Dr. Gonzo

Hamas leaders in Qatar must be delighted that its gone exactly the way they’ve planned it.

Yes I’m aware that his family fled Germany to the USA, a much more multicultural country, where he would then grow up to become one of the biggest war criminals in modern history, if not the biggest. I just find it ironic that someone who fled Germany during their pursuit for racial purity for safety in a multicultural society is now nearly 90 years later decrying German multiculturalism. Honestly, Kissinger should keep his mouth shut on every issue that’s not: 1) how to drag out a war, 2) giving advice on killing civilians. Honestly he’d make a killing giving some advice to Hamas or Netanyahu as a consultant.

This is the worst idea tbh. Nuclear weapons held by everyone requires that people in all future generations understand what mutually assured destruction means. We’re now 78 years from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and humanity has demonstrated an inability to learn from history. Before WW1 Europe built up massive armies thinking that these huge armies would be a deterrent to war. After all Europe had seen what mass warfare of large armies would mean and no European country would want to ever see that ever happen again. And the massive armies didn’t stop WW1 from happening. I think if you give every country nuclear weapons, we just move the end of humanity a hell of a lot closer to now. Sooner or later humans aren’t going to take the concept of mutually assured destruction seriously. I’d prefer that be an issue for some generation far in the future and when I’m long dead.

Fuck me the footage coming out of Gaza is horrific.

In Italy they're not meant to bet on anything online I'm 99% sure. I think Tonali and Zaniolo have alleged they were just playing poker online, which might get them banned from playing in Italy but I don't know if they can enforce that ban in the UK. Fagioli said he was betting on matches he was playing in and that the other 2 were also betting on football.

This is what happens when a conflict is allowed to fester. Extremists on both sides of this conflict view the other side as less than human. The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, which has also been festering for decades, but not as long, has a similar trend of people on both sides talking about the other as though they're animals to be slaughtered. Even with Russia and Ukraine, which has been going on since Russia's invasion of Crimea... we see similar things we hear from the fanatics of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Russia's had officials make statements saying there's no such thing as a Ukrainian nationality - that mirrors the claim of Golda Meir, former Israeli prime minister who claimed "there's no such thing as Palestinians." It's simply a denial of Ukrainian/Palestinian identity - meant to legitimise treating illegal attacks. Ukraine's made official statements where they refer to Russians as "Orcs" - that's similar to the dehumanisation of Jews by Hamas, Hezbollah, the PLO, the PA, etc. Refer to them as monsters or animals to slaughter and that justifies not thinking about them as human. Naftali Bennet is an extremist. His rhetoric of not treating Palestinians as though they are human is nothing new. Radicalism in Israeli politics is unfortunately quite common, look at Netanyahu's rise to power and it's genuinely sickening what he was allowed to get away with. That extremism has such a deep root in Israeli democracy is a stain on Israel and brings question to the morality of the Israeli electorate. By the same token, while Hamas has refused to hold elections since taking power... they obviously do enjoy support in Gaza and the wider Palestinian/pro-Palestinian community. Otherwise children being murdered wouldn't have been so widely celebrated. War and conflict are breeding grounds for extremism. Extreme situations cause extreme reactions from people. People that experience more stability in their day to day lives are less likely to turn to extremists to solve their problems - because their problems will be less extreme. Short of sending in UN peacekeepers, which I don't think is going to happen... I don't think this issue is ever really going away. Telling half of Gaza to leave northern Gaza, when they've got nowhere to really go, in 24 hours is telling a lot of people to do the impossible. If urban combat comes next, it's going to be chaotic and horrifying for people in Gaza. If a massive bombing campaign comes next, thousands of people are going to get caught in the collateral damage. I can't see how it will end the cycle of hatred, the hate will continue even if the Palestinian population drops massively. That hatred is going to lead to more extremism. And imo the UN should probably have gotten involved long ago when the first illegal settlements started. So few countries respect international law because for some countries there's just no consequence. If we want to have a just and more humane society that needs to change.

