Old Man

SACK OF HAMMERS 2020 There Are Dumber Candidates

There's a big house in DC that's white and has pretty columns. It could probably be sold for a handsome profit. I wouldn't, but it's probably already happened anyway.

They were retrieving Romann Dey so he could return to Nova Corps. Duh. (Corey Hawkins also appeared in IM3 as a "Navy Op", oddly enough.)

Because you changed the netmask on the wrong interface, dumbass.

That reminds me, I'm also going to find the guy who thought it was a good idea to capitalize "realtor" like it was a title, and rendition that bastard to an enhanced interrogation facility in Yemen for the rest of his (short) life. Either that or just continue to quietly seethe about it. One of those.

Obviously I won't be running on a non-interventionist platform and then start throwing missiles around after less than 100 days, like some people. I will also ban gerrymandering and believe in reality. In fact, perhaps I should write up a manifesto detailing the core values of the Reality Party®. Any suggestions?

I got a real GotG vibe from the trailer. Not that that's a bad thing.

Happy Inception Day, Leon!

Probably in topology. Topology is a seriously twisted branch of mathematics.

Man, what did I do to deserve that?

Those should be shot on sight.

That's one thing about this situation--it does prove that anyone, literally anyone, can, with a little effort and luck, become President of the United States.

Of course he has a plan! The plan is to distract people from his ties with Russia. It's foolproof!

(Shh! Guys, don't tell him!)

Interlude:

Definitely a big concern, but there's nothing impossible about converting the machinery over to electric over the next decade or so. I'm a bit fuzzier on the fertilizer requirements but it seems as though non-fossil-fuel-based fertilizers exist.

Why, how many times did that happen?

Plastics accounts for less than 3% of global petroleum consumption.

CNN reports that US intelligence agencies are investigating whether Russia instigated the sarin attack.

$0 for Meals on Wheels, $94 million for one hour of bombing Syria

As for the strike itself, I can't find any source for casualty claims other than "Syrian officials" so far. Interestingly, Syria launched more airstrikes out of that base today. On top of that, the strike does not fall under the War Powers Act and was therefore illegal, though decades of drone strikes have desensitized all of us to that. And evidently the Russians were told about the strike before anyone in Congress, NATO, or the State Department. Russians are making a lot of noise about this "outrageous provocation" and the resulting "setback in relations". It's almost as though they want people to think they don't own Trump.

The Soviets and Syria go all the way back to Soviet support for Syrian independence after WWII. Since then there have been economic and defense treaties, educational relationships, the opening of the Soviet naval base at Tartus, and plenty of economic and military support for Syria in exchange for providing a staunchly pro-Russian presence in a strategic region. I suspect that protecting the base at Tartus figured prominently into Putin's original decision to get involved, but it also gave him an opportunity to make an impact on the world stage, give his military some real world experience, and tweak America's nose a bit.

It's difficult, but at the same time, it shows just how impotent terrorism really is. If the worst they can do is run a few people over, then they're not even as dangerous as texting while driving. I admit it's horrific for the victims and their families, but still.

The Russians were warned (and no doubt warned their Syrian buddies) so if they were still on the base, they were there on purpose. I don't know that Russia adding one more ship to the ones that are already deployed there really makes a whole lot of difference. Still looks like theater to me. The initial strike killed no one, wrecked a handful of SyAAF jets (but by no means all of them), and did no long term damage to the airfield itself. We didn't even hit the sarin.

Syria is not really a winnable situation especially with Russian forces there. It's way more complex than a three-way Assad-ISIS-rebels arrangement. Each of those groups is really a loose agglomeration of barely-allied warbands--even Assad has very few regular military forces left; much of his "army" is made up of militias that have gone mercenary. Guess he has enough air assets to drop some Sarin, though.