circuscritic

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Taiwan to acquire more than 1,000 armed drones in new US arms sale ( www.cnn.com )

The United States has approved the $360 million sale of more than 1,000 small armed drones to Taiwan, as the self-ruled island claimed by China aims to strengthen its asymmetrical warfare abilities with an eye on successful tactics used on the battlefield in Ukraine....

circuscritic ,

These are squad level ground launched air to ground munitions i.e. they're small enough to be carried by infantry units and have the explosive charge more akin to antitank munitions.

circuscritic , (edited )

There's too many factors to name in a brief comment, but here's an interesting statistic:

In all recent European elections, all center-left parties that have tried to swing to the right on immigration to try and woo right-wing voters, have lost seats. No exceptions.

Edit: Clarified the swing on immigration was to the right.

circuscritic ,

WP artillery is legal illumination round, and it's use in war is not this automatic war crime that people often believe.

You just described a legal application of WP:

Illumination of battle space to enable artillery spotters to coordinate indirect fire missions using standard munitions e.g. 155mm, mortars, etc.

However, intentional use of WP as an incendiary munition is where it does become a war crime.

I'm not saying US Forces in Iraq did, or didn't, illegally use WP, but I am saying you described it's intended and legal application.

Legal doesn't mean moral, justified, or right, it just means it's not a criminal act under the legal frameworks we currently use to manage warfare.

Israel’s obstruction of investigation into 7 October rape allegations risks truth never being found, advocates warn ( www.middleeastmonitor.com )

Israel’s leadership is pushing the allegations that Hamas fighters raped Israeli women during the October 7 attacks for its own political objectives while the government’s ongoing refusal to allow the United Nations to conduct a full investigation into the matter threatens to hinder any evidence, advocates have warned.

circuscritic ,

Rape happens in war. I don't believe it was used systemically on Oct. 7, as Israel claims, or at least, there's no evidence of that.

However, to claim that no one was raped during an attack that long and protracted, and with so many people involved, defies history and the realities of conflict.

What's worse, anyone claiming "no rapes happened" as a counter to "it was systemically used", means that a single case of rape invalidates their claim, and by default, bolsters Israel's lie.

circuscritic ,

Did you really just try and claim that rape doesn't happen during active and protracted urban combat...?

Also, while I agree that of the attackers that day, the Hamas forces were the least likely culprits due to training and defined mission objectives, they weren't the only people to enter Israel after the barriers were breached. That doesn't mean they didn't, just that I think there are other scenarios with a higher probability.

And last, I'm not really sure if you're being intentionally honest with your retelling of events, or if you really just don't know that much about the scope and duration of the attack. Either way, you don't really have a firm grasp enough to speak on this with any sort of authority, certainly not with the confidence you seem to have.

circuscritic ,

There's a huge difference between isolated incidents, and the systemic use of rape as a weapon of war.

One's a regular criminal offense, and the other is Hague War Crime Tribal level of offense.

circuscritic ,

Thanks for clearing that up, you're being intentionally disingenuous.

Never have I defended the IDF, nor have I condemned any Palestinian combatants.

I certainly never expressed any skepticism about the genocide or sexual violence that does appear to be deliberately systemic within the IDF, or at minimum, widely tolerated up the chain.

So, with that out of the way. Re-read my comments, and then decide to engage honestly, or just go and try and peddle your uninformed garbage somewhere else.

circuscritic ,

Are you relying to the wrong the wrong comment? Or did you just not read mine correctly...?

Before I lay into the absurdity of your response as it relates to my comment, please double check.

Because it should be obvious that my comment adheres to the UN charter you reference and I never claimed that systemic only includes weaponized rape ordered through the chain of command.

circuscritic ,

It's telling that you think a multi-day combat operation over a geographically dispersed area is just one very long firefight.

It sounds like you're basing this off a mixture of movies, television, and your gut.

circuscritic ,

I maintain one baremetal Windows install that gets fairly regular use. It's on a major OEM business class workstation with a legit Windows 10 pro license.

Recently, I had to wipe and reset and goddamn do they try and trick you into choosing all the worst spyware settings AND even if you successfully duck and weave past them, they'll just cheat and enable them, or reinstall shit like co-pilot during an update.

