Doubledee [comrade/them]

Long shot but does anyone here have a link to a piece about how US defense spending priorities reveal a contradiction between what the stated purpose of the military is (unlimited power projection, unchallenged hegemony) and it’s actual capabilities? It used the F35 program and shipbuilding fiascos as examples of inefficiencies that could be solved, but aren’t because they serve a purpose (the illusion that the most cutting edge equipment is always on the immediate horizon to justify spending more to keep up the illusion). I’ve tried searching for it but can’t find it anymore.

Both, is my understanding.

You don’t understand, western nations helped defend one side of the civil war and propped them up as part of a global ideological conflict they wanted to engage in with countries on the other side of the globe from them. Not agreeing to allow their proxy to act with impunity is textbook imperialism.

Imperialism is when you don’t concede that a bunch of fascists who fought and lost a civil war and then fortified themselves on an island with the help of foreign powers and violently purged dissenters get to claim to be the government of both your country and other neighboring countries. The more that you spend decades seeking reconciliation diplomatically instead of through military ventures, the more imperialist you are.

It really feels like, given the taped statement he released, he’s trying to force Bibi into this. Listing off all the great countries that want to end the war, everybody’s coming home, everyone’s gonna be treated fairly etc.

Would this, in theory, actually protect Palestinians? Presumably the risk of killing Egyptian or Saudi etc. personnel might deter the more aggressive acts the entity usually takes?

Also who in their right mind would voluntarily make it less costly for their overlord to abandon them? If there’s no strategic cost to losing Taiwan then decades of their foreign policy go up in smoke.

Yeah my assumption is that they’re trying to tag him, it’s the dang Post.

Between this and Teslas (lotta overlap on the Venn diagram there tho) it’s really great to have these handy signals that you’re dealing with a person you will want absolutely nothing more to do with.

Was this just their negotiating team? Assassinating diplomats? Or were real leadership figures in Doha?

I just don’t see how you get to negotiation until someone is genuinely beaten. There’s no compromise diplomatic end to this that actually deals with the reasons the conflict started.

Ukraine can’t be allowed to have an army and function as an ally to NATO and hostile countries to Russia’s west, if the conflict ends with that as an open possibility we are only delaying the resumption of the war.

But unilateral disarmament is also not something Ukraine can be expected to accept unless it’s truly over, that’s complete capitulation. And any security guarantee that might try to bridge the gap is not tenable because that’s what the Minsk framework tried and it clearly didn’t work.

I think people are just burning out and giving up, honestly, and having it brought to their attention just triggers a defensive response, whichever comes to mind that seems the most reasonable and least hurtful at the time. Since there isn’t any end point on the horizon or any expectation that it will ever end it’s demoralizing; people are, without consciously realizing it, deciding it’s just not worth it if it has to go forever.

Then you have to comment on it if you’re in leadership in DSA, since ostensibly you want electoral success which is obviously not going to be something you get by promoting masking and isolation. Especially if you aren’t gonna break with the democratic party, which it’s obvious they aren’t going to do. I think they’ve calculated it’s a bad play for getting “results.”

I won’t lie I’ve really missed him. I think they might need to slow down a little bit to make room for him to contribute, he sounds like he’s a lot more articulate than he was a few months ago but I think they can easily bowl over him or outpace him in their usual tempo.

My partner just went to visit their parents, two highly educated wealthy professionals in technically complex fields. They apparently spent most of the time they were all together generating jokes and quips with AI and sharing them, this is apparently their way of spending time with family now.

Yeah it’s frankly baffling that everyone is willingly falling into negotiating one on one with the US, they can’t be so stupid that they don’t realize it’s a weaker position than banding together.

I work with guys who talk to each other about their sports betting while the machines run, they believe they’re making money doing it. It’s pretty depressing to hear.

To be fair to Trump, these obsequious leaders keep kissing his feet, you’d be stupid to not continue to extort them if they’re demonstrating a total unwillingness to fight back.

I mean if you’re Israel you bomb whatever the fuck for any reason. I’m not sure I take them lashing out as a sign of a weak position. They get off on lashing out

For sure, there’s an unhealthy internet thing of just hating stuff, I hope it’s obvious I’m not doing that. I actually think the books for younger kids are overall better and a lot of the worst stuff could have been avoided if she just stuck to writing fun mysteries for children. She was pretty good at snarky irreverent kid stuff.

The biggest fans in my life hate the epilogue too, so you’re in good company there.

It’s literally in the book. Harry becomes a wizard CIA agent. They still have slaves at the end. The book ends with Harry wondering if his chattel slave will bring him food. They don’t help the muggles, they don’t rectify the injustice of their tiered society.

I think the anti fascist angle is a nice thing to get from it but it’s not really supported by the text. Riddle is ontologically evil for no reason, he’s bad Dumbledore. Dumbledore controls the entire society and can act with impunity. I don’t even think all this stuff is intentional. It’s just not that deep.