People, if you haven't read Bill Browder's <em>Red Notice</em>, it's high time you do. This lead to the Magnitsky Act, which is one of the biggest things that Putin and Russia's oligarchs want removed.
If you think that any US citizen that Russia wants to "question" will come back the same person (or come back at all), you're deluding yourselves. Russia has repeatedly tried to get Browder arrested and sent to Russia using fraudulent Red Notices, which Interpol have repeatedly refused to honor because they're so obviously corrupt.
Russia wants Browder, and they'll use any means to get him. Sending Americans over to be "questions" gives the sham of an "investigation" they're running legitimacy.
Don't let them succeed.
Also worth checking out his book: Red Notice. I listened to the audiobook and it was short but really entertaining and informative about all the shit that goes down in Russia
https://www.amazon.com/One-Soldiers-War-Arkady-Babchenko/dp/0802144039
Amazing book on the 1st and 2nd Chechen war. Gave guys a bunch of old soviet equipment, not enough food or other supplies, told them to go off and fight Chechens.
They ended up having to trade gear to the Chechens just to have something to eat.
Yes, everyone should pick up Browder's book, crazy crazy story
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Notice-Finance-Murder-Justice/dp/1476755744
I'm not apologizing for him. His acceptance of Palin is a crucial step to why we are here now. I'm pointing out that of everyone in recent American politics, he's one of a significant few that did the literally one thing that has significantly angered putin. Read Red Notice [1], its insane the lengths Putin went to to punish Browder for unveiling his criminal antics and McCain was one of only a few that stood behind him (Browder).
You saying he's been completely asleep against Russian agents trying to take advantage of us is wrong by dint of this. However, Your underlying sentiment that he's not doing enough though isn't wrong. But we just have to be careful that we don't become so desirous of seeing things in black and white that we take on the stupider and purposefully ignorant aspects of the dumb right.
We should be able to see in nuance. We should still condemn but we shouldn't need to speak in grandiose terms of evil to make our point. The point is makeable while still being cognizant and not dismissive of the facts. The only people that need to bend facts and timebox peoples actions are people who don't have enough of truth on their side to make their point. We're not that and we don't need to be that to make the point that Republicans needed and need to do more.
[1] Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476755744/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_IT.gBbEKYT9ZY
I highly recommend Bill Browder's book, aptly named Red Notice: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Notice-Finance-Murder-Justice/dp/1476755744/
It goes into great detail about his background, his investments in Russia and subsequent uncovering of widespread corruption, what happened to Sergei Magnitsky, and the process of getting the Magnitsky Act passed with the assistance of John McCain.
A thrilling, inspiring, sad and infuriating read.
I mentioned this below, but I’d just like to add to the top comment that Babchenko’s memoir of the Chechen War, ‘One soldier’s war’, is available in English translation, bloody well-written and a fascinating soldier’s-eye-view of a brutal, filthy and complicated conflict. (Not saying all wars aren’t like that, but this one seems to have under the radar for a lot of people, also because the Russian government hasn’t been open about the death toll).
Sorry for hijacking the top comment, but I’d just like people to remember his work. Honestly, I read the book years ago and I can still remember lines from it to this day. There’s this part where he talks about the sheer terror he feels in the middle of a particular battle, and how the land must be so irradiated with people’s terror and pain that he can’t believe anything will ever grow there. Could be a metaphor for modern Russia to be honest.
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Making of the Modern World
I amazingly flipped through the book right to the right page, I have no idea how I did it.
"In their new effort to be as un-chinese as possible, the mongols dropped the traditional evenhanded approach to diverse religion and granted ever more favor and power to Buddhism, particularly to its Tibetan variation, which contrasted most strongly with the Confucian ideals of the Chinese. Unable to criticize their mongol rulers directly, the Chinese people turned much of their hatred toward the foreigners who helped the mongol administer their empire. The Tibetan Buddhist monks in particular became the object of hatred, since local people along the newly opened Mongol route to Tibet carried the obligations not merely of feeding, housing, and transporting the monks, but of carrying their goods for them as well. The monks, often armed, acquired a terrible reputation for abusing people who served them. The Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs strongly defended the monks at court and imposed a host of special rights for them. At one point the bureau tried to enforce laws that stipulated that anyone who hit a monk would have his hand cut off, or that anyone who insulted or defamed a monk, if convicted, could have his tongue cut out. The Mongol officials eventually overturned these laws as incompatible with Mongol rule, which forbade the use of body mutilation as a punishment."
