American Politics

[Sanity Check]

Bernie Sanders' twitch channel has content for once.

 

[xi0]

DEMOCRACY IS SAVED

 

[McNuss]

Aaand another of our Chancellors made it to your news.

This time about a much more recent topic:

The Former Chancellor Who Became Putin’s Man in Germany (Published 2022)

Gerhard Schröder, who is paid almost $1 million a year by Russian-controlled energy companies, has become a pariah. But he is also a symbol of Germany’s Russia policy.

www.nytimes.com

Enjoy <3

Obviously this interview hit very hard here.

However there are some mistakes in the article, including a FUCKING LIE with very evil implications:

The guiding rationale of Ostpolitik was “Wandel durch Handel,” or “change through trade,” and would become a defining pillar of successive Social Democratic-led administrations, including Mr. Schröder’s two decades later.

Wandel durch Handel (change through trade) was never a concept openly marketed in Germany, that is a recent term that came up to distinguish Schröder's policies from Brandt's.

Brandt's policy was Wandel durch Annäherung (Change through Approach). For it, he was awarded the nobel prize of peace, and his aide Egon Bahr, as well as former Soviet Leader Gorbachev claim it was Brandt who was responsible for reunifying Germany, and not the then incumbent Chancellor Kohl. Gorbachev would even go as far and call himself a Social Democrat.

What you Americans don't want to admit, because oh scary, communism, is that Putin is not Brezhnev. He isn't just playing with the fire. Putin most closely resembles the ideology of Stalin. And now he is taking revenge for "Social Democrat" Gorbachev. That's pretty obvious, considerin how often he uttered his hatred about the collapse of the Soviet Union, and destryoing Gorbachev's reputation was among the first things the new Russia did in the 90s.

If you are so keen on blaming someone for the current situation, you'd better start with Blowjob Bill anyways. Because his support for Jelzin brought in Putin in the first place.

If America continues to be unable to self-criticize, then the world is truly doomed! Don't touch my Willy!

 

[kkck]

DEMOCRACY IS SAVED

I am slightly curious on whether musk actually achieves anything at all regarding bots. Musk will come up with a way to ban bots, people will come up with new ways to make bots. Otherwise I think the media is failing in framing this as what it is... A billionaire buying an add data farm. Free speech being affected by musk one way or the other seems pretty damn unlikely. Though I suppose that people who pretend a private company banning people of the data farm is a free speech violation will be happy about this.

 

[xi0]

I am slightly curious on whether musk actually achieves anything at all regarding bots. Musk will come up with a way to ban bots, people will come up with new ways to make bots. Otherwise I think the media is failing in framing this as what it is... A billionaire buying an add data farm. Free speech being affected by musk one way or the other seems pretty damn unlikely. Though I suppose that people who pretend a private company banning people of the data farm is a free speech violation will be happy about this.

He doesn't have government subsidies to bolster him, so the chances of anything significant coming from this are pretty diminished IMO.

But still, that won't stop Twitter from being a brilliant success 5-10 years down the road brought to us by Elon's idiosyncratic genius.

 

[kkck]

He doesn't have government subsidies to bolster him, so the chances of anything significant coming from this are pretty diminished IMO.

But still, that won't stop Twitter from being a brilliant success 5-10 years down the road brought to us by Elon's idiosyncratic genius.

On the financial angle, I suppose you could argue musk turned his tesla shares into actual wealth by grossly overpaying for twitter? Musk is worth his billions because tesla stocks have had an absurd increase in value over the past few years. Even though tesla only ever first achieved a profit not that long ago and it doesn't sell nearly enough cars to justify it's current worth (essentially, more than the competition even though it sells a fraction what they do).

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 26, 2022, Original Post Date: Apr 26, 2022 ---

Ah, and russia talking about WW3 and nuclear weapons (again). The rhetoric has scaled... The end is nigh?

 

[xi0]

On the financial angle, I suppose you could argue musk turned his tesla shares into actual wealth by grossly overpaying for twitter? Musk is worth his billions because tesla stocks have had an absurd increase in value over the past few years. Even though tesla only ever first achieved a profit not that long ago and it doesn't sell nearly enough cars to justify it's current worth (essentially, more than the competition even though it sells a fraction what they do).

Musk has the ultimate version of "Fuck You" money, he can literally do whatever he wants and still have hundreds of billions of money leftover. So anyone viewing this latest venture as anything other than some sort of ego-stroke is a fool IMO.

 

[kkck]

Musk has the ultimate version of "Fuck You" money, he can literally do whatever he wants and still have hundreds of billions of money leftover. So anyone viewing this latest venture as anything other than some sort of ego-stroke is a fool IMO.

Seriously.. imagine just looking at your portfolio exploding over a few years into literal hundreds of billions mostly because people buy into your hype. That said, a quick read does suggest this is a financially risky move for musk. According to the internet he got the funding for it by using his tesla stock as collateral (there's more to it but that is the big one as far as I can tell). So what happens if tesla stock value adjusts to a reasonable number? His debt would be way more than his net worth. We live in a clown world so this seems pretty unlikely for now... Twitter probably won't have its value explode like tesla because, if I am understanding this right, it won't be publicly traded going forward.

