GOP Senator Admits He Wants Epstein File Release Blocked to 'Cover' for Trump
GOP Senator Admits He Wants Epstein File Release Blocked to 'Cover' for Trump
A Republican Senator admitted that he aims to conceal files pertaining to disgraced New York financier Jeffrey Epstein in order to cover up for President Donald Trump.Maryam Khanum (Latin Times)
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Most people I've met that consider themselves independent are Republicans that think telling people they're independent gives them cover.
This headline tracks.
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Jill Stein's cronies finally waking up to realise 'deny votes to Kamala Harris' means 'give pedophile Donald Trump a wider margin' huh?
Eat shit.
They "protest vote" against democrats who they perceive as just as bad. They weren't necessarily "sweet on him"
(Disclaimer: this is an overgeneralization, and is mostly anecdotal, based on my observations)
DEMS PULL UPSET ON EPSTEIN FILES: Democrats dropped an 11th-hour motion at an unrelated hearing after noticing that most GOP members on the panel had publicly demanded the files be released.
https://x.com/i/status/1948211079001051267
The GOP chair was caught off guard and scrambled—first delaying the vote, then trying to sabotage it by adding amendments to include Biden administration communications. Democrats called their bluff and agreed.
Then the GOP chair, Rep. Higgins, lied, claiming the motion FAILED until Rep. Robert Garcia forced a full roll call vote.
Ultimately, the vote passed 8-2 after 3 Republicans DEFIED their leadership and joined all 5 Democrats to pass the motion.
There isn't a list of abusers. The only person the files have evidence of abuse is Epstein himself. Per multiple sources interviewed by the NY Times, the only lists in the files are victims and witnesses, and releasing the files would just victimize them again to doxxing. nytimes.com/2025/07/24/us/poli…
Dems are jumping on the bandwagon because it distracts the Republicans from their rampage of destroying the foundations of our country, but the files themselves are a nothingburger as far any actual evidence of crimes.
They made us think it was conservative versus progressive. Democrat vs Republican.
It always was the elite versus the people
I'm no Jesus underd. How do you know?
Politicians make the people desperate. Compassion and guillotine should be the tool of the new left. Not like ... Twitter
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You're willing to trade a horse in the hospital for a donkey at the endless, publicly-funded Senatorial orgy?
That's not progress, that's just "change".
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I was saying it, or at least thinking it. Colour me pleasantly surprised.
If there's anything the two parties should be able to "reach across the aisle" to get done, I would hope a bipartisan pedo purge would be it.
Craven Republican “Trump is a threat to democracy.”
Proceeds to vote for acquittal
Because they COULDN'T release them under Biden. They were sealed by court order until January 2025.
There is a lot of desperate "both sides" nonsense going on here but the fact remains, Democrats are voting to release them and Republicans are not. If Democrats wanted to cover them up, why would they be doing that?
Biden likely would have never released it because his donors are on the list
Biden wasn't able to release it because a judge sealed it as part on an ongoing investigation. Don't let that stop your ridiculous conspiracy theories.
The same "donors" would likely also support the Democrats now voting to release them.
Hell … Bill Clinton is on the list (shocking)
Is that proven?
They were sealed by court order until January 2025.
Or you know, mindless nonsensical conspiracy theories.
Its a PR stunt. The democratic establishment doesn’t want them released.
That makes no fucking sense whatsoever. Why would they overwhelmingly vote to realease them then?
I came up with the actual vote in question directly from congress. congress.gov/event/119th-congr…
Here is the entire vote and all surrounding context. The supposed "lie" about the vote count is apparently made up for engagement bait by whatever anonymous jaggoff still trolls x on their call to activism account
It's all performative. You vote for something you know has zero chance of passing so you can go "Look! Look! I'm good! I did the thing!" in the next election cycle even if what you really did is nothing.
See the 50+ votes to repeal Obamacare.
Biden couldn’t have released them without violating the court order that sealed them
Presidents can do whatever they want as long as it's an official act.
Look buddy, if you just insist on playing with the grandmasters running this story (specifically, the galaxy brains behind CALL TO ACTIVISM on X (formerly twitter) and exactly no other sources of any variety at all) but god and everyone will know I tried to help you out of this obvious fucking engagement bait you got tangled in your before I left off, so here let me google that shit for you you lazy arrogant projective ungrateful [insert generic unflattering adjective here]: Exactly 0 news outlets are running with the "the chair tried to pull a fast one while literally everyone was watching" angle. The only other source I was able to find was one other video repeating the claims (bsky.app/profile/davek67.bsky.…) with suspiciously similar claims and pacing and structure and with the same video source as the X "article" (read: casual plagiarism).
here is pbs news covering the vote with precisely no mention of a lie or stolen vote controversy or anything of the kind: pbs.org/newshour/politics/hous…
here is cbs news covering the vote with precisely no mention of a lie or stolen vote controversy or anything of the kind: cbsnews.com/news/house-committ…
here is ap and you'll never guess what their author and editors all forgot to include in their so-called "professional" reporting: apnews.com/article/epstein-fil…
I could go on like this for some time but if you don't get it by now you never will. Or, to put it in a metaphor you might more easily understand: at some point I have to stop predigesting your food for you and push you out of the nest or you'll never fledge.
Buddy, you swallowed clickbait. Stop being stubborn and actually check your sources next time.
House committee votes to subpoena Justice Department for Jeffrey Epstein files
Three Republicans defied GOP leaders to vote in favor of subpoenaing files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Caitlin Yilek (CBS News)
That does nothing to change the reality of his character or negate his lack of action i pointed out above.
Why did he actually not do anything? Who can say?
Just to be clear, you are on the side of people defending rapist, pedophile, child sex traffickers.
Fuck you. Have fun shitting all over the board and declaring victory.
Aight look hang on a second. We're both humans. We're both upset about the fact that children are being systematically raped, right? And that their abusers have not only escaped justice but are most probably in the position of administering "justice" themselves now, right? We're on the same page as far as that goes, I'm pretty confident in saying.
So what are we actually arguing about? I think we might actually agree a lot more than either of us realize. I'm not saying this guy is innocent, hand him his halo. I'm saying the specific sketch being attributed to him in this particular instance is unearned. No snark, no heat, no smoke, no sarcasm: I'm just using my eyes looking at this video and , not an attempt to lie about the vote. Like, even in the most uncharitable interpretation that he is a completely tactless moron who was literally trying to gavel the single no against a roomful of aye-witnesses including several from his own party: They laughed the attempt down. Honestly, the interaction is actually kind of wholesome like, literally I don't think I've ever seen a more clear example of willing bipartisanship in years, maybe in my entire political lifetime, and that working apparently toward the investigation of the pedo files. The guy they're maligning played a reluctant but willing part as far as I can tell in bringing this subpoena to life. He was clearly opposed to it but I managed to come away from that video with the impression that he was pleased with the way the entire situation unfolded anyway.
There's a lot of stuff going on in this epstein story, and I'm just trying to say this "vote stealing lie" is a manufactured controversy not actually part of that epstein story, and that it's a distraction from the actual legitimate story, and that people need to pay closer attention to their sources, thats it. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
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I mean, clearly if the Inquisition were involved, that would be a surprise for everyone, but especially them.
Had you found this hobby in their era and locality, you actually might've contributed to the onset of The Black Plague, simply by killing cats to feed your ~~need~~ talent.
Good thing you're a late boomer?🤘🏼
creating the possibility that the evidence would be destroyed permanently
This is sort of where I keep going back to in my mind. Like, I've seen things about supposed redacting or whatnot. So, like, what is there to be released if supporters of the Current Admins had them for so long?
Some like original copy of something somewhere that somebody secreted away?
And, how does something like that get proven to be...legitimate? Especially to a point of actionable repercussions?
I honestly just don't understand how this all works. Hoping for the damn best though.
"One of these days" Got anything else from your crystal ball?
Literally any excuse to blame Democrats.
Everything is still in the "reportedly" quote stage, but it looks like Clinton went there for Epsteins 50th birthday party. He is on the flight logs.
Remember that Epsteins "operation" supposedly worked by blackmail, so many people could have been invited and not taken the bait. If they went multiple times however .... like Trump.
Yeah, you're not wrong - I'm not counting on it, by any stretch.
But I can hope.
Why did he actually not do anything? Who can say?
