re: #1 Eclectic Cyborg
Same here. If anything the judge will be pissed.
re: #469 Scottish Dragon
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This reminds me of the pinnacle of US weapon platform technology, the M274 Mule with an M40 recoilless rifle attached. All boom, zero armor, absolutely fractally lethal to everything around it including the crew.
Also, technically not a technical because these were actually designed to be used this way.
re: #471 goddamnedfrank
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Is this the same NYPD that accused Shake Shack employees of poisoning three of their cops, arrested the manager and held him without cause for over three hours, and then quietly admitted the next day that there was no poisoning without issuing an apology?
re: #3 goddamnedfrank
This reminds me of the pinnacle of US weapon platform technology, the M274 Mule with an M40 recoilless rifle attached. All boom, zero armor, absolutely fractally lethal to everything around it including the crew.
[Embedded content]
Also, technically not a technical because these were actually designed to be used this way.
That’s one possible solution to heavy traffic.
re: #1 Eclectic Cyborg
Hey Donnie VonShitzinPants - your lawyer was able to cross examine the witness and can play additional tape on your defense (or redirect down the line if the tape is played again).
That they didn’t means that your lawyer, who knows more about the law than you do, realizes the problem with playing more of the tape, like exposing you to further criminal liability, or aiding the prosecution case.
Why was it cut off? It was likely prejudicial to play more, or irrelevant.
It’s the same reason that witnesses are directed to read specific verses/phrases from transcripts or documents, and not the entire document - because it’s not relevant to proving the case in chief.
Considering how much time in court Trump spends (although to be fair, he does doze off quite a bit), he should know this. Heck, anyone watching Law and Order or any other legal tv show would know this.
re: #3 goddamnedfrank
This reminds me of the pinnacle of US weapon platform technology, the M274 Mule with an M40 recoilless rifle attached. All boom, zero armor, absolutely fractally lethal to everything around it including the crew.
[Embedded content]
Also, technically not a technical because these were actually designed to be used this way.
Now put a Davey Crocket nuke on that baby and get ready for FALLOUT: FULDA GAP!
No ghouls but plenty of rad vampires and mutant werewolves to challenge your T-51 power armor skills!
re: #4 Targetpractice
The one in the same. With the same PBA pushing all the buttons.
re: #5 Rightwingconspirator
That’s one possible solution to heavy traffic.
I believe it would be more effective if you pointed the gun backwards and used it to propel yourself through and/or over said traffic.
re: #3 goddamnedfrank
The Australians did that with a Series II LR Gun Buggy in the 60s.
re: #11 jaunte
Have they found the paid outside agitators yet?
No, but that isn’t going to stop the NYPD and the bonehead that leads them (that would be Mayor Adams, if my shade didn’t find its mark) from continuing to claim it.
re: #3 goddamnedfrank
This reminds me of the pinnacle of US weapon platform technology, the M274 Mule with an M40 recoilless rifle attached. All boom, zero armor, absolutely fractally lethal to everything around it including the crew.
[Embedded content]
Also, technically not a technical because these were actually designed to be used this way.
And the Italians say “Hold our espresso.”
re: #14 Nerdy Fish
Maybe some of the news media they’re talking to should stop imitating bobbleheads and ask for evidence.
re: #15 Targetpractice
And the Italians say “Hold our espresso.”
[Embedded content]
I have so many questions.
Wait. Difficulty: Italians.
I no longer have questions.
re: #15 Targetpractice
LOL that looks like something straight out of some deranged anime. Also, I could see that making an appearance on Girls und Panzer. 😄
re: #15 Targetpractice
Now that’s just excessive. Only 3 rounds because you weren’t going to live to fire a fourth.
re: #11 jaunte
Nope.
But we’re also seeing reports that protesters at City College (CUNY), which is also in NYC, are getting charged with felonies for the same acts for which protesters at Columbia were charged with misdemeanors.
You can bet that race/wealth is playing a role in that as well.
The Mayor Adams administration is playing fast and loose with the facts, and of course local media is lapping up all of this. It’s easy news and front page stuff, when they don’t need to do any actual work - they simply regurgitate the NYPD and Adams press releases, without digging in to see what actually happened.
re: #15 Targetpractice
If that thing fires, the Vespa gets it.
Aww, Hopey’s crying (for no apparent reason). Maybe she realizes she’ll never again get to press Trump’s clothes while he’s wearing them.
Time to call it a day. Have a good one, Lizards and stay healthy.
re: #6 lawhawk
Hey Donnie VonShitzinPants - your lawyer was able to cross examine the witness and can play additional tape on your defense (or redirect down the line if the tape is played again).
That they didn’t means that your lawyer, who knows more about the law than you do, realizes the problem with playing more of the tape, like exposing you to further criminal liability, or aiding the prosecution case.
We’re talking about Donald Trump here: statement is “assuming facts not in evidence“…
re: #24 jaunte
If she’s protecting him she’s not doing a good job of it. She’s cementing Cohen’s credibility before he takes the stand.
re: #6 lawhawk
Hey Donnie VonShitzinPants - your lawyer was able to cross examine the witness and can play additional tape on your defense (or redirect down the line if the tape is played again).
That they didn’t means that your lawyer, who knows more about the law than you do, realizes the problem with playing more of the tape, like exposing you to further criminal liability, or aiding the prosecution case.
Why was it cut off? It was likely prejudicial to play more, or irrelevant.
It’s the same reason that witnesses are directed to read specific verses/phrases from transcripts or documents, and not the entire document - because it’s not relevant to proving the case in chief.
Considering how much time in court Trump spends (although to be fair, he does doze off quite a bit), he should know this. Heck, anyone watching Law and Order or any other legal tv show would know this.
In a trial about how Trump is so obsessed with his public image that he would pay and violate various laws to hide scandals that could tarnish that image, he’s bitching that the prosecution did not play more of a tape that he feels would help his public image.
re: #27 darthstar
Yup. All this talk of Cohen doing all of this for Trump to bury the story is part and parcel of the plan to bury these stories before they get out, and to cover for Trump by any means necessary. You’ve got Trump who signs off on billing and CFO Weisselberg also deeply involved in the financial matters and payments/reimbursements, which puts all of them squarely on the criminal conduct alleged in the indictments.
Known eugenicist blogger Richard Hanania posts a video of a racist white man taunting a black woman by making monkey noises and gestures - and Republican Congressman Mike Collins calls it “taking care of business.” https://t.co/FyAygo9xMN https://t.co/e5EEqCVlH0
— Kris Goldsmith (@KrisGoldsmith85) May 3, 2024
BREAKING: @MarkHamill is at the White House leading the Press Briefing for the day. He proudly called Biden the most successful legislative President in his lifetime. Retweet to ensure all Americans see this forceful message.pic.twitter.com/VK9rJe0jSb
— Biden’s Wins (@BidensWins) May 3, 2024
re: #17 Nerdy Fish
I have so many questions.
Wait. Difficulty: Italians.
I no longer have questions.
France says hold my merlot
re: #31 EstebanTornado1963
The Force is with Biden. :)
re: #19 Decatur Deb
Now that’s just excessive. Only 3 rounds because you weren’t going to live to fire a fourth.
That really described a lot of weapons developed in the early days of the Cold War, frantic attempts to bolster one’s forces in the face of a possible Soviet tidal wave of men and heavy tanks. Same as the Davy Crockett mentioned above, whose operators were seen as acceptable losses if the baby nukes they fired slowed down Ivan for even a few hours.
This line on cross is effective for Trump:
Inner City Press
@innercitypress
Trump’s lawyer Bove: Mr. Cohen was supposed to focus on Mr. Trump’s business credentials - as a surrogate, yes?
Hicks: Yes.
