Israel Knew What Hamas Was Planning

Plus: DeSantis vs. Newsom, a controversial Christmas-tree lighting, Brazilians use AI, and more...

Israel knew: The October 7 attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas has already been widely regarded as a massive intelligence failure on the part of the Israeli military. But now, new information has been revealed that Israeli officials had access to a 40-page document, code-named "Jericho Wall," which spelled out Hamas' plan for the attack.

Though it did not specify when the horrifying acts would be carried out, it "described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases, including a division headquarters," which Hamas ended up following "with shocking precision," per The New York Times.

The conventional wisdom among Israeli authorities was that such a plan could not realistically be carried out by Hamas, which proved to be an underestimation that cost 1,200 Israeli lives on October 7, and many more (possibly up to 15,000 Palestinians, though Hamas-controlled health ministry numbers are not reliable) in the hellish aftermath.

"In July, just three months before the attacks, a veteran analyst with Unit 8200, Israel's signals intelligence agency, warned that Hamas had conducted an intense, daylong training exercise that appeared similar to what was outlined in the blueprint," reports The New York Times. "A colonel in the Gaza division brushed off her concerns, according to encrypted emails viewed by The Times."

Trump won the debate: Last night, Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for president, and California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who says he's not running for president, squared off in a debate hosted by Fox's Sean Hannity. It was even worse than it sounds.

What could've been a beautiful DeSantis victory lap on COVID-19, if he had even a semblance of political skill, might have been equal parts vindicating and entertaining to watch. This was not that.

The whole thing was light on COVID, yet heavy on the 2024 election. At one point, Newsom tried to hang DeSantis on his COVID record, saying that in the beginning, actually Florida hewed pretty closely to the Fauci-prescribed course of action. "You had quarantines, you had checkpoints … you followed science, you followed Fauci," said Newsom. "You were promoting vaccines, you even wore a mask in September [2020]." (Read Reason's Eric Boehm for more.)

DeSantis tried to pick at California's dysfunction and outmigration, at one point holding up a map. "You might be asking, what is that plotting?" he said. "Well this is an app where they plot the human feces that are found on the streets of San Francisco, and you see how almost the whole thing is covered."

"Human feces is now a fact of life, except when a communist dictator comes to town—then they cleaned up the streets!" DeSantis added while Newsom chuckled in response, with no real defense.

Neither exchange was particularly productive, and they used the stage to take the opportunity to trade barbs. "When are you going to drop out and give Nikki Haley a chance to take on Donald Trump?" Newsom asked DeSantis.

Culture war dialed up to 11: Apparently in Sean Hannity's mind, one of the greatest issues facing our nation is the presence of the horny-and-gross graphic novel Gender Queer in school libraries (not inflation, war, crime, or the national debt). Though Newsom started off making sense on this question, correctly noting that there's a difference between being able to access a book in a school library versus the book being taught as part of the sex ed curriculum, the exchange quickly devolved into the worst caricatures of left and right.

Newsom repeated the typical leftist talking points about how "these kids just want to survive"—referring to kids seeking sex changes and hormone therapy, as if that's the only possible means of ensuring survival—while DeSantis kept acting like having Gender Queer on a library shelf is the same thing as teaching it in school which is the same thing as allowing kids to get sex-change surgeries.

The whole debate made clear what we knew already: that DeSantis will not win the nomination, and that Newsom really wishes Biden would croak already so he can lounge on the ornate rugs of the Oval Office.

---

Scenes from New York: On Wednesday night, the New York Police Department made a handful of arrests at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting in Manhattan. Pro-Palestine protesters chose to disrupt the tradition with chants of "from the river to the sea" as well as at least one sign bearing a Swastika, comparing the Israeli military to Nazis.

"I had planned my holiday around this event, being a big fan of Christmas. Now I'm walled in by a bunch of terrorist-loving a–holes calling for intifada," one British tourist told the New York Post.

---

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— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) December 1, 2023

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Israeli officials had access to a 40-page document, code-named "Jericho Wall," which spelled out Hamas' plan for the attack.

40 pages is a lot to go over.

[Don't look at me!]

Who’s got the time?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

I hear if you text "TLDR" then you are absolved from responsibility.

[Rob Misek]

Educate yourself and challenge your bigotry. Watch the three minute segment of the video I’ve presented below. After all, it is a prominent Jew speaking.

The mainstream media is complicit with the genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Jews and advocated by the west. We should be seeing videos of the total destruction in Gaza. The bombed refugee camps, hospitals, schools and homes. Interviewing the families of the 15000 slaughtered.

The Israeli government plan to kill and forcibly displace the entire entire Palestinian population in Gaza should be front page news.

Instead all we see is the language of propaganda. Dozens of CHILDREN held indefinitely by Jews are “prisoners” while Jews held by Palestinians are “hostages”.

Miko Peled is an Israeli, an author, a public speaker and the son of a famous Israeli general.

He is also opposed apartheid, genocide and crimes against humanity being committed by Jews in Palestine.

Between 40:40 and 43:45 in the video he describes a poignant example of previous Israeli terrorism. As terrible as It is, it pales in comparison to what Jews are doing now.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TOaxAckFCuQ

[Sevo]

Fuck off and die, slimy pile of Nazi shit.

[Rob Misek]

I’m not the one advocating genocide and crimes against humanity being committed by Jews.

Nazis have nothing to do with it. Unless you’re suggesting that Nazis are making Jews do it.

[JesseAz]

Worst genocide ever when Israel could have wiped them all out at any time.

[Shlomo's Shiksa]

Good way to make BDS work for once and then the "light unto the nations" will be North Korea 2.0.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Yes, such a genocide when the Arabs there in Gaza have been growing in population. Isn't the idea behind genocide to get rid of a people and lower their numbers, ideally to zero?

[Michael Ejercito]

Attacking Gaza is no more genocide than attacking Japan was genocide.

Gaza made the same choice Japan did on December 7, 1941.

Gaza has the same choices Japan did on August 5, 1945.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

Just kill yourself. No one here or any where else outside of Stormfront is interested in your Nazi bullshit.

[Agammamon]

The Palestinian population wants to replace the whole Jewish population too.

If I have to choose, I choose the jooz.

[Rob Misek]

You are advocating apartheid, genocide and crimes against humanity.

[JesseAz]

Thanks rep Tlaib.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Just like the good Nazi you are.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

No Nazi Rob, that’s you.

[Shlomo's Shiksa]

Kikesucker

[No Beret]

Not "too," this is a one way want.

[Mother's Lament]

"The Israeli government plan to kill and forcibly displace the entire entire Palestinian population in Gaza should be front page news."

"From the River to the Sea", Herr Misek?

[Rob Misek]

Palestine has been the Jewish Zionist wet dream for over 100 years.

Jews duped the US into WW1 in exchange for Britain’s promise of Palestine.

Jewish leaders bragged about forcing WW2 on Germany since 1933.

Jews falsely claimed to be subjected to 166 different holocausts of 6 million between 1900 and 1945.

When Jews declared their theft of Palestine in 1948 they began the entire Middle East conflict that has raged since.

Jews are demonstrating once again that they are the terrorists, not the Palestinians.

The difference between a civilized society and terrorists is that one kills “human shields” while the other doesn’t.

The world now sees you for what you are. The term antisemitism has expired.

Fuck you lying waste of skin terrorist Jews.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Fuck off back to Stormfront, Himmler.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

You know Rob has to be a huge fan of the alternate universe nazi regime from ‘The Man in the High Castle’.

[Commenter_XY]

Rob, do you feel better now? I just want you to know that you should keep taking your medicine, even thought you are still hearing those voices in your head. Just stay away from guns, and sharp objects, ok?

You'll probably feel better after you scamper back to Stormfag.

[JesseAz]

I highly encourage him to be free to be near his gun at home.

[Mother's Lament]

"Jews duped the US into WW1 in exchange for Britain’s promise of Palestine.
Jewish leaders bragged about forcing WW2 on Germany since 1933."

Absolutely no doubt what Herr Misek is now, is there? Can't just handwave this away as merely being pro-Palestinian.

Where's Chemjeff and Buttplug to condemn their pal? Too busy calling Elon Musk an antisemite for Media Matters I guess.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

Now, now….. Jeffy and Pluggo could be together for a mutual masturbation marathon, as they have an extended viewing of kiddie porn that Pluggo got fresh from the dark web.

[Chumby]

Are they in the same froternity?

[Gaear Grimsrud]

From former Reason contributor David Harsanyi
https://thefederalist.com/2023/11/28/palestinians-dont-deserve-a-state-and-the-u-s-shouldnt-force-israel-to-create-one/
Yet, Palestinians, and their defenders, remain the only people in the world who think they can reset history every time they lose a war of aggression. Their very claim to a state is contingent on the myth that Israel invaded and “occupied” the West Bank and Gaza (and Tel Aviv) in an act of colonialism, when in reality the “occupied territories” were taken in defensive wars against Egypt and (the existing Palestinian-majority state of) Jordan.
Palestinians have no historical or moral claim to a state. No more than dozens of largely peaceful minority populations around the world, from the Tibetans to the Kurds to the Hmong. Less so, in fact. An independent Arab Palestine has never existed. It didn’t exist under Ottoman rule or the British Mandate or, in the end, under the Partition Plan when every Arab state and Palestinian leadership attacked the Jews. Before 1967, there was no call for a Palestinian state because the entire project was a concoction of Arab nations and their Soviet backers. A cudgel against the Zionist entity.
But forget history. Forget that you can dig anywhere in the ground and find ancient Jewish artifacts. Forget that Israel offered Arabs back the land on numerous occasions in exchange for basic recognition. More importantly, there is zero evidence that Palestinian self-governance will lead to more peace — quite the opposite, in fact.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

I doubt Obergruppenführer Misek will respond to that.

[Rob Misek]

Why would I respond to a genocidal opinion when the facts I’ve presented have never been refuted?

[jimc5499]

Finally somebody who know their History.

[TheReEncogitationer]

What are you doing citing a Jew if you think all Jews are liars? And why are you doing this if you think all lying should be illegal?

Fuck Off, Nazi!

[Truthfulness]

Self-hating Jews are a not-so-small numerous group, unfortunately.

[Rob Misek]

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Elements of the crime

The Genocide Convention establishes in Article I that the crime of genocide may take place in the context of an armed conflict, international or non-international, but also in the context of a peaceful situation. The latter is less common but still possible. The same article establishes the obligation of the contracting parties to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide.

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Causing mental harm is genocide? I’m sorry someone genocided you irreparably
Please stop trying to genocide the rest of us with your bullshit

[Rob Misek]

Crimes Against Humanity

For the purpose of this Statute, ‘crime against humanity’ means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

Murder;
Extermination;
Enslavement;
Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
Torture;
Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
Enforced disappearance of persons;
The crime of apartheid;
Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

For the purpose of paragraph 1:
‘Attack directed against any civilian population’ means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack;

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/crimes-against-humanity.shtml

[Rob Misek]

In the United States of America, terrorism is defined in Title 22 Chapter 38, of the U.S. Code as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents”.[10]

Do you agree with the US governments convenient definition that no state government can ever be guilty of terrorism?

Without such a stipulation, the nuclear attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima would definitely be acts of terrorism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_terrorism" rel="nofollow ugc">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_terrorism

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

So basically your posts describe you, your Nazi friends, and your dreamy Hamas comrades, right Obergruppenführer Misek?

[B G]

"Without such a stipulation, the nuclear attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima would definitely be acts of terrorism."

Why would the nuclear attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima be crimes, but the firebombing of Tokyo (which killed far more civilians than either nuclear attack) and conventional strikes against all sorts of basic/industrial infrastructure that were SOP by both sides in WW2 wouldn't be?

Would a land invasion of the Japanese "Home Islands" against a combined military and partisan resistance which was believed would possibly eventually come down to every Japanese person capable of wielding a sharpened stick in resistance have been less damaging, or involved less killing of civilians?

[Rob Misek]

Terrorism defined by the US without the self-serving stipulations.

“ premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets…”

It’s well known that both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen because of their densely populated civilian areas and that it was the terror inflicted by the US on the civilian population that inspired Japans political surrender.

You’re free to identify other acts of terrorism.

It doesn’t change the fact that Jews are terrorists in Israel.

[B G]

"It’s well known that both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen because of their densely populated civilian areas"

If that was the criteria, why not hit much denser and larger civilian population centers like Tokyo or Kyoto (I think the reasoning against Kyoto was that if they took out Hirohito there'd be nobody able to surrender)?

Not to mention that population density in Hiroshima in 1940 was less than half the density in Kyoto, Kobe, and Yokohama, around one-quarter the density of Nagoya, around one tenth the density of Osaka, and about 5% of the population density of Tokyo. Nagasaki was even smaller. If density of civilian population was the primary factor in selection, the two cities which were hit with the atomic bombs barely cracked the top 10 at the time based on that measure. It'd be like hitting Denver and Kansas City in the USA and claiming that the intention was to target the country's primary population centers.

