tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post5043704753591411411..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Samo Burja - Part I: The New Events. Assistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-79088662188917789512022-04-06T14:53:34.786-04:002022-04-06T14:53:34.786-04:00Random stuff. It became apparent that the F35 was ...Random stuff. It became apparent that the F35 was a bit more of a joke that I thought, after the Israeli press laughed at the fairly primitive S200 equivalent, exploding along the north coast of Israel. <br /><br />Because I am interested I knew the Russians, after several Israeli incursions, had turned on a bunch more radar and had hooked up the Syrian air defence into their net. <br /><br />The explosions were the S200s timing out and blowing up after pursuing Israeli F35s most of the way home. The Russians have always been amused by the US's invisible aircraft, as they are not. ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-78964272389679448062022-04-06T12:34:10.208-04:002022-04-06T12:34:10.208-04:00The only groups I actually harass on a regular bas...The only groups I actually harass on a regular basis are high end stereo groups, mostly on youtube where the lies are told for profit. There are all kinds of nice people, but also many predators. ;)<br /><br />Chicago Boyz is an epicentre for Milton Friedman and his ideas. Thinking they were at the heart of American economic darkness, I decided to throw down there. That was a long time ago. You I looked into after the astonishing statement that Zappa was not a genius.<br /><br />I do not belong anywhere, but that is just fine. I really am the cat that walks by himself, and all places really are the same to me. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-47730528027011986122022-04-06T08:54:33.642-04:002022-04-06T08:54:33.642-04:00@ Pen gun - a much better answer than I expected a...@ Pen gun - a much better answer than I expected and I thank you. What you describe is not a terrible way to arrive at conclusions, and better than most people use. It does have a weakness, in that one becomes prisoner to the one's preconceptions, to the ghosts of previous (perhaps even long-previous) discussions or attention to others' discussions. We think we are acquiring and weighing information as it comes in, but we are selecting it, sometimes at very subtle levels. We apply our standard biases which we no longer even notice. It is common to mankind. <br /><br />We seldom get to understanding another POV from listening to those who disagree (related to the new post I just put up), but only from those who mostly agree with us, but have a different take we had not expected. I actually think that attending too constantly to those we disagree with solidifies our previous ideas rather than undermines them. It is the psychology behind those village exercises the Chines used to have, where people took turns arguing the other POV. they found that it strengthened party belief. <br /><br />So though you say you have no discussion groups, you actually have this one and Chicago Boyz, so I have to hope that you have other groups where the others start from premises more similar to yours. Otherwise your opinions will always only be new examples of last decade's opinions, which was in turn merely the decade prior, repackaged. If you don't I think you should.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-38631306871911443182022-04-06T08:49:13.937-04:002022-04-06T08:49:13.937-04:00"Russia has an unbalanced economy, with its e..."Russia has an unbalanced economy, with its elite sector and natural gas affiliated doing very well. Because so many Russians are still impoverished, we think it must mean the whole mess is unstable, ripe for revolution or at least social pressure."<br /><br />This may represent 1992 and Yeltsin's government, but it is nowhere near true today, some 30 years later. On a PPP basis, the Russian economy is at least 20% larger than precovid Germany's. And considering the wide range of things that Russia does and makes that Germany (and even US) cannot, you can make an argument that Russia's real economy is at least twice Germany's. That would make it half ours. It also implies that Russian defense spending is about one-third ours, or larger. <br /><br />It is also necessary to point out that the modern Russian economy is the most autarkic in the world, thanks to endless American sanctions. Russia's industrial sector is actually more diversified and comprehensive than either the German or American economy. (Do you remember de-industrialization? The Midwest does.) Pre-Ukraine war, Russia ran trade surpluses even without oil and gas exports. You might also note that Europe has carefully excluded oil, gas, coal and wheat from the sanctions.<br /> <br />By the way, no country in Latin America, not even Mexicon, supports the current sanction on Russia, nor does and country in Africa, nor in the Middle East, not even Israel, and only a handful of Asian countries do, all of them US military allies. <br />If you accept that, than what's going on makes sense. If you still believe Russia's economy is only as big as Spain's, then you are enmeshed in contradictions.<br /><br />As to the poverty of the Russian people, that is false, too. Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major Russian cities look like Western Europe or even US, only without the homeless and outdoor camping or street violence. The Russian cities are almost as nice as the Chinese cities.<br /><br />When one looks at the fentanyl epidemic in our rural areas, the surrender of the downtown areas of dozens of cities to armed Antifas/BLM and M13 gangs, the exploding murder rate in the black community, the country that is failing economically is the US.sykes.1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10954672321945289871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-24418015124418949442022-04-05T23:50:23.693-04:002022-04-05T23:50:23.693-04:00Really this prompts a bit of an explanation. I don...Really this prompts a bit of an explanation. I don't google information except on specific topics related usually to some technicality. I have no discussion group, no people who tell me stuff, and I generally disbelieve, as a matter of policy if nothing else, nearly all the information I take in. Its an unprocessed information category that I just leave most everything in.