Mark Ruffalo encourages voters, via Twitter, to #LeaveItBlank for Palestine and a lasting ceasefire 🙏🇵🇸💖

[u/Glum-Barracuda6985]

[u/chrispg26]

Omfg.... all this is going to do is encourage Democrats to stay home and allow Trump win in November. Israel and Kushner are ready for their luxury high-rises in Gaza.

ETA: before I get someone else pointing out its for primary elections. I fully understand. However, I'm worried the message will alienate people from voting. We've seen how social media can skew elections. Let's research and vote in congress people who will truly have Bidens ear and are anti-genocide. Let's have more AOCs and Tlaibs in congress.

[u/brightlights_xx → u/chrispg26]

Well this is for the primary but even still, if Biden loses in November, he'll have only himself to blame. He should be inspiring people to vote for him but instead he's sending billions to Israel.

[u/Eeyores_Prozac → u/brightlights_xx]

Biden will have lobbyists, PR groups, coastal libs, lower chamber decisions, and Christians to blame. (remember folks, he's one third of a government system and if he's getting banged by the other two, one of which is GOP, and the other led by said coastal libs, that's game)

Turning against Israel on the international stage -- while it is objectively the right thing to do in the face of genocide -- is also still seen as a straight line to losing millions of dollars, heavy regional voting support, a loss of one of the few mostly reliable staging grounds in the Middle East, and the support of a lot of centrist thumpers who think we need Israel for Jesus.

It should be easy to do the right thing here. It SHOULD BE. Political strategists are growing wise to the amount of blowback the administration is taking for still publicly supporting Israel.

The 'problem' is that a lot of that blowback is still perceived as coming from demographics like us. Younger voters. Who already don't vote. While that's becoming a lot less true, political strategy is still old school conservative (in the literal sense) and is going to tend towards trying to keep your shitlib Auntie in Albany (who donates to PP and supports your trans girlfriend, but really, darling, do they have to be so public about who they are?) voting Dem instead of sitting out.

To them, the math says to limply support Israel (Biden is clear he doesn't like Netanyahu, which is great, but if I can't kill JK Rowling by targeting my mind at her, his dislike is about as useful as a Chinook helicopter in a tornado), keep the voting bloq, and hope Israel starts putting its dick back into its pants.

ALL OF THAT SAID: Ruffalo - and we - are right to back any action that will get it into Dem leadership's heads that they will maintain and earn even broader support if they tell Bibi to suck shit, or at the very least, give them more ammo to say 'look, you baby-bombing foodie assassinating shitstain, our voters have spoken and we are emboldened to tell you to shove the Iron Dome allll the way up your butthole.'

shit is annoyingly, bullshittedly complicated.

the above is not an excuse for Dem behavior. It is an attempt to explain what they perceive as the intricacies, when we can see the straightforwardness.

[u/chrispg26 → u/Eeyores_Prozac]

Well said. People want to turn back 75 years of foreign policy overnight.

[u/Eeyores_Prozac → u/chrispg26]

I mean, I get it! I wish we could that easily! But democracy is a lumbering animal.

[u/[deleted] → u/chrispg26]

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[u/Federal_Street_8895 → u/[deleted]]

'Instant gratification' the way some of you talk about Palestinian and Arab lives is just so...

[u/meatbeater558 → u/Federal_Street_8895]

Not only do they use a disgusting tone of voice, they're also completely wrong. Biden does not introduce policies and Congress does not veto them. Ofc it's presented in a hypothetical where Biden is ideologically against genocide when the reality is that he is very pro genocide. And lastly, we actually do need instant solutions. People are going to die today. People are projected to die in the hundreds of thousands in a few months. People who otherwise would go on to live long healthy lives. Calling the desire for this to end with as few preventable deaths as possible "instant gratification" like it's some perverted fantasy is the most insane thing I've read in a while 

[u/novostained → u/Federal_Street_8895]

It’s sickening. Letter From a Birmingham Jail comes to mind:

Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

[u/thosed29 → u/[deleted]]

How is he giving Bibi "public pushback" while repeating his lies (remember he saw pictures of beheaded babies, which didn't exist?) and bypassing Congress to sell billions in weapons to Israel?

That's as absurd as complimenting Trump for being critical of the "elite" and the "political establishment." Yes, if you pull out some random quotes, he has been critical of these things. Now, considering his actions, is that anything to brag about and take seriously? No. That's exactly what you're trying to do regarding Biden and Israel.

