Politics

[kv]

Oh it wasn't a disaster guys, don't worry...lots of guys got hella rich!...it wasn't all for not...


My thoughts just go to what will those same people be doing now to make the bread

That's what scares me...

[kv]

And ya 20+ years...and it boiled down to Obama freed their new leader and trump freed thousands and made "peace"....our kids went over there and killed....we all own that fucking mess..party aside the US owns it....let's bury that shit asap, thank fuck

[mockbee]

yeah, I really do hope that leadership of all stripes and public concludes this was an all around colossal failure.

The first thing to unite us all in a long, long while!

[mockbee]

At the same time, heart goes out to all the veterans and the families who lost loved ones.

Family member works for the VA, got this note from the VHA Chief of Staff:

August 16, 2021


Teammates,


As a post 9/11 Veteran, I would like to speak directly to those of you who served in Afghanistan and are watching recent developments in that region you all know too well. You did the job your country asked of you and we at VA are proud of your sacrifice and your service. But the news over the weekend was tough to watch. And for some, it has been even tougher to process. We are already hearing from our VA medical facilities across the country that calls and visits from Veterans emotionally impacted by the events in Afghanistan are increasing.

This news comes during a surge in COVID-19 breakthrough cases due to the Delta variant, adding to stress levels and feelings of burnout among our employees – perhaps especially our Veteran employees. Please remember VA is here for you, and for all Veterans. We have the Employee Assistance Program and I urge you to take advantage of this resources.

If you are a Veteran or know of a Veteran who is having a hard time, VA has a variety of resources and tools you can use or share:

VHA mental health services, including how family members can assist a Veteran in crisis
Veterans Crisis Line: Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 press 1
Finding local mental health services and resources: Resources | Videos & Info for Military Veterans | Make the Connection
Information on how to access immediate care and/or book a mental health appointment: VA Mental Health Services | Veterans Affairs
Vet Center resources are also available and include counseling, there is also a toll-free number: 877-WAR-VETS

As we continue to hear more about the events in Afghanistan and in the lead up to the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we anticipate a continued surge in demand for mental health services. We are preparing additional resources to help Veterans and VHA staff alike who are struggling with mental health, stress or burnout and we will be distributing them broadly. We are also encouraging Veterans to check in with their fellow Veterans via Buddy Check. For more information and resources associated with Buddy Check, please check with your local Veterans Service Organizations as many of them sponsor this program.

Please remember your service to our country matters, and you should remain proud of your sacrifice. If for whatever reason you have difficulty or hesitation in seeking any of the VHA resources noted above, or feel like you have no place to turn, please reach out to me directly. Let’s all take care of each other.


Thank you all for you do for Veterans!



- Jon M. Jensen

[kv]

Oof

[Pandemonium]

One thing Biden owns is how this is going down.

Watching video of hundreds of Afghans chasing and clinging to C-17 Globemasters taxing down runways with some falling off the plane thousands of feet in the air is just sickening.

We (The USA) promised the thousands of Afghans that helped our guys in that country that we would take care of them and their families when the time came for the draw-down. There was plenty of time to quietly pull many of these people out of the country. Not only that, weeks ago when the draw-down was announced, the US basically and abruptly stopped servicing and supporting the Afghan military. That the Taliban so quickly and easily took back their country is an indictment of yet another massive failure of US “intelligence” who supposedly told Biden the Afghans could hold off the Taliban for several months.

Yeah, at some point (and it has been nearly 2 decades) that Afghans would have to stand up for themselves, something clearly they are not up to task, but we should have at least kept our promise to the people who risked all to help us.

[Bandit72]

Anyone who thinks the Taliban have "changed" in the last 20 years are completely insane.

[chaos]

A condensed summation of the last 20 years in Afghanistan (10-15 minute read):

The 20 Years’ War: America in Afghanistan
Strategic blunders by each administration virtually assure that the future of Afghanistan will reflect the interests of the Taliban, not the United States.
Paul Miller Jul 12
https://thedispatch.com/p/the-20-years- ... rc=nl_fix

[Artemis]

After a gruelling 36 day campaign, it's election day in Canada. The polls just closed in the east coast.

