@jon-nyc said in Speaking of how shit the UK has become: Like here with the woketards and magats. Sadly, not everybody has the long history of defending free speech that the Roman Catholic Church can boast about.

It’s a War budget, not Defense. Please edit appropriately.

I can hazard a guess. A reversal in the house and senate. Followed by impeachment hearings, resulting in another swing back in 2028.

@jon-nyc said in Elon says you'll have all the stuff you want and then some.: Probably not the best investment advice. Snort…

Another story where both sides get what they want. How nice.

@Mik said in The Iran Nuclear Program thread: So they think Tucker broadcasts are going to calm everyone down? Maybe it's a warning about what kind of person could visit if the regime is overthrown.

Interesting article. I spent quite a bit of time in Kazakhstan in the 90s. Was there for over two months in 2007. It’s a huge country only slightly smaller in land mass than the the US lower 48. Much the country is a sparsely populated arid wasteland; the southwest regions that produce oil and gas and the dead Aral Sea basin can only be described as an environmental Hiroshima. The northern portions of the country were until Stalin, part of Russia. Much of population in the North are either Russian, Russian speaking and assimilated Ukrainians or Muslim Tatars. Since independence ethnic Kazakhs have been moving into the north in numbers so that in urban centres like Pavlodar it is now close to a 50/50 split between Slav and Kazakh. In the 1990s Astana was proclaimed the nation’s capital and the seat of government moved from he south easterly located Almaty to the north. The move was in large part to offset fears of future Russian revanchist efforts. The Kazakh government has remained cautious about its minority Russian population and has avoided alienating it linguistically or culturally. The result is that so far there has been minimal discontent among the ethnic Russian. The Kazakh regime is careful not to antagonise the Kremlin. I would say its relationship with Moscow is similar to the relationship between Janos Kadar’s Hungary and the USSR. Hungary enjoyed a much more open (by communist standards) economy than other Warsaw Pact states but the fundamental supremacy of the Communist Party remained the polity of the Hungarian state. Brezhnev and company had no issue with that arrangement. In fact it welcomed the consumer goods and agriculture products Hungary was able supply the decrepit and supply impoverished Soviet consumer market. I vividly recall the huge queues that would form outside Moscow food markets whenever a shipment of Hungarian processed food products happened to appear on the shelves. As is I therefore I don’t really see Putin wanting any time soon to retake the northern territories formerly a part of Russia. Likewise the rest of the country. Even he really doesn’t want or need 14 million more resentful Sunni Muslims in the Russian Federation.

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Latest Making Sense podcast with Sam Harris has John McWhorter as a guest. They talk about the state of woke, where it’s receded and where it remains. From the show notes: Sam Harris speaks with John McWhorter about language, ideology, and moral certainty. They discuss the rise and persistence of "wokeness" and DEI, the legacy of George Floyd's death, the role of social media in amplifying moral panic, how identity shapes perceptions of Israel-Palestine, the linguistics of Donald Trump, the rise of casual speech, conspiracy thinking, positions McWhorter has reconsidered, and other topics.

No haven’t seen any of it.

@jon-nyc said in Britain now seen as an Islamist hot spot: The word you're looking for is 'Pakis'. Er, no. I'm really not. Your Canary-Wharf pals might have come from a different part of the country than me. We had a name for them, too, incidentally....

@jon-nyc said in And you thought your in-laws were messed up: Poor Tony Blair. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

@Mik said in The Venezuelan Oil Thread: ... I suspect companies are going to want to see Venezuela stabilized and on a capitalist track Does "state capitalism" count?

@jon-nyc said in Mexico next?: It seems like just a matter of time until Latin America seeks formal protection from China. The can try but it does not look like China has that capability. It's easier and more beneficial for China/Xi to cut a deal that says "I let you do what you want in the Americas and you let me do what I want in Asia," and Russia/Putin gets Europe.

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"everything you think do and say is in the pill you took today" Zager and Evans - "In The Year 2525"