Perhaps torture is a strong word, but not far off. The writing is a bit vague over if/how long the law was active, but it is the thought that counts lol
Let's not forget all the Soviet soldiers summarily executed or sent to die in gulags for "political crimes," like being captured by the enemy, or retreating to save their own lives, or writing in private letters about the hardships of Soviet army life.
It's gotta be really hard to be a teen in this climate. We can't go back to normal, because people will die. I know you already know that though, and it's just so shitty. I hear what you're saying about the frustration and stress. It's hard enough to be in middle school (if you ask any adult, I think they would agree that middle school is a tough time), let alone have to do this stuff with a global pandemic. It's 100% shit and nobody should disagree with that.
As an adult, I can tell you one thing (and btw - I'm giving myself advice here as I'm typing this because I need it too). This is a real-world version of the "marshmallow test". Step back one bit and take a look at yourself and how you want to manage the situation. You can either be a beacon for yourself or others, or you can go down the crapped-out road of depression. If you use this experience to check your own character, strength and resilience, you might be find that you have deep qualities that you didn't know existed. If you allow yourself just to pool in the "this sucks" mode, your brain will learn that when times get tough, the "this sucks" mode is the default. That's the equivalent of your brain sucking money out of your emotional bank account every time shit comes up in the future. Challenge that, and look back on this Covid crap as a time of immense growth and opportunity that will pay you over and over many years to come.
Also, check out Man's Search for Meaning. It's a book that explains exactly how to function in difficult times. If you ping me your info, I'll send you a copy.
That's funny, They want to stop trump from writing a book.
but Amazon still sells Mein Kampf and no one bats an eye
​
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf/dp/0395925037
​
We truly live in clown world.
>shoulder
I had to go through this too. It's easy for me to get bored. I would suggest reading A Man's Search for Meaning. It helped change my perspective. https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Viktor-Frankl/dp/0807014273/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_es_US=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=victor+frankel&qid=1620306098&sr=8-2
Bill Browder's Red Notice is a great look into the world of how Russia in general is Cronyism/Oligarchy to the extreme. His experiences led to the Magnitsky Act in an attempt to counter some of this corruption on the world stage.
No redpill reading would be complete without Marcus Aurelius: Meditations. 1900 years ago they were dealing with the same issues, human nature hasn't changed at all.
$4 on amazon
Civil War in the United States, slavery ended. A milita was a large part of this, no a militia alone did not do this but it seriously helped.
The formation of the United States also in large part was due to a militia.
The russian revolution as well.
Additionally most of those homicides are from illegally gotten handguns, and gang violence.
>your own crime statistics prove that
millions of fatal incidents are stopped each year with firearms, by our own statistics.
​
Again, read this:
Communism the theory, and communism in real practice, are very very different. I base my idea of communism on what always happens in practice, as do most scholars and historians.
The defining work on the topic would be Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago
That's the condensed version, the full 3 volume version is even better. This is what living under communism is actually like, and an analysis as to why it is that way.
Since the USSR we still don't have a counter case where am attempt has caused anything but poverty and misery. Without freedom and a profit motive, society cannot function. Look also to the original settlers of America, who tried a form of socialism and almost all starved.
Terrible generalizations about Millennials aside, "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl should be required reading in highschool. Not sure what subject -- Science? History? Something. It's a first-hand account of a concentration camp written from a psychiatrist's perspective, so it explains what happens to a person's psyche when forced to undergo such horrors. It's hard to get through, and you will never question how bad the Holocaust was after that.
My preference is the Long version, just for the style (which somehow feels most appropriate for a Stoic philosopher-emperor to have written, at least to me). Be aware that the language is somewhat archaic; if you prefer a more modern-English version (which does paraphrase and summarize quite a bit), try Hays. But you can check out the Long online, so no risk in trying it. Online version.
