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bolverk

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bolverk last won the day on June 13

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  1. Yeah, Tucson seems alright, though I haven't spent much time there, just passing through. But I've got family in and around Phoenix, so I've been there quite a bit over the last four decades. I've only spent a 4-5 days in Kansas City for a conference a few years ago, and the downtown area wasn't bad at all, and I've heard Lawrence is a nice little college town. Mostly, I'm just taking issue with the statement that Arizona State "is the only school in the entire conference located in an area people actually want to live in." It's just a patently false assessment. I can't speak to Des Moines/Ames, Manhattan, Morgantown, or Stillwater (OKC isn't so terrible, though, but Tulsa's actually okay) so no judgment against them until I see/experience them.
  2. I'd live in Denver, SLC, DFW, most likely Houston, and possibly even Cincinnati before moving to Phoenix. Orlando would likely be a toss-up. Have you ever spent much time there? It's a hot-as-balls hellscape of desert sprawl with no soul that shouldn't exist except for the dwindling water supply that has to be imported in from the (other) Colorado River even to make it liveable. Plus, their Mexican food fucking sucks.
  3. Mediocre Monday Wordle 1,633 5/6 ⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛ ⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛ ⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #911 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟨🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1414 7️⃣4️⃣ 5️⃣6️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/
  4. The committee was required to select the five highest-ranked conference champions. Since the ACC's conference champion was unranked Duke, they had to pick up an extra G6 champion.
  5. Imagine being a senior on the ND squad and just finding out that you played your last game for your alma mater last Saturday. Maybe they had a team meeting where they all agreed. If not, I've lost a lot of respect for Freeman as a coach for screwing those seniors over by depriving them of that last game.
  6. You guys have a losing record (1-2) against the CFB Playoff Top 25. Miami has two losses against unranked teams. One of those losses was at home to Louisville. Virginia has two losses against unranked teams. One of those losses was at home to Wake fucking Forest. Alabama has a road loss to unranked Florida State.
  7. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/us/politics/boat-strike-shows-survivors.html?smid=url-share The two survivors of the U.S. military’s first boat strike on Sept. 2 climbed atop the overturned hull and waved to something overhead, according to multiple people who have seen video of the attack. The signaling by the survivors has been interpreted in different ways. Some of the people viewing the video thought the waving by the survivors could have been an attempt to surrender, which could raise questions about whether the military had violated the rules of armed conflict during the operation. Others who viewed the video said the most logical explanation was that the two survivors had seen the American aircraft above them and started signaling for a rescue. But it is not clear from the video that the survivors had definitely seen the American aircraft. The military officers briefing Congress on Thursday said the survivors could have been trying to beckon to other alleged drug traffickers in a plane or boat to come get them, communications that could have justified the follow-up strike that killed them. But some lawmakers viewing the video rejected that interpretation. There were no other unknown aircraft or boats in visual range, and no other boats involved in drug trafficking could have rescued them, according to officials who attended the briefings on Thursday. The new detail further complicates the military’s explanations for the actions it took during the Sept. 2 strike in the Caribbean Sea and raises new questions about the propriety of the follow-on attack. That strike has become the focus of congressional oversight, though Democrats and experts continue to question the legality of the entire military campaign. The Sept. 2 strike was the Trump administration’s first attack on a boat suspected of carrying drugs, so the people on the vessel would have had no knowledge that the United States was beginning a military campaign against drug trafficking. It was not until October that the Trump administration first disclosed that President Trump had “determined” that the United States was in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels and that the crews of boats suspected of carrying drugs for them were “combatants.” A wide range of legal experts have rejected that contention. In any case, the people killed in the Sept. 2 attack, a month earlier, may not have known that the U.S. military considered them combatants in an purported armed conflict. That is a reason to think it may not have occurred to them that they could “surrender,” so if they were signaling to an American aircraft they may have been merely pleading for rescue. The military has not said what type of aircraft launched the first strike, and it is not known if the survivors could have identified it. But officials who have watched the video said it is also not clear if the survivors even knew the initial explosion was an attack. Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the top Special Operations commander, met in classified sessions with various senior lawmakers all day Thursday. He showed them a more complete video of the Sept. 2 strike and described his decision to order follow-on strikes. The video shown to Congress was far more zoomed-in and clearer than the grainy video released soon after the Sept. 2 strike, according to officials who watched it. Admiral Bradley was working off an order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to sink the boat, destroy the drugs and kill the people transporting the drugs. Mr. Hegseth had approved planning by Admiral Bradley that allowed for follow-on strikes. But in meetings with lawmakers, Admiral Bradley said Mr. Hegseth had not issued a “no quarter” order that would have required killing the survivors in any circumstances. After a day of scrutiny over the boat strikes, U.S. Southern Command announced on Thursday evening that the military had killed four more people in the Eastern Pacific in the 22nd boat attack. In a social media post with an accompanying video, Southern Command said that the strike was carried out at the direction of Mr. Hegseth.
