THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDS THAT AMERICANS LEAVE IMMEDIATELY FROM OVER A DOZEN MIDDLE EASTERN NATIONS DUE TO SAFETY RISKS.
— FinTwitter (@fintwitter.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 4:54 PM
The State Dept urges Americans to DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks.
— Shipwreck (@shipwreck75.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 4:57 PM
End of the day, even his fellow oligarchs are just NPCs to Dear Leader. But Semafor would like us to remember the real victims here — “Exclusive / Riyadh becomes transit hub for worried rich fleeing Gulf”:
Riyadh has emerged as a key exit route for the super-rich and senior executives stranded in the Gulf looking for a safe passage out of the region.
Cities including Abu Dhabi and Dubai have become playgrounds for the wealthy over the past few years, attracted by the year-round sunshine, tax-free lifestyle, and perception of safety. That was shattered over the weekend as Iranian missiles and drones rained down on the two cities, along with Qatar and Bahrain, causing those that could to attempt to flee.
The Saudi capital’s airport is one of the few still operating in the region, forcing executives and their families stranded in other parts of the Gulf to take the long drive in order to catch private jets or commercial planes.
Private security companies have been booking fleets of SUVs to ferry people on the 10-hour drive to Riyadh from Dubai and then charter private planes to take them out of the region, according to people familiar with the matter. They have been evacuating a mix of people, including senior executives at global finance firms and high-net worth individuals in the region for business or holidays, the people said. The rush in demand is sending prices for private jets and SUVs soaring, these people said.
“Saudi Arabia is the only real option for people who want to get out of the region right now,” said Ameerh Naran, chief executive of private jet brokerage Vimana Private; private jets from Riyadh to Europe now cost up to $350,000, he said…
Riyadh’s emergence as a relatively safe spot in the region is a turnaround for the city, which has previously carried a higher risk perception than its neighbors. In prior years, regular rocket attacks by the Houthi militia in Yemen caused frequent closures of airspace. And in previous moments of crises or regional instability, like the Arab Spring or last year’s 12-day war between the US and Iran, the well heeled have typically traveled through other cities. Before that, strict religious rules and the legacy of terror attacks in the early 2000s gave a perception that the kingdom was unsafe.
But with few other options available, Riyadh has seen perceptions change.
“We’ve been approached by a mixture of clients including families, individuals, and corporations that want to get out of the region either because their fear for their safety, or for business reasons they just need to be able to travel,” said Ian McCaul, operations and future plans director at UK-based security firm Alma Risk…
"The trade was not that you were getting exposed to geopolitics when moving to Dubai."
— Emma Yeomans (@yeomans.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 10:19 AM
From two drones according to the Saudi MOD. It doesn’t sound like major damage but highlights how vulnerable US assets and interests are at the moment.
— Michael Hanna (@mwhanna.crisisgroup.org) March 2, 2026 at 7:38 PM
lmao even the KSA gets to learn where doing business with trump eventually leads
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) March 2, 2026 at 11:08 AM
War for Ukraine Day 1,467: It’s Been a Month Worth of Mondays on Monday
Martin
Reposted from Adam’s thread:
Reports are that Gulf states are asking the US for munitions to replenish their interceptors, and being told ‘no’.
“But the former US official familiar with conversations in the administration told MEE that Gulf states would be left wanting if they expect new supplies of interceptors.
“Whatever munitions were produced in the last couple of months, we have shot several years’ worth of production in the last few days,” the former official said.”
UAE said they’ve shot down about 900 drones and cruise missiles in the last few days. Any bets on whether Iran can make Shaheeds faster than we can make interceptors? Google tells me we make about 600 Patriots and 400 THAADs per year. Guessing we need to do an outstanding job of destroying every Shaheed plant and stockpile.
Martin
I think it’s also telling what kind of radius the State Department is warning Americans from vs what the State Department is claiming Iran is capable of threatening.
SpaceUnit
This is like one of those movies or novels with no likable characters.
YY_Sima Qian
@Martin: Here is the link to the MEE article you were quoting from, along w/ my comments from the previous A.L. thread:
The GCC really needs to reconsider how their security is to be attained (link to the Middle East Eye article below):
Also, I guess this “MMO” (or at least this round) ends when the US & Israel run low on interceptors for themselves.
different-church-lady
“They were careless people, They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
different-church-lady
@Martin: At some point it’s going to get “asymmetrical” and the manufacturing gap won’t matter very much.
YY_Sima Qian
@Martin: My guess is that there are concerns about Iranian sponsored terror attacks, &/or the the type of anti-American rioting we have seen in Pakistan (the Marines security detail at the Karachi Consulate & the local police got into gun battler w/ rioters).
Or, sheer incompetence by the State Department.
Tony Jay
And since the Orange Regime’s only post-fuckup PR technique is to spam the socials whining about “Foreign losers not being fair to America” nothing gets fixed and everything gets worse.
I know the Kewl Kidz are all in on blaming the Islamic-Pwogwessive conspiracy for all this, but I’m so uncool I blame 70+ million wankers and the entire Rightwing establishment.
different-church-lady
@Tony Jay: Do you think FIFA will make him give the Peace Prize back?
YY_Sima Qian
The best comment I’ve found to add to the post by Emma Yeomans:
YY_Sima Qian
In another news, Shia protestors seem to be rioting against the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain. Could be Iran instigated, could be organic, probably a mix of both. As during the Arab Spring, the KSA is sending troops to help the Bahraini monarchy to crack down on the protests/rioting, but Iran has now damaged the single bridge leading from the KSA to Bahrain, resulting in halt to traffic.
Betty Cracker
@YY_Sima Qian: So true, and thanks for the link to that speech.
oldster
@YY_Sima Qian:
Simplistic people in the White House are forgetting that the Israelis are not the only wily bastards in the neighborhood.
Iran has suffered a number of serious body blows over the last few years, and it is currently on the ropes. But the Persian people have survived a few thousand years longer than the US has. They will figure out ways to retaliate, and they will do some damage to US interests.
Morons like Hegseth think that the enemy doesn’t get a vote. But voter-suppression schemes only work domestically. When you start a war overseas, the enemy always gets a vote.
