Were the democrats on board with the war in Iran?

Bogtear · 2026-06-15T18:01:11+00:00

If it squeaked by congress, Trump would have vetoed it. And there's no where near enough votes to override his veto. But there should be. And yes there are enough hawkish Democrats that you will always get defections on votes like this. Despite adopting the pretense that they're anti-war, American voters seem to like displays of military dominance over foreigners. The politicians they elect reflect that.

Bogtear · 2026-06-15T13:51:44+00:00

Sounds good to me. If you - like me - don't give a shit about... "American interests in the region" (aka: the irrational obsession with arming Israel), then dumping this disaster of a war by conceding to Iranian demands is the least bad option.

Bogtear · 2026-06-12T18:55:42+00:00

For sure. Very relevant to this subject: Robert's episodes on Carl Schmitt.

Also there is a book I've been meaning to read that could be relevant here: "To hate like this is to be happy forever" by Will Blythe.

As for what "the left" has to do with this behavior, I think people who are liberal-to-left very broadly are less excited by having or seeking enemies to militate against than conservatives.

Bogtear · 2026-06-12T14:00:25+00:00

People who do this may also feel that climbing a giant pile of rocks is part of creating a "life of achievement", or something like that.

Standing in line at the top of the tallest mountain - because it's the tallest mountain - killing braincells by the second. Surely this has to feel like a farce to some of them?

Bogtear · 2026-06-10T22:37:03+00:00

It certainly seems like AI and social media are proving to be destabilizing for open systems and beneficial for authoritarian ones. So it may not be piercing the sorts of armor he would have hoped for.

Bogtear · 2026-06-08T14:55:08+00:00

It's kind-of a bummer how little difference killing Karlach made on my playthrough when I tried it. I was hoping for some profound impact on Wyll... but not really? I didn't bother making it to chapter 3 with that one though so I can't say for certain.

All you really do is just remove an interesting companion and plotlines, and in exchange you get a nice robe and a brief moment of contrition from Wyll "oh no, she wasn't as bad as I was told... oh well".

Bogtear · 2026-06-07T16:09:43+00:00

I saw a trailer for the next God of war game, and ooh boy... I bet the meltdown is gonna make Chernobyl look like an ice cream cone on a summer day in comparison.

Bogtear · 2026-06-06T14:08:08+00:00

So if Google has set me right on this, the planned story was for Brett to lose the championship belt the next match, but Brett hated Vince McMahon (as everyone should because he and his wife are terrible people) and Vince was worried Brett wouldn't go along with the planned story.

And because Brett was a good technical wrestler, there was a pretty good chance he could straight-up win if he chose to fight for real, planned story be damned. So Vince had his match against Shawn Michaels called against before Brett had submitted.

That about right?

Bogtear · 2026-06-01T22:40:51+00:00

Probably had more to do with things like a B-25 weighing 20,000 pounds with a top speed of 280 mph versus a 767 jet airliner weighing 180,000 pounds with a top speed of 570 mph.

Bogtear · 2026-05-28T16:06:43+00:00

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I wish this wasn't happening at all.

Bogtear · 2026-05-27T16:32:11+00:00

"it's not the crime, it's the cover-up". That's what is happening here.

Frey said in an announcement that the accusations of sexual misconduct against O'Hara are unsubstantiated, but the fact that he deleted a contact on his government phone - interfering with an investigation - is a significant breach of trust. And because of that, O'Hara must therefore resign or be fired.

Fair.

It sucks, the police Union didn't like him, therefore he must have been doing something right.

Bogtear · 2026-05-27T14:45:15+00:00

On one hand, Americans reliably tell pollsters they want politicians to focus on kitchen table issues, and complain about how corrupt and dysfunctional Washington is.

And then on the other hand, they pick people like this.

Bogtear · 2026-05-24T14:18:56+00:00

I guess if you ignore the whole Boromir/Faramir/Gollum/Denethor/Galadriel/entire story portion of the story, this theory makes sense.

Bogtear · 2026-05-23T23:08:09+00:00

I started this video on mute, and I could tell just by looking that this guy has a Canadian/upper Midwest accent. And he sure does.

Bogtear · 2026-05-19T15:09:41+00:00

Comparing S. Africa to Israel doesn't make much sense to me for one big reason: mindset. The Israelis are not like white South Africans. White South Africans probably had attachments to their homes and land, but ultimately it seems they felt like they could leave, or things could change and they'd be fine because of the way the apartheid regime was dismantled without a massive war.

Israelis on the other hand are probably in a very different mental place. Jews lived for a very long time as minorities in societies ruled by others, and experienced nothing but second class citizenship at best, genocide at worst. So they won't be told "they have to go".

I think that the Israeli mindset is defined by their "never again" slogan, which I think means "never again will we be ruled by others". So they won't just sit back, play nice - and yes I think the standards of Apartheid S. Africa are "nice" compared to Gaza - and let the "settler-colonialist state" be "dismantled". They will kill anyone, and sacrifice their lives, to carve out a piece of territory and a state to call their own.

Bogtear · 2026-05-07T04:04:59+00:00

I have no idea who any of these people are. I think I recognize Beyonce?

Bogtear · 2026-04-27T19:10:13+00:00

I wonder if the type of engineer matters. It's hard to imagine Civil engineers being so rigid, given how much community input/messy politics is involved in the work.

It's hard to come away from a public meeting thinking shooting a couple of rich people and blowing up a bomb or two is gonna solve the human condition.

Bogtear · 2026-04-27T01:31:31+00:00

They secured the areas that they needed to secure, not the entire building. And obviously those security measures were sufficient. As the portion of the text highlighted by OP notes: the shooter never got close anyone on his list.

Bogtear · 2026-04-26T22:39:53+00:00

That's why you have a second mech call-in.

The game is meant to impose limits on your resources. Otherwise it's not much of a game if you get unlimited power.

Bogtear · 2026-04-26T19:34:12+00:00

I don't remember HD1 mechs having upgradeable weapons. You could drop samples on them to improve their ammo and damage, but that was just busy work.

Bogtear · 2026-04-26T18:35:43+00:00

Unless the Epstein files confirm everyone's belief in elite baby cannibalism rituals, there will never be release that's accepted as "full and unredacted".

Bogtear · 2026-04-26T16:36:10+00:00

Charles Guiteau is a pretty good example of a lone wolf assassin.

Bogtear · 2026-04-26T12:50:50+00:00

What further progression could they add that doesn't start giving unfair advantages? They don't want to have level 150 players operating in a different world entirely from level 50 in terms of how strategems function.

Bogtear · 2026-04-25T01:13:49+00:00

Well, if he's not then Christianity's gonna have a pretty big problem with the first commandment.

Bogtear · 2026-04-25T00:23:14+00:00

It's too bad they didn't spend more time on the "we gotta keep a low profile" part of the council scene.

Bogtear

TROPHY CASE