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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 17h

A surprisingly common type! Easily more than half of the French colonial officer corps wanted political integration of France's West African colonies post-WWI in part because they empathized and identified more with their colonial troops than metropolitan Frenchmen.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 1d

You could absolutely do a great sitcom with them, especially with Oshoma as the only one who actually grew up nomadic.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 1d

The flying bullet down the pass,
That whistles clear, "All flesh is grass."

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 1d

I feel like this is a reassuring fantasy, given that Mamdani is unlikely to crack 50% in NYC (while still almost guaranteed to win the mayoral election).

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 1d

Very much in line with the "conservative author whose conservatism makes their writing more interesting" that the Bsky tweetchains seek out every could of weeks.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 1d

Arguably his imperialism is what makes his writing so interesting to engage with. There's an intense unguarded honesty to his poetry, that the frontier is where we kill them and they kill us, that is genuinely fascinating.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 1d

Lets not even get into how the uniformed, but not armed, services (USPHS and commissioned NOAA) get treated.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 1d

There was a reason why the Biden admin felt trapped in 23-24, it's because it was! The Trump admin's current position is the product of the defeat of Iran, Israel's gamble on Trump, and the outside context issue that Israel knows Qatar has, not ownership, but at least a time share of the Trump clan.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 1d

Iran is still a US enemy. Israel is still a quasi-aligned partner. There was no chance in hell that we were going to pull assets out in the middle of a state level conflict between the two, both on a purely practical level and on a moral level.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 1d

I get the impulse, but I want everyone to please seriously consider the chances of Biden actually being able to cut US support for Israeli anti-ballistic missile defense right at the peak of the Israel-Iran war of the cities.

He would have faced a revolt both within DoD and the Democratic party.

LOWρUF🐸 🇵🇦🇬🇱🇨🇦🇲🇽 @lowrhoufo.bsky.social · 1d

There are literally hundreds of clearly labeled levers to pull, they exist on a spectrum and the State Department's job is to keep lists of them in filing cabinets. Not only did Biden fail to impose consequences, he was actively giving them scarce assets like THAAD

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

Reagan could constrain Begin in Lebanon because US aid to Israel was 6-10% of Israeli GDP. HW Bush had a ton of leverage because Israel was in dire need of US loans while processing the intake of close to a million ex-Soviet jews. That's just not the case anymore.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

People keep referring to the times in the past when the US genuinely did exercise massive leverage, but they forget that that was when Israel was a deeply poor economic basket case almost completely dependent on the US to keep it afloat.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

Also the only reason why Trump could get Netanyahu on board was that Bibi was sabotaging the process from the start in part because he was banking on Trump giving him a much freer hand.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

MFW I finally deliver on abortion and find out that this means that the Catholics can fully focus on their social doctrine now.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

Even low end fast food chains in deeply rural Alabama are still advertising jobs starting at the $12.00 mark, which is a very solid sign as to what the true floor of the current labor market is.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

34% of Americans live in states with minimum wage rates about $15.00, and 55% in states with minimum wage rates above $12.00.

Practically speaking, the functional minimum wage in even deeply poor Southern states with no state minimum wage is in the $11-12.00 now.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

No one makes federal minimum wages anymore. I'm talking employers who are (e.g. in the DMV region) complying with minimum wages in the $15.00 - $17.50 range. Even in states like Florida it's $14.00.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

The ICC was well aware of the UN commission report (it formed part of the evidence base it used to make its determination as to issuing warrants) but there's a very good reason why the ICC did not adopt the UN commission's findings as to genocide.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

The UN Commission's findings have been very controversial in the IHL space and none of its members have any prosecutorial experience. Compare this to the International Criminal Court, which issued warrants for the arrests of Israeli leaders on war crimes charges, but not genocide.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

You do not meet the bar of "intent to destroy in whole or in part" through a campaign of less directed atrocity or military action carried out with deliberate indifference to collateral damage. Which is why no officer was convicted of genocide in the Yugoslav tribunals barring the Srebenica trials.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

"Intent to destroy in whole or in part" means incidents like Srebenica (which even then is somewhat controversial, though I agree with the ruling). It means an actual effort to mass liquidate a population either in its entirety (in whole) or in discrete subareas (in part).

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

There is not, within the definition of the crime under international law, as reinforced by the case law interpreting those statutes, sufficient evidence of "intent to destroy in whole or in part". There is *plenty* of evidence of intent to force the expulsion of Gazans through military atrocity.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

If you lack the reading comprehension to understand the constant posts of "destroy in whole or in part is actually a very high bar to meet" I don't know what to do for you.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

Just see how McMaster immediately engaged in the same games he condemned the Vietnam era generals for playing the second his own social capital was on the line.

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 2d

2 Star General "I can't wait to cash in those Boeing checks" McGrady is absolutely weighing the social costs of being linked to events that are very likely sufficient to tarnish his name to the point that he cannot cash those Boeing checks.

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