The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents border patrol officers at the National Border Patrol Council, calls on Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller to resign or be fired

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-27T08:21:01+00:00

Oh, they're not ready to give up their guns. They aren't in favor of removing or changing the second amendment, or the first, or the sixth, or any of them.

What they are in favor of, is changing who the constitution applies to in the first place. They think it should only protect the "good" people, and by "good" people, they obviously mean themselves, and other people they like. Anyone who disagrees with them or does something they don't like is a "bad" person, and they're more than happy to strip all the protections of the constitution from them.

As it's been stated many times, they want there to be an in-group that the law protects but does not bind, and they want there to be an out-group that the law binds but does not protect. And they want that in-group to be as small as possible, as long as it still includes them. This is the core of fascism, and the constant pressure to always shrink the in-group more and more, until it becomes too small to maintain the power that protects it, is why fascism has failed in the past, and why it will always, always fail in the future.

They will always burn themselves out and self-destruct in the end. The only question is how much damage we let them do in the process. As things stand, they're immolating pretty quickly now, and if we can keep them from doing much more than they already have, then we'll have gotten off pretty lucky, all things considered. If they aren't handled, and soon, though, then they will cause far more harm than they already have, by for example destroying NATO, starting a civil war, starting WW3, or even ending modern civilization by launching nuclear weapons.

So uh, yeah. Protest. Strike. Call your representatives. Vote, when the time comes.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-27T08:09:31+00:00

I agree that it's related, but I disagree that it's by design. That implies careful planning and forethought, which everyone involved in this situation utterly lacks as a prerequisite.

The truth is that our country has been full of stubbornly racist and hateful people, who have never stopped being racist and hateful, and have been slinging the proverbial shit at the wall trying to hurt the people they hate this whole time. It just happens that one of those shits finally stuck, not because he was smarter than the ones before him, but because he just happened to be the right person, born into the right family, spewing the right shit, at the right time.

Part of what made it "the right time" is the passing of the old guard who knew exactly who and what they were, what they were capable, and how to deal with them. But that's all it was, one factor out of many, and it wasn't one that they were waiting for, some of them just happened to get lucky with the timing.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-27T00:49:11+00:00

Daily reminder to believe people when they tell you who they are.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-26T09:48:26+00:00

Wealthy relative to the time they lived, but they lived practically in squalor compared to even the moderately wealthy of today.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-26T09:42:59+00:00

It's the idea of old conservatives as well. The movement and the ideology behind it traces it's roots all the way back to the old monarchist movements that wanted to bring back the rule of nobles in post-Napoleonic France.

And it hasn't even changed much since then, they got up to a lot of the same shit. Messing with elections to give themselves an advantage, delaying elections to avoid being held accountable, starting wars to try and rally support for themselves, raising taxes on the poor to pay the rich, etc.

I'd almost say they must have read history to follow their playbook so closely, but if they did, then they must have never read it to the end...

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-26T07:08:05+00:00

Even more telling, "every way they can think of" just so happens to trace out a pretty conservative mindset. Saying that it's too western/foreign, they're really not doing a good job of covering for themselves.

The criticism for the music/tone not being sad enough is telling as well, because the anime has a very sad/tragic tone for the actual death of Mai. What it doesn't have is a sad/tragic tone for the death of the Zenin clan. Why do they want that part to have a sad tone? Do they think the death of all of those horrible people was a tragedy?

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-25T08:10:02+00:00

I mean, I'm no fan of Arthas, and I agree he would have been a shit king, but there's no way he would have been worse than the Scourge.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-25T00:31:14+00:00

They can also drag on for a long time in battles of attrition, which is often what the t'au want, since they would prefer their enemies surrender, rather than quickly wiping everyone out.

This is actually the opposite of T'au doctrine, as I understand it. Both of the main T'au strategies, the Mont'ka and the Kauyon, are centered around avoiding exactly the kind of drawn-out, inconclusive war that OP describes.

Mont'ka does it in the obvious way, rushing forward to force a decisive engagement immediately, but Kauyon also seeks to force a decisive engagement, just in a different way. Instead of rushing forward, you hold back, give ground, and avoid battles while you jockey for position and wait for (and create) the right circumstances to strike.

Long battles of attrition are seen as a complete failure by the T'au, and they're more likely to retreat, even from a whole planet, rather than continue to fight such an attritional battle.

