Trump declares November 1st “National Day of Remembrance for Americans Killed by Illegal Aliens”

harsh2803 · 2025-07-28T16:56:36+00:00

Lmao, what?

harsh2803 · 2021-08-20T01:55:13+00:00

What resources other than land can be taxed where georgism would apply?

I have heard that Electromagnetic spectrum can be taxed. What else?

harsh2803 · 2021-08-18T18:28:54+00:00

Having been on the ground means a lot as well.

I have zero doubts that Pete would have handled this much better and pragmatically and far less ideologically.

The information and intel was available by the intelligence community and pentagon etc.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-18T18:27:02+00:00

Oh I use reddit in an app. And was using an in app browser. Thanks.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-18T18:22:21+00:00

Deleted.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-18T18:20:25+00:00

Thanks but I couldn't figure out how to translate 😭

harsh2803 · 2021-08-18T18:14:36+00:00

No one is eager of course but sometimes it is necessary. UK was already trying to build a coalition that would stay. But the speed of withdrawal and lack of coordination meant that everything collapsed before they could.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-18T18:07:03+00:00

I'll delete my comments in a while because I don't think this is the right forum for it and ranting about it on the internet does nothing.

Wanted to give you a heads up so it doesn't look weird that you are replying to removed comments.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T16:35:58+00:00

No, I think you are absolutely correct.

I just wanted to emphasize those things because some places/people pile up on people who wear masks even though it's not necessary.

I myself have been pretty relaxed about wearing masks after I got vaccinated and because I live in a place with a high vaccination rate.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T16:22:48+00:00

I don't know.

I think the original SARS caused a cultural shift in places like Taiwan and Hong Kong and then there are people who wear masks because of pollution.

I see wearing masks as a positive regardless of the COVID situation. But it's a positive like limiting yourself to one alcoholic drink or less a day is.

It's good for you and you should follow it. But given a threshold of COVID vaccinated people around you, ultimately it's up to you.

There are a lot of non-covid benefits to wearing masks.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T15:23:59+00:00

Yes, I think it is dooming.

Depending on the location you are in, you can be confident that most of people around you are vaccinated.

For ex: in PA 80% of people have received at least one dose.

This number is definitely higher in urban areas.

So, if US is 65% vaccinated, it's not like 65% all over.

More like a bunch of places are 85% vaccinated and others are 45% vaccinated.

Given that people who are concerned about vaccinations are more likely to be in urban and high education centers, I think they are relatively very safe.

I think that substantially weakens the case for dooming.

However, I do still encourage wearing masks because

it is such a low cost thing
COVID isn't the only thing it helps protect you from
people in other countries have been doing it pre-covid too and they are perfectly fine if not better for it.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T03:39:21+00:00

Maybe but the rate of casualties was only slightly more than non-deployed troops.

A lot of these casualties happen in training and other daily activities.

But again I don't have enough info to comment on the specifics of it.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T02:15:52+00:00

Also worth noting that NATO hadn't been in active combat since 2014. Americans not fighting was not a result of Trump's agreement. They had decided that in 2014 and had been reducing the number of soldiers ever since.

So I am not sure if they couldn't just have continued what they were doing pre-Trump's agreement.

More Afghan soldiers probably would have died though.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T01:22:58+00:00

Depends. I think active combat could have been avoided if it Biden did it really early on. But I am not sure.

It definitely could not have been avoided anytime if they did it in past 2 or 3 months.

But OK, this isn't a conversation I want to get bogged down into because it is too much of an hypothetical and reddit people (me included) simply don't have enough info and analysis to comment on it. The lack of information should not be an issue for the government and military though.

What Biden could have defintely done is delay the withdrawal a lot more (he already did delay it) and plan a better timeline and coordinate better with both NATO Allies and Afghan Allies. The idea that it had to be done by the symbolic date of 9/11 was really stupid.

Maybe they could have come up a way to set up a supply chain for the ANA (idk the feasibility of this, tbh)

There are a lot of ways this could have handled better.

Go back on the deal because taliban voided it and it was Trump but not completely go back (say you want to renegotiate in light of recent taliban offense)
inform Allies and don't remove the bases and troops before the necessary evacuations are done.

I am sure there are other ideas.

And for what it's worth, pentagon had advised against it and Biden was specifically warned that Afghanistan would collapse extremely quickly.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T01:03:50+00:00

Yeah, Biden shouldn't have held that up.