I can. The files were under seal by order of a judge.
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Lol so I agree with you 100%. There is a strong case against the recognition of any states on that basis.
But, so long as we have a legal system that functions on the basis of this social construct, the idea that we should capriciously decide to recognize or not recognize various states doesn’t serve any practical purpose that I can see.
Especially when they, as a matter of fact, do exercise authority over a given territory.
I am not speaking of a “they”, but of a “what.”
israel is a group of invasive terrorists who, for almost a century now, or more depending on inclusion of zionism, have invaded a land that was already a nation on its own and already recognized by the world.
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I am saying that this is Macron inching away from the genocidal chorus towards the side trying to do something
Congrats you got fooled, that's exactly what Israel and macron want you to believe
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
Paris, July 24, 2025
Mr. President,
By letter dated June 9, 2025, you informed France and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of the will of the Palestinian Authority to put an end to the war in Gaza with a view to achieving just and lasting peace in the region, while strongly reaffirming its support for the implementation of the two-state solution. You condemned the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, and called for the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas, advocated the disarmament of Hamas, and its withdrawal from the governance of Gaza. You highlighted the commitment of the Palestinian Authority to fully assume its responsibilities in all Palestinian territories, including Gaza, to undergo deep reforms, and to organize presidential and legislative elections in 2026 in order to strengthen its legitimacy and authority over the future Palestinian State, which you emphasized should not be militarized.
I commend these courageous commitments and, in return, I inform you of France's mobilization in favor of the implementation of the two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security. This solution constitutes the only path that can respond to the legitimate aspirations of Israelis as well as Palestinians. We must now achieve it as quickly as possible.
Civilian populations have paid an unbearable price during the terrorist attacks of October 7 by Hamas and during the war pursued by Israel in Gaza. At the same time, the prospect of a negotiated solution to the conflict in the Middle East seems to be receding. I do not accept this.
His Excellency Mr. Mahmoud ABBAS
President of the Palestinian Authority
No condemnation of Israel occupation , blaming everything on Hamas and asking demilitarization without providing zero security guarantees, yet you think macron is genuine about recognizing Palestine and about Palestinians living in peace
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The legal system also only exists because we wrote our thoughts down.
so does math. still nobody would argue that math is wrong or arbitrary because of that
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The first part applies to... Most of the world outside of Europe?
The second part applies, to lesser degrees, to a large part of the world. Such as the USA.
What even is this argument. Israel's not a state? Well fucking great, so following that logic which state should we hold responsible for Israel's crimes then?
Europe's colonial past is a whole-ass subject but amongst all the potential ways to try to make up for it, "stop formally recognizing former colonies because we fucked it up too badly" is one of the worst takes I've heard.
However, wars still happened before the introduction of borders
The concept of borders did not exist yet but the earliest wars was definitely about territories control for accessing more natural resources . It's basically the same
smithsonianmag.com/science-nat…
This implies that the resources the people of Nataruk had at the time were valuable and worth fighting for, whether it was water, dried meat or fish, gathered nuts or indeed women and children. This shows that two of the conditions associated with warfare among settled societies—control of territory and resources— were probably the same for these hunter-gatherers, and that we have underestimated their role in prehistory.
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state held responsible? PEOPLE, individuals, yes. People who are running that terrorist shitshow. Members of various places around the world. And yes. That includes a lot of people. Sanctions on a state never work. People need prison. for crimes against humanity.
Stop pretending it is ok that israel exist as a recognized nation; it is younger than some of the people still living there!
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At the next UN assembly. It says right there in the article.
Basically France now recognises the State of Palestine, and will make it official at the UN assembly.
Recognising the state of Palestine in over a month doesn't change the urgency to let aid reach Palestinians. Of course work on that front must be done as well, and sooner than September.
I just don't understand your point. How does officially recognising the statehood of Palestine now or in a month affect the current starvation crisis?
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The second part applies, to lesser degrees, to a large part of the world. Such as the USA.
🤔 🤔🤔 🤔🤔 🤔
They didn't do it, he just said they will.
They are trying to cover their assess from the accountability of being complicit with the genocide the whole time, they are counting on people like you to let them get away with it.
What does recognize Palestinian state mean? They'll give us what's left of the rubble in Gaza and the few ghettos they allow us to call the Palestinian territory in the West Bank?
Is there anything proposed that will actually give Palestinians any semblance of justice?
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Why? Do you actually believe states have rights?
States are invented, lines are drawn on maps and people are divided by elites, it's silly to insist that a genocidal ethno state should simple continue to exist because it already exists.
We don't want a two state solution, we want one state where everyone is treated equally regardless of religion.
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There are and have been many different legal systems throughout the world and history. The one we’re familiar with is from the Romans - hence all the Latin legal terms - and was spread by colonialism.
It is nothing like math, which was discovered independently by various cultures around the world.
For more details read chapter 7 of David Graeber’s “Debt”
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Yes, as long as the people with guns say I must believe in states I will pretend to believe in states.
Like a toddler of the corn with an imaginary friend.
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"French are cowards" trope
Yeah I hate that one. France being great and the French being a bunch of legends aside, the French army is the most successful in all of history to the best of my knowledge. That one "recent" blip aside.
You have to hand it to the Germans though... The oul blitzkrieg was a game changer. No shade on the French. Maybe a little for not reinforcing the Ardennes route but sure look, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.
That one “recent” blip aside.
Even then, France held out for more days than many other WW2 countries who don't get accused of cowardice for it.
Yeah in the face of it they were pragmatic. Given the circumstances, after the initial outmanoeuvre I've never seen anyone criticise what they did with a meaningful alternative and they ate shit to get the Brits back across the channel so they could fight another day.
Vive la France! 🇫🇷
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This is part of that process. France is sort of saying that they are willing to put boots on the ground to stop this, without saying exactly that.
Because being a member state of the UN comes with perks, like the ability to request UN peace keepers.
well i guess law was originally derived from people's ambition towards power and society's need to still be organized. that's a universal phenomenon, even if you encountered an exotic animal species on another planet, i reckon.
that's what makes it more universal than you think.
a lot of details in our law are arbitrary, but so is math notation and even a lot of conventions that we use (consider 2π = 6.28 instead of π = 6.28). still, the core of the field is universal, i believe.
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Except they paid to United States, not France.
government of the United States funded the acquisition of Haiti's treasury in 1911,[10] and in 1922, the rest of Haiti's debt was moved to be paid to American investors.[11] The New York Times states that it took until 1947 for Haiti to finally pay off all the associated interest to the National City Bank of New York (now Citibank).
Are you challenged? How do you think this happened? Haiti revolution and slavery is literally part of napoleonic wars that I mentioned, but you started saying I don't know history. How do you seemingly know stuff about Haiti, yet don't know this? Countries usually don't see something that happened a century or two ago relevant to modern times
Please, read the wiki link you sent me, but obviously failed to read it yourself, especially the part about who owned the debt after +-1900 (forgot the year, but Haiti's debt was transferred to be paid to US, not France).
Did I give some indication that I disagree with that idea? Lol
I find that “recognition” is just a tool that powerful nations use to oppress less powerful polities. That’s why I am arguing against it.
There’s no contradiction between this argument and anarchism. As I said elsewhere in the thread, I don’t believe states should exist. But giving the US, China, and other imperial powers the right to decide which ones are acknowledged or dismissed is part of the problem.
No, I’d rather see them abolished. But they do exist, and allowing the US or Europe to decide which ones are acknowledged is a big problem in today’s world.
People who exercise their own autonomy should have that autonomy acknowledged. Full stop. Pretending it doesn’t exist is harmful, even if that autonomy is being used to hurt people.
France want to make you believe that they are on Palestinians side while there was always siding with Israel.
How recognizing Palestine in exchange of Palestinians disarming themselves before occupation end going to help Palestinians? Don't you realize that Israel still believe in Jewish supremacy over Palestinians . Monsters like Daniella Weiss are expressing really loudly what is the Zionists end game which is control on whole Palestine. They are lying about wanting a two state solution.
France should impose state wise sanctions on Israel just like they did with Iran and Russia and end all military cooperation's. The rest of the west too.
It's still important to recognise Palestine as a state. And it doesn't delay any other action.
It seems to me that the progress you see is not the progress you want, so you consider it pointless. But the truth is, it's still progress, and it doesn't take away from the other priorities you mention.
