It’s certainly less lethal, and a more interesting social symbol. 

In many parts of this country you can walk around with an AR-15 but if you have a knife bigger than a pocket knife you can be arrested. Think about that.

Until there’s accountability from CBP, I’m not satisfied. 

They have a tendency to search social media and phones and computers as well, particularly for anyone that they think is Muslim (which has caught more than a few Jews). There’s not really anything to do about it though. Either they’ll let you through, or they won’t. 

I’m not sure about that. The evidence coming from Xinjiang is mixed and fragmentary. I don’t think it’s creating any real loyalty to the state, or that imposed Chinese dress and custom will stick, but the survelliance state in Xinjiang is nothing to scoff at. They can force Uighur culture more underground, at least…

Yeah, I vaguely remember that and thinking it was an awful idea. You might be able to convince me that during the VISA application process social media should be looked at, but only public-facing accounts. But CBP shouldn’t have the power to ignore previous security checks on a whim in person. Evidence suggests that…

If the price is too high. They’ve got outs. The “one country two systems” promise insulates the government from potential agitation inside mainland China because that’s a unique framework. It’s possible for them to back down. If this goes on long enough, it may even become a better outcome for the government. The…

The “Yellow Vests” were never a coherent group with coherent ideology. After the first couple of protests it was hijacked by the far-right and it fizzled in large part because many of the people who originally protested quit.

CBP isn’t qualified to assess this sort of stuff. It’s a notoriously abusive agency with a toxic internal culture full of people who failed to get into better positions or chose this position because of their pre-existing ideology and prejudices.

Probably, but they’ve accelerated the repression recently on a much larger level. Why now? Some people speculate the mute reaction to putting Uighurs in concentration camps convinced China they could take action with minimal risk. So they sped up the slow building of illiberal control. But speeding it up caused a…

The longer this goes on, the more I worry about the reaction from the mainland. The propaganda is working, for mainland Chinese at least (as well as a bunch of useless tankie leftists, the same ones that support Assad mostly). I think it’s only the visibility that’s kept a severe crackdown away but the longer this…

There’s no chance for some niche far-right clothing company to make a profit if they were made in America, even given the absurd prices on their wares. They definitely don’t have the volume. Of course, this is really about their hypocrisy.

It’s worth noting, it was a political Trump appointee at the top responsible for the museum’s reaction. Though of course they were trying to leverage the reputation of the museum and it damaged it even though I expect most of the staff are far closer to AOC than Trump. 

Reason continues to be trash, publishing all sorts of bad faith actors and their assorted bigotries. They continue becoming more like Quillette-lite. Same stupid racism, same aversion to facts and evidence, same whiny defensiveness at their shoddy reporting, just without the phrenology and slightly better standards.

Lots of people here and on Twitter misquoting the ruling against Trump’s blocks to justify telling her to unblock a few racists and abusers.

Congratulations troll. Would you like to discuss civilian casualties from Russian bombardments in Syria? 

So, looking at a refresher on the Northern Alliance, there was Dostom, who is Uzbek. Mohaqiq is probably who you’re thinking of, and he’s an ethnic Hazara. They’re both from the north, Mazar-e-Sharif and Balkh (not far away) respectively. Noor was another one, also from Balkh province.

Oh we can crack it. That’s not the problem. Don’t underestimate ethnographers or people on the ground. The problem is there are too many ways for powerful and influential men to redirect that aid at multiple stages for their own benefit. Not to mention, in some cases, people will hand it over voluntarily. Those…

Eh, that’d have limited usefulness just because most of it would go to a few major corrupt politicians and regional warlords. That’s the problem with a lot of the aid. Afghanistan’s complexity has defeated even well-designed aid programs. The warlords are probably about to get more power too, as a counterbalance to…

This entire program is farcical. The Afghan government hates these negotiations. The Taliban knows they have a strong hand and can wait us out, and are even more emboldened by Trump’s idiocy. The DoD and State are trying to build something at least marginally successful and protect some gains made by Afghans,…