There are always wars and conflicts between nations, are we seeing something now that is worse than what we’ve seen in recent history? Does the change of leadership in the USA in 2021 mark a shift? Let’s take a look at major incidents and events from 2017 – 2021 and 2021 – 2024 and see what we can find.
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Introduction
There is a slice of American right-wing politics that is against America’s continued support of Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion. There are a few common reasons that these people use as the basis of their viewpoint. These arguments are mostly the following: that America cannot afford to spend the money, that we should focus on fixing our domestic problems, that we should not pay attention to Europe since we need to pay attention to China as our main rival, that the outcome doesn’t affect us, and that Russia embodies and defends Western values. We do not need to make humanitarian, moral, legalistic, or emotional appeals to counter these points. We just need to look at what is pragmatically in our own best interests and why.
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Introduction
On September 1, 2022, President Biden gave a speech which will be his defining moment as a leader and communicator. The official name for the speech is “Remarks by President Biden on the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation” but it can be commonly identified as just the anti-MAGA speech. This speech became controversial immediately after it was given. Supporters of President Biden and his politics called it an accurate description of recent past events and the current state of affairs. Those on the other side believed that his words were divisive, in bad faith, and an attack against his political opponents.
One question that I heard raised from a supporter of the speech’s worldview is “what did he say that was wrong?” This is a very fair, interesting question and a good starting point from which an opponent of the speech’s worldview can build an argument. The speech itself wasn’t about presenting a certain set of facts which could be proven or disproven. It was about building a narrative, perception, and framing around a set of events. To point out the problems of a narrative, we need to see whether it can be shown to be contrived; inconsistent with previous actions/beliefs, one-sided, and exclusionary of the full context of its underlying factual blocks. If we look at it this way, even if we can’t say that what President Biden said is “wrong”, we can demonstrate that what he said is partisan, inconsistent, hypocritical, and not the basis for a good-faith worldview.
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Vivek Ramaswamy is a Foreign Policy Disaster
Vivek Ramaswamy is an intriguing political outsider running for President in the 2024 election as a Republican. Vivek has never been a politician or served in political office, he is a very successful investor and company founder in the pharma/biotech space. His campaign is gaining steam and he is steadily getting more media exposure. At the time of this writing, he is polling in third place among Republican presidential candidates and will qualify for the first round of presidential debates for Republican candidates. One of the primary drivers for his popularity and exposure are his unconventional views on international relations. This article won’t cover all of Vivek’s background, policies, or politics but will focus on some specific foreign policy statements.
Continue readingAid going directly to the civilians and combat units in Ukraine has been critical in helping the Ukrainian people persevere through the war waged against them. Below are some organizations to consider donating to in order to continue helping the people there. Before donating to any charity, be sure to do as much research (Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, GuideStar, etc.) and vetting as you can to confirm the charity’s track record, legitimacy, and alignment to your personal values. Reach out to me if you know of an excellent organization that should be added to this list.
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Background
The All-In Podcast is a weekly show run by 4 very successful tech investors. They, in my opinion, do a great job talking about things like investing, capital markets, trends in tech, Silicon Valley culture, and other topics related to business. The podcasters (“The Besties” – Jason Calacanis, David Friedberg, David Sacks, and Chamath Palihapitiya) are very influential and experienced people who bring a lot of great insight. On YouTube alone, they have over 300K subscribers, get 300-400K views per weekly episode, and have about 23 million cumulative views. They are also on Spotify and many other podcasting platforms.
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The Success of SLS Should Make You Angry
What you are reading is intended for people who have a passing or general interest in either NASA, space, science & technology, or how the government & business interplay in this field. I use a lot of simplifications & generalizations and gloss over some details. What inspired me to write this is the (hopefully) upcoming major launch milestone for SpaceX’s Starship rocket, how I see some of the media coverage around Starship & the SLS rocket launch from 4 months ago, and some conversations I had with people unfamiliar with the space industry. This will NOT be a comparison between SLS and Starship; there are countless articles and YouTube videos that do the comparison and the world doesn’t need any more of those. This is not intended to be unbiased and neutral. I have opinions; I’m sharing them and explaining why I have them. Do your own research and learn about the other side of the argument before forming strong opinions of your own.
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It’s hard to believe, but this month will be the one year mark of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I originally wrote and shared this in June 2022 with some people who didn’t know a lot about the history and context and wanted to learn more about what was happening and why. There are still people who are interested in learning more, this post is for them. Looking back, most of this writing is holding up but not 100%. I have not gone back to update this based on current events. I have made edits to a section to remove some personally identifying info, otherwise what I wrote is unedited for 2023.
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