We truly are approaching equality among the sexes!

What immediate actions can be taken TODAY to reduce air pollution?

Oil refineries are highly flammable.

Frankly, I do want Iran to have nukes. The region is so unstable precisely because there is one aggressive expansionist military power in the region, with no other nuclear power to balance them out. Iran hasn’t declared war on another country for over two centuries. Israel is currently invading, occupying, or bombing the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. And they’re led by a radical religious movement explicitly hellbent on expanding Israel’s borders from the Nile to the Euphrates, gobbling up entire nations in the process.

You’re damn right I want Iran to have nukes. All evidence suggests they will be far more responsible with them than Israel is.

Finally a killer app for AI. Create social media profiles and use AI agents to populate them with bland uncontroversial drivel.

Do you know what the truest expression of conservative American values and bravery is?

Human wave attacks against machine gun nests.

“If we can’t name streets after racists, we won’t name streets after anyone!”

Eh. We can use some of the good things from the past without using the bad as well.

We’re living in a post-truth world. We really haven’t begun to process what that actually means. The president is so confident in his abilities to lie to and propagandize his base, that he feels he can invent entire cease fire agreements from whole cloth. Just claim that an agreement has been reached. Then, when Iran proceeds to ignore the imaginary agreement, accuse them of breaking the cease fire, and use that to justify further attacks against Iran.

It really is striking how different the lie campaign is with Iran vs the lead up to Iraq. With Iraq, the traditional media was still powerful and legitimate enough that the Bush administration felt an elaborate prewar propaganda campaign was needed. They held numerous hearings in front of Congress, speeches in front of the UN, etc. It took months of propaganda before the Bush admin thought they were ready to launch the war. It was all ultimately a lie campaign, but the fact that they felt the need to do it is telling.

Now? No such campaign needed. Just launch a war, lie through your teeth, and rely on individual social media bubbles to convince the rubes. The effectiveness of propaganda has increased manyfold over the last two decades. They don’t even feel the need to concoct convincing lies anymore.

I like this look. It has this aura of beautiful golden light about it. It has that aura without going the full gaudy gilded look like you would find in something the president built.

People vote based on principles and strategies different from yours. Bitching about it won’t change that fact or help you win elections. Enjoy your 5 minutes of hate.

If nothing else, at least the new Iran war will make all us Millennials feel a bit young again. Time to relisten to American Idiot, at the very least.

Or maybe I’ll just feel even older, as I can’t believe we’re still doing this shit.

Man, there’s got to be a way to solve the Taiwan problem. Maybe a great compromise, a grand bargain? Taiwan lets Beijing save face by admitting that the PRC has been the legitimate government of all of mainland China and Taiwan from the beginning. But at the same time, Beijing then magnanimously grants Taiwan formal independence. Moreover, such an agreement is part of a larger grand bargain involving US normalization with Cuba. The US learns to live with a Communist neighbor off their coast, and China learns to live with a highly capitalist neighbor off their coast. The US military can keep troops stationed in Taiwan, and in turn China gets to station military troops in Cuba (if the Cubans are cool with that.)

One can dream, one can dream…

Or, with my luck, we’ll end up with the nightmare monkey’s paw version of this, where the two superpowers simply arrange to deport the entire Cuban population to Taiwan and the entire Taiwanese population to Cuba, and both countries then annex their respective neighboring islands. Authoritarianism and ethnic cleansing for all, all in the name of peace!

I was responding specifically to your claim of there being no credible evidence of a bomb program. Whether they should have a bomb is another question entirely.

But back to the main point. Enrichment to 83.7% IS absolute proof of a nuclear weapons program. That is what you’re missing. Reactor grade is 3-5%. There are no practical applications aside from bombs that require enrichment that high. There’s literally no other reason to do it.

Nuclear enrichment is not something you just do for fun. It’s expensive and dangerous, both in terms of worker safety and geopolitics. And the cost to enrich to bomb grade is at least an order of magnitude more than what is required to enrich to reactor grade.

For those who aren’t aware, the existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program really isn’t something that can be debated. I strongly oppose this war. In fact, I think an Iranian bomb might actually be a good thing. Could really serve to stabilize the region.

But people are taking the Iraq war metaphor way too far. Iran has undeniably had a nuclear weapons program. Now, whether the program is actually currently active? That’s a whole other question. It’s quite possible it’s been dormant, I’m not aware of what the most reliable sources say on the current state of things.

But one thing that is undeniable is that Iran has had a nuke program. The smoking gun was found in 2023. It was found by the IAEA to have enriched uranium up to 83.7%.

https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/documents/gov2023-8.pdf

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/un-report-says-uranium-particles-enriched-up-to-83-7-percent-found-in-iran

Bomb grade is 90%. Reactor grade is around 3-5%. And the enrichment process, already a logistical nightmare, becomes exponentially more difficult to do the higher the enrichment you want. Imagine the difference between a household allergy air filter and a computer chip fab clean room. Same fundamental job, completely different levels of difficulty.

