Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

No one could have predicted…

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

You are here: Home / Domestic Terrorism / Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Seal Team Six Rolls Again

Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Seal Team Six Rolls Again

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Per Austin news station KXAN, “‘Take Our Border Back Convoy’ heading through Central Texas to Eagle Pass”:

The “Take Our Border Back Convoy” will head from Dripping Springs to Eagle Pass, Texas later this week in a show of force organizers say will “call on our government to take action” to “secure the southern border.”…

The trip is part of a nationwide call to action bringing people to various hotspots along the border including Eagle Pass, Yuma, Arizona, and San Ysidro, California. The group invites “active and retired law enforcement and military, veterans, Mama Bears, elected officials, business owners, ranchers, truckers, bikers, media, and law-abiding, freedom-loving Americans.”

The Texas stint will include a “pep rally” at the Dripping Springs H-E-B on Thursday, Feb. 1. The group will then leave from Dripping Springs on Feb. 2 and travel to the Cornerstone Children’s Ranch in Quemado.

A spokesperson for H-E-B reached out to KXAN to let us know company policy prohibits rallies or protests on company property regardless of the reason for the event. They have attempted to let organizers of the event know they will need to gather somewhere else…

“We’re not going to blockade,” an organizer said in a Sunday video address. “We don’t want to cause any problems for law enforcement or the National Guard… we don’t want to put anyone in danger.”

Some border residents and advocacy groups are wary, however. The League of United Latin American Citizens issued its second-ever “National Alert” in response to the convoy, warning of possible violence and criticizing Gov. Abbott of spreading harmful rhetoric…

The convoy’s official conduct expectations requires that members agree to “peacefully participate.”

After all, if the Big Gubmint brings the hammer, no more sweet sweet ‘love offerings’…

A protest convoy heading to the southern U.S. border with Mexico has raised over $125,000 in donations.

The Texas Border Convoy says it is attempting to drive to the area of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas…

A Telegram channel called Take Back Our Border has over 1,000 members and is used to plan the convoy, as Wired first reported. One member urged others to bring “kits” in case “stuff goes down you will be able to protect yourselves and help out.”…

Pete Chambers, one of the organizers, has said he was a Green Beret. “That’s what Green Berets do. Unconventional warfare is our bread and butter. Now we’re doing domestic internal defense,” Chambers told the right-wing conspiracist Alex Jones on his show Infowars last week.

He added: “If this call is neglected, we are determined to sustain ourselves as long as possible and act like soldiers who never forget what is due to our own honor and that of our country.”

Donated funds will be received by ‘MISSION WTP HAGGAI 28.’ It is not immediately clear who owns this group…

And they’ve got a mascot already waiting to join them!

Reader Interactions

100Comments

  2. 2.

    John Revolta

    Great! Let Texas deal with these idiots. I guar-on-tee they’ll turn into an enormous PITA wherever they end up. Remember the last time, when they got the “convoy” together outside of DC? Total shitshow. Hope the Rangers enjoy trying to keep these nuts in line.

  3. 3.

    Aussie Sheila

    Immigration and the fears that can be stoked against it are potent. trump’s campaign in 2016 convinced me and many political comrades that he would be successful in that election, despite the scoffing of many here and elsewhere. In Australia such campaigns assisted the execrable John Howard become PM in 2006, and assisted in the formation of the One Nation Party here which was and is, trumpism ‘downunder’.

    That is not to say such garbage can’t be politically counteracted . It can. Australia is arguably the most multi cultural country of its population size in the world. But appeals to ‘pull up the drawbridge’ can always be mobilised when people feel their economic needs and social needs for recognition are not being acknowledged. And that includes even recently arrived immigrants who have been granted citizen status.

    The Biden/Harris administration and the Democratic Party apparatus should hammer the cynicism and bad faith of the gop on this issue endlessly.

    However while the gop bad faith on this is endless, and trump is simply a criminal looking to get out of the consequences of his crimes against the constitution, immigration as an issue is always potent when economic prospects go south for working and lower middle class layers who must compete with recent newcomers for jobs.