So, once again, I don't understand your point.
Realities nonetheless.
Laws exist because we say they do. Society and people follow patterns because of these laws. Abolishing these laws and borders would lead to societal breakdown without an alternative system to replace them.
Families are also constructs, borne of genetic reproduction. however we now understand them to include marriage and adoption and blended families. All constructs. All legalized also.
So there are two interpretations I could make of your comment, one of which is more charitable than the other.
- You are using the Chinese and Israeli playbook of weaponizing statehood recognition as a value judgement. That is profoundly problematic, both on a practical and a philosophical level. De-humanization should not be a tool we have to use on our enemies. Our moral high ground should speak for itself.
- Your are dog-whistling for the genocide and/or deportation of all Israelis. In which case our conversation is done here.
To be clear, Israel is committing genocide and every single member of its government and of the IDF should be tried at The Hague. But laws and international order exist for a reason, and trying to circumvent them like this is a very bad look that Israel has been rightfully criticized for for decades.
You don't need to flood a comment thread with the same copy/pasta over and over.
Keeping this one as the original, removing the others.
where do I mention a people should not exist? never.
the state itself was created by a group knowing full well they would need genocide to make their state. they call it, these days, “mowing the lawn.” the criminals need prison and the working class people who just want peace deserve it. in Palestine.
the tricky part of these convos is not conflating the nation state, israel with the Jewish people. Or zionism with the Jewish people. Or the state israel with the followers of Israel.
hope that helped.
Unironically, admitting Israel, Palestine and Lebanon into the European Union might actually be the solution to this whole fucking clusterfuck.
Edit: major major reforms should take place of course, and Israel should dismantle apartheid and pay reparations, while Lebanon should dismantle the sectarian dysfunction of their government, but as a long term horizon this region needs the wildly successful EU model of peaceful pacification more than any other region in the world.
I know, the EU was also supposed to be the solution to the Cyprus occupation, and that didn't work either.
I'm not saying that the EU itself is the solution, but that the horizon of the EU, or at least something similar (a MEU?) could play that stabilizing role.
Membership requires that candidate country has achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, respect for and protection of minorities, […].
Yeah, that's not going to happen.
Unironically, admitting Israel, Palestine and Lebanon into the European Union might actually be the solution to this whole fucking clusterfuck.
Only if the EU disarms Israel and restores the '47 border in the process, then prosecute the IDF leadership for war crimes.
Otherwise, you might as well suggest we admit Ukraine and Russia to the EU to settle that fight as well.
Pretending it doesn’t exist is harmful, even if that autonomy is being used to hurt people.
What? What is this "pretending"? What do you think we're talking about? And what makes pretending Israel isn't a state, if that's what you understood being said, harmful?
I’d rather see them abolished
That's what we're talking about. Let's abolish Israel, and create a new state for all the people, historically we'd call that Palestine, but I'm okay with coming up with a new name.
Of course we can. We can stop funding them financially and militarily, we can stop doing business with them, and we can refuse their citizens travel, until they stop genocide and end apartheid.
You're pretending like this isn't common place already, it's just unfathomable that it can happen to Israel for some reason?
That has nothing to do with "stop recognizing them as a country" and the west loses more by not allowing citizens travel (because people wouldn't be able to go to holy sites, it works both way).
And man, the EU can't even properly sanction Russia, do you really think they care about the middle east at all? Specially when not even the countries around care about Palestina.
Isn't a group a "they" and not a "what". Israel is a nation of people who sees themselves as Israeli. Entire generations are born there and consider that land their home. You can't be born a terrorist.
It's possible in the future to build some kinda secular Haifa Republic but this war has made that an incredibly utopian prospect.
It's not clear what position you advocate except the continuation of war.
so where was that logic when palestine was literally invaded by a group of europeans calling themselves zionists? or europeans claiming some sort of “british mandate”?
revert it to palestine. it’s what it was before our grandparents generation invaded.
I just don’t understand your point. How does officially recognising the statehood of Palestine now or in a month affect the current starvation crisis?
That's the point, it doesn't... condemning Israel publicly, temporarily breaking economic relationship with Israel and/or urging other to so the same would (for example)
My point is this is likely just empty talk... Imagine the major of your town saying they will increase the Fire Fighters budget in the next fiscal year as a response to your house being on fire RIGHT NOW.... do you get it now?
So no Israel, just Palestine? That would leave Israelis a majority population in Palestine. Do you expect Israelis to magically not outvote the Palestinians, or are you proposing an autocracy or an apartheid system stripping Israelis of their voting rights?
I would also strongly suggest you do some reading on the factors leading up to the Rwandan genocide. A "just" peace isn't enough; after generations of life under apartheid, there are no easy or quick paths to lasting peace. I won't commit the hubris of pretending I have a definitive solution, and I think it's important to underline that as outsiders to the conflict, the best we can do is offer to safeguard peace. That's what the Two-State Solution was meant to do, that's what arms sanctions are meant to do, that's what the threat of economic retaliation would be meant to do (granted each with their own significant shortcomings). Denying the practical existence of either Israel or Palestine is antithetical to building a path towards lasting peace and a meaningful international effort towards safeguarding said peace.
For a practical example, assuming a peace treaty ever gets signed, sending UN Blue Helmets would be diplomatically easier if all parties involved recognized Palestine and Israel as sovereign states. Even if that all seems like a moot point right now what when neither Israel nor most Western nations are actually looking forward to peace.
In France, they repressed palestinian strike, canceled meeting and media defended Israel, he told us he won't arrest Netanyahu, despiste the CPI decision. There is so many things wrong.
Even if he does it, i don't trust him, he could act long before.
Well none because they are not taking any other action...
I am not against the French recognizing Palestine as a State, I am against them (and the rest of the world) doing nothing about the immediate urgency that is the genocide Israel is actively conducting. Why is this so hard to understand?
Picture this: your house is on fire NOW, your son/daughter/dog/cat is trapped inside... nobody comes to help and then you hear the Mayor saying they will increase the Fire Fighter's budget in the next fiscal year.
I am certain you would not be against the budget increase but that really does nothing about your immediate and urgent need, does it?
In this context? Someone who is currently on the good side of the current apartheid system in Israel/Palestine.
Don't play dumb with me, you know full well what I meant. If you have a point, make it.
Well considering your very first comment was asking "when" this was going to happen:
Picture this: your house is on fire NOW, your son/daughter/dog/cat is trapped inside... nobody comes to help and then you hear the Mayor saying they will increase the Fire Fighter's budget
And you respond by saying "When will you increase the budget?" Instead of saying what you actually need, then get upset when people respond to the question you actually asked instead of the statement you had in your head.
And again, the mayor announcing an increase in the fire fighter's budget does not slow down help for your home.
those folk are Palestinian. that’s my entire point.
yes apartheid exists. shooting for a two state solution codifies this apartheid. that is wrong.
it needs to be completely reverted and the folks physically doing the genocide given the proper sentences.
it’s simple:
the criminals doing a genocide go to prison.
the nation state gets dissolved.
one state is left, palestine.
stop being so thick about this. the nation of israel should not exist. that does not mean the people who follow israel. you know the difference.
And I want a unicorn for Christmas.
Look, right now I don't even have a good reason to hope that Israel will be stopped before they finish their genocide. But step 1 is to get a permanent ceasefire in place. Whatever fantasies we might have beyond that is a moot point. But recognizing both parties as sovereign would go some way towards facilitating the terms and enforcement of that ceasefire.
yeah. it might. but it’s never ever worked out in the history of man when one party is doing a genocide. it took a few million russians to stop a famous genocidal ass in the 20th century.
the key here is that we cannot enable this behavior by acknowledging it as any kind of “ok.”
Zohran Mamdani vs. Donald Trump
Zohran Mamdani vs. Donald Trump
It’s clear that Donald Trump will aim to make governance as difficult as possible for Zohran Mamdani’s potential New York City mayoralty. But Mamdani has a range of options available to counter the president’s attacks.jacobin.com
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WSJ Reports Trump Knows His Name Is Listed in Epstein Files—Because Bondi Told Him
Justice Department Told Trump in May That His Name Is Among Many in the Epstein Files
Bondi also told president at the meeting that Justice decided to not release more Jeffrey Epstein documents because of the presence of child pornography and the need to protect victims
WSJ Reports Trump Knows His Name Is Listed in Epstein Files—Because Bondi Told Him
During what sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal describe as a “routine briefing that covered a number of topics” in May, President Trump was informed…Nicole Lafond (TPM - Talking Points Memo)
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I’m under the impression they are (were?) allies of convenience and didn’t have a lot of love for each other.
