STFU Jon.

Just a POS alert. You know.
STFU, Jon. Eat your corn.

Leap. 02/29/2024

Good leap day morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee helps, black, hot.

One extra day.

Twenty four hours more.

Walk with me, a little…

One extra day

And it’s not okay

To feel this way

No, it’s not okay

Stop telling me it’s fine

Walking this thin line

Because there’s time

More time to rhyme

I had enough

But still I take this path

Again, and again rough

Tired of being tough

An extra day long

Yet another song

Closed eyes sing along

Tired of being strong

An extra day

And I try to sway

My pain away

As light fades to gray

Waving a wand

Ever more this brand

Renewed strand

Renewed in my hand

Whatever for

Twenty four more

Of this folklore 

Washed on the shore

Like a spell

I know so well

Of all things to tell

When things told fell

In the abyss my soul became

Holding the flame

Shaking off the shame

Holding off the blame

An extra turn around

Never to be found

In headlines bound

Where truth is ground

Into grains of sand

Running through my hand

Just another band

Playing on this stand

Wrapped around my wrist

Washed in the myst

With a clenched fist

Looking at my list

Of things to do

Of places I wish to

Have been too

Of memories untrue

Just an extra day

To be blue…

Let me tell you

It’s no miracle

Without you.

Hurry up. We’re gonna be late.

#OakiesLittleWords

Josh Rouse. Under Cold Blue Stars. Miracle.

Do not associate.

Understand this:
Sebastian Gorka, Ben Shapiro, Steve Bannon, Elise Stefanik, and all the other fuckers like them could NOT care less about the Jews.

Stop associating with these people.
Am Yisrael Chai.

Not to be debated.

Good morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee is black and hot.

I have been noticing some efforts across Threads to “normalize” behavior that is designed to splinter our efforts to win the election in November, at the same time they “crack down” on those of us who push back hard against it, calling for “understanding”, and “dialogue”.

So here’s the thing…

We don’t need former republicans to save us.

We don’t need Reaganites to save us.

We don’t need antisemites to save us.

We don’t need Nazi apologists to save us.

We don’t need “blue collar hillbillies” to save us.

We don’t need propals to save us.

We don’t need Shitsteins to save us.

We don’t need Bernie Bros to save us.

We don’t need feminazis to save us.

We don’t need communists to save us.

We don’t need libertarians to save us.

We don’t need “Genocide Joe” types to save us.

We don’t need terrorist apologists to save us.

We don’t need socialists to save us.

We don’t need Cornell West to save us.

We don’t need “found Jesus” fascists to save us.

We don’t need ANY of these fuckers, because ALL of these fuckers will fuck us up, first chance they get. When someone threatens not to vote for Biden, they are telling you they will NOT vote for Biden. You better believe it. These people are NOT our friends. They don’t see the world as we do. They want one thing: chaos.

You can play their game, or you can win.

Democrats have a real hard time wining. For some reason, Democrats believe singing Kumbaya is the answer to the world’s problems. Democrats focus on stupid shit, like “wining the hearts and minds” of Trump voters, or appeasing them. And above all, Democrats are terrified of super majorities. Democrats are afraid to govern alone. This needs to change. Gloves off time.

The way we change this is to remain strong in our convictions, to push through the bulshit and build a wining block that can last enough to bring about real change, not the stupid Kumbaya crap that produces nothing, but actual change, through actual results people can feel in their lives, making them better. Changes that last. Changes that lead to palpable results.

And this means we need to really close our ranks, purging them from fifth column types that are riding along because they know only from within they can achieve their goals, which are very different from ours. Some want to bring back Reagan from the dead, some want to bring back that old Marxist dream, some just want a free lunch. But they all are chaos agents.

We need people who can demand the impossible expecting NOT to get it, not dumbfuck idiots who really think they’re gonna get it. We need people who understand this is a long game, to be fought this year and in 2026 and 2028, not instant satisfaction fucks who want it all and want it now.

We need to learn how to KEEP the win.

We need people who understand the world is a complex space, where compromise is the goal to achieve the impossible. Who realize what is at stake, and will do anything to stop it. So enough of this “understanding”, “dialogue”, Kumbaya crap. We need to fight to win, not to lose everything the day after. And we need to endure. This is a very hard battle, up hill. We need to cut the dead weight now. All it does is drag us down.

So wake the fuck up, recognize those we can talk to, but also those who are just wasting our time. In other words, use the block button here, and keep spreading awareness among those who are still unaware. And stay together.

We can still do this, but let’s do it right. We don’t get a do over this time.

Have a great hump day.

Perfect take.

I guess I’ll do it.

@lisaaronowatelier

Douchebags

This wins douchebag of the week times three.
Joy Ann Reid, Terry Ahwal, and the NYT.

Fucking unbelievable.

My choice is clear.

Good morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee is good. Coffee is black.

Yes, I speak up for Israel.

Yes, I don’t give in, it’s essential.

Yes, I support a two state solution, for an Israeli one state means the end of her democracy.

Yes, I despise Netanyahu’s government.

So here’s my early read from the Haaretz, to start this long good morning post. Walk with me.

Editorial

Israel Police Must Not Become

Ben-Gvir's Private Militia

Haaretz Editorial

Feb 26, 2024 12:30 am IST

The excessive force the Israel Police used at an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv Saturday evening – which resulted in the arrest of 21 demonstrators (they were released overnight) and at least four injured – points to a shift in police policy toward protests.

On the stormiest night of protests since the war began on October 7, the police's water cannons did not even spare a hostage who had been released from Hamas captivity.

This was not a localized, isolated incidence of violence. The police consistently used massive force throughout the evening, including the frequent use of water cannons and mounted officers. Police moved onto the sidewalks several times to push the protesters back.

One mounted officer whipped an older man in the head with his horse's reins. A female demonstrator was injured by a horse while crossing the street. And two other demonstrators suffered eye injuries after being hit with water cannons.

The police hit a new nadir in the history of police brutality when they used a water cannon to disperse a march in which the hostages' families were participating.

Ilana Gritzewsky, who was released in the first hostage deal after being abducted from Nir Oz, was one of the marchers. The police's inability to show restraint toward the hostages' families and contain the protest without sliding into violence ought to worry every Israeli. It attests to an extreme and dangerous lack of tolerance for anything the government identifies as opposition.

The civic anger the protesters expressed in the streets Saturday night was justified. This government, the worst in Israel's history, brought disaster on the country and abandoned its citizens. Now, it isn't doing enough to bring the hostages home, and it also refuses to resign, despite bearing responsibility for the massive failure.

The police's aggressiveness on the ground will neither prevent disorderly conduct nor suppress the protests. Experience shows that when the police make excessive use of force and of water cannons, this merely encourages the protesters and expands their ranks. Moreover, there was nothing particularly untoward in the demonstrators' behavior that could have justified the police's loss of self-control.

It's not inconceivable that the police were acting in the spirit of the minister in charge of them, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir seeks to inflame tempers as a modus operandi, because he's convinced that wherever he can sow chaos, he will win more votes. Thus it is not inconceivable that the man who has set the West Bank and the Temple Mount ablaze will do the same to Tel Aviv.

