weimerica

Based on the influx of license plates in my once idyllic community, far too many.

The Census was conducted for 2020 - how many have fled in light of the egregious lockdowns?

I suppose destroying revenue streams is a way of phrasing the “issue,” but at the end of the day we’re just further democratizing content.

If consumers don’t want $REAL_AUTHOR and so she loses money, that’s her failing to adapt to the market. I don't feel that gatekeepers creating artificial scarcity is a good thing.

How did it destroy revenue streams exactly? I’ve just never understood that to be the case.

(Disclosure, I worked with and attended university on the dime of the folks who built Amazon’s POD acquisition - so I have some fealty (and insight), I suppose)

No.

If punishment for murder was sitting in a luxury European prison with a vintage PS3[0] and not death or life, I’d have whacked my former con-artist business partner years ago and likely be out by now.

Let’s not pretend there isn’t a deterrent.

[0] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/breivik...

Worked for a company with a similar approach (circa 2010) and we got rejected and had to just use the one. Can’t say I feel Apple is wrong for fighting app spam, however.

I suppose that’s the best metaphor for the war.

Political decisions creating military problems.

Is this intentional, desired policy on their part or more of a "means to an end?" I understood it that, historically, the Taliban were anti-opium. I suppose if Western nations pursue a North Korean containment style policy, that this would continue similar to NK methamphetamine operations.

This is a very ironic comment considering that the soviets, not the US liberated Europe from Germany.

You're responding to another human, such that its a locality sensitive sentiment. To a French, Belgian or Dutch national the US is the savior of that war - the Soviets being uninvolved in their liberation.

As an aside, I wonder if there exist an Slavic-language HN where Eastern Europeans argue that American steel was the true winner in the war and the Soviets don't deserve glory...

If only they has actually a definite goal

We did have a goal. The building of the nation of Afghanistan into a functioning liberal democracy. Of course Afghanistan barely qualifies as a nation and many (most?) have no desire to live in anything resembling a Western nation-state. Short of a truly brutal, imperialist takeover or the installing of a strongman puppet to do the dirty work for the next 50 years, there's no real chance of transitioning the peoples and their cultures over to our way of things. Americans likely have no stomach for such things, and the state of realpolitik is such that this would be truly untenable on the world stage.

I do believe the thing you’re missing with Western forces is that the events listed were aberrations rather than the norm.

Also, should you not like “Delta,” and frankly I don’t see how a Greek letter is aggrandizing, you could always go with “CAG.”

Last, what you’re claiming is neither discussed in TFA nor supported by historical record. CAG was created as a result of European terrorist hostage events.

but anyone involved in illicit trade with Pakistan is, as a side effect, funding terrorist groups like Taliban.

I'm not particularly educated or opinionated on the topic. With that said, why is it not possible one is simply funding criminals with monetary intent in an operation like this - does the Taliban have a strangehold on criminality throughout Pakistan?

Sadly, many an erstwhile reputable organization have devolved to engage in this practice.

Then one can update to provide a prominent note of clarification, rather than rewriting history. This deprives conspiracists of the ability to go "See, they rewrite history" while providing the full story, warts and all.

It’s all in the eye of the beholder. I once had a friend trick me into running barefoot through a few cactus patches. We’re still great friends to this day.

I'm not sure your point?

Absent the original commenter (you) providing context, that makes for reasonable supposition. Automated systems learn from a corpus that includes internet anti-Semites using Yiddishisms in a mocking manner to insult and inflame leads to false-positives on real-world, genuine uses.

Similarly, how does one fish out the context and gauge just how appropriate (according to HN, never) a use of "n----r" and all its variants? Consider whether one should tell Joe Schmoe Black American he cannot use the word all to prevent Joe Schmoe White American from having a chance at using it to incite.

It's a hard problem with many a false-positive to be had in ways that will befuddle, outrage, and amuse.

Not sure if I’m understanding “yiddishism” correctly here, but internet anti-Semites do mock kvetching all the time.

Tangential, but this reminds me of the US practice of having military (SOF) personnel temporarily terminate their military term, sign a new contract for the three-letter-agency of choice, execute a clandestine operation, then reverse the prior steps to walk right back into the military as if nothing ever happened.

Statecraft is so strange in this way, that you or I as laymen will ask just what in the fuck is the point - but it's totally legitimate and not casus belli for our solider to magically become a spy for a day to execute an operation on another nation.

If you think that the US government wouldn't use violence against its own people for breaking laws, even hastily-written or unfair laws, you're sorely mistaken.

The government order is acted on by a person, at the end of the day. During the lockdowns my City authority closed all public parks including the one across the street from my house. They also retasked all Parks & Recreation employees to sit in the parks and yell at anyone using the parks. Many citizens, myself included, outright ignored the P&R staff and continued to make use of the park under the threat of "calling the police." Even after the lockdown ended and parks re-opened, the staff at our local park continued with their own "closure."

However, at no point did officers respond let alone use state-sanctioned violence against citizens. That a government flunky gives an order does not mean it will be enforced let alone result in violence from authorities.

Ultimately, this is a continuous function rather than a boolean as you're implying. Citizen ownership of arms helps juice that function in our favor.

Guns in the hands of the Australians who want guns in their hands is an outcome that's about a thousand times worse than a "disarmed people".

It is, until it isn't.

Also, anyone think that a US civilian militia has more than a snowball's chance in hell against any committed government-deployed force?

See: Middle East

Sounds like you've got a great post to write.

The problem is that white Americans don't have the same American experience as black Americans, which is where the divide comes from and it creates another culture. It's been getting a lot better, but there are still two legal systems, two education systems, etc.

It's really more about how much money you have in your pocket, what neighborhood you're in - but please continue driving a racial wedge to further divide the nation and distract from our broken system's root causes.

Living near the University of South Carolina (Gamecocks), always tickled my inner twelve year old to see a constant stream of garnet hats with "Cocks" on them.

Weird, my religion grants me domain over the natural world.

At this point I’m starting to warm to the Chinese system. At least the Han aren’t made to be guilty of the original sin of being White.

I don’t know what to call the US system we have now, but can’t say I’m a fan.

Well I’m going to die of something. Might as well enjoy the ride.

So, I’m from Hilton Head and that is a fairly accurate telling of the issue (though the 2.5 hours commute is a bit uncommon.) They’ve attempted to alleviate it with shuttles from Bluffton and even Northern Beaufort County to little avail.

We have similar issues up in Charleston, with my girlfriend ‘s restaurant in an HCoL (Mt. Pleasant) really struggling to find staff beyond the 16-26 “living with mom & dad” crowd where HCoL is little of a factor.

I would add I have at least a half-dozen friends in BoH that intentionally (an)used our state pay benefits for a free vacation to smoke weed and play X-Box though sadly citing it as their first vacation in a forever. There’s definitely a problem a multi-faceted problem here.

I haven't followed the fire closely - is there a reason I'm supposed to chalk this one up to climate change rather than poor forestry management?

Private corporations spend the last decade+ consolidating communications, then the USG works with those corporations to censor anything they deem "problematic?" Really, that falls into a textbook fascist definition.

Consider that virtually every other mass-communication medium CAN'T do what the social firms are getting away with currently, rather than cheer on your "right side of history" allies.