Elections in various countries

[tiramisu]

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[Vijay]

My family recently brought up the Indian election, but they haven't said anything specific about it except something about Rahul Gandhi campaigning from Wayanad.

[mèþru]

Abbas is sticking to the right of return for Palestinians, which is a deal breaker for Israel - even if a Prime Minister agreed to it, it won't make it in the cabinet and Knesset. It probably would have happened that way if Olmert stayed.

Hamas continues to produce antisemitic propaganda and has never amended its charter which calls for Israel's destruction. They continue to occasionally commit terror attack against Israeli citizens.

As an Israeli, I can tell that there is a very strong desire fore peace - but there is wide disagreement on what it should look like and how to get there, and there is a widespread pessimism about whether peace is achievable. People still fear attacks - no one thinks about the statistics of how many Israelis have actually been hurt when there is news of rockets or stabbings. They worry about if their loved ones are safe. Israelis don't want to live in fear of Palestinian terror anymore than Palestinians want to live in fear of the IDF.

[mèþru]

I'm rethinking using the label Zionist. People hear that term and assume all sorts of things that I'm not, which is part of why I don't use any other political labels. It is especially problematic as many of the tenets of my personal Zionism go against what is considered the orthodoxy of most popular streams of Zionism. The most common assumption is that I'm a supporter of Revisionist Zionism or New Zionism. While they are common forms, they aren't nearly as prevalent among Jewish Zionists as the non-Zionists think. I don't really belong to any subschool or "stream" of Zionism thought.

I'm not certain of it though. In the meantime I've removed the term Zionist from my twitter profile.

@Vijay
Is there a greater than 1/5 chance that Modi will lose? He looks unbeatable in the polls even as he brings the country into financial ruin and war panic.

[Raphael]

Out of curiosity - has any news outlet from outside Germany reported anything about the whole VIP-planes-falling-apart saga?

(For those of you who haven't heard of it yet, the part of the German air force that's in charge of flying politicians from A to B and back seems to have serious problems with basic parts of doing their jobs, to an extent that would be hilarious if it wouldn't involve the very real risk of people actually getting hurt. Every now and then, you hear another report about some cabinet member or someone sitting in some distant country waiting for some issues with their plane to get sorted out so that they can fly home. The latest incident was one where a plane with just the crew on board had to do a kind of hard landing that was dangerously close to a crash shortly after taking off, because they had problems keeping them from flying on. Why did they take off with just the crew on board in the first place? Well, you see, the plane was about to fly back to its home base from the place where it had just undergone maintenance.)

[Richard W]

Well, you see, the plane was about to fly back to its home base from the place where it had just undergone maintenance.

Isn't that the most dangerous time to fly a generally well-maintained aircraft?

[Raphael]

Well, you see, the plane was about to fly back to its home base from the place where it had just undergone maintenance.

Isn't that the most dangerous time to fly a generally well-maintained aircraft?

Really? Sounds a bit strange to me, but I don't know much about plane maintenance. Could you elaborate? Or are you being sarcastic?

[Vijay]

@Vijay
Is there a greater than 1/5 chance that Modi will lose? He looks unbeatable in the polls even as he brings the country into financial ruin and war panic.

I'm afraid I have no idea because I don't actually read the news but maybe not then. I suppose people think he's a symbol of prosperity or something. Maybe there is also some kind of coercion going on. Hindu fundamentalists seem to have been up to some pretty shady stuff in Kerala in recent years. They even tried to sabotage our biggest annual holiday.

Maybe I should try taking a look at Google News in some Indian vernacular languages.

[Richard W]

Really? Sounds a bit strange to me, but I don't know much about plane maintenance. Could you elaborate? Or are you being sarcastic?

During maintenance, things are often taken apart and put back together. Unfortunately, sometimes, they aren't put back together properly. A change of shift during maintenance can be lethal if the teams don't communicate well. It's also an opportunity for tools to accidentally be left inside. Additionally, some rarely used switches can be left in the 'wrong' position.

[Raphael]

Really? Sounds a bit strange to me, but I don't know much about plane maintenance. Could you elaborate? Or are you being sarcastic?

During maintenance, things are often taken apart and put back together. Unfortunately, sometimes, they aren't put back together properly. A change of shift during maintenance can be lethal if the teams don't communicate well. It's also an opportunity for tools to accidentally be left inside. Additionally, some rarely used switches can be left in the 'wrong' position.

Ah, thank you!

[M Mira]

Terry Guo, founder and CEO of Foxconn, announced his bid for the 2020 presidential election. He is going to participate in the KMT primary.

For a sense of scale, in 2018, the annual government budget of Taiwan was 2.2 trillion NTD. The annual revenue of Foxconn itself was 5.3 trillion NTD and 6.1 trillion with subsidiaries.

