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[Great Order]

Hey, didn't we get a second thread specifically for this conversation?

[hector13]

Conversation implies mutual exchange of ideas. Strongpoint made up my position and then proceeded to argue with that. Quite frankly, I’m not needed for him to have an argument.

Strongpoint, the thing I posted says a majority wanted a two-state solution. I have no interest in enabling your hate.

[Strongpoint]

That one is about the war, this one is not about more generic stuff.

But I really should just stop reacting to hector's strawmaning of my position, Not commenting on someone's opinions is easy but I have a bad habit of not ignoring posts in which I am directly addressed.

[The_Explorer]

China's definitely escalating how far they can go

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67668930

(edit: I guess this wasn't the right thread probably. But ah well here it is anyway. There is too many war threads and various political to keep track of)

[Starver]

There is a China thread, you could use, although given it has clear influential spillover from/to "things being done to/in/near Europe" (and Australia having been recently involved in the whole thing) it's probably not the worst place.

[da_nang]

Not really war-related: Israel Supreme Court strikes down judicial reforms

I don't have an English opinion from the Supreme Court of Israel, so I've been trying to theorize how the court came to its conclusion given how few entrenchment clauses and supermajority requirements the Basic Laws of Israel have. The best I've got is some nebulous interpretation of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel^[1] (technically not part of the Basic Laws corpus) that gives rise to rights that "shall be upheld in the spirit of the principles set forth in" said declaration, per the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty §1, and are thus protected from amendments that aren't "befitting the values of the State of Israel, enacted for a proper purpose, and to an extent no greater than is required" as per §8 of the same Basic Law.

It's a massive stretch as to how this makes an amendment that prohibits the "reasonableness" standard unconstitutional (on its face at least), given that the Basic Law: The Judiciary mentions only protection from emergency regulations.


[1] Excerpt: "THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

[Schmaven]

An interesting point from the recent interview Putin gave was that it would be really stupid for him to invade any neighboring NATO countries or to use tactical nukes on the battlefield.  And Putin has no intentions of doing so.  At least he says he has no intentions of doing so, and admits how dumb and suicidal it would be.

But I suppose that's exactly what a suicidal madman hellbent on world domination would say in an interview - in order to lull everyone into a false sense of complacency before a first strike nuclear surprise attack followed by taking another bite out of Western Europe.

We can't know his true intentions.

[Il Palazzo]

The interview was for the benefit of a particular audience. By picturing himself as a sensible 'no nuking, lol' leader he makes it more likely voters in the US will lean towards whomever proposes striking a deal - which is Trump. It's calculated.

[Strongpoint]

I didn't see anything calculated in the interview. All I saw was a crazy old man who got an opportunity to share his "perfect vision" of the history\world.

If the idea was to impress Trump voters, then the focus should have been "America is great but currently infected with transgenderism", "Trump is an American patriot" "Biden is irrational in opposing friendly Russia" "We fight for traditional values", "I am a servant of Jesus and Russia is a very Christian country" and so on.

[hector13]

You think far too highly of Tucker Carlson fans; they’ll like the interview because he was the one that conducted it, not because of anything Putin said.

[anewaname]

Putin is a great actor. The video was "putin is grandpa and just hanging out and laughing and doesn't lose his mirth even when the topic gets serious...", because putin wants everyone to believe he is "not stressed", so he probably is.

The interview was a series of "scenes", with each scene intended to show an emotional display, and intended to debunk global-media ideas like "putin is stressed" "putin is feeble" "putin is sick", etc, because western media only shows clips of putin when they are trying to fear-monger the western public, and western media doesn't show clips of putin when they are saying how russia is hurting.

[hector13]

Oh hey, Putin won the Russian election. Who saw that coming.

[Strongpoint]

Protests in Georgia (they really need to change their official English name to Sakartvelo) start looking more and more Maidan-like. I am watching it with great interest.

[Starver]

Georgia (they really need to change their official English name to Sakartvelo)

Until it involves midnight trains, I think they're gonna be Ok as they are, in this respect.


But, knowing a little (probably less than I should) about the sociopolitical geography there, it could indeed turn out to be something to keep an eye on.

/wanders off to check reports

[Strongpoint]

Georgia is going deeper into the Maidan route with clashes and barricades. This warm feeling of nostalgia for times when people were worried about rubber bullets and brutal arrests. They even have many Ukrainian flags... I want such simpler times back...

Also, it is so hilarious when occasional Americans in Twitter (No, Musk, it is not X) post under #Georgia tagged messages commenting on how brutal American police have become.

Georgians really need to change their official English name to Sakartvelo.  Or Americans should rename the state. Both work for me.