I once had to keep a $20M (technically; a million download codes for the same $20 movie for a promotion) thumbdrive in my home safe because it arrived too late to put in the safety deposit box like it was supposed to be.
I had to remind myself a few times the practical value to anyone was about $22.
I worked at a [Not to be named Country]'s monetary authority. Part of everyone's duty was to receive shipments of newly printed cash from De La Rue and get it into the vault before it was distributed to banks. Seeing millions of dollars packaged in cardboard boxes being moved from the street to the vault with men posted up in the bushes with machine guns was something I will never forget.
It's funny how rote and regularized "playing" with money gets after a while though.
I used to work for a financial institution small enough to sometimes need someone from the back office to help fill in as a warm body for dual-control when we received cash shipments.
It only took a couple sessions in a vault to get entirely bored with having a half million dollars in front of you.
My first serious software was for a sizable goldsmith factory. They keep an incredibly low profile visible from outside, and they get really good at it. Once inside, the amount of gold that's moving around is jaw dropping. After a while, most of the time it feels like aluminum, or any other material. All you see is cuts to be made, welding to be done, carvings, sandblast, etc... It's work and responsibility and everyone is just trying to get it done and make it the problem of the next person.
Enterprisey client chain-of-custody requirements. It was couriered to us, and the courier was late. Cue panicked phone calls to get an exemption to the contractual requirement for overnight storage at the bank.
And this one has a working webserver you can run in one command, a graphical user interface and real-time dashboard, tests to prove the claims, and example apps to make it easy to start. Not to mention that you can run your existing PHP apps unmodified with it just like you can with php-fpm.
> Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gutted a program that's designed to limit the number of civilians killed by American forces. He did that over unanimous objections from top commanders after polling them, according to reporting from ProPublica.
Any given policy choice we make results in bad things happening to someone. War is just politics by other means. If we stand around and do nothing, maybe Iran kills 5000 kids for being homosexual over the next few years? If we close all the coal mines a whole entire state goes on an opioid addiction. If we don’t close the coal mines the environment suffers and people die from pollution. If we don’t kill millions of Japanese soldiers maybe China is still a Japanese colony.
Life is tough. There aren’t perfect answers. Cackling criticism from the safety of the couch doesn’t solve anything.
"We got rid of the people who prevent civilian casualties and a bunch of civilians died shortly thereafter" isn't the unpreventable random act of God you're trying to make it out to be.
There are often not perfect answers in life. But there are definitely some wrong ones.
They aren’t the only people who prevent civilian casualties though. It also doesn’t prevent civilian casualties generally given that civilian casualties have occurred prior to this organization being disbanded.
Anyway let’s talk about the 30,000+ people Iran has murdered. Should they set up a board that prevents their military from killing protestors in person with machine guns?
> Anyway let’s talk about the 30,000+ people Iran has murdered.
Iran is already one of the most heavily sanctioned countries on the planet. Do you want us to bomb them? Maybe kill their leadership? I'm sure it'll help.
If you're genuinely interested in preventing mass civilian casualties, I can think of a country doing such a thing we've got a lot more leverage over, with quite a bit of weaponry we supply. The casual dismissal of Hegseth's clear actions to deprioritize civilian protection hints, I think, at how genuine that is.
> The casual dismissal of Hegseth's clear actions to deprioritize civilian protection hints, I think, at how genuine that is.
Why does it matter if a poorly made point is casually dismissed? Some drummed up organization isn’t in the room doing the drone strike or gathering the intelligence or making the call in the heat of the moment. Those folks have responsibility too, but mistakes in war happen.
> Iran is already one of the most heavily sanctioned countries on the planet. Do you want us to bomb them? Maybe kill their leadership? I'm sure it'll help.
Well we could spend more time focusing on their crimes. Countries around the world could contribute to defeating their autocratic regime.
Whataboutism is a sign that you've lost the argument in the best of cases, but it's particularly disgusting to attempt to use it to distract from the blood of a hundred murdered children on your own country's hands.
