i start this post from fred with several mencken quotes and have several others, that could be seen as preamble to fred's essay;

The government I live under has been my enemy all my active life. When it has not been engaged in silencing me it has been engaged in robbing me. So far as I can recall I have never had any contact with it that was not an outrage on my dignity and an attack on my security.
H.L. Mencken

There is always an easy solution to every human problem - neat, plausible and wrong. H. L. Mencken

"The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the greatest liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth." H.L. Mencken

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

H. L. Mencken

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. H. L. Mencken

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. H. L. Mencken

and now here's fred's opinion;

Further, American democracy isn’t one. To be elected a candidate needs support of one party or the other. These choose predictable candidates who will perform the primary political  functions, namely to protect Wall Street, Israel, the big corporations, and the military budget. You and I get to choose only the candidates the parties allow us to choose. The real reason for the bipartisan loathing for Trump is that he wasn’t vetted in the usual manner and isn’t beholden to the system. He might do anything, such as ending the wars.

Consequently American government just doesn’t work. Can anyone believe that Joe and Kamala, second-rate lawyers both, should govern a nuclear-armed country of 330 million? Joe was elected because he wasn’t Trump, Kamala for being black, Trump for not being part of the reigning elites. Joe and Kamala aren’t bright enough for the job. Trump and Joe are under investigation for corruption. This our system produces. 

No requirement exists that candidates be intelligent. Americans resent the intelligent, this being an expression of the resentment of the superior that underlies society. We want jes’ folks. No pointy-headed intellectuals need apply. We get what we want.......more.......

 we are 'led' by the insane whose followers are equally crazy;

Is it possible to conceive of a less meaningful act than “standing” with Ukraine? Or with Israel?

Or with any abstraction?

How does one “stand” with another country, which is another abstraction as there are only people who live in countries? And how does one “stand” with those people by not doing anything – other than changing out the flag icons of the foreign country you “stand” with to accompany your Tweets?

It’s a modern virtue-signaling fatuity on par with “stay safe” –  and “we’re all in this together.”

Kumbaya.

The Left excels at “standing” with various things. Whatever the latest thing is. This is natural, of course, because the Left only stands for one thing, really. That thing being dogmatic (on the part of its leadership cadres) and doggy (on the part of its useful idiot masses) devotion to “standing” with whatever the latest thing is. It can be Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeev. It can become Israel (uber alles, of course).

Then it will be “climate change” or some other thing.

So long as you “stand” with whatever it is now, you’re in good with the Left........more.......

 another aspect here of the encroaching ww3 preps;

The U.S. has recently moved way too many troops to the Middle East to be of peaceful purpose or to simply deter others from action.

Who does it intend to fight?

Arms Airlift to Israel, Bombers in Jordan, Two Carriers: U.S. Deploying More Forces to Mideast – Haaretz

Last week, the United States deployed the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to the eastern Mediterranean. The USS Ford carries about 80 combat aircraft, electronic warfare and intelligence planes. It is accompanied by five advanced missile-guided ships, armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of hitting targets inside Iran. According to satellite images, the USS Ford is about 180 kilometers south-west of Cyprus. P-8 maritime reconnaissance aircraft with anti-submarine, anti-ship capabilities are patrolling around the group.
…
Over the weekend, a second carrier strike group, led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, was dispatched to the Eastern Mediterranean and is due to arrive later this month........more.........

 ww3 is on the way and here martin armstrong tells you a bit of how and why;

Let me begin by stating that Palestine does not have a military. The terrorist group Hamas contains between 30,000 and 40,000 fighters, but only a few hundred are believed to have received proper training. Hamas does not have an air force or any naval power. In contrast, Israel has one of the most advanced defense forces in the world.

International Institute for Strategic Studies’ (IISS) Military Balance 2023 states that Israel has 169,500 active duty military members, with another 465,000 in the reserve forces. Every adult in the nation has received proper basic military training. Israel has over 2,000 main battle tanks and 615 heavy infantry fighting vehicles, while Hamas currently has 0.

Their impressive air force has 196 F-16 fighter planes, 83 F-15, 36 F-35, 140 military helicopters, and 43 Apache attack helicopters. They also have five submarines and 49 battleships. Then there is the once-thought-to-be impenetrable Iron Dome and, most importantly, nuclear weapons.

Israel has a defense budget of around $23.6 billion. America and other nations have been funding Israel’s military, with America alone providing $118 billion since 1949. The Biden Administration has pledged an additional $2 billion in supplementary funding, and other Western nations will follow.

The US Navy has been deployed to the Mediterranean Sea. Are we sending extremely advanced technology to defeat a few hundred barely trained ground soldiers? The US sent two carriers to an enemy that has no carriers or aircrafts aside from some paragliders who have managed to bypass the Iron Dome. Again, Palestine does not have a military – at all. Hamas uses the people of Palestine as human shields and that is its main defense system.

We are preparing for World War III. The players are entering the arena for something much larger than Israel v Palestine. The Neocons across the globe are moving in full force to promote this war. This is precisely what our cycle had predicted for 2023, with a spike in violence in the Middle East. Those who read “The Next Jihad” know that the worst is sadly yet to come.........https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/10/17/israel-v-palestine-military-power/

 the consensus it becoming israel did the bombing and caitlin is speaking about it here;

“But what I’d like to quickly document as things unfold is the highly unusual number of mass media reporters I’ve been seeing who haven’t hesitated to point to Israel as the probable culprit.”

A huge blast in Gaza has destroyed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, killing hundreds of people. The exact death toll is still unknown.

Details of who is responsible for the explosion are being hotly debated by all parties, and this is still a developing story with a lot of details yet to be revealed. But what I’d like to quickly document as things unfold is the highly unusual number of mass media reporters I’ve been seeing who haven’t hesitated to point to Israel as the probable culprit.

After noting that Israel is blaming the blast on a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), MSNBC foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez quickly pointed out that PIJ rockets don’t tend to do that kind of damage, but Israeli missiles do. He also noted that Israel has an extensive history of lying about this sort of thing.........more.........

 Israel first. Because they're our greatest ally of all time

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/17adrbg/israel_first_because_theyre_our_greatest_ally_of/