Dr. Gonzo

I think that was @Batard

I think Hamas propaganda is just as much of a problem as Israeli propaganda. They're both trying to remove all nuance from any discussion about the conflict and push people onto one side over the other. The internet is full of it, lots of absolute language to get all of us to firmly take a side. When really, I think most people want this conflict to stop popping up constantly and for them to just start living like normal neighbors. Hating each other silently, without bombing anybody.

Could argue that spreading Hamas propaganda is tacit support isn't it?

I've got a lot of sympathy for most Gazans. Most of the people who live/lived there weren't even born the last time elections were allowed to be held in Gaza. They've had to live with Hamas "governing" them - so with Hamas stealing every bit of money that could go some way to helping their lives be any better, while also being told their greatest purpose in life is to die fighting the Jews when they grow up. I've got no sympathy or time for anyone that thinks Palestinian leadership has done a fucking thing for Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank. The current Palestinian leadership just exists to suck up money from Iran and Qatar and to use Palestinians as cannon fodder in a seemingly endless war, while hoping the heavy handed responses they illicit from Israel... who for some reason has leaders too fucking stupid to not think about what the blowback of their actions might mean for the future in this conflict... gain them enough sympathy in the west to have people regurgitate their propaganda. Again, I don't see why the world just sits by while Israel and Palestinian leadership just fuck around trying the same things and getting innocent people killed. They're both incapable of following international law, they're both incapable of de-escalation. I don't understand why the UK and US have to continually side with Israel at the cost of further instability in the region. Just put the foot down and let the UNSC have a peacekeeping mission. If Israel complains about it being a violation of their sovereignty, remind them of the creation of their country and the Nakba and tell them to shut the fuck up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_citizens_of_Israel 20% of Israel's population are Arabs that identify as Palestinians. Also, I think ethnically there's probably not a whole lot of difference between Palestinian Arabs and Jordanian Arabs if any.

I'm pretty sure Europe's still buying Russian oil and gas tbh. They're just buying from Azerbaijan (who have their own oil and gas, but also buy shitloads of both from Russia) and pretending none of it came from Russia.

Israel's got Arabs living there in peace though. They've even got Arab politicians. I think Israel's government does a lot that is worthy of condemnation - especially the far-right members that make up the current governing coalition. But to say the whole country wants every Palestinian dead I think flies in the face of reality. Yes, I think it's very fair to say that Israel's government has not acted in the interests of peace or stability for Israel and the Middle East. By the same token, it's fair to say that Hamas and the PA have done the exact same thing - they've acted to continually escalate the conflict. Hamas isn't a legitimate "resistance" for Gaza or Palestine. It's a group of violent radicals that want to wage war on Jews. Not just Israelis - it's in their charter, all Jews around the world. They've taken active steps to put Palestinians in harms way for their own goals. There is no peace, for Israelis or Palestinians, with them still around. I don't think any of us are experts, and certainly none of us are the word of god (lol, what a term for a conflict raging in the "holy lands") - but I certainly think you are right that his type of comment is exactly what Hamas want to hear come from the mouths of westerners. They did not commit the attack on October 7th without expecting Israel to come in with a heavy handed approach. It will never happen because of the makeup of the UN Security Council... but trusting Israelis and Palestinians to resolve this conflict with it ending in peace is a huge mistake the world is making. Nothing Israel's government has done since 1995 has been in the interest of a lasting and meaningful peace. Nothing Hamas or the PA have done have been in the interest of making a lasting and meaningful peace. Neither Israeli or Palestinian leadership have demonstrated they are capable of handling the crisis, nor have they demonstrated capability in improving the situation over the past few decades. Neither of them can even be trusted to follow international law. I don't know why the rest of the world has any faith in either of the two parties.

If he's going to go ahead with it, it's either because he's got some assurances from the US that there won't be consequences - like Saddam used to do. I think this is doubtful though, even considering Venezuela having oil sanctions removed, because before Saddam was an enemy of the US... he was one of their boys, and only really jeapordised that once he invaded Kuwait. Maduro is not one of the US's preferred dictators. Or he's going to go ahead with it as a favour to Putin, to take eyes further away from Ukraine. But unlike convincing Iran to let Hamas and the Houthis go ahead with destabilising the region, this is much closer to home for the US. And in a region where the US has close allies and Guyana being part of a trading block that enjoys close ties to the US. If Maduro wants to take this further than nationalistic chest thumping for propaganda purposes, I don't think he's got an easy route to success. His troops would need to cross a jungle with no roads, it would be further economically isolated by countries in the region, and probably find itself on the end of a naval blockade and the subject of US airstrikes. There's not any fear of nuclear war with Venezuela that exists with Russia's war on Ukraine. There's not the fear of a region igniting like a barrel of TNT the same way there is with Israel-Palestine. It would be a war in the Americas started against the interest of a pretty pro-US trading block... with the US military relatively available to swoop in considering the withdrawal from Afghanistan. There's no real appetite in the US for another Middle Eastern war... but I don't think that would be the case for a war in the US to stand up for a fledgling democracy of English speakers with the 4th highest GDP per capita in the Americas. It's basically a suicidal proposition for Maduro. And while these authoritarian "strongmen" look like idiots a lot of the time, they're usually smart enough to know that self-preservation is their number one priority. Maduro can't steal the wealth of Venezuela or live comfortably without guaranteeing that his reign isn't under threat. It's why Iran starting shit with the US and Israel is done with their proxy militias, like Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, the billions of militias they have in Iraq and Syria - it gives them that degree of plausible deniability that doesn't have them in the crosshairs of the US or Israel. If he's stupid enough to attack, I'd be surprised. But I think it'd be one of the last decisions he makes as the leader of Venezuela. I think more realistically this is like the typical chest thumping regimes like this do - it's for domestic consumption, not foreign consumption.

