What else do people need to happen to admit this administration (every single one of them) are completely corrupt and/or incompetent. My heart goes out to Israel
> [...] sought a Treasury Department exemption to release more than $360 million to Palestine despite concerns that at least some of it would go to Hamas. (According to a May 2021 State Department press release, that money went to humanitarian organizations providing, among other things, emergency shelter, food, and healthcare, including “mental health and psychosocial support.”)
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That is such an incredibly silly and childlike way to think about money. Money is a fungible good. For an analogy, say you spend $500/month on food. Then the government gives you a $360 worth of EBT/food stamps. Will you now be spending $860/month on food? No -- you will take the $360, add in $140 of your own money, and still spend $500/month on food. Then you take the extra $360 extra you now have and put it towards something else (maybe a nicer apartment, or clothes, or some other necessity that EBT doesn't cover -- this isn't meant to be a condemnation of EBT, just an analogy).
That $360 million in the monitored accounts of course will be spent on humanitarian purposes. But those humanitarian things were things the Palestinian Authority was *already* spending money on. So it frees up money to be spent on other things. For example, giving it to a Hamas-aligned building contractor who over-charges for infrastructure, and takes half of his allotment to funnel to militants.
The same is true of the $6 billion given to Iran. You could probably trace every rial of that $6 billion to good causes. But at the same time, Iran quietly can increase military spending and training programs by $6 billion.
Sadly, there are a large number of Americans who are waiting to be told how to think/feel about this situation (and others). When Taylor Swift or Beyoncé or MSNBC or Fox News weighs in, they will subconsciously shift how they feel about it and then feel more comfortable that their ‘tribe’ feels the same way. It doesn’t matter if it’s the border, crime, Biden, Ukraine, Trump, Covid, etc... Americans have been taught to be intellectually lazy and fear thinking differently than what they perceive to be the popular idea within their circles.
It is long past time to recognize that the so-called current administration is a facade. Does anyone truly believe that a man who cannot finish a sentence is actually making qualitative decisions? Or that the individuals in the so-called cabinet, who never miss an opportunity to demonstrate their utter incompetence at everything, other than the ability to tell egregious lies with a perfectly straight face, are actually directing the execution of policy. It’s telling that, while ex-President Bush immediately issued a searing condemnation of this 7th century atrocity, there has been not a word from the not so-ex President Obama. Not a word. Meanwhile those that directed this slaughter of women, children, and the elderly are getting yet another infusion of $billions. Israel will do what it has to do. It has no choice. It is our choice as to whether we want to keep electing people who were complicit in Israel’s 911.
Former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire has it exactly right:
“I woke up this morning with some disturbing news out of Israel that Hamas [are] kidnapping children, putting them in cages, killing women, killing the elderly. That’s some coward s**t. That’s cowardly. And for all y’all Black Live Matter [supporters] who ain’t saying nothing, [saying] ‘Let me figure out exactly what’s happening before saying anything’, f**k you,” he said.
As former Secretary Gates observed: “Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past 4 decades.”
America cannot afford one more minute with this imbecile and his gang of miscreants and saboteurs in charge. Remove Biden NOW.
The Biden administration is so obsessed with restarting a deal with Iran that it has looked the other way, rewarded them with money and relaxed sanctions. The Iranians know they can get away with it with Biden sitting on his hands.
It’s the equivalent of the U.S. justice system policies under Soros backed DAs that are slowly destroying cities. Cash bail, not prosecuting low level crimes, looking the other way instead of charging criminals for criminal acts. The crooks will push as far as they can until they are stopped. Liberal policy at its worst.
The US in exercising real politique foreign policy often will do deals with unsavory often undemocratic regimes. We do so because either alternatives are worse or we can stomach the fallout.
That explains our relationships with the Saudis orcyhe Eqyptians over the past decades. It explains our suppprt of Ukraine today. South Vietnam in the 60’s.
Iran is a completely different kettle of fish.
What is the benefit? The country wants to destroy not only Israel but liberal democracy everywhere. It wants to build a bomb, will fund terror, provides zero economic benefit to us. Why fo we do anything diplomatically with them?
