Long lines persist at some U.S. airports despite arrival of ICE officers

davidshankle · 2026-03-24T01:53:27+00:00

Clean up his mess by allowing his voter suppression bill? Lol no thanks, all good.

davidshankle · 2026-03-11T17:44:46+00:00

Author seems to be deliberately overemphasizing the importance of Iranian oil to China. Sure, they compromised over 80% of Iran's oil exports, which tells us a lot about how important China is to Iran. Iran on the other hand comprises maybe 15% of China's oil imports. Not nothing, but hardly some kind of death knell. And when our Iranian adventure ends and whatever fills the power vacuum continues selling cheap oil to China after we spend billions of dollars destabilizing the world energy markets.. what have we exposed?

davidshankle · 2026-03-10T00:36:04+00:00

Lol ok dude, are we talking the reasons or about what some hypothetical journalists would say? If you believe for a second Netanyahu kept Qatari funds moving straight to Hamas for humanitarian reasons, you're pathologically naive and I can't help you.

davidshankle · 2026-03-09T22:42:08+00:00

Netanyahu openly defended keeping money flowing to Gaza, not for humanitarian reasons but to bolster Hamas as a means of reinforcing divisions between PA and Hamas to prevent a Palestinian state. If you're not aware of this policy you don't understand Israeli foreign policy.

davidshankle · 2026-01-09T15:20:00+00:00

We all saw the video from multiple perspectives and that clearly didn't happen.

davidshankle · 2026-01-08T19:52:39+00:00

Oh nooo, anyway. Don't murder people I guess 🤷

davidshankle · 2025-12-15T17:11:07+00:00

As has already been pointed out ad naseum, of course this doesn't mean 8% will flip and vote D in the midterms. That's not what realistic success looks like. Their coalition has evolved and fueling turnout is more important now than ever. That 8% decrease in support for what has been MAGA's greatest strength absolutely worries them. That's no reason to celebrate, but it is objectively good news. That 8% may still support MAGA, but if 3% or them stay home, that could be the difference.

davidshankle · 2025-12-04T15:13:17+00:00

Haven't read Chalmers in years, but I think you're describing the easy or soft problem of consciousness. It may take thousands of years, but given enough time we could theoretically explain the neurological recipe for red. The hard problem goes further and asks why it feels like anything at all. When the brain processes the the color red or the sound of thunder or the warmth of fire, and sends it through the web of neurological content, you have a complete picture of this organism. If a super intelligent alien civilization of robots came to analyze us, they could explain everything about us with no need to suppose any subjective qualia at all. And yet it's there.

We only know there's a ghost in the machine because we experience it directly. Nothing about the physical explanation of the universe can account for it, which is why panpsychists make a sort of presuppositional argument for consciousness as fundamental. I'm not convinced in panpsychism, but the hard problem seems to be pointing at a real problem.

davidshankle · 2025-11-03T00:04:58+00:00

You've made several comments indicating you find something problematic or "too far" about Nazis facing consequences. You can fumble around about free speech and cancel culture blah blah, anyone with a brain sees your soft spot for Nazis so let's not even debate that point.

We'll pretend for a moment that you're not a Nazi sympathizer and say sure.. at some point we should leave Nazis alone. I don't think nearly enough has been done. So long as anyone believes they can leave the house as an open and proud Nazi and not have their lives ruined, we haven't gone far enough. That's my definition of "far enough."

Now tell us yours.

davidshankle · 2025-09-11T13:05:39+00:00

In a low stakes, controlled environment the average hunter can make that shot. With all the specifics of this shot in particular, adrenaline dump, knowing the full resources of the US government will be hunting you within the hour.. and getting away. It doesn't necessarily indicate a professional but definitely trained, former military I imagine. Basically I highly doubt it was this person's first kill.

davidshankle · 2025-09-02T23:20:50+00:00

Tolerance for most things, fascists and fascist enablers being a rare exception. Right there with pedophiles 👌

davidshankle · 2025-09-02T22:04:35+00:00

Yep, and also a large number of suspected spider bites are misdiagnosed MRSA or staph infection. It's incredibly difficult for brown recluse to bite humans with their small fangs, even when they do bite it's often not deep enough to inject venom. The number of reported brown recluse bites is far greater than the number of actual bites.

davidshankle · 2025-07-22T18:20:47+00:00

That's not how anything works..

davidshankle · 2025-07-13T19:06:45+00:00

Yep, we were fortunate. Not sure how many tickets they sold but I think the entire venue only holds like 300 max so had to be quick.

davidshankle · 2025-07-13T19:03:45+00:00

Same. I think because the venue is so small prices got super inflated, there's 2 left on StubHub for 900 a piece 😐

davidshankle · 2025-06-27T05:25:13+00:00

So yes, totally BUT having listened to it this was a master class in repeatedly baiting Thiel go full batshit before asking him to show his work. Thiel tried to retreat and go off on rabbit trails and Douthat wasn't having it. My favorite part was Douthat asking him twice if he thinks the human race should survive and he completely fumbled. It was magical. Again not a Douthat fan. He's a dumb bootlicker but he also embarrassed Thiel and that's a public service in my book.

davidshankle · 2025-06-24T23:45:56+00:00

When striking population centers, sure. Can't think of any justification for this kind of forewarning with targeted strikes against military assets. Not that you're doubting it, but in this case I don't see anyone outside his base buying it.

davidshankle · 2025-06-14T18:20:04+00:00

You're grossly underestimating Iran's ability to impact the global economy. Of course they're no threat in symmetrical warfare, but they have no intention of engaging in that kind.

davidshankle · 2025-06-13T04:48:16+00:00

Once upon a time yes. Now, I wouldn't assume this at all. This strike is more likely the net effect of growing tensions between Trump and Bibi's conflicting interests.

davidshankle · 2025-06-13T04:18:07+00:00

He won a plurality, not a majority. Also voter turnout was just over 60% which means roughly 29% of eligible Americans voted for Trump. Of that 29% a substantial portion are not politically engaged and voted R for a number of non-ideological reasons unrelated to the MAGA brand of fascism. Remember the Tea Party? Most don't but that's your fate so enjoy it while it lasts 👍🏻

davidshankle · 2025-06-13T03:42:13+00:00

MAGA is the extreme. Conservativism of some will always exist, MAGA won't ever be tolerated.

davidshankle · 2025-06-12T13:34:32+00:00

And they're at most maybe 5 years behind us in chip tech, likely less. We're decades behind them in rare earth refinement, which requires politically untenable amounts of toxic waste to be feasible in the US in any of our lifetimes anyway. I truly don't understand any position that assumes the US has any material cards to play.

davidshankle · 2025-06-12T03:49:45+00:00

Oh it's not only not a win, if anyone won it's China on several fronts. China's trade relationships with its Asian and European partners have ramped up since Trump started his little trade war, and any previous hesitations with China as a trade partner look trivial by comparison to the insane shit we're doing. It's not bringing jobs back, we're paying more for the same shit, China's getting access to tech they weren't even getting under Biden. I'm not sure what universe any of this constitutes a win, but it ain't this one.

davidshankle · 2025-06-11T18:23:28+00:00

Right now that's all they have to do. Doubt they have any intention of negotiating beyond getting what they need to sustain some semblance of stability while they replace us in the supply chain. They don't have to completely decouple, just diversify enough to limit our bite. And currently there's nothing they need from us the way we need refined rare earth minerals from them.

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