"Well, now China can just invade people!🤡" is the wrong take, and is again, completely US-pilled.
It's centered on the idea that China can't think of what to do on its own, or considers itself limited to the set of rules determined by the US. It does not.
China gained in much more important ways.
What do you think the heads of state of Mexico, Denmark, Nigeria, Canada, South Africa, and Somalia are thinking this morning?
This is important because again, there are rare earth and other mineral negotiations going on right now that will determine the path that the next 25 years will take.
reshared this
Pues ya se me ha jodido la necroporra de 2026, a día 3 de enero. Que como fiambre sorpresa del año yo puse a Nicolás Maduro, pero al final no lo ha reventado de un bombazo el Hitler naranja ni pegado un tiro, lo han arrestado y sacado pulcramente del país.
Nada, primer error, salvo que lo juzguen y lo ajusticien, que viendo que la última hora es que va a ser juzgado en los Estados Unidos de hoy día no es del todo descartable.
Rob Rogers created this #PoliticalCartoon and he wrote: "New CBS News CEO Bari Weiss cancelled a 60 Minutes segment on immigrants sent to an El Salvador prison by Trump. It is just the latest in a disturbing pattern of media companies taking a knee for Trump."
A rightwing extremist bought a company that includes CBS and he put another extremist in charge of CBS News, making it worthless as a news source in the opinions of many people, including me.
#MediaBias #corruption #politics
reshared this
Drinking: Leo Beer
By: Boon Rawd Brewery
At: Bang Tao Beach (หาดบางเทา)
🍺🍺🍺
untappd.com/user/edent/checkin…
#untappd
did you see the untappd API is going commercial-use-only ?
Your existing tokens may randomly stop working 
Disappointed in #untappd as was about to use your code to cross post here
untappd.com/api/register
"we are no longer making API access available without a commercial agreement.
...
Please note that existing API tokens may no longer continue to work as we enforce these new policies. "
🌟 Erste Impressionen unseres Neuen
Noch vollkommen nackig, direkt bei der Übernahme im Werk. Dazu lässt sich ansonsten wenig sagen, lassen wir die Bilder einfach für sich sprechen 😊
#daimlerbuses #citaroc2 #neuwagen #gelenkbus #OSI4
Unnamed Source in Viral Minnesota Somali Fraud Video Is Right-Wing Lobbyist Who Called Muslims "Demons" (Jacqueline Sweet/The Intercept)
theintercept.com/2026/01/03/mi…
memeorandum.com/260103/p20#a26…
Unnamed Source in Viral Minnesota Somali Fraud Video Is Right-Wing Lobbyist Who Called Muslims “Demons”
David Hoch, who goes by his first name in Nick Shirley’s video allegedly exposing Somali fraud, referred to “demon Muslims” on social media.Jacqueline Sweet (The Intercept)
US attacks Venezuela, captures president Maduro and says he will face criminal charges in America - live (Amy Sedghi/The Guardian)
theguardian.com/world/live/202…
memeorandum.com/260103/p19#a26…
Venezuela accuses US after explosions and low-flying aircraft reported in Caracas – live
Venezuela’s government says it rejects ‘military aggression’ by the US, after explosions rock CaracasHamish Mackay (The Guardian)
Mikhail Pukhov (1944-1995) was born on this day. Bibliography: isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11793…
L, Gennadi Golobokov, 1984; R, uncredited, 1989
#scifi #sciencefiction #SovietUnion #USSR
I just sped up the download of my #steamDeck by throwing away an empty #medication wrapper that was below it.
Download speed jumped from ~4MB/s to ~6MB/s.
MSM downplays the real reason Trump just attacked Venezuela
The US has once again violated another country's sovereignty - this time Venezuela - and it's obvious why it's done thisWillem Moore (The Canary)
The biggest geopolitical winners and losers of 2025
The year 2025 saw some of the biggest overhauls of the international order in modern history, a process destined to favor some countries and disfavor others.BYTESEU (Bytes Europe)
Rubio: VS beschouwen Maduro al jaren niet meer als de legitieme leider van zijn land
De Amerikaanse minister Marco Rubio (Buitenlandse Zaken) herhaalde op zijn eigen X-account zaterdag dat Maduro door de VS al jaren niet meer beschouwd wordt als de legitieme leider van Venezuela.Merijn de Waal (NRC)
In #Tützpatz hat #Vattenfall Deutschlands größten #AgriPV-#Solarpark in Betrieb genommen.
