Israel isn't a big war and we were about to have peace in the middle East with everyone lined up against Iran, which is the big reason Iran set this up.
Russia invading Ukraine had much to do with Russia and little to do with us. We have about 6 seriously isolationist GOP congress people... which might be another way to say "Russian agent".
IMHO Biden has done very well on both of those; He would have done much better if Trump weren't trying to prevent anything from going through Congress including fixing the Southern boarder crisis.
If we're going to use WW2 standards and consider Hamas Islamic Na.zis, then what to do about them is obvious.
Make them lose the war. No matter how many civilians die. No matter how much squeaking there is. Then occupy Gaza, rebuild without the Na.zis infrastructure and reeducate the population for 20 years.
That "infrastructure" includes any "charity" or UN group that is educating them that the Right of Return is a thing.
Problems:
1) No one wants to occupy Gaza and deal with the security issues that will instantly happen.
2) The hostages will mostly die.
3) More brutal war in getting there and more claims of genocide.
It would be a lot easier to just drive them into Egypt and let the Egyptians kill them when they either try to overthrow the government or otherwise showcase that they're terrorists.
Hamas propaganda, often repeated by the UN and/or various news sources, says Israel is committing genocide. Every time a bomb goes off it only kills children and Israel is doing this deliberately.
This would be seriously inflaming even if they don't believe Jews shouldn't be there in the first place.
InMD I think what I’m conceding is that mainstream conservatism is in a really bad place right now.
The parties are multifactional. Every now and then the parties reshuffle their core factions.
Trump went big time populism. He added unions and the xenophobes to Team Red but he didn't have a place for economic conservatism.
So mainstream conservatism may be in the process of becoming swing voters after having been kicked out of Team Red. They might even end up joining Team Blue.
This is over and above the issue that journalism is in a bad place. NPR is just a reflection of that.
No. Facts are facts, and conclusions are conclusions.
In order to conclude that Trump is a threat to democracy we need to make predictions about his future behavior.
Predictions about the future are mostly opinions and predictions about behavior even more so.
This is an opinion, it's one I share, but it's a conclusion and not a "fact". All foxes aren't homicidal chicken killers even if that's the way to bet.
It’s not like we’re talking Jack Kemp or even W Bush in terms of mainstream conservative ideas and perspectives getting short shrift.
It's the liberal white elephants that NPR is avoiding.
For example I heard a news report that Biden's White House is thinking about bringing back "all men can be assumed to be guilty of sex crimes" as part of Title 9 for colleges again.
If this is true, then it deserves more attention than it's getting, and I hear silence from NPR.
After that we have, Biden's treatment of immigrants, whether his policies fueled inflation, DEI being fueled by ideology and not facts, and so on.
The goal of journalism is to report on objective facts as facts, not opinion.
Yes, agreed.
And one big objective fact is that Donald Trump and the MAGA movement is a threat to democracy.
No, this is a conclusion, not a "fact". It's a correct conclusion for various reasons that could and should be presented.
The conclusion, that he really shouldn't be in office, should be left to the listener. The "facts" should be presented. That includes his behavior on 1/7, the fake electors, the various legal issues he faces, and so on.
Definition of "Tantrum" : an uncontrolled outburst of anger and frustration
His prescribed solution was to rehire those voices, even when rehiring them meant more old white men in the news room. That’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it?
You are stating all conservatives are old white men. That Blacks and the young can't be Conservatives.
the amount and depth and breadth of coverage of conservative viewpoints hasn’t much changed in the NPR broadcast sphere.
It was never going to start ww3. At worst they attack one of our war ships (or whatever) and we shut down their only oil port.
Iran doesn't have proxies that can attack us directly. We are too far away for them to do so themselves. We can trivially cripple their economy if we're willing to live without their oil on the global market.
The USA is basically energy independent so taking their oil off the market doesn't mess us up, just our allies.
Trump had the much deserved rep for being erratic and irrational. He also wasn't on good terms with our allies. So he might actually go there.
