Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[AlabamAlum]

Well that's something. I want you to eat onions and mustard until you like them, though.

[CGVT]

A roast beef poboy with extra debris from Mother's or a muffuletta from Central Grocery.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

[THE_WIZARD_]

You eat your steaks well done, too, don't you?

Probably with ketchup

[THE_WIZARD_]

Anyone who doesn't at LEAST eat mustard and onions on a good dog or brat is a moron...or a Michigan fan...

redundant

[Whitley]

Making China Great Again!

Trump is informing Congress that he has reached a deal with Chinese company ZTE. Pentagon advised against this deal saying that ZTE could use this to spy on service members.

ZTE is closely tied to the Chinese government. Recently, they invested $500 million dollars into a resort in Indonesia and there was a $500 million dollar loan made by either ZTE or Chinese government (cant remember which one exactly). Now, this resort has approached the Trump organization (which Trump has not divested himself of) about paying for the use of the Trump name.

And now all of a sudden, Trump gets all excited about finding a way to bring ZTE in the American markets again.

[Kapture1]

I suspect that China was behind N Korea's recent behavior that caused us to withdraw from the meeting. I also suspect that this had something to do with getting Kim to cooperate. If we have to lift sanctions on ZTE to disarm N Korea, it is worth it. We will see, but the thought of the layman knowing the specifics here is laughable.

[THE_WIZARD_]

shaddup

[hack]

Family trip to Italy last summer. Street version of the Chicago Italian beef was just HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Ate it four days consecutive in Florence.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I suspect that China was behind N Korea's recent behavior that caused us to withdraw from the meeting. I also suspect that this had something to do with getting Kim to cooperate. If we have to lift sanctions on ZTE to disarm N Korea, it is worth it. We will see, but the thought of the layman knowing the specifics here is laughable.

I don't think the ZTE deal is related directly, i.e., you do this and we will do that, sort of way on getting the talks between the US and NK back on track. I would think they are a part of the trade negotiations going on between the US and China.

I also don't get the uproar in Congress over the deal. Another competitor in the phone market would be good ...... and spying on us? Give me a break. Google and Facebook, along with the US telecom giants aren't doing this already? My guess is this is coming from the likes of Apple, ATT and others. Market share.

[hack]

It's not about consumer privacy. Telco networks are a central feature of a country and relevant to national security.

[Jeff Buchanan]

It's not about consumer privacy. Telco networks are a central feature of a country and relevant to national security.

ZTE makes phones it marketed in the US until sanctions were levied after China broke the WTO trade embargo v. Iran. They were fined $900M and had to comply with a bunch of other demands. They stopped doing business in the US which included selling phones, phone parts (Apple, Microsoft, others) and to my knowledge did not provide Telco Network parts.

Telco Network security is a separate issue. Both UK and US security agencies have warned that ZTE has conspired to use telephones they market as a means to "spy" on individual users. I think the UK has banned sales of ZTE phones there. The US does not allow government employees or military members to use these phones.

Here's the thing. Like I said above, everybody is spying for both national intelligence gathering reasons and for marketing reasons. Surveillance is a reality in the technological world we live in. I can tell you with confidence that sovereign nations with any kind of decent intelligence services know how to keep things they want to be secret, secret. It is a constant battle.

Sure, I see the potential threat posed by ZTE phones. I think it is way over-blown by Trump's political adversaries. If letting ZTE back into the US market for phones - and keep in mind ZTE did business here before they violated the Iran embargo and no one was too worried about the "spying" via phones and/or steps were taken to protect sensitive info - improves trade between the two largest economies in the world, somebody is going to have to show me on a technical level how them selling phone parts and phones in the US is going to compromise national security to such a degree that it warrants ZTE to not sell it's products here.

[*JD*]

Nearly 1,500 children lost.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/nation-now/2018/05/25/immigration-children-separated-families-lost-column/643793002/

[Kapture1]

Goes to show that we shouldn't be taking in caravans, should have turned them away at the border. The government is genuinely bad at everything.

[Whitley]

Goes to show that we shouldn't be taking in caravans, should have turned them away at the border. The government is genuinely bad at everything.

Why do you hate the US military?

[Kapture1]

Why do you hate the US military?

I dont. I hate that our military is inefficient and wastes a ton of money.