Kevin Leecaster
Yet another 🧵 1 of 7
So, I know I keep saying that I'll drop out of the U.S. campus anti-Joe Biden protest movement debate. I jumped in since I worry so much about our climate crisis that anything that might help out the GOP is something to worry about.
I've seen now how small the anti-Biden movement actually is despite how loud they are I'm not so worried except that since I monitor what motivates voters in the USA the true tiny size of this crowd may belie their political danger.
Kevin Leecaster
@FrankFrank @capnthommo
Anyone that wants to protest against colonialism should be focused on what Putin is doing in Kharkiv this week! The globe's expanding empires are getting a free pass from most of the public because their political technologists have managed to get the kids to focus on the war that Hamas (puppets of Putin and Iran) started for just that reason.
Frank Frank
Another question, at what point in history do we examine & apply these Colonialist, Apartheid, etc. bromides?
("our history isn't great. No country's is"), so true.
Do we start with the construction of the Pyramid era, or do we jump way into the Ottoman era, or maybe it's all the Viking fault.
All the world through the ages, Bible foreword, partook in slavery for instance.
Douglas Murray in this lecture addresses this current period.
Kevin Leecaster
@capnthommo
I wish that people would really, truly think about what is in the best interest of the Palestinian civilians rather than what seem to me to be mostly hot takes driven by emotional responses to images and videos firing up their always simmering hate of the USA's history.
Yeah, our history isn't great. No country's is, but we can still have a good future if we try and do it right.
Stoneface Vimes
@GreenFire number 5. Absolutely spot on. I daren't even begin to imagine.
Kevin Leecaster
4 of 7
4. Your efforts have the potential to hurt President Biden in November, ushering in a second Trump term. Trump supporters know that, so please reread #1.
5. If you think things are bad for the Palestinian people now, with the Biden Administration trying to restrain Netanyahu, put Trump, a fellow fascist, back in office. Netanyahu will be free to do as he pleases.
Publisher's note: If you care about human rights focus your ire on the Likud Party and not the Democratic Party!
Kevin Leecaster
3 of 7
Please keep in mind that even unintended consequences can cause real harm.
Advice for Protesters and especially professors:
1. Participants and provocateurs outside your campus may not have your best interests in mind.
2. The US/Israel relationship is complicated. Deteriorating relations have the potential to cause unrest throughout the Middle East, (even worldwide).
3. The problem isn’t the Israeli people, the problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. He is a narcissist and a fascist.
Kevin Leecaster
2 of 7
If you don't like reading threads or if you want to read it faster than I can copy and paste it, the reason I'm posting this thread is because I found a blog that clearly articulates the concerns everyone that cares about human rights and especially climate change should consider around what they say and do this election year.
So, here's the link and I'll try to respond to thoughtful and respectful discourse, but if you just want to vent perhaps skip it.
https://proudnavyveteran.wordpress.com/2024/05/03/advice-for-college-protesters/
Kevin Leecaster
@BangClankBoom @InkySchwartz
I dispute your assertion that no progress can be made by selecting the lesser evil. If enough people do that for long enough than we've accomplished great things in our history around the globe.
I'm thinking of how long it took to end (for the most part) human slavery for example.
Missed It Again!❤️🖤
@GreenFire @InkySchwartz Well, that was on point. Except the Biden-Bibi relations. He could be harder on Bibi. A lot harder.
Trump would absolutely have every protester gunned down. If not killed, then incarcerated in our industrial prison complex.
But that doesn't change the fact that vesting executive power further destabilizes us down the line. Every single article that helps us now will be used against us later.
If the answer is Yes/No every election, than the status quo will continue.
Inky says "What the hell?!"
@GreenFire point 3 is often missed or ignored.
Kevin Leecaster
@InkySchwartz
Just think how much more political power President Biden would wield over Netanyahu if instead of attacking Joe Biden, these Americans were united behind him against the Likud Party policies.
Missed It Again!❤️🖤
@GreenFire @InkySchwartz I never said the lesser evil cannot create something good. It's just a bit of a low bar.
The lesser evil in a two party system is yes, Democrats.
We could have published climate change reports back at Nixon. We could have never invaded the Middle East.
But we got human rights, and LGBTQIA+ can exist now. We might be able to eventually kick oil. Maybe.
