I've almost finished "The Coming of the Third Reich", by Richard J. Evans, and the one thing that stands out is how much Germany's economic collapse before 1933 laid the seeds for the Nazi's rise. This is why it's hard for me to relate it to anything America has recently experienced or Putin's Russia. As bad as the Jan. 6 riots were they would have been a heck of a lot worse if every rioter had no job to go back to. When loaves of bread cost a wheelbarrow of money and you have a family to feed even the most draconian political structures become attractive.
I've always wondered if the big unspoken reason for establishing American bases in Afghanistan and Iraq was to surround Iran. They perfectly sandwich Iran in from the east and west. Maybe with that clash seeming less imminent it was time to pull out. Geographical advantage is behind most military decisions but it's never enough of a reason to get public support for invading countries. Hence, the need to defeat terrorism and get Bin Laden.
Well it also gave us some regional operating capability near Pakistan, which we have out own interesting relationship with and the the Kashmir region has been said to be a huge powder keg and possible cause for the next large scale mutli-national war.
To anybody with a cynical view of Iran and its people I highly recommend watching this fairly recent documentary about a British guy riding a motorcycle through the country. The people seem like some of the most friendly in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc
I am pretty aware that my viewpoints get shrouded and can benefit from a change of perspective. So yes, I admit that I am narrow-minded.
It's why I like posts like this and loved National Geographic growing up; the feeling of realizing how narrow-minded and judgemental I can be getting dissolved by fascinating exposes and beautiful art and photography.
This absolutely made my day. I had no idea this existed! Putting it on .25 speed and looping it allows you to really see the warping taking place. I wonder if the four or five similarly sized light orbs moving in and out are really just the distorted light from one star?
There's an imbalance with information here, just like there was with the USSR back in the day. The U.S. is an open book that anyone can peer into; China is the opposite. Complicating matters is that the main lens into the U.S. is through 24 hr news orgs that long ago abandoned objectivity for sensationalism. It's easy to conclude something is in decline if all you ever see is perpetual chaos. The reality is, mostly, a lot more chill and nuanced.
The so called "mainstream" news organizations have completely abandoned objectivity, at least when it comes to politics. They are de facto the propaganda wing of the Democratic party. If you comb through the articles being written, most of them are worded in a way that conveys a favorable position for the Democratic party platform and its politicians.
While abhorrent, I have a sneaking suspicion this isn't as simple as the title and affidavit suggests. The FBI doesn't just randomly pick people to be informants. Their process is not the TV montage most people think of but a bureaucratic slog with a massive paper trail. If anything, it's likely to be some Kafkaesque mess instead of a spiteful plot to ruin this man's life, which is more concerning in some ways.
