It looks like the Fath al-Mubin is about to cross the Orontes River. If they do, I doubt the Syrian Arab Army will be able to hold Homs. The army’s big stand was supposed to occur further north, at Hama, but they barely lasted two days. They certainly aren’t any better dug-in at Homs, so that city is also likely to fall in short order, possibly within hours.

If they cross the Orontes and take Homs, the Fath al-Mubin will be halfway to Damascus. They will face no significant natural barriers between Homs and Qutayfah: It’s all hard-packed desert, perfect for offensive maneuver.

Still, taking Damascus remains unlikely unless the Syrian Arab Army mutinies against the president. The city is simply too large, and there are too many diverse security forces to simply brush aside as in Aleppo or even Hama. My prediction is that the insurgent offensive falters somewhere in the hills above Qutayfah.

@2 Before you know it, they'll occupy Cal Anderson Park. Alert the mayor and council!

@2: lol, I know. But we spend so much time agonizing over Middle Eastern politics and law on this blog, I think it’s worthwhile to spare a thought for the military situation every once in a while. Politics is downstream of war, and law is downstream of politics, so if you’re not at least conversant with the military situation, then you’ll be lost when it comes to the political and legal situations.

I want to give a shout-out to a comment from Buddhamat under yesterday's Slog A.M.:
https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2024/12/05/79811537/slog-am-council-member-saka-accuses-morales-of-exaggerating-bullying-claims-sam-workers-will-rally-on-the-picket-line-cops-search-for-unite/comments/55

buddhamat was saying how refreshing it is to see The Stranger's sister publication, the Portland Mercury, do a morning news roundup with no X links. Instead, there were ample Bluesky links. Also how nice it was to read Wm. Stephen Humphrey, and how much they missed his writing in The Stranger.

But I noticed something else refreshing about how the Portland Mercury does its morning news roundup. No comments.

Just a thought.

Oh no, consternation.

Up the relocation money to 100K. Light rail is the future.

Not treating mental health early, and not being fully compliant with the treatment plan, is like doing the same thing with cancer. It will kill you.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/06/us/daniel-penny-jordan-neely-trial-verdict/index.html

@5, Their consternation is that the businesses get anything at all, not that they get a mere $50k. Individual liberty and rights must be sacrificed for the greater good. How dare a business hold up the greater good by having the public compensate them for the loss they will suffer to accommodate the public.

$50k isn't enough to move the business. The loss of income during the disruption period, plus moving expenses, and then there's finding a new landlord...

It's just not enough. 3-4 times that would be more appropriate. Maybe the city could pay their new lease for a year, or make them immune to any taxes over the disruption period.

Is Seattle going to be serious about businesses and transit or not? Pro business? Prove it.

ST needs to put West Seattle and Ballard on the back burner and focus on getting rail to Tacoma and Everett before the turn of the next century. And Graham Street Station should be the agency's tip-top priority. It's downright scandalous that construction on it hasn't even started after 15 years of service.

"the insurgent offensive"

who would guess that many of these "insurgents" are led by islamists former members of Al Quaeda and Islamic state (HTS), designated as terrorists by most industrialized nations (including the US) and the UN. Try calling Hamas "insurgents" and you'll be called a "terrorist lover" by thugs like thumpus who incidentally also claims that the islamist/terrorist threat in Iraq/Syria had been defeated militarily to pretend that political solutions aren't needed in the region.

It is revealing to listen to corporate media waxing lyrical about the "rebels", and other "anti government forces" currently defeating Assad's forces. If we needed further evidence that the enemies of the warmongers in our midst aren't the freedom denying religious conservatives but the forces that oppose their control of the region whoever they may be. For the record, Assad has to go but not at the cost of Syria being controlled by Islamists.

"Politics is downstream of war, and law is downstream of politics"

If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Welcome to19th century militarism before international institutions were created to prevent war through international law and diplomacy.

@9, What is scandalous is that the poorest neighborhoods in the system are the only ones without grade-separated track. 70% of crashes and service disruptions and 70% of injuries occur in the Rainier Valley.

@10, “War is politics by other means.” - Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831)

"The evil, for-profit [American "healthcare"] [see: Canada] [see: Great Britian] [pre-conservative 'Austerity'] [see also: Scandinavia] [et fucking al] industry that exploits people during the worst moments of their lives is far from fixed, but the violence it inspired—and the gleeful public response to that violence—should signal to the industry and lawmakers that the way the system works is untenable."

what's Untenable is the Violence
corporate America inflicts on
our Populace - but we've
been Well-trained to
Focus on street
crime or the
"crime" of
Home-
lessn-
ess

but:
not to
Worry: the
donold's gonna
quadruple the Po-po
their Powers and Penalties
of all street-type Crime & leave
Corporate America's VASTLY MORE
EXPENSIVE White Collar 'inequities' the
Hell alone. it Is, afterall, Business and if The
Business of America isn't Business (& the Har-
vesting of the Citizenry), then why tf even Bother?

there'll Be
no further 'regulating'
of our FOR-PROFITEERING
"healthcare" System and if you was
Rich, then maybe you just might Understand*

now get out there
& try Not to get Too
fucking Sick! your Fambly's
depending on YOU! good luck!

