Trump probably couldn’t find Iran on an unmarked map why would he try and think about the complexity of policy in the region. He’s got a whole bunch of ideologically extreme staffers to read self-interested think-tank analysis from right-wing anti-Iran groups that will tell him whatever he wants to hear because…

Rapinoe should’ve been subbed earlier, she looked gassed well before she went out. Pugh has been coming in as a sub and would’ve been perfect for the game.

This is incredibly petty and bigoted bullshit. Federal workers are spending their days catering to the whims of incompetent bigots in the Trump administration instead of doing their actual jobs. Another waste of taxpayer dollars to join all the absurd corruption of this piss-poor tinpot regime. 

I know his lawyers are duty-bound to do their best for that steaming pile of excrement but...let the murderous neo-Nazi rot. I want his entire existence to be an unending series of monotony and regret. It’s better than filth like him deserve. 

Dismiss the troll “Max Contrarian”. I don’t want that bigoted troll in my subthread. 

My guess is Carlson’s knowledge of Iran is cribbed from Wikipedia, which he skimmed at best. 

Well now I just feel silly for not keeping up with those Turkish Duolingo lessons. 

I think in a world with much better laws and regulation constraining the bad behavior of lobbyists it wouldn’t be. I don’t fundamentally disagree though, I know among all the former politicians schmoozing there are actual experts who act as lobbyists. The problem is the wild west environment encourages dubious…

What a mess. So many political interests at odds. But I think recognition should be on a “prove they don’t deserve it” rather than a “prove they deserve it basis”. The argument that the Lumbee have made multiple claims about ancestry doesn’t hold water for me. The Catawba mentioned in the article were probably…

Historians and “pedantic discussion” are practically roommates. That’s a good point, but we’re just trained that way. I’ve seen a lot of historians supporting the point and trying to educate people but for most of them (myself included honestly) it’s incredibly difficult not to switch into “teach all the nuance” mode.…

I’ve got stretched ears. Even if I take out my plugs they won’t fully close. I also don’t particularly want to, to be honest. Being comfortable with how you look is a blessing. There’s definitely a shift in that sort of stuff, even my conservative baptist grandmother mostly makes good-hearted jokes about my nose ring…

I saw some of those, but the thing is I also remember the ones with other politicians that got a lot less press. Most politicians are, to put it bluntly, not very smart. The skills necessary to get elected are not necessarily the ones required to discuss policy in depth. Most make up for it with staffers who do the…

There’s a serious risk-aversion among the top establishment Democrats. It’s not just them, there’s a similar thing across a number of center-left and left parties across Europe too. The entire “Third Way” movement was about a crisis of faith among liberals, who tried to emulate conservatives. It worked, in the sense…

Didn’t that happen once or twice? I half-remember something like that happening on Twitter. With all the attacks on her by the usual suspects it’s hard to remember exactly what the issue was though.

I’d be better off working on campaigns, which I did a little bit of in the past. Even now there’s not much market for tattoos and piercings in the political scene, and even if I wear a nice suit I still look like a punk kid in a suit. I’m more of a policy wonk at heart anyway. I am thinking about seeing what Warren’s…

I’m under no illusions, though I do partly understand why the romantic mythic view of Labor Zionists has such cache (every country/society has their ideological myths).

AOC has really impressed me. It’s not that I was skeptical, but having dipped a foot into the political world I knew a lot of otherwise well-meaning politicians were, for lack of a better word, a bit vapid. She’s showed a lot of depth and strength and I really respect that. I think there’s more young Democrats in the…

Unless this party is a secret intervention for her compulsive dishonesty or an attempt to make a citizen’s arrest, it shouldn’t be happening.

The side judges are supposed to hold off on raising their flag now because of VAR, the idea being that if a goal is scored and it’s offsides it’ll be checked. That’s the guidance for the men’s game at least, I think it’s the same for the women’s now. 

Did they rewrite the “make a play on the ball from offsides position” part of the rule, or am I incorrectly remembering something? If Lloyd had made a “play on the ball” after starting in an offsides position, even if she didn’t touch it, I thought that’d be offsides.