The Japanese were already negotiating to end the war. The sticking point was over the U.S. demand for unconditional surrender vs. the Japanese insistence on preserving their emperor in some form. The eventual surrender did keep the emperor, so the atomic bombs didn’t impact that issue.
How is pointing out bias and the absurdity of trusting the U.S. over Muslim-majority countries off topic in a thread about anti-China dogma in the U.S.?
An example is not believing in human rights abuse against the Uyghurs in China.
They say this as if the entire balloon news cycle wasn’t “deferring to Washington’s narrative.”
War crimes are committed by every side in every war. Unless there’s evidence that one side is committing some wildly disproportionate amount/severity of war crimes (I’ve seen none here), pointing out one side’s crimes and getting outraged is just doing propaganda.
The one possible exception here is pointing out your own side’s war crimes in an effort to minimize them, controlling what you can control. There’s certainly no effort to do that on the Ukranian side.
a staggering and diverse arsenal
I don’t think it’s that there’s nothing left to send, but more that keeping an international hodgepodge of equipment functional in war zone is itself an enormous task.
Anyone worked at a company where you have a bunch of different types of machines or software that are all needed? Imagine the headaches that causes, but you’re getting shot at whenever you try to fix something.
This is really underestimating how bad U.S. prisons are, and while god damn America and all, it’s still a country with a high standard of living for most people.
We have to be in touch with the actual material conditions of people, and “only a few places are better than federal custody” just isn’t that.
I linked to an article elsewhere in this thread – looks like he got in a fight with a Korean civilian and was disorderly/combative with cops when arrested.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66219603.amp
He apparently got in a fight with a Korean civilian and at least was disorderly (if not combative) when arrested. No idea what type of penalty that would get someone at a U.S. court martial, but prison and a dishonorable discharge (making gainful employment extremely difficult) are probably on the table, maybe guaranteed.
No idea what I’d do in that situation, but even knowing he’d be detained for a while in the DPRK it might look better than the alternative.
Of course, there’s a big chance he is trying to infiltrate the country, and this is pretext. He’s 23, not some kid right out of high school, which to me suggests that’s far from out of the question.
When a Cuban defects to the U.S., that’s treated as proof of the oppressive nature of the Cuban government
I agree there’s some truth to what he says; he’s just overselling it, especially how imminent it is.
To me, this reads like a CIA guy selling people on the idea that a modest step away from the dollar as reserve currency is the end of the world. This is “if you give people healthcare we’ll be commies tomorrow.” Look at how this is couched:
if the BRICS+ use a kind of Liberty Bond patriotic model, they may well be able to create international reserve assets denominated in the BRICS+ currency even in the absence of developed market support. This entire turn of events—introduction of a new gold-backed currency, rapid adoption as a payment currency, and gradual use as a reserve asset currency—will begin on August 22
If this, maybe that, a mention of the developed world as if they’ll peacefully let the market decide and not violently react. This is drumming up fear, not a sober prediction.
That puts you at odds with Curtis LeMay, who wanted to drop every bomb ever made. Even he said the atomic bombings weren’t necessary.