This isn't necessarily dementia

It's almost certainly not dementia. He's definitely in mental decline, and that is more than sufficient to explain what we've seen.

Yeah, but that one dude is the UN foreign policy chief, and he is far from the only one. Nobody is claiming Hamas isn't supported by Iran and Russia.

As I said, progressives inevitably do end up voting for the shitty neoliberal. Exit Polls have always shown that. Then when the shitty neoliberals lose,they always find a way to blame it on progressives. That's what makes these constant "please just vote" posts especially obnoxious.

The people in these forums are not the people you need to reach. Unlikely voters are unlikely to hang out in political discussions. If you really give a shit, phone bank, canvass, or call your representatives and tell them to quit fucking up so people won't check out of the system.

If you want to virtue signal and play into the neoliberal spin machine, keep doing this. All you are really doing is providing space for all the right wing trolls to try and convince people that not voting is virtuous.

Which party gets the presidency is going to depend less and less on the candidates in coming elections. Demographic shifts are going to push the popular vote further to the Democrats, so what really matters will be the state of Republican voters suppression.

LOL, yeah, it's the Democratic label that the establishment cares about. Of course they forgot all about that when they switched up the rules halfway through the 2020 primary to let a damn Republican join the race. Get real.

It can absolutely be put on Trump. October 7 was a response to the Abraham Accords that were championed by Trump. Those accords would put Saudi Arabia in charge of Palestinian security, which was not acceptable to Palestinians in general, or especially Hamas.

Something that isn't being talked about is the added risk because of the tensions with Iran from Trump pulling out of the nuclear deal. A lot of the unpopular moves the Biden administration has made are a direct result of that. From the start, America's top priority in all this has been to keep Iran from getting involved because that would likely be WW3.

Trump was an easy target for smear campaigns. That's why Hillary's campaign helped Trump win the primary, and that sure worked out well.

Americans don't give two shits about what the neolibs think are devastating attacks. They are fed up with the out-of-touch wealthy and political classes.

Don't conflict these idiots with the entire left wing of the party. They are not representative, just loud.

It would seem to be rational that the less mass of metal in a connection, the faster that connection will charge or discharge voltage. Physical sockets require a lot more mass just to ensure solid contact.

You act like there was a non-genocide option. Once Hamas did that attack, there was no stopping the crazy right wing Israeli government from doing what they are doing.

So what? The US should take a hard line against Israel anyways, even if it does no good, right? Great, so Israel is removed from the US sphere of influence and goes shopping for a new sugar daddy. That would be China, or more likely Russia. Now Russia is chummy with both Israel and Iran, which has the inconvenient little side effect that the Palestinians will lose the support of Iran. But who cares about the Palestinians anyways.

Any hope the US had of restraining Israel in any way whatsoever is contingent on our continued support. Without that, we have no influence and someone else steps in.

I'm not claiming that Biden has handled this perfectly, but the general direction he has gone has been in the best interest of saving as many Palestinian lives as possible. There are no clean hands in foreign policy.

Setting aside that you know nothing of my voting history, this is entirely irrelevant.

The Democratic party used to be what the Republicans are today. Eventually they became the party of FDR and the new deal. Now they are the party of Bill Clinton and third way neoliberal corporatism. Things change, and we can influence the direction of that change. Forcing Biden to the left has made him a better president than anyone on the left expected. He's still not the president we want, but we shifted him in the right direction. The Democratic party as a whole is better now than it was 10 years ago.

Go ahead and piss on the progress that's been made, but then be prepared to explain how third party movements have done any better.

Exactly how much influence over Israel's actions do you think his administration would have if it took the kind of hard line you're looking for?

Israel has a far right xenophobic government and suffered a massive blow from Hamas. Short of invading Israel, there is nothing the US can do to prevent bloody retribution on Palestinians. By standing firm with Israel, we at least get a seat at the table to try and shape the response to reduce harm to civilians. We have actually had some success in that, though not as much as we would like.

Meanwhile, we have this quote coming from Harris: “Under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza".

That's a damn strong signal to Israel that US support for Israel is being undermined by their actions. That is how you leverage a relationship towards a change in outcome. Biden actually has a seriously skilled foreign policy team that's following the path most beneficial to Palestinians, not the one most aestheticly pleasing to Palestinian supporters.

I'm a fierce critic of Biden, and I'm outraged that he decided to run again in 2024. Still, I think his administration has taken the right approach with Israel. I don't think every step was handled perfectly, but the overall approach is correct, and he is doing it in the face of serious political backlash. That's actually what leadership looks like.