Bove: He went rogue at times?
Hicks: He did. He liked to call himself a fixer - only because he first broke it (laughs)Inner City Press
@innercitypress
Trump’s lawyer Bove: President Trump’s calls with Mr. Pecker didn’t stick out, because he often spoke with the press?
Hicks: Right. He does a good job maintaining relationships with the media even if are negative on him.
Bove: Campaigns promote themselves?
Yes.
Why is that effective? Because it supports the claims that Trump had no knowledge of what was going on and he didn’t have anything to do with the payments.
The problem is that there’s a paper trail that supports the indictments.
re: #4 Targetpractice
Is this the same NYPD that accused Shake Shack employees of poisoning three of their cops, arrested the manager and held him without cause for over three hours, and then quietly admitted the next day that there was no poisoning without issuing an apology?
And that’s exactly why they keep doing this; they get away with it.
If you imagine the audience for this kind of rhetoric, it breaks down it two solid support groups: people that understand that this is simply a pretext to maintain or increase the license of the NYPD and will go along; people that are solely interested in affirming their consequents and will believe it is true because it allows them to further elaborate on their existing beliefs of “bad people should get no rights and should be treated violently.”
But it also addresses a third group that are up for grabs: people who aren’t paying attention and don’t notice or care about long term trends of police behavior, and can be convinced because they only care about the possibility that they will be harmed.
For all intents and purposes large portions of the US government have adopted the same tactics as Project Veritas: it doesn’t matter if it’s true, it just has to be circulated as true for long enough to opportunistically rake in power or strip power from a target. It works because simply “finding” the lie doesn’t undo the emotional reaction amongst the gulled, nor does it reverse the additional authority granted to the bad actors.
re: #10 Decatur Deb
The Australians did that with a Series II LR Gun Buggy in the 60s.
[Embedded content]
With the right ammo load and firing angle, I bet you could have that jeep doing back flips.
re: #29 lawhawk
Yup. All this talk of Cohen doing all of this for Trump to bury the story is part and parcel of the plan to bury these stories before they get out, and to cover for Trump by any means necessary. You’ve got Trump who signs off on billing and CFO Weisselberg also deeply involved in the financial matters and payments/reimbursements, which puts all of them squarely on the criminal conduct alleged in the indictments.
The defense team seem to actually be trying to work themselves around to a mafia-style defense of Trump: That Cohen did it all of his own volition out of “loyalty” to Trump, that he made the payment and told his boss that it was all perfectly legal, and then later changed his story to implicate Trump in an effort to save his own ass.
Trump’s lawyer Bove: Campaigns do negative social media too, right?
👉🏼Hicks: I’ve only been on one campaign, and it was a great one.
Bove: Did you travel with a laptop, send many messages?
Hicks: Yes.
Bove: There were constant inquiries about negative stories?
Yes.
Even after everything that has been revealed about Trump, she’s still on the train. Gross.
re: #40 jaunte
Even after everything that has been revealed about Trump, she’s still on the train. Gross.
She’s a true believer
re: #41 Scottish Dragon
She’s a true believer
Muslim-banner, wall-builder, public health scoffer, democracy destroyer…
re: #39 Targetpractice
The defense team seem to actually be trying to work themselves around to a mafia-style defense of Trump: That Cohen did it all of his own volition out of “loyalty” to Trump, that he made the payment and told his boss that it was all perfectly legal, and then later changed his story to implicate Trump in an effort to save his own ass.
IANAL, but wouldn’t that defense fall under ‘advice of counsel’ that Team Trump said they were NOT going to use?
re: #43 coin operated
IANAL, but wouldn’t that defense fall under ‘advice of counsel’ that Team Trump said they were NOT going to use?
You mean the same defense that they then tried to sell to the judge by saying that so long as a lawyer was in the room and didn’t speak up when Trump wrote out the agreement, then he could assume it was totally legit because otherwise they would have told him it was illegal AF?
he is on record in a civil case admitting that he reimbursed Cohen the $130,000.
So many cases! Who can remember the stories you swear are true?
re: #30 DodgerFan1988
Anti-Palestinian counterprotestors. What do you expect?
re: #42 jaunte
Muslim-banner, wall-builder, public health scoffer, democracy destroyer…
Ah, there she is
Over the weekend independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke at a fundraiser for a far-right anti-government group in Erie County, New York - a slice of the country that had a large proportion of residents arrested and charged for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection. Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist and vaccine denialist, increasingly is embracing the far-right.
“That group, Constitutional Coalition of New York State, has founders who not only have ties to Donald Trump but are also connected to the stop-the-steal movement through their activist network, which includes groups that had a presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” The Daily Beast reported Friday. “It’s yet another instance of Kennedy—who is mounting one of the most well-funded third-party presidential threats in decades—serving as a peculiar bridge between his own anti-establishment movement and Trump’s.”
re: #36 lawhawk
This line on cross is effective for Trump:
Why is that effective? Because it supports the claims that Trump had no knowledge of what was going on and he didn’t have anything to do with the payments.
The problem is that there’s a paper trail that supports the indictments.
And Hopey is a suckuping sychophant. (also a gigantic liar, from her previous incarnation)
re: #51 jaunte
The NYPD views assigned textbooks for college classes as “nefarious material”.
Convenient.
re: #51 jaunte
Ear plugs are now a suspect item. Geez. I just bought a container of foam ear plugs for the A/C season. Do you think the NYPD will come to arrest me here in Philly? I hope not.
re: #52 Lancelot Link Returns!
Anything that can be used as a defense against police weapons (LRAD) is suspect.
re: #7 Scottish Dragon
Now put a Davey Crocket nuke on that baby and get ready for FALLOUT: FULDA GAP!
No ghouls but plenty of rad vampires and mutant werewolves to challenge your T-51 power armor skills![Embedded content]
I was once offered the opportunity to train for an operation where I would do a HALO jump with both the Navy’s version of the Davey Crocket and SCUBA gear strapped on. The 23-year old me was SO excited but unwilling to reenlist to get the training because it would have meant a fourth Vietnam excursion. Good decision, I think, from the perspective of 76-year old me.
re: #57 7-y (Expectation of Great Things in Due Course)
I was once offered the opportunity to train for an operation where I would do a HALO jump with both the Navy’s version of the Davey Crocket and SCUBA gear strapped on. The 23-year old me was SO excited but unwilling to reenlist to get the training because it would have meant a fourth Vietnam excursion. Good decision, I think, from the perspective of 76-year old me.
Not to mention the 24-year old you.
re: #35 Teukka
The continuing trend of “they say these things because they’re stupid, haha” would merely be annoying if it weren’t constantly be substituted in for “they’re saying these things because they are labeling what and who can be dismissed and thus harmed freely.”
This is language used by people with administrative power and enforcement authority as a proposed way to identify targets that should be placed outside of norms of civil liberty. This is language used by public “intellectuals” to label ideas that can be dismissed as axiomatically wrong and immoral at minimum, but often also as representative of capture by sinister and malefic ideology so dangerous it must be met with state intervention. This is also language used by people to label who can be freely harmed without even considering norms of propriety and threat.
And it’s been that way all along, since the term was exported from it’s use around BLM, precisely to characterize all supporters of BLM as alien, pathological, and dangerous. It’s not stupid, it’s aggresion…but in this case more pertinently is a pretty effective way to create a moral panic that grants power to reactionaries acting in “self defense.”
It’s that they don’t understand, it’s that they fully understand and wish to respond with both personal and state violence.
re: #17 Nerdy Fish
In fairness, the Italians made some kick ass fighters.
re: #57 7-y (Expectation of Great Things in Due Course)
I was once offered the opportunity to train for an operation where I would do a HALO jump with both the Navy’s version of the Davey Crocket and SCUBA gear strapped on. The 23-year old me was SO excited but unwilling to reenlist to get the training because it would have meant a fourth Vietnam excursion. Good decision, I think, from the perspective of 76-year old me.
