functor
4mo ago
So these Hamas rockets that have barely been able to kill anyone leveled an entire hospital during Israeli bombing. Seems like something AIPAC cooked up.
As for October 7 Israel was engaging in military operations against Gaza, they had murdered hundreds of civilians and taken thousands of hostages.
There war a roughly 50% civilian death rate on the Israeli side. Is 1 civilian death for every military death acceptable or not? Why isn't it terror when Israel kills more than one civilian for each military casualty?
functor
4mo ago
The difference being Israels exceptional brutality, their politicians using references to biblical genocides and the high civilian death toll.
functor
4mo ago
A private system could work as well. Holland, Switzerland and Japan also have private systems. The difference is that their prices aren't abhorrent. Regardless of who pays the US medical system has a cost problem. This problem will not get solved because the vested interests want delivering a baby to cost 40000 dollars.
functor
4mo ago
They can close it the way Yemen closed the red sea. Tankers are massive, slow moving ships that are easy targets for drones and missiles. They have over 1500 km of mountainous coastline with tankers sailing in proximity to their shores.
The US failed to win against Yemen in a year and a half. This war will be much, much harder.
functor
4mo ago
Obama ran on anti-war, tax payer financed medical care and reduced income inequality. Obama did the exact opposite and the left reinvented itself with woke.
We could see republicans doing the same and forgetting about reducing the deficit, America first, American industrial policy and instead finding an equivalent of the trans issue to channel their energy.
The US people will never be allowed to vote on immigration, billions to Israel, warmongering, Medical insurance companies extracting wealth and the surveillance state. It doesn't matter America elects or what the polls show, those issues are settled by the elite for the elite.
functor
4mo ago
Invading their neighbours three times, attacking Iran, backing all sorts of terrorist groups in Iran and then bombing for over a week seems to be the best way to convince them to get nukes. The best way to convince a country not to get nukes is to not be hyper aggressive towards them.
functor
4mo ago
It is the ISIS ideology of building a caliphate and invoking the return of Jesus. The idea of commanding god and ordering Jesus back to Earth is an antithesis to what pretty much 99% of Christians throughout history have believed. It is a big part of the rift between Al Qaeda and ISIS in which Al Qaeda considered ISIS to be completely out of control.
functor
4mo ago
These politicians hardly act as devout christians who believe every word of the bible. They are paid by AIPAC and are terrified of Mossad and jewish influence in the media.
functor
4mo ago
The differnece between the anglosphere and continental Europe is the first past the post system.
In Germany there are young leftists and rightists. Old right leaning people vote CDU, young right leaning people vote AfD. Old leftists vote social democrat, young leftists vote Green. The first past the post system makes it hard for new parties to form and makes it hard to replace the local established politician. The issue is that boomers and their establishment policies are not exciting young people anywhere. Keir Starmer and whoever is leading the Tories this week don't appeal to the young.
For a system to last young people have to be able out maneuver the old. First past the post makes this hard.
functor
4mo ago
There is absolutely no reason to do a direct assault of a small hilly island. The only sensible way to take Taiwan is a siege which the Chinese could even conduct from their homeland with anti ship missiles launched from the shores. Taiwan isn't going to last that long without international trade.
functor
4mo ago
It took 14 years, a massive refugee crisis to Europe, the destruction of the country and a decimation of the Christian population to get a jihadist dictator that somewhat controls the country. The ambition is not what it was in 2003.
Kind of clashes with the American rhetoric of unprovoked invasions and the horrors of Russian aggression in Ukriane.
functor
4mo ago
This was the same method used to destroy Libya. The US sanctioned them, bombed them to pieces and financed various jihadist groups and slowly destroyed the country. The US failed at nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan and moved on to nation destruction. There was no attempt to build a liberal Syria, there was instead a project to simply destroy Syria. There has been no attempt to fix Yemen, the goal is simply to turn Yemen into a shattered wreck with no capacity to do anything.
The US empire has gone from trying to control the world to simply trying to smash anything that challenges it with not much more justification than might is right.
functor
5mo ago
Depending on your age you already need to show ID. Just make passports the only valid ID if it is latin american.
Deportations can be done easily and cheaply without any government involvement.
Require some proof of being legally in the US for opening a bank account. I highly doubt the banks don't know exactly who people are already. Make sure digital forms of payment as well as credit is impossible without legal paperwork.
Limit the time window that a Latin American driver's license is valid in the US and make Latin Americans registers when they start using that driver's license. Driving without a proper license should be punished.
In order to buy alcohol and cigarettes with a latin American passport there should be an American passport stamp in the passport.
