Internation Events X - Why such a long break...?

[The Sunland Lord]

Terrible earthquake in Turkey and Syria, 7.7 Richter scale. Some sources report 1200 people are killed so far and 5800 injured.
 

Edit: Apparently there were two earthquakes in the span of 12 hours.
 

Edit 2: Two more in the span of 1 hour. This is getting worse.

[The Sunland Lord]

1900 people dead confirmed so far  

This is just devastating.

[Sophelia]

25 minutes ago, The Sunland Lord said:

1900 people dead confirmed so far  

This is just devastating.

Agree - it looks horrendous - indescribable misery for so many.  Kind of like Haiti... just feel so helpless.  I hope many countries send aid and teams to try and help.

[Loge]

The BBC now reports more than 7200 dead.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

On 2/4/2023 at 11:52 AM, Loge said:

So, Brazil has sunk its decommissioned aircraft carrier because there were too many toxic materials on board to scrap it. Because dumping all your toxic waste in the ocean is obviously the best solution...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/04/brazil-sinks-aircraft-carrier-in-atlantic-despite-presence-of-asbestos-and-toxic-materials

Pretty much, yeah. But France deserves an honourable mention in this story tho.

It was produced in France and originally used by the French Navy, before it was decomissioned and sold off to Brazil. But they also didn't exactly volunteer to properly dispose of that swimming piece of toxic junk (or pay for it).

[Parsons]

On 2/6/2023 at 8:17 AM, Sophelia said:

Agree - it looks horrendous - indescribable misery for so many.  Kind of like Haiti... just feel so helpless.  I hope many countries send aid and teams to try and help.

I've seen some twitter footage of some of the cities. It looks like they've been attacked by Godzilla. I fear the death toll will climb since this is winter and they can't rescue people fast enough. The cold plus being trapped for so long will mean a lot of people are slowly expiring.

[Loge]

3 hours ago, Parsons said:

I've seen some twitter footage of some of the cities. It looks like they've been attacked by Godzilla. I fear the death toll will climb since this is winter and they can't rescue people fast enough. The cold plus being trapped for so long will mean a lot of people are slowly expiring.

Well, on the Syrian side things didn't look so great before the earthquake. There's an ongoing war and has been for a decade.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

On 2/7/2023 at 1:51 PM, Loge said:

The BBC now reports more than 7200 dead.

Now it's more than 19,000. 

[House Balstroko]

10 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Now it's more than 19,000. 

Unfortunately, it has already passed 21 000. This is truly devastating. 

[Zorral]

Heather Cox Richardson: Turkey, Syria, Russia, Poland, Moldava, Brasil and the US reichilicans.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-10-2023?

Quote

 

... Democracy stands on the principle of equality for all people, and those who are turning away from democracy, including the right wing in the United States, object to that equality. They worry that equal rights for women and minorities—especially LGBTQ people—will undermine traditional religion and traditional power structures. They believe democracy saps the morals of a country and are eager for a strong leader who will use the power of the government to reinforce their worldview.

But empowering a strongman ends oversight and enables those in power to think of themselves as above the law. In the short term, it permits those in power to use the apparatus of their government to enrich themselves at the expense of the people of their country. Their supporters don’t care: they are willing to accept the cost of corruption so long as the government persecutes those they see as their enemies. But that deal is vulnerable when it becomes clear the government cannot respond to an immediate public crisis.

That equation is painfully clear right now in Turkey and Syria, where more than 380,000 people are homeless after Monday’s devastating earthquakes. The death toll has climbed to more than 23,000, and more than 78,000 are injured. So far. Just a month ago, Turkey’s president President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised that the country had the fastest and most effective system of response to disaster in the world.

But that promise has been exposed as a lie. As Jen Kirby pointed out in Vox yesterday, Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), who have been moving the country toward autocracy, rose to power thanks to a construction boom in the 2010s that both drove economic growth and permitted Erdoğan to hand out contracts to his supporters. The collapse of more than 6,400 buildings in Monday’s quakes have brought attention to cost cutting and bribery to get around building codes. At the same time, since a big quake in 1999, homeowners have been paying an earthquake tax that should, by now, have been worth tens of billions of dollars, but none of that money seems to be available, and Erdoğan won’t say where it went.

