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time to join EU, see how Central European countries were lifted up after joining

Anti war piece coming from peace loving country of Russia who would never thought about invading other country if there are small babies there and if her dissidents have small children , instead of being imprisoned or poisoned the are getting state paid villa on balmy shores of the White Sea.

I'll take Biden and his dementia over the alternative.....

I wonder if one of the issues in Dom's death may be connected with the college he was attending. English professional football clubs put millions into youth football in their determination to discover the next generation of stars. Boys as young as eight are training with my premiership club, and other wealthy ones. They are scouted as young as five, their parents are rewarded, promises are made, contracts signed and hopes of stardom and unlimited wealth "sold" to young children desperate for success. And to "pushy" parents. Only one per cent "make it". Most are disappointed and many traumatised. When Dom arrived here, I thought it would end in disappointment, but not tragedy. The standards are so high, the demands so great, the avenues for success so few that only the most able and the most psychologically-strong even make it as far as youth level. And here was a Thai boy, alone and ill-prepared for the challenge. Bringing him here was well-meant but football as a career, as an ambition? Unwise. Dreams are fine but the fact that Dom was merely a good player in a village team. None of this may be relevant to Dom's tragedy but I do have some personal experience of what is serious problem in the UK.. And don't get me started on the problem of impoverished kids being dragged out of poverty in Africa and abandoned once they are seen not to be good enough.

Day 4: Woke up early around 7am and decided to walk to the beach. when I reached there, I saw the people starting to setup their sun lounges. this is where Pattaya beats the Philippines. they are way more organised, so more people can enjoy the place at a budget. I didn't noticed that I reached the central festival mall on my walk, it was still closed so I decided to have breakfast at the Hilton. I sat outside to enjoy the view as it wasn't too hot. I didn't realise this place can be really busy, good thing they have a small marker to show that the table is occupied so that a lone diner like me won't be surprised that his table is taken when one get's replishment from the buffet. Good variety of food and some fresh juices and salads. It was worth the 700 Baht. After breakfast went back to my hotel and enjoy the swimming pool and the pool bar. Then lunch at terminal 21 again, where I found the PadThai station was value for money. Also found the a good deal of 1 kilo dehydrated strawberries for 500 Baht on the ground floor pop up stalls. Was planning to go to jomtien but it rained in the afternoon so just took a nap. In the evening, I started my trek to nice boys. when I reached there, there were already 3 customers on the benches near the door, so the mamasan offered me the bench further from the door. the advantage was I got more privacy, the disadvantage was it didn't provide good lighting on the guys on stage. the guys on stage recognised me and started to flirt. I called the guy I had with yesterday for another round of fun. after that I tried the chuck wow contest, unfortunately it lasted less than a minute. with a guy I didn't see near the sofa was already ready to shoot. but he showed me the evidence before taking the reward. I was hoping the lone chubby guy to get the reward, so I was a bit disappointed, but it is what it is. I decided to take another guy to sit with me. most of the guys in nice guy don't speak Thai, so you either have to use google translate or the mamasans. it seems business is picking up for nice boys, at least before the 1030pm, as there were multiple customers coming in and out when I was there for about an hour. I don't know the scene after that, where I suspect most of the punters are in boyztown for the shows. there was also a VIP customer who went straight to the booth and have a whisky prepared for him - and all the guys were greeting him when he arrived. I wonder if he is in this forum. A quick motorcycle ride to BBB. this time the matured lady mamasan seemed to recognise me from last night, and ushered me to the table right in front of the stage. I think I figured out the formula that BBB is taking. They are playing both as a hosto bar, where guys are fully clothed and plays hosts for you to table them and order drink$, plus their show has enough variety to those looking for cabaret and more explicit stuffs. it reminds me of a show place in Las Vegas where the performer plays a medly of songs, with such a variety, the chances of you not liking a song in the whole performance is slim. Unfortunately, again no muscle hunk in sight tonight in BBB. The bboy hunk this time performed with a special underwear with a ludicrous thin prosthetic. it was a waste, if he could've found one with a mildly normal sized dildo on that underwear. he could do a solo act, and blow the Tawan guys off. But alas it was not to be, maybe it was a sign that he is not offable so just make the act funny rather than sexy. I noticed some of the performers don't have condoms, just rubber bands to act as cock rings. I asked one of the guys if he could come with me after the show. I thought he said yes, but after the show, he was with his buds on the terrace having drinks. I don't know if there was something wrong with the translation. I decided to call it a night a rode the baht bus back to my hotel. i didn't get to sleep with the guy, but overall and enjoyable night.