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
They’re used to free riding in a society that liberals built, starting with FDR. But thanks to them, much of that is crumbling.
Betty Cracker
Senator Murphy is refreshingly blunt.
Tony Jay
@different-church-lady:
Christ, no! This is Baby-G Infantino we’re talking about here, a man who clearly grew up maxing out his subscription to Cringing Underling Monthly and dreaming of the day he’d be in a position to celebrate the worst people in the world for kickbacks and giggles.
He’s probably on the phone right now to the cheapest goldsmith in Jakarta looking to source a medal big enough to have The Donald J Trump Award For Services To A Grateful Humanity stamped on it in letters big enough for Piggy Scruncheye to read.
Baud
All the countries that chose not to join the Board of Peace should give themselves a medal for that wise decision.
different-church-lady
@Betty Cracker: Mommy, that number is here again.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: ha!
p.a.
MSM loves them some war, and the people who start them (“our” people at least), but when the war starts going sideways after 3 days even the flatworm press starts asking hard questions. Well… except… has Fox started blaming Biden yet? Is our military still too “woke”?🙄
Racists in charge: “the USSR is a house of cards and Barbarossa will take about 6 weeks.”
Racist morons in charge: “*pffft* Iran.”
“What about the rest of the region?”
“Defeatist pu$$y! Fuck off. *HaHaHa*”
Baud
He should be replaced by chatGPT.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Sam… it didn’t just look that way…
Baud
The Supreme Court 6 finally finds racism exists!
Baud
So now their debt matches their corporate leadership.
Rusty
@YY_Sima Qian: All these institutions, systems, relationships, are like a bank. You need to make regular deposits of goodwill, caring, forbearance, and much more to keep them alive and healthy. You hope that when there is a need, your deposits can cover the withdrawals. Conservatives think you can just make all the withdrawals you want to your benefit, without making any deposits. An example is SCOTUS. By regular decisions, slow process, strict adherence to rules, there is built up a faith in the system. When a hard decision comes down, it is accepted because the withdrawal of goodwill is from years od deposits. Now, we have a court that wants to term after term make sweeping decisions without making any deposits, and then is angry that the court is no longer respected. You can see that with everything else now too. The writer of this piece is spot on.
oldster
@Baud:
I look forward to the day when Sotomayor ends her dissent by saying, “Respectfully, I dissent. Actually, you know what? Strike that bit about “respectfully” — I have no respect whatsoever for the unprincipled hacks pretending to be justices who have taken over the top court in the land. They are naked Republican operatives and intellectual mediocrities, and they deserve no respect from anyone in the land. From now on, I intend to sign my dissents, “Wrong again, you pathetic lying motherfuckers.”
VeniceRiley
1979 My father got on the very last commercial flight out of Isfahan. Managed to make it home in time for my high school graduation, having missed the 4 years of actual schooling.
In other news, I’m cackling that Ambassador Huckabee recs you take the Israel tourist bust to Jordan, then … The Embassy itself says they cannot recommend for or against. What do they recommend? Oops we aren’t doing anything to help you. Good luck!
Baud
@VeniceRiley:
The motto of Trump 2.0.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: I dropped Paramount+ when they hired Bari and canceled Colbert. Was going to drop my Disney Hulu bundle over Kimmel but was a little slow and then they reversed the decision so I’ve kept that for now. Won’t be signing up for HBO Max anytime soon either.
@Martin: Y’know, it’s really so far beyond time to ask where the fuck all our defense spending goes and what we’re getting for it. We’re at risk of running out of interceptors after like three days of a shooting match with Iran? With the shit ton of money we spend we should have enough of everything to last until the end of time. The defense budget is the only part of federal spending that can’t pass an audit and that’s been the case for decades now but the solution is never to reign them in so we can find out where the money is going we always just look the other way and spend more. It’s past time to rein that shit in hard.
Betty Cracker
@VeniceRiley: My paternal grandfather, who retired in his 40s after 20+ years in the USAF, worked for Bell Helicopter in Iran in the 70s and was also on one of the last planes out before the revolution. I wonder if he knew your pops…
Baud
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
The official line is to blame Zelensky and Biden.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: It’s about time State courts just start ignoring Supreme Court decisions. I know that’s not ideal but applying decisions selectively State by State is a bridge too far.
Baud
Baud
Baud
“Hey, guys, remember the first time I was president and I abandoned your asses. Good times. So anyway…”
YY_Sima Qian
Like the previous intervention in Venezuela, once again MAGA types are trying to defend Trump’s reckless warmongering as 4D chess to contain the PRC, & crowing about the PRC’s lack of response (beyond harsh words) as evidence of PRC impotence. I think the new slang for such behavior is capes*t copium.
Some serious analyses:
Criticism of the sentiment expressed by Nicolas Burns, referred to at the beginning of the Feigenbaum piece:
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
An unfortunate mimicking of the American right (from FT).
Jackie
@Baud: So is Congress going to approve FFOTUS’s rapidly changing excuses to start WWIII?
SFAW
@Baud:
I disagree: debt is not inherently evil/fascistic.
[I was going to add “Trump-loving,” but it’s clear debt loves Piggy, and Piggy loves it back. Especially if others get stuck with paying it.]
SFAW
@Jackie:
Holy Mike said that a war powers resolution is a “frightening prospect” or some such, so …
ETA: I see Baud got there before me. Serves me right for not reading all the thread first.
p.a.
So the greatest military power of the time really has about 6 weeks worth of munitions?
Because so many many “splendid little wars” really worked out.
SFAW
So, according to Piggy’s-Pravda-to-Be a/k/a CNN, Bibi/Israel attacked Beirut. Iran must have a nuke-making operation there, I guess.
VeniceRiley
@Betty Cracker: Betty, probably! I remember the Bell Helicopter guys. They knew how to party!! (Funnily enough, they used to harvest roadside hemp and plant more in their gardens. Dry and hang it in the kitchen. Probably didn’t get them very high.) Deffo not as straight laced as the Hughes International guys. My dad was in logistics for the phoenix missile program.
mappy!
