https://www.patriciarobertsmiller.com/2018/09/05/what-its-like-when-youve-been-reading-nuremburg-interrogations-tapping-hitlers-generals-shattered-genius-the-end-the-wehrmacht-retreats-and-trump-administration-officia/

So now both campaign have called each other shit. My goodness.

@2. Troll harder.

@3
Explain how the comment was wrong

Calling Elon a dipshit for jumping around on stage like a toddler at a birthday party is reaching levels of Midwestern Dad never seen before in presidential politics.

"Reuters reports that, in addition to Russia, China and Iran are intent on spoon-feeding American voters divisive, rage-inducing, violence-enticing bullshit...
Anyway, here's an item about something I saw on TikTok that made me mad and should make you mad too!"

@4. False equivalence, both sides topos, magnifying pettiness over policy, criminal convictions, and fascism. This isn't one of those pathetic equivocations where people just don't listen to each other anymore. But you don't have to take my word for it. If you can't see what's wrong with the comment it's because you are part of the problem. You are bad faith trolls trying to play at middleman. You are Franz in the example above in 1.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/22/politics/trump-fascist-john-kelly/index.html

Raindrop's agenda is to control the discussion by deflecting from anything meaningful to the most bad faith indirect critiques of Kamala peddled by the fringe far right publications. It is the most watered down, lowest common denominator of politics.

Worm-infested salt pork, hardtack, and conscription into the British Royal Navy is the go-to plan for the dispossessed in a possible Trump administration.

@7/8: It's MY simple benign comment about both campaigns and the public coarsening of their rhetoric. I'm sorry you feel the need to make it far more than what it really is.

@10. Don't play coy, your damagoguery is transparent.

https://www.patriciarobertsmiller.com/2024/08/26/whats-wrong-with-calls-for-civility/

So, how should we define civility? I’d suggest it’s useful to think of civility as “politeness rules about who can say what to whom in what circumstances.” If we define it that way, then it isn’t necessarily good. It can be used for silencing dissent, justifying injustice, enabling violence. If we think of it that way, then it isn’t even something absent from our current situation. The problem isn’t that civility is absent; the problem is the implicit model of civility people are using: doubly hierarchical.

What we’re experiencing right now is a doubly hierarchical model of civility. In-group rules of civility are weaker than they used to be, but there are still hierarchies (and the more SDO a group is, the more the group has an internal hierarchical approach to civility). But the main hierarchy is in- v. out-group. The out-group is held to higher standards of civility than the in-group. Rhetoric with which we agree is held to lower standards of civility than rhetoric with which we disagree.

In a demagogic culture, standards of “civility” are determined by in- or out-group membership. Anything any in-group rhetor or group does is civil, and exactly the same rhetoric on the part of out-group rhetors is incivil. Rarely is that disparate standard acknowledged. When it is, people try to justify it on the grounds that we are in an existential war, a way of framing policy disagreements that is disastrous for democracy (the argument made here: the only book of which I am unashamably proud).

Unless we can separate standards of civility from in-group membership, then even if we do somehow manage to increase “civility,” it will simply make our current situation worse.

@10. Your comment is malignant and insidious, not benign. And if you aren't ghostwriting Raindrop, stop cosplaying as his chatbot.

I want generals as loyal as Hitler's generals to parse the nonsense @11.

@1, @11: Wait, how many Patricia Roberts-Miller blog posts are you planning to link to in a single morning? Who even is this person, lol?

@13. The irony is that Hitler's generals were in reality more like General Mark Kelly, Trump's chief of staff, in that "The German generals disliked Hitler from the beginning, recognizing him as pretty much a shallow thinker and an idiot about military affairs, and many of them were not Nazis, but they were reactionaries, and they loathed what they thought of as Bolshevism (which included liberalism and democratic socialism).

Also, Hitler's generals tried to assassinate him three times. Kelly explained to Trump that German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off.” And to anyone who is familiar with Downfall, Hitler constantly undermined his generals and demanded loyalty above reality, subscribing to the magical thinking that the will alone could create the ideal future over substance and logistics.

Normally I wouldn't give a fig about whatever nonsense you trolls post on Slog, but the stakes are too high to passively permit it now without calling out your tactics.

@16 If you're fighting for high stakes, you're doing it in a decidedly low-stakes location among a no-stakes audience. Enjoy!

Hitler's Hubris
& that of his Generals'
doomed the former's '1,000
year reich!' to a mere 12 HORRIFIC
years giving us bibi's Genocide on Palestine*

does eltrumpfster just wannabee
another Hitler or merely keep
the Fuck outta Prison
and skate Away on
Day Two with JRR
Vancelot© at
The Helm?

sure.
Either
way works
for the donold.

*History,
rhyming like
a Motherfucker

Bravo,
CDizzle.

@11, CDizzle: “Anything any in-group rhetor or group does is civil, and exactly the same rhetoric on the part of out-group rhetors is incivil. Rarely is that disparate standard acknowledged. When it is, people try to justify it on the grounds that we are in an existential war, a way of framing policy disagreements that is disastrous for democracy”

@3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 16 also CDizzle: Troll! Bad faith! Demagogue! Malignant! Insidious! “The stakes are too high to passively permit it!”

Ha ha ha, that is almost too perfect! Nice one, CDizzle!

@19. Trish Roberts-Miller (an actual, preeminent professor of history and the rhetoric of demagoguery) was my favorite professor of Rhetoric & Writing (one of my majors) at UT Austin.

It only took a week for the Times (and only then The Stranger) to glom on to Conru's funding of the Human Diversity Foundation. Maybe it was blocked on Twitter. That Gruniard piece Vivian linked to is well worth a read, as is the followup story about the London Film Festival pulling "Undercover: Exposing the Far Right" from a showing, due to staff concerns about being attacked by "Tommy Robinson" types: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/oct/19/undercover-film-exposing-uk-far-right-activists-pulled-from-london-film-festival

@17. Don't be so hard on yourself.

@20 There's nothing wrong with you that two years in the Infantry couldn't cure. Good luck!

@21 There's nothing wrong with you that two years in the Infantry couldn't cure. Good luck!

The Times article on Andrew Conru is the most "why are all these homosexuals sucking my 🍆" journalism I've ever seen. "Accidentally" give money to Nazis once, shame on you. "Accidentally" give money to them eight? nine? ten? times - I think you're probably a Nazi, dude.

@15- so there were at least three German generals who we can get behind as examples for future Trump ones.

And unless the North Korean army is better than Russia’s, it may not be quite as large in the future.

@11: Which is the in-group in (Kamal/Dems or Trump/MAGA)? Same question for the out-group. Thank you.

@22, 23 -- (ah,
yes, the overly well-
armed Kool-Aide contingent)

the IDF
or the IOF?
it didn't Cure
all of them. see:
'ex-IDFs for Ceasefire.'

@20: "Trish Roberts-Miller (an actual, preeminent professor of history and the rhetoric of demagoguery) was my favorite professor of Rhetoric & Writing (one of my majors) at UT Austin"

Ooh an actual professor, now that's really impressive! 😂 You should send her your comments in this thread and ask if she's proud of you.

@tS re thumpfer

'Is this
Member of the
The Stranger Community
a spammer or otherwise abusive?

Please let
us know so
we can give
them what for.'

your 'pls let us know'
button's busted

where's wormmy
when we Need him?

oh, wait--

@19, When one side contains everyone from Dick Cheney to AOC and includes multiple military generals who served in Trump’s cabinet calling him a fascist, and the other is circling the wagons around a guy talking about deploying the military against “the enemy within”, it’s pure bad faith to pretend these are equal/opposite in-groups

@28. Your trolling is weak old man.

