brickhistory

You'd have to ask Trump about his personnel choices. As I understand it, the Senate report documents the facts of attempted, possibly successful, influence on the 2016 election with Russia favoring Trump and China favoring Clinton. That the report is not about the investigations into the Trump campaign and administration but rather about foreign attempts on our election systems. Which, by the way, occurred under Obama's watch and he, literally, did nothing. That said, my on-going concern with the Russiagate/Obamagate thing is the strong possibility that one administration actively used the instruments of US power - mainly federal law enforcemet and intel community - to spy on and delay/obstruct/interfere with the actions of, another succeeding administration. If that's true, it's really bad. As in end of the Republic bad. Political shenanigans are one thing, but when rank and file worker bees choose sides and use their offices/powers to aid/abet that use, I fear that. Against me, against you, against anyone. And if it's happened already, it's very likely to happen again, and worse, unless there are public consequences against those that did so. Certainly, I hope to see Brennan (admitted former Communist, not a wild accusation, but historical fact. Not to mention that he literally spied on the Senate, lied to them under oath, then got caught out, and the then-Democrat led Senate did nothing...) led away in cuffs. Same for some other high-profile folks involved. But if Clinesmith, Vindmann, et al, feel like they can take on political leadership they don't happen to like, then it's all moot and we become who can gain/hold power by means that I don't get a vote about. I fear it is too late, but I am hoping that if there are fairly severe consequences, that others in the future won't be so quick to say, "Sure, I'll do that."

Meanwhile, in Obamagate news: On Friday, former CIA Director Brennan was interviewed for eight (8) hours by the Durham investigation of how/why the whole thing went down. There are several notes to ponder: 1. An attorney for Brennan not present at the interview and not using any direct quotes from Brennan states "he's not a target" and that Brennan questioned the intent of the investigation as a political witchhunt. There was no such statement, or any for that matter, by the Durham investigators. No leaks either. I seem to remember one or two when it was Trump under the microscope... 2. The interview was conducted at CIA HQ in Langley vs main DOJ in downtown DC. That makes the jurisdiction for any potential crimes resulting from this interview, i.e., lying to federal officials, a matter for the Eastern District Court of Virginia instead of the DC District Court. One jurisdiction is historically much more lenient regarding senior federal officials being indicted and/or convicted than the other.

Just a nose pressed against the glass outsider looking in, but, that was fcuking awesome. Well done!

Well done. I remembered that episode watched, probably repeatedly as a kid growing up on afternoon reruns. And while it is an analogy, I wasn't necessarily going for the WMD type of unmanned weapons. I inarticulately tried to bring up the "if it's all 'droid warfare - air/land/sea/space - would political leaders really hesitate as much as they might, in Western societies anyway, regarding meat-servo casualties? Dunno. Does the escalation ramp become "He destroyed so many of my droids that I have to go nuclear" instead of "Xi just killed a carrier and now I've got no choice?" Either way, Lt Data will not be refilling the popcorn machine, I'm betting... edited to add: The summer drink of choice in the brick household this season is lime rum/coconut rum/fresh squeezed lime/some sparkling lime flavored water. Repeat as necessary until it doesn't matter. Like about now...

As Lt Data and his companions come on board, many things will become more efficient for Big Blue. Of course, finding snackos will be come harder and harder. As will filling the ranks of human leadership. Imagine the perfect world where only shiny pennies are brought in to command legions of AI systems. Cuts down on Tricare/retirement costs as well. Win/win for Big Blue and Pentagon. If it's just 'things' getting blown up, will anyone care anymore? Will war become a more or less viable option?

"If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." "Shovel-ready jobs."

Did not know about the different steering rack for Monaco. Makes sense, however. As to "legit"critiques of the sport, I failed to get the memo that anyone else was responsible for my opinion. Nice gig providing an approved viewpoint for everyone if you can get it, I guess. And my view must be so outlandish that Liberty, you know the new-ish owners of F1, have determined that to keep the sport healthy and competitive, thus profitable, that the massive spending by one, maybe two teams, and the rest there for pretty show, isn't sustainable. Thus the new regs and spending caps forthcoming.

And if it didn't have the dildo poking out the back, it'd be an F-15-ish silhoutte.(sp?) Kinda, sorta, but generic enough. Of course, if this was intentional, it's terrible. I just know how government, including ours, works. And would put money down that there's an unintentional goof in the pixels that either were sent or translated by the manufacturer (unless, of course, it was a Chinese company, then full marks to them for taking the effective shot at Uncle Sam and bad on us for not catching it before distro). As to the rest of your comparison and asking if I'd be ok, there's an Anglo-Saxon phrase that fits. But I don't think you really meant your question as trying to impugn my respect for our Service's fallen and our Nation's honor.

That gutsy bastard is willing to take that risk for 'Merica. In fact, the entire DNC is.

Ammo? No.

