War in Gaza

[Josh]

Military spending effectively is short term stimulus. And most the stimulation is of wealthy contractor pockets.

[Ken]

Military spending effectively is short term stimulus. And most the stimulation is of wealthy contractor pockets.

Well yes. And often not even stimulus at all. Just a transfer of wealth to wealthy investors who are squirreling the money away and not circulating it.

My comment was in reference to the question: What could we do with $2.3 Trillion if we DIDN'T Spend it on war?

[Josh]

Military spending effectively is short term stimulus. And most the stimulation is of wealthy contractor pockets.

Well yes. And often not even stimulus at all. Just a transfer of wealth to wealthy investors who are squirreling the money away and not circulating it.

My comment was in reference to the question: What could we do with $2.3 Trillion if we DIDN'T Spend it on war?

Oh, I’m sure they “circulate” it. Buy up real estate, small businesses, homes, farmland… anything they can get their mitts on.

One option would have been to not spend it at all. We’d have that much less deficit and a cushion for future emergencies.

$2.3T could have built high speed rail in most major metros back in 2001, too. I’m thinking a system like Germany, linked with airports, city centres, and other dense places. And probably quite a few intercity links like between NY-DC-Boston, Phoenix-Las Vegas-LA, etc

[Ken]

Military spending effectively is short term stimulus. And most the stimulation is of wealthy contractor pockets.

Well yes. And often not even stimulus at all. Just a transfer of wealth to wealthy investors who are squirreling the money away and not circulating it.

My comment was in reference to the question: What could we do with $2.3 Trillion if we DIDN'T Spend it on war?

Oh, I’m sure they “circulate” it. Buy up real estate, small businesses, homes, farmland… anything they can get their mitts on.

One option would have been to not spend it at all. We’d have that much less deficit and a cushion for future emergencies.

$2.3T could have built high speed rail in most major metros back in 2001, too. I’m thinking a system like Germany, linked with airports, city centres, and other dense places. And probably quite a few intercity links like between NY-DC-Boston, Phoenix-Las Vegas-LA, etc

Some of it gets "circulated" straight into bank accounts in the Cayman Islands or into things like art that don't add any productivity to the economy or provide jobs.

Of course there is always the option not to spend money. My point is simply that if we are going to make major government investments in spending (especially if it is fueled by borrowing) then they should be long-term infrastructure investments that our children and grandchildren will benefit from as well. If we are going to ask our children and grandchildren to pay for our spending, then it should be on things they will benefit from as well. That is only way to be equitable across generations.

[Josh]

Unfortunately, what should be infrastructure spending like the chips act mostly is getting diverted to boondoggles. Everyone has their snout in the trough, and nobody is accountable to actually deliver results.

[HondurasKeiser]

Interesting perspective.

Interesting and nuanced take on the "organization" of some of the campus protests, in Tablet today.

These groups, Shideler says, typically operate in a decentralized manner, using successful tactics drawn from decades of anarchist organizing and spread through left-wing activist networks via word-of-mouth, as well as through formal trainings by professionals such as Fithian or the nonprofit “movement incubator” Momentum Strategies. “If you look at Fithian,” he says, “she has consulted with hundreds of groups on how to do these things: how to organize, how to protest, how to make sure your people don’t go to jail, how to help them once they’re in jail.” There is no one decision-maker; rather, decentralized “affinity” groups work together toward a shared goal, coordinating out in the open via social media and Google Docs. This can create an impression of centralized planning. Shideler cites the matching tents that have cropped up on a number of campuses, prompting speculation that some shadowy entity is buying them en masse. “People keep pointing out, They all have the same tent!,” he says. “Well, yeah, it’s because the organizers told them to buy a tent, and sent around a Google Doc with a link to that specific tent on Amazon. So they all went out and bought the same tent.”

In fact, it is a mistake both to view the campus protests as a “student” movement and to regard the outsiders as “infiltrators” or somehow separate from the movement. Rather, student activists have been working together with outsiders, with whom they are linked via overlapping activist networks and nationwide organizations. The “student” revolts, in turn, exist on a continuum with the broader anti-Israel protest movement. The campus encampments, for instance, began immediately after the nationwide “economic blockade” on April 15, which saw protesters block the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and “flood” Wall Street in New York City. Calls to participate in the “A15 Action” were disseminated widely in anarchist and far-left networks, while Palestinian and Islamist groups—SJP, AMP, CAIR, and Within Our Lifetime—simultaneously called for an April 15 “Strike 4 Gaza.” Given reporting that nationwide campus “liberation zones” and “encampments” were planned as early as November 2023, it seems likely that the timing of the university protests was decided by “the movement” well in advance.