    It’s not tidy and it’s not Kumbaya, but it is what it is. The best antidote is a very high floor for minimum wage jobs and vigorous enforcement of Labor rights and conditions.

    If people can see the exploiters getting prosecuted and are sure there is a high floor below which no one can legally be paid, high immigration isn’t a net political negative. I support high immigration for Australia because we are a huge continent with a very small population. But high housing prices as a result of the financialisation of housing will provide more fodder for the Right here unless state and federal ALP governments do something about the housing crisis.
    I don’t think the US is much different than Australia in that regard, except your federal minimum wage is an absolute joke.

    Biden should promise to raise it. To $20.00 per hour. Christ, if we can afford $23.00 plus per hr, you guys can. And don’t start me on ‘but the states’.

    We have States here. Six of them plus two territories. Very different costs between them, but one federal minimum wage. A wage that is within squinting distance of being a living wage.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    @Aussie Sheila

    False equivalence doesn’t become you. Ever heard of exchange rates? Currently $1 Australian = 66 cents U.S. So in U.S. dollars, your example of $23 AUD is $15 and change in USD.

  8. 8.

    Shalimar

    They’re communicating with each other on Telegram, the most popular social media app in Russia?  That isn’t suspicious at all.

  9. 9.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    A caravan of morons are on their way to Texas? Oh the horror…lol! And Kyle Shittenpants is training hard? Is that what he’s saying to explain the calluses in his right palm?

    Kyle is an attention whore who murdered people and got away with it. Karma is going to make a delivery one day.

  10. 10.

    Aussie Sheila

    @NotMax:

    Ever heard of free health care mate? What’s that worth in the US? My sister died of cancer . She was a registered nurse. She earned a wage that at the time was 2x the federal minimum wage. You know what her excellent treatment and final palliative care cost ?
    Nothing.

    And her family would have paid whatever they had to ensure her comfort and dignity. But they didn’t have to. That’s the difference.
    Oh, and btw, I am aware of the difference in the value of currencies. But there is no way that $usd7.50 comes anywhere near our federal minimum wage, in either real currency value or exchange rate parity.
    What you don’t seem aware of is the difference in what working and lower middle class people are expected to pay for what here is called the ‘social wage’ and what in the US, apart from a few ‘blue states’ is called ‘private insurance’. Which racket is traded on the stock exchange, to the detriment of both the people who need high quality services and the people who can’t afford any services at all.

    I’m not excusing the racism and nonsense of right wing populism.

    I’m merely communicating what 55 years of industrial and political organising has taught me about how people not at the top financially react when they are told someone else is taking the stuff they never even had.

    Lack of political ambition and expectations has done more in the last 40 years to assist right wing populism than a criminal dunce like trump could do on his own. It’s the same here.

    Luckily, our Labor PM seems to be learning.

    Are you?

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    @Aussie Sheila

    Hold on, need to get the binoculars to discern where you’ve moved the goalposts.

    And with that, returning to ignoring your screeds. Blame is on myself for succumbing to responding in the first place.

  12. 12.

    Aussie Sheila

    Oh well. I thought you were saying I had no idea about the difference between the USD and AUD value when calculating the value of Australia’s minimum wage compared to the US. I think you don’t know how to calculate the value of the average total working class income in the two countries. If you insist on private or employer based health care systems for the unionised or relatively secure working and lower middle class cohorts in the US and fail to calculate that cost for working and lower middle class US people in either forgone wage increases or anxiety about job loss, I think you don’t know what you are talking about.

  14. 14.

    Pete Downunder

    @NotMax: Not to pile on, but I have lived and worked in both countries. The Aussie medical care, despite its faults, is amazing. I am old and my gold plated private heath insurance costs about USD $3500 – a year. Two years ago I had very major surgery in a private hospital where I spent a week in a private room with great care. Total out of pocket: AUD $360. That said, there are some problems. Our Medicare is meant to cover GP visits, but the reimbursement rate is so low few GPs can afford not to charge a fee on top. I pay about double the Medicare amount to the GP, but get 1/2 back from Medicare. A lengthy period of right of center governments let the reimbursement rate stagnate. We now have a left of center government which may improve things a bit. We do pay higher taxes, and stuff is expensive generally, but I have zero interest in returning to the US (except for Mexican food).