*Smile!
It's Just
late-stage
Capitalism!

@4

"But
I noticed
something else
refreshing about how
the Portland Mercury does its
morning news roundup. No comments."

yes
these
comments
if they weren't
Here, your day'd
be Vastly Improved.

hmmm.
that seems
to me to be a
most Easily-Solved

'problem.'

@4 "No comments."

I have a suggestion for you: don't read the comments.

Just a thought.

@11 Totally agree but that train has left the station, so to speak. At the very least the people who have to live with that hazard should be able to access the service.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/seattle-police-veteran-files-tort-claim-alleging-discrimination-retaliation/

@11: That was known back in the mid-90s, when we debated what has since become known as ST1. The bean counters insisted the South Seattle rail not be elevated. Residents of that area demanded grade-separation, and were denied.

The result was classic Seattle vision failure: a small, one-time savings on capital expenditure, to drive up future operating costs forever. No amount of mitigation at grade level can ever reduce collision risk as much as grade-separation can. This was known back then, and every person harmed or killed by collisions since was knowingly sacrificed, to reduce the initial cost of building the line. The decision was indefensible even then, and nothing can ever redeem it.

@12 "War is the politics of extremists" - averagebob, 2024

@14, The EverOut and Bold Type Tickets are the parts of Noisy Creek that are profitable. Noisy Creek should just kill The Stranger and Mercury and stick to arts and entertainment. Then there would be no money losing content for people to comment on.

@mr Magoo

if you were to
discontinue, you'd
reduce the 'problem'
by well over 84%. try it

we'll Like it.

@10: Ha ha ha, what are you on about now? I myself have called Hamas insurgents in these very pages! 😂😂😂

And I certainly never claimed that the entire insurgent and terrorist threat in both Iraq and Syria had been defeated by military force. You're arguing with the Thumpus in your head, bruh, you need to argue with the Thumpus on your screen! 😆

I did claim that the Islamic State had been defeated by military force. Maybe that's the claim you think was mistaken?? But if that's your argument, then you're just flat wrong, which is normal when it comes to your understanding of the Middle East! 😂 Just because the US, Iraqis, and Kurds were able to defeat the Islamic State does not mean that the Syrian Arab Army, Russians, and Iranian-aligned militias will necessarily be able to defeat the Fath al-Mubin. Different parties, different fight, different outcome!

The Middle East is a complicated place, nowhere more so than in Syria, so I am not surprised you sometimes get things a little mixed up. (So many Arabic words, so confusing! 😆) But you can always count on Professor Thumpus to hold your hand whenever you need! 😛

averagebob @14, I'm perfectly fine. I would just rather not see The Stranger give a forum for fishy right-wing influencers like you. That's all.

Let's face it, when we remove the right-wing influencers and the cranks/crackpots from a Slog comment thread, there's not much left. In which case, your point about just not reading the comments is well-taken.

@21, See @18b. Take it one-step further. Strip away money losing SLOG, news, and opinion writing from Noisy Creek so that the profitable parts remain. Take away something to comment on, and the result will be no comments.

@13

speaking of 'keeping Cool with Cal [-vin Coolidge,
President just prior to the Great Depression]'
[not to be Confused with gee dubya
bush's Great Recession] here's the
Rest of his 'the Business of
America' comment:

“Of course, the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence,” he said. “But we are compelled to recognize it as a means to well-nigh every desirable achievement. So long as wealth is made the means and not the end, we need not greatly fear it … But it calls for additional effort to avoid even the appearance of the evil of selfishness. In every worthy profession, of course, there will always be a minority who will appeal to the baser instinct. There always have been, probably always will be, some who will feel that their own temporary interest may be furthered by betraying the interest of others.”

THAT's the Part of Cool Cal's
speech which's been totes Ignored
and's given Us 'United Healthcare' and
our For-profit 'healthcare' system and an
outta Control Military/Industrial Complex
(thanks for pointing that Out, Ike!) and our
Greed is GOOD mentality & Predatory Cap-
italism for the "bottom" 90 fucking percent.

@14
jinx! you owe
me some Coke!

@20 The search function reveals that you have ONCE compared civilian to insurgent victims in Gaza, and otherwise used terrorists in conjunction with Hamas dozens of times. You yet have to call Syrian insurgents, islamists or terrorists.

You have claimed that the terror groups that spun off from the dissolution of the Iraqi state were militarily defeated and that no other solution was needed when I argued for a political solution

otherwise your hahas+emojis+the customary posturing+denial aren't very convincing

@21 As already said before, I challenge you to cite one right-wing influencing comment authored by me. As per usual, I don't expect a substantive reply.

