assaultpotato

joined 1 year ago
[–] assaultpotato 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes I started running a Stay in Tarkov server last night for my friends. Pretty easy setup and while there are some minor bugs, it's pretty good!

Bye bye BSG, I held off on SPT for a long time to support you... but no more.

[–] assaultpotato 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, the US military has been built since WW2 explicitly with the intention of being able to fight in Europe and in the Pacific at the same time and win both.

Ukraine has basically just gotten ammunition + existing older US equipment, it's not like we're draining our military capabilities supporting them right now.

[–] assaultpotato 4 points 8 months ago

The monetary supply thing in particular is why using bitcoin or any other externally managed currency as a national currency is typically regarded as a bad idea.

And also the above statements get much more complex when dealing with multiple currencies like with Russia where despite it issuing the ruble, it can default on USD debt because the ruble/USD exchange rate is such shit.

Monetary policy is very interesting.

[–] assaultpotato 18 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

That's not really what "national debt" refers to... national debt is literal borrowing: "hey who wants to buy some bonds from my national government so we can invest in our economy?" Someone buys those bonds with the expectation of getting the invested amount + interest back.

What you're talking about is most closely represented by "reparations" which is money owed by an aggressor to a victim state, and is only enforceable really by a stronger third party or by the aggressor losing the war.

As to why cities don't take on debt the same way: they do take on millions of dollars of debt for infrastructure, but usually they're loans from the federal government as opposed to bonds. The difference between city debt and national government debt is the national government controls its own monetary supply, meaning is defacto cannot default on its bonds. Cities can default on their loans, but typically the lender is the higher level government anyways so the repercussions tend to be political only. That's why worrying about "the national debt clock" is typically not meaningful, but your city borrowing 300 million for a new highway definitely is.

[–] assaultpotato 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I honestly think it's the internet as a whole that's done that to us.

You used to be able to not know things, but now I'm expected to have encyclopedic knowledge of every factor going into any individual choice I make as though I've gotta min/max my life. I think the expectation that everyone needs to have an opinion on everything because "the information is available, just Google it!", combined with the fact that we have a limited rate of knowledge consumption and limited bandwidth has led to people just skimming information. Shortest path to having an "informed" opinion on every topic, because God forbid you don't know something online.

I think in order to increase our media literacy we must return to partial ignorance.

[–] assaultpotato 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Wait did beehaw fall off? I have two accounts, one here and one on beehaw. I actually made my sh.itjust.works account because beehaw defederated from some instances with communities I wanted to keep and now I use both semi regularly. Mostly lurk though.

[–] assaultpotato 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Loving that the only dude who posted valid legal precedent in the same jurisdiction is getting down voted.

And then Lemmy users will complain how ass Reddit is for exactly this lmao.

[–] assaultpotato 5 points 10 months ago

I use ps -aux | grep $EXECUTABLE

[–] assaultpotato 4 points 10 months ago

Military aid packages are typically reported in USD ("10 billion in military aid") but usually involve the direct transference of equipment (logistical or frontline) to the foreign country. Usually those countries are existing allies of the US (or at least friendly) and are probably already buying NATO/US gear.

I'm relatively confident that the US doesn't typically give USD earmarked for US manufactured weapons systems.

[–] assaultpotato 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Wut? The US government doesn't pay other countries to buy US weapons. Those countries typically fund those purchases from their domestic defense budget. The US government just approves or denies the exports.

Exceptions are "military aid" which is case-dependent.

Are you under the impression that the US government pays those 100 countries to buy US made weapons? Or directly sells those weapons themselves?

[–] assaultpotato 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

"It's Brittany, bitch"

Can't relate tbh.

[–] assaultpotato 7 points 11 months ago

Because when the average person hears "the government owes x Billion Dollars" the assumption is "they will be handing over X billion in cash". It's like the Ukraine military support - people hear "3 billion USD in military aid for Ukraine" and think the US is handing over 3 billion dollars, not handing over about 3 billion worth of old soon-to-be-retired equipment.

Which makes conversations about government debt really fun. It's just a lack of understanding.

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