The List

[Chap]

Perhaps this point has already been made on this thread.

But since the US is the major supplier of weapons to Israel, could Trump not have stopped this war a long, long time ago, before many tens of thousands of Gaza's civilians were killed by the IDF for crimes which seem to have amounted to no more than being within bomb blast range of someone who might possibly have been a Hamas terrorist? (That is, of course, taking a charitable view of IDF actions under which there was some justification for the civilian casualties inflicted, rather than suggesting that they just killed Gazan civilians because "Heck, why not? The only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian. Who needs an excuse?")

As things stand Trump seems to have waited until Israel had achieved pretty well all the war aims that Netanyahu's more fanatical cabinet members could have desired, including killing many thousands of children, before saying "OK Bibi, time to knock it off."

For the avoidance of doubt, the October 7th massacre was an appalling act of terrorism that killed or otherwise harmed thousands of innocent people.

Now can we get back to discussing Trump's merits as a peacemaker?

[canpakes]

Perhaps this point has already been made on this thread.

But since the US is the major supplier of weapons to Israel, could Trump not have stopped this war a long, long time ago, before many tens of thousands of Gaza's civilians were killed by the IDF for crimes which seem to have amounted to no more than being within bomb blast range of someone who might possibly have been a Hamas terrorist?

There were some attempts to limit sales and/or transfers of weapons and ordnance to Israel during the previous Administration based on concerns that they would be used against innocent civilians, but the initiative was resisted or criticized by many in Congress. That effort became an opportunity for Republicans to pillory Biden as ‘supporting Hamas’, but some Democrats were also against it.

https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spot ... d-to-gaza/

Now can we get back to discussing Trump's merits as a peacemaker?

Those merits would be easier to identify if he hadn’t spent the better part of the last decade trying daily to pit Americans against Americans.

[Xenophon]

Yeah, I don't seriously think Trump has a shot at winning. I just don't really care that much. I was puzzled as to why Obama won just a few months into his presidency. In the end, Obama turned out to be pretty militaristic. I think he was the first presidency to summarily execute a US citizen who had joined an Islamic terrorist group (Al-Alwaki in 2011). I thought that was a really ominous development and that it helped paved the way for our current predicament--Trump labeling citizens terrorists because they are allegedly "Antifa" and sending the military after them. He hasn't deliberately killed any of these alleged Antifa folk, but we may not be far off from such a thing happening, and I don't believe Obama is blameless in bringing us to this point.

Precisely. There is a reason Obama was nearly as disliked on the far-left as he was on the right. As to his Nobel, to me it never looked like anything more than a giant "F U" to the Bush admin. It doesn't really make any sense apart from that.

[canpakes]

Trump’s government shutdown will allow him to gut or eliminate some favorite targets, as promised.

Amid shutdown, Trump administration guts department overseeing special education

OCTOBER 13, 20255:00 AM ET


Sweeping layoffs announced Friday by the Trump administration landed another body blow to the U.S. Department of Education, this time gutting the office responsible for overseeing special education, according to multiple sources within the department.

The reduction-in-force, or RIF, affects the dozens of staff responsible for roughly $15 billion dollars in special education funding, and for making sure states provide special education services to the nation's 7.5 million children with disabilities.

"This is decimating the office responsible for safeguarding the rights of infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities," said one department employee, who, like the others NPR spoke with, requested anonymity for fear of retribution.

According to sources, all staff in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), with the exception of a handful of top officials and support staff, were cut in Friday's RIF. The office is the central nervous system for programs that support students with disabilities, not only offering guidance to families but providing monitoring and oversight of states to make sure they're complying with the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The layoffs at the Education Department, 466 in total, were part of broader cuts – some 4,200 jobs – announced by government lawyers in a court filing on Friday as the shutdown continues.

At the Education Department, it's not clear precisely how many workers in the special education office were cut. Department officials did not respond to NPR's requests for clarity or comment.

"Based on multiple reports from staff and their managers, we believe that all remaining staff in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), including the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the Rehabilitative Services Administration (RSA), have been illegally fired," said Rachel Gittleman, president of AFGE Local 252, a union that represents many Education Department employees.

"The harm these cuts will cause for the 7.5 million students with disabilities across the country is only beginning," Gittelman added.

Employees who received a notice Friday were told they would remain employed until Dec. 9.

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/13/nx-s1-55 ... sabilities

[Jersey Girl]

From YouTube comments.

@Iwillquietlyresist-h7w
3 days ago
Only a psychopath would destroy his own country to rule over the ashes.

[x] Strongly Agree

[Doctor Steuss]

The leaders of the Pro-Trump group Young Republicans had one of their group chats leaked. I'm sure you'll never guess what kind of stuff they were saying.

They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

Link

Included was also a smattering of praise for Nazis, and slurs like the n-word, the f-word and the r-word appeared over 250 times. Looks like the next generation is trying to stay pretty close to their Southern Strategy roots.

[This space reserved for everyone being super shocked.]

[Whiskey]

The leaders of the Pro-Trump group Young Republicans had one of their group chats leaked. I'm sure you'll never guess what kind of stuff they were saying.

They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

Link

Included was also a smattering of praise for Nazis, and slurs like the n-word, the f-word and the r-word appeared over 250 times. Looks like the next generation is trying to stay pretty close to their Southern Strategy roots.

[This space reserved for everyone being super shocked.]

C-word and L-word?

[Doctor Steuss]

Been a fun few days for the Republican party. The leadership for a Republican group (which included several state government representatives, a general counsel, and at least one worker for Trump's administration) had their pro-rape, pro-Hitler, racist group chat leaked. A congressman was found to have a swastika displayed in his office, and the official DHS account on X posted "Remigration," which is a far-right proposal for ethnic cleansing.

At some point, when bad apples keep being found in the bunch, it might be worth taking a look at the tree.

Remember though, even though they are making pro-Hitler and pro-Nazi comments in their private chats, and displaying a swastika in their office, and calling for ethnic cleansing in America, we can't describe any of these people as far-right, fascists, or Nazis, because that would be totally inaccurate.

I'm not even sure if we're allowed to call the head of the American Nazi Party (who endorsed Trump) a Nazi. Probably a secret Marxist progressive democrat paid by Soros to do Antifa terrorism false flags, or something.

[canpakes]

.

Remember though, even though they are making pro-Hitler and pro-Nazi comments in their private chats, and displaying a swastika in their office, and calling for ethnic cleansing in America, we can't describe any of these people as far-right, fascists, or Nazis, because that would be totally inaccurate.

It appears that we’ve reached a point where these folks openly call themselves Nazis; seems that it would be expected that others can logically and fairly use the same term when chatting about them, right?

[Kishkumen]

A little “on the nose” with that flag.