wolfriverjoe

The psychological value would be pretty big. But the actual tactical or strategic value would be minimal. The Ukrainians are short enough on stuff that going after targets that have immediate tactical value is vital. Taking out the Russians gas station means more vehicles running out of fuel. Apparently the Ukraine Farmer's Association now possesses the 5th largest collection of armored vehicles in the world. More than France, the UK and Canada (each, not collectively).

Ummmm... No The morgues overfilling wouldn't be the 'tragedy' part. The ice cream shortage would be.

I was wondering when that was going to start. The Russians have a lot of stuff staged just on their side of the border. Oil (POL) is a hell of a good target.

Morgues would overfill. They'd need refrigerated trailers to hold all the bodies. A LOT of them. So frozen stuff would not be able to be delivered, due to the trailer shortage. So there wouldn't be any ice cream in the stores. THAT would be a tragedy.

Interesting discussion. In the unlikely event that anyone doesn't know, Chuck Akers is President Of USPA (Captain Obvious, at your service). Kinda cool that someone at that level in the sport is participating in this. Something I didn't see (or missed) is the concept of "Safety Culture" at the DZ. Dan BC is big on this. He's written a lot of stuff about it, and it's worth reading. One reason behind 'safety culture' is that with the bigger DZs, and the dependence on tandems for revenue, having a DZ in the media for accidents isn't a good thing (yes, I know the stats that jumps go up after an accident). People who want to do tandems often ask about the accident rate. Even though we can (truthfully) say that the majority of accidents are experienced jumpers who make foolish mistakes or exhibit bad judgement, many of the students just want to hear that 'there haven't been any accidents here for a long time.' So the DZO has an incentive to promote a safety culture. Not all of them do, but the big DZ I (normally) jump at has a very strong attitude towards safety. Nobody gets ridiculed for pulling off a load when the wind picks up. Or for making any sort of 'conservative' decision. I don't know for sure, but that sort of attitude seems to be a lot more prevalent than the old 'cowboy' or 'daredevil' attitudes of the past.

The other difference is that much of Nixon's base chose to abandon him as the case unfolded.

Wow. Project much? I have no 'guilt' about what our country has done in the past. Or about what it does now or in the future. I'm not in charge. And while my vote may (or may not) be a very, very, very small factor in putting the ones who make those decisions in power, I'm not going to feel guilty about, say, voting for GWB. That doesn't change the fact that America has done some REALLY fucked up shit in the past. And that many Americans refuse to admit it. For example, the only people who don't think the Nazi Holocaust was a horrible thing are Nazis and anti-semites (often, but not always the same thing). But the genocide inflicted on the native population from the time the Pilgrims landed until about now is at least an order of magnitude worse in terms of direct and indirect deaths. But calling Columbus a genocidal maniac who didn't even know where he was is "anti-American". During the BLM protests last year, it was pointed out that "America is so racist that pointing out racism is considered by many to be un-American". The countries where it was 'in America's national interests' to install and defend the most horrible dictators possible. Iran, Cuba, Iraq (we supported Saddam Hussein back in the 80s), most of Central & South America, that list is long. The term 'banana republic' was coined because the US installed dictators in Honduras to make sure Dole could get cheap product. We claim to be the 'beacon of democracy' and to support freedom around the world. The reality is a LOT different. Again, I'm not feeling guilty about any of this. But I don't pretend it doesn't exist and claim that the country is where it is economically and politically because of "American Exceptionalism". Again wow. Did you just sleep through history class back in high school? When the country was founded, and the Declaration of Independence was written, the idea that certain people were superior to others simply because of the vagina they popped out of was pretty standard. The concept that 'all men are created equal' (flawed because it meant 'white men who owned property) was not just 'liberal', it was revolutionary. The concept that laws should apply to all men (again, white men), that the 'unwashed masses' had actual rights, the rest of the basic democratic principles the founders put in place was head and shoulders above how the rest of the world operated. Funny how much of the world has followed that lead and adopted many (not all) of the basic principles. They are often referred to as 'liberal democracies'. Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy It doesn't mean 'left wing'. If you want a good example of what the opposite looks like, look at the Confederacy. The "Cornerstone Speech" by Alexander Stephens is interesting (note: I only learned about this fairly recently). He claimed that the founding fathers got it wrong, that all men are NOT created equal and that white men should own black men.