@'averagebob'

Shocked and Amazed
I am to discover (from cresso)
that you Are, in Fact, a 'right wing'
Plant! who Knew that battling 'centrists,'
RWNJs & Liars here @tS'd earn you 'right' wings.

@24: I don't know what to tell you, man, terrorism is a commonly used form of violence by insurgents, this point seems obvious to me but maybe not so much to you? 😃

As for the Islamic State, yeah, the military solution was the political solution. That's why the Islamic State has fallen from governing tens of millions of people in a territory the size of Britain to maybe "governing" a couple of remote villages in the WERV, at least whenever they think the Kurds aren't looking. 🤣 The political solution was to kill their fighters and take over their land, and it worked. Sorry you feel raw about it. 🤣

@18, And we have always had extremists, and we have always had war.

@1: They are across the Orontes in large numbers now, going through the Syrian Arab Army outside of Homs like a hot knife through butter. Unclear whether the government has anything in Homs proper to stop them, looking like no. If I were al-Assad, I would pull everything back to Qutayfah and try for a stand on solid defensive terrain.

"He suffered severe injuries to his arms and legs before a neighbor came outside and shot it."

When seconds count, the game warden is minutes away.

@27 Terror is a tactics used by a variety of actors including non-state and state entities that involves the use of violence against non combatants. For example, Israel routinely uses terror to achieve ethnic cleansing and Hamas used terror during its Oct 7 attack on Israel. Terrorism is a tactical choice, not an identity like right winger or media pretend when they resume Hezbollah or Hamas to being "terrorists" and nothing else.

"the military solution was the political solution"

where is the clown emoji when it is needed? A political solution addresses the grievances of all involved so that it is workable

"The political solution was to kill their fighters and take over their land, and it worked."

clearly not as some of the same Islamist actors form a major fraction of the Syrian anti-government rebels

"A political solution addresses the grievances of all involved so that it is workable."

Except in the case of Hezbollah, Hamas, and Israel, there is no solution that does that.

Hezbollah and Hamas grievances are that infidels exist in Levant, specifically at and around the Temple Mount. The Jews want Jerusalem as their exclusive capital and to rebuild the Temple at the site of the Temple Mount.

It's a zero sum game. If Hamas and Hezbollah get their objectives, Israel, Jews, and all other infidels cease to exist in the Levant. The grievances are maximalist and there is no compromise that can mutually satisfy them.

averagebob @25: "@21 As already said before, I challenge you to cite one right-wing influencing comment authored by me. As per usual, I don't expect a substantive reply."

averagebob, don't play dumb. It's pretty obvious that your mission on these threads in to advance a right-wing agenda. If you don't like my saying that, you're always welcome to report me to the moderators.

But let me not just make this about this one individual. My challenge to Hannah Murphy Winter and Brady Walkinshaw is to take a look at this comment thread, or any Slog A.M. comment thread, and ask yourself, "Do you think this is constructive? Do you think this represents your readership or the local community? Are you proud of this?"

what might
Happen were
tS to thin its Ranks?

can we
Vote on it?

[btw @9's
at 90 recs]
bravissima

pay to Play?
vote w/our
Wallets?

.10 cents
/word?

nyt's only
4/wk it's 5
w/ Bennies

oops!
nyt's $4
for 30 DAYS

$5/m.ish w/Bennies!

@31: "clearly not as some of the same Islamist actors form a major fraction of the Syrian anti-government rebels"

Good grief, you can't conflate the Fath al-Mubin and the Islamic State. The members of Fath al-Mubin have been fighting the Islamic State for nearly a decade. They killed one of the Islamic State's caliphs. They're the reason the Islamic State never took over Idlib. You gotta follow war news before you weigh in on war topics, my dude! 😄 You fundamentally do not understand the fighting in Syria or anywhere else in the Middle East. 😛

@33: Just get on Bluesky. I promise you'll be able to fulfill your dream of hearing only opinions that you agree with, or at least that you are afraid to disagree with, all day every day.

They changed the name of their organization, split from al qaeda and focused on Syria but their goals and ideology are still the same:

"The coalition of advancing rebels is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group previously affiliated with Al Qaeda. Although it split with Al Qaeda in 2016 and has attempted to gain international legitimacy, it is still designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/world/middleeast/syria-rebels-damascus-iran.html

"Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the militant group that has seized control of Aleppo and parts of Hama in a surprise offensive, has a complex history in Syria's long-running conflict.

Originally established in 2011 as the terror group Jabhat al-Nusra, it began as an Al Qaeda affiliate and has since evolved into one of Syria's most powerful opposition forces against the government of Basher Al-Assad, which failed to defeat the opposition in the north of the country since the majority of fighting stopped some years ago.

The group's origins are tied to both Al Qaeda and ISIS, with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi involved in its initial formation. Under its original name, Jabhat al-Nusra quickly gained a reputation as one of the most effective fighting forces against President Bashar al-Assad's government, though its jihadist ideology set it apart from the mainstream Syrian opposition.

