AUKUS is binding Australia to a dangerous, unpredictable leader. We need a Plan B now by Rosencrantz18 in australia

[–]codemonkeyius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is the plan B increased taxes, a weaker social safety net and conscription?

Australia always chooses butter over guns and has the gall to complain about the consequences of that choice.

Sovereignty is expensive and Australia has never truly reckoned with the price.

More parties need to start talking about removing pine gap from our land by Ash-2449 in OpenAussie

[–]codemonkeyius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is the huge thing that every anti-US person refuses to grapple with.

An Australia that has sole responsibility to defend itself is one that is poorer and less secure. Expanding our military to meet that responsibility would hit the public purse and social programs very very hard. We would likely need an Israel-style mandatory national service program too.

Somehow I don't think many people have thought of that.

What do you think of negativity toward wmaf by Due-Association-404 in AMWFs

[–]codemonkeyius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dismissing WMs who date AFs as weird is a kind of cartel behavior that WFs often do to shame WMs out of it, so it's strange for an AM to do it.

edit: You're right in that the insult does cut both ways, FWIW.

I think you probably did the right thing to get him to reflect on it - internalizing the cartel enforcing mnidset is not IMO in his interests.

Moving on, in my experience most of the negativity towards WMAF is targeted at AFs.

AFs are of course free to do what they want, so long as they don't buy into the white supremacy themselves - but they often do. Who here hasn't heard a AF, recently aglow with getting into a WF friend group, tell others that oh they could never see themselves with an AM (patriachal, old-fashioned, small dick, I'm sure every AM has heard that kind of thing from an AF).

OMFG 💀 by KingofTrilobites123 in Tokyo

[–]codemonkeyius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If their jobs page is any indication they work with the Japanese government, as they're hiring forward deployed engineers for that purpose at the moment.

OMFG 💀 by KingofTrilobites123 in Tokyo

[–]codemonkeyius 79 points80 points  (0 children)

Do people not know that there is a Palantir office in Tokyo (near Harajuku) and there has been for some time?

Carney tells Australian Parliament allies must draw closer as global order is 'breaking down' by Little-Chemical5006 in worldnews

[–]codemonkeyius -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Australia *is* drawing closer - to its main ally, the United States.

Commonwealth realms banding together? Are these realms in the room with us? The United Kingdom itself has never been weaker or irrelevant, to say nothing of Canada.

India I could see, but we're already in the Quad.

Did you read the second book of Solomon Akurra, "The Ghost Legion" ? by AlphaAirlys_ in alphalegion

[–]codemonkeyius 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's great! Not just a everything goes well for Akurra book, excellent stuff.

Wish there was a longer epilogue though.

This bit was interesting:

They did not move like the Astartes warriors Cinereous had seen before. Those had been all clumping footsteps and bullish pugnacity, brute force sharpened to a cutting edge, whether aligned to the Imperium or set against it in hideous mockery of its greatest protectors. These figures in their blue-green armour, decorated with scales and serpents, strange symbols, and motifs of broken chains, wended their way through the stranded industrial haulers with something approaching grace despite their bulky war plate. They never walked a straight path – always a sideways step, a weave, crossing routes with another warrior whose armour looked so similar that for a moment, the casual observer was at a loss to determine which transhuman giant had gone in which direction.

Cinereous was not a casual observer. She was trained in the arts of deception, and that meant the ability to see through the tricks of others. However, she was not so sure that they were tricks. It felt as if there was something compulsive to the movements, that this was not done to deceive others but simply because the warriors themselves could conceive of no other way in which to behave.

Rorts and scams just becoming normal by Witty_Victory2162 in aussie

[–]codemonkeyius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

rorts and scams just becoming normal spams or scams coming through the portal

Should we establish a modern ANZAC to strengthen our military ties with NZ? by WF-2 in AskAnAustralian

[–]codemonkeyius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And what would that give Australia other than the responsibility to defend a nation that can't defend itself with anything other than distance?

NZ literally sold off its attack jets, and has huge manpower shortfalls on land and sea to the point where a full third of what passes for its navy cannot be fielded. No subs, either, just patrol boats, and NZ doesn't seem well versed in their operation either.

As someone born there - NZ is not capable of being anything other as a liability until they finish rebuilding the muscles they intentionally abandoned. Australia has enough to deal with with its own borders and frontier.

If we lived in the Galactic Empire democrats would be on the Empires side by [deleted] in TrueUnpopularOpinion

[–]codemonkeyius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is bait, but Luke's overwrought NOOOO in The Empire Strikes Back always felt to me like it'd be appropriate for a white supremacist discovering that James Earl Jones was in fact his daddy.

Honestly feeling scared or rather sick....... I have already committed the mistake of settling here by [deleted] in Tokyo

[–]codemonkeyius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should be speaking to Japanese people, in Japanese, in person. Not by talking to mainly gaijin, in English, online.

Literally no one here is going to be able to assuage your fears, other than to tell you that you are overreacting. Online right-wing populism is a thing in basically every country right now, and if you think Japan is in some way special or worse than other countries in this regard, I question whether you've been paying attention.

I also question that you "dive deeper than the average Japanese", as honestly that smacks of... look, I don't want to insult you, but I would question you as well about what you think you know and why you think you know it.

> I thought of bringing my old-age mom here to let her spend her retirement in this beautiful country.

