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 | 8,735 Comments »

Leave a Reply

50 Comments / 8735 Comments

  1. @ Reader This is the latest from iron felix zelinsky:

    You talk mountains essentially lies

    Don’t tell us not to harass him. He’s not just harmlessly harping on his pet obsession. He’s a mimofant.

    Wiktionary, the free dictionary
    https://en.wiktionary.org
    mimophant – Wiktionary, the free dictionary
    mimophant (plural mimophants). (uncommon) A person with extreme social self-centered double standards, especially about personal feelings

    A term Bertrand Russell coined to mean someone with the sensitivity of a mimosa when it comes to their own feelings but the insensitivity of an elephant when it comes to that of others.

  2. @Sebastien Zorn

    I asked 2 questions of Madeline, the first question was whether she read my comment from March 2. 8:44am, and she never answered the first question.

    And I noticed that you said that my comment was missing and I asked you whether the 8:44am comment was the one that you couldn’t see.

    I wasn’t discussing any theories, I just explained my line of reasoning in this case which was based on looking at the big picture/ using bird’s eye view of things (wide, not cursory)/whatever.

  3. @Reader So what’s your question? Does this theory have predictive value? I don’t know. Has anyone tried to disprove it? Has the West been attacking Russia through proxies? Yes, obviously. Is that what Trump is trying to do? Doesn’t seem like it. Do countries always act in their own best interest? No. I still cringe when I recall President Clinton’s apology tour over the ouster of Mossadegh. It was one of the things that emboldened Bin Laden.

    I think Trump means what he says. and it makes sense. But we’ll see. I’ve been wrong before.

    I don’t believe in historical inevitability. even if a theory seems to fit the known facts in a given period.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_unknown_unknowns

  4. @Sebastien Zorn (from the shoo-out-at -the-white-house)

    @Reader I answered your statement posed as a question at March 3rd at 1:27am posed to me and Madeleine. The one from 8:44 isn’t there.

    The one from March 2, 8:44am is still here – you are not seeing it because you are blocked from it, for some reason.

    I am reposting it because your answer had nothing to do with my full comment which you could not see.

    Reader
    March 2, 2025 at 8:44 am

    @Madeline

    The way I try to figure out what is going on is to reason, in a way, from general to specific.

    The UK and US have always felt entitled to colonize and dominate the world, influence and rule it as they see fit, and they have been very successful in this endeavor.

    The reason they have been so successful at it (starting with the UK) is because they have developed ways of doing this which are unique to them and which take into account their interests EXCLUSIVELY (their geographic locations determine a lot of their politics also just as for any other country), and they stick to the principle that the ends always justify the means.

    In 1904 Halford John Mackinder came up with the Hearland Theory which he further developed in 1919:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geographical_Pivot_of_History

    Basically, at this point, the last 2 goals on the way to the full control of the world are the full control over Ukraine leading, ideally, to the full control of Russia/Eurasia – and the world takeover will be fully or practically fully accomplished.

    THIS IS THE ONLY GOAL.

    I wrote that it would be rather through its proxies that the US would attack Russia, it doesn’t have to be from within Ukraine but it seems the most convenient way to do it.

    Of course, I have no way of knowing how things will actually develop.

    Russia is the country which has been attacked by the West throughout its history, it suffered immensely in WWII, and it has no interest in WWIII.

    In the early 90s Russia destroyed its government, gave up its ideology to switch to capitalism, left the Eastern Bloc countries (including East Germany), and dismantled the Eastern Bloc military counterpart to NATO all for the unwritten promise that NATO will not advance east even one inch.

    The promise was not kept, to say the least, and all the Russian complaints, suggestions, requests for agreements were ignored, while Ukraine demanded to join NATO and EU, and to get back her nuclear weapons, and started a punishing ethnic discrimination against her Russian population.

    I am not saying Russia is an innocent victim but every country has certain interests which must be taken into account by others.

    Based on the above information, I conclude that the US and UK can never have true friends or allies, especially not Russia which is the last major obstacle on the way to their goal.

