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Biden merely said what everyone is already thinking. Just because he said it out loud doesn’t commit US to lead the mission to remove Putin from power. In fact, it can’t be US because then we become the big bad guy everyone casts a wary eye on. We have a recent history of effecting regime change, sometimes against the will of the people (Exhibit A: Iran, 1953), so other countries would understandably be suspicious of just what we intend to accomplish after. The last thing people want is to see the bully providing actual protection for everyone else, because the price of that kind of peace is generally higher than people want to pay. And make no mistake, the rest of the world generally regards America as the world’s bully. (We ourselves might have a different view of that.) It feels like Biden’s might have been a message to anyone who might have anything to do with actually removing Putin from power. If that’s not going to be Seal Team Six storming the Kremlin to frog march him out—again, because we can’t be seen doing that—then who are we talking about? The Russian people at large? The oligarchs who have occasional access? Inner circle elements who have continual access? Fifth column elements within the FSB or Putin’s personal protection unit? I’m not sure who else could effectively remove him.

He’s totally right. Putin is getting his ass handed to him over Ukraine because the rest of the world is bankrupting his country of financial and intellectual capital, while he bankrupts himself of military capital. What makes anyone think that while, or after, getting clobbered in Ukraine, he could successfully wage war against anyone in NATO, let alone US? I don’t think there is any risk that Putin will wage war against US and win. That’s as close to impossible as anything could be. The biggest risk is once he realizes the jig is up and decides to push buttons in a bid to take the rest of the world out with him.

If Putin is not thinking rationally, which is a good possibility, it’s already going to escalate into war, regardless of who here says what.

An off-the-cuff remark, and an unserious one at that, is exactly why we have Space Force today.

“Global uproar” drives more eyeballs to advertisers than “measured response” does.

The first album was super raw and pretty great, probably because Grohl did the whole thing himself and wrote most of it during his Nirvana days. A couple years and some mainstream, success later, they polished up album #2 but the material was still so good that was perfectly fine. The quality started waning by album #3. A half a dozen albums in everything they did that was new was unlistenable to me. Ironically the later albums all charted way better than the early ones, but you can’t tell me that’s because the quality of the music was better.

"Agree to be deposed". I take this to mean that it's not about their company and they are probably not liable in any way here. They are also probably going to get kid-glove treatment with no questions about their own business. Otherwise, why agree to it?

I would have guessed it to be one of the rhymes but I had already burned the "L".

You are not. I’m fairly close to a completist on Ben, both as Five and as one, at least for his work through 2008. Not so much for his a cappella and impresario phase. I saw him once, in Omaha while I was carpetbagging for an Experian company there. There had been some shuffling around of people at the top of the office chain and The Guy who was put in charge of my area invited me to see Ben play on his Way To Normal tour. Two days later, The Guy shitcanned me and that was the end of my Omaha experience. So the concert, I guess, might have been meant as a consolation prize or sorts before the fact. Who knows. I wish there were more live material released from the Five and his early rock-based solo efforts.

(CNN) Colombia's Attorney General's Office released a preliminary "forensic medical study" Saturday following the death of Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins. The report said a urine toxicology test was carried out on Hawkins and 10 substances were found, including THC, tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids. Very sad.

Another good one. Wordle 281 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Those were the days when hurlers could just rear back and throw the ball and let guys hit it so hitters could get themselves out, because pitchers didn’t worry about every guy in the batting order taking them out of the ballpark. Sure, pitchers had a higher average WHIP back then (1.345 in 1984, versus 1.297 last year), but home runs per game was far lower (0.77 then versus 1.22 last year, which itself is down from 1.39 in 2019). That’s why strikeouts were way lower then, too (5.87 then versus 8.68 now): pitchers didn’t have to take several extra seconds between each pitch to gather up their strength to throw yet another balls-out, 100%, max effort pitch to induce swing-and-miss. They just reared back, let it fly, and accepted the consequences, which weren’t nearly so dire some 40 years ago. Average time of game in 1984: 2:39.

We can only hope that Putin doesn’t go pushing buttons before he goes out.

Link to what you quoted, please?

For what it’s worth, that how I’m coming out on this. On the one hand, it’s historically bad form for one superpower to question the existence of another superpower while they are technically at peace. On the other hand, Biden is just saying not only what every American but Trump and the most ardent red hats are thinking, but also what every country in the world except a handful are also thinking. Putin is not going to start WWIII with US over that comment because, if nothing else, his dance card looks to be already full.

lol @pfife “not old enough” for … well, anything, really. I think the only thing he might not be old enough for is being the Pope. 😉

I get where you’re coming from. I don’t believe theirs to be even a defensible point.

My point is that the texts shouldn’t have to directly implicate Clarence Thomas for it to be an integrity issue. Just the proximity is enough, in the same way it was enough for Pete Rose. Or at least the proximity should be enough.

He may well grow up to be the worst of the bunch because his mother is closer to the shit than the other kids’ mothers were.

They have the texts in hand, so what’s the circumstantial part?

This is a fairly tough one. Wordle 280 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Don’t they have the actual texts in hand?

But do we even need proof positive, as though that would even be possible, that Ginni told Clarence that she sent the text? Isn't the mere proximity close enough? Isn't the danger that she could have involved and influenced him in it, either before the text or else during a Supreme Court vote on the transition question, enough to act to stop it? Do we really need a fucking audio recording of her saying the exact words being required here before we act? This reminds me very much of the Pete Rose slappies who like to say he should be reinstated by Baseball and placed into the Hall because, even though he clearly broke Rule 21(d) by betting on games in which he had a duty to perform, and eventually even admitted doing so, what he did is still not a threat to the integrity of the game because there's no reported evidence that he bet on his team to lose. But in the end, it doesn't matter whether Pete Rose never bet on his team to lose. The point is that he put himself in the position of betting on his team to lose, by betting on games in which he had a duty to perform at all. Baseball doesn't need to dig through piles of evidentiary minutiae to determine whether he crossed the fine line between betting to win and betting to lose. That's why regardless of whether someone with a duty to perform bets on his own team to win or lose, they are still declared permanently ineligible just for the act itself. By setting it up that way, the Pete Roses of the world can't beat the gambling rap on a technicality. And that's why Ginni Thomas must be subpoenaed and, if found guilty of exactly this behavior, appropriate justice served her, whatever that might be, because she put herself in the position of directly compromising the integrity of a Supreme Court justice. And Clarence Thomas himself must be made to resign his justiceship because of the proximity. Because they shouldn't be allowed the opportunity to get away with undermining our democracy on a fucking technicality.

It's most definitely a spade.

I have been obsessed with this performance for the past two weeks and have listened to it a couple or three times a day since. I'm sure I'll move on to something else soon but I'm enjoying the hell out of it in the meantime.