This goes for almost all of the loosely affiliated right-wing organizations currently under the umbrella of the administration. It's our best bet for the future; drive a wedge between them, make them fight each other rather than us. Use their own tactics against them. Cfr the Trump-Musk feud. There'll be others.
There's also the succession war in Murdoch's circle. He's still fighting against his sons (who may legitimately be even more batshit than he is). It must be so frustrating for someone like him to 'build an empire' and see it being divided before their death.
Likely whoever is leaking the documents reached out to the WSJ since they'd have more cred in right wing circles. If the WSJ buried it, then the leaker would take it to another newspaper the story would still go out. Only difference would be the WSJ and Rupert Murdoch would be complicit in Trump's cover up.
So it's probably less Murdoch betraying Trump and more not wanting to go down with him. Plus it sells newspapers and Murdoch likes making money more than anything else.
Rupert Murdoch's WSJ Reports Trump Knows His Name Is Listed in Epstein Files—Because Bondi Told Him
Well Donald, this is what you gwt for fucking with the guy who paved the way for your presidency.
You may want to reflect on what went down at that secret meeting between Rupert, and your Oh So Loyal JD Vance.
I mean, she literally said the Epstein files are on her desk.
I mean last month, she said they weren't real. But also they're on her desk. Because facts over feelings or some bullshit.
Tulsi Gabbard embarrasses the hell out of herself over Epstein scandal
Tulsi Gabbard embarrasses the hell out of herself over Epstein scandal
When asked to back up her accusation during a press conference Wednesday, Gabbard told reporters that they needed to figure out for themselves how to connect the dots—which two bipartisan National Intelligence committees were unable to connect."I'm not asking you to take my word for it. I'm asking you in the media to conduct honest journalism and the American people to see for yourself in the documents that we've released now,” she said.
Tulsi Gabbard embarrasses the hell out of herself over Epstein scandal
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard is working her ass off to deflect the growing scrutiny over the Epstein files. After� accusing President Barack Obama of a “treasonous conspiracy” to ...Daily Kos
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Don't you see?! It's got to be real if she has slideshows set up! /s
"It's a disservice to the American people that former President Obama's office and others who are criticizing the transparency that is being delivered by releasing these documents. They are doing a disservice to the American people and trying to deflect away from their culpability in what is a historic scandal,”
Irony is dead.
I doubt these people are even capable of embarrassment or shame. It simply does not feature in whatever pool of emotions these ghouls have available to them.
In fact, I'm pretty sure they specifically have psychologists on retainer in order to help them kill their empathy or what's left of it.
Why isn't she using push-pins and red thread to connect all the dots? Is this her 1st time using a conspiracy board, or something?
Fuckin' amateur hour, man.
Everyone keeps pointing fingers at these idiots pretending to run government
The real idiots are the American people who just stand aside, point fingers, complain and pretend it has nothing to do with them and don't want to actually do anything about it all.
I'm getting sick and tired of reading another dumb American headline of some stupid shit that their government said or did ... every headline immediately makes me imagine just how dumb average Americans are.
No, I don't mean for you to take my words and say I want you to violently revolt .... I'm saying that you should all be out in the streets to shut your government down and demand that something be done about all this. And if your chief complaint right now is that you can't protest because you need to make money .... give all this crap another year and your job, making money and even just getting food will be the least of your worries.
And Rubio confirmed this before bending the knee; so are we going to prosecute him?
Hungary bans Irish rap group Kneecap from entering ahead of festival performance
The POV presented in the article is one POV in Hungary, the country is divided on the issue but mostly does not care beyond a small minority.
People cite the band shouting "Up Hamas, up Hezbollah" on as justification for the ban.
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.www.youtube.com
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I've never listened to them, but they're one of my favorite bands.
Edit: Just had a listen. Fuck yeah.
In the face of creeping, walking, and runaway fascism, they're Punk as fuck.
They're putting it on the line and not backing down.
Their conviction reminds me of Pussy Riot.
Current outgoing Orbán govt is sucking Bibi's dick, the incoming govt is not going to be any better on this issue, the best you can expect is ignorance from them I imagine.
Ironically, in Hungary the only party in open opposition of Israel is the further-than-Orbán far-right, because they hate Jews and kinda like traditionalist Turks for some reason.
the incoming govt
You got some inside knowledge on Magyar and how his Gvment is expected to be for Hungarians?
He is not taking stances on a lot of issues on purpose, he's fighting against a propaganda machine that makes Fox look like an amateur. It was able to destroy a previous challenger because he said "Hungary must implement the joint decision of NATO. So, if NATO decides to support Ukraine with weapons, of course [Hungary] will support it."
He seems to be economically progressive while culturally conservative and strongly euro-atlanticist. He refused to lean into progressive culture war issues, his stance was basically "we will restore the right of assembly that should guarantee people being free to do Pride, but I'm not going to go to it, or support Pride specifically". On the other hand, he is proposing wealth taxes, very strong anti-corruption measures, more funding for education and healthcare, support for small businesses, stronger worker's rights and unions, a right to data privacy from both corps and the government, a focus on train transit and other stuff like this for example.
About Israel vs. Palestine, he might support Israel just because that is the traditional Western stance, but I expect he will just abstain from votes there, or rather support whatever the EU consensus is.
Hungary is in a weird place with the Gaza genocide because Budapest has a very large Jewish population compared to a lot of other places, and they have an outsized influence on Hungarian politics as they are traditionally overrepresented in the cultural elite. And as I hear from people there, every Jewish family has the "idiotic bigoted uncle, that would be the weird conspiracy theorist Nazi in a non-Jewish family, but in Jewish family, they will be hardcore Zionists or straight-up settlers. This then makes the Gaza issue complicated and hard to take a side on for most of these people."
Tnx for your elaborate reaction.
I hope a new Gvment can (slowly) help Hungary in a more " democratic" direction.
Concerning the Jewish families in Budapest, I imagine that similar constituent pressures might be found in several countries. Doesn't help finding a solution, nor does it attribute to take a clear stance against Bibi as a country.
Though Netanyahu should be send to the ICJ in The Hague, but ofc Israel, USA and others don't recognise the court.
Though Netanyahu should be send to the ICJ in The Hague, but ofc Israel, USA and others don’t recognise the court.
Neither does Hungary since a month ago by the way
a right to data privacy from both corps and the government
how? are they bringing back non-digital bus passes as an option? like it was before lázár outlawed it
Mostly a general distrust towards the government. There was that time when they harvested everyone's email addresses for the vaccines, then blasted propaganda on them if you remember.
But I also think DÁP is kinda okay, except there was no reason on having Ügyfélkapu+ then, changing the system twice in as many years. It's mostly a promise to get voters from Mi Hazánk, and I agree with the basic premise even though I am not a lunatic.
CEARTA
“Is cuma liom sa foc faoi aon gharda!”
(I don’t give a fuck about any cop)
I’ve been listening to these guys for years, and thanks to the Streisand effect, Bob Vylan is now in my playlist too. Death death to the IDF
Anti-Hungarian hate graffiti and arson in Ukraine: A coordinated false flag operation involving the Orbán Cabinet?
I know it's not the best source, but all the relevant news from outlets that are not outright Russian disinfo are only in Hungarian.
These are trusted, well read and researched articles in Hungarian if you want to check:
hu.euronews.com/2025/07/19/a-h…
telex.hu/kulfold/2025/07/20/uk…
Letartóztatták a kárpátaljai templomrongálással gyanúsított férfit
Óvadék ellenében azonban szabadlábra helyezhetik. Gyűlöletkeltés és szándékos rongálás gyanúja miatt indult nyomozás ellene.Cseke Balázs (Telex)
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Understanding MAGA’s Obsession With Pedophilia and No Other Sex Crimes
Understanding MAGA’s Obsession With Pedophilia and No Other Sex Crimes
A friend asked me recently: how is it that MAGA is so over the top about finding out which rich and powerful men may have had sex with 16 or 17 year old girls…Josh Marshall (TPM - Talking Points Memo)
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My frustration with the Epstein list is that nobody seems to give a damn that girls were raped, only which powerful men can held to "account".