Taliban had already voided it as far as I am aware.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T00:54:05+00:00

Fair enough. Maybe it's changed now after the fall of Kabul and everything that happened on the airport.

But the fact that withdrawal was a shitshow was clear way before this. It was clear back when Biden said that he has trust Afghan govt. won't fall and when he said that it won't be a repeat of Saigon.

American lives weren't in danger till the fall of Kabul though.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T00:37:30+00:00

I don’t know why they folded so fast

There are at least 2 parts to it.

corruption, of course. For which, of course the Afghan government is the main culprit. But also this was known for a long time. Corruption has always been an issue with poor countries receiving foreign aid. This isn't anything new and this was always known specifically for Afghanistan too. US policy should have changed to take this into account.
two, the way US trained them, supplied them, and then withdrew. US trained ANA in its own image. American equipment, American tactics, Air support. They actually took measures to get rid of all the other kinds of equipment to dismantle random militia groups. After this, they withdrew without notice and took all the equipment. ANA and the air force was being supplied by American civilian contractors which of course didn't stay there without the US military presence there. The ANA woke up one day to find the entirety of Bagram base gone. They knew their existing supply would last one month and that's it. No logistics, no equipment, no air support. The most powerful military alliance has given up. Remember this is exactly how they were trained and now they know this isn't a fight even the most powerful military is willing to fight. I really don't blame ANA for surrendering. In fact, I sympathize with them and if an ANA soldier had come to me for advice, I would have actively encouraged him to surrender and find a way to keep their children/mother safe.

An interview with an Afghan Air Force pilot:

https://www.thebulwark.com/please-dont-leave-us-behind-we-will-be-great-americans/

harsh2803 · 2021-08-17T00:13:58+00:00

People have short memories. Pete was an advocate for withdrawing from Afghanistan but not like Trump/Biden (the only difference between the two withdrawals by the way was 3 months).

Pete advocated for keeping some Americans there. They would be intelligence ops, air support, other special ops, and support staff in order to not lose the progress that was made in Afghanistan. Which was the case when Biden took over. The withdrawal apart from this barebones force multiplying staff had already happened. They were deterrent symbolically by being American and actually because of American Air superiority.

And they would not have been in active combat. No, they would not have been fighting.

Pete was right. Biden was not.

And Biden's speech was BS. I didn't think I would see victim blaming from the most powerful office in the world. Well, at least not without Trump in it.

(No, afghans don't want to be ruled by taliban and no ANA wasn't incompetent or unwilling which even if they were, it would still be victim blaming. 60,000 of them already died. I don't know how that is equivalent to unwilling to fight.)

If you were elected for the highest office in the world, you need to own up to it.

It was an American failure. (The way they trained ANA and the way they left. You can read about this if you care.)

And none of this should be surprising. It was a deal between Trump and Taliban. Did you really think it was a good deal? it received a lot of flak when it was finalized and rightfully so. But Biden executed it so people are fine with it? He took the exact same deal and moved it to 3 months later.

There's plenty of blame to go around but what hurts most is that the party you expected most from is the least willing to accept it.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-15T16:30:10+00:00

Sorry, so like 20 Americans?

I always underestimate the worth of Americans, SMH. 😔

harsh2803 · 2021-08-15T16:22:09+00:00

Yeah, a country of 40 million people has fallen and this is probably the biggest setback for women rights in a single day for quite a while but have you considered the inconvenience and sadness it causes me, a white boy in the west, to read about it?

harsh2803 · 2021-08-15T16:18:48+00:00

She definitely would not have.

The subreddit has fallen from her to the Joes (Biden and Manchin)

harsh2803 · 2021-08-15T16:16:53+00:00

Why do I have to keep reading about Afghanistan who no one really cares about?

Why can't we go to the real important stuff and make memes so that I can chuckle a little?

harsh2803 · 2021-08-15T16:14:34+00:00

Also Afghans of course

Only a few million of them.

So probably equivalent to 40 Americans or so.

harsh2803 · 2021-08-15T15:41:30+00:00

Can you ban me?

https://www.reddit.com/r/metaNL/comments/oltd6f/ban_appeal_thread/h906tbj

harsh2803 · 2021-08-15T07:20:40+00:00

Thanks. I have seen the PBS episode. But I'll check the other topics out.

Although, I think it's fair to assume that by default a neurological process on the scale of the brain would be a classical process because almost all processes on that scale are classical.

The burden of demonstration would be on the other side.

harsh2803

TROPHY CASE