Though the police are subordinate to Ben-Gvir, they must not be a branch of his Otzma Yehudit party. They must protect the right to demonstrate, a cornerstone of democracy, and tolerate the justified civic anger and frustration over this government's unprecedented abandonment of its citizens.

from:

Haaretz Editorial

Feb 26, 2024 12:30 am IST

So there you have it. To all those who claim Israelis are not pushing back against Netanyahu’s delusions, I say go read Israeli newspapers and fuck off. Bibi will soon answer for his crimes, including his role in the 10/7 tragedy, starting a war he could have avoided. But not while war rages, for he is anchored to power by it, harnessed in Ben-Gvir’s National Defense Ministry. But Israel’s society will push back.

In her morning post from Jerusalem, Sarah Tuttlesinger, @tuttlesinger, wrote this:

“So lately I'm ALLLLL about Jewish unity and finding ways to strengthen our Tribe, which is why I am ALSO all about calling out dangers for our Tribe - including dangers within...

So hello, and have a beautiful evening/morning/afternoon to everyone but Ben-Gvir and Smotrich who seem intent on setting fire to our precious tent.”

Yes, Israelis know better, and they push back against those who seek to destroy Israel from within. If you ever wondered why most people see Zionism not for what it was meant to be, but for what it has become, why most of us can’t differentiate Cultural Zionism from Herzlian Zionism, it’s because of the likes of Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister of National Defense, and Bezalel Smotrich, a settler living in the Kedumim settlement, in the West Bank, minister of Finance.

And before them, the likes of Meir Kahane, founder of the infamous Jewish Defense League. All birds of a feather. All radical ideologues. All determined to establish not just an Israeli one state. A Jewish one state.

Yasser Arafat once said that, coupled with guns, the Palestinians had demographics as their instrument of final victory over Israel. The PLO weaponized demographics have long been recognized as the one most dangerous threat to the existence of a single Israeli state.

With a viable Palestinian state, living in peace with Israel, side by side, working together as good neighbors, the Cultural Zionist delusion of a larger Israel, with the effective annexation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, AND the complete take over of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city, becomes impossible. So then the choice became clear, for both Jewish radicals and Islamic radicals. If peace means two states, a one state can only come about through war.

Don’t expect me to go soft on Hamas, or the Palestinian Authority, but don’t think I will not call out the Israeli radicals either. Both seek each other’s destruction. War is the true enemy.

Yet, war is upon Israel, as it has been since 1948, and it won’t stop until these radicals are removed from the equation.

I will need a much longer form to lay out my thoughts on these matters, but I have said enough, for now. Expect developments in blog format, soon.

In the meantime, there’s a war raging in Israel. One welcomed by a fascist government, and a terrorist half-state, both sides of the same coin.

And believe me when I tell you that neither, Netanyahu’s government or Hamas, want peace, for peace means the possibility of two thriving states, living together, while war keeps their delusions of a one state alive.

But rockets fly towards Israel every single day, and Hamas plans additional 10/7’s.

As painful as this scenario is, with all Israelis are trying to do, to push back against the demons permeating their society, Hamas must be destroyed. And so war rages on. The hostages are still in Gaza, after 143 days. And even if difficult, and many times inhumane, the only way forward today is the destruction of Hamas capability to strike Israel again. There is no escaping this reality, and my choice is clear.

Time to make yours.

Akharai! Am Yisrael Chai!

Wishing.

Good morning.
Cold still, coffee was good. ☕️
Lots to think about and be aware, the usual. It’s starting to get somewhat old, so activate your usual countermeasures, and stay safe and aware. Me, I’ll go look at some photos and spend my Sunday wishing. Why the fuck not.

Be good to yourselves, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between, but not too good you can’t be good to others.
Stay safe. Peace.

#OakiesSongs

A Flock of Seagulls. Listen.

Wishing (If I had a photograph of you.)

Good night. 02/24/2024

Long day.

I can’t help but to think about all we have to do, just to get a decent man elected. It shouldn’t be this hard. There shouldn’t be so many risks, so much at stake. Every election, no matter if the candidates are reasonable people, qualified people, good people, is always important. Ideas move us forward, but ideas also can drop us into the abyss. May 2024 be a lesson to all. Never take democracy for granted, and never think it reached its peak. Fight.

Good night, and good luck.

Akharai!

Spread far and wide.
Finally adapted this to the IDF.
Make no mistake about it, they are fighting a war for us, just as the Ukrainians. Pick a fucking side.

Akharai! Am Yisrael Chai!

Slava Ukraini. Two years.

Good Caturday morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee and snow. Hot and cold. Story of my life.

Two years.

Slava Ukraini.

We still see war in Europe as a curiosity. Most of us, in the US, don’t understand what is at stake. The Russian invasion “started” two years ago, is something 99% of the 1% of those moderately informed think happened. I bet 99.9% of them have no clue what Crimea is, let alone point it on a map. Right…

The war started on February 20, 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula. That’s right. Ten years ago. What happened on February 24, 2022, was the latest episode. One that, unlike Crimea, built on the Ukrainian mainland invasion from the East, In April 2014, in the Donbas region, proclaiming the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic as “independent” states.

The idea was the annexation of all the Ukraine.

Everyone thought it was over.

The first thing the West did, was to offer Volodymyr Zelensky a safe route to exile. The whole thing would be over in a couple of weeks. He told us to keep the ride and send weapons. And the rest is History. Today, we watch as the Ukrainian forces try to replace heavy casualties and their ammunition gets depleted, and we still argue as to whether to send them what they need to save themselves, because we don’t really want the war to go on. We just want it to stop.

From time to time, so called Ukrainian allies call for the end of hostilities, and the establishment of the status quo in place after the annexation of Crimea, and the proclamation of the eastern “republics”. Back to when the Ukraine wasn’t such a nuisance. That’s pretty much the goal.

But the Ukrainian know that’s not going to happen, and if they get what they need to fight effectively, they will push the Russians back in the East, and eventually get Crimea back by force.

But we don’t want that. We want it to stop, for now, and resume “negotiations”. Like the eight years of negotiations before 2022 worked so well. All they did was empower Putin to start an all out war, aimed at capturing the whole of The Ukraine. That will not change.

Zelensky warns of the consequences of strangled military aid, but it doesn’t matter to Republicans in Congress, who buy time for Putin to advance, like the good useful idiots they are.

Things were not looking good for Russia, until September of last year, and then October 10 happened. And the world shifted its focus from Europe to the Middle East. And we get aid packages bundled together, help The Ukraine and help Israel. More likely, help none. Because our tax dollars shouldn’t go to fight wars that are really “not our business”.

It’s going to be fine.

When the Russians step into Estonia, when Islamic Jihadists blow up European or American cities, we’ll start worrying. Until then, let’s keep our tax dollars to buy bigger trucks, and more beer. Or pretend to help the homeless.

Yes, this is where left and right agree: keep the fucking tax dollars. They just don’t agree where to spend them, Cracker Barrel or Whole Foods. It doesn’t really matter.

Meanwhile, we watch the fast progression of Christian fundamentalism in our country, while some plot to protest “Genocide Joe”, to the absolute delight of the fascists who push that narrative, while rooting for Netanyahu. And the propal dumbfucks are glad to do their bidding, like the good nazi puppets they are. But don’t tell them. They get very angry when they realize how stupid they are, and as stupid is as stupid does, they just double down on the dumbfuckery.

