The US is legally prohibited from sending US arms to non-state groups, that’s why when we were arming various Kurdish factions we bought off the international market, generally older Russian-pattern weapons that have long flooded the market. You’re not getting aircraft through that route. There’s not really much of a…

I’ve dismissed half a dozen today. Not surprised. One of them seems to be a repeat stalker of mine that’s had at least four burners I’m aware of. Ironically I never bother to remember them, but eventually the racist cretin always accuses me of supporting Hamas. 

Neither the YPG nor any KRG faction have any real air threat. I’m not sure the YPG has anything, even helicopters, and same with the KRG. Against ISIS they relied on US airpower. They certainly don’t have anything that older AA systems couldn’t handle, if they have anything at all.

Probably not if the sanctions that are required by law to be placed on Turkey happen. It’ll dry up their ability to buy spare parts. It sounds like they’re already stocking up on F-16 spares but its hard to say how effective that’ll be (and the Turkish military is fairly likely to bluff in any public claims they make…

I think Erdogan was, and still is, hoping Trump’s weird affinity for strongmen will bail him out. That seems to be the bet on the sanctions, even though that’s an incredibly stupid bet.

I’m hoping to get to a Spirit game sooner or later, it’s actually a bit closer than a D.C. United game (though if they played at Audi Field I might go there too). I don’t really get to see many games live, men’s or women’s, but I’m definitely more invested in following the Spirit after the World Cup.

That essay and the concept of “ur-fascism” more broadly was making the rounds not too long ago. It’s incredibly relevant, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem like there’s any real penetration into the American psyche. It’s not the people who read the New York Review of Books who need convincing, generally speaking.

Really impossible to argue otherwise, unless you willfully distort the meaning of the term “fascist”. Authoritarian nationalism focused on bringing benefits to the “true people” and bringing back their golden age while targeting and scapegoating the “bad people” who are the cause of all ills. Trump’s rallies…

It’s a pretty common refrain on the Israeli right. I don’t think people understand just how radicalized and openly bigoted Israeli politics are, since they only vaguely hear things around elections. Ironically the Israeli press doesn’t ignore the problem the way international English press does, even including…

“Anti-Semitism is whatever bad faith far-right nationalists claim it is” is a particularly troubling development. Even the ones who are Jewish tend to have extremist views about Jews who don’t agree with them. 

Pretty much the pattern I saw from right on social media too. It doesn’t entirely feel coordinated this time, which is a bit odd, but I suppose “lie and dissemble about your responsibility and also double-down on the slurs while making an appeal to decorum” is probably second nature for most of them.

It’ll be worse. There’s a difference between Trump winking at violent extremists and what Trump did in North Carolina, which is more unfiltered fascism. The former will influence less to act than the latter, though it’s likely in the latter case most violence will still non-lethal.

This ends with violence, period. There’s no way it doesn’t. The GOP and the right-wing media ecosystem are already cheering all this on. I just saw some spineless worm from Fox claim the chant is “awful” and then provide a way to promote the same racist smears with a more polite veneer, which tells you exactly what…

OANN is basically “some crazy nut from Twitter but with a TV network” so I’m actually not surprised. They traffic in that kind of meme misinformation pretty regularly. 

Who let this racist gutter-troll out of the greys? Seriously? This racist cretin deserves nothing but to be dismissed. Of bloody course he’d promote the racist conspiracy theory.

You know, I feel like this is a place where I can ask this and maybe actually get an answer, but can someone explain to me why JRPGs and animes more broadly seem to love using the Irish plural for cats, “cait”. I’ve noticed it at least three times, not pronounced the Irish way but spelled that way, but weirdly not…

He probably saw it on the Twitter timeline of “MAGAloveTrump#DEPORTTHEMALL!345758".

I suppose the guy sending nakedly racist mailers and defending that action repeatedly probably hoped he could get away with sullying the name of the Marines to boost his own pathetic credibility.

There’s a pretty near-zero chance it was the Houthis operating there. They’re a Yemeni group. You’d have a better shot at it being Hezbollah since they have more international experience. But it was most likely Iran. I doubt any of the GCC nations hostile to Iran could pull off the cover-up. 

None of that is an actual threat to the United States. They’re hostile actions, but intentionally low-level ones that have a very low risk of escalation.