TIRM
11hr ago
Multiple non-German commenters in this thread are replying to me with "just following orders" arguments, including in response to me criticizing acts of murder. It apparently is a position with significant support.
TIRM
11hr ago
How do you like your megachurches?
This is not the typical Protestant experience. I've heard Protestants in person unkindly mocking megachurches.
Back when I was young and went to church twice a week with my family we went to small local churches. Like every churchgoer did.
TIRM
11hr ago
The search warrant forced them to disconnect his cameras and literally steal the cash out of his wallet? If they merely searched his place, determined he doesn't have a slave dungeon in his non-existent basement and then left than would be one thing. But no, they went further and disconnected his cameras and stole his cash. I now have no sympathy for them and advocated cruel public shaming.
I get this isn't my nicest view, but civil asset forfeiture is so vile. The incentives so perverse. I say good riddance and hope for more robbers wearing law enforcement uniforms to weep on camera from the targeted shaming.
TIRM
11hr ago
I'm not criticizing them for executing the warrant. I am criticizing them for disconnecting his cameras and stealing the cash out of his wallet. That is a moral failure on their part. It is also technically legal so the only recourse against their terrible behavior is to name and shame.
And also things like Lon Horiuchi shooting a dark siloute he saw in his rifle scope and oops, that's a woman holding her baby. I'm not against him or the FBI having a sniper team or obeying orders to get ready to shoot. I am bitterly criticizing them for obeying the illegal order to shoot any adult on sight. He pulled the trigger and shot an unarmed woman. He indeed had a veto against obeying that illegal order. His obedience was a personal moral failing and he deserves shame to be heaped onto him.
This is a "just following orders" debate and I'm staking out the position that following orders to steal and murder is not acceptable. I hope our democracy can survive FBI sniper teams not murdering unarmed people and local cops not literally stealing the cash out of people's wallets.
TIRM
1d ago
Yes, and the articles detailed how they did that to lots of people. Including people who merely said government officials are parasites and one man who said a particular politician is a dick. And then German officials interviewed by 60 Minutes explained that yes they do this and it is a good thing.
TIRM
1d ago
I don't know about county judges, but I know that FISA courts approve of 99% of wiretapping warrants. So 1% shy of your rock.
The state invaded his home, not individual agents.
I get your point and entirely reject it.
The US government has at times murdered Americans. Including in the past few decades. By which of course I place personal blame and responsibility on the individuals who pulled the triggers, not on the amorphous and impersonal state.
"The department did [bad thing]." Makes it sound like an out of control building is victimizing Americans. Remember these are individuals with just as much moral agency as you and I. Don't let them hide behind a mask of collective guilt. As though department policy is an evil spirit haunting the land.
TIRM
2d ago
TIRM
4d ago
There have been incidents in which parts of a plane peel off and the cabinet loses pressure. That doesn't crash planes or kill passengers. Shooting a gun through the plane isn't enough.
TIRM
5d ago
taking his gun to the rear lavatory and emptying it in the general direction of the rear elevator assembly
You have a very Hollywood or maybe video game understanding of handguns destroying machinery.
TIRM
5d ago
As a P226 enjoyer I object. Yeah sure, no P320s shooting holes in legs, dicks and plane walls. But all of Sigs other great handgun offerings should be allowed.
TIRM
6d ago
About what I expect from a lecturer. Not an academic or a researcher. Only responsibilities are to teach a class.
The lecturers I'm familiar with are rather wretched. They couldn't get into a research position as a professor and this is a bad second option. They are paid little and lack stable employment. Maybe Obama was a very well off lecturer with student assistants and a decent wage. Or he wisely married another lawyer who stayed working at a law firm.
Yes. Loan words exist. Including from Arab sources within the past few centuries.
Not clear why they are being credited with cotton and sugar. Ancient Egyptians and Indians had cotton and traded it to ancient Romans. The middle East being between Europe and East Asia means they were the middle part of larger trading networks. So Indian numerals and far East trade such as sugar cane went through them. But I don't give them credit for being in the way of Chinese and Indian traders. Adopting Indian numerals was a good call on their part.
TIRM
7d ago
She lost the popular vote to Trump. The stink of failure is too great this time. I predict an early flame out in the primary for her.
TIRM
7d ago
He was never a professor. He was a lecturer at University of Chicago. This may seem like splitting hairs, but there is a gulf between lecturers and professors.
TIRM
7d ago
Thanks for the excerpt. This is amazing. JD Vance is so wicked, so vile as to sink to an even lower and more debased level as to be reasonable, agreeable and pleasant.
TIRM
7d ago
No one wants to start tit for tat bombings of oil infrastructure. We're in the interesting situation of both bombing the hell out of them and letting them export more oil than usual. Seizing their oil infrastructure and holding it hostage could be valid in a way just blowing it up is not.
TIRM
8d ago
Back in the day I hung lots of things in apartments with "no holes" policies. I mean 50+ holes at least. With a putty knife and spackle they never caught me. Their universal choice of flat white walls does them in every time.
TIRM
8d ago
Yes, but we could just build more prisons. As an example, almost all prisoners are in state prison, California spends something like 6 or 7% of its budget on the state Department of Corrections. That implies a few percent of the state budget could be used to double the prison population. Unless there is some massive dis-economy of scale.
TIRM
8d ago
My prediction is Marco Rubio will eat Vance alive in a primary. I know he previously said he wouldn't run against Vance. That's not some enforceable oath or promise.
TIRM
13d ago
“confirmed bachelor” Lindsey Graham in Tel Aviv in the Epstein era
We know he likes bottoming for fit male escorts. One of them blabbed to the media about how in D.C. all the male escorts know him and call him "Lady G". That actually makes him immune to blackmail since there are already first hand published accounts of what his asshole looks like when getting prepped for anal. He likes hot guys and the Israelis can't hold that over him.
TIRM
13d ago
both in the firm prosecutable sort
Treason is defined by the Constitution and does not include criticism of the President or his policies. I know this is trivially dismissing the premise, but thems the facts.
In a less formal sense: I recall the mood during the invasion of Iraq. A lot of support and also plenty of bitter criticism. This is normal in the post-Vietnam era.
TIRM
13d ago
Then I think you are missing an important point. You can't easily swap out the entirety of Iranian oil output for an equivalent amount of other oil. The "other oil" will need to go up price high enough to drive out the bottom portion of the market. Now we get a live experiment in finding a new equilibrium price which won't be $40 billion. Who is willing to divert oil away from existing customers to China and what sort of price will they be charging? This will be neither quick nor cheap.
TIRM
14d ago
This military analyst on the radio could be correct. It depends on the marginal impact of losing that portion of their oil. I get they still have most of their supply of oil. But is that enough? Can they simply replace the loss by purchasing from other sources or would it be too expensive? I naively doubt it is going to be easy to replace a significant minority of all of China's oil consumption. There will be a global price impact at least.
According to some he was an anti-illegal extremist. Heres a drawing of Trump and Chavez discussing border security.
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