Of the Americans who fought in Korea or Vietnam, none were "innocent" by virtue of having been drafted. The moral choice there was to either dodge the draft, defect to the other side, or frag the guy giving orders. Anyone who chose otherwise was a criminal and a murderer. And once the draft was over and the army became volunteer-only, all the excuses vanished. Yes, there are people who were in Iraq or Afghanistan or Syria who regretted it, but regretting your crime doesn't undo it. That's just the minimum requirement for being a decent human being in the aftermath.

To everyone who says "you leftists can't go around hating on the troops, don't you want them to join the revolution?" I say "why would they join us if they couldn't handle being told the truth about the genocidal terrorist organization they volunteered for?" If their reaction upon hearing people call the US military murderers and terrorists is to deny or equivocate or rationalize their participation, then they're not yet fit to be a revolutionary. If we're trying to dismantle the imperialist warmongering empire that continues to use its might and influence to murder millions around the world that is the United States, what good is a person who balks at the notion that the troops who volunteer to pledge their lives and their loyalty in service of this empire might be complicit in its crimes?

An American soldier or veteran who is not ready to admit they were wrong will not be any more ready to join us if we lie to them and say they made no mistake in joining the US military. We only weaken our own messaging and our own position if we refuse to condemn not just the US military as an organization but all those who continue to participate in and defend its actions. The troops are not innocent.

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The AZ Senate had the votes to repeal the ban last week, so a repeal seems likely. While this would simply put a newer 15w ban in place, this is an immediate benefit to a lot of people who are pregnant and don't want to be, and an indication that the GOP is unable to stand in the face of how pissed off people are.

If you live in AZ, especially, but even if you don't, you need to read the whole article, bc I guarantee that the GOP where you live is going to try to pull bait-and-switch tactics similar to those being tried in AZ, where a pro-reproductive-freedom item is on the ballot. GOPers there are going to try to confuse the vote into failure.

I typically keep work/Tumblr separate nowadays, but the Senate passed the TikTok bill, and the President is aching to sign it.

It's wildly unlikely TikTok will manage to divest within 270 days, and the potential three month extension won't do much either, so this amounts to a ban. But more than just TikTok, the language of the bill-soon-to-be-law grants the President incredibly broad authority to ban or force the sale of other foreign-owned apps, too, especially given its very expansive definition of "foreign-owned apps."

I don't have a particular call to action that I care to offer here. But, it's something people (not only US citizens) should be aware of, as this is a pretty big fucking deal.

Another multi-billion dollars was approved for Israel meanwhile here in America prices are still soaring, more and more people are unable to afford basic needs, and the government is trying to criminalize homelessness.

via zayydante

🇺🇸⚔️🇸🇾 🪖 🚚🚛 🚨

REPORT: UNITED STATES OCCUPATION CONTINUES SUCKING WEALTH OUT OF EASTERN SYRIA

The official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) is reporting that the American military occupation in eastern Syria continues to suck wealth and resources from the West Asian nation.

According to SANA News, the US occupation is stealing wealth from the areas it continues to illegally occupy in the Hasakah province of eastern Syria, using its forces to load tankers and trucks with Syrian resources including oil and grains.

Local sources in the Al-Yaarubiya countryside, near the Iraqi border, in the Al-Hasakah Governate, told SANA that a US-occupation convoy consisting of 69 vehicles, including 45 tankers loaded with Syrian oil, along with 24 trucks loaded with grains stolen from silos in the Hasakah province, left Syrian territory through the illegal Mahmoudiyah crossing headed for US bases in Iraqi territory.

The report was published by journalist Nisreen Othman on April 22nd, 2024.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

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Huge win for workers

https://x.com/thedailybeast/status/1782169236657357193?s=09

Her mom doesn't earn enough to buy her food? Father can't chip in? Doesn't she have an uncle?

"Here’s what you’re not being told: The most pressing threats to our safety as Jewish students do not come from tents on campus. Instead, they come from the Columbia administration inviting police onto campus, certain faculty members, and third-party organizations that dox undergraduates. Frankly, I regret the fact that writing to confirm the safety of Jewish Ivy League students feels justified in the first place. I have not seen many pundits hand-wringing over the safety of my Palestinian colleagues mourning the deaths of family members, or the destruction of Gaza’s cherished universities. 

I am wary of a hysterical campus discourse – gleefully amplified by many of the same charlatans who have turned “DEI” into a slur – that draws attention away from the ongoing slaughter in the Gaza Strip and settler violence in the occupiedWest Bank. We should be focusing on the material reality of war: the munitions our government is sending to Israel, which kill Palestinians by the thousands, and the Americans participating in the violence. Forget the fringe folks and outside agitators: the CUAD organizers behind the campus protests have rightfully insisted on divestment as their most important demand of the Columbia administration, and on sustained attention to the situation in Palestine.

And we are not alone. College campuses across the United States have followed Columbia’s lead. 

And so, it is my hope that we can all learn from their examples to remain clear-eyed about the stakes of this crisis and focus on the actual violence being perpetrated in all of our names. "

today in the U.S, congress passed a bill banning tiktok and sending more aid to israel. joe biden is expected to codify it into law.

columbia threatened to sic the national guard and NYPD on pro-palestine protesters. as of now, “counterterrorism” forces have arrived on university grounds.

nyu built an apartheid wall.

the university of minnesota is shutting off the water supply to pro-palestine protesters.

zionism has come home to roost in america. keep raising awareness. nobody’s free until everybody’s free.

US legislators are absolutely out of touch with reality — technology especially.

with kosa and tiktok censorship; with meta & google manipulating elections, trafficking private data, selling information to police, providing technology used in war crimes; with the cataclysmic environmental impacts of artificial intelligence… [to name a few]

ALL of the american tech companies do more harm to the world than one company in china.

none of that matters, solely due to the strong presence of a pro-palestine/anti-genocide movement on tiktok.

If you have to ask why the western media would run with a story that paints Pro Palestine supporters as “violent thugs” then you already know the answer.