Russia won't end Ukraine war until NATO "pulls out" of Baltics: Moscow
The Ukraine war won't end until NATO withdraws troops from the Baltics, a top Russian official has warned.
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister responsible for U.S. relations, nonproliferation and arms control, made the remarks in an interview with state-run news agency Tass.
Ryabkov's comments mark a shift in the Kremlin's position. He suggested that the conflict's roots lie not only in Ukraine itself but in NATO's eastward expansion. According to Ryabkov, the withdrawal of NATO forces from the Baltics would help bring an end to the war.
Russia Won't End Ukraine War Until NATO Scales Back Eastern Flank: Moscow
NATO bolstered its presence in Eastern Europe in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Isabel van Brugen (Newsweek)
The Baltics are part of NATO because they didn't want to be part of the failed Soviet Union or the modern Russian Federation. And with Russia invading Ukraine, twice now, it isn't very hard to see why.
Get fucked Russia.
Ah yes "NATO pls if you'll just surrender and go away, we pinky-promise not be bad anymore"
With Operation Spider's Web, (and Russia trying to launch massive counterattacks against civilian populations and still only managing to kill only two people) is showing that Russia might not have as strong of a position as they think they do.
US ambassador to Israel says US no longer pursuing goal of independent Palestinian state
Mike Huckabee suggested any future Palestinian state should be carved out of ‘a Muslim country’
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has said that the US is no longer pursuing the goal of an independent Palestinian state, marking what analysts describe as the most explicit abandonment yet of a cornerstone of US Middle East diplomacy.
Asked during an interview with Bloomberg News if a Palestinian state remains a goal of US policy, he replied: “I don’t think so.”
The former Arkansas governor chosen by Donald Trump as his envoy to Israel went further by suggesting that any future Palestinian entity could be carved out of “a Muslim country” rather than requiring Israel to cede territory.
Oh boy you rustled some jimmies. Idk that I've seen a single comment where every response was down voted for being shitty takes.
I'm sure all of those third party and non voters are jerking off all over themselves for saving Palestine and ending the genocide through Donald Trump.
Hey, at least they've got their pedestals to look down on us from.
She would have been better for the world as a whole than Trump. If you truely think that things would have played out exactly the same in Gaza with Harris as POTUS, then it still comes down to two candidates last November, and every person knew that one of them would win. So a vote for Trump, a non vote, or a third party vote directly benefited Trump.
"Oh but I voted against genocide", fuck no you didn't. You voted in a manner that directly put Trump in charge, which was the worst possible outcome.
It could be argued that trump is actually better for the world (but not for the US) since he's ruining the US's soft power by tearing up alliances and expressing blatant corruption, making the US look incompetent and completely untrustworthy. Now other countries are finding alternatives, making the US not as central as it used to be. He is perhaps the most effective tool in helping the US empire fall.
You could also argue that this is accelerationism, but to be fair, democrats take advantage of accelerationism all the time (e.g. "republicans have repealed reproductive rights, donate even more money to us so we can fight it" while letting things get worse and worse, barely putting up a fight to make long-lasting changes and indeed letting things get this bad so they can position themselves as the only "solution").
All, unfortunately, true.
Edit: Unfortunate for us in the US, not necessarily unfortunate for the rest of the world in some aspects. I still think as a whole his influence and other actions probably still make him worse for the world, but there is a valid argument about nations growing less dependent on the US.
Hopefully in 3.5 years (or please God, less), the US will be knocked down a peg on the world stage, other nations have a more diverse and stable trade relationships, and maybe Trump's actions will help spark other countries into action against hard right politics to prevent the same thing from happening to them. Ideally, this could be a catalyst for positive change, but I'm not holding my breath.
To be clear, I voted for Harris, and I implored everyone I know to vote for Harris, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I will always vote for the farthest-left candidate in the general, full-stop. I'm not arguing that both sides are the same, or that Harris wouldn't have been a better choice for 100 reasons outside of the genocide issue. I'm arguing that Harris gave no indication that she would defend Palestine or even recognize the genocide at all. She might well have done those things, but she didn't campaign on that, so I don't know why anyone is defending her on the issue. Establishment Dems can't seem to get it through their heads that progressive policies are popular, so we keep getting general elections between an absolute monster and a neolib Dem saying, "Vote for me or you'll get the monster!" That might be the reality, but it's not a platform.
I live in a blue state, and I had people around me arguing that whether they voted third-party or didn't vote at all, they would be able to sleep at night knowing that A. they didn't vote for genocide and B. the state would go blue anyway. I don't agree with that position at all. I want third parties to be represented in the US, but that starts at the local level and in the primaries. By the general election it's too late and we realistically have two options. I also believe that shutting down any criticism of the Dem candidate (e.g. a now-banned user told me to kill myself) is a good way to alienate people and discourage them from engaging with the process at all. The right has banned nuance from their discourse, and I refuse to allow the same thing to happen around me.
I agree with you on everything you wrote.
I'm not trying to say that Harris would have been good for Palestine, or even a good POTUS. I'm saying she was the less bad option overall in the election. I don't know that anything would be different with Israel had she won, but I think there was a better chance that she would have done something good over Trump doing something good. That could still be a negligible chance, but it was the better of two chances.
Like you said, local elections and primaries (when they're held, but that's separate from this overall conversation) are when to vote for different parties and more fringe candidates. One of two people is already the winner in the election by the time November rolls around, so it comes down to least bad.
the fact I made this months ago and people like you are still proving it relevant is hilarious, though I suppose the second panel should be "third party/not at all/for trump" in this context
"but one of them will explicitly make it worse"
Biden was making it worse for over a fucking year. Your comic is not clever or informative or even truthful, sorry. I voted for Harris, but I cannot control how others vote. If democrats want votes, they should actually try to get them. Democrats running on "other guy will make it worstester!!!!" while still making things worse themselves is a losing strategy and yet here you are defending it. That's truly a stick-in-spokes maneuver.
the contentious point has never been that democrats should have run a better campaign. on that we all agree. the relevant issue has always been that not voting democrat would result in a worse outcome.
surprise surprise. it did.
In their defense, it's very expected that some people can be so stupid as to think Trump was not going to be worse for Gaza. And Ukraine. And Europe. And US. But I guess you are.
That's why they can you "useful idiot"
Edit: to be clear, I don't mean "you" in particular, but those like you in general.
it’s very expected that some people can be so stupidBut I guess you are.
It's obvious that you're calling me stupid and an idiot. You assign behaviors that you think apply to me and then say that those behaviors make one a useful idiot. I know you're just trying to skirt rule 5, but this has got to be one of the most pathetic attempts I've seen.
Why am I skirting any rule? Those like you include you. I've even said explicitly on your quote.
You were fooled and you're trying to defend it as some form of moral superiority. You don't care about Gaza, you care more about not admitting you were wrong.
Go ahead and report me, just be careful to not fall from your high horse.
Ok, so assume all things equal, everything happens the same in Gaza... Trump is still significantly worse in every other facet. So yea, all third party voters and non voters are fucking moronic Trump supporters. A bunch of ignorant fuckwits that think that they made a difference by standing up against the establishment. Congrats, we got Trump.
There's only so many ways to say that there were two outcomes last November, and everyone knew that. If y'all can't wrap your head around that reality 6 months later, then that says everything about your ability to reason.
Third party voters didn't succeed because of asshole genocide voters. Get cancer asshole.
If more of yee threatened to withdraw your votes maybe biden would have not armed a genocide. But bombing civilians is NBD for the average yank.
I call it inherent suppremacism. You think you're on the compassionate part but in reality you're a piece of shit
It was, because that's reality. It does disregard a lot of criticism, because again, at the end of the day, there were two candidates, and one was going to win. Harris wasn't, imo, a good candidate, but Trump was a far worse.
In the US, it's been that way for the better part of the past century, because FPtP always devolves to a two party system. This past election was no different.
The most basic job responsibility of a politician is to get elected. Democrats' only platform is "at least we're not as bad as the other guys" but the other guys only get worse and worse while democrats follow along, making sure to be just different enough to make people think they have a choice, but not different enough to change the course of our country and its servitude to the ultra-rich.
You're arguing with people on here who most likely voted for Harris. I know I did. However, who I vote for doesn't matter when democrats are so bad at looking appealing and fighting for a winning chance that my vote is drowned out by others not paying attention or who are gerrymandered away (or otherwise suppressed).
Doesn't matter what the Democrats platform was.
If they were concerned about Gaza and didn't vote Harris, then they didn't care about Gaza. Because of them Trump got elected like everyone told them, and made the situation in Gaza worse.
Oh boy you rustled some jimmies.
That might be an understatement lol.
I'm still getting comments, threats, and suggestions to commit suicide on this post, and other comments and posts I've made going back at least a year.
They're so mad they're been browsing my comment history to find more things to get pissed off about lol.
I love pissing off fascists and all the attention let's me know I'm on the right track.
Same. I've had cancer wished on me, suicide, and a few other things. Like you said, it's solidly let me know the kind of people that I'm criticizing.
Someone lost a friend in Lebanon, and that's sad. I'm sure if they were still here, they'd be stoked that their friend effectively supported Donald Trump to help out though.
The zionists won. It doesn't need reminding.
A movement tried to make Palestine a relevant political issue for the electorate. It got stomped out. I don't get this sentiment to keep stomping.
There are those of us who will never see the protest (non-)voters as allies again due to their willingness to ignore the basic math of the election and enable fascists to win to "prove a point". They are a step away from collaborators and hold part of the responsibility for every person who has been kidnapped by ICE, the end of a possibility of a free Palestine, every murdered protestor, every trans youth who commits suicide because they are denied care, every child that dies from measles.
Performative bullshit driven by the desire to feel moral superiority while helping get a fascist elected and undoing a century of civil and societal progress doesn't make one an ally. It makes them useful idiots to the far-right and betrayers of people in vulnerable populations, everyone whose life is ruined by global warming.
