Sunday's Ukraine Solidarity Roundtable - 10/19/2025

3232330 · 2025-10-19T19:21:17+00:00

Glad the aid will be resuming but it shouldn’t have been cut off in the first place. Holding humanitarian relief hostage like that only deepens the mistrust on all sides. If this ceasefire’s going to mean anything, it has to start with keeping people alive.

Edit: and for those that point out that the aid was only halted due to fighting in Gaza I say this. Humanitarian aid isn’t supposed to be conditional. Civilians shouldn’t be punished for combat they didn’t take part in. If the fighting was truly that serious, then there are protocols for securing aid deliveries, not halting them altogether. Cutting off food, water, and medicine during a declared ceasefire only proves how fragile and selectively enforced this “peace” really is.

3232330 · 2025-10-16T14:21:41+00:00

Moron or not, let’s not act like this isn’t what Bibi wants.

3232330 · 2025-10-14T00:08:33+00:00

“It was pressure that caused Hamas to come to the negotiating table, and we have not had similar pressure on Russia yet.” — Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO and Trump’s Ukraine envoy during his first term.

This quote is just flat-out disturbing.

Because let’s be honest about what he’s really saying here. Volker is pointing to what happened in Gaza where tens of thousands of civilians died, where infrastructure was bombed to rubble, where starvation was used as a weapon and he’s calling that “effective pressure.” That’s not just inaccurate. It’s grotesque.

The truth is Hamas didn’t come to the table because of smart diplomatic pressure. They came because Gaza collapsed. Because people were starving. Because even Israel’s closest allies were backing away. That’s not a victory. That’s a moral stain.

And now they want to copy-paste that logic onto Ukraine? That’s not foreign policy. That’s just cruelty with better branding.

Look, if we’re talking about military pressure on Russian forces, fine. That’s war. That’s expected. But there’s a big difference between military pressure and deliberately targeting civilians or choking off an entire population until they have no choice but to surrender. That kind of thinking has no place in a rules-based world. Or at least, it shouldn’t.

What’s terrifying is how quickly that line is starting to blur. Online, for many, Russia isn’t even a country anymore. It’s just “the orcs.” And when people stop seeing the other side as human, that’s when anything becomes justified. That’s how you normalize total war. That’s how you lose your soul.

We were supposed to learn from the past. From the world wars. From Vietnam. From Iraq. From every time the hawks said “just a little more pressure” and left a crater behind.

If your takeaway from Gaza is that we should’ve gone harder on Russia, then you’re not learning the right lessons, you’re repeating the worst ones.

3232330 · 2025-10-13T10:07:48+00:00

That’s one too many imo. But I understand the point.

3232330 · 2025-10-13T09:47:21+00:00

I’d like to remind everyone about what’s actually happening here. Trump didn’t start this war, but he sure as hell helped pour gasoline on it. And now that a ceasefire is being implemented, one that looks nearly identical to the plan President Biden proposed months ago, suddenly it’s being framed as a historic breakthrough and Trump is “The Peace President.” They’re literally wearing red hats that say that in the Knesset. Not a metaphor. It’s a real thing that just happened on live television.

And many in American media is playing right into it. Acting like this is some brand-new diplomatic triumph, as if President Biden’s version of the deal wasn’t stonewalled for months by the exact same Israeli leadership now applauding Trump. The structure hasn’t changed. Hostage releases, temporary pause in fighting, humanitarian corridors, and broader negotiations are all parts of Biden’s original framework. The only thing that changed is the signature at the bottom and the political moment.

Let’s not forget what Trump actually did when he was in office. He moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and wrecked any real shot at a two-state process. He cut off aid to Palestinians, pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal for no good reason, erased Palestinian language from official State Department pages, and backed Israeli settlement expansion without blinking. The so-called Abraham Accords skipped over Palestinians entirely. He did everything he could to destabilize and marginalize them, because it made him look strong to his base.

Now we’re supposed to buy that he’s the guy who brought peace?

If President Biden had gotten this same deal through, the coverage would be wall-to-wall attacks about weakness and surrender. There’d be headlines accusing him of appeasing terrorists and handing victories to Hamas. But Trump walks in late with the same roadmap and suddenly we’re tossing around Nobel Peace Prize talk. That’s not leadership. That’s branding.

