brickhistory

Biden: I don't know anything about my son's financial or business interests. Also Biden: I know Hunter didn't do anything wrong (other than lie on an ATF 4473, do crack, got kicked out of the Navy on day one due to testing positive for cocaine, etc, etc, etc). Also Biden: I guess I did write a letter of recommendation for the son of one of Hunter's business partners. Also Biden: Pudding!

That oughtta take care of any more fly-bys...

Judge blocks Air Force discipline over vaccine objections (msn.com) This probably pisses off the "follow all orders or else" crowd. And I thought this Administration said the crisis is passed... More power to 'em (pun intended).

And as soon as USAF mishap data can be manipulated to support/attack some national policy, watch it become not so sacrosanct. There is absolutely no reason to blindly believe the EIA data either. Press on with your argument by all means, but your data sources aren't any better than ones that refute your position. It's the judgement needed to sift through the different data sets that's the point.

I think maybe you missed his point. Those sources are credible to you. Perhaps not to others. As to the EIA, tell me again what type of Administration is in power currently and how might that skew data? Or, as with the CDC/NIH/FBI/CIA, et al, is the provided data pristine and not subject to review. The government wouldn't lie, would it?

FEC (Federal Elections Commission) fined Hillary Clinton, personally, and the DNC as an entity for lying about paying for the false Russia dossier. True, only a token $8,000 for her and $105,000 for DNC, but at least it's on the historical record that she cheated.

Go with quals that qualify you to make this statement, please.

Ah, understand now. edited to add: BTW, Haas in the points again, 2 for 2. So suck it Mazipin...

Why so? Overall, I thought it a good race up and down the list. Those pigs simply will not turn under braking. Catching a few people out.

Watching the practices today for the upcoming Saudi race. Those cars are still ugly and their girth and weight make 'em look like hippos on ice.

I have GOT to get me a prescription for condescension. My over-the-counter stuff ain't hacking it here. Arguments are emotional, silly, false, etc, etc. Or so I'm told. Could be my opinion is just as valid as any other. Or I could just be lectured by my betters... ENDEX for me: I hope Ukraine continues to stack Russian corpses deep. I am sorry for the misery they are enduring as a result. I hope the rest of the world continues tossing weapons over the border to 'em. I hope we don't get involved in a shooting war. Especially one that escalates. Without a valid reason that is worth the lives of our side - military or civilian.

Again, I am patiently waiting for someone to show me a vital national interest to the U.S. that requires us to be in any kind of a shooting war over Ukraine, let alone one that would escalate quickly to over the Pole exchanges. Nations/people have been killing each other since we climbed down from the trees. Nukes changed the rules for those who got into the ownership club. Diplomacy is the chess/checkers (Administration dependent) part of national power. Use of force is the poker game. The problem with threatening with nuclear weapons, even as a response to one being used elsewhere, is that your bluff will eventually be called. If we and/or NATO say that if Putin uses a nuke in Ukraine, we will use, or allow the Ukrainians to use (which, think about that idea of turning a US weapon over to any other nation, let alone one not formally allied to us. Wonder why we have the MUNS sites for NATO-designated weapons...) a U.S weapon on Russian troops in Ukraine. Pretty dramatic declaration of war if you use it and one that will bring the nuke's ICBM big brothers to the fight. Again, not gonna happen. Nor should it. And if we threaten to retaliate with a nuke but then don't, our nuclear credibility is absolutely and irrevocably shot. Until we start lobbing nukes which kinda means game over anyway... In Korea and Vietnam, who was feeding (literally) the Norks and the North Vietnamese with ammo, weapons of all types, SAMs, and MiGs? Why was that any different than us throwing stuff to Ukraine? We didn't threaten China and/or USSR with a nuke for their actions. And when USSR invaded Afghanistan/Hungary/Czechoslovakia/et al, did we threaten nuclear? Nope, because it would've been a hollow bluff. Just as betting your stack on the Ukraine deal is. We vaguely nuke threatened Iraq pre-Desert Storm 1 to ensure it didn't use chemicals against us. It worked, but then Iraq didn't have nukes (oh, the irony there...). Deterrence works if your opponent believes you will. We won't over Ukraine. And we shouldn't. As tragic as it is, it is NOT our fight. I'm betting Putin believes that as well. To be absolutely clear, I am not saying "avoid at all costs." I am saying the price to be paid needs to be worth the U.S.' sacrifice in physical destruction, the humanitarian mess left behind, the economic destruction, and the reversion to a Walking Dead society before committing to major warfare with a nuclear-armed adversary. They nuke the U.S. or assets? 3,2,1, keyturn... They use a tactical nuke on a Ukrainian city? Tragic and we most likely will lead the world's response in cleaning up afterwards. But trade Ukraine for U.S.? Oh, hell no. Why is this our fight to shed blood and treasure? Selective Service agency is still a thing...

