Summary

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta warned that Trump’s return to the White House could embolden Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, giving him a “blank check” in the Middle East and increasing the risk of war with Iran.

Panetta expressed concern that Trump would support Netanyahu’s aggressive stance against Iran without restraint, potentially worsening regional instability.

Panetta also predicted Trump might allow Russia to retain parts of Ukraine if he returns to office, though he doubted Trump’s negotiation skills.

He criticized Trump’s approach to foreign policy, suggesting Trump would be inclined to “capitulate” to authoritarian leaders, which may not sit well with some Republicans.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    232 hours ago

    Trump voters: “Trump is the most peaceful president ever. We need to bring the defence spending to Ukraine home. America first”.

    Trump is elected and inevitably drags the US into yet another war in in the Middle East

    Trump voters: Pikachu face

    Nah. Just kidding about that last part. It was all just empty rhetoric to justify the grift and looting all the way down as the country burns to the ground in the background.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      91 hour ago

      Trump is very isolationist. I’d be quite surprised if he committed to any conflict directly. Funding Israel to fight for him however…

      • @krashmo
        link
        English
        423 minutes ago

        I find it odd when someone says Trump is this or Trump is that as if he’s consistent on anything. His absurd narcissism is the only consistent thing about him. You can bet your ass he would drag us into a war if it would stroke his ego in some way.

        That is what makes him so uniquely dangerous. He has no ideology to speak of. His focus shifts back and forth so often that trying to predict exactly what he’s going to do is impossible. You can say with certainty that he won’t be motivated by any sort of desire for the public good but that’s about as specific as you can get until he starts doing something.

  • @WrenFeathers
    link
    English
    559 minutes ago

    Take your bow single-issue voters and protest voters. We tried to warn you.

    You did this.

  • Flying SquidM
    link
    English
    1414 hours ago

    Congratulations, idealists. You definitely stopped the genocide by refusing to vote for Harris and urging others to do likewise. A+ job.

    • @Siegfried
      link
      English
      9
      edit-2
      1 hour ago

      “They” weren’t persons holding “real” opinions, I’m afraid. Just as the russians calling for “russophobia” 2 months prior to the special genocidal operation

    • @lennybird
      link
      English
      33
      edit-2
      3 hours ago

      I truly cannot grasp how uninformed one has to be to claim to be for Palestinians but think helping Trump’s odds was strategically better. Such profound ignorance is on par with maga, themselves.

      On another note I want absolutely nothing to do with Mehdi Hasan. I supported him for quite some time but he got tunnel vision to such a degree he ended up thinking completely irrationally and contributing to the problem. He’s venturing into Jill Stein territory for me.

    • @OCATMBBL
      link
      English
      544 hours ago

      Oh he’ll help end the genocide alright. You can’t genocide a people that’s already wiped off the planet.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        273 hours ago

        ukraine is gonna get ‘helped’ similarly. putin will have a free pass once the u.s. aid stops. i don’t think the other nato countries or the e.u. can cover that, especially long-term.

        • @humorlessrepost
          link
          English
          103 hours ago

          I hope as soon as US aid stops, they launch everything they have at major Russian cities.

          • metaStatic
            link
            fedilink
            82 hours ago

            right? they’re holding back for conditional western aid. as soon as the aid ends those conditions mean nothing.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          21 hour ago

          I think the EU will change. If Ukraine falls, territory grabs from Poland, Finland and Hungary are next. Those are actually EU constituents.

          Hungary will not leave the EU btw. Orbán’s days are numbered, what with the Tisza overflowing.

    • @_bcron_
      link
      English
      43 hours ago

      I’m expecting mega stupid bullshit like Trump lifting sanctions in exchange for Russia standing down so Trump can send American planes over and show the world we have the biggest and best bombs, while his megadonors line up for Russian contracts and celebrate

      • Flying SquidM
        link
        English
        163 hours ago

        Israel. What’s your point?

        • @IndustryStandard
          link
          English
          -26
          edit-2
          3 hours ago

          Cool so Trump won’t be responsible for stopping the genocide either. Everything falls on Israel.

          • Flying SquidM
            link
            English
            143 hours ago

            No shit. That has nothing to do with this discussion.

