No, please, please don’t. The ridiculous drama over the Vanity Fair restaurant review is a ploy to distract you from the reports on how Putin personally directed the efforts to elect Trump and from discussions of the oligarchic cabinet Trump selected to please his handlers.
We have already pissed away the election on these stupid stories and tweets about burgers, tacos, fingers, plucky Vanity Fairs, and all the rest of it. Let’s stop already.
Clarissa's Blog 
OT: More jobs headed for oblivion….
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This time with link:
http://www.fox5ny.com/news/223825218-story
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All chain restaurants (Red Robin, Applebee’s, etc) already installed automatic order and checkout machines at every table. All they now need is a thingy that would deliver food to tables. And that’s not hard at all.
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They also need a Roomba to clean and set the tables and do all of the side work ( filling condiments, making sure all the utensils are there, that there are enough napkins, etc.) I don’t care if there’s a space age dumbwaiter and a touch pad (touch pads collect fingerprints and dirt like crazy) if the restaurant is filthy or if I have to hunt for a fork or pepper. It all has to be spotless. Besides it must be extremely cheap if it puts waiters (who get paid a lower minimum wage than everyone else) out of work.
People just don’t pay to have someone make their food in a restaurant. They also pay not to deal with setup or cleanup.
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While i disagree a little with you on how much putin is involved with Trump, there is no doubt in general a good portion of trump’s ridiculous tweets are designed to “suck up all the oxygen in the room” and change the conversation.
It is pretty funny that the main stream press and then many liberal activists fall for it every time. I give you credit for being one of the few liberals I have read on the internet who sees through it! Don’t hold your breath for the DNC to call you for advice 🙂
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And then there’s this. The only lesson of 2016 is that acting like petulant children works in american politics. Fuck having to be the adult in the room, always. Like Samuel Johnson said, ‘He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.’
Being so utterly devoid of shame has to be a massively liberating feeling.
Having lost the governorship of North Carolina, Republicans there are resorting to a novel strategy to subvert the will of the voters: They are trying to strip the new governor of some of his powers.
During a hastily convened special session, Republican lawmakers introduced bills to, among other things, require State Senate confirmation of cabinet appointments; slash the number of employees who report to the governor to 300 from 1,500; and give Republicans greater clout on the Board of Elections, the body that sets the rules for North Carolina’s notoriously burdensome balloting.
“This is one of the greatest coups we’ve seen in modern-day America,” said the House Democratic leader, Larry Hall. “This is an effort to nullify the clear vote of the people.”
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Putin didn’t have to do anything to undermine democracy in america. These ghouls hate democracy already.
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Oh, of course. He’d never manage it if people weren’t so damn eager to accommodate. This is the price of hubris, self-involvement, ignorance and idiocy. Who votes for a billionaire expecting him to defend the interests of regular folks, seriously? I’m sure not even Putin expected such a degree of obliviousness.
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Oh, I think it’s good to hit Trump from every direction. And I just nailed a year’s subscription to Vanity Fair for $5.00 plus a free tote bag!
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This doesn’t hit him. This helps him.
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It’s ridiculous. It may be amusing, but I don’t think it really does anything one way or the other. However, the man may have an exaggerated sense of lèse majesté, which it is always right to puncture in the small things AND the large. Exercise those freedoms often and well.
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When we trivialize our political space this way, the result is that somehow it gradually becomes ok to elect an unqualified, ignorant showman to be our president just because he delivers a funny stand up routine. Next time, let’s elect a cat. Or better yet, a cartoon of a cat.
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And the idea that you can hurt him with this kind of thing comes from the exact same place as the belief that he will look out for regular folks. He is a billionaire. And the president of the US. You can’t hurt him. All of his Twitter explosions are calculated to make fools of us. And it works. He’s laughing all the way to the bank at the poor rubes who are so easily baited.
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His Israeli ambassador.
https://twitter.com/PeterRNeumann/status/809622131780841473
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Where does he even find all these freaks? It’s no longer a circus, it’s a fucking zoo.
