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www.thedailybeast.com Why This Election Is the Most Crucial Since the Civil War

Matt Bennett, co-founder of national think-tank Third Way, tells The New Abnormal why a second Trump presidency would be a “catastrophe” and leave America “unrecognizable.”

Why This Election Is the Most Crucial Since the Civil War

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r/politics

>“It seems like every cycle we say that and we kind of mean it but this time I think we are in a category change where I believe the United States and the way that we think about ourselves as a nation has not been in danger like this since 1865. I think the only comparable moment to this was the Civil War,” he tells The New Abnormal co-host Danielle Moodie.

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Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
  • Most of Azov died in Mariupol it is true.

    But all of them? No that is factualy wrong. Some of their leadership was taken prisoner, some ended up in Turkey and were recently given back by Erdgogan which caused quite a bit of friction and outrage among the pro-Russian side, while others were exchanged with other prisoners by Russia themselves. This was a long time ago relatively speaking, summer last year.

    The far right/Azov recruiting machine lets call it the pre-2022 buildup infrastructure also no longer exists, realisticaly everyone that is committed enough to Ukrainian nationalism is already in the army and very clearly everyone that doesn't is either laying low/running away or regularly have to literaly fight off the recruiters, you see these videos very often too.

    Ultimately I think Lukashenko was referring to that very professional post-2014 Azov army trained by NATO. As I said yes most of them are already dead or disabled, and Ukraine clearly wasn't able to replace them in terms of skill/training quality.

    But the bigger picture of Nazism in Ukraine is very far from over, I mean I think it is even silly to suggest it honestly, just go grab any of the random Ukrainian gov officials I posted about in the past, Podolyak, that other recent "Asians lack humanity" bit whoever said that, Ukraine is full of it and it is not some "part" of the government. It is literally central to it, the obsession with Crimea is an ideological choice etc.

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
  • China’s Position on the Afghan Issue

    The Afghan/Taliban issue isn't just imperialism and resisting the US, as the Chinese note in their policy. Nobody in the real world is simply making decision based on "do you hate the US yes or no?". There are a number of relevant real world issues that come into consideration when "supporting" or even just dealing with a country/government.

    Afghanistan's situation is a regional problem that affects others to the extent it should be in the self interest of the whole region to cooperate with and help them.

    But as the Chinese also note, this isn't just naive selfless help, it is targeted and principled, they do have an interest in seeing Afghanistan develop into a somewhat more economically and socially stable country as this solves the US interference/imperialism problem, it means international trade through land routes uncontested by US+vassals and perhaps most importantly helps maintain strong incentives for the Taliban to continue to fight against other Islamic terrorists(ETIM).

    #1- China will not interfere directly as its against their principle. Of course non-interference doesn't mean selflessness, of course they have their vision on what path would be best according to what they consider regional "stability".

    #3

    3.Supporting peace and reconstruction of Afghanistan. China will continue to do its best to help Afghanistan with reconstruction and development, make plans with Afghanistan and fulfill its assistance pledges, promote steady progress in economic, trade and investment cooperation, and actively carry out cooperation in such fields as medical care, poverty alleviation, agriculture, and disaster prevention and mitigation, so as to help Afghanistan realize independent and sustainable development at an early date. China welcomes Afghanistan’s participation in Belt and Road cooperation and supports Afghanistan’s integration into regional economic cooperation and connectivity that will transform Afghanistan from a “land-locked country” to a “land-linked country”.

    #4- China is particularly concerned about Afghanistan because it was historically a base for ETIM terrorists who are now used as geopolitical pawns by the US to misrepresent China's crackdown on Xinjiang. ETIM was also present in other countries e.g Syria. It is important to support the Afghan government and pushing them to crack down on ETIM.

    #7

    The US should draw lessons from what happened in Afghanistan, face squarely the grave humanitarian, economic and security risks and challenges in Afghanistan, immediately lift its sanctions, return the Afghan overseas assets, and deliver its pledged humanitarian aid to meet the emergency needs of the Afghan people.

    As you should note this isn't stated with some *terms and conditions apply: as long as its a government we like. The Chinese say this unequivocally and if the Taliban is in charge right now then so be it.

    #8

    To help Afghanistan achieve sustained peace and stability, relevant countries should not attempt to re-deploy military facilities in Afghanistan and its neighborhood, practice double standards on counter-terrorism, or advance their geopolitical agenda by supporting or conniving at terrorism.

    I think this should be obvious but no special "bargaining" e.g "we will help you, if you let us build another base"

    #9 China doesn't want to dictate(certainly at least not give the impression) these "terms" alone, which is why they want to bring all the relevant regional powers into this discussion.

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
  • This is 100% about continuing the vassal relationship, the more strategic ties between US-Japan the harder it will be to even begin to suggest Japanese independence.