Auf 93 Hektar erzeugen rund 150.000 #Solarmodule mit 76 MW Leistung grünen Strom, während unter den Modulen weiterhin #Ackerbau und #Hühnerhaltung stattfinden. Der Strom wird über ein #PPA von einer Telekom-Tochter abgenommen. Das Projekt zeigt, wie #Landwirtschaft und #Energieerzeugung sinnvoll kombiniert werden können.
bauernzeitung.de/landwirtschaf…
#energy #environment #climatechange #biodiversity
Agri-PV in XXL: In Pommern geht Deutschlands größter Agri-Solarpark an
Die ostdeutsche Landwirtschaft im Blick – mit der BAUERNZEITUNG.BAUERNZEITUNG
RE: mementomori.social/@rolle/1158…
I've implemented this design on datasci.social now via Custom CSS. Looks much better than the default - great work by @rolle!
Instance members: please let me know if this causes any problems. If there are no big concerns within a week, I would use it for good. #mastoadmin
Thanks! It's used by a few hundred instances now, most notably Vivaldi's.After leaving Twitter, I just wanted to bring back that 2019 feel. Some UI and UX patterns have already been proven to work, and it's great (unlike Twitter was) Mastodon is open source so I can customize it.
I've also submitted some suggestions to the core, since the only thing I'm still missing is the compose box, the rest I've built into my fork.
github.com/mastodon/mastodon/i…
help.mementomori.social/mement…
vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-socia…#BirdUI #MastodonBirdUI #MastoAdmin
Vivaldi Social gets a built-in Translate and Themes in its latest update. | Vivaldi Browser
Break language barriers and personalize the interface on Vivaldi Social, our instance of Mastodon, on the federated social network.Team Vivaldi (Vivaldi Technologies)
Ultimamente ho un brutto rapporto con i social. Non mi sento a mio agio. Non riesco più a gestire lo spazio di condivisione come vorrei e mi incastro nelle contraddizioni politiche di piattaforme gestite da aziende i cui principi sono anni luce distanti dai miei.
Non credo esistano luoghi sicuri e non credo esistano mondi senza contraddizioni, ma mi fa piacere accettare l'invito di @kenobit su questo profilo, creato nel 2024 per un live proprio con lui.
(questa illustrazione si chiama Blink)
🗿 Führung zu Petra (04.01.) & neue Sonderausstellung ab 11.01.
✨ Parfum-Workshop (11.01. & 24.01.)
🏛️ Familienführung Rom (11.01.)
🥾 Winterwanderung im Karst (06.01.)
🌿 Vorträge zu Farnen (08.01.), keltischen Augenperlen (14.01.) & Supermarkt-Pilzen (19.01.)
👧 Schatzsuche durch ferne Kulturen (25.01.)
➡️ Alle Infos auf unserer Homepage!
#NHGNürnberg #Museum #Kultur #Archäologie
Charo del Genio
in reply to mekka okereke • • •Collette
in reply to mekka okereke • • •Michael Kranz
in reply to mekka okereke • • •Unredacted Epstein files now
in reply to mekka okereke • • •Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈
in reply to mekka okereke • • •I think it's foolish to suggest that the actions by the US, Russia, and Israel don't send a global signal to China that imperial expansion is a national strategy. Certainly, Mexico, Cuba, Greenland, etc should be concerned, but this will only force China to act to secure what it believes should be it's territories
apnews.com/article/china-xi-ji…
mekka okereke
in reply to Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈 • • •@Steve
I think you're foolish to interpret what I said:
1. China makes its own decisions.
2. China already wins more without being impulsive and violent and silly
As
"US actions don't send a global signal"🤡
Now that we've both clearly said what we think is and is not foolish, perhaps we can both tone it down and just say what we agree and don't agree with?
Or we can keep calling each other fools. I'm good either way. Just let me know.