    The quest for a ceasefire and for reestablishing good relations with Russia has a goal of stopping Russian advance in Ukraine, preventing Russia from achieving its SMO goals, and getting ready for the next attack (similar to Israel-Arab ceasefires).

    My opinion that Trump Zelensky meeting was a setup is now all over the Internet.

    UPDATE:

    https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=european+peacekeepers+in+Ukraine

  5. @Sebastien Zorn

    Was there another of your comments addressed to me before “@Reader cont. I should say “dogmatic”…”?

    It looks like there should have been but now it is missing.

  6. @Reader cont. I should say, “dogmatic”, rather than religious. I think religion has it’s place. I agree with the theory of “Domains of Belief ” of my old Philosophy of Science Professor, who, unbeknownst to me at the time, was also a leading figure in the NY Zorastrian community, Einstein”s protegee, K.D.Irani

    There is a video in 4 parts of him discussing it on Youtube. Religion has its place.

    Kaikhosrov D. Irani

    Kaikhosrov D. Irani (May 1, 1922 – June 29, 2017)[1] was a philosopher specializing in Kant and the philosophy of science. Born in Bombay, India, he was the eldest son of Sir Dinshah Irani and Banu Mithibai Sethna. He studied at Princeton University and was a student of Albert Einstein. He taught for 41 years in the philosophy department at City College of New York, where he served as Chairman for nine years.[2] He was a member of the Academy of Science in New York, the American Philosophical Association, the Philosophy of Science Association, and the American Academy of Religion.[3] He was a judge for the Templeton Prize given to individuals for “affirming life’s spiritual dimension.”[4] He was active in New York’s Zoroastrian community.
    Publications
    edit
    Social Justice in the Ancient World (Greenwood Press, 1995)
    Rationality in Thought and Action (Greenwood Press, 1986)
    Emotion: Philosophical Studies (Haven Pub. Corp., 1983)
    Pathology and Consciousness (Haven Pub. Corp., 1978)

    Wikipedia

    He came to the U.S. on Einstein’s personal recommendation.

    Just google: K.D. Irani Domains of Belief for the videos. Erudite, thoughtful, and brilliant on the level of Victor Davis Hansen. Fascinating.
    A chair was named for him posthumously at CCNY. I just took one or two summer seminars with him but he influenced my thinking enormously.

    I mentioned him in the past, a long time ago,

  7. Fine. I will place this comment in Chit Chat but I feel it was appropriate where it was most relevant:

    Reader
    March 3, 2025 at 1:53 am

    @peloni

    I think you have become overactive as a co-editor to the point of being extremely intrusive in all the discussions on this blog and directing and moderating the discussions to always suit your own opinion and tastes to the point of sounding like a kindergarten teacher and speaking down to the participants.

    I think it would be appreciated if you eased the pressure on the audience here.

    I still feel that you overwhelm and overcensor this blog.

    I didn’t feel this way when Ted Belman was the editor.

  8. UPDATE: Europe to form ‘coalition of the willing’ to safeguard Ukraine ceasefire, British PM says
    Ammar Anwer/hw
    02.03.2025, 12:11 | Update 13:26

    https://tvpworld.com/85366055/update-europe-to-form-coalition-of-the-willing-to-safeguard-ukraine-ceasefire-british-pm-says

    Emphasizing Britain’s readiness to play a leading role in this effort alongside other allies, he said the U.K. “is prepared to back this with boots on the ground and planes in the air.”

    Starmer and Macron have repeatedly floated the possibility of deploying a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine to monitor a potential ceasefire with Russia.

  9. @Reader
    https://www.israpundit.org/the-shoot-out-at-the-white-house/#comment-63356000285843
    I would appreciate it if you would make such comments in Chit Chat, not in the comment space under the articles.

    speaking down to the participants.

    This is an unfair assertion. The blog has an ad hominem rule which is actually very lax. While enforcing it, I am not speaking down on anyone, but reminding those who overstep the policy of what the consequences for doing so entails. It gives me no joy to do so, but it is my intent to continue to do so as I feel it is warranted.