I might forgive this who take responsibility and try to lend a hand in the multi-generation effort to try repairing the damage that has been in under 200 days (protest voters have fucked over GenX through Alpha, at the very least). But, as long as I live, I'll not forget, nor will I allow them or anyone else to do so, lest someone make the mistake of thinking that they would stand up for anyone in any effective manner capable of positive change.
And I will never see americans as human being seeing how quick they were prone to throw us under the bus.
Death to amercians. I hope you see your mum firebombed asshole.
Just imagine her screams lmao
A movement tried to make Palestine a relevant political issue for the electorate. It got stomped out.
No, it succeeded in its goal - making sure the fascist won.
The zionists won
For now. Given what climate change has been doing, it will be short lived. The house always wins
Of course it's coming for us all eventually. But some places sooner than others.
how the fck this has so many votes ?
that scum did nothing but lie about it for a year. that trash had failed upward his entire political carrier by bankrolling with aipac blood money.
he is the biggest reason harris lost and was probably told to do so by israel.
dnc underestimated nothing, they are a party run by two faced drifters like pelosi and schumer. these parasites are part of the same oligarchy.
i live in very liberal part of nyc and not a single person whether black, hispanic, asian or white wants to vote for dnc since Hillary because their policies have been just farce and they do a half ass job even on getting that implemented. biden funded and cheered a live streamed genocide, did fuck to protect women rights or stop rabid inflation. he cried about humanity in ukraine while burning children alive in hospitals and made US a even a bigger joke on warcrimes. blocked a proper dnc primary and then ended his presidency by pardoning his whoring drug addict son who drifted millions by lobbying for superpacs leveraging his scum father’s position.
the only reason harris got any vote was because her opponents was way worse trash then her. everyone knew she is just another spineless pimp for superpacs like last two dnc candidates.
Israel is done. It'll take a few years more, but Trump abandoned Israel and the world is turning its back. Palestine will be free, and only then you also will be free.
Until then, you'll keep bouncing back between openly fascist and polite fascist like the good little wage slave that you are.
This was Biden's genocide, you can never take that away from him.
The genocide would have been impossible without Biden.
Not without Netanyahu.
Absolutely false. Israel has been stockpiling weapons since the 40s and, depending on who you ask, is between the 8th and 10th largest weapons dealer in the world.
statista.com/statistics/267131…
geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/0…
They do not need our help buying sniper bullets to kill kids.
france24.com/en/tv-shows/t%C3%…
They're willing and able to misuse the weapons we send them, they don't NEED to use the weapons we send them.
Proof: They started killing Palestinians on 10/7/2023 before we approved a single dime of aid much less sent any.
ajc.org/news/what-every-americ…
Emergency Aid and Wartime Procurement:
In September 2024, the U.S. secured an $8.7 billion aid package for Israel, including $3.5 billion for wartime procurement and $5.2 billion for air defense systems like Iron Dome and David's Sling.
In April 2024, Congress approved $14.3 billion in emergency military assistance and $9.2 billion for humanitarian aid, including support for Gazan civilians.
Paused Heavy Munitions Transfer: In May 2024, the Biden administration paused certain heavy munitions shipments pending Israel’s plans for operations in Rafah, where humanitarian concerns for displaced Palestinians were raised. This move reflected efforts to balance support for Israel with attention to humanitarian laws. The munitions transfer were later approved.
Tête à tête - US surgeon claims Israel targets Gaza children: 'No child gets shot twice by mistake'
In an interview with FRANCE 24, US surgeon Mark Perlmutter claimed that Israeli snipers are deliberately targeting children in Gaza.Marc Perelman (FRANCE 24)
Okay cool so you are saying Biden sent weapons to Israel despite Israel not needing them.
It is funny how Israel disagrees with you.
Israeli Air Force Official: Without U.S. Aid, Israel Couldn't Fight Gaza Beyond a Few Months
Israeli air force official: Without U.S. aid, Israel couldn't fight Gaza beyond a few months
A senior air force officer also tells Haaretz about the international cooperation that thwarted Iran's attack in April and delivered a preemptive strike on Hezbollah in August, amid efforts for Israel to decrease this dependenceYossi Melman (Haaretz)
Biden sent weapons to Israel to defend against potential attacks from Iran, as is their right.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-…
bbc.com/news/articles/c3rljzep…
Israel then misappropriated the weapons for use in Gaza.
Biden says US discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
The price of crude oil shot up by 5% immediately after Mr Biden’s comments.Tom Bennett (BBC News)
So you are conceding that the genocide would have been impossible if Biden did not supply Israel with weapons and admitting I am right.
Furthermore, can you cite where in your articles it says the bombs which Biden sent were meant to bomb Iran? And where did Biden put the condition that they were not allowed to be used for the genocide but only in case of escaltion with Iran?
Nope. Israel started the genocide before we sent them a dime of aid and will continue until every Palestinian is dead regardless of how little support we send them.
Like I say, sniper bullets are dirt cheap, they don't need our help killing kids.
theguardian.com/world/2024/apr…
‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza
IDF says it ‘completely rejects’ charge that its soldiers deliberately fired on any of the thousands of civilians killed in Israeli offensiveChris McGreal (The Guardian)
Could Israel flatten all of Gaza with sniper bullets?
Have you seen any actual combat footage from Gaza which is not American F35 planes dropping 2000 pound bombs on tents? There is good reason Israel does not dare to do anything except bomb from the sky.
Wow interesting you sure know a lot about history. Especially all the stuff which somehow makes it not Biden his fault that Israel was committing a full scale genocide which started during his term according to even Wikipedia.
Remind me who was advocating for Israel back in the 90s
US support for Israel didn't start in the 90s. Every US President has supported them since the 40s.
The most hilarous one was George W. Bush:
"We have to invade Iraq because they are in violation of 17 UN Resolutions!"
"Israel is in violation of over 80 of them in the West Bank and Gaza, it would be over 100 except for our resolution veto power, what about them?"
". . ."
Love that his argument keeps going between Biden was just old and raised that way, he couldn't do anything since it was established usa policy, and it's just usa doing proxy war against Iran so of course they need to support the genocide.
All to keep Bidens image clean.
Because politicians need campaign contributions and unless they support Israel, that money not only dries up, but actively gets used against them.
theguardian.com/us-news/2024/a…
Pro-Israel US groups plan $100m effort to unseat progressives over Gaza
Aipac and other groups targeting candidates critical of Israel’s war in Gaza – but progressives are not going down without a fightJoan E Greve (The Guardian)
Oh, no, they don't NEED the money, they WANT the money. 😀 Big difference.
Same as you or I would if we had our own lobbying firm.
I should say too... this is not unique to Israel. The American Military Industrial Complex is based on "Please give us lucrative contracts you don't need so we can spend money in red state communities that vote for you."
This is how we get billion dollar contracts for things we don't need, but can't be killed because of donations to the politicians.
military.com/daily-news/2015/0…
defenseone.com/policy/2025/04/…
responsiblestatecraft.org/2021…
Would you pay $1.7 trillion for a plane that couldn’t fly?
According to a new GAO report the F-35 is still riddled with maintenance and performance issues, but yet Congress keeps demanding more.Andrew Lautz (Responsible Statecraft)
Problem: That's not why Biden armed Israel.
Biden armed Israel under the belief that they would use the weapons for legitimate defense, specifically against Iran. That's a naive assumption, but it was done in good faith.
Netanyahu then illegally used the weapons offensively. Apparently nobody has the balls to call him out on it.
Again iran do not want to attack the usa. The usa is the one who want to . The united state been the biggest agressor and bully at least for 50 years.
Your country has no ligitimate defence
Ok sorry for misreading you.
Why biden should protect a state occupying palestinian for 57 years? Why do you agree with biden being complicit?
Biden support israel for the usa imperialism and ideology
Because following the holocaust the world decided that everyone owed the Jewish people a homeland and the US was a key player in a) ending the holocaust and b) making Israel happen.
No US President is going to turn their back on that. Biden did not do anything different than every other president in the past 70 years.
Palestinians has nothing to do the holocaust. Actually 13k Palestinians volunteered to fight nazi Germany. Maybe the united state should has offer some land to zionists to create it's state .
No US President is going to turn their back on that. Biden did not do anything different than every other president in the past 70 years.
I don't give a damn, every single president who defended israeli occupation is a war criminal and should be held accountable
I never said they did, they didn't enter into the equation at all at the time. The world decided to give Jewish people a homeland and they picked (then) Palestine.
Things could have gone a lot differently otherwise, very fun speculative novel based on the idea of giving them Sitka, Alaska instead:
The world decided to give Jewish people a homeland and they picked (then) Palestine
Most of the world didn't decide this and more importanly the local population refused
Supporting Israel at the expense of any other people was.
Bro that's the whole history of israel. Israel should have zero protection against anybody until they go back to pre 67 territory
The majority of white women voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024.
"White women are still voting for the Republican candidate
Although women as a whole have historically voted for Democrats, white women have not. Instead, over the last 72 years, a plurality of white women have voted for the Democratic candidate only twice, in 1964 and 1996."
theguardian.com/us-news/2024/n…
2024 US elections takeaways: how female voters broke for Harris and Trump
Preliminary exit polling shows Harris won female voters, but in smaller numbers than her Democratic predecessorsCarter Sherman (The Guardian)
Look, I was the first person in threads to call these people out back in February. And March... But it's June. This shit accomplishes nothing now beyond creating more unnecessary division.
I don't even disagree, it's just not productive to constantly harp on this when we've all heard it a million times
I don’t even disagree, it’s just not productive to constantly harp on this when we’ve all heard it a million times
Man, there are people who still believe that helping fascism win was a good idea. Look in this very comment thread, where people are openly extolling the virtues of having Trump win from a 'leftist' standpoint, and teaching those damn dirty SHITLIBS a lesson.
As long as those opinions remain widespread on here, it remains necessary to highlight just how morally repugnant they are.
