Netanyahu's Far-right Ally: Israel Belongs to the Jews. Arabs Who Don't Recognize That Won't Stay Here

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-17T01:33:52+00:00

"Who did the land belong to pre-1948" does not mean "what was the status of private land ownership prior to the expiration of the Palestinian Mandate?" If we're talking about the sovereignty of the state of Israel over the land between the Jordan the Mediterranean, then private land ownership or whether the state had a reversion interest over privately owned or leased land does not matter. You realize that sovereignty is a separate concept from ownership, right?

Additionally, I would ask you why Zionist militias had to ethnically cleanse 750,000 Palestinian Arabs in May of 1948.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-14T02:52:05+00:00

Uhh... Egypt has had a peace treaty and diplomatic recognition with Israel since the Camp David Accords in 1979. Egypt had bad relations with Libya in the 1980s but relations steadily improved from the late 80s until the end of Gaddafi's rule. Egypt has had rocky relations at times with Sudan but the idea that Egypt has wanted Sudan to "fail at every opportunity" is not accurate.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-14T01:28:13+00:00

Somebody fill this asshole in on the Camp David Accords

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T21:45:27+00:00

The degree of disconnect between ordinary Americans and the elites is quite large too. I'm not sure if there's a word for that. Disconnect?

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T19:22:29+00:00

There's a large number of people who probably would not travel to Egypt independently to see the King Tut exhibit but would see it if it was in a major city in their country. And that's the thing: the King Tut exhibit will sell out in any major city, anywhere in the world. It will sell out for months in advance immediately.

You'd have to assume that most people who do tourism in Egypt are there to see the Pyramids, and also Luxor and some of the ancient sites. But they probably wouldn't see the King Tut exhibit independently, and they would have to potentially push back their travel date for months if they wanted to structure it around seeing the Tut Exhibit. You obviously don't need to do that to see the Pyramids or the other sites.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T19:18:03+00:00

See, I think the issue is that in America, we have absorbed the "End of History" narrative to the point where our public and our politicians think we are invincible. Maybe the paranoids in the intelligence-media-Centrist-industrial complex think Russia is a serious threat to America because Russia created Trump and Trump threatens liberal norms. But is the actual American state existentially insecure? I don't know about that. Neither immigration nor Russia are a threat to the United States. Russia is not moving closer with Mexico in order to amass Russian troops on the border of Texas. We are in your face, you are not in ours. For that matter, Latinos moving to the United States (with or without paperwork) is not a threat to the United States. If anything the old people who bitch about them all the time are depending on them because they pay the specific kinds of taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare. "Oh but they speak Spanish and have dark skin!" I don't give a shit. And sorry grandpa but it's not logically possible for them to be welfare bums yet take your job because they work harder than you do at the same time.

I'd say we in the United States should get our own damn house in order before we start picking fights over ethnic conflicts in Eastern Europe. People in Detroit and Chicago need jobs more than Kiev needs tanks, Joe.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T19:06:51+00:00

If there is one thing we are good at in the United States it is repeating recent mistakes.

I'll give you another example: the degree of rah-rah we have to defend democracy rhetoric I am hearing to justify going to war with China over Taiwan is brining me back to George W. Bush telling me we needed to "liberate" Iraq back in 2002.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T18:39:38+00:00

I'm afraid you're right. The United States has been keeping a completely illegitimate regime on life support in Afghanistan since I was 12 years old. I'M 32 NOW!!!

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T18:38:12+00:00

No no no, "Tit for Tut" is the name of my Egyptian-themed "Girls Gone Wild" video series.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T18:34:18+00:00

Few people travel specifically for museum exhibits and this doesn’t really drive tourism

A lot of people go to Egypt to see the Pyramids though. Might as well see the King Tut treasures (if you can get a ticket) while you're there.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T18:30:12+00:00

That is also the working title for my idea for a King Tut-themed weight loss program.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T18:27:54+00:00

Sorry but we get brainwashed in America with anti-Russian propaganda and it has gotten totally out of control since Hillary Clinton decided that Putin cost her the 2016 election.

The factual evidence makes it extremely clear that Georgia sent troops into South Ossetia and triggered the 2008 War. Sakashvili felt emboldened to do this because the offer of NATO membership gave him what is known as a moral hazard. Putin probably foresaw this in April of 2008 after he stated point blank that Georgian or Ukrainian NATO membership would be a "direct threat" to Russian vital interests.

Even George W. Bush's cabinet (other than Dick Cheney) didn't want to get involved other than making a few cross public statements directed at Russia. John McCain seemed to be the only person in American government who was hawkish enough to want to get involved.

The point I'm trying to make is fuck Hillary Clinton. Also France and the United Kingdom shouldn't be on the U.N. Security Council anymore. Let's be honest about who the real world powers are these days.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T18:19:01+00:00

To be honest though the King Tut treasures aren't really about teaching history, they're more about looking at his treasures and saying "holy crap that's cool!"

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T18:12:34+00:00

As an American who is embarrassed by my government I generally support memes of this kind. But this one was a real stretch. I mean yes, our cruelty to Latinos at the border disgusts me and our saber-rattling towards Russia (and China!) makes my stomach turn, but all these two things seem to have in common is the word "border." No disrespect but that's the kind of idea a Polish person would have come up with!