In the middle of all this, which is completely ignored by the Mainstream Media, by the way, we are told that the moderate Nikki Haley is going to save the GOP and the country, that Biden is senile, and that embryos are really children.

It’s not hard to see through all this bulshit, thriends, but keep in mind that the mere fact you are reading this makes you part of a very exclusive elite, that is aware, informed, and mobilized.

Keep in mind we, in this little digital corner of the universe, are a few privileged motherfuckers, voicing our concerns to each other. So be sure to expand your awareness, spreading it outside, out in the world, where The Ukraine and Gaza are all but afterthoughts, and the fact we are already living in Gilead, in many States, is going by as if it’s not a big deal.

Glory to those fighting wars for us.

Glory to Ukraine, and glory to Israel.

Now you wake up. And fight too.

Day After, 02/23/2024

Good morning.

Not a good day, but at least coffee is good.

So we have a “Day After” scenario.

It comes from Netanyahu’s government.

And it’s, of course, a shitshow. Yeah.

Drink your coffee. Walk with me.

Here are the steps, as proposed by Netanyahu.

“Freedom of Activity by the IDF within the Gaza Strip. / The Complete Disarmament and Demobilization of the Gaza Strip. / Total Security Control by Israel over the West Bank. / Partial/Total Closure of the Border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. / Establishment of a Security Zone between Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip. / Creation of a De-Radicalization Program which will be implemented in all Palestinian Institutions.”

Plus…

“Removal of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency from the Palestinian Territories. / The Rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip once Demilitarization is Complete and De-Radicalization has begun, with Funding only coming from Israeli-Approved Countries and Organizations.”

So let’s dive into it.

“Freedom of Activity by the IDF within the Gaza Strip.” - This is a reasonable expectation, one that proved essential in Germany, after WW2. The devil, as always, is in the details. And there are no details. For all we know, this means a de facto occupation of the Gaza Strip, something the allies did not do in Germany, post 1945. And please spare me the “not occupied territory” spiel, since you can’t erase Palestine from the map, just as you can’t erase Israel.

“The Complete Disarmament and Demobilization of the Gaza Strip.” - Totally fair, and totally expected. There is no way the Palestinians should be allowed anything remotely resembling armed forces for a long while, after 10/7. First, they must prove they wish to co-exist with Israel. Nothing to see here, perfectly normal expectation. At the most, Palestinian law enforcement should be allowed, under REAL international supervision. That’s the catch.

“Total Security Control by Israel over the West Bank.” - Exactly the same as point one, only referring to the West Bank. Translation: Israel will expand the settlements in the West Bank, only with heavy military presence. Again, a de facto occupation of Palestinian territory, going against the allies approach to their presence in Germany, after WW2. Once more, it’s the drive towards an Israeli one state solution, not an implementation of the two state solution. This is bad.

“Partial/Total Closure of the Border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.” - Which can only be achieved by Israeli armed forces, on the ground, in Gaza soil. This will not happen with Egypt’s cooperation, thus meaning Israel would have to de facto occupy the Gaza Strip portion of its southern border. There is no sugar coating this. The only way you can say this is not an occupation, is if you believe Gaza is Israel. Do you, now? Then there’s no argument to be had.

Enjoy your one state.

“Establishment of a Security Zone between Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip.” - Legitimate expectation, especially after 10/7. But where will this buffer zone be established? Inside or outside Gaza Strip’s borders? You guessed it. Inside. Once again, this is the fascist Netanyahu’s government wet dream: to establish the conditions on the ground to effectively push the Palestinians out of Gaza, in time. And, of course, to transform the Gaza Strip into an Israeli controlled territory.

“Creation of a De-Radicalization Program which will be implemented in all Palestinian Institutions.” - Also a legitimate expectation. Especially in what relates to education. The whole Palestinian education system needs an overhaul, no doubt, but it needs to be implemented through programs monitored by international institutions, with a strong Israeli participation. Here we have a problem, read “Useless UN”. Maybe the EU can step up and make a difference here.

“Removal of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency from the Palestinian Territories.” - Hell to the yeah! The UNRWA is practically a branch of Hamas. It needs to go. However, it needs a replacement. Again, Europe should step up to the plate and create a credible and effective substitute. The removal of the UNRWA is easy, and necessary. It’s their replacement that constitutes a problem. One that badly needs solving, as fast as possible.

“The Rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip once Demilitarization is Complete and De-Radicalization has begun, with Funding only coming from Israeli-Approved Countries and Organizations.” - Seems a reasonable goal, but considering the overall aspects of this design, not an achievable one. In fact, it looks like someone in Netanyahu’s gang thought it would be nice to end the proposal with a “Marshal Plan” kind of reference. It’s anything but, as you gather from the previous points.

So what does this mean?

And what else would Netanyahu propose? The aim of these steps is not to help establish a free Palestinian state. It's to “legally" ensure it never exists. After WW2, the allies kept troops in Germany, but they allowed it to choose its own path from the get go, with the obvious exception of Nazism, which the Germans themselves outlawed. The same needs to happen in Palestine. And Netanyahu will never allow that. Hamas is his pet project, remember?

Israel needs to get someone else in charge of her government. I know this is not what people want to hear, but the truth is, Netanyahu's goal is an Israeli one state. Nothing else will do, for him and others like him. He needs to go.

Until that happens, and that will not happen while war rages on, nothing will change, and there is no “Day After.” Not really. And have you noticed there is no reference to the hostages? Clearly, they are not a day after consideration.

I try to remain hopeful for the fate of the hostages left in Gaza, but it’s more and more obvious that Netanyahu has moved on from them. They are now closer to being collateral damage as they ever were. And it’s both sad and infuriating. I feel for their families, as it becomes clear they were always an after thought in Netanyahu’s strategy, from day one.

God help us, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. God help us all…

Navalny Fund

Take the $388 billion of Russian money sitting in western banks. Create a fund to pay for Ukraine’s defense and reconstruction. Call it the Navalny Fund.

Quote and comment to send a message to ALL of the western leaders using # Navalny Fund.

(Quoted from Tristan Snell)

We're live.

 

Good morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Due to recent Threads algorithm freak outs, causing several known (and unknown) users to lose all their Threads content, I am starting a mirror blog here, so I can post simultaneously content I consider relevant enough to be kept safe from any Threads algorithm mischief. This will be a basic blog, with publishing and editing capabilities designed for mobile blogging, so expect basic graphics.

As for the more curated and established 'I am Oakie's lost words' blog, expect it to keep going as the essential go to, when it comes to editorial content and large pieces, along with selections from other Threads users' content.

Stay tuned, stay aware, stay strong.

 

Oakie

Good Night 02/21/2024

“What no one saying someone else should run for president instead of Biden tells you is that, right now, anyone doing that has exactly ZERO dollars on hand for his/her presidential campaign.” Lawrence O’Donnell in “The last word”, today.

The day is February 21, 2024.
257 days to the presidential election.

Let that really sink in.

Good night, and good luck.

Good morning 02/21/2024

Good morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee is good in the Wednesday cup, black and hot, as always.

Couple of days working on a manual back up of material from my Threads, as it seems the algorithm is going full Cucamonga on us. I am in crisis mode, transferring relevant posts and strings to my blog. Will post links as soon as it gets done. So expect a lot of background activity, not so much visible one.

Stay safe and strong.

And add @snoopy_shown so you can relax.