Nah. That was a time when Men were real Men, Women were real Women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.

Holy cow. What a fool. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-convoy-protest-regrets-1.6394502

Everyone knows perfectly well that it was a 'gotcha' question. And Jackson's answer of "I'm not a biologist" was a clipped quote of her entire answer. Which basically boiled down to "the definition would depend on the facts of the case being argued." And when Blackburn pressed her, citing a few different SC decisions, Jackson's answer of 'I'm not familiar with the case and I'd have to read the decision before answering' is an entirely appropriate answer. But, again, for a 'gotcha' question, the rabid right wingers see it as 'pandering to the left'. Not to mention that Blackburn told some very blatant lies and mixed and matched SC decisions. Go figure. She wasn't the one under oath (there's a big part of me that would like to see those posing the question in these hearings subject to the same oath and consequences that those giving testimony are). https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/23/remarkable-bad-faith-involved-what-is-woman-attack/

Bail is simply an assurance that the accused will show up for future court proceedings. The amount is highly variable & subjective. The judge considers a very wide variety of factors. Money is not always (or often) the primary one. On a slightly different note, Paul Manafort was removed from a plane bound for Dubai. His passport was revoked some time ago and he's not supposed to do that. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/former-trump-aide-manafort-removed-from-flight-due-to-revoked-passport

Oops. That's what I meant. Thank you. It was just 'locker room talk'. That's an adequate excuse, isn't it?

And admit they were WRONG?!?!?!?! Inconceivable.

Bingo. Con men gonna con. (was going to post this, but you beat me to it)

Omicron is a Greek letter. The Greek alphabet has been around for a couple of centuries. Greek letters are used as 'shorthand' in a wide variety of places. Higher math one of the common ones. To pretend that the use of Greek letters for the variants of the virus contains 'hidden messages' in the anagrams is pretty silly. Life is NOT a movie, where the villain hides clues for the hero to decipher. That's one of the 'founding principles' of the Q idiocy. It's not any less stupid there. Not sure what country you live in that has an 'informed, educated citizenry'. The level of stupidity that's been demonstrated in the past couple years is abso-freaking-lutely astonishing. Among other things: The vax contains tracking chips. The new 5G network is causing the illness, not the virus. The vax is the 'mark of the beast' foretold in Revelation. (funny that they ignore the part where it says 'on the forehead' as they wear hats with the slogan from someone who has a pretty close resemblance to the Anti-Christ) There have been more people killed by the vax than by the virus. The virus is fake. But it was manufactured and intentionally released by China (with Fauci's help). Covid is 'just like the flu' (yet these morons have no clue how bad the flu can be... And Covid's worse). On the plus side, hundreds of thousands of these fools have died. The seven day average death rate just dropped below 1000 for the first time since last November, and that was only for a couple days. It hasn't been consistently under 1000 since last August. The consequences for thousands has been death. To impose other consequences on what people who refuse to take precautions against a deadly virus is not a new thing. Quarantines used to be quite common. And strictly enforced. People with Tuberculosis were committed to institutions. They were 'just a little bit sick', but were FORCED out of their homes and into rather unpleasant sanatoriums. And if they tried to refuse, they were put in a straight jacket and taken against their will. As far as education goes, there was a time when kids were required to show proof of a variety of vaccinations to attend school. The anti-vax idiots have done a lot of damage, which is why we're seeing outbreaks of measles (among other vax-preventable diseases) in modern society. The old idea that 'your right to swing your fist ends at my nose' can be transposed to 'your right to wander around spreading a deadly virus ends when you expose others to it'. Last - when did I ever publicly accuse you of Drunk Posting? Please show me.

That's one of those things that's 'self correcting'. You learn or you die.

Any word on it being certified for operations with the door off, or mods for an in-flight door? I know some planes have the closed and latched door part of the 'structure'. That is, having the door open or removed can compromise the structural integrity. Or at least they don't demonstrate that it doesn't.