There are several book versions available on Amazon. This one isn't the version I own, but I was satisfied with my copy of Enchiridion from the same publisher. (Note that, while an editorial review mentioned on the page refers to the Hays translation, the book preview shows the Long translation).
The story behind the Magnitsky act is so crazy, if you haven't heard much about it check out Bill Browder. He was the biggest western investor in Russia and his Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was horribly murdered in jail after uncovering massive amounts of corruption. They expected to be lauded for bringing it to the attention of the state, but instead they tried to pin the corruption/theft on Browder and Magnitsky. After Sergei was killed, Bill made it his life's mission to pass laws in as many countries as possible (Magnistky acts) that take away corrupt Russian assets. Putin hates it, and has made Bill Browder enemy number one, put in something like 7 'Red Notices' on him, and tried multiple times to extradite him back to Russia. He has a few books on it, including one called Red Notice in fact https://www.amazon.com/Red-Notice-Finance-Murder-Justice/dp/1476755744
I just finished a book suggested by a friend named Maus.
Really good graphic novel. Explains the Holocaust from a Polish Jew's perspective. Recently, some people wanted to ban this book out of school. When in fact, this is probably one of the best point of experience stories about the Holocaust I've ever read.
Things like this are exactly why we need books like this. Kids don't understand how damning speech like that is. They think it's like the F word and don't realize it's more like racism and murder.
Maus is a nonfiction book presented in the graphic novel style, written by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman. Serialized from 1980 to 1991, it depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor.
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Maus-Art-Spiegelman/dp/0679406417
I also have a link for a PDF of the first book if anyone is interested.
Don't let it get you down too much. This concern of playing video games too much is probably being said by parents to their children in every country on Earth lol. Personally, I don't game a lot but there is some incredible storytelling work going on in video games and comics which is why major studios are writing television series and films based on those genres. Their comments are often based on not really even knowing much about them.
For the record, there are tons of comics that are non-fiction or based on real world events that are quiet educational and even Pulitzer Prize winning.
There's nothing wrong with expanding what you're into and checking out a documentary or reading other books (even if it's in the subjects you like!) if you want to learn some new stuff as well.
Do you want a robust illustration of why comparing any situation that exists in the United States of America today to Auschwitz is so totally and completely ridiculously absurd and utterly divorced from reality?
It has nothing to do with because I had it hard you should have it hard.
It has everything to do with the satisfaction of accomplishment, proving to yourself that you can.
There are good stresses (stress to take an exam to advance your career, pressure to try a 5k for the first time, etc) and bad stress (I can’t afford food, seeing people scares me so I’ll stay home) If you are interested in a different perspective take a look at these links:
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/man-s-search-for-meaning/summary
Man's Search for Meaning https://www.amazon.com/dp/0807014273/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_T3P0JS613K06NC39NXBJ
(43k reviews, 80% 5 stars)
Absolutely. Find the book in the link and read it. After that, find the multitude of on,one discussion forums which help to dig through the text.
In a nutshell, after tremendously awful experiences during WWII, he needed to find meaning and peace in his existence. To be sure, it is never to late to find your way.
Excellent summary.
I read Bill Browder's book Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice shortly after it came out, so my recollection of the exact details of what went down is a little faded by time.
Highly recommend it.
I highly recommend Bill Browder's book Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice.
He's the reason the Magnisky Act happened. It was his lawyer.
And he's on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Billbrowder
>“It’s not about the books; it’s about them trying to kind of entice kids to something as if it’s forbidden fruit,” she said. “It’s using the language of pushers. It’s just incredibly inappropriate."
When you try to ban books what do you expect to happen? You entice kids merely by trying to ban something and making it “forbidden”. The sign is merely pointing this out.
I mean Maus is a bestseller on Amazon and now out of stock precisely because some parent wanted it banned. I’m sure the kids were coming to the librarians and asking about these books so they put them on display. I guess a more appropriate sign would have read “Books that some parents want banned”? Our kids are not as fragile as some parents think. Some parents appear to be quite fragile though!
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Maus-Art-Spiegelman/dp/0679406417