DBDr
1yr ago
I've got some personal experience with this vis. living there, and there is something to it.
I lived in a place with good relations with the U.S. 'cause they didn't get caught up in the initial fruit wars and otherwise had no useful resources to extract and are extremally tourist friendly; and everyone on the ground knows that their economic success is 90% attributable to the grace of good 'ol Uncle Sam.
The neighboring country has the Same geography, same racial makeup, same culture, same language, same resource distribution, was inhabited by the same group pre-Spanish settlement, was Conquista'd in the same period, was managed as one administrative unit by Europe during the colonial period, and gained independence within the same Year, month, and day, and had the same style of government after that independence.
Literally the only difference between these countries is that they were slightly richer pre-1900's, and were involved in the first set of Banana wars.
100 years latter, the poor country is doing pretty well, the neighboring rich country occasionally has refugee convoys getting out just ahead of the death squads and has a currency valuation that is doing sick trampoline acrobatics.
It's had to assign the separation point to anything but U.S. colonial ambitions in the 1910-1930's.
DBDr
1yr ago
If you are in the US, I would say yes that is the case.
The bedrock platform of the right in the US above everything is anti-collectivism. The Republicans are more likely to institute a national popular vote and ban guns before approving any sort of wealth transfer.
DBDr
1yr ago
I also hate Saudi Arabia, but reserve a special place for Russia because they have no god damned excuse.
They were the second hegemon of the world ready to burst through the Fulda gap, they put a dude into orbit before us. Their spies read our mail at will and their diplomats painted a decent chunk of the world red. They made some fukin WILD speeches in the UN about us and we had to take them seriously, and now what?
Their flaccid dick of an army is getting flattened in Ukraine, their science is just qualcomm with the numbers painted over, their spies are less effective than their facebook trolls, and their diplomacy can't spare a moment from getting clowned on to stop their own putative allies from killing eachother.
I never expected suadia ariabia to be anything but a shitty monarachy with lots of money, but Russia was better and could have been even more better, and instead is what it is.
TL;DR: the Soviet Union falling apart is the worst thing that ever happened to the USA, and I resent it. RIP Gorby, wish you coulda made it work.
DBDr
1yr ago
Universal mobilization means you are now an element of the war machine, and leaving is desertion. It has happened everywhere at different times for different reasons, and exists as an option for all developed nations in the world as we speak.
A principled stand for freedom here is worthwhile, but probably only if your particular set of borders has a bunch of nukes/is part of a nuclear alliance.
DBDr
1yr ago
I recommended Smedley Butler's book, and just general research on the Banana wars, our anti-communist actions in SA during the cold war, and the knock-on effects of plantation economies on modernization.
It's also just mad interesting, IMO.
DBDr
1yr ago
If we are indulging in fantastical arrangements for society, I think we should all just get along, man.
The french revolution pulled the cork this particular bottle, and Napoleon smashed it and fired the remains into the sun. Until technology removes the need for mass participation of humans on the home front and the war front, any state that elects to leave this particular option on the table is tying it's hands for principles sake.
we can abandon chemical weapons because they don't really work on organized first tier militaries; we cam restrain ourselves from Nukes and Bio 'cause of MAD and escalation. You can't have a war without people, though.
DBDr
1yr ago
I used the repubs as the current Right party in power, but the point remains.
DBDr
1yr ago
Furthermore, if rape or sexual harassment were indeed motivated by the desire to feel powerful, then one would expect them to be less common among those who already feel powerful, and that they would more often go against the power gradient rather than along it; that is to say, raping or sexually harassing someone more powerful would have greater appeal than sexually abusing someone less powerful.
I find this paragraph to be incredibly naïve at best and kinda dumb at worst.
Of course people who are already powerful, who have had a little tase, will want to express that urge throughout their life. It is blindly obvious when you look at how the elite operate.
Of course raping someone who is of lower status than you fulfills this urge more perfectly; the lower status makes it better, not worse.
