Try drinking some:

"The idea that LIQUID WATER can exist at the surface should long ago have been accepted. Of course it can (at least for a while). There is also an apparent abundance of WATER ice near the surface in equatorial latitudes -- ice which ought to be subject to some form of melt from time to time."

The second statement follows from the first, as you can build any kind of argument on an absurdity. Try a CO2 clathrate, instead of a water ice.

"The discussion point by now should have moved on to the question of why it doesn't do so more often. Why are fluid flows relatively rare, though not completely absent? How were conditions different enough in the past to permit extensive flows?"

Well, the first thing you'd need to do to answer this question would be to figure out when exactly "the past" was, and to do this you'd need to have competent impact geologists on both the MGS and MO management teams. Competent impact geologists could also explain the "fluid" flows to you, and exactly what triggers them.

Of course, in baring this, the current management teams could always pretend to comptency in this field, and then make up whatever dates for "the past" that suited them. They could then also make up whatever "fluids" they wished to to account for the flows. It's all real easy: pitch out geology and physics, and you can produce the kind of Mars that many people wish for.

"And ultimately we have to ponder what substance flows now, and what flowed in the past?"

That's easy enough: try a CO2 mix. Its even been observed flowing.

"It's a different world, after all."

yes, it sure is. and as more undeniable hard data comes in, it is finally getting more different all along. The real question left is how long is it going to be before those blue colored lenses are entirely shattered.