    Additionally, I will add my own thoughts as I judge they are relevant, just as I have done so for many years now. If you think I should self censor myself, I will tell you that I oppose such concepts to the limit of being abusive to others, for both myself and for others. So, please speak your mind, and I will speak my own.

    But I would be interested to hear any comments others might have on this topic.

  10. @everyone here

    Quit harassing Felix.

    Every one of us has his/her favorite topic and convictions/obsessions which are irritating in their own way, and I suspect that most of us are older than 70, so these convictions cannot be changed.

  11. @fquigley

    Russia has always been prepared to negotiate on the basis of aims of the SMO

    I know but the only reason this bloodbath has been going on for 3 years is because the West poured money and weapons into it after Boris Johnson disrupted their negotiations in Istanbul by promising Ukraine everything they need for as long as it takes.

    Now the Anglos are throwing both Zelensky and Ukraine under the bus to try a different tactic to destroy Russia while appropriating the Ukrainian resources.

  12. Felix Quigley, you are WRONG!! IIIIII am Volodomir Zelenskyy! There! You hve found me out! Now you must send money — much money, so I can buy cocaine.

    And I am Trotsky too, so I am TWO people! I have two mouths and get very hungry! need much money! Also, I provide service — I give link to Joe Rogan/ Elon Musk interview:

    https://youtu.be/sSOxPJD-VNo

    Very interesting interview — tells you how Deep State creates shell NGOs to cycle US taxpayer money back to my pockets. Its nothing but a giant Hack & Grift machine.that driving the US, and then the world, into hopeless debt and bankruptcy. You will not understand this, because you are just idiot taxpayer, who gives every time I demand of you, because I am the IRS (also FBI, CIA, etc.) and you are hooked on giving to me. Ha ha!

    BTW the interview begins, with Joe & Elon talking to a porn-slanted AI.

  13. There are troubling parallels between the systematic vilification of Jews before the Holocaust and the current vilification of the Jewish people and Israel. Joseph Norland (this link works for me now)

    from 2005! 20 years ago during the second intifada. That’s what woke me up! That and Palestinian Media Watch. And they are talking as though this has never happened before. I remember the antisemitism was intense back then. And, in fact, every time the Pals went to war, i.e., massacring the innocent. Scary what short memories the public has. Though it’s clearly worse now, more institutionalized.

  14. @Edgar Naah, I’m sure it’s Hungarian. Any Greeks here, Sicilians, Koreans? I had a Marxist Iranian neighbor who explained how everything originated in Iran. 😀

  15. @Felix Are you kidding? You obsessively inject your reverence for your hero in to practically every conversation. Do you listen to yourself? You’re like a teenager who can’t stop talking about his favorite pop singer.

  16. Sebastien Zorn

    You are pathetic.

    “And he has been given a platform too by the editors on this site

    As have you. “Freedom of speech for me but not for thee, eh?” Reminds me of the unofficial slogan of nearly every leftist I’ve ever met, “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.”. ”

    The only issue is support of Neonazis. You can distort any truth.

  17. And he has been given a platform too by the editors on this site

    As have you. “Freedom of speech for me but not for thee, eh?” Reminds me of the unofficial slogan of nearly every leftist I’ve ever met, “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.”

    Or the punchline about the Hungarian peasant meaning told about about he benefits of socialism during the transition period just after the war: “But, I have two pigs!” 😀

    “The left has run out of fascism bullets.”
    – John Stewart

  18. Reader

    If the Ukrainians and the Russians still have any brains left, they should negotiate with each other and leave the US out of it.

    End quote

    Russia has always been prepared to negotiate on the basis of aims of the SMO

  19. @Felix

    Adam has shown continuously that he is on the side of the neofascists in Ukraine

    And he has been given a platform too by the editors on this site but should be asked is he a neofascist because he is certainly supporting a neofascist in Ukraine

    And he has been given a platform too by the editors on this site

    As have you. “Freedom of speech for me but not for thee, eh?” Reminds me of the unofficial slogan of nearly every leftist I’ve ever met, “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.”

