Politics

[Crazed_Insanity]

Nothing fair about wars…

I still think Hamas was setting up a trap to make Israel and US look bad. Also to bring about coalition of the Arabs… So far, it’s mission accomplished, by the blood of a lot of their own people…

[mk]

How many attackers were over 35.

And if China attacks Australia, Australia must surrender to save lives.
Don't be hypocrites.

Mexican cartels are leaving DEA agents mostly alone.
Retaliation is too severe.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Israel is currently helping to create more Hamas fighters. Those who survived this war will most likely hate Israel more.

Anyway, Israel and US responses have all been too predictable.

If it’s not used to unite the Arab world, then it’s possibly done to split US support? Or maybe both. Parts of woke America will always side with the weaker minority group. The crazy Trump America may cut support for Ukraine but probably won’t ever cut support for Israel. So this issue alone will further destabilize America.

Somebody must have paid Hamas a lot of money to start this shit.

[FaultyMario]

Mexican cartels are leaving DEA agents mostly alone.

Why would they harm their business partners when business is booming?

[Tom Servo]

How many attackers were over 35.

And if China attacks Australia, Australia must surrender to save lives.
Don't be hypocrites.

Mexican cartels are leaving DEA agents mostly alone.
Retaliation is too severe.

Oh come on. That's almost Billi talk saying "if you're criticizing the Israeli response, then you're saying they should just surrender."

[FaultyMario]

Mexican cartels are leaving DEA agents mostly alone.

This is such an ignorant statement, mk. Get informed before you go on dude.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIod0wRaQtM

[Crazed_Insanity]

Oh come on. That's almost Billi talk saying "if you're criticizing the Israeli response, then you're saying they should just surrender."

I have never say anything ‘almost’ like that.

I do find it interesting that people could actually pick sides in a war situation.

Hamas started a fight they know they cant win and use their own as human shields.

Israel responded too harshly, yeah, that I totally agree, but are they really the bad guys?

It’s like people picking sides with Biden and Trump, each side full heartedly believes the other side is pure evil.

Personally I believe US government/establishment may be the most evil here… selling them weapons to sustain these kind of proxy wars yet, using American taxpayers’ money… countless lives lost, financed by lives of future generations of Americans, while they take in all the profits…

[FaultyMario]

https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/the-missiles-of-april


While Israel has carried out attacks against Iranian personnel inside Syria in the past, the April 1 strike differed by not only killing very senior Iranian personnel, but by striking what was legally speaking sovereign Iranian territory—the Iranian consulate.


From an Iranian perspective, the attack on the consulate was a redline which, if not retaliated against, would erase any notion of deterrence, opening the door for even more brazen Israeli military action, up to and including direct attacks on Iran. Weighing against retaliation, however, were a complex web of interwoven policy objectives which would probably be mooted by the kind of large-scale conflict between Israel and Iran that could be precipitated by any meaningful Iranian retaliatory strike on Israel.


The failure of the Iranian nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) to produce the kind of economic opportunities that had been promised at its signing has been a major driver behind this Iranian eastward pivot. In its stead, Iran has joined both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS forum and has directed its diplomatic energies into seeing Iran thoroughly and productively integrated into both groups.


For the first time ever, the issue of Palestinian statehood has been taken up by a global audience. This cause is further facilitated by the fact that the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, formed from a political coalition which is vehemently opposed to any notion of Palestinian statehood, finds itself in danger of collapse as a direct result of the consequences accrued from the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent failure of Israel to defeat Hamas militarily or politically.


The US has tried—unsuccessfully—to take the keys out of the ignition of Netanyahu’s suicide bus ride. Faced with extreme reticence on the part of the Israeli government when it comes to altering its policy on Hamas and Gaza, the administration of President Joe Biden has begun to distance itself from the policies of Netanyahu and has put Israel on notice that there would be consequences for its refusal to alter its actions in Gaza to take US concerns into account.


The Iranian attack on Israel appears to have successfully maneuvered through these rocky policy shoals. It did so first and foremost by keeping the United States out of the fight. Yes, the United States participated in the defense of Israel, helping shoot down scores of Iranian drones and missiles. This engagement was to the benefit of Iran, since it only reinforced the fact that there was no combination of missile defense capability that could, in the end, prevent Iranian missiles from hitting their designated targets.

The targets Iran struck—two air bases in the Negev desert from which aircraft used in the April 1 attack on the Iranian consulate had been launched, along with several Israeli air defense sites—were directly related to the points Iran was trying to make in establishing the scope and scale of its deterrence policy. First, that the Iranian actions were justified under Article 51 of the UN Charter—Iran retaliated against those targets in Israel directly related to the Israeli attack on Iran, and second, that Israeli air defense sites were vulnerable to Iranian attack.

[mk]

Oh come on. That's almost Billi talk saying "if you're criticizing the Israeli response, then you're saying they should just surrender."

What happened when few planes hit few structures.

Ideology of death doesn't stop.
New generations are always ready, with personal feelings, when time comes.

[mk]

This is such an ignorant statement, mk. Get informed before you go on dude.


Yes, and way too short.

[Tom Servo]

What happened when few planes hit few structures.

Ideology of death doesn't stop.
New generations are always ready, with personal feelings, when time comes.

I criticized our response to that as well.

You threw out the hypocrite label, now back it up.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Plenty of criticisms to go around in a war situation. However, who really cares. What can criticisms or condemnations do? Somehow save lives or make anything better? Netanyahu has hijacked Israeli military along with good will of US and doing some crazy things... all thanks to Hamas giving him great excuses...

When in a war, all you want is to beat the crap out of your opposition and win. Should be a last resort kinda thing, but why are nations seemingly jumping into it?

What really bugs me is what objectives are those involved trying to achieve with our current wars?

What is Putin and Hamas really trying to achieve by starting shit? And insist on refusing peace talks after all these time?

What is US trying to achieve supporting these proxy wars?

It just seems like nobody is trying to win anything, but just like a bigger scale mass shooter... they just want to inflict pain and destruction all around. In the process make money selling arms and then in the after math, sell them loans to 'help' them reconstruct. America's defense contractors and banks stand to make the most of it. However, I really hope it's not US who started all that crap.

My other theory is that this could also be just a proxy war between US and China.

US and Biden's image is beginning to tarnish... if US were to collapse, then China could take over as the world leader selling other smaller nations weapons and lend them money as well...

I guess time will tell exactly what happened during WW3. Right now, it's all very confusing.

At least on the US side, I have to say that I've lost confidence in Biden's will or ability to keep peace around the world. I still won't vote for Trump, but I wouldn't mind seeing how president Trump ending these forever wars once again...

[FaultyMario]

The whole point of "forever wars" is that they can't be ended by a single individual.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Trump has been the only modern president who pulled troops out of a 'forever war' though, which was probably why the 'establishment' doesn't like him. Trump blocked their profits!

Dismantling NATO also doesn't sound like a bad idea now. Without NATO and Biden Jr messing around in Ukraine, that war probably would not even happen. Ukraine war is really stupid IMHO... at least it didn't really have to happen if US didn't meddle around there so much.

Hamas' motive is something I can't figure out and not sure how Trump could make things better there.

It'd suck if that was all orchestrated by Netanyahu himself so that he can grab on to power?

How can both US and Israeli intelligence failed to know what's about to happen? Hamas is really that good at countering intelligence? I can't believe that. So either it's an inside job or somebody else really capable was helping Hamas...

I'd be super impressed by Trump if he could bring peace in middle east now. If that could really happen, I'd vote for his 3rd term. ;)

[FaultyMario]

yes, we know you're a Trump sympathizer.

Just stay away from the Kool aid, homes, it's not in your best interest to drink it.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I have sympathy for Biden too. However, my sympathy won’t be enough to want to vote for either.

Both sides offer their different flavor kool aid though. I try to not drink from them of course…

[FaultyMario]

Naaah, the Trump Kool-Aid... yikes!

[MR2 Fan]

Yeah billi, because under Trump there'd be no war in the Ukraine if we just let Russia take over right? :rolleyes:

[Crazed_Insanity]

At least for me, I d rather Taiwan be taken over by China rather than flattened by the CCP.

US was also consistently expanding NATO. Putin even asked if Russia could also join NATO, Bill Clinton entertained the idea, but after a meeting with the ‘real boss’, the answer was no. NATO was created to keep the Russians in check.

We really should’ve just allowed Ukraine to join NATO right away rather than messing around seducing them.

Ukraine is the poor girl being abused by her abusive ex, so he’s beating her again. What can we do?

Nothing. Because the boy friend is not only as big as OJ, but he has nuke too!

So best we could do is to continue to date her and supply her with knives hoping that maybe she can kill him someday…

Is Trump really a Russian asset? Maybe.

However if a Russian asset could save some lives, why is that so bad?

I hate seeing a place being bombed indefinitely for seemingly no reason.

