Palestine Open Thread 2023-245
There are days where I feel paralyzed and overwhelmed by what is happening. Today is such a day.
I will leave you a few links:
Bassem Youssef is an Egyptian comedian. His satire is biting:
Israel-Hamas War: Piers Morgan vs Bassem Youssef On Palestine's Treatment (video)
Also:
- US Declares ‘War’ - Michael Brenner / Consortium News
- This is another Iraqi WMD moment. We are being gaslit - Jonathan Cook
- Biden Urges Americans Not To Let Dangerous Online Rhetoric Humanize Palestinians - The Onion
Only for news & views directly related to the war in Palestine.
The current open thread for other issues is here.
Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.
Posted by b on October 20, 2023 at 14:42 UTC | Permalink
next page »...What would happen if we walked away? We are the essential nation...
Posted by: sln2002 | Oct 20 2023 14:50 utc | 2
B
Your work is much appreciated. Your digging and aggregating will be useful to historians. Doing the legwork to connect the dots is tedious and beyond my capacity to say the least. To witness a legend do it in real time is very precious.
I would ask if we can go back and visit the issues with Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. Gaza and the West Bank are pretty much as they always were but I hear nothing about Lebanon.
dan
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 20 2023 14:53 utc | 3
Imagine if U.S. media boardrooms were full of Palestinians instead of ... oh, I'm not allowed to say who they are today.
But I can pretend they are "Whites" and that the Hollywood bosses are "Whites" in order to attack Whites, that's okay. According to the media.
Posted by: Tenet | Oct 20 2023 14:54 utc | 4
My comments are about the church, the Saint Porphyrius, that was bombed, with civilians seeking refuge. The church was built around 400 AD. One of the most oldest in Christianity. Now, no more . I had tears in my eyes when I read up about this place. And what is the solution given to this by our esteemed US government? Safe zones. And what does that do? That means Israel can keep bombing. When our government doesn’t give a flying banana about the bombing of a Christian church, they’re no good in my book. All this so Netanyahu and his good friend Uncle Joe won’t be brought up on charges and get thrown in the slammer. Despicable. Just despicable.
Posted by: Jose Garcia | Oct 20 2023 14:57 utc | 5
I think Gil's take us pretty much correct. This could be the big one.
"Russian missiles can strike the U.S. aircraft carrier task force off Israeli shores and two of them are sufficient to send the Gerald Ford to the bottom of the sea.
That last point is not my own interpretation: it was stated clearly on a live broadcast of Russia’s premier talk show hosted by Vladimir Solovyov two days ago. To that I add here a very important additional note that highlights how close we are coming to the war to end all wars: Putin made his statement about the Kinzhals not from his Kremlin offices but from the guest house in Beijing where he spent two days this week and met for several hours with Chinese president Xi Jinping. As a veteran Kremlinologist, I can say with confidence that Putin’s readiness to finish off the American aircraft carrier task force in the Mediterranean if necessary had been discussed with and approved by Xi, who surely has his own concerns about the U.S. navy operating most provocatively in the South China Sea. It also aligns with the threat by North Korean leader Kim one week ago that he is ready to sink the U.S. aircraft carrier that loiters in the vicinity of the Korean peninsula. What we have before us is the prospect of Pearl Harbor all over again, but in three seas.
These separate facts are in the public domain. I remain surprised that no one is drawing the dots to the obvious conclusion: that we are on the cusp of a very great war for which the Mideast crisis is just the detonator."
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 14:58 utc | 6
thanks b.
If it wasn’t for this site, I would have very limited options for news and commentary.
I just wanted to say that in the last day or so I’ve been quite disappointed with Matt Taibbi. I’m a paying subscriber to his Substack because I’ve respected his journalism for a long time and I want to support it. But his very lame angle (dupe?disingenuous? deceitful?) on the the al-Ahli Arab Christian hospital is quite appalling to say the least.
Posted by: tawharanui | Oct 20 2023 15:00 utc | 7
Astonishingly good article at HuffPost about possible MUTINY at State Department:
Posted by: Linda Wood | Oct 20 2023 15:00 utc | 8
Essential US State Department Press Briefing, 19 Oct
[...]
QUESTION: Can I follow up on that, Matt? Why is it only 20 trucks at this point? Do you have any firm agreement from the Egyptians to allow American citizens to leave via the Rafah crossing? Do you have an estimate on how many are trying to get out in that route?
MILLER: So I will say just with respect to trucks, I don't want to speak to the—what the exact agreement will look like, because that is a matter that continues to be negotiated, that Ambassador Satterfield is on the ground negotiating. The Israelis, as they have said publicly and as Secretary Blinken said after we met with them for seven and a half hours to secure this initial agreement on Monday, the Israelis have very serious concerns about the diversion of humanitarian assistance. They're worried that assistance that goes in will be diverted to Hamas. We are working out an agreement to ensure that that - that any deliveries can be handled appropriately. So we'll continue to work on that. But what we have said publicly and what we have said to the Israeli Government is quite clear: We expect humanitarian assistance to be able to get in. We think it's important that the innocent civilians in Gaza who did not start this conflict have access to food and water and medicine. That's the commitment from the President on down. It's what Ambassador Satterfield is working out the details of even as we speak
QUESTION: And what is being offered to the Egyptians to try to grease the wheels on this?
QUESTION: And what is being offered to the Egyptians to try to grease the wheels on this?
MILLER: We're not offering them anything. We are telling them that we have an interest in getting American citizens out, and it is our interest, it is their interest, it is the interest of every government in the region that humanitarian assistance be provided to the innocent civilians in Gaza who are not a party to this conflict.
[...]
Posted by: sln2002 | Oct 20 2023 15:02 utc | 9
Most of us feel the same way.
Welcome to the United States of Mahagonny.
Didn't Lotte Lenya sing "I tell you, I tell you, I tell you we must die.."
Posted by: bevin | Oct 20 2023 14:50 utc | 1
Definitely so. We're all feeling it. Rest up, old boy. Lots of work to be done soon and you'll need to be fit and fresh.
Not sure about Lotte, but old Jim had more than a few apt lyrics.
"Strange days have found us
Strange days have tracked us down
They're going to destroy
Our casual joys
We shall go on playing or find a new town
Yeah!
Strange eyes fill strange rooms
Voices will signal their tired end
The hostess is grinning
Her guests sleep from sinning
Hear me talk of sin
And you know this is it
Yeah!
Strange days have found us
And through their strange hours
We linger alone
Bodies confused
Memories misused
As we run from the day
To a strange night of stone"
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 15:04 utc | 10
The hospital, was in fact, hit by a Hamas errant rocket.
If you look around the area using Google earth, you'll see some incubators, taken by Saddams forces from Kuwait, when they threw babies on the floor. The launch site is north of this.
