I think they expected there to be a tsunami of sympathy when the missiles struck.

The backlash against the American bombing of Iran, and even some actual support for Iran on social media has to be highly unnerving for them.

My guess would be greater quantity and better delivery systems.

deemed the child a security threat,

The one-year old child is a security threat? Am I understanding this correctly?

How fucking stupid would it be for Trump to make this sort of escalation to stir up a hornet nest that pisses off his MAGA base and people from the left while drawing international condemnation…and for the effort to be a failure.

And Israel can stop its genocide against the Palestinians

Our government is exceptional at dealing in violence but inept at handling threats that it can’t beat, shoot, or bomb into submission.

The societal response and government handling of COVID was not at all reassuring. To the point that I let go of any last remaining shred of hope I had for us to turn this ship around on several metrics (e.g. climate change). And unfortunately I think it has gotten even worse, e.g. with the (at least apparent) increase in anti-vaxxers.

This is Jack’s total lack of surprise.

This doesn’t seem credible, but if it is Trump just set off a very concerning chain of events.

The wounds from this are absolutely heinous and often fatal. Any relaxation of their containment is a huge unforced error.

Advertising for a fucking war that another nation started. If that’s not dystopian, then I don’t know what is.

“Every Breath You Take” by The Police starts playing in the background

BBC’s decision raises concerns of impartiality.

My reaction whenever I see this piece of shit pop up anywhere: I don’t like you, jerk-off

It usually goes something like that. I’d like to point out here that there isn’t a constitutional right to wear pants or eat bacon either.

One could similarly say that the right to wield violence does not mean that you have the right for that violence to actually succeed. Some situations allow for the legal use of deadly force, but that still does not mean the explicit right to kill. If a threat is neutralized and they survive, you can’t “make sure” that they don’t.

Learn something new every day

One of the things I’ve learned in life is that one should minimize reliance on behaviorial safeguards throught the use of mechanical safeguards. You shouldn’t rely on people to do the right thing. As such, removing opportunities for them to fuck up is key.

The design and production of rubber bullets, as they are here, is pure negligence. That they kill 3% of their victims (per your graphic) is enough that I would wager that they would be considered a lethal weapon in other contexts.

It’s such a bizarre piece of “advice”, as if robotics events are as common as grocery stores or something.

It would cost me more than the price of the safety glasses to attend such and event, after accounting for transportation costs and (very likely) admission fee.

I was under the impression that many were outright forced to fight, as opposed to signing up.

Strong Grapes of Wrath vibes

Meanwhile - Honda has launched and successfully landed a reusable rocket.