Hatfort

Alright, it looked like a civil war to me, but it may not be the best wording. Is it only Iranian bases? Doesn't a part of the Syrian population support Bashar Al Assad, at least in red parts in the South? What about the Kurds?

A civil war. There's Bashar Al Assad's regime, but he's lost the North. There are the Kurds there, which the Turkish hate, so I'm not sure if that alliance has a bright future. Russia and the US have been pushing their interests, as well as Iran, and I guess Israel, who disputes the Golan Heights in the South at least. Russia has its hands full now, which may have been a factor in turning the tables. All seems quite messy from the outside, we'll see.

@BlueOak The Ruble is not collapsing. It's been doing well since it recovered from the sanctions which didn't work, its general trend is good. Here I attach two graphs, the first one is for five years, we can clearly see there was a huge pump and collapse when the war started in February and March 2022, but then it recovered to a better level than what it was before. I also attached the one-month one, to see if there is a collapse right now, but there is not, there is an up-and-down, but the value is better now than at the beginning of the last month, despite the slope. We'll see if there's a collapse, but right now, there is not. You are being fed propaganda, which you spread too.

You are such a propagandist, I just fact-checked some of your claims, the Ruble is not collapsing, it's quite higher than in 2021. It totally recovered from the high loss it had in the first weeks of the war when the sanctions started, and it's still doing fine. The Russian economy is fine, they changed their trade partners to Asia, and they got rid of the money escape they had been suffering from many of their oligarcs as a bonus. They sell their gas well, instead of to Europe, to other countries. It's Europe the one more affected by energy prices thanks to the US's kind actions toward the Nord Stream. Bobby is right, Ukraine didn't have nukes, the USSR had them, they happened to be on that part of the Soviet Union. Once the USSR separated into different countries, obviously the location of such weapons had to be rethought, and it was. It was also agreed that NATO wouldn't grow to the East, which has been broken over and over, when Russia was too weak to respond. This time Russia wasn't that weak, so they said no, also because they have a bigger cultural connection to Ukraine. They tried the diplomatic ways of Minsk, but NATO was building a defacto army in front of their noses, like saying: so what are you gonna do to prevent this? Attack? Well, we got the answer, Putin wasn't bluffing. He doesn't want to escalate a war that is winning on the battlefield, but if it gets to higher levels, won't just sit and look. This is Biden's biggest loss, and now that he's done, he is dropping his last presents, but the danger of this game shouldn't be assumable. Stupid old man, he's risking a nuclear war. North Koreans have not fought in Ukraine yet. If any country wants to send its troops to either side of the conflict, they've better be ready to face the consequences. NATO is playing in the grey areas, the long-range weapons indeed need NATO help to target Russian objectives, and that's why Russia considers that a direct NATO incursion. However, they are still winning on the battlefield, as said, week by week they take more land. Their losses are big, it's a war, but they have more than enough manpower to continue the war against a much smaller country. Ukraine is the one that has problems with that, losing many more men than Russians at this point, that's why they have no chance. Ukranian civilian men know that, they don't want to die, and they prefer to concede the Eastern territories if asked. Zelensky and Western warmongers have made the decision for them though, Zelensky whose legal term ended months ago.

From the Bad Hasbara podcast, an interesting interview with two Israeli antizionist guys, their thoughts, and experiences. They both acknowledge that land as Palestine, and Zionism as something that happened in that land, so there's some identity question they face. They're open to calling themselves Palestinians, as people born there, and willing to build bridges for peaceful coexistence between different cultures or creeds, as it was before. They are secular, which at some point in the interview brings up the circumcision issue, which everyone does, no matter religious or secular. In Christian countries, secular people don't bring their babies to put water on their heads, but Israelis bring their babies to chop a piece of their penis skin. Something to think about at least, they call this a bit cultish as a society. Muslims also practice circumcision, so that's one of the few common grounds. Funny!

Another witness of the deliberate and reiterated murdering of Palestinian civilians including women and children by the Israeli terrorist and genocidal state.

He is appointing so many warmongering loonies, the deepest of the deep swamp. It's bad.

At least Lichtman's infallible prediction method can go where it belongs. The garbage can.

And they call him pro-peace. Stupidity.

From what Trump hinted in the campaign, although a bit ambiguous, we could assume he'll stop funneling money to Zelensky. That will accelerate Ukrainian defeat, which was inevitable anyway. Now some people say Trump is pro-Putin for this. It's fair to remember that in his first term, he bragged about selling Ukraine weapons, which is true, while Obama was only giving them pillows and sheets, his words. But this was all stupidity and irresponsibility from NATO and the West, using Ukraine as a tool to weaken Russia, which didn't go their way. But who cares when it's not your men doing the dying part, right? Now we'll see how things are settled. Russia annexed four territories, five with Crimea, those are not going back to Ukraine, that's certain.

Buy Twitter, promote Trump, and put some money and his media resources working for his campaign. Now time to get what he invested back. Subsidies for Tesla and to pay for his Twitter debts with taxpayer money.

