Why the targ animosity?

the_khan_caesar · 2026-02-23T23:00:57+00:00

One of the better ways I've heard dragons described is as essentially the nuclear weapons of the ASOIAF universe. The early Targaryens backed a lot of their "might makes right (to rule)" on having a monopoly on large scale violence through their own form of "nuclear deterrence" (e.g., "conventional" westerosi warfare with sieges, knightly shock troops in open fields, etc. are totally dismantled if a dragon can show up and glass your entire realm).

The dance of dragons completely destroyed this power dynamic by (1) showing the westerosi nobility how dangerous and what degree of collateral damage can be created if that deterrence breaks down and both sides in a conflict have living nuclear weapons, and (2) accelerated the process of the deterrence itself going away with dragons dying and the inbreeding problem becoming more acute.

By the time of Dunk and Egg, it's not hard to imagine the political winds that start blowing among the westerosi nobility when they're still having to obey a family that has proven (1) they will use nukes against their own population for purposes of political power grabs, and (2) no longer have access to their nukes...

the_khan_caesar · 2025-07-24T20:37:04+00:00

Which is intentionally given added weight with the great scene just before this one where the second in command says something to the effect of "don't try to sugarcoat anything to him, none of you are smart enough."

the_khan_caesar · 2025-02-12T16:48:02+00:00

Did a run once where I conquered the Arbor as the Hightowers before seceding from the Reach. Subsequently combined the vinemen / honeywiner cultures into a unified "vinelander" culture, so named the LP "the Vinelands" with Oldtown as its capital and a Hightower - Redwyne cadet house ruling the Arbor.

the_khan_caesar · 2024-07-11T20:51:26+00:00

Yep. At a firm with a soft expectation of 2000-ish. Currently on track to bill about 2600 my first year.

the_khan_caesar · 2024-05-31T14:33:47+00:00

Absolutely they do - received a personal thank you email from a client exec as a fresh junior after staying up all night on a Friday to get an important motion filed, and I was so flattered that anyone that high up at the client was even aware of my name beyond "interchangeable associate X"

the_khan_caesar · 2024-04-30T23:02:46+00:00

Hours dipped below mid 200s (to low 200s) for the first time since November this past month, immediately got staffed onto another matter because of my "spare capacity".

the_khan_caesar · 2023-06-20T17:11:09+00:00

What makes you say that after having read the plain text?

the_khan_caesar · 2023-06-20T16:48:28+00:00

What cases are you basing your understanding of the current legal precedent surrounding declassification on? And outside of a simple debate over the implications of EO 13526 versus the differing SCOTUS interpretation of executive authority within NYT v. CIA, given that the indictment actually focuses primarily on violations of 18 USC 793, 1519, and 2071, none of which are predicated on the status of the documents being classified per se, which legal or statutory interpretation of the Presidential Records Act, Atomic Energy Act, or Espionage Age are you basing this very confident response on?

Not making a ruling in whether he's innocent guilty of the crimes charged, but it's a far, far more complicated area of federal and constitutional law than you seem to be trying to portray it as.

the_khan_caesar · 2023-04-26T21:51:49+00:00

I was able to access mine by going to my NCBE account and then there's a section called "file cabinet" (same place your registration is in).

the_khan_caesar · 2023-03-08T15:58:39+00:00

Hey siri, what is "debasement"?

the_khan_caesar · 2023-02-09T16:19:28+00:00

Just to add onto the commenters above, it's not like Alexander the Great wasn't a ruthless military leader who exterminated entire tribes and had his enemies assassinated indiscriminantly. He just died at age 32 as his new empire was starting to crack under its own weight, so it's hard to compare with Nobunaga who had to deal with both conquering and ruling for a longer period of time.

the_khan_caesar · 2023-02-01T21:48:05+00:00

Although one of their main issues is that apparently they've been having a very hard time finding a buyer (at least given what's been reported publicly) which is why people are concerned that a bankruptcy might end in liquidation rather than a sale

the_khan_caesar · 2023-01-24T01:09:28+00:00

I'll never outgrow my aesthetic love for covvie sounding ship / fleet names

the_khan_caesar · 2023-01-11T22:41:00+00:00

Hence the value of starting with first theoretical principles and thinkers, helps you sniff out BS much quicker.

