Ambassador Robert Ford (retired) spent his entire diplomatic career in the Middle East and North Africa since 1985, including being appointed as Ambassador to Syria by Obama, and by Bush Jr as Ambassador to Algeria.

AIPAC. We honestly need to ban foreign money in our elections at an absolute minimum, because the Netanyahu-Republican enablement allows an external power to force the hand of a President/diplomatic service. In this case it is tying us to a madman, whilst the US is trying to hold together Bretton Woods and the Pax Americana.

The ‘calculated support’ of Israel seen as necessary has isolated the US internationally and made us look like hypocrites - while the global south is watching.

Nobody’s dumb enough to stump donations to an adjudicated grifter who’s facing a .5b judgment

He’s having to prime the common rubes again in email blasts for small donations, it’s plain to see how desperate Donny is

the border has literally moved thanks to the Nordic countries getting into NATO and no longer being neutral

angrygoose.jpg Why are they now in NATO? It couldn’t possibly be because:

• After decades of ‘status quo’ Nordic neutrality was respected by all sides, Russia upsets that balance by…
• Invading Ukraine in violation of the Minsk treaty, having guaranteed Ukraine’s independence if it gave up the leftover Soviet nukes
• Russian rhetoric from the highest level of government has regularly consisted of nuclear Sabre rattling and talk of ‘reunification’

Given how Putin has gone complete clown show into revanchist ideology and is trying to restore the Russian Empire, it’s completely logical for the Nordics/the world to seek alliances for protection.

The UK took the best of everything it encountered, and added it to it’s own, like the Borg.

The Empire was built from the Agricultural and Industrial Revolution, and the +15 year head start the British got over the rest of the world. The coupling of massive domestic economic growth with an international system of spoils and conquest lead to the Age of Sail and the gilded era for Britain, not an adherence to objective, rational facts and ideas.

The advantage of developing earlier lead to much of the leading research, science and practices coming from Britain, but they certainly had enough hubris to ignore better ideas that weren’t their own

Engoron’s soft touch in the courtroom was infuriating to witness as Trump gleefully spurned fines, but he’s built a solid case absent of bias accordingly and laid a foundation to spring his trap card:

Under the order, Trump must give five days advance notice “of any transfer of cash or other assets” totaling $5 million or more, “including transfers to any individual defendant.” It happens to be five days before Trump’s March 25 deadline to pay his fraud judgment to New York in full or, failing that, to set the money aside as he appeals…

Violations of Thursday’s order could result in the judge ordering more penalties against Trump Org, the judge warned. Those potential penalties include throwing the company into receivership and the possible forced dissolution of assets

And Trump’s piggy bank isn’t off limits either:

Effective immediately, “the Trump Organization shall provide copies of monthly bank statements for all bank or brokerage accounts of the Trust within five business days of the end of each month,” Engoron ordered.

The “Trust” is a reference to the Donald J. Trust Revocable Trust, which holds all of Trump Org’s assets and for which Trump is the sole beneficiary.

You can do that rolling trick for the dribble with standard flatware, you do have to spin faster though to get it to work well.

The same idea applies to things you’re pouring out of; twist axially while tipping the container upright and you’ll have dramatically less spillage, even with viscous fluids like honey.

Per Canada:

As of September 2019, under the EIPA, the Minister of Foreign Affairs must deny exports and brokering permit applications for military goods and technology if there is a substantial risk that the items would undermine peace and security, or could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws, acts constituting an offence under international conventions relating to terrorism or organized crime, or serious acts of gender-based violence.

Turkey is blacklisted since 2021 for cause, and if you’ve followed the way they’ve dealt with Kurdish rebels and civilians, it’s completely clear why. Same with Israel and Gaza/Lebanon, the IDF and IAF have repeatedly demonstrated an astonishing lack of restraint towards civilians if doing so means they cannot pursue their military objectives.

Seriously. Fred Trump gave him a platinum inheritance of varied real estate, but Donny had to prove he was better than daddy - and blew it on decades of high profile prestige projects and bad investments.

There are a lot of dumb old money inheritors who are smarter than Trump because they trust their financial advisors.

The Starship Troopers movie was self aware - the writer-director combo also worked on Robocop and that is pretty unambiguous about regulatory/corporate capture and malfeasance.

The book however… Heinlein was a weird political mix of right winger who had an open mind about hippies, but he uncritically promoted a militaristic society as a virtue, a permanent junta as a normal thing, and absolutely brushed up to fascism.

Dumb take, both parties have been ardent supporters of Israel since its founding. Republicans are trying to shout down any criticism of Israel atm, they want more of the same

The needs of Israel outweigh the Netanyahu.