Overcompensation, some may feel the need to prove to others and themselves that they are as American as non-Latino Americans by things like voting for the most anti-immigrant party or the one perceived as the most patriotic. Some are dumb too, don't forget about that factor. However, I think the Puerto Rican community may be genuinely mad about being called garbage. Yeah, he said the island, kind of the same. Some more Latinos may not like it either. That was a pretty big campaign mistake by Republicans, every vote counts. There are many polls, but the only one that matters is on Tuesday though.

Oh, lol, this was a non-intended mistake, but almost works as part of the joke, indeed. I meant assess, English is not my primary language.

I was judging the ones who made and liked the joke, not the other way around. My knowledge is limited, but Puerto Rico seems one of these places that wasn't allowed to be decolonized as others in their time, that the US kept for its geo-strategic and economic value by violent and fascist means. Being part of the US doesn't seem to do its people any favor nowadays either.

Every public restroom should have inspectors, so when you need to use them, you'll have to show them your genitalia first, then they'll asses if it matches your shown gender, and if everything is correct, they'll let you in. If not, you'll have to go to do your necessities in nature if it's a rural area, or between cars if it's in an urban area.

@mojsterr One ingredient doesn't mean one compound, though. As said before, there are many healthier options than Beyond Burger, which I didn't even mention first, but still better than any beef. Plant-based oils are not the healthiest, yet better than animal-based ones. Plant-based fats are best when eaten with their real fiber and compounds, like whole olives or nuts, not oil extracts. Beet extract is awesome though, they probably use it to give it the red color, but it's great for its antioxidants, that is known.

Some suicide cases in the IDF, PTSD. But are they the victims? Well... It's said that Jews were expelled from Muslim countries, and so does Ethan Klein. A deeper look about that: Finkelstein analyzes the two frame questions of Piers Morgan.

Transition to veganism is more likely in stage green than in the previous ones. Orange, the previous stage, has a more individualistic approach, while greens are also concerned about other's well-being, which would include animals in this case. Veganism aims to reduce animal suffering caused by humans as much as practically possible, knowing that to some extent is going to continue happening, even directly. Acceptance of suffering comes from understanding it. Everyone knows what pain and suffering are by direct experience, it's part of life. Animals are sentient beings, they are just other branches of the same evolutionary system that we belong, and just by observing them, although they don't have the same level of intelligence and capabilities as us, we can see that they experience pain and many emotions in similar manners to us. Vegans are not stupid, if a wild animal attacks them, they are going to put their life first. But most of us live in a world where we can choose to live and consume in a way that can avoid death and extreme suffering, just look at the factory farms, of animals whose life and fate we as humans decide what is going to be, while still keeping a good nutrition for us, probably even better. There's also the case of the environment, because we are more than 8 billion individuals, and animal-sourced food is extremely inefficient. Feeding animals to get food from them takes so much more land and resources than what it would take to just get it from plant sources. Also, vegan alternatives to usual animal-sourced products taste fucking awesome, you don't need to be eating lettuces all day, for those who think that is what vegans do, and they are less carcinogenic than many of the compounds that can be found in the previous ones. Oh yeah, vegan for the animals, the environment, and health.

This seems like a de-escalation, the attack is very limited. Israel said it would respond, so it had to save face, and this is it. Israel can indeed respond and cause damage, I don't think that was doubted, but Iran made the same point last time too, that was the thing. Now, this round has stopped, but if Israel keeps targeting its enemies on Iranian soil or Iranian generals in other places, both things have happened, then the fire can start again. War in Gaza continues, Hamas is still operative and the IDF is continuing its ethnic cleansing by killing and displacing people in cages, who knows where, this mostly in Northem Gaza. The war in Lebanon is on too, Israel has seen they can't send their troops in there like in Gaza, they get killed so fast. What they can do is attack from the air though, and they are including civilians and their infrastructures, which is not a surprise at this point. Can this escalate? Maybe. Hezbollah leaders were killed, but for now it seems their way of functioning hasn't changed.

Putin visited North Korea recently, so maybe this is true, their relations are good and beneficial to each other. Russia doesn't need North Korean troops to win though. I'm hearing peace deal conversations are happening discreetly. Russian minimal conditions: no NATO, neutrality, respect for its minorities, no more proxy wars, and Russia keeps the new four territories but no more.

China did well by acquiring some capitalist free market principles, but not completely disregarding any state intervention. It's growing well, infrastructures are being built, there's innovation in its industry, they are producing good products, and people's daily lives are improving as well. Strategic oligopolies have a roof, the state. The US is so scared and brainwashed about the socialist and communist labels, that they perceive as the end of freedom any minimum state intervention in what could make the markets better for the people, the businesses, and their economy in general, at a bit of expense of the wealth and freedoms of the top ones. Their media is as bought as their duo-uniparty by the big companies and some other foreign lobbies not worth mentioning right now.