They just made me sign into that shitty M365 app to install a legit subscription of Office, and on the next reboot, it converted the local user account into an online user account.

Make no mistake, Recall is going to be enabled by hook, or by crook, for the vast majority of Windows 11 users in due time. No matter how many times they disable it, or opt out.

circuscritic ,

An appropriate SDR, or a prefab kit you can buy online.

Relay attacks on keyless systems are nothing new, plenty of documentation and articles you can use to read up on the specifics.

circuscritic ,

Now hear me out, do you think that might have something to do with their market share relative to ALL other cars on the road?

When a KIA gets stolen, the owner will likely get it back, although probably a lot more worse for wear.

Thieves using relay attacks are most likely part of, or connected to, professional auto theft groups e.g. chop shops, overseas car markets, etc.

‘What’s the Problem?’ Zelensky Challenges West Over Hesitations. ( www.nytimes.com )

With his army struggling to fend off fierce Russian advances all across the front, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine urged the United States and Europe to do more to defend his nation, dismissing fears of nuclear escalation and proposing that NATO planes shoot down Russian missiles in Ukrainian airspace....

circuscritic , (edited )

They have thousands*. Although due to the high cost and difficulty of maintaining them over decades, it's quite possible that only hundreds will actually detonate once they reach their targets.

Which is still enough to cause a nuclear winter.

*Thousands of warheads, but many of those will be MIRV, so a single ICBM can impact multiple locations.

circuscritic , (edited )

You know what doesn't convince people to rethink how they view America, or empire?

Arbitrarily inserting comments like that into topics where they're disconnected and off topic.

Wait a minute...are you a DoD contractor whose mission it is to make any critic of America look whiney and detached from reality?

circuscritic ,

It's wrong precisely because Taiwan is a client state...

circuscritic , (edited )

Dear god, no...just no.

I wish the West would arm Ukraine with squadrons of 4.5 gen airframes, fully stocked and layered air defense systems, hundreds of Abrams/Leopard II's, and setup massive training facilities in bordering NATO counties.

However, putting NATO troops in theatre is such an absurd escalatory risk that I refuse to believe it's not intentionally designed to prompt a full scale military intervention.

Training troops isn't a huge escalation, nor is Estonian trainers getting blown up (bad as that would be). But if this policy moves forward, it's only a matter of time before a dozen, or more, American or British trainers get blown up, and that could very easily ignite that powder keg into something that can't be contained, because the hawks won't want it to be.

That kind of defeats the purpose of "help the Ukrainians defeat Russia in Ukraine, to prevent a wider war".

circuscritic ,

You're misunderstanding where my concerns are placed, and why.

Imagine a Russian cruise missile volley hits the mess hall, or barracks, and kills 30-50 Americans.

How do you think an American administration would respond?

How will the Russians respond to the Americans response?

What rung of escalation ladder do we end up at?

What happens when another strike kills 15 UK troops the following week?

How will the UK respond?

How will the Russians respond to that?

How much further until the last rung?

Yes, we both agree that Ukraine needs support, and much more then they're getting.

But I don't think you're fully appreciating the risks associated with deploying active duty NATO troops to Ukraine.

circuscritic , (edited )

It's NOT just about what Russia wants...

This is the type of plan that hawks in the west would draw up because THEY want the casus belli to justify deploying combat troops.

That's my point. Those risks are intentionally high, because that's what they want.

And no, that's not okay. Russia has no chance to win a conventional conflict against the West, period.

What do you think they'll do to avoid that crushing defeat by NATO forces right on their border, and within their occupied territory?

circuscritic , (edited )

....are you seriously claiming that a direct conflict with NATO forces on their borders, or within their occupied territories, wouldn't change Russia's strategic calculus in regards to the use of nuclear weapons?

Please, tell me what base of geopolitical knowledge, or Russian military doctrine, are you basing this on?

Because every white paper and analysis of Russian First Strike Doctrine that I've read, would seem to fly in the face of your claims. So... please put my mind at rest and show me the sources that I'm missing here.

circuscritic , (edited )

Holy shit ...

No, I'm saying flood Ukraine with Western arms because it's worth it.

But putting in active duty NATO troops is a sure fire ticket to an uncontrollable escalation.

