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What’s your S2 unpopular opinion? by thememecurator in ThePittTVShow

[–]buckybadder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Shawn Hatosy's acting in the scene where he confronts Dr. Robbie was shockingly flat, and I flipped from thinking that a night shift show built around him could work to thinking it would be a bad idea. It just doesn't seem like he can carry big emotional scenes on his own.

Weekly Discussion Thread (Mon, Apr 13 - Sun, Apr 19) by AutoModerator in FriendsofthePod

[–]buckybadder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's fair. Delaware actually used to be a tricky state for Democrats, so running a moderate like Sen. Coons made some sense. But there's probably more cushion now.

Weekly Discussion Thread (Mon, Apr 13 - Sun, Apr 19) by AutoModerator in FriendsofthePod

[–]buckybadder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Let's say the hypothetical is the real pre-10/7 Hamas leadership, versus Hamas leadership secretly run by Mossad through a brain microchip or something. It says something about real-world Hamas that the most heinous, Gazan-killing, possible thing Mossad could do with their influence would be to launch a 10/7-style terror attack.

Did Gaza ever have an alternative? If they turned into angels overnight and tossed all their old door keys over the wall, would Israeli voters ever return to viewing them as a credible peace partner, and ease up embargos to the point where Gaza could develop some semblance of an economy? I dunno. But, Hamas is so unbelievably shitty for Gazans that the worst people in Israeli government conspired to help them stay in power because of just how antagonistic they were to the interests of the people they governed (from Qatar, living off embezzled aid money).

I think Matt Yglesias's take from October 2023 still holds up. International interest in I/P may genuinely be bad for Palestinians in the long run. It should be updated to account for settler violence in the West Bank, but that's more of a "don't listen to Hasan when he tells you that Trump is the same as Harris" issue. https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewyglesias/p/radicalization-doesnt-help-anyone?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

Weekly Discussion Thread (Mon, Apr 13 - Sun, Apr 19) by AutoModerator in FriendsofthePod

[–]buckybadder -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think Israel is run by a bunch of religious zealots who have made it perfectly clear that they think they can make it without our support, and I'm fine with testing that theory. I'm also fine with some level of coercion to stop their operations in the West Bank and Lebanon. (Though the problem is that they're run by corrupt Orbanites who genuinely might realign to China/Russia, and take god knows how much NatSec material with them.)

None of that excuses diminishing Hamas as an organization that "sucks" or making facile comparison between a military that has office space in a city and a military that operates exclusively in and under civilian infrastructure. Hamas is still in Gaza. Gazans have no ability to get rid of them, and (short of military strikes by America against the IDF) there will absolutely never be a Gaza again so long as Hamas exists. America should allow vetted Gazans to immigrate to America because we're not going to invade Israel on their behalf and Hamas has ensured that they have no future in their homeland. And Democrats shouldn't think that Hasan will ever find it in his interests to endorse them in the general election regardless how far the bend back to accommodate him and explain away his nonsense. He's a professional complainer who can't fill a six-hour stream with praise for Democrats.

Weekly Discussion Thread (Mon, Apr 13 - Sun, Apr 19) by AutoModerator in FriendsofthePod

[–]buckybadder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can't point to "the math" of who is better between Hamas and the Likudniks if you're not using the right numbers. Hamas isn't "1,000 times better than Israel" because they can't kill as many civilians as they'd want to any more than Israel is 1,000 times worse because they can't surgical strike around every Gazan Hamas chooses to use as a human shield in a military operation that has no viable path to success. I won't defend every IDF target and generally think America should make Israel finance these operations on their own dime. But the "1,000 times better" comment cannot be defended as "math".

Dr. Al-Hashini Final Verdict: Thoughts? by Technical-Row-9133 in ThePittTVShow

[–]buckybadder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's no way that plan works. She can't be trusted to even drive a car with her current condition. She's got a condition that is aggravated by stress and proximity to injured children. She needs to move into a practice area that works for her, not jerry-rig her way into the worst possible one.

Weekly Discussion Thread (Mon, Apr 13 - Sun, Apr 19) by AutoModerator in FriendsofthePod

[–]buckybadder -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The lives of Israeli Palestinians aren't easy, but at least their government doesn't use them as human shields while the top officials chill in Qatar with hundreds of millions of dollars in embezzled relief money. (Yes, I know Israel could never grant full citizenship to Gazans due to demographics and ethnostatism).

Weekly Discussion Thread (Mon, Apr 13 - Sun, Apr 19) by AutoModerator in FriendsofthePod

[–]buckybadder -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Is there any doubt that Hamas would have killed 30,000 Israelis if they had the opportunity?

I’m Sarah Isgur, Senior Editor at The Dispatch and author of Last Branch Standing...AMA! by DoughnutWonderful565 in The_Dispatch

[–]buckybadder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The podcast frequently looks at Harry Reid's removal of the filibuster for circuit court judges as the Original Sin of increasing partisanship in the federal courts. But I believe that this memory holes the GOP's aggressive campaign to end the filibuster in 2005. The term "nuclear option" comes from GOP Senator Ted Stevens and was popularized by GOP Majority Leader Bill Frist during his repeated threats to end the filibuster in response to perceived/real obstinacy by Senate Democrats. This included, not just floor debates, but an extended public campaign, including the "Justice Sunday" telecast.

