How does the World view America these days?

[prdctvsm]

[ignatius]

Illinois state fair butter cow live cam

https://www2.illinois.gov/statefair/info/webcams/pages/ButterCow.aspx

 

[usagi]

35 minutes ago, prdctvsm said:

yeah, something about "I own an 32-unit apartment building and this is all I have, poor me" doesn't sound plausible.

[Limo]

1 hour ago, usagi said:

yeah, something about "I own an 32-unit apartment building and this is all I have, poor me" doesn't sound plausible.

The fact that they’re crying like a little baby on the internet about it makes it sound at least somewhat plausible, like someone tried to play capitalist landlord and comes running to mommy at he first sign of adversity.

A real landlord would know what to do in a situation like this.

[Scaramouche]

6 hours ago, drillkicker said:

Chimps are dangerous, but wolves are bigger than you think.  I'd put my money on a wolf if it went up against a chimp.

Wolves are amazing predators, great fighters with a hefty bite force. I think you might be right on chimp v wolf, though environment would factor into it. However, I'd still prefer go up against a wolf than a chimp, imagine a shaved chimp coming at you, full of rage...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58156772

This September will see the the end of America's longest war, thus drawing the conflict to a safe conclusion, leaving the people of Afghanistan with hope and stability. 

It will be interesting to see how China's influence will play out in the region.

[Rubin Farr]

These fucking Governors 

[drillkicker]

8 hours ago, ilqx hermolia xpli said:

i have to work wage labor to survive, i am most definitely not someone who survives off their ownership of the means of production, i.e. bourgeoisie

Sure but if you eat bananas and/or drink coffee then it's more than just survival.  I don't think about complaining that there are people richer than me because simply being in America makes me richer than the majority of people.  I'm sitting on top of possibly the greatest slave labor force ever and they're working ceaselessly to keep me comfortable.  We take their surplus value and export political unrest in return.  Personally I think it would be petty to ask for a four-day work week in circumstances like these.

[Nebraska]

tenenessee county (home of the klan) passed a mask mandate for schools. and parents realized they had a reputation to upload

 

[chenGOD]

6 hours ago, Nebraska said:

tenenessee county (home of the klan) passed a mask mandate for schools. and parents realized they had a reputation to upload

 

Such a weird energy. Scared people who don't know how to cope with the rapid changes and challenges posed by the virus/climate change/et al. Nowhere to run to, so the fight instinct kicks in. This is not just in America, but Americans seem to be the loudest/dumbest about it (with apologies to the French).

[dcom]

Quote

For those of us who continue to believe in democracy and freedom of speech, the conversation must continue. What the best remedies are remain obscure to me, but I am convinced that invoking “the marketplace of ideas” and its attendant platitude, “the cure for bad speech is more speech,” which I have heard uttered ad nauseum by media pundits, who have clearly failed to think through the problem with any seriousness, is no solution. The subtleties of the issue should not remain the property of legal scholars either. 

The truth is we are drowning in hate speech and hate fictions that are fueling old and deep divisions in the United States that caused a civil war. The language of hatred has come and still comes from people who occupy seats of government power in this country, a fact that legitimizes racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic vitriol. Words matter. They shape perception. They can make people ill. They can incite people to violence and to war. 

Hateful Fictions: Siri Hustvedt on the Weaponization of Free Speech (LitHub)

[Satans Little Helper]

Think this graph speaks volumes about the stark differences between people when it comes to support for the various policies wrt keeping this virus in check.

[auxien]

the absolute worst case scenario seems to be happening in Afghanistan.

well done, America.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/15/afghanistan-taliban-seize-kabul-504749

Quote

One of the most stunning guerrilla campaigns in history reached Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday, forcing the country’s president to flee as countries rushed troops to the airport to evacuate their citizens.

All U.S. Embassy staff in Kabul, including the mission’s top diplomat, were being evacuated to the international airport as the Taliban looming at the capital city’s gates urged the Afghan government to relinquish power on Sunday. Afghan officials confirmed that President Ashraf Ghani departed the country.

also, some more detailed explanation of how things are happening and being measured from Vox (https://www.vox.com/22618215/afghanistan-news-taliban-advance

Quote

Starting about three months ago, in late May and then June, picking up speed in July, the Taliban launched an offensive campaign that has swept across the country in a way that has been unprecedented since the US intervened in late 2001.

I want to be careful about how I phrase it because everyone nitpicks — and they nitpick correctly — about various measures of which actor is in control of which, or how much, territory. One imperfect measure is the Afghan government’s control of district centers. There are a little over 400 districts across Afghanistan; almost all of them have what’s called a district administrative center. It’s one village covering sometimes crazy square mileage, rivaling that of smaller US states like Rhode Island.

