Open Thread

What’s on your mind?

Comments

[Kazinski]

Not Guilty posted yesterday:
"XY, you posited yesterday that "The Iranian people can decide for themselves what kind of government they want when we are done (in about a month)."

Despite my challenging you to say how that will come about -- by democracy or otherwise -- you have said bupkis. We are still waiting with bated breath."

Here is Moh Mahdara on CNN to take a crack at that.

https://x.com/i/status/2029649733061329389

Since she is a dual citizen and founded the Iranian Diaspora Collective and is also a Democratic activist with they/their pronouns, i probably don't agree with her much. But she says the Iranian oposition themselves has a 100 day plan to democracy, and she fully supports what Trump and Netanyayu are doing so far, although she acknowledges at some point their interests diverge.

Its also worth noting Iran has long had the framework of a functioning democracy, contested elections, a parliament etc. It was just inside a framework of the Mullahs having to approve all the candidates and killing anyone that pushed the debate outside established bounds.

I don't see why they can't just remove the mullahs and have a referendum on a Consttutional Republic or even a Western style Constitutional monarchy with a figurehead monarch.

So there is your answer from someone that actually knows a lot more than you, I, or XY, and is not a Trump sycophant.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I have long said that the Iranian people want to become French, they’d like to have a country that largely resembles France.

If you look at what French politics has been for the past 20, 50, 70 years, you can see how these very real conflicts are not inconsistent with a functioning cultural society. France may burn cars every now and then but they marriage to avoid becoming an outright Weimar republic.

But right now Iran is a theocratic police state, and the secret police have to be eliminated before any of this can happen. What emerges in Iran will undoubtably be exasperating, but it will be a hell of a lot better than what is there now.

What is truly interesting is the extent to which Israel and the Arabs are coming to a consensus amongst themselves that they all have more fear from a nuclear theocratic Iran then from each other. I doubt they’re ever gonna really like each other, but it is possible to be civil with people you don’t like. It’s even possible to have very prosperous relationships with them.

[Martinned]

Its also worth noting Iran has long had the framework of a functioning democracy, contested elections, a parliament etc.

How long do you think that will last once this attack leads to a military junta taking over?

The Venezuelan opposition was also fawning all over the US tinpot dictator. Look what that got them.

[Kazinski]

Was that in the 180 day plan, or is that in your plan?

[Martinned]

So far that's only in the plans of the US Regime.

[CountmontyC]

Would a military junta be any worse than the fanatical theocracy that has existed for the last 47 years?

[Martinned]

It would definitely be worse than a weakened and divided fanatical theocracy.

[CountmontyC]

Really? How? Because that fanatical theocracy has been the number one supporter of terrorism in the Middle East supporting almost every terrorist group such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. They routinely have threatened to damage the world's economy by shutting down the Straits of Hormuz, have been seeking nuclear weapons and supply drones to Russia to use against the Ukraine( whom you claim to support). So how much worse could a military junta be?

[Martinned]

A military junta would also do all of those things, and be more effective at them, because it would/could marshal the powers of nationalism to actually have the support of the Iranian people.

[CountmontyC]

Assumes facts not in evidence. Iran is not a single demographic group. Persian is the dominant group but there are also the Azeri and the Kurds ( who would probably prefer to cut off from the rest and form their own nation). And while the Shia are the dominant sect they aren't the only sect of Islam.
Second just because it would be a military junta does not mean it would be more efficient. Many military juntas have been incredibly incompetent in the past( which is why they get overthrown).
Finally why would a military junta pursue the same goals as the fanatical theocracy? Especially since pursuing those goals was the reason that the fanatical theocracy was destroyed. Survival instincts would suggest not pursuing the same goals as the fanatical theocracy.

[Martinned]

Persian is the dominant group but there are also the Azeri and the Kurds ( who would probably prefer to cut off from the rest and form their own nation).

Yes, and a junta would need to shut any suggestion of separatism down, if necessary by marshalling Persian nationalism.

Second just because it would be a military junta does not mean it would be more efficient. Many military juntas have been incredibly incompetent in the past( which is why they get overthrown).

I'm sure, but that's true for the current regime too.

Finally why would a military junta pursue the same goals as the fanatical theocracy?

Because the goals we were talking about weren't motivated by the theocracy bit, but about national security considerations. The Ayatollahs made Shi'a friends in the region in order to avoid this exact scenario. As soon as Hezbollah and Assad were overthrown, Israel and the US pounced. So a new Iranian government would have every reason to re-establish its foreign network.

[CountmontyC]

The funding of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis was because of the theocrats fanatical beliefs. They wanted to destroy Israel because they despiseJews not because they feared sn Israeli imvasion. A military junta would have no particular desire to fund those groups. That would be particularly true if by doing so that brought them to the attention of the same people that destroyed the fanatical theocracy. Associating with those terrorist organizations would make the junta less safe.

You claimed the junta would unite the nation y using nationalism. Kind of hard to do when over a third of the nation would literally fight that "unity."

Fi ally as to being more efficient the facts are not on evidence for a military junta when the fanatical theocracy was able to impose strict austerity standards because "Allah wills it" so many accepted deprivations that a junta probably can't get from the citizens. At least not for any real amount of time.

[Michael P]

By "military junta", do you mean the rule in practice by the IRGC that has existed for years or decades?

[Martinned]

Assumes facts not in evidence...

[Frank Drackman]

Does it bother you that your Native Luxemburg is so Insignificant that you have to constantly poke your big nose into a Real Country's Affairs?

[Dr. Ed 2]

WHAT military junta?

If all the military leaders are dead, wouldn’t it be rather difficult to form a military junta?

[Commenter_XY]

Well, I did not even know NG posted the question.

How will Iranians choose their new government?

Answer: I don't care. In fact, If Iran descends into civil war and breaks into ethnic enclaves and disappears, so much the better. The world is a better place w/o an intact, malignant Iran in it. If Iranians choose a government that doesn't have Death to America as their favored cause, I am fine with it. Choose wisely.

Regardless of government...Iran won't have ballistic missiles, launchers, or the means to produce them; Iran won't have a nuke program, won't get nukes, and won't be in a position to threaten America (or regional American allies).

Just remember NG, we can always come back and 'mow the lawn' at will. Iran and their patrons are powerless to stop us. Look at them now; CHN and RUS are sitting on their hands. They are irrelevant.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Presidents have made more good decisions than bad decisions since 2011. The same thing can be said from 1984 through 2001. From 2002 through 2010 presidents made very stupid decisions.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Two words: North Korea

20th century presidents didn’t always make the best decisions

[Joe_dallas]

There would only have been one korea if roosevelt had lived through august 1945.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

That’s actually a good point. But when did satellite imagery become available? So Obama ordered the plans to be developed to bomb Iran which goes under good decisions since 2011.

[Kazinski]

Yeah, NG doesn't seem to realize we haven't programmed bots to instantly notify us when he gives us an assignment, or really care for that matter.

But since he seems so singularly lacking in imagination, I thought that clip would give him something to think about for 10 seconds before rejecting it out of hand.

[Commenter_XY]

It is day six (yes, only day 6), and NG is already looking for ways to snatch defeat from victory. So are others. Pathetic. They lack patriotism, as well as imagination.

For the next 3-4 weeks, America will rain death and destruction from the sea and skies upon the Iranian miliary, and Basij volunteer forces. Don't need an Iranian government for that, they'll be too busy dying violently.

If the Iranian military had any common sense, they'd surrender now. However, I am fine with the Iranian military 'keeping up the good fight', b/c they will simply die violently. And we won't have to deal with them again. And makes the breakup of Iran much more likely.

[Martinned]

Crazy idea, but maybe someone should have thought about this stuff before starting an unnecessary war.

[Joe_dallas]

The war started in 1979 - Why do you such a high disregard of actual facts?

[SRG2]

The war started in 1953

[Kazinski]

When Mosaddegh "democratically" won his referendum to dissolve parliament and rule by decree, with 99% of the vote?

"A referendum to dissolve parliament and give the prime minister power to make law was submitted to voters, and it passed with 99 per cent approval, 2,043,300 votes to 1,300 votes against."

Reportedly the managed the election so there were separate polling stations for yes and no votes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh#CITEREFAbrahamian1982

Why don't you actually look up what happened rather than just parrot talking points? Sure mistakes were made, but when Mosaddegh pulled that stunt he lost all legitimacy.

[SRG2]

Fuckwit, that was nonetheless an internal matter.

[Joe_dallas]

A fraudulant election is a fair and democratic election because the fraud was all an internal matter?

[jb]

Lots of countries don't have fair elections. That doesn't create some implied permission for the US to overthrow their governments.

[Absaroka]

"Lots of countries don't have fair elections. That doesn't create some implied permission for the US to overthrow their governments."

Imagine a spectrum of governments, from completely above board free-n-fair elections (Japan, Belgium, Australia, ...) to not vary democratic at all (Rhodesia, apartheid era South Africa, North Korea, ...). There are of course a lot of intermediates between Australia and North Korea - Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, etc etc.

Is your view that how other countries are run is always an internal matter, and we should take no actions (other than verbal, if that) in support of moving countries toward (in our view) better governments? Or is there some quantum of badness that justifies our (or other countries!) taking action to nudge things in the direction of more democratic governments?

"that was nonetheless an internal matter" seems like a pretty reductionist approach to, say, apartheid, or Saddam gassing his own population, which were also internal matters viewed through that lens.

[SRG2]

A fraudulant election is a fair and democratic election because the fraud was all an internal matter?

You are clearly today's biggest fuckwit. This is a really really stupid point. Nobody is claiming that an election is fair because the fraud was merely internal. The actual point, which you, as today's biggest fuckwit, are evidently too stupid to grasp, is that the US and UK - external actors - engineered a coup, hence beginning a conflict that has carried on to the present day. The conflict was, of course, not always between Persia/Iran and US/UK. Sometimes it was Shah+US v. internal (albeit sometimes foreign-domiciled) opposition. But it began in 1953, as any fule kno.

[jb]

Similarly, Joe's "there was an unfair election" as a justification for war seems like a pretty reductionist view, no?

I'm honestly ambivalent about the whole thing. I admire the fact that the US has been an advocate for democracy across the world, but despise some of the ways we've tried to accomplish the goal. I have a fair amount of sympathy for humanitarian interventions, even those that require some amount of military force. I can even see a case to be made for the value of an operation like this* if it seemed to have some sort of plausible endgame. But this administration doesn't really have any sort of plan, didn't bother to do any of the work to get the buy-in of the American people or allies ahead of time, and given the history of US interventions that create more problems than they solve, I'm pretty skeptical of what we've gotten ourselves into here.

* Although I'd want a much better showing that diplomatic interventions really had no chance of working versus Trump getting impatient after a month or two.

[Joe_dallas]

jb 9 minutes ago
Similarly, Joe's "there was an unfair election" as a justification for war seems like a pretty reductionist view, no?

I never made that statement, nor did anything I state even remotely imply that.

The justification for our response to Iran was the war Iran started in 1979 and which has continued through today. The additional justification is the very short time frame for Iran to have the weapons grade material for a nuclear bomb.

[Kazinski]

How is JD suddenly a bigger fuckwit than I am?

As for internal/external, while their is no doubt the CIA financed the coup it was completely carried out by iranians, there were no CIA personnel or mercenaries directly involved:

"In the meantime, according to the CIA plot, Zahedi appealed to the military, claimed to be the legitimate prime minister and charged Mosaddegh with staging a coup by ignoring the Shah's decree. Zahedi's son Ardeshir acted as the contact between the CIA and his father. On 19 August 1953, pro-Shah partisans—bribed with $100,000 in CIA funds—finally appeared and marched out of south Tehran into the city centre, where others joined in. Gangs with clubs, knives, and rocks controlled the streets, overturning Tudeh trucks and beating up anti-Shah activists. As (Kermit, Teddy's son) Roosevelt was congratulating Zahedi in the basement of his hiding place, the new Prime Minister's mobs burst in and carried him upstairs on their shoulders."

[jb]

"How is JD suddenly a bigger fuckwit than I am?"

That one is easy. You routinely cite evidence to support your arguments. Joe prefers to engage in incredulity that we can't read his mind.

[David Nieporent]

Fuckwit, that was nonetheless an internal matter.

