Tootfinder

War is an unconscionable horror. The illusions of "international law" and "rules of war" have lead us to believe that war can be clean, managed, and "civilized."
But wars are fought by humans and humans are messy. Humans are not well suited to following orderly rules. Humans respond to their environment. Humans in extraordinary situations can be extraordinarily vindictive and brutal. Sufficiently traumatized humans can act without a conscience, spreading trauma like an infection. If humans respond to their situation, then there can be no "civilized" war because war is itself an situation outside of the society. It is a place that promotes antisocial behavior and punishes pro-social behavior. War cannot be expected to follow "international law" because it is what fills the void created by the failure of "international law" (so long as we rely on nations).
To call for war is to inflict atrocities on civilians. It is to kill the parents and children who serve, and to destroy the combatants who survive. It is to infect both sides with a trauma that will spread if untreated, when soldiers come home or when they become mercenaries in other wars.
And yet... there are times when the brutality, the incompetence, the evil becomes so unbearable that no other option exists, when taking up arms is simply bringing symmetry to an existing asymmetric conflict. There are times when the worst possible thing is inescapable, though it can never be justified.
In this new era of war, in the scramble of conflict under the collapsing of the (poorly named) "Pax Americana," I hope that we, the people, can understand that war is not a tool to fulfill an objective. It is not part of a larger strategy. It is not an extension of deplomacy.
War is a failure.
While it may be the only way to deal with the irrational - the genocidal, the slaver, the dictator - it is still a failure. It is a failure to build a world in which these people can't control armies and economies, can't turn populations in to cults and bend nations to their will.
And we will continue to have such wars until we unite against those who would use as as pawns, who would control our lives and lead us to our deaths. We will have these wars until we unite, as one world, against those rulers. This is what I mean, and what a lot of other people mean, when we say, "No War, but Class War."

Chinese game Revenge on Gold Diggers, one of the most popular and contentious video games in the country, sparks a debate over misogyny and male resentment (Li Yuan/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/busines

‘Who Killed Love?’ A Video Game Plays to Male Resentment in China.
A popular and contentious game, Revenge on Gold Diggers, sheds light on misogyny, inequality and the feeling among many men that they are economic victims.

Minnesota Senator Tina Smith hospitalized after not feeling well at Capitol (Jasmine Baehr/Fox News)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/minnesota-senator-tina-smith-hospitalized-after-not-feeling-well-capitol
http://www.memeorandum.com/250716/p159#a250716p159

I've got a 3am start with derpmaster Mike coming up in the next few days. He normally gets up at 5.30am so I've got a feeling there's going to be no settling him after I arrive and his regular humans all leave.
Still, hot weather will mean an early walk and breakfast and then we can both snooze!
My fourth year of looking after Michael.
#Greyhounds

Failing to Make America Healthy Again
In the face of the worst outbreak of measles this century - due to vaccine mistrust he himself sowed - US Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr is gaslighting America.
https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/failing-to-mak…

Failing to Make America Healthy Again
In the face of the worst outbreak of measles this century - due to vaccine mistrust he himself sowed - US Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr is gaslighting America, argues Matt Bernardini

ChatGPT Agent uses a virtual browser to do tasks such as filling online forms and calling public APIs, and generates downloadable PowerPoint and Excel files (Reece Rogers/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/openai-chatgpt-agent-launch/

OpenAI’s New ChatGPT Agent Tries to Do It All
It’s a PowerPoint generator! It’s a date-night planner! It’s … another agent from OpenAI.

MSNBC Host Says Karoline Leavitt Looked 'Ashen' After Putin Meeting (Catherine Bouris/The Daily Beast)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/msnbc-host-says-karoline-leavitt-looked-ashen-in-alaska-following-putin-meeting/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250817/p33#a250817p33

Takeaways from FEC filing day (Punchbowl News)
https://punchbowl.news/article/campaigns/fec-filing-day-2/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250716/p91#a250716p91

Trump has not called Walz following shooting of Minnesota lawmakers (Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2025/06/15/trump-walz-minnesota-shooting-lawmakers-call
http://www.memeorandum.com/250615/p68#a250615p68

Tucker Carlson and Trump are falling out over the Iran war (Andrew Prokop/Vox)
https://www.vox.com/politics/417085/trump-kooky-tucker-carlson-iran-israel
http://www.memeorandum.com/250617/p119#a250617p119