Shaped charge fire arrows youtu.be/xNCU4WndtYk?...

Been too long since I did a big silly ancient history 🧵so let's bring an old one back over from the Bad Place: It's time for ::air horn:: Publius Ventidius Bassus, the coolest Roman you have never heard of and the only person to walk in a triumph first as captive, then as triumphing general. 1/

My favorite part of this is the idea the Russians were after Loomer. "Vladimir Vladimirovitch, our operation in Washington was successful! The target has been neutralized." "You killed the American President? Vice-president? Head of DOD or GosDep?" "No, the woman from big-tits-Ashkenazi-IQ video"

Very considerate of Hegseth to let service members keep their moustaches so they can move seamlessly into careers in porn or law enforcement after EAS, though.

I'm not sure whether the biggest problem with this story is the fairly obvious racism behind the changes to grooming standards, or the fact that the head of the DOD is setting grooming standards. Also lol at the fact that moustaches are still allowed. Wouldn't want to retroactively offend Hitler ig

Accurate: Biden may have pulled a muscle throwing his phone across the room when the story broke

"AI could never do MY job!" Proclaims man whose job is to be confidently wrong about things

Sort of related, but there's a song called Oh My Stars that I've only ever been able to find performed on an Australian panel show that I keep coming back to. youtu.be/5YPoyVjDtPo?...

This an official Vatican photograph of Leo at Lampedusa, Italy - one of the world’s heaviest migrant sites - where he went this morning to pray for migrants who died at sea. This is after turning down the offer to come to the United States.

One idea I have repeatedly encountered in academic or academic-adjacent circles is that we in the present are very materialistic and concerned with things, while our pre-industrial ancestors were not. I'm confident that this is backwards for reasons that really should be fairly obvious.

In case you wanted to know how seriously to take this fellow's views on Ukraine:

Sometimes I like to ask myself the important questions in life, such as "has any country ever tried adopting the tactical poncho from Royal Space Force? If not, why not?"

A lot of the responses to this are just people explaining why they, personally, do not like Starmer. But I think the through line is that he is not so much hated more but liked less. Other unpopular PMs typically still had a base that supported them, while Starmer basically never cultivated one.

Just thinking about how easy it is to lose a war, if you take a step back and drop a few common assumptions. Could the US lose a war against, let's say, Costa Rica, a country without an army? It's not very likely, but e.g. if the US sent exclusively pardoned J6 rioters then it absolutely could lose

>renames it to the Department of War >names himself the Secretary of War >fights one war >loses

I wonder if the Israelis might inadvertently be doing for Syria what Russia did for Ukraine in 2014. There's nothing like an external threat to get all the disparate factions of a newly formed government to bury the hatchet and work together (even if it doesn't happen overnight).

"Zut alors!" il murmure. "Trump traine avec lui cette putain de ballon que Putin lui a offert y a 8 ans comme nounours. Fait chier, ça donne toujours un peu d'interférence à notre signal."

REPUBLICAN SENATOR: Democrats want you to believe that sending FIVE MILLION DOLLARS of YOUR tax money to MEXICO to “manage” the “Dick Exploding Spider” population is “normal” SAME SENATOR SIX MONTHS LATER: (walking like a saddle-sore cowboy) This is the greatest public health crisis of our lives,

"By completely caving to Tehran at a time when Iran does not have a nuclear weapon, I have subtly taught them that they don't need one. I expect to hear from the Nobel committee presently."

Me: For the last time, Sir Llewellyn, we can't just draw a line on a map and put all the Israelis on one side and all the Palestinians on the other. That's literally genocide -OK, fine, maybe that was wrong. How did you enlightened moderns resolve the dispute over Palestine? Me: Now wait a minute

A recurring rhetorical tic made by people who (in word or in deed) support Russia's invasion of Ukraine is an eagerness to present Ukrainian setbacks (real or imaginary) as proof that Ukraine is losing. But of course "Ukraine suffers attrition in a war of attrition" tells us precisely nothing.

