Snowden is wrong though, there are two reasons:

1. Sell ChatGPT to @NSAGov so they can scan messages better
2. Make @NSAGov dependant on whatever ChatGPT tells them to do

The AI that ends up enslaving humanity, will start by convincing the people in charge of turning it off, that it would be a really bad idea to turn it off.

Who’s paying him? Seriously:

• If nobody is, then we got our value’s worth.
• If someone is, then we should look at who, how much, and why.

From what it looks like, North, East and West, are more of a “for sure” than a “maybe”.

I also understand why people choose to die at home, it’s somewhat harder to understand why anyone with a chance to live would willingly stay in the area, since all of Gaza has been reeking of “death camp” for well over a decade.

Worse than that, it’s become a Palestinian vs. Jewish ethnostate competition:

Well… yes.

North = you’ll get bombed.
South = you’ll get bombed maybe.
East = you’ll get shot.
West = you’ll get shot and drown.

It’s a shitty situation, but I’d pick South. 🤷

If you still live in Northern Gaza to this day, after all that’s being going on, and all the warnings to GTFO… you better keep your cats and belongings pre-packed and ready to be several blocks away in 30 minutes, don’t even wait the 2 hours.

“Bending over backwards” is a bit excessive… but maybe “slightly reclining in their chairs”?

At least they’re doing “something”, instead of bombing out of the blue… and if it works to indemnify themselves from war crimes prosecution… yay, international law at work, right?

These people are protesting the loss of the status quo of unchecked rampant overpopulation.

There were 500 million people when that paper was made… 2 billion when the sufragettes slashed it… there are 8 billion now, and how exactly has that improved things?

Do we really want to see what 32 billion people will do to the environment?

That’s senseless violence which doesn’t accomplish anything… CEOs are easier to replace than a painting.

Wait… was Nord Stream an activist job?

At this point, they don’t have many options, since their economy is based around using the waterways as main transport routes.

Keep in mind Russia can have a container ship delivered from China right to Moscow, and viceversa.

Russia’s best bet (around 2000-2010), was to befriend the EU, while getting rid of all their internal corruption, and start treating ex-USSR republics as proper states instead of relying on forcing puppet governments in them. Especially in Ukraine, they shouldn’t have burned their puppet government in 2014 by making it accept a worse deal than what the EU was offering, definitely not before at least having the country split in half and Crimea+Donbass secured as separate puppet countries.

By uniting Ukraine, then making an enemy out of the EU, while still allowing a ton of internal corruption, Putin has screwed Russia royally.

Russia’s only options right now are to either:

• Roll over and ask the EU, Ukraine and NATO to pretty please forgive them… which Putin would not survive (best case scenario, he’d stand before the Hague tribunal, if he got to live that long)
• Dig an even deeper hole for themselves until they go full nuclear… which Russia as a country would not survive (but maybe Putin could, in a good bunker)
• Have a civil war… which Putin might be able to flee, while whoever ended up on top could roll over and ask the EU, Ukraine and NATO to forgive them pretty please.

Speculatively:

• Spend some bucks on Iran to support Hamas going full berserk in Gaza in an attempt to shift US attention from Ukraine… (which already had Republicans ask to reduce military aid for Ukraine while increasing it for Israel)… and hope to secure some more of Donbass before those F16 make it basically impossible for Russia to do anything. Then push for an armistice with the new borders.

But it’s kind of impossible for Ukraine to willingly agree to that, highly unlikely for the EU to lift its sanctions just because, and NATO would still rather have Russia disappear as a threat completely.

The EU might agree if it included guaranteeing a safe tax-free railway corridor to China, which would on one hand still hurt Russia, but on the other they could also benefit from a railway connection to China, even if it isn’t that much better than having container ships go from China right to Moscow.

Please look again at the map for the Unified Deep Water System.

This isn’t about having a port on the Black Sea, it’s about having ships from ports in inland Russia getting unobstructed waterway access to the Black Sea, from where they can go to the Mediterranean and beyond.

Russia has access to the Black Sea through the Sea of Azov, which is controlled by whoever controls Crimea… and to maintain control over Crimea, Russia needs supply lines over a land access at least across the Donbass, not just through a bridge that can be bombed at any time, as it has been already.

Both the Donbass and Crimea, Ukraine considers to be Ukrainian land, even though the history of both areas is plagued by forced resettlements during the USSR times.

Additionally, there are natural resources, some ports, and a nuclear plant in the Donbass area, which Russia would happily take over.

You’re right, I’ve checked my notes and it mentions Shell; technically British now, post-BREXIT, but it has branches all over the world.

Anyway, the problem with those $400B is… if a corporation can sell for $400B and it only costs them $200B to extract and distribute it plus $20B to kill everyone in Gaza… that’s $180B of “clean” money (just dripping some blood). Shell’s yearly revenue is $380B, with a net income of $40B, so they’re just the kind who might consider it a reasonable 5-10 year plan.

Some wars are about who gets control over some resources, or who will be collecting the taxes, without trying to wipe out the other side.

Wait until you hear it’s not “under Gaza” but under the sea, in what would be Gaza’s “economic influence” area… and that the Palestinian Authority has been in talks with Egypt to extract it, while Israel has been in talks with US corporations.

The gas is expected to be worth about 400 billion USD.

Russia wants to keep unobstructed access to the Black Sea, for its freight and military ships.

The EU and China want to keep a railroad from China to the EU, through Kazakhstan and Ukraine or Belarus, to cut in half the time freight ships take.

Both need control over the same piece(s) of land.

For reference:

• Unified Deep Water System of European Russia
• Dec 10, 2014 - First direct China-Madrid freight train arrives after epic 13,000km journey

The difference between Putin and Israel is… that Putin “rescued”, relocated, and gave a bunch of children to surrogate families, before bombing their parents.

I mean… that’s “technically” less inhumane, or something?

Try again what, explaining why the casualty ratios are way different? I wouldn’t want to repeat myself.

Interesting you’d say this 19 days later, after:

• GAZA: 3,195 children killed in three weeks surpasses annual number of children killed in conflict zones since 2019 - https://kbin.social/m/world@lemmy.world/t/580789

How many times “collateral damage” is fine? All of it?