Jace, Extat

So she isn't dead??? That's good news!

That's a fair point, and I think evidences that Netanyahu is playing an untenable hand quite adeptly. That consulate strike was fucking diabolical. Iran had to do something- Had To. And they had to do something dramatic, something unprecedented, because nobody had ever struck an embassy like that before. And now you have your casus belli for all-out war with the true villain of the region that could keep you in power for years despite a disapproval rating of 70-fucking-percent. Netanyahu may be a dirtbag, but I'll be damned if he's not sharp.

I was watching an ABC News livestream and the reporter in Israel said she'd died.

Yes, according to what I saw last night. That's a sick twist of fate right there.

The 10 year old girl who was hit by debris last night died today.

Yeah, I don't know about this whole "It was designed to be defeated" rationale for the attack. Iran took the best shot they're capable of and violated the airspace of at least two countries in the process. Thank God for Israeli and Allied defense capabilities, not for supposed Iranian restraint.

Fair

I'm serious. The Uyghurs might not be in concentration camps if China didn't have nukes.

But more nuclear nations just makes it more likely that bad actors can use them to deter intervention. To say nothing of the risk that some madman looks to use them offensively.

You think all peoples who can build such a thing are entitled to it? We're not talking about roller coasters or microwave ovens... We're talking about weapons that are designed to kill whole countries at a time.

You jest, but limited war is preferable to nuclear. It has been proven viable, because despite too many close calls nobody has yet wanted to invite death for themselves and everybody they know. Nuclear war is not a question or a thought exercise. It must not happen. So far, the powers that possess them have managed not to use them. That's a miracle, not proof that everybody else can have them too.

Oh nooooo Of course Trump's having a rally

Apparently Jordanian and U.S. fighters have shot down a number of drones.

So for the sake of what, "fairness"? For fairness you say take a structure that is already unsteady and apocalyptic and let it become moreso? No, no, no! Hear yourself, Z. No man, no woman, and no body of persons on earth should hold the power to kill billions. The fact that 9 people already can is the most horrible thing to ever have happened on this planet. You can't really believe that adding more people to such a game is the correct answer. You can't believe such a thing- I refuse to accept that.

Astute question. Nuclear capacity being isolated to rational actors. And I include Kim as a rational actor. Now that's not me saying that all nuclear-armed countries are guaranteed to be led by rational actors! Far from it! Each and every nation on earth armed with weapons is a danger of producing a madman that could end the world. That's why NO MORE get to join the club.

Lol, I was sitting there like... "I've never heard of a State of Agency... but Wert is a trusted source. It must be very serious!" That gummy has definitely kicked in.

This seems to fit better here, and if you want the truth I'll tell you that my inclination in this is to be inward-focused and reconstructive as a nation right now. That's what I'd like to do. But the tiger's tail is caught, there's no wishmaking away America's unique capacity as a world agent. I can't make nobody have nukes. What I can advocate for is that nobody else gets them. And yes, I am aware that in the coming decades of resource scarcity and climate change that that means there is an effective Imperialising of the world to the benefit of the eight outgoing nuclear-armed states. But that is a world that has proven, so far, viable. That viability must be enforced. America can do that. So we should.

Yeah, but no. Not really. C'mon, guys. Yes, there are extreme political actors in U.S.A., some of whom are religiously driven. But they are outnumbered by some quantity in the population and have little chance of enacting national policy that can threaten the entire world. Their own creature, as you call Trump, did nothing to forward some Theocratic America Dream if you accept that reasonable people can differ about abortion. It's different in Iran. Just ate an edible, should be kicking in right about then. Hoping to just see some fireworks as the drones (hopefully just the drones) are intercepted.

Amy Coney Barrett is a weird religious kook by American standards. But to pretend she is the Ayatollah is just absurd. It is perfectly reasonable to disagree about abortion, even to have a religious reason for doing so.

Are QAnon crazies and MAGA Heads theocrats? I wouldn't call them such. Trump is a cult of personality. It will die when he does. I mean, by God of course Biden is better than Trump. He's still less-than-reassuring at his present condition.

Meanwhile, CNN says that Iran has launched "dozens" of drones at Israel, according to Israeli intelligence and confirmed by U.S.

America is much better off demographically than almost any country on Earth. You'll be waiting for this a long time. There is a gulf of lightyears between a major party that courts religious voters and a regime specifically dedicated to a religious worldview that demands the killing of non-believers. Huzzah to the Young Millennials! Our hour of triumph is near! Yeah... about that... Look, I appreciate Joe Biden. I think he did a great service to his country in 2020 and by all accounts he seems as good a man as a politician can be. But the best outcome I can forsee is that he wins reelection and then is replaced quickly by Kamala Harris as President. I don't like picking on him because he's old, but when the future of everything is at stake I can't feel confident in a man whose staff feels the need to hide him from public. It's not a nice reality to confront, but we have the systems we have. Some people fall apart as they age, it's just a fact of life, and a man whose best days are behind him is not who I want as the supreme executive on this planet.

20 years ago I was ten... And that probably would have been a better time to handle this problem, really. But thanks to Bush we wasted our Regime Change card on Iraq instead. The world could end in thirty minutes due to the actions of nine political actors. As is, the nine have played rationally with their apocalypse machines. But what cannot come to pass is a theocratic regime, that expects to kill billions of heretics and non-believers as a precondition to paradise, becoming nuclear armed. No, no go. Can't be allowed. And to be fair to Iran, my personal position is that no more players are welcome at the nuclear table. No nuclear armed Egypt, or Sweeden, or Japan, or anybody. If you try to attain nuclear weapons it should be policy that America will come and break all your shit real bad. Two nuclear powers is too many. Nine is insane. Ten is unthinkable.

I don't recall doing... but I do so love being bad. It's my nature. Only thing I can think of is my understanding of Israel's war with Hamas, maybe? I'm always joking, and I'm never not serious. Although it's true; my greatest anxiety these days is Iran's progress towards nuclear armament, and the fact that neither U.S. presidential candidate is equipped to lead the country against such a threat. I express that discomfort in art and song, and am not sorry if it offends.