So Dubai isn’t the safe harbor the Epstein Class thought it was? Where will they go now, with $350,000 a pop chump-change to rent-a-learjet?
p.a.
@SFAW: Hezbollah shot some rockets. News reported the attacks were on H HQ.🤷🏻
I remember Tony Bourdain & crew were in Beirut during another attack (believe that show won an emmy) watching the bombing from the hotel balcony. His local fixer noted Israel was bombing a Christian part of Beirut “and they know that.”
Betty Cracker
@VeniceRiley: Small world! :-)
SFAW
@YY_Sima Qian:
We’ve been told for decades that Japan (and now China) play(s) the “long game.” I think that’s a reasonable assessment, but I also realize that I’m pretty unknowledgeable regarding east Asian policies and planning.
However, I’m pretty sure the current US version of the “long game” boils down to some version of “what do I have to do today to keep Piggy from throwing ketchup?” and (from Piggy) “Me WANT it! ME WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!”
SFAW
@p.a.:
Thanks for educating me, I (obviously) hadn’t read the article, should have done so before commenting.
On the other hand, if it weren’t for Bibi, we probably wouldn’t be in this incipient quagmire. But still, doesn’t excuse my ignorance. Thanks again.
ETA: I seem to be in “shoot first, ask questions later” mode this AM. Probably need to have some caffeine before I do it again.
Suzanne
@SFAW: We apparently let Israel drag us into wars now.
I’m sure that someone will be along shortly to tell me how weird it is that I “care so much what Israel does”. To which I point out, again: this is criticism of my own government, which is my right and responsibility as an American.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: Uhh, & utterly unnecessary.
The changes to education curriculum in ethnic minority regions over the past 15 years have already significantly reduced instruction in minority languages. It used to be that instruction in all subjects other than Mandarin Chinese were in the dominant local minority language, at least for ethnic minority students. Over the past 15 years it has become instruction in all subjects other than local minority language has been in Mandarin Chinese, for the ethnic minority students. The result has been that ethnic minority youths 25 & younger are almost all fluent Mandarin speakers, essentially native fluency. They have tended to retain fluency in their ethnic minority languages, due to continued instruction, & immersive environment at home & in their communities. This was not the case for their elders. Ethnic minorities (unless substantially assimilated) older than 30 often speak limited Mandarin, while many of those older than 50 do not speak Mandarin at all if they are from rural regions w/ few Han Chinese residents.
Frankly, I am not sure there is much room to increase the weight of Mandarin instruction. English is no longer mandatory before Grade 4, & there is no plan to cancel the minority language courses altogether (that will likely causing major backlash). Perhaps the new law is simply codifying existing practice.
I don’t think ensuring Mandarin fluency across the population is unreasonable. Lack of fluency means that one cannot fully participate in the Chinese economy or society (it is 92% Han Chinese, after all), & thus ensures one will remain marginalized. However, minorities should have every opportunity to preserve their languages & cultures, & agency over the degree of assimilation into the dominant Han Chinese society they choose.
Local authorities are being pulled in opposite directions on this matter. On the one hand, authentic ethnic minority culture can be attractive to domestic & foreign visitors, cultural products & tourism boost GDPs of poor & remote regions where these minorities tend to concentrate (& thus boost the career prospects of the local officials), which is a focus of policy directives from Beijing. The increasingly sophisticated Chinese tourists (of whichever ethnicity) increasingly demand authentic experiences of minority culture, not the Disneyfied slop. On the other hand, they also have to carry out directives from Beijing to enhance assimilation of ethnic minorities, to reduce the potential centrifugal forces in the Chinese polity.
MattF
Via Jonathan Larsen’s Substack:
Castor Canadensis
@p.a.:
The US used to say they could fight two and a half wars at a time. Mr Nixon reduced it to one and a half. Today? Looks like less than half.
Britain got complacent too, and cut back the Royal Navy so much that, years later, they found it a hard battle to defeat the Argentinians.
YY_Sima Qian
@Suzanne: Notable from Warner, among the most hawkish & interventionist of Dems, & most deferential to the natsec state.
However, the Trump gang has quickly hollowed out & corrupted the natsec state.
YY_Sima Qian
@SFAW: Heh, Japan hasn’t played the long game since the Plaza Accords & the Lost Decades.
VeniceRiley
@Betty Cracker: Like running into the one black guy in El Segundo in Isfahan? Yes it is. Very small! 🤣
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
While I’m fully confident that Chinese leaders are far more level headed than America’s Republican leaders, my perspective on human nature general leaves me concerned that efforts like this have no natural stopping point.
Gvg
@YY_Sima Qian: the state department, military and intelligence competence don’t matter very much when the guys at the top don’t listen because they already know (they think). This was foretold when we let Bush Jr get away with acting on stuff he knew in his gut and even more so when we re-elected a guy who publicly said he believed Putin before our own intelligence service. I mean the CIA and our other specialists have been wrong before and will be again, but they were on our side. And being wrong is a risk when you try. It’s not like it’s easy.
it ‘s not like Trumps actions make any sense from America’s best interests point of view, or even his long term, so anyone trying to predict him could be caught off guard by this action, for instance. I mean yes he has become foolish and erratic, but there are an almost infinite number of other idiotic things he could do, including backing down. And also an almost infinite number of bribe offerers that he might accept. That can’t be predicted from a distance or far in advance.
This is why I expect the big money guys are going to get tired of him. If some huge fortune gets ruined because of him, or one of the richest gets killed because of him, some of them can decide enough.
SFAW
@Suzanne:
It’s so weird that you care so much about what Israel does!
[Didn’t want to disappoint you.]
It’s tough to support Israel (as I have for who-knows-how-many years) when there’s a person like Bibi running the show. It’s (to my limited intellect, at least) not that far removed from the country I love (I.e., USA) being run by Piggy. Both leaders are, in my mind, evil/corrupt. Both have taken a great legacy and destroyed it.
MagdaInBlack
@MattF: uh, yeah….I was just reading that and shared it with an ex military friend.
Suzanne
@YY_Sima Qian: The last dumb war got a not-insignificant amount of Dem support. I think most Dems are being smarter this time, at least so far.