*cough = ballot harvesting - cough* It's pretty easy to see the narrative being crafted: Trump loses due to mail-in voting and it's "see the system worked." Trump wins, no matter the methods used to cast ballots and it's "That bastard cheated." Cue the riots... Hope folks got their ammo earlier because it's either nearly non-existent now or sky-high prices to obtain any

This struck a chord, but had to check to ensure before I wrote anything: If you think the Spanish track was small, wait until you see the Monaco race happen, hopefully next year.. Cancelled this year due to 'rona, it is amazing to me that they still conduct a Gran Prix in the absurdly narrow lanes and tight corners with the current wide cars. Although the race itself tends to be boring, IMO, another cars in single file parade since there's almost nowhere to pass, the mere challenge of the course is neat to watch as there's literally inches on some corners for the drivers to get to the apex of a corner and make the next one. Mistakes are common here. That there aren't more is a testament to the precision these guys bring while go amazingly fast. Qualifying is usually the best part due to the need for good starting position because of above reasons. But that's also where the mistakes usually happen as well. Edited to add: Not to mention the course runs along the harbor so the number of gazillionaire yachts and accompanying world class honeys on display is pretty James Bond-cool.

*Cliff Claven voice to ON: As a former reserve USAF historian, official unit emblems/patches cannot display specific MWS (there are historical, and approved exceptions from WWI/WWII). The no specific aircraft rule is why we have the goofy triangular thingie on various badges, i.e., ABM badge and wings, et al, and on various squadron patches. Most likely, this isn't/wasn't designed with specific silhouttes of a Flanker, just either a bad drawing sent to the manufacturer by the unit originator and/or a bad production of said design. Is this really what we have to worry about today in "What's wrong with the Air Force?"

Meh. Still, cool to spend a few hours watching fighters on fat tires go stupid fast.

I defer to those who have such experience...

A. He's not "my boy." I think Stone is a loathsome human being. B. You really aren't very good at this. Roger Stone arrest raid conveniently covered by CNN.  A full-up tactical team to take down a old man.  Nice...

Indeed.

Two good things for America, I believe. One yesterday, one today. Yesterday, the current Administration announced it had brokered a deal for diplomatic relations establishment between UAE and Israel. That's a very significant development. Today, the first guilty plea occured in the Obamagate investigation. An FBI lawyer pled guilty to intentionally altering a document that was used to renew, again, one of the bogus FISA applications on the Trump campaign. While I'm too cynical to believe that any of those "too big to fail" will ever perform a perp walk, that fact that a worker bee is being held accountable might, just maybe, be a hindarance for future wannabe hop on board the corruption train riders in our government. I do hope there will be more such items to follow.

This. Mostly. However, Biden's old, frail, and, IMO, not all there anymore. For a fair number of people, his selection for his VP is also about completing the term in office, never mind a second term. In the political realm, should Biden win, he's going into his Presidency as a self-proclaimed lame duck. The levers of power will care about his VP, not so much him. But for my purposes, I think this is a good choice.

I agree. Once Biden committed himself to determining that skin color and genitalia were the paramount considerations for his pick, she is the most usable choice for him. **cough - Willie Brown - **cough edited to add: The first joke making the rounds so far: Kamala has less baggage than the other potential picks because she keeps leaving it at Willie Brown's... G'night everybody! I'll be here all week. Tip your servers....

I have to agree. I can appreciate the skill/guts it takes to ride, let alone race at insane speeds on two wheels, it just doesn't do it for me. I like F1 due to the technology being demo'd at insane speeds. But with four wheels, I can at least imagine I can relate. But the absolute dominance by one constructor massively out-spending everyone else is a dual-edged sword. Mercedes wins bigly because they are spending and performing so far in front of everyone else, so good on 'em. Fans of everyone else get bored and choose to spend their money elsewhere which isn't good for the sport overall. Hence, the new owners of F1 are going to change things up next year. But for a "race," then Surely Serious' critiques above apply.

Reasonably interesting race today.

No. That was a good call and I give President Obama full credit for the decision. Of note, of course, was that Biden is on the record as having been against the decision.

Valid. Again, if the dead terrorist was killed in combat, I'm all for it. However, we even tried those traitors in our past - both uniformed and civilian - in a court of law since they were American citizens and entitled to due process no matter their heinous crimes. Just as this terrorist was. Unfortunately, he was an American citizen. That buys him, you, me, any American a higher level of protection no matter how much he deserved killing. Those past traitors were tried either upon capture during or after hostilities or at least in absentia. But they got a trial. To turn the table, and perhaps serve as a logical place for the mods to move this to the political/next President thread, would those ok with a President ordering the specific execution of an American, no matter how deserving of the penalty, without benefit of a trial be ok if it were Trump giving the order? It's happened at least once. I am very sure that future Presidents will use that lever of power again.

And yet somebody did it. And an entire chain of command knew it, literally from POTUS down to trigger-puller. Tough if you don't like being reminded that a US President ordered the deliberate execution of a US citizen without benefit of trial. It's kinda a thing we get the right to for being an American. I'm not willing to forget it or let it go. Because otherwise, it will be done again as a precedent has been set and no one was too upset.