IheartIheartTesla

Is Afghanistan headed towards another upset? This particular match with Pakistan appears to be one that may go down to the last over (finally)

Episode 8 was a cute one, but I dont think they sold the premise of the 4 friends drifting apart or having a falling out particularly seriously. More T'Lyn un the last two episodes would be nice (just to see how she's doing after her mental breakdown, of course)

Yes, Egypt has agreed to open the Rafah border crossing to allow 20 trucks through, and indeed Israel has agreed to open the Egypt-Gaza border after Biden 'asked'. Its not enough, but at least its a start. Not sure how they'll manage to make the distribution orderly though.

It could easily reach that, there are increasing fears that people are dehydrating to death in the strip, or consuming water from contaminated sources (or salty water). I imagine disease will soon become rampant as well. Not sure what Biden will accomplish tomorrow, but he needs to get some humanitarian aid into Gaza ASAP by twisting Netanyahu's arm as hard as he can.

And now the Dutch have beat South Africa. Finally, it is shaping up to be an interesting tournament, with a few of the top teams not guaranteed to progress.

Yes, I think the issue from the desk was that it was based on a Shylock/pound of flesh trope used on a Jewish person. The LBJ cartoon is a fairly obscure reference, so who knows what the reality is. Still, an in-person convo is best for such issues (a lesson for all of life)

The US is planning to send 2000 troops to the region (but not infantry), mostly advisory and medical. Biden is also strongly considering a trip to Israel this week. Meanwhile, the Iran foreign minister has promised preemptive strikes against Israel in the coming hours. This kind of escalation would be disastrous. On a much smaller note, the cartoonist for the Guardian (Steven Bell?) has been fired for a cartoon that supposedly dabbled in antisemitic tropes. From the Guardian, thats strong stuff indeed, havent seen the cartoon in question myself.

The Supreme Court in India is about to make a decision on legalizing same-sex marriage, which of course portends huge change if it does happen. The government in its wisdom, and many religious organizations, as they do, oppose legalization. However, I was somewhat surprised to see a Pew study that noted ~53% of Indians were somewhat in favor of legalization. Its a bit more complex in India as marriage laws and religious personal laws are more intertwined than you may imagine in Western nations. Still, the judges may look into tweaking prior laws that did some work into decoupling the two.

I will add absolutely nothing to this discussion by noting that Israel itself was not a state until the middle of May 1948, although it rapidly did achieve mostly because of international recognition.

Short kings need love too. Tall people, on the other hand, can f*ck right off with their beautiful, elevated selves (PS, I'm 5'6)

England making a meal of their chase. Nothing against them, but it would be wonderful if Afghanistan were to finally win.

I've seen some cringe FB videos where they note that based on your dating preferences (>100k income, >6 ft tall, between 40-50 years old to give an example), your pool of potential mates goes down to ~0.1% or whatever. What is conveniently left out is that this is merely your dating pool and not your chances. As a matter of fact, you could create an exclusive club or app with precisely those parameters and your chances to meet your potential mate go up significantly. Indeed, some apps like Luxe cater to an exclusive clientele for similar reasons as far as I can tell. Even for in-person encounters, people of the same socioeconomic strata tend to hang out together. This takes care of the income piece, and the age one too I wager (40+ olds wouldn't habit clubs intended for the young typically, for example). If you loosen your height requirements a bit you'd be golden. Thanks for coming to my dating Ted talk.

I've been somewhat surprised at how forthright the EU (or European nations in general) have been in voicing their support for Israel. The worry for the future is who (with some presence on the world stage) would advocate for a Palestinian state in the future. Putin of all people has made some noises about civilian casualties in Gaza (the irony), but Russia is an unreliable ally (if at all) to have in your corner. Cant really count on the Arab states to do much Hopefully in the future someone will take on the mantle but it all seems so bleak right now.