Ukraine is now a sovereign independent nation. It can take care of herself. If we really wish to fight for her, then let’s send in troops to fight for her. If we don’t think it’s worth it to get involved, then we shouldn’t even supply her with weapons and give her false hopes!

[Crazed_Insanity]

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/01/27/the_geopolitics_of_world_war_iii_1007840.html

Found this article and it seems to have the best explanations for all the wars so far…

[FaultyMario]

The whole point of "forever wars" is that they can't be ended by a single individual.

because killing highly popular presidents is kinda frowned upon.

[Rare White Ape]

because killing highly popular presidents is kinda frowned upon.

Except if you’re a left-wing president who made peace with your neighbours in 1993.

[FaultyMario]

I meant Kennedy, but you're right about General Rabin.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Was Kennedy really trying to end Vietnam war? I think it's not really all that clear, right? Given that he feared communism so much... Cuban Missile crisis and the moon program were all geared toward getting ahead of the Soviet Commies! Would he really just let the domino fall so easily in Vietnam like that? Since he's dead, I think we'll never truly know.

If his life was indeed taken because of his intention to withdraw, what was the reason for Trump's life being spared when he pulled out of Afghanistan?

Establishment simply got bored with the forever war? Similarly it was another "crooked" republican president who finally pulled out of Vietnam? I kinda wish Obama could pulled out of these forever wars, but Obama changed his colors once he won the WH. He ran his campaign like a Bernie but he presided over the WH like Hillary. For now, Trump gets the credit for ending a forever war in Afghanistan.

So in a way, both Nixon and Trump were simply admitting defeat and gave up? Establishment didn't kill them, but made sure they run away in disgrace with tail tucked between their legs? ;) Of course, things remain to be seen with Trump. Establishment perhaps is no longer as powerful as before...

Anyway, other than W who invaded Iraq, it seems dems are also very good at starting forever wars. It's clearly a bi-paritsan thing. It's good for US interests geopolitically and it's profitable selling arms and then maybe sell them loans to help rebuild. US needs to stop messing the rest of the world up... and instead of foreign aids, more money should be invested in our own country more. Our politicians have lost sight of what's important, just like Boeing executives.

[MR2 Fan]

We had no U.S. troops in Vietnam until 1965

[Crazed_Insanity]

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/foreword

"Kennedy avoided war in Laos, rejecting a military proposal to send American troops to fend off a communist insurgency there. However, he authorized sending troops and military advisers to the U.S.-backed nation of South Vietnam and steadily increased their numbers throughout his presidency. The administration was determined not to lose either the nation of South Vietnam or the broader region of Southeast Asia to communism, cementing its military commitment to Vietnam.

Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963 brought his Vice President,..."

I can't remember dates exactly, so I had to google and look it up at the official historical timeline provided by our very own state department.

Anyway, regardless of what Kennedy might have done had he lived, I just don't think he was assassinated because of war in Vietnam. It was during an early stage of the war... if the 'establishment' really murdered him because he wouldn't fall in line, it was probably for some other reason.

I tend to think commander-in-chief definitely has the power to end forever wars. Otherwise that name/label would be bogus. There may be forces more powerful than the US president, but ending wars should be within his power.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Oh man, Israel strikes back at Iran.

US told Israel that if they attack Iran, they go at it alone. US won’t go to war with Iran… Hope US will stick to our own words…

Either way, we’re inching closer to WW3?

[Rare White Ape]

Oh man, Israel strikes back at Iran.

US told Israel that if they attack Iran, they go at it alone. US won’t go to war with Iran… Hope US will stick to our own words…

Either way, we’re inching closer to WW3?

The Care Bears aren't going to be able to help you with this one hoss.

[MR2 Fan]

Someone just set themselves on fire outside of the NY courthouse where the Trump trial is happening :eek:

Also, AMAZING job by the reporter on the scene. EDIT: Some of the footage below may be disturbing

https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1781379206196134317

[Crazed_Insanity]

Wow.

[Tom Servo]

I am very surprised that Substack still hasn't taken down the guy's blog post.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I guess it's down now.

It was on CNN's live broadcast. Warned viewers about graphic content... what would be the reason to take it down?

What happened to X's free speech?

It's interesting my yahoo or apple news feed doesn't tell me anything about this fire. Is it fake news or is it being suppressed? What a weird thing to happen in the US...

[Tom Servo]

Naah, it's still up.

Generally when someone posts their weirdo manifesto before doing something like this or a shooting or something, it gets taken down pretty quickly. It's pretty standard conspiracy theory/paranoid delusion stuff, refreshingly free of racism, but starts off weird and then just gets progressively nuttier until he spends a rather large part of it explaining that The Simpsons exists solely to brainwash people as part of a government plot to steal all your money with bitcoin.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I couldn’t load it up on my PC earlier, but yeah, now I can still see it in my phone. Anyways, this isn’t a manifesto, but a clip of CNN reporter reporting something on the fly as it is happening. Why must it be taken down?

None of my regular news feeds are showing me anything about a man setting himself on fire. I’m now being as paranoid as YW now… why is our MSM suppressing this? Or perhaps no Americans care? Mass shootings can get on the news pretty quickly, but a person commits public suicide isn’t news worthy I guess. Particularly when Trump is involved…

[Tom Servo]

You're talking about something very different than what I'm talking about. He wrote a post on Substack entitled "I have set myself on fire outside the Trump Trial." I'm hesitant to share it directly because it's the paranoid ramblings of a man who set himself on fire. It's probably pretty easy to find, though.

And I'm seeing it all over the place, so not sure what you're looking at.

The latest article I saw on WaPo (again, it's being reported in mainstream news) said that he was still alive but in critical condition.

FWIW, I see pretty much all the major news sources in this: https://news.google.com/search?q=self%20immolation&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

[Crazed_Insanity]

Just saying if I didn’t see MR2’s post, I wouldn’t even know that incident occurred. My regular news feeds are not showing this story.

Even your Google search doesn’t have anything from CNN. Their own reporter saw everything as it happened.

MSM doesn’t want to talk about this for whatever reasons. MSM such as CNN, NBC, even FOX.

Deadline has the most up to date info on this, but frankly deadline isn’t really my go to news source. Maybe it should be in the future?

[Tom Servo]

Well, a lot of places don't like to glorify suicide attempts. But I found out about this from my wife who got a news alert and I saw it from tons of news sources. My google search used "self immolation", they may have described it otherwise.

Man. I thought "okay, this is one of those things where I can view Billi's posts and not be annoyed" and somehow you turned it into paranoid conspiracies. Goddammit, man, why can't you be even vaguely normal for like an hour?

[FaultyMario]

Playing me-against-the-world gets old in less than an hour, noted.

[MR2 Fan]

The person has died according to CNN

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-19-24/h_3efea0cc0b473c43c6bb95b177eed8d3

[Crazed_Insanity]

This guy is clearly like me in a way that he doesn’t like neither Biden nor Trump, but as crazy as I can be, I’m not into suicides. Not to mention in such a public way.

Clearly this man was trying to make a statement with this stunt, but clearly this thing is getting reported much less compared to typical mass shootings. A crazy suicidal man with disinformation shouldn’t be reported I guess. This was caught on live camera. Most MSM simply reported a man burn himself and now in critical condition… and now dead. All CNN did was describing what they saw and then heard that the dude’s dead. Pretty amazing piece of journalism right there.

We’re now left to search other fringe news sites or the dudes manifesto for more information…

Crazy man handed out some crazy shit pamphlets and burnt himself to death. Nothing much to see here, let’s move on… it’s still a perfectly normal day in america, at least this crazy dude didn’t shoot anybody…

Lastly, we all can get annoyed by different things, from a psychological perspective, usually that’s due to something within us end up being triggered.

For that crazy guy, I guess both Biden and Trump triggered him enough to want to commit suicide. I share his feelings but luckily I’m not triggered to the same extent to want to harm myself. Maybe it would’ve been best for him to stop watching the news, but ideally he should’ve tried counseling and try to deal with his internal issues… so that hopefully he can be triggered less… Biden will be Biden. Trump will be Trump. Only person we can change is ourselves. Quite honestly, I’m still shocked and saddened that the guy decided melting himself was the best course of action. He must’ve felt super hopeless to have done that.

[Tom Servo]

Playing me-against-the-world gets old in less than an hour, noted.

I think it's more of "here's a bare minimum of what people should be able to expect" kinda thing. You should be able to hold it together for at least that long before immediately deciding there's some vast conspiracy against you rather than many, many other explanations.

[MR2 Fan]

I like how I can read the first 5 words of a Billi post and keep scrolling because I know the rest will be not worth reading

[FaultyMario]

I think it's more of "here's a bare minimum of what people should be able to expect" kinda thing. You should be able to hold it together for at least that long before immediately deciding there's some vast conspiracy against you rather than many, many other explanations.

I hadn't bothered clicking on the button to view Billi's posts so with one half of the information on hand, I just kind of guessed what point you were trying get across.

Poor guy, I hope that in his last moments he found the peace that the qonspiracies took away from him.


