The fact that it won’t have any record of calls I missed while the phone was off or didn’t have reception, although actually that’s probably the fault of the service provider. They can send me texts I missed. Why can’t they send me a list of missed calls?

I can’t listen to an hour-long podcast right now, but I want to clarify that by “mistake” I mean a war of choice that that USA started but did not win. I think this is a definition that does not require subjective judgements of intent or justification, because if future defeat had been common knowledge then the public and the government as a whole would not have chosen to go to war. (There may have been those who wanted war for their own reasons which did not depend on victory, but their ability to steer the country towards war depended on convincing others that the war could be won.)

A shared commitment to American supremacy.

They say that like it’s a bad thing. Obviously American voters would be fools to oppose it, but even for the third world the alternative to Pax Americana has never been local self-determination and economic success. In the past, it was dominance by the Soviet Union. Now there is no other country able to exert power on a global scale (although China is working hard to get there) but still plenty of tyrants capable of dominating their region of the globe. The USA does not always act to prevent that. When it does, it usually acts in its own self-interest. It has made serious mistakes. (Thanks for that, Cheney.) The alternative is worse.

always chooses the cheapest option

quality isn’t great

Capitalism is to blame!

FourPacketsOfPeanuts has already given a good answer specifically about Israel’s situation, but I want to say something about international law in general. Law may be written based on moral principles, but law is still not the same thing as morality. In our daily lives, we follow our moral principles because that’s what we believe is right, and we follow the law because otherwise cops will put us in jail.

The situation for a sovereign country is different - there are no cops and there is no jail. If other countries wanted to take hostile action, they would even if there was no violation of international law, and if they did not want to take hostile action, the wouldn’t even if there was a violation. Morality still exists (although morality at the scale of countries is necessarily not the same as morality at the scale of individuals) but the law might as well not exist because it is not enforced. It’s just pretty language that may be quoted when a country does what it was going to do anyway.

I’m not trying to imply that I think that Israel is violating international law. I’m saying that discussing whether it is or not is a purely intellectual exercise with no practical relevance. If I support Israel but you convince me that it is technically breaking some law, I’m still not going to change my mind. If you oppose Israel but I convince you that it is technically obeying every law to the letter, you’re still probably not going to change your mind.

Not really questionable - hospitals explicitly lose their protection if they are used for military activity.

Yeah, and while vegan imitation meat is delicious (so much so that even my meat-eating friends will happily eat it with me) vegan imitation cheese ranges from mediocre to terrible. And then it costs several times as much as real cheese too!

I must be out of touch. What’s RGB in this context?

It was probably just full of garbage (which is also “limp” and attracts flies) and the idea of some cop having to cut it open and go through it because you called it in is sort of funny.

With that said, I have wondered about similar things. One time I saw a guy I thought might be dead but I waited a few minutes, he moved a little, and I figured he was probably just very drunk so I left. Another time I did go tell an NYC cop that there was a guy lying on the ground in the middle of a busy street, and the cop didn’t seem to care. Maybe I should have called 911 instead but I didn’t want to be officially associated with the situation.

Note that this article is from three days ago. There’s still only one F-16 destroyed.

I occasionally get into a state where I feel hungry but the thought of eating almost any food, including foods I usually like, is disgusting. I end up eating something really bland, like raw tofu.

Also, I didn’t have any cravings after I became a vegetarian. I was never seriously tempted to eat meat. However, I did eat a lot of cheese and now that I eat very little if it, I want cheese all the time. I’m not even hungry right now and I’m still salivating because I’m thinking about cheese.

Well, at least under capitalism a few people do get to live well…

I don’t have a profile picture, but just FYI I’m shirtless right now.

Nah OP is ready.

Yes, but then it doesn’t seem fair to pick on the executive international sales and marketing analyst.

At least you can fix the sleeves in public. Uncomfortable is when your underwear slides down inside your pants.

The collapse of modern civilization would open exciting opportunities to own labor and not just capital.

Most scientific and engineering skills would also be useless if civilization collapses. For example, I am a scientific software developer. Most of my work has been for medical research, which is something people tend to respect. However, I wouldn’t be able to do anything useful with numerical modelling in a survival situation. My limited skills as an amateur home renovator would be far more relevant.

The problem is that the Houthis are effectively irregular Iranian troops. You don’t win a war by hunting down every band of irregulars, because that wastes a lot of time and resources for little gain. You win a war by destroying the immobile assets that enable the enemy to supply the irregulars. The Houthis wouldn’t be firing Iranian anti-ship missiles if Iranian munitions factories were bombed, but the USA chooses not to do that.

IMO treating any attack by Iranian-made missiles as if it were launched by Iran would be a reasonable policy, but thanks to GWB’s Iraq adventure the USA is still too tired from that counterproductive war to vigorously defend its interests in the Middle East. (We did Iran a big favor by overthrowing a strong centralized government in Iraq which was quite hostile to Iran and replacing it with a weak government over which Iran wields a great deal of influence.)

My car. I bought a luxury car back when I was in grad school and it cost me a year’s salary used. I would tell anyone else not to do that, but over the years I have had so much fun driving that car. It’s a 2008 BMW 328i with a manual transmission and sports suspension (which makes it rather uncomfortable, but it corners so well). It has been breaking down a lot recently and I’ll probably have to get rid of it soon, which I’m not happy about. They don’t make cars like that anymore and even if they did, I can’t reasonably justify buying such an impractical car at this stage of my life. Maybe I’ll make another irresponsible purchase anyway…