@30: "No, MY out-group is actually evil!" 😆

@32, The “I’m not mad I’m actually laughing” emojis aren’t exactly making your inane comments feel more sincere but this comment in particular really underscores what a fucking dipshit you are

@33: Ha ha ha! Nice one, barth! 😂🤣😂🤣

@23. I'm too young and stupid to operate a gun.

@33

Jesus.
you've
gone from
Embarrassing
yourself to parody to
a Long Ways from wormmy's
little Chatterbox© to persona non

and
you're
Still Here?

oops!
NOT @ 33
Yes @ 34. silly me

@18: “does eltrumpfster just wannabee
another Hitler”?

Go ask Sawant. She’s campaigning for him.

@38
curb your
ChatterboX©

This didn't make the cut on Slog today but thought it was worth mentioning. A couple months ago Hannah had dropped a post blasting the SCC for considering a repeal of some of the tenant protection ordinances passed during the pandemic.

https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/07/12/79599038/seattle-city-council-puts-renter-protections-in-its-sights

The SCC never acted on it so it appeared the activists drumming up outrage worked. Well yesterday one of the providers of an affordable housing building filed a suit against the city over the ordinances as it turns out not making people pay rent makes it difficult to properly maintain a property and not being able to screen tenants increases public safety issues.

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-landlord-sues-over-city-tenant-protections/

While I don't think the suit will go anywhere here is what the manager of the building said was the net result of the regulations.

"The building was “full or nearly full” and met its financial projections from 2015 to 2018, Goodman said in the complaint. By 2023, the building was nearly 45% vacant and lost $2.7 million. In response to security issues, the company said it pays about $487,000 a year for security and maintenance, up from $116,000 a year between 2015 and 2018."

Why would anyone continue to provide housing in the city of Seattle with those kind of results?

@40- it’s worse than that. What the City laws are doing is making it harder to rent to lower-income tenants. IMO you’d be out of your mind to offer housing at the low end of the market now.

housing as commodity
means Homelessness
will only Increase

will it be as Hard
to Hate on the Homeless
when you've finally Joined them

not to Mention
the Diseases
of Despair
you Too'll
be Likely
to Con-
tract

count your Blessings
whilst they Last.

@9- the dispossessed should at least get rum and sodomy along with the hardtack. All work and no play, right?

@9/43 why would we send them to the royal navy? Shouldn't they join the Night's Watch and take their place on Trump's wall until "their watch is ended"?

nyt:
Harris
Calls Trump a
Fascist: 6 Takeaways
From Her CNN Town Hall

Entering new rhetorical territory,
the vice president turned even
unrelated questions into at-
tacks on Donald Trump as
she offered long, winding
answers to questions
from voters.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/us/politics/harris-town-hall-cnn-takeaways.html

took ya long enough, Kamala!
we've been calling out tfg djt the
donold as a fucking Fascist for Ages
now here @tS -- at least the blowback
from tS's reich-wing contingent has lessen-
ed oh so slightly for so doing but he's STILL a

fucking Fascist. way to go, Kamala!
and WTG new yawk Times! Still
Waiting for the fascists over
to the Seatimes to follow
suit & call eltrumpfster
a fellow Fascist but
def Not holding
my breath.

Vote Blue
Anyways.

@45: So, Sawant campaigned for a candidate whom even liberal Democrats now call a fascist. (Her supporters were right, she proudly disagrees with the Democrats on core issues.)

"Waiting for the fascists over
to the Seatimes to follow
suit & call eltrumpfster
a fellow Fascist but
def Not holding
my breath."

While the rest of us are waiting for the Stranger to call Sawant a fellow fascist sympathizer.

We're also not holding our breath.

thank Gawd! for Kshama
eh, wormmy? Now ya got
something you can Really sink
your teeth into everytime Anyone
says Anything about nearly anything:

from 'But HAMAS!'
to "but KSHAMA!"

You've come a
long ways, too!

@47: Your total lack of criticism for Sawant’s campaigning for a fascist has been noted, just as your total lack of concern for ongoing victims of Hamas has been noted.

demand I call out Kshama
all you wanna you make
enough noise for fifty

b. Wormtongue
you Lie like
a rug

hence
the name.

@49: You call Trump a fascist, and Sawant campaigns for him. Therefore, according to your own logic, Sawant is herself either a fascist sympathizer, or an outright fascist. Yet, you won't condemn her for it. So much for your supposedly principled opposition to fascism!

You call names because you continually mistake name-calling for argument. You employ a stolen name in your name-calling because you utterly lack the even the meager literary talent required to make up your own names. (You're free to argue with the logic I outlined in my first paragraph, above, but you'll likely decline because you know you'd fail miserably at that, too.)

If you want to keep abusing the term 'fascist,' I can't stop you. I can, however, contrast your liberal (ha!) use of the term, with your refusal to use it where it clearly applies. So there you remain for all to see, meekly acquiescing to an open display of fascist advocacy, and better yet, by an elected official you once praised. Again, this puts your constant use of the term 'fascism' is proper context. That's too bad for you, but there seems to be nothing you can do about it.

@51

speaking of Fascists
here's a quick review
amongst many others
too numerous to post
or to even Bother with:

"Nobody 
should be
surprised to
see a pro-Israel
propagandist like
Tensorna [AKA Wormtongue*] 
attempt to smear his critics by any
means possible, however feeble they may seem."

--@averagebob on August 21, 2024 at 10:00 AM

*'stolen'?
silly wormmy!
JRR Himself tole me
he LOVED it bestowed upon you!

a 'gifted' rhetorician
in service to a
Genocidal
maniac.

now tell us More
how Entitled Israel is
to bomb the M.E. to Smithereens

Whilst
WE ARE
PAYING FOR IT.

@51: And, of course, after your repeated refusal to apply the term "fascist" to someone who, according to you, loudly advocates for the election of one, you refer to a liberal as a "Fascist." You have learned well from Sawant on both whom to attack, and when an abjectly servile silence is absolutely required.

Have fun not calling out the real fascists. Your inability to call them out for what they are remains for all to see.

@52

Thnx, wormmy!
and keep telling
the fucking Planet
that nutnyahoo's little
Genocide AIN'T REALLY A
GENOCIDE AT A L L! not like
when Hamas attacked Israel on
10/7, killing almost 1,300 Human
Beings! and How many has bibi's
'little' Genocidal Massacre Killed?*
c'MON wormmy! Tell us yet Again
how it's Totes Fucking JUSTIFIED!

just Love hearin'
you Say it! do
it! do it! Do
just Do it!

*40, 50K?
WHO can
Even keep
the fuck up?!

but HAMAS!
but KSHAMA!
but but but but!

@53, @54: No amount of your yelling "genocide" will make it so, just as no amount of your denial concerning Hamas will make them any less responsible for civilian deaths in Gaza. As for 10/7, that was killing Jews, for being Jews, on land the killers had vowed to cleanse of Jews. What word would you use to describe such an action?

When it comes to Sawant's fascism -- or, at least, to her very vocal and enthusiastic support of fascism -- even you have learned an abject, servile, unquestioning silence is the very best statement you can ever possibly hope to make. Why does this simple and obvious lesson elude you on so many other topics?

@55
ad vomitas
ad Nauseum

"No
amount
of your yel-
ling 'genocide'
will make it so... "

and
yet Your
Denial of what
the Whole Fucking
Planet CAN fucking See Will
make it all "just another Massacre!"
of an Entrapped Population? you Hide
behind your silly little Definitions like they're
some sortta Shield like bibi Hides behind Hamas

to
A. Steal More Land
B. keep the FUCK Outta Prison

bibi
"Appreciates"
his lil' wormmy!

