Cory1848

No, it’s conspiracy theory garbage; it’s an “opinion” gone horribly awry. Whenever anyone mentions the crimes of Hunter Biden (a war profiteer? WTF?), I know exactly where that person gets their “information” from. Not worth the cyber-ether it floats in on.

Quite right, and if Putin were taken out by an external force, he would be replaced by even worse hardliners, which would be a nightmare. It needs to come from inside (even if Russia’s experience with revolutions has not always led to the best results!).

You’re probably right. And there are all those people in the Russian hinterland who want Stalin to come back. There was a period of optimism under Gorbachev and Yeltsin, but the US itself may have botched that with “disaster capitalism” (see Naomi Klein).

No, not BS. The Putin regime will be replaced by a regime chosen by or at least acceptable to the Russian people, whether pro-US or not. That said, I would frankly like to see Russia under progressive leadership as part of the EU as well as NATO, and lots of other countries as well. The Western democratic model that the EU operates under provides better quality of life, prosperity, and freedom for all people than any other system *yet devised* (factoring in much stricter regulation of neoliberal capitalism, which remains problematic); this is what the Ukrainians recognize and are fighting for, and what Russians and others would want for themselves as well. Encouraging broad membership in international bodies, and giving those bodies real power, leads to better management of global issues and problems, rather than continuing to engage in silly tribal wars. I’m in favor of human evolution and refuse to believe it’s not possible; if that’s naïve, so be it.

Not necessarily; as has been stated repeatedly, antisemitism existed long before the Israeli state, and crimes committed by the Israeli government do not lead one to hate Jewish people any more than crimes committed by the current Russian government lead one to hate Russian people. Antisemitism is simply hatred of Jewish people, whether driven by the need for a scapegoat, twisted religious notions, prodding by demagogues for political purposes, or just pure racism. When the Israeli government persecutes Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, that doesn’t help matters, but it doesn’t drive people to suddenly become antisemitic.

Mr. Mojo: I agree, the “typical Islamic filth” line is way over the top. Otherwise, you are misreading and oversimplifying much of the thread here. Criticizing Israel does not make one an antisemite; there is much in Israeli government policy, especially now, that deserves condemnation. Criticizing Israel exclusively and obsessively *might* be antisemitic, as it indicates a tendency to look for faults particularly in Jewish people. However, lumping Jewish people together as a group and blaming them collectively for vague crimes, as some people here have done, is clearly antisemitic and leads directly to pogroms and other mayhem, as two millennia of history have demonstrated. I don’t know what a “sook” is, but thin-skinned I am not.

When you reduce yourself to counting the number of Jews in the room (as in Biden’s cabinet), that in and of itself demonstrates your hatred of Jewish people, as your assumption is that they must be acting in concert somehow to subvert the will of the “majority” (the majority of what?), and that if they’re destroyed as a result (by “earning the ire” of others), well, they were asking for it. Bernie Sanders and Jared Kushner are both Jewish. I wonder what on earth they might have to talk about. Their respective bar mitzvahs? Then what? I really do hope that this discussion is “painful” for you, as you said, because rather than seeking the common humanity in all of us, you prefer to take an entirely racist view of the world. I hope you find your way out.

Your clearly implied statement that Jewish people have collectively “behaved so badly” over the millennia that they have deserved their endless persecution is the most disgusting statement I’ve read in this long string of disgusting statements. Whatever Creator injected humankind with such a liberal dose of anti-Semitism was playing a cruel trick indeed. Please, just stop.

Right: nationalist branding. Even if the current ultra-nationalist Indian government manages to regularize the use of “Bharat” as the international (English-language) moniker for their country, it may become forever associated with that government and get ditched when more progressive leadership again takes charge in India. Like the name “Zaire,” adopted by a corrupt dictator, was discarded right after his death, or like “Myanmar” might get discarded as the English-language name for that country should the military ever be removed from power there. (Aung San Suu Kyi, when she’s speaking English, continues to use “Burma.”)

