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Imagine being such a horrible president (Biden) that you actually make someone like Trump look smart.
@mk One of the most impressive things Biden has done so far :)
@freemo
Nice one
@freemo well, I voted for him, but lets just say, I'm not disappointed, just angry.
@Zest Fair, angry at him is a valid response for sure.
I didnt vote for him. I have a personal rule never to vote for a politician who spent a huge portion of their career opposing desegregation.
@freemo yeah I can understand. the 'not disappointed' part was because, when I voted for him, I did it knowing he wouldn't be a good president or one that represents my values.
I don't know what we have to do as a nation to fix the system where many people feel they need to vote for someone they don't believe in or trust. I've heard some good ideas but most of them come with other flaws.
well, I say all this despite being an anarchist. but I'm pragmatic enough to know that we're probably going to have some form of representative democracy for the foreseeable future, so given that reality I'd like to have it be improved.
@Zest We need to change the laws to give third parties and equal and fair chance.. Thats step 1... and may just fix the problem entirely. If not it will at least go a long way.
@freemo my understanding of some of the potential solutions to the brokenness of our current voting system comes from this video: https://youtu.be/yhO6jfHPFQU and I think it does a nice job of pointing out some of the potential issues that can arise with these solutions, but I still think most of them would be worth implementing.
@Zest thanks, ill check it out when i have some time.
In fairness to Biden, the plan was never for civilians and equipment to go first, last, or in between. They'd simply stay and carry on under the Ghani regime, so the military was the *only* group supposed to exit.
So much for the plan.
@khird This is true, but we knew very early on that wasnt happening, and yet he kept withdrawing troops and not focusing ont he civilians. So while I might cut him some slack early on in the evacuation, by the end he really dropped the ball.
> we knew very early on that wasnt happening
I don't think we did though. Even up until the fall of Kabul, the projections were for a months-long holdout with the Ghani regime controlling the airspace, which would've given ample time to evacuate or organise a counteroffensive. A week prior to that, they were expected to control most of the major cities indefinitely.
Should he have had the military try and retake the country for a month to give everyone time to get out? I don't know what his other options would have been.
@khird I cant speak for if they had really shitty projections. But I was following the statistics and saw things fallying **really** fast. Literally the moment we would pull out of a region it would fall.
I dont know how they could possibly project that, at least to me seemed obvious ever step of the way where this was headed.
@freemo I don't know how they got the numbers they did. I see some things that suggest they underestimated the foreign support the Taliban had been receiving, and so the strength of the advance was significantly higher that the assessments would have suggested.
> In a stunning rout, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in over a week, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces. Just days earlier, *an American military assessment estimated it would be a month* before the capital would come under insurgent pressure.
@khird I can understand that mistake as well, early on.. but like i said, once they saw the Taliban taking over almost immediately after they pulled back in each sector they should have reconsidered their assumptions. So bad intel or not, that is still on the military and Biden. Also the very fact they didn't have good intel at all is already the military's fault and not really an excuse.
@khird @freemo
My understanding is that it's overestimating the defending forces and underestimating the Taliban. From what I heard, the govt and military just keeled over without a fight. The brother of the former president even invited the Taliban to stay at his mansion. Basically, there was no fight to have because there was little to no resistance to the Taliban.
@freemo
imagine thinking there is a difference between voting republican or democrat when in fact they are both s..tcoiners
@Q_uantumB not sure what "s..tcoiners" but i agree both parties are shit.
@freemo impossible of imagine. Biden rocks! 🤘
I guess some people are going to br all about the first pro-segregation president in US history. Not me, he is just another trump, he just hides it better.
@freemo he is no Trump. Come on!
You don't like some of his actions, Okay. But he is not Trump and he is now doing nothing segregationist.
@pthenq1 In many ways he is far worse than trump (personal liberties, economy, etc). In some ways he is marginally better (environment, lying about his intentions,)
Overall he is right at about Trumps caliber.
And yea he is no longer a segregationist, he has upped his game and found all new ways to abuse minorities and hurt their future.
@freemo okay.
I think he is one of the best presidents from 2000s. Better than Obama and all the others.
@pthenq1 Not even close IMO.. he is, like I said, at Trump's level. Him and trump are the two worst in my life time at least, maybe longer.
That isnt a direct democracy.. but yes, it says the american public are very poor at making good political decisions
@freemo
impressive xD