"There
is NO Just-
ification for Terrorism.

Ever."

--@Wormtongue
whenever the fuck it was
but it WAS HERE @derr Schlogg

and
that One time
you were Right!

End the Genocide:
set Israel, Palestine, the
Whole fucking Middle East FREE:

pardon bibi
and END his
keep-outta-jail Gam-
bit/"War" on Palestinians

BEFORE it's WWIII +
Armafuckinggeddon.

and We might even
Win in November!

@56: Again, you maintain such a wonderfully, perfectly, studiously silence -- when the issue is blatant advocacy of fascism, right here at home. Why even bother commenting on faraway topics, where the persons responsible will neither listen nor care?

If you actually care about the plight of Gaza, then consider this. The same pro-Palestinian protestors who called for more war immediately after 10/7 also called for elimination of Israel over the entire next year, and called for yet more war again on the anniversary of of 10/7 -- even though thousands of Palestinians in Gaza had died as a result of war after 10/7. Some of those pro-Palestinian protestors are locals; why not take your considerable ire to them? (Yeah, they probably won't listen to you either, but at least you won't have to shout as far.)

Everyone can see Gaza has been a humanitarian disaster. Disagreement remains on what kind of disaster, and who is primarily responsible. If you want to pretend Hamas had no part in it, you can continue to do so; everyone else can see Hamas killed hundreds of innocent persons in a genocidal attack, then ran and hid behind women and children. We have no problem assigning Hamas the blame for all of those deaths, but you're free to continue saying Hamas is irrelevant if you want. That's your problem, not anyone else's, and I'm proud not to care what someone with such an obvious moral problem says about me (or any other topic, for that matter).

@58 -- "We have no problem assigning Hamas the blame for all of those deaths, but you're free to continue saying Hamas is irrelevant if you want."

you can choose to ignore
my condemnations of Hamas
all you wanna; that doesn't make
them simply Vanish into the ether.

"That's your problem, not anyone else's, and I'm proud not to care what someone with such an obvious moral problem says about me (or any other topic, for that matter)."

rich, they are, your Vile projections
coming from the Worm-
tongue himself

I began to search for my condemnations
of said Terrorist Group but was intrigued
by others' comments regarding yours

here's a couple for our Edification
each directed at ol' wormmy hisself:

"arguing that protest doesn't count because they started on Mercer Island (home to probably the largest Jewish community in the region) before marching into Seattle is a new low even for you"
--@thirteen12 on September 10, 2024 at 4:46 PM

"I know that you will hand-wave away anything Israel does that results in mass casualties but what I am telling you is that any arguments that start from the position that your side is inherently superior will not win over hearts and minds as long as they are killing innocent people by the tens of thousands."
--@barth on September 18, 2024 at 10:15 AM

"You keep claiming it's not a genocide and rejoicing in our failure to impose a ceasefire,. I point out there are reports by UN human rights specialists that say it is a genocide so according to your odd but predictable logic, I must be hating Jews. Sick puppy needs to get help."

--@averagebob on September 8, 2024 at 1:25 PM
"'your attitude towards the Jews'

Liar. I have nothing but respect for Jewish culture. No matter how many times you conflate criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinian Arabs and its colonial expansionism with being anti-Jew, it will not be true.

"Trying to show which sub-group of humans has any kind of natural "right" to any given piece of dirt is a fool's errand at best, and intellectually dishonest at worst."

An apologist for colonial land grabs would say something very similar. I have grown accustomed to the idea fact that you'll say just about anything but denying the existence of property rights over land is astonishing even for an unprincipled opportunist like you."
--@averagebob on September 8, 2024 at 10:23 PM 

"Nobody should be surprised to see a pro-Israel propagandist like Tensorna [AKA Wormtongue] attempt to smear his critics by any means possible, however feeble they may seem.
--@averagebob on August 21, 2024 at 10:00 AM

well
that's
about
all the
Depravity
I wanna endure
at least, for now.

but
please do
come back with
ever More of your,
in Catalina Val duRay's
own words, 'Vile Projections.'

"we"'d
be Disappointed in
you if you didn't, wormmy.

I'm pretty
fucking Sure
I can stumble over
fifty or so More before
vomiting all over my keyboard.

you're
likely made
of Much sterner stuff.

oh
and Just
to be Clear
to Others, suaded
by your slick & insidious
manipulations of the Lingo
Not to Mention all the LIES:

yes
Hamas
IS a Terrorist
Organization. I do
NOT Believe had Gazans
Known that, they ever would
have Elected them in their LAST
fucking Election -- in TWO THOUSAND
FUCKING SEVEN. and now, bibi's Atrocity-
filled Genocidal (it's totally OK, wormmy, settle
the Fuck down, as an Adjective it DOES FUCKING
Qualify -- and YOU, of all know-it-alls, Knows it Too
Damn Well) Massacre has, as All Wars Do, gotten the Citizens

Pardon ME, they're Not fucking Citizens but
they ARE being BOMBED to SMITHEREENS

on Our
Dime!

whilst you and bibi
use Palestinians as
Human Shields

so Spare me your fucking
Crocodile Tears about
anyone's "lack of
Morality."

we
See
you.

where was I
oh, right -- so now
Gazans're turning to their
Sole Supporters -- fucking Hamas

themselves not afraid
to sacrifice civilians
in their Cause.

and bibi's likely 99%
culpable for their
Situation having
Greased the
Skids for
Hamas
(so to
speak

and bibi
CANNOT Stop
his little "War" cuz
if he DOES off he goes to
Nuremberg or whereverthefuck

I say
Free Them
ALL: pardon bibi
(& he stays tf OUT OF A L L
POLITICS for the REST OF HIS LIFE)
or, again, it's Off to fucking Nuremberg.

oh and get Germany
(thnx, xina!) to give Jews
a Nice, Healthy chunk of derr
Deutschland; reparations, you know

and give to Palestine Its VERY OWN Self .

sorry
wormmy!
NO fucking
ARMAGEDDON.

what's not
to Love?

wwjd?
Preview
oh
and Just
to be Clear
to Others, suaded
by your slick & insidious
manipulations of the Lingo
Not to Mention all the LIES:

yes
Hamas
IS a Terrorist
Organization. I do
NOT Believe had Gazans
Known that, they ever would
have Elected them in their LAST
fucking Election -- in TWO THOUSAND
FUCKING SEVEN. and now, bibi's Atrocity-
filled Genocidal (it's totally OK, wormmy, settle
the Fuck down, as an Adjective it DOES FUCKING
Qualify -- and YOU, of all know-it-alls, Knows it Too
Damn Well) Massacre has, as All Wars Do, gotten the Citizens

Pardon ME, they're Not fucking Citizens but
they ARE being BOMBED to SMITHEREENS

on Our
Dime!

whilst you and bibi
use Palestinians as
Human Shields

so Spare me your fucking
Crocodile Tears about
anyone's "lack of
Morality."

we
See
you.

where was I
oh, right -- so now
Gazans're turning to their
Sole Supporters -- fucking Hamas

themselves not afraid
to sacrifice civilians
in their Cause.

and bibi's likely 99%
culpable for their
Situation having
Greased the
Skids for
Hamas
(so to
speak

and bibi
CANNOT Stop
his little "War" cuz
if he DOES off he goes to
Nuremberg or whereverthefuck

I say
Free Them
ALL: pardon bibi
(& he stays tf OUT OF A L L
POLITICS for the REST OF HIS LIFE)
or, again, it's Off to fucking Nuremberg.

oh and get Germany
(thnx, xina!) to give Jews
a Nice, Healthy chunk of derr
Deutschland; reparations, you know

and give to Palestine Its VERY OWN Self .

sorry
wormmy!
NO fucking
ARMAGEDDON.

what's not
to Love?

wwjd?

wowzer
the Daily
fucking Double!

apologies
apologies
et cetera

@59:

"you can choose to ignore
my condemnations of Hamas
all you wanna; that doesn't make
them simply Vanish into the ether."

