No, it's a religious fundamentalist thing and is hardly unique to Iran.

If anything, the Iranian version is relatively more moderate then their counterparts in places that practice forms of Sunni fundamentalism like Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan.

Not trying to pretend the Iranian morality police are good, or reasonable, but relative to those other two examples, they aren't as bad. Which is saying something, since they are clearly awful in their own right.

Although to be fair, it might be less philosophical or theological reasoning that account for those differences, and just more the practical reality that Iranian women generally have more rights than those in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan.

New Labour are really just a strain of neoliberal Democrats. Ole' Starmy is New Labour, through and through.

I don't even know where to begin with the levels of idiocy contained in your remark.

Like, do I start with the realities of how Western PMC mineral extraction fed into the cycle of extremism and poverty, the problems inherent with trying to use foreign military occupation to create a functioning centralized state out of a tribal society who's only a nation because colonial powers drew lines on maps, or just the raw racism of believing that the white saviors should invade and occupy poor brown countries because we have to show those savages how to be better people.

.....and how many more years of military occupation would have prevented that?

Oh, I got an idea. Let's bomb the shit out of them, including a bunch of weddings, reinvade, and install another heroin kingpin as President.

Look, the Taliban is shit and these stories are truly horrific, but where was the coverage of Afghanistan the last 10 years?

Whenever I read these stories, all I see, aside from the obvious human misery and evil, is a media class that is continually trying to rewrite history to somehow justify the failure that was the 20 year occupation, and discredit the withdrawal.

I hope this woman gets justice and I hope things improve for women in Afghanistan. But I also want the Western audiences not to be the blinded by the sinister intent that is behind a lot of the Western Afghanistan media coverage.

Not because they should dismiss this women's story, or those like hers, but so they don't forget what a failure the NATO adventure in Afghanistan was. So they don't believe that the next war, should go on forever, or that expeditionary military force and occupation can be used to improve women's rights.

Throws down? She might as well have said:

who you going to believe, me? Or you're lying eyes?

What's crazy is that your comment isn't even endorsing any position, just stating a fact:

Michigan has a large and diverse Muslim community and without them, Biden is unlikely to win the state.

His policy on Israel's war has lost him those votes, and that has been reflected in the polling since long before the debate.

This isn't a new development.

No one here is debating that there is some hidden upside to theocracy. They're bad, we get it.

His point though, is that much like the Miami Cubans, the Iranian exiles that fled after the overthrow of the Shah, tend to be part of the old ruling class that had been disempowered. At least, the most vocal ones.

Also, just like Batista, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was enabled and backed by Western powers, before revolutionaries overthrew him and ended his dynasty.

Sure, they had a system of relatively successive monarchies, but that isn't the same as having a single running system of government. And it certainly not somehow more legitimate than theocracy, if your own benchmark is democratic rule - which you just said was the determining factor of a government's legitimacy.

Also, not for nothing, but the last monarchical dynasty was literally installed by the British, and propped up by Western powers until the people, or at least, a fanatically religious subset of the people, overthrew them.

Again, it's not like I'm a fan of theocracies, but saying that their current government is illegitimate is absurd, whether viewed in the context of international relations, or internal support and control.

He failed to legitimize the government that has been ruling the country since 1979....?

Presumably this website feels the Pahlavi dynasty, which was installed and backed by foreign powers and also lasted about 50 years, was the last legitimate government.

You don't have to support theocracy to recognize the absurdity of claiming that a government that's been in charge for 50 years, and is recognized around the world, is somehow illegitimate.

Losing one artist isn't the implication....it's losing all your independent venues because they won't financially survive being blacklisted by every artist that hopes to tour anywhere else because LN is a monopoly...

So goodbye independent venues and hello to exponentially higher prices, because that's what monopolies do...

Just duct tape some EREC (explosive reactive egg cartons) on that bitch and you'll be good to go.

No, it won't.

You're clearly uninformed on the power of Operator Prayer, or Tactical Theology, and the role it plays on the modern battlefield.

With sufficient levels of belief, that bullet can achieve anything. Just remember, if you believe, your bullet can achieve.

Correct, they rigged it: past tense.

I don't mean by literally stuffing ballots, but via mostly boring administrative and bureaucratic maneuvering. Although, some state Democratic parties did actually cancel their Presidential primaries entirely, which frankly should be illegal.

Nothing I'm saying is breaking news. This was covered at the time, and has seen a small resurgence in coverage since the debate.

I think The Lever actually just republished the reporting they ran at the time.

Trump isn't some mythical Boogeyman who only Biden can beat. That's not my gut feeling, that's what the recent electoral results and polling data shows us.

But putting that aside, that doesn't mean the DNC should be rigging primaries because they think they know best. That's how Trump won in 2016, and why we just witnessed Biden sun downing on a debate stage.

That's what primaries are for.

Unfortunately, Biden and the DNC didn't feel that aspect of party democracy was convenient for them this year, so...well, here we are.

Intentionally misleading headline, but not technically incorrect.

These are designed to carry troops through an irradiated battle space and keep them safe from the fallout. At least while they're inside and the filtration systems are functioning properly.

That doesn't mean they were magically enhanced to be impervious to antimaterial weapons, or other types of kinetic damage that happen in combat.

You should really read up on how they operate.

Here's just one hypothetical based off available reporting, court cases, and leaked documents:

Artist A has a history of performing at independent Portland venues but also tours the country and therefore has to use LN venues and TM services.

When LN opens their Portland location, Artist A will have to either start using the LN venue, or find that the rest of their tour has suddenly run into financial issues with LN pricing and rebate schemes.

So Artist A switches to Portland LN venue, and magically those issues start to go away.

And that's just the artist side, LN pulls variations of this monopoly abuse with local venues who refuse to Ticket Master, or sign with LN.

I'm not even doing their criminal behavior justice and the real examples are significantly worse then what I quickly typed out. This will only harm artists, local venues, and Portland, if allowed.

Unions should always back the due process rights of their members....

Of all the things to shit on Police Unions for, this one actually requires a conviction to be valid.

Until then, it is every union's moral and ethic obligation to support their members as they go through the legal process.

Prior to his FAA appointment, Whitaker was a long time airline industry lawyer and executive.

Don't confuse the job description on the FAA website, with the actual role he's been appointed to fill.