"Bro please just let me take Kyiv. I swear bro just one more special military operation and the security buffer is complete. It's not a war bro it's denazification. Just give me the Donbas and the land bridge and I'll be chill. One more mobilization and the multipolar world order is saved bro please."
"Bro please just acknowledge the Nine-Dash Line. I swear bro just let me have Taiwan and the great rejuvenation is complete. It's totally an internal matter bro. Just one more island chain and the century of humiliation is over. Please bro just let me cross the strait."
"Bro please just let me bring them freedom. I swear bro just one more regime change and the region is stable. It's about democracy bro it's not about the oil reserves I promise. Just let me install an interim president. Please bro just one more coup."
why would the US 'play nice', when it can have its cake and eat it too? venezuela show of force, followed by imminent regime change in iran, ukraine will get more weapons, and china will continue getting surrounded via japan.
i think the people hoping to see some kind of change to the status-quo will be disappointed! pax americana alive and well.
after being inundated with scenes of russian donkeys, ukranian 3d-printed drones, and hezbollah toyota machine-guns, this is a stark reminder of who the real, OG 'world policeman' is (and there is only one!)
ultimately its actions that matter, and the US can punch.
every dictator of every 3rd world nation is thinking super hard today about how much they really care about resisting 'US imperiaism' - indeed, whether their soldiers are even capable of preventing them from being abducted in a shock extraction by a vastly more organised and technologically superior US.
I'm tired of the US thinking that military forceful action is the way to resolve conflicts, especially the way to win the "war on drugs." We should be much more effective at reducing drug addiction if we realized that it's not so much about the drugs, it's about our growing culture of conflict and emotional avoidance. When a population lets itself feel sadness, feel pain, and reinterpret conflicts from the assumed "they don't care about me" to "they care more about me than I may ever realize," then I am willing to bet the drug industry will shrink significantly.
Punishing those who sell drugs often just perpetuates this idea that punishment resolves conflict, which I'm very willing to bet actually _increases_ our tendency to be addicted to drugs.
It's far easier to reduce consumption by cutting the supply entering your country, than solving the self-actualization issues (is it even one?) of your population.
People selling drugs such as fentanyl or cocaine have various techniques to hook consumers and keep them addicted regardless of their mental state. Selling hard drugs is criminalized for a good reason.
So easy. Exactly why Sweden have had a "zero tolerance" policy against drugs, particularly Cannabis, yet usage keeps growing no matter how much resources they keep throwing at stricter border controls and trying to reduce both supply and demand by arresting everyone with even traces of Cannabinoids in their blood. https://www.euda.europa.eu/publications/country-drug-reports...
> People selling drugs such as fentanyl or cocaine have various techniques to hook consumers and keep them addicted regardless of their mental state. Selling hard drugs is criminalized for a good reason.
You're making the argument for why these things should be sold in controlled circumstances, rather than by private individuals who don't care about anything else but themselves, yet you end with "is criminalized for a good reason". Completely opposite, you're making the argument for why it needs to be legalized.
In the case of Sweden, it is mainly a symptom of non-european immigration, using their criminal networks to import the product. Netherland is dominated by Moroccan mafia, France by the Algerian mafia, and so on. Remigrating them would likely solve a big part of the problem.
> controlled selling
Yes, that's already the case in most countries: I can get opioids such as morphine in the case of surgical operation. Many ADHD teens get derivatives of amphetamines. No one is against this.
OTOH, if demand drops, that's real money out of traffickers pockets. They sell less, and at lower prices.
You're not solving any problems, you're moving them around. What's the point?
Stuff like this is hard to believe in 2025 without really compelling evidence.
The reverse is also true: the crack epidemic was caused by a dramatic increase in the supply of cocaine, which allowed even the poorest members of society to afford it. It's happening again now in Europe.
We can discuss about the criminalization of users and its effects on society, but in the case of the sellers I don't really see a case, especially when you know the conditions in which drugs are produced, involving often borderline slavery and wide corruption networks.
I don't think the drugs are inherently the problem, as there's a paper I loved talking about different kinds of escapism: one where people escape to avoid problems and the second where people escape to solve problems.
So I still think the root is problem avoidance, which at an even more root level is emotional avoidance, especially of "bad" feelings, mostly sadness.
So I don't see it as self-actualization for some noble goal, but rather a practical how do I actually solve problems in my life goal.
tldr; banning certain drugs can be whack-a-mole, trying to solve symptoms but not the problem.