Good morning 02/19/2024

Good Presidents Day, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee was good, this morning, sun is shining, still bloody cold, though, leftover snow on the ground…

Monday, fucking Monday.

The Atlantic thinks Fani Willis should just go away, cause… I don’t even know why, maybe cause she was cocky on the stand, and God knows she should have suck it up, like a good little lady. Who the fuck knows. But there’s more.

There’s Nazis marching in Nashville, and not enough push back, there’s Biden taking shots at Trump’s new shoes, Jews uplifting right wing Nazis because “Genocide Joe” is too soft on antisemitism, or too hard on settlers, or too old, or whatever, so better vote for the guy with the golden shoe grift. He loves Israel, and is Navalny on steroids. Fuck it. Makes you wonder about horse shoe theories.

There’s the ICJ, pulling up a stunt to free Palestine on demand from Hamas, now that it’s ending in Gaza nears, questioning Israel’s actions since 1967, throwing mud on the two state solution, lending legitimacy to both the Jewish and the Palestinian one state option. Because what better time to bring up 1967 than during a war that reveals how fucking right the Israeli fascist movement is, while propping up an Arab faction that aims to destroy Israel completely.

Good job, UN.

And then there’s the propal new hype. Get a load of this: “Antisemitic speech is as perfectly fine as racist speech and nazi speech, cause the fucking Constitution says so!”

I mean, I knew these propal fucks are unaware of their own nazi tendencies, but it’s kind of shocking to see them affirming them, like it’s a great thing to defend common interests they share with the KKK and the Christian Fascists, while remaining oblivious to it.

There’s just so much to say…

Also regarding the exodus from the dead bird site, and the tendency of some major accounts to go on Bluesky rather than Threads, at the same time some threaders don’t get that those of us starting Bluesky accounts are basically installing an emergency broadcasting system, to use in case the shit hits our fan on here. Oh, Lordy…

So you guessed it, time to blog.

And save the moments on my timeline that I consider important to keep, before I am hit and they go bye bye for eternity. Not gonna let that happen. But it’s a lot of work!

And the new stuff. Must write new stuff.

Because it’s important yo make people think.

And that is what I try to do, throwing my two bits in the jar of hope, as I use to say.

Quick parentheses to applaud Israel for making Brazilian President Lula da Silva persona non grata, effectively banning him from setting foot on Israel. Good for them.

He dared to compare the war In Gaza to the Holocaust and is promoting Hamas talking points of genocide. The stupid fuck is throwing the sympathy for opposing Bolsonaro’s fascism out the window, using Nazi propaganda. Idiot.

And it’s fucking Monday, and the Daily Show is already promoting Jon Stewart. No thanks. I am turning that good morning post into a blogpost too, because I plan to remind you all who the fuck he turned out to be.

So here’s this Monday’s friendly reminder.

(*) Follow link at the bottom.

And yeah, fuck you @thedailyshow.

And fuck you, Jon Stewart.

Have a great week.

See: “Jon Stewart doesn’t give a shit.”

Good Morning, 02/18/2024

Good Sunday morning, Threadheads, Threaders, and all in between. Woke up a little later than usual, after a good night sleep. Coffee is running hot and black, lots of sugar.

Yesterday was a rough day.

I had to come to terms with the reality of war, in what was initially a two part series, that required a part 3, unintended, but necessary. Funny how things worked out. Looking back at it, it seems like it was meant to be a trilogy all along.

The whole thing started with a meme I created, in response to so many who ignore the nature of war, and live in a fairytale where Palestine was heaven on Earth before “the Jews” came along, and “started killing every Arab in sight”. They know that, in 1948, the Arabs tried to push the Jews to the sea and finish what the Nazis started, and as a result of their humiliating failure, Israel was born stronger, forged not in the ovens of Auschwitz, but in the battlefields of Judea.

Most people are ignorant, some willfully so, and they don’t realize, or want to admit, the war now raging in Gaza started 76 years ago, when Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt attacked Israel. Saudi Arabia sent a formation that fought under the Egyptian command. British trained forces from Transjordan eventually intervened in the conflict, but only in areas that had been designated as part of the Arab state under the United Nations Partition Plan and the corpus separatum of Jerusalem.

It’s not something the Israelis started dealing with on October 7, 2023. They live with it since May 13, 1948. On the eve of May 14, the Arabs launched an air attack on Tel Aviv, which the Israelis resisted. If the date seems familiar, it’s because it’s the day David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. May 14, 1948.

War is a constant of every Israeli’s life since. It never stopped. A 76 year war, this coming Yom HaAtzma’ut.

Yom HaAtzma’ut… Day of Independence.

Imagine that. Imagine a 76 year war. Every day.

Imagine how it was possible, despite the efforts of more extreme sectors of Israeli society, for Israel to have become a democratic state, and not a military dictatorship. Think about that for a minute. From my knowledge of history, it is very easy for a country permanently at war to become radicalized, succumb to delusions of authoritarian rule, fall into the abyss. But not Israel.

So the fucking war I am talking about on my poor meme “Don’t want a war, don’t start one”, started 76 years ago. Yeah… It really did.

I knew I was stirring a hornet’s nest. I knew I would get flak from both sides. But guess what happened. My pro-Palestinian “friends” blocked me, and my pro-Israeli followers asked me why, seeking understanding, and once I published part 3 of that series, they realized I was not advocating for more IDF casualties, but for a less cruel war.

At the same time, I was reminded everyone what war is. And it’s hard to recognize that even wars fought out of the need for survival are still just wars. And war is always destructive, unfair, and most of all, cruel.

The result of my three part War series showed me what I already knew. Must Jews wish to engage in meaningful discussions, soul searching is embedded in their culture. And, regrettably, most pro-Palestinian folk are radicalized to the point where they have no return.

It’s perfectly fine to feel for the plight of the Palestinians, I do too, but it is not okay to fall for the fallacy Hamas is an underdog freedom fighter organization. They are not. They are Goliath’s tip of the spear, and Israel, regardless of her present might, is still David.

It’s so easy to logically prove this point, so obvious. They throw words like “genocide” around, or “apartheid”, ignorant fools…

And when you remind them of their own contradictions, they pout, get their football, and go home. I mean, it took the Nazis 6 years to kill 6 million Jews. One would think that, were genocide a real Israeli goal, they would have achieved it around 1954. You don’t need 76 years to kill 6 million people. Seriously, even now, if suddenly genocide became Israel’s goal, with her current capability, the Palestinians would cease to exist in about two weeks. So get over it.

So I got thoughtful dialogue from Jews, and blocks from propals. Please stop pretending antisemitism is not real. It’s everywhere. And you need to pick a side. As I did.

As for the pushback, I love it. I love being blocked by antisemitic fucks who can’t find words of compromise. Fuck’em. Smells like victory.

Stay strong.

Am Yisrael Chai.

War - Part 3

War - Part 3

I want you to imagine yourself in the situation I am describing. Just give it a shot. Flow with it.

You are the officer in command of a large ground unit, with the mission of eliminating elements of the same enemy your country has faced for the last century. This time, they went too far, and savagely attacked your country, causing the single most atrocious event in the history of your people since before your parents were even born.

And not just in number of deaths, but especially in the ways those deaths were dealt, entire communities devastated, elders, women, children, families, consumed by a haze of hate, burned, stabbed, raped, mutilated, kidnapped.