If you pan around you'll see a sea can that's half empty. This is where Momar Gadaffi kept his Viagra supply that he was giving to his troops for gang raping civilians. It's east of this.
The next reference is hard to find. It's 2 crates on a hill that Saddam kept little vials of ianthrax and ricin in. You know, the same ones Colin Powell was showing to the UN. It's south of this.
If you keep looking, you'll see 2 pipes filled with Sarin. These are the same pipes Assad used on civilians, not the rebels. THE REBELS DIDN'T DO THIS, ASSAD DID!! ASSAD IS A VERY VERY BAD MAN!! It's a little west of this.
If you look in the center, you'll see some equipment with Russian markings. This is the equipment Putin used to blowup his own pipeline, NS2.
It's right beside this where the Hamas rocket was launched from.
Posted by: Just a grunt | Oct 20 2023 15:05 utc | 11
Here is video from Dr Mohatir Mohammad former pm of Malaysia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMiv1oV2RoM
Transcript:
OF LIES AND DECEPTIONS
1. President Joe Biden’s statement regarding the bombing of the hospital in Gaza was from a misfired Palestinian rocket is totally ridiculous and absurd.
2. Why should there be any doubt that the blast of the Al Ahli Arab hospital is from an Israeli air strike as the murderous regime had been attempting to wipe Palestinians and Gaza out of existence since last week.
3. In fact, Israel had been after the Palestinians all the time, if not wipe out the Palestinians altogether, for the past 70 years and suddenly now, after launching air strikes day and night, Palestinians blames for the blast on the hospital.
4. Biden’s narrative is based on feedbacks from Nethanyahu and Pentagon.
5. Obviously Nethanyahu lies about everything. And if Biden wants to use Pentagon to give credence to his narrative, we have not forgotten how Pentagon and other American institutions lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq.
6. A more recent lie is about Biden claiming to have seen pictures of Hamas beheading babies.
7. Indeed, the White House had withdrawn the statement, admitting that there was no proof of such a deed. The question is how Biden could blatantly lie in the first place and with a straight face.
8. The crux of the matter is that all these atrocities committed by Israel on the Palestinians stems from the American support for Tel Aviv.
9. If the American Government withdraws its support for Israel and stop all military aids to the regime, Israel would not have carried out the genocide and mass murders of Palestinians with impunity.
10. The United States government needs to come clean and tell the truth. Israel and its IDF are the terrorists. The United States is blatantly supporting terrorists. So what is the United States?
Posted by: Arata | Oct 20 2023 15:05 utc | 12
John Helmer’s Dances with Bears Oct 10 report on Russia’s changed relationship with Israel has jaw-dropping information and implications. I learned about the report from this comment section. I could repeat that sentence thousands of times. MoA is invaluable, b. Your analyses are invaluable. You make a big difference.
Posted by: Pundita | Oct 20 2023 15:09 utc | 13
"While Biden declared that the world was at an inflection point, this is not because war is something new for the United States. On the contrary, America has been at war for more than 30 years, and the countries it has invaded, occupied or bombed amount to a significant portion of the world’s population—Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, most of North Africa, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Sudan.
What is new is the transformation of these wars into a more general conflict, or, as Leon Trotsky described it on the eve of World War II, when “separate clashes and bloody local disturbances … must inevitably coalesce into a conflagration of world dimensions.”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/10/20/zxcu-o20.html
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 15:09 utc | 14
Posted by: Just a grunt | Oct 20 2023 15:05 utc | 11
The most poisonous of dwarfs here. Don't touch it, my good barflies!
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 15:11 utc | 15
the sinking heart...not a good feeling at all. Nothing is sacrosanct to them. Karma's sure is gonna come around in a big way though. Remember that
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Oct 20 2023 15:13 utc | 16
Biden's "Axis of Evil, Part 2" speech pledging unlimited war will be an absolute disaster for the US, as well as a disaster for Biden politically a year from now. Among all the other gibberish and pledging unlimited support to Israel, he billed it as a "wartime speech," made weird threats to fight directly against Russia, and ended with "god protect our troops" (not god "bless" our troops, the standard formulation). He clearly signalled he intends US troops to be directly involved.
Posted by: Bob | Oct 20 2023 15:15 utc | 17
Israel’s imminent ground invasion has been imminent for how many days? Every day that passes they do or say something so outrageous that the rest of the world is bound to rise up and demand they don’t invade. Maybe they will invade. Or maybe they have made the perfect excuse not to invade.
Posted by: Pundita | Oct 20 2023 15:19 utc | 18
So illuminating and funny in a schadenfreude manner that the NYT is being attacked for actually standing for facts (in a very weak way and they will cave I'm sure) re the hospital bombing.
Carrying water for empire for a 100 years but one wrong step and you're out ...
Posted by: Caliman | Oct 20 2023 15:21 utc | 19
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 15:11 utc | 15
I think you didn't get it. that was some fairly good satire.
Yeah I know, it has become really hard to tell the difference....especially when well-meaning people quote the Onion
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 20 2023 15:23 utc | 20
possible MUTINY at State Department:
Posted by: Linda Wood | Oct 20 2023 15:00 utc | 8
---
The State Department does not have a confirmed (Assistant Secretary) Legal Advisor.
The position has been largely provisional since the tenure of Hillary Clinton, which of course leads to a lack or proper oversight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_Adviser_of_the_Department_of_State
Posted by: too scents | Oct 20 2023 15:26 utc | 21
I have to wonder about the view from China, is it sheer disbelief? The US "pivot to Asia" has utterly collapsed. While the US views China as its central enemy and does everything possible to increase tensions, it is now utterly tied down in Europe and the Middle East. Such a self-destructive way of stoking conflict that you cannot possibly contain.
Posted by: Bob | Oct 20 2023 15:28 utc | 22
Apocalypse can be exhausting!
Prost!
на здоро́вье!
Skál!
Posted by: El.Lissitzky | Oct 20 2023 15:30 utc | 23
Thanks, b. I read Brenner’s analysis waiting for the familiar “end of Europe” discussion. Except, unlike with many reflections on Ukraine, it didn’t come. There’s a silver lining of some sort.
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Oct 20 2023 15:30 utc | 24
Mr. Piers Morgan: "I mean there is a dark humour there (...)"
No, Mr. Morgan. There is no "dark humour" there when you imhumanely and indifferently slaughter those held captive all their life and claim it's done in self defense.
On a side note - humour requires empathy, which you and those of your kind are absolutely devoid of whatsoever.
"It is a hideous liberal hypocrisy that expects victims of ongoing genocide to employ legal restraint in their resistance."
Posted by: Browser | Oct 20 2023 7:31 utc | 382
Copying, since there is nothing to add.
