Please remember this statement when we see what exactly the Trump admin does to stop the genocide.

It is possible for two things to be true at the same time. Sure Kamala might have lost for the reasons you suggest. And it can also be true that another group is about to Find Out what Trump is going to do. Just the last few days alone are giving a lot of evidence that the Palestinian people are not going to be better off with Trump in office.

As for it not being strategic, well, that depends if you think the strategy was ONLY to win the election as opposed to trying to do what he thought best in a horrific and complex situation; and ONLY if you think there was an alternative course of action that would have actually won the election.

I’m not sure why folks are only hearing, or responding to, the coulda/woulda/shoulda side of the conversation. A side for which I haven’t really disagreed with in spirit, namely yes Biden/Harris surely knew there were electoral consequences to their actions, among other much sadder consequences, but you continue to ignore the actual topic of conversation … What the future holds.

Okay I can take a guess why [shrug] but such is life. Feel free to have one more reply, I’m done beating a dead leopard.

Didn’t say what was or was not moral or the complexity of genocide. I said that diplomacy is much more complex than either side wants to admit when they are emotionally invested (for very good reasons!) in painting the other side of the argument as heartless / savage / inhuman.

Regardless, my central premise hasn’t changed: I hope the whole situation can be brought to a peaceful conclusion as fast as possible with a framework for lasting peace. BUT, I don’t think Trump is the one to make it happen, I don’t even think the US can actually make it happen, and I worry there are a lot of US voters who will suddenly be realizing the Leopard actually ate THEIR face. But hey, maybe Huckabee and Stefanik will decide the Palestinians are real and care about them more than Biden or Harris and Trump won’t lift all military restrictions on Israel on the 1st day in office like the referenced article [shrug] I actually do hope so, but I obviously am not holding my breath.

You’re right I have no more intimate knowledge of his internal feelings than you do. I have however seen enough humanity in him to believe he has more empathy than Trump who has a very well documented history of narcissism bordering on psychopathy.

As for my “care” of his humanity being besmirched, I don’t actually. My issue was with your questionable assertion that he doesn’t care and the implication that maybe (but maybe not) you actually think Trump cares more.

As for his actions as the president of the united states, who has the full weight of international geopolitics, national politics, and an election to consider, I’d say the job is no where near as simple as you’d like it to seem and as much as I hate (or don’t hate but am resigned) to admit it, there is a limit to what the United States can actually do to make a difference in Gaza that might not have other undesirable results.

Not going to debate what Biden (since as VP Harris has no actual power to do anything) has done or not done nor your opinions of what he’s done or not done. I do take issue that you think he doesn’t care, at a human level I just don’t think that’s true. What he’s done to express that humanity given geopolitical realities is the real issue.

But anyone who actually thinks Trump cares at all about innocent life, or anyone’s life but his own, or cares about the legacy he leaves behind may find themselves rethinking that opinion in the coming year.

Now that the election is over, I truly do hope something good gets done. We of course won’t know what Harris could have accomplished, but we’ll certainly know if Trump tries and if he succeeds. Keeping fingers crossed.

ETA: I’ll just drop this here https://www.reuters.com/world/us/muslims-who-voted-trump-upset-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-picks-2024-11-15/

Time for the 2nd stage of FAaFO for all those that fucked around.

No both sides were not equally bad choices for trying to stop the slaughter of non-combatants.

I feel seen

Yup fair point.

Yup, that’s reasonable too.

But like, that makes it a lumpy salary and not a bonus if it’s an entitlement without a reasonable low floor. Are there union contracts that actually dictate it like that?

Setting aside for a moment the understandable and reasonable belief that owners will try to fuck labor, a mandated cost divorced from the broader company financial performance metrics, sounds like a way to ensure bankruptcy. Even without this tariff nonsense there are real and honest cases where costs can skyrocket and a company has to adjust and that really does can little to nothing for the bonus pool (or other labor cost) without incurring a lot of financial risk.

Again, not an argument against unions, 100% support organized labor, but at some point math is math.

Not sure what a union would have done in this case. The problem is near term cost of inputs vs long term contracts with fixed revenue.

I’m not saying it would be bad for this to kick them into forming a union, only that it wouldn’t have solved this problem unless the union had an education campaign to explain why excessive tariffs are bad.

This!!! I don’t actually expect our K thru 12 education system to inform the average people about macro-economic policy impacts. This is about being gullible, hearing what you want to hear, refusing to listen to opposing opinions with an open mind, and hero worship.

So if there’s anything to blame on our education system (and society culture at large) it’s a lack of critical thinking education and an excess of magical thinking education that emphasizes blind agreement with authority.

haha yeah, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_pastry

Hmmm that doesn’t look like any Danish I’ve ever had 😁

what about clearing out bot accounts? no sarcasm