timelets

Apropos of nothing

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 05:07:51 GMT

Читаю уже второй том биографии Сталина, написанной проф. Коткиным. Заодно, посмотрел его "дуэт" с Славоем Жижеком.

Запишу несколько впечатлений:
1. Из двух книг Коткина я узнал об истории России/СССР больше, чем за годы учебы в советской школe.
2. Сталин построил диктатуру в диктатуре, т.е. диктаторский режим внутри партии, которая была инструментом диктатуры в СССР.
3. В окружении Сталина не было людей, которые бы устроили коллективизацию ценой смерти миллионов крестьян и голода среди десятков миллионов.
4. Личность диктатора играет огромную роль, и его убийство может быть вариантом ее серьезного смягчения, т.е. спасением миллионов жизней.

Here, Zizek gives his recommendations on best fictional depictions of the Soviet System (Shalamov & Platonov). Funny, how he calls Akhmatova "an endlessly pretentious bitch."

upd. at the 1:26:27 mark Zizek makes a deep point that is quite relevant in today's America. First, he notes that modern communists/authoritarians, e.g. in China and Vietnam, are much more efficient capitalist managers than democracies. Then, he adds, "the problem is that for me global capitalism is approaching a stage where it less and less needs democracy."
Few years ago, Peter Thiel remarked that freedom wss incompatible with democracy; for him freedom meant its libertarian version for billionaires. He felt that democratic institutions were constraining his freedom and he set out to destroy them, using Vance, Trump, Musk, etc.

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Wed, 12 Feb 2025 06:12:43 GMT

Though Trump has been in office for more than three weeks, he has yet to send a substantive bill to Congress. Some observers have compared Trump’s flurry of action to Franklin Roosevelt’s first 100 days, or Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society agenda. They are missing the point. FDR and LBJ sent big legislation to Congress. Trump is starting with a pipeline of executive orders. If the courts stymie those, they will be blocking his agenda. His strategy rests on a pliant judiciary.

He believes the US electorate gave him an unchecked mandate. It follows that any interference in his exercise of power — including an Alice-style belief that the US constitution means what he chooses it to mean — amounts to a block on democracy. Could he put 30,000 illegal immigrants beyond legal reach in a refitted Guantánamo Bay? Of course. The American people have spoken. Might he pick which of America’s creditors to repay and which to declare fraudulent? Quite possibly. Trump, not judges, will be the decider.

The Republican-controlled Congress has removed itself from Trump’s path. Unelected judges are the problem. Ultimate among those are the nine justices of the US Supreme Court. It is to their inboxes such dilemmas are heading. At stake is their reason for existing.

Turkeys are allegedly opposed to Thanksgiving. Yet the Supreme Court last July granted the US president sweeping immunity from almost any “official” acts. It takes little imagination to infer that this could be stretched to ignoring the courts. The six justices who put their names to that ruling may now regret their loose phrasing. They could have edited themselves into an advisory body. The problem the court faces is that Trump has a strong wind at his back. Constitutional lawyers warn that he could destroy America’s separation of powers.

https://www.ft.com/content/8e52b5ae-56b4-4571-ba09-103d5799ce9a

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Thu, 31 Dec 2020 02:52:05 GMT

Just a thought while browsing news from Russia: historically, emigrating from Russia/USSR has always been the right decision, esp. long-term.

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Gerontocracy

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 17:09:11 GMT

https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/trcdohan8j/20200828_yahoo_coronavirus_crosstabs.pdf

The only reason Trump has a chance is the demographic shift toward the aging population.

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Пропаганда власти лживого хуйла в демократической стране.

Sun, 12 Jan 2020 08:21:35 GMT

В интервью Лоре Инграм на Фоксе лживое хуйло откровенно врет, что Южная Корея дала Америке дополнительные $500М за содержание американских войск. Но проблема даже не в этом (лживое хуйло врет, потому что дышит), а в том, что ведущая журналистка самой популярной сети новостей в стране и не думает сказать президенту, что он несет полную хуйню на весь мир.

Понятно, как такое может происходить при авторитарном режиме где-нибудь в Китае, России или Нигерии. Непонятно, почему такое происходит в Америке в условиях демократии и свободы прессы.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEeDJsmvKxs&feature=youtu.be

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TIL: marriage in Athens

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 21:03:06 GMT

A woman would get married when she was between 12 and 18. A man would be at least 30. Marriages were arranged; dowries were required; women had no choice of their husband.

Prostitutes were mostly recruited from abroad.

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