For one stop, believing the USA without thinking before
The USA been voted no to UN resolutions to recognize a Palestinian independent state since 1974.
I prefer an honest scum who say we oppose a two state solution or any other type of solution than a hypocrite scum who claim to want one
I will. Hopefully he'll shoot people in LA
Since genocide is the democratic consensus in the US, less yank = less genociders.
It's just basic math really
The protest voters amounted to some ~800k last time I did my research (check my profile for a post that goes over this).
RFK forgot to pull out of the general election, and he amassed some ~1 million votes.
Literally the Trump admin's own hubris cancelled out the Uncommitted Movement's efforts.
But sure: let's ignore Biden's deep hatred and racism for Palestinians while ignoring that emocrats lost more voters than what new voters became eligible between 2020 & 2024.
Let's also ignore Biden's awful, self-serving aim to run against Trump in 2024, when previously he had said he was a one-term candidate. And this old fuck couldn't back out of the race until he was cumpstered and dumpstered on the national stage, leaving Kamala only months to prepare a campaign. Let's not forget that there were people on voting day that didn't even know Kamala was running (they assumed Biden).
Let's also ignore Kamala's decent into fascism-lite, saying things like "the strongest military in the entire world" at the DNC, following along with right wing framing on immigration, and inviting Liz fucking Cheney on the campaign trail. This is also ignoring Kamala's horrendously tone deaf policies aimed towards business and home owners, when most people don't own businesses and don't own.
There is a generational divide in the country on Gaza. Young people under, say, 40 oppose everything this country has aided and abetted regarding Gaza. Older than 40, people don't give a shit.
So, have you just dated yourself? Are you too much of a bitch and coward to stick up for state mandated murder abroad? Or are you one of those soy libs that ignores all of America's war crimes yet points out everything wrong with China?
American foreign policy is uniparty. If you don't protest that, you're complicit.
Okay well if it's cultural then culture can be changed. So if you're an easterner, you need to be careful that you don't end up like westerners. The ideological plague that hit westerners can get easterners as well.
At the end there, It kind of seemed like you were heading back towards the race argument.
Between person to person. Yeah that's fine. But comparing population to population is dangerous. Once you know, what do you do with that information?
Historically, this line of thinking has never worked out very well. And as time goes on, who cares, we'll all breed together anyway.
No, I don't take it personally and I would agree with you if you're asserting these differences are cultural. Unless you're saying this is genetic?
Edit: cultural or a result of societal pressure. I don't mean to imply that particular cultures are bad.
Ah, sorry, I misunderstood.
I mean if it's a fun hobby of yours, go for it. But you know the history of this stuff as well as I do. It comes with a lot of baggage and people are not going to respond well to it. The group of people that will respond well to it, let's just say, I don't think you want to keep their company. Unless of course you are racist, in which case, you'd be fine.
Re: Chattel Slavery: Egypt after the 7th century, Subsaharan Africa and after the Trans-Atlantic trade was shut down, the trans-saharan and red sea trade continued to ship Chattel slaves to the Middle East. Mauretania abolished it's Chattel Slavery system legally in 1981, but the practice continues to this day.
Everywhere, where humans established empires, they dehumanized and colonized. Claiming that somehow western Europeans specifically are inherently more prone to doing that.
Even the claim "since Jesus' birth" false. In the meantime, especially in the early years, there were larger empires than the "western European" ones.
"They say they'll kill them off, take their land and go there for vacation"
-Rage Against the Machine
So much to unpack here.
First of all, when asked, he said "I don't think so." He should have a definitive answer to that question, not some weasely equivocation.
The fact that we aren't supporting a PLACE for them to live as an independent nation, signals that America has embraced the genocide option.
This is entirely about developing a Jewish Dubai, so they don't have to spend their money with Muslims. HitlerPig's Spiritual Advisor has already come out to say that Christians won't be able to enter heaven unless they make a pilgrimage to Israel, the way Muslims make their pilgrimage to Mecca. Of course, for the MAGA Nazis, it's not about spiritual fulfillment, it's about making Christians spend their money in their hotels and restaurants.
Israel has a very successful gamble in showing they are the white man's key to the Middle East. For as long as no one wills to find another ally in the region, Israel oversells itself as a one. And as any other bad example of putting all eggs in one basket, Israel felt the dependency other states have in it, and now tests it, tests it, tests it with no negative response.
Palestine and Gaza are just them dipping their toes to know, if they can get scots-free from shooting weak HAMAS and civs and get into a real war Netanyahu's cabinet already planning. It's 2025 and in the coming years we'd see even more violence from that beloved partner if no one pulls the stop lever.
I can buy that. I fully believe that from their beginning, Israel has known that someday they will have to clear out the Palestinians, and Oct 7 provided the excuse for them to finally say "Today's the day."
I also fully believe that they've had that same mindset toward the rest of the Middle East. They know that eventually they will have to settle their differences with their Muslim neighbors, and it won't be with good-faith negotiations. And the Muslim countries have the exact same mindset. It is only a matter of time before they go at each other full force, and this Gaza Genocide does look like a dress rehearsal.
It is quite simple really. There is about the same number of Palestinians and white Israelis in Palestine. Palestinians have a higher birthrate.
The current state was Apartheid, which is costly and unstable.
This leads to three long term options for an Israeli presence:
- Find a political solution, grant equal rights to everyone and serve some justice for Israels past crimes. This is contradictory to the plan of a "jewish" supremacy state. A two state solution also wouldnt work as there is about two million Palestinians with Israeli passport, but heavily discriminated. These would also eventually become an equally sized demographic.
- Ethnic cleansing
- Genocide
Since option 1 goes against the core ideology of the Zionists, Israel was always seeking Option 2 or 3. There was a slow ethnic cleansing of the Westbank and East Jerusalem over the past 30 years. Now Israel gambles that they can finish the full ethnic cleansing and genocide faster than the global support failing.
Fact, Biden went on stand to say he is a Zionist.
Fact, He did nothing to secure co-existince
Fact, Based on UN veto records nothing changes through out the history of the United States when it comes to Palestinians rights.
Let's not get Biden foreign policy any credit that never been there because you like the guy.
Because the US was first in a systemic competition against the USSR and China and after that still relied on the region for oil until recently.
Biden however stated in the 80s already, that if there wasnt an Israel he would have the US create one. He was always a racist imperialist
"No longer".
It is great that the Trump administration is dropping the fake pretenses.
It's not the handful, unfortunately.
The handful has no real power.
The problem is that 49% on each side flip-flop based on whoever's in power, because their values and opinions are a matter of convenience, and perfectly easy to change with their preferred nightly news broadcast.
It's not 49%. The split in 2024 was 1/3 R, 1/3 D, 1/3 didn't vote, and ~1% 3rd party.
As the other commenter said, it's a much fewer percentage of the population that sways those 1/3s either in the favor of R or D.
And you'd think Democrats would have chased after the 1/3 that sat at home instead of Rs, but we all know what actually happened
Trump team plans to send thousands of migrants to Guantanamo starting as soon as this week | The use of the facility would send another signal of deterrence amid immigration crackdown.
Some 800 Europeans — including one Austrian, 100 Romanians and 170 Russians — are being considered for the transfers, according to one of the documents. That element of the plan has alarmed some U.S. diplomats, who note that most European countries are American allies that are cooperative in taking back deportees and that there’s no need to send the people to Guantanamo.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/10/trump-plans-migrants-guantanamo-bay-00396673
Since February, the U.S. has held approximately 500 migrants at the Guantanamo facility, according to last week’s court filing. Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said last month that the use of the facility appears to cost $100,000 per day for each detainee.During the peak of the war on terror, the U.S. held 780 people at the Guantanamo Bay facility. Pentagon officials were shocked by Trump’s order in January to house some 30,000 people there.
It physically and economically can't be done. The most over-funded military in the world didn't bother to supply the National Guard with food, water, or bedding in Los Angeles.
They're sending these people to die.
Hey guys what is $100,000 a day for 30,000 people?
Well lookie here that is $3 billion... a day!
Or over a trillion dollars a year. Grifters gonna grifffffttttt!
So the only purpose of this move is to burn the bridges we've spent a century building with our allies, got it.
Boy, Putin got the deal of the millennium on Trump.
No it's to set precedent.
They want to send us there they just need a tacit ok from the courts who so far have responded with " hell no, read the Constitution ".
After centuries, people got tired of having to pretend it really meant something to them.
Fact-check: Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg contained lies and conspiracy theories about LA
Fact-check: Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg contained lies and conspiracy theories about LA
The US president reiterated falsehoods and misleading statements to troops at the North Carolina military baseRobert Mackey (The Guardian)
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
In his deeply partisan speech at Fort Bragg, Trump made the baseless claim that the protests against immigration raids in LA are being led by paid “rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion”.
And he's using this wording very intentionally; he's going to use this "foreign invasion" to justify martial law.
I remember that one! I was in grad school at the time, and my then-GF now-wife had just finished. We laughed for 15 minutes.
"Journal Of DUH"
Frankly, the thing that scares me the most is that you can hear the soldiers in the audience loudly booing at residents of LA on behalf of Trump, when prompted by Trump. That’s disgusting behavior, and should get them all reprimanded or discharged.
While I don’t necessarily have the default unchallenged respect/reverence for the military that most people do, at the very least I expect them to act professionally and respectfully in their own country (since we know that’s often way too much to ask when they’re sent abroad). Fuck any solider who openly acts on their political views, and fuck every soldier that doesn’t refuse an illegal order. You volunteered to do this, so you better do it right.
like this
osaerisxero, andyburke, frustrated_phagocytosis, Maeve, aramis87 e Drusas like this.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o…
there are hundreds of prominent Republicans who become Democrats, it's just that liberals know people can change their minds, that's the whole point of liberalism, so they don't see it as noteworthy, whereas when the liberal becomes a conservative, the conservatives all lose their minds because they can't believe a forward thinking person has finally regressed, so they shout it from their pointy demon spiked rooftops.
