Hua Guofang

@misteraven- in response, I Was being pretty self indulgent with my response. Of course the website is not fucked, I still come here and still post away. Although, I do think there isn't much appetite for questioning assumptions and reading information. It's more about picking a position because you like it and defending it regardless of what is put in front of you. It's also apparently bad to say you don't have a position on something because you don't know enough about it or question others on their positions. IF you come up with something that undermines some one else's position, you get accused of posting fake news, etc. There's not a lot of good faith discussion here, to be honest. Although, as much as @Mercerand I annoy each other I think discussions with him are worthwhile because it's an actual discussion, not an effort to win internet points and name calling. Anyway, enough whingy complainy from me. I want to ask you why you think the right/conservatives are the underdog when they are in control in: - the US - Australia - the UK - Brazil - Poland - Hungary - Turkey - Sweden - Philippines and are on the ascent in so many other countries such as France, Netherlands, Denmark, etc. etc. You will find that conservative media are usually the highest rating of the traditional mediums in these countries as well. Of course, we may debate what right/conservative means as I tend to focus more on the social element and you likely focus on the economic and small govt perspectives.

Think I was raising this right at the start of the thread. There were real and serious claims that he was working for Israel and nobody was paying attention to that. Pretty high in terms of plausible reasons for being offed. Don't want your agent cutting a deal and spilling beans on your ops to get out of doing life.

Wait, nobody died?! That gives Washington a bit of an off ramp.

Regards the Ukrainian flight, I'd be reluctant to jump to any conclusions now. The flight was full of Iranians, Canadians and Ukrainians, no obvious reason to drop it from anyone's perspective. Also, recall the flight that went down in Queens, NYC just days after the 9/11 attacks. That was not an attack, just a plane crash. So it's entirely possible for planes to drop in the middle of a crisis and still be 'natural causes', so to speak. Also entirely possible that it was deliberately downed as well, MH17 is the example to cite here. Just too little info now that I'm aware of that allows a conclusion to be made.

Well shit, spend the day behind the wheel and come on line to find Iran has launched ballistic missiles against the US and claimed it. Interesting part was that they actually bombed Iraq (unsure if those bases were regarded as US sovereign territory but it's hardly relevant in this case). What is the Iraqi govt saying about Iran bombing their country and (overtly) killing people in their country? It forces the US to escalate, the US threatened to attack Iran proper if they retaliated, which would be a massively disproportionate response.But Trump made the threat, he won't want to look weak in an election year. This is all really fucked and I'm hating it. John was the former senior foreign affairs advisor to our Foreign Minister: John Lee @J_B_C16 It may sound trite, but personal connections can humanise another society when engaged in abstract discussions about whether to bomb the crap out of it. One of the nicest people I know in London is Iranian, her involvement in this crisis is just to hope that her family don't die.

This is interesting. Paul is Canadian and was most recently the HC to Australia, which is how I came to know him. He's widely respected in naval circles and does not have a reputation for BS. Really interesting that even back in 2007 this kind of course was being run inside the US defence forces. I wonder what that sentiment is like today, especially in the face of the plausibility of another war in the Mid East. Paul Maddison @PaulMaddison7 In 2007 I attended an "allied" module of the US Capstone course for General/Flag officers. The focus was on speaking truth to power & never allowing a future POTUS/WH to repeat 2003 by committing forces to a disastrous campaign. So the lesson was identified, but not yet learned?

Authored by the HK police force - I can't translate this given the use of traditional characters (even then, the bits I can read I'm not sure what it's saying). Can you translate, @One Man Banned?:

Don't really agree with it but know some one here is likely to appreciate it

Jesus fuck. Shoot it in the head and give the child to some one who doesn't need to be shot in the head.

Dozens killed in stampede at QS funeral. Natural selection just doin it’s thang.

You don't think that horse has already bolted for 12OZ though? Can't point to pages of proper research and exploration of topics in good faith but it's just not welcome here. Getting together info to back up your position is apparently condescending, or it's not worth reading because it's fake news, faggy or some other silly shit. I mean the climate change thread, an issue that is perfectly about science and information is just a meme thread for antagonising the other side. It's probably time to just accept what the website has become now. Nobody here is actually interested in objective investigation, it's just about scoring internet points now. Unfortunate but it is what it is, I guess.

Picking me up from the police station hurt my parents hard. Now that I'm a parent myself I feel even worse about it.

@Ray40I think you have fucking awesome parents and you should stick by them because that's what they're doing for you. Nothing will ever be better than that.

All of those pics taken between Newtown and Bondi (for those that don’t know Sydney, all these pics are taken in “the city”, including the lizard) couple in there for @Mercer

Starting to look like Sulameini was actually arriving at the airport when the strikes hit, not leaving. I might have to walk my position back on this, somewhat*. If he wasn't directly implicated in the recent unrest, it will really change the slant on the assassination. *Keeping in mind that QS has the blood of thousands of civilians on his hands and implements the agenda of a leadership that executes gays, Ba'hai's, dissidents, etc.

The media loves a sensation and especially so on the Trump era. But it's not just the media carrying on, it's also a bunch of different analysts, commentators and industry folk who don't have ulterior motives that are getting all whipped up in their own puddles of outrage ejaculate.

Wow, 3 threads in a couple of minutes! Sorry that I upset you. Please forgive me and join the discussion in good faith.

Trump: "I will end the forever wars." MAGA: "Boo, wars!" Trump: "I assassinated the top general in Iran." MAGA: "Yay, wars!" Trump: "I will bring the troops home." MAGA: "Obama should never have sent them for his wars!" Trump: "I'm sending more troops to the Middle East." MAGA: "USA USA USA"

What you're saying is right on, you can't hide and going off the grid to hide is not a good idea unless you want to go live in a cave. None of us are going to do that so the next best thing is to understand how data is collected, why it is collected, by whom and how it is used. Having that knowledge will allow people to make informed decisions on which personal information is best protected and how to do that. This coes back to previous discussions on search history, loyalty programs, geo-tagging etc. and how to keep your own info to yourself. For me, the above article hits three points: orgs that collect your data have to be able to protect it and be trusted not to pass it on, 2, understanding the law - not just those directly related to data - is important to defending your privacy, 3, you need to understand how your data can be used for secondary purposes, even if it was collected for legitimate means in the first place.

I haven't look at this yet but people I trust are sitting back in their chars about it.