Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 7,781 Comments »

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50 Comments / 7781 Comments

  3. @Bear in the article you cited, the author says there are no carrots to offer categorically but then concludes with

    “Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy knows how to end the greatest threat to American national security. That threat would be the combination of the world’s two most dangerous states: China and Russia.

    “I would freeze the current lines of control,” the candidate told Fox News’s Jesse Watters during his prime time show, referring to the battlefields in Ukraine. “I would further make a hard commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to NATO. That’s enough to get Putin to do the deal.”

    “But I would require something even greater in return, Jesse,” Ramaswamy said. “Russia has to exit its military alliance with China.”

    Putin will take the deal, the charismatic candidate assured Watters: “He’s gonna say, ‘Ok’ because I’m going to say, ‘We’ll reopen our economic relations with Russia and further, we’ll end the Ukraine war and also make sure NATO never admits Ukraine.’ “

    Which sounds very Trumpian. In fact, they have both expressed admiration for one another. But, he left out Iran, which I consider a greater threat than either. Russia and China are rivals. Iran is Nazi Germany, an existential threat to Israel and the U.S. A mortal enemy. The state not the people. We should be doing everything in our power to promote insurgency and revolution in Iran. We should be supporting every separatist movement. While cutting off their economic lifeline. A big problem is with all the legal and illegal jihadist immigration, we don’t know where all the sleeper cells are or when or where the next 9/11 atack will be or the signal for it.

  5. World’s Most Dangerous Combination: China and Russia

    by Gordon G. Chang • December 25, 2023 at 5:00 am

    China and Russia are more than just working together. They are forming the core of a new axis. Around this core are proxies and proxies of proxies, such as Iran, North Korea, Algeria, and a host of terrorist groups.

    The Chinese and Russian leaders are forming this grouping because they believe the United States, the final guarantor of the international system that frustrates them both, must be taken down. Xi, by, among other things, declaring a “people’s war” on America, has made it clear that the U.S. must be destroyed and Americans exterminated. Putin is less ambitious, only wanting the U.S. out of his way as he recreates the Russian Empire at its greatest extent.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/

  6. Russia employing African mercenaries to fight in Ukraine

    https://en.defence-ua.com/news/russia_seeks_african_mercenaries_to_bolster_its_forces_in_ukraine-8978.html

    n a bid to bolster its dwindling forces in Ukraine, russia appears to be turning to unconventional means. Reports indicate recruitment efforts underway in the Kursk region, aiming to fill the ranks of a newly formed African Corps with 50-100 soldiers and officers. This development suggests a potential shift in strategy, replacing Wagner PMC mercenaries with African recruits for deployment to the warzone, National Resistance Center of Ukraine reports…

    Welcome to Colonialism 2.0.

  9. Reuveni

    It’s a well know fact that the US grabbed a slew of scientists after thee War. Von Braun comes to mind, and he had dozens of colleagues who also accompanied his or later were rejoined.

    It was because fo the already impending Cold War where Russia was the REAL antagonist. The differences began almost as soon as the Revolution occurred but were laid aside -but not forgotten- to join against Hitler. It was especially obvious when Truman hurridly recognised the new state of Israel (only de facto) minutes before the Soviets did, Ge jure.

  10. @Edgar,
    It has been posted often that the CIA has a department dedicated to ensuring that no (woke-speech) disinformation makes it to public viewing on Wikipedia. I’d keep that at the back of my mind when visiting their Website. There have also been numerous postings claiming that the CIA grabbed a lot of Nazis from Germany and embedded them predominantly in the deep state.
    There they have lots of power while remaining out of view.

  11. American Jewish Committee

    Polling Updates:

    Majority of U.S. Jews Support Israel’s Mission to Dismantle Hamas, Rescue Hostages; Majority of Americans Back President Biden’s Support for Israel

    A poll by Democratic Majority for Israel found that over two-thirds of U.S. voters want the U.S. to support Israel in its war against Hamas, and say that President Biden’s support for Israel will not affect who they vote for in the 2024 election. In addition, a Schoen Cooperman Research (SCR) survey shows that 81% of American Jews support Israel continuing its military operation to “recover all Israeli hostages and remove Hamas from power.”

