It’s flowering time in England and Wales’s vineyards. Traditionally flowering happens during Wimbledon. At most Southern sites these days it’s a week or two before that, but on my cool terroir (I get huge diurnal ranges - hot days and cold nights) it’s still late June. I need 2 solid weeks of warm dry weather and that’ll mean good fruit set and a copious crop. Rain and cold during flowering means failed fruit set and low yields. It’s all very Clarkson’s farmish.
What everyone forgets when they just say “pah, bit of warm weather nothing unusual” is that this is June. Most years our hottest weather happens in July or August. This week is nothing unusual by recent standards but pretty anomalous looking at June history.
The most extreme June pattern ever was in 2019 - remember Provence hit 47C, smashing the French all time record - but thanks to a very unusual setup where a cool maritime layer undercut an extremely hot upper airmass, we didn’t have particularly hot weather. Just one day of 34C.
I have a feeling that July will be 38-40 degree heatwave like three years ago.
Brace
We’ll see. The European monsoon will arrive soon (Wimbledon, Glastonbury, home test match series) and then we will miss the warm sunny days.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
Could there be much unintended consequences blowing up uranium enrichment complex, such as bigger bang and far more pollution than expected that puts USA in the worlds bad books?
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Killing the head of Hamas who was operating in a tunnel underneath a hospital was an own goal?
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
Nah, much of the support for Israel, even after 7 October was only ever skin deep.
After 7 October I said that Hamas needed to be eliminated and those who are today blaming Bibi or anything else were then saying "oh no, that can't happen". Even then.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Killing the head of Hamas who was operating in a tunnel underneath a hospital was an own goal?
It's a view.
Mass starvation and daily tank shots on starving people, certainly are.
What makes this special: it looks like some kind of very high spec BMW. Almost a super car. And there’s two fire engines and several cop cars. For one crash?
And they are dismembering the vehicle in the street. Huge tools ripping open the engine etc. Why on earth would they do that?
Why not just lift and tow it?
Errr, is there someone trapped inside it?
No. This is the bonnet they’re ripping off. And the wheel casing. No space for a person
Drugs? Guns?
Perhaps getting at airbags and other dangerous items that need to be disabled. Car manufacturers give fire brigades special cars to show them what to disable.
But there's an expert on such matters on PB...
Ah. A good guess. Yes
could easily be someone stuck inside and they need front off to get at stuff holding his legs, steering column , etc
The description of the car suggests an i8, which is pure electric. If so , I guess they're keen to make sure the battery doesn't ignite.
Leon, can you Google BMW i8 and confirm if that's what it is ?
The genius of PB’s collective wisdom
Yes I just googled the BMW i8 and I’m 98% certain that’s what it was. Something like this
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Killing the head of Hamas who was operating in a tunnel underneath a hospital was an own goal?
It's a view.
Mass starvation and daily tank shots on starving people, certainly are.
Israel are the ones sending aid to innocent Palestinians, not Hamas.
Funny thing to do for a country supposedly engaging in mass starvation or genocide. 🙄
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
“I think” is probably the most accurate part of that comment. And does an awful amount of lifting. “Average of global opinion” from social media? Really? Ok.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
A prime time tv event where he goes up or down with his thumb?
Bibi will be getting twitchy. In 2 weeks Israel will be out of modern missiles at the current rate. Iran will not be. And Iron Dome may look like a colander.
Never, ever rely on Trump. Just don’t.
This vaguely supports what I was saying earlier. Bibi needs a shedload of American air defence systems to shore up Iron Dome. America blowing up a mountain will not help at all because that is not where Iranian missiles are coming from.
It will help as its the target, it would help end Iran's nuclear programme.
Have you not seen Genesis of the Daleks? Best Dr Who episodes ever.
Spoiler. Merely delayed them. But politicians lives and careers only exist in short term anyway.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
There's also the point that history doesn't end just because you take out a nuclear facility. It's entirely possible that Iran might subsequently procure a nuke from Pakistan, for example.
I still don't quite understand (other than the obvious) why Trump 1 junked the Obama deal with Iran, rather than making a greater effort to reinforce it - which was a realistic possibility, and would have have enabled him to diss his predecessor just the same.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
Nah, much of the support for Israel, even after 7 October was only ever skin deep.
After 7 October I said that Hamas needed to be eliminated and those who are today blaming Bibi or anything else were then saying "oh no, that can't happen". Even then.
That's bollocks.
October 7th was heartbreaking. Although soon after, many of us questioned why the IDF was keener to raze Gazan hospitals to the ground than throw Hamas grandees off Doha condominium balconies.
What's interesting about this: the both side-ism that has screwed Gaza over the last year or so is now hurting Israel (a bit) in regard to Iran.
So now our most ardent Israel supporters are making mirror arguments to those made by the pro-Palestine group. In the middle, people simply don't care any more and will not tolerate any action that puts Britain anywhere near Israel or the Middle East more generally.
I think Israel (or more accurately, Netanyahu) could've conjured some European support for this had he not been such a bastard over Gaza. It doesn't help that he appears to be enjoying the whole thing.
I expect the bill to pass tomorrow, but am I correct that it will not come in for 4 years ?
Also Beth Rigby of Sky on Iran:
'I have just spoken to the French ambassador to the UK - who very rarely does anything on camera - to talk about the need for de-escalation in the Israel-Iran conflict amid growing concerns the US will get involved.
It's a moment of great jeopardy for all European allies, our prime minister, and all European leaders pushing for de-escalation.
The message from the French ambassador today is to step back and de-escalate.
There will be talks in Geneva tomorrow between Iranian officials and Europe's leading politicians - David Lammy, as well as the foreign ministers of France, Germany, although no country formally confirming.
It is all an attempt to find a solution.
The big question is: will Donald Trump listen?'
Has there ever been a time when the leaders of Europe, including Starmer have ever looked so out of their depths and impotent ?
The only players in this are Trump and Netanyahu and the danger for these leaders is they will look utterly helpless if US and Israel do take out Iran's nuclear capability
Utterly pathetic response from the UK and EU. Talking to Iran will embolden them to dig in
Ex-head of MI6 this morning said a negotiated solution would not be possible as no one should or would believe the Iranians would negotiate in good faith.
And there was a good case for the US to bomb the facility.
But of course what would he know.
Oh, there's a perfectly good reason to try and stop Iran getting nuclear capability.
The problem is that every time you bomb them, you make it even more clear to the Iranian leadership that they need nuclear weapons, because that's the only way they can ensure they don't get bombed again in the future.
So, the question becomes, is it possible to permanently prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons? Or are we just slowing them down.
My gut is that we're doing the second.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
"While you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time – and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power."
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
There's also the point that history doesn't end just because you take out a nuclear facility. It's entirely possible that Iran might subsequently procure a nuke from Pakistan, for example.
I still don't quite understand (other than the obvious) why Trump 1 junked the Obama deal with Iran, rather than making a greater effort to reinforce it - which was a realistic possibility, and would have have enabled him to diss his predecessor just the same.
Replace Trump in your mind's eye with "The Great Hannibal Lecter" ( Copyright DJT) exactly as portrayed in the film. Do any explanations come to mind?
