participant-3927, 3:46 PM, March 2
The Anthemism project pursues open borders and free trade as the policy of a future state. This is what freedom and fairness demands. No one can decide for another where to live and who to trade with.
On Feb 20, the Supreme Court of US has replied as unconstitutional the many tarrifs that Trump has imposed. Hurray!
participant-3927, 4:39 PM, March 2
The attack on Iran is much too late, when the January demonstrations have been squashed with a death toll of 16,000 officially (50,000 unofficially). That blood is on Trump, who prevented Israel attack to continue in the 12 day war, and who gave hope to the January demonstrators to help, but didn’t come through in time.
What can be a realistic outcome of the current attack? From Jerusalem Post:
“The goal is not for the regime to fall, but to create conditions that will enable the Iranian people to topple it,” Professor Danny Orbach, a military historian from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The Media Line. “If the Iranians don’t take advantage of the opportunity, the war might end with less ambitious goals achieved—the destruction of the Iranian navy, its missile arsenal, and the remnants of its nuclear program.”
participant-2294, 4:54 PM, March 2
I completely disagree. They wouldn’t have been able to kill the right person in such a surgical, precise way.
participant-2294, 4:55 PM, March 2
At that time, Khamenei was in a bunker at a secret location. There still wasn’t enough actionable intel to kill him…
participant-2294, 4:57 PM, March 2
Assuming the alleged 50,000 people out of a population of 92,417,681 hadn’t died, they still wouldn’t have been able to do anything substantial to bring about regime change
participant-3927, 4:58 PM, March 2
No one will come out now. People are scared.
participant-3927, 4:59 PM, March 2
There was Khomeini, then Khamenei. Now another letter change, there will be a new one
participant-2294, 5:00 PM, March 2
Symbolically, they showed that it’s a weak regime and that its top leadership is vulnerable
participant-2294, 5:01 PM, March 2
The communist idea that revolutions are normally carried out by ordinary rabble with no military knowledge is bullshit
participant-3927, 5:02 PM, March 2
This is right. We can hope that a weak Iran will hurt the idea of the legitimacy of political Islam in Middle East.
participant-3927, 5:04 PM, March 2
The military is there, it just needs to be turned. That’s happened in the USSR putsch.
participant-3927, 5:06 PM, March 2
No need for getting Khamenei , just bombing Iran for two more weeks would have sealed the end of the regime. The leadership was running away, there was a leadership panic on an unprecedented level. It’s common knowledge now that Trump gave Iran a lifeline.
participant-2294, 5:07 PM, March 2
But it’s not a protest by civilians that drives real change, otherwise Tiananmen Square would have been a success. The military will be moved by the consequences imposed by the U.S.
participant-2294, 5:08 PM, March 2
Yeah, but you can’t just bomb them the way it’s done in Gaza
participant-3927, 5:10 PM, March 2
It’s a matter of scale. It’s always the result of ideas in the public spreading enough to take hold of the military too.
participant-3927, 5:11 PM, March 2
Whatever they were doing was working.
participant-2294, 5:12 PM, March 2
I believe that only by turning the regime’s positions of power (Supreme leader, etc.) into a death sentence will it ultimately come to an end
participant-2294, 5:17 PM, March 2
The survivors of the bombings in Gaza cannot be reintegrated. Most of them, if given the opportunity, would kill Israelis
participant-3927, 5:18 PM, March 2
Berlin and Japan, earlier Carthage, and Greece are successful examples of regime change. Only massive casualties work, because people lose hope to fight for those ideals
participant-3927, 5:20 PM, March 2
The damage in Gaza is much too low, the Gazans think they won the war.
participant-2294, 5:23 PM, March 2
Well, killing down to the last soldier, as happened in Japan or Germany, came with significant civilian and military costs
participant-2294, 5:28 PM, March 2
It’s more efficient, less costly, and more humane to focus on targeted pressure against the leadership of the Islamic Republic, even over an extended period, rather than pursuing a strategy that devastates the entire country as happened in Germany and Japan
participant-3927, 5:56 PM, March 2
It won’t work.
participant-3927, 9:56 PM, March 6
I have fixed up the site to not generate link previews with a large image. Now, there is a small logo in the link preview for articles. I find it bad taste that every artice must have a large image associated with it. An article is mostly about the title and the text, not about the image.
participant-3927, 10:00 PM, March 6
The trick is to use meta tag for twitter card with style “summary” instead of “summary_large_image”. Also, to use a small 120x120 image in the card.
participant-3927, 8:52 PM, March 7
participant-3927, 8:54 PM, March 7
The Pyrenees is a mountain range that separates France from Spain. On this mountain range sits Andorra, an independent co-principality. One of the princes is from France, the other from Spain, thereby neither of the two countries can take over it. In 1993, 700 years after it has been only a semi-autonomous region, it became fully idendent state with a Constitution.
participant-3927, 9:05 PM, March 7
The nearest hospital to Andorra is 15 min drive on the Spanish side, and over an hour on the French side. The border being fully open. Why would I mention this strange fact? Because abortion is prohibited in Andorra.
participant-3927, 9:19 PM, March 7
The monstrous rights-violating abortion prohibition comes from the Spanish co-principal side, a bishop who has no political power in Spain. His soft-power is the fact he represents the Vatican’s man, and if France takes over Andorra, thereby deposing the bishop, it will be a PR nighmare. Andorra wants to remove the abortion ban, but the bishop threatens to leave, thereby making Andorra available to France for the taking.
participant-3927, 9:24 PM, March 7
Just as the idea of checks and balances serves to keep a country internally safe from dictatorship, so a balance of competing interests must protect a small country from being taken over by one of its neighbours.
participant-3927, 1:59 AM, March 8
Harry Binswanger writes on HBL in January 2025 (#104497):
I used to dismiss these [new country] projects (and there have been half a dozen or more) out of hand. I still think a capitalist enclave in an altruist-collectivist world is impossible. But I pay more attention now, because statism has become so entrenched that it’s hard to even conceive of successfully changing the U.S., or any existing nation.
participant-3927, 2:13 AM, March 8
Interesting idea proposed by an HBL member regards to drugs in new country: they can be imported in and used freely, but cannot be exported. Can’t, because exporting them is a threat to the country (the country will be deemed as a drug-exchange hub, and will be attacked.)
participant-3927, 2:42 AM, March 8
Saw this meme: “When the government’s boot is on your throat, it doesn’t matter if it’s the left boot or the right.”
participant-3927, 5:33 PM, March 8
Harry Binswanger is concerned that a free country won’t be allowed to exist, citing drugs and medical research as contention examples. But we have currently countries which are much better than their neighbors, and they are able to survive. They do so because the principle of checks and balances that works within a country to stop it from becoming a dictatorship has an analog internationally: the balance of interests of great powers serves to protect small countries from being taken over either by the protector or the neighbours.
Andorra is a tax haven which survives because it pits Catholic church (bishop from Spain) against France. Taiwan, a freer place than the adjacent China, survives because neither U.S. nor China will take over it. Israel, a freer country compared to its neighbors, survived because Western powers have interest in supporting it, but none would fully take over the region. Hong Kong, a freer region than China (and Britain), survived because neither China nor Britain would be able to fully control it. South Korea is adjacent to North Korea and China, but is not being taken over either by them nor by U.S. or (perhaps) Japan. If we are seeing a pattern here, is that to a protector, a proxy state is favorable than annexation.