And it was settled internally. The notion that the CIA or even Brits did it is a myth, though the US and UK certainly approved and may have provided some assistance. The attempted coup was by Mossadegh, and he was legally removed under the Iranian constitution of the time.

[SRG2]

How is JD suddenly a bigger fuckwit than I am?

It's still early in the day, Kaz. Don't give up hope! 🙂

[Kazinski]

Not early where I am, past midnight here.

That was peak fuckwit for me.

[Dr. Ed 2]

The war started on 11/11/1918…

[David Nieporent]

No war started in either 1953 or 1979. That's the "actual facts."

[Martinned]

Which war started in 1979? The Soviet-Afghanistan War? What does that have to do with anything?

[Joe_dallas]

Why are you a complete dumbass about world history?

it does however explain why you have such a delusional grasp of the geopolitical ramifications.

[Martinned]

I don't care

Yes, we know.

[not guilty]

"Well, I did not even know NG posted the question."

Is that as true as everything else you have said, Commenter_XY?

I posed the question, and you laced up your track shoes and ran away like Usain Bolt.

XY two days ago: "The Iranian people can decide for themselves what kind of government they want when we are done (in about a month)."

XY today: "I don't care. In fact, If Iran descends into civil war and breaks into ethnic enclaves and disappears, so much the better."

[Martinned]

It doesn't look like Moh Mahdara is going to get her wish.

There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).” Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

[Josh R]

Why would the Iranian leaders agree to unconditional surrender absent a ground invasion by US forces?

[Kazinski]

Yesterday their were reports from the Economist that there were noticeable numbers of police and IRGC that were not reporting for work.

Axios is reporting that IRGC members in Lebanon were leaving to avoid Israeli strikes

https://www.axios.com/2026/03/06/lebanon-israel-iran-irgc-hezbollah

And of an IRGC Basij official dressed in a Charter in Tehran for fear of domestic or Israeli assassins.

https://caspianpost.com/iran/iranian-security-forces-guise-themselves-under-chadors

That doesn't strike me as a regime in it for the long haul.

As for ground forces, reports are from Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Kurds are buying up every Toyota pickup they can get their hands on. I hope you understand what that means.

The Iranians only real hope is create enough damage in the gulf states and sustain the damage long enough to force negotiations, every day the amount of damage they are doing is smaller and smaller, so that strategy is not working.

If they had enough genuine meaningful support from the people they could hold out a lot longer, but by all appearances its 10% trying to control 90%, and they can't do that by hiding in chadors.

[Dr. Ed 2]

You gotta admit that this speaks highly of Toyota quality.

[Absaroka]

There is a lot of space between 'change your government' and 'unconditional surrender'.

"the Kurds are buying up every Toyota pickup they can get their hands on. I hope you understand what that means"

I doubt it means that the 10% of the population that are Kurds are going to conquer the 90% who aren't.

If I were to make a cynical prediction, the Kurds will try to carve out as big an independent Kurdistan as they can, and eventually pay a price for the attempt. They have been trying for an independent Kurdistan for a century and haven't got it yet.

(to be clear, I wish them well in their quest, but I'm not betting on it)

[Kazinski]

Once again, I don't think the 10% of Kurds will be fighting against the 80% of Iranians who want the Mulluhs gone.

I don't even think they will be doing much fighting against the 10% who stand by the regime, but will be calling in drone and missle strikes.

I also suspect theyve already been told autonomy is on the table, independence is not. Thats the deal Iraqi Kurds got and seem to be able to live with.

[Josh R]

Are you arguing that if they don't unconditionally surrender there will be regime change without any American boots on the ground?

Let's assume you are right. What is likely is a bloody civil war where we turn the other way (and hope Turkey does as well if the Kurds invade). And after it is all over (for who knows how long), we get to decide who runs the government.

What could go wrong?

[Kazinski]

Turks are going to invade? Don't be ridiculous.

[Josh R]

OK. Then, the bloody civil war happens without the Kurds and we still decide who governs after that war is over.

What could go wrong?

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Why would the Iranian leaders agree to unconditional surrender absent a ground invasion by US forces?"

There's precedent.

[Josh R]

Japan? Are you suggesting we drop the bomb?

[TwelveInchPianist]

I'm not suggesting anything. Just pointing out facts.

[Josh R]

Your point is well taken. Do you agree in order to get Iran to unconditionally surrender without American boots on the ground, we will have to commit mass murder (*)?

(*) It would be mass murder in this case, whether or not it was in WWII.

[not guilty]

To what precedent(s) do you refer, TIP?

[Kazinski]

How is that different that Moh Mahdara said, I think she was very clear their is no place in Iran's future for the current regime.

I think her exact words were "Non-negotiably we need regime change".

Sounds like unconditional surrender to me.

[Josh R]

She wants a democracy. Trump choosing the leaders is not democratic.

[Kazinski]

Trump wants to chose, or veto who is in charge short term.

And they will have to be chosen, I think if there is regime chamge then there will have to vbe rlections, thats a given.

[Josh R]

Trump choosing does not guarantee free elections, for which he doesn't give a shit about. See Venezuela, for example.

[not guilty]

Thank you for the link, Kazinski. I differ with your assertion that:

Its also worth noting Iran has long had the framework of a functioning democracy, contested elections, a parliament etc. It was just inside a framework of the Mullahs having to approve all the candidates and killing anyone that pushed the debate outside established bounds.

I don't see why they can't just remove the mullahs and have a referendum on a Consttutional [sic] Republic or even a Western style Constitutional monarchy with a figurehead monarch.

As Justice Holmes opined in New York Trust Co. v. Eisner, 256 U.S. 345, 349 (1921), "Upon this point a page of history is worth a volume of logic." There is no democratic tradition in Iran. For the past 100 years the country has been ruled first by the autocratic Pahlavi Dynasty and since 1979 by Shia Islamist clergy, with a brief interregnum from 1951 to 1953 as a parliamentary democracy under Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was deposed by Great Britain and the American CIA.

Do you mean "just remove the mullahs" in the sense that the U.S. just removed the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan? We all know how that worked out.

[Kazinski]

I think you are demonstrably wrong about the elections. For instance in 2024 there were 4 candidates running from Wikipedia:
"Four candidates contested the first round of the election, in which Masoud Pezeshkian won 44%, Saeed Jalili won 40%, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf won 14% and Mostafa Pourmohammadi won less than 1% of the vote."

Masoud won the runoff Percentage 54.76% to 45.24% over Saeed.

And sure the candidates were all approved by the mullahs, but I think the way the system worked is their were factions in the mullahs the picked the candidates, but for the most part the people broke the tie within those constraints.

Iran is not Afghanistan.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Where have all the protesters gone?

While I am glad we are finally doing it, we’re bombing Iran. We torpedo one of their destroyers, something that hasn’t been done in 80 years I didn’t realize it was still possible to do, we’ve decapitated their leadership — and the freaky freaky in academia and elsewhere at all out with the we hate AmeriKKKa stuff that they notorious for.

Yes, it isn’t halter top weather yet, but also isn’t 5° and blowing hard like it was a couple months ago. This is the seventh day of combat operations with Iran and we haven’t had even a peaceful “peaceful protest” ANYWHERE yet.

It’s like the entire infrastructure that supported such things has just evaporated. HAS it? Has all the dark money that was supporting the stuff simply vanished, and if so, how/why?

[Kazinski]

They are afraid Iranian counter protesters will show up. Somewhat embarrassing.

This is from a Khamenei vigil in the UK:

"BREAKING: For the SECOND night in a row, Islamists tried to hold a vigil for Khamenei in Manchester UK...

...but Iranians and protestors showed up and held a PARTY CELEBRATING Khamanei's death"
https://x.com/i/status/2029700630177071354

[hobie]

I'd like to learn more about the sinking of the Iranian ship off of Sri Lanka. Was it attacking Sri Lanka at the time? Did we order it to surrender but it fled? Did we try to disable it first? Did we bomb any survivors that were floating in the water?

I'd hate to think we'd sink a boat and kill all those people if they weren't engaged in any hostilities.

[Martinned]

That ship was doing joint exercises at the invitation of India, exercises that the US was also invited to, but declined because they were busy preparing for their unprovoked attack on Iran. As a condition of the exercises the Iranian ship did not carry any ammunitions. India is not amused.

https://apnews.com/article/iran-warship-iris-dena-india-14916ad657e50f048bbeb42b38224ecb

[hobie]

No ammunition, eh? Blowing up unarmed boats is kinda our thing now, Martin. You boys keep the Hague warm for us. 2029 ain't that far away.

[Brett Bellmore]

As a warship of a belligerent, the Dena was fair game almost regardless of where it was located.

If it had been in the territorial waters of a neutral nation, that would be a violation of the territorial rights of that nation, but the Dena was in international waters at the time, and headed towards the war.

Under the rules of war, such as they are, the US was not obligated to wait for a warship to reach home port and be reloaded with munitions before sinking it.

Nor was the US in any way obligated to offer the ship a chance to surrender, though that would have been nice of us.

In fact, as it was sunk by a submarine, the US' legal position is even more solid, as submarines are not legally expected to give notice of attack under any circumstances.

So, all histrionics aside, it was a perfectly legitimate act of war, not even a hard question.

[Malika la Maize]

Seems pretty common though.

“it was a perfectly legitimate act of war”

I thought we weren’t at war?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/us/politics/iran-war-republicans.html

[Brett Bellmore]

Yes, I think that for internal purposes, it was unconstitutional for Trump to have started this war. Somin is right about that.

For external purposes, per the rules of war, this sinking was entirely unproblematic.

[Joe_dallas]

Cut the F...ng crap about an unprovoked attack.

responding to 40+ years of direct and indirect attacks is not unprovoked.

[Martinned]

You still haven't given me an example of an Iranian attack against the US.

[Joe_dallas]

dont blame me or anyone else for your ignorance, though its obvious your ignorance is intentional.

Try a basic google search - search terms such as " iranian attacks on the US direct or indirect since 1979 or 2000 "

Its not hard to become educated

[Martinned]

If it's so easy, why don't you do it? You define words and concepts to suit yourself, so unless you give an example I have no way of knowing WTF you're talking about.

[Joe_dallas]

you have no idea wtf I am talking about because your actual grasp of facts and world history is stuck in a tiny echo chamber. One that still adores neville chamberlains approach to world peace.

[Jerry B.]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/inside-iran-long-history-attacks-193627242.html

[Joe_dallas]

Martineed wants others to do his homework then bitches when they dont do his homework for him.

[not guilty]

"Martineed wants others to do his homework then bitches when they dont [sic] do his homework for him."

Whose "homework" is it, Joe? Bertrand Russell wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot, too small to be seen by telescopes, orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong. The philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making an assertion, not the one questioning it.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Attempting to assassinate the POTUS?!?

[Martinned]

Who did that?

[Frank Drackman]

Are you Stew-Pid?? Luxemburg not get Algores Interwebs??? The Iranians, Melon-Head.

Frank

[Bob from Ohio]

"You still haven't given me an example of an Iranian attack against the US."

The Ur-example is the seizure of the US embassy in 1979 and the kidnapping of US citizens.

That is enough, it was never avenged. Until now.

[jb]

But the US was also in the midst of negotiations with Iran. It seems like pretty bad faith negotiations to be talking with a country, not set any deadline for the negotiations to succeed, and then just stack basically at random. How does this encourage any success regime (or any other country) to negotiate with the US rather than engage in war?

[Brett Bellmore]

Diplomacy being the art of saying "nice doggy" while groping around for a stick, does not imply that you refrain from using the stick when you get your hands on it.

Negotiations were futile from the start, Iran has a long history of demonstrating that. They were hoping we somehow hadn't noticed, we were counting on them hoping that.

[Martinned]

Negotiations were futile from the start

Truer words were never spoken. Trump doesn't understand the meaning of compromise. There's no point in negotiating with him about anything other than a deal that involves two sides simultaneously doing a single thing. (Like swapping rockets for drone interceptors.)

[Joe_dallas]

nice compromise

Compare with obama - we will give you pallets of money as long as you pretend you arent developing nuclear weapons.

[jb]

"Diplomacy being the art of saying "nice doggy" while groping around for a stick, does not imply that you refrain from using the stick when you get your hands on it."

