When he’s being actively undermined by Republicans the whole way, just cleaning up Trump’s mess can be an accomplishment. The Inflation Reduction Act went against heavily entrenched interests to restart the US federal government’s response to climate change. It took real finesse to get that through Congress.

I can’t help but think that’s why Putin invaded Ukraine. He needed something to keep the masses distracted. He’s afraid that he’ll get assassinated if he ever leaves power, whether voluntarily or by violent overthrow.

It sounds like it was the bomber, Serhiy Batryn, that was reported as dead. Conflicting reports as to whether he has actually died. This was not related to Russia from what I could gather. He had a long standing feud with members of the local council.

I get that, but I have had the opportunity to talk to several people from Israel. They’ve grown up surrounded by this conflict. Inflicting collective punishment on them doesn’t sit well with me. This is a more multi-dimensional situation than the apartheid of South Africa or the invasion by Russia. This is as much a string of failures of leadership in Israel and Palestine as anything else.

Interesting. I’m not going to stop doing it, but still, interesting.

Definitely avoid companies that are profiting from activity in the West Bank, but not all of Israel. Israel includes many ethnic minorities that would be harmed all the same.

Make your bed each morning. Your bedroom will look more organized and you will have a nice bed to lie down in at night.

So much this. The Palestinian side has been more or less in stasis politically for what, a decade? Meanwhile Israel moves further and further to the right, constantly indulging their worst right flank including continued land theft. The Republicans in the US indulge Israel without question, while the Democrats question Israel without teeth.

Hamas and Netanyahu need to go as the baseline outcome of this debacle. I’m not sure how Hamas gets removed, or more importantly what takes its place.

For reading, digital. I can have access to a functionally unlimited number of books. They also tend to be less expensive. That makes a difference for media like manga where it racks up pretty quickly. And I can make adjustments to the text and lighting that help with readability.

I still like having some books around as decoration. They bring a room together nicely.

I just said I think IDF violence against kids throwing rocks is unjustifiable. DID I STUTTER?

That’s not what I’m saying. I hold the Israeli government and Hamas to both be responsible in this conflict. I don’t see judging who is more responsible as that productive of an exercise. More Palestinian civilians have died, but that’s because Hamas actively put them in harm’s way. What would you ask Israel to do, given that 1,400 of their citizens died on 10/7 and hundreds more remain hostages?

Israel’s position previous to 10/7 was that they would just leave Gaza as an open air prison with Hamas in charge, though they would never like it framed that way. After 10/7, that changed. Hamas is clearly more of a threat than they envisioned and has to be exterminated.

Given that this is the general air inside of Israel, what should happen? I’m not sure they can really even back off at this point, given how far Hamas went. Unfortunately, smarter people than me don’t have good answers. Part of the problem is a failure of leadership on both sides. Bibi apparently did his best back in the day to essentially legitimize Hamas while cutting the PLA out of the peace process, purposefully splitting the Palestinians. Meanwhile, Palestinian leadership is a mix of corrupt, weak, and uninspiring. Both Israelis and Palestinians deserve a new generation of better leaders, but I haven’t heard of any.

And I will stand aside and let you criticize them all you want.

But there are a whole lot of people who have decided to excuse everything Hamas does and cast everything Israel does in the worst light possible. That’s what I personally have a problem with. Hamas and its sponsors are despicable excuses for human beings who put slaughter Israeli civilians and put Palestinian civilians in harm’s way. That needs to be fully acknowledged. At the same time, I see a lot of people in the US who are ignorant of the failure of leadership in Israel. They place all blame on Palestinians without realizing that Israel’s leadership has played a role in sabotaging peace talks.

Huh, wonder why the IDF is there. Oh yeah, it’s because Hamas stormed out of Gaza and specifically targeted civilians as nice soft targets.

Yeah, that was my intuition. The US has a lot of other levers to get its way, chiefly by diplomacy and leading the way in weapons donations. It would be devastating if the US was found out to have done this. A few people in Ukraine’s military just makes more sense, particularly if they don’t have any connection to high ranking leaders.

I see no problem with the human rights record of Qatar.

Nuclear isn’t just about cost. It provides excellent baseline load power, which most low carbon sources just can’t provide.

Not really. That was methane that escaped straight into the atmosphere. It was a climate disaster.

The pipeline was already completely shut down. I doubt Europe will be too keen on exposing itself to the risk that Russia poses again.

One issue the IDF has been working with for a while is the sheer amount of tunneling by Hamas. There is dense housing right on top of the tunnels. Destroying the tunnels can lead to the above buildings collapsing, as well as the damage caused by any explosives.

Will they annex and depopulate Gaza? I hope not. That’s just going to create another generation of fighters itching for revenge. Grievances outlast Hamas, and they will likely find a form. That said, maybe a single state solution will be the best form of government, as long as Palestinians, Jewish Israelis, and other groups are guaranteed equal rights. The half-ass “two state” attempt right now isn’t working.