  8. Correct. They cannot. Edit: It's the same reason Japan and South Korea haven't joined.
  9. What a load of shit. Being located in Europe is a requirement for all new members. As such, the alliance cannot, by definition, be composed of a majority of non-European nations and, therefore, cannot be "perpetually expanding," since the list of non-NATO countries is now somewhat limited.
  10. "Y'all have lost the plot. He's just a little eccentric." - immamac
  11. Wordle 1,630 3/6 ⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛ 🟨⬛🟩🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #908 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1411 7️⃣6️⃣ 4️⃣8️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/
  12. The NY Times had a good write-up on him this morning. PTSD, depression, isolation: bad cocktail for someone with minimal education and doesn't speak the language on top of having gone through some serious shit. A Volunteer’s Dire Warnings About the National Guard Shooting Suspect More than a year before the Trump administration granted asylum to the Afghan immigrant, the volunteer’s emails raised concerns that he was unraveling. The emailed plea was urgent and direct: “Rahmanullah needs help.” The warning came nearly two years before Rahmanullah Lakanwal would be named as a suspect in the gunning down of two National Guard troops near the White House on the eve of Thanksgiving. It was enshrined in writing by a volunteer helping to give Mr. Lakanwal a fresh start in America who had become convinced he was unraveling. He had tried to make a go of life in the coastal city of Bellingham, Wash., after he and his family were evacuated from Afghanistan by the U.S. military in August 2021. In Afghanistan, he had fought in a C.I.A.-trained paramilitary unit. In the United States, he did temporary jobs, took his five sons to a local mosque and hosted visitors for tea in an apartment decorated in traditional Afghan style, with floor pillows and red rugs. But by early 2023, he started to show signs of depression and erratic behavior, according to accounts from a volunteer in northwest Washington who worked with his family. In the months after, he sequestered himself inside his darkened bedroom, refused to answer his phone, and even failed to bathe or dress his sons when his wife left to take short breaks from him. He dropped out of the English classes he was supposed to take, did not seek work and stopped paying rent. His family received an eviction notice. “Rahmanullah has not been functional as a person, father and provider since March of last year,” the volunteer wrote in a January 2024 email for a friend to send to a nonprofit group working with immigrants. “His behavior has changed greatly.” Occasionally, Mr. Lakanwal did emerge from “dark isolation,” only to disappear onto the open road, taking seemingly aimless drives hundreds of miles away to Chicago and Phoenix and Indianapolis in “reckless travel,” the volunteer wrote. He posted photos from the car on Instagram. Last week, Mr. Lakanwal went on one last road trip, the authorities say, driving cross-country to Washington, D.C., where he is accused of shooting two West Virginia Guard members, one fatally. Mr. Lakanwal, 29, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Investigators are still trying to understand why Mr. Lakanwal spiraled downward — whether he was haunted by his involvement with a violent Afghan paramilitary group, as a childhood friend told The New York Times, or if he was succumbing to the isolation, poverty and untreated mental traumas that trail many Afghans from their war-ravaged homeland, or something else entirely. Prosecutors called the shootings a betrayal by a man who had benefited from America’s generosity. Regardless of motivation, the attack has had global reverberations, as America’s failed wars violently returned just steps from the White House. continued: https://archive.is/tYo4h
  13. Wordle 1,629 3/6 ⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛ ⬛🟩🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #907 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1410 4️⃣5️⃣ 7️⃣6️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/
  14. Wordle 1,628 4/6 🟨⬛🟨🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #906 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🙂 Daily Quordle 1409 4️⃣7️⃣ 6️⃣9️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/
  15. In case you missed this from last night, Stewart brilliantly covers that.
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