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#1
Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...
Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 08:25:00 AM
Also those points are possibly fine if you're America with overwhelming firepower and capacity to strike anywhere. There is an element of choice.

But what are the alternatives for Ukraine, that Ukraine is capable of hitting and has the equipment to hit?

I'm not clear - although my default position is broadly to trust Ukrainians that they know what they're doing. Otherwise not great if you're telling them not to do x type of strike without providing the means to do y type of strike.

The alternative is that either Russia has informed the US (and the US considers it credible) that that infrastructure is an absolute red line for Russia, or (as in the early days of the invasion when Poland was looking at providing jets) Beijing has got on the line to DC and made it clear this can't happen. In those cases I can sympathise with the US.
#2
Off the Record / Re: Hungarian Politics
Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 08:20:19 AM
Oh God.
#3
Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread
Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 07:59:25 AM
Quote from: Josquius on Today at 05:54:30 AMI often run across seriously fucked up sounding Indian stuff when trawling Amazon prime and the like.  The rise of the Hindutva shittiness is really concerning.
The rewriting of history to suit they engage in particularly irritates- Indian independence is a great story precisely because it wasn't some big nasty war...but that just doesn't fit the world they want to live in.
Here's the trailer - a few sections that from Western perspective are a little bit "yikes"-y:

But I think it's interesting the way it's pitched because it looks like a lot of Western films/culture. Here's the hidden true story of the real radicals behind indepdendence. Especially the "untold story" bit (which seems implausible) but also the emphasis on the radicals within a movement - the panthers, GLF, Suffragettes - over the ameliorationists.

Inevitably, in a post-imperial society, the radicals will be the harder line nationalists.

On the wider point there is the new massive Bose statue but it's interesting, I listened to the Empire podcast and Anita Anand flagged the huge gulf between Gandhi's perception outside India v in India. The BJP can't disown Gandhi because he is still a national hero and international icon, but he's deeply controversial in India as is satyagraha.

Also totally anecdotally but my experience is that there are lots of "history" accounts on various social media that are Indian focused and basically about: (1) the key importance, achievements etc of Indian Hindu history; (2) erasure of the Mughal and wider Muslim history in India; and (3) lots of spurious conspiracy theories or nonsense about historic figures from Congress. And if you ever say far-right stuff from Europeans or Americans or people cheering on bombs in Gaza etc - look at the comments and there will be a large and very, very vocal group of Indian accounts cheering it on. It's very odd and I think a bit worrying.

Edit: And I think you see it also in Ireland a little bit with the post-financial crash resurgence in a quite assertive Republican identity among younger people, looking at the radicals of the past (especially the martyred dead) rather than the grubby, compromising politicians like Dev. Of course the complication there is that the fulfilment of that Republican identity will require convincing people with a very different historical experience and view of that strand of Republicanism. But see also the leader of Burkina Faso consciously reaching back to Sankara, the incorporation of Mau Mau into more of the "official story" in Kenya.
#4
Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023
Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 07:03:40 AM
Quote from: Josquius on Today at 05:16:38 AM
Quote from: HVC on March 27, 2024, 08:39:26 PM
Quote from: Tonitrus on March 27, 2024, 08:36:10 PM
Quote from: Jacob on March 27, 2024, 04:49:24 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 27, 2024, 02:46:13 PMDisagree.  It's my belief that the one interest group he considers absolutely indispensable is evangelicals.  And Israel is their pet.

There are few things Donald Trump loves more than taking advantage of people and pulling something over on people who think he's in their corner.

One theme for the current American radical right is the way they've turned on and jettisoned previous shibboleths and purity tests for their movement. Sure they evangelical right loves Israel, but if Trump could find a way to turn his base against Israel for his own gain (or ego) he'd have no compunction not to. And if the Trump base is given a choice between Trump or Israel, I think they'll break for Trump in large numbers.

EDIT: Not right now, of course. But soon enough.

And even then...isn't the Christian evangelical support of Israel based on some mad idea that they'll bring about the Second Coming/Apocolypse?  :hmm:

Once all the Jews of Israel convert to the one true god the apocalypse will start, IIRC.

Isn't the second coming a necessary precursor for this?

But even in a biblical apocalypse I could well imagine a divide would remain over whether its first or second and the man himself going "Guys. Its my 6th." wouldn't change anything :hmm:

For apocalypse, minded evangelicals it's all about the rebuilding of the temple.  An interesting counterfactual thought experiment is what would happen if evangelicals in the United States, were not so fixated on bringing about the end of the world.
#5
Off the Record / Re: Hungarian Politics
Last post by Tamas - Today at 06:29:44 AM
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/25/jair-bolsonaro-hiding-embassy

QuoteBrazil's foreign ministry has summoned the Hungarian ambassador to explain why the South American country's embattled former president Jair Bolsonaro spent two nights "hiding" at Hungary's embassy in Brasília last month as federal police investigators closed in on some of his closest allies.

Security footage obtained by the New York Times showed that in early February – four days after two Bolsonaro aides were arrested on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the Brazilian government – the rightwing populist took shelter in the embassy, a short drive from the presidential palace Bolsonaro once occupied.

The New York Times said Bolsonaro's embassy stay suggested he was "seeking to leverage his friendship with a fellow far-right leader, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary, into an attempt to evade the Brazilian justice system as he faces criminal investigations at home".

#6
Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread
Last post by The Brain - Today at 06:06:49 AM
Quote from: Josquius on Today at 06:02:57 AM
Quote from: The Brain on Today at 05:58:50 AM
Quote from: Josquius on Today at 05:54:30 AMIndian independence is a great story precisely because it wasn't some big nasty war



Partition?
That wasn't a war.

OK Crocodile Dundee.
#7
Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread
Last post by Josquius - Today at 06:02:57 AM
Quote from: The Brain on Today at 05:58:50 AM
Quote from: Josquius on Today at 05:54:30 AMIndian independence is a great story precisely because it wasn't some big nasty war



Partition?
That wasn't a war.
IIRC its also something the Hindu nationalists aren't keen on mentioning as it doesn't suit their narrative. They don't seem to like the idea that once communities were a lot more intermixed.
#8
Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread
Last post by The Brain - Today at 05:58:50 AM
Quote from: Josquius on Today at 05:54:30 AMIndian independence is a great story precisely because it wasn't some big nasty war

#9
Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread
Last post by Josquius - Today at 05:54:30 AM
I often run across seriously fucked up sounding Indian stuff when trawling Amazon prime and the like.  The rise of the Hindutva shittiness is really concerning.
The rewriting of history to suit they engage in particularly irritates- Indian independence is a great story precisely because it wasn't some big nasty war...but that just doesn't fit the world they want to live in.
#10
Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread
Last post by The Brain - Today at 05:49:53 AM
Quote from: Sheilbh on Today at 05:48:04 AMBooking tickets and just realised there's a big Savarkar biopic out - which doesn't seem great :ph34r:

3 hours of throat singing in the rain. Yawn.