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Andy

@ andrewrgross @slrpnk.net

Posts
90
Comments
779
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • NSFW Removed

    Biden says he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if it launches major invasion of Rafah | CNN Politics

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  • I think this is a good breakdown of the situation, and sadly it's pretty typical Biden: one side wants pizza, the other hamburger, and he offers a pizzaburger that no one likes.

    Get a spine, man. You're going to get called Hamas' favorite president by the warmongers whether you cut off one bomb or all of them, so there's no benefit to taking a symbolic stance while still allowing the operation to proceed. They can't actually do this if we cut off all bombs, but they certainly can if you just cut off 1% of their supply or whatever this is.

    That said, there good news here. It's progress. After 7 months, I was of the belief that Biden was totally immune to pressure. He's pretty resilient to it, but clearly the combined effects -- both the campus protests, the civil disobedience, the constant bird dogging at every campaign event -- are moving him, and the general mainstream consensus. Let's keep that up.

  • Jack Dorsey claims Bluesky is 'repeating all the mistakes' he made at Twitter

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  • First, thanks for that explanation. That's interesting.

    Is there a good place to learn more? I can see why having custom feeds and 3rd party moderation tools are good, but I still have a lot questions.

    First, is there a genuine benefit to dissociating a users identity from their server? I think the connection between users and their home instances are a brilliant innovation. They seem to bring village culture back to the internet. They help people associate within networks below just the global level. I think the atomization of people online has been a part of why there is so little trust.

  • Jack Dorsey claims Bluesky is 'repeating all the mistakes' he made at Twitter

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  • I don't understand how any of these visions fundamentally differ from Mastodon.

    Decentralized? Yep. It's got no center. Open source? Yep, you can fork it and make your own if you want. Unmoderated? Sure, if you want that, you can set up an instance and host whatever illegal content you want. You'll have a lot of legal problems and most people don't want it, but the option exists.

    Is there any point besides money and crypto bullshit? If you want to post short comments that your friends can subscribe to that isn't controlled by a big corporation that gives your data to the government... well we have that. It exists. It's pretty okay. Go use it.

  • G.M. Will Retire the Chevrolet Malibu to Make More Electric Cars | The gasoline-powered Malibu was the last sedan sold by Chevrolet, the General Motors brand, in the United States.

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  • I drive one for work and it's nearly invisible. It's painfully bland. This is a great decision for GM, I don't think anyone will miss them except perhaps bank robbers.

  • Israelis rally to demand ceasefire and Netanyahu's resignation

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  • Sorry, I think I had a different comment open in a different tab and got confused before I had to run off to do something.

    I'll leave it up, because I don't like to delete comments that have been replied to.

  • Israelis rally to demand ceasefire and Netanyahu's resignation

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  • I find it helps to name check the position you're describing, which is "a one-state solution".

  • ‘Huge win’: Brown University protesters reach an agreement to dismantle encampment

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  • What are you talking about? The occupation includes the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It predated Hamas, and continues -- brutally -- in regions in which Hamas doesn't operate.

    While the war in Gaza draws attention, folks in the West Bank have had homes firebombed with children inside and watched lynch mobs run whole towns off their land with military escorts. And that doesn't even get into how Palestinian citizens of Israel are treated inside Israel. They're legal citizens, but live with curtailed rights under a literal second-class of citizenship in a police state. They get disappeared, raped, and killed in prisons without charges over social media posts criticizing the government. What the hell does that have to do with Hamas?

    We need to acknowledge that all these people are living under a military apartheid system, and demand negotiations for the formation of a democratic one-state solution. We already live in a one-state reality, just without civil rights for half the population.

  • ‘Huge win’: Brown University protesters reach an agreement to dismantle encampment

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  • Also, if you follow some links in the article, Israeli divestment has been an big, ongoing movement at Brown. This isn't a flash in the pan. It's a big step forward along what has already been a long and brutal road.

    It's not going away. And I truly believe that these students will win.

