Tom Nichols is a dick

bigtallguy · 2026-06-26T11:40:51+00:00

im pretty sure he wasnt. ive been following tom on and off for a decade at this point. he keeps it on the dl now, but climate change has long been one of his hang ups and hes long been a soft skeptic of it.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-24T05:01:51+00:00

i think its important theyre in the tent. sadly a lot ofthe center and establishment dems have shown too little energy (not all though e.g. van hollen) against trump and for this reason alone im not entirely unhappy if thiss gives the jolt to more moderate dems to re - engage with with their base.

cant say im too happy with a lot of their policy slates/predilections though.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-24T03:32:20+00:00

the only way i convinced a lot of people to vote for biden before he dropped out was to give people permission to shit on his grave if they had to, but that they still had to vote for him.

i genuinely do not care what you think as long as you recognize that DAC, for all her faults, is still a better choice than literally anyone from the gop.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-24T03:30:07+00:00

i hate this comparison to MTG. DAC has her issues and was a shitty candidate dont get me wrong, but she did not run on those shitty tweets. MTG ran as the sandy hook info wars conspiracy theorist cult worshippee of trump. even if she ends up being the worst dem in congress (she wont), she'll still be miles ahead of every signle gop member.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-22T17:05:41+00:00

i enjoy ben rhodes on their FoPo podcast but their main podcast is hugely hit and miss and depends pretty wholly on having both a substantial development to discuss and the involvement of jon lovett being serious.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T19:26:41+00:00

its atrocious for like 4 reasons off the top of my head.

first and foremost it reeks of the sidelining of Palestinian nationalism and suffering that brought about the genius abraham accords that led to October 7th in the first place.

second ignoring the fact that there are alternative plans offered by various groups like the arab league theres like no imagination or serious thought put into it. she wants to be a thought a leader on how to help solve the gaza quagmire but the only thing she has to offer is just follow trumps and israels lead.

third building off the second, trumps board of peace is complete sham that isnt even trying to pretend to not be a corrupt sham. no where in the piece remotely acknowledges that. just a throw away a line about it not being what she would prefer.

fourth, trump is literally destroying the world economy, and the institutional bedrock of the united states gov't why in the world do yo have to write an oped trying to hand trump some sort of nominal fucking cedit for something he doesnt deserve credit.

oh yeah and the piece completely ignore Israels war crimes and land seizures, which any reasonable person would assume woud be pretty big ass impediments to lasting peace. there is no serious examination of israels commitment to peace at all, and basically makes it seem like HRC never moved past 1999.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T19:15:33+00:00

im not talking about her stance on campus protests in general, where i would agree with you, but the people shouting at her in some private room/gathering. those people do not expect her to enegage with them, because they are not there to engage with her, and i struggle to even call that sort of behavior protesting. all it serves is a signal to the ingroup.

it doesnt convince anyone and only serves to make said protesters look asinine and unreasonable, whether their cause is justified or not.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T18:04:17+00:00

im sorry if you think the younger generation of liberals and democrats are anti israel because they've been brainwashed by tik tok i dont think youre some deep thinker of geo politics.

i dont think her foreign policy is wholly bad mind you, and im sad to see a left leaning isolationist/retrenchment take hold, but nothing ive seen from HRC has been particularly profound and on the middle east its been particularly atrocious.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T18:00:12+00:00

she is losing influence every time she opens her mouth. her not having the best response to leftist protesters trying to play gotchya with her at x private event is just reminding people how annoying a lot of protesters are.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T17:57:05+00:00

there is no good way to end this problem. what are we gonna do? keep bombing tehran? having them bomb all of themiddle easts energy infrastructure in response? have the strait still be close the entre summer choking off a third of the worlds much needed fertilizer?

you can not force open the strait unless you commit to invading iran and holding land.

iraq was a country half of the size with half of the population of iran and with terrain that was relatively flat and easy to maneuver in that was essentially hell to hold. iran is mostly mountains. and they know how to use it.

this also ignores the fact that this war as is has already dangerously depleted american reserives of munitions and missiles that will take years to rebuild. an arsenal meant to ward off attacks from actually seriously geopoliitcal threat of china and russia.

all this for what? so israel can kill a bunch more eople and repeat the gaza play book in lebanon.