This whole passage seems to come from someone who has never actually had a fraught social interaction in their life.
DBDr
1yr ago
I also want a stateless classless society where property is abolished and all receive according to their need, hail Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism.
We need to advance a touch more as a society in a variety of ways before we get there though.
Again, if you want to stand by your principles hell or high water, you have to accept that what is going to happen to you when the floods come is that you will drown.
DBDr
1yr ago
You got some PARKS near you.
two biggies are Shenandoah NP and great smokey mountain NP; they have tonns and tones of really cool hikes and sections of the Apalachian trail in the.
If you want to go further afeild, any of the west coast NPs will be really excellent. I strongly recomend the Olympic rainforest in washington, the Sawtooths in Idaho, and the Mammoth/Mono Lake/ Bristlecone pine area in California as really good parks that aren't yellowstone or yosemeite or the redwoods.
Those last parks are also really good, but they might be really crowded too.
DBDr
1yr ago
Yes, it is a lifetime risk.
Also, I find that doing heavy exercise in an N95 or while carrying on a conversation is kinda fun, makes it a better aerobic workout. Maybe reframe it in you head as weighted clothing?
EDIT: lifetime, not acute. Still probably a good idea not to do it for unimportant shit.
DBDr
1yr ago
No, because "White Patriarchy" refers to two different ideas: One is that there is a secret masonic lodge of old white dudes who wear red robes and sacrifice a BIPOC virgin every full moon to anoint themselves in the blood of the innocent as they secretly control everything, man!
And the second "White Patriarchy" is noticing that white men hold something like 65-70% of all US political offices, but constitute 30% of the population.
One of these is empiricism, one is insanity.
Qanon is just insanity.
DBDr
1yr ago
Lotta post SJW types essentialize white dudes as a whole into some sort of malicious entity; when they are just the current hegemonic class.
There is nothing uniquely bad about white people or white men.
DBDr
1yr ago
Yup. I know, because it's the position I hold: That groups who have historically held positions of influence have a tendency to act so as to benefit their own group, and that this urge is completely rational and ethical (on the level of the individual).
This extends up the chain of associations: given a chance, you will help your direct family, then extended family, then your group associations (Eg, I've gotten 10k+ in money for jobs over other equally skilled dudes because I play at the same gamestore as a client.)
There is nothing wrong with this, on the individual level. Eg, imagine two platonic applicants for a job are equally talented in all regards, except one of them went to your alma mater. There is nothing wrong with giving them the job.
Then you do this for 200 years, and you have a ruling class. Of course people who aren't in the ruling class are going to attempt to level out those advantages; they would be stupid not to. You can have opinions on the ethics of it all on top of that, of course, but the core is all practical.
It be how it be. Your ancestors fought against the romans for status, then they fought against the nobility, and now people are fighting the putative oligarchs. When someone eventually casts down the current group in pole position , someone will start fighting them, on into history until we get turned into paperclips or the sun explodes.
DBDr
1yr ago
Take photos of all your documents and upload them onto some sort of image cloud.
Also, make sure you use a maps app that can download a given area's map, and download at least around airports and transit hubs where you are going to arrive at your lodgings.
This is a lifesaver.
DBDr
1yr ago
Re. strategic resource: No, absolutely not.
Everything we have sent to Ukraine represents either outmoded equipment designed to fight an army from the 70's that is only still relevant because the Russian army IS from the 70's, or equipment the fulfils secondary capability requirements.
EG, HIMARS, manpads, and Javelin are all secondary, because what the US REALLY focuses on is air superiority; where we maintain a level of absolute crushing dominance unseen at any point in military history.
Want to destroy an ammo depot? Airstrike.
Want to blow up a tank? Airstrike.
