2021/06/05

Link drop June 2021

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Commander of Space Force unit fired after accusing the military of pushing an agenda ‘rooted in Marxism’ 

This is by far not the only full blown nutjob among the American flag ranks senior officers. The USAF was reported to be particularly infested, especially by bible humpers. This is a consequence of Strategic Air Command culture from deep in the Cold War times.

I suppose the new administration should identify and remove the nutjobs with priority on command positions in nuclear arms units and on the military bases in the capital. Else, the next January 6th-style attack on the Republic might be mounted with Washington D.C.-based troops and succeed.

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I'm sceptical about this. It will be possible to fool the algorithm into highlighting the contours of irrelevant things and to not highlight the contours of some relevant things. The NVG user will become reliant on the highlighting and thus be more easily fooled than without the highlighting. Moreover, this tech sure is very expensive for likely incremental net gain (and only so at night). 

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cnn.com/travel/article/aerion-supersonic-planemaker-folds/index.html

And again no supersonic business jet as basis for electronic warfare aircraft!

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comandosupremo.com/rome-to-tokyo/

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just a bit tank p0rn:


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www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2021/04/israel_palestine0421_web_0.pdf

theintercept.com/2021/05/29/israel-palestine-mobs-crackdown/

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www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/26/emily-wilder-fired-ap-490892

This opinion piece misleading, showing the narrative bias of the author. Israel saying that the building with AP reporters was targeted because Hamas operated from it as well is not an excuse, it's a confession. The Geneva Convention clearly states that you must not target such a building with civilians. The attack was very likely a war crime.

/2009/06/human-shields.html

The possibly legitimate way would have been to inform the AP reporters and other civilians (including Hamas civilians!) that the building may get targeted for paramilitary Hamas presence (if the Hamas presence thing was real and not just an ex post lie and if the war in itself was legitimate, which is another question). The civilians would then have been able to vacate the building in time.[I checked again because of a comment hint and found an AP article confirming that a one-hour warning was indeed given to the owner or the building. I have not found any evidence that legitimate Hamas targets were actually present, though.]

Now Israel did not sign & ratify the Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, but that doesn't matter much for the judgment of its actions. North Korea didn't sign the NPT and nobody posits that all would be fine about Iran and nuclear tech once it left the NPT, right?

Any concerns about military effectiveness are irrelevant for the question of war crime or not. Committing war crimes in pursuit of more firepower effect is still committing war crimes.

The indiscriminate firing of high explosive rockets into villages and cities is just as bad, though this war has no doubt again led to many more civilians killed by the Israeli government than by Palestinians, by an order of magnitude. (I'm not sure how much Hamas could be called a Palestinian government, they only control the Gaza Strip and are more akin to separatists IMO).

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[German] twitter.com/clausvonwagner/status/1390615813825179653


S O
defence_and_freedom@gmx.de

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25 comments:

  1. Critical race theory has roots in Neo-Marxism and is used to justify many current measures for racial equality. It still reads like this guy was a nutjob, but simplifying it in this statement makes him speak truth to power.

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    1. WTF are you writing about here at all???

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    2. Critical race theory is the newest political target for American liberal centrists. It's a high-profile novelty because attacking the left is rare among moderates.

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    3. Are you a random sentence generating bot? Nothing you wrote here makes sense, Grom.
      Tell me what is the product of two and half of six.

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    4. 6. Your prejudice is blinding you. This 'nutjob' is a moderate liberal repeating historical facts. That's why firing him made headline news.

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    5. I think the statement made by the space force guy was polemic, but it can be constructed to be based on selective observations. Current measures for more racial equality are in part based on works influenced by criticical race theory. That theory has also roots in Neo-Marxism, replacing class with race. If one shortens and distorts this, one gets: "Racial equality measures are based on Marxism." I think it's a nutjob, but there's some logic to it.