Swifty was fun because trying to decipher what he was trying to say was always a challenge. I feel a bit bad because I'm pretty sure reading his posts were peering into a window of deep mental illness. I dunno what his problem was @DeadLinesman was... but the posts almost always made me laugh. It's been a while since @The Liquidator's come on here and copy+pasted someone else's post from a Chelsea forum on here and expect us to understand the references in the post - but I quite enjoyed that. I'm pretty sure he blocked me years ago, but I still enjoyed replying to him and getting constantly ignored while he'd tell me what ShedEndWilliam had to say about Chelsea's last performance.

I'm pretty sure Kel (Holocaust denier) and Voice of Reason (advocate of racial hatred) are far worse than an idiot attempting cyber bullying. You're in control of yourself and how you react to people being dickheads. Nobody but Kel or Voice of Reason was in control of their abhorant views.

Nah mate you can't play it off like a joke - we all know you were dead serious - you're even still trying to defend it!

He was just an idiot, there've been worse members. We've had a literal Nazi sympathiser on here lol. Teso would have been fine if he'd just taken himself less seriously, sometimes he was very funny - although I'm not sure if he was intending to be as funny as he was each time.

Lol making death threats over PM while also simultaneously including every single member of staff on the PM was a truly bizarre decision.

Yeah, I don't think any of those are happening soon. If house prices did suddenly drop nearly 40% anytime soon, we've probably got a global massive financial crisis too.

I think Venezuela is just doing this for propaganda. Otherwise they’re just inviting the US to bomb them, put a puppet in, and take control of their oil fields.

Before 2016, I don’t think people wearing their politics on their sleeves was all that common. The rise of populism and the way the media has pushed partisan divisions has really changed the political landscape of America. The media’s really fucked up national politics in the US and I’m not sure there’s any way for them to unfuck it. I also don’t think Illinois, or at least Chicago, is too bad to live in. It has problems, but everywhere does. In my experience it’s one of the best cities in America despite its problems. It’s probably worse if you live in some border town with Illinois or something.

Drug problems and homelessness generally seem to be way up. When I was in Charlotte it was a little jarring because the downtown area was like a ghost town compared to every other downtown of any US city I’ve ever been to. And the route from my hotel downtown to the airport took me through some areas demonstrating the worst poverty I’ve seen in the US. And I live in California, I’ve seen homeless encampments grow… I’ve seen LA’s skid row. I’ve never seen anything like the run down poor areas of Charlotte. And I’ve never seen a city with such a dead city centre - I assume many businesses left and nobody’s taken their places. Interestingly I took a look and CA doesn’t even have a top 5 highest tax rate in the US. Poor @Spikein Illinois is experiencing the highest effective tax rate in the US. Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York and Kansas round out the top 5. The worst thing I can say about California is it’s very expensive. But while cost of living is also very high, quality of living is also very high. But California gets way too much shit from certain people and media outlets because they don’t like the politics of the state (while ignoring that it’s the state with the most republicans and the most democrats). Most of the issues that are genuine issues for California are issues that plague all states… and many countries around the world tbh. There’s just a hell of a lot more people. And imo that’s more a failing of federal legislators than any state politics.

Texas has a higher effective tax rate than California. Their property taxes are actually insane. Most of those other problems exist in literally every other state, California just has more people.

I like how idiots who’ve never been to California think it’s not a well run state, despite it being the economic engine of the US. And in my opinion, by far and away the best state in the US. But somehow Florida, with the worst inflation in the US & that’s spent the last couple of years attacking one of the largest employers in the state is well run.

It’s them and the people who owned Collins Airspace. Raytheon still makes bombs, missiles, and satellites. Now there’s separation between them and aviation.

the modern day Raytheon is the subsidiary, it’s on their website and it’s on the RTX wiki lol

Click on the link it says Raytheon an RTX company… it’s a subsidiary now.

Honestly I think Cuba is just being punished (honestly like Iran) for kicking a US puppet out. I’m not sure having a strong medical field necessarily means a massive capacity for good. Medical tourism to Iran is pretty huge and it’s one of the stronger medical fields in Asia. But I just checked the number of political prisoners in each country, and it’s clear Cuba is a less horrible dictatorship to live in though.

The Florida governor at that debate is also just trying to out Trump Trump because his presidential campaign is floundering. I’m pretty sure Hannity & Newsom actually get on really well (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-11-26/fox-news-host-sean-hannity-newsom-desantis-debate) - so even while hosting a debate where Newsom had a moderator appearing hostile (after all, it’s all really just theatre for Fox viewers)… I think that was a hit job on DeSantis. And for Newsom, it’s twofold campaigning - he made the case for Biden in 2024 to Fox viewers who typically wouldn’t give him any time of day. And he’s setting himself up for 2028 - and going onto Fox, handling a moderator appearing against him, and making a case to Fox viewers without belittling their personalities or feelings (which Hilary failed miserably at). Whereas DeSantis came off looking worse than I could imagine. I’m surprised he’s won any political office tbh. Aside from his awful politics, he’s got the charisma of a fart with shit in it.

Cuba and Iran don’t have nuclear weapons and the US is now producing and exporting more oil than it brings in. The thing is with oil prices, they’re set globally. Cutting off Venezuelan and Iranian oil at this point in time where Russian oil’s cut off from its biggest buyers would raise petrol prices worldwide by a significant amount. The US just removed sanctions on Venezuelan oil to lower petrol prices - they’re not going to suddenly change their minds.