Actually, I’m unsure about CNN. They might still be doing the counterproductive Liberal thing instead of being actual fascists like the NYT.
Haberman is backing off, trying to restore a bit of credibility by posting stories that are slightly critical of Trump.
Don’t take this one seriously, this is mostly just me diverting some paranoia, but:
They’ve stood down the fleet (“operational pause”). Globally.
Those destroyer collisions were very weird, the Reichsmarine were the least nazified branch of the German military, and the Trumpists will have put some thought into potential military resistance.
Hmmn.
Kerfuffle inside the DSA:
http://www.dsa-la.org/dsa_los_angeles_steering_committee_statement_on_danny_fetonte & https://medium.com/@pplswar/detroitdsa-on-the-danny-fetonte-scandal-4a0258f445cc
I have no idea which side of that is right. Fetonte just won the vote, though.
The ships have been designed to minimize staffing. The patrol areas which have never seen so much traffic. What the fuck did they think was going to happen?
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The Straits are insanely busy, to the extent that I’m constantly surprised that there aren’t more accidents.
I’ve seen a couple of US Navy (I assume) ships in the Straits and both times they had zero lights on deck. It’s testimony to how much shipping there is in the waters that the only way to see the Navy ships at night is because they block the lights from other ships.
At least in the most recent collision, the McCain seems to have had right of way and was collided with, so I’m really not buying the conspiracy angle. Still weird, but not really surprising…
ETA: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170822-why-its-not-surprising-that-ship-collisions-still-happen
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Those collisions could very well just be unfortunate accidents. But if they were, they are surprising accidents.
Yes, it’s a busy channel and recent US naval doctrine has focused on minimising crew.
But a naval ship still has a much larger crew than a merchant vessel, has top-grade radars so lighting shouldn’t matter much, is permanently manned with human lookouts in all directions and has a vast manoeuvrability advantage over a cargo ship. Destroyers are the racecars of the fleet; they are very quick and nimble for their size.
They should have easily detected it early on, they should have been actively watching it as they passed, and they should have been able to dodge if the cargo ship did anything daft. It could just be gross negligence, but twice seems weird.
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New Bernie ad:
yes. it’s pretty good. i’ve also read the shelby foote and bruce catton trilogies. despite his attempt to be an iconoclastic southerner foote still manages to romanticize the southerners, imo.
edited for clarity.
Amazing message, really is.
I never want to hear someone complain about political commercial microphones again.
So much this, but the conspiracy that exists to stop the shoulds is the conspiracy of tight-fisted corporate ideas imported into the … whatever the fuck the military is now and always has been. Every era sees systemic idiocies like this. Body counts, fully fueled and armed strategic bombers idling away for days on the ramp, we look back and say “what did they think was going to happen?”
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Hmmm… seems to me the rise of a post-modernism as a reaction to materialist view of history which was a reaction to the whiggish view of history has a dark side. While Foucault and the post-Braudel French historians were busy deconstructing modernity and Marx’s stages of history, some people took those decconstructions in a very different direction. Let’s not forget that Spencer has a degree in history (though I think he’s still ABD - probably because he knew whatever his BS argument was would be rejected by his profs). It wasn’t just progressives or left wing radicals that embraced a more critical view of the enlightenment.
But yeah, Whig historiography was political. All academic fields had that bent, as it was in part the west justifying itself and classifying itself as the primary historical force in world events. They divided the world into those with a history, and those whose history never was or that was never past.
On the whole, I find most historians (as individuals) to be progressive or liberal in orientation. It really isn’t a hotbed of marxist radicals around these parts I’m afraid. But the pendulum as swung pretty far to the right in recent years and some historians have become more politically active as a result, which is great. We need people with long memories and views to help inform us of what the possibilities are on the horizon and what the risks are of not doing anything.
I hope you’re right.
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Fortunately, both Bernie and those left of him have figured out that, in political messaging, “positive” does not have to mean “weak”.
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Yup.
That is why I made this thread:
I’m not as good at it as I wish I were, but I’ve been trying to provide some antifa vaccination to the Boingers for a while now. I did see all this shit coming.
I could use some help, BTW. Half a dozen posts from half a dozen different people are a lot more convincing than a posting swarm from a single source.
The Boingers are mostly good people, but the Libertarian edge of the board is at risk of going to the dark side, and the Liberals are in danger of sitting and watching it happen.
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Worried; there’s buzz about something big to drop on Russia and impeachment, but the source of this supposed scoop is Haberman. There may be a massive misinformation drop about to happen, or there may be a trigger for action about to be declared.
Or I may be massively mistaken, and Haberman was an undercover anti fascist all this time. But I doubt that very much.
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You have more contact with the kids than I do; I’m mostly just obsessing over radical Twitter and podcasts.
What’s the vibe on campus?
Why the entire fleet? Why not just that one DD squadron?
There has been some low-credibility buzz about Russian hacking of USN GPS, but I didn’t take it seriously.
BTW: I’m aware that I’m a bit more blatantly paranoid than usual at the moment.
In part, this is just because I’m crazy and stressed.
But I’m also letting it show a bit as an act of deliberate performative paranoia.
If this all goes to shit and the left loses, you need to be this crazy if you want to survive.
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