For years, AOC and the Squad postured as standard left-wing anti-war and anti-imperialism activists. They railed against massive US expenditures to Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and the CIA. Now they just voted for one of the largest war packages ever. Listen to @AOC's own words:
During AOC's 2018 primary, she was unknown. @RyanGrim suggested I look. I did and became an enthusiast. I interviewed her: she vowed to vote NO on Pelosi, railed against identity politics, said establishment GOP & Dems were the enemy, denounced war budgets. Where is *this* AOC?
Meanwhile, what can one even say about this Ilhan Omar statement: from March 8, barely two months ago? She says flooding Ukraine with massive amounts of US money and weapons would be "likely disastrous."
Then, with no explanation, she turns around and votes for *exactly* this:
Even more pathetic is the behavior of the Bernie/AOC left. They don't want it on their permanent record in the Guidance Counselor's office that they supported Biden's escalation in Ukraine.
But they're also not allowed to criticize the Squad, who just voted for it. What to do?
Facing this dilemma, the Bernie/AOC left opted for silence: abstained from what is, by far, the largest and most dangerous US war involvement in decades. A complete abdication.
So the only US left war opposition comes from Chomsky YouTube interviews and a few dissident voices.
Meanwhile, the only anti-war and anti-imperialism message in the US comes from a few dozen right-wing House members and a few Fox hosts. That's it.
The US left *internationally* is loudly opposed, but the mainstream US left are cowardly to supportive.
Even the NYT -- **even the war-supporting NYT -- is aghast that so few people have the courage even to question or scrutinize these gigantic expenditures and weaponry Biden is sending to Ukraine via Raytheon/CIA. The Squad is united with Marco Rubio and Liz Cheney: fully on board
The most amazing part of all is that not one Squad member who just hopped on board with neocons and the pro-war wing of both parties bothered to explain their vote. Some haven't mentioned Ukraine in months! But they know their followers don't care:
Two of the smartest young leftists on YouTube, long supporters of the Squad, confront the reality of who they are and what they just did with this vote to send $40b more to Raytheon and CIA "for Ukraine." For smart/honest leftism, watch @vanguard_pod:
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A Globo e autoridades brasileiras alegaram que a descrição de Zuckerberg das ordens "secretas" de censura do Brasil eram "sem provas".
Isso é desinformação. Há provas esmagadoras para isso. Em abril, a @Folha publicou um Editorial condenando a censura de Moraes e seu sigilo:
Enquanto a Globo defendeu repetidamente Moraes e suas ordens secretas de censura — da mesma forma que defendeu tudo o que Sergio Moro fez — a Folha, em 2024, condenou repetidamente o esquema de Moraes como perigoso, antidemocrático e inconstitucional:
Left-liberal Twitch streamers and YouTube shows knew that to attract a pre-election audience (money), they had to tell their viewers Kamala was *clearly* winning.
So they randomly anointed a random Twitter user, @Ettingermentumv, into a data guru, who assured them all of it.
For months -- including just a couple weeks before the election -- this fraudulent partisan data guru kept saying the polls were wrong, the polling experts were wrong, the secret numbers he saw made clear that Kamala wasn't just ahead but ahead by a good distance.
This is as much a problem with partisan independent media as partisan corporate shows: they have to validate their viewers' desire to believe things even if untrue.
So after all the profit and Substack subscriptions were sold by this fraud, he wrote his "I-was-wrong" confession:
The belief that Joe Rogan and those like him are just an updated Fox News -- a non-stop messaging of right-wing ideology -- is beyond stupid.
Those podcasts grew organically: in part because they're not ideological or partisan. They're normal conversations: how humans speak.
Depicting Rogan as a far-right ideologue is something only those who never heard his show would say. AOC separated from Bernie's campaign after Bernie touted Rogan's endorsement.
He is a vehement defender of same-sex marriage. He believes in full freedom for adults' personal lives. He frequently argues that corporate power is suffocating the lives of ordinary people, etc. etc.
The most consequential - yet overlooked - Trump era change is many debates are no longer shaped by old left/right divisions, but instead by who loves, respects, and is loyal to institutions of authority (Dems) and who believes they're fundamentally corrupted (Trump supporters).
Today's NYT column by @ezraklein notes obvious exceptions (abortion, gun control), yet argues the key difference between Kamala and Trump voters is how much one likes US ruling institutions.
Hence, Dems love CIA, FBI, DHS, corporate media. Even views of corporate power changed.
@ezraklein Think about key debates. Which is right or left?
- Trust in large media corporations.
- Opposition to BigTech/state internet censorship.
- Opposition to funding endless wars (Ukraine).
- Eagerness to remain tied to NATO and EU-based institutions.
While many people in the West believe that Russia/Putin are "isolated" - because their media tells them that -- 2 dozen world leaders are in Russia now for a 3-day BRICS conference.
BRICS itself includes the 2 most-populous countries and 4 of the top 10 most populous.
Beyond the founding 5 (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), it expanded to 5 more (including key US "partners" Egypt, UAE and maybe Saudi).
They "account for 45% of the global population" and 28% of global economy.
Key goal: a financial system independent of US dollar.
There's Western skepticism and even mockery that this huge confederation of countries -- united over perceived abuses of US/EU sanctions -- could create a non-dollar system. @TheEconomist takes it seriously.