Also a warm thank you for sharing the following:
"Red Palestine"
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=90AAcSvJAl0
https://youtu.be/watch?v=90AAcSvJAl0
Posted by: Browser | Oct 20 2023 7:37 utc | 384
Posted by: kspr | Oct 20 2023 15:34 utc | 25
I have absolutely no idea who she is, but the latest "Simplicius" effort is extremely well written, informative, with some very interesting photography, which I hadn't seen before..some of which is probably not faked, and some of which in a time of almost World War 3 is very illustrative of the insanity of covering tanks with bomb protecting solar panels.
"Lastly, speaking of Israeli tanks, it’s been noted how an innovation Russia was once ridiculed for, has now become the de rigueur norm for all global militaries. The IDF has now been busily welding the infamous anti-drone “cope cages” onto all its tanks in preparation for the Gaza foray:
"
Posted by: tony_opmoc | Oct 20 2023 15:35 utc | 26
Perhaps it's just my subjectivity, but it seems to me that since 9/11 conspiracies have been manifesting themselves on a monumental scale, I suppose it has something to do with the US's rush to consolidate what is essentially a totalizing global empire, while it still has a chance, and before it goes bankrupt because of that same empire-pursuing gigantic military spending.
Posted by: Ludo | Oct 20 2023 15:38 utc | 28
For those with strong stomachs, from Canadian satire news site, The Beaverton —
“Biden suggests that Hamas and Israeli government hash things out over a plate of ribs”
https://x.com/TheBeaverton/status/1715101430418145626
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Oct 20 2023 15:38 utc | 29
What if the entire Palestinian-Zionist issue were viewed through the lens of the crusades?
i.e, that the entire Palestinian-'israeli' conflict is merely the ninth crusade continuing on for the last few hundred years, with the same actors but this time with a "Jewish" twist to it?
Would that make sense?
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Oct 20 2023 15:42 utc | 30
Posted by: sln2002 | Oct 20 2023 15:02 utc | 9
Thanks for the transcript. It’s important to note that the US isn’t telling the Egyptians anything. The US tried to tell the Egyptians to take all of Gaza for resettlement in Sinai and the Egyptians said no. The trucks, many more than 20 have been waiting at Rafah since 10/8. It is the Israelis who are making it impossible for aid to get through. This is US dissembling to make itself look good and cover for Tel Aviv.
Posted by: Lex | Oct 20 2023 15:42 utc | 31
Posted by: Ludo | Oct 20 2023 15:38 utc | 28
Maybe this is because the term 'conspiracy' itself got co-opted to mean 'tin foil hat ludacrosities no sane person believes in', which again means 'deviating from what The News say'.
Posted by: kspr | Oct 20 2023 15:47 utc | 32
Truckloads of humanitarian aid await opening of Rafah border crossing ==> https://youtu.be/SbofbKVHej4
Posted by: too scents | Oct 20 2023 15:47 utc | 33
Thank you b for all you do, I know I could never do it myself.
Thank you to all here who search for, find, and write about the truths of the world whatever they are, or who in any way honestly attempts to do so from their point of view and life.
Thank you no matter if we agree or not or on what specifics or to what degree. Like or dislike, all that human stuff.
I think we all —or at least most by far— know things have to change for the better and that it's not a matter of wanting it to but instead a requirement that is in the process of being realized.
The sadness lies in the avoidability of doing it the hard way as is being forced upon everyone. Askew to that sadness is a kind of inevitability which might not give much comfort, but it's there.
Be kind to yourself everyone, don't burn out just because others (a few, or many, or in the wrong places) do not yet see or understand what you do.
It's not windmills we're fighting that's for sure (well unless one literally doesn't like some modern type windmills because of massive insect and bird deaths etc.)... ...wow I'm bad at trying to be nice and encouraging XD
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Oct 20 2023 15:48 utc | 34
[email protected] have no concept of Black Humor, at its fucking best, I tip my hat, on point, on par.
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Oct 20 2023 15:48 utc | 35
Biden saw the photos of the 40 beheaded babies too.
Bibi just made Biden his bitch. Bibi's well timed strategic hospital bombing not only gave him a US green light for genocide and ethnic cleansing (plus billions more in military aid and a UN veto), it blew up any "normalization" or US credibility in the region.
Posted by: bill wolfe | Oct 20 2023 15:51 utc | 36
What we have before us is the prospect of Pearl Harbor all over again, but in three seas
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 14:58 utc | 6
Add another. I saw a report that Yemen fired a missile at the USS Carney, which is in the Red Sea.
Posted by: wagelaborer | Oct 20 2023 15:52 utc | 37
@ Just a grunt | Oct 20 2023 15:05 utc | 11
lol.. very good! comic relief is helpful here..
Posted by: james | Oct 20 2023 15:56 utc | 38
Even when Big Lies(1) about hospital bombings or anything are constantly repeated & believed by millions of trusting, gullible, good people, they remain Big Lies.
"The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere... any decision-making... based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion." Julian Assange
TruthSeekers/Speakers & Leakers are needed now more than ever! Living in fear is not really living. If we should be afraid of anything, we should be afraid of acting like impotent cowards.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Press Release, quoted in Gaza: UN experts decry bombing of hospitals and schools as crimes against humanity, call for prevention of genocide, (19 October 2023)
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanityExcerpt:
UN experts today expressed outrage against the deadly strike at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which killed more than 470 civilians on Tuesday and trapped hundreds under the rubble. The strike reportedly followed two warnings issued by Israel that an attack on the hospital was imminent if people inside were not evacuated.
The strike against Al Ahli Arab Hospital is an atrocity. We are equally outraged by the deadly strike on the same day on an UNRWA school located in Al Maghazi refugee camp that sheltered some 4000 displaced people, as well as two densely populated refugee camps,” the experts said.There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity in Gaza. Considering statements made by Israeli political leaders and their allies, accompanied by military action in Gaza and escalation of arrests and killing in the West Bank, there is also a risk of genocide against the Palestine people
An estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, are in desperate need of prenatal and postnatal care. The number of internally displaced people across the Gaza Strip is estimated at around one million.
The unlawful denial of humanitarian access and depriving civilians of objects indispensable to their survival are also a violation of international humanitarian law, the experts warned.
"The complete siege of Gaza coupled with unfeasible evacuation orders and forcible population transfers, is a violation of international humanitarian and criminal law. It is also unspeakably cruel,” the experts said.
====
1) https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Big_lie&oldid=3085670 Big Lies (uncensored page)
Posted by: Toby C | Oct 20 2023 15:56 utc | 39
[email protected] have no concept of Black Humor, at its fucking best, I tip my hat, on point, on par.
