[Non-US] News That Makes You laugh/cry/neither...

[Kaelik]

Haiti's US backed dictator was assassinated.

Still in the "not sure why, no idea what comes next" phase. His "presidential term" where he suspended parliament and ruled by decree should have ended but, with the Biden admins explicit support, he had extended it.

The us media has completely ignored the several years of constant protest in Haiti but that now ends as Wapo editorial board has called for a us invasion to make sure we get another us friendly dictator.

[MGuy]

I wonder what extremely minor part of the population trying to martial aggression against nobody essentially appeals to. The guy is dead. Haiti can handle replacing him. There's pretty much nothing for the US to do about this. If the government decides to do what it always does in putting a heavy hand in influencing other governments it's definitely not something we'll be told about. Perhaps it's to generate a talking point to be passed around in what I imagine are incredibly small groups of interested parties?

[Kaelik]

Found out today that the US government through USAID funded the mass sterilization of indigenous women in Peru. (also some men, but mostly the women). Boy Sure sucks a lot when the US keeps aiding genocides.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

But we do that every day. I don't think there's been a single day in the past 40+ years we haven't.

[Dogbert]

Haiti's US backed dictator was assassinated.

Are you positive he was US' backed? Because if so, that's a most grim portent for my country (not like I expected do-nothing Biden to step up before our tinpot dictator turns us into a banana republic, but seriously, it's not in the US' best interest to let its #1 trade partner go to hell).

[Kaelik]

Haiti's US backed dictator was assassinated.

Are you positive he was US' backed? Because if so, that's a most grim portent for my country (not like I expected do-nothing Biden to step up before our tinpot dictator turns us into a banana republic, but seriously, it's not in the US' best interest to let its #1 trade partner go to hell).

He was definitely us backed when they had a fake election to install him and Biden had just weeks before announced his support for him staying "president" after his term ended without a new election and ignoring the term limit.

That being said it might genuinely have been the case that the us supported or carried out the assassination because there have been ongoing protests for 4 years straight against him, hes produced a lot of refugees who fled to the US (and have been deported back) and he suspended parliament and ruled by decree for the last year or two. So it's very possible they were tired of his shit and are willing to prop up a new dictator or maybe even have a parliament actually run things instead of a president ruling by decree so that maybe people will stop protesting/at least not seek asylum in the US.

[Kaelik]

The (former) President of Afghanistan fled today and the government broke down as the Taliban..... is in Kabul? Took it? Still very recent news, so no solid result we can be sure of. Four Days ago the US predicted Kabul would fall in 90 days. Now they are telling embassy staff to shred sensitive material because it could be 72 hours.

So uh..... Maybe Biden should have withdrawn from Afghanistan in May like the US agreed to do, instead of going back on that agreement and waiting until "September" by which I mean apparently August whether we like it or not.

Let's hope Biden knows better than to do what the military is begging him to do and Surge and/or to keep doing lots of bombing runs forever, and what his FP advisors are advising which is draw up the sanctions legislation to pass as soon as possible.

It's almost like we shouldn't have been there at all and every single day was just as much as mistake as the first one.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/15 ... &smtyp=cur

[Dogbert]

On related news, all of my country's dictator's worshippers are paising the taliban over here... wichs leads me to believe dictator-would-be's all over may take it as a Go signal.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

The American military excels at making other people look good.

[Whatever Jr.]

Russia has invaded Ukraine.

[Stahlseele]

Things people would have laughed at 5 years ago:
1.) A Worldwide Pandemic, deadly.
2.) Another Landwar in Europe. And Germany did not start it.

[PseudoStupidity]

That sabre rattling did give me a sinking feeling, and this war is so fucking awful. I hope it ends quickly and without too much bloodshed.

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

Things people would have laughed at 5 years ago:
1.) A Worldwide Pandemic, deadly.
2.) Another Landwar in Europe. And Germany did not start it.

Fucking hell...

Look, the fact this is largely the fault of the US aside, the fact that Germany... kinda also is just a little to blame for also backing a certain Ukraine coup...

...that coup was in 2014, the Crimean annexation was a near direct result of that and was also in 2014.

This entire Ukraine thing has been going on for 8 years since as a clear and ongoing chain of events that HAS included land war since 2014.

No one would have predicted this in 2017? It has been happening since 2014! Pay any attention to international news for once, what are you living in a hole like some kind of US citizen?

[Mistborn]

Mostly the fault of the US?! PL are you on crack?

Like before last month maybe the ooga booga NATO expansion line would have been plasible at least as whataboutism, but in the past month has made it clear that this invasion is motivated by tawdry and indefensible irredentism. Putin isn't commiting crimes against humanity in Ukraine because he's scared of NATO, he's doing it because he's high on his on supply of nationalist bulshit and things "reestablish the Russian empire with himself as tsar" is a thing that can happen in the 21st century.

Like I know our standards are low here but can we not have people on the board who are useful idiots for modern day fascism.

