brickhistory

Good graphic depiction of the current state of US play (involves ((covered)) boobs): https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2021/05/18/boobs-for-the-win-gina-carano-uses-perfect-meme-to-make-a-point-about-how-much-better-red-states-are-than-blue-states/

Agreed. Although I don't think the crux of the case was guns necessarily, but the overreach of the state being upheld by the 1st District. If it were purely a firearms thing, I suspect it wouldn't have been a shellacking. Either way, not gonna look good on the DOJ lawyer/department that wrote/argued the amicus brief in defense of this BS.

Self-publishing is, as I wrote, a very difficult way to make serious money. But for this guy, good for him. I hope he laughs all the way to the bank, repeatedly.

Boom! 9-0 against. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/supreme-court-unanimously-rebuffs-biden-administration-warrantless-searches-handguns

A self-published book? Not usually a ride to easy street. There's always more to any story, but it does look like "wokeism" is a thing within uniformed military leadership. 30-year AA pilot was just doxxed and the company says its investigating him after he posted anti-critical race theory in his kid's school words on his faceplant account. Only way to counter this is to stand firm. And let the company Bob's know that pilot skill/experience is more important to me, the customer, than any wokeness.

Inflation is up. Gas availability is down.

The sun shines, the tweets are positive, and the press must now clear quoting Biden Administration officials before actually quoting them. And they seem to be ok with that. Further, there are no more "kids in cages." Instead, this band of professionals have brought us "free range kids" who are found randomly scattered on arid border lands.

Max, buddy, can we talk for a minute? Listen, man, that was a good race. Merc's strategy just was better, but you did a really good job and are still up there in the points race as well. No, really the reason I wanted to talk was... Man, don't know how to bring this up but... Dude, it's the 'stache. It's gotta go or at least go full 70's porn star with it. This thin manicured line makes you look like a knock-off Inspector Clouseau or Hercules Poirot. Either way, it's just not a good look for you. Only saying this to help...

Nicely done.

Why lie? Along the lines of Hillary's (btw, she was never president, so I got that going for me...) landing under fire BS story, our duly elected (say, why is DOJ, et al, fighting so hard to interfere/slow roll the Maricopa County election audit?) President had to tell a lie about Amtrak, his mother, a conductor... https://nypost.com/2021/05/06/amtrak-joe-bidens-story-about-conductor-being-question/ TLDR version: Biden, promoting Amtrak, recounts how as VP, he'd take Amtrak to see his ailing mother and a long-time conductor would pinch his cheek, and say, "Joey, baby!" to congratulate him on a million plus miles on Amtrak.and that the Secret Service had a fit the first time. A. Biden's mother died in 2010 and the story is circa 2013-ish according to Biden. B. The conductor retired in 1993. Dementia means never having to get your story straight. But at least he's not tweeting meanly.

One of the Chuavin jurors looks like he lied to the judge about his knowledge of and bias towards the trial. On the record and under oath that "he only had a vague knowledge of the case." (paraphrased) Photos/social media of him a few months BEFORE being selected showing him wearing a "Get off our necks" shirt and his comments on a local radio show this week where he says "We need to take action by being part of the system." Just can't help bragging on taking down the "man," even if that bragging adds bigly to an appeal's overturning of the some or all of the charges.

Meh race today. Hamilton is just a much better driver than Bottas. No more excuses to be given.

Concur. However, given that the Democrats will redraw the districts and his is nearly 50-50 split, I see them trying to contain the Republicans to those southern areas of the state and will carve his up among the existing Democrat districts in ensure a lock. I don't believe he could win in one of those redder districts as he's voted for numerous gun-control measures, wants to stay in Afghanistan, and voted for Trump Impeachment II, etc. But no local knowledge so could be entirely off-base. I do know, however, that Kinzinger was one of the Republicans given the Steele Dossier back when. To the best of my knowledge he has never denied (or confirmed) spreading the info around. I also know that a Trump-endorsed candidate was the leading vote getter for a special election in TX yesterday and will advance to the final since she didn't get a 50% + 1 of the votes cast. The Kinzinger-endorsed candidate was pretty far back and didn't make the next round. To be fair, the leading vote getter was the widow of the deceased representative, so Trump may or may not have been a factor in her advancement. But Kinzinger's influence was pretty nil. I think others will be drawing similar conclusions.