            • @IndustryStandard
              link
              English
              -153 hours ago

              Why did you bring up the genocide if you do not believe the American president has any responsibility for it? Biden has funded 70% of the cost of the genocide.

              • Flying SquidM
                link
                English
                12
                edit-2
                3 hours ago

                Gosh I don’t know, maybe because a huge number of people decided to allow in a rapist fascist dictator who is going to conduct his own two genocides domestically, thinking their protest vote or their protest abstention would totally teach the Democrats a lesson regarding Israel?

                Have you spent the week in a cave?

      • Flying SquidM
        link
        English
        73 hours ago

        What are you even talking about? Harris is the Vice President. Exactly what do you think her job responsibilities and powers are?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          -12 hours ago

          She said she would not have changed a single decision that was made during the Biden administration. Biden said that she was in 100% agreement with every decision made. Which means she agreed to the current conditions

          • Flying SquidM
            link
            English
            92 hours ago

            I really hope you find solace in the idea that Harris and Trump would be equally bad for the world as Trump throws America into the garbage and tries to take the planet with it.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              -22 hours ago

              Do you have any idea how much CO2 biden’s proxy wars have dumped into the atmosphere? How many chip manufacturers were given environmental exemptions for chip manufacturing? The actions from Democrats mirror the actions from Republicans. The only difference is that Republicans say all of those things out loud

              • Flying SquidM
                link
                English
                62 hours ago

                Again, I hope you find solace in the idea that Trump and Harris are exactly the same when things get really awful. I’m sure you’ll feel much better about yourself not voting for her.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  118 minutes ago

                  I find solace in not allowing the continued rightward march of Democrats. Liberals are 100% to blame for our current conditions for never holding their own people accountable. At their current pace the DNC will be on par with people like McConnell in a few years.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  42 hours ago

                  Block him, Squid. He’s doing this in every thread and you need to put this energy towards more important things.

      • @PunnyName
        link
        English
        22 hours ago

        Tell us you don’t know what a VP does without telling us you don’t know what a VP does.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness
      link
      fedilink
      -184 hours ago

      Okay my man look at the margins. The anti-genocide people could’ve all voted and it wouldn’t have flipped a single state outside of Michigan. And the thing is: Harris lost before Michigan even finished counting. So yeah, you’re barking up the wrong tree here.

      • @PugJesus
        link
        English
        253 hours ago

        The anti-genocide people could’ve all voted and it wouldn’t have flipped a single state outside of Michigan.

        See, if you’d said the anti-genocide people who protest voted could’ve all voted for Harris, you might’ve had a point.

        But turnout in this election for the Democratic candidate was significantly decreased, and an uncertain number of those were anti-genocide.

        Abstaining gave Trump the presidency. Abstaining for what reason varies, but Gaza was clearly an issue for some to stay home.

        • Flying SquidM
          link
          English
          183 hours ago

          This is one of the excuses they are giving rather than accept any culpability whatsoever. “Even if we voted for Harris, Trump would still have won.”

        • @lennybird
          link
          English
          93 hours ago

          This not to mention down-ballot congressional races.

          • @PunnyName
            link
            English
            42 hours ago

            Gave them everything they fucking wanted. This country is cooked.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness
          link
          fedilink
          53 hours ago

          Abstaining gave Trump the presidency. Abstaining for what reason varies, but Gaza was clearly an issue for some to stay home.

          Yes, and I’m saying that Gaza wasn’t an issue for enough people to matter. Harris needed Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan to win, and while I can see pro-Palestinian votes swinging Michigan I simply doubt there were enough of them in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to matter. If you think otherwise, then you have more faith in the American people than me I guess.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1
        edit-2
        1 hour ago

        There is no way for you, or anyone, to know how many people abstained from voting over any one issue, 🤡

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        83 hours ago

        The outcome of the election doesn’t change the fact that 18% of voters wasted their vote on a Russian plant.

        In the end it didn’t matter but it does matter that they knew the election was close and their protest vote could’ve very well been the deciding factor. They decided to make the statement despite the risk of having someone much worse winning. Now, go plead your cause to Trump.

      • Flying SquidM
        link
        English
        33 hours ago

        Please give me the numbers of these in every swing state along with how they were determined.

