So google, amazon and Microsoft are hostile actors

Obviously not. They’re happy to give MI5 a backdoor into all their systems.

This is the apoteosis of incompetence.

The age old question - malicious or stupid.

I’m not going to explain the oil trade

To someone who works in it and sees the price figures every day?

I would love to see you try

US oil which costs 25x+ Saudi crude

West Texas Crude does not cost 25x Saudi Crude. Neither is it the primary US importer.

Saudi Arabian imports dropped to roughly 336,000–349,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2023–2024, down from over one million bpd in previous years. Meanwhile, Canada is the largest supplier, accounting for roughly 55-61% of U.S. imports, followed by Mexico.

Oil companies could actually use a boost right now. And the US is a net exporter.

The US positioned the world’s largest warship, the USS Gerald R Ford, in the Middle East to join an earlier aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, that had moved to the region last month.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded by threatening to sink the carriers.

Users who aren’t verified as adults will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won’t be able to speak in Discord’s livestream-like “stage” channels, and will see content filters for any content Discord detects as graphic or sensitive.

Shrug

I’m not using discord for porn, so I’m not going to lose sleep. Will simply live with a “teen” account until my groups migrate to a better service.

But you’ll get my biometrics from my cold dead hands.

They will also get warning prompts for friend requests from potentially unfamiliar users, and DMs from unfamiliar users will be automatically filtered into a separate inbox.

GOOD

Crazy they didn’t implement this years ago. Discord is bloated with fake user spam.

I heard Reza Pahlavi is wildly popular in Iran right now and Iranian locals are enthusiastic about seeing the Shah returned to power. Is this true?

What’s the lie about Ukraine?

Yaroslav Hunka scandal leaps to mind. But farther than that, it was the same old “it’s not going to be a quagmire”, “it’s not just about propping up the US arms industry”, “we have to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” line we’ve been hearing in every international theater.

Even the bit about Trump being “Putin’s Puppet” falls apart on any amount of historical interrogation. Trump was selling anti-tank missiles to Kiev as far back as 2018, three years before the Donbas invasion. He’d laid a bunch of sanctions on the country the first year he took office.

Then, as soon as Biden took office, he’s the one weak on Ukraine, according to the GOP.

Both parties egged their own supporters on by insisting the other party wasn’t Pro-Ukraine enough. Both parties insisted the other faction was “Communist”. Both insisted the other was a fifth column, trying to disarm the US from within. It was always and forever bullshit.

If they can keep the oil flowing, more power to them. Cuba needs a strong ally right now.

USMCA in shambles

Any suggestion that there’s something questionable or unreliable about the American democratic process is a trick by the Republican Party to suppress liberal voter enthusiasm. And if you mention it you are helping the Republicans win. Also Russia.

If you’re still in line, stay in line. Our elections are secure. The midterms is winnable if you vote in it. Shut up and do what we tell you or you’re an enemy.

A lot of what Trump wanted Greenland for was already available to him had he asked nicely (and not had a reputation as a nazi freak). I’m sure he’ll chalk up “using NATO for its intended purpose as it was originally designed” as some kind of negotiation triumph. The better question might be what the rest of Europe plans to do in anticipation of his next flip-flop and reckless power grab.

Currently, Trump’s team is drawing up plans to issue asylum claims to British Jews, on the grounds that they are a persecuted minority within the country and need special protection within the US. As the hysteria around anti-semitism in England crests, one has to wonder what his next move will be.

Like tankie never really meant anything before

I mean, its historically described Soviet policy in Eastern Europe and Chinese domestic policing (Khrushchev putting down the Hungarian fascist revolt with armored infantry and Deng sending tanks into Tienanmen Square).

Now it just means whatever the opposite of neoconservative policy is, updated daily.

Being against tanks makes you a tankie at this point.

Everyone knows that if you’re against US tanks, you must be in favor of non-US tanks. You’re either with US or you’re with the Tankie-rists

Liberals will go on and on about how any defense of the Venezuelan government marks you out as a “Tankie”, then clap like seals as US tanks and helicopters obliterate homes, massacre civilians, and snatch people up as political extortion.

These are the same tactics used time and again by ICE Agents within the US’s own borders. They’re the tactics used abroad, to quell dissidents in The Philippines and Haiti and Gaza and Yemen. These are the actions of a fascist government for the purposes of genocide of native peoples, seizure of lands, and generating capitalist profits.

Anyone who endorses it has picked a side. Just a shame they can’t have these decisions carved into their foreheads for all the world to remember.

How is targeting dissidents a revenue source?

States with large pools of disposable income and businesses with big PR budgets will pay top dollar to squelch activists and opponents.

Not in most countries surely?

How much is Palantir getting paid? How much is Black Cube getting paid? There’s always a pricetag on this work and plenty of organizations - especially fascist governments - are happy to outsource the work to friendly contractors.