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    6. CRT is the acknowledgment that legal equality by the law isn't enough to root out racism from governance because government is people, and people are all-too often (maybe all of them) racists.
      It's a triviality really, but still a step forward after the earlier views.

      Right wingers have gone full nutjob and made CRT a trigger word like "marx(...)", "Socialis(...)" et cetera. They use trigger words to embed hate & fear commands into their easily programmed fearful pussies base.

      There's an objective level at which CRT is nothing special and then there's the American reichswing nutjob level in which it's SCARY RUN FOR YOUR LIVES THE MARXISTS ARE COMING FOR YOU stuff.

      And it just happens that the Fascist party opposes findings that support that some more (and different) things should be done to counter racism. Unsuspicious!

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory
      https://www.britannica.com/topic/critical-race-theory
      https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-are-people-so-upset-about-it
      https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/guest-blog-where-does-bizarre-hysteria-about-%E2%80%98critical-race-theory%E2%80%99-come-follow

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    7. I totally agree with you. As I said, I consider it a nutjob. I just wanted to point out that if someone wants to make such a connection, it is possible.

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    8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    9. No, a word search for'marx' yields zero findings on the wiki page. There is nothing in the recent edit history either.

      I call you, anonymous, out for lying.

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    10. it's a lieutenant colonel not flag rank

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    11. the occupants of the AP building were forewarned and had time to vacate the building
      when Hamas launch rockets at Israel they don't forewarn and leave time for civilians to vacate the target - notwithstanding the fact they are currently unable to target anything precisely

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    12. Thanks, the detail about a warning was missed by me, as it wasn't mentioned in the reports I saw at the time. It changes a lot, though it doesn't change that the Hamas presence claim was not backed up publicly and is disputed by the AP.

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    13. Last Dingo:

      In your own language:

      CRT ist interdisziplinär angelegt und baut u. a. auf Erkenntnisse des Liberalismus, des Poststrukturalismus, des Feminismus, des Marxismus, ....

      https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Race_Theory

      I call you Last Dingo a typical neo socialist. You share this bigoted phariseeism interspersed with hubris and righteousness which you always show with the left majority in this federal republic.

      Am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen.

      The basic way will probably never change, only the content, which is not getting any better, just different.

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    14. You don't seem to understand how weak the choice of words "auf Erkenntnissen" is. I could just as well say that spaceflight rests "auf Erkenntnissen" of medieval Arab math.
      That's far from the much stronger choice of words "has roots in".

      As mentioned before, right wing propaganda has programmed Americans to develop hostility reflexes. People are talking about CRT and Marxism in one sentence to trigger that hostility response. It's a propaganda technique appropriate to the already incredibly gullible and delusional right wing base.

      I'm a Sozialliberaler and an economist (among other qualifications), which means that I'm aware of many not yet implemented ways that economic research has found how to improve our economies and societies.
      I can imagine an economy with more non-profit companies would be better, but replacing market-based goods and service production with state-provided goods and services makes only sense in a few select cases (natural monopolies, for example).

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  2. Regarding the Israel-Palestina conflict, there are two very important questions that should be asked but for some reason never ever are:

    1. Is supporting Israel really in the best interest of the western nations? After all there is not only a financial and material cost, but more importantly the cost of strained relationships with Muslim nations that have a larger population than Israel?

    2. Is the state of Israel sustainable in its current form? There is a large and growing population of people on its territory that doesn't enjoy their human rights. With the One-State solution there would be the possibility of a Muslim majority in Israel, whereas with the Two-State solution there are fears, that the new state of Palestine might destroy Israel.

    What do you think? Regarding the Israel-Palestina conflict, there are two very important questions that should be asked but for some reason never ever are:

    1. Is supporting Israel really in the best interest of the western nations? After all there is not only a financial and material cost, but more importantly the cost of strained relationships with Muslim nations that have a higher population than Israel?