  15. 15.

    TBone

    Back in the day when I used social media, I used to troll Rump by calling him Captain Queef over and over 🤣

    “The [Caine Mutiny] film and novel influenced the drafters of the 25th Article Of Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which set forth conditions for removing the President of the United States. John D. Feerick, former dean of Fordham University School of Law, who assisted in drafting the amendment, told The Washington Post in 2018 that the film was a “live depiction” of the type of crisis that could arise “if a president ever faced questions about physical or mental inabilities but disagreed completely with the judgment”, which was not dealt with in the Constitution. Lawmakers and lawyers drafting the amendment wanted no such “Article 184 situation” as depicted in the film…”

  17. 17.

    Joey Maloney

    Kyle is an attention whore who murdered people and got away with it. Karma is going to make a delivery one day.

    The worst possible thing I can think to wish on him is self-awareness, and the full realization of what he did.

  19. 19.

    Nelle

     

     

    @Aussie Sheila: I have dual citizenship (US and New Zealand) and find myself coming to the defense of Aussie neighbors (always a somewhat humorous and awkward position, unless it is April 25).  The incredible financial, societal, and emotional costs of linking health care to employment (absolutely illogical) is part of looking at wages.  How did we come to have a for-profit on the misery and misfortune of others system?

    I’m not sure we did pay more in taxes, when considering what we got in health care in New Zealand and didnt pay out of pocket. What we didn’t pay for was a huge defense industry.

  21. 21.

    Chris T.

    @Pete Downunder: Yeah, Ozzie health care is better than NZ as well. NZ and USA are the only two countries that let drug companies advertise (“ask your doctor about Explodio!”). Well, maybe only two first-world countries? English-speaking countries? Something like that.

    I currently pay about $2700 per month for health insurance for myself and Spousal Unit. That does not include dental, which is another $75/mo. One of us will be eligible for Medicare soon, which will change things somewhat, but not really sure how yet.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    I hope reporters responded with appropriate skepticism and did a fact check when one of the featured loudmouths claimed he was a Green Beret. Right wing fanatics lie about their military service more often than not.

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    Mama Bears

    Like actual bears who would maul these dumbasses?

    A protest convoy heading to the southern U.S. border with Mexico has raised over $125,000 in donations.

    And which of these Trump trash whackjobs is going to get arrested for fraud this time?

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Chris T.: Ask your doctor if Ooga Booga Beluga is right for you!

    And these “Ask your doctor about…”. “Hey Doc!  WTF is (…..) and how does it not pertain to me whatsoever?”

  27. 27.

    prostratedragon

    @TBone:  I watched it too. Good, good movie. I had no idea it played an explicit part in creating the 25th, but it does expose the problem well. Of course, whatever the mechanism, much depends on the quality of the associates, as we saw in the recent unpleasantness; how about Barr as Keefer and Pence as Maryk?

    That movie about the Klan is a bit melodramatic, but it too sets out many of the issues — economic anxiety, anyone? — without, naturally, reference to black people. Not bad.

  28. 28.

    TBone

    @prostratedragon: yup Barr & Pence would be perfect filling those roles!

    The Black Legion was a separate spin-off group from the Klan, and Bogey shows exactly how economic anxiety plays its part for recruiting.  I agree it is melodramatic but isn’t all of this bullshit “Idiot Front” that is now plaguing us?  Everything old is “new” again.

  31. 31.

    lowtechcyclist

    Donated funds will be received by ‘MISSION WTP HAGGAI 28.’

    Haggai 2:8, for what it’s worth: “Mine is the silver and mine the gold, says the Lord of Hosts.” Whatevs. Guess the real message of that verse in this context is ‘all the money is the Lord’s, so give it all to me since I claim to be doing the Lord’s work.’