Rich and powerful men can do whatever they please in this country and nobody cares about that, or who they hurt, only the political outcome matters.
Um, I think the leadership of a dangerous, somewhat unpredictable, and very globally connected country being either pedophiles or pedophile supporters does impact everyone, even me as a dude in Canada. I do want the victims to be taken care of, and part of that involves proving, beyond all doubt, that they were hurt and showing not just them but everyone that we’re not going to let the people who hurt them get away with it. I’m so fucking over rich people paying bogus settlements and getting to continue on living the high life and abusing people. I want to see them face real consequences.
Absolutely we’re all the “we” in the story. For different reasons and to different degrees but this involves all of us.
I have bad news for you: you will never be able to arrest your way out of child rape and it’s not only the ultra wealthy that do it. And making angry comments on the internet at people pointing out that the victims need to be acknowledged in this is not trying to “hold powerful people to account for their crimes.”
You should ask yourself what makes you so mad about centering victims even 1/10th as much as centering punishing pedos, because that was the bar I set. Not half as much, not a third as much, not to the exclusion of talking about punishment at all.
People love celebrity gossip and the victims are mostly nameless.
More than that, though: I think we all feel bad for those nameless victims, and all the numberless, nameless victims of not-famous abusers. I think the public is so frustrated at the apparent inability to hold anyone accountable, that they will latch on to any glimmer of potential accountability. I mean, To Catch A Predator ran for 3 seasons just trolling random dudes on the internet.
Rich and powerful men can do whatever they please in this country and nobody cares about that
In my experience, the people who care the deepest are the ones who see themselves as victims (or targets) while the people who care the least / openly advocate for the thing are the ones who see themselves as the perpetrators. When you're living in a Capitalist Dystopia, in which human trafficking is fully normalized and accepted as a Market Efficiency, the predators have the weight of government behind them.
But also, there's a strong whiff of the anti-abortion types behind the "Save The Children" rhetoric. Like, you're not saving the children, you're saving their virginity which is rightfully owned by their parents. Pedophilia becomes a crime against the Fathers and Betrothed Husbands. This isn't a crime against people, it's a crime against a very valuable collectable, which the Libertarians and Theocrats consider a greater sin.
Yes, the right will allow their people to get away with a whole lot if it means they get to “win”. The left does not operate that way, even the fuckwit centrists don’t pull that shit every time.
And excuse me but the reason I want these people to face serious consequences is because they committed a serious crime and hurt people. Literally the fact that people were harmed so badly is the entire point!
Your comment would carry a lot more weight if it made any fucking sense. The only way it does is if you pretend as though the near entirety of the left doesn’t exist and as though that group does the same cult bullshit the right does, for which there really isn’t much evidence at all beyond a LOT of people being mad that the person they need to vote for is often a pretty pathetic alternative to the insane fascist that the conservatives keep propping up.
Christ, we can do two things at the same time. We can take care of the victims AND persecute the criminals. One is a MUCH bigger challenge than the other and so obviously we’re more focused on that. Fucking D’UH.
frustration with the Epstein list is that nobody seems to give a damn that girls were raped, only which powerful men can held to “account”.
People care about the girls. They also care about the corruption. Turns out you have to get through one to get to the other.
::: spoiler spoiler
Not everyone, no. The victim's pain and tribulation in years following is at the root of why so many people despise rapists, especially child rapists. It's the absolute worst thing among the laundry list of crimes committed against minors every year, just short of murder. The incident(s) in question, and the fallout are a phenomenon widely recognized for the long-lasting damage done to them and their families, both present and future. Aside from the actual psychological impact of the crime, there's the very well recognized classically-embedded realization that when someone too small/sexually immature is coerced into/forced to have sex, the act itself, and the pregnancy which follows can be virtual death sentences. Any grown woman who's given birth to a 9-10+ lbs. baby/twins/triplets/quadruplets can tell you, it's exhausting and excruciating if not downright hazardous in the wrong circumstances - those found in a pregnant Mother-to-be who's shorter than 5' and weighing less than 100 lbs., as nearly all minor girls are.
:::
People do realize IMO, that's the heart of the issue. That's the source of the outrage beyond rich assholes taking advantage of, and injuring young girls.
*spoilered for possibly distressing content, sensitive readers' discretion advised
Um... Holding the people who raped children accountable for raping children is caring about the children who were raped.
And going after the most powerful people involved sends a very strong message to everyone else that no one is above consequences, which is caring about preventing future child rapes.
Campaigning against a crime is only important if it hurts political opponents. If it hurts themselves, then it’s they try to cover it up.
The type of crime doesn’t matter.
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"The grassroots is not trying to make you look bad, We want to try and make sure the bad people that have done such terrible things to you can finally be held accountable"
-Charlie Kirk to Donald trump
To me it reads that the real victim is trump and that he's admitting that the only reason they want to make them "accountable " is that they hurt Trump. It was always a political cudgel. It's why some claim that Democrat (voters, leadership may have a different idea) wouldn't want Clinton going down.
The type of crime doesn’t matter.
That's not true. Paedophilia is a special crime in that nobody will admit to doing it, and nobody will defend it. Even with murder, some people will admit to it to seem tough. Even with rape, nobody wants to be seen as the guy who has to rape because he can't get action any other way, but in some circles it's fine to force your wife, or get a girl blackout drunk.
In the past the unspeakable crimes were different. Hundreds of years ago it was witchcraft or blasphemy. Even 50ish years ago there wasn't the same focus on paedophilia. Instead the conspiracies were about satanic worship and blood sacrifices. In the future it will probably be something different. But, at the moment the unspeakable crime is paedophilia.
The fact that it's the worst possible crime is important. It means that it's done in secret. That means proof is hard to come by, and that makes it ideal for conspiracy theories.
So, the crime does matter. It can't be a crime that someone will admit to doing and try to defend. It can't be a crime that is done in the open, it has to be one that is done in secret. It has to be a crime where proof is extremely hard to come by, and the only evidence is likely to be hearsay.
But, what's interesting is that the victims don't really matter. If the focus were on satanic / blasphemous rituals, there wouldn't need to be a victim. With the paedophilia focus, the important thing is doing the forbidden act, not the welfare of the victim.
I’m not saying they’re defending it, but they are covering it up and running defense against it.
The goal is to stay in power and keep the opponents out of power at all costs. Run defense on the crimes if they point to Trump, and run offense on the crimes if they point to Trump’s enemies.
This opinion nails it. The crime is an excuse for violence. Our society mostly accepts that rapists of adult women should be held to account by the law. We might accept (but not condone) the desire to kill someone who raped a family member.
But a great many see violence as divine retribution for harming a child. And MAGA types have a bloodlust that they feel righteous in aiming at pedophiles. That’s why they thrive on the topic.
This article is pretty good, but I think it's missing a major piece of the picture here.
The rest of the picture is about sexual repression, religion, the concept of sin, self-hatred, and projection.
You know what other thing that isn't a crime that these people treat the same way, with a desire for retributive violence? That they also often put on the same pedestal as pedophilia, acting like it's just as evil?
Being any stripe of LGBTQ+. They have the same rage and violent tendencies towards them despite being any type of queer or trans not being dangerous to others and as such isn't a form of crime.
A little background story that's related. I have a trans friend, and she's been in an on-again/off-again relationship with a deeply Christian man for almost a decade. Every time they got close, they would eventually have sex, and then immediately after he would have a "come to Jesus" moment and stop talking to her and disappear and say he couldn't be her friend because she was a temptation toward sin and he couldn't support her "lifestyle." That he needed to repent. Then, eventually, he'd come back around and "temptation" would get him to do the same thing all over again.
This is the deep, deep problem here, in my estimation.
It's like how Grindr crashes when there's a Republican convention under the heavy load (heh) of traffic from closeted right wing men who want to hook up with each other while all in the same town. It's like how the most religious areas also have the highest rates of viewing transgender pornography.
It's about sexual repression, self-hate, viewing it as a "sin", and projecting that self-hate on to others, erroneously thinking that if the thing that causes "temptation" is removed entirely that they will no longer be tempted. So they want to violently remove the temptation (people) from society so they can be affirmed in their belief that they are good people and not broken sinners.