Mr. Suzanne and I were discussing last night, and we noted that, if you had to pick a default position, only engaging in wars where our country or a NATO ally were directly attacked is a really solid one that would have served you well.
SFAW
@YY_Sima Qian:
I couldn’t have put a date on it, but it was clear in the early 1990s (if not earlier) that Japan was waning and China was rising. And with the Bush I era level of “offshoring” of manufacturing (to save consumers a few bucks — i.e., to increase profits — originally) accelerating the process, it was apparent it was only a matter of time before we moved ourselves into the back seat.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: Mike Johnson basically confirms that in the briefing Baud linked at #33. Netanyahu supposedly told Trump Iran’s missile range was an intolerable threat to Israel, so Netanyahu told Trump he was going to attack Iran. Then Trump supposedly decided the expected Iranian attacks on U.S. facilities that would allegedly be inevitable after an Israeli attack on Iran were an intolerable threat to U.S. forces.
I think somewhere in there Trump also lied about Iran developing missiles capable of reaching the U.S. There’s probably a Sharpie-altered map somewhere showing that.
It really sucks that antisemitism is on the rise and that criticizing Netanyahu’s manipulation of Trump conforms with ugly stereotypes if you squint at it the right way. But the solution can’t be to refrain from criticizing how Netanyahu is playing the doddering old fart in the White House like a fiddle. That’s the reality, and every other world leader does it too. They’d be fools not to.
Geminid
@mappy!: I was hacking around Middle East social media last night and saw this from France24 reporter Wissam Nasr:
Princess
I don’t know whether the US has really abandoned protecting the Saudis to defend Israel or not but the fact that they think so is concerning and could have long-lasting effects. A lot of Saudis are probably already concerned with their own recent friendliness to Israel.
Baud
@Suzanne:
25 years ago. Longer by a decade than the period from the Great Depression to the end of WWII.
The public is going to feel the way it wants to feel. But I’m personally not going to ask Dems today to prove themselves to people who won’t except it.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: There isn’t. CPC leaders will see this effort as completing nation building. While the CPC official line refers to the “Chinese people” (中华民族) as made up of all 56 ethnic groups in China (well, one – austronesian aboriginals is actually in Taiwan), as opposed to Han Chinese (汉族), Han Chinese history/culture/customs/values/outlook dominate both consciously & unconsciously, due to cultural chauvinism of the dominant Han Chinese & due to simple weight of numbers.
Some of this is also inevitable at the anthropological level. Minorities are incentivized to assimilate to the dominant culture over time, positive & negative incentives. Look at the language map of France in the 1870s, for example, & of that now. That too was partly the result of conscious policy by the French governments of the late 19th century to forge a “modern” nation state.
Jackie
@Jackie: Answer to my question:
I hope today’s Primary voters give chickenshit republicans a yuuge piece of their minds!
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
Agreed. That can be tragic, but at least it’s not the state directly forcing the issue. To me, it’s like the difference between people choosing not to have tons of kids and the state engaging in direct population control.
Geminid
From Ankara-based Clash Report:
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: Antisemitism is a terrible thing and Jews all over the world deserve to live in safety and prosperity.
That is a totally separate issue from how the Netanyahu government of Israel is operating, and from how my terrible FFOTUS government is operating.
different-church-lady
@Suzanne: Hey, you’re lucky: they tell other folks to die in a fire.
Baud
@Suzanne:
It’s not separate if the antisemites attempt to use the opportunity to advance their cause.
Enhanced Voting Techninques
Did you not notice there is a skilled labor shortage and Trumps tariffs screwing up the supply chains ? I am speaking as someone who works in manufacturing and spent the last six months doing nothing because of parts shortages.
different-church-lady
@Baud:
CHECKMATESTALEMATE, LIBS!Princess
@SFAW: Bibi is to blame for many things but Americans have a lot of nerve blaming American involvement here on Bibi. Your president and his government own every part of their own involvement here. Bibi couldn’t force Trump to do anything he didn’t want to do.
mardam
“The trade was not that you were getting exposed to geopolitics when moving to Dubai.”
Honest to farking Dog!! How do these people breathe without assistance?
My sister, her husband and kids lived in Dubai for several years. And that was always on their minds.
Suzanne
@Baud: I’m not going to support this war of aggression in order to prove I’m not an anti-Semite. That’s bonkers.
Baud
@Suzanne:
No one suggested otherwise. I was just pointing out that critics of Israel can’t wave away the antisemitism as a separate issue because antisemites are real people who will piggyback on legitimate grievances to manipulate people.
YY_Sima Qian
@Suzanne: This special edition podcast by Tommy Vietor & Ben Rhodes on the war on Iran is pretty good.
Trump Team SCRAMBLES in First Address Since U.S. Bombing of Iran
In the last section their advise to Dems is to be confidently & forthrightly pro-peace as the default position (no prevarications about Khamenei being a bad guy when criticizing Trump as reckless & lawless), except where US & allies are directly threatened. Don’t fear the inevitable accusations from the reactionaries about being “weak on defense” or “sympathizing w/ autocrats”, those bad faith accusations come anyway.
In the last election Trump successfully sold himself as the “peace candidate” to the gullible & ill-informed (which unfortunately is a lot of Americans), Dem should never let that happen again & should never muddy the waters to Trump’s benefit. Trump’s militarist misadventures are that unpopular, being unequivocally for peace is the sound strategy politically, morally & strategically.
Princess
The fact is that in my adulthood, American has entered wars at the behest of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. But for Americans to depict themselves and the Republican governments who went along as passive victims who were “dragged in” is completely ludicrous. Give me a break. Own your own shit.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: Agreed.
I am even OK w/ states implementing strong incentives to guide the behavior it desires, but a choice should be available to the individual.
Betty Cracker
@Princess: 100% true, but Baud is right to note that it’s an opportunity for bad-faith actors to advance their grotesque narratives. That will happen on the right in a big way and also on the left side of the spectrum to further divide our coalition on the one hand and bully people into silence on the other. Fuck that noise, I say.
