Tuco

Which is (or should be) the point of Congressional hearings - determining why a shitty thing happened so you craft laws that reduce the possibility of a repeat in the future. Criminal charges are not the goal. (Not directed at Twice.)

Great post. Part of the math that I keep coming back to: Russia has around 130M people. Ukraine had* around 43M. So, about 3 to 1. Every three Russians need to produce the extra resources to control one Ukrainian. Or they need to divert those resources from other uses. Initially, that gets obscured by cash and military reserves. Later, heavy borrowing can delay the impacts. But, sooner or later, they have to pay the bill. It's just not sustainable. Compare that to Iraq, where the US:Iraq ratio was around 12:1. And Americans are richer than Russians. And we had help. And the only help Iraq had was Iran. And it still wasn't sustainable. *"Had". Certainly Ukraine's population has decreased since the invasion, mostly through people fleeing the country. Russia focusing on the land bridge territory also can change the ratio. Forced relocation may be part of the plan, but that may just be moving the problem; they still need to spend resources on controlling hostile people.

My former company, Vickers, was fucked by a Welch disciple, John Weber, back in the 90s. Weber ended up hiring a bunch stooges from Texas Instruments, probably because Vickers couldn't afford more GE pricks. The place was such a fucking shit show. There is something so galling about undeserved arrogance coupled with utter incompetence. I remember the plant manager hired an engineering manager, based on sitting next to him on a plane. The engineering manager turned out to be a complete conman, who lied about his education and experience. He ended up getting escorted out by police and left he company with several sexual harrassment suits. Fuck or fired type harassment. The perfect conclusion to this shit show was Weber getting a feature piece in the Wall Street Journal. The final line: "We've broken all the china," Mr. Weber says. "Now we've got to get it glued back together." Within two weeks Weber took a CEO position with a smaller company, leaving a wake of broken china. Vickers was sold to Eaton shortly after. My plant, which typically ran around 1100 employees, was closed. I didn't know him, but there was one guy who ate a shotgun over it. I was one of the last 5 employees in the joint. Definitely left a mark. I don't blame Welch for any of that. I don't blame corporate greed. I don't have much respect for Welch. He figured out how to make a languishing electronic-heavy equipment company profitable during a technological revolution. Sure, that's not easy, but is it really that hard? He didn't invent shit. He didn't start shit. But I will give him credit for being competent. And, as an employee who has been negatively impacted by gross incompetence, competence is important. When talking about corporate leadership, I will take a competent asshole over nice moron. Unfortunately, it is frequently just an incompetent asshole, and that's the real problem. I will throw blame towards the corporate/media circle-jerk that deifies folks like Welch, and pushes the idea that leaders are just better for being around him. I think the more likely dynamic is that people who leave very successful companies do so because their advancement is not in line with their ambition. The belief about a disciple is generally "he must have learned a lot from Welch." Maybe instead it should be "Welch must not think that much of him." Right now, Tesla is the new GE.

If nothing else, there are enough defense industry lobbyists up the GOP’s ass to keep the support rolling after 2022. Every billion committed, is a billion in sales. Disclaimer 1: the defense lobbyists are also up the Dems’ ass. Disclaimer 2: I still agree with the spending. But we shouldn’t lose sight of who benefits and how it affects our rent-seeking political system.

I've heard that much of the ammunition is ending up criminals' heads and torsos.

It's the ones who respond you should worry about. For this cycle, I have done practically nothing. I moved from Nebraska to Seattle last year. Republicans aren't built for this climate. I've given some green to a couple of Nebraskan Democrats in a Quixotic effort to loosen the grip of stupidity on my homeland. It's more about penance than hope.

I’m afraid you are wrong. There will be blowback against the Dems for not protecting abortion rights. I went to a protest last night, not realizing it was a Democratic Socialist rally. So, sure, take it with a grain of salt, but it was a constant barrage against Dems for failing to prevent this. They cited the empty campaign promises about “codifying” Roe v Wade. They claimed the Dems had the power to prevent this by expanding the Court. The worst accusation was that they still did not have a plan to stop it. The scary thing is, if you really didn’t have any idea what the fuck is going on, it sounds convincing. And there are a lot of stupid people out there. So I hope you are right, but I am afraid you are wrong.

