That too, as with the protests against police, are perhaps symbols of how a distant and powerful a government feels unaccountable. The urge to centralize weakens self-determination over an increasingly overwhelming part of our lives (regulation). This is one reason I've suggested neighborhood-level police management.
Danny, I believe the Palestinian constitution calls for elections every 4 years, but it doesn't work out that way. Hamas won Gaza in 2006 and then expelled the Palestinian Authority (as in, tossed people off buildings). But the PA kept control in the West Bank. They haven't run elections since. As the saying goes: "One man, one vote, one time."
It looks like they might run these elections, but both Hamas and the PA are weaker due to an increasingly shared perception of corruption.
That all said, the election priorities aren't quite the same as they might be in, say, Illinois. A significant segment of the population is dedicated to permanent conflict. It is my hope, with the UAE accords and the Arab Ra'am Party (which indicated it would seek pragmatic alliances) doing so well in the Israeli elections (and maybe even forcing the Israeli center-right to cross ethnic bounds), that the ethnic fissures will be supplanted by a more pragmatic approach which can open the door to numerous longer-term solutions.
@[Danny Straus](user:5566) You have to have elections more than once. The last Palestinian elections were in 2006.
The elections in Iran are particularly beautiful. The Supreme Leader and Council of Guardians (and other groups) determine who can run. Then those who are elected have limits in the areas they can do - the Supreme Leader has the power to overrule many many things. So you have elections, but everybody knows they are a mirage.
Even in places with regular and free elections there are deep problems. People vote by ethnic affiliation. Then those ethnicities fight it out on the next level up. There are often few cross-ethnic parties. By ethnicity, I also include religious identities, irrespective of religious belief.
I actually wrote a thriller about these relationships and how to improve on them. It's called The City on the Heights and is available on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075WVM711/
No, those other regimes rarely had the religious backing - quite the opposite actually. They didn't have people trained and ideologically committed, with their lives if need be, to support them.
Look up the Basij militia.
The Iranian system is brilliantly designed with elections giving some semblance of control as the first line of defense, a self-selecting body of actual religious governors (Supreme Leader and Council of Guardians) and then street-level religious thugs (Basij) able to be the final line of defense if need be with support from a corrupt special military-religious force (the IRGC). The Basij are the guns machine-gunning protestors from the back of motorcycles. The IRGC are the ones torturing and hanging them (or in the case of young women, raping and shooting them because there is a law against executing virgin women).
There are no run-of-the-mill soldiers who will just turn on the regime and the government is *not* stupid. They've learned from the Arab Spring, the Color Revolutions, 1989 and all the rest.
As I see it, the only way out is to arm the population. Literally air drop caches of arms on neighborhoods known to be more liberal in their thinking.
All that said, I prefer an honest and full-disclosure discussion or risks rather than trying to sweep things under the rug in the name of convincing people you are convinced can't make decisions for themselves. The sweep-under-the-rug make everything line up perfectly approach does not yield compliance. It yields suspicion, doubt, anger and even revolt. That is why I am not the least bit concerned about people knowing I had a side effect. They should know. To hide it would be counterproductive - especially if you are pro-vaccine.
Despite this, so many people keep pushing the hide-all-the-warts sales approach on almost every kind of topic.
The vast majority of it was. I don't need hearing aids (and my wife is an audiologist and is not shy about telling people they do!) and am perfectly functional. I had a prior shooting notch that got a bit worse.
Latest Comments
The Biggest Misstep Of 2021
This is the kind of powerlessness that feels like stability from the top even as the foundation upon which everything is built turns to quicksand.
The Biggest Misstep Of 2021
That too, as with the protests against police, are perhaps symbols of how a distant and powerful a government feels unaccountable. The urge to centralize weakens self-determination over an increasingly overwhelming part of our lives (regulation). This is one reason I've suggested neighborhood-level police management.
The Biggest Misstep Of 2021
Danny, I believe the Palestinian constitution calls for elections every 4 years, but it doesn't work out that way. Hamas won Gaza in 2006 and then expelled the Palestinian Authority (as in, tossed people off buildings). But the PA kept control in the West Bank. They haven't run elections since. As the saying goes: "One man, one vote, one time."
It looks like they might run these elections, but both Hamas and the PA are weaker due to an increasingly shared perception of corruption.
That all said, the election priorities aren't quite the same as they might be in, say, Illinois. A significant segment of the population is dedicated to permanent conflict. It is my hope, with the UAE accords and the Arab Ra'am Party (which indicated it would seek pragmatic alliances) doing so well in the Israeli elections (and maybe even forcing the Israeli center-right to cross ethnic bounds), that the ethnic fissures will be supplanted by a more pragmatic approach which can open the door to numerous longer-term solutions.
The Biggest Misstep Of 2021
@[Danny Straus](user:5566) You have to have elections more than once. The last Palestinian elections were in 2006. The elections in Iran are particularly beautiful. The Supreme Leader and Council of Guardians (and other groups) determine who can run. Then those who are elected have limits in the areas they can do - the Supreme Leader has the power to overrule many many things. So you have elections, but everybody knows they are a mirage. Even in places with regular and free elections there are deep problems. People vote by ethnic affiliation. Then those ethnicities fight it out on the next level up. There are often few cross-ethnic parties. By ethnicity, I also include religious identities, irrespective of religious belief. I actually wrote a thriller about these relationships and how to improve on them. It's called The City on the Heights and is available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075WVM711/
The Biggest Misstep Of 2021
Eventually war with the Persian *people* - who don't deserve it.
The Biggest Misstep Of 2021
www.wsj.com/.../treasurys-yellen-to-call-for-global-minimum-corporate-tax-rate-11617633701
The Biggest Misstep Of 2021
No, those other regimes rarely had the religious backing - quite the opposite actually. They didn't have people trained and ideologically committed, with their lives if need be, to support them.
Look up the Basij militia.
The Iranian system is brilliantly designed with elections giving some semblance of control as the first line of defense, a self-selecting body of actual religious governors (Supreme Leader and Council of Guardians) and then street-level religious thugs (Basij) able to be the final line of defense if need be with support from a corrupt special military-religious force (the IRGC). The Basij are the guns machine-gunning protestors from the back of motorcycles. The IRGC are the ones torturing and hanging them (or in the case of young women, raping and shooting them because there is a law against executing virgin women).
There are no run-of-the-mill soldiers who will just turn on the regime and the government is *not* stupid. They've learned from the Arab Spring, the Color Revolutions, 1989 and all the rest.
As I see it, the only way out is to arm the population. Literally air drop caches of arms on neighborhoods known to be more liberal in their thinking.
The Biggest Misstep Of 2021
The religious fanatical supporters of the regime (and the corrupt masters of it) are the only ones with guns. It is an awful hard regime to topple.
It's Good To Be A Guinea Pig
All that said, I prefer an honest and full-disclosure discussion or risks rather than trying to sweep things under the rug in the name of convincing people you are convinced can't make decisions for themselves. The sweep-under-the-rug make everything line up perfectly approach does not yield compliance. It yields suspicion, doubt, anger and even revolt. That is why I am not the least bit concerned about people knowing I had a side effect. They should know. To hide it would be counterproductive - especially if you are pro-vaccine.
Despite this, so many people keep pushing the hide-all-the-warts sales approach on almost every kind of topic.
It's Good To Be A Guinea Pig
The vast majority of it was. I don't need hearing aids (and my wife is an audiologist and is not shy about telling people they do!) and am perfectly functional. I had a prior shooting notch that got a bit worse.