Ghost of LL

Thank you. We're talking about two entirely different things. And my comments have been specifically toward addressing the twitter thread, which draws a conclusion that isn't supported by the underlying facts (or even the opinions expressed in the New York Times article). That conclusion is that Iran/Hizbullah are coordinating today as though there were some sort of unified command, and that we should expect an imminent expansion of the conflict.

No--fascists are typically pretty efficient at governing. I mean, tyrannical and murderous. But efficient.

I know--I've been in the ones in Downtown Houston. This is what it is to live under a tyrannical foreign occupation. I'm sorry if this offends people, but the military's ability to arbitrarily take and destroy your property, livelihood, and life with no notice, right to compensation, or recourse to the judiciary or other authority is the definition of tyranny. And I can hold the two thoughts in my brain simultaneously that (1) Hamas has committed monstrous atrocities and should justifiably be destroyed and (2) Israel has been operating a tyrannical occupation for more than a half-century that ought to end.

Pretty much any gun store in Texas.

You don't have shit. You have a bunch of people talking to The New York Times offering their conclusions based on scattered pieces of evidence. Perhaps you find their conclusions persuasive; I do not. It doesn't mean I'm posting "weird shit," as you allege. It means that I disagree with conclusions that are contrary to other facts that we all see. There is nothing going on right now in any other theater that would reflect any ongoing coordination with Iran or Hizbullah. Iran has certainly provided weapons and materiel to Hamas. It provided those weapons with the specific objective and intent that they be used to attack Israel. And I'm sure they have talked about the means and methods of perpetrating such an attack. But this discussion started in the context of the action expanding into a broader conflict. And there's no evidence of ongoing coordination between Hamas and Iran/Hizbullah that would indicate an expansion is imminent. And that's a real good thing for Israel, because it has its hands full right now with Gaza. And Israel has demonstrated in the past that it can get real bogged down in Southern Lebanon if it also has to go take on Hizbullah. So the last thing it needs is a two-front war that may even draw in Syria.

They're welcome to call me. That'd be a fun lawsuit.

Right. And that is not a "political party" as that term has ever been understood in political science. I don't really know what it is, beyond a complete and total clusterfuck.

I did read the thread. I just don't draw the same inferences as you do. So there were meetings between Hamas and Hizbullah. No shit. There are routinely meetings between Hamas and Hizbullah. But one cannot conclude from those meetings that they coordinated this particular attack. In fact, there's no evidence that Hamas and Hizbullah coordinated the timing, means, and methods of Hamas's present attack. There's no evidence of any coordination; all the evidence indicates a complete absence of coordination. And the Hamas statements you identify reflects that this is a Hamas-only operation. When the Hamas spokesman says "we have been preparing for this for two years," the "we" in that sentence is Hamas. That is very clear from the context. I used the Leroy Jenkins analogy purposefully. I have no doubt that Hamas joins in with Hizbullah, the IRGC, the PFLP, and Islamic Jihad in regular meetings to discuss how they're going to go attack the "Zionist Entity." But Hamas is charging in on its own right now and leaving everyone else to decide what to do now.

You talk as though the GQP is a party, and it's just not. At this point, it is a non-functioning coalition of about four different parties. But in no way does it resemble an actual political party right now. But I agree that electing Hakeem Jeffries is incredibly far-fetched. The only thing that is even more unlikely is any Republican getting 217 votes. And if no Republican can get to 217 votes, then we're going to have a governmental shutdown in a month. And what do the "Republicans"--put in scare quotes, because I don't concede that there is a such thing as a "Republican" anymore--do at that point? I mean, one of those parties within their nonfunctioning coalition will be happy to watch it burn. But another of those parties is going to be very worried about its own electoral prospects in 2024. How long are they going to let a governmental shutdown go on because of the likes of Matt Gaetz?

Broadly speaking, the Speaker can determine what bills can make it to the floor for a vote. But obviously, everything is negotiable, and Jeffries would have to cede some control over floor management to any Republicans who would vote for him. So, I don't know. And really, nobody does. It's never been done before.

