Comments by "Catherine Birch" (@catherinebirch8263) on "Pod Save the World" channel.

  1.  @Fanney47  All I'm saying is ... I've got no doubt that you are correct that things aren't as good as they could be. However I'm prepared to wager they are so much better than the rest of the world.
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  2. His predecessor was gotten rid of another way. From Wikipedia (with references provided) "In July 1995, Netanyahu led a mock funeral procession featuring a coffin and hangman's noose at an anti-Rabin rally where protesters chanted, "Death to Rabin". The chief of internal security, Carmi Gillon, then alerted Netanyahu of a plot on Rabin's life and asked him to moderate the protests' rhetoric, which Netanyahu declined to do." Rabin was assassinated a few months later. None of which seems to have particularly bothered the Israelis who proceeded to elect Netanyahu as their Prime Minister. Not as if they didn't know what they were getting.
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  3.  @scarletsletter4466  Yeah, but really ... as if the US could care less about secular democracies! There was a secular democracy in the Middle-East in the 1950s and the US crushed it completely in order to re-install a king who gave them cheaper oil access. That country was Iran. It is only an Islamist country because the mullahs were the only group who could hold together enough people to mount an insurrection against the US installed king who wasn't JUST a king, he was a dictator whose actions were comparable to those of Sadam Hussein. Who, BTW, was backed by the US for quite some time. I have no doubt that there are extremists in the Middle east who wish harm to the West - because it has caused them extreme suffering on a massive scale. Mostly they just want the West to Get Out.
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  4.  @scarletsletter4466  And when the US has a cheaper or comparably priced alternative to Middle East oil it will create a new cess-pit in whatever country(s) the resources that requires abound. For example, many alternative energy sources require batteries for stability. Batteries require resources.
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  5. So the longer Israel remains the more things remain the same. That's how it was established - by Zionist terrorists telling Palestinians they were going to burn down their houses but they could go somewhere else first.
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  6. Answers in order: [Ukraine] Does it matter? They've served their purpose and no People will die. [Russia] Russia is certainly weakened, which is why the US is doing everything it can to prolong the war in Ukraine as long as possible. And no People are being killed. Just a few hundred thousand Russians and Ukrainians. [Israel] Israel of all countries is aware that a holocaust doesn't eliminate terrorist opposition. (Google Abba Kovner who planned to poison 6 million Germans after WWII) However they are not just committing this one in retaliation. They want to expand their territory. [American anti-zionism] Not really a thing. However acceptance of Zionism being reinforced by NO MATTER WHAT means may be waning. Last I heard there was little to no American objection to its continued enforcement by burning out Palestinian civilians to make room for more Jewish settlers.
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  7. He's a puppet. He goes where the US tells him to when the US tells him to go there and says what the US tells him to say.
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  8. So the US government policy of destabilising Syria while Israel invades, has not changed.
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  9. I detest the overuse of the word Evil, but what other word is there for this? The US has inflicted so much serious damage and death and devastation on Middle Eastern countries. It is stomach turning.
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  10. ​ @mahoganyk  So Jews in Israel can enact a holocaust on Palestinians any time they feel like it and not have it called out for what it is. The reason being that at some time in the past their own ethnic group was persecuted in Russia. I Think Not!
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  11.  @mahoganyk  So Israeli Jews can commit a holocaust against Palestinians without being called on it because another groups of Jews were persecuted by Russia? That argument holds no water.
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  12. Duh.
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  13. How exciting! The US might consider withdrawing its support for war in some vague unspecified way unless Israel announces some some vague unspecified protection of some Gazan citizens! Personally I might have suggested that the way to protect Gazans is to stop killing them. But then that's me - simple minded. The exciting part is waiting to see what the Biden government does next in its quest to deflect electoral backlash from its arming and funding of civilian massacres. While nothing could be as obscene as ethnic cleansing, the cynical US political manoevres around it are an obscenity all of their own.
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  14. Ben - there IS no traditional left/right divide on foreign policy. No substantially. Mostly just on how it gets talked about. When push comes to shove the US always acts to boost its Military-Industrial complex. Frankly, that’s been the foundation of US wealth and power since at least WWII. Bernie’s question about whether the US really believes in democracy is absurd. Of course it doesn’t. Not only has it never hesitated to crush fledgling foreign democracies which don’t give the US enough financial benefits, it has fallen well behind the rest of the Western World in achieving a democratic system of government. Trump is only one of many elected officials who've progressed from adopting corrupt behavior once elected to seeking re-election purely for the purpose of "representing" the highest bidder instead of those who elected him. And it's legal.