But I just want less of the lesser evil and more actual good.
The lesser evil is just... Okayish.
Kevin Leecaster
@BangClankBoom @InkySchwartz
I'm glad that you brought up our climate crisis in this discussion on the importance to support the lesser evil instead of trying to weaken that political option which only helps create more evil.
It was the people that voted for Ralph Nader that caused the worst global warming by putting Bush into office rather than Al Gore and it was the nonvoters that put Trump into office who tried to end the Paris Accord on his first day in office.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/08/09/new-data-makes-it-clear-nonvoters-handed-trump-the-presidency/
Missed It Again!❤️🖤
@GreenFire @InkySchwartz Oh yeah, and all that "drill baby drill" BS.
ERRRRH! That dumbass pisses me off. I think I'll go touch grass, too much time behind a screen.
I might be reluctant to choose any option due to my disbelief in government, but I'll always try to do some risk mitigation when I vote. We need stability and peace.
If the people we elect can't do our will, than lets do it ourselves (peacefully, hopefully). Vote for the lesser evil, do the greater good!
Inky says "What the hell?!"
@GreenFire @BangClankBoom I just want to put in this: Nader voters probably would not have voted for Gore in sufficient numbers to shift this.
The issue was as always: Popular vote does not always equivalate to electoral votes.
Kevin Leecaster
@InkySchwartz @BangClankBoom
I disagree. All the analyses I've seen suggest that Ralph Nader caused tons of global warming.
This paper estimates the impact of Ralph Nader’s candidacy in the 2000 United States presidential election...
Mathematically, based the information laid out below, it seems that Florida was the only state in which Nader probably impacted the results by taking enough votes from Gore to allow Bush to win the state (and therefore the presidency).
https://amarkfoundation.org/reports/nader-florida-and-the-2000-election/
OtownKim
@GreenFire @BangClankBoom @InkySchwartz I'm still mad about Gore. As a Floridian I know what Jeb did! He's a piece of shit like the whole lot of GOP!!
Kevin Leecaster
@BangClankBoom @InkySchwartz
Seeing this again: "I dispute your assertion that no progress can be made by selecting the lesser evil. If enough people do that for long enough than we've accomplished great things" that I wrote last week about nonvoters made me wonder if any of them know that Abraham Lincoln was the lesser evil.
He was not an abolitionist. He wanted the union to stay together and move towards emancipation peacefully over how ever long it took, but if too many hadn't voted for him
Kevin Leecaster
6 of 7
8. The rise of Fascism should be your core concern. It’s driving the events in Israel, it is a very real threat to our Democracy, and is on the rise worldwide.
9. Where is your outrage for the threat fascism poses here at home? Why are you not protesting Trump/Republican ongoing efforts to subvert the US Constitution and install a dictator?
Publisher's note: There's an important concept called political capital. If we support Biden he'll have more power to use against Netanyahu.
Kevin Leecaster
5 of 7
6. If Trump was President now, you wouldn’t be facing police and tear gas, you would be facing the National Guard, (or even the US military), and automatic weapons.
7. Donald Trump couldn’t care less about your rights and freedoms. So, as you protest, it’s important to remember that the only barrier standing between you and fascism is Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
Publisher's note: There's a reason that Hamas attacked on Putin's birthday. This whole thing is a gift to him!
Kevin Leecaster
7 of 7
10. Protest wisely. Peaceful protests are powerful because they limit the options for authorities. Violence and property damage diminishes or destroys your message, causes public backlash, and it invites a violent response.
Finally – Make sure your protests don’t ultimately lead to you losing your right to protest, along with every other right and freedom you enjoy today.
Our climate is on the ballot in 2024 so we need to focus on winning on that issue or everything else is hopeless!
Kevin Leecaster
This isn't really a part of the thread, but an addition to it about protesting effectively versus ineffectively.
Please monitor the protests happening in Georgia against Putinism and try to learn valuable lessons to help your movement bring about positive progress.
#Georgia #Tiblisi
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/georgia-rocked-by-protests-as-government-pushes-putin-style-foreign-agent-bill/ar-AA1o7qRl
LindaCollins11
@GreenFire Thanks Kevin for posting this. Trump thinks Bibi "needs to finish the job in Gaza". After his previous term, where he wanted a Muslim ban, that should have already enlightened pro Palestinian people to where they would be if Trump should be elected.
