i actually don't want to come down on a side in this debate about fourplexes. it seems like a good idea to enforce fourplexes as a right until you stop to do the actual math and realize that it wouldn't even actually help.

we don't need fourplexes, we need massive skyscrapers. we need to be building up; way up.

if the government wants us to be as populated as megacities like london and new york, we're going to have to build like london and new york, and (with the single exception of the very downtown core of toronto), we just don't. we think it's not canadian to have that kind of urban density.

well, the population is growing very fast and nobody wants to live in permafrost, alberta. the state made the choice to overpopulate us. now, we have to start building skyscrapers, not fourplexes.

there's a weird narrative that the issue in rafah has to do with the saudis protecting the palestinians. that's odd, as the saudis have never tried to protect the palestinians before.

this guy sisi, however, is a puppet of the saudis, and they would be interested in maintaining stability in egypt, which may be where the arab revolution to overthrow islam eventually happens, one day. egypt is a brutal dictatorship but it's a relatively secular society, and it has to be by popular demand. this shadow caliphate in riyadh wants to keep egypt under control.

but, in fact, the primary concern of the saudis would not be in protecting palestine from israel but rather in ejecting the iranian proxy that is hamas from the mediterranean. the saudis would need to obscure it a little, but their primary rival and enemy is iran, not israel. the saudis and israelis would actually be expected to have common cause in wiping out hamas, but the saudis don't want to destabilize egypt.

i would consequently be skeptical about this idea that the october attack was about trying to undo the saudi-israeli detente, as hamas is a common enemy of the saudis and israel, and the alliance against iran was what the detente was supposed to be about. if anything, what's happening might be better described as the first step of the aforementioned detente, which is something the americans would seek to prevent (as it would upset the balance of power and complicate their strategy of divide and conquer).

the absolute last thing in the world that the americans would want is an alliance between israel and saudi arabia.