And yeah, this is definitely a massive ego stroke. Imagine the ego you need to have to say you are going to pretty much save free speech. Free speech on the US constitution refers to government censoring private individuals. The situation is pretty similar elsewhere. The laws relevant to free speech concern libel, hate speech and government overreach. Twitter banning whoever for whatever reasons is not at odds with any of that. You'd need new laws that don't breach twitter's free speech or a constitutional amendment to tackle this. It'd have to be a public forum for any of the existing laws to apply. And the reason social media companies tip toe around being public forums or not is because it would cost them control over their property or their capacity to make money.

From a business angle I am curious on whether musk can make twitter profitable without bots... As nasty as bots are, they definitely drive engagement up.

 

[Sanity Check]

 

[kkck]

Ok, I am really trying to ignore all this musk stuff but this one made me laugh:

Musk really thinks he was left of center? As in, what does he think left of center is? What left of center policy has he ever supported? Can you claim you are left of center simply because you support some social issues that progressive and libertarians share? The guy is hilarious.

 

[Sanity Check]

Musk really thinks he was left of center? As in, what does he think left of center is?

What left of center policy has he ever supported?

(Building factories in china, to centralize production and supply chains in china.)

(You never heard that from me btw its our little secret.)

Elon is also a big donor to republican PAC.

Elon Musk A Major Donor To House Republican PAC, Filings Show

The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO donated $38,900 to Protect the House last quarter.

www.huffpost.com

 

[kkck]

(Building factories in china, to centralize production and supply chains in china.)

(You never heard that from me btw its our little secret.)

Elon is also a big donor to republican PAC.

Elon Musk A Major Donor To House Republican PAC, Filings Show

The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO donated $38,900 to Protect the House last quarter.

www.huffpost.com

How is building in china a left of center position?

 

[Sanity Check]

How is building in china a left of center position?

...

LeBron James is the king â of hypocrisy when it comes to China

Nike’s latest TV ad is another slick paean to individual empowerment and prevailing despite the naysayers.

nypost.com

...

 

[kkck]

...

I mean, is the absolute nonsense claim that building a factory in china is somehow a left wing thing supposed to actually be some sort of obvious truth? How is this a defensible position at all?

 

[Sanity Check]

I mean, is the absolute nonsense claim that building a factory in china is somehow a left wing thing supposed to actually be some sort of obvious truth? How is this a defensible position at all?

Building factories in china.

Centralizes a high percentage of global supply chains and production inside china's borders.

As china does not honor patents or copyright of intellectual property, the end result is them "borrowing" proprietary technology developed by corporations like tesla to produce their own low cost variants. (China steals technology from businesses that operate in their country. Its a big secret. You will forget you read this in 24 hours.) They have even stolen military technology from russian defense partnerships in the case of that joint jet fighter production deal.

These are the basics, my friend.

It seems people have long forgotten the spam of chinese made counterfeit games, cds and dvds. And not realized this trend extends into all other markets.

Eventually, china could steal tesla technology to produce the same car Elon Musk builds at lower cost. Its what they have done to other businesses that set up shop in the country.

 

[kkck]

Building factories in china.

Centralizes a high percentage of global supply chains and production inside china's borders.

As china does not honor patents or copyright of intellectual property, the end result is them "borrowing" proprietary technology developed by corporations like tesla to produce their own low cost variants. (China steals technology from businesses that operate in their country. Its a big secret. You will forget you read this in 24 hours.) They have even stolen military technology from russian defense partnerships in the case of that joint jet fighter production deal.

These are the basics, my friend.

It seems people have long forgotten the spam of chinese made counterfeit games, cds and dvds. And not realized this trend extends into all other markets.

Eventually, china could steal tesla technology to produce the same car Elon Musk builds at lower cost. Its what they have done to other businesses that set up shop in the country.

What does china stealing intellectual property have to do with left or right wing? It's true that china at times has gone beyond what the law or ethics would allow in regards to acquiring intellectual property but that's not a left or right wing issue (though it is also worth noting that other countries getting tech and know how is part and the point of free trade agreements). No one has forgotten anything, what you are saying is common knowledge that in no way defends the gibberish you were talking about earlier.

 

[Sanity Check]

gibberish

Elon Musk helps ccp seize the means of global production and supply chains by opening tesla factories in china.

I guess this is rocket science now, as no one appears to get it?

 

[kkck]

Elon Musk helps ccp seize the means of global production and supply chains by opening tesla factories in china.

I guess this is rocket science now, as no one appears to get it?

It's not rocket science, it's just nonsensical gibberish you can't explain in anything resembling coherent sentences.

 

[Sanity Check]

It's not rocket science, it's just nonsensical gibberish you can't explain in anything resembling coherent sentences.

Its not easy to explain.

Water is wet.

To those determined to say: water is not wet.

 

[McNuss]

It's not rocket science, it's just nonsensical gibberish you can't explain in anything resembling coherent sentences.

Even down to the American use of the word "comrade" in his meme.

Marx was German and the proper term is "Genosse" which has no proper translation into english but you could maybe say it means Nakama.

Camerata (ital.) and Kamerad (ger.) are how fascists refer to each other.

The Wikipedia article that claims the Russian term tovarish (from old turkic tavar ishchi) was created in resemblance to the German Kamerad but the sources take you to German web archive pages that talk about "Genosse" and say nothing about Russia, even so the actual root is given as old turkic and as such completely unrelated to the any cognate of comrade either.

This is such a huge translation fuck up that it makes me cringe all the time ever since I was 7.

Communists or any lefties never say "comrade". If you say comrade you sound like a Nazi.