Game over, man! Game over!
I will update this as soon as Pudding Cup Joe finishes reading his notes or repeating the teleprompter or whatnot. But for now, I will wallow in Afghanistan’s collapse. Most of you know I was there, in the Northeast, for a year (March 2004-March 2005). Half the men I worked with, befriended and knew had already been killed before this year. I can only hope the remaining ones have armed up (Northern Alliance, here we come again) or left the country.
Haji Zabiullah (r) and Jaweed (l). I hope they got out of Kabul.
Haji Almas (l) probably fled. Gen. Sayed Kahili killed a few years back.
If you have other links worth discussing, go ahead and drop ’em. No 30 minute on-topic wait today.
- Shitshow at KIA.
- Uh….good luck, General.
- This should have the Taliban shivering in fear.
- “Hello, London? This is the Taliban calling…”
UPDATE: Started OK, got worse – really slipping near the end. Also, lots of finger pointing, with a laughable “the buck stops with me” after 10 minutes of blaming everyone else…including Obama! (“I was against the surge”) His speechwriter(s) should have not had him keep repeating the talking points, and kept it short. No answering any questions, of course.
I am still looking for more pics – Gul Zaman, who was killed quite a ways back, comes to mind…
Sorry, Swiss.
Condolences, Switzy
1502 and no sign of Pudding Cup yet…. now here he mumbles.
He appears to be reading teleprompter. Has the squint.
Drugged to the gills.
What a fiasco.
Do all ASL translators have to act like lunatics?
They couldn’t get the Mandela guy.
I associate ASL translators as a fascist imposition. Especially when excellent real time closed captioning technology exists.
Can real time closed captioning handle Biden?
TRUMPALIZNAAURENURE!
Now that would be hysterical, actually feeding what’s on the teleprompter as cc and comparing it to what he’s saying. Or, we could all say it along with him.
When reporters start asking unscripted questions, he can really move for a decrepit old guy.
The longer he goes, the more he starts tripping over his own tongue.
The one that pissed me off was Governor Walz’s. Its expressions were totally at odds with what the Governor was saying.
Why would you throw shade on King Walz by calling him a mere governor.
Yeah his translater is totes Fierce!
*turns on TV*
Watched just long enough to be shocked that I am agreeing with Biden about not sacrificing any more Americans.
I’d be surprised if he believes anything he is saying (or is even cognizant of it…).
Well we sent more back in, and others will be sacrificed elsewhere.
My Nephew jerned the Murines this last year and got put on call for going to AF a few days ago.
Have not heard if he ended up going.
:-/ sorry
I will not repeat the mistakes of the past.
But you’ll make plenty of new ones.
“No 30 minute on-topic wait today.”
There is a thirty minute on-topic wait on links? I thought that was only for regular articles.
There are rules!?
I laughed cause it made me think of this for some reason. Maybe because I read it in that matter.
I was thinking more of this.
This isn’t ‘Nam. There are rules.
That’s more of what I was thinking
It’s my fault for posting tit links too often right away.
I think it only applies to T&A links.
It’s like a game that you only learn the rules by playing.
+1 Calvinball
The only winning move is not to play.
For the links, it’s typically 30 minutes,
Whatever you do, don’t mention the war. Inherit! Trump!
“We planned for every contingency”
“This did unfold more quickly than we anticipated.”
Ummmm…..
Blamed Trump
Blamed the Afghans
Who else?
“How many more soldiers would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil war?”
Wait, I thought it was the USA fighting the war on terror?
No, no, it’s protecting the rights of women!
The patriarchy ain’t doing that!
No, he let them take over because the Taliban gave Biden a great deal on smelling girls hair. And bought some art work as well.
Repackaging it so it fits a narrative.
I did not realize until reading up on it recently that the Taliban never had full control of Afghanistan, that Afghanistan was in a civil war before the US joined in (I knew about the Northern Alliance but had been under the mistaken impression that it was an uprising, not the faction that claimed to be the inheritors of the rightful government of Afghanistan), and that really this civil war could be considered to stretch all the way back to the late 70s, when the government was overthrown by a communist coup. That country has been a non-stop mess for decades. Maybe that’s why the Afghans gave up so easily, they’re just tired of fighting and will accept the yoke.
“… well, every contingency except that the Taliban would be chomping at the bit to take over again after we unilaterally pushed back our withdrawal date and pissed them off.”
Every contingency up to a week ago was that the Taliban would take over in 90 days. Just own it Joe. Either you spun a tale or your IC/Generals spun you a tale.
Or, you’re all dumber than a box of rocks because you had a groupthink consensus on Afghan capability (both to govern and fight).
Shows what you know. Diversity prevents groupthink! It’s like you don’t even have a degree from Columbia.
That’s good, if someone had fired that at me from anywhere but here I would actually believe they thought that.
Embrace the power of “and”.
So, you’re saying they’re in a tail-spin?
Inverted flat spin.
If it was a flat spin like this we would be okay though.
I swear if another air show is cancelled and I don’t get to see some B-1s in full afterburners taking off I am gonna be disappoint.
Damn!
That is one of the loudest things I’ve ever experienced, including being in an elevator with tympanists going berserk.
But I fear it is more like this
The Cleveland Air Show is going on, same weekend as the Cleveland Oktoberfest. The week before the show starts the local businesses have to deal with the shakedown flights overhead.