What was the name of that book that explained how (older) people become consumers of news-entertainment and ended up deep in the rabbit hole of misinformation?

[Tom Servo]

Hmm...not sure. Closest I can find is "Misinformation Age", but that doesn't sound exactly like what you're describing.

But I think that exchange was a really clear example of just this rush to "this must be a conspiracy." Once it turned out that this wasn't a terrorist act or even an overtly political statement, but rather a possibly mentally ill person, consumed by conspiracy theories, committing suicide in public, it just wasn't the biggest news story. It still was extensively covered - we all know about it, every mainstream news outlet has covered it, it just wasn't the top story on a day where the first criminal trial of a former president is happening, there's a continuing crisis in Gaza, and Israel and Iran are lobbing missiles at each other.

And then, despite clear evidence that it has been extensively covered by every major news org, the fact that one single org didn't show up in a search for "self immolation", the org he's actually referenced as covering it, is now a sign that they're trying to cover it up. Like, maybe they didn't use the term "self immolation"? But we know they've covered it, he's even confirmed the articles are still there. It's just that it's not even in the top three of major news stories today, so it doesn't show up on the top headlines. And yet, the lack of evidence of a coverup is just more evidence there's a coverup.

[MR2 Fan]

What was the name of that book that explained how (older) people become consumers of news-entertainment and ended up deep in the rabbit hole of misinformation?

IMO it started with 9/11, people started tuning into non-stop 24 hour news coverage to keep themselves safe. Remember the threat level things that Fox News kept hammering home all the time back then?

People started getting used to just watching the news channels constantly, especially when they're retired (aka bored). My dad watches MSNBC non-stop when I'm visiting, so lucky it's not Fox but the same thing.

Imagine being fed Fox News or Newsmax or the other more extreme outlets all day every day...you'd start to go wacky too.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I hadn't bothered clicking on the button to view Billi's posts so with one half of the information on hand, I just kind of guessed what point you were trying get across.

Poor guy, I hope that in his last moments he found the peace that the qonspiracies took away from him.


What was the name of that book that explained how (older) people become consumers of news-entertainment and ended up deep in the rabbit hole of misinformation?

The guy was in his 30s.

Conspiracies can only sprout when there’s lack of transparency.

It should be clear that US government isn’t always forthcoming with real truth. When trust has been eroded, what do you expect? Now the only thing to do is to just blame crazy people for coming up with conspiracies…

Btw, I finally saw stuff about this on my Apple News feed. I guess it’s just trending a day late.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, my father-in-law watches MSNBC and CNN pretty much non-stop. It is not good for people.

[mk]

I criticized our response to that as well.

You threw out the hypocrite label, now back it up.

It's a level thing, you're quite fast and single sided now.
I'm not objective either, of course.

Their relative casualties are 44000, or around 50 to the opposite direction.
There's also over half a million kids in danger in Sudan.

One other thing.
I read that Iran is practically a nuke nation.
Little Boy style in few weeks any day.

[Tom Servo]

Wait, pointing out that tons of people who have been killed in Gaza literally cannot be held responsible for what's happened to them because they haven't been able to vote in an election since 2006 is being "quite fast and single sided?"

What does that even mean?

Judging by your second paragraph, did you misunderstand what I was trying to say?

[Crazed_Insanity]

I don’t quite fully comprehend what mk said but I get the feeling that you two probably agree more than you disagree and are tripped up due to some sort of misunderstanding.

Lastly, little boy style bombs luckily so far are not being used and hopefully never again or else the world will be in serious trouble…

[MR2 Fan]

I don't envy the judge in Trump's criminal trial at all. Trump will do everything he possibly can to push the judge, but he knows the judge won't put him in jail (even though he should) for breaking the gag orders because it would send the entire GOP insanity machine into overdrive and make threats against everyone much worse.

Imagine having that issue, ignoring everything else...whether to jail one of the two leading presidential candidates 7 months before election day.

[FaultyMario]

Wasn't the judge chosen because of his experience, i seem to recall something about his professional profile when they started to drag the judge's adult child into this mess.

[Rare White Ape]

Did anyone else see the student in that protest using an empty water cooler jug firstly as a drum, then as an implement of self defence against a row of cops with riot shields and batons? He is my hero.

[Tom Servo]

Wasn't the judge chosen because of his experience, i seem to recall something about his professional profile when they started to drag the judge's adult child into this mess.

I believe (and may very well be wrong) that judges are generally just picked based on scheduling and who's available when. It is true, that he's a very experienced and well regarded judge, so he's probably better suited than most when it comes to dealing with Trump.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Trump in jail would answer part of my prayer. Biden retiring gracefully will be a full answer of my prayer.

Trump’s side is definitely the crazier and more emotional side. If they lost the election, I’m scared that Trump will come back bigger and harder in another 4 years.

Whereas if Biden lost, there’s always Kamala Harris next time? Folks like Bernie or AOC or Katie Porter just have no real significant place in the dem party…

It’s also amazing to me that congressional leaders are in such lock steps when it comes to foreign aids. We can’t agree on women’s rights in this day and age, but we can agree on giving Ukraine more bullets and missiles to prolong a pointless war that we(NATO) have caused…

And average Americans mostly care about how to gag Trump or free Trump… college students want to stop the ‘genocide’, but too bad Palestinians are not on our list of recipients for foreign aids…

[mk]

Wait, pointing out that tons of people who have been killed in Gaza literally cannot be held responsible for what's happened to them because they haven't been able to vote in an election since 2006 is being "quite fast and single sided?"

What does that even mean?

Judging by your second paragraph, did you misunderstand what I was trying to say?

Misunderstanding is always a possibility, maybe even more than that.

From my point of view the issue is how fast you flipped the side.
It's justification or not is in body counts, but there is obviously also your own or "own" versus others.
Nothing to do with voting, but much to do with the reality of their political status quo.

My issue is too many sacrificed family members.
Worst when a little girl with her preschool backpack is sent to die, walking towards an Israeli checkpoint.
So my body counting style is not objective, start of the thing is not helping either.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Body counts can never be objective.

Let's forget Israel for a minute.

How many died in Pearl Harbor? How many died in Hiroshima when we drop not one but 2 atomic bombs?

How many were killed in WTC? How many did we kill in Iraq and Afghanistan over the years?

Do we protest against USA about genocides?

Maybe YW will. ;)

Anyway, not saying I totally agree with what US did, but when we are at war, obviously it'll be difficult to try to talk reasons with the parties involved. It's best we avoid wars from starting in the 1st place.

Ukraine should've asked for automatic NATO membership when it signed the non-nuke proliferation treaty... or it should've never given up its nukes.

Hamas should've known to never mess with Israel like that... just like Japanese really should not have attacked Pearl Harbor. Don't start something you cannot win!

Of course Hamas was probably not trying to win a war, but to make Israel and US look bad. For that, they have accomplished that mission objective.

[FaultyMario]

Two national anti-fascist holidays were celebrated yesterday, April 25th: Italy's Festa della Liberazione and Portugal's Dia da Liberdade.

Some U.S. Universities also joined in on the Antifa celebrations...

https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/digital-images/org/c4909932-7ba7-4c9c-a3fd-7d80f75a3d9b.jpg

And to that, I raise my glass!

[Tom Servo]

Misunderstanding is always a possibility, maybe even more than that.

From my point of view the issue is how fast you flipped the side.
It's justification or not is in body counts, but there is obviously also your own or "own" versus others.
Nothing to do with voting, but much to do with the reality of their political status quo.

My issue is too many sacrificed family members.
Worst when a little girl with her preschool backpack is sent to die, walking towards an Israeli checkpoint.
So my body counting style is not objective, start of the thing is not helping either.

I am very much hoping there's a misunderstanding here.

I think that when you say "how fast you flipped the side", I hope you mean as a nation, not me specifically. If you mean me specifically, this conversation is over.

If you mean as a nation, that's a fair complaint, but the accusation goes to what I meant. Hamas committed war crimes. What they did on October 7th is inexcusable. Israel had committed a number of crimes against the Palestinian people, but what Hamas did is not an appropriate response. Israel using what Hamas did as an excuse to obliterate the population of Gaza is also inexcusable and are also war crimes. They are relying on the "Hamas is the elected government of the Palestinian people, so it's all fair" which is just as much bullshit as what you are saying. Just like it's bullshit to conflate all Israelis with Netanyahu's murderous campaign of slaughter.

My point was even the idea that "they're Palestinian and they can all be lumped under their government" is bullshit even if you believe in that level of idiocy because a MASSIVE portion of the Palestinian population hasn't even had the opportunity to vote for their own government. Even if someone is dumb enough to conflate the entire population to their singular government, it still doesn't apply.

I think that we probably align more than you think, but I took it as a direct insult that you claimed I've suddenly changed my tune. I'm more than willing to think that there's a misunderstanding here, but hopefully I've made my viewpoint clear.