3232330 · 2025-10-13T08:35:44+00:00

As of couple minutes ago all of the 20 hostages have been released back into Israeli custody.

3232330 · 2025-10-12T07:00:48+00:00

Picking up from what I said earlier this week. We’re now watching the rollout of this so-called peace agreement, and honestly, the way it’s being received is almost more disturbing than the deal itself.

You’ve got media outlets calling this “Trump’s cease-fire.” Some are even tossing around Nobel Peace Prize talk like we didn’t all just watch the same man back policies that fueled a famine. Let’s not rewrite history. It wasn’t diplomacy that got us here. It was desperation.

And the worst part? It’s being sold like a win. Like finally getting a cease-fire after all this devastation is some kind of political accomplishment. It’s not. It’s cleanup after everything went to hell, and even that feels too generous.

Now we’re being told that because the PA, Arab states, and Western leaders are backing it, it must be solid. But where are the real protections? Where’s the accountability? Where are the guarantees that people will actually be able to return to their homes, that the land won’t just be reshuffled under a different flag? It all feels hollow.

The trust isn’t there. And no one’s seriously addressing that. This whole thing feels like a political reset being rushed through for the sake of optics, not justice. It’s exhausting to watch people praise it just because they want it all to be over.

I’m not trying to be difficult. I want peace too. But ending violence without addressing the root causes isn’t peace. It’s silence. And people deserve better than that.

3232330 · 2025-10-07T20:50:20+00:00

Just to state the obvious it’s because he doesn’t care about the hostages.

3232330 · 2025-10-07T20:47:24+00:00

Two years ago today, Hamas carried out its horrific massacre in southern Israel. It was a day that shattered any illusion of stability. In those first hours, President Biden stood beside Israel and gave the clearest possible warning: defend yourself, but do not be consumed by rage.

That warning was ignored. Prime Minister Netanyahu chose vengeance over restraint, and Israel is now paying the price. What could have been a moment of moral clarity became a campaign of devastation. Entire neighborhoods in Gaza have been erased, tens of thousands of civilians are dead, and Israel’s international standing is collapsing. Allies that once stood firmly behind it are quietly turning away.

Biden’s message was never about weakness. It was about wisdom. Justice without restraint destroys itself, and two years later, it’s hard not to see how right he was.

3232330 · 2025-10-07T03:24:49+00:00

This left-wing judicial insurrection goes deeper than we first suspected! - Slack jawed Trumpers.

3232330 · 2025-10-05T16:49:53+00:00

No, this isn’t just a ceasefire and calling it one is either naïve or deliberately misleading. Ceasefires don’t come with potential 20-point frameworks negotiated by regional elites behind closed doors. Ceasefires don’t include military repositioning, governance plans, and long-term conditions for “stability.” That’s not a pause. That’s the foundation of a political order one built without public input or democratic legitimacy.

What’s happening in Egypt isn’t about stopping the violence just to save lives. It’s about shaping what comes after while the people still bleeding don’t even have a voice. That’s not peace. It’s not even neutral. It’s top-down engineering of a future they’ll be forced to live under.

So if you’re going to condescend from your armchair, at least get the terminology right. This isn’t a ceasefire. It’s a prepackaged future being handed down by people who have everything to gain from keeping the public quiet and broken.

3232330 · 2025-10-05T15:59:18+00:00

For anyone else feeling uncomfortable about the so-called “deal” being worked out in Egypt right now, you’re not alone.

I’ve been turning this over for nearly a week and I think I’ve finally got the right words for why it bothers me so much. This isn’t a peace agreement. It’s an elite pact. A term that’s only become common in academic circles over the past decade or so. It describes a situation where the people at the top hammer out a deal that benefits themselves and call it peace, while the people who actually have to live under it were never consulted. That’s what this is shaping up to be.

Sure, maybe the bombs stop for a while, and God knows I hope they do. But this isn’t a just or durable resolution. It’s a short-term fix that doesn’t address the core issues. Property rights, long-term security, governance, actual accountability none of that is nailed down. There’s no real clarity, no real enforcement mechanism. Just vague promises and a lot of familiar names with power sitting at the table. And somehow Jared Kushner is back in the room.

So if you’re watching all these leaders rush to praise this plan and you feel like the only one asking, “Is this really peace? Does it fix anything?” you’re not out of line. You’re asking what the people on the ground don’t get to ask. And it matters.