    2. Is the state of Israel sustainable in its current form? There is a large and growing population of people on its territory that doesn't enjoy their human rights. With the One-State solution there would be the possibility of a Muslim majority in Israel, whereas with the Two-State solution there are fears, that the new state of Palestine might destroy Israel.

    What do you think?

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    1. Personally, I think the veto powers in the UNSC should simply convene and decide on a resolution that forces Israel to obey the many earlier resolutions that obligate it to withdraw from all occupied regions, or else draconian (that is, pretty much everything but food and medical supply imports blocked) sanctions.

      Neither Israeli government nor any Arabs need to be listened to or talked to. They are all minor powers irrelevant tot he conflict. They can be forced into at least obey international law because they are de facto powerless vs. the UN and the great powers.

      The U.S. and its veto power protecting Israel is the key to the perpetuation of the conflict. Israel has a dominant nationalist-religious right wing with a Lebensraum and Apartheid ideology, so it cannot be expected to change its way until it understands that it's weak, not powerful.

      Egypt should be held responsible for order in Gaza and Jordan should be held responsible for order in West Bank. Blue helmets should secure Golan heights with a forceful approach (searching and arresting anyone on slight suspicions of terrorism or for weapon/munition ownership) until Syria has regained internal order and can be held responsible for order in Golan heights.
      Being responsible for order means extremely severe (though non-violent) punishments by the UN for any attacks on Israel originating in these territories. Israel's right to self-defence would have to be partially suspended by the UN, limited to its own territory. Their habitual bombing of other countries has to stop.

      Israel reminds me of the crusader states. It won't last 200 years if it remains in conflict. An end to its confrontational and expansionist grand strategy is in its own best interest IMO. It certainly is in the best interest of the rest of the world.

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    2. With international support for Israel still remaining strong in the Western world and accusations of antisemitism being hurled quite easily at anyone criticizing Israel, your proposed solution seems to be unlikely.
      So what will happen in the foreseeable future? How do you think, Israel will collapse, if it doesn't change its politics?

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    3. Aggressive countries often overextend by making too many enemies. One dip in Western support or a surge of Arab economic wealth and they're going to enter a downward spiral. Their nukes won't save them. The Chinese could enter the region and garner support by extending a nuclear deterrence umbrella over the Arab countries, for example.

      Their flirt with American Fascists was supremely stupid as well. A fully-gestated Fascist U.S. would have led to Israel's demise in less than a generation. The accumulation of Jewish people in the administration's top levels and top meetings was all about nepotism, and would have ended with the death of the already geriatric cult leader.

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    4. The world map on baidu, the Chinese street maps, shows Palestine with the borders of 1947 and the current borders of the West Bank and Gaza as contested. This map is drawn in accordance with official wishes. So China doesn't appear to be the most Israel friendly country, which forces Israel to seek accomodation with other camps. But maybe the tail shouldn't wag the dog so much.

      There are a number of Palestinians, who want to end the existence of Israel in order to "make peace". I express doubts a settlement of the conflict is possible without one side leaving the land or being outnumbered to insignificance.
      Israel's population grows more on empty and emptied lands, a policy which a number of settlers continue by illegal means. The Muslims are predicted to have an inflection point of shrinking birth rates in the future. It's possible that the Jewish population significantly outgrows the Arab population living in the region, which would create a situation of resistance is futile for a peace settlement. It's not a moral, but a working solution, given the nature of the hostility. I doubt the other Arabs or the Persians can do much about it, even with greater numeric and economc imbalance, Israel defeated them in their early days. Unlike the crusader states, Israel is fighting with nowhere to go in case of defeat.

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  3. To Last Dingo

    Israel is increasingly gaining allies among the Arab-Sunni countries precisely because it is an enemy of Syria and Iran. And more and more Islamic states are neutral to Israel. Beyond this fact, the matter is very simple: Israel is a democracy, Hamas is a terrorist organization and a sworn enemy to the death against all of the west and nothing else. If terrorists take the population hostage and use human shields, violence can still be used against them. So it is not illegal according to any law. Years ago, Hamas even explicitly wrote a manual on how to use human shields even better to sow hatred against Israel and to be able to attack Israel for apparent war crimes.