Apparently, you can't produce them from the ether, either.

And "condemnations of Hamas," even if you were ultimately shamed into making a token effort at one, misses the point. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, protected persons cannot be used to shield combatants. Full stop. Hamas violates that international law of armed conflict, every day, in the hope of increasing civilian casualties. Hamas is therefore responsible for the suffering and deaths of those civilians.

Why does Hamas persist in pursing a blatantly illegal policy, one which intentionally kills innocent Palestinians? Because persons like you can be counted upon to condemn Israel for the deaths of those civilians. You're the reason Hamas continues putting children in the line of fire. Every time you've blamed Israel, and Israel alone, you've validated Hamas' murderous strategy -- and you've told them to do more of it. Congratulations?

"I began to search for my condemnations
of said Terrorist Group but..."

You achieved your usual success, eh? Bragging about your own total failure to support your own claims is an odd way to begin criticizing someone else's arguments, but I guess you just gotta be you.

Oh, and context is important, BTW. For example, when averagebob wrote,

"An apologist for colonial land grabs would say something very similar."

He was responding to my statement: 'Humans evolved in sub-Saharan Africa, and many migrated elsewhere, in many movements, over many tens of thousands of years. Trying to show which sub-group of humans has any kind of natural "right" to any given piece of dirt is a fool's errand at best, and intellectually dishonest at worst.'

That first sentence, which you both omitted (who's distorting whom, now?), has been accepted by scientists for decades. When you're condemning accepted scientific findings as detrimental to your beliefs, that should be a none-too-subtle hint your beliefs are not actually grounded in fact. But not to you guys, no. You just condemn the science -- and anyone who dares base arguments upon that science -- for destroying your precious beliefs.

From the Smithsonian:

"Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa. Early humans first migrated out of Africa into Asia probably between 2 million and 1.8 million years ago. They entered Europe somewhat later, by between 1.5 million and 1 million years. Species of modern humans populated many parts of the world much later. For instance, people first came to Australia probably within the past 60,000 years and to the Americas within the past 20,000 years or so."

(https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/anthropology-and-social-studies/human-evolution#:~:text=Humans%20and%20Our%20Evolutionary%20Relatives&text=Humans%20first%20evolved%20in%20Africa,and%20extinction%20of%20each%20species.)

In the context of tens of thousands -- or even millions! -- of years, talking about which group has lived in which place for a few thousand years (or less) sounds like neighborhood children loudly arguing over exactly when each family moved to their block. It's trivial, pointless, and misses the actual issue: we all need to find some legal way to respect each other's right to live in peace. Here and now, not based on something someone supposedly did several hundred years ago.

but here's the Bigger point --
(your'e Merely a conven-
ient Distraction for the
Status Quozers) from
"my girlfriend" as
you Love to call
her wormmy:

'On Gaza And Feelings Of Powerlessness'
by Caitlin Johnstone
Oct 26, 2024

"It’s the sense of powerlessness that gets to you. Watching all these people being slaughtered and tormented in Gaza and in Lebanon with the full support of your own government and its allies, but being unable to stop it.

That’s basically been the main message of the 2024 US presidential election with regard to Israel’s US-backed atrocities: “You are powerless to stop this.”

Over and over again in various ways Americans are being fed the message that the slaughter is going to continue regardless of who wins, so you may as well give up on saving Gaza and try to look out for your own interests.

That was what Kamala Harris was saying when she told Americans that they need to vote for her, even though she will continue the Gaza genocide, if they want things like affordable groceries and abortion rights.

She was saying, “You are powerless. There is nothing you can do to stop this. What are you going to do, vote for Trump? He’ll continue the genocide too. Vote for a third party candidate? They can’t win.

We’ve closed off all the options by which you might try to end this. We’ve shut and locked all the doors. There’s no way out. You might as well relax and submit to the inevitable.”

And, in a sense, the empire managers are not wrong when they tell us this. The system is stacked to prevent us from stopping their genocidal rampage in the middle east.

You can’t vote your way out of it; they’ve rigged it so all possible results of the election lead to more genocide. You can’t fight a revolution to stop it; westerners are currently too propaganda-addled to rise up in sufficient numbers to join you, and you’d just get killed.

You can’t even engage in direct action like blocking the weapons shipments and sabotaging the arms manufacturers unless you’re prepared to do some serious prison time.

This reality weighs heavily on those who oppose this genocide. I sometimes see activists online snapping and lashing out at people on their side over the fact that they’re not doing more, not putting their bodies and lives on the line, not doing whatever it takes to stop this nightmare.

Which is an entirely understandable response to the situation we now find ourselves in. We should all be doing everything we can to end this genocide and stop the empire’s bloodbath, and those who are going above and beyond on this front should be commended.

But I think the real lesson behind this feeling of powerlessness and the message from our rulers that we are powerless to stop them is just that: that we are powerless.

Or, more specifically, that we have been made powerless. That our power has been taken from us, and given to people who should not have power.

That’s the message we should be taking from all this: that we are living in a civilization that has been rigged by the powerful, for the benefit of the powerful, to siphon power away from the many to and give it to a few oligarchs and empire managers.

We have been made powerless. Until we get real about this fact, we won’t be able to address it.

As long as we’re still fooling ourselves into thinking there’s a swift and immediately available option for us to end these murderous atrocities, we won’t be able to begin addressing the problem that we live in a highly controlled tyrannical dystopia where the people do not have the kind of power we’re taught we have in school.

Of course we do have power in the most real sense: there are a whole lot more normal people than there are oligarchs and empire managers, and we could easily implement any changes we wanted to if we rose up in sufficient numbers.

But we’re not rising up in sufficient numbers because far too many of us have been successfully indoctrinated into believing our genocidal, ecocidal, omnicidal status quo is acceptable, with the help of the most sophisticated propaganda machine that has ever existed.

oodles
and fucking
More oodles here:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/on-gaza-and-feelings-of-powerlessness

& subscribe
for Free!

gosh wormmy!!
GO there & give Caitlin
a big Piece of your Mind!

(if you can
Locate it.
& good
Luck!)

"You achieved your usual success, eh? Bragging about your own total failure to support your own claims is an odd way to begin criticizing someone else's arguments, but I guess you just gotta be you."

our fabulous Wormtongue
lying his arse off -- I decided
my search to be less interesing
than other readers' comment re
you, wormmy. sorry it wasn't what
you thought you'd been Promised
but I'm not Responsible for your silly

@63: Thanks for the update! I was wondering if your current (imaginary, as always) girlfriend was still hard at wank over Israel granting land to terrorists who commit genocide against Jews. Now, even she has abandoned that precious dream of hers as utterly hopeless. What does that tell you? Nothing, of course. (Nothing ever can.)

Undeniable reality has finally dragged her to face the abyss of her bitter despair. "Gaza Isn't Driving Votes," no matter how hard she tried. If the votes simply won't go her way, her only possible explanation whines, "...they’ve rigged it...", not, "we can't convince our fellow Americans to abandon the only democracy in the region to jihadi theocrats." The blame for her not using violence here at home to 'solve' this problem lies with others, as of course it simply always must: "...westerners are currently too propaganda-addled to rise up in sufficient numbers..."