We're all well aware of your deliberate ignorance, there's no need to keep adding new and easily provable examples to reinforce that part of your "rep" on these boards.

[B G]

"Educate yourself and challenge your bigotry. Watch the three minute segment of the video I’ve presented below. After all, it is a prominent Jew speaking."

The "prominent jew" in question is also an admitted activist for a particular side of a deeply issue which he's addressing, and the 40+ minute talk (of which you somehow think 3 minutes of are apparently all that anyone needs to know) which even the speaker has titled as a talk on his opinions. Anyone who cares to look will be able to find another "prominent jew" expressing almost any take on the overall question that they personally happen to agree with, although I'd suspect that the number who actually support the genocidal goals of Hamas (and their patrons in the Iranian "Revolutionary Council") would carry out if they had the capability are in the distinct minority.

Just the idea that anyone might think that 185 seconds of anecdotal/subjective accounts is all anyone needs to know, or that it could possibly be sufficient for anyone with more than near-zero other information to re-calibrate their entire take on the larger questions involved is lunacy, even measured against your particular brand of aggressive and willful ignorance, misek.

"Miko Peled is an Israeli, an author, a public speaker and the son of a famous Israeli general."

Hunter Biden is an accomplished (measured by sales of his work) artist, a former firearm owner, and the son of a United States President. Maybe we could listen to him talk for 45 minutes and assume it has some value (or that there's maybe a 3 minute clip which should mold our world-view) because of his family pedigree?

[Rob Misek]

With that logic, why do you comment?

Hahaha

[B G]

"With that logic, why do you comment?"

Because everyone who might read this other than yourself probably understands actual logic, and has figured out at least that whatever you think the term "properly applied" in reference to the concept has no resemblance to what the actual rules of logic would dictate in any given situation.

I can't even pretend to understand what you think "properly applied" logic is, but I can only guess that it's analogous to meaning that a "properly applied" suppository would be divided into 4 parts and inserted into ones ears and nostrils.

[B G]

The intentional illogic of my comment was done to shine a light on the fundamental illogic in your entire premise, and to emphasize that the only reason you care what Miko Peled has to say is that he's saying what you want to be able to quote. The fact that his father is an Israeli General isn't any more of a credential than Hunter Biden's (or Eric Trump's) father having been President of the USA.

Peled is an activist in pursuit of a selected agenda. I'm not saying that he's wrong to pursue that agenda, or even that the incidents he's witnessed didn't happen (the bilateral exchange of what would generally be deemed "crimes against humanity" has been integral to the relationship between PLO/Hamas/Hezbollah (with state backing by Iran and other Arab/Muslim nations in the region who have been trying to complete the ethnic cleansing of Jews in the region for centuries and the complete destruction of Israel as a nation since 1948) and Israeli/US/European civilian populations and governments for decades. The current "apartheid" conditions and blockade of Gaza have evolved out of many years of increasing security necessity as Arab attacks on the Jewish civilain population evolved from suicide bombings (often using women and children as bombers when "military aged men" began to draw too much scrutiny to succeed) of public markets, restaurants, and even ambulances into attacks with rockets and mortars on population centers supplied by Iran via ship into Gaza, and now into Hamas/Islamic Jihad using the components of civilian infrastructure to manufacture weapons.

In a scenario where neither side really has much in the way of moral "high ground", I'm left in a position to, in general terms, support the cause of the side whose members wouldn't be happy to murder me simply for having the ancestry that I do, even if I have severe objections to some of the particulars of how they're carrying out their side of things.

Also, since public outrage in the "Western" nations is the single strongest weapon which Hamas has to use, siding with that outrage creates greater incentives for Hamas to keep the civilains who they're pretending to fight for between themselves and incoming weapons fire. The best and most effective thing that anyone in the USA or Europe can do to protect the lives of non-combatant Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank is to not reward Hamas for putting those people unwillingly into harm's way.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

And yet Gender Queer with its 240 pages (Barnes and Noble) is the most read book ever, it seems.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

To be fair, comic books are easier.

[Truthfulness]

Anyone wanna show them the Hebrew Bible?

[Mother's Lament]

"…Israeli officials had access to a 40-page document, code-named “Jericho Wall,” which spelled out Hamas’ plan for the attack."

I've said this several times here already, that Mossad deliberately withheld information on the attack because they wanted to have one to discredit Netanyahu. But it turned out to be a far bigger event than they anticipated, and now they're the ones looking bad.

Although the analogy isn't perfect, Mossad are the FBI to Netanyahu's Trump and would do almost anything to get him out. Including letting what they thought would be a smaller incident occur.

[Jerry B.]

Knowing there's a likelihood of an attack doesn't really tell you where or when it will be, and with what forces. Keeping your military at a heightened state of alert at all times isn't possible.

[A Thinking Mind]

And the international community seems to frown on pre-emptive defensive measures.

That said, I can't really talk intelligently on the character of Mossad, and if they really are cut-throat enough that they'd be willing to sacrifice a few dozen Israeli lives if it allowed them to undermine Netanyahu. To me it seems that any intentional oversights would do more to undermine Mossad, though.

[Mother's Lament]

Mossad knew where, when, and how, at least partially. What they didn't anticipate was the size and the hostage taking.

They thought maybe a half dozen people would die and Netanyahu would look like loud-mouthed idiot who couldn't protect Israelis when the chips were down. Suffice it to say, that backfired.

[B G]

Palestinian "freedom fighters" have been taking hostages as a principal tactic for as long as there's been a name for a group to take credit.

It doesn't seem possible that there was no anticipation of hostage-taking as part of any attack (except for rocket attacks) originating out of Gaza at any time of any day.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Bin Laden determined to strike United States

[B G]

I'll never cease to be fascinated by the idea that anyone could even pretend to think that a report in 2001 stating that the guy who was behind the 1993 WTC bombing was "determined to strike the US mainland" was even meaningful as a piece of "intelligence" let alone as something that could have been "actionable" on its own in terms of preventing a particular action.

If someone told you that your dog wants the leftover steak in your fridge, that's not even news if there's no leftover steak in the fridge (your dog still thinks there could be, and wants it), and isn't a justification to get rid of the dog in the name of protecting the leftovers.

[SRG2]

I’ve said this several times here already, that Mossad deliberately withheld information on the attack because they wanted to have one to discredit Netanyahu.

Though you've not actually provided evidence for this, IIRC. Perhaps you're channelling the Bellman - "what I say three times is true".

[Truthfulness]

Did you even read the article? It literally says people knew the plans of the attack by Hamas. Don't be so stupid.

[Commenter_XY]

ML...Uh no, I doubt that. If only it could be something sexy and exciting and conspiratorial like that. Nope. What we have here is incompetence, blended with some sexism, motivated ideology, and a little arrogance.

When you add all that up, Chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva should be summarily dismissed from his position, and mustered out of the IDF. That cannot happen fast enough.

Here is some background.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/381191

[Medulla Oblongata]

Or like Fauci releasing the Wuhan flu he paid to be developed so make Trump look bad.

[Mickey Rat]

The conspiracy theorists are about to enter, stage Left.

[JesseAz]

They've been there since 10/8. Many saying Netanyahu intentionally allowing the attack.

[Mother's Lament]

Well, Mossad certainly did. Although Netanyahu was the target rather than the perpetrator.

Ehud Barak is Israel's Obama, and Mossad is its FBI.

[Commenter_XY]

Agree: Ehud Barak is a very dangerous man.

And loved to visit his friend Jeffery Epstein in NYC and The Island.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Like Roosevelt allowed Pearl Harbor and George Bush allowed 9/11?

[Nardz]

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1730258091818598636?t=pXHIIQOfN6pU588pAYDc9A&s=19

NOW - Shellenberger: "US and UK military contractors" deployed "sophisticated psychological operations and disinformation tactics... against the American people."

[Video]

[Nardz]

https://twitter.com/Babygravy9/status/1730522279426064718?t=qJYAbZXVIizZEchvRQ6NlQ&s=19

As despicable as this is, it's also a huge whitepill. If you stood firm, if you didn't take the v*xx, you withstood the most sophisticated psychological warfare operation in history. You outwitted, whether through knowledge or instinct, the best military planners of the age.

[BYODB]

I mean, that seems like the world's biggest self-congratulation I've ever seen.

I never did any of it, but it's because I'm a crotchety curmudgeon that doesn't like taking orders from self-appointed betters. I didn't join the military for the same reason. I'm not going to take orders from some moron.

[mad.casual]

I mean, that seems like the world’s biggest self-congratulation I’ve ever seen.

Jordan Peterson: The social science evidence strongly indicates that if you’d lived in Weimar Germany, you would’ve been a Nazi. Me: That’s because the social science evidence is wrong.

[Chumby]

You have to allow the plans to pass to find out what is in the plans.

[Moderation4ever]

Especially when you are preoccupied with the Israeli court system. I think Netanyahu will have a lot to answer for when things cool down. And I think that time will come sooner.

[Mother's Lament]

^ See, Jerry B., this kind of bein pensant gibberish was what I was saying Ehud Barak and Mossad were hoping for.

[JesseAz]

Whats funny is many of these parody accounts also would call others 9/11 thuthers.

[Moonrocks]

Answer for the actions of the unelected bureaucracy that he's been barred from undermining, per the Israeli supreme court?

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

Yes, I’m sure you and your fellow travelers have knives out for him. Got to install a Marxist puppet that will get the Israelis wiped out, right?

[soldiermedic76]

The problem with intelligence is generally not a lack of information but to much information. Quite often, it's up to the analysts to decide what is pertinent and piece together the puzzle. What is realistic and what isn't. When and where should resources be allocated to. It's always easy, in hindsight to say, hey, they should have paid attention to this or that warning. But that ignores the ninety nine other warnings on that day that didn't pan out. Not saying Israel and Mossad didn't screw the pooch, just saying it's easy to armchair quarterback with the luxury of hindsight.

[Medulla Oblongata]

And Roosevelt had the blueprints for Japan's Pearl Harbor attack, so they say.

[mad.casual]

Yeah, but it's been out for a year telling everyone that sometime between now and either the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or other version of Judgement Day, Gazans would overwhelm the wall, seize control of every military base and division HQ and any Israeli city they laid eyes on.

[Bubba Jones]

The report was a year ago. If it's not timely and actionable, it's not useful.

[soldiermedic76]

Yeah it's not quite like Allied HQ ignoring field reports of increased German activity in the Ardennes by stating 'no one would launch an offensive through the Ardennes' ignoring that is exactly what Germany did during the First World War and in 1940 when they invaded France. Then you had timely, actionable material, supported by past activity that showed your enemy did have the capability to do exactly what the evidence suggests they might be trying again. Also, ignoring that German military doctrine was to counterattack, always counterattack, and had been for the previous two hundred years, dating back to Frederick the Great. In a world of intelligence fuck ups, missing the German build up in the Ardennes during November and December of 1944 has to be in the top ten. An unverified, year old report, probably one of a thousand such reports, is pretty much par for the course with intelligence agencies. Especially when dealing with unconventional forces.

[Ben of Houston]

I would also question two more things.
1: Did they believe it? I'm certain they get terrorist plans all the time, most of which are little more than some guy's fantasy.
2: Did they know the date?
If they thought they had another month to figure out whether it was real and were caught before they were ready, that would explain everything.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A colonel in the Gaza division brushed off her concerns...

Her? Uh-oh. If you thought Israel was losing the PR war before now...

[TheReEncogitationer]

3000+ years of Jew Hatred cumulating in The Holocaust, on top of Pearl Harbor and 9/11 in the United States, and the Israeli Government actually has a failure of imagination???

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Who was their analyst, Misek?

[JesseAz]

A colonel in the Gaza division brushed off a shooting person's concerns

Fixed it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The whole thing was light on COVID, yet heavy on the 2024 election.

Hannity.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

If you enjoyed COVID 2020 you will really like COVID 2024. Correlation with election years totally coincidental.

[Don't look at me!]

Brazilian city councilman Ramiro Rosario "asked … ChatGPT to craft a proposal to prevent the city from charging taxpayers to replace water consumption meters if they are stolen. He then presented it to his 35 peers on the council without making a single change or even letting them know about its unprecedented origin," per the Associated Press.

I think we found a replacement for council members.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Point of parliamentary procedure, Mr. Councilman. I believe the honorable Skynet has the floor."

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Man, Skynet has really mellowed if it will standby idly after having the floor taken from it.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

As per the 21st century meme, a mostly peaceful Skynet.

[mad.casual]

Probably just need to close a few background applications or jiggle the cord.

[A Thinking Mind]

Most proposals like this already looked like they were written by AI. We'd absolutely never know the difference.

[soldiermedic76]

It might be an improvement, especially if we told chargpt to write said law at the average reading level of the nation the law applies to.

[soldiermedic76]

And cross reference any other related laws and insure there is no discrepancies or conflicts.

