Sarin-dippity

[The Outsider]

Bottom post of the previous page:

I think it's a far cry from wanting to wage war to wanting to exterminate an entire country's population, an ethnic group, a religious group, etc.

I can empathize with Palestinians and acknowledge that their feelings are not entirely unfounded while also acknowledging that they're wrong. Bibi's Israel is also wrong. The difference is that Israel has made overtures of peace in the past that any reasonable leadership group would have seen as generous and equitable. Palestine's recent history, regardless of who is in control, is to reject any deal that doesn't involved the expulsion of Jews from Israel.

I just think that if we want to be the world's arbiter of peace, justice, and security we need to have the testicular fortitude to do some unsavory things from time to time. Doing the right thing isn't always pretty or popular. The right thing in this instance would be negotiating for someone to take the Palestinian refugees, then send in the US military, tell the IDF to fuck off out of Gaza, tell Hamas to disband or we'll systematically dismantle them regardless of where they're hiding, and if either side so much as fires a shot at our men we unleash holy hell fire the likes of which the world hasn't seen since the 1940s.

But Americans are too weak hearted to do the hard things. We're an indolent, spoiled, and frankly stupid country that wouldn't know how to do the right thing if it were laying in front of us spread eagled, beckoning us in with those aircraft landing glowsticks.

[The Outsider]

And what Washington did was in my opinion a legitimate tactic when you're openly at war. Attacking civilian population centers or events with wholesale disregard for the status of the casualties is a much different thing.

[emby]

I think it's a far cry from wanting to wage war to wanting to exterminate an entire country's population, an ethnic group, a religious group, etc.

I can empathize with Palestinians and acknowledge that their feelings are not entirely unfounded while also acknowledging that they're wrong. Bibi's Israel is also wrong. The difference is that Israel has made overtures of peace in the past that any reasonable leadership group would have seen as generous and equitable. Palestine's recent history, regardless of who is in control, is to reject any deal that doesn't involved the expulsion of Jews from Israel.

I just think that if we want to be the world's arbiter of peace, justice, and security we need to have the testicular fortitude to do some unsavory things from time to time. Doing the right thing isn't always pretty or popular. The right thing in this instance would be negotiating for someone to take the Palestinian refugees, then send in the US military, tell the IDF to fuck off out of Gaza, tell Hamas to disband or we'll systematically dismantle them regardless of where they're hiding, and if either side so much as fires a shot at our men we unleash holy hell fire the likes of which the world hasn't seen since the 1940s.

But Americans are too weak hearted to do the hard things. We're an indolent, spoiled, and frankly stupid country that wouldn't know how to do the right thing if it were laying in front of us spread eagled, beckoning us in with those aircraft landing glowsticks.

I'll simmer down from my hyperbole after I add that the only ones talking the talk and walking the walk on ethnic cleaning are the Israelis and motherfucking Lindsay Graham who wants to use nuclear weapons.

In the case of both Ukraine and Gaza, the aggressors need to cool it. That's Russia and Israel who both possess the power to end their respective conflicts without a counterstrike. Unfortunately for everyone else, that requires both Russia and Israel to abandon their efforts to conquer the Ukrainians and Palestinians writ large.

Once this report comes back that Israel is violating international law with regard to blocking humanitarian aid, it then becomes against the law for Biden to sell arms to the Israelis. This will be when Joe flips because he's not about to get impeached for helping Benny slaughter civilians.

Israel should be getting the same sanctions Russia is getting

[The Outsider]

The only reason Hamas isn't walking the walk about ethnic cleansing is due to resources. Netanyahu's government is fucked, Zionism in general is fucked, but let's not pretend Palestine is any less hateful, violent, backwards, or despicable. They're just poorer.


As for your last bit. I think the move for Biden is first to pressure Israel in general into forcing Bibis government out with the threat of sanctions. Then if they want to double down sanction them. The difference between Russia and Israel is that the people of Russia mostly support Putin. Israelis can't fucking stand Netanyahu for the most part.

Or if I'm Biden I tell Netanyahu to cease all hostilities and that the US Military will be taking things from here. I.e. We'll police the border between Israel and Palestine, we'll determine if aod goes through, we'll handle reconstruction of demolished infrastructure and other humanitarian actions.

