Yeah, sorry, should've worded that better. Didn't mean to imply you were. That first bit was mostly a mini-rant on western exceptionalism in general. It seems to have completely blinded shedloads of our so-called 'experts' to the actual realities of international relations, kinetic or otherwise.
I don't understand why so many people seem to think Iran didn't have a clue the global west was using the strait for transit until earlier this year.
They've perfectly well understood the importance of the strait for as long as the west has been shipping energy through it, at the very least. They have a diplomatic corps, negotiators, intelligence agencies, game theorists, and civil servants, just like the rest of us.
What's worse for US power, hard and soft, is they now know how relatively weak the US is militarily compared to its bleating on the subject, and how incredibly thoroughly it's kneecapped its soft power among allies. Iran may well have already concluded all of this, but now they have receipts the whole world saw printed.
They also now know that if they want another go at some point, they need only sustain a war for some weeks or months before the US has depleted several years worth of missile production and has to go home again, since the US military is well aware putting boots on Kharg Island means inviting free throws from up and down the coast.
Plus, they have the local 'nuclear option' of mining the everliving fuck out of the shipping lanes, which logic dictates has also long since been gamed out in Tehran.
Precisely. Until then - all cops are bastards. Only a matter of how bastardly.
At this point there really, actually is no discernible difference between yank law "enforcement" outfits and a random gang of base thieves, excepting maybe the stationary and quality of card stock tax payer cash can buy.
Hell, there are buisnesses where I could walk in with a product serial number[...]
Yep. Anyone who manufactures anything remotely complex at anything remotely resembling scale needs this sort of granularity.
Even if you yourself don't ever need any of the information, because your enginerding/proto, production, QA, logistics, and aftermarket depts are all absolutely flawless you might still be contractually bound to be able to provide exactly this sort of info to any number of customers upon request.
Contracts and entire relationships are lost over much, much less.
I've been absolutely certain the US was headed to where it's currently at since the Patriot Act, and nothing I've seen or heard since has changed my outlook in the slightest. At least not for the better.
And yes, I've been called any number of things by pretty much everyone I've ever told, including close friends and family. I've been calling Israel genocidal cockwombles for just as long, and the same has applied, with similar results.
It's been a few years since any of them last piped up.
I guess this (on top of the Covid fiasco) demonstrates the fragility of modern society and civilization.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure we're fucked when the next pandemic comes along. The US and a few other places are going to be the end of us all.
While I'm not exactly the US' biggest fan, and haven't been for a long time, now - it's a tad soul-rending watching its future being murdered right to fuck by a thousand idiotic cuts.
Excellent. More "people" whose deaths I'll be celebrating with a massive, shit-eating grin on my face.
Here's hoping they each get to meet someone like me in real life before their time is up. I'd love a few minutes with each of them.
Wtf, Netgear are still around? How is that even possible? I can't recall having heard a single good thing about anything Netgear branded since the mid 00s or something.
Do people actually buy shit from them still, or do they survive purely on ISPs' captive clientele?
Something I've been meaning to ask for years:
Can someone please explain to me why in the everloving fuck something having gone viral is (A) noteworthy in any way, given all it means is 'many eyeballs', and (B) why every single journalist alive reports on incidents of sudden popularity online as though the popularity itself was at least as important as the subject matter. Maybe it actually is. Wouldn't even surprise me, any more.
It's always struck me as a sign of something fundamental - other than the extraction class owning it all - being extremely broken in modern journalism, but I've never been close enough to it to get a sense of whether I'm right or wrong or just stupid.
If you think Democrats will be able to magically fix something done to you over generations you're in for the fucking mother of all rude awakenings, if and when you realise just how fucked your education system(s) are.
Oh, I'm not so sure. I was until I took a look at what films have been made in the past five-ish years and promptly lost all interest yet again.
I spent at least an hour or so looking, but precisely nothing interested me enough to even spend the minutes required to pirate it. I am, apparently, far enough from Hollywood's target demographics I won't have to worry overly much about budgeting for Hollywood-media consumption in future, by the looks of things.
I like how pretty much every single one of my friends has mocked me (tried to impart FOMO, more like) over the years for never once giving any of these shithouses neither a penny nor a minute of my time.
They're keeping their noise holes markedly shut on the matter, these days.
From the outside, it sure do be looking to me like you lot are worrying way, way less than you should be. Not a single brownshirt killed to date, that I'm aware of. In the gun-and-death-worshipping nation that has spent the better part of a century shouting about how they saved everyone from fascism and how no one else did a damn thing in comparison. How many of you are they going to be allowed to kill, maim, deport, stuff in concentration camps, or all of the above, before you wake up to what needs doing?
Dems could completely steamroll the repugnants in the next election, and it wouldn't matter much. The US has now repeatedly demonstrated it's broadly fine with fascism and paedophilia in highest office. No one with half a brain expects that to magically change over night.
Given the long, steady decline of US public education, one catastrofuck of a President could maybe be swept under the (extremely large) rug, if I were feeling incredibly generous, but this time they knew full well what they were voting for - still they chose the orange Halfwit King.
The US currently represents a national-security threat to quite literally everyone, and that leaves governments with no choice but to plan accordingly. Pax Americana is no more. Thank your repbulican neighbours.
God I hope that fucking maggot doesn't get to enjoy a long life, or a remotely comfortable one.
