— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 9:11 PM
===
Mike Johnson: "I don't think it will end before the Hate America Rally on the Mall on Saturday, where all the Marxists and antifa people and all the people who hate Trump and hate America will be there."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 15, 2025 at 2:40 PM
===
yeah run this everywhere
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:43 AM
===
This is almost literally what the English Civil War was fought over.
— Don Zeko (@donzeko.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 8:17 PM
===
shaheen talking like this should probably underline that senate dems are committed to holding the line
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 15, 2025 at 1:10 PM
===
A lot of time and effort has gone into survey research around what is the best protest sign slogan, message, wording etc and to be frank the research is pretty clear the most effective things you can do at a protest are express joy and express camaraderie, don't overthink it
On The Road – BigJimSlade – Alps 2025 – Milan, Saas-Fee, Chamonix and Courmayeur, part the last (11)
satby
The “Trump’s brain” cartoon would really piss him off, but he’ll never see it. Too bad.
Baud
Has she met us?
Scout211
WTF? SoCal jackals beware. Travel to your No Kings protests may need to be via a different route. Plan ahead.
I-5 may be shut down due to concerns over live-fire military event at Camp Pendleton
. . .
Or more clearly stated, from Meidas News:
Baud
@Scout211:
I don’t get firing missiles on your own base. I guess it’s a MAGA thing.
Quantum man
Have u seen T and them are talking about shooting live missiles into Camp Pendleton Friday and Saturday to celebrate Marine Corps? Thought it was a stupid rumor but news sources in CA are reporting interstates may be shut down for this. What could possibly go wrong if true!?
oldster
Express joy and camaraderie, and don’t get baited into violence.
The single biggest thing that the bad people want is a pretext for violent repression.
Betty
I thought we had already reached our madness quota for the month.
Professor Bigfoot
Whole lotta serious anger out here.
NotMax
@Baud
“Once the rocket goes up who cares where it comes down?”
//
MagdaInBlack
@Professor Bigfoot: I think I’m in love with her.
prostratedragon
@Professor Bigfoot: 😈
Dorothy A. Winsor
Got this from my local police department this morning. I’m in suburban Chicago.
lowtechcyclist
We need an amphibious assault on Mar-A-Lago next time Trump’s there, to haul him off to The Hague.
tobie
@Scout211: “Live amunition,” “live amphibious assault” for a ceremonial celebration? Yikes. My bullshit detector just blew up. It sounds like the military is doing a practice run to invade the homeland.
Professor Bigfoot
Kids get up to so much trouble, don’t they?
zhena gogolia
@Professor Bigfoot: How did they get me on camera?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Heh.
“I was born
a poor black childan angry black woman.”Leto
Wanted to post this from the overnight thread, video of the Alaskan village impacted by the hurricane.
It’s a good thing in this modern day and age that any and all violence is rejected.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time — and in one’s work. And part of the rage is this: It isn’t only what is happening to you. But it’s what’s happening all around you and all of the time in the face of the most extraordinary and criminal indifference, indifference of most white people in this country, and their ignorance.” –James Baldwin
lowtechcyclist
I’m thinking of a poster that says:
Trump sez:
$20 Billion for Argentina
$0 for your Health Care
–
Scout211
The Guardian has an exclusive except from Virginia Guiffre’s memoir. The excerpt is detailed and very well written.
If the excerpt is any indication, this book is going to be a bombshell and hopefully break up the Republican pedo-protection racket.
They Call Me Noni
@lowtechcyclist: and then under it:
He does not give a damn about us.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
At least black people have the satisfaction of being right all the time.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Baud: Might be more of a case of … I don’t know, black philosophers not having the luxury of wishful thinking, perhaps?
HeleninEire
@Professor Bigfoot: Oh man; that made my morning!
Gloria DryGarden
@tobie: right?
Gloria DryGarden
@lowtechcyclist: can congress stop this? I sure don’t want my money , our money, going to Argentina, when it could have gone to usaid, or could go to health care.
Gloria DryGarden
@Dorothy A. Winsor: this ICE crap is happening in Barrington? They’re hitting the wealthy and well off suburbs already? Dang it
( when I was coming up, in Arlington heights and rolling meadows, we thought of Barrington as the town with all the lawyers and doctors)
Suzanne
Love this. I think the signs have a lot of value in making great pictures, too. The images after the fact are really compelling.
It is looking like I am going to get to attend one of these! I didn’t think I would have the opportunity, but fingers crossed that it will work out. Mr. Suzanne is like, “I’m not a sign guy”, but he saw someone with a Discworld-inspired one last time and he liked that. I realized last time that I should have made my sign double-sided. Pro tip.
Gloria DryGarden
@Professor Bigfoot: excellent clear quote. I hope you might post it also over on bluesky.. James Baldwin is often very clear and illuminating.
prostratedragon
DJRothkopf:
Referring to J. Jarvis:
Baud
@prostratedragon:
They know what they’re doing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Gloria DryGarden: I haven’t heard anything specific but then I’m not sure I would. Yesterday, I saw a video of ICE roughing up a kid in Hoffman Estates
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
The depressing part is how little it has changed in the decades since Baldwin wrote those words.
Gloria DryGarden
@Scout211: thank you for the link. I wonder if my library has it..if we all flood our libraries with requests for it, that might boost sales and attention.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gloria DryGarden: Alas, it was too long for a Bluesky post…
Gloria DryGarden
@Dorothy A. Winsor: a kid
(profound silence and deep feelings, out beyond swear words or adjectives)
tobie
Hakeem Jeffries came up with a new line of attack yesterday: $40 billion for Argentina but squat for healthcare for Americans. It strikes me that this line might have legs with the putative America Firsters.
(Oops LowTechCyclist got there first at #20. Bessent announced the aid package to Argentina may be doubled to $40 billion.)
From The HIll
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Gloria DryGarden: Maybe 13 or so. ICE yanked him out of the passenger seat of a car, threw him on the ground, cuffed him, and shoved him in the back seat of an unmarked car. The video was taken from the window of someone’s house and I couldn’t see what was happening on the driver side.
Belafon
The clarinetest arrested by DHS is out:
bsky.app/profile/oregonian.com/post/3m3bmlor4o22b
Scout211
@Gloria DryGarden: Good idea. Here’s more details:
Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice By Virginia Roberts Guiffre
Published October 21, 2025
Gloria DryGarden
@Scout211: not listed yet, in the ebooks. I’ll try again next week.
frosty
@Suzanne: Glad you’re finding a way to participate!
iKropoclast
Witness the power of our fully operational
Death Stardrone-mounted missiles.They want Californian protestors to see our bombing capability. This is a threat.
Gloria DryGarden
@lowtechcyclist: combining your comment, with the diorama idea in someone else’s comment. Art as a form of visualizing, and expressing our trauma/ rage.
meanwhile, shooting navy missions into or across civilian areas. Isn’t that illegal? Jd Vance showing us his aim?
if illegal, who will bring a lawsuit?
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: Thanks, I was wondering about that. I didn’t get the feeling that any of them were still in college. I saw claims some of them were high school students!
