Who would do this? Nobody would do this!

hand shaking

derailed an international carbon tax

While inflating oil prices by $40 bbl

boosted forecasts for oil and gas

Not out of Qatar, the UAE, or Kuwait

sought to silence an island nation’s climate campaign

Last month, the U.S. State Department took its anti-climate pressure campaign to the United Nations General Assembly. The agency sent a missive to every U.S. embassy and consulate, urging all U.N. members to reject a resolution proposed by the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Vanuatu and its neighbors in the region had recently brought a successful case to the International Court of Justice, or ICJ; the court ruled that countries have an obligation to mitigate climate change. The resolution called on states to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, phase out support for fossil fuels, and pay climate reparations, among other measures.

…

In its message, the Trump administration called the “disturbing resolution” a “charade” and asked Vanuatu to “immediately withdraw” the effort and “cease attempting to wield the Court’s Advisory Opinion as a basis for creating an avenue to pursue any misguided claims of international legal obligations.”

Lee-Anne Sackett, Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate justice, said negotiations on the resolution have continued at the U.N. despite U.S. pressure. Strong advocacy from island nations continues, and none of the dozen countries who proposed the resolution alongside Vanuatu have rescinded their support.

shrug

Idk. In classic Trump fashion, it seems like he’s getting the opposite of what he asked for. But also in classic Trump fashion, it feels as though he’s going to come out ahead anyway - almost entirely by accident - as US oil export prices sore and Middle Eastern monarchies rally around the American flag to fight Iran.

I have a hard time believing a bottleneck that plugs 20% of the global oil reserve will be a bad thing for the climate. Or that surging oil prices will deter the rollout of green energy solutions globally. But for Trump, specifically, it does feel like a “Heads I Win / Tails You Lose” crisis.

NATO is not for undocumented wars.

Glances at the last 80 years of NATO history

:-/

Zelda and halo aside

Put this man in The Library and make him do a dozen runs on the highest difficulty.

D2 listed as slop? SLOP!?!?!?

D2 was the OG slop. Rogue-like before Rogue-like was cool. An endless, graduated grind with minimal story and hundreds of hours of “We’ve changed the color palette slightly so you know the thing you’re click-spamming is more difficult to kill” monotony.

It’s the kind of game you play through once with glee, then get halfway through the second run at higher difficulty, gasping for air at 2am on a Wednesday night with exams the next day, and ask yourself “Holy shit, what have I done with my life?!”

Then you jam the uninstall button, snap the CD, and bury yourself in your bedsheets dreading the hangover after your brief moment of lucidity fades.

feels like everything changed after 2020

You: smugly laughing at video games from the 90s

Me: Slipping into a dementia addled bliss as I play the classics absent any DLC, Microtransactions, or fear that the studio will collapse before it finishes the series

How would such a large number of professionals coordinate their efforts?

You’d need some kind of organization, ideally with a leadership to coordinate actions among its major players. And you’d need lines of communication that weren’t compromised by the business interests you were negotiating against. You’d also need a state body willing to enforce the terms reached by the workforce and its employers. And you’d need a public that valued the dignity and prosperity of individual workers above the potential temporary disruption of the treat train.

Does Japan have any of that?

if i rob and kill my elderly neighbor to steal their stuff to help pay rent

It’s rob the neighbor or be the neighbor that gets robbed.

This isn’t a real choice from a material sense. It’s selection bias. You’re mad at a random sampling of people forced into a Sofie’s Choice, rather than the fascists forcing this choice on them.

You’ll always look stupid defending Putin.

Evangelicals have The Devil and Liberals have Vladimir Putin.

The GOP has wanted to bomb Iran since Bush 41. The whole party, and much of the American business community, is fully in his corner.

Hell, even Democrats are throwing in their support.

Israel’s Accomplice

his buddy Putin

American President surrounded by American generals and senators and tech CEOs doing a very American war in the Middle East as Americanly as you please

“Evil Foreigners made him do it”

westboro

Deliberately instigated violent opposition so they could press and collect on civil lawsuits.

Many members of the group are trained lawyers, including founder Fred Phelps, and they have historically filed hundreds of lawsuits—mostly over picket rights and alleged civil rights violations—aiming to secure settlements or court-awarded legal fees.

They were quite literally professional trolls. Baiting people into attacking them by criticizing dead soldiers had nothing to do with ideology. It was purely part of their grift.

I mean, it’s double edged.

You’ve got folks in desperate poverty for whom enlistment is designed as a release valve.

But then you’re being paid to crush people more desperate than you.

So do you want to be the half of lumpen labor paid to do the killing or the half that’s being killed? I don’t like the people doing the killing, but I can’t blame from for not wanting to be on the other side of the barrel. There’s no good choice to be made when you’re in the bottom rung of the social order.

At the end of the day, what we really need is a mid level officer’s revolt. Where is the American Chavez? Where is the American Gaddafi?

That‘s just how Chinese propaganda operates

A KGB spy and a CIA agent meet up in a bar for a friendly drink

“I have to admit, I’m always so impressed by Soviet propaganda. You really know how to get people worked up,” the CIA agent says.

“Thank you,” the KGB says. “We do our best but truly, it’s nothing compared to American propaganda. Your people believe everything your state media tells them.”

The CIA agent drops his drink in shock and disgust. “Thank you friend, but you must be confused… There’s no propaganda in America.”

In a competent administration, this would be inspiring.

No it wouldn’t. It’s always been a dumb idea to get around public mass transit.

Sucks to be in Texas, the Silicon Valley alpha testing hub of the US.

within three to five years

That’s tech speak for “never”

The technology, developed by Borui Kang Medical Technology (Shanghai), is designed to restore hand-movement capabilities in individuals suffering from paralysis.

Specifically, the system targets patients with quadriplegia resulting from cervical spinal cord injuries, enabling them to regain hand-grasping ability through the use of a specialised glove.

Incredible technology, nonetheless.

But crazy to think this would be a commercial public service any time soon

The problem is that it definitely feels like something a libertarian tech bro would try.

It’s also not entirely false, or at least without precedent.

Richardson has a unique and progressive way of running his company. To update an old adage, Richardson is putting his bitcoin where his mouth is. His platform pays its 250-plus employees in bitcoin. He takes his pay this way too. The company has opted for the bitcoin standard to both show commitment to the cause and streamline payroll for its global workforce.

Unironically. But only on the condition they bring back Google from 2011