NewStats: 3,261,497 , 8,174,179 topics. Date: Thursday, 29 May 2025 at 12:42 PM 6t486k6z3e3g |
(14) (of 185 pages)
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Waited years, but finally Russia and Iran put pen to paper today. Fingers crossed the agreement is worth the hype. -Lord 6 Likes 2 Shares |
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WrriterNg: Turkish-puppet HtS turning old foes into frenemies. Satanyahu and Ayatollah would soon exchange kippah and turban. π -Lord 3 Likes 3 Shares |
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OkpaNsukkaisBae: Sections of the Trump istration are trying to craft an elaborate ruse to have a December ceasefire redux. Trump and Biden get their ceasefire. Then a few weeks after Trump's inauguration, they resume and Trump will only be able to complain privately. It worked with Biden. We'll see if it repeats with Trump. -Lord |
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WrriterNg: Iran is not resting sef. They started killing HtS terrorists via ambushes. Beneath the surface, Israel, the West, and the Gulf (bar Qatar) are spooked by Turkey and its band of terrorists. If you're having trouble carrying a bag, you don't add to the load. Turkey is a thorn in Europe - Greece and Cyprus. In Central Asia - Azerbaijan and its paramilitary terrorist force of Turkic Asians (that region is poor and mercenaries are cheap from Uzbeks to Uighurs. In Africa - Libya, Sudan, and Somalia to a degree. Now you add Syria to their sphere of influence with their central location. Plus, they're in NATO and are integrated into the Western security network. Of course, things would be relatively smooth when interests align as with Assad. But what happens when interests diverge. They can be brought to heel, but they can also deal painful blows. HtS are terrorists so I don't mind Israel smoking them. On HtS/Turkey, Iran and Israel share an objective to thin the herd. -Lord 6 Likes 2 Shares |
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TemporaryHansel: Sadly, no. We all hope the ceasefire holds. The carnage was excessive. -Lord |
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Ballzproblemm: π Sunday na Ceasefire Day! ππΎπ₯π You go lick sweet? Mk we waybill your own. -Lord |
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RodgersAkpafu: An investment bank doing bend-down-select is different from Goldman Sachs spending $7B and employing tens of thousands directly and through its GCCs in India. India's population is 1.4B. Asia's is 5B. All of Africa is 1.5B. On top of that, a redditor compiled the per capita representation of races at elite colleges in the US. https://www.reddit.com/r/samharris/comments/qyvf3m/racial_preferences_at_elite_american_universities/ It's not even close. You're trying to compare a local supplier of a bodega to a national supplier of Walmart. We're operating at different wavelengths. US engineering graduates: 70,000 per year. India: 350,000. China: 600,000. That's why China can decide to create three new Starlink competitors concurrently and it's a regular Tuesday. You become an adjunct professor, become a VP, rise to Principal SWE, start a practice, and now you feel your pond is the Pacific. Asians are not competing with Blacks. We might aspire to. But there's an insane existing talent gap that make Asians a no-brainer for talent acquisition. Top 15% of India matches Nigeria's entire population. It'll amount to fiduciary negligence to skip that huge talent pool to wade in a puddle. Cognizant has 336,300 employees. Founded in India. Headquartered in New Jersey. It's a trojan horse for Indians to enter the NA workforce. One of the largest beneficiaries of H1Bs. That's talent. Put differently, that's an abundance of talent that we simply cannot match. There is no Wakanda of black geniuses that the West, Gulf, and hopefully in the future SE Asia are ignoring because of deep-seated biases. Do we have a smattering of exceptional talent? Yes. But it's a drop in the ocean and has no material effect on Asia's status as the #1 repository of talent. -Lord 6 Likes 1 Share |
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RodgersAkpafu: It is true. You're sharing reasons why it is our unfortunate reality and making a bold assertion that a culture shift will remedy the lopsidedness. That's an hypothetical. A culture shift will absolutely have a positive effect. We see it in immigrant vs native black populations. Would it level us up with the Asians who are overrepresented in the elite high schools and colleges, we'll never know. Sadly, they need talent today. Not just the West. The Gulf employs a lot of Nigerian doctors. If we had more exceptional talent to offer, they'll roll the red carpet. Worst-case, if the influx is rattling natives, they'll flood Africa with outposts and campuses. Which will collectively be sort of a sieve or talent pipeline. -Lord 1 Like 1 Share |
