hilzoy

Opinion | The Mistake That Iranians Make About America

Reza Aslan. Gift link.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/o...

Mood.

Radar bases housing key US missile interceptor hit in Jordan and UAE, satellite images show | CNN New satellite images from several key military bases in the Arabian Peninsula suggest that Iran is seeking to degrade air defenses by destroying US-made radars that detect incoming missiles and drones...

The cnn story referenced in the linked post is here (it’s about a THAAD radar being hit.)

www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/m...

😳

Thread.

Kash Patel Fired Entire Team of Iran Experts Right Before Trump’s War They were let go during a purge of people who investigated Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents.

newrepublic.com/post/207263/... The first time as tragedy, the second time as 'nobody can speak Farsi'.

Have you ever done a Vulcan mind meld with a table? No?

WELLTHEN.

Alternatively, you could adopt a different standard, like being alive and having the one and only substrate we know is associated with consciousness, namely a nervous system.

2) You can never know whether anything else is not conscious. I’m not talking about edge cases like insects; I’m talking about e.g. a table, which for all WE know might just be the strong silent type. It might be chuckling to itself, thinking: how little they suspect my rich inner life!

… I can’t really know whether something is conscious unless I can literally inhabit its mind, feel what it feels, and see whether ‘what it feels’ is something or nothing.

If this is your standard, it has some unfortunate consequences.

1) You can never know whether an human is conscious.

Philosophy!

If you’re worried about how we REALLY KNOW that a being that has none of the normal substrates of consciousness, and that we designed to do something completely different than to be conscious, is in fact not conscious, you might be thinking:

The part of the piece I could read was quite good.

Before reading the linked post: it is sending a signal that our stocks of Patriot/THAAD missiles will be low for a few years, so if they want to lob missiles at us or our allies, this will be a good time.

Also, that our President REALLY doesn’t care about strikes on Ukraine.

🤦

Roy @im_roy_lee• 1d ng i was sweating for 2 mins = ChatGPT Auto > X •• got a call from some tech crunch reporter asking about revenue. told them 7m arr in reality 6.3m run rate. is this securities fraud Short answer: almost certainly not. What you described does not meet the elements of securities fraud in the U.S. 1. Securities fraud requires a securities context 129 セマ57 2.1K il 415K 企 Elizabeth Holmes • @ElizabethHolmes X.com I wouldn't trust Al with this one.... 6:19 PM • 3/5/26 • 37K Views 40 27 38 956 23 企

Iranian drone/missile impact moments ago at Dubai International Airport.

Smoke can be seen rising over the airfield. Also getting reports from local sources smoke and explosions.

$3.7 Billion: Estimated Cost of Epic Fury’s First 100 Hours Operation Epic Fury costs nearly $900 million per day, driven by the large expenditure of munitions. Because most of this is not in the budget, the Pentagon will soon need to ask for more money.

Never forget that the U.S. can always find money for war, but not for education, health care, or to help those in need. This is 100% a choice. And it is 100% the wrong one. www.csis.org/analysis/37-...

Well, knock me over with a feather.

More realistic: a professor helped move a dead body because his department chair said he wouldn’t have to be assistant head.

At least if that position, which I have never heard of, involves administrative responsibilities.

On the one hand, a good case could be made that Sam Page is objectively worse than Phil Berger

On the other hand, the next Senate Majority Leader won't be Sam Page

(Also LOL @ Berger selling out to Trump on redistricting hoping that it would save him)

No clue.

Oh God.

Do we have any remaining naval assets defending other priorities?

Absolutely.

As will the fact that, astonishingly, we were able to surgically remove one (1) dictator without many other consequences. That means that we violated international law for nothing, but it also gave Trump ideas.

Buh-bye.

Obligatory caveat: this is an FBI witness interview, without corroboration. That said: “Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be,” she recalled Trump saying, according to the FBI report.”

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‘Unholy alliance’: Republicans are suddenly nervous about Russia's support for Iran Russia’s reported support for Iran has drawn Republican pushback over Trump’s “moral blindness when it comes to Putin,” particularly as the Trump administration eases Russian oil sanctions to deal wit...

Any go-to-war decision should have included an assessment of the risk that the target's allies would respond to an attack by coming to the defense of the target in a number of different ways. Trump dismissed any prospect of Russian or Chinese support for Iran. This may be imprudent.

The laws of war as reflected in US military practice since the days of George Washington say that civilian noncombatants are to be shielded from harm. But Hegseth doesn't approve of such "stupid rules of engagement," apparently. He'll wind up in the docks at The Hague. bsky.app/profile/atru...

Pledge to be for a Democratic speaker or it doesn’t count.

To state the obvious: it allows Iran to harm us financially at will.

This whole idea is completely insane, and Congress should grow a spine and stop it.

My face is smiling but my heart is screaming with incoherent joy