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

The USA has been publicly pushing hard (or rather harder) for war in the Ukraine for months now. More than any other party involved they have pushed for war. They have also openly sabotaged and denounced any and all attempts at reaching a diplomatic solution and openly funneled in huge amounts of weapons and plenty of so far empty threats of direct US military intervention.

If you won't admit that, you either don't watch the news or don't understand it in the slightest.

Russia gets blame, sure, hey all the usual oooga booga yes Putin bad grrr. But the USA very much made this happen and has been working on it since it was Biden's pet project when he was vice president when they pushed a far right nazi filled government to power in a coup that disenfranchised half the Ukraine just to put a hostile nation on Russia's border for no fucking good reason. And that's why, fuck you, this was pretty predictable, because it has been a slow train wreck for nearly a decade now, and some of us have been watching it and didn't wait for it to be fed to us in a propaganda blitz at the last minute.

[Kaelik]

It's theoretically possible that Putin spent 8 years threatening Ukraine and building up forces and engaging in talks because he just needed exactly eight years to invade Ukraine, the thing he always intended to do regardless of other events.

But much more likely the last 8 years, and the last 6 months in specific, demonstrate that there were things he wanted besides an invasion of Ukraine and that he could have done the invasion a lot sooner but really wanted something else. You can say "this has nothing to do with NATO expansion!" but the day before Putin invaded, NATO's position was still that Ukraine could join NATO. The actual cost to NATO and everyone of just promising not to expand NATO was basically nothing, but NATO wouldn't make that promise, Biden wouldn't make that promise, ect.

Would making that promise, alone, in a clear and committing way, have averted this invasion? If done in 2021? Who knows? Reason to believe so! What if it had been made 2 weeks before the invasion? Who knows? Seems less likely, but certainly possible and yet, no one made that promise.

If the US hadn't done a coup in 2014 would Russia have invaded Ukraine in 2022? Almost certainly not! The elected government had decided to pull back from it's attempted slow integration into the EU market after what amounts to a sweet gift of 14 billion dollars from Russia. Seems unlikely that at that point Russia would have taken Crimea and Ukraine Russia relations might have continued with relatively little confrontation.

I don't know what "most responsible" is supposed to mean here, but the US is clearly a but-for cause of the invasion both in 2013-14 and now.

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

It's also worth noting that Russia being the sort of nation it is, having the sort of leader it has, and having the SPECIFIC leader it has...

...are also all direct results of even earlier stupid US foreign policy.

[Kaelik]

It's also worth noting that Russia being the sort of nation it is, having the sort of leader it has, and having the SPECIFIC leader it has...

...are also all direct results of even earlier stupid US foreign policy.

Fair point, the US did in fact deliberately interfere in Russian elections to make sure the authoritarian right wingers stayed in power to avoid "backsliding" to communism specifically helping Yeltsin and then his successor Putin seize control. The US was also responsible for the entire process of privatization that created the oligarchs, including Putin, and ensured their control over the country going forward. The US deliberately choose for Russia to be the country it is today because they were worried the people of Russia might prefer communism in fair elections.

In fact the US has spent the last 10 years promoting fringe Nazi opposition to Putin as the face of democracy in Russia because the actual opposition is the communist party, which Putin spends a lot more time and effort undermining then Navalny, including funding an entire fake communist party to sap votes.

The US might be interested in a change of ruling oligarch on the counsel, but even today they would reject an actual democratic election outcome that put Putin's opposition in power, because again, those would be communists.

[PseudoStupidity]

When two countries run by people the US helped put into power fight, especially after the US sabre rattled and began sending a fuckton of weapons and ammo to one, it's very unfair to blame the US even a little bit. Stop being fascist.

[Wiseman]

It's also worth noting that Russia being the sort of nation it is, having the sort of leader it has, and having the SPECIFIC leader it has...

...are also all direct results of even earlier stupid US foreign policy.

Fair point, the US did in fact deliberately interfere in Russian elections to make sure the authoritarian right wingers stayed in power to avoid "backsliding" to communism specifically helping Yeltsin and then his successor Putin seize control. The US was also responsible for the entire process of privatization that created the oligarchs, including Putin, and ensured their control over the country going forward. The US deliberately choose for Russia to be the country it is today because they were worried the people of Russia might prefer communism in fair elections.

In fact the US has spent the last 10 years promoting fringe Nazi opposition to Putin as the face of democracy in Russia because the actual opposition is the communist party, which Putin spends a lot more time and effort undermining then Navalny, including funding an entire fake communist party to sap votes.

The US might be interested in a change of ruling oligarch on the counsel, but even today they would reject an actual democratic election outcome that put Putin's opposition in power, because again, those would be communists.

Could we get more info on this? There's a lot of information, theories and what not flying around and it's difficult to parse what's real from the well-meaning but misinformed, the propaganda, and the outright lies.

[Kaelik]

Could you spell out what you want more info on? Since I have like three different main claims in there.

I'm awake in the middle kf the night so I thought I'd just ask this now since I'm definitely not going to be providing more info for several more hours since I'm going back to bed.

[Kaelik]

It's also worth noting that Russia being the sort of nation it is, having the sort of leader it has, and having the SPECIFIC leader it has...

