American government told the whole world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. America used this as justification to invade Iraq and murder its people. It turns out there were no weapons of mass destruction after all.
This is why I don’t trust any government trying to justify any warlike behavior. It’s all a scam. There is no justification good enough for civilians and young men to suffer and die.
The politicians play chess and we die
This is slightly extreme. Go tell Europeans in the late 30s and early 40s that there’s no justification for going to war against Germany. There are always exceptions.
We didn’t go to germany, germany came to us.
Just like usa did many times.
And i don’t think it was so obvious at the time. Russia was massing weapons, middle east had problems, and tensions were everywhere.
Ok I concede there are exceptions but I think even in justified war the government is full of shit. The propaganda gets pumped out in full force during military actions.
I still don’t trust the government. Obviously defending yourself is justified war. For example Ukraine fighting Russia. But there’s been many documented cases of Ukrainian propaganda outright lying. They are not unique so I am not trying to single them out - there are many many many examples in modern times and historical. One of the most famous examples in the Ukrainian war was the “Ghost of Kyiv”, early on into the war.
They came up with the idea of a legendary ace fighter pilot that was going around and shooting down a bunch of Russian planes. However that pilot never existed. The government even acknowledged a few months later, after this idea had become viral and spread around everywhere - effectively already accomplishing its purpose - that it was a fabrication.
This is sort of what I mean. During war, propaganda goes off the charts. There’s a fog of war and the government uses that as a tool to totally flood people with fake knowledge. And sure, you might argue that it’s justified because they are trying to raise their population’s morale and potentially lower the morale of the enemy - but I’m a guy who wants to know the truth. So I don’t trust governments when it involves any military action.
They may be telling the truth so I don’t discount it entirely but I’m immediately skeptical and will try to confirm using sources that aren’t directly from the government.
And they knew it.
It’s worth going back to the 1980s to start pulling that thread though. The US and west have been messing around in Iraq since the Iran Iraq war. Probably Saddam’s greatest mistake was shaking hands with the devil.
Since giving waterboarding a go I’ve found myself disgusted by any government that allows the use of waterboarding on anybody - governments that encourage it are even worse, and the way the Americans handled Gitmo is fucking disgraceful.
I’m not a big fan of Whoopie Goldberg, but her way of telling (starts at 7min 53sec) about Iraq and WMD has always stuck with me. It’s worth a watch. It’s the perfect amount of funny mixed with reality.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/csaYMydO1Hg?si=CySZF0rFr8AVpMcB
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I always thought poppy production in Afghanistan had something to do with it. In 2001 the Afghan government sucessfully eradicated poppies, and again recently after the American occupation ended.
P×dophiles are flocking to churches because they’re unregulated by the government. They’re becoming a safe haven for these sick fucks because they often attempt to handle conflict and scandals within their own walls. Also, due to a high need for childcare, often no background check is needed!
A “scandal” is bad for business attendance numbers, so they like to keep it quiet, if they can.
My family has gone to so many churches throughout the years, and at least 5 or 6 have had the sexual abuse of a child come to light within church leadership.
I am dead serious about this: KEEP YOUR KIDS OUT OF CHURCHES!!!
EDIT: I forgot to mention that most clergy are not bound by laws that would make them mandated reporters for child abuse.
It’s true. There will be some volunteer that has inappropriate behavior with a minor that gets kicked out then just does the same at a different church. No one tells the police because of the intense sexual shaming and stigma. This is when you’re lucky enough to be somewhere where the church doesn’t outright protect the abuser and force the abused out.
The MOVE bombing. The fact that the Philadelphia police dropped not one but TWO explosive devices on the roof of their house via helicopter is still nuts to me. What made it even worse was the fact that the fire department showed up and let it continue to burn, destroying 61 evacuated neighboring homes and leaving 250 people homeless.
Any time I tell someone about it that hasn’t heard the story, they’re skeptical.
Another one is the time I learned that I was under local surveillance for being an activist that was part of a local non-violent black liberation org. The police would send a unit weekly to check my whereabouts and movements. I learned through a friend of a friend that didn’t even know who I was, but knew my name and that I was on a surveillance list. Pretty sure they were checking in on everyone involved.
Edit: if this comment has taught me anything, it’s that you’re better off not engaging with pointless nitpickers and police apologists. Fuck me for having an opinion.
I just looked up MOVE after reading this comment. Amazing power dynamics (from wikipedia):
In 1978, a standoff resulted in the death of one police officer and injuries to 16 officers and firefighters, as well as members of the MOVE organization. Nine members were convicted of killing the officer and each received prison sentences of 30 to 100 years.[2] In 1985, another firefight ended when a police helicopter dropped two bombs onto the roof of the MOVE compound, a townhouse located at 6221 Osage Avenue.[3][4] The resulting fire killed six MOVE members and five of their children, and destroyed 65 houses in the neighborhood.[5]
The “city” was found to have used excessive force, and compensation in these cases comes from taxpayer money.
The Philadelphia police wanted MOVE gone because they bucked the system and were at odds with the police over the ongoing murder of their people. That’s why they went to such lengths to eradicate them at their main row house. I remember reading about how it was essentially a shooting gallery for the police. As people tried to escape the building, police fired upon them.
It was an insanely careless plan borne out of hubris, hatred towards black liberation groups in a time of high racial tensions, and the police (again) thinking that they were above the law. I’m actually shocked there was even a lawsuit that stuck. That alone shows how fucked their whole plan was. Even the city and a federal judge couldn’t overlook this one.
