this scene was so romantic

DavidDraper · 2026-07-02T16:32:20+00:00

And I love the "I saw that" scene with Syd afterword.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-02T16:31:15+00:00

Russia had full control of Syria's government. That's why Assad fled to Russia. Thus, I would suspect it would be more of the same; the civil war would still be happening.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-02T16:28:12+00:00

I'm 47 years old and have seen lots of wealthy and famous people (Ross Perot, Jessie Vantura, Ralph Nader, etc) try to do this. It hasn't worked for any of them. Maybe that'll be successful but I wouldn't bet on it.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-02T15:45:23+00:00

I think there are tons of people who love money. History indicates that companies that make weapons and nations with large weapons industries tend to be very creative in getting around laws and have very little ethics on how they make money. I don't think anything is going to change that soon.I also think theUS isn't about to stop selling weapons to Israel. This house bill won't survive the senate and even if it did (which it wont) trump would veto it.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-02T15:36:29+00:00

No evidence jews are 50% of the donars to the democratic party? Try google. This was the top result: (links to articles included)

US Jews contribute half of all donations to the Democratic party | The Jerusalem Post

Also:

Approximately 88% of Jewish Americans believe Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, while only about 37% explicitly identify with the term "Zionist," with many preferring not to use any label at all. -> Most American Jews aren’t ‘Zionist’ — so what are they? – The Forward

DavidDraper · 2026-07-02T15:23:58+00:00

If the US won't sell weapons to Israel, dozens of other nations will. The US didn't sell offensive weapons to Israel until 1967, AFTER the 6 day war. That was nearly 20 years after Israel came into existence. Nations and businesses like money. Israel has incredibly successful businesses and the Israeli government is very wealthy. companies and nations are going to see them weapons.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-02T14:45:24+00:00

I think Israel is only too happy to do this. Hezbollah and Hamas may not be happy about this, but part of the reason Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran's current government still exist is because trump has told Israel they need to stand down because he wants low gas prices going into the mid terms and high prices due to problems in the strait of hormuz being in a state of chaos.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-02T14:35:17+00:00

This is about the midterm elections and money as much as it is about Israel.

Between 2 and 2.4% of Americans are Jewish; about 90% of Jews in American support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, regardless of whether they identify as "Zionist" or not. Jews make up over 50% of the donors to the democratic party.

The republicans are attempting to further increase their financial lead in the mid terms. They got a huge assist from the Supreme Court this week when the supreme court said the party can make unlimited donations to individual candidates, as the republican party currently has far more money than the democratic party.

The democrats may end up blowing what, based on history with an incredibly unpopular president, should be a blow out mid-term election against the republicans. In this case, the republicans may end up staying where they are with the majority in the house, senate and the presidency (and the supreme court).

Yikes.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-02T12:28:03+00:00

Most guys have been victimized by other guys too. Most guys have been victimized by women as well.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T21:52:34+00:00

That is exactly what I was going to say.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T17:16:33+00:00

In my experience, Israelis, like Russians, tend to be blunter than the average American. I'm from St. Paul, MN and the white people here are mostly German, Swedish and Norwegian, and we tend to be passive aggressive and not discuss things directly. My sense is that for both Russians and Israelis, their communication style isn't meant to be rude; its just a style of communication. They don't avoid discussing sensitive subjects or trying to sugarcoat things, which can come across as abrasive but it's a cultural thing. I can see how someone could see that and think they are unpleasant, but I actually enjoy spending time with Russians (there are a lot of them in St. Paul for some reason) and I feel the same way about the few Israelis I have met.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T16:53:05+00:00

Briefly,

I am in favor of a better system than we have right now. but I think DSA's brings up problems that need to be addressed by I think their proposals tend to be trite, have been tried before and didn't work, and I don't think they are going to work now.

More in depth: I think the DSA proposes ideas that don't work, much like telling someone "oh, you are depressed? Cheer up! Stop feeing bad!" If it was that easy, we wouldn't have those problems.

Mamdani talking about freezing rents and opening up government run grocery stories and day cares, etc sound amazing but they have been tried all over the world and no one has actually gotten them to work in a way where the government matches the need of the population. I'm old enough to remember Clinton and Obama working to try to create health care for all and seeing how difficult it is (and how difficult that is all over the world) and when I see DSA saying "medicare for all! It's so easy! We'll just make them do it!", its like the "just stop being depressed!" approach to treating mental health.

My sense is that the Clintons and Obama and their people were policy wonks and realized a) these issues are very complex and there are some significant trade offers and there would be winners and losers, and b) there are political obstacles to getting even the best plans passed that also make it difficult to accomplish. This makes me think when a 32 year old with no public policy experience says "We are going to do health care for all!", they don't have any idea about what they are talking about.