It looked like the ejection actually broke the stall. I wonder if he coulda just ejected the RIO? New recovery technique.
I wonder if he coulda just ejected the RIO?
Nope. Some two sweaters have independent eject mechanisms for each seat, but the tomcat didn’t.
Which two-seater had the defect were a RIO punching out first could trap the pilot?
I’m listening to Pudding Cup without watching and this sounds kind of reasonable to me. He’s saying things many of us have said here. He sounds like he’s eating his shit sandwich. I’m OK with this.
I spoke a little too soon. It’s not his fault. Pack it in.
Come on, man!
Remember in this world the more bread you make the less shit you eat.
He isn’t wrong on some of these points but is just unwilling to admit that his plan was shit and haphazard.
“The buck stops over there!”
Who would believe anything el presidente biden says? Guy is only in charge of his banana republic, not America.
Pudding Cup summary – “It’s not my fault – it was that OMB (and Obama) and those Afghans too. Oh, and them terrorists are all over the place! We might drone and cruise missile.”
Oh, and what is with “Tolly-bahn”?
“Oh, and what is with “Tolly-bahn”?”
He’s getting ready to break out with some Harry Belafonte?
Come Mista Tally Man, tally me banana.
iF yOu KnOw WhAt I mEaN
They are in Pahk-ee-stan.
Over the Horizon capability indeed
inflation
shortages
hostages
Someone wake up Ted Koppel
Covid is over though.
Courage!
Oh wait, wrong catchphrase.
I wonder if he feels any remorse for all the dead people.
Actually, I wonder if he feels anything. He’s gonzo.
Levers exist, that is true. But if you’re claiming that not giving the Taliban money that you weren’t ever going to give them is somehow leverage, I’m afraid I’m going to need you to wait over there until the nice men with the white coats come.
Just like it’s worked for North Korea.
Maybe if we fly in pallets of cash.
The diplomatic go-to is sanctions, but as China wants their mineral resources and their opium exports are already illegal in most of the countries that purchase from them, I don’t think sanctions will be doing much in this case.
If the Chinese stick their dick in there, I’ll be rooting for the Taliban. I hope I don’t have to do that.
He’s slipping…..
Each successive word is dragging more than the last.
And he’s swaying. Got the bloody eye thing going, too.
Don’t give that man a lazer pointer!
Stammer More! that should get their attention
If he keels over dead during this, that would be just the distraction Kamala needs to stop people talking about this Afghanistan thing.
Well the spectacle of just blowing out on live TV is amusing, that wouldn’t be good for the country.
Budd Dwyer wasn’t bad for the country.
What do you do if you get your revolver wet?
Hey man, nice shot?
I’m so sorry, Swissy.
Much brave, such responsible.
To Biden’s credit, he has been against the war in Afghanistan for quite a while, at least since 2008.
Too bad he’s a bungler that put his domestic politics above the practical decisions of ending the war.
Senator biden voted for AUMF.
Democrats voted to deny trump funding for afghan withdraw.
Democrats are lying pieces of commie shit.
Must have been nice to take Trump’s goal of getting out and watch all of the media and elites scream like their hair was on fire, and then because you are ‘favored’ as a dem, you can go through with it.
Either way, we out. Now pull out of the rest of ME
Only Biden could get us out of Afghanistan.
Haha, no way anymore…bungle Afghanistan bad enough and you can point to the post-withdrawal debacle as an example of what will happen if you’re not there to “stabilize the region.”
That is what leads me to my thinking a week or so ago in which not so much Biden, but IC/Generals created this opportunity for just that. We can’t just up and leave, the world needs us there or it will be chaos. Didn’t you see what happened in Afghanistan? In fact, we need to expand our presence because factions are embolden by it.
Sorry man. I served with a lot guys who fought there. What a fucking mess. I hope it is a very long time before we try “nation-building” again.
They may be nation building domestically soon.
*shudders*
Who are we going to ever elect that won’t embrace the same old nonsense? What Dems? What Repubs?
Trump. He Never started a new war and tried to withdraw from Afghanistan. He also advocated withdrawing from NATO.
Best president in us history. Trump exposed the commies among us.
Whenever I contemplate our decadant and depraved ruling class, this song plays in my mind’s ear. The Writing on the Wall
Why did I know that was IM? never heard of it before, but the lyrics i guess,
New song just released.
?
The Writing’s on the Wall
Also saw the writing on the wall
More writing on the wall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg_YueZ4fi8
Britain will use all the means it has at its disposal to hold the Taliban to account in Afghanistan, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Monday when asked about possible sanctions against the country.
We’ll ‘ave dem shiverin in their knickers, then.
Release the Influencers!
Afghanistan has had to endure enslavement by the british, russians, and taliban (twice).
I dont see them getting out of the stone age anytime soon.
Swiss understands the human cost better than anyone here and I greatly sympathize with the suffering of the everyday Afghani as their lives fall apart to the Taliban.
That said, I don’t know how else this could have possibly ended. We could have stayed for 1000 years and the Taliban would have waited us out. Sure, this is a way to score political points against Dementia Joe due to the chaos that has ensued; but would it really have been any different with a different guy at the helm? I ask this only semi-rhetorically as I’m no military strategic genius by any means. There was no happy ending to be had from this situation.