Dumb analogy. We had the stick the whole time. And the goal of the stick is to get people to do what we want without using it, not just randomly hitting people with it in the middle of the conversation.

Seriously: what is the incentive to negotiate with the US if the end result is the same (or maybe worse) as if you just ignore us entirely?

[hobie]

If Iran weren't so stupid, they'd know to write a suck-up letter and the hostilities would cease.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Trump said “28 days“ and attacked on 28 February.

Are you saying they don’t have calendars in Iran?

[jb]

Trump said “28 days“

I find no evidence for such a claim in my search of the Internet. You got a cite for that?

[Sarcastr0]

Diplomacy being the art of saying "nice doggy" while groping around for a stick, does not imply that you refrain from using the stick when you get your hands on it.

Soft power is a thing that exists, even if Brett doesn't believe in states doing things for you because they like and trust you.

Or if they just don't want to lose face in a global commons you set. Or if they have economic ties to you they don't want to untangle.

Trump's wrecked all of that, to be sure. MAGA requirements are that such things don't exist or were bad.

[Kazinski]

Martinned, your article has three interesting things:

First it says:
"Iranian warship sunk by the US was sailing home after taking part in an exhibition hosted by India". What's it going to do when it gets home, or maybe more importantly to Gulf State tankers on its way home.

Second, it says contrary to your implication there is no official Indian government reaction. Did they offer to intern the Frigate to keep it safe?

And thirdly the article does not say it was unarmed, in fact other accounts of the exercises say there were live fire demonstrations.

[Martinned]

I summarised (from memory) a couple of sources, and then shared one.

Something like this also doesn't count as an official response, and I don't know if there's been one, but it does seem like a good indicator of the private views of Indian government officials.

https://x.com/KanwalSibal/status/2029438199546954240

[Dr. Ed 2]

Trade Ban…

[Frank Drackman]

Does Luxemburg even have a Navy? or an Air Force? an Army??

[Dr. Ed 2]

I imagine the logistics of a navy in a land locked country would be rather interesting…

[Dr. Ed 2]

So much for international agreement making Iran a pariah.

I think we should sink an Indian ship as well out of spite, or maybe just cut the phone lines — so sorry, no more call center business with US customers.

[David Nieporent]

I think we should sink an Indian ship as well out of spite,

Yes, but that's because you're a sociopath.

[Commenter_XY]

It is called war, Arthur. Iran is losing. America is winning.

Any sailors in the water not rescued are shark shit now.

[hobie]

I'd still like to know if they were asked to surrender. The officers could provide valuable intelligence.

[Commenter_XY]

Their officers can't provide anything of value to us, Arthur.

Some officers are already shark shit. I guess that helps the environment. Greenpeace should be doing a happy dance. 😉

[hobie]

Are you even aware that you're pretty creepy these days, XY? And I'm not referring to you being a dick to everyone. The creepiness is an entirely separate matter.

[Commenter_XY]

Arthur, are you aware I could care less what you progtards think.

And you're a racist POS.

[Frank Drackman]

Get Jerry Sandusky calling somebody "Creepy"

[David Nieporent]

The fact that he revels over murder is not nearly as creepy as how excited he gets over the thought of children being sexually molested.

[Frank Drackman]

1: They weren't
2: Last I checked the mission of Attack Submarines was to, umm, "Attack". They're not Hospital Ships.

Frank

[hobie]

Dear AI, is there a Marine code of conduct for wartime?

"Yes, U.S. Marines operate under a strict, legally binding wartime code of conduct based on the Law of War, the Geneva Conventions, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). These rules mandate treating prisoners humanely, protecting civilians, caring for the wounded, and avoiding unnecessary destruction."

I think you must have got your Marine training at Trump U or something, Frankie. Because it appears you are disgrace to the Corp and its tenets. Which means you probably aren't a Marine.

[Frank Drackman]

Got a bit of the CTE Jerry??
Of course, never attribute to CTE what can be better explained by Common Stupidity.
Never claimed to be a Marine, was a Navy Physician, serving with Marine Units, the Jarheads use the Navy for their Medical, Dental, and Chaplain Support, because they're too Stupid, I mean, they don't want to waste their Trained Killers doing Medical/Dental/Religious stuff.
They do have their own Shysters, who better to Fuck a Marine, than a Marine Lawyer??

Frank

[hobie]

Well, make up your mind then, Frankie. Are you a seaman or a Marine? [gasp!]...have you been stealing Marine valor, Frankie?!!

[Frank Drackman]

Keep it up Jerry and I'm going to remember some of my repressed memories.

[Dr. Ed 2]

If we had taken prisoners, Hobie will be the first person screaming for us to release them.

Heck, some federal judge would probably order them released…

[Kazinski]

There is long standing and well known proper procedure, when a warship from one country is in another countries waters when a state of war starts with a 3rd country.

This is the case for both the US submarine and the Iranian Frigate Dena.

1. Immediately declare your intention to be interned and immediately present your ship to the 3rd country to be interned for the duration of the war.

2. Proceed out into international waters and become supject to attack or capture.

The Captain affirmatively chose #2, and found out.

The example of the Graf Spee in the early days of WW2 shows an example, where the choices after being left in need of repairs after an engagement with Bitish ships, the Captain was left with the choice of:

1. Staying in Montevideo, Uruguay and being interned for the duration of the war.

2. Proceding out to international waters and be attacked by the British.

He chose 3. Sail out of the Harbor, scuttlle his ship, shoot himself in full dress uniform in his hotel after making sure his crew was safe.

[Brett Bellmore]

Martinned's link reveals that another Iranian warship, the IRIS Bushehr, made choice 1, and is currently so interned, all the crew alive and well.

[Kazinski]

Wise choice.

The Captain seems like a smart guy, hopefully he has a bright future after the war.

[Frank Drackman]

Did you know there's a Montevideo Minnesota? Nice place, a little off the Shipping lanes though.

[Swede425]

It was delivering teddy bears to orphans overseas.
Now it's providing housing to underwater sea creatures.
And everybody aboard her are enjoying their 70 whatever virgins.
Everybody wins!

[Malika la Maize]

Murder, fun!

[Swede425]

Awww.
You sound bitter.
Sorry your buddies decided shouting "Death To America" and supporting terrorists didn't work out for them.
Maybe choose better friends next time?

[Malika la Maize]

Swedish Meatball can’t fathom that you can think someone was murdered and not be their buddy. Tribalism is all he knows. Well, and latrine digging.

[Swede425]

Have a nice glass of water.
It'll be ok.
Trump broke you.
Maduro's captured and Iran is finally paying the price and you don't know whether to shit or go blind. So you've done both.
If you don't start taking your mental health seriously, I hate to imagine what Trump's third term will do to you. And he still has 3 more years to go before that.
Surely there's a support group for people like you?
Lord knows you're not alone.

[Malika la Maize]

Every accusation par excellence here!

[Bob from Ohio]

"Murder, fun!"

The US is engaged in hostilities with Iran. An Iranian warship was sunk.

Its not murder as people have understood that term for 10,000 years.

[Swede425]

Queenie knows that.
But retards gonna retard.

[jb]

My Google search for "iran war protests" seems to indicate that there have, in fact, been a number of protests going on. At a minimum, there was that Marine who Sheehy decided he could help beat up because he had a bunch of security guards already grabbing onto him.

This is just more of Bannon's "flood the zone", though. Trump's doing so much crazy shit all the time that sometimes it's hard to know what to respond to, and a lot of the response gets lost in the noise. Which I guess is the whole point--if the temperature is getting turned up on the Epstein files, why not start a little war with Iran to distract?

[Dr. Ed 2]

I mostly use DuckDuckGo, but in any case use the News search option because I want published media and not some 12-year-old’s website.

And I have been doing general searches on the words “demonstration” and “protest” along with “Amherst” (home of three colleges) and the names of traditionally activist universities.

While I found the traditional union labor protests, and a few residual ICE protest, the ONLY thing I found relative to Iran was a proposal for a nationwide protest last Monday, March 2, which never happened.

You gotta admit that the weather is a lot nicer than it was a month ago, and yet the Orange Man Bad movement has completely imploded. Something has happened to its leadership, and all the money for the paid protesters (and they were well paid) has somehow dried up.

With an election this fall, it just makes no sense for the left to be as quiet as it currently is.

[jb]

This seems to be today's MAGA talking point since I see a few of you "spontaneously" bringing it up in different places.

Let's see if I can get away with posting three links:

Starting with one on a college campus since you seem particularly interested in those:

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2026/03/04/sunrise-movement-holds-hands-off-iran-protest-in-response-to-us-military-strikes-drawing-dozens/

(There was another one at NYU)

Other side of the country (not a college campus):

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-02/stop-war-los-angeles-protesters-decry-u-s-israeli-attacks-on-iran

And here's a compilation of a bunch for you:

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/03/world/video/iran-anti-war-protests-pro-war-demonstrations-elex-michaelson-rdr-cnni-030312aseg2-fast

[Kazinski]

Oh, and here is the PDF of the Iranian Prosperity Project 180 day plan.

https://fund.nufdiran.org/downloads/Emergency_Phase_ENGLISH_20260301_1440.pdf

"Central to this framework are democratic mechanisms: first, a referendum to determine the system of government—whether a parliamentary monarchy or a republic—followed by the election of a Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution; then a referendum on the proposed Constitution; and finally, an election for the Mehestan (the Parliament). These steps ensure that Iran’s future is shaped by its citizens, fostering unity across ethnic, religious, and social groups.

All political parties and figures that adhere to the following four principles are welcome to join the coalition to bring this blueprint to life: first, Iran’s territorial integrity; second, a secular democracy based on the separation of religion and state; third, individual freedoms and equality before and under the law; and fourth, the Iranian people’s right to freely choose their system of government (whether a parliamentary monarchy or a republic)."

[BrotherMovesOn]

Interesting stuff Jeremiah. Of course one dissident, one among scores of ten's of thousands.
I had intended to make a cogent comment but then I saw Dr. Ed's comments and remembered this might not be the forum for rational discussion.
Then I lost interest.

[Dr. Ed 2]

What, that the majority of the Iranian people would prefer to live in a country that resembles France, and that the French style of government probably would be the most stable for that country?

And as an aside, a country that has to murder large numbers of its own citizens to remain stable is not inherently stable. That’s true of China, and that’s true of Iran.

[BrotherMovesOn]

Yes, it isn’t halter top weather yet, but also isn’t 5° and blowing hard like it was a couple months ago. This is the seventh day of combat operations with Iran and we haven’t had even a peaceful “peaceful protest” ANYWHERE yet.

It’s like the entire infrastructure that supported such things has just evaporated. HAS it? Has all the dark money that was supporting the stuff simply vanished, and if so, how/why?

His brain is squirming like a toad.

[Frank Drackman]

Lizard King Reference, love it.
I was so disappointed when Jim didn't show up July 4, 2021, taking a 50 yr break would be just like him.
But of course Jim was rarely on time for shows,
I get the "Squirming like a Toad" (seems they more "waddle" but "Waddling like a Toad" sounds like a Byrds lyric.
and help a Brother out, Brother.
what exactly is a "Roman Wilderness of Pain"?

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

So which is it?

Is brother too stupid to notice the clear lack of protests, or is brother too stupid to wonder why there’s a lack of them?

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Does anyone believe that had Trump won in 2020 that he would have conducted a military operation of this magnitude against Iran??? Trump got very lucky that Biden won in 2020 because Biden did a great job as president and just like 2017 Trump inherited a very good situation. Obama and Biden inherited dumpster fires and at the time I thought Obama didn’t do a very good job his first term but every year that goes by Obama looks better and better….Bush looks worse and worse.

[hobie]

"10 of the 11 U.S. recessions between 1953 and 2020 began under Republican administrations, with 84% of all recession quarters occurring during that time. Key examples include Reagan (1981), G.H.W. Bush (1990), G.W. Bush (2001, 2007), and Trump (2020).

Republican Administrations with Recessions (Post-WWII):

Dwight D. Eisenhower: Three recessions (1953, 1957, 1960).
Richard Nixon: Two recessions (1969, 1973).
Ronald Reagan: One major recession (1981).
George H.W. Bush: One recession (1990).
George W. Bush: Two recessions (2001, 2007 - The Great Recession).
Donald Trump: One recession (2020)."