What should the school do when they think the Valedictorian is going to give a speech that amounts to "from the River to the Sea"? Should they still give her that platform?
Her current Instagram links to a website that states “Zionism is a racist settler-colonial ideology that advocates for a Jewish ethnostate built on Palestinian land.” and then goes into a desire to "Decolonize Palestine"
I didn't do a deep dive but my strong expectation is at some point that means "no Jews" and/or the message comes from people who believe that.
Where we should be trying to go to is color blind.
If there are problems focusing on qualifications rather than skin color, the solution isn't to focus on a different skin color over qualifications.
That's over and above DEI's serious ideological issues. Redefining truth and evidence. Claiming that racism is still the defining force in results to the same degree as in the 50s. Claiming that all racial imbalances are the result of racism.
DEI is about ideology and not about diversity nor equity.
so long as she hasn’t openly threatened students, staff, or other faculty
Hamas is an openly genocidal organization. It's one of the few organizations we should equate to Na.zis. They just proved that in 10/7.
Professors who openly give support for Hamas are therefore supporting threats of murder of their Jewish students.
That is nasty, grim, logic that various groups don't want to face. Wishfully thinking that Hamas will mello out if they got a country is just that, wishful thinking.
We also have the problem that Hamas is popular enough to win elections, which doesn't say good things about the Palestinians and their political goals.
Professors have a fine line to dance between "supporting the Palestinians" and "not calling for the deaths of all Jews" and if they blow that then we should be fine with them being fired.
This link is long but worth listening to.
The history prof does a deep dive, blow by blow, on why the Palestinians think (emotionally) that Zionism is colonialism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlK2mfYYm4U
One of his points is the alternative is they have to realize the Palestinians were beaten by a bunch of weak refugees. And since the Palestinians really want to believe that, a lot of their propaganda claims that, which is in turn repeated by various Westerners.
She is a serious DEI gal. DEI insists there is one ideological answer for lots of serious questions.
Of course she was going to insist that the lack of diversity of opinion at NPR was a strength and not a weakness. From her point of view "diversity" means "gender and race".
I’m not sure what disrupting commuter traffic thousands of miles away from the event does for a cause.
First you have "the cause". This quickly becomes a group thing. Then it becomes multiple groups.
And then the groups have a problem. Your group needs to be more devoted than that other group which also supports "the cause", or you'll lose people to them.
So your group needs to be more in the news than the other groups and to be seen as more devoted.
Shutting down a city doesn't convince anyone who isn't already convinced, but it does attract more people to that specific group by raising their profile. Ergo their leadership will personally do better.
RE : the Iranian attack was deliberately done so as to fail, allowing them to save face at home without escalating beyond comfort.
That was my conclusion as well after I heard that everything had been shot down.
RE: internal politics
Very much so.
Netanyahu’s need to stay out of prison which appears to be driving most of his decision-making.
It's fun to think this but I'm not sure if it means anything in practice.
Put a dove in charge, and they'd still be at war in Gaza because the Israeli public is insisting that Hamas is handled now. This means they'd be pretty much ignoring the hostages.
This also means they'd be committing what we'd call war crimes in other situations. Those "crimes" are a combo of "Hamas is lying", "you need to commit war crimes to fight Hamas", "Hamas deliberately gets civilians killed", and "Israel is not mentally in a good place".
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Embassies, Attacks, and Iran”
Israel isn't a big war and we were about to have peace in the middle East with everyone lined up against Iran, which is the big reason Iran set this up.
Russia invading Ukraine had much to do with Russia and little to do with us. We have about 6 seriously isolationist GOP congress people... which might be another way to say "Russian agent".
IMHO Biden has done very well on both of those; He would have done much better if Trump weren't trying to prevent anything from going through Congress including fixing the Southern boarder crisis.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024”
If we're going to use WW2 standards and consider Hamas Islamic Na.zis, then what to do about them is obvious.
Make them lose the war. No matter how many civilians die. No matter how much squeaking there is. Then occupy Gaza, rebuild without the Na.zis infrastructure and reeducate the population for 20 years.