And more to the point: of course US actions send a global signal. You think China hasn't already noticed the strikes on Iran, and Nigeria, and Iraq, and Syria, and Yemen, and the military contractors in Africa, and the "visits" to Greenland, and the threats against Canada? You think they suddenly snapped up in bed, and said "ZOMG! The new admin is expansionist!"🤡
mekka okereke
in reply to mekka okereke • • •Pick up a history book, and look over the past 50 years at:
1) How many countries has the US invaded or conducted military strikes against.
2) How many countries has Russia invaded or conducted military strikes against.
3) How many countries has China invaded or conducted military strikes against.
Seriously, this is not a rhetorical. Go look it up and come back with an actual number.
The point: if China was waiting for US or Russian violence and expansionism to reset some rules to be more invade-y? That would have happened already.
The whole point is that China is winning the century without firing a single shot. Because the rules for being a successful superpower in 2100, are different than in 1900, and the US and Russia haven't picked up on that yet, but China has.
The US and Russia are trying to bully Ukraine and Nigeria and Denmark and South Africa and even Canada into submission, and China is instead seducing its trading states with economic prosperity, stability, and respect of their sovereignty.
People prefer it when you throw silver at them rather than lead. "Plata *no* Plomo."
Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈
in reply to mekka okereke • • •My apologies, I did not mean to imply you were foolish, but the notion that China is uninfluenced by global events is foolish.
The conquering of Venezuela is a clear and material escalation of imperial nationalism. Like the invasion of the Ukraine or Gaza, this is not a short-term event or a single act, but an ongoing conquest. It's a definitive change to post WWII strategy which now rejects alliances in favor of unilateral conquest for resource extraction. As a policy, it now requires other powerful states to secure any desired possessions before someone else does. It's 19th century expansionism - in my opinion.
mekka okereke
in reply to Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈 • • •@Steve
It's an escalation, yes of course.
But where I disagree is in how other superpowers will respond in terms of defending what they see as their own.
China was already doing what they thought necessary. They don't need to change their strategy. They already knew Trump was expansionist.
Suppose that you are the head of state of Nigeria or South Africa. You just saw what happened to Venezuela. You now have definitive proof that there is essentially nothing between Trump's impulses, and military action against you and your wife. Not Congress. Not 80% of the American people. Not the Supreme Court. Not NATO. Not the UN. Nothing. He's effectively a supreme leader, a Fuhrer.
Knowing this, and knowing that he wants your country's resources like he wants Venezuela's oil, what would you put between your family and his intrusive thoughts? How would you keep things peaceful and deter military action against you? For most nations "Develop Nukes!" can't happen in a sh
... show more@Steve
It's an escalation, yes of course.
But where I disagree is in how other superpowers will respond in terms of defending what they see as their own.
China was already doing what they thought necessary. They don't need to change their strategy. They already knew Trump was expansionist.
Suppose that you are the head of state of Nigeria or South Africa. You just saw what happened to Venezuela. You now have definitive proof that there is essentially nothing between Trump's impulses, and military action against you and your wife. Not Congress. Not 80% of the American people. Not the Supreme Court. Not NATO. Not the UN. Nothing. He's effectively a supreme leader, a Fuhrer.
Knowing this, and knowing that he wants your country's resources like he wants Venezuela's oil, what would you put between your family and his intrusive thoughts? How would you keep things peaceful and deter military action against you? For most nations "Develop Nukes!" can't happen in a short enough timeframe to be a deterrent rather than a reason to be attacked. "Partner with someone strong enough to discourage US intervention!" is the easier option.
Again, looking at history books, as an African nation, your choices are Russia or China. You're either inviting in the Wagner Group, or the Red army, or choosing to take your chances and go it alone.
What would you choose?
Again, not rhetorical. What would you do?
mekka okereke
in reply to mekka okereke • • •And no, invading Venezuela for oil is not a clear "escalation of imperial expansion."
What's escalated is that Trump could do this without even pretending to get support from Congress or the US people, or other allied nations.
Most countries and most people on earth don't see a difference between going to Iraq for oil, or Syria for oil, or Venezuela for oil. They don't.🤷🏿♂️
Question Time was released back in 2017.
"🎼🎶The irony is that we have no business in Syria
But kids are getting killed for all the business in Syria
And then they try and tell you that 'It's ISIS! It's ISIS!'