Enhanced Voting Techninques
@YY_Sima Qian: the brilliant thinkers who are shocked the PRC isn’t up in arms about the Middle East are ignoring the only reason the US is involved in the Middle East is because our NATO allies are the ones dependent on the oil from the region.
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: These same issues are being worked out in Syra, where the Damascus government and Kurdish leaders are negotiating the scope of Kurdish-language instruction in public schools.
It was fortunate that the Damascus government and the SDF reached agreement on integration January 28. The agreement has held up so far, and potentially dangerous instability in norfheast Syria was mitigated before this war began.
So far, the worst Syrians have experienced is a rain of ballistic missile and interceptor pieces in the area between Damascus and the Golan Heights. Four people were injured yesterday but there have been no fatalities.
Princess
And yes, if you’re blaming Bibi as if this is the first time ever and not a regular pattern since 1990, but have forgotten Kuwait and the Saudis (I’m not pointing fingers — I’m seeing people all over the socials do this) don’t be surprised if to others it sounds antisemitic.
Baud
YY_Sima Qian
@Princess: Yeah, the tail can only wag the dog if the dog intends it. Choosing to give up agency is itself agency.
lowtechcyclist
@different-church-lady:
The perfect quote for what’s going on right now. I’ll down one this evening to the memory of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Suzanne
@Baud: It is a perfectly consistent position to believe that Jewish people everywhere in the world should live in safety and prosperity, that the Iranian regime is murderous and tyrannical, and that the governments of Israel and the U.S. are engaging in a terrible war.
I have nothing to do with anti-Semitism and I’m not going to change my position because of how bad actors are going to “spin it”. If new evidence comes to light, then I will change my position.
Princess
@Betty Cracker: 100% agree which is why I’m pushing so hard on insisting that the US, which is still the most powerful country in the world, doesn’t get “dragged in” to anything it doesn’t want. Bibi has wanted this war forever but so has Trump and the bad half of Congress.
Baud
@Suzanne:
You’re battling a straw man. Reminding people to be on guard is not asking anyone to change their position (unless one’s position is that antisemitism is welcome, and I in no way think that describes you).
Suzanne
@Princess: I think most of us here at BJ have had Bibi’s number for a long time. When our government decides to participate, I think it’s reasonable to ramp up the criticism.
Princess
@Suzanne: That’s my view too and obviously it’s not antisemitic. I think the antisemitism creeps in with people who see the US as coerced by Israel. MTG for instance. Though with her it doesn’t creep; it gallops.
Having Israel attack first was not a coercement for instance. It was a pretext. Trump announced it before it happened.
Suzanne
@Baud: That’s fair. We can/should oppose anti-Semitism without supporting the Netanyahu government.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: It is a point of tension in every multi-ethnic polity. The difference being the Kurds in Syria (& Iraq) have lots of guns, so they can bargain for greater autonomy in all spheres, including the school curriculum. Ethnic minorities in the PRC can only accept what the CPC regime decides to implement. Their only alternative is to emigrate to countries where they are the majority (such as the Kazakhs, the Uzbeks, the Koreans), but not so viable for the Uyghurs & the Tibetans.
Incidental, decades of Soviet domination meant that it is arguable that the Mongols of Mongolia have retained less of the Mongol culture/customs/language than the Mongols of Inner Mongolia. Before the PRC government started to cut the percentage of instruction in minority languages, some of the Mongolia middle class had sent their children to Inner Mongolia to learn proper Mongolian. When the PRC government made the change, it was the Mongolian parents from Mongolia who did more of the protesting that garnered some international media attention.
VeniceRiley
My dog just won a FIFA Pees Prize. A gold medal for a deftly done right leg left leg switch midstream. It really happened, and that’s what watching the current circumstances is like. Some sort of combo of WTF and OF COURSE.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: The problem exists on the other side too: it’s difficult to express support for Jews *existing*, in Israel or elsewhere, without someone trying to take it as blank check support for Israeli aggression. The entire subject eats nuance for breakfast.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t know why so many people these days care about what other people think, especially the worst people. It’s like we’re all still in high school.
kalakal
@Baud:
Exactly. And at the same time they’re conviced the way to retain their unearned privilage and security is to carry on destroying that society
YY_Sima Qian
@Enhanced Voting Techninques: The reasons Trump is involved in the ME are his ego, Israel, & money from Gulf State interests. It isn’t for the energy security of NATO allies, which Iran closing the Hormuz will do nothing for,
Enhanced Voting Techninques
Something else to keep to be aware of
People going about AI deepfakes. Well they nothing compared to were the Flight Sims are are now.
Take this video preview for DCS Super Carrier as an example.
The causal viewer might be forgiven if they mistook this stuff for the real thing.
I’ve seen a lot of videos on social media claiming to showing US aircraft being shot down that’s clearly DCS when you know what to look for.
Matt McIrvin
@Princess: For all their critics think otherwise, Biden would have said no, and Harris would have said no.
Suzanne
@Baud: Agree. What I think the base problem with “caring too much what others think” is that a lot of people’s politics are ultimately about serving interests (their own and their allies) rather than about values.
Enhanced Voting Techninques
@YY_Sima Qian: That and Bibi wanted to undermine Trump’s plan to rebuild Gaza. I am pretty sure the girls school getting blown up was the Israelis making sure the Iranians wouldn’t want to go back to talking again like last June.
Dave
@Princess: Both can and are likely true. Bibi almost certainly manipulated this (and screw him he is about as bad as anyone) but it wouldn’t have a chance of working if Trump wasn’t Trump and their wasn’t a pre-existing war boner group in DC.
SFAW
@Princess:
Yeah, Bibi’s such a dumbass that there’s no way he could figure out Piggy could be goaded/belittled/BS’ed into doing something that Piggy already wanted to do, but didn’t have the “justification” for it.
But, fine, yes, it was not 100-percent Bibi’s fault. Not even 50 percent — nothing he said would have “pushed” Piggy into it, if Piggy didn’t want to already. But acting as though Bibi was a non-player might be a little off.
kalakal
@YY_Sima Qian
@Rusty:
Couldn’t agree more. It’s the very definition of hubris and has been the root cause of the downfall of more nations and empires than any other factor. Those who gain most from a society begin taking more and more while contributing less and less until it collapses due to pressures internal and/or external. And there’s always a belief their personal position and that of their polity is eternally fixed due to their innate superiority
dc
@YY_Sima Qian: What’s the percentage of non Mandarin Chinese speakers, like Cantonese, for example? And will this policy create any tension with those speakers?
