No. Our entire culture is built around people sticking their necks out haphazardly, starting pissing contests for no reason, and generally behaving like baboons. Bezos lacks ballzos and everyone should laugh at him, not act like he's somehow the victim.
It's certainly a new low for the Post. It's funny, I thought they were among the worst impacted by some of the dumbassery that went on in the legacy press during the Trump years. Not necessarily because they went further than anyone else, but because instead of finding their niche they always struck me as chasing NYT, oblivious to the fact that for a whole bunch of reasons they can never be the NYT.
But as insufferable as I thought 'Democracy Dies in Darkness' was I'd take that independence every day of the week over an owner wetting his pants for fear of some scum bag that hasn't even been re-elected yet. Not only is it un-American, it's being a little b*tch. How can anyone respect that?
They certainly aren't and it's impossible to know what we don't know.
Nevertheless if my goal is to end this war as quickly as I can, the only pressure point on Putin left not involving direct NATO intervention is the possibility of mass mutiny in the Russian ranks. If that happens he risks all of the territory gained since 2022, and maybe more. I'd think that's also the most rational play for Ukraine strategically, as opposed to, I dunno, indiscriminately firing at Belgorod, and at least as far as we know, they've operated Western weapons within the constraints required by the suppliers.
But to your point, we don't know what we don't know.
There was no coherence to it then and there isn't now. If we really were concerned about Iran then the stupidest thing to do was overthrow their hostile, secular-ish, Sunni dominated neighbor and replace it with a hollowed out Shiite dominated shell.
And really the entire line of thinking on the ME needs to change in light of our own energy independence via tracking and natural gas. Yes oil is still a globally traded commodity but the region has never mattered less as far as American interests are concerned.
Conservatives constantly worry about left wing indoctrination of the youth. However think there is a very plausible future where a lot of cultural trends around identity pushed over the last 10-15 years end up retrospectively sounding like a Nancy Reagan PSA on saying no to drugs.
I've found the whole trajectory of US foreign policy over the last 25 years mind bogglingly frustrating. We start out the century with these completely foolish adventures in nation building, which fail for all kinds of predictable reasons,* but then seem to have become overly timid when it comes to dealing with big, state actors where self interest, moral authority, and our objectively better vision for the world order are on firmer ground. Not that I've ever been a hawk by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes projecting strength and willingness to take risks that deep down you hope you never need to is what it takes to secure peace.
*The way the OP slides passed Iraq almost like it was somehow a success as opposed to a pointless waste that damaged American standing, and a precedent that Putin cites for his actions in Ukraine, is itself an example of the hall of mirrors in which we live, but that's another story.
Where I find the Biden admin's position... confusing is in the failure to provide and allow use of longer range missiles. Not because I think total Russian defeat is on the table at this point. But because now that we know Ukrainians aren't going to be able to retake significant territory any time soon the only way to force Russia to the table for a settlement is creating the possibility of Russian supply lines being degraded, and the fear that they could collapse. It makes no sense to do what we've done so far only to let Ukraine lose slowly.
Bigger picture thought is that while I think the Biden admin has played this decently well I often wonder if they actually have an endgame in mind or if they are just reacting.
I think it's better understood as calibration and balancing interests. My guess is that even businesses pissed off about thieves have limits about how much in extra taxes they'd be willing to pay for more cops, more judges, and more prisons.
The ideal is that crime is sufficiently deterred as to be a relatively unusual occurrence, at most a small nuisance, criminals are generally caught and punished, but the spend and allocation of resources is economically justified. How exactly should each of those dials be turned? What is and isn't within the margin for error? YMMV.
It costs a lot of money and resources to incarcerate people. And the reality is many, maybe most, will age out of crime. Keeping them incarcerated too long goes well passed the point of diminishing returns. The challenge for society at large is that some number of them will not age out of crime, and will inevitably re-offend.
I'm also pretty skeptical of arguments against basic enforcement of the law, but we still have to navigate the trade offs.
For the record, if the optimistic takes turn out to be right, and Trump is defeated decisively, I will happily accept any and all 'told ya so's' other posters feel I deserve.
I also don't see those predictions as totally out of the question either. It's entirely plausible Trump is running on fumes, Harris holds where she needs to in the midwest, and local conditions in NC, GA, and AZ turn in such a way that he is routed.
We need to look beyond ethnic and sectarian prejudices and consider the facts. If Trump wins he will almost certainly have done so in no small part by exceeding historic GOP performance with working class hispanics, and maybe also working class black men.
"Mansplainy"? Not sure what youre implying about women here but it doesnt sound very nice.
Anyway, consider that the incumbents got destroyed in the UK in July, the same looks likely to happen next year in Germany and in Canada. Macron's party held on by a thread and the good fortune of the hard left deciding to play ball.