That's really gonna Kostas

So he was a fan of Germany back when they tried to remove multiculturalism from within their territory? Cos I’m pretty sure that’s why his family fled Germany.

Lmao Scalise drops his house speaker bid because he can’t secure the votes. GOP truly in unity

I think a recession in the US is inevitable. Some economists think that the fed chair (forget his name) can guide the economy to a "soft landing" - but I don't see how that's possible. These are all the recent things that are going to have a negative impact on the economy in the US: 1.) the auto strike; 2.) student loan payments resuming after a 3 year halt; 3.) surge in oil prices (and global prices went up 4% after Hamas's attack... so thanks for that Hamas, I suppose); 3.) the global economic slump - don't think the US will be unscathed from China's real estate crisis or European lending contractions; 4.) impending government shutdown - Kevin McCarthy staved off a shutdown in October... but it only kicked the can down the road to keep the government open until mid-November. There's no guarantee that this divided and chaotic house of representatives can keep the government open; 5.) interest rates being higher for longer - which has already slowed the already slow US housing market pretty significantly in the last year. 6.) Debtors are defaulting on their loans at higher rates. The people arguing for a "soft landing" to avoid recession have pointed to things like: the number of job postings going down, while unemployment is remaining very low (although some economists think the US level of unemployment is too low currently), productivity in US business being way up in 2023; Biden's industrial policy resulting in higher business investment that's kept the economy growing, I think there's also optimism that the auto strikes don't go on for too long, that Biden's new plan for student loan forgiveness takes some sting out of Americans suddenly spending less because they've got to pay their extortionate loans back... and shit like that. But I don't think it's realistic for Americans to think their economy is so insulated from the global economy that it doesn't feel the economic sting of all of the shocks to the economy worldwide like other countries. The last economic shutdown cost the US an absolute fortune in GDP loss and the state of the house right now... I think a November shutdown is incredibly likely unless there's another bipartisan agreement again - but after what happened with Kevin McCarthy, can a speaker of the house reach to the democrats to make a deal? Inflation and high interest rates are hurting the working and middle class disproportionately. Everything's more expensive, loans have much higher monthly payments. Couple that with a lot of Americans having less money to spend per month because they've got to pay the government back because the government didn't put a cap on how much schools can raise their prices each year and just gave students loans regardless... I've got a lot of friends and colleagues that have expressed significant dismay at the return of their student loans while everything is so expensive right now.

The fact people are seemingly being pressured into taking some wild takes because they want to whittle down a really complex issue into "Israel bad" or "Palestine bad" is sort of an example of how so many media platforms, both social media and "traditional" media have made people so unbelievably stupid.

Gonna be honest, I forgot swimming is a sport

@Stan I've got bits of my skeleton held together with screws, if we have a judo tournament I'm probably absolutely fucked.

After it was disputed as false, senior US officials seemed to confirm it as true. But now Egypt and Israel have made statements both denying it. So maybe the US officials are just getting shit info. They were pretty spot on about Russia though while Russia was denying preparing for an invasion of Ukraine. It seems like the war declaration also prevents any senior Israeli government positions from being vacated, including a Prime Minister under current criminal investigation who's seen his popularity plummet after the biggest loss of civilian life in Israel in decades - that only has his job currently because of a fragile coalition that just a few MPs could trigger a special election. If I were conspiratorial, I'd think this is just a vile power grab, where loss of life on both sides is just being used for shitty political purposes. On the other hand, whoever came up with the saying of things often being attributed to malice when it's really just incompetence has proven themselves to be right a lot of times in the history of humanity. And I don't want to believe that anyone's power hungry enough to allow something that horrible to ever happen just for politics. And the security failure is probably just due to a lot of things that possibly should have been red flags (like the reports that Israeli intelligence had noticed that Hamas's electronic communications had suddenly become way more sparse) about what was going on in Gaza just got ignored.