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
“I think” is probably the most accurate part of that comment. And does an awful amount of lifting. “Average of global opinion” from social media? Really? Ok.
X's algorithms have been skewed towards extremists, from around the world.
Previously the islamist extremists' takes on Gaza were cancelled out by the gung-ho Americans' faction, for instance, but not so.much now. It's quite possible to discern broad shirts of international opinion even in a forum skewed towards activism.
"Jaws Of Life" my arse. Only retained firefighters who think Backdraft is a training film call them that. The sharp ones are cutters, the blunt ones are spreaders and if they have both edges they're a combi. If there's no one trapped, they're just "Making Safe", in an ICE vehicle, that's just disconnecting the battery-impacts cause door/bonnet/boot locks to jam, so it's usually easier to just force it open. EVs are more problematic, but we have Mobile Data Terminal on pumps that give us a blow up schematic of any vehicle in the database that tells us where switches, cables and isolators are. We don't ever touch undeployed airbags. Best just keep out of the way of those puppies.
Pops head out of the nuclear bomb shelter...if it safe to come out for a now? Its a bit toasty in there.
Well I would say yes but have you seen my cricket predictions?
"But we’re glad to say we’re in the UK West Indian batsmen can bat all day And if your stumps are found half way down the ground That means the West Indians are back in town"
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
“I think” is probably the most accurate part of that comment. And does an awful amount of lifting. “Average of global opinion” from social media? Really? Ok.
X's algorithms have been skewed towards extremists, from around the world.
Previously the islamist extremists' takes on Gaza were cancelled out by the gung-ho Americans' faction, for instance, but not so.much now. It's quite possible to discern broad shirts of international opinion even in a forum skewed towards activism.
Especially if you conveniently ignore any opinions to the contrary.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
There's also the point that history doesn't end just because you take out a nuclear facility. It's entirely possible that Iran might subsequently procure a nuke from Pakistan, for example.
I still don't quite understand (other than the obvious) why Trump 1 junked the Obama deal with Iran, rather than making a greater effort to reinforce it - which was a realistic possibility, and would have have enabled him to diss his predecessor just the same.
Replace Trump in your mind's eye with "The Great Hannibal Lecter" ( Copyright DJT) exactly as portrayed in the film. Do any explanations come to mind?
"Brave MattW! You will let me know when those Dems stop screaming, won't you?"
I expect the bill to pass tomorrow, but am I correct that it will not come in for 4 years ?
Also Beth Rigby of Sky on Iran:
'I have just spoken to the French ambassador to the UK - who very rarely does anything on camera - to talk about the need for de-escalation in the Israel-Iran conflict amid growing concerns the US will get involved.
It's a moment of great jeopardy for all European allies, our prime minister, and all European leaders pushing for de-escalation.
The message from the French ambassador today is to step back and de-escalate.
There will be talks in Geneva tomorrow between Iranian officials and Europe's leading politicians - David Lammy, as well as the foreign ministers of France, Germany, although no country formally confirming.
It is all an attempt to find a solution.
The big question is: will Donald Trump listen?'
Has there ever been a time when the leaders of Europe, including Starmer have ever looked so out of their depths and impotent ?
The only players in this are Trump and Netanyahu and the danger for these leaders is they will look utterly helpless if US and Israel do take out Iran's nuclear capability
Utterly pathetic response from the UK and EU. Talking to Iran will embolden them to dig in
Ex-head of MI6 this morning said a negotiated solution would not be possible as no one should or would believe the Iranians would negotiate in good faith.
And there was a good case for the US to bomb the facility.
But of course what would he know.
Oh, there's a perfectly good reason to try and stop Iran getting nuclear capability.
The problem is that every time you bomb them, you make it even more clear to the Iranian leadership that they need nuclear weapons, because that's the only way they can ensure they don't get bombed again in the future.
So, the question becomes, is it possible to permanently prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons? Or are we just slowing them down.
My gut is that we're doing the second.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
"While you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time – and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power."
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
“I think” is probably the most accurate part of that comment. And does an awful amount of lifting. “Average of global opinion” from social media? Really? Ok.
X's algorithms have been skewed towards extremists, from around the world.
Previously the islamist extremists' takes on Gaza were cancelled out by the gung-ho Americans' faction, for instance, but not so.much now. It's quite possible to discern broad shirts of international opinion even in a forum skewed towards activism.
Especially if you conveniently ignore any opinions to the contrary.
I can say I won't convince.you, but I certainly don't have any particular reason to ignore the proportion of contrary posts, and I'd like to see the appallingly regime in Iran gone, as much as any genuine liberal.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
There's also the point that history doesn't end just because you take out a nuclear facility. It's entirely possible that Iran might subsequently procure a nuke from Pakistan, for example.
I still don't quite understand (other than the obvious) why Trump 1 junked the Obama deal with Iran, rather than making a greater effort to reinforce it - which was a realistic possibility, and would have have enabled him to diss his predecessor just the same.
It’s flowering time in England and Wales’s vineyards. Traditionally flowering happens during Wimbledon. At most Southern sites these days it’s a week or two before that, but on my cool terroir (I get huge diurnal ranges - hot days and cold nights) it’s still late June. I need 2 solid weeks of warm dry weather and that’ll mean good fruit set and a copious crop. Rain and cold during flowering means failed fruit set and low yields. It’s all very Clarkson’s farmish.
What everyone forgets when they just say “pah, bit of warm weather nothing unusual” is that this is June. Most years our hottest weather happens in July or August. This week is nothing unusual by recent standards but pretty anomalous looking at June history.
The most extreme June pattern ever was in 2019 - remember Provence hit 47C, smashing the French all time record - but thanks to a very unusual setup where a cool maritime layer undercut an extremely hot upper airmass, we didn’t have particularly hot weather. Just one day of 34C.
I have a feeling that July will be 38-40 degree heatwave like three years ago.
Brace
We’ll see. The European monsoon will arrive soon (Wimbledon, Glastonbury, home test match series) and then we will miss the warm sunny days.
I've taken two weeks off in the middle of July, so expect cold, wind, sleet, possibly snow.
"What we are living through today, in a phrase, is an unprecedented break in national continuity. As a country we are disconnecting from the old Britain."
He has a point, but the land he mourns is not Britain but England. If you look at footage of the 1966 World Cup, the flags being waved were the Union Jack, but by Euro 96 ("thirty years of hurt") the flags were England flags.
The point is quite nostalgic, as derision of "Yookay" occurred in 1980s novels. As for his use of Google NGrams, you'd have to combine that with the British Newspaper Archive, because they didn't really have t'internet in England until the mid-1990s.
It's a bit of a sad article in that respect. The errors could have been easily corrected, but they were not. It reminds me of the TL:DR video a few years back which presented the England and Wales census as a UK census...which is stupid (the Scots and NI had either not released theirs and/or had not been integrated into the whole-UK figures)
"What we are living through today, in a phrase, is an unprecedented break in national continuity. As a country we are disconnecting from the old Britain."
He has a point, but the land he mourns is not Britain but England. If you look at footage of the 1966 World Cup, the flags being waved were the Union Jack, but by Euro 96 ("thirty years of hurt") the flags were England flags.
