AbuTheMonkey

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Leicester City winning the premier league in 2016. Something like that will probably never happen again...sucks if you missed it

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First one that came to mind for me as well.

There's not exactly a 1:1 American sports equivalent but would be roughly akin to the Akron Rubberbacks or Birmingham Barons winning the World Series or San Jose State or Louisiana Tech winning the FBS national title.

Also interesting because Fitz and ADdC have fairly high chances of being Ryder Cup teammates at some point here soon.

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good with them becoming a nuclear power

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A single bit of evidence on this would suffice. They've been "weeks away" since the mid-2000's.

As for the rest, I would rather not get our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen killed if we can avoid it. We're at 13 with 200+ with serious injury and counting. I am an Iraq combat veteran who saw the death and destruction firsthand, including a member of my unit who lost his legs to an Iranian-supplied EFP. Trump's administration hasn't articulated the actual strategy and final goals of this boondoggle, and it appears to be an ever-greater clusterfrick every day this goes on.

The food is good to very good. Not on the Hideki / Adam Scott / Rahm level but really good nonetheless.

The wine list is probably the best a Champion’s Dinner has ever had.

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Buddy, they’ve been trying to work out all that for decades. And still those militias fight. You obviously haven’t been paying attention for the last two decades.


Most folks raised in the USA and Western Europe will never understand islam. That’s a good thing.

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Sure, I don't disagree. I am confident I have a better grasp on the type of Islam practiced in that part of the world than virtually everyone else on this board. Should we get into the millenarian practices of Twelver types who have held power in Iran for the last half century?

So why the frick are we there? Trying to force regime change again from the air? Which will not work in mine or your lifetimes. The IRGC and Basij have very intentionally decentralized their command structure as they knew this would be an eventuality for them. They will not relinquish power and will tens of thousands die (yet again) if anyone tries to poke their head up above the rubble to take back governance. So what then?

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Serious question, no disrespect to the soldiers (probably in this thread) who served in Iraq. Not personally, but collectively, what did the U.S. accomplish in Iraq? A friend I graduated college with died in 2005 in Iraq (Bradley/IED). I’m certain you military guys know how horrific a death those guys suffered. Though his family was very proud of him and patriotic, years later, I met up with his brother and he had grown very bitter over the ‘why’ of the occupation. What is your insight? thx

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No disrespect at all. It’s a fair question and one that many of us asked ourselves quite a bit.

I think the country, on balance, is a much better place to live in 2026 than it was in 2002. From everything I know and the people I keep in contact with, they would mostly agree. Much of that is due to the superhuman efforts of the American people - uniformed and not -over the last twenty-plus years.

Now, was it worth it? That’s an entirely different question. 5,000 American KIA, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead, a region destabilized, two vicious insurgencies, on and on and on.

Jesus Christ

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Crazy thinking that at one time the Big Ten and Pac Ten conferences actually had ten teams. It's like it was logical.

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The demise of the PAC 10 /12 is a national tragedy. Still shocking that happened. One of the great institutions in American sports with a legacy more than a century old just collapsed almost overnight.

That will be looked at as the moment the sport really turned.

He has probably played better than people have given him credit - he was in the 20's in Datagolf for almost all of last year. He is actually probably a better driver now than he was when he was at his peak. He didn't fall completely off the face of the earth.

Two things, I think, with him:
1. The rate at which he was making the 10 - 20+ footers, especially in critical situations, when he was at his peak was unsustainable - that was a generational run he was on and that probabilistically was just never going to last

2. The game more or less passed him. He probably isn't that different of a player compared to 10 years ago, but the mix of people against whom he is competing is better. Longer, better iron players, more complete, etc. The bar was raised, and he wasn't able to quite compete like he once could. Look at the list of players in the top 15 of the OWGR in 2016:

1. Jason Day, Australia, 10.9145
2. Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland, 9.8336
3. Dustin Johnson, United States, 9.5330
4. Henrik Stenson, Sweden, 8.6940
5. Jordan Spieth, United States, 8.0436
6. Hideki Matsuyama, Japan, 7.4883
7. Adam Scott, Australia, 6.5476
8. Patrick Reed, United States, 5.3972
9. Alex Noren, Sweden, 5.3525
10. Bubba Watson, United States, 5.1949
11. Danny Willett, England, 5.0889
12. Rickie Fowler, United States, 4.9676
13. Sergio Garcia, Spain, 4.7346
14. Paul Casey, England, 4.6999
15. Justin Rose, England, 4.4397

Of that set (putting Jordan beside), only Rory, Hideki, Adam Scott, Reed, and Rose are still playing world class golf week in and week out, and only Rory and Hideki have been quite clearly better than Jordan the last few years.

Nipah is not that contagious - typically has an R0 below 1.

Very, very lethal, yes. But not highly contagious.

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As long as the U.S. is in NATO: no


Not saying it would happen, but just curious... If Russia were to attack Estonia, would you be in support of US intervention? Question meant in good faith, just want to know where people stand on the idea.

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At a minimum, I'd be in favor of providing logistical, air, naval, missile, intelligence, and other indirect support. Actually operating the platforms ourselves to the fullest extent of our capabilities, not providing generation-old tech and training officers and NCO's hundreds of miles and three countries away from the front.

Let the Eastern and Baltic NATO countries take the lead on the ground. They wouldn't have much of a problem with American air and naval power providing support.

For the record I don't think Russia has any plans whatsoever to take on a NATO country any time in the near future. Forget what you think of their performance in Ukraine:

Their geopolitical axis has fallen apart around them while they've been bogged down expending an enormous amount of military resources, money, and political capital in Ukraine.

Europe
The country with which it shares the longest border in Europe joined NATO and abandoned a long-standing neutrality policy as a direct result of the invasion. The remaining Scandinavian holdout (who also happens to be less than 100 miles from Russia's border) finally joined NATO, and the Baltic is completely choked out for Russian access in the event of a NATO conflict. They also betrayed a highly embittered Armenia in 2023.

Middle East
Of its three strongest allies in the Middle East (including probably what was its closest ally anywhere in the world outside Europe), one fell and is in exile in Moscow (Syria), one is teetering on the brink (Iran), and one is hopeless crushed for at least a generation (Hamas).

Latin America
Its closest Latin American ally was just decapitated in a 2 1/2 hour raid.

Etc. etc.

Most if not all of that would not have happened if they hadn't had invaded then been bogged down in Ukraine. They are inarguably in a much, much worse strategic position than they were in 2021.