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Andy

@ andrewrgross @slrpnk.net

Posts
90
Comments
779
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • IDF completes road across width of Gaza, satellite images show - BBC News

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  • I have two answers for this.

    First, I challenge the assumption that I have to provide a credible peace plan in order to demand an end to violence. The right-wing of the Zionist movement has made dismantling any infrastructure to work towards peace a key project, and they've been very successful. It was because of their deliberate actions that we have no good options, so I will not accept a lack of good options as a reason to delay. Those guys spent years fucking this situation up, and I demand they get to work unfucking it.

    Second, I think the honest answer is that we design a peace process and we start on it, even if it's a long one. Carl Sagan famously observed "To make an apple pie from scratch, first you must create the universe." We don't have a partner for peace? Well then get to work creating partners for peace. The Palestinians have been facing tightening restrictions for years intended to cut off the development of internal political thought and leaders. Stop doing that. Demand that they get the right to say and think and debate things that Israel doesn't like. Build infrascturucture to make a peace plan possible and set a roadmap: first meeting this year, with goals to develop the boundaries of the first stage of the peace process, with an understanding that the first step is not going to be the creation of a new state or anything similar in scope. Increase the complexity of negotiations and their goals each year on a ten-year timeline toward imposing a plan meant to last for ten more years, with a plan to reassess after that period and decide whether to continue on the same plan or make major changes. Something like this.

  • How the World’s Biggest Plane Would Supersize Wind Energy

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  • I think that's probably true. I think the fuel is almost certainly negligible, but the overall construction of these windmills sounds like it at least deserves discussion.

    I just think it's weird that the WSJ appears to cover the transition to renewables with some kind of petty insistence on NOT discussing any climate issues.

  • How the World’s Biggest Plane Would Supersize Wind Energy

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  • I'm interested, although a lot of this sounds very carbon intensive, which is not discussed in the article. I could imagine that it might still be carbon negative after a certain number of years of operation, but it wouldn't surprise me if the benefits were negligible.

    Also: you know how in the Onion, the last line is usually the punchline to the article? I think it's pretty hilarious that this article finishes this way:

    The plane would be able to fit one large, offshore-sized blade at a time, or it could carry as many as four shorter blades. Lundstrom also thinks it has other uses for moving large equipment for the military or oil-and-gas industry.

    I'm glad wind is taking off, but Jesus tap dancing Christ, the Wall Street Journal crowd is so fucking determined to pretend that this isn't all taking place against the backdrop of a civilization-scale threat. It's... it's exhausting.

    I like the zeppelin idea, btw. They actually mention blimps in the article and say "they can't land in wind". Yeah, neither can planes if it's strong enough, and you also have to build a 6000 ft runway. So... tradeoffs, you know? I wish airships got more consideration.

  • IDF completes road across width of Gaza, satellite images show - BBC News

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  • I think the last part of what you said -- about them not being an ethnicity -- is unhelpful.

    I don't agree with the take, but I don't want to get into a debate over semantics. I just want to try and get people thinking -- from many different perspectives -- about what is happening and what each of us need to do to stop it.

    Millions of people are at risk of dying of deliberate starvation. Millions are being pushed off their land. The region is being destabilized, Jews and Muslims worldwide are facing increasing antisemitism due to a complex set of reasons, Israelis are facing a rapid erosion in civil liberties... and we need to say NO. We need to interrupt all of these.

    We need to demand peace, we need to force from power leaders who pursue agendas designed to escalate conflicts because its in their interests, we need to halt the logistics operations that allow for people to be caged and starved and blown up and tortured...

    I think you and I may disagree about a whole bunch of terms to apply, but I just want to find the common ground. Particularly among liberal zionists, because it's breaking my heart to see so many liberal zionists freezing up at a moment of crisis and allowing the religious zionist movement to take charge. It doesn't have to be that way, we all just need to find courage and act.

    I'm not looking to cast blame or pick fights. As long as you and anyone else isn't actively supporting population transfers or a single Jewish state displacing Palestinians from river to sea, I just want to find where we agree -- stop the war, stop the march of global fascism in Israel, America, and every where else -- and get to work.

  • IDF completes road across width of Gaza, satellite images show - BBC News

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  • Did you see the article? Something like half of the Prime Minister's cabinet was at a rally celebrating that they're doing this.

    Here's the thing: I can recognize that where people stand on this sort of thing is very hard to accurately gauge in the moment. It's as likely that I'm overestimating the support for this plan as it is that you're underestimating it

    With that said, I have a strong motivation to rationalize that these people do not represent the center of public opinion. I really want that to be true. But as someone who has followed Israeli news and politics from before October 7th, and has been following it even more closely since, from the most on-the-ground sources I can find, I heard a phrase from a Lebanese Palestinian podcaster that has struck with me for months. He said,

    "What we are witnessing is the Smotrich-ization of the Israeli public."

    That's in reference to Israeli Finance minister and self-described fascist Bezalel Smotrich. I think it's true. To my horror, the Israeli center and even left are far more amenable to the full ethnic cleansing of Israel-Palestine than any time in my lifetime. I could be wrong. But I think you should ask yourself what you think you should be doing if I'm not.

    Then: do that.

  • is this copium or hopium or schizophrenia?

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  • Check again. He never said it wouldn't!

    He's not forgetting: that's what he's proposing!

