Chit Chat

By Peloni

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 | 9,231 Comments »

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50 Comments / 9231 Comments

  1. Nobody talks about the Vietnam war anymore. 9/11 and the Iraq and Afghan wars already becoming forgotten. There was Syria, the Kurds. So many others. All the tears and public wailing internationally. Yugoslavia. End of the world urgently proclaimed. Companion to the endless succession of environmentalist hysterias. Watch. This war will be old news shortly. In 10 years it will be another generation. Out of sight out of mind.

  2. Zeppo, the fourth brother in that scene:

    One of the handicaps to the thorough enjoyment of the Marx Brothers in their merry escapades is the plight of poor Zeppo Marx. While Groucho, Harpo, and Chico are hogging the show, as the phrase has it, their brother hides in an insignificant role, peeping out now and then to listen to plaudits in which he has no share.[7]
    The popular assumption that Zeppo’s character was superfluous was fueled in part by Groucho. According to Groucho’s own story, when the group became the Three Marx Brothers, the studio wanted to trim their collective salary, and Groucho replied, “We’re twice as funny without Zeppo!”[8]

    Zeppo had great mechanical skills and was largely responsible for keeping the Marx family car running. He later owned a company that machined parts for the war effort during World War II, Marman Products Co. of Inglewood, California, later acquired by the Aeroquip Company.[9][10] This company produced a motorcycle, called the Marman Twin,[11] and the Marman clamps used to hold the “Fat Man” atomic bomb inside the B-29 bomber Bockscar.[citation needed] He obtained patents for a wristwatch that monitored the pulse rate and alarmed if the heartbeat became irregular[12] and a therapeutic pad for delivering moist heat to a patient.[13]

    He also founded a large theatrical agency with his brother Gummo. During their time as theatrical agents, Zeppo and Gummo represented numerous screenwriters and actors, including their brothers.[14]
    Wikipedia

  4. Celebrate San Remo Day By Steve Feldman, Greater Philadelphia ZOA Executive Director:

    …Every Jewish person is familiar with the dreidel, the spinning top toy associated with Hanukkah. On its four sides, the Hebrew letters are a mnemonic to remind us throughout the ages: “A great miracle happened here” (or for those in the Diaspora: “A great miracle happened there”). Sages realized that at some point, we might forget what G-d did for us. And so for our children’s and our children’s children’s sake, a device was devised to help us remember—or to keep us from forgetting.

    We should not need such a device to remember what took place at San Remo. We can see Israel in all of its glory every day. That should be enough of a reminder.

    We see and hear continuously from our enemies’ efforts to deny and even to undo what was acknowledged and set in motion at San Remo on that April 25. These, too, should be reminders.

    But at our peril, many of us take Israel for granted, and we turn blind eyes and deaf ears to our enemies’ relentless and aggressive work to demonize what occurred at San Remo.

    Some, including the Zionist Organization of America, have called for April 25 to be an international Jewish holiday: Yom San Remo. That is a good beginning. As we know, some holidays are observed merely by rote, without feeling or respect or worse, just another excuse to turn the occasion into sales of electronics or bedsheets.

    More is needed for Yom San Remo: days of pro-Zionist and pro-Israel, and even biblical education; days of activism and advocacy; teach-ins from the youngest of us to the eldest; marches; essay and poster contests; and other activities to make the commemoration tangible and prideful.

    …

    https://zoa.org/2022/04/10445717-zoa-jns-op-ed-celebrate-importance-of-san-remo-day/

    1

  5. @PELONI-

    La Politesse, toujours la politesse. I can think of other bon mots, like…
    “wrongheadedness”, “mulish”, “chazarkopf” (this last my own “invention”..
    “contumacious”, “perverse”. (this last an Inquisition favourite).

    I recall as a child, a joke I read in the now long forgotten Tid-Bits, which I used to get every week.

