NewCharlesInCharge
No bio...
User ID: 89
NewCharlesInCharge
9mo ago
I believe that miracles continue to happen and that the Catholic Church documents the ones with substantial evidence. It’s also on guard against hoaxes and mistakes and rarely declares an event to be a miracle.
I know it sounds hokey to a non-Catholic, but look into the Eucharistic miracles. Especially those examined by pathologists .
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
Chinese protests are a top story in Western news media. I don't think they're entirely organic. Some are likely intelligence agency ops.
Here's the first thing that made me think something was off: https://twitter.com/quanyi_li2/status/1596784472740937728
First, some of the signage doesn't look right. They use traditional characters instead of simplified. They also sometimes use pinyin, seemingly unable to recall the "qi" in "Urumqi," the biggest city in Xinjiang, even as they were protesting on Urumqi road. Mainlanders wouldn't do this. This is beyond mere misspelt Tea Party protest signs, I'd say it's akin to protesting against Biden with an English-language sign with Cyrillic characters accidentally slipped in. It's a clear signal of "not from around here."
Second, the protests don't make much sense if your goal is to reach other Chinese folks in China. You can't share such protests on social media, and news agencies won't cover them. However, contrary to popular narratives, demonstrations are allowed in China. You can't call for the downfall of the national government, but you can plea for the national government to come in and fix local issues. You can also take to the streets because you're really worked up about foreigners insulting China.
So, the intended audience is probably Western news media and consumers of such media.
Third, advocating against the national government and leaders is punished, and everyone knows it. It's unlikely that Chinese citizens would take such a risk when it's so easy to put on a demonstration that falls short of impugning the national government. I think it's likely that these were non-citizens, perhaps Taiwanese, or perhaps expats, that aren't risking their livelihoods. The use of traditional characters makes this more likely, only Hong Kong and Taiwan use them. Western media are unlikely to take note of such things, or to take note of Taiwanese accents.
This aligns with what we've seen before in intelligence ops.
We've seen evidence that intelligence agencies have helped along color revolutions in the past, including protest leaders in Hong Kong meeting with at least one state department official. Much of this is actually done in the open, with the National Endowment for Democracy sending money directly to dissident groups.
Note that an intelligence op doesn't mean that everyone involved works for the intelligence agency, or that they even know that the agency is involved. Every country has its collection of folks who would like to see the government fall. Intelligence operatives identify and befriend these folks, nurture their revolutionary sentiments, and help to remove hurdles in their way. It's the same tactic used to get a group of right-wing men to agree to kidnap the governor of Michigan, except that no one stops the plot from continuing to move forward.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
First, you stop being a direct burden on anyone else on the day of your death
I've been personally burdened by the natural deaths of two family members, who had done adequate planning as far as wills and such, but there's still a lot of things that have to be taken care of. I've also observed another family that devolved into petty fighting among siblings over a meager inheritance.
Even a person with no possessions and no next of kin will burden some government worker with their remains unless they die in such a way that a body can't be recovered.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
You think that Russia would've invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022 if Yanukovych had never been deposed?
Why would they bother?
Without the coup, there would have been no rebel oblasts. With those oblasts continuing to participate in elections there probably would have been no government elected that would seriously entertain the idea that Ukraine join an anti-Russian military alliance.
On Russia and Europe: Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin have all floated the idea of Russia joining NATO. No one in NATO has ever appeared to like that idea, with American Presidents and Secretaries of State dismissing it. It was the Americans that pledged there would be no NATO expansion into former Soviet states after the fall of the Soviet Union, "not one inch eastward." That was obviously a pledge broken, and not even in response to any Russian hostilities.
I'm American and I can't make any sense of our foreign policy strategy in regards to Russia. It all seems like dick-waving with potential nuclear consequences. What do we even get if we "win?"
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
Also there's both overt Western involvement that mainstream media portrays as good and proper, along with covert Western involvement, without which the conflict probably wouldn't have happened, that won't be talked about in mainstream sources for decades, if at all.
NewCharlesInCharge
4mo ago
Hitler was not in his teens and twenties when he was Furher.
NewCharlesInCharge
9mo ago
It took quite awhile for false flags we happen to know about to come to light.
The attack on the USS Liberty, by all appearances, was a false flag, but saying so is the domain of conspiracy theorists.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
I did not imply that people were being smuggled in.
Note that an intelligence op doesn't mean that everyone involved works for the intelligence agency, or that they even know that the agency is involved. Every country has its collection of folks who would like to see the government fall. Intelligence operatives identify and befriend these folks, nurture their revolutionary sentiments, and help to remove hurdles in their way. It's the same tactic used to get a group of right-wing men to agree to kidnap the governor of Michigan, except that no one stops the plot from continuing to move forward.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
If Sum had asked if he was free to go he would have had a solid case if the deputy had said no. Instead all we have is speculation on what an objective observer could "easily conclude" the deputy would have done had Sum asked, and we treat that as if it is what had happened.
Also this is the Sum decision's definition of objective observer:
...an objective observer in Washington “is aware that implicit, institutional, and unconscious biases, in addition to purposeful discrimination, have resulted in” many injustices against BIPOC, particularly in the criminal justice system.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
This is nothing new. Even if it is government actors, they can easily blame ecoterrorists because this is what ecoterrorists do.