Trivia Man
Saw a baseball story from mikwaukee. A didgers fan was taunting the crowd as LA pulled away. Middle age white woman banteted a little then said to someone nearby, “maybe we should call ICE.” Dodgers fan pointed out he was a US citizen, military vet who served in Iraq.
She was fired from her job and resigned from the Make A Wish board.
Baud
@iKropoclast:
Maybe California protestors should show Trump their mooning capability.
iKropoclast
@MagdaInBlack: Do not fuck with a Caribbean woman.
bluefoot
@tobie: It does sound like a show of force against the American people, plus a way to disrupt the No Kings protest. And who the heck signed off on firing “over” a freeway and into Camp Pendleton??
prostratedragon
@Belafon:
Just beat me to it. The theme they were playing fits even better than I’d recalled:
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
As much as I was looking forward to it, I won’t be attending this weekend’s protest down here in Gulfport.
Me & Ms. Biskits finally got a couple of free days and we’re going to take a mini-version of that vacay we had planned (and I had asked y’all for ideas for). This is gonna be about the only opportunity we have for several months.
I hate that I’m gonna miss it ’cause I suspect it’s gonna be EPIC!
I hope all the Jackals/Juicers going take lotsa photos and video!
iKropoclast
In Southern California, those will be some finely sculpted moons.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gloria DryGarden: Well, the Young Republicans on that infamous group chat were just “kids,” despite being in their 30s and 40s…
White men are “kids” into their middle age, but a 12 year old Black child with a toy gun is a grown man… according to white America.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
@Professor Bigfoot:
Tell that truth
Tamir Rice was 12
Gloria DryGarden
@Professor Bigfoot: it’s weird. And unconscionable.
im thinking of that boys will be boys saying. But if they’re not adults, and not able to take responsibility, they shouldn’t be allowed to vote, or marry, or have children…
Belafon
@Baud: As someone who has been put in groups of smart people, I have observed that we have a tendency to need every problem to be complicated. But, if you give yourself enough time, you can overthink it to something simple. I finally realized my sign will say:
Navy Vet
Anti-Fascist
Here because I love my country
No Kings
And then I’m going to put Exodus 21:16 in smaller font in the corner.
tobie
@bluefoot:
What could possibly go wrong with live amunition being fired in a densely populated area????
iKropoclast
It’s a privilege…
Probably doesn’t extend to all white men, just the moneyed exploiters and their fluffers
The only one of those videos of police violence that I ever watched. Looked like a goddamn hit. They didn’t even interact with that poor child, they rolled up and shot before leaving their car.
I have no more stomach for such videos. Though occasionally my roomie will ambush me (supermarket shooting spree, Charlie Kirk).
Eyeroller
@tobie: This has to be a lie to get the state to shut down the highway to disrupt the protest. If it isn’t, it’s proof positive that the commanders are idiots (we already know that about Hegseth, of course). Live ammunition isn’t necessary to practice even an assault on their own country. Live ammunition does damage, that’s what it’s for. So they’re going to blow up their own base? Then our taxes pay for the damage our taxes did, plus part of the base is out of commission for repairs for some time? Madness.
Professor Bigfoot
@iKropoclast: Nah.
It’s white men regardless of their wealth.
Just like a Black man can be rich as FUCK and still get racist shit dropped on him.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud: @Scout211:
I’m very familiar with that area, given my work, and I can’t recall any time in my career where the Navy or Marines expended ordnance OVER I-5.
This is unprecedented in my experience.
Belafon
@Gloria DryGarden:
1. Mike Johnson would have to do his job.
2. The Epstein files might get released.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
IIRC, there is a firing range there, and by that I don’t mean for firearms.
piratedan
@Trivia Man: as a Diamondbacks fan I can attest to Dodger fans who show up to their away games can certainly wear thin on your average home crowd fan with their behavior. There are loads of knowledgeable and passionate Dodger fans out there, but the folks that travel to their away games have shown a confrontational streak at games that I have been at.
Unsure why they feel the need to be confrontational shit-talkers but I stopped going to DBacks games when they played the Dodgers because I didn’t want to deal with the extra bullshit.
To be honest, I think every team has a group of annoying superfans and I wonder if its nothing more than excuse to get their asshole on but it does lessen the game day experience for me, so I stay home now.
Professor Bigfoot
@Eyeroller: The Point Mugu Sea Range is where shipborne weapons are usually live-fire tested.
I’m sure there are live fire ranges at Pendleton for land based weapons (right down to Private Joker and his M16).
Launching shipborne weapons over occupied land, even if the aim point is actually intended to receive heavy weapons… is DUMB.
I can’t imagine the admiral who signed off on this bullshit.
iKropoclast
@Professor Bigfoot: I promise you if I were to make a bunch of disgusting remarks about Trump or Charlie Kirk or those Christian pretenders as a class and someone tried to hold me to account, I would have exactly zero chance of hiding behind my age.
Another Scott
@bluefoot: Horse’s mouth:
xcancel.com/mciwpendletonca
As I read the other headlines, I-5 “may” be closed. It sounds like the usual Trumpist enablers trying to cause chaos with hypotheticals at the moment.
But, we’ll see.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
You’re assuming someone actually signed off on it.
Professor Bigfoot
@iKropoclast: Oh, well, that’s different.
Even white men cannot be allowed to disrespect The Great White Father in Washington or his many and able lieutenants…
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: POINT TAKEN.
These bastards just open their pie holes and let ANYTHING come out, so there may not be anything to this other than Trumpian hot air.
Librettist
Trying to get the Nimby’s worked up. Somebody wants that beachfront redevelopment plan real bad.
JMG
One of my former neighbors, a retired Marine colonel, was at Camp Pendleton as a young Lt. As an unauthorized training exercise he once led his platoon in an amphibious landing on Black’s Beach, the famous SoCal nude beach.
Eyeroller
@Professor Bigfoot: I’ll accept your expertise on the firing ranges but I assume they are not designed for shipborne assaults. I am sure modern aiming methods are extremely accurate but there’s still a high probability it could be off a bit.
And firing even dummy weapons from offshore toward a base in a densely-populated area sounds incredibly stupid. I assume dummies are heavy and could still cause damage when landing.
ETA Also Prof. Bigfoot mentioned an existing firing range intended for such practice exercises that is NOT in a populated area. I would have assumed such things exist in an appropriate location so what is the purpose of this “exercise” other than to disrupt and/or threaten?
I still think it’s a ruse to disrupt the transportation system that day.
Kayla Rudbek
@Gloria DryGarden: California environmental groups and/or state government, maybe?
WereBear
@MagdaInBlack: I know I am.
Professor Bigfoot
@Eyeroller: They are not. Point Mugu is for launching things like anti-ship missiles and firing 5-inch guns.
I’m sure the ranges at Pendleton (and there have to be more than one) go for everything from a M4 carbine to a 120mm smoothbore on an M1 tank.
But a range is *by definition* a well ordered and controlled thing because you are fooling around with deadly ordnance.
(one reason I have a membership at my local range is that they have live Range Safety Officers keeping an eye on everyone and everything, because these are deadly weapons. They’re fun as hell, but only a fool loses sight of that fact!)
