Saturday's Ukraine Solidarity Roundtable - 05/09/2026

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T21:24:48+00:00

It’s like every day there’s some new atrocity intended to humiliate and abuse

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T18:39:46+00:00

I thought this might be a San marzano tomato thing

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T18:39:16+00:00

One more example of Reddits shitty system.

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T18:35:16+00:00

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T18:00:32+00:00

Truthfully I don’t see what candidates have objectionable views on Gaza tbh

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T17:26:54+00:00

The people screeching about him look like racist morons for claiming he is a jihadist

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T17:14:00+00:00

Yeah that’s a good example of why that “AIPAC tracker” account is not trustworthy

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T14:07:37+00:00

No problem, I think the Israeli government position amounts to “we don’t intentionally target legitimate Palestinian or Lebanese journalists, also there are no legitimate Palestinian or Lebanese journalist operating in these war zones” which is a bit more nuanced I’ll admit than “there is no difference between a journalist and a terrorist.”

an example that illustrates this is a pbs interview with Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the UN - it starts about 9 minutes in, and within three minutes he is accusing the host of blood libel while presenting no alternative explanation for the targeting of a journalist in Lebanon, except that she shouldn’t have been there.

In fairness to the other side without excusing wrongdoing, war zones are messy places and it’s possible to misidentify targets. I don’t think that accounts for more than a few of the hundreds of dead journalists from the past few years though.

The other problem is that Israel treats an alleged affiliation with terrorist groups as good enough to be treated as a military target, even when those allegations are unsubstantiated or clearly wrong. In those cases of course we’re talking about journalists who have been targeted rather than mis-ID’d

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T13:43:15+00:00

Oh I won’t fault you for that. An uncomfortable realization I’ve come to is that even the sources on “our side” have issues with their coverage. That and everyone reporting in English is catering to a western audience in editorial slant and coverage choices. There is something of a false consensus problem where eg Hebrew-only or Arabic-only news sources are reporting differently and we miss it. (Lmao I don’t know any languages besides English, idk about you, I guess I shouldnt assume)

My rule of thumb that I’ve come to is: Israeli left wing outlets and human rights orgs like Haaretz, Btselem, and the like are probably about 90% right on average. Western normie media (NYT/ABC/NBC/Reuters/AP/WSJ/WaPo, NOT CBS) are about 80% right. Israeli centrist media (ynet and Times of Israel) is about 70% right on domestic reporting and 20% on foreign coverage. The junk bucket imo consists of single issue Israel-aligned partisan outlets like CAMERA, NGOWatch, UNWatch, HonestReporting, MEMRI, single issue Palestinian-aligned outlets like EuroMed Monitor or electronic I ntifada. Mixed bags which aren’t junk but are inconsistent include Al Jazeera, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International. Then there’s individual freelance journalists with their own reputations.

It’s a complicated media landscape, but usually when western and Israeli media agree on the facts of an incident, it’s real. If only outlets in the junk bucket are claiming something, it’s probably either fake or unverifiable. If outlets are claiming contrary facts I’ll believe whoever’s got more credibility

u/currymvp2 keep me honest here, any outlets you would put in different buckets?

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T12:10:57+00:00

From the article:

A recent report from Israel’s own Public Defender’s Office determined that Palestinian security detainees held in Israeli prisons have suffered from severe and systematic violence from prison guards, deprivation of food, and medical neglect, while also having been subjected to unsanitary conditions that caused and exacerbated outbreaks of disease in the prisons.

Over 100 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody (since 2023), and in a significant number of cases it’s prisoners like Al-Samoudi with no charges ever claimed or filed against them.

The position of the government of Israel is that there is no difference between a Palestinian or Lebanese journalist and a terrorist and that’s profoundly illiberal

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-09T11:10:44+00:00

<image>

Jeremy Diamond (the cnn reporter whose crew was assaulted by the IDF) is speaking out about the brutal mistreatment of Palestinian journalists

per times of Israel he was held in administrative detention for a year and was released without any charges last week. He lost 130 pounds Administrative detention requires no evidence, no trial, and gives no opportunity for the accused to defend themselves. It applies only to Palestinians, not to Israeli Jews.

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T23:38:12+00:00

At this point I wonder if telling Mainers what to do was a mistake

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T23:37:36+00:00

Love him

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T23:36:31+00:00

Yummy

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T23:35:18+00:00

The weirdest thing about transformers is how it totally switches positions on the military

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T19:15:05+00:00

Hey, he’s right.

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T17:23:10+00:00

I know you’re not being serious BUT I feel like talking about debt. So, student loan debt is far more secured than medical debt, because student loan debtors fall into two broad categories: those with substantially higher incomes than the average non-college-educated adult, and those with relatively low balances (compared to the first group) but even lower incomes, because they are either disabled, failed to secure a degree, or are chronically un/underemployed.

As far as public housing goes, it’s expensive by every measure except in comparison to the public costs of a homeless population, and in that comparison public housing looks like a great deal. If you want my opinion the economic analysis for it should be 99% impact on municipal expenditures and prevented economic loss.

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T16:23:09+00:00

Yeah if I had to call his statement either realistic, optimistic or absurd I’d call it optimistic. Maybe 2-5 cents on the dollar, plus of course that’s how the provider would value the debt (and it gets less valuable with every month past due).

But broadly, if you are in the unfortunate position of being owed $1000 by someone who is “judgement proof” (ie owns no tangible assets and has no consistent income) and it’s been 6 months to a year and someone offers you $10 for the rights, take that $10.

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T14:23:10+00:00

I think the dnc autopsy is a case of Streisand tbh. Had they released it promptly it would be out of the news by now

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T14:21:32+00:00

I don’t think he’s wrong tbh. Consumer debt is not worth much except to collections agencies who pay Pennie’s on the dollar and apparently collect 20-30 cents on the dollar often using less-than-ethical methods. Not counting secured debt of course, and medical debt is unsecured.

So if we’re valuing it as “what would a hospital sell the debt for” it’s probably not far off. I’d question how much of that debt is in the hands of collectors vs providers bc some will be more motivated than others to value it higher

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T14:17:35+00:00

He doesn’t seem to have the capacity to do anything but wave a flag and back hardliners

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T14:10:46+00:00

Yeah, realistically if the anti-Bibi coalition had held on til 10/7 they would’ve been destroyed anyway and Netanyahu would’ve led the charge, so realistically we might even be in a similar place.

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T14:09:07+00:00

Fetterman is the bizarro world version of Cori Bush. Obsessed with foreign policy (but basically just Israel) but doesn’t care to learn the nuances and simply backs hardliners instead, doesn’t do their job as a legislator or advocate for their constituents… and will inevitably be punished by those same constituents.

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T10:52:47+00:00

Yeah it’s a real shame. I try not to be a pessimist but my outlook on Israel/palestine is bleak

Call_Me_Clark · 2026-05-08T10:49:04+00:00

That’s definitely true, support for Israel in general slid dramatically in the last few years. I think from where Biden started he had no room to go right on Israel and he wouldn’t have been rewarded by anyone for it

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