birblib.bsky.social
Skeets about history, politics, martial arts, birbs and post-Soviet space. He/Him
5,258 posts
754 followers
733 following
Active Commenter
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Yeah like, he *could* be describing something harmless but the way he's describing it, it sounds like he prowled the halls of the nearest middle school in his early 20s
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In addition to the other points, Palestinians have always been underrepresented in the Knesset. The Palestinian/Arab parties that do hold seats have also been largely excluded from coalition politics; Ra'am joining in the Bennet-Lapid government in 2021-2022 was the only exception AFAIK.
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Waiting to hear that the ICC is a "tool of US imperialism" or some such
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It's only genocide if it's from the genocide region of the levant. Otherwise it's just sparkling demographic policy
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OK but I'd read the shit out of this one
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Workshop your popadanets story idea so you can hopefully get a book deal when your employer replaces you with Chat-GPT from Wish.
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Marx's polemics against the CSA are some of his best work, IMO
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Threats are part of diplomacy, just like concessions are.
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Yeah, like, support for joining NATO polled under 25% before 2014. Then the Russians invaded and suddenly Ukrainian support for joining NATO went up. Probably just a coincidence tho
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"Hey now, it wasn't necessarily a hate crime! Sometimes people just randomly kill a man."
...
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
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I sort of wonder about that rivalry tbh. Montgomery was an army group commander and his American counterpart from 1944-45 was Bradley. Patton's third army was part of Bradley's twelfth army group.
I feel like a lot of the Patton stuff in general is Post-War myth making spurred by his untimely death
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Guy who thinks Irish Independence from the UK was a mistake because of the Irish Civil War and the Troubles
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Judging by the size of some of the explosions, a decent number of those bombers were fuelled and armed for attacks on Ukraine when they were hit as well
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This would be a very good argument against funding the Russian war effort, but it falls a little flat as an argument against supporting Ukraine.
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No, you see, he supports the people of Ukraine against the Ukrainian state, but since they don't seem to mind the Ukrainian state at the moment, he decided to support the Russian state against the Ukrainian state.
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Like, Minsk II in particular was extremely favorable to Russia and the "totally not Russian even though their leaders are all FSB officers" DNR broke it before the ink was dry anyway.
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Bro, you're an "anarchist" who fell hook line and sinker for Russian propaganda and now thinks it's impossible to say if wars of conquest are bad.
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This is frankly disappointing even for an anarchist.
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He comes prepared, I'll give him that
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Ukraine's NATO aspirations were primarily caused by the Russian invasion, and Russia broke both Minsk accords.
In general, Russia does not have a right to dictate Ukrainian affairs or foreign policy, so their attempts to do so obviously provoked resistance in 2014.
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What provocation would that be, now
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Probably a better father as well
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"I appreciate that, Stephens, but why don't we just employ 'influencers' with a sense of personal hygiene and whatever passes for a normal personality in those circles?"
"Well, you see Mr. President..."
*A foul smell fills the room. Stephens' eyes begin to bleed.*
I̵̹͚͍̼̲̐͑t̶̨̨̩̥̹̻̬͔͙͛̈̋͛̀ͅ ̶̰́̐̃̋̈́͒͒̇̋͛͒͗͘͝i̷̡̪̬̥̙̟͈̺̝̝̫͈̙͚͕͋̍̀́͆͆̽̾̿͑͐̒̋͛̚͝s̷̡̬͕̫̭̹͓̒̓͛́̈́̀̌͑̂ ̵̛̯͖̭̰̦̐̆̈́̐̌̈́̂́̈́̌̋̍͐͂͝ņ̴͚̹̭̠͔̲̗̳̻̅̅̓͛ȏ̵̦̲̻̥̱͓̞̬͈̜̟̪̣̣̑̑͌̆̆͂́̌͜͝ẗ̶̛́̅̎̀̂͑̈́̔̎͌͜ ̸̱͕͖̯̻̅͂̈̾̾̇͆̈͆̋͋̎̐͐̃̑͜m̵̨̛̞̪̙̼͚̺y̸̢̝͚̪͖̣̹͒͐̋̋͗͘̚ ̵͕̟̳̝̝͉̭͎̬͎̝͇̗̅̒ḋ̵̨̹̞̩̖̪̱͉̊̏̓̀͛̅͘ḙ̷̡̹̹͚͙͍̮͚̖̖̺̭͕̼̣̇͒̓̍̃̔͜͝͝c̸̛͙̹̩̭͔͖̰̦̙̺͔̱̱̐̿͗̐̂͐̈̈̚ị̸̡͎̜̦͖̯̼͌̈́̀̀̒̅̆͌̎s̴̭̙͕̫̬͚͊̀̓̋̈͌̀̆͋͐̋̓̚͝i̶̙͑́̽̌̌́̓̓̕͠ǫ̶̞͕̯͚̜͖̬̻̙̝̠̳̪͆̈ṋ̶̛̳͉͉̻̙̑̐̐̈́͌͗̔͗͂͋͂̈́̓́͠ ̷̲͕̙̭͋̈̈ţ̴̖̮̗̙̭̪̞̯̼̲͖̹̽̏̽̾̿́̈́̂̓͋̐́͊͘ͅo̴̠͇̠̳̲͔͔̼͂̊̋͛͛̀̃̓̈̕͝͠͝͝ ̷̤̰̳̰̜͕̫̭̱͕̪̩͙̙̹̉̽̿̒̐̅̉́͂̇̓̚̕͠͝ͅm̴̪̘͖̥̲̹̘̈́̓á̸̫͖͍̻̺̰͔̝͍͎̮͔̉̆́̔͝k̵̢̛̮͎̙̜̳͔̍͑̇̈́̋͆̂̅̈́͘e̸͈͎̗͓̦̘͕̲͔̱̟͖̖̓̊͒́̊̀́̍͜͜͝
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"We can't allow the enemy to claim a monopoly over eldritch horror courtesans..."
