Jingthing

I see it differently. It's a war of choice by a Russian dictator. NATO is just a covering talking point for him. He has an ideology calling for the expansion of the current Russian empire. He doesn't consider Ukraine a legitimate distinct language, culture. people, or nation from "Mother" f-er Russia. So in effect his intention is genocide of Ukraine. Become Russified or become dead. Ukraine is not his only expansionist target, far from it. but if Russia wins against Ukraine it's a message to the entire illiberal world.

The math on this issue is not too complicated, but the emotional stuff can be. Obviously these are very individual decisions as each person has different finances, different situations, and different probabilities on life spans. It's similar to decision Americans make on social security benefits as far as the starting age impacting the annual payout. As a general rule most people shouldn't be thinking about drawdown until older age, probably for most people some time in their 60s. You can look at the traditional 4 percent withdrawal guideline when you start to retire, again for most people in their 60s or later. Under that guideline, the formula includes adding an additional increment annually as well. For Americans with taxable retirement accounts the government forces us to withdraw more than 4 percent starting at about age 72. So it's a moving math game competing with biological realities. The idea of spending down to nothing is fun to think about of course but crazy because you can't predict when the perfect time to have nothing will be unless you intend to off yourself then. I guess I think the middle path is best. Draw down yes but in a reasonable way that doesn't make running out of money likely. Easier said than done as I'm now old enough to draw down but spend so little that my net worth keeps increasing! So yeah I need to work on this harder. Good topic to get people to think about this.

News flash. Not everyone is you.

You don't say!

What's a check?

Israel demonizers will never acknowledge that Jews are indigenous to Israel For them its always the false narrative of rich "white" Jew oppressors vs poor dark skinned innocent victims.

Nothing surprising. Israeli is a democracy and they will discuss a range of options.

You really hate Israelis, huh?

Cabal? Really? We can always count on you and other western pro maga types to repeat Kremlin talking points.

Yep. Ukrainian blood on their hands. Maga is not just isolationist. They are anti-Ukraine, and pro Putin.

Look at the bigger picture. Trump tells us what he's about, again and again and again. Presidential Historian: Trump Actually Doing 'Us All A Favor' With Fascist Rhetoric (msn.com)

Meaningless statement without being more specific.

You haven't heard? How convenient for you. Do you think it helps your credibility as an obvious Israel demonizer to act so dumb? Hamas’s Genocidal Intentions Were Never a Secret - The Atlantic Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology A close read of Hamas’s founding documents clearly shows its intentions.

Again NEITHER side wants a two state solution. A one state solution means the end of Israel. Don't ask me what a solution could be because looking at the history nobody has come close to cracking that nut.

That ship has sailed. In the movement before the founding of Israel there were other geographical options discussed and considered. Obviously Israel was most ideal because of the ancient bond between the Jewish people and the land of Israel (Next Year In Jerusalem) but the core idea was a political self determination liberation movement where Jews could finally avoid the cyclical persecution in the diaspora. So it could have been somewhere else at least theoretically. But Israel exists now and isn't going anywhere.

You conveniently fail to mention that the stated goal of Hamas is genocide of Jews. So Israel is supposed to just cave? It's funny not ha ha to me. Jew haters attack Jews for being too passive as in WW2 and they also attack when Jews finally realized they needed serious military power to survive as in Israel. As the saying goes: “If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.” Golda Meir

I find it amazing then that you didn't know about the district then for the food alone if not the festivals.

Another one that eschews the complexity of real life. Are Palestinian Arabs really different than Jordanian Arabs? You ignore the fact that there was mass migration to British Mandate Palestine to take advantage of economic opportunities from the pan Arabic world related to Zionist pioneers. This fetishism over specific Palestinian Arab identity is an artificial construct. Anyway I agree with you that the west bank settlements are illegal.

Really? Japan town in SF is more of a tourist attraction while the San Jose district is more of a place for locals in the know. It's east of downtown.

It's no secret. Israel's war goals in response to the barbaric attack on October 7 include both getting the hostages back AND crushing Hamas. Both goals are very difficult.

Yeah well there is a very charming Japanese district in San Jose, California. If he did flee to Cambodian can't he be picked up when he tries to board an airplane?

The larger context of what we're dealing with "American Carnage" Trump.

Yeah I also don't find his "condemnation" at all sincere.

Episode 6 of Season 3 of The Young Royals which is the FINALE of the entire series is out today. Without any spoilers, I will call it an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

Yeah when Trump was president he spoke for me. Sure thing, dude. He never got a majority of votes and never will. Hamas is on record as having every intention of doing October 7 attacks again and again and again and their intention is to kill all the Jews. Yet to you it's a bad thing that Israel is stopping them at least for now. Hamas still holds hostages as well. Calling for an unconditional cease fire is calling for Israel to surrender, and why should they? I'm not going to play into your simple minded cheap gotcha condemn on demand game. I said they made mistakes. I said Netanyahu shouldn't be in power. Going back I doubt October 7 would have happened if Netanyahu wasn't in power then, but that doesn't mean he's to blame for what the Hamas terrorists did and continue to intend to do if they are effectively crushed by Israel.