Taliban would have taken over regardless, but I think its the perception that rather than work a deal, Biden just up and left. It wasn’t necessarily the wrong way but the way we left our last base, didn’t consolidate and protect our embassy, left equipment (some working, others not — footage of working drones have been seen) and then the utter chaos that the world was displayed with just compounded it all.
Logistically it would make sense to keep the troop level high enough to get the other personnel out first without having the Taliban in Kabul while you’re attempting to leave Kabul.
Also, giving up Bagram Air Base was dumb (if that’s what happened)
Lying to the American people about the training of the ANA.
Yeah, some good pieces on that earlier today. Why wouldn’t you leave troops on the ground until the civilians were gone, the essential gear was evacced and terps were taken care of? – probably more of an executive/State decision than DoD – but there had to have been pushback on that somewhere.
It would have been no different.
The blame for this belongs to all the Presidents who enabled it, all the Senators and Representatives who funded and failed to question it when they had the power to do so, all the Cabinet officials who advised it and supported it, all the Generals who planned and executed it. And maybe even a couple of VPs who were involved for years and years, as well.
Will we ever see anything like the investigation that needs to take place over this? Over nearly twenty years of death, dismemberment, and expense? Of lost opportunities? Of destroying our international reputation and credibility? Of keeping us from responding effectively to other developing situations on the world stage?
^This guy gets it.
And I didn’t even get to the intelligence community, did I?
“What difference, at this point, would it make?”
That said, I don’t know how else this could have possibly ended.
The Taliban was certainly going to conquer (most) of Afghanistan, but the US could have had a more orderly exit had they got out before the fighting season. Probably would have been easier to evacuate American personal and whatever allies deserved sanctuary if Kabul wasn’t under siege. But the big picture for the country was going to be the same.
“There should not be any confusion, we are sure the people of Afghanistan in the city of Kabul, that their properties and their lives are safe. There will be no revenge on anyone. We are the servants of the people and of this country,” he said.
The Taliban has quite the PR department.
“… as long as your women cover their faces and bodies and you swear undying allegiance to us and to our fanatic version of Islam.”
The meme of the journalist that said it was a happy “death to America” chant showing her reporting today versus yesterday is a striking image of what those women will be enduring now. It is what they wanted though, so good luck!
Ugh. Such islamophobia. I can’t even with your white cishet toxic masculinity.
“Oh, and turn in any weapons you may have, too, please. With sugar on top.
They have to be, to stand toe-to-toe with the U.S.’s elite Twitter Corps.
PS all we ask is that people turn their guns over to the government.
I’d like to see someone corner the Progs with that. Not going to happen, though.
They have learned over the past two decades. It would be a nice surprise if it’s true.
Mammary Monday is committed to finishing the job.
https://archive.is/kAeaV
Back to Camp David for some R&R. And pudding!
Perhaps, even, some tasty nub-nubs.
What a goddamn monster.
Tres Sr., at age 82, is in way better condition mentally and physically to run this country than that doddering career parasite.
I’d even vote for my Dad, if he wasnt such an asshole.
Joking- as he advances in age, he acts like Burgess Meredith in “Grumpy Old Men”.
He sure skedaddled back in a hurry.
Sure…
As students return for the first day of school in Lancaster County, South Carolina, the district’s leadership has confirmed that a 16-year-old student has died of complications from Covid-19.
“We are saddened to learn of the passing of a 16-year-old Andrew Jackson High student from Covid complications,” Lancaster County School District Superintendent Jonathan Phipps said in a statement.
Chief Deputy Coroner Jennifer Collins confirmed the student died August 12. The 16-year-old’s name is not being released because the student was a minor, the coroner said.
Lights out. Shut it all down.
How fat was the deceased?
Kids and minors do die from COVID, in small numbers, and every death is a tragedy, but that is no justification for restrictions. The CDC’s own numbers show that in 2020 pneumonia killed more minors than COVID, and pneumonia & influenza kill kids every year without people panicking. The greatest danger to minors is accidents, so if one preventable death is too many I guess the only responsible thing to do is lock all the kids in padded cells.
Don’t give them ideas.
My company just demanded all employees’ vaccine status. Said they would comply with any federal mandate. Makes me sick. No doubt there will be legal fallout from that request.
Peanuts. Kids die from peanut allergies, so we need to end the scourge of all things peanutty!
thicc?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9899149/Demi-Rose-sizzles-showcases-famous-curves-naked-photoshoot.html
This is thicc.
Kinda small-ish for my tastes, but I could make it work.
I guess all my gals are petite, cause they got big butts, but not that big, Yikes!
Pretty girl but no way it smells ok down there with all that shit rubbing together.
Nope. Forest fantasy.
Also, sorry Swiss.
What a damn sweet gig Joe has. Come out, make some platitude filled, and sometime coherent remarks and then sulk off with out taking any questions. Now the media gets to drive home the narratives and tell the people what they need to know and what to think.
seriously? no questions allowed? I didn’t watch. This is insane–can you imagine the press corps putting up with that from certain other administrations in similar circumstances?
He ran from that podium like a Frenchman.
I don’t know that we can rag on the French these days. They’re turning out in the thousands against this covid bullshit while we collectively sit on our fat asses.
He ran like hell – like an American! ??