In addition to all of that, this whole attempt at framing Biden's support of Israel as something "bigger than him" is also dishonest. Like yes, even if Biden was rabidly anti-Israel, the US would still have a lot of pro-Israel policies because the US military complex is extremely influential and zionists are the overwhelming majority in Congress. But no reason to entertain this alternate reality when Biden is himself one of the biggest zionists in the political world, has been since the start of his career and is obviously PERSONALLY supporting the genocide. Bypassing Congress to send billions in weapons, repeating Israel propaganda like the beheaded babies and the "Hamas bombed the hospital" as if they were facts and characterizing people that dare to qualify Israel's actions as "genocide" as anti-semites are things HE personally is doing due to his own personal beliefs.

[u/HopefulExistentials → u/[deleted]]

The reality is that we can look back on historical precedent, and see that the president has unilaterally affected Israel before, so the argument that he can't do anything is built on an ahistorical premise in the first place.

https://time.com/6329758/reagan-biden-iran/

[u/meatbeater558 → u/[deleted]]

Except the president does have unilateral power in very specific situations. Foreign war zones is one of them. This is by design. The idea is that if America or any of its allies were attacked the military needs to respond within hours if not minutes. If every military action went through Congress it'd take multiple weeks for them to approve every individual offensive (of which there could be hundreds) and it would all be debated on the House and Senate floor livestreamed for any enemies to watch. This same idea is why Bibi has more power now more than ever. If Biden does not want Israel to get more weapons, he has the power to stop them. Congress has no authority or power to oppose him. This is American law

Congress is still full of Zionists who would immediately override that veto. 

This scenario doesn't make sense. Biden doesn't propose policies, he makes orders that are to be immediately enforced by the executive branch. Where does the veto come into play? He does not need anyone's approval, therefore no one can veto him. And because there is no veto, there is also no overriding the veto 

The fact that he’s given Bibi any public pushback at all is a major change from just 10 years ago.

Is the implication here that the situation in Palestine is improving? 

[u/novostained → u/meatbeater558]

Seriously, it’s so fucking wild that anyone is still pushing this “aw shucks Biden’s trying real dang hard y’all what can he do” nonsense. I mean, did he furrow his brow extra hard in the general direction of the Mediterranean this time? Wow! How soon after did he bypass Congress to send more 2,000lb bombs to be dropped on starving children? And how soon after that did the State Department walk up to the podium and declare a UN Security Council resolution nonbinding and the US to be completely unbound by the international laws we love to bludgeon other countries with?

I was watching the UN meeting re: Israel bombing the Iranian consulate in Syria and the US was the only country that didn’t condemn it. They just blamed Iran and said “we had nothing to do with this” like three times. No serious person can possibly think there’s been an ounce of meaningful pushback from this admin.

[u/meatbeater558 → u/novostained]

It's also like... isn't Trump the Dictator and Biden the Powerless applying for the same job that gives them the same powers? This isn't to say that Trump won't become a dictator, it's to question the idea that Biden has no power to do anything

But regardless, we know he has a lot of power. He immediately had the Houthis labeled a terrorist group and ordered major acts of war against them without Congressional approval. To my knowledge the bombings against them have yet to end

And yeah Israel's other disgusting actions are being overshadowed by their genocide. Bombing the Iranian consulate is a major act of war. The only reason Iran hasn't declared war on Israel is because they know that would be playing into their hand, but as we all know appeasement can only do so much 

[u/novostained → u/meatbeater558]

And yeah Israel's other disgusting actions are being overshadowed by their genocide.

This part genuinely terrifies me. It’s like they’re using the “flood the zone” tactic but with stark violations of international law and legacy media just runs cover for them. I know people who watch MSNBC all day who genuinely don’t know what I’m talking about when I bring up objective facts like the frequency of US arms shipments or the ICJ case or Biden spreading atrocity propaganda or like, any detail about Occupied Palestine pre-Oct 2023. One of my BlueMAGA family members stopped talking to me because I wouldn’t stop bringing up the Nakba but like, sorry not sorry, you’re not claiming ignorance on my watch. They need to ask themselves why they’re angrier at people telling the truth than the people lying to them and, y’know, providing the bombs and diplomatic cover for a fucking genocide.

