Hegar

Joss used his last moments to push his partner out of harm's way. If he'd reached for his gun instead, maybe the bullets hit differently. But it wouldn't have stopped what happened.

If you feel safer then arm yourself. But there aren't that many situations where having a gun stops you being hurt. More commonly it escalates to violence faster, or just lets you hurt someone back.

Yes! House of reps is what I meant. Thank you.

There are some exceptions and it's definitely not all they do, but attending to the interest of the powerful is their day-to-day work.

Senators accept bribes from various industries and wealthy individuals in order to block or advance legislation on their behalf.

Because a Senator's electorate is the entire state, they are more likely to be servants of large state-wide industries like dairy in WI, oil & gas in TX, etc.

This is as opposed to the Congress, where the make-up of their specific district can alter which moneyed interests they benefit most from serving.

Every state has only 2 federal Senators, compared to a variable amount of congressional reps based on population. So individual Senators are generally considered more powerful.

I dunno, teenagers all smoke and they seem pretty on the ball.

that face is a consequence, not a goal.

My understanding is that it is a goal. It's not just a botched face job or over use of botox. People walk in and ask for a face like that.

I have no idea if you're being serious.

Tbh I struggle with that myself sometimes.

But mar-a-lago face is a real thing and while the first instinct is to recoil in horror at what these people have done to themselves, elites have a long history of this kind of extreme identity signalling. And I do think this phenomenon is best understood as part of that tradition.

2, 3 & 4 are examples of what's called "Mar-a-lago face" - really blatant plastic surgery to emphasize your ability to afford plastic surgery.

Elites frequently engage in body-modification intense enough to look grotesque to others as a way of marking their status. Mayan and Hunnic cranial deformation and Chinese foot-binding are prominent other examples.

"I'm probably something" is how I put it.

I believe the IRA ran guns to the PLO, from memory.

Pro-genocide Israelis hate the Irish in particular, because Ireland consistently has the largest support for the Palestinian cause in all of Europe. As recent victims of violent imperialism the Irish know it when they see it.

have come under fire

Oh, prime example of the weasel-passive.

IDF shoots at Irish peacekeepers is the correct headline.

Thats largely untrue though. In crises people come together. The term academics use is "spontaneous self organization". It's really just the upper classes who turn to brutality at every possible opportunity.