That "infrastructure" includes any "charity" or UN group that is educating them that the Right of Return is a thing.
Problems:
1) No one wants to occupy Gaza and deal with the security issues that will instantly happen.
2) The hostages will mostly die.
3) More brutal war in getting there and more claims of genocide.
It would be a lot easier to just drive them into Egypt and let the Egyptians kill them when they either try to overthrow the government or otherwise showcase that they're terrorists.
"
Hamas propaganda, often repeated by the UN and/or various news sources, says Israel is committing genocide. Every time a bomb goes off it only kills children and Israel is doing this deliberately.
This would be seriously inflaming even if they don't believe Jews shouldn't be there in the first place.
"
InMD I think what I’m conceding is that mainstream conservatism is in a really bad place right now.
The parties are multifactional. Every now and then the parties reshuffle their core factions.
Trump went big time populism. He added unions and the xenophobes to Team Red but he didn't have a place for economic conservatism.
So mainstream conservatism may be in the process of becoming swing voters after having been kicked out of Team Red. They might even end up joining Team Blue.
This is over and above the issue that journalism is in a bad place. NPR is just a reflection of that.
"
No. Facts are facts, and conclusions are conclusions.
In order to conclude that Trump is a threat to democracy we need to make predictions about his future behavior.
Predictions about the future are mostly opinions and predictions about behavior even more so.
This is an opinion, it's one I share, but it's a conclusion and not a "fact". All foxes aren't homicidal chicken killers even if that's the way to bet.
"
Go look up the definition of a "fact".
The moment we need to say "from this evidence I make conclusions", then we've left the realm of "facts".
Trump being unfit for office is an opinion.
Similarly putting a fox in a hen house being a bad idea also isn't a fact no mater how foreseeable the outcome is.
"
It’s not like we’re talking Jack Kemp or even W Bush in terms of mainstream conservative ideas and perspectives getting short shrift.
It's the liberal white elephants that NPR is avoiding.
For example I heard a news report that Biden's White House is thinking about bringing back "all men can be assumed to be guilty of sex crimes" as part of Title 9 for colleges again.
If this is true, then it deserves more attention than it's getting, and I hear silence from NPR.
After that we have, Biden's treatment of immigrants, whether his policies fueled inflation, DEI being fueled by ideology and not facts, and so on.
"
The goal of journalism is to report on objective facts as facts, not opinion.
Yes, agreed.
And one big objective fact is that Donald Trump and the MAGA movement is a threat to democracy.
No, this is a conclusion, not a "fact". It's a correct conclusion for various reasons that could and should be presented.
The conclusion, that he really shouldn't be in office, should be left to the listener. The "facts" should be presented. That includes his behavior on 1/7, the fake electors, the various legal issues he faces, and so on.
"
That is not the dictionary definition of tantrum.
A tantrum is "an uncontrolled outburst of anger and frustration, typically in a small child".
Those protester might be "altruistic" but they fit the definition better than the reporter.
"
Definition of "Tantrum" : an uncontrolled outburst of anger and frustration
His prescribed solution was to rehire those voices, even when rehiring them meant more old white men in the news room. That’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it?
You are stating all conservatives are old white men. That Blacks and the young can't be Conservatives.
the amount and depth and breadth of coverage of conservative viewpoints hasn’t much changed in the NPR broadcast sphere.
Why would you say that?
On “Embassies, Attacks, and Iran”
It was never going to start ww3. At worst they attack one of our war ships (or whatever) and we shut down their only oil port.
Iran doesn't have proxies that can attack us directly. We are too far away for them to do so themselves. We can trivially cripple their economy if we're willing to live without their oil on the global market.
The USA is basically energy independent so taking their oil off the market doesn't mess us up, just our allies.
Trump had the much deserved rep for being erratic and irrational. He also wasn't on good terms with our allies. So he might actually go there.
My expectation was Iran wouldn't escalate.
