420lenin69 [comrade/them, he/him]

Remember when they arrested Pablo Escobar and European teenagers stopped doing cocaine?

Almost all electricity grids are using US software.

I am not sure if it was being used in Venezuela but there is no alternative software for managing a large grid. It’s US software or doing it by hand.

In China it is forbidden to get off the train except at government mandated train stops and train tickets are a form of social credit deciding who may and may not get on the train.

US approaches 138 kilometers of HSR

You might not get any money at all but at least you can pride yourself as being on the same team as the three dozen people actually made wealthier by this growth.

Congratulations on your participation award, peasants.

Is this the Russian tanker?

Computer screen, novelty coffee mug, memes about depression

THESE are the great masters of logic Anti-SJWs who won the culture wars?

Hey yes they have capital on their side

Remember when the Hapsburg’s were putting inbred morons on the throne? We are in that stage of capitalism.

If any online forum has respect for those who dig tunnels, it’s this one.

New theory of evolution: survival of the burrowist.

You think rich people are building their doomsday bunkers on land? Get thee to a mine.

Oh no my extraction-based economic system lost its colonies and started extracting the core and now the core is hollow

It seems hard to imagine China muscling in on the Ryuku islands before they muscle in on Taiwan.

Do not do that again 😡

From the perspective of ideology and policy preferences, do you see any trends?

There is such a wild mix of parties that receive some significant amount of support that I’m having a hard time working out what the most important political splits and questions are.

The best I can see, from reading your posts, is that religious / ethnic divides are still relevant but secularism is stronger, with secularists split between pro-Iran and pro-West.

Meaning the biggest question defining national politics is really Iran vs The West?

Or is it even less ideological: the politics are chaotic at the national level because local politics are what really matter with the national result explained as simply the aggregate of local politics?

$47,000 for a knob lol. ROFL. Lmao even.

But $15? Is the new military sourcing program browsing Alibaba for deals?

Some interesting sub-points in the article and I enjoyed the perspective but I don’t agree with the core thesis.

Because of this [defense spending as stimulus and Ukrainian war debt], it’s highly unlikely that the EU will tolerate an early conclusion to the war in Ukraine. They stand to lose the justification for their spending, lucrative contracts for their defense sectors, tens of billions on loans that Ukraine will be unable to pay, and the massive investments they’ve made into military-industrial infrastructure.

I don’t agree with this assertion since they can simply flag the “Russian threat” as a justification to continue increased spending for another decade after this war ends anyway.

The article also makes points about the “Danish model” (Denmark investing in defense manufacturing within Ukraine) which seem to run directly counter to the thesis that the spending is intended as stimulus since that would function as stimulus better by spending it in Denmark or the EU.

Further, the loss of access to cheap Russian gas is a major factor in pushing Europe further into stagnation / recession, so it’s putting the cart before the horse a bit. At most the stimulus effect of defense spending is enjoying a bit of cream after killing the cow.

I think it’s likely accurate to say that defense spending is welcome economic stimulus. It’s also accurate that Europe needs a Ukrainian state of some kind to survive the war else they will have to write-off hundreds of billions in war debt.

But I suspect the cost of massively increased defense spending, loss of Russian gas, all the other costs of supporting Ukraine… surely these costs are massive compared to the cost of writing off a couple of hundred billion in debt? The idea that a desire to get that debt repaid is a driver of European policy towards Russia seems suspect since a few hundred billion in debt (that will probably be restructured or defaulted on either way) just isn’t that much in the true scale of things.

I think the best way to understand the wests motivations is to see them as geopolitical actors who want to curtail Russia’s sphere of influence in Europe.

Let’s judge Elon. The way he got involved with designing the cyber truck suggests he actually believed his own bullshit.

My theory is they have an instinct for bullshit. The initial motivation is to lie and say whatever it takes to make the market react.

But then when the market does react, and reacts big, it goes to their heads and they buy into their own lies even though they’re fully aware they didn’t really mean it when they initially said it.

Like, a pathological liar actually does momentarily believe what they’re saying. In the moment of uttering a lie they are living inside a delusion and feeling a sense of conviction in that delusion, even while being simultaneously aware it isn’t true in a factual sense.

including Tymur Mindich, a co-owner of Zelenskyy’s media company, as the suspected mastermind

So this guy will escape to Israel and nothing will get pinned on the Z man

This is actually the second AQ leader to be in the White House.

The first was the former CIA director.

Concerns about rising mental illness prompt calls to just don’t worry about it, go for a walk and eat some vegetables. We all get sad sometimes just try smiling.