Dave
@Suzanne: This Bibi sucks and his constituency suck. Trump sucks and so does his constituency. When they come together to create a Mega Zord of suck I’m going to be very angry and also point it out.
kalakal
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Hey, rebranding all the stationary to say Warrr!! doesn’t come cheap you know . ..
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Well, you said it yourself: critics of Israel definitely *do* have to worry about what antisemites all over the world will do with their words. That’s caring what a bunch of total bastards think, because thought drives action. The same is true of the people who want to turn Gaza into a parking lot or keep making endless war.
My impression is that they insist all this is necessary for survival, that their enemies will wipe them out if they don’t, so if you want them to live you have to be on board with everything they do. Everything gets forced into bloody binaries.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: Meaningless posturing from France & the PRC.
Well, maybe the PRC can prevail upon the Iranians to unclose the Strait of Hormuz. It seems tankers carrying Iranian oil to the PRC are still being let through.h
Dave
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t want to make too much from a single example but on of the most fanatical hackle raising people I interacted with was an Israeli Chaplain that by some weird method ended up being ours.
It was a strange situation I still know all the details think he was here in the US Military but also clearly Israeli first and foremost and he was burned with fanaticism.
There could be no recognition of anything from the Palestinian perspective not even the smallest mote of empathy or even “X is a predictable reaction to suffering Y” on their part.
It was very disconcerting. And an attitude that didn’t burst fully formed from Zeus’s head. And I can even understand where and how that attitude was developed and then cultivated but nothing good can come from it and while it isn’t exactly ubiquitous in Israel it’s almost certainly common enough to be a major issue.
And that’s before we invoke the blinders on, utterly unserious, violence happening to other people, perspective that the dumber side of the American foreign policy establishment seems to love.
It’s a recipe for disaster. Anyway dude raised my hackles
And I hate that this would be used by so many people as an excuse for anti-Semitism. To blame all Jewish people everywhere for the actions of the Israeli and US governments.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin:
Nominated!
YY_Sima Qian
@dc: Instruction in standard Mandarin (or Putonghua, as in the “Common Tongue”) has been mandatory to Han Chinese for decades. No instruction is done in local dialects (or languages, the boundary gets blurry). The change happened at the same time as the switch in the weighting of Mandarin & minority language instruction for ethnic minority students.
Local dialects continue to survive in local communities, but they are slowly decaying across the youngest demographics. Those who < 10 y.o. often prefer to speak Mandarin in all settings, as their parents also spend most of their time speaking Mandarin. Young kids often grow up speaking exclusively dialects, because they have been raised by their grandparents, but as soon as they hit kindergarten they switch to Mandarin & start to lose their fluency in the local dialects. That too is partly the result of conscious policy, since kindergartens are mandated to be all Mandarin (w/ some English for the privately run ones).
OTOH, provincial & local governments often still operate TV & radio stations that broadcast exclusively in the local dialects (or ethnic minority languages, as the case may be), for the benefit of the elders who are not Mandarin speakers.
There are some communities that take pride in their local dialects/languages, & make efforts to speak them in social settings, such as speakers of Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Wu, etc. However, I would not be surprised if in 50 years’ time all of them are pushed to the very margins.
Matt McIrvin
@Dave: I can even see where the attitude comes from, given the history of Israel and the wars it fought with its neighbors for survival practically from day one. I would probably have some of the same feeling in their shoes. But their right-wing leadership for the past few decades has done so much to make the situation worse for their own benefit.
Kathleen
@Baud: And Schumer and Jeffries.
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: Thd Kurds in Iraq enjoy a large degree of autonomy guarenteed under the Iraqi constitution. Over 6 million Kurds live in the four northen provinces governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
This is the closest Kurdish people have come to self-rule in the modern era, and governance there is as good or better than any in the region. And yes, Kurdish is the language of instruction in these four provinces.
Syria is a different story. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces held off integration for months in hopes they could win autonomy similar to the KRG’s.
But Kurds are not even a majority in Hasakah Governate, the easternmost of the three provinces controlled by the SDF– so-called Rojava. In mid-January, when Syrian Army forces moved up to the Euprates River that bounded Rojava on the west, militias from the Arab majorities of Raqaa and Deir Ezzor sent SDF forces packing.
After that, the SDF’s days were numbered. The US supported Damascus, and the help Israel had teased for a year never materialized.
The SDF signed the January 28 agreement under duress. They knew they could not withstand an offensive by Damascus, not without support from the US or Israel and with Turkiye ready to intervene on the Syrian side.
So they accepted the government’s terms, and the agreement is being slowly and very carefully implemented. But it’s a good thing that problem was resolved before this war began.
Now Syria can concentrate on the thousands of ISIS fighters infesting its eastern borderlands, and other internal security threats. Also on rebuilding its economy, which is proceeding slowly but steadily with assistance from the Gulf Arabs in the forms of direct aid and investment.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kathleen:
Yes indeed. As the refrain goes, how have they failed us today?
Kathleen
@O. Felix Culpa: The fact that they refuse to resign even though the lefty elites hate them!
Professor Bigfoot
This does not apply to the United States.
SOME “minorities” are quite deliberately excluded from assimilation in this country.
One more example of the superiority of American culture.
Geminid
@Enhanced Voting Techninques: The Israelis almost certainly meant to hit that building, but I don’t think they meant to kill school children. I think this was an error made by some IDF staffer drawing up target lists.
The school is adjacent to a navy base. It used to be within the base perimeter, as schools often are located within American miltary bases. Then the Iranians built a wall separating it from the base, perhaps with preventing the kind of tragedy we saw Saturday in mind.
But someone put the school on a target list, and no one caught the mistake. I know people will scoff at this, but that’s what I believe. Killing those kids served no strategic purpose; it worked against the interests of Israel and the US. And I don’t believe the Israelis would do this out of pure savagery, although I’m sure plenty of people will dispute that too.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kathleen: Of course, which has absolutely nothing to do with their respective ethnicities and their ability to do their jobs.
