Yesterday, I got confirmation that I can see Virgil Sunday. That doesn’t give me a whle lot of notice, but I wanted to be as quick as I can, because, what with the Delta, I believe the US is looking at another lockdown, and I’d like to visit as much as I can before that happens. Because the new visitation procedures afford some social distancing, not every weekend is available for every inmate. The scheduler gave me enough possible dates to construct the schedule, bless her. So I can sort of plan. I idled the car for about a quarter hour (not sure it needed it, but that’s OK) and started setting up an extra week of meds so visits will be on the off weekends and I won’t have to do everything at once.
Cartoon – (Yeah, I know – actual elephants don’t deserve that. But the GQP does.)
Short Takes –
The Hill – Trump’s deal with the Taliban set the stage for the Afghan collapse
Quote – History will mark Aug. 15, 2021, as the date that the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban retook control over this troubled and war-torn country. But the real date that the Taliban’s victory was assured is Feb. 29, 2020, the day the Trump administration signed what it characterized as a “peace” deal with the Taliban. Once this agreement was signed — the tragic collapse we witnessed this weekend was inevitable. Of course, the agreement was not, and could not possibly have been, a “peace” deal since one of the parties currently at war — the Afghan government — was not a signatory. Rather, this was a “withdrawal” agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban that set the terms for the complete departure of American troops from Afghanistan by May 2021.
Click through for the story. Of course the facts that Bush and Trump** are traitors and that Obama was hamstrung by Republicans for eight years does not automatically mean that Biden is handling this as well as anyone possibly could. But I tend to believe he is.
HuffPost – A Powerful New Deepfake Tool Has Digitally Undressed Thousands Of Women
Quote – (HuffPost is not naming the site in order to avoid directing further traffic to it.) It went offline briefly Monday after HuffPost reached out to its original web host provider, IP Volume Inc., which quickly terminated its hosting services. But the site was back up less than a day later with a new host — as is often the case with abusive websites. Launched in 2020, the site boasts that it developed its own “state of the art” deep-learning image translation algorithms to “nudify” female bodies, and that the technology is so powerful there is not a woman in the world, regardless of race or nationality, who is safe from being “nudified.” But it doesn’t work on men. When fed a photo of a cisgender man’s clothed body, the site gave him breasts and a vulva.
Click through for details. This is just what we didn’t need. Of course, given the fact that vulvae and even nipples are as different as fingerprints, theooretically, it might be possible to prove in a lawsuit that this software was used. Except who wants her vulva photographed for comparison? Would testimony from a wona’s OBG be acceptable in lieu of photos? Jurors don’t actually look at fingerprints in the court, do they?
Democratic Underground – CNN and MSNBC are no better this morning. From a Marine who served in Afghanistan
Quote – Man, I picked a good day to mostly stay off this site today. The number of bad takes by people who couldn’t find Afghanistan on a map were coming fast and thick, and simultaneously ignoring the actual experts, ie those of us who survived by understanding Afghanistan is NOT the west.
Click through for the full Twitter thread, laid out for readability (the quote is just the first tweet.) It’s well thought out ans clearly explained. Who says Marines are dumb?
Food for Thought –
9 Responses to “Open Thread for August 19, 2021”
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Cartoon: I love ellies. R’s not so much.
The Hill: I’m with President Biden and you on this, as well as my gut reaction to this news.
DU: Well said, and on-point, JoanofArgh.
FFT: ugh, 4x’s over.
Sounds like you have everything under control/planned, and that’s good for your visit(s). Glad that your car is running well too. Thank you for your post, Joanne.
THIS JUST IN: “Happy 94th Birthday to Rosalyn Carter.” ~ CTA- (Call to Action) ~
2. “Over the last 20 years, Afghan women and girls have embraced their freedom. Millions have gone to school. They have become doctors, lawyers, journalists, parliamentarians, entrepreneurs. The US and our allies and partners will continue to fight for them using every tool we have.”
~Wendy Sherman@DeputySecretaryofState.~
3. “With Covid-19 surging across the state, Texas has requested five mortuary trailers from FEMA in anticipation of an influx of dead bodies. The mortuary trailers will be stationed in San Antonio and sent around the state at the request of local officials.” ~ Rachel Maddow ~
4. “Those caught up in the tumult need to carefully consider how they handle their digital history. The Taliban were last in power in Afghanistan 20 years ago. Back then they banned pop music. Today, even the existence of the Spotify logo on your phone home screen could prove fatal.” ~ Wired UK ~
5. “Two days ago, 8/17 – the City of Houston reached a grim milestone. There have been over 3,000 deaths due to #Covid19. To be exact, the number is 3,010 because 11 deaths are being reported today.” ~ Texas DSHS ~
TJI #1 – We need more people like her and her husband. And we need all of them to live at least into their nineties (preferably longer – and in good health).
