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statsman

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Everything posted by statsman

  1. I heard a podcast from a former ambassador to the PRC, who said it is a mistake to think, because Jimping is a dictator of an authoritarian state, to assume China acts under a single will. He said the PLA leadership is extremely hawkish and spoiling for a war, so don’t count on rational actions. Of course, that may just be their version of strategic ambiguity.
  2. What is the deal with Stoops? I thought his XFL stint was a way of getting his name out there again, for a HC job (NFL? College blue blood?), but I never see it mentioned.
  3. There are some huge issues coming up, involving the state of college football. The NCAA, in an attempt to stay viable, floated the idea of AD funded player salaries. That is an idea that would appeal to the 90% of programs that are not P4 (allows funds from AD and school revenue to level the field, although there is that pesky Title 9). It would not appeal to the 5% of programs that are in the SEC and B10, who are leaning into exploring a major power split from the NCAA. What do the ACC and Big XII think? They need to figure this out. Problem is- conference officials, university presidents and ADs have 3-5 year outlooks, by nature of their contracts. Like or hate the SEC and B10, they have shown the ability to think long term (with the exception of fucking Rutgers and Maryland)
  4. When Texas Football is flying high, nothing else in college football generates more money. They must have forgotten
  5. I, personally, have an agenda, and I’ll admit to it. I think the world has a lot of bad actors that are unwilling to adhere to accepted order. Russia has already invaded Ukraine. China is increasingly aggressive in the Pacific, and there is a very good strategy proposed for them wrt Taiwan- a naval blockade. What would the U.S. do, if that happened? Also, Iran has been destabilizing the ME for well over a decade. Russia, China and Iran have an alliance, an axis, based on mutual opportunism. Each sees opportunities to further their own goals by weakening or distracting the west (the US) in the other theatres. My agenda is that I would like to see US foreign policy emphasize deterrence by increasing the defense budget. We are entering a new Cold War, and winning it will require a commitment. I agree with the old answer, from the first Cold War, in regards to how much the U.S. should spend on defense- “enough to keep us out of a war and not one dollar more”.
  6. Is this the first time the Cowboys copied the Horns’ “icy white” uniforms?
  7. https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/russia-war-ukraine-economy-policy-7428ef7b?st=g7z2lt3k6aqa9sh&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink
  8. I’m starting to wonder if Iran isn’t just a friend we haven’t made yet.
  9. Russia sees that the west is not producing enough shells for Ukraine, that Israel is embroiled in a war (that heats up as soon as Hezbollah enters), and…a potential Taiwan blockade or invasion. Really, the U.S. and NATO need to recognize the reality and commit to major increases in defense spending. No bad actors are currently deterred.
  10. I went back and read the resolution. I didn’t see any calls for Hamas to cease military actions nor any concerns about Israeli civilians. There are two war zones in the world. The UN resolution calling for Russia to cease its invasion was voted against by many nations calling for Israel to cease its attack on Hamas. Fascinating
  11. The UN is an illiberal democracy.
  12. My preference would be for college campuses to be like UT in the ‘80s- a broad and expansive field for debate, even offensive debate. But that’s not common among the most popular universities. FIRE ranks campuses for tolerance for free speech- Harvard ranks last and Penn second to last. They are comfortable codifying the boundaries of allowed speech. Which, they are allowed to do. So, when asked about incidences of tolerated speech that is offensive and even threatening to Jewish students, they start talking up free speech, sounding like Voltaire. That is disingenuous (just as, you noted, these former proponents of free speech ante now calling for regulating), and that’s what they’re being called out for.
  13. Those dumb fucks don’t realize that there are portal agents that handle contacting schools and negotiating.
  14. Wait, are we now thinking that Iran isn’t just a friend we haven’t made yet?
  15. I don’t think it’s “revenge” that is the motivation to eliminate Hamas. It’s common sense. You either eliminate Hamas, or you pack up and move (Iran is fine with both, although they reserve the right to pursue their final solution globally).
