Also zeppo@sh.itjust.works. Not a lot of Zeppos out here.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • It’s like driving on a bus with a terrorist who insists “you have to do what I want!! Or I’ll blow up the bus!”, but they’re on the bus with their whole family who might not want to do that. Putin himself might be wacked out enough that he decides to. However, it’s been obvious for decades that the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction is accurate, and most nuclear countries seek to maintain that as a deterrent. I don’t think the rest of the power structure in Russia would allow that to happen since it’s obvious suicide. Even if they weren’t instantly nuked by the US, France and UK, it would fuck up so many things in the world, including for Russia, that nobody would win that. I don’t think Putin wants to destroy all of civilization… he just wants Russia to regain power and be on par with the US, EU and China.







  • Where do you get “people might say mean things”? One of those reductions where someone acts like Trump being derogatory, inflammatory, thin skinned, insulting and lying is just silly little ‘mean things’? Obviously I mean that Trumps’ actions would be the same or worse, not ‘saying mean things’, though that is also significant. His inflammatory rhetoric and inconsistency does affect international relations.

    Anyway, it’s hard to find a national politician in the US who doesn’t side with Israel. I agree it would be nice if Biden took a more neutral stance, but Congress are the ones who appropriate money for Israel, not the President.


  • It’s such a crappy situation that there’s no way he could win. Anything other than siding with Israel would lead to claims of anti-semitism and criticism from the very powerful Isreal lobby, not to mention Republicans. A more nuanced position would be better, sure, but I don’t know how politically feasible it is in the US. We can definitely criticize Biden but “Genocide Joe” always strikes as stupid especially since it’s bashing Biden at a time when making him less popular would give us Genocide Donald, who would clearly be so much worse.




  • The same is true under US law and international law in general - if someone shows up at border point and requests asylum, saying they’re in danger, have been forcibly displaced or are fleeing persecution, the country must admit them. It’s not assured, though, as someone can be turned down for a US criminal record or other background check flags. You also have to apply and go through a court process to be officially granted residency. And then, having shown up and being under official control at a border, starting under Obama many refugees have been placed into detention camps or even made to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed, which can take quite some time - the US has a court backlog of about 850,000 cases. So, many people consider it easier to just dodge the authorities and come in unofficially.