But I dunno, I tend to say we should make it harder to get guns, so I want to reflect a little more on my double standard.
You don’t need any special tricks to keep someone buying fentanyl, the withdrawals are your sales pitch.
With the exception of medicinally. Like lost op painkillers. But that’s different than what you’re saying.
Drug users can be found at every stage of the society, either because of psychological/genetic issues making them more prone to consume, or because it's a cultural thing to do it (e.g alcohol), or there is peer pressure leading to consumption. Your living conditions have little to do about it, really.
People seem to conflate whats supposed to be separate in these realms
Like, when we talk about farmer subsidies, wedont call it food grab, when its functionally the same.
Shouldnt we just drop this american democracy facade for a hybrid corporatocracy with optional citizen input?
Anyway, oil grab suggests American government, rather than business interests, benefits.
Most? I doubt that. Many? Yes. But because "many" can't avoid being hypocrites constantly, doesn't mean we suddenly should stop calling it out when we see it, don't you agree?
“Calling it out” is meaningless
There are countless of organizations who follow their stated missions even after 100, 200, 400 or even 800 years. I'm not sure you should judge it based on some young US organizations, or whatever you're going by.
> “Calling it out” is meaningless
Not calling it out is cowardice and complacency. "Calling it out" might have a tiny effect, but it surely beats nothing.
Now the real reason is that venezuela is a "hostile influence in the western hemisphere" both from a russia/china perspective as well as an energy security perspective so this was a matter of when not if (monroe doctrine and all that).
This is not the first time the US has intervened in LatAm, and it won't be the last. Being the sole influence in N and S america is a defining feature of america and all americans, and has been so since 1823.
The current US administration seemed to prefer isolationism (at least up until today), and seems hellbent on destroying the US economy. If they're successful in their goals, this might very well be the last SA intervention from the US for a very long time. Maybe they're aware of this, and this is some sort of dead-cat bounce or whatnot.
[1] which they have taken a lot of massive steps towards recently
But I do believe that a lot of the US government posturing that if implemented would be bad for economy (which you are alluding to), will not actually happen. A massive revamp of the economy is what the majority voting bloc in the US wishes for, so the winning politician will have to keep signalling in that direction. But actually following through with it, be it in a way with positive or negative effect, is extremely difficult. So I don't pay much attention to it.
This is an interesting claim, what did you see to suggest this?
The tariffs are not isolationist, they are leverage held over trading partners used to coerce them.
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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_war_by_the_Unit...
Korea was not a war. Vietnam was not a war. Iraq I and II were not wars. Afghanistan was not a war. The "War on Terror" was not a war. You could be forgiven for thinking this invasion of a sovereign foreign country is a war, but it's not a war according to any law that is likely to be enforced within the USA.
Power accumulates in places it shouldn't be permitted unless the people occasionally claw it back and redistribute it. Unfortunately, Americans failed to claw back the power to declare war from the POTUS almost a century ago. Trump's reasons for declaring not-war (cough Wag the dog. cough Epstein. cough) are more unprecedented than his methods in this particular case.
It's the 2020's, not 1920's. Congress hasn't declared war since WW2, and that hasn't stopped us from engaging the dozens of wars and armed conflicts we've been directly involved in since then.
To be clear, I'm not happy/proud of that fact. I think it's a moral and systemic failing, and do not support America's actions in Venezuela this morning. I'm just perplexed why everyone seems to think a precedent we abandonded long before most of us were even born suddenly applies today, or why they know about that law but don't know that we've violated it more times than we've observed it (without consequences), or don't know about the War Powers Act, or think that Congress would do anything but further enable him.
In short, why does everyone suddenly think that's relevant while also ignoring all the other relevant history that establishes we do not and have not observed that precedent in the modern era. Again, we *Should*, but did anyone honestly expect it to happen, or that congress wouldn't go along with it, or that the current POTUS would respect such law/precedent?
TL;DR: I don't think we should be going to war or engaging in armed conflict without congressional approval either, but the law and well established precedent both say POTUS legally has that power, at least in the short term, and we're not even 24hours into the 60 day period the War Powers act (which is 50 years old and passed by congress btw) grants.
I would say this is the exact same thing we did with Manuel Noriega in 1988.
Personally, I hate that we do these things but it is certainly not impossible in the long run the lives of the Venezuelans will be improved.
It is hard to get an exact figure but inflation last year was 150-200% and that is an improvement from what they had. 50,000% hyperinflation at the end of the last decade.
Given I was just annoyed at my grocery bill an hour ago because of 3% inflation I really can't imagine what life is like with that level of inflation.
