Four Letter Words in Marriage

As soon as the newlyweds returned from their honeymoon the young bride called her mother, who lived a couple of hours away.

“How did everything go?” her mom asked.

“Oh, mother,” she began, “The honeymoon was wonderful! So romantic, we had a terrific time. But, mother, on our way back, Andy started using really horrible language. Stuff I’d never heard before Really terrible four-letter words. You’ve got to come get me and take me home. Please, Mother!” the new bride sobbed over the telephone.

“But, honey,” the mother countered, “What four-letter words?”

“I can’t tell you, mother, they’re too awful! Come get me, please!”

“Darling, you must tell me what has gotten you so upset…. Tell mother what four-letter words he used.”

Still sobbing, the bride said, “Mother, words like dust, wash, iron, cook.”

Links - 18th September 2024 (2 - China's 'Peaceful' Rise)

Xi Jinping Is Preparing China for War - "American observers seem to believe that the sweeping purge was designed to target widespread corruption in the senior ranks of the People's Liberation Army. Chris Buckley of the New York Times, for example, called the personnel changes "an unexplained shake-up that suggests suspicions of graft or other misconduct."  Yet, this explanation is partial at best. "Almost all the senior generals had good reputations before their promotion," said a well-placed source speaking anonymously to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. Indeed, while the PLA's senior officer corps is known to be thoroughly corrupt, Xi Jinping has during his decade-long rule generally tolerated corruption among supporters... The more likely explanation for the purge lies elsewhere: From the beginning of this year, Xi Jinping has been purging the military of officers opposed to going to war—because he's preparing for one.  Xi Jinping these days often talks about war, and his regime is fast preparing for one. The Communist Party is implementing the largest military buildup since the Second World War. It's simultaneously trying to sanctions-proof the country, stockpile grain and other commodities, survey America for strikes and sabotage, and mobilize China's civilians for battle. The military indoctrination of children begins during the first years of school. And why would Xi Jinping opt for going into battle? China is failing fast, and Xi is being blamed. His Maoist-inspired policies, which favor state enterprises over private and foreign businesses, are making severe problems even worse. Especially troubling is Xi relentless cutting of China's links with other countries... During Xi's rule, Beijing has periodically made unprovoked threats to kill Americans by the hundreds of millions and, beginning in 2021, Japanese and Australians as well. Moreover, China has also warned it will nuke Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing considers its 34th province... That so many have been purged reflects disobedience in the ranks expressed as a reluctance to go to war. The regime handed down a death sentence this year to former Air Force General Liu Yazhou due to his continued opposition to an invasion of Taiwan, and he is not alone. "The image that Xi Jinping is firmly in command of the Communist Party is belied by increasing evidence of instability in the ranks of China's military leadership," said Charles Burton of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute. "The extraordinary purge of both the commander and political commissar of the Rocket Force suggests there is serious discontent within China's military with Xi Jinping." Burton, a former Canadian diplomat posted in Beijing, points to Xi's failing domestic and foreign policies, especially the "cratering economy." "They have got some problems," said President Joe Biden about China earlier this month. "That's not good, because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things.""

China's Xi tells military to deepen war, combat planning, Xinhua reports - "Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday urged the military to deepen war and combat planning to increase the chances of victory in actual combat, Xinhua news agency said, renewing his call to troops to safeguard China's sovereignty and territory."

China is building long-range cruise missiles launched from ship containers - "China is likely to build a variant of its YJ-18 long-range cruise missile that could be fired from shipping containers. This variant would be called the YJ-18C. This new weapon could help China turn its fleet of freighters into potential warships, and commercial ports would then become missile bases."

China warns World War Three could be triggered 'at any time - "An article in the state-backed Global Times newspaper on Tuesday said that 'collusion' between the US and Taiwan was so 'audacious' that the situation 'has almost lost any room for manoeuvre, teetering on the edge of a face-off.'"
From 2021. It's always evil foreign powers' fault

Hua Chunying 华春莹 on X - "We cannot allow the #US to take itself as "world policeman" and treat other countries as #GeorgeFloyd whom it can bully and strangle at will."
Kmele 🖐 on X - "...because Nancy Pelosi took a trip to Taiwan."
Fabrizio Bartoloni on X - "We cannot allow China to treat other countries as protesters in Tien'anmen. This is not 1989 anymore."
When your enemies know how to use your divisions against you

Playing the Trump card in Canadian elections - "The CCP also played the Trump card explicitly, calling O’Toole “Canada’s Donald Trump,” mocking his name, which connotes “vomit” in Mandarin, and accusing him, like Trump, of being hostile to the local Chinese community. Both Chinese-language social media, where Chinese-Canadians get much of their news, and Canada’s Chinese-language press are largely controlled by the CCP. The CCP’s attacks worked, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s Foreign Interference Commission has confirmed. The CCP played a significant role by intervening when the Conservatives led in the polls. Correlation is not causation but after its intervention the tide did turn in favour of the Liberals. Yet an even greater Trump-related benefit to the Liberals came implicitly, courtesy O’Toole himself, who decided to keep Canadians in the dark about the CCP’s interference in their electoral system, largely to avoid being tainted with a Trump brush. In doing so, O’Toole not only undermined Canadian democracy, he threw his own MPs under the bus and destroyed any possibility that Canadian voters — if presented with evidence China was interfering in favour of the Liberals — might decide to throw the CCP’s party of choice out of office. In damning testimony before the Hogue Commission, O’Toole admitted that his “candidates and volunteers were very worried about the level of foreign interference” and admitted he made a conscious decision to stay mum. “I was very … worried that if we were suggesting some seats were lost or that our electoral fortunes were being impacted by a foreign actor … some people in the political realm would suggest I was following the approach of the United States and that the election was stolen and all these sorts of things. That’s why I never mentioned it … while I was leader of the party,” he testified. He admitted his fear was augmented because whenever Conservatives criticized China “the prime minister and the government would respond by saying, ‘Make sure you’re not perpetuating anti-Asian hate or discrimination.’ It was that inadvertent chill … that led me not to say anything publicly.” O’Toole now regrets his silence, particularly because, as he puts it, the “approach the government was taking complemented … narratives that were being advanced by … China and its agents in Canada. And I think in the election, we saw that explode into a campaign of misinformation on social media, but also in in-person miscommunication to intimidate voters, to mislead voters with respect to me, with respect to certain candidates and to our policies in general.” Rather than go public, O’Toole testified, “We worked with the mechanisms, we worked with SITE” (the Security and Intelligence Threats to Election task force), i.e. the web of committees, agencies and task forces — some 15 in total — the Trudeau government set up to monitor election interference and other election-related illegalities. Those committees kept reassuring the Conservatives nothing was amiss. Yet the Conservatives knew these bodies, which all reported directly or indirectly to Trudeau, were powerless to take any action without his agreement. Unsurprisingly, complaining to Trudeau came to naught. A CSIS whistleblower finally did expose SITE’s failures. That led to Justice Hogue’s commission and its eventual confirmation of what the Conservatives had known but never revealed: that the CCP’s election interference may have led to seats being stolen in the 2021 election. In the next federal election, expected in 2025, both Trudeau and the CCP may well employ the same Trump-and-racism playbook"

Meme - Charlie Kirk @charliekirk11: "It is time to fully block TikTok from our country."
Charlie Kirk @charliekirk11: "Ban TikTok."
Charlie Kirk @charliekirk11: "Biden just banned TikTok. It won't go into law till January. He is so controlled by the tech companies that he is risking his support with Gen Z. Younger voters won't forget this."

Opinion: Ignoring Chinese spying has made Canada the weak link among Western allies - "Former Hydro-Quebec employee Yueshang Wang, arrested in 2022 for allegedly stealing electric-vehicle battery secrets on behalf of Chinese institutions, remains the only person ever charged with economic espionage under the federal government’s 2001 Security of Information Act. He’s still awaiting trial. And now we all know that Canada allowed a pair of obvious spies to leave the country after they were caught red-handed opening the doors of Canada’s highest-security biohazard lab to Chinese interests. The story of Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng — two scientists at the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg who were secretly collaborating with multiple Chinese institutions, including participating in various “talent” programs — was revealed in the trove of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) reports and other classified material released by Ottawa in February. With both Qiu and Cheng now living in China under new names, the dossier serves as a permanent reminder of how lightly Canada takes the threat of espionage, certainly in comparison with the U.S. This cross-border discrepancy is partly explained by serious flaws in Canada’s legal system. As an intelligence-gathering service, CSIS is best placed to identify crimes of espionage. But it has no actual law enforcement powers. It can share its findings with the RCMP, but this relationship is complicated by the fact CSIS intel is not admissible in court since the agency refuses to disclose its sources and methods... As both an intelligence gathering and law enforcement agency, the FBI does not face this structural problem: it collects evidence for the explicit purpose of using it in court. And its track record of espionage convictions testifies to its success in doing so. Beyond the gap in Canadian law enforcement capabilities, Gurski notes, Canada also lacks a “culture of national security.” Politicians and bureaucrats on the receiving end of CSIS reports habitually discount or ignore the evidence because they put a low priority on such matters. This is one of the main takeaways from the ongoing foreign interference inquiry in Ottawa. Repeated CSIS warnings to federal officials about Chinese election meddling were not acted upon because no one thought it was very important. Such a blasé attitude towards national security is not just embarrassing, it is also having a real impact on Canada’s most important international relationships. “Everything in these documents reinforces the perception that Canada is the weak link,” says Christian Leuprecht, a national security expert at Queen’s University and the Royal Military College. Evidence that Canada’s highest-security biohazard lab was exploited by federally-employed Chinese agents strikes to the very core of our status as a reliable and competent partner. If we can’t keep our own secrets safe, why would other countries trust us with theirs?"

