@SocialistMMA: RFK jr supporters pretended his weakness on Israel was just “one issue” for a long time. But quick question, why isn’t RFK speaking out against the freedom of speech crackdown by the state against people opposing war? Why is RFK jr abandoning his stated free speech principles? [...]

Maniak · 2024-04-27T08:25:43+00:00

Full tweet:

RFK jr supporters pretended his weakness on Israel was just “one issue” for a long time.

But quick question, why isn’t RFK speaking out against the freedom of speech crackdown by the state against people opposing war? Why is RFK jr abandoning his stated free speech principles?

Because of his Zionism

You see why being weak on Israel make you weak on ALL other issues? RFK jr is WEAK on free speech because of his support for Israel

This is why Israel for years always been my top litmus test. If you fail that, you will fail others. It’s a guarantee

Maniak · 2024-04-27T03:00:43+00:00

Marko Suprun, an influential NATO state-funded Ukrainian ‘fact-checker’ with close ties to Nazi activists, was taken into police custody in Washington, DC, after assaulting a contributor to The Grayzone at an event hosted by a neocon Beltway think tank.

[...]

On April 16, Marko Suprun, who presents an English-language show for the group StopFake.org, and whose wife has served as Ukraine’s acting Minister of Health, was charged with simple assault after strangling, shoving, and stomping on Grayzone contributor Moss Robeson. The incident occurred during an anti-Russia event hosted by the neoconservative Jamestown Foundation, entitled “Russia’s Rupture and Western Policy.” Robeson was fully credentialed and authorized by organizers to participate in the discussion.

[...]

unagisongs · 2024-04-27T01:44:13+00:00

When I see such unbridled optimism for the future of Russia all I can think is that person either incredibly naïve or not a student of history.

Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone Part One 1985 to 1989

Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone Part Two 1989 to 1991

Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone Part Three 1991

Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone Part Four 1992 to 1994

Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone Part Five 1993 to 1996

Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone Part Six 1994 to 1998

Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone Part Seven 1995 to 1999

one_of_those_days · 2024-04-26T22:08:57+00:00

https://www.rt.com/news/596413-us-israel-palestine-veto-iran/

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-26T16:44:58+00:00

Because they're all about optics, they have the substance of cotton candy.

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-26T16:04:25+00:00

Cold War Media Relics Gain Renewed Relevance in Ukraine

"The U.S.-backed Radio Svoboda (a sister station of Radio Free Europe), which introduced Russian and Ukrainian broadcasts in the 1950s, has built a sizable presence on local social media."

RandomCollection · 2024-04-26T15:36:41+00:00

https://archive.ph/pwzSu

It’s worth keeping tabs on the various elements of elite disconnect with the lives of those they regard as the masses. An obvious one has been the economy, where pundits insist the meal is the menu, and because their preferred measures of labor market health look perky, and inflation has moderated significantly, those who dare say that the natives are unhappy with Biden policies are wrong and/or trying to foment discontent.

Never mind that even if food prices aren’t increasing by much in the US these days, they’ve risen by so much that many still have not adjusted to the higher baseline. Housing is not-to-barely affordable for many. Health care is too pricey and getting more so. And that’s before getting to health care shrinkage via service degradation, such as substitution of less-trained medical professionals for MDs.

Basically everything is falling apart for the working class, and the Democrats want to pretend it's a "messaging" problem.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-26T13:44:40+00:00

https://archive.ph/TopKP

You tell me what conceivable way Ukraine can prevail in this proxy war now without just tripping off the civilization-ending nuke exchange? America does not have enough tactical missiles and artillery shells at hand to send over there. What we did have is gone. NATO never had much to begin with. Ukraine has run out of available cannon-fodder to conscript from its dwindling population. Despite Mr. Macron’s recent bluster, NATO can’t raise a credible army, or even agree on which country would send what. Nobody is riding to the rescue. Instead, Russia is fortifying its home-grown armaments industry and its military while systematically turning off the electricity all over Ukraine by blowing up the power stations. Very soon, Ukraine will be reduced to medieval living conditions — no lights, no phones, no Internet, no shopping, no ability to conduct modern warfare. End. . . of. . . story.

That's the whole revealing thing about all of this - the US has been exposed as a paper tiger.