Same way Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Madero....etc. Pure love of their citizens, 😝 You're not THAT stupid are you??????

OP is in love with Thailand. Sometimes, love is blind.

Not difficult when many opposition parties and most major opposition political figures are either killed or jailed. There is no free press in Russia. The President has the power to control the media and obtain preferential media exposure. The electoral system is skewed to ensure the dominance of United Russia candidates. The chances of appeal are all but zero. President Putin signed into law a decree allowing a three day voting period thereby increasing the likelihood of rigging the outcome. Other parties are of course permitted, but only if they offer little or no opposition or, better still, have links to United Russia. For the 2020 elections, three new parties were allowed to participate - New People, For Truth and Green Alternative. Each, though, has links to the Kremin meaning that even though they might siphon off votes from the increasingly unpopular United Russia, the votes will not go to more genuine opposition parties. According to the levada website you quoted, about 85% of the Russian population supported Putin at the start of 2023. The cult of personality surrounding Putin includes a number of popular brands - Putinka vodka, PuTin canned food, Gorbusha Putina caviar and others. Putin and his image is everywhere. There is no viable opposition. I am not a fan of a dual party system as in the USA or, largely speaking, in the UK. Nor am I a fan of the electoral processes in either country. The Presidents/Prime Ministers of neither country win by popular vote, and so a comparison with Russia is quite meaningless. But, apart from Trump and his lying hordes, virtually all people in each country accept the result of voting without question as having been free and fair.

That's a ridiculous statement and you know it. Putin will murder anyone of importance who even speaks against him, much less run against him. It's quite preposterous to say he was elected. Putin is simply a murderer, and you and everyone else knows this.

I was surprised about the origination of the NRA (as I think many others are unaware of its history just before Civil War). Not surprised that GB instituted gun reforms in wake of Dunblane massacre which is certainly commendable on its part.

I suppose you are a farang. Do farangs wash their rear ends after taking a crap?

Many Thais dislike the Chinese. They find them loud, rude, pushy and dirty. Bar boys complaining about the Chinese not washing their arses after taking a crap and merely wiping with paper is hardly uncommon. The Chinese only wash when they bathe - and that holds true of many "diaspora" Chinese as well. To the Thais, who are ultra-clean, that is pretty revolting. Ask your favourite bar boy what he thinks of the Chinese when it comes to hygiene and you will rarely get a flattering answer. Of course. poor anal and genital hygiene among he Chinese is an issue that usually only impacts bar boys and girls. For most of the Thais, their dislike of the Chinese has to do with attitude and behaviour - rude, pushy, noisy and inconsiderate. Added to that has been the growing sense among many Thais - particularly smaller traders - that the Chinese are stealing business and opportunities from them by running illegal businesses in the country. A good many businesses in Chinatown are now owned by mainlanders, acting in concert with local nominees who are usually village idiots who have been paid a few thousand baht to sign a piece of paper. Some of that is covered in this Bangkok Post article. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2632507/rough-start-for-new-chinatown?utm_campaign=Article&utm_source=article_suggestion_thailand&utm_medium=reccommended&utm_content=suggestion-article Of course, there is a limit to how much anti-Chinese sentiment can be expressed in the mainstream media, given that most of it is owned by "Thai Chinese". For every negative opinion about the Chinese they publish, they will be sure to publish one or two positive comments. Opinion on the street is less flattering, though. There is also growing resentment among the middle-class about Chinese pushing-up property prices and rentals. Considering what the Thais actually think of the Chinese, it is no surprise that your Thai friend wants to get out that building. It would have been a greater surprise if he had been keen on staying. So, "How do Thais View the Chinese?" - not very positively. Incidentally, many Thais dislike the Vietnamese for many of the same reasons - rude and aggressive. To quote one popular Tawan boy, "You know, many Thai people no like Vietnam(ese)". Admittedly, that was before he met a rich, attractive, young Vietnamese woman. On the issue of poor Chinese anal hygiene, see this bitch fight on a Singaporean forum. Note that the guilty parties don't deny it; they would just rather that it was not mentioned: https://www.blowingwind.io/forum/topic/36263-where-to-find-date-caucasians-ang-moh-g-w-m-in-sg-compiled/page/7/#comment-2707863 Bar boys will take their money, but they are not fond of the Chinese.