Jamie Sarkonak: Authorities shrug as risky Chinese security tech watches over Canada - "When it comes to national security, it should be common sense not to depend on equipment originating from a foreign adversary. A good lot of western countries appear to have this sense, which has caused a headache — and some bad PR — for Chinese security camera manufacturer Hikvision. The company, which created ethnicity-detection technology to help advance China’s Uyghur containment project/ genocide in the western province of Xinjiang, is the subject of a growing number of sanctions worldwide, except, of course, in Ottawa. The European Union parliament removed its Hikvision cameras in 2021. In 2022, it was banned from the Danish capital region, and the United States prohibited federal dollars from being spent on its products and restricted them from being used in ways that could impact national security. The United Kingdom joined the U.S. around that time, banning all new Hikvision installations on government sites; in 2023, this was expanded into a plan to remove all existing cameras (though execution has been sluggish , as they remain online at half of the government sites that originally had them installed). Australia announced it would be removing Hikvision from its defence sites in 2023, and Quebec banned the cameras from government sites outright that same year. This year, the Dutch announced a Hikvision phase-out in their capital... The reasons for giving Hikvision the cold shoulder are quite simple. One, it looks bad, and arguably does bad, to give business to a company aiding the concentration camp internment of minorities deep in the Eurasian Steppe. Two, Hikvision, like any company from China, has no legal way to prevent the government from peering through potential system keyholes and observing … well, anything. You can imagine the strategic advantage that comes with having access to countless security camera feeds of public and private property all over the world... while this country has been pretty quiet on the question of Hikvision — like it was on the question of Huawei, which was banned after a lengthy hum-haw period — we can glean that at least some departments consider the brand to present a problem, as pains have sometimes been taken to replace them. In the case of the PCO, which got rid of its Hikvision units in April, and Infrastructure Canada, which took “steps to decommission the camera and replace it” on March 14, the day Villemure submitted his question, the replacements appear to have been spurred by the Bloc. Perhaps that’s why the feds have been selling surplus Hikvision cameras online... For a country whose Parliament appears to be compromised to some unknown degree by foreign interests, it’s unsurprising that suspected foreign spyware falls low on the priority list. Just one more thing to clean up in 2025, I suppose."

Why Chinese flags have taken over lawn of Australia's Parliament House - "Pro-China protesters have swarmed the lawn at Parliament House, blocking out peaceful Tibetan activists as Anthony Albanese prepares to meet China's second most powerful leader."
If you suggest dual loyalty, you're racist.
Actually this might more accurately be said to be single loyalty - to China

Ex-ambassador says Canada approached China 'like beggars' - "“I frequently hear from Canadian companies who relay concerns of market constriction in China … policies that tend to favour domestic over foreign,” said the document. “They also complain of opaque regulations, cumbersome licensing requirements, onerous ownership requirements and fierce competition due to market dominance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).”... China has banned Canadian beef since Canada announced a single case of atypical BSE, or mad-cow disease, in 2021, while heat-treated dried pet food was prohibited because of the presence in chicken of “highly pathogenic avian influenza.” In both cases, the World Organization for Animal Health says the products pose no human health risk. China does import pet food from other countries with HPAI chicken, suggesting the Canadian ban is “discrimination,” says the document. The briefing note also defends policies that have angered China, such as signing an investment accord with Taiwan, barring Chinese companies from supplying 5G mobile networks here, and restricting foreign investment in critical-mineral mining. In fact, China’s own restrictions on such investment are much more onerous, the document says. Likewise, China’s apparent objections to Canada requiring COVID testing for Chinese travellers earlier earned a slightly incredulous response. “Surprised you would raise this given China’s own measures,” said the note. “Can you explain why you imposed test requirements (and more) on inbound travellers but object when others do the same?”"
Damn protectionism in Western markets! China's protectionism is justified by the Century of Humiliation, of course!

China cracks down on hate speech against Japan - "almost all of China’s major online platforms announced, respectively, that they are cracking down on hate speech against Japan, following a deadly stabbing against a Japanese school bus... An unemployed 52-year-old Chinese man surnamed Zhou attacked the bus, resulting in non-life-threatening injuries to two Japanese nationals. Hu Youping, a female bus attendant, intervened to stop the attack but lost her life... The shocking attack was followed by both an outpouring of condolences and praise and an ugly hate speech against Japan in China. China’s leading internet companies have, respectively, launched a campaign against the extremist rhetoric within a short time. There is no publicly available information on whether the Chinese government, which closely scrutinizes the companies, was coordinating the campaign.  Commentators including Hu Xijin, the former editor of the Global Times newspaper, have warned that China “must avoid excessively exaggerating external challenges and hostility online, which turns extreme nationalism into a commodity of hating America and Japan, blaming most of China's issues on external factors.”
Ironic, given that the government was the top promoter of anti-Japanese hate speech and it's trying to whip up hatred of the US too

National Security Division, U.S. Dept of Justice on X - "Federal Jury Convicts New York Resident of Acting as a Covert Chinese Agent Defendant Pretended to Be Opposed to the Chinese Government So He Could Get Close to Prominent Activists Seeking to Bring Democracy, Reform and Human Rights to China 🔗:"
Brian in Pittsburgh on X - "Damn. This guy was a human rights activist and cofounder of a significant pro-democracy organization named for victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. He was also an MSS spy reporting to the PRC on the activities of those who joined as far back as at least 2006."

China’s rulers are surprised by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz - "For much of this year the Biden-Trump contest was a boon for Chinese propagandists, allowing them to portray American democracy as a fight between two men past their cognitive prime, whose attacks were redolent of playground bickering. By bowing out Mr Biden has unsettled that narrative and encouraged some Chinese to wonder about their own system, in which Mr Xi, 71, appears set on remaining leader for life. Last month a blogger on Netease, a Chinese internet platform, wrote “for some people, the greatest contribution they can make to the party, the country and the people is to hand over power, step down from the stage and go home to play with their grandchildren”. The next sentence—“That’s right, I’m talking about you, Biden”—did not calm China’s censors, who scrubbed the post."
Richard Hanania on X - "China was surprised when Obama was elected because they bought the propaganda about how racist America was. American elite discourse is so anti-American that it gives China a sense of moral superiority."

The world according to Xi - "A lesser man than Xi Jinping might have found it uncomfortable. Meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week, China’s leader spoke of “peaceful co-existence and win-win co-operation”, while supping with somebody facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes. But Mr Xi is untroubled by trivial inconsistencies. He believes in the inexorable decline of the American-led world order, with its professed concern for rules and human rights. He aims to twist it into a more transactional system of deals between great powers. Do not underestimate the perils of this vision—or its appeal around the world. On Ukraine China has played an awkward hand ruthlessly and well. Its goals are subtle: to ensure Russia is subordinate but not so weak that Mr Putin’s regime implodes; to burnish its own credentials as a peacemaker in the eyes of the emerging world; and, with an eye on Taiwan, to undermine the perceived legitimacy of Western sanctions and military support as a tool of foreign policy. Mr Xi has cynically proposed a “peace plan” for Ukraine that would reward Russian aggression and which he knows Ukraine will not accept. It calls for “respecting the sovereignty of all countries”, but neglects to mention that Russia occupies more than a sixth of its neighbour... China’s approach is not improvised, but systematic and ideological. Deng Xiaoping urged China to “hide your capacities, bide your time”. But Mr Xi wants to reshape the post-1945 world order. China’s new slogans seek to borrow and subvert the normative language of the 20th century so that “multilateralism” becomes code for a world that ditches universal values and is run by balancing great-power interests. The “Global Security Initiative” is about opposing efforts to contain China’s military threat; the “Global Development Initiative” promotes China’s economic-growth model, which deals with autocratic states without imposing conditions. “Global Civilisation” argues that Western advocacy of universal human rights, in Xinjiang and elsewhere, is a new kind of colonialism... Yet the real point of Mr Xi’s foreign policy is to make the world safer for the Chinese Communist Party. Over time, its flaws will be hard to hide. A mesh of expedient bilateral relationships creates contradictions. China has backed Iran but chosen to ignore its ongoing nuclear escalation, which threatens China’s other clients in the region. In Ukraine any durable peace requires the consent of Ukrainians. It should also involve accountability for war crimes and guarantees against another attack. China objects to all three: it does not believe in democracy, human rights or constraining great powers—whether in Ukraine or Taiwan. Countries that face a direct security threat from China, such as India and Japan, will grow even warier. Indeed, wherever a country faces a powerful, aggressive neighbour, the principle that might is right means that it will have more to fear. Because China almost always backs ruling elites, however inept or cruel, its approach may eventually outrage ordinary people around the world. Until that moment, open societies will face a struggle over competing visions... America’s great insight in 1945 was that it could make itself more secure by binding itself to lasting alliances and common rules. That idealistic vision has been tarnished by decades of contact with reality, including in Iraq. But the Moscow summit reveals a worse alternative: a superpower that seeks influence without winning affection, power without trust and a global vision without universal human rights. Those who believe this will make the world a better place should think again."
Relentlessly blaming the West can only work for so long

Hundreds of US scientists accused of Chinese industrial espionage - "Just as the Biden administration has relaxed rules around Chinese influence on research and universities, alarms are being raised over the theft of American trade secrets... The National Institute of Health has revealed that it is investigating over 500 scientists and more than 90 institutions including universities for their alleged ties with Chinese Talent recruitment programs and the smuggling of US research and technology to the Chinese government. "
From 2021

Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "Aging dictator Xi Jinping forced every single Chinese Olympics athlete to assemble in a grand reception hall and applaud him on state television for twenty minutes. This was their Welcome Home celebration from the Paris Olympics. National Chinese state television broadcaster CCTV just aired the footage without commentary and then showed interviews with select stars who said Xi Jinping’s speech would inspire them to train even harder for the next Olympics.   China is going full North Korea"

Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "Chinese tennis star and OIympic gold medallist Qinwen Zheng forced to praise Xi Jinping on state television: ''This is a very important event in my life. President Xi mentioned my name. I am very happy.''  I feel horrible for her - She must remember what they did to Peng Shuai.   They even had her repeating Party slogans. ''Just as President Xi said, winning glory for the nation always surpasses personal honour ... I believe the 'China Spirit' in the New Era is to be higher, faster, and stronger within one's limits.''"