  16. No. Not de-humanize. What Hamas did/does is all too human. I was very careful in my choice of words. Hamas are monsters. From the beginning of humanity, society has to eliminate monsters.
  17. I explained why I believed Israel had to respond to the threat of Hamas, and why their choice, lethal as it is to the civilians Hamas shelters among, is their best (least worst) option. Do you disagree that the government of Israel, which has to stand for popular elections) has to respond? Do you think there is a better option for them?
  18. There is a photo, and I hope I don’t have to copy it here. It is from October 7, and it was taken by Hamas affiliated photographers. It shows a young woman, nabbed from the music festival. She was near naked, bleeding from her groin (she had been raped by many “men”, and the blood was either from brutal intrusions or-and one hates to mention this kind of detail, but it happened often- from knife thrusts into her vagina). Her right leg was formed into several unnatural angles; it is difficult to imagine the process(es) by which it had been broken so often and severely. She was in the back of a pickup truck heading to Gaza; the intent seems to have been to keep her as a hostage. Evidently, at some point, they realized how impractical that was- the effort to keep her alive after those injuries and the problems coming as a survivor relating her horrors- so they killed her and dumped her along the way. She was found with her head severed, and no one can say whether the decapitation was the coup de grace, or some post death ritual debasement. These acts, committed on this young woman, and many others, were not the results of chaos, anger and opportunity. They were the plan. the Hamas leaders are and were proud of them and freely admit plans for more of the same. Israel could negotiate with Hamas. That would be a reward for October 7, and so there will be more October 7’s. Israel could just have a limited military engagement, get a tit for tat, maybe a little more, and call it good, leaving Hamas and its Iranian funders intact. Again, there will be more October 7’s. Israel decided, instead, to slay the monsters, along with many of the innocents that the monsters hide among. That is tragic, but, for the life of me, I can’t think of a better option.
  19. To be clear, Hamas is an anti-Semitic group, to their core. It is their rason d’etre. They live to hate Jews, all Jews, not pausing to differentiate between Jews that are actually pro-Palestinian. Hamas is more anti-Semitic than the Nazis were; the Nazis lived to kill Jews, too, but realized they needed to kind of hide their activities. Hamas blasted their crimes out on social media in real time. Any western group that acts in congress with or in alignment with Hamas goals is going to be (at least) splashed in anti-Semitism. That’s the ocean they’re swimming in.
  20. It is a bullshit question. It isn’t advancing the discussion; it’s just trying to highlight that the progressives have an anti-Semitic faction, to score cheap political points. Which is not something the progressives have had a problem with for 90 years. We know that progressive Woodrow Wilson only hated African-Americans more than Jews; we know that for all the right wing talk, the main difference between Nazi philosophy and 1930s progressives is the willingness to go authoritarian (and, again…Wilson jailed socialist Eugene Debs for speaking against him).
  21. Stoops did this in 2008. Their star RB, Murray, and DR, Granger, were both injured in their shellacking of Missouri in the B12 CG (that we should have been in). He announced immediately after that they were both fine and would be able to play (there was still one more vote to settle the BCS). Neither played against Florida. To this day, Sooners use their injuries as an excuse for losing the BCS CG.
  22. You realize, that for the last dozen years, tens of thousands of lethal rockets and missiles have been fired blindly into Israeli civilian population centers, as a regular occurrence? More regular than the rain? That Israel has just assumed that it has to build and maintain an incredibly advanced air defense system, just to avoid going into Gaza and forcibly moving everyone out?
  23. Israel is not committing genocide. Israel knows what genocide is. Israel has been viciously attacked and is defending itself against similar future attacks (that have been promised). Hamas is the group that has expressed a desire for genocide and taken such actions.
  24. If Israel really wanted to commit genocide, it would have been accomplished. Israel doesn’t want to commit genocide. It wants to eradicate Hamas, who has a strategy of hiding among the civilians it claims to represent and govern, and restricting the ability of civilians to relocate. This is ugly, and unfair to innocent civilians. Unfair is not unjust. Unjust would be not allowing Israel to go after the Hamas forces that attacked their people so cruelly and wantonly.
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