Peter Juul

You really do have to wonder given the ass covering we’ve seen from Caine et al - “we told you idiots this would happen and we’re not going to clean up your mess”

STEPHEN A: Skip I want to ADDRESS this issue.
[BAYLESS nods]
You KNOW I think the original tweet was dumb.
BAYLESS: Absolutely
STEPHEN A: BUT!

It’s the navy seal copypasta stamping on the face of humanity, forever

basically the long era of Boomer cultural hegemony plus the increasing ease of reproduction of various cultural artifacts (vhs, dvd/cd, digital/streaming, etc)

then smart phones and social media fragment things so much that there’s no obvious successor available

That and they’ve confused the limitations of physical reality with political/social obstacles they think they can just unplug

I don’t think that’s quite right - there’s a domestic constituency but it’s diffuse and more distant from DC and NYC, plus parts of it still hopes to ingratiate themselves with the CCP in some fashion as well.

But a divided, quietist constituency may as well be no constituency at all.

this tracks since marx was a self-hating marxist

Need an actual James Webb biography one of these days

that explanation does also imply that maybe we shouldn't consider fickle college students to be the moral betters to whom we should defer if we wish to be on the right side of history

literally

Linebacker II was more intended to force the South to sign the deal than anything else

that cover seems pretty ominous tbh

well that and his deep, abiding hatred of russia

Marx's best insight about capitalism was that it was a huge step up from previous types of economy

but then he probably couldn't go to australia

This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t George W. Bush may think that a war against Iraq is the solution to our problems, but the reality is, it will only serve to create far more.

on this particular issue he's the incarnation of the "no it won't" guy from here: theonion.com/this-war-wil...

I mean I suppose it would depend on where he did it, because he can't pardon himself from state/local murder charges

The gospels themselves are perfectly cromulent sources for the simple existence of the guy and the basics of his life

Yeah I just figure it’s something they’re used to by this point

And now we’re back to a new frigate… again

Plus a gold-plated boondoggle designed first, foremost, and only to stroke the ego of the smallest man who ever lived

Five Books on the Middle East It's finally come to this.

Another war in the Middle East means another list of things to read about the Middle East:

I also think it has to do with there being so little contemporary evidence for someone so important in human history - people expect someone with that sort of impact to leave a bigger trace, sort of like why people find it hard to believe a loser like Oswald killed JFK.

eh, not really - Josephus was more noting in passing the emergence of Christianity (he was writing around the same time the first Gospels were composed)

but is it really so hard to believe that an itinerant apocalyptic Jewish preacher was banging around early first century rural Galilee?

I mean there is this pervasive myth that Linebacker II in particular "forced" Hanoi to settle, even though the terms were virtually identical to what was on the table before the bombing, which was more intended to get Saigon to go along with the deal than anything else.

at this point I think the main plan is to demoralize INDOPACOM

I mean more fundamentally it's a story about the moral decay at the heart of the Republic and its primary institutions, particularly the Jedi Order - which admittedly becomes more clear when you watch The Clone Wars.

the early 21st century fashion for taking beloved fictional universes and turning them into apocalyptic shitholes really is something