Nukular Biskits
@Eyeroller:
The Point Mugu Sea Range is used for the firing of shipboard naval (redundant, I know) guns like the 5″ MK 45, Close-In Weapon System and various missiles.
The targets, in my experience, are ALWAYS at sea, not on land. Ever hear of “Killer Tomato”?
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
I may have missed this in our conversations, but you ex-Navy?
Scout211
The USMC has refuted the claims that I-5 will be shut down.
Let’s hope this is accurate (from the OC Register).
Jeffg166
@Professor Bigfoot:
I like her.
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: EXACTLY SO— way back inna day I was a coop student working at the Naval Ship Weapons Engineering Station and at the time the Norton Sound was testing the CIWS Phalanx system— at Point Mugu.
Also did development of the SPY-1 radar system (they’re sailing with the SPY-6 now, so you can see that was a long, long time ago…)
Anyway, yeah, JUST SO.
But I don’t remember the killer tomato!
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: Worked for, for a short time as an undergrad.
But always loved warships from the Napoleonic Wars to the days of the dreadnaught class battleship to today’s frigates and corvettes with their VLS systems… Nerdistry!! ;^D
Paul in KY
@Baud: He must have watched Catch 22 sometime and thought it was a good idea.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Get down unknown black lady!!!!
Professor Bigfoot
@Scout211: THIS makes a WHOLE LOT MORE SENSE to me.
Marines are crazy*, but despite their reputation for eating crayons, they really AIN’T stupid!
(*I read somewhere, “what else do you call people who, when caught in an ambush, will immediately assault directly into the teeth of the ambush? Yeah, they’re crazy, but I’m glad they’re on OUR side!”)
lowtechcyclist
@Gloria DryGarden:
I have no art skills whatsoever, so hopefully someone else here will take that idea and run with it. My posters will stick to words.
The ‘upgrade’ from $20B to $40B has been duly noted, though.
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
About to make a coffee run then pack for vacay.
SPY-1 is still out there, just not going on new construction. SPY-6 is indeed the new radar, with variants going on both Aegis new construction and other platforms. It’s also planned for backfits.
rikyrah
@lowtechcyclist:
$40.billion for Argentina 😡😡😡
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
COMET ALERT
There are two comets in our night skies currently that may be visible to the naked eye or with binoculars. Lemmon is currently visible in the early morning sky and I was able to see it this morning from here at the observatory both via the telescope and naked eye. Lemmon with become an evening comet next week. Swan is currently an evening comet but is a bit dimmer.
END COMET ALERT.
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: Then you and I can talk about this: have you seen any of the PLAN’s new warships? They’re working on a new CATOBAR carrier to go with, too.
I think their destroyers and frigates are pretty, but that don’t mean nothing— what scares me is that they are putting to sea with them, doing serious work-ups, learning lessons that the United States Navy has spent the last 8 decades learning.
That scares me, TBH.
Started a novel, “2034” about a future conflict between the US and China and I tossed it aside when, after having one of their F35s electronically hijacked with its pilot and then losing three Arleigh Burkes they emptied the piers without figuring out WTF happened?
But then we reelected that stupid son of a bitch and he appointed Kegsbreath and now I could see the US Navy doing something as profoundly STUPID as that.
Ennyhoo, the PLAN is not fucking around and I have NO doubt they’ve paid close attention to how Ukraine was able to wipe the Black Sea clear of Russian warships when they don’t even have a navy of their own.
WTFGhost
Yeah, a sign saying “TRUMP SUCKS” is better than anything big and wordy. “Trump should suck ass” with his face under the hind end of a donkey would be kinda cool too, with the donkey having stars-and-stripes on the saddle blanket, and a proud Democratic flag flying from its tail. What? Oh, come now, this is just from a few seconds consideration, you want me to come up with something grosser, you’ll have to come visit so I don’t get banned :-). I didn’t suggest the donkey be an obvious jackass, did I?
The other thing I’d say is, maintain situational awareness. I’d try to treat a protest as if it were still during Covid-19’s pre-vaccination waves – make sure there’s space on all sides, in case you realize it’s time to go on the lam. Have a weapon, even if it’s only a roll of quarters or nickels so your fist can break a person’s nose, and you can run away while they’re blinded by the pain, and dealing with gushing blood. Have a burner phone.
And have fun. Join a group hug without worrying if you’ve got space all around you – it’s just, within 5 minutes, go back into situational awareness mode.
I mentioned I didn’t want kids at this protest, and the reason I said it ,is, I suspect a false flag attack. And yet, the wonderful thing about young folks at a protest, is, they’re more connected to the joy that we need right now. I dunno about you, but, for me, as I’ve gotten older, it’s taken more effort to connect to joy with people. When I was a teen, I always wanted to bring the good times. As I got older, I was willing to let someone else bring the good times. That might be because I’m constantly exhausted and in pain, but, it might also be part of the aging process – you get less giggly, you stop hanging with the friends that you need a friend to bail you out afterward, and you think more about who you really want in your life.
Anyway: you younger folks, maintain situational awareness, but bring the joy. The rest of you oldsters, try to reconnect to find the joy. We’re not fighting to stop Trumpism; we’re fighting to make the USA a country that ordinary people would be proud to call “home,” rather than one the Republicans would love.
Paul in KY
@Nukular Biskits: Hope y’all have a great time!
Kirklin
The risk is not just undershooting but overshooting. There are obvious reasons why military ranges have backstops and trailing dead zones that are based on the weapons using those ranges, and they don’t shoot just any spot of dead ground.
If I had to guess, the sign off wasn’t by an admiral – it was a bit higher (and notionally not ‘legal’ but what else is new with this crowd.
ETA and others got to this before me.
Paul in KY
@Eyeroller: Sometimes the munition doesn’t operate as intended. Goes off course or full powder load doesn’t detonate and shell lands short of intended target.
I can’t believe they’d fire live munitions over populated areas!
Paul in KY
@piratedan: I’m a Reds fan. I fucking hate the Dodgers!
Paul in KY
@Nukular Biskits: I don’t think any uniformed officer who might be going before a promotion board someday would ever want their name on that order.
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: Yep. This is why ANY live fire range— from Point Mugu to the Range USA in Akron that I keep going to— HAS to be a *highly controlled environment.*
I daresay one of the reasons that navies have live fire exercises is BECAUSE things don’t always work the way you expect them to… otherwise a dry-fire dumbshow would be just as effective.
Lucky Jack Aubrey told me so. ;^)
Matt McIrvin
Because of my history of dealing with violence, these two statements are incompatible for me. I’m going to be in a state of hypervigilance the whole time.
Geminid
New York mayoral candidates Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa will debate tonight starting at 7 p.m. WNBC-TV will broadcast the first hour and stream the second. Telemundo will carry it also.
A recent Quinnipiac poll taken after Eric Adams dropped out shows Mamdani leading with 46%, Cuomo second with 33% and Sliwa third with 15%.
