Gromnir

this outcome was avoidable. as much as people complain 'bout the costs o' twenty years, what is happening now was indeed avoided for two decades and coulda' been avoided much longer with an extreme limited counter-insurgency presence. leave 'cause twenty year costs were too high is not reasonable anymore than is stay 'cause so much had been invested and lost in twenty years. lord knows Gromnir ain't suggesting the past twenty years were handled well. am not suggesting if choice had to be made again that invasion and occupation were warranted-- keep in mind we has repeated many times now how the initial costs o' invasion and nation building were criminal undersold to the american people. am also knowing is impossible for those who fought in afghanistan to ignore the past, but am thinking the situational calculus for a withdrawal necessarily required a more dispassionate appraisal: as of 2021, did the costs o' leaving outweigh the cost o' staying? at the time trump maneuvered to let mullah baradar outta prison and negotiated with the freaking taliban and when biden made his choice to withdraw complete while announcing an actual deadline for such withdrawal, status quo were believed to be sustainable with as few as 3000 total troops and it were believed, in large part 'cause o' years o' decreasing lethality faced by US troops in afghanistan, that combat losses would continue to be extreme limited. perhaps those america soldiers and marines who would indeed die thousands of miles from home were too great a cost to bear when measured against the current and future chaos in afghanistan, but particularly if you genuine believed This would be the outcome, such requires cold blooded indifference to the plight o' the afghanistan people am unable to muster. were admitted difficult, but the right choice were to ignore twenty years past. ignore the equal inappropriate twenty more years arguments. biden had to decide costs and benefits in 2021. perhaps you will continue to believe biden made the correct choice but just got the logistics o' withdrawal wrong, but regardless, this outcome were very much in doubt and coulda' been avoided. 'course maybe those people clinging desperate to planes didn't realize just how "decent" is the taliban when dealing with prisoners and any who had aided the americans these past twenty years. ... am also kinda annoyed every time we hear media refer to the dramatic increase in "forced marriages" already taking place. am gonna need assume gd is with us on this point 'cause if he thinks taxes is theft, then is no question he sees forced marriages as slavery, yes? call it what it is even if it makes it tougher to bear.

well, the picture is from the ohio statehouse. am not thinking anybody would look for brains in ohio. HA! Good Fun!

and as soon as you show we are anywhere close to the fight 'bout slavery and other issues dividing north and south antebellum, then am gonna admit you got a point. can't even get folks like gd, the hardcore 2nd amendment folks and so-called libertarians, to agree that throwing protesters in unmarked vans and whisking away in the dead o' night in portland was an offense worth fighting 'bout. heck, can't get enough people concerned 'bout january 6 to even have a real investigation. is indeed a group o' extreme angry americans who want to burn it all down, at least if they don't get their way. we do indeed have insurrectionists, as we did in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. you aren't gonna have a revolution unless you get enough americans to agree situation is bad enough to start another freaking civil war. apathy is our biggest problem and you see civil war as just 'round the corner. maybe you think the cold war only took place in the mid to late 80s? were a whole lotta post ww2 conflict o' ideology in the US. you didn't think those decades o' strife were meaningful, but now you see revolution? HA! so again, if the strategy is waiting for america to implode, then gonna once again observe how you are spouting the same bs as did the soviets post ww2 w/o any self awareness o' what you are doing. not only were their strategy proven to be an obvious fail, but where are they now? you are not learning from history. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* the whole unstoppable october revolution bs were predicated on just such a belief. regardless, you don't recognize you is just parroting the soviet propaganda o' the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. race riots, gas crisis, inflation, not to mention korea, vietnam and nicaragua. is always something. is the next crisis in the US will be the deciding blow. no widespread hunger in the us. poverty, while far too high, is hardly at civil war inducing levels. sure, americans appear more willing than ever to give up on the democratic experiment than at any time since the early 1900s, but if you think that is good news for the folks in pottsylvania, you ain't learned much from your clear limited reading o' history. HA! Good Fun!

one thing we find amusing 'bout the fears o' the zombifying vaccine which beyond all reason continue to spread is that a bit over a year ago we saw the zombified trump base attacking government buildings in places such as ohio and michigan, and that were more than eight months before the vaccine were available. “These People Aren’t Zombies. They’re People.” HA! Good Fun!