Worst of all, premeditated violence against her fellow Americans, to punish their unmitigated gall of not agreeing with her that Gaza is the center of the entire known universe, would actually (gasp!) have negative consequences for purveyors of said violence: "You can’t even engage in direct action like blocking the weapons shipments and sabotaging the arms manufacturers unless you’re prepared to do some serious prison time." Her determination to stop "genocide" has a very tight limit, and she immediately hit that hard limit at the exact moment she was asked to contemplate sacrificing anything which personally has value to her.

Little wonder you admire her great moral courage.

@64: However your post facto rationalization goes, you still failed completely at your self-appointed task: you have not found any evidence to support your claims. At all. (Why you believe this outcome could possibly require an explanation, I leave to you.)

okay
wormmy

'congrats'
on your ability
to take a spec of dust
make it into a mole and
turn That into a Molehill and
Mount fucking Everest flows out
of your poisoned/poisoning giant brain.

well done.

but That's
Not the Point:

"But we’re not rising up in sufficient numbers because far too many of us have been successfully indoctrinated into believing our genocidal, ecocidal, omnicidal status quo is acceptable, with the help of the most sophisticated propaganda machine that has ever existed."
--Caitlin Johnstone, from above

looks like whilst your incomplete
delving into my comments (you
Cannot, because the Truth will
Out) write another tripe asap.

you are the Propaganda
the Johnstones of this
World see coming &
Warn Us Against

when Dystopia is
'Sanity' there Is
no Bottom &
you Prove it
with every
fucking
post.

sad, sick
puppy.

@63: As I won't give traffic to Johnstone's site, and you're very happy in your role as errand boy, could you please fetch me some examples of this?

"I sometimes see activists online snapping and lashing out at people on their side over the fact that they’re not doing more, not putting their bodies and lives on the line, not doing whatever it takes..."

Persons like Johnstone, venomously castigating persons like Johnstone, for not taking orders from persons like Johnstone, to make the personal sacrifices persons like Johnstone demand of others -- but will NOT make themselves! -- now, such material could provide some levity to the grim rhetorical position into which Johnstone, etc. have jammed yourselves. Quotes and urls, please!

You could so easily escape your grim rhetorical trap, simply by applying the actual definition of "genocide" to acts where is applies, i.e. Hamas' attacks upon Israel, and not to acts where it doesn't apply, e.g. Hamas use of human shields, but you've shown no ability to make things easy on yourselves, now have you?

@66: I addressed her whining about "propaganda" in the very comment wherein you claimed I hadn't. I just happened to use a different whine of hers to address it. It's not my fault she's so tediously repetitive in such a short essay.

But since you insisted, her multiple whines about how she's losing only because of much better propaganda by her enemies sounds really rich, coming from someone who has spent an entire year-plus abusing the word "genocide," in a bald attempt to gain political advantage. That's the very definition of Orwellian abuse of language, and she's a chronic offender, even though her (and your, and the Stranger's) efforts at abusing that word have all failed to produce your intended results.

"That's the very definition of Orwellian abuse of language, and she's a chronic offender, even though her (and your, and the Stranger's) efforts at abusing that word have all failed to produce your intended results."

in other words
"War's still going
so Shut the Fuck up"

pass,
Wormtongue

here,
Catch:

From Doctor Strangelove
or How I Stopped Worrying
and Learned to Love Genocide

[oh my fucking Gosh,
wormmy! EVERYONE's
Doing IT! (you must be
Tonnes of Fun at B-Day
parties when they want
to sing Happy Birthday!

"HEY -- ARE YOU
PAYING FOR IT??!!!!"

I bet NO One
sings THAT Copyrighted
Song in the Presence of the Wormtongue])

moving the Fuck on

NEW YORK CITY: I am sitting on a fire escape across the street from Columbia University with three organizers of the Columbia University Gaza protest. It is night. New York City Police, stationed inside and outside the gates of the campus, have placed the campus on lockdown. There are barricades blocking streets.

No one, unless they live in a residence hall on campus, is allowed to enter. The siege means that students cannot go to class. Students cannot go to the library. Students cannot enter the labs. Students cannot visit the university health services. Students cannot get to studios to practice.

Students cannot attend lectures. Students cannot walk across the campus lawns. The university, as during the Covid pandemic, has retreated into the world of screens where students are isolated in their rooms.

The university buildings are largely vacant. The campus pathways deserted. Columbia is a Potemkin university, a playground for corporate administrators.

The president of the university — a British-Egyptian baroness who built her career at institutions such as the Bank of England, World Bank and International Monetary Fund — called in police in riot gear, with guns drawn, to clear the school’s encampment, forcibly evict students who occupied a campus hall and beat and arrest over 100 of them.

They were arrested for
“criminal trespassing”
on their own campus.

These administrators demand, like all who manage corporate systems of power, total obedience. Dissent. Freedom of expression. Critical thought. Moral outrage.

These have no place in our corporate-indentured universities.

[right up YOUR Alleyway, Wormtongue!]

All systems of totalitarianism, including corporate totalitarianism, deform education into vocational training where students are taught what to think, not how to think.

Only the skills and expertise demanded by the corporate state are valued. The withering away of the humanities and transformation of major research universities into corporate and Defense Department vocational schools with their outsized emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math, illustrate this shift.

The students who disrupt the Potemkin university, who dare to think for themselves, face beatings, suspension, arrest and expulsion.

--Chris Hedges

from: The Chris Hedges Report
Covering US foreign policy,
economic realities, and
civil liberties in Amer-
ican society.

oodles fucking more:
ohttps://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-nations-conscience

THIS is why,
"... even though her (and your, and the Stranger's) efforts at abusing that word have all failed to produce your intended results."

your Orwellian Abuse
and your Vile Projections
are what's keeping bibi and
his Keep-outta-prison Gambit
CONTINUING -- the Reason Why
Isreal -- thru bibi nutnyahoo & his
Loyal psycophants -- is self-Destructing.

congratulations:
Hamas has Played Y'all
like Stradivarius's fucking Fiddle.

@69: Your Orwellian abuse of language, although a total failure, would be as offensive in peace as it is in war. Asking you to use the correct words for things is not an attempt to silence you; it is an attempt to prevent your dishonesty from degrading our honest discourse. Only if you simply cannot ever be honest in your use of words would it be an attempt to silence you. (If that's what you're back-handedly admitting, I'll accept it.)

Why would anyone object to singing "Happy Birthday"? The copyright expired awhile ago.

By contrast, copyright on Lord of the Rings remains in effect, meaning your theft of Tolkien's intellectual property remains offensive to all who value original creativity in writing. (Again, if that latter explains why you could not possibly care less about your chronic -- if petty -- thievery, I'll accept it.)

"...to clear the school’s encampment, forcibly evict students who occupied a campus hall and beat and arrest over 100 of them."

Finally, after multiple paragraphs of his embittered whining, he gets to the root cause: small numbers of students had appropriated to their own exclusive use some campus properties, which should have been available to the entire university community he's piteously whining about. Strangely, for someone who believes the protestors should be heard, he utterly fails to quote so much as one single word of what they actually said:

‘The day before the police shut down the protests [at Columbia University], pro-Palestinian students led marches around the heart of the campus chanting “Brick by brick, wall by wall, Israel will fall” and “We don’t want no two state, we will take all of it”. Others led with a variation on the popular but contentious “river to the sea” slogan: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be Arab.”‘

Oh, and as always, you might want to close your eyes against this part:

'The university suspended one of the protest leaders, Khymani James, after video emerged of him saying in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists”.'