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Oct 20 2023 15:48 utc | 37
Oh, that was humor? Sorry.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 15:56 utc | 40
@Arch Bungle | Oct 20 2023 15:42 utc | 31
What if the entire Palestinian-Zionist issue were viewed through the lens of the crusades?In a way it makes a lot of sense, this has been going on for more than a few hundred years. The viking King Sigurd Jorsalfare (Jorsalfare="He who travelled to Jorsal" where Jorsal=Jerusalem in old Norse) led the crusade there in 1107.i.e, that the entire Palestinian-'israeli' conflict is merely the ninth crusade continuing on for the last few hundred years, with the same actors but this time with a "Jewish" twist to it?
Would that make sense?
Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 20 2023 15:59 utc | 41
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 15:11 utc | 15
I think you didn't get it. that was some fairly good satire.
Yeah I know, it has become really hard to tell the difference....especially when well-meaning people quote the Onion
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 20 2023 15:23 utc | 20
Yeah. I see it now. Gaddafi Viagra. Right. That's very nice.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 15:59 utc | 42
I took @11 as satire . . . What do we have as accurate info on the hospital bombing? At first the explosion was reported as "massive" with 500 killed; we were also told of "knock-on" bombs or warnings the bomb was on its way, of other warnings. Also, it was reasoned that if jihad forces had such a weapon it would be falling on Israeli buildings. Anyway, even without all that, the hideous extermination program underway at the time works against plausibility that it came from Palestinian defenses. This hideous bomb on a hospital, with accounts by hospital witnesses now being removed from the internet, blends into the horror of giving people 24 hours to get south while obliterating homes and infrastructure, the wanton killing of innocents, including hundreds of children. And amidst this a UN ceasefire resolution denied . . .
Posted by: botete | Oct 20 2023 16:01 utc | 43
The US Air Force jets are screaming overhead today across the US Air Force Barry Goldwater bombing range in southern Arizona.
I get the distinct feeling that they wish - and have a hard on for - doing real bombing runs over similar desert terrain in the Middle East.
Posted by: bill wolfe | Oct 20 2023 16:03 utc | 44
"10. The United States government needs to come clean and tell the truth. Israel and its IDF are the terrorists. The United States is blatantly supporting terrorists. So what is the United States?
Posted by: Arata | Oct 20 2023 15:05 utc | 12"
Biden is lying. Biden is a raging hypocrite. Biden is on the side of evil in Israel and Ukraine.
What does anyone propose to do about it?
Posted by: Feral Finster | Oct 20 2023 16:03 utc | 45
Ditto b, because we are human, we need sleep, exercise and beauty in our daily life. To breathe correctly.
As I posted in n previous thread about Bassem the Egyptian, I’d just like to punt out to bf’s that Piers Morgan’s LIE of not having promoted the beheaded babies on his show was proved instantly to be a lie. He said it to Joan Collins. Look it up if any one doubts it.
@ Posted by: Arch Bungle | Oct 20 2023 15:42 utc | 31
My rather confused rant on the previous thread written and posted without edit was about exactly that.
I didn’t make it explicit there bu do so right now - the United States of America itself was wholly a Zionist endeavour.
All European Imperialism has been a Zionist endeavour.
The Catholic Church itself has always been a Zionist project.
Going back to the Crusades and BEFORE.
The Zionists got going when they split the East and West.
At the end of the Roman Empire.
The US is just following orders. As is all of Europe. Except a few who always stood against the ancient foes.
The only way to end this madness of centuries is to make sure that each and every one of the Ancient Powers UNDERSTANDS, they will NOT survive.
No matter how far behind frontlines, behind castle walls, in their deepest luxury bunkers , with hundreds of years of food and sex slaves, the Multipolarity Knows where they are and they have weapons to incinerate them in the first minutes.
Ahead of innocents in cities.
It’s time to take their foot off the throats of humanity and be equals or if they can’t live with that - well let’s finish this.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Oct 20 2023 16:11 utc | 46
@11. You must be a grunt, you’re talking too much sense to be an officer.
Posted by: Fred777 | Oct 20 2023 16:15 utc | 47
My rather confused rant on the previous thread written and posted without edit was about exactly that.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Oct 20 2023 16:11 utc | 49
I saw that. Therein lies a rabbit hole that will fill several libraries ...
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Oct 20 2023 16:17 utc | 48
So depressing.
Fact:
Most people are demons or domesticated demons.
Posted by: librul | Oct 20 2023 16:18 utc | 49
Occasionally we have an Eastern Rite Priest say Mass.
He has talked about the persecution of Christians throughout the middle east and Armenia.
Today he talked about the Catholic Church bombed and Israeli response they 'killed fewer than Hamas'!
Not only Muslims!
Posted by: paddy | Oct 20 2023 16:20 utc | 50
ok kiddies let's get ready to watch Uncle Sam do a high dive jump face first into the kiddy pool. Try not to get too wet, cause it's gonna be a mess!
Posted by: Kadath | Oct 20 2023 16:20 utc | 51
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Oct 20 2023 15:42 utc | 31
I don't think so.
Crusades were Christians VS Muslims for the control of the Holy Land ( Terrasanta) meaning Jerusalem and neighborhoods. Obviously, robbery, predation ecc. was behind the 'religious' reasons for the crusades themselves.
Jews were a minority in there and already scattered around the known world.
They more or less had a decent living under both Christian or Muslim authority while, most of the time they suffered more or less severe limitations, think about living in ghettos.
Posted by: Mario | Oct 20 2023 16:22 utc | 52
Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 15:11 utc | 15
You misunderstand. Read it all: this is satire of the highest order and masterully carried off too.
Let's not attack one another without complete certainty that we are right.
Posted by: bevin | Oct 20 2023 16:23 utc | 53
What if the same barbaric energies that powered the Nazis under Hitler are now feeding Israel/US/NATO/Ukraine? Maybe they're directed by the Rothschild empire, which has had a power monopoly for many centuries. Maybe Biden, RFK jr, King Charles, and lots of other powerful old boys were targeted & caught in the Rothschild's Mossad/Epstein honey traps. Imagine some of the clever methods that may have been used to get them in their web. Detailed psychological profiles of targets, spiked beverages etc. From here it looks like the ruling elite are freaking out now, because their old timeword solutions are no longer working, and massive leaks are exposing their barbarism much more than ever. Their reign is ending now. BRICS nations & their benevolence/integrity pose a grave security threat to the barbarians & their minions. These days are marking the end of a barbarian age. The old world is falling apart as it must to make way for a brand new world. 100% transparent government systems & world peace are coming & they can't be stopped. Truth is setting us free from the lies. Ignore the naysayers! They have insisted that nothing will ever change for centuries. The Best IS yet to come.
A pack of hounds is snarling,
And the owl flashes its eye in the dark.
But those who know do not tremble in fear.
-The World Teacher
Posted by: Toby C | Oct 20 2023 16:29 utc | 54
Biden is working on a merge of ukraine and palastine thread.
Probably to keep it simple for the people at home.
Fanatic israelis seems to determine the future of the usa, not in a good way.