  • ‘Huge win’: Brown University protesters reach an agreement to dismantle encampment

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  • I would amend that to say that this is about the future and eventual end of the occupation. I think it's more material than you describe, but it's a slow process.

  • ‘Huge win’: Brown University protesters reach an agreement to dismantle encampment

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  • You know, you're welcome to disagree on tactics, but I must ask you to show a bit of respect.

    These protestors put themselves in danger. They made sacrifices for a cause you care about. Time may prove their tactics to have been in error, but they are not "braindead" "idiots" who accomplished "absolutely nothing".

    They know their situation better than you. They put their bodies and futures on the table, and they alone get to decide what trades they want to make. You are welcome to your opinion on what tactics others should use, and you are welcome to make your choice about what to do when it's your ass on the front lines. But I don't think you have any business talking big shit about people who are out there carrying the heavy loads.

  • ‘Huge win’: Brown University protesters reach an agreement to dismantle encampment

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  • That's a concern I share, but I think I'm the immediate moment, the activists have forced the university to break down a very significant barrier: their demands are legitimized by this. It becomes harder for other schools to justify a crackdown. And if this gets repeated, we move on to the next chapter of this story: university hearings across the country.

    The goal is to change what is possible and put pressure on Israel and it's material bankers. A large number of hearings does that. Crackdowns don't really hurt the war effort or the profits of the military industrial tech complex.

    It's going to require a lot more pressure, but if this is not winning this particular battle, I'm not sure what that looks like.

  • An assassination plot on American soil reveals a darker side of Modi’s India [gift article]

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  • Whoa, whoa, whoa!

    Are you telling me that if we support autocratic ethnonationalist strongmen who target minorities and political opponents with violence... ... it might hurt an American??? /s

    I didn't read this article. What the hell? He's doing all this shit out in the open. It's not a darker side, it's just his front-facing side.

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    Promoted on TikTok, ‘No Thanks’ boycott app targets products tied to Israel

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  • Obviously not. But that's true to some degree for all news sources. I don't blindly trust any newspaper. I read Times of Israel through a lens of context, just like I do for the NY Times, The Guardian, The Intercept, etc.

    I think it's incredibly useful to see what a country reads about itself. Not only is that true even for countries engaged atrocities: it's especially true for countries engaged in atrocities.

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    Promoted on TikTok, ‘No Thanks’ boycott app targets products tied to Israel

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  • I find the Times of Israel to be a decent source. They're obviously biased in favor of Israel, but it's not behind a paywall and they're far more informative than The NY Post, for instance. I think they seem less biased then the WSJ, frankly.

    Overall, a useful insight into mainstream discourse in Israel with fairly accurate reporting.

  • Removed

    Promoted on TikTok, ‘No Thanks’ boycott app targets products tied to Israel

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  • I don't think they mean that tiktok is being banned over this app specifically: I just interpreted their comment to mean that tiktok has been an ongoing nuisance to the American mainstream political establishment.

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    Promoted on TikTok, ‘No Thanks’ boycott app targets products tied to Israel

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  • That's cool. Do you have any details?

  • Israel, US said working to prevent ICC arrest warrant against Netanyahu

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  • Don't forget finance minister Bezalel Smotich. He gets less attention than Ben-Gvir, but he is arguably to Ben-Gvir's right, as insane as that concept sounds.

    Smotich has even acknowledged (in a joking manner) that he's a fascist.

  • Message From a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause

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  • I think you misread my comment. I said that Howidy seems to falsely believe that one can only oppose one side in a war.

    To repeat this point: We all can -- and should! -- condemn violence against civilians, sexual assault of captives, and the killing and torture of dissidents by ALL PARTIES. That includes the ruling parties of both Israel and Gaza at the moment.

    I DO agree that there is more than one way to oppose a war. I'm not disputing that. But you seem to be having a different conversation than the one I was having. That wasn't something I mentioned.

  • Message From a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause

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  • Ironically? The byline says that he's an accountant.