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Asithappens

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Everything posted by Asithappens

  1. Let's see if this comes back to bite the GQP in the butt come next election. God, I hope so.
  2. Here's an essay from The Economist. THE FIGHTING lasted less than two weeks, but there was no shortage of explosions. By the end Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, had fired some 4,000 rockets at Israel. Most were intercepted by Israel’s missile defences. Israel responded with hundreds of air strikes on Gaza, a cramped enclave ruled by Hamas, which had no shield. More than 200 people were killed, all but 12 of them Palestinian. The battle began to wind down on May 20th; after nightfall Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire. Assuming that calm returns, who knows how long it will last? Fighting between Israel and Hamas has become almost routine. Since the Islamist group grabbed control of Gaza in 2007, the two sides have fought four wars and several smaller battles, costing thousands of lives (again, mostly Palestinian). The spark for the latest outbreak came in Jerusalem—but were it not Jerusalem, it would have been some other cause. Israel and Hamas are stuck in a perpetual crisis, trapped by the logic of war, which dictates that they keep going through the same motions. Start with Hamas, which sees fighting “the Zionist invaders” as its raison d’être. Its campaign of suicide-bombings in the 1990s and 2000s bears much responsibility for destroying the Oslo peace accords. Because of its incessant attacks, Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. The group expelled Fatah, its Palestinian rival, two years later. Today most Gazans see Hamas as authoritarian and corrupt. Unable to point to any achievements, it instead blames Israeli aggression and poses as the one true defender of the Palestinian cause. It had no plan to attack Israel; it merely saw an opportunity to assert itself after Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Fatah, indefinitely postponed legislative elections. Hamas’s attacks are futile: its rockets inflict relatively little damage. But Israel feels it has to respond. “If it happened to Washington or to New York? You know damn well what you would do,” said Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, on American television. So the cycle has continued. Israeli bombs hit Hamas’s offices, rocket launchers and tunnel complexes. Several of the group’s commanders were killed. Israeli officers say they have significantly degraded Hamas’s capabilities. But even they don’t think the group will be down for long. When the next spark comes, the militants will undoubtedly be there to fan it. And be in no doubt that it will come. Both sides are content to leave Gaza a festering pit of misery that periodically erupts. Hamas’s control in some ways suits Mr Netanyahu, inasmuch as it weakens the Palestinian leadership and dims the prospect of a Palestinian state. Israel will still try to keep the group down, though. It and Egypt have kept Gaza under blockade since 2007, making it harder for Hamas to arm itself—and making life grim for ordinary Gazans. Restrictions on travel mean they cannot leave. The isolated, impoverished territory draws comparisons to an open-air prison. Hamas’s policies make it more like a shooting range. The group sometimes shows little interest in actually governing. Its schools and hospitals can be used for storing weapons. The idea is that Israel won’t attack such sites or, if it does, Hamas can use it for propaganda. The militants were surprised by how hard Israel hit back after they launched their first barrage on May 10th. Still, even as the death toll mounted, they did not stop. Yet there were new elements to this round of violence. A wave of clashes between Jewish and Arab citizens in Israel itself unnerved Mr Netanyahu. There are new types of pressure from abroad, too. Whereas President Joe Biden emphasised “Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself”, some fellow Democrats called for putting conditions on American aid to Israel. But for now, none of that is likely to stop the cycle of violence. Israel and Hamas will come out of this battle much as they went in. Nothing has been gained; nothing has been resolved. And yet they are likely to do it again.
  3. I'm sorry/not sorry but that's damn funny. Thank goodness the boat took the damage and not you.
  4. Shouldn't the constitutional originalists be on board with that, too?
  5. Is that really a good argument? Being the smartest kid in special ed isn't really something to brag about.
  6. Exactly. Let's focus on the real issue: trans people in bathrooms.
  7. I think that this could be a successful criminal endeavor. The people who still support Trump (my god, really?) won't be swayed by anything. Probably not even him shooting someone on 5th Avenue.
  8. The NYT had a good summary of the situation. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/briefing/israel-hamas-conflict-fighting.html This may be the biggest obstacle to peace: When the United Nations proposed a two-state solution in the 1940s, Arabs rejected it, David Harris recently wrote in The Times of Israel. When Arab countries controlled Palestinian territories in the 1950s and ’60s, they could have created a nation and did not. When Israel and President Bill Clinton offered a two-state peace deal two decades ago, the Palestinians said no. Even many supporters of Israel who despair over Netanyahu’s leadership believe the larger problem is the Palestinians’ unwillingness to empower competent political leaders, rather than militants like Hamas. Israel can’t make a peace deal, its supporters say, until it has a partner more interested in building a prosperous society than trying to destroy Israel.
  9. I think it's on hold until he leaves office.
  10. Yep, the jews and arabs are essentially two sides to the same coin.
  11. I've got news for that dipshit. It ain't jail time. It's prison time. There's a difference.
  12. Yeah, I get that, but it's politics, dude. Be an optimist.
  13. Lol, great point. I'd say that of those who would accept his demise, a lot of them would believe in a resurrection. And y'all thought the second coming was about Jesus.
  14. What is the level of Hamas support among the rank and file Palestinians? I don't know. I'm sure that ALL of them don't support Hamas, but what about that generalization is a material misrepresentation? Maybe there are poll numbers out there.
  15. That's a really scary comment b/c I don't think the US will allow that. So if Israel goes down so do we. Which I don't think will happen.
  16. I don't know how you get that. But I will say that I don't like it when Americans die. And I don't like it when other groups celebrate those deaths.
  17. Should they? Even if the result of that is a Jewish minority in Israel? Maybe. About the only group more incompetent and ham-handed than the Israelis in this mess is the Palestinians. At least the Israeli jews weren't celebrating in the streets when 9/11 happened. Can't say the same for the Palestinians. If the US has to pick a side over there....
  18. Which to me means telling those "students and faculty" to get bent. Keep the eyes. Do not cave in to these woke assholes. Just my opinion.
  19. Lol. I consider myself a god. Not THE god, just A god. Kinda like Phil Connors, but of a lesser sort. I wouldn't presume to be on the level of Phil Connors. So, what I'm saying, is that all the prayers would include me. And of course, Phil Connors.
  20. Moderna said its Covid-19 vaccine is 96% effective in kids ages 12 to 17, according to early data released with the company’s first-quarter earnings Thursday.
  21. I don't understand this. It's like we've gone full retard on how viruses work. My 12 yo doesn't want a shot so I'm ok with it. Fucking parents nowadays. Grow a pair and do the right thing. For him and everyone else. Jesus.
  22. Worthy of a full-blown court martial. Fuck that guy.
  23. Ames over Iowa City?
  24. Here's what Carville had to say about that (and I agree with him): We won the White House against a world-historical buffoon. And we came within 42,000 votes of losing. We lost congressional seats. We didn’t pick up state legislatures. So let’s not have an argument about whether or not we’re off-key in our messaging. We are. And we’re off because there’s too much jargon and there’s too much esoterica and it turns people off. Stop convincing yourself that just b/c Biden won that all is well. It isn't. Especially with re-apportionment coming down the pike.
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