Posted by: 600w | Oct 20 2023 16:31 utc | 55
Biden is sinister. He does well represent the pathetic state of the USA in it's irreversible decay
Posted by: Virgile | Oct 20 2023 16:32 utc | 56
Just four weeks ago, Netanyahu was at the UN trumpeting his “peace plan”:
“Israel is on the verge of creating a peace with Saudi Arabia that could transform the Middle East…Such a peace will go a long way to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. It will encourage other Arab states to normalize relations with Israel. It will enhance the prospects of peace with the Palestinians…”
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-760158
The “normalization” process is over. The policy now relies on the overwhelming application of violence in the interest of creating new facts on the ground, which clearly will involve ethnic cleansing through murder and displacement. Was this the plan all along? Biden insisted in his speech client Israel will retain a “qualitative edge” in weaponry. The smug lies over the hospital bombing are a stark “f--- you” to the world, precluding dialogue or negotiation. It does appear as the moment of truth for both Greater Israel and American hegemony.
Posted by: jayc | Oct 20 2023 16:33 utc | 57
An Indian apparel company has decided to stop selling uniforms to the Israeli police in protest against the occupying regime’s atrocities against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.Maryan Apparel in the southern state of Kerala said it took the decision on Wednesday, a day after Israel's fatal strike on a hospital in Gaza, because the company “doesn't support attacks on civilians.”
“The hospital attack really disturbed us. Children, women, the common people are dying,” company director Thomas Olickal told The National on Thursday.
"They’re refusing food, electricity, and hospital treatment. Nobody can accept this. Fighting with two armies is OK, but killing common people is unacceptable. It is a moral decision,” he said.
The firm, which has been making 100,000 uniforms a year for the Israeli police since 2015, said it will fulfill its existing commitments to Israel, which end in December but will not take new orders.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/20/713081/Indian-company-stops-sales-to-Israel-over-Gaza-
The director said, "Nobody can accept this." I'm glad that he cannot. Unfortunately people brainwashed by the mainstream media can and do accept atrocities committed by the "right" people.
Posted by: TN | Oct 20 2023 16:42 utc | 58
Posted by: jayc | Oct 20 2023 16:33 utc | 61
The normalization Bibi was bragging about was Abram 'pacts'.
In the end, full green light to Israel to do wathever he wanted about Palestinian, control of west (USA) and cherry on top isolation of Iran.
As usual this 'grand plan' of the west failed miserably because they never consider the 'opponents'.
Posted by: Mario | Oct 20 2023 16:46 utc | 59
Same, b. Sometimes we just need to let our brain fart. We can deep thoughts later
In b4 post 400! :P
Posted by: titmouse | Oct 20 2023 16:54 utc | 60
Posted by: DunGroanin | Oct 20 2023 16:11 utc | 49
You are highly intelligent, sometimes remind me of a Scottish version of David Icke, who after his "god" moment on TV, got most of it right...even maybe the shape shifting lizards...though I think he made that bit of it up, so everyone would think he was mad..
This is a recent compo original..
When they blue-lighted me to hospital, I didn't think I was going to die, but I had absolutely almost no energy...The ambulanceman - phoned ahead...He said I case of Sepsis here...Even my wife asked Sepsis???? - he said that is just so we can get him right to the front of the queue...
So I didn't know wtf was going on, as the nurses desperately tried to get the needle in, put me om antibiotic drip, and put me on an oxygen mask..
They just seemed rather surprised, I was still alive in the morning.
My body was gone, but my head still worked, and my 2 cheap mobile phones, so I googled my chances of surviving The RESUS Ward....
It was not particularly good, so I thought it was a good idea to do my best to stay awake, whilst noticing the rapid change of patients on a Friday night...
I was still alive, but the hospital was full....They tried to find a place for me - an upgrade from the RESUS ward, so they stuck me in the Storeroom..where it was cool, which I called the crypt and my Grandson came to visit me, and I was wearing a nappy, like his baby sister, as I slowly walked to the scales to get weighed. I knew he was too polite to laugh - Grandad looks like my Baby Sister
I was in hospital for23 days, and could barely walk, when I came home...but I made slow progress, one step at a time..and I am very much better now, such that , after I Have proved my fitness, by going down the pub, I want to March round London again.
Bombing Hospitals is Completely Unacceptable...
I need to Protest, and so should you.
Tony
Posted by: tony_opmoc | Oct 20 2023 16:56 utc | 61
@b Thanks for your daily quality effort! Take your time. USA is just trying to solve its problems with violence, one way or the other.
Thanks for the links!
"Biden Urges Americans Not To Let Dangerous Online Rhetoric Humanize .
.."
Sounds like Adolf has internet, but switched sides.
The US law fits its citizens.
https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/hate
"
Hate Speech
There is no legal definition of "hate speech" under U.S. law, just as there is no legal definition for evil ideas, rudeness, unpatriotic speech, or any other kind of speech that people might condemn. Generally, however, hate speech is any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin. 1
In the United States, hate speech is protected by the First Amendment. Courts extend this protection on the grounds that the First Amendment requires the government to strictly protect robust debate on matters of public concern even when such debate devolves into distasteful, offensive, or hateful speech that causes others to feel grief, anger, or fear. (The Supreme Court's decision in Snyder v. Phelps provides an example of this legal reasoning.) Under current First Amendment jurisprudence, hate speech can only be criminalized when it directly incites imminent criminal activity or consists of specific threats of violence targeted against a person or group."
Posted by: 600w | Oct 20 2023 16:58 utc | 62
Posted by: Pundita | Oct 20 2023 15:19 utc | 18
Israel’s imminent ground invasion has been imminent for how many days?
==========================================
I've seen occasional statements from Israelis saying that this will be a siege, akin to The Siege of Leningrad. Part of which involves Israel destroying basic infrastructure essential to sustainable civic life.
Siege or not, Hamas or not, clearly the Israelis want to drive them all out of Gaza once and for all. Allies like the US are fine with this but won't admit it publicly, which is why the narrative goes: 'Israel are going after the 'barbaric terrorist group Hamas not the innocent civilian Palestinians' who must receive humanitarian aid whilst we destroy their hospitals, schools, churches and apartment buildings ostensibly attacking only those savage terrorists hiding behind human shields.
Obviously, humanitarian aid undermines a siege so probably there will be enough to make it look like something is being done on humanitarian lines but meanwhile things will continue to worsen for the civilians until the RoW relents (in Israeli eyes) and finally agrees to accept them as refugees in their own countries - there are only a few million of them after all.
A 93-year Israeli expresses what I suspect are widely held views (3rd video down): https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/israeli-massacre-ahli-hospital/
What if the entire Palestinian-Zionist issue were viewed through the lens of the crusades?
i.e, that the entire Palestinian-'israeli' conflict is merely the ninth crusade continuing on for the last few hundred years, with the same actors but this time with a "Jewish" twist to it?