The point is quite nostalgic, as derision of "Yookay" occurred in 1980s novels. As for his use of Google NGrams, you'd have to combine that with the British Newspaper Archive, because they didn't really have t'internet in England until the mid-1990s.
It's a bit of a sad article in that respect. The errors could have been easily corrected, but they were not. It reminds me of the TL:DR video a few years back which presented the England and Wales census as a UK census...which is stupid (the Scots and NI had either not released theirs and/or had not been integrated into the whole-UK figures)
Narrator: England, Wales, and Northern Ireland all had their Census in 2021. Only Scotland had their Census in 2022.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
“I think” is probably the most accurate part of that comment. And does an awful amount of lifting. “Average of global opinion” from social media? Really? Ok.
X's algorithms have been skewed towards extremists, from around the world.
Previously the islamist extremists' takes on Gaza were cancelled out by the gung-ho Americans' faction, for instance, but not so.much now. It's quite possible to discern broad shirts of international opinion even in a forum skewed towards activism.
Especially if you conveniently ignore any opinions to the contrary.
I can say I won't convince.you, but I certainly don't have any particular reason to ignore the proportion of contrary posts, and I'd like to see the appallingly regime in Iran gone, as much as any genuine liberal.
Which is commendable and no one can really disagree with the sentiment. But seeing we all agree the regime is appalling for any number of reasons, isn’t not better that appalling regime doesn’t have use of say, nuclear weapons. Now call me naive, and I’m quite happy to admit that, but stopping them from getting and using nuclear weapons (And “using”includes the threat of “using”rather than the actual “using”) is rather preferable than them having them. And, forgive me again, but I’m sure a theocratic totalitarian state doesn’t react to memes or nasty things on Instagram telling them to not do something. Especially as they have, on numerous occasions called for the annihilation of the Israeli state. A democratic state happily inclusive of all the wondrous diverse identifies we all celebrate these days.
So in essence: perhaps harsh language and a thoroughly disapproving tone will convince an appalling regime to stop? Or will a thorough thrashing (which they’re getting) do the trick?
"What we are living through today, in a phrase, is an unprecedented break in national continuity. As a country we are disconnecting from the old Britain."
He has a point, but the land he mourns is not Britain but England. If you look at footage of the 1966 World Cup, the flags being waved were the Union Jack, but by Euro 96 ("thirty years of hurt") the flags were England flags.
The point is quite nostalgic, as derision of "Yookay" occurred in 1980s novels. As for his use of Google NGrams, you'd have to combine that with the British Newspaper Archive, because they didn't really have t'internet in England until the mid-1990s.
It's a bit of a sad article in that respect. The errors could have been easily corrected, but they were not. It reminds me of the TL:DR video a few years back which presented the England and Wales census as a UK census...which is stupid (the Scots and NI had either not released theirs and/or had not been integrated into the whole-UK figures)
Frosty the No Man?
I discovered recently that he was in the year above me at school (working by birth date). David Frost, Ed Davey and Ed Balls in successive years - is that a good average?
"What we are living through today, in a phrase, is an unprecedented break in national continuity. As a country we are disconnecting from the old Britain."
He has a point, but the land he mourns is not Britain but England. If you look at footage of the 1966 World Cup, the flags being waved were the Union Jack, but by Euro 96 ("thirty years of hurt") the flags were England flags.
The point is quite nostalgic, as derision of "Yookay" occurred in 1980s novels. As for his use of Google NGrams, you'd have to combine that with the British Newspaper Archive, because they didn't really have t'internet in England until the mid-1990s.
It's a bit of a sad article in that respect. The errors could have been easily corrected, but they were not. It reminds me of the TL:DR video a few years back which presented the England and Wales census as a UK census...which is stupid (the Scots and NI had either not released theirs and/or had not been integrated into the whole-UK figures)
Frosty the No Man?
I discovered recently that he was in the year above me at school (working by birth date). David Frost, Ed Davey and Ed Balls in successive years - is that a good average?
I have heard that nickname before - what did he say No to?
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
A prime time tv event where he goes up or down with his thumb?
Bibi will be getting twitchy. In 2 weeks Israel will be out of modern missiles at the current rate. Iran will not be. And Iron Dome may look like a colander.
Never, ever rely on Trump. Just don’t.
This vaguely supports what I was saying earlier. Bibi needs a shedload of American air defence systems to shore up Iron Dome. America blowing up a mountain will not help at all because that is not where Iranian missiles are coming from.
It will help as its the target, it would help end Iran's nuclear programme.
Have you not seen Genesis of the Daleks? Best Dr Who episodes ever.
Now there’s a debate. Wouldn’t even make my top 10.
For sheer fun and joy and locations I prefer Destiny over Genesis.
In case anyone wants to fact check @Malmesbury , this is a good place to brush up on your fission engineering.
Nuclear Technology, Volume 207, Issue sup1 (2021) https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/unct20/207/sup1 Special issue on the Manhattan Project Nuclear Science and Technology Development at Los Alamos National Laboratory
(An open access issue of the usually very much not open access journal.)
"What we are living through today, in a phrase, is an unprecedented break in national continuity. As a country we are disconnecting from the old Britain."
He has a point, but the land he mourns is not Britain but England. If you look at footage of the 1966 World Cup, the flags being waved were the Union Jack, but by Euro 96 ("thirty years of hurt") the flags were England flags.
The point is quite nostalgic, as derision of "Yookay" occurred in 1980s novels. As for his use of Google NGrams, you'd have to combine that with the British Newspaper Archive, because they didn't really have t'internet in England until the mid-1990s.
It's a bit of a sad article in that respect. The errors could have been easily corrected, but they were not. It reminds me of the TL:DR video a few years back which presented the England and Wales census as a UK census...which is stupid (the Scots and NI had either not released theirs and/or had not been integrated into the whole-UK figures)
Frosty the No Man?
I discovered recently that he was in the year above me at school (working by birth date). David Frost, Ed Davey and Ed Balls in successive years - is that a good average?
I have heard that nickname before - what did he say No to?
"What we are living through today, in a phrase, is an unprecedented break in national continuity. As a country we are disconnecting from the old Britain."
He has a point, but the land he mourns is not Britain but England. If you look at footage of the 1966 World Cup, the flags being waved were the Union Jack, but by Euro 96 ("thirty years of hurt") the flags were England flags.
The point is quite nostalgic, as derision of "Yookay" occurred in 1980s novels. As for his use of Google NGrams, you'd have to combine that with the British Newspaper Archive, because they didn't really have t'internet in England until the mid-1990s.
It's a bit of a sad article in that respect. The errors could have been easily corrected, but they were not. It reminds me of the TL:DR video a few years back which presented the England and Wales census as a UK census...which is stupid (the Scots and NI had either not released theirs and/or had not been integrated into the whole-UK figures)
Narrator: England, Wales, and Northern Ireland all had their Census in 2021. Only Scotland had their Census in 2022.
Tetchy Narrator.
ONS (Office for National Statistics) is the national statistical service of England and Wales. It is responsible for conducting the Census in England and Wales.
NRS (National Records of Scotland, formerly General Register Office for Scotland) is the national statistical service of Scotland. It is responsible for conducting the Census in Scotland
NISRA (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) is the national statistical service of Northern Ireland. It is responsible for conducting the Census in Northern Ireland.