“This is a time for unity, solidarity,” Erdoğan told reporters. “In a period like this, I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest.” He has shut down media coverage of the crisis and cracked down on social media as well. Elections in Turkey are scheduled for May 14. Erdoğan was already facing a difficult reelection.

In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad also has to deal with the horrific scenario. Aid groups are having trouble getting assistance to hard-hit areas controlled by opponents of the regime during the country’s ongoing civil war. Assad has blamed western sanctions, imposed against his regime because of its murder of his opponents, for the slow response to the earthquake, but his government has blocked western aid to areas controlled by his opposition. The U.S. has issued a six-month sanctions exemption for relief in Syria.

Russia is also in trouble as its recent invasion of Ukraine has resulted in a protracted war, but it maintains it will continue to extend its new imperial project. On Tuesday, Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, spoke openly of attacking Poland after conquering Ukraine. It was time, he said, for the West to fall to its knees before Russia, and he predicted Ukraine would be Russia’s before the end of 2023. Poland is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and an attack on it would bring the rest of the NATO countries, including the U.S., to its aid.

Today, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.6 million people that borders Ukraine and has been under tremendous pressure from Russia, enduring soaring inflation, an inflow of Ukrainian refugees, and power cuts after Russian attacks on Ukraines’ grid, saw its government resign. That government has worked to move closer to European allies and has applied for admission to the European Union. Russia has sought to destabilize that government and has recently appeared to be planning to invade the country. Moldovan president Maia Sandu has nominated a new prime minister, one that intends to continue orienting the country toward Europe.

The U.S. has stood solidly against Russia’s ambitions, but our own right wing is increasingly supportive of Putin, liking his stand against LGBTQ people, his embrace of religion, and his ruthless determination to impose that vision on his country. Yesterday the president and chief executive officer of Elon Musk’s SpaceX admitted the company has blocked the ability of Ukrainian troops to use the Starlink satellite system to advance against Russia. In October, Musk drew fire for proposing a “peace” plan that would give Russia the territory it has claimed from Ukraine.

Meanwhile, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil met with President Joe Biden at the White House today. (His predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of former president Trump, staged a coup against Lula and is now hanging out in Florida hoping to score a U.S. tourist visa.) In their meeting, Biden and Lula emphasized democracy.

Biden noted that both democracies had been tested lately and that we stand together, rejecting political violence and putting great value in our democratic institutions: the rule of law, freedom, and equality.

Through an interpreter, Lula expanded on what that means. He noted that Brazil had “self-marginalized” under Bolsonaro, rejecting the world and turning inward. But, he said, “Brazil is a country that people enjoy peace, democracy, work, and Carnival, and samba, and a lot of joy. This is the Brazil that we’re trying to reposition in the world.” He called for making sure no more right-wing insurrections undermine our democracies, as well as fighting racism “so that we can guarantee some dreams for the youth.” He called for protecting the natural world to combat climate change, and creating a world governance to enable us to work together against existential threats.

“This is not a government program,” Lula said. “This is a faith commitment of someone that believes in humanism, someone that believes in solidarity. I don’t want to live in a world where humans become algorithms. I want to live in a world where human beings are human beings. And for that, we have to take care very carefully what God gave us: that is the planet Earth.”

 

I have long wondered where those who believe in authoritarian, 'unitarian' regimes, which are always corrupt by definition, think aid shall come from when needed in crises, whether here in the USA, or internationally, as with the earthquake hitting the corrupt constructions of Turkey and Syria.  They always ask/demand, but if government is done Their way, by Them, and the rest of us are sat down and shut up, where are the taxes and the resources to rescue and rebuild to come from?  Not from Them,, because They don't have it. Though, of course, They outright steal billions of the aid too, as seen with FEMA and the pandemic right here in River City. (In case Some will be 'confused' that is a reference out of The Music Man musical about a flim flammer in the greatest of the USian tradition.)

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

35 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Heather Cox Richardson: Turkey, Syria, Russia, Poland, Moldava, Brasil and the US reichilicans.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-10-2023?

