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placnx

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  1. The Red Cross should be tasked with doing to DNA testing in Gaza before transfer of the remains.
  2. It's also a question of "know your customer". Maybe the Burma resistance groups are also using SIM boxes to communicate with the outside world, Musk could provide them with Starlink service which would give the resistance more mobility.
  3. I agree that it's unlikely that Trump will do any better with China than last time. That said, it's Clinton's fault for getting China into the WTO. And of course, the resultiong China shock was one of the reasons for Trump's success in getting elected. (Another reason was Obama's ham-fisted mismanagement of the mortgage debacle). We should have set up a different trade regime for countries like China, with a lot of SOEs (state-owned enterprises). Hopefully working in tandem with the EU, dividing up airplane sales between Boeing and Airbus. My idea was rather diabolical - licensing factories to export to the US with approvals based on a point system, so the highest ranking applications would be approved first, and licenses would last for 3 years from the date of application. We could speed up or slow the approval process depending on China's behavior - a bit murky like working with Chinese bureaucracy. The worst applicants might end up not having their applications reviewed before they would have to start all over again.
  4. How about the Liberty University Concert Choir from Lynchburg, VA?
  5. It is one thing to be willing to accept Israel within the 1967 borders, which many people agree to, and is not an approval of Zionism. On the other hand, the "right to exist" formulation is an opening to an expansionist narrative, where a two-state solution is an anathema. In the US and UK, we have Christian Zionists who are more ardent for Zionist expansionism than moderate Jewish people. People like the Evangelical Mike Huckabee (US Ambassador designate) even deny the existence of Palestinians. It's a continuation of the line first promoted in the late 19th Century: A land without people for a people without land. There are figures around for immigration into Israel. I would be surprised if Safarti Jewish arrivals outnumber those from Europe including Russia and the US. Another thing to consider is how many Jews were present in Palestine when Muslim armies arrived in the 7th Century and how many converted to Islam.
  6. Thanks for the perceptive comment. I wonder how far back these bans in Phuket go? Military service in Israel has evolved from conventional warfare to controlling the Palestinian population in the West Bank. As settlements have constantly expanded since Netanyahu's first term (1996), the repression and impunity has increased. The bad behavior in Mae Hong Son may well be explained by a distrustful attitude toward the "other". As for Amish, they are peaceful people. My mother's thinking was much influenced by the neighbor, a Mennonite bishop.
  7. It depends on the training. Teaching soldiers to respect and not maltreat civilians of the target population.
  8. Does military training have a role in bad attitude? Is there some kind of indoctrination that makes these young men so arrogant?
  9. Some of the Gazans could move into the settlements after the settlers have been removed from the West Bank per opinion of the ICJ last July. After they move back to Gaza, Palestinian refugees living in camps in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan could live in the settlement dwellings in the West Bank.
  10. She has already been caught out in her briefing telling the world that Hamas used condoms as balloons to carry explosives to the enemy. Then Trump repeated same disinformation. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/29/politics/gaza-condoms-fact-check/index.html
  11. After reading the post mentioning the Stockholm3 test, I looked it up, and it seems quite interesting: https://www.stockholm3.com/ After having a few friends die of prostate cancer, and myself having procrastinated when my doc recommended a biopsy, I definitely believe in regular PSA testing. Some friends have done brachytherapy (radioactive seeds implanted in the prostate), but their cancer was detected early. If as good as claimed, the Stockholm3 test seems to be an excellent diagnostic alternative in conjunction with PSA testing.
  12. Maybe it's time for Ross Perot's party to be resurected. This time people could have used a choice beyond the Green Party.
  13. The Republicans are the planners. Democratic politics seem quite chaotic. When Democratic presidencies start out, they typically have not developed legislation ready to pass, and they waste precious months and lose momentum. Republicans take projects developed on K Street long before the election, ready to go in the first 100 days. Remember the tribulations over passing Obamacare? If they had done it before Ted Kennedy died, it would have sailed through. The speculation about 2028 candidates is pretty meaningless at this point. Worry about 2026 first.
  14. Can this receipt (a pdf?) be gotten from the desktop version of the TM30 site? Last time at the yearly extension, the initial queue reviewer said I had to go out back to obtain an old style TM30 receipt at the TM30 office out back, as they didn't like the print out from the TM30 site (Excel-like format). Too small. AT the TM30 office they told me that with their phone app I could get the receipt as shown above. Too complicated, so I went back to the queue official, and she told me to go inside to the extension window to ask whether they would accept the TM30 receipt that I had presented, and they said yes. So no need to get the receipt as shown above. This was in November. Is there a new version - new link - for TM30 whereby you can get the receipt format shown above on a desktop -not the phone app? If so where do you click to get this receipt in pdf format?
  15. Neither are the West Bankers citizens of Israel. That is why Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have determined that Israel is an Apartheid state. They also found practices in Israel proper against the Arab Israeli population that rate as Apartheid.

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