s the fault of the people warning you how bad it would be to let Trump win, because they couldn’t make voting for Hillary feel good.
if people had just sucked it up
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts…
You have to come to terms with the material fact that this approach to electoralism doesn’t work. Shaming votings, telling them you know better, that they owe you their vote, that Trump is way worse so they should vote for someone they dont want: Its been demonstrated to be ineffective at winning elections.
You can and maybe should be disappointment in the electorate for this being the case, but you can’t be in denial of it if you actually want to beat Trump. You have to do something different and convince them that the candidate is worth voting for. Or rather, the candidate needs to convince the electorate they are worth voting for. They need to go out and build a coalition. Candidates need to go to where voters are, hear their issues and concerns, and address them with their platform.
Trump is doing that. Maybe he gets booed. He got booed at the libertarian conference last weekend I think. But he’s showing up to where voters are, and attempting to convince them that he’s the answer for the issues they face. Democrats could take a hint.
Not the first, and won’t be the last.
Article mentions 5 other State Department employees have left over Biden’s support of a genocide while pretending it’s not a genocide.
It’s not to late to ditch him for a candidate that represents the values of dem voters. And regardless of who it is, they probably have a better chance of stopping trump.
Sunk cost fallacy is a terrible way to run a political party, but especially when the stakes are this high.
Even if we win and get four more years of this, it’s not winning, it’s just losing less. Which is why Biden’s numbers are so bad, he doesn’t inspire voters due to his words and actions.
Who is this candidate? Pick one and start saying their name! Would Sanders take the nomination? Whoever it is, you’ll need their cooperation at least, so find your duck and get it in the row.
I don’t mean to yell at you, it is frustrating and humiliating for the average citizen, and it’s going to get worse.
Losing less is still better than losing more and if we’re too late we have to accept that and look beyond the vote to damage control in the coming years. Yes, asking each other to “hold your nose and vote” sucks, but we’ve got to pair it with the idea that protest and disobedience and local government action is going to be an important factor for years to come, no matter who is president.
and if we’re too late
That argument worked in 2016, it’s been 8 years of trump…
If the party can’t find a single better candidate, than maybe there should be different people leading it?
But pick any of the 49 senators that caucus with Dems (I’m not counting Manchin, he’d probably be just as hard to elect as Biden) and they’d all have a better shot.
Hell, AOC would get every single Dem vote that can’t hold their nose for Biden. And while some “moderates” would campaign against her like they did Obama, as we saw back then increased turnout more than makes up for those conservatives who constantly claim compromise always means giving them exactly what they ask for Maybe less, but never more.
The main voter block this election will be under 40, we can’t keep catering to boomers because our politicians are so old they can’t realize their grandkids are now the biggest demographic.
We’ll always be little kids to an 82 year old.
No, Biden has the brand recognition and is the party’s best chance to win. His administration does do a terrible job of selling the good things he is doing and he is shooting himself in the foot by not following through on his ‘red line’ with Rafah, but that isn’t enough of a negative to outweigh the lnown factor.
It sucks that winning a first past the post election based on the electoral college is how it works instead of something like ranked choice, but that is where we are at.
Biden isn’t going to win dude. He’s losing, hard L style right now.
Its not an issue with fptp, its not strategic voting.
He’s a shitty candidate that was always a comprise/ most-least preferred candidate and he’s not going to win.
Continuing to make the arguments that we need to stick with Biden is basically arguing to give the election to Trump.
So what’s your solution? Who has a better shot at winning the election in November if they started campaigning today? I want a specific name and why you think it would work. You know better than everyone, this should be easy for you (everyone else, watch for this sidestep and refusal to actually answer or back up anything).
You’re really good at claiming (almost to a point of preference) that Biden will lose and why we shouldn’t support them but not once have you provided anything of value that people can take action on. Everything you post appears to be designed to make people more apathetic and less likely to be involved, why is that?
Its not my job to give you a solution. I just need you to be real about the probability of failure of the strategy that you seem to be pot-committed to. And to be clear, we haven’t had a convention yet, so there is still time to change.
I’m offering you an analysis that makes a conclusion, that based on current polling, Biden can’t win this election. You might find it unpalatable, but that’s not my problem. Hope is a false
But this isn’t new news’. Biden has been struggling in this way for over a year, before Israel/ Gaza became hot. Biden’s chances have gone from “rough” to “very unlikely”. He’s actively working to distance himself from the positions of his base. Instead of rejecting Trump’s policy positions, he adopts them. Biden is catering to a non-existent center. It seems like he genuinely thinks that some republican voters are going to show up for him. There is 0 evidence from the previous three elections that any voters are convertible.
