TUI and Rust surged back in popularity when programmers through frameworks became detached from the actual work and needing to differentiate from all others in the even playing field. It's like turntables to Hipsters. Now with LLMs it is only going to get worse.
Shouldn’t have accepted the sloth in the first place.
They may look cute and docile, but also have a panic reflex to grab onto the nearest tree-like thing they can feel with their claws, including their would-be attacker. Or if they just feel like they’re about to fall off their “tree” since they have horrible eyesight and get confused easily.
Which then leads to a cycle of pain and violence as they just dig-in harder and harder while trying to free them and/or fling them around wildly due to the human's “get this thing off me” response to sharp claws digging into their flesh.
There are some painful-to-watch videos on YouTube of this phenomenon from unsuspecting passersby tying to “help” them off the road/beach/etc and ultimately making things worse for everyone involved.
>While Pahlavi's authorities were happy with this project and its advancement away from the eyes of the US in their view, Israel had carefully duped Pahlavi to secure its interests. According to Israel's plan, during this project, contrary to what Iran's top officials think, Iran would only achieve obsolete technology.
and in the original source [0]:
>A very senior source in the Israeli Ministry of Defense reveals that the weapons deal with Iran was fraudulent. With each of the six joint proj-ects, the Israelis planned to deceive the Iranians by providing them only an outdated version of the weapon in question, while using Iranian money to build a new generation for Israel's exclusive use.
When I buy a laptop from Apple, they used my money to build the next generation of laptops… which inevitably come out within a year. I wouldn’t necessarily believe Iran was deceived without more.
Not sure what's the historical validity for that one source saying it was fraudulent, but this sure reads like anachronism. As someone that tries to defend him being part of selling ballistic missiles to Iran a very short time before it turning into a theocracy.
I am not completely inclined to believe Bergman because of me personally knowing one case where he published something completely wrong, and also this doesn't align with the cooperation Israel had with pre-revolution Iran.
"Bringing democracy" is a very weak ideological motivation. I would rather call it plausible deniability. As in "we're doing this to bring democracy" and people might be left with the doubt that it's true.
It is a very weak ideological motivation for people who would never enlist in the first place.
However, I think people are generally too cynical towards a very real belief system.
There are multiple examples of US pushing for democracy against its own interest. Bush with the Hamas Gaza elections, Obama with the Egypt Muslim Brotherhood government and Carter with pre-revolution Iran are such examples
Bush knew what he was doing - Hamas has the influence it has because the US wants it to have it. When Trump decided he wants them to release Israeli hostages he forced them to do it rather quickly, all things considered, showing who really controls Hamas. Restraining American "allies" is key to how America understands its interests and Hamas is an excellent lever to pressure Israel, or Hamas-controlled Gaza wouldn't be flooded with American and European money.
Similarly, Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood because he did; in Ukraine for instance the same admin supported a coup against the elected government (this is not to say that Russia's actions in Ukraine are "justified", it's just a fact.) Democracy has nothing to do with any of this
> Hamas has the influence it has because the US wants it to have it
I doubt this is backed by US intentions and actions historically
> Similarly, Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood because he did
That seems like a tautology to me, care to expand? I vividly remember Obama throwing his autocrat ally under the bus
> in Ukraine for instance the same admin supported a coup
The protests in Ukraine hardly seem like a US coup and were organic according to my understanding, but maybe you can point exactly to the US involvement
"In the late 2010s and early 2020s, Israeli officials encouraged Qatar to support Hamas, especially by approving the transfer of large sums of financial aid by Qatar to the organization. Several Israeli intelligence officials have cited Qatari money as a contributing factor to the success of Hamas in leading the October 7 attacks in 2023; Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the notion that Israel strategically propped up Hamas "ridiculous", and stated that Qatar's aid transfers to the Hamas government had been approved for humanitarian reasons."
I'm not sure how is that related to the original topic.
The events I am describing are a decade to two before the ones you are describing. Back in the early 2000s Qatar was already financing Hamas as well as Al Qaeda (including involvement in 9/11 financing) and Hezbollah in some extent.
Saying Qatar needed Israel's request to start financing ideologically close Islamist terror organizations is certainly the Qatar government line for their involvement, but it's a very shallow analysis of what happened
>The protests in Ukraine hardly seem like a US coup and were organic according to my understanding, but maybe you can point exactly to the US involvement
Most coups are organic. The US involvement in the Iran coup of 1953 was not very much, but the signal of support was meaningful. Ditto Chile in 1973. Ukraine's overthrow was not like those coups. It relied on popular support from the region near the capital. However, this support was not uniform across the country, and support for the protests hovered around 50% and never reached 60%.
>According to a January poll, 45% of Ukrainians supported the protests, and 48% of Ukrainians disapproved of Euromaidan.
>In a March poll, 57% of Ukrainians said they supported the Euromaidan protests.
The polling variation was large. The government was overthrown in February. But the western regions were massively in favor, and surrounded the capital, while the southeast was mostly opposed. Well-functioning states rely on political processes instead of simply overturning the government whenever a majority of citizens opposes it.