For the longest time, the Afghan government has pointed to this district center map as a means of demonstrating their authority, when in reality, their only presence or assertion of authority might be a district center where they have a couple buildings that are protected by a small military or police force, or sometimes just a militia that’s outfitted and paid by the government. And that’s it. That is the only government that exists in that entire district, for miles around in any direction.

The Taliban has swept across the country through these districts. But it’s not accurate to say the Taliban now controls all of the districts they’ve captured, because in many places they haven’t set up a shadow government. They haven’t left a garrison of their fighters to control the area. In some places, they cause the Afghan troops or police to run away, to surrender, to retreat, to simply go home.

...

The map could be very misleading if you say every time the government leaves, the Taliban now controls all of that space. But we can measure how much the government has lost. The fact is, the government has either been kicked out of or abandoned more than 200 of the 400 districts in the country. That’s happened in just the last three months.

So when we ask, “How did we get here?” — where all of a sudden in one week, nine out of 34 provincial capitals fall to the Taliban, or seem like they’re on the verge of falling — the answer is, well, half of the country slipped out of the government’s control in the last three months, and it no longer had a buffer protecting those provincial capitals, which were these village outposts and district centers standing in the way.

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by auxien

[ignatius]

20 years.. so much money spent, lives lost and all for what?  hindsight is 20/20 but we never should've invaded and tried to nation build there.  didn't stay on mission as is typical. 

ii read some stuff over the last 2 weeks about how taliban had stashed weapons caches everywhere very strategically.. so they could just roll through places and gather up weapons and take over. they knew that the afghan army wouldn't have air support from US or allies so had little worry. 

we should've left 19 years ago. 

within 72 hours of 9/11 the CIA and special forces were on the ground in afghanistan killing al qaeda members and getting intelligence. it should've remained a special ops type of operation and then we should've left. 

that being said.. Taliban has banned the covid vaccines so ... 

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by ignatius

[auxien]

3 minutes ago, ignatius said:

within 72 hours of 9/11 the CIA and special forces were on the ground in afghanistan killing al qaeda members and getting intelligence. it should've remained a special ops type of operation and then we should've left. 

agreed.

later in that Vox article the guy states (with confirmation from someone official via the NYT) that some of the districts were being 'seized' by just 10 Taliban soldiers. literally, 10. and the point is that there was basically no government in these places anyway....and if the US/allies kept special ops people in the loop on areas like this, couldn't they be just sniping these small groups of soldiers? not that we've the right to kill them in another country, but we've been killing Taliban (and innocents) in Afghanistan/etc. for 20 years. there's answers that i'm guessing are obvious...the whole operation has been kept rolling for the sake of military spending and operations training/testing/etc. the goal (liberating the country and making it more democratic or whatever) was never likely or perhaps even possible, and i'm sure everyone has known as much for a very long time.

[cichlisuite]

53 minutes ago, auxien said:

agreed.

later in that Vox article the guy states (with confirmation from someone official via the NYT) that some of the districts were being 'seized' by just 10 Taliban soldiers. literally, 10. and the point is that there was basically no government in these places anyway....and if the US/allies kept special ops people in the loop on areas like this, couldn't they be just sniping these small groups of soldiers?

A couple dozen spec ops might be able to hold and fight off for some time, but they would be overwhelmed pretty soon. And theres not enough of them to cover the whole country. You also needto supply them. The Taliban fighters are not some mindless sheep fuckers on heroin, they are seasoned and well trained fighters, who know the terrain and are used to all sorts of privations. They know how to fight against faceless imperial armies.

The occupational coalition force was not enough. They'd get shelled by mortars and fired upon on a regular basis. IEDs are a special kind of demoralizer. You need to dig up some first hand witness accounts of the veterans. The reality on ground was quite grim:

Outposts cut off and under manned for long periods of time, rules of engagement worked against full military employment, the brass in pentagon didn't care enough to come up with a strategy how to work with the locals, the troops were left to their own improvizations and initiative at the platoon and company level. In the officer ranks above company and battalion level you'd get all kinds of people: some competent professionals, but also lazy idiots.

There's a story how an italian unit was sending out reports about how splendid of a job they did in their sector, but as they were rotated out and replaced by an american unit, the americans found out the italians just gave money to insurgents and local leaders to leave them alone, etc.

There's all kinds of unbelievable stories of bravery and sacrifice by the soldiers, showing professional attitude, despite how disillusioned they soon became about their purpose in Afghanistan. Veterans commiting suicude and become broken men because of guilt, while the top brass and politicians did nothing.