Tonnes more, hatefully: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/03/college-gaza-protests-antisemitism

Lovely company you're keeping. Little wonder some theft here and there bothers you not in the slightest.

@63: You could be forgiven for missing the tiny flake of gold in Johnstone's neverending geyser of garbage:

"As long as we’re still fooling ourselves into thinking there’s a swift and immediately available option for us..."
That's the mistake, very persistently applied, which has brought you here to suffer. (And suffer. And suffer.)

The international hard left has always had a soft and blind spot for the Palestinians, whose chronically obnoxious behaviors never elicited much sympathy from anyone else in the West. Oblivious to this, you thought it would all be so easy. You'd simply appropriate the word "genocide," attach it to the status of Victim the Palestinians always have in your minds, and et voila, no one could oppose you. (Why, anyone who dared to do so would be morally guilty of genocide!) You'd win by definition, default, and (should those fail), no small amount of bullying. No messy moral calculus for you, no recognition of history, no need to wonder why 75 years of conflict had not produced meaningful resolution. Just pat yourselves on the back for your easy victory.

It didn't work last October, it hasn't worked this October, and you're still spluttering with uncomprehending rage at why it continues not working. You've hurled every possible variant of "Pro-Genocider" at we who've dared to question your moral certainty, and all we've done in return is shake our heads and laugh. Just as Hamas can surrender any time they want, thus sparing Gaza more brutal misery, you too can quit anytime. Simply admit you were wrong, not about the horrors of war, but about them being "genocide." You can quit and walk away any time you want, and, unlike Hamas, the IDF won't pounce on you. You can choose to leave the open-air prison of your mind any time you like. Only you can set you free; I can merely advise you to do so. I wish you the best of luck on your escape.

from the Chris Hedges Report:

Genocidal Scorecard

The latest U.N. report chronicles Israel’s advances in its genocidal assault in Gaza. Israel is intent, the report warns, on expelling the Palestinians, recolonizing Gaza and turning on the West Bank.

A United Nations report, published on Monday,
https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24/279/68/pdf/n2427968.pdf

lays out in chilling detail the advances made by Israel in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate “the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine.” This genocidal project, the report ominously warns, “is now metastasizing to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

The Nakba or “catastrophe,” which in 1948 saw Zionist militias drive 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, carry out more than 70 massacres and seize 78 percent of historic Palestine, has returned on steroids. It is the next and, perhaps, final chapter in “a long-term intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.”

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, who issued the report, titled “Genocide as colonial erasure,” makes an urgent appeal to the international community to impose a full arms embargo and sanctions on Israel until the genocide of Palestinians is halted.

She calls on Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire. She demands that Israel, as required by international law and U.N. resolutions, withdraw its military and colonists from Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

At the very least, Israel, unchecked, should be formally recognized as an apartheid state and persistent violator of international law, Albanese states. The U.N. should reactivate the Special Committee Against Apartheid to address the situation in Palestine, and Israel’s membership in the U.N. should be suspended. Short of these interventions, Israel’s goal, Albanese warns, will likely come into fruition.

“This ongoing genocide is doubtlessly the consequence of the exceptional status and protracted impunity that has been afforded to Israel.” she writes. “Israel has systematically and flagrantly violated international law, including Security Council resolutions and [International Criminal Court] ICJ orders.

This has emboldened the hubris of Israel and its defiance of international law. As the ICC Prosecutor has warned, ‘if we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions of its complete collapse. This is the true risk we face at this perilous moment.’”

--by Chris Hedges; Oct 30, 2024

oodles More:
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/genocidal-scorecard

who ya gonna Believe?
tS's right-wing contingent
of Pro-Genocidal supporters?

or the former NYT Middle Eastern
Bureau Chief, who resigned rather
echo the nyt's full-throated Support
for the Cheney/bush Invasion of Iraq and

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967? pretty tough choice, eh?

@72: Having been reminded your attempted appropriation of the word, “genocide,” has failed completely over the past year, your response was — wait for it! — to make another attempt to appropriate the word, “genocide.” (It’s just gotta work sometime, right?)

My questions for Hedges and Albanese:

To test your actual knowledge of the word, “genocide,” was the 10/7 attack a genocide? (You know, the one where the attackers killed Jews, for being Jews, on land the killers had vowed to cleanse of Jews?)
To test your knowledge of UN matters, what should be done to implement UN Security Council Resolution #1701, which bars Hezbollah from operating in southern Lebanon? It was passed in 2006; have you any status on this delay in implementation?

I mean, are you gonna believe folks who can’t answer those simple questions? Pretty tough choice, eh?

(Shakes head, laughs, walks away…)

... drops mic

like the pigeon
who shits on the
chessboard struttingly
smugly & TENS OF THOUSANDS
are Slaughtered, but, no, it's NOT Genocide!

thank
God for the
Grammar Nazis

eh, Wormtongue?

@75: Ok, so I’ll ask you, yet again: was the 10/7 attack a “genocide”?

@75

you
Already
Asked me
that wormmy
not fewer than
about 600 Times

and
yet I
HAVE
answered
your Tedious
query. you Saw
it, Commented on
it, yet here you Are
right back again beg-
ging for Confirmation:

seek
an ye
shall fuck-
ing Find, friendo.

now
show
to us that
Classic Worm-
tongue Indignation
Projection and Insult.

it just
Wouldn't
Be the Same
otherfuckingwise.

@76: “ seek
an ye
shall fuck-
ing Find, friendo.”

Just like you did @59?

“I began to search for my condemnations
of said Terrorist Group…”

How’s that worked out for ya, again?

@77 -- re: @59?
this one?

rich, they are, your Vile projections
coming from the Worm-
tongue himself

here's a couple [or so!] for our Edification
each directed at ol' wormmy hisself:

"arguing that protest doesn't count because they started on Mercer Island (home to probably the largest Jewish community in the region) before marching into Seattle is a new low even for you"
--@thirteen12 on September 10, 2024 at 4:46 PM

"I know that you will hand-wave away anything Israel does that results in mass casualties but what I am telling you is that any arguments that start from the position that your side is inherently superior will not win over hearts and minds as long as they are killing innocent people by the tens of thousands."
--@barth on September 18, 2024 at 10:15 AM

"You keep claiming it's not a genocide and rejoicing in our failure to impose a ceasefire,. I point out there are reports by UN human rights specialists that say it is a genocide so according to your odd but predictable logic, I must be hating Jews. Sick puppy needs to get help."
--@averagebob on September 8, 2024 at 1:25 PM

"'your attitude towards the Jews'

Liar. I have nothing but respect for Jewish culture. No matter how many times you conflate criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinian Arabs and its colonial expansionism with being anti-Jew, it will not be true.

"Trying to show which sub-group of humans has any kind of natural "right" to any given piece of dirt is a fool's errand at best, and intellectually dishonest at worst."

An apologist for colonial land grabs would say something very similar. I have grown accustomed to the idea fact that you'll say just about anything but denying the existence of property rights over land is astonishing even for an unprincipled opportunist like you."
--@averagebob on September 8, 2024 at 10:23 PM

"Nobody should be surprised to see a pro-Israel propagandist like Tensorna [AKA Wormtongue] attempt to smear his critics by any means possible, however feeble they may seem.
--@averagebob on August 21, 2024 at 10:00 AM

well it worked out
Fine, for me,
wormmy

how was it
for You?

if you'd Like
I'm certain I
can come up
with tonnes and
Tonnes more Wormtongue

ask me!
Ask me!