After that, America and the rest of Western Civ can get on with the collapse of their financial system and very likely a period of profound political and economic chaos in which governments fall, nations change boundaries and shapes, and their populations suffer dramatically from an imploded standard of living. That process may actually play out somewhat slower than the end of the Ukraine war over the coming years. It will look like a combined game of musical chairs and hot potato, with the opportunities to get a seat steadily fading, and the losers left holding things they can’t handle.

Yep - the elite will desperately try to sling onto power.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-26T13:38:23+00:00

https://archive.ph/AtxTB

Keep in mind that most of this wealth is not "earned" - it's stolen from the rest of us.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-26T13:36:32+00:00

The irony of this is that they should have negotiated with Niger to pay market prices.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-26T13:35:57+00:00

At Pitzer College, the College Council, which is made up of students, faculty, and staff members, adopted a resolution calling on the college to cut all ties with Israeli universities. Strom C. Thacker, president of the college, vetoed the measure, saying it violated Pitzer’s commitment to academic freedom. The college also closed its study-abroad program with the University of Haifa in Israel, but maintained that it wasn’t in reaction to student protests.

Ultimately, universities are run by people who serve the rich. Otherwise they wouldn't be given roles in senior education management.

unagisongs · 2024-04-26T03:16:02+00:00

The French government genuinely face getting overthrown by the citizens if they do not secure their cheap uranium to fuel their nuclear reactors. This is why France suddenly went on a real war footing against Russia when all the rebellious sub-Saharan African countries invited in Russian mercenaries to ensure the French don't try to "liberate" their country. The US is in sub-saharan Africa to prevent Europe from imploding from their ever increasing energy prices.

unagisongs · 2024-04-26T02:56:52+00:00

Hopefully the many children forced into the war that will be strong enough to hold the weapons long enough to die like the adults that went before them. Blessed are the war criminals for they bring blood soaked riches back to oligarchy's endless vaults.

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-26T02:54:45+00:00

OMG, that's hilarious. Especially that first "photo" with Biden sniffing the cannibal. People are doing great things with that Biden pose as a static version of Forrest Gump or Zelig.

3andfro · 2024-04-26T00:29:22+00:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/not-onion-new-guinea-academics-say-cannibals-would-be-offended-bidens-tale-uncle-being

3andfro · 2024-04-26T00:27:38+00:00

https://dailysceptic.org/2024/04/18/did-biontechs-experimental-cancer-drugs-promote-cancer-the-plot-thickens/

h/t u/stickdog99

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-25T19:16:48+00:00

The linked article is by Brian Berletic, and he's also posted a video in which he goes over the article and pulls up the sources for his information, providing the links to these sources beneath the video as he always does.

The issue is that the US uses front groups like National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and other NGOs to foment civil unrest in targeted nations, and the article and the video both cover Georgia and Thailand. A starting point is this 2004 article in the Guardian, US campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev, which lays out in detail how the US has instigated color revolutions (not always successful) beginning with Yugoslavia and providing the template for how these projects work.

Funded and organised by the US government, deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organisations, the campaign was first used in Europe in Belgrade in 2000 to beat Slobodan Milosevic at the ballot box.

Ten months after the success in Belgrade, the US ambassador in Minsk, Michael Kozak, a veteran of similar operations in central America, notably in Nicaragua, organised a near identical campaign to try to defeat the Belarus hardman, Alexander Lukashenko.

That one failed. "There will be no Kostunica in Belarus," the Belarus president declared, referring to the victory in Belgrade.

But experience gained in Serbia, Georgia and Belarus has been invaluable in plotting to beat the regime of Leonid Kuchma in Kiev.

The article is worth the read and the 30-minute video is well worth the watch because we all know about these events in general terms but Berletic points to the evidence. Two of his biggest strengths are using only Western or Western-friendly sources; and walking you through how to check various sources' "About" page to see where their funding comes from: NED and Soros' Open Society make frequent appearances in these funding lists.

In this video he also shows how you can search his YouTube page for other videos he has done specifically on NED which is a great resource for future reference.

Maniak · 2024-04-25T19:04:34+00:00

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently released findings of seizures in toddlers and pulmonary embolisms in adults that may have been caused by Covid vaccines. Statistical significance aside, the agency concluded that the risk was worth the benefit.

