Well, you know the movie reference: Illinois Nazis, I hate Illinois Nazis.

Anyway, we’ll find out soon enough what these guys are.

I mean very narrowly this moment right now. This moment of uncertainty where anything is possible. This is what freedom looks like: anything is possible, the best and the worst.

Not nice is an understatement. The guy is a butcher.

We are not talking about “not secular enough” here, we are talking about Al-Quaeda, get a grip. The leader guy had made an oath of allegiance to al-Zawahiri. Al-Nusra at times collaborated (and tbf also fought against) ISIS. They were also responsible for war crimes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nusra_Front#War_crimes

Regardless, like I also said they are putting on a moderate face and say they are different now. But minority groups in Syria are rightly feeling threatened. We’ll find out soon enough it seems.

Here’s a crazy idea: maybe Turkey, Iran, and Russia (and the US, and Israel, and the EU, etc) should shut the fuck up and let Syrians decide for themselves. Crazy, right?

The are a rebranding of Al-Nusra, a split of Al-Quaeda.

This is their leader: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Mohammad_al-Julani

They are putting on a “moderate” face, it remains to be seen if they mean it.

Fuck Assad, he could have simply chosen to not order shooting at peaceful protesters in 2011 and overseen a peaceful transition to democracy. Instead, he chose death and destruction for millions of people. He deserves everything that’s coming to him, and Syrians everywhere have every right to celebrate tonight.

The future is uncertain: this is what freedom looks like. My entire heart goes out to the Syrian people. Hopefully the maniacs leading the HTS and the SNA will not manage to smother them.

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Yes, of course. Then face a jury. And hopefully go free via jury nullification.

I have no idea what that means.

As an outsider looking in, I am wondering whether this might mean that the Republican party has a vision for a weaker federal government, such that the states would have more, well, rights. I.e., if the federal government gets very scaled down, is that at the same time emptying up the regulatory space for individual states to go in all sorts of different directions, or does it come with some kind of libertarian straightjacket?

The majority of the US population lives in wealthy blue states. If the regressive rural states can’t stomach the kind of extensive welfare state that makes sense in more urbanized places, fine. Like a “two speed Europe”, they can choose to stay behind, so long as California, Massachusetts, NY etc get the freedom to experiment with social democratic policies.

Edit: this kind of more decoupled federalism also exists eg in Canada. Quebec gets to pretend it’s France while Alberta gets to pretend it’s Texas.

Cue in the spurious accusations of anti-Semitism.

According to the report, pro-Palestinian activists have created lists of offending soldiers in order to begin legal proceedings against them in the event they travel abroad.

It’s called the Hind Rajab Foundation and if God existed, it would be doing God’s work. Support them any way you can: https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org/

Check your knowledge of history. Revolutionary history is actually not uniquely bloody. Counter-revolutionary and/or status-quo violence has historically been just as, or even more, bloody (need I mention the countless massacres and genocides perpetrated by colonialists and imperialists? Or is it enough to mention France, Russia, China, and Cambodia to win every argument?)

That said, I am of course very very very averse to any kind of violence. The whole point of my comment is that it is a dirty, shameful thing that should never happen. The fact that it does happen is extremely unfortunate but ultimately is the fault of the status-quo boots pushing down people’s throats. There is always a non-bloody way out of an oppressive situation: stop the fucking oppressing. Lift the boot. Give up the privilege. Simple as.

Example: 1960s Quebec. The Catholic Church simply gives up its stranglehold on French-Canadian society. No anticlerical massacres follow. Everyone happy. That’s the model.

Because my work enforces a non-english locale and the keyboard shortcuts make no sense 🤷‍♂️

Windows is only relevant because of a few key applications, like MS Office (no, libre office doesn’t come close).

Sure, if Turkey gets the fuck out of EU member Cyprus and drops the threat of war against EU member Greece. Those done, yes, a friendly, peaceful, democratic Turkey would be a fantastic addition to the EU.

Ban wealth hoarding.

Yea, I’m against the death penalty too. This shit shouldn’t be legal. It should be illegal and brutal. Like the mob takes you to the square and threatens to lynch you unless you give away the billionaire persona. The cops turn a blind eye. Total societal shame. Collapse of moral and legal order. And then afterwards, we all feel bad about it and we legislate a ban on wealth hoarding so that our society never falls to those kinds of depths ever again.

I hope they impeach that clown.