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.
4hr ago
The problem with that is it's too exploitable -- it can be used for things which are hard but NOT necessary, done only because the entity doing it has other less-noble motives for it.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5hr ago
Obviously this would be a terrible choice; I don't know if it would be better or worse than not preventing Iran from getting nukes. Depends on whether it makes them North Korea or they actually start a nuclear war or attempt nuclear blackmail (e.g. "Israel's Jews all leave or we nuke things") over it. I don't think these are the only two choices, but if they were, the choice of committing genocide upon Iran would be available.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5hr ago
Their long-range stuff is largely blown up. There's a lot of Gulf stuff much closer than 1500 miles, which they can still blow up.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5hr ago
You also ignore the fact that Iran's hostility towards the US is downstream from our alliance with Israel.
Because it's not. It's downstream of the US supporting the Shah over the current government, which is not about Israel.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5hr ago
I don't think it's that clean. "Chicks dig" the whole dark triad, not just confidence.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
7hr ago
Yes, the legislation says you need a real ID which shows citizenship. Some real IDs do not. Other real IDs do. A US Passport card is a Real ID which shows your nationality. An enhanced driver's license shows your nationality. But there's no law preventing other states from putting citizenship on their IDs (though as far as I know, none do).
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
7hr ago
How is it a different matter? What we learned from Afghanistan is that even 20 years of boots on the ground didn't make for anything sustainable, the system we created collapsed within a year.
It's a different matter because the question was whether we could successfully invade, not whether we could successfully build a US-friendly regime.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
7hr ago
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
7hr ago
"If you don't count the US stocks that have done really well, foreign stocks have done pretty well too!" isn't such a great argument.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
7hr ago
People talk a lot about not paying the Danegeld, but the Vikings did have a long successful run.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
7hr ago
If the choice is between reducing Iran to Afghanistan-esque hodge-podge of pre-industrial warring tribes and giving the IRGC access to nuclear missiles we choose to turn Iran into another Afghanistan.
This is where the issue appears - the US is not strong enough to do this without using H-bombs. And even if it were possible, it would be extremely costly and dangerous.
Of course the US is strong enough to do this without H-bombs. Bombing all of Iran's industry and infrastructure can be accomplished conventionally. Oil, electrical, manufacturing and water. The last being quite critical -- it'll be hard for Iran to rebuild while its population is dying of thirst. It wouldn't be all that costly or dangerous (except to Iran); the expensive part was taking out air defenses, B-1 missions with gravity bombs are much cheaper. And this isn't WWII; the US can hit the targets a lot better. It would kill a LOT of Iranians, however.
The US does not have the necessary ground forces for a ground invasion of Iran. It's extremely mountainous, difficult terrain on the other side of the world.
This US did that before. The US took Afghanistan, as you may recall. And held it for 20 years. Couldn't quash the insurgency (partially because it was based in Pakistan) but that's a different matter.
The US navy doesn't even dare enter the straits of Hormuz because of all the drones and ballistic missiles.
The US navy will enter the straits of Hormuz.
Those bases are being bombed and shelled.
Not much, not anymore. The US evacuated the bases, but now that Iran's capability to bombard them is way down, the US COULD use them for staging.
Iran could attack with dirty bombs if they so chose, against the US or Israel.
Maybe. If they can still get their nuclear material. And if they don't mind starting a nuclear war with two nuclear powers when all they've got is nuclear waste.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
8hr ago
What if actually trying to bomb Iran into the pre-industrial age would result in Iran retaliating by destroying every oil refinery, oil field, and desalinization plant within 1,500 miles? Still worth it?
They now lack that capacity.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
8hr ago
When you cede the field of good advice for getting girls to assholes, then you end up with boys listening to assholes.
You can't avoid that without changing girls. Because, in the parlance of an older generation, "Chicks Dig Jerks".
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
8hr ago
The manosphere Is Problematic because it convinces young men to get off the path of contributing to society in the way that society wants men to contribute to it
Yes, but what "society" wants is unreasonable. Not because what it wants in terms of contributions, but because of what it's willing to provide in return -- which is that they can keep some of the money they earn, and that's it.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
20hr ago
The strategic situation before and after the airstrikes is... exactly the same.
Apparently Kharg island was one of the places Iran stored marine mines. Which would be sufficient reason to hit it.
Of course if the US intends to seize it, that would be another reason to hit it, but while that's what most people seem to think the US is going to do, I expect Qeshm and the nearby smaller islands would be a better prize.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
It wasn't the technique used to make the vaccine; it was the technique used to identify the virulence genes. I said the vaccine was "developed on top of GOF research on Ebola".
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
As of last week, New Jersey had the lowest compliance rate in the nation — just 17% of its state-issued IDs are Real IDs.
I assure you that Newark Airport is neither empty, devoid of New Jersey residents, nor full of people paying the TSA no-real-ID fee. This is just because New Jersey's process for getting a Real ID sucks so much and New Jersey residents who travel by air likely have a Federal Real ID (a passport, a Global Entry card or a passport card works).
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
As far as I understand it, the blockade (which seems to be in effect) of the strait of Hormuz is going to reduce the amount of oil in the market by about 20%, until either the war ends, or another pipeline workaround is found.
Less than that because
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Iran's oil is still getting through.
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The Saudis and the UAE have pipelines to bypass the straits, which were not at capacity before things started
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Venezuelan oil should be ramping up
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Yeah, but Spanish Flu wouldn't do much nowadays, most likely (not that I'd care to test that). Its descendants have been circulating as seasonal flus ever since. You'd need something much older or from an isolated population.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Quod erat demonstrandum.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Officially, every state is 'compliant' with the RealID act, but in practice every state but Washington has a non-RealID (aka 'non-enhanced') driver's license option.
"Enhanced" is different than "Real ID". Enhanced drivers licenses are kind of like passport cards issued by the state -- you can use them to cross the Canadian border by car (and on foot I think), and only 5 states can issue them.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
I'm tired of having that thang on me (my stack of government proof I exist) every time I do anything sufficiently financial, shuffling through a binder of documents like I'm trading pokemon cards.
Huh. I had to do that to get my non-real-ID New Jersey license -- was actually pretty funny as I was forewarned that they were extremely picky so I brought a shitload of documentation, I'd put something down, they'd say "no", and I'd move on to something else. But most of my financial stuff has been done with no ID at all, just giving over my totally-not-for-identification-purposes-LOL SSN.
I think a passport card would work under the new law -- it's a Real ID which shows citizenship. I have one because it was easier to get that from the Feds (by mail) than to get a real-ID NJ license (which requires an appointment in person at one of a few centers)
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Is it really true that the SAVE act doesn’t count most state drivers licenses as acceptable ID’s?
Yes, because they don't demonstrate citizenship. You need a Real ID which shows citizenship (some places are reporting that an Enhanced Driver's License is necessary, but the bill doesn't say that), or a regular ID plus a birth certificate or naturalization certificate, or a few other less-likely things.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
At Newark it is still terrible. One line to show your boarding pass to the TSA official. That official sends you to the pre-check line, where you wait to provide ID to another TSA official. Then to the bags, where they change the rules occasionally on which things have to go in and which can be separate, and whether you can wear your shoes (yes, even with pre-check). Then of course the wonderful "random" additional bag search, which I hit about 1 in 3 times.
If you don't have pre-check you'll be waiting over an hour on the main security line, sometimes over 2 hours.
To destroy an unfriendly regime's capacity to act on their unfriendliness.
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