Will JT get re-elected with a Liberal Majority??

https://globalnews.ca/news/8164886/live ... -election/

[SR]

Biden's Green book broken dowm Still, terrifying.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... k-records/

[Artemis]

Dr Oz running as Repub for the US Senate.

[SR]

Our northern friend says we could be burning. Add AI job redistribution, climate issues, and racial instability and he's got a point.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ump-canada

[Hokahey]

Our northern friend says we could be burning. Add AI job redistribution, climate issues, and racial instability and he's got a point.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ump-canada

This is alarmist nonsense. For a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that the military would never, ever allow themselves to be under dictator control. The overwhelming majority of service personnel are conservative, but they're also very pro-Democracy.

The threat of more right wing violence is obviously very credible, but that's a different conversation.

[Hype]

Our northern friend says we could be burning. Add AI job redistribution, climate issues, and racial instability and he's got a point.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ump-canada

This is alarmist nonsense. For a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that the military would never, ever allow themselves to be under dictator control. The overwhelming majority of service personnel are conservative, but they're also very pro-Democracy.

The threat of more right wing violence is obviously very credible, but that's a different conversation.

I hope you're right, but even in Canada, there are known pockets of neo-Nazi and otherwise fascist / far-right sentiment in the military. And far-right groups actively try to recruit people in the military. It's also worth remembering that Hitler's rise to power was done through democratic means. He only became a dictator after already securing his position as Chancellor.

Maybe it's true that, especially current, high-ranking officers wouldn't tolerate an asshat like Trump trying to become a dictator. But it's not clear what recourse they or anyone else really has if someone does try to pull this off. Are they going to pull off a coup? Really? How is that any better? How is that going to ensure a return to a democratic status quo?

It's really not clear how all of this is going to hang together, given how much absolutely evil insane shit has been tolerated by so many people in the current Congress / Senate / White House. Democrats don't seem to be able to get their own house in order. The older and more conservative Democrats (like Pelosi) seem to be stuck thinking things haven't changed and that Republicans have any desire for good faith interactions with them. But the vast majority of Republicans since the Tea Party wave seem to have shown that they're perfectly willing to kowtow to extremist and absolutely batshit elements in the base. It's not good.

It's been a long time since the worst thing you could say about the United States is that fundamentalist Christians were the problem.

[clickie]

I didn't want to start a whole new thread about it but sometimes It feels like i'm living in the twilight zone where people think it's normal to have transgender men being allowed to compete in womens sports.

[Six7Six7]

I didn't want to start a whole new thread about it but sometimes It feels like i'm living in the twilight zone where people think it's normal to have transgender men being allowed to compete in womens sports.

I don't think it's acceptable either.

Why can't they compete against the men? Oh... because the hormones change their ability to compete? INTERESTING.

[Hokahey]

This is such a hot button issue. On one hand, I absolutely feel for the transgender athlete that just wants to compete against their own gender. On the other hand, it feels dramatically unfair to have a physically born man dominate in the women’s category, taking away a potential lifetime of hard work to get to the top.

But like everything else in this world these days, everyone wants to see it in black-and-white and have no empathy for the impacted people with a different viewpoint than their own.

It almost feels like there should be some type of mixed category for competition that would allow any and all genders, including non-binary, but would there be enough people to compete? And I’m sure people would even throw fits about that as well. It would either be too woke of an idea or not woke enough.

[clickie]

now we're headed towards the point where womens college scholarships might start being given to men who identify themselves as female. The line has to be drawn somewhere.

[Six7Six7]

now we're headed towards the point where womens college scholarships might start being given to men who identify themselves as female. The line has to be drawn somewhere.

I think they should have to acknowledge that they themselves have drawn a line that makes it impossible to compete without breaking the rules.

The men who have transitioned to women will tell you its not fair to make them compete against the men because of the estrogen they take, while completely ignoring that their natural testosterone has given them an unfair advantage against the women.

And the women who transitioned to men will tell you that the naturally occurring estrogen in their body gives them an unfair disadvantage against the men, while ignoring that the testosterone they take gives them an advantage against the women.