Most of the Americans who are against COVID BS don’t need to turn out, as they live in states that aren’t pushing what France (and NY) are pushing. The US states that are most egregious are merely following the will of their majority, the government is not imposing anything on them, merely giving them the shackles they are asking for. The real test would be if the feds try to nationalize the restrictions to where they are unpopular (and ignored or outlawed).
I am giddy at the prospects of forced vaccinations for interstate travel.
That’s some euphemism there OBE.
Brave Sir Biden ran away
“Bob Dylan sued for ‘sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in 1965’: Woman claims singer groomed her, plied her with alcohol and drugs at his Chelsea Hotel apartment”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9899121/Bob-Dylan-plied-12-year-old-booze-drugs-sexually-abusing-1965-suit-says.html
1965??
Can you prove it didn’t happen?
I’m calling nah.
Statute of limitation? What’s that mean?
We are in the best of hands…
I’m 33 and want to retire at 40, but have expensive medical needs — how can I achieve financial independence?
“I’m 33 and want to retire at 40,…”
And I want a toilet made of solid gold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHnlKzGbqZc
There is a way. Don’t do it though.
She could start an OnlyFans. I’m sure her medical condition is a fetish for somebody.
OK, two ways. Your suggestion is much less dark, could work too.
OnlyFans is a saturated market. You have to have a distinct look/personality to make it there. All the fetishes are already catered for.
I figured somebody here would know from experience.
From your statement can I assume that you want a link to my OnlyFans page?
In all seriousness though, while I may be wrong as I am extrapolating, the fact that Twitter is full of beautiful people giving away the goods for free in an attempt to lure people to their OnlyFans pages indicates to me that it is a buyer’s market, not a seller’s market.
I have about $200,000 in taxable investment accounts, $120,000 in liquid savings, and own my home with a $240,000 mortgage and about $300,000 in equity. My 401(k) and Roth are both maxed each year and have a combined value of $70,000 right now.
I currently make around $120,000 a year, and my long-term partner adds about $40,000 to shared income, but we are not married and file separately.
I have a dividend portfolio providing $5,000 a year in passive income, with a goal of growing that to $15,000 in the next few years. I want to achieve financial independence by 40, which I am currently defining as more than $20,000 in passive income and my mortgage paid off.
He/she/they are doing great.
I am a 33-year-old that is actively saving and building toward a passive income stream enabling me to either retire early or shift to a nonprofit career instead of my current job in tech.
Except the premise seems a little fucked. Retiring doesn’t seem possible, but being financially independent doing a lower paying job that you enjoy is reasonable.
Except the premise seems a little fucked. Retiring doesn’t seem possible, but being financially independent doing a lower paying job that you enjoy is reasonable.
Correct. That’s the path we’re trying to take in approximately the same timeframe. We have a bit less savings, a bit more income, and our “medical conditions” are sitting next to me watching YouTube videos. I’m thinking that, by our early 40s, we can be pretty close to financially independent, so that I could take a low paying enjoyable job without fear of never being able to ever retire.
To that end, I’m interviewing with a company later this week for a position that may speed up the math significantly.
Awesome, I hope it works out.
. . . I’m interviewing with a company later this week for a position that may speed up the math significantly.
Good. The stories you’ve shared about your present employer makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
It may be out of the frying pan and into the fire given the company size and industry, but at least it wouldn’t be a silicon valley tech company and the job would pay substantially more (not that the current one doesn’t pay decently enough).
We shall see.
540k house makes me think they’re likely in a mid level taxation state and will get raped by property taxes as both government demand grows and from appraised value increase.
Ultimately through working with our partners through everything from the sanctions that we can apply, to the ODA (Official Development Assistance) that we will hold back, pending reform and a more inclusive government. I think there are levers.
Oh, FFS. You lost! What the hell is so hard for these guys to understand about that? They won. We lost. They get to pick their government. We just fought a war with them. We shouldn’t be sending them d**k all in development assistance in any case. We should count ourselves lucky if they let us get our local friends out
It’s one thing to support their rebuilding if you just firebombed the shit out of them for a few years and utterly destroyed all their infrastructure–you might not want them rebuilding on their own and harboring a grudge. But in this situation? Just dumb. They don’t want you. They might take your money and your stuff, but if you should have learned one thing in the last twenty years, it was that they will not let you rule them for one second longer than you force them to.
Dude, loser pays tribute
William Tecumseh Sherman is one of the few men who understood war and how to wage it. And why.
The Taliban seem to have it pretty well figured out – at least defending the home court.
Total War, make it local, so the people feel the burn of War, works for me.
I’m of the belief that if you aren’t willing to wage total war than the war isn’t worth it.
Any project – especially a military campaign – that doesn’t have very clear and achievable objectives is a fool’s errand.
Desert Storm – expel Iraq from Kuwait, do enough damage to their military so they don’t do it again. Check, check, let’s go home.
What was the mission in Afghanistan after 02 or 03? Could any enlisted soldier on the ground articulate it and explain how his job was part of achieving that goal?
Isn’t that belief what partially tanked Goldwater’s presidential bid. If we are going to go to war, then go to war. You bring the full military might to bear.
In to Win, or don’t bother
McNamara and the whiz kids – no, no, we use war to have “a conversation” with the other side. Totality is a bore.
I’m right there with you. Same as I don’t want to ever start a fight, but I’ll do my best to end any that I’m involved in.