I'd argue that it's exactly the same with pedophilia. It's about the thing they hate within themselves that they want to project onto others and use as a weapon to wipe out the temptation. They think if they just kill all pedophiles it will stop, refusing to accept their own pedophilic tendencies which are driven by it being a sexual taboo, just as they see being queer or trans as a sexual taboo. It's really a gross and pathetic way to live.
I believe the article is right about it being a legitimizing tool for violence as well, but I also think it's deeply tied to sexual repression, self-hate, and rejecting their own problems, pretending only other people are the real problem. They're just tempted by sin, they're not evil, they just need the temptation to be stopped for things to be "fixed." When they make "mistakes" they want others to give them forgiveness and patience, not to be violently put down like they want for others who do the same things as them.
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After the trumpers are done victimizing Latino and other immigrants, they will go after LGBT. The red hats are constantly equating being LGBT to being a groomer or pedophile. LGBT will be the next out group that gets kidnapped off the street with no due process, and pedophilia/sex crimes will be the justification.
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Children are symbols of innocence. They cannot have the blame shifted to them but they also cannot take agency or demand their voices be prioritized as victims. That's why these people insist on blurring the lines between people molesting young children and epstein hiring teenagers as sex workers as well as the constant insistence that teenagers not be given any agency or autonomy. In many ways this is the abortion debate but with sex crimes added.
Hell, when they care about sex crimes against adult women they infantilize us and use it as a cudgel.
Here are all of the Epstein Files that have either been leaked or released.
joshwho.net/EpsteinList/gov.us… (verified court documents)
joshwho.net/EpsteinList/black-… (verified pre-Bondi) Trump is on page 85, or pdf pg. 80
Trump’s name is circled. The circled individuals are the ones involved in the trafficking ring according to the person who originally released the book. These people would be “The List “ Here is the story.
Here's the flight logs documentcloud.org/documents/21…
—————————other Epstein Information
cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFile… here’s a court doc of Epstein and Trump raping a 13 yr old together.
Some people think this claim is a hoax. Here is Katies testimony on youtube:
Epstein’s Ex Says He Boasted About Being a Mossad Agent share.google/jLMGahKlCzfV1RHZq Epstein and Israel both hired lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who says he's building 'legal dream team' to defend Israel in court and on internationally | The Times of Israel share.google/Lb9hDOduBWG4Elpid
Epstein Docs: ia600705.us.archive.org/21/ite…
Epstein Bribes/Payments: 1 BILLION+
—————————other Trump information:
Here's trump admitting to peeping on 14-15 year old girls at around 1:40 on the Howard Stern Radio Show: youtu.be/iFaQL_kv_QY
Trump's promise to his daughter: huffpost.com/entry/donald-trum… “I have a deal with her. She’s 17 and doing great ― Ivanka. She made me promise, swear to her that I would never date a girl younger than her,” Trump said. “So as she grows older, the field is getting very limited.”
Trump's modeling agency was probably part of Jeffreys pipeline: motherjones.com/politics/2016/…
A good summary of Trump-Epstein timeline: thepresidential.medium.com/we-…
• Much of this info can also be found on: theepsteindocs.com/
Feel free to do your part and spread this info around so it is never “lost”.
Donald Trump Said He Promised Ivanka He Wouldn't Date Girls Younger Than Her
“So as she grows older, the field is getting very limited.” 😬Paige Lavender (HuffPost)
Claims of pedophilia trigger a strong emotional response. So MAGAts use them against their enemies.
Pretty simple, really.
ICE Has Entered Its 'Abu Ghraib' Era
They're making people eat like dogs, not allowing them to clean toilets covered in feces, and that's just the beginning.And yet, it somehow keeps getting worse. A stomach-churning report from Human Rights Watch released on Monday detailed some of the horrific abuses that US government employees and contractors have put these people through. It’s not just the overcrowding and the inhumane and unhygienic conditions — it’s also the abuse, neglect and degradation from the ICE officers and staff themselves.
The report is focused on just three severely overcrowded Florida detention centers operated by ICE — Krome North Service Processing Center (Krome), the Broward Transitional Center (BTC), and the Federal Detention Center (FDC).
. . . On top of way, way too many feces-related horrors, detainees have also been denied medication and denied medical care to the point that it has caused severe illness or injury — often while being mocked by ICE officers.
After two days, she started vomiting green bile. She started to lose consciousness, and we were yelling for help. It took two hours to get the officers’ attention, and then another 20 minutes before they took her to the hospital. There, doctors removed her gallbladder. They brought her back to the cell in Krome within two days.A man with undetectable HIV was denied his medication for so long that it ultimately became detectable. Detainees with diabetes were denied insulin. A prisoner with asthma who required an inhaler was told, by a doctor, that “no one over 18 has asthma” (23 million adults in the US have asthma). After that man started coughing up blood, his treatment only got worse.
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Damn, the US is starting to look like it's being invaded by the US, did they find more oil somewhere?
Guess It was only a matter of time until the Freedom Military Complex ran out of other countries to invade.
It's the Imperial Boomerang effect. Countries develop and use oppressive techniques overseas, then eventually they find their way back home.
Germany was a broken country when it fell to Nazism. They were quite thoroughly demilitarized before kicking things off. While it was impressive what they were able to pull out of a hat as far as war materiel goes, it was ultimately failing logistics that killed them.
The US is one of the strongest economies in the world, in spite of what orange man is doing. We have sizeable oil reserves, unlike Germany. We have ten times the weapons that the next 10 military powers have combined. We are separated from our biggest adversaries by oceans, which we own by virtue of having 10 times the naval vessels.
I'm not sure an antifascist victory is guaranteed, at least in the short term.
Don't act like "it can't happen here".
The US is one of the strongest economies in the world, in spite of what orange man is doing.
And mostly a service economy, which is of limited use at war. You can repurpose a data center for spreading propaganda - who is winning that war again today? - you can't retool it to make drones or shells.
By the way, the biggest, 70% market share drone manufacturer is Chinese. One million drones per year manufactured, 400000 large agricultural drones in use worldwide. Russia, which let's say isn't the GDP powerhouse of the world, launches 5k drones per month in Ukraine now.
US manufacturers deal in thousands of units per year manufactured.
We have ten times the weapons that the next 10 military powers have combined.
Russia had a truly bonkers amount of tanks, and they got blown apart by modern weapons. They lost more tanks than the entire US tank stockpile, twice over if you believe the Ukrainians, but even the low estimates are higher than the US stockpile number.
We are separated from our biggest adversaries by oceans, which we own by virtue of having 10 times the naval vessels.
Ukraine, a nation with no navy, rules the Black Sea with drones. You could say that the Russian navy was incompetent in leadership and/or manpower, but which peer enemy has the US Navy fought since 1945, and did it not lose two fighter jets in a single month by them just tipping overboard in maneuvers against a bunch of rebels with no navy or significant weaponry?
Also, the US has 8900 km of land borders, to nations it has just threatened with invasions. What if the US really invades Canada? Do you think a battered Canadian government would think twice about accepting Chinese aid for example? What if such aid comes in the form of an army outnumbering the US army multiple times?
I'm not trying to repeat "the US is doomed" tankie agitprop, but shit is changing fast, and a really terribly shit leadership is absolutely capable of sinking it. Even without a war by the way. You guys look like the Balkans looking from the outside in.
Hey, America- you're 3 weeks into this place being open and we're already reading the line "way too many feces-related horrors."
Maybe try something that's a little more threatening than bringing meme signs to a parade. Or, I guess, just get defensive about how you're doing all you can and remain absolutely complicit in this garbage.
New Syria sanctions push scrambles partisan alliances
New Syria sanctions push scrambles partisan alliances
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., says he wants to give the Trump administration “maximum flexibility.” Most Democrats and some conservatives say they prefer full repeal.Eleanor Mueller (www.semafor.com)
UK police hold pro-Palestine protester, 80, for almost 27 hours and search house
UK police hold pro-Palestine protester, 80, for almost 27 hours and search house
Marianne Sorrell, a retired teacher from Somerset, says she is ‘very traumatised’ after arrest at Cardiff rallyHaroon Siddique (The Guardian)
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Britain was never liberal.
The very same people harping about "gay rights" would also be writing scatting opinion articles against something or other they believe was a moral perversion (for example, men who used sex dolls) with not the least bit self-awareness about how those articles were very much like those that used to be written against homosexuality, just with a different group being targeted.
