Skip Navigation
InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)TH
Posts 0
Comments 1.2K
Trump officials to receive immediate clearances and easier FBI vetting
  • The deep state is made entirely of state employees and civil servants, exactly. The only distinction made is that the deep state bureaucracy can run its own agendas, even against elected executive leadership. Can you think of any departments or agencies that have exhibited such behavior?

  • France says 'immunities apply' to Netanyahu regarding ICC arrest warrant
  • "Israeli" media is constantly censored. Haartez is being newly targeted by censors because they didn't back down on publishing basic facts about "Israeli" forces firing on concertgoers on October 7. These are not unpopular moves. A supermajority of "Israelis", for example, believe media should be censored so as to not show Palestinians in a sympathetic light.

  • France says 'immunities apply' to Netanyahu regarding ICC arrest warrant
  • Apartheid ethnostates could never be considered democratic, of course. Though if we think in terms of imperialism, this also indicts virtually every so-called democracy. France's control over several African countries, for example. They don't get to vote for their de facto "president" yet France controls their currency, debts, exports, etc. While not identical to apartheid, the idea of an ethnic supremacist culture ruling over people who had no explicit say in who rules is the status quo for the imperial core.

    It's important to not think of Netanyahu as a singular force for evil as if he is somehow separate from "Israeli" society. His unpopularity since October 7 comes not from displeasure over genocide or any other violence done to Palestinians - when that ramps up, his ratings improve - but because the wider "Israeli" public actually wants more blood, more domination, to restore their sense of complete superiority and security.

  • Trump officials to receive immediate clearances and easier FBI vetting
  • What is "constitutional" has always been fairly arbitrary. The Supreme Court just does whatever it wants while providing some legal rationalization.

    To those replying to this comment: given that the FBI checks were part of McCarthyism to go after political opponents employed by the federal government, how would you feel about having the feds show up on your doorstep to ask you about your questionable recent voting history and political activities because you are, say, a bureaucrat for the Department of Transportation?

    Are you doing anything Unamerican, citizen? Do not resist. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, right? Hmm, says here you got an abortion a few years ago. The fatherland needs workers, why would you deprive us? And over here it says you attended a pro-terrorism (pro-Palestinian) protest. Blacklisted and flagged for monitoring. Go about your business. Enjoy minimum wage and being unemployed.

  • Trump officials to receive immediate clearances and easier FBI vetting
  • The deep state is just the bureaucracy, it spans administrations via careerists and institutions (as in just literally being important in a department). It is not inherently good or bad when decontextualized, but because the US is an empire premised on others' disposession, it tends to mean that disposession is done very effectively regardless of who might technically be in power.

  • I want to finally degoogle my life and install GrapheneOS
  • Hi friend!

    • One of the best things abiut GrapheneOS is being able to easily restrict network access for apps. So for a camera app, you can use anything you want, even Google Camera, and just turn off network access so there is no way for Google to spy. The suggestion of OpenCamera is also good. It has a lot of power and options.

    • Battery life should be just as good, more or less.

    • Sandboxed play services basically means that GrapheneOS gives it fewer permissions on your phone. Normally it has a very privileged position in the OS and is fairly imvasive.

    • Its user profiles are very powerful and I highky recommend using them. I recommend not installing samdboxed google play services on yiur main (owner) profile. If you do end up needing google play services for an app, it is better to put it in a separate profile.

    If it is helpful, I think of Degoogling as being mostly about replacing services. Graphene is a good atep, but definitely do a checklist of Google services that you use and slowly replace them and take control over your digital spaces. I would recommend dealing with your email as a top priority. Buying a domain (use a common/safe tld) so that you own your address (e.g. me@firstnamelastname.com) will mean no company can ever prevent you from sending or receiving emails on a whim. Using something like fastmail to receive and send emails via your domain will be the easiest first step.

  • France says 'immunities apply' to Netanyahu regarding ICC arrest warrant
  • Netanyahu isn't a dictator any more than any other Western bourgeois democratic leader. The genocide he and those around them carry out is very popular in Israel. It is a deeply racist society premised on the hatred and subjugation od the Palestinians from whom they steal land and resources and life.

  • Dual purpose
  • Obama's EOs were a slow walk bureaucratic attempt, basically how you try to avoid actually doing something by making it easy to stymy. Same as Biden's broken promise on cancelling student debt. One stymied by the obvious avenues to do so, they can just sit back and let partisans repeat the excuses. They did not make real attempts to force the issue.

    Here's a liberal-friendly summary that largely just repeats the words of federal and party bureaucrats: https://web.archive.org/web/20240902004637/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/01/why-obama-has-failed-to-close-guantanamo

  • Dual purpose
  • Obama could have used executive action to shut it down anyways, diverting resources and personnel to pack up and get out.

    He just accepted the excuse so he could keep doing what he wanted to: funneling money from the working class to finance.