...are also all direct results of even earlier stupid US foreign policy.

Fair point, the US did in fact deliberately interfere in Russian elections to make sure the authoritarian right wingers stayed in power to avoid "backsliding" to communism specifically helping Yeltsin and then his successor Putin seize control. The US was also responsible for the entire process of privatization that created the oligarchs, including Putin, and ensured their control over the country going forward. The US deliberately choose for Russia to be the country it is today because they were worried the people of Russia might prefer communism in fair elections.

In fact the US has spent the last 10 years promoting fringe Nazi opposition to Putin as the face of democracy in Russia because the actual opposition is the communist party, which Putin spends a lot more time and effort undermining then Navalny, including funding an entire fake communist party to sap votes.

The US might be interested in a change of ruling oligarch on the counsel, but even today they would reject an actual democratic election outcome that put Putin's opposition in power, because again, those would be communists.

Could we get more info on this? There's a lot of information, theories and what not flying around and it's difficult to parse what's real from the well-meaning but misinformed, the propaganda, and the outright lies.

So in 1995 parliamentary elections it was primarily between Yeltsin and his party and the communists. The Communists got the most seats in the parliament in 1995, but Yeltsin was able form a very loose coalition with some common defectors across 6 other parties to prevent the communists from being in control. The Communist party still got to be speaker of the Duma, but actual passage of anything was basically up to chance because of the nearly even split and the populist party supporting sometimes Yeltsin's coalition and sometimes the communists. Just like the US for the last 20 years, this ended up later, producing the outcome of empowering the president further because of legislative inaction.

Yeltsin had already been established as an authoritarian right winger, presiding over the mass privatization that created the present class of oligarchs as directed by the US, 1993 he set about dissolving parliament without the constitutional authority to do so. Parliament impeached him, so instead he had the military shell the parliamentary building and arrest the survivors. The US loved this.

So in the 1996 presidential elections the communists were initially flying high because of Yeltsin's unpopularity, in part because of the total collapse of Russian standard of living amongst the horrible US directed shock therapy. However, Yeltsin, with serious help from the US, was able to rise and keep the presidency, eventually handing it off to his successor Putin before the next election, allowing Putin to run as incumbent. The US deliberately stepped in during the 1996 election to make sure that the communists lost and Yeltsin won. The US did this both by economic steps to stabilize the economy (extremely temporarily) and by their direct "democracy promotion" activities that they set up after the fall of the Soviet Union to help "bring democracy" mobilizing those forces in support of Yeltsin.

Privatization, and how the US (and the IMF as proxy for the US) were key drivers: https://geohistory.today/russia-shock-therapy/

Yeltsin's conquest of Parliament and US support for it: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book ... b-handling

The US involvement in the 1996 elections: https://journals.librarypublishing.ariz ... le/id/622/

Even today, the Communists are the second largest party, though it's probably a bad idea to draw too much of a conclusion from Russian elections, which are even more meticulously managed then US ones, down to the fact that the communist parties 2021 surge in support risked political suppression tactics, since no party besides United Russia is allowed to get more then 20% of the vote without getting a stern talking to about the role of opposition.

However, the communists were the leading opposition in 1996 and 2000, and have remained the largest opposition to United Russia since. Polling of the Russian populace shows a lot of support for communism in general and the old soviets in particular because of a loss of standard of living that for obvious reasons doesn't transfer to support for the modern communist party, but if hypothetically, anyone actually did do democracy in Russia, would.

My statement that the US would prefer Putin to democratic communism is a bit of speculation sure. But have you seen the reaction of the US to communist Russia and/or any communist country? China is basically not even communist, builds half our shit for us and sells it to us cheaper at the cost of it's own populations exploitation, and we still hate those guys to this day ALMOST as much as we do Putin who actually is in constant conflict with us, just because they have communist in the name!

EDIT: An expansion of the point being made about the role the US has taken in ensuring this invasion game to be: https://fair.org/home/calling-russias-a ... -the-hook/

[Stahlseele]

So, a point i had not considered before . .
Last time there was a land war, there were no nuclear powerplants to be cought up in the mix . .

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

So, a point i had not considered before . .
Last time there was a land war, there were no nuclear powerplants to be cought up in the mix . .

Well. The one in Crimea was abandoned and had never finished initial construction.

But, since I feel like you are still thinking of WW2 I would like to remind you of a now gone nation called Yugoslavia.

I actually went there not long before it collapsed. Into a civil WAR on LAND. It had a nuclear plant. This happened in the 90s, Am I talking to someone under 30?

[Stahlseele]

No, i remember that too, but i do not remember there ever having been mentioned of a nuclear power plant being involved somehow.
In this short time, we had reports of rising radiation from tschernobyl ruins after the russians walked in (why they would do that in the first place i do not understand) and now there was active fighting at the biggest nuclear powerplant in europe. Yes, it was only an administrative building, but still, this sets an uncomfortable precedent in my eyes.
You don't even need to use nukes, just use some bunker buster and crack open a few reactors and the whole area is basically unfit for habitation.