WhiteMouse,

Yes my wife is an extremely caring person, maybe too caring at times. I on the other hand also care about people, but more in the practical sense, possibly even in a somewhat cynical way. In my present voluntary roll dealing with homeless and vulnerable folk, I hear some terrible stories, but I'm "hardened" to it all, the misery, the anguish, the despair I hear it often, you can't let it get to you, otherwise nothing will be achieved. Some peoples lives are such a mess, you would not believe.

A young fella homeless, living in an old van, been bashed once, had his van vandalized, young blokes yahooing and banging on the side of his van in the middle of the night, when he's asleep, traumatised by a multitude of issues, social, health etc etc. He calls me at 5.30am yesterday (Sunday bloody hell) The cops had been around, seems someones garage near by was broken into on Saturday night. The cops wanted to know what he knew about it, answer nothing, but still the coppers tell him you'll have to move on from here, or we'll have you moved. He's in a panic, his van don't run, its clapped out. He's already on the edge of self harm and this happens. How do you deal with it? By Sunday afternoon he was absolutely out of it with prescription drugs and alcohol. I think there is a very high probability this guy will be found dead in his van very soon, that's how bad I think the situation is. P/s We've got a professional social worker on his case, good bloke. I spoke with him this morning but unfortunately he doesn't hold out much hope.

"I'm better informed on this thread topic than anyone here, mhaze is just a tryhard."

AC, its very true that you are more extensively read than anyone else on the thread. But that doesn't mean "better informed". Reading extensively doesn't equate to reading widely.

When you read enormous amounts from one side of the issue, you aren't informing yourself on the facts, you are searching for facts to confirm your pre-judged conspiracy theories. Reading extensively but narrowly leads to things where you completely fall for claims that the banning of Russian language was a cause of the war, or completely falling for people telling you that a survey says one thing when it in fact says another. It leads to idiotic claims that Odessa will fall soon or that capture of Bakhmut will lead to a general breakout. Or that Israel would suffer badly at the hands of Hezbullah when war between them broke out. Or that Iran air defences would defeat the Israeli attack.

Reading widely would mean that you wouldn't fall for any of those things while reading extensively but narrowly meant that you fell for them all.... and much more.

Ronald Reagan once quipped... "The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

Its not that you're ignorant AC. Its just that you fall for all sorts of things that just aren't so.

That's where you get me totally get me wrong.
I'm looking at the bigger picture, not fighting over small details, of which there are many hundreds every day.
You're the one keeping score on the small details but completely miss the bigger picture.

Did Lavrov say he's concerned about US unicorns orbiting the moon? No.
He said the language laws after the Maidan were an issue, not the cause for the war (NATO expansion), but an issue.

How many men do you think Ukraine has left?
Why you think Starmer and Macron are panicking?

What survey, and who cares?
"Or that Israel would suffer badly at the hands of Hezbollah when war between them broke out."
- Wrong on that, who could foresee the pager event, but over a million turned out for Nasrallah's funeral, so they might be down but they're not out.
"Or that Iran air defences would defeat the Israeli attack."
They did lock onto the Israelis F-35's and they turned back.

"Reading widely would mean that you wouldn't fall for any of those things while reading extensively but narrowly meant that you fell for them all.... and much more."

Again, I'm looking at the bigger picture not the small details.
Will Trump pick a fight with Iran or even he Houty?
As in ground troops?

Trump says a lot of things,
Just as important to pay attention to what Rubio, Hegseth and Waltz say.

And fyi, I watch about a dozen different people or so, who themselves spend their entire days watching what many many other people are doing and saying, so in truth, my reach is actually pretty good, and you only carry on about the few times I get things wrong, not the things I get right, which isn't a good measure anyway because things evolve over time and more things come to light which puts more or less weight on previous assumptions of where things were going at any given time.

In another shocking war crime, the Zionists have launched massive air strikes up and down Gaze killing and injuring hundreds of children. When are these sickening outrages gong to stop?

'Netanyahu said he had ordered the strikes because of a lack of progress in ongoing talks to extend the ceasefire.'
- Well that makes sense, attack Hamas over the hostages, when Hamas HAS the hostages.
Just remember Trump pushes Netanyahus chair in for him and rearmed Israel to do this.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-18/us-sends-israel-2000-pound-bomb-heavy-weapons/104944950

Just remember the war was justified on lies about beheaded Israeli babies but we saw beheaded Palestinian babies in the Rafah tent massacre.
Also remember Smotrich talked about requiring conflict to continue an expansionist Greater Israel plan,

Meanwhile, here's the Kremlin release regarding the Trump Putin phone call.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/76477