Alec Stapp on X - "China just announced export controls on a critical mineral used in >300 types of munitions. Currently, the US doesn’t mine this resource at all & imports 63% of supply from China. A domestic mining project that would fix this has been stuck in environmental review since 2016."
China Sends a Permitting Wake-Up Call - WSJ - "China announced export restrictions on antimony, a critical mineral in weapon systems and semiconductors.  Beijing isn’t coy about its motives. Restricting antimony exports, China’s commerce ministry says, is needed “to further protect China’s national security and interests and fulfil the nation’s international non-proliferation obligations.”  That’s the Chinese Communist Party’s way of reminding the West of its dependence on China for national defense. More than 300 types of munitions require antimony, and China accounts for about half of the world’s production. Russia and Tajikistan make up most of the rest. The U.S. doesn’t mine antimony and sources 63% of its imports from China.  But America needn’t depend on China. Idaho boasts one of the world’s largest antimony reserves where Perpetua Resources has been trying to develop a gold and antimony mine for more than a decade. The company began the National Environmental Policy Act permitting process in 2016, yet it needs some 50 permits from federal, state and local agencies. Perpetua has completed countless environmental studies and repeatedly modified its project to allay concerns by green groups, though they keep raising new complaints. The company hopes to obtain U.S. Forest Service approval this year, but even then it could face legal challenges. Almost every major mining project in the U.S. faces similar obstacles. Such permitting headaches leave the U.S. vulnerable to Chinese extortion, much as Europe found itself dependent on Russian natural gas. China has repeatedly leveraged its dominance of critical minerals for geopolitical advantage."
Time to increase regulations to prevent greedy capitalists from destroying the environment

The George Floyd Position / Fake $20 Note Alternate Reality / BLM Graffiti

"Sexaul postion number 47, The George Floyd *Man with foot on woman's head and thrusting from the back*"

Keywords: Sexual Position

"What If it was Like This

>walks into the store to get some snacks
>accidentally hands over a fake $20
>cashier looks at him weird
>"Oh damn, my bad bro, didn't even notice that was fake"
>immediately offers to pay with my real money
>few minutes later, cops pull up
>Officer Chauvin approaches, looking serious
>stays calm, smiles at him
>"Good evening, officer. Is there an issue I should be aware of?"
>he explains the situation, no tension at all
>"Ah, I get it. Totally my mistake. I'll cooperate fully, let's keep this smooth."
>Chauvin nods, appreciates the respect
>lets him handcuff
>ride in the squad car is peaceful
>gets booked and out of jail in no time
>jokes about how wild the day could've been
>"Oh and officer, i can breathe!"
>everyone respects him for owning up to my mistake
>becomes a local legend, mentors kids in the community"

You know this is unrealistic because it imagines "everyone" in "the community" respecting him for owning up to a mistake with a police officer

"NOW I KNOW WHAT TO DO IF I EVER SEE ANY B.L.M. FIST GRAFFITI *Blue BLM fist gripping erect penis*"

Links - 18th September 2024 (1)

New study explains why ‘doomscrolling’ is bad for your brain - "In a recent study published in the Journal of Computers in Human Behavior Reports, a team of researchers found there was a connection between doomscrolling and feelings of existential anxiety, despair, distrust, and suspicion of others after surveying over 800 university students from the US and Iran. According to Flinders University researcher Reza Shabahang, who is the study’s lead author, constant exposure to negative news can turn into a “source of vicarious trauma”, causing viewers and readers to feel as though they’re experiencing secondhand trauma... Doomscrolling typically occurs when people consume negative or depressing content on social media for excessive periods of time."

When I get jealous of people, I use that envy as a guidepost. Here's how it led me to quit my prestigious Big Law job. - "While I enjoyed my time in Big Law, the working hours could be unpredictable, depending on who you worked with. Chances are you might end up in a weird ecosystem where people think it's strange if you disappear for an hour at 7 p.m. or aren't reachable within half an hour on weekends. Besides strict working hour standards, there were also a lot of strong personalities. I once worked with people who were upset if I didn't respond within eight minutes, and some partners would hold 1 a.m. team conference calls. So, if I worked for them, I had to adhere to that schedule, too. Sometimes, I went to work thinking it would be a normal day, but I'd get a lot of last-minute ad hoc tasks and would have to work late into the night. Working without knowing what the exact hours were was mentally challenging. My brain was working 24/7, constantly checking my phones for fire drills or emergencies. People may wonder why the average Big Law salary is $200,000, even for people with zero experience — it's because they're paying for our availability and ability to be very good administrators and facilitators... I realized in the end that I would never be fulfilled even as an equity partner because once I made it, I would become obsessed with the next goal — there's always the next thing I think I need to do, and I never reached a point where I thought, "I'm so happy; this is my dream." The happiness I felt was so fleeting, and I quickly forgot it and returned to feeling dissatisfied. Sometimes, I wondered why I still felt lonely and even cried every day after getting what I wanted for so long. Then, I realized I wasn't tired of chasing goals — I was just weirded out by how unfulfilling they were."

Travel safety concerns rise as TikToker advises risky destinations - "TikToker "manishs_" posted a video. He stated that if you want to go on vacation, it's best to choose a country where a terrorist attack has just occurred... flight tickets to the country shortly after a terrorist attack would be incredibly cheap, which is always tempting for travellers. Second, because most people avoid such a country, tourists would primarily encounter local residents, which also sounds appealing. Finally, security in the country shortly after a terrorist attack would be at the highest possible level to ensure it does not happen again."

A genius or a horrid idea? Timers in restrooms at Yungang Grottoes trigger tourist backlash - "the Chinese authorities decided to install timers in the restrooms at the Yungang Grottoes at the beginning of May. Digital timers were installed above each stall to measure the time spent in the restroom from the moment the door is closed until the person exits."

Europe's biggest phone manufacturer plans new device for Gen Z teens - "Europe's biggest phone manufacturer is planning a new device for the Gen Z teens embracing digital detox as an alternative to traditional smartphones. Human Mobile Devices (HMD) vows that users wouldn't be able to install social media platforms like Facebook or TikTok on the planned device... The manufacturer says the new phone they want to create would offer parents the ability to control their child's screen time and social media use, with the hope of thereby improving their mental health... The plans come as a new study of 10,000 parents in five European countries, including the UK, has revealed that the majority regrets buying a smartphone for their child. On average, children are 11 years old when they receive their first phone and more than half the parents in the study said that they wish they had waited longer to hand the device to their children. Almost half of parents believe mobile phone use has changed their child's personality, with a third claiming their child has body image issues due to their phones... About 70 per cent of the surveyed parents in the UK, US, India, Germany and Australia claimed that their smartphone-free childhood meant they engaged more with their family. More than half said that their child's phone use is a source of big arguments and a third have cried over their child's phone obsession. According to the findings, three-quarters of parents think their children will see their phones more during the summer break from school, with 64 per cent saying it will negatively impact their sleep. Furthermore, 61 per cent think it will reduce the amount of physical activity they take, and more than half worried that it will reduce the amount of time they spend socialising with friends. But more than half of parents agreed that smartphones can have a positive impact on their children and benefit them educationally during the summer break as well as by enabling them to keep in touch with their friends. Other key points to emerge from the global survey include almost 75 per cent of parents fearing smartphones expose their children to internet dangers, with more than half admitting they don't know what their children get up to when using their phones."

Research reveals ideal number of steps per day - "Researchers analyzed data from tens of thousands of individuals across four continents and determined a more convenient figure: the optimal daily step count is 6000, depending on your age. Walking more than this is beneficial for health but may not significantly impact longevity... In 2021, a specific study involving middle-aged participants revealed that taking 7000 steps a day reduces the risk of premature death by 50-70%. For adults aged 60 and older, the norm is between 6000 and 8000 steps per day, while for younger individuals, 8000 to 10,000 steps daily is considered optimal. The study also showed that physical activity of at least half an hour a day can be just as beneficial as a walk, especially for those with a sedentary lifestyle. Incorporating strength training in old age helps keep the brain sharp and hearts and bones healthy."

Effect of Intermittent Fasting Diet on Glucose and Lipid Metabolism and Insulin Resistance in Patients with Impaired Glucose and Lipid Metabolism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - "The question of whether or not intermittent fasting diets improve the clinical indicators of glycolipid metabolism remains unclear. This study systematically reviewed the relevant clinical trials to evaluate the effects of intermittent fasting diet on glucose and lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity in patients with metabolic syndrome. To evaluate the effect of intermittent fasting diet intervention on patients with disorders of glucose and lipid metabolism, random-effect or fixed-effect meta-analysis models were used to calculate the average difference before and after intermittent fasting diet intervention and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). After intermittent fasting diet intervention, in terms of glucose metabolism, fasting blood glucose reduced by 0.15 mmol/L (95% CI: −0.23; −0.06), glycosylated hemoglobin reduced by 0.08 (95% CIs: −0.25; −0.10), insulin plasma levels reduced by 13.25 uUI (95% CIs: −16.69; −9.82), and HOMA-IR decreased by 0.31 on an average (95% CIs: −0.44; −0.19). In addition, BMI decreased by 0.8 kg/m2 (95% CIs: −1.32; −0.28), body weight reduced by 1.87 kg (95% CIs: −2.67; −1.07), and the waist circumference decreased by 2.08 cm (95% CIs: −3.06; −1.10). Analysis of lipid metabolism showed that intermittent fasting diet intervention effectively reduced the total cholesterol level by 0.32 mmol/L (95% CIs: −0.60; −0.05), low-density lipoprotein level by 0.22 mmol/L (95% CIs: −0.37; −0.07), and triglyceride level by 0.04 mmol/L (95% CIs: −0.15; −0.07). Intermittent fasting diets have certain therapeutic effects on blood glucose and lipids in patients with metabolic syndrome and significantly improve insulin resistance. It may be considered as an auxiliary treatment to prevent the occurrence and development of chronic diseases."

Flat cap - Wikipedia - "A 1571 Act of the English Parliament was enacted to stimulate domestic wool consumption and general trade. It decreed that on Sundays and holidays, all males over 6 years of age, except for the nobility and "persons of degree", were to wear woolen caps or pay a fine of three farthings per day (equivalent to £1.41 in 2023). The Act was not repealed until 1597"

Why are Today's Chickens Bigger? - "In the 1920’s, the average chicken at market weight was 2.5 pounds and the U.S. population to feed was 115 million. Through a number of improvements in breeding, nutrition, veterinary care and bird health, today’s chicken farmers are able to raise bigger and healthier birds faster – an average of about 6 pounds at market weight today, to feed the current U.S. population of approximately 320 million."

Meme - "Im never lonely cuz i got these little guys with me *floaters*"

Meme - Alexander Anrai: "The intel ceo"
Pat Gelsinger: ""Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways" Proverbs 4:@5-26"
Daniel @growing _daniel: "Dawg it's over look at my CEO's tweets after that earnings call"

Schödinger's Blowjob : r/copypasta - "Imagine you're blindfolded and you're getting the best raw pornstar-grade blowjob in the entire universe. The catch is, however, that you'll never figure out who's giving you that god-tier awesome schmösome sloppy toppy unless you take the blindfold off. It could be anybody, Ariana Grande, Ben Shapiro, Harold from the 7-11 near my house, or even your uncle's neighbour's fireman's cat. Now the question is: would you take off the blindfold and find out who the person/thing behind the stupendous jimmy-nibbler is and risk permanently scarring yourself, or would you keep the blindfold on and continue having your knob slobbed till your spirit hits the sky?"

