#un votes

[mapsontheweb]

UN vote to make food a right.

by geo.ranking

[a-silly]

I now hate this

Good thing I fixed it!!!!

Again, spoilers

[phoenixyfriend]

The Shift in America's Support of Israel as of 3/25/24

Okay, so there have been three specific incidents recently that I'd like to cover for you guys.

Chuck Schumer's speech calling for a new election in Israel, which I have spoken about here and here. (3/14/24)

Congress voting to ban UNRWA funding until 2025, which I've seen a lot of people talking about, but often without an actual understanding of what the situation actually is. (It's bad, but it's not the same type of bad as people think.) (3/24/24)

The US abstaining from a UN Security Council vote, which is effectively voting against Israel when they have thus far been the only ones to use veto power in this manner. (3/25/24)

I'm not going to go into detail about Schumer, since I've already covered it. tldr: it's a very specifically worded speech that does not explicitly threaten Israel, but if you do even the slightest bit of reading between the lines, that is absolutely what is happening.

Also, before I move forward: the US may not be donating to UNRWA for the rest of the fiscal year, but you can. They have direct donation links.

UNRWA funding has been on hold for a while, but this is... complicated. Not morally, because UNRWA does need funding and to defund it is truly unconscionable, but many of the "Biden signed it into law" posts are approaching it with this implied message that UNRWA would have funding if not for Biden signing it.

Except that isn't really how the US government works. Especially this government.

Funding for 2024 was supposed to be passed months ago. We are on the verge of another government shutdown. UNRWA funding is not on the table until the House swings blue. I hate to be the one to say this, but it's... like, it's not something I can change alone. I know you're tired of hearing it, but voting in November is the key to fixing a whole lot of problems.

One of the core duties of Congress is passing budgets. For those budgets to pass, they need to be approved by the House (Republican Majority), the Senate (Democrat Majority), and the President. The reason it has taken five months to pass a yearly budget (the deadline iirc was September or October) is because anything approved by one chamber is shot down by the other.

UNRWA's de-funding is tied to Ukraine funding (and a few other things). Biden refusing to sign would not have brought back UNRWA funding. The funding is already on hold. We do not have the votes to bring it back. We just straight up do not have enough seats in the House to make that happen. Biden refusing to sign would have resulted in both UNRWA and Ukraine not having funding, indefinitely. Signing it resulted in one of the two getting funding.

This is not a situation where funding was approved and now cut. This is not a situation where money was already flowing to UNRWA. This is a situation where money wasn't going anywhere, because Congress is a split shitshow.

Think of it like this: Funding is water coming from a spigot. Congress can turn it on or off, and it's currently off. Biden can smack away the hand coming to twist the valve, but he can't touch the valve himself. That's what the presidential veto is. Unfortunately, the spigot is already off, and Biden can't twist it back on when Congress isn't already reaching to do so.

Is this bad? Yes! UNRWA's funding should never have been cut! We should still be very, very upset about this! But I need you to understand that the way the US government works is not a dictatorship. Biden cannot just overrule Congress, especially when we're on the verge of another shutdown.

I do not think it is fair or even really acceptable that UNRWA's funding was viewed as an appropriate point of compromise. I'm just, unfortunately, also aware that this particular legislation is a tug-of-war that was never going to end with funding going to Palestine, not with the current Republican control of the House.

"But Biden sent money to Israel a bunch of times--" Yeah, and he's paying for it in the polls. He's aware that people are pissed at him. That choice is already biting him in the ass.

Biden is not perfect and I am never going to claim he is, but please recognize that the UNRWA funding pull is not a current action. It is a past action that is now being sustained because the House is red. You want to bring back UNRWA funding? Get rid of Marjorie Taylor Green and her entire cohort.

The other reason I'm less than eager to view that UNRWA thing as Biden being pro-Israel is because the US has finally abstained on a UN vote instead of vetoing.

When the US has been the only voice on Israel's side in the Security Council this whole time, abstention is functionally voting against them. We already knew that 13-14 of the other 14 members were going to vote pro-ceasefire. They have been this entire time. The US abstaining is functionally agreeing.

Why did the US not just vote for the ceasefire, then? No idea. Might be a treaty thing. I don't really need to know, because the result is that the UN Security Council has finally passed a measure against Israel, and those things are legally binding, and we know it's a big step because Israel's government is not happy.

When paired with the Schumer speech from a week and a half ago, it indicates a major shift in US foreign policy.

From the Al Jazeera article:

The US had repeatedly blocked Security Council resolutions that put pressure on Israel but has increasingly shown frustration with its ally as civilian casualties mount and the UN warns of impending famine in Gaza. Speaking after the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield blamed Hamas for the delay in passing a ceasefire resolution. “We did not agree with everything with the resolution,” which she said was the reason why the US abstained. “Certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas,” Thomas-Greenfield said. [...] The White House said the final resolution did not have language the US considers essential and its abstention does not represent a shift in policy. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the US failure to veto the resolution is a “clear retreat” from its previous position and would hurt war efforts against Hamas as well as efforts to release Israeli captives held in Gaza.

This action has also resulted in Israel pulling plans for "a high-level delegation" to visit the US for discussions on the invasion of Rafah (which Biden has purportedly been warning against for a while).

“We’re very disappointed that they won’t be coming to Washington, DC, to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to them going in on the ground in Rafah,” [John] Kirby told reporters. [...] Last week, Netanyahu promised to defy US appeals and expand Israel’s military campaign to Rafah even without its ally’s support.