PS: I’m condoning war or lessening it’s terrible effects on the soldiers and civilians.
I’m not*
I think you’re missing a word. 😉
Been seeing some notes on twitter saying that a lot of the provincial capitals/governments actually made deals with the Taliban in the weeks/months leading up to this weekend – which is why they were able to steamroll through with zero resistance on *any* front.
Hopefully….that will cut down on any pogroms/massacres/vengeance killings at a bare minimum – if anything marginally decent comes out of this.
After the taliban consolidates power, the bloodletting revenge starts…guaranteed.
Why do I say that? Historical events over and over and over.
Somewhere out there, Corn Pop is laughing his as off.
In fact, the last S is already gone!
I don’t watch youtube reaction videos, but a good one would be Obama reacting to Biden telling the Corn Pop story.
I picture Chappelle as Barak in his White guy voice, “Oh Negroe Please”
Will free trade liberate the Afghans?
in Poppies and Rare Earth minerals, yes, they should do well.
LOL! Looking for a job as a writer for TOS, are we?
I like Cocktails,
Who’s the better parody account – Winston or his mom?
“25th Amendment is trending at #13 in the US”
https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1427328125936017418
“I’m smaht!” – Don Lemon
Lemon began by strangely insulting his own viewers, seemingly implying that they don’t get around as much as he does. “It’s easy to sit behind — I don’t mean a camera like me, because I meet people all the time — behind your television, in front of your televisions at home, and you judge people,” he said, because they “don’t have as much information or as much knowledge as you have.” …
“I think that because of what happened over the last couple of years — the attacks on our institutions, the attacks on the First Amendment, the attacks on journalism which is covered in the First Amendment — that people wrongly don’t know who to trust,” Lemon intoned. “They believe the propaganda on certain networks. They believe the propaganda on social media.”
Lemon said he and his viewers would have to “help viewers become more media literate.”
“I’m not an opinion host. I give my point of view,” he said, apparently unaware of his self-contradiction.
“Everything I say, every single night, is based in fact,” he insisted. “And if I screw it up, I come back and apologize, and I get it right.”
“That’s what we do here at CNN,” he continued. “That is the big difference between us and networks that don’t have to operate in that realm.”
When I think “honest, calm and sober” presentation and analysis of current events, I think CNN.
Shorter Don Lemon.
Why don’t the rubes believe our lies anymore?
“I’m not an opinion host. I give my point of view,”
Still dumb as a rock I see.
I just. don’t. get. how this guy still has a job.
Chris Cuomo and Brian Stetler. Fucking Lemon isn’t even the worst they have to offer.
I dunno. I mean, they’re all terrible but there is something uniquely grating about Lemon’s sneering delivery that makes me want to throw beer bottles at the television.
Why are you being so mean to rocks?
Moh said they were hard enough to take it.
The former Afghan government is like a microcosm of the west: decadent, corrupt, incompetent, not particularily all that liberal and unable to deal with ideological enemies very willing to use force but hey Ghani did attend an Ivy League School and I’m sure he had some nice speeches attacking the Taliban…
Why did Ghani fall? He was a corrupt Ivy-league educated urbanite and corrupt educated urban politicians are the backbone of western society…
Oh wait, that’s the part we forgot – the average Afghani isn’t interchangeable with the average American.
This is how you win a war:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wxWNAM8Cso
I read a book about that school, it was in the hills just East of zero, and the survivors went on to witness the worst of it, compelling
Glibertopia?
https://www.mlive.com/life/2021/08/entire-michigan-island-hits-market-with-log-cabin-home-accessible-by-man-made-road.html?outputType=amp
Dude let’s go halfsies!
But it’s in Michigan!
So are we, and this is a problem why? Whitless doen’t bug me up here
It’s an old rivalry. OH vs. MI, Scarlet and grey vs. blue and gold.
?♀️
Fine… Old for the United States.
Thanks for dein Arbeit.
https://www.aier.org/article/the-soviet-union-is-gone-but-the-young-yearn-for-socialism/
Unpossible. History is an inevitable march of progress and freedom is baked into western culture and liberalism will easily self-replicate itself.
Socialism springs from the same impulse as imperialism, so it will always be with us. It takes root in any country that becomes rich enough that it can afford to plunder itself without destroying itself, as plundering yourself is easier than plundering foreign nations. It’s imperialism for the lazy and cowardly. And when, long term, socialism does destroy its practitioners, I would not be surprised to see a resurgence in old-school imperialism.
https://amp.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3145260/profits-and-poppies-afghanistans-illegal-drug-trade
So is the Taliban libertarian? I guess Afghanistan really is undergoing a libertarian moment…
See, the Taliban Embraces the Free Market, and tossing Gays from buildings…..
I mean the Taliban are not technically speaking the government so I guess it is free market defenestration…
CCP cares nothing for your American technicalities, but they will have those minerals, cheap too, They bring their own Uighurs for the Mines!
Between the opium and the rare earth metals China’s going to mine, a few well placed individuals are going to be very rich.
See above^
Do you remember cytotoxic – you’re starting to infringe his degree of stupid.
I find it funny seeing so many libertarians bemoaning how social, cultural and technological factors are eroding freedom over the last year and a half when they have spent the last 80 years denying that such a thing was even possible and insisting that it was only the socons, rednecks and racists not being able to accept change.
