statsman

Last Friday, I took my middle school daughter and her friend to 6 Flags, for Fright Night. We live in Arlington, so we always get the season pass, and I just noticed that our pass came with a one-time “front of the line” pass for one ride. These can also be purchased. We decided to use ours for “La Vibora” (née “Bobsled “), because it’s a fun ride that always has long lines. There was a problem. The teen girl running the “Flash Pass” entrance had a non working phone device for processing special passes. She was super sweet, and I imagine running her line is usually an easy job (people are happy to skip long lines), but…not that night. I am 60, but when I was in HS in Waco, I worked at Mr. Gattis Pizza for a couple of years. A valuable lesson- when mistakes are made, when things go awry, and you have a complaint- the teen workers really don’t care. They will give you stuff to make you go away, but they really don’t care. That’s why, when customer service is an issue, I stay calm and don’t harangue the workers. I know they don’t give a shit. I knew that, but evidently the other adults didn’t. My daughter recorded the first Karen, complaining about how much she spent and how her evening was being ruined, as we all waited (to be fair, a ridiculous amount of time) for the new device to arrive. She then got her husband to complain; he swore a little (not enough for me to intervene), and made a comment about needing to talk to a manager making “more than $10 an hour” (ha-ha! I think these kids are making more than that). While we were waiting, the girl’s shift blessedly ended. My group thanked her as she left. She was replaced by a slight teen boy. I chatted a little with him, he was a student from FW Dunbar. He displayed a savior faire, an elan, that just impressed the hell out of me. People came to complain and he…ignored them. No perfunctory canned excuses, no apologies. He just sat on his stool, fixed his gaze 210 degrees from the complainer, and said … nothing. It was clear he cares not a whit about their complaints. It was awe inspiring. (why did I never think of that?) Finally, the new device arrived and we rode the ride, which was terrific.

Yep. Russia targets civilian centers in Ukraine and says “there were legitimate military targets adjacent”. (There weren’t). Israel targets military sites placed in schools and hospitals, and Russia says it’s unacceptable.

There was a video of an interrogation of a captured Hamas terrorist. He was asked why they took the women and he said “to dirty them, to rape them”. Then they asked why the children and he said “to rape them”. I don’t think these are coming back. Maybe the children will be sold instead of killed.

I’d like to argue that Israel has not occupied Gaza since 2006, but that’s a CR discussion. I will just mention that Israel has the same relationship with Gaza as its southern neighbor, Egypt, with the exception that Israel provides utility services to avoid a humanitarian disaster.

Houston is one of the US’ largest cities. Think of all the viewers UH brings!

No CR, but the best freedom fighters fight to set up a government that protects inalienable rights and has the consent of the governed.

Hamas is evil. I think taking Hamas down is the right thing to do, for Israel. No matter how careful they may be, there will be innocents (many children) killed, and in horrible ways. Hamas uses its civilian populace as shields, much as the Japanese did in Okinawa. It is right to grieve them. It only makes sense to question why. It is an error to say that Israel should not take down Hamas, due to the loss of innocent Palestinian life. This is not a book or movie; there is no elegant solution where only evil is punished and innocence spared. The US was on the right side in WWII, in both theatres. We ended the Pacific War by dropping nukes on civilian population centers. I do grieve the loss of innocent Japanese civilian life, even as I don’t believe an apology is needed. This is how I rationalize it (and I do acknowledge this may just be a rationalization) - “We were at war with monsters, and to defeat them, we did monstrous things”. In my mind, I can apportion more blame to the Imperial Hapanese leadership than to ours. I am glad I’ll never be asked to make Truman’s decision. I’m glad Truman made it. Israel is surrounded by monsters. To stay safe, it will have to do things, not monstrous (like nuking), but cold hearted. I will apportion more blame for the loss of Palestinian civilian life to Hamas than to Israel.

BTW, there is going to come a time (and it may be now), when any US visitor to Russia, Iran, North Korea, Gaza, maybe PRC, is going to have to assume that if they are grabbed and imprisoned, they will be on their own.

Yes. Giving Lockheed and Boeing a small portion of what is needed for the fly off just doesn’t tell those two “you’re in the competition”; it tells others that don’t get downselected and funded (Northrop) “you’re out”. (Yes, I know Northrop then teamed with Lockheed)

The DoD provided some funding for the F-35 competition. Tens of millions at least. Not nearly enough to cover all the costs.