the strategy didn't work out so well for the soviets, eh? you gotta point the goof gas gun the other way, boris. HA! Good Fun!

try a traditional béchamel and then add variations will result in nice alternatives to cheese. we got a few acquaintances with cheese issues and our most common solution is we take our ordinary cheese recipes and replace with a soubise variant o' béchamel. you would be surprised how many times we does a béchamel and folks not experienced with cooking will ask what kinda cheese is in the sauce. quasi related, but some folks is shocked that bolognese is pretty much a milk, stock, wine and meat sauce, and traditional has little or no tomato. cheese such as parmesan may be added, but is not part o' the sauce. however, our personal preference skews towards finding a way to add more cheese as 'posed to removing. HA! Good Fun!

slight alteration. if this is a yearly thing, we would love to see doing smaller historical venues such as willimsport, pa, but am thinking there is likely fields in puerto rico and cuba which is well known to natives o' those places, and is important to many mlb players, but is unknown to all save the most hardcore fans in the US. might need be a three game series to legitimize the travel though and am not sure if any team is willing to give up multiple games worth o' ticket sales. japan. south korea and taiwan may be a bit o' a stretch for an in-season game, but is no doubt more than a few historical and smallish venues in the western hemisphere which could support a yearly kinda small venue celebration. not small, but hockey does their winter classic in different locales every year. smart. complete unrelated, we would love to see a yearly nba game at a venues such as rucker park. but for baseball, do yearly field o' dreams game would have, in our mind, returns quick diminishing. HA! Good Fun!

wotr dogs were mountable by medium characters in the previous build, and at least initial in the current build, but wolf is near as viable so if you don't want to be cheaty, then wolf gets you to functional the same place. urban hunter will provide you and your mount access to the advanced combat maneuver feats w/o needing to meet the prerequisites, and curiously, the rider of said mount is (was) current getting the benefit of the mount's cmd, or vice versa, whichever is greater. attack numbers for animal companions are busted and have been since the initial beta. do not choose smilodon or similar expecting more than 3 attacks even mid/late game with multiattack... which is also not working as it is s'posed to. limited wolf attack numbers is mitigated to a large degree by trip and combat reflexes. and yes, divine hunter is the alternative we had in mind. lann is a particular good choice for taking divine hunter, although iomade does not provide ideal domains. nevertheless, glory is a nice option particular if you develop lann as a snapshot zen archer/divine hunter. 'course such is obvious not the melee kinda thing you were contemplating. with a wisdom based caster, taking zen archer has natural synergy. divine hound sounds good for teamwork feats. we did a colluding scoundrel/ fey speaker azata who were extreme useful in the previous beta build. we wanted a charisma caster 'cause the azata spells, while frequent ignoring sr, still include save checks. we wanted decent dcs for a few o' the impressive azata offensive spells. a 3 level dip for a caster class is normally a bad idea, but our party had three animal companion characters, so teamwork feats were win. sadly aivu does not benefit from the colluding scoundrel teamwork feat feature, but the azata team work power works. player created oracles are busted in multiple ways and we kinda gave up on them. am not certain how badly they are current broken. initially it were near impossible to create an oracle with the new beta regardless o' mystery. at some point you could create an oracle, but only if you did not take oracle at level one and recognizing that nature is/was verboten and would lock up your leveling attempt. etc. if you scroll up (don't waste the effort) you will see multiple complaints from this poster regarding the oracle as implemented in the current beta. HA! Good Fun!

fyi, dogs become large and are arguably the best animal companion option in the game. urban hunter is a non-obvious choice, but the free captor feats are worth looking at because of just how powerful the trip abilities are in wotr. that said, divine hound is also very impressive as you are a spontaneous caster who has cleric domain spells added to your list. am thinking there is a whole lotta excellent animal companion options, but most o' our personal efforts (mounted or otherwise) involve finding a way to get a leopard (tanky) or dogs/wolves, 'cause trip is gold. HA! Good Fun!

