133arc585

joined 2 years ago
[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml -4 points 2 years ago (13 children)

Accusing the US of escalation here when Russia violently invaded it’s peaceful neighbor?

Do you understand what escalation means? Escalation doesn't have anything to do with who started it. It's a relative action: it escalates from some state. The USA is committing troops where it previously hadn't (or, more pedantically, is increasing the number of committed troops). This is escalation.

You can complain about Russia starting this, but you should also complain about the USA escalating the situation.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

You're right and I completely forgot about those somehow.

For pespective,

On average, Americans receive a radiation dose of about 0.62 rem (620 millirem) each year. Half of this dose comes from natural background radiation. Most of this background exposure comes from radon in the air, with smaller amounts from cosmic rays and the Earth itself.

So, cosmic rays contribute hardly (about 4%) any to the radiation we receive every day.

I'm no expert here, clearly, so I'm not sure how to compare these units of radiation with the ones being provided for the Fukushima water release; those numbers are provided in becquerel from the sources I found.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's not the only instance of Ukraine using them. I didn't attempt to do a full inventory of their use. My point was they are using them when you claimed they aren't.

If you can find accurate claims of how much stock they have remaining, then sure, I very well could be wrong, but again it's curious: if they have a sizeable stockpile, why ask for more, and why the whole tone of "it'll change the trajectory of the war" and "it's necessary for Ukraine's defense" surrounding their delivery?

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Snowden doesn’t make any public statements any more without express permission from the Russian government.

Can you provide sources for this?

It might make sense for him to self-censor to avoid angering one of the few places that are allowing him to stay but even that's not a given: if he felt something needed to be said badly enough, he's shown to be the type of person who would rather something be said and take the repercussions on the nose than to leave something unsaid.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Additionally, Ukraine has NOT used their stockpile of cluster munitions, out of respect for this western ignorance that could be used by Russia against them.

Do you mean they haven't used all of their stockpile? If that's the case, why are they asking for more?

We know they've used some, so combine the fact that they've used some, with the fact that they're asking for more, and how can you conclude anything other than that they've used (most of if not all of) their stockpile?

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

“Signal’s use luckily never caught on by the general public of China (or the Hong Kong Administrative region), whose government prefers autonomy, rather than letting US tech control its communication platforms, as most of the rest of the world naively allows.”

When you’re holding up China as an example for the world to follow for privacy

I interpret that quote to say that China doesn't trust US tech like the rest of the world does. It's not saying that China has more privacy and the rest of the world should follow, it's saying that the rest of the world also shouldn't be so naively trustworthy of US tech either.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 years ago

However I can’t seem to turn off the telemetry at all…

Which telemetry, specifically? Anything you can't find in the standard settings menu can be found in about:config. There are plenty of articles with huge lists of settings to adjust in about:config with explanations on what different values do.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Brave Search and Brave Browser are both products of the same company, Brave Software, Inc.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml -5 points 2 years ago

The US already has 80k troops there, 3k more isn’t some kind of escalation.

Is 83K more than 80K? Yes? Then it's an escalation.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Nobody makes cluster bombs in the US by the way.

This is somewhere between disingenuous and flat-out wrong.

Textron is a USA firm that produces Sensor Fuzed Weapons (SFW). The SFW is a cluster munition that is prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The USA's Air Force has been the primary buyer of these until about 2016. Although it seems direct sales of cluster munitions halted around 2016 when the moratorium on cluster munitions was put in to place, this firm is still responsible for maintenance (which they are paid for) of existing munitions. (You'll note as well that "stockpiling and/or retention of cluster munitions" is also against the Convention on Cluster Munitions, not just the manufacture and use of them).

Orbital ATK (operating as Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems since its acquisition by defense contractor Northrop Grumman in 2018), a USA defense contractor, previously produced key components of the Textron weapons mentioned above. Although they no longer produce these parts for these purposes directly, they still have ongoing tangential contracts.

Moreover, these cluster munitions that are going to be sent are filled with M42/M46 grenades, which from what I can tell are manufactured by USA-based defense firms. The shells, which include the M1122, are coming from recycled munitions, so they aren't being manufactured new; but: they were produced by USA-based defense firms originally, and their consumption motivates replacement which also happens by USA-based defense firms.

Also, the notorious defense firms Lockheed Martin and Alliant Techsystems are helping develop the next generation of cluster munitions; so, increased use of the existing generation will almost certainly cause increased spending on future generations of the same type of weapon.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (12 children)

No offense but you sound blue-eyed and idealistic when history has shown this to be a typical outcome.

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