Don’t be silly; his toes couldn’t hold that weight.

East of Ravenna. North of Laurelhurst. Don’t know Seattle well enough to really know what I am.

East of Ravenna. North of Laurelhurst. Don’t know Seattle well enough to really know what I am.

I just signed a lease on a house within walking distance of Husky stadium. Figure I should start following this thread.

I just signed a lease on a house within walking distance of Husky stadium. Figure I should start following this thread.

I think Trump just conflates morality with success. If Russia took Kiev in a week, then Putin would be a genius and any war crimes are forgotten. But, with Russia struggling, Putin loses that grace.

I enjoyed it immensely. His shit has always been more charmingly weird than LOL funny. But the long lead up to the fresco joke was genuinely fucking funny. I got a kick out the activist shit. To each their own, I guess.

Wishing death for the soldiers of an enemy army is not a controversial opinion. Seriously, wtf?

What a bunch of horseshit. The bill didn’t get GOP votes because the GOP doesn’t want its members to vote for it. It’s got fuckall to do with the contents of the bill. The GOP doesn’t want a “bipartisan” legalization bill to hit the Senate, so they make absolutely fucking sure it’s a party-line vote. The rest is pure spin nonsense.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Putin’s support over the next couple of months. I have to think that for the average piece of shit Putin supporter, they saw this conflict as a war of convenience. Rah Rah, go kick some ass and demonstrate our superiority to the world. I wonder how many really saw it as such a threat they’re cool with Putin conscripting their sons and husbands?

The most logical explanation would be that she had acquired them off the black market for some sort of display. "This is what an abortion looks like at 8 weeks. Disgusting isn't it. Murder is disgusting. Therefore abortion is murder." You know, that kind of logic. But...homicide detectives? Um...I got nothing.

Jesus, I don’t really remember who this dipshit is, but I kind of want to neg him just for the fuck of it. (Shaggy does not bring out the best in me sometimes.)

I worked with a guy whose previous job was working on tomahawk missiles. He said it was a good day for him when he found out the version he was working on would not be a nuke vehicle.

Not a dumb question at all. My uneducated guess is that it is a question of size and compactness. If you hit a tank with an armor piercing ordinance, let's say you get a 1" hole in the armor and 20 cubic foot fire ball/shrapnel on the backside. The tank is pretty much crew space, engine, fuel and ammo. Chances are pretty good you will hit something that will take the tank out of the battle. If you hit a ship with the same ordinance, with the same hole and fireball, it's more likely you will take out space. Maybe a couple of sailors. Maybe some important system. But if you don't hit fuel or ammo, that ship is still in the battle. Even if you hit it below the water line, they will close off the segmented hatch and patch it later. If you've ever watched footage of WW2 naval battles, those ships can take a ton of damage and stay in the fight. Until, suddenly, a lucky hit gets the fuel or ammo, and then it's over. Which is why fuel and ammo are heavily armored.

Are there drone torpedoes? I would imagine the technology wouldn’t be that difficult, but there would be little incentive for the major powers to develop. Not useful for counter-insurgency or head to head shooting war. It’d be a pretty niche application, that happens to apply now.

All time for me is probably Little Big Man, watching his family murdered from across the river. Opening to UP is close. Most recently, C.O.D.A. Really, a pretty upbeat and funny movie, but some scenes got me.

“Why are we still talking about Trump? He’s not the President anymore. This is all just a distraction from Biden raising gas prices.”

So, it wasn't through elections and it wasn't invasion. How, specifically, do you think Biden's comments should be interpreted? Let's stop playing faux-outrage bingo and why don't you use your fucking words and tell us why this was a "pretty big deal." You know, maybe you can compare and contrast how serious we should take this when compared to supplying munitions that are killing Russian soldiers daily. Or maybe compare it to leading global sanctions which will crash Russia's economy in an attempt to weaken Putin's control. We are in the middle of a fucking proxy war with Russia and Russia is shelling civilians, so please tell me why this is supposed to be headline news. Be specific, and be sure to clutch those pearl tightly.