netstack
Texas is freedom land
No bio...
User ID: 647
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
I get why people don’t buy the JFK story, even though we’ve disagreed on it before.
But Pearl Harbor? Who masterminded this, and how? Why would they need a “casus belli” other than the actual aircraft launched in anger? Wouldn’t they at least have the defenses ready to shoot back, maximizing the material gain from such a convoluted scheme?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
Ugh, Rummikub won awards? I absolutely despise that game, and assumed it only existed to cash in on some sort of rummy…fad.
The organizers are free to cancel whomever they want, I guess, even if their reasoning is foreign to me. Likewise, I’m not going to hold Schrodinger’s watermelon pin against Menapace; “pro-Palestine” might have to mean “anti-Israel,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean “denying the existence of the State of Israel.” Is/ought, right?
I’m not even sure we can blame the organizers for being insensitive to that distinction. Your observation about “deliberately skirting the borders” reminds me that Germany has probably dealt with boundary-pushers on its speech restrictions. I would not be surprised if those restrictions were intentionally vague to discourage playing games. No pun intended.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
I suppose it's always possible, but if we had the same line of work, I suspect it would have come up by now.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
My coworkers have been absolutely gushing over it. Discussing the coverage, acting astonished at how it happened, etc.
One of them went and bought an AR “before prices go up.” Not that he hadn’t been thinking about it anyway. But we chat about shooting, so we talked over the details here, too.
It’s amazing how many of them have suddenly become security professionals, especially regarding drones.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
All my coworkers can talk about is 1) the assassination attempt and 2) Biden dropping out. Usually in that order!
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
Alternatively, the ROI on specific contingency plans is even worse than the baseline for political spending, so no one bothered.
Delaying the debates would have been an interesting strategy, but I’m not sure it’s generally advantageous. Trump wants to brawl, to show his teeth, right? He doesn’t maintain his brand by sitting and waiting for the opposition to get lost on the way to the store.
It’s not like influencing your opposition’s candidate pool has a great track record, either. See Democrats funding MAGA challengers to primary the Republican bench. I suspect reports of that tactic were overstated, but it certainly didn’t make for a sweeping success.
So what’s left? If Republicans somehow knew that Kamala would be up against Trump, what weapon should they deploy?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
Thank you for putting this to words.
This community is unusually good at resisting the urge. On the other hand, it’s a really strong urge, and it benefits from feedback loops we can’t really control. The site would be boring with zero fire, which is part of the reason Deiseach and Hlynka were so well-known. Can’t keep them while trying to enforce civility. Can’t keep their critics if we bend the rules for charisma. Lose-lose.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
If she really did try to wing it, then that explains a lot about the actual security decisions.
I guess those documents could be available to Congress but not the public, but damn.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
Quite possible, especially given he’d just sent a police officer back to inform his buddies.
The report so far claims that only Crooks’ head and scope were visible to the sniper. No idea where they got that, or how to reconcile it with the claims Crooks was using iron sights.
I wonder if law enforcement is normally trained to suppress. It’s essential to squad tactics, but not to defensive gun use, which I’d expect to form the bulk of police courses.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
Wow, an angry rant talking about how the libs really do deserve hatred. Enjoy your trip to the QCs.
This is not a ban message or even a warning, because what you’re saying here is within the rules. At least, I’m fairly confident that’s the case; my eyes glazed over somewhere around the third agonizing metaphor. But compared to your previous screed, it’s positively restrained, so you’re getting credit for improvement.
You’re still missing the point.
Contrary to what certain critics believe, the point of this forum is not to emulate Hitler. It should be abundantly clear that all Hitler’s self-righteous fire did not keep him from being a fuckwit. No, he wallpapered over his incoherent philosophy by speaking to the anger and desperation in his audience. That is not conducive to truth-seeking. If you care about that at all, that feeling of righteousness should be a warning, not a point of pride.
The link says “the U.S. Secret Service sniper that neutralized the gunman fired one round,” which doesn’t account for the other sniper, or for other potential units. Plus, it could just be incorrect.
I’m seeing conflicting details here, too.
A local tactical team first took and missed a shot at the would-be assassin. Then, a Secret Service agent quickly shot the assailant, Crooks, killing him on the spot.
Do you think Crooks’ autopsy will be public information?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
Perhaps with the headline “Trump supporter endangers first responders with concealed firearm”?
In all seriousness, I think there are still a lot of reasonable explanations left. We’ll only get more information as we wait.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
“People of influence” like Home Depot clerks?
Look, I’d find your argument a lot more convincing if you could point to any left-leaning cancellations which you think clear this bar. Maybe the time they threatened Supreme Court justices in their homes? Those are pretty influential. Or prominent MeToo allegations, given the time-tested political wisdom of defending women.
Surely your criteria don’t exactly line up with your pre-existing politics.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
Eh, that was then, and this is now. The shit flung at Romney was tame by comparison.