Would that make sense?
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Oct 20 2023 15:42 utc | 31
I find it easiest to understand these things as resource wars, the desire to take posession of other peoples stuff: land, water, food, oil, minerals, fancy metals, you name it. The USA has always been willing to neglect the natives here as long as they were not sitting on something we wanted. Still applies today. Still stealing oil in Syria. Anything to make it pay.
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 20 2023 17:02 utc | 64
Israel warned the hospital twice that it was going to get bombed before the Hamas rocket hit it. Wasn't that most kind of the Israelis, where Hamas failed to give the warning?
Watching the sequence of FUD being stirred up around this event is interesting; all the classic points are being hit in order. Ultimately, because Hamas are dirty animals, it was their fault anyway.
Part of me so wants to see the Gerald Ford burn. And whatever the other carrier group is too. I know that's not helpful. OTOH, I know it's not helpful for them to be anywhere near Israel.
Part of me wants to see others around the world taking out the 800 or so US bases. I know that's not helpful. OTOH, I know that letting them stay is worse.
Vivek, talking with Tucker, suggested putting Hamas' leaders' heads on pikes along the border with Gaza. And, of course, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, Netanyahu. I'd vote for Vivek if we could do that with US leaders' heads. Don't disappoint me, Vivek! Along 95 somewhere near the Pentagram? Another one of my ideas, sadly also not helpful. Yet not doing so, is also not helpful.
The nearest gas station to me is a CITGO, stolen by the USG. I gotta get gas today and gotta drive another 10 miles.
This country, this US, is now an occupied territory.
"What then, is to be done."
Posted by: oracle | Oct 20 2023 17:06 utc | 65
I bring glad tidings: based on my NONEXPERT reading of the situation, Israel listened to reason and decided to change the plan. Apparently, the new plan is: reset Gaza to 2005. The main source for my assesment is a bunch of Israel government's official's proclamations from today, especially the "three-part plan" outlined by their minister of defence Galant. I still don't completely parse all of his sayings but apparently, they plan to enter Gaza, perform a Ukraine-style filtration of residents, blow up Hamas' tunnels... and this last bit isn't 100% clear to me but then they'd either hand Gaza over to UN or they'd make them hold another election, but without Hamas on the ballot. At any rate it seems they abandoned their original plan of "send them to desert to die".
International pressure works.
Posted by: rert | Oct 20 2023 17:11 utc | 66
Linda Wood @8: "Astonishingly good article at HuffPost about possible MUTINY at State Department:"
That's good for a sweet, schadenfreude-fueled laugh! Woke, Identity Politics indoctrination for domestic consumption colliding with imitation, cartoon-like realpolitik of imperial policy for the win! If it spoils the Empire's genocide plans, then I am all for it.
Even a broken clock can be right twice per day.
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 20 2023 17:12 utc | 67
@Bevin #1
Bevin,
Jim Morrison sings it too.
Thank Athena for Brecht and Weill."
"Oh moon of Alabama..."
Posted by: Dosamuno | Oct 20 2023 17:13 utc | 68
Hugs
you doing and done a very important feat keeping open this space
Posted by: murat (giovanni) | Oct 20 2023 17:26 utc | 69
I’m sure we all feel like you do b sometimes.
At the moment, I just can’t take anymore of the shit we are pumped with. The fucking BBC radio analysis today, spoken by some earnest “expert” who says we should doubt that so many people were killed at all in the hospital bombing which in any even is now proven to have been carried out by Hamas. And the meek, clueless cunt interviewing hasn’t the integrity to question this total bullshit. For the moment, I just can’t deal with the total brazeness of the lies and inhumanity and need to take a few days of not looking at MofA or indeed anything else.
It’ll all pass one way or the other. But fuck, those poor Palestinians……………
Posted by: Vragtes | Oct 20 2023 17:27 utc | 70
(This is a reposting of this information)
Four overriding myths have shaped the consciousness of most people in our society about Zionism.
The first is that of “A land without a people for a people without a land.” This myth was sedulously cultivated by early Zionists to promote the fiction that Palestine was a remote, desolate place ready for the taking. This claim was quickly followed by denial of Palestinian identity, nationhood or legitimate entitlement to the land in which the Palestinian people have lived throughout their recorded history.*
The second is the myth of Israeli democracy. Innumerable newspaper stories or television references to the Israeli state are followed by the assertion that it is the only “real” democracy in the Middle East. In fact, Israel is as democratic as the apartheid state of South Africa. Civil liberty, due process and the most basic human rights are by law denied those who do not meet racial, religious criteria.
The third myth is that of “security” as the motor force of Israeli foreign policy. Zionists maintain that their state must be the fourth largest military power in the world because Israel has been forced to defend itself against imminent menace from primitive, hate-consumed Arab masses only recently dropped from the trees.
The fourth myth is that of Zionism as the moral legatee of the victims of the Holocaust. This is at once the most pervasive and insidious of the myths about Zionism. Ideologues for the Zionist movement have wrapped themselves in the collective shroud of the six million Jews who fell victim to Nazi mass murder. The bitter and cruel irony of this false claim is that the Zionist movement itself actively colluded with Nazism from its inception.
To most people it appears anomalous that the Zionist movement, which forever invokes the horror of the Holocaust, should have collaborated actively with the most vicious enemy ever faced by the Jews. The record, however, reveals not merely common interests but a deep ideological affinity rooted in the extreme chauvinism which they share.
(The Ha’avara Agreement allowed German Jews to emigrate from Germany to Palestine. It permitted them to receive credit for assets left in Germany by exchanging these assets for bank accounts in Palestine, much of which had to be exchanged for German goods. This permitted many Jews to go to Palestine and it helped Germany to increase the production and export of German products thus undermining the anti-Nazi boycott.)
*Arab population in Palestine in 1947, at time of partition, was 1,181,000.
Ralph Schoenman, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
Addendum: Newest myth:
"Israel, meanwhile, has predictably claimed that a misfired Palestinian rocket was responsible for the massacre at the hospital.
Israel’s response to the hospital bombing – a war crime under international law – is consistent with its usual post-atrocity routine.
The routine goes something like this: Israel commits a human rights atrocity, immediately denies having anything to do with it, says it has solid evidence that Palestinians committed the crime, and then just waits to see if someone manages to prove what really happened. If it eventually becomes clear that Israel did indeed carry out the atrocity, it silently accepts responsibility, but by then, the world’s focus has already moved on to other matters."
Posted by: Dosamuno | Oct 20 2023 17:28 utc | 71
Michael Brenner's "Consortium News" article (that does an excellent job of dissecting the nature and thinking of american and western "leadership" even though in the end there little that is truly new in that regard, at least for those who have been watching the western political system with open eyes for a while) describes two alternative ways the US could or rather could have dealt with Russia and China (it's far too late now) though only option number two could make any claim to legitimacy.
