The Old Hack

It apparently went all the way up the ranks. One officer saluted the Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces with his left hand. His left hand. I do not believe this is SOP.

I am sure that won't matter much. I mean, who needs to be able to see what you and the enemy are doing? Anyway if it is that bad, I am sure they can find a PE-8 in storage somewhere to use as a substitute until they can build a new one.
To be fair, the Russians don't really have much in the way of credibility left anyway. I am sure that is not causing any morale issues.

Seems like Putin just had a bad day. An Ukrainian surprise drone attack just smashed a lot of Russian strategic bombing planes, reducing their strategic bombing capacity by 25% or possibly as much as 33%. It seems they have also destroyed the Russian equivalent of an AWACS.
An AWACS is cheap, fast and easy to replace, right? 

It is honestly pleasant to hear about the various ways Ukrainians get to strike back at the Russians. I really hope Europe will get its act together and support Ukraine properly.

I have read more realistic E. E. 'Doc' Smith sci fi books, the Lensman series included, than the current political situation.

Dr. Evil.
The man is a caricature that won't go away.

I did a bit of price comparison shopping, and believe it or not, I managed to snag a Johnson Massey-brand 1 oz. silver bullion bar from APMEX by way of Walmart for less money than if I had bought it from APMEX directly. Saved about $4 on the overall transaction when you figure in the shipping/handling - APMEX wanted $9.95, but Walmart's was free because I'm on the Walmart+ plan.
Here's what I bought:

Let me tell you a short, sad tale. Back when I was a kid, I had a little bit of money - just under $100. I took some of it and used it to get into the booming silver market of the day, in the mid-70s. I bought a 10 oz. silver bar (which turned out to be a junk silver pour) for a tad less than $80. I then held onto it until hard times hit, after I'd got married in 1983. I tried to cash it in. Lo and behold, the place from where I bought it no longer existed, and the exchange where I tried to sell it at first didn't want to accept the Certificate of Authenticity that came with it. They eventually caved in, but with me taking a loss of almost $30. The lesson they imparted? "Buy something like Englehart Fabricated next time."
Well, Englehart no longer fabricates ingots, although their bullion is still around. Their ingots look like crap, though. For a trader, that doesn't matter. For a collector like me, it does. So, I picked a happy medium between reputability and holdability, then bought the best I could afford (Johnson Matthey, above - mine will have a different serial number). I could have bought something in Assay, but I'd never have been able to put my fingers (well, my cotton-gloved fingers) on it. Plus, it'd have been more expensive.
So, come next week, I'll finally have a reputable, sellable (in case of emergency only), ingot of silver bullion of my very own. I'm stoked. Can't wait.

About half of the electric cars around here are Teslas, but the majority of those were from back before Musk took his hard right turn. I think that half of them are owned by current or former Tesla employees and their families.
There are plenty of Nissan Leafs, Chevrolet Volt/Bolts, and even a few Mustang Mach-E’s and F-150 Lightnings around here. Maybe one car in five is electric, it seems.

I am reminded of a training exercise once held for the Danish special forces, the Jaegerkorps and the Frogmen. Some squads of them got dropped unarmed and only wearing overalls in southern Jutland, were each handed a six meter long iron rail (total weight some three hundred kilos, or around 675 pounds), and told to carry it some 200 miles back to their home base in northern Jutland. In addition the police, home guard and regular army got mobilized and sent out to capture them before they made it.
I heard of the method used by one particular squad to solve the problem. They hid the rail in some woods, split up to steal clothes, food and a truck, then put the rail aboard the truck and drove it at a leisurely pace towards home base. The forces busily searching their entire expected route never even noticed them. Some twelve hours later they found an unoccupied summer cottage close to base and spent the rest of the week there watching TV, playing cards and generally having a good time. Just fifteen minutes before deadline they carried the rail into their home base, having concealed the truck and left the rest of their stolen goodies behind.
It should be noted that one thing Danish special forces get taught is to never do honestly what can be accomplished through cheating.

I am reminded of a training exercise once held for the Danish special forces, the Jaegerkorps and the Frogmen. Some squads of them got dropped unarmed and only wearing overalls in southern Jutland, were each handed a six meter long iron rail (total weight some three hundred kilos, or around 675 pounds), and told to carry it some 200 miles back to their home base in northern Jutland. In addition the police, home guard and regular army got mobilized and sent out to capture them before they made it.
I heard of the method used by one particular squad to solve the problem. They hid the rail in some woods, split up to steal clothes, food and a truck, then put the rail aboard the truck and drove it at a leisurely pace towards home base. The forces busily searching their entire expected route never even noticed them. Some twelve hours later they found an unoccupied summer cottage close to base and spent the rest of the week there watching TV, playing cards and generally having a good time. Just fifteen minutes before deadline they carried the rail into their home base, having concealed the truck and left the rest of their stolen goodies behind.
It should be noted that one thing Danish special forces get taught is to never do honestly what can be accomplished through cheating.

What! Treason! They will cause prices to rise! (First case of treason ever due to the exact opposite of aiding and comforting the enemy.)
Then again the stock market is dropping even faster than the bombs, so maybe relatively speaking the bombs are actually rising? 

I'm on a fixed income, just barely making it from month to month.  This next year is going to suck.

 
Is The President deliberately enacting every bad idea that ever graced right wing op-ed columns to destroy the Republican party and conservative political movement without regard to what it dose to anything else? 
 

So, Trump has just declared trade war on the whole Earth. How was it that Londo Mollari quote went? Oh right.
"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Idiot would fight a war on twelve."

Fixed that for you

You're not wrong.
 
 
 
 

Quite, and I apologize for the wordplay. I merely appreciated the irony. (On a related note, it seems Hegseth told everyone in the chat that the planned bombings could safely be paused at need because he could guarantee complete opsec (operational security). I suspect that at this point any actual counterintelligence agents reading this would be headdesking loudly and repeatedly.)
Depends on which kind of intelligence. If the ordinary kind, I don't think there is rain enough in the world to bring it out. If the military kind, it seems they are recklessly spreading it on online fora in a way that would put bored weapon specialists on various wargame forums to shame.

Ouch.  Most man portable missiles cost as much as a luxury car, at the least.

Feeling optimistic that I can get some writing on Project X, or maybe even my Space Fantasy game, done today.  I need to name that something.  The current name “Edge of Imperial Space” really doesn't fit it anymore.

Took antihistamines with my normal morning drugs and no current headache.  Going to finish breakfast and my cat photo stuff, then may dive in.

Er.
This is the political thread. 

Where are the people who want to impress Jody Foster when we need them?  And with better aim.

While bottle rockets have a “warhead” it is small.  Which is not to say they don't hurt if you get hit in the small of your back while only wearing a set of swim trunks.

(That's why I picked such a distant-past example.)