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956 Worldwide

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Everything posted by 956 Worldwide

  1. For me the core of the op-ed is here: “Zionist,” even here on this forum is mostly meaningless and is used to conflate people who believe that Israel has a right to exist as a state in with people who support West Bank settlers and the full control of Jerusalem with no rights or space for Palestinians at all. Anyone who believes Israel gets to exist is a Zionist and then must be opposed. You are not allowed to point out how calling for the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state, and no other state in the world, is at least implicitly if not explicitly anti-Semitic. Same deal with “from the River to the Sea,” or “Globalize the Intifada.” Almost all will concede that these slogans are used with genocidal intent but then many will place the onus on Jews to parse through context to determine when it’s genocidal or not. Instead of just distancing themselves from it.
  2. Troof, although it turns out the worst Americans don’t want an eloquent and intelligent ideological advocate for American smallness, isolationism, xenophobia, and rank populism. They want all those things, but they need it delivered to them by a big dum-dum. To link to Ukraine, the ideology is really to make America shrink.
  3. A “measure of self-determination” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, especially considering that Arabs by all accounts hated living under Ottoman rule. One might also point out that there was more than a measure of self-determination in 2006 with elections that brought Hamas to power.
  4. I mean, this is factually untrue. There has never, ever, ever been a country or nation called Palestine with self-rule in the Levant. The name itself is a creation of the Roman Empire and for centuries before World War I they were ruled by Turks and their figureheads. There’s been a lot of whitewashing, but the actual residents of “Palestine” pretty much hatred the Ottomans and kept starting campaigns against them. Let’s at least get the history right. The closest the Palestinians have ever been to having a nation called “Palestine” with self-rule and determination was during the derailed peace talks with Israel.
  5. And don’t forget, this is ALL and ONLY about Palestine!
  6. This is way off topic but @BevoAbyss, that narrative is off and unhelpful to the current moment. There is no grand line connecting Bush 1 and Perot and Bush 2 in some sort of malevolent crypto-fascist conspiracy and that type of thinking is harmful like the “globalist NWO narrative” is harmful. Perot was a populist and a weirdo (who hated 41 and was hated in return; Perot claimed that 41 was going to fuck up his daughter’s wedding). What Perot WAS NOT by any stretch of the imagination, was a crypto-fascist theocrat. Direct from his “United we Stand,” which was not a precursor to MAGA or a Chick tract dressed as politics: 1. Abortion: Should be enshrined as a right for all women in federal law. The federal government should pay for low-income women to have abortions. 2. Education: Federally funded free preschool for all. 3. Heath: Universal basic coverage in a private-public partnership. Massive fed investment in AIDS research funding. 4. Drugs: Free federally funded rehab and treatment. 5. Taxes: Eliminate mortgage credits for high earners, no health deductions for high earners. Raise marginal rates on high earners. Lower capital gains (this is the most MAGA-y thing there, capital gains tax reform). https://www.ontheissues.org/United_We_Stand.htm It is a testament to the Overton window that a weirdo populist in 1992 wanted fed funded abortion and free pre-school. Instead of slaying imaginary dragons of the past we need to focus on the assholes in the here and now who want to lose to Russia. Admiral Stockdale wouldn’t have heard of it.
  7. Biden already offered them something. The GOP won’t even say what they want. That’s the point. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/republican-opposition-ukraine-israel-aid-border-security/676315/
  8. I am watching the utterly shameful display by GOP leadership today and their pitiful and disgusting linkage of whether Ukrainians get to survive or not to how bad Mexicans and Guatemalans are. I’m watching the completely pathetic sight of the leader of the free world begging these creatures for .33 percent of GDP so the United States of Fucking America can beat Russia on the battlefield without firing a shot, and how happy they are to get this moment. America is fucked, y’all. We are used to high-flown rhetoric, but it is not inaccurate to call this fight the defining moment of a generation. We have the choice to show that the American century can continue, that the Free World is stronger than awful and absurd strongman sanctuaries that make no pretense of having any sort of ethos beyond repression. And we’re going to lose. We’ve chosen to lose as a nation. Not just the array of clown-ass GOP voters, even those who say they support aid but haven’t made a bit of noise about it. Who will poll the lever with a shiteating grin, knowing that we are going to let Russia win, but maybe we will own some libs. We also have the milquetoast D leadership that had every chance to win this thing but erred on the side of escalation management and the absurdly facile belief that on this issue they could get the GOP to do the right thing. Trump may be right about one thing, we’re tired of winning. As a country, we’re tired of winning. Our best and brightest are paralyzed by fears and nuance and our stupidest and worst are the boldest and most willing to play for keeps. And so we’re going to lose. We got tired of winning, and so like a stupid and spoiled child who breaks his toy just because he got bored with it, we are taking a hammer to the world we built just for the smug satisfaction of it. And the people who can stop it are watching and tutting, that Jimmy simply mustn’t do that, isn’t he naughty. Fuck this.