Him trying to doggedly ‘crush’ Hamas (an impossible goal politically) whilst refusing to see the larger picture is an outstanding dereliction of duty to the country as a whole

The northern border is increasingly heating up with Hezbollah targeting IDF bases directly and with larger ordnance - in a few months it has progressed from lowly ATGMs and 80s tech, to Grad and Burkan rocket artillery. There’s now more frequent attacks on northern towns and settlements because of their increasing firepower brought in

International condemnation is widespread, your neighbors to the east and south are publicly taking about ‘changes in security treaties’ with Israel and threatening unilateral action, an ICJ judgment that is sustained into war crimes investigations, and top US official and leaders are talking about ‘red lines’ and implicitly threatening continuing US military aid - that’s a big problem.

Even if you accept the ‘4D chess’ angle that Bibi is dealing with Iran Hamas completely to remove that threat before taking care of Iran Hezbollah, that ignores the global reality that the world, not just the Arab/Islamic world, isn’t going to sit by and let you ignore ~2 million Palestinians, today or tomorrow.

Israel is totally capable of winning the battle against Hamas, no doubt. But by doing so they will loose the wider war, isolate themselves politically, and make their own survival harder without friendly nations in a rough neighborhood.

But it’s not a new issue. The harm of the war on drugs - and its disproportional harm - has been known for decades. We are now speed running legalization and/or decriminalization at the State level via ballot and primary legislation, because there has been no Congressional action.

Decades of research into harm, medical use, safer administration, etc denied at a Federal level before you even get to law enforcement, and the ripples through society. And as a consequence we’ve seen some legislation rolled back in scope, because it is such an uncharted territory - DUI ‘testing’ for cannabis is a perfect example, or cash-only legal dispensaries facing armed robbery because they are shut out of the Federal banking system.

…the Senate adopted a new rule that “allowed the Senate to invoke cloture. Under this new rule, the Senate could end debate with a two-thirds supermajority and move onto the official vote on the proposed legislation.

Several time the Democratic Party has held a 2/3rds majority in the House and/or Senate. It’s still the same Schedule. “They’re working on it” I know with the review process, but it’s now a calculated win politically that’s been withheld purposely. All while the known and acknowledged harms to society at large goes on.

At this point it’s become a bipartisan conversation among voters, and not long before the power structure on the right co-opts that into action - likely empowering corporations in the process.

If they’re going with the crowd, that’s societal inertia or peer pressure, not change. Harris is not making a big controversial stand, a majority of Americans want legalization - across demographics, political leanings, and income.

Now if she was advocating heroin prescriptions as a harm reduction, or expunging her own convictions for possession, or a systemic reevaluation of our drug law and enforcement approach? THAT’S a change that shows she understands how the law is bad, not this new political posturing to win votes callously

“Quick, our ‘blood for the blood god but we’re sad in public’ approach isn’t working on the youth vote - what do my fellow kids want?”

Multiple Democratic supermajorities, several unified governments, and a president who admitted to being a past user. It’s not a priority for the DNC, even as the general population (including the right) year by year more and more wants legalization.

Until big ag and big pharmaceutical want it, it will remain illegal

By rejecting materialism and embracing anti-materialism you are freed from the shackles of the physical constructs around us, able to shape and bend your environment- even from a long distance.

The individual practice is relatively new, starting in the mid 1910s but it blossomed and has ardent support in multiple nations with different styles expressed. Russians lean towards simplicity and utilitarianism, the American practice trends avant-garde, while the Chinese largely iterate on existing foundations.

Until we achieve a revolutionary advancement in science, anti-materialism is here to stay, and not just because of knee-jerk Luddite sentiment, but because of the unique effects it has on our world and others.

Now that their “star witness” has been outed as a paid liar, and that the money is coming from Trumpland? Yeah I’d start getting reaaaly quiet and hope everyone forgets the whole event too.

An American company that paid the now indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov in 2020 is connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai.

Smirnov is now accused of lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden, alleging that they engaged in a bribery scheme served as a major justification of the House impeachment investigation into the Bidens.

I’d argue that it’s more fun to bury the lead on a module/set dungeon, to prevent any (even subconscious) meta-gaming from upsetting the play between more/less seasoned players, but I do like the “jazz and sheet music” analogy.

If someone clicks/is told you’re using Tomb of Horrors, they’ll know more than a player who is experiencing that for the first time organically. Obviously applying that and not breaking PC-player knowledge divide is the players issue to maintain, but they’ll still have that seed lurking in their brain about the upcoming set pieces

Mimics, mimics everywhere is a sign of a bad DM who can’t create tension without bullshit paranoia, or a personal grudge.

Unless the table signed up for that kind of adventure, the challenges should be achievable within the party’s abilities, eg “Oh if only you could speak with animals you could have foiled the BBEG’s plans”