Random International Posts

[pnwguy]

Apr 18, 2022 18:23:33 GMT goldenvalley said:

Apr 18, 2022 17:50:10 GMT pnwguy said:

Isn't Sweden a Socialist Paradise? Why would Antifa protest there, when they want to destroy America and make it like Sweden? 

I thought the right wing changed its mind about Sweden when Sweden tried the "herd immunity" route to COVID without shutting down anything.  Didn't hear about socialism then.

Maybe if Swedish men start "testicle tanning", Sweden would rocket to the top of MAGA-travel destinations...

[andydp]

Apr 18, 2022 19:34:07 GMT pnwguy said:

Apr 18, 2022 18:23:33 GMT goldenvalley said:

I thought the right wing changed its mind about Sweden when Sweden tried the "herd immunity" route to COVID without shutting down anything.  Didn't hear about socialism then.

Maybe if Swedish men start "testicle tanning", Sweden would rocket to the top of MAGA-travel destinations...

How many lumberjacks do they have ?

[pnwguy]

Apr 18, 2022 19:36:16 GMT andydp said:

Apr 18, 2022 19:34:07 GMT pnwguy said:

Maybe if Swedish men start "testicle tanning", Sweden would rocket to the top of MAGA-travel destinations...

How many lumberjacks do they have ?

Evidently enough to keep Husqvarna cranking out chainsaws.  When I worked with logging crews, a "Husky" was the lightest heavy-duty saw in the field, where Stihl tends to dominate.

The question is how many wildflowers can you find in those coniferous woods.

[LFC]

The fossil fuel industry is funding authoritarianism around the globe.

Around the world, many countries are becoming less democratic. This backsliding on democracy and “creeping authoritarianism,” as the U.S. State Department puts it, is often supported by the same industries that are escalating climate change.

In my new book, “Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis,” I lay out connections between these industries and the politicians who are both stalling action on climate change and diminishing democracy.

It’s a dangerous shift, both for representative government and for the future climate.

Corporate Capture Of Environmental Politics

In democratic systems, elected leaders are expected to protect the public’s interests, including from exploitation by corporations. They do this primarily through policies designed to secure public goods, such as clean air and unpolluted water, or to protect human welfare, such as good working conditions and minimum wages. But in recent decades, this core democratic principle that prioritizes citizens over corporate profits has been aggressively undermined.

Today, it’s easy to find political leaders – on both the political right and left – working on behalf of corporations in energy, finance, agribusiness, technology, military and pharmaceutical sectors, and not always in the public interest. These multinational companies help fund their political careers and election campaigns to keep them in office.

In the U.S., this relationship was cemented by the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United. The decision allowed almost unlimited spending by corporations and wealthy donors to support the political candidates who best serve their interests. Data shows that candidates with the most outside funding usually win. This has led to increasing corporate influence on politicians and party policies.

For America take a look at the chart to see how Republicans are the party most purchased by this industry. Note also that they say that more than 1/6 of the money the Dems took in from that industry in went to Joe Manchin.

[LFC]

Sounds like the gov't of El Salvador has had enough and have rounded up suspected gang members by the tens of thousands. I don't imagine they have the infrastructure to properly house them which means they'll be stuffed into hell holes. It's tough to feel sorry for the guilty who have made the country a hell hole but what are the odds they're arrests are close to 100% accurate?

El Salvador gang arrests top 30,000 in 50 days

El Salvador has arrested more than 30,000 suspected gang members since President Nayib Bukele in March launched his "war" on criminal groups terrorizing the country, police said on Monday.

Bukele announced a state of emergency in late March following a bloody weekend in which 87 people were killed in gang-related violence.

Since then, the police and military have been rounding up suspected gang members using emergency powers that have done away with the need for arrest warrants.

The small Central American country has also increased sentences for gang membership five-fold, to up to 45 years.

The national civil police force said on Twitter that "536 terrorists were arrested on Sunday May 15, the date at which we reached 50 days since the beginning of the state of emergency."

"The total number captured since the beginning of the war on gangs is 30,506."

The wave of detentions is unprecedented in a country of 6.5 million people that has suffered decades of violent crime driven by powerful gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18.

These gangs count some 70,000 members, and including the recent detentions about 46,000 of them are behind bars, according to authorities.

Rights groups have denounced the arrest of many minors with no gang links.

[goldenvalley]

May 16, 2022 19:35:01 GMT LFC said:

Sounds like the gov't of El Salvador has had enough and have rounded up suspected gang members by the tens of thousands. I don't imagine they have the infrastructure to properly house them which means they'll be stuffed into hell holes. It's tough to feel sorry for the guilty who have made the country a hell hole but what are the odds they're arrests are close to 100% accurate?