I have to admit though, seeing all you keyboard strategists act like force on force conflict between NATO and Russia is no big deal, makes me believe either you're all genuine idiots, or are actually pushing a coordinated message yourselves. Most likely it's the former, but that's just a guess.

circuscritic ,

Ah, so I guess that's a "no" on you providing a single source to backup your claims, or disprove mine.

Nice touch claiming that I'm "concern trolling", but it's pretty obvious who the troll is here.

circuscritic , (edited )

Start here:

https://www.fpri.org/article/2023/07/russias-nuclear-policy-after-ukraine/

https://www.ft.com/content/f18e6e1f-5c3d-4554-aee5-50a730b306b7

https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-nuclear-doctrine

Pay close attention to parts that discuss strategy and doctrine regarding the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

Also, lol at your lame personal attacks. Either get educated on the topics you speak on, or just shut up.

It seems to me that all your claims are based on a mixture of your feels and "trust me bro".

circuscritic , (edited )

Next time, open the actual document.

"There is also talk that Russia is working to develop low-yield nuclear weapons and/or modernizing its
nonstrategic nuclear weapons, perhaps with the intent of creating a class of nuclear weapons less
likely to draw a nuclear counterattack and are therefore more “usable.”

That paper is from 2016, and those tactical nuclear weapons are now in service.

Also, as I've already written, I don't view flooding Ukraine with Western arms as a significant risk to the escalation ladder. That is not the case for force on force conflict with NATO, especially on Russia's doorstep. Which again, is laid out in their doctrine.

To clear, I just said to start with those links. You should definitely branch out and spend a lot more time reading up, because clearly you haven't yet.

Please, finish reading all those documents, and then read some more, and then show me all the white papers, academic articles, or think tank papers that support your position, or disprove mine.

circuscritic , (edited )

Because it went from being a novel decentralized payment method, into a speculative asset, and finally a Wall Street commodity.

Yes, I know there are projects where that core ethos is still relatively intact, but those aren't what come to mind whenever people publicly discusses "crypto".

circuscritic ,

She is basically the Koch brothers, but bigger, dumber, and more evil.

The only reason why the Koch family is probably worse, is because their influence flows through the American state.

All this is to say, it's a good bet that after this story dies down, the gallery will quietly acquiesce and take down the painting. This will either be followed by a carrot, or a removal of whatever stick she used.

circuscritic ,

They know it has. Think of this like when a porn studio uploads their own films to a torrent site, and then goes after people who download them.

Except, in this case, everyone involved are terrible human beings. So... while I will never cheer for Sony Music, I will happily root against all the AI/tech companies they go after for scraping their catalogues.

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/e2ac164a-fcfb-4765-96a7-ceb9eaba0383.jpeg

circuscritic , (edited )

Awesome. Truly spectacular.

Generative AI is so energy intensive ($$$), that Google is requiring users subscribe to Gemini.

Google is entirely dependent on advertising sales. Ad revenue subsidizes literally everything else, from Android development to whichever 8-12 products and services they launch and subsequently cancel each year.

Now, Google wants to remove web results and just use generative AI instead of search as it's default user interface.

So, like I said: Awesome.

circuscritic , (edited )

The previous coalition government started this persecution, but Albo's Labor government drove it home.

So it seems like governments love prosecuting whistleblowers would be the correct take on this situation.

Edit: Just to be extra clear, Australia's current government is Labor (center left party), but the previous government was a coalition of the Liberals (mainstream, yet still far right party) and the Nationals (deep fried crazy far right party).

So the unjust prosecution of David McBride started under the previous rightwing coalition government, but the current left leaning Labor government continued the prosecution and got the conviction.

circuscritic ,

That's a fine metric for your own internal political compass, but it's a poor one to use when trying to discuss or describe world events, especially on a forum like this.

Not because it's an indefensible position, but because no one else is going to know your definition of rightwing is literally anything that isn't already a communist utopia.

But I'm to go out on a limb and assume, no offense, that you just weren't aware that Australian Labor regained power after nearly a decade of being the opposition...which is understandable, most people don't follow Australian politics, outside of Australia.

circuscritic ,

They are center left, which yes, does include some neoliberal tendencies. However, they still support Australia's welfare state and have very strong ties to, and support from, the relatively strong unions that still exist in Australia.

circuscritic , (edited )

Zero....his electoral platform was basically "stop helping Ukraine".