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: We complain about media framing a lot around here and rightly so, but I saw some snippets of CNN coverage yesterday evening, and they were hammering Repubs on that point. Good!

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Although I don’t consume much TV media these days, there does seem to be a bit more balance than there was in 2016, although not equal yet.

    I think some of it is that our side has been better at push back and talking points on social media, which IMHO has also undergone a sea change since 2016.

  40. 40.

    Marmot

    @Antonius:

    What is it about election years that makes our southern border so dangerous? /s

    I heart this.

    Along with “stolen valor,” Putin, and a couple other things in this thread, we have the makings of some decent ridicule for this convoy of dunces.

    I’m convinced that’s how we deflate them, and Dripping Springs isn’t far for a lot of jackals.

  41. 41.

    JoyceH

    @Chris T.: what sucks is when the doctor says he’s changing your prescription, this new stuff will work better, and you think well, maybe, but I so hate their commercials!

  48. 48.

    TBone

    JFC Hellno Skum has implanted his first Nuralink brain chip thingy into a human brain.  Yeet that mutha into the sun, quick!  He’s making megalomanic promises about it, just like his Robotaxi scam, exploding cars, rapid unplanned disassembly, and all his other lies.  I hope he gets bitten by a thousand monkeys.

  50. 50.

    Subsole

    Listen to their rhetoric, folks.

    They’re going to be brave soldiers fighting a glorious last stand on the parapet of Rhodesian  American democracy.

    For fuck’s sake, they are not bitching about healthcare or living wages. They can take time off to go pull this stupid Meal Team Six cosplay shit in the first place, so  work and paychecks are not an all-consuming thing for them.

    These people are not poor. Or ignorant. They are drowning in ennui. They are bored not downtrodden.

     

    And here we are, going ’round the axle about health insurance in the town of Bent Pecker, Queensland.

    Fuck’s. Sake.

  53. 53.

    Princess

    125k sounds like a lot but it’s far less than I’d have expected. I guess even they are sick of being grifted from. And surely even those who just give them money could be in big trouble if it all goes bad in a Jan. 6 way.

  54. 54.

    montanareddog

    @Betty Cracker: CNN may be hammering the Republicans for not co-operating to address the “crisis” but they are still adopting Republican framing – because there is no crisis at the Mexico-US border.

  55. 55.

    TBone

    @Subsole: IMO what they are also drowning in is RWNJ propaganda about economic anxiety (illegal brown people are stealing our jobs!), disinformation, lies, and conspiracy theories brought to the ranks by Qanon.  Oh, and sorry about their tiny dick inadequacies as evidenced by their love of “long guns.”

  56. 56.

    marklar

    @eclare: “That is hilarious!  He got two pouches!”

    Did our Australian scold pay you to bring things back to a kangaroo reference? ;)

    Oh, and NotMax, I feel your frustration…taxation and health-care are different constructs from minimum wage and exchange rates. When some people don’t care for their apples, they focus their oranges.

  60. 60.

    lowtechcyclist

    @montanareddog:

    there is no crisis at the Mexico-US border.

    This. What are the consequences of this ‘invasion’?  Let’s see: unemployment is about as low as it can be, and wages are up, so no consequences there.  Homicides are down, so no consequences there.  Exactly how is there a ‘crisis’?

  62. 62.

    prostratedragon

    @TBone:  Quite so. And it’s true, cheap melodrama can be very realistic. Didn’t know the Black Legion was real, thought it was just made up for legal reasons or something.

  63. 63.

    Geminid

    @montanareddog: This may not be exclusively right wing framing. I have seen Rep. Ruben Gallego describe the situation at the border as a “crisis,” in support of the extra resources President Biden asked Congress to provide for border security.

  64. 64.

    eclare

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I don’t know what the “crisis” is either, and I haven’t heard anyone state explicitly what it is.  All I know is that I still don’t have a taco truck on my corner.

  65. 65.

    trnc

    @NotMax: No disrespect to you intended, but the comment I originally responded to dealt with minimum wage.

