Munrock

joined 2 years ago
[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 month ago (4 children)

It just so happens that under Russian rule, Russian rulers will be making profit instead of Ukrainian rulers.

I think we're missing a couple of nuances here, no? Although it's a stretch to call them nuance. The way Ukrainian rulers have been making money has been through privatization. And because there's so much privatization we need to look at who owns Ukraine's economy. It's only escalated since Russia invaded, with national assets being sold off to foreign private sectors so cheaply that one has to wonder why they did it when the gains are a drop in the bucket compared to the direct aid they've been getting from Western public sectors.

If Ukraine emerges from this conflict with its own sovereignty, it'll be sovereignty over a flag, a presidential palace and a state framework that protects foreign companies' investments from hungry Ukrainians.

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Russia doesn't need to do that. Burgerlanders already experience it through the magical way they render themselves blind to their government's behaviour unless it's projected onto China or Russia. Like how Trump is a Russian asset and China is turning Cuba into a staging ground for an invasion.

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 2 months ago

Especially when the user experience is constantly guiding users who don't know better to do exactly that

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 3 months ago

The Democrats knew this was going to happen. There's no way they couldn't. And I don't mean Democrat supporters, many of whom were vehement that Biden was fine like so many anecdotes in this thread recount. I mean the Democrat leadership, who manage his campaign and more than likely manage his presidency. Unlike the public, they have access to him. They have his medical records, the reports of his doctors and caregivers, everything. There's no way they didn't know this would happen if he debated.

They might start seeding support for a different candidate into their supporter's discourse after this, but they will have been planning for this outcome long ago. And when a left-leaning (left from a US Overton window) news platform hosts a debate that shows him up that badly and then publishes commentary like this, you have to wonder if that caused friction with the DNC or if they assented to it.

As the party starts singling out a replacement, the question I hope people start asking is why they didn't replace Biden earlier? Did they need to wait until the urgency of imminent elections made their new candidate more palatable? And if they don't replace Biden, why are they letting Trump win?

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 months ago

He gives lots of reasons, but if one of them isn't "oil-producing countries are starting to escape US hegemony and your gas-guzzling motor industry is on borrowed time" then I don't think he's really appealing to the US government's interests.

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Or it's a glimpse at Rom's Dengist arc

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 3 months ago (4 children)

The kicker is that Rom eventually becomes Grand Nagus and starts transforming Ferengi society.

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 3 months ago (9 children)

The new HBO The Last Of Us series for example has this scene,

I love that scene. It's so authentic: hearing a white American describe his successful living arrangement as literal communism but saying it's not communism, and a black American correcting him. 100 years of Red Scare and minority struggle captured in a few lines of dialogue.

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 months ago

That's not just research, molten salt heliostats are in active use already.

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 3 months ago

How'd that work out for Australia and Gough Whitlam trying to close Pine Gap?

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't matter what the people outside China think. The people inside China - on both sides of the Taiwan strait - think Taiwan is part of China. They all call themselves Chinese except the tiny minority that speak with American accents. There are indigenous ethnic minorities on Taiwan whose ancestors were not part of China, but they didn't call themselves 'Taiwan' because that's a Chinese word.

[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 4 months ago

isn’t there a single candidate that thinks more about the humans than for the money.

Yes, plenty.

Any of them that will be allowed anywhere near power?

No, none.

 

Say I view a lemmy post or mastodon toot on a different site, getting there from a link shared via any other medium: how do I view it through my home instance?

For example if I view a lemmy.ml thread on lemmy.ml, I can read it but can't a comment or vote as I'm not 'logged in.' Presumably the solution is to convert the URL to a lemmygrad one, but I'm not sure how to go about it. The URL usually has just a post ID, which presumably is unique only to that instance, and not something my home instance would necessarily recognise.

 

(In this instance, legally safe ones)

I went to a lecture today entitled

Relationship between the PRC Constitution, the Hong Kong Basic Law, “One Country, Two Systems” and the Hong Kong National Security Law

and I wanted to share the slides, 'cos it was a good talk for anyone interested in how the National Security Law actually works, and it also introduces the basics of how the Central Government and Hong Kong regional government function (the lecture was for English speaking teachers in Hong Kong, so a lot of them were clueless). And a lot of useful facts to debunk accusations that HK's autonomy is fake.

The files are in pdf format.

Also the speaker was Miriam Lau, who used to be a member of the National People's Congress. First time I got to meet someone from China's highest organ of state power (but she's not communist though; she's a Beijing loyalist conservative).

 

One of their games, China: Mao's Legacy is only HKD15 (less than 2 Euros) on Steam at the moment.

It looks like a political simulator playing as Hua Guofeng with a lot of historical narrative events that give you the option to deviate from what Hua actually did.

Obviously that kind of gaming experience will vary greatly depending on the ideology of its writers, so I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with them.

 

My Surfshark subscription just ran out.

I found it a little sus when they removed their Russian endpoints after the Ukraine war started, so I don't want to renew with them. If they're going to bend the knee when it comes to US policies against Russia, where are they going to stand when the three-letter agencies ask for backdoors?

Open to any and all suggestions!

 

He describes the neoliberal/Thatcherite system that the energy market uses to generate obscene profits for the energy industry, and how the price capping measures they're introducing to literally nothing to relieve consumers.

The most damning point he makes, though, is that on conventional Western media there's no way he'd be given the 20 minutes needed to explain how governments are scamming their citizens. They'd cut him off at 20 seconds to let another 'expert' interrupt him or just move on completely.

In sum, there is no way this scam could be pulled off if Government, Media and Energy Olicarchs weren't working together.

 

History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.

  • Churchill

I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the wind of History will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy.

  • Stalin

I've known of both of these quotes for some time but it never occured to me how much they complement one another.

We've seen the truth steadily eroding Churchill's reputation as his conduct during the Bengal famine (among so many other things) becomes more mainstream knowledge.

Cathartic to see it happening.

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