The path to avoid a war is quite simple. The US can guarantee no NATO expansion into Ukraine. The American response has been countries "can choose their own alliances." Maybe it's worth looking back to see what has happened when other countries have tried to do that?
Lindsey O'Rourke finds 64 cases of covert US attempts at regime change during the Cold War, in addition to 6 overt ones. "these missions targeted all types of states: adversaries and allies, powerful and weak, democratic and authoritarian, communist and capitalist."
"the United States covertly supported regime change efforts that directly or indirectly replaced democratically elected leaders with authoritarian regimes in six cases and covertly tried to influence the outcome of democratic elections in a dozen additional cases."
The US is now fighting a potential Chinese military base in Equatorial Guinea. America seeks to prevent "a permanent military presence on waters the US considers home turf." West Africa is "American turf," but Russia can't have a say in Ukraine? Makes logical sense.
The US claimed that Venezuela was increasing its ties with Russia and China. For this and other reasons, the US imposed sanctions that have killed an estimated 40,000 people. Everyone knows about American wars, fewer know about the death and destruction sanctions cause.
People say this is "whataboutism." Of course it is! If one guy in a city has declared himself sheriff and says he has the right to enforce the law everywhere, it's legitimate to point out that he's the biggest violator of all the laws and principles he pretends he's defending.
Does that mean Russia is perfect? No, it pursues its interests. But the American position here is justified by its supposed moral superiority. No one is even pretending there is any US strategic interest in Ukraine. It’s all about “sovereignty” and “democracy,” a complete farce
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US-India relationship is being harmed because Pakistan is more willing to kiss up to Trump, and Modi has too much pride to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize when he didn’t do anything.
Mr. Trump contends that he used trade as leverage to get the two sides to stop fighting. After these enticements and warnings, he said, “all of a sudden they said, ‘I think we will stop’” the fighting.
Ghislaine Maxwell transcripts released! See here for thread on the most interesting parts. 1/n
Ghislaine is asked whether Epstein ever received money from any intelligence agency, including Mossad. She replies that not as far as she knows and she would be surprised if he did.
Epstein started taking testosterone in the late 1990s. But he was not on any other substances.
Man comes to the US from Lebanon. Starts out delivering pizzas, becomes a Nobel winning neuroscientist. Trump freezes his funding, he gets an email from China offering to move his lab “any city, any university I want" with guaranteed funding for 20 years.
How to think about immigration. You should be paranoid about the possibility that the US rejects geniuses. One brilliant entrepreneur can or inventor can carry a lot of dead weight. Almost all immigration is good, but this would be true even if it wasn't. richardhanania.com/p/exchange-wit…
Earlier I discussed Casey Means, Trump's nominee for Surgeon General, and her mystical and quack beliefs.
I've looked into her story about how she left her residency. It's very strange, and indicates that there's something that we don't yet know.
Means says she was in an otolaryngology residency and almost finished, but she instead decided to quit because her surgical residency didn't focus on nutrition enough. Isn't that something she would have known well before 4 years of residency, on top of medical school?
I think the real reason was she was unfit. Look at her cohort. The other two doctors went straight through their residency normally. Means, in contrast, had a one month gap between June-July 2018. I don't know what can explain this, but it indicates something abnormal happened.
Trump just nominated Casey Means for Surgeon General.
This is a lunatic who will do serious damage to public health. Thread here, which will only be able to scratch the surface.
She'll be the first occupant of the office to believe in using spiritual mediums, praying to ancestor shrines, doing full moon ceremonies to amplify her dreams, asking the trees in the forest to deliver her a hunky man, being a shroomhead, and praising indigenous wisdom.
She has no academic achievements to speak of. All she did was med school and she dropped out before completing her residency. This is weird, as anyone in medicine will tell you.
I've written the Trump reckoning you've been waiting for.
I used to think Dems would turn us into Western Europe. That looks good now when the other side is offering third world levels of incompetence, corruption, and authoritarianism.
I convinced myself that the choice was between leftism and conservatism, but it's actually first world leftism versus third world authoritarianism.
I didn't want to believe it! It means I have to be much more pessimistic about the future of America.
Partly it's because I was getting bad information. People close to the admin told me that RFK wouldn't be at HHS and economic policy wouldn't be so insane. But it turns out I was only talking to people who agreed with me, and they were engaging in their own wishful thinking.