Thermite will burn underwater, through what I assume is steel, and is easily manufactured. You wouldn't even necessarily need a diver, you could ignite and toss a whole bunch of thermite pots over the target area and hope for a strike.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
Meta: I hope we can maintain norms that downvotes aren't for mere disagreement. This thread has some heavily downvoted comments that as far as I can tell aren't arguing in bad faith, breaking rules, or violating other norms. This is one such comment, there are many others.
NewCharlesInCharge
20d ago
I didn’t author the opinion, but I think the author’s point is that women who try to integrate men’s only spaces are going to do it for the sake of making them integrated, not because they’re merely looking to socialize.
There’s no shortage of socialization opportunities for women, so to decide you must be socializing at this specific single sex club demonstrates that making it coed is your goal.
NewCharlesInCharge
1mo ago
Or for the company to be subject to the direction of a foreign entity, which is left to the President to determine.
It also bans distribution of source code of banned apps, which in any sane interpretation would violate the first amendment.
NewCharlesInCharge
1mo ago
Yeah, the air quality is way less than what we’re accustomed to in the West. It’s also highly variable, in our city I think about ten percent of the time the air was visibly bad, though also only about ten percent of the time was it good enough to meet WHO standards. I kept air filters running at all times.
Though from historic data and images it seems not that different from what people used to put up with in cities like Los Angeles.
Villages are quite poor, usually without even flush toilets, and with coal stove heating, but they’re kind of a relic. Part of my family still lives in a village, but almost everyone lives in the city in apartments of varying quality. Some are very nice, some would be nice only by broke American college student standards.
Keep in mind that even tier three cities have the amenities a Westerner would be accustomed too. Nice shopping malls with top brands, app based ride share, food delivery, parks, gyms, libraries, etc.
NewCharlesInCharge
8mo ago
I'm going to go with unknown. The world is relatively stable and peaceful. ISIS was the most recent brutal and evil group that had a chance of controlling large amounts of territory and expanding outward, but they were defeated.
The United States is most capable of any other player of wreaking mayhem far from their own shores. Currently there's not sufficient will to do so at scale, but I have little faith that will remain so. The population is vulnerable to demagoguery and blaming foreigners for their troubles and the incentives for politicians to engage in that are great. There's also a big chunk of people that think war is great and are ready for it right now, either with Russia or China.
NewCharlesInCharge
8mo ago
As someone who doesn't believe China is the next big evil to be contained, this makes a lot of sense to me: https://newrepublic.com/post/175020/vivek-ramaswamy-thinks-us-let-china-invade-taiwan
tl; dr: The United States currently has a strategic interest in Taiwanese semiconductor exports and so will defend that interest. Once we have our own domestic manufacturing capacity, it makes no sense to put American lives at risk to intervene militarily in any dispute between the mainland and Taiwan.
I'm not a strict isolationist, but I think we're involved in too many conflicts that aren't at all in our interest and where it's not even clear we're doing any good. If we're going to kill our own children to intervene in a foreign conflict it ought to be Nazi or Imperial Japanese level of evil, and victory should be well-defined and plausible.
NewCharlesInCharge
8mo ago
If your plan is to allow for no survivors, it makes no sense to create more evidence of your false flag operation.
I think it’s likely that the attack was planned by an underling and scuttled by a superior who had no prior knowledge, and that explains why survivors were allowed to live.
NewCharlesInCharge
9mo ago
It does now, the false flag would be Israel trying to make the US believe that an adversary of Israel sank the boat.
NewCharlesInCharge
10mo ago
"Prigozhin accepted CIA bribe, coordinated with Putin to put on a good show until the bribe was paid, then turned back" is apparently popular on the Chinese internet, and fits what we do know pretty well. Russia letting its men be sacrificed in the ruse seems brutal, but it's not unheard of. Also possible that the helos could have have been destroyed without killing anyone, and the deaths manufactured as part of the ruse.
NewCharlesInCharge
10mo ago
I think you’re mistaking rudderless inertia for responsibility.
NewCharlesInCharge
10mo ago
Maybe Putin was biding his time for the past twenty years, waiting for a plausible excuse to pursue a war in Ukraine.
Or maybe he saw Biden’s Ukraine strategy as the end of any hope for the Minsk accords to work.
NewCharlesInCharge
10mo ago
No, but the foreign policy establishment seems to have missed its end in 1991.
War being mostly a young man’s game, most of those fighting now were born after the end of the Cold War.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
There is. All the statutes I’ve seen allow an aggressor to regain his right to self defense after he effects a retreat, though.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
Is publishing a website speech?
What if my website is merely a proxy to another site?
What if I inject a header that insults Congress into every HTTP response?
But for the encroachment, coup, and 8 years of shelling rebel oblasts, the invasion probably wouldn't have happened.
Like most wars, this one is not mono-causal. We can certainly blame Hitler for invading the Sudetenland, but we can also blame the Allies for creating the conditions that would lead the Germans to rally behind a strongman.
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