Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 8,875 Comments »

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50 Comments / 8875 Comments

  1. @Edgar

    This is what I said:

    The only part of my long comment that posted successfully is the one which has no names of Russia from before it was renamed as Russian Federation.

    It would be very odd if the system treated those names on the same level as swear words.

    What was happening for hours – my response to you kept disappearing until I decided to post just a part of it first, and this part, by accident, did not have the terms referring to the S###tU###n before it fell apart and became a Russian Federation plus a bunch of independent states including Ukraine.

    This accident helped me understand what went wrong, and I filled the forbidden words with special characters and reposted the rest of my comment right away.

    If you use those forbidden terms without messing them up first, like people do with swear words, your comment will not go through, and if the “non-kosher” comment is rescued, it will be filled with lots of question marks).

    There is censorship built into the ISRAPUNDIT system, it is not the fault of my computer.

    EMOJIS are those pictures of little round yellow faces with different facial expressions.

    People often use them in their online posts or in their emails.

  2. READER-

    I don’t understand your post down the page about treating emojis as swear words.

    I see plenty of 4 letter words when a certain person expresses her feelings in her post

    What is an emoji??

  3. @Edgar Yes. I grokked that. They said Israel was the lesser of two evils. Question is, would it be good for the Jews to acquire more territory with a “friendly” population or would it dilute the Jewish character of the state further, as well as strategic pros and cons.

  4. SEB-

    The Druze you refer to just added 2 plus 2 and came up with 4. They are covering themselves.
    In the fairly distant past I recall that they wanted to loin up with their Syrian relatives -as Syrians.

  5. READER-

    My post was a kind of synopsis of the modern Ukraine with a brief reference to what I believe drives them

    Much of my Cossack “knowledge” comes from one of m books, “Taras Bulba”, by Gogol, who also wrote the brilliant satirical–humourous book “Dead Souls” I read te latter 3-4 times.

    In real fact I think that they are a agglomeration of a large variety of accrued nomads and displaced peoples, like for instance, The Khazars.

    ****It looks as if your computer has developed an incurable itch, like a massive attack of mosquito bites.****

  6. THIS IS CENSORSHIP!!!

    After I messed up the terms describing you-know-who when it was you-know-what, my comment has posted!

    I did have to remove several question marks but very few.

    Talk about freedom of thought, expression, opinion, etc.!

    That is only for the Nazis, Hitler’s Germany, antisemitic rants, and other civilized topics worthy of discussion.

  7. @Edgar

    Part 1
    The idea of the U$$R or the $-o!v-i-e!t U-n-i-o-n belongs to L$e-n-i$n.

    The Russian E%m-p-i-r-e had within it numerous ethnic minorities, just as the Russian Federation has now.

    L%e-n%i-n hated the “great chauvinism” of the Russian E%m-p-i-r-e, and his idea was to give self-rule ($-o-v-i-e-t R-e-p-u-b-l-i-c-s) to the largest ethnic minorities, and he was convinced that if they have their own states, and these states belong to a strong union, who would want to leave this union?

    This required cutting up the whole land into the new republics with the newly created borders.

    For the smaller minorities, there were (created later, maybe?) autonomous regions and autonomous areas.

    Part 2
    What they now call “Ukraine” was created as a new Republic by adding some of the historically Russian lands to the more or less Ukrainian speaking lands which were not under Polish rule in the early 20s (when Poland became independent, it grabbed what is now Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, and, possibly, a chunk of Lithuania)) which were returned to the U-$$-R in 1939.

    Once those Russian lands were added to form the Ukrainian $$R (S*o*v-i-e-t S@o@c-i-a-l-i-s-t R-e#p-u#b-l-i-c), there was a program of “ukrainization” headed by – wait for it! K-a-g-a~n~o-v-i-c-h – who took his job very seriously.

    Before that there was no Ukrainian state, no matter how proud the population might have been there (BTW, Cossacks were Russian, Ukrainian, etc., and some were even Jewish (very few)).

  8. @Peloni

    I use plain text ONLY – NO clip art or emojis.

    The system inserts the question marks on its own.

    Anyway, looking at the text, you can see that there could be no way anyone could use as many emojis in the text as there are question marks in it.

    Another question is – has the system basically prohibited my participation in the forum today?

