BeefiousT

I’m in Vietnam a “communist” country and they are clearly on an upward swing It’s clean safe beautiful, zero homeless, free healthcare and little crime Their GDP is growing 4 times faster than in America Now I'm not a communist but this isn’t the horror we were told

This was already true under the Soviet Union and it wasn't just true for oil but also for natural gas. The Soviets were extremely dependent on Western technology for pipes and compressor stations, because their industry was always lagging behind. It's actually interesting how this dependence came about. After the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, not only did the West Europeans — with the support of the US at the time — chose not to stop engaging with the Soviet Union, but they actually decided that they should have more of it. This led to the FRG's Ostpolitik and détente at the political level, but at the economic level it took the form of loans to the Eastern European countries and agreements to import natural gas from the Soviet Union, which initially were organized as barter where West Europeans sent pipes and compressors in exchange for gas. The Soviets used that equipment not only to build the infrastructure needed to export natural gas to Western Europe, but also to build their own domestic natural gas supply network, which would have been much more difficult and costly if they had been forced to rely on their own technology. But although hawks today would have castigated this policy as "appeasement", it also made the Soviet bloc economically dependent on the West, which gave the West leverage it wouldn't have had otherwise. The Soviet Union now depended on Western imports and, after loans from private banks dried up as a result of the Volcker Shock, didn't have the financial heft to cover for the external deficits of their Eastern European satellites. This is one of the main reasons why, although this wasn't known at the time because they kept it a secret and tried to exploit the ambiguity, by the time of the 1980-1981 Polish crisis, the Soviet leadership had in effect abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine and decided that they wouldn't intervene even if Solidarnosc took over the Polish government.

I’ve just watched Palestine 36: So many people need a history lesson. October 7th wasn’t the start. It goes back a long long way. Imagine being a citizen to a place that lost status, sovereignty, human rights, freedom and land. And then for decades got hemmed in, encroached, destroyed and an appropriation of the land unchecked. Destinies of people who have lived there for generations completely torn up. Grief turns into rage. It would anywhere. But apparently it’s “antisemitic” to raise any concerns about this.

Tyshchenko says he arrived at the position when Biden was US president. By the time he left, a new US leader was in charge and was “trying to persuade Ukraine to give up the land” he had defended for 471 days. 2/

If you’re seeing a bunch of Japanese posts, here are some fun facts: Japan has more daily active users and more time spent on X than any other country in the world. Over two thirds of the country is monthly active on X. X in Japan has one of the highest penetration rates of any social network in history.

I arrived in Qatar. Real security is built on partnership – we value everyone and remain open to supporting all those who are ready to work together for this goal.

I think a lot about the incentives around China's 4-2-1 family shape and that 80% of enlisted and 70% of officers are only children

Chinese ZBD-04A IFV on a demonstration exercise accidentally discharges a smoke grenade into a mound full of observers, likely officers and politicians.

"British food bad" is just the biggest anti-White psyop ever, people have no idea what "British food" even is because its been adopted by so much of the world that people don't even recognize it as British in origin. Americans in particular are especially clueless about this

When racism isn't actually racism