animal companion choices made at level one survive unscathed even if your subsequent levels restrict the animal companion choice to a critter which would preclude your level one choice. example: chose leopard for your sacred hunstmaster's animal companion at level 1. at level 4 you switch to sohei and you will keep leveling your leopard as posed to either having your leopard sudden becoming a horse or you receiving a second animal companion which is an equine. level one choice holds. converse, and counter intuitive, choose a horse for your character as a level one cavalier and then switch to divine hound at level two will mean your divine hound animal companion is a horse. proviso: given how buggy this recent build has been, our experience with the recent build is limited. HA! Good Fun!

you were doing sith stuff yes? shoulda' expected the dark-side would exact some warping. HA! Good Fun!

am not sacramento. am dozens o' miles east o' sacramento in a small and gated community which has a number o' small lakes as well as a branch o' the american river running through the property. for many years the only "store" within a dozen miles were a single gas station. "it doesn't happen," is always the response right up until it does. one kid too young to know better. one adult too arrogant to consider the possibilities. only takes one. HA! Good Fun!

first baseball game we watched in decades. were worth it. amazing ninth inning. however, is gonna be tough to repeat and subsequent games is gonna be unfair measured 'gainst white sox and yankees contest. maybe once a decade as 'posed to once a year? once every five years? HA! Good Fun!

first, the title is misleading The parks department reportedly said that she "became confrontational and did not cooperate when asked for identification information" as the reason they handcuffed her. now admitted, am thinking arrest is too much, but options become limited when a jerk won't comply with those democratic passed laws gd hates so much. second, people like gd drive us nuts. we has taken in more than a few rescue dogs, and while they is reasonable well trained, they frequent have personality quirks. would never bite a person, but another strange dog running up to them is gonna cause a response. "don't worry, my dogs are friendly," is shouted by the nice young lady approaching us with her bounding canines as Gromnir grits his teeth and prepares for the worst. our shouted rejoinder, "my dogs aren't," is, as often as not, ignored. sure enough, the friendly dogs come running up to our dogs and then chaos ensues when one o' our leashed hounds gets all snarly and angry. is no problems if your dogs and our dogs is leashed. is only a problem 'cause o' the, "my dogs are calm and well trained," don't have their animals leashed around animal and human strangers. if am out in the sticks and there is no chance we will come across other folks, then sure, we would let our well-trained and friendly dogs roam free, but as soon as we see other people, we leash, 'cause am knowing some people are deathly afraid o' dogs, 'cause sh!te happens, and 'cause afterwards the guy whose dogs weren't leashed always says, "but my dogs are usually so well behaved." HA! Good Fun! ps am similar infuriated by the shocking number o' people who ask if it is ok to pet our dogs as they is already reaching out to pet our dogs. such folks deserve to get a few stitches, but would nevertheless be our dog facing, at a minimum, some kinda doggie quarantine and the possibility o' being euthanized.

but again, am suspecting the folks who were fact checking were not actual doing so on the basis o' semantics quibble. the typical meme would include a picture o' general washington along with the following verbiage: George Washington Used Vaccines to Help Win the Revolutionary War were variations, but such were the gist o' the memes. so if you are a fact checker who in all probability has no idea o' what is variolation and you see that vaccines were invented by jenner twenty years after the american revolution, the understandable conclusion is that the meme is inaccurate. it takes a level o' knowledge one cannot expect fact checkers to possess to proper identify a great deal o' what gets labeled as misinformation. HA! Good Fun!

am not a fan o' game romances, with the notable quasi-romance o' tno and ravel from ps:t. however, if you are choosing three female-specific romance options 'mongst the bg2 companions and mazzy fentan is not selected, am thinking you need reexamine priorities. in bioware's defense, mazzy is typical acquired a bit late compared to other companions. am recalling this were the expressed reason for excluding the halfling from the romancable options. HA! Good Fun!