We question this, with more than one million reports of potential vaccine injuries and 18,000 deaths on the government's own, long-trusted and likely undercounted, early warning system. These, the government takes pains to dismiss.

As evidence mounts and a movement of injured people grows, the Biden administration must recognize this growing public health problem. It must cease to stifle debate that has limited what journals print and what the public knows about vaccine consequences.

The harm is only starting to be recognized.

[...]

Maniak · 2024-04-25T19:02:19+00:00

Good explanation of the issues with calling any part of this field "AI".

With this part of the conclusion being particularly pertinent:

My tendency these days is to try to use the term “machine learning” rather than AI when it’s appropriate, hoping to avoid both the hype and allergic reactions that “AI” now produces.

The term "AI" has now been taken over by marketing departments, so even the debates about how to define intelligence are pretty much meaningless because this isn't even what it applies to anymore.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-25T17:45:56+00:00

https://archive.ph/U4g1m

The US was never going to voluntarily withdraw from Niger without a fight to try to persuade the Nigeriens to keep the troops there.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-25T17:25:30+00:00

https://archive.ph/uDPhk

The reason why I think this won't be done is because it won't make people who are already rich even more rich.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-25T17:23:37+00:00

https://archive.ph/adkms

Anyone who advocates a defense approach for their country should be able to show that they have a fully reasoned argument, which includes information about the effectiveness of the strategy and its affordability.

Wishful thinking, like what has happened in Ukraine, will at best be a recipe for tremendous expenditures for little capability.

Well, our ruling elite is full of wishful thinking with no basis in reality.

unagisongs · 2024-04-25T15:46:32+00:00

They have joined the US.

yaiyen · 2024-04-25T12:45:42+00:00

I think you are right because no way they would give president this much power if their would be a chance for Biden to lose to Trump

unagisongs · 2024-04-25T08:44:33+00:00

Biden has repeatedly shown extreme contempt for the American people. The oligarchy must have strong confidence they can neuter Trump before election day. Either way the small window the American people had to take back the country got slammed shut. Now we wait for the fallout for our failure to reign in the geocidal sociopaths running the country.

unagisongs · 2024-04-25T08:10:32+00:00

The Russian Oligarchs paid congress to fight Putin.

The Chinese Oligarchs aren't paying congress to represent them.

Palestinian Oligarchs are all dead. What is left can't buy the US Congress.

Pay to play is the name of the congressional game.

unagisongs · 2024-04-25T08:04:32+00:00

This is fantasy politics. The American people have little to no say over the federal government.

Maniak · 2024-04-25T06:27:41+00:00

Nazis gonna nazi.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-25T03:17:58+00:00

They've given up on even pretending to be a democracy.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-24T23:33:57+00:00

Orwellian Western propaganda strikes again.

CheeseWizard · 2024-04-24T19:15:52+00:00

It happened. Somehow Reddit managed to get even worse.

Maniak · 2024-04-24T15:36:23+00:00

Linking this image of Reddit demanding an ID in order to log on.

Follow-up:

Looks like it hits everybody connecting via Tor or VPNs, i.e. at-risk populations that need privacy.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-24T14:51:07+00:00

https://archive.ph/jlc7U

The report included a new poll from Gallup that recorded strong approval for Russia and China in many parts of the Sahel. “Last year, China recorded its highest approval rating in Africa in over a decade,” Julie Ray, managing editor for world news at Gallup, said. “It picked up substantial support in countries in Western Africa — which helped nudge it ahead of the US by two percentage points.”

Keep in mind that the US is in control of propaganda too, so for China to edge ahead in the polls would suggest a major win on China's part.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-24T14:39:52+00:00

https://archive.ph/T3oWp

The West thus slips back into old default colonial tactical responses to what they observe (i.e. towards the Iraq’s Hash’d A-Shaabi, or Ansarallah in Yemen), viewing them merely as ‘rebel’ or ‘mutinous’ disconnected eruptions, to be put down with a firm smack of firepower -- i.e. as discontinuous, tactical events.