There will be one more debate, next Wednesday, October 22.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: I loved the old battleships and cruisers from pre-airplane days.
zhena gogolia
@Belafon: Ooh, that Exodus is good.
jonas
@Scout211: I hope all the Cal Trans signs along the I-5 in the OC and San Diego broadcast a statement that the closure was prompted by a vanity military excercise for Trump and Vance.
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
Believe me, I see that daily. And it has accelerated the past few years, especially this year.
That’s one of the reasons I am going to retire early, finances permitting. I don’t like being associated with a program that is pushing out ships that I don’t believe are ready.
Eyeroller
@Paul in KY: Thanks. So now it sounds like a rumor apparently started somewhere in the White House. It must have at least seemed semi-official if it got to Newsom.
As we’ve said, they just run their mouths and flood the zone and cause constant chaos.
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: I hope you have a safe and happy trip, with nice weather.
billcoop4
Just another reason to like you — bit of a naval nerd here, too. And wargame designer.
BC in NY
WTFGhost
@Professor Bigfoot: I went into an old message forum, and they refused to accept that I “fear” firearms, because they are dangerous weapons, and, if misused, are dangerous.
They insisted they only “respected” firearms, they didn’t fear them. Well, I don’t want anyone to fear firearms, to the point that they wouldn’t shoot if an assailant was within 10 feet, and I sure wouldn’t want their hand shaking! I want them exactly so scared, that they were willing to be killed by a sniper, but not by some skeek who thinks “all I have to do is get the drop on them, and they won’t reach for the hidden gun they have at bedside, then shoot me”
And yet, I remember, in the 60s and 70s, they counseled self-defense folks, “if you draw your gun, be ready to shoot; and if you have to shoot, shoot to kill.” That was because they were afraid of people having shaking hands – “if you pick that gun up, steady your hands. If you can’t, don’t pick up the gun.” And it was because they understood, as soon as a gun is showing, people will draw their own weapons, and try to keep themselves from dying. So, you don’t even display a gun, unless you’re being threatened with deadly force.
Now, if you’re “vewwy scawed” you can draw your gun, and kill innocent people (in some states, at least), because the promise that every American’s right to “life” is protected, right, that promise, it becomes invalid the moment a white (or white-hispanic) feels ‘scared,’ even if the fear is entirely unreasonable.
Because why should you be allowed to live, if someone is afraid of you, because they think you’re a demon, due to the bath salts they’ve been smoking?
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: Right? The Iowas are, IMHO, simply the most gorgeous warships ever to go to sea!
But the evolution of naval warfare from guns (I always wondered how the HELL were they able to be that accurate from a moving platform at a moving target from miles away?!!) to the flattop and the aeroplane (greatly increased lethal radius) to the missile age and now seaborne drones…
Lockheed Martin have demoed a drone “Blackhawk” helicopter. No pilots, no humans, not so much as a pilot station… and a nose that opens up for roll-on roll-off capability for… drone tanks?!!!
Science fiction has explored these ideas for decades, but we’re watching it play out in real time— especially in Ukraine right now.
“…this modern world we live in…” – Patrick O’Brian via Jack Aubrey, Master and Commander, the Far Side of the World
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Amen to that.
prostratedragon
@tobie: I like to keep in mind that Fran Lebowitz’s famous saying about 🤡 concerned the thing about him that most terrified her. Apparently, the competition clusters around him.
no body no name
@Nukular Biskits:
I just can’t even with this. Can’t he just go to a test range and watch them blow shit up? He can’t ride on a ship and watch them sink a rust bucket?
Paul in KY
@Eyeroller: TACO! Though I think maybe the least crazy of his lickspittles explained what a bad idea that would be or maybe a General he likes explained it to him. Or they never had any intention of doing that, but are just looking at ways to ratfuck with the protests.
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: I sure fear and respect a loaded one! I assume all are loaded, unless it is one of mine that I 100% know is unloaded.
Baud
@Geminid:
Weird.
Deputinize America
I’m just shocked that Sliwa is still alive. Is he still wearing that stupid beret?
Professor Bigfoot
@WTFGhost: My very first firearms instructor, 30-40 years ago, said “never put a loaded gun where you can get to it before you’re fully awake.” This is why the only loaded firearm in my house is in a biometric safe two steps from my bedside.
Today’s concealed carry courses stress “we don’t ‘shoot to kill.’ We shoot to stop the threat.“
The corrollary to this is once the threat is neutralized, you stop shooting. If the miscreant turns and runs away, you don’t shoot the fucker because that is murder.
I defined my own rules of engagement a long time ago— if someone’s got my TV (heh, I’m old) and is running down the street with it, I just mutter “go with God, my son, because I’m not gonna make some mama cry over a thing.”
Present a threat to life and that’s another story.
And although this is outside the legal framework, if you fuck with my dogs you are gonna get shot. 😉
I, however, and every concealed carrier that I am connected with, are dedicated to deconfliction. That absent that clear and present threat to lives, no one will ever know that I was carrying. Ever.
no body no name
@Paul in KY:
The CJCS is sane.
Nukular Biskits
@Paul in KY:
Thanks!
Nukular Biskits
@Geminid: Thanks!
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot:
Reminds me of a conversation I had with my daughter, explaining that 50 years ago, a TV was often one of the most valuable items in a household, and she had this flash of insight that that was why they always showed burglars carrying them off in old shows (this had slightly mystified her).
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: The Flight III Arleigh Burkes are supposed to be pretty capable… but it seems stealth is a major part of most everyone’s frigate and corvette classes anymore and I don’t think the Arleigh Burke hull/superstructure is terrifically stealthy.
This is another of those things where I hope like hell I’m wrong… but I don’t think I am.
(I can only imagine what those sneaky Chinese submariners are going to sea with; but if they’re working them up the same way they are not gonna be easy to handle, either.)
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s funny.
iKropoclast
@Matt McIrvin: TVs may have been frequently the most valuable single item in a house, I’d wager jewelry always best it on a value per mass ratio.
HinTN
@Scout211: In my experience, what the Colonel said is exactly the way today’s military operates. Hell, a (detailed) risk assessment is done for a 5k run event in the USAF so I’m pretty confident that the Vivian about I-5 was just that.
jonas
@Professor Bigfoot: Pendleton definitely has areas for live-fire exercises inland. The beaches are sometimes used for landing exercises with those giant hovercraft, which is pretty cool to watch from the freeway if you happen to be passing through when they’re doing it. The idea of live-firing from *ships* into Camp Pendleton is simply nuts. That’s not what the base was designed for, there’s a major interstate freeway running through it, and it’s surrounded by suburban sprawl on all sides.
Kirklin
@Nukular Biskits:
For me, it’s the same focus on ground. The type 99 is a good tank (may or may not challenge our tanks one on one), the Type 15 is a very good light tank, the guided munitions programs are impressive.
But what I’ve long been concerned about in facing China directly was manpower. Not just numbers.
About three decades ago I was pointing out that China was making an honest effort at creating a true NCO class in their military. And they appear to have managed it about 10-15 years ago meaning by now they have senior NCOs.
If you’ve military experience, consider the difference between a platoon with a short stripe NCO vs one with an experienced E7 backing the LT. Or maybe you have experience with a nation where the military’s NCOs are senior enlisted, not NCOs.