Meme - cousin greg: "Hey, what do mummies do when they catch you? Like, a zombie eats your brain, a vampire drinks your blood, what does a mummy do? Do they just beat you up"

Meme - "If 1/3 of all vaginas on Earth were suddenly filled with cement, and you were tasked with dealing with the subject on a children's show, how would you go about it? I was thinking about how Sesame Street dealt with 9/11 and was wondering how one might do a similar episode, except if the situation were that of vaginas on Earth were suddenly filled with cement." - u/IN_A_WUHAN_LAB
"Suppose your boyfriend fills your vagina with cement in your sleep. How do you get revenge?" - u/IN_A_WUHAN_LAB
"What's a fate worse than one's vagina being filled with cement?" - u/IN_A_WUHAN_LAB

North Ronaldsay sheep - Wikipedia - "The semi-feral flock on North Ronaldsay is the original flock that evolved to subsist almost entirely on seaweed – they are one of few mammals to do this. They are confined to the foreshore by a 1.8 m (6 ft) drystane dyke, which completely encircles the island, forcing the sheep to evolve this unusual characteristic. The wall was built as kelping (the production of soda ash from seaweed) on the shore became uneconomical. Sheep were confined to the shore to protect the fields and crofts inside, and afterwards subsisted largely on seaweed."

Meme - T-shirt back: "BLONDES 17 OR 18! APPROACH ME IF:
YOU'RE 17 WHICH IS THE AGE OF CONSENT IN ILLINOIS AND YOU ALSO LIVE IN ILLINOIS OR 18 IF You LIVE IN A DIFFERENT STATE AND YOU FIND ME PHYSicALLY ATTRACTIVE AND WANT TO HAVE A ONE-NIGHT STAND OR BE FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS. I'M A BIG HANDSOME MAN wHo's 6' 4", BIG-BONED, AND BROAD-SHOULDERED WITH STRAIGHT THICK DARK BROWN HAIR, DEEP-SET ALMOND-SHAPED HAZEL EYES AND ANGLED EYEBROWS. A STRAIGHT LONG AND NARROW UPTURNED NOSE, DOWNTURNED LIPS, AND A TRIANGLE FACE SHAPE. I WAS BORN IN 1998, I'M SHY, I HAVE SOCIAL ANXIETY, AND *SOMETHING* ASPERGER'S, AND I'M MOSTLY ATTRACTED TO BLONDES. AND I WANT MY FIRST TIME TO BE WITH ONE WHO'S THE YOUNGEST LEGAL AGE POSSIBLE WHICH IS 17 IF WE BOTH LIVE IN ILLINOIS OR 18 IF WE LIVE IN DIFFERENT STATES. BECAUSE IT'S ILLEGAL EVEN IF YOU'RE ALSO A MINOR TO TRAVEL INTERSTATE OR INTERNATIONALLY TO HAVE SEX WITH MINORS AND TO TRANSPORT MINORS TO YOUR STATE OR TO PERSUADE, INDUCE, ENTICE, OR CoERcE MINORS TO TRAVEL INTERSTATE REGARDLESS OF THE AGE OF CONSENT IN EACH STATE OR OTHER COUNTRIES"

Meme - "Wherever the cum lands is where we're going on vacation *woman with tattoo of world map like in an old school atlas on back*"

Meme - "When you're watching porn in india and you get confused if the noise is coming from the phone or someone is getting raped outside"

Meme - "Stripper pole for trailer hitch
$1,234
Trade me something *fat woman with no shorts standing on tailgate of pickup truck showing middle finger*"

The North Sea Floods of 1953 – Swords to Ploughshares - "After the immediate rescue and recovery activities had completed there were many gaps in the sea defences to close. Most of these were completed in a relatively short period but some of the larger and more complex gaps would need a great deal of heavy duty construction. Compounding the reconstruction was the twice daily tide and amount of damage.  The Allies had previously used surplus D Day Phoenix Mulberry Harbour caissons for a similar task in 1945 and 1946 on the island of Walcheren so the same technique was proposed. After extensive scale modelling eight Phoenix caissons were floated over from the UK although some were lost in heavy seas during the journey."

Who's Your Daddy? (2005 TV series) - Wikipedia - "Who's Your Daddy? is an American reality television special broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox). The 90 minute special premiered on January 3, 2005, and starred actress T. J. Myers. The special depicted eight men in competition for a $100,000 reward over who could best convince Myers, a woman who was adopted, that they were her biological father. One of the contestants, however, actually was Myers's biological father. Myers had the opportunity to interview and observe each contestant before making a determination on which man was her biological father. If Myers incorrectly selected a contestant as her biological father, the contestant won the reward. Conversely, if she correctly determined which contestant was her biological father, Myers won the reward."

Actual Fact Bot: Revived | Facebook - "In Finland, city planners are known to visit parks immediately after the first snowfall, when the existing walking paths are not visible. People naturally choose desire paths, clearly marked by their footprints, which can be then used to guide the routing of new purpose-built paved paths."

Meme - "Jeremy Gray is feeling aggravated.: People are fucking assholes man."
Eric Koval: "It's called anal and it's been going on for a long time..."

Meme - "when you lose your son to heroin but you're kinda glad your family no longer has to eat cereal with a fork"

Indian passenger, Guru Sewak Singh, disguises himself as senior citizen to board Air Canada flight - "A 24-year-old Indian man with ties to human trafficking disguised himself as a senior citizen in an attempt to board a Canada-bound flight, but his youthful characteristics didn’t match the older man he claimed to be. Officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport detained Guru Sewak Singh after they noticed multiple discrepancies in his appearance...   Singh, who was heading for an Air Canada flight, had dyed his facial hair white as he tried to replicate the passport photo of Rashvindar Singh Sahota, a 67-year-old from Punjab.  Along with dyeing his hair, Singh sported a pair of glasses, but his skin texture and youthful-sounding voice were a dead giveaway to airport officials... In 2019, a 32-year-old man dressed himself up like a white-haired, wheelchair-bound senior in his 80s as he tried to board a New York-bound flight at the same Delhi airport.  Jayesh Patel wheeled his way into Indira Gandhi International Airport, refusing to be frisked because he claimed to be too frail to stand, according to the CISF."

Kerala: 'Big breasted women' available in Jannat, claims Maulana Qasmi - "Maulana EP Abubakar Qasmi has triggered controversy in Kerala after he recounted the advantages of being a Muslim. In his speech, Maulana revealed what Muslims get in ‘Jannat’ or paradise. According to EP Abubakar Qasmi, who gave Islamic speeches in Malayalam, ‘women with big breasts’ are found in paradise. Protests ensued after the offensive language was used by Maulana Qasmi on women as his speeches are popular with Muslims on social media.  Maulana Qasmi further claimed that rivers of wine flow in paradise along with gardens and big bungalows. He went on and said that the women who were in Allah’s paradise neither urinate nor defecate. He also added that Muslims going to Paradise get the privilege of sitting in the lap of the ‘Hoors’ there... Maulana Abubakar said that in Paradise, Muslims do not have to stand in long lines outside liquor shops, because everything in paradise was for free and its quantity is unlimited. Maulana Qasmi then claimed that the ‘hoors’ of heaven do not even have the power to think and understand."

Why McDonald's and Burger King Struggled to Conquer Vietnam 🍔🇻🇳 - "The fast-food chains seem to have underestimated the competition from local street vendors"
This doesn't explain why in other countries with delicious street food, Western fast food succeeds

Robert J. Sawyer » Blog Archive » WordStar for DOS 7.0 Archive - "As you all know, I continue to use WordStar for DOS 7.0 as my word-processing program. It was last updated in December 1992, and the company that made it has been defunct for decades; the program is abandonware.   There was no proper archive of WordStar for DOS 7.0 available online, so I decided to create one. I’ve put weeks of work into this. Included are not only full installs of the program (as well as images of the installation disks), but also plug-and-play solutions for running WordStar for DOS 7.0 under Windows, and also complete full-text-searchable PDF versions of all seven manuals that came with WordStar — over a thousand pages of documentation... And it’s true that the WordStar die-hard community is pretty small these days (George R.R. Martin still uses the even-older WordStar 4.0). But the program has been a big part of my career — not only did I write all 25 of my novels and almost all of my short stories with it (a few date back to the typewriter era), I also in my earlier freelance days wrote hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles with WordStar."

Meme - i/o @eyeslasho: "The average IQ of a person with a graduate degree today is about 105 (barely above average). In some of the less rigorous fields (like education) it's likely below 100 (below the population average).  In the 1960s, the average IQ of a person with a graduate degree was about 115."
Coddled affluent professional @feelsdesperate: "I predict that in the next 10 years we will start seeing functionally illiterate people obtaining PhDs."

Meme - "why is he calling another dude "babe"?"
"People are gay, Steve"
"thats ok but i thought gay dudes would call each other hotcock or some gay shit not babe .. babe is a straight guy word"

Meme - "Anonymous. Not gay
Ok so I'm not gay but I'm Swedish and have a fantasy where Germany win world war two and Sweden needs to export aryan twink boipussy slaves to high ranking SS officers for pleasure. I imagine I'm a shy little blonde twink with smooth pale skin and being brought into komedant heinrichs bedroom to give him pleasure. He is a tall broad shoulders kraut with a jawline that could cut a diamond and with massive daddy muscles and I'm a pathetic skinny little boipussy twink. He pulls me into his arms force kissing me and pressing my chest against his. He pins me down on the bed tearing my cute /il virgin panties off, he has waited for this for a long time. He teases my boipussy with his massive thicc German cock and then he goes all in. Fucking me with a force I've never felt before. Every thrust makes him moan with pleasure. I love the fact I give him pleasure. He cums deep into my sissy swede guts, breeding my booty hole then he cuddles me with his strong masculine German arms until I fall asleep on his chest. Any other straight guys have similar fantasies?"

Meme - Busty witch carrying 2 chests: "Hup~ Hup~"
Man: "Those look heavy. Shall I help you carry them?"
Busty witch: "My~ Thank you~"
wobble. wobble. wobble
Busty witch on man holding her breasts: "Ara~ This is really so comfortable!"