I have long wondered where those who believe in authoritarian, 'unitarian' regimes, which are always corrupt by definition, think aid shall come from when needed in crises, whether here in the USA, or internationally, as with the earthquake hitting the corrupt constructions of Turkey and Syria.  They always ask/demand, but if government is done Their way, by Them, and the rest of us are sat down and shut up, where are the taxes and the resources to rescue and rebuild to come from?  Not from Them,, because They don't have it. Though, of course, They outright steal billions of the aid too, as seen with FEMA and the pandemic right here in River City. (In case Some will be 'confused' that is a reference out of The Music Man musical about a flim flammer in the greatest of the USian tradition.)

An excellent question.  The thing that floors me is how effective the Republican disinformation actually is. i have a friend who Is obsessed about Hunter Biden’s Laptop. I listen to him and try to connect with him to lead him out of crazytown but he always turns around and walks back after acknowledging my points.

[Zorral]

OPINION
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

In 46 Words, Biden Sends a Clear Message to Israel

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/opinion/joe-biden-bibi-netanyahu-israel.html

Quote

 

I woke up on Saturday morning, read the news from Israel that at least 50,000 Israelis had just demonstrated once more against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to strip the Israeli Supreme Court of its independence and put it instead under Netanyahu’s thumb — at a time when Netanyahu himself is facing corruption charges — and I asked myself a simple question: “What does President Biden think of this?”

Biden is as pro-Israel in his gut as any president I have ever covered. He has also had a long and mutually respectful relationship with Netanyahu. So I can tell you that whatever Biden has to say about Israel comes from a place of real concern. It’s a concern that the radical transformation of Israel’s judicial system that Netanyahu’s ultranationalist, ultrareligious coalition is trying to slam through the Knesset could seriously damage Israel’s democracy and therefore its close ties to America and democracies everywhere.

Here is the statement that Biden sent me on Saturday afternoon when I asked for comment: “The genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, on an independent judiciary. Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that the people buy into them so they can be sustained.”

This is the first time I can recall a U.S. president has ever weighed in on an internal Israeli debate about the very character of the country’s democracy. And although it’s only 46 words, Biden’s statement comes at a crucial time in this wrenching Israeli internal discussion and could well energize and expand the already significant opposition to what Netanyahu’s opponents are calling a legal coup that would move Israel into the camp of countries that have been drifting away from democracy, like Turkey, Hungary and Poland.

Here’s why Biden’s 46 words are so important: First, it puts him squarely behind the compromise approach called for by President Isaac Herzog of Israel — and behind keeping Israel’s widely respected judiciary independent. Although Israel’s presidency is largely a symbolic job, the office carries moral weight. Herzog is a good man who has been trying to head off what he fears could be the most serious civil strife ever within Israeli society if such a big change in the judicial system, inspired in part by a far-right Israeli think tank, is rammed through.

Herzog has pleaded with Netanyahu and his coalition to step back and organize some kind of bipartisan, national dialogue that can patiently study what kind of judicial changes might be healthy for Israel but do it with legal experts, in a nonpartisan fashion and in a way that preserves the integrity of the judicial system that has existed since Israel’s founding.

Unfortunately, Netanyahu rebuffed the Israeli president, which prompted Herzog to declare on Jan. 24 about the so-called judicial reform: “The democratic foundations of Israel, including the justice system, and human rights and freedoms, are sacred, and we must protect them and the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence. The dramatic reform, when done quickly without negotiation, rouses opposition and deep concerns among the public.” He added, “The absence of dialogue is tearing us apart from within, and I’m telling you loud and clear: This powder keg is about to explode. This is an emergency.”

With Biden’s 46 words, Netanyahu now finds himself in a situation where, if he just keeps plowing ahead, he won’t just be snubbing the Israeli president; he will be snubbing the American president as well. That’s no small deal. I also suspect that Biden taking a stand on this issue in this measured but unmistakable fashion will encourage other Western democratic leaders, business leaders and U.S. senators and representatives to do so, too, which will also energize the opposition.

The second reason Biden’s words matter is their timing — it could not be more important. As The Times of Israel reported Saturday, the first reading for some of the most controversial aspects of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul “is set for Monday; a bill must pass three readings to become law, and the coalition has indicated it seeks to blitz the legislation through the Knesset by April.”

