Well I think it’s pretty lighthearted. See, you put them in a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t situation. After all, how many times do you hear about how distant from the people politicians are? How unrelatable. Too little and they’re not “one of us,” and too much and it’s, “This is inappropriate, get back to work!” To me this shows a more human aspect of a personality, and certainly this was less-than-official business — and Blinken is still human after all.
We’re sort of trying, but not on the same level as if it was happening in Philly or Austin or something (or in Tel Aviv.)
Well to be fair, it is happening in Philly and Austin. From drug addiction to childhood homelessness — maybe not to the extent of what is depicted in Gaza, naturally, but there is certainly a massive amount of dissonance at play when you juxtapose the Olympics and some rich man’s 5th yacht and what our bottom 1st percentile is going through. Still, I get what you’re saying. In that respect, it is indeed a duty of the people to hold their leadership to account.
From the position of Blinken, with their experience and with what intelligence reports and conversations they’ve had behind closed doors, I again can’t say I envy their position — especially when public-facing positions cannot always give the full story on what is classified behind the scenes.
Keep in mind the intermittency of our support to Ukraine falls almost eentirely on Republican opposition; after all, it was Trump who directed Mike Johnson to block aid — and ultimately, aid to Ukraine was blocked for an entire year. So we can nitpick the low-hanging fruit of whether X system or capability should’ve been granted sooner, but again, I’m not the one responsible for American lives both here and abroad first and foremost. (and with that, I seriously doubt Mike Pompeo and a Trump administration would’ve negotiated such an impressive prisoner swap for innocent Americans). Arguably if Republicans wouldn’t backstab us for eScalAtiOn and stop spreading Russian propaganda among their media outlets (having a conversation with my FIL last week, he parroted this exact shit), then we’d have complete solidarity. Not unlike Obama’s Syrian red line on chemical weapons, which then Republican Congressmen refused to support a response.
Ultimately let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good; especially when the alternative is evil. Nobody is perfect, and if you put yourself or me in that position I guarantee the bluster would change on a dime.
To your point on the song choice, you can look at it like that; but you can also look at it that Blinken is the type of guy who grew up listening to Neil Young; to Crosby Stills; to Buffalo Springfield; to Bruce Springsteen, etc. And that may signal exactly where he’s coming from. That if you sat down with him, I suspect you’d get some poignant answers as to why he chose that song. I’m just saying, don’t be so quick to judge without hearing his perspective — for just like, “Why are we still giving aid to Israel?” is far more complicated as I tried to show. I like the guy. I think he’s down to earth and I’m just so thankful we have thoughtful minds in office as opposed to that shit-stain Pompeo who preceded him.
Edit: I got curious and I watched this. JESUS CHRIST MAKE IT STOP. As with many things, George Carlin said it far more succinctly than I could.
Thanks for the good discussion.
Well I think it’s pretty lighthearted. See, you put them in a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t situation. After all, how many times do you hear about how distant from the people politicians are? How unrelatable. Too little and they’re not “one of us,” and too much and it’s, “This is inappropriate, get back to work!” To me this shows a more human aspect of a personality, and certainly this was less-than-official business — and Blinken is still human after all.
Well to be fair, it is happening in Philly and Austin. From drug addiction to childhood homelessness — maybe not to the extent of what is depicted in Gaza, naturally, but there is certainly a massive amount of dissonance at play when you juxtapose the Olympics and some rich man’s 5th yacht and what our bottom 1st percentile is going through. Still, I get what you’re saying. In that respect, it is indeed a duty of the people to hold their leadership to account.
From the position of Blinken, with their experience and with what intelligence reports and conversations they’ve had behind closed doors, I again can’t say I envy their position — especially when public-facing positions cannot always give the full story on what is classified behind the scenes.
Keep in mind the intermittency of our support to Ukraine falls almost eentirely on Republican opposition; after all, it was Trump who directed Mike Johnson to block aid — and ultimately, aid to Ukraine was blocked for an entire year. So we can nitpick the low-hanging fruit of whether X system or capability should’ve been granted sooner, but again, I’m not the one responsible for American lives both here and abroad first and foremost. (and with that, I seriously doubt Mike Pompeo and a Trump administration would’ve negotiated such an impressive prisoner swap for innocent Americans). Arguably if Republicans wouldn’t backstab us for eScalAtiOn and stop spreading Russian propaganda among their media outlets (having a conversation with my FIL last week, he parroted this exact shit), then we’d have complete solidarity. Not unlike Obama’s Syrian red line on chemical weapons, which then Republican Congressmen refused to support a response.
Ultimately let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good; especially when the alternative is evil. Nobody is perfect, and if you put yourself or me in that position I guarantee the bluster would change on a dime.
To your point on the song choice, you can look at it like that; but you can also look at it that Blinken is the type of guy who grew up listening to Neil Young; to Crosby Stills; to Buffalo Springfield; to Bruce Springsteen, etc. And that may signal exactly where he’s coming from. That if you sat down with him, I suspect you’d get some poignant answers as to why he chose that song. I’m just saying, don’t be so quick to judge without hearing his perspective — for just like, “Why are we still giving aid to Israel?” is far more complicated as I tried to show. I like the guy. I think he’s down to earth and I’m just so thankful we have thoughtful minds in office as opposed to that shit-stain Pompeo who preceded him.
LOL. No comment.