[mad.casual]

Or at least all the ones before 2022 anyway.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Please, beloved friends and foes...

See? I told you I was beloved.

[TheReEncogitationer]

You're a foe of the new Liz? Pour quoi?

There's no one I 100 percent agree with, but she is not a foe to me.

[Zeb]

FoE

[TheReEncogitationer]

Oh, I see now. That is some Chumby-level deep punnery!
🙂
😉

[Jefferson Paul]

Yeah, I missed that (FoE) too.

[mad.casual]

[Adam West voice]Must... refrain... from... making... tasteless... Liz-beloved-Fist joke....[/Adam West voice]

[Sandra (formerly OBL)]

"Wealth taxes don't work!"

And even if they did, I suspect Biden understands it would be dumb to punish his own base.

#OBLsFirstLaw

[Don't look at me!]

Biden understands nothing.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Democrats, once the party of rich elites who controlled black Americans, return to their roots.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...comparing the Israeli military to Nazis.

You know who else was a Nazi?

[Anomalous]

The soup vender on Seinfeld?

[Dillinger]

misunderstood. suffered for his soup.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

My third grade gym teacher?

[Ajsloss]

LOL

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Alec Guinness? Literally Hitler.

[Chumby]

George Soros?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Klaus Schwab?

[Don't look at me!]

Misek?

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Misek.

[Social Justice is neither]

Trudeau and the rest if the Canadian parliment?

[Vernon Depner]

Marge Schott?

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Anyone who disagrees with me?

[TheReEncogitationer]

Frank Purdue, according to Peter Singer and PETA freaks?

[Moonrocks]

Me whenever I correct someone's spelling?

[Commenter_XY]

Aunt Teefah?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Jeffy?

[mad.casual]

A Nazi?, I didn't even know who else was sick!

[soldiermedic76]

Half of NASA's leading scientist in the first decades of its existence?

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

Col. Klink?

[soldiermedic76]

I see nothing

[soldiermedic76]

Hogan!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Canada's national agency on statistics is apparently not doing a very good job of counting medically-assisted suicide deaths.

Not if they're not counting them as the 'rona.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Suicide by 'rona...is that anything like Clintoncide?

[TheReEncogitationer]

Only if the suicide involves multiple gunshots in the back of the head or relying on security in an embassy in Libya.

[JesseAz]

People Who Followed COVID Recommendations More Likely To Have Mental Health Issues Now
More than three years after the first lockdowns, the mental health of many continues to suffer

https://themessenger.com/health/covid-lockdowns-mental-health-pandemic-restrictions

Sarc, Jfree, jeff, sqrsly...

Checks out.

[Don't look at me!]

Funniest thing all day.

[Zeb]

A lot of them had issues to begin with.

[Minadin]

Was going to say - how can they tell whether it's correlation or causation?

[JesseAz]

I think a lot of it is derived from dependent behavior types. People who shut responsibility. And covid was an excuse to amp it up to 11.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Seems aligned with greater mental health issues among liberals and kids of liberals (true).

[Super Scary]

With mental health issues or of mental health issues?

[TheReEncogitationer]

I guess I'm only half-crazy. I masked at work and masked in stores out of respect for private property rights, but never in my own vehicle or apartment.

I recently took my third Pfizer shot shortly following my flu and pneumonia shots. Qanon would think I'm living "Life in the Fast Lane."
🙂
😉

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Excuse me, I'm not the one who decided to protest and/or riot at state capitols over COVID restrictions.

But the study does check out, in this sense:

Implications for future public messaging strategies: Agentic individuals are motivated by power, influence, and control. For agentic characters, complying with health advice poses a threat to their sense of control, and as a result, they are less likely to adopt new health behaviours. Our analysis suggests that agentic characters are more likely to adopt new health behaviours when they understand the personal health risks and consequences of not complying. This self-focused response is in line with their tendency to prioritise their own well-being in response to factors that threaten their sense of personal competence and independence. On the other hand, individuals with more Communal traits are motivated by social status and acceptance through caring and nurturing others. Thus, they are more likely to comply with health advice because it aligns with their nurturing tendencies. Our results suggest individuals higher in communal personality are more likely to adopt health behaviours that align with health advice and health messaging. Considering our findings in relation to public messaging campaigns, we believe that messages emphasising both the communal (other focussed) and agentic (self-focussed) costs of not following health advice are likely to be more effective in driving compliance compared to messages that do not take personality into account.

So the anti-mask crowd around here were "agentic", using the language of this study. They didn't give a damn about the health and well-being of others, they were only interested in their own health and their own outcomes. I called it "misanthropic".

and when I say "anti-mask", I am not referring merely to the mask mandates, which we all opposed, but opposed to even wearing a mask when requested to do so without coercion - you know, those of you who refused to wear it because you thought it was a "sign of submission" or whatnot.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Excuse me, I’m not the one who decided to protest and/or riot at state capitols over COVID restrictions.

Resistance to those restrictions took time, but ultimately killed the "vaccine passports" and Fauci Ouchie requirements stone dead.

[Chumby]

Wir sind das Volk!

[JesseAz]

Notice is his issue is people protesting FOR individual rights.

[Don't look at me!]

Fuck off, you opposed none of it.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

As usual, you are wrong and offer nothing of substance.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

This you?

https://reason.com/2020/06/29/as-new-lockdowns-loom-how-did-we-get-here-again-so-quickly/?comments=true#comment-8324245

chemjeff radical individualist 3 years ago

This may be difficult for your reactionary brain to understand, Sevo, but if more people voluntarily assumed a responsibility to prevent the spread of infectious disease, there would be no need for mandatory orders from the state to compel mask wearing.

That ought to be the goal here – people cooperating voluntarily and willingly for a common goal without having to be forced and coerced into doing so.

[Chumby]

Do as we say or we will make you.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

No, more like:
If people donated to charity voluntarily, there would be no need for government welfare.

Isn't that a standard libertarian response for how a post-welfare-state world would look like?

[Chumby]

Nope.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Yeah I think it is.

Fact of the matter is, what I said about masks above is no different than what libertarians have been saying for decades about voluntary charity. You just don't like it and so you try to twist it into something sinister.

[Chumby]

Nope and nope.

[Jefferson Paul]

You don't sound like a "libertarian" here. You sound like a leftist.

Even if no one donated to charity, the welfare state is still a violation of individual rights and the N.A.P. You're justifying forced confiscation of my property (wealth/earnings) to pay for that welfare state. Leftists seem to have no problem with that, but libertarians should, as it violates the NAP. (that's my opinion on the NAP, at least)

Also, in your fantasyland, if enough people did donate to charity to make the welfare state obsolete, I don't see the political powers saying, "Okay, lets reduce the size and scope of government, making us (the political powers) less wealthy and powerful." A big government monstrosity will find a way to make "necessary" the big government monstrosity.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Even if no one donated to charity, the welfare state is still a violation of individual rights and the N.A.P.

I agree.

You’re justifying forced confiscation of my property (wealth/earnings) to pay for that welfare state.

But I am not. I am saying, "*IF* more people did donate to charity, THEN we wouldn't need a welfare state". I am NOT saying, "BECAUSE more people don't donate to charity, therefore we MUST have a welfare state". Drawing that conclusion, actually, would be a logical fallacy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denying_the_antecedent

Also, in your fantasyland, if enough people did donate to charity to make the welfare state obsolete, I don’t see the political powers saying, “Okay, lets reduce the size and scope of government, making us (the political powers) less wealthy and powerful.” A big government monstrosity will find a way to make “necessary” the big government monstrosity.

Well, that is a different discussion. The point, though, is that the welfare state exists to solve a problem - the problem of how to take care of poor people. If that problem didn't exist, the justification for the welfare state would wither away.

It is the same with masking. The government mask mandates existed to solve a problem - the problem of virus transmission. If the problem of virus transmission didn't exist - say, because people wore masks in the absence of any mandate, or because people took preventive measures in the absence of coercion - the justification for any mask mandate would wither away.

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

Completely ignoring that masks did absolutely nothing and we were all gonna get the wuflu eventually, you magnificent fucking moron.

Hey Jeff, everyone is jumping off a cliff to stop global warming. You should comply.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

But that is not true either. Masks did not do "absolutely nothing". The effectiveness of masks depends very strongly on the environmental conditions, the mask material, how the masks are worn, etc.

And we are talking back in spring and early summer of 2020, when we did not know what the ultimate fate of the virus would be.

I mean, what do you want here? Let's recall that at the very beginning of the pandemic, there were few if any mask mandates, only recommendations. Here is this brand new virus, that the world has never seen, it is making a lot of people sick, some of them are dying, there are very few tools available to help stop the spread of this virus, and one very imperfect tool is a mask. What do YOU recommend people do? "Oh, don't wear a mask because it's not perfect, just get sick even though we have very little information about this brand new virus"?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Yes, and? See this is what a lot of you people don't seem to understand. Most of the time, when the government sets coercive rules to force people to obey, it's doing so to try to solve some legitimate problem. And just removing the coercion doesn't cause the problem to go away.

In this case, the government coercion to force people to wear masks was to try to solve the legitimate problem of transmission of the coronavirus. Removing the coercion didn't stop the virus from being transmitted.

So I always opposed the government coercion, but I supported voluntary efforts to try to stop the spread of the virus.

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

“What would YOU recommend people do?”

Nothing. Maybe that’s just the “radical individualist” in me.

You’re the one talking about “consequences for non compliance”.

It’s a fucking virus. “We didn’t know!” is no excuse for shutting down the world.

Edit. And there are people who did know. They were covering their asses. Wake up, fool.

[JesseAz]

One of many examples of Jeff's false libertarianism where he claims you'll get your freedoms only after you do what he and his party wants. He defends all sorts of state actions with the same argument. Even welfare.

[jimc5499]

Funny thing though, the original idea of shutting down for 15 days to buy time to try to get ahead of COVID had wide spread support. It was only when certain States (mostly Red States) started using it for a power grab that people started turning against it.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

And you, too?

https://reason.com/2021/05/28/ron-desantis-threatens-to-capsize-cruise-ship-industry-if-they-require-vaccinations/?comments=true#comment-8926278

chemjeff radical individualist 3 years ago

Right. They never believed coronavirus was something to be worried about, didn’t care if they got it or if others they knew got it because it was “just a bad flu”, right? So as usual it was total self-absorption.

[Chumby]

I am a coronavirus survivor!

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

This is what happens when people carelessly store bears in unlocked trunks.

[JesseAz]

This is why Jeff and sarc demand nobody ever bookmark them. They need the ability to lie about their past statements.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I don't "demand" that nobody ever bookmark anybody. It is just a little sad that you expend so much effort doing so.

[Zeb]

Oh, fuck off with that shit. The mask stuff sucked, but for the most part the covid restrictions didn't affect my life all that much. I was angry primarily because of the horrible effects it all had on society and people in general, especially children. Within the first few months we already were seeing reports of increased suicidality and mental health problems in children. Yet they plowed ahead with it as if it was totally worth fucking over a generation of kids so a few more old, sick people might survive a little longer (and it's questionable whether even that succeeded). Fuck anyone who is willing to defend that shit at all. Double fuck anyone who claims that opposition was all selfish. Government policy caused far more harm than the virus and will continue to do so for years more to come.

[R Mac]

Haha, Lying Jeffy got hit with an F-bomb from Zeb.

[JesseAz]

Jeff was right to fear covid due to his obesity. He was wrong to demand others sacrifice for his safety.

[Chumby]

Just too weak to flatten his curves.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Government policy caused far more harm than the virus and will continue to do so for years more to come.

Well, I think that is a testable research question. I would be interested in seeing a serious scientific research study address this hypothesis.

[Truthfulness]

Take a look at the K-12 school performances for one. Actually, don't, you and Shrike are too dangerous for them.

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

“….consequences of not complying…”

Lol. Wow. God damn, you suck.

[JesseAz]

J6 committee destroyed all the evidence they couldn't use to convince useful idiots of insurrection.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/vanished-house-panel-chairman-says-j6-videotapes-witness-interviews-missing

[Idaho-Bob]

C'mon Jesse, there's no deep state. Bennie thought he could just chuck congressional testimony.

“We found out about this early in the investigation when I received a call from someone who was looking for some information off one of the videotapes, and we started searching, and we had none,” Loudermilk explained. “I wrote a letter to Bennie Thompson asking for them. And he confirmed that they did not preserve those types. He didn't feel that they had to.

[Don't look at me!]

And he confirmed that they did not preserve those types. He didn’t feel that they had to.

But you better have the receipt for that old bicycle you sold on eBay!

[JesseAz]

And the judge in the D.C. case agrees. Trump has no right to that material.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Why do you hate banana republics?

[JesseAz]

Fried plantains are better....

[Chumby]

Not much appeel.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Was Foster involved, asking for Brennan?

[TheReEncogitationer]

Or Oysters from Rockefeller or Lobsters from Newberg?

[Don't look at me!]

Why did you let that slip ?