These gangs count some 70,000 members, and including the recent detentions about 46,000 of them are behind bars, according to authorities.

Rights groups have denounced the arrest of many minors with no gang links.

How do they arrive at those numbers???  Is there some sort of member database maintained by the gangs?  Seriously, I want to know.

[LFC]

May 16, 2022 21:52:03 GMT goldenvalley said:

May 16, 2022 19:35:01 GMT LFC said:

Sounds like the gov't of El Salvador has had enough and have rounded up suspected gang members by the tens of thousands. I don't imagine they have the infrastructure to properly house them which means they'll be stuffed into hell holes. It's tough to feel sorry for the guilty who have made the country a hell hole but what are the odds they're arrests are close to 100% accurate?

How do they arrive at those numbers???  Is there some sort of member database maintained by the gangs?  Seriously, I want to know.

No idea. And El Salvador isn't exactly a nation that comes to mind when thinking about accurate crime data.

[LFC]

Voters in the Philippines continue to embrace autocratic figures.

Last week, voters in the Philippines went to the polls — and, by an overwhelming margin, chose the son of the country’s deposed dictator as their next president.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr., widely referred to by his nickname, Bongbong, ran on a ticket with Vice President-elect Sara Duterte — the daughter of incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte, a populist most famous for his policy of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers, who pushed the Philippines toward authoritarianism during his six years in office. Neither of these candidates ran away from their parents: on the contrary, they embraced them. And voters in the Philippines rewarded them for it.

Opponents and observers have raised questions about the legitimacy of the election, pointing to a climate of pervasive disinformation, reports of malfunctioning ballot-counting machines, and alleged voter fraud. But on Friday, Leni Robredo, the outgoing vice president and leading rival of Marcos, admitted defeat and urged her supporters “to accept the majority’s decision.”

That majority seemed to ratify a proudly illiberal governing ethos. During his presidency, the elder Duterte — who was prevented by term limits from running again — jailed political opponents, cracked down on press freedom, and built an online disinformation machine that buoyed the Marcos-Duterte ticket. And yet, at the same time, close observers of the Philippines say the strongman political style was authentically popular.

President Duterte has the highest approval ratings of any president in modern Philippine history, with his low points in the polls rivaling other presidents’ highs. That he proudly violated individual rights and attacked the separation of powers was not a turnoff, but a draw. Marcos’s overwhelming victory underscored the point.

“Duterte is the first president who represented an alternative vision for the direction of the country. Marcos is a continuation of that vision — and wants to make that known,” says Dean Dulay, a political scientist at Singapore Management University who studies democracy in the Philippines.

It’s not that Filipino voters rejected democracy, exactly: survey data still shows strong support for holding competitive elections. Rather, it’s that they are rejecting liberalism: seeing constraints on power, including fundamental rights against being murdered by one’s own government, as impediments to their leaders’ ability to bring about a better Philippines.

Marcos’s victory on these terms is part of a worldwide illiberal turn. The past decade of global politics has shown that the Philippines is not the only country where strongman politics appeal to a large constituency; what its recent election shows is that this political style can be not only popular but durable. The liberal ability to address this reality is proving to be one of the defining political issues of the 21st century.

[LFC]

Interesting that Catholic bishops are trying to work with drug traffickers to tamp down the killings.

While the United States Catholic bishops continue a debate over whether politicians should get communion, another group of bishops is working on making desperate deals with drug traffickers, Vice News said citing Mexican newspaper Milenio.

“There is a need for a social pact,” said Bishop Sigifredo Noriega. “A pact where even the bad guys could have a say.”

The "bad guys" he's talking about are organized crime groups that have been increasing decades-long violence in Mexico. The Catholic church is estimated to have multiple billions of dollars but they're not about to use it for a holy war against the drug cartels in Central America.

Two priests were killed last month in church and they are searching for solutions. The assumption seems to be that giving them "a say" might persuade the narcos to work cooperatively within the community to traffick their drugs without so many murders.

"The bishop of Zacatecas suggested 'directly speaking' with members of organized crime," said the report. It explained, "Zacatecas is one of Mexico’s states most affected by violence related to drug trafficking, and is leading in the ranking on murders this year."

[LFC]

It appears that Turkey is going to continue its push into Syria as part of its program to crush the Kurds, our former allies that Trump screwed over when he no longer found them to be of use.

US officials warned Turkey this week against expanding its so-called buffer zone in northeast Syria, saying such a move would complicate counter-ISIS measures, and would increase the violence that Kurds and Syrians in the region have faced since Turkey’s initial incursion in 2019.

“We strongly oppose any Turkish operation into northern Syria and have made clear our objections to Turkey,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Dana Stroul said in a speech at the Middle East Institute Wednesday. “ISIS is going to take advantage of that campaign, not to mention the humanitarian impact.”