    War Update: Israel Warns Some Residents of Central Gaza to Evacuate; Hamas’ War Crimes Continue As Weapons Discovered in Homes, Schools; IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites

    The IDF has published maps of soon-to-be battle zones and warned residents of a town in central Gaza to evacuate and head for shelters, offering to facilitate their movement along the coast to bypass combat. In addition to successfully targeting tunnels and terror cells across the Gaza Strip, IDF troops in central and southern Gaza have uncovered rocket launchers in residences, caches of weapons in homes and schools, and significant intelligence materials that further show Hamas’ corruption in diverting humanitarian funds for terror use. Meanwhile, Israeli fighter jets carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah military compounds in response to rocket fire on northern Israel. One Israeli soldier, Sgt. Amit Hod Ziv, 19, was killed, and another was seriously wounded from the barrage of Hezbollah rockets. May Amit’s memory be a blessing.

  13. @Sebastien Zorn

    Thanks for the who-is-running-what links, I really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the content.

    I’ll send them to some people I know who are convinced that replacing politicians always cures problems.

    When the Baltic countries were accepted in the EU, they had to sign a clause demanding that they return the properties of the people who used to live there before the end of WWII.

    Guess who these people were – the Volksdeutsche – the Germans who used to live there, and a few of them did come back to reclaim their properties throwing out the people who had lived there since the end of WWII.

    Germany is suicidal, this is the only fitting description of its behavior.

  17. @Reader It’s the opening episode of “Yes Minister. Here it is:

    https://youtu.be/IpF0OXJYhCw?si=6hWHKAVKwnTkKfEQ

    “Yes Minister is a British political satire sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on BBC2 from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran for 16 episodes from 1986 to 1988. All but one of the episodes lasted half an hour, and almost all ended with a variation of the title of the series spoken as the answer to a question posed by Minister (later, Prime Minister) Jim Hacker. Several episodes were adapted for BBC Radio; the series also spawned a 2010 stage play that led to a new television series on Gold in 2013.

    Set principally in the private office of a British cabinet minister in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in Whitehall, Yes Minister follows the ministerial career of Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington. His various struggles to formulate and enact policy or effect departmental changes are opposed by the British Civil Service, in particular his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, played by Nigel Hawthorne. His Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley, played by Derek Fowlds, is usually caught between the two. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, continued with the same cast and followed Hacker after his unexpected elevation to prime ministerial office upon the retirement of the previous officeholder.

    The series received several BAFTAs and in 2004 was voted sixth in the Britain’s Best Sitcom poll. It was the favourite television programme of the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher.[3]

    Plot
    The series opens in the wake of a general election in which the incumbent government has been defeated by the opposition party, to which Jim Hacker MP belongs. His party affiliation is never stated, his party emblem is clearly neither Conservative nor Labour, and his party’s political colour is white. The Prime Minister offers Hacker the position of Minister of Administrative Affairs, which he accepts. Hacker goes to his department and meets his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, and Principal Private Secretary, Bernard Woolley.

    While Appleby is outwardly deferential towards the new minister, he is prepared to defend the status quo at all costs. Hacker and his party’s policies of reducing bureaucracy are diametrically opposed to the Civil Service’s interests, in which staff numbers and budgets are viewed as merits of success (as opposed to sizes of profits or losses in private industry). Woolley is sympathetic towards Hacker but as Appleby reminds him, Woolley’s civil service superiors, including Appleby, will have much to say about the course of his future career (i.e., assessments, promotions, pay increases), while ministers do not usually stay long in one department and have no say in civil service staffing recommendations.