  9. Well, it could have absorbed a drop of his dribbling urine. Don’t know what side it came from.
  10. This is like selling relics from the Holy Land to peasants in Swabia or some shit. Lol. At least the peasants believed the relics might have really been worn by a saint instead of knowing that it once touched Trump. Maybe one of his thundering farts, the best farts, so smelly you can’t believe it, filtered through this fabric!
  11. It is, and it’s a really old English term indeed. To when “whitewash” was a really cheap thin lime based slosh used to do an inexpensive job. Also “whited.” It goes back farther than that when Jesus called the “teachers of the law” “whitewashed tombs/whited sepulchers,” attractive on the outside but full of bones and unpleasant things. Again, not linked to the color white or white people being better than black. It’s
  12. We need more Rand Paul’s neighbor in this world.
  13. White paper comes from the color of the booklet that the UK government used to print them. Same thing with “blue book.” Now let’s talk about how come it’s gotta be WHITE smoke at the Vatican.
  14. History will remember these people like they do the America First crowd before WWII. Orban and all who associate with him are garbage people. At the end of the war, Ezra Pound found himself locked in a cage in Italy while the army thought about what to do with him. They eventually let him out to go to an insane asylum. He ended his life an unrepentant fascist. A fate too kind for these creatures.
  15. Avatar checks out. Also, I really think it’s cool AF when people like things like lemurs, so it’s super cool you support the Duke Lemur center.
  16. Yeah, this is why even things like colors can be a problem. Most of the time when men especially notice a woman it’s because she “looks particularly good.” And we aren’t thinking of colors in that assessment. If you say “great color for you” and the reason you noticed the blouse’s color is because it’s lower cut than the ordinary—- she’s not dumb about what you’ve noticed. Which is why again, if you wanna play the handing out compliments game you better make sure you’re pretty gotdam generous and notice hairstyles and shoes on EVERYONE, not just people who look “particularly good.”
  17. Complimenting women at work is inherently risky and you never go wrong by not doing it. If you are going to, I have two basic rules: 1. Compliment something they can choose/style. 2. Keep the compliments about said style below the knees, below the wrists, and above the neck. Shoes are mostly safe, assuming they aren’t wearing some crazy strapping sexy heels or thigh high boots. New hairstyle is fine. Earring are fine. Watches are OK, nails are maybe OK but you’re treading on thin ice. Also, if you’re going to play that game you better not be mentioning how nice the new haircut is to ONLY the 25 year old. That shit will get noticed, fast.
  18. I can think of few positions less suited for preparing someone to run a major research institution than “academic.” Being Chris Rufo would certainly be one though.
  19. One of the Rabbis and a lecturer at HDS has resigned from the antisemitism committee at Harvard. He does not join the dogpile onto President Gay. I think the middle tweet is the most relevant: What I think is undeniable about this recent controversy is that for many years now, speech on campus has been centered around feelings of student safety. It was hard not to get whiplash on the sudden about-face into legalism when the people who felt unsafe were Jews. It is extremely unfortunate that a dishonest wretch like Elise Stefanik is getting any credit for this discussion happening.
  20. PED addled man who got famous by paying people to eat bugs has opinion on well known sex pest.
  21. This is a completely true and important statement. It’s sort of evidence of how deeply ingrained Platonism is in our entire worldview and how we try to imagine that things such as a “ideal,” or “real” Christianity exists apart from the belief and praxis of Christians themselves. All around that leads to a logic of fundamentalism from within (only my version is correct and no one else is a real Christian) and intolerance from without (the “real” Christianity is bad and thus adherents are either bad or deluded or stupid). And you also end up handing the argument to the crazies, because they are always going to be engaged and ready and perfectly capable of demonstrating that all their beliefs are perfectly consistent with a belief system known as “Christianity.” This came into sharp focus when I was working on CVE in Pakistan. Remembering a long talk with Muslim scholars on how you’re playing with fire when you make sweeping statements like “Islam is a religion of peace“ or “ISIS aren’t real Muslims.” Because the problem is that ISIS is really super-duper Muslim and violent extremists have really worked hard to develop a theory of how their violence is perfectly in line with Islamic scripture and teaching, and so you end up looking ridiculous and non-credible. Rather, it’s better to approach it from a lens of how there are plenty of ways (most ways, in fact) to be Muslim that do NOT involve violence or hatred, and that those ways of being Muslim will both lead to a better and more humane outcome in the here and now while also keeping you square with the Great Unseen.
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