The middle class in that place is big on doing what is fashionable and makes them look good socially (keeping up with appearances) which means certain minorities which are now fashionable to support get a lot of loud, performative support, but those actions are seldom driven by actual Principles about Freedom (quite the contrary, the place is big on people "knowing their place" and has a ton of laws meant to silence and push-back on those who are loudly contrarians outside a few "permitted" domains).
Having lived in a couple of places in Europe, including Britain and The Netherlands, in my opinion Britain is actually unusually conservative for an European country.
Well, it's American-style "liberal": hard neoliberal with some of performative (rather than principled) moral liberalism.
It's definitely not Liberal in the sense of taking a principled stance for people's freedom, as made painfully obvious by what they're doing against anti-Genocide protestors.
I would even say they're more towards the Authoritarian side than the Liberal one.
Lobbyists spend very little money to catch political ears. Look into it! I have. Stunning that a major company can drop $20,000 in pocket change and get in their pants.
AIPIC has got extra juice! Since WWII, being branded an anti-Semite is political poison. They don't have to spend much money, just tell the pol, "Do as I say or we go scorched Earth on your happy ass!" Works. FFS, we have video and images of Israel actively committing genocide, murdering woman and children and people trying to get food. And what are the headlines? "$group warns of genocide!" "$group warns of mass starvation!" You mean shit that's already happening YESTERDAY?!
Try saying anything negative, in any way, in any venue, use the word Jew. You will be excoriated and banned. Notice how every single post here makes certain to make the distinction between "Jew" and "Zionist"? I mean, it's true, preaching to the choir guys, but the eggshell fire-walking is kinda nuts. And Jews don't seem to have clue why international antisemitism is on the rise.
Not being snarky, I'm actually afraid to use the word, anywhere. That's how deep the insanity goes. Watch me catch a ban for saying I'm uncomfortable using "Jew", in any context. Watch 12 people explain that Jews are not necessarily Zionists. I GET that. But someone will comment!
(can't edit my own posts)
For context, I'm a 54yo atheist and had always supported Israel. Poor underdogs! Nah. Now Israel is the Third Reich, and fuck them, all of their supporters.
Sickening how we have to repeat history every time our grandparents die out.
And Jews don’t seem to have clue why international antisemitism is on the rise.
Maybe I'm the commenter you're looking for, but this seems like an overgeneralization. I have several Jewish friends who are under no illusions about Israel, and who are quite clear about how Netanyahu and his ilk are consciously and cynically fueling antisemitism, not least by throwing around accusations if it against anyone who criticizes the genocide they are perpetrating. So saying "Jews don't seem to have [any] clue" feels heavy-handed.
Labour had to defend themselves against anti-semitism claims for years (usually from extremely low level Muslim councillors), so now they're going the other way entirely. And Tories aren't going to get in the way of that, because they fucking love cruelty.
But the next prime minister of the UK is going to be the one who promises to bring back all the free porn, so we don't have to ask for permission to have a wank to take our mind off everything.
Because liberalism is a hypocritical ideology.
The USA built itself off genocide and colonialism and has spent the last three centuries expanding its empire to every continent (and has long-since been an attack dog for Israel).
France endorsed liberty, equality, and fraternity at home and horrors abroad in Haiti and Algeria.
To the credit of the Liberal Party, they were much less imperialist than the Whigs they derived from or Tories. This is not to say that they were truly opposed to imperialism. Cecil Rhodes was a Liberal.
In all of these cases, the colonial adventures did not occur despite liberalism but were justified by it. We must bring enlightened civilization to the savages, you see. Locke and Mill, two foundational British figures of liberalism, were both supporters of colonialism.
So would a lot of people, and there was a chance of that with Jeremy Corbyn until the right-wingers in Labour stabbed him in the back with the help of the Tories and all of the media. They are terrified of workers figuring out where their real interests lie.
Interesting to read yesterday that Corbyn is forming a new party. It's a big mountain to climb and he's no spring chicken, but if it's done right the UK could once again have a party true to Labour's original principles.
The Labour Party is just a mainstream party from a system with First Past The Post (where power is pretty much a doupoly) which was captured and the ideology of those who captured it isn't even left of center.
Remember that not that long ago they were purging Leftwingers in that party.
They're Neoliberals so far to the Right that they're actively supporting a foreign ethno-Fascist regime committing a Genocide along ethnic lines now entering a Holocaust phase, and do so using authoritarian measures against the population of their own country, all of this whilst wearing a Labour Party suit.
I lived in Britain for over a decade until a little after the Leave Referendum and kept track of British politics for a while after that, and this surprises me not one bit after the style and nature of the coup against Jeremy Corbyn done by the very people now in Government there.
RFK Jr. Pictured Partying With Child Sex Predator Jeffrey Epstein
RFK Jr. Pictured Partying With Child Sex Predator Jeffrey Epstein
The renewed scrutiny on the HHS Secretary comes amid an ongoing firestorm over the Epstein files.Farrah Tomazin (The Daily Beast)
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I was browsing Epstein's black book yesterday, and it is actually a little alarming how many Kennedys are in there. I know an address book isn't the same as a client list, but it does mean that they most likely knew one another.
I also learned that Minnie Driver as of 2008 or so, when this black book was seized as part of an investigation, used an EarthLink.net email address lol
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Epstein was everywhere in Hollywood and politics, that was his entire business. So we will probably see floods of pictures with him "partying" with prominent figures.
WHICH IS GREAT! It's likely that most of the people he met or were in the same building with had no "dealings" with Epstein, but the more we can saturate the public with pictures that validate the conspiracist ideas that celebrities and politicians are all involved in some child-eating cult, the more we incite the turn against Trump from his own base. Trump's administration is fucking wounded right now, we gotta pour lemon juice and sewage into the wound at every opportunity.
George W.Bush: "When I first met with Putin I saw he was wearing a cross [...] He started talking about his mother, the cross, and what it meant to him [...] I looked into his eyes and I saw a soul. I trusted him."
STOP. FUCKING. ELECTING. PEOPLE. WITH. SKY. DADDY!
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.www.youtube.com
I know, right? Remember when the bar was "the entire administration lied 935 times about Iraq"?
publicintegrity.org/politics/s…
Good times!
washingtonpost.com/politics/20…
Search the 935 Iraq War false statements
Update: March 22, 2023: The database that was the basis for this story was hosted by a third party and ceased functioning sometime after its original publishing date.Mark Reading-Smith (Center for Public Integrity)
"partying with" may be a bit of a stretch. "Attending an event for wealthy American oligarchs with"? Yeah, I buy that.
"New York Academy of Art gala"
Any event containing the word "gala" is not for the plebes.
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This is an article from 2025-02-07, the backdoor payout to this turd does suggest he tried some back channeling in 2024 to get US regulators to green light it. But I did see their efforts failed last year [1]. Then their leadership tried to IPO on London's stock exchange [2]. However the IPO in London eventually failed earlier this month [3] and they are now trying to get IPO listing on Hong Kong's stock exchange.
Maybe I missed some recent news to suggest IPO is back on the table in US?
- [1] cnbc.com/2024/06/21/shein-us-i…
- [2] cnn.com/2024/06/03/investing/s…
- [3] cnbc.com/2025/07/08/shein-file…
Shein files for Hong Kong IPO in hopes of salvaging London listing: FT report
Shein previously filed to list in London around 18 months prior, but has struggled to receive regulatory approval.Karen Gilchrist (CNBC)
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Trump says he won't 'destroy' Musk's companies by taking away subsidies
Trump says he won't 'destroy' Musk's companies by taking away subsidies
President Donald Trump denied claims that he wants to wreck Elon Musk's companies and their work with the U.S. government.Lora Kolodny (CNBC)
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Brazil to formally join South Africa's ICJ case against Israel
By #MEE staff
Published date: 24 July 2025 11:59 BST
It said the international community "cannot remain inactive" in the face of "ongoing atrocities", and that the move is based on the “plausibility that the rights of Palestinians to protection against acts of genocide are being irreversibly impaired”.
[...]
However, campaigners have pointed to Brazil's crude oil exports to Israel - 2.7m barrels were shipped in 2024 alone - prompting calls from Brazilian oil worker unions for the government to implement an energy embargo against Israel.
