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feedforward commented on Prelude to McCarthyism: The Making of a Blacklist (2006)   archives.gov/publications... · Posted by u/mergy
feedforward · 9 months ago
> which they used to help establish friendly dictatorships across Eurasia, from East Germany, to China (simultaneously, the US put an arms embargo on the legitimate government who were fighting the communists)

How did Russia establish a friendly communist government in Hungary in 1919 when it had no troops there? Actually England armed the Romanians to overthrow the Hungarian communist government.

Of course, the US, England etc. invaded Russia and fought the Red Army during/after World War I with the Polar Bear expedition etc.

Stalin dissolved the Comintern during World War II, and the Communist Party USA dissolved as a political party as well at that time.

With Albania and Yugoslavia, Red Army troops passed quickly through a small corner of Yugoslavia and offered little help to Tito.

Insofar as China, the Soviet ambassador as far as I know was the only one who accompanied Chiang Kai Shek to Taiwan. Mao took China back from the Japanese with little help.

Greece probably would have become communist after World War II, but for the Truman doctrine and US involvement, Russia did not get involved at all.

Moscow's lack of support helped in the breaks in relations - with Yugoslavia, Albania and the Sino-Soviet split.

What you're saying is rather ahistorical.

feedforward commented on ICC issues warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas officials   icc-cpi.int/news/situatio... · Posted by u/runarberg
feedforward · 9 months ago
The New York Times and Haaretz reported in the summer and autumn of last year (just prior to the current flareup), Netanyahu had sent the Mossad head to Qatar in order to convince them to send money to prop up the Hamas government in Gaza. As Netanyahu said publicly in 2012, he wanted Hamas strong and the Palestinian Authority and Fatah weak, as the PA was pursuing measures at the United Nations.

You're pointing the finger at the State of Palestine and "any Muslim country", when the real supporters of Hamas for years has been Israel and Netanyahu.

Dead Comment

feedforward commented on Pentagon fails 7th audit in a row but says progress made   thehill.com/policy/defens... · Posted by u/ironyman
icegreentea2 · 9 months ago
FY2023 total spending ~6.2 trillion (it's a bit higher in FY2024, but not sure where you're getting 9 trillion from).

The largest buckets non defense buckets are social security (1.4 trillion), medicare+medicaid (~1.6 trillion), interest payments (~800 billion). Total DOD spending is like ~750 billion, and DHS is like ~100 billion. FY2023 deficit was roughly 1.7 trillion dollars

Social security and medicare together at like ~2.4 trillion dollars a year, and are supporting a population of roughly 55 million Americans (just grossly taking the 65+ age population). This works out to roughly 43k per year per 65+ adult. You can decide for yourself is this seems like the right way for the government to work.

Anyhow, I am certain there is a lot of waste, and a lot of different types of waste there.

But fundamentally, the US government is trying to do a lot of frankly difficult and gigantic tasks. The DoD is tasked with amongst other things, perpetuating American hegemony, which right now is kinda critical for the entire US government funding situation. The USG's ability to leverage USD status as the world's reserve currency to help fund expenditures is contingent on it being if not THE global hegemon, then at least amongst the world's top powers, and the hegemon (or uh... senior security partner) for a substantial fraction of the world's economy.

feedforward · 9 months ago
Very narrowly defined the DoD spent ~$750 billion in 2023 (over 800 billion). This doesn't count over $300 billion in veteran's benefits. Nor does it count Department of Energy military nuclear expenditures, nor tens of billions of military/intelligence spending in non DoD departments. Then when we look at the $800 billiom interest on the debt, a chunk of that is for unpaid military spending from last year and the years before.

This idea that military spending is not a large chunk of the budget is only when one has a very, very narrow definition of military spending.

feedforward commented on Pakistani religious body declares using VPN is against Islamic law   voanews.com/a/pakistani-r... · Posted by u/ivewonyoung
feedforward · 9 months ago
Should point out the PM for Pakistan who spoke out about religious extremism, Imran Khan, was jailed after "Lettergate", the US's efforts to have him ousted as PM (which succeeded, he is in jail now). The crackdown on the Internet followed that.

So all of this is in line with US policy. The US instigated a coup to warp their democratic processes with foreign efforts, causing a chain of events for this to happen.

feedforward commented on The price of shutting down coal power, and what would be gained   economist.com/interactive... · Posted by u/therabbithole
lasc4r · 9 months ago
There's something to be said for a dictatorship that at the very least thinks climate change is real.
feedforward · 9 months ago
Dictatorship of the proletariat
feedforward commented on Marine pilot loses command after ejecting from F-35B that kept flying   marinecorpstimes.com/news... · Posted by u/nafnlj
some_random · 9 months ago
Hating the F-35 in general has been a thing for the Anti-American crowd, mainly driven by western peaceniks who don't see a point in military might (largely depleted now) and the pro-Russia/China/etc crowd who need it to be shit so their fighters can seem competent. As is usual the latter "inform" the former.
feedforward · 9 months ago
Hey taxpayer! You don't like the estimated $1.5 trillion going to Lockheed Martin for their hunk of junk F35? Then you're just like Forbes, Bloomberg, the Washington Post and the other anti-American ChiComs who are saying all this because "they need it to be shit".

Your rant is almost as inspiring as the Palantir CEO's flag waving speeches where he rants against the anti-America crowd who question why their tax dollars are flowing to his company.

feedforward commented on Trump wins presidency for second time   thehill.com/homenews/camp... · Posted by u/koolba
insane_dreamer · 10 months ago
> I don't think that the problem is that Democrats didn't explain the technical definition of inflation well enough.

it's clear that at least half all American voters don't understand technical definitions or explanations (this was Obama's problem too). "Drill Baby Drill", "Lock her up", and "cheap gas" is about their comprehension level.

feedforward · 10 months ago
Lenin did pretty good with "Peace, Land, Bread"
feedforward commented on The Antitrust Revolution   harpers.org/archive/2024/... · Posted by u/pseudolus
Terr_ · 10 months ago
Tangentially related: How can we steer technology towards empowering individuals instead of exploiting them?

Thirty years ago, I was optimistic that personal devices and software were a kind of capital, like power-tools, which was spreading out to allow people to better themselves and their lives... But nowadays it feels more like nets being cast by some (decidedly un-biblical) fishers of men, where it's all about ensnaring customers and holding their data and social-webs hostage, sometimes even fostering gambling addictions.

So while I do want to see some (near-)monopolies disrupted, it won't be a panacea: We'll still have important systemic problems to face, such as the terrible DMCA, clickwrap contracts of adhesion, issues around "right to repair", and how advertising/spyware as a revenue stream slowly corrupts everything it touches.

feedforward · 10 months ago
Read about commodity fetishism, relations of production, alienation etc.

u/feedforward

KarmaCake day102October 19, 2023View Original