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kava

@ kava @lemmy.world

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419
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • With Trump back, Israeli settlers revive goal of full control of West Bank

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  • I'm split between this would lead to good things and this will usher in a new McCarthy red scare style period.

    Ironically though I think we are inching closer to the Chinese system as the Chinese system inches closer to our own.

    A- brutal capitalism with workers rights stripped down as much as possible

    B- a system where a small group of elites get to make all of the political decisions

    C- a state who cooperates with the largest corporations in order to stay in power and maintain high profits

    The difference is China has been slowly liberalizing, giving their people slightly more political and economic freedoms. Meanwhile here in the US we are doing rhe opposite.

    It's almost as if we are both converging towards the same end goal. A sort of convergent evolution headed to the government with the highest fitness. Which unfortunately for us peons isn't designed for us

  • With Trump back, Israeli settlers revive goal of full control of West Bank

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  • Every step in the right direction is better than taking no steps at all (or worse, taking steps backwards).

    voting DNC is taking no steps at all. it's neoliberal status quo. brutal no-safety rails capitalism, genocide, and war.

    . the only time in this country's history where people managed to get meaningful concessions out of the ruling class was when the ruling class was afraid. moments like the New Deal where communists were getting serious consideration. moments like the civil rights era where blacks and anti-war advocates were protesting en mass. moments like like stonewall riots which led to rights for gays.

    these are steps in the right direction. voting DNC is pissing against the wind deluding yourself that you can somehow outvote fascism in a democracy

  • China flies balloon close to Taiwan, Taipei says

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  • yeah it's just constantly testing boundaries. we do the same thing. for example officially we accept the "one china" policy. our government on paper does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, but as a part of China

    but then we will do stuff like send the Secretary of State over to Taiwan, which implies a de facto independence. it's meant to provoke China and salami slice, in a similar way with the balloons. or our navy drills over in the South China Sea, etc. basically great power geopolitics is a lot of dick swinging

  • I am a very liberal person and I have very liberal children, except for one. I'm pretty sure my Gen Z son has been taken in by fascist doctrine. What can I get him for Christmas?

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  • let your children come to their conclusions on their own. do not try to force them into believing one thing or another. share what you believe is right and let them critically think and analyze the world for themselves

    it's perfectly natural for teenagers to rebel against their parent's world view- especially when they feel like they are being forced into it. it's part of growing up and crafting your own unique identity. nobody has it all figured out when they are a teenager, even though they think they do. so they may seem arrogant and ignorant.. but that's perfectly normal. if you successfully imparted them the values of empathy and compassion when they were young, they will eventually come to proper belief systems

    as for present, you know your son a lot better than any of us will.

  • China flies balloon close to Taiwan, Taipei says

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  • It's two fold

    1- intel and testing

    they are first testing their spy balloons, seeing how it works in a real life operation. in addition, they are getting data about taiwan in addition to taiwan's response. for example if you have networks listening to everything that's happening on taiwanese defense networks, you can start seeing certain things light up when you approach from one side or the other.

    this gives you clues on how it would play out in a real military scenario

    2- diplomatic salami slicing

    this technique basically tries to slowly over time trivialize certain actions. you make an action that seems aggressive but not aggressive enough to warrant a serious response. then you let it cool down and push the envelope a little further, cool down again, and so on. you start to shift the "overton window" of what is acceptable. you slowly shift red lines over bit by bit

    for a film analogy like the type Zizek loves to make, I'd recommend the semi-recent Danish horror film: Speak No Evil. There's an American remake, which in my opinion was OK but the message falls flat because of the ending.

    tldr: i don't think this is petty. i think they know exactly what they are doing and are making the strategically optimal move

  • Microsoft tries to convince Windows 10 users to buy a new PC with full-screen prompts

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  • I really need to figure out how to get a single work app to work on Linux reliably

    what work app?

