Comments by "Peter Jacobsen" (@pjacobsen1000) on "Useful Idiots" channel.

  1. Great to have Matt Taibbi back on the show!
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  2. I don't listen to the Alex Jones show, but I like the occasional Alex Jones clip or meme. He is absolutely hilarious!
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  3. Well, Barbie is pink, but perhaps not quite red enough to be outright communist.
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  4. Elaine Benes: 'He took it out'. CTV News: 'He took out his frustrations'.
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  5. Ok, I live in China, so maybe it's a bit unfair of me to trash this guy, Kurt Metzger, but he sounds like he was high the entire time during his short visit to China, and only snippets of impressions got lodged in his memory, all jumbled up.
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  6. Great to see Matt Taibbi back as 'guest host'. His choice of topics, and his take on them is a few levels over what Katie and Aaron usually dish up, in my opinion.
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  7. As an 'ordinary citizen' of Europe and the EU, I strongly support keeping sanctions in place, and maybe even strengthening them; continuing to support Ukraine with weapons; continuing to increase our defense spending to at least 2% of GDP; continuing to put pressure on Russia. As an 'ordinary European', I'm done with Russia, for at least a decade and possibly longer. I don't want to trade with them, I don't want to engage in cultural exchange with them, I don't want to talk to them. However, I welcome ordinary Russians into Europe to live and work here, if they're qualified. As for energy, I'm willing to sacrifice for the Ukrainian liberation struggle. We'll put on some warm clothes, we'll cycle to work. We will get through this, and we will win!
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  8. No country has the right to join NATO, but any country can APPLY to join. Their application will then be assessed and they will get an answer. Most countries will get a polite 'no'. It's really not much different from applying to a university, or applying for a job position.
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  9. In the last 74 years (since its beginning), the Doomsday Clock has never been further from midnight than 17 minutes (1020 seconds). The 100 seconds should be seen in that perspective, not in the perspective of 24 hours. The news used to pay attention to the Doomsday Clock; I remember it being on the news regularly in the '80s. But since 'doomsday' never really seems to come any closer, people no longer care too much about it. Indeed, the whole concept of the Doomsday Clock has a smell of Christian religion to it and seems to verge on the cultish, in my opinion.
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  10. -WHAT?! -This is bananas! -A gazillion times the Hiroshima bomb! -It's a nightmare! -Deadly important! I'm not going to take advice from someone as excitable, highly anxious and on the verge of panicking as this journalist.
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  11.  @gavinhillick  Sorry, it was my impression that Mick Wallace and Clare Daly spoke about all of Europe and not just Ireland. You know, we're all together now, working for a common future. I'm not Irish, by the way, I'm Danish.
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  12.  @JayBee-cr8jm  " your comments are being blocked. No one can read what you're posting." 1) You can read them. 2) How are blocking of comments related to the ability to see warning labels in the video? That doesn't make any sense.
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  13.  @JayBee-cr8jm  And why would my comments be displayed specifically for you but not for others? Also, that fact that I did NOT see a warning message would indicate a LACK of censorship.
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  14.  @JayBee-cr8jm  But you're claiming I'm being censored, despite the fact that there's no indication thereof. Besides, being shown a 'warning label' is not censorship.
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  15. Chomsky on student debt relief: "We should ask the right questions". So he answers a question that was not asked: Should education be free? I agree that it should, but Chomsky is talking about what should be, not what actually is. And the situation is that education is not free. So what is his view on student debt relief? Well, he simply refused to answer that question. That's pretty weak! Chomsky used to be in favor of the working class, and as such, he would be against forcing the working class to pay for the college degrees of the intellectual class. Maybe he's had a change of mind.
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  16. That was an excellent interview with Professor Landis. I didn't know that much about Syria before, but from what I heard in this interview, Syria is very much like other authoritarian dictatorships around the world: Common people are always just tools of the government with no real way to act independently or get out of their predicament.
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  17. "Hello, Jennifer Rubin, I understand that your own employer, Washington Post, has concluded that you're a conspiracy theorist". Jennifer: "Huh"??
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  18. Re. the peace negotiations back in spring. It was reported already back then that both the US and Russia expressed skepticism that such an agreement could succeed. The US said "We'll see what Russia does, not what they say they'll do". The Russians said "Even in the event of an agreement, we may still conduct operations in some northern areas [this was before they completely pulled out of the north] and we will continue to fight the Azov Battalion in Mariupol". So it was very far from a done deal and would probably not have worked, anyway. Generally speaking, peace deals are only successful when both parties feel they are stuck in the current situation, or if one party feels forced by circumstance to accept a deal. Evidently, that was not the case then or now.
