Yep, in October 2024 Israel wanted to bomb nuclear and oil resources in Iran but Biden said no to that and that they needed to pick another target, so Israel blew up a military base and killed some Iranian soldiers instead

Hopefully they feel like they’re under a ton of pressure from all angles between everyone calling them out for being the fascist thugs they are and Trump constantly screaming at them for more deportations and it’s making them sloppy

Fair enough, but, like, 100 archers against 1000 people ends poorly for the archers if the people are willing to take some casualties, and a keep wall is only good so long as nobody inside decides to unlock a door or people outside can’t get a ladder set up somewhere for a few minutes

Yes, there have been successful revolutions since the 1850s, but they’re definitely a lot harder than they used to be, and I think they now really do require some sort of defection from the ruling classes or military over to the opposition in a way that you didn’t really need for, say, the French revolution, where an angry mob of peasant women could just force their way into the kings castle and tell him how things were gonna be going forward

I’m not saying it’s impossible, and I’m definitely not saying people should give up protesting all the bullshit going on right now, but I do think meta social contract between the rulers and the ruled has changed a lot since the 18th century because of technological progress

Good question

why people aren’t gathering in mobs

Well, it happened about a hundred years after your time, but there’s this thing called the Gatling gun that got invented that really became a hard counter to angry mobs trying to storm things, and once that stopped being an option they just kinda stopped listening to us

Actually, I think NPR gets money from Amazon because they pay NPR for ad free versions of their shows for Prime subscribers, and Amazon just chooses to advertise that on their own

Of course, the fact that NPR is being paid by Amazon and Amazon customers get a premium version of public media is a total fucking disgrace, but NPR rightly or wrongly felt they had to do this because they’ve been expecting the federal government to try to cut them for years and they needed new revenue streams

It’d be just perfect if after all the bullshit he’s done Trump got impeached for asserting the US’s right to control its own foreign policy (or “critically undermining Israel’s right to defend itself” as they’d put it)

I’m pretty sure their real ambition is to destroy the Iranian government so they can more easily destroy any Iranians they decide aren’t friendly enough

I wonder if Denmark regrets this yet (arc)

With 94 votes in favor and only 11 against, the Danish parliament last night (June 11) passed a new defense agreement granting the United States extended access to military bases in three Danish cities: Karup, Skrydstrup, and Aalborg. The deal allows the US military to operate from these sites, store military equipment, conduct maintenance, exercises, and station personnel. The US forces will also have autonomous legal jurisdiction over their own military, relieving them from compliance with Danish law in the first degree.

Whenever a republican president wants to be reelected

Imagine how Garcia feels

SIMON SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: His head is spinning. I mean, he’s really surprised. He doesn’t understand what’s going on. He understood that his case was over and won in 2019, when the immigration judge issued him an order of protection and allowed him to be released from ICE custody. He got a work permit. He was renewing it year after year. He understood that his problems were behind him.

And then, all of a sudden, one day out of nowhere, he gets pulled over in his car, taken into custody, finds himself in El Salvador, the one country where the judge had ordered he could not be sent. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he’s meeting with a U.S. senator. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he’s being flown back to United States on a private jet and, you know, is being told that his name and his face are known around the world. You know, it’s almost like one of those movies where someone wakes up out of a coma.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: I was going to ask to what extent he is aware that he has become something of a household name in the U.S.

SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: Yeah, he didn’t have an understanding because he was held completely incommunicado in both of the prisons that he was in, in El Salvador. That is one of the principal human rights violations, is that there’s no access to legal counsel, not even a phone call. We sent a lawyer down three times to try to visit with him, and that lawyer was not allowed to visit with him. So he had no idea…

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/12/nx-s1-5428138/what-happens-next-for-a-man-at-the-center-of-trumps-immigration-crackdown (arc)

Comedy bit idea, CVS mass texts their customers to overthrow the government of Louisiana

“Sir, our men are trying to hold the line, but these protesters just won’t quit! They’re all so healthy!”

“Got-damned multivitamins! [eats beignet, has three heart attacks, belches]”

The first “expert organization” they talk to in this article published a “research study” last year saying DEI policies cause workplace hostility, this is propaganda bullshit

Yeah, why was he answering this stupid question and not being asked about why his officers keep brutalizing protesters and journalists?

on CNN

Oh, that’s why

Yeah, apparently the plane crashed into the dining hall for a medical school, so a ton of potential first responders were likely among the injured. It’s kind of hard to imagine how this could have turned out any worse.

I worry RFK is going to use a combination of being exactly who we thought he was, moving just slowly enough for people to lose interest, and his boss’s tendency to demand all of our attention to do some truly awful stuff, and by the time we realize how awful it is it will be way too late to do anything about it

TBF, seeing Trump treat someone else like shit, empathizing with their experience, and realizing how it could happen to them is really hard for Republicans because they’re morally and intellectually defective

being strong enough to quit refuse unlawful orders and use your own common sense and basic decency to resolve conflicts in the field and deal with the court martial.

Hundreds of years ago they were a mixed bag, but with the advent of germ theory (and fire codes) cities rock and like 95% of humans should live in one

But that doesn’t mean CAFOs are a good idea, because their number one economy of scale trick is a) ignore all the environmental regulations to create more profit per unit b) have enough units makes the cost of fines/litigation/lobbying a manageable business expense

The curfew was ordered by the mayor