A horror not seen for many years, finally on display, for all to see. Now it’s your turn. And you are sent into the territory that enemy controls, where you know they hide behind their own people, using them as shields.

They hide in tunnels and bunkers, schools and hospitals, they have no uniforms. They blend in, disappear like ghosts, and the only time you can tell who they are, is when they shoot at you. So you move in, knowing this will be hard. Knowing these monsters have no rules, except one: to kill every single one of you, and your families. Not with a bullet in the head, but in the most excruciating way they can come up with.

You are now in enemy territory, and your intel is solid. Inside a town, just across a creek, there is a large number of those monsters, hiding among the population. No doubt they are ready for you.

There will be traps, tunnels, suicidal elements, IED’s, and the living hell that is urban warfare, plus they use women and children as both shields and weapons. You have a decision to make.

You lost friends in those places they attacked. Your country is small, many of the soldiers under your command lost friends too, that day. Some lost family, cousins, uncles, siblings, parents…

You all feel the loss and the pain in the flesh, not in abstract, but really deep in your own flesh.

You were sent in to do a job, and the job is to destroy these monsters under the conditions depicted in your briefing, just as I told you above.

You look around you. You look at the young faces of your men and women in uniform, ready to give their lives in defense of their homeland. Your decision will impact their future, and the future of your country. They are young, but they are ready, and they will follow you into hades and back, if you order them to. You look to the town across the shallow creek, and you need to make a move.

Your country is strong. Your troops are well trained and equipped, and you control land, sea and air at will. No real resistance against the might of your armed forces. You have it all at your disposal. You look at the radio operator by you, waiting. You are in control of the operation, the decision is yours. You have air support standing by, long range artillery standing by, even naval assets ready to assist you.

The town is a dense amalgamation of structures, filled with people. There are potentially thousands of those monsters hiding among those people.

Your options are clear. You consider what these soulless ghouls are, and what they have done, and you consider those under your command.

If you decide to go in and root out the enemy, street block by street block, house to house, the number of casualties among the population will be high, but you can try to save many.

Doing this, however, means the certain death of many of the men and women in your unit. Those young faces now looking at you, fearlessly, just waiting for the order to move in. You are responsible for their future.

So you consider your other option. To call an all out strike from land, air and sea. To turn the town into a more manageable pile of rubble, in which many of those monsters will be buried, many of the traps destroyed, tunnels collapsed.

As the commanding officer in charge of the operation, the future of those people in the town is also your responsibility, but you can choose to minimize the loss of lives under your direct command, to make sure as small a number of them are lost in the coming battle, placing them above those of the people in that town.

It’s your call.

What are you going to do?

Spare the town from obliteration and lose a large number of your troops? Or call in fire support and destroy it, keeping your casualties to a minimum, once you move in?

Think about it for a minute.

If you decide NOT to order the remote strike, and spare the town, making it harder for your unit to move in and take it, congratulations. You just earned humanitarian of the month, and killed as many as a third of your men and women. Good job. Now go write a letter to their families, and explain to them why they had to die, along with the ones already lost on the day those monsters attacked you. Good luck sleeping after that.

If you decide to order the remote strike, and destroy the town, along with a good number of enemies, their traps and tunnels, making it easier for your unit to move in and take it, at the expense of civilian lives, you are right. Your first responsibility is to your unit, and not out of love, but out of operational logic. You cannot lose the ability to fight, by provoking an excessive number of casualties, when you have the option to considerably reduce the risks. It’s called war.

I don’t want to know what your call would be. That’s between you and your conscious, but I can tell you what my call would be. I would call in the strike. And as a soldier, I would keep my fucking mouth shut, suck it up, and find comfort in the lives of the men and women I saved, under my command, to try and sleep at night, knowing the destruction I caused, and the innocent lives I took. But as a human being, maybe later in life I would curse the leaders who put me in that position.

You see, some people tend to blame soldiers for everything in war. They want them to be human and kind, and magnanimous. But they forget what a soldier is. And they have no fucking clue what war is. And if it’s true some soldiers are unworthy of their uniforms, most are ordinary people trying to do extraordinary things, and using their best judgement to do so, on the field, in real time.

The ones with time to think, to strategize, to analyze and come up with solutions, are the ones we elect to command those soldiers. The ones that move their units on the map, that order those planes in the air, those ships at sea. Expect results to reflect the caliber of those leaders, not the judgement of their soldiers. And try to think what it would be like, to write 300 letters to the families of your lost soldiers, when you could have written 10, or 5, or none.

I felt some reluctance from some of you, reading part 2 of this series, when you reached post 21 of 21, where I wrote a sounder strategy would signify more IDF casualties, and less Palestinian civilian casualties. I didn’t quantify. I was talking about the outcome of a strategy, in which sparing civilian lives is paramount. A strategy Netanyahu would never agree too, for he cares as much for Palestinian lives as Hamas cares for Israeli lives.

When you decide to take the harder path in war, one that will allow you to try and make the suffering of those affected by it as little as possible, you know there will be more pain on your side. It’s not easy to conduct war in a civilized manner, for war is meant to destroy civilization. All I am saying is you have to do your best, while keeping your soul.

That’s why we should elect leaders that can carry such burdens for us. In the extreme, also for the soldiers on the field. So if you want to blame anyone, blame the leaders. And leave the fucking soldiers alone. God knows they are doing their best, taking a lot of chances, and plenty of casualties as it is.

Now go back and read part 2 again.

War doesn’t give a shit about your feelings.

It really does not.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Replies:

From @lisaaronowatelier:

It’s entirely an impossible situation. There are no true winners in war. The only ones who benefit from war are the arms and ammunition makers.

From @robbiekirshner:

As I’m reading and visualizing this impossible scenario, where every option sucks, I can’t stop thinking about the tunnel monsters forcing the IDF into using whatever lethal force their mission requires. G-d bless the IDF.

From @deb.mcclanahan.9:

This is why Israel needs elections now to install a non-Netanyahu government that doesn’t have the incentive to keep the war going at top speed and intensity. And to do a thorough investigation on how Oct 7th happened, overtaking the best security and intelligence services in the world.

From @ne_oublie5150:

Thank you for taking the time to write down the cost of war. 98% of Americans, have no idea of the costs of that Service or the toll it takes on those who wear the uniform. Every man and woman, that takes to the field of battle, returns a changed human being. If they return home at all.

Today in 45 swipes, you have outlined, what every member of a society needs to know about what war is. And yet, even if they read everything you wrote, you have only scratched the surface.

While there is much more you could add, what you have written in three parts is enough for anyone interested in the nature of war and learning more about it, rather than just opining. Thank you so much for all your hard work. As always much love to you, brother. 

Ne Oublie Am Yisrael Chai and Ukraine.

Wake Up, 02/17/2024

Our country today. Are we feeling proud of our government yet? Then wait until these fuckers get majorities in Washington.

Oh yes, and don’t vote for grandpa Biden, cause this alternative right here is so much better. And while your at it, drop the ball on school boards too, and let them turn your kids into little Hitlers.

Like Jon Stewart would say, it’s all good.

WAKE. THE FUCK. UP.