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  19. Re. Dalai Lama 'Suck My Tongue': Just today there are a couple of articles out explaining this incident with context: Apparently, it is a tradition in Tibet for grandparents to give their grandchildren sweets/candy by putting it in their own mouth and letting the child 'suck' the candy out the grandparent's mouth, following with the phrase 'now I only have my tongue left for you to suck'. Weird perhaps, from our perspective, but less creepy when understanding the context.
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  20. @burneraccount "the pro-war side has logged on". I'm pro-defense. Pro defending Europe against aggressors. I feel I hold the moral high ground in this respect.
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  21. 19:22 Robotic dogs. I believe these robotic dogs are from the company Unitree in Hangzhou, China. Model looks like the 'Unitree Go 1'. I went to visit them a few years ago. Very nice people. They envision their robot dogs being sold as pets. I have seen them at various exhibitions, but never being walked on the street by private owners.
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  22.  @Silence_Duder_Gooder  You certainly have a well developed imagination.
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  23. "why was the USSR and later Russia denied admission to NATO". Russia's current (and previous) geo-political outlook and their internal political situation would probably preclude them from being accepted. Most European NATO members would want to see major reforms in Russia's political system, Russia's economic system, and Russia's foreign policy before considering their membership.
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  24. I regularly hear about people who get these warning pop-ups, but I have never gotten one. Maybe it has to do with where you are located.
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  25.  @JayBee-cr8jm  And how can you control that? Are you in charge of the Useful Idiots channel?
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  26.  @grazsarducci7477  I did use the word 'tool' in its original meaning as a mechanical implement to complete a task. I thought your use of the word was the slang meaning 'a stupid, useless or socially inept person'. If I misunderstood you, then I apologize.
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  27. it's very difficult to follow Anna Soroka's translator. There seems to be bits of sentences missing here and there and I found it overall a bit incoherent.
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  28. Ok, we got the accusations. Now all we need is the evidence.
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  29.  @toskovicg  Oh, I'm sure we'll pay. First we win, then we pay. We have money.
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  30.  @marybudd906  It only feels creepy to you because your mind puts it in a sexual frame. Not all cultures think like yours.
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  31. In a European context Mick Wallace and Clare Daly are very much on the political fringe. Fortunately, fewer and fewer Europeans agree with them as the years go by. In fact, most European NATO members are now increasing their defense budgets. We need to be stronger in Europe and we want a more powerful NATO. It's embarrassing that we can hardly defend our own territory.
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  32.  @colmlarkin8665  Haha, yes, I realize my opinion is in the minority here, but I expect educated people to be able to accept opposing views. I like to watch Useful Idiots and have been a subscriber since the beginning, though I feel it was more entertaining when Matt Taibbi was co-hosting.
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  33.  @pmesa7305  Slurs will get you nowhere, but they may give you a short lived sense of moral superiority.
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  34. @burneraccount I don't think my position is morally superior with respect to war in general. There can sometimes be a good justification for war. If you look back in history, you may find wars that you feel were justified, but that other people feel were not. In the end, it's up to the individual to decide whether they think a war is justified or not. You (presumably) feel that the west is not justified in supporting Ukraine militarily, but I do. As a European, I feel particularly concerned about Russia's actions, at least since 2014. Of course I wish we could have had a good partnership with them, but our interests were unfortunately not aligned.
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  35. @burneraccount Ok, I understand that position and sympathize with it. But the United States has a strategic interest in strengthening NATO and weakening Russia. In other words, it's not a moral justification but a purely strategic one. I think many Americans, like people around the world, have little interest in 'strategic interests' because it's not a part of their life, and that's why most democratic countries always feel they need to persuade their voters on a moral level to support wars, even if the real reason is strategic and not moral. With respect to Ukraine, I think both a strategic and moral argument can be made, because Russia invaded Ukraine and not vice versa. This makes it easier for people to support.