[Crazed_Insanity]

When both Hamas and Netanyahu are doing stupid, crazy, evil things... when they're engaged in a war, it'll be difficult to clearly see any viewpoints.

My only wish is that, whether it's Ukraine or Middle East, US should take up leadership to stop the fighting rather than continue to 'aid' by adding more fuel to prolong the fire.

If there's fire that is truly worthy of our fight, we should pull up our sleeves and fight the fire along with our friends.

Otherwise facilitate some sort of peace talk or something.

US definitely still carries sufficient weight in the international community to stop these wars if that's what we really want to achieve. However, US govt tend to want these forever wars to go on for various reasons.

[sandydandy]

I just checked and he bought it at around $54, and after taking a detour south the stock price has recovered and is now at $53, so he’s pretty much almost at break-even.

Tesla stock has fallen quite a bit, however. I just learned today that I misspoke in this post. I had no idea that Twitter stock had been de-listed when I posted this.

That explains why it’s always $53.70 every time I look it up. :lol:

Twitter/X is now a private company, and an almost complete shithole as far as I can tell.

I’m using it a little more these days, and have discovered that as long as I stick to viewing posts from people that I’m following, I’m good. The minute I tap on “For You” then I’ll begin losing brain cells. The stupidest of the stupid post the absolute stupidest shit you can ever read. It’s vile!

[Yw-slayer]

Waiting for US politicians to claim that protests on US campuses are "A beautiful sight", that crackdowns and arrests are authoritarian and intolerable desperate lashing out by a corrupt regime on sacrosanct freedom of expression and democracy by a vast majority of the population with valid demands against an illegitimate regime that has funded and continues to fund human rights abuses and oppress the weak, unrepresented merely expressing their right to self-determination against an evil authoritarian force hell-bent on crushing all dissent. Also for them to spit blood that a regime of gangsters is breaching the right to private ownership by stealing private property, causing major economic issue and a lack of confidence in the free market!

Oh wait, no, I'm just lolllling big-time.

[Crazed_Insanity]

You’ll probably wait for a long long time… :p

I truly wish all Chinese and Americans can have better lives, but I’m really as happy with the Chinese and US government as I am happy with Trump and Biden.

Really wish those near the top can wise up someday to stop thinking about their own stupid interests and think of their own citizens for a change…

[neanderthal]

California makes up 32.5% of registrations of battery electric vehicles in the U.S.,[/b] and the sluggish popularity of Tesla among new-car registrants comes at a particularly vulnerable time for Tesla as a company and for its CEO.

Elno really thought he could trash California and feel no repercussions. Fuck Elno and his sycophantic followers.

[mk]

hopefully I've made my viewpoint clear.

You have.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Elno specifically came to CA to pursue his entrepreneurial dream. He used to believe America is like the only place in the world where if you succeed, people will be happy for you and won't try to drag you down. There's no way for him to start Tesla or SpaceX in South Africa because of that. That's why it was imperative that he comes to Silicon Valley. Anyway, at the moment, America is just like any other place in the world.

Somewhere along the line, there was a fall out between Elon and the DNC. I'm not really sure exactly what happened. Most likely Elon said something DNC did not like? Which caused Biden to recognize GM as the one who revolutionized the EV industry? I wonder what's stopping Biden proclaiming Boeing as the one who revolutionized the rocket industry! ;)

Anyway, it will probably be super difficult for the next Elno or Steve Jobs to start and grow something new in CA nowadays. Lots of companies are moving out of CA. Hopefully there will be enough new startups to cover for the existing companies leaving.

Also, this is why polarizing politics sucks. Yeah, we want EVs to save the planet, but we don't want Elon's EVs. Fuck him and fuck his cars. We rather drive Toyotas and Hondas. Fuck Elon and fuck the climate. We don't care anymore! We liberals gotta stick together no matter what! Yeah, let's cheer for Toyota and Honda outselling Tesla! Yippee! BTW, Toyota's US HQ moved out of CA to Texas too. Only Honda HQ remained faithful to CA. Toyota is smart to not tweet about stupid shit like Elon I guess! ;)

I really wish Americans can try to work together.

I wish those fucking pointless wars can just stop too!

I also really wish election ballots can also give voters 3rd option which is to abstain. If abstain selection has the most votes, then that particular office shall be vacant. It'd be as if voters assasinated or fired the president... We don't like the sitting prez and we don't like the challenger. So the WH can be empty to save some federal money... or perhaps let the next in line be prez. I suspect congress probably won't be able to decide who the next speaker of the house will be in that case too... ;)

So eventually, maybe we could drain the swamp that way? Enough of this lesser of the 2 evils.

What the fuck is the point of arguing or protesting FOR Israel or Palestine? FOR Biden or Trump? As if the lesser evil is really that good... Yeah, sometimes we move right, sometimes we move left, but I really don't think we're moving forward much.

[neanderthal]

The fuck you know about South Africa? That's right, you don't know shit. Shut the fuck up.

[neanderthal]

Brilliant


4283

[neanderthal]

Genius my big fat arse!!! (https://www.thedrive.com/news/tesla-lays-off-charging-and-new-vehicle-development-teams-report)

[Rare White Ape]

Very stable genius

https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/profit-of-4804-how-musk-s-takeover-crushed-twitter-in-australia-20240428-p5fn2k

[Yw-slayer]

Elno really thought he could trash California and feel no repercussions. Fuck Elno and his sycophantic followers.

I LOL hard everytime I think about how in 2011 Elno/Elun loled at BYD being a serious competitor, and is now scared, wailling, and begging for US government protection from them, while trying to continue to shill his stuff to a population who have a vast choice of undoubtedly the most forward-thinking, and also the widest variety of electric cars on the planet.

[neanderthal]

I LOL hard everytime I think about how in 2011 Elno/Elun loled at BYD being a serious competitor, and is now scared, wailling, and begging for US government protection from them, while trying to continue to shill his stuff to a population who have a vast choice of undoubtedly the most forward-thinking, and also the widest variety of electric cars on the planet.

Dude coulda kept his mouth shut and kept minting money, but he decided to be a Nazi and thought we'd just overlook that. He's as deluded as the billis that love him.

[Tom Servo]

My god, I wish I hadn't read his post. Literally twisting himself in knots to try to avoid putting any blame on Musk. Everything that has ever happened to Tesla is everyone else's fault, it's all because of a divided America, and Musk has done nothing wrong.

Delusional nonsense.

[Crazed_Insanity]

America is divided because of Musk?

If he never came here to America, we’d be in a much better world without him?

Interesting.

I think you guys are a bit too obsessed with the guy. A world without Tesla and SpaceX will still be fine. We’d not have EVs and US astronauts will probably have to abandon the ISS because we can no longer partner with the Russians… but anyway, the world can still go on if we never had Musk. However, do you guys really wish to pin the ills of the world on Elon Musk? I honestly do not understand.

You might as well blame all the evils of the world in Billi too? If people like me, along with Jesus Christ could just disappear, the world would be a utopia? :D

Elon isn’t the one printing money.

Elon isn’t the one financing all the wars around the world using the money he printed.

There are definitely people more evil than Elon.

The divided states of America has been around long before Elon. Remember our very own GTF split in the past? Right and left GTFers just couldn’t stand each other anymore.

Like I said, I self identify as politically bi so I’m okay either way, just that most other people find me annoying! ;)

[Rare White Ape]

That's right, you don't know shit. Shut the fuck up.

...

[Crazed_Insanity]

Swervo is an admin, right?

Maybe he can exercise his right to shut me up?

[Tom Servo]

Thought about it some more and realized there's a cross-cutting theme to Billi's posts. He *wants* to believe that the MSM is hiding the self-immolating conspiracy theorist from him. He *wants* to believe that everyone is being very unfair to the up-until-recently richest man in the world. He will find a way to twist the narrative to make it fit the answer he's looking for.

It's always a conspiracy. It's the opposite of Occam's Razor. There's a plot afoot, and he'll figure out a way to conjure it out of thin air. Nevermind the obvious answers to what's happening, there's something more nefarious going on.

I give it two years before he devolves into "it's the Jews."

[Yw-slayer]

While we are ragging on Elno/Elun I'm just going to stick this here: https://www.autoblog.com/2024/04/30/tesla-lays-off-execs-cuts-supercharger-division/ Elun shuts down Supercharger division and fires 500 people.

Suck it, Elun.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Thought about it some more and realized there's a cross-cutting theme to Billi's posts. He *wants* to believe that the MSM is hiding the self-immolating conspiracy theorist from him. He *wants* to believe that everyone is being very unfair to the up-until-recently richest man in the world. He will find a way to twist the narrative to make it fit the answer he's looking for.

It's always a conspiracy. It's the opposite of Occam's Razor. There's a plot afoot, and he'll figure out a way to conjure it out of thin air. Nevermind the obvious answers to what's happening, there's something more nefarious going on.

I give it two years before he devolves into "it's the Jews."

So, everything is Elon?

He caused the wars?

He caused our political divisiveness?

He’s the reason why there’s a huge gap between rich and poor?

