It’s still 260+ days until the presidential election, which means a whole hell of a lot could happen to change things. But as things stand right now, I’m going to be voting—with some reluctance—for Uncle Joe Biden.
Why the reluctance? Because of his unwillingness to lean on the government of Israel to stop the genocide of Palestinians. Uncle Joe has been a much better president than I’d expected. Better than I’d hoped for, in fact. Yeah, he’s old and yeah, he makes gaffes and says stupid shit periodically. But overall, I’ve got to say he’s had an incredible number of accomplishments—especially considering the massive ongoing clusterfuck created and sustained by House Republicans.
But still, it’s impossible to be happy about casting a vote for a man who has enabled Bibi Netanyahu to physically destroy Gaza and kill tens of thousands of civilians. And for anybody who wants to argue that opposing the Israeli Defense Force is the same as supporting Hamas, go fuck yourself. What Hamas did on October 7th was monstrous. No matter how frustrated they were with the Israeli government, there’s no fucking way to justify the slaughter of civilians.
But that same notion applies to the government of Israel. The willful slaughter of more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza (10,000 of whom were children) isn’t justice for the 1100 people killed during the Hamas attack. Biden’s willingness to go along with the genocide and the destruction of two-thirds of Gaza’s infrastructure makes it almost impossible to vote for him.
Almost impossible.
Despite the many good things Uncle Joe has done domestically and internationally (and personally—the guy has effectively reduced my student loan payments to almost zero), I’m extremely unhappy with the thought of voting for him. But I will, grudgingly.
Why? Because of this one simple fact: if Biden wins re-election, we’ll have a chance to elect a better leader in 2028. But if Trump wins re-election, there’s a very good chance the US will die as a democracy and we may not have anything remotely like a fair election in 2028.
That’s incentive enough.
gregfallis.com 
EXACTLY!! You’ve given words to my thought!! I’ll be doing the same as you … and … also begrudgingly!! 🗳️
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You have summed that up perfectly.
You must have now heard about Trump rally in South Caroline last night when he said he’d encourage Putin to attack any NATO member if they were not up to date with their payments! The man is really dangerous because he’s so unhinged.
It’s horrible how the UK mirrors the US in so many things and this election will be the same. We have much younger candidates, but the Tories are a cluster of horrors and won’t damn Netanyarhu either. So we will be voting for Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party. But although he’s a very smart man and hopefully not corrupt (no sign of it and he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service) but he won’t condemn BN either! and he keeps saying things like the UK will never rejoin the EU under his leadership! The country is dying on it’s feet because of our lack of access to our biggest food source and major business partners. So like you, a lot of us will be holding our noses. We have to get rid of the Conservative party, but the opposition is sadly lacking too.
It’s 11,000 dead children now. You might appreciate this. Led by Donkeys is a small group of young Brits who crowd funded to hold truth to power and have gone from strength. This is their moving tribute to Gaza filmed last week. I hope the link works. Led by Donkeys regularly make me cry. Be they holding the government to account or highlighting something awful. They are the young people we should all strive to be.
https://x.com/ByDonkeys/status/1754598375129833846?s=20
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Sue, I saw that Led by Donkeys event. It was thoughtful and incredibly sad.
Netanyahu is a war criminal; there’s no other way to describe him. He and his generals should be hauled in front of the International Criminal Court and made to answer for the atrocities they’ve ordered. They’ve completely tarnished Israel.
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I’m glad you saw it. I had no idea that they had such reach now. There aren’t many of them, around 3 or 4 I think. When I saw the still of the first 3 outfits in the sand it was immediately obvious what it was going to be about. Very powerful. They were right, it’s hard for us to imagine what 11,500 people might look like. Easier to imagine it with visuals and quite horrific.
They did that on Tuesday last week and then put out a call for help on Wednesday morning for anyone local who could come and pick up the clothing from the sand and bag it up for it to be laundered. It’s then being given to a group of charities who were waiting for it. Nice to know it was not going to be wasted. They had plenty of help that day.
What Netanyahu has done is turn sympathy for the atrocities of 7th October to bitterness. The terrible things those poor Israelis went through that day have been totally overshadowed and dwarfed by the actions of him and his army in Gaza and the West Bank and until the citizens of Israel stand up and depose him I don’t think they will be given much consideration ever again. He’s definitely a genocidal war criminal.
I have a novel here that I really enjoyed reading and got some understanding from when I read it years ago. I reviewed it at the time and said I found it “fast paced, brutal and captivating. I learned a lot about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Enough to know my ignorance and to make me want to understand more.” It was a debut by Michelle Cohen Corasanti.
