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CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

simonwillison.net

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Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#171

Post by direwolf20 »

georgemcbay wrote: post #61
exe34 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gives me hope that Trump will replace the top generals and a few layers down with yes-men who will spend the military budget on coke and then the US will be less of a threat to the rest of the world. Another Russia is not a good thing, but it's better than a mad man at the top of the most powerful military in history.

> It gives me hope that Trump will replace the top generals and a few layers down with yes-men who will spend the military budget on coke and then the US will be less of a threat to the rest of the world. I realize this is kind of a joke, but... The US will continue to be the most powerful military in history for a very long time even with a highly incompetent top-layer. It will just have less people with the wisdom…

What happens if the US economy collapses and it can't muster the equivalent of 1.5 trillion of today's dollars at any price?

Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#172

Post by direwolf20 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #96
AngryData wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think h is smart instead of a blubbering idiot that Mr Magoo his way through life? All the reports from people who knew him personally had very low regard for his intellegence, and that is even before taking into account his repeated public blunders.

> What makes you think h is smart instead of a blubbering idiot that Mr Magoo his way through life? The fact that he's President. Twice. He maneouvred himself into the most powerful seat in the world. Twice. I'm tremendously sceptical that someone stupid can wind up there like that. (Again, not necessarily intelligent. You don't need to be intelligent to clear the Republican field in 2016. You do need to be crafty.)

Did he manoeuvre himself, or did some other guy manoeuvre him so that guy could stay relatively hidden?

Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#173

Post by direwolf20 »

linuxhansl wrote: post #83

What is going on? This will not/hardly save any money. And this was a source of US soft power (deciding which facts to list, how to report on them, etc, allowed to shape an opinion.)

The facts are inconvenient. Immigrants were citing them at deportation hearings, and the government couldn't dispute them because they came from the government.

Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#174

Post by CaptWillard »

esseph wrote: post #66
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How much do we believe the current administration values "intelligence"? Broadly? A lot. Donald Trump is wickedly smart. So is Stephen Miller. Susie Wiles. Hegseth is an idiot, but he's Chip 'n' Dale to Marco Rubio. (Our planes aren't falling off our carriers any more. And the raid on Caracas was executed flawlessly. That isn't something numpties can pull off.)

> Donald Trump is wickedly smart This is the exact opposite of what has been said about Trump by his "friends" in the Epstein files.

His "friends" like Reid Hoffman and Epstein himself? They do talk about Trump a lot in those files.

Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#175

Post by darepublic »

MrSkelter wrote: post #167
casenmgreen wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked to see if I could find anything asserting 1984 was about propaganda at BBC - nothing. I found no interviews, no recordings - it seems what survives are his notebooks. Can you describe the basis for the claim?

The idea 1984 is about Russia would have surprised people at the time. That’s an ironic twist of history Orwell could have written about himself.

Maybe they are getting 1984 confused with animal farm?

Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#176

Post by simonw »

offmycloud wrote: post #89
arjie wrote: post #64

Really don't like this engagement-bait style "suddenly stops" / "have quietly" and all this stuff. It's no wonder it works. The headline from the CIA is far more staid and off the front page in comparison https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46891794 It's not even a bad submission saying that he mirrored it here: https://simonw.github.io/cia-world-factbook-2020/

How did the word "suddenly" get into the title?

That was editorializing by the person who submitted it, I didn't use that language in my post.

Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#177

Post by JKCalhoun »

MrSkelter wrote: post #167
casenmgreen wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked to see if I could find anything asserting 1984 was about propaganda at BBC - nothing. I found no interviews, no recordings - it seems what survives are his notebooks. Can you describe the basis for the claim?

The idea 1984 is about Russia would have surprised people at the time. That’s an ironic twist of history Orwell could have written about himself.

The recent HN front-page post linked to Asimov's review of 1984—Asimov claimed it was Stalinism through and through (writing the review in 1980, FWIW).

Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#178

Post by gosub100 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #65
supjeff wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much do we believe the current administration values "intelligence"? For the most part, the truth is trump's enemy. as far as he can control it, it's better for his to be the only authoritative voice. If he says Australia is full of muslims and bad hombres, he doesn't need the CIA contradicting him.

> How much do we believe the current administration values "intelligence"? Broadly? A lot. Donald Trump is wickedly smart. So is Stephen Miller. Susie Wiles. Hegseth is an idiot, but he's Chip 'n' Dale to Marco Rubio. (Our planes aren't falling off our carriers any more. And the raid on Caracas was executed flawlessly. That isn't something numpties can pull off.)

The wicked smart people are the ones who created and honed the right/left divide in the US. Trump is an avatar of one extreme that manipulated people wanted.

Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#179

Post by georgemcbay »

direwolf20 wrote: post #171
georgemcbay wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It gives me hope that Trump will replace the top generals and a few layers down with yes-men who will spend the military budget on coke and then the US will be less of a threat to the rest of the world. I realize this is kind of a joke, but... The US will continue to be the most powerful military in history for a very long time even with a highly incompetent top-layer. It will just have less people with the wisdom…

What happens if the US economy collapses and it can't muster the equivalent of 1.5 trillion of today's dollars at any price?

We may find out.

But I'm pretty certain that outcome also wouldn't be a net positive for the rest of the world in the short or medium term. Very little of the rest of the world is insulated from the US economy.

Re: CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

#180

Post by GS523523 »

joriJordan wrote: post #165
GS523523 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's better, but it's still wrong, because there are plenty of organized belief systems whose leaders don't demand blind loyalty. To say that these don't qualify as religions is absurd. You could say that one of the elements of religion is having faith in something that is not provable via the scientific method and I'd agree. But then you'd lose generals, managers, politicians, etc... from the list above in which c…

"Do what we say or lose your income" does require blind faith in the correctness of the hierarchy. The business model and whether or not useful work is being done or if the biological is just shuffling capital around as political rules allow. It requires ignoring management is just another random person, wielding fiat authority. Physics has not imbued them with special properties. It's allegiance to made up semantics…

> "Do what we say or lose your income" does require blind faith in the correctness of the hierarchy.

That just describes anyone who worked under management. Recognizing that you may be fired for disobeying orders != believing that your manager is physically special.

How do you define blind faith and informed faith? Can't you conceive of someone who follows orders without blindly believing in them?

You seem to have this caricature of an XSXJ in your mind but your definition is so broad it lumps the majority of the world into it, and that's what I'm calling you out on.

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