Defense contractors self fund some R&D (IRAD, Independent R &D). As soon as it matures to feasibility with a possible application, and if the DoD is interested, the DoD will start to fund as well. If the DoD is not interested, the contractor is not allowed to sell to other nations without US permission.

If they are finished, it will be because Israel has the will to see it through. I agree with Oren- Hamas puts military assets in hospitals. Hospitals have maternity wards. When an IDF bomb kills Palestinian babies and infants, that will be trumpeted to the world, and opinion will move to “Israel is over-reacting”. I believe Israel knows this and this is impacting the scope and timing of their plans.

I listened to a podcast with Michael Oren. He said: -the free world is behind Israel, for now. That WILL change. Hamas operates and bases in civilian centers. IDF activities will kill civilians, even if on accident (he referenced Qana in 1996, when stray Israeli munitions hit a refugee camp managed by UN) and international support will flip to resistance. -He said that Abbas was elected to a four year term 18 years ago. When he dies, Hamas will win the next election, if there is a Hamas. That will be 10 times bigger of a problem than Gaza.

I think it is very possible that both -Iranian military and leadership helped plan and supported the Hamas attack -There are Iranian leaders that had no idea it was going on that’s not a hard one to figure out, right?

The bad news- The Russians are conscripting like crazy from occupied Ukraine. 19th century press gangs. They grab me. Off the street, give them a uniform, rifle and theee bullets, and put them in a “meat charge”. They don’t give a damn about any Ukrainian lives and they’re happy to spend them.

Not if it were my family.

I can’t help but think of the hostages. It’s not like Hamas has some kind of large scale detention facility. It’s been four days now. In the past, terrorists haven’t been able to keep themselves from assaulting and torturing Israeli captives. A lot of kidnappings of IDF troops started as negotiating for release and turned into bartering for a body. (It ain’t Guantanamo, I’m sad to say). When the emperor surrendered, Japan’s Unit 731 executed all the prisoners and fled. That is one scenario. Another is to collect the survivors and try to drive a grand bargain. (The number of survivors will be markedly lower than the number of abductees). Or maybe there will be both outcomes, carried out at dozens of sites. It is worrisome how little social media of the abductees is being issued.

Fair, but I’m sticking with “Hamas is the single party in complete control of Gaza”

That game allowed Baylor to go to a bowl (the Copper Bowl) for Teaff’s last game. Texas was one game short of bowl eligibility that year. Baylor fans feel good that Teaff was able to go out on a high note. Meanwhile- all the Longhorn seniors were cheated out of a chance to end their careers with a bowl game. They have a right to never fucking forget it. Those officials were assholes.

I think it’s all non-public deliberation. Big XII referees are hired by Tim Weiser, who publicly came out as a Texas-hater. You can imagine the chances of a Texas Ex getting to be a Big XII ref.

In a parliamentary system, can’t the parliament force new elections? In times like this, the fringes of the majority coalition can be pressured to vote for a change, bringing a majority to call for a new election. Is that mistaken?

Facts and suppositions: There are no Gaza Kings or Ghandis. Any such would be killed by Hamas. Hamas has been in charge a long time. All young adults have grown up on an education of anti-semitism. There are no other curriculums. I have sympathy for the common Gazan; they never had a chance, were never allowed a glimpse of another way. I still welcome harsh punishment for the terrorist criminals (I’m the kind of guy that cheers when a 95 year old Nazi criminal is discovered and brought to judgment). Even still- this will be a tough group to reform, to re-educate (I hate that term, because of its authoritarian legacy), to liberalize. I give credit to Israel for pointedly saying they were at war with Hamas, and not Gaza, even though Hamas is the single party in complete control of Gaza. Warring on Hamas will be really ugly. It will have two stages- the first, while everyone determines what to do about the hostages (several are Americans). The second, after. The first part could take a long time, leading to global memory forgetting the massacres and denouncing Israel during the second part. I’m sure Israel understands that. Surely, Israel has done contingency planning for what to do with Gaza after a (completely foreseeable) collapse of Hamas?

No CR, but Netanyahu’s government sells itself as being best on security. I imagine he is expected to lead through this, make all the needed (ugly) decisions, and then call for new elections.

TCU and BU played 24 times from 1901-1910. Scheduling was tough back then.

It is tempting to hold back the $6B from the US, headed to Iran. Problem is- Hamas has US hostages. That money was payment for freeing US hostages from Iran and I’m sure they have no problem linking the current hostages to any U.S. response. I wonder how the IDF handles hostage situations- is there a triage of those that can be rescued? Those that are deemed lost?