Would it be nice if in the US we were all banding together to identify Trump as such a uniquely bad actor to the point he'd lose by 40 points to a turnip? Of course. I certainly wish that was happening. But the fact remains that Trump is a bad candidate and a major unforced error by the GOP. Unfortunately the headwinds are what they are and he may get lucky again.
We tried that in the 80s and 90s. The end result is prisons with a lot elderly inmates whose healthcare expenses threaten to break the budget, and whose needs stretch the capabilities of correctional institutions.
I think it would be better if they were sentenced to clean the toilets every weekend for a year at the store they stole from.
I think the bottom line on the polls is one word: inflation. Incumbents are getting killed all over the developed world because it, along with maybe a sprinkling of failure to control immigration.
The Democrats are in good shape compared to most places. Cold comfort given that we could still lose.
I bring it up only because I don't think Trump is killing it by any stretch. If the Republicans had nominated anyone else they'd probably be projected to win by 8 or 9 points instead of in a dead heat.
This was always among the biggest problems with the game. The zeitgeist will inevitably change, and someone else will hold the hammer built under the foolish belief that it would only ever be wielded righteously, and most importantly, against other people.
Yes, I have heard that and consider it quite damaging to her credibility, given how she positions herself generally on free speech, campus craziness, etc.
As one of those concerned about cancel culture I'll chime in and say I am generally against this. The only way I could be convinced to maybe be ok with it as at least fair, if not ideal, would be if the same standard was applied to all the unhinged things said and signed off on about race and sex from campus activists circa 2020. We know that isn't going to happen even as corporate America quietly scraps its DEI initiatives. The irony is that what we know as 'cancel culture' in a lot of ways started with pro Israeli academics trying to run out people they disagree with.
I attribute this mainly to the lack of overlap between people who follow politics closely and people who go to casinos. Or who just watch a lot of sports in the era of analytics.
One would think that the thermostatic trends will be against whoever wins but I don't know that you could call the result pyrrhic. It's still 4 years holding the most powerful office on the planet.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/21/2024”
Curious what his source is for that. Whatever it is I hope he is right.
On “From The Washington Post: On Political Endorsement”
No. Our entire culture is built around people sticking their necks out haphazardly, starting pissing contests for no reason, and generally behaving like baboons. Bezos lacks ballzos and everyone should laugh at him, not act like he's somehow the victim.
"
It's certainly a new low for the Post. It's funny, I thought they were among the worst impacted by some of the dumbassery that went on in the legacy press during the Trump years. Not necessarily because they went further than anyone else, but because instead of finding their niche they always struck me as chasing NYT, oblivious to the fact that for a whole bunch of reasons they can never be the NYT.
But as insufferable as I thought 'Democracy Dies in Darkness' was I'd take that independence every day of the week over an owner wetting his pants for fear of some scum bag that hasn't even been re-elected yet. Not only is it un-American, it's being a little b*tch. How can anyone respect that?
"
If I were Harris I would embrace this and cast myself as 'the candidate the billionaires don't want you to vote for.'
Who knows whether it would have any impact but I'd err on the side of drawing attention to it. Trump would do that. She should too.
On “Ukraine and the Axis of Evil”
They certainly aren't and it's impossible to know what we don't know.
Nevertheless if my goal is to end this war as quickly as I can, the only pressure point on Putin left not involving direct NATO intervention is the possibility of mass mutiny in the Russian ranks. If that happens he risks all of the territory gained since 2022, and maybe more. I'd think that's also the most rational play for Ukraine strategically, as opposed to, I dunno, indiscriminately firing at Belgorod, and at least as far as we know, they've operated Western weapons within the constraints required by the suppliers.
But to your point, we don't know what we don't know.
"
There was no coherence to it then and there isn't now. If we really were concerned about Iran then the stupidest thing to do was overthrow their hostile, secular-ish, Sunni dominated neighbor and replace it with a hollowed out Shiite dominated shell.
And really the entire line of thinking on the ME needs to change in light of our own energy independence via tracking and natural gas. Yes oil is still a globally traded commodity but the region has never mattered less as far as American interests are concerned.
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/21/2024”
I like that it's not just a spanking, but a 'vigorous' spanking. Now I am never one to kink shame, but the visuals. My goodness.
"
Conservatives constantly worry about left wing indoctrination of the youth. However think there is a very plausible future where a lot of cultural trends around identity pushed over the last 10-15 years end up retrospectively sounding like a Nancy Reagan PSA on saying no to drugs.
On “Ukraine and the Axis of Evil”
Maybe that's the case.
I've found the whole trajectory of US foreign policy over the last 25 years mind bogglingly frustrating. We start out the century with these completely foolish adventures in nation building, which fail for all kinds of predictable reasons,* but then seem to have become overly timid when it comes to dealing with big, state actors where self interest, moral authority, and our objectively better vision for the world order are on firmer ground. Not that I've ever been a hawk by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes projecting strength and willingness to take risks that deep down you hope you never need to is what it takes to secure peace.