A significant shift came in 2016 when the group's leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, publicly split from Al Qaeda. The organisation rebranded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham after merging with several other militant groups in 2017.

Since then, HTS has focused on establishing fundamentalist Islamic rule within Syria and removing the Al-Assad regime, rather than pursuing the broader international jihadist agenda of groups like ISIS."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/who-are-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-and-the-syrian-groups-that-took-aleppo/ar-AA1v8mN5

@33 You are a pretty strange person, to put it mildly.

@39 is for posturing clown @37, of course.

averagebob @40, I think we've reached an equilibrium. You can attack me personally, and I can call you out for posting what's going on 800 comments in just six months on this blog that seem to be finely honed to sabotage and undermine progressivism.

I'll step away from this thread and let you get the last word. I'm sure I have it coming!

you've a Huge cast of
anti-Progressives to choose
from -- wormmy, his chatterpuppet
d13r mr Magoo et al & you pick out a
Progressive to call anti-Progressive. or is
it like when anti-Genociders are actually anti-
Semites like Bernie fucking Sanders, eg? I'm puzzled

oh and is
This considered
a "personal Attack"?

pehaps ending
these comments
might begin with You?

but then again
you might be using
the Wormtongue Offense
where up is Down and down is
over There & if you should Fail the
Progressive Purity Test (see wormmy for
Deets) then you're Obviously an Anti-progressive

and Work for eltrumpfster
Pooty and Ho Chi Minh.

yeah, you'e
correct: This sux.

@39, Welcome to the Middle East.

But let's just have all those groups sit in a room together, sing Kumbaya, and come to reasonable political solution that satisfies all those groups aims.

@39: lol, look at Bob struggling to figure out the difference between the Islamic State and a group that is literally at war with the Islamic State. Brilliant work as always, Bob! 🤣 Like @42 says, you do the progressive cause proud! 😂

Something for weekend pondering:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/motorcyclist-killed-in-queen-anne-crash/

All murders are homicides, but most homicides are not criminal.

All homicides are tragic, but most tragedies aren't crimes.

Have a great weekend everyone.

@36 kristofarian - some things don't change. Back in May 2020 you had a comment that suggested the same ten-cent price for a Slog comment-edit and the NYT was the same $1 per week.

If anyone has interest, it's a good comment page from COVID days when the Stranger was asking for donations. People were saying that they might donate if the troll problem was solved (the trolls had different names back then); Cressona tells Kristo and Christina they are feeding the trolls; xina listed 10 better charities towards which to direct your donation dollars, then
"OR
Give to The Stranger.
decisions, decisions, decisions."

Also, @38 Unfiltered Opinion made their debut that day.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/05/04/43568553/an-update-on-the-stranger/comments/15

@13 Oodles of the Violence
that seldom gets
reported

from: In the Public Interest:
the “Silent Violence” of
Corporate Greed
and Power

For decades consumer groups have been sounding clarion calls for action against the “silent violence” causing massive casualties that arise from the unbridled power of corporate greed, criminal negligence or indifference.

They cite statistical and case studies that the media and lawmakers mostly ignored or relegated to low levels of enforcement.

Corporate bosses just have their corporate lawyers and public relations hacks brush away such warnings and pleas. One day stories they knew would not have legs if they just kept quiet or mumbled some general words of regret, promising some vague improvements to their products and services.

But year after year, the deadly toll goes up, not down, and the horrors continue. For example, at least 5000 people A WEEK die in hospitals in the U.S. due to “preventable problems,” concluded a peer-reviewed study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine physicians in 2016.

This is just one of numerous such studies of hospital-induced infections, overuse of antibiotics, medical malpractice or what is called “medical error,” prescribing bundles of drugs that backfire, “accidents,” deskilling and understaffing.

There has been no mass mobilization by either government officials or industry executives to address this staggering toll of at least 250,000 fatalities a year!

Behind these figures are real people with families, friends and coworkers shocked, incensed or despondent over avoidable losses of life and preventable harms. Some of them undoubtedly knew the specific causes and demanded correction and compensation, to no avail.

--by Ralph Nader; December 6, 2024

tonnes More:
https://mailchi.mp/nader/the-silent-violence-of-corporate-greed-and-power?

Ralph's atop wormmy's
List of Anti-Progressives
mostly because he Hates
Progressivism and can easily
Blame Ralph for the Supreme ct's
Stopping Fla's handcount of the 2000
Election that handed the Presidency to gee
dubya bush, all because the 'USSC' said to do
Otherwise'd "hurt the bush\CHENEY campaign"

neverminding fla goobernor
bush eliminating 100,000
likely-Dem voters from
Fla's voting rolls.

and in Other news:
nyt:

Ocasio-Cortez Seeks House
Post That Would Make Her
a Top Foil to Trump

After years of challenging her party from the left,
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
a New York Democrat, announced a bid
to join its leadership ranks in Congress.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York built her reputation clashing with House Democratic leaders. Now, for the first time, she will take a shot at joining their ranks.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez announced on Friday that she would seek the coveted position of top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, challenging a more senior colleague to fill the vacancy.