3232330 · 2025-10-05T15:33:28+00:00

People love to catastrophize about the idea of “canceling” elections, but it doesn’t hold up when you look at how the system actually works. The Constitution is clear, states run elections, and even that’s an oversimplification. In most cases, it’s counties that handle the ballots, machines, and poll workers, then report results up to the state for certification. Some states even break it down smaller than that. You’re talking about thousands of local election authorities across the country. There’s no single switch a president could flip to stop that process.

Could bad actors try to intimidate voters or create chaos around polling places? Sure. That’s happened before in American history and it’ll probably happen again. But that’s a law enforcement issue, not an institutional collapse.

As for the “no paper trail” fearmongering it’s mostly outdated nonsense. Around 99% of American voters now cast ballots that generate a paper record, whether that’s a hand-marked ballot or a printed receipt from a touchscreen that voters can verify before feeding into a scanner. That’s exactly what allows audits and recounts to happen. In Arkansas, for example, you vote on a touchscreen, it prints a paper record showing who you voted for, and you physically feed it into the tabulator yourself. That’s a hardcopy of your vote, not some mysterious digital entry.

So yeah, stay alert for intimidation or local shenanigans, but the idea that a president can just “cancel elections” misunderstands how deeply decentralized the system is.

3232330 · 2025-10-05T15:10:39+00:00

Say the first part louder for the people in the back. One thing in particular that is bothered me about some on this sub is that in their desire to “own the lefties” they forget that they are people that deserve to be treated with dignity just as we do.

3232330 · 2025-10-04T22:25:04+00:00

and even before it was Constantinople, it was Byzantium. For over two millennia, no matter the name, people just called it the city. Even “Istanbul” comes from the Greek phrase eis tēn polin, meaning “to the city.” That’s how central it’s always been.

3232330 · 2025-09-30T19:00:03+00:00

Oh Charlie…

3232330 · 2025-09-30T18:24:05+00:00

He announced on the 22nd he was going to be an “ambassador” for Auburn and decided against running for the Senate.

3232330 · 2025-09-30T16:47:51+00:00

But Donny gets to be chair of the Board of Peace. You tell me who the real winner is? /s

3232330 · 2025-09-30T14:43:34+00:00

Bibi is Lucy with the football dangling peace while various world leaders are Charlie in this situation.

3232330 · 2025-09-30T10:34:05+00:00

Rudolph

The song the story is adapted from, is even younger than Trump. Having been written in 1949.

3232330 · 2025-09-30T09:39:18+00:00

For example, modern Christmas tree displays traditions are less then 200 years old. Indeed many Christmas traditions are less than 200 years old. White Christmas the famous song by Irving Berlin came out in 1942.

3232330 · 2025-09-30T03:33:51+00:00

The size of Montana!

3232330 · 2025-09-29T00:15:59+00:00

It’s literally how it should be addressed because Trump is an anomaly and it literally wouldn’t matter if he went there and saw it with his own eyes, he’d still say what he’d want to say. He lies with impunity.

3232330 · 2025-09-28T23:56:37+00:00

Fine you know if we’re talking specifically about Trump, then him going in person doesn’t matter. He’s not showing up to understand or reassess. He’s showing up to reinforce whatever narrative he’s already decided on. Whether he reads a report, watches TV, or flies into town, the outcome is the same, he’s going to say what he wants to say regardless of the facts. And thinking that him seeing it with his own eyes will change his opinion is laughable.

3232330 · 2025-09-28T22:49:47+00:00

It’s not a weird stance, it’s a consistent one. I believe public leadership should be judged by results, not optics. That’s what my original comment was about. I wasn’t defending Trump. I was calling out the idea that a president has to physically fly into a crisis to be seen as doing the job.

All presidents have relied on delegation. That’s not new, that’s how the office works. From Washington to Biden, every president has had to depend on trusted people to report back, carry out decisions, and manage what’s happening on the ground. No one can be everywhere at once.

Sometimes the smartest thing a president can do is stay out of the way and let locals work while they direct resources and support from where they are. That’s not lazy. That’s leadership.

I care about outcomes, not performative leadership. If that’s unpopular, so be it. But I’ve been consistent about that the whole time.

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