On the other side, maybe he gets laughed at, but Trump is going to the places that voters are and trying to get them (the sneaker thing, libertarian convention). Trump is trying to win this election. You win elections post 2016 by growing a base and driving them out to vote. It worked for Trump in 2016. It worked for Biden in 2020: Biden took on the most progressive platform in recent history to grow his base to include progressives.
Whats Biden’s platform in 2024? I don’t know about you but I have no fucking clue based on the campaigns messaging. Its all, just like you are parroting here, about how bad Trump is. And while you might find that convincing enough, there are obviously enough voters out there (about 12%) who don’t and that you can’t win the election without.
So I’m sorry. It hurts if he’s your hucklebee, but the guy can’t win right now. He’s statistically lost at this point. If beating Trump really is your goal, then you need to come up with a better candidate. Continuing to push for Biden when he can’t win dooms us all.
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You need to touch some grass.
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See… this is the problem with discussing these things with people like you. You were asked a simple question as a rebuttal to your suggestion that people not vote for Biden, and you have no answer.
I’ve asked this same question to nearly every one of you that I’ve spoke with on the subject.
None of you can answer it.
The last few days I’ve experimented with just asking people like him point-blank what they would rather us do, and they always resort to personal attacks or admit they will vote for Biden. It’s unbelievable.
Do you sniff your own farts often or just frequently?
Making a criticism doesn’t require that I have a solution to the problem that’s been set up by the insistence that Biden be the nominee. If that leaves you feeling incomplete, that’s your issue.
Complaining about something while offering no solutions and expecting to be taken seriously is about as fucking stupid as not voting and expecting things to change.
You were asked a simple question, that for all the talk you people seem to do here- should be simple to answer…
But NONE of you can answer it. It’s litetally your shut down code. And I’m going to ensure that everyone knows it.
Biden, what the fuck are you doing!? Can you do the right thing when it comes to genocide, please? Just hand the election over to trump on a silver platter. How hard is it to… not support genocide? Wtf
The Democrat’s strategy to appeal to their base really seems to be, “Look, we’re not as bad at the other guys.” And they really aren’t realizing that that isn’t enough, because it’s not just about Israel/Palestine anymore. I really don’t think the people who are also repeating this party line (including the ones on Lemmy) are realizing how out of touch this sentiment is especially the younger Millennials/Gen Z.
I’ve seen my friends get attacked, arrested, and get criminal records from the university encampments and protests, and nothing was done to protect them. In their eyes, Trump would never protect them, but neither did Biden or any other Democrat in power. How can they be trusted to protect the people in the future? Seen from this lens, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that there might be people out there who find voting for Biden unpalatable.
I’ve been saying for a long time that Democrats basically sell themselves on the idea that you should be afraid that the Republican might win, and vote for them to prevent that. Sometimes they get something done, often only after compromising heavily, but for the most part that’s not the message they’re selling on.
To put it another way, if someone asks you why they should vote Dem instead of third party, the answer isn’t about how great the Dems are and why they deserve your vote it’s about why you should be scared that the GOP might win. It didn’t work in 2016 because most didn’t actually think Trump might win and it did in 2020 because they knew he could.
It might work this time (I’d give it better than even odds, even given the Israel/Gaza stuff is going to hurt Biden some), but eventually it won’t and when it fails and we get another GOP president the Dems won’t win another election for a while - either we immediately fall into Christo-fascist super-Nazism and there are no more elections where we could vote for Dems or we don’t and Dems are at a loss on what to do for votes.
Our current political structure and the two party system makes even the best politician look feeble.
I’m not sure how to do it but represent.us proposes to fix it in the near future (if we all bought in, I suppose).One thing that sticks out on that sit is that whether all of voters agree or very few of us agree on a policy there’s about a 30% chance of the policy becoming law.
It goes without saying that the rich and corporations benefit from the current system. It will be tough to change. And makes our system pretty pathetic in practice.
It’s one of the first modern democracies and as a result, I think needs a major update. It’s way too hard to get things done, filibustering is too easy, money has an outsized influence on politicians and elections due to lobbying, there’s no real way to recall certain powerful leaders (from the President to Congressmen to judges), lifetime appointments were an interesting idea but terrible in practice, and all the compromises made for slave states, including the Senate and electoral college, need to go. When are the devs going to put out a new patch?
Oh, and gerrymandering needs to be stopped. Almost forgot that one.
Democrats basically sell themselves on the idea that you should be afraid that the Republican might win, and vote for them to prevent that.
Pathetically, that’s what Republicans said for the 4 years Trump was in office. “Please overlook his faults, a Democrat would be worse!”
