State of the Discussion

It has to do with the whole "let's say that I assume that CJ doesn't want to lie... and let's say that I assume that CJ doesn't want to agree with me... what positions might he take to maintain both of those?" and the one you've got is one that does that.

I'm trying to imagine mindsets that make your stated position likely.

Haaretz talked this morning about how Rubio "says U.S. troubled by Gaza humanitarian situation" to Netanyahu. A couple hours later, it talked about how Trump's meeting with Syria's new leader shows that Israel has lost clout.

If leftists are looking for stuff to say "see? It's okay to vote your conscience instead of voting for Kamala", Haaretz is giving it to them.

Mexican influencer murdered by gunshot on livestream. There are times where I think that barbarianism is a lot more common than us civilized folks think and that the belief the world was getting better in a liberalish sort of way was more of an illusion than anything else:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4rn0z1r6o?fbclid=IwY2xjawKTaaVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFOeUJZS3RCcGZYNW00cXFNAR61-Q7RYDet9cW_drkbprMIIYmO2hoISbECMAjbvKdN_JaNpWOOFZ4CqvH7YA_aem_9pmTL-eJVr9ICn0_-4sswQ

The biggest threat to Israel's support from the US has never been various objections or debates about the occupation. It's that the government starts treating them like any other country. Israel's cause is an obsession of certain parts of the permanent foreign policy bureaucracy. It has no real popular constituency. Hell it isn't even a nice place to visit.

In today's "merely anti-Zionist, not anti-Semitic" incident, Jewish woman brutally assaulted in Copenhagen, called a Jewish whore as people chant Free Palestine at her:

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-845981

Your curiosity about my personal life is noted, but I am not inclined to satisfy it. I suggest you talk to local "white ethnics" --presumably you know some -- though they are not as thick on the ground in your neck of the woods as in the tri-state area.

HTS was not an ISIS offshoot. The predecessor groups at times worked in a faction with ISIS, but before that had at times been in open, violent conflict with ISIL (as it was known at the time). They were aligned with al-Qaeda in Iraq (which was more of a franchise than an offshoot of the al-Qaeda we all think of, but still ideologically aligned), which was deeply critical of the formation and activities of ISIL from the start. But tye Al-Nusra Front-al Qaeda relationship was also a tense, and HTS was formed in large part because of a multi-group desire to be independent of al-Qaeda.

Anyway, yeah, Syria is complex, but the history of these groups is pretty well documented.

"Ethnic Whites" is a term that was popular in the 70s.

It referred to Italians, Irish, so on. Distinct minority groups with a culture and religion of their own. (I mean, if your baseline is "WASP", that is.)

WASPs aren't really a thing anymore.

Welcome to the club.

The basic problem with most of the liberal-left and Jews is that they basically can't see Jews as anything but white people with different holidays rather than a distinct minority group with a culture and religion of our own. They know just enough about our own history to ask for help for their cause but when it comes to things like minority rights and multiculturalism or understanding why Jews might want a place of our own, they just can't get it. They know what minorities and oppressed people look like and it isn't like the Jews.

The Protesters call for genocide, threaten random Jews, support terrorism, and occasionally shut down the college. That guy in the link occasionally makes social media posts where he says he doesn't trust Jews.

So yes, the "protesters" are crossing lines he isn't and engage in behavior well past "protest". That wouldn't require the Feds to do anything if the college administration weren't determined to shield them from law enforcement and allow them to continue because Jews don't count.

What are the freakin' rules, Saul? If murder is insufficient reason to deport an illegal immigrant, but saying that Jews aren't trustworthy is a reason to deny refugee status, I am unclear on the freakin' rules!

What are the rules we're using?

Because if you're trying to push some variant of "tragedy is when I cut my finger, comedy is when you fall down and open sewer and die", let me just say that:

You're goddamn right that I am a contrarian degenerate.

...just made a raging anti-Semite a refugee to the United States

By that Logic we can "prove" that Biden is a member of a M13 or whatever that gang is.

The admin that takes anti-Semitism seriously (allegedly) just made a raging anti-Semite a refugee to the United States: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/an-afrikaner-refugee-south-africa-has-thoughts-about-jews-antisemitism-trump/comments

In one case, Kleinhaus advocated for physical assault on an American citizen. Retweeting a story about a guy who had been given a citation for his part in a road-rage incident with another driver, Kleinhaus wrote, “He needs a beating urgently!” (Kleinhaus was upset because the other driver involved in the incident was driving a Tesla.)