Inalways use mamasan in BBB. Even with a boy i used to take few times, he will call his fav mamasan when i said i want to off him. If u say to a boy u will take him after the show, but didnt pay off fee, he might think either you are not serious or he simply didnt understand you without mamasan being involve. Also, its normal for the boys to hang around the terrace while waiting, especially when they already have someone who off them.

at least Americans have chance of voting him out. What chance Russians have other than waiting for God or some strangler to act ?.

Perhaps world would be served better if he had

Expert medical opinions are everywhere these days. 🙄

That's because Putin and his party control every aspect of the elections: Electoral competition is limited, as strong candidates, including some from Russia's main opposition Communist Party, are blocked from running by authorities. In the run-up to elections, there's an atmosphere of intimidation of critical independent voices. There is no international independent observation, but independent local observers report a lot of election irregularities. Opposition candidates are detained, having their cars vandalised, and, in one case, military draft papers are being served to election observers. Elections in Moscow are easily rigged due to the capital's system of electronic voting, which are said to be impossible to audit. Similar systems have been rolled out in many other Russian regions. Moscow authorities rely on electronic voting (DEG) systems, which can provide whatever official result they want. "The Kremlin hails election results, saying United Russia, which President Vladimir Putin helped found, has confirmed its role as the leading party. It said the election had been competitive, open and honest." 😎 🙃 😎 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/20/pro-putin-party-wins-russia-poll-slammed-as-a-sham-by-opposition https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-regional-vote-delivers-strong-result-putin-amid-claims-rigging-2023-09-10/ https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/09/12/russia-s-2023-regional-voting

How does this refute the fact: Putin has votes of the majority of citizens of Russia? It is clear: Biden has approval rate below 30%. It is clear Putin has approval rate above 60%. And this is problem for Western propaganda - approval rate shows: president has votes of majority. With that is not possible to say "he isn't legitimate". When all public opinion polls show that the level of approval of Putin's actions is above 60%, it is pointless to talk about the nature of the presidential election. And in these conditions, no matter what the elections are - free, fake, democratic or under pressure - they will still show a result that corresponds to public opinion. And no matter what propaganda says in Western sources, no matter what epithets it uses when talking about Putin - aggressor, tyrant, autocrat... whatever - this will not eliminate the fact: Putin has the support of the majority of the population of Russia. Refrigerators all over Russia are voting for him - they are stocked better than 20 and 10 years ago.

I guess most do not but the French almost all use bidets.

To be fair, I have a friend who is a coroner, and he tells me that inquests can now take a long time. Lack of staff, Covid, and any other issues. I believe that there was a police investigation, again, that could delay things. Thus, the delay should not necessarily be suspicious.

With respect Moses, you are certainly not comparing like with like. American Presidential Elections may well have their problems, but they are nowhere as bad as those in Russia. As is stated in wikipedia - "Elections in Russia have not been free and fair under Putin's rule. Political opponents are jailed and repressed, independent media are intimidated and suppressed, and electoral fraud is rampant. Political scientists characterize Russia's political system as "competitive authoritarianism" or a hybrid regime, as it combines authoritarian and democratic institutions." I could have gone into more detail by quoting other sites. But the above is virtually what all state.

