The Iraq war — sold on lies and bungled in its prosecution — has become the embodiment of American hubris in the 21st century. Today, those same diehard war hawks — the very people who planned and carried out the Iraq invasion — are proudly throwing their full support behind Vice President Kamala Harris in the November presidential election.

These hawks say they’re endorsing Harris largely to stop Donald Trump — citing his conduct and “chaotic leadership” — but these prominent conservatives are backing the Democratic nominee because their visions for U.S. foreign policy increasingly appear to be aligned. The Democratic and Republican parties are more unified than ever in their commitment to preserving American hegemony and preventing the multipolar world from emerging.

The party’s 2024 platform also reflects this rightward shift. A section from the 2020 platform on ending forever wars and opposing regime change was completely removed in 2024. The Democratic Party went from calling for an end to U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s brutal war in Yemen to championing the Biden administration’s plan for a normalization deal between Israel and the Persian Gulf monarchy — a plan that could also put American lives on the line to protect the Saudi dictatorship for decades to come.

These hawks say they’re endorsing Harris largely to stop Donald Trump — citing his conduct and “chaotic leadership” — but these prominent conservatives are backing the Democratic nominee because their visions for U.S. foreign policy increasingly appear to be aligned. The Democratic and Republican parties are more unified than ever in their commitment to preserving American hegemony and preventing the multipolar world from emerging.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20298716

UCLA students arguing that Zionism is a First Amendment-protected religious belief have joined a powerful right-wing legal project.

Raphael Magarik

September 13, 2024

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20296443

Melissa Hellmann, Gloria Oladipo and Adria R Walker

Fri 13 Sep 2024 07.00 EDT

The Pentagon says the modelling must "include former Eastern Block [sic] countries" and "regions beyond eastern Europe and western Russia".

Hold the line and don’t vote for g*nocide. That’s what Sabrina Salvati recently argued on the ‘Bad Faith’ podcast.

The podcaster (@SabbySabs2) and member of Revolutionary Blackout Network (@revblacknetwork) argued that if left-leaning voters had organised to build an independent party rather than backing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, perhaps that could have changed the duopoly that defines U.S. politics today, where presidential elections are a contest on who is the ‘lesser of two evils’ candidate. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris asks voters who question her record over Palestine if they want Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in office. At the same time, Trump tries to scare voters by inaccurately describing Harris as a Marxist.

Fearmongering on both sides is what the US ruling class is forcing people to choose between in the 2024 presidential election coming up in November. Meanwhile, progressive and socialist candidates offering real solutions to people’s everyday problems while advocating to end aggressive U.S. imperialist policies abroad and its support for pariah states like Israel barely get mainstream media coverage and are barred from televised debates.

What do you think? Is there hope in the US breaking away from the duopoly of Republicans vs Democrats? Can there really be a third-party option that can alter the direction of US imperialism without the billions of dollars that both Democrats and Republicans raise through their connections to Wall Street and domestic and foreign lobby groups? According to OpenSecrets’ in 2020, Trump’s campaign raised $774 million, while Biden’s campaign became the first to raise over $1 billion from donors. Can third parties compete when Democratic and Republican candidates spend that money?

Video credit: @badfaithpod (X) @briebriejoy (X)

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Speaking during an event at Chatham House in London on Friday, Prince Turki - who led Saudi Arabia’s intelligence for over two decades - called on Washington to deny Israel financial and military support.

“A lot of financial help goes to Israel from the United States,” the 79-year-old, whose father King Faisal ruled the kingdom between 1964 and 1975, told reporters and foreign policy analysts in the British capital.

He stated that “Israeli lobbyists” enjoyed tax-free status in the US because they were considered to be “philanthropic or humanitarian”, rather than as representing the interests of Israel. He urged for such tax exemptions on pro-Israel groups to be withdrawn by the Americans in light of the ongoing conflict.

The Biden administration has decided to release $320m in military aid to Egypt - a package previously contingent on improving human rights issues in the country.

Unless Congress steps in, this brings the total amount from Washington to Cairo this year to $1.3bn. Egypt has long been the second-highest recipient of US military aid after Israel.

In a statement, the Middle East Democracy Center, a Washington-based advocacy group, called the decision a “betrayal” by an administration that pledged to make human rights central to the US-Egypt bilateral relationship.

“The illusion that the United States can use its military aid to these regimes as leverage for the dictatorships and the abusive regimes to improve themselves is a joke,” Raed Jarrar, advocacy director with Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) told MEE. “There is no way for el-Sisi to reform el-Sisi. There is no way for Netanyahu to reform Netanyahu. These things are not going to happen."

Surveillance video shows a man setting himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in the US city of Boston, purportedly in protest of the regime’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The incident happened around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, outside the Israeli consulate which is across from the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Boston.

The person’s identity, motives, and condition are currently unknown. But his action is reminiscent of Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC in February 2024 to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The US has approved $165 million in weapons sales to Israel to fund heavy-duty tank trailers, the State Department announced Thursday.