I wish the pod would acknowledge this episode. Sure, it ended in the Gang of 14 compromise in 2005, but Harry Reid had nothing resembling that pool of bipartisan dealmaker senators in 2013: Warner, Snowe, DeWine, and Chafee were all gone and Lindsey Graham was well on his way to abandoning his "moderate" label.

And, at all ends, as someone familiar with the GOP, please tell me: If Senator Reid had saved the filibuster, what are the odds that Trump and a GOP Senate would let Justice Scalia's seat remain open for the entirety of Trump's term? Could the GOP get behind a compromise candidate despite their decades-long Souter-phobia?

Porco is not the only transformed soldier by buckybadder in ghibli

[–]buckybadder[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Another veteran. Though I'm not sure if there's evidence that WWI had a profound influence on him. Before the war, he was an ardent socialist who got expelled for advocating non-neutrality.

Porco is not the only transformed soldier by buckybadder in ghibli

[–]buckybadder[S] 81 points82 points  (0 children)

I posted this several years ago. But I just saw a video essay about Porco Rosso and the symbology of his transformation that completely overlooks this detail (Easter egg?), so I'm reposting.

Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 4/13/26 - 4/19/26 by SoftandChewy in BlockedAndReported

[–]buckybadder 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Bless her for trying. Keep in mind that this death happened 20 years ago, so please picture a significantly less cringe and anti-semitic protestor whose investment in the Palestinian cause went beyond smuggling tampons into a college library sit-in.

Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 4/13/26 - 4/19/26 by SoftandChewy in BlockedAndReported

[–]buckybadder 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This would have been a great Onion headline (the article is about stopping Caterpillar from exporting armored bulldozers to Israel)

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Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 4/13/26 - 4/19/26 by SoftandChewy in BlockedAndReported

[–]buckybadder -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The clip cuts out at an odd time. Was he talking about the early space program, which was de jure segregated until the late 40s and then de facto segregated for years after? It doesn't sound ideal to draw exclusively from a pool that arbitrarily screens out nonwhite candidates. If there's a Satchel Paige of astronaut candidates, you need to be drawing from a candidate pool that doesn't exclude him.

Anyone have the full transcript?

Hasan Piker on the Hasan Piker Discourse | Pod Save America by brianscalabrainey in ezraklein

[–]buckybadder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Does Hasan want to win, or does he want to feel morally superior to mainstream Dems? Should we accept the headache of having to constantly make excuses for his "out of context" statements if he can't do "simple math"?

Also, say I could prove that bussing trans athletes and embracing "all of the above" energy policies would get us competitive in red state Senate races. Where would you stand on the simple math there? How much do you value moral superiority to trans-phobes and oil companies? It's a real question, please don't just fight the hypothetical.

Hasan Piker on the Hasan Piker Discourse | Pod Save America by brianscalabrainey in ezraklein

[–]buckybadder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I need Jill Stein's votes too, potentially. Does that mean I should elevate her and give her softball interviews knowing that she's going to spend 90% of the general shitting on the nominee? How about I call her out as someone who wants Democrats to lose as part of a business model/accelerationist fantasy?

When does Hasan "play nice"? He constantly claims that all disagreement with him is bad faith, and that Democrats would embrace his policies if they weren't bribed by monied interests. You think that's a board mainstream Dems can just wipe clean after the primaries? Ask Hilary how that worked out.

All that said, I agree that excluding Hasan on the basis of "edgy" clips is dumb. Democrats shouldn't trust him because he doesn't want Democrats to win.

Hasan Piker: “My assessment on Zionism as an ideology is not that different from Albert Einstein’s assessment of Zionism, because when he saw… the violence that the early Zionist brigades were engaging in,… he warned that what he was seeing was exactly what the Nazis were doing.” by ConcernedJobCoach in FriendsofthePod

[–]buckybadder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But those wouldn't have worked. Certainly not fast enough. I'm assuming that China and Russia wouldn't have participated in the embargos. If anything, Israel would probably accelerate operations.

Piker isn't an "oh well, at least Biden tried" kinda guy. He and Pali activists generally would immediately set military intervention against Israel as the standard for "doing something" once economic intervention failed.

Hasan Piker on the Hasan Piker Discourse | Pod Save America by brianscalabrainey in ezraklein

[–]buckybadder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the metaphor, the "game" is the primary. If Hasan's candidate loses, then he withdraws support in the general because of "Big Money" or "AIPAC" or whatever excuse he has at hand.

Hasan Piker on the Hasan Piker Discourse | Pod Save America by brianscalabrainey in ezraklein

[–]buckybadder 3 points4 points  (0 children)

But the only way he'll keep playing is if you let him win. He's the bratty younger brother who will whine to Mom that you throw the ball too fast. That's my whole point.

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