The issue is that in the modern world, the world sees what the West really is and stands for.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-24T14:33:05+00:00

https://archive.ph/jJeBy

The more the US clamps down, the weaker the arguments are that the US is a legitimate democracy.

mzyps · 2024-04-24T05:32:32+00:00

Created by the UN. 58 refugee camps starting with tents during the first Nakba, free primary medical care, education of half a million Palestinian children, manage sanitation, employment for the locals, aid distribution. Surrounded by the occupation.

Maniak · 2024-04-24T05:15:21+00:00

Land of the free, home of the brave.

Some lyrics should probably be amended.

hfxB0oyA · 2024-04-23T20:05:29+00:00

The consequence free days are quickly drawing to a close for the good ol' U S of A.

yaiyen · 2024-04-23T17:40:37+00:00

These guys are unbelievable, the question is will China help them out of that hole where they dig them self in. Argentina have cut a lot of projects with China after Milei won at the same time starting projects with USA. China would be fools to trust Milei

Promyka5 · 2024-04-23T17:39:46+00:00

Somehow censorship is wrong NOW and must be resisted NOW and is an enduring, inviolable principle NOW, but maaaaybe not so much when there's a DEADLY* VIRUS RUNNING AMOK!!!1!1!!!1!!1111!!!! (*not so much, kinda more like a cold or flu, really)

I have to say, I'm with Hopkins on this one. Fuck your remonstrations against the threats to freedom of expression if you were a Covidian for the last few years. Also, and in a similar vein, if you're now hyperventilating about the overturning of Roe v. Wade after conclusively proving that you never really supported "my body, my choice" when you were on the wrong side of COVID vaccine mandates, I find your consternation HILARIOUS. FUCK YOU.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-23T13:35:02+00:00

https://archive.ph/g0WeU

When exhaustion (and defeat) finally settles in, and the parties ‘scrabble in the drawer’ for new solutions to their strategic distress, the truly transformative solution would be for an Israeli leader to think the ‘unthinkable’ – to think of one state between the River and the Sea.

And, for Israel – tasting the bitter herbs of ‘things fallen apart’ – to talk directly with Iran.

The smart option would be for Israel to have talks now. Of course given the leadership of Israel, that is very unlikely.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-23T13:28:35+00:00

https://archive.ph/YLWDk

The US and Israel clearly were not successful in their defense against the Iranian counter retaliation for the attack of the Iranian Embassy.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-23T13:26:13+00:00

https://archive.is/fCUt8

Keep in mind that the Ecuadorian government was recently regime changed by the US. There seems to be a lot of resistance against the government.

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-22T22:27:13+00:00

Alternate title: President Biden put a banana peel under de-dollarization.

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-22T21:37:47+00:00

So true, such pablum from this self-satisfied prick.

Caelian · 2024-04-22T20:51:01+00:00

I've heard of using artificial intelligence to fake a columnist. Thomas Friedman requires artificial stupidity.

jerryk · 2024-04-22T19:53:34+00:00

However, it is an aspect of defense, if anything, and, thus, implicitly, a part of the U.S. defense budget.

yaiyen · 2024-04-22T19:49:21+00:00

This 80 billion is separate from the defense budget

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-22T18:06:43+00:00

Excerpt:

“DISORDER AND DREAMS IN [COUNTRY IN THE NEWS]”

Last week’s events in [country in the news] were truly historic, although we may not know for years or even decades what their final meaning is. What’s important, however, is that we focus on what these events mean [on the ground/in the street/to the citizens themselves]. The [media/current administration] seems too caught up in [worrying about/dissecting/spinning] the macro-level situation to pay attention to the important effects on daily life. Just call it missing the [desert for the sand/fields for the wheat/battle for the bullets].

When thinking about the recent turmoil, it’s important to remember three things: One, people don’t behave like [computer programs/billiard balls/migratory birds], so attempts to treat them as such inevitably look foolish. [Computer programs/Billiard balls/Migratory birds] never suddenly [blow themselves up/shift their course in order to fit with a predetermined set of beliefs/set up a black market for Western DVDs]. Two, [country in question] has spent decades [as a dictatorship closed to the world/being batted back and forth between colonial powers/torn by civil war and ethnic hatred], so a mindset of peace and stability will seem foreign and strange. And three, [hope/freedom/capitalism] is an extraordinarily powerful idea.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-22T18:04:47+00:00

If anything, the rest of the world needs to increase its inheritance taxes.

yaiyen · 2024-04-22T16:49:57+00:00

This story went under the radar

RandomCollection · 2024-04-22T15:01:05+00:00

https://archive.is/vfbOI

Seems like the rich always get a slap on the wrist, if even that.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-22T14:43:42+00:00

https://archive.is/a4H8Q

Seems like there is a backlash cycle today. It's important to understand though that race is merely a distraction by the ruling elite to keep a class unity coalition from forming against the rich.

hfxB0oyA · 2024-04-22T14:27:40+00:00

"They don't respect you. And they will squeeze out the last drop of blood before they throw you away."

