321–330 of 421 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got a lot less snarky in my responses to scam text messages when I learned about the forced labor aspect. I just block the sender and go on, versus trying to bait them and waste their time.
[flagged]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got a lot less snarky in my responses to scam text messages when I learned about the forced labor aspect. I just block the sender and go on, versus trying to bait them and waste their time.
[flagged]
That's nice, but if someone points a weapon at me and tells me to rob people over the phone i'll probably do it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does calling a country full of people who are sad and desperate for a better life discriminate against them? This is the same kind of rhetoric I would hear someone use as an appeal to helping them. Hearing about these things makes me more kind and empathetic to the people involved - not less. It feels like you are trying to do a good intentioned thing here but maybe it’s misaligned to more malicious folks compare…
[flagged]
I’m not in Cambodia. The only way I can relate to its people is by stereotyping.
Saying we can’t negatively stereotype basically says you can only have positive opinions about this country or you’re a racist, which is absurd.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
Different cultures are ... wait for it ... different. There are cultures I would not want to live in. There's a reason why so many people are desperate to get into the US.
Cambodians love American culture. Young Cambodians are desperate to see new American movies, try American foods, and get their hands on new Apple products. They love Facebook. The majority of Cambodians favor the US over China: https://www.statista.com/chart/32058/preference-for-us-china...
Interestingly, the majority of Thais favor China over the US. The most likely reason I guess would that a very large percentage of Thais claim some form of Chinese ancestry.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> debate and honest exchange of ideas Yet in your first post in this thread, you accuse your parent of racism and astroturfing. Real honest debate you got there.
[flagged]
This postmodern redefinition of racism really needs to be discarded. It’s done so much damage by giving actual racists cover, since if everyone is racist then racism isn’t a problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pol Pot probably was more proximally at fault.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot
It's a giant mess. I don't think Pot would have gained the support/power that he did without the US indiscriminate bombing. Much like the creation of ISIS and the strengthening of the Taliban in Afghanistan, it turns out people don't like the people dropping bombs on them. They'll turn to whoever is fighting the bombers. The US involvement in Vietnam would have already been over before the uprising of Pot had Nixon a…
See a discussion of “proximate cause.”[1]
[1] https://legalclarity.org/what-is-the-difference-between-dire...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Allowing them to do what? The feds are saying they already have the keys, so either they are lying, or they already had the means to get the keys. Which would be the juicy part of the story.
There exist a number of possibilities, all of which are equally likely 1. they are lying. The most obvious one. It's legal and is expected that law enforcement lie in the United States. 2. defendant was so dumb he had the funds in a crypto exchange account 3. Law enforcement has no idea what keys or crypto is. Also likely, law enforcement in the US is not required to be competent. 4. defendant was so dumb he landed o…
I think the most likely is a combo variant of #5 and #6. Maybe the USG (or a cooperating government) got leverage on one of his lieutenants - like lieutenant's adult kid goes to NYC to party for a weekend with friends without telling daddy and despite it being against dad's rules. USG quietly holds the kid under some immigration pretext (much easier these days) and forces the lieutenant to put a USB thumb drive in his boss's 'special' PC.
Alternatively, a probable weak point with most overtly criminal kingpins who accumulate literal billions is they really can't trust anyone around them to not steal it. So the guy probably has to keep the crypto keys to his 'big wad' physically with him on a mobile device or memory stick, maybe protected only by a password short enough he can remember it. In that scenario, the USG just does a 'sneak and peek' and images the device, maybe while the guy is transiting a third country. Then it's just a matter of either using one of the NSA's tier 1 vulns on the mobile device image or deploying the NSA's super-computer farm to crack the 'human-memorable' password. If so, it would have been much smarter for the guy to control access to the 'big wad' with split keys separated on multiple devices - and only keep one required part around his neck. Then neither the 'sneak and peak' nor the 'crowbar to the balls' methods would work.
In any of those scenarios, the very interesting part is it shows the Trump admin and Trump's new FBI head Kash Patel are willing to cross some new lines which haven't been publicly crossed before - like using secret intelligence assets for purely criminal enforcement. Note: I think the USG has done this before but it's been pretty rare and always been in ways that were unseen or otherwise deniable, because the CIA/NSA have been extremely resistant to using their best toys for fear of losing their best toys. I suspect the Trump admin has crushed this resistance. A potentially relevant fact is Kash Patel was previously on the National Security Council during Trump's first term, so he'd be familiar with intel assets. Obviously, in the near-term that's bad news for a handful of major international criminals and in the long-term it may be bad for US intelligence capabilities (as the reasons for CIA/NSA resistance weren't baseless).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got a lot less snarky in my responses to scam text messages when I learned about the forced labor aspect. I just block the sender and go on, versus trying to bait them and waste their time.
[flagged]
> I personally have no sympathy for these people whether or not they're victims
That’s an interesting moral philosophy. Do you think that no one ever deserves sympathy for something they were forced to do? If a Mexican drug cartel threatens to kill someone’s entire family if they don’t perform a reprehensible act, no one should feel the tiniest bit bad for them if they don’t stand on principle?
I assume you don’t actually think that, but when you hear that people are being kidnapped, trafficked abroad, and forced to work in clandestine Burmese call centers, what do you think their options are?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Citations needed for almost everything you just wrote. On the other hand, South Korea has the right to do whatever it wants within its rights. I strongly support South Korea in its geo-strategic calculus to isolate Cambodia government. They must have very good reason to believe this is the right course of actions. Cambodian government should learn from this experience and improve its law enforcement and its own geo-s…
> Citations needed HDI comparison of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh [0]. Notice how Cambodia and Bangladesh used to be developmental peers until 2010. Life expectancy comparison of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh [1]. Mean years of schooling in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh [2] Gross GNI per Capita PPP (log normalized) in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh [3] - the only metric Cambodia is roughly comparable…
Also, cherry picking PPP GDP instead of commonly used nominal GDP to avoid conceding a point is quite desperate. Cambodia has a higher GDP per capita than Bangladesh but you won’t admit that. Can you buy a barrel of crude oil with PPP dollar? Also, you haven’t admitted that you are clueless about the current Bangladesh political and economic mess. https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/stock/foreign-investors-f...
If you want to play the comparison game, the average Vietnamese can also be said to be much poorer and much more desperate than the average Malaysian based on your flawed reasoning.
Here are some really desperate Vietnamese trying to run away from Vietnam into the UK: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8y3l7e2vjo.amp