The only way this gig is ethically justifiable is if the support act is a guillotine.

In parliamentry systems you can dissolve parliament, requiring an election. It’s usually a way to bypass deadlock. Imagine if, when republicans are fucking around with the debt ceiling and pissing off the country, you could threaten to call a snap election and let them answer to voters then and there.

So if this passes it would basically force a national referendum on netanyahu’s leadership.

If gantz is pushing this, probably he thinks he can win. That could mean netanyahu’s many financial and political crimes being looked into again. Maybe.

It could mean more of a focus on getting hostages back, but it might not lead to much change in gaza:

Gantz’ centrism is not equivalent to Western centrism: Natenyahu’s Likud party and other Israeli nationalists have “gone so right-wing that the center in Israel has changed,” a Middle East Institute think tank fellow told Al Jazeera. Previously serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Israeli Defense Forces, Gantz has overseen two military offensives in Gaza and labeled several Palestinian NGOs terrorist organizations, indicating it is “unlikely” he would improve the conditions for Palestinians living in Gaza

It looks like it’s supposed to be more greek, since the romans weren’t known for fighting naked, whereas we think ‘greek’ and we think shirtless. Also romans weren’t involved in egypt in any serious way till much later. Whereas the ‘sea peoples’ seem to come from roughly the sphere of mycenean influence, even if they don’t all seem ‘greek’.

Not in the late bronze age.

The Mycenian Greeks probably wrestled control of Crete from the Minoans ~300 before the late bronze age collapse of greek and hittite power structures.

Cultural elements and settlements of these “Eteocretans” remained, but I don’t think the Minoans were in any place to halt anything at that point. During the period we call collapse they seem to have been doing a lot of fleeing into the mountains.

Yeah wow that’s incredible. That dog looks very alone and scared, I could see how people say drowning. Cresting a hill was my first thought.

I was just having a discussion with my family about recent union wins in the US, and when something good is a sign of how bad things must be. I suggested that there must be a german word for it, and my sister suggested maybe a chinese saying.

If you like the category of ‘things that sound like german has a word for it’, look into the 4-character chinese sayings called chengyu. One of my favourites is ‘Melon Patch, Under Plum’, meaning something that is completely innocent but should be avoided because it looks really sketchy. Don’t tie your shoes in a melon patch or fix your hat under a plum tree.

In case anyone missed the reference, this is based on a work found painted on the walls of Fransisco Goya’s dining room after he died. You’ll often hear it called “Saturn Devouring His Son”, but the work was never titled or displayed publicly. There’s really no good reason to believe that the devourer is Chronos/Saturn, that the devouree is even a child, or that either body is male.

I personally like to think of it as Untitled (Dining Room).

I read an article years ago, maybe like a decade ago, of some game industry person saying it was a cycle:

Incredible new graphics come out and people will buy the shiny regardless of anything else, then slowly they have to start making actually good games with those graphics to sell, then incredible new graphics come out and you don’t need to bother with story for a while.

There was a greek-australian comedian who was standing in front of the parthenon and said something like, “You can tell this house is greek cause of all the pillars”.

That headline really is a thing of beauty. It’s like finding out that your trash is piling up because the city retasked all the sanitation workers to lie in fields of filth and create a heavenly host of garbage angels.

I can’t not read that in a garbled south african accent.

Front row center is a stone cold fox. Just to the left of them - that grin? That’s game. And the person just behind and between them has such a kind face, I bet they’d be a generous lover.

Uber is a bad faith actor, their business model is entirely monopoly-seeking. If they’re trying to expand into bus routes, the goal will be to reduce the choices available to just Uber.

Part of the problem is hyperactive agency detection - the same biological bug/feature that fuels belief in the divine.

If a twig snaps, it could be nothing or someone. If it’s nothing and we react as if it was someone, no biggie. If it was someone and we react as if it was nothing, potential biggie. So our brains are bias towards assuming agency where there is none, to keep us alive.

Neither Iraq war nor Afghanistan benefited the US, they were both colossal wastes of national resources for little gain, beginning a period of imperial decline. Korea I’m not as familiar with but Vietnam is now a bi-word for a pointless quagmire.

This is the UN, not Hamas.

The article suggests that the change is due to using figures from the Gaza Health Ministry - which is still part of the Hamas-run government - rather than Hamas’ Media Office, which is also Hamas.

It’s a bit rich to suggest that the IDF killing 5000 women and 8000 children is the result of Hamas, rather than the IDF.

Biden… lately

I would say that all empires have always prioritized their interests over human life. I don’t think Biden or Lately come into it.

In my family we always end this kind of recitation of woe with “and I wanted to see a snake”.

We saw a kid have a meltdown at an animal refuge when the meet-a-surprise-reptile was a blue tongue lizard. He wailed that he was tired, hungry, hot and - most of all - he wanted to see a snake.

As long as india is part of the quad and helping to contain china, modi can kill as many muslims and sikhs as he wants without US interference. And he knows it.