We’re not going to take over Gaza. The reappearance of that waste of skin, Jared Kushner, does fill me with dread, truth be told.
The decline of Hawaii is sad. I’ve always wanted to see it after being exposed to its charms by Steve McGarrett and Thomas Magnum, but I’ve lost interest.
I may have to settle for only having visited 49 states.
Trump's pointing out a limited time opportunity to the Middle East oil barons desperately searching for homes for their investment (US media is out, Europe is dying, and world sports other than golf are NOT FOR SALE) before nuke, solar, and whatever Elon's brewing make their dino juice worthless (and illegal).
I think it has more to do with the three civilizational No-nos: No polygamy, No cousin marriage and No Islam.
Lebanon was supposed to be a multicultural enclave run by the Maronite Christians. But K-selected Maronites can't compete with r-selected Muslims having 5 - 10 kids.
Your comment reminds me of the 2018 film Capernaum, which is a deadly serious version of Mike Judge's comedic Idiocracy, set in Lebanon. It's basic messages are Lebanon needs to develop some national spirit and a professional civil service, and stupid Muslim men need to limit their family sizes.
Is it worth watching, or is just knowing the central message enough?
I still think the basic problem is the divide into groups and fight over land thing. The K v R selection is just why the muslims were able to take over.
That said, point taken, in that many cultures these days have adapted to the idea of sharing and living together without fighting as long as all groups get a fair shake. Muslims seem almost universally unwilling to take this deal, which is unfortunate because their culture also makes them unable to build a modern economy or army.
It's well done but very grim. I've actually been to Beirut and the dysfunction was palpable. There are pockets of competent, forward-thinking people and they just shake their heads in astonishment.
K-selected and r-selected humans are really not compatible, nor are hunter-gatherers, nomads and farmers. They've evolved separately to fill different niches.
I think the long-term trend is K-selection and city-building, just like the long-term trend for the animal kingdom is compatibility with humans.
The overwhelming majority of people in the US do not believe in or understand the effects of these differences in culture (and whatever physical/mental traits) go with it
Americans stumbled into free land and a tabula rasa socio-economic canvas so there is a very strong founding mythology of you can be whatever you want to be. And if you aren't it must be a moral failing.
Trump always starts with outrageous statements that are taken literally and then retreats once he as extracted some concessions. I doubt he is serious about wanted to garrison Gaza with American troops and run the place, although I do think he is probably sincere in thinking of it as a good real estate play - possibly utilizing our nascent sovereign wealth fund? - in partnership with some consortium of Arab entities and Israel's blessing or at least tolerance.
The Panama Canal and Greenland are legitimate strategic concerns of ours however. An increased American economic and military presence in both locations should be pursued. Random recent anecdote: a relative of mine recently had dinner with an old money (as in has a family castle) UK businessman and he was very bullish on the US acquiring Greenland. Obviously he may not be representative of the elite British center of gravity on this issue but he's a smart and successful guy in his own right so it was interesting to hear.
The Spanish-American War has become a 125 year disaster for America. And it was totally unjustified. The Spanish did not blow up the MAINE. It either blew up on its own or was blown up by Cuban terrorists hoping to get America into war. Hawaii was a mistake as well. We should have demanded a naval base at Pearl Harbor and allowed Hawaii to continue as a monarchy. As it is, Hawaii is America's most leftist state, a state without any conservative political sentiment. The legislature of Hawaii is 100 percent Democrat.
Look no further than a recent 2nd amendment case in the state when the Hawaiian Supreme Court argued that the 2nd amendment "goes against the Spirit of Aloha".
My new default position (for at least 15 years now) on Hawaii is to let it, along with all the other territories acquired during our brief but manic period of colonial fever, go. Guam, Marianas, Puerto Rico (looks like we're saddled with that one), Virgin Islands, all of it. We could lease Pearl Harbor from the Hawaiians for maybe 50 years, and renew if we want to stay, etc. All these far off places should run their own affairs as their own nations.
I suspect the Philippines and PR saw more improvement when Americans ran them between the Spanish and home rule, just like DC. The Indians would be doing better if they were Chinese, and they wouldn't be on reservations, we would. Moving the Palestinians to a buffer region between Ukraine and Russia would serve all three right.