One thing I do strongly believe is that Israel is a client state of the US much like Taiwan, except they have less tangible value than Taiwan. Perhaps it's time that we remind Israel that they exist and can defend themselves due to the United States and that support can just as easily be removed.

[emby]

The only reason Hamas isn't walking the walk about ethnic cleansing is due to resources. Netanyahu's government is fucked, Zionism in general is fucked, but let's not pretend Palestine is any less hateful, violent, backwards, or despicable. They're just poorer.


As for your last bit. I think the move for Biden is first to pressure Israel in general into forcing Bibis government out with the threat of sanctions. Then if they want to double down sanction them. The difference between Russia and Israel is that the people of Russia mostly support Putin. Israelis can't fucking stand Netanyahu for the most part.

Or if I'm Biden I tell Netanyahu to cease all hostilities and that the US Military will be taking things from here. I.e. We'll police the border between Israel and Palestine, we'll determine if aod goes through, we'll handle reconstruction of demolished infrastructure and other humanitarian actions.

One thing I do strongly believe is that Israel is a client state of the US much like Taiwan, except they have less tangible value than Taiwan. Perhaps it's time that we remind Israel that they exist and can defend themselves due to the United States and that support can just as easily be removed.

Hell yeah. Remind the Israelis that they have a country because we give them one every morning.

As for the Palestinians, the worst thing they have going for them is Hamas, but Hamas isn't in Gaza. They're in the UAE all nice and fat while the people they claim to fight for are starving to death between bombing campaigns.

That vote to elect Hamas was in 2006. 65% of Palestinians today are under the age of 25. So even if we accept the Israeli propaganda that Palestinians elected Hamas, simple demographic data shows that the IDF has killed about 70% of those voters and their "Human Shields" ever since.

[The Outsider]

The only reason Hamas isn't walking the walk about ethnic cleansing is due to resources. Netanyahu's government is fucked, Zionism in general is fucked, but let's not pretend Palestine is any less hateful, violent, backwards, or despicable. They're just poorer.


As for your last bit. I think the move for Biden is first to pressure Israel in general into forcing Bibis government out with the threat of sanctions. Then if they want to double down sanction them. The difference between Russia and Israel is that the people of Russia mostly support Putin. Israelis can't fucking stand Netanyahu for the most part.

Or if I'm Biden I tell Netanyahu to cease all hostilities and that the US Military will be taking things from here. I.e. We'll police the border between Israel and Palestine, we'll determine if aod goes through, we'll handle reconstruction of demolished infrastructure and other humanitarian actions.

One thing I do strongly believe is that Israel is a client state of the US much like Taiwan, except they have less tangible value than Taiwan. Perhaps it's time that we remind Israel that they exist and can defend themselves due to the United States and that support can just as easily be removed.

Hell yeah. Remind the Israelis that they have a country because we give them one every morning.

As for the Palestinians, the worst thing they have going for them is Hamas, but Hamas isn't in Gaza. They're in the UAE all nice and fat while the people they claim to fight for are starving to death between bombing campaigns.

That vote to elect Hamas was in 2006. 65% of Palestinians today are under the age of 25. So even if we accept the Israeli propaganda that Palestinians elected Hamas, simple demographic data shows that the IDF has killed about 70% of those voters and their "Human Shields" ever since.

It doesn't matter that the Palestinians are young when their schools have been teaching them that Jews are evil since their childhood. This whole mess is a great example of why I'm staunchly anti-religion. Not saying this is all religious, but the zealotry wouldn't be there without the religion. I can't wait until God is well and truly dead.

[emby]

The only reason Hamas isn't walking the walk about ethnic cleansing is due to resources. Netanyahu's government is fucked, Zionism in general is fucked, but let's not pretend Palestine is any less hateful, violent, backwards, or despicable. They're just poorer.


As for your last bit. I think the move for Biden is first to pressure Israel in general into forcing Bibis government out with the threat of sanctions. Then if they want to double down sanction them. The difference between Russia and Israel is that the people of Russia mostly support Putin. Israelis can't fucking stand Netanyahu for the most part.

Or if I'm Biden I tell Netanyahu to cease all hostilities and that the US Military will be taking things from here. I.e. We'll police the border between Israel and Palestine, we'll determine if aod goes through, we'll handle reconstruction of demolished infrastructure and other humanitarian actions.

