Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

It should be much higher.

In the wake of 9/11 do you think it would reflect positively on America's views if 2/3 to 3/4 of Americans were "squarely behind the U.S." in their campaign against Al Qaeda and the Taliban?

....... or WWII.

On the basic issue of supporting Israel, I'm not sure the poll numbers DSL quotes are reliable. For example, "do you support Israel? Yes. do you support Israel bombing Hamas to affect their demise as a military and political entity in Gaza?" I won't even hazard a guess of the numbers of people in the US that would still say yes to the question framed as I just did even though Palestinian leadership have rejected every peace plan put before them for decades. That's the problem. Sure, we love Israel but to keep Israel on the map in the ME and Israeli citizens safe, the terrorists and their financiers have to be neutered at worst, eliminated at best. A world that we live in following 50 + years of relative peace, has lost sight of the cost of freedom.

If I'm a military and political analyst hunkered down with Israel's war cabinet, I'd be saying since Israel can't exist in peace with Palestinian terrorists your options are to continue to let world opinion, shaped by the terrorists, chip away at your right to exist which would ultimately end in Israel's demise, or eliminate the immediate threat (Hamas) and establish control over what might follow (the threat of a new generation of Arab Jew haters.)

When it comes to the nut-cutting, westerners that support Israel sing a different tune. I believe the hesitancy of freedom loving nations to say it's fine for Israel to bomb Hamas into extinction - Gantz and Netanyahu have essentially said that's Israel's military goal (oh, the horror) - is because a global majority fails to grasp what these evil fucks are up to. The current Israeli government does and are acting on it. This in the face of a press firestorm of criticism of that "unattainable goal," critics say. The press has clearly made Israel the bad guys and the Palestinian leadership the good guys. The only thing that's holding Israel back from leveling Gaza, rounding up the Hamas leadership from the debris and establishing a military style government in what the Palestinians call "occupied lands" is the blow-back precipitated by constant news focusing on civilian casualties and the vivid suffering of "the children." Where are the Churchills and Roosevelts of our time.

[Mike]

Excellent post. I might add that the vast majority (if not damn near all) of fools in the U.S. who side with Hamas would find the locals in Rafa very inhospitable if they walked down the street tomorrow.

[Jeff Buchanan]

We're outliers, Mike, holding views like I just expressed. Terrorists don't want a group of collaborative democracies to assert themselves and find ways to track terrorist leadership down and kill them. Following that, terrorists want to prevent us and our partners from finding ways to neutralize the ability of subordinate terrorists to command, plan and execute the kinds of terrorist ops that are clear and unmistakable wrt to intent. US reluctance to commit the resources to win is giving our enemies the upper hand in achieving their obvious objectives - death to Israel, death to the US, disrupt the NATO alliance, eliminate US presence in the ME and otherwise reduce America's influence on global outcomes

I have no doubt that there are multiple US special operations in the shadows designed to protect US interests. But, It's long past time to bring that kind 0f stuff out of the shadows and let the likes of Putin, Xi, the Iranian military and their surrogates that align themselves with this axis of evil know they will not and can not prevail in destroying Israel or sidelining the US's capacity to shape world events.

Nuclear deterrence since the end of the Soviet Union, and more notably the time frame within which Putin has embarked on his irrational expansionist goals, has plainly worked against the western alliance.. His nuclear threats are serving one purpose: that is to advance his objectives and prevent the west from stopping them. The threat of US enemies initiating a nuclear exchange are remote and that is because the notion that nuclear states, esp. Russia, would initiate a full-scale nuclear war because they think they can win it and survive is exaggerated. Nobody wins that conflagration and sane Russian leadership knows that. They also know if a combined NATO assault was initiated to drive the Russian Army back to the pre-2014 Ukrainian/Russian boarder that Russia's conventional forces would be defeated. Obviously, the political will within NATO to do that isn't there - back to my previous statement, where are the Churchills and Roosevelts? In Sweden, Norway, Finland and Moldova? Maybe the US should be looking in their direction in building a western consensus that this shit has to stop.

[Mike]

In shocking news, Hamas has paused cease-fire talks. A convenient ancillary benefit from the dust-up yesterday.

[iam416]

There’s also something to the refusal to say Western liberal culture is vastly superior to bullshit authoritarian Islamic shit (or Russian shit).