It isnt a question of 'killing Americans', but more that the US recognizes a Palestinian passport only as a travel document rather than recognizing citizenship of Palestine. In essence they are stateless where the US is concerned. Right now conservatives are trying to get a bill through Congress that will ban refugees from Gaza while progressives want us to take a whole lot in; in the end nothing will happen and the status quo will be maintained. As far as I can tell (there may be others) regarding the states from which immigration is non-trivial are Cuba, North Korea and Iran, but even then special dispensation could be made for those seeking asylum. Hopefully (barring acts of Congress or an EO) asylum seekers can still get their day in court - but Palestine is a tricky one.

I find it impressive that "Jewish space laser" lady now doesn't want to bring in any Gazan refugees to the US because we could be importing people with anti-Semitic views. Anyway, the House cant even pass a resolution supporting Israel, so toothless tweets are all that are left for these clowns.

I think what he's saying is not to make any hasty decisions while you are emotionally vulnerable. Although if its just a casual date with no expectations, it may be alright (I am suspicious about a CFO lending a sympathetic ear, for example, even though my own CFO is pretty good all things considered).

Peace is possible between enemies once time has passed, of course (as the EU itself indicates), and as Kal noted so many posts ago, exemplified by the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in the Middle East. However, it does require some sort of political will from both parties - Sadat had built quite a cache from being considered a hero in the previous Egypt-Israel war, and I presume the Israelis/Begin were game too. However, in the short term there doesn't seem to be any hope here. Palestinians currently have useless leaders and its mantle is taken up by Hamas. Maybe in the future when Bibi exits the stage and someone charismatic arises for the Palestinians. Lot of what-ifs there though, and it's all ultimately depressing.

Israel didnt even bother informing the US before issuing the evacuation order. I don't believe the US has too many levers to apply to Israel regarding their current blockade except for withdrawing or cutting their military aid, and that would be hugely unpopular domestically. They'd probably tell us to eff off (or whatever the diplomatic equivalent is) while they concluded their business.

Good news indeed. Props to the fans, who petitioned for saving Prodigy online (I myself was part of one that I know had tens of thousands of signatories at the very least, which makes a difference). Regarding the lates LD episode, personally was not a big fan. Seemed a bit disjointed where our trusty LG officers didnt do much of anything.

I think the lesson for all of us is to be more forthright in our amplifying red flags (blatant ones that is) that we observe in other's dating lives. Money does tend to be the cause of tension in a lot of relationships, but usually if you are co-habiting together. If someone loses a large chunk of their income, your first instinct should be empathy. Anything else would set off alarm bells for me.

Both Trump and Biden have made rather unfortunate remarks about the conflict in Gaza (Trump by calling Hezbollah 'smart and the Israeli defense minister a 'jerk', and Biden by falsely stating something about the beheading of children). Meanwhile Tuberville is blocking 9 senior military positions associated with the ME because of...reasons. No one should look to the US for help on the international stage anymore. Good luck, China.

That is exactly right (IOC wanted cricket to tap that market, while LA wanted flag football and baseball/softball, now we have all 3). One of the arguments given is that this will catapult cricket to the world stage, much like basketball after the 92 Olympics when NBA viewership stop up after. That sounds a bit of a laughable proposition to the 'rest of the world'. Anyway, this World Cup seems to be a bit slow to warm up. Too much cricket is a thing.

Its more a question of creating perceptions in the minds of voters. For instance, Republicans have been very successful in creating this Democrat=socialist perception, and nearly everything they throw out there is framed around bolstering that perception. I've not seen nearly enough from the Democrats about how the Republicans are a dysfunctional lot unserious about governance. They still seem to somehow think they'll win in the marketplace of ideas and that'll somehow translate to votes.

Based on this the United States has no right to exist, buddy. Anyway, I agree with the consensus that Hamas is the problem here, and they may have done more to destroy the possibility of a Palestinian state than anything the Israeli government could do.

Just a reminder that the US does not have an ambassador to Israel on account of Republicans. Not sure why they arent shouting this from the rooftops, but thats the Dems for you. We do have a chargé d’affaires ad interim, which I suppose is sufficient.