Richard Hanania on X: "Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno: “It’s time for politicians to stand up and take tough questions. We owe it to our voters.” Reporter: “What do you think about abortion?” Moreno: “I’m not here to talk about that!” 😂 https://t.co/9Q4TusJ72G" / X

Richard Hanania on X - "Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno: “It’s time for politicians to stand up and take tough questions. We owe it to our voters.” Reporter: “What do you think about abortion?” Moreno: “I’m not here to talk about that!” 😂"

Thread by @the_megabase on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - " genuinely shocking to me that study after study shows that social scientists are no better than regular people at high-level social science predictions: whether studies will replicate, which "nudge" interventions work, how social attitudes will change  a thread of examples: (to be clear, we're not even talking about superforecasters here, just regular joes)  social scientists, applied and academic, were no better - if anything, possibly worse - than regular people at predicting which interventions would increase gym visits:
social scientists *were* substantially worse than regular people at predicting which interventions would make people more likely to get a covid vaccine:  (see pic, which also includes a rather rosy description of the next study in this thread)
regular people had larger absolute error (as is often the case) when predicting the effect of incentives on performance of a boring task, but their rankings of the interventions were as good as social scientists':
social scientists were no more accurate than regular people at predicting or *retrospectively assessing* the social consequences of the covid-19 pandemic:
in a follow-up paper to the one above, social scientists were usually no better than regular people at predicting how general social attitudes would change over time:
regular people are about as good at social scientists at predicting which studies will replicate:
in estimating gender bias in hiring over time, regular joes' predictions were more extreme than academics' - again, typical - but correlations with real values were very similar, and both made the same mistakes, e.g. thinking there is still bias vs women:
(not grinding a political axe by mentioning the above, that's just what the study says!)
for fairness, here are some papers concluding that social scientists are better than laypeople at various prediction tasks:
1) long-term effects of rct interventions - note studies were mostly in africa (and afghanistan) with predictors in the west:
2) which interventions make people less likely to click "anti-democratic" options in online surveys (...)
3) mask-wearing nudges on democrats and republicans. but - i plotted the results, and it seems most laypeople didn't fully understand the (poorly worded) prediction question and mostly assessed general dem vs rep mask attitudes, not intervention effects..
a recurring result in these is that expertise level (undergrad vs professor) doesn't matter for accuracy, expert field (economics vs marketing) barely matters - training might make you better at publishing papers in a field, but not (clearly) better at giving actionable advice a blunt analogy: if a bunch of people went around getting "metereology" phds, and calling themselves "metereologists", but it turned out they were no better than random people at predicting if it would rain tomorrow, i would be annoyed. this is how i see a lot of social science."
Trust the experts!

Links - 16th September 2024 (2 - Harris-Walz: Capital Gains Tax)

Max Meyer on X - "There is a *lot* of confusion about the Biden-Harris Admin's "unrealized capital gains tax" proposal. Who endorsed it? Who does it affect? Caveats? I have studied it in detail and will explain it here thoroughly and *neutrally*. At the end, I'll offer my opinion...
FACTS: The proposal appears in the document "General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2024 Revenue Proposals" published March 2023. This is an official document reflecting White House & Treasury policy - and *general* requests to Congress for revenue. But Congress retains tax authority. It's just a proposal. Here it is: "The proposal would impose a minimum tax of 25 percent on total income, generally inclusive of unrealized capital gains, for all taxpayers with wealth (that is, the difference obtained by subtracting liabilities from assets) greater than $100 million." Those are the basics. If the IRS determines you are worth at least $100 million, you should pay a minimum tax of 25% on your income, including on your unrealized capital gains. That could be your house going up in value, your stock, etc.
Your annual minimum tax is 25% times your annual income, realized and unrealized. But there are some key technicalities.
TECHNICALITY 1: The unrealized gains tax payments are treated as a PRE-PAYMENTS on future *realized* gains taxes. So you are not going to pay taxes on the same capital gain twice.*
*TECHNICALITY 1.5: You can get a refund upon realizing the gain if you have "uncredited payments" (unrealized payments that haven't been counted against an actual capital tax) and those uncredited payments exceed what you'd pay in long-term capital gains. This is especially important if you end up selling for a smaller gain than you were "unrealized" taxed for, or if you actually lose money. You aren't paying unrealized on the gain and nothing on the loss. You can get refunded.
TECHNICALITY 2: You don't have to pay it all at once. The first year of minimum tax can be paid in 9 installments. Future years' minimum liability can be paid in 5 installments.
TECHNICALITY 3: if you die, your estate pays the federal death tax and then you get refunded to the extent you "overpaid" unrealized taxes. One thing that has been confused is that this proposal is not *just* applicable at death. It's applicable at all times.
TECHNICALITY 4: if you are "illiquid" i.e. less than 205 of your wealth is in tradable, liquid assets, then you can have only tradable assets count. BUT you have to pay a penalty or "deferral charge" on the gain of of your illiquid assets up to 10%
ANALYSIS/OPINION. HOW WOULD THIS AFFECT SOMEONE LIKE ELON MUSK?
Musk's current net worth (mostly in Tesla public stock, SpaceX private stock, and X private stock) is assessed at $250B. The "unrealized gain" portion of that (on which he hasn't paid taxes) is likely much more than $200B. But we'll be conservative and say $200B. That would mean a year-one estimated minimum tax would be at least $50 billion, which could be spaced into 9 payments of $5.55 billion and would be credited against future capital gains taxes, and refunded versus future capital losses. But right now he would owe $50 billion that he would never have owed unless he sold ALL OF HIS ASSETS. That's why this policy is extreme. You could perform this analysis on other billionaires.
My opinion: it is a confiscatory policy. It is extremely unethical, unworkable, and would cause complete chaos even with the technicalities that have been included. But it is specially designed to target mega billionaires with a large percentage of their wealth in publicly-traded stock. Elon Musk. Warren Buffet. Mark Zuckerberg. Larry Page. For those people, it effectively is the simple 25% confiscation that bureaucrats have been dreaming of forever. For people in the $100M-$1B range AND ESPECIALLY PEOPLE WHO ARE STILL ACTIVE ENTREPRENEURS it would be a nightmare of bureaucracy and compliance. It would terrify people, and in my opinion - discourage further entrepreneurship because they'll try to steal 25% of your ephemeral gains up-front, rather than when you actually earn the income.
HAS HARRIS ENDORSED THIS POLICY?
1. She's the Vice President of the United States. Joe Biden is the President. It's their administration. Unless she says otherwise, it's safe to assume she's on board.
a. Maybe that doesn't mean she would do it herself as POTUS
2. Semafor reports the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget as saying: "The campaign specifically told us that they support all of the tax increases on the high earners and corporations that are in the Biden budget" That's pretty clear. The unrealized tax was a Biden budget proposal. And unless VP Harris specifically says otherwise, I believe we should assume this is her plan, too.
CLOSING NOTE. Biden-Harris Admin says: "Preferential treatment for unrealized gains disproportionately benefits high-wealth taxpayers and provides many high-wealth taxpayers with a lower effective tax rate than many low- and middle- income taxpayers." There is no "preferential treatment" -- it is REALITY treatment. Gains on paper are not income so they are not treated as income. They say this is unfair. It isn't. Treating unrealized and realized gains both as income is lunacy."

Kamala Harris Plan To Tax Unrealized Capital Gain Is Scary, Here’s Why - "In 2019, she floated a 4% “income-based premium” on households making more than $100,000 to pay for Medicare for All, but this has not yet resurfaced in 2024. Among the more controversial of the Biden proposals—which Harris has repeated—is a tax on unrealized capital gains for taxpayers with wealth greater than $100 million. It may be labeled a “billionaire tax,” though $100 million is a tenth of a billion. Even so, few may want to defend billionaires (or someone with a mere $100 million for that matter) in the current climate. Some argue this fairly targets extremely wealthy Americans who have taken advantage of tax rules to pay lower rates than their secretaries. For example, wealthy people can tap their resources by borrowing money rather than selling something that would trigger tax. Some attack the proposal as a wealth tax that will chill investments of capital... We have never had a tax on gains that are not “realized,” meaning sold. In that sense, this new tax would be groundbreaking... Apart from policy, there are administrative issues galore. How do you go about valuing everything every year to be taxed? Public company stock would be straightforward. But most assets could be a nightmare, and who in the end gets to carry the day on value? Disputes about value in tax cases are legendary and voluminous. Nearly every estate tax case with the IRS includes valuation disputes, often with competing experts. In income tax cases, charitable contributions of noncash assets such as real estate or crypto often also end up in major valuation fights. Just imagine what annual value statements with tax returns might look like, in a world where the increase in value since last year turns into taxes. Capital gains have always been singled out for lower taxes, not higher. And except in the case of estate tax measured on death, it has been nearly sacred not to tax “earnings” you didn’t receive... What is arguably the scariest part of this idea? What if this opens the door to a more generalized effort by the government to tax you on something that you still own? Right now the proposal is only to use this wealth tax for the truly wealthy. Not just billionaires, but also anyone with at least $100 million. Once we start down this path, could we some years from now face a tax like this for someone with $20 million, $10 million, even $1 million?"
Left wingers hate the rich, so they would also support things like reversing the presumption of innocence in criminal law for them, and mock those who object as bootlickers, simps or idiots since they are far from rich. So much for "empathy" or even really good sense

Meme - Spike Cohen @RealSpikeCohen: "If you think that taxes on unrealized gains will only be used on the ultra-rich, I have an introductory income tax bracket to sell you."
"Marginal Income Tax Brackets in 1913
Marginal Tax Rate - 1-7%
1% - Over $0 but not over $20,000 - In 2015 Dollars - $480,697"

Meme - Man with mullet in plaid in truck: "Capital gains will be additional tax on people making over $100m. I'm afraid how that'll affect me"
Weird. Left wingers keep boasting that they're all about "empathy", and that wokeness is about "empathy". Of course, they hate the "rich". And empathy aside, it's only smart to recognise bad ideas, especially when they will eventually hurt you in some way

Taxing wealthy people’s unrealized capital gains is not closing a 'loophole' - "I couldn’t help but shake my head at the United States presidential candidate Kamala Harris ‘ proposal, which she has adopted from President Joe Biden, to tax unrealized capital gains for people who are worth US$100 million or more. For such people, they would be required to annually pay a minimum tax of 25 per cent of their income and unrealized capital gains . In other words, wealthy Americans would pay an annual tax — akin to a wealth tax — on their unrealized capital gains. Some progressive think tanks trumpet the ideology that by not taxing wealthy people’s unrealized capital gains, such people are taking advantage of this “loophole,” but I like to think about it another way. This simplistic view is nonsense and violates the good concepts of common sense, fairness and the basic timing issues of profit generally described above. Ideas such as these are poor policies that unfairly target the wealthy . It’s been in vogue forever to “tax the rich” and “stick it to the wealthy” since they are taking advantage of loopholes (a vacuous phrase that describes nothing), but proper taxation and economic policy needs a more foundational underpinning. In addition, like any form of wealth tax, the idea is rife with administrative complexities, such as how to value assets (especially non-financial assets like businesses, land, rental properties and other real estate). What would happen if, in a subsequent year, there are unrealized losses and taxes have previously been paid on those unrealized gains? Liquidity issues would be common since wealth is often tied up in assets that can not be easily liquidated... One can’t help but think that if this proposal were to somehow pass into law in the U.S., the exodus of capital would be large and would contribute to economic chaos. Despite the complexities of tax law (including the timing of receiving income and computing profit), there is inherently some common sense involved in developing all tax and economic policies. The Harris proposal to tax unrealized capital gains lacks common sense."
When left wingers demand to "tax the rich", they mean taxing them so much they are no longer rich