Instead they see shit in oppressor/oppressed nonsense. Instead of actually figuring out who is way more aligned with our values.

There’s no doubt the Progs hate Western civilization. And that’s true worldwide.

[iam416]

Meanwhile, huge kudos to the Athens mayor for using the Laken Riley murder as an opportunity to lecture on the evils of DJT. Chutzpah, man.

[Mike]

Yep. The mayor and county sheriff are both SJWs that are on record supporting sanctuary for illegals. How’s that working out for you guys?

[iam416]

I'd like to take this time to recommend self-immolation to all Progs who want to REALLY make a point.

[Mike]

It's the only logical conclusion their ideology leads to these days.

[Da Geezer]

Trump's Truth Social is heavily censored.

Truth Social’s Censorship, Terms of Service Defy Free Speech Promises - Public Citizen

Trump's Truth Social Bans Users Who Post About Jan. 6 Hearings (variety.com)

Trump's Truth Social Rejects Free Speech, For Good Reason | Cato at Liberty Blog

Trump is not a conservative (which is what I specified in my post. Do you believe Trump thinks that all are depraved and no one should be trusted with power? Of course Trump censors: he thinks only his i deas are right. He is no different than the left, except he has the puny Truth Social and the Progs have all the MSM (NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR NYT, Wapo, CNN, MSNBC) It is the volume of censorship done by the left against the right that is disturbing.

[Da Geezer]

Just to get a debate going, this commentary from the WSJ today:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-justices-had-to-hear-trumps-case-presidential-immunity-125803c6?st=lkhudwlq317ttgp&reflink=article_email_share

[CGVT]

HUNTER BIDEN'S LAPTOP! Hahaha!

[Jeff Buchanan]

The Hamas bull-shit continues. The Israeli negotiating team reportedly had agreed to a cease fire, i.e., they won't lay waste to southern Gaza in pursuit of wiping out the remaining Hamas fighters/leadership who have, as usual, embedded themselves among civilians and in civilian infrastructure ..... if Hamas releases the names of the hostages that are still alive.

Hamas refused, Israel is rightfully boycotting further peace talks and I'd expect an uptick in IDF bombardment in and around Rafah starting now. This is where the cowards are hiding. Regardless, more Palestinian civilians will die and that will be the focus of news reporting. This shit all ends if Hamas surrenders and or the Iranian military elects to tell them to surrender. Of course, that's not happening so, let's just keep blaming Israel for the chaos in Gaza.

Interestingly, in a somewhat unrelated NYTs story, it was reported that Hamas has been "defeated" in northern Gaza. What this means, the story goes on, is that there are no government officials, formerly Hamas affiliates, to run typical city departments like policing, garbage pick-up. street maintenance, sewage processing - all the things that functioning communities take for granted ..... gone. Just a guess but I'll bet these so called civilians left town only thinking of their own self-interests. Screw those Palestinians we governed.

Of course, this isn't the story. "Hundreds cuing calmly and lining up for food aid were killed by IDF soldiers who fired into the crowd indiscriminately" those lies still percolate. You know the truth. But now the lead ME story has become Netanyahu has no plan "after the war" to restore some form of government in northern Gaza now and southern Gaza when the IDF has obtained it's goals and military operations have stopped. Netanyahu does not want Hamas to fill the vacuum and observers inside Israel think he absolutely has plans and it's not time yet to determine which one to follow. But the current Israeli government, even though there are stress cracks within it, are with Netanyahu on this one.

The continued shifting of blame for the misery in Gaza to Israel and away from Hamas, their sponsors in Iran and other ME Arab states that have, or should have, an interest in restoring some semblance of stability in Gaza and the West Bank is indefensible. Yet, only a few journalists reporting on this story are willing to call this irresponsible group out. To me, it's pretty simple. The Palestinians as they have been lead by the PLO/PLA and now Hamas have never been partners in the pursuit of peace. It's stupid to continue to think they are.

[Mike]

Sounds like the Supreme Court will drop its ruling on the Trump/Colorado case this morning.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Sounds like the Supreme Court will drop its ruling on the Trump/Colorado case this morning.

Yeah and I still expect a 9-0 decision. At most maybe Sotomayor writes a concurrence with a different rationale.