Yeah that seems like a good choice
re: #54 EPR-radar
The NYPD views assigned textbooks for college classes as “nefarious material”.
Convenient.
Note that at no time do they mention the word “textbook” or any variation thereof in the statement. They just say “a book on TERRORISM” and your plebe brain is supposed to assume that that they mean these protestors were reading The Anarchist’s Cookbook or some other “How-To” guide.
But I don’t really expect much better from a police department that accused protestors in the summer of 2020 of placing piles of bricks and ice cream cartons filled with concrete with plans to use such against their officers…only for outside observers to note that said items were placed in construction sites.
re: #60 Romantic Heretic
In fairness, the Italians made some kick ass fighters.
That is surprising, since the Italian military was so terrible in WWII. I didn’t know about their good aircraft.
Mistrial declared in Abu Ghraib torture suit against the U.S.
CACI denies any wrongdoing and still gets millions of dollars worth of U.S. government contracts each year. In February, Fortunenamed CACI one of the “World’s Most Admired Companies” for the seventh consecutive year.
We’ve constructed a system in which you can do all the bad old stuff, you just have to spend money on extra layers of administration that diffuse responsibility: even if you get proof the crime happened, nobody specific is culpable.
re: #59 The Ghost of a Flea
The continuing trend of “they say these things because they’re stupid, haha” would merely be annoying if it weren’t constantly be substituted in for “they’re saying these things because they are labeling what and who can be dismissed and thus harmed freely.”
This is language used by people with administrative power and enforcement authority as a proposed way to identify targets that should be placed outside of norms of civil liberty. This is language used by public “intellectuals” to label ideas that can be dismissed as axiomatically wrong and immoral at minimum, but often also as representative of capture by sinister and malefic ideology so dangerous it must be met with state intervention. This is also language used by people to label who can be freely harmed without even considering norms of propriety and threat.
And it’s been that way all along, since the term was exported from it’s use around BLM, precisely to characterize all supporters of BLM as alien, pathological, and dangerous. It’s not stupid, it’s aggresion…but in this case more pertinently is a pretty effective way to create a moral panic that grants power to reactionaries acting in “self defense.”
It’s that they don’t understand, it’s that they fully understand and wish to respond with both personal and state violence.
It’s not as much stupidity as it is ignorance on their part, and willful such. They’re basically ignorant on what makes enlightenment and empathy character virtues, the words mean nothing to them, so they tend not to pay attention to correct spelling and use, e.g. the “Groomer” slur.
Also, being intelligent is no insurance against behaving stupidly.
A national TV program that presents Donald Trump as God’s anointed leader has found a loyal following among conservative Christians who see its message as divinely inspired.
“FlashPoint” mimics other right-wing cable programming, but offers up apocalyptic warnings and Christian nationalist messages with its political analysis — which broadcasters assure viewers came directly from God, reported NBC News.
“This is the only news show where you hear what Jesus thinks,” said one viewer, a mother of three school age children who drove four hours from North Carolina to Virginia for a taping at a Regent University ballroom.
Gene Bailey, a pastor who launched the program in 2020 on the Victory Channel, regularly hosts right-wing figures such as Lance Wellnau, who popularized the Seven Mountains Mandate that calls for Christian conservatives to take over all elements of politics and society, and pastor Hank Kunneman, who claims God told him 2024 would be a year of “vengeance against the wicked.”
Trump, who has appeared on the program that reaches about 11,000 households, is presented to viewers as a modern King David, a flawed leader who has been chosen by God to save the nation, and guests hammer away at the message that spiritual warfare is necessary to help them gain dominion over the U.S.
The episode filmed in Virginia Beach opened with brief remarks from each of the night’s panelists, who included Dutch Sheets, a self-described apostle who led a series of prayer rallies in the months after Trump’s 2020 election defeat in a bid to keep him in office.
“We are in a dark place in this nation, maybe as dark as it’s ever been,” said Sheets. “But God is coming with the light of his glory, and he’s going to save this nation through his people.”
re: #63 No Malarkey!
re: #60 Romantic Heretic
In fairness, the Italians made some kick ass fighters.
That is surprising, since the Italian military was so terrible in WWII. I didn’t know about their good aircraft.
True: though the Macchi C.205 was one of the best single-seat fighter craft produced by anybody in WWII, the problem was more one of quantity, rather than quality: Wiki gives the total production of the Veltro at just 262. And they were probably lucky to have gotten to make that many….
re: #68 Jay C
True: though the Macchi C.205 was one of the best single-seat fighter craft produced by anybody in WWII, the problem was more one of quantity, rather than quality: Wiki gives the total production of the Veltro at just 262. And they were probably lucky to have gotten to make that many….
Exactly so, and while the Italians and Germans handled them capably, they had drawbacks (Wikipedia suggests that the Germans disliked them because it took them a long time to refuel and re-arm between sorties) and suffered from the same shortage of capable pilots to fly them as the rest of the Axis aircraft.
re: #62 Targetpractice
What we’re watching is that social media allows everyone to create what’s effectively state propaganda with plausible deniability.
Everyone’s expecting an authoritative voice asserting a single line, while the actual propaganda process is one of tactical omissions and careful framing, such that it takes time and effort and an appreciation of context to explain the lie.
This mixes…badly…with a society that has a base assumption that semantics are a kind of intellectual quibbling rather than a load-bearing component of determining truth.
re: #69 Nerdy Fish
Exactly so, and while the Italians and Germans handled them capably, they had drawbacks (Wikipedia suggests that the Germans disliked them because it took them a long time to refuel and re-arm between sorties) and suffered from the same shortage of capable pilots to fly them as the rest of the Axis aircraft.
And even if they had more planes and pilots, they had severe fuel shortages that would’ve kept them grounded much of the time anyway.
This all takes me back to lovely Maggie’s “riveting” analysis of Hopey and her “existential question” about responding to a subpoena back in 2019
complete with this very weird photo for an article about a political hack.
The stock market kicked ass after the jobs report this morning showing continued but slowing job growth. Also, oil has dropped in price quite a bit lately, so gasoline prices should be coming back down soon.
re: #51 jaunte
Oh.
[Embedded content]
re: #54 EPR-radar
The NYPD views assigned textbooks for college classes as “nefarious material”.
Convenient.
re: #55 PhillyPretzel ✅
Ear plugs are now a suspect item. Geez. I just bought a container of foam ear plugs for the A/C season. Do you think the NYPD will come to arrest me here in Philly? I hope not.
re: #56 jaunte
Anything that can be used as a defense against police weapons (LRAD) is suspect.
“Possession of tools in furtherance of a crime”
It’s how the cops can pile on charges against people having stuff like lock picking tools, even if there’s no evidence those “tools” were even used.
re: #66 jaunte
And some real clangers as well. Caproni Ca.60
Once described as, “not looking out of place sailing up the Channel with the Spanish Armada.”
Henry Cuellar and his wife are facing very serious charges. Unfortunately, this might create a GOP pickup opportunity in the US Congress if Cuellar refuses to drop out of the race and let the party select another candidate.
re: #75 TedStriker
Sheez. I hate to hear what they would do with my SF collection.
re: #73 BeachDem
This all takes me back to lovely Maggie’s “riveting” analysis of Hopey and her “existential question” about responding to a subpoena back in 2019
complete with this very weird photo for an article about a political hack.