    The only comments of mine it lets through are the ones addressed to you about my comments not posting.

    Is it censorship?

    The only part of my long comment that posted successfully is the one which has no names of Russia from before it was renamed as Russian Federation.

    It would be very odd if the system treated those names on the same level as swear words.

  9. @Reader
    It isn’t too long.

    The question marks represent clip art or emojis. Israpundit doesn’t recognize the code for these and i think this is why it is goingtomoderation. If you delete all but text and numbers in your post it will not go to moderation and there should be no question marks.

  10. @Ted Belman
    @Peloni

    Something weird is happening with your system.

    I’ve been trying to post the same comment for several hours without success.

    Finally, Peloni retrieved it, filled with question marks.

    I decided to split it into 3 parts, in case it was too long, even though other people successfully post very long comments.

    One part posted, again, with question marks, and I edited them out.

    The next part disappeared.

    Please, fix whatever needs to be fixed.

    I seem to be the only one it is happening to, and nothing has changed on my side, technology-wise.

  11. @Edgar

    Part 3
    Russians, Belarussians, and Ukrainians differ by language only and the languages differ mostly by pronunciation, and differ “ethnically” by mixing “at the edges” with different neighboring peoples (Ukrainians being closer to Turkey), Russians – closer to Sweden in the northwest or to the Middle Asia peoples in the southeast, etc.

    Western Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine are almost like two different countries.

    Western Ukraine was under Austria-Hungary, Poland, etc., there are still whole Hungarian speaking areas there which Hungary, of course, wishes to reclaim, and Poland is still dreaming about the lands it lost there.

    Western Ukraine has been used by the West against Russia for a couple of hundred years, at least.

    In 2014 Ukraine attacked the areas which at the time only wanted a Russian speaking autonomy inside Ukraine, but the military invasion by the government ultimately caused them to secede and join the Russian Federation.

  12. @peloni

    My rescued comment looks horrible because it is now full of question marks which have the effect of mocking everything I wrote.

    It is not the first time it happened.

    Could you, please, post it again WITHOUT those question marks and delete the one which is full of question marks?

    I tried posting it again, and it disappeared again.

    Could you check the moderation algorithm – it seems to be a bit McCarthyistic.

  13. “BUT there are facts, which show that they are an invaded nation. And regardless of my personal feelings, Victim Nations tn these days have inalienable RIGHTS.”

    They have NO rights and my arguments are many including:

    As I suggested I wouldn’t have called it an SMO. It was an invasion. But a poor one. Putin et Al have certain weaknesses

    I personally am not beholden to the bourgeoisie for anything. After the German Holocaust of the Jews end Germany. There must be repercussions for actions. End of.

    Look at October 7. Again END OF … NO MORE PALESTINE AND PALESTINIANS

    Instead look at sorry state of… Israelis calling for a truce with Palestinians who carried out the October 7.

    As far as I know from memory the victors of the October Revolution recognised Ukraine in 1917-18. The result was…200,000 Jews murdered by many pogroms in Ukraine

    There was still enough life left in the bloodstream of the October Revolution for Trotsky to defeat the dross and have the Pogromists shot by legal process.

    Fact to the nasty rubbish of this present world the Rafaels of israpundit the Jews of Ukraine joined wholeheartedly with Trotsky, Lenin and their MARXISM! In the period 1918 to 1921!

    I do wish they had went further and expunged Ukraine and it’s hated name for good and ever.

    But Russia was INDEED a poor country and the British and American imperial powers were closing in to get their revenge.

    Ukraine should have ended for good after the Pogrom Movement of 1918 to 1921

    That would have been the end of the matter.

    But for that a Trotsky undefeated had to be.

    But as they say…”It is never too late”.

  14. @Edgar

    The idea of the USSR or the Soviet Union belongs to Lenin.?

    The Russian Empire had within it numerous ethnic minorities, just as the Russian Federation ?has now.?

    Lenin hated the “great chauvinism” of the Russian Empire, and his idea was to give self-rule ??(Soviet Republics) to the largest ethnic minorities, and he was convinced that if they have their ?own states, and these states belong to a strong union, who would want to leave this union??

    This required cutting up the whole land into the new republics with the newly created borders.?

    For the smaller minorities, there were (created later?) autonomous regions and autonomous ?areas. ?