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  36. @burneraccount Yes, and Europeans are making even more sacrifices, given how dependent we have been on Russian gas. For some reason, the American government doesn't try to explain to the American people why this is so important. Maybe they don't trust that people will understand it, so they go to moral arguments instead. I'm sure you have noticed how the American legacy media frames the conflict in moral terms: Stories about individuals who had to flee, or had their house bombed to rubble. These stories may give the clicks needed and they are easy to understand. It reminds me of how the US media was cheerleading the runup to the Iraq war. That's when I realized how untrustworthy the legacy media is.
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  37. @burneraccount Different polls taken in April, May and June all show that a majority of Americans still support assisting Ukraine with military equipment. Of course, there will always be dissenting voices, as there are with any issue.
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  38. @burneraccount That's a belief you have no evidence for. Perhaps you're a 'man of faith'. In any case, US government support is there for the Ukrainians who so badly need it. I'm grateful for that. As for gas prices and inflation, I'm just going to ride my bicycle (we do that in Europe, anyway), put on some warm clothes and eat cheaper food. That's nothing compared to what the Ukrainians have to go through.
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  39.  @gavinhillick  No, the previous commenter claimed that most Americans are opposed to assisting Ukraine. The polls refute that claim.
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  40.  @gavinhillick  Ok, it's hard to know exactly what people are replying to. So, opinion polls can only show what direction the general population is leaning towards. They do not say anything about whether their position is correct or not. My argument in favor of arming Ukraine is not based on majority opinion but on my own views about the situation. 1) I believe in the inviolability of national territory. (God knows we have had lots of problems in Europe in that respect before the UN was established). 2) My opinion is that Russia is a long-term destabilizing factor in Europe and beyond. 3) While I understand that Russia is equally worried about NATO, I foresee that we will always have clashes regardless, because the two sides will always try to advance their own interests. That's just the nature of competition/rivalry. 4) Ukraine has signaled a long-term interest in being aligned with the West, both in trade (EU) and in national security (NATO). We cannot predict how this conflict will end, but I see some interesting developments beyond Russia. It appears that the Central Asian states are now becoming interested in a closer relationship with Europe and the West in general. Most likely as a counterweight to Russian and Chinese influence. In a way, the world is still a bit like high school with cliques and 'mean girls' all trying to get the upper hand.
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  41.  @crhu319  I don't what?
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  42.  @gavinhillick  You are going to have to quote me from a previous post, because I cannot find where I used opinion polls as an argument in favor of supporting Ukraine with military equipment. To be clear: Opinion polls can only show how people feel about an issue. They do not say anything about whether those people are right or wrong.
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  43.  @m.ó.baoighill  More likely, it's both, plus an alliance that will also promote European interests.
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  44. Re. the peace negotiations back in spring. It was reported already back then that both the US and Russia expressed skepticism that such an agreement could succeed. The US said "We'll see what Russia does, not what they say they'll do". The Russians said "Even in the event of an agreement, we may still conduct operations in some northern areas [this was before they completely pulled out of the north] and we will continue to fight the Azov Battalion in Mariupol". So it was very far from a done deal and would probably not have worked, anyway. Generally speaking, peace deals are only successful when both parties feel they are stuck in the current situation, or if one party feels forced by circumstance to accept a deal. Evidently, that was not the case then or now.
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  45. Re. No Communists: Foreigners entering the US really DO HAVE TO check a box that says 'No, I have never been a member of the communist party'. Other boxes that need answering NO to include 'Have you ever been a member of a terrorist organization'. At least that used to be the case and I have done it several times.
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  46. 40:50 "The Danes, the Dutch, the Germans will be interested in repairing it (Nord Stream pipeline)". This colonel seems to have some blanks in his knowledge of Europe. Denmark has no interest in the Nord Stream pipeline. We were not part of it from the beginning, we don't get gas from it, we have no interest in the pipeline, and never had. In fact, for Nord Stream 2, we did not allow it to run through Danish territorial waters (though I think NS 1 does traverse our waters).
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  47. The guest is pretty hard to understand. I give up.
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  48.  @peterstafford4426  Just take it as entertainment. They're not gurus.
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  49.  @jellybeanz1989  So he has changed his mind in favor of the intellectual class and against the working class.
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  50.  @jellybeanz1989  Intellectual class refers to people with academic degrees, often also with professional degrees, and you could just add in all who have a college degree. The point that Aaron Mate was making was that the working class, people without a college education, will be paying for the degrees of others who, in time, will end up making much higher salaries than the workers. Aaron Mate indicated that many people feel this is basically the middle- and upper classes exploiting the working class. Or put more crudely: The rich taking from the poor.
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