Option number one would only have amounted to a somewhat less obviously unhinged and selfdestructive, somewhat more skillfull (lol, small wonder it was not chosen) version of what we have right now.
And it almost certainly wouldn't have worked much better.
The world as we knew it is doomed, and that is a good thing.
Posted by: Morincotto | Oct 20 2023 17:29 utc | 72
My question is simple: Who is actually IOF bombing or trying to get rid of? As far as I know is not HAMAS.
Posted by: AI | Oct 20 2023 17:29 utc | 73
they suffered more or less severe limitations, think about living in ghettos.
Posted by: Mario | Oct 20 2023 16:22 utc | 52
LOL then Habsburg dynasty called
Posted by: sln2002 | Oct 20 2023 17:30 utc | 74
There are small changes which show which way the conflict will go.
Hamas and Herzbollah claim a total of 32 Merkeva tanks between them. (a claim but some substance)
A direct ground attack would be a disaster for the Zionists. They must have realised this. A new direction is necessary.
*
So they will send reservists "home". (Back into the rest of Israel) Plus there has been a large amount (30'000) of arms given to settlers.
Result. Attacks on Nablus and refugee camps in the West Bank increase. Larger amounts of arrests, indiscriminate murderes of unarmed palestinians in the streets by settlers with IDF just watching, etc. More restrictions around Al Aqsa mosque.
Second part of the new "plan". The separating of Gaza with a "buffer zone" two or three kilometers wide (inside Gaza). No crossing of this for anyone or anything. To be extended timewise to the period "after" the present fighting.
Declaration by various Zionist extremists about using "Bunker bombs".
ie. Increased Air obliteration.
***
I put in another post about the elimination of restrictions on using nuclear bombs, Ie Bunker busting bombs, and also a new US N test in Nebraska. (Underground?) Would they use them? (IF they have not already in other cases?)
***
b is right, it has reached the stage where those who are aware of what is really going on and the pain and brutality of it all - are starting to suffer from a form of PSTD.
There are many ways to place the Zionist Wars in a historical perspective, but what works best for me is European Colonization. Israel is the last European colony and the natives are upset.
Posted by: El Oso de Los Llanos | Oct 20 2023 17:35 utc | 76
The part of the world that is showing unwavering support for the Netanyahu govt. is held in some sort of strange captivity. One might call it evil religious witchcraft.
Posted by: chunga | Oct 20 2023 17:36 utc | 77
A brain fart:
Something like half of Gaza is under 18, inable to vote before let alone now for Hamas, children who cannot legally be held to contract because they are considered not developmentally mature enough to understand the consequences. Collective punishment, a War Crime by the Geneva Conventions, is besieging children with the full might of modern war weaponry, plus denial of life support. The World Health Organization calculated over 100 attacks on hospitals since Oct 7th, 2023, and 70 of those hospital attacks are in the unrelated to Oct 7th West Bank, not Gaza.
This reminds me of a comment around Sandyhook, when 6-8 year olds were cut in half with an assault rifle by a certified lunatic: "If there is no pause and reflection now about so young children being liquidated, there will never be talking to such people. Anything goes for their precious. There are no limits."
One can no longer give the benefit of the doubt to such repeated behavior. They are without self-restraint. There is nothing left to discuss, nothing that should be bothered to be proved. This consistency leaves them guilty until proven innocent now. The verdict has long ago came in, and the judgment is they have sided with the unspeakable.
Whew, better out than holding that in. :)
Posted by: titmouse | Oct 20 2023 17:37 utc | 78
Yeah. I see it now. Gaddafi Viagra. Right. That's very nice.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 20 2023 15:59 utc | 44
I saw it as satire, dark humor.
But I’m weary.
Weary of war, weary of Israel, weary of the U.S. & NATO,
weary of human conflicts and I’m not very open to that right now.
I think b feels some of that too and I sense that from Ahenobarbus
and now from Vragtes @ 17:27 utc | 71 and many others
It’s OK to feel that, regardless of the quality of Just a grunt’s post.
Maybe I just need some Dave Mason(All along the Watchtower) or Dire Straits
(Sultans of Swing, Alchemy version) or Stevie Ray Vaughn. Something stimulating,
something harsh, something to roust the weariness. I'll start with the Doors Riders on the Storm
Posted by: waynorinorway | Oct 20 2023 17:42 utc | 79
@ Posted by: tony_opmoc | Oct 20 2023 16:56 utc | 65
Compo you old fool I am glad you stayed alive.
I know I might regret asking - what ailed you?
The NHS is hollowed out, there are daily more Private Insurance advertisements all over London and TV no doubt.
We are wholly Americanised in their Old World order of different castes. MoneyTalks. Rest of us walk.
I blame your generation. These who bought into the the Public Purse being the same as the Housewife’s.
That bitch burning in a hell if such exists, sugar coated it with ‘loadsamoney’ culture. Making us all very temporary shareholders of the utilities we already owned. Now wholly in the hand of Hedge and Yankee Pensions Funds.
Your generation, and mine, the last to get FREE education to the highest levels, if we were bright enough. To get social housing if we chose public service jobs. So that we could stay and grow where are families grew up for generations.
Instead we blindly accepted Social and Geographic Mobility. Sucking all the wealth to the South East, the Essex Boy and Girl mentality, we Brits now live in.
We grow up far from each other. From where we were born and died for generations.
Take that blame. I do. Glad you have family close. Take care.
P.S b and BARFLIES , don’t know what effect b’s link to the Bassem Youssef making mince meat of Piers Morgan , the Turd of Turd Hole, you tube is having. But when I checked about half an hour ago, to enjoy the full glory again, views were through 15 million, looked like it was getting hundreds per hour if not more!
The comments below coming thick and fast - many along the lines of ‘i’m from X, this is the first time have understood about Palestine, I have changed my mind and wholly support them, thankyou Bassam’.
Sometimes, sometimes, it takes one straw to break a camels back.
I’m off to support the underdogs in the semis, wouldn’t it be great if there was an England v Argentina final!
Posted by: DunGroanin | Oct 20 2023 17:46 utc | 80
Stonebird,
Your estimate is likely. Implies some further horrors in the West Bank, and in the Gaza concentration camp.
The trick for the IDF is to apply just enough force to ethically cleanse the locals, but not enough force to get outsiders ( Hezboallah, Chechens, etc., etc) involved
Posted by: Exile | Oct 20 2023 17:46 utc | 81
My best guess the IDF will start the Gaza invasion just after the close of financial markets markets in the US-that's 4 pm, midnight or so in Gaza.