    Her post seemed pretty thoughtful to me. It’s fair for you to point out the currency difference, but the both sides accusation seemed harsh as a first response. IMHO, discussion can be more fruitful if you add context or make a correction without vitriol and see how they respond to that first.

  66. 66.

    Chris Johnson

    I just watched Sam Seder get mad at Nancy Pelosi (along with a big chunk of comments section).

    But what she ACTUALLY had said, was that the pro-Palestine protest movement was getting heavily reinforced by Russian, by Putin involvement.

    Which it absolutely is, and she’s got to remember both that it is, and that underlying that is a real protest for good reasons. That’s exactly the sort of thing for Putin to weaponize, and she’s 100% right. I was impressed. Gonna need her to be able to distinguish between that, and a totally trumped-up movement, which it is not. I don’t envy her this situation.

    But I was honestly cheered to see that one of our ranking politicians recognizes the world as it is, without getting snowed by propaganda war.

    As for the truck people, same deal, and they have less money because Russia can’t invest as much actual money into propping them up anymore, ‘cos they are fighting a land war.

  67. 67.

    trnc

    @marklar: taxation and health-care are different constructs from minimum wage and exchange rates.

    They’re related. The more someone has to pay out of pocket in health care, the less their wages are available for other necessities.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Chris Johnson:

    Her saying she wants the FBI to investigate concerns me. I don’t trust the FBI to investigate our people. I think they are ideologically Right wing and that has been shown over and over for 50 years, including that ludicrous situation at the NY Field Office where they were basically working as campaign aides for Donald Trump while we’re paying them 100k a year.

    I wish she hadn’t said it. These young people are primarily our voters – agree or disagree with them – and like every single piece of the fragile Dem coalition we need them. I don’t want them investigated by the FBI.

  72. 72.

    Shalimar

    @Princess: $125k doesn’t even sound like a lot.  They started along the east coast, I think Virginia?  That isn’t even enough diesel for 40 trucks to go that distance.

  76. 76.

    Anyway

    @lowtechcyclist:

    This. What are the consequences of this ‘invasion’?

    Chicago, NYC etc are scrambling to house migrants dropped off by Texas, Fla (?) . I know NYC has to find room in emergency housing locations intended for their local homeless and with the weather they can be strapped too. There was a good link by WG about some Noo Yawkers helping the migrants. The mayor is not too sympathetic .

  77. 77.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I also wish Rep. Pelosi hadn’t said that. These particular protesters bug the hell out of me, but they are not numerically signicant and do not represent the larger group of Democratict voters disaffected by this war.

    One problem here is that unless and until there is a sustainable ceasefire, there’s not much else Democrats can say but “hang in there, this crisis will get better.”

    On that front, Qatar’s Prime Minister told Al Jazeera that his Saturday meeting with CIA Director Burns and Burns’ Egyptian and Israeli counterparts was positive. They discussed a three-phase temporary ceasefire that would start out with hostage and prisoner releases and hopefully end with a permanent ceasefire.  But there is a lot of hard bargaining ahead. My optimistic view is that we might see a ceasefire in 10 days.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    Hoping if there ever is one it’s on the correct side of the street. ‘Cause MAGA Rs would waste no time banning left turns.
    //

  79. 79.

    Chris

    @Pete Downunder:

    Not to pile on, but I have lived and worked in both countries. The Aussie medical care, despite its faults, is amazing.

    Not to diminish the Australians, but virtually any Western nation other than the U.S. makes U.S. health care look like the Soviet Union.

    I caught Covid in Greece about a month ago.  Went to the hospital and oh boy: 1) The total cost of the visit, doctor’s fee plus blood tests and chest X-ray, was about three hundred bucks.  2) That’s three hundred bucks as a worst case scenario; it applied to me because I had absolutely no locally recognized health insurance, not even from another EU country.  Most people would pay less or nothing.  3) They told me ahead of time, before each of the procedures, exactly what the cost would be, to ensure that I was informed about what I was getting into before I chose to buy it.

