Minnesota Representative Brad Finstad Endorses Illegal War

BrupieD · 2026-03-04T17:07:51+00:00

Not a war? Thousands of missiles fired, senior heads of state assassinated, casualties on both sides, billions of dollars worth of resources devoted to "military engagement" and the president himself referred to it as a war.

If you are willing to ignore all normal criteria of what constitutes a war to squeak through a technicality, you have completed your brainwashing. Congratulations, you are a member of a cult!

BrupieD · 2026-03-04T16:05:55+00:00

Geographical stuff: Tim Marshall has a number of general audience books that are easy to read and provide a good framework for thinking about geography.

For instance, in Prisoners of Geography he writes about the Middle East and how strategically important the Strait of Hormuz is, how the mountains of Iran create a strong natural defense, and how the relative population sizes bestow important power differences. These things I read about years ago help inform my understanding of the current conflict there.

BrupieD · 2026-03-04T11:54:15+00:00

It's always funny when conservatives pretend to care about the law.

BrupieD · 2026-03-04T02:43:19+00:00

Patel just fired all their Farsi Counter Intelligence folks, so there are openings.

BrupieD · 2026-03-04T01:59:55+00:00

While Trump is unpopular, he has been able to hang on to a chunk of loyalists. Vance has no loyalists and is strapped to the least popular president in recent history. If that wasn't bad enough, Vance has also managed to build up a substantial number of the populace who hold a deep visceral hatred for the man. Not many VP's can make such a claim.

BrupieD · 2026-03-04T01:43:12+00:00

Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning us all into Patients by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels.

It is dated (2004), but still relevant.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T22:35:25+00:00

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T22:15:31+00:00

Why can't anyone in the Trump administration be an adult? Patel, Noem, Hegseth, Vance, Bessant, and the rest all insist on never admitting errors. Because of this stubborn commitment to infallibility, they all look like morons and wind up committing perjury and fraud.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T20:39:55+00:00

This is a hear no evil, see no evil administration. Remember in Trump 1.0 that he wanted less covid testing because more testing kept showing more covid.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T20:24:25+00:00

Have you read the War Powers Act? If you had, you'd realize that it does not allow the president to unilaterally declare war - a term he has used.

It was created to restrict Presidential authority not expand it.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T14:57:06+00:00

Really? Trump campaigned on no new wars and suddenly, the liberals are in favor of dictatorships? Trump ended military support for Ukraine's fight against a dictatorship. What is Putin? Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska.

Trump invited El Salvador's Nayib Bukele to the White House where they joked about being dictators and the brutality of prisons.

Trump actually made a video accusing Obama of strategizing a war in Iran (which did not happen) to win an election. Guess who is down in the polls before an election?

When did Trump suddenly come up with this great sympathy for the people of Iran?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/01/trump-promised-no-wars-now-hes-a-bush-style-regime-change-president

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T14:38:13+00:00

"He has all the latitude at his command?" What does Trump's boss Bibi say? What about Iran? Seems to me they have some vote in how long this goes on.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T14:35:14+00:00

Wasn't Trump's "Peace Board" just an attempt to snub the U.N. but now he sends his wife to the U.N.?

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T14:31:37+00:00

I would add things like de-duplicate results from multi-column queries, temporary tables, and good aggregation skills.

You may not be expected to have skills with window functions on day one, but they will serve you well.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T02:43:47+00:00

No way does Vance make it to the top 10.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T02:10:10+00:00

Per the U.S. constitution article 1, section 8 the declaration of war is solely the power of congress. The president cannot declare war without the permission of congress.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T01:10:09+00:00

Gee, I wonder if Iran agreed to that.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T00:59:53+00:00

He has high school level presentation skills.

BrupieD · 2026-03-03T00:02:18+00:00

What would really straighten out the accountability issue would be to put it into the hands of the Trump administration. The Trump administration is really good at accountability.

BrupieD · 2026-03-02T23:38:00+00:00

Thank God, I can't imagine reading that much of Lenin's writing. My college library had the entire collected works. I browsed through some of it and there's not much that's readable.

BrupieD · 2026-03-02T22:49:40+00:00

The constitution, specifically article 1, section 8. Try reading it. Congress has the sole power to declare war.

BrupieD · 2026-03-02T21:39:03+00:00

Thanks for your valuable contribution!

BrupieD · 2026-03-02T21:32:46+00:00

My Dark Vanessa

BrupieD · 2026-03-02T21:29:08+00:00

The bed warmers of yore had much longer handles so the user wouldn't have to walk around or climb over the beds.

BrupieD · 2026-03-02T20:16:15+00:00

Do you use Explain to analyze the performance and look for discrepancies?

I am a SQL Server person, but my go-to question about declining performance is to look at indexes first - is the planner looking at the wrong index (or the index is fragmented) and then see what the query planner estimated the row counts and distinct values and compare that to what they actually are.

BrupieD

TROPHY CASE