He was also running against a healthy, charismatic incumbent in the wake of a recession. Biden hasn’t been very visible, and the closest he’s come to signature legislation is student loan helicopter money. The COVID management was mediocre at best. The infra bill got panned as a DEI sinecure. He didn’t offer the radical centrists much on campaign, but I think they’ve been disappointed.
No, his most important trait is Not Being Trump. Harris is running on a similar “platform”.
If Republicans had that on the table, I’m confident it would be very well received…amongst Democrats. And there’s the rub. So long as Trump can spoil the election, Republicans have to keep his base satisfied. That means not compromising.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
What level of punishment would feel more appropriate?
I’ve been thinking about the “off-ramp” discussion below. This is a little different, since she’s not being asked to give up on a belief, so maybe Chen Sheng and Wu Guang are the relevant ones.
“What’s the penalty for being late?
“Death.”
“And the penalty for treason?”
“Death.”
“Well, we’re already late.”
Losing your career and your reputation are pretty strong social punishments. To go higher, you’ve either got to coordinate ostracism or move into criminal penalties. Which, sometimes that’s the right move, but I can see why we shy away, and it’s not just because we’re soft.
USSS Director Cheatle Resigns. Looking forward to watching some of her testimony once I’m off mobile, because apparently it was pretty damning.
I expected this. The government does not move fast, and those who took her continued employment as proof of conspiracy were…premature.
Odds that the Secret Service needs meaningful reform have gone way up. Odds that it gets dramatic reform have increased a bit. I think the ideal outcome would be a quiet panic and restructuring with minimal input from Congress; the more loudly public it gets, the more Democrats will try to sandbag something that they ought to support.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
@WestphalianPeace has a solid idea: win by making the opposition unappealing without removing all their exits.
- Nazi and Stasi officers alike got their retirements.
- 60s hippies got real jobs and mortgages and turned into boring adults.
- Nixon got a pardon and spent 20 years being useful to the state.
- My grandfather (and the rest of his generation of blue-collar workers) dumped Carter and became lifelong Republicans.
These outcomes are obviously better than stoking a generational feud! Massacring your enemies is a waste.
I really do believe that a boring-ass Mitt Romney candidate would peel away a ton of Democrats. Trudeau equivalents can’t run such a platform because Trump could and would splinter their faction. But it’s the best, proven way to disarm America’s radical left.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
The first three shots were consistent with alleged weapon A, the next five were consistent with alleged weapon B, and the final “acoustic impulse” was emitted by a possible weapon C, per audio analysis by Catalin Grigoras, director of the National Center for Media Forensics at the University of Colorado in Denver, and Cole Whitecotton, Senior Professional Research Associate at the same institution.
I don’t think that constitutes a “chasmic hole.”
Assuming these two experts are correct, though, was there a second assassin? We know some law enforcement had encountered the guy, and that he could be seen from some angles on the ground. What are the odds one of them decided to try a shot after hearing rifle fire?
Given the number of weapons drawn in these thirty seconds, I think a negligent discharge might be on the table, too. It’s more likely than a wannabe assassin who was late to the party.
If anyone knows where to find the analysis, I’d like to see it, because everything online traces back to this one unsourced CNN quote.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3d ago
That sounds like Russell conjugation. “I am firm, he is obstinate, you are making up norms as you go.” I expect the people cancelling, uh, Justin Timberlake insist that cultural appropriation is very serious business.
You’re right to be skeptical when a Twitter tankie suddenly discovers that cancellation is immoral. The converse is skepticism towards people announcing that, hey, this cancellation thing feels pretty good! Perhaps they don’t have the purest of motives?
I think there’s a solid case for reluctant enforcement of this critical taboo. I don’t think that it’s the most likely explanation for what we’re seeing. Triumphalism is usually a sign of the same old tribal psychology; this case isn’t any different.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
4d ago
I’m pretty sure your view is commonly held among Americans. At least when asked explicitly.
In practice, though, there’s a reputation ecosystem. Parents get credit when they raise respectable adults and flak when they prop up the prison population. By self-selecting into neighborhoods with “good schools,” they find other parents who will give and receive such kudos. And, like all fashion status games, no one says it out loud.
Think of the expectations. Did your grandparents try to give generous gifts? Your mother-in-law judge your home’s readiness for guests? Your coworkers brag about their kids’ weddings? They want to seem successful, even tasteful, and fear being seen as trashy. Responsibility for other generations is enforced by social pressure rather than law.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
4d ago
Nah, that’s pretty defensible.
OP did not bother being so specific.
Assuming you’re completely right about the strategy—enact an intolerable fuel blockade to “invite” an attack—the tactics are still absurd. From the moment bombs were dropped, you had a perfectly good casus belli. Why not warn the defenders and rack up some kills while you’re at it? Why not give the elusive Pacific Fleet contingency plans to capitalize on the not-so-shocking attack?
That said, we’d been fussing over Japanese aggression since before the Nazis seized control of Germany. It’s hard for me to see the equipment and oil embargoes as a diversion from existing plans.
More options
Context Copy link