Those leading the opposition have called for a nationwide workers’ strike on Monday and a mass rally outside the Knesset to coincide with the first rounds of voting on the legislation. You can bet more than a few Israeli protesters will be quoting Biden’s words as they take to the streets.

Third, Biden has put himself and America squarely on the side of the Israeli majority opposing Netanyahu’s just shoving his “reform” through — in what increasingly looks like a judicial putsch.

A poll published Friday “indicated that over 60 percent of the public wants the government to halt or delay its legislative efforts to dramatically weaken the High Court of Justice and secure political control over judicial appointments,” the Times of Israel reported.

It also puts America squarely behind Netanyahu’s own attorney general from his last time in office, Avichai Mandelblit — the man who indicted Netanyahu in 2020 on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust and who has denounced Netanyahu’s judicial changes as just a disguised effort to quash his own trial and avoid jail.

Speaking to the Israeli TV program “Uvda,” Mandelblit said Netanyahu’s sweeping proposed changes to the judiciary are “not a reform” but rather “regime change.”

Because Israel does not have a constitution and the executive branch always controls the Knesset, Mandelblit explained, the only separation of powers — the only check on the executive branch — is the independent Israeli judiciary and Supreme Court. And what Netanyahu is proposing is that a bare majority of the Knesset — 61 out of 120 seats — become empowered to override any Supreme Court decision. With the narrowest of majorities, the government could put through any laws it likes.

Netanyahu’s plan also would give the government control over the selection of judges, which has long been in the hands of an independent selection panel, and it would also remove the independent legal advisers — the internal legal watchdogs — in each ministry. Currently, they are appointed by the Civil Service Commission and can be removed only by the attorney general. Netanyahu wants them instead appointed by and loyal to each minister.

Put it all together, and you would have a government that won by 30,000 votes out of 4.7 million having total control over the Supreme Court, judicial selection and each ministry’s legal advisers.

“I can’t be silent,” Mandelblit concluded. “If there is no independent judiciary, it’s over. It’s a different system of government.” The ruler “will decide,” he added. “He’ll have prosecutors of his own, legal counsels of his own, judges of his own. And if these people have personal loyalty to him, there is no supremacy of the law. This is a sinkhole. We’ll all be swallowed up by this.”

Finally, what Biden has done will add credibility to America’s voice in support of democracy globally. It says that America speaks up not just when China crushes democracy in Hong Kong. We speak up when we see democracy threatened anywhere. America has often taken issue with Israeli human rights abuses in its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. But no American president in my memory had ever spoken out against proposed changes in the democratic character of the Israeli state — because, up until a few weeks ago, none ever had to.

If Biden’s message is not clear to the Netanyahu coalition, let me try to put it as simply as I can: America has supported Israel militarily and diplomatically and with billions of dollars in aid since its foundation, but not because it shares our interests. It does not always. Israel has stayed neutral between Ukraine and Russia, it is indifferent to human rights abuses in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and Israeli businesses sometimes sell defense technologies to China that are very worrying to the Pentagon. We have given Israel so much support since its founding because we believe Israel shares our values.

And even when Israel behaves in ways in the West Bank or Gaza that are not consistent with our values, Israelis often fall back on them anyway. They tell us: “Hey, cut us some, slack. We live in a constant, violent struggle with the Palestinians. We live in a crazy neighborhood. And yet we’ve still managed to maintain judicial oversight of our armed forces, robust democratic institutions, as well as an independent judiciary and a free press.”

That argument is seriously threatened by what Netanyahu is pushing. And without it, what’s left? Shared interests won’t be enough, because they come and go.

That’s why Biden’s 46 words are so crucial. With those 46 words today, Biden is telling Israel our relationship has never truly rested on shared interests. It’s always been built up from our shared values. That is why it has endured so long — even when we disagree on interests. With his simple statement, Biden is signaling that whatever Israel does, it must not fundamentally depart from those shared values. Otherwise, we are in a totally new world.