Kipling deserves all the hate he gets, but there is truth in the bones of the ‘eathen and Sergeant Whatsisname.
Nukular Biskits
@no body no name:
Two rules govern this administration:
HinTN
@Professor Bigfoot:
I’ve never met a stupid Marine.
no body no name
@Professor Bigfoot:
I have been mugged but I have had more guns pointed at me by cops than any other group. As for my own carry I rarely do and if I do you won’t know.
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: And EVEN THEN— when I KNOW it’s unloaded because I thoroughly checked it before I put it in the safe… I STILL CHECK IT WHEN IT COMES OUT to go into the range bag… and then when I get to the range and it comes out IT GETS CHECKED AGAIN, and left open on the shelf.
If you’re like me, you can hardly carry a power drill without having your finger extended along the barrel… 😂
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
You and I ought to have a conversation one day.
Nukular Biskits
@Kirklin:
Propriety keeps me from being too specific but, suffice it to say, “the numbers” is what’s driving the Navy; i.e., getting more things floating in the water rather than focusing on the actual capabilities of those floating things.
This is not the program I started with almost 40 years ago.
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
Sure have! Even saw it once, many years ago! 😁
mapanghimagsik
@Professor Bigfoot:
One of my other halfs friends has a husband who was a retired navy captain. Man, that guy talks.
The point being, I mentioned the Ukraine naval drones and how that was changing things and he basically said it was a stupid things to be concerned about.
According to my annecdata, the clique is dumb.
HinTN
@HinTN: Vivian = bloviation ffs
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
Concealed carry (or open carry) is something I have very mixed feelings about.
Partly (mostly?) because of my redneck upbringing (I’ll let your imagination fill in the details), I do not like having firearms around the house. Having said that, I do have several from the estate of my mother and father. And, if you count it as a firearm, a .22 air rifle for waging the Battle of the Armadillos (it was a stalemate: They disappeared after I dropped $300 on it so I’ll never know if it actually would have worked).
Because of that, I tend to view CCW as being like 4WD: Something to help get you out of a spot. Unfortunately, a lot of people have 4WD already engaged before they get stuck; IOW, over-reliance on 4WD is often the reason you get stuck in the first place. That is how I tend to view CCW; i.e., it can (and often does) give the carrier over-confidence. See also “hammer, nail”.
In any case, I won’t belabor the point but I tend to be somewhat wary around anyone carrying a firearm, regardless of their motivations.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kirklin: Part of the same thing as the PLAN going to sea and working up their ships— Beijing is SERIOUS.
They’re not doing this for show; they are preparing to go to war.
Nukular Biskits
Coffee run done. Biskit dun ate.
I’d better get my ass in gear, get packed or Ms. Biskits is gonna be hopping mad. She’s gonna make me have fun, whether I want it or not!
;>)
I’ll check in later. Y’all be sweet.
Professor Bigfoot
@HinTN: Me neither! But it’s an article of faith among the other branches! 😂
Professor Bigfoot
EXACTLY THIS.
This ain’t some kind of game, and it damn sure ain’t a toy— this is some grown-folks shit and I’m gonna act like it.
Kirklin
@HinTN: I have, but he was an exception.
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: Brother, I’m many decades away from the current Navy and you’re right there— I gotta say, if I wasn’t scared before, I’m flat out skeered now.
Betty
@tobie: It’s not perplexing, Hakeem. It’s outrageous. This language is why some of us feel our leaders aren’t quite up to handling this disaster.
Trivia Man
@Paul in KY: I know someone who shoots a lot. Hunting, competition with targets or skeets. He told me about his friends admiring a super old rifle one of them came across. Each one looked at in turn and each one, from habit, checked if it was loaded. Im not a gun guy so i don’t know exactly what they did but he said it is some process to “break it” and look inside before looking at it more closely. Check if loaded, look at it, pass to the next guy.
After 3 or 4 guys had all done that, the next guy did the check… and a live shell fell out. Apparently it was so old and rusted, the normal safety check missed it. He said it just underlined how you never assume it is unloaded. Even if you just watched someone else check.
Miss Bianca
@Professor Bigfoot:
Ah, a fellow PO’B fan! A glass of wine with you, sir!
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: “back inna day,” that was always the focus of the Navy— fewer hulls, but greater capability in each hull.
I’ve heard nothing but bad things about the two different “littoral combat ships,” the promised modularity just didn’t manifest.
(Every other navy’s vessel the size of the Freedoms is called a “corvette.” I figure no USN commander wants a Chevrolet… X^D )
Baud
Don’t know who this is, but kudos
no body no name
@Professor Bigfoot:
One of the things that cracks me up about gun barbies like Boebert is they print when they carry. They want you to know they have it. That’s asking for trouble.
At a certain point you realize it’s a fashion accessory and that is not the way to do this.
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: YOU BETTA HAVE FUN, or Ms. Biskits will know why not!!! :^D
Have a ball, bruddah, and we’ll still be here when you get back.
no body no name
Trump is openly talking about authorizing CIA action in Venezuela. He just cannot shut up.
Geminid
News of France, from Guy Elster:
Later, Elster posted that Lecornu survived the second vote. I think that the left-wing opposition proposed one of the no-confidence votes and the right-wing opposition proposed the other.
Professor Bigfoot
@no body no name: Stupid.
Only stupid people are that way. Fools, and the first ones to get shot if anything pops off.
Dumb fuckers who don’t understand they make themselves a target.
I’m grey. You don’t see me. I’m really not even here… until I have to be.
Professor Bigfoot
@no body no name: it’s like the plot of a sitcom… but it’s real life.
Melancholy Jaques
@Nukular Biskits:
That’s what their voters demand. The billionaires are taking advantage of it, but the disease is in the people.
NotMax
@Professor Bigfoot et al.
Long watch (runs more than an hour) about a career at sea so incredible Hollywood would reject it as “too farfetched.”
Worth the time when you have it.
Ben Cisco
@Trivia Man: Bet she Made A Wish that she had kept her mouth shut!
Deputinize America
@Nukular Biskits:
I own several that I bought over a period of about 15 years (mostly rifles, but have a couple of pistols), but rarely shoot them anymore just because it doesn’t generally interest me anymore, and I don’t carry a pistol. The only thing I genuinely do like is to go to a friend’s field and shoot skeet, usually with his 20 gauge, because that is a challenge – and we may shoot a few cans of tannerite, followed up by drinking decent bourbon (wife likes it, too).
I keep my guns cable locked, and the key around somewhere, I think in our safe. I’m a lot more comfortable with a baseball bat or crowbar for home protection.
I also don’t keep one in the office, as I’ve come to learn that male lawyers in their late 50s and 60s shouldn’t keep guns in the office. They all to often choose to be the method of release from a career overloaded with stress and no thanks. If an aggrieved litigant decides to cash my ticket, so be it.
Scout211
To be fair, how is he supposed to know what “covert” means?
/s
Deputinize America
@bluefoot:
If Team D ever gets the House gavel ever again, this is one of the earliest investigations that needs to get done.
iKropoclast
Having ever read a book would have helped.
