Recent content by swampyankee

Quite a few people also seem to think right-wing terrorism doesn't exist. Or right-wing political violence. I couldn't give you an accurate count of murders by left vs right wing governments, but the estimates I've seen are 50,000 to 100,000 by Franco after the end of the Spanish Civil War and...

Possibly defeated, but definitely resurgent.

Claiming the nazis were left-wing because of the word socialist in their name is as stupid as saying that Kim Il Jung is a republican because he leads the Democratic Republic of Korea. Totalitarians and their ideologues and apologists lie incessantly.

Is that a two-level, sextuple turret with two different guns on that ship on the right? The sea state seems a bit weird, too. Calm seas with whitecaps?

At least in some agencies, "lots smarter" is cause for firing.

A neutral Italy means the Mediterranean is the RN's lake. No siege of Malta. No battleships sunk (albeit temporarily) in Alexandria. Fewer losses from submarines. On the whole, a neutral Italy is a plus for the allies. Of course, the Allie don't get to practice on the Africa Korps before...

Check the thigh of the second woman from the top. AI involvement?

Slavery was a very important institution in Rome. When the empire stopped expanding, the supply of people to brutalize and exploit severely fell. Much of the civil service, agricultural work force, and skilled labor were enslaved.

Rafale or Typhoon are more potent, albeit more expensive than Gripen. A mix may be optimal. In any case, Trump has broken trust with many allies, especially Canada. Hopefully, sometime before my children die of old age, his successors will restore US honor

Hell, major ideological groups in one major First World country are actively promoting it.

Hell, we've got groups actively encouraging making it worse. The long-term drought that's largely the reason for worsening fires in the Western US (this may extend into Canada; the US media had always been parochial, but it's now approaching active isolationism, and I don't have that...

One problem may be that the pilot may be ejecting into an active fire. As an aside, aerial firefighting is one of those jobs that makes "commercial pilot" up there with "commercial fisherman" among the jobs most likely to get you killed.

Many of them have grown up with profound social isolation, of a sort that did not often exist in earlier generations, or even mine (I was born in 1953). Social networks -- family and friends -- are necessary. I don't have access to data regarding suicide rates in the military vs time. I know...

I think the word you're looking for is "editing error."

They also knew they were signing up for a truly existential risk, not one that is, at worst, a severe annoyance to its neighbors. People on the East and Gulf Coasts could see the tankers burning, and many of the first generation immigrants knew of the horrors being perpetrated by the nazis and...