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Regex: I labelled Al Aqsa flood Iran's coming-out party. I stand by that. Anyone who thinks you can enter 21st century conflicts without staining your white watches too many Hollywood movies. Iran had engaged in a number of recent conflicts, like the Iraq insurgency, the Syria war, the anti-ISIS campaign, and the Yemeni war. They had built up a formidable Shia Crescent. This was their first conflict with a proper peer power who had the unlimited backing of the US. It was always going to be a costly endeavor. I've said as much as events have transpired. That's expected. The lessons from this War are invaluable. To illustrate, Iran's ongoing exercises have prioritized air defense maneuvers with homegrown systems. That used to be an after thought. They're also focusing a heck of a lot more on counter intelligence and SIGNIT. Turkey is now a priority. No one has any illusions about the importance of the economy on political stability in light of the SAA's stunning collapse. They're essentially fixing the blind spots they had that they could paper over when their opponents were rebels, terrorists, and ineffectual Arab militaries. In much the same way that Russia has revised its military doctrine many times over during the course of its SMO. From the use of combined arms brigades to all-domain drone warfare. You can send your generals into undefended battle spaces when you fight truck-driving terrorists, it's a different ballgame when you're fighting a military with F-35s and NATO intelligence. You can't buy or train experience. You have to get in the thick of it. Explains why many are pressing on China to the action to boost preparedness. What comes at the other end of this conflict is a beast with scars. Iranian missiles fired from Yemen are still striking targets in Israel after the deployment of THAAD AD. I don't consider Iran a loser in this War. They had setbacks, but you don't deploy tanks and expect all of them to return to storage in perfect condition. Syria is turning out to be a blessing in disguise. Turkey will divert some of the attention and let them rapidly modernize their military and reform the Resistance. We've been hearing lots of noise about Turkey. Yet the Kurds with 1/100000th of the IDF's capabilities is disciplining them right on their border. Heck, even the Houthis have handled more adversity than the Turks. But I guess it's understandable that folks would have their own interpretation of events. -Lord 13 Likes 3 Shares |
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Gerrard59: Don't believe that has anything to do with it. India can produce all the talent they want without hiccups. They have us beat by an insane margin. Blacks simply cannot go pound for pound against the Asians in intelligence. We are properly represented in sports and the military. Earned that. Similarly, by merit, more Stuyvesant, Ivy, and Mag 7 spots will go to the Asians. Traditionally, most Asian cultures enthusiastically defer to authority. However, there's a reason the C reoriented from the Soviets to the West. The West offered better economic promise which they were forced to take because they were on the clock. Their gambit worked and they bought around half a century of stability. Xi himself is on fraud watch Happy new year! -Lord 1 Like |
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Ballzproblemm: All hell shall break loose was contingent on Hamas being the impediment to a deal. Everyone knows that has not been the case for months. Satanyahu has been holding sh*t up. Anyway, it's just 6 weeks. We've had a prior short-term deal. We'll see if this sticks. E get why we Trump. Na d reason you dey see so. -Lord 1 Like |
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Geovanni412: China has a very bloody history of rebellions. Religion is a very potent catalyst of rebellions. Ergo, China's hardline stance. In 2018, China and the Holy See entered an agreement. A number of Bishops in China flout that agreement and act shocked when they're placed under house arrest. A lighthearted read on that region's history will reveal the real fears of the Chinese authorities. Give the Uighurs an inch and they WILL rebel. It is not an if. They have a mutual disdain of Han Chinese and in today's climate where the Turks are ascendant, many Uighurs have become plugged into the Wahhabi terror network, and the Ummah is wealthy and resourceful, they'll transform Xinjiang into Pashtun. It's difficult for outsiders to understand the Uighur situation because there are few parallels elsewhere. A potentially relatable situation will be Kashmir in India. If India had the same means as China, they'll absolutely implement the same draconian measures. That region of the planet has quite a few problematic minorities. And when you have Pakistan and Afghanistan as cautionary tales, China is not in the mood for risky experiments. Tajiks are also Muslims. They're Iranian. China treats them better than the Uighurs. In fact, during the Xinjiang wars, Uighur rebels killed Tajik livestock. Uighurs are Sunni. Tajiks are Shia. -Lord 3 Likes 2 Shares |