[jimc5499]

You thought that Jan 6th Congressional bit was a show trial? It pales in comparison to the DC case against Trump. This and the New York case are the definitions of a "kangaroo court".

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Has anyone checked Bennie's sock drawer?

[A Thinking Mind]

Maybe the problem is that he's a boomer who thought there would be literal videotapes. "You mean I can't watch the interviews on my VCR?!"

[Super Scary]

Or maybe they TiVo'd over the interviews.

[Commenter_XY]

I thought destruction of official government records was illegal.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Depends on who is doing it, clearly.

[soldiermedic76]

Marine Corps Lt Col running off book ops for Reagan, it’s illegal. Former Secretary of State for the Chosen One, totally legal.

[A Thinking Mind]

They're gonna get away with it because they provided summaries and partial transcripts. There's not enough political will to actually try to prosecute them for failing to retain the videos, people will just claim that keeping partial transcripts is sufficiently preserving the record.

[Idaho-Bob]

"I had planned my holiday around this event, being a big fan of Christmas. Now I'm walled in by a bunch of terrorist-loving a–holes calling for intifada," one British tourist told the New York Post.

Ironic, coming from a Brit.

[Vernon Depner]

Her mistake was going to New York. There are lovely American Christmas celebrations going on all over the interior of the country.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Yeah, but where besides NYC (and Miami) can Euro-tourists get the thrill of thinking they will be gunned down by crazy Americans?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Chicago?

[Chumby]

Baltimore?

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Los Angeles?

[Vernon Depner]

Don't forget Philly.

[JesseAz]

Democrat Durbin blocks release of Epstein flight logs.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jeffrey-epstein-flight-logs-denied-democrat-led-senate-judiciary-committee-blackburn-says

[Don't look at me!]

I bet he’s on the list somehow.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Wanna bet he's on that list?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

National (as in DNC) security risk.

[Minadin]

Threat to Democrats-y

[Mother's Lament]

I'm sure a pile of "centrist" Republicans are on it too.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Does "centrist" mean a fondness for young girls?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Or young boys, ask Pluggo.

[Chumby]

Post the list!

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

And burn all those assets they spent years developing? No way the CIA allows that.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

But I'm using it to hide my gun safe from the feds!

[DeAnnP]

I am sure there are both Republicans and Democrats on the list...Did he block it though?

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee aide told Fox News Digital that Durbin made clear he was willing to stay all day in order to allow Republicans to offer as well as debate the 177 amendments that they filed ahead of the markup, saying that the committee would vote on the subpoena authorization after.

However, several Republicans on the committee allegedly began to filibuster and didn't allow Blackburn to offer the first amendment to the authorization, the Democratic committee aide said.

[soldiermedic76]

Offering 177 amendments,demanding they are debated and voted on before any further action is a fucking form of filibuster. There is no justification for 177 amendments to a subpoena except death by a thousand cuts, it's a well worn parliamentary trick utilized especially by the Democrats, to bring up a popular bill but attach so many (often unrelated or poison pill) amendments that the debate on said amendments results in the Bill never actually being debated, because the opposition protests the purposely cumbersome amendments, let alone voted on. It allows you to claim you were willing to debate and vote on the bill while disingenuously claiming it was the opposition that resulted in the Bill not being voted on.

[JesseAz]

Nikki Haley to drop out if GOP race.

Washington Post Opinions
@PostOpinions
It’s Nikki Haley or bust for the GOP,
@JRubinBlogger
writes.

[Chumby]

I just saw Haley’s comment.

[JesseAz]

Worth looking up? I just love all the neocons coming together. Which makes the Koch backed Americans for Prosperity endorsement fishy.

[Minadin]

Periodically. I don't think we are expecting to see it again for another several years.

[Old Engineer]

The Koch organization is employing the theory that no one votes for the candidate they love, the vote against the candidate they most fear. Haley's numbers against Biden are the best thereby making her the candidate most likely to defeat the candidate they most fear - Biden's handlers.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Just caught the tail end of it.

[Jerry B.]

Yeah. This is the Washington Post that has an editorial saying that Haley wants to fire all Federal employees after 5 years. What she said was that all Federal Bureaucrats should not be in the same job over 5 years.

[JesseAz]

Good thing their regular schedule is promotions every 2 years or so. Problem solved!

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Give the Post a break. They have to defend Democracy! and are willing to compromise norms (and ethics).

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Which is irrelevant. The WaPo CIA mouthpieces want her specifically because she'll increase the surveillance state for them, and be a jobber for the Democrats on everything else.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Premature Accession.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hungary-rejects-completely-premature-proposal-admin-ukraine-eu

The government of Viktor Orban in Hungary has blasted a proposal to admit Ukraine into the European Union as "completely premature". Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, on Thursday told a news conference in Budapest that it is too early to so much as begin formal talks on the matter, according to the AP.

Despite Ukraine long ranking as among the most corrupt countries in the world, and as and among the top in Europe, the EU's executive arm this month urged the opening of membership talks, so long as Kiev can show progress on fronts like rampant corruption, lobbying practices, and freedom of minority language issues.

[Don't look at me!]

I lost track, is that war over?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

You know who else had a premature accession?

[Chumby]

Did it result in a premature evacuation?

[TheReEncogitationer]

Of some, though if they succeded, it was right on time.

[mad.casual]

freedom of minority language issues

Lemme guess, they allow rap lyrics as evidence in murder/assault/theft trials.

[JesseAz]

Disclose.tv
@disclosetv
NOW - Shellenberger: "US and UK military contractors" deployed "sophisticated psychological operations and disinformation tactics... against the American people."
(Video)

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1730258091818598636

[Rockstevo]

Keep reading "Military Contractors" but they never mention who they where...has anyone seen the actual contractors names?

[JesseAz]

Found Chumbys twitter account.

https://twitter.com/pet_demo/status/1730276679040266286?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

I guess he's busted.

[Chumby]

Don’t sentence me to the rack!

[Don't look at me!]

Oh, you two are quite the pair.

[Chumby]

That would be udderly ridiculous.

[Don't look at me!]

How long are we going to milk this thread?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

As long as we can motorboat through it.

[Don't look at me!]

Ok, bra.

[Commenter_XY]

Those were some bazookas. Happy husband.

[Chumby]

A cure for being meloncholy.

[Ersatz]

i was going to say Pam's vagina

[Chumby]

Bra, I try to keep that close to the chest.

[Don't look at me!]

Don’t be a Ta-ta tail.

(Nice rack, btw)

[Chumby]

Yeah, he went for the jugular with that.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

It was rather titillating.

[Don't look at me!]

It’s the top story of the day!

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Certainly bigger than Sandra Day O'Connor news.

[Chumby]

Not as mammarable?

[Ajsloss]

You dick, you beat me by three seconds. 🙂

[Chumby]

You need more training, bra. :p

[InsaneTrollLogic]

I think you're gonna need a bigger cup.

[Chumby]

Made it to the A list?

[Don't look at me!]

I’m enjoying this D bate.

[Commenter_XY]

Keep it G-rated. 🙂

[InsaneTrollLogic]

I C what you did there.

[Ajsloss]

A mammary that one won't soon forget.

[JesseAz]

Sorry to burst your bubbles. Was bursting at the seem to post. Mountains of anticipation.

[Chumby]

Milk it for all you can.

[Don't look at me!]

A tit for tat situation.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Playing 36DD chess.

[TheReEncogitationer]

She could checkmate me and move any way she wants!
🙂
😉

[Anomalous]

I dug it.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Funny, Ms. Sánchez doesn't look dirty...But then again, my eyes aren't as big and focused as hers.
🙂
😉

[InsaneTrollLogic]

What some of us were saying at the time, but got ridiculed, banned, and put on notice for.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/watch-uk-health-security-head-admits-use-face-masks-was-never-evidence-based

During testimony at the UK government’s COVID inquiry this week, England’s former deputy chief medical officer at the height of the pandemic admitted that there was never any proof that face masks were effective in slowing or preventing the spread of the virus, and in all likelihood made the problem worse.

Professor Dame Jenny Harries, now the head of the UK Health Security Agency, explained that the policy wasn’t based on scientific reality and had the effect of instilling a “false sense of security,” convincing people that they would reduce their risk of becoming infected if they wore a mask.

She also told the inquiry that government advice on how to make a mask out of bits of cloth and old t-shirts was wholly “ineffective”.

The BBC was broadcasting the testimony, but decided to “break away” when Harries started to explain how the use of masks was not evidence based and instilled a false sense of security among people wearing them.

In 2020 when it was all kicking off, Harries advised people not to panic buy and wear face masks saying that “it’s usually quite a bad idea” to wear a mask if you haven’t been expressly advised to do so by a medical professional.

She also told the BBC that masks could potentially “trap the virus” and help it spread.

Never forget that if you questioned the masks at the time you were ostracised and banned from engaging in society.

[Don't look at me!]

It would be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.

[JesseAz]

At least it shows half of the commenters here know what they are talking about. Threads filled with this information.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

At least it shows half of the commenters here know what they are talking about. Threads filled with this information.

The discussion should have ended when the New England Journal of Medicine specifically stated in April 2020 that large-scale community masking was largely ineffective and mostly a psychological measure. That they brazenly issued a statement after the fact that basically stated, "We didn't say what we said, we meant the Current Thing" was flat-out proof that the whole thing was a fucking psy-op to gauge top-down social engineering execution.

[jimc5499]

When Cyril Wecht said that the only benefit to wearing a mask is that it might help reduce anxiety in some people, that was enough for me. I've met Dr. Wecht several times both socially and professionally.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'Professor Dame Jenny Harries, now the head of the UK Health Security Agency, explained that the policy wasn’t based on scientific reality and had the effect of instilling a “false sense of security”'

Isn't a false sense of security the core of the progressive nanny state agenda?

[Vernon Depner]

With the exception of fear of the arbitrary exercise of state power.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

For nannies (and ninnies) more like the fear that the state will NOT exercise power.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

To their credit at least the Brits are having an official inquiry, even if the BBC is censoring it.

[Mother's Lament]

"The government held an inquiry but the press decided to censor it" is just about the most 2023 thing ever.

What will 2024 bring?

[Old Engineer]

We're not allowed to say.

[soldiermedic76]

I wouldn't accept any free train tickets from the Government in 2024.

[Vernon Depner]

The scientific papers showing the ineffectiveness of public masking were readily available at the time. I had no trouble putting together a list. I didn't have any luck, though, getting Maskeraders to look at them.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

LOL, yeah, we had 100 years worth of proof that community masking didn’t do shit. The Branch Covidians didn't want to hear it, though.

[JesseAz]

Luckily social media quickly unindexed 100 years of studies so Jeff could preach The Science

[Truthfulness]

Mind if you show the list?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

This news is so old, and so hashed it, it's hard to even get mad about it at this point.

[Don't look at me!]

What difference, at this point, does it make?

[n00bdragon]

It does feel a bit like finding a burned man stumbling through the ashes of Hiroshima on August 7th, 1945 and excitedly pointing out to him that scientists figured out how to split the atom.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'Canada's national agency on statistics is apparently not doing a very good job of counting medically-assisted suicide deaths. "In the case of a disability or mental health condition, deaths are coded to the underlying disability or mental health issue that MAID was granted for," the agency tweeted.'

Dying from suicide or with suicide?

[Mother's Lament]

If someone has severe mental health issues or is depressed because of physicals problems, and they're being coerced into euthanasia by government officials, it isn't suicide. And this is happening every day now.

The Canadian government is murdering "defectives" exactly like the Nazi's did with Aktion T4.

[soldiermedic76]

Well, fascism was part of the progressive movement, until they (progressives) decided it wasn't cool after all.

[Chumby]

Organic growers know that humus is good for the soil.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Why do you hate Israel?

[TheReEncogitationer]

Hummus is Arabic. Jews just did it like La Choy and made it swing American!

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Trying to make them eat it.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_d19aeb72-8fc9-11ee-9ac0-97e018719444.html

The school lunch funding controvesy began in May 2022, as The Center Square previously reported, with an announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which handles federal help for school lunches.

The USDA said at the time it would change its longstanding interpretation of Title IX, the law broadly governing discrimination protections in education. USDA said it would expand its previous prohibition against discriminating based on sex “to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

“As a result, state and local agencies, program operators and sponsors that receive funds from FNS must investigate allegations of discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation,” USDA said in a statement. “Those organizations must also update their non-discrimination policies and signage to include prohibitions against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.”

That change has major legal and taxpayer dollar implications and is an unprecedented reinterpretation of the statute, according to experts. For instance, schools receiving Pell grants, FAFSA, or students who receive federally subsidized school lunch funding will be subject to the new Title IX interpretation or risk losing that funding.

“This is a significant departure from what Title IX has always been interpreted to be,” Sarah Perry, a lawyer at the Heritage Foundation and expert on this issue, told The Center Square.

Nearly two dozen states filed a joint legal challenge to the USDA reinterpretation and pointed out that Tennessee had success challenging a similar federal effort from the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the past.