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This is an article on Friedman which is not behind paywall:
US President-elect’s pick to ambassador to Israel, bankruptcy attorney David Friedman, has responded to some of the criticism lobbied at him following the announcement of his nomination.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4893993,00.html
Another article mentions good news for us, hope it is true:
// “Friedman said he looked forward to taking up his post in Jerusalem, implying a move from Tel Aviv that would mark a break in longstanding US foreign policy and anger the Muslim world.
While campaigning for the presidency, Trump pledged to switch the embassy from Tel Aviv, where it has been located for 68 years, to Jerusalem, all but enshrining the city as Israel’s capital regardless of international objections.” //
Whether the world wants it or not, Jerusalem is and will forever be Israel’s capital, as long as Israel exists at all. Having embassies in Tel Aviv is ridiculous and has nothing to do with supporting the peace process. ( And everything to do with searching for Muslim approval. )
Not a bad opinion column:
The pro-Israel racists
Op-ed: We are familiar with the combination of racism and enthusiastic support of Israel from the far right parties in Europe. Actually, we are also familiar with this combination from Israel. In America, it is somewhat new, which has placed the Anti-Defamation League in a difficult dilemma.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4892936,00.html
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This is not connected, but I just have to link it. See, it’s good to be patriotic! Here:
Study: IDF service increases life expectancy in men
According to the study, physical activity related to years of military service reduces prevalence of diseases associated with physical fitness, such as heart and vascular diseases; Israel is currently in 2nd place in the world for life expectancy among men.
…
The conclusion is further reinforced when examining similar data for both Arabs and Jews. Arabs as a whole rarely serve in Israel’s armed forces and according to data from the Ministry of Health, the rate of diagnoses of heart and vascular disease among Arabs is higher than that among Jews.
Other studies have found that countries situated along a coast also have higher life expectancies. Similarly, there is also a positive relationship between religion and health. However, according to research, military service is the most significant factor that affects life expectancy in Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4889568,00.html
After living in FSU with its horrible life expectancy, especially for men, the article was a pleasure to see.
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I remember how in the USSR young boys were bullied into army service by telling them they weren’t real men until they served.
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The army in FSU and IDF are extremely different, so comparing between them may lead to mistaken insights. I have relatives in Russia, have heard storied about the FSU army and have served in IDF myself, so I trust my knowledge of the issue.
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Armies are different yet the narratives are very similar.
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The mainstream social attitudes to army service are extremely different. I mean, what people on the street really think and feel.
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Yet the narrative of “army is good for you” remains the same.
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Obviously, a nation state cannot function well in the long term when the mainstream narrative becomes “army is bad for you.”
EU seemed an exception, but then US army provided the protection for a while, and now EU is on the road of nation state destruction and general powerlessness regarding their borders’ protection. So much that a third rate dictatorship, Turkey, is blackmailing EU.
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Nationalism does function by switching off reason but the narrative of “army improves life expectancy” is still too far out there. Are you not seeing how strange that sounds?
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Hey, but we LOVE indulging in “red herring” fare.
Hard to face the reality of being part of a “default” society in which we have little or no control of (and over) collective public policies.
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Nationalism does function by switching off reason but the narrative of “army improves life expectancy” is still too far out there. Are you not seeing how strange that sounds?
It depends a lot on the idea that you’d likely never see combat or combat is so skewed in your favor that it’s unlikely you’d be killed or seriously injured (remote drone operator). The military offers health insurance (Tricare, VA) and dental. Active duty members get their dental care needs met. Considering you can die of an untreated tooth infection, that alone is a significant contribution to your life expectancy. John McCain, for example, might not be alive and functioning as well as he is, if it weren’t for his military and congressional health care (granted his mother is still alive, and he’s married to a rich woman, but still).
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I’m not really speaking about the mechanics of the actual life expectancies of soldiers. I’m speaking about the complete erasure from one’s field of vision of the fact that soldiers kill. That’s what they exist for. One can argue about the importance of their task but using the words “life expectancy” without having the lives of those who are on the receiving end of whatever these healthy fighters do sounds very cynical.
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Not to mention the cognitive dissonance of claiming your country’s under constant existential threat from very very dangerous people, and then saying that serving in your army to fight those very very dangerous people will actually prolong your lifespan.
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“Not to mention the cognitive dissonance of claiming your country’s under constant existential threat from very very dangerous people, and then saying that serving in your army to fight those very very dangerous people will actually prolong your lifespan.”