Dear Polymarket, what are the odds of another MAGA recession?

[Joe_dallas]

A - its called the normal cyclical business cycle. its been going on since the 1700's.

B - most if not all those recessions occurred across several countries varying degrees of severity

C - congress with the spending has far more control over the business cycle.

In summary, your comment is a worthless talking point

[hobie]

Dear AI, are recessions a normal recurring business cycle?

"Recessions are considered a normal, recurring, and often inevitable part of the business cycle, representing the contraction phase where economic growth slows, demand drops, and unemployment rises. They follow periods of expansion and are characterized by decreased output, acting as a necessary, albeit painful, correction to rebalance the economy."

Well, there you have it. And to think we've incorrectly blamed Biden and Trump for something that was just normal periodicity

[Brett Bellmore]

I had Google Gemini look at the correlations looking at a variety of potential lag times between policy and result.

It actually found that the highest correlation between recession and Presidents was Republican Presidents 1 year after taking office; This accounts for spurious correlation due to recessions that started in the previous administration, it's a higher correlation than the 1st year.

At 2-3 years out you see a moderate correlation to the party that had previously controlled Congress, Democratic Congresses tend to be associated with delayed recessions.

But, seriously, there have been so few Presidents and Congresses in this analysis that the data is too noisy to get a respectable statistical strength, and once you account for foreign events our government doesn't really control, the correlations become much smaller. Gemini "thinks" that there's just too much noise to draw any valid conclusions.

[hobie]

So we won't count the Reagan 1981 and Bush 2001 recessions then. I can agree to that.

[Brett Bellmore]

I'm not going to say that I find Republican Presidents particularly impressive.

I have little memory of Ford, except for being outraged about his pardon of Nixon.

Reagan was charming and witty. Geeze, he was a movie actor, I should hope so! He was also guilty of Iran Contra.

Bush the elder campaigned on being Reagan's third term, then set out to undo everything good Reagan HAD managed to accomplish. Ruby Ridge was perpetrated on his watch, and Waco set in motion. I honestly have nothing good to say about him.

Bush the younger was a real dweeb who couldn't even make his military victories stick, and otherwise was like his dad.

Trump was surprisingly good on policy, starting from the REALLY low expectations his predecessors had set, but, though his enemies exaggerate it a bit, his personal morals suck. And now he's not even keeping us out of foreign wars.

And none of them did enough to keep US deficits down. Neither did the Democrats. And that's what is going to destroy us as a nation in due time.

About the closest thing I can muster as to a defense is that if you over-stimulate the economy, you may get good times, but a recession is inevitably going to follow, the longer you keep it up the worse it's going to be. So a prompt recession isn't necessarily the worst thing for a President to be responsible for. If Democrats are starting the binges, and Republicans stoppingslowing them, so the hangover happens on the Republicans' watch, that doesn't speak poorly of Republicans.

Not locking the liquor cabinet and starting to take antabuse, though? (Adopting a balanced budget amendment back in '95, when it was possible to do.) Yeah, that speaks poorly of them. They're not better, they're just less bad.

Honestly, I think both parties fall hugely short of what the country needs, and are getting worse fast. Man, this country is hilariously doomed if some black swan economic breakthrough doesn't save us.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Ford was a RINO and this was clearly demonstrated at the 1976 convention. Ford would have won if he’d had Reagan as his VP, but he didn’t want him.

Ford should’ve made a bigger fuss for the funding of munitions for the ARVN, which congress essentially abandoned in 1975.

That said, Ford is a national hero for having the guts to pardon Nixon for two reasons,

First Nixon hadn’t done anything that Lyndon Johnson had done before him, and everybody essentially knew that Nixon‘s only sin wasn’t getting caught, and that was political more anything else, and that was apparent to the older generations who remembered some of the stunts that FDR did like his executive order making it illegal to own gold.

Remember that it was the baby boomers who brought down Nixon and they were all still under the age of 30th at the time. — the very much was a generation divide in a way that isn’t comprehensible today.

But the bigger issue it allows two things that come out recently. First, it appears that the deep state was out to get Nixon and it’s not clear how much it was set up.

Second, this was in the midst of the Cold War, and there was a lot of espionage involving the Soviet Union mixed into the Watergate matters, so much so that Nixon really couldn’t defend himself without revealing that.

Regardless of how much he may have learned his vice president, once for became president, he would’ve been fully briefed on this.

Hence was Nixon pardoned to protect the national secure the USA?

[hobie]

"First Nixon hadn’t done anything that Lyndon Johnson had done before him"

Them people back then hadn't developed the whiny MAGA whataboutism like today. They more or less took their lumps like men.

[David Nieporent]

1) Ford was not a RINO. Are you too stupid to know what RINO means, or just too stupid to know anything about Ford?
2) Nixon's only sin was not getting caught, and Nixon had done things that others hadn't done before him, and WTF does FDR's gold order have to do with anything?
3) Watergate had nothing to do with espionage and the Soviet Union.
4) No, Nixon was not pardoned to protect the national "secure the USA" [sic] .

[Sarcastr0]

You. Don't. Care. About. Deficits.

You only talk about discretionary spending. Which isn't the main issue.
And you don't seem to care to learn about it, just talk about how righteous and disappointed and nihilistic you are.

[Joe_dallas]

perhaps you are capable of understanding macro economics

[SRG2]

most if not all those recessions occurred across several countries varying degrees of severity

Holy shit - a cultist recognises that the outside world exists when judging at the US economy! Now do inflation.

[hobie]

Hayseeds 2024: "Biden was responsible for post-pandemic inflation here and abroad. Global economic forces had nothing to do with it."
Hayseeds 2026: "Meh. Who's to say how these downturns come about."

[Joe_dallas]

just pointing out why the talking points spewing from the leftwing cultists are BS.

[Swede425]

Joe Biden did so good he got fired.
By Democrats.

[hobie]

That's right. When our presidents fuck up or embarrass the nation, we libs give 'em the heave-ho.

[Swede425]

And tried to replace him with what?
Terrific move! Terrific!

[Malika la Maize]

Pretty dumb, Swedish Meatball, Harris overperformed what Biden would have (he was at 38% when he dropped out).

[Swede425]

LOL!
Was she overperforming when she chose Elmer Fraud for a running mate?

[Malika la Maize]

I know you did so bad at the ASVAB that you had to settle for digging latrines in the Marines but yes, 48>38

[Swede425]

Uh oh.
We've reached the part where Queenie gets frustrated.
Like the time you got so mad you started fantasizing about me taking showers with other soldiers.
I bet you're typing with one hand right now, you absolute weirdo.

[Malika la Maize]

You not getting that 48>38 doesn’t make me bitter, it makes me laugh at you all the more. Heck, they probably had to have someone constantly supervise you digging latrines!

[Swede425]

Don't forget to clean your keyboard, sailor.

[Malika la Maize]

Sailor? Was it them that touched you?

[Bob from Ohio]

"(he was at 38% when he dropped out)."

Because he had an historic disaster of a debate.

Where was he right before the debate?

[hobie]

"And tried to replace him with what?"

A black lady.

[And in an alternate time line...]. "Breaking news! The Democrats have, for a second time, replaced their presidential candidate. Out is Kamala Harris. In is Charlie Kirk!"
Hayseeds: "Boooo!!!"

Point being, it never really matters who we pick as our candidate. Ain't that right, Swede?

[Brett Bellmore]

A black lady. Give me a break, Harris is an Indian lady. She just finds calling herself "black" politically advantageous.

If you ran into her on the street, and didn't know she was calling herself "black", would it ever occur to you she was? I don't think so, I see women all the time at the local Indian grocery who could be her sisters.

But it's silly to care either way, melanin doesn't dictate policy preferences or competence.

[Swede425]

Unless you're Joe Biden.
Then it's the only thing that matters.

[Malika la Maize]

Her dad was Jamaican, she’s black and she’s Indian.

[Frank Drackman]

Such a perfect set up for that line all the Jocks/Greasers would say in High Screw-el
"Huhuhuhuhuh it's all Pink on the Huhuhuhuhuhuh Inside!!!!!!!!"

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

Her ass is a slut who slept her way to the top.
And not a very bright one at that.

[Swede425]

LOL!
Alternate time line. I'm guessing you spend a lot of time there since reality hasn't been very kind to you.

[David Nieporent]

Joe Biden did so good he got fired.

He did not, in fact, get fired; he served out his term, and decided not to run again.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Having a piece of his ear shot off, knowing how close he came to death, changed Trump. I argue for the better.

[David Nieporent]

He suffered less of an injury than most men get while shaving. With electric razors. And, no, he's the same sociopathic narcissist that he always was.

[Malika la Maize]

The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency.

In recent months, Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security, according to four government officials and tech employees privy to the requests. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Google, Meta and Reddit complied with some of the requests, the government officials said. In the subpoenas, the department asked the companies for identifying details of accounts that do not have a real person’s name attached and that have criticized ICE or pointed to the locations of ICE agents. The New York Times saw two subpoenas that were sent to Meta over the last six months.

The tech companies, which can choose whether or not to provide the information, have said they review government requests before complying. Some of the companies notified the people whom the government had requested data on and gave them 10 to 14 days to fight the subpoena in court.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/dhs-anti-ice-social-media.html

[Commenter_XY]

What were the people actually writing, in opposition?

Because if you're posting something like, "Go ahead, kill ICE officers and I'll help", that will always draw attention. And it should.

If these people were merely writing, "Geez, ICE stinks. They should go home to their families and not do the job" - - totally different.

I don't exactly trust the veracity of the reporting of The Old Grey Hag.

[hobie]

Holy FISA warrants and government surveillance/censorship and Jack Smith!!!

All the things MAGA has been warning us about for years! When the hayseeds learn about this they are going to explode in anger!

[Malika la Maize]

Every accusation…

[hobie]

Quiet you! I won't be able to hear the hayseeds explode in anger if you keep up this racket!

[John F. Carr]

A lawsuit by the United States wants to invalidate New Jersey executive order 12, which limits ICE access to state property.
It was filed on February 23. So far the only action is a series of notes by the court clerk saying, translated to English, "Hey, Olaf, you should learn how to file a complaint properly in this district. I fixed it for you this time."

I think the legal questions will be:
1. Can New Jersey limit ICE access to nonpublic state property where state law enforcement is allowed?
2. Can New Jersey limit ICE access to public areas of state properrty for use as a staging area?

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72316303/united-states-v-new-jersey/

[Commenter_XY]

1 is probably 'Yes' and 2 is 'No'.

[Malika la Maize]

The Department of Defense has officially informed Anthropic’s leadership that the company and its products have been designated a supply chain risk, effective immediately, a senior department official said Thursday….

Anthropic is the only American company ever to be publicly named a supply chain risk, as the designation has traditionally been used against foreign adversaries. The label will require defense vendors and contractors to certify that they don’t use Anthropic’s models in their work with the Pentagon…

Even as talks between the two organizations collapsed, the DOD has used Anthropic’s models to support the U.S. military’s operations in the ongoing conflict in Iran, as CNBC has previously reported.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/05/anthropic-pentagon-ai-claude-iran.html

[Commenter_XY]

By contract, the US military can use Anthropic's AI models for another 5.5 months, as Anthropic is replaced by OpenAI.

As for Anthropic....Woke went for broke, and lost. FAFO.

[Malika la Maize]

You think woke is not wanting to be used to spy on Americans domestically?

[Commenter_XY]

Queenie, I think a contract is a negotiated agreement between two parties. The two parties in this contract renewal negotiation did not come to terms, and the agreement will not be renewed. Pursuant to the contract, there is a 6-month handover period to another vendor. End of story. FAFO in business is rough.

AI is already used to 'spy' on Americans, every day. Can you tell me the difference of Feds using biometric identification in public areas, versus a large retailer using biometric identification on their premises (or for their products)? It is surveillance, enhanced with AI; albeit, with a much different purpose (identity mapping vs sales analysis). That ' do not spy on Americans domestically' train left the station with the passage of the Patriot Act, a long time ago. It is too late now.

[hobie]

Hayseeds: "Warrantless surveillance bad."
Also Hayseeds: "Warrantless surveillance good."