War is unfair, 02/17/2024

When 9/11 happened, my immediate reaction was to support carpet bombing 2 or 3 Muslim countries, with solid ties to the attack. When 10/7 happened, the only thing that kept me from supporting the complete obliteration of Gaza, were the hostages kept there. On both cases, you take a deep breath, and think more clearly. If you don’t, you lose all sense of Justice, and all you have left is revenge.
Life is unfair. War is unfair.

We do our best to navigate these waters, without losing our souls.

War - Part 2

War - Part 2

Why don’t people understand the nature of war, and keep mistaking it for some fairytale that has humanity and kindness at its core? Could it be they don’t know what war is?

The last time war was fought on continental US soil, the XIX century was nearing its end. There’s no one left alive to remember it. Throughout the entire XX century, the US was spared a war on its continental territory.

While World Wars raged, during the first half of the XX century, nobody invaded our shores, no one bombed our cities (Pearl Harbor aside) and war was felt through the families of all who were drafted to fight overseas, and the knowledge of war was acquired by those men, as they came home. Then the draft ended. For the remainder of the last century, war became all but invisible, something on television, the gold star families a side show, quickly drowned by Coca-Cola commercials.

We know nothing of war. What we knew, from second hand sources, we diluted in our privileged existence, but we do opine a lot about it, so do I. But I try to base my opinion on facts and history, not feelings. It’s hard, when you feel intensely, as I do. But I try.

Yesterday, I was reminded that an eye for an eye is no solution, and neither is collective punishment, no matter how terrible the acts inflicted upon you. I agree. I really do.

The thing is, war doesn’t give a shit about feelings. War is truly hell. It’s not what we wish it could be. It’s just war. Regardless of nuclear mutual assured destruction, war has become the true enemy, in the XX century. The means of destruction, the reach, the power to inflict damage without consequence, are more than enough to make it so, way before nuclear weapons are considered.

So if there is one thing you shouldn’t do, if you love your children, is to start a war. Because it will get out of hand, real fast. And when it does, because of its nature, depending whose side you’re on, you will feel the urge to declare it inhumane, excessive, disproportionate, cruel, heartless. You declare these things as if they are unexpected, unfair, avoidable. And from the top of your shoebox, shrouded in your privilege, you cry foul.

The truth is, none of this is a surprise. This is what war looks like. If you throw a stone through your neighbor’s window, be prepared to have your dog shot, if he has a hand gun.

But if your neighbor has a Gatling gun, you better run for the basement, cause your house is going bye bye. Now your neighbor may be a dick, sure. But you better think long and hard, before throwing that rock.

Hamas knew Israel’s reaction would be swift and terrifying, especially since there are maniacs in charge of it, who they know very well. Maniacs who actually facilitated Hamas ascension, to break up the Palestinian authority. Who actively supported Hamas during the Gaza civil war, in 2006 and 2007, even if targeting both them and Fatah.

“For years, the various governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu took an approach that divided power between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his knees while making moves that propped up the Hamas terror group.” - The Times of Israel, 10/8/2023.

Divide and conquer, towards an Israeli one state solution, that would effectively destroy Israel as a democratic state. That was always the plan, and Hamas always a part of it.

Today, we watch it unfold, and its consequences, devastating for both Israeli and Palestinians. And if you look at it, Gaza is being punished. Collectively punished. And it’s wrong.

But so is war. I have stated here before, more than a few times, that you do not fight terrorism with an army. You don’t rescue hostages with bombs.

You can go down my timeline on Threads, or browse my ‘I am Oakie’s list words’ blog, I am not repeating myself here, but to say terrorism is a law enforcement, intelligence agencies problem. And to declare a conventional war on terror only breeds more terror. All this is true. But that truth does not live in a vacuum.

When the terrorists are numbered in the tens of thousands, controlling a territory adjacent to their target country, and launching thousands of missiles into it each day, you got yourself a war. Period. And war is not what you wish it to be. It’s just war. And this is also true.

And the truth is, there was a ceasefire in place, before 10/7. And the truth is, Hamas broke it in the most monstrous way possible, causing the worst catastrophic event inflicted on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Their aim remains the one expressed in their principles.

“A real state of Palestine is a state that has been liberated. There is no alternative to a fully sovereign Palestinian State on the entire national Palestinian soil, with Jerusalem as its capital.” - Hamas General Principles and Objectives, 2017.

From the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, Palestine will be free. In essence, the destruction of Israel.

How that destruction will come about was shown to all the world, in no uncertain terms, on October 7, 2023. That’s the way they wish to destroy Israel. A 10/7 every day, until all Jews are killed. Let that sit for a minute. Not a war to conquer another nation, but the systematic annihilation of the Jewish people in that nation, by the most cruel actions imaginable. The definition of genocidal maniacal behavior.

And for now, the target is Israel. But rest assured, privileged western liberal, you are next. The Hamas charter is crafted to give you the impression they respect you, as long as you support them, but make no mistake. Time after time, they and others like them, have declared the goal is religious supremacy. When a Christian, a Jew, or a Muslim, say there is only one God, what they mean is there can be no other.

And even if there are plenty of Christian and Jewish fanatics, willing to remove all the unfaithful from the face of the Earth, the inescapable truth is, today, the most dangerous religious fanatical movement lives inside Islam. And their aim is hegemony.

So be careful who you root for, my thriends. And picture yourselves in a country, where after 9/11, planes were flown into buildings every single day since. Where terrorists are not a dozen or so, but tens of thousands, living right by your border, some even among you. Imagine that. Imagine what law enforcement could do to stop it. Right…

So you get two options.

Allowing it to go on, getting the FBI to try and stop those tens of thousands of terrorists, to try and prevent all those planes being flown into buildings all across America, every single fucking day, or go to war. And really try to end it.

Not the ideal itself, not terror itself, but to end the incessant attack on our country, on our own soil, killing and destroying daily.

And that is the reality of today’s war in the Middle East. It will not destroy terrorism, it will not obliterate Hamas, and no matter how it is waged, it will spawn more terror in the future. We know this. But the alternative to it is the equivalent to suicide. And Israel is not going to roll over and die, just because war is hell.

The ways in which this war is fought can be rethought, strategies can be redrawn, but no matter how much they are adjusted to make the suffering of the few Palestinian innocents left in Gaza less painful, it will still be horrific and cruel. Because that is what war is. For all involved, but especially for those who foolishly decided to poke the lion.

No matter how much you contort yourself into a pretzel, trying to accuse Israel of crimes, and crimes were committed, as they are in every war, the unavoidable truth is that if you really love your children, and if you really wish for peace and coexistence, you do not claim your goal is genocide, and proceed to throw a rock through your neighbor’s window. For your neighbor knows you want to kill all his family, and he has a Gatling gun.

Israel’s strategy is wrong, the war should be handled differently, with a lot more Israeli military casualties, a lot less Palestinian civilians killed. I agree. But it would still be fucking war. And a lot of people who didn’t need to die, would be killed.

So yes, painfully yes, and again, if you love your children and don’t want them to suffer the inevitable cruelty of war, don’t fucking start one.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Good Morning, 02/17/2023

Good morning, and good Caturday, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. 23° outside, feels like 11°. Coffee is steaming hot, black and full of sweetness. Gonna need it.

War - Part 2 is coming next, as advertised, following Part 1, posted yesterday, with the words of Sarah Tuttlesinger (@tuttlesinger). While I work on it, Percy and I want to wish you a wonderful Caturday. We can use a bit of cat cuteness, more so than ever.
So hang on a bit. It’s coming.

