karaddin

That's one view of things. Another is that Russia being a semi failed state in the 90s led to Putin which leads to the current Russia and that's emphatically not a good thing, so perhaps in the long term it would have been better for Russia to not go through that.

The patch last night apparently increased the rate of madness weakness so maybe this won't be so rare in future runs

Yeah I'd like better clarity on this as well. Everything I've seen about the recent news in terms of their progress is around them having a certain quantity of uranium at the required enrichment level to build a bomb, and that there's no other use for that level of enrichment. I haven't seen anything that found they were proceeding with actually building the bomb beyond that point of having the material. So I think they have the raw materials, ie the capability, to make a bomb but no definitive proof was shown that they had been. And having the materials but holding off actually doing it is in line with the stance they've been holding for some time. As Liff said there's a very rational reason to be against this because you care about nuclear non-proliferation which is that it adds more weight on other countries wanting them too.

Good talk

Jace's position did not seem to require Israel to factor in at all, she sees it as against America's self interest and thats the only bar that needed to be cleared to bomb another country. I think that certainly fits being "sanguine". But sure, she aligns with bombing the people you want bombed so even questioning that is somehow insulting to the danger Israel is in.

I can at least understand where that's coming from for Israeli's but the conversation here with the vocal proponents of bombing Iran are not and their comments are primarily what I'm responding to. What I'd put to an Israeli is what I've been saying for days, this approach doesn't have a victory or a finish line and just worsens the danger long term by continuing to deteriorate relations with another near neighbour. You don't have the weapons to actually destroy the program, from what I've read it's uncertain even the US bunker busters would actually be capable of the job, and by bombing them like this it guarantees they'll stop staying "close" to having a bomb as a negotiating tactic and finish one as fast as possible.

I don't think I'm sanguine about WMDs, I think an awful lot of people are sanguine about the idea that you can just bomb the shit out of another country just because you think they might be a problem in the future. That's not how things work morally in my world, but it's also not how it works for most countries. Maybe that seems so bizarre to Americans because you get away with it all the time? ETA: I don't want Russia to have nukes either, nothing I can do about that. I don't want NK to have nukes but nothing I can do about that. I don't want America to have nukes, but absolutely nothing I can do there. I don't want Iran to have nukes and shockingly there's nothing I can do there either. We don't get to control everyone else.

Yeah the better I get, the more I've been wanting to play. Darkdrift Knight was the hardest one for me to get past on Ironeye then with the higher playtime I got through the rest as well. Onto trying Executor now and after a couple of bad starts I'm onto a streak of 4. Apparently katanas are good. Also realized how important it is, at least on solo, to have the boss weakness element - it does more than just doing extra damage, I think its interrupting certain moves when they get hit by their weakness.

But he did apparently break the story that the US has been directly assisting. Its more journalism than I expected from Tucker. Assuming Cruz isn't just wrong because he's an idiot, which is entirely possible.

I wasn't taking issue with making an assessment on their capability, but with bragging comments like "turn their navy into reefs". However I just went back and read your post again and see I misread it, you were referring to past events not dismissively predicting future ones so that's my bad. Dangers of reading when you first wake up. Saw far too much of that sort of braggadocious bs predictions lately, Reddit was full of Indians insisting they'd dismantle Pakistan into scrap in hours during their recent flare up so was primed to think I was seeing it again.

One aspect of the ending that influences me but I don't think I've seen come up in any of the many conversations I've seen on reddit is

I did on both the prior runs, but I thought they made it so you can't do that anymore in patch 7 or 8? Maybe I imagined that.

The last episode of The Apothecary Diaries was excellent, especially the first half I assume we're coming close to end of the season now but I haven't been keeping track of episode numbers.

You sound like a neocon in 2002/2003. Thats the sort of over confidence that leads to draping a "Mission accomplished" banner over an aircraft carrier, or assuming you'll be able to blitz Ukraine in 3 days, right before sticking your dick in a blender. Military capability does not guarantee your desired outcome and you should always err on the side of caution.

I want to customize my character and have Alfira survive and not be worried about failing a roll and killing someone I like later lol. I've tried 2 Durge runs, 1 resist and 1 embrace, and both ran out of steam in Act 3. I'm also playing it for the first time in ages after Patch8, although I'm also using the Asimar and level 20 cap (with multiclassing only, classes still max out at 12 and no higher level spells) for some extra variety as I'm not too stressed about challenge this time. I'll probably have another crack at Durge after this, or maybe ascended Astarion, for a solo run at some point.

