It’s too bad thousands of dead Palestinian kids do not get the same attention and generate the same public outrage as 7 aid workers working under a celebrity chef do otherwise the U.S. probably would have taken a firmer approach to Israel months ago. This long overdue approach of conditioning U.S. support on concrete and immediate actions to alleviate suffering and avoid civilian casualties is most welcomed but it is still too little too late as this should have been a starting point, a precondition to any foreign aid or weapons transfers, and not where we arrive after the deaths of over 10,000 kids and at least another 10,000 innocent adults.

U.S. tax payers should not be buying the bombs used to indiscriminately drop on innocent people even if there are a couple of terrorists hiding amongst them. Fighting a war like this where you are killing far more women and children than you are terrorists or even military aged men is only bound to create more terrorists than it destroys and make a solution to this decades old conflict even more allusive. It’s an absolute shame that the U.S. and Israel didn’t understand this before the post October 7th retaliation even started when much of the world was on its side and instead dealt with Hamas and justifiable Palestinian discontent in a much more effective way.

I sent in my vote for the Michigan Presidential Primary on February 27th 2024 and was just notified that it had been received. I strongly encourage you to vote in your State’s primary elections and not simply allow your November 5th options to be chosen for you. The U.S. needs to move on from Biden and Trump and the only other choices we have on the Democratic and Republican sides are Phillips and Haley and that’s an easy choice for me as an independent voter who seriously considers every viable candidate.

I hope others will step up and say NO! to a repeat of Biden vs Trump because I fear the Trump cult and a weak Republican Party who doesn’t dare to criticize their orange demigod will ensure that he is the Republican nominee and as was the case with Hillary in 2016 the Democratic Party will do all it can to prevent primary challengers in order to take a chance, a chance that is looking worse by the day, with the candidate most entrenched and loyal to the party rather than the one that actually stands the best chance of defeating the dangerous and delusional Donald.

Trump must not be reelected therefore we must choose the candidate most capable of beating him in November and at this time that candidate is Dean Phillips. I thank him for having the foresight to see what will happen in a Biden vs Trump rematch and the courage to go against the Democratic Party establishment and their undemocratic system of coronations of party elders and loyalists in order to ensure the U.S. doesn’t have to endure another Trump presidency. The U.S. needs a sane, moral, and pragmatic president that puts country before party and personal interests and that is why I support Dean Phillips for President.

I thought it was suicide when Navalny went back to Putin’s Russia in 2021 after recovering in Germany from being poisoned in Russia so although news of his death is sad it’s not surprising. At the same time Assange is still in a U.K. prison and his extradition to and imprisonment in the U.S. would set a chilling precedent for the free world and that is why I sent the following to my representatives in government.

While it’s good to see the U.S. and other nations that claim to cherish the right to free speech and support a free press provide their condolences and criticisms of those responsible for Navalny’s death it’s quite hypocritical of them to do so when Assange, an Australian citizen, is still rotting in a U.K. jail as he continues to fight against extradition to the U.S. where he faces up to 175 years in prison. Regardless of what you think of Assange no journalist should be prosecuted for shedding light on the misdeeds of those in power as that is their most important job and it’s why good journalists, freedom of speech, and a free press are essential in a free society.

Assange did not obtain the material he published illegally and the person that did was tried, convicted, and spent 7 years in prison. Whether or not that is too long or not long enough is up for debate however Assange has done nothing other than publish material that was in the public interest. Imagine how the U.S. would respond if someone in Russia leaked classified information which documented Russian war crimes to an Australian journalist that was based in the U.S.? Do you think for a second the U.S. would even consider sending this person to Russia to face punishment? The U.S. needs to decide if it’s going to start standing for the values it purports to espouse or if it’s going to continue to act like Russia has with Navalny.