[Malika la Maize]

“Can you tell me the difference of Feds using biometric identification in public areas, versus a large retailer using biometric identification on their premises”

One is the government, the other a private entity on their private property. You really don’t have a libertarian bone in your body, do you?

[hobie]

It's like shooting hayseeds in a barrel.

[jb]

So much to take apart here, but let's look at two big things:

1) Sure, the Pentagon can switch from using Anthropic to using OpenAI if they think that serves their needs better. Much more troubling, though, is declaring Anthropic a supply chain risk. This is another example of the Trump administration using the power of the federal government to punish people and organizations who stand up to it. No one sincerely believes that Anthropic is a supply chain risk, and no one has actually even tried to make the case that they are. It's just a penalty for not going along, and it will overall make US defense weaker by taking an option off the table that may be the best tool in many situations. Claude Code is way better than Copilot, so this hampers defense contractors' ability to write code, for example.

2) We should all probably take a step back and be concerned when a company who would commercially benefit by selling more of its product tells us it would be dangerous to do so. You may think that the Patriot Act or stores using biometrics are basically the same as the federal government conducting AI-assisted mass surveillance, but mall cops are not the same as the FBI, and the ability to tap a phone line or two is not the same as pervasive surveillance everywhere all the time. We're not that far from being able to perform a lot of the big brother surveillance that you see in movies, and I'm not sure why anyone is interested in accelerating us towards that future.

[Brett Bellmore]

The supply chain risk is obvious. If the AI is forbidden to work on subject X, and a contractor is hired to do subject X, the AI may notice that and stop working for the contractor.

So use of Anthropic's AI introduces disruption potential into the supply chain.

Note that contractors are not being forbidden to use Anthropic's AI. They're being forbidden to use Anthropic's AI on DOD projects. They can still use it for other things.

[jb]

"The supply chain risk is obvious. If the AI is forbidden to work on subject X, and a contractor is hired to do subject X, the AI may notice that and stop working for the contractor."

That just means the contractors need to pay attention to their own contracts with Antrhopic and not use it for DOD work that touches on forbidden topics. There's a lot of scope for such work, as the US demonstrated during its trial period with Anthropic.

[Brett Bellmore]

That depends on how many degrees of DOD Claude is playing. But certainly under the terms of the government's announcement, government contractors can continue using Claude for non-DOD purposes regardless.

[jb]

Sure, but why not for DOD purposes unrelated to autonomous weapons targeting and domestic surveillance?

[Sarcastr0]

the AI may notice that and stop working for the contractor

That's not how LLMs work. At all!

[TwelveInchPianist]

Just a few months ago Sarcastro claimed that LLM's weren't AI.

[Sarcastr0]

LLMs aren't AI.

That conflation is why Brett is treating the product Anthropic puts out as though it did had cognition and even volition.

[TwelveInchPianist]

You don't know what AI is.

Stop lecturing other people about how it works.

[Josh R]

So, you think opposing the government spying on Americans (and opposing using AI to attack enemies without human intervention) is woke. It's not FAFO. It's Get the Fuck Out of Here with such nonsense about what "woke" is.

[Brett Bellmore]

If I understand the dispute, from accounts at a tech site I follow, the real sticking point was NOT "domestic spying on Americans".

It was Anthropic's insistence that Anthropic, not the judiciary, would determine when a use was violative, and that decision would be enforced by the AI refusing to work.

The DOD was not about to tolerate a private company getting to make that call, or utilizing a tool that had a mind of its own about when it would work or not.

[Martinned]

Yes, private companies must be forced to provide services to the US Regime! They will be beaten up until morale improves!

[Josh R]

No. It was about Anthropic's insistence that AI could not be used to attack absent human confirmation.

[Life of Brian]

E.g., no Anthropic-powered Golden Dome. Seems like a pretty clearly unacceptable limitation.

[jb]

And seriouly... who thinks that is a good idea?? Anthropic has documented cases of AI deciding to blackmail humans to protect itself if threatened. Who would want to give an AI the ability to autonomously target people if we already have some evidence they have the potential to turn on the people controlling them.

[Brett Bellmore]

And, again, you're taking Anthropic's word for the actual nature of the dispute, ignoring the meta level dispute.

The DOD's position is they want a tool that will work for any lawful purpose, with the US legal system, not Anthropic, having the last word on what purposes are lawful. And they want a tool that produces objectively accurate, impartial responses to prompts, without any ideological weighting.

IOW, they want a "tool", not a decision making partner with veto power.

Anthropic gives those two purposes, domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons, as examples of what their guardrails won't permit.

That doesn't mean the guardrails are limited to those uses, or than the DOD's demands focus on those uses.

It just means that Anthropic thinks those are the most publicly defensible aspect of their guardrails.

The dispute is actually over who calls the shots.

[jb]

Even taking your framing as correct, Anthropic has concerns about its AI being used in some particular ways. I just gave an example of why they have legitimate safety concerns. It doesn't seem to me that the winning argument is for Hesgeth to say "well, it's legal for us to do that, so we're just going to ignore your safety concerns and do it anyway".

In the end, the dispute ends up being that Anthropic has concerns about particular use cases, the DOD wants to do them anyway, and Anthropic was unwilling to let their tech be used for those purposes. You can try to reframe that as "the DOD just wants control" but that doesn't wish away the reasons why Anthropic doesn't want to allow it.

[Sarcastr0]

There is no veto power. It's not post-hoc negation; they have specific guardrails on the service they provide.

You're speculating into a nonfactual regime as you work very hard to explain why it's okay for this admin to yet again bigfoot free actors in the market.

[jay.tee]

Yes, of course contractual disputes are always black and white and never end up in court. /s

No matter how well you define your guardrails (or any other terms) in your contracts, you cannot guarantee novel circumstances won’t arise and spawn disagreements that can’t be easily (and lawfully) resolved by severing service.

That’s why courts exist. Unilateral action has significant consequences. Provided of course that’s really the genesis of the conflict….

[Dr. Ed 2]

Wow….

I don’t think a company should be allowed to sell a product like too ANYONE!!!

And as to the US military, how is this different from putting chips in a tank that wouldn’t let the tanks engine start if the tank was in a certain GPS area, e.g. Mexico? Or a Killswitch that turned it off once it crossedthe Mexican border….

[Malika la Maize]

An article arguing the designation is something Anthoropic can successfully challenge in court:

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/pentagon's-anthropic-designation-won't-survive-first-contact-with-legal-system

[Life of Brian]

This reads like a grab-bag of the sort of hopeful gotcha theories NG routinely posts here, and I suspect it will meet a similar fate if actually tested in the real world.

Cross-check: the lead author is a law student.

[apedad]

10 Best Nuclear Radiation Detector of 2025 - March 2026 Edition

https://reviews.oneclearwinner.com/product/nuclear-radiation-detector/?msclkid=7980c21e6eb315decd09abb4ae990de1&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=geo%3AUS%20%7C%20site%3AOCW_ssr_t3%20%7C%20type%3AKWs%20%7C%20category%3AAll&utm_term=nuclear%20radiation%20detector&utm_content=ad%20group26

Great . . . personal nuclear radiation detectors are now being rated and advertised.

Only $84!

[Brett Bellmore]

Spend the money on potassium iodide instead. The odds of you ever running into a radiation hot spot that nobody else has noticed and reported are tiny, in the event of a nuclear war you're not going to need a radiation detector personally.

You would benefit personally from protecting yourself from radio-iodide, which is the primary fallout threat. And it's cheap, and the batteries don't run down in storage. Honestly, everybody should have a jar of it sitting in a closet, just in case.

By the way, you DO know people buy those things to find radioactive rocks while rock collecting, and to identify antique uranium glass, too, right?

[John F. Carr]

Thanks to AI anything you search for can give you a list. So many lists you can't find any genuine information. "Top ten wombat dessicators in 2026!" "Best rat diners in Beverly Hills ranked!"

[Dr. Ed 2]

Ape dad clearly isn’t bright enough to realize that he and his family can be adversely affected by natural causes of radiation.

For example, granite is radioactive, and the lovely shades of orange and yellow that come from Africa are HIGHLY radioactive.

[Malika la Maize]

The NCAA is appealing the preliminary injunction that a state court in Mississippi granted to Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss that paved his way to be eligible for a sixth college season in 2026.

In a filing in the Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday, the NCAA is appealing the injunction, claiming that the organization "has final decision-making authority in the interpretation and application of its eligibility rules."

In the 658-page filing on Thursday, the NCAA argues that it should receive an interlocutory appeal - an appeal of a non-final order - because the injunction subjects the NCAA to "substantial and irreparable injury."

Per the filing, the NCAA argues that the Chambliss ruling cuts to the heart of fair play: "The NCAA is charged with supporting its member institutions and enforcing the rules that they adopt. Its even-handed enforcement of the eligibility rules is necessary to ensure a level playing field among all competitors and to provide opportunities for incoming student-athletes.

"If courts can intervene in NCAA eligibility decisions to provide special treatment to favored athletes, then the NCAA's ability to ensure fair athletic competition in which all participants play by the same rules will depend upon the whims of trial courts throughout the country."

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/48114754/ncaa-appealing-ruling-granting-ole-miss-qb-chambliss-6th-year

[Martinned]

American sports is weird.

[Malika la Maize]

Running our sports through schools instead of clubs produces some weirdness, yes.

[Frank Drackman]

What's this "Instead" you speak of Kemo Sabe??
When I played Youth Sports, (yes, in the 1970's) There were no "Travel" Teams, for Baseball you had Little League (and it's regional variants, "Dixie Majors" in Alabama, which is still around but changed its name to "DBB" to be Woke) If you were good you could play on your Highschool Team, and maybe American Legion in the Summer,
Basketball was the same, every Base would have leagues from 8yrs to High Screw-el, Off Base you had the YMCA (Yes Lexi, This Jew belonged to the YMCA) and of course the Junior/Senior High Screw-el Teams. 1970's California had 9th Grade Teams, 10th Grade Teams, JV and Varsity, so you could make the team even if you were mediocre, like me.
Same with Foo-bawl, which I only played 1 yr, I don't like pain.
I think it was so you could "Check the Box" for the Colleges that found value in playing with your Balls.

Frank

[Malika la Maize]

Deranged.

[hobie]

There should be an asterisk next to your Little League career stats as you never got to play against the little neegro chillins in 1970s Alabama, Frankie. The protection and privileges afforded by non-DEI schemes made our Frankie the man he is today.

[Frank Drackman]

You really should lay off the Prison Crank Jerry, while Dixie Majors Baseball was mostly White, it wasn't all White, and the YMCA Basketball was the exact opposite.
OK, my team was all White (but our Coach Black, go figure) all 15-18 yrs old, but the other 4 YMCA's weren't, there might have been 2 White Guys in the rest of the league.
And they didn't really verify ages either, I swear some of the "Downtown" Y Players were in their 20's.
1979 there was no Shot Clock, no 3 Point Line, we played 8 minute Quarters, I remember the Downtown Team almost hung a 100 on us.
And they would have, except we went into a "4 Corners" so they'd foul us intentionally just to get the Ball back.
For a while the Downtown Team had to play all "Away" games because one of their players shattered the Backboard (No "Break Away Rims" in 1979)

Frank

[hobie]

Frankie's fond recollections of the South. You know, in 2024 in Birmingham Alabama for a celebration of the Negro Leagues there, DEI Reggie Jackson started to weep as he explained his treatment at the hands of the memory-challenged Frankies when he travelled there in his youth in the 60s and 70s the to play amateur ball for the Frankies:

"Coming back here is not easy. The racism when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled. Fortunately I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn't wish it on anybody. People said to me, today I spoke and said, 'Do you think you're a better person, do you think you won when you played here and conquered?' I said, you know, I would never want to do it again. I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say, 'the nigger can't eat here.' I would go to a hotel and they say the nigger can't stay here. We went to Charlie Finley's country club for a welcome home dinner and they pointed me out with the N word... Finley marched the whole team out, finally they let me in there. He said, 'we're going to go to the diner and eat hamburgers, we'll go where we're wanted... ...I wouldn't wish it on anyone"

[Frank Drackman]

So what's Luxemburg's "National Pastime"???
Besides Buggery.