They've finally caught him and alive too

I thought he'd never be let in a break again lol

Yeah that was a pretty strong performance. He's still not looking his usual happy self at the post race interview, not as unhappy as after LBL though. I think maybe it's just missing Urska (his partner) rather than anything to do with his legs for cycling. Jonas was still fairly close, the time gap didn't blow out so I'm expecting similar to last year with pogi slowly making up time but we'll need to wait for the 3rd week to see if Jonas lasts better.

On the 1st - you do get that many of us hold the opposite of this? That this will guarantee an Iranian bomb in the future, not prevent it. And that the events in LA will help galvanize opposition throughout the US. You can't objectively say you're right and we're wrong because the repercussions will take months for the US and years to decades for Iran. The protests today sure don't look like they've been depressed by the LA situation though. On the 2nd - This is such a bizarre take when what's actually happening is doing the same thing that has caused so many problems, not trying a bold innovative strategy. A western nation killing people in the middle east because they've decided those lives are worth less than their national interest is very fucking standard.

At least when talking about people online (here is an exception) I need to remember a huge chunk of them are bots or paid trolls trying to stoke divisions and hate. But actual government officials and advisors etc are clearly still thinking this way as well and that's just baffling. There's certainly a component of this going on though.

I swear to god I can't pick my jaw up off the ground at people unironically trotting out "regime change" and assuming it's just all going to be nice and smooth. The people will rise up and overthrow their government as soon as we kill enough of their people, its worked out great every time we've tried it in the past right?

What I'm seeing is that one rep and her spouse were killed, the other rep and his spouse were shot multiple times but are alive in hospital. The assassin was interrupted at the second home by actual police arriving to check on them after the first shooting which resulted in a shoot out which the assassin escaped from on foot. I might be getting some of the details mixed up though

I just want to make it clear in case I was skipping some steps on my logic. If you truly view it as one of the most important things in the world that Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon then you have two options - diplomacy and military force. Diplomacy was the moral way to accomplish it , and I argue was also the most effective method to achieve it. And Obama made great strides on that front. But the American people decided to elect Trump who tore up the agreement because it was Obama's accomplishment, and then the last 10 years have happened and now America and Israel have decided there's no possibility of stopping an Iranian nuclear weapon via diplomacy. The responsibility for its failure here falls on the Us, Trump, and by extension the American electorate for voting him in. That leaves the military option which is why I say that argument amounts to saying Iranians have to die because the US electorate fucked up. You're certainly entitled to your own views on the Iranian regime, I agree they're evil and would love to see them fall to their own people tearing them down and replacing them with something better. But if you accept they are a sovereign state on the same footing as any other state then it's not inherently illogical, belligerent or incorrect of them to want the one thing that in 2025 still looks like it keeps your relatively safe from foreign invasion. I'm not saying I want them to have them, I don't, but in judging their behaviour and motives you have to at least assess if they are being internally consistent and they are. And that brings us to the current situation. Iran decided they need it, Israel decided they need to stop it and diplomacy is off table. Just bombing the country indefinitely is morally wrong AND isn't going to accomplish your goal in the long term, so ultimately at some point you're going to need to invade and occupy Iran if you truly put that as such a high priority. So unless you have a plan to do that you're just kicking the can down the road, killing a bunch of people in the process, and damaging diplomat relations with a bunch of other countries. I argue that's a stupid thing to do.

You might want to think about how this is going to last in the face of driving away most of your allies. Hegseth was sneering at the idea of anyone other than America having done anything in Afghanistan which manages to piss off all the conservative pro US types in all the allied nations that had your back in that war for no reason other than having your back. If you actually want to physically stop Iran from making a bomb no matter the cost then you're going to need to go in there, bombing it from afar won't work forever. And I hope like hell my country won't blindly have your back again.

I don't think it was just the bike but it definitely seemed to throw him off. I saw a claim he actually did the climb portion of the TT faster than Jonas but lost all that time on the flat and descent - it's very atypical for him but would fit the bike feeling unsafe. And then he does last night lol, I thought he looked a lot better even before he went. We'll see if there's any price to pay for that effort. Or maybe we won't because the fucking coverage doesn't start until after the harder 2 HCs are done.