I’ve been rereading Vargas Llosa’s gut-wrenching reports from the occupied Palestinian territories and right on the heels of that seeing an article that claims this kind of thing is good for somebody’s health is not something I can stomach. It’s like, OK, let me kick you in the teeth because I need some physical exercise. Isn’t it easier simply to join a gym or go for a run?
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\ It’s like, OK, let me kick you in the teeth because I need some physical exercise. Isn’t it easier simply to join a gym or go for a run?
No, the logic goes:
“We have to do X for the sake of our country. Of course, serving in IDF can be dangerous, especially if you’re a combat soldier. However, isn’t it nice that people who fulfill their duties towards their country get this health benefit, if they return alive?”
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“..get this health benefit, if they return alive?”
God.
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\ “..get this health benefit, if they return alive?”
God.
What God? 🙂
I think the miscommunication here derives from different basic assumptions.
You view military service as unnecessary, if only Israeli Jews were not so militaristic and desiring Palestinian land.
Israeli Jews view IDF service as a given, if we want to keep our nation state, and even most Leftists think two-state solution is not possible right now. Besides, who told you that a peace deal with Palestinians would solve other problems? For instance, with Hizballah in Lebanon? If you think Palestinians from Lebanon would be accepted as citizens in a new Palestinian nation state, I have heard Palestinian leaders saying the opposite. What about Iran? The source of our enmity is not Palestinians.
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It’s one thing to argue that compulsory military service is a necessary evil. But there is a very long road from that to celebrating its health benefits.
My grandfather was in WWII and that was an undoubtedly good cause. But I’m not saying “Yay, how great that he got a chance to be a hero!” because I’d rather he never got that chance and the war never happened. It was a necessary evil that he was in that war. But it was still an evil.
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\ Not to mention the cognitive dissonance of claiming your country’s under constant existential threat from very very dangerous people, and then saying that serving in your army to fight those very very dangerous people will actually prolong your lifespan.
I do not see the logical contradiction.
First of all, obviously, serving in IDF will prolong your lifespan, only if you aren’t killed (or “only” badly injured). Fortunately, relatively few IDF soldiers are killed in battles.
Second, most soldiers come into contact with Palestinians, while the existential threat is not stemming from Palestinians’ current military capacities. Even Right wing has never claimed that. The threat is from our enemies acquiring nuclear capacities and / or advanced missiles which could take down Israeli planes. That’s why Israel has bombed missiles in Syria several times, which would’ve been used against us.
The modern warfare is not about two large armies meeting in a field in the style of “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.” It is about missiles, Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, nuclear weapons, etc.
Third, the idea in Israel is that we are not under existential threat now. (At least, most people in the mainstream think that, in my opinion.) However, considering the way we are seen by Arab countries, we have to practice constant vigilance to prevent a real (existential or not) threat from materializing. This involves both attacking our enemies (like destroying an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981) and strengthening IDF so it would remain the best army in the Middle East. Only a few days ago, a large deal was made by politicians and media because of new F-35 stealth fighter jets arriving to Israel. Here:
The defense establishment believes that their simple arrival will boost the country’s deterrence in face of its numerous adversaries.
…
being the first country outside of the US to receive the jet
…
In celebratory interviews carried out over the past few weeks, the IAF pilots who will operate the plane volunteered to journalists that the F-35 will be able to fly in places where Israel has not operated in the past. “Including Iran,” the pilots said, on cue for the role they are playing in a wider production called the Middle East.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Analysis-High-risk-high-reward-for-Israel-with-F-35-jets-475067
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Well, of course they cause a massive reduction in life expectancy of the people they shell & bomb. :p Nationalism isn’t very concerned about the lives of people who are not part of that particular nation or group that’s supposed to be “real [Nation members].” The cynicism or blindness is baked right in.
Just remember that the next time you watch a movie with plucky protagonists fighting evil flying death robots or alien invasions. :p
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“Well, of course they cause a massive reduction in life expectancy of the people they shell & bomb.”
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It’s like arguing that rape has a positive side of enhancing people’s sexual experience.
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Forget it Jake, it’s el town.
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