"Today's the day Judah."--Messala "Yes. Today's the day."--Judah Ben-Hur according to the pillow guy, today, august 13, is the day trump were s'posed to be returned to office. 'course mike lindell weren't the only one embracing wacky. *cricket chirp* HA! Good Fun!

americans and a few others will be able to leave on aircraft o' various types. what o' the thousands (millions) whom we enticed with the promise o' a better tomorrow? the new generation school teachers and university students? the businesses owners who catered to foreigners? anybody gonna be shocked by purges where anybody even accused o' working with or for kabul government faces horrible repercussions? and again, am not actual suggesting that a perpetual US presence in afghanistan with no end possible were an appealing alternative. tell troops who fought in afghnistan or families o' those who died there that the 2020 situation were what so many had died and suffered to protect is the worst kinda dark humor. we f'd this up at the start by being cheap and by being dishonest about goals. nevertheless, pretend as if the US does not bear considerable responsibility for the predictable atrocities which is gonna happen in our absence is also repugnant. the plan to go in were bad. not enough troops and treasure to achieve goals. the "plan" to get out is gonna result in horrors.

obvious alternatives are simply not reviewing for accuracy (complete free market of ideas) or having government get involved (1984). the parentheticals is tongue in cheek, but am thinking the alternatives is equally problematic. is too much information to be accurate reviewed, but do nothing is leading to a dangerous spread o' stoopid. any kinda attempt to review is necessarily gonna be private or government and both o' those options have drawbacks. some kinda independent private review o' the vast amount o' information maybe sounds like a swell idea, but if facebook is paying the folks who do the reviews is doubtful anybody will be convinced o' the independence o' the reviewers. however, it is amusing that a meme based on some version o' our george washington post a few pages previous were resulting in facebook misinformation tags. the problem were the title o' our linked story: How George Washington Used Vaccines to Help Win the Revolutionary War facebook does a quick search and learns that jenner didn't invent vaccines until 1796. the american revolution took place two decades previous. therefore, the george washington claim is obvious misinformation and were labeled as such. simple. the thing is, the linked story, as 'posed to the memes, clarified the misunderstanding: FULLY AWARE of the disaster in the north, George Washington realized that merely evading smallpox would no longer suffice; he wanted to prevent it altogether. Inoculation was already available, although the procedure -- called variolation -- was not without risks. The vaccines we're accustomed to today were not invented yet, so doctors would simply make a small incision in the patient's arm then introduce pus from the pustules of an infected victim into the wound. Variolation often resulted in a minor smallpox infection with a speedier recovery and vastly lower fatality rates, around two percent. Survivors were granted lifelong immunity. so is the meme misinformation or not? the story we linked clear explains variolation as 'posed to vaccination, but if you are a private or government body finding yourself tasked with fact checking, how do you decide where to draw the line? and if you is some nameless drone doing endless misinformation checks, what would make you look past the meme for a deeper explanation for how george washington coulda' embraced what we think o' today as vaccines? maybe just skip memes as impossible to review? 'course the ridiculous memes is the nonsense which goes (forgive the pun) viral. is too much information to be accurate reviewed, but do nothing is leading to a dangerous spread o' stoopid. is gonna be private or government and both o' those options have drawbacks. some kinda independent private review o' the vast amount o' information maybe sounds like a swell idea, but if facebook is paying the folks who do the reviews is doubtful anybody will be convinced o' the independence o' the reviewers. HA! Good Fun!

so, need advanced 'cause otherwise it would take 40 or more years to reach advanced, and oh yeah, correlation. circular and correlation is mighty compelling and insightful. *eye roll* and again, the projections were never for long-term deployment o' massive numbers o' troops. 500k and within 3-5 years your presence would be decreasing rapid. didn't need wait for advanced. peaceful and largely self-sufficient? yes. we ended up with decades 'cause the initial investment were deemed too much. HA! Good Fun!