Perry said, however, that enforcing a liberal regulatory plan on gender or sexuality in schools is far from reserved to the USDA. The Department of Education is formulating new rules of the same kind now that Perry said will come out likely in the spring 2024. Those rules, which were expected to already be finalized and may be combined into a single rule, have been delayed because of the pushback and concerns raised with the federal agency.

[Vernon Depner]

It's becoming more and more clear that they are trying to incite a civil war.

[Idaho-Bob]

It's clear they expect to win. Killing half of the population is the goal.

[Vernon Depner]

Yes. They're hoping to incite a reason to impose The Final Solution on the Deplorables. If their bait is taken, I believe they are right to assume they will win. A popular uprising has no hope against a modern surveillance state.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

They ought to be remember the old axiom, "be careful what you wish for; you might just get it."

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

It’s also why they start the face-fanning when talk of a national divorce is broached. These people are like abusive spouses who keep telling the person their abusing, “You’d be nothing without me if you left, why can’t you see how much I love you?” and getting extremely put out when told “Go fuck yourselves.”

At this point, it’s pretty obvious that western society as a whole needs to break up for its own long-term good. Fuck this “unity” crap the left and their center-right lapdogs keep spewing, since it’s nothing more than a unity-criticism-unity dialectic. Why should we want any kind of “unity” with these deviant, mentally ill, entitled pieces of shit?

[Moonrocks]

Why are leftists always so obsessed with starving people?

[Vernon Depner]

Maybe it has something to do with their obsessing about their own weight problem.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Future(?) Biden: "Imagine what we could do if we made everyone give all their money to the government, surrender their private homes and cars, give up their children to federal agencies, and say only approved speech."

[Longtobefree]

I can imagine that quite clearly.
It happened in the early twentieth century in several countries.
Millions died.

[JesseAz]

So cribbing from WEF?

[Vernon Depner]

give all their money to the government

That would be a turn-key operation at this point, with digital central banking.

[Super Scary]

Image how much we could get done if everyone just blindly listened to the government. You're standing in the way of progress if you don't!

[Chumby]

Several Soros subs here are getting ladyboners.

[Ersatz]

Lady-Ballers...

[Chumby]

I wonder what the backlash would be if that were screened at the times and locations of drag queen story hour.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Hilarious. 😀

[Spiritus Mundi]

President Biden @POTUS A billionaire minimum tax of just 25% would raise $440 billion over the next 10 years.

And that still would not cover the curret deficit, for one year, not ten. Cut. Spending. Now.

[Don't look at me!]

It also for certain would not raise that much money.

[Zeb]

Wouldn't even cover a year's worth of interest on the debt.

"Fuck you, cut spending" is indeed the only answer.

[Anomalous]

It amounts to a rounding error.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

OK, wise guy. Let's just give everyone a billion dollar coin and tax 25% of that.

[I, Woodchipper]

the billionaires were already taxed on that money. this is proposing an ADDITIONAL tax on existing wealth over a certain amount.

If they creatures in congress were able to implement such a tax, the first thing they would do is lower it to get everyone in the slightly-above middle class and then carve out exceptions for rich folks.

[Zeb]

Are they talking about a wealth tax (i.e. property tax)? Then it's even more fucking insane than I thought. I thought it was just a minimum income tax on all income.
If you wanted to tax the assets of billionaires like that, it would mean selling off lots of securities for most, which would very quickly make those securities worth a whole lot less as they flood the market. The net worth of people who own a lot of capital cannot easily be converted into cash.

[A Thinking Mind]

What I’ve seen is that it’s an additional tax on “unrealized earnings,” which is a de-facto wealth tax. And of course they’d prevent you from writing off or carrying forward “unrealized losses.”

[Sevo]

IOWs, they'd pull a number out of their ass for you to pay, regardless of any actual value.

[A Thinking Mind]

Well it's not from nowhere, but it's stupid.

Basically, if your networth rises because your stocks went up, or the value of your various holdings rises, they're going to tax you on that as if it's income, even though you haven't actually sold it or converted it yet. So it's absolutely a tax on investing and having wealth.

It's a galactically stupid idea.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

That's Bidenomics for you.

[A Thinking Mind]

It would give us the most minimal gains imaginable at the mere cost of utterly wrecking the US economy.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

LOL

[Chumby]

@Jesse, didn’t you post a story from CBS that states about $458B/yr is being used to pay for illegals in the US?

[JesseAz]

Yeap. Twice yesterday.

[Chumby]

Biden wants to bilk net positive taxpayers over ten years for a total $440B whereas he could stop funding illegals here for more money per year. I’m no calculus processor but the proper move on the board looks like not further taxing those doing the heavy lifting and stop funding the foreign leeches.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Why, you horrible racist! How dare you?!

[JesseAz]

We have to invest that 450B a year now so we can get a few hundred million in taxes from them in 15 years. That's when most of the pro illegal immigrant studies show them as a net payer.

[Chumby]

Step 3: Profit!

[Jefferson Paul]

South Park is the best.

[n00bdragon]

Why not just tax uh... that guy over there, John Smith. Tax him, like the whole 30 trillion or whatever the debt is right now. Just pass a law that says he (and only he) owes Uncle Sam that much.

It's the perfect solution! 99.999999698704429044893040072311% of Americans won't see their taxes increase a penny and the entire national debt will be paid for in one fell swoop interest and all.

[Longtobefree]

(possibly up to 15,000 Palestinians, though Hamas-controlled health ministry numbers are not reliable)

Well, Liz, you should know that the NYT citation needs a disclaimer like this too.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Sandra Day O'Connor dies. From a different era when it way okay to be a Republican and not an Aborto-Freak. RIP.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

You mean aborto-freaks who want abortion up until birth through the magical birth canal? Those would be aborto-freaks, Pluggo.

[JesseAz]

9 month abortion is required to make baby snowflakes.

[Mother's Lament]

The birth canal fairy is what makes the clumps of cells look so sexy to Plug when they emerge.

Totally not a "freak" though.

[Michael Ejercito]

They are more extreme than France and Germany!

[Sevo]

turd lies. That's not a surprise to anyone who reads his constant stream of bullshit.
But it's becoming obvious that as Misek is too stupid to understand the concepts of "evidence" or "relevance", the concept of "honesty" is simply beyond turd's ken.

[Spiritus Mundi]

Canada’s national agency on statistics is apparently not doing a very good job of counting medically-assisted suicide deaths.

How come we can safely and humanely kill grandma and poor people but not convicted murderers?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Ask Soros.

[Vernon Depner]

Because "doctors" enjoy a monopoly on administering the drugs, and will not cooperate in executions.

[BYODB]

I know it's a snarky comment, but it's because (at least according to the Canadian government) Grandma and poor people actually want to die.

Which is probably true in some cases, lord knows I'd certainly consider it if I had pancreatic cancer or the like, but given Canada's nationalized healthcare system...yeah these are more akin to death panels with extra steps.

[soldiermedic76]

Not quite as bad as the Dutch who assisted someone with suicide who kept trying to tell them she didn't want to die, even as they injected the meds into her veins.

[soldiermedic76]

Or British Health Ministry who seems to get a hard on to deny parents to transfer their infants to private care to try an experimental treatment that might save their lives, and instead forces the parents to have to stand by while 'trained medical professionals' withdraw care and let their children die in agony.

[soldiermedic76]

And if the parents protest to much, they slap the parents with a restraining order so they can't see their kid before the government kills it.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

It's kind of amazing how you can treat the peasants in a country with no firearms.

[soldiermedic76]

And they wonder why the 'far right' is doing so well in elections, especially in 'enlightened' European countries.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Why expel George Santos from Congress? He is your standard issue Republican. I'd rather expel that nasty Hamas supporter Rashida Tlaib. I know all you Peanuts agree with the Buttplug too.

[Sevo]

The assclown turd lies. turd lies when he knows he’s lying. turd lies when we know he’s lying. turd lies when he knows that we know he’s lying.
turd lies. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit and a pederast besides.

[Mother's Lament]

"I’d rather expel that nasty Hamas supporter Rashida Tlaib."

The fact that you want to expel either instead of leaving them to their constituents, tells me just how big an authoritarian fuck you are.

[creech]

"Imagine what we could do if we just made billionaires pay their taxes like everyone else."
Aren't they? Oh, yes, I forgot about "loopholes." A "loophole" is someone paying the taxes the law says they should pay but isn't paying the taxes you think they should pay. Instead of blathering, Biden and Dems should come right out and introduce legislation -widely publicized - that changes the tax code to what they would like it to be. Let their billionaire supporters know just how much more it will cost them. Let the middle class see just how much their 401k plans will suffer when the stock markets reel after taxes are imposed on unrealized capital gains. It is easy to appeal to envy as long as the envious feel it won't have any impact on them!

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

You do realize that if the DNC had their way, taxes, especially on billionaires, would be based on party affiliation, right?

[JesseAz]

The rich pay a greater share of tax revenue than at any point in American history.

You could easily look up effective tax rates by quintile on government sites to educate yourself.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Trump won the debate

Without lying - for once.

[Sevo]

turd, the ass-clown of the commentariat, lies; it’s all he ever does. turd is a kiddie diddler, and a pathological liar, entirely too stupid to remember which lies he posted even minutes ago, and also too stupid to understand we all know he’s a liar.
If anything he posts isn’t a lie, it’s totally accidental.
turd lies; it’s what he does. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Which is something you could never do. Debate without lying.

[Mother's Lament]

A Pluggo post without lies can't physically exist in the universe. It would be like antimatter.

[sarcasmic]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12811859/Elon-Musk-video-Tesla-Cyberbeast-Porsche-race.html

Elon Musk shows off new video of $100,000 Tesla Cyberbeast outgunning a Porsche 911 in a drag race - while towing a 911 - and monstering an F-350 Diesel in an off-road truck pull

I'll still take the Porsche over that angular behemoth.

[JesseAz]

Maybe you can rent one with a bunch of friends and take it to the lake house for a weekend.

[sarcasmic]

I know a guy with a Panamera. Holy fucking shit that thing can move. Amazing machine.

[Don't look at me!]

They appear to move faster while being towed.

[sarcasmic]

That's really stupid, even for you.

[Don't look at me!]

You missed the video yesterday?

[Don't look at me!]

sarcasmic 6 hours ago
Flag Comment Mute User
Have you ever considered telling someone you disagree with why what they say is wrong, as opposed to telling them that they as a person are wrong? You don’t change minds by attacking people. That just puts them on the defensive.

[sarcasmic]

That's for people with minds that can be changed. Doesn't apply to people without minds, or with minds that cannot be changed. Rules you out on both counts.

[Sevo]

Fuck off and die, lying pile of lefty shit.

[JesseAz]

Coming from the guy who openly admits to not reading links and evidence provided to him.

It will be okay.

[Don't look at me!]

So you didn't see the Cybertruck towing a Porsche while winning the drag race against a Porsche?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

I guess it could be kind of a blur after how fast the Cybertruck was going.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

It's different when I do it.

-sarcasmic

[Chumby]

No true Scotchman?

[Don't look at me!]

A ginned up story.

[Nardz]

Leftists aren't people

[Don't look at me!]

You mean that half million dollar lake house?

[JesseAz]

Yes. Apologies to Air BnB.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

A six year old?

[Agammamon]

Claims the Israelis had foreknowledge of the attacks.

Follows up with several paragraphs directly counter to that assertion - the 'foreknowledge' they had would have been about on par with most US 'fusion-center' intelligence reports. Ie, garbled shite couched in language allowing the writer to cover their ass no matter what action (or inaction) on it is taken.

[Ajsloss]

10/7 was an inside job?

[Chumby]

Or possibly victims of tunnel vision.

[BYODB]

Basically. These things are always easy to see in hindsight, but one should probably understand that there are literal daily plots by Hamas to 'destroy Israel' so the fact they happen to be right this time out of thousands of times is probably coincidence.

Their intelligence agencies all dropped the ball big time and one would hope they'd be taken to task for their outright failures but we'll see I suppose. Conspiracy or not, it should be obvious to every Israeli citizen that their agencies are fucking up.

The failure should be investigated, but like with all espionage agencies an effective audit is probably impossible.

[soldiermedic76]

One of the most effective counterintel is to flood your enemy with so much information that they can't pinpoint the true data. An interesting tidbit, during WW2 all sides would add meaningless words And phrases to coded messages so that anyone trying to decode it without the proper references wouldn't know what the true message was. During the Japanese invasion of Wake Island one of the garbage phrases added to the commanders request for more supplies included the phrase 'Send us more Japs'. The decoder didn't excise this phrase when they decided the message. Which was then released to the press. Creating a myth that the Marines actually stated 'send us more Japs' as a cry of defiance. It's still quoted as actual history and as an example of perseverance and defiance in the face of overwhelming odds.

[Agammamon]

“Newsom started off making sense on this question, correctly noting that there’s a difference between being able to access a book in a school library versus the book being taught as part of the sex ed curriculum, the exchange quickly devolved into the worst caricatures of left and right.”