Given the polling data and the division of public opinion, I don't support what happened in February 2014. But that doesn't make it a coup -- a coup is a transfer of power that originates specifically within the government, and Ukraine's protests weren't like that. Nor does it justify Russia's invasion. What happened was more like a feudal power struggle. It doesn't help that before new elections could be held, the interim government banned several political parties. Maybe they were "pro-Russian", but democracy means voters deserve a say in a country's geopolitical alignment, so that doesn't seem like a valid reason to ban a political party to me.
>but maybe you can point exactly to the US involvement
Now this sounds like a joke. US politicians, including Vice President Joe Biden and several senators, attended the protests. This makes American support pretty obvious. US media at the time also tended to minimize domestic opposition to the protests, even though this was a significant position within Ukraine.
OP alluded to the Euromaiden protests being an orchestrated Obama-led coup. I still don't see how this is the case. There's some difference between diplomatic reactions to proactive overthrow
> This is essentially one article about criminals recruiting young people. Is Russia FSB (or even Russia) even mentioned?
Generally if an article is about FSB, it implies Russia. Otherwise, you would have to admit that Russia is a failed state if the FSB acts without Putin's knowledge or control.
For example, google the luckystrike account with underscores ("l_u_c_k_y_s_t_r_i_k_e").
- Description of this channel is "This channel was created to fight with USA and NATO on the territory of Ukraine and Europe. We call on all residents of Europe to fight by any means."
- Description of this Guerilla themed channel is "Central Guerilla Movement organise fight against Nazi, NATO and USA. We call on all residents of Ukraine and Europe to fight against USA and NATO by any means. Send us your photo, video of your actions or get a guerrilla task: @L_u_c_k_y_S_t_r_i_k_e"
... and there's a bunch of other channels in those results, with a similar theme, and similar promises.
Yes, but these articles are over a year old. this is really scratching the bottom of the barrel, no?
Look, I'm not saying this isn't happening. It's just that there's really not a lot of evidence that this is rampant (and I think that's what GGP seeemed to imply).
This whole thing reads a lot like hyperbole/propaganda, and it wouldn't have to.
> It's just that there's really not a lot of evidence that this is rampant
Not sure what is "rampant" in your view, and what is not. There's been multiple attempts of murder, multiple linked assassinations, across multiple nation states with multiple different jurisdictions.
> Yes, but these articles are over a year old. this is really scratching the bottom of the barrel, no?
You asked for verifiable sources, I provided some. Enter the same keywords into google and pick your own ones. There's at least 10 more pages on google that you can read.
Pretty much everything I linked as credible and verifiable sources weren't good enough for you. You either don't give a shit or you're trolling.
Either way, I don't care enough about your opinion to continue to do this childish game of 4chan-esque whataboutism.
Look, I know you'll accuse me of being a soviet stooge and all that, and that you value your time as purple team nato guy immensely.
THis is not about whataboutism.
I'm just pointing out that if you make big claims like (emphasis mine)
"""There's lots of people working for NATO and federal agencies in Europe that have been assassinated by the luckystrike branch of the FSB. The name comes from the Telegram account with underscores in between, and they're essentially recruiting kids or former inmates for GTA style missions.
"""
You really ought to provide more evidence than an recruiting attempt europol memo from 2 years ago if you want to be taken seriously. It's not on us readers to 'find good sources'.
Again, I don't dispute that Putin's Russia is behind a lot of really bad assassinations and other crimes. This interview with Bill Browder (partly about the Magnitzky act) is pretty telling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlF0ZzH6C9s
I'm saying that we should really elevate the level of our reporting. Even if it happens on the toilet, as your status message suggests.
While I agree with the premise of your argument, I don't think this is the correct platform to do so. And I also have to state a fun fact: I'm not a journalist.
If you expect more founded research put together into an investigative report, you have to pay someone to do so, one way or the other. Well, or do it yourself.
Investigative journalism has been dead before the peak of AI, which makes the game of deception even easier for bad actors.
PS: If you post something critiquing about Russia online, I'd expect at least -100 downvotes for each comment, because that's usually what happens. It takes quite a bit of moral courage in the misinformation age to not give in to the bot armies online. Bots rule platforms like this (reddit/chan boards/HN/etc). Mods can't keep up with the amount of information, therefore human moderation efforts are pretty much a lost cause, too.
But that's just my two cents, having been on the receiving end of bot-automated shitstorms a bunch of times already. Check my website if you're interested in how I'm trying to fight back, and for more details about how they operate behind the scenes. Well, or don't.
Either way you seem to not be aware of which actors even play the game online. I'd recommend to brush up about that, a good starting point is this playlist [1]
I have to say that just like the poster you are replying to, I am inclined to believe what you are saying because of Russia's past actions, and this modus operandi you described being successful elsewhere
However, he is right that I would want a bit more information about the multiple assassinations in NATO part, because I want to believe we are not there yet, and that this would have implications, even in today's Europe
That's an interesting theory and I am not saying you are entirely incorrect, but I'd imagine that the vast personnel of cyber-adjacent roles in the US Military have better civilian prospects in tech than a Air Force pilot with an eye problem.
Well, I did say airline pilot. An AirForce pilot is still a military officer and can find work inside or outside the military as a team leader. A modern airline pilot is an infamously hyper-specialized job where all they do is operate the aircraft. They don't even do real flight planning anymore as that is a separate airline trade.