Still with me? OK, this is where it gets twisty.
ONS (Office for National Statistics) is also the national statistical service of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for conducting the Census in the United Kingdom. It does this by combining the numbers from ONS for England and Wales with the numbers from NRS for Scotland and NISRA for NI.
So three offices covering four areas with four releases.
(1/2) With a heavy heart, I have written to the Prime Minister to tender my resignation as a whip.
Whilst I will continue to support the government in delivering the change the country so desperately needs, I cannot vote in favour of the proposed reforms to disability benefits."
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
“I think” is probably the most accurate part of that comment. And does an awful amount of lifting. “Average of global opinion” from social media? Really? Ok.
X's algorithms have been skewed towards extremists, from around the world.
Previously the islamist extremists' takes on Gaza were cancelled out by the gung-ho Americans' faction, for instance, but not so.much now. It's quite possible to discern broad shirts of international opinion even in a forum skewed towards activism.
Especially if you conveniently ignore any opinions to the contrary.
I can say I won't convince.you, but I certainly don't have any particular reason to ignore the proportion of contrary posts, and I'd like to see the appallingly regime in Iran gone, as much as any genuine liberal.
Which is commendable and no one can really disagree with the sentiment. But seeing we all agree the regime is appalling for any number of reasons, isn’t not better that appalling regime doesn’t have use of say, nuclear weapons. Now call me naive, and I’m quite happy to admit that, but stopping them from getting and using nuclear weapons (And “using”includes the threat of “using”rather than the actual “using”) is rather preferable than them having them. And, forgive me again, but I’m sure a theocratic totalitarian state doesn’t react to memes or nasty things on Instagram telling them to not do something. Especially as they have, on numerous occasions called for the annihilation of the Israeli state. A democratic state happily inclusive of all the wondrous diverse identifies we all celebrate these days.
So in essence: perhaps harsh language and a thoroughly disapproving tone will convince an appalling regime to stop? Or will a thorough thrashing (which they’re getting) do the trick?
Well, I think that depends on whether it's counter-productive or not. I think the most realistic positive outcome is a split in the clerical hierarchy or military, and I also have the sense that that may be made even more difficult with Americam intervention.
One thing that really interests me, and has still gathered far too little attention, I think, is who the people on those three govt planes to Oman.were.
Ironic that despite a policy of assassination of enemy leaders, the only Israeli PM to be assassinated was by an Israeli right wing nutter who achieved precisely what they wanted to
In case anyone wants to fact check @Malmesbury , this is a good place to brush up on your fission engineering.
Nuclear Technology, Volume 207, Issue sup1 (2021) https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/unct20/207/sup1 Special issue on the Manhattan Project Nuclear Science and Technology Development at Los Alamos National Laboratory
(An open access issue of the usually very much not open access journal.)
Recommended for those interested in the history. ..It is interesting to reflect on the different levels of understanding of atomic weapons physics–in Britain and the U.S., versus Germany–during the war. By the early 1940s, it was well understood in Britain and the U.S. that once a supercritical mass is assembled, the fission chain reaction leads to heating, explosion, and material expansion to the point that the assembly becomes subcritical. This is the heart of the physics embodied in the Frisch-Peierls, Pryce-Dirac, Serber, and Bethe-Feynman formulas. However, in contrast, Jeremy Bernstein’s fascinating 1996 book Hitler’s Uranium Club shows that Heisenberg and his team seemed not to understand this basic idea, thinking erroneously that an atomic bomb could work at 100% efficiency and fission all the nuclear material..
"What we are living through today, in a phrase, is an unprecedented break in national continuity. As a country we are disconnecting from the old Britain."
He has a point, but the land he mourns is not Britain but England. If you look at footage of the 1966 World Cup, the flags being waved were the Union Jack, but by Euro 96 ("thirty years of hurt") the flags were England flags.
The point is quite nostalgic, as derision of "Yookay" occurred in 1980s novels. As for his use of Google NGrams, you'd have to combine that with the British Newspaper Archive, because they didn't really have t'internet in England until the mid-1990s.
It's a bit of a sad article in that respect. The errors could have been easily corrected, but they were not. It reminds me of the TL:DR video a few years back which presented the England and Wales census as a UK census...which is stupid (the Scots and NI had either not released theirs and/or had not been integrated into the whole-UK figures)
Presumably the gist is: I bequeathed you all the gift of Brexit, but you've only gone and squandered it.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
“I think” is probably the most accurate part of that comment. And does an awful amount of lifting. “Average of global opinion” from social media? Really? Ok.
X's algorithms have been skewed towards extremists, from around the world.
Previously the islamist extremists' takes on Gaza were cancelled out by the gung-ho Americans' faction, for instance, but not so.much now. It's quite possible to discern broad shirts of international opinion even in a forum skewed towards activism.
Especially if you conveniently ignore any opinions to the contrary.
I can say I won't convince.you, but I certainly don't have any particular reason to ignore the proportion of contrary posts, and I'd like to see the appallingly regime in Iran gone, as much as any genuine liberal.
Which is commendable and no one can really disagree with the sentiment. But seeing we all agree the regime is appalling for any number of reasons, isn’t not better that appalling regime doesn’t have use of say, nuclear weapons. Now call me naive, and I’m quite happy to admit that, but stopping them from getting and using nuclear weapons (And “using”includes the threat of “using”rather than the actual “using”) is rather preferable than them having them. And, forgive me again, but I’m sure a theocratic totalitarian state doesn’t react to memes or nasty things on Instagram telling them to not do something. Especially as they have, on numerous occasions called for the annihilation of the Israeli state. A democratic state happily inclusive of all the wondrous diverse identifies we all celebrate these days.
So in essence: perhaps harsh language and a thoroughly disapproving tone will convince an appalling regime to stop? Or will a thorough thrashing (which they’re getting) do the trick?
Well, I think that depends on whether it's counter-productive or not. I think the most realistic positive outcome is a split in the clerical hierarchy or military, and I also have the sense that that may be made even more difficult with Americam intervention.
One thing that really interests me, and has still gathered far too little attention, I think, is who the people on those three govt planes to Oman.were.
The mullahs moving their p0rn collection to somewhere more conducive probably. Who cares?
Does Donald Trump not have any MAGA stars on his side for his bombing of Iran? The whining lady in clip about deaths sounds just like a Corbynite Labour MP surrender monkey.
Yes it effectively enters USA into war with Iran where everything it has in the region becomes a bonafide target with inevitable US deaths, But the most rabid isolationists must agree with necessary need for some wars now and then? Don’t they want friends and key interests around the world and help friends out and protect their own key interests abroad? Saudi Arabia are just as much under threat of Iranian nukes as Israel, can’t MAGA see this?
Will MAGA just row in with support once Trump starts bombing? I expect so, and so will US opinion switcheroo as it rally’s to the flag. In fact, the boost Trumps Iran War gives him in the rally to the flag polling might gift him a bigger congress majority next year than it looks on current political narrative so far. And then MAGA will understand and thank him.
Vicky Foxcroft resigns as a whip over disability cuts
Who ?