Frank

[Frank Drackman]

Turns out it was a Kuwait FA-18 that shot down 3(!) (2 more and the guy's an Ace) USAF F-15E Strike Eagles (AKA as the "Mud Hen")
of course the Single Seat F-15C guys don't consider the "E" to be a Fighter, in fact the whole Idea of the F-15 (Maiden Flight 1972 (Sigh)) was it's only mission was Air Superiority, "Not a Pound for Air to Ground" was the Motto.
When the Phantoms phased out the Generals wanted something fast and swoopy (actual Aeronautical Terms) to get in the Mud and drop Bombs (thus "Mud Hen")
Daughter #1 flies FA-18s/F-5s for the Marine Corpse, #2 Vipers for the Air Farce, and as Moses said,
"There will be blood"
Of course comparing Aircraft is ridiculous, F-15 was designed only to shoot down other fighters, has a Radar the size of my first Apartment, if an F-15 Pilot has to use his gun he's a shitty Pilot.
F-16 was originally intended as a "Cheap" Day-Only Fighter, but now it's arguably more capable than the Eagle (Nobody calls it that) Great at ACM (I'd tell you.....) Dropping Bombs, even does the SEAD/"Wild Weasle"(I'll let Dr. Ed totally get it wrong explaining what those are)
Oh, and the (Fabulous) Thunderbirds? been flying Vipers for 40 years.
Hornet OTOH had to be able to Fight, Attack, and land on an Aircraft Carrier, hence it's Sensible Shoes Landing Gear. It can't out run or out turn a 15 or a Viper, but it excels at maneuvering at "High Angle of Attack", In a Slow "Scissors" it can point it's nose at the bad guy and win.
Or you can just shoot down 3 of your own side's Jets.
Frank

[Moderation4ever]

President Trump say he wants a say in the next Iranian leader. So the Iranian people move from a place where the country's religious leaders pick the government leaders to where Trump pick's them. Why not let the Iranian people pick the leaders?

[Frank Drackman]

They've been picking them since 1979, hasn't turned out very well.

[Malika la Maize]

There’s been no free and fair elections there during that span.

[Frank Drackman]

Source? they're arguably "Free-er" than ours, Voting age used to be 15, has since been raised to 18, and Yes, Virginia, that includes the Women-Folk.
You do have to show ID.
Like in Roosh-a, just because they prefer Candidates we don't like doesn't mean they're not free and fair elections.

[Malika la Maize]

“Source? they're arguably "Free-er" than our”

Arguably by semi-literate morons, maybe.

[Josh R]

The mullahs choose which candidates can run. Not free and fair.

[Frank Drackman]

That's our DemoKKKratic Party, what about Iran?
Get it? you said the Mullah's choose the candidates, and I said they do, for the DemoKKKrats, if they'd picked Josh Shapiro for VP instead of that prancing Forest Sprite Waltz they might have carried PA.

Frank

[Josh R]

An analogy to the US would be only Republicans (or only Democrats) can be candidates. Your insistence that Iran's elections are like ours is pathetic nonsense.

[Moderation4ever]

Andrew Paul Johnson was convicted of two counts of child molesting in Florida. This was a man pardoned by Donald Trump for his participation in the January 6th insurrection. The people Trump calls patriots are far from that word. Many, not all, are criminals and their behavior on January 6, 2021 was a foreshadowing not a one off.

[Frank Drackman]

And President Barry Hussein Ebola gave the Eulogy at 2 DemoKKKrat Senators Funerals
1: Robert KKK Bird, former Grand Kleagle, who's contribution to Bartlett's (Google it dummies) was "There are White Niggers"
and
2: Edward M. (for Murderer) Kennedy, who left a young woman to Asphyxiate, NOT Drown, (There's a difference)
See, those were actual people in Power, not some Insignificant Yahoo who showed up to cause trouble.

Frank

[Malika la Maize]

Might there be a relevant difference between giving a eulogy and pardoning someone who then commits a subsequent crime? Don’t expect someone who can’t write as well as a third grader to get it.

MAGA populism, folks!

[Frank Drackman]

Yes, Barry Hussein knew about Bird's Klan membership ("Membership"?? he was a friggin' Leader) and Ted Kennedy's Pre-meditated Murder, (my "Theory of the Case" was that Mary Joe Kopeckney was Pregnant, with EMK's child, and wouldn't get an Abortion, can you prove she wasn't? No Autopsy was done)
Best Case Scenario is Teddy "only" committed Vehicular Homicide or Manslaughter, but got to stalk the Senate for another 40 years.
People get Paroled all the time, most commit more crimes and go back to Prison, I'd be for executing all Violent Criminals (and I consider Drug Dealers "Violent") on their first offense, and save Prison for the really Horrible Criminals, like Lawyers.

Frank

[Malika la Maize]

Causation is far too complicated for a person who doesn’t get third grade English.

[hobie]

I see a whatabout in your future, Malika. Oh wait. There ↑↑↑ it is! Classic Frankie.

[Moderation4ever]

Come on Frank this is so weak. Please give it another try.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Chicken or egg, was he a criminal beforehand or did the process make him into one?

The left has been arguing with the latter for 50 years.

[Moderation4ever]

Andrew Paul Johnson is 42 meaning he would have been about 37 at the January 6th insurrection. At 37 we can expect his criminal nature to have been installed. Most people, left right and center, realize that it is young men teens and early post teens that are at risk of evolving into hardened criminals when exposed to the correctional system. Johnson was well past that age.

[Moderation4ever]

I read in my local newspaper, The Wisconsin State Journal, that Wisconsin businesses and consumers paid 3.5 billion dollar in tariffs last year. The people of Wisconsin want that money back.

[Frank Drackman]

I want an 18" Dick (wow, that didn't come out right, To clarify, I don't want somebody elses 18"Dick, I would like my Dick to be 18" long, because "Size" does matter)
I think I'll have as much success with that as the People of Wisconsin getting their money.

Frank

[John F. Carr]

Yeah, thats the way you do it,
You sue the orange man in the C.I.T.
That ain't working, that's the way you do it,
Get your refunds for nothing, get your kitsch tax free.
(I want mine, I want mine, I want mine tariff free.)

All as Knopfler foretold.

[Malika la Maize]

The photojournalist who for more than a half-century was credited with taking a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a naked girl burned during the Vietnam War has filed a criminal defamation lawsuit in France against Netflix and the makers of a documentary that accuses him of being a fraud.

The photographer, Nick Ut, said in court documents filed last week that the film, “The Stringer,” which Netflix released last year, had damaged his reputation and brought shame upon him. The film claims that a freelancer named Nguyen Thanh Nghe actually took the 1972 photo, titled “The Terror of War.”

Netflix, Knight and the VII Foundation are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in France in part because the film was distributed and promoted there. Ut said in his statement that if felt natural to seek justice in France, adding that there he would be “surrounded by people who understand my work and my character.”

The bar for defamation lawsuits is lower in France than it is in the United States, where a public figure must prove that a false statement was made with “actual malice,” meaning with knowledge that the statement was untrue, or with reckless disregard for its veracity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/movies/netflix-defamation-stringer-napalm-girl.html

[Frank Drackman]

Should have thrown his Gook Ass in Prison for Child Pornography.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I always wondered about that. Standards were higher 50 years ago, I’m surprised that newspapers and magazines didn’t block off her personal areas.

[Martinned]

Why would this guy be a public figure?

[Malika la Maize]

It’s a pretty iconic photograph.

[Martinned]

Sure, but how does that make the photographer who took it 50 years ago a public figure? Apart from his mother hardly anyone even knows his name.

[Malika la Maize]

The artist who does a famous work of art is famous.

[Martinned]

Really? That's exactly the claim I would dispute.

For example, nobody knows who Banksy is. If, in reality, Banksy is Joe Smith who lives in downtown Scranton, does that mean that Mr. Smith can never sue anyone for defamation without having to clear the Sullivan threshold?

[Malika la Maize]

I think Banksy is a public figure, yes. There’s articles on him all over the place.

[Martinned]

There's articles about Banksy's art all over the place.

[Moderation4ever]

The bombing, accidently, of a Iranian girls school must be addressed. The war in Iran cannot go the way of Gaza. The US and Israel cannot simple torment the people of Iran by continuous bombing without some sort of plan for what comes next. Israel seemed to have little plan for the end of the Gaza conflict and the Trump administration has little idea of where the Iranian conflict is going.

[Malika la Maize]

Doesn’t concern “no rules of engagement” Hegseth’s Christianity it seems.

[Frank Drackman]

"Address it"??? You asked for it.
Maybe Don't put Girls Screw-els adjacent to Military Targets and they won't get bombed.
See, in the old Days, when we had Pussies in the Oval Orifice (and sadly I include Ronaldus, GHWB, and "W" in that category) we wouldn't bomb Enemy targets if they were near a School, Hospital, whatever.
"45/47(48?)" and Hedge-Sex don't play that Shit, it's like how that Stanford Trombone Player got run over in 1982's "The Play", don't want to get flattened by a Defensive End? Stay off the Field.

Frank

[Malika la Maize]

Schools are common on US military bases.

[Martinned]

As are Burger Kings.

[Frank Drackman]

Burger Kings are Army/Air Farce, Navy/Marine Corpse Bases have Mickey D's.

[Frank Drackman]

OK, You got me there, at Whiteman AFB Missouri there was a Minuteman ICBM Launch Control Center on base ("Oscar-1", was Active from 1963-1995, it's a Historical site now, you can see it on Google Earth corner of 12th Street and Vandenberg Avenue)
it's about 200 feet from the Base Lake/Recreation Area.
We visited there one Summer (that was the kind of "Summer Trips" we took, "Whiteman AFB) you could drive right by it like it was Subway.
At Offutt the Little Leage Fields were about 1,000 feet from the Flightline and SAC Headquarters. It was common to see "Looking Glass" (Google it) take off during a game.

Frank

[Frank Drackman]

Looking Glass (or Operation Looking Glass) is the historic code name for an airborne command and control center operated by the United States. Since 2016 it has been referred to as the ABNCP (Airborne National Command Post). It provides command and control of U.S. nuclear forces in the event that ground-based command centers have been destroyed or otherwise rendered inoperable.

The code name "Looking Glass" came from the aircraft's ability to "mirror" the command and control functions of the underground command post at the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC) headquarters at Offutt AFB, Nebraska.
1960, the SAC Airborne Command Post or "Looking Glass" was initiated, with the conversion of 5 KC-135A tankers to Airborne Command Posts. In July 1960, operational testing began under the code name Looking Glass, with a SAC general officer always aboard each flight, and operated by the 34th Air Refueling Squadron at Offutt AFB.

In August 1966, the mission transferred to the 38th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, to the 2nd Airborne Command and Control Squadron in April 1970, to the 7th Airborne Command and Control Squadron in July 1994, and to the USSTRATCOM's Strategic Communications Wing One in October 1998.

In February 1961, the Strategic Air Command put Looking Glass mission on continuous airborne alert. Aircraft from the 34th Air Refueling Squadron were based at its headquarters at Offutt AFB, backed up by aircraft flying with the Second Air Force / 913th Air Refueling Squadron at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, the Eighth Air Force / 99th Air Refueling Squadron at Westover AFB, Massachusetts, and the Fifteenth Air Force / 22d Air Refueling Squadron, March AFB, California.

EC-135 Looking Glass aircraft were airborne 24 hours a day for over 29 years, until July 24, 1990,when "The Glass" ceased continuous airborne alert, but remained on ground or airborne alert 24 hours a day.

[Martinned]

Sure they can. From an Israeli POV their war aim is to turn countries like Lebanon, Syria, and Iran into permanent (civil) war. Democracy in those countries is no good for Israel, because Israel has no reason to believe that a democratic Iran/Syria/Lebanon would have favourable relations with Israel. Only permawar will do.

[Brett Bellmore]

I suppose perma-civil-war is better than perma-war-with-Israel. But countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt demonstrate that civil war and war with Israel are not the only options. And do you really think Israel would prefer a failed state near them to an Egypt?

[Martinned]

I suppose perma-civil-war is better than perma-war-with-Israel.

It is for Israel.

But countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt demonstrate that civil war and war with Israel are not the only options.

I don't think Israel thinks that it can turn Iran into an absolute monarch or a reliable dictatorship. And there's no reason to assume that any military junta in Iran would satisfy Israel's war aims, because the most likely outcome in that direction would involve creating an (ultra) nationalist regime in Teheran, which would almost certainly continue using Israel as Public Enemy No. 1.