Trump's rape/slander trial has nothing to do with Russia. Neither does his settlement for the "Trump U" lawsuit. Nor does all the investigations about his tax evasion. Or his potential for facing prosecution for the insurrection attempt on Jan 6. Or any of the (roughly) zillion other 'bad things' he's done. I'm specifically referring to the idea that Trump was under the infuence/control of Putin. Having Manafort as his campaign manager is an interesting 'little fact' that I neglected to include. Manafort has a fairly long resume working for Russian oligarchs and politicians. Which means indirectly for Putin. To equate Hunter Biden being given a job that he wasn't terribly qualified for to get the name "Biden" on the masthead and to get potential access to a prominent US politician is hardly a comparable action. It's also not illegal. In fact, the idea that Trump tried to (illegally) restrict US military aid to Ukraine in an attempt to get Zelensky to pretend to open an investigation is a bit telling. Do you think Putin liked the idea of less US military aid to Ukraine?

No, not in the least. I'm talking about Trump reps meeting with Russian diplomats (illegally) before the election. Flynn lied to the FBI about it, was convicted and sentenced to prison. Trump pardoned him. I'm talking about Trump trying to get the sanctions against Russia removed as one of the first things he did as President (and failed). I'm talking about how he basically bent over and kissed Putin's ass in Helsinki in 2018, then came home and 'talked tough'. I'm talking about how he called Putin "genius" for pretending to go in as a 'peacekeeping force' at the beginning of the invasion. I'm talking about how he has yet to publicly criticize Putin for the invasion. I'm talking about how he welcomed the Russian press into the Oval Office in the first week of being President, yet refused to hold formal press conferences for almost the entire 4 years he was in office. There's a shit ton more, none of which, by itself, is proof. But collectively, in total, it's abundantly clear that Trump was Putin's bitch from well before the election. Don't forget that there were reports that the NSA stopped giving Trump everything in the 'classified' briefings for fear he would tell Putin.

Well, the bigger DZ I jump at starts up at 8 in the summer. That means show up at 7ish. In June & July, they keep sending loads until well after 8. They'd lose an hour of evening daylight (it would be light for longer before anyone showed up) if there wasn't daylight savings (I know that's not the proposal). Or they'd have to start up at 7, show up at 6ish.

Because it's a completely unbelievable set of circumstances. On the flip side, why don't Trump supporters believe Trump was a Putin stooge, despite all the evidence?

Luke has a rather impressive resume. Lots and lots of 'Hollywood' work. No clue if they're planning on wearing rigs for the stunt. I would expect so, but I could certainly be wrong. If it goes as planned, they wouldn't need them. As noted above, I haven't heard specifically that they plan on going without rigs. But it's not a legal requirement. There's no FAA rule that says you have to have a rig to jump from a plane. Just stuff about the rig (TSO'd, packed properly, in date, ect). The only 'trouble' Pastrana got into was his license got suspended by USPA for 6 months. Luke worked very closely with both the FAA & USPA for the net jump. He got the minimum pull altitudes waived for his practice jumps. Interestingly, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) almost stopped the jump. They wanted to make Luke wear a rig, and threatened his SAG card (and future work). Having a rig on his back would have made the landing problematic. Fortunately, he convinced them to let him do it as planned.

You spelled 'troll' wrong.

Just like the toilet paper 'shortage' at the beginning of the pandemic.

I would much rather see the sun set after 8 in June & July than (not) see it come up before 4. I would also not like to see the sun come up after 8, even though it means it goes down before 5. For people who don't live far enough north to see a big swing in the length of the day, I understand it's more of a pain than it's worth. But there's a lot of people that live north enough that it's really nice. As noted, they tried it year round in the past. Lots of people hated it and a few kids got killed waiting for a bus in the dark. I did (still have the mom, but she's now in a care facility, only has one clock and the staff takes care of it). 4 analog clocks, a wrist watch, the alarm clock, the stove and the car when she was still driving (had to pull out the manual & look up how every year). Once in the fall, once in the spring. Whoop-de-frigging-do. I have 3 analog clocks (including one of the old "Skydiving Magazine" altimeter face ones), a few analog watches, the stove and the car.