    I use it for like 99% of my work, so a virtual machine is kind of useless

    i mean, it depends on your computer (like if your cpu & motherboard supports virtualization) but you can in theory get a VM with pretty decent performance

    on my m1 macbook i have a windows VM that runs very smoothly and i can effortlessly use a gesture on the touchpad to switch between them. it's pretty cool

    on linux it's a little harder to set up (i had to pay like $100 for the software on the mac) but it's doable

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • Ok, I think now we're getting somewhere - you're engaging in good faith and I appreciate that. Let's go over the money pumped into Ukraine

    From independence in 1991 to 2014, the total value was not a couple million. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/mar/19/facebook-posts/united-states-spent-5-billion-ukraine-anti-governm/

    We're talking in the range of billions. Roughly $200M a year. That's a lot of money for a country as poor as Ukraine.

    Second, there's likely a lot of money that was sent covertly. The reason NED was founded was just to simplify the process of funding US interests in foreign countries. Before, you would have to have the CIA create a series of intermediary steps to try and obfuscate the source of funds. For example, to bring it back to Guatemala - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d'%C3%A9tat#Operation_PBSuccess

    With NED, you don't need to spend the manpower and money to set up these complex systems of obfuscation. All of the sources are deemed "legitimate" and therefore you can send openly without incriminating yourself. This is cheaper and simpler.

    This goes back to the quote by the founder of NED- Allen Weinstein "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."

    But that's the thing- CIA still exists and still covertly funds individuals and organizations. However, these days (post-NED) they only fund those that would be unacceptable for the US government to be attached to. For example, "Operation Cyclone" in Afghanistan or "Timber Sycamore Program" in Syria. In both these cases, as CIA was working their magic, NED was also funding US interests in those countries in parallel.

    Open "legitimate" funding - NED

    Covert items US doesn't wanna be openly associated with - CIA

    They work as a team, both with the mutual goal of advancing US interests

    Once again, US has a history of trying to destabilize Ukraine that goes back all the way to the start of Cold War. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/11/covert-operation-ukrainian-independence-haunts-cia-00029968

    So to conclude:

    I'll make some claims and please tell me if we agree on them (I believe we will, because you agree $$$ influences democracy)

    1. NED is a tool to advance US interests through funds injection
    2. NED (along with some other US organizations seeking similar goals) openly pumped quite a lot of money into Ukraine.
    3. CIA has a history of covertly funding US interests, and also in parallel with NED funding
    4. CIA has a history of involvement in Ukraine

    So, those 4 statements, I believe are facts. I made no conclusions, simply stated facts. From those facts, I believe it's enough smoke to assume there is fire. You can say there are many holes, and that is fine. Two people can look at the same series of facts and come to different conclusions.

    But I think when looking at the following fact in connection with the previous

    1. US officials speaking on the phone in a highly classified call in such a casual and matter-of-fact way about which politician they want in Ukraine - and that politician served two terms as Prime Minister

    Starts to fill in a pattern. Remember Occam's Razor. What's simplest is probably what is true.

    To conclude my comment- can we at least agree mutually that US attempted to influence Ukrainian democracy? Maybe they were impotent and the radical coup in 2014 was a totally independent movement totally separate from any US influence. It was just a coincidence that the coup led to a pro-US government.

    But can we at least agree on the above- US uses $$$ as a tool to advance their interests and they tried this in Ukraine?

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • You’d use your own head and assess for yourself what that tape means.

    it's a coincidence the guy they decided on just happened to be the guy who ended up being Prime Minister for two terms, right?

    like i said in my original comment. it's an interesting phenomenon. if you were to look in the past, it's very easy to convince people the US acted covertly in many ways that were clearly imperialist. for example in Guatemala or Cuba or Iraq. It's hard to find someone trying to defend US actions in these cases. But as it's happening that goes out the window because propaganda has a powerful hold on emotion

    Let's take a step back and let me ask you a question. Please answer instead of diverting or otherwise trying to deflect

    Question is: Do you believe money holds influence in US elections and do you think people with money actively try and influence elections?

