‘Useful Idiot for Russia’: DNC Decides to Go Off on Jill Stein - eviltoast

“Jill Stein is a useful idiot for Russia. After parroting Kremlin talking points and being propped up by bad actors in 2016 she’s at it again,” DNC spokesman Matt Corridoni said in a statement to The Bulwark. “Jill Stein won’t become president, but her spoiler candidacy—that both the GOP and Putin have previously shown interest in—can help decide who wins. A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.”

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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      3 months ago

      The problem is that “support genocide” is being used overly broadly.

      The stated policy of the Biden/Harris administration is that Israel has a right to defend itself.

      Surprise! They do. Every sovereign nation has that right.

      As a result of that stated policy, Biden and Harris both support providing weapons and funding for the continual defense of Israel.

      https://www.npr.org/2024/08/23/g-s1-19232/kamala-harris-israel-gaza-dnc

      So follow me here:

      1. Israel has a right to defend itself.
      2. The US will support that defense.

      Where it breaks down is Bibi and Likud taking that defensive support and directing it into the Genocide.

      That’s on THEM. The United States is making a good faith effort to provide support for the defense of Israel. Israel is intentionally misapplying that support.

      Trump’s stated policy is that Israel needs to kill everyone quicker.

      https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-israel-pr-hugh-hewitt-21faee332d95fec99652c112fbdcd35d

      “They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”

      Only one of these two policies is pro-genocide, Trumps.

      Biden/Harris is pro-defense which is illegitimately being used for genocide, not at all the same as being pro-genocide.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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        3 months ago

        That’s on THEM. The United States is making a good faith effort to provide support for the defense of Israel. Israel is intentionally misapplying that support.

        This is not a good argument. They’re not infants, they have agency and the ability to perceive the impacts of their actions.

        Biden/Harris is pro-defense which is illegitimately being used for genocide, not at all the same as being pro-genocide.

        Eh, it certainly means they’re not proactively anti-genocide.

        But more importantly it’s not going to move someone uncomfortable with the Democratic material support for the genocide a single iota closer to accepting that there is still a better candidate both for Palestine and for all the aspects where they’re actually good, not just not as a bad.

      • Krono@lemmy.today
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        3 months ago

        So is your argument that the Biden/Harris administration is blind, or stupid?

        If I give my kid an AR-15 and they shoot up a school, I may or may not be culpable.

        But if I hand them another AR after the first shooting, they kill again, and then I give them another, and another, and keep handing them weapons for months, and theres a pile of 15,000 dead children, then I am definitely culpable.

        It doesn’t matter how many times I tell the kid “this AR is for defense only”.

        • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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          3 months ago

          Oh, not at all, they know very well what they’re doing.

          The unwavering support of Israel is due to two factors:

          1. The undue and oversized influence the Pro-Israel lobby has on American politics:

          https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus?ind=Q05

          1. The Evangelical opinion that we need to support Israel so Jeebus can come back:

          https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/truth-many-evangelical-christians-support-israel-rcna121481

          As with all good politics, it has nothing to do with “right” or “wrong”, it’s all about “money” and “power”. That’s it.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Oh, not at all, they know very well what they’re doing.

            Then they know it’s a genocide, they know what the weapons are used for, and they’re sending the weapons anyway.

            That’s. Supporting. Genocide.

            • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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              3 months ago

              It isn’t though.

              Look at our humanitarian support that often gets hijacked by corrupt governments.

              People are starving.
              We send support.
              Support gets hijacked.
              People keep starving.

              “WhY Do yOu sUpPoRt sTaRvAtIoN??!?!?!”

              We aren’t going to stop sending support just because bad actors are misusing it.

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                We aren’t going to stop sending support just because bad actors are misusing it.

                The bad actors in this case are the people we keep selling weapons to. No hijacking is taking place like in your example about food aid. We sell them weapons, they get immediately used for genocide.

                Pretending that Netanyahu totally meant to use the weapons for defense but accidentally goofed into using them for genocide is flimsy apologia indeed.

                • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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                  3 months ago

                  Oh, there’s no goof, they’re intentionally mis-directing the aid. That’s absolutely plain, but we won’t stop providing it just because they’re misusing it.

                  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                    3 months ago

                    That’s absolutely plain, but we won’t stop providing it just because they’re misusing it.

                    Well, we should. Because it’s making us complicit in an ongoing genocide.

        • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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          3 months ago
          1. It’s not going to be finished by January.

          2. Israel doesn’t need our help to shoot little kids in the chest and head. Bullets are cheap.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Israel doesn’t need our help to shoot little kids in the chest and head. Bullets are cheap.

            Then they can do it without our help. We don’t need to be complicit.

          • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            It will be a little more difficult if their supply of bullets was cut off, and their bunker buster bombs were cut off.

              • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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                3 months ago

                They don’t produce the weapons they buy from us. Eventually they could stand up domestic production, but it would absolutely impact the current war. Israelis themselves have said that. You’re just making up excuses the actual people involved don’t make.

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                They don’t need our support which is why they’re completely ignoring our demands.

                Then why not withdraw our support? They can “dEfEnD tHeMsElVeS” without our help.

                • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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                  3 months ago

                  Because if we withdraw our support, they would get immediately attacked by Iran, and there would be chaos in US politics. Harris would lose the election, and Trump would be installed.

                  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                    3 months ago

                    Because if we withdraw our support, they would get immediately attacked by Iran, and there would be chaos in US politics

                    We weren’t selling them weapons for genocide before October 7. We can withhold weapons without withholding overall support. And Israel has nukes while Iran doesn’t. Iran wasn’t invading them before we started selling them weapons for genocide.

                    I love how Israel can take care of themselves so there’s no point in stopping weapons sales, but they can’t take care of themselves so we have to keep selling them weapons.

                • Chapelgentry@lemmynsfw.com
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                  3 months ago

                  I’d imagine that having no allies in the Middle East isn’t a strategically sound plan. If Israel is going to do their thing anyway and can arm themselves we gain nothing by rebuke. The only way we could enact real change would be to threaten or attack our only ally in the region which is self-defeating and doesn’t solve the problem.

      • blazera@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        This shit is so disjointed. Its not a genocide, its only a genocide because the countrys leaders want it to be, Biden is only arming a genocide because those leaders want to use the weapons for genocide. You’re stuck, man, you cant get past any of the uncomfortable truths. You cant make an argument that its not a genocide. You cant make an argument that our government is not arming and funding that genocide. You cant make an argument that youre not supporting a candidate that is likely to continue to arm and fund that genocide.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      Yeah they have gotten that bad. I’m glad that you’ve finally decided to accept that. That’s the first step.