Wow. In an earlier post you felt the need to say that were not anti-Semitic. Simply the fact that you felt that needs tells me all I need to know. (Quacking like a duck!)

Right, Jesus was the first Palestinian. I've heard that howler before. Engage in historical anachronism much?

Yes, a higher standard. I see it from so many people, and it’s intellectually dishonest. And no, Israel is not repeating the German tactics leading to the Holocaust. As for “worse crimes elsewhere,” I could give you a long list but fear I’d be wasting my time. As for anti-Semitism, you know the expression -- if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck ...

To repeat, the Israelis have not rounded up six million Palestinian Arabs, not in the last couple of years nor in the last 75 years, and murdered them in cold blood for no other reason than that they were Palestinian Arabs. If you think cutting off someone's power for 12 hours a day is equivalent to that, I disagree.

No, I was not minimizing Israel’s crimes. And I have no patience for semantic rabbit holes that serve only to distract, such as what you’ve laid out. You clearly have no interest in understanding the point I’m making, so whatever ...

I was referring specifically to armchair pundits who go on endlessly about Israel’s crimes while not caring a hoot about other, worse crimes taking place elsewhere in the world. This in no way excuses Israel for land theft and apartheid in the West Bank, but I was pointing out the dishonesty of holding Israel to a higher standard.

Go back and read it again; I'm not going to hold your hand. Nowhere did I say that I was accepting of Israeli crimes, as you allege.

That's not at all what I said.

While the Israeli state was born in great trauma, and while the Jewish people have been persecuted more than most others over the millennia, and while this may put the Israeli state in a “unique historical position” to advocate for human rights, at the same time I feel that Israelis/Jewish people are no more and no less responsible than any other group of people, or the citizens of any other state, for the maintenance of global civility. In most respects, Israel is just another country, one among a few hundred. Giving Israel a “unique historical position” encourages some people to hold Israel to a higher standard, and thus obsessively criticize Israel for behaving badly when in fact far worse crimes are being committed (at any given moment) in other parts of the world. That said, Israel is domestically in a bad place right now, and as you point out Abbas just gave extremists there more ammunition.

Absolutely not. As badly as the Israeli state has treated the Palestinians, they have not rounded up six million of them and murdered them in cold blood. False equivalence.

I have no idea what you mean by “genius girl,” and the whole notion of intelligence testing, IQ scores, and offshoots like Mensa is becoming failed science, like phrenology or humorism. How can one “measure” “intelligence”? The notion is absurd. Why not just find a woman who’s immediately appealing to you, ask her out for dinner, engage her in topics you like to talk about, and see if there’s mutual interest? I think that’s how it usually works ... Good luck ...

Like a friend of mine in another forum said, that mug shot is perhaps the best work Trump has ever done. Even better than his Mussolini impressions.

It is indeed a weird thing to announce, but perhaps Prachuap is simply indicating his awareness of history. Benigno Aquino was assassinated on the tarmac as he was returning to the Philippines in 1983 after three years of exile, leading to the People Power revolution, the end of the Marcos dictatorship, and the election of Aquino’s widow Corazon as president three years later. The circumstances of course are totally different, but this kind of drama has happened before.

Aw ... We're a nice little state, really -- plus, no sales tax, and really low property taxes!

I don't think you understood a word of what I wrote. I wasn't being an "apologist" for anyone.

In Delaware, state residents pay a reduced rate to get into state parks. The idea is that residents pay Delaware state tax, which goes toward park upkeep, whereas out-of-staters don’t. That seems reasonable to me, although the difference between the rates isn’t nearly the tenfold gap that occurs here, which seems excessive. Also, a (government-owned) state park is one thing and a (corporate-owned) theme park is another. Disney would be exclusively focused on the bottom line, so perhaps they’re providing incentives for local residents, who are within easy driving distance all year long, to visit the park more frequently.