Hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but this seems more like the work of Lyle Lanley than Hamas.

Edit: For those downvoting me - fair.
I was wrong. It wasn’t the monorail salesman from from the Simpson’s. It was Israeli citizens.

Oh, man. Those buses were one day from retirement, too.

Well as a red-blooded, corn-fed American who grew up loving the 4th of July almost as much as Christmas, I want you to know that I came into this comment section to say that the U.S. should get fucked.

I don’t know what you silly foreigners with your mostly competent leadership, thriving social safety nets, successful education systems, and consumer protection laws are doing, but once again you’ve proven amurican exceptionalism, because I have already reached the point at which I think our government and meddlesome oligarchs should fuck off.

We’re number 1, baby! Yeehaw!
(In preventable deaths, incarceration rates, and maternal mortality rates, and pretty close on poverty and murder rates amongst OECD nations.)

The focus on piracy is a smoke screen. It’s about capacity.

Build the capacity, and then just start growing that list of reasons things are blocked.

This is out of scope for this community, but the U.S. is amidst a coup.
I mean, literally, it’s being raided by a corporate stooge that is breaking all manner of laws to just reshape it in whatever image they see fit.
In a geopolitical sense, they’re trying to break relationships with close allies, and trying to isolate the country. We see that with the tariff threats, the withdrawal from WHO, the Paris Climate accords, and now with threats to withdraw/pull back from NATO. Domestically, it’s clear that businesses are bowing to Trump or facing government punishment. That much is evidenced by social media companies filtering search results, by media companies tepid criticism of Trump and by the lack of national coverage over anti-trump sentiment. We also see it in terms of the investigations that Trump and his cronies are trying to bring against NPR, of all things.

This is a play in the move to control information access in the U.S. After the media, and social media, which are now yolked, the open web is the next biggest threat to their coup.
And now this is the legislation they’re pushing.

She didn’t see it until after work started, but gave it a “Haha” response and then asked if both the dogs pooped this morning.

My wife saw him in concert awhile back, but the concert was on a Wednesday, so now I refer to him as “The Wednesday,” and have for years. She finds it funny and annoying and tells me to shut up while giggling.

I sent her this meme. She’s going to be so annoyed when she wakes up.

I know… but I loveses them buzzing little flying pigs.

A-10 Warthog enthusiasts are salivating.

Look, first off, this is her war. Soviet tanks out of mothballs, massed up and ready for the BBRRRRRR. But second, with some modern ECM, and explosive rounds, she could trounce every drone.

Ooohhh.

I did not realize until this moment that I didn’t understand their relationship correctly.

Frodalf is just Tom Bombadil

Gimlum is the wizened old meth head that steals your hubcaps and tries to sell them back to you.

Growing up, we just like, inherited each other’s old stuff, like clothes, stereos, and even cars.

Gonna be a weird time when kids these days grow up and tell stories about handing down or receiving handed-down body armor.

This is a bit of a left turn, but I’ve started to note random articles like this when I see them.

This might sound a little tin-foil hat~ish, but I think that some of Ukraine’s intelligence and war efforts are informed by the media. Starting back with the NordStream pipeline sabotage, which happened just after the media began covering how Russia could use the threat of shutting down the pipeline to hold Europe hostage, I’ve noticed that there’s sort of a back and forth. The media will focus on something as being a resource or asset to Russia, and Ukraine will target it. Right now it’s Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ - the merchant marine fleet that only travels between Russian allied countries, so the ships do not have to undergo international inspections. Not only have 3 of those ships recently sank due to weather (They were 50+ year-old river tankers that had undergone substantial modification, being used as transfer vessels to move oil for the military and were operating in the Black Sea - well outside the conditions they were built for due to threat of Ukrainian attack.), but the 4th was a newer vessel operating in conditions it was built for and it sank due to an explosion in its engine room. That last one really complicates some things for Russia - it had vital parts to another ship (a nuclear-powered icebreaker), as well as cranes from their Syrian Port (that they might be losing?) that were going to be repurposed at their Vladivostok Port.

Anyway, I guess all that is to say, I’m sort of expecting to hear within a few weeks that the factories that make these chemicals have been bombed.

Someone else pointed out it’s now not a bomber so much as a cargo hauler, but the phrase “Bomber of Theseus” came to mind and gave me a good chuckle.

I already can’t do half the things I’m trying to do on my network, now I gotta figure out DNS?!?

Late to this party, but I binge eat when I’m off my meds.

I lost 45 lbs (~20 kilos) the first year I was on meds. Didn’t skip meals or anything - just stopped eating second whole meals after the first.

It’s not uncommon for ships to have a captain that commands and stays with the ship and a pilot that is familiar with and helps navigate regional waters, who takes over navigation and issues orders in the areas that they are qualified to operate.

I’m not saying that’s what happened here - I don’t know and haven’t seen any information that would support that idea - but it could explain the discrepancy.

I was about to say same!

Accidentally, though.
The story is roughly like this: I had bad allergies and fucked up sinuses - I thought. Got sinus headaches every day during bad periods. Lots of sinus infections. Went on for like 10-15 years through periods of being intense and focused and stressed with sinus issues and periods of checking out, being aloof and dippy without sinus issues.
In 2019, sinus rinses, pseudoephedrine, nose sprays, and pain killers weren’t doing it. Resigned myself to having to get the sinus roto-rooter, where they scrape out your sinuses to make it easier for all that junk to drain off. So I went to my doctor to get that in motion. Doctor sent me to an immunologist, who sent me to an ENT, who sent me to a neurologist, who looked at my records for 30 seconds, declared that I had migraines, and sent me on my way with a preventative script.
I was so fucking mad. Didn’t think he could possibly be right. But he was. And then Covid hit and by the time things got normal again, I realized I wasn’t able to work like I was before. So I got got tested for ADHD, and… here I am, rambling.

Good old object permanence.

Who knew the thing that makes stuff I can’t see not exist can also make people not exist unless they’re just front and center in my mind.

It’s so foreign to me that other people experience an attenuation in affection towards others if they don’t keep up regularly. People I don’t see just exist out of time in my head and I feel the same about them as I last did.

I think you’re right, but I don’t think holding blackmail is relevant to their goals anymore, so there’s no point in releasing it right now.

Even if Trump could be blackmailed into doing more to help Russia, does it matter? The republicans control the house and senate.
All the U.S. has to do to benefit Russia is allow republicans to enact their domestic and foreign policies.

In retrospect I think my comment sounds like I’m just excusing being sort of crappy if you’re humble about it.
I wish I’d included the sentiment that we’re all trying the best we can — because being a good partner should be the goal for any relationship.

Even though I’m currently only with my wife, I’m right there with you. I don’t want to add anyone to the mix unless their addition is very carefully considered.
I speak better in metaphor sometimes: It’s kind of like physics, almost. Imagine that we’re touching everyone in our life. If we allow someone to connect to us, they are going to impart their own momentum and direction. That is going to ripple through every connection we have, even if we aren’t able to measure or observe it. So we better make sure they don’t hit us so hard that pieces break apart or get damaged in the process.