Dreams... dreams... Meanwhile Thailand on past week extended for Russians from 30 to 90 days time for visits without visas.

Maybe Gayinpattaya has returned, lol

I’ve read accounts in the Bangkok Post and The Nation regarding coroner’s inquest. Both echo what has been previously posted and neither shed new light on incident. I don’t believe we know whether Dom spoke any English. If he didn’t I would have liked to think that the academy should have provided language tutoring to prevent isolation from his fellow students.

This is surely the most extraordinary aspect of this very sad case. Inquests in the UK normally occur very soon after death. If drugs or other dangerous substances are suspected, a longer time will be necessary for samples to be tested. These take weeks at most. The other odd aspect is that inquests are public except where there are "real issues" of national security. Apart from the verdict of "suicide" I don't recall reading anything about the manner of the suicide other than it related to the poor boy's head.

still they have chance to have their say

I've been as surprised by the popularity of BN as of DT. I mean, even if one were to agree with his policies, how can one support someone so completely lacking of any moral fiber or character? One so completely bereft of any sense of honesty or trustworthiness?

The welfare of Palestinians is not a priority for Iran. Iran wants to stir the pot in Gaza and Lebanon. They help keep the cycle going. Regarding Netanyahu, it seems Israelis blame him. Can anyone be surprised how it looks, that a corrupt leader willing to diminish democracy and enrich himself may have taken his eye off the ball?

The GOP Grifters that get punished are the dumb ones that don't know how to cover their tracks or the ones that piss off the wrong people. Sara Huckabee for example. There had to be a more palatable way to fund a gal-pal trip to Paris with Arkansas tax revenue than claiming the $19000 was for a lectern, too easy to disprove. The trouble with Joe Harding and the GOP is there are so many more grifters queued up to follow with more GOP grift. Didn't Iowa Repubs actually get rid of their auditor (a Dem) which seems to give their GOP government free reign with state funds?

The beaches are not great, but pools are nice for swimming. Excercise can be a drag, but swimming isn’t so bad, just hate the initial cold . Many days in December and early January can be too cold for swimming in Pattaya. I’ve noticed different hotels or condos have warmer or cooler water. For instance, Arcadia Beach condo is very warm as it’s in direct sunlight most of the day They have five pools. Yensabai isn’t bad either if you can avoid the old French men gossiping in the pool all day. My condo, Unixx is average to cold, only short time in the sun.

nothing wrong with being naïve

As long as the heels they are wearing are not too high, it should be no problem

Never heard someone is going to Pattaya due it's “Stunning beaches “...

So it's not only @TotallyOz that gives Thais expensive gifts 😁

In his 2022 memoir, Acquanaut, I recall rescuer Rick Stanton mentioning that Dom was the only team member who didn’t receive a note from his parents when hand-written messages from relatives were brought into the cave following the boys’ discovery in chamber 9. He was reportedly visibly distraught. I think Stanton said he did not live with his parents and was being cared for by his grandmother. The team captain, Dom was a gifted player and the team was like a second family. Who knows if being suddenly alone in a distant land, and without the support he was accustomed to in Thailand, how that may have taken its roll. I choose to remembered hijm as he was when we first got to know about him on his teammates. Those are the memories that will endure.

I hope he wins the primary. It will be the Democrats' best chance. If anyone can lose against Trump, it's Biden.

Interestingly, and alarmingly, opioid related deaths per annum are even higher!