  • IDF completes road across width of Gaza, satellite images show - BBC News

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  • India moves to implement controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims

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  • ULLLGGGHHHH

    We need a fuckin' break, man. So many terrible leaders are activating their master plans, and we've just got ol' Genocide Joe just kinda sleepwalking through this whole polycrisis.

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    Netanyahu denies Palestinians are starving

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  • It works.

    He has his power centers. Despite so many people constantly saying "he's finished", he remains very much in control.

    He says the thing that he believes will illicit the right reaction from the people who matter. Since he's unhindered by shame and his instincts are usually right, he's been a demonstration in successfully achieving unthinkable things. He's terribly evil, but one of the best in the world at it.

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    Netanyahu denies Palestinians are starving

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  • Shamelessness, mostly.

    This is a guy who has spent 20 years insisting that every terrible thing that happened under his control didn't happen, wasn't his fault, and was proof of what would happen if he wasn't in power.

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    Biden backtracks on climate plans and ‘walks tightrope’ to court both young voters and moderates

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  • I think it's shocking because declaring an ambition that is in line with our needs is uncommonly sensible electorally for Biden.

    I fully recognize that his targets during 2020 were not realistic, but that's appropriate. No goal of this magnitude ever arrives on time, as planned. But if you know that, it means you MUST aim for at least what is appropriate (if not more) because if you scale your ambition to what is sensible, you'll get even less than that.

    I didn't bother reading the article. I think Biden and his campaign are stupid. Right now, it's very, very, VERY clear to me that his vulnerability isn't "the middle". The very concept of "The Middle" is a fiction at this point. There are moderate, Democratic leaning independents who may or may not show up, and there exist some persuadable voters who are not insignificant, but they are not the deciders in Georgia and Michigan and Pennsylvania. The real, real, real obvious threat to Biden's reelection is that his base has completely eroded. You can't build a campaign on courting the tiny slice of swing voters if you've got no base for them to add to. The base needs enormous reconstruction. I don't know if it's possible, but Biden is running a campaign which looks currently like a case study in how to ignore expert wisdom and lose massively.

    I am not a Democrat. I am a progressive, former Democrat. I am squarely the type of Obama-to-Bernie voters that the party really needs to recapture if they're going to have a future. I want to help Biden, and that means marching in the streets yelling 'Stop committing genocide!' 'We need a Green New Deal!' 'Pass the PRO Act!' 'Raise the minimum wage!' 'Child credits now!'

    I'm trying to lead a horse to water, but this old horse really seems determined to die of dehydration out of some misguided sense of spite. C'est la vie, n'est pas? I'll try not to give up hope, though boy, he and his handlers aren't making it easy.

  • I'm crossposting character art from our tabletop game's community: this is Pulsação!

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  • That's a very apt and appreciated comparison!

  • The Cory Doctorow Humble Bundle

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  • I can't speak for all of Doctorow's work, but of the stuff I've read, I think that's the genre he's writing in.

  • The Cory Doctorow Humble Bundle

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  • The Cory Doctorow Humble Bundle

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  • I would advise anyone who likes sci-fi to read both of these authors.

  • The Cory Doctorow Humble Bundle

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  • Cory Doctorow is the writer I wish I was

    You know, I'm a developer on an open-source tabletop RPG that is meant to be to solarpunk what D&D is to fantasy. We're nearly done, but if you like writing stories in this kind of genre, I think it might interest you, either as a player or contributor to the game modules.

  • The Cory Doctorow Humble Bundle

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  • The short answer is, yes, his work is very good.

  • The Cory Doctorow Humble Bundle

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  • Which book or books did you read? I've read Walkaway, and I'm half way through The Lost Cause, and while I wouldn't say that they're not competence porn, I actually think the story and character work is pretty good in these, imo.

  • Talks on an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal appear on track after killings at Gaza aid site, officials say | CNN Politics

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  • Jesus fucking Christ.

    Is this what Vietnam felt like before the Pentagon Papers? I wasn't around, but I have to imagine this is what it felt like being told to remain calm, everything is fully under control, and we're getting closer to an honorable victory with every day.

    The ceasefire? The one that was promised on Monday? And that both sides said isn't coming soon? So you're saying that even though you were full of shit before, you want me to believe that a shocking massacre really helped bring the temperature down?

    I want to ask how fucking stupid they think we are, but I already know the truth:

    A) Completely and

    B) This isn't about convincing anyone. It's about trying to keep the constantly shrinking population of Biden apologists from lighting themselves on fire too. This is desperate, desperate PR damage control.

    Biden needs to crack. No more "I'm serious", no more "we hope for a ceasefire soon": Call Bibi. Tell him he's got 48 hours to take the best deal on the table, because the war is over. If he wants to fight Hamas, then from now on it's going to be a knife fight, and he can do it alone.

    I don't want Trump to win. Despite the oceans of blood on Biden's hands, I still don't want Trump to win. But only Biden can save Biden.

  • US Blocks Security Council Statement Condemning IDF Killing of Gazans Seeking Aid

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  • I think we're just more lucid and aware of what our government has been doing since the ink on the Declaration of Independence was signed.

    People don't say this often, but the quality of the coverage of this horrifying ordeal is the best I've ever really seen. There's plenty of shortcomings, but the wars in Vietnam and Iraq and even against Isis weren't covered this closely or clearly.

    I think Biden et al are operating as they always have, it's just the level of public awareness of it all that makes this so shocking.