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megopie, to news in China's ageing population threatens switch to new economic growth model, state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences sees the pension system running out of money by 2035

Lot of talented highly educated people as well. There are some difficulties though, namely in regards to how… complicated the legal situation is for companies and investors is. It’s very much a system where the bureaucracy is so thick that you need someone who has connections to get through it all.

This is not to say that laws in India should be changed to suit the needs of foreign investors, just that the internal complexities make it difficult market to work in as a foreigner. Perhaps that’s for the best given the history of foreign “investment” and “business interests” in India.

megopie, to news in Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba: ‘Putin does not want a frozen conflict, or peace’

The funny thing about all this, is that people keep acting like Putin is some rational actor who can be bargained with.

But he’s not, listen to his speeches, listen to what he says he believes and wants. Some of it may be propaganda for internal consumption, but a lot of it seems consistent with his actions.

He sees the existence of an independent Ukraine as an existential threat, he ether wants it gone or under a puppet regime that he has throughly locked down. He doesn’t believe that Europe and the United States want peace, he is convinced that there is a shadowy deep state in Europe and the US that holds a consistent foreign policy across multiple administrations across multiple countries, and he see that foreign policy being to subjugate or destroy Russia.

The man has surrounded him self with conspiracy theorists, from disciples of Lyndon LaRouche to advocates of Eurasianism. He is detached from reality, swirling about a toilet bowl of yes men. He is not someone who can be compromised with or offered off ramps, he’s been repeatedly given off ramps and rejected them every time, thinking them to be traps.

The only end of this conflict is when internal power structures in Russia shift away from conspiracy theorists, or Russia’s ability to commit aggressive action is less than the defensive capabilities of its neighbors.

megopie, to news in China feels the country isn’t patriotic enough. A new law aims to change that.

That’s not about the social credit system though, that’s about the general censorship and surveillance apparatus. Which although robust and invasive is quite fragmented, there is no central database. local branches of law enforcement or internal intelligence or a million other parts of china’s own alphabet soup, manage, collect and use surveillance data, some terrifyingly effectively, some pathetically. Some not at all.

China is a big country with a lot of tasks being delegated to lower authorities, (and delegated from them to even lower authorities). Anytime I see someone talk as if the Chinese government is a monolithic entity it makes me want to pull my hair out. 90% of the time when someone talks about some new law in Beijing being created, they’re misrepresenting the reality, which is generally that the central government has directed provincial and local governments to pass their own laws and implement their own policies to address what ever Beijing has talked about.

For references about social credit in particular here you go:

jamestown.org/…/far-from-a-panopticon-social-cred…

logicmag.io/…/the-messy-truth-about-social-credit…

megopie, to news in China feels the country isn’t patriotic enough. A new law aims to change that.

So, it’s worth clarifying the nature of the this kind of “law” passed in Beijing. Which this article fails to do and comes across to me partially as fear mongering because of it.

Generally speaking when Beijing passes a law like this, they are not passing a law as we know it, it is a set of guide lines for the leaders of local provinces to implement their own policies and laws based on what they think will accomplish the goals set out from Beijing. Then Beijing observes what they come up with and if they like the outcomes of one, they implement it country wide.

For instance when everyone was hyper ventilating about “ ALL OF CHINA IS LITERALLY 1984 BECAUSE OF THE NEW SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM” in reality, Beijing had just essentially just asked the provinces to create their own systems that fallowed a vague guideline. And the provinces did, some provinces set up systems that would give people fines for saying mean things, some just set up an American style credit score system. In the end Beijing didn’t really find that any of them lived up to what they were asking for and all of the programs were quietly spun down.

It’s likely this will end in a similar manor.

megopie, to news in South Africa has filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that Israel is engaging in "genocidal acts" in Gaza

Well, the government is currently run by the ANC, and the statement was made by them.

Like, yah the ANC is supper corrupt and serving as a mouth piece for those business interests that benefited for apartheid, plenty of criticism to be levied at how they’ve failed to address inequality in the country and let important infrastructure fall apart while rich funks loot the country blind.

But they’re the party who cut their teeth on opposing apartheid and settler colonialism? Like, that’s their whole thing? They’re literally Nelson mandala’s party? If anyone is qualified to be criticizing Israel for their apartheid system and settler colonialism it is them.

I can both hold them in contempt for being shit heads and recognize that they might know what they’re talking about when is comes to criticizing apartheid?

megopie, to news in South Africa has filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that Israel is engaging in "genocidal acts" in Gaza

If any country in the world has a leg to stand on about criticizing an apartheid state like Israel…

South Africa’s government is a mess but most of the people in it lived through apartheid. Regardless of other issues, this is something that they are absolutely qualified to speak on.

megopie, to news in Heads of 3 top US colleges refuse to say calling for genocide of Jews is harassment

People are not obligated to engage with obviously shitty rhetoric.

megopie, to news in Heads of 3 top US colleges refuse to say calling for genocide of Jews is harassment

Because it is a loaded question, to answer it is to imply that this is a common or large scale issue on US campuses, which it clearly isn’t.

megopie, to news in Heads of 3 top US colleges refuse to say calling for genocide of Jews is harassment

What a garbage article, like, start to finish manipulative attempt to build a stupid narrative. Like, antisemitism is a real thing but this kind of nonsense discredits real attempts to call it out.

megopie, (edited ) to news in A new McCarthyism is being enforced around the Israel-Hamas conflict

A lot of legacy outlets are divorcing them selves even further form audiences with this kind of behavior, sticking to obviously manipulative narratives even as they see public opinion unaffected my them.

megopie, to news in More Myanmar troops fleeing rebel attacks enter India

It seems like the juntas goose may be cooked.

megopie, (edited ) to food in Let's talk Thanksgiving!

For the past few years I’ve been perfecting a sort of weird pumpkin pie.

I take a pie pumpkin, core out the inside, then rub it with pumpkin pie species and sugar, then roast the whole thing till tender but not falling apart. Then I make a simple Vanilla egg custard on the stove and poor it in to the pumpkin and put it all to the side to set.

The first year i broke the custard, the second the custard came out perfectly, but I found the flesh to of the pumpkin to be a bit bland, so I’m working on ways to flavor the roasted pumpkin a bit more.

megopie, to news in WhatsApp’s AI shows gun-wielding children when prompted with ‘Palestine’

And even if moderated, it will display new unique biases, as otherwise unassuming things will get moderated out of the pool by people who take exception to it.

Not to mention the absurd and inhuman mental toll this work will take on the exploited workers forced to sort it.

Like, this is all such a waist of time, effort, and human sanity, for tools of marginal use that are mostly just a gimmick to prop up the numbers for tech bros who have borrowed more money than they can pay back.

megopie, to news in American leftists are celebrating Hamas?

This video is such garbage. Like, the left is not celebrating this attack? Like what?

What a ridiculous position to group together an entire half of the political discourse on the internet and claim that everyone in that half has the same position.

megopie, to news in Netanyahu says Israel will ‘crush and destroy’ Hamas; every Hamas member is a ‘dead man’

Honestly it’s sound more and more like Netanyahu let this happen, if not created the circumstances for it to happen, just to create a rally round the flag effect because his goose was cooked legally and electorally

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