I had a horrible experience in Cairo back in 2018 with the local guys. One robbed me in my hotel room. I will admit I was dumb, naive and inexperienced when it came to Egypt. I had been living in Dubai for many years met loads of guys and never robbed. I got too accustomed to how safe Dubai is. I actually had an Egyptian “friend" in Dubai who was drop dead gorgeous, late 20s, tall, muscular, perfect body and ass, 10 inch thick dick, versatile and the best sex of my entire life. I was moaning with joy every single time and he would come over twice a week to my apartment. I was seeing him for years until he moved back to Egypt in 2021 to be with his wife and 3 young kids. He only had a daughter when we meet and had two sons while were together. His annoying wife was always calling while we’re hanging out. She was always screaming down the phone and that was the only time I ever saw shouting. He was smart, educated engineer, funny, charming and sweet. He never asked me for money even though I was making a lot more than him. I loved him and I know he loved me but he had to go back to Egypt due to visa issues and he had businesses and all his family there . Actually he technically raped me I think the first time because it was the largest dick by far I had attempted at the time. I said it was to big to go in after trying for some time with a condom. He took of the condom and put a lot of lube on and said he would just rub against my butt cheeks. He did that a while putting the tip in slowly and I was feeling a bit more relaxed as he took his time and then he grabbed both my arms firmly and forced his way in. I thought I was going to cut in half but it was the most pleasurable experience and he started nailing my g spot and he went at it for a full hour without stop. I was moaning so loud and literally shaking. He wanted to fuck every day but I could only take it every 3 days because he literally drilling the hole for over an hour. He never got tired. I always fucked him first and would stop just before cumming because I knew he would be railing me for ages. I last about 45 mins as a top but he just goes on and on. He liked everything I liked. We were like soulmates. Versatile, lots of sucking, rimming, fucking, kissing and massages. The only issue was that only smoked weed when we meet but then he started doing harder drugs just before leaving Dubai. He could get it up like before and became more or less a bottom because of the drugs. I was visiting family in London for 2 months and by the time I was back in Dubai he was shell of his himself. It was really sad to see and I told him to stop doing it which he did not like at all. I told him my brother was killed by a guy where was taking heavy drugs with. I thought in the end he was better off going back to Egypt to be with his family and hopefully they could help him sober up. Anyway back to Cairo. As I said I had great sex with at least 5 Egyptians in Dubai and was hoping for more of the same during a 4 day trip to Egypt before visiting my family in London. I hook up with a 30 year old guy on GROWLR. Fit, muscular and masculine. Says he has a big dick. This guy comes to my room and looks like his picture. His dick is distinctly average. I fucked him first. He was loose and clean. Then he started fucking me for a few minutes. He told me I was not clean below and needed to douche more. I went to check in the bathroom for a minute. I was 100% clean as I suspected. In the one minute he managed to find my wallet and cash and stashed the cash away. He was an expert thief and I was stupidly carrying a lot of cash. I was too scared to report it because of the laws in the country. The second local guy I tried to hook with told me to come to his apartment. I took cab to his area abnd I waited for him for over an hour in the sun outside a cafe. Then he started sending me a messages saying I was being watched and was going to be arrested. I didn’t panic or worry because I knew he was lying. I just went home. But I decided I wasn’t going to talk to anymore locals during my short trip. I hooked up that same night with a British guy in my hotel. He refused to send me any pictures but we had been chatting for the last 3 days and it was my final night in Cairo. He seemed really nice we were texting the whole trip and his English was better than mine so I think he was lying about being British. He was 29 years old according to profile. I like taking risks so I agreed to meet him in my room. He told me to turn off all the lights in my double suite room at the Hilton hotel near the airport. I saw him through the key hole. He was very tanned shoulder length blond hair and, blue eyes. Very handsome. I left him and took him to my bedroom in the dark. He was a bit tipsy and took off all his clothes. I massaged him for a while. I love giving massages to guys I fancy. He had a great body with a six pack and great pecs. He gave be an amazing bj and I fucked him real good after my pent up frustrations from the last few days. He was a great bottom. He told me he only wanted to bottom that night before he came to my room but after I told him I was close to cumming he took my dick out flicked me over and fucked me like bunny rabbit. He was gorgeous and loved kissing and rimming. Everything I was into. We even exchanged massages. A great end to an otherwise disappointing trip. Now that I’ve experienced a lot more in life and am hopefully older and a bit wiser. I think I would handle things completely differently in Cairo. I have grown up a lot in the past 5 years and am now in my mid 30s.