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • Russia is a terrible ally and an even worse overlord I'm not arguing against that. It has a brutal history and a brutal people whose cultural DNA goes all the way back to the Mongol hordes pillaging and raping for tribute

    Right, what I was getting at was that all the other claims are bullshit, this is a war because winning it would grant Russia strategic advantages, and they thought they’d win the conflict, probably not even expecting a full war; just a three day special operation.

    yes, they expected Ukraine to fold. So did US intelligence, at least ostensibly.

    although at this point, anybody paying attention sees the writing on the wall. Russia has been slowly inching forward all year. They will win unless there is some sort of dramatic change in battlefield dynamics

    and US has no intention of allowing Ukraine to win. this is why I see US involvement as cynical. It was never meant to actually help Ukraine. Ukraine has been under Russian orbit for centuries. Throughout the entirety of the Cold War, it was under Russian control.

    It does not meaningfully alter the power balance between US and Russia. US is just taking advantage to extract as much as they can out of this war and then when the juice is squeezed out of the lemon, Ukraine will fall under Russian control.

    So if Ukraine losing was the point the entire time - what "help" was our help? It wasn't to help the people, prolonging a destructive war only kills more people, destroys more homes, hamstrings economic output for a longer period of time. it will cost over $500B to reconstruct Ukraine (and I guarantee there won't be any lively debates in congress on approving that aid) and Ukrainian demographics are ruined for a century

    This is sort of my entire point - the US interests in this war don't line up with the Ukrainian citizen. We want

    a) Russia to bleed as much as possible for every inch

    b) as much public $$$ as possible to be transferred to private hands

    c) battlefield intelligence, both on new technologies and capabilities and on new Russian doctrines (for example drones & EW have been game changers) in preparation for the real war on the horizon

    those goals mean the best way to play it is to hurt Ukraine as much as possible. Keep the war going on as long as possible. But never invest enough for Ukraine to win - that would likewise end the war.

    It's a very cynical and misanthropic position

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • Nobody is forcing Ukraine to ask the US for help (except Russia).

    But who is "Ukraine"?

    Who gets to make the decisions? The people of Ukraine? The unconstitutionally appointed government? The one who happens to cooperate directly with the CIA? The government that stems from the series of far-right protests that led to a coup? In a country where US has been pumping money for decades?

    It sounds like the logic of Guatemala.

    United Fruit Company (whose CEO was brothers with director of CIA) owned large swathes of land to grow bananas. They also owned railroads, telephone lines, and other general infrastructure.

    A new democratic movement sparked up in order to take some of that land and distribute it to the people of Guatemala - why should a foreign company own all the farmland? (Similar thing happened in Cuba, except they were successful)

    So what happens in Guatemala? A CIA supported coup puts in a new right-wing government. Now that new government cooperated with the USA and made sure United Fruit Company (Chiquita these days) kept the spice flowing.

    Now, if you were to tell me "But kava, the Guatemalan government asked the US for help. It's their independent and sovereign decision"

    But was it really? Who gets to call the shots?

    That's the fundamental question here. I am not discounting sovereignty of Ukrainian people because Euromaidan is NOT the Guatemalan coup. It's a whole different event with a different set of factors and influences. I wouldn't even go so far to say it was a CIA-led coup. Just a CIA-supported one.

    But the question is a nuanced one and not so simple as "Ukraine asked for help". It's more like Ukraine had no choice but to ask for help. The power-dynamic is not an equal one - like a teacher having sex with a student. Is it possible for that relationship to be consensual?

    Like Chomsky says “we will fight them to the last Ukrainian”

    Or was it North Korean?

    Ukraine is in the process of being destroyed. It's the only country involved in this war that is suffering that fate.

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • You should be supporting Ukraine because of democracy, sovereignty, and the security guarantees you gave them by signing the Budapest memorandum, remember, when Ukraine gave up its nukes.

    Stop spreading misinformation. Read the Budapest Memorandum again, please. There were no security guarantees given by the US.

    I believe in democracy and sovereignty - the US state does not.

    and that’s another reason why you won’t be dropping Ukraine

    What happens to Ukraine does not ultimately matter to US power. Right now it's a convenient place to test new weapons, get battlefield intel, inject some nice cash into defense contractors.

    But the real focus is on the East.