Nine women accuse Jared Leto of sexual impropriety in new report
Nine women accuse Jared Leto of sexual impropriety in new report
Women recount alleged behavior, including flirting with teenagers, as ‘predatory, terrifying and unacceptable’Maya Yang (The Guardian)
The weird thing with Jared Leto is that I've never felt he's been very successful, yet he's always had bunch of people hyping him. I can't think of him being a leading actor in anything I've ever seen. He's always been lower down the bill. You look at all his award nominations on IMDb and 90% of them are "supporting actor".
So why is he a name? I always put it down to him being involved with the "right" people in Hollywood. Those people obviously being very wrong.
Jared Leto - Actor, Producer, Director
Jared Leto. Actor: Dallas Buyers Club. Jared Leto is a very familiar face in recent film history. Although he has always been the lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and songwriter for American band Thirty Seconds to Mars, Leto is an accomplished actor merit…IMDb
I mean... he's had plenty of starring roles, and his acting has won him both awards and acclaim. Requiem for a Dream, Mr. Nobody, Dallas Buyers Club, House of Gucci, The Little Things - and that's not including his clunkers. He's still an in-demand actor with 30 years of work behind him. Not everyone makes a career that good in Hollywood.
I think he's an asshole. But he's a talented asshole.
Dallas Buyers Club
For which he won his oscar for Actor in a supporting role
House of Gucci
Supporting role behind Lady Gaga and Adam Driver
The Little Things
Nominated at Golden Gloves and SAG awards for best supporting role.
I'll give you Requiem and Mr Nobody, however there's no denying he doesn't carry films in general. He's an award winning supporting actor.
I suppose you're right there - I was conflating Starring with Leading, which is different. He has a lot of starring roles, but only a few leading roles.
But its not like leading roles are the hallmarks of success, either. There are plenty of successful and iconic supporting/character actors out there who are absolutely successes and have raving fans. Its not a mark against his talent.
Interview with 0.1x engineer
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
like this
Dantpool, bacon_saber, aramis87, andyburke, NoneOfUrBusiness, KaRunChiy, osaerisxero, frustrated_phagocytosis, Maeve e tiredofsametab like this.
like this
Azathoth, MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown, NoneOfUrBusiness, WadeTheWizard e KaRunChiy like this.
like this
NoneOfUrBusiness, WadeTheWizard e KaRunChiy like this.
I’ve been thinking recently about whether Oz would have been better as a PA senator, hindsight is a bitch.
He's probably doing more damage as head of Medicare and Medicaid then he would have as a senator. Maybe both would have happened, but there was more opportunity for him to fall out of Trump's graces if he had been in government for a few years.
like this
NoneOfUrBusiness e KaRunChiy like this.
I will never support another politician again.
Fuck ugh Fetterman.
like this
NoneOfUrBusiness, KaRunChiy e Maeve like this.
There’s 2 things that annoy me about that. Well. 3.
The first is that even if his district isn’t filled with suites, they still would put on a suit or best they got for formal affairs and maybe do business casual.
They certainly would clean their clothes. Most days he looks like a slob with food stains and whatever else.
The third thing is it’s entirely possible to get suited tailored to your size. And it’s not that expensive, and we know he should be able to afford it on his salary.
like this
NoneOfUrBusiness e KaRunChiy like this.
like this
WadeTheWizard likes this.
Haha, big funny, but literally downplaying and distracting from the real situation.
The place is called Butterworth's and it's where a lot of the top magas meet people outside official channels. They sit around in suits eating caviar and planning how they're going to break the world. A photojournalist could literally camp outside and basically show the world who is conspiring and lay out who is setting things up to fall. But they don't, and that should be pretty telling to people, if they knew.
On top of that the resturant is part owned by Nigel Farage, a racist brexit politician. You can just sit there and see different ambassadors walk in to chat up some of the most vile people in politics, and then not long after something horrendus is announced.
It's basically forecast for who will be involved in bad things to come. Articles like this are trying to point this out. And you making joke about it is literally helping them to get people not to look further into the situation.
"Hi, Butterworth's? I'd like to reserve a table for one, please. Any time you're busy will do."
like this
WadeTheWizard likes this.
The Democrats want Fetterman and Friends to be in power. They want to enable the Fascists. This is intentionally and by design. The Democrats represent the same oligarchies interests like the Republicans.
They will not do anything about this, unless forced to. This is why it is crucial to build up an actually progressive third party and apply proper pressure from within the Democrats too, instead of all this "vote blue no matter who" bootlicking we have seen over the past years.
but also, spending energy on prevention (the publicity) and then when the thing doesn’t occur saying “i guess we were wrong” is the wrong take i think
same thing with Y2K and plenty of engineering things: people were saying “it was no big deal! yall were saying planes were going to fall out of the sky! we wasted so much time and money!”… yeah; it was a huge and expensive effort that’s why the bad things didn’t happen
No. They never entered anywhere Israel is legally allowed to exclude even in war It being full of aid and verifiable non combatants.
It's kidnapping.
Just like how the US abducted people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Your example is also kidnapping but even excluding that bit of nuance the key word is "in" they never entered territorial waters and thus were never "in" Israel or Palestine. Israel can declare 1500mi of the coast of Somalia an exclusion zone then kidnap people there and that would make just as much sense in a legal view.
Gaza is under a declared blockade, Maritime Law (the oldest of international law) allows detaining any ship bound for a blockaded port. It's really cut and dry, they very publicly declared they were bound for a blockaded port. It's not like Israel boarded a ship that just happened to be in the area, these freedom flotilla yahoos very publicly declared they were bound for Gaza, which under Maritime Law permits Israel to board it.
International law is an agreement between nations and doesn't actually restrict nations from doing things that will hurt your feelings. You're going down the sovcit path when you pretend international law is whatever you want it to be.
It's not like Israel boarded a ship that just happened to be in the area,
That's exactly what happened, blockade borders have to be announced and ships have to be allowed time to leave the area. Israel left their blockade and kidnapped people aboard a ship they did not allow to leave an area they weren't in.
these freedom flotilla yahoos very publicly declared they were bound for Gaza, which under Maritime Law permits Israel to board it.
Once they breach the blockade yes arguably though with only aid that gets more complex. Essentially aid entry is allowed so long as you agree to security arrangements that are both reasonable and lawful. That could mean Israel could board and search, or doesn't mean they can blockade all aid to starve a population which is specifically and in multiple very very illegal.
casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/gloss…
Their sources section is awash with good relevant information and specifically findings on the last Israeli famous Israeli blockade and subsequent boarding (and death of iirc 9) which was found to be a legal blockade so long as the purpose was not starvation and aid could enter with security arrangements.
An operation involving naval and air forces by which a belligerent completely prevents movement by sea from or to a port or coast belonging to or occupied by an enemy belligerent. To be mandatory, that is, for third States to be obliged to respect it, the blockade must be effective. This means that it must be maintained by a force sufficient to prevent all access to the enemy coast.
So... according to the link you've provided Israel is actually required to board the ship or they can no longer prevent shipments of weapons coming from Iran?
Essentially aid entry is allowed so long as you agree to security arrangements that are both reasonable and lawful.
Has there been any indication these flotilla activists attempted to make such security arrangements with Israel?
Correct to an extent, the accepted meaning is that they must agree to security measures to pass through. It is not and never has been a way to willfully prevent aid and aide staff into combat zones.
They weren't in a blockaded zone as far as I'm aware, Israel only says they were approaching and providing intented destination as you must when attempting to pass through a blockade.
Even ignoring that they must be allowed to leave even if they enter the blockaded area without permission, it isn't a seize your property and imprison your crew for being in the general area openly providing intent kinda thing.
Israel has told the flotilla repeatedly they can deliver the aid through the proper channels and the port of Ashdod.
The small amount of captured aid from the freedom flotilla is being delivered to Gaza by Israel at the moment.
Correct, they hadn't entered the area yet though so they technically heeded their warning.
Stolen, if you take something from someone and dispense it as your own you're guilty of theft and conversion something they say Hamas does with aid. And moreover delivering aid doesn't negate the whole unlawful boarding, seizure and forcible human trafficking thing.
they can no longer prevent shipments of weapons coming from Iran?
Yeah it would really be bad if the genocidees could defend themselves
Maritime Law (the oldest of international law)
Source?
freedom flotilla yahoos [...] doing things that will hurt your feelings. [...] sovcit [...] pretend
Ew.
openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream…
Page 898
Outside the blockade area and on the high seas,34 belligerents relied on the practice of "visit and search"3s to stop vessels suspected of carrying "con-traband" to the enemy.36 A belligerent warship sailing on the high seas had the right to visit and search all merchant vessels. Merchants found carrying enemy contraband were captured and escorted to the belligerent's nearest home port. The belligerent nation's prize court then determined the fate of the captured ship and cargo.37 In cases where merchants resisted either capture or visit and search, the blockading force was entitled to pursue and, if neces-sary, damage or destroy the vessel to force the ship to submit.
Page 901
belligerents today continue to enforce blockades from long distance or through blockade zones. They do so because of three twentieth-century developments in maritime warfare: first, the growing importance to belligerents of conducting economic warfare in conjunction with armed con-flict;s3 second, the introduction of a large array of new weapons to the maritime battlefield; and third, the proliferation of modern weapons to less powerful nations incapable of conducting traditional blockade. In combination, these three developments have forced states to replace traditional blockade form with long-distance blockade or blockade zones.
they very publicly declared they were bound for a blockaded port.
Not illegal.
which under Maritime Law permits Israel to board it.
Not detain and seize, maritime law is very specific in that a blockade cannot block aid unreasonably. A super famous ship you've searched that's filled solely with celebrities and aid is something you shouldn't turn away so long as they accept security arrangements like boarding and searching. This isn't star wars nor are they the trade union and total blockades like your implying are very illegal as defined by the law you're sourcing.