But most importantly, Kleinhaus has also posted about Jews and Israel in the kind of way that might get someone who wasn’t a white South African deported—calling Jews “untrustworthy” and “dangerous.”

In April 2023, Kleinhaus responded to video of Christians scuffling with Israeli police on the way to the Church of the Nativity by saying Jews are naturally “untrustworthy.”

On October 7, 2023, Kleinhaus responded to the initial news of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel by posting a link to an Al Jazeera video, taken a few days earlier, of Orthodox Israelis spitting on Christians.

Five days after the October 7th attack, Kleinhaus posted a link to another video, hosted by a Facebook account called “Israel Is a Terrorist State,” that showed clashes between Christians and Israeli police. Kleinhaus wrote: “Jews attacking Christians!”

In a LinkedIn message to The Bulwark, Kleinhaus confirmed that this is his X account. Kleinhaus, who has resettled in Buffalo, said he was too busy filling out paperwork today to comment further. We also reached out to the State Department about this story but have not yet heard back; we will update the web version if we receive a comment.

The mistake was hiring him. He's doing things which are NOT compatible with his current job/role nor even compatible with his current organization.

This seems to be a deliberate move on his part. His explanation on what he's doing and why changes with every conversation. He's a firebrand, not because he believes in anything but because he wants to start fires.

This is self promotion at the expense of everyone else and I seriously doubt he's actually interested in young/old issues (or even issues in general) even if he's framing it that way this week.

He got into this by promoting gun control above all else, but that issue has apparently been dropped. Then he did anti-old-age, but his written explanation on what he was doing and why dropped that.

He simply wants power and attention and is throwing a big stunt to try to skip up several rungs of power.

Firing him is a forced move, he's going to burn stuff down until he's happy with his current level of power and that's never going to happen.

Any given special-interest group has concerns that are serious and legitimate and, unfortunately, sometimes they have concerns that are unserious and stupid.

I don't know which of these Ms. Free's are but if I wanted to pick a worse time to have a 61-year-old woman get rid of a 25-year-old firebrand, I'm not sure I could do a better job than when the 25-year-old firebrand was complaining about calcified power at the top.

AND I'M NOT EVEN SAYING DAVID HOGG WAS GOOD!!!

There are only a handful of reasons to know who a DNC vice-chair is and they are:

1. They do an exceptional job. Seriously out of this world.
2. They effed up so badly that it's fodder for late-night comedy show opening monologues.
3. They're publicity hounds that are more interested in going into self-promotion than in promoting the Democrats.

Two of those are bad!

BUT GETTING RID OF HIM BY PULLING A #2 IS BAD TOO!!! YOU'RE FIXING A MISTAKE BY MAKING A BIGGER MISTAKE!!! AAAAAAAAA

"It’s not related to his arguments that we should primary useless Democrats in safe seats. It’s because he’s male."

It's amusing how women's concerns are just Karen-racist-TERF whining that should be ignored right up until we need to bounce a white dude who doesn't want to Get With The Program.

Eh. I think David Hogg should have stayed but that in the end this is kind of gossip for the very online political hobbyist and probably does not matter at all for Democratic prospects in November 2026.

Plus JB likes to be an agent provocateur who thinks Dems are always screwing up

Good news/Bad news. The bad news first: David Hogg's election to the position of Vice-Chair is a step closer to being overturned.

The good news: It's not related to his arguments that we should primary useless Democrats in safe seats. It's because he's male.

The ruling by the credentials committee on Monday was not technically related to Mr. Hogg’s plans to engage in primaries. Instead, it was the result of a complaint from Kalyn Free, one of the losing candidates in the vice chair race. Ms. Free said the party had wrongly combined two separate questions into a single vote, putting at a disadvantage the female candidates because of the party’s gender-parity rules.

There are lots of generators/motors at conventional hydro power plants and pumped hydro storage systems that predate rare earth magnets. Weight is not an issue for them, so cheaper magnets are fine.

Interestingly, wind turbine companies are rapidly shifting away from rare earth magnets to electromagnets. Those are even lighter (and cheaper!) for a given field strength. Non-permanent magnets are a problem if you have to do a grid-wide black start -- see, eg, Spain/Portugal recently. I suspect that a battery installation big enough to jump start enough turbines to bring an entire farm back online has gotten quite cheap.