Companies should be investigated for tax fraud if they hire illegals.
Make at least larger landlords verify the identity of their tenants.
Make it impossible to register illegals at schools, universities or other institutions.
When I was in the US I had to fill out information to register who I was when I stayed at a hotel. Make that process only go through for people legally in the US.
Create a miserable user mode for illegals in the US and they will leave. The US has millions of illegals because the US facilitates illegals in their country. Stop facilitating them and it will stop being fun to be an illegal in the US. Mexico is not Sudan, life there is not that bad.
functor
5mo ago
Mass third world immigration. When the US invaded Iraq and opened the flood gates to Europe with migrants Iran helped the Iraqis defend themselves. Iran played a key roll in defeating ISIS. These two wars have been immensely helpful for Europe.
We have a strong interest in Iran.
We don't want another regime change fiasco with another migrant crisis to Europe. The neocon wars have been a disaster for Europe, they have been a disaster for the christians in the middle east and they have destroyed the region. We have a stake in this war, Iran is defending Europe and we should be greatful for that.
The idea that we should keep bombing the middle east because they hate us because we bomb them is silly logic. The US has good relations with Vietnam because the US hasn't bombed them for decades. If the policy was to have an eternal conflict with Vietnam it wouldn't have benefited either party. Pull out of there and focus on trying to mend the relations after decades of horrific wars and crimes committed against the people there.
China is the biggest trading partner in the middle east. They have achieved a significant economic presence without wasting trillions bombing weddings, running torture camps and backing jihadists. If anything the US is doing an excellent job pushing countries toward China as they seek a patron that isn't bombing them.
functor
5mo ago
Rather, the people in the west are generally negative to Israel. Even Americans are net negative to Israel. Western politicians go against the will of the people and cuck endlessly to Israel regardless of what Israel does because of Israel's extreme influence. This becomes a problem when the voters are not onboard, yet they have to officially worship Likud.
functor
5mo ago
The perception of Israel across the world has been in steady decline for the past 1.5 years. More Israeli warmongering and bombing just makes people dislike them more.
functor
5mo ago
The US and Israel no longer want to do nation building and building friendly regimes. They are going for destruction. The new model is turning countries into Libya or Syria. Wrecked countries controlled by various competing militias. A disaster for the country, an eradication of the local Christians and a refugee crisis or Europe.
functor
5mo ago
Who claimed they were pragmatic? They have an ideology that is completely opposed to the western view of war and ruthlessly commit war crimes.
functor
5mo ago
The fact of the matter is Israels interest is a destablized middle east with weak neighbors. This has caused the to get in conflict with everyone around them and flooded Europe with migrants. It is a problematic country founded on an insane religious doctrine that is heretical to christianity and that is nothing but a headache to us. There is no reason to support them what so ever.
functor
5mo ago
Iran's ongoing support for a global Islamic revolution
On the flip side they fought against the Jihadists in Syria and helped Syria defend itself. We should be thankful for that. When Iraq was invaded they helped Iraqis fight for their independence. They have not sponsored the type of muslims that attack European Christmas markets. Those types of jihadists are backed by Israel.
Who even cares what Iran thinks of the west? They are in their part of the world and are willing to trade with the other parts of the world. The US and Israel has smashed other countries and supported jihadism. The US and Israel are against stable and reasonable states and wants to turn the middle east into a giant Afghanistan.
functor
5mo ago
Iran has no reason to hate China. The US and Israel has been warmongering in the region for decades and created completely unnecessary conflicts. The US could very will have had amicable relations with Iran. Instead they had warmongering and aggressive policies that have made the relation hard to fix.
Iran negotiated a deal with the US that the US then broke. The US invaded Iraq twice and Afghanistan. The US has a long history of bombing the middle east, assassinating people and destroying countries. The Iranians have every reason to be skeptical.
functor
5mo ago
The desire for another Iraq war fiasco is extremely low. More war mongering in the middle east, more refugees to Europe, surging oil prices and another forever war was not what Trump campaigned on for a reason. All these wars have been disasters and there is no reason to think the next war won't be as bad as Libya, Iraq, Syria or Yemen.
It is unpopular now and it will be as unpopular as Iraq war 2.0 was once this fiasco has ended.
One of the greatest mistakes many progressives such as feminists make is using what they want as a starting point instead of thinking what incentive structures they are creating. The thinking easily becomes I want x while completely ignoring what incentive structures they are creating.
The reasoning becomes "I want to wear whatever I want". There is not enough thought put into that women are competitive and that the end result is going to be thongs becoming standard swimwear for women and that the hyper sexualization caused by a race to the bottom of who can get the most attention will be harmful.
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