There is just no reason to go to all that effort except if you want a bomb. Sure, having a domestically sourced fuel supply, all under your control, is a nice boon. But adding bomb-making capability to that boon is not just some minor add-on to a reactor enrichment plant. You’re increasing the cost by an order of magnitude at least. Beyond any doubt, Iran has at least put a lot of effort in to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

If you wanted to be the most generous to Tehran, you could argue that they were trying to position themselves in a near-breakout state. So they enrich a stockpile just right up to the edge of bomb capability, and then stop there. Don’t actually cross the line fully to bomb grade but put yourself a short bit of effort away from one. If you wanted to be the most generous to Iran, based on what we indisputably know, you could argue they paused their race to the bomb with their toes a meter shy of the finish line.

Good faith arguments can be made about the current state of Iran’s weapons program. But the existence of a nuclear bomb program is indisputable. There are no more credible sources on these matters than the IAEA. They do not fuck around. The IAEA was built to ensure compliance with nuclear nonproliferation treaties. It was built so that nation states and their paranoid military leaders would have faith on their reports. Imagine the level of credibility that requires. If the IAEA said that Iran enriched to 83.7%, you can be damn sure Iran enriched to 83.7%. They are way more credible than any national government.

Do not take the Iraq war metaphor too far. It is indisputable that Iran has poured enormous resources into producing bomb-grade material, or, at the very least, near-bomb grade material.

We found the smoking gun in 2023. They were found by the IAEA to have enriched uranium to 83.7%. And there is zero reason to enrich to this level except for weapons production.

https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/documents/gov2023-8.pdf

In terms of accessing the nuclear capabilities of nations, there is no more credible a source than the IAEA.

Well, to be fair, they were found by the IAEA to have enriched to 83.7%. That’s not US propaganda, that’s the IAEA. Bomb grade is around 90%. Reactor grade is around 3-5%. And the enrichment process is exponential. It takes far, far more effort to enrich the higher U235 concentration you get. It’s like trying to remove finer and finer impurities from a glass of water. The point being there is absolutely zero reason to enrich Uranium to those levels, unless you are aiming for a bomb. It’s an incredible amount of extra effort, a whole lot more diplomatic and political risk, all for something that is completely unnecessary for a reactor program.

Though frankly, I think we should just let them have their bomb. They would be a lot more responsible with it than Israel has been with theirs.

Seems we could use a few thousand decent people to join ICE and start exercising some of the ideally non-violent techniques found in the CIA’s civilian sabotage field manual from WW2.

“Oh shit. Sorry boss. I thought this ICE van ran on diesel fuel, not gasoline.”

“Ah crap, I left the door to the detention van unlocked and all the prisoners ran away!”

“What do you mean I’m lazy and unproductive? I’ve been at every one of our raids. Just because I didn’t apprehend anyone myself, doesn’t mean I wasn’t working.”

“Look, I’m just being thorough. It’s important to check, double check, and triple check any orders or warrants. There’s a lot of people trying to sabotage ICE right now. That’s why I always confirm our orders both in email and in person before moving forward. I would also like to hold a meeting to plan how we might establish a committee on preventing leftists from sabotaging ICE.”

Collect a paycheck, drain ICE funds, and be the most unproductive and incompetent ICE agent in history.

As another trans person, I say the best thing to do now may be to avoid the typical liberal “protest and vote” advice. Protesting simply isn’t as effective as it used to be, and voting should not be the foundation of your political activities. Voting is useful, but especially in a firmly blue or state, it’s mostly a symbolic gesture.

There are trans people in your local area who are being hurt by this administration. Forget protesting. Focus on helping the actual material needs of the community. Every blue state currently has trans refugees coming into them. Often these are young adults showing up with few resources, often ending up homeless. There’s likely a population of homeless trans kids in your own community. These are the people you should be focusing on helping right now. Join a local trans support group to help out your brothers, sisters, and siblings. If an organization doesn’t exist, start one. Things to focus on:

• Housing and access to housing

• Job assistance.

• Food and other essentials (one group in my area runs a trans specific food bank, as many trans folks have had bad experiences with church-run food pantries.

• Medical assistance. Provide recommendations to local providers. Educate people on safe DIY use. If there are local HRT homebrewers in your area, help organize distribution and mutual aid.

*Traditional gender support groups for newly transitioning folks.

• General mutual aid and emergency assistance.

Honestly, for trans people, it’s completely valid to just laser focus on the material needs of our own community right now. We’re being targeted by an organized campaign of state persecution. There’s hundreds of thousands of us that are internally displaced refugees within the borders of the US. There’s a lot of people hurting, and a lot of people in need. Protest if you want, but personally, I’ve found focusing on direct material needs and mutual aid to be a much more productive and rewarding path. The Trump regime is trying to destroy us. Simply helping your brothers, sisters, and siblings is an act of political resistance and defiance.

Your goal is not to bring down the Trump regime. That is not your responsibility. For those most targeted, simply surviving these years is your primary act of resistance. Take care of yourself, and take care of your brothers, sisters, and siblings. That is how I as a trans person have found meaning in this time. I voted, but that was only symbolic. And I’m not currently participating in protests. I’m focusing on actually directly helping people instead. Survival is resistance.

Conservatism will do that to you.