    That you, in your usual left-wing operational blindness, accuse Israel of crimes and then naively babble about blue helmets and that the Egyptians (de facto allies of the Israelis) should seal off the border - or even more ridiculous that Syria will eventually control the Golan Heights again is so alien and dreamdancing that a lot of what you normally write in a reasonable or logical way also becomes untrustworthy. You can't be that far from reality ?!

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    1. I linked to a post on the human shields topic. Your statement on human shields is nonsense.

      The current situation with some dictators reducing overt hostility to Israel is irrelevant in the long run and thoroughly uninteresting.

      The Golan heights are Syrian territory by international law and their return less implausible than a return of Crimea, which is still official policy in the West.

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    2. But it is not offical policy in the west to return the golan heights. Moreover fuck the "international law". Syria is a criminal dictatorship, like those who dominate the UN (the dictators club) and so as you support the UN position you position yourself against an western democracy and for enemies of the west which are dictatorships. You are the typical german green neo socialist.

      Also if a terrorist organisation takes hostages you can use violence against them despite this. We are not talking here about a war between nations in which this rules you mentioned must be taken into consideration, we are talking about a muslim terrorist organisation which takes hostages to hinder a rightful democratic gouverment to take measures against them.

      Terrorists are not legal combattants and fighting them is not war, it is more an kind of police action. Therefore the laws of war between nation states cannot be applied in the same way, otherwise the terrorists would always win in the long term.

      And international law is not that fix as you claim it here, its fluid and one can interpret it. The only reason why israel has so many disadvantages here is that your little dictatorsclub UN is mainly antisemitic.

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    3. I do not consider Israel a "western democracy", nor does being a "western democracy" justify any privileges. The US and UK were considered "Western democracies" when they criminally attacked Iraq, and it didn't make that savagery any bit better.

      Hamas is IMO as much a terrorist organization as British armed forces during WW2. Terrorist activity of a part of the organization does not rule out a combatant status and it does not void the right to live of the non-combatant member individuals.

      Hating certain people doesn't change what rights they have.

      International law is 100% clear on that Israel has to withdraw from all occupied regions to its pre-1967 borders. Its pre-1967 borders are legitimate and legal, and not one hectare more.

      You're smearing the UN as dictatorship club, which qualifies yourself as a liar.
      https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/dictatorship-countries
      The majority of its members are not dictatorships, and only 3 of 15 UNSC members are dictatorships.

      Stop the vile disinformation. The next post of that kind will be deleted.

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  4. “There are members of the [Department of Defense] who belong to extremist groups or actively participate in efforts to further extremist ideologies,” states a 17-page briefing obtained by POLITICO that was compiled by the DoD Insider Threat Management and Analysis Center, which is part of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.
    The Department of Homeland Security has said white supremacist extremists are the most lethal terror threat facing the U.S. And while Republicans accused far-left groups such as Antifa of taking part in the insurrection, FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers this month there's "no evidence" those groups played a role.
    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/27/military-extremism-target-list-478200


    The latest uproar comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has focused on rooting out extremism and increasing diversity in the military, a priority of President Joe Biden’s administration. Austin’s new mandate that troops complete a diversity and inclusion training program has been a particular source of mockery, along with his previous move to end the last administration’s ban on transgender troops.
    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/21/conservative-critics-military-policies-490197


    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday warned that anti-white racism might be building in the United States and said that political correctness "taken to the extreme" would have lamentable consequences.
    Lavrov accused the United States of seeking to spread what he called "a cultural revolution" around the world.
    "They have colossal possibilities for it," he said in the interview.
    "Hollywood is now also changing its rules so that everything reflects the diversity of modern society," he said, calling that "a form of censorship."
    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/01/russia-warns-of-anti-white-aggression-in-us-a73446

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