There's no upside for an independent Russian resident of Slovakia to be a provocateur and potentially kill their ally, and nothing would reinvigorate weakening Western support for Ukraine than the Russian state attempting to assassinate a European head of state.

circuscritic , (edited )

Wouldn't be the first time I assumed wrong, but I'm going to wait for better sourcing than the Kyiv Post for this particular story.

They have an existential rational for blaming Russia, as well as an obligation to feed the propaganda narrative for their ongoing war. That's not a criticism as that's what is required of them at this moment, but it's an acknowledgement of why I will wait for additional reporting that isn't sourced from Ukraine, or a single Hungarian journalist on Twitter.

Edit: Look, a different article with different sourcing that points in a different direction. Either way, this situation will take time to get an accurate accounting of what actually happened, and why.

circuscritic , (edited )

Learn what? This was the intended outcome: layoffs without severance or unemployment.*

*Unemployment benefits aren't totally off the table due to the companies changing of job requirements, but that's going to depend on local laws and individual employee circumstances.

circuscritic , (edited )

Short sighted for who? Executive compensation is tied to stock performance via options. If their actions boost the stock price in the short term, what do they care about the companies performance at a future date after they've cashed out?

We're currently in the extraction phase of our neoliberal economic system's lifecycle and it's only downhill from here.

circuscritic , (edited )

Look, the worst that could happen is that he murders you, but honestly, he probably won't.

It's more likey he'll probably just wear you down emotionally until you support him financially, while he stays at home and takes out credit cards under your name.

On the plus side, I bet he'll fuck like a racehorse on the rare days when he isn't too dipped, or shit faced.

Edit: Just noticed you added that he's a veteran with PTSD, and yes, that changes my answer: he will probably murder you.

Not just because he's a veteran with PTSD, but because he's clearly a massively damaged and dangerous person AND has war trauma.

Most likely outcome: strangulation.

circuscritic ,

Anyone who's name is an anagram for The Reptile invalidates your entire premise...

Additionally, he's also probably had at least one of his former boytoy lover's killed and he's just generally an awful human being who's entire goal is immiserate everyone he doesn't intend on sharing his doomsday bunker with.

circuscritic ,

This isn't a bad thing, or a good thing, it's just a geopolitical reality.

Serbia is still within even a weakened Russia's sphere of influence, and is unlikely to move towards Europe.

But with Russia not looking so great, they still need geopolitical allies to invest and help grow their economy, possibly help with security i.e. technology.

China actually helped Serbian nationalists during their Kosovo genocide, and got their embassy in Belgrade bombed because of that. Well, because they let the Serbs use a part of it as a signals and comms center. Point is, they have very recent historical ties.

Also, Russia isn't in a position to really push back on China for anything, so, here we are.

circuscritic ,

It was a better UI and user experience then Android by the time it launched....but by the time it launched the smartphone market had already exploded and the app developer marketplace had already matured into a profitable sector. There was no incentive to attract enough developers to build out a similar ecosystem on the late to the party Windows Phone

circuscritic ,

That's doubly ironic considering Modi's role in orchestrating anti-muslim pogroms, and the Indian government's role in countless pogroms against Sikhs.

circuscritic ,

I recently switched my main Linux laptop to Fedora and I have to say, it's probably the most stable and clean distro I've ever used.

circuscritic ,

No, it's a way to say that Mint has become bloated and not a great experience.

I just switched to Fedora from Mint, and was impressed.

circuscritic ,

You're looking at it wrong. This is a scheme to collect mass amounts of biometric data. What's the end goal? No idea, but I doubt it'll be to the benefit of mankind.

circuscritic ,

Even if you believe that, and trust the people running these scanning stations, synthetic images generated from biometric hashes are still a thing, such as with Masquerade.

circuscritic ,

Can't wait for the Biden apologists to give their hot takes on this one.

Israel doesn't exist without American military support, period.

Redeploy the carrier groups, and Israel's entire strategy goes up in smoke, as they are reliant on Aegis to protect their airspace.

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