235600+ entries in 0.066s
mircea_popescu: just like the cataphract is a logical step to the escalation of ... THE END OF FEUDALISM!
mircea_popescu: we discussed some time ago the problem with decimation, re shot cops.
mircea_popescu: the notion that "sucidal resistence" is deterring anyone has had so much debunking recently...
mircea_popescu: note how it follows quite exactly the cure blueprint discussed above.
mircea_popescu: trinque honestly, this is why i believe the arming of police units with military stock is even done. it makes sense from a "after the end" perspective : you want two mostly balanced forces, because that's your best chance at more or less peaceful stability.
mircea_popescu: the stripping is something we agreed aforehand to do just to see what her reaction is ?
mircea_popescu: so, i am a famously grandiose master of women. and a junior girl aspiring one day to the grandiose status of being my slave goes with me and some of the girls to the opera. lights go off, the girls take off their tops all matter-of-course like. she follows suit. why ? and then, afterwards, we discuss it over coffee and cookies. they are enamoured with it. so is she. why ? her "tabs" haven't been leaked, right ? what if
mircea_popescu: the fact that you don't is perhaps one of the most perplexing characteristics of your otherwise amply perplexing persona.
mircea_popescu: part of a system is part of a system is part of a system.
mircea_popescu: and they go to work... and there it is. MICROSOFT BOOTING NAO.
mircea_popescu: and i can send them pizza, and they have to wonder how i know.
mircea_popescu: but that aside, it all boils down to the ancient (here and iirc on trilema too) "what's the devil have to pay you to love him" thing.
☟︎ mircea_popescu: trying to finesse himself into a senior adviser role for gorby
mircea_popescu: very short story here : ceausescu made old style, stalinist-like show of how supported he is
mircea_popescu: if anyone is curious enough, please to read the gorbachev diaries after his 87 visit in romania.
mircea_popescu: the fake shows of support (you are charlie, really ?) do not help.
mircea_popescu: for a government to survive, it must actually have support.
mircea_popescu: asciilifeform you're neglecting the only important thing here, which is the actual fine points of the relationship between the abused wife and her husband.
mircea_popescu: trinque understand something : if one million people becomes 1% more likely to lie on their taxes,
mircea_popescu: does it seem to you a reasonable plan to demolish streets in this atmosphere ?
mircea_popescu: familiar with the (afaik also uncontroversial) theory that the us is a nation of narcisists ?
mircea_popescu: let's take the cheapest way out. familiar wit hthe guy whose name history has lost (:P) that set fire to the whatever so his name may be remembered ?
mircea_popescu: there is no undertaking more expensive than that pavement job.
mircea_popescu: i can trivially send pizza to the "secret" subsecretary of state for whatever, and he's stuck wondering how i know ?
mircea_popescu: trinque good for you. not particularly relevant to him.
mircea_popescu: so in this sense, a junkie managing to score a hit is in fact +ev.
mircea_popescu: maybe it's because you're trying to use some sort of subjective scoring it occurs to me
mircea_popescu: there's going to be a demolished street bearing your name.
mircea_popescu: cost teh ro govt millions to try and wash it up, eventually was more or less forgotten. but finding agents willing to tail that guy was difficult for years after.
mircea_popescu: <asciilifeform> if ambling about the terrain going to/from day jobs, etc. - they just quietly pick you up << a ro guy famously caught a coupla "secret agents" tailing him in traffic, beat them up (romanian tradition) took them to police station.
mircea_popescu: they installed a bunch of autobatteries and shitnow ? /me's not been keeping up.
mircea_popescu: asciilifeform afaik swiss defend themselves by "neutrality"
mircea_popescu: but for as long as the "how do they know it's not really an ambush ?" question has an obvious and correct answer, you already failed.
mircea_popescu: asciilifeform no, this is possible if maintaining decent op security.
mircea_popescu: this does not work against ideologically motivated adversaries, but it works against bureaucracies something splendid. there's always another fire to put out.
mircea_popescu: swedish military doctrine, notably, is constructed around the core concept that they do not aim to defend the country, they aim to make invasion economically unfeasible. that is all.
mircea_popescu: the entire construction has very speciffic dead points, and they're anything but secret.
mircea_popescu: as long as it's clear to the da that a court showdown will end his career, you're practically unprosecutable, no matter what you do. as long as it's clear to "special ops" that there will be deaths, you're un-opable, no matter what you do. etc etc.
mircea_popescu: the cure looks very much like you'd imagine : strong encryption, strong (mental especially) discipline, minimal fortification along the riverline.
mircea_popescu: it's true : they haven't yet made a thing for something else to use for this.
mircea_popescu: this, incidentally, is ALSO not controversial - virtually half of all material prepared by the bureaucracy states in one form or another that they're "not prepared for this type of challenge"
mircea_popescu: because what, if it did exist you'd lunge at it with your waffle making hot tweezers ?
mircea_popescu: and if THAT were your lab, i wouldn't particularly be persuaded by "no tb cure could exist" type of arguments.
mircea_popescu: if your crazy genius lab consisted of shitty hot tweezers that made good sandwiches and very bad vacuum pumps that sang a capella i'd think you're uniquely ineffectual.
mircea_popescu: the us army makes excellent police and screwdrivers. bully for it.
mircea_popescu: right, but none of which are what an army is actually for.
mircea_popescu: sorta like a parade army. exactly what the italians had, right before the risorgimento.
mircea_popescu: this is why all the ridiculous military failures of the us since vietnam : it built an army which is only useful as an army if NOT fighting.
mircea_popescu: if air superiority comes to air engagement, walks away with so many broken arms it's not worth thinking about.
mircea_popescu: air superiority not useful in air engagement, but in political engagement sort of bs.
mircea_popescu: the weird thing about the situaiton of usg particularly, and of usg-likes (ie, most cancer) is that "everything is only intended to be used in the situations it wasn't designed to be used".
mircea_popescu: people who go "sure, whatever. make sure you have good AP and check the vests" are not the target of this sort of bs.
mircea_popescu: as to van : people like a congressman or an ex ciadirector are very poor examples, because a key part of the cure is maintaining very hard counter-terrorism measures on the ground. no colby, owens, petreus etc ever said "you will have to shoot me, and expect to fail unless you bring armored units, and to lose a score of operatives in any case."
mircea_popescu: imagine a device that kept paul atreides from having to fight all the idiot freemen.
mircea_popescu: NOT having to turn them down personally is empowering for you.