That’s a way of viewing it, but of course it assumes logical planning by reasonably bright individuals. So it’s begging the question somewhat.
And a nice distraction from the Epstein files.
The problem is that fear-based problem solving often just becomes problem avoidance. People become afraid to say there's a problem so it _looks_ as if the problem is solved, but the problem just becomes more buried and actually gets worse.
So, it might help Americans _think_ that the drug problem is solved, but not actually help us solve the drug problem. And I suppose when we push punishment, we're mostly pushing problem avoidance, and so it helps people Americans avoid problems more, so I guess it'd be successful in that.
I think even Bush would recognise it didn't really work out that way with Iraq, but hey, maybe this administration has unlocked the secret.
Sure, it's the tip headline everywhere, but seems less emphasised than football world cup final results. More like, "Very large rain occured somewhere".
Trump, without even Congress' authority, never mind UN or any allied country consultation presumably, kidnaps a foreign president, "elected" likely fraudulently but still the head of his state, over accusations even more tenuous than WMD in Iraq.
What's next? Danish PM held hostage until Greenland is handed over? This seems like a really hostile move by the US, and the reaction seems to be, oh yeah, something's up.
Like, surely they could afford to have their own pizza ovens installed .. or does all that cash really just need to be spent slaughtering innocents instead?
One bad anchovy batch and the world might be at peace for a while, hmm…
Make the signal have too many false positives to be worthwhile.
Also what are you going to do about it? Knowing how much pizzas they ate didn't prevent Maduro from being captured.
Russia, Iran, Syria, Yemen, North Korea, etc.
Weaponized anchovies, you know…
Hard to motivate people to work late with minimum bidder pizza.
[1] https://www.wikibin.org/articles/alameda-weehawken-tunnel.ht...
If what you're proposing did happen, there would be a huge power vacuum, not peace.
Wise words, years later I worked at a fancy place. All kinds of snacks and drinks and weekly lunches. One day we got moved off into a smaller, worse office. Our old Herman Miller chairs were missing and our nice fancy desks were replaced with bottom barrel IKEA furniture. The weekly lunch was cut. The snacks were scarce.
I got a new job within the month. By the following month the entire company went bankrupt.
(The company only went under because of an investor tiff, apparently two of them met for lunch, and the one who was left out pulled funding)
Yeah, I could kind of understand that, somewhat. Big sign that they're planning on pushing you out anyways if they meet in secret without you to talk about the business, so better GTFO quick rather than try to force-staying.
My century-old fortune 50 workplace does not have free. Autodrip coffeemakers are provided, but the coffee isn’t free. Employees bring it in with a jar to collect “coffee club membership fees.”
A couple of years later, one morning, I noticed that the daycare my daughter attended had swapped the large iMac in their office for an old Dell monitor. I didn’t think much of it at the time.
Somewhat later, the soft wipes in the diaper-changing room were gone. There only were the cheap, sandpaper-like ones to be found.
Not long after that, they announced their bankruptcy, shortly after the piano had mysteriously disappeared, without any explanation.
Now I know what "strange behavior" looks like.
A "military operation" in another country's territory (without declaring war, like a coward) and entering their capital is the same as ICC wanted military criminal Putin did to Ukraine.
1: https://xcancel.com/AbujomaaGaza/status/2007338360017498269 (6:28am UTC = 1:28am EST)
I assume from cell phone location?
Then I have more questions...
That makes sense for the average unsuspecting Android user who keeps location on all the time. "Proper" Android is more or less spyware from Google, so this is not surprising. But Pentagon people keep their work/personal Android location on all the time?
Otherwise, for iPhones, can Google get real-time location data when someone is not actively using Google Maps?
Literally any adversary can put the place (call it "Pentagon Pizza" if they don't give it a name) on a map, and every time clueless DoD employees google it, there'll be a peak on a graph.
Out of 30k people working there, there has to be a bunch of new hires that don't understand how OSINT works, and they just weren't fired yet. I believe solving this problem without reducing staff is extremely hard.
nomilk•1mo ago
> You can tell when shit is going down inside the pentagon cause they're working after hours and they order pizza from nearby places. Today the US is invading/destabilising: Venezuela
wmil•1mo ago
Freddies Beach Bar, the closest gay bar to the Pentagon is reporting below average traffic.
The nearby sports bar, Crystal City Sports Pub is reporting below average traffic.
The closest open Papa Johns is reporting slightly above average traffic.
tclancy•1mo ago