This was just another typical american pointless war, instigated by the warmongering military industry paying off politicians who then receive lifetime immunity and golden pensions. It's a crime against Afghanistan, and against people who have to go in there risking their lives. Sure, you might say "they signed up for it, they are soldiers, and soldiers forfeit their lives by definition". But that's very convenient, isn't it. They were sold out by people with no moral courage everywhere.

Edited August 15, 2021 by cichlisuite

[cern]

COME BACK DONALD TRUMP! BIDEN IS A LEFTWING COWARD! FIX THE MAD SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN NOW! WORLD NEEDS TRUMP!

[cern]

https://twitter.com/BryanDeanWright/status/1426710333264179214?s=20

USA's president is a joke lol 

Edited August 15, 2021 by cern

[ignatius]

24 minutes ago, cern said:

https://twitter.com/BryanDeanWright/status/1426710333264179214?s=20

USA's president is a joke lol 

USA and allies spent like $100 billion equipping and training afghan army for 20 years. they mostly have no will to fight it seems. also the government is one of the most corrupt ini existence. 

heroin trade will continue for sure. only now it will be fundamentalist islam heroin. 

[diatoms]

 

Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address excerpt warning of the military industrial complex

 

"A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United State corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

[Hi Guys]

Isn’t it amusing/terrifying/thought provoking that you can draw a total parallel  between the timelines of the United States opioid crisis rise and fall and our occupation of Afghanistan?

1 hour ago, ignatius said:

USA and allies spent like $100 billion equipping and training afghan army for 20 years. they mostly have no will to fight it seems. also the government is one of the most corrupt ini existence. 

heroin trade will continue for sure. only now it will be fundamentalist islam heroin. 

With delicious Chinese fentanyl

[auxien]

1 hour ago, diatoms said:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

i really think this might be biggest problem in America right now/for the last few decades. many of the other main problems we have are tied directly/indirectly to the military and specifically the military budget/military industrial complex.

2 hours ago, cern said:

https://twitter.com/BryanDeanWright/status/1426710333264179214?s=20

USA's president is a joke lol 

Biden's going to be dealing with the repercussions of this for the rest of his term, and America as a whole will be feeling the shame of it for far longer. everything i've read claims that the pullout was rushed, but idk that i've seen anything recent or over the last decade that planned a smooth, safe, and helpful removal of our troops. it was going to be a shitshow no matter who did it*.

*not in any way to excuse the way it's been done. just pointing out the obvious that it was always going to be bad...but i don't think it being this bad was necessary.

Edited August 15, 2021 by auxien

[auxien]

2 hours ago, cichlisuite said:

A couple dozen spec ops might be able to hold and fight off for some time, but they would be overwhelmed pretty soon. And theres not enough of them to cover the whole country. You also needto supply them. The Taliban fighters are not some mindless sheep fuckers on heroin, they are seasoned and well trained fighters, who know the terrain and are used to all sorts of privations. They know how to fight against faceless imperial armies.

i was thinking in the way of taking out small groups, but even then there's much more to the equation as you've pointed out. i'm no military strategist obv, but it just seems like there's been nothing that's worked really (which is why it probably should've never been a military operation)

Edited August 15, 2021 by auxien

[Enthusiast]

From several years ago, but worth watching now. 

[cichlisuite]

1 hour ago, auxien said:

i was thinking in the way of taking out small groups, but even then there's much more to the equation as you've pointed out. i'm no military strategist obv, but it just seems like there's been nothing that's worked really (which is why it probably should've never been a military operation)

There was a lot of "taking out" and military 101 with lots of collateral damage unfortunately. That only fueled more resolve in the hearts of the people, as anyone who read a book or two about historical examples of military occupation could understand. I mean, forcing yourself onto a country that had little or nothing to do with Al Quaeda which is basically comprised of a small core of fanatical extremists, trained and equipped by CIA no less... and Osama turned out to be in Pakistan... and most "terrorists" were Saudis anyway... And now an entire country had to be "taught a lesson"? Forget about any pretext, as sound as it may be, this now becomes "personal" if you catch my meaning. Even if the people did not side with the Talibans initially, they had plenty of reasons to do so after.

No military or civilian effort is going to suppress that. But the bright minds in US thought they can raise and equip and army that will fight against its own people and force "democracy" down their throats. Who thought that's gonna work? A bunch of west point pencil pushers and silver spoon psychopaths and everyone made a lot of money.

Edited August 15, 2021 by cichlisuite

[Hi Guys]

Trump admin lifted sanctions on the taliban, released 5000 taliban last year, and drew down our forces to set the stage for this but yeah blame biden 

 

it was a mistake and everyone deserves blame

Edited August 15, 2021 by Upset man