Want to shoot down a plane? MOTHER FUKIN STRIKE FROM THE AIR BAAAAAABEEEEEEEEE
China and India are of course trying to match us here, but India is at least 10-20 years from fielding home grown engines that are competitive (not having btw, their engine program has been ongoing for a while and seems to be performaing well. I mean feiling home grown home made 4.5gen+ planes en mass), and china is likewise at the most pessimistic doomer almost definitely false estimates (from the US perspective) 10 years behind in BVR a to a shit, stealth, engines, and avionics.
Even without NGAD and the Raider, if we stood still china would take years to catch up, and we running boys!
And it turns out that Russia drank a fifth of ethanol based radar array coolant and passed out in a ditch instead of working on their gen 5 shit.
DBDr
1yr ago
Nah, your gonna have to take my word for it.
Any source I post would be bullshit anyway.
It all boils down to:
Chinas missiles had sea trials, and testing was returned to land trials. We don't know why, but the most likely reason is they failed to hit a moving target. They are probably ahead of us, but that is at least partially because we are investing into the raider instead; and lockheed is working on the US hypersonic at a reasonable rate. Russia's missile is fake, it's an air launched missile that will hit mach five but it doesn't maneuver and it doesn't use scram jets or anything post 1980's. If we count that as a hypersonic missle, we've had them for 40 years.
The J-20 uses rip off russian engines from like, the su-30. No bueno. They are developing indigenous engines, but they aren't ready for service yet, apparently . Their stealth is ass, and their radars are atleast 1/2 of an ass, as seen by the fat nose on the j-20. Sexy plane though. Canarads for days. Thus, china's BVR missle: It has range on an aim (theoretically), but it doesn't mean anything if they are using avionics and stealth tech from the 80's.
Re. ship building: yeah that one is true. You can't beat having a civilian shipbuilding industry for having a military ship building capacity. We'll see their fleet get to local parity/dominance within a couple years, probably.
DBDr
1yr ago
My wonderful capitalist success story of a utility company is charging about double what yours is, but then there are so may flat rate fees and bullshit add ons that I end up paying equivalent 40 cents k/wh, about.
This is annoying as shit because they also send out a little chart where they show you your ranking in energy use per meter, and I am in the 00.1th percentile for my zipcode on both of mine, which means I am paying mainly fees instead of usage rates.
DBDr
1yr ago
And seeing a larger portion of the benefits as well, to be fair.
A big portion of the non-software industry in California is propped up by dudes coming up from places like oaxaca with experience and skill in trade who would be making 80k+ with a social security number and a Midwest accent working for way less building shit, and dudes coming from closer to the border willing to break their backs picking fruit for too little money for the juice to be worth the squeeze.
Source: I live there and worked in trades part/full time from 18yrs till the pandemic let me go to school for that sweet sweet STEM degree and the following fake job where I get to make six figures to sit on my ass and pretend to work instead of hauling wires through a 140 degree 2.5' crawl space.
That Oaxaxa point is apropos, actually. There is a community of dudes that came up from the peninsula a looooooong time ago near me, which drew more dudes from there, and finally peeled of a lot of guys with options. We get some real talented electricians , plumbers, carpenters, and arborists who could go anywhere to come to this shitty southern Californian area you've never heard of because the great-great-grand uncle came here 130 years ago to build retaining walls for avocado groves.
DBDr
1yr ago
Hell yeah.
Any job where I can take a break, cook myself a meal and wash it down with expensive whiskey then go back to my desk if fake as fuck.
For real though, I am referring to the difference in suffering and imposition from one to the other. In my previous job, I was exhausted, I was at risk of hurting myself or being killed because some chucklefuck flipped a breaker somewhere, and I did actual important work that mattered. If everyone in my position stopped working suddenly, society instantly collapses.
Now, I am at no risk, I can do whatever I want whenever I want, I make more money, and if everyone in my position stopped working suddenly society is damaged, but it doesn't sliiiiiiiiiide on back to the 1800's.
DBDr
1yr ago
being defense adjacent: The type of people that make it far in such fields have their eye on the prize.
