Stephen Miles

Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 12, 2024 at 21:43 UTC

NEW Berkeley poll: Majorities of California's Democrats, liberals and younger votes want a ceasefire in Gaza. Plurality of Californians (41%) now want Israel to agree to ceasefire.

Most voters (44%) also think Israel's response to Hamas attack has been too much.
escholarship.org/uc/item/2r03...

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Stephen Miles @spmiles42.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 12, 2024 at 17:43 UTC

The obvious and necessary solution is #CeasefireNOW in Gaza, the underlying cause of the current crisis. Beyond that there is a desperate need for multilateral regional diplomacy with clear deescalatory steps. No matter what the blob thinks, we will not bomb our way out of this.

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Stephen Miles @spmiles42.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 12, 2024 at 17:43 UTC

President Biden should refrain from any further military action without congressional authorization and Congress should provide urgent oversight. Beyond that, we need to talk a lot more about the risk of a wholly unnecessary escalation into regional war and take steps to deescalate.

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Stephen Miles @spmiles42.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 12, 2024 at 17:43 UTC

And since we’re all about to hear a whole lot about “self defense” let’s be very clear. Under the WPR, President’s are required to seek authorization before knowingly introducing US forces into where combat may become imminent. It was written expressly for situations like this.

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Stephen Miles @spmiles42.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 12, 2024 at 17:43 UTC

US strikes against Yemen are a deeply troubling development for a number of reasons. First and foremost it’s an action clearly at odds with both the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution. Congressional authorization isn’t some sort of courtesy, it’s a legal requirement for this kind of act.

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Stephen Miles @spmiles42.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 11, 2024 at 17:45 UTC

Mind you, he's gearing up to spend 10s of millions attacking Democrats ostensibly over this issue, one he says voters don't care about. And again, the polling indicates voters do in fact care about it and twice as many say they're more likely to support pro #ceasefire candidates than to oppose.

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Stephen Miles @spmiles42.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 11, 2024 at 17:44 UTC

Not for nothing but the quotes from Mark Mellman are truly 🤯 stuff. Remember, he runs a super pac exclusively dedicated to Israel yet starts by saying that Israel traditionally doesn't matter to voters. He then says, citing no evidence, that he doesn't think it will this time either.

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Stephen Miles @spmiles42.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 11, 2024 at 17:41 UTC

Important new piece out now in @huffpost.bsky.social about the politics of #ceasefire. As I told them: “What the polling showed is that the continued conventional D.C. wisdom that pushing for a cease-fire is bad politics isn’t just wrong, it’s 180 degrees off.”

Full story at the link 👇

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Stephen Miles @spmiles42.bsky.social [ View ] Dec 01, 2023 at 14:16 UTC

“Sure he caused a few genocides but wasn’t he clever” is a fitting encapsulation of the rot at the core of the foreign policy establishment.

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Stephen Miles @spmiles42.bsky.social [ View ] Dec 01, 2023 at 01:48 UTC

Seeing folks compare this to "bin Laden determined to strike in US" but it's a bit more like "bin Laden determined to fly planes taking off from these airports into the World Trade Center and Pentagon using pilots trained in the US." Oh and Bibi has been in charge for 14 years not 8 months.

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