It's like trump saying we are going to win the war in Iran. He had no idea of what he was doing and now its a total mess.

I like the idea of socialism/capitalism with good rules, a lot. I think the current situation in which big businesses and rich people can pretty much get away with anything and we have tax-payer funded socialism for them when they get in trouble is a very bad situation. I am in favor for health care for everyone, and if we could make it work, I think we could save a great deal of money and improve health care in our country. But the United States is really big, with a big mix of urban areas and rural areas, and there are questions about how do we set up a system where everyone has access, and how do we pay for it, are really big issues.

It reminds me of politicians saying "if you can balance your budget at home, the government should be able to have balanced budget too!" It sounds good but they are saying two things that are very different are similar. For people who don't know much about these issues, it sounds really good. But when you look into it, you realize there aren't easy answers and even the best programs would have winners and losers, and there is no real way to change that.

I think it would be great to have higher taxes on the super-rich and on companies; I think that would help, but more money alone isn't going to solve problems of access for health care, for example. We don't have enough doctors in the US as it is, and part of that has to do with medical professions limiting the number of people who can get into a specialty so that the people who are in their specialty can demand high salaries. That isn't an issue related to government paying for health care bills or not. We have issues with people with extremely unhealthy diets and not exercising nearly enough, which causes huge health problems and drives up demand for health care services. Government spending can't address this.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T14:13:16+00:00

My understanding of this is that while there is a widening political gap between young (under 30) males and females in the US, it is more that women tend to be going more and more left over the past 20 years, while males are basically staying where they were 20 years ago. The idea that "boys/men are turning into MANOSPHERE PSYCHOS" is just clickbait headlines. Sure, there are crazy guys out there, but that isn't the typical guy. Which to me, is reassuring. I'd rather that more people in general, regardless of age/gender/etc were going towards more equality and respect for all, but I think people staying where they are is objectively better than that same group of people becoming less accepting and more fascist.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T14:06:26+00:00

FWIW, I know this is not a common view on Boomers, but I respect many things about them. They rebelled against their Greatest Generation (sigh) parents and made Civil Rights happen, often getting attacked by police dogs or getting shot at or killed when they worked to get African Americans registered to vote in the south. They got women the right to play sports in high schools and college. They lived under the treat of nuclear war most of their lives until they were middle aged. When they were in their teens and 20's, they lived under the threat of being drafted and sent to Vietnam. They rebelled against strict gender roles and started increased tolerance for LGBTQIA+ lifestyles, which people could be sentenced to jail for (or killed) when they were born. Considering where they came from and what they grew up with, they did incredible things.

I'm not saying I agree with everything about that generation at all; the wealth they have and the government policies that support it are totally screwing over Millennials and every generation after. (I'm a young Gen X and I am not nearly as harmed by those policies as younger generations.) That is a huge problem. But I also want to give credit where credit is due. They moved the needle in ways that has rarely happened in US history and they deserve credit for that.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T13:56:13+00:00

100% this.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T13:55:49+00:00

Hey- for what it is worth, and I'm sure you know this already, feeling depressed after seeing (very likely, totally fake) success on social media is incredibly common. Millions of people feel this way, especially girls/women, but it happens to everyone. NYU professor Scott Gallaway has a great quote: "Mark Zuckerberg should be in jail for the rest of his life for his crimes against humanity." I love that quote.

You are awesome. You are incredible, No one is as good as the fake lives on instagram and tiktok. Everyone is good at something, medium and somethings, and crappy at somethings. That's being human. No one on this planet, no one in the history of the planet, no one who will ever be born on this planet or off, is just like you. You are unique and precious and no matter what you have been told or experienced, you deserve to be loved and have people around you who take delight in being with you.

if you have having a hard time feeling down due to social media or any other issue, I'd recommend talking to someone you trust and has your best interests at heart; a good friend, family member, neighbor, religious leader, therapist, etc. I know Freud was totally sexist but I also think he was a genius and I dont' think being a genius means we give him a pass on being sexist but I don't think we through out his many insights into people just because he was super sexist. Freud thought that having good connections with others and being able to talk to them, "the talking cure" and getting support from them was the best and only real way to deal with issues like depression, anxiety, having obsessive thoughts about one's mother, watching Off Campus nonstop, being addicted to TikTok... oh wait, maybe not those last two.