If she succeeds and is chosen as the panel’s ranking member, the 35-year-old congresswoman would be by far the youngest Democrat to help lead a House committee.

She would gain a platform not only to investigate President-elect Donald J. Trump’s administration but also to help her party chart a path back from electoral defeat [Disaster].

“Democrats will face an important task: We must balance our focus on the incoming president’s corrosive actions and corruption with a tangible fight to make life easier for America’s working class,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a letter to colleagues.

“I will lead by example by always keeping the lives of everyday Americans at the center of our work.”

But first she must contend with Representative Gerald E. Connolly, 74, a pugnacious, well-liked eight-term incumbent from Virginia who has pitched himself as a more seasoned* investigator.

--by Nicholas Fandos; Dec. 6, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/nyregion/aoc-house-oversight-committee.html

Excellent.
We’re gonna
Need a fucking
Firebrand all Over el-
trumpfster’s ample arse

plus whyNot a Gateway to
the Whitehouse.

*we
Need Us
another FDR
she’d Run with it

so the “D”NC’s
likely anti-AOC:

"We'll get it
Right Eventually!"
--@"d"nc

"TRUST us!"
--also 'd'nc

AOC = Tipping
Point? will WE have
the Stones they have in
South Korea to stand Up to
fascism when the donold has AOC
Arrested on the Floor of the House of Reps?

may we 'live in
Interesing times'?
it's about to get very

Interesting. buckle up.

@51 kristofarian: I personally am not looking forward to going back to January 20, 1825.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrAGPVeVaSQ

https://youtu.be/rsD8mrKnC0I?feature=shared

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z46qfbmWKQU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrOhxAvQNvc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnG18ud9prU

@49: Wow. I posted a single comment in this thread, on-topic about Seattle light rail, and you attack me with one of your endless off-topic comments about Ralph Nader. I'd marvel at my ability to live rent-free in your head, were it not for its narrowly confined space, total lack of light, excruciatingly foul stench, and an army of maggots contending with the army of cockroaches over the last scrap of Mad Cow.

Why don't I like Nader? Well, primarily, it was because he eagerly took Republican money to defeat John Kerry in 2004:

"If you're among a growing number of clever conservatives, determined to bleed votes from John Kerry at any price, you write a check to Ralph Nader." (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/09/nader-republicans/303422/)

(It's now a theme with you hard lefties: your idols always wind up stumping for the hard right candidates.)

My second reason is material such as you have here copypasted. The field of medicine has recently (21st century) begun adopting the quality-control practices from other fields of human endeavor, and are seeing a reduction in medical errors as a result. This is a long-term effort at industrywide systemic reform, and Nader blaming his usual bogeymen for lack of progress merely shows his complete lack of understanding of the topic. (Of course, you eat it all up as Revealed Truth, but that's just further evidence it's wrong.)

Manslaughter charge against Daniel Penny dismissed - thank God!

@38, This is such a strange and whiny argument, one that no one made when right wingers were fleeing Twitter for a safe space on Gab and Truth Social because they couldn’t use slurs. You only hear this now that everyone else is abandoning the nazi disinformation app that Musk made of it for one that enforces its terms of service so people can connect with friends and peers, the thing social media was actually designed for.

@58: Nah, everyone very much made fun of the Gabbers and Truthers for leaving. I think you only hear the mockery this time because it’s directed at people you like. 😉

Trying to tax ONLY the wealthy is a game of whack-a-mole.

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/how-one-of-the-worlds-richest-men-is-avoiding-8-billion-in-taxes/

“You have an army of well-trained, brilliant people who sit there all day long, charging $1,000 an hour, thinking up ways to beat this tax,” said Jack Bogdanski, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School and the author of a widely cited treatise on the estate tax. “Don’t expect anyone in Congress to stop this.”

When $8 billion is on the table, $1,000 an hour to save $8 billion becomes rather inexpensive.

The answer? Tax lots of things and people at low rates, so that $1,000 an hour doesn't pencil out verses what you save.

@57, That clears up matters for the jury to focus on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, which better fits the facts of the case.

There is still a decent probability of him being not guilty.

One thing is clear from this case. Untreated mental illness can kill just as certainly as untreated cancer.

59 were there breathless articles in the times and the atlantic arguing that they didn’t understand the point of social media because I just remember people making fun of bigots for thinking they had a constitutional right to harass people

@62: Ha ha ha, there were literally dozens of breathless articles on this very topic in the Times and the Atlantic during each year between 2020 and 2022. They didn't raise your hackles at the time because they were dunking on your out-group. But now that they've started dunking on your in-group, you think the criticism is...[checks @58]..."strange and whiny." 😂

63, Any examples to share? My memory of that era was Trump and a bunch of his followers getting banned from Twitter and Facebook for incitement and harassment. I don’t recall anyone arguing that confrontation and disagreement were an important part of the social media experience, only that they had to create spaces for themselves because they weren’t allowed to behave as they were on the big platforms.

