The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
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User ID: 174
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1hr ago
I worked for a FAANG-adjacent company and we did have a programmer who wore a fursuit. Programming socks? Hadn't realized they were called that but I've seen them worn at Google. If "blahajs" refers to the Ikea stuffed shark, you'll definitely find those and similar in software engineering offices.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4hr ago
· Edited 4hr ago
So there’s five guys, but not the really nasty one
Vang: Sexual Assault, sodomy of a child under age 13, and procuring a child for prostitution
Vue: Strong-arm rape of a 12-year-old and kidnapping with intent to sexually assault
Yang: Strong-arm rape, aggravated assault with a weapon, and strangulation
Xiong: Rape and child fondling
Lor: Rape, rape with a weapon, and sexual assault
Oh, and another Lor: Two counts of homicide.
All of these seem quite nasty enough. ICE seems to be going after them because they had deportation orders against them, not because they're Hmong (they also went after Phaivan and some Mexicans and Somalis and others)
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5hr ago
The first perp is Phaivan, but there's a Vang, a Vue, a Yang, a Xiong, and a Lor also. So possibly 5 Hmong and one non-Hmong Laotian. I suppose Yang and Xiong are common non-Hmong surnames as well, though.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5hr ago
Are the Laotians here the Hmong you refer to?
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
6hr ago
Michael Bloomberg is real but a Republican in name only; he switched to the Democratic party partway through his mayorship and his most distinguishing feature was that he was all-in on government paternalism. Bloomfield, NJ is also real but lacks a subway, unless you mean the fast food chain, and has had only Democratic mayors in recent years.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
6hr ago
Indeed, this is the major problem I have with the OPs comment. We're not looking for intelligence and using "performance of competence" as a proxy. We're looking for competence. It could be that intelligence is a better proxy for competence than our current tests, and almost certainly is true that an intelligence test is a better measure of intelligence than our current tests of competence are for competence (because competence is just harder to measure). But intelligence itself isn't usually what we're looking for.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
20hr ago
So, why then are there millions of Iranians calling for regime change?
I don't know how many there are. But it's a country of 90 million. There could be a discontented 10% calling for regime change, and that would be 9 million people, and still the vast majority of the country could support the regime. Muslims just seem to like fundamentalist Islamic rule.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
20hr ago
Russia doesn't have the capacity to support Iran now and China just doesn't care (nor does it have the capacity to defend them). They're on their own.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
20hr ago
A mistake the current regime will not make.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
21hr ago
Ok, so you agree then that the present regime is imposing Shia theocracy on its populace?
They're a Shia theocratic regime ruling over Shiites. No imposing necessary.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
21hr ago
Are you aware of the basic facts of the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution?
Sure, lots of Death-To-America rallies, lots of Westernized Iranians who hadn't fled (among others) getting killed. Basically consolidation of power. Worked, too.
Capable of understanding its' been nearly 50 years and the theocratic regime does not have democratic legitimacy, since it's an illiberal, sham democracy?
They don't need democratic legitimacy. With most of the people they have religious legitimacy, and for the malcontents they have the sword.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
21hr ago
You're seriously arguing that the Iranians are happier with Shia fundamentalism imposed upon them?
It's not imposed upon them, it's home-grown. They chose it in 1979.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
21hr ago
The news is not reporting the total number of protestors. If it's millions... well, Iran has 90 million. Perfectly viable without all the protesters.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
22hr ago
Support would be more difficult? We're no longer in a cold war? We have an even more mercurial President?
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
22hr ago
If you're gunning down crowds, I guess. If it's riot suppression, normally you wouldn't get anywhere close to that number, people don't behave like an army and just disperse.
If you're trying to kill them, you block their escape before machine-gunning them. As a bonus, you'll probably get even more killed from the trampling.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
22hr ago
Unless the Shia clerics can drink blood and summon rain, you can't kill your way out of having no water.
They don't have literally zero water. And killing indeed reduces demand, though it's unlikely they'll kill enough to make a dent.
If the Iranian opposition starts getting denied water, they have literally nothing to lose but their lives - which their evil government is determined to do by dehydration and starvation.
So the government simply reserves what water it has for its security forces, and the dehydrated and starving people are easier to kill.
The humanitarian catastrophe is already priced in: intervention is the difference between a impoverished but recovering democracy and an atrocity on par with the Great Leap Forward.
Note that the regime which did the Great Leap Forward is still in power.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
22hr ago
You mean when we restored the House of al-Sabah, just deposed by Iraq? Sure, that worked out OK, but it was a much different sort of intervention, and part of a larger one which didn't go so well.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
22hr ago
But at least half of this is circular. Iran would not need to worry about being crushed by Israel and the US if they credibly overhauled themselves into an enlightenment-values democracy
And the US wouldn't have had to worry about being attacked by Osama bin Ladin if we'd credibly overhauled ourselves into an Islamic theocracy. These are not reasonable things to ask.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Iran has 90 million people. This "mass uprising" is what, a few tens of thousands? Maybe a hundred thousand? They can just kill them all; then the remaining few dissenters are cowed and the loyal Islamists are satisfied.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Look, I understand that Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria were glorious boondoggles.
Iraq actually went rather well by these standards. And it's still shit.
It's an incompetent regime.
The Soviets were incompetent for 70 years. I mean, to the point of holding all of Ukraine and STILL not being able to feed themselves. Still took a leader not willing to massacre his way out to allow it to fall. The Iranian regime is still willing to massacre its way out.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Won't matter if the in-country opposition is all dead by the time it happens.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Because all the PREVIOUS US interventions in the Middle East in general and Iran in particular have gone SO well.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Do you understand that it's not a valid critique to ask for something that couldn't be possible beforehand as a necessary variable?
Sure it is. It's tantamount to saying that the Iranian regime has successfully arranged for themselves to be not removable by air attack, but there's no reason that can't be true.
I live in the area. Though the line you are talking about is sometimes called the "Newark City Subway", it is above ground light rail most places, including in Bloomfield.
Bloomfield's form of government is for some reason sui generis, but it has a mayor and a Township Council.
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