    Many of the episodes revolve around proposals backed by Hacker but frustrated by Appleby, who uses a range of clever stratagems to defeat ministerial proposals while seeming to support them. Other episodes revolve around proposals promoted by Appleby but rejected by Hacker, which Appleby attempts by all means necessary to persuade Hacker to accept. They do occasionally join forces in order to achieve a common goal, such as preventing the closure of their department or dealing with a diplomatic incident.

    As the series revolves around the inner workings of central government, most of the scenes take place in private locations, such as offices and exclusive members’ clubs. Lynn said that “there was not a single scene set in the House of Commons because government does not take place in the House of Commons. Some politics and much theatre takes place there. Government happens in private. As in all public performances, the real work is done in rehearsal, behind closed doors. Then the public and the House are shown what the government wishes them to see.”[4] However, the episode “The Compassionate Society” does feature an audio recording of Yesterday in Parliament in which Hacker speaks in the House of Commons, and other episodes include scenes in the Foreign Secretary’s House of Commons office (“The Writing on the Wall”) and a Committee room (“A Question of Loyalty”).’

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister

    The whole series can be watched on various for pay platforms if you google it.

  18. @Sebastien Zorn

    Could you post again that funny video about a British politician who thinks he is a free agent but in reality is forced to do everything his advisers want?

    I am sure I bookmarked it but I cannot find the bookmark anymore.

  20. America must change its policy on Qatar
    by Meir Ben Shabbat & Asher Fredman, opinion contributors – 11/03/23 3:00 PM ET

    The most important U.S. military base in the Middle East sits less than 20 miles from where the exiled leaders of Hamas take their meetings.
    The State of Qatar hosts both the headquarters of U.S. Central Command and the political office of a terrorist organization whose brutality “brings to mind the worst rampages of ISIS,” in the words of President Joe Biden…

    …In January 2022, President Biden announced that Qatar would be designated a “major non-NATO ally.”…

    https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4292349-america-must-change-its-policy-on-qatar/

  21. Sebastien, we know God has a sense of humor, because He allows humans to run countries like the US and Israel; and because He even thought of making you and me. Nevertheless, don’t push him. You actually might need Him someday.

  22. I’ really fed up with Arutz 7 making a lengthy report of the timeline of multiple warning alarms at every twitch, and in particular, that in answer to a missile from Lebanon or where-ever, Israel immediately responds to the source. presumably expecting to destroy the shooters.
    We almost never hear the results -if any- of the immediate responses.
    They seem not to have realised that most of these missiles are fired from the backs of trucks, and that when the Immediate (relatively) return fire arrives it lands in empty space, with the truck mounted artillery already 5 miles away.

  24. I should have said the nine days of Chanukha because, since I’m so concerned about fire hazard in an apartment, I don’t even have a stove. I lit a battery operated menorah and you know, it was the most miraculous thing, the batteries lasted for 8 days! But then, what with the war still on and the hostages still missing, and it looked just so pretty, I just didn’t feel like turning it off yet, so I procrastinated by a day, so sue me. 😀

  25. @Michael I found her article

    https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=13983

    And I was reminded of a triple biblical joke I recently came up with during the 8 days of Chanukha:

    I quipped that the sin of Moses hitting the rock instead of talking to it for which God punished him by forbidding him from entering the promised land for ruining the miracle by providing a possible scientific explanation for the water coming out of the rock ( Numbers 20) was understandable, the punishment, that is, since, I mean, if you were a magician and your assistant exposed the trick to the audience, making it impossible to suspend disbelief, would you invite her to the cast party afterward?

    Though this would never work today, what with bluetooth and all, since people would expect him to say, “Alexa, bring forth water.”

    I said this to an old guy, also Jewish, at the gym, who said, no, the sin was smashing the tablets. Well, I looked it up (Exodus 32,34) and God didn’t mind, he just said replace them, go up the mountain and God would write on them again.