    What they now call “Ukraine” was created as a new Republic by adding some of the historically ?Russian lands to the more or less Ukrainian speaking lands which were not under Polish rule in ?the early 20s (when Poland became independent, it grabbed what is now Western Ukraine, ?Western Belarus, and, possibly, a chunk of Lithuania)) which were returned to the USSR in ??1939.?

    Once those Russian lands were added to form the Ukrainian SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic), ?there was a program of “ukrainization” headed by – wait for it! Kaganovich – who took his job ?very seriously.?

    Before that there was no Ukrainian state, no matter how proud the population might have been ?there (BTW, Cossacks were Russian, Ukrainian, etc., and some were even Jewish (very few)).?

    Russians, Belarussians, and Ukrainians differ by language only and the languages differ mostly ?by pronunciation, and differ “ethnically” by mixing “at the edges” with different neighboring ?peoples (Ukrainians being closer to Turkey), Russians – closer to Sweden in the northwest or to ?the Middle Asia peoples in the southeast, etc.?

    Western Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine are almost like two different countries.?

    Western Ukraine was under Austria-Hungary, Poland, etc., there are still whole Hungarian ?speaking areas there which Hungary, of course, wishes to reclaim, and Poland is still dreaming ?about the lands it lost there.?
    ? ?
    Western Ukraine has been used by the West against Russia for a couple of hundred years, at ?least.?

    In 2014 Ukraine attacked the areas which at the time only wanted a Russian speaking autonomy ?inside Ukraine, but the military invasion by the government ultimately caused them to secede ?and join the Russian Federation.?

  15. @Edgar Actually, the Donbas and Luhansk republics seceded from this phony gerrymandered Ukraine and joined the Russian Federation. The Ukraine invaded Russia, actually. Also Transnistria is historically Hungarian. Only western Ukraine is Ukrainian. The Ukrainian state is just another imperialist construct like Syria. And the borders got changed continually in history. It’s never been an independent state before the fall of the Soviet Union. And Chelmieniki wanted to be annexed by Russia. So anachronistic. I sat next to an unveiled woman from Saudi Arabia on the bus who told me that most of it was just a bunch of warring tribes before the 20th century, not part of any state. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, “It’s Sykes-Picot all over again.”

    By the way, I just finished ” The Five” by Jabotinsky. All about intellectuals some of whom are Jewish in Odessa in the early 1900s. Usually classified as a Russian novel which is how it reads.

    How ironic that they’re building a park and naming it after Golda Meir in some Ukrainian city. They want Israeli weapons while they vote to condemn Israel, as does Russia, and give out medals named after Nazis and have neo-Nazis in key positions who are leaving the Jews for later as they focus on wiping out Russians.

    Not that I’m a fan of Russia. Putin just hinted that rootless cosmpolitans are ruining the Russian Orthodox church. Our people need to emigrate from both at the earliest opportunity. “A plague on both their houses.”

    Incidentally, I also just finished volume one of the Zeitlin and am in the middle of the other 2 volumes. Very interesting. Seems to know what he is talking about. Explains contradictions between accounts in different books by Josephus. The Dead Sea Scrolls controversy is minor but it explains why he thinks there is no record of Essene writings. Says the church preserved those of the Apocolypts.

  16. FELIX,

    I’m not surprised that Ukraine hates Russia. Look back at Ukraine history, the centre of the very proud Cossack Hetmans, the storied sweeps of Cossacks in action, and above all their resentment of any outside interference.

    They regarded themselves as a conquered People under the USSR. And also, are ethnically separate from the Russian peoples.

    I’m not advocating for them by any means, as I keep well in my mind the horrifying pogroms which were mainly in Ukraine slaughtering hundreds of thousands helpless Jews.

    As far as I’m concerned if there were to be NO Ukraine, I wouldn’t blink an eye.’

    BUT there are facts, which show that they are an invaded nation. And regardless of my personal feelings, Victim Nations tn these days have inalienable RIGHTS.

  17. @Laura

    I’ll never understand the support Putin and Russia get

    This is because understanding certain things needs an approach that differs from viewing them as a kids’ fight in a sandbox, or as a bar brawl, or whose side we are on as during a sports game.

  18. EDGAR G.

    “I totally agree as “a man in the street” with no political preference.It was RUSSIA which invaded Ukraine, not vice versa, thus THEY are the aggressors, Ukraine the victims.
    Incontrovertible.”