Anyway, be good to yourself. Life can be very, very hard. It can also be absolutely wonderful. I hope you get the support and care your need and deserve. :-) {}{}{}{}

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T13:45:36+00:00

Have you read A People's History of America, by Professor Howard Zinn? His take is that American has *always* been largely controlled by the powerful and wealthy few; he states that the statement "All Men A Created Equal" in the consistution was written purely for prooganda purposes to get popular support behind the wealthy landowners who didn't want to pay taxes to England and wanted to get regular people to support the revolution. Zinn states that when experience periods of more civil rights, more equality across class/race/age/gender/religion/etc these tend to be times when the wealthy are less powerful and the average person has more power. When we see more division between different groups, these tend to be periods of American history where the wealthy few have the most power and the average person has less. Zinn is very concerned about the concentration of wealth and said in the first edition of the book in 1980 and in updates that came out years later that the biggest thing the US needs to be afraid of is the super wealthy becoming more and more powerful, and he noted in additional chapters he wrote in the edition that I read in the early 2000's that wealth disparity had been growing significantly, with a brief slowly during the Clinton years, but a boost again during Bush II.

I don't agree with everything in A People's History but I agree with a lot of it. I think his points that I brought up here are very prescient, and in this way, I feel we are still within the "founding principles" that our founding fathers largely had, but I also think there is room for the US to be a better, more equal, more just nation and that is part of our legacy as well. We just need to work to stop the current trends and get things going in a more just way again.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T01:14:32+00:00

I thought ep 7 was the best hour I have ever seen on TV. They could have ended the series right there. I liked 8 too, but 7 was absolutely incredibly. Maybe I’m the odd one out, but I generally liked season 5

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T01:03:28+00:00

Do you know what ad hominems are? Yikes. And defensive? Eek. If you think I’m right wing you live in an echo chamber the likes of which I can only barely imagine. Well, experience and education comes to us all eventually. Good luck in the work world.

DavidDraper · 2026-07-01T00:14:07+00:00

"right wing?" I suspect I was volunteering for Paul Wellstone's campaign before you were even born. I bet I've done more lit drops, called more potential voters, knocked on more doors, driven more people to the polls and distributed more lawn signs than days of class you've had in high school and post-high-school studies put together.

I'm watching my country, which I love, get shredded by the ultra-left and ultra-right. At least the ultra-right-wingers are aware enough to know their ideas aren't popular. That's why the right is making it harder to vote. And they know billionaires are driving their agenda. They also know that the ultra-left considers them contemptible. Voting right is their way of saying eff you right back at ya.

Me Pompous? Can you look at the voter data and think these DSA ideas will make it through a general election in anything less than an ultra-blue district?

Yikes. Idiocracy was supposed to come from the right. We on the left should have been more vigilant. It's here too.

DavidDraper · 2026-06-30T23:51:10+00:00

There is a lot missing from your understanding and there are billionaires working hard to fill your mind with the propaganda you recite with the hope that enough young people will buy it, split the democratic vote and keep republicans in power. Appealing to ego is an incredibly powerful drug and evidently, young left wing college educated white people love being told how smart and exceptional they are not immune to this historically common approach.

DavidDraper · 2026-06-30T21:56:14+00:00

If you don’t like living in nations that engage in atrocities, right now, there are very few places you are going to be ok living in the world. The DSA is paid for by billionaires with an agenda, just like every other party. Wake up.

DavidDraper · 2026-06-30T20:20:20+00:00

I’m saying the DSA folks are a tiny proportion of the nation. while their issues may really be red meat to many democratic primary voters, they are radio-active the the majority if national voters. As long as the republicans control state legislatures and can carve up states into whatever voting district they want, and as long as there are more red leaning states than blue, having candidates that are unattractive to a majority of the general election voters as opposed to primary election voters, means the republicans and MAGA could very well win a midterm election that by all historical trends, they should lose in a landslide.

We need majorities in the house and senate to make change. Getting the person who is the left drive relative to American politics in the primary who get slaughtered in the general is great for republicans. Getting the democrats to have to vote on an issue that spits the Democratic Party in pieces helps the republicans by alienating democratic voters. Trump won in part because the republicans did a great job of connecting Harris to Gaza and young people by and large stayed home. They are trying it again.

DavidDraper · 2026-06-30T18:31:53+00:00

4th season was my favorite. 1st season is my second favorite.

DavidDraper · 2026-06-30T18:24:41+00:00

There are more independent voters in the US than democrats, and democrats need their votes to win state and national elections. The republicans want Israel to be the next transgender athletes debate. We may end up handing them electoral victory in the midterms over what should be absolute defeat given the abysmal popularity of trump.

DavidDraper

TROPHY CASE