    Compare and contrast that with ten years ago in Florida, when I ran to the nearest hospital because I was having serious chest pains, they assured me they took (whatever health insurance I was on at the time), and then after the fact told me that oh no, sorry, we actually don’t take that insurance, and stuck me with a $10,000.00 bill.

    Or just compare and contrast with the ten minutes I spent on the phone once in my early adult years getting increasingly pissed off with a health provider by asking “okay, so what’s the cost for a visit?” “Oh, we don’t know yet.  Because we don’t know if there’ll have to be further tests or follow-ups…” “I’m not asking about tests or follow-ups.  Just the doctor’s visit, with nothing else, how much does that cost?” “Well, we won’t know until the doctor tells us if we have to do anything else.” “I said, without anything else, how much does a simple visit cost?” “Well, we’ll tell you that after the visit when we know all the things being charged for…” “Are you fucking deaf or are you just brain-dead?”

  80. 80.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    you are much more knowledgeable on this than I am and I hope like hell you are right. I mean that sincerely.

    It feels to me like a situation you get into in negotiations where the side who benefits most from the status quo – in this case Israel- pretends to negotiate while actually stalling and holding up a resolution. That’s how it feels to me. I hope I’m wrong.

    I can’t get over the fact that is in the interest of the Right wing in Israel that Biden lose. They get a fuckton from Biden but they’ll get still more from Trump

    I don’t see an incentive for Israel to settle the conflict.  Is there one?

    Im worried. It has to end quick or it is going to hurt us.

  82. 82.

    Chris

    @Kay:

    Back when I was still trying to get a job at an intelligence agency (analyst not field person), the FBI was one of those I almost never applied to.  Several reasons, but honestly, one of the big ones is simply that I don’t trust them.  Yes, all security agencies have shortcomings and skeletons in their closets.  But no, not all security agencies have “spent literally half a century as J. Edgar Hoover’s personal secret police force” as their origin story.

    Then towards the end of that period, 2016 and Comeygate happened, proving me correct beyond my wildest nightmares.  Even Hoover was never megalomaniacal enough to interfere in a presidential election, let alone one in which the Kremlin had expressed a preference, and on behalf of the Kremlin-backed candidate.

    It’s still not the most repellent agency in the U.S. government: without question that’s ICE, which is a straight-up taxpayer-funded Klavern.  But being better than ICE is setting the bar so law a snake couldn’t crawl under it.

  83. 83.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I don’t think this war can be dragged out nearly long enough. I also believe that Benjamin Netanyahu will be watching our Presidential election this November as a private citizen.

  84. 84.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @eclare: Fear of a Black Non-White Planet.  That’s all it is.  From the Chinese Exclusion Act, mass deportation of Mexicans in the 1920’s, Japanese Internment, etc.  Occasionally White people were the problem (Irish, Italian, German, Jews) but it’s striking how often it is the dusky hoards that cause collective, Conservative/Libertarian pants-wetting.

  85. 85.

    Subsole

    @NotMax:

    Fair point.

    I certainly wouldn’t learn this stuff on my own.

    But good lord these folks have to be the single most infantilized group of people on Earth.

    I mean, really, homie? You’re gonna vote to end America because you had to press one for English? Any other group would be getting belabored about the back and shoulders.

  86. 86.

    Subsole

    @TBone:

    That is very, very true. I just don’t think the propaganda would find much purchase without the underlying boredom.

  88. 88.

    Bill Arnold

    @montanareddog:

    because there is no crisis at the Mexico-US border.

    Yep. They would be very very hard pressed to find a chart of border activity/illegal immigration over the last 20 years with an identifiable “crisis” now. Lazy.

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Israel’s principal incentives are

    1) a ceasefire is probably the only means by which they can bring the hostages home alive.

    2) the IDF keeps taking casualties in an invasion that might be, as one Israeli put it, “a Sysiphian task.” When the IDF Chief of Staff said the war could go on all this year, it was not a prescription so much as a warning: this war could go on all year absent a better strategy on the part of the government.

