Russian news sources really can’t be trusted, but assuming it is true, it’s certainly a tragedy that civilians were hurt. And I wish they hadn’t been.

The solution though is for civilians to leave Crimea. They are on illegally seized land, not wholly dissimilar to Israeli settlers. It isn’t their fault that their children died of course, but they need to leave the area. Issue is, Russia probably won’t let them, because they’d prefer civilian casualties to occur.

It’s also kinda rich of Russia to complain about this after they’ve bombed, killed, and orphaned countless Ukrainian kids. They’ve even kidnapped some of them. And from what I recall happened in Mariupol, they might’ve even done ethnic cleansing. It doesn’t excuse Russian civilians being killed, but Russia has absolutely no legs to stand on here.

This seems like an excellent way for the governing party to lose big time in elections.

Putin has a history of false flag operations, so it isn’t impossible.

Frankly it’s in Xi’s best benefit to not invade Taiwan, because it would cause a collapse of the One China policy. China benefits considerably from the current policy that’s ambiguous on recognizing Taiwan. The moment they invade though, that goes away, and it becomes inevitable that Taiwan gains international recognition as independent – presuming the US helps repel an invasion.

If there’s anything we’ve learned though from the last few years, it’s that seemingly intelligent world leaders can make idiotic decisions that go against their best interest – namely Putin and Ukraine. Xi strikes me as the type of person to keep yesmen like Putin, and that means he could make just as foolish a mistake.

You haven’t posted any articles about Israel’s genocide either. Should I presume you tacitly approve of what Israel is doing?

Articles like this are important, because they illustrate an awful human behavior we need to condemn. Jewish people are completely separate from Israel, and antisemitism is completely separate from criticism of Israel. By conflating the two, you push Netanyahu’s agenda. He’d love nothing more than to say Israel is the same as Jewish people and any act or criticism is antisemitic.

Should there have been no criticism or discussion of the US internment of Japanese during WW2? Should there have been no coverage of abuse and harassment against Muslims after 9/11? What about the spate of anti Asian violence during Covid?

Fuck that. Collective punishment is wrong. It’s difficult to change the policies and actions of a different country, but it’s easier to call out reactive domestic shitheads and policies and demand change there. Human history is full of collateral/collective punishment like this when a shitty group of people do something awful – and it falls on good, intelligent people to recognize that it’s evil of the shitty group and of the reactionaries, and to call out both.

Don’t assume everyone here is an idiot. We’re capable of recognizing this event as awful while simultaneously criticizing Israel. And we can condemn this act without becoming sympathetic to Israel.

There is a terrible trend of people blaming Jewish people overall for what Israel is doing – and ironically, some of Israel’s sharpest critics are Jewish.

Some people are incapable of realizing that Jewish people are not the same as Israel, and in doing so, they play right into Netanyahu’s hand. Antisemitism is completely separate from criticism of Israel, but Netanyahu would love for people to believe it’s one and the same.

People who want revenge against Jews in the West for what Israel’s doing are no different than those who interned the Japanese in WW2 or demonized all Muslims after 9/11. It’s collective punishment and it’s wrong.

said it reaffirmed American support for the Tibetan right to self-determination

This is a subtle stab at China. The CCP loves talking about sovereignty and self determination as a defense for their actions, but it’s also projection for their actions in Tibet and the South China Sea.

I don’t understand his angle here. He clearly has some sort of agenda, but I haven’t figured it out. Maybe he’s betting that this will turn some Democrats and moderates against Biden? But that requires believing that Netanyahu is telling the truth, which I don’t think a lot of Israel supporters necessarily do.

Either way, this is weird. Maybe he’s talking about the bombs that weren’t sent for Rafah? But getting pissed about one halted shipment out of everything they’ve been given is just fucking hilarious.

My guess – he’s aware his support is dwindling, and he’s trying to salvage it by blaming everyone else. Or, he’s daring the US to stop all shipments, but that would probably destroy his remaining support too.

Yeah he was absolutely tortured to death. Fucking disgusting.

I think they use passive headlines over concern about being sued for libel, but I agree. They really need to call the bluff, because if a party sues for libel, that party has to prove it’s a willful lie. And that would be a very interesting discovery process.

It isn’t worth the effort to punish in most cases

Simple example – lets say you’d lose 2% of your inventory per year to theft if you did nothing. Your gross income would go down by 2%, so you compensate by raising your prices by 2%.

Now let’s say instead you want to lose ~0% to theft. You’ll have to hire guards, or more likely, contract out to a security company. That’s now going to add to your annual expenditures, let’s say 5%. If you want to compensate for that, you’d need to raise your prices by 5%.

So, here’s the question – what’s actually the better option for the company? It’s hard to say without real life numbers and estimates. But basically, it wouldn’t be worth beefing up security if you’d pay more for that versus what you’d lose to theft.

And that’s only the monetary side of things. Having very public incidents if the thief doesnt cooperate would be bad for business. Worst case scenario, the thief fights back and has a weapon. You’re going to lose waaaaay more in sales than you would’ve if you just let them keep the contraband.

This is why a lot of companies are more lax on shoplifting these days. It just really isn’t worth it. Plus, a serial shoplifter is going to show their face again anyway, and you can quietly accost them preemptively.

This is common strategy to the right – they try to convince everyone that there’s violent criminals everywhere that no one’s taking care of.

Oh lovely. Now when they ram a bunch of fishermen from the Philippines in international waters, they’ll also kidnap them.

No, but I’m fully aware I’m a hypocrite there. I think most people are when it comes to their loved ones. If I was family of the hostages, I wouldn’t care how many innocent people died to get them back. I’d support the IDF.

If I was the family of the nearby Palestinians, I wouldn’t care about the hostages, and I’d let them die if it meant my family would be safe. I’d support Hamas.

This is why geopolitics can’t be personal. The best decision is not one that you insert yourself into, because you have a much higher threshold for acceptable collateral if it’s your own family on the line.

At the same time though, this is also a lesson in why a ceasefire is crucial. You put yourself into everyone’s shoes, and you understand why this needs to end. Everyone’s families and loved ones are dying or in captivity, and it’s perpetuating a cycle of violence. It needs to end. Israel has the power to withdraw from Gaza and pursue purely diplomatic means, and it should.

For the 200 deaths today

The big question on all of our minds – was this worth it?

No. It probably wasn’t.

50 civilians killed indiscriminately per 1 hostage freed. And that’s not counting everyone that’s already been killed in this war.

I think anyone with a shred of morality is heavily conflicted by this. Saving hostages? Great. Killing 50x as many people as those saved? Not great. Not great at all.

It naturally leads itself to the question we’re all thinking – was it worth it?

And I think many of us have the same answer, although we may not like it – no. It pains me to say it, but it would’ve been better to let them stay hostage for longer while developing a plan which wouldn’t kill civilians.

Maybe the Palestinians themselves devalue their own lives compared to Israeli lives.

What the fuck

That would require Hamas to care about Palestinians. Their leadership is a bunch of wealthy shitheads living it up in the UAE. They hold a dictatorship over Palestine and refuse to have elections.

To actually get Hamas there, you probably need to target the rich people giving orders.