RandomCollection · 2024-04-22T05:23:37+00:00

To be honest, they are often related. Obesity is often a crisis of malnutirtion.

https://deeply.thenewhumanitarian.org/malnutrition/articles/2017/12/15/obesity-and-malnutrition-two-sides-of-one-crisis-2

It's been argued that poverty causes obesity.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/09/poverty-causes-obesity-low-income-families-need-to-be-better-off-to-eat-well

RandomCollection · 2024-04-22T05:11:01+00:00

https://archive.ph/U81kb in case the load screen is annoying

It seems that more and more senior citizens just can afford to make ends meet and end up on the streets.

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-22T03:55:32+00:00

Vile human being.

Maniak · 2024-04-21T20:20:44+00:00

The irony of the US larva-stage having an underweight problem when the walking-stage has an overweight problem.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-21T18:31:37+00:00

https://archive.ph/3Xq2b

Underweight newborns are at an increased risk of long term health challenges, lower IQ scores, and developmental delays. New data shows that the frequency of this problem is rising with more than 300,000 newborns now experiencing low birthweight. This public health and equity issue is increasingly common in low-income communities, communities with poor access to healthy foods, and homes that are near high-polluting sites.

Keep in mind that this is all because the rich are hyper greedy. There's no reason why the young of America have to be in this state.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-21T17:58:25+00:00

https://archive.ph/lKkdb

I"ve been disappointed by Omar, but at least her daughter seems to be speaking out.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-21T17:56:42+00:00

Note how Scott talks about the close relationship the Chinese and Russians have near the end, along with the patriotic relationship the Russians have with their nation.

Maniak · 2024-04-21T13:22:03+00:00

Tax dollars are always available for wars and nazis, never for education, food, roads or bridges in the country that these taxpayers are living in.

Just another sunday I guess, by and large most people don't seem to give a flying fuck about any of this.

Maniak · 2024-04-21T12:57:20+00:00

Quoted thread from Toby Rogers, Ph.D., M.P.P.:

Wait, hold the f*ck up. Michael Mann (creator of the global warming "hockey stick graph") spoke at an EcoHealth Alliance conference this week!? The same EcoHealth Alliance that laundered the money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to create SARS-CoV-2. And Hotez reposted this!??

Holy sh*t they really are all trying to kill us. #OneHealth was involved too. So the global warming people and the biowarfare people and the WHO pandemic treaty people are all the same junta and they really want the peasants to shut up and die. This is wonderfully clarifying.

Just right out in the open, not even trying to hide it. Michael Mann is saying, 'Oh hey, EcoHealth Alliance that just murdered 17 million people, those are my homies!' The battles lines could not be more clearly drawn at this point.

And weird, I have never interacted with Michael Mann. And I'm pre-blocked by him. There is a block list used by the genociders and apparently I'm on it. Offit, Hotez, Reiss and the rest use it too.

I've seen some crazy things on Twitter but this is off the charts crazy. EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak are completely radioactive because they just murdered 17 million people. For @MichaelEMann to align himself with these known mass murderers is bonkers. #OneHealth too.

What bubble are these people living in where they continue to believe their own self-serving lies?

RandomCollection · 2024-04-21T01:12:06+00:00

Yep. The Israelis are not talking about it because they don't want the world to draw attention to the failure of the system.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-21T00:45:05+00:00

It's obvious that the US is lying about civil liberties. Effectively it means that privacy no longer exists.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-21T00:40:27+00:00

https://archive.ph/zL4Oc

The reality is that trying to isolate the Taliban won't work.

It's far more reasonable to integrate them into the world’s economy.