    The technology in question here is most likely irrelevant, but as we know its not about real world impact but the perception of it, you convince the entire capitalist-political class these shit weapons actually work and they'll act accordingly. You convince Japan that they've contributed and now share extremely critical strategic/military/technological ties with the US MIC and they'll believe it, even though it could literally be about making a van to sell ice cream, convince those idiots its actualy a super tank and away they go.

  • Madison on why she quit
  • I wasn’t too bothered about tech bros shanking each other in name of ethics in tech YouTubing.

    That is a weird way to try and sound superior and dismissive about the original issue(GN video), like I too couldn't care less about the smol cute business shit behind that waterblock company but even then the psychopathic behavior behind pretending you have an agreement, then screwing it up, then auctioning it and then still having the narcissism of "we auctioned not sold it" BS alone is enough to put him out of any serious business for life and honestly probably even legal action.

    It was far beyond just "drama".

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
  • Yeah Ukraine shot down 130 Russian aircraft? First link is Oryx and the scond is the Ukrainian twitter lol lmao even.

    Maybe cut that by 90% and maybe 10-20 sounds about right if you allow for early war inexperience and lack of intel and the fact Ukraine actually had good and working S-300 systems back then. But most of those would be the Su-25 bombers which are old shit barely useful without air superiority and helicopters. If we allow accidents due to inexperience or error than sure maybe up to 50 if we are really and I mean really generous.

    You know when the Russians lost that single Su-35 2-3 months ago? Literal tons of videos and the actual wreckage of the plane appeared. When the Wagner coup happened and they shot down that Ka-52 do you remember the meme?

    Wagner was more effective in a day than the entire Ukrainian army within the last 6 months.

    Yeah one idiot could say the same about the Russian MOD claims which sure are probably inflated to some degree but we also have very undeniable proofs:

    -We have incredible footage and numerous western articles about the growing number of improvised cemeteries for Ukrainian soldiers.

    -We literaly saw the Patriots get blown up by the Kinzhals, we saw Odessa get fucked last month, we saw the entire Ukrainian electrical grid get fucked for months over and over. Yet anyone believing Ukrainian claims that they shot down anything is just a clown.

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
  • I'm not sure how NATO would react. The whole reason they declared an SMO and not a war(no full mobilization even 18 months later) was because they were afraid of NATO's response.

    It was a mistake of course back then and today as well. The SMO shit was far too conservative even though it was working and Ukraine was finaly on track for a peace agreement, history wont look back favorably to that choice.

    Then again one could argue the only reason we are not in a nuclear winter right now is exactly because the Russians were too scared so lucky for everyone else too. Even the west used to talk about "red lines" or pushing Russia back in the early days too.

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
  • Old is an understatement at some point they received Harpoon missiles from the UK that were literally past the expiration date.

    I still remember this shit

    The antique collection In 2020 the RN issued an exploratory request to the industry for bids to extend the life of its Harpoons Block 1C Anti-Ship missiles to 2027. Ultimately Babcock (Devonport) was awarded a contract in early 2021 to extend support for another year. Current weapon stocks are mostly life-expired. Even if well looked after and maintained by the Defence Munitions organisation, the explosives and propellants in a missile degrade over time. These elements need to be replaced and the weapons re-certified or they can become at best unreliable or even dangerously unsafe. Unless there has been a crash program to rapidly re-certify UK Harpoon stocks, there are probably only a handful of usable weapons left. The lack of missiles was indicated by the fact that for the Carrier Strike deployment in 2021, which included operations in the contested environment of the South China Sea, only one of the four RN escorts (HMS Kent) was fitted with Harpoon.

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
  • There's less of the "Our superior Wunderwaffen will crush Russia!" stuff and a lot more stuff about how challenging things are for the Ukrainian armed forces, some even go as far as saying that the counteroffensive has failed.

    My take is when Ukraine finally loses you'll see part of the media reverting to their normal racist fashy shit Ukrainians will become the dumbass asian/slav hordes whatever idiots that couldn't figure out how to use the awesome tactics and the super magical BS weapons. They literally already did this but it will go to 11 when they lose imo.

    At the same time I think another part of the media will hold on to the Ukrainian sacrifice myth until the end, they'll claim it could all be avoided if we sent more [insert outdated NATO shit from 1985 here], it is all our Russian bots fault for not supporting the holy fight for democracy and freedom, we are responsible for 500k dead Ukrainian children, how we all failed the brave and heroic Ukrainian Nazis freedom fighters blah blah and that is why we need more and more spending and why Russia is the big evil more than ever.

    In essence, they'll play both sides.

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
  • This is pretty good but leaves me asking how did they miss the obvious connection with the online ad model/social media as dictated by Google? I feel that talking about media disinformation and not at least mentioning this side will paint an incomplete picture here. TL;DR commentary on some history of Google search and journalism below.