    And here, we see the birth of modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry because – wait for it –

    God said:

    “Make new tablets and call on me in the morning.” 😀

  26. Sebastien,

    My favorite “gallows humor”, in honor of Purim, would be seeing Amerioca’s and Israel’s traitors swinging from their own gallows.

    These are exceptional times. I have never, in my 75 years, seen so much raw hatred of Jews in the US. Naomi Wolf says the world today, especially since the beginning of the Plandemic, with its self-hatred, reverse racism, rampant ignorance of history and reality, transgenderism and other abominations, cannot be explained away by any conventional wisdom. It is what she calls “palpable evil”. Seeing it led her to accept the reality of “palpable good”, in the form of a loving God reaching out to thosse who trust in Him.

    “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” – George Orwell [900×478]

    https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fdwwc04vt7ml51.jpg

  27. @Michael Seriously. Tell me about it! “it’s deja vu all over again.” – the ever profound Yogi Berra.

    Another Yogi Berraism that fits in the context of the er the IDF commander who decided he could wait until morning to report accelerated Hamas activitiy on the border:

    “Excuse me, do you have the time?

    “You mean now?”

    “I love the smell of gallows humor in the morning (well afternoon actually, evening in Israel, but who’s counting)”. – Je

  28. @Reader

    In 2009, the Tavor X95 (also known as the Micro Tavor or MTAR) was selected by the Israel Defense Forces to gradually replace the M16 assault rifle and M4 carbine variants as the standard-issued weapon of the Israeli infantry by the end of 2018. The first X95 bullpup rifles were issued to infantry units in 2013.[6] A report published on the IDF’s website revealed the IDF plans to continue acquiring the Micro Tavor and equipping combat units with it.[

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWI_Tavor#:~:text=In%202009%2C%20the%20Tavor%20X95,by%20the%20end%20of%202018.

    “ISRAEL ACQUIRING ADDITIONAL IWI MICRO-TAVOR RIFLES
    25 Jun 2023
    Defence Equipment News”

    https://www.joint-forces.com/defence-equipment-news/65206-israel-acquiring-additional-iwi-micro-tavor-rifles

    Israel makes better stuff

    “The Micro-TAVOR rifle has been in IDF active duty and reserves service since 2006. Its bullpup configuration platform creates an ergonomic and short firearm with a long barrel, giving it superior ballistics compared to other platforms.

    The current order is for the 5.56x45mm calibre Micro-TAVOR with a 380mm and 419mm – barrel length. The firearm is equipped with M-1913 Picatinny rails enabling the mounting of essential accessories such as sights, lights, and visual and IR illuminators necessary for modern warfare. This order joins previous IWI contracts for the IDF, such as the Negev LMG (light machine gun) and the 40mm grenade launcher that can be mounted on to the Micro-TAVOR rifle.”

    ibid

  31. @Reader Thank you. @Ted I think Reader’s article would be valuable to repost. This has been a horrible pattern ever since Oslo. Truly liberal fascism.

    “FLASHBACK: Exposé written 24 years ago shows this isn’t first time official Israeli acquiescence in Islamic attack preparations draws scrutiny
    Report on the Acquiescence of the Israeli Government in Palestinian Authority First Strike Preparations in Judea and Samaria”

    https://www.frontline.news/post/flashback-expose-written-24-years-ago-shows-this-isnt-first-time-official-israeli-acquiescence-in-islamic-attack-preparations-draws-scrutiny

  37. SEBASTIEN-
    You still have not explained what “Bergen” is. And what is kdrama. ??
    And how do you bring Felix into this. He is not anything but an honest poster, unlike yourself who often has a- blunt- axe to grin, and no grindstone handy.

    Also what the hell is Edamame.
    Edam is a pretty good cheese, a lot better than your cheesy obscure remarks,

    I’m glad you told us that you were “educated”, I’d never have known otherwise, but, Kol Mazal, enjoy it and use it to better yourself, say… to become a good musician-some day. Instead of wasting your time watching inane TV crap, and worse, bringing it to us on this site.

