sickamore
4mo ago
cuz US is on magic dirt, obviously.
if only those Indians in India could come stand on US soil, they’d become more competent in a flash!
/s obviously
off the top of my head: 1: are they paid ok by local standards? 2: do they have examples of promotion in their roles/teams/orgs, or are they all looking for the next gig on the side? 3: whats the management situation over there? affects everything listed here obviosly 4: hiring bar is low? 5: bad training?
sickamore
5mo ago
Do you think people posting "Lies" are saying that because they remember, or even know, about these things you listed?
Not to say US / Israel / any other military are without blame for the lack of trust. I agree, US military has lied in the past, and the press/government/etc lied with it (possibly in other orders, like papers lied first, apparently, for the Spanish-American war). Not saying they are without sin.
But it does feel to me that the winningest move here is to not play at all (not fight). Failing that, don't say anything while playing and hopefully you win.
sickamore
5mo ago
IDF making a lot of progress with minimal casualties https://x.com/yossi_melman/status/1721779627251695752?s=20
IDF arrived to the center of Gaza city. Both sides are surprised in a kind of mirror image. Hamas from how relatively Hamas defense lines were penetrated snd collapsed IDF because the advance was relatively fast and not too many casualties, which are in Gaza around 30.
(likely conservative estimate) map of IDF presence / progress: https://x.com/War_Mapper/status/1721646940780191941?s=20
sickamore
5mo ago
what kind of hard punch you thinking? 1948? 1967? 1973? I mean were these just not hard enough punches?
sickamore
8mo ago
The author is comparing private schools in US to private schools (actually public?!) in England surely! /s
sickamore
6mo ago
best advice is to study cyclicality.
FB at 92 was a great buy.
oil stocks at negative oil price in 2020 was a great buy. uranium even now is a good buy. maybe even silver stocks?
i dont think you’d make as much, on a 5 year time horizon, if you out all into QQQ or google or something
sickamore
6mo ago
i got the sense that majority of endowment growth is through investments, like how David Swensen ran the Yale endowment, or how much money Stanford makes from VC funds.
This is also true of public pensions, like CALPERS, or Ontario teachers union, or any of these big money funds that need to grow (though VC usually is not like, 50% of their investments).
Coupled with how well Griffin's Citadel grows the pile, it makes sense to invest in them (if harvard does invest in citadel funds - im not sure)
sickamore
9mo ago
re cultural activities: Agree that if you only do/consume one thing, it's probably bad
re how people spend money: cultural elites just waste money on different stuff ime (in LA, mostly with entertainment folks, which i guess can be elite or not. Big diff is they can get free things vs the rich ppl in "lower brow" activities)
sickamore
5mo ago
how reliable is max blumenthal? seems like hes always writing about “51 days in gaza” but wasnt actually there, etc.
do the citations substantiate his piece? sorry, have read his stuff before and am less trusting
sickamore
6mo ago
well he hangs with other winners of capitalism.
compared to a group of Caesars, being a normal person is bad.
comparison is the thief of joy. i assume this contributed to his psyche. It definitely would to mine!
live your life, dont compare with others. ignorance truly is bliss
sickamore
6mo ago
yes, not denying that. But those are less shocking than naked dead women being paraded around and spat on
sickamore
5mo ago
arent they doing that? remove hamas, demilitarize gaza like they did west bank. West Bank is much wealthier than Gaza.
sickamore
6mo ago
Anti-BDS laws are definitely evidence that they do exert policy power. But perhaps just not overwhelming. And definitely not today, when Dems are in charge, it seems.
But still, two carrier groups to that area, more munitions to Israel, etc. the US has her own interests in the ME (that are already being targeted and hit by Iranian-backed militias), so there's that reason too.
sickamore
6mo ago
yes agreed. To me, it brings all kinds of doubts to other Gaza death tolls too
sickamore
8mo ago
He recently posted a video of him playing tennis (shirtless!) and he looks pretty “mid” as the kids would say. Granted maybe he hasnt played tennis seriously in since high school. But im happy to have a young and not overweight president again.
sickamore
10mo ago
what stops someone from joining the mormon church? If you dont have tradition you can buy into some, after all converting new people is a big part of the Mormon tradition with the missions that guys go on.
sickamore
6mo ago
US troops are being hit in Iraq, Syria, etc by Iranian-backed groups, so it's not just Israel. Though the US isn't exactly doing a lot here to respond.
sickamore
10mo ago
i remember reading a report or a narrative about yale law school affirmative action and them mentioning Thomas (or named him in it, before he was famous). It basically implied he wasn't that great of a student compared to his white peers. I might be remembering incorrectly though - if anyone knows what im referring to, please drop a link
sickamore
10mo ago
is there proof in these links? Seems like all they can say is that they are "allegations"? Is there hard proof?
sickamore
10mo ago
Elite liberal rapid liberals are in cities and many of them are in media, no? Why wouldnt they cover him if they are sympathetic?
sickamore
5mo ago
Israel provided jobs to gazans before this. West bank is noticeably wealthier / HDI / whatever your metric is comparee to Gaza. I think Gaza would economically grow it fully embraced Israeli economic partnership
sickamore
5mo ago
what about the Rafah crossing with Egypt? its not like israel surrounds Gaza
sickamore
6mo ago
but israel/IDF had known for years if not decades about these tunnels. You are saying they have prepared for this sort of thing at all, even as an contingent solution?
It's honestly kind of depressing how much information, proof, etc Israel/IDF provides, and still cannot win trust. Of course it doesn't help when random mid-level Israeli bureaucrats tweet random posts of unverified bs that then gets debonnnked.
Like the Shifa Hospital situation the last few days. Images and videos of IDF bringing in supplies etc for patients in the hospital: "lies, they didn't actually do this!" "just for the video/photo-op!" etc. Of course, they ARE purposeful photo-ops that are trying to counter the anti-Israeli perspective.
And then anti-Israel people will post some link PROVING that Israel "lied" in the past, but then you read the link and it is IDF claiming responsibility for some error. "This is why IDF definitely did fire rockets at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza" etc etc. And of course then pictures come out and ... onto the next story!
It's the same as how US public comms is treated. Oh US DoD denies the casualty numbers claimed by a militia that just attacked a US base? "Lies!" "This means the casualty numbers are true!" When US DoD says, in the same manner, in the same channels, that they did something that can be seen as detrimental, like say they suffered some injuries, like US base got attacked - then what US is saying is of course true.
Everyone here probably knows this and has seen it play out. I'm just a little, idk, depressed and ranty about this.
(and I'm not ruling out that Israel does / can/ has lied about military actions, and god knows IDF has done their share of morally bad things in the past. But there just seems to be nothing israel can do to win over trust. But such is the tiktok PR battle we find ourselves in today.)
((IMO: US, Israel, and any faction that finds itself in a conflict and viewed as the more powerful "oppressor", should just keep silent and never say anything. Did Saudi announce things when fighting Houthis in Yemen? Or Assad when killing hundreds of thousands of people? I am no)
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