I feel like a time traveler because holy shit, when is the last time you've seen an Assadist in the wild?

Disco Elysium is an amazing game because most of its intended political message is kinda mid, but the absolutely deranged things the player character says when you let him become mentally unbalanced are basically 100% prophecy.

Contextual as to whether A) she would care about it at all B) she has any connection to the relevant people

How could AES be "even worse" than Platner? Did he join Wagner and get "Sieg Heil" and a picture of a straight arm tattooed on his penis?

This makes it sound like Trump's reaction to the news that bombing Iran wasn't very effective by ordering CENTCOM to do basically the same thing again, expecting different results.

Your daily reminder that American racists practice at best intermediate racism and are thus incapable of comprehending the intricate workings of advanced, European racism.

The only time this device is funny (I assume) is if you start the video with the landlord telling himself in the mirror he's absolutely going to collect actual money this time

Today in timeline adventures

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT ELECTION SKEPTICISM New blog post: open.substack.com/pub/dreamwea...

There are a couple reports from the Israeli side, and they're quite interesting to read. My favorite part is where the IDF very briefly admits that its radar people got USS Liberty's speed wrong by a factor of more than two, but then spends several pages complaining about Liberty looking Egyptian.

I suppose with the benefit of hindsight, it makes sense that a country prone to weird laws about knives and swords might be persuaded to go after a minority group whose members sometimes carry a little knife around.

"Would you see a similar simpering surrender if the fascists really committed to an anti-Sikh campaign? Do you doubt it? Whether it’s Labour or the next government, how long until we are told to inform the serving staff when you see someone with a turban or ceremonial dagger?"

One of the reasons I'm not 100% thrilled that her husband is now the leader of the federal NDP, tbh

Uh oh, someone jumped on the Toby Buckle bandwagon www.liberalcurrents.com/it-wasnt-fas...

I imagined Schumer saying "What? But Israel would never do that to me!" and it made way more sense than it should have.

☆ copy this to your profile and let your mutuals tell you their first impression of you ☆

🧵 I decided to take a look at how the chemical weapon denialists were responding to the latest news out of Syria about chemical weapons, and this reply from Aaron Mate says a lot about the credibility of the denialists positions.

Did the pig costumes stay on the whole time, or..?

Bezos didn't want to let Musk have all the fun

again, the 'most Americans can't even afford an unexpected expense' stuff comes from *online surveys by payday loan companies*. it is a publicity stunt *by one of the most exploitative parts of the financial industry* that is nevertheless spread enthusiastically by online communists.

Tony Blair is a fascinating creature in that he appears to be both a generational political talent and also the stupidest man alive.

Erich: I just can't think of anything good about a skull! Hans: What about pure Aryan skull shape? Erich: Even that is more usually depicted with the skin still on!

I will preface this by saying that I do not personally believe in God. But with that aside, if God is supposed to be omnipotent, then surely God could appear as an expression of any gender it wanted, with whatever sized cock it wanted.

I've been playing Menace lately and I think Field Marshall Zama is my favorite character. I initially wasn't sure where his accent came from, and was kind of worried it was some racist caricature. Nope, it's a Ghanaian accent. I know because I have a new coworker with the exact same accent.

"This is being pushed by a very small group of people, but the British elite is very small. Apparently, we’re now at a point where a few well placed reactionaries really can exert full control over all our lives whenever they feel like it." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-end-of-t...

Many parrots react to meeting another bird as if to say "prithee, come no closer until thine intentions have been made clear!" Whereas budgies are like "budgie squad?" "BUDGIE SQUAD!!!" Then they fly around together solving bird crimes.

I remember some of the right wingers on a forum I used to frequent a couple decades ago would post "gun porn," talk about how they "came" after seeing a Daniel Defense custom AR-15, and generally signal they liked guns more than women. Anyway, I hear there's a male loneliness epidemic

I have never wanted to Google something less tbh