It makes no sense and never has. I loathe to think OBama and Biden are antisemites ( same with leaders in State) but eventually if the shoe fits …
Biden has been born out to be the foreign policy idiot that many ptedicted.
The so-called Democratic Party, the party of anti-Semitism, sends billions of dollars and shiploads of tanks to a country that is not even an ally, but will will they lift a finger to assist the only true ally we have in the Middle East? Of course not, because it's populated by Jews.
The failures of the Obama/Biden foreign policies regarding the Middle East which have led to the strengthening of the murderous theocracy of Iran and its terrorist arms will have a disastrous impact on the Democrat's chances of holding the Presidency unless Biden's administration does a complete about face on Iran and the terrorist organizations it supports. And, for God sakes, stop repeating the ridiculous fiction that Iran can only use the $6 billion the Biden administration has provided for humanitarian purposes; it is an idiotic argument.
I am highly skeptical of further US involvements overseas, but in this case we have the beginnings of a second holocaust along with the killing and capture of multiple US citizens. If house republicans had sense (they do not) they would introduce a declaration of war against the Hamas organization. It would pass the house and likely the senate facing opposition from the left. Force team Biden to understand the gravity of the situation cause right now damage control is their only priority.
Eli. Let’s not forget the senior DOS official on Iran has been suspended for several months pending investigation into his security clearance. He also has a few cronies in DOD and elsewhere.
Biden and this whole administration just need to go. They just do. They are just too dangerous to have this much power and control.
I do not even think it is evil, I believe that these people are just so naive that they build policy around the mental masturbations of academic fools that live in self reinforcing bubbles that distort reality and deny common sense.
Any car mechanic sitting in the Oval Office would have seen more clearly what the outcomes of all these things would be.
God save us from over educated, under experienced, idealists who spend more time writing white papers and trying to get published than actually living in the world.
What else do people need to happen to admit this administration (every single one of them) are completely corrupt and/or incompetent. My heart goes out to Israel
> [...] sought a Treasury Department exemption to release more than $360 million to Palestine despite concerns that at least some of it would go to Hamas. (According to a May 2021 State Department press release, that money went to humanitarian organizations providing, among other things, emergency shelter, food, and healthcare, including “mental health and psychosocial support.”)
------------
That is such an incredibly silly and childlike way to think about money. Money is a fungible good. For an analogy, say you spend $500/month on food. Then the government gives you a $360 worth of EBT/food stamps. Will you now be spending $860/month on food? No -- you will take the $360, add in $140 of your own money, and still spend $500/month on food. Then you take the extra $360 extra you now have and put it towards something else (maybe a nicer apartment, or clothes, or some other necessity that EBT doesn't cover -- this isn't meant to be a condemnation of EBT, just an analogy).
That $360 million in the monitored accounts of course will be spent on humanitarian purposes. But those humanitarian things were things the Palestinian Authority was *already* spending money on. So it frees up money to be spent on other things. For example, giving it to a Hamas-aligned building contractor who over-charges for infrastructure, and takes half of his allotment to funnel to militants.
The same is true of the $6 billion given to Iran. You could probably trace every rial of that $6 billion to good causes. But at the same time, Iran quietly can increase military spending and training programs by $6 billion.
Sadly, there are a large number of Americans who are waiting to be told how to think/feel about this situation (and others). When Taylor Swift or Beyoncé or MSNBC or Fox News weighs in, they will subconsciously shift how they feel about it and then feel more comfortable that their ‘tribe’ feels the same way. It doesn’t matter if it’s the border, crime, Biden, Ukraine, Trump, Covid, etc... Americans have been taught to be intellectually lazy and fear thinking differently than what they perceive to be the popular idea within their circles.
