This is not a situation where good actors have different ideas on how to best administer the country.
These are criminals. They are committing crimes. You are the victim, not their peer.
Not only did the Iran War rapidly accelerate Chinese EV and solar panel sales - we're literally running out of bombs and missiles because so many were wasted on the first round of attacks in the middle east, then the "let's blow up fishing boats with million dollar missiles" campaign, then the Iran war. It will be years if not decades before those stockpiles are replenished.
Meanwhile the navy is being run ragged, with ships almost literally falling apart because they're being kept at sea for so long. Sailors are having tours longer than any other time in history which is almost certainly causing abysmal morale and likely will cause plunging re-enlistment.
Gosh, who ever would have thought that putting a man who never successfully ran small charities, in charge of one of the world's largest and most complex organizations, would go wrong? But hey, at least whoever is left will be clean-shaven.
Iran War is not first example of sucessfull defense of a small country (with foreign military aid) against US. See the Korea, Vietnam war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union_in_the_Korean_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_participation_in...
The idea was that contracts between states are worthless, but physical dependencies are actually at least temporary binding contracts. Its like with NATO, you dont trust the paper, you place units of all signers in the path of danger of the agressor and thus reduce the risk of partners chickening out.
They are criminals, and they are committing crimes, but everyone knows that. They don't seem to even be trying to hide any of their crimes.
77.2 million people in America don't seem to know, or don't seem to care.
(Weird how they all forgot who was in charge in 2020, who fired up the printing presses and who handed out money like it was on fire...)
I sincerely hope they are enjoying the economic consequences of this year's Iranian adventures. They deserve to savor every penny of their >$150 tank fill-up.
The economy is, after all, doing great and inflation has been solved, and all the bad parts are Obama/Biden's fault, blame them if the price of gas and milk and healthcare went up this year, and the debt he is saddling us with is no big deal.
So depressing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA_iob2pnFk&list=PLJNKzTkCZE...
I've long grudgingly accepted premise of Democracy for Realists. Yet my expectations remained stubbornly, inappropriately too optimistic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_theory_of_democracy
https://archive.org/details/democracyforreal0000ache
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The silver lining may be that "hopelessly confused voters" is better than hyperpartisanship. Longwell uses the term "heterodoxy".
Refer: DOGE.
> “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Trump wrote.
He also asks for two dossiers each day filled of good news only. If there isn't enough good news they fill it with flattering photos: https://www.vice.com/en/article/trump-folder-positive-news-w...
> One White House official said the only feedback the White House communications shop, which prepares the folder, has ever gotten in all these months is: “It needs to be more fucking positive.”
> White House staffers then cull the information, send out clips to other officials, and push favorable headlines to a list of journalists. But they also pick out the most positive bits to give to the president. On days when there aren’t enough positive chyrons, communications staffers will ask the RNC staffers for flattering photos of the president.
They will lie, over state and misdirect and not care that lots of people find those statement as incredulously ridiculous. Because its all dog whistles all the time. they're speaking to some people who hear it exactly as it was intended.
[1] Does this sound familiar? https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2003/12/03/the-cornered-na...
That said, I though it was generally obvious the actions and policies are intended to do as much damage to US strengths as quickly as possible?
Relationships with our allies and the developing world?
Research/development/science/education?
The US Dollar standard?
US foreign policy/influence?
US military power?
All of it has been (and is still being) systematically disassembled. Who would benefit from all that? Answer: Russia, China, and to a lesser extent, India.
Did you notice how much the current president loves dictators (or put more politely "strongmen" leaders") but in particular, the Russian head of state? And at times has fawned all over the head of state of China? He sure does spend a lot of time talking to Putin with next to no other US officials in the room, and any records of the meetings destroyed (illegally, I might add.) I'm not joking when I say it's possible Putin is literally telling Trump how to run the country and he's nodding and saying "wow what a great idea, thank you!"
The republican party is generally awfully cozy with Russian officials because they've apparently decided Russia is the ideal society they want to convert the US into:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/15/republicans-...
They see how powerful Putin is, how powerful the FSB is, how freely Russian society racially discriminates, how powerful the oligarchs and ultrawealthy are, how patriarchal it is, how christian it appears to them - and they love all of it.
"Action for action's sake should be undertaken. Without any critical reasoning or reflection."
It's exactly how an unsocialized, undisciplined child or animal behaves, and it is not acceptable in civilized society.
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[1] Its twin sibling is 'Disagreement is Treason'.
The visitor took a hearse home...
So now I cannot learn about known bear attacks when I plan a backpacking trip?
It is common to see people in National Parks flagrantly ignore the many warnings. Honestly, I am surprised it is only 350 deaths per year.
Allowing arbitrary NPS employees talk to the public about people that may have died isn't required for any of this. To be honest, I am surprised that this new policy didn't already exist. It is very common practice to manage incident comms this way.
Isn't this exactly why we need to know how many deaths there are -- so we can judge the level of risk we face?
For example, dozens of people die every year due to heat stroke and dehydration in places like Death Valley, Joshua Tree, and White Sands. The National Park Service posts many large signs warning you to bring sufficient water that thousands of people ignore. Most people that ignore the warning don't die but you could eliminate the risk entirely by simply staying hydrated.
Knowing about a death in the last 24 hours doesn’t matter because it doesn’t materially impact the prevalence of the behavior that is the root cause of the deaths. At the same time, the government has an interest in not letting random employees with hot takes talk to the media with incomplete or erroneous information; this also is a liability. That is standard operating procedure almost everywhere, I just find it weird that we care here, particularly when it has zero relevance to safety.
No lives are being lost or saved by this policy. As an observation, I think few people would accept the kinds of policies that would be required to actually reduce deaths in National Parks.
Also: How many people killed by falling coconuts would cause you to cancel a Hawaiian vacation?
Do you realize how divorced from reality you people sound?
You should always be prepared to encounter unrestrained nature when backpacking in a national park.
[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/national-park-staff-n...
Deliberately hiding info like this is only going to add fuel to the fire. I wonder if the National Parks were concerned they would scare paying visitors off if they knew how many accidents and bear attacks there were.