The US is apparently micromanaging Israel's war plans now, just like they have been doing in Ukraine:
https://www.rt.com/news/585393-us-shaping-israel-ground-campaign-hamas/
I predict this won't end well for Israel, just as it hasn't for Zelensky.
Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Oct 20 2023 17:47 utc | 83
I find it easiest to understand these things as resource wars, the desire to take posession of other peoples stuff: land, water, food, oil, minerals, fancy metals, you name it.
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 20 2023 17:02 utc | 64
sacred relics! gold! saracen steel!
Posted by: sln2002 | Oct 20 2023 17:48 utc | 84
Posted by: Vragtes | Oct 20 2023 17:27 utc | 71
It's clear why they need to diminish the number of casualties.
Hamas rocket never killed more of a dozen or, maybe, couple dozens of people.
So, in order to support the Israeliani narrative casualties must remain very low.
Not that most of people care/know about hamas rockets blasting power.
Posted by: Mario | Oct 20 2023 17:52 utc | 85
waynorinorway | Oct 20 2023 17:42 utc | 80
Fortunate Son: Credence Clearwater Revival.
I was a youth in the 1960's USA!
It ain't me!
Posted by: paddy | Oct 20 2023 17:52 utc | 86
@ titmouse | Oct 20 2023 17:37 utc | 79
good post.. thanks for saying all that..
----------------
@ b.. - take it easy... you are doing such great work just providing this place for all here..
Posted by: james | Oct 20 2023 17:55 utc | 87
Having become quite addicted to snorkelling and diving from the age of 49..My boss at work was a diving instructor..and insisted, even I could do it - bring along you wife and kids too...
They had absolutely no problems in letting us all do it in Muslim Countries...in fact both my kids got their full Professional diving certificates...in the Indian Ocean...
The Red Sea, was very much nearer, and I guess all the diving instructors we trusted our kids with were Israeli's....though we were now in Egypt..
The Red Sea is absolutely fantastic for diving and snorkelling, and The Hard Rock Cafe, is very similar to the one in London...
So we left the kids - doing their diving thing...and walked along the beach...and kept on walking way beyond the control zone...
My wife as normal wanted a ride on a camel...dressed like a typical European...You see we had already travelled much of Northern Africa..and we knew how to barter...
So she was on the back of this enormous camel...and he wanted more money than the normal fee we had agreed...
I just kept walking along the beach, and said keep her...
Well what could they do?...Taking her to their Berber tribe, if that was where they were from, probably wouldn't work too well..
We were just tourists with Lancashire Accents, and they had probably all seen Coronation Street.
So I paid the agreed fee - about £3, and they let me have her back.
In retrospect, I should have charged them.
No one was harmed, and we all laughed.
If in any doubt in foreign lands, just say Manchester United.
At the end of the day, we are all much the same, and have mutual respect.
Tony
Posted by: tony_opmoc | Oct 20 2023 17:59 utc | 88
Must read: Michael Hudson interview at Naked Capitalism.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10/russia-china-unite-against-us-empire.html
Posted by: mjh | Oct 20 2023 17:59 utc | 89
sacred relics! gold! saracen steel!
Posted by: sln2002 | Oct 20 2023 17:48 utc | 85
Frankincense and myrrh. Yep.
"Greed is good!"
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 20 2023 17:59 utc | 90
Two hostages being released now by Hamas.
Only another 2,000,000 Israelie hostages to go.
Posted by: Mark2 | Oct 20 2023 18:04 utc | 91
My 76 (for the moment)
My mistake, the bomb testing was in Nevada not Nebraska. It is other posters who claim this was an underground test. This is the "official" version.
"The experiment at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) on Wednesday involved “chemical high-explosives and radiotracers,” a statement by the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said.
****
Exile | Oct 20 2023 17:46 utc | 82
"but not enough force to get outsiders ( Hezboallah, Chechens, etc., etc) involved"
**
I am afraid that it is already too late to restrict the "players". It's a bit like a scrum in Rugby, when the ball goes in ALL the sides push back at once. Don't forget Syria and Iraq where resistance groups are getting uppity and bolder.
El Oso de Los Llanos
"Last European colony" ??? Gibraltar? Northern Ireland? Spanish Morocco? Caribbeans? Indian ocean and Pacific islands? Too many to be mentioned.
Posted by: Minaa | Oct 20 2023 18:05 utc | 93
Here is how Reuters addressed the targeting of the Orthodox Church in Gaza this morning.
Headline:
Israel levels Gaza district, missile hits Orthodox church
Subtext:
Israel leveled a northern Gaza district after giving families a half-hour warning to escape, and hit an Orthodox Christian church where others had been sheltering, as it made clear that a command to invade Gaza was expected soon.
The colonists didn't *target* the church
no
they *hit* it.
Posted by: librul | Oct 20 2023 18:11 utc | 94
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 20 2023 17:59 utc | 91
THEN: Leave your thatched huts! Christ be with you! See the world!
NOW: Be all you can be! Good bless our troops!
Continuity is not well understood north of the 38° parallel. Occasionally, I blame epigenetic vitamin D deficiency.
Posted by: sln2002 | Oct 20 2023 18:11 utc | 95
The part of the world that is showing unwavering support for the Netanyahu govt. is held in some sort of strange captivity. One might call it evil religious witchcraft.
Posted by: chunga | Oct 20 2023 17:36 utc | 78
It is certainly amazing how so many intelligent people believe Old Testament myths.
Posted by: dh | Oct 20 2023 18:12 utc | 96
@arata " Why should there be any doubt that the blast of the Al Ahli Arab hospital is from an Israeli air strike as the murderous regime had been attempting to wipe Palestinians and Gaza out of existence since last week."
There are problems with both the Israeli and Hamas versions of the story. The impact appears to have been in the parking lot. If it had been a JDAM or a missile from a jet, you would expect a large crater, which there wasn't. The blast would also have cleared out more of the cars.
As tempting as it is to blame someone, I can honestly say "I don't know who was responsible".
Posted by: ian | Oct 20 2023 18:14 utc | 97
Stonebird,
Certainly Hazboallah is actively imvolved. When do you think Chechen volunteers will join in ?
Posted by: Exile | Oct 20 2023 18:14 utc | 98
Certainly Hazboallah is actively imvolved. When do you think Chechen volunteers will join in ?
Posted by: Exile | Oct 20 2023 18:14 utc | 99
Which Chechens?
Posted by: Naive | Oct 20 2023 18:19 utc | 99
intelligent people believe Old Testament myths.
Posted by: dh | Oct 20 2023 18:12 utc | 97
---
Do they?
Posted by: too scents | Oct 20 2023 18:20 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Most of us feel the same way.
Welcome to the United States of Mahagonny.
Didn't Lotte Lenya sing "I tell you, I tell you, I tell you we must die.."
Posted by: bevin | Oct 20 2023 14:50 utc | 1