    “A young boy is being admonished by a parent for being stubborn…(papa)
    “my child, as you grow older you’ll find that nobody is ALWAYS right’.. (child) “are you sure father”, (papa) “yes -I’m certain of it’…(paraphrased, not exactly correctly)

  6. Hi, Peloni.

    Very similar “inconsistencies” already occurred in the last French presidential election in 2017. 4.07 million French people are said to have cast invalid votes in that run-off election – also between Macron and Le Pen. Reports that ballot papers with Marine Le Pen’s name had already been delivered damaged (=invalid) were striking. This happened in various regions of France. The ballot papers were torn or had cut corners. And it was always the ballot papers for the national conservative candidate.
    — https://medforth.biz/election-fraud-1-1-million-votes-for-le-pen-disappeared/

    New math.

  8. News on the French forces in the Azovstahl plant

    According to reports from Aydinlik, a Turkish media outlet the re-elected French President abandoned French soldiers to die, unacknowledged, in Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine because he did not want their existence and possible deaths to jeopardise his election campaign.
    …
    The Head of the DPR Denis Pushilin reported an estimated 400 foreign mercenaries trapped in Azovstal. Aydinlik reported that it was determined approximately 50 among those 400 were French officers and some were high ranking. Macron, alarmed by the emergence of the secret operation (alleged organised without a mandate) sent a “do not surrender” message to the French Officers.

    https://beeley.substack.com/p/did-macron-abandon-french-military?s=r

  9. @Edgar
    Yes, well, he does have the conviction of his arguments, though I think he has tied his convictions so tightly that he is strongly invested in it being accurate, regardless of what contradicts its soundness.

    Well, I do recall, a good long time ago, of a similar situation in which I was doing a bit of research. I wound up proving my hypothesis wrong no matter how I approached trying to prove it correct. Being young and certain of my correctness, I simply refused to accept my theory was soundly proven wrong… LOL… I think back and smile for the lesson, but it was no fun at the time explaining the stupidity of my efforts to the research coordinator. The good old days…

  10. @PELONI-

    Yes Peloni, keep it short. Some have reading difficulties. I recall posting a while ago that “”R. is always “right” even when wrong, and no matter how often.

    I’m reminded of a short story I read named “Last-Word Lonigan”. In it was a parody…. “Last-Word Rongigan”.

    Or …Forrest Gump’s (repetitious) immortal saying…S.I.A.S i.

  12. @Ted Belman

    It’s too bad because I really liked the article.

    It made the most sense on the issue.

    If I were you, I would:

    a) doublecheck the accusations;

    b) even if Blumenthal turned out to be an antisemite, I’d keep the article anyway because there are almost 7 billion antisemites in the world and just because someone is an antisemite, doesn’t mean he is stupid.

  14. How come I get a 404 error when I try to open:

    How Ukraine’s Jewish President, Volodymyr Zelensky, Made Peace with Neo-Nazi Paramilitaries on Front Lines of War with Russia (35)

  15. The if then proposition, “if,,,,I won’t forgive you” in Korean dramas always gets a big impact from the other character but gets a chuckle from me because nobody talks that way in contemporary English and the normal response would be, “so what,who cares?” and laughter at somebody trying to sound like he stepped out of a nineteenth century novel, or maybe earlier. Another hilarious favorite that isutterly meaningless in our language and culture: “Did you just speak to me, informally????”

  16. TEMPLE MOUNT
    It shouldn’t ever been allowed to happen Israel leadership going back and present are bankrupt. As well as everything else Israel was set up as the Homeland, thereby refuge from Antisemitism, and we have just seen the most awful Antisemitism.

  17. @ Sabastian: Israel, or what I see of it, reminds me of Texas. The flags fly in mass for any occasion. The can-do in-your-face attitude. The appreciation of guns and the military. Texas/Alamo Israel/Massada Stand your ground

  26. I felt the need for a pun so I googled Schelling and war.

    Sixty years ago, a dispute over the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba pushed Washington and Moscow perilously close to all-out war. The crisis provided history’s most extreme example yet of nuclear brinkmanship, situations in which governments repeatedly escalate a very dangerous situation in an attempt to get their way. It also demonstrated the extraordinary value of the work of Thomas Schelling, an economist then at Harvard University, who used the relatively new tools of game theory to analyse the strategy of war. The war in Ukraine has made Schelling’s work, for which he shared the economics Nobel prize in 2005, more relevant than ever.

    https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2022/03/19/the-disturbing-new-relevance-of-theories-of-nuclear-deterrence

    2

  28. @Honeybee The proximate cause of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? 8 years of shelling of Russian speaking Luhansk and Donetsk and Russia’s recognition of their independence.

