He resurfaced with a different portfolio of guises and poses and posts as ‘Bauxite’.

“He must have a soft spot in there somewhere.”

Damn right. Fires permitted on Sundays. An additional pierogi on High Holy Days. As much cabbage as anyone can eat. Highest class Zoroastrian Sky Burials gratis for the unfortunates who insist upon not thriving under my merciful correctional regime.

Yeah, that’s what I figured: a softie at heart.

I should have known it when in an indiscreet moment of weakness you revealed that your 7th great-grandmother was herself the Mischling great-granddaughter of Shlomo of Konigsburg, Chief Rabbi of the Hanseatic League, and chaplain to the Ben Israel contingent of the Teutonic Knights. Treacherously killed from behind at Grunwald, I am given to understand, while leading his contingent forward shouting, “Viva Moishe Rey!”

“One drop”, as they say.

Quit pretending, Zaphod.

A starving kid show up looking wan and pitiable at your campfire, and you’d be sharing your coffee and fatback with him before anyone could say “Tikkun Olam”.

Sometimes when trolls disappear it is of their own free will. Sometimes they are banned. Sometimes I announce the latter. Sometimes I do not.

I actually cannot recall what happened to either Manju or Montage. But I have a vague recollection that I finally banned at least one of them.

Mission ended, although not in their case accomplished, as they did not change any minds among the regular commenters here (or not that I noticed), and I doubt among any of the lurkers, due to the fine responses by Neo and others eviscerating what they put forth.

I sporadically read comments at Powerline, just on occasional posts where I’m interested in the zeitgeist over there, and noted the same decamping of their resident trolls. However, I read a couple of threads recently and noticed that they have some new ones, who are not getting any more traction than the old ones did.

Zaphod might be an Ogre or a Gnome, but definitely not a Troll.
For one thing, his nonpolitical interests are too broad and sometimes quite deep.
More importantly, he has a sense of humor.

Although, of course, he could just be a New Improved Troll 5.0 Release, much more subtle in approach.
If that’s the case, then we’ll see if Neo & Co. can bring him over to the Right Side.

“And there’d be a distinct dearth of forensic investigation into your regrettable demise.”

The death, by suicide, accidents, and homicide during robbery or drive-by etc. would be looked at but what was determined would never link back to the real cause, being inconvenient to a Clinton.

I wasn’t addressing your thoughts or process for banning commenters.

I was addressing Cicero for what I considered his right-wing, flip-side equivalent of Cancel Culture. Something doesn’t fit in with one’s cherished, obviously absolutely correct beliefs? Ban it or demand it banned. Take away its place in a public space.

I stand by that.

“He after all, thinks that the church ladies of the left should be saved if possible from destroying themselves, and turned to potentially useful pursuits. Whereas I say let them reap the conflagration they have kindled, even if it burns much of the old neighborhood down with them.”

There must be an understaffed quarry in Kamchatka.

“He must have a soft spot in there somewhere.”

Damn right. Fires permitted on Sundays. An additional pierogi on High Holy Days. As much cabbage as anyone can eat. Highest class Zoroastrian Sky Burials gratis for the unfortunates who insist upon not thriving under my merciful correctional regime.

Zaphod is an interesting case because he’s got a quirky mind and some interesting things to say, but he likes to be provocative and purposely skirt the line of what’s deeply offensive. He sometimes crosses that line – actually he does with some regularity – and I have removed some of those comments (so you probably never saw them) and I once put him in comment moderation for a while.

If he or anyone else keeps crossing the line after repeated warnings I do ban that person, but I’m highly reluctant to do it and don’t do it often, particularly if that person also has some valuable or interesting things to say at times (which is the case for Zaphod). But I will do it if and when pressed.”

The mark of a real troll is not that he says or moots offensive propositions, or delivers them in a sarcastic way; but, rather 1, that he refuses to then argue the proposition in a logical way when challenged, thus demonstrating that he is simply trying to get under readers’ skins; and 2, that he repeatedly directs his sarcasm personally, in a way that demeans not public figures, but other commenters.

This, insofar as I have seen, Zaphod does not habitually do.

This place already has enough of the atmosphere of an echo chamber to warrant going the extra mile.

It is unfortunate that some of the other commenters who took contrarian positions on Neo’s pages refused ever to defend their “deposits” but simply dropped them and scampered on.

If a man will pick up the gauntlet, i.e., take up the question, and avoid directing personal invective at those he is exchanging with, I’d make allowances.

Lord knows that Zaphod and I disagree deeply on a number of things. He after all, thinks that the church ladies of the left should be saved if possible from destroying themselves, and turned to potentially useful pursuits. Whereas I say let them reap the conflagration they have kindled, even if it burns much of the old neighborhood down with them.

He must have a soft spot in there somewhere.

Um, no.

Should be, “…the Afghan military, which collapsed almost instantly after the U.S. pulled the rug out from under it….”

…which the author of that piece himself confirms later in the article by quoting the following:

“Contractors maintained [Afghan military] bombers and…attack and transport aircraft throughout the war. By July, most of the 17,000 support contractors had left. A technical issue now meant that aircraft — a Black Hawk helicopter, a C-130 transport, a surveillance drone — would be grounded.

“The contractors also took proprietary software and weapons systems with them. They physically removed [Afghan military] helicopter missile-defense system. Access to the software that [the Afghan military] relied on to track…vehicles, weapons and personnel also disappeared….”

In other words, “Biden” clearly decided to pull the rug out from under the Afghan armed forces…
…and “his” SecDef and JCOS said something along the lines of “Hey, why not?”…

And so, to paraphrase John Kirby(?):
“We have Americans pulling the rug out from under our allies all the time….”

No doubt this has been duly noted by the Taiwanese (no shrinking violets, they).

However, the amateur’s leading Israel’s government seem to believe that their country has no greater friend than the current occupant or the WH.

I’d be surprised if you could survive proposing too loudly that the Clinton Foundation be subjected to a forensic audit.

And there’d be a distinct dearth of forensic investigation into your regrettable demise.