I don’t believe that even a little bit.
Month: May 2022
NO FI
What rhetoric Putin used in his speech is immaterial. If he didn’t declare war, or a general mobilisation, that’s what important. Without concrete steps to build a new force, Russia can’t fight a long war, and the clock starts ticking on the failure of their army in Ukraine
— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) May 9, 2022
Aye. No general mobilization means Russia will just slowly lose. Unlike what the Twitter chattering class poser Ian Welsh types think, screeching random rhetoric on Twitter doesn’t get shit done in the real world where equipment must be moved, fuel must be supplied, soldiers must be trained and replaced/allowed to rest, food must be trucked in. etc.
They have no fucking idea what any of that takes. None. Russia does not have a lot of options here unless Putin turns into Voldemort and magics some stuff into existence. Yes, Russia can still fairly effectively destroy a lot of Ukraine (even absent nukes). But that won’t give them victory, and they still might be completely tossed out of the country, losing tens of billions of dollars and 100,000+ troops.
Proper Op
How am I supposed to work after watching this? 😭
(no bad stuff in the video, I'm just being a sap) https://t.co/xd65QrMKoU
— Tits McGee (@Scientits) May 9, 2022
The Ukrainian propaganda operation is so infinitely superior to the Russian one.
Russian propaganda: The Ukrainian people are vermin and deserve to be genocided because see aforementioned point about being vermin. It’s obvious.
Ukraine: Look at this cute dog that finds the bombs those Russians planted to kill us.
Sub
Republicans aren’t even bothering to lie about it anymore. They are now coming for birth control.
Yes, they are. Main goal is subjugation of women. Abortion was just a side quest.
Downtake
The biggest and most consequential, imo, was NYT running that story about like 8 people in Rhode Island getting breakthrough positives as a "oh shit the vaccines don't do anything" story. Really irresponsible framing that set the entire liberal tone about vaccines from then on.
— DL 138 (@DL_138) May 7, 2022
Yeah, that alone probably decreased vaccine uptake 2 or more percentage points among the lib “smart” people.
Switchover
It’s striking that, in this polling data at least, pandemic polarization of science was powered much more by Democrats intensifying commitment (~+25) than by Republicans losing confidence (~-5). https://t.co/tc5EurfGWB
— David Wallace-Wells (@dwallacewells) May 9, 2022
Even more interesting is that the Republican trust in science used to be much higher than the Democrat sentiments there.
Russian Harmy
This figure really is extraordinary. 3500
Vehicles or pieces of heavy military equipment destroyed which has visual confirmation, and there will be many more, particularly now that the Ukrainians have stepped up their use of ranged weaponry. https://t.co/Ftg0OeGO8A— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) May 8, 2022
This is confirmed — not Ukrainian claims. (Ian Welsh, you fucking idiot.) That’s amazing.
I Should Ignore
Them guns work https://t.co/Vm3ei00fRM
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) May 7, 2022
Ian Welsh’s absurd claim that somehow all this NATO weaponry has been stolen by Russians is one of the stupidest things he’s ever said, and he’s claimed a whole lot of stupid shit recently. I should ignore him, but he is actually a good source for what the latest Russian propaganda is (since I cannot read Russian). And it is funny.
BTW, the US’s counter-battery systems can fire a CB barrage before the initial fired rounds even land. And that’s pretty awesome.
Should be
Time to de-shore from China, folks https://t.co/xrznlOkit6
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) May 8, 2022
Should’ve never offshored there; the US is big enough to make nearly everything on its own, and should be doing that. Especially now.
De Bait
The “free speech” debate is mostly pointless. What I’ve figured out is that liberals and/or conservatives are in favor of free speech when it benefits them, and against it when it does not.
Both sides are equal hypocrites here, from what I can tell.
No Eros
It’s insane how sexless this photo is https://t.co/ZZ9mfv09fV
— Mr. Chau (@Srirachachau) May 7, 2022
Indeed. This is the least sexy “sexy” photo I have ever seen. And due to bad lighting and unfavorable angles Penelope Cruz looks like she’s been dead a few days, which is an achievement considering how beautiful she actually is.
Work Sex
Big idea here:
The US right's war on abortion is part of a bigger fight—their war on the Enlightenment era concept of rights. (Alito's ruling puts a lot of other rights at risk, not just abortion.)
The solution is a basic right to bodily autonomy and self-determination.
/1
— Charlie Stross (@cstross) May 8, 2022
This would never work in the US as it would legalize sex work de facto, and the prudish PMC libs would just not permit that, in concert with the fundies and Gen Z puritans. No chance in the US at all because of that one thing it’d make legal.
Longing
“Long Covid” is mostly a meta effect of the absolute fury many left/lib types have about not getting their way during Covid. About 1-2% of the people who claim to have it actually have it. The rest is the above, and other effects.
Lot of States
Louisiana is voting on a bill to criminalize IUDs, and plans on charging women with murder for using them.
— Pam Keith, Esq. (@PamKeithFL) May 5, 2022
Your birth control pills are next. Funny how so many people told me this sort of thing was “impossible” not too long ago. But I grew up with the folks who want to do this — and it looks like they are going to succeed in a lot of states.
This was always the goal, by the way: elimination of contraception, gay marriage, women’s right to vote, and all other rights gained in the last 200 years. They’d reinstate slavery if they could, and that is not an exaggeration of any kind. (I heard it said more than once in North Florida by these very same people that, “We had ’em in slavery once. We can put ’em right back in.”)
Shot on Goal
Make no mistake: the goal is to roll back not just the 20th century, but the 19th century too. https://t.co/y2GeMUdQht
— Nils Gilman (@nils_gilman) May 9, 2022
That is indeed the goal and the Dems are doing absolutely nothing to stop this and don’t even seem to care about it.