reminds us how the US contributed something over $2.8 billion to road improvements in afghanistan, and by 2016 there were very little actual improvement. link But those development dollars often lined the pockets of insurgents, shady contractors and corrupt government officials. And roads have little benefit if they are controlled by militants or criminals. is more than a little justification in being angry with American foreign wars, but am actual personal just as angry with the stoopid. didn't take a prophet to foresee the endemic corruption and it were hardly surprising that american military commanders would be less than capable o' sniffing out swindlers and crooks. is not as if state department couldn't hire folks to do oversight. is actual the one job trump mighta' been suited for in government, 'cause if anybody knew 'bout construction swindels, it were trump. oh well, missed opportunities. tell us the start point is better for an educated population following a war? argue with your self on that point if it makes you feel better 'cause am not contesting, but is not relevant to your earlier observations. yeah, education becomes a priority for nation building if you don't have education, which is precise why the US spent so much effort trying to make japan's educational system a bit more egalitarian. regardless, is nothing you have stated which suggests not advanced is preventative insofar as nation building efforts or that such would resulting in 40 years before the nation building sponsors could see some kinda success worthy results. thinktankism? *chuckle* will take it it as 'posed to naked correlation reasoning. japan was relative advanced by some subjective scale, so of course afghanistan nation building failed because it was not. is same reason the yokels believe 5g towers cause covid-19. stability is not direct linked to advanced, and advance woulda' happened natural in time with the benefit o' peaceful stability and continued real support from the US. the US didn't need bring advanced to afghanistan if it had managed peaceful stability and had helped develop the foundation o' basic infrastructure (which includes education). again, w/o much useful practical input from the US, afghanistan has made impressive strides in improving one o' the worst educated populations on the planet. all those gains is gonna be erased, and we genuine shudder to think what is now gonna happen to all those educated afghani women. *shrug* regardless, there were never enough committed troops in iraq or afghanistan and is unlikely the US public woulda' agreed to either occupation if the US government were honest 'bout costs in troops and treasure. however, with honest we sure as heck wouldn't be facing the humanitarian crisis in afghanistan we see today. tell the US public the real costs o' anticipated nation building or, tell 'em nation building is off the table, but that an extended US presence would prevent any major terrorist actions for many decades to come at the admitted yearly cost o' american blood and a relative small pile of loot. given the events o' 9/11, am thinking there is a decent chance the american people woulda' agreed to less than nation building, but we were never trusted with that option. HA! Good Fun! ps am thinking it also should be self evident, but in the case o' iraq, the US efforts at nation building likely woulda' purposeful avoided genuine commitment to achieve advanced, whatever you might think is the essential qualities o' that rather non-specific descriptor. being dependent on resource exports as 'posed to capital good production has been a trap many o' the world's major oil producers has been unable to escape. have iraq become an example o' how to bootstrap at least into industrialized competition would not be in the interest o' the US or many other western powers. advanced as a goal? doubtful.