    So why focus on ads? Because if you go back and look at the rise of google's adsense, the main point was to create fake pages with either misleading or straight up false information to deceive readers and lead them towards either another bigger website or to sell some shitty product, you know the year is 2006 and your grandpa is about to spend $499 on some fake shit from one of those silly obviously fake pages.

    So then they talk about journalism and what actualy happened? Journalism became an extremely online thing, as mentioned old TV news losing ratings(though obviously still influential) they have to resort to what? Exactly the google/internet ad revenue model aka if you don't get "engagement"(the history of Google algo ranking itself is fascinating) you wont earn as much from ads. I don't blame them either since if you go back and look the top earning websites were making absurd amounts just from sitting at the top of google search. The money was there and the party was only starting.

    Then 15 years passed and journalism is now also extremely connected to the ad model and social media to the point half of it is just "rage bait" or click bait. Google was a major if not the major force behind the transition to websites relying on social media too. So you have fucking NYT on twitter saying nonsense but doesn't matter if it gets 100k-500k views that are redirected to the article page and some loser sees an ad or buys their sub.

    But the takeaway is the media and internet tech giants will never admit this was a demon they created. The biggest misinformation source? Literaly google. Now go do something about Google search now. Too late.

    Misinformation you say? As far as I can see from a functional point of view your shitty NYT article, your fake amazon review, your fake niche website about fishing boats or something are all doing the same thing: Trying to get your attention and direct you to either watch/click an ad or buy something. To tackle this you can't be a liberal and say oh its just the news sources, its a problem with the entire Google based internet. IMO there is no solution other than to tear it all down, in principle online advertising shouldn't exist to begin with.

    Look at China though, people already said this before but the firewall is extremely important to simply achieve one thing: not allow Chinese internet to become the same Google adsense fueled collection of mostly useless websites. Of course they certainly have their own problems over there, but at least in principle they are in control and in principle the CPC can change things if necessary. The same isn't true over here.

  • Star Trek has always been trans
  • I love the show and in some ways it is easily the best of Trek, but it shouldn't go unmentioned that shit like Profit and Lace exists which is extremely frustrating, like trying to beat the "haha man in a girl costume haha" joke into the ground so much even the actor(who is a real good guy too) spoke out against hating it, and it is even more disappointing because the top of DS9 talent worked on that too written by Ira and with a nod of approval from Piller? Yep nope.

    Its a black spot on an otherwise amazing show though, always remember don't hold hollywood libs as heroes and don't expect to get burned at some point.

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 7th to August 13th, 2023 - White Blows From A Black Hand
  • Hey add another dipshit Ukrainian government to the list, its like they can't help themselves openly saying just how much they want to do some cleansing holy shit.

    "A Russian passport is as dangerous as a rocket." Fucking saying that unironically

    Telegram

    “We understand that obtaining a passport in itself is not a crime. But Russia is doing everything to go further for a passport. Steps that can then be qualified as signs of collaborationist activity. Now Russia, in September, plans to hold elections. That is why they are so hastily passportizing our people,” the official added.

    When you deem anyone regardless of ethnic or cultural background trying to obtain a passport a "collaborator".

    Go fucking die you dipshit libs that openly support this openly fash shit.

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 7th to August 13th, 2023 - White Blows From A Black Hand
  • Really seems that way. A lot of the people who think they are "left" are just the losers in the capitalist system who would like the capitalist system to reward them for being white and living in the imperial core.

    The consequences of bern-disgust

    Those that remember at one point back on reddit-logo people would unironically believe he was "hiding his power level"(e.g random tankie reddit discourse lol lmao even).

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 7th to August 13th, 2023 - White Blows From A Black Hand
  • The Brazilian capitalist class isn't entirely on board with BRICS or any sort of Chinese economic ties and if you know enough about Brazil then you must also know the entire right wing class are just wannabe gringos, the "dream" of a white middle/upper class is and will always be to own an apartment in Miami and/or to send their children to some second rate US university for bragging rights. Yes its sad how stupid these people are, also the infatuation with shithole Florida obviously because they want to become an American but literally don't like cold/snow lol.

    By claiming that China is in trouble they can turn around and make it as if the US looks better in comparison. Everything we know about the suffering and terrible cost of life crisis, the homeless, drug addiction, healthcare horror, police violence etc almost all of it is kept away and hidden from the third world media. The US is meant to be the "promised land" in a very real sense too sadly, the Protestant cults were heavily in favor and tied with Bolsonarism.

    As for the economic side, trust me nobody understands shit, anywhere. Some idiot goes on TV with a label of "Mr. Economist" and people will believe what they say regardless.