The question is still 'why is it in the library'? Why is this something appropriate for the school to provide children unsupervised access to? And if this, why not Penthouse and Hustler? Why is this ok for gay children but straight smut isn't allowed in school?

[JesseAz]

Whats funny is Reason has also called not letting some books in school libraries being a ban. Good to see Wolfe understands the difference.

[hokey]

Everyone should underscore this topic with privatized schools, school choice, vouchers, the whole lot.

It's perfectly reasonable to disagree with a librarian's preference on what to promote and shelve versus what to not order or throw out. Librarians are no more moral than any other person on this planet. And it's something engaged parents should take into account when choosing schooling for their kids if they have that opportunity.

[sarcasmic]

why THE FUCK is this being taught in the sex-ed curriculum?

If you care to read what you quoted you'll see that it's not.

[JesseAz]

You and Jeff have literally been given links of examples for years. Such as…

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/11/pa-teacher-under-scrutiny-for-having-controversial-gender-queer-graphic-novel-in-classroom.html

And.

https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/student-voices-why-we-need-to-teach-kids-about-gender-identity/

[JesseAz]

https://yournews.com/2022/05/11/2342523/queer-your-classroom-teachers-trained-on-injecting-gender-ideology-into/

And.

https://katv.com/news/nation-world/teachers-trained-to-queer-their-classrooms-weave-gender-studies-into-math-science-school-students-trans-transgender-lgbtq-national-science-teaching-association

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Your first link above is broken, doesn't even work.
Your second link above is from a presentation that advocates for some strategies for introducing some gender studies topics into the classroom. Again it says nothing about introducing specific books into the classroom.

You presented four links and none of them address the criticism raised. Yet the way you presented them, you did so as if they were authoritative refutations. You were trying to pull a fast one to see if anyone would actually check you citations.

You do this sort of thing a lot.

[Truthfulness]

[chemjeff radical individualist]

From your first link:

The book was never assigned by the teacher to be read in class. It is not part of the school’s curriculum, nor is it available in the school’s library. However, several students told parents that it was visible on the teacher’s desk, and that the teacher would sometimes read from it while they were working.

So the book isn't a part of the curriculum, and sarcasmic is right. And the part of that book that you all complained about - that it had pictures of oral sex - that wasn't the issue here.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

It wasn’t part of the curriculum, it just stayed visible on the teachers desk at all times, and she read aloud from it to the class….

Now imagine it’s the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or The Turner Diaries, or The Anarchists Cookbook, or Mein Kampf, etc

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Your second link, from Seattle Times, is an opinion piece advocating for gender identity to be included in the highschool curriculum. It says nothing about specific books being included into specific classes. It is also written by a student, not a teacher, so by someone who has no power to be making curriculum decisions anyway. So this article is completely irrelevant to the subject at hand.

[Mickey Rat]

And like most of the Reason staff, Wolfe would just like cultural issues like this to just go away, which is implicitly means surrendering the issue to the far Left.

[A Thinking Mind]

The problem is that these arguments require a lot of emotional investment. The people on the left are convinced that children are killing themselves because someone called them "George" instead "of Hannah." That if you're not teaching children that biology is a construct and that they can be totally affirmed if they change their own bodies, you're going to have literal millions of dead bodies in the street. They're willing to be awful and screech and make themselves impossible to tolerate because they're convinced that having a book like this in the library is preventing millions of suicides.

If you're not that emotionally invested because you can just tell your own kid not to read that trash, or maybe you don't have minor children anymore, they will push and fight and exhaust you because nobody holds these adults accountable for their terrible manners and behavior. You have to be willing to put up with a LOT if you're going to wade into this conversation, and it's just not worth it if you don't have extremely strong feelings about it.

[Mickey Rat]

I also think that social Left libertarians have a great fear of being seen as skeptical of any aspect of the LGBT political movement, which is why they want these types of controversis to be ignored, because they do not want to get painted as a "phobe".

[JesseAz]

Edgelord libertarians who think it is hip to be contrarian and never accountable for choices.

[Michael Ejercito]

The problem is that these arguments require a lot of emotional investment. The people on the left are convinced that children are killing themselves because someone called them “George” instead “of Hannah.” That if you’re not teaching children that biology is a construct and that they can be totally affirmed if they change their own bodies, you’re going to have literal millions of dead bodies in the street. They’re willing to be awful and screech and make themselves impossible to tolerate because they’re convinced that having a book like this in the library is preventing millions of suicides.

This raises the question of where they got that idea in the first place.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

They’re willing to be awful and screech and make themselves impossible to tolerate because they’re convinced that having a book like this in the library is preventing millions of suicides.

Is there anyone who actually made the argument that it's necessary to put Gender Queer in a school library in order to prevent suicides, let alone "millions" of suicides? This sounds like the type of hyperbole that a right-wing commenter would try to say about left-wingers.

Perhaps a more reasonable argument might be that books like Gender Queer ought to be in public school libraries because the public school library ought to serve the entire student body, both straight and gay. Disagree with that all you want, but I think that is probably one that is more 'steel-manned' than the one about 'preventing millions of suicides'.

[A Thinking Mind]

the public school library ought to serve the entire student body

Interesting turn of phrase.

[JesseAz]

Jeff doesn't do phrasing.

[Chumby]

Does the school have a headmaster?

[Vernon Depner]

the public school library ought to serve the entire student body, both straight and gay

So, the libraries should be providing straight porn to kids, too?

[BYODB]

The underlying assumption would appear to be that gay male children are destined for a life of sexual promiscuity with many anonymous partners.

Which, to be frank, is probably accurate. If one identifies themselves primarily through what or whom they enjoy fucking, it seems clear that fucking is central to their identity.

What data is available on the subject also confirms that's generally true.

Which, in essence, means that while the school may not technically be grooming young gay men it's a distinction without a difference.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Why is this something appropriate for the school to provide children unsupervised access to? And if this, why not Penthouse and Hustler?

Why do you think 'Gender Queer' is equivalent to 'Penthouse'?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

This might be a clue, Jeffy: https://alphanews.org/hastings-kids-have-access-to-gender-queer-book-with-sexually-graphic-pictures/

Look at the images.

[BYODB]

Don't bother yourself, if it's Jeff they can't be reasoned with and they are immune to reason and logic.

Do yourself a favor and just mute the resident idiot children. It's not worth the increase in blood pressure and erosion of one's belief in a generally good human nature.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

++

[JesseAz]

It is done to balance against Snow White.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I am aware that there are sexually explicit pictures in Gender Queer.

Do you think Michelangelo's David statue is equivalent to 'Penthouse'?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Is David's penis erect on the statue?

[Chumby]

Michelangelo did not erect that statue as such.

[soldiermedic76]

I mean the painting Venus Rising shows full frontal nudity of a female, if we allow that into school why not Hustler? It's the same thing right? What a fucking asinine argument.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

That's not my argument.

My argument is that not everything that has nudity is the same as pornography.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

I never said it was either. Again, is David's penis erect? Is there sexual activity being portrayed in Gender Queer?

[soldiermedic76]

I don't care if he did or didn't use it as a direct comparison, at least not enough to unmute his disingenuous ass to check. What I do care is anyone bringing up David in regards to this subject is just being purposely false.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So maybe if you aren't even reading half the conversation you should shut up and butt out, asshole

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Is your team currently in the process of banning artistic works that are not pornographic but merely have nudity, such as Michelangelo's David, because they think they are "inappropriate"?

https://apnews.com/article/florida-censorship-david-statue-nudity-michelangelo-84bba40d47339eff7770ec58fcb23dd1

So whether or not the statue has an erect penis is besides the point. Your team wants to ban it anyway.

Michelangelo's David, Gender Queer, Hustler - they are all the same to your team, not mine.

By the way, should James Joyce's book Ulysses be removed from school libraries?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

You refuse to answer and are making a very disingenuous comparison. Par for your course though.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Are you going to accept responsibility for your team wanting to ban Michelangelo's David from school, even though it is a world famous piece of artwork and not at all pornographic?

And here's the ultimate point here. The real question here isn't whether there is nudity or not, or whether there is sexual activity or not, present in the book or in the work of art. The real question is whether there is intellectual and academic merit to the content.

That is why comparing Gender Queer to Penthouse is so disingenuous. There is no intellectual or academic merit, at the middle school or highschool level, to Penthouse at all. Gender Queer on the other hand is an actual story with an actual plot about a person who has to deal with the LGBTQ experience as a teenager.

That is also why I brought up James Joyce's Ulysses. In that book there is a very graphic passage describing a man literally fisting a woman. Should that be banned? Is that just like Penthouse Letters? Of course not, it is a part of a larger story which is now a classic text in English literature.

[Vernon Depner]

should James Joyce’s book Ulysses be removed from school libraries?

That's unnecessary since no one ever actually reads it.

[Sevo]

"Israel Knew What Hamas Was Planning"

And I guess they should have just nuked Gaza and been done with it?
Put another way, so what?

[Don't look at me!]

Hindsight is always 20-20.

[JesseAz]

Don't think it is true anymore as half of political thought is ignoring the past and rationalizing why this time their views will be different.

[Chumby]

Hihnsight was never 20/20.

SNICKERS

[Sevo]

http://instantrimshot.com/

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

And I guess they should have just nuked Gaza and been done with it?

Well, I mean, now maybe.

[Agammamon]

"The whole thing was light on COVID, yet heavy on the 2024 election. At one point, Newsom tried to hang DeSantis on his COVID record, saying that in the beginning, actually Florida hewed pretty closely to the Fauci-prescribed course of action. "You had quarantines, you had checkpoints … you followed science, you followed Fauci," said Newsom. "You were promoting vaccines, you even wore a mask in September [2020]." (Read Reason's Eric Boehm for more.)"

DeSantis' response should have been 'I followed the science *all the way through* - you stopped following the science and started flailing around right after the beginning'.

[Zeb]

Quarantines and checkpoints were never "following the science". Those were badly designed experiments at best.

[soldiermedic76]

Better answer: 'initially I couldn't quite grasp how fucked up the advice was that Fauci et al were giving and because the sheer size of the clusterfuck exceeded my initial comprehension I did provide them with a much higher level credibility than the evidence suggests they ever did deserve, but it quickly became apparent that they were pulling their advise out of their ass, with zero science and no consideration of the Constitution, to back it up. At which point I told them to go pound sand. Unlike you, who doubled down on stupid, while breaking the very rules you were enforcing on your own state's citizens. French Laundry Anyone?

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

I tuned out the "debate" last night after watching three assholes talk over each other non-stop after 15 minutes.

The insufferable gasbag Hannity made the other two look likeable. That is hard to do.

[Sevo]

turd lies. turd lies when he knows he’s lying. turd lies when we know he’s lying. turd lies when he knows that we know he’s lying.
turd lies. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit and a pederast besides.

[I, Woodchipper]

That's what every debate is.

Imagine being such a dull normie you think you're going to watch a "debate" and learn something.

[sarcasmic]

I'm sure he did that with ease. Guy is an ass. Makes it really easy to guess who his fans are.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

And who would you assume his fans are? Remember how "assume" is broken down as well.

[JesseAz]

Anyone he hates.

[sarcasmic]

My guess is the people who whine about the same things he whines about, and are offended by characterizing him as a whiny whiner.

[JesseAz]

Post the list and examples instead of bald assertions. Stand up for one of your general statements for once in your life.

[Agammamon]

"Pro-Palestine protesters chose to disrupt the tradition with chants of "from the river to the sea" as well as at least one sign bearing a Swastika, comparing the Israeli military to Nazis."

That's an . . . interesting take. I would have said that the Nazis are joining the *pro-Hamas* protestors - since they all have the same goal. Hamas has adopted several Nazi phrases.

[BYODB]

Yeah, I caught that one too. Comparing Jews to Nazi's is a bizarre thing that could only come from a truly unhinged fuckwit.

These fucks should be glad that Israeli's aren't at all like Nazi's, since if they were the Palestinians would be taking a one-way shower at this very moment.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Comparing Jews to Nazi’s is a bizarre thing that could only come from a truly unhinged fuckwit.

I see you've met Misek.

[BYODB]

I had the misfortune, once, but his obvious racism and antisemitism is so out-and-loud it was an easy choice to mute them.

[Agammamon]

"I had planned my holiday around this event, being a big fan of Christmas. Now I'm walled in by a bunch of terrorist-loving a–holes calling for intifada," one British tourist told the New York Post."

That Brit better be prepared for a long stay in the US - they're likely going to be arrested for hate-speech upon return to the UK.

[Mickey Rat]

When the presence of horny and gross graphic novels in school libraries is defended so fervently, that is what makes it an important issue. And, you know, the country can walk and chew gum at the same time.

[Agammamon]

No no - Conservatives started the culture war by not rolling over when the Progressives wanted to change everything and the GOP took this opportunity to pounce!