Kevin Leecaster
@LindaCollins11
Thanks, one thing that I want to try to make clear is that it's not so important what one's intentions are. What really matters is what the impact of your actions and words have.
I monitor #FauxNews so I know how much political hay they can make out of relatively minor faux pas made by people they can label as Democrats.
LindaCollins11
@GreenFire You must have a lot more patience than I. Being old, I don't want to stroke out screaming at the TV. Watching the kids all so young and full of the ability to take on the world takes me back to Grant Park in Chicago during the Democratic convention, where I was dragged by the seat of my pants & thrown into a paddywagon. 😎
Kyle Memoir 🍉
‘3. The problem isn’t the Israeli people, the problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. He is a narcissist and a fascist.’
Not entirely true. While many Israelis are disgusted at the slaughter in Gaza, many thousands of Israeli ‘settlers’ (a deeply racist terrm) fervently support the coalition of hardliners Netanyahu has assembled into his death’s head government.
This item misses the fact that Biden presiding over a genocide is arguably a greater risk to his election chances.
Snowshadow 🇨🇦
@GreenFire
Excellent thread Kevin. Well said.
You put into words what I have been wanting to say. Thank you.
Kevin Leecaster
@Snowshadow
Thanks, but they're not many of my own words. I'm glad I found that dude's blog post scrolling that foul site and reposted it on Mastodon.
I linked to it in the first or second toot in the thread, but here it is again to spread it even more.
https://proudnavyveteran.wordpress.com/2024/05/03/advice-for-college-protesters/
Kevin Leecaster
@FrankFrank @capnthommo
Speaking of Palestine, I just saw two posts related to that region which are illuminating if accurate. Apparently, both the Palestinian flag as well as the black & white keffiyeh were designed and introduced by British bureaucrats that were attempting to bring stability into the remnants of the Ottoman Empire.
That's kind of ironic don't you think if true.
Frank Frank
The $64,000 question, is it possible for the macro region to ever move on from the Ottoman era?
Frank Frank
Following your Climate Change thread; look at Gaza, a 2.5 million population that even before this latest calamity are totally dependent on the rest of the world in supporting them.
A population that does not produce anything they desperately need for basic survival. Potable water, a sewage system, energy, food, housing. A mere subsistence existence.
I don't see a solution for that.
Kevin Leecaster
@FrankFrank @capnthommo
There are solutions if Saudi Arabia and the other countries that have gotten rich by heating our planet will help pay for people to rebuild net-zero resilient communities. There are other potential pathways, but first thing to figure out is how to get everyone to stop buying fossil fuels.
Frank Frank
So true.
In the case of Saudi Arabia, (OPEC) it's escaped world attention as of the date at which S.A. started pumping water into their oil wells to bring their sweet crude to the pumps.
OPEC producing nations have invested heavily in Solar Technologies. That should be a wake-up, when oil rich countries see a waning of affordable Fossil Energy, & position themselves to shift to sun energy for water.
Gaza is very dependent on Desalination, & is very energy intensive.
Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor
@GreenFire All of this is spot-on. I’m Jewish, and like the vast majority of American Jews I a) support the two-state solution and b) cannot stand Netanyahu, a dictator who has made Jews less safe in the diaspora.
Also, most Israelis hate Bibi’s guts — witness the massive protests going on right now, in the midst of the war.
Kevin Leecaster
@PamelaBarroway
Americans just don't pay attention to news let alone any from overseas well enough to deserve to have their opinions on U.S. foreign policy taken seriously for the most part I'm sad to say is the impression that I've gotten made reinforced since the news about Russia's Ukraine invasion left our airwaves.
Kevin Leecaster
@PamelaBarroway
I don't want to give the impression that we should stop trying to make things better though at all.
We've got to try to make Americans care about trying to get enough information to make decisions on vital questions that have to be addressed.
Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor
@GreenFire *sigh* Sadly that is true. But thanks for sharing this nonetheless!
Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor
@GreenFire Oh, absolutely! My feed is full of ways to support #Biden and other Dems up and down the ballot, as well as general #GOTV-ing this cycle.
The Jack of Sandwich
@GreenFire having the US pressure Netanyahu to stop escalating the war is not going to cause relations to deteriorate.
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