    I have not _yet_ descended to your low of “parodying” on my name. But I can. You picked an unfortunate one.

  39. A four-month-old baby has been found alive “by the grace of God” his parents said after the child was sucked up into a tornado in Tennessee.

    The couple said a deadly tornado on Saturday tore apart their mobile home, picking up a bassinet with the baby still inside of it.

    He survived and was discovered in a fallen tree in the pouring rain.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67732126

  40. greenwald is an antisemite and a liar who hates Israel, America, and Trump. The tablet article is wrong to say he’s not an antisemite because he also hates America. They usually go together. I’ll never forget the time a pro-Palestinian student from New Zealand came up to me in a restaurant and began screaming, “Americans ought to be gassed.” I had to barricade myself in the bathroom.

  41. Wikipedia is the greatest encyclopedia ever devised and a reliable source. I have quoted passages that prove its lack of bias. I know how to extract relevant quotes with citations because I am an educated person.

  42. @Edamame You are getting better at ad hominem attacks. Felix is a good teacher. Keep it up. As they say in Kdramas, “you worked hard.” 😀

  43. SEBASTIEN-
    Your terse comments often are as meaningless and as obtuse as those of more than one other member. Who or what is “Bergen”. Are you a pal of Charlie McCarthy????

    Your comments seem to come from the same kind of head.

    Why constantly cut ^ Paste whole blocks from WiKi, to give us pleasure. We get none, and could read it ourselves without you as an intermediary.
    IF we were interested enough, which is doubtful.

    P.S. I know abut Sanger and Wales, particularly Wales.

    Curious….Is Zionism your 5th or 6th religion???

  44. @Ted “The use of incendiary weapons in civilian areas is not violating Article 2 of the 1980 Protocol on Incendiary Weapons, which prohibits only the use of air-delivered incendiary bombs in close vicinity of concentrations of civilians and deliberate attacks against civilians with incendiary weapons (deliberate attacks on civilians are prohibited regardless of the type of weapon used). The 1949 Geneva Conventions do not regulate the use of incendiary weapons. Additional Protocol I.[7] prohibits the indiscriminate use of any weapons, not only incendiary. Both Russia and Ukraine are signatories of the 1980 Protocol on Incendiary Weapons, the former ratified it on June 10, 1982, while the latter did so on June 23, 1982.[8]”

    “The use of incendiary weapons in the Russo-Ukrainian War was first remarked in Sloviansk in June 2014;[14] followed late July 2014 around eastern Ukraine,[15] then in August at Ilovaisk,[14] and between Oleksandrivka and Chumaky in November,[16] all battlegrounds of the war in Donbas (2014–2022).”

    “The most significant using of incendiary weapons were used a number of times during the Russo-Ukrainian War.[citation needed] Russians were accused of using white phosphorus bombs multiple times; in the Battle of Kyiv and against Kramatorsk in March 2022,[1] against dug-in defenders at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in May 2022,[2][3][4][5] and in Marinka over the 2022 Christmas holiday.[6] White phosphorus is a toxic chemical, and exposure to vapors leads to long-term ailments of the body, up to permanent disfigurement and death through organ failure.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_incendiary_weapons_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War

    “White phosphorus grenades were used by the US in Vietnam to destroy Viet Cong tunnel complexes as they would burn up all oxygen and suffocate the enemy soldiers sheltering inside.”

    “US Sherman tanks carried the M64, a 75mm white phosphorus round intended for screening and artillery spotting, but tank crews found it useful against German tanks such as the Panther that their APC ammunition could not penetrate at long range. Smoke from rounds fired directly at German tanks would be used to blind them, allowing the Shermans to close to a range where their armour-piercing rounds were effective. In addition, due to the turret ventilation systems sucking in fumes, German crews would sometimes be forced to abandon their vehicle: this proved particularly effective against inexperienced crews who, on seeing smoke inside the turret, would assume their tank had caught fire.[6] Smoke was also used for “silhouetting” enemy vehicles, with rounds dropped behind them to produce a better contrast for gunnery.[7]”

    – Wikipedia White phosphorus munitions

    both part of much longer articles.