[Hallow XIII]

I'm rethinking using the label Zionist. People hear that term and assume all sorts of things that I'm not, which is part of why I don't use any other political labels. It is especially problematic as many of the tenets of my personal Zionism go against what is considered the orthodoxy of most popular streams of Zionism. The most common assumption is that I'm a supporter of Revisionist Zionism or New Zionism. While they are common forms, they aren't nearly as prevalent among Jewish Zionists as the non-Zionists think. I don't really belong to any subschool or "stream" of Zionism thought.

I'm not certain of it though. In the meantime I've removed the term Zionist from my twitter profile.

@Vijay
Is there a greater than 1/5 chance that Modi will lose? He looks unbeatable in the polls even as he brings the country into financial ruin and war panic.

let's leave being from new york to people from new york, and being a kangressi to the already excessive supply of Indian communists

[Raphael]

let's leave being from new york to people from new york, and being a kangressi to the already excessive supply of Indian communists

Ah, the "everyone to the left of me is a communist" move. How original! How innovative!

A very convincing point, though, especially coming from someone who, a few weeks ago, jumped into the US politics thread to complain about the kraken of American liberalism, and, without living in the USA, lectured someone who does live in the USA about what is and isn't relevant to his life.

BTW, last time I checked, mèþru didn't live in New York, so what do you mean with your "people from New York" remark? I think we both know what you mean, but I wonder if you have the guts to say it openly.

[mèþru]

I live pretty near where the NYC metropolitan statistical area ends, and am part of its combined statistical area, so I think its correct enough to say I'm a New Yorker to someone who doesn't come from the US or Canada.

I am not endorsing the communists of India, but Modi stands for murder of cow farmers and anti-minority rhetoric. He officially condemns these, but his condemnation is worth about as much as Trump's condemnation of David Duke. He doesn't want to actually solve any issues; indeed, with his devaluing of the majority of India's in use currency his administration seems to be concerned the invention of new problems. Also he has been a disaster on Kashmir; his administration's policy there is largely responsible for escalation of the conflict and a massive recent increase in anti-India sentiment within the Indian controlled Muslim areas.

I don't think Congress necessarily has the right answers or less corrupt members (probably even more so on the latter), but India needs to dump Modi badly.

[Vijay]

For whatever it's worth, while I don't self-identify as a communist, I do appreciate some of the things that some of the various communist parties in India have achieved, particularly when it comes to the rights of lower-caste people. But I'm pretty Indian, by heritage if nothing else. And I can't say I know of any Malayalee of any political persuasion who dislikes EMS.

Also from what I've heard, at least, the beef thing is far from being the worst thing Modi's done. It's probably a tad worse, for example, that the organization he represents was also responsible for assassinating Gandhi.

[Travis B.]

Most people are unaware of that there is more to the left than Communism (e.g. most people are downright ignorant of the very existence of the libertarian left), and that Communism itself includes positions as diverse as Stalinism, Eurocommunism, and left communism. Just because there are leftists, even self-identified Communists, in India does not mean that they are all unreconstructed Stalinists.

[Vijay]

I'm not sure I even know of anyone in India who is an unreconstructed Stalinist, but then I'm no expert on such things anyway.

[mèþru]

From what I understand, the main split among communists in India was in 1964, much after Stalin's death, between those who supported China in the Sino-Indian War and those who wanted to negotiate an end to it instead of supporting any side.

[Hallow XIII]

BTW, last time I checked, mèþru didn't live in New York, so what do you mean with your "people from New York" remark? I think we both know what you mean, but I wonder if you have the guts to say it openly.

New York jews, yes. You see, I had somehow gotten the idea that methru lived in Israel!

On another note, I am somewhat puzzled as to your reply. Doesn't "let's leave being from New York to people from New York" imply that I in fact believe my addressee is not from New York? Is that not what that means?

[Vijay]

From what I understand, the main split among communists in India was in 1964, much after Stalin's death, between those who supported China in the Sino-Indian War and those who wanted to negotiate an end to it instead of supporting any side.

Wait, there were people in India who supported China in that war? I've never heard of such a thing even in Kerala with its long history of being staunchly communist. I will say, though, that I've never understood why the Indian government gives two fucks about Aksai Chin. I mean, it doesn't seem like they intend to do anything with it (whereas the Chinese clearly do)...nor does it seem to have permanent inhabitants. The Indian government seems to think that taking away any part of Kashmir from them is some kind of threat to Indian national sovereignty, but it seems like if there is a threat to sovereignty in the region, it's them.

Anyway, I've never understood splits among communists in India to have anything to do with ideology in the first place. What I recall hearing from my parents at least was that it was all about power.