    Yes. Russia did indeed invade Ukraine. But not from the start not near aggressively enough.

    I argue that this invasion was inadequate and has served to open up masses of people to great suffering.

    But I am the opposite to you…I want this Ukrainian outfit to be demolished asap

    And I don’t see Trotsky or Lenin there, in fact to emphasize that, Trotsky’s books are banned as at present or at least not discussed.

    And even good students like Jacques Baud are silent on this Trotsky issue.

    Ukraine in so far as it has entered into conflict with Russia has done so on two things mainly…on the basis of Russia hatred which is a racist type thing, and as a proxy force. As a proxy to be at the forefront of destroying Russia and of the open and a proxy for the stated aims of America, Britain, the EU, and NATO.

    I recognise the evil that this represents and cannot abide that Russia is thus attacked in this way.

    It raises the biggest of issues.

    America has its Monroe Doctrine but seems to make fun of Russia which insists no nukes on our Russian borders.

    How shameful is that.

    But the Russian story is not being adequately told. The leadership on the Russian side has made mistakes.

    Especially Lenin did not act on his own. He argued for what he wanted …to win a majority in his party.

    This was changed as Stalin gained more power. But the democracy In the party works best.

    This I think is what the present Putin regime is not based on. The democracy way of Lenin was superior.

    What might Trotsky have done? You can hazard a very good answer by knowing what policies he proposed to fight Fascism, and not least to defeat Franco. The pivotal Spanish Civil War.

    The Russian people like Putin are not followers, yet, of Lev Davidovic. But will eventually have to be because their hatred for Banderaism has grown

    As an aside…The Ukrainian side is not popular in Ireland at all. Especially not popular with youth who hate Islam.

  19. LAURA-

    I totally agree as “a man in the street” with no political preference.
    It was RUSSIA which invaded Ukraine, not vice versa, thus THEY are the aggressors, Ukraine the victims.

    Incontrovertible.

  20. Just read a very interesting text which shows that Turkey is ALWAYS a “turkey”…

    During WW2 the Turks deprived their Jewish Citizens abroad of their citizenship, leaving them open to being scooped up by the Gestapo et al.
    In Turkey there were pogroms we’ve never heard about as well as several thousands of Turkish Jews collected and handed over to Nazis to end in concentration camps and worse.

    They are on record as being the only “neutral” in history which has turned so critically against it’s minority citizens. Are they any different today???

  21. Complete and utter bullshit. I’ll never understand the support Putin and Russia get from conservatives, least of all Israel supporters.

    Ukraine was in very good shape in the USSR compared to where it is now.

  22. @Laura

    What Medvedev means is:

    Either Ukraine will be a Russian friend (like Belarus) or it will be taken over by the West and will cease to exist (it will lose its sovereignty, it will be used to attack Russia regardless of the damage it would have to suffer, its resources will be plundered, its land will not belong to it anymore). Russia wiil not stop fighting to give them a reprieve.

    This is from me about Ukraine::

    Ukraine was in very good shape in the USSR compared to where it is now.

    Historically, Ukraine has not been able to function on its own and to have its own state other than when it was under or with Russia.

    Soon after the Soviet Union ceased to exist, Ukraine was taken over by the Western Ukrainian nationalists who dream about the way things were in WWII when they were occupied by the Germans, and in that part of Ukraine the hatred of anything Russian is almost inborn (the Polish influence).

  23. Only acceptable outcome for Putin: Ukraine’s complete destruction

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-only-acceptable-outcome-putin-120000144.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&segment_id=DY_VTO_CORE&ncid=crm_19908-1475736-20241220-0&bt_user_id=UnJqRWknihpZfQjxBaqFqK6UWk4xlBZwIfoMIQOlTnghS5TMa%2Fdd7%2BlkV8rE5od4&bt_ts=1734708716765

    The Kremlin is not in pursuit of peace or a ceasefire. Just listen to former-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who recently said out loud what Moscow is thinking, “Today, Ukraine faces a choice to be with Russia or to disappear from the world map altogether.”

    So much for this war being about a territorial conflict or Russia’s imagined NATO threat to itself.

  24. Sebastien Zorn
    December 19, 2024 at 5:59 pm

    I can see both sides. What do people think about the request from six Druze villages to be annexed by Israel?

