Transform2942

joined 2 years ago
[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Must have run out of arguments. Scurry off back to your echo chamber where you can lick imperial boots in peace

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Oh boy, I love deconstructing these stupid propaganda pieces. Here we go!

These positions are often sought after

Discredited their whole argument right out of the gate

extremely restrictive agreements

The linked Time article also says that these doctors are paid very well by Cuban standards (a country that has been under financial blockade for over 70 years)

Consequently, in 2019, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued an official communication to the Cuban government requesting information on the working conditions of medical workers stationed abroad. According to the statement, UN special correspondents heard reports of what could amount to forced labor based on indicators recognized by the State Department

What a fucking word salad. Also note how they cite (alone) the US state department, known to be a very reliable source about communist governments LOL

That's as far as I'm willing to go. All their big, scary claims are very weakly backed up (or contradicted!) as soon as you follow any of the links.

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

The notion that these doctors who are a national symbol of pride are somehow slaves is laughable.

Any one of these doctors could defect and they would be endlessly feted in the Western press. Interviews, book deals, speaking tours...

We can see clearly this has not happened because all they can do is repeat this lame talking point about how they don't keep whatever percentage of their paycheck it is.

"Eureka! Now that I have an Evil Communist Army of slave doctors I will send them to do humanitarian work in other countries! There could not possibly be any flaws with this plan!"

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

Yes, state taxes need to be considered.

Also include healthcare expenses because the US doesn't have socialized medicine (taxes, insurance premiums, and deductibles)

Also include social security deductions and retirement account contributions...

Even before considering the dysfunctional state of housing that's easily 60-70%

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Now all I have to worry about is the looming fear of running out of substances

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

USA tax rate maxes out at 37%

Oh my sweet summer child, only considering the federal income tax

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 day ago

How would you split the revenue between the doctors themselves and the program that trains, outfits and deploys them?

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 days ago

Empire is stretched too thin. They are having to ruthlessly prioritize scarce military assets

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

No later than 2003 when Ali Khamenei released a fatwa against them

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Three big differences:

  • China has access to Russian oil and gas via cheap pipeline
  • China doesn't have to first buy dollars before they can buy oil
  • China has absolutely massive strategic petroleum reserves, perhaps as much as a year's worth
[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 week ago

Impossible to say.

US/Israel have both backed down and escalated in response to Iranian deterrence. The rumor is the Israelis have complete control over what people and information reaches Trump. All three belligerents have reason to regard this conflict as existential.

It's very complex and multi-layered, and it seems like they fired all the Cold Warriors who did all the deterrence game theory back in the day

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

Big beautiful bee hotel for the pollinators folks. We love our native pollinators!

27
Late-Stage Empire Eating Itself (responsiblestatecraft.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Transform2942@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml
 

Apparently you can Free Market™ so hard that it makes a crippled warship

the contractor

Who we dare not name apparently

could milk the development process given that the government would reimburse the company for the research and development costs.

The process incentivized the inclusion of nearly two dozen new, unproven technologies. This complicated the development process and delayed delivery by at least three years and increased costs more than 25%, from $10.5 billion to $13.2 billion.

This spending has done little to improve the vessels’ capabilities. But the inclusion of so many new technologies did create economic opportunities all over the country. More than 200 suppliers, spread across the country, build components for the Ford-class program.

Specifications for the system said it could launch more than 4,000 aircraft before and between any critical failures. But, as with many modern electrical systems, EMALS has proven far less reliable than expected. The Navy and Department of Defense haven’t released specific figures for several years, but reporting in 2021 shows the Ford’s catapults failed after only 181 launch cycles.

That's less than 5% of spec for those keeping score at home

The Ford has four catapults, so the crew can shift from one to another in case of a failure. But the catapult system includes a significant design flaw. Sailors do not have any way to electrically isolate each catapult. To work on one, the entire EMALS system has to be deenergized. That means the crew would have to stop launching aircraft to make repairs. Doing so would be clearly problematic if multiple catapults failed at the same time during combat operations.

Just when I thought it couldn't get more absurd

 

https://archive.is/96HcC

The tone of this piece makes my head explode

The big scary boogeyman of Conspiracy Theories won't save you from imperial collapse NYT

 

Background

I have been quite fascinated by Europe's continental suicide in the face of the failure of Project Ukraine and the fracturing of the "transatlantic understanding".

I think Europe still has time to choose strategic autonomy:

  • Rapprochement with Russia to restore their energy competitiveness.
  • Rapprochement with China to restore their global trade and industrial competitiveness.
  • Seek out global markets to blunt the Trump tariffs.
  • Pressure Ukraine to hasten their inevitable capitulation before they loose EVEN MORE LAND AND SOLDIERS.

Of course as we all know, the Western media has the complete opposite narrative, a jumble something like "Russia has lost 10 bajillion soldiers and they don't actually have military equipment at all and also advancing on the battlefield counts as losing if it wasn't as fast as we ourselves predicted it would be."

Content for the tribunal:

Mod actions: removed comments, banned from community
Responsible mod: Unknown to me
Link to First Comment (now removed)
First comment with better formatting:
  1. This war started in 2008 at the Bucharest NATO summit, when the US announced its intention to expand NATO into Ukraine and Georgia. EVEN EUROPEAN LEADERS like Merkel and Sarkozy noted AT THE TIME that the Russians would view NATO expansion into these countries as tantamount to a declaration of war. Over the next 14 years the West did a "color revolution", the Banderites did an ethnic cleansing campaign in the Donbass, and the West sabotaged and undermined THREE DIFFERENT PEACE AGREEMENTS before the Russians' famous patience finally expired in 2022.
  2. Ukraine doesn't need money to win the war, it needs TRAINED INFANTRY and to a lesser extent weapons. MOREOVER, anyone who thinks this money will last Ukraine even a whole year is delusional. The annual BASELINE burn rate of the Ukraine regime is 150B+ annually, and tax receipts are essentially nonexistent.
  3. They must be REALLY DESPERATE to risk the CREDIBILITY OF THE ENTIRE EUROPEAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM on this foolish gambit. They are breaking the very "Laws of Capital" that the West itself wrote. The Europeans seem determined to beat the Americans in a race to economic decline and collapse.

Tell me again about the "moral case" for stealing sovereign assets to prop up a stunningly corrupt regime in terminal collapse?

Looking forward to the tortured logic justifying my ban.

My Commentary

I know enough to know that they really don't like contrary narratives about Russia/Ukraine in any of the Euro-comms so I wrote my comments very carefully.

Can you, the esteemed commenters of YPTB, spot the misinformation or rage bait? Perhaps I am just blind to it in my own content. If present, did I "ragebait first" or did the other commenter?

Reminder that "Russia says this, therefore it is misinformation" is not a cogent argument or evidence.

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