I have to say looking at the whole Afghanistan situation with the policy education and experience I've attained over that time is illuminating. Because what I see in the US's Afghanistan intervention is something I see all too often in government policies.
Something bad happens, so the government commits to making it better. This becomes a sprawling commitment to make everything better without putting any thought into how to do that, or even if tis possible to do that. So then officials (in this case, the military) are handled a bundle of money and told to fix things. They flap around doing random things because when there are no success criteria activity becomes a substitute for accomplishment.
And that's how you waste 20 years, billions of dollars and countless lives.
I don't think there was ever a way Afghanistan was going to work out, a narrowly-targeted intervention (attack the Taliban as a punitive strike for harbouring Al Qaeda) could have succeeded, but there is no known way of turning a country like Afghanistan into a modern liberal democracy. All Biden has done by withdrawing is acknowledge the failure. The way so many people have reacted is precisely why failed projects carry on for so long in government.
The one thing I think Biden does deserve criticism for is the shambolic state of the withdrawal. The US government should go out of its way to ensure everyone who worked for the US government can get to safety, along with the people the Taliban are likely to kill once they have secured the country
The fact that the official government collapsed so quickly shows that we spend twenty years funneling money into something that would never stand up on its own. Also lots of young Americans died for no reason but many defense contractors became very rich.
I'm sure the defense contractors are part of it, but the politicians themselves got something important out of keeping things going for so long - not having to admit they had failed. Politicians don't like to admit they are wrong and they really don't like to be shown clearly and publicly that they are wrong.
It takes a lot of strength to admit such a large policy endeavour has failed.
Well, New Zealand has a COVID problem too now. We got a new community case on Tuesday and now the whole country is on Level 4 lockdown until they can figure out the chain of transmission. To give you an idea of how that compares to the New South Wales lockdown, here's a comparison:
I think you're right. Johanssen is 36, and for a woman in Hollywood that's old enough to be approaching the end of her career. She may be trying to get all the money she can before her opportunities dry up and that would make her willing to burn bridges for more money now.
I don't think this really does any good, it seems to me that the states where vaccination rates are low, compliance with a mask mandate will also be low. And where vaccination rates are high, masking is unnecessary.
And at this point, if I were surrounded by vaccine-refusers, I'd be really resistant to keep wearing a mask. I mean if people don't want to be protected from COVID, why not oblige them?
And unfortunately, nothing will change unless they are held accountable for the deaths they cause through inaction, and not merely the deaths they cause through action.
I'm definitely not going to develop any hype for Starfield right now. For one thing, it's been a decade since Bethesda have made a game I liked. At this point I don't even know if its going to be mandatory first-person which is a deal-killer for me. Even then, I found Fallout 4's combat too frenetic to be enjoyable without modding back in a full pause for VATS.
That said, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it over the next year and a bit and see if it is the sort of thing I want to have a go at.
I completed the third character in the weekend. The first two were easy enough (I'm doing Sal again at Level 2), but Smith took me several goes to figure out - I found his combat really counter-intuitive.
A game came out of Early Access this week that I've been enjoying: Griftlands.
Conceptually, it's very similar to Slay the Spire - you advance your character through of escalating challenges using a deck of cards. But there are some really interesting elaborations. For one thing there's an actual plot - the three characters each have a story to play through. And instead of just choosing between different room, your choosing between different jobs that will directly or indirectly lead you to your goals.
There are two different sets of challenges, each coming with their own deck you can customise - Combat and Negotiation. The mechanics are different enough between each that there is a legitimately different feel to playing each one. Abd your quests are all happening in and around the same town, so you can start to develop a reputation with different locals that may help or hurt you.
Maybe the RNC can pass a bunch of rules restricting the ability of Republican voters to participate in their primary elections, and give more power to senior members to overturn any primary election they don’t like.
The thing is though, how would the Republican leadership actually oust Trump? Nominations are controlled by the base, not the leadership and so long as the Right Wing media is on Trump's side, anyone who challenges him will just get primaried out. In New Zealand the party leadership would just purge all the Trumpists, but US political parties don't seem to really have leadership in that sense.