Caelian · 2024-04-20T17:08:20+00:00

Exactly. The drones and vintage cruise missiles the West shot down were decoys. They may not even have been armed.

It's the hypersonics that got through and hit Israeli military targets -- just as in the Ukraine.

Caelian · 2024-04-20T17:04:49+00:00

Now Zelensky is going to have to face the music... alone.

Yep, just Z, his piano, and his...

unagisongs · 2024-04-20T16:25:40+00:00

Zelenskys is a fussy prattle box that has worn out his welcome. He played his part well. Now Zelenskys' going to have to face the music...alone.

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-20T14:35:43+00:00

Goaded by Republican members of Congress and the Israel lobby, Columbia President Manouche Shafik has sicced the NYPD on the protesters, triggering mass arrests and suspensions of students for supposedly "trespassing" on their own campus.

Like so many contemporary Ivy League presidents, Shafik is not a scholar or academic. She currently serves on the board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, providing a patina of diversity to a supranational global governing entity guided by a single uber-billionaire. Prior to that, Shafik acted as deputy governor of the Bank of England, the UK bank that confiscated Venezuela's gold reserves under orders from the US government in 2019. She has also served in top roles at the IMF and World Bank, where global south debt becomes a point of leverage for Washington and London. Her own journey to the US began as a young child when Egypt's populist President Gamal Abdel-Nasser seized land from her wealthy father.

Shafik owes her entire career to the trans-Atlantic oligarchy, and has no space in which to defy it. She was not appointed as president of Columbia to instill values like critical thinking or academic freedom. She's there to raise hundreds of millions from her wealthy benefactors. Her leadership not only exemplifies the elite corruption of US universities, it exposes the sham of neoliberal diversity politics.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-20T09:24:20+00:00

Keep in mind the main strike was the ballistic missiles, which were successful in defeating the joint US / Israeli defenses.

But the rest of the quote is quite true.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-20T07:19:26+00:00

Keep in mind that the US doesn't care about the Philippines - they are using them as a human shield.

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-20T02:20:55+00:00

His post in full:

The Economist can’t resist sneering at us. It’s an instinct lodged deep in the unconscious of the British commentariat class. They can’t stand that a people they were accustomed to lecturing are now doing better than they are, across the board.

Take governance: DPM Lawrence will be our 4th PM in 59 years. Meanwhile, in the UK, Mr Rishi Sunak is their 4th PM in 4.9 years.

Mr Boris Johnson, when he was PM, accepted a holiday worth £15,000, and £50,000 for renovations of his residence, from donors. In Singapore, anyone who did what Mr Johnson did would have been charged in court.

Or the economy: We started as a British colony, with a per capita GDP of USD 500. Now, it is more than USD 80,000.

According to a recent Forbes report, we have the fifth highest GDP per capita in the world by PPP (purchasing power parity) terms. Well ahead of the UK.

Or our media: the Economist refers to our “docile press”. It obviously prefers a situation like in the UK, where one person can control major media outlets, and have politicians pay court to him, and where media owners can influence who gets elected, and who becomes PM. A similar situation in Australia was described, by a former Australian PM, as a cancer on democracy.

Or in the provision of social services: We provide our people, of all classes and races, with far better healthcare, housing and education.

Or in public safety: the law and order situation in London is well documented. Last year, across England and Wales, investigations into more than 330,000 vehicle crimes (including thefts and break-ins), or 85% of all cases reported, were closed without any suspect caught. In more than a hundred neighbourhoods, 0% of reported car thefts were solved. A situation like that would be unthinkable and unacceptable in Singapore, which has been ranked by Gallup as the safest country in the world since 2015. 95% of adults in Singapore feel safe walking alone at night.

Or in social cohesion: In the UK, a Tory party donor recently said, of a black MP, that looking at her makes him “want to hate all black women”. His party said all should just move on from the comments. That’s it.

In Singapore a person who makes such a comment is likely to be charged in court.

What price your sneer?

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-19T21:44:36+00:00

The US has had how many decades to accomplish this and has failed, because they don't really want a Palestinian state. Evidence for this is their failure to put a halt to Israel's continually adding colonial settlements in Gaza and the periodic "mowing the lawn" Israel does, a euphemism for smaller scale genocide of Palestinians.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-19T06:40:54+00:00

It's interesting that CHina's success has reached a point where the publications of the ruling elites are slowly starting to realize that they need to look at what China has done successfully.