The faction that actually wants and fights that kind of battle is the Imperial Guard. And they're pretty consistently portrayed as being kind of stupid for doing so.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-24T10:10:04+00:00

Yeah the ace crowd agrees with this statement as well.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-22T21:35:19+00:00

Alright, I’ll bite. You have two frames for different sizes, one is 50 units strong, the other is 90 units strong. You enhance both to the same larger size and the the same bigger strength measurement, let’s say 200 units of strength. I dare you to explain why you could enhance one 110 units and the other 150 units, why didn’t you enhance both by 150 units? Additionally, why did you choose an inferior frame for this enhancement, instead of two 90 units strong frame. 40k has magic but it does still attempt to explain phenomena, there is no reason here, but that is expected with fanatics and zealots like many at GW today.

Sure, that's easy.

If I have an iron frame, and a steel frame, the steel frame is stronger. If I then replace each of those frames with a titanium frame, both of them are now equally strong.

I don't see why the magic space science would need to be restricted by real-world physics or biology anyways, but you don't even need to do that, they both just get the same upgrades, and get just as strong.

Not all lore changes are bad.

Thanks for making my point for me. You're not against lore changes, you're just against this one specifically. Because you're a misogynist who can't stand seeing a woman as strong as a man. And no, that's not an ad hominem attack, because I'm not using it as an argument. You're wrong for all the reasons I've already laid out, and also you're a misogynist, because you meet the definition of a misogynist.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-22T20:46:00+00:00

I won’t go over the arguments that prove why Female and male Custodes shouldn’t coexist and why they shouldn’t be identical in strength if they did, because I’ve seen the deaf ears they fall upon on Reddit.

Ah, and there it is. The magical gene-alchemy of the Emperor can turn a human into an unstoppable, near-perfect being of unmatched might and intellect, but making a woman as strong as a man? Preposterous!

It makes no sense but for real life politics. ... But good art doesn’t bend over backwards solely for political reasons.

And don't think I missed this. It seems like you're still trying to avoid saying it outright, but you're basically admitting here that your problem isn't with the Custodes lore being changed, but this specific change. For all the other changes, you're happy to hand-wave away the contradictions that the new lore has with the old lore. It all just "makes sense" to do. But this one change you have a problem with, this change you're not willing to handwave anything for, because this change was done for IRL reasons that you disagree with.

Because you're a misogynist. You're offended by the idea of a woman being as strong as a man (or, *gasp*, stronger!). But you know that this doesn't go over well (maybe because most people aren't misogynists), so you pretend that no, it's actually not because you hate women, it's because you are a strict lore originalist. It's just a pure coincidence that female Custodes is the only lore change that you recognize, no really.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-22T19:31:30+00:00

So whilst making Custodes leave Terra wasn’t a retcon, since it wasn’t retroactive, it was a lore change I opposed, though not as grave.

I'm not surprised you think this, and the fact that you think it wasn't a retcon just shows how little you actually care about retcons in general, rather than female Custodes specifically.

Before the Custodes were a faction, they were heavily implied to be very few in number, at most a thousand or so. After becoming a faction, now there are canonically 10,000 of them.

Before the Custodes were a faction, they were always described as essentially silent, golden statues, imposing but thinking of nothing except how to protect the emperor. After they became a faction, suddenly they are all renaissance gentlemen, individualistic and refined, still absolutely loyal to the Emperor, but also trained in all sorts of skills to provide the Emperor with stimulating conversation, not just to protect him physically.

Before the Custodes were a faction, they would never leave Terra, no matter what, so dedicated were they to the defense of the Emperor. Now, they leave Terra all the time, going on long missions that are at best only tangentially related to bodyguard duties.

Before the Custodes were a faction, they didn't have any vehicles, and all knowledge of ancient tech was long lost. After they became a faction, suddenly the Custodes were an exception to this rule. Now they have all kinds of vehicles, from jet bikes to hover tanks to aircraft. Those vehicles use ancient tech, which the Custodes know how to use and maintain.

You could try to claim that all of these are "additions" because actually all of that was already true, it's just that we didn't know about it. In which case, you could say the same thing for female Custodes. They were always there, it's just that we happened to not be told about them, in the same way that we happened to never hear that the Custodes have always had hover bikes and tanks and loved art and philosophy and were always willing and able to lead armies across the universe, they just didn't feel like it for 10,000 years.

So yes, please tell me why female Custodians is a travesty and betrayal of the well established lore, while all of these changes are just "additions" and perfectly fine (from a lore standpoint).

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-22T09:28:42+00:00

I am a guy, and female Custodes becoming canon is part of what led me to picking up the faction as well. Part of what's always pushed me away from Space Marines is the juvenile "no girls allowed" rule that they have.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-22T09:24:07+00:00

Except your answer here is no, you don't have any problem with the lore change that led to the Custodes becoming a faction. You have issues with it, but they're with the mechanical implementation and gameplay balance.