One thing I do strongly believe is that Israel is a client state of the US much like Taiwan, except they have less tangible value than Taiwan. Perhaps it's time that we remind Israel that they exist and can defend themselves due to the United States and that support can just as easily be removed.

Hell yeah. Remind the Israelis that they have a country because we give them one every morning.

As for the Palestinians, the worst thing they have going for them is Hamas, but Hamas isn't in Gaza. They're in the UAE all nice and fat while the people they claim to fight for are starving to death between bombing campaigns.

That vote to elect Hamas was in 2006. 65% of Palestinians today are under the age of 25. So even if we accept the Israeli propaganda that Palestinians elected Hamas, simple demographic data shows that the IDF has killed about 70% of those voters and their "Human Shields" ever since.

It doesn't matter that the Palestinians are young when their schools have been teaching them that Jews are evil since their childhood. This whole mess is a great example of why I'm staunchly anti-religion. Not saying this is all religious, but the zealotry wouldn't be there without the religion. I can't wait until God is well and truly dead.

Going to be hard to do that when the Israelis keep proving the point.

BTW, this kind of 30,000ft discourse is what I'm hoping for in here.

[The Outsider]

Hell yeah. Remind the Israelis that they have a country because we give them one every morning.

As for the Palestinians, the worst thing they have going for them is Hamas, but Hamas isn't in Gaza. They're in the UAE all nice and fat while the people they claim to fight for are starving to death between bombing campaigns.

That vote to elect Hamas was in 2006. 65% of Palestinians today are under the age of 25. So even if we accept the Israeli propaganda that Palestinians elected Hamas, simple demographic data shows that the IDF has killed about 70% of those voters and their "Human Shields" ever since.

It doesn't matter that the Palestinians are young when their schools have been teaching them that Jews are evil since their childhood. This whole mess is a great example of why I'm staunchly anti-religion. Not saying this is all religious, but the zealotry wouldn't be there without the religion. I can't wait until God is well and truly dead.

Going to be hard to do that when the Israelis keep proving the point.

BTW, this kind of 30,000ft discourse is what I'm hoping for in here.

Like I said, everyone involved is wrong here. As things always do in human history this will come down to resources including political capitol and even with all of the dumb shit Netanyahu has done I think the major players on the world stage see him as the problem, not Israel itself. In which case Israel will ultimately triumph because they have more resources and nothing significant will change.

It sucks. It really does. But the one thing that keeps me sane on humanitarian issues is looking at this shit from the perspective of humans as a species. As a species we're way less territorial, fanatical, and violent than we were in the past. Make no mistake, we're much better at killing each other now, we're just generally less willing to. We're also more educated than at any time in human history, we're doing things with AI that are straight up sci-fi shit. I had a human-level spoken word conversation with my computer last night. GPT-4o is really that good. I think that as a species we're in a pretty good place but a precarious position in the evolution of a sapient species. We're so close to post-scarcity but we're also entering territory more dangerous on an existential level than nuclear weaponry.

With that perspective what's happening in Israel/Palestine is sad and a humanitarian tragedy but it's also a mere grain of sand in terms of species-wide impact.

[emby]

US Senator Bob Menendez's defence has sought to shift blame for his alleged bribe-taking to his wife, in opening statements at his corruption trial.

Nadine Menendez "kept him in the dark" on financial matters, the politician's attorney, Avi Weitzman, told the jury.

But prosecutor Lara Pomerantz said Mr Menendez, 70, used his wife as a go-between in trading political influence for money, gifts and gold bars.

The long-serving New Jersey Democrat "put his power up for sale", she said.

Dayum! Shots fired!

"It wasn't me, your honor. It was my low down, rotten, good for nothing wife!"

I gave zero shits about this case outside of making sure he was properly hung out to dry. Didn't even matter to me what the facts were. After Marion Berry, anything is possible. But then Jon Stewart did a bit on it this week and ho boy! this just might be the political farce I've been craving.

These people are cartoon characters.

[emby]

The city of Philadelphia has a larger GDP than the state of South Carolina.

The city of San Francisco has a GDP roughly the size of the state of Virginia.

[kaimaru]

Having lived in South Carolina. They could drop semiconductor facilities there that makes 1 billion worth of chips per hour and they would run the factory at 25% speed. They just do everything slow there