Random Thoughts II

[Nich]

And it's Trump's fault apparently...

[Ab]

Edward Snowden
@Snowden

"The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army. There's gonna be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy of the United States from Afghanistan." —
@JoeBiden, July 2021

[blynk]

Originally Posted by Nich

And it's Trump's fault apparently...

Google. Trump ends war
First result. BBC story about US and Taliban sign deal to end 18 year war.
"The US and Nato allies have agreed to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal."

Sure Biden could have reversed things but was probably in a catch 22.
Not end it, and Trump will look better because he was able to create peace.
End it and... well we can all see what happens

[quote]He said US troops had been killing terrorists in Afghanistan "by the thousands" and now it was "time for someone else to do that work and it will be the Taliban and it could be surrounding countries".

"I really believe the Taliban wants to do something to show we're not all wasting time," Mr Trump added. "If bad things happen, we'll go back with a force like no-one's ever seen." [\quote]

But the Taliban are good and want to help. So does Jun Un, so does Putin...

It rather an interesting article to read in hindsight

[Lightspeed]

I don't think Biden gets a lot of say in the decisions he gets to make.

And really, it's the inevitable outcome. It's not by accident the Taliban have re-established themselves virtually overnight. They were already well entrenched in the civil service and armed forces.

The US had a chance for meaningful change and they didn't take it. It's not like Afghanistan is the only place in the world it's horrifying for vulnerable people to live. Given the spotlight on the region, it may even be comparatively benign.

It's Pakistan, not the Taliban that are going to be filling the real power vacuum in the region, assuming no one else steps in.

[crocos]

Ab - any chance of these political posts being moved (even if to their own thread if not the Random Politics one) into the Politics forum?

[MadMax]

Needs a new thread.

[Ab]

Yeah, will do.

In other news, this is some handmaid‘s tale season one shit:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ing-i-achieved

[Ajax]

Desperate scenes at Kabul Airport now. Perimeter security has totally collapsed and people are swarming over the runway. Apache helicopters being used to try and clear people away with their rotor downwash. Going to be difficult to get many more planes in or out.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by StN

I eat Bunnings sausages. I don't know what's in them.

I don't. I can't eat meat without some confidence in its supply chain. Too much dodgy meat production in the world and too much of that ends up here. Much prefer go without!

Not that I need to, gotta get around to making my own sausages.

[Ab]

Onlyfans is banning nudity and sexual content, which won’t affect the service at all

[crocos]

Huh. I thought that WAS their service.

[Lightspeed]

Way to screw with people's income during a pandemic.

[Cyberbob]

Count me into the group that assumed they were basically Patreon for xxx content.

[Ab]

Another bulletpoint in the essay "if your service and business model depend on a bank in Jesusland, you could get shut down at any moment because morality".

[Lightspeed]

OF is basically saying it's a soft porn platform now, right? Which I guess means many are scrambling to fill the hard porn niche OF has opened.

[Ajax]

OF has always been super dodgy, founder in trouble for money laundering, tax evasion, all the usuals.

[Lightspeed]

Matt Zeller, April 2021:

United States of Al: a comedy that brings home the deadly dilemma faced by Afghan interpreters

Should collapse come in Afghanistan, it will happen faster than Washington can respond to it. Afghanistan is not Vietnam. We do not have an ocean and boats with which to facilitate a rapid evacuation. We are not the Soviets. We do not have the luxury of getting to drive north into Tajikistan during our withdrawal.

It seems it was pretty clear to those on the ground what was going to happen.

[Nich]

https://twitter.com/malangkhostay/st...733660672?s=21

What's this? just a Taliban soldier posting memes and vids on twitter.

[Lightspeed]

https://twitter.com/StrongBadActual/...74237903945733

/sheds tear

[crocos]

Teslabot: Elon has gone full evil overlord, only needs a white cat.

[StN]

He put on a fucking suit and punched Jagger.

Legend.

RIP Charlie.

[Ab]

RIP Charlie.

[blynk]

RIP Chalie.


PS. Its not Pennys boat

[Lightspeed]

Widespread internet outages affect users across NZ

Internet infrastructure provider Vocus has confirmed it was hit with a DDoS attack which took its internet down for about an hour today, affecting people across the country.

It's a bit worrisome there are these effective techniques out there.

[MadMax]

When a ddos triggers an accidental internet kill switch?

[Ab]

Never attribute to malice, etc

[MadMax]

Hopefully the boss of the poor bugger that did goes easy. I mean it’s a ddos attack and they stopped it right?

I know if im messing with firewall rules I’ll add a dummy entry first to make sure it doesn’t apply to all traffic (eg log to null and watch its counters) but that’d be no good if the ddos is random data without a way to compare real to bogus

[Lightspeed]

DDOS website attacks could be just the start of a campaign - expert

[blynk]

Isnt it disappointing when you go digging around the net to try and find out the names of the people who have had name suppression.

Only to find out you've never heard of them and its really not interesting.

Is it against name suppression to try and look to see who it was? or only to mention who it was?

[Ab]

Kill all humans

Here’s the idea behind CBS’s “The Activist,” which is coming in October: Three celebrities will watch as half a dozen aspiring activists compete to see if they can impart effective change in one of three causes — education, health or the environment — during a network series with a five-week run.

The prize? The winners get to attend the Group of 20 summit in Rome this fall to meet with world leaders and try to raise money and awareness for their cause.

Contestants on “The Activist” will engage in in “missions, media stunts, digital campaigns and community events aimed at garnering the attention of the world’s most powerful decision-makers.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...-reality-show/

[Redneck]

The revolution will be soft-scripted

[Ajax]

Huge problems unfolding in the Chinese property sector with one of its largest developers, Evergrande, now unable to meet its US$300 billion debt obligations and effectively insolvent. Depending on the government's appetite for a bailout, it could be a nothingburger or the catalyst for another financial crisis.

[Cyberbob]

Is this one of those "When you owe $3 million, you have a problem. When you owe $300 Billion, the world's economy has a problem" sort of things?

[Ajax]

It’s definitely a big deal for China. Whether it has a destabilising effect on the economies of other countries remains to be seen.

[crocos]

Originally Posted by Cyberbob

Is this one of those "When you owe $3 million, you have a problem. When you owe $300 Billion, the world's economy has a problem" sort of things?

Yep.

Originally Posted by Ajax

It’s definitely a big deal for China. Whether it has a destabilising effect on the economies of other countries remains to be seen.

China NOT take the opportunity to inflict the result of western capitalist practices (even if as-practiced in China) on the rest of the world? Especially with the current administration in the CCP? Unlikely I think.

[Lightspeed]

RIP Norm Macdonald. Loved that guy.

[MadMax]

China is fckd

https://youtu.be/RpwtZLzDM_o
No, China won’t lead the world

https://youtube.com/c/serpentza
- more on the subject.

[Lightspeed]

Well, maybe "fucked" like the world was during the GFC. You'll note we're all still here doing our thing.

[Nich]

Originally Posted by Ab

Kill all humans

Class division is so bad that they're going to broadcast a simulation of people fighting the battle so those who should be activists stay home because it appears something is being done to raise awareness on their issues.

People like AOC have the same dulling effect.

[MadMax]

Told someone over the phone yesterday that I splashed out and got some BurgerFuel for lunch. I was quickly reminded that the person I was speaking with was from Auckland and still in lock down after I justified the $20 cost of burger+chips+drink with how good a burger it was.

Oops