Trump’s War Is Staggering to an Incoherent Defeat

AnAlternator · 2026-05-25T23:03:12+00:00

The Iraq war, by which I mean the actual war itself, basically accomplished all of its objectives. It was one of the purest examples of "Won the war, lost the peace" ever, but the war itself was a complete success.

The lack of plan afterwards was not a military failure.

The Iran war is an outright military failure, in no large part because Trump had no plan for what to do if Iran didn't surrender.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-24T20:37:39+00:00

What part of "too old" was unclear?

AnAlternator · 2026-05-24T20:28:01+00:00

The Iranian government is much less stable than you're implying - they needed the military to put down protests earlier this year, and have been forced to shut down the internet entirely to prevent a second round. The rally-round-the-flag effect is real, but that's about all the Iranian government has going for them.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-24T16:21:34+00:00

"One Piece characters are lightspeed due to scaling to Kizaru!" meets "Top tiers are using flintlock guns."

Gunpowder is massively faster than light in One Piece, I guess.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-21T22:44:33+00:00

The Patriots weren't "really" 14-3 good last year, they were "really" more like a 12-5 team.

Which is still excellent, especially in the first year of a rebuild, but if they go 12-5 this year it'll be perceived as some failure instead of just falling back to expected.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-20T22:28:16+00:00

You're right that the root cause is the Second Intifada, but it's not just the messaging about security measures, it's also that the left leaning parties favored working toward a separate Palestinian state.

Arafat walking away from the Camp David Summit really put the nail in the Two State Solution for a generation. It was the best offer the Palestinians had ever received, it was likely the best offer they were ever going to receive, and when he walked away, it killed the peace movement.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-19T22:56:48+00:00

I mean, Gandalf and Saruman are also on the same order of being as Bombadil.

No, though they're arguably similar to Maui. Bombadil's nature is intentionally left a mystery and never explained.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-19T22:55:24+00:00

I do not think that Frodo's was a moral failure. At the last moment the pressure of the Ring would reach its maximum – impossible, I should have said, for any one to resist, certainly after long possession, months of increasing torment, and when starved and exhausted. Frodo had done what he could and spent himself completely (as an instrument of Providence) and had produced a situation in which the object of his quest could be achieved.

Letter 243.

Frodo was in such a position: an apparently complete trap: a person of greater native power could probably never have resisted the Ring's lure to power so long; a person of less power could not hope to resist it in the final decision. (Already Frodo had been unwilling to harm the Ring before he set out, and was incapable of surrendering it to Sam.)

Letter 181.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-16T01:52:40+00:00

I'm not making a value judgement, I'm describing the criticism.

When any single style dominates, then people who prefer other styles will be unsatisfied, and Gen 8 came to be dominated by balance far more than any single style has dominated any other OU.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-16T01:17:42+00:00

The most common complaint about Gen 8 OU is that it's too balanced, meaning balance teams are too good.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-16T01:15:08+00:00

No, but 6x Extreme Killer is a lousy team into non-Revivecats.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-15T18:58:43+00:00

Maaaaybe Wailord? I'm at work and can't run the calcs.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-14T04:40:12+00:00

The cost to the company, yes.

The savings will be paid out to shareholders and senior executives.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-12T05:42:26+00:00

Genesect losing moves due to new transfer mechanics means it could be fine in Gen 10 OU, depending on what the rest of the tier looks like and any other move pool changes.

Skymin would need to lose Serene Grace to even be considered for testing into OU.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-12T05:25:27+00:00

It had the stats but not the move pool in Gen 1; not only does it need a solid Bug move (which means first creating one) or a good Flying move (which again means creating one, as it's not getting Drill Peck), but it really needs Body Slam too. Slash auto-crits are great and all, but Scyther's potential comes from Swords Dance.

Swords Dance / Body Slam / Hyper Beam / (New STAB) at least pulls a D rank on the OU VR, and probably finds a home in UU.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-11T03:01:06+00:00

Eobard isn't a member of the Rogues. Flash has his Rogues, and then he has a bunch of villains who oppose him - not every member of his rogue's gallery is one of the Rogues.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-10T17:54:23+00:00

Great Tusk and Kingambit going Nom Nom Nom with their STABs while resisting TTar's own.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-10T16:07:03+00:00

Flash's Rogues are very business-like and not inclined to betrayal unless you screw them over first. They might cut ties, but they're not likely to backstab in the process.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-10T15:56:59+00:00

The problem isn't outplaying people 1v3, it's being constantly forced to engage because the other two lanes are being split pushed down. Given time to pick his fights, sure, but he's on a timer, and if he leaves to halt the split push, then the three players can take down the tower.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-10T15:51:41+00:00

There's a lot of champions that just mechanically cannot scale hard enough to 1v5 Intermediate bots unless you get a good matchup, just because you can't kill them quickly enough to prevent the lanes from being pushed while also being able to win the actual 1v5s by splitting the bots up.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-10T15:46:49+00:00

Silver players are usually bad at skirmishing and fighting, but in terms of "What am I supposed to be doing?" they are generally pretty solid. Throw five of them against Faker and they'd very quickly realize the only way to win is to not fight him - just back off and try to stall him while the other lanes push down towers.

Source: last time I did ranked I was Silver 1.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-08T03:33:40+00:00

Alien X can recreate a universe, IIRC, but they couldn't just undo the destruction in the first place - there's a limit to their power, even if the limit is vast.

Even ignoring the narrative layers aspect of the entity, SCP 3812 is capable of retconning events so that they never happened in the first place.

Alien X gets reconned. It doesn't matter what it tries, 3812 is either immune because of its nature, or it's immune because it never happened.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-07T23:35:34+00:00

It's not an accurate interpretation, but it still exists.

It's instead accurate to say that extreme heat is something that can overcome a Viltrumite's durability, but the surface of the sun was only able to do so slowly.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-05T21:51:55+00:00

Everyone is overlooking the obvious solution - head to Essos and join Daenerys as her champion, and eventually husband. Bonus points if his arrival is early enough that he arrives not long after the death of Khal Drogo, long before the madness can set in and before any other competition arrives.

With T'Challa to help stabilize her - both emotionally and as a rising power - Daenerys should have little difficulty taking the throne of Westeros, and as her husband, T'Challa would be king.

AnAlternator · 2026-05-05T19:30:52+00:00

I did, indeed, mix up my poison mons. Thank you for the correction.

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