The flotilla was told several times to turn around or be detained. They decided to not turn around and continued on their intended course to breach the naval blockade.
According to international maritime law Israel can intercept and detain before they enter.
Notice you never said they did breach the blockade which btw by international law they have to be given time and allowed to leave even if they enter without permission which they didn't do nor is Israel claiming they did.
Intercept and detain yes, board, seizur, deport and treat as their own... No because duh.
She was captured and held unlawfully sure, but if it was actually for humanitarian aid and not self publicity, i might have some sympathy.
So if somali pirates would just take the ship and send the crew back home it would all be good?
You're having an interesting opinion here.
Can you please elaborate on that connection from your perspective. I imagine there must be some context I am overlooking.
Willful ignorance of atrocities does not have any chance of stopping or slowing them.
Source: Russian Gulags, North Korea, US native women murders/trafficking, Auschwitz.
Ahh yes, because that solves the bystander effect which is why Kitty Genovese did not die from being stabbed in 1964. Also why the Uvalde police are heros for not participating in that school shooting. /s
You still haven't explained any of your reasoning, so I will assume it is in bad faith.
Finally, your quote is about interpersonal conflict, not violence and murder. Mr. Dyer was a therapist.
You saying “In bad faith” = ~~i cant~~ I am not trying to meaningfully disagree with you
You can prove it's in good faith by explaining your resoning. i.e. How is it worse, specifically? How will they possibly "sort their own mess out"?
If you don't want to, that's fine. Spouting empty platitudes is all I've read the past two responses. Any more will be met with shitposts by me to match your energy.
It's a blockade for a war zone. Standard practice for centuries, unless they just shoot you which was the previous option for most of humanity.
Now let's get pedantic and have someone screech that Israel doesn't recognize Palestine and it's not a war so no blockade 🙄
When you're a public figure, that's to be expected.
Right to information here as well. It gives publicly useful infos, whether you like it or not
Adalah, an Israel-based non-governmental legal organization that is representing some of the activists, said that those who remain are being held in Givon Prison in Ramleh, central Israel.
So grab the passengers of a boat in international wares and jail them in Israel. 😒
In a statement to CNN, Israel said that it “is preventing the entry of all vessels into the Gaza Strip, in accordance with international law.”
Is there a charitable interpretation that could make this statement true?
Humanitarian aid is getting in through land borders into Gaza.
Gaza doesn’t have a port suitable for delivering large amounts of goods in the first place. Aid delivery has to go through the proper channels.
I like voyager because it shows you if an account is less than a day old and therefore likely a bot or troll.
It just did it again with yours.
Is there a charitable interpretation that could make this statement true?
Since Gaza is an open air prison under the control of Israel and not recognized as an independent state we can blockade it all we want.
Best I got.
Really hard to justify genocide.
Palestine is not a recognized country in most of the western world, which in itself is a travesty, but you can probably infer a lot of bs from that.
Like claiming a certain religious group has no human rights bc they're not recognized as humans.
Palestine is not a recognized country in most of the western world, which in itself is a travesty, but you can probably infer a lot of bs from that.
That's not even true.
As of March 2025, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 147 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, or just over 75% of all UN members. It has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations General Assembly since November 2012.
75% of the world recognizes Palestine as a sovereign state.
Did she ever accomplish anything other than going to places getting arrested and changing absolutely nothing?
What is her job? Going around the world with seemingly unlimited funds and giving some interviews? Just sounds like a Kardashian with extra steps.
What's yours? Slandering the few people who stand up against genocide?
I bet that mossad paycheck is not shabby huh?
What’s yours? Slandering the few people who stand up against genocide?
Unfortunately no, I have to actually work for a company most of my days to be able to live.
I bet that mossad paycheck is not shabby huh?
Where do I pick it up?
What is her job? Going around the world with seemingly unlimited funds and giving some interviews? Just sounds like a Kardashian with extra steps.
Yes, she did. She provided mutual aid. She might not have saved the entire world, but no one ever does. She helped a few, and that is more than anyone could say about you.
She helped a few, and that is more than anyone could say about you.
I donate to unicef so I guess I did the same as her without the free trips and celebrity status, where is my Nobel?
She brought attention to the Palestinian genocide millions of people while putting Israel in a bad light.
What have you done today? Maybe made a donation to make you feel better?
Did she ever accomplish anything other than going to places getting arrested and changing absolutely nothing?
It's got you here talking about it with your terrible opinions, hasn't it?
Take a look at this image and tell me if you think these guys accomplished anything other than going to a lunch counter and getting arrested and changing "absolutely nothing"?
I don’t know of a court ruling. The UN‘s Palmer Report declared it Legal.
However as with lots of things regarding international law, there are different opinions.
By an act of piracy and kidnapping in international waters.
you might disagree with what's happening but this was legal. Israel has a blockade there
Israel shot at a group of European diplomats two weeks ago and Europe did not care.
Greta has way more clout than the European Parliament.
She could do the funniest thing now and get on the next humanitarian boat back.
Edit: me do grammar poorly
‘Complicit with a totalitarian regime’: Canada’s border rules are landing asylum seekers in ICE detention
The removals are a product of the longstanding Safe Third Country Agreement, which requires anyone seeking refugee protection in Canada or the U.S. to claim asylum in the first of the two countries they reach.
I understand why they've had that agreement. However, it should've been obvious for some time now that maybe that's an agreement they should bin? It's blatantly obvious the us don't treat refugees/asylum seekers the way they deserve at the moment
Yep. Politicians and the kind of people that hang out with politicians seem to be behind the curve on understanding what's happening, but even they must know this by now. The trick is that rolling it back could provoke Trump, and they're trying to keep that to a minimum at the moment.
That being said, if Carney doesn't fix the rules within the next year I'm going to be very disappointed. The courts will probably strike it down eventually regardless.
Folks have been suing the gov about the Safe Third a country agreement since 2005 - opposition isn't new. And yes, the courts did strike it down but the gov appealed, and it's still under review.
The govs website about the agreement even includes a section on why the US is considered a safe country.
I think assuming they are 'behind the curve' is
... generous.
Safe Third Country: more information | Canadian Council for Refugees
This page has historical information about the Safe Third Country Agreement. More the main page about Safe Third Country, with current information, see ccrweb.ca/en/safe-third-country.ccrweb.ca
It was successfully appealed in 2008, if we're being picky.
The appeal was based in the fact that the judge found that the basis upon which a regulation was made (i.e. the position that the states is a safe country) does not have to be absolutely correct, so long as the gov considered if it might be true.
(See: decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca/fca-ca…)
[57] Understanding precisely what is in issue in a judicial review application is important when it comes time to determine the standard of review as well as the scope of the review that can be conducted by the Court. An attack aimed at the vires of a regulation involves the narrow question of whether the conditions precedent set out by Parliament for the exercise of the delegated authority are present at the time of the promulgation, an issue that invariably calls for a standard of correctness.
...
[60] Despite this language, the matter raised by the application is a pure vires issue (see the relevant part of the application for judicial review quoted at paragraph 15 above).
...
[78] Subsection 101(2) does not refer to “actual” compliance or compliance “in absolute terms” nor does it otherwise specify the type and extent of compliance contemplated. However, Parliament has specified the four factors to be considered in determining whether a country can be designated. These factors are general in nature and are indicative of Parliament’s intent that the matter of compliance be assessed on the basis of an appreciation by the GIC of the country’s policies, practices and human rights record. Once it is accepted, as it must be in this case, that the GIC has given due consideration to these four factors, and formed the opinion that the candidate country is compliant with the relevant Articles of the Conventions, there is nothing left to be reviewed judicially. I stress that there is no suggestion in this case that the GIC acted in bad faith or for an improper purpose.
I mentioned it was challenged back then to demonstrate that it's been known to be problematic since the beginning.
If we want to follow along with the details there have been further challenges, started in 2017, which were on the basis that it violated the charter. The courts agreed in 2020, but again it was appealed and the court gave it's ruling in 2023: decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/s…
I remember watching Trudeau respond to this in 2020, when he was doing his daily appearances from the governor generals cottage.
I'm not trying to shame anyone for not knowing, I get that there is a lot going on in the world and people are struggling in an individual basis too. But it really shocks me when are surprised that it's not all sunshine and rainbows and open arms. I actually learned about it in 2017, when the PM was on TV saying canada would welcome people. Not if they are being deported from the US, I guess 🤷🏻♀️
Canada v. Canada (Council for refugees) - Federal Court of Appeal
Web Experience Toolkit (WET) includes reusable components for building and maintaining innovative Web sites that are accessible, usable, and interoperable.decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca
going to be very disappointed
What's that look like? We don't vote Red* because we like all the policies, but because the only alternative capable of pulling even a minority would be Trump levels of disastrous for us all.
So, would "disappointment" just be a harder grimace while continuing to vote to block the blue*?
*Note that in my country the blues are like Republicans and reds are the business-friendly investment/consolidated socialist-adjacents at centre of our spectrum.
I'm actually in a safe riding, on top of it all. I do activism as well, but it's a drop in the bucket. The sweet, sweet taste of powerlessness...
Oh well. In a world of 8 billion it's only fair.
News outlets in crisis mode as Google-led AI search push crushes website traffic
News outlets in crisis mode as Google-led AI search push crushes website traffic
Major news outlets are in panic mode as artificial intelligence chatbots push by Google and other Big Tech firms crush website traffic.Thomas Barrabi (New York Post)
It's a huge disaster in the making. There's probably a game theory model that explains what's happening but damned if i know it. AI is a trap.
At the beginning of LLMs as a consumer tech phase, the big tech companies believed that they would soon generate synthetic data without human labor costs. But synthetic data caused model collapse when used as training data. So they still need humans.
But now their competitors are using scrapers and summarizers and those are expensive so they have to extract more value from search traffic and that means fewer referrals to sites. Fewer referrals to sites reduces original content and leadabto less traffic and training data for their models.
