A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
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User ID: 645
It would help to identify our enemies first. Iranians are friendlier to Western Civilization than Israelis.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
21d ago
I would have guessed it's another Iraq, but it's two of them.
Iraq's population has nearly doubled since 2000, like Afghanistan and Gaza. So Iran is actually 4 2003 Iraqs.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
21d ago
if [Afghanistan] had only half their population
Afghanistan's population more than doubled during American occupation, from 20 to 42-5 million. The Gaza strip similarly went from 1 to 2.1 million, at the same time.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
24d ago
for alcohol or drug addicts
https://lukesmith.xyz/articles/modern-freedom-means-being-a-slave-to-impulses/
ayatollah overthrew the shah
Though the Iranian regime (and neocons) prefer this narrative, communists (and fellow travelers) and friends overthrew the Shah, then islamists stabbed them in the back (cf. the Bolsheviks). The Shah had thousands of communists in his prisons, not islamists. Khomeini was only invited back to Iran, after the Shah lost power, by the new civilian-military government. It took them a few years (until 1982) to definitively wrestle control, executing most of the military leadership and various leftists. Worse yet, the US helped Khomeini enter. Two examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Mojahedin_Organization_of_Iran#1979_Iranian_Revolution_and_subsequent_power_struggles and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudeh_Party_of_Iran#Islamic_Republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_guerrilla_groups_of_Iran
Tangentially, Mossadegh also backstabbed the communists:
Next the royalist officers moved to overthrow Mossadeq. On August 16, three days after the shah left for the Caspian to take a “rest cure,” Colonel Nasiri of the Imperial Guards arrived at the premier’s doorstep with a royal decree replacing Mossadeq with Zahedi as premier. The attempt, however, was a complete fiasco, for the pro-Mossadeq chief of the army, tipped off by the Tudeh military network, surrounded Nasiri and his Imperial Guards as they approached the premier’s residence. The following day the shah fled to Bagdad, the and the Tudeh crowds poured into the streets, destroying royalist statues. In some provincial towns, such as Rasht and Enzeli, the Tudeh took over the municipal buildings. The next morning, Mossadeq, after a fateful interview with the American ambassador, who promised aid if law and order was reestablished, instructed the army to clear the streets of all demonstrators. Ironically, Mossadeq was trying to use the military, his past enemy, to crush the crowd, his main bulwark. Not surprisingly, the military used this opportunity to strike against Mossadeq. On August 19, while the Tudeh was taken aback by Mossadeq’s blow against them, Zahedi, commanding thirty-five Sherman tanks, surrounded the premier’s residence, and after a nine-hour battle captured Mossadeq. Acoustical effects for the event were provided both by Sha'yban “the Brainless,” who led a noisy demonstration from the red-light district to the bazaar, and by the gendarmerie, who transported some eight hundred farm hands from the royal stables in Veramin to central Tehran. - Iran Between Two Revolutions - Ervand Abrahamian
Warhammer books were packing heat
Generally, they're not particularly memorable 4 hour reads. But the first 2 Fabius Bile books (Promogenitor, Clonelord) are solid. Maybe Eisenhorn? The Infinite and the Divine! Fehervari's Requiem Infernal has some of the best prose in the past 100 years (mixed with vague, wordy evocativity) and sits with you for weeks after; his others are good too.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
27d ago
The whole movement is bankrupt. While I theoretically understand "imperfect instrument" or "who cares about corruption if they still solve problems", it's literally not clear that MAGA is better for libertarians, conservative christians or anyone with a desire for intergenerational stability.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
27d ago
Poland have scaled back their farm worker scheme
It was mostly Ukrainians at the start, too.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
27d ago
Libya stabilized quite a few years ago (with 2 governments) although this week Haftar intervened in Sudan. Now, it's not great (HDI etc. lower than under Gaddafi) but
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
29d ago
Stephen Miller's reach goal is 3,000/day, which, if we're generous and assume that government workers get in a whole 52 weeks a year, would be 156,000/yr
day =/= week
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
30d ago
While I did not find any neutral specific numbers, my gut feeling is that shipping a container by railway is several times more expensive than by container ship.
Rail is surprisingly more efficient than many forms of shipping (e.g. barges).
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
no one thinking this was something that needed to be changed.
They were better. Abandoning them's just one more sign for how far this godless, corrupted, festering society has rotted.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
tubing ... recently stopped to focus on his family.
Luke Smith had left the internet for 2-3 years, until (sadly) returning a few weeks ago, with a bigger beard, to declaim the evils of the internet.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
Protectionism is often the disease. Rather than erroneous regulation enabling complacency, the solution is becoming more competitive. That means simplifying the regulatory environment, improving logistics and encouraging similar businesses in the same area.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
Your numbers are off and your explanation is more confusing. The $1.8T deficit is more than 25% of federal spending. (Debt issues are far worse if you include more local government.) Interest payments are 15%. As others noted, it would take 10 years to pay off the debt, if all current tax revenue only went to that. In reality, we'd have to cut spending by 30+% and spend the rest of our natural lives paying down the debt. None of this will happen. The government will simply inflate it away as it has done before.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
you could easily reduce spending by 10% and not to pay this interest payment and be in the same situation
What?