I post this purely for information. I had never heard of the website Gayifiers until I was checking the web for some more detail about gay massage in Taipei. It's a London based site and i have no idea where it gets its information. It seems to be new given that several pages have "Coming Soon" against the content. But the information on Taipei massage was good and it includes a few reviews. Bangkok massage information has 5 listed including two I have not heard of before - Taywa Massage and Spa which seems to be staffed mostly by university students, and a second which is no doubt known to some readers, 9-Teen Massage on Silom Soi 8. The massage section also has information about Singapore, Osaka and Kaohsiung. The site also has more detailed information about Bangkok and Taipei with Hong Kong, Hanoi, Tokyo and Osaka "coming soon". It also provides more general sections on enjoying the Taipei Gay Pride Parade and Songkran. In the Songkran section the only hotels it lists are pricey, but elsewhere there is a list of four top gay budget hotels - Trinity Silom, FuramaXclusive, Siri Sathorn and the Ibis on Sukhumvit Soi 4. Interesting additional features are "12 Hottest Porn Stars in Asia" and "12 Hottest Porn Stars Around the World". https://www.gayifiers.com

Putin is leader for majority in Russia. Nobody can tell the same about American president. Each president is leader for minority and US even hasn't direct elections.

I am aware there are members of this forum from many countries. And that is a good thing because it allows for a variety of views. But the written language of posts is English (with occasional quotes or epithets in another language like 'entre-nous'). @TotallyOz Can we please have a ruling about posts in other written languages - even if they are translations of earlier posts in English?

The Biden coalition risks a damaging break over the US role in Israel’s response in Gaza Here's a good reason for liberals and progressives to try to avoid sniping based on standards of moral purity. It may get Trump elected in 2024. (Anybody remember how Nixon won in 1968?) Talk about the perfect being the enemy of the good. 😵 Biden's approval rating among Democrats dropped 11 points in one month. I was hoping that an economy that we just learned is growing at an annual rate of 6 % actually might put some luster on Bidenomics. But I suspect Axios is right that this is about Biden and Israel and Arab Americans. Not to mention liberal Jews. And young people who empathize with an occupied and oppressed people. The good news is that most Americans, including a majority of Republicans, seem to favor a ceasefire. The bad news is Biden doesn't get it. As a Democrat, who is neither Arab American nor young, this is just painful. I voted for Sanders in the 2020 California primary. I did that knowing Sanders would lose the primary, hoping that Biden would beat Trump, and wanting to signal a desire to go left to Joe. Biden mostly got that message, I think. And I'm still a Democrat who approves of him. But this reminds me of all the reasons I voted for Sanders. Like, in particular, how Biden backed the Iraq War, even though he wanted to have it both ways. If I believe the common themes in countless articles I've read, Biden has: 1) slowed the invasion of Gaza right wing Israelis want down, 2) elevated humanitarian measures and aid for Palestinians, and 3) focused on measures to deter escalation into a regional war. So the verdict is out. But Trump's 40 % + will vote for him passionately, no questions asked and no facts necessary. So if Biden is discouraging a lot of his 40 % from even wanting to vote for him, this is bad news for Democrats. This is also bad news for Israeli and Jewish American hawks. Every poll shows that the vast majority of Americans empathize with Israel. And view Hamas as a terrorist organization that needs to be deterred. But this poll further reinforces that Israel has lost a pro-Israel US majority, even among Republicans, when it comes to right wing horror stories about doing "whatever it takes" to destroy Hamas.