So the only fair thing to do is disqualify them from competing against either. With unnatural hormones in their body, they're breaking the rules that everyone else has to adhere to.

[clickie]

More people need to stand up for it




https://thespun.com/more/olympics/legen ... an-rapinoe

[clickie]

Could you imagine if Alcaraz put on a wig and decided from now on he's going to play as a woman. He would shatter every record.

[someguy]

Lia Thomas went ranked from 554th to 5th in the 200 free and 65th to 1st in the 500 free, but because she didn’t break any national records there’s no biological advantage apparently

[Hokahey]

Could you imagine if Alcaraz put on a wig and decided from now on he's going to play as a woman. He would shatter every record.

Thats a false equivalency. That has nothing to do with being transgender.

I fully support women being able to compete fairly against one another. I also believe trans women are women, at least in so much as how they are treated and acknowledged. But there has to be acknowledgment of where unfair advantages exist (I nor anyone here are likely complete experts on puberty blockers, hormone treatments, etc). It’s a more complicated issue than either side seems willing to acknowledge (surprise!). We have to find a way as a society to seek truth above all else and stop making everything about gut reaction and fighting against the other side.

[Hype]

One thing that makes this discussion more difficult than it might otherwise be is that the issues with the division of athletics into men's/women's (male/female) categories to try to provide "fair play" are not just challenged by transgender athletes, but by intersex athletes, and by natural variations in physiology.

In some cases, these athletes have dominated the elite field in women's events. There have been attempts (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_i ... _Olympians) to try to find ways to manage this to make the field more "fair", but the criteria aren't settled and aren't obvious. For one thing, innate biological differences in men's sport also exist and seem to be far more tolerable. E.g., Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt both had massive physiological (untrained) advantages in body shape, muscle type, genetic aerobic characteristics, etc., that made them damned near unbeatable for significant stretches of time. There's also the well-known phenomenon in MMA / boxing of intentionally dehydrating for weigh-ins and then competing at a heavier weight against people who are therefore at an unfair disadvantage. It is unclear whether some of the advantages of intersex atheletes are reasonably distinguishable from those sorts of advantages, and as a result, it's unclear that transgender atheletes, in at least some cases, don't also simply have the same sorts of advantages that can't easily be distinguished from natural variations in genetics/biology among females.

The main objection is that the division of sport into sexed categories is necessary in the first place because of the natural physiological differences between males and females (particularly in terms of peak athletic performance). This is true. What makes settling the transgender case difficult in any particular case is that there is no universally agreed upon cutoff, and there are biological female (or unknowingly intersex) athletes who are permitted to compete who push the boundaries of these biological criteria in the first place (consider, e.g., FloJo, who may have done so using steroids, but then, so do male athletes). This is not to say that we shouldn't try to figure out how to ensure fair play for women in athletics, but just to note that in the pursuit of athletic excellence in at least some areas the gap between women and men has already been shrinking, and this may be because a significant portion of the apparent sex differences between male and female athletes are not purely biological, but also historical (because sexist beliefs about women and physical exertion made it impossible for those women who were suited to it to push the sport forward until very recently--like, literally the last 40-50 years).

So yes, there are cases where there's obviously an unfair advantage for a transgender athlete in a women's event, and we ought to figure out how to best manage these cases so that we don't completely destroy the point of having women's sport separate from men in the first place, but, conversely, if we introduce restrictions that are too narrow or too stringent, we risk undermining the entire concept of women's athletics in the opposite way: removing the possibility of natural competitive advantages and the spirit of progressive improvement over time, which in the very long run may lead to a unifying of some athletic pursuits in the way that, e.g., elite ultramarathons already, to some degree, are (Courtney Dauwalter, and a few other women are routinely better than men at these extreme endurance events).

So, yeah, there's a problem here, but it's tricky because there's a risk of breaking the entire concept of sports/athletics altogether.

[kv]

I agree with everything you just said

Secretariat the greatest horse ever....genetic freak...heart 3x the size of average race horse...how was that "fair"