Just tell Joe that there are six Palestinian children on the court and he’ll get right on it.

I agree with this sentiment, but let’s all not forget to give the US credit for its lies too.

In one form or another, this is basically the rationalization that warmongers always use to justify their own awfulness. As an American, I’ve been listening to my own country deploy this gem my entire life.

The Al Jazeera report that you link to only claims that Houthis launched missile and drone attacks at a US ship. It makes no claim that they seriously damaged or sunk a US ship. Here is a BBC/MSN report that describes similar things. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c800j14y38xo?xtor=AL-72-[partner]-[microsoft]-[headline]-[news]-[bizdev]-[isapi] what exactly are you claiming is false in the Al Jazeera report? Both reports also describe US actions against Houthis targets, which would be a strange thing to do if the Houthis aren’t in fact doing something (even if it is a very ineffective something).

We already basically do this with things like the differentiation between Varsity and JV. Not sure why this is such an offensive concept to some of you (just kidding, I’m pretty sure I understand exactly why y’all are offended). If competition is what is great about sports, then excluding some competitive participants because of arbitrary physiological characteristics actively diminishes the sport. But perhaps competition isn’t actually what some of you think is great about sports. I suspect that what some of you actually value about sports is to experience a kind of masterbatory high of seeing someone you can identify with, in shallow ways, achieving things that you yourself cannot.

I literally cannot understand the argument that you’re making. People with different physiological characteristics are not going to have the same skill levels. Nothing you listed argues against my proposal. All the physiological advantages that you listed are fine. Some females may be better than some males at some tasks and vice versa. Why not let them compete against each other. Seems like creating a larger pool of competitive athletes would improve any sport. Carving out leagues that cater to different capability levels would open opportunities for more people. I’m proposing that we have more, better, more competitive and exciting sports. What exactly are you objecting to?

Weight is the wrong criteria to use. Why not just have it classed by skill level. Enforce equity in school sports by mandating that a meaningful distribution of skill-based leagues are funded. This seems like a very simple solution to me that would address gender-based inequities in general as well as improve sports overall.

Lebensraum

I’m old enough to remember when 24 hours ago the Biden administration said that a ground assault in Rafah would be crossing its red line. It’s pretty easy to remember because that was about 48 hours after the Biden administration said that just ‘going in’ to Rafah would be crossing its red line.

I hope everyone understands that this entire project is a facade, designed to provide Biden and his administration with a hook on which they can hang claims of deniability without actually meaningfully hampering Israel’s genocide campaign.

“and about just as many view it as a belief in Israel as a Jewish and democratic state (72%),”

This, right here, is a big part of the problem. The notion of an ethnostate is antithetical to a democracy. You cannot be both. It’s definitionally impossible. A state practicing some of the mechanics of democracy does not make it a democracy. If the supremacy of one ethnic cohort is a fundamental tenet of your state, there is no amount of ‘liberalism’ or rhetoric that will turn you into a democracy. If you are part of this 72%, I implore you to examine the cognitive dissonance you are practicing. I strongly suspect that many of this 72% have not critically examined the fallacy of people’s claims of Israeli democracy. Of those that have, I suspect that many are intentionally misrepresenting the situation since afterall, actively supporting a violently oppressive ethnostate isn’t a great look.

Edit: spelling

shocked pikachu face

On first read this headline confused me. I read it and wondered why they were claiming Israel had a ceasefire demand.

At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel announced that they were setting up ‘bathing facilities’ for Palestinian refugees at these ‘humanitarian islands’.

As other have said here, this is obviously an attempt to create a foundation of legitimacy for their own invasion of Taiwan. What I don’t understand about diplomacy at this level is this: Why do they care? What I mean is, everyone in this deliberating body knows what they are doing, and everyone observing it knows as well. Furthermore, as a permanent, veto holding, member of the Security Council, China faces no actual oversight from the UN as a whole. So, why bother with the show?

Taking the inhuman nature of Biden’s ideology here out of the equation, the guy just looks so cucked and weak in the way he’s managing his own client state.

Unless I see the Biden administration take meaningful action against Israel, I’m not going to believe a goddamn thing they posture about, be it official statements or leaked messaging to the press. They have made it perfectly clear that they are actively and enthusiastically supportive of Israel’s policies of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Israel is a fascist ethnostate, built on a meticulously cultivated culture of racism. As an entity, they are entirely undeserving of our support or respect, and their uncritical supporters should be called out for their toxic malevolence at every opportunity. I’m so tired of this.

No, we should act to prevent them from doing this. Instead of bombing (and risking further spread and escalation) why not remove their motivation for doing this? What is their motivation for doing this? Their motivation is to prevent Israel from genociding. Now, if we just prevent Israel from genociding, the boats flow, Palestinians don’t get murdered, people in Yemen don’t get bombed either, and we make escalation less likely. That sounds like a far better outcome to me. The only reason to opt for the more violent path, is that you actually want the violence. If that’s your goal, then you’re the bad guy.

Why not, um, just restrain Israel instead? Because we Americans value dead Palestinians more than we fear inflation.