Unrealized Gains Tax is an Economic Fallacy - "Taxing unrealized capital gains contradicts the basic principles of fairness and property rights essential for a free and prosperous society. Taxation, if we’re going to have it on income, should be based on actual income earned, not on paper gains that may never materialize. Moreover, taxing unrealized gains hurts economic activity by discouraging investment and capital formation, the lifeblood of a dynamic economy. When individuals know their unrealized gains will be taxed, they have less incentive to invest in productive assets such as stocks, real estate, or businesses. This leads to a misallocation of resources and slower economic growth. Additionally, this tax reduces the capital available for entrepreneurship and innovation. Start-ups and small businesses often rely on investment from individuals willing to take risks in the hope of eventually earning a return on their investment. By taxing unrealized capital gains, we discourage risk-taking and stifle innovation, essential elements for improving productivity and raising living standards... this new tax would merely redistribute wealth from productive individuals to the government, thereby further misallocating hard-earned money. Furthermore, the tax revenue raised from this tax will be far less than proponents anticipate, as individuals will work less, invest less, and find ways to avoid such taxes through legal paths. This would result in less economic prosperity and a resulting decline in tax collections."

memetic_sisyphus on X - "The wealthiest 1% own 50% of all the stocks. A hundred million puts you in the top .5%. So let’s call it 30% of the stock market.   Every year a tax on unrealized gains for about 30% of the market causes massive sell offs for liquidity, tanking the price of stocks for everyone. Your 401k loses its value every tax season.   Long term this encourages the richest members of society to keep more of their wealth liquid, which means massive shortages in investments for business expansion, VCs drying up, interest rates skyrocketing. (Maybe some drop in inflation).   From a revenue point of view the federal government would almost certainly lower tax receipts. The sell off to pay taxes on unrealized gains would likely impact the capital gains taxes across the board as many would have to sell at a loss.   This is nothing short of an economic catastrophe and even left wing commentators agree."

Meme - memetic_sisyphus @memeticsisyphus: "Every political argument with the left feels like coming to a fork in the path. You know there’s a bear down the left path and you say, “we can’t go that way there’s a bear, it will be unpleasant.”  They respond “look how pretty the path is! We don’t have to go that far!” Then sprint down the path right at the angry bear."
MWT @mountainwesttax: "I’m really worried about a tax on unrealized capital gains over $100M" *man in messy room*

Kamala Harris's 'unrealized gains tax' is so dumb as to be truly historic - "It’s been a while since anyone has proposed a dumber idea, so in that sense, at least, she is a historic candidate. And those who think it’s a good idea are historically stupid. As many others have pointed out already, such a tax would harm everyone investing for retirement, depressing asset values as the uber-rich are forced to make massive annual sales just to pay the tax. And what I’d really like to know is whether, if I’m ever forced to pay taxes on stocks I’m still holding just because their value went up on paper, do I get my money back when their on-paper value goes back down again months or years later? The best defense of this tax, intellectually, is that it falls on only the filthy rich, meaning that only a relatively modest number of people will be completely screwed over by a system far more unfair and unjust than the one we have now. But if you support government screwing over Americans, so long as you get to choose which ones get screwed, that only calls your decency into question. The reality is that taxes that start off narrowly focused on just a small group of people always end up expanding to get almost everyone. This has happened over and over again throughout our history. Consider that you are still paying the Spanish-American War Tax tax every time you pay your monthly phone bill. The tax to fund that 1898 war was easy to pass because only rich people had telephones then. The war ended after less than a year, but the phone tax has survived in various forms for more than 100 years. On occasion, it has been partially repealed, reinstated and altered. The tax on long distance access, one of its descendants, finally ended in 2006 after a court ruling forced the IRS to stop collecting it. There’s still a push to repeal its last remnants, but don’t hold your breath. The income tax, in 1913, hit only the rich. Its top rate was 7 percent, falling on incomes of half a million or more, with lower rates for those making at least $20,000 (about $635,000 today), which very few people did at that time. But a funny thing happened on the way to soaking the rich. Although the income tax was never sold as a way to take 10 percent, 25 percent or even more of what average earners make, that’s what it has become. Add that on top of the combined 15.1 percent of your income that you are losing to Social Security and Medicare taxes. Are you feeling the economic justice yet? The Alternative Minimum Tax was created in 1970 because of outrage over just 154 households with incomes over $200,000 ($1.6 million in today’s money) who had paid zero in taxes the year before. Forty-three years later, Congress was forced to act because its formula had allowed the tax to creep so far down the income scale that it was about to gobble up almost every two-income middle class family in America. Only in 2017 did the Trump tax bill restore its original purpose as a tax paid by only the very highest earners, and even then, it passed over Democrats’ vociferous objections. The inheritance tax was supposed to hit only the rich. But the rich have complicated life insurance products and trusts they use to pass wealth to the next generation tax-free. So, who gets hit with this death tax? Not Bill Gates or George Soros, but Old MacDonald — you know, the farmer. His land and farm equipment may be worth $13 million on paper, but he needs those use-assets to make the slim margin that comprises his annual income. Because he cannot shelter it from the IRS the way the super-rich can, his family will have to sell off the farm to Gates or to some large corporation to pay a tax bill as high as 40 percent of the estate. Harris even wants to expand this tax by changing the treatment of inherited capital gains, hammering death-tax victims a second time. If history is any guide, Harris’s tax on so-called “unrealized capital gains” will ultimately bite all of us. Today’s Democratic Party talks about “the rich” paying “their fair share.” They start by claiming they want to target only a small, very specific group, like those 154 zero-tax families, so that you’re convinced it won’t affect you. But once they get the concept in place, it’s only a matter of time before they get their hands into your pockets, too. The only way to protect yourself, your family and what you’ve earned is to vote against Democrats — to stop them from creating and increasing the taxes in the first place."
Weird. I thought left wingers were very keen on learning "history"
I got a lot of amusing copes after posting these facts

The reality of Kamala Harris' plan to tax unrealized capital gains - ""Economists across the political spectrum agree that when a billionaire's wealth goes up by a large amount of money, it's income even if it's not cash in a bank account," the White House official argues. "They often borrow against their assets and use it as disposable income." When asked if a tax on such loans was discussed as an alternative, he declined to answer. The Harris campaign didn't return an interview request."
Left wingers keep pretending that loans are income. This is why they're poor (besides not understanding compound interest, opportunity cost, marginal tax rates etc)

Marxism in One Minute

Marxism in One Minute
Henry Hazlitt

The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects — his laziness, incompetence, improvidence or stupidity. Never believe in the honesty or disinterestedness of anyone who disagrees with you.

This basic hatred is the heart of Marxism. This is its animating force. You can throw away the dialectical materialism, the Hegelian framework, the technical jargon, the “scientific” analysis, and millions of pretentious words, and you still have the core: the implacable hatred and envy that are the raison d’etre for all the rest.

--- The Freeman, February 1966

Links - 16th September 2024 (1 - Palestine/Middle East Peace)

Jesus the Palestinian...Really? - "While the exact origin of the name “Palestine” is still debated, there are aspects of the word’s meaning that we can know for sure. It once possibly described a people group known as the Philistines, but that people group was in no way connected to the current era Palestinians – not ethnically, not linguistically, not historically and not culturally. In A.D. 132, the Jewish Bar Kochba revolt took place against the Romans. Things didn’t end well for the Jewish people; and in addition to a bloodbath of gigantic proportions, Israel was renamed Palaestina by the Romans. The rebranding of the land with the name of their enemies, the Philistines, was an effort to undermine Jewish history and humiliate the Jewish people further.  Jerusalem was also renamed Aelia Capitolina by emperor Hadrian. The name Palestine stuck and continued to be used after that time. It is nowhere to be found in the Bible.  When the British were in control from 1922 to 1948, the area was governed under what was known as the British Palestine Mandate. In the original text of the Mandate itself, dated 1922, we can read:  “Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”  We should not have an issue calling Israel “Palestine” as long as it is a description of the landmass of Israel prior to 1948. Up to that time in history, the term “Palestine” simply described a piece of land in the Middle East. Even after Israel became a State in 1948 and the name Eretz Yisrael started being used, the word “Palestine” was not an issue for anybody; it was more or less an outdated name for the land of Eretz Yisrael. It is after that time, and under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, that the definition for Palestine went from geographical to political, in an attempt to describe a displaced people group named “the Palestinians”, in need of an “ancestral” homeland.  Before the 1960s, historical documents were replete with descriptions of Israel as Palestine, such as the British Palestine Mandate already mentioned. Israeli stamps, coins and newspaper said “Palestine”, and nobody cared. Palestine was always synonymous with Israel, the Jewish State. Arabs in neighboring countries never called themselves Palestinians, but rather Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Egyptians, etc.  Most Arabs in the early 1900s would have argued that Palestinian Arabs were simply Syrians as Mitchell Bard documents in his well-researched book Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict. He writes: “Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution was adopted: We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds.”... Even the Qur’an (Sura Maida 5:21-22) mentions the “Holy Land” in the context of Moses and the spies preparing to enter the Land of Canaan; but never does it call it Palestine. Jerusalem isn’t even mentioned by name in the Qur’an.  Today, nobody questions the etymology of the word “Palestine” and that is a shame. What is really sad, is that the Arab refugees who were forced by their own countries to remain in Israel post-1948 ended up having children who then had children. These innocent subsequent generations have been labeled “Palestinians” for political gain. They are real people who deserve a real home and a decent life. Backtracking to pre-1948 “Palestine” would connect them all with one or another of the neighboring Arab countries, but that doesn’t serve the current antisemitic agenda of Israeli occupation, colonization and ethnic cleansing, does it?  This would be bad if it stopped there, but it doesn’t. To garner more support from Christians who might not check the accuracy of what they are told, there is now a movement to paint Yeshua as a Palestinian and not a Jew. This is part of what can be called Christian Palestinianism... Yeshua was born in Bethlehem, Judea (Micah 5:2), not Bethlehem, Palestine, and it would be another 700 years before Arabs would get to the Promised Land and invade it. At the time of His crucifixion, Yeshua had a sign nailed above His head that read, Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm meaning “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews” in Latin. It never said King of the Palestinians.  Victimhood and social justice go hand in hand, and if we can lead some people to believe that the Messiah was a Palestinian, it would go a long way to help further the myopic Palestinian agenda... It doesn’t help when UNESCO decides to call the Temple Mount only by its Muslim name. So, the Kotel or western wall is called al-Buraq wall, and the area in front of it the al-Buraq plaza. It is also claimed that the Al-Aqsa mosque on top of the Temple Mount is the mosque that is referred to in the Qur’an (17:1). There it talks of a journey Muhammad made at night from the Sacred Mosque (Mecca) to the “Farthest Mosque”. Muslim scholars have later identified “The Farthest Mosque” with Jerusalem, but there was no mosque in Jerusalem at that time. Additionally, the al-masjid Al-Aqsa mosque was built in AD 705, which happens to be 73 years after the death of Muhammad. Here we have a historical anachronism conveniently ignored."