I have stated, repeatedly, that the risk of Putin using a tactical nuke inside Ukraine is not 0. I posited a 1 in 4 chance. And if he does, no additional nation is going to go to war with Russia, nor should they. No nation is going to trade London for Kyiv. Or Paris. Or Berlin. Or L.A. (although that might be a fair trade...). If Putin uses a nuke and we declare war, he has, literally, nothing to lose by escalating with nukes outside Ukraine. The only realistic hope, should Putin decide to order a nuclear strike, is some insanely brave Russian commander says "Nyet." If something really big goes bang, the world will absolutely isolate Russia. I would hope the quarentine makes NK look like Bermuda. But some nations, in their national interests, won't play along, Newsflash, the Bretton Woods world order is already changing with the U.S. declining as top dog. With our economy so beholden to foreigners buying our debt, our dominance is severely degraded already. Militarily, since WWII, what's our record? Aside from Desert Storm, they'be been losses or, at best, draws. Best bet is to keep stuffing Ukraine with as much logistics and weapons as they can use, plus more. Pulling a trigger will end our worries about inflation really, really quickly. Ukraine is not worth that. I'm still waiting for the vital national interest to be identified to justify a hot war for the USA.

Watched the two practice rounds today to check out the new regulation cars. Verdict: hideously ugly. I do like the 18" wheels/tires, but the shapes of the cars despite the variations in sidepods, are just not pleasing to the eye. From the arrowhead front wing to the whale-tail rear wing, these are ugly cars. I hope they allow for better racing. If not, they gotta go. Great to see Magnusson back in for Haas and Hulkenberg subbing for Vettel. That must've been an interesting first drive for him today after arriving after midnight last night.

New York Times is out today with a "bombshell" report about Hunter Biden's laptop and it containing e-mails relating to his Ukraine dealings, among other things. One wonders what's changed now and this is 'legit' news but in October, 2020, it was Russian disinformation. As attested to in a signed letter by 50 former senior intelligence officials: https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000 But trust the IC to not take political sides...

Watched the newest season (4) of "Drive to Survive" on Netflix yesterday. Decent, but seemed to lack from previous seasons. Maybe just too used to premise now. Same editing to dramatized personal rivalries/team dynamics, etc. But I still think Horner is an ass. Even without the series. First race is next weekend. I'm interested to see the new regulation cars perform.

https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2022/03/10/kamala-harris-awkwardly-laughs-while-reminding-polands-president-a-friend-in-need-is-a-friend-indeed/ Good luck with that sentiment...

Special Counsel Durham questioned in front of a grand jury a Georgia Tech contract data analyst as to why DoD - specifically DARPA - was using him to find out who hacked the DNC servers during 2016 campaign. Why was DARPA involved? I really, really, really hope some mid-level and senior-level governments heads eventually roll over this. The message to be apolitical as a government employee must be brutally reinforced or the misuse of government agencies/tools to harm political opponents will only continue and get worse.