Stay warm!

Good Night, Compass 02/16/2024

We seek our values on the lives of others.

It justifies us before ourselves.

I am unsure I am a good man, although I am sure I try to be. And my moral compass, strangely the same who couldn’t point North for shit during my long desert crossing, now seems to work just fine. The trouble with moral compasses is everyone’s got one, and they mostly point to where the path to get there is harder. Ouch.

There should be a moral compass up in the sky, so we could all guide ourselves by it. 

But it’s so more convenient to use the pocket size one. Besides being our own, we can always tuck it away inside… a pocket. We can’t be bothered by looking at it all the time. We take a quick peek, put it away, and walk in the general direction the needle was pointing at. And if others seem to walk that way too, good. If not, it’s their loss. Why would we spend time pointing them in the right direction, or rechecking our own by theirs?

Why, indeed.

Good night, and good luck.

War - Part 1

War - Part 1

Sarah Tuttlesinger lives in Jerusalem.

She is experiencing what we talk about first hand, and her words touch me deeply. She knows what I don’t know. She sees what I don’t see. And she is a Jewish woman, while I am just a silly goy, throwing my two bits in the jar of hope…

She lives in a country at war. A country at war since 1948, and at war before it was a country.

I will leave her words here, as the illustration of part one of what I have to say. For I could never say these words. But she can. And she has. The following words are hers, posted on her IG page. Please, read them all. Thank you.

@tuttlesinger

Some of you won't like what I write here,

and I'm ok with that.

I am a mother in Israel.

I am not a mother in Gaza.

I know the kind of mother I am here - a fierce one who demands the best for her children, who pushes her kids to look beyond their own horizons, to explore and discover and change the world. A mother who also lies awake at night, anxious, haunted, struggling to find the light.

I know what kind of woman I am here, too: 

A woman who suffers no fools, who goes where she wants and says what she wants and does what she wants and has a pretty damn good time doing it.

It is easy for me to say "I would never put my child on the front line," and yet, in many ways I am: like every other Israeli mother and father; I am raising my kids for combat boots and army uniforms and the weight of the gun in their hands as soon as Israel determines that they are old enough.

18. Such an arbitrary age. Who says 18 is a grownup?

I still slept with my favorite teddy bear when I was 18. My kids will always be my babies. As far as I'm concerned, they will never be “old enough" to take up arms, and yet, here I am and here they are.

It is easy for me to say that I would never support Hamas, and yet I have never struggled where they provided the only assistance and support in a jagged little world.

I don't know what kind of woman I would be if I lived behind a blockade, if I had electricity for only a few hours a day - even in winter when the wind whistles through the cinderblocks from the sea. I don't know what I would do if my leaders dragged so-called collaborators through the streets from old dusty cars, their entrails leaking out onto the hot asphalt in the summer; steam rising from their guts.

I don't know what I would do if my house was bombed out and my daughter crippled by an Israeli reprisal for a Hamas rocket that landed in a town only a few kilometres away across the border, a rockel that killed an Israeli child my own daughter's age - my daughter who is now missing a leg and an arm and half her face, and yet she lives - but only a half life.

I don't know if I could grieve for that other child across enemy lines, I don't know if I would talk about white doves and planting flowers in tires, or if I would burn them by the fence that separates my bitterness from a flourishing country just across the hill, right over there.

I do know that I am the kind of mother who will throw my body on top of my children - I did it the entire summer of 2014 when Hamas launched rocket after rocket after rocket at Israel…

And we lined up our shoes by the door night after night after night in case we had to run to the public bomb shelter through the dusty fields which we did over and over and over again. And I know that i’d do it now if I had to - which I might, scoop them up and carry them - now and always, even though my teenagers are taller than me now, I will throw my body on top of theirs to protect them, always.

I do know the wild stink of fear; and I do know that I don't run - I fight.

I do know that the Jewish women who came before me did whatever it took to kick out the British, I imagine I would have been right along side with them, fighting as hard as anyone else.

And I know that now in the face of this hideous war - with the images of the families Hamas slaughtered, raped and tortured - the children burned to death tied to their mothers…

The women bleeding between their legs, the grandmother butchered on a Facebook live stream... and the reactions around the world where it really does seem that too many people are angry that more of us didn't just DIE that day; I am angry: I am so angry: And I want to fight because it feels like an existential fight now - one for our very survival.

And I also know that the mothers of Gaza are chutching their dead babies to their chests - rigid, dry corpses that were whole and alive on October 6 - with hope and potential like the babies across the border in southern Israel who were murdered by Hamas on that cool blue Saturday morning.

I know that there are mothers in Gaza lying dead in rubble, or dead from disease, or dead from starvation while they’re frightened, hungry toddlers try to nurse from their empty breasts as rigor mortis and rot set in. I know We are all so human - so tragically human - and governed by the same laws of nature.

AND I also look at my kids - my beautiful kids, and I know it is human nature to want better for your children, and to lash out when you feel there is no other option, and while I watch the news out of Gaza from Jerusalem with my books and art and glass bottles and photo albums, AND while I pray for our soldiers - the sons and daughters of my Israeli sisters and brothers who are going in to fight Hamas - I also can't ignore the suffering I see just an hour's drive in distance but a whole world away; and I grieve for the mothers and their families and for all innocent people here and in Gaza who - like me - just pray for our children, that through this darkness we can keep them safe, and sound and whole..

And I pray that I can stay whole, too.

By Sarah Tuttlesinger. (Tuttlesinger IG account)

Replies to this post:

Reply by @theacsman:

Just a bit of trivia

The word "goy" is Yiddish slang for the Hebrew word גֵר (pronounced Gair), first found in the Old Testament.

It described those who were unknown, strangers or foreigners to the Hebrew people & who appeared before them

In the region's tradition strangers were treated with kindnedd 

It was not a derogatory term. In fact it was also used to describe the Patriarchs when living among the Caananites and Jews when enslaved in Egypt

It simply meant "not one of the tribe".

(link to reply)

Reply by @janetzwerdlingjeddah:

After reading War part 1, 2, and 3, I feel I need to tell you that even though you refer to yourself as a goy, I think you are really a part of goy kadosh, a holy people. It’s been said that after WWII so many Jewish souls were lost in one event that there weren’t enough Jewish bodies to “house” the returning souls, and therefore some found themselves in and among the goyim (the other nations). Your soul is of us and we are the luckier for that. I just thought you needed to know.

(link to reply)

Don’t want a war…

The truth is, every single fucking war is collective punishment. Shit will happen. The most careful army in the world, keeping civilian casualties to a minimum, would fail, let alone when so many of those “civilians” are enemy combatants, if you can call rapist monsters combatants.

So get this into your heads. Please. Thank you.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Jon Stewart doesn’t give a shit.

Good morning, and Shabbat Shalom, Threaders , Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee sure is helping this cold morning. I need lots.

Love is on the road, again. No trains to catch, Brooklyn or otherwise… And 30’s long gone, thirty is thirty away, but something’s changed since. Love is on the road. Get your coffee. Rise. Walk with me.

Forty seven. He was 47.

When he was born, I was riding a swing, with my mother, wearing a Bicentennial t-shirt. Yes, in Portugal, I shit you not. It was my favorite t-shirt. And now they killed him.