The only two ways out are to create an international regulatory body ornto break up facebook, microspft, and google.
google search has been trash even before llms, i believe its one of the reasons chatgpt got so much traction. first 2 pages are just generic slop with paywalled or ad-infested content.
i switched to kagi 2 years ago and its has relevant results on page 1 that i won’t get in google even after 10s of pages. plus i don’t bombed with ads for that term for weeks.
People on Twitter regularly go “@grok is this true” to everything and trust the AI to be correct.
The same AI that said the fresh photo of National Guard members sleeping on the floor was from 2021…
Watch his recent interview with Nilay Patel from The Verge. Watching him dance around questions about this was painful.
This man only cares about increasing Alphabet stock prices to ensure as large a golden parachute as possible on the way out.
AI stands for Ambitious Indian
(Just plagiarizing the joke about that company that went bankrupt)
This man only cares about increasing Alphabet stock prices to ensure as large a golden parachute as possible on the way out.
This Is literally his legal obligation, welcome to capitalism
there are many ways to fulfil this “obligation”… i’d argue that he’s increasing alphabet stock price in the short term but long term what the fuck is going to happen when the sources all go out of business?
… oh right they’re going to become a news monopoly… cool cool cool
regardless, i think there’s an argument to be made with all this “we are evil because it’s our legal duty to shareholders” that evil is a bad long-term choice. i think boeing is the prime example: if they weren’t “too big to fail” they’d be fucked because of their short term thinking
why would you read a whole article to answer a simple question when AI gives you the answer directly?
context?, nuance?, verifying the AI slop?
One of the problems that the major news outlets have is that they repeat each other. It's not merely an issue of AI compiling news stories, but that on top of the fact that all of these newspapers are doing hardly any research. For example, if you live in a town that's not too large, there might only be one local paper, and they might send out reporters to local events. Obviously you would then go to that newspaper if you wanted to learn about local events, because they are adding explicit value.
But if you're trying to read about national politics, a lot of the information is going to be the same in a lot of the newspapers. Which means nobody cares about the newspaper itself. And this is a creation of the newspaper's own decision making over the past few decades.
I'd say their decision making was mostly forced by their drop in ad revenue and subscriptions forced by the internet.
Though I do wish that someone would make a Spotify for news so that I could pay once and get access to all of them and at least give them 10 cents per article or something, because I will never pay the subscription cost any are asking.
As much as I'd like to support them, the price to utility ratio is way the fuck off at the prices they ask now.
It's also the speed of news now. When you had a edition a day in print there was time to do research.
Now with instant publishing on the web it's more important to get the basic story out fast. With the hope it's the one that sites like reddit pickup.
Most news sites ask me to consent to google tracking or pay, neither of which am I prepared to do in almost all cases. I am sure I am not alone in this. Their decision to align with google in this way is more than a turn off, it is an indication of their untrustworthiness.
I shouldn't need to explain why I do everything I can to avoid being tracked by the likes of google. The idea that I will pay to be subject to propaganda died with the 20th century. If news outlets want my eyes on their pages they need to come up with a way to make it worth my time.
We need new search. Really we need a new web.
Blockchain's immutability might serve a public record of 'news', even moreso if combined with certificate verified identity on information disseminating 'social' media. The blockchain could actually be useful in this case. You don't have to link your irl identity to your internet identity everywhere, but it might not be a bad idea in the areas of information disseminating social media. These are just idle thoughts.
Edit - I saw a post today purporting to be a twitter screen grab of a James Woods post with a reply. The James Woods post was a screengrab of a video, supposedly of the current LA riots, with a comment along the lines of: Democrats can't talk about peaceful protest and support this. Following this was a reply saying 'this video is from 2020'.
I have no idea if either or both of these tweets happened, if the video was from 2020, or if either person were who they said they were! With the blockchain's immutability you could verify all of this automatically, and algorithmically reduce the reach of repeat offenders' posts.
There is a lot of value in this in terms of public discourse.
Similar processes could happen with both scientific/academic papers and government policy v. outcomes.
It might change the nature of the public debate.
With what passes for news these days at most outlets I can't say I feel too bad for them that someone else beat them at their own game of feeding the masses surface level doom scrolling slop for engagement and ad impressions.
Hell, a large chunk of the junk being put out by these same outlets is trash written by the AI solutions they are paying for. Probably solutions from the likes of Google that is giving it to them at both ends.
Once the snake finishes eating its own tail maybe the good reporters will still have somewhere that pays them for the good work they do.
User Mag | Taylor Lorenz | Substack
A tech and online culture publication by Taylor Lorenz, featuring original reporting on how the internet is reshaping politics, business, media, and culture.User Mag
Ars Technica - Serving the Technologist since 1998. News, reviews, and analysis.
News and reviews, covering IT, AI, science, space, health, gaming, cybersecurity, tech policy, computers, mobile devices, and operating systems.Ars Technica
Glad this is happening. These are the same news outlets that provide Google with your information and pay Google for ads.
They can all bust for all I care.
Maduro calls on the US people to stop its government's madness (+Foto) - Noticias Prensa Latina
Maduro llama al pueblo de EEUU a detener locura de su Gobierno (+Foto) - Noticias Prensa Latina
Caracas, 18 jun (Prensa Latina) El presidente de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, llamó al pueblo estadounidense a detener la locura de su Gobierno de involucrarse en la guerra que sostienen hoy Israel y la República Islámica de Irán.Juan Carlos Díaz Guerrero (Prensa Latina)
Translated by Yandex:
Caracas, Jun 18 (Prensa Latina) The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, called on the American people to stop the madness of his government to get involved in the war that Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran are fighting today.
June 17, 2025 | 22:16
When participating in the Workshop of the Seven Transformations (7T) with the elected deputies on May 25, in the Ríos Reyna room of the Teresa Carreño Theater Cultural Complex, in Caracas, the ruler assured that “only the people of the United States can stop this madness.”I am calling on the American people, do you want another war, do you want the United States to be involved in the slaughter, in the destruction of Muslim, Iranian and Arab peoples? Maduro asked.
They want the United States to be marked as the initiator of the Third World War, he added, noting that this is the call he makes from “pacifist and Bolivarian Venezuela.”
The president called for that, from the streets, from all corners, from North to South and from East to West, in the American nation “a single voice be raised, no to war!”.
Maduro recalled the destruction and death every time the United States gets involved in a conflict in the Middle East as happened in Iraq, where a million people lost their lives, as well as in Libya and Afghanistan.
The head of state urged the countries that are powers in the region and the world to “sit down and force the Zionist state of (Benjamin) Netanyahu to stop its attacks and respect international law.”
I call on all the governments of the new powers: China, Russia, Turkey, the countries of the Gulf Council, the nations of the Global South, but especially the Muslim countries, to “support and accompany the Islamic Republic of Iran in its struggle for peace,” he emphasized.
"That has to be the way, not the way of escalation of violence, of deaths, of bombs, no,” he reaffirmed.
He also reiterated his call to the Jewish people to stop the war and to Netanyahu to "stop this madness of hellish war with all neighboring countries and of wanting to conquer and colonize the entire Middle East and Western Asia."
It is a Hitlerite, supremacist and Nazi idea, which must be defeated by the Global South, he stressed.
About the 7T Workshop, the ruler proposed the creation of a Latin American and Caribbean Parliamentary Political School, named after the Venezuelan revolutionary David Nieves Banchs.
The objective of this center would be to contribute to the formation of political leaders, he said, and he called on revolutionary parliamentarians to prepare to become “a sounding board for People's Power.”
Liberals tell me to protest Drumpf: fuck you you don't control me
Maduro tells me to protest Trump: YES SIR MR MADURO SIR
Mike Huckabee Is A Deranged Armageddon Cultist
Mike Huckabee Is A Deranged Armageddon Cultist
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative MatrixCaitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter)
Türkiye, China renew $4.7B currency swap deal to bolster bilateral trade
Türkiye, China renew $4.7B currency swap deal to bolster bilateral trade
Deal supports local currency transactions worth up to ₺189B ($4.79B), 35B Chinese yuanNewsroom (Türkiye Today)
like this
Maeve e adhocfungus like this.
Update of my $65 4tb nvmes 🤣🤪
So i'm testing one of the drives I got on amazon using an old computer. It started off promising, didn't get any errors when formating the drive, write speed using a usb adapter at 25mb/s... Then it dropped off to 7mb/s and the expected time shot up from 40hours to 156h🤣
I'm going to let it run over night and see what happens in the morning. If I can get it to show 4tb without error I might still keep them to test out my geekworm pi nas, otherwise back to amazon you go!
like this
adhocfungus likes this.
I ended up putting such a flaky drive in a bag and wrapping a flexible icepack around it.
Not a great solution, but kinda good enough to get some data off of it.
LOL
You could buy 20 of them and make a RAID. So their cache sizes add up, and the total crawl speed as well 😆
I have 5 of them, i was going to make a raid with my geekworm pi nas dunno how much faster that would make them
Cuz it's nit looking good....🤣🤣
This is the usual behaviour of ultra cheap flash drives.
They have some cache to show a 'good' performance at the beginning, if your measurement goes only a very short time. Then only crawl.
$65 for 4tb? they're almost certainly fake crap. just got done giving someone the bad news on some similarly-priced sd and ssd they bought off ebay.
grc.com/validrive.htm will verify real capacity in seconds.
Laptop left charging on bed causes house fire in Bendigo
Ms Robinson said the laptop was an 18-month old AppleMac Pro and it had started to lose charge more often in the lead up to the fire."It seemed to be going flat a lot, which can identify a faulty battery," Ms Robinson.
Fire Rescue Victoria commander Craig Houlahan attended the blaze.
"It was clear the fire had actually started from the bed," he said.
"It was quite obvious with the development of the fire that it was the laptop, because of the battery."
