FourFans

Whole new meaning to the Banzai call...or is it just a refreshed meaning?

"... inspired by figures of the Greek mitology..." is that kinda like Greek Mythology?

So you're saying you got your termination letter? Gunna be a sad day when "General Chang" gets promoted to "Mister Chang". Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Seriously. Let's really move some stuff. Shawn Ryan for Vet Affairs, Mike Rowe for Labor, Joe Rogan as Press Secretary (every briefing obviously labelled 'Explicit'), Ray Dalio to advise on China, Peter Ziehan to advise on econ and to fight with Dalio, and leave the rest as insider experts.

Lighten Up Francis. Actual footage of Uncle Joe teaching everyone how to stay out of prison.

On initial blush that looks like it belongs in the WTF category.

Thanks for the first person feedback fellas. I'm glad to hear Telsas are solid products! Sounds like you might have a win there Bashi. Got me looking into it now too.

You don't sound like you're about winning, rather that you're about feeling like you're on the right side. There's a difference. If you were sincerely about winning, you'd be asking how we help Eastern Europe kick Russia's ass as completely and quickly as possible so they sue for peace and end this war. That's what winning looks like. Your can argue the correctness of a war all day, but it don't matter because you don't make that decision. Which is exactly why I'm not arguing the correctness of a war that us and all our allies are already committed to. It's worthless. I don't think the Ukraine war should have happened in the first place, and that it's Europe's problem, but here we are and the fight is already on. My opinion is OBE. Like trying to figure out why the guy punched you after the bar-fight started. It's a wasted effort until you can force both sides to pause and re-assess. If we choose to back out on supporting Ukraine now, we and the entire western world lose for sure. We also lose the trust of allies. Arguing why we're supporting them and how that all happened is completely useless, and more suited to the halls of ivy league schools in about 10 years. BREAK BREAK As someone who spent 4.5 years of my life in a "BS foreign war" I can soundly say that yes, keeping our word is worth it. Perspective is important. We kept the wolf on his side of the fence for 20 years and we built some outstanding partnerships through the blood, sweat, tears...partnerships which were largely spoiled by the horrific botching of our withdrawal from Afghanistan. Keeping promises matters. Honor matters.

Obviously they weren't successes, but we kept our word when we said we would support our allies, for good or ill. You would have chosen to back out on promises that we'd made. If Europe saw us commit support, and then back out of Korea and Vietnam (both promises we made to those countries), do you think they would have trusted us to back up our commitments to NATO? It's coherency that we must have. If we make a promise, we have to keep it. You apparently would be fine committing support and then not providing it. I'm not arguing the correctness of the commitment, I'm arguing the integrity of our nation in keeping it's word. Our political leaders have certainly committed us in places we aught not be. But once committed we CANNOT turn back on our word.

All depends on where you live and what your work schedule is like. Cargo long-haul co-worker tried it and got bit. He got stuck out a spare week (gone three weeks in winter) and came back to dead car. I don't know what charge level he left it at though. It would seem that they don't do so well in harsh environs, but that's 100% hearsay. I'll say this: I haven't seen an EV in our long-term parking at SDF. I'm sure they're there, I just haven't seen one.

Because I study history. How about your line in 1948-9 as Korea was getting tee'd up. Or perhaps the early 1960's with Vietnam? Hell, what was your stance in the 1980's as were arming the Iraqi's AND Iranians? Bottom line in ALL these cases: When America makes an international promise and then doesn't back it up with action, we lose big when we have to clean up the mess later. We also lose allies. Key allies. It would be very nice if our leadership would THINK before making promises. Our history has proven that it costs far more lives to back out of a promise now and have to fix it later than it does to stick to our word and put our munitions and young men where our politicians' mouths led us. It's sucks, but it's true.

Trying to imagine what Bashi's line would have been in 1939

Must have been going for a Darwin Award

Seriously though, Mary Esther can be a rough neighborhood. Meth is a hellva drug.