It's difficult, possibly purposefully so, to parse Trump's words, but I think he means the US would handle the demolition, debris removal & EPA permits (hehe) and building new infrastructure, homes, hotels, commercial buildings, etc. The item about Jordan and Egypt taking more Palestinians sounds more like people from Altadena moving in with the kids in North Hollywood until all the permits come in and their home can be rebuilt four years later. Of course the Egyptians and Jordanians don't want them any more than the Israelis do (for good, historically validated reasons and also to continue fucking with Israel).
Gauche development on rundown land is something Trump understands. That guy is a hammer looking for nails in foreign policy.
Also I am amazed by how well has gone the public relations campaign against what was dubbed, brilliantly, 'ethnic cleansing'. My feeling is that when children are fighting they should work it out. That builds maturity and character. But if they won't, if the fighting continues past reason, exhaustion and hope, mommy and daddy have every right to send them to separate rooms.
Agree; I took his comment to mean we would invest in Gaza as some sort of 21st century "Marshall Plan", not literally occupy it with troops and run it as a colony. Perhaps send a contingent as part of a peacekeeping force like we contributed to the UN Sinai mission.
We should have an army of layed off DEI social workers ready to get to work. They did such a good job replacing the police in America, why not the IDF in the Middle East. You can tell from all the protests how much they love the Palestinian people.
We've seen this already. Trump spouts off non-stop and his opposition have to chase every rabbit down and fret over which proposals are serious and which are not. My guess is if he's blabbing about it to the media there's something else cooking in the background, like the decapitation of USAID.
I can appreciate his sentiment: fake countries that can't govern themselves need to be dissolved. If you don't handle your shit, then we'll handle it for you and you, in return, will bend the knee, and every damned fool is not getting a vote.
Rubio has been suggesting the world is going to be a more multipolar place so my guess, and it's just a guess, is Trump is starting the haggling early over global moneypits like the Middle East.
Hopefully, the Gaza announcement was just a ploy to get everyone in the region's attention. The leaders of Egypt and Jordan will be in DC in the next few weeks. Trump likes to tip over the game board every now and then to see what pops up.
The Panama ploy seems a success based on Rubio's recent visit. Trump likely wants a stronger economic and defense relationship with Greenland, not to own it.
But who knows. Big Orange may be thinking "From Kaffeklubben to Patagonia: All is ours!"
In order to be a colonial, there have to be colonies. What Trump is talking about is assuming a role as an administrator as the US did after World War II with several Pacific Islands, all of which have since become independent. (Guam was a US possession before the war.) By the way, Israel has no claim to Gaza, which was never part of ancient Israel - remember the Philistines? They were Greeks. An international occupation would be better than the US going it alone.
Well, a modern day reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere is pretty smart, especially with China throwing out cash left and right to these places. Maybe even stop them from buying US Farms too?
But I’m scratching my head trying to parse out the 4D chess Trump could be attempting with Gaza.
The only conclusion I can have is that Trump is trying to troll Bibi, and highlighting to the world how there has basically been a Genocide there since 10/7/23. Maybe a way to get Israel to do something positive with the place or we’ll step in and do it. Either way it makes Israel look terrible and highlights their scorched earth tactics there over the last year. Maybe also lights a fire under Arab do-nothing countries to finally put their money where their mouths are. The Saudis can hold telethons for Palestinians, but never takes a soul in unless it’s slave labor for some bizarre real estate project a Royal Family Member has going on….
We need Haiti to let the Democrats, socialists, and professors run their social experiments on. The successful ones (there won't be any), can then be scaled up and implemented to benefit the USA and the rest of the world.
Remind me what occupying force was kicking bound human beings off rooftops in Singapore and riddling the bodies of little Singaporean girls with bullets.
Someone needs to re-direct Trump's attention from McKinley and TR to a much more appropriate and relevant role model: Grover Cleveland (I have a Grover Cleveland T-shirt, and no one can ever guess who it is).
On Gaza Trump has made a classic wacky statement to turn things upside down.
He thinks - not unreasonably - that nearly, culturally similar neighbours should help out. By way of analogy would two million Australians dropped into New Zealand overnight cause disruption? For sure, but everyone would adapt pretty quickly. Two million Australians in Papua New Guinea would not work at all at all.
Anyway Trump might actually bring about a solution to Gaza that doesn’t involve the same events repeated for the next few decades.
The presence of the Palestinian Liberation Organization led to two civil wars in Arab neighbors: Black September 1970 when the Jordanian army kicked the PLO out of Jordan. They moved to Lebanon, and managed to set off the chain of events that led to the catastrophic Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990 (I don't view the PLO as being intentionally malevolent against their Lebanese hosts, just adding a fifth player to domestic politics proved to be the straw that broke Lebanon's back.)