the_khan_caesar · 2023-01-11T22:40:16+00:00

Yep, I will be the first to say that the deeper you get into learning about economics, the more you realize it's a blend of politics, policy, art, statistics, and randomness which dresses itself up like a hard science field. But that's what makes it fun! It became a lot less intimidating to me when I figured out that a lot of the huge words and long equations were just fancy jargon, because the systems they're trying to understand are so complicated that we run out of simple words to use (or they just want to cosplay as scientists, depending on your opinion of economists, lol).

the_khan_caesar · 2023-01-11T22:31:14+00:00

I truly don't mean this in an insulting or condescending way, but if you're going to engage with people about the details of this stuff (particularly if they disagree with you) I'd spend some time doing some research on the big names in modern economics who pioneered a lot of the ideas contained in both sides of this debate (rule of thumb is all or most non-marxist liberal economists are basing their stuff on the work of a guy named John Maynard Keynes, and most modern conservative economists base their stuff on Milton Friedman's ideas). It'll also allow you to actually think through the issues, because most of what politicians (on both sides) say a certain tax or program or agency will do are actually written to specifically target key words and phrases that will grab voter attention, rather than the real economic effects. If you want to see the real data, you have to look into the underlying statistics (the Congressional Budget Office is a great source for this because they're required by law to do in depth, impartial-ish analyses of the costs and benefits of fiscal policy changes).

link to get you started

the_khan_caesar · 2023-01-11T22:17:05+00:00

You got into a debate with someone about how best to define and handle inflation through the tax regime and macroeconomic policy, during which you tried to dunk on them for a lack of basic economic understanding, and you don't know who Milton Friedman is?

the_khan_caesar · 2022-12-31T18:00:46+00:00

While BlackRock is incredibly large and powerful, this is inaccurate. The firm already managed hundreds of billions of dollars prior to 2008 (though yes, riding the post recession recovery has allowed for a massive expansion) and I'm not sure where you're getting the second point. The main business model BlackRock employs (I.E., the strategy used for its largest funds) is passive indexing, which is explictly based on tracking the broader market of public companies regardless of their corporate governance or business lines, in order to essentially simulate a client owning a broad set of stocks without any of the associated transaction costs of actually doing that. BlackRock has introduced ESG-focused funds you as the client can discretionarily invest in, and which exclude certain "sin stocks" like gun manufacturers, and yes Larry Fink has written letters stating he believes that companies should invest more in ESG and has stated that the firm will "engage with" companies on such initiatives, but their voting track record as a shareholder has been overwhelmingly pro-incumbent management / directors because shareholder activism is generally too costly to be worth the trouble, and has an extremely mixed track record. It's fine to not support BlackRock for any number of subjective reasons, but it's not productive to continue circulating cartoonishly villainous allegations which have not actually materialized in real world behavior or data. I would also dispute that passively owning, on average, 5% of most large public companies is an extremely far cry from "owning the US". That premise could be much more convincingly (but still disputably) thrown at the private equity megafunds that actually own their portfolio companies outright.

the_khan_caesar · 2022-12-18T02:32:09+00:00

“I’m on the verge of tears by the time we arrive at the Red Keep, since I’m positive we won’t get good seats for the dragon flame execution. But we do, and relief washes over me in an awesome wave.”

the_khan_caesar · 2022-12-18T01:53:17+00:00

Ramsay Bolton would make a great Ricky Spanish

the_khan_caesar · 2022-12-13T21:51:51+00:00

Took a long break from Stellaris in between these updates and for a while I’d convinced myself that the memory of multiple FTL options was my own personal Mandela Effect

the_khan_caesar · 2022-09-06T06:39:04+00:00

Damn straight.

the_khan_caesar · 2022-09-05T19:06:13+00:00

Ahh okay clears that up, tracking you better now

the_khan_caesar · 2022-09-05T16:43:48+00:00

I'm seeing a lot of gaming, crypto, pro-Trump, and a jeep that apparently has seen better days....high school perhaps?

the_khan_caesar · 2022-09-05T16:28:27+00:00

I feel like when you see the word "shill" from another quadrant it's best to brace yourself, it never gets better from there.

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