So I suppose in that sense it’s a completely different reason for leaving than everyone choosing to go to Bluesky, because a lot of them were forced out. I just think it’s weird to argue that you’re doing social media wrong if you want to socialize with people you like, and whiny to concern yourself with other people’s choices that don’t affect you at all. If there were literally dozens of articles making this case for right wingers I have not been able to find them. If anything people were relieved these accounts were banned because they could socialize in relative peace.

https://youtu.be/4LZ0ZXBQABo?feature=shared

Happy Hollandaise

Will we see a mea culpa from The Stranger over being wrong about this?

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/undercover-deputies-found-actions-justified-in-king-county-killing/

@64: right right, WE are nothing like THEM! 😃

so that’s a no on the examples then

@68: you’ll find them, I believe in you 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B4OA0gYBpg

@69, No really, all the media I found from that period recounts a bunch of Twitter clones materializing to absorb all the far-right accounts who were banned for violating the TOS.

You just said there were literally dozens of examples so I figured you had at least one or 2 handy.

@71: lol, I can do you better than that. here is an up-to-date list of Google search operators, you can actually use them for anything:

https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime 😆

I know how to google thanks. That’s how I know I wasn’t able to find any media admonishing conservatives for fleeing Twitter. It’s because they were all exiled.

I just figured you wouldn’t make a declarative statement about literally dozens of articles without being able to prove even one of them exists.

@1, @29: Incredible scenes out of Syria over the past 24 hours. The Syrian Arab Army abandoned its posts in Homs en masse. The Fath al-Mubin controls the main highways in and out of the city. The only organized resistance by the pro-government forces are by Shiite militias, both local and Lebanese. Insurgents are now fighting south of the city. Syrian Arab Army forces south of the city are evacuating by helicopter out of Shayrat Air Base. All of this I predicated yesterday, but it's still amazing to see it happen in real-time.

Yesterday, my advice to the Syrian Arab Republic was to pull everything back to Qutayfah, the next defensible terrain south of Homs. Unfortunately for the government, it may now be too late. The M5 highway between Damascus and Qutayfah was cut today. Insurgents have seized Douma and Agra, with the Syrian Arab Army retreating before them without resistance. This development means that, once the insurgents clean up the militiamen in Homs, they'll be able to drive right up to the northern suburbs of Damascus. There will be nothing in their way.

If anything, the situation south of Damascus looks even worse. All of Daraa Governate is now in the hands of the rebels' southern front. These southerners were the same "Free Syrian Army" groups the US was arming and training during the Obama and Trump administrations, but which subsequently surrendered to the Syrian Arab Republic. Seemingly out of nowhere, the southern insurgents have now re-armed themselves, and the government hadn't been keeping anything in southern Syria to contain them. The southern insurgents have now advanced to the very outskirts of Damascus and are on the verge of overrunning the major airbase at Mezzah.

Latakia on the coast is looking like the government's last enclave outside Damascus. Latakia hasn't been touched yet and can call on massive Russian air and naval firepower in addition to the organic assets of the Syrian Arab Army. Latakia is, however, cut off by land from Damascus now that the Fath al-Mubin are south of Homs. One possible scenario for the government, in the event Damascus cannot withstand the brewing siege, would be to evacuate senior leadership to Latakia and attempt to hold out there. The area has a high density of Shiite Syrians and a land border with Lebanon, so it may be possible to recruit and import enough militiamen to enable Latakia to withstand a siege.

I still think the government is likely to attempt a stand in Damascus proper, and they may find some success. In classic Baathist tradition, the defense of the capital is prioritized above all else, so whatever assets al-Assad has been husbanding will be available to him there. As a fallback, retreat by air to Latakia and run the same playbook there, except with the addition of ethnic militiamen and extra Russian firepower.

@73, lol, dude...

if this was like, one obscure document or something, I would probably just spoonfeed it to you. But east coast news magazines castigating the right for fleeing twitter was, like, an entire literary genre back in those days. I really feel like you would benefit, in this instance, from searching it out yourself, it really is not hard to find. 😊

@65: This is better:

https://youtu.be/0r5v2KPBN8g

75, I did search, thanks. From what I read no one was castigating conservatives for fleeing debate on Twitter because they were all banned, but I would welcome you proving me wrong.

I just don’t understand what you get from insisting something is true when you can’t prove it. So much easier and more dignified to just admit you misspoke.

@77: Sorry, but “I can’t find a single instance of the Atlantic sneering at right-wing Twitter behavior” is not a problem I’m willing to help you out with! 🙄

We’re not talking about “right wing twitter behavior” as a general concept or the Atlantic specifically but of course you know all that. You said there were “literally dozens” of articles describing events that never happened and now I’m just wondering how many times you can shift the goalposts in a single thread instead of just admitting you made it up. I think we’re at 3 now.