"
It has been reported as the embassy and Iran seemed to be treating it as such. If people wanted to make that case they should have been louder.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024”
What should the school do when they think the Valedictorian is going to give a speech that amounts to "from the River to the Sea"? Should they still give her that platform?
"
Her current Instagram links to a website that states “Zionism is a racist settler-colonial ideology that advocates for a Jewish ethnostate built on Palestinian land.” and then goes into a desire to "Decolonize Palestine"
I didn't do a deep dive but my strong expectation is at some point that means "no Jews" and/or the message comes from people who believe that.
"
White hats are totally good and Black hats are totally evil.
"
Poor Refugees who have no where else to go and know it.
"
Where we should be trying to go to is color blind.
If there are problems focusing on qualifications rather than skin color, the solution isn't to focus on a different skin color over qualifications.
That's over and above DEI's serious ideological issues. Redefining truth and evidence. Claiming that racism is still the defining force in results to the same degree as in the 50s. Claiming that all racial imbalances are the result of racism.
DEI is about ideology and not about diversity nor equity.
On “The Statistical Side of Immigration”
Half of all illegal immigrants never use the boarder at all. They come here legally and overstay their visa.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024”
so long as she hasn’t openly threatened students, staff, or other faculty
Hamas is an openly genocidal organization. It's one of the few organizations we should equate to Na.zis. They just proved that in 10/7.
Professors who openly give support for Hamas are therefore supporting threats of murder of their Jewish students.
That is nasty, grim, logic that various groups don't want to face. Wishfully thinking that Hamas will mello out if they got a country is just that, wishful thinking.
We also have the problem that Hamas is popular enough to win elections, which doesn't say good things about the Palestinians and their political goals.
Professors have a fine line to dance between "supporting the Palestinians" and "not calling for the deaths of all Jews" and if they blow that then we should be fine with them being fired.
"
This link is long but worth listening to.
The history prof does a deep dive, blow by blow, on why the Palestinians think (emotionally) that Zionism is colonialism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlK2mfYYm4U
One of his points is the alternative is they have to realize the Palestinians were beaten by a bunch of weak refugees. And since the Palestinians really want to believe that, a lot of their propaganda claims that, which is in turn repeated by various Westerners.
"
We're in "punishing whistleblowers" territory. That's often something that doesn't end well.
"
"A strong DEI culture" isn't the same thing as "insisting that we hire people qualified for the actual work".
All too often, the most qualified person isn't going to have a DEI approved background, race, and/or ideology.
"
She is a serious DEI gal. DEI insists there is one ideological answer for lots of serious questions.
Of course she was going to insist that the lack of diversity of opinion at NPR was a strength and not a weakness. From her point of view "diversity" means "gender and race".
"
I’m not sure what disrupting commuter traffic thousands of miles away from the event does for a cause.
First you have "the cause". This quickly becomes a group thing. Then it becomes multiple groups.
And then the groups have a problem. Your group needs to be more devoted than that other group which also supports "the cause", or you'll lose people to them.
So your group needs to be more in the news than the other groups and to be seen as more devoted.
Shutting down a city doesn't convince anyone who isn't already convinced, but it does attract more people to that specific group by raising their profile. Ergo their leadership will personally do better.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/8/2024”
RE : the Iranian attack was deliberately done so as to fail, allowing them to save face at home without escalating beyond comfort.
That was my conclusion as well after I heard that everything had been shot down.
RE: internal politics
Very much so.
Netanyahu’s need to stay out of prison which appears to be driving most of his decision-making.
It's fun to think this but I'm not sure if it means anything in practice.
Put a dove in charge, and they'd still be at war in Gaza because the Israeli public is insisting that Hamas is handled now. This means they'd be pretty much ignoring the hostages.
This also means they'd be committing what we'd call war crimes in other situations. Those "crimes" are a combo of "Hamas is lying", "you need to commit war crimes to fight Hamas", "Hamas deliberately gets civilians killed", and "Israel is not mentally in a good place".
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.