Vicky Foxcroft is a Government Whip who was formerly Shadow Minister for Disabled People.
She does not particularly lead with it, but she was diagnosed (latish in life) with rheumatoid arthritis in 2019 - so this would be quite a personal issue for her.
I found her when I was looking for generally unacknowledged disabled MPs after the General Election who had actually said something in public at some stage.
She did an interview about her experience with the Disabled and Proud podcast here:
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
A prime time tv event where he goes up or down with his thumb?
Bibi will be getting twitchy. In 2 weeks Israel will be out of modern missiles at the current rate. Iran will not be. And Iron Dome may look like a colander.
Never, ever rely on Trump. Just don’t.
This vaguely supports what I was saying earlier. Bibi needs a shedload of American air defence systems to shore up Iron Dome. America blowing up a mountain will not help at all because that is not where Iranian missiles are coming from.
It will help as its the target, it would help end Iran's nuclear programme.
Have you not seen Genesis of the Daleks? Best Dr Who episodes ever.
Now there’s a debate. Wouldn’t even make my top 10.
For sheer fun and joy and locations I prefer Destiny over Genesis.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
A prime time tv event where he goes up or down with his thumb?
Bibi will be getting twitchy. In 2 weeks Israel will be out of modern missiles at the current rate. Iran will not be. And Iron Dome may look like a colander.
Never, ever rely on Trump. Just don’t.
This vaguely supports what I was saying earlier. Bibi needs a shedload of American air defence systems to shore up Iron Dome. America blowing up a mountain will not help at all because that is not where Iranian missiles are coming from.
It will help as its the target, it would help end Iran's nuclear programme.
Have you not seen Genesis of the Daleks? Best Dr Who episodes ever.
Now there’s a debate. Wouldn’t even make my top 10.
For sheer fun and joy and locations I prefer Destiny over Genesis.
The one with the humanoid robots? I do sometimes compile the list of one episode/story for each doctor that best typifies their time and/or I’d the best story of their time. Genesis never makes that list, but I think it is important in other ways. Bakers ‘Havevi the right?’ speech is classic time travel fodder (see yesterdays discussion re killing/aborting/averting Hitler). For Tom I go with The Ark in Space or The Talons of Weg Chiang (buts that’s mainly to annoy the libs…)
Does Donald Trump not have any MAGA stars on his side for his bombing of Iran? The whining lady in clip about deaths sounds just like a Corbynite Labour MP surrender monkey.
Yes it effectively enters USA into war with Iran where everything it has in the region becomes a bonafide target with inevitable US deaths, But the most rabid isolationists must agree with necessary need for some wars now and then? Don’t they want friends and key interests around the world and help friends out and protect their own key interests abroad? Saudi Arabia are just as much under threat of Iranian nukes as Israel, can’t MAGA see this?
Will MAGA just row in with support once Trump starts bombing? I expect so, and so will US opinion switcheroo as it rally’s to the flag. In fact, the boost Trumps Iran War gives him in the rally to the flag polling might gift him a bigger congress majority next year than it looks on current political narrative so far. And then MAGA will understand and thank him.
It Trump MAGA or is MAGA Trump? That's what we need to establish.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
A prime time tv event where he goes up or down with his thumb?
Bibi will be getting twitchy. In 2 weeks Israel will be out of modern missiles at the current rate. Iran will not be. And Iron Dome may look like a colander.
Never, ever rely on Trump. Just don’t.
This vaguely supports what I was saying earlier. Bibi needs a shedload of American air defence systems to shore up Iron Dome. America blowing up a mountain will not help at all because that is not where Iranian missiles are coming from.
It will help as its the target, it would help end Iran's nuclear programme.
Have you not seen Genesis of the Daleks? Best Dr Who episodes ever.
Now there’s a debate. Wouldn’t even make my top 10.
For sheer fun and joy and locations I prefer Destiny over Genesis.
Destiny is enlivened by the fact that the effects are awful and Michael Wisher's mask had deteriorated and didn't fit David Gooderson. Plus the Movellans look strange. Plus it was cheap.
I won't detain you with which Dalek story is the best, although I insist on bringing up "Dalek" with Eccleston.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
TACO.
I don't often sympathise with Donald Trump but Netanyahu obviously launched the attack on Iran against Trump's expressed wishes in the expectation America would be bounced into doing the heavy lifting. Trump is saying, wait a moment ...
I agree. FWIW TACO is the right answer here.
I'm disappointed in you David.
How would you eliminate Fordow then?
I wouldn’t.
Why not?
Just do nothing and let them get nukes then?
Yes. Because MAD kept the peace in Europe throughout my life. Ukraine were conned into giving up their nukes and have paid a terrible price. Nothing else has brought peace to the Middle East. MAD might.
That's insane!
MAD works when both sides want to live.
When one side are suicide bombing religious zealots who think if they die they get an afterlife with virgins, then MAD doesn't work.
One side has shown themselves to be genocidal lunatics of late and it’s not Iran. I am all out of sympathy for Israel.
So you don't care if they get nuked? Well that's lovely.
And that's why Israel needs to ensure their own safety and win the war against Hamas and Iran, as nobody else will do so.
I know you like to take a position and refine it for purity, but you undermine your position by seeming to show zero concern about the idiocies, manipulations and sheer thuggishness that Netanyahu and his cabinet repeatedly show off to the world. Their shocking treatment of the millions living in Gaza has been completely unpunished, largely thanks to the protection they get from the USA. They have turned me 180 degrees in my opinion since October 2023.
Iran has a malevolent regime which must fall eventually. They are an ally of Russia and a Gilead-style theocracy, but Iran wasn’t in the cusp of having a nuclear bomb let alone using it, and Israel’s cause belli is not dissimilar to Putin’s gripes about NATO. It’s a gambit to keep Netanyahu in power.
I despise Netanyahu and want to see him in prison. He's been far too weak on Hamas and he should be in prison for corruption.
I do not object to the fighting against Hamas, except that it has been too little, too late.
I respect that Israel is fighting with one arm tied behind their back trying to minimise civilian casualties, unlike their enemies.
The fighting in Gaza is the only way to eliminate Hamas. There is no peaceful way to defeat your enemies.
Innocents should be able to get refuge away from the fighting, outside the warzone. Hamas could end the fighting today by surrendering unconditionally.
Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel must press on in my eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Netanyahu does the wrong thing and ends the fighting prematurely though, he's never shown much interest in actually defeating Hamas.
Eliminating circa 50 starving Gazans everyday at the Aid Stations doesn't seem like much of a "peaceful way to defeat your enemies".
It's completely destroying Israel's international support. The social media response to the hospital bombing in Israel was almost unanimous, across many different countries, in referring to the multiple Gaza hospitals.
God forbid the opinions on social media!
The striking thing is that those range from the U.S to Bangladesh in this case, though.
A massive own goal, as well as a war crime.
Oh no. Well, if a few activists on X or Instagram think so then let’s do that.
No, I think it's a just an average of global opinion. I saw much more support for Israel previously, and Netanyahu is much the reason.
“I think” is probably the most accurate part of that comment. And does an awful amount of lifting. “Average of global opinion” from social media? Really? Ok.
X's algorithms have been skewed towards extremists, from around the world.