"At the very least, Israel, unchecked, should be formally recognized as an apartheid state and persistent violator of international law, Albanese states. The U.N. should reactivate the Special Committee Against Apartheid to address the situation in Palestine, and Israel’s membership in the U.N. should be suspended. Short of these interventions, Israel’s goal, Albanese warns, will likely come into fruition.

“This ongoing genocide is doubtlessly the consequence of the exceptional status and protracted impunity that has been afforded to Israel.” she writes. “Israel has systematically and flagrantly violated international law, including Security Council resolutions and [International Criminal Court] ICJ orders.

This has emboldened the hubris of Israel and its defiance of international law. As the ICC Prosecutor has warned, ‘if we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions of its complete collapse. This is the true risk we face at this perilous moment.’”

--by Chris Hedges; Oct 30, 2024

Wormtongue:
nothing to see here
cuz there Ain't no friggin
Genocide now move along cuz
your Complaints haven't resolved
a single thing, bibi's Immune, and you
Cannot Make Him Stop, so Shut the Fuck

up.

do I have that
about right,
wormmy?

@78: In your comment @59, you said you'd provide prior examples of your having condemned Hamas. You then completely failed to do so. Your total inability to support your claims with anything at all does indeed work for me.

@80 -- you
want me to
take anoth-
er peek?

10-4!

The Unpunished:
How Extremists Took Over Israel

After 50 years of failure
to stop violence and terrorism
against Palestinians by Jewish ultra-
nationalists, lawlessness has become the law.

--by Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti
May 16, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html

four readers’ comments:

If you’ve been wondering why the students have been protesting, here is your answer.
--Annie; Minnesota

Finally some real journalism. Thanks for this detailed account. It comes 6 months too late, but better late than never.
--Insia Fatima; Brooklyn

This is why I find American support for Israel’s current war so perplexing. People who despise right-wing strongmen like Trump and Orban seem to have bent over backwards to forget that on October 6th, Netanyahu was a right-wing extremist who’d cobbled together a coalition with even more extreme conservatives, and was in the midst of trying to dismantle the court system that might check his power.

If you opposed the Iraq War because you didn’t trust W. Bush, why on earth would you trust Netanyahu to do the right thing?
--NRW; Maine

I'm afraid these terrorists are running things here in Israel. They have a strong hold on prime minister Netanyahu, being the most important piece of his current coalition after everyone else refused to ally with him, and as such they exploit their power in order to bring forth their delusional biblical theories into reality.

These lawless people, these outcasts, who have been for years living in the outskirts of Israeli society, have taken an iron grip on Israel's most fundamental institutions, and are now de facto in control.

US readers must understand that Israel is being run by these people and by them alone. Mr. Netanyahu is nothing but a mere puppet.

October 7th could have been avoided along with the consequential ongoing conflict we see now, if these war mongers were handled in the only effective way: imprisonment and trial on charges of treason against the Israeli state.

They are no better then Hamas - both being terrorists seeking destruction and death in martyrdom.

Keep that in mind when you read and listen to news about Mr. Ben Gvir, and Mr. Smotrich - both no more than mere hoodlums - they not only speak for the Israeli government - they control it.

I hope readers can remember that these people do not represent the entirety of the Israeli public, and that there at least 50% of the Israeli public who strongly oppose their rule.

Hopefully we can turn things around. Please, don't give up on us.
--yon; israel

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html#commentsContainer

This story is told in three parts. The first documents the unequal system of justice that grew around Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank.

The second shows how extremists targeted not only Palestinians but also Israeli officials trying to make peace.

The third explores how this movement gained control of the state itself. Taken together, they tell the story of how a radical ideology moved from the fringes to the heart of Israeli political power. –nyt

YOUR
Tax Dollars hard
at Work. & for Whom?

@27 in tensora's mind the math is easy: if there's 10 terrorists then kill all 10, plus everyone who knows or cares about them, and everyone who knows or cares about the second group, and so on until you can be assured there will be zero terrorists left.

Kill everyone who might ever oppose you, sit on a throne of skulls, and if anyone questions your tactics bring up 10/7 and call them antisemitic (or unpatriotic, or whatever jingoistic nonsense the particular situation warrants).

thirteen12 on April 29, 2024 at 5:00 PM

HAMAS oughtta
be Gone -- & wouldn't
BE There were it not for BooBoo's
coddling of HAMAS; & then IGNORING
REPEATED WARNINGS of Terrorist 'activity'
and didn't even Up the border guards. where're
the Demands for bibi to Vacate the fucking Premises?

HAMAS IS a Terroris Organinzation
slightly maybe more concerned
with the Plight of Palestinians
than with Israelis but Damn
little daylight between
the two. they're FAR
from Helping the
now-Refugees
whose Homes
bibi's destroyed

their Rain of Terror has abated

Israel's
CONTINUES.

kristofarian on April 24, 2024 at 12:17 PM

@24. You [wormmy] [tentsores] [etc], like most of the other far right Republicans who are all falling in line with this purely ceremonial posturing towards Israel, are all merely projecting the public antisemitism they have espoused for years on the "Progressive" left, students and people of character who are exercising their fundamental rights as American to free speech, expression, and petition of their government.

You cannot and will not wipe the slate by projecting on to the opposition your greatest sins.

The fact that you make such an awkward and tasteless display while using terms like House Jew makes it clear that you don't have anyone's interest in mind but those who are paying you to parrot the nonsense that the current Israeli administration in alliance with the global far right movement enhanced by the propaganda of Russia and those in league with Bannon and Roger Stone, is so blatantly transparent and disgusting to see.

But I should expect no less from a weak minded coward with the character of a flea as yourself [Wormtongue] and the ilk that post here ad nauseum regularly to try to obfuscate their own hideous prejudice and likely the sins your very recent ancestors committed against the Jews, as did all Europeans, and the great stain of shame that you cannot escape from that legacy.

You fools are all trying to discredit these well meaning and inexorably Jewish protestors as all antisemitic and in league with Hamas, using the same exact playbook as the far right propagandist took against the well-meaning BLM movement which started with a very simple premise, to stop police brutality against black folks and minorities.

To value all life at the same level. To treat people as you would be treated. Equal justice under the law. As Passover reminds us and are written in the halls of the Jefferson Memorial, commerce between master and slave is despotism in any form, and nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate that these people are to be free.

The claim is that protestors need to be jailed and are fascists, and for what? Surely there are extremists in league with the protestors who hate Jews and who have very well made university campuses unsafe for them, but these are not those folks.

And by lobbing them all into the same group, by refusing to use your brain to think critically, you show yourself to fold in the slightest breeze to the fascist boots on your chest and to stomp on others who above all in good faith simply wish to stop permitting the most heinous abuses and travesties of human rights against any people, anywhere, 10/7 with the rape and murder of women and children, and beyond which continues today.

There is no victimization or singled out people who are given moral license to continually commit these errors and sins in our name, in their name, or to appropriate the great legacy of the Abrahamic religions throughout time by obscuring their fundamental truths.

You cannot be a Christian by simply wearing it as a badge. Christ spoke against the authorities and had nowhere to lay his head, and his followers had to count the cost of such service by being prepared to do the same.

And the current administration in Israel has used Hamas as a foil to divide and conquer the Palestinian opposition, and are guilty of cultivating this situation as much as any other actor.

And all actors continue to beat the war drums and drop bombs and missiles and provoke a greater conflict that will leave no one of any race or religion unscarred from the aftereffects.