 

 

[Zorral]

Then, there is this, evidently a growing movement in Japan, since the economist (37) who proposed both the mass suicide of the elderly and euthanasia for the elderly has 100s of thousand internet followers among the younger members of society.

A Yale Professor Suggested Mass Suicide for Old People in Japan. What Did He Mean?   
Yusuke Narita says he is mainly addressing a growing effort to revamp Japan’s age-based hierarchies. Still, he has pushed the country’s hottest button.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/world/asia/japan-elderly-mass-suicide.html

Quote

 

His pronouncements could hardly sound more drastic.

In interviews and public appearances, Yusuke Narita, an assistant professor of economics at Yale, has taken on the question of how to deal with the burdens of Japan’s rapidly aging society.

“I feel like the only solution is pretty clear,” he said during one online news program in late 2021. “In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?” Seppuku is an act of ritual disembowelment that was a code among dishonored samurai in the 19th century.

Last year, when asked by a school-age boy to elaborate on his mass seppuku theories, Dr. Narita graphically described to a group of assembled students a scene from “Midsommar,” a 2019 horror film in which a Swedish cult sends one of its oldest members to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff.

“Whether that’s a good thing or not, that’s a more difficult question to answer,” Dr. Narita told the questioner as he assiduously scribbled notes. “So if you think that’s good, then maybe you can work hard toward creating a society like that.”

At other times, he has broached the topic of euthanasia. “The possibility of making it mandatory in the future,” he said in one interview, will “come up in discussion.”

Dr. Narita, 37, said that his statements had been “taken out of context,” and that he was mainly addressing a growing effort to push the most senior people out of leadership positions in business and politics — to make room for younger generations. Nevertheless, with his comments on euthanasia and social security, he has pushed the hottest button in Japan.

While he is virtually unknown even in academic circles in the United States, his extreme positions have helped him gain hundreds of thousands of followers on social media in Japan among frustrated youths who believe their economic progress has been held back by a gerontocratic society.

Appearing frequently on Japanese online shows in T-shirts, hoodies or casual jackets, and wearing signature eyeglasses with one round and one square lens, Dr. Narita leans into his Ivy League pedigree as he fosters a nerdy shock jock impression. He is among a few Japanese provocateurs who have found an eager audience by gleefully breaching social taboos. His Twitter bio: “The things you’re told you’re not allowed to say are usually true.”

Last month, several commenters discovered Dr. Narita’s remarks and began spreading them on social media. During a panel discussion on a respected internet talk show with scholars and journalists, Yuki Honda, a University of Tokyo sociologist, described his comments as “hatred toward the vulnerable.” ....

 

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

59 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Then, there is this, evidently a growing movement in Japan, since the economist (37) who proposed both the mass suicide of the elderly and euthanasia for the elderly has 100s of thousand internet followers among the younger members of society.

A Yale Professor Suggested Mass Suicide for Old People in Japan. What Did He Mean?   
Yusuke Narita says he is mainly addressing a growing effort to revamp Japan’s age-based hierarchies. Still, he has pushed the country’s hottest button.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/world/asia/japan-elderly-mass-suicide.html

 

That is disgusting

[Zorral]

2 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

That is disgusting

Yet we've been hearing stuff like this from here and the UK too, particularly in the pandemic days before vaccines, blatantly declaring the old should all just die, for the sake of the economy.

Evidently those such as the Queen, and now the King, and others like Murdoch, etc., are to be exempt from the mass euthanasia, part of the groups those like Goebbels -- who was very gung ho on this -- labeled 'useless mouths.'

[A Horse Named Stranger]

15 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

That is disgusting

That might very well be the case. But Japan is sorta the poster child for what happens, when you have a traditional family model (women are supposed to quit their job, once they have kids) generates very low birth rates, and you combine that with a fairly xenophobe society, that doesn't really want immigration and the high life expectancy of a developed nation.

You end up with an unsustainable age structure. Everybody in Japan is aware of the demographics. Japanese goverments have tried to encourage younger people to have more kids, well, more like a kid would be an improvement. You know better than I, that those things are expensive. They expect food, an education and are just not very productive in terms of contributing to the family income. That is particularly true in Japan, where everything is expensive anyway. Then you have migration within the country, basically younger people move in significant numbers into the Tokyo area, leaving a lot of places, that are not Tokyo to young rascals in their 60s and above. 

