Mantergeistmann
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User ID: 323
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
The West also drew some odd boundaries in the West, post WWI, but the Treaty of Versailles was more a mess of conflicting priorities and petitions than it was "let's set up European ethnic/religious conflict!"
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
I genuinely believe this is a more compassionate move at this point.
Or, as Clausewitz put it,
Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat the enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
I've yet to find a definition of "genocide" that includes the most recent round of the Gaza conflict, but excludes the US Civil War.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
If somehow we ranked a groups political power. Jews probably control in the neighborhood of 25% of global power despite having a minimal population. If you could some how measure influence, tech, military, etc.
Isn't that just the old "white privilege"/"male privilege" argument, but repackaged?
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
The general argument I see is that because US policy/tax dollars support these allies, it's more important to call it out over regimes which, while they may be worse, the US has fewer levers of influence to pull.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
anti-Semitic agitation is the one sin they surely can get cancelled for by their comrades.
I think anti LGBTQ is also cancellable these days.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
A lot of leftwingers hate Murdoch as a propaganda tool for the right.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Isn't Elizabeth May out?
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Israel was trying economic diplomacy via work permits prior to October 7. I don’t think the solution to preventing October 7 was just "well, should have paid more!"
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
I believe at one point there were at <1 death per bomb dropped, which is... significant.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
I remember when I went to see a game in Milan, I was able to buy a ticket as a foreigner, but I needed to show ID... the scalpers were there, selling tickets along with IDs? Somehow? It was weird, but presumably the whole setup was to ensure that the local fans of each team were kept separated.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Ignoring fees, 10-20%. Accounting for fees, <5%.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
How many professional, actively managed funds beat their benchmark index over the course of 15-20 years? Guess at a percentage/range.
Is that including their fees, or just straight fund vs. Index?
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
I note that you didn't mention South Korea
I don't find NK to be a threat to the South or the troops stationed there, personally, so I'd put it in a similar category as Germany. The SK relationship is (at this point in time) pretty directly anti-Chinese.
Again, doesn't really fly with the isolationist viewpoint, but I could imagine them saying something like "yes, we should be withdrawing from these countries as well, but our relationship with Israel is the most pressing in terms of harm/cost to personnel/materiel."
I wouldn't say that, mind you.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
Left-wing bleeding hearts who haven't updated their beliefs for decades. I run into a lot of these in real life.
Yeah, that's most of the ones I onow: "I heard on the news/social media that Israel just killed a kid! Why can't they just stop killing Palestinians and get along?"
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
US spends a lot of resources (both money and personnel) in South Korea, Germany, Bahrain, etc.
Devil's advocate: Germany is far less likely to result in US forces/materiel being lost. If you assume the "Israeli aggression causes all Middle-east ills" line of thought, which I do not, you can even squeeze Bahrain into the same category as Germany, and I believe Bahrain also provides the US with an important naval port.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
It probably also helps that the USN made sure not to get teleported right off the coast this tine.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
On a long enough timeframe, all one's opponents wind up as dust on the ash heap of history.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
I'm not making any claims based on missile stocks or whatever, I'm looking at what Donald Trump is saying live every day.
That's your second mistake.
I don't really like being part of a country where the government just says shit it doesn't mean.
Oh, I hate it. But it's the hand that's been dealt. No good trying to behave as if the cards are different than what they are.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
First time I was in school, I ignored the free subscriptions. Now that I've returned to grad school? You better believe I'm taking advantage of everything I can.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
although so was the US near Venezuela, with at least paper legal authority on incorrectly-flagged vessels
Paper legal authority is, aside from guns, the only legal authority that matters on the high seas. You’ll notice everyone from the Indians to the French to the Swedes have started following course.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
I think there's an Honor Harrington bit where the difference between "No Mercy" and "No Quarter" is demonstrated... by not killing the survivors in lifepods.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
Three Motters in a Trenchcoat?
I'm looking for a drone rec. Context: my father and his wife bought her family "farm" (~40 acres + fully renovated farmhouse and barn , mixed woodland and open field, currently much of the open field is leased to a neighbor for hay). They're both very fond of it, and are looking to restore/return it to use, more in a hobbyist way than an investment way.
I'd like to buy them a not-too-pricey drone as a gift, for land surveying, a neat new perspective on the land she grew up with, and so I don't have to climb any more goddamn rickety ladders to inspect their gutters, because if the fall doesn't kill me, my own wife will.
I don't even know where to start looking in the drone space for something like this. Budget would probably be in the $500-$1000 USD range. Might be impossible, but as I said, I don't even know where to start looking.
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