    All this, ultimately, just amounts to a French win

    See, I view the total opposite. It's interesting how people can see the same thing and get different conclusions

    After WW2, Europe was essentially made subservient to the US. The threat of the Soviets was very real and the US was the only one that could keep the Soviets at bay. Therefore, NATO was formed. Cue the infamous quote from the first General Secretary - the reason for NATO was "to keep the Americans in, the Germans down, and the Russians out"

    After 1991 there was a real hope that Russia could integrate with Europe. No more USSR, no more threat, right? No more reason for NATO, no more reason for hostility. Imagine a Europe where Russia was integrated into the security blanket. Europe would become a superpower by its own right - no need to bow down to the Americans. There was decades of slow attempts at integration (for example with energy like natural gas pipelines)

    But that vision never materialized and after a gradual decline in relations, Russia invading Ukraine was the best gift Russia has ever given to the Americans.

    It basically started the process of a permanent decoupling of Russia from Europe and it forced the Europeans into the arms of the Americans. Now, Europe has no choice but to align with the Americans.

    This is the reason you start seeing populists like Trump start using harsh rhetoric about NATO. "Freeloading Europeans now need to pay their fair share", etc.

    The reason why Americans can get away with it now, where they couldn't before, is because Europe has no choice.

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • agree. the regular people are always the ones that will end up suffering. lockheed martin shareholders got to enjoy a 30% spike in their holdings after feb 2022. hundreds of thousands of ukrainians lost family members, had to flee their homes, lost limbs, many died/will die, etc

    i view geopolitics almost like i do tectonic plates. every once in a while when there are shifts, earthquakes happen. I think the Ukraine war is the small earthquake that always happens right before the big one.

    to make more WW2 analogies

    spanish civil war & italian invasion of ethiopia = ukraine proxy war & israel/gaza/lebanon/iran situation

    rise of fascists across europe = rise of the new pseudo-fascists in US & Europe & really all over the world (look at Argentina, India, etc)

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • Lot of text to say "yes it was unconstitutional"

    It's impossible to sugar coat what Euromaidan was. Just like Azov, it slowly gets whitewashed because of propaganda. But at its core, it was a series of protests sparked by the Ukrainian far-right that led to an escalating ladder of violence that resulted in a coup. The day after the new government was appointed, it immediately bent the knee to the CIA. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/world/europe/cia-ukraine-intelligence-russia-war.html

    https://jacobin.com/2022/02/maidan-protests-neo-nazis-russia-nato-crimea

    If that – those totally irrelevant right sector fucks – is the US’s influence in Ukraine then it truly is pitiful. Compare the influence of glorious Europe: Ukraine actually wants to join up!

    This war, for all intents and purposes, is a proxy war between US and Russia. US decides Ukrainian policy. US is the largest funder of this war. US gets to appoint Ukrainian politicians https://www.reuters.com/article/world/leaked-audio-reveals-embarrassing-us-exchange-on-ukraine-eu-idUSBREA1601K/

    US has a long history of meddling in Ukraine https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/11/covert-operation-ukrainian-independence-haunts-cia-00029968

    No, you’re just parroting their BS propaganda.

    just because I refuse to drink one side's kool aid does not mean I drink the other side's. i'm an individual with imperfect knowledge doing my best to reach the closest thing to truth i can with the information i have available. you can attack me all you want, but i don't really see how you addressed anything in your comment except : "the unconstitutional coup was justified because of popular support and so it doesn't matter that it was illegal & you denounce the idea that the US has influence in Ukraine"

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • How was Ukraine “destabilized” compared to other comparable ex-USSR states until 2014?

    see below. Ukraine was in a special position. most similar to Belarus, although much more important. US pumped money in a lot of ex-soviet states, that's true.

    If a country being in US orbit is a reason for Russia to attack it, why didn’t they attack Finland? Or the US directly in Alaska? What’s the significance with Ukraine?

    Ukraine was under the Russian orbit since the 1700s. It was a fifth of the economic output of the USSR. In the Russian nation-state mythology Kiev is the mother city of all Russians. They share one of the largest borders in the world of mostly plains.

    There's a lot of reasons. Russia views Ukraine as theirs. Neither Finland or Alaska hold a fraction of the ideological, historic, and strategic importance to the Russians

    The same memorandum btw granted Ukraine non-military aid from the US and France

    go and re-read the 1994 agreement. it does not promise any help at all beyond promising to "seek immediate [UN] Security Council action".

    i don't really think it's relevant to the discussion though. international law (aka treaties) are used as justifications when convenient and ignored when not convenient.