But all evidence indicates that there is no coordination between Hamas and Iran/Hizbullah. If Iran were coordinating all this, presumably it would have had Hizbullah conduct attacks from Lebanon at the same time Hamas was attacking from Gaza. But there has been no meaningful attack from Lebanon. The only thing Hizbullah has done is fire off some rockets that were already positioned and could be fired off with little/no preparation. Nor has there been any real move by Iran against . . . anybody. Iran could ramp up its activities in the Gulf to draw the United States Navy away from the Eastern Mediterranean. Or it could prompt action from the Houthis to strike at the Saudi oilfields. Or it could do all manner of shit in Iraq. It's done nothing. It's issuing a bunch of mean tweets, and that's it. That's not to say that things can develop. This is a serious shooting war in a volatile region. But it is to say that I don't see any basis to believe that there is some grand scheme or stratagem at play here. It looks like Hamas just Leeroy Jenkinsed this shit.

I am increasingly convinced that Hakeem Jeffries is the next Speaker. Problematically, he won’t be elected until January.

That's exactly right. My brother-in-law was an air traffic controller he retired about five years ago. He was hired around 1986, when he came out of the USAF. His problem was that there were a huge number of people with higher seniority who were hired right after the PATCO strike, so he always got stuck with shitty shifts and working on holidays. Yeah--all those guys are gone now. And at 3.7% unemployment, we just don't have the available pool of people to replace them.

Yeah--I didn't remember that, and thanks for clarifying. I just remember that, as a BA shareholder, that was a hit.

It depends. Some weapons systems, such as the F-35, are developed from the outset in conjunction with international partners. The United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Norway, Denmark, and Canada together contributes $4.4 billion towards development costs of the F-35. The United Kingdom contributed 10% of the planned development costs as the sole Tier 1 partner. Other weapons systems are developed by the likes of Boeing and Lockheed and are never picked up by any military, so it is the shareholders--and not the taxpayers--who are on the hook for that. Lockheed's Skunkworks does a lot of that. Some of what they learn gets incorporated into subsequent designs that are picked up by the military. But plenty of it just goes in the trash. And then there are other weapons systems for which there is a design competition. The F-35 is another example. Boeing also submitted a design in the Joint Strike Fighter design competition (the XF-32), but it ultimately wasn't chosen. The taxpayers don't pay for that; Boeing bears all the risk there.

He needed to run for Dodgers' pitcher. They could've used him. And yeah--I know Steve Garvey was a first baseman. I don't care. I bet he'd have an ERA lower than 25.

Yeah--we also did the Conrad when we were in Tokyo in March. I will tell you that we really liked it. The service was fantastic, and the views in really all directions are great. But we stayed there on points. I'm not sure I'd be up for $900/night.

I'm sorry--what part of "my wife is super-horny because of the pregnancy hormones but not yet too fat to travel, so we're going to Cancun for a long weekend so that I can put it in her butt repeatedly" do you object to?

Not typically. We only have two hospital ships. I have long argued that we ought to have far more. They're former oil tankers that only cost about $200M to convert to hospital ships. And for the most part, they go around the world providing medical services to people in areas that have suffered natural disasters or other catastrophes. Aside from there being an obvious need for such vessels, they are hugely effective at bringing goodwill to the United States and increasing our soft power abroad.

The water projects being developed are the ones set out in the State Water Plan. And that is compiled by engineers and staff from various water suppliers and utilities. So we're talking about new reservoirs, desalination, direct reuse (i.e., taking water that is discharged from wastewater treatment facilities and directly reusing it), etc. With climate change and the continued growth of this state's population, it's desperately needed. The funds would be managed by the Water Development Board, which is probably the single most competent/least corrupt of the various statewide governmental agencies. My default is to vote against constitutional amendments. But this is a good one.

Fucking A, Ranger friends!

Ok--yeah, that's bad. But can we have some real porn talk for a minute? When (and why) the fuck did every other porn video on the internet become incest porn. Go to your porn aggregator of choice, and damned near every other video is going to be step-something. Or dads swap daughters. Or moms teaching daughters how to fuck. I mean, c'mon porn industry--I just want a good video of a guy delivering a pizza and walking in on an in-progress pillow fight between two besties. Not step-sisters. Not a mother and daughter. Not even cousins. Just two unrelated women and a pizza guy (who is also unrelated by blood or marriage). Is that too goddamned much to ask?

In what I'm sure is completely unrelated news, USS Nimitz and HMS Prince of Wales just sailed out of Norfolk.