It is long past time to recognize that the so-called current administration is a facade. Does anyone truly believe that a man who cannot finish a sentence is actually making qualitative decisions? Or that the individuals in the so-called cabinet, who never miss an opportunity to demonstrate their utter incompetence at everything, other than the ability to tell egregious lies with a perfectly straight face, are actually directing the execution of policy. It’s telling that, while ex-President Bush immediately issued a searing condemnation of this 7th century atrocity, there has been not a word from the not so-ex President Obama. Not a word. Meanwhile those that directed this slaughter of women, children, and the elderly are getting yet another infusion of $billions. Israel will do what it has to do. It has no choice. It is our choice as to whether we want to keep electing people who were complicit in Israel’s 911.
This administration may not be on Hamas’s side, but it’s filled with postmodern, simplistic racial essentialists who are no friends of Israel.
Don't call this a "tragedy". It is an atrocity.
Former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire has it exactly right:
“I woke up this morning with some disturbing news out of Israel that Hamas [are] kidnapping children, putting them in cages, killing women, killing the elderly. That’s some coward s**t. That’s cowardly. And for all y’all Black Live Matter [supporters] who ain’t saying nothing, [saying] ‘Let me figure out exactly what’s happening before saying anything’, f**k you,” he said.
As former Secretary Gates observed: “Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past 4 decades.”
America cannot afford one more minute with this imbecile and his gang of miscreants and saboteurs in charge. Remove Biden NOW.
The Biden administration is so obsessed with restarting a deal with Iran that it has looked the other way, rewarded them with money and relaxed sanctions. The Iranians know they can get away with it with Biden sitting on his hands.
It’s the equivalent of the U.S. justice system policies under Soros backed DAs that are slowly destroying cities. Cash bail, not prosecuting low level crimes, looking the other way instead of charging criminals for criminal acts. The crooks will push as far as they can until they are stopped. Liberal policy at its worst.
The US in exercising real politique foreign policy often will do deals with unsavory often undemocratic regimes. We do so because either alternatives are worse or we can stomach the fallout.
That explains our relationships with the Saudis orcyhe Eqyptians over the past decades. It explains our suppprt of Ukraine today. South Vietnam in the 60’s.
Iran is a completely different kettle of fish.
What is the benefit? The country wants to destroy not only Israel but liberal democracy everywhere. It wants to build a bomb, will fund terror, provides zero economic benefit to us. Why fo we do anything diplomatically with them?
It makes no sense and never has. I loathe to think OBama and Biden are antisemites ( same with leaders in State) but eventually if the shoe fits …
Biden has been born out to be the foreign policy idiot that many ptedicted.
The so-called Democratic Party, the party of anti-Semitism, sends billions of dollars and shiploads of tanks to a country that is not even an ally, but will will they lift a finger to assist the only true ally we have in the Middle East? Of course not, because it's populated by Jews.
The failures of the Obama/Biden foreign policies regarding the Middle East which have led to the strengthening of the murderous theocracy of Iran and its terrorist arms will have a disastrous impact on the Democrat's chances of holding the Presidency unless Biden's administration does a complete about face on Iran and the terrorist organizations it supports. And, for God sakes, stop repeating the ridiculous fiction that Iran can only use the $6 billion the Biden administration has provided for humanitarian purposes; it is an idiotic argument.
I am highly skeptical of further US involvements overseas, but in this case we have the beginnings of a second holocaust along with the killing and capture of multiple US citizens. If house republicans had sense (they do not) they would introduce a declaration of war against the Hamas organization. It would pass the house and likely the senate facing opposition from the left. Force team Biden to understand the gravity of the situation cause right now damage control is their only priority.
Eli. Let’s not forget the senior DOS official on Iran has been suspended for several months pending investigation into his security clearance. He also has a few cronies in DOD and elsewhere.
Biden and this whole administration just need to go. They just do. They are just too dangerous to have this much power and control.
I do not even think it is evil, I believe that these people are just so naive that they build policy around the mental masturbations of academic fools that live in self reinforcing bubbles that distort reality and deny common sense.
Any car mechanic sitting in the Oval Office would have seen more clearly what the outcomes of all these things would be.
God save us from over educated, under experienced, idealists who spend more time writing white papers and trying to get published than actually living in the world.
This is just so sickening that I don't have more words than that. Thank you FP for keeping us updated.