[Ken]

Interesting and nuanced take on the "organization" of some of the campus protests, in Tablet today.

These groups, Shideler says, typically operate in a decentralized manner, using successful tactics drawn from decades of anarchist organizing and spread through left-wing activist networks via word-of-mouth, as well as through formal trainings by professionals such as Fithian or the nonprofit “movement incubator” Momentum Strategies. “If you look at Fithian,” he says, “she has consulted with hundreds of groups on how to do these things: how to organize, how to protest, how to make sure your people don’t go to jail, how to help them once they’re in jail.” There is no one decision-maker; rather, decentralized “affinity” groups work together toward a shared goal, coordinating out in the open via social media and Google Docs. This can create an impression of centralized planning. Shideler cites the matching tents that have cropped up on a number of campuses, prompting speculation that some shadowy entity is buying them en masse. “People keep pointing out, They all have the same tent!,” he says. “Well, yeah, it’s because the organizers told them to buy a tent, and sent around a Google Doc with a link to that specific tent on Amazon. So they all went out and bought the same tent.”

In fact, it is a mistake both to view the campus protests as a “student” movement and to regard the outsiders as “infiltrators” or somehow separate from the movement. Rather, student activists have been working together with outsiders, with whom they are linked via overlapping activist networks and nationwide organizations. The “student” revolts, in turn, exist on a continuum with the broader anti-Israel protest movement. The campus encampments, for instance, began immediately after the nationwide “economic blockade” on April 15, which saw protesters block the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and “flood” Wall Street in New York City. Calls to participate in the “A15 Action” were disseminated widely in anarchist and far-left networks, while Palestinian and Islamist groups—SJP, AMP, CAIR, and Within Our Lifetime—simultaneously called for an April 15 “Strike 4 Gaza.” Given reporting that nationwide campus “liberation zones” and “encampments” were planned as early as November 2023, it seems likely that the timing of the university protests was decided by “the movement” well in advance.

It is totally true. My daughter at the UW tells me that probably less than half the people at the current encampment at the UW campus are UW students. The rest are just local activists who showed up. There is actually a pending grad student strike looming at UW which has her much more focused since she works on campus and doesn't want her classes disrupted by a strike.

But honestly the same thing can be said about any protest. When you see various Gaza protests in downtown Seattle or in previous years like the Black Lives Matter protests, a lot of those were students, even though they were happening off campus.

So every big protest in any campus town is likely to be a mix of both students and various other mostly young activist types who might be former students or just local political types who gravitate towards protests because that is where the action is. Not really any way to avoid it, especially on public campuses that are public property and open to the public. On private campuses the schools can crack down more on outsiders if they want to.

I don't know if that necessarily makes them any more illegitimate though. People do have a right to legal protest in this country. Even if they aren't students. In my mind, the legitimacy of a protest has more to do with its objectives and whether they are protesting legally or not. With these protests I think they are a mix of legitimate objectives and illegitimate objectives.

As for whether many are being paid by various groups? I tend to be a bit skeptical. A lot of that is sort of 3rd hand stuff. Soros funds an organization that is associated with another organization that has ties to a 3rd organization that has people protesting. And so forth. Some of them probably are. But what percentage? Anyone who has been around any big university in any big city knows there is no shortage of activist types who are automatically drawn to this sort of thing whether or not they are getting paid.

[GaryK]

UN revises Gaza death toll, almost 50% less women and children killed than previously reported

https://www.foxnews.com/world/un-revise ... y-reported

Before anyone jumps in to say that this can't be trusted because it's Fox News, I did confirm this drop in numbers on the UN website.

[Ken]

UN revises Gaza death toll, almost 50% less women and children killed than previously reported

https://www.foxnews.com/world/un-revise ... y-reported

Before anyone jumps in to say that this can't be trusted because it's Fox News, I did confirm this drop in numbers on the UN website.

The Gaza Health Ministry is part of Hamas. They were never an independent source to begin with. When Hamas took power in 2007, all the bureaucrats within every government ministry were replaced by Hamas loyalists. So all the clinic and hospital directors, etc. as well as other administrators.

So I'm not sure why the western media was treating their reports as unbiased. Probably because there were no other reliable sources of information to use.

[Josh]

UN revises Gaza death toll, almost 50% less women and children killed than previously reported

https://www.foxnews.com/world/un-revise ... y-reported

Before anyone jumps in to say that this can't be trusted because it's Fox News, I did confirm this drop in numbers on the UN website.

Only 12 756 women and children killed. I guess that number is more acceptable?

I think 0 is the only acceptable calling. For reference, Israel’s casualties were 250 killed, 1200 hostages (presumed dead by now).