He/Him or They/Them

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • For good reason the US and others don’t make public their playbook for responding to nuclear attacks on themselves or others with very few exceptions. We know about “mutually assured destruction” in the case of an ICBM, but not much else.

    “Proportional” probably doesn’t apply in the case of nukes, it’s usually described as a maximal response to ensure it never happens again. However, the rumor has always been that an enemy using a nuke on an allied country would result in the US engaging in “total eradication” of that government. Probably, in this case, the complete destruction of Moscow. If I had to guess I’d think that would (since we’re pretty damn sure we could) do that with conventional arms to limit escalation.


  • Ya. This only ends one of two ways, either Israel succeeds in killing /displacing the people of Gaza (West Bank and Golem Heights next) and fills it with people loyal to them, or they stop the occupation. Terrorist groups don’t do well in stable, prosperous nations. If they really want Hamas and groups like them gone forever, they will have to take the winds out of their sails by letting the Palestinians have a real government with real control over itself. Even if they meet their stated goal of “destroying Hamas”, it (or another similar but even more extreme) group will take over.



  • What finally made it click for me is that his supporters don’t care about policy, outcomes, Trump’s personal life, his many obvious failings, his hatred of them and things they claim to stand for, etc. . They only care about “hurting the right people.” As long as Trump says Mexicans are rapists, antifa are terrorists, Democrats are evil, etc. , his supporters will fall on line. They view society as a zero-sum game, as a team sport. As long as “they” are hurting you must be doing better. It doesn’t matter if the economy and everything do a nose dive as long as “they” get hurt by it more. It’s politics of hate and vindictiveness.


  • But laws are interpreted by the courts so a law passed by Congress would still be subject to their interpretation. In fact, even rights outlined in Constitutional amendments are interpreted by the courts. The best option would have been a constitutional amendment that was as specific as possible. However,

    A) a constitutional amendment was not needed and should not have been required. The right to abortion was already codified in law and had a large pile of case law backing it up. Should we try to pass amendments for all the unenumerated rights? Do we need a state convention every time the courts rule in a way that establishes a new right?

    B) Even that would not have stopped a court that had already made up its mind decades ago. They could have ruled that the new amendment violated the old ones and was void. They could have ruled it only protected abortion in rare cases, or that states rights are more important and overrule the right to abortion.

    C) a constitutional amendment was never going to pass to requirements to become law. It would require a Dem supermajority in both chambers or Dem control of 2/3rds of states which is impossible with current gerrymandering.

    Fundamentally we are looking at a whole party that would break any rule, law, or norm as long as it lets them do what they want. Establishing more rules or laws just gives them more things to break. The only party at fault here is them.




  • I am obligated by my work to offer this to customers when they buy an HP printer and I make it really clear that it’s a bad deal for most customers. There are some edge case examples, like a lady with a small business who always prints exactly like 3 pages a day. The other customers who agree to buy it are almost always the super old people who don’t want to have to come to the store to get more ink. I think it’s a shit program that should be scrapped entirely, but some people really don’t care if it’s a bad deal as long as they get the convenience. No different than 7-11 up charging shit because it’s easier to buy it at the market down the street than the Walmart a few miles down the road.





  • Europe (Britain mostly) and the US pushed the newly formed UN to pass a resolution calling for the creation of Israel in 56% of the territory, but the zionist militias actually took almost 75% of the land while destroying entire villages and murdering the existing population. The West continued to support them after that and have been tacitly approving of them taking even more of the land as the decades have gone by. The West is not blameless, but it was very much Israel that did it.




  • You really wouldn’t understand why some Ukrainians would support a party that calls for the death of all Russians? You really can’t see why Afghans supported the Taliban during the American occupation? I’m not asking if it’s right for them to do so, or if it’s right for people to support those that do, in asking if you can understand why they’d feel that way.

    What are your thoughts about the Haitian slave revolt?

    Hamas’ stated goal is a product of Israeli actions. Terrorist groups calling for the destruction of another country don’t tend to form in stable, prosperous, and free countries.

    Not to mention that Israel has been actively stealing Palestinian land for decades and recently argued to the UN that all of Palestine was a part of Israel. They aren’t exactly respecting the border either. They are also seen as an existential threat to the Palestinians.

    Israel doesn’t see a two state solution as an option either. They either want full control over Palestine or a puppet state that they have almost total control over. No real Arab state would be allowed by them and they’ve made that clear.

    Nothing good will happen until tensions deescalate, which can’t happen until Israel backs down from their occupation and oppression. You won’t stop making new terrorists until they are treated as people.



  • The right-wing party in Israel (the party currently in control even after losing multiple elections) will also never support peaceful co-existence. They will never allow a real two state solution where the other state has control over its borders, air, water, import rights, etc. They want Palestine completely gone, and in fact Bibi was just at the UN arguing that Israel already has complete control and ownership over the Palestinian territories. Palestine is allowed to defend against the longest running occupation in history. There is no happy ending here as long as the Israeli boot is on the Palestinian neck.