Hacker News Reader

brepppon Co-founder Joe Lonsdale: Palantir was founded to kill communists

they just misinterpreted Marx! if we try again this time it will work

I don't know about this specific incident but Iranian forces have a history of firing at protestors with shotguns including last week

https://iranwire.com/en/features/122471-crackdown-survivor-5...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/12/31/armed-offi...

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/07/iran...

brepppon Mapping Protests in Iran

> restoring international relationships in exchange for sanctions lifting and access to international markets to get filthy rich

The issue is the Iranian elites are getting filthy rich from sanctions and have a vested interest in them.

The IRGC has its own smuggling networks and its own companies which it can use to evade taxes and sell its own imported goods for lower prices locally

brepppon Google broke my heart

or because of abuse https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47227937

brepppon It's hard to justify Tahoe icons

The number of elements and their behaviors should be limited

Reading that as an animation of snow completely blocks my ability to read

brepppon [dead]

He is right, the logical leap would be hilarious if not a symbol for today's journalistic standards.

Let's say the IDF has positively confirmed 17% combatants. The negation of that set is not "Non combatants" but "Not positively identified by the IDF as combatants". which means that some may still be combatants, and most probably some are as the standard here is to confirm names, something hard to do when someone is under the rubble. Therefore the title here which says 83% civilians according to IDF data is simply false.

That's forgetting the other issues with this article (single IDF unit not tasked with research, multiple databases with different numbers, using Hams death data, forgetting about non-Hamas non-PIJ groups, low reputable source, etc) but I am sure that if you can see this misstep you can understand the general value of what you read there

brepppon Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

https://theaviationist.com/2011/05/18/mh-47x/

brepppon Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

Western countries that had recently used that clause to assasinate terrorists are the US, UK and France. There is no reason to believe other european countries attacked by ISIS would not do the same if needed or if capable.

Regarding double tapping, that's exactly the modus operandi of assassinations, as the UAVs goal is not the car/ship but the people inside.

That said, the Venezuelan case is a huge overreach

brepppon Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

but unfortunately starting a war is not a crime, unless if you are using "war crimes" as a metaphor for acts of war you deem unethical

brepppon Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

Once they declared it a terrorist organization (which is the problematic side of everything), they can claim these are unlawful combatants and do not have any of the protections of the Geneva convention, like any other war on terror assassination.

So I don't think double tapping is a war crime, any more than bombing a car with terrorists in the first place and that doesn't seem to be regarded internationally as a war crime. However, they could have done better to highlight Venezuela actual involvement with terrorism (which is real but not enough for this) rather than magically declare them terrorists just to not go through Congress

brepppon Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

you assume war crimes, but which war crimes?

In general international law is much more lenient than people are willing to believe. e.g. it's legal to kill civilians if you are attacking a military target which is important enough

brepppon Multiple explosions in Venezuela's capital Caracas

Unconfirmed videos of US helicopters flying over Caracas

https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2007341118204330216

brepppon Finland detains ship and its crew after critical undersea cable damaged

I see 1990s Russia more similar to Weimar Germany, a failed democracy experiment where everyone came out from wanting something else.

Regarding Germany, as opposed to 1918, defeat was not something they could escape, complete and utter destruction of cities, mass rapes, ethnic cleansing, POWs and occupation.

The strict contrast with the fascist promises of victory is the real engine of denazificatiom imo

brepppon Finland detains ship and its crew after critical undersea cable damaged

The defeat in this context might be just being defeated by Ukraine

My point is that culture can change, being aggressive in eastern europe is not the essence of Russia just like being aggressive in central europe turned out not to be the essence of Germany.

A fascist regime promises war, victory and glory, when that collapses the regime also collapses

brepppon Finland detains ship and its crew after critical undersea cable damaged

As an outside onlooker I can see a lot in common.

Russians are essentially a european people and has a lot more in common with the EU than BRICS.

Also, both are headed full-throttle towards a demographic disaster so might as well do it together

And of course your comment about unelected officials acting irrationally that people cannot criticize surely reminds you of home

brepppon Finland detains ship and its crew after critical undersea cable damaged

In this kind of regimes the failed rivals usually disappear due to unnatural circumstances and the leader is surrounded by less impressive people.

E.g. Stalin's successors

brepppon Finland detains ship and its crew after critical undersea cable damaged

During World War 2 it was believed that the Germans will never change and will always be a source of conflict in europe (or worse). There were wild ideas like the Morgenthau Plan to completely dismantle any German ability to wage war.

But it turns out a very militarized nation can become completely pacifist after suffering a complete utter defeat, suffering and destruction.

Culture can change, just like 1990s Russia was a break from past and future Russia. However the 1990s were a disaster and thus the culture changes went to the opposite side

brepppon Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

Hamas was not elected with the help of Nethanyahu, the Prime Minister at the time was Ariel Sharon.

Israel supported the PA who wanted to postpone the elections due to the obvious Hamas victory yet Bush pressured to have these in order to democratize the middle east.

The end result was a Hamas victory and subsequent blockade policy which was supported by the Quartet

https://ecfr.eu/publication/back-to-democracy-europe-hamas-a...

brepppon Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

It's usually progressive until the people with guns are too afraid to shoot, as in the fall of USSR

Although I will believe there are a few more iterations before this regime falls

brepppon Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

It's also similar to the British DragonFire and US HELIOS

I think the major difference here is that the Iron Beam is operational, as in finished trials, delivered to an armed force and actually was in active use in the previous war for more than a year

brepppon Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

They have economic related riots starting as we speak so the progressive end result (a few riots down the line) might either be this or regime change

brepppon Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

The re-edited title frames this as an anti-drone system but this was foremost developed as an anti-rocket system.

Hamas and Hezbollah MO since the 1990s was based on bombing Israeli towns with statistical rockets and this system is supposed to reverse the cost equation (cheaper than those cheap rockets)

Today this is also used for drones though

brepppon Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

it's almost as if it is unrelated to the article discussed

brepppon Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

Then when that happens that might be morally objectionable. But probably like any other weapon that already exists, a rocket, missile or gun.

While not everyday a new defense systems is invented that is targeted at statistical weapon that terrorizes civilians.

brepppon Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

FYI that source is associated with Hamas presence in Europe, acts as a Hamas propaganda piece and previously invented news such as Palestinian organ theft by Israel.

here is the organization founders Ramy Abdu and Mazen Kahel posing with Ismaeil Haniye the leader of Hamas https://www.facebook.com/DrArafatShoukri/photos/t.1000537951...

brepppon Nicolas Guillou, French ICC judge sanctioned by the US and “debanked”

In the giants legal overreach death match of USA vs ICC, I am betting on the USA as a force that can actually enforce out-of-jurisdiction law against the other

brepppon Tell HN: Google ignores English searches and forces localized results

did you try using https://www.google.com/ncr ? that used to work

also https://www.google.com/?hl=en might be effective

brepppon Nvidia just paid $20B for a company that missed its revenue target by 75%

yes, when politicians aren't ashamed of corruption, corruption has no self imposed limits

brepppon Nvidia just paid $20B for a company that missed its revenue target by 75%

The major difference is the disappearance of shame.

However, the greatest enablement was the overblown cynicism large swaths of the american elites had towards the national proclaimed values. When you think everything is cynical even when it is not then the next step is to have governments that are completely cynical.