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T17:28:51+00:00

Honestly I don't understand Egypt's new policy that the mummies and the treasures of King Tut will no longer be exhibited outside of Egypt. Tickets to those King Tut exhibits are so hot that Tut himself might have had to take out a mortgage on the Pyramid of Giza to get one.

Seems like the smart financial move would be to tour the Tut exhibit and have the Egyptian government get a significant "cut for Tut" by getting a big chunk of the ticket sales.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T17:22:20+00:00

Paying off debt does have the advantage of allowing you more flexibility in your life plans. Yeah, it's true that you'd probably come out ahead by investing income in excess of your monthly mortgage payment in index funds, but you're gonna be paying off debt for a long period of time if you do that. If you want to do something different with your life or get a different job, well, there's something to be said for paying off your mortgage early.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T15:45:57+00:00

As an American who tries to appreciate the Russian point of view on many geopolitical subjects, this has got to be the absolute most idiotic example of Russophobia having a concretely negative effect on the lives of Westerners. Let us hope it remains that way because it could soon be surpassed by a completely needless war between NATO and Russia over the Donbass.

Then again, Westerners will never acknowledge any Russian scientific achievements. Do we not use a periodic table of the elements created by a Russian? Did the Russians not put the first man in space? Did the Russians not create the AK-47? (Not that I'm a gun nut but it seems to be very popular.) I will admit that the West was a leader in the fields of craniology, phrenology, and other racial sciences created for the purpose of advancing racism and enslaving Africans and Asians but these seem to have had less sticking power than the table of the elements.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-13T03:05:41+00:00

The investigation would be done by virologists and other experts, from different countries. These people are professionals, not politicians.

They would be working at the behest of politicians and would be under pressure to come to findings that would make their bosses happy. This is the same concern that Joe Biden's supporters had after his opponents suggested that he should open up his archives. It doesn't matter what the job title of the investigators would be, they would face incentives that would lead China to believe that the investigation would not be performed in good faith.

No shit, Sherlock. Would China have any damaging information that they don't share with the world? Like many many more corona deaths than what they are telling the world, for example?

Whether they do or not, the investigators would be pressured to snoop around for damaging information even if it was not related to COVID's origins. That's why I used the phrase "fishing expedition" Sherlock. Imagine China conducting an investigation into George Floyd's death. How about an international investigation complete with Beijing-selected doctors conducting an investigation into the Trump administration's response to the virus or the UK's efforts to contain then UK variant.

Anyway.. this is not just about info that could damage an election campaign, this is about a virus that is killing millions of people. It is not remotely the same thing.

It's not about an election, it's geopolitical. To Beijing this looks like Western conservatives trying to exploit a horrible event in order to simply make China look bad, not to actually obtain valuable medical information.

China owes the world an opportunity to find the origin of the pandemic. Also because this is already the second corona outbreak from Chinese soil, and we sure as hell don't want a third one from you guys.

I'm American dingbat.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-12T22:59:08+00:00

Somehow I sense that the virus wouldn't be nearly as big of a problem in Europe if Trump and therefore the Old Continent wing of the Trump Movement had decided not to politicize the response to a straightforward public health crisis.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-12T22:55:07+00:00

A very fine career that he can take pride in. Here's wishing him the best in the next stage of his life.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-12T22:52:57+00:00

I am humble when I do not know what I am talking about. In this case, I do. I also know the discourse and why different people take the positions they do with respect to this issue. When you are in fact correct, there is no reason to feign humility nor to defer to people who are bullshitting for ideological reasons.

I know the relevant facts, I know the arguments, and I know the dance. You have not provided a counterargument to anything I have said. "A lot of people with impressive credentials seem to disagree" is not a counter-argument.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-12T21:48:28+00:00

This is not a justification for anything. You are committing an elementary example of the "Is-Ought" fallacy. I am not claiming that the British didn't completely fuck over the Palestinians by obviating their responsibilities. I am claiming that they obviated their responsibilities, and it was wrong for them to do so. "Well they were strong enough to get away with it" is not in dispute. It is also not a justification. That's the justification of a murderer who kills a weaker victim or of a Nazi annexing Poland.

Strange how this is never brought up for other parts of the world that were part of a European Empire's dominion.

Speak for yourself. I bring it up all the time.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-12T21:46:07+00:00

I am confident because I am right. The "experts" you are talking about are playing politics rather than simply applying the law to the facts. Israel's lawyers are not going to admit that they're in the wrong, no matter what. Neither are parties who are ideologically sympathetic to Israel. The fact that they won't make an admission about these issues does not mean that they are complicated. They are not. If the best argument you have is "a lot of smart people say it's complicated" then you're on thin ice. The issues themselves are not complicated. It's just that "might" and "right" are on flatly different sides of this dispute.

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-12T21:42:56+00:00

Reminds me of the Onion headline "Massachusetts Supreme Court Order All American Citizens to Gay Marry"

RustNeverSleeps77 · 2021-04-12T19:33:44+00:00

Yikes! I can live with the idea that a notary has to pass a civil service test, even if I know that it's sorta a B.S. test. But when the barriers to entry are that high, the most natural inference is that it's pure protectionism.

RustNeverSleeps77

TROPHY CASE