ABC News
ABC News provides the latest news and headlines in Australia and around the world.Rebecca Norman (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Experts warn mobile sports betting could be gateway to gambling crisis for young men in New York
Experts warn mobile sports betting could be gateway to gambling crisis for young men in New York
The popularity of online gambling, especially among young men, has addiction researchers worried in New York, where mobile sports betting has surpassed casino gambling as the primary reason for calls to the state’s helpline.Willa Odefey (Healthbeat)
adhocfungus likes this.
Experts warn mobile sports betting could be gateway to gambling crisis for young men in New York
Experts warn mobile sports betting could be gateway to gambling crisis for young men in New York
The popularity of online gambling, especially among young men, has addiction researchers worried in New York, where mobile sports betting has surpassed casino gambling as the primary reason for calls to the state’s helpline.Willa Odefey (Healthbeat)
adhocfungus likes this.
ICE Taking away a 3 year old from the parents
US Always Planned to Use Israel as Proxy to Attack Iran
US Always Planned to Use Israel as Proxy to Attack Iran
Donald Trump did everything he could to make sure that the war between Israel and Iran began, military and political observer Evgeny Mikhailov tells Sputnik.Sputnik International
like this
originalucifer e adhocfungus like this.
This is such nonsense. Netanyahu has been trying non-stop to get the US to attack Iraq and Iran for literally 30 years. And the US kept saying no.
The US is not benefiting from having all their regional assets and oil fields blown up by Iranian missiles. The only party which does not care about this whatsoever is of course Israel. The cart and the horse keep getting switched around.
Further evidenced by lemmy.ml/post/31869269/1932291…
MakeMKV down - cant find firmware to flash Verbatim 43888
Hi all,
I recently bought a Verbatim 43888. Went to rip my first disc, which is just a regular DVD. But MakeMKV isn't even able to detect the disc. I checked a few forums which all recommend Makemkv forums, however the site seems to be down.
I may need to rollback the firmware from version 1.05 to 1.03. Has anyone else had experience with this issue? Can it be done using linux?
I know the drive is working because I can see the video/audio files. It also works with Handbrake.
Cheers
Here you go 😀 Link
It doesn’t call home to makemkv so OP is played by this again, he/she won’t have this issue.
letmarciscenza più elaborata del facile
Ho dei pensieri forse un po’ confusi a riguardo, e certamente rifletterci e scriverci su a quest’ora non aiuta — nonostante questo sia a dire il vero proprio l’orario migliore possibile per scrivere cose di questo tipo, perché il lieve sonno mi porta inevitabilmente alla stesura di righe che nemmeno sotto effetto di droghe sarebbe […]
octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…
letmarciscenza più elaborata del facile
Ho dei pensieri forse un po’ confusi a riguardo, e certamente rifletterci e scriverci su a quest’ora non aiuta — nonostante questo sia a dire il vero proprio l’orario migliore possibile per scrivere cose di questo tipo, perché il lieve sonno mi porta inevitabilmente alla stesura di righe che nemmeno sotto effetto di droghe sarebbe possibile concepire — però diavolaccio… Se davvero devo avviarmi sulla strada del bedrotting professionale, portando buona parte delle giornate ad essere concettualmente assimilabili a questa mia ultima trascorsa, ci sono un paio di appunti da tenere in conto per massimizzare il valore dell’esperienza, soprattutto in chiave di ricorrenza medio-alta. ✋Innanzitutto, il top bedrotting dovrebbe essere visto con più grande passione; ossia, nel modo in cui a quanto pare diverse persone su Internet già fanno… e non nel modo su cui senza volerlo ripiego io, ossia come “piano B”, come “ops oggi mi sento così e quindi farò così perché non mi va di fare come al solito“. In effetti, il marcimento lettifero nella sua forma più pura altro non è che un momento di straordinaria connessione con il sublime attraverso attimi altrimenti normali, banali; è lo stato di esistenza che più precisamente di tutti gli altri si trova a metà tra la vita e la morte, l’ordine ed il caos; insomma, l’equilibrio perfetto che, se non fosse per la fame e in molti casi il dover pagare l’affitto, potrebbe rappresentare la modalità dell’essere ideale permanentemente per tutti gli esseri umani… con la sofferenza tangibile della specie che sarebbe estremamente più limitata come conseguenza, e tutte le guerre che si formerebbero per sempre (…così come lo sviluppo della società ed il mantenimento dei servizi, in realtà, ma è un piccolo prezzo da pagare a confronto dei grandi benefici per tutti). 🥰
Quindi, boh: a parte le digressioni, serve più convinzione, più integrità. Innanzitutto, dovrei forse programmare il bedrotting come attività fissa all’interno della mia giornata, non sindacabile, da onorare e rispettare senza se e senza ma; e che occupi quanto più tempo possibile dei miei momenti di veglia, idealmente, anche se ciò non è sempre possibile nella pratica. Probabilmente, poi, dovrei rifarmi il letto appena mi sveglio dopo la notte, o almeno poco prima di darmi al bedrotting per la prima volta nella giornata dopo essermi alzata… non perché io ora dalla sera alla pre-notte creda alla propaganda dei rifattisti (quelli che dicono che il letto va rifatto subito perché bla bla bla e per giunta è una forma mentis zzz…), ma perché indubbiamente è più comodo sprofondare nel letto ordinato e senza pieghe, rispetto allo schifo che diventa durante la notte di sonno turbato, non prendiamoci in giro. 🌚
Questi due punti, dopo una piccola riflessione, mi appaiono veramente come il minimo da tenere in considerazione per un’esperienza di marciscenza spirituale decente. Ma, ovviamente si può, e probabilmente si deve, fare ancora di meglio… E dunque, da un lato temo di dover ammettere che bisogna ogni giorno lavarsi, per bene e subito, per dedicarsi alla funzione… e dall’altro bisogna porre un po’ di attenzione anche nel po’ di vestiario che si indossa durante la cosa. Lo sappiamo come questi giorni più scarichi portano a viziarci — e a viziarmi, personalmente, con io in particolare che finisco per lavarmi solo ben dopo pranzo, per poi indossare magliette e pantaloni veramente a casaccio, sotto l’influenza del diktat per cui sarebbe sconveniente tenere dentro casa quegli indumenti di maggior pregio estetico e morale che invece sarebbero meglio riservati solo per uscire. Ma, tra la puzza di ascelle dormite, e i vestiti con sopra i pallini di cotone consumati, l’anima ne soffre… e poi, che figura ci si fa con gli spiriti delle pareti che ci guardano da molto (molto) vicino durante la giornata in casa? 🪱
pinterest.com/pin/595601119507…
Ora, però, per concludere, un piccolo momento di rovescio della medaglia, che sento essere necessario anche se a molti non farà affatto piacere… Se vi considerate appassionati di bedrotting, o comunque in qualche modo siete praticanti più o meno abituali dell’attività, ma quello che ho detto qui vi sembra assurdo, fuori misura, o comunque non ne considerereste nemmeno mai la semplice idea di applicazione… ahimè, voi siete probabilmente nella trappola della marciscenza non introspettiva, la variante con buona ragione strettamente criticata persino dal Consiglio Assoluto degli Stellari. Oh, per carità: nessuno è perfetto, menchemeno io che stavolta mi permetto di fare questa predica (in parte auto-predica) che mi rendo conto essere a dir poco sconclusionata… però quantomeno mantenete la mente aperta a nuove formule di riposo più arricchenti del sé, suvvia! 😳
🎀💅
Mar 18, 2025 - Mine !! #bedrotting #prettygirlgang #aesthetic #nightsuit #pink #whisperbamb1doll (Pinterest)
Far-Right ‘Appeal to Heaven’ Flag Seen at Jan. 6 Riot Flown Above Government Agency in DC
The "Appeal To Heaven" flag, a popular symbol for Christian nationalists that was waved by January 6 rioters, was raised over the Small Business Administration headquarters last week.
Archived copies of the article:
* Archive.today
* web.archive.org
Far-Right ‘Appeal to Heaven’ Flag Flown Above Government Agency in DC
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a popular symbol for Christian nationalists that was waved by January 6 rioters, was raised over the Small Business Administration headquarters last week.Vittoria Elliott (WIRED)
like this
Rozaŭtuno e adhocfungus like this.
[Patch Notes] 3.26.0b Hotfix
3.26.0b Hotfix
- Fixed a client crash when failing to fall back to DirectX11 if DirectX12 is not supported.
Patch Notes - 3.26.0b Hotfix - Forum - Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.Path of Exile
[Patch Notes] 3.26.0b Patch Notes (restartless)
3.26.0b Patch Notes
- Reduced the damage of the Memory Influence Monsters.
- The Refiner's Bargain Atlas Keystone now has Lifeforce found in your Maps is granted as a random Crop instead at 150% of the value (from 300%). The client will display the old value until updated in a later patch.
- Vastly reduced the gold cost of extremely rare Unique items from Cadiro in Betrayal. The rarest unique will cost at a maximum ~135000 gold. This is to alleviate an issue where you'd have to keep a huge amount of gold on your character at all times just in case the right unique item was offered. This is approximately twenty-five times cheaper now for the most expensive unique items.
- Fixed a bug where the Cannot have Minions other than Animated Weapons Modifier on the Dark Monarch Unique was not removing Animated Guardian.
- Fixed a bug where some Mercenaries would be unable to take actions while taunted by non-players.
- Fixed several cases of Mercenaries attempting to target players that had not opted into duels. They couldn't damage them, just try to.
- Fixed Veiled Chaos Orbs not being listable on the Currency Exchange.
- Fixed Syndicate Medallion, Echo of Loneliness, Echo of Trauma and Echo of Reverence not being in the Fragments tab of the Currency Exchange.
- Fixed Blessed Orbs not being usable on Expedition Logbooks.
- Fixed Kingsmarch resources not being collected if you hadn't visited Kingsmarch yet.