Trivia Man
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Ignore it – but cite their earlier (opposite) decision as your reason.
O. Felix Culpa
@Professor Bigfoot: lolsob.
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: Easy solution: israel as the 51st state!
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne:
Unfortunately it seems like the US directly attacking a NATO ally is only a matter of time.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: Unlike in Gaza, I do not believe the IDF targeted the school for being a school. If the IDF made bombing schools a part of policy of collective punishment, we would have see many more schools bombed, as in Gaza.
YY_Sima Qian
double post
Trivia Man
@Baud: My problem is that too many hear “bibi sucks. He is bad for israel and bad for jews.” And immediately shout WHY ARE YOU AN ANTISEMITE?
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: To what extent is this whole tragedy Saudi and the Gulf States doing it to themselves?
Trivia Man
@YY_Sima Qian: Punishing kids who speak their native language is a clear sign of culture extinction plans.
lowtechcyclist
@MattF:
What a bunch of poisonous shit. First of all, they are representing the U.S. government, not their religion, and have no business using their positions of leadership to spread their crap. It’s a First Amendment violation, presumably, though with the Bogus Scotus being what it is these days, who knows? Second, this old Jesus freak says, thanks loads for making Jesus look like a horrible god, and can you please just do that on your own time? Third, I’ve seen so many imminent End Times come and go in my 55+ years as a Christian, that anyone who thinks this time is really going to be the one is AFAIAC just a fucking idiot. And fourth, it’s not surprising that those fucking idiots are exalting as their hero someone who matches up pretty well with their signs of what the Antichrist would be like. If this Antichrist bullshit were real, they’ve given an impressive demonstration of their susceptibility.
Professor Bigfoot
“Never ascribe to malice that which can be sufficiently explained by stupidity.*”
*or in this case, simple human error, which is always RAMPANT in warfare
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Sure, blame the Arabs. Nobody likes them anyway
Less cynically, there is in fact reporting that the Saudis encouraged Trump to start this war, and I believe it. But I can’t blame them but so much for wanting to cut down the power of the Islamic Republic. They’ve had to live with the Islamic Republic’s standing tbreats, and it’s interventions in neighboring countries including Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Dave
@Professor Bigfoot: I suspect it wasn’t intentional or that they had convinced themselves the school was cover for actual operations.
Intelligence agencies, especially ones that exist in an environment that has genuine threats, can easily fall down the motivated reasoning/overactive pattern recognition rabbit hole.
Doesn’t make it better well maybe marginally better than intentionally targeting schools but I do suspect it wasn’t with the purpose of killing school children.
Baud
@Trivia Man:
Again, why are we obsessed with what awful people say about what we say?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Geminid: Good points, but it is worth noting that Bibi has a history of getting what he wants by trolling Muslims.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Geminid: Really, I had read that the Gulf States were against this one because they figured Trump would get bored with it quickly, wander off, and leave them with the mess.
Then again, as Neon shows, the Saudi Crown Prince isn’t exactly the sharpest spoon in the drawer.
Geminid
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Netanyahu got a lot of worldwode condemnation out of that strike. What did he gain?
Dave
@Dave: Also wouldn’t be shocked, appalled yes but not shocked, if it turned out that it was entirely intentional as a “message” once you dehumanize sufficiently that sort of reasoning makes total sense.
lowtechcyclist
[Enhanced Voting Techniques @73]
It’s not like this apparent underproduction of these munitions just started in the past year. It’s clearly been going on awhile. I don’t read Adam’s stuff regularly, but I’m pretty sure he’s been talking about this for two or three years now.
Geminid
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I would not maketoo much out Neom. The Saudis have cut that project back, but they are still building other major projects connected to their Initiative 2031, the project to transform that nation into a modern state.
Saudi Arabia is a rapidly changing place. The subway system opened last year in Riyadh is a good example of this, but there are many more.
As for the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, I could call bin Salman many things, but I would never call him stupid. He’s a sharp, capable guy. And like him or not, bin Salman will lead one of the most important countries in Arab world for the next few decades.
Guy Elster, an Israeli journalist, just published an in-depth look at MBS in a book titled, The Prince. It’s in Hebrew, but I expect an English translation will be out before too long and it will get a lot of attention here.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: In the roller-coaster fan community the biggest and most controversial story of the past year has been the mind-boggling Six Flags Qiddiya (which has a collection of colossal, record-breaking coasters including one that dives off a cliff over 600 feet tall) and the fraught ethics of coaster fans going there. It is definitely part of that whole package. Well, I don’t think anyone’s going there right now.
lowtechcyclist
Responsibility doesn’t top off at 100%. If you and I collaborate on someone’s murder, we’re both 100% responsible. Same here: Piggy and America own this 100%, but Bibi and Israel do too.
Nitpick: I get Kuwait (Gulf War I) and Israel (right now), but what war did we enter into at Saudi Arabia’s behest? They didn’t have anything to do with the Iraq war.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Saudi Arabia strongly urged the US to throw the Iraqis out of Kuwait, and provided the bases to accomplish that. Kuwaiti leadership wasn’t in a position to drag the US a war. But I would still assign the principal blame for that war to Saddam Hussein.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: To the extent that people who hate him will postpone kicking him out of power “for the duration”, anything that extends the duration to infinity helps him. Don’t change Dicks in the middle of a screw, &c.
I do suspect he’d prefer to maintain some remnant of a good-guy image to his own allies. But in the US, those allies are themselves monsters who probably think blowing up schools is a cool idea.
YY_Sima Qian
@Trivia Man: Current Chinese school policy is that students are required to speak Mandarin during classes where Mandarin is the language of instruction (which is most of the classes), & they are reprimanded for failing to do so (so are their teachers). Teachers are supposed to encourage students to speak Mandarin while they are on school premises, but that is not really enforced in schools where ethnic minority students dominate. There is no punishment for students speaking ethnic minority languages (or Chinese dialects, as the case may be) in their homes & in their communities, such a policy would be unenforceable, anyway. Many of their elderly grandparents are not Mandarin speakers, & ethnic minority languages have protected status in regions where they dominate, all official signages & official documents provide translations, local governments run TV & radio stations the offer programming in local ethnic minority languages, & in such regions there are dedicated bookstores or dedicated sections in bookstores for the local ethnic minority languages.