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Technically, yeah--it becomes a culture war when the right pushes back against the left's cultural revolution. The issue isn't relevant, advancing the revolution is all that matters, and counter-revolution has to be diffused by whatever passive ("this is just a dumb culture war issue!") or coercive ("you're the enemy of the people if you don't go along with this") means.

The main thing is to never take anything the left says at face value, and make every environment as hostile to them as possible so they eventually leave.

[Agammamon]

"Canada's national agency on statistics is apparently not doing a very good job of counting medically-assisted suicide deaths. "In the case of a disability or mental health condition, deaths are coded to the underlying disability or mental health issue that MAID was granted for," the agency tweeted."

A good indication that what you're doing is morally reprehensible is when you feel you have to hide it.

The indication that what you're doing is actively evil is when you have to make up justifications as to why its good that you're hiding it.

[Sevo]

The Scotts have figured out that socialized medicine means you get what you pay for:

"Shona Robison branded 'pathetic' as she doesn't know 25,000 Scots died on NHS waiting lists"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLOYjsOHlI0

But remember, no one is "denied" treatment, they just didn't live long enough to get it!

[Super Scary]

"25,000 Scots died on NHS waiting lists"

Who cares? It's """free"""!

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

And health care equity.

[Chumby]

Will those responsible be punished or escape scot-free?
If others that died waiting for treatment were removed from the count due to technicalities, could be a case of no true Scotsman.

[TheReEncogitationer]

All those deaths were just Mulligans in the golf game of Scottish politics.

[damikesc]

As I've said before, Biden's complaints about "not paying your fair share in taxes" rings hollow when he tried to protect his son who specifically failed to pay his "fair share".

[Super Scary]

25% just seems so steep. Biden should have suggested 10%, that seems more like a fair share to me and I think he would agree.

[JesseAz]

I always thought Uncle Sam was a small guy.

[Don't look at me!]

Yes, I think a flat rate tax of 10% that everyone pays might be more fair.

[BYODB]

More fair in what way? On a spreadsheet it would look the same, but living it not so much.

The 10% a poor person could pay would be a literal parking fine for even the middle class.

No matter how small such a tax might be, it's only going to be felt by those with the least ability to pay it.

Maybe it is a good thing that even the poor have some skin in the game on taxation, but I've seen nothing that indicates it's actually a better system by any measure other than it's equal application. In every other way, it's worse.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Certainly faster to calculate.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Well yeah. The Big Guy can afford 10 percent of his 10 percent.

[Zeb]

I haven't seen much in the way of justification for the idea that one's "fair share" is necessarily a percentage of one's income (or unrealized capital gains).

[Mataratones]

"Apparently in Sean Hannity's mind, one of the greatest issues facing our nation is the presence of the horny-and-gross graphic novel Gender Queer in school libraries (not inflation, war, crime, or the national debt)"
Every now and again, something dramatic happens that shows that culture is more fundamental than politics, and people talk about how the Right is losing on culture. But Reason is always there to say that culture is trivial compared to all the other problems, most of which are downstream of culture.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Though Newsom started off making sense on this question, correctly noting that there's a difference between being able to access a book in a school library versus the book being taught as part of the sex ed curriculum, the exchange quickly devolved into the worst caricatures of left and right.

Wait, so Newsom has admitted it's true, but it's not as bad as we say?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

"I had planned my holiday around this event, being a big fan of Christmas. Now I'm walled in by a bunch of terrorist-loving a–holes calling for intifada," one British tourist told the New York Post.

Oh, he thought he was getting a vacation from that, eh?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Canada's national agency on statistics is apparently not doing a very good job of counting medically-assisted suicide deaths. "In the case of a disability or mental health condition, deaths are coded to the underlying disability or mental health issue that MAID was granted for," the agency tweeted.

Died WITH COVID.

[Dillinger]

Israel knew Hamas had aspirations. C'mon, now ...

[mad.casual]

OMG!!!! BREAKING NEWS!!!! BIDEN ‘KNEW OF UKRAINIAN PLAN TO ATTACK NORDSTREAM’ THREE MONTHS BEFORE EXPLOSION
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Oh, wait, that was 5 mos. ago and no one gave a shit. Israel knew what Hamas was planning because an imaginative report put out a year ago told them? Behold the pipeline by which I deliver my fucks, lay thine eyes upon it and see that it has been blown up.

[Dillinger]

Roosevelt let it happen!

https://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=408

[Dillinger]

>>(Read Reason's Eric Boehm for more.)

you said you liked us.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

"Apparently in Sean Hannity's mind, one of the greatest issues facing our nation is the presence of the horny-and-gross graphic novel Gender Queer in school libraries (not inflation, war, crime, or the national debt)."

Meanwhile,

"chat with various interview subjects...[like] porn star/data scientist Aella"

[Dillinger]

>>@POTUS A billionaire minimum tax of just 25% would raise $440 billion over the next 10 years. Imagine what we could do if we just made billionaires pay their taxes like everyone else.

for starters Meta imagines the FTC is unconstitutional

[Gaear Grimsrud]

A few other things Reason finds too trivial to report on. Multi year prison sentences for non violent protesters in DC. The well documented criminality of the sitting president and his family. The political weaponization of federal agencies and the courts against their political opponents and those on the wrong side of the regime culture wars. Oh and their benefactor just endorsed an insane neocon for president so don't expect a lot of independent reporting on foreign policy. In short, anything that challenges their TDS is off the table.

[Dillinger]

>>"I had planned my holiday around this event, being a big fan of Christmas. Now I'm walled in by a bunch of terrorist-loving a–holes calling for intifada," one British tourist told the New York Post.

lol John Bull should tend to London.

[MWAocdoc]

“Where wealth taxes are tried, they are quickly repealed, since they don’t work.”

Thanks, Liz! Although we already knew that Joe is probably a dementia case (I wonder who is actually typing in his X-formerly-known-as-Twitter messages these days?) the good news is that, if the US implemented wealth taxes, they would NOT be repealed again – ever – because Congress has never, and WILL never, acknowledge the failure of any tax, regulation or program in its history. Just imagine!

[MWAocdoc]

"Henry Kissinger, here shown screwing the world."

The only flaw in Levine's classic political cartoon is that The World appears to be climaxing while seemingly enjoying getting screwed.

[Dillinger]

is it speaking ill of the dead to assert if I was born with that mug I might have spent my life fucking over everyone and everything that moved, too?

[mad.casual]

I'd be interested in your wife's take on that comment, can I get her number? 🙂

[Chumby]

Kissinger thought he was coming but he was actually going.

[mad.casual]

deaths are coded to the underlying disability or mental health issue that MAID was granted for

I mean... I kinda jokingly thought, maybe kinda half-wished, that Canada would be the appropriate resting place for terminal cases of TDS, but damn... talk about unintended consequences [tugs collar]. So... uh... I hear Kissinger's dead, right?

[Dillinger]

a little surprised someone in Canada is clever enough to have the MAID clean up.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So, here's a little story about a very clever right-wing grift.

https://popular.info/p/mysterious-woman-tells-school-board

The TL;DR version: A teary-eyed girl stands up in front of a school board meeting and says that a book in the school library from a certain publisher was inappropriate; in fact, it started her down a terrible road of a porn addiction! The school should ban not just that book from the library, but all the books from that same publisher, because you can't trust anything from a publisher that would push such smut onto little kids.

What this cute little girl isn't telling the school board, though, is that she is a paid representative for an alternative publisher, one that publishes explicitly right-wing kids' books. And the right-wing content isn't even hidden: it is explicit conservative indoctrination.

So the school board duly votes to restrict the books from the original publisher, and buys some books from the alternative publisher.

Incidentally, who knew that Dana Loesch, Chaya Raichik and Jack Posobiec wrote kids' books.

[Dillinger]

capitalism!

[Don't look at me!]

Are they “right wing” books because of a lack of pornographic content?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Snow White is a right-wing book according to Mr. Bears-in-trunks.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I can always tell when chemfat is reading his left-wing blogshit, as he usually parrots the various bete noirs being sperged about at that particular moment.

[Nobartium]

Popular.info

You and the child porn spreader can’t even be arsed to use your own standards of “journalism” to make your shitty points.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I'm using your standards of 'journalism'.

If The Federalist is good enough for you, why isn't popular.info?

What facts in that article do you disagree with?

[Nobartium]

It wasn't my standard that AP and Reuters were legitimate reporting. That was yours.

I'm demanding that you live up to your standards.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Do you accept my standards for legitimate reporting?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Said the fat fuck who cited The Root, which is Stormfront for black people.

[LIBertrans]

Back when Atlas Shrugged hit the stands, the kids in Papist primers were David and Ann. Jew-hating Lutherans, horrified at the impious use of a false prophetess' name, bought books starring Dick and Jane. Spot, who never believed any of those quaint monkey legends, remained Spot in both mystical readers.

[Truthfulness]

And they did a wonderful job at what they were set out to do: teach kids how to read. Contrary to your claim, there’s no Jew-hating in the books, nor in those “Papists” and “Lutherans” you mentioned. The one you call “Ann” wasn’t even Catholic!

None of this can be said with Gender Queer–it was a book created first and foremost to indoctrinate children to living a life that makes sexuality a central aspect of their existence.

But sure, go and defend jeffy, you antisemite.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Hahahaaaaaaaa!

I'm not sure her telling him to use the hammer like that actually makes this any less embarrassing. You're the PM. You're also a man, Rishi. Why would you listen to some lavender hair woman about how to use a hammer? Why would you listen to her about anything? He got baited HARD.

[Mickey Rat]

To be fair, he would do as she insructed because it was her hammer. The only way out of that is not particpipate in thsat sort of photo op at all, because ignoring what she told him would be considered rude.

[Don't look at me!]

Nobody uses a hammer sideways.

[mad.casual]

TL,DR; Nerdery

The finger twiddle she does before picking up the hammer is because, Rishi aside, she doesn't have the correct tool for the job at hand.

What she's looking for is a ball or cross peen hammer or, maybe, a mallet. The reason she chooses that one and the side specifically is because it's a chasing (ball) hammer. The faces are used for shaping metal sheets and using the face on a solid metal object with edges risks marring the face and every subsequent sheet of metal you chase and/or repousse with it.

[MWAocdoc]

"The conventional wisdom among Israeli authorities ..."

So, Israel has finally adopted the "Deep State" intelligence system, probably signaling the end of the Jewish State of Israel in the not-too-distant future. The other possibility is that they ignored the warning signs because they needed a really awful provocation to reassert their behind-the-scenes political power and they knew that the Deep State is never blamed by the Administrative State or the clueless serfs for failures in intelligence. I seem to recall that an earlier Deep State from a previous US Administration knew about the sneak attack by the Empire of Japan on Pearl Harbor in time to alert the targets but didn't because FDR needed a good excuse to convince the reluctant American serfs to get into World War II. And so it goes ...

[Bill Dalasio]

I seem to recall that an earlier Deep State from a previous US Administration knew about the sneak attack by the Empire of Japan on Pearl Harbor in time to alert the targets...

I'm open to admitting I could be wrong here, but the bulk of what I've heard on this claim is "one bit here, another bit there, a third over in this other place..." and, if you put them together, it's clear Japan was going to attack. But the whole "put them together" part isn't as trivial as people make it out to be.

[Michael Ejercito]

A lot of people at the time assumed if they attacked U.S. forces in thje Pacific, it would be an attack against Manila.

Few suspected the Japanese would go all the way to Hawaii.

[soldiermedic76]

Or that any attack against Hawaii would involve the rather large expat Japanese population and sabotage. Interestingly enough, they did use the expat population to gather intelligence and to hide their own intelligence agents in plain sight. Basically, carrier warfare was so new that no one seriously thought you could successfully launch an attack across that large an ocean. No one had ever tried it before. And the Japanese Navy didn't have a large history of long distance naval operations (most of their, admittedly pretty impressive modern naval operations up to that point, were conducted in the Sea of Japan and South China Sea). The Royal Navy, considered to be the best Naval force at the time, the inventors of the aircraft carrier, and the one with the most experience in long distance operations didn't even consider it a possibility. Pearl really was a paradigm shifting operation (Japanese Naval Command also didn't consider it a possibility and initially opposed it until Yamamoto threatened to resign if they didn't agree to it).

[MWAocdoc]

I don't disagree that intelligence is almost never a slam-dunk, including the Pearl Harbor example. Having said that, most experts and informed amateurs looking back on the intel that was available at the time would have concluded that the Pacific Fleet should have been on alert with many more of the ships cruising at sea instead of locked up in port, and air patrols active. Then, when the radar report of "Incoming!" reached the Duty Officer that Sunday he wouldn't have dismissed it as a false alarm.

Imagine what might have happened if the IDF Intel Officer's report of a Hamas practice exercise had resulted in a heightened state of alert, with a secret mobilization setting traps to spring on Hamas invaders as they crossed the wire. Instead they were caught napping and thousands of deaths ensued. Why have an intelligence service at all in that case?