More than half of Gaza’s population is children and Hamas have all the guns, what exactly do you expect them to do?

Egypt seems to have given Israel a warning about the attack 3 days before it happened.

Lol those are the actual republicans though. The MAGA crowd are genuine RINOs wanting to push the part further and further right. The thing about Kevin McCarthy being cut from the same cloth as elite, while you worship people like Trump, a billionaire who lived in a literal golden tower in New York City before fucking off to live in a country club in Florida, and Russel Brand, a celebrity, is hilarious, or Tucker Carlson a prep school elitist heir to a frozen foods fortune. McCarthy’s a shitty politician and a shitty person, for sure. But you seem quite fond of the elite tbh. If the republicans were lock step in unity, the new speaker contest would probably not have been a close contest between Scalise and Gym Jordan. In fact, the guy who covered for his pedo friend probably would have won if the GOP was unified - that’s what Trump wanted. Instead it was a close vote with the Trump speaker candidate losing.

Theres no crisis in the Republican Party? Did you miss the entire removal of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the house? I’m not even going to bother reading the rest of what you wrote, you don’t have a clue about US politics despite being obsessed with it from abroad.

For the Republicans it's hard to say. The current crop of those vying for the candidacy is basically a selection of clowns + Nikki Haley, who I think is politically repulsive - but she's probably the "most serious" option out of the current crop. DeSantis is Trump light except nobody likes him. Pence is hated by the Trump base and is a religious zealot. Herd and the other moderate guy who's name I forget have basically no chance of getting through the primaries because they're basically viewed as Biden-light (and they're really not wrong, Biden is about as middle of the road as an American politician could get - and a pretty right leaning democrat). For Democrats, it's hard to say (lol). I think as a serious candidate for someone with experience running a large state with a powerful economy - Gavin Newsom's not a bad shout. If California was a country, it would be one of the biggest economies in the world (it's even overtaken the UK, although Brexit did help with that) - and it's the economic powerhouse of the US, basically bankrolling a ton of the red states that don't want to contribute their own money to provide social services. The problem with running someone like him is that a good amount of Americans in other states simply hate California and everything to do with it. I dunno why though Personally, I think the best candidate would still be Bernie Sanders - but the US is far too right wing for that to ever happen. He's also not really a democrat so the fact he was even close to the democratic nomination is pretty impressive, but when he runs for the senate he runs as an independent. I don't think the democrats will primary Biden though, I'm not sure if that's ever really happened in US history - or modern US history, where a sitting president is primaried by his party to be replaced as the nominee. I think democrats want to be the party that can demonstrate unity, while the republicans have been an absolute mess in 2023, from their criminal former president constantly finding himself in increasing leadership trouble, the infighting of the republican candidates in debates, and their revolt in the house of congress that's left congress's majority party without a leader. Realistically, the contest is going to be: Trump v. Biden, pt. 2. Trump's got an everlasting hold on Republican voters, democrats will stick by Biden for the appearances of being the stable party.

The funds were already allocated for the wall and Biden asked they be reallocated elsewhere, but house republicans refused. Because in the US, congress is in charge of funding of federal agencies that the president oversees. Rather than not spend the money and face a lawsuit from republicans that would likely just further waste taxpayer money, they've just gone ahead with it. It's also a repair of existing portions of the wall... which has existed for years before Trump was ever elected to office. It's one of the things I thought was so strange about the "build the wall" crowd - I live close to the US-Mexico border. There's already a wall. Illegal immigrants still get across. But never mind that, most illegal immigrants to the US come through on plane and just overstay their visas. So perhaps visa enforcement should be more of a priority than building a wall that already exists. The wall and illegal immigration being massive issues to the rest of the country is so funny for so many people who live on the US-Mexico border. There's a billion other problems in the US that are far more serious of an issue. But some dickheads in Ohio and Alabama are just terrified of Mexicans in California and Texas, I guess.