  • @iAvicenna
    link
    English
    143 hours ago

    At some point some people were even saying Harris is worse than the same. For your sanity, I only hope you don’t have family in the Middle East.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      93 hours ago

      Rashida Tlaib’s district is a prime example of this, she kept her seat by a wide margin while Dems lost the state. They decided to ignore their voter base and suffered the consequences.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        62 hours ago

        It’s pretty normal for people not to vote for someone genociding their family. It’s her fault, not the voters. The same way Democrats threw away the votes of the left and Palestinians because they didn’t care if they were being genocided is the same logic the right uses to vote for Trump for the economy despite all the damage he’ll do to women and other minorities. You’re all equally selfish and you don’t have the moral high ground when you’re supporting a genocide and quieting any dissent on it. People tried to say this could lose her the election, but nothing can be the politicians fault, of course, just the voters.

        Anyway, turns out it wasn’t the genocide anyway. She lost Michigan because of it probably but it didn’t matter anywhere else, and she lost the election before it was even added. You can add up all the third party votes and it didn’t amount to shit. It was the economy. It always is. People in fucking rural Pennsylvania haven’t been reading hexbear posts or whatever. They just didn’t buy what she was selling.

        Or course, if it was the genocide, that just proves what the left was saying all along: she’s got to do better on this issue or she can lose the election, and she’d rather lose than not do a genocide. Turned out she probably would’ve lost either way but still, hopefully the next Democrat candidate will do better, or we can supplant the party with a new one that can run an actual campaign. You can keep doing the bullying thing, but it didn’t work this election, or in 2016, and it won’t work next election either. Stop trying to convince the voters to care about what you want them to care about, and telling them not to care about what you don’t care about, and time to meet them where they are.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    32 hours ago

    I mean… there can’t be an ongoing genocide if they are all dead taps temple

    (God I hate this planet now…)

  • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
    link
    English
    103 hours ago

    We didn’t get the Bell Riots but maybe we’ll get a WWIII.

    Still have my fingers crossed for Irish Reunification this year.

    • Ben Hur Horse Race
      link
      fedilink
      English
      455 minutes ago

      lol within a year or 2024?

      I havent heard a peep a… oh its a star trek thing gotcha

    • @OccamsTeapot
      link
      English
      31 hour ago

      Maybe Trek was just a few years off on the Bell Riots

  • 2ugly2live
    link
    English
    12 hours ago

    Here’s the other side that was “just as bad.”

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    12 hours ago

    ML are like “oh, maybe Joe wasn’t so bad”

    Haha, nah, they never cared about genocide.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1
      edit-2
      2 hours ago

      No leftist thinks “Joe wasn’t that bad”. On his watch Israel has killed an estimated almost 200,000 people (using more accurate figures by the Lancet and people on the wrong since their health center basically can’t count anymore since they don’t have the infrastructure), started their initiation of the general’s plan starving out Northern Gaza, made everyone but a doctor flee the last hospital in Northern Gaza, start taking over West Bank, killed a record number of journalists in any conflict ever, kill the people they were negotiating with multiple times, and let them start a war with Lebanon and Iran. Oh and also sent backup to Yemen and put troops in Israel to protect them from retribution since apparently Israel is the only country allowed to defend themselves. Trump will do the same thing, but just talk about it more. It’ll be tough for him to reach those heights, even if he sends more troops in, it’ll just be continuing the logical next step of what Biden was doing.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    22 hours ago

    Oh my goodness, those free Palestine protests are really going to step up in the U.S. !

    Just kidding, they’re done, mission accomplished. They were never about Gaza, just about disenfranchising Democrats as part of social engineering to ensure a Trump win.

    Let me ask you this, dear concerned protesters: Who was the protest leadership? I don’t mean the local organizer. Who was directing the protests at the national level? I sure as shit don’t know.

    • masterofn001
      link
      fedilink
      English
      01 hour ago

      Common decency and morality, maybe?

      Fee Palestine protests aren’t new.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -11 hour ago

        “Common decency and morality” just got a vindictive, hateful pos elected. The Gaza protest emphasis on Biden or Harris but never, NEVER on the Republican lead Congress that votes on foreign aid is rather telling.