    Sorry, remind me once again, who won WWII? 😀

  46. @Peloni Greenwald is lying through his teeth. There is no bias I can detect in these articles. The one on him is long.

    He is a virulent Israelophobe and he’s an anti-Trumper.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Greenwald

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine

    Oh, and he isn’t one of the founders of Wikipedia either.

    “There are two co-founders of Wikipedia: Larry Sanger (born 1968), American internet project developer. Jimmy Wales (born 1966), American-British internet entrepreneur.”

    – Wikipedia

    “Greenwald has criticized the Israeli government, including its foreign policy, claimed influence on U.S. politics and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.[114][115] In May 2016, Greenwald accused The New York Times of “abject cowardice” in its use of quotation marks for the occupation of Gaza and alleged “journalistic malfeasance” in the incident “out of fear of the negative reaction by influential factions”. After Greenwald’s criticism, the New York Times removed the quotation marks in the article he had criticised.[116][117]

    Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic in January 2012 said Greenwald “evinces toward Israel a disdain that is quite breathtaking. He holds Israel to a standard he doesn’t hold any other country, except the U.S.”[118] Liel Leibovitz in Tablet magazine in 2013 considered it “largely inaccurate” to match Greenwald’s “obsessive focus on Israel’s supposed role in evil global conspiracies to simple anti-Semitism. Instead, the ideology that drives [his] tendency to see the NSA and Israel as two heads of the same Satanic beast is more complex and ideologically-driven—an attack on the doctrines of exceptionalism that fueled the rise of both America and Israel.”[119]

    Following the Charlie Hebdo murders in January 2015, David Bernstein in The Washington Post wrote Greenwald (in an Intercept article) “certainly appears to believe that Der Sturmer-like anti-Semitic cartoons are the moral and logical equivalent of making fun of Moses or Muhammed.”[120]

    In an exchange with Greenwald in February 2019, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby”, suggesting that money rather than principle motivated US politicians’ support for Israel, including payments from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to US politicians. Many Democrats and Republicans, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, condemned the tweet arguing it perpetuated an antisemitic stereotype of Jewish money and influence fueling American politicians’ support of Israel.[121] Greenwald defended Omar: “we’re not allowed to talk about an equally potent well-organized and well-financed lobby that ensures a bipartisan consensus in support of U.S. defense of Israel, that the minute that you mention that lobby, you get attacked as being anti-Semitic.”[122]”

  47. YNET:

    According to the third Geneva Convention, phosphorus bombs and shells can be used as a means of lighting or as a smoke screen but not against humans because of the plastic materials or phosphorus-laden material in them which ignites in contact with oxygen and sticks to human skin causing severe burns. The limitations on the use of the weapon extend to combatants as well as civilians, for that reason.
    The IDF had used such weaponry extensively in Gaza, especially during the 2014 war there, raising angry condemnation from international bodies. As a result, the military decided to limit their use and has mostly avoided phosphorus bombs and shells during the current war.

  49. DEBASTIEN-

    Yes Wiki is “edited” and “citation needed” is often there. But I’ve written corrections in WiKi that are true of my own knowledge, and ignored the “citation needed” . My inserts are still there after years..

    Twice my alterations were rejected, and I got both of them from other WiKI sources.

    So go figure.

    People reading “citation needed” universally ignore this feeble cover.

    1

  50. Gallant tells Sullivan war to destroy Hamas will take ‘more than several months’

    8 soldiers seriously hurt in Gaza fighting * Ground op toll: 116 * IDF: 70 Hamas gunmen surrender at north Gaza hospital * Knesset passes wartime budget update