Previously the islamist extremists' takes on Gaza were cancelled out by the gung-ho Americans' faction, for instance, but not so.much now. It's quite possible to discern broad shirts of international opinion even in a forum skewed towards activism.
Especially if you conveniently ignore any opinions to the contrary.
I can say I won't convince.you, but I certainly don't have any particular reason to ignore the proportion of contrary posts, and I'd like to see the appallingly regime in Iran gone, as much as any genuine liberal.
Which is commendable and no one can really disagree with the sentiment. But seeing we all agree the regime is appalling for any number of reasons, isn’t not better that appalling regime doesn’t have use of say, nuclear weapons. Now call me naive, and I’m quite happy to admit that, but stopping them from getting and using nuclear weapons (And “using”includes the threat of “using”rather than the actual “using”) is rather preferable than them having them. And, forgive me again, but I’m sure a theocratic totalitarian state doesn’t react to memes or nasty things on Instagram telling them to not do something. Especially as they have, on numerous occasions called for the annihilation of the Israeli state. A democratic state happily inclusive of all the wondrous diverse identifies we all celebrate these days.
So in essence: perhaps harsh language and a thoroughly disapproving tone will convince an appalling regime to stop? Or will a thorough thrashing (which they’re getting) do the trick?
Well, I think that depends on whether it's counter-productive or not. I think the most realistic positive outcome is a split in the clerical hierarchy or military, and I also have the sense that that may be made even more difficult with Americam intervention.
One thing that really interests me, and has still gathered far too little attention, I think, is who the people on those three govt planes to Oman.were.
The mullahs moving their p0rn collection to somewhere more conducive probably. Who cares?
Everyone who's interested in Iranian politics. They could be defectors or negotiators of any kind, and Oman seems to have blocked out most information on them, for some unknowm important reason.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
A prime time tv event where he goes up or down with his thumb?
Bibi will be getting twitchy. In 2 weeks Israel will be out of modern missiles at the current rate. Iran will not be. And Iron Dome may look like a colander.
Never, ever rely on Trump. Just don’t.
This vaguely supports what I was saying earlier. Bibi needs a shedload of American air defence systems to shore up Iron Dome. America blowing up a mountain will not help at all because that is not where Iranian missiles are coming from.
It will help as its the target, it would help end Iran's nuclear programme.
Have you not seen Genesis of the Daleks? Best Dr Who episodes ever.
Now there’s a debate. Wouldn’t even make my top 10.
For sheer fun and joy and locations I prefer Destiny over Genesis.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
A prime time tv event where he goes up or down with his thumb?
Bibi will be getting twitchy. In 2 weeks Israel will be out of modern missiles at the current rate. Iran will not be. And Iron Dome may look like a colander.
Never, ever rely on Trump. Just don’t.
This vaguely supports what I was saying earlier. Bibi needs a shedload of American air defence systems to shore up Iron Dome. America blowing up a mountain will not help at all because that is not where Iranian missiles are coming from.
It will help as its the target, it would help end Iran's nuclear programme.
Have you not seen Genesis of the Daleks? Best Dr Who episodes ever.
Now there’s a debate. Wouldn’t even make my top 10.
For sheer fun and joy and locations I prefer Destiny over Genesis.
The one with the humanoid robots? I do sometimes compile the list of one episode/story for each doctor that best typifies their time and/or I’d the best story of their time. Genesis never makes that list, but I think it is important in other ways. Bakers ‘Havevi the right?’ speech is classic time travel fodder (see yesterdays discussion re killing/aborting/averting Hitler). For Tom I go with The Ark in Space or The Talons of Weg Chiang (buts that’s mainly to annoy the libs…)
Yes, the Movellans are in Destiny.
For Tom it’s either Talons, City of Death or Androids of Tara for me.
Talons only became problematic recently to some nutters. DWM had a time team review which criticised it as racist. To me it’s Fu Manchu with a mix of Holmes, rather than Holmes.
Vicky Foxcroft resigns as a whip over disability cuts
Who ?
Vicky Foxcroft is a Government Whip who was formerly Shadow Minister for Disabled People.
She does not particularly lead with it, but she was diagnosed (latish in life) with rheumatoid arthritis in 2019 - so this would be quite a personal issue for her.
I found her when I was looking for generally unacknowledged disabled MPs after the General Election who had actually said something in public at some stage.
She did an interview about her experience with the Disabled and Proud podcast here:
JUST IN - Israel expects a U.S. decision on joining Iran war within 24-48 hours — Times of Israel
Please, please, please let Trump turn out to be a Vulcan. (I know someone who supported Trump because he wanted 'World Peace' so it'll be great to rib him over that!)
Vicky Foxcroft resigns as a whip over disability cuts
Who ?
Vicky Foxcroft is a Government Whip who was formerly Shadow Minister for Disabled People.
She does not particularly lead with it, but she was diagnosed (latish in life) with rheumatoid arthritis in 2019 - so this would be quite a personal issue for her.
I found her when I was looking for generally unacknowledged disabled MPs after the General Election who had actually said something in public at some stage.
She did an interview about her experience with the Disabled and Proud podcast here:
My local MP. @OnlyLivingBoy may have a different experience, but she’s been pretty invisible in the constituency compared with her omnipresent predecessor Joan Ruddock.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
A prime time tv event where he goes up or down with his thumb?
Bibi will be getting twitchy. In 2 weeks Israel will be out of modern missiles at the current rate. Iran will not be. And Iron Dome may look like a colander.
Never, ever rely on Trump. Just don’t.
This vaguely supports what I was saying earlier. Bibi needs a shedload of American air defence systems to shore up Iron Dome. America blowing up a mountain will not help at all because that is not where Iranian missiles are coming from.
It will help as its the target, it would help end Iran's nuclear programme.
Have you not seen Genesis of the Daleks? Best Dr Who episodes ever.
Now there’s a debate. Wouldn’t even make my top 10.
For sheer fun and joy and locations I prefer Destiny over Genesis.
Trump on U.S. military action against Iran: "I will make my decision whether or not to go, within the next two weeks."
A prime time tv event where he goes up or down with his thumb?
Bibi will be getting twitchy. In 2 weeks Israel will be out of modern missiles at the current rate. Iran will not be. And Iron Dome may look like a colander.
Never, ever rely on Trump. Just don’t.
This vaguely supports what I was saying earlier. Bibi needs a shedload of American air defence systems to shore up Iron Dome. America blowing up a mountain will not help at all because that is not where Iranian missiles are coming from.
It will help as its the target, it would help end Iran's nuclear programme.
Have you not seen Genesis of the Daleks? Best Dr Who episodes ever.
Now there’s a debate. Wouldn’t even make my top 10.
For sheer fun and joy and locations I prefer Destiny over Genesis.
The one with the humanoid robots? I do sometimes compile the list of one episode/story for each doctor that best typifies their time and/or I’d the best story of their time. Genesis never makes that list, but I think it is important in other ways. Bakers ‘Havevi the right?’ speech is classic time travel fodder (see yesterdays discussion re killing/aborting/averting Hitler). For Tom I go with The Ark in Space or The Talons of Weg Chiang (buts that’s mainly to annoy the libs…)
Yes, the Movellans are in Destiny.
