Recent kwiples

Thursday 25th of April 2024

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Afghanistan War The absence of periodic reality checks created the risk of doing the wrong thing perfectly: A project that completed required tasks would be considered “successful,” whether or not it had achieved or contributed to broader, more important goals. citation What We Need To Learn: Lessons from Twenty Years of Afghanistan Reconstruction, the final SIGAR report [SIGAR is the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction] © 2021 Kwiple.com
Afghanistan War At each point in the post-9/11 story big US decisions have been based on conditions on the ground — the ground in Washington, that is. citation Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 17, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Afghanistan War I started the process. All the troops are coming back home. They [Biden] couldn't stop the process. Twenty-one years is enough. Don't we think? Twenty-one years. They [Biden] couldn't stop the process. They wanted to, but it was very tough to stop the process. … Twenty-one years by a government that wouldn't last — the only way they last is if we're there. What are we going to say? We'll stay for another twenty-one years. Then we'll stay for another fifty. The whole thing is ridiculous. So we're bringing our troops back home. citation Donald Trump, June 26, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Afghanistan War So it has come full circle. What started as an operation to eradicate al-Qaeda has ended two decades later with the return of its Afghan enablers to power. Rarely have so many lives and so much cash been spent on so little. citation Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 17, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Afghanistan War You have soldiers who were supposed to be defending places with no food, fuel, ammunition or air support. They are thinking, I don't need to be here … to die for this. citation Sami, a former Afghan commando quoted in Financial Times, August 21/22, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Canada Canada — it's America without the personality disorder. Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, August 13, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say I think of myself as all points on the compass. Barry Diller © 2021 Kwiple.com
COVID-19 coronavirus The fiscal cost of this pandemic so far has been $10tn of public debt, which is 700 times the annual cost of creating a modest global fund to prepare for such a disaster. They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In this case that would come to 43.8 pounds. Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 5, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Education To invest in all your children, you cannot have so many. Robin Harding, Financial Times, August 24, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Food waste In the United Kingdom, the amount of bread wasted totals 1 million loaves, or 24 million slices, every day, according to the Office of National Statistics. Food waste in the United States is put at 30 to 40 percent of the total food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. New York Times, August 25, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Foreign relations c Biden supposedly values allies. Europe’s chagrin is that Biden could have fulfilled both vows [ending forever wars and rebuilding alliances] if he had closely consulted with them on his Afghan exit. He chose not to. The fact that Nato was there at America’s behest rubbed salt into the wound. The 9/11 attacks marked the only time Nato has invoked its Article V mutual defence clause — following an assault on America, not Europe. Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 24, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Guns Mexico has filed suit in a U.S. court on Aug. 4 against Colt, Glock, Smith & Wesson, and other gunmakers. The civil suit argues that the companies “wreak havoc in Mexican society, by persistently supplying a torrent of guns to the drug cartels.” In 2019, 17,000 Mexcans were murdered with American-made firearms. Bloomberg Businessweek, August 9, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Count votes in Congress by: 1. Calculating a Member's Proportional Vote (MPV) for each member, as follows: MPV = SPNP / NLRS where: SPNP = State's Percentage of the National Population NLRS = Number of Legislators Representing the State (in that legislature) 2. Totaling “yes” MPVs and “no” MPVs 3. Passing if total MPV is more than 50 OTHERWISE Abolish the Senate © 2019 Kwiple.com
Leadership I don't take responsibility at all. Donald Trump, deflecting blame for his administration's COVID-19 coronavirus testing fiasco onto the Obama administration © 2020 Kwiple.com
Leadership I bear responsibili9ty for, fundamentally, all that's happened of late. Joe Biden, August 26, 2021, shortly after an ISIS-K suicide bomber killed 13 and wounded 18 American service members facilitating the evacuation he ordered of Americans and Afghan allies from Kabul's airport, where nearly 200 Afghans were also killed, including children © 2021 Kwiple.com
Leftists If what you're doing sounds like an Onion headline, stop. Bill Maher's advice to leftists, Real Time with Bill Maher, August 27, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Peace No triumph of peace is quite so great as the supreme triumphs of war. Theodore Roosevelt © 2020 Kwiple.com
Political power Whites have feared the political power of people of color more so than voters of color have recognized their power. Gilda R. Daniels, Uncounted  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Post-2020 Senate shituation 15 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) 2020 population: 40,085,414 Senators: 30 Republicans 1 Senator per 1,336,180 people — 1 state (California) 2020 population: 39,368,075 Senators: 2 Democrats 1 Senator per 19,684,037 people 19,684,037 / 1,336,180 = 14.7, therefore: average 15er's vote is worth nearly 15 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth less than 7% of an average 15er's — 1 state (Wyoming) 2020 population = 582,328, therefore: 1 Senator per 291,164 Wyomians, a Wyomian's vote is worth 68 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth 1.5% of a Wyomian's  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Social media At some point, the instrument of misinformation becomes less troubling than the underlying receptiveness to it. … … social media users are discussed as if they were passive victims of demonic possession. The implication, that they would be model citizens were it not for the apps, slips by unquestioned. The politics is impeccable. It is safer to challenge a business than the public. But if the point is to fathom the problem, the evasion becomes self-defeating. Janan Ganesh,, Financial Times, July 20, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Stock markets  The stock market can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent. John Maynard Keynes © 2021 Kwiple.com
Surveillance capitalaism I’d argue that high-speed trading platforms designed to rope in the most vulnerable novice traders (the average age of the 18m users is 31, and the median account balance is $240) are simply a new and more nefarious kind of surveillance capitalism. … We have no idea of the true value of the personal data that is sold by platform giants like Facebook or YouTube to advertisers as the hidden charge for the supposedly “free” services we enjoy online. In the same way, the users of Robinhood have no idea that the reason that they and their fellow retail bros can trade “free” online is that their order flows are being shared with bigger, richer fish. Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, July 25, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Time Time flies like an arrow;  fruit flies like a banana. Anonymous © 2021 Kwiple.com
Vietnam War How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? John Kerry, 1971 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Voter suppression I earned the right to vote. … Whether I use it or not is up to my personal discretion. They don't take away my right to buy a gun if I don't buy a gun. Larry Harmon, a purged Ohio voter quoted in Uncounted  by Gilda R. Daniels  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Voting rights In forty-eight states, you can't vote if you're in prison, but in every state, you can run for Congress from prison. Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, August 6, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
 
Wealth inequality Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, economists from the University of California at Berkeley, earlier this year estimated that US billionaires had collective wealth of $4.25tn, of which $2.7tn represented untaxed gains. Financial Times, July 24, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com