> The Iranians have since shifted to targeting European values.
I was there when they announced the campaign against McDonald's. Everybody knew then that the tide of Western civilization was receding and they would be left behind. Truly heartbreaking scenes.
The year is 2028. The Iran and Russia wars have combined to form one seamless front. Azerbaijan came under joint occupation of the Russians and the Iranians last year as US pressured the Azeris to interdict Russo-Iranian intercourse. The pro-Israel regime was kicked out and replaced by a Russian puppet. The Caspian was thereby secured against Western pressure.
In Ukraine, the Russians extended their occupation to Odessa and then hunkered down to a defensive posture. The front line has been frozen solid for a year with intermittent shelling and intrusions by drones.
After the Americans cajoled the Europeans into a new onerous sanctions regime and US bombers used bases in Germany to conduct fresh strikes against Iranian missile sites, the Iranians unveiled a new policy: striking US bases in Europe as punishment for any hostile action.
The US military presence in the Rhineland-Palatinate zone was targeted first. But these attacks did not prove effective since the bases were too well defended. The Iranians have since shifted to targeting European values.
The decisive moment came when the US shot down a Iranian flight to Sana’a that it claimed was carrying missile components. This led the Houthis and the Iranians to announce a joint ‘sanctions regime’ against civilian air traffic in all countries permitting the use of their airspace to US air operations.
The counter-value campaign against Europe began with spectacular strikes on civilian airports in London, Paris and Berlin. Civilian traffic ground to a halt across Europe before recovering to a fraction of its previous levels. US intelligence alleges that the Russians, and the Chinese behind them, are supplying components for long-range missiles to Iran.
News reports have surfaced of frantic backroom diplomacy to end the Iranian missile war on Europe, or at least to prevent it from expanding out to a broader set of counter-value targets. The Iranians have so far refused to budge: ‘If you want the missiles to stop falling, remove all sanctions on Iran and stop allowing the US to use your territory for attacks on the Islamic Republic.’
Europe is now in an impasse. Europe is still not ready to defend itself. How can you kick out the Americans? If we kick out the Americans, we will have to live under the Russo-Iranian boot.
But then what is to be done about the missile threat? So far it has proven manageable, if terrifying. But with missile production ramping up across the Axis to staggering levels, Europe is facing the dark prospect of sharing the Ukrainian fate as the recipient of the output of vast automated BYD-style missile factories now perfected by the Chinese.
The one positive takeaway here from this whole Jensen saga is that we can say, without a shadow of doubt, that he was NOT on the island.
The speed at which the media machine moved to remove Jensen here is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Hasan's entire job is to be the Republicans' designated punching dummy. It's obvious, because he never once presses Kisin on the fact that his daddy Vitaly was an oligarch who made millions through fraud in the Yeltsin era.
Hasan Piker hits a wall when he tries to tell a man born in the Soviet Union that Americans are just as controlled as people under communism.
Konstantin Kisin shuts down the comparison and lays out the difference.
When he’s done, even Piker admits he’s right.
HASAN PIKER: “A lot of people think, well, as long as I can eat a Big Mac, you know, as long as I can watch TV, as long as I can consume porn [...] then, you know, things are probably fine.”
“It’s a different mechanism of control that makes you think that you are actually an active participant in this.”
Kisin isn’t buying it.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: “The difference between those countries is not that they can’t eat a Big Mac.”
“The difference is that if they criticize the government, in Russia today even, but of course in the Soviet Union previously, you’re going to get killed, right? In America, that’s not what happens, right? In America, you don’t get put in jail.”
HASAN PIKER: “We don’t know yet.”
That’s his whole defense: what MIGHT happen in America.
So Kisin makes it personal.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: “You in China or in the Soviet Union would be killed if you were critical of that regime.”
HASAN PIKER: “I would definitely be jailed, for sure.”
And there it is. Piker makes Kisin’s argument for him.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: “So that’s the difference between these countries and America. It’s not a Big Mac, it’s freedom.”
Only in a free country can you build a career telling people they aren’t free.
CONTEXT: Communist regimes don’t just jail their critics.
Under Stalin, the Soviet secret police executed 681,692 people in two years, by the regime’s own records. That’s more than 900 a day.
Under Mao, the Great Leap Forward killed at least 45 million people in four years, per historian Frank Dikötter.
Under Pol Pot, nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population was dead within four years.
@Cut_Spending@VigilantFox "Experienced the alternative"
This nigger got to experience what it was like to be the son of a party functionary who looted state assets in the 90s, became an oligarch, and stashed his money in London.
JUST IN: Democrats propose requiring AI companies to obtain federal government permission before training AI models, with up to 20 years in prison for violations.
Jensen Huang is facing more consequences for going on brunch dates with some middle aged white lady and a respectable Asian businesswoman than our politicians did for going on Epstein island.
@RWApodcast If you want to get anything done in America, it must always be marketed as somehow hurting China or Russia, no matter what the subject is.
"China is pro-Thing X! We must get rid of Thing X!"
"No, you don't understand, China is anti-Thing X!"
Spiritually raped society.
@shangguanluan By and large, politically active Taiwanese have accepted their role as human FPV drones for America to hurl at China. They have voluntarily given up any claim to humanity, hence their odd behavior.