Chief Oshkosh
@Eyeroller: Even if the warheads are not armed, just shooting missiles overhead is BAD. Just one oopsie and you’ll end up killing people.
Soprano2
@HinTN: I have, but he was reserves.
Deputinize America
@iKropoclast:
I still want to know about whatever “information” they had on the people on the boat that our military unlawfully murdered.
I want everyone involved in that decision chain prosecuted, all the way down to the PO3 that manned a communication console.
p.a.
@Scout211: Could he find Venezuela on a map… after an intelligence briefing?
iKropoclast
I doubt any actual information was involved. Republicans proved during the W times that they have no problem simply declaring a person a terrorist or whatever the in vogue term for an enemy of the state is at the time.
They’re flexing their ability to wield unchecked power. They know they can get away with it on non-citizens unquestioned. So they start there. They plan to escalate, they have told us so.
no body no name
@Chief Oshkosh:
I doubt it will happen.
Deputinize America
@iKropoclast:
I mean, this wasn’t even collateral damage (which I also think needs to be seriously considered for ramifications ahead of any armed force being used by the military). This was just plain extrajudicial murder. Every sailor involved needs to feel shame.
FastEdD
@jonas: I live in SoCal and I drive through there about once a week. You are correct! Live fire exercises happen at Camp Pendleton all the time. If you live in San Clemente hearing explosions in the distance and feeling the house shake is no big deal. It occurs almost daily. They have dummy concrete buildings set up to do landing practice for troop ships off the coast. The only really seriously STUPID thing would be to fire ordnance OVER the freeway. Fires occur all year on Camp Pendleton and they are constantly putting them out. If they held live fire exercises nobody would even notice. I suspect the over the freeway thing is the only rumor.
Deputinize America
@Chief Oshkosh:
“Mistakes were made, but that’s not what’s important right now. We need to pray for the victims of this tragic accident and not cast blame….”
iKropoclast
It sure was. One of the things Republicans insist that drive me absolutely insane is that Constitutional rights don’t apply to non-citizens.
The Constitution is an enumeration of absolute human rights, as we see them. Non-citizen status is not a blank check for murder and abuse, inside or outside our borders.
no body no name
@p.a.:
For Trump it’s mostly about optics and seeming tough. He doesn’t know shit about shit. But there are others who have ideological reasons for wanting a conflict there.
Outing CIA activity and blasting boats willy nilly means this could be a bigger shit show than Iraq.
tobie
@Betty: Yes, I saw that criticism regarding Jeffries’ vocabulary. It was snark, sarcasm, feigned surprise. I sometimes feel Jeffries comes off as wooden in interviews but not in this case. He used the word well.
M31
@Matt McIrvin: lol about TVs being valuable, someone started a fun thread on bluesky the other day, pretty much “listen, everything sucks, so can we list some cool things about the modern world anyway?”
Then said “I’ll start — you can get a huge ass TV at Costco for $50”
lolol
M31
no better way to prop up the current gov’t of Venezuela, which seems pretty dumb, so yup, that’s what they’re doing
no body no name
@M31:
Depends on the TV. OLED or micro LED 4k and 8k TVs that can do 120hz+ and have adaptive sync are going to cost at minimum a grand and can get far higher.
Prometheus Shrugged
@bluefoot: If the thinking was to disrupt No Kings, it would be the stupidest possible decision ever (which means it’s probably true). The section of freeway both north and south of Camp Pendleton is routinely a parking lot, especially on weekends. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people on the overpasses hanging anti-Trump banners in the heavy traffic periods, both to the north in Orange County, and to the south in San Diego County. So they would in effect be amplifying No Kings by uniting all of SoCal into one epic rally.
iKropoclast
Pure poser bullshit.
rikyrah
@Professor Bigfoot:
Baldwin, always on point.
Baud
@Deputinize America:
“Democrats should be ashamed for politicizing this tragedy.”
Professor Bigfoot
@NotMax: A three– masted sailing ship taking prizes after 1900 is a whale of a story right there!
“Seeadler” “Sea Eagle”
rikyrah
Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
The Trump admin is preparing sweeping changes at the IRS that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily.
A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors. wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-irs-investigations-left-leaning-groups-democratic-donors-612a095e
8:55 AM · Oct 16, 2025
x.com/kylegriffin1/status/1978822034588074198
LAC
@oldster: depends on what you consider “baiting” violence. Considering that speaker leprechaun is specifically framing the DC rally as a hate america rally, and we got troops already here, will seeing black and brown faces there be “provoking”? Maybe “be there to support each other” is important too.
@Betty seeing that the democrats are holding the line in week three of this shutdown, I may be crazy but a word choice doesn’t undo it for me.
Marvin Gaye “makes me wanna holler” comes to mind…
Deputinize America
@rikyrah:
“Ah’m proud to be ‘Murkan, where at least Ah know Ah’m Freeeeeeeeeeee!!!!”
My base premise is that the First Amendment has always been a chunk of shit, a stalking horse for Evangelicals to cram their bullshit down Society’s throat.
You never had true expressive or associational rights.
Professor Bigfoot
@Deputinize America: I own bunches, mainly because I’m a “gear/equipment/gadget” kinda guy and selling them properly is both a pain in the ass AND usually one doesn’t get anywhere near the value out of ’em that one has put in.
That said, though, while I have a concealed carry license I seldom DO carry because doing it right is a pain in the arse, and the probability of actually needing it is very low.
I approach pistol shooting as “sport qua sport”– it’s fun to poke holes in a target at a distance and to make one’s groups as tight as possible.
I find that as a martial art it’s very much a stress reducer; and the act of tearing one down, cleaning and oiling it is sort of a zen exercise.
(ps– if someone tells you their gun went off while they were cleaning it, they’re lying.)
Professor Bigfoot
@no body no name: Yeah, but I defy you to run down the street carrying one of those enormous MFs.
Without getting chased down and soundly thrashed, that is!
Professor Bigfoot
QF MF T. 100%.
ALL OF THIS.
DAMN SKIPPY.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: That’s great!
I’m sorry I mixed up Luke Bryan with Zach Bryan the other day. It was Zach Bryan that ICE Barbie was trying to intimidate.
I never heard of any of them, but this Chris Andrews is a great speaker!
Professor Bigfoot
@Deputinize America: This is the thing I want to see investigated tout suite.
Motherfuckers are committing mass murder in OUR names and that shit CANNOT be tolerated.
Professor Bigfoot
@Deputinize America: Not your fault, of course, but I read that and my blood pressure went up 20 points.
These vile, un-American swine would say EXACTLY that.
Matt McIrvin
@M31: And because this is the Internet, I’m sure somebody said “NO, THAT’S A BAD THING” and you were off to the races.
Quantum man
@Professor Bigfoot: My dad served on the Norton Sound in WW2. It was a sea plane tender back then.
no body no name
@Professor Bigfoot:
Most people would be shocked what is a legal order. The issue is we are currently run by the stupid and the insane.
Steve in the ATL
@no body no name: that’s crazy. CIA interference in Latin America is unheard of!