As Stroul pointed out, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group that’s made up largely of Kurds and is critical to the ground battle to recover ISIS-held territory in Iraq and Syria, are responsible for security in the Al-Hol and Azraq camps. Together the camps hold approximately 60,000 vulnerable, displaced people, and serve as prisons for around 10,000 alleged ISIS militants.

On May 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his military would launch further offensives, creating a 30-kilometer-deep buffer zone as soon as the military and intelligence and security services had completed their preparations, Reuters reported.

“The main target of these operations will be areas which are centers of attacks to our country and safe zones,” Erdogan said during a speech at the time, although he didn’t specifically mention where the operations would take place or point to any particular target.

Erdogan has repeatedly warned that his military is planning an incursion into northeastern Syria, driving further into territory held by the Kurdish ethnic minority.

“That’s a global problem, it’s not a US problem,” Stroul said of a Turkish attack weakening the security situation in northeastern Syria. “So frankly, the whole world should be a little bit more active at this point in time about the risks, about the second- and third- order effects of renewed operations that detract from security of these detention facilities, security and access to the displaced persons camps, and continued counter-terrorism pressure on ISIS.”

While it’s true that a further-regrouped ISIS could constitute a global threat on some scale, the reality is that both an ISIS resurgence and renewed violence by Turkey affect local civilians first, and often in the most devastating ways.

[LFC]

OK, I gotta' kinda' agree on this one even if I feel a little petty and guilty doing it.

[LFC]

The U.S. is blocking the shipment and licensing of advanced chips to China and Russia. Good move.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last Friday, Nvidia reported that US government officials have ordered restrictions on sales of its top AI chips to China and Russia. The new restrictions (in the form of licensing requirements, subject to approval by the US government) include the powerful A100 Tensor Core GPU, the upcoming H100, and any chips of equivalent power or systems that incorporate them. The goal is to "address the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’ in China and Russia," according to Nvidia, which notes that the firm already does not sell products to customers in Russia.

Reuters reports that the Department of Commerce intends for the new policy to "keep advanced technologies out of the wrong hands." China isn't happy about the restrictions, calling the move part of a "tech blockade." The US has also restricted sales of AMD's MI250 Accelerator AI chip to China. Whether this effort will have any effect on China's AI capability in the long term remains to be seen, as Chinese firms have begun developing their own GPUs for graphics and AI use.

[LFC]

We all knew this was happening, even as governments have kept very quiet about space warfare. (Except when China blew up one of their own satellites as a test, strewing potentially dangerous space garbage in every direction.) Now it looks like private companies are getting in on it.

Former US Air Force major Even “Jolly” Rogers is worried about a space war. “Conflict exists on a continuum that begins with competition and ultimately leads into full-scale conflict like what you’re seeing in Ukraine,” he says. The US, he adds, is already “in active competition with Russia and China for freedom of action and dominance of the space domain. And it’s evolving very quickly.”

So on January 26 last year, the former US Air Force major incorporated True Anomaly, Inc to “solve the most challenging orbital warfare problems for the US Space Force,” he later tweeted.

According to a recent filing with the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC), True Anomaly is now gearing up for its first orbital mission. In October, True Anomaly hopes to launch two Jackal “orbital pursuit” spacecraft aboard a SpaceX rocket to low earth orbit. The Jackals will not house guns, warheads, or laser blasters, but they will be capable of rendezvous proximity operations (RPO)—the ability to maneuver close to other satellites and train a battery of sensors upon them. This could reveal their rivals’ surveillance and weapons systems or help intercept communications.

In their first mission, dubbed Demo-1, the Jackals will merely spy on each other, using thrusters, radar, and multi-spectral cameras to approach within a few hundred meters. If that goes well, Rogers envisages deploying thousands of autonomous spacecraft in service of the US military, controlled by a team of human operators and AI “to pursue adversaries wherever they fly, and to provide the tools of accountability.”

Those tools start with understanding what technologies America’s adversaries are deploying in space. “But an active defense is going to be required,” says Rogers, now True Anomaly’s CEO. “If you take the job of defense and protection of the domain seriously, you have to have the ability to do the joint functions of maneuver and fires.” Although the military often uses “fires” to mean kinetic weapons like guns and shells, in the space context, it usually refers to jamming, electronic warfare, and cyberattacks.

Nothing on True Anomaly’s website suggests that it is developing its own offensive weapons. However, in a series of posts last summer, Rogers tweeted: “Tactically disabling enemy spacecraft can be the difference between the loss of an entire Carrier Strike Group or its survival... And there are many ways to destroy spacecraft that don’t ruin the environment. After all, they are just floating computers.”

[LFC]

Erdogan reported to have had a heart attack, Turkish authorities deny it.

Something seems to be up with his health.