Point taken about succinct writing. Another advantage of succinct writing is, in theory, it makes it more challenging for people to put words in my mouth. Or misquote me. Because you've done it repeatedly. The main misquote that was just weird was suggesting that I had a "revenge" agenda about 9/11 - your word, not mine. You implied that almost all Americans, presumably including Obama and Biden, shared this naive revenge agenda, which is lacking in an awareness of history. So you completely misread what I said about that. I think because you wanted to go after what something like 90 % of Americans believed at the time, and for years after. Including Obama and Biden. Although I think you tried to lay the naive thinking at the foot of Bush and Cheney, inaccurately. Obama was elected in 2008 promising to "win" the war. And he okayed the surge that exploded the count of dead soldiers and innocent Afghans. @Latbear4blk holds a similar opinion, which is that the US should have sucked it up and been a "good loser." Good for you guys for expressing yourselves, succinctly. You've now misquoted me again by laughing at words you put in my mouth. Namely, that I'm equating myself with professional nonfiction writers. I have written essays that have been published. And I've been quoted in papers and books and interviewed on TV a lot. So I know how to speak on camera and edit myself. You're correct that I don't put the time into editing myself in online posts like I do when I have an editor publishing something I write. Excellent Article by Steven Kesslar on Rentboy Shutdown My point here was completely different. And you didn't get it. Because for whatever reason it seems like you'd rather "laugh" at me, to use your word. The day I wrote that post I did spend most of the day reading long wall of text essays on the US invasion of Afghanistan. And especially the surge. I was curious what analysts years later are saying now about what worked, and what failed. My post was shorter and no more stream of consciousness than much of what I read. Some of which I quoted from. The long essays I read were all dry, somewhat boring, and very informative. Your point is that you'd like to debate, but not read essays. Which is fine. But I stand by what I said. I liked researching it, and writing it. That doesn't make me a professional writer. At least in this instance. It does make me someone interested in learning things I don't know. But I'll repeat that I'm glad you challenged me. In my mind, that's a big part of the point. Especially right now, people really need to have their minds and hearts challenged. Speaking of which, I thought about your point about "revenge" when I read this awful thought, in an awful essay with the awful headline, "Why Israel must destroy Hamas." He's referring to Friedman's excellent essay against an invasion, which I posted above. Friedman made a whole bunch of thoughtful points about how an invasion will make things worse. Including for Israel. This right winger only has one argument: the only thing that matters is destroying Hamas. Period. I think that quote is a perfect example of the kind of mindless "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" revenge I think you may have been referring to in your post above. We agree way more than we disagree. And I certainly agree with you on that. I didn't feel driven by a need for revenge after 9/11. I think most Americans felt driven by a need to deter more horrific terrorist attacks on US soil. And that motivation has actually worked out well. I think Israelis appropriately feel the same way. But I hope Israel isn't driven by revenge now. We all know one important fact. Which is that the body count of dead Palestinians is always way more than the body count of dead Israelis. That's always been true. And it is already true, yet again, in Gaza - even before an IDF invasion started. If you take out the word "Jewish" and replace it with "Palestinian" or "Arab" in that quote, exactly the same logic of revenge could be and just was used to rationalize the very sick idea Hamas has that we must destroy Israel. So I commend you for making the point that "revenge" should not be the motivation. Because it will simply feed the terrorists, and continue the violence.

Putin is not my favorite leader He doesn't have dementia. Unlike Biden

I'll slip this in, succinctly. It surprised me. Israeli Poll Finds 49% Support Holding Off on Gaza Ground Offensive Nearly half of all respondents believe Israel should wait with its ground operation in Gaza, while just over a quarter believe the IDF should embark on the offensive immediately. If you read the whole article, the context is 65 % of Israelis supported an immediate ground offensive when asked by the same pollster on Oct. 19. I don't think Israelis read my post and decided to give peace a chance. 😉 The big shift is short-term thinking about hostages. The article states that 50 hostages have been killed "in Israeli strikes on Gaza." Presumably bombing of Hamas tunnels where the hostages were being kept. I'm guessing Hamas thought that one through in advance. Biden can't run on age. So he has to run on wisdom. We'll see. If Sanders were POTUS and he forcefully demanded Israel agree to a ceasefire, I doubt Netanyahu or most leaders would listen to him. I'm hoping Biden is being slippery, knowing that he can't tell Americans, let alone Israelis, what to do. And they may listen to him more if they feel he is on their side. Every account I've read states the Biden White House is not telling Israel what it can or can not do. We'll see. But Biden has been clear for a long time he is not a fan of Bibi's policies.