Their (far-)right government promised security, but delivered one of the largest intelligence failures and tragedies in Israeli history.
The ruling coalition failed to gain a majority of votes in the last election, only getting a majority in the knesset thanks to a rule change which prevented smaller parties from getting seats.
They'll try to double down and use this 'opportunity' to entrench their power. Because if Israel held free and fair elections next month, they're all out of a job.
Turns out that once elected, it's hard to get rid of the far right and right wing populists. They'll happily burn the democracy that helped get them elected.
that ‘source’ is also an opinion peace without any sources.
?
The source of that article are the authors. One a professor at Oxford, the other a lecturer at MIT. The professor's also written a book about China which is mentioned at the bottom of the article. Pretty weak argument to say that isn't a valid source. A bit like an anti-vaxxer saying an article about vaccination written by a doctor isn't a valid source in an internet argument.
Just show me where mainstream media is deliberately bashing China. If it’s that rampant it can’t be that hard right?
I googled myself, because I was curious. Not necessarily bashing, but plenty of sensationalism. For example, NBC at the time of the balloon incident:
Spy balloon likely sent extensive intelligence to China, experts say. The Pentagon said Thursday it 'acted immediately' to counter a collection of sensitive information
U.S. president Biden ... however stated that it was "not a major breach", and that he also believed that the Chinese leadership wasn't even aware of the balloon. ... On September 17, 2023, in an interview with CBS news, General Mark Milley, the retiring 20th US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated “I would say it was a spy balloon that we know with high degree of certainty got no intelligence, and didn't transmit any intelligence back to China." Technical experts had also found that the balloon's sensors had never been activated while it was travelling over the Continental United States. The general also touched on a leading theory that the reason that it was flying over the United States, was probably because it was blown off-track, where the balloon had been heading towards Hawaii however winds at 60,000 feet simply came into the equation. Miley said, "those winds are very high.. the particular motor on that aircraft can't go against those winds at that altitude."
Media: the Chinese are spying on us. Are you ready for WAR?
Reality: the wind blew a balloon of course and by now most of us have already forgotten what turned out to be a nothing burger of a story.
U.S. president Biden ... however stated that it was "not a major breach", and that he also believed that the Chinese leadership wasn't even aware of the balloon. ... On September 17, 2023, in an interview with CBS news, General Mark Milley, the retiring 20th US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated “I would say it was a spy balloon that we know with high degree of certainty got no intelligence, and didn't transmit any intelligence back to China." Technical experts had also found that the balloon's sensors had never been activated while it was travelling over the Continental United States. The general also touched on a leading theory that the reason that it was flying over the United States, was probably because it was blown off-track, where the balloon had been heading towards Hawaii however winds at 60,000 feet simply came into the equation. Miley said, "those winds are very high.. the particular motor on that aircraft can't go against those winds at that altitude." c
TLDR: Unbeknownst to China's leadership, one of their balloons blew off-track (hardly a rare occurence). It didn't collect or transmit any intelligence.
But if you watched the media coverage of that incident, you'd likely come to a different conclusion. For example:
Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence from sensitive U.S. military sites, despite U.S. efforts to block it
'Local' stores were/are often ridiculously overpriced, had a very limited range, and it's not like we're talking about independent stores either. Many of those were killed by the unfair practices of large corporate chains who would sell at a loss. Before amazon killed chain mall businesses, the mall killed independent businesses on the high street.
Packages are delivered to me personally. If I'm not there, they don't deliver and are forced to try another time.
No need for a PO box, as small independent stores and grocery stores often have a side hussle as a pick-up point. You go to pick-up your parcel and buy something in their store or do your groceries.
Amazon prime is entirely unnecessary. You simply have to wait a bit longer.
You can find independent sellers on amazon, then if their product is good, you buy from them directly next time around.
Thanks to amazon, ebay, etc. it's become far easier to buy second hand products. In the past you'd have to go to a second hand market, garage sales or visit twenty vintage/antique stores to find what you needed.
Amazon is evil though. So, yeah.
But there are perfectly rational reasons to use amazon.
Silver lining: bed bugs start to die at 45C, so climate change will likely kill off bed bugs in Spain. Hotels can simply turn off the AC and let a room bake in the sun.
A lonely guy playing a creepy hentai game gets some sexual gratification from his time spent interacting with a piece of software and is at least somewhat self-aware. He knows it's just software, even if he 'married' his bodypillow.
Meanwhile there are increasing numbers of people unaware they're regularly interacting with bots online, not realising one of the reasons social media is making them sadder is because they've atttempting to fulfill their need for social interaction with a facsimile thereof.
It's not unlike Idiocracy, where they give the plants Brawndo instead of water, then wonder why the plants are dying. Vast swathes of the world are feeding their social needs with social media brawndo.
I've been saying it for a while now. Noticed it years ago, but it's now becoming very obvious due to reddit being more empty than usual. Here's a comment I made about it last week:
Reddit right now is like a car crash. It's hard to look away. However, there's a very good reason not to engage, the debate on reddit has become more artificial than most realise.
Reddit's inflated numbers by using bots and fake accounts since day 1. A quick google will result in articles where they admit as much. We all know reddit's had increasing amounts of bots, posting content and increasingly comments, but I don't think people realise how bad it's become.
It's not even that time that reddit's blog accidentally posted about Eglin Air Force base being one of the most reddit addicted cities. I think everyone knows (foreign) governments engage in influence operations online, and that this includes reddit. Even if it's just on an intellectual level, without truly realising that they've been semi-regularly interacting with bots while arguing on reddit. I also don't think anyone's naive enough to think that plenty of political content isn't artificially upvoted or promoted. Same thing goes for product placement.
But the recent shit storm just illustrates reddit the company is part of the problem. Recently, I've seen twenty different accounts post the same comment about not needing third party apps, and dusting off their laptop.
When you're visiting reddit, you're no longer even watching a car crash. It's a simulacrum. An imitation of what's actually happening.
And it's been like this for a while. I've seen naive redditers engaging with bot comments under bot promoted content, posted by bots on more than one occassion.
Reddit has become worse than a hentai date simulator. I don't think anyone who plays those is particularly proud of it. But what to think of the lonely people who engage in reddit discussions with bots, and think they've had a genuine social interaction?