For Tom it’s either Talons, City of Death or Androids of Tara for me.
Talons only became problematic recently to some nutters. DWM had a time team review which criticised it as racist. To me it’s Fu Manchu with a mix of Holmes, rather than Holmes.
This probably isn’t the place but I get confused when we are (a) supposed to have colour blind casting but (b) it’s wrong for a white actor to portray a Chinese person. As ever with Robert Holmes there are superb characters, including Jago and Lightfoot that really should have had more TV.
EXCLUSIVE: VP Vance may visit L.A. this week. Source with knowledge of federal law enforcement operations tells @nbcnews.com planning underway. Guard units federalized by Trump involved in planning for visit by high-level official, another said. Plans not final, subject to change.
Graun says US would need to drop a tactical nuke to be sure of taking out fordor and trump refuses.
Surprising, but Trump is completely right for once. First use of a nuclear weapon, without an imminent threat, opens up a huge can of worms. Russia would start using tactical nukes on Ukraine. China would be pointing them at Taiwan.
Relatively easy-peasy. Iran surrenders sovereignty of the nuke areas. They evacuate troops/ defence etc. IDF/US troops into those bases and those bases only . Do what they need to do and then get out of dodge. But Iran surrenders those areas to be cleared.
Relatively easy-peasy. Iran surrenders sovereignty of the nuke areas. They evacuate troops/ defence etc. IDF/US troops into those bases and those bases only . Do what they need to do and then get out of dodge. But Iran surrenders those areas to be cleared.
Why is Iran going to do this?
Iran lost around 400,000 soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war. They didn't give up. They're not going to roll over that easily in the face of Israeli and/or US attacks.
Relatively easy-peasy. Iran surrenders sovereignty of the nuke areas. They evacuate troops/ defence etc. IDF/US troops into those bases and those bases only . Do what they need to do and then get out of dodge. But Iran surrenders those areas to be cleared.
Why is Iran going to do this?
Iran lost around 400,000 soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war. They didn't give up. They're not going to roll over that easily in the face of Israeli and/or US attacks.
Either that or their military gets completely wiped with all the implications that has for maintaining their internal grip on power. Let’s not beat about the bush here. They’re being hammered. The regime needs to pick their easiest route to survival.
Relatively easy-peasy. Iran surrenders sovereignty of the nuke areas. They evacuate troops/ defence etc. IDF/US troops into those bases and those bases only . Do what they need to do and then get out of dodge. But Iran surrenders those areas to be cleared.
Why is Iran going to do this?
Iran lost around 400,000 soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war. They didn't give up. They're not going to roll over that easily in the face of Israeli and/or US attacks.
Either that or their military gets completely wiped with all the implications that has for maintaining their internal grip on power. Let’s not beat about the bush here. They’re being hammered. The regime needs to pick their easiest route to survival.
Reports suggest that Iran wants an out, but what's on offer? Bibi says he wants regime change (and he'll put up with the hardship of re-scheduling his son's wedding, so you know he's serious). The current Iranian regime aren't going to be keen on that.
They could face internal revolution, although Iran can have a rally around the flag effect just like anywhere else. Internal revolution in Iraq after the first Gulf War prospered with the support of allied airpower, but failed to topple that regime in its areas of strength. It took boots on the ground to do that in the second Gulf War. The Iranian regime is not a universally hated dictatorship surviving through military force alone. It's quite popular in parts of the country.
I'd love for the Iranian regime to dismantle itself and Iran's nuclear programme, but I'm not holding my breath.
Relatively easy-peasy. Iran surrenders sovereignty of the nuke areas. They evacuate troops/ defence etc. IDF/US troops into those bases and those bases only . Do what they need to do and then get out of dodge. But Iran surrenders those areas to be cleared.
Why is Iran going to do this?
Iran lost around 400,000 soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war. They didn't give up. They're not going to roll over that easily in the face of Israeli and/or US attacks.
I agree on that. There's perhaps a Russia analogy - Trump left himself holding no cards when he was wanting Russia to make a ceasefire down over Ukraine. So they didn't.
Why would Iran back down? Who can be trusted - since did not Trump dissolve the last agreement in his first term (I'm not fully over the detail without looking it up, but iirc that was part of it)?
Plus - TACO.
It needs a via media - "At the end you need a door through which you can leave together". That's if they actually want peace, not a mere pause before more war.
Interesting split tonight between Express and Mail. Latter features Jenrick saying he will vote against AD in big capitals and former has cancer suffer making final plea for 'good death
Comments
It's a view.
After 7 October I said that Hamas needed to be eliminated and those who are today blaming Bibi or anything else were then saying "oh no, that can't happen". Even then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy6AOGRsR80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAFEWL0-1sc&pp=ygUYbWFyY2hpbmcgdGhyb3VnaCBnZW9yZ2lh
Funny thing to do for a country supposedly engaging in mass starvation or genocide. 🙄
Spoiler. Merely delayed them. But politicians lives and careers only exist in short term anyway.
It's entirely possible that Iran might subsequently procure a nuke from Pakistan, for example.
I still don't quite understand (other than the obvious) why Trump 1 junked the Obama deal with Iran, rather than making a greater effort to reinforce it - which was a realistic possibility, and would have have enabled him to diss his predecessor just the same.
October 7th was heartbreaking. Although soon after, many of us questioned why the IDF was keener to raze Gazan hospitals to the ground than throw Hamas grandees off Doha condominium balconies.
So now our most ardent Israel supporters are making mirror arguments to those made by the pro-Palestine group. In the middle, people simply don't care any more and will not tolerate any action that puts Britain anywhere near Israel or the Middle East more generally.
I think Israel (or more accurately, Netanyahu) could've conjured some European support for this had he not been such a bastard over Gaza. It doesn't help that he appears to be enjoying the whole thing.
"While you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time – and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power."
Previously the islamist extremists' takes on Gaza were cancelled out by the gung-ho Americans' faction, for instance, but not so.much now. It's quite possible to discern broad shirts of international opinion even in a forum skewed towards activism.
If there's no one trapped, they're just "Making Safe", in an ICE vehicle, that's just disconnecting the battery-impacts cause door/bonnet/boot locks to jam, so it's usually easier to just force it open. EVs are more problematic, but we have Mobile Data Terminal on pumps that give us a blow up schematic of any vehicle in the database that tells us where switches, cables and isolators are.
We don't ever touch undeployed airbags. Best just keep out of the way of those puppies.
West Indian batsmen can bat all day
And if your stumps are found half way down the ground
That means the West Indians are back in town"
John Rentoul
@JohnRentoul
·
2m
Farage is going to make a speech. With a costings document. Give me strength, @patrickkmaguire
https://thetimes.com/article/eed00640-edc0-4a19-962c-7649327631c3
https://x.com/JohnRentoul/status/1935781977237475754
Netanyahu stuns Israelis by describing ‘personal cost’ of Iran war - postponing son’s wedding
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/19/netanyahu-son-wedding-comments-israel-backlash
The point is quite nostalgic, as derision of "Yookay" occurred in 1980s novels. As for his use of Google NGrams, you'd have to combine that with the British Newspaper Archive, because they didn't really have t'internet in England until the mid-1990s.