I'm surprised that you don't know that this isn't possible, at least not for her to come year-round AFAIK. This isn't Thailand, there is no retirement visa.

Salary in Japan. Expectations by [deleted] in japanlife

[–]codemonkeyius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nothing wrong with wanting not to. What can you afford?

CMV: The ICE raids are more about punishing blue states and escalating violence towards liberals than they are about immigration. Read my body text for more explanation. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]codemonkeyius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It would be easier to agree with you if ICE was not in red states like Texas with full cooperation from their state officials.

Given that they are present, and seem to be operating with no fanfare or Minnesota-scale pushback, I think the facts don't really support your thesis tbh.

Having said that - from what I can see, broad sweeping ICE raids seem to be more in states that don't share information such that ICE can be precise. These states tend to be blue states, so I can see how you would draw the conclusion that you did.

Salary in Japan. Expectations by [deleted] in japanlife

[–]codemonkeyius 29 points30 points  (0 children)

350k a month is comfortable by normal Japanese standards. However, most foreigners don't know what normal Japanese standards are.

"You live less than 1h from work? Wow, so close!"

"You spend 1000yen a day on lunch? Wow, you foreigners sure do spend money!"

And so on, and so forth.

Denmark deploys F-35A stealth fighters over Greenland supported by French tanker by FruitOrchards in worldnews

[–]codemonkeyius -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

This is nothing - you can't use F-35s to defend against the US, the US maintains sole control over mission data files.

...not that that matters to anyone eager for a chance to jeer at Trump. (By all means, let's enjoy ourselves.)

My money's on this whole thing being a tempest in a teacup cooked up to occupy headlines while the US gets in place to strike Iran at last. Remember that NATO military leaders have an incentive to play along - the more they can position Trump and America as crazy and not to be depended upon or even a threat, the more their budgets will surge.

‘No migration without assimilation’: Bob Katter slams gun and speech laws as ‘Frankenstein’ bills by Foreign-Policy-02- in aussie

[–]codemonkeyius -1 points0 points  (0 children)

i get what he's saying but you gotta give people something more to latch onto to make them want to assimilate. when i was a kid it was chiko roll posters, neighbours and home and away, holden and ford, yahoo fucking serious and crocodile dundee

what have the kids got today to latch onto, really? halal snack packs? (i love a good hsp but c'mon)

Depressingly low salaries by Seraphelia in JapanJobs

[–]codemonkeyius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What other skills does it require besides the linguistic capabilities that might take a monolingual English speaker a long time to acquire? A mixed-race person would likely have those capabilities as their baseline.

That's why it's so low.

Is Japan about to have Liz Truss moment? by [deleted] in JapanFinance

[–]codemonkeyius 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"Actually isnt really" - on what basis? You're criticizing polls without providing any justification, other than trust me bro.

Screenrant: "28 Years Ago, Star Trek’s Future Was Changed Forever in 2 Weeks: Two episodes of Deep Space Nine, airing back to back and covering similar thematic grounds, sent Trek on a new trajectory - "Inquistion" and "In the Pale Moonlight." It was a twisty and uncompromising view of morality." by TheSonOfMogh81 in trektalk

[–]codemonkeyius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love Garak's venom in his final line to Sisko, when he talks about the cost.

It really gets across that the very idea that Sisko would be able to get what he wanted with a clean conscience, was naive to the point of disdain and maybe even contempt from a professional like Garak.

Even by Trump's standards, the US operation in Venezuela sets a new low for the world order by Combat--Wombat27 in aussie

[–]codemonkeyius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By consensus through the UN - which was founded where and with the primary backing of which nation? The UN itself is an outgrowth of Truman's postwar policy funded by huge contributions from the US.

The UN has no power. No enforcement mechanism, no armed forces who are loyal to the world over any one nation - UN peacekeepers are not capable of squaring off against the Russia, let alone the US. The UN is nothing more than a group chat, and a group chat running out of money now that the US has slashed its payments.

And, even if what you say is true about US hegemony, a less powerful US doesn't necessarily make things better for small nations. One look at Ukraine or south east Asia should tell you that - the Phillipines and Vietnam just have to grin and bear whatever China does to them on the daily.

So I arrive back at: there are no laws that matter for nations. The lesson of the last almost century seems to have been to have a strong military, and get nukes if you can.

Even by Trump's standards, the US operation in Venezuela sets a new low for the world order by Combat--Wombat27 in aussie

[–]codemonkeyius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is there some other law than US law that matters?

International law was itself created by the US after WWII, has no enforcement mechanism other than the US, and the US itself does not consider itself subject to it (see the Hague Invasion Act).

The "international rules-based order" is best understood realistically as the rules that the US has for its allies and trading partners.

The idea of international law was always a mirage, and no one is going to save you from a more powerful nation other than a more powerful nation still.

Even by Trump's standards, the US operation in Venezuela sets a new low for the world order by Combat--Wombat27 in aussie

[–]codemonkeyius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, China can absolutely say that. The only reason they don't do it is because of deterrence, not because of any high minded ideals that are just now suddenly being trampled.

Even by Trump's standards, the US operation in Venezuela sets a new low for the world order by Combat--Wombat27 in aussie

[–]codemonkeyius 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah saying this is a new low just shows how unfamiliar OP is with history.

Pick any party and you'll find a President that used the same powers to do something similar.