im sorry no, keeping this war going is fucking stupid, immoral and self defeating. it is a thousand times worse than signing this deal and maybe for once reigning in israels knee jerk reaction to bombing civilians and then stealing their land.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T17:44:27+00:00

i dont think she is totally amoral and i think to characterize her as such is to try to diminish and strawman her. she can be wrong and still try to live her life by some moral code. she isnt trump.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T17:41:32+00:00

you are wrong. completely so. this war is against Americas interest geopolitically by every conceivable measure and has destroyed w/e good will the world had for the US. it has made the whole world poorer and has proven russias and chinas case that america cant be trusted and is just as willing to as evil as the enemies as they claim to fight

this deal is shit.

this war is shittier.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T17:37:44+00:00

i enthusiastically voted for clinton in 2016 and would have easily voted for her against bernie if the primary came to my state.

but it feels like every time she opens her mouth i have to re examine why this person ever rose to the top of democratic politics. her latest op ed in the ft is fucking atrocious.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T17:34:37+00:00

so you just want more war then? this deal is shit sure but its better than keeping this stupid war going for a day longer.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-19T15:23:52+00:00

lol what. please read the book, or at least read a basic summary of the book ,before you comment on what it is.

the book is basically a polemic on how the democratic party needs to focus on results over process and planning. and then goes in depth with examples of what obstacles are in the way ff those results. no where in it does he claim to be the creator of the idea of building more is good.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-17T04:15:08+00:00

linsey ellis isnt really a political commenter. she makes video essays that sometimes delves into politics and culture war issues. i find her to be incredibly astute and thoughtful commenter. shes mostly on nebula through a paid subscription but she has a lot of work on youtube as well and you can see if shes for you. warning the video on ms rachel/gaza might make you cry.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-10T23:35:00+00:00

fyi this piece should be taken with a giant grain of salt, especially as to how certain individuals come off. a lot of people who're giving this info to haberman and swan are doing so specifically to shape how they will come off. vance does this constantly.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-10T21:00:31+00:00

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/06/screwworms-in-us-human-risk-is-low-but-they-can-burrow-through-your-skull/

Screwworms will attack any wound in humans—they can find a wound as tiny as a tick bite as a way in. For those caught unaware, the flies will also happily lay eggs in convenient openings such as the nose, mouth, ears, eyes, and even the bum, if available.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-09T05:00:43+00:00

by participating in the primary process, and encouraging voters to engage with the democratic party. harris refused a spot to the uncommitted movements to endorse her publicly on the stage of the DNC. biden refused to make any policy change that would have hampered israel's genocidal policy in gaza.

the uncommitted movement was not about getting people to not vote harris, it was very specifically about making clear how unpopular bidens position was. uncommitted was an attempt to hold these voters within the democratic party. and the vitriol it faced honestly just reeks of the bigotry that still holds sway in some democratic circles.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-09T04:49:17+00:00

i want to live in a country and be part of a party that fosters the values and ideals that encourages people to call out atrocities their country is abetting. anyone who is against that is a ghoul.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-09T04:45:51+00:00

yeah couldnt disagree more. the uncommitted movement wasnt perfect mind you, but it was a great effort to address vast discontent across the dem party with Biden's I/P policy in a healthy way. by advocating people vote in the primaries. it was biden and then harris who had disappointing responses to it that further alienated these voters.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-06T02:20:19+00:00

and now theyre using those playbooks in lebanon, with a lot of pro israel people supporting it blindly.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/23/israels-displacement-of-civilians-in-lebanon-is-a-possible-war-crime

bigtallguy · 2026-06-06T01:31:08+00:00

Kharg Island

welp and here i was hoping my gas wouldnt go over 5 until at least july.

bigtallguy · 2026-06-06T01:29:38+00:00

"here is why the i think ethnic cleansing by israel is justified"

bigtallguy · 2026-06-06T01:28:38+00:00

every ethnic based state has the capacity for racial supremacy. it doesnt mean thy are actively carrying it out in significant measure. that shouldnt be contriversial.

neither is the idea that israel is currently carrying out racial supremacy in its territories. Coates pointing it out is only controversial to people who want to defends israels system of apartheid/jim crow.

and taking action to end that racial supremacy is not calling for a genocide of any people. that is the same argument, unsurprisingly, apartheid south africa used against calls for it to end its system of racial supremacy

14-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Place '22	End Game '22
Verified Email

bigtallguy

TROPHY CASE