It's a bit of a sad article in that respect. The errors could have been easily corrected, but they were not. It reminds me of the TL:DR video a few years back which presented the England and Wales census as a UK census...which is stupid (the Scots and NI had either not released theirs and/or had not been integrated into the whole-UK figures)
And, forgive me again, but I’m sure a theocratic totalitarian state doesn’t react to memes or nasty things on Instagram telling them to not do something. Especially as they have, on numerous occasions called for the annihilation of the Israeli state. A democratic state happily inclusive of all the wondrous diverse identifies we all celebrate these days.
So in essence: perhaps harsh language and a thoroughly disapproving tone will convince an appalling regime to stop? Or will a thorough thrashing (which they’re getting) do the trick?
I discovered recently that he was in the year above me at school (working by birth date). David Frost, Ed Davey and Ed Balls in successive years - is that a good average?
https://bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cly2zplnn1ko
I had no idea there was a mind behind the Hundred…
Now there’s a debate. Wouldn’t even make my top 10.
For sheer fun and joy and locations I prefer Destiny over Genesis.
Nuclear Technology, Volume 207, Issue sup1 (2021)
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/unct20/207/sup1
Special issue on the Manhattan Project Nuclear Science and Technology Development at Los Alamos National Laboratory
(An open access issue of the usually very much not open access journal.)
Hasn’t she got a partner already ?
- ONS (Office for National Statistics) is the national statistical service of England and Wales. It is responsible for conducting the Census in England and Wales.
- NRS (National Records of Scotland, formerly General Register Office for Scotland) is the national statistical service of Scotland. It is responsible for conducting the Census in Scotland
- NISRA (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) is the national statistical service of Northern Ireland. It is responsible for conducting the Census in Northern Ireland.
Still with me? OK, this is where it gets twisty.- ONS (Office for National Statistics) is also the national statistical service of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for conducting the Census in the United Kingdom. It does this by combining the numbers from ONS for England and Wales with the numbers from NRS for Scotland and NISRA for NI.
So three offices covering four areas with four releases.@vickyfoxcroft
(1/2) With a heavy heart, I have written to the Prime Minister to tender my resignation as a whip.
Whilst I will continue to support the government in delivering the change the country so desperately needs, I cannot vote in favour of the proposed reforms to disability benefits."
https://x.com/vickyfoxcroft/status/1935781286305583373
One thing that really interests me, and has still gathered far too little attention, I think, is who the people on those three govt planes to Oman.were.
a reporter points out to Leavitt that Trump says something will happen in "two weeks" all the time and then it doesn't happen 🙃
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1935754821119676417
..It is interesting to reflect on the different levels of understanding of atomic weapons physics–in Britain and the U.S., versus Germany–during the war. By the early 1940s, it was well understood in Britain and the U.S. that once a supercritical mass is assembled, the fission chain reaction leads to heating, explosion, and material expansion to the point that the assembly becomes subcritical. This is the heart of the physics embodied in the Frisch-Peierls, Pryce-Dirac, Serber, and Bethe-Feynman formulas. However, in contrast, Jeremy Bernstein’s fascinating 1996 book Hitler’s Uranium Club shows that Heisenberg and his team seemed not to understand this basic idea, thinking erroneously that an atomic bomb could work at 100% efficiency and fission all the nuclear material..
Does Donald Trump not have any MAGA stars on his side for his bombing of Iran? The whining lady in clip about deaths sounds just like a Corbynite Labour MP surrender monkey.
Yes it effectively enters USA into war with Iran where everything it has in the region becomes a bonafide target with inevitable US deaths, But the most rabid isolationists must agree with necessary need for some wars now and then? Don’t they want friends and key interests around the world and help friends out and protect their own key interests abroad? Saudi Arabia are just as much under threat of Iranian nukes as Israel, can’t MAGA see this?
Will MAGA just row in with support once Trump starts bombing?
I expect so, and so will US opinion switcheroo as it rally’s to the flag. In fact, the boost Trumps Iran War gives him in the rally to the flag polling might gift him a bigger congress majority next year than it looks on current political narrative so far. And then MAGA will understand and thank him.
She does not particularly lead with it, but she was diagnosed (latish in life) with rheumatoid arthritis in 2019 - so this would be quite a personal issue for her.
I found her when I was looking for generally unacknowledged disabled MPs after the General Election who had actually said something in public at some stage.
She did an interview about her experience with the Disabled and Proud podcast here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-impact-of-disability-on-politics-vicky/id1621152878?i=1000634071291
JUST IN - Israel expects a U.S. decision on joining Iran war within 24-48 hours — Times of Israel
I won't detain you with which Dalek story is the best, although I insist on bringing up "Dalek" with Eccleston.
For Tom it’s either Talons, City of Death or Androids of Tara for me.
Talons only became problematic recently to some nutters. DWM had a time team review which criticised it as racist. To me it’s Fu Manchu with a mix of Holmes, rather than Holmes.
https://x.com/vickyfoxcroft/status/1935781286305583373
and here
https://bsky.app/profile/vickyfoxcroftmp.bsky.social/post/3lryayp7pzc2f
*Correction* When I say "latish in life" I mean later in her life, not late for a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.
The biggest conspiracy in the universe, the pilot who fired that shot? Son of the Emperor's enforcer Darth Vader.
The daughter of Darth Vader was the one who supplied the stolen plans for the Death Star.
One of the few people to survie the destruction of the Death Star was Darth Vader.
There's so many other inside job angles to this.
Don't believe the official story which was the biggest whitewash after the Hutton report.
As ever with Robert Holmes there are superb characters, including Jago and Lightfoot that really should have had more TV.
EXCLUSIVE: VP Vance may visit L.A. this week. Source with knowledge of federal law enforcement operations tells @nbcnews.com planning underway. Guard units federalized by Trump involved in planning for visit by high-level official, another said. Plans not final, subject to change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords
Graun says US would need to drop a tactical nuke to be sure of taking out fordor and trump refuses.
Sh1t post maybe?
Air India has confirmed it is suspending some of its long-haul flights from Saturday.
This includes routes using the same type of Boeing aircraft which crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad.
Iran lost around 400,000 soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war. They didn't give up. They're not going to roll over that easily in the face of Israeli and/or US attacks.
🚨Senior IRGC official: Before the Israeli airstrikes, we transferred all the enriched uranium from the nuclear sites to secret hiding locations.
They could face internal revolution, although Iran can have a rally around the flag effect just like anywhere else. Internal revolution in Iraq after the first Gulf War prospered with the support of allied airpower, but failed to topple that regime in its areas of strength. It took boots on the ground to do that in the second Gulf War. The Iranian regime is not a universally hated dictatorship surviving through military force alone. It's quite popular in parts of the country.
I'd love for the Iranian regime to dismantle itself and Iran's nuclear programme, but I'm not holding my breath.
Why would Iran back down? Who can be trusted - since did not Trump dissolve the last agreement in his first term (I'm not fully over the detail without looking it up, but iirc that was part of it)?
Plus - TACO.
It needs a via media - "At the end you need a door through which you can leave together". That's if they actually want peace, not a mere pause before more war.