At least take some kind of useful stance on fucking anything.
Wtf did you think Biden is? Dark Brandon?
It’s his job to do US policy - ie, enabling Israel’s genocide, just like all the other mass-murder US policy is responsible for.
He is facing a lot of resistance amongst his electorate for doing his job - therefore he will be handing over to a regime that can perform this sacrosanct aspect of US policy without meeting any resistance from it’s electorate.
It’s “liberal democracy” working the way it’s supposed to in all it’s pseudo-democratic glory.
Everyone who votes for trump because they think he is better for Gaza than Biden really deserves Trump
Idk if anyone is saying they’ll vote for trump over Biden because they think he will be better for genocide or for people in the states.
Saying Biden and the Democrats are enabling genocide and watching it happen is not the same thing as saying “we will vote for trump”
It’s calling out people and hoping they do better.
But I guarantee you if Biden loses the election this November, all the pieces will be about why black and brown and Muslim voters didn’t come out, rather than examining why an absolutely massive proportion of white people vote for trump and the Republicans at every turn even though they’re destroying the country.
To be fair, the Muslims would have a pretty good excuse.
America deserves Trump. Period.
Y’all love your violence outside your borders. How about within?
I actually don’t love violence anywhere. Outside or inside our borders. I’ve voted every election since I became eligible. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be enough.
No, we don’t. We aren’t all meatheads, thanks.
You know when the ML’s say “scratch a liberal and …,” it’s that. That’s what you are seeing. Liberals will always defer to fascism in support of corporate interests.
What do ML’s say about Khmer Rouge and Xinjiang?
If you pressure them long enough they admit they consider them justified genocides
Wow, really? I certainly wouldn’t want to hang around people who consider the Khmer Rouge’s genocide to be justified, maybe I made an account on the wrong instance. I mean, assuming that actually happened.
In fact, I promise I will not only delete my account right now, but also never post on the fediverse again if you can provide a link to what you just claimed regarding the Khmer Rouge. Should be easy, right?
Sorry, I don’t want to be responsible for you leaving the Fediverse
Liberals and making shit up to punch left, name a more iconic duo.
Y’all never have the receipts for anything you say. Bunch of messy little drama queens.
Historically he never does the right thing when it comes to religious motivations.
Presidential candidate Jill Stein condemns Israel’s genocide and has opposed US actions of sending them more ammunition. And before you type up that First Past the Post response, ask yourself if you support First Past the Post. Because she’s also campaigning on Ranked Choice voting.
Until ranked choice becomes law, everything you said is 100% irrelevant.
Not really.
Its plausible that Bernie might have been successful on his own in recent elections had he made his own party considering how much support he got in the DNC’s primaries despite being a technical independent.
It’s not impossible for a new party to compete successfully, just very difficult.
If it took Imran Khan 20 years to create a populist party worthy of rivaling the military establishment in Pakistan who runs an actual fraudulent election every season, surely America can create a grassroots party worthy of dethroning the GOP and DNC.
Repeatedly voting those two parties and expecting ranked choice voting to become a thing is the real fallacy here. Neither party would pass legislation that weakens their stronghold on elections.
It’s not impossible for a new party to compete successfully, just very difficult.
In the last 47 years Independent Parties have received a combined total of 0% of the electoral votes. The losers of elections don’t get to decide how the system changes, so you really do accomplish a precise mixture of jack shit and fuck all by voting third party.
In the last 47 years Independent Parties have received a combined total of 0% of the electoral votes.
And thats going so well for us as we get to choose between Joe “Im a Zionist” who uses emergency powers to bypass congress to fast track weapons to Israel to commit genocide, and Trump.
Lmao
Yes, to reiterate this for you one more time, we’re choosing between Joe “Don’t Cross this Line for Real this Time” Biden and Donald “Nuke the Region” Trump. You contribute more to death and destruction by voting third party than for Biden. These are your choices.
I don’t like it. I don’t expect you to like it. But this is it.
Alright if I can only possibly choose between Trump or Biden on the ballot in November you shouldnt have anything to worry about me choosing someone else whose name is gonna be on the ballot.
The USA allows write-ins and third parties on the ballot, but as I mentioned 0% of the Electoral Vote in 47 years makes it sort of pointless. If you really don’t like either voting for candidate then I have some good news: both parties want Election Reform. DNC is for campaign finance and popular vote winners while RNC is for ending elections.
good luck getting ranked choice into law by voting against it.
All it will take is one more Turnip presidency to end all elections forever, and you’re toying with the idea. That makes you a fascist.
He gonna wave his magic end elections wand that only appears for a second term presidency.
Pretty sure the genocide is not irrelevant.