Lack of familiarity is perhaps a better selling point when persuading people to take in an unreasonable number of refugees. E.g., Angela Merkek probably would have got more pushback if there had been a million Frenchmen at Germany’s border.
I don’t know about the rest of Europe, but the Ukrainian “refugees” in Ireland are certainly noticed and have raised some concern. Any mention of this in the mainstream media is ruthlessly suppressed, but you can still find channels on YT that address it.
There have been a series of arson attacks on buildings that are rumored to be scheduled to become housing for “international relief applicants.”
A lot more vitriol is aimed at the African and Arab economic refugees, but the Ukrainians are definitely resented.
In 50 years time do you expect descendants of Ukrainians in Ireland to be a visible minority? Will they practice marital endogamy? Will they have their own neighbourhoods?
The answer to all the above is no. They will just blend in.
Ideally they’ll go home when the senseless war in the Ukraine is over. I’m sure there’ll be some unions, but I haven’t seen evidence of very much mixing as of yet.
The Ukrainians seem to be families with military age men who aren’t enthusiastic about fighting for their country. The men sit around and smoke and drink in their accommodation while the women and kids are more likely to be out and about.
The tourist accommodations of entire towns have been taken over by Ukrainians. There’s a lot of resentment at the loss of income among the Irish.
We’re not going to take over Gaza. The reappearance of that waste of skin, Jared Kushner, does fill me with dread, truth be told.
The decline of Hawaii is sad. I’ve always wanted to see it after being exposed to its charms by Steve McGarrett and Thomas Magnum, but I’ve lost interest.
I may have to settle for only having visited 49 states.
Trump's pointing out a limited time opportunity to the Middle East oil barons desperately searching for homes for their investment (US media is out, Europe is dying, and world sports other than golf are NOT FOR SALE) before nuke, solar, and whatever Elon's brewing make their dino juice worthless (and illegal).
That's actually not a bad idea, aside from the violent lunatics occupying the place who would rather turn that investment into improvised munitions.
I trained briefly under a Lebanese doc who told me wistfully about how Beirut used be like Monte Carlo.
It's really sad how our basic human instinct to divide into groups and fight over land ruins the quality of life of so many people.
I think it has more to do with the three civilizational No-nos: No polygamy, No cousin marriage and No Islam.
Lebanon was supposed to be a multicultural enclave run by the Maronite Christians. But K-selected Maronites can't compete with r-selected Muslims having 5 - 10 kids.
Your comment reminds me of the 2018 film Capernaum, which is a deadly serious version of Mike Judge's comedic Idiocracy, set in Lebanon. It's basic messages are Lebanon needs to develop some national spirit and a professional civil service, and stupid Muslim men need to limit their family sizes.
Is it worth watching, or is just knowing the central message enough?
I still think the basic problem is the divide into groups and fight over land thing. The K v R selection is just why the muslims were able to take over.
That said, point taken, in that many cultures these days have adapted to the idea of sharing and living together without fighting as long as all groups get a fair shake. Muslims seem almost universally unwilling to take this deal, which is unfortunate because their culture also makes them unable to build a modern economy or army.
It's well done but very grim. I've actually been to Beirut and the dysfunction was palpable. There are pockets of competent, forward-thinking people and they just shake their heads in astonishment.
K-selected and r-selected humans are really not compatible, nor are hunter-gatherers, nomads and farmers. They've evolved separately to fill different niches.
I think the long-term trend is K-selection and city-building, just like the long-term trend for the animal kingdom is compatibility with humans.
The overwhelming majority of people in the US do not believe in or understand the effects of these differences in culture (and whatever physical/mental traits) go with it
Americans stumbled into free land and a tabula rasa socio-economic canvas so there is a very strong founding mythology of you can be whatever you want to be. And if you aren't it must be a moral failing.
Trump always starts with outrageous statements that are taken literally and then retreats once he as extracted some concessions. I doubt he is serious about wanted to garrison Gaza with American troops and run the place, although I do think he is probably sincere in thinking of it as a good real estate play - possibly utilizing our nascent sovereign wealth fund? - in partnership with some consortium of Arab entities and Israel's blessing or at least tolerance.