This is also a refutation of the whole "China is collapsing" narrative and the idea that "neoliberal small government" is best. Neoliberals historically opposed industrial policy.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-19T04:25:12+00:00

Americans these days don't have civil liberties.

Disappointingly, Johnson seems to be folding like a wet tissue against Establishment demands.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-19T04:17:29+00:00

It's clear that the Iranians have sent a very clear message, even if the MSM is trying to portray this like Israel somehow won.

unagisongs · 2024-04-19T04:13:43+00:00

The future is now.

unagisongs · 2024-04-19T04:12:02+00:00

Terrifying precision violence all with the ease of a push button cell phone app. Don't even have to get your hands dirty while doing it.

unagisongs · 2024-04-19T04:00:48+00:00

Democrats have been relying on wedge issues to do the heavy lifting since 1979. Why would this election be any different?

Inuma · 2024-04-19T01:30:01+00:00

... Wow

Maniak · 2024-04-18T21:40:05+00:00

The United States on Thursday effectively stopped the United Nations from recognizing a Palestinian state by casting a veto in the Security Council to deny the Palestinian Authority full membership of the world body.

The United States says an independent Palestinian state should be established through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and not through U.N. action.

It vetoed a draft resolution that recommended to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly that "the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations." Britain and Switzerland abstained, while the remaining 12 council members voted yes.

[...]

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-18T15:46:54+00:00

We do not know what at least half the companies in the UK are doing, which is absolutely staggering when those companies may exist to undertake fraud and abuse us.

...it is so easy to form companies in the UK. You don't even have to physically sign a form to pay £12, get Companies House to incorporate your company, and then you have what is in effect licensed identity theft, which you can hide behind to undertake fraudulent activity, collect money, trade without ever having any intention of telling the Revenue that you are, not pay your taxes, then throw your company away at the end of a year or so, and form a new one.

How do I know this is happening? Well, because, the data from Companies House shows it. There are 5.3 million companies in the UK at the time that I'm recording this.

...in the last year for which we've got data, HMRC only got corporation tax returns from three million companies of whom one quarter weren't trading. So that leaves only 2. 2 million or so companies which were actually declaring that they had positive income...About 160,000 said they were making losses, and the rest said they were getting other income like interest, rents, or dividends...But what we do, therefore, know is that the majority of the companies in the UK aren't actually paying any tax at all, and you have to ask why they exist.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-18T15:39:18+00:00

More reports of Boeing acting in a very unethical manner.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-18T14:59:13+00:00

https://archive.is/YJL8J

I usually hate linking German MSM because it's a load of propaganda, but this one is interesting because workers are fighting back.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-18T14:49:18+00:00

https://archive.is/gdPcm

We are seeing more backlash, which is an encouraging sign. The UK government will no doubt clamp down.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-18T14:45:25+00:00

https://archive.is/s4fR8

If we did, we'd have fair competition, we'd have fairer taxation, and we'd stop this criminogenic environment existing which is undermining the fair trading of honest people in the UK. And we'd have a more vibrant economy as a result.

So why aren't we doing it? I just don't know because it would pay for a better society in every way that I can imagine.

The rich don't want those things and have lobbying power.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-17T20:55:25+00:00

Germany is not a democracy and the mask has come off.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-17T17:06:44+00:00

https://archive.is/jmni1

I think that the MSM is desperately trying to cope. They did this to the Russians too and the made up stuff about Russia running out of ammunition. Needless to say, the US lied and Russia never ran out of ammunition.

3andfro · 2024-04-17T16:23:35+00:00

A helluva waste of resources.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-17T01:58:16+00:00

Nyc storefronts were vacant even before the pandemic.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-17T01:57:29+00:00

https://archive.ph/lZAM6

The Iranian strike was supposed to be final. If Israel is dumb enough to escalate, there will be more strikes.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-17T01:47:13+00:00

Swiss neutrality is very strongly rooted in their heritage. So this is no surprise.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-17T01:37:08+00:00

It's looking like the Iraq War. They cheered it on and fired the dissenters.