    In a long Haaretz piece that was reprinted here, former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon emphasized that wars end in diplomatic solutions. That is the goal of any rational nation’s war policy, and that is how Israel’s wars have ended in the past. But this government is resisting a diplomatic strategy, even as Israel’s Arab allies have offered a good one that tracks with the stated goals of the US abd Israel’s European allies.

    This is one reaon the first phase of the Qatari proposal does not define the nature of the permanent ceasefire to be achieved at the end of the third phase. There needs to be time for the Israeli government to accept a sustainable diplomatic resolution to this one war. And Hamas’s leaders have to decide if they want to fight this out and likely die, or live and be evacuated to Algeria as the Saudis have proposed.

    As to the greater Isrseli/Palestinian problem, the resolution of this war will hardly resolve the greater conflict. It can lay more of the foundation, though.

    Arab countries have been smart about this, I think. They could see that the US, European nations and Israel were content manage the problem, not solve it it. So with Saudi Arabia’s approval, Bahrain and the UAE started building peace themselves by normalizing relations with Israel and building economic ties. Saudi Arabia has held back but they have been prepping their populace for normalization, and this war has not changed their posture.

    I think that this is good in general for people in the region including the Palestinians. And it also enables the Arabs to better help resolve the Gaza war.

  91. 91.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @VeniceRiley: Squeal Team 6-7/8.

    @Nelle: What we [in NZ] didn’t pay for was a huge defense industry.

    Lucky ewe. ;^D The nearest nation with more people than your 5m and change is 5 hours by jet (4 days by fast boat) distant, your only significant wealth is tied up in sheep, and if all else fails there’s the US Navy. Who’s gonna threaten you, Tonga??

  92. 92.

    Bill Arnold

    @Chris Johnson:

    But what she ACTUALLY had said, was that the pro-Palestine protest movement was getting heavily reinforced by Russian, by Putin involvement.

    Yeah. Russia reinforces wedges in societies it is attacking. Accepting such amplification because it appears to support one’s cause is beyond foolish. The Russian intent is malevolent.
    Reject the amplification, and differentiate from it where possible.
    E.g. the f-in Iranian misogynistic authoritarian state is one of Russia’s few official allies, and supplies terror weapons to Russia for use against Ukrainian civilians. Why support Iran and its militant proxies? If Ukraine didn’t have decent civil defense (something Israel does not allow in Gaza; easily arguable war crime), their civilian casualties would be much much higher (currently 50K+ (estimated) counting Ukrainian areas now occupied by Russia, after their destruction through Russian bombardment, similar to what the people of Gaza have been experiencing through Israeli bombardment.)

  93. 93.

    Bill Arnold

    @trnc:

    OK. I remember seeing that nym before, but didn’t remember trolling.

    Hard disagree that she is a troll. I very much appreciate political views from elsewhere, as long as they are respectful/thoughtful and do not descend to advocating for the destruction of the USA.

  95. 95.

    sab

    @Geminid: I agree. Well-intentioned but often out of sync with American politics. Doesn’t mean she is wrong. Just means she expects too much. I want frustrated people with different experiences pounding on us.

    She is often snippy with me. So what?

  96. 96.

    Denali5

    I also do not see this commentator as a troll. It is not a good thing to label anyone who disagrees with other commentators as a troll. We should welcome dissenting voices; they may not be totally right, but they can offer a different perspective.

  97. 97.

    sab

    @Bill Arnold: Define a troll. She disagrees with you?

    I don’t think you are that cynical. I think she is often wrong, deqling with parliamentary v whatever we call our government. She never really understands our constraints and thinks we are just being contrary.

    But troll she ain’t. Satby (I am a huge fan. She is an amazingly energetic proponent and accomplisher of major political and social good stuff) just needs to get over foreign people with good intentions having foreign ideas.

    Mostly the foreigners are wrong because they do not understand our weird political landscape, but that does not mean they don’t have potentially useful ideas.

  100. 100.

    Haystack

    Breaker,  Breaker one-nine – There is a growling Mama Bear on I-35 southbound at mile marker 99 in Pearsall with lights aflashing. A 10-33 for sure, for sure.

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