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asta123's comments

asta123 | 2 months ago | on: Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

"This is more about oil and deposing Maduro." Scary how overt these 'operations' are these days. 50 years ago governments would try hide stuff like this. Someone said 'lack of shame' is very concerning with governments of today. Wonder if this is a reflection of where we as a humanity are heading.

asta123 | 7 months ago | on: The anti-abundance critique on housing is wrong

In Australia most of the narrative on the housing affordability crisis is around lack of supply and nimbyism. In the meantime Melbourne has dropped to 4th most expensive city in the country and becoming more affordable. Most likely reason - land tax change in that state which is turning off accumulating multiple properties through investment and investors turning to other states where prices are still going up. So, while supply is relevant, I would say it is investor demand that is driving prices up.

asta123 | 1 year ago | on: Trump wins presidency for second time

Peak free-market unregulated capitalism failed when GFC happened. We have been bailing it out ever since. US has not had a surplus since 2001. I don't know what this 'socialize losses, private profits' is but it does not look like capitalism. GFC showed that capitalism has to be regulated IMO. And tariffs could be part of this regulation.

asta123 | 1 year ago | on: 1913: When Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin all lived in the same place

You should read a bit of Dostoevsky for his analysis how 'rational' people are. Not to mention what decades of absolute power do to your ability to reason. I am also not sure what the end game is here and what 'defeating' a country with nuclear arsenal looks like. And why there is no more calls for negotiation (like there is in the case of Gaza).

asta123 | 1 year ago | on: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

My son put effort into dressing up for his Year 10 formal as that is what you do. But during the event he observed that most kids focused on how they looked rather than noticing others, and thought he should have spent a lot less effort into his outfit :)

asta123 | 2 years ago | on: A 'cowboy ski town' where high earners can't afford a home faces housing battle

I see a lot of talk of this 'increase supply' in Australia where house prices are out of control. Personally I think insatiable demand is a bigger problem and no increase in supply will fix it. Over last couple of decades we have had financial deregulation and cheap money - 30 year mortgages are a norm (used to be 20 years), tax system favoring property investment (losses claimed as tax return), global economy where anyone in the world can bid for local housing (e.g. rules change so foreign students can buy property), huge liquidity in pension funds (superannuation) allowed to do leverage/borrow so investment property can be purchased - again policy change in last decade or so. This is without even talking about stock reduction due to temporary rentals. I see big part of the problem interest groups driving policy change, rather then people wanting to live in desirable places. (edited - typo)

asta123 | 2 years ago | on: Milwaukee reporter investigates cousin's 1978 car bombing death

Mafia was a very secretive organization. This was one of their core principles and their survival depended on being good at this. So if you lived in the 70s I wonder how many people would say mafia was a 1930s Al Capone thing and didn't exist as much any more.

(typo edited)

asta123 | 2 years ago | on: Spomenik Database

Agree about Slovenia. Very different story. But the rest of the region has been dominated by nationalist politics for couple of decades whose survival depends on amplifying those national differences. And as a result cultures are now different. But don't think this was the case in former Yu (80s and earlier). As an extreme example North and South Korea are very different cultures now as a result of politics, don't think this was the case before 1950s.

asta123 | 2 years ago | on: Spomenik Database

"that were culturally or ethnically distinct, like much of Europe" Other than religion I'd like to know what these cultural differences are? Serbs, Bosnians and Croats speak the same language which is very much unlike, say, French and Germans. Or even Slovak and Czechs. People of the UK are more ethnically distinct than people of former Yugoslavia.

asta123 | 2 years ago | on: Spomenik Database

Yugoslav communist party was trying to build 'Yugoslav' (South Slavic) identity and trying to suppress nationalist differences. It was more multi-cultural than today's countries in the region which were formed on these ethnic lines.

asta123 | 2 years ago | on: The Two Milan Kunderas

So there is assumption that 20 something year old, living with information propaganda portraying West as class-divided, colonial enemy, should somehow know the 'enemy' spy was a good guy? Especially considering this Dvoracek case was in the 50s with communists just emerging victorious against horrors of fascism making it quite easy to sell the story of social unity and equality. I imagine many young Czeck people would have bought into this way of life during the early communist rule before oppression became more obvious. Can we judge them for it?

asta123 | 2 years ago | on: Yugoslavia's Digital Twin – When a country's internet domain outlives the nation

Know someone who fled Bosnia during 90s to Germany. No more Yugoslavia so this person had a Bosnian passport in Germany. He had a kid in Germany, so his kid had a German passport. His parents fled to Serbia, his dad had a Serbian passport and mum - because of her 'nationality' - Croatian passport. Four members of the same family, same surname, four passports. Made for some interesting border crossings when they travelled together.
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