I commend my fellow Texans (TEXAS FIGHT!) whose eyes are all upon you. You hypocrites and weak minded cowards who stomp out free speech and liberty by castigating all as the bad apples.

You cannot see the forest for the trees. Or you will not. But the mighty in spirit shall prevail and will remain unintimidated. It is the fear of losing power funded by billionaires to keep the trillions in arms flowing that will heat our planet for every salvo dropped and destroy our collective brethren, the foxes in their dens, and the albatrosses around our necks, as we ever more devalue life and invite our mutual destruction in the name of false righteousness.

And the great flood will come and sweep away your ivory towers on your shores and bring you to your knees to beg for mercy when the great might of creation holds you accountable for your sins in this life and the next.

May God have mercy on you all. You know not what you do. But I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.

And for all those who cry out in fear in the night, who cannot find solace or comfort, whose trauma will bleed for generations, my heart breaks for you and I pray for us all to find wisdom and humanity in the days and months and years to come.

We must be better than this, for we have all of history to see the consequences of repeating the same mistakes of the past and refusing to learn from them.

He who prayeth best, loveth best
All things both great and small
For the dear God who loveth us
He made loveth all

CDizzle on April 25, 2024 at 1:43 AM

Bingo &
Bravissimo
CDizzle. kudos

The one thing you can always count on with regard to internet trolls is "show me the proof!" Even if you have shown and show it again they will deny, lie, and retry "show me the proof!"

Why? Are you too stupid to find it yourself? If you disagree and believe "proof" will prove it, then YOU show the proof. Wouldn't that make more sense?

Ah, but you don't have any, so there's that.

The next thing that trolls love to say is "your opinion is making me {insert whatever someone else's opinion is making you do}. It's like men who beat or murder (their child, their girlfriend, hell even their bosses, co-workers, kids going school, people at a concert, anyone simply for existing...) LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!

FFS take some responsibility for your own beliefs and behavior. If any comments on SLOG push your beliefs or behaviro one way or the other than that's pretty sad.

The ICJ told Israel exactly what it had to do to avoid committing genocide. Israel, instead, chose to do exactly everything on the list they were told NOT TO DO and MORE.

So yeah, Israel is committing genocide. Starving millions of people to death is genocide. Destroying everything, all schools, libraries, hospitals, cultural centers, religious buildings, and most importantly, KILLING CHILDREN and pregnant women are acts of genocide.

Don't like people using the word? Oh well, denial of reality doesn't make it cease to exist.

The United Nations Genocide Convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group".

Israel has done all of the above and more. Israel is committing genocide and the United States' taxpayers are paying for all of it.

So you don't give a shit about Palestinians being wiped off the face of the earth? Okay. You also don't care that the United States is providing money and weapons to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars?

No? Don't care about that either? What, exactly, do you care about then? Democrats and the Biden Administration are violating U.S. law and international law by providing Israel with weapons while they are committing crimes of genocide.
That a problem for you? No?

I guess the question becomes, what do you care about?

And just in case this needs to be made clear: that's a rhetorical question, one you [Wormtongue] get [to] answer while looking at yourself in the mirror, because I don't care.

xina on March 14, 2024 at 12:16 PM

didja
Bust your
Mirror yet
Wormtongue?

or do you
need More?

@81-87: Still not taking my criticisms well, eh?

Expanding on what I wrote @77 and @80, you seem to have little problem finding past comments here at the Stranger. Yet, you've completely failed to find the comments you yourself claimed to have made, condemning Hamas. Thank you for providing further evidence you never made such comments.

Also, thanks for the laughs:

@84:
"HAMAS oughtta
be Gone -- & wouldn't
BE There were it not for BooBoo's
coddling of HAMAS;"

Yeah, a longstanding terrorist group, amply funded by climate-scorching petrodollars from Qatar, would have magically gone away without Bibi's patronage. Sure. (The truly sad part is, you may actually believe this.)

@85: Good luck finding a comment in which I use the term, "House Jew." (Yeah, I know, if you didn't simply fabricate evidence to support your claims, then you'd never have any evidence for them at all...)

@86: xina has repeatedly called for the elimination of Israel. Students for Justice in Palestine, over whom you slobbered at the fizzle of their campus protests last Spring, also calls for the elimination of Israel. You sure do seem to have a great affinity for persons and groups who want Israel wiped off the map.

this, just in from
Caitlin’s Newsletter:

Gaza Tells Us Who We Are

Some days it’s hard to say which is more horrific: the Gaza genocide itself, or the moral decay throughout our society which makes it possible.

I mean, the atrocities in Gaza have a couple million victims. If you add up the populations of the US, Europe, Canada and Australia, you’ve got around a billion people living in a dystopia whose collective conscience is so warped and twisted that they’d allow their governments to support a live-streamed genocide in full view of the entire world.

A billion people who are so morally bankrupt that they find it tolerable for such a nightmare to be inflicted upon their fellow human beings right in front of them.

This has been especially pronounced during the heat of a US presidential race, with tens of millions of voters falling all over themselves to cognitively sweep Gaza under the carpet so they can throw their support behind one of the two mainstream candidates who’ve both pledged to support the Zionist state which is perpetrating this genocide. At best they see Israel’s crimes as an annoying side issue which the left keeps disrupting their Kamala parties about, and at worst they support Israel’s actions entirely.

What a pointless, meaningless, soulless way to live. What a betrayal of truth, and of our own humanity. How could anyone possibly find satisfaction in that kind of zombie-like existence?

Mindlessly shuffling along to the beat of the status quo, devouring human flesh because it’s more comfortable than the cognitive dissonance which would come with divorcing the power-serving worldview you’ve been indoctrinated from birth into espousing.

I was listening to an interview with a doctor who worked in Gaza during the genocide and he discussed the time many months ago when the IDF forced the evacuation of a hospital and left four premature babies to die in their incubators after assuring the staff they’d be taken care of.

Their tiny bodies were found decomposing weeks later after Israeli forces cleared out of the area.

How did that one incident, just by itself, not stop the world? How did it not stop us all in our tracks and force us to re-evaluate everything that led to this point?

It wasn’t a secret that those four babies died; it was in the mainstream news. It was right there, right in front of us, and we did nothing.

Such atrocities have been happening on a daily basis for thirteen months now, and still nothing.

We’ve got to live like this. We’ve got to live in this genocidal dystopia, surrounded by shambling sleepwalkers covered in human blood.

Our lives here in the west are far, far more comfortable than the lives of people in Gaza, but they are also far less truthful, and far less capable of nourishing the human spirit.

We marinate in lies and psychopathy, watch lies and psychopathy, eat drink sleep and breathe lies and psychopathy. Our minds are full of garbage and our hearts are full of shit, and we are wading around up to our ankles in the blood, sweat and tears of the global south.

This festering sore of a civilization is the only soil in which the western-backed genocide in Gaza could take root.

The people in Gaza have to suffer the consequences of who we are and what we have become, but we have to live with who we are and what we have become.

We’re killing their babies and leaving them to rot, but we’re the ones who have to live with the corpses of rotting babies in our souls.
--by Caitlin Johnstone; 11/4/24

oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/gaza-tells-us-who-we-are?

@88

tl;dr

what were
you saying?

@89: That’s pretty much the closest she’s ever come to admitting Hamas used even infants as human shields, isn’t it? (Gotta start somewhere, I guess.)

“Our minds are full of garbage and our hearts are full of shit,”

I now understand why you identify so closely with her! She knows both of you really, really well, doesn’t she? :-D

Thanks to both of you for the own-goal.