There are other complications and details here, such as that the resolution does not call for a permanent ceasefire, and that US tensions with Russia and China are still somehow playing a role in the negotiations over the ceasefire text, but ultimately...

The US abstaining is a good thing. Schumer's speech is a good thing. They are not enough, but they are good things. They are steps forward.

The pull of funding from UNRWA is not a good thing. It is, in fact, a very, very bad thing. It just also looks a lot like it was unavoidable.

So call your reps, and vote come November. It's a long slog and we all know it, but we can't make change without dedication.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post.

[triviallytrue]

"i dream of a hegemon-free world" <- careful, if you meditate too hard on this idea it leads to non-stupid anarchism :3

i think mostly i just want internationalism to actually be real

[tomorrowusa]

« All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of an autocratic state. There is a bad man at the top. He controls the army and the police. The army and the police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the twenty-first century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality.

Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy but by sophisticated networks relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security services— military, paramilitary, police—and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation. The members of these networks are connected not only to one another within a given autocracy but also to networks in other autocratic countries, and sometimes in democracies too. Corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country may arm, equip, and train the police in many others. The propagandists share resources—the troll farms and media networks that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote another’s—as well as themes: the degeneracy of democracy, the stability of autocracy, the evil of America. »

– Journalist and historian Anne Applebaum at Substack quoting from her soon to be released book Autocracy, Inc..

You can read several more paragraphs from Autocracy, Inc. at the Substack link above. Her book will be published on the 23rd; if you're within distance of Washington, DC she will be doing a free book reading and Q&A on Friday July 26th at Politics and Prose. She's a good writer and speaker. I've read two of her previous books and can vouch for their quality.

The war in Ukraine is not some remote conflict that idiots like J.D. Vance or Neville Chamberlain might dismiss out of stupidity. Ukraine is just one arena in a worldwide clash between liberal democracy and kleptocratic tyranny.

[valiantlycleverinfluencer]

Vote already happened and passed but many of us probably don’t completely understand what that means here’s a start

[roblogging]

as expected ! my tiktok's been suspended for "violating community guidelines" :D

so i'll say it here as well

PLEASE VOTE !!

and after you're done protecting the rights of american women, the linktree here is full of palestinian families that need this same autonomy, and have been ignored in the election of a country helping to strip them of it. (and charities to donate to)

roughly 183 women give birth in gaza a day.

since october, over 20,000 babies have been born

over 19,000 orphaned children.

over 155,000 pregnant women who will give birth without access to healthcare, anaesthetic, or the essentials needed to raise a child.

over 936,700 women and girls displaced from their homes.

one third of children in northern gaza are malnourished.

women and children make up 70% of those killed.

no access to formula, medical supplies, 99% of breastfeeding mothers aren't healthy enough to do so.

now isn't the time to vote third party, vote blue, donate, free the middle east from western complicity.

[tilbageidanmark]

Post-Debate Midnight Consolation Visit.

[herschellgoestohell]

I HATE HORSES ❌🐴

You can call me Herschell, as I am NOT willing to put my real name on the blog where I write my trump/Kim Jong Un revenge fic. He/him, MINOR.

My purpose behind my writing is to invoke a SLIGHT bit of humor in such a dark and confusing time for everyone. Take ALMOST nothing I say seriously, as I’m merely coping with being in an absolute shithole of a country.

MADAM PRESIDENT 💜 FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸 FUCK NAZIS

[tuiccim]

It's the 4th of July! Don't forget to reblog all of your Captain America fics/art/etc. to celebrate!

[mapsontheweb]

UN General Assembly Vote for Humanitarian Truce in Gaza

[thebusylilbee]

par contre faut qu'on parle des Alpes-Maritimes qui ont ré-élu Eric Ciotti après son alliance avec le RN et ses gamineries hallucinantes quand même... genre personne n'a d'amour propre dans ce coin là ou bien ?...

[oceannacaldin]

Il est toujours minuit moins le quart et non minuit moins une.

Je croise les doigts pour que le NFP puisse tenir - et tenir son programme - et qu'on ait pas une alliance centriste qui reprenne les grand moment de Hollande et du Macroniste.

Et merci à toutes les personnes qui ont voté en se bouchant le nez pour qu'on ait pas un parti d'extrême droite au pouvoir. Vous avez sauvé des vies.

[historyforfuture]

Nothing is sacred in GAZA

After bombing 609 masjids and 3 churches , the zionist not only broke into them but tore up the QURANS also then burned them

The zionists are actually sick with hate and arrogance . They belittle and despise all human beings

[tomorrowusa]

« Going to Mar-a-Lago is a little bit like going to North Korea. Everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in. »

— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) quoted in Bob Woodward's new book War as reported by The Daily Beast.

I think North Korean military officers get a medal every time they kiss Kim's butt.

Trump would probably charge them for the privilege.

[tracing-rivers]

J'entends souvent la phrase "cette ville est trop bien, dommage qu'il y ait ses habitants ptdr", alors

Attention ! Si vous votez Paris parce que vous pouvez pas saquer les Parisiens, ça ne suffit pas ! Il faut aussi aimer la ville en elle-même !

J'ai mis ces villes-là parce que j'ai personnellement lu ou entendu cette phrase les concernant ; il y en a sûrement d'autres