If only X, Tesla and SpaceX can go bankrupt, our world would be a better place?

I think this is the similar kind of wishful thinking that if only Christianity can die off, our world would be a better place. Really?

Yeah, some people would blame the Jews, but I really think ‘you people’ are blaming the wrong guy too. You’re giving Elon way too much credit for this fallen world.

The existence of Jeff Epstein and the ability that companies like Enron to FTX could operate for as long as they did should be hint enough that our government is rotten. Ok, maybe US government isn’t as bad as that, but at least as bad as Boeing. But Boeing is too boring. Let’s go back to picking on Elon and his companies… and how he ruined America? By buying Twitter? By building lousy cars and rockets? And his countless failed ventures?


Oh look at him doing layoffs! Haha! What an evil idiot he is! Yeah whatever. :p

[mk]

Dude coulda kept his mouth shut and kept minting money, but he decided to be a Nazi and thought we'd just overlook that. He's as deluded as the billis that love him.

They say that a head start is a decade.
Quite accurate again.

GE did finally quite well for quite some time.
Probably not because of Edison.

Seems that the head internals of Musk has had some shuffling.
Many scientists have also their peak, maybe it's to hard to keep the level.

[Tom Servo]

I think also Musk's made a couple of big miscalculations.

He, like Trump, seems to think if he's got the adulation of some adoring fans on the internet, then he's doing things right, but isn't realizing that for all the sycophants fawning over him on Twitter, most people are finding him annoying. Other heads of major companies, like Zuckerberg, Bezos, etc tend to not really be on social media except to do things like product announcements.

He also has now positioned himself as someone that most democrats find pretty irritating, but he's making electric cars, which most republicans think are cars for commies and there's no way they're replacing their coal-rollin' lifted truck for some electric nonsense. So he's basically segregated his customer base into two parties that both would rather not have a Tesla. Combine that with a ton of new all-electric cars coming into the market that are more, for lack of a better term, car-like and they suddenly have a ton of competition and are pissing off their customer base.

Honestly, shutting the fuck up is probably the single best thing he could do for his brand right now, but like Trump I do not believe he's actually capable of doing that.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I can definitely agree with that analysis. Elon and Trump have that in common for sure. They're loud mouths and can come across as annoying.

However, they are only 'symptoms' of our problems, not the cause.

Any 'medications' we come up with to ease or get rid of the symptoms, won't really cure our root problem.

After thinking about this some more, I think you guys have issues with conspiracy theories the same way you guys have issues with 'miracles'. We can explain everything using Occam's razor you crazy idiots! There's no need for conspiracies... and we especially don't need God to explain 'miracles'. We know how everything works and we know the problem! The problem is God and Elon Musk! :p

Listen, I'm not expecting everyone to worship God... We do still have free choice. This cannot be forced. I also most certainly do not expect everyone to like Musk... not to mention Trump.

However, by constantly bitching about Elon or Trump... the negative publicity is still publicity. They couldn't seem to shut up, but besides you guys, I see it on MSM too. They can't shut up about talking shit about Trump and Elon too. Why don't you shut up? No, why don't YOU shut up? Regardless of who fired 1st, do we really need to continue on like what's going in Ukraine and Gaza?

There's really nothing else to report for the MSM?

I do admire Elon more..., but even I don't believe Elon deserves that much publicity. The world most certainly does not revolve around him and his companies. I still think Tesla and SpaceX are a plus for our world, but even if they're gone, the world can still go on without them. Of course I prefer those companies to continue to exist. As for X... I was never on Twitter to begin with. So I really couldn't care less about that. However, if Elon could someday manage to create an everything app... like how the Chinese can use their version to pay for everything... particularly if we could use something like bitcoin... then that could become big!

However, I'm sure the 'establishment' who owns the central bank will do everything in their power to crush Elon Musk, or at least X, before that happens. You guys will probably be cheering about that!

Anyway, I just think what's going on with Elon or Trump is kinda like some sort of flair up of an allergic reaction of our society. However, there's an underlying illness that is way more seriously being overlooked. Do I know how to fix it? No I don't. However, we're all being distracted by the allergic reaction... because it's so annoyingly itchy! :p

[FaultyMario]

Honestly, shutting the fuck up is probably the single best thing he could do for his brand right now

Speaking from Mexican cases, Carlos Slim rarely has contact with the media on the few occasions that he is out in public. And when he does, he chooses to go on print media, preferably glossy magazines.

Rogelio Zambrano has zero media presence, even when his building conglomerate has been associated in some shoddy deals. Everything from corruption cases in Spain, funding paramilitaries in Colombia or building the annexation wall in the West Bank.

Lesson here, if you want to make lots of money you're going to do questionable actions, so you've got to choose what is it you want, be filthy rich or be loved by the plebs; you can't have both.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I think the allure of the likes of Trump and Elon is precisely because they say shit that typically wouldn't be said... out loud!

Naturally that can turn lots of people off, but to some, I think myself included, I quite enjoy their politically incorrect frankness. :p I think it's actually somewhat refreshing because I'm sick and tired of most of the rich and powerful doing questionable shit behind the scene for so long... until it is so bad and hits the fan, we usually just won't know anything about their misdeeds.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Trump and Elon are smart enough to know that not everyone loves them... all they need to do is to keep those who like them to like them even more.

I seriously have no love for Trump, but I do admire him for keeping US out of forever wars.

I do admire Elon more, but no way I'd vote for him for president even if he qualifies. He should just be focusing on making things that can transform our world.

If I started a rocket company and the Apollo astronauts were laughing at me, that'd probably be enough to cause me to give up..., but Elon cried about that... and continued on with SpaceX.

So it's obvious people could hurt his feelings, but he keeps on pushing forward anyways. That's the quality I admire about him the most. Not the annoying tweets.

Look, nobody's perfect. It's also fine to keep on talking shit about Elon. I'm not telling you guys to shut up at all. I'm not asking people to love him either. Heck, I don't even love him that much. I still haven't bought or leased a Tesla.

I just think all the negative publicity about him is weird... probably orchestrated distraction so that american people won't bitch about wars and inflation... or it could very well be self inflicted by Elon I guess.

However, seriously, I'd rather all rich people be like Trump and Elon... than like Carlos Slim or those silent... hidden rich folks secretly doing their shit in the background...

Oh sorry, fuck me for being a conspiracy theorist again. It's just Elon and Trump fucking with us. We have no proof that 'establishment' even exists! Sorry guys! :p

[Rare White Ape]

So he's basically segregated his customer base into two parties that both would rather not have a Tesla.

There is a third group of people who do actually want to own a Tesla.

Those people are cunts.

[Cam]

Lots of Teslas around here. What does that tell you? :lol:

[Tom Servo]

Heh, there are tons here too, but sales are way down now. They just had two rounds of layoffs in a month.

[Crazed_Insanity]

There is a third group of people who do actually want to own a Tesla.

Those people are cunts.

Yes! As spelled out on this earth day t-shirt!

4285

[neanderthal]

While we are ragging on Elno/Elun I'm just going to stick this here: https://www.autoblog.com/2024/04/30/tesla-lays-off-execs-cuts-supercharger-division/ Elun shuts down Supercharger division and fires 500 people.

Suck it, Elun.

I saw this and thought "this man is even more stupid that we thought." The Tesla supercharging network is literally the biggest one in the US, and just as it opens up to all manufacturers and as more electric vehicles are coming to market and in greater numbers, he basically squanders the opportunity to mint money from all those electric vehicles that don't come from his company.

If I was the CEO of Electrify America I would be racing to build shaded, solar powered multi car charging stations everywhere right now. Stick a Starbucks coffee joint and a fast food place at each one, a small lounge, kiddie playground, and clean bathrooms.

Musk is an idiot.

[neanderthal]

Thought about it some more and realized there's a cross-cutting theme to Billi's posts. He *wants* to believe that the MSM is hiding the self-immolating conspiracy theorist from him. He *wants* to believe that everyone is being very unfair to the up-until-recently richest man in the world. He will find a way to twist the narrative to make it fit the answer he's looking for.

It's always a conspiracy. It's the opposite of Occam's Razor. There's a plot afoot, and he'll figure out a way to conjure it out of thin air. Nevermind the obvious answers to what's happening, there's something more nefarious going on.

I give it two years before he devolves into "it's the Jews."

Totally. And the second it dawns on him it'll become some other conspiracy, some other nefarious plot. You couldn't invent a better shape shifter than billi if you were the most creative person high on the higest mushrooms and psychadelics.

[neanderthal]

I think also Musk's made a couple of big miscalculations.

He, like Trump, seems to think if he's got the adulation of some adoring fans on the internet, then he's doing things right, but isn't realizing that for all the sycophants fawning over him on Twitter, most people are finding him annoying. Other heads of major companies, like Zuckerberg, Bezos, etc tend to not really be on social media except to do things like product announcements.