Then after when it served the Democratic Establishment, they critiqued it.

RandomCollection · 2024-04-17T01:36:01+00:00

https://archive.is/pwrLD

Makes you wonder if this was incompetence or malice at the school boards!

RandomCollection · 2024-04-17T01:34:38+00:00

https://archive.is/USQ0d

The US won't allow aid to go in. That's the real bottleneck at this point.

Maniak · 2024-04-16T18:37:59+00:00

Including Ritter responding to "are 30k deaths worth winning this war?" by talking about what D-Day meant against the nazionists of that time. And then it gets worse.

Won't help you sleep at night, but very much worth listening to.

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-16T15:56:35+00:00

So yes, that was a screenshot of his friend's Zhima Credit score (aka Sesame Credit) within Alipay.

Alipay, the financial transactions platform developed by Alibaba, is one of the two largest digital payment platforms in China (the other one is WeChat Pay, developed by Tencent).

Alipay assigns its users a credit score based on their history of transactions and behavior within its payment ecosystem.

This score is used the same way a credit score is used by financial institutions in the rest of the world: to assess users' creditworthiness or lending risk.

This is my Sesame Credit score: a 681. I try to split my digital payment activity pretty evenly between WeChat Pay and Alipay, so I can maintain scores in both. The scale is 350-950.

The 4 sub-components of your Sesame Credit score are:

Record of abiding by contracts

Accumulated behavior (instances of transactions)

Identity verification (self-explanatory)

Proof of assets (self-explantory)

Other activities that contribute to this item include repayment of credit card debt, mortgage repayments etc. All normal credit score stuff.

The third component is "proof of identity". I've got my passport and Chinese driver's license here, which is necessary if you want to rent a car and waive the deposit using Sesame Credit.

The last component is "Asset Proof" and this is surely where Iose out on a score of 700+, since I don't own a car or house in China, nor have I linked my social security, taxpayer info, provident funds, etc. in Alipay.

Since I don't have any Chinese credit cards or loans, the only way my Sesame Credit score affects me is:

Waiving the deposit on rental cars

Waiving the deposit on power bank rentals

Enjoying "use first, pay later" on some Taobao items

Enjoying upfront refunds on Taobao

I don't know for sure whether Chinese banks would refer to my Zhima Credit or WeChat Pay scores if I wanted a loan or a credit card...but from what I've read online, it seems like they might, the same way a bank in the US would pull your credit score from e.g., Experian.

Anyway, in the original thread, Noah's friend said they didn't want to miss their dinner appointment or they'd have their credit score impacted.

AFAIK Alipay doesn't have a reservation service (restaurants that offer reservations are rare in China) so this should be a joke.

But even if they did, it couldn't impact your Sesame Credit, since Sesame Credit is interested in whether you violate/uphold financial agreements... (like any other credit score system)...and not whether you're an dick who no-shows on a reservation.

automoderator · 2024-04-16T15:56:04+00:00

Nitter version for those without a Twitter account.

In case the nitter.net instance isn't working, a list of alternatives with working status is available here.

Couple of alternates for this tweet here and here.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this sub if you have any questions or concerns.

penelopepnortney · 2024-04-15T23:11:21+00:00

Whatever the Biden administration may have thought it was doing by permitting the [UNSC] resolution to pass and then undermining it, the maneuver exposed the continuing damage Israel’s war in Gaza is doing to the United States’ longstanding justification for being a superpower: guaranteeing what U.S. administrations like to call the “international rules-based order.”

The concept operates as an asterisk placed on international law by the dominant global superpower. It makes the United States one of the reasons international law remains weak, since a “rules-based” order that exempts the United States and its allies fundamentally undermines the concept of international law.

The slaughter in Gaza has disinclined some foreign officials and groups to listen to U.S. officials about other issues. Annelle Sheline, a State Department human-rights officer who recently resigned over Gaza, told The Washington Post that some activist groups in North Africa simply stopped meeting with her and her colleagues. “Trying to advocate for human rights just became impossible” while the U.S. aids Israel, she said.

It really does take some kind of hubris not to realize you're obliterating whatever is left of your credibility, or worse, to think it doesn't matter and you can keep throwing your weight around as usual.

Have to say I was surprised to see this piece in the NYT.

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