To get more specific this often means 'suicide' which absolutely is a casualty of war given the strain of war conditions, especially given the logistics concerns and duration of tours that they are forcing right now.

> If someone on a military base with no attacks going on, got a heart attack by watching the news, probably not a war fatality.

Were they at that base as a (say) mechanic servicing aircraft engines for flights over the Persian Gulf? Are the only reasons why the planes (and thus him) are there is because of the hostilities with Iran, as otherwise they would be States-side?

There’s often more ambiguity than that. “Died of a COVID linked complication with COVID and other issue that is also linked to that complication.” You can’t spend endless resources deciding if something is or isn’t responsible.

Systems use arbitrary buckets like if someone commits suicide in less than six months from coming home after a war might count it, while excluding every case after six months. That’s going to misclassify cases in both directions but means you don’t need to track millions of people for decades or look through mental health details.

Obviously people with more data to work with can make a convincing case you’re wrong, but higher levels accuracy get expensive. In the end we know more than 1 million Americans died of COVID for example, how many more isn’t precisely known but ~1 million is plenty useful for decision making around the next pandemic.

Racism is a very powerful belief system.

From an outsider's perspective, it's to be expected given the existence of cognitive dissonance.

I just wish people would snap out of it _eventually_

I heard a good quote once: People don't vote to say thank you. People vote to say fuck you.

I don't trust polling.

Both times Trump won, the polls predicted he would lose.

Trump was president before. People didn't vote for him a second time if they wanted to improve the economy.

Trump himself only happened because Ds abandoned the working class for grievance politics circa 2010 — forming “public private partnerships” to tear open old wounds while screwing the working class on behalf of corporations.

How confident are we that they know it’s fake? I somehow doubt they close the door and pull out the real information.

Yeah I’m more talking things like the census. Or the report that they skipped a month of this year (inflation, jobs, I can’t recall for certain).

That's fair to say, but lacks details.

Most of Trump's public statements are done through a company that he owns. That same company charges a modest $100,000 per month for early access to his posts; just straight up facilitating insider trading for the President's personal profit. Plus people might find the administration making decision in their favor while paying the $100,000 a month.

There's also Trumpcoin through which people can transfer money to the President. This just happens in the open. Remember when Trump had personal 1-on-1 meetings with the top Trumpcoin holders? I remember.

I've barely scratched the surface here. Trump's personal worth has increased $3,000,000,000 during his second term, so far.

Corruption has existed before, but it has never been this out in the open.

Fair point.

That’s… hilariously not exactly new either. It can be said that our enemies and allies in 2006 were the almost exact opposite of the conflict in the 1980’s when we were funding the afghan mujahideen to fight the soviets.

So theoretically in another 20-30 years we can take a guess at who we’ll be fighting.

Seems exactly on the same side to me- Netanyahu was the one that pushed most for the US invasion of Iraq:

"Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel [...] also visited Washington in late 2002 to lobby for the invasion of Iraq.

Apparently referring to testimony on the Middle East that Mr. Netanyahu delivered to Congress on Sept. 12, 2002, when he was a private citizen, Mr. Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee, “The prime minister, as you will recall, was profoundly forward-leaning and outspoken about the importance of invading Iraq under George W. Bush, and we all know what happened with that decision.”

Video of Mr. Netanyahu’s 2002 remarks — in which he said “I think the choice of Iraq is a good choice, it’s the right choice”

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/world/middleeast/kerry-re...

This is par for the course for US foreign policy in the region.

There's even (disputed) allegations that Bush Sr funneled money and weapons to bin Laden in opposition to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. If true, the big 2006 enemy was a 1986 ally.

Have you never been at school?

I can't find the citation, but I vaguely recall him saying that if Kamala Harris was elected, she would start a war with Iran.

"Among the agreed provisions is one stating the deal would not expire even if Greenland became an independent country in the future.

The official added that under the deal, the US has unilateral power to build additional military structures with no approval needed from Greenland or Denmark. It includes "permanent access, basing and overflights rights," the official said.

It also bans non-Nato countries from building bases in Greenland, and "bans adversaries from making investments in Greenland that could threaten the United States".

The official added that under the current status quo, adversaries have been allowed to invest in Greenland's "sensitive sectors without investment screening".

The official specifically referenced Russia and China, saying it blocks them from deploying troops or making investments in "sensitive sectors".

Without the official text being released, it is unclear how exactly the deal differs from a 1951 agreement with Denmark, under which the US can send as many troops as it wants to Greenland."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c63d7lexyym1o

Real Time History was one, and I think it's good. Includes the USSR's blunders as well e.g in Afghanistan etc. not just "anti US"

https://www.youtube.com/@realtimehistory

Indeed it's likely foolish to read into all the pure stupidity at this point

> they can't lose.

Thanks for the laugh. The Dems have a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

In a conflict, the side that is winning is the side that still has the will to fight.

i never thought i would live to see the US support such a campaign by a clearly rogue terrorist ethnostate run by war criminals