[Embedded content]
It’s a pic straight off the cover of a Harlequin novel.
re: #65 Teukka
It’s not as much stupidity as it is ignorance on their part, and willful such. They’re basically ignorant on what makes enlightenment and empathy character virtues, the words mean nothing to them, so they tend not to pay attention to correct spelling and use, e.g. the “Groomer” slur.
Also, being intelligent is no insurance against behaving stupidly.
I’d contest that the words do mean something, it’s just that they feel no obligation to make their definition correspond to what others mean. Indeed, language is appropriated specifcally to weaponize by changing the meaning but retaining the implications.
For example, the use of “Groomer” is very deliberate: you have assigned the subject to a very specific realm of unpersonhood—someone that manipulates children to use them. By changing the meaning to exclude the act of grooming in broad sense—ideological training or normalizing abuse with a child unable to process what they are learning—and transforming the definition to mean—people that we don’t like that are gay or trans who possibly could be around children—that is an attempt to harness the stigma and reactions prompted by stigma and direct them towards preferred targets.
A very similar phenomena occurring both in general parlance and within the administrative state is the expansion of “terrorism”: in countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia the word has been expanded to include most forms of government criticism, and are a major part of suppressing domestic protest on a individual level. At the same time in this country we have LEO and politicians attempting to broaden “terrorism” to include anti-cop actions, in particular w/r/t the Atlanta protests about Cop City.
It is willful ignorance, but what motivates that willfulness is a conceit that they are entitled not only to dictate the meaning of language, but that when they define language it will be reflected in the language and actions of power-holding institutions.
re: #15 Targetpractice
And the Italians say “Hold our espresso.”
[Embedded content]
Definitely mobile in a muddy battlefield.
re: #75 TedStriker
“Possession of tools in furtherance of a crime”
It’s how the cops can pile on charges against people having stuff like lock picking tools, even if there’s no evidence those “tools” were even used.
Here’s the thing: Most bullshit charges that we get outraged over these days come from these stupid little laws that everyone thought were common sense when they were passed. “Of course people should be punished more for having lock picks if they’re committing a burglary, that means it’s willful.” Only it’s never worded so precisely, and the people in power are very good at using any vagueness in such laws to stretch them far beyond their original intent. It’s important, when looking at a piece of legislation, not to think of how it ought to be used, but how an extremely motivated bad actor in a position of power would use it.
re: #63 No Malarkey!
That is surprising, since the Italian military was so terrible in WWII. I didn’t know about their good aircraft.
The Italian military was terrible because their economy was terrible. Think China for much of the 20th century: Their R&D was heavily dependent upon outside help, domestic sources of raw materials were woefully inadequate, most of their workforce were uneducated peasants, and their production facilities were small automakers whose annual production numbered in the hundreds of handbuilt cars and trucks. And all of this in a country that was largely mountainous and dirt poor, which meant their biggest tanks still had to be small enough not to imperil the structural rigidity of backwoods bridges that strained to allow two fully-loaded 1/2 cargo trucks to drive side-by-side.
re: #35 Teukka
Somehow, it was less annoying when they just plain said the slurs that “woke” is the stand-in for these days.
re: #83 Nerdy Fish
It’s important, when looking at a piece of legislation, not to think of how it ought to be used, but how an extremely motivated bad actor in a position of power would use it.
The only time SCOTUS worries about that is when Donald Trump and his merry band of insurrectionists are the defendants.
re: #84 Targetpractice
The Italian military was terrible because their economy was terrible. Think China for much of the 20th century: Their R&D was heavily dependent upon outside help, domestic sources of raw materials were woefully inadequate, most of their workforce were uneducated peasants, and their production facilities were small automakers whose annual production numbered in the hundreds of handbuilt cars and trucks. And all of this in a country that was largely mountainous and dirt poor, which meant their biggest tanks still had to be small enough not to imperil the structural rigidity of backwoods bridges that strained to allow two fully-loaded 1/2 cargo trucks to drive side-by-side.
True, but it’s still embarrassing that they got their asses handed to them by Greece and the Germans had to bail them out. Greece!
re: #83 Nerdy Fish
Here’s the thing: Most bullshit charges that we get outraged over these days come from these stupid little laws that everyone thought were common sense when they were passed. “Of course people should be punished more for having lock picks if they’re committing a burglary, that means it’s willful.” Only it’s never worded so precisely, and the people in power are very good at using any vagueness in such laws to stretch them far beyond their original intent. It’s important, when looking at a piece of legislation, not to think of how it ought to be used, but how an extremely motivated bad actor in a position of power would use it.
Every time you leave an interpretative gap in a law it’s going to first gamefied by it’s wielders, and then pushed to it’s maximum degree of implausibility by cynical actors looking to weaponize semantics.
We can see this is every law that functionally creates space for “well, of course we had shoot the black guy.”
re: #55 PhillyPretzel ✅
This is pretty much the same type of mental deficiency that brought us the Satanic Panic of the 80s.
re: #87 No Malarkey!
True, but it’s still embarrassing that they got their asses handed to them by Greece and the Germans had to bail them out. Greece!
It’s what happens when the criteria for advancement to positions of leadership is who daddy is and how fanatically he kisses Il Douche’s ass.
re: #90 Targetpractice
It’s what happens when the criteria for advancement to positions of leadership is who daddy is and how fanatically he kisses Il Douche’s ass.
Wait, are we still talking about the WWII Italian military?///
re: #87 No Malarkey!
True, but it’s still embarrassing that they got their asses handed to them by Greece and the Germans had to bail them out. Greece!
TBH the Greeks could be some ferocious motherfuckers…
re: #84 Targetpractice
The Italian military was terrible because their economy was terrible.
They still managed to design and build some very good warships. The Littorio class battleships were excellent although meant to fight in the Mediterranean rather than more open water like the Atlantic so they had less range than their counterparts. They also had some very good destroyers although again they were range-limited since they didn’t travel far from friendly ports.
re: #4 Targetpractice
Is this the same NYPD that accused Shake Shack employees of poisoning three of their cops, arrested the manager and held him without cause for over three hours, and then quietly admitted the next day that there was no poisoning without issuing an apology?
50 years later, Frank Serpico is still right about the NYPD.
re: #96 Nojay UK
They still managed to design and build some very good warships. The Littorio class battleships were excellent although meant to fight in the Mediterranean rather than more open water like the Atlantic so they had less range than their counterparts. They also had some very good destroyers although again they were range-limited since they didn’t travel far from friendly ports.
But warship production came at the expense of tank and aircraft production. We’re not talking the US or USSR which had (comparatively) unlimited supplies of steel, Italy’s wartime steel production was a fraction of what the Allies produced and what they had was of lower quality overall. For the cost of even a single destroyer, they might have had hundreds of tanks and tankettes which might not have been that impressive but whose absence was definitely felt when the Army took losses on the battlefield that they could not quickly replace.
re: #31 EstebanTornado1963
[Embedded content]
FX tomorrow is running a May the 4th marathon from 7am EDT to 1:30am EDT — episodes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Not wasting our time with the prequels 1, 2 and 3.
18-1/2 hours (including commercials)
re: #100 sagehen
Ahh yes Star Wars. May the Fourth be with you. No Kentucky Derby?
re: #100 sagehen
They’ll run 1, 2, and 3 on the 5th.
re: #42 jaunte
Muslim-banner, wall-builder, public health scoffer, democracy destroyer…
He gave her Covid, but then once she was hospitalized made sure she got one of the first 2 doses of Remdesivir (he got the other one of course)….
re: #36 lawhawk
This line on cross is effective for Trump:
Why is that effective? Because it supports the claims that Trump had no knowledge of what was going on and he didn’t have anything to do with the payments.