  • @9point6
    link
    English
    4
    edit-2
    3 hours ago

    For everyone not aware, given everything else that’s going on—yes, that’s world war

    • Flying SquidM
      link
      English
      304 hours ago

      Yes, apart from the blank check part and Trump telling Netanyahu to “finish the job” on national TV, no real change at all.

      Oh, and also the impending genocides of brown and queer people, but I was told before the election that those weren’t important and/or wouldn’t happen.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -123 hours ago

        What in the past 13 months has made you believe that Biden is not giving Israel a blank check to what they want and just finish the job?

        • Flying SquidM
          link
          English
          133 hours ago

          The fact that it hasn’t happened?

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            -8
            edit-2
            3 hours ago

            It is happening. Look at what they’re doing in Northern Gaza. Look at the townhalls they have where they openly talk about settling it once they wipe out that entire area. And you think it’s going to stop there? Look at them banning the UNRWA and look at how they now passed a new law aimed at deporting anyone related to “terrorists”. Look at how they’re now starting to demolish homes in the West Bank too.

            It’s fucking happening already. What are you waiting for to say that Biden is supporting it? For Israel to finish the fucking job?

            • Flying SquidM
              link
              English
              83 hours ago

              Israel has not been given a blank check from the U.S. It simply hasn’t. I’m not sure why you’re trying to claim otherwise.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                -73 hours ago

                I just gave you the fucking reasons. Why don’t you give me why you think they haven’t?

                • Flying SquidM
                  link
                  English
                  103 hours ago

                  Because congress allocated a specific amount of money for arms sales to Israel. This isn’t a secret.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -6
        edit-2
        3 hours ago

        Biden and Harris was/is still finishing the job. Trump may have said it out loud, but it’s happening right now.

        Harris abandoned queers, brown people, and the entire progressive side of the party and needed to pay the consequences.

        I hope those right wing votes they courted were worth their efforts

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          42 hours ago

          Harris abandoned queers, brown people, and the entire progressive side of the party and needed to pay the consequences.

          No, the queer community, brown people, disabled people, etc will now pay the consequences. gg

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            12 hours ago

            This brown queer person says that Harris was the wrong person for the job, we have our own agency and don’t need liberals to speak on our behalf. We’re capable of speaking for ourselves. Many Brown queer people that I’m familiar with felt the same and voted accordingly

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              01 hour ago

              Well, they know who you are, and you better believe that you are on several of their lists. So hopefully you will be able to take solace in the fact that you “took the high road” during the last real election this country will ever have, when you’re huddled up in some white person’s basement, hiding from the government.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                112 minutes ago

                So brave of you to try and come white knight for us as our protector. What would we do without white CIS people to guide us?

        • Flying SquidM
          link
          English
          73 hours ago

          Ah, another new excuse to avoid any responsibility. “It doesn’t matter that I didn’t vote for Harris because it will be just as bad in Gaza either way.”

          Anything to help you sleep at night.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              2
              edit-2
              2 hours ago

              Realistically: Less than 11.

              Armchair: 3 or 4.

              Trump’s people seem eager to turn this into an open regional conflict with direct US action and boots on the ground. Once that happens we are cruising towards a world war, and no one will even be thinking of Gaza any more.

              Edit to be clear: I’m not minimizing what’s happening in gaza. It’s terrible. But it can get a whole lot worse.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                11 hour ago

                I’m not trying to come across as rude…but have you been living under a rock? How on earth is what’s going on currently a 3 or a 4? There’s literally an extermination campaign in Northern Gaza where Israel is executing everyone they see and routinely attacking the only functioning hospital left. And I’m saying function VERY loosely. Not to mention all the attacks they do kn the rest of Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, or the regional escalations with Iran.

                It’s already at 11.

                • @Zorque
                  link
                  English
                  11 hour ago

                  The implication is that 11 is as bad as it gets. Unless you’re like a hundred, you’ve never seen 11. It can get so so worse.

                  Yes, people are dying. And it’s horrible. But acting as though this is the worst it’s ever been or will ever be is laughable.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  1
                  edit-2
                  1 hour ago

                  Yeah it’s about to go region wide. Many 10s of millions more will be in active combat zones. What we have now is just a primer.

                  Edit As a highwater, Israel flirts with nuking Iran if they become nuclear capable.