“These views of Trump align with those of many officials who served in his administration. Trump’s first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, considered Trump to be a “fucking moron.” John Kelly, the retired Marine general who served as Trump’s chief of staff in 2017 and 2018, has said that Trump is the “most flawed person” he’s ever met. James Mattis, who is also a retired Marine general and served as Trump’s first secretary of defense, has told friends and colleagues that the 45th president was “more dangerous than anyone could ever imagine.” It is widely known that Trump’s second secretary of defense, Mark Esper, believed that the president didn’t understand his own duties, much less the oath that officers swear to the Constitution, or military ethics, or the history of America.”
“The former president’s ignorance of nuclear doctrine had been apparent well before his exchanges with Kim Jong Un. In a 2015 Republican-primary debate, Trump was asked, “Of the three legs of the triad … do you have a priority?” Trump’s answer: “I think—I think, for me, nuclear is just—the power, the devastation is very important to me.”
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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki just came out with the statement about what happened.
It is confirmed by Polish government that rockets produced by Russia fell down on our territory. Poland is working closely with their allies to examine the whole situation. Experts are present on site, more from other countries are invited.
Poland is also checking if there are premises to use article 4 of NATO treaty.
All Polish services are in state of high readiness and selected military units are in a state of increased combat readiness.
Polish minister of foreign affairs is set to meet with Russian ambassador.
Prime Minister asked citizens to remain calm and to get their information from trusted sources as there is bound to be a lot of misinformation and fake news.
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TW: discussions of the invasion of Ukraine, anti-Semitism, genocide, death, and Nazism
Caveat: I do not live in Ukraine or Russia, I am an American with a vested interest in Ukraine bc I have family there (including my little brother), but listen to actual Ukrainians please.
Looking at the talk around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I’m seeing a few folks pointing out how odd it is that Putin is citing “getting rid of Nazis in Ukraine’s government” as a reason for his unsactioned invasion, given Volodymyr Zelenskyy is, you know, Jewish. As many have already pointed out, there is a far-right nationalist movement in Ukraine, including a contingent of vocal neonazis. This is bad, we all agree. But this group doesn’t control the government, especially not to the same extent the far right controls the government of, say, the US.
BUT, what nobody has said, because it isn’t taught in the West for some godDAMN reason, is that the Nazis targeted Slavs and Soviet citizens for genocide too. Slavs were sent to concentration camps and killed en mass. In much greater numbers than any other group. Putin is drawing on very real, very powerful memories of an attempted genocide to try to convince Russians to support and carry out his attack on fellow victims of that same attempted genocide.
Real shitty thing to do, but at least now you know why.
(We’re not gonna get into the fact that a lot of the Soviet victims were from modern-day Ukraine because this isn’t about convincing you that Putin is doing horrific things. You already knew that. I WILL mention it though, because the West has a habit of equating the Soviet Union and modern-day Russia, which is a mistake)
Tldr: the Nazis killed an estimated 12 MILLION Slavs during the Holocaust and Putin is trying to use that horrific trauma to convince Russians to commit more genocide.
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BOYCOTT EUROVISION FOR ISRAEL PARTICIPATION.
I am the Eurovision gay this time of year, I love this show. Not only is my country hosting 2024 but it's also in a city I love, but I can't watch as people sing about peace and love while Palestinians are getting killed by one of the participants.
I've complied a couple of petitions, open letters and information regarding Eurovision: Eurovision isn't the highest priority regarding Gaza, but this show is marketing & tourism for countries, Israel is using it to pink wash their politics
According to SVT, Swedish television network in charge of Eurovision 2024 in Sweden Malmö, Eurovision is apolitical, and therefore Israel qualify. They refer to any calls for boycott meaningless ( via )
SVT statement:
[ID: "SVT statement on the debate over Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest
Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is generating debate and today a number of Swedish artists have called on the EBU to cancel Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. It is the EBU’s decision which public broadcasters may take part in the event, and as the host broadcaster, SVT follows the EBU’s decisions. The humanitarian suffering in this deeply complex conflict is devastating. Nobody can be left unmoved by the current situation in Gaza, or by the Hamas attack in Israel. We are also concerned about these developments. We understand and respect that groups of people wish to make their voices heard. As the host broadcaster, SVT has an ongoing dialogue with the EBU about the challenges of producing Europe’s largest TV-production in times of unrest. We are humbled by the task and are working to ensure the project can be carried out in the best way possible, with the vision that music unites." END ID]
Eurovision has always been political, and was created as a celebration of peace after WW2. Songs are statements, and EBU took action by banning Russia and Belarus for the invasion of Ukraine. It's a way to show sympathy and solidarity, which Gaza is in need of now.
Why Eurovision is so important to Israel is the opportunity of pink washing, and appearing liberal and LGBTQ-friendly, that the show encourages. This leads to great marketing and tourism for the country, alqueerian on twitter did a great thread about it:
[ID: Tweet from @ alqueerian on X formerly known as Twitter.
Tweet: "A really quick thread on pinkwashing and why it’s wrong: pinkwashing is a term that was coined by LGBTQ Palestinians to specifically refer to the use of homophobia as a justification for israeli war crimes, ethnic cleansing, mass displacement, starvation etc." END ID]
Full thread
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Here are a couple of petitions, open letters and links to encourage the ban of Israel in Eurovision
And if all fail: we boycott
Here are two petitions for the ban of Israel:
Petition 1
Petition 2
A list of emails and contact information for broadcasters regarding Israel participation: copy, paste and send.
Document
It's created by verilybitchie on YouTube who also made a great call to action video I can recommend
[ID: Screenshot of verilybitchie youtube video "Genocide at the Eurovision Song Contest". The video is showing an article by Chris Lockeyer, news reposter, titled "Israel to compete at Eurovision despite boycott threats" The article says: "The European broadcast Union said its member organisations approved Israel's participation in the competition and it remains aligned with other competition organisations on its stance." The article is from December 19th, 2023. END ID]
And for Swedes, I think it's extra important for us to speak up; here's what we can do:
Open letter via Björk & Frihet, a charity in Skåne offer letters to sign but also have pdf version to print at home!
[ID: Photo from Björk & Frihet, a swedish charity offering open letters to sign to send to the government. "Stoppa folkmordet" as the letters are ladled, means "stop the genocide" END ID]
This is also a letter regarding the contest being held in Malmö, a city with a long history fighting for Palestine!
Sign here
[ID: Vote for Swedes in Malmö to sign to protest Israel's participation in Eurovision. END ID]
Meanwhile, don't forget your daily clicks to help Palestine while we wait for EBU to stand by their words and prove we are united by music!
[ID: Iceland's Hatari holds up Palestinian flags during Eurovision in Tel Aviv, May 19, 2019. END ID]
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