And do you really think Israel would prefer a failed state near them to an Egypt?

They would if the Egypt option was (ultra) nationalist.

[Brett Bellmore]

"It is for Israel."

That's what we were discussing, what Israel would think was better for itself.

"I don't think Israel thinks that it can turn Iran into an absolute monarch or a reliable dictatorship."

And I'm not so sure about that.

[Martinned]

That's what we were discussing, what Israel would think was better for itself.

Possibly, but maybe we should also spare a moment to consider the legal limits on a country's ability to start permawars for its own benefit.

[Brett Bellmore]

I believe you're misjudging the baseline stability of Middle Eastern regimes, if you think it takes action from Israel to destabilize them. They can manage that on their own.

[BFranklin1776]

This is the stupidest thing I've read all month.

[LexAquilia]

They have a plan for the end of the Gaza conflict.

It's for them to dance on the graves of the very last Palestinians to ever exist.

That's what they say when they aren't addressing Whites.

[Martinned]

O, look, Trump's buddy Vlad is being mean to him. I guess the US will start supporting Ukraine again for at least six hours.

Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East, the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating — even indirectly — in the war, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence.

The assistance, which has not been previously reported, signals that the rapidly expanding conflict now features one of America’s chief nuclear-armed competitors with exquisite intelligence capabilities.

Since the war began Saturday, Russia has passed Iran the locations of U.S. military assets, including warships and aircraft, said the three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/06/russia-iran-intelligence-us-targets/

[Martinned]

Iceland has now picked a date for its EU accession referendum. It will take place on 29 August. US aggression in the Arctic has forced the government to move the referendum up from its original plan of doing it next year.

https://www.euractiv.com/news/iceland-locks-in-on-date-for-eu-referendum/

[hobie]

Don't you Europeans like us?

[Scene from Mars Attacks! Martians chasing humans and shooting at them while carrying a megaphone/translation device] "Don't run. We are your friends."

[Bob from Ohio]

"Iceland has now picked a date for its EU accession referendum. "

Who cares.

Iceland has the population of Cleveland and the GDP of Vermont. I guess EU needs fish.

EU is not a military alliance so the US can aggress all it wants.

[Frank Drackman]

IRINA just announced Iranian Navy has added a new "Submersible"

Frank

[SRG2]

What qualifications has Mullin for the job?

[Frank Drackman]

Well he's the only Senator without a College Degree, which I like, and he's also the only current "Native American" Senator (I don't count Poke-a-Hontas's 1/1,024th)
In fact he's the first Injun in the Senate since Ben Nighthouse Campbell left in 2005.
He's also a former MMA Fighter, so you tell him he's not qualified, just make sure your Dental Insurance is paid up.

Frank

[hobie]

Doctors and senators are always better without higher education in Frankie's world. Mullin is also against abortion in all circumstances, so he'd never get elected in Israel.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Being a US senator whom I’ve never heard of strikes me very much as a qualification — he apparently is diplomatic enough not to say anything stupid enough to make a lovely sound bite.

He’s a US senator, one of the hundred, and while governors tend to make better presidents, Senators tend to make better cabinet members as they already have had to learn how to play nicely with others.

[Kazinski]

When his father got sick he quit school at 20, and took over the family plumbing business and successfully ran it. He later sold the business when he was elected to Congress.

That's pretty impressive.

And while not really anything he accomplished, he is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and the first Native American Senator since Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

[Martinned]

He later sold the business when he was elected to Congress.

Why did he do that? Why didn't he simply keep the business and have one of his kids run it? This way how are people supposed to bribe him?

[Frank Drackman]

Old Medical Joke, Heart Surgeon, upset about his Plumber's Bill, says
"I'm a Heart Surgeon and I can barely afford your work!"
Plumber says "Yeah, when I was a Heart Surgeon I couldn't afford it either"
See, the joke is the Plumber used to be a Heart Surgeon....
Rule #1 of Plumbing "Water always runs downhill"
Rule #2 "It's not all Water"

Frank

[Bunny495]

Three rules of plumbing. Hot on the left, cold on the right, and shit don't run uphill.

[Bob from Ohio]

"What qualifications has Mullin for the job?"

Congressman and US senator. Traditional qualifications for cabinet posts.

[SRG2]

But not for that particular post, so you've conceded that he has none, but as a cultist, you cannot admit it,

[Bob from Ohio]

You never ever get tired of lame gotchas.

Prior DHS confirmed secretaries:

1. governor
2. lawyer and briefly US circuit judge
3. governor
4. lawyer
5. general
6. lawyer
7. lawyer and Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
8. governor

Only 5 and 7 had anything to do with security, rest just held political posts or were just lawyers

He's fully qualified.

[Dr. Ed 2]

As some of us learned during the Wuhan Flu Hysteria, Governors have immense security authority.

But I still go back to the ability to play nicely with others, both within the cabinet, within the agency they’re running, and particularly on Capitol Hill. Senators have to be good at this.

You can hire people to tell you everything you need to know about security, you can’t hire someone to tell you how not to make a fool of yourself.

[SRG2]

As Dr Ed pointed out, governors will have security experience, and lawyers will understand what they can or cannot do.

But this guy? You're just defending the pick because Dear Leader picked him.

[John F. Carr]

A judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Allstate used data from phone apps to set car insurance rates, and that Allstate sold the data, all in violation of the Wiretap Act. The complaint also alleges violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act because the data collected did not distinguish between passengers and drivers. (Imagine you're a passenger in a car doing donuts in front of a school. You phone tells Allstate you like to do donuts in front of schools.)

"According to the complaint, ​[Allstate data analytics unit] Arity's tracking software was integrated into apps such as Fuel Rewards, GasBuddy, Life360 and Allstate-owned Routely."

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/allstate-must-face-privacy-lawsuit-over-cellphone-tracking-drivers-2026-03-04/
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69543222/sims-v-the-allstate-corporation/

[jb]

That's really bad. It's wild that anyone at Allstate (or these other apps) thought it was okay to secretly monitor people this way without their explicit consent. It seems like lots of insurance companies offer opt-in driving monitoring programs. Why not stick with that model?

[Life of Brian]

Allstate does have its own opt-in program, Drivewise. That seems like a red flag right there.

This is at the motion to dismiss stage. The opinion isn't yet available, but the article John linked repeatedly says the judge said the plaintiffs "can try to prove" their allegations.

I'm all for a good conspiracy theory, but I'm reserving judgment on this one unless/until something a lot less speculative actually comes out in discovery.

[Brett Bellmore]

Back when I had Allstate, you better believe I did not install that app on my phone, and the RFID transponder they sent me to put in the car is transponding from a landfill somewhere.

[jb]

Eh. I don't take as a conspiracy theory basically any misuse of location data from people's cell phones. There's already way too much history of that data being sold without people's knowledge or consent for me to start with a skeptical view on the topic.

And if you look at Allstate's public response, it's basically "we didn't do anything users didn't authorize", so they're probably just going to try to make the case that some clause buried in the GasBuddy T&Cs makes this okay. Good for Texas for pursuing this case, as far as I'm concerned. I wish California was as good at trying to enforce its own privacy laws, given how many of the tech companies are based there.

[Life of Brian]

And if you look at Allstate's public response, it's basically "we didn't do anything users didn't authorize", so they're probably just going to try to make the case that some clause buried in the GasBuddy T&Cs makes this okay.

The GasBuddy privacy policy does say they may sell "precise geolocation information" to business partners, so of course they're not going to deny that much. But that's just a PR win for the lawyers, given that it doesn't say anything about their theory for what data is collected and how it's used.

Arity's own privacy policy seems to strike a very sharp and consistent line between Insurance Client Services and Business Client Services. If you see anywhere that suggests data collected through a Business Client app can be clandestinely disclosed to an insurance company, let me know. The only circumstance I see is where a user consents to have an Arity IQ report of their driving behavior sent to an insurance company for a premium quote, which can't be what this lawsuit is talking about.

Bottom line, if they're cheating, that'll come out in discovery, but given that the leechesheroes that filed this class-action suit couldn't even scrape up a lead plaintiff that claimed their premium had been hiked I'm a bit skeptical that they would take that sort of a risk when -- again -- they themselves already have their own public-facing program that does exactly the same thing.

[jb]

Worth noting (which I alluded to but didn't specifically call out), it's not just some class action lawyers bringing a case here, the state of Texas is as well:

https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-allstate-and-arity-unlawfully-collecting-using-and-selling-over-45

[Life of Brian]

If you read the actual causes of action in the Texas complaint (paragraphs 52-90), they're just based on the collection and monetization of the data. There's some noise earlier in the background section about driving data going to insurers, but at first glance it doesn't look inconsistent with the Arity IQ process I mentioned above (e.g., paragraph 5, where it doesn't speak to consent one way or the other).

[To me, the even creepier buried lede in that one is the fact that the car manufacturers themselves are freely monetizing owners' driving data -- not immediately clear why Texas is suing Arity for buying it rather than the car mfrs for selling it.]

[Dr. Ed 2]

The Northeast Corridor (BOS - WAS) is 459 miles, 918 round trip.

If I went down to Washington just once a month, that would be 11,016 miles a year. 286,416 if I went down every other week, which would not be unreasonable for somebody who was telecommuting.

That’s gonna add somewhere between 11 K and 286K extra miles to what Allstate thinks I’m driving each year, and as risk is based upon exposure, i.e. the more miles you drive the more likely you would have an accident, they’re gonna inflate my insurance rates on the basis of miles I’ve never driven.

It’s one thing to say that someone drives recklessly, that’s a judgment call. But cars have odometers, most states keep track of annual odometer readings in state, inspections and registrations. So why isn’t this outright fraud?

Say I’ve been commuting to DC every other week for the past five years, that’s 1,432,080 miles my car didn’t travel, and I don’t think it’ll be that hard to prove that a car that only traveled 20,000 miles hasn’t traveled 1,632,080 miles.

The the Northeast Corridor largely follows I-95, and probably shares a lot of towers with it. There’s no way to tell that I was in a train and not on the adjacent highway.

And what’s worse, there are places with the train goes 110 mph and the Accella sometimes goes even faster. Allstate is going to think I was driving that fast and then me accordingly. (The 500 mph of an airplane is going to be rejected, but I possibly could be driving 110 on I-95.)

This sounds a consumer protection case that some intrepid state attorney general should bring.

[Kazinski]

"In a devastating intervention, Sir Trevor Phillips has blown the whistle on what he calls a deliberate political cover-up at the heart of Britain's grooming gangs scandal.

The former Equality and Human Rights Commission chair accuses Labour of sabotaging the national inquiry because of its explosive racial implications — and because so much of the abuse took place under Labour-controlled councils that did nothing to stop it.

“The government clearly never wanted these two things to be put together,” Phillips declared. He points to Labour's efforts to downplay “the intersection of race and sexual predation,” insisting the perpetrators deliberately targeted victims because they were white and outside the groomers' community.

“These children are chosen because of their race. They are chosen because they are white and because they’re outside the community of the groomers.”

Phillips highlights the chilling uniqueness of these crimes: unlike typical child abuse kept hidden, grooming gangs operate in plain sight — with perpetrators knowing they are shielded.

“The other thing is these people know that they are protected. They’re protected politically, they’re protected by social workers, they’re protected by local police. That is the scandal here.”

He pulls no punches on why a full reckoning has been avoided: “Much of this took place in local Labour councils and the authorities who were supposed to be watching over this, stopping it, monitoring it and all the rest of it were controlled by those councils and they did nothing.”

https://x.com/i/status/2029463905227993112

Phillips just made this statement this week, so despite some people complaining it happened too long ago to matter, I suspect it won't stop mattering until after the end of the next UK general election.

[hobie]

So in the UK its brownie gangs. But over here its our white heterosexual Christian billionaire elites, financiers (you know who), and real estate tycoons (Trump, the Alexanders) that groom girls for sex work.

So why the preoccupation with brown, heterosexual, non-Christian groomers?

[Kazinski]

Well the girls in UK are willing to testify and name names, and complained at the time.

If you have any witnesses ready to name names and testify in open court drag them out.

[SRG2]

Good for him, and the Labour councils deserve everything they get.