The Panama Canal and Greenland are legitimate strategic concerns of ours however. An increased American economic and military presence in both locations should be pursued. Random recent anecdote: a relative of mine recently had dinner with an old money (as in has a family castle) UK businessman and he was very bullish on the US acquiring Greenland. Obviously he may not be representative of the elite British center of gravity on this issue but he's a smart and successful guy in his own right so it was interesting to hear.
Dubai may object to competition.
Perhaps but Dubai has 10x the land area so a redeveloped Gaza would never really be a true competitor.
Hong Kong and Macau were very useful to China over many years.
The Spanish-American War has become a 125 year disaster for America. And it was totally unjustified. The Spanish did not blow up the MAINE. It either blew up on its own or was blown up by Cuban terrorists hoping to get America into war. Hawaii was a mistake as well. We should have demanded a naval base at Pearl Harbor and allowed Hawaii to continue as a monarchy. As it is, Hawaii is America's most leftist state, a state without any conservative political sentiment. The legislature of Hawaii is 100 percent Democrat.
Look no further than a recent 2nd amendment case in the state when the Hawaiian Supreme Court argued that the 2nd amendment "goes against the Spirit of Aloha".
My new default position (for at least 15 years now) on Hawaii is to let it, along with all the other territories acquired during our brief but manic period of colonial fever, go. Guam, Marianas, Puerto Rico (looks like we're saddled with that one), Virgin Islands, all of it. We could lease Pearl Harbor from the Hawaiians for maybe 50 years, and renew if we want to stay, etc. All these far off places should run their own affairs as their own nations.
I agree. I wonder if there are more Puerto Ricans in the USA than in Puerto Rico.
Exellent, I agree.
Recently returned from Hawaii, foreign country using US currency.
I suspect the Philippines and PR saw more improvement when Americans ran them between the Spanish and home rule, just like DC. The Indians would be doing better if they were Chinese, and they wouldn't be on reservations, we would. Moving the Palestinians to a buffer region between Ukraine and Russia would serve all three right.
Trumps Gaza plan is, well...nuts. Full of unintened consequence, the result will be more war and American fatalities.
We have no business there.
None.
This will end badly.
He broached the idea of getting the Gazans out so Bibi didn't have to.
It's difficult, possibly purposefully so, to parse Trump's words, but I think he means the US would handle the demolition, debris removal & EPA permits (hehe) and building new infrastructure, homes, hotels, commercial buildings, etc. The item about Jordan and Egypt taking more Palestinians sounds more like people from Altadena moving in with the kids in North Hollywood until all the permits come in and their home can be rebuilt four years later. Of course the Egyptians and Jordanians don't want them any more than the Israelis do (for good, historically validated reasons and also to continue fucking with Israel).
Gauche development on rundown land is something Trump understands. That guy is a hammer looking for nails in foreign policy.
Also I am amazed by how well has gone the public relations campaign against what was dubbed, brilliantly, 'ethnic cleansing'. My feeling is that when children are fighting they should work it out. That builds maturity and character. But if they won't, if the fighting continues past reason, exhaustion and hope, mommy and daddy have every right to send them to separate rooms.
Agree; I took his comment to mean we would invest in Gaza as some sort of 21st century "Marshall Plan", not literally occupy it with troops and run it as a colony. Perhaps send a contingent as part of a peacekeeping force like we contributed to the UN Sinai mission.
We should have an army of layed off DEI social workers ready to get to work. They did such a good job replacing the police in America, why not the IDF in the Middle East. You can tell from all the protests how much they love the Palestinian people.
We've seen this already. Trump spouts off non-stop and his opposition have to chase every rabbit down and fret over which proposals are serious and which are not. My guess is if he's blabbing about it to the media there's something else cooking in the background, like the decapitation of USAID.
I can appreciate his sentiment: fake countries that can't govern themselves need to be dissolved. If you don't handle your shit, then we'll handle it for you and you, in return, will bend the knee, and every damned fool is not getting a vote.
Rubio has been suggesting the world is going to be a more multipolar place so my guess, and it's just a guess, is Trump is starting the haggling early over global moneypits like the Middle East.
Hopefully, the Gaza announcement was just a ploy to get everyone in the region's attention. The leaders of Egypt and Jordan will be in DC in the next few weeks. Trump likes to tip over the game board every now and then to see what pops up.
The Panama ploy seems a success based on Rubio's recent visit. Trump likely wants a stronger economic and defense relationship with Greenland, not to own it.