Deputinize America
@Baud:
“Sometimes things happen during exercises, and while it is regrettable that firing naval weapons over populated areas and roads resulted in an accidental strike on civilians, that is part of the price we all pay for having a strong military prepared to meet the challenges of combat. We have relieved the captain of the vessel involved, as well as the ordinance officer charged with preparation of the weapons and the targeting plot….”
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Steve in the ATL: Wasn’t that the joke in Latin America about the Trump coup attempt on January 6? That the reason it failed was that it didn’t have the American embassy backing it?
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: I was just sitting in my living room, watching my 65 inch TV and marvelled at the difference between it and the 13 inch color TV I had fifty years ago. And counting for inflation, this great bloody thing cost less.
But dammit, where’s my flying car?!!
Kathleen
@LAC: Thank you. I’m biting my keyboard.
Professor Bigfoot
@no body no name: Yeah, this- and having gutted the JAG corps, what kind of guidance are commanders and NCOs getting?
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Betty: …And people wonder why my disdain for Progressives increases with every passing day (and even hour, depending on the day).
Professor Bigfoot
@Deputinize America: I’m sure you know about the Mk 14 torpedo in WWII.
Even if every single thing the crew does is correct, the weapon itself can also just frickin’ fail or misfire.
This nonsense of firing over the freeway would be the single stupidest thing the US military could do and I can’t believe… oh, nevermind. <sigh>
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
I’m posting this for my sister who is very offline (I’m not very onlne myself, but everything’s relative). She’s really anxious to get her idea out there, so I’ll probably post again on a fresher thread when I get back from the dentist (or maybe tomorrow).
We should sing patriotic songs to negate the idea that we’re “America haters.” This Land is Your Land, America the Beautiful, My Country Tis of Thee, O Beautiful for Spacious Skies, etc.
Arresting folks singing God Bless America would look bad, no?
prostratedragon
@zhena gogolia: Wonder if it’s in the Southern Baptist|Methodist Bible editions.
Baud
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)):
Sounds good. Someone just needs to do it.
Same with waving flags.
Leto
Apparently GOP Rep Dave Taylor has an American flag, with a swastika inside it, up in his office where everyone can see. Lot of photos and zoom sessions with it visible. Not even trying to hide it anymore. I mean they weren’t before but they’re being SUUUUUPER obvious now. Combine that with the POLITICO article and here we are.
Baud
@Leto:
He’s just a kid.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: They used optical range finders mounted high up on ship that when moved were connected to gyroscopes that also moved the gun tubes in the turret (I think). Amazing machinery in the pre-computer days! Iowa class are such magnificent ships. I do wish we’d built at least 1 Montana class (12 16″ guns and same size as Yamato/Musashi).
Baud
@Paul in KY:
I’ve been meaning to tell you that the late JR in WV would be proud of you carrying on the tradition of posting comments in dead threads. He always comes to mind when I see your nym in recent comments.
Baud
Another singer I’ve never heard of because I’m old.
Leto
@Baud: funny how old a “kid” is within the conservative worldview. 40+, still a kid. 12 y/o black child? Fully grown, mature adult.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Same way about my cats. Fuck with them and all bets are off table.
kalakal
@Professor Bigfoot: Always good to find a fellow naval nerd
Eural Joiner
@Melancholy Jaques: this x 100…you can add details to each, but you’ve just boiled down the entire moment we are living through. Sadly.
bluefoot
@Eyeroller: I also wonder how much of this is also to get the military used to firing on US soil, leading toward getting used to firing on Americans.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: That’s the way to do it. All it takes is one mistake.
WTFGhost
“Dear Jake Blues,
“I know coming back as a revenant isn’t easy, but we need your help. Once again, Nazis have invaded Illinois, and only you, and your brother, know the proper way to deal with Illinois Nazis. Also: please do not view any movies with “2000” in the title. Trust me on this one!
“Sincerely,
“You probably don’t remember me, but I borrowed a pencil from you to fill out my afterlife application, and gave it back to you, but the pencil saw this beautiful golden light and passed over. I’m sure you remember that.”
Paul in KY
@mapanghimagsik: Maybe he expects the gatling gun air defense system to take them out? Those things are great but only have so much ammo. IMO, they can be overwhelmed by numbers.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: I do think they are going to move on Taiwan some day.
Belafon
@Leto: He did put on the hotdog costume and began stating that an investigation will be done into who put it in his office. (The only lie in that sentence is the hotdog costume.)
Paul in KY
@Trivia Man: Bet that scared them. It would scare me! Anything that isn’t a single fire weapon, you must check the chamber after removing the magazine or area that holds the cartridges, etc.
Belafon
@Kirklin: The US was generally focused on a few parts:
Ukraine really did prove that 1 and 2 can work better than sheer numbers.
Trump is working on destroying all of it.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@WTFGhost: “So the bad news is that while you were gone, the Nazis took over the country, and they’re trying to wipe out the culture of the blues so they can cram country and western down everyone’s throat. That plus kill anyone who doesn’t kiss their ass.”
“What’s the good news, Elwood?”
“We got a new Pope. He’s from the South Side, and he doesn’t like Nazis any more than we do.”
Kirklin
@Professor Bigfoot:
Grounded forever, I hope. I mean, you I trust. But think about the idiots you see on the freeways – the hanging pieces, the racing to get one more spot – think of them flying over your home because it’s a shortcut from designated lane A1 to B4.
That’s before you consider bird strikes and heart attacks and texting distractions …
Omnes Omnibus
@Trivia Man: All guns are loaded. Even if you just checked. Pixies may have reloaded it while you weren’t looking.
Baud
Via reddit
Paul in KY
@Baud: Wanted to buy some of his music, but no CDs. I is old.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Professor Bigfoot:
Flying cars are just like controlled, fusion reaction, always 20-years off…always. ;)
Gloria DryGarden
@lowtechcyclist: I don’t have art skills much either, but I have been known to draw someone’s house and burn the drawing in an actual fireplace. Great release. I felt a lot better.
Dioramas are too much work, but the kids love making them.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Know you know this, but if you are concealed carrying and it’s obvious you are carrying, then that’s against the law (and stupid to boot).
WTFGhost
@iKropoclast: Sure, but the jewelry is in the room where the couple is sleeping, and the TV is in the living room. Stealing the jewelry means having to case the joint until you know who lives there, and their habits; stealing the TV means running into the living room (probably the first room, in an apartment or home), yanking the plug out of the wall, and running.
@Scout211: “Overgrown man-baby angry that Dems checked the “no” box on the “Do you like me?” note. And why? Just because he called them all horrible people who want to destroy this country. So he knows they’re going to get together and talk about how much they don’t like him, and he wants to SCARE them, with the NAVY, because no naval officer EVER complained about shelling land based targets as of limited usefulness… within hearing of the overgrown man-baby.
Yes, little Donny Trump, you have big toys that can go “boom” and we acknowledge that it’s fun to use them, but what do we say about letting other kids play with their toys in peace, and relative quiet?