Clash Report on X - "Putin asked Khamenei to implement a "controlled response" to Israel, avoid civilian casualties. Source: Reuters"
Haviv Rettig Gur on X - "Putin needs to protect all the things Israel will target in a direct confrontation with Iran. The armament factories, the oil and gas depots, etc.  In other words, this is yet another data point showing that the Iranian regime is vastly more vulnerable than it pretends, and that it’s actually a bit disgraceful that the West is so easily cowed by Iranian sabre-rattling.  Want to avoid the war? Convince Iran it will lose precious things - the sorts of things it sells to Putin - if war comes."

Liza Rosen on X - "Watch: female Palestinian Hamas supporter in Gaza explains her desire to burn Jews including children alive. She wants to watch them suffer and scream for being inferior non-Muslims. During this interview on Turkish TV, she explained that all Palestinian Muslims seek to worship Allah (God of Islam) by killing Jews as a human sacrifice including by burning them to death. She vows that the Palestinians will fulfill Allah's will to islamize the whole world by completing the genocide that Hitler started against the Jews: "[…] by Allah, only the people of Palestine will restore the honor of the Islamic nation.""

Liza Rosen on X - "Watch: Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, says all they want is to invade Israel and kill Jews "for the sake of Allah (God of Islam)". He describes how Palestinian Muslims will sacrifice the Jews as an Islamic act of worship "for the sake of Allah" by tearing their beating hearts out of their body.  Please watch and share this documentary film by Pierre Rehov which exposes how Hamas Hamas exploited women and children to attack Israel during the Gaza border riots."

Liza Rosen on X - "Watch: Palestinian Hamas terrorist explains his desire to go into a nursery in Israel and slaughter all the Jewish children and babies as a human sacrifice for the sake of Allah (God of Islam). As you can see in this documentary, Palestinian Muslims believe that murdering Jews and other non-Muslims for the sake of Allah gives them a one-way ticket to the Muslim paradise where each "martyr" receives 72 slave virgins."

Liza Rosen on X - "Popular Palestinian Muslim preacher vows to conquer Europe and ethnocide Christian nations by imposing Islam: "Soon We Will Conquer Paris and Rome, Rule Europe with Islam".  According to him, Muslims are furious and Allah (God of Islam) is offended by the western world, where women are "prostitutes" and men are "gays". He emphasized during the speech that the only solution is to conquer the West and impose Islam.  Western countries including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and France donate billions of dollars as "foreign aid" to the Palestinians every year. Is this what the western countries support?"

Liza Rosen on X - "Over the past decade, Britain has "donated" around £4 billion in foreign aid to Pakistan where Christians and Hindus are murdered and churches and temples are burned by Muslims. Link to the article about the persecution of minorities in Pakistan:"
Weird. I thought Israel was protested because it was a Western ally and a democracy which got Western aid

Liza Rosen on X - ""F**k the Jews... F**k their daughters... F**k their mothers... Rape their daughters... Free Palestine" Islamists in London threaten to rape Jewish girls to "Free Palestine". Will the media report on this even if it doesn't fit their narrative? RT!"

Liza Rosen on X - "Shocking video which went viral on social media shows a Pakistani Muslim migrant in the UK speaks his mind on Israel and Jews during a "Pro-Palestinian" rally on the streets of London, England: "Hitler knew how to deal with these people". This shocking rhetoric has no place in the twenty-first century!!!"

Liza Rosen on X - "Watch: female Palestinian-Hamas terrorist explains how Palestinian Muslims took to the streets of Gaza and the West Bank to celebrate the London bombings on July 7, 2005. As the death toll in London rose, the Palestinians' celebrations became wilder. According to her non-Muslim people in Britain are considered enemies of Islam and a legitimate target for jihad. This is a short excerpt from Pierre Rehov's documentary film "suicide killers". Here is a link to the full documentary: https://youtu.be/S1_0zDD1i3A?feature=shared"

Meme - Arab: "I hate you so much the amount of hate is unreal"
Soyjak wearing Trans flag: "Muslim lives matter #queerforpalestine"
Creative Deduction @CreativeDeduct: "Yep. We are so in thrall to the ideal of tolerance that we can't imagine being intolerant of people who would never tolerate us being who we are. We are witnessing the deliberate suicide of the western culture."

Meme - Rabbi E. Poupko. #IStandWith...: "To the @nytimes when a 14 year old Jewish boy is murdered by a terrorist, it is not an act of violence, it only ignites violence. It is not a murder or a killing, it is a "death". This is what having ZERO regard for Jewish lives looks like."
"Death of 14-year-old Ignites More Violence in West Bank. Dozens of Israelis and Palestinians were wounded during clashes at several locations across the West Bank on Saturday after a missing teenage boy was found dead."

Richard Millett on X - "In UK it’s not considered harassment to turn up near a religious Jewish woman’s home @TzipiHotovely just before Shabbat knowing she’ll be home with her husband and young children and then scream for the destruction of her country for 1 hour constant in a Jewish part of London."

Thread by @skedeschi on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "The thing that really winds me up about the global obsession with Palestine is the moral superiority some claim, while indisputably engaging in a clearly racist motivated obsession with anything that involves Jews.  Coming from a family myself that are refugees from *actual* ethnic cleansing (rather than the Palestinian version which is essentially trying to ethnically cleanse someone and failing spectacularly), I perhaps have a bit less empathy than most. I have, after all, managed to get through my parents relocating thousands of miles with just a single suitcase *without* becoming a terrorist or a racist or celebrating people being raped or burned alive, buy hey, that's just me. But the horrific images of murdered Hindus coming out of Bangkadesh reminded me of one of dozens of examples of ridiculousness of the current global obsession with "the nakba" of 1948 and all that's occurred since.
In the 70s, the Bangladesh genocide occurred. An actual genocide. The aggressor was Pakistani Muslims. People who, just a few years earlier had their own state formed on a fairly similar manner to the partition of British mandate Palestine. Anyway, during the Bangladeshi liberation, Muslim forces murdered up to THREE MILLION Hindus. Thats a maximum I admit, but think about that number. They moved through villages and specifically asked for places where Hindus lived before burning them down. Hindus were identified by checking circumcision or by demanding the recitation of Muslim prayers. Time reported it as follows, "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland" Being murdered like flies, and their villages being burned, 30 MILLION Hindus were displaced, 10 MILLION of whom managed to cross the border to India. They got no special UN aid agency.  Pakistan's imams declared Hindu women to be "war booty” and fatwa were issued legitimizing Hindu women as spoils of war. 400,000 were captured and raped. Often by many men. Most of them died in captivity or committed suicide.
Oh yes, and before anyone uses the excuse that people don't care because they west wasnt supporting it, you're dead wrong. Nixon refused to condemn it and provided weapons to the Muslims. So that excuse is pretty null. The ICJ did fuck all. Nor the UN.
Let's stop pretending "the nakba" was a uniquely horrific event when reality is that it was a very minor displacement of people, a very short distance, during a war they started. Compared to the 30 million displaced in Bangladesh that nobody cares a fig about.
Let's stop pretending that "genocide" is taking place when there's 40k casualties, probably mostly combatants in a war where clearly civilian death is carefully avoided. Unlike Bangladesh with 300x as many casualties that they literally went door to door to kill.
Let's stop pretending that Jews have opressed Muslims when reality is that Muslims have opressed,raped and murdered millions of minorities and continue to today. And NOBODY suggests annihilating Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Let's stop pretending UNRWA was needed because the Palestinian refugee situation was particularly serious, when it was not, it was just a politically motivated act to undermine the world's only Jewish state.
And let's not pretend this is about your "tax dollars" being used for evil, because I can tell you now that your tax dollars have and are being used to fund eye curdling evil and always has been. Israel defending itself is not in that category.
And the part that's almost funny? Those screaming the loudest about the evil of Israel are quite often themselves of Pakistani parents. Such as the MP for Gaza, Zarah Sultana or the ICJ Prosecutor who brought the case against Israel. Not to mention that Pakistan itself us still classified as in religious apartheid, and has one of the worst human rights records ON EARTH. Yet these people have the brass nuts to stand up and pretend their humanitarian rather than what they probably REALLY are. So my question to anyone who seeks to pretend Israel is not only "evil", but uniquely evil and deserving of annihilation, murder of it's people and racism towards its citizens around the globe, my question is...HOW DARE YOU?"

Visegrád 24 on X - "China is taking down mosques or “sinicizing” them. In 2023, Xi Jinping called for the deepening of the sinicization of Islam in China. Muslims living in the West seem to be too busy staging pro-Palestinian marches to even care about CCP policy towards Islam."