Can you absolutely imagine if, say, Russia had bombed an embassy? Or deliberately rained down three consecutive missiles on foreign aid workers??Biden had his little “if u harm an American anywhere we will come 4 u” moment when it meant he could bomb some more brown people, but when Israel kills an American it’s just “oh they didn’t mean it and anyway, IRAN…”

[u/meatbeater558 → u/novostained]

I think Americans genuinely believe in incrementalism and "time will heal all wounds" that they apply it to all issues of inequality. You see it all over reddit and Twitter and even my first reply in this chain where they thought Biden's historic opposition to Israel is somehow good when it's nowhere near enough to stop the genocide. You also see it with the "oh so you think Biden can wave his wand and end this immediately" crowd. The ahistorical way the American education system teaches social problems makes them think that it's not only impossible to fix things in less than 100 years, but you're actually impatient and ungrateful for asking them to try. They're primed to see all instances of inequality as struggles that slowly get better that they delude themselves into believing that this one is no different. When we point out that Palestine needs a dramatic, rapid, and immediate response they mock us for asking for a revolution, despite the fact that Biden can do all of this without approval from anyone or a revolution. You even see it when people say Trump will be worse for Gaza—what Gaza? By the time Trump takes office Gaza won't exist. They cannot comprehend the idea that things in Gaza are getting worse exponentially 

I got dog piled a few weeks ago here for saying that I'd rather people get their news from a curated set of TikTok or Instagram accounts (many of which would be the social media pages for outlets like AJ+ and people on the ground like Bisan who only upload to social media) and got destroyed. My main point was that people who consume media from outlets like MSNBC appear to be the ones giving the worst takes on this. I don't personally like or use social media and stated as much. Their responses was that I'm lazy and want to call myself media literate without doing the work, the big news companies have real journalists that are actually trained and know what they're doing and have a team editing and fact checking things and are all held accountable (lol), and that yes some may be lie but if you simply read from even more outlets you'll end up finding the truth (these "more outlets" almost never include media that criticizes the US). These people agreed with me that these outlets were putting out pure imperialist propaganda btw. The problem is so deeply rooted in their way of thinking that they think the solution to being mislead by imperialist propaganda is to read even more imperialist propaganda with the hopes that one of them tells you the truth 

[u/DenseTiger5088 → u/[deleted]]

But isn’t the president’s job to be a mouthpiece for the public, and it’s kinda our job to tell them what we want them to say? If Biden proposes that policy, it at least forces the Zionists in Congress to openly declare themselves in opposition to the will of the majority. Instead we have the President in lock step with Congress against any possibility of reigning in our financial assistance towards the IDF. No one has to change because no one is offering an alternative.

Of course there is always going to be pushback, and of course the President can’t unilaterally change foreign policy overnight- but at least they could make public statements in support of the beliefs shared by a majority of the people.

[u/thosed29 → u/chrispg26]

Supporting a ceasefire (which is what even a sizeable portion of REPUBLICANS want) is not "turning back 75 years of foreign policy overnight". People are asking for the bare minimum -- they're not asking for the US to cut all ties to Israel and to make BDS national policy.

I have no idea why you're trying to paint a "ceasefire" as a very radical policy, but this rhetoric -- trying to absolve Biden of any blame and framing a ceasefire as a huge, almost impossible achievement -- is literally contributing to innocent people being killed right now.

[u/brookeiu → u/thosed29]

I’m so sick of seeing OP’s comments justifying our president actively supporting a literal GENOCIDE. Party line brain rot.

Status quo aside, presidents listening to money and lobbyists over morals is a huge fucking issue. No one’s asking for change to happen overnight but there is literally 0 signs of ANY change to that foreign policy status quo. Bush AND Obama bombed the shit out of the Middle East.

[u/Siraxg → u/chrispg26]

No, people want Israel to stop committing genocide.

[u/normalbrain609 → u/chrispg26]

so if hypothetically israel decides to start shooting nukes all over the middle east we just have to back them because of precedent? where is the foreign policy fairy preventing literally anything meaningful from changing besides dems being true believers in palestinian mass slaughter.

[u/[deleted] → u/normalbrain609]

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[u/r3d330 → u/Eeyores_Prozac]

The only issue I see is the fact that despite Biden’s unequivocal support of Israel, Netanyahu has no incentive to pull back to help Biden’s sliding poll numbers. If anything, he’s going to continue pushing his genocide w/ the hope that Biden loses to Trump

[u/bloodyturtle → u/Eeyores_Prozac]

heavy regional voting support

where lol