The problem is that there’s a paper trail that supports the indictments.
late to this party
the paper trail argument is awfully strong.
the ‘i had no knowledge argument’ is bullshit.
tfg paid cohen well over the 130k that went to daniels.
it was more than 130k because there were some other expenses.
plus they added on more to cover cohen’s taxes on the income.
i dont recall what the total is. for my argument, it doesnt matter and i dont care:
there is no way tfg signed checks to cohen for 130k (or way more) without knowing (or asking) specifically and exactly what legal services cohen provided that tfg was paying for
*cohen* didnt hand tfg an invoice and a blank company check.
someone in the trump org did. in the normal course (more or less) with every other company bill that needed to be paid. tfg did not sign checks in the blind. ever.
i dont think it’s a very effective counterargument
the reality is he did know. he helped orchestrate it. and approved every single dollar that was paid and why. and everyone knows he knew.
re: #100 sagehen
I’ll probably watch the alternate edit, War of the Stars
Among other things, they replaced the cantina band with Neil Young. VAST improvement.
re: #100 sagehen
IMO the prequels are waaaay better than 7-9. #3 especially.
re: #74 No Malarkey!
The stock market kicked ass after the jobs report this morning showing continued but slowing job growth. Also, oil has dropped in price quite a bit lately, so gasoline prices should be coming back down soon.
I had a great couple weeks with my main stocks AAPL and AMZN.
re: #99 Targetpractice
But warship production came at the expense of tank and aircraft production.
The designs were good though and that’s what was under discussion. Claiming that the Italians were ignorant medieval artificers doesn’t actually make much sense when they did in fact design and produce world-class ships and aircraft. They might not have built enough of them or used them effectively but that’s something else.
re: #106 GlutenFreeJesus
IMO the prequels are waaaay better than 7-9. #3 especially.
This. Revenge of the Sith is solid.
The first time I saw the trailer for it, it was myself and three other guys crowded around a CRT monitor in a computer lab at the college I was attending.
When I saw this:
And heard Palpatine say “Lord Vader…rise.”
I was like “oh damn, this is gonna be FUN.”
re: #108 EstebanTornado1963
I had a great couple weeks with my main stocks AAPL and AMZN.
Those are good stocks to own.
re: #107 Joe Bacon ✅
Final UK Local election results. Note the Tories wound up behind the Liberal Democrats.
Another example of why the Lib Dems are sometimes called the “Temporarily Embarrassed Tory Voters Party”. Basically a lot of regular Tory voters vote for the Lib Dems for an electoral season or two when the Tory leaders screw up too badly by, for example, presiding over increases in mortgage interest rates. After a few years though they always come back to their natural home and Vote Blue. At that point the Lib Dem share of the vote plummets and they lose most of their seats in both the councils and Parliament. Plus ça change…
re: #107 Joe Bacon ✅
Final UK Local election results. Note the Tories wound up behind the Liberal Democrats.
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Hard to see how Sunak survives this debacle with a general election coming up in January.
I get an emails from audacy and today their top news story is a second Boeing whistleblower suddenly dies.
re: #104 Dangerman
late to this party
the paper trail argument is awfully strong.the ‘i had no knowledge argument’ is bullshit.
tfg paid cohen well over the 130k that went to daniels.
it was more than 130k because there were some other expenses.
plus they added on more to cover cohen’s taxes on the income.i dont recall what the total is. for my argument, it doesnt matter and i dont care:
there is no way tfg signed checks to cohen for 130k (or way more) without knowing (or asking) specifically and exactly what legal services cohen provided that tfg was paying for
*cohen* didnt hand tfg an invoice and a blank company check.
someone in the trump org did. in the normal course (more or less) with every other company bill that needed to be paid. tfg did not sign checks in the blind. ever.i dont think it’s a very effective counterargument
the reality is he did know. he helped orchestrate it. and approved every single dollar that was paid and why. and everyone knows he knew.
The one thing Trump has going for him is that he only has to convince one juror that reasonable doubt exists to avoid a guilty verdict. For Trump, a mistrial is as good as an acquittal.
re: #110 Eclectic Cyborg
This. Revenge of the Sith is solid.
The first time I saw the trailer for it, it was myself and three other guys crowded around a CRT monitor in a computer lab at the college I was attending.
When I saw this:
[Embedded content]
And heard Palpatine say “Lord Vader…rise.”
I was like “oh damn, this is gonna be FUN.”
Luke got fucked being hidden on a desert planet while Leia got lucky.
re: #113 No Malarkey!
Hard to see how Sunak survives this debacle with a general election coming up in January.
Oh, yeah. Unless something dramatic happens, the Tories are toast and Rishi Sunak is a dead man walking.
re: #109 Nojay UK
The designs were good though and that’s what was under discussion. Claiming that the Italians were ignorant medieval artificers doesn’t actually make much sense when they did in fact design and produce world-class ships and aircraft. They might not have built enough of them or used them effectively but that’s something else.
Yet that’s what I’m largely discussing, that the Italian military suffered because the economy wasn’t there to support them. They had world-class ships because they concentrated the lion’s share of their prewar military resources into ship production, trying to match French naval build-up in anticipation of competing with them for control of the Med. As a result, the Army and Air Force were treated as the poor cousins, as the Army was largely a police force for Italy’s colonial holdings and French airpower was as backwards prewar as Italy’s was.
But this isn’t an isolated deal, as the British leadership prewar devoted most rearmament spending to the Royal Navy, which meant early war tanks for the Royal Army were archaic trundling monsters and the Royal Air Force was flying fighters still covered in doped fabrics over wooden skeletons.
re: #114 PhillyPretzel ✅
I get an emails from audacy and today their top news story is a second Boeing whistleblower suddenly dies.
Joshua Dean, a Boeing whistleblower who warned of manufacturing defects in the planemaker’s 737 Max, has died after a short illness, the second Boeing whistleblower to die this year.
Dean, 45, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line” at Spirit.
In 2018 and 2019, two 737 Max planes were involved in fatal crashes, which killed 346 people. Dean was fired by Spirit last year, and filed a complaint with the Department of Labor alleging that his termination was in retaliation for raising safety concerns.
According to the Seattle Times, Dean was hospitalized after having trouble breathing. He was intubated and developed pneumonia and a serious infection before dying two weeks later.
I mean, I know it happens but a 45 year old dying after a short illness is NOT that common.
I have questions.
re: #113 No Malarkey!
Hard to see how Sunak survives this debacle with a general election coming up in January.
I really expected him to have given up and called an election already — the most typical time for a British General Election to be held is a Thursday in late May. There’s a bunch of reasons for this, including the idea that people feel better after winter, it’s often sunny and warm and there’s a couple of Bank Holidays in May to put an extra shine on things for the incumbents.
It’s too late for that now since there’s a required minimum of six weeks between prorogation of Parliament and the election proper but a June election is a real possibility. If PM Sunak takes a Government limo to Buck House for tea and biscuits with King Charles early next week I wouldn’t be surprised. Monday is one of those Bank Holidays though, tuesday maybe?
re: #51 jaunte
Oh.
[Embedded content]
As I thought. The Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction book was a *textbook*. /former college bookstore employee at a very large university.
re: #120 Eclectic Cyborg
Me too. Quite a few as a matter of fact.
re: #73 BeachDem
This all takes me back to lovely Maggie’s “riveting” analysis of Hopey and her “existential question” about responding to a subpoena back in 2019
complete with this very weird photo for an article about a political hack.
[Embedded content]
No surprise coming from a journalism hack. /so glad I didn’t get that Bachelor of Journalism in 1982.
re: #115 No Malarkey!