[John F. Carr]

As part of the decades-long cleanup of PCBs dumped into the Housatonic River, GE and the EPA want to move some mud a few hundred feet from the river to an abandoned quarry. Residents are wondering if maybe the contaminated mud can be left in the river. Sometimes that is the best solution. I don't have any reason to doubt the current cleanup plan. The EPA is going to err on the side of "complicated and expensive" because somebody else is paying the bill. But the EPA could still be right.

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/environment/housatonic-valley-residents-grapple-with-a-pcb-disposal-site-planned-for-construction-this-spring/

The original poster asked "What’s on your mind?" This is on my mind because the dump site is right next to October Mountain State Forest. I've been there. I didn't realize I was walking past a Superfund site. I thought all the mess was upstream in Pittsfield.

[Dr. Ed 2]

The first question I have is if the quarry has any cracks in it. Most quarries that I’m familiar with have natural springs that bring water into them, they flood not just from rainfall, but from the water coming in from the ground, and this one is right next to the river.

A clay cap will keep ground water out, but if you have springs that’s gonna get into the river.

You put the PCB mud in there, the PCB mud is going to leach out into the ground water and into the river. This is bad for two reasons, first in a rural area people drink the ground water and second it’s worse heavy in the river water on the river bottom.

This goes back to a position that Jack Welsh had when he was running GE, you five better off with a layer of PCB mud on the bottom of the river with more mud on top of it, then digging everything up and getting all the PCBs into the water column. Ideally, they wouldn’t be there at all, but they are and what are your water levels of PCBs? What do you measuring the blood of the fishes that are living there, if any?

It’s like the PCB’s in the Quabbin reservoir, which is the drinking water supply for greater Boston. The decision has been made that it’s really better off leaving them there, buried in the mud and silt, then attempting to remove them as that would get them into the drinking water.

[Kazinski]

Big win for Trump out of the 9th circuit on presidential discretion admitting asylum seekers:
March 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has the authority to indefinitely suspend admissions ​of foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States under the U.S. refugee resettlement program, a ‌federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, backing a key element of his hardline approach toward immigration.
A California-based three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached that conclusion as it overturned most of the injunctions issued by a judge in Seattle last year against ​Trump's halt on refugee admissions and related actions."

Judge Kenneth Lee wrote seperately reminding district court judges about the limits of their authority:
"District courts cannot stand athwart, yelling 'stop' just because they genuinely believe they are the last refuge against policies that ​they deem to be deeply unwise,"

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-can-suspend-refugee-admissions-us-appeals-court-rules-2026-03-05/

[jb]

Yay for Trump's war on legal immigration.

[LexAquilia]

https://x.com/wallyrashid/status/2029749839144124421

Here’s Israel’s security minister, Itmar Ben Gvir, in a crowd cheering about flooding Europe with Arabs.

“We want Mohammed to be the most popular name in the UK!”

“We want more Mohammeds in Britain, Sweden, and France!”

These people are not our friends and allies.

[LexAquilia]

BREAKING: President Biden kicked open the doors to America's nuclear weapons research labs, including Los Alamos, to 28,028 Chinese visitors, as well as 304 Iranian nationals, according to just-released Energy Department data.

Between the CCP Democrats and the Zionist GOP, America is toast. No wonder this countries going to shit. Our entire political class serves foreign, anti-goy interests.

[hobie]

Huh. So hard right, pro-Trump Israelis are promoting the brownification of Europe and its brown groomer gangs. This seems to befuddle the MAGA narrative.

[LexAquilia]

The MAGA narrative has always been Trump is more MIGA than MAGA.

So is the entire federal government.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

The reports of Russian support of Iran were cited above. To quote the same article:

Throughout [the Ukrainian] conflict, U.S. adversaries including Iran, China and North Korea have provided Russia with either direct military aid or material support for Moscow’s vast defense industry. ...

Iran has been one of Russia’s chief backers during the Ukraine war, sharing the technology to produce cheap one-way attack drones that have repeatedly been used to overwhelm Kyiv’s air defenses and exhaust Western stocks of interceptors donated to protect Ukrainian cities.

This underlines why it was in the pragmatic interest (even beyond democratic appeals or the like) of the United States to support Ukraine. Trump, however, supports Russia. Fair is fair. Putin supports him, including in multiple election campaigns.

(Both the Mueller Report and a Senate report, with Marco Rubio in agreement, provide the evidence here.)

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

If that were true why would the Mueller Investigation take an adversarial approach to the investigation?? You need to get Trump on your side for the good of the country. And ultimately it was a counterintelligence investigation so that was the most important angle going forward no matter what people believe it ended up finding.

[hobie]

Hayseeds:"[crickets]"

[JoeFromtheBronx]

The sort of international negotiation that Trump disdains has helped suppress Iran's nuclear program. We are left with concerns about possibilities. Not grounds for military force.

Trump's turning back from such negotiations did make the situation worse. Military attacks also encourage the production of a deterrent. Thus, the meme of the leader of North Korea explaining to his daughter why the country has nuclear weapons.

As to democratic appeals, many countries throughout the world have authoritarian governments. The U.S. cannot simply go around the world as a democracy enforcer. Put aside the Trump Administration doing so is rather ironic.

The post-WWII international order provides a proper approach in these cases. Suffice to say, the U.S. + Israel bombing Iran to obtain regime change or whatever the argument of the moment is ... is not it. And, again, if your aim is long-term stability, those two nations forcing it on Iran leaves a lot to be desired.

There is also the general issue of our constitutional form of government. Presidential use of force without congressional authority has been a general practice within certain contours. In some cases, that has been a problem. The details matter.

(International coalitions are ideal and, in some cases, might pass muster under international law, but under our law, congressional authorization also must be included, including funding.)

OTOH, there has repeatedly been congressional authorization, including after 9/11 and before the invasion of Iraq. Before and while we are attacking, while talking about regime change, of a nation of 90 million people, which has multinational effects, congressional authorization is fundamental.

The Administration's actions repeatedly have been both reckless and illegal. The Republican-led Congress has done little in response. The public should keep that in mind in November.

[John F. Carr]

"The post-WWII international order provides a proper approach in these cases."

The UN Security Council works when there are no great powers involved and no friends of great powers involved. North Korea, Iran, and Israel all have powerful friends.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Netanyahu pushed the envelope…Trump led from behind.

[John F. Carr]

The Ninth Circuit upheld a Seattle ordinance requiring Uber and similar companies to have a policy against unfair account deactivation and tell it to drivers. The ordinance does not violate free speech rights. Having a policy is conduct, not speech. Uber can formulate the notice to users in its own words. Alternatively, the law merely compels commercial speech about the terms of a contract.

Uber also claimed the law was too vague. What I called unfair account deactivation is more clearly defined in the ordinance: "The policy that may lead to a deactivation must be reasonably related to the network company’s safe and efficient operations." A list of examples of illegal policies follows. Workers generally can't be terminated for failing a background check or getting traffic tickets "except in cases of egregious misconduct". Workers can't be terminated solely for bad customer reviews. I would think all those do relate to safe and efficient operations.

Uber v. Seattle, https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/03/04/25-228.pdf

[Absaroka]

"Workers can't be terminated solely for bad customer reviews."

That seems pretty nuts.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Workers generally can't be terminated for failing a background check or getting traffic tickets"

That is nuts.

[John F. Carr]

It's nuts but it's within the traditional power of the government to regulate.

[LexAquilia]

Norm Eisen, of foreign and domestic Color Revolution fame, and his Democracy Defenders have submitted an amicus brief arguing that federal judges should ignore SCOTUS orders.

... to save Democracy of course.

These are evil evil "people", doing evil evil things.

[not guilty]

Do you have a link to the amicus brief, or even the style of the case, Lex?

[Michael P]

The SEIU appears to be in Ilya the Lesser's camp about voter ignorance.

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/seiu-delenda-est

[Kazinski]

Two different views of the State of the War, both from the same as source.

This one looks good for Iran:
Ships Passing Through the Strait of Hormuz

Feb 24 → 140
Feb 25 → 135
Feb 26 → 132
Feb 27 → 128
Feb 28 → 98
Mar 1 → 18
Mar 2 → 7
Mar 3 → 2
Mar 4 → 2
Mar 5 → 1
Mar 6 → 0

•Average normal traffic: 130–150 ships/day

https://x.com/i/status/2029946978654880184

And from this view Iran is losing horribly:
Iran Missile launches during the first 8 days of conflict:

Ballistic Missiles:
Day 1 — 350
Day 2 — 175
Day 3 — 120
Day 4 — 50
Day 5 — 40
Day 6 — 32
Day 7 — 28
Day 8 — 15

Drone Swarms:
Day 1 — 294
Day 2 — 541
Day 3 — 200
Day 4 — 85
Day 5 — 45
Day 6 — 38
Day 7 — 30
Day 8 — 12
https://x.com/i/status/2029779899943375344

Needless to say if the trends continue on the missle and drone launches the ships will start up again in a week or so.

A total of 10 tankers have been hit, but none destroyed, reportedly one is still burning.

[not guilty]

Has President Trump considered how long the conflict will continue to affect the price of gasoline?

I remember the gas price shock of 1973 in response to OPEC's oil embargo. The restriction of passage of ships in the Strait of Hormuz can have a similar effect. I don't want to see gas prices high through the Congressional elections this fall, but if they are, a shift in control of both houses is foreseeable.

[jb]

Not feeling particularly surprised that Kaz hasn't brought us an update on the latest unemployment numbers.

[Kazinski]

I didn't even see them until I saw your post. But it doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

"Total nonfarm payroll employment edged down by 92,000 in February, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment in health care decreased, reflecting strike activity. Employment in information and federal government continued to trend down.
Both the unemployment rate, at 4.4 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.6
million, changed little in February."

Healtcare workers on on strike, so?

But here's the good news:
"In February, federal government employment continued to decline (-10,000). Since reaching a
peak in October 2024, federal government employment is down by 330,000, or 11.0 percent."

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

[OpinionsVary]

I would say the real good news is this is proof Trump isn't going to fake the statistics. There was a risk there, when he fired the last guy, that the US might go down that route. And it's good the norms held. Accurate statistics help everyone.

[Life of Brian]

Why is that? The U-6 went down, and average wages rose more than expected. Collectively the statistics seem to say that hours and pay are improving, and more people are motivated to actually go out and look for work. Hard to see how any of that is bad news.

[jb]

That's a convenient way to ignore that there's a bunch fewer jobs than a month ago..

Fewer jobs with higher wages seems like the kind of thing that is a real challenge for the Fed, no? They're still worried about both inflation and the labor market. This report reinforces both worries and means that their principal tools are unavailable to deal with either.

[Life of Brian]

That's a convenient way to ignore that there's a bunch fewer jobs than a month ago.

I'm not ignoring that, because it isn't correct. Most of the unanticipated drop was because of a nursing strike, as Kaz mentioned and as I'm sure you've seen if you've looked at all. And the rest of the numbers you're... erm, not talking about are consistent with part-time jobs getting rolled into full-time. BLS jobs aren't reported as FTEs as far as I know.

[LexAquilia]

h/t @Indian_Bronson

In America, wet floor signs are often in Spanish, tech support calls are often accented with an Indian language, and US Central Command updates are provided in…

https://x.com/CENTCOMHebrew/status/2029572123585389022

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

As someone whose worst grade was in Spanish let me just say the dumbest person in Mexico speaks better Spanish than my friends that took Spanish in college one who is an MD at an investment bank and another who is a surgeon

[John 4]

Imagine being such snowflake that a bilingual wet floor sign puts you in a mood. What a pathetic loser.

[TwelveInchPianist]

So... Trump's controversial smoking of Qasem Soleimani made room to install a Mossad agent in his place. Coincidence?

[LexAquilia]

JUST IN: Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with members of the U.S. military who are currently stationed at an Air Force base in Israel.

He says: “there is much work ahead with the U.S. military as I continue to expand Israel in the Middle East.“

They’re not even hiding it anymore.

Something must be done about this evil Chabad cult. Before the entire world is engulfed in war and misery.

[Bunny495]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/opinion-what-the-iran-war-is-really-about-it-s-not-israel/ar-AA1XFhbw?cvpid=0229414609c940b7d04ccebe4a1d3b8b