Then recently I bought a copy of “I Shall Not Hate” by Izzeldin Abuelaish. I haven’t started it yet but I read the detailed tweet thread that led me to it. He’s a consultant gynaecologist/infertility doctor who lives in Gaza but works in hospitals in Gaza and Israel and has trained in America. I don’t know where he is now, if he’s still alive. But his story is incredible and very moving. I’m stealing myself for that one.
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Not much of a choice left to us. The most depressing election cycle ever.
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It really pisses me off. I was SO pleased with Biden, so unexpectedly enthusiastic about him, so surprised at how much he’s been able to accomplish. But I’m afraid the stink of genocide will never leave him…and it shouldn’t. I don’t know if he could have prevented the atrocities in Gaza, but once they started he could have condemned them and acted to minimize the damage.
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“… a man who has enabled [Israel to do whatever …]”
What US President (excepting perhaps Eisenhower in the 1956 Suez Crisis) has ever publicly opposed any action Israel has taken?
Regarding POTUS public behavior towards Israel, US voters have no choice other than punish a current enabler in favor of the next.
This brings no serenity.
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Several presidents–including Republicans–have condemned some Israeli policies and actions. But I can’t think of any that actually punished or penalized Israel for anything.
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That last paragraph is the clincher. I have this horrible fear that if US democracy goes, it will be the first domino in a catastrophe for the human race.
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That’s a legit fear, I’m afraid.
The US is often awful in practice, but the idea of what the US is supposed to stand for is pretty powerful. We’ve never lived up to that ideal, but the ideal remains pretty seductive.
It’s still shocking to me that a large minority of Americans would happily piss all over that ideal.
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Well said Greg. I can’t expound….as I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t understand how any American would take the risk of voting for a megalomaniac.
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This is a genuine moral conundrum. I can’t…and won’t…blame anybody for refusing to vote for Biden because of his role in the Palestinian genocide. Refusing to vote for Biden IS NOT the same as supporting Trump. It’s a righteous moral stance.
That said, refusing to vote for Biden (or voting for a third party candidate) absolutely increases the chance for Trump to win.
For me, it’s the political equivalent of having a gangrenous leg. You don’t WANT to cut off your leg. But refusing to amputate means you’ll die. I don’t want to vote for a man who is making genocide possible, but I believe it’s better than the alternative.
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Might it slightly sweeten the pill to think about Ukraine when thinking of Biden, rather than what Israel is doing?
A vote not cast, or a vote cast for anyone not Biden, means Trump will get in and stop supporting Ukraine. He’s already told us he will do that. He and the hateful far right Reps. Europe is not big enough – armaments-wise – to replace America’s supplies. It can’t produce enough or fast enough.
If Trump wins, Putin wins and Ukraine will be lost. Then it will be onto Latvia, Moldova or Georgia and all the other little bits of the old USSR that broke away and that no one will defend. Even Poland is in danger if Ukraine falls. Basically Putin has the sheer volume of men to sacrifice to change the face of Europe forever.
The Israel genocide of Palestinians is unbelievably awful and hateful and should not be able to happen. But in numbers it will be small fry against what Putin can do with Trump supporting him.
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Obviously, Biden wants it both ways. But I doubt that Arabic/Palestinian/Islamic voters will collectively compromise and sell their souls by giving Biden a pass on his blatant bloodying hypocrisy towards the current mass slaughter of Palestinians by Israel.
Still, any American president who, quite unlike Trump, seriously tried implementing truly humane, progressive policies — notably a genuine anti-war effort, a universal guaranteed income and single-payer healthcare, a significant reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions and military spending, increasing the minimum wage while also reigning in Wall Street abuse/corruption [etcetera] — would likely be assassinated.
Some statistics show, interestingly, that around three quarters of Americans support a number of ‘socialist’/public programs, notably universal health care and some form of guaranteed income plan [a.k.a. welfare].
While I find that the Republican party, like its federal Conservative party here in Canada, is a moral write-off altogether when it comes to humane social policy, the DNC also refuses to allow genuinely fiscally progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders as its presidential nominee, regardless of what Democratic Party members/voters want.
It’s arrogantly presumptuous of the DNC and party (etcetera) to expect poor citizens to vote for an establishment Democrat candidate with thinly veiled ties to corporate interests and who’s not going to adequately improve the poor person’s lot in life — simply to vote out or keep out an undesirable, hated Republican. And, of course, to wait in long bad-weather lineups for the privilege.
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I like Joe bathing suit is wearing
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