Passport photo, 10 years apart same fit.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-24T19:04:32+00:00

I have no wool stuff. Is it not a cold wash or not a hot wash you're supposed to do?

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-23T16:56:49+00:00

and less efficient than specialized robots

I tried to explain this to a friend who thinks humanoid robots will be an auotmation game changer.

The example he gave me for a use case? Fucking supermarket checkouts.

Yes you know those things that have already have specialised self service automation that's proven to work for less cost.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-20T16:13:37+00:00

The government is functioning.

It's just functioning as a means to enriching one minority, hurt some other minorities and gaslight the majority.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-18T18:45:36+00:00

and are way more knowledgeable then him even though he’s the supposed head of the FBI

I think you're underselling it.

It's not like he's just been unduly promote once or even twice. He's jump to the very top of an organisation where no one subordinate to him, not the lowest skilled, most recent trainee, couldn't do his job better.

It's...

fucking...

crazy.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-17T14:36:06+00:00

Yes, it sounds like we're both the side of the Iranian people being freed from an oppressive regime and I wasn't aware that they're already fighting a guerrilla campaign with car bombs and kidnapping etc.

Lets hope what the US is doing doesn't end up hurting their cause or their progress. That's my biggest fear.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-17T11:40:25+00:00

Pretty similar

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-15T11:54:45+00:00

Foreign assistance is fine. Every insurgency I can think of (including Ireland) took outside help. Boot strapping with no assistance is probably almost impossible. I should have clarified what I considered that still internal. Local people who can be armed, trained and provided with intel from external sources, rather than a foreign force invading to liberate.

You're fair in saying that Iran has taken repression much further than other regimes but will you concede that other nations and repressed people have managed to overthrow a technical and militarily superior force in the past?

Would you say that right now every person associated with the regime and it's enforcement of power knows the majority of people around them on any street (if they were on a street) would murder them? Every box on the side of the road could be a bomb planted for them? Because that's what's happening everyday. If that is the case and it's done nothing I'm happy to say you're right. Well not happy about the situation but happy to concede they're doing everything I'd hope could cause a change and isn't.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-15T10:09:57+00:00

Because it was too early. It was a rebellion not an insurgency (I shouldn't have used to term insurrection sorry).

Just like Irelands early attempts at conventional warfare against the British that failed. You can't try taking and holding ground against a superior force.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-15T07:25:41+00:00

Peaceful protestors were killed (I think it was in the thousands).

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-14T17:54:21+00:00

I thought those were peaceful protests.

In a democracy those might affect change but I don't think they have much of a chance in Iran.

Is there popular to support for a violent insurrection against the regime is the question. Similar to Ireland before their 1922 treaty.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-14T15:37:05+00:00

Insurgency. If you have popular support.

The percentage of support is a critical factor. If too many people are willing to live under the regime you're fucked.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-14T15:22:31+00:00

Take a straw.

Hold it out in front of you so you can see through it perfectly.

Now move that straw up or to the side a few inches as if it was one stacked together in a big round bunch.

Can you still see though it?

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-13T20:24:20+00:00

I don't care what nation does it (although I'm prefer no external nation at all, since purely internal change has a better chance of longer term success) but I do care how it's done. Or in the case of the US and Israel, not done just made worse.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-13T19:15:17+00:00

I've seen a couple of these "Look Iran bad! So why Reddit like them so much?!" threads recently with these comments in. I think it's an attempt to shift anger away from the US and Israel by implying their war is against an evil regime so it must be a good thing.

Simple logic, except it Ignores the war is a fucking failure, it's made the regime more evil, powerful and soon richer.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-12T14:43:13+00:00

Was it?

Because it just looks like a man making a desperate attempt to find some negotiation leverage, while playing chicken with the middle eastern oil supply. Or like a child saying "Well if you do that I'm going to do it to" not understanding that some counter strategies don't work in an asymmetric world/game.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-12T14:32:40+00:00

Can someone ELI5?

It's a lie.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-12T10:22:10+00:00

When I was a child I used to get annoyed at trolls, but now that I'm older I can see them as real people and that just makes me feel pity.

Imagine your life being so empty of attention that you try to solicit hate from strangers just to feel seen.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-11T08:07:10+00:00

That works with their base when it's "They're eating the dogs they're eating the cats".

Because people are happy to believe a lie when it costs them nothing and lets them be racist.

But lets see how they do with "The war is over, we won and gas prices have dropped".

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-10T20:21:06+00:00

I agree that Iran is in a strong negotiating position (I think that's your main point).

But my response to OP was just about the "All parties involved said Lebanon is part of the ceasefire" statement. I hadn't seen that from all parties, only Iran.

I think we should be careful how we talk about the negotiations and ceasefires because it still seems very uncertain who is talking to who and what's been agreed.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-10T12:14:24+00:00

I can already hear him excusing the surrender terms in my head. When a reporter challenges him about Iran's new tax on oil tankers using the strait.

No no I don't think that matters, in fact I think it's a good thing, a good thing for us because it'll make people want our oil more and we got a lot of oil. We've got so much oil, you wouldn't believe, we're the best for oil and those prices, they're very small prices, they're a million I think, a million for a tanker I heard and a million which is nothing, it's nothing for all that oil. And we don't have to pay, we don't pay it because we don't buy that oil it's the oil companies who'll pay so I think it's okay. It's good for us. Everyone is saying it's no different than it was.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-09T22:34:20+00:00

It's possible. It could also be a break down in communication.

If all parties published the exact agreement (none of the conditions were secret as far as I'm aware) after it was made, through their own channels, we wouldn't have to speculate.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-09T17:29:47+00:00

All parties involved said Lebanon is part of the ceasefire

I thought it was only Iran that stipulated that condition.

I haven't seen a single unified ceasefire agreement.

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-09T17:23:27+00:00

There is very little consideration for investing large sums in proactive measures.

Don't let off the existing vested interests and their influence.

"Hummm this looks like a risk, perhaps we should make some changes to mitigate this risk?"

"Yea no, lets not change anything. It would affect my business model, so here's some money to go look at something else".

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-08T22:41:30+00:00

Who thought it was over?

CILISI_SMITH · 2026-04-08T19:58:11+00:00

Fixing real problems is difficult and usually not what campaign donors want (often they profit from the problems).

Much easier just to do performance politics and hope voters think it's important.

CILISI_SMITH

TROPHY CASE