“You have an army of well-trained, brilliant people who sit there all day long, charging $1,000 an hour, thinking up ways to beat this tax,” said Jack Bogdanski, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School and the author of a widely cited treatise on the estate tax. “Don’t expect anyone in Congress to stop this.”

...thinking up ways to beat this tax...

What? A deduction is allowed or isn't allowed as laid out in IRS regulations. What is this "thinking up ways" supposed to be?

@80, You will have to read the linked article, from which those quotes came, to find out.

The IRS Code is not as black and white and you perceive it to be.

Five people shot in the International District. So far, all have lived, with only one requiring surgery.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/5-people-shot-in-seattles-chinatown-international-district/

It's a good thing their assailant used a gun, not a golf club. Someone could have died.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/florida-golfer-fatally-beaten-with-his-own-clubs-in-a-random-attack-police-say/

@79: Oh my god, fine, you tantrummed your way into it, I’ll give you one. This took FIVE SECONDS of googling dude, and there are TONS of other articles like this:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/right-wing-social-media-finalizes-its-divorce-reality/617177/

Feels weird to read the words “Parler” and “Rumble” in 2024, lol!

@56

“Wow. I posted a single comment in this thread, on-topic about Seattle light rail, and you attack me with one of your endless off-topic comments… “

--@Wormtongue,
Richly, considering its
Propensity for DEMANDING
I call Hamas’ Attack on Israel
Genocide in virtually Every thread
Regardless of topic for Months on End

As long as we’re talking about Ongoing Genocide

and speaking of aiding and abetting war crimes

from In the Public Interest
today:

Gaza is now the world capital of child amputation. And that doesn't even cover the true horror, because Israel blocks any anesthesia from entering Gaza as a means of imposing further agony on the population that they are subjecting to genocide.

Which means those amputations are being carried out on children and adults without anesthesia and often without sterile equipment or adequate hospitals, such that even if they survive the excruciating agony of an amputation without anesthesia, they may well not survive the side effects.

They may well not survive the infection.

The irony is that in November, the UN announced that Israel had paid its dues in full in order to preserve its membership and to continue to fund the UN— an organization that the Israelis say is a terrorist, anti-Semitic organization dedicated to its destruction, is an organization that they have decided to be a member of and to fund.

So when you look at the kind of propaganda that they distribute…

You can see how ironic and how outrageous it really is.
I've said that it would be hard to imagine any country
in the history of the organization more deserving –
at a minimum -- of suspension from
the UN General Assembly.

No country
in history has
violated the principles
of the UN Charter more than Israel,
and it has done so from the
moment of its admis-
sion in 1948.

--by Craig Mokhiber

. . . an international human rights lawyer and activist, and a former senior United Nations human rights official. A human rights activist in the 1980s, he would go on to serve for more than three decades at the United Nations, with postings in Switzerland, Palestine, Afghanistan, and UN Headquarters in New York.

In October of 2023, he left the United Nations, penning a widely read letter criticizing the UN’s human rights failures in the Middle East, warning of unfolding genocide in Gaza, and calling for a new approach to Palestine and Israel based on international law, human rights, and equality.

oodles:
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/p/israels-wall-of-impunity?

Our tax dollars.
Hard At
Work.

@84, " ... calling for a new approach to Palestine and Israel based on international law, human rights, and equality."

How is that working out for him?

@85. He got your attention.

@85

yours and wormmy's
insidious clamoring for Instant
Affirmation is Ridiculous on its face

troll
Harder.

@1, @29, @74: Events in Syria are unfolding faster than I can keep up! Damascus appears to have fallen without a fight!

Where is the president? Has he embraced the Latakia fallback strategy I suggested in @74? Or has he thrown in the towel completely and fled to Iran? If the latter, it would mean the end of Baathism after 61 years!

And what to take the place of Hizb-al-Baath? A salaffiya Islamic emirate? But the Fath al Mubin’s civilian arm holds elections, and elections are not part of the salaf! On the other hand, if the victorious insurgents are not to impose the manhaj of the salaf, then for what did their martyrs shed their precious blood? 🤪

These are thorny questions. Syrians will have strong opinions about them. Something tells me that even if al-Assad hasn’t fled to Latakia, even if he has abjured the land, that the rifle fire we’re hearing in Damascus tonight won’t be the last shots fired in this war… 😬

speaking of art-
ificial 'intelli-
gence'

when you sock someone
with your puppet why
not call it for what
it Does -- thump
Us. brilliant in
its own De-
vious way

sans any fealty to known Truths
what it lacks in factual discernment
it more than makes up for in Quantity

and countering
its Lies can be
a Full-time
Job.

@1, @29, @74, @88: Wow, possible shootdown of President al-Assad’s escape plane! A Syrian Il-76 flying out of Damascus in the general direction of Latakia experienced a sudden loss of altitude and inexplicable course change, nearly a 180, before its transponder stopped transmitting.

