This is based on incorrect early speculation. A bullet nicked his ear directly. Not that it really matters.

He has a lot of good opinions, but not consistently good opinions. He reminds me a lot of how many viewed Russell Brand or maybe Joe Rogan years ago. When good opinions come from a shallow philosophical framework, always expect things to go sideways eventually.

I see you've been relying on the mainstream news narrative. There was nothing illegal about the protests until after the police started cracking down.

Then there was UCLA where pro-Israel counter protesters were dragging protesters out and beating them with sticks while an army of cops half a block away stood around with their thumbs up their asses.

It's the neoliberal way to keep protesting legal while making it all but impossible to actually do so without breaking some minor law. Then the police come in huge numbers with riot gear, rubber bullets, and chemical agents that aren't even legal in a warzone. Suddenly it's a "violent" protest.

Neoliberals are always on the side of the protesters starting about 10 years after the protests are over. Until then they always wring their hands and whine about how the protest was done. This is all the exact shit they said about every protest of the civil rights movement.

The same cell might be even better.

That doesn't mean it wasn't allowed to happen for other purposes.

supports Israel too much for political reasons

Now c'mon, does this statement really embrace reality? Aside from it's toxic passivity, it's not even true. Biden's brand of support for Israel has been absolutely toxic politically. He supports Israel because it is the hub of US power projection in the Middle East.

If we can't even support the candidate of our choice in a fucking primary then democracy is actually dead. Shaming voters in the general is one thing, but doing so in a primary is dickish to the extreme. It's attitudes like this that will actually help Trump. Who the fuck wants to get in line for a party that doesn't give a rat's ass what you think?

Unfortunately, it's not just the government. There are mobs preventing aid from getting in, and almost half the country supports what's happening in Gaza.

Yikes. I know it shouldn't surprise me anymore, but I'm still shocked at how deeply so many people have absorbed this nonsense.

Name one major new innovation of the past 50 years that didn't rely substantially on government funding? NASA alone is responsible for most of the technologies in your cell phone, except for the touch screen which was funded by the Smithsonian.

I'll even tie one arm behind my back and we can ignore indirect things like public schooling or military conquest for resources like oil.

My nightmare scenario since he picked her was that he would claim the 2024 nomination as an encombant, then resign after two years. We're going to have to wait until 2036 before we get another primary, since Harris will be eligible for two full terms after finishing out Biden's second. Democratic voters soundly rejected her in 2020, but the establishment will be forcing her on us anyways.

US diplomatic efforts have been consistently pressuring Israel to restrain their actions. What people don't get, and what makes that statement seem insane to you, is that our ability to influence Israel is entirely dependent on our public support and, even so, is severely limited.

Let's say we go hard against Israel, cut off their access to US weapons manufacturing, and cut off their aid. Suddenly one of the three great regional powers in the Middle East is up for grabs and Russia eagerly steps into the void. Now Russia has two of the three in their orbit, the other being Iran. Iran happens to be the best regional ally of the Palestinians, but Russia will put an immediate end to that. Now the situation for the Palestinians is even worse, unless you think the US is going to threaten military intervention against Israel.

Biden has said some braindead shit on the topic, like taking this moment to call himself a Zionist, but the actions his administration have actually taken have been the best available in a very bad situation. The current government of Israel is basically their version of MAGA. They are going to do what they are going to do, and there is nothing we can do to stop it, short of putting boots on the ground ourselves. (Even if we wanted to, we are historically shit at these kinds of actions.). The best we can do is advise restraint and try to keep the conflict from becoming regional. We did manage to keep Israel from doing a major strike on Lebanon that could easily have sparked a much broader conflict.