Death on the Nile. The 69th remake of the Agatha Christie mystery. Pretty people dressed in pretty clothes on the Nile in late 1930s Egypt. No real action, no real skin (pity since Gal Gidot ((of course, she's in everything)) and Margot Robbie lookalike Emma Mackey are 9.5s...). Decent writing. Meh...ok date movie.

Clown show going on between various governments in NATO but not invoking NATO regarding sliding the Ukrainians some MiG-29s. Poland: We'll give you MiGs, send 'em to Ramstein, the Ukrainians pick 'em up. In return, you give us used F-16s. DC: Wha???!!! On a serious note, if this is some sort of a thing, where would the MiGs be based? Inside Ukraine and they are insta-HVAs for the Russians. Outside Ukraine and the host nation just joined the war. So, either a clownshow or some psyop thing that, again, I'm not smart enough to deciper.

That'll buff out...

Hay-sus Krist, this 'thing' won't die... Multiple political outlets have reported on the Clintons spooling up their "Clinton Global Initiative" machinery again. You know, that multi-hundreds of millions of dollars in donations for access to then-Senator, later SecState, later presumed POTUS heir apparent. When she crashed and burned in 2016, donations went down from the 10s of millions per year in, largely, foreign money - Russia/Saudi/Pakistan, etc - to the thousands. Now, the old band is getting back together. She's gonna try again.

Soooo, the Russia/Ukraine war spreads and involves NATO to include the US. How does that play out? How many ground divisions of various flavors will be required? How long will it take for the US to bring in serious numbers? How will the logistics flow? For how long? How about local ground and air defense of staging and flying bases needed to move/support kinetic ops inside Ukraine? How do the good guys tell the bad guys apart in an urban environment? Shedding a uniform is easy. Not everyone in Ukraine will welcome the intervention, particularly the further east the action might move. Would the Russians fight better if it becomes a direct fight of defense for them as opposed to being the aggressor against a smaller state? I.e., if this is NATO attacking Mother Russia, might the enthusiasm ramp up? Barring a full-on WWII level of effort in industry, increased shipping capacity, etc, etc, etc, this ain't happening. Which, by the way, would stretch us to the limit. And we would then be unable to respond anywhere else. Like Taiwan or Korea. Nor should it. Do you really believe that Old Europe - Germany/France/Italy, etc - is going to risk thousands of troops for this? Let alone the threat of catching airstrikes or a nuke if they are in the game? Also, those proudly proclaiming "I'll pay $6-7 per gallon" are awfully generous with those who aren't on the government dime at decent wages. Feeding any size family when the income is $20-30k or less becomes a no kidding fight to survive. Think of your airman who, unfortunately, got married at 18 and now has 2 kids and a spouse to try and feed/clothe/house when real inflation is taking 20% or more of his purchasing power. Another pretty immediate effect of this war is the supply of food - wheat/soy/etc - that has stopped. Egypt, as only one example, is a ticking bomb since they get 60% of their food from Ukraine. The Egyptian government subsidizes that purchase. Prices are more than skyrocketing. People get pretty cranky when they are starving. And that's just one country. Plenty of others almost in as bad of shape for feeding their people. Finally, this war going south for Russia (and I, again, hope it does), risks a nuke going off. If the war spreads outside the current conflict, the risk of that increases as does the number of targets on both sides. Blithely writing off those consequences as "meh" is dishonest. Go Ukraine; bleed Putin out, demoralize his forces, and the world should give you all the arms and supplies you can ever use, plus some. Anyone else pulls a trigger and this gets ugly everywhere.

Thank you for the reply. I genuinely mean that. The upper parts of your post replying to me weren't germane to the point from you I'm trying to understand so I cut them so I could just ask in response to the above: How?

No, sir, there is not, provided the action is against Ukrainians or Russians. I applaud the Ukrainians giving the Russkis a bloody nose and I hope they eventually hand Putin his ass. Please demonstrate what US vital national interests are concerned between Russia and Ukraine? What is the line you deem worthy of US blood and treasure?