Various Japanese govermetns have tried to bribe young (Japanese) people to have kids and move to places that are not Tokyo, but those efforts have not exactly been success story, so all they do is occasionally beg them publicly to have kids please.

 

[Zorral]

The Observer Guardian today has an opinion piece in which the author opines the real reason women across the world who have the choice aren't having children isn't to do with economics but because there's a dearth of men women want to have as partners with whom to raise their preferred 2 children.  The author proposes as solution that all 'developed' nations invest heavily into supporting single women -- who can't afford to leave a job and raise the kids --  and children with subsidies for diapers and childcare.  Which is the absolutely last thing reichs and rethugs and tories from the US to China to Japan to the UK want or are willing to do, particularly, as here in the US there are so many of them scheming to rid us ever vestige of a social safety net of any kind, particularly Social Security and Medicare.  One wonders if any of these people have ever read the fiction and non-fiction accounts of what it is like for the mothers and children struggling alone -- without even grandparents to lend a hand -- when husband and father deserts the family or dies or is incapacitated, when women couldn't get decent jobs of any kind legally, much less one that could support a family.  The literature, fiction and non-fiction and reportorial of the 19th C are replete with these accounts.  They are not pretty.

[Zorral]

Bibi and croney colations revealing themselves as a 'darker dictatorship' every day. "100,000 protest in the streets."

Warnings of 'dark dictatorship' in Israel as protesters rage against far-right judicial reforms

Herzog—who plays a largely ceremonial role—warned that "we are no longer in a political debate but on the brink of constitutional and social collapse."

https://www.rawstory.com/warnings-of-dark-dictatorship-in-israel-as-protesters-rage-against-far-right-judicial-reforms/

Quote

 

.... Around 100,000 people took part in the Monday demonstrations against the proposed judicial overhaul, which the far-right government appears bent on ramming through despite public opposition and pleas from top officials—including Israeli President Isaac Herzog—to delay the legislation.

In a speech on Sunday, Herzog—who plays a largely ceremonial role—warned that "we are no longer in a political debate but on the brink of constitutional and social collapse."

Addressing demonstrators on Monday, Lapid expressed a similar fear, declaring, "We will not stay quiet as they destroy everything that is precious and sacred to us." ....

.... Monday's mass demonstrations came 24 hours after around 200,000 Israelis took to the streets to protest the policies of Israel's far-right government, which on Sunday granted retroactive "legalization" to nine settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. ...

 

 

[ThinkerX]

3 hours ago, Zorral said:

Bibi and croney colations revealing themselves as a 'darker dictatorship' every day. "100,000 protest in the streets."

Warnings of 'dark dictatorship' in Israel as protesters rage against far-right judicial reforms

Herzog—who plays a largely ceremonial role—warned that "we are no longer in a political debate but on the brink of constitutional and social collapse."

https://www.rawstory.com/warnings-of-dark-dictatorship-in-israel-as-protesters-rage-against-far-right-judicial-reforms/

 

This whole situation has a direct parallel in the Bible, specifically the Old Testament. Bit of ancient geopolitics - two regional superpowers back then - Egypt, and for convenience, 'Mesopotamia.' These powers clashed fairly often along the eastern Mediterranean, sometimes one on top, sometimes the other. For long stretches of time, the contested region would be under the sway of puppet kingdoms that answered to one or another of these nations. On occasion, these puppet states would 'band together and go it alone.'

Israel was one such. Then they screwed up. They let a particularly intolerant priestly family take over by acting as regents for a child king. They shaped this child king into their warped version of a 'divine monarch' - which meant persecuting all the other sects in the area, including those of their neighbors. In essence, they broke the alliance that kept Egypt and 'Mesopotamia' at bay. Israel (well, technically Judea) was overrun in decades, with much of the populace exiled.

 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

WTF? 

Japan’s hot spring perverts circulated photos of 10,000 women over 30 years: police

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3209915/japans-hot-spring-perverts-circulated-photos-10000-women-over-30-years-police?utm_source=youtube_community&utm_medium=referral