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  15. 8:30 The "stupidity" of American Foreign Policy. As I gathered life experience I eventually stumbled on a truth about other peoples' gross stupidity. More often than not it's not stupidity at all; it's simply that their objectives and values aren't what you assumed. The same applies to organizations. If your thinking hasn't calcified it's a learning opportunity for you about the other party.
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  16.  @user36112  Israel was cleared for settlement by burning Palestinians out of their houses. What kind of people (on the average obviously) would you EXPECT to settle there after that.
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  17. Israel wants more land. It's as simple as that.
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  18.  @user36112  Well it's immoral, blood-chilling and soul-destroying, but as for dumb - the US has done pretty well out of it so far. Still it's the soul-destroying part that might be starting to come home to roost.
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  19. I think it would be more accurate to say that if the Palestinians continue to be killed by Israelis only in far greater numbers than before October 7 that the innocent civilians of Gaza will be paying the price for the actions of Israel.
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  20.  @kevinw4267  Not necessarily. There's always a possibility Israel could decide to stop massacring Palestinians. But if not; YES. Collusion with fascism corrodes the soul.
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  21. 34:08 Talking about the Russians ... "The argument's gonna be that the US is a total hypocrite because we raise these concerns about war crimes in Ukraine but not in Gaza." Yep. Although doing everything it can to prolong the war in Ukraine other than risking American lives, while pretending to be concerned about Ukrainian lives, would rather tend to eclipse that.
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  22.  @allancarey2604  IMHO Australia forfeited its credibility when it attacked Iraq and is largely viewed on the world stage as a US lap dog.
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  23. Yes. The same double standards for Israel as for Trump. Both teflon.
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  24. At least Trump is going about expanding the American Empire openly and bringing its de-facto hegemony into the open. Meanwhile Biden, or whoever he's the front man for these days, is going out in Full Ethnic Cleansing mode while mumbling platitudes about how awful fascism is and what a Godd and Noble country the US is and how sacred its Democracy is. All things considered I prefer the Trump approach. I expect that all that will change with Trump is the rhetoric. He'll either keep the War against Russia going, but with different rhetoric around it, or he'll end it for a war that the oligarchs think will be more lucrative.
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  25. Biden's doing everything he can think of. To stop the electoral backlash I mean. Not to stop the G
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  26. 40:35 Talk about Biden getting to a ceasefire in Gaza and getting the (Israeli) hostages released. It was my understanding that Biden has a day job - President of the United States. A country that is within a hairsbreadth of RE-electing a Trump as its next President, which seems to indicate there is significant urgent and pressing work there. Should Biden know anyone with standing to negotiate the release of the hostages that would be a very great thing. Meanwhile, Biden should stop sending Israel weapons and intelligence and stick to his day job.
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  27. Er ... because the USA told them to? Thanks to extending this war as the long as it possibly can, the USA pretty much OWNS Ukraine now.
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  28. Ukraine will do whatever the US tells it to. By this stage of the war, the US effectively owns it.
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  29. Every week this war can be extended by Russia gets a bit weaker. What do you think the whole thing's been about? Because it sure as heck isn't about helping Ukraine.
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  30. The the US will find itself up against a country that can hit back for the first time in a very long time. When Zelensky said how the US is protected by a "nice ocean" he put his finger on one of the central pillars of the American Empire.
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  31.  @ChokeOnHamburder  I couldn't agree more. I'm saying that blaming Kissinger doesn't exonerate the US government.
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  32. Not unless they're time travellers. The israelites were inhabitants of ancient Israel and Judah, which were destroyed around 600BC.
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  33. 49:30 Australia and NZ - Glib. Superficial. And really, if NZ wants a more conservative government that is for their own reasons. I don't know what they are. Neither do you.
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  34. It was clear from Day 1 of the response that Biden was not only willing but eager to support Israeli atrocities by all means possible. Financial support, armaments, American military intelligence and up to and including direct American military involvement to shield Israel from any country trying to prevent its attacks. At that point IMO the Pod needed to change horses in the Presidential race. That was the point that separates those who still care from those whose vision stops at the Republican/Democrat divide.
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  35. Actually you should be considering the wishes of the Palestinians who I dare say have a teensy bit more of an idea what they're talking about when it comes to their own welfare.
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  36. The real question isn't about demanding a ceasefire. So half-assed when you're supplying the missiles being fired. Not to mention military intelligence and backup. No need to for US to solve the problem - it just needs to stop causing it.