Jon Stewart doesn’t give a shit. He told us to do whatever the fuck we want, vote for Trump, vote for Cornell, write in Bernie Sanders. It doesn’t fucking matter, he told us. Everything will be fine, meaning as shitty as it always has been. And now they killed him.

But Jon Stewart doesn’t give a shit. He told us Biden is senile, and demanded us to ask questions, and video proof of intelligent life in the White House. Because his favorite kid isn’t running again, what’s his name… Oh, yeah! Bernie Sanders! That one. Jon told us he’s the one, so vote or don’t, fuck it, he told us. And now they killed him.

The economy is great, and we keep on selling weapons to Israel and the Ukraine, and it really pisses Jon off.

Jon Stewart doesn’t give a shit. 133 days. So much to do to bring them home, but we should just tune in to the Daily Show, every Monday until November, so he can tell us we should stay home, and let the chips fall where they may. Kinda like they had it coming to them, Jon kinda told us. Who gives a fuck? As long as he makes us laugh. No, as long as we watch him laugh. What a pathetic little man you turned out to be Jon. And now they killed him.

And Jon Stewart doesn’t give a shit.

Alexei Navalny was 47. And they killed him. And Jon Stewart doesn’t give a shit, just another clickbait freak, after all. Just sit back and relax, we’ll be fine. There are some mass shooting jokes lined up. You’re really gonna love those! But don’t vote for the senile old man, he told us. No, not Trump, the other one, he told us.

And now they killed Alexei. And Yulia Navalnaya gets a standing ovation, and Jon gets busy writing a joke about it. Now that they killed him.

Jon Stewart doesn’t give a shit, anymore. And I find myself looking for evidence he ever did. I remember when he crucified Tucker and Begala, and now all I can think of his sending Jon a bow tie. It suits him well. Yeah, I am having a hard time. I am bracing myself for the show he gets Rashida Tlaib as a guest. Oh, it’s coming! From the river to the sea, it’s coming, isn’t it, Jon. Don’t answer questions with no question marks. They’re called statements.

Jon Stewart doesn’t give a shit. Our kids are being swallowed whole by a society with book bans and gun shows, and Jon told us to stand back and stand by, for another Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Cause you gotta watch him laugh at us. Fucking white privileged trash you become, Jon. But you don’t live in a trailer, do ya? Such bulshit, man. Such waste. Watching you laugh. Watching you laugh at us. Fuck you, Jon. And now they killed him.

Jon Stewart doesn’t care.

This is what we will become, he didn’t tell us, if we do as he did tell us, and don’t vote. Or go ahead and vote “present”, you know, to amplify the silenced minority he speaks for, while we watch him laughing. You’re a real good will ambassador, Jon. Oh yeah, I give you credit for standing with the 9/11 first responder survivors. Like I give credit to the broken watch in one of my drawers, twice a day. No, Jon, really. Fuck off. And now they killed him.

And as they killed him, I can’t help but see Justin Jones in his place, or AOC, disappointed that I am. Or even that POS Tlaib, whom I suggested being airdropped into Gaza, along with all the propal dumbfucks. And I know, Jon, I made a funny too, suggesting a parachute less airdrop, but I was kidding, a bad joke cause you gotta laugh, right Jon? Laughter is good, no doubt. Laughter carries us through dark times, too. But not when the laugh is on you. You don’t give a shit, Jon Stewart.

This is where we are heading. This is what we fight against. This is what keeps us awake at night. And you just went ahead and added to it, instead. I was so happy you were back, Jon… I really was. I even promoted your comeback. I couldn’t wait for February 12, at 11 pm, Comedy Central, just like old times. And then you went ahead and laughed at me, Jon. Why would you do that, man? I trusted you. Damn…

Fuck you, @thedailyshow.

Fuck you, Jon Stewart.

Happy Friday, everyone.

Alexei Navalny. 1976-2024.

 Alexei Navalny. 1976-2024.

Oakie’s Songs: Rise.

“And I’ll rise to greet you in the morning… it’s an honest thing and honest things they last…”
#OakiesSongs

That’s all.
Good night, and good luck.

#IYKYFK

Josh Rouse. 1972. Rise.

Exhausting. 02/15/2024

So this was on ABC today, apparently.
Experts will soon arrive at the conclusion you will need 2 policemen for each person at a public gathering. Experts also say we will need bigger hotdog stands. And guns. Experts say we need more guns. But seriously, fuck the experts and fuck the MSM.
It’s fucking exhausting.

Unnecessary. 02/15/2024

Good morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee is black, hot and sweet. 

Unnecessary. I suppose that’s the best description for a “present” vote, in Congress. It certainly is not a protest vote, that would be a “no” vote. It’s not a show of indifference, that would be not showing up to vote. A “present” vote is a statement that whatever is being voted on doesn’t deserve a vote, neither for nor against it. A statement. On record.

A “present” vote makes clear that, in the voter’s opinion, the subject being voted on is irrelevant, a waste of time, unnecessary. Really a step up from not showing up to vote, not really indifferent, more like making a point of showing how the result is indifferent, not just giving up the vote, but a recorded shrug, a duly noted “couldn’t care less” about the subject. If you care, you vote for or against a given subject.

On Valentine’s Day, the House of Representatives voted on a resolution condemning Hamas' use of rape and sexual violence as weapons of war, specifically since 10/7/2023. Of the 431 members eligible to vote, 12 didn’t vote, 419 did vote. 418 voted favorably. One voted “present”.

What could have been a clear unanimous vote condemning Hamas rape and sexual violence, was stripped of that statute by one vote. Not a vote of conscience, not based on conviction. Just a shrug.

That representative, if you didn’t already know, is Rashida Tlaib. She didn’t express any of her very well recorded “convictions”, regarding the legitimacy of Hamas as a resistance, freedom fighters group. She didn’t heed to her “conscience”, regarding the justification for the actions of Hamas on 10/7, as she has done many times away from the House floor. She just shrugged.

She could have had the courage to stay true to her position, and vote against the resolution. She did have that option. But has the coward she is, she voted “present”. And her justification, stated the same day on the House, as well as on social media, was that the resolution didn’t go far enough. As a “true champion” for women’s rights, she considered the resolution fell short of condemning Israel for the same crimes, and she waved a print out of a Haaretz article.

An article that describes how the IDF strips Palestinian suspects to their underwear, and marches them into captivity in plain sight. That was her counterpoint to the atrocities committed by Hamas. And feeling justified by this, with all her conviction… She abstained.

I may feel disappointed by other democratic representatives, who contort themselves into pretzels to try and make sense of the nonsensical views they espouse, but for Tlaib I feel nothing but disdain.

She couldn’t even bring herself to speak out for her true beliefs on the record, exactly the same as the republican Nazis, who pretend they didn’t say what they said, and act like they don’t believe what they believe. At least at the federal level, because we have seen plenty of outspoken, on the record, nazi speech in State Houses, all around the country.

Tlaib, cowardly, shrugs and brushes off her true feelings, that show nothing but love for Hamas.

But we see her.

We know her true colors, no matter how many “present” votes she casts, trying to hide them from the public record.

And we will not forget.

There are only two sides here, regardless of the complexity of the situation in the Middle East. You are either against terrorism, or you are for it, even if you just shrug, and try to walk away untouched. Pick one.

At least have the fucking backbone to pick one.

Have a great Thursday.

Am Yisrael Chai.