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If that's all it took, we would hear a lot fewer stories about the male loneliness epidemic and a lot more stories about extremely specific cases of olfactory PTSD
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This is a news article in a major national publication explaining her proposed policies to the general public.
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And this is a big problem because states need capacity to provide services and build infrastructure and all the rest. But now that high-income workers know they can throw their poorer brethren under the bus for a tax cut, any government that tries to put the genie back in the bottle is on thin ice.
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So, while politicians like Obama and Biden recognized the need to restore the state's capacity to provide basic services and received nominal public support to do so, that support proved remarkably fragile in practice. Because there still just aren't enough poor people to swing an election.
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Except that even if the new political generations understood that the neoliberal program of immiserating low-income workers to pay for tax cuts for high-income workers was a terrible idea, they had not freed themselves of the basic electoral logic that underpinned it.
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What the first neoliberals had actually done was hollow out their state capacity to enrich high-income professionals and business owners who were already wealthy. Attempts to roll back the "neoliberal revolution" were widespread as early as the 1990s.
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The first generation of neoliberals were ideologically predisposed to see this as a good thing. Taking away the nanny state and cutting taxes on wealthy, productive citizens would save money and incentivize the poor to better themselves.
Later generations realized this was actually catastrophic.
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See, if low-income workers make up more than half the population, you can't assemble a viable coalition without them. If they make up perhaps a quarter, you not only *can* ignore them but face significant political obstacles if you don't.
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Guy whose main hustle is making electric cars surprised to find that throwing in with fossil fuel supremacy party was a bad idea
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Lutnick: We built the plant in 18 months as promised.
Reporter: When will it be ready to start producing chips?
Lutnick: it has a parking lot
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www.pbs.org/newshour/eco...
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The Biden administration's infrastructure bill and support for unions contained quite a few asks from the Sanders wing of the party. Wages among the lowest income quartile grew faster than the rest.
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I think the centrists here are making the analytical error of assuming that if you did X and then lost an election, you must have lost the election because you did X.
That's obviously not how things work, but I think it's an analytical problem that pops up on the left quite a bit as well.
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Yeah, for sure, Israel's general policy of having their cake and eating it too when it comes to Palestinians long predates the current fragmentation.
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Like, Netanyahu will never do anything to help Palestinians unless someone forces him to. On the other hand, his government became way more aggressive towards them as a result of its dependence on the settler parties to avoid votes of no confidence.
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The fragmentation is definitely over internal issues within a broader set of Israeli Jews that accept (or in some cases outright demand) cruelty to Palestinians, but this sort of fragmentation nevertheless promotes aggressive responses to any and all political issues.
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I don't think that's true. Biden had some big Ls in foreign policy, but domestically he did a lot to support unions and grow wages among low-income Americans. He was more sympathetic to the Sanders wing of the party than the Bloomberg wing, but it didn't help him as much as one would like.
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Yeah, I suppose the logic would go that since Israel is surrounded by "terrorists" (let's not unpack that lol), the fact that their country is still around must mean they're good at counterterrorism.
It's a misreading of the country but one that fits quite well with a certain set of prejudices.
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IMO the political instability of the past few years reflects a degree of fragmentation in Israeli society more broadly and also feeds back into a much more competitive and aggressive political culture. Israel was never overly concerned about the Palestinians but they used to be better at faking it.
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Look, it's problematic to direct such hostility to a man who is POC (Italian), neurodivergent (Italian) and queer-coded (Italian)
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There's an adage in urban planning discourse that says "voting left doesn't guarantee your city will get good transit, but voting right guarantees it won't" and I think this applies quite a bit more broadly
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There's a bit of a history to this kind of personalized grass-is-greener attitude to foreign leaders. Syngman Rhee had a cult of personality in the US during the leadup to the Korean War that is similarly baffling in hindsight.