Don't get me wrong, they should do it anyway because the Republican Party cannot be allowed to continue to exist in its current form and besides which a coward dies a thousand times before his death but the valiant taste of death but once.
But lets be honest, if the anti-Trump rump of the Republicans party tries to fight the Trumpists they will lose, and I understand why they are hesitant to go over the top.
I think you're letting the word "Republicans" do a little too much work here Eric. Because you're right that conservative media could bury Trump, but the Republican party can't.
The Republican Party is controlled by cable TV now and they have no reason to cancel Trump's circus act. After all, it's great for ratings.
Samoa has been independent for 60 years, and the ousted Prime Minister has been PM for 22 of them. I think this feeds into the constitutional issues at play here. It's been a generation since a change of PM, do the Samoan people and its critical institutions see the election winner as the rightful PM, or Malielegaoi through sheer force of inertia?
Alas it will be months at least before I can get a vaccine. Still I'm glad to hear you've gotten your second dose, may you enjoy your return to going out and doing things.
Honestly, I'd go for the brute force approach - use proportional representation by state for the House. No congressional districts means no gerrymandering.
On “A Just War or An Unjust Peace”
I have to say looking at the whole Afghanistan situation with the policy education and experience I've attained over that time is illuminating. Because what I see in the US's Afghanistan intervention is something I see all too often in government policies.
Something bad happens, so the government commits to making it better. This becomes a sprawling commitment to make everything better without putting any thought into how to do that, or even if tis possible to do that. So then officials (in this case, the military) are handled a bundle of money and told to fix things. They flap around doing random things because when there are no success criteria activity becomes a substitute for accomplishment.
And that's how you waste 20 years, billions of dollars and countless lives.
I don't think there was ever a way Afghanistan was going to work out, a narrowly-targeted intervention (attack the Taliban as a punitive strike for harbouring Al Qaeda) could have succeeded, but there is no known way of turning a country like Afghanistan into a modern liberal democracy. All Biden has done by withdrawing is acknowledge the failure. The way so many people have reacted is precisely why failed projects carry on for so long in government.
The one thing I think Biden does deserve criticism for is the shambolic state of the withdrawal. The US government should go out of its way to ensure everyone who worked for the US government can get to safety, along with the people the Taliban are likely to kill once they have secured the country
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: The Ascent”
Humankind came out this week, a new 4X by Amplitude, the people who do the "Endless" series, but this one is a historical 4X.
I'm still getting into it, but it's interesting and has enough differences from Civ to make it stand on its own.
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Alternate Babysitter”
My weekend will be staying at home, under Level 4 there are few places I'm allowed to go, and even fewer places that are actually open.
On “What The Biden Administration is Not Saying About Afghanistan Is Getting Louder”
I'm sure the defense contractors are part of it, but the politicians themselves got something important out of keeping things going for so long - not having to admit they had failed. Politicians don't like to admit they are wrong and they really don't like to be shown clearly and publicly that they are wrong.
It takes a lot of strength to admit such a large policy endeavour has failed.
On “OT Contributor Podcast: Heard Tell on Australian Lockdowns, Covid-19, and Leadership”
Well, New Zealand has a COVID problem too now. We got a new community case on Tuesday and now the whole country is on Level 4 lockdown until they can figure out the chain of transmission. To give you an idea of how that compares to the New South Wales lockdown, here's a comparison:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126107464/how-new-zealands-level-4-compares-to-nsws-strict-covid19-lockdown
Hopefully it won't be for long, once they can figure out how it got in they can start narrowing down the locked-down area.
On “The Lawsuit That Could Define The Future Of The Film Industry”
I think you're right. Johanssen is 36, and for a woman in Hollywood that's old enough to be approaching the end of her career. She may be trying to get all the money she can before her opportunities dry up and that would make her willing to burn bridges for more money now.
On “Covid-19 CDC Guidance For The Fully Vaccinated: Read It For Yourself”
I don't think this really does any good, it seems to me that the states where vaccination rates are low, compliance with a mask mandate will also be low. And where vaccination rates are high, masking is unnecessary.
And at this point, if I were surrounded by vaccine-refusers, I'd be really resistant to keep wearing a mask. I mean if people don't want to be protected from COVID, why not oblige them?