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OkpaNsukkaisBae: Yea. Trump could also be throwing a bone to the nascent pro-Palestine "give him a chance" wing of his winning coalition. Still, on face value, he publicized criticism of Netanyahu on Iran. That's very specific. All POTUSes reaching back to Carter draw the line at a hot war with Iran. It's widely known that Iran is the last piece on the MENA chessboard to take out. It stands to reason that he is under immense pressure to cross the Rubicon and he is far from pleased. Other POTUSes could punt the Iran question and focus on the others like Libya, Syria, Iraq. There's only Iran now and there's appetite for the gambit within neocon circles across the aisle. We'll see how long he is able to hold out. Or if Jan 17 gives him an out. -Lord 1 Like |
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https://nairaland.unblockandhide.com/8315896/trump-shares-jeffrey-sachs-video#133700434 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUGiOHG_kEU Trump has a love-hate relationship with Bibi. Trump soured on Bibi after 2020. He had his suspicions prior to his first term, as you'd glean from the interview, but things came to a head in 2021. Neither Trump nor Biden want to deal with Satanyahu. He is a nasty piece of work. But America has an iron-clad commitment to Israel, and Satanyahu is the hold-your-nose point man they have to sit across from. The latest spat likely has to do with Bibi wanting something from Trump, Trump pushing back and Bibi giving the impression that he'll push through for it anyway. Biden will disparage Bibi to confidants and possibly slow walk a delivery. Trump will disparage Bibi to confidants, then do something like this. -Lord 2 Likes 1 Share |
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WrriterNg: This is a brilliant submission by Pilko. But I find that a lot of Axis scholars tend to underestimate the inertia of peacetime geopolitics. Axis Powers recognize the dangers. They have as close to a "military alliance with mutual security agreements" as is possible without an impending declaration of war. Russia and Belarus are ed at the hip. China and DPRK are ed at the hip. DPRK and Russia entered an alliance. Syria was the glue that held Russia and Iran together. Without Bashar, they're a few days away from g the dotted lines on a military alliance that has informally existed. Essentially, the mesh of relations make this quite an elaborate entente of like-minded Powers in close proximity. What Pilko clamors for requires a lot of political sacrifice. A formal full-fledged NATO-like alliance between Russia + China + Iran + Belarus + North Korea will screw with the non-Eurasian relationships of each signatory. The military gains would be immense as they can start integrating their capabilities in earnest. But America will leap at the opportunity to call it the 1884 Berlin Conference of the 21st century. Where the Axis Powers are divvying up the rest of world. And many in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Africa; literally everywhere will lap it up. This in itself is not a deal breaker. But the move only makes sense if you're about to face off with the Hegemony in a hot war. It does not appear that the Hegemony wants to take on the Axis collectively in a hot war. They prefer localized infernos. The Levant for Iran. Eastern Europe and the Caucasus/Central Asia for Russia. And Taiwan + SE Asia like Myanmar for China. This allows the US to retain its economic edge while embroiling rival Powers. So I don't think it's a question of lack of recognition of the threat or hesitance to band together to face the threat. It is nuanced. They may yet arrive at the point where they go, "f*ck it, let's formalize an alliance, and let the chips fall where they may"... But it does not mean that the current approach is defective. How do you reconcile a full-blown military alliance and economic progress that require trade with pensive non-Eurasians? Russia has to sell its oil. China has to sell its cars. Iran needs non-Axis trade. Belarus and NK are in economic unions with Russia and China respectively, so their interests align with their primary partners. In a war, this wouldn't matter. But we're in a twilight zone where you're effectively at war, but your populace demand peacetime explosive economic growth. Iran is the most susceptible and it's why they've essentially waited until Israel and the US publicly threatened to murder their leaders before g a comprehensive agreement that formally plugs them into the Axis lattice. -Lord 9 Likes 4 Shares |