But who knows. Big Orange may be thinking "From Kaffeklubben to Patagonia: All is ours!"
There is actually no huge reason against a Five Eyes political and economic union, except these days it would just mean a bunch more liberal voters.
In order to be a colonial, there have to be colonies. What Trump is talking about is assuming a role as an administrator as the US did after World War II with several Pacific Islands, all of which have since become independent. (Guam was a US possession before the war.) By the way, Israel has no claim to Gaza, which was never part of ancient Israel - remember the Philistines? They were Greeks. An international occupation would be better than the US going it alone.
Well, a modern day reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere is pretty smart, especially with China throwing out cash left and right to these places. Maybe even stop them from buying US Farms too?
But I’m scratching my head trying to parse out the 4D chess Trump could be attempting with Gaza.
The only conclusion I can have is that Trump is trying to troll Bibi, and highlighting to the world how there has basically been a Genocide there since 10/7/23. Maybe a way to get Israel to do something positive with the place or we’ll step in and do it. Either way it makes Israel look terrible and highlights their scorched earth tactics there over the last year. Maybe also lights a fire under Arab do-nothing countries to finally put their money where their mouths are. The Saudis can hold telethons for Palestinians, but never takes a soul in unless it’s slave labor for some bizarre real estate project a Royal Family Member has going on….
The US Marines ran Haiti from 1915-34, probably its most tranquil decades.
Don’t give him any more ideas. Build a wall around Haiti and let it rot.
We need Haiti to let the Democrats, socialists, and professors run their social experiments on. The successful ones (there won't be any), can then be scaled up and implemented to benefit the USA and the rest of the world.
Yes they did and the Leathernecks did the deed with all the necessary and relentless brutality that Haitians respect.
Gaza? Hell NO! It's a briar patch.
If Gaza had real leadership that actually cared about its people perhaps it could've become like Singapore. Alas...
Remind me what occupying force was kicking bound human beings off rooftops in Singapore and riddling the bodies of little Singaporean girls with bullets.
But they’ll cane teenagers for chewing gum.
Someone needs to re-direct Trump's attention from McKinley and TR to a much more appropriate and relevant role model: Grover Cleveland (I have a Grover Cleveland T-shirt, and no one can ever guess who it is).
On Gaza Trump has made a classic wacky statement to turn things upside down.
He thinks - not unreasonably - that nearly, culturally similar neighbours should help out. By way of analogy would two million Australians dropped into New Zealand overnight cause disruption? For sure, but everyone would adapt pretty quickly. Two million Australians in Papua New Guinea would not work at all at all.
Anyway Trump might actually bring about a solution to Gaza that doesn’t involve the same events repeated for the next few decades.
The presence of the Palestinian Liberation Organization led to two civil wars in Arab neighbors: Black September 1970 when the Jordanian army kicked the PLO out of Jordan. They moved to Lebanon, and managed to set off the chain of events that led to the catastrophic Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990 (I don't view the PLO as being intentionally malevolent against their Lebanese hosts, just adding a fifth player to domestic politics proved to be the straw that broke Lebanon's back.)
Lack of familiarity is perhaps a better selling point when persuading people to take in an unreasonable number of refugees. E.g., Angela Merkek probably would have got more pushback if there had been a million Frenchmen at Germany’s border.
Not really.
There are four million Ukrainian refugees in the EU and no one notices or cares.
I don’t know about the rest of Europe, but the Ukrainian “refugees” in Ireland are certainly noticed and have raised some concern. Any mention of this in the mainstream media is ruthlessly suppressed, but you can still find channels on YT that address it.
There have been a series of arson attacks on buildings that are rumored to be scheduled to become housing for “international relief applicants.”
A lot more vitriol is aimed at the African and Arab economic refugees, but the Ukrainians are definitely resented.
In 50 years time do you expect descendants of Ukrainians in Ireland to be a visible minority? Will they practice marital endogamy? Will they have their own neighbourhoods?
The answer to all the above is no. They will just blend in.
Ideally they’ll go home when the senseless war in the Ukraine is over. I’m sure there’ll be some unions, but I haven’t seen evidence of very much mixing as of yet.
The Ukrainians seem to be families with military age men who aren’t enthusiastic about fighting for their country. The men sit around and smoke and drink in their accommodation while the women and kids are more likely to be out and about.
The tourist accommodations of entire towns have been taken over by Ukrainians. There’s a lot of resentment at the loss of income among the Irish.