Wanderthread Redux (Part 1)

Wanderfound · September 17, 2020, 12:11pm

Wanderfound · September 17, 2020, 12:14pm

Lucy_Gothro1 · September 17, 2020, 6:04pm

She’s been reading old Andy Capp collections?

Wanderfound · September 17, 2020, 10:16pm

Devious Asiatics doing good things just proves how sneaky and treacherous they are:

Lucy_Gothro1 · September 17, 2020, 10:42pm

Are they gonna release the Uyghurs?

Wanderfound · September 17, 2020, 10:58pm

That depends: which version of reality does that question come from?

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Is the Chinese state doing things in Xinjiang that a hypothetical civil libertarian might object to? Sure. Is the official US portrayal of Xinjiang an accurate representation of reality? Highly unlikely.

The US State Department and Radio Free Asia are not reliable sources.

Wanderfound · September 17, 2020, 10:59pm

Wanderfound · September 17, 2020, 11:11pm

Wanderfound · September 17, 2020, 11:24pm

Lucy_Gothro1 · September 17, 2020, 11:26pm

It’s been done before…I think I posted about it on a different thread; but this can be disputed as well, I expect:

Wanderfound · September 18, 2020, 12:12am

Wanderfound · September 18, 2020, 12:18am

Have you notice all the progress in our might air borne fleet?
By the time a planes adopted its already obsolete.

Wanderfound · September 18, 2020, 12:36am

AndyHilmer · September 18, 2020, 3:38am

Too bad China is being taken over by Trumpian rich assholes who did exactly the same thing Trump did with covid, they ignored it until the party was like, wait, lockdown is what we live for.

And the Uygurs. And their same kind of manifest destiny fascism on a grand scale. Criticism does not imply team sports or a credible war effort.

Wanderfound · September 18, 2020, 12:51pm

“U.S. military tactics falling behind those of adversaries, Pentagon official warns,” The Guardian proclaims. “Russian Propaganda Is Pervasive, and America Is Behind the Power Curve in Countering It,” reads a report from the RAND Corporation. “U.S. falling behind in new space race, says CIA’s former head of science and tech,” cautions CBS News.

U.S. media consistently characterize the United States – a country with nearly 800 military bases worldwide and an ever-climbing annual defense budget that’s already more than a trillion dollars – as the world’s eternal underdog. Somehow, the United States military is always “lagging” or “falling behind” perennial enemies Russia, China and evil Muslim terrorists in everything from nuclear weapons, PSYOPs, Internet security and surveillance, Arctic ice cutters, intercontinental ballistic missiles, drones, dominating outer space, and the always reliable and extremely vague “military readiness.”

The scam goes something like this: A weapons contractor and military-funded think tank publishes a supposedly neutral “report” or a handful “U.S. officials” run to a media outlet insisting the United States is “lagging behind” in a sector that incidentally coincides with said think tank’s funders or government entity’s interests. Credulous American media mindlessly repeats the claims, everyone acts panicked, treating the warning like a work of good faith, sober and objective analysis. Congress then reacts and uses media coverage to rationalize even more contracts to the very funders of the think tank that raised the warning, further bloating the Pentagon, State Department and CIA budgets. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, all the while portraying the U.S.'s gargantuan defense expenditures as paltry and insufficient.

On this episode, we parse the trope of the always “lagging” United States, who pushes and funds it, who benefits from it, and ask why the inverse question – “what if the U.S. is too powerful and dominant over the rest of the world” – is never broached by American media, much less honestly debated.

Our guest is FAIR’s Jim Naureckas.

Lucy_Gothro1 · September 18, 2020, 4:10pm

I wonder - will they start calling themselves “Dixiecrats” again?

AndyHilmer · September 18, 2020, 7:17pm

China is not the issue with the arms industry. They have their own ratfucking pack of warmongers engineering stupid new war shit. Until you acknowledge that it’s rich people in general causing these problems in the world, you are not adding to the conversation of peace.

Wanderfound · September 19, 2020, 12:14am

Seems like the day to re-up this one:

Wanderfound · September 19, 2020, 2:05am

Shit take of the day:

Wanderfound · September 19, 2020, 4:37am

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Additionally, from a political tactics POV: using the Garland “precedent” in their arguments legitimates that action and neuters critique of Kavanaugh’s legitimacy.

Some shit, every time. Lose to the right, accept their framing and relocate the centre, rinse and repeat until fascism is achieved.