[Longtobefree]

I think we lost a lot when we eliminated the draft. (slavery aside)
At least people back then got some level of military knowledge, like the difference between strategic and tactical surprise.
The Germans knew the Allies were going to invade the continent. That didn't prevent the invasion, or allow the Germans to stop it on the beaches.
Knowing a bunch of Islamists want to eliminate Israel is not hard. Knowing exactly where and when they will try is a bit more difficult.

[MWAocdoc]

You don't need a draft to ensure that a large portion of the population has military experience. The original militia system, which is - technically - still in existence. Because it encouraged participation as a social activity as well as the more obvious desire for communities to be able to defend themselves in an effective, organized way, very little compulsion was required. Although a modern national defense requires a larger "standing army" there is no evidence that the professional corps would suffer from a lack of career volunteers if coupled with a lively militia system and a national draw-down from the disastrous "Global War Against Terrorism" and the failed "Making the World Safe for Democracy" interventions.

[Commenter_XY]

@Liz Wolfe....Ok, you want donations. You have a growing fan base at Reason.

Try making T-shirts by editor...Team Wolfe, Team Mangu, Team Sullen, Team Birdbrain Boehm, The Abortoteam (we know who that is), Team [insert name]. The market will dictate the rest. We'll buy. This approach should gladden your beautiful libertarian heart.

Just do us a favor...keep the Reason branding to a minimum. It is garish.

[Bill Dalasio]

I'd buy a "Team Wolfe"

[Chumby]

Reason could make a limited, one of one version. The person getting it would be a lone wolfe.

[Stuck in California]

Like Lenny Kosnowski

[Stuck in California]

Misreading that, I have to say I actually enjoyed that more than Back to the Future when they first came out.

[Don't look at me!]

I prefer to think I’m not on a “team”.

[JesseAz]

We can become Team No Team?

[Longtobefree]

How about a bumper sticker, "Anarchists of the world unite!"?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Try making T-shirts by editor

Three Wolfe Moon?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

They're probably leaving a ton of money on the table by not getting a sponsorship deal for whatever brand or salon does Robby's fantastic follicles.

[Chumby]

Lone Wolfe Libertarian

Reason

[Bill Dalasio]

Though it did not specify when the horrifying acts would be carried out, it "described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases

This is one of those fluffernutter claims. So, the Israelis knew that Hamas wanted to do bad things to Israelis! Shocking! Who would have guessed that! I mean, other than anyone who'd paid the least bit of attention. The key question is what actionable intelligence was there in that?

[Don't look at me!]

Everyone knew they could get into an accident some day, but they still went and bought a car!

[InsaneTrollLogic]

"Shanna, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash."

[soldiermedic76]

Everyone knew that German strategy was to counterattack whenever attacked, and that Rommel was one of their bests at the counterattack, and that after El Alamain and Operation Torch that Rommel was going to counterattack. What they didn't expect was for him to match his entire army from the Eastern front facing Montgomery and launch an attack against American forces at Kassarine Pass.

[MWAocdoc]

Okay, I'll play along. How many large exercises does Hamas conduct every year? Was this unusual or do they do it a few times a year? What is the purpose of an intel service? I would say that an intel service gathers information, puts it into a useful format for analysis, assigns a credibility level to the information and then assigns a threat level. Are you seriously saying that a highly unusual, very large exercise aimed at "overwhelming fortifications" should not result in a heightened level of alertness?

[Old Engineer]

The fact that Israeli intelligence did not act on this particular threat has to be seen in the context of a hierarchy of threats from the most probable to the least probable. With finite resources, they have to go against the most probable threats. How likely was this kind of terrorist attack?

There will always be the case of the person who picked 6 straight winners at the track, but you shouldn't be on anyone doing that.

[Sevo]

Similarly, by December '41, the US knew Japan was going to attack 'somewhere in the Pacific' and 'soon'.

[Old Engineer]

Billy Mitchell was court-martialed for saying in 1924 (among other things) that the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor. Strangely, the great advocate of air power over naval power did not see the aircraft carrier as a practical way to launch an attack. He thought the attack would come from land. Can't win 'em all!

[Chumby]

I thought Billy Mitchell was the King of Kong.

[Dillinger]

and hey on the Cease Fire! thing are gunned-down Israelis at a bus stop in exchange for hostages what we're calling a Cease Fire?

[Minadin]

According to Al-Reuters, either:
a) The fighting 'has resumed' (spontaneously? on its own?)
b) 'both sides' claim that the other violated the terms of the agreement
c) what bus stop video?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Where does this 'al-Reuters' thing come from?

[Dillinger]

2003?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I had not heard that before. What was the context of that label?

[Dillinger]

Baghdad Bob.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So from the Iraq War? 20 years ago? Not based on anything they've done recently? I see.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Damn, you're dense.

[Dillinger]

lol are you trying to Mike me on a Friday afternoon because I miss him?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Umm... maybe?

[Dillinger]

the clear answer being "every day since ..."

[InsaneTrollLogic]

What rock did you crawl out from under? That dates from 2003 or so, maybe even 2002.

[MWAocdoc]

I'm guessing that it's a swipe at the thinly-disguised pro-Palestinian bias of Reuters, being not quite as obvious as that of Al Jazeera?

[Minadin]

They started (thinly) disguising it?

[ducksalad]

Times of Israel reports at least 200 people killed in the West Bank since October 7.

Any reason why you think this one in particular was the one that broke the "cease fire"?

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

The real question would be how many have been killed since November 20th or whenever this recent round of hostage exchange started.

[ducksalad]

Fair enough. Quick survey of the news shows some kind of gunfight most days since November 20.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Then I've got no idea how they decided this one was the one that kicked things back over again.

[Dillinger]

Jack Kirby who used to have a soul I think told us today because the bus stop is in Jerusalem and not Gaza/West Bank the U.S. does not believe the Cease Fire! was violated.

[MWAocdoc]

Meanwhile KOMO News reports "some kind of gunfight" in the Seattle area almost every day - sometimes two or three.

[jimc5499]

And Churchill knew about Pearl Harbor. Hey Liz, get real. If you had information on the 9-11 attacks on 9/8/2001 and tried to act on it, you'd be put in a straightjacket in a rubber room.

Then there's the snide remarks about DeSantis. Typical. I thought that Reason hired professionals.

[Zeb]

Nah. They hire snarky hipsters. Of which Liz is the best one.

[Medulla Oblongata]

"A billionaire minimum tax of just 25% would raise $440 billion over the next 10 years.

"Imagine what we could do if we just made billionaires pay their taxes like everyone else.

These are, of course, two completely separate things.

The latter is a slander, unless you have specific facts that billionaires are NOT, in fact, paying all the taxes they legally owe. Is Biden implying the Jeff Bezos, Oprah Winfrey, Warran Buffet, and other Democrat billionaires are not paying the taxes they legally owe?

Of course, people like Buffet and Bezos are billionaires on paper, owning shares in profitable enterprises, but are also people with a paltry level of income (by design) or capital gains (by design). I assume that they pay accountants and tax specialists to help them "do their taxes", and they utilize legal strategies to minimise the impact of taxes. All perfectly legally, like Buffett donating more than $45B to charities of his chosing rather than giving a penny of that money to the government.

The former is just a covetous pipe dream, completely unmanageable in any fair fashion (not that fair is something Biden would be concerned about).

Looking it up, I find a note that "As of November 2022, a combined value of 4.48 trillion U.S. dollars was held by billionaires living in the United States." A 100% wealth tax on billionaires would NOT EVEN DRIVE THE GOVERNMENT SPENDING FOR ONE WHOLE YEAR. And, it would leave all the billionaires with empty pockets and nothing for the government to take in year 2.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

If I had that kind of money, the Second Amendment Foundation would be really happy with my choices for charitable donations...

[Minadin]

Why would you continue to donate to an organization with such a lengthy and unrepentant record of repeatedly losing large amounts of material assets in a series of unfortunate boating accidents?

[Chumby]

If I had that kind of money, I’d be able to buy enough lottery tickets to likely win and become a multi millionaire!

[Old Engineer]

Imagine what withdrawing $440 billion from productive uses would do to the standard of living of everyone except bureaucrats!

Imagine which way the millions of newly minted unemployed workers would vote when their only source of income is the government!

Explaining opportunity costs to a wokester is like explaining quantum mechanics to a rabbit.

[Longtobefree]

If only those filthy rich bastards would stop setting of fake corporations to hide their 'book advances' in so a half million dollars escape payroll taxes, medicare and social security would be solvent, right?
I say put them on public display so the whole world can see them deteriorate into mumbling, tripping idiots.

[LIBertrans]

So according to Lizard, the Jews woke up one morning and decided to bomb the hell out of Gaza for no reason at all. It was an ATTACK, not retaliation, against faithful and godly people who like nothing better than killing Olympic athletes, bullying girls, kidnapping kids and hijacking airplanes into skyscrapers as testament to their selfless devotion to the Revealed Will of God.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Please translate that from Retard to English for us, Hank.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

That's not the kind of translation he does.

[Dillinger]

should I be afraid I understand and am entertained by Hank?

[Zeb]

When he's not irrelevantly bringing up abortion, I find it pretty entertaining.

[Stuck in California]

But, he's ALWAYS irrelevantly bringing up abortion.

[JFree]

Plane fueled by fat and sugar crosses the Atlantic

OK. I haven't actually read the story. But it looks like Fat Bastard has found his calling for Couch Potato Air.

[Dillinger]

story was peanut oil could power Diesel engines but the oil magnates put the kibosh on peanut-powered Peterbilts

[Chumby]

They could run that thing for peanuts!

[soldiermedic76]

The true story is that diesel engines were originally designed to run on plant based oils, however, it was cost prohibitive and inefficient compared to utilizing petroleum. There are those who do run diesel engines on products such as used cooking oil, claiming it's the next big thing, but for some reason all those large freight companies that are always looking for a way to save a penny, and every independent trucker (who is even more looking to save a penny wherever they can in operating costs) has not adopted it.

[soldiermedic76]

A similar thing with the Model T, originally designed to operate on ethanol, but petroleum was more efficient and cheaper. One of the things that always amazes me about the modern watermelons is how much of their 'new' technology has already been tried multiple times in the past and always failed (plant based fuels, electric vehicles etc). Fuck, the other day I saw an article celebrating 'wind power' for shipping. And yes it was giant sails, and the writer unironically stated this could be an important technology leap for shipping. Obviously someone has never read a Patrick O'Brien or CS Forrester novel.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Good news: Public support for the death penalty is at its lowest level since 1972.

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/1215757307/executions-death-penalty-report-increase

Of course, this means executions are on the rise.

[Truthfulness]

That's what you call justice. Most Americans agree.

This contradicts the NPR poll:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/404975/steady-americans-support-death-penalty-murderers.aspx

Gallup is a much less biased source.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Can the party of Trump really become a multiracial coalition?

https://www.vox.com/2024-elections/23982907/trump-democrats-republicans-working-class-voters-latino-black-voters

[Truthfulness]

Why do you care about skin color so much? Trump and the GOP allow anyone to join them in their cause. How about we judge people by their character instead?

Bernie didn't exactly have a "multiracial coalition" either, are you gonna get mad at your leader?

[Chumby]

Îmi amintesc.

La mulți ani!

[No Beret]

Israel Knew What Hamas Was Planning

Overblown victim blaming bullshit.
Cancel my subscription.

[Lester75]

Israel needs to get rid of Bibi and his Likud incompetents.

Bibi's coalition and his bending over backwards to the religious fanatics in it, kept poking the hornet's nest.
Bibi's government screwed up security big time.
Bibi himself is corrupt and is prosecuting the war the way he is for his own benefit:
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahus-two-front-war-against-hamas-his-own-political-survival-2023-11-27/
Bibi himself encouraged Hamas' establishment in Gaza in order to weaken the PLO.

Bibi's government is losing the world-wide propaganda war and is staining the image of all Jewish people (most people of Jewish descent do *not* live in Israel and have nothing to do with his policies. AIPAC doesn't represent all Jews at all) look bad in the process.

[Truthfulness]

Lots of lies here–allow me to point out some of them:

1) Netanyahu had nothing to do with the rise of Hamas–he was not Prime Minister when it formed back in the 80’s, not was he Prime Minister when they took power in 2006.

2) Those “religious fanatics” are rightfully defending themselves from terrorists and want to make sure what happened on October 7 doesn’t happen again

3) Most Jews support the existence of Israel: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/05/21/u-s-jews-have-widely-differing-views-on-israel/

You have no clue what you’re talking about. You do not speak for the Jews.

4) There is no corruption in Netanyahu with wanting to put an end to a terrorist group. There’s also no proof that Israel knew the attack would occur due to being given multiple threats at the same time. Lemme guess, do you think the U.S. knew Pearl Harbor was going to happen too? Hindsight is 20/20.

If anyone else wants to refute this guy, then be my guest.

Repent of your lies and let go of your antisemitism, Lester75.