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WrriterNg: I think it's a function of environmental influences. To illustrate, Scandinavian (Northern Europe) design is generally flat, mundane, dour, and minimalistic. In contrast, Western European visual style is the stark opposite. A similar comparison would be the Persian Empire versus any of the Great South American Empires in Antiquity (Incas, Aztecs, Mayans). The Persian Empire was richer, larger, more populous, more diverse. But the design DNA and aesthetic of the South American Empires are mesmerizing. -Lord 2 Likes 1 Share |
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It is surreal that the California Fires is projected to be the most destructive disaster in monetary in US history. Worse than Katrina! My heart goes out to every victim. -Lord 8 Likes 1 Share |
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Emekus92: Easy! Excellent episode. -Lord |
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WriteerNg: Exhibit #76352869 why a multipolar world is non-negotiable. -Lord 3 Likes |
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Israeli TG claimed Israeli security sources are interpreting a 5.3 earthquake in Tabriz during Iran's ongoing exercises as a nuke test. Maybe they're trying to get Trump to launch a preemptive strike with circumstantial evidence. But if Iran has not acquired a nuke, they have themselves to blame. The region is geologically active. Tremors and disturbances are regular occurrences. It gives cover for testing. It also creates a rich environment for deliberate mischaracterization. -Lord 6 Likes 1 Share |
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basilico: Zuckerberg spends $400m in 2020 in favor of Biden. Yay! Elon spends $250m to boost Trump's electoral chances. Evil billionaires! -Lord 2 Likes 1 Share |
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raumdeuter: When Democrat billionaires like Bloomberg donate 100m or Zuckerberg splurges 400m to throw an election for their guy, they cheer. When Democrat billionaires do f*cked up sh*t like hoard water rights, the problem becomes conservatives justifying billionaires. Shocking lack of ability. These are Democrat billionaires. They helped Kamala outraise Trump. Do something about them. Show us the error of our ways through action. Confiscate their billions. And since it'll be a boon for the economy and is a morally standup thing to do, you'll be able to attract more walk-the-talk liberal billionaires. They'll relocate and hand you even more billions. Win-win. -Lord 2 Likes |
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cococandy: If you want to egg a democrat billionaire, have the floor. Don't expand the target radius. Democrats control near every lever of power in NY and California. Washington approved a 1% wealth tax. You can start a campaign to enact a combined 90% state income + wealth tax. Nothing is stopping you? Should be an easy sell to your ideological soulmates. You guys went after Trump and argued Mar-a-Lago is worth 18m. You guys could go after Resnick. No one will stop you guys. I for one will cheer. Getting rich off water rights in a drought-prone region is bonkers. Seriously, it's getting old. California and New York have more billionaires than the bottom 30 states with billionaires combined. If you guys hate billionaires so much, set the pace. Confiscate their billions. -Lord 2 Likes 1 Share |
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Masterviolence: They've been trying to deflect to no avail. All falling flat. In 2025, the winning tradition of exposing the Hegemony as the emperor without clothes continues. Folks who were floating wild stories of Russian soldiers stealing Ukrainian toilets are now demanding sympathy and nuance while simultaneously cheering the delivery of billions to Ukraine. Meanwhile, North Carolina is still in the shitter and there's no water to contain the most destructive wildfire in recent history in America's richest state. -Lord 7 Likes 2 Shares |