It’s almost like there was something to the whole building a house on rock versus building a house on sand thing.
Late on this, but had to post a (minor) quibble with Animal’s story earlier. Falfurrias is most definitely *not* an East Texas town. That’s South Texas down there.
Suspend some disbelief! it’s a fine Tale….
Dankula is pretty hot right now,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_B7pBTZ4Bk
I assume the military budget has been cut, right?
You forgot to drop the mic.
Something other than Afghanistan—–
My top 5 favorite military planes to watch are:
B1 full afterburner take offs, after that they are boring.
F22 knowing that the airframe can handle more Gs than the pilot could.
F18 Blue Angels…sorry AF people, Thunderbirds just aren’t as cool.
Any Heritage Flight and missing man formations
and last, P51 screaming in from behind the grandstands on a low pass.
U-2 Takeoffs, I have seen 3
F16s over the lake, low pass
A-10 spitting fire
“F16s over the lake…”
The MN National Guard share the same runway as us. Lately they have been taking off with 3 F-16s in short succession several times a day. When the hanger door is open it is piercingly loud. They are perfectly capable of taking off without afterburners.
Once when I was going back from leave and flying out of Dayton, the annual air show was wrapping up. I was at my gate. Storms were approaching, traffic was halted so the Thunderbirds could GTFO. Each one took off into an unrestricted climb with full burners I could hear indoors.
I once made the mistake of taking the kiddo to an airshow without ear protection. It didn’t work out well when the F/A-18 demonstrator started doing afterburner passes. Even inside the hangar, the sound was deafening.
Through many travels north of Vegas in my yoots, the pilots on their way to the range would fly low over the highway. Always was fun for us kids…
I was on Chair 5 at Mammoth Mt., when a pair of F-16s buzzed the Mountain, Fucking Awseome, i could see the pilots plain as day, I’m sure they had fun
We were driving home and I was fiddling with the radio when a big roaring sound filled the car. It wasn’t the radio, it was an F-18 doing a very low pass southbound along 395 headed for China Lake. I could see the rivets in the airframe.
Since I came from army aviation, try flying a fully-loaded 100′ boxcar around at 200 mph.
Chinook CH47 Low Level from Kandahar to Lashkar Gah, Helmand
Jeebus, what a ride!
Having been the self loading cargo in those things, no thanks, I’d rather walk.
I work near an Air Force base and a few years ago some co-workers and I were walking in the parking lot when we heard a low, rumbling and very loud sound. The cloud level was low so we couldn’t see what the plane was but we figured it was a B-1. What was really fun was all the car alarms going off.
Closest I have heard in terms of sheer ear piercing insanity was 18 German Tornados MITO next to our radar site.
Chuck Yeager flying his P51 in formation with two F-15s at Oshkosh.
Amazing sight when they reached the end of the pass, the jets punched it and disappeared straight up. I was down on the end and to this day I’ve never experienced anything that loud.
I’ve been directly under one of the Blue Angels executing a vertical climb.
It was when I lived next to Miramar in San Diego and my townhouse just happened to be in that spot. I was also napping at the time.
I literally fell out of bed thinking the house was exploding.
I don’t know how I forgot about this one.
I was sailing in the Caribbean and a Navy jet performed a low speed flyby at about 100 feet. The only way to do that is to increase the pitch and throttle up to stay in the air. It was the middle of the night and it scared the bejeezus out of me.
Long ago we were at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago during the Air and Water show. We were by the lion cage when some sort of fighter jet flew over and might have hit the afterburner. It literally shook the buildings and the lions jumped up and looked ready to kill something. That was impressive.
Avro Vulcan, any flight footage
B52 MITO
Carrier operations from the cockpit
Paratrooper jumps from inside
This one. https://youtu.be/l-YsSL65quM
I saw the blue angels zipping through San Francisco once. Like, between buildings. Pretty sure it was a fly by for the Red Bull air races in the bay. I saw a bunch of fighter jets when I used to drive back and forth from Pheonix and L.A. You can see for 100 miles out there in some places. I’d be driving along at 90 mph and a jet would traverse the entire 100 mile field of vision in a couple of seconds. Amazing to watch.
https://mises.org/library/lysander-spooner-libertarian-pietist
This fascinating article by Rothbard does lend credence to one aspect of our totalitarian moment that has disturbed me: the possibility that one reason that freedom is dying is that the Protestant Religious fervor that once drove Anglo-American Liberalism is dying out and with it Anglo-American liberalism is dying as well.
I mean think about it, what was about royal absolutism that bothered John Lilburne and John Locke so much? Religious oppression.
Those same absolutists also embraced mercantilist economics so it is easy to see how laissez-faire economics appealed to religious dissidents. The fact that these religious dissidents tended to be small farmers or merchants helped too…
And not to mention that the Wars of Religion make Western Europeans eager to create a society that wouldn’t try to force religious uniformity…
We are Rome, destined to collapse of our own indolence, and the Fervor of others, Verciginorix lives on.
That makes sense, since politics is downstream from culture. And really it could be argued that culture is downstream from religion (although the relationship is not quite so straightforward). Religion seeks to answer, among other questions, the most fundamental questions of social order (right vs wrong), so one’s religious beliefs, whether or not one adheres to an organized religion (or even to any religion at all), will strongly influence how one acts in all areas of life.