The one thing Trump has going for him is that he only has to convince one juror that reasonable doubt exists to avoid a guilty verdict. For Trump, a mistrial is as good as an acquittal.
assuming they weeded out the stubbornly blind faithful..that leaves us with:
a guy who was running for president, did in fact become president, who clearly micromanages everything around him…
in this one single time in his life didnt know what he was paying for, didnt ask over the course of signing multiple checks what it was or why it kept coming up…
and it just so coincidentally happened to be this elaborately planned, calculated and executed scheme that did no one any good but him
i know anything can happen…
i have faith in the jury on this
re: #117 Nerdy Fish
Oh, yeah. Unless something dramatic happens, the Tories are toast and Rishi Sunak is a dead man walking.
he can co-lecture with May
re: #121 Nojay UK
I really expected him to have given up and called an election already — the most typical time for a British General Election to be held is a Thursday in late May. There’s a bunch of reasons for this, including the idea that people feel better after winter, it’s often sunny and warm and there’s a couple of Bank Holidays in May to put an extra shine on things for the incumbents.
It’s too late for that now since there’s a required minimum of six weeks between prorogation of Parliament and the election proper but a June election is a real possibility. If PM Sunak takes a Government limo to Buck House for tea and biscuits with King Charles early next week I wouldn’t be surprised. Monday is one of those Bank Holidays though, tuesday maybe?
As badly as the Tories are performing, I would think they would want to delay an election for as long as possible in hope of a miracle that turns things around, but I know next to nothing about British politics.
re: #127 No Malarkey!
As badly as the Tories are performing, I would think they would want to delay an election for as long as possible in hope of a miracle that turns things around, but I know next to nothing about British politics.
That was also what I thought, but as you say, I am an American and I have only a passing familiarity with things that go on across the pond.
re: #121 Nojay UK
I really expected him to have given up and called an election already — the most typical time for a British General Election to be held is a Thursday in late May. There’s a bunch of reasons for this, including the idea that people feel better after winter, it’s often sunny and warm and there’s a couple of Bank Holidays in May to put an extra shine on things for the incumbents.
It’s too late for that now since there’s a required minimum of six weeks between prorogation of Parliament and the election proper but a June election is a real possibility. If PM Sunak takes a Government limo to Buck House for tea and biscuits with King Charles early next week I wouldn’t be surprised. Monday is one of those Bank Holidays though, tuesday maybe?
Sunak’s hoping to squeak the India Trade Deal through before the elections and the rest of the party just don’t want the free ride to stop. If they weren’t required by law to call elections by the end of January, they’d never call elections and remain in power until by-elections whittled them down one by one. Polling right now says they may end up third behind the Lib Dems if elections were called now, so they have absolutely no incentive whatsoever to do anything more than try to ride this fiery wreck all the way to the ground.
re: #117 Nerdy Fish
Oh, yeah. Unless something dramatic happens, the Tories are toast and Rishi Sunak is a dead man walking.
He’s rich enough the lifetime pension probably means nothing to him; but for Liz Truss to get the same lifetime pension for being PM less than 60 days…
re: #123 PhillyPretzel ✅
Me too. Quite a few as a matter of fact.
I am not an assassin, but it would seem difficult to orchestrate breathing issues followed by pneumonia and an infection. On the other hand, rhinovirus, influenza, bronchitis and covid could do any of those things easily.
re: #124 mmmirele
No surprise coming from a journalism hack. /so glad I didn’t get that Bachelor of Journalism in 1982.
I applied my journalism education to the more honorable profession of advertising (hey, there are truth in advertising laws!) and then taught advertising copywriting at Ohio State. Sorry, not sorry.
re: #132 A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS
Yes that would work.
re: #132 A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS
I am not an assassin, but it would seem difficult to orchestrate breathing issues followed by pneumonia and an infection. On the other hand, rhinovirus, influenza, bronchitis snd covid could do any of those things easily.
As could Covid (albeit it usually doesn’t affect a person that fast).
Wouldn’t it be possible to expose someone to something that could trigger a reaction that might lead to breathing problems among other symptoms?
re: #119 Targetpractice
Yet that’s what I’m largely discussing, that the Italian military suffered because the economy wasn’t there to support them. They had world-class ships because they concentrated the lion’s share of their prewar military resources into ship production, trying to match French naval build-up in anticipation of competing with them for control of the Med.
They were also facing the Royal Navy in the Med, even given that for Britain it was a secondary area of operation after the North Sea and the Atlantic.
But this isn’t an isolated deal, as the British leadership prewar devoted most rearmament spending to the Royal Navy, which meant early war tanks for the Royal Army were archaic trundling monsters and the Royal Air Force was flying fighters still covered in doped fabrics over wooden skeletons.
British tank doctrine was based on engine capacity which in the 1930s was dire all round. They went for two different designs, the cruiser or whippet tank, light and fast and the infantry tank, slow and heavily armoured and the operational doctrine was based on those concepts. The Matilda II infantry tank was the heaviest tank used in combat by anyone in 1940 but the engines available at that time were gutless so it was necessarily slow. The Crusader cruiser tank used in the North Africa campaign was twice the speed for two-thirds the weight but less well-armoured.
By the end of the war British tanks were getting power plants based around aircraft engines, including actual reworked Merlin engines which vastly increased their power and speed. The US Shermans got a rotary engine option which also derived from aircraft power plants for the same reason, lots of power in a compact form.
i gotta start chopping
spinach potato frittata for dinner
also a bottle of cheap bubbly wine
for no reason
re: #136 Nojay UK
The Americans stuck with their tried-and-true strategy of, “Just keep building more of ‘em until they stop being effective,” and the thing about the Sherman tank was that it was just flexible enough to keep being effective against just about anything the Germans, Italians, or Japanese could throw at it. They tried to repeat that strategy, with varying degrees of success, with the M60 and the M1A1.
re: #135 Eclectic Cyborg
As could Covid (albeit it usually doesn’t affect a person that fast).
Wouldn’t it be possible to expose someone to something that could trigger a reaction that might lead to breathing problems among other symptoms?
I did mention covid (my first thought, actually). And generating breathing problems would be easy enough, it’s producing the rest of that series that would be difficult for a human operative).
re: #138 Unabogie
At least the F-117 had a reason it was shaped the way it was. That thing is just arbitrary.
re: #88 The Ghost of a Flea
Humans are always looking for excuses.
re: #111 No Malarkey!
That’s all I own which I sell options on. It works really well.
re: #92 TedStriker
Ask the Ottomans about that.
re: #128 goddamnedfrank
Good times.
I remember that night, even though I wasn’t registered at the time - MikeySDCA (but then using Channeling Confucius as his handle in comments), who used to post a lot of links to Cracked in the pages.
re: #146 A Three Hour Tour
I remember that night, even though I wasn’t registered at the time - MikeySDCA (but then using Channeling Confucius as his handle in comments), who used to post a lot of links to Cracked in the pages.
I have distant memories of that, though I don’t seem to recall the actual incident in question.
re: #141 jaunte
At least the F-117 had a reason it was shaped the way it was. That thing is just arbitrary.
It’s really hard to capture in pictures just how hideous it is. It looks…hostile? Like how pictures of hostile architecture just make you feel like it’s an object not made for humans.
Anyone else all of a sudden seeing really long youtube ads the past couple days? Like ads longer than the content you are watching. Not even really ads sometimes. Like yesterday I was watching something and like a full episode of the Avengers Assemble cartoon popped up as an ad. Literally a full episode without any commercials, it said sponsored in the bottom left corner and the option to skip popped up after a few seconds, but I didn’t and it played all the way through to the credits.