It’s unreasonable for Israel’s UN Ambassador to accuse the UN Chief of “tolerating terrorism” and call for him to resign when all he said was “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation” moreover he followed by saying “the grievances of the Palestinian people can not justify the appalling attacks by Hamas and those appalling attacks can not justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”. Ignoring the underlying causes of this century-old conflict will not help achieve any kind of long-term peace and any attempts by Israel to rewrite, cover up, or silence those who shed light on the history of this conflict will fail regardless of how hard they try to keep people ignorant of the crimes, past and present, that their nation was built upon and continues to illegally expand upon in the West Bank.

With that said Israel did return all of Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005 and instead of making the most of it while peacefully advocating for an independent and contiguous Palestinian state they elected Hamas in 2006 who was already well-known for their violent fanaticism. Although Hamas did not win a majority of votes in that election and although most of the people in Gaza were too young or not even yet born to vote in that 2006 election they have been stuck with them for the past 17 years. As for the West Bank while all Israeli settlements there are illegal it unfortunately seems that continued Israeli military control, NOT continued settlement expansion, carried out as respectfully as possible is necessary until the vast majority of Palestinians come to the realization that despite being unjustly founded Israel is here to stay and that the best they can hope for is a two-state solution and that can only come by renouncing all forms of violence and opposing any groups or political parties that advocate for it.

Better yet if they could all put their religious differences aside and agree to a unified secular state, something like a Singapore of the Middle East, then there would be no need to put up security walls and fight over borders within the same country. Unfortunately there’s no shortage of violent fanatics on both sides who would never accept living with each other within a secular state and under a modern constitution that gave everyone equal rights. Maybe one day when more people can breakout of their old tribal mindsets such a state will be possible but in the meantime it seems the only viable path forward is two independent states living side by side but I think this would only work if the Palestinian state disarmed and allowed Israel to secure the borders in the interest of both states while allowing Palestinians to govern and police a contiguous Palestinian state under Palestinian law and under what I would hope would be a modern and tolerant Palestinian constitution.

What happened to those poor people in Israel on Saturday October 7th was horrific and it’s hard to believe such large-scale and indiscriminate violence specifically targeted at innocent civilians is even possible. To make things worse rather than seeking to reduce tensions and prevent future terrorist attacks Israel is responding exactly how Hamas wanted them to and as a result it has already lost much of the sympathy and support it had gained from that tragic and unprecedented terrorist attack.

Rather than relentlessly dropping bombs on such a densely populated area and preparing for a ground invasion and possible occupation Israel should have focused on replacing its own incompetent leadership and on fixing its massive security flaws by doing things like expanding the buffer zone around Gaza to the point it would be impossible to cross without ample time to detect, respond, and repel any future attacks. All aerial bombing should be reserved for clear and legitimate targets like rocket launch sites.

As for the monsters who orchestrated and perpetrated the October 7th attack/massacre if they aren’t killed on the spot and can be taken alive they should be sentenced to a life of hard labor or serve as test subjects for new drugs and vaccines. Regardless of the punishment I hope they all eventually meet up with Israeli Special Forces in precisely targeted operations because this is preferable to the current approach of mass bombing which is without a doubt creating more terrorists than it’s destroying and sowing the seeds for future violence.

P.S. Here is what I sent to the President and my state’s Senators. I also tried sending it twice to my representative in Congress but his website is garbage.

The U.S. needs to stop funding Israel and become a neutral broker of peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. It can start by advocating for an immediate cease-fire and the release of all hostages. The vast majority of people suffering in Gaza are not responsible for the atrocities committed on October 7th and therefore should not be collectively punished for them.

It’s already been two weeks since my vote and all the other votes were counted but I still feel I should thank and congratulate the U.S. voters who rejected many of the Trump-endorsed election-denying crazies who were endorsed by Trump not because they were the best choice for the country but because they were the best choice for him. It seems more Republican voters are waking up to the fact that with Trump it was never “America First” it was “Trump First” and it will always be “Trump First” and the sooner the rest of Republican voters wake up to this reality and start supporting candidates who are for democracy, against dictatorship, and put the country before their own narrow and narcissistic interests the better.