He also has now positioned himself as someone that most democrats find pretty irritating, but he's making electric cars, which most republicans think are cars for commies and there's no way they're replacing their coal-rollin' lifted truck for some electric nonsense. So he's basically segregated his customer base into two parties that both would rather not have a Tesla. Combine that with a ton of new all-electric cars coming into the market that are more, for lack of a better term, car-like and they suddenly have a ton of competition and are pissing off their customer base.

Honestly, shutting the fuck up is probably the single best thing he could do for his brand right now, but like Trump I do not believe he's actually capable of doing that.

A simple thumbs up is not good enough for this post

Elno wants to be a regular guy and be liked; hence his cavorting with the Joe Rogans of the world. And at the same time wants us to think he is better or smarter than us.

Except, we see on the daily, that dude is dumb as shit.

Shoulda just kept his mouth shut. And like you say, left his social commentary to product announcements. But no, had to prove his was smarter than us, and just pantsed himself doing so. Those of us who aren't billi anyway.

[neanderthal]

There is a third group of people who do actually want to own a Tesla.

Those people are cunts.


Lots of Teslas around here. What does that tell you? :lol:

These two posts back to back are pure genius.

[neanderthal]

Speaking from Mexican cases, Carlos Slim rarely has contact with the media on the few occasions that he is out in public. And when he does, he chooses to go on print media, preferably glossy magazines.

Rogelio Zambrano has zero media presence, even when his building conglomerate has been associated in some shoddy deals. Everything from corruption cases in Spain, funding paramilitaries in Colombia or building the annexation wall in the West Bank.

Lesson here, if you want to make lots of money you're going to do questionable actions, so you've got to choose what is it you want, be filthy rich or be loved by the plebs; you can't have both.

Fax

[FaultyMario]

i saw that some people over at elno's have doxxed a couple of the provocateurs from UCLA's protest as members of the IDF.

Why people aren't in a fit about agents of a foreign state actively participating in an operation on American soil is beyond me.

[Rare White Ape]

Why people aren't in a fit about agents of a foreign state actively participating in an operation on American soil is beyond me.

People ARE upset. But you won’t hear it from the MSMBC, CMM, FOX MEWS or even MPR.

Why not?

HMMMMMM, ONE WONDERS

[Tom Servo]

Well, to be fair, I a) haven't seen that on Twitter and b) don't exactly trust random tweets when it comes to the doxxing.

[Rare White Ape]

The protectors of the USA’s freedom to rake in huge amounts of tax dollars to be paid as corporate war profits for investors (ie the cops) seem to be having a field day.

https://www.jta.org/2024/05/02/united-states/90-pro-palestinian-protesters-arrested-at-dartmouth-college-that-drew-rare-kudos-for-its-oct-7-response


A past chair of Dartmouth College’s Jewish studies department was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and reportedly arrested during a standoff with state riot police at the site of a campus pro-Palestinian encampment late Wednesday.

In footage circulating on social media, historian Annelise Orleck can be seen being dragged to the ground by police and handcuffed following a harsh exchange of words. Ninety protesters were arrested in total as Dartmouth joined dozens of other colleges and universities across the United States in cracking down on their encampments.

“Those cops were brutal to me,” Orleck wrote on the social network X following her arrest. “I promise I did absolutely nothing wrong. I was standing with a line of women faculty in their 60s to 80s trying to protect our students. I have now been banned from the campus where I have taught for 34 years.” She also wrote that the cops “tried to hurt me. They did hurt me. And they seemed to enjoy it.”

[Tom Servo]

As they keep getting the cops to come out to college campuses and rough people up, has there ever been an instance of this happening where history viewed it later as "yeah, bringing in cops to rough up protestors was the right call"?

[Crazed_Insanity]

The same people funding Netenyahoo are the same people funding the cops!

I guess Occam’s razor shows us those people are the American taxpayers! We voted for Biden and Biden must be doing what we want him to do, right? What other explanations can there be?

[Rare White Ape]

I guess Occam’s razor shows us those people are the American taxpayers!

Yes you are correct. But also taxpayers from other countries that also supply arms and assistance to the IDF (ie Australia, which among other things helps the Israeli military with intel via the facility at Pine Gap).


We voted for Biden and Biden must be doing what we want him to do, right? What other explanations can there be?

Biden is NOT doing what is expected by left wing voters. This is all down to making sure the status quo is maintained, while the left wants war to stop and people get the help they need to ensure basic needs are met.

Meanwhile liberals (hack, spit!) think that being pro-Palestine is the same as antisemitism.

All Biden has to do is move further left.

[FaultyMario]

All Biden had to do is signal the Israeli hardliners that this type of shit is no go.

[FaultyMario]

As they keep getting the cops to come out to college campuses and rough people up, has there ever been an instance of this happening where history viewed it later as "yeah, bringing in cops to rough up protestors was the right call"?

meh, a cop fired his gun be inside Columbia.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yes you are correct. But also taxpayers from other countries that also supply arms and assistance to the IDF (ie Australia, which among other things helps the Israeli military with intel via the facility at Pine Gap).



Biden is NOT doing what is expected by left wing voters. This is all down to making sure the status quo is maintained, while the left wants war to stop and people get the help they need to ensure basic needs are met.

Meanwhile liberals (hack, spit!) think that being pro-Palestine is the same as antisemitism.

All Biden has to do is move further left.

Question, why doesn’t Biden do what his supporters want and move left to align with his supporters?

Also, why the speaker doesn’t move further to the right, which is where his supporters are!

Yet both defied their supporter’s will to try to maintain a ‘status quo’?

Why is the status quo so important that politicians are willing to defy the will of their own constituents?

I think the so called antiestablishment candidates like Sanders and Trump would not have tried to maintained that status quo. But who knows, maybe they’d change too once in power. Obama ran as anti-establishment but certainly ate his words once in power.

Something odd happens once you’re in power and it changes people. I better not think about it too much because I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist! :p

[Yw-slayer]

Lolling hard

Not at students and faculty being beaten, but at the craven and obvious hypocrisy of it all of US politicians and western MSM.

[mk]

Are there enough material to say who are real and who are not?
I've read rumors that at least IDF has been present.

[Rare White Ape]

I do know that cops are rousing and creating violence against students, and then stepping back and not acting when right wing counter-protesters are causing trouble.

So basically it’s 50/50 on who’s causing the violence.

And then Joebi-Wan Shitnobi gets to say this isn’t a peaceful protest anymore and is therefore illegal.

All of the video evidence is available via social media etc.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Are there enough material to say who are real and who are not?
I've read rumors that at least IDF has been present.

Are there really that many IDF folks around the world? Wouldn’t they rather take the opportunity to seriously mess with the Palestinians rather than travel all over the US to mess with our students? I can imagine perhaps some IDF sympathizers in the mix, but actual IDF probably would be in Israel defending its country?

I feel bad for Gazans, but I’m also feeling so bad for our kids. This generation of college kids started out in isolation back in 2020… and now they end their college years in 2024 together in jail! These kids will probably either become really awesome and great after enduring all the hardships, or we probably have fucked them up forever… :(

[FaultyMario]

Well, to be fair, I a) haven't seen that on Twitter and b) don't exactly trust random tweets when it comes to the doxxing.

I think it's beyond twitter at this point, and it's more than random tweets.

It's highly probable that IDF agents are trying to escalate conflicts in the major campus protests.

[MR2 Fan]

Twitter has been horrid. In a way it makes me feel bad for humanity BUT then I realize there's a lot of bots, bad actors, and paid people whose entire job is to stir up shit.

Beyond that though, it seems there's very few people who are taking an IMO unbiased view.

[Tom Servo]

I think it's beyond twitter at this point, and it's more than random tweets.

It's highly probable that IDF agents are trying to escalate conflicts in the major campus protests.

This feels super conspiracy theory to me. I'll wait until I hear actual evidence about this.

[neanderthal]

Israel trying to take the worlds eyes off what they're doing in Gaza isn't that far fetched to me.

But then again, I believe Hamas started all this on orders from Russia, to take the worlds attention off Ukraine.

[FaultyMario]

This feels super conspiracy theory to me. I'll wait until I hear actual evidence about this.

Why?

Israel has a tradition of paramilitary units. And they also have a blurry history of operations overseas.

The main reason why President Petro of Colombia is making an effort to cut diplomatic ties with Israel, beyond the claims of crimes against humanity, is because during the previous political era (2002-22), the Israeli defense industry went well past any ethical boundaries in their involvement in the domestic Colombian conflicts. And as I've said in other threads, the problem with the Israeli defense industry is that it is difficult to tell where private and public interests lie.

[FaultyMario]

Just to clarify, the logic of "look, that guy must be IDF" does veer towards the weeds a bit, but not by much.

[Crazed_Insanity]

IDF or not, important thing is that the same folks funding the IDF are the same folks funding the cops to hurt US taxpayers’ kids in college.