    Sebastien, it is wonderful! That’s one of the things that led me to exclaim that the Jews had won this bout! Israel, if it has any sort of sense, should take the Druze up on this. Historically, Israel accomodated many peoples as protectorates.

  25. (Dec. 19, 2024 / JNS)
    Israeli cabinet minister Amichai Chikli on Wednesday endorsed an independent Kurdish entity, which he juxtaposed with Syrian jihadist rebels supported by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    https://www.jns.org/israeli-minister-slams-erdogan-endorses-kurdish-autonomy/

    If Israel goes through with this, it will amount to starting a war with Turkey. All I can say is, “If you start it, you need to be ready to finish it”.

  26. Inside Sednaya Prison

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDHB3a9WCX8

    site of inhuman torture by Assad.

    …Syria’s Sednaya prison is where the extreme brutality of the Assad regime over the last 13 years was at its worst.

    Inside the facility’s concrete cells, tens of thousands of prisoners were subjected to extreme torture, mass hangings and “salt rooms”.

    “The salt room is used to torture people, to put dead bodies in that place in order to preserve it. They collect 20 dead bodies, and then they take them out of the prison,” said Ammar al Salmo from Syrian civil defence group, the White Helmets.

    It’s believed the “salt rooms” were used as makeshift morgues to store dead bodies with the smell of decomposing corpses masked by ankle-deep granules of salt, according to the Association of Detainees and the Missing.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-16/syria-sednaya-prison-inside-austin-tice/104731440

  27. Trump:

    We had a good discussion about what will take place in the Middle East

    Translation: “I told Bibi what’s going to take place in the Middle East”.
    You suckers have been had.

  28. A thought just occurred to me, although I’m sure that I’m not the first. With Syria in limbo, wouldn’t this be a convenient place to deport undesirables, or to even settle those who would go willingly, if incentivized.

  29. Half-brother of Hamas leader released from US prison

    -Arutz Sheva

    My comment: He was only a half-brother but he had to serve 3/4 of his sentence? Now is that fair? Where has all the proportionality gone? “Oh, the humanity.”

  30. “US Congressman: Drones over NJ may be linked to ‘Iranian mothership’
    Rep. Jeff Van Drew says senior sources told him the large drones that were spotted over the past few weeks were launched by an Iranian mothership off the coast of the US. The Pentagon denies the claims.
    Israel National News (Arutz Sheva)

    My comment: “Gort, klaatu barada nikto. Klaatu, barada nikto!”

    https://youtu.be/5NZXmq-E2tM?si=2UUR8EYEboZpG493

  31. Peloni

    The problem with your last comment is basically lack of knowledge. I presume you are educated in the high reaches of American academia but try not to insult Trotskyism.

    But anyway what has happened in these countries since the Arab Spring is the opposite of the socialist revolution.

    And Syria is the final and maybe by far the worst.

    These are Fascist desperados

    These vermin have just taken possession of an already ruined country

    We head towards the grinding depths of hell on earth.

    Not in the slightest towards the treasured way and means of culture on top of which a new world that Trotsky envisioned looked to.

    Peloni it is tragic but you have been totally miseducated.

    I look very dimly on the Mudar tweet. Everyone KNOWS that these insurgents are ISIS. I see that Mudar tweet as being the end of the dreaming

    THE TRAGEDY IS THAT SYRIA WAS A TOTALLY BROKEN COUNTRY

    Syria is the country where the criminals could walk in and take over…to hell with sovereignty (Erdogan) and could disregard any previous RESOLUTION

    So even that word on which all civilised life depends loses meaning

    The least, the very least, is to know every single aspect as to what happened because Erdogan is a scavenger…proud Syria was a totally broken country and these are Fascist scavengers. Human beings will find it hard to recover from such lies and lying. Jews will be caught very badly in the upshot of what is about to happen because that is always the final point in the trajectory of the Jake Sullivan scoundrels. Sullivan boasted recently that Al Qaeda was now America’s friend.

    I want to know how they did this. Who trained them? Who gave them satellite info etc?

  32. At the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the leader of Leon Klinghofer’s murderers was found dead in his Baghdad apartment. I voted to re-elect Bush because I supported the war and I don’t regret it. But Iran should have been next not Libya.