But that’s never how magic is depicted - it always takes decades of knowledge and learning or powerful enchanted artifacts forged from rare minerals and materials, and rituals which always name a price.

Modern magic can do all those things - if you have the right artifacts, likewise made of precious metals forged by lightning and etched with beams of sunfire and inlaid with gemstones from beyond the sea, fuelled by the ichor alchemically distilled from the remnants of ancient forests and carefully assembled by entire courts of white-robed magi who have each spent decades perfecting their deep knowledge of ritual and arcane lore.

With these artifacts, I can incinerate an entire room with a twitch of my finger upon a staff of fire summoning, read minds with a helm of probing, lightning people with a tiny wand of stunning, and conjure familiar from across the world to do my bidding on my black mirror for the small sacrifice of tiny particles of lightning in a distant runestone.

Welcome aboard the lemmy train!

If you use sham referendums and Kremlin news sources as your basis for reality, why not move there? I’m sure Putin would welcome you with open arms!

Shipmate, are you promoting piracy?

Y’all wanna try us, dude? Go ahead. Give my TM and FT friends a real good reason to set Battle Stations Torpedo. We’ll be glad to oblige.

Sure it does - it’s exactly what happened with the League of Nations -> UN.

Honestly, I say bring it. I’m just waiting for the order to set Condition 1SQ. I’ll do it, too. Maybe after we do a hard reset, we can do it differently, or let another species take over.

throat singing intensifies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

Heroyam Slava

Shipmate, as an active-duty submariner, you realize that the Israelis aren’t Americans, right? Sending money to the IDF doesn’t help your cousin on the ground. You of all people should also understand that the Ukraine front is an actual strategic conflict, and sending our retired equipment already marked for demolition to them instead is a strategic maneuver that’s entirely in accordance with all governing directives. Why don’t you ask your cousin about the actual boots-on-ground strategic picture instead of making assumptions.

Actual unironic North Korean human farms in 3, 2, 1…

If that’s all the intel you think is showing up on SIPR and JWICS then I have beachfront property to sell you in Kansas.

It’s not a suicide mission if you use all the means available to already have the information you need for the mission available. It’s how we got Bin Laden and tossed his dead body in the ocean. It’s how we got Saddam. It’s how we put a metal shard through Solemani. It’s how we tapped Russian underwater cables for years without them even suspecting it.

I’m a submariner and have chats with SEALs. What do you do for a living?

Use OPIR, COMINT, HUMINT, OSINT, GEOINT and drone imagery alongside sleeper cell infiltrators alongside PRISM and the NSA database to locate the targets, then use one of the following:

• Aboveground: Sniper from two miles out, on a hill somewhere.
• Aboveground in a bunker: Precision guided bunker-buster munition with a shaped charge to open the door, and then secondary charge to kill the target and minimize casualties
• Belowground: noxious gas to fill the tunnels and drive out anyone without a mask, armed unmanned ground vehicles to scout ahead with a swarm of drones. SEAL follows behind. Flashbang the room, use night vision to locate and then neutralize hostiles while attempting to minimize loss of hostages and noncombatants.

You’re in the minority

That ratio though.

Your opinion that non-british people would strike a chord with British people as well or better than a British person. As was previously noted: most people didn’t give a shit about brown people dying until the headline said “British”, and then suddenly it mattered.

I know the yield of a Trident II D5 missile’s REVs, yes. I know the entire sequence from receipt of an EAM to reentry and detonation. I’ve read the CJCS instructions and all other governing documentation.

It is not my job or that of any sailor or officer on an SSBN to determine the legitimacy of the reason, only that the EAM is in fact valid and authentic in accordance with procedure and governing documentation. To think otherwise is naive, and got at least one officer kicked off the ship.

My job is simple. When I’m told to man battle stations missile for Strategic Launch, I man battle stations missile for Strategic Launch. When I am ordered to set condition 1SQ by the CO and XO, I set condition 1SQ in accordance with procedure and governing documentation as quickly as possible while remaining within procedural guidance.

I like the civilians who support the troops and actually show gratitude for the shit we have to deal with on a daily basis to keep them safe. Civilians calling for us to sterilize ourselves or trying to fence-hop a nuclear installation get no sympathy from me.