The fire department showed up and the move members started shooting at them, which is why the fire department moved back.
Police and MOVE were still exchanging gunfire, so the firefighters were ordered to back away.
Also, to add some intent, the police plan was to make a hole in the roof through which they could shoot year gas and force MOVE members to evacuate. Witnesses did see officers on the adjoining buildings ready to go. It was a stupid plan.
The conspiracy part comes in, though, because we really only have the word of the police on all of this, since all but two of the MOVE people died, and one was a child
You said above “the fire department showed up and let it continue to burn” This is a completely inaccurate statement. The fire department was there from the beginning and were ordered to move back because of the gunfire. Your statement is saying that the fire department showed up at sometime during the event and just waited around and let it continue to burn, which is absolutely untrue .
Got cheap, no-name, unbranded LED bulbs off of eBay. Years later, not one of them had broken.
But Philips LED bulbs? Those things don’t last a year. In fact, none of the high-rated, “high quality,” top-ten-list, LED light bulbs have ever outlasted an incandescent in my experience.
If you want your LEDs to last, buy the no-name bulbs, guys. The Phoebus Cartel is still out there.
Boy do I have a video for you. It’s regarding the cartel and light bulb engineering if you’d be interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY
Monopolies are scary though, especially if they can make such collective actions without telling anyone.
Ha, I was about to dig out that video.
I will say in regards to LEDs, it’s a bit of a tricky thing. Philips in general are terrible, I don’t know what they do, but they’re also really pretty. Amazing for rarely-active mood lighting. For actual lighting, I use the white-tone-changeable Ikea bulbs, and they seem to last forever, hot as they get.
That’s the weirdest thing: The Ikeas run hotter than the Philips, yet still last longer. I really get the feel that Philips optimizes purely for color, smoothness and softness. They know what people use their overly expensive stuff for since in some areas they got little competition. It’s annoying, but for those purposes it also works really well.
I love that man, his brain and how he probes any subject matter which comes across his party.
The way my head absorbed what you said was: Phillips is the Apple of the LEDs. If you want something longer lasting, stick with the “ol reliable” brand such had to innovate to sell cheaper. I wonder if people have done experiments…
Do not remember the video but isn’t that the whole problem: LEDs like to be cooler. Bright pretty LEDs get hoter. People buy smaller prettier bulbs. Things have a tradeoff independent of price. A small bright LED that is in an enclosed space will not last long. Recommend buying pretty LEDs and using them without enclosure or buying dimmable and setting them to 50% on default.
And not buying the integrated shit.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Oh. Huh. Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting to encounter anyone who had good experience with those bulbs.
That… blows a hole in my theory.
I still don’t regret the cheap, foreign light bulbs I got off of eBay (best LEDs I’ve bought thus far)… but maybe my family and I have just been unlucky with name brand LEDs.
I haven’t had any problem either, even in enclosed fixtures that the bulbs I have aren’t rated for. There are so many different models I don’t know if you can totally generalize by brand. And I don’t use anything higher than 60 watt equivalent. There is such a thing as too bright.
Gonna add on to your comment by suggesting ESP-based lights running WLED for any fans of smart lighting; having smart lights that run FOSS firmware, don’t need an external internet connection to work, and integrate well with reactive lighting solutions like HyperHDR and LedFX is pretty dang nifty!
I was involved in the BLM protests of 2021. The cops were legitimately pulling people off the street into unmarked, black vans. Some of the people that were grabbed were not even involved in the protests, they were just outside past the citywide curfew.
I had heard about this happening in Oregon and Washington through the ever reliable internet, but I didn’t actually believe it until I saw it happen in my moderately sized Midwestern city.
And yet they let a bunch of reactionary fascists storm the capitol with minimal resistance.
Yeah, about that… let’s talk about a conspiracy theory. I remember reading, I think on Twitter, either just before, or maybe it was a retweet after the fact, someone local to DC saying that the security that had been established around town (or maybe around the capitol specifically) that day in preparation for the demonstrations was weaker than they had ever seen for any run of the mill event there. This would seem very strange because word was very much out that something was going to go down that day, so one would have expected a much higher level of security to have been established. Although I didn’t look very closely into what happened that day and the days surrounding it, it still seems strange that I’ve never heard this discussed since I read it.
Conspiracy fact. I watched on video as cops moved barricades to let rioters in, took selfies with rioters, then literally held the hands of rioters as they walked down the capitol stairs.
At the BLM protests in Buffalo a cop dropped his helmet. When a bystander tried to give it back to them, the cops gave him brain damage.
I remember the livestreams. Did anyone ever find out what happened to those poor people?
They fucking shot people on their own porches. They fucking arrested a journalist just standing doing nothing live on the air.
They went into people’s houses to arrest them for being out after curfew.
They fired tear gas into people’s houses because they were suspected of giving water to protestors.
In Minneapolis a group of cops went around off duty, out of uniform in an unmarked van and fired irritant paintballs at everyone they saw. When someone shot back they arrested him for assauting an officer, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, etc. He was eventually acquitted because he stopped shooting as soon as they ID’d themselves.
The police are fucking animals roaming the streets and inflicting violence anywhere they can get away with it.
Probably mostly just shaken up and released. I think it was the National Guard, but I wasn’t about to get close enough to ask.
It happened in Pittsburgh too. Undercovers in unmarked vans were just snatching people up off the street. Cops were shooting at people who were on their knees with their hands in the air. Someone plowed their car through a crowd of protesters on video, with the license plate and cops said there was nothing they could do.