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
In Morocco I got about 150 likes per day and literally didn't have time to look at 3/4ths. I think online dating is evil and have never otherwise tried, so nothing to compare.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
The problem with free markets is that they require a modern state.
The movie "Becoming Jane" sees a lawyer talking to a judge:
- Why are you here?
- To learn the law
- Which has no other end but what?
- The preservation of the rights of property.
- Against?
- The mob. Therefore order is kept because we have (the army? prudence? I forget how it goes past here and the transcripts cut off)
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
calculus ... as a rigorous concept
Infinitesimals just make sense and can be taught to 6 years olds. It was only in the 1830s when rigorous limits were popularized, which overshadowed infinitesimals until 1960 when Robinson formalized them. So, not quite low hanging fruit, all in all.
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
about National Weather Service cuts
Relatedly, the site rewrite's been put on ice: https://beta.weather.gov/
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
1mo ago
Has there ever been a golden age of critical thinkers, schooled to think well, untainted by the technology of its era, or the character of its students?
Those growing up around 1900-1914 seemed closest, the great flower of our civilization, who died under flowering shrapnel on the French frontier.
I base this belief on reading historical (highschool/Gymnasium/lycée) exams (and submitted answers, with sample bias, of course) and cheat books (with more detail than modern academic treatments of the same... This is how I originally came to this.) They should write poetry on different topics in a certain style (movement or author), find problems in economic or business data, articulate various thinkers' contrasting beliefs about a topic etc. Transposed to modern times, have a student write a memoization macro, calculate some vector angles, write an essay on LaRoche, McKinley and and Teddy Roosevelt's views on tariffs, another on leadership (why the most popular kid's popular and what prevents the writer from taking his place, and to what extent the (chosen group/nation/state/movement) needs good leaders vs. institutions) ...written in Mandarin. The Overton window was far wider in those days, with multiple popular opinions about why x or y state was illegitimate with justifications from Renaissance, Classical and Biblical sources, advocating for paganism/atheism/state controlled religion etc. etc. Unfortunately, the war seemed to invalidate the whole framework and civilization behind this and mass education never recovered.
That's still a far cry from our ideal, but...
a massive class of consumers (the old and decrepit)
They don't have much wealth. Because wages continue to increase quickly, the 30-40 year olds are sending their parents more money each year than their whole anemic pensions, while saving themselves (although what asset classes they can save substantial sums in, is questionable right now.) It's not like the US where e.g. retired UPS workers get pension adjustments over inflation while current workers don't and aren't on track to receive any such benefits. (Also, the Chinese old seem to return to/reside in the country side, living very cheaply and consuming even less than their paltry wealth would suggest, compared to the racket of e.g. US retirement homes.)
Auctoritas vs. potestas, is pre-Christian (compare Potestas/Kratos the God, supporting dictatorship and advocating for random violence) although Christianity somewhat reenvisioned them. (N.b. further concepts like imperium remeasure the semantic fields in different ways in different thinkers' works.)
Moral authority (earned by correctness, selflessness and hard-earned reputation (dignitas, not yet dignity, but social standing) vs. raw exercising of power. Without moral goodness, power is illegitimate. But moral goodness without power is also lacking - although Socrates condemned to death has the highest authority of all, if it can't work good in the world, it's a tad selfish - like a desert hermit, isolated from society for his own soul compared to those monks' kenosis, who engage with the dirt and grime of humanity and lift it up, however slowly, through holy struggle and love.
A modern systems thinker, applying EA (is this now looked down upon? Well, applying financial metrics and industrial engineering) can improve the lot of thousands instead of spending their time administering aid to individuals, one at a time. To some extent, the traditional Christian image/aesthetic looks down upon this, preferring the Pope to bathe the poor's feet, Navy Devos to teach people to read etc. I at least think overall betterment's important.
I believe Christianity is fairly "aristocratic", believing everyone can be better and flourish (overcoming their sinful urges), but forgiving them for succumbing to this fallen world. (My faith is grounded in gnostic-curious Platonism, though.) The lower classes can rise beyond that station, but if they don't, they still have their own path to God. (N.b. this is not prosperity gospel, rather just... If you don't waste your time on vices and sloth, you can trivially better yourself and the life of those around you, building, learning, teaching etc.)
A_Wee_Hearts_Toll
2mo ago
Trivial to find: https://odysee.com/@LightElf:0/Kanye-West-Heil-Hitler:9
Not worth listening to, rather terrible, but such is our fallen society that some like rap.
Most Iranians are not religious and do not support the government, which sics foreign militias to oppress them. I speak Persian and have spent much time among them. Every couple of years there are massive riots, with thousands of deaths, as people fight back.
Even then, much of the Shia clergy opposes the regime; Khamenei isn't even a marja let alone the first among equals nor most popular religious leader within Iran itself. To concede a bit, at any rate they're friendlier than the Saudis and Emiratis, Shia are far more compatible and friendly with our world (but again, religiosity's similar to Czechia. Here's a survey giving 30% as Shia, only 40% as Muslim at all.)
Khatami relaxed that, already. Besides nowadays, everyone has a VPN. You can talk to plenty of Iranians right now, even with the attempted internet lock down, even if this isn't real. Personally, I'd only wish success to someone banning Disney, rap etc.
To react to your bailey, @The_Nybbler haven't many in this community opposed this government and arana imperii, ascribing modernity's ills to it?
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