What mean American parents we are…

[Tom Servo]

Because it sounds like every other conspiracy theory these days and also is a convenient way to try to explain away things. Just like saying there were FBI plants doing January 6th or whatever. Reddit and Twitter have a long tradition of incorrectly doxing people and it all just sounds too convenient to be saying "there are IDF plants at these protests." I'm going to continue to not believe it until it's reported by someone I consider reputable.

[Rare White Ape]

This is pretty much as close as what we have in confirmation that *anything* has happened, back in January.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/23/alleged-chemical-attack-columbia-students-pro-palestine-new-york

I've not sought any more recent updates bout the NYPD's investigation though, if it went anywhere.

[Tom Servo]

Oof, yeah, that's a lot of hand-wavey "some mystery substance was used and also unsubstantiated claims from a group" kinda stuff.

It all sets off my bullshit detectors. Not saying it's not possible, but definitely need way better evidence before I believe it.

[mk]

IDF rumor is easy to back off since almost all citizens are at least vets.

I'm many times finding my self thinking how sneaky Russia is, but then I remember The Real Hunt for Red October.
Though USA is not known for small long balls, maybe they are just too sneaky.

Have I told about an artificial identity here that Russia made by adding on church records.
Later they created an artificial son, I'd say that that is a small long ball.
If one wonders why here, just check how our passport is accepted.

That leads to a curve ball.
It's always suspicious around these things if there is sort of a direct but still somehow fuzzy finger pointing.

[MR2 Fan]

I don't know if any person here has the patience to watch a 36 minute video, BUT I was really surprised by this speech and also surprised that it was being done by a Republican.

He brings up a LOT of great points, especially at the end, and it is very scary where our economy is at right now. He brings up the democrats and Biden a couple of times but I think his points are actually fair for the most part.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2qHcKY5m7A

[Crazed_Insanity]

Great speech. Regardless of your political orientation, puts the future of our country in perspective a bit.

However, does it really matter who we vote for if we don’t start having meaningful reforms/changes? All the partisan bickering is kinda pointless and probably just there for show.

Here’s another depressing video but he outlined some changes that need to be done. If we don't change our ways, I guess it's only matter of time until the fall of the American empire.


https://youtu.be/qEJ4hkpQW8E?si=xzPRdvyftuP5A-AF

[neanderthal]

I have to admit being impressed with Nayib Bukele's governing so far.

Western journalists been trying him and he's been making them look foolish.


https://youtu.be/cEMwYD_9Qsk?si=uGSqDXe0y-WOLll3

[FaultyMario]

That Cryptobro really did say:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldH9EyOf7Xk

[Tom Servo]

So RFK Jr. apparently actually had brain worms. Or at least one that ate part of his brain before dying and its corpse hanging out in there.

Reported this was part of his explanation during divorce proceedings in 2012 that his earning potential had been reduced due to brain damage.

Why do I think this will not be disqualifying for a president?

[FaultyMario]

Why are family court proceedings public?

[Tom Servo]

Apparently they are public by default in California: https://www.lawofficesofaaroncsmith.com/blog/2024/03/are-family-law-cases-public-record-in-california/

[FaultyMario]

daaamn.

[Tom Servo]

It's also been noted that he's the only person that's said this and provided no other evidence, so while nobody is under any obligation to provide medical information, it also puts him in the tricky spot of either having part of his brain eaten and maybe not totally fit for the presidency or having lied about having part of his brain eaten to get out of paying alimony which...admittedly in today's climate would likely not make him unfit for the presidency.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I personally have no issues with the worm(s). There ought to be annual cognitive tests though, especially if our politicians are all going to be so freaking old now.

As for RFK Jr., I really don't like his voice. I do like what he's saying though. However, he does seem suspiciously appeared to be a Nazi sympathizer as you guys have shown earlier...

Now it's known that he was using the worm as excuse for not paying alimony? We now know that he has integrity issues.

I really like Andrew Yang before too. However, his NYC mayoral run has demonstrated he probably won't have impeccable integrity as well...

Really wish more people could be like Bernie Sanders.

[neanderthal]

Tesla is rehiring some of the people they unceremoniously fired laid off who worked in their charging division, including the top dawg in that dept. There is no more important a division in Tesla than their wide and highly lauded Supercharger network right now, and Elno crippled that division with the latest round of layoffs.

At a time when the network has just been opened to basically all manufacturers, and Tesla could mint money on charging, this idiot was going to curtail its future growth and stability. Every one is coming out with their own electric car now, and they aren't going to be able to sell their green car credits as easily as they could 10 years ago, and this idiot, ...


I can't stop laughing.

[Crazed_Insanity]

The fact that you posted this in a political thread kinda proves that this round of layoffs are probably not purely based on financial decisions.

Imagine if your company has bunch of folks with opposing political views working for you..., would you feel safe with them? ;)

As employees, would you feel happy working for such 'idiotic' boss? :p

It'll probably be best if you go your separate ways when things get so polarizing like that.

Elon has a very unorthodox approach. He has over cut twitter staffs... and when he realizes he made a mistake and wrongly got rid of some people... then he would go back to right his wrongs though.

EV market is shrinking... he needs to cut fat. He has demonstrated that's how he cuts fat to survive. For those who hate him, he obviously has no problems telling them to go fuck themselves in front of cameras!

I don't quite agree with his management style, but hey, X is still in business after all those cuts.

I don't see Tesla going down any time soon. Tesla was close to being done many times before, but I think it'll survive this...

The guy didn't make it this far all because of daddy's emerald mine in south afrika...

Plenty of folks have laughed at him before. From the Russians to the Apollo Astronauts... to all the shortsellers... but who laughed all the way to the bank?

Anyway, I don't think Elon was driven by money though. The wealth he accumulated is just a byproduct. Mentally, he is obviously not normal. ;)

[Rare White Ape]

lol

[Yw-slayer]

The only way his company will survive is with Genocide Joe's baseless, protectionist, pathetic, and hypocritical 100% tariffs on electric cars made by SOME ENTITIES.

HMMM ONE WONDERS WHY

[Crazed_Insanity]

Genocide Joe and Elno do not see eye to eye. However, quite often I'm seeing Elno bowing down to Emperor Xi... I guess he has a lot at stake in China... I'd love to hear Elon tell Xi to go fuck himself too! ;)

I think it's a mistake for Elon to setup shop in China, but what do I know.

If Tesla gets into trouble, I'm sure it'd be because of the shit going down between US and China. However, maybe he'll surprised me. I never thought he'll be able to succeed with his EV and rocket ventures originally. I didn't laugh at him, because I thought it was good of him to try..., but I certainly would not bet a single penny that he'll be where he is today.

So who knows, maybe he'll be able to use his money to reconcile the differences between western evangelical christians with eastern atheistic communists. Maybe then the world will have more people like Billi? Sorry, didn't mean to scare you guys. Probably won't come true! ;)

[MR2 Fan]

Biden just announced new tariffs on products from China:

25% on steel and aluminum,
50% on semiconductors,
100% on EVs,
And 50% on solar panels

I don't know how this will affect end-use products like PCB's, aluminum panels, etc like I'm trying to purchase for 3D printers right now

[Rare White Ape]

baseless, protectionist, pathetic, and hypocritical

Not to mention highly reactionary.

We all know why China is already ruling the world and will only get stronger over the next decade. It has been planning and executing its dominance for a long time now. The way to do it is to boost your at-home industries rather than trying to hinder their overseas rivals.

China subsidieses so many of its industries by a huge amount and allows them the time to carve out a portion of the market while they become self-sustaining and profitable. And then those profitable businesses, having already carved out their slice, take over. Just watch. Temu, Didi, TikTok and BYD are just a handful of names that I can pull out of a hat of recent companies that are pushing massively into Western markets.

But oh no we can't have taxation in America and use those funds to drive the economy because it's tyrranny and restricts freedom! If, 20 years ago like I said back then, countries like the USA invested in solar panel manufacturing instead of squabbling over stupid shit like making sure oil companies don't go broke, then it wouldn't need any solar panel tariffs today!

China laughs at the rest of us. The tariffs won't do anything to slow China at all, but they will allow other countries to leap frog past the USA if they haven't already done so.

[MR2 Fan]

Yep, the tariffs hurt the U.S. consumer more than anything

[Yw-slayer]

China subsidieses so many of its industries by a huge amount and allows them the time to carve out a portion of the market while they become self-sustaining and profitable. And then those profitable businesses, having already carved out their slice, take over. Just watch. Temu, Didi, TikTok and BYD are just a handful of names that I can pull out of a hat of recent companies that are pushing massively into Western markets.

Just on this point and not on the other stuff. In relation to EVs. It does not appear that EVs, solar panels, or home batteries have actually been heavily subsidised to the extent suggested by politicians from countries where the western MSM western-focused institutions are based ("the Usual Suspects") (perhaps it should be Global Northern and Global Northern-focused, but let's leave that for another time).

I do rag on Bloomberg a lot (most of the time in relation to the "Failed State" joke), but it can be worth considering analysis based on data, rather than a shoot-from-the-hip Phil Space column based on anecdotes of panic-buying in supermarkets. So, let's have a look at extracts from https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-03-25/china-easy-money-isn-t-driving-this-clean-tech-boom.