    I 19th century terms, Crimea and Donbass are Texas, Ukraine is Mexico and Russia is the US.

    1

  29. The Washington Pundit:

    As predicted by TWP in our most recent update, the DOJ is refusing to drop the case against Bijan Kian and the Flynn Intel Group originally brought by the Mueller Investigation. U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga had set aside the jury verdicts and granted Kian a new trial stating,

    “The great weight of the evidence that it would be unjust to convict him on either Count and a new trial is warranted in the interests of justice … ORDERED that Defendant [Kian’s] convictions … hereby are, VACATED, and his renewed motion for a new trial …. hereby is, GRANTED”

    The DOJ appealed Trenga’s decision and “all prior rulings and orders of the Court in this case” to the 4th Circuit and once again hopes to get the jury verdicts reinstated. They just won’t let it go.

  31. @Honeybee

    How can you honestly compare t 6 Day War to the invasion of the Ukraine

    I can honestly compare the Six Day War to the invasion of Ukraine because Israel is not the only country which is entitled to act preemptively when faced with a true threat to its existence and, unlike you, I apply the same logic to the same situations.

    To you, however, Israel is good, therefore, it has the right to defend itself but Russia is bad and, therefore, it has no such right.

    The enemies of Israel apply the same logic to Israel such as you are applying to Russia.

    1

  33. Sabastian, Darlin, too many questions. I am a busy woman But what about the depredation on the Texas border at this time. If the Nation of Texas was as foolish as Russia, we would be bombing La Ciudad de Mexico.

  38. @Honey. Gosh, I’d forgotten this, so big at the tme.

    The United States invades Panama in an attempt to overthrow military dictator Manuel Noriega, who had been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges and was accused of suppressing democracy in Panama and endangering U.S. nationals.
    https://www.history.com › the-u-s-in…
    The U.S. invades Panama – HISTORY
    The United States Invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation Just Cause, lasted over a month between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990. Wikipedia-

  41. @ Honey

    On January 17, in the year 1893, the Kingdom of Hawaii was illegally overthrown. The following remembrance recorded by Johanna Wilcox speaks of the overwhelming sadness felt by the population after the overthrow and annexation of Hawaii to the United States of America.
    https://www.ksbe.edu › article › the-…
    The truth behind the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom | Kamehameha Schools

    https://www.ksbe.edu/article/the-truth-behind-the-illegal-overthrow-of-the-hawaiian-kingdom/

    https://www.ksbe.edu/assets/pdfs/The_Overthrow_of_the_Hawaiian_Monarchy_PDF.pdf

  44. You Anglo-Saxons

    @Ketzel @Dinastar I am reminded of this hilarious Monty Python skit from the movie, “The Meaning of Life” in which Death comes for American and British tourists in the French countryside who have died. Death is French and hates them.
    https://youtu.be/YoBTsMJ4jNk

    By the way, I love this stilted, anachronistic language of political outrage. I thought we just had Felix for that.

    Greetings and felicitations.

  45. @Honey

    People also ask
    Why did the US invade Mexico in 1914?

    People also ask
    Why did US invade Haiti in 1994?
    In his September 1994 address to the nation, four days prior to the intervention, Clinton explained to the American people that he had decided to invade Haiti because he was concerned by the vast number of human rights abuses following the September 1991 coup that had sent democratically-elected Aristide into exile.
    https://journals.lib.unb.ca › article
    View of Peacekeeping, Politics, and the 1994 US Intervention in Haiti

    —
    and

    Following the assassination of the Haitian President in July of 1915, President Woodrow Wilson sent the United States Marines into Haiti to restore order and maintain political and economic stability in the Caribbean.
    https://history.state.gov › milestones
    U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, 1915–34 – Milestones: 1914–1920 – Office of the Historian