But in their attempts at killing it, how many civilians died?
So what's the difference between us and them?
When you got drones killing kids just touching ten?
Then when a bomb goes off, every politician's lost
Like that last strike, it didn't kill a hundred men.
No, you ain't the same as them.
But all that fuel for the fire, is what you gave to them
And what you take from them."
Dave - Quest
... show moreAnd no, invading Venezuela for oil is not a clear "escalation of imperial expansion."
What's escalated is that Trump could do this without even pretending to get support from Congress or the US people, or other allied nations.
Most countries and most people on earth don't see a difference between going to Iraq for oil, or Syria for oil, or Venezuela for oil. They don't.🤷🏿♂️
Question Time was released back in 2017.
"🎼🎶The irony is that we have no business in Syria
But kids are getting killed for all the business in Syria
And then they try and tell you that 'It's ISIS! It's ISIS!'
But in their attempts at killing it, how many civilians died?
So what's the difference between us and them?
When you got drones killing kids just touching ten?
Then when a bomb goes off, every politician's lost
Like that last strike, it didn't kill a hundred men.
No, you ain't the same as them.
But all that fuel for the fire, is what you gave to them
And what you take from them."
Dave - Question Time
[CW: anti-war and anri-corruption rap song]
m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ff6CjYB…
- YouTube
m.youtube.comSteff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈
in reply to mekka okereke • • •As I’ve said, the differences are 1) pure nationalism. 2) a complete claim of political authority - not unlike 19thC nationalist expansions into Africa and SE Asia, and 3) utterly unilateral. I am hard pressed, outside of the Ukraine, Crimea, and maybe 1-2 more to recall when one state asserted full sovereignty over another’s territory with complete unilateral military force in recent times.
I feel like there’s a weird impulse to simply dismiss all fascistic events which have occurred in the past year or so, as some normal continuation of the “bad” which feels like an attempt to lighten the gravity of events and discourage action. Certainly, the US has always had imperial ambitions and taken actions to support those, but at what point does an act become unacceptable? Or are we simply to sit back and say, “well, it’s always been this way” and dismiss and pretext of order or sovereignty?
mekka okereke
in reply to Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈 • • •@Steve
I literally said in the post that you replied to that the difference is that this time, Trump did this as a Fuhrer.
What part of anything I've ever posted suggests that this full-fash government is just a continuation of normal? It's not.
I'm drawing a distinction between horrific oil wars and exploitation, which the US has always done, and the fact that there are now no longer any checks and balances at all on the alt-right, which is new.
The whole point of my thread is that this change means that China is winning the world without firing a shot. They don't have to follow the US down the cul-de-sac of mindless violence. They are better served by not doing that.
Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈
in reply to mekka okereke • • •mekka okereke
in reply to Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈 • • •@Steve
🤔People will still focus on China "sabre rattling," the morning after the US took its sabre out of its sheath, and repeatedly stabbed someone else in the face with it.
That asymmetry has never made sense to me.🤷🏿♂️
And no, China's soft power in Africa would not disappear, unless China also starts invading and exploiting African countries. China won't do that, so their soft power in Africa would remain.
There's a fundamental and pervasive inability to see the world through the eyes of an African nation, that is causing the West to lose Africa for century.
Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈
in reply to mekka okereke • • •mekka okereke
in reply to Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈 • • •Then I guess I'm glad for Africa, that you are not Xi.
Xi is going to keep selling solar cells, and EVs, and vaccines, and building sea ports and train stations and airports, and providing economic incentives, and buying tons of rare earths at fair market prices, in Africa.
He's going to continue displacing US and European interests in Africa. And he's going to do it without overthrowing any governments, or invading anyone, or causing any genocides, or getting bogged down in pointless and expensive wars.
And Western people are (still) genuinely going to wonder how he was able to accomplish all this. Some will say that Africans are foolish for trusting China. They will say this completely unironically, while knowing that Trump is the US president now, and knowing what the US did in Africa in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. They'll say this knowing that in the early 2020s, the US had the opportunity to do exactly what China is doing... And chose to go the opposite direction and DOGE'd instead.
Bakunin Boys
in reply to mekka okereke • • •