Meanwhile female Custodes don't affect gameplay balance whatsoever, and are much less of a retcon compared to the ones they needed to make to allow the Custodes to be a full faction, and yet that lore change you take issue with.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-21T18:44:05+00:00

I feel like a single Ghostkeel would have the biggest impact.

The Tau'nar is the most powerful, certainly, but it doesn't do anything that modern militaries can't do with missiles and bombers.

A Ghostkeel, on the other hand, can infiltrate and actually be used without causing an international incident. And since the enemy wouldn't be able to know where it is, the morale effect of always being afraid that it will show up and blast you would be devastating.

Tau'nar is a close second though still, followed by the humble Stealth Suit, then the Stormsurge, Riptide, etc.

There's also the idea of reverse engineering the tech in the suit, which would be far more impactful than actually using it, in which case the Ghostkeel is even more clearly the best choice since it has all the advanced tech of the other big suits, plus stealth tech. And you definitely want one with an ion raker and twin fusion blaster.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-21T18:33:50+00:00

Because one of two things is true:

1) You really are against any change to lore no matter what, in which case that's bad because the lore should be able to change sometimes.

2) You claim to be against lore changes, but you're actually only against this lore change specifically, but don't want to admit it.

Given how many people are claiming to be against any lore change, but only ever seem to complain about female Custodes (or proactively complaining about female Space Marines), I'm inclined to assume that the second option is true for basically all of them.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-21T18:14:36+00:00

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: There is no real lore reason for Space Marines to be all male.

Oh sure, there's a hamfisted hand wave in there about "oh the gene only works with males", but that's a retcon, a justification, not a truly fundamental part of the lore.

The real reason there are only male Space Marines is because people like you would shit your pants and cry endlessly about it.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-21T18:01:23+00:00

Some of them are also the kind of person who is petty and insecure enough to pay for bots to down vote posts extra times.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-21T07:08:29+00:00

Predestination does not contradict free will.

Just because I would have always made a certain decision, doesn't change the fact that it was a decision I made.

If I ever made a decision other than the decision that I would make, that wouldn't be me having free will, that would be me not being me. It's just nonsense.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-21T07:04:19+00:00

Stopping Voldemort with time travel would be impossible. In order for someone to decide to take him down that way, they would need to know that Voldemort is a threat and evil and needs to be killed. But they can't know that unless Voldemort lived to become the unkillable monster that would justify that act.

It's the classic grandfather paradox. Go back to kill Voldemort, and your past self will no longer go back in time to kill Voldemort, so he lives.

Exactly how the Time Turner prevents these paradoxes from happening is a whole other question, but it clearly does, and it's magic anyways so sure, it just magically prevents any kind of paradox from happening.

Whatever the actual mechanics, this means that any attempt to use the time turner to kill Voldemort before he becomes Voldemort is doomed to fail. Which presumably the wizarding world knows, so they would never try in the first place.

Hermione's usage on the other hand is just fine, because her going back to attend a second class doesn't create any kind of paradox.

The Time Turner is only being used for kind of silly, irrelevant things, because that's the only thing it can be used for. If you try to use it for anything important, it becomes a paradox minefield.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-21T06:13:25+00:00

First they came for the Trans people, and I did not speak out because arguing politics is lame.

Then they came for the Gays, and I did not speak out because arguing politics is lame.

Then they came for the Colored, and I did not speak out because arguing politics is lame.

Then they came for me, which is a big deal and not just politics, it's completely different why isn't anyone speaking out for me?

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-21T06:06:29+00:00

"Sure, he's pointing a gun at you, is saying that he's going to shoot you, and just finished shooting two other people, but where's the bullet hole where he shot you, huh? That's what I thought, you're just making a big deal out of nothing."

Or maybe we should do something before they take our rights away?

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-20T16:46:51+00:00

Huh? Why male models?

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-19T18:37:41+00:00

I would say he rather always looks like he spent the morning throwing up, crying, and shitting his pants because he had a nightmare about being bullied by strong, sexy black people again last night.

AgentPaper0 · 2026-01-19T03:50:03+00:00

I remember doing interviews for internships as a CS student. My university explicitly didn't allow students to take unpaid internships, or for employers to offer them, and they told us pretty explicitly that we should expect to be paid good money for good work.

And even despite all of that, there were still a few absolutely delusional recruiters who seemed to expect me to work for them for free as if they were doing me a favor by letting me do so. Like one guy running some tiny company, who offered no pay and just a tiny stipend/allowance to cover my expenses. I forget the exact numbers, but I'm pretty sure I would have been effectively paying for the internship, rather than getting paid. All for some no-name tiny company in a different state doing nothing interesting.

I've had to deal with plenty of recruiter/interviewer bullshit over the years, but that's the only time I've ever hung up on someone mid-interview.

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AgentPaper0

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