TJI #2 – It’s good that there are people who care and who will not forget them. But I surely wish we had more (non-military) tools to use.
TJI #3 – So RW governors won’t accept Federal money which they might use to keep more people alive – but they will accept mortuary trailers.
TJI #4 – Every tool tat you can use for you personal benefit ccan also be used against you. Tthat has always been true, and digital technology will not be the last such. The best protection we have is democratic government in the long run, and it will not last in the long run unless we fight daily to keep it. “Terenal vigilance is the price of liberty” still.
THI #5 – I am so sorry.
TJI #2 – I hope the girls & women of Afghanistan will, first of all – remain safe! And then I hope they will be able to lead a resurgence of some form of equality.
Maybe the Taliban will be wise enough to realize they’re a resource too rich to ignore.
TJI #3 – I’m fine w/ the FEMA mortuary trucks. But any overflow should be stored in Abbott’s office.
#3 –
Good to hear things are falling into place for your visit. Sounds like you are really prepared. Have a very enjoyable visit!
Trump’s deal with the Taliban set the stage for the Afghan collapse
TFG & his Trumpkins have the most convenient memories – sadly, this won’t phase them one bit.
They NEVER take responsibility when things go bad – even TFG openly admitted that!
New Deepfake Tool Has Digitally Undressed Thousands Of Women
Geez – I’m getting old. This seems like a giant waste of time. And they only allow users to “nudify” one photo every two hours? Don’t these guys have anything better to do?
From a Marine who served in Afghanistan
I have no doubts that are exit from Afghanistan could have MUCH better planned and executed.
That said, the end was ALWAYS going to be chaotic.
We had NO business being there in the first place (other than Dubya’s ego); and 20 years was WAY too long.
The media will dissect this corpse for the next 2-3 weeks. As long as there is no terrorist attack directly linked to the Taliban, this will NOT be an issue in the 2022 0r 2024 elections.
It’s just rare that foreign policy issues are the biggest concern in national elections.
To Democrats, it’s a foreign policy issue. To Republicans, it’s a “how can we nbest rag on black and brown people and make Democrats look bad” iissue. Even if they tried to make it about foreign policy, their voters wouldn’t understand a word.
I personally have no doubt that there is nothing which could have been done to make it even marginally less chaotic. So we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Cartoon: Elephants are hard working animals, the R’s are worthless beings.
The Hill: tRump didn’t do a damn thing while he was in office, him making any sort of peace agreement is a farce. All he was ever good at was stirring up trouble for our Country.
HuffPost: Not good. Who needs this type of site? Have to agree with Nameless.
DU: Hopefully they’ll be able to get things on some type of track again, with them sending more troops to assist. I pray that the women and children are kept safe.
Food for Thought: Double trouble. They deserve one another, both heartless.
I’m so happy to hear that you’ll be able to see Virgil this Sunday. You’re included in my daily prayers, but I will be making sure to ask that you’ll be safe driving to and from your visit with Virgil and that you’ll have a pleasant time seeing him.
Take care. Thanks Joanne
What wonderful news, Joanne. Coming Sunday is short notice to plan your visit to Virgil, but don’t you go and schedule articles ahead of it for PP. Visiting your hubby after more than a year (was it?) is far more important.
Cartoon: Real elephants have far better manners than Republicans.
TH: On Feb. 29, 2020, it should have been clear to everyone TFG sold out the Afghan people to the Taliban that day. One of his bigliest deals, right?
HP: This is just beyond me. Except for some boys in early puberty who’d like to see their teacher undressed, who would want to spend time and money on getting a picture of a nude woman when you can get as many as you like for free on the internet? Imagination seems to have gone out the door completely these days.
DU: Sounds like a veteran who came back with some real understanding of how Afghanistan “works”. Sadly nobody listened to them when they had the opportunity and lessons could be learned. I take that back. Most people either have forgotten or are oblivious to the fact that America literally “took over” from the Russians when they bailed out, not being able to bring the country under its control in 10 years.
“The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in late December 1979. The Soviet Union intervened in support of the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anti-communist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War (1978–92) and remained in Afghanistan until mid-February 1989.” As the veteran maintains here: “But that ignores the rub: The Afghani people, unlike the Philippines, Koreans, Tawainese- didn’t ask for democracy. We just showed up.” In fact, just filling the vacuum left by the Soviet Union.
Americans should have known better after Vietnam where they filled the vacuum left by the French, who couldn’t control the advance of North Vietnamese fighting on their own soil. The history books are full of examples where Western hubris comes to the fall because they have no idea what makes the people they conquer/colonise/train/help tick.
FFT: May they both crawl back into the same cesspit they came from.