Clearly, the CPC regime wants to encourage assimilation of the ethnic minority peoples in the PRC to the Han Chinese dominated mainstream, to reduce what it sees as potential centrifugal forces in the polity, sometimes in ways I find disagreeable to abhorrent. However, I also find accusations of cultural genocide or cultural erasure exaggerated & overwrought.
More than the school curriculums, I find the suppression of (or at least lack of encouragement & support for) the development of new cultural content (literature, poetry, song, music, etc.) in ethnic minority languages, that primarily celebrate unique ethnic cultures & traditions, much more troubling. While the space for such cultural development is not zero, it is more constrained than artists & writers (regardless of ethnicity) creating for the CPC regime approved mainstream (inevitably dominated by Han Chinese culture/history/traditions), which is already heavily controlled & censored. The many aspects of ethnic minority culture & traditions (arts, crafts, song/music, literature, history) approved by the CPC regime have protected status & often receive lavish state funding for their preservation, but creation of the new not so much.
This is a recipe for long term stagnation of ethnic minority cultures, where they become in effect museum exhibits for curious visitors, as opposed to vibrant & evolving organisms. Younger generations would then slowly (or rapidly) drift away toward the modern cities dominated by the Han Chinese (& in some ways Western, as modernity has heavy western influences) norms/habits/values, w/ all of the possibilities & allures, until they are substantially assimilated into that mainstream.
I think this is a familiar dynamic across the world, & one that the CPC regime wants to encourage & accelerate.
YY_Sima Qian
@Matt McIrvin: Among the US reactionaries, there is definitely a strong contingent who will find obliterating a school full of brown children a flex.
Come to think of it, there are more than a few Israeli reactionaries who take pleasure obliterating tent cities full of Gazan children, & have made it explicit on social media. & they are brazen in their monstrosity because they don’t seem to expect or fear censure.
The percentage of Israelis who show sympathy or empathy toward the Palestinians, or shame at Israel’s conduct in Gaza & the WB, is much lower than the percentage that hate Bibi. I least that is my strong impression.
The Pale Scot
@MattF: has to be an AF puke
Butter Emails!!!
@Dave: In my opinion from least to most likely.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Israel’s opposition could not kick Netanyahu out if it tried. His government’s mandate lasts until October. That’s when Israel will elect a new Knesset, unless Netanyahu calls snap elections when this war ends.
Trivia Man
@Geminid: Any guesses in how their budget deadline affects any of this? I read march 31 funding stops for the military,
Geminid
@Trivia Man: This coalition has muddled through so far, and I expect it will muddle through that deadline.* They can’t stand each other, but they also can’t stand the idea of giving up the perqs and patronage that comes with governmental office.
* I seem to remember them finally passing a budget a couple weeks ago, but I have not paid much attention to domestic Israeli politics lately. They’re in a steady, shitty state and I don’t think much will happen before the Knesset elections; certainly nothing good.
Paul in KY
@oldster: What would that be in lawyerese? Comments that would basically amount to that.
Paul in KY
@YY_Sima Qian: China has China and that’s all it needs.
Paul in KY
@mardam: As opposed to living in Lebanon or Syria or Kyiv, dingy.
Paul in KY
@Princess: I think Likud Israel (through Bibi and others) have played the US again (as they did with Iraq).
From their standpoint, can see the advantages.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Hear, hear! To many on the fucking ‘social media’ puke funnel, IMO.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Y’all keep making your potato salad too tasty. That really puts sand in the undies of your average YT ‘Karen’. :-)
Paul in KY
@Geminid: I think they meant to hit it.
Paul in KY
@YY_Sima Qian: The ones in Gaza are expected to provide/train low cost laborers for Israeli projects. Not so in Iran.
Paul in KY
@Trivia Man: Change ‘Bibi’ to ‘Likud Party’. Also change ‘Jews’ to ‘peace loving Jews’.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Geminid: My impression is that Netanyahu personal objective is to stay out of jail as long as possible and he needs a war to do that.
But I was referring to Netanyahu visiting the Dome of the Rock, which according to the account I read derailed the last effort at a peaceful solution.
Paul in KY
@Dave: I can assure you the IDF doesn’t give 3 shits about killing Iranian school children.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: Stupid he’s not.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: 1st one was on Saddam (attacking Kuwait). 2nd was on us and Israel.
Paul in KY
@YY_Sima Qian: My impression as well. Hamas has certainly helped that along.
Geminid
@Paul in KY: Yes, that was not a stray bomb. What I’m saying is they didn’t think they would kill schoolchildren; they thought that building was something other a school.
Geminid
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Are you sure that was Netanyahu visiting the Dome of the Rock, or Temple Mount?* I can’t think any consequential visit by Netanyahu to that place. There was a very well-known visit to the Temple Mount by Ariel Sharon though, that triggered widespread unrest among Palestinians. I think that the First Intifadah.
* The Dome of the Rock and another large mosque sit on a large terrace known as the Temple Mount. I think it’s at least a couple acres in extent. Israeli politicians visit the Temple Mount, but they don’t go in the Dome of the Rock.
The police have though. The rules agreed upon by Israel and the Waqf, a religious body under Jordan’s auspices, require the mosques to be vacated between evening prayers and morning prayers. In May of 2021, Hamas had its followers occupy the Dome of the Rock after hours. The Israel police hauled them all out as Hamas knew they would. That gave Hamas the excuse they wanted to start the eleven day day war of 2021, with a rocket barrage.
Aziz, light!
@lowtechcyclist: I’ve seen reports of evangelicals who believe that Trump is the Antichrist and are willfully supporting him to hasten the prophesied coming of the end times.
I regret that there will never be a Rapture to remove these fools from my planet.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: I think they knew it was a kid’s school.
Warblewarble
@different-church-lady: If I know FIFA they are getting the WARRR Prize ready for handing over.