Transponder data can be faked, and this Il-76 may have been carrying someone other than al-Assad. I am for now putting the odds of his death in an air crash at 2:1 against. Still, the fact that it’s even on the table at all is astonishing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYZ8hP63WKk

@84: You've used the word "genocide," for months on end, to describe the Israeli-Hamas conflict. On some occasions when you so used it, I would ask you if it applied to Hamas' 10/7 attacks on Israeli civilians. Suddenly, your absolute certainty the word "genocide" applied simply vanished, and you were never able to answer my very simple, on-topic question.

If you don't know what a word means, then you might want to avoid using it.

@92

'blah blah blah blah
and you were never able to
answer my very simple, on-topic question.'

my refusal to answer your
Demand, repeated, like I said,
over MONTHs, irregardless of the
'Topic' at hand had Nothing to Do with
my Ability to Answer your DEMAND it and now
suddenly You're the Victim? that's Rich, coming from you.

utter claptrap, wormmy
now, get Back to your
support for bibi's ON-
Going GENOCIDE or
Genocide Lite! or
whatever dimin-
ishes this Mas-
sacre you've
Helped to
Enable.

we
See
You.

@87, You didn't answer the question.

Looking back over the full arc of human history, is there any evidence of new, improved, abiding modes of human conflict resolution? Any evidence that humans are able to improve humanity's nature?

@93: Well, that was pretty logorrheic, even by your standards. Again, I asked you about the word "genocide" because you had freely chosen to use it, to describe the current Israel-Hamas conflict, which began with Hamas' attack on Israelis in Israel on 10/7. My questions were therefore on-topic -- at least, to the topic you'd introduced.

What any of that has to do with your completely off-topic references to Nader and myself @49, you have yet to explain.

"@49 [moi]: Wow. I posted a single comment in this thread, on-topic about Seattle light rail, and you attack me with one of your endless off-topic comments about Ralph Nader."

"off-Topic"?

directly from Friday's Schlogg AM:

"The evil, for-profit [American "healthcare"] [see: Canada] [see: Great Britian] [pre-conservative 'Austerity'] [see also: Scandinavia] [et fucking al] industry that exploits people during the worst moments of their lives is far from fixed, but the violence it inspired—and the gleeful public response to that violence—should signal to the industry and lawmakers that the way the system works is untenable."

my comments involving Ralph Nader
could not be More On Topic:

"The evil, for-profit industry that exploits people during the worst moments of their lives is far from fixed, but the violence it inspired—and the gleeful public response to that violence—should signal to the industry and lawmakers that the way the system works is untenable."

that you Disagree with
it's merely further Proof
you'll do or say Anything
to Discredit any Progressive
movement in this Country, about
to be swallowed Whole by Unbridled

Capitalism.

there Will be more
"2nd amendment solutions"

as long as the Profiteers can neither
fathom nor GAF when it comes to
the "bottom" 90%'s situation

or
to put
it into Switfy's
indeliable comment:

"Republicans may be
waking up to the fact that
grinding people to dust for profit
while also letting them have all the guns
they want might not have been a smart idea.

--@Swiftress on December 5, 2024 at 10:11 AM"

time for even
You to get
on board.

from the Chris Hedges Report:

The Killing of Brian Thompson

We do not yet know the motive for the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

But it would not surprise me if the killer stalked Thompson because UnitedHealthcare had denied medical coverage, or forced a family or an individual into bankruptcy, after the company failed to cover a serious illness.

Insurers reject about 1 in 7 claims for treatment, often by deciding the treatment is not “medically necessary.”

Among 10 high-income nations, the United States spends the most on health care but has the worst health outcomes. Americans die four years earlier than their counterparts in other industrialized nations.

There are more than 200 million Americans who rely on private health insurance, but once they become seriously ill, they are often tossed aside, left with crippling medical bills and unable to receive adequate treatment.

Exorbitant medical bills account for about 40 percent of bankruptcies. Many of those driven into bankruptcy because of medical bills had medical insurance.

[all that Homelessness?
Look no further than to
Predatory Capitalism]

The revenue of six largest insurers -- Anthem, Centene, Cigna, AVS/Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth -- have more than quadrupled from 2010 to $1.1 trillion. Combined revenues of the 3 biggest -- United, CVS/Aetna and Cigna -- have quintupled.

These corporations, in moral terms, are legally permitted to hold sick children hostage while their parents bankrupt themselves to save their sons or daughters. That many die, at the very least premature deaths, because of these policies is indisputable.

Nothing absolves the killer of Thompson, but nothing absolves those who run for-profit health care corporations that embrace a business model that destroys and terminates lives in the name of profit.

--by Chris Hedges
Dec 08, 2024

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-killing-of-brian-thompson-read

now
wormmy
tell us how
this too is “off-topic.”

& don't forget to mention
the Genocide that
"Ain't."

oh,
and:
was Hamas'
Terrorism on October 7th
"Genocide"? You've claimed it was
fifty billion times: that oughtta cover it.

wow.
ninetynine
comments.