- Fixed a bug with Memory Lines sometimes not generating when talking to Eagon in your hideout.
- Fixed a bug where the Quisitive Quandaries The Dweller of the Deep Challenge was being completed when clearing the Fetid Pool instead.
- Added a tooltip for disabled Currency Exchange orders to clarify they can manually be migrated from Character Selection.
- Changed the Controller button for opening the Bestiary book and Heist inventory to avoid clashing with Mercenaries.
- Fixed a bug when using Controller where the dropdown selection in the Farm Plot UI was not working.
- Fixed a bug when using Controller where the Expedition Explosives placement not responding to right stick movement.
- Fixed a bug when using Controller where the Atlas Passive Tree selector on was not functioning correctly.
- Fixed a client crash when using Controller that could occur when talking to Sin about the Pantheon.
- Fixed a client crash when using Controller that could occur in the Challenges panel.
- Fixed a crash when using Controller that could occur when entering the socket management mode UI.
- Fixed 2 instance crashes.
This patch was deployed without restarting the servers, you'll need to patch your client to get the client changes.
Patch Notes - 3.26.0b Patch Notes (restartless) - Forum - Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.Path of Exile
[Announcement] How Secrets of the Atlas Launch Went
We wanted to give an update talking about how the launch went and what we're immediately working on.
Over the weekend we launched Path of Exile: Secrets of the Atlas. We are so thrilled to see the number of people who joined us for launch day. Welcome back, Exiles!
Starting with the elephant in the room, unfortunately primarily our European servers but also servers across the globe have been facing a barrage of DDOS attacks. We understand that this issue has ruined such an anticipated launch for many players. This is unacceptable service and we are deeply sorry. We want to assure you that we are taking this very seriously and it is the highest priority problem for our company to solve. Due to the nature of these attacks, we're unable to provide a timeframe on when it will be resolved but we do want to acknowledge that we do see the issue and are doing everything we can to mitigate this.
Another thing we caught just prior to the launch was an issue with our final console builds which did not affect our internal realms so couldn't have been caught sooner than it was. Because this required brand new builds to be created, tested and then certified, this process took quite a long time to fix, but the console realms are now fully operational and players are able to login and play. We are implementing measures to prevent this occurring in the future.
While our system administration and backend team address the issues with the servers, our development team continues to monitor feedback. Currently the leading issue we're looking to address with the league is that a number of Mercenary skills, especially once you get to the middle of the campaign start to deal overwhelming amounts of damage to the player, often instantly killing you, you should expect a patch in the near future that puts all these skills more in line. This will not affect the Mercenary balance when they are your ally.
Additionally we're looking at making some improvements to the Memory Skills granted in maps influenced by The Originator, we'll have more updates on this later this week.
We also just wanted to give a huge thank you to all our players, be it those who have returned to play Path of Exile after a year with no expansions, and all those who are new to the game.
We're very excited to not only once again be delivering content, but playing the game alongside you all.
Thank you Exiles!
Announcements - How Secrets of the Atlas Launch Went - Forum - Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.Path of Exile
EU league start was very frustrating, hopefully you ll find a solution. Seems like a tough problem to solve.
Community is not affiliated or run by Grinding Gear Games.
As far EU issues, they said that their service providers were being DDoSed so not much they can do themselves apart from diversifying the infrastructure.
Napster and Sonos Sued for Millions in Unpaid Music Royalties
Napster, the brand synonymous with the music piracy boom of the early 2000s, has a new copyright challenge. Together with audio giant Sonos, Napster faces a lawsuit demanding over $3.4 million in alleged unpaid copyright royalties. Filed by SoundExchange, the complaint centers on missed payments related to the "Sonos Radio" service, which until 2023 was powered by Napster's music catalog.
Napster and Sonos Sued for Millions in Unpaid Music Royalties * TorrentFreak
Napster, the brand synonymous with the music piracy boom of the early 2000s, now finds itself facing a new copyright challenge.Ernesto Van der Sar (TF Publishing)
While Napster did get decked hard a long while ago, it's still a well known cultural icon, so some company was inevitably going to buy the rights to its branding/trademarks after it ate dirt to attract attention to whatever product they decide to slap it on.
The same thing kinda happened to Atari. That company got burned to a crisp by Nintendo and Sega after the 2600, but some nobodies bought it and things keep having the Atari logo even today because it was a well known brand. It sucked ass and failed... but we remember it.
Threads is adding fediverse content to your social feeds
Threads is adding fediverse content to your social feeds
A new ‘Fediverse feed’ in your Following section will show posts from Mastodon, Flipboard, and elsewhere.David Pierce (The Verge)
Meta is making all Facebook videos reels
Meta is making all Facebook videos reels
In the coming months, all Facebook videos will be shared as reels, Meta announced. You’ll be able to make them as long as you want.Jay Peters (The Verge)
A friendly reminder, the USA took 4 Presidents, thousands of lives, trillions of dollar and 20 years to replace Taliban with Taliban.
Submission Statement
Between 2001 and 2021, under four U.S. presidents, the United States spent approximately $2.3 trillion, with 2,459 American military fatalities and up to 360,000 estimated Afghan civilian deaths.
After the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, approximately $7.12 billion worth of military equipment was left behind, according to a 2022 Department of Defense report. This equipment, transferred to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) from 2005 to 2021, included:
Weapons: Over 300,000 of 427,300 weapons, including rifles like M4s and M16s.
Vehicles: More than 40,000 of 96,000 military vehicles, including 12,000 Humvees and 1,000 armored vehicles.
Aircraft: 78 aircraft, valued at $923.3 million, left at Hamid Karzai International Airport, all demilitarized and rendered inoperable.
Munitions: 9,524 air-to-ground munitions worth $6.54 million, mostly non-precision.
Communications and Specialized Equipment: Nearly all communications gear (e.g., radios, encryption devices) and 42,000 pieces of night vision, surveillance, biometric, and positioning equipment. The total equipment provided to the ANDSF was valued at $18.6 billion, with the $7.12 billion figure representing what remained after the withdrawal. Much of this equipment is now under Taliban control, though its operational capability is limited due to the need for specialized maintenance and technical expertise.
The United States has provided at least $93.41 billion in total aid to Afghanistan since 2001. This includes:
Military Aid (2001–2020): Approximately $72.7 billion (in current dollars), primarily through the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund ($71.7 billion) and other programs like International Military Education and Training, Foreign Military Financing, and Peacekeeping Operations ($1 billion combined).
Humanitarian and Reconstruction Aid (2001–2025): Around $20.71 billion, including $3 billion in humanitarian and development aid post-2021 and $3.5 billion in frozen Afghan assets transferred to the Afghan Fund in 2022. Pre-2021 reconstruction and humanitarian aid (e.g., $174 million in 2001 and $300 million pledged in 2002) adds to this, though exact figures for the full period are less clear. 
like this
adhocfungus, Rozaŭtuno, FundMECFS e Rickicki like this.
We have 10,000 troops permanently stationed in the UK. Another 12,000 permanently stationed in Italy. Another 25,000 permanently stationed in Korea. 35,000 permanently stationed in Germany. 52,000 permanently stationed in Japan.
We should have established a similar, permanent presence in Afghanistan. Come back to me in 80 years, after their economy looks like South Korea's, and we can start to discuss a drawdown.
Come back to me in 80 years
On the one hand, props for putting a number to it, on the other, Jesus Fucking Christ.
You realize that all the countries' governments you listed have at least consented to us being there, whereas Afghanistan specifically said they wanted us gone?
Just going full Genghis Khan over here. As if the brazen conquest wasn't bad enough, you want to condemn our grandkids to the continued subjugation of their grandkids. Absolutely insane.
Ehhh kinda. For many of those countries, the troops were a leftover of occupation, it was a choice but kind of a forced one, you don't want to upset your overlords.
In the EU, with the increased independence as the organization grew, calls to send the American troops home became stronger and stronger.
[JS] MiniMax M1 model claims Chinese LLM crown from DeepSeek - plus it's true open-source
MiniMax-M1, the World's First Open-Source, Large-Scale, Hybrid-Attention Reasoning Model - MiniMax News
MiniMax-M1 launches as world's first open-source hybrid-attention reasoning model. Lightning Attention mechanism, CISPO RL algorithm, million-token context, top SWE-bench performance. Free usage + lowMiniMax
A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs
A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs | TechCrunch
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024 and 2025.Kate Park (TechCrunch)
Google mocks Apple for iOS 26 features Pixels have had for ages
Google mocks Apple for iOS 26 features Pixels have had for ages
First Samsung, now Google, everyone's picking on Apple for its latest innovations. After Apple's unveiling of iOS 26, Samsung was quick to poke fun at some...Vlad (GSMArena)
Tumblr's content-filtering systems have been falsely flagging posts as 'mature,' users blame AI
Tumblr's content filtering systems have been falsely flagging posts as 'mature,' users blame AI | TechCrunch
Tumblr users are complaining that content is being falsely labeled as mature, the latest tech company to grapple with automated flagging and takedowns.Sarah Perez (TechCrunch)
'Years of work down the drain': Iranian missile tore through Israel's science institute
When the Iranians targeted the Weizmann Institute early Sunday morning, they destroyed labs that will have to be rebuilt from scratch and set back research by many years
Archived version: archive.is/20250617162143/haar…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
adhocfungus likes this.
"It felt like we were in a war zone," he recalls. "You can't step on the floor. Everything is full of broken glass. It was unbelievable. In the vicinity of my lab, three floors had collapsed. There was no trace of the lab. It's incomprehensible."
That's a daily life for Palestinians if they get to live at all.
Spain says April blackout was caused by grid failures and poor planning, not a cyberattack
Spanish authorities say the massive power outage in April across Spain and Portugal was due to technical and planning errors that led to a cascade of failures in the grid.
Archived version: archive.is/newest/apnews.com/a…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
KnitWit
in reply to silence7 • • •baldingpudenda
in reply to KnitWit • • •