They will watch the video, say yes boss, and secure the bag/contract/discretionary fun bucks.
They type of person that cares enough about a cheesy HR "Please please please don't being our name onto the front page" video to raise a big stink is either deeply unserious or too ideological.
EDIT: WRONG POST LOL
As for this: I can't find it in my heart to care about gender at all in any circumstances. The whole concept seems kinda silly to me. There are people, and they have phenotypes and capacities and that is the end of it. We have decided on two genders because sex is easy to see and is important for reproduction and people like fucking each other along those lines pretty often, but we could just as easily justify "Curly hair gender" or "reaches the top shelf gender".
I'll respect other peoples preferences, but if it was up to me we would take the whole thing way less seriously.
Then again, that's easy for me to say as someone who doesn't feel like any gender/not any gender. I can't in good faith yell advice from outside the ring.
DBDr
1yr ago
To put in defense nerd terms: If you want to having meaningful and useful capacities for future conflicts, you must generate a robust and threatening opposing force. You have to look at what you have, and commit serios months of planning and pallets of money to asking "How would I destroy my own army as safely as possible?", you need to circulate it and get commentary and run war games and do all sorts of wacky shit, because if you don't the first time you come up against something that you didn't specifically design for, you are fucked.
Hence, this. You can make arguments that it does more harm than good, or is risky. On the other hand, we have seen that just assuming every tomorrow will be like yesterday and things are just gonna be fine tomorrow is fucking stupid.
So, it's down to risk assessment; which is a notoriously easy field that humans are naturally good at.
DBDr
1yr ago
Re. Lab leak: I accept you can believe in a rational and consistent way; but it still seems odd how hard people have committed to the hypothesis purely on the absence of evidence. We know COV loves to recombinate and be a little bitch, we know that the tell-tale spike protein developed once in nature and was present but for one amino acid in the local population, we know that cov-19 can change significantly and remain infectious because it has three times in the wild.
All the data we have points to zoonotic origin, given that the last seven times this happened it came from an animal and that the first cases were traced back to a fucking wet market; I'm gonna need more than vibes before I change my position.
Re. the research: Again, it's risk assessment o'clock. I'd need to know how much benefit we get out of gain of function research (which is a bit beyond my capacity unfortunately) to say whether the risks are worth it; given that minor accidents seem to happen about once a year when you look at historical lab leaks. There have been no major leaks (unless cov-19 is our huckleberry); but if we don't get anything out of it we probably shouldn't wait for one.
Technology Connections has detailed dives into common technologies (Coffee pots, CRT tubes, lightbulbs, ev chargers, etc).
He has a good video with testimonials from a cold as fuck place re. heat pumps, and another couple hours of discussion in other videos about application questions. I found them interesting enough to watch just for fun, but I am also autistic so grain of salt.
Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7J52mDjZzto.
I recently installed one for cooling purposes, and it is WAY more efficient than any option available at a massively lower price, if you can do all the work yourself. I had the punches, hole saws, pipe flaring kit, and wiring paraphernalia to put in a 240 sub panel and run coolant lines, you might not. Took me 8 hours over a couple days to complete, but that includes lots of time monkeying around with conduits in a 70 year old house with no attic.
I got a former coworker to charge the lines for me with his vacuum pump in exchange for helping him drop a submersible pump; you might have to pay someone if you choose to install one yourself.
I know that they sell precharged systems, but I'm paranoid about shit that is marketed as DIY so I went with a Lennox because they are cheep as fuck and I only need it for a couple weeks a year. Been working like a charm, and has not raised my electric bill at all 'cause I replaced a couple fans with it.
Last thing: IMO, DIY heat pump systems work best for single space use. I have one unit indoors in one room, so when we need to cool shit off everyone just goes into that room and shuts the doors. If you want multiple zones, you will probably have to get it installed professionally, which is $$$$$ depending on your area.
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