By the logic of that tweet, the CIA was hiding behind and deliberately using the civilians working in the WTC complex as human shields to hide from the Saudi 9/11 militants looking to remove US military bases from Saudi Arabia.
I really don't want to go down the endless list of comparisons but I don't think anyone warned the civilians in the world trade center just before it was hit. But in the case of the AP office:
"We received a warning that the building would be hit. "
And I think civilian casualties was was intended goal of the World Trade Center attack....
I could give other examples, but if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's 1993 WTC bombing was not enough of a warning that that complex was a target, I don't know what would be. Mohammed succeeded on his second try.
John P. O'Neill of the FBI headed that investigation and he left the FBI and was head of WTC security on the day of the attack. He told people he thought he expected another attempt.
If you're Israel you certainly might choose to level an 11 story building if it houses a meaningful share of or otherwise critical Hamas intelligence operations. That's direct targeting; Hamas had operations in the building and they intentionally, directly hit the building.
You don't fly jetliners into giant skyscrapers to hope to side-hit by luck a very miniscule portion of a massive target like the CIA. That would never be a consideration for the operation. The 9/11 hijackers as we know for a fact chose the WTC for the terror purposes of killing and scaring the civilian population. Your logic twists pretends we don't know what their intentions were.
Geez, by that logic some collateral civilian damage is acceptable if it gives a nation grounds to attack someone they’ve always wanted to get rid of???
I must have put on my tinfoil hat this morning. Sorry!! :)
From 1947 to 1957 US media was filled with the idea that all progress in the Soviet Union was from stealing US innovations. Particularly the 1949 A-bomb, but other things as well.
Then the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. Then they put a dog in space. Then they put a man in space. And the narrative changed.
One of the best books about soviet rocketry is "Rockets and People" ([1]). My blood boiled at how badly German engineers were treated on the Soviet side and how inefficient the use of their skills was. They literally landed Germans on an island and gave an important, but a standalone task (multi-channel telemetry). Over time, it became redundant and 7 years later all surviving german engineers were let to go home.
It's one sin to steal; it a bigger sin to not use what you have efficiently.
To be more precise, without using German scientists to the full capacity.
This multi-channel telemetry was enabler; Soviets followed the same approach as SpaceX is doing: lot of launches, lots of explosions and learning something every time.
It was telemetry from the German team that allowed this approach to happen.
In a sense, printf-style debugging was used before it became prevalent in computers.
Also Germany, the "made in..." Label was invented in the UK to distinguish their products from the cheap German knock-offs. Later "made in Germany" became a sign of quality.
> Hamas is the political party that current controls the Gaza Strip and is widely recognized to be a terrorist organization. Among other things, the first actions Hamas took after seizing power in the Gaza Strip included killing leaders from other Palestinian political parties.
Yitzhak Segev, once the Israeli military governor of Gaza, funded Ahmed Yassin and encouraged antagonism in him against secular Palestinian political forces.
It's funny for Israel to fund the founding of Hamas, encourage Muslim religious antagonism against more internationally appealing secular Palestinian figures, and then turn around and whinge about the people that they bankrolled. Hamas was bankrolled by Israel and its no secret.
Working people around the world know this and stand in support of Ahmad Sa'adat and other Palestinians to live free of the barbarism and tyranny Zionism is inflicting on them right now.
Shooting unguided missiles at population centers without strategic value isn't tyranny?
Booming busses and stubbing people in the street or forcing your way into people homes and stabbing sleeping kids and babies isn't barbarism?
Instead of blaming Israel for all that is wrong why don't you demand the liberation of the Gaza strip from Hamas, why don't you demand a better lives for the Palestinians in the refuges camps in Lebanon and Jorden where they are treaded as second class citizens. Where are all those big Arab countries who stand by the Palestinians but don't really want to make their lives better but to perpetuates their suffering so they'll have someone to blame.
You mean like building them homes, letting them get an education, integrated into your community or perpetuating their lives in slums the way to give them a normal lives?
It's easy to just ignore the problem instead of actually coming up with a plan the help them regardless of what you think is the righteous thing.
I'm all for them to live a normal lives but maybe the Arbs nations are also to blame? Shouldn't they actually do something instead of putting all the blame on Israel.
This region can barely sustain it's current population letting a few million souls isn't practical in any regard.
You can't put 100% of the blame and responsibility on one side, even if it's the strong one.
The Arab nations attacked and kept attacking Israel, if they wouldn't attack in 47 the partition plan would hold if they wouldn't work towards war in 67 there would be no need to conquer Gaza, west bank, Golan heights etc. and there would be no refuges. Keep in mind the 20% of the population of Israel are Arabs.
When Egypt was in control of Gaza were the Gazans citizens? No
When Jorden ruled east Jerusalem and the west bank were they citizens? No
Did they mistreat them? Yes
Did they try and hold the peace and avoid conflict? No
Was there an International cry for Palestinians self determination? No
Did they encourage violence and throwing Jews to the sea? Yes
I'm not saying Israel is an angel who did nothing wrong, horrible things did happen, and could have done things better but this should not all be on Israel shoulders.
The bottom line is that the world doesn't really want to get involved, they don't want to solve the conflict, the Arabs don't want to look weak and ashamed and the Israeli side doesn't want to make hard concessions.
> bizarrely then talks about unions, which are known to depress wages for top performers
I guess that's why top performing movie stars, NBA basketball players etc. have their wages depressed?