Sasse
Pretty close to the target.
Those who advocated 20 years of nation building in Afghanistan and continually promised the American people that Afghan security forces would soon be able to defend themselves have much to answer for as well. For two decades, almost no one has leveled with the American people about the true state of affairs in Afghanistan.
2 years of that time in the Bush Administration and 7 years a U.S. Senator. Sure, there are quite a few with more to answer for, but you have you’re own share motherfucker.
And Razorfist has weighed in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKIszrFBQ2M
Yikes.
Watched it earlier. One of his better ones.
He does put it in real terms,
He reminds me of Jim Rome for some reason.
Dennis Miller on speed.
Funny that you mention speed,
Thinking back – the opening moves of the war were pretty brilliant. The airborne and air mobile assaults and CIA coordination with the anti-Taliban forces were spectacular. If we had left a year later, they’d be legendary and make for great movies.
Instead, a year later I was watching the news and saw Strykers rolling off transports in Afghanistan and thought “oh no, you can’t be that stupid”.
Yeah, we won it and then we lost it. If we had left the Northern Alliance in charge and bailed after getting rid of the Taliban it would have gone south eventually but the military victory was impressive.
We could’ve contract the killing of OBL to some locals, but oh no, the US Army wanted the glory of that. Having failed in the primary (sole?) objective we had – out came the rationales for expanding the mission.
Bomb the will out of the people and then leave. It’s the only way.
Something to take your mind off of withdrawal (the military kind). She needs a bath before her big photoshoot.
https://youtu.be/ts8X4ACWjUE
I watched an old war film about Camouflage, and at the end was surprised by Boobies! it’s short, check it out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpZRL4ikAvY
Mermaid Boobies!
? oh oh oh OH camouflage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9DO26O6dIg
Wish I had known earlier that Snafu was in public domain.
Yeah, but the blu-ray is a lot better quality. https://www.amazon.com/Private-Snafu-Golden-Classics-Blu-ray/dp/B018611N1E/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=snafu&qid=1629153766&sr=8-8
Yeah but YT is free, and I don’t collect videos
Sorry Switzy. This has got me too, to a lesser degree. Wasn’t there, didn’t know the locals who helped us or at least didn’t try to kill us, but do know more than a few that were. Some that got injured, but thankfully not killed (including one shot point blank by a would be assassin).
This is so fucking racist, I love it!
MINORITIES: WHAT’S A MINORITY? ” 1972 CORONET SOCIAL GUIDANCE FILM PREJUDICE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xnCrwtHzH0
so many tells, always with the angry Black Guy, etc. it’s sad, but pretty funny,
“Eastren Europeans are often identified by their broad brows”
I can’t make this up!
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ofd0u9bDjyo/U9TOuQYBxFI/AAAAAAAABW4/wmHPMQu0_Gs/s1600/Europid+Types.png
Before my time, :. outside any statute of limitations.
Base.
The bootlickers at the NY Post can go fuck themselves.
FTA “Every New Yorker who gets on the subway knows one of the first principles is you treat other people respectfully”.
Citation needed.
Where and when, no?
Meh. I treat people with respect as a matter of course, everywhere. And part of that is minding your own fucking business.
She probably lipped off at him and got what she deserved. I’ve seen the type a million times.
To be fair I’ve never actually been to NYC. I’m just stereotyping.
So California recall still looks tight, but an interesting development is that a Democrat has been rising in the replacement candidate polling. Could be a sign that voters are turning against Newsom or hedging their bets because they think he could lose (the Democratic Party of California is apparently pushing the no recall and leave the replacement vote blank stance). The rising Democrat candidate (and only Democrat with any traction) is a 29 y.o. YouTube millionaire who is striking a centrist (for California) tone. The other major contender for replacement (who is leading the aggregate polling) is Republican Larry Elder. So if Newsom goes down, it looks like California will be governed either by one of the most conservative governors in the nation or by a Millennial YouTube star.
Wait – you’re talking a guy that polls at 1% in one poll and 27% in another?
Yes. Something must have happened, because he went from a nothingburger to hitting first/second place in the two latest polls. If it was just one poll that would be an outlier, but two indicates something. My guess is either Democrats moving into the “Remove” column who would never vote Republican or deciding to strategically vote for a Democrat just in case Newsom loses.
Saw him in sidebar, FWIW.
Stinks of bad polling – too biased a sample (one way or the other).
I don’t think the polls are going to be very good, here. The whole thing is like two months long. Not enough time for the opinions to soak. Not that the other polls are worth a damn either, but this one is not going to be polled very accurately. This leaves aside the cheating aspect, which is always a concern when democrats are involved.
“I like the way Snrub thinks.”
Maybe I should take this over to other place…
Btw, I hear boy wonder get interviewed. He’s going to buy up huge commercial buildings all over the state, use the national guard to round up all the “housing challenged” peeps and provide them with basic dignity like showers and restrooms, while he trains them to make a living at good old fashioned hard work. So, yeah, he’s an idiot.
LOL has he even seen a random sampling of the “housing challenged”? They need help for sure, but most of them don’t want the help they actually need.
Wow, he sounds like one of those people interviewed by Ryan Long.