Hilarious that you don't see the hypocrisy in your own post. I have plenty of judgment for Iran's regime, it's a pity you can't bring yourself to condemn child murderers who happen to be from your own country.
I can’t condemn child murderers since nobody in the US murdered children, but I can get behind general criticism of our failure to be perfect. I would say we need to get better at holding our noses and doing what must be done, or we need to get better at extremely precise attacks so when these atrocious people set up their military bases in civilian facilities or nearby we don’t cause collateral damage.
But it goes to show how awful Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and more are. They use children as shields because they know we don’t want to kill children. On the other hand they affirmatively do murder children, including their own, and Hamas raped and murdered children in 2023 when they attacked a concert. They and all who support them including the children they love probably don’t deserve a lot of sympathy, but we’re the better people so we put up with it, unlike most countries or civilizations.
It was a factual statement. If you want to clutch your pearls I think you should stand next to the parents of the dead murdered at the hands of Iran and do it there.
> Anyway let’s talk about the 30,000+ people Iran has murdered
If America wants to play World Police they need to be squeaky clean. Nobody likes a dirty cop. That is the point that's being made, that is the standard America is falling further away from, and that's why Whataboutism isn't the strong argument you think it is.
We don’t need to be squeaky clean. You’re just inventing an impossibly high standard there. I’d argue we actually are squeaky clean when it comes to warfare, tactics, policies, procedures, and beliefs.
Are you, uh, mixing up the term "midrats" with something?
I've not seen this claim. The fact that they sent it immediately home for a port call (and had SecNavy visit for a pep talk) when the news of conditions on the Lincoln broke is probably indicative.
"Among the agreed provisions is one stating the deal would not expire even if Greenland became an independent country in the future.
The official added that under the deal, the US has unilateral power to build additional military structures with no approval needed from Greenland or Denmark. It includes "permanent access, basing and overflights rights," the official said.
It also bans non-Nato countries from building bases in Greenland, and "bans adversaries from making investments in Greenland that could threaten the United States".
The official added that under the current status quo, adversaries have been allowed to invest in Greenland's "sensitive sectors without investment screening".
The official specifically referenced Russia and China, saying it blocks them from deploying troops or making investments in "sensitive sectors".
Without the official text being released, it is unclear how exactly the deal differs from a 1951 agreement with Denmark, under which the US can send as many troops as it wants to Greenland."
"United States aircraft may fly over and land in any territory in Greenland"
"the Government of the United States of America, without compensation to the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark, shall be entitled within such defense area and the air spaces and waters adjacent thereto... (ii) to construct, install, maintain, and operate facilities and equipment"
> Snarky comments deserve snarky replies so there you have it.
You started the snark. Shallow dismissals do not merit detailed replies.
> You won’t have to take the Trump administrations word you’ll just have to read the agreement and accept the facts of it even if it doesn’t fit your preconceived political narrative.
Here's an idea: Why don't you read the agreement and if it is actually a significant change then you can come back with some facts instead of just blindly trusting the administration just because it makes you feel good.
Until some actual evidence is presented, none of us are required to accept the word of people who have demonstrated repeatedly that they are allergic to the truth.
> You started the snark. Shallow dismissals do not merit detailed replies.
No I didn’t. Shallow comments shouldn’t be posted to begin with.
> Here's an idea: Why don't you read the agreement and if it is actually a significant change then you can come back with some facts instead of just blindly trusting the administration just because it makes you feel good.
Why do you think it makes me feel good? Donald Trump belongs in jail. He has completely mishandled our relationships. Doesn’t mean that this agreement is the same thing we already had or whatever.
> Snarky comments deserve snarky replies so there you have it.
"Maybe the Trump administration isn't lying" deserves a snarky comment.
> you’ll just have to read the agreement
Until it's available, I'm very comfortable not taking the claims of the "vandals cut a 300+ foot long hole in the reflecting pool" people at face value.
"You know you want to. Everyone else is doing it."
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