    Or the punchline of the joke about the Hungarian peasant being proselytized about the benefits of socialism in the transition period after the war: “But, I have two pigs!” 😀

    “The left has run out of fascism bullets.”
    – John Stewart

  20. @Felix Newsflash: Zionism and Trotskyism, which you have never defined your understanding of – (the actual Bolsheviks were anti-Zionist, even if Trotsky admitted he was wrong about that at the end of his life when it was too late for him to do anything about it right before the Holocaust that Herzl and Jabotinsky foresaw long before when Trotsky was just starting out. In Herzl’s case, long before that. ) – have nothing in common. You are trying to hijack the one to resuscitate the other in your image.

    And you have just finished calling the editors traitors, to what I’m sure I don’t know, and now you expect them to humor you? Talk about chutzpah. Or perhaps dementia. You’ve been doing this for over 20 years?

    You said you don’t respect Jonathan Tobin of JNS because he has no achievements under his belt. What are yours? You’ve never said.

    I have no doubt that your response is going to be another round of sloganeering and name-calling – trying to sound like Marx – and ( notice I didn’t say, “but”) indistinguishable from Stalin to any uninitiated outsider to your one-man “cult of personality”.

    “A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, is the result of an effort which is made to create an idealized and heroic image of a glorious leader.” Wikipedia

    I believe it was first coined by Khruschev when he denounced Stalinism after the dictator’s death.


    Oh, and here’s a tip. If you don’t wish to continue aggravating the editors, why don’t you respond in Chit Chat instead of in unrelated posts as it says to do at the top there. Besides insulting them, of course. Just a thought.

  21. I was in the Juilliard Store at Lincoln Center today – the only classical sheet music store left in Manhattan – and on the book shelf was a copy of “The Marx and Engels Reader”. Wow. Back in the late ’70s, when I was an anarcho-Communist, I had a like-minded girlfriend who was a student at Manhattan School of Music (MSM 😀 ) who was chagrined that somebody was going around behind her taking down all the political fliers she was putting up on bulletin boards. “The times they are a changin'” Hope they change back.

  22. @peloni

    It was a premeditated farce.

    The US wants to replace Zelensky with someone who will sign anything while kneeling and without looking to make Ukraine American property, and they already have this someone who really hates Zelensky and wants to jail him for life and who also happens to live in the US.

    Once Ukraine becomes an American colony, there will be tens of thousands of foreign soldiers there prepared to “defend’ Ukraine from you-know-who.

    Another goal of this farce is to get the Russians to stop the war and sign all sort of agreements by showing them that the US cares much more about resuming good relations with Russia than about Ukraine.

    These agreements will be detrimental to Russia but beneficial to the US when the US unilaterally breaks the agreements “with a good cause”.

    If the Ukrainians and the Russians still have any brains left, they should negotiate with each other and leave the US out of it.

  23. SEB-

    I believe you but find it hard to accept that Israel was foretold to beat several Arab nations all in 1 week.

    I remember like yesterday that I’d felt that all the US had to do was show the flag in the guise of a battleship unit, with cruisers and destroyers for Nasser to fold, and I still believe that would have happened just like that.

    But he chickened at the critical moment.

  24. SEB-

    I be,ieve you but fid it hard to accept that Israel was foretold to beat several Arab nations all in 1 week.

    I remember like yesterday that I’d felt that all the US had to do was show the flag in the guise of a battleship unit, with cruisers and destroyers for Nasser to fold, and I still believe that would have happened just like that.

    But he chickened at the critical moment.

  25. @ Felix

    I fight in the tradition of Trotsky to defend the Russian Revolution…

    Felix, I think you want the room next door and on more then one level.

    “What? I came in here for an argument.”
    “Oh, sorry, I think you want 12A next door. This is abuse”
    “Sorry”
    “Not at all.”
    [exits]
    “Stupid git,” 😀

    That’s from the classic skit:

    “Argument Clinic : Monty Python’s Flying Circus”
    https://youtu.be/uLlv_aZjHXc?si=zz5aQ1IrjaI3H27s

  26. @Michael Yes, well, Hebrew is phonetic like English but Mandarin is ideographic and tonal! I’m good at pronunciation but bad at memorization/retention and visual recognition. Fortunately, all the letters look different to me now and I am recognizing them more of the time in quizzes on Duolingo though I get tired and only do it every day for a while , takebreaks and go back. But, I’m slowly making progress, as I did with Hangul.