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shoodboi2: Our resident cretins are on an extended vacation. π Sad scenes. Thankfully, casualty count has been low. Hopefully, it stays that way. This disaster does highlight a critical issue. Imagine if the USD wasn't the global reserve currency. All of these annual disasters--the hurricanes in Florida, fires in California, Tornados in Middle America. They'd have had a more radical impact on their finances. But since they can just print dollars, it doesn't matter what the losses amount to. Why should only the Americans have that privilege? Construction and habitation should have been banned in wide swathes of these disaster-prone areas. But they build and build. In Florida right up to the coast line. In California, right up to the forests. Then they incur billions of $ in damages. Print money from thin air to rebuild. Reinsure, even though that's basically rent-seeking. Then wave their hats around about muh hIgH GDP. -Lord 3 Likes 1 Share |
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Ibime: Condominium is a fair compromise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condominium_(international_law) In any case, the top Danish-speaking 1% in Greenland are about to get a heck of a lot richer. Lobbying ain't cheap. US and Denmark are fat cats. -Lord |
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By the way, and as a history lesson for the pro-Western π€‘ who think Trump is bluffing: The US bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917. There is precedence. -Lord 5 Likes 3 Shares |
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Regex: The annexation moves are perennial in nature. Trump may not get them, but he's teeing them up for a future POTUS and getting Americans used to the idea of restarting their imperialistic drive. NATO will be fine. US has completely infiltrated countries in their sphere of influence. The European monarchs will be pissed and they'll their displeasure by cranking the shaft on geopolitical parallelism. So strengthening developments like a European Army, more independent weapons programs like the two next-gen fighter jet programs they have currently, and trying to craft a more nuanced relationship with Asia. The Europeans and particularly the Baltic dachshunds are stuck. They'll have to twerk for someone. It's either the US, Russia, or one of their fellow European states. They've had their 2 (3?) decades honeymoon with the US. Reality is hitting them like a sledgehammer now. Even if they can divorce the US, they'll just be replacing them with the Brits, French, Germans or Italians. That's not pretty. Because they'll get the worst of both worlds. The historical overbearing tendencies without the cha-ching as the European powers are poor shells of what they used to be. Lastly, hypocrisy is endemic in geopolitics. I think the development that Europe will find shocking is the disquieting silence of the American Liberal Left. They saw warning signs when the Left forced Putin into a War no one wanted in Western Europe (save the clowns in London). Now Trump is playing monopoly with their possessions and the Left is just... quiet. Like Iran, the European establishment has tethered themselves to the US Liberal Left and their fortunes rise and fall with the Left. Unlike Iran however, they have no backstop. -Lord 5 Likes 3 Shares |
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BoldBrainz: South and North Korea are not different. Both want strong men. Depose the Jong Uns in North Korea and they'll be quickly replaced by a new dynasty. South Korea should be a constitutional monarchy. -Lord 6 Likes 2 Shares |
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Dvdpity: Greenland is already effectively US territory in everything but name. Denmark is in NATO and the US has a base in Greenland. The Americans want to make it a territory because they want to make Greenland the Northern Guam. They want to build out more infrastructure but do not want to always have to grovel at the Amalienborg Palace for every approval. Besides, Trump is a Manifest Destiny disciple. Look that up. That camp of the American polity has been dormant since the last several decades, but they're very powerful and reach back to the times of the 13 Colonies. Canada has been their prime target. They fought and lost two wars to annex Canada. They want all of North America and even the Caribbean. They may even make a play for the Philippines again under the pretext of the China threat. Greenland is the test run. I am not alarmed about any of Trump's moves. Much of it is a realization by the Hegemony that multipolarity is here to stay. So they want firmer control of the territories in their sphere, lest they become future Ukraine and South Korea. Cuba is the cautionary tale. -Lord 11 Likes 2 Shares |
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