Someone I follow on Twitter complained that people thought just because he was a VC he wasn't allowed to have opinions. So I decided to take a look at what his opinion was.#
"I think you should have opinions, but trump watched tv all day, and sold us out any chance he got. He’s a fucking Nazi. When he lost the election he tried to overthrow the government. That’s what you support? I didn’t block you yet, but I did unfollow."#
I don't see him as a troll. I think there are VCs in Calif who have a very limited set of people they talk with, and they actually fit into Trump's target. Even though they;'re hugely rich, young, healthy, super super privileged, they really feel misunderstood and victimized. It's real. They really feel it. #
So it was worth one shake of the shoulders. Hey this isn't a good look.#
Yesterday I wrote a post about the mess that opml.org has become, and how I want to start fresh with a well-organized site that points to all the resources available to devs working with OPML, and has lots of room for more. #
Today I want to try to unwind one part of the mess.#
I've set up the root, opml.org itself, as an A record pointing to 142.93.4.110. This server is where I host all my simple PagePark sites, ones that consist of static pages, and config.json settings. #
When I try to go to opml.org, I am redirected to dev.opml.org. #
Why? Until recently opml.org was a bucket on S3, set up to redirect to dev.opml.org.#
I'm guessing they used a 301 permanent redirect, which causes my browser to cache the redirect. It doesn't bother making a DNS request for opml.org, because (guessing) the redirect was permanent. #
So that's where I am this morning. I want to get opml.org unstuck, and able to be its own site, not to redirect to dev.opml.org, which I'd very much like to retire (and in doing so probably redirecting in the other direction to opml.org).#
A video demo of the problem I hope to solve today.#
I grew up in the time of the Vietnam War. I was draft age, had a low lottery number, no exemptions, and was flunking out of high school, so the prospect of being drafted was pretty real. #
One thing I was absolutely sure of was that none of the people who were draft age in that time would start another war like Vietnam, but then one of them did. #
It became a debacle just like Vietnam. But with a few differences. No draft and no body bags. And far fewer American casualties. #
The idea of the US converting a country we know nothing about and don't want to know anything about into a country modeled after the US is just as wrong today as it was in the 60s and 70s. #
And LBJ, who did so much for civil rights, also was brought down by Vietnam. #
Lots of parallels. Another one is that journalism is completely fucking up the story, telling bedtime stories about what the US could do, and how events developed, and getting the story completely wrong. I'm no expert, but I've read enough to know that there was a deal between the US and the Taliban that did not include the Afghan government, where the US committed to leave in 2020, and the Taliban agreed to not attack us as we left. Had we decided to stay, breaking that deal, we would have committed to a full scale war with the Taliban. There was no middle alternative between leaving and war. Whether or not this was wise is something you have to ask former president Trump. He desperately wanted to get out of Afghanistan and was willing to give up everything to get it. But even that much he couldn't pull off. #
Fact: once we went in, there was no graceful way out. Give Biden credit for being willing to take the hit to get us out, finally, after Bush, Obama and Trump kicked the can down the road to the next administration. #
Of all the things you can read today, I recommend this piece, written by an Afghanistan vet. It rings true. #
Also Heather Cox Richardson's summary is as usual excellent. #
copyright 1994-2021 Dave Winer.
Last update: Tuesday August 17, 2021; 10:52 AM EDT.
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