I had someone I work with describe a plan in which the homeless are sent to KOA campgrounds throughout the state with restroom facilities and staff counseling and medics.
I wanted so bad to ask why she hated nature.
Supposedly 11 million voted for biden in Commifornia. 6 million voted for trump.
Almost guarantee 6 million trump voters fote for larry elder. That leaves the other voters.
Carried over from the last post. I think Reason started to go off the rails around 2006-08 when they along with much of the libertarian establishment started embracing liberaltarianism as some sort of compassionate libertarianism rather that the same statist bullshit it always was. That and people like Weigl. Really went off when people like Fruit Sushi and ENB were either just unprincipled awful (though Sushi has sometimes improved) or confused libertinism for libertarianism.
But the Cocktail parties
Not to mention their technocrat leanings.
Ah yes, the Tyler Cowen school.
Concur. Along with, a la Scruffy, the technocratic leanings – especially Bailey; no surprise he defended lock downs in the freedomfest mock trial.
He did?
Of course he did.
To be fair to him, he explicitly said “The first rounds, March and April 2020” as that was the terms of the ‘trial’. But I don’t think he explicitly said he opposed the later ones (but I may be wrong on that count), just restricted his ‘testimony’ to the first ones.
The commie staff at unreason are likely doing what most lefties do. Take over non-lefty organizations and destroy them from the inside out.
Its genius really. Reason was a beacon of thought and discussion and cant have that. Same reason to destroy america from the inside out. America can defend itself from outside attackers. Destroy america from the inside through incremental communism and its kind of working. The commie staff at unreason twist libertarianism into something its not and then become a propaganda outlet for democrats. Slowly taking away a refuge for libertarian thought and discussions.
https://www.wfmz.com/news/world/baby-turtles-make-their-way-to-sea-in-italy/video_64fae14d-a4ac-5087-aba5-717ec0a84e8f.html
Save the turtles! ??
Swissy – we trod some of the same dirt, it would appear. I was there between 9/2004 – 5/2006. Most of it north and east, some south toward the end.
I had a friend in SF who joked that “once big mil shows up with no cover areas and shit like that, SgtMajor breakin’ balls about uniform regs, it’s time for me to go…my war’s over then.”
I knew he was right the moment the words were out of his mouth. I think that was in late ’05.
Glad a bunch of my terps got out. I keep in touch with one and he shares updates. He’s in FL with his wife and kids. Sent me one of the funniest texts ever about how his kids don’t remember Afghanistan because he got out when they were babies (2 of them), and two were born here.
I hope you guys will appreciate the share (from his text):
We were in Hillsville VA on Saturday, down to look at some property. We stopped in to Bella Italia, which we had had some recommendation about – pizza place attached to a convenience store and gas station. Anyway, had a great calzone and then chatted with presumably the owner and two of his daughters. They were obviously not locals so I asked – from Egypt and had been there 6 years. I’m sure there was more to the story, and I hope to hear it some day. I absolutely love people who have the courage to leave their homeland and culture to take the chance on what this country can offer; particularly when I compare it to the attitude of so many born and raised here.
Contracting in SoCal I ran into tons of great folks who came from shitholes and created good businesses and lives for themselves, they just needed a chance,
Egyptians in Galax.
Never would have guessed that.
I support the entrepreneurial spirit of n ew legal immigrants but america is being changed for the worse by many new immigrants. They prop up the welfare state.
Not that americans of many generations are not democrats and therefore welfare lovers. There was a trend in the 1990s away from welfare.
I would also add that the more good people leave their native nations, the more it leaves their native lands to the commies that remain.
On the flip side, the commies would likely kill the good people if they stayed.
That’s a success story, God bless him and his Family, and You too Ozy!
That’s fucking awesome, Ozy.
…here, your shoes have lights.
I hope that guy’s kids are wildly successful. Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you for sharing that.
Between all the nose-poking we do in other people’s business and notbeing willing to wage actual war and now withdrawing without getting our allies out, I just feel like US is asshoe.
The Beltway is asshoe.
Brutal.
But yes.
*boom*
Love it!
and this,
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/meantweet-516×600.jpg
Reposting because Ron Paul’s crystal ball earned it
https://youtu.be/GrHm4phj5RQ
Drugs, ass, worth it!
Ouch. That’s gonna leave a mark.
Jordan Peterson was spot on.
Hey, my attic is chock-a-block with worthy refugees.
Welcome to the Korean and Vietnam wars veterans’ club.
Started by democrats.
The korean and vietnam wars that is.
Sorry Swiss.
Btw, I hear boy wonder get interviewed. He’s going to buy up huge commercial buildings all over the state, use the national guard to round up all the “housing challenged” peeps and provide them with basic dignity like showers and restrooms, while he trains them to make a living at good old fashioned hard work. So, yeah, he’s an idiot.
Are there no workhouses?
The commies are unreason are defending el presidente biden and the commie democrats.
Us pilots had to run over afghanis to get their overloaded planes off the ground at Kabul. Also at least 3 afghanis fell from the planes after takeoff when they unsuccessfully tried to hold on to the outside of the planes.
I must say, thank you democrats for being such horrible pieces of shit that can be used against you and take America back from democrats.
Another tidbit that dailymail.uk pointed out, the Taliban are not rushing the commie Chinese or Russian embassies.
Yup, russia is friendlier with Afghanis than America is.