*The way the OP slides passed Iraq almost like it was somehow a success as opposed to a pointless waste that damaged American standing, and a precedent that Putin cites for his actions in Ukraine, is itself an example of the hall of mirrors in which we live, but that's another story.
"
Where I find the Biden admin's position... confusing is in the failure to provide and allow use of longer range missiles. Not because I think total Russian defeat is on the table at this point. But because now that we know Ukrainians aren't going to be able to retake significant territory any time soon the only way to force Russia to the table for a settlement is creating the possibility of Russian supply lines being degraded, and the fear that they could collapse. It makes no sense to do what we've done so far only to let Ukraine lose slowly.
Bigger picture thought is that while I think the Biden admin has played this decently well I often wonder if they actually have an endgame in mind or if they are just reacting.
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/21/2024”
I think it's better understood as calibration and balancing interests. My guess is that even businesses pissed off about thieves have limits about how much in extra taxes they'd be willing to pay for more cops, more judges, and more prisons.
The ideal is that crime is sufficiently deterred as to be a relatively unusual occurrence, at most a small nuisance, criminals are generally caught and punished, but the spend and allocation of resources is economically justified. How exactly should each of those dials be turned? What is and isn't within the margin for error? YMMV.
"
It costs a lot of money and resources to incarcerate people. And the reality is many, maybe most, will age out of crime. Keeping them incarcerated too long goes well passed the point of diminishing returns. The challenge for society at large is that some number of them will not age out of crime, and will inevitably re-offend.
I'm also pretty skeptical of arguments against basic enforcement of the law, but we still have to navigate the trade offs.
On “From The Atlantic: Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’”
For the record, if the optimistic takes turn out to be right, and Trump is defeated decisively, I will happily accept any and all 'told ya so's' other posters feel I deserve.
I also don't see those predictions as totally out of the question either. It's entirely plausible Trump is running on fumes, Harris holds where she needs to in the midwest, and local conditions in NC, GA, and AZ turn in such a way that he is routed.
"
We need to look beyond ethnic and sectarian prejudices and consider the facts. If Trump wins he will almost certainly have done so in no small part by exceeding historic GOP performance with working class hispanics, and maybe also working class black men.
"
"Mansplainy"? Not sure what youre implying about women here but it doesnt sound very nice.
Anyway, consider that the incumbents got destroyed in the UK in July, the same looks likely to happen next year in Germany and in Canada. Macron's party held on by a thread and the good fortune of the hard left deciding to play ball.
Would it be nice if in the US we were all banding together to identify Trump as such a uniquely bad actor to the point he'd lose by 40 points to a turnip? Of course. I certainly wish that was happening. But the fact remains that Trump is a bad candidate and a major unforced error by the GOP. Unfortunately the headwinds are what they are and he may get lucky again.
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/21/2024”
We tried that in the 80s and 90s. The end result is prisons with a lot elderly inmates whose healthcare expenses threaten to break the budget, and whose needs stretch the capabilities of correctional institutions.
I think it would be better if they were sentenced to clean the toilets every weekend for a year at the store they stole from.
On “From The Atlantic: Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’”
I think the bottom line on the polls is one word: inflation. Incumbents are getting killed all over the developed world because it, along with maybe a sprinkling of failure to control immigration.
The Democrats are in good shape compared to most places. Cold comfort given that we could still lose.
I bring it up only because I don't think Trump is killing it by any stretch. If the Republicans had nominated anyone else they'd probably be projected to win by 8 or 9 points instead of in a dead heat.
On “From Semafor: Los Angeles Times won’t endorse for president”
That is worthy of honor and respect.
On “From The Atlantic: Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’”
Someone should tell him that the generals Hitler had lost the war and some of them were hanged.
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/21/2024”
This was always among the biggest problems with the game. The zeitgeist will inevitably change, and someone else will hold the hammer built under the foolish belief that it would only ever be wielded righteously, and most importantly, against other people.
"
Yes, I have heard that and consider it quite damaging to her credibility, given how she positions herself generally on free speech, campus craziness, etc.
"
As one of those concerned about cancel culture I'll chime in and say I am generally against this. The only way I could be convinced to maybe be ok with it as at least fair, if not ideal, would be if the same standard was applied to all the unhinged things said and signed off on about race and sex from campus activists circa 2020. We know that isn't going to happen even as corporate America quietly scraps its DEI initiatives. The irony is that what we know as 'cancel culture' in a lot of ways started with pro Israeli academics trying to run out people they disagree with.
"
Weren't there just reports a few days ago that Harris and/or Walz were also in talks with him about an interview?
On “Campaign Scratchpad: Known Unknowns”
I attribute this mainly to the lack of overlap between people who follow politics closely and people who go to casinos. Or who just watch a lot of sports in the era of analytics.
"
One would think that the thermostatic trends will be against whoever wins but I don't know that you could call the result pyrrhic. It's still 4 years holding the most powerful office on the planet.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.