  • Bulletins and News Discussion from August 7th to August 13th, 2023 - White Blows From A Black Hand
  • Its nice when western msm is willing to actually report reality accurately but that is not common at all. We are in a period where the MSM is slowly but surely being backed into a corner where Ukraine can't manufacture any reasonable/realistic excuses for the failures.

    If you want actual analysis don't look at the MSM period. Media literacy is always important too, some of the commentators/sites we link to are to be taken with a large grain of salt and with a healthy dose of critical thought too.

    My best example is Mercouris(disclaimer I only watch his daily videos I have no idea what he is doing/saying elsewhere) he was always on the pro-Trump side years ago, he is obviously a right wing conservative. But you notice how he is either neutral or positive towards China and the rest of the world in his commentary which is a departure from both sides of the American MSM. But most importantly as we noticed this before how did we get to this point where right wing conservative voices have a more grounded view of reality.

    Realy how is some random conservative dude on a very low key channel consistently debunking and putting out reasonable critical commentary of against western MSM out of nowhere? Because no not really out of nowhere at all, you may even call him a sellout who knows, but my point is this was the space previously occupied by leftist commentators and instead we have old right wing conservative saying the shit we used to say years ago.

    It is clear where he comes from, he openly says how he dislike the neocons(he uses interchangeably with "neoliberals"), then he even had Chomsky interview on his channel which I thought it was funny too.

    Actualy scratch everything I just said and just remember how the libs and MSM reacted to Seymour Hersh's reporting. I guess at least they succeeded and in the end everyone really believes it was what? 3 Ukrainian guys on a fishing boat or something.

  • Bolsonaro's aides failed to delete over 17,000 e-mails because they didn't understand how a simple trash folder works.
    g1.globo.com Ajudantes de ordens de Bolsonaro deixaram mais de 17 mil e-mails acessíveis na Lixeira; material está com a CPI

    Um desses e-mails é o da servidora que responde a Mauro Cid sobre pedido de venda de relógio da marca Rolex.

    Ajudantes de ordens de Bolsonaro deixaram mais de 17 mil e-mails acessíveis na Lixeira; material está com a CPI

    Google translate

    >Former orderlies of former President Jair Bolsonaro deleted at least 17,354 functional emails from their inboxes. g1 and TV Globo had access to the material, which was sent to the CPI of the Coup attempt on January 8th.

    >The list of e-mails was found in the Trash folder of each of the helpers. According to the company responsible for the e-mail management program, for the items to be permanently deleted, it was necessary to go to the trash folder and delete the list again.

    >Only aide-de-camp Danilo Calhares did not have deleted e-mails still in his inbox. He took office as an adjutant in December 2020, and the first email in the inbox is from November 2022. That is, only he managed to execute the definitive deletion of emails.

    Right wingers are idiots, absolute fucking idiots.

    1
    *Permanently Deleted*
  • The problem is “and their accomplices”. It implies that if you don’t support the imperialist conquest of Ukraine then you are a Nazi, or that all Ukrainians are Nazis.

    Please don't flatter yourself, like seriously.

    On the scale of supporting/opposing Ukrainian Nazism there is say 5 distinct levels here.

    1- Acknowledge the Nazis exist

    2- Acknowledge they are persecuting the Russian population in Eastern Ukraine, acknowledge the Maidan coup, acknowledge a solution was already attempted and failed(by Ukrainian non-cooperation)

    3- Given they exist and cause harm, understand and support the idea you and your western country should be at least neutral towards them

    4-Argue that perhaps your western country should actually oppose actualy existing Nazis in practice and not just rhetoric

    5- Actually do anything meaningful to support Russia in this war.

    The shit libs in here are mostly in level 1, few even look towards reaching level 2.

    Meanwhile you write some nonsense as if the discourse here is at level 5 and we are actually asking you to actualy go out there and go fight for Russia or some shit.

    You are clearly struggling to even accept they exist so yeah as I said, don't flatter yourself as if people are asking you to support Russia when you don't even acknowledge the Nazis exist. Realy either educate yourself, or don't, either way just don't look like a fool with "but your asking for my support?" nonsense.

  • www.psypost.org Greater engagement with anti-masturbation groups linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal feelings

    People who are more engaged with communities that push abstinence from masturbation tend to feel more suicidal after a perceived "relapse," according to new research published in the journal Sexualities. ...

    Greater engagement with anti-masturbation groups linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal feelings

    >The researchers also asked the participants to rate how often they noticed ten different problems in the online forums. Visitors to NoFap forums reported seeing content that was often trolling (88%), misogynistic (73.7%), bullying (49.1%), anti-LGBT (42.9%), or anti-Semitic (32.0%). Additionally, a significant number of participants reported being told to harm or kill themselves (23.5%), witnessing threats to hurt others (21.1%), and witnessing doxing of others (17.1%) on the forums.

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