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  37. "I'm beginning to think that the US just need constant enemies". Yes. George Orwell wrote a book about it once upon a time. How much difference is there in practice between a system where the government runs Big Business, and a system where Big Business runs the government? Capitalism and Communism might be at different ends of a piece of string, but that piece of string is shaped in a circle and the extremes of both systems blend into each other.
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  38. Ya think?! Biden is a hard-core American Exceptionalist. World beware.
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  39. What makes you think that Israel and the US aren't simply colluding? It makes far mor sense than the hypothesis that Israel is telling the US what to do.
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  40. Because Israel is American colony founded by Zionists with American military, political, and financial support.
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  41. 28:30 "The notion of an American oligarch trying to select the leadership of various democracies ..." Notable how you explicitly limit your concern to democracies. It implies that you have no problem with trying to select the leadership of non-democracies. Why not? Also notable that you limit your concern to direct interference by oligarchs. Because US oligarchs have been hand-in-glove with US governments for many decades. Over that time they have routinely interfered in the leadership of foreign governments, some democracies, some not, the only difference being that the oligarchs have been one-step-removed from the interference. However they have profited from it immensely. Mostly Trump is just removing the veneer or making it more transparent. It's almost as if you've been brainwashed not to think about what lies beneath the veneer - every time you get too close you kind of glide off it.
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  42.  @m.a.b.4104  OK I've never fully understood the left-right thing. So I wouldn't be a bit surprised if I were wrong. But surely, joining a post-WW2 overwhelmingly Euro-American colonization of land that was cleared for settlement by burning Palestinians out of their houses isn't "strong left leaning".
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  43. Immigration will either be controlled by reasonable people, or it will be controlled by unreasonable people. The majority of the population of any country will not stand for its society being swamped by residents from other countries and clashing cultures. Why hand the unreasonable people a surefire recruiting tool? Why push that majority only pushes them into the arms of people they'd never normally vote for? Instead of allocating negative labels to that majority and associating uncontrolled immigration with virtue, what should really be done is to address the root causes of mass emigration from other countries into the West. Many of those people are fleeing violence and chaos either caused by or egregiously exacerbated by the West pouring weapons into conflict zones and backing coups. Stop doing that. Stop pouring weapons into Israel. Stop pouring weapons into Ukraine. Stop invading and destabilizing other countries.
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  44. A US State Dept report says that Is* may (may!) have broken international law in Gaza. No kid. Of course, the State Dept can't really be sure ... By the time they decide to publicly report being pretty sure really all things considered ... presumably the recently paused (not, as some have reported, halted) shipment of 3,500 munitions to Is* will have been made. Although it makes little difference really since that is around 1 per cent of the munitions that Is* has already dropped on Gaza. Presumably I* also has large numbers of munitions stockpiled for further attacks, and still more for use in self defense. Although the pause will make no difference to the killing presumably Biden hopes it will make a very significant difference to voting in the upcoming Presidential election. Shame, USA, Shame.
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  45. I don't necessarily recommend viewing this, but if you want to know 1% of what it's like living in a fascist country, Al Jazeera is currently showing footage of an eight-year old boy being shot in the back and killed by Israeli troops. It also shows what the streets are like, and details how the fascists are sending drones into holes in the walls of Palestinian houses. It is absolutely horrific.
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  46. Oh come on. Saudi Arabia has behaved terribly for decades and the US has stuck with it. Because oil. Because money. Now the Saudis are using their money to buy influence around the world and THAT's the problem? It's not as if a country not all that far from the feet of the Pod crew would ever do that!
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  47. At this point you really have to question Joe Biden's Muslim thing. Does he seriously intend to use the death of 3 American soldiers as an excuse to attack another country? Biden was in favour of the second American invasion of Iraq (by George Bush II, the first was by George Bush I). He continues to finance, arm, and provide political and military support for the massacre of tens of thousands of Palestinians. I've read that Biden believes the death of his son Beau might be attributable to toxic burn pits in Iraq. Could he blame Muslims for that? I mean, the burn pits were created by the US and presumably have killed far more Iraqis than US military. And the US invasions cause horrific damage in Iraq itself and the Middle East in general. However I doubt either of these things factor into Biden's world view.
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  48. Yes they came through the persecution on the moral high-ground but ceded it almost immediately by using using terrorist tactics to clear the land they wanted for their own of Palestinians.
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  49.  @alectictac  Oh. Well that's alright then. Collude away.
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  50.  @mkhedart0mt0avari  But most countries could care less about what or how much the US does to secure a ceasefire or prevent a wider conflict. All we want is for the US to stop enabling the wars and massacres.
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