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • Ukraine is getting destroyed because they happen to be a small country in between two great powers having a proxy war. Russia is the invader, the aggressor, the one who broke international law.

    But US is not naive here. This was expected and planned for a long time before 2022 and a long time before 2014. Proxy war takes two sides to tango. We're not supporting Ukraine because of democracy and sovereignty and human rights, we're doing it for geopolitical motives. A sort of modern Spanish Civil War. Testing out new battlefield technology before the next Great War.

    Unfortunately for the people of Ukraine the geopolitical motives and interests of the US don't necessarily align with their interests. Like Chomsky says "we will fight them to the last Ukrainian"

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • we've been pumping money into regime change in Ukraine since the early 90s. NED (National Endowment for Democracy) used to show the dollar figures and specific organizations on their website but deleted that information a while back. You can still find it with Wayback Machine

    Essentially we've been funding and supporting organizations in Ukraine under the guise of "pro-Democracy™" "pro-Liberty™" with the goal of supporting any potential chances for regime change. Some of those organizations just happen to be associated with the far-right groups that were part of the initial government that was unconstitutionally appointed In 2014 after Euromaidan- a series of violent protests that forced the pro-Russian president to flee the country.

    tldr: we've been destabilizing Ukraine for a long time. the idea was to peel off Ukraine from Russia's orbit and throw it into the US orbit. And it worked. Which is why Russia invaded in 2014

    Note before I get the inevitable Russian shill comments - I'm not justifying any aggressive invasion by Russia. I'm saying this is a proxy war - a game of tug of war between two larger powers. Neither care in the slightest about what actually happens to the Ukrainians.

    They will not recover from this war for a hundred years. But Lockheed Martin stock will perform nicely

    edit: and remember this comment in 15 years. people will be talking as if what I'm saying is obvious. but right now the propaganda is strong- just like in 2003 with invasion of Iraq

  • Iraq set to lower the age of consent to just nine years old

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  • At the time when we launched the aggressive and illegal invasion of a sovereign county, we were doing it for Democracy™ and Human Rights™

    At the time, you would have been called a traitor, shill, or insane to suggest otherwise.

    After some years, it becomes absolutely clear none of it was true. It was all for imperialist motives. It seems that the propaganda is strong, but it has a short half life. Today you'll have trouble finding someone defending the US invasion of Iraq.

    I think we are seeing the same thing with Ukraine war. In 10, 15 years people will see the war for what it is- a progressive destabilization of Eastern Europe and intentional proxy war.

    But right now- it's Sovereignty™, International Law™, and Democracy™

    We destroyed Iraq. We doomed millions of people for generations. And we are participating right now in the destruction of another country.

    It's just that we do. We destroy.

  • What is your opinion on extra terrestrial beings, and their relation to hunans over the next 10 years?

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  • i'd like to think life exists on every single rocky planet. i remember reading about the discovery of single celled organisms deep in the earth's crust. they exist in a very low-energy environment and therefore have slow metabolisms. some of these are theorized to be able to live for over a million years. they literally extract energy from inorganic compounds in metabolic pathways we don't understand.

    the question is: did life originate on the surface (deep sea hydrothermal vents are still surface in this context) or deep in the earth?

    if life originated in the earth, then I think there's a very high probability every single rocky planet is essentially a seed. inside of it's core it has life and whenever the surface environment grants some long term stability, the life slowly emerges and evolves into different forms.

    so how would extra terrestrial beings and humans interact in the next 10 years?

    basically, I think there's a chance (although low on such a short time scale as 10 years) that we will discover life on another planet. or at least some very significant signs of life. either on Mars or Venus or some Galilean moon, etc.

  • Ukraine says it cracked open a Russian decoy drone used to fool air defenses and found Western parts inside

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  • Israel & the US are more or less one and the same. if i remember correctly, 98% of representatives in congress last election cycle was endorsed by the AIPAC

    there's a reason we can only vote for pro-Israeli politicians. Israel projects US power in the mideast