Leto
@Omnes Omnibus: Those pixies are service agnostic. Damn pixies.
no body no name
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
We’ll see the reactor before flying cars.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yeah, I’ve been hearing “twenty years away” for the last fifty years.
prostratedragon
@tobie: The “Socratic perplexity.” Jeffries has a very cool emotional temperature, more typical of NYers I’ve known than the other kind.
WTFGhost
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: they actually do have “flying cars” now, but, we don’t have the infrastructure for them. There are street-legal airplanes you can use to drive to the airport; there are others that you can use to drive around town, but why wear down your plane’s engine for that? There are quadcopters that could fly point to point, in most weather conditions, and I’m sure there must be a drive-able quad-copter already built, or a gleam in someone’s brain,
I used to have a girlfriend 240 miles away. If life was the way it should have been, I’d have visited her in my plane, and she’d pick me up at the tiny, local airport. If i were that young, and she weren’t a person who bullied me, and we started it all up again, I’d be dreaming of the car in which I’d only go to the airport, then to her house, then back.
Belafon
@Kirklin: People are still working on them, mainly as taxis. And they are being made so that riders have little control over them.
Omnes Omnibus
@prostratedragon:
Did anyone really think that Captain Renault was shocked about the gambling at Rick’s?
Kelly
Many years ago I caught a ride in Lone Pine, CA after a long backpacking trip. The couple were locals that lived near the China Lake Naval Weapons Range. One morning they saw a helicopter and a cloud of dust leaving the Range. They drove over to see what was going on. It was a remote controlled tank that had been used as a target. The shot had taken out the remote control but the tank kept going. It was out in uninhabited BLM sagebrush so the Navy followed it with a couple jeeps and a helicopter until it got stuck.
kalakal
@NotMax: There was Under 10 Flags about a German Merchant Raider in WW2 – from the German point of view as well which is odd for Hollywood in 1960
Gloria DryGarden
@p.a.: there are people who can’t read maps. No telling if he’s among them. Venezuela is really quite close…
Deputinize America
@Baud:
“What do you mean that I have to drive an hour and a half to go to a city where the doctors, hospitals and rehabilitation facilities are? And why is Meemaw’s nursing home in town closing – does she really have to go all the way to Columbus for a Medicaid bed?”
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: It’ll ruin your whole damn day, no lie.
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Flying cars are more like laser sidearms, or “holograms” that hover in empty space and don’t require some kind of viewing surface to see them — something that’s a useful science-fiction signifier of the future *because* while it seems plausible, it’s not actually plausible, so it will remain futuristic.
The terrible air traffic control problems aside, there’s just the fact that VTOL flight of the type they imagine is really energetically inefficient and not what you want to use for your daily personal commute vehicle unless you have no choice.
Paul in KY
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): Great idea! I also love Battle Hymn of the Republic. Great song of The Union!!!
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: I agree… but I think it will be a carrot-and-stick combination.
They are absolutely developing their blue water and amphibious capabilities as the stick… but they’re also rich AF and very much long term thinkers so I expect there to be some fat, juicy carrots to get Taiwan to agree to some sort of rapprochement.
Xi is no idiot, as reports from valued commenter YY Sima Qian attest; but he also has a long land border with the Mad Tsar— he doesn’t need an extended fight on Taiwan as long as he/they believe they can get what they want without going kinetic
ETA— in either case, the US Navy is going to be less and less a factor thanks to [gestures broadly]>
Paul in KY
@Baud: Thank you, sir!
prostratedragon
@Omnes Omnibus: There you go.
Paul in KY
@Kirklin: True. Wouldn’t want them if the average driver got to use one.
Kirklin
@Belafon: Yes they are. And if you read some of the stories of the flying taxi experiments (much less the ones that do allow operator control) you’d laugh/cry as much as I do about them.
Realistically I expect flying personal/small group vehicles to happen. But I also expect they’ll be rich person toys and tourist attractions. So we will have the disasters but they’ll be as rare and newsworthy as private submarine implosions.
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: SOOPER stoopid.
Matt McIrvin
@Belafon: I think that any such service is always going to be a niche thing at best.
Kind of like the way that fully functional jetpacks have existed since the 1960s… and are ridiculously impractical for anything other than public stunts, because, among other things, they run out of fuel so fast that you need to be preparing to land the moment you get into the air.
Paul in KY
@Kelly: Ha! Glad it didn’t scare the bejesus out of someone backpacking in the wilderness.
BellyCat
@Scout211: Beyond horrific. Virginia’s book is going to pour gasoline on the fire to release the Epstein files.
Rest in Power, Virginia…
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Probably mentioned this before, but had a Kimber .45 pistol. Beautiful weapon. No de-cocking lever though. Was trying to see if I could safely keep a round in chamber. Was trying to have the trigger on half/pull (completely stupid, I know) and the trigger released and it blew a hole in my couch right beside my left thigh. That’s a loud boom when all windows closed up. I sold the weapon.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: She’s in the Mean Girls musical, or was in it or something.
Gloria DryGarden
@Scout211: Denver library has 10 hard copies on order. I could be #48 on the holds list..
Ramona
@Professor Bigfoot: She’s magnificent!
Rudi666
@Eyeroller:
Are you referring to missiles or JDivan Vance?
Belafon
@Kirklin: The Walmart in Greenville, TX is using unmanned drones to make deliveries. I see a lot of data being used from those type of projects.
Lyrebird
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
GOOD ON THEM!
Barrington is not a place I’d assume would speak out like that.
Rock on IL!
WTFGhost
@Baud: But there’s a 50 billion dollar stabilization fund! That will surely offset the loss of 33 billion dollars!
Of course, that 50 billion is split between 50 states, but still it’s *50 billion dollars*. That’s a huge number to people who are functionally statistically innumerate!
WTFGhost
@Rudi666: We could only hope it was the latter. But maybe the couch cushions would protect him! If not, he would die doing what he loved, held in the loving embrace of a kindly, warm, davenport.
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: I love that about my P99– DA/SA with a decocking mechanism AND an indicator to show it’s in SA mode.
PLUS it was James Bond’s gun (Pierce Brosnan edition). ;^)
etv13
@tobie: They practice amphibious assaults at Camp Pendleton all the time. I saw one once when I was driving down the 5. It’s one of the things Camp Pendleton is for.
SteverinoCT
@Baud: I was on ops off Vieques (an island next to PR) that the Navy used as a firing range. Well, half of it. The locals were fed up and finally got it closed. I would expect Pendleton has a range as well. Of course, missiles can go astray, but omelettes, eggs, you know.
My ops, FWIW, were for Marines and Seals practicing special ops. Swimming out of a sub. We retrieved them by them having their rubber boats with a line between them, and we’d snag the line on the periscope. Boring for us: they swim out, we putt around, then pick them up. Roosevelt Roads was cool: I befriended a stray cat by the mess hall my first trip. A year later, he was still there.
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: in the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, you have ways to sneak up on people and attack them, but there is no good way to sneak up on a beach to attack it (so this is why the Marines are crazy, and I say this as a descendant of a WW1 US Marine, and a military brat)
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Walthers are top of the line. Very nice (and safe) weapon.