I just don't see how anyone can say, with a straight face, that Hamas has their best interests at heart. Their leadership doesn't even live in Gaza with the rest of Hamas and the Palestinians they're ruling over. They live in luxury in Qatar, not in squalor with the rest of Gaza. As the government of Gaza, they've deliberately neglected re-building and improving Gaza's infrastructure - because the imagery of a destitute Gaza city lends itself to public sympathy for Palestinians. They arrest and kill people (and their families) for speaking out against Hamas, wanting more rights and political freedoms. And any time they lash out at Israel, the people of Gaza pay a heavy price. I agree with you, there's basically a 0% chance Israel will cease the oppression and return to the UN approved borders of 1967 - and an even lower chance of the IDF stopping their atrocities. Why would they stop them when they constantly get away with them? They killed an American-Palestinian journalist, who wasn't even Muslim, that was immensely popular... and nothing happened. If they can do that to a high profile American... they'll get away with doing much worse to far more people that aren't famous and don't have passports that would typically lend themselves to getting some sort of special treatment in many countries. But all of that being true doesn't suddenly make Hamas having their best interest at heart. I think Israeli leadership since 1995 has been appalling. And I don't think it should be forgotten how Rabin, their PM who was in support of the Oslo Accords, was disparaged personally by Netanyahu, his party, and other right-wing Israelis. They'd organise rallies where Rabin was dressed in an SS officer, Hitler, and often had posters of him looking like he's in the crosshairs of a gun. Netanyahu himself led a mock funeral procession for Rabin and people at this fake funeral were chanting "death to Rabin" - when Netanyahu was alerted to potential threats to Rabin's life and asked to tone the rhetoric down, he refused. Rabin was assassinated shortly thereafter. Imo Netanyahu bears a lot of the blame for the assassination and for Israel's abandonment of the Oslo Accords. Israel is a democracy and I think it is a massive shame on their democracy that: 1.) Netanyahu would win the PM job about a year after Rabin's assassination, 2.) that Netanyahu would hold onto power for so long and do so much to subvert any sort of chance for meaningful peace, 3.) that Netanyahu was able to gain reelection despite having serious corruption charges leveled against him. Even still, I don't think that means that Hamas has a blank cheque to lash out and kill Israeli civilians - especially children, what do children have to do with the current political climate of anything? Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel's government since the mid-90s are all guilty of wrongdoing and getting in the way of any sort of meaningful and lasting peace. They're all awful human rights abusers. Israel is a democracy, so their voters do shoulder a lot of the burden tbh - but that doesn't excuse the crimes of Palestinian leadership either. The Palestinian Authority, in particular, maintaining their "martyrs fund" is a particular disgrace that does nothing to make any meaningful step towards peace, but instead encourages desperate people to murder so their families can have a bit more comfort. When leadership on neither side is willing to change from the status quo, it's just a recipe for this cycle of violence to carry on and on and on for eternity.

also topical

The first one's really good

Even if you take away the fact that whenever Hamas acts out against Israel it leads to mass death in Gaza - there’s still a very strong argument that Gazans are still Hamas’s biggest victims. The idea that Hamas are freedom fighters would have more weight if they didn’t rule Gaza like an oppressive totalitarian dictatorship. They’re not freedom fighters, the people they rule over don’t have any freedom.

Tbf to him, he's said he believed a lot of stupid things in his 20s and says he no longer believes in these bigoted beliefs. He says a lot of it was reactionary to the things he would hear said about Muslim people in his 20s and gives a few other excuses for that kind of shit. Could just be pandering to the twitter crowd now that he's on bigger media outlets, though. It's hard to say with religious nutjobs like that - I want to believe them when they say they've outgrown their caveman views on the world... but it's also hard to trust someone who's said things like that publicly. He's pretty well respected in the Muslim society in the west though, so him disavowing those previous statements and coming forward nowadays in support of gay marriage is probably a good thing in the long run: https://www.newstatesman.com/uncategorized/2013/05/muslim-i-struggle-idea-homosexuality-i-oppose-homophobia