Today I walked into the kitchen and came back and it was like some award ceremony and I thught what I was watching had ended and it skipped to another video, but it again said sponsored in the corner with the option to skip and it was like a half hour long, I skipped this one because it wasnt as cool as cartoons.
re: #148 Unabogie
People who use trucks tend to use the flat parts (the hood and the top edge of the rear cargo compartment) as temporary shelves, but this design gets rid of those useful surfaces for “style.”
re: #148 Unabogie
It’s really hard to capture in pictures just how hideous it is. It looks…hostile? Like how pictures of hostile architecture just make you feel like it’s an object not made for humans.
Yeah, I saw one in the wild the other day and was surprised at how unattractive it was. I mean, it looks stupid and hard to see out of in the pictures, but in person, it’s just dull and ugly.
The frozen Russian assets accruing interest, mostly in Europe, are expected to generate about €5 billion in profits a year — and a central element of the US proposal is to bring forward those proceeds to increase the amount of support Ukraine receives in the near term.…
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 3, 2024
re: #150 jaunte
People who use trucks tend to use the flat parts (the hood and the top edge of the rear cargo compartment) as temporary shelves, but this design gets rid of those useful surfaces for “style.”
Pretty sure the vast majority of trucks in the US are almost never used as trucks and those people who are buying $50-60000 trucks as status symbols are happy to buy impractical status symbols.
re: #150 jaunte
People who use trucks tend to use the flat parts (the hood and the top edge of the rear cargo compartment) as temporary shelves, but this design gets rid of those useful surfaces for “style.”
I’m no fan of trucks unless a person is actually hauling stuff, but this isn’t even good for that. It’s just a truly bizarre object that will absolutely be sitting in junkyards collecting rust.
And these people are paying $100,000 for this?
And cards on the table, I like to get around by bike and I’d be so much safer if people weren’t driving trucks with front ends so high they can’t see me riding in front of them without a camera on the grill.
I really wish we’d move back to small cars, or better yet, no cars.
The Vespa with the attached tube thingy was actually a French weapon (though it used an Italian scooter). The tube is a 75mm recoilless rifle. The idea was to provide anti-tank firepower for paratroops. It actually saw combat, apparently with some success, in Algeria.
Vespa 150 TAP
The gun was intended to be dismounted for firing but could be fired from the scooter in an emergency. (The article explains how a recoilless rifle works). They usually worked in pairs, with the second scooter carrying more ammunition.
re: #149 danarchy
Anyone else all of a sudden seeing really long youtube ads the past couple days? Like ads longer than the content you are watching. Not even really ads sometimes. Like yesterday I was watching something and like a full episode of the Avengers Assemble cartoon popped up as an ad. Literally a full episode without any commercials, it said sponsored in the bottom left corner and the option to skip popped up after a few seconds, but I didn’t and it played all the way through to the credits.
Today I walked into the kitchen and came back and it was like some award ceremony and I thught what I was watching had ended and it skipped to another video, but it again said sponsored in the corner with the option to skip and it was like a half hour long, I skipped this one because it wasnt as cool as cartoons.
I always hit skip when I can, so I don’t know how long the ads are!
re: #157 Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines
Even knowing how a recoilless rifle works, the idea of blowing one of these across the map with its own shot is too funny not to joke about.
re: #155 Unabogie
No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. - P. T. Barnum
And he’d know.
MAGADARVO:
“…Prosecutors in Washington, D.C., revealed in newly unsealed court records Friday that a former government employee with ties to the intelligence community has been arrested and charged with submitting fake tips about seven co-workers who he falsely claimed were involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
……….
Prosecutors say they turned up a fake report sent by Zapata to one victim’s employer where he claimed the person told him, “we’re going to hang those dirty politicians and keep President Trump in office for four more years.”Besides accusing his former colleagues of fomenting violence on Jan. 6 or actively taking part in it, he also said one individual had sympathy for, and associations with, far-right groups including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Boogaloo Bois.”
https://lawandcrime.com/
re: #156 Unabogie
And cards on the table, I like to get around by bike and I’d be so much safer if people weren’t driving trucks with front ends so high they can’t see me riding in front of them without a camera on the grill.
I really wish we’d move back to small cars, or better yet, no cars.
And just think of how much worse it is with “Carolina Squats” (now illegal, but doesn’t seem to be deterring the assholes who drive them.)
To squat or unsquat. Time’s up for banned SC vehicles. Will owners choose to risk fines?
The canon de 75mm Vespa only weighed about 200 pounds, with the gun.
The whole team, two scooters and the two soldier crew, could be carried into action by even by a 50s vintage light helicopter.
re: #163 Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines
That’s extremely lightweight for something that can break through 100mm of armor.
re: #164 jaunte
That’s extremely lightweight for something that can break through 100mm of armor.
The M20 recoilless rifle weighed 103 pounds complete. The version used on the Vespa was lighter because of its more basic mounting. en.wikipedia.org
More modern recoilless guns like the Vietnam era 90mm M-67 ( which was brought back into service in Afghanistan) are much lighter, 37 pounds empty and 47 loaded.
People think this is funny but I think it is scary.
re: #168 Vicious Babushka
People think this is funny but I think it is scary.
[Embedded content]
The blood libel, inspiring pogroms and massacres for centuries.
The possibility of a mistrial in the current case because of a Trumpist agenda juror doesn’t bother me too much, as long as the prosecutors are bloody-minded enough to try the case to a new jury.
Trump having to sit in that courtroom for the trial is already a worse punishment for him than any likely sentence after conviction.
So a Trumpist juror that derails this case could just inflict extra suffering on their Mango Messiah, which would be very entertaining.
re: #162 BeachDem
And just think of how much worse it is with “Carolina Squats” (now illegal, but doesn’t seem to be deterring the assholes who drive them.)
To squat or unsquat. Time’s up for banned SC vehicles. Will owners choose to risk fines?
Jesus. We’re a country of sociopaths.
re: #125 Dangerman
Hope Hicks could be remembered as a key witness for both sides. She testified as prosecutors expected about the effect of the Access Hollywood tape on the campaign, noted that Trump was micro-manager who closely supervised everything around him and acknowledged that it seemed unbelievable that Cohen would pay hush money to Stormy Daniels of his own accord.”
re: #57 7-y (Expectation of Great Things in Due Course)
I was once offered the opportunity to train for an operation where I would do a HALO jump with both the Navy’s version of the Davey Crocket and SCUBA gear strapped on. The 23-year old me was SO excited but unwilling to reenlist to get the training because it would have meant a fourth Vietnam excursion. Good decision, I think, from the perspective of 76-year old me.
That would have been pretty epic though.
re: #153 Captain Ron
Implicit in this process is that for a very long time Europe has been housing money for oligarchs.
Was this money in place when they annexed parts of Georgia, or when the took apart Chechnya?
Speaking of Marjorie Three Toes, she announced she is bringing her Motion to Vacate the Chair up for a vote. I have to applaud her, because the House GOP will suffer through the humiliation of their Speaker being kept in power by the Democrats, without which they would suffer the humiliation of ousting a second GOP Speaker themselves in just a few months, in order to spend Dog knows how long trying to elect a third Speaker. Marjorie, I salute you!
re: #176 No Malarkey!
Speaking of Marjorie Three Toes, she announced she is bringing her Motion to Vacate the Chair up for a vote. I have to applaud her, because the House GOP will suffer through the humiliation of their Speaker being kept in power by the Democrats, without which they would suffer the humiliation of ousting a second GOP Speaker themselves in just a few months, in order to spend Dog knows how long trying to elect a third Speaker. Marjorie, I salute you!
Jesus H. Fucking Christ, she’s actually doing it.
re: #172 Unabogie
Jesus. We’re a country of sociopaths.
I’m convinced that MAGA goobers around here think that cow catchers, er “brushguards,” will make their trucks bulletproof. At least some of the same mob also have the delusion that a .50 BMG rifle will disable a tank and “knock an APC over on its side.” It occurred to me that we might not want to enlighten them.
re: #177 Nerdy Fish
Jesus H. Fucking Christ, she’s actually doing it.