Brazil to formally join South Africa's ICJ case against Israel
Brazil has said it is in the "final stages" of formally joining South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).MEE staff (Middle East Eye)
Brazil to formally join South Africa's ICJ case against Israel
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/33613816
By #MEE staff
Published date: 24 July 2025 11:59 BST
It said the international community "cannot remain inactive" in the face of "ongoing atrocities", and that the move is based on the “plausibility that the rights of Palestinians to protection against acts of genocide are being irreversibly impaired”.
[...]
However, campaigners have pointed to Brazil's crude oil exports to Israel - 2.7m barrels were shipped in 2024 alone - prompting calls from Brazilian oil worker unions for the government to implement an energy embargo against Israel.
Brazil to formally join South Africa's ICJ case against Israel
By #MEE staff
Published date: 24 July 2025 11:59 BSTIt said the international community "cannot remain inactive" in the face of "ongoing atrocities", and that the move is based on the “plausibility that the rights of Palestinians to protection against acts of genocide are being irreversibly impaired”.
[...]
However, campaigners have pointed to Brazil's crude oil exports to Israel - 2.7m barrels were shipped in 2024 alone - prompting calls from Brazilian oil worker unions for the government to implement an energy embargo against Israel.
Brazil to formally join South Africa's ICJ case against Israel
Brazil has said it is in the "final stages" of formally joining South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).MEE staff (Middle East Eye)
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A useful tool that helps you find people to follow on Mastodon by looking up your "follows' follows".
Followgraph for Mastodon
Find people to follow on Mastodon by expanding your follow graph.followgraph.vercel.app
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Jeremy Corbyn confirms launch of new party, citing UK complicity in Israeli crimes
By MEE staff
Published date: 24 July 2025 13:49 BST
Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed that he has launched a new political party alongside fellow independent lawmaker Zarah Sultana.In a joint statement published on X on Thursday, the two said that the system was “rigged” when the current government “says there is no money for the poor, but billions for war”.
The pair also cited UK complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza as reason for the need for an alternative party.
Jeremy Corbyn confirms launch of new party, citing UK complicity in Israeli crimes
Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed that he is launching a new political party alongside fellow independent lawmaker Zarah Sultana.MEE staff (Middle East Eye)
“It’s time for a new kind of political party. One that is rooted in your communities, trade unions and social movements. One that builds power in all regions and nations. One that belongs to you.”
What's old is new. At one time, long ago, that was Labour.
Yes, there needs to be a more leftist party in UK politics, but... for christ's sake don't make Gaza your primary messaging. There's a ton of shit going on in the UK right now and Reform are ahead in the polls. Guess what Reform are not talking about? It's Gaza, because it turns out the average twat from the run-down northern town with no job prospects and a dying welfare state doesn't actually give a shit enough to want his government's priorities to be on another nation state when HE'S getting fucked from all sides.
Start your messaging about un-fucking the UK first, and then mention Gaza when asked. It's about being seen as "We're here for YOU" and then when asked about Gaza going "Oh yes we care about that as well, but YOU are the priority", hence the name Your Party.
Israel is unpopular, but Israel is not the end-all be-all of British politics.
According to YouGov (admittedly from 2024 but the Gaza War had already kicked off by then), the top 3 issues people vote on are...
For Labour Voters:
- Cost of Living
- Health
- The Economy
When asked what the single most important thing is, the most said Cost of Living
For Conservative Voters:
- Immigration
- The Economy
- Cost of Living
When asked what the most important thing is, the most said Immigration
For Reform Voters:
- Immigration
- Cost of Living
- The Economy
When asked what the most important thing is, the most said Immigration.
For the Lib Dems:
- Health
- Cost of Living
- The Economy
When asked what the most important thing is, the most said Health.
There's nothing on the Green Party because they're so irrelevant nobody even counts them.
Of the entire population surveyed, the total percentage of people that considered Gaza to be their highest priority was 2%, and of those 2%, the most were in the 18-24 age bracket at 14%.
Admittedly I may be reading that data wrong, and it is from 2024, but this is more current, and on that list, Israel vs Palestine isn't even counted because it's so low in priority. While yes, Israel is unpopular, in the grand scheme of things and the issues facing the UK right now, nobody gives a shit about Gaza.
The most important issues facing the country
Which of the following do you think are the most important issues facing the country at this time? Please tick up to three.yougov.co.uk
The UK still has a fptp election system. Splitting the leftist vote, seems like a good way to move the UK further to the right again.
I thought that internal opposition within the Labour party, would have been the way forward. I had the impression that Starmer was very unpopular with Labour members, so why can't they get rid of him and his clique from within the party?
I've done some reading and it turns out that Reform is now sometimes polling at a percentage equal to what Labour last won the elections with (~34%). Labour is polling as low as ~20%, the greens at ~10%. So yes, Reform and Tories are splitting the rightwing vote, but no, the left cannot afford to further split the left vote.
Because of fptp, that 34% result was enough to bring Labour to a 63% majority. Which apart from being ridiculously unrepresentative, also means that Reform could achieve the same result.
As an external observer who would rather not have Reform get in control of the UK, I see 2 possible solutions:
1) Get rid of fptp asap.
2) If that's not possible for reasons, then coordinate in between moderate parties to let the top moderate candidate run unopposed against Reform, the French way.
Reform and Tories are splitting the rightwing vote, but no, the left cannot afford to further split the left vote.
There are two ways to look at this and two strategies:
- Progressive party will split the left and it will get less MPs. We should play it safe, run moderate candidates and try to get some right leaning voters to vote for the left
or
- real Progressive party will motivate voters and will actually be able to beat Reform. We should abandon the idea of reaching out to right leaning voters and aim for young voters that are disillusioned by current state of affairs and get them to vote
The first strategy usually fails because it legitimizes the right and demotivates the left. The second strategy tends to work but is not tried very often.
Starmer just purges members that make too much trouble like Corbyn, and his majority is so big that he can't really be opposed.
There already is a major party that's actually left wing, the Greens. Its not clear where this new party actually differs from the greens in terms of policy.
Jerb322
in reply to criss_cross • • •P00ptart
in reply to Jerb322 • • •ThrowawayOnLemmy
in reply to criss_cross • • •theprogressivist
in reply to ThrowawayOnLemmy • • •like this
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spongebue
in reply to theprogressivist • • •Of fucking course
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Carvex
in reply to theprogressivist • • •TIME TO SEARCH HIS INTERNET BROWSER HISTORY
Birds of a feather rape children together
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Lasherz
in reply to theprogressivist • • •bender223
in reply to criss_cross • • •at this point GOP be like pedophiles > kids
their new slogan should be, "Fuck them kids!"
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Jesus
in reply to criss_cross • • •FreshParsnip
in reply to criss_cross • • •FreshParsnip
in reply to criss_cross • • •BigMacHole
in reply to criss_cross • • •like this
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TJDetweiler
in reply to BigMacHole • • •hakase
in reply to TJDetweiler • • •TJDetweiler
in reply to hakase • • •LOL good catch
I'm not editing it
emeralddawn45
in reply to TJDetweiler • • •sepi
in reply to BigMacHole • • •resipsaloquitur
in reply to criss_cross • • •Fake ID-ass name.
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betterdeadthanreddit
in reply to resipsaloquitur • • •Got me wondering how a name like that happens. His mom couldn't decide which of two uncles to name him after... So she didn't.
Source: Wikipedia entry
American politician (born 1977)
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)FreshParsnip
in reply to betterdeadthanreddit • • •betterdeadthanreddit
in reply to FreshParsnip • • •athairmor
in reply to FreshParsnip • • •fartographer
in reply to betterdeadthanreddit • • •very_well_lost
in reply to fartographer • • •Mark = business name
Wayne = party name
Yep, math checks out
meeeeetch
in reply to criss_cross • • •Scubus
in reply to meeeeetch • • •some_guy
in reply to criss_cross • • •Substitute baseless with warranted and this makes total sense.
mhague
in reply to criss_cross • • •jjjalljs
in reply to criss_cross • • •Conservatism is entirely about protecting the in group and hurting the out group. That's it. That's the whole thing.
Thus, they are bad people. That's how bad people behave.
MuskyMelon
in reply to criss_cross • • •Senator Markwayne Mullin - OK(R)
Proud Guardian of Pedophiles
merc
in reply to criss_cross • • •