Maybe companies lowballing salaries, or being in secret, illegal cartels to drive down salaries of high earners like that lawsuit showing Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs did, can depress wages too?
> Negotiation is an extremely important skill in life
Yes, which is why companies have scores of lawyers, HR personnel etc. to draw up IP assignment agreements etc. In fact the company has people who specialize solely on negotiating salaries. Your advice is for workers to shun working in concert with their fellow workers since they're so high performing, and walk into this phalanx arrayed against them solo. You also advise someone spending the time to become a top performer to spend their spare time becoming better negotiators, in order to get over on the team of negotiating specialists they will be facing.
> I guess that's why top performing movie stars, NBA basketball players etc. have their wages depressed?
I can't speak to movie stars, but as for the NBA, there is absolutely the concept of a maximum salary (depends on years of service plus other things besides the point) in the collective bargaining agreement. This limits the compensation a player may receive from a team for a particular year. The top players like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, would no question receive higher salaries if this limit did not exist.
As to whether or not the top players or even the players as a whole are better off or worse off for having a union, that's a horse of a different color. My gut feeling is that both classes are better off.
Yes the difference being that MMT is verifiable in much the same way as the curvature of the earth’s surface. If you analyse fiscal and monetary operations from officially published sources you can map it to an MMT description of currency.
> the West was severely outgunned (at least in conventional weapons) by Soviets in Europe.
"The west" was severely outgunned by the west - the largest political party in France in 1948 was PCF, the communist/socialist alliance in Italy almost won that year. Finland remained outside the eastern bloc simply because it was no longer seen as being part of a threat. In the UK the Labour party which tossed out Churchill while he was in Potsdam was busy nationalizing the commanding heights of England's means of production (although they were not as militant as their comrades on the continent of course).
The west was busy trying to hold onto the West, never mind intervening in Prague.
> So they preempted them by staging a coup supported by People's Militias (a completely illegal armed militia of the party) on February 25, 1948
On February 21st, 1948, the non-communist ministers handed in resignations, without any pressure from the communist party. You left that part out. On February 25th the resignations were accepted. This was not a "coup" - they lost the elections in 1946 and decided to abandon the government in a failed power play. Also, as you note, the president of Czechoslovakia in the 1930s, Benes, a non-communist, presided over this.
The militias committed no violence, took over no buildings or the like and were not involved in the cabinet. The majority of Czechs did not find factory workers being armed to defend themselves to be as threatening as you apparently do.
If you really want to see elections being fixed, look at the fixing of the elections in Italy in the same year against the communist/socialist coalition.
Please do not post ideological flamewar comments to HN, regardless of what you're battling for or against. It's not what this site is for and it kills what it is for.
Czechoslovak Communist Party was since 1929 an obedient servant of Stalin with zero own will. The chairman Gottwald was a sycophant who later hanged his own friends (Slansky, Reicin) on request from Moscow.
Yes, the coup was nonviolent, much like occupation of Sudetenland 10 years prior, because our elite decided to throw in the towel. There was no one left to defend our democracy against a powerful foe.
"factory workers being armed to defend themselves"
What an incredible load of B.S. People's Militias were Communist equivalent of Iraqi sectarian militias after the ouster of Saddam. They acted as an armed fist of the party for the possible case that democratic politicians decide not to go quietly.
May 1948 elections were a travesty, as were all other elections until 1985 (the last ones under Communist power).
Please do not post ideological flamewar comments to HN, regardless of what you're battling for or against. It's not what this site is for and it kills what it is for.
"A scientific body to which had been confided the government of society would soon end by devoting itself no longer to science at all, but to quite another affair; and that affair, as in the case of all established powers, would be its own eternal perpetuation by rendering the society confided to its care ever more stupid and consequently more in need of its government and direction.
But that which is true of scientific academies is also true of all constituent and legislative assemblies, even those chosen by universal suffrage. In the latter case they may renew their composition, it is true, but this does not prevent the formation in a few years' time of a body of politicans, privileged in fact though not in law, who, devoting themselves exclusively to the direction of the public affairs of a country, finally form a sort of political aristocracy or oligarchy. Witness the United States of America and Switzerland.
Consequently, no external legislation and no authority - one, for that matter, being inseparable from the other, and both tending to the servitude of society and the degradation of the legislators themsleves.
Does it follow that I reject all authority? Far from me such a thought. In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or the engineer. For such or such special knowledge I apply to such or such a savant. But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor savant to impose his authority upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. I do not content myself with consulting a single authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions, and choose that which seems to me the soundest. But I recognise no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such individual, I have no absolute faith in any person. Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, an instrument of the will and interests of others." - Mikhail Bakunin, 1870
Yes. In the past year I have heard endless breathless "news reports" about how China supposedly manufactured Covid in a lab, to how they are committing genocide with Uighur muslims, to how they are not respecting the UK's continuing dominion over Hong Kong, to how they never innovate and only steal technology from the US, to how they are being aggressive in the east China sea, how they're threatening Taiwan, and on and on and on.
Of course I have been hearing the same thing at various times about Cubans, Venezuelans, Russians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Syrians, Iranians, Libyans - Blinken just denounced the arrests of those involved in the post-coup massacre in Bolivia. And on and on. This piece is an example of the drive for ever expanding imperial policy under an authoritarian government.