Yes. In order to inflict the maximum amount of humiliation possible, the Democrats should all hold off voting until all the Republicans have voted, then when Johnson comes up short, cast just enough Democratic votes for Johnson to keep him as Speaker, to show who is really in charge.
re: #178 JC1
I have one on my Garmin.
[Embedded content]
mine
analog time and heartbeat
minimalist
the running activity screens have all the data
re: #180 No Malarkey!
Yes. In order to inflict the maximum amount of humiliation possible, the Democrats should all hold off voting until all the Republicans have voted, then when Johnson comes up short, cast just enough Democratic votes for Johnson to keep him as Speaker, to show who is really in charge.
+1
+2
Kaitlyn Clark is going to be here in Arlington for a preseason game against the Dallas Wings, and the preseason game is sold out.
WFAA did a story about a guy noticing the redlining occurring in Dallas: there are over 400 banks north of I30, with only 40 below, which is majority black and Latino. Thanks to that guy’s hard work, there are now 41.
re: #138 Unabogie
I’d rather have a Pontiac Aztec than that thing.
re: #185 GlutenFreeJesus
I’d rather have a Pontiac Aztec than that thing.
For one thing, an Aztek weighs about half as much as that fugly rustbucket, so it could probably drive in the sand, as opposed to the unfortunate garbage heap that was pictured earlier in the thread.
re: #180 No Malarkey!
Yes. In order to inflict the maximum amount of humiliation possible, the Democrats should all hold off voting until all the Republicans have voted, then when Johnson comes up short, cast just enough Democratic votes for Johnson to keep him as Speaker, to show who is really in charge.
+3
Pushing back on Empty G’s [hollow] threats to the Speakership can only (even given the horrific coverage of the issues in the “MSM”) be an unmitigated FAIL for the KooKoo Kaucus. *UNLESS* it comes down to the classic Party-line vote (which, IMHO, it won’t, this time around),
re: #180 No Malarkey!
Yes. In order to inflict the maximum amount of humiliation possible, the Democrats should all hold off voting until all the Republicans have voted, then when Johnson comes up short, cast just enough Democratic votes for Johnson to keep him as Speaker, to show who is really in charge.
Send that little note to DNC along with a request to become a paid political strategy consultant. You’ll either get a nice little job on the side, or unfortunate confirmation that the DNC is strategically inept.
Another day in ‘merica:
Teen pizza delivery driver shot at 7 times after parking in wrong driveway, police say
Fortunately the psycho was a bad shot and the kid was not injured.
Arriving officers located the shooting suspect who told them he and his wife saw a truck parked in their driveway on the Ring camera and thought someone was breaking into his truck, police wrote in the complaint.
re: #190 Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines
Another day in ‘merica:
Teen pizza delivery driver shot at 7 times after parking in wrong driveway, police say
Fortunately the psycho was a bad shot and the kid was not injured.
Stand your ground … against pizza?
re: #191 Teukka
Stand your ground … against pizza?
I mean, look, I know most people hate pineapple on pizza but to shoot a kid over it… ///
re: #190 Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines
Somehow it needs to be conveyed to people that shooting at someone when the offense is property means you will be charged.
re: #189 goddamnedfrank
Cindy McCain, in her role as Executive Director of the World Food Programme, saying Gaza is in “full-blown famine in the North, and it’s moving its way South.”
A good reminder of why the college protests are happening in the first place.
re: #190 Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines
God bless America, where there’s a constitutional right for every moment of paranoia to be a heavily armed moment of paranoia.
Meanwhile, the same right wing shitbirds that gave us these abominable supreme court rulings are also the single largest purveyors of baseless paranoia in US society.
re: #193 Belafon
Somehow it needs to be conveyed to people that shooting at someone when the offense is property means you will be charged.
Wingnuts are busy trying to make that a debatable proposition, eventually to become false if it’s their property vs. anyone else’s life.
Long drive home today - took Page Mill Road up to the top of Skyline Blvd (probably passed about twenty dudes slowly climbing the windy 1500 vertical on their bikes, then stopped at Fogerty Winery to pick up my backfill of quarterly shipments (24 bottles) and wound up buying two bottles of Pinot they let me taste ‘for free’ for another 150 bucks (with club discount!)..there was none of it in the inventory of what I was getting.
Then I decided to take La Honda Road down to the coast as it’s a pretty drive and spent the first third of that drive behind some church bus - knew which section of double-yellow was safe to pass so after 10 minutes of 20mph I got around them. Still makes for a longish day - I’m usually home by 3pm.
Windy Hill Pinot - does not suck.
re: #193 Belafon
Somehow it needs to be conveyed to people that shooting at someone when the offense is property means you will be charged.
Except this was in Tennessee, a stand-your-ground state. “I felt threatened”
re: #197 darthstar
Long drive home today - took Page Mill Road up to the top of Skyline Blvd (probably passed about twenty dudes slowly climbing the windy 1500 vertical on their bikes, then stopped at Fogerty Winery to pick up my backfill of quarterly shipments (24 bottles) and wound up buying two bottles of Pinot they let me taste ‘for free’ for another 150 bucks (with club discount!)..there was none of it in the inventory of what I was getting.
Then I decided to take La Honda Road down to the coast as it’s a pretty drive and spent the first third of that drive behind some church bus - knew which section of double-yellow was safe to pass so after 10 minutes of 20mph I got around them. Still makes for a longish day - I’m usually home by 3pm.
Windy Hill Pinot - does not suck.
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I love the Pacific Northwest, but there are days when I dearly miss the Bay Area and foothills on the west side of the Bay….
re: #192 Nerdy Fish
I mean, look, I know most people hate pineapple on pizza but to shoot a kid over it… ///
I’m just the messenger. //
re: #190 Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines
Another day in ‘merica:
Teen pizza delivery driver shot at 7 times after parking in wrong driveway, police say
Fortunately the psycho was a bad shot and the kid was not injured.
Could not control weapon
-discharged when not necessary
-hit..nothing
Lose freedom, finances, future
Missouri law requires women seeking divorce to disclose whether they’re pregnant — and state judges won’t finalize divorces during a pregnancy https://t.co/eswMqmT2CC
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 3, 2024
The Handmaid’s Tale is a documentary.
re: #204 DodgerFan1988
I’m seeing women from the Trump White House being interviewed on msnbc today who continue to claim they support “his policies.” It’s just bizarre. Are they not reading or watching the news?
re: #204 DodgerFan1988
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The Handmaid’s Tale is a documentary.
And then I bet that being “married” means the woman can’t just leave the state and terminate the pregnancy without some penalty. So force them to stay married to an abuser, then force them to have his kid, then force them to allow the abuser contact with them for the next 18 years.
re: #99 Targetpractice
But warship production came at the expense of tank and aircraft production. We’re not talking the US or USSR which had (comparatively) unlimited supplies of steel, Italy’s wartime steel production was a fraction of what the Allies produced and what they had was of lower quality overall. For the cost of even a single destroyer, they might have had hundreds of tanks and tankettes which might not have been that impressive but whose absence was definitely felt when the Army took losses on the battlefield that they could not quickly replace.
Italy had the usual Axis issue with oil access. Romania as a neighbor helped initially, but that also got heavily earmarked for Germany by 1942-43. And the oil in Libya wasn’t really discovered, much less exploited, until after the war the over.
So building piles of tanks and airplanes with their steel would have run afoul of trying to keep them running. And their domestic auto/truck industry was also going to have trouble keeping up with the necessary production for logistics support. Lots of teeth in the army means little with no tail to allow it to move at more than a snail’s pace.