    —

    The first landing took place on 5 May 1916, when “two companies of marines landed from the USS Prairie at Santo Domingo.” Their goal was to offer protection to the U.S. Legation and the U.S. Consulate and to occupy the Fort San Geronimo.
    https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Uni…
    United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–1924) – Wikipedia

    and

    United States occupation of Cuba
    Article Talk
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    The United States occupation of Cuba may refer to:

    the United States Military Government in Cuba (1898–1902)
    the Second Occupation of Cuba (1906–1909)
    the Sugar Intervention (1917–1922), a third occupation of Cuba
    the continuing American presence at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

    Wikipedia
    —

    Americans who advocated annexation evinced a variety of motivations: desire for commercial opportunities in Asia, concern that the Filipinos were incapable of self-rule, and fear that if the United States did not take control of the islands, another power (such as Germany or Japan) might do so.
    https://history.state.gov › milestones
    The Philippine-American War, 1899–1902 – Office of the Historian

    and

    United States occupation of Nicaragua
    Article Talk
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    The United States occupation of Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933 was part of the Banana Wars, when the US military invaded various Latin American countries from 1898 to 1934. The formal occupation began in 1912, even though there were various other assaults by the U.S. in Nicaragua throughout this period. American military interventions in Nicaragua were designed to stop any other nation except the United States of America from building a Nicaraguan Canal.

    United States occupation of Nicaragua
    Part of the Banana Wars

    Wikipedia

    and etc.

    1

  46. @Honey

    People also ask
    Why did the US invade Mexico in 1914?

    The immediate trigger for the invasion of Veracruz came twelve days earlier when nine unarmed U.S. sailors went ashore at the Mexican port of Tampico to purchase gasoline. They unintentionally wandered into an area that was off limits to foreigners and were arrested.
    https://www.cfr.org › blog › twe-re…
    TWE Remembers: The U.S. Invasion of Veracruz, Mexico | Council on Foreign Relations

    1

  47. @Honey

    …In response to the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, and the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev agreed to Cuba’s request to place nuclear missiles on the island to deter a future invasion. ..After several days of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between Kennedy and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement to not invade Cuba again. Secretly, the United States agreed that it would dismantle all of the Jupiter MRBMs, which had been deployed in Turkey against the Soviet Union. There has been debate on whether or not Italy was included in the agreement as well. While the Soviets dismantled their missiles, some Soviet bombers remained in Cuba, and the United States kept the naval quarantine in place until November 20 of that year.[4]…

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

    1

  49. @Honey

    Grenada–Soviet Union relations
    Article Talk
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    Grenada-Soviet Union relations refers to the relations between Grenada, and the Soviet Union. Diplomatic relations between Grenada and the Soviet Union were severed in November 1983 by the Governor General of Grenada. Eventually in 2002, Grenada re-established diplomatic relations with the newly formed Russian Federation.[1]

    Grenada–Soviet relations

    Grenada

    Soviet Union
    History of relations Edit

    During the New Jewel Movement, the Soviet Union tried to make the island of Grenada to function as a Soviet base, and also by getting supplies from Cuba. In October 1983, during the U.S. invasion of Grenada, U.S. President Ronald Reagan maintained that US Marines arrived on the island of Grenada, which was considered a Soviet-Cuban ally that would export communist revolution throughout the Caribbean. In November, at a joint hearing of Congressional Subcommittee, it was told that Grenada could be used as a staging area for subversion of the nearby countries, for intersection of shipping lanes, and for the transit of troops and supplies from Cuba to Africa, and from Eastern Europe and Libya to Central America. In December, the State Department published a preliminary report on Grenada, in which was claimed as an “Island of Soviet Internationalism”. When the US Marines landed on the island, they discovered a large amount of documents, which included agreements between the Soviet Government, and the New Jewel Movement, recorded minutes of the Committee meetings, and reports from the Grenadian embassy in Moscow…

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenada%E2%80%93Soviet_Union_relations

    Russia has a Monroe Doctrine of its own.