On “Mandatory Vaccines for Veterans Affairs and Other Health Care Workers As Covid Cases Climb”
And unfortunately, nothing will change unless they are held accountable for the deaths they cause through inaction, and not merely the deaths they cause through action.
On “750 Unmarked Graves Found At Second Canadian Residential School”
That's also fair.
"
Can't argue with that.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: The First E3 In Forever”
I'm definitely not going to develop any hype for Starfield right now. For one thing, it's been a decade since Bethesda have made a game I liked. At this point I don't even know if its going to be mandatory first-person which is a deal-killer for me. Even then, I found Fallout 4's combat too frenetic to be enjoyable without modding back in a full pause for VATS.
That said, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it over the next year and a bit and see if it is the sort of thing I want to have a go at.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Griftlands is out of Early Access”
I completed the third character in the weekend. The first two were easy enough (I'm doing Sal again at Level 2), but Smith took me several goes to figure out - I found his combat really counter-intuitive.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: The Oculus Quest 2”
A game came out of Early Access this week that I've been enjoying:Griftlands.
Conceptually, it's very similar to Slay the Spire - you advance your character through of escalating challenges using a deck of cards. But there are some really interesting elaborations. For one thing there's an actual plot - the three characters each have a story to play through. And instead of just choosing between different room, your choosing between different jobs that will directly or indirectly lead you to your goals.
There are two different sets of challenges, each coming with their own deck you can customise - Combat and Negotiation. The mechanics are different enough between each that there is a legitimately different feel to playing each one. Abd your quests are all happening in and around the same town, so you can start to develop a reputation with different locals that may help or hurt you.
On “Republicans Are Not Helpless Against Trump”
This, but unironically.
"
The thing is though, how would the Republican leadership actually oust Trump? Nominations are controlled by the base, not the leadership and so long as the Right Wing media is on Trump's side, anyone who challenges him will just get primaried out. In New Zealand the party leadership would just purge all the Trumpists, but US political parties don't seem to really have leadership in that sense.
Don't get me wrong, they should do it anyway because the Republican Party cannot be allowed to continue to exist in its current form and besides which a coward dies a thousand times before his death but the valiant taste of death but once.
But lets be honest, if the anti-Trump rump of the Republicans party tries to fight the Trumpists they will lose, and I understand why they are hesitant to go over the top.
"
I think you're letting the word "Republicans" do a little too much work here Eric. Because you're right that conservative media could bury Trump, but the Republican party can't.
The Republican Party is controlled by cable TV now and they have no reason to cancel Trump's circus act. After all, it's great for ratings.
On “A Contested Election…No, Not That One, The Samoan One”
Samoa has been independent for 60 years, and the ousted Prime Minister has been PM for 22 of them. I think this feeds into the constitutional issues at play here. It's been a generation since a change of PM, do the Samoan people and its critical institutions see the election winner as the rightful PM, or Malielegaoi through sheer force of inertia?
On “The Justice Department and the Very Delicate Feelings of Devin Nunes”
For this alone Nunes should be impeached or ejected from the House, along with whoever signed off on this.
On “O Inflation, Where Art Thou?”
The tendency of the US government to report annualised monthly or quarterly changes in the manner of annual changes is utterly infuriating.
On “The CDC and Misinformation Within The Parameters of Truth”
The moral is to never tell the same lie twice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl66ilQCCNs
On “Weekend Plans Post: Post-Vaccination Normalcy?”
Alas it will be months at least before I can get a vaccine. Still I'm glad to hear you've gotten your second dose, may you enjoy your return to going out and doing things.
On “Stacey Abrams’s Big Lie Has Real Consequences”
Honestly, I'd go for the brute force approach - use proportional representation by state for the House. No congressional districts means no gerrymandering.
On “Prince Philip Dead at 99”
If you have to tell everyone you're King, then you're not King.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Cozy Grove and Being Nice”
I'm hanging out for the Stellaris update on Friday (my time), in the meanwhile I'm mostly playing Slay the Spire and the digital version of Root.
On “Prince Philip Dead at 99”
You need to change that to every important foreign conflict, they weren't on the winning side of the English Civil War.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.