How no one has shot this piece of utter trash is beyond me.
I'm getting the urge to start crowd-funding DDOS and doxxing attacks on data brokers and their personnel, on pure principle. Fuck the parasites into ignominious ends.
I realise all of that.
By the time you lot wake up the republic will have died, to rapturous applause, along with the rest of your comparatively limited freedoms.
Yeah, sorry, should've worded that better. Didn't mean to imply you were. That first bit was mostly a mini-rant on western exceptionalism in general. It seems to have completely blinded shedloads of our so-called 'experts' to the actual realities of international relations, kinetic or otherwise.
I don't understand why so many people seem to think Iran didn't have a clue the global west was using the strait for transit until earlier this year. They've perfectly well understood the importance of the strait for as long as the west has been shipping energy through it, at the very least. They have a diplomatic corps, negotiators, intelligence agencies, game theorists, and civil servants, just like the rest of us. What's worse for US power, hard and soft, is they now know how relatively weak the US is militarily compared to its bleating on the subject, and how incredibly thoroughly it's kneecapped its soft power among allies. Iran may well have already concluded all of this, but now they have receipts the whole world saw printed. They also now know that if they want another go at some point, they need only sustain a war for some weeks or months before the US has depleted several years worth of missile production and has to go home again, since the US military is well aware putting boots on Kharg Island means inviting free throws from up and down the coast. Plus, they have the local 'nuclear option' of mining the everliving fuck out of the shipping lanes, which logic dictates has also long since been gamed out in Tehran.
Yep. Read it; was good. Thanks!
The "Left", it froths, its limited understanding of basic-ass English on full display. Good job, worm.
Precisely. Until then - all cops are bastards. Only a matter of how bastardly. At this point there really, actually is no discernible difference between yank law "enforcement" outfits and a random gang of base thieves, excepting maybe the stationary and quality of card stock tax payer cash can buy.
While I'm not exactly the US' biggest fan, and haven't been for a long time, now - it's a tad soul-rending watching its future being murdered right to fuck by a thousand idiotic cuts.
Excellent. More "people" whose deaths I'll be celebrating with a massive, shit-eating grin on my face. Here's hoping they each get to meet someone like me in real life before their time is up. I'd love a few minutes with each of them.
Wtf, Netgear are still around? How is that even possible? I can't recall having heard a single good thing about anything Netgear branded since the mid 00s or something. Do people actually buy shit from them still, or do they survive purely on ISPs' captive clientele?
Viral - and...?
Something I've been meaning to ask for years: Can someone please explain to me why in the everloving fuck something having gone viral is (A) noteworthy in any way, given all it means is 'many eyeballs', and (B) why every single journalist alive reports on incidents of sudden popularity online as though the popularity itself was at least as important as the subject matter. Maybe it actually is. Wouldn't even surprise me, any more. It's always struck me as a sign of something fundamental - other than the extraction class owning it all - being extremely broken in modern journalism, but I've never been close enough to it to get a sense of whether I'm right or wrong or just stupid.
If you think Democrats will be able to magically fix something done to you over generations you're in for the fucking mother of all rude awakenings, if and when you realise just how fucked your education system(s) are.
Oh, I'm not so sure. I was until I took a look at what films have been made in the past five-ish years and promptly lost all interest yet again. I spent at least an hour or so looking, but precisely nothing interested me enough to even spend the minutes required to pirate it. I am, apparently, far enough from Hollywood's target demographics I won't have to worry overly much about budgeting for Hollywood-media consumption in future, by the looks of things.
I like how pretty much every single one of my friends has mocked me (tried to impart FOMO, more like) over the years for never once giving any of these shithouses neither a penny nor a minute of my time. They're keeping their noise holes markedly shut on the matter, these days.
Following up by using security camera footage from the train wreck of a raid in his video was just about the most perfect icing ever to grace a cake.
"Worrying a bit too much"?
From the outside, it sure do be looking to me like you lot are worrying way, way less than you should be. Not a single brownshirt killed to date, that I'm aware of. In the gun-and-death-worshipping nation that has spent the better part of a century shouting about how they saved everyone from fascism and how no one else did a damn thing in comparison. How many of you are they going to be allowed to kill, maim, deport, stuff in concentration camps, or all of the above, before you wake up to what needs doing? Dems could completely steamroll the repugnants in the next election, and it wouldn't matter much. The US has now repeatedly demonstrated it's broadly fine with fascism and paedophilia in highest office. No one with half a brain expects that to magically change over night. Given the long, steady decline of US public education, one catastrofuck of a President could maybe be swept under the (extremely large) rug, if I were feeling incredibly generous, but this time they knew full well what they were voting for - still they chose the orange Halfwit King. The US currently represents a national-security threat to quite literally everyone, and that leaves governments with no choice but to plan accordingly. Pax Americana is no more. Thank your repbulican neighbours.
God I hope that fucking maggot doesn't get to enjoy a long life, or a remotely comfortable one. How no one has shot this piece of utter trash is beyond me.
I'm getting the urge to start crowd-funding DDOS and doxxing attacks on data brokers and their personnel, on pure principle. Fuck the parasites into ignominious ends.
I realise all of that. By the time you lot wake up the republic will have died, to rapturous applause, along with the rest of your comparatively limited freedoms.