Thread by @nhazony on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Large military maneuvers are now underway near a strategic ballistic missile base in Kermanshah, Iran. Israel is bracing for an Iranian attack. So why doesn’t it attack and destroy Iran's ballistic missiles? Why does Israel wait? 🧵
Two weeks ago, Israel planted a bomb under the bed of Hamas' leader Hanyia right next to the Presidential palace in the heart of Teheran. On the same day, Israel killed Hizballah’s chief of staff in Beirut, months after killing Iran’s General Zahedi in Damascus. If Israel’s military is so precise, why doesn’t it locate and destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles? Israel’s Jets can certainly reach Iran. In July, Israel’s Fighter Jets struck the port of Hodeida, Yemen, 2000 kilometers away. Iran is only 1500 km away.
Many assume that Israel can use sophisticated “bunker busters” to try and destroy Iran’s missile sites. But even the largest conventional bombs may not be enough. In northern Iran, the Elburz mountains scrape the sky with peaks reaching 5600 meters, higher than both the Rockies and the Alps. Iran’s Zagros mountains stretch 1500 kilometers from northwestern Iran all the way south towards the Persian Gulf. This map of Iran’s known ballistic missile sites reveals that most of them lie under these mountains, where Iran has spent the last 30 years building fortified “missile cities.” Many of Iran’s sites are over 100 meters underground. Even the United States' GBU-57 bomb, designed specifically for a doomsday scenario, can only penetrate up to 60 meters of mountain before it explodes. To destroy these sites, Israel and the US will need a better bomb. But even if such a bomb exists, splitting a mountain is no simple feat. Changing geological densities within different layers of a mountain can shift the direction of even the most sophisticated bomb away from its intended target.And if the bomb arrives, it still needs to destroy a fortified concrete facility. While Israel can try and destroy all of Iran's dozens of “missile cities,” the success of such an attempt is uncertain.  Launching such an attack would mean starting a full-scale frontal war with one of the most resource-rich countries in the world. Iran could likely still retaliate with its vast ballistic missile arsenal.
This also explains why last week, the US threatened to destroy Iran's economy, instead of threatening to destroy its nuclear and missile capabilities. Destroying Iran’s missiles is a much more difficult task to achieve, even for the US. But within Iran’s natural strength lies a hidden weakness: thousands of kilometers of mountains across its borders also provide the perfect cover for smugglers and spies. This is why so much of Israel’s effort against Iran’s rise to power has been through sabotage. Exploiting this weakness in topography, Israeli spies penetrate time and again into Iran, sabotaging key sites, assassinating nuclear scientists, and even stealing Iran's top secret documents. This recent assassination in Teheran is a clue to what is yet to come."

Meme - "Q: Where is the capital of "Palestine"?
A: In private banks in Qatar and Switzerland"

Meme - "Many American college students are cosplaying as Arabs as they wear a keffiyeh, but this student takes it a step further as he/she protests in DC, wearing a Jewish prayer shawl, Hassidic garb and a keffiyeh. What gave it away that they weren't a real devout Jew or a devout BDSer for that matter is that after a long day of protesting against Israel outside the NATO event, they went to BDS banned McDonald's for a cheeseburger with extra bacon."

Meme - Fat blue haired woman being thrown off roof by militants with Palestinian flag: "BUT I'M ON YOUR SIDE!"

Meme - Jena Gong: "as a Jewish/Palestinian mutt and a queer, whose Palestinian dad could accept neither their Jewishness nor their queerness... yep!!!! it's really weird that the left didn't have ANY of this energy for 'freeing Palestine' when Gazans mobilized en masse to protest the conditions Hamas has imposed upon them back in 2019. even when Hamas arbitrarily made hundreds of arrests, tortured and beat protesters, broke into their homes, and threatened their families the western left was COMPLETELY SILENT. weird. it's almost like the 'free Palestine' movement isn't actually about the liberation of Gazans. I am Palestinian, I have Palestinian friends, to say Palestinian society is not anti-LGBT is patently fucking ridiculous. but i guess anything is possible when you lie."

Meme - Andy Ngo 🏳️‍🌈 @MrAndyNgo: "The U.S. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has announced an Islamic terrorism and Hamas supporter as her VP running mate."
Dr. Jill @DrJillStein: "I'm honored and thrilled to welcome Butch Ware as my running mate and the Vice President we need at this moment in history. His personal experience overcoming systemic injustice, his deep knowledge of history and people's movements, and his commitment to building a sustainable, just, peaceful world make Butch the ideal candidate. This is truly a historic ticket bringing together a Jewish woman and Black Muslim man against genocide, endless war, climate collapse, and rampant injustice, and for an economy that works for working people, a livable future for our children, and an America and a world that works for all of us."
Andy Ngo @MrAndyNgo: ".@ucsantabarbara black Islamic studies professor Ware posted a video on Instagram of his idol Julius Malema praising Hamas and encouraging them to kill more people. The video is so extreme that IG removed it, angering the professor. Malema is the leader of the"

Meme - Shelley G @ShelleyGldschmt: "For anybody who still thinks "Jewish" Voice for Peace was actually Jewish:"
We stand with Palestinians on this national day of mourning for Palestinian leader Ismael Haniyeh- diplomat, peacemaker, who was unjustly martyred before he saw a free Palestine jewishvoiceforpeace"

𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ on X - "This activist is crying because she's away from her pro-'Palestine' collective and has to stay with her normal family. Her poor relatives are just trying to live their lives while this weirdo bombards them with Middle East politics - a region she has never set foot in."

Meme - Oli London @OliLondonTV: "Former Bachelorette star Josh Seiter, who transitioned to a ‘woman’ earlier this year, demonstrates outside the DNC with a ‘Trans for Palestine’ sign.   “Im outside the DNC showing my support for Palestinians. I know in their country they would accept me with open arms.”"

Dr. Maalouf ‏ on X - "A Palestinian Islamic preacher in Jerusalem sends a message to the ‘Queers for Palestine’ in the West:  “Once Palestine is free, not a single homosexual will be allowed to live in our pure land.  Such perverted abominations will not be accepted among us.”  🇵🇸🏳️‍🌈"
Damn colonialism!

Visegrád 24 on X - "Turkish men tell interviewers that they are willing to go & fight against Israel in Palestine. When told that the interviewers have rented a bus to take them to Palestine and are taking down the phone numbers of volunteers, they quickly change their mind"

Meme - Harry Theocharous @TheocharousH: "HAMAS DID TO ISRAEL EXACTLY WHAT TURKEY DID TO CYPRUS🚨
🔹Hamas executed 🇮🇱 hostages
🔸Turkey executed 🇨🇾 hostages
🔹Hamas attacked 🇮🇱 early morning
🔸Turkey attacked 🇨🇾 early morning
🔹Hamas r@ped 🇮🇱 young and old
🔸Turkey r@ped 🇨🇾young and old
Palestinians celebrated the invasion
Turkish Cypriots celebrated the invasion
Whereabouts of hostages unknown
Whereabouts of missing unknown"
"ISRAEL 2024
Alexander Dancyg 76 Yoram Metzger 80 Avraham Munder 79
Yagev Buchshtab 34 Nadav Popplewell 51 Haim Perry 79
CYPRUS 1974
Maria Christodoulou (b. 1922). Theodoros Theoklitou (b. 1954). Kostas Glorgatzis (b. 1904). Hadjivasilou Glorgatal (b. 1904). Christodoulos Kamenos (b.1895). Anastasla Kamenou (b. 1902)
Eirini Nikola (b. 1914). Hadjikostas Papageorgiou (b. 1905). Andreas Siamishis (b. 1941). Andreas Evgeniou (b. 1954). Nikolas Tengeris (b. 1901)"
Uzay Bulut on X - "Finally, the right comparison between Cyprus and Israel.   Jews are indigenous to Israel and Greeks are to Cyprus.   Both Israel and Cyprus gained their independence from the British.   Both Israel and Cyprus were once occupied by the Ottoman Turks.   Turkey illegally invaded and occupied Cyprus in 1974, committing many crimes, such as murders, rapes, torture, forced displacements, forced disappearances, and cultural heritage destruction.   Six Arab armies invaded Israel in 1948 with an intent to destroy it at its birth and a major war broke out. Palestinian-Arab terror groups with genocidal intent, including Hamas, have since attacked Israel, rejected its right to exist, committed terrorism, and sabotaged peace in the region many times.   On October 7, Hamas invaded Israel, murdered, raped, kidnapped, and burned Israelis and non-Israelis alive.  The government of Turkey and Palestinian-Arab terror organizations are the aggressors in these two conflicts."

𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ on X - "Maryam Au Moussa, Gazan activist: "Allah willing, we will soon throw the Jews into ditches of Hitler who wanted to burn them" "I say to Trump: Your end will come at the hand of a Palestinian boy" When they explicitly tell you who they are, you need to believe them."

Meme - Nioh Berg @NiohBerg: "This is a children's TV show in Gaza in which they go to the zoo to abuse animals - like throwing rocks at lions. Gaza's issues go far beyond Hamas. There is a societal and cultural rot."
"Hamas Bee: Cruelty to animals as lesson against cruelty. Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Aug. 10, 2007"
Clearly, this is the fault of "Zionists", just as millennia of persecution turned Jews into animal abusers too

Meme - Renson Seow: "Left pic: BBC "news" media
Right pic: full pic on X"
BBC: "French police arrest synagogue blast *Man with keffiyeh over face*"
David Atherton: *Man with keffiyeh over face and Palestinian flag tied around waist*
Clearly, the Zionist are just trying to censor "pro Palestinian" "speech"!
Are the terrorism supporters calling this a Mossad false flag yet?

Meme - Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby: "Breaking: Columbia SJP is handing out fliers that label the American Jewish Committee as the "root of all oppression."  They then proceed to name specifically Jewish trustees as the root of all oppression (names crossed off for the trustees' safety)."

Meme - Kirk Lubimov @KirkLubimov: "Toronto's first Muslim Deputy Mayor at a pro terrorism rally with a terrorist flag - Hezbollah over her shoulder."

Palestinians in your country: what to expect? - "With a war looming and probably lots of Palestinian refugee applications on the horizon, I thought it would be wise to summarize what we have so far about them. The horrors of war aside, how good immigrants are the Palestinians? Denmark decided to try it out in 1992 by giving 321 rejected Palestinian asylum seekers extraordinary residence permits, granted directly by parliament by a special law (Danish Wikipedia Palæstinenserloven). These people have been followed since then to see how this experiment went. Here’s the data for the 2019 follow-up written about here:
Of the 321 who were given asylum 270 are still residing in Denmark, meaning the rest either left or are dead.
Of the 321, 204 (64%) have received a serious fine or jail time for crime, with 71 of them being given jail time. (Definition is fine of 1500+ DKK, traffic law excluded.)
A very large proportion of them are receiving some kind of welfare especially the “early pension” (førtidspension) usually given to people with severe physical or mental issues (e.g. handicapped), but also used for immigrants who are basically useless on the job market for whatever reason.
Of their 999 children, so far 34% are convicted for serious crime and some large chunk are already on welfare.
Note that some of the numbers are slightly too low because of the ones who have left.
Why so bad outcomes? Well, let’s summarize the existing intelligence studies of them... they would be a permanent drain on the country’s resources due to high crime rates and high use of welfare, as they have already been in Denmark since 1992."