<br /><br />I draw conclusions from this information and over time, the truth will come to the fore, as the false stuff cancels its self mostly. its a great method although its somewhat abstract, relying to an extent on geshalt, and has proved very useful <br /><br />Anyway I soak up information rather a lot. I'm old and have not much I have to do. So I do as I please, and really that is figuring out what's going on. <br /><br /> The recent conflict in Ukraine is something I have followed rather closely since the coup in 2014 and am admittedly somewhat emotional about it. Most of the people who fought against the Nazis from the west, who really did come to ethnically cleanse the entire area, are dead. I admired some of them and have an emotional bias because of this.<br /><br />This does not change the fact that the CIA does control Ukraine, and that its these very Nazis they used for the coup, that now are the somewhat unofficial eastern branch of Ukraine's army. The branch that did a missile attack on Donetsk yesterday and hurt some children, and 3 days ago killed 25 people, shooting at a built up area.<br /><br />Anyway the SMO is going fairly well and although I could explain that in some detail, I will refrain. Its far more fun to watch all the armchair generals getting everything wrong. Hell, the real ones are the funniest. ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-26709938651656104592022-04-05T23:21:59.191-04:002022-04-05T23:21:59.191-04:00As I make up my talking points, always have, I am ...As I make up my talking points, always have, I am in no way repeating anyone else's. Now that others may have reached similar conclusions, is always possible.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-87299168435990421882022-04-05T21:57:26.804-04:002022-04-05T21:57:26.804-04:00@ Pen Gun - You don't see that what you said i...@ Pen Gun - You don't see that what you said is not actually evidence. You simply don't see it.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-31563457646954908552022-04-05T21:07:53.260-04:002022-04-05T21:07:53.260-04:00I hadn't heard that about Sweden--I admit I wa...I hadn't heard that about Sweden--I admit I wasn't paying a lot of attention. I wish I could say I was astonished.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-14037674368996064812022-04-05T18:18:10.455-04:002022-04-05T18:18:10.455-04:00"What would be the evidence that you actually... "What would be the evidence that you actually think about these issues rather than repeat talking points?"<br /><br />Well the ones that pertain to the present conflict are largely my talking points. Derived from what is obvious to me, although not to those who one might expect to have some understanding. I have though been watching this particular conflict for a long time, and know far too much about it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-42748318095415762612022-04-05T17:30:32.697-04:002022-04-05T17:30:32.697-04:00The point about the US out-producing Japan and Ger...The point about the US out-producing Japan and Germany seems correct--we eventually wound up with superior weapons in a number of fields, but we did a lot of "swamping" to get there. Even so, Germany was getting there first with jets and snorkels and...<br /><br />We got the bomb first, but the Germans had to give up theirs because of resource issues, and I gather the Japanese would have if they could have--they knew what hit them.<br /><br />It ties in with the point in the text about drones becoming a quantity rather than quality weapon. We can easily think of ways to use even dumb drone swarms, though I'd rather make bad actors think of them themselves.<br /><br />One of the books I read on the bronze age claimed that good hammered bronze was probably better than the iron of the era--but once iron could be made in quantity it was far faster and cheaper to outfit your soldiers with iron.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-32542145056923938562022-04-05T17:01:36.965-04:002022-04-05T17:01:36.965-04:00Yes, that has been the Russian excuse for a couple...Yes, that has been the Russian excuse for a couple of centuries, in a few dozen countries, that they were only there to get rid of very bad people. And some of them <i>were</i> very bad people. But ultimately the people who actually live in those countries, when given the choice, decided they wanted the Russians gone, even though that left them "at the mercy" of these other bad people. That seems meaningful. You should probably talk to people from those countries who aren't Russians. Talking to Western communists is probably not getting right up close to the issue.<br /><br />It's the same pattern every time. If someone makes a positive comment about Americans, however qualified, or any negative comment about Russians or Chinese, however hedged, Pen Gun concludes they must not know what they are talking about. I have seen no variation in this pattern over a few years. What would be the evidence that you actually think about these issues rather than repeat talking points? Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-10174405556221243982022-04-05T14:04:43.829-04:002022-04-05T14:04:43.829-04:00Oh well. Again, the point of The Special Military ...Oh well. Again, the point of The Special Military Operation is to denazify Ukraine. More precisely the destruction of the forces that have killed 14,000 people in the Donbass since 2014. The same forces the Russians claim were about to mount a serious attack on Donbass. <br /><br />The Azov brigade controls most of the eastern front and they are unabashedly Nazis. These are the people who shell civilians in the Donbass as they really believe they are commies and need to die.<br /><br />This is a level of conflict, that can only be resolved by killing a lot of people who think they are better than everyone else. A work in progress. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com