  27. @Edgar LBJ’s intelligence advisers told him Israel would win the war in a week. Hecouldn’t send a fleet because he was bogged down in Vietnam. He also deflected calls to rake Israel over the coals over the Liberty incident – which more than one antisemitic “friend” has brought out of the blue ; in poker, it’s what they call a tell. It’s all in that article I cited. I sometimes employ large highlights to support my arguments because I know many readers refuse to click on links to read my source articles for themselves. But I try to only include relevant passages.

    https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/front-page/who-was-the-first-genuinely-pro-israel-u-s-president/2017/08/30/

    Another interesting item about how LBJ had to angle around the Deep State to support Israel

    Meanwhile, responding to a large increase of Russian military aid to the radical regimes in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, the Johnson administration armed what at the time were regarded as the more conservative, anti-Soviet Arab states in the region: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Morocco, and Libya.

    Ironically, supplying arms to some Arab nations made it that much easier for Johnson to deal with those in the foreign policy and defense bureaucracies who objected to selling sophisticated weaponry to Israel. He would point out to them that he was simply maintaining the Arab-Israeli balance of power.

    withe regard to the change in policy regarding mikitary aid:

    In The Bomb in the Basement, his history of Israel’s procurement of nuclear weapons, Israeli author Michael Karpin writes that “as soon as [Johnson] entered the White House the pressure on Israel on the [nuclear] issue ceased.”

    And while Kennedy’s final budget, for fiscal year 1964, allocated $40 million in aid to Israel, Johnson’s first budget, for fiscal year 1965, set aside $71 million – an extraordinary increase of 75 percent. That amount nearly doubled in 1966, to $130 million.

    Beyond the numbers, the precise nature and terms of the aid signaled a dramatic break with past American policy. Development loans and surplus food had constituted the extent of U.S. aid under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and anti-aircraft missiles sold to Israel by the Kennedy administration required a cash payment. Johnson changed all that: Not only did he become the first American president to sell offensive weapons to Israel (the missiles from Kennedy were defensive), but henceforth Israel would be permitted to buy American arms with American aid money, which meant no funds would have to leave Israel’s hard-pressed government coffers.

    As a result of the new arrangement, the percentage of American aid to Israel earmarked for military expenditures rose dramatically, more than tripling between 1965 and 1967. By the middle of 1966, Israel was purchasing military hardware the type of which would have been unthinkable under prior administrations, including four dozen Skyhawk bomber attack planes and more than 200 M-48 tanks (despite the objection of Pentagon officials, who told Johnson they’d prefer Israel buy its tanks from the British or the Germans).

    ibid

  28. @Michael S

    Then I went to China, and Hebrew started looking to me as practically English!

    The above might sound different from what I think you meant after you read the following poems about English spelling (click on the very first link in the search list and the file with the poems will be downloaded):

    Poems showing the absurdities of English Spelling
    The English Spelling Society
    https://www.spellingsociety.org › uploaded_misc

  29. Unconfirmed reports of Iran banning the reading and writing of Turkish language in Iran… If anyone has any info on this please post links here.

    This relates to the Azerbaijani’s in northern Iran where they comprise some 25% of population.

  30. PELONI-

    From your post to SEB is sounds as if some illness has happened to TED. If so it could only be a heart problem.

    In that case what happened and how is he now .Also give him my deepest concerns, and again tell me how he is and prognosis.

  31. Hi, Seb. Here’s the “Alef Bet Vet” song, which I found useful:

    https://youtu.be/-0LSBeX5uYw

    Here’s the kid’s song, which I found fun:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4dvFDLRPro

    It’s an easy song, and fun, in that you can actually find yourself understanding a few words of Hebrew. At first, I thought Hebrew was an obstinate, purposely difficult language, even being WRITTEN backwards! Then I went to China, and Hebrew started looking to me as practically English!