Sure. Just wait 20 years and we’ll be as worthless as Russia.

We can shoot down ICBMs. Rather easily actually. We’ve been able to do that for decades.

That’s why Russia and China have had to pivot to saber rattling with “hyper-sonic missiles”, which fly lower and with less predictable flight patterns. But those aren’t intercontinental, so Iran would have to figure out how to get one close enough without getting detected and blown out of the water by it NAVY. …And we can shoot those down too anyway even if they did.

You can’t win a techno war against America. The only way to beat America is attrition.

It’s actually really difficult to bomb the US since we have that really big creek between us and Iran.

Snails kill more people each year than snakes, spiders, and sharks combined.

Kill the snails or they will kill you first!

Just to be clear, my comment was not intended to withstand scrutiny.

They have to be targeted. They wouldn’t shut the whole facility down if the bomb landed in the remote employee parking lot.

But I don’t see that it’s likely that Iran wouldn’t target their strikes. They clearly have the capability. Hit the targets that maximize disruption.

The drones would not likely need to take out the whole facility. If the drones were particularly targeted, which they almost certainly were, then I can imagine they could take out a particular critical piece of infrastructure that could cause significant disruption.

But yeah, 20% is a lot for sure.

Iran just did more to slow global warming than Just Stop Oil.

I think it’s 100% likely that Hegseth is absolutely the kind of person that would start a war for his ego and retweets.

But again, if cutting off Iran’s support for Russia was the goal, why not just say that?

That’s generous of you. The only reason why I don’t believe that is because the administration hasn’t said that is the reason. If the administration had said that they would have likely actually built up some moral support from Congress and the international community.

But he didn’t do that.

I think the easier explanation is that Hegseth wants a war for his ego so that he can feel like a big man. (Trump didn’t actually care and will sign off on anything at this point.)

The “What about the Epstein Files” is the best political attack we have. It’s so great.

Their playbook has always been to prioritize stupid political mud fights to distract the press and progressives online from all the evil Nazi shit they are doing. And that playbook works wonderfully well for them. They can come out and say any word thing like “In ear headphones are woke and make you trans so we are banning all federal employees from wearing them,” and liberals and the press eat it up. Meanwhile ICE is building literal concentration camps, but it’s the headphones things that makes the headlines because it’s stupid. Even, and especially, the popular progressive comedians are complicit in this. They don’t want to talk about the mad murders, those aren’t funny. But trans headphones? We can make lots of jokes about that! Their playbook clearly works.

Except for the Epstein files. The Epstein is a great easy to turn their playbook against them. In this case the mud fight matters. It’s not stupid, and they don’t have a play to distract from it, because it’s the mud that drives the news. And because it’s sex, comedians love it! The headline writers love it. And Trump can’t make it just go away.

So keep repeating the line: What about the Epstein Files?

In 25 years America went from “This isn’t about oil. This is about freedom and democracy!” to “This isn’t about oil, it’s not about anything at all. Stop asking questions any why we are murdering innocent people!”

But while you should focus on the no. 1 stuff, you are far too easily distracted by the no. 2 stuff.

The Scouts news this weekend is a perfect example. Functionally nothing changed in the program, but they are able to make you go insane like a puppet.

Yes, I do think they are dropping this issue. I think Hegseth realized that he wasn’t going to get the traction on this he wanted so he agreed a nothing burger and declared victory for himself.

I’m not ignoring the concerns of the Trans youth, it’s just that the “demands” won’t actually change them. The BSA has already issued a statement that trans youth are still welcome in scouting. No one is going to be checking anyone’s birth certificates. Literally nothing changed.

Get a grip.

They did away with one merit badge and added one elective. “DEI” is baked throughout the scout program and basically all the topics covered in that one merit badge are covered in lots of other parts the program. Including the whole point of the scout law.

You are losing your mind over nothing. Get a grip.

Yeah, I would absolutely take issue with the head of a government institution saying something like that.

Yeah. He knows that. That’s exactly why he does it. How do y’all not know their playbook by now? There are only two plays.

1. Do evil Nazi shit.
2. Say stupid shit online to keep the press and liberal Internet circles distracted from the evil Nazi shit.

That’s the whole playbook.

This is what I was saying last Friday when the memo dropped. The memo was a nothing burger. Functionally nothing changed about the program. Hegseth got nothing he wanted.

People online just can’t help themselves from losing their minds. Literally anything can make people lose their minds. A headline could be “Hegseth declare that all banana splits served to troops be gendered as male” and y’all would lose your minds like clockwork.

Orthodox

The Orthodox communion is having a bit of a revival right now. Which happens on occasion for them, because they are really misunderstood in the West.

For example, in the 2000s they had a brief boom period where “new-agey” type people were attracted to the mystical aspects of the church. I think that boom was short lived because those people really just wanted spiritual consumerism, and, as far as Christian denominations go, Orthodoxy is hard work. It’s not for beginners. If you aren’t born into it then it’s really hard to break in. (By my understanding is that if you do the hard work the community and spiritual benefits are really meaningful.)

Unfortunately, today their current boom (if it’s still going on, this information is a few years old now) is coming from Proud boys-type people. They were interested it it because it’s seen as adequately homophobic and sexist for them. My guess is that their interest was ultimately short lived as well because they aren’t going to be interested in doing the work any more than the Live-Laugh-Love crowd was.

To stay consistent with the running joke of the meme, heresies would be forks that don’t work and I wouldn’t recommend for anyone to use.

Like WSL being prosperity gospel.

Orthodox

I’m sure the Catholics would disagree with me, and that’s fine with me. But personally I would say the Orthodox are the oldest continuous movement of Christianity. Not only do they historically beat out the Romans by a few decades, but also they have maintained a far more consistent liturgy over the millennia. The Catholics have had a a good handful of major liturgical changes that I would say constitute a few major breaks in historical consistency.

That’s not a criticism from me. I’m Anglican.