There’s a comforting but erroneous explanation for why your solar panels, home battery and electric car are increasingly likely to be made in China.

The economy is awash in easy money from state banks; its renewable manufacturers are undercutting rivals everywhere else in the world; ergo, China’s comparative advantage isn’t scale, cost efficiencies or innovative prowess, but the availability of cheap government subsidies.

In the EV industry “everybody has an endless supply of loans and support from the local government,” the Financial Times quoted Jörg Wuttke, former president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, as saying in a recent article.

That theory provides a compelling justification for trade restrictions. If Chinese manufacturers are only surviving thanks to a drip feed of government cash, there’s no way for overseas rivals to compete. Best, then, to use tariffs, investigations and other hurdles to exclude their products altogether, and give homegrown competitors a chance.

It’s a persuasive narrative because swathes of China’s economy really do run this way. In the middle of the 2010s, all-but-forgotten Dalian Wanda Group Co., Anbang Insurance Group Co., HNA Group Co. and Fosun International Ltd. went on a multi-billion-dollar shopping spree for foreign companies. The bursting of that bubble prompted another to inflate in real estate. We’re still seeing the aftereffects in every fresh gloomy headline about property developers China Evergrande Group, Country Garden Holdings Co., and China Vanke Co.

You can see the pattern in the published accounts of Fosun, currently aggressively divesting businesses amid a credit squeeze. It spent a net 112 billion yuan ($15.56 billion) of cash on acquisitions and other investments over the decade through June 2023, but generated just 65 billion yuan in spotty, volatile operating cashflows:

Were it not for the 127 billion yuan in cash from financing — the vast majority of it debt — there is no way the company could have paid its bills.

(Paragraph comparing with Berkshire Hathaway removed)

Is the same thing happening with clean technology? It doesn’t look that way.

If Chinese solar, wind, battery and EV manufacturers are doing well because of easy credit, it should leave clear fingerprints on their financial statements. You can measure this by comparing their operating cashflows to the average debt they held during the year: Where cash is low relative to debts, it’s going to take a very long time to pay back creditors.

Looking through a group of 145 renewable companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenues — 77 of them Chinese — this is the result you get:

As you’d expect in a sector experiencing rapid growth, leverage is often relatively generous — but it doesn’t look significantly higher among Chinese companies. Many of the most feared and aggressive renewable exporters, such as Longi Green Energy Technology Co., Tongwei Co. and JA Solar Technology Co., have very low borrowings relative to their cashflows. Plenty have enough cashflow to pay off 25% of their debts in the current year. This doesn’t look like a sector being propped up by government loans, or indeed loans of any sort.

For the sake of comparison, let’s look at an industry that has pretty clearly been the beneficiary of easy government money: real estate:

(Paragraphs on real estate removed)

To be sure, Chinese manufacturers still enjoy powerful advantages. Generous and consistent purchase support for EVs and solar panels gives owners confidence to invest aggressively, just as the same policies do in Europe and the US.

The government remains fixated on keeping costs low: China is home to nearly half of the world’s special economic zones, whose main advantages are cheap land, easy regulation, and low taxation. It also offers reduced corporate tax rates for companies in new technology industries. Fundamentally, it’s the biggest single market for clean technology, so domestic factories have scale advantages that competitors elsewhere could only dream of.

The problem for developed countries is that, when applied to their own economies, these measures are all supported as old-fashioned pro-business policies, rather than unfair mercantilism.

It would be comforting if China’s success in clean tech was a result of easy credit from a communist state. In truth, though, this boom is a capitalist success story on a grand scale.
(emphasis added)

So, and staying with these these industries in particular, the analysis appear to be that business-friendly policies are applied to facilitate the development of new industries in relation to the biggest single market on the planet with a decent amount of spending power. In this case, it just so happens that they are being applied by the "Other" country rather than by the Usual Suspects, and that the results have been far too successful for the liking of the Usual Suspects.

[Rare White Ape]

Thanks YW I appreciate the info. I’ve just seen a bunch of narrative about state subsidies being aimed at expanding Chinese business interests outward way more than the fear-mongerers say that China does with its military, hence my impression of the matter.

Although, my point still stands about progress being stifled by oil companies actively perpetuating the debate about climate where there should be no debate.

[Yw-slayer]

No problem, man.

[Crazed_Insanity]

It would be comforting if China’s success in clean tech was a result of easy credit from a communist state. In truth, though, this boom is a capitalist success story on a grand scale.

It's clear China grew because of capitalism. Communism has proven itself in various countries that it takes away productivity.

Anyway, my main discomfort about China is the dictator. I don't trust him. Historically, dictatorships who rose up by destroying political oppositions also tend not to end well. Certain past emperors of previous dynasties at least could end up with a good emperors on certain rare occasions... but we all know absolute power corrupts absolutely.

If Xi whipped China in to great shape and then setup China to be able to run without him in charge, then he'd likely gain my admiration... I mean even bigger ones than whatever I have for Elon Musk! ;)

However, if he's mainly into power grab like Mao, chances are, China will repeat history. More Chinese people will suffer... and we can stop dreaming about cheap solar panels or EVs then.

Of course US govt/establishment isn't all that trustworthy as well, but at least we still have certain check and balances in place... Point is, at the moment I don't have a positive prospect for both China and US in the near future. If our current trajectories don't change, we will all end up suffering more...

As for tax hikes... at least we're still allowing them to come. Where as certain US companies are banned in China. They don't have google or facebook or youtube... government only allows their own copycat versions. So there's really no reason why to complain about US unwilling to play fair. Each nation wants to protect itself.

Again, I worry for Elon's Tesla factory in China. If someday Xi decides to take it, there's nothing Musk could do. Biden would probably just laugh at him! ;)

[Crazed_Insanity]

In other news, Speaker of the House stood outside of Trump's court and declaring US court system corrupt. Election results are probably also corrupted whenever they lose...

Anyway, USA perhaps just might fall before emperor Xi of China.

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-speaker-mike-johnson-court-09aef3de395fa77843f2600f40da6ac3

[MR2 Fan]

Interesting that Mike Johnson wasn't wearing a red tie like the other MAGA congressmen who came to support Trump.

Dude is a weird mix of saying he supports the most MAGA stuff but then lets congress actually do something even when Trump hates it.

[Crazed_Insanity]

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/fact-check-biden-again-falsely-212038162.html

What is going on? CNN is fact checking Biden for saying the wrong thing? That's nice fair journalism! ;)

It seems most polls are showing the 2 candidates to be pretty close, with a consistent 10% support for RFK Jr.

I think there's no guarantee that those 10% would all go to Biden if RFK Jr. drops out. Trump is starting to attack RFK Jr. too. If you guys hadn't convinced me that he might be a NAZI sympathizer, I might go for him as well. However, perhaps I'd still be hesitant about supporting him because if his family doesn't even support him, why should I? If a person can be that divisive in his own family, what chance will he have at uniting the nation?

Anyway, I'm still choosing to be an agnostic come 2024. Don't feel like participating in all this bullshit. All the court drama is now giving Trump additional free publicity. I think unless something drastically happens, Trump will probably win. During the pandemic, people wish for normalcy. Now things are more or less normal, it's time to MAGA and be abnormal again I guess.

China probably doesn't have a preference either because neither Biden nor Trump will be friendly to them. So I wonder how China will interfere with our election. There were talk of Putin preferring Trump, so if Trump's win means Ukraine war will end because Putin's happy, then I'm all for that. However, I'd still not want to vote for him.

Hopefully come 2028, a new guy could emerge to inspire me to vote. Or the old Bernie could work too. I don't care how old he is, if he's on the ticket, he will win my vote. However, I can just dream on... the 'establishment' would never allow that to happen. I wish Bernie had Trump's skill to be able to beat the establishment sponsored candidates during the primary process... ;)

[neanderthal]

It was disproved several times in different videos, but here is an actual drag race between the Fuglytruck (Cyberfugly?) towing a Porsche 911, and a 911.


https://youtu.be/K0AJmLvKjxw?si=tlpp9rARXbOAbT9s

[neanderthal]

Elno really does think he's a (stable) genius and we are morons.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I don’t understand why his this political but that’s a fun video to watch though!

Given the results we’re seeing, clearly the cybertruck and the entire Tesla as a company is a big giant lying Ponzi scheme!!! We should shut Tesla down at once!!!!

[Crazed_Insanity]

Let’s try a different race! Elno vs sleepy Joe! I think I’m beginning to understand why those 2 can’t get along…


https://youtu.be/PKIOUYbHe30?si=C3bif6ArjhYYeLvE

Is our government using the legal system to carry out justice or using it as a weapon?

Regardless of who’s telling the truth, as our legal system pound on Trump, to the Trump supporters, it’s gonna look like an orange Rodney King or an orange George Floyd are getting beat up…