last time we were in naples were 'round christmas... 1999. had just seen the sixth sense. ... am knowing is ridiculous, but we couldn't get it outta our head what a nightmare it woulda' been for cole to be visiting pompeii. seeing as we don't drink, we do not have an excuse for why such a stoopid notion were distracting us. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/two-tennessean-doctors-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-yltudq/ is a couple weeks old at this point but might be worth watching, particular at ~7:35 (dr. explaining vaccine hesitancy explained by patients) and ~9:13 (the former head of the TN vaccine program explaining the continued embrace o' the inexplicable by those refusing the vaccine even after a 1.5 years o' the pandemic.) almost 25k new cases today in florida alone. cases inevitable translate to hospitalizations in a bit more than a week and hospitalizations still lead to a disturbing number o' deaths after 'bout two additional weeks. as such, current numbers is always two to three weeks behind the deaths. the university of texas (austin) model suggests the actual peak o' the current surge is gonna come mid-to-late september. on the positive side, it would appear vaccination rates have increased more than a little. fear appears to be a significant motivator for at least a few o' the vaccine holdouts. am suspecting if there were a way for southerners to get their jab not at a pharmacy or public vaccine site but in some place and way their anonymity would be preserved, it would significant boost vaccine numbers. some large % o' conservative and white males would rather risk death than look like a punk. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9241.html Priorities. The prime objective of any nation-building operation is not to make an authoritarian government democratic or a poor nation rich, but to make a violent society peaceful. If basic needs for safety, food, and shelter are not being met, money spent on political or economic development is likely to be wasted. (achieving advanced is not a priority and as you should see, is not considered one o' the primary hurdles. advanced is what in your mind distinguishes, but is not a noteworthy factor or element. also, the china discussions in the other thread should also make abundant clear advanced is hardly a necessity for stability. the afghani tribalism would indeed be an obstacle to attaining "peaceful" but advanced is just something zor imagined as a necessity. ) Security is provided by soldiers, police, and a judicial and corrections system. Establishing a modicum of security requires a military force that is large enough—as many as 20 soldiers per thousand inhabitants—to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate former combatants. Military or international civilian police forces are needed to protect citizens from criminals and violent political groups and to mentor a reformed local civilian police force. Sufficient support and funding must be extended to the police force and the judicial and corrections system. (initial security is the practical insurmountable hurdle in selling nation building to the US public. the sheer numbers o' troops required is improbable, although such numbers were indeed achieved in bosnia. huzzah.) Humanitarian relief agencies are, for the most part, professionally staffed and well resourced. The challenge is in coordinating with the intervening military organizations, with which most humanitarian agencies are reluctant to align themselves, because any such alignment could limit their access to people in need. Governance is a high priority because local institutions will have to provide education, health care, electricity, telecommunications, water, and sanitation. Funding from the intervening authorities will have to run around 10 percent of the country's preconflict gross domestic product. (again, advanced is not pivotal. however, a substantial investment o' capital needs be anticipated.) Economic stabilization requires a reasonably stable medium of exchange. Early attention should be given to creating or strengthening a central bank and other financial institutions. Donor support will be required to balance government expenditures and revenue. Democratization should be viewed as a way to redirect the competition for wealth and power from violent into peaceful channels, not as an abstract exercise in social justice. Ideally, elements of civil society should be allowed to develop before national elections are held. However, institutions based on representative government are typically the only form of reconstituted state authority acceptable to most of the population. Infrastructure and development will depend on the ability of the intervening authorities and the host government to control inflation and finance the government's budget, among other things. Early efforts should focus on the repair, not the improvement, of existing infrastructure. Improvements should be funded via loans, not grants. all the above were clear achievable in a place such as afghanistan. is notable we mentioned education as part of developing infrastructure. again, not need advance. japan education in the 30s and 40s were indeed universal but ended at sixth grade. the vast majority o' the population were not well educated; only elites were given access to higher education. that changed with the nation building efforts. is not as if nation building would require placing afghanistan into educational or industrial parity with european nations, but getting the process started to the point where it became self perpetuating were hardly unforeseeable. in fact, one o' the true tragedies o' the taliban regaining power in afghanistan is that it is gonna wipe out the considerable improvements the US brought to education in Afghanistan in spite o' the fact US efforts to improve education were relative meager. anybody know japanese enrollment in its few select universities were pre occupation? dunno. we do know current afghanistan university enrollment is ~300k, a substantial (if still vast underrepresented) portion o' whom are women... women who are now facing a terrible future, yes? what a waste. what a tragedy. furthermore, japan, unlike afghanistan, had been devastated by mass bombings attacks. tokyo alone had a million homeless and hundreds of thousands dead. tens o' thousands o' buildings gone and manufacturing capacity complete wiped out. compared to afghanistan, took a great deal more effort rebuilding portions o' japan so they were capable o' sustaining populations w/o the fear o' rampant disease and hunger. bosnia is also a very good example given the actual goals. but again you are stuck on the "advanced" aspect for some reason. and yeah, US total troops for iraq in 2007 were approx 168k which would include the ~20k surge. the 168k were well below required estimates... which is kinda how we came up with the "3x" observation. which brings us back to the start and the primary issues: troops and money. the troops were available, but am not seeing how such woulda' ever been ok with the american public. the money were available, but the billions more it woulda' cost were untenable, and the billions which actual were spent were wasted 'cause the US did not direct how the money were spent. is kinda puzzling why the US thought the afghanistan troops could police themselves and handle their own infrastructure efforts. eventual the afghanistan and iraqui people coulda' taken over such tasks, but pretending like they were capable from day one were stoopid and actual a bit cruel. throw a kid into the deep end o' a pool and then shake head sadly as she struggles to swim is not helpful. the biggest mistake were lack o' honesty. US knew they could achieve nation building with enough troops and treasure, and it wouldn't have taken anywhere near 40 years. the folks at the pentagon had good estimates on costs and troop requirements to achieve nation building based on past expericens in japan and bosnia, but tell americans they are sending 500k troops and many billions to afghanistan so that the country might become economically self sufficient and reliably peaceful were gonna be difficult to sell. HA! Good Fun!