It would be nice if this could be true, but Leviathan/Deep State/entrenched bureaucracy/good taxpayer-funded deals demonstrated pretty vividly from 2017-2021 that this isn't the case. The IRS, among others, used its power to punish wrong-thinking Americans who held contrarian political views. They hid/destroyed evidence, lied under oath about it. Not one person was punished, charged, or lost a sweet government pension. The FBI and at least parts of the Intelligence Community intentionally spied on a presidential candidate, a President, and willfully lied about it multiple times. Those are now facts. And the FISA courts said, "Tsk, tsk." And recently appointed one of the key DOJ participants as one of the watchdogs. Comey/Brennan/McCabe/Powers, et al did really heinous things against a President they didn't like. One elected by the American people. And not one person saw the inside of a jail. One low-level lawyer pled down to a single charge and received a suspended sentence. Didn't even lose his law license. Cities are literally burning and it's called "mostly peaceful" and miscreants are either not charged or provided bail via elected officials. Protesters at the Capital are relentlessly pursued and charged with fairly minor crimes. An Air Force veteran was shot and killed by a cop because of....? All fun and political games until those powers are turned against us little guys because we believe/think/speak a different tune. So Leviathan proved its power pretty clearly.

Is spilling classified information to Iran still a federal crime? Asking for another friend of this friend... Is falsely attesting to drug use and flavor of military discharge on a Form 4473 when buying a gun still a felony? Asking for the son of that first friend... Is being orange now a felony?

Indeed. In the short term, it MIGHT pay off for the GOP, but in the long term, just as California turned uber-liberal over a series of years/migration from liberal places, so too shall the few remaining bastions of largely self-governance shift as the tide turns because of refugees fouling up their new nests. Perhaps, unlikely, but perhaps, while the current Red states are shifting, the blue ones will start to shift back after peak "Escape from New York." But my point for pointing out that Illinois lost a congressional seat is that, likely, the congressman of this thread has known that data for a while and is positioning himself for other venues. He says he doesn't rule out a statewide office run, but I just can't see it happening. D's won't vote for him no matter how anti-Trump he says he is (gotta hurt that Gina Ortiz-Jones, a 2 X failed congressional candidate gets a nod for Under-SECAF and this guy got bupkis...), and most R's won't because of that. I'm seeing some sort of TV gig being lined up. My theory anyway.

Illinois to lose a congressional seat due to census results. I do wonder how far in advance certain trends or results can be gleaned.

A few random and/or cool things happened this week that I couldn't find where to post appropriately, so my intent on this thread is for those items that aren't "WTF," as that, to me, has a negative to shocking connotation and the items here are not that. It would be great if they were all uplifting, but one of mine is not going to be, unfortunately. Mods, apologies if these have places to be sorted and I missed it. 1. NASA flew a freakin' helicopter on Mars twice over the last week. 2. NASA via SpaceX flew a previously-owned rocket and ship to the ISS taking a four-man crew including the wife of the commander of the first SpaceX launch. 3. An Indonesian submarine sank on Thursday and is still unfound. Although likely having gone down below crush depth already, the crew runs out of oxygen tomorrow if they haven't. One of the top three ways I wouldn't want to die.

Congrats to Verstappen; a boring drive caused by a really good performance. Well done to Hamilton with the comeback. Russell is lucky he didn't get his ass handed to him literally. I'm betting he did figuratively by Mercedes and Wolf for his unprofessionalism. As evidenced by his public and full apology to Bottas. Don't bite the hand that's probably going to feed you, kid... The more I watch Riccardo, the less impressed I am by him. He's running out of teams to try and not be under pressure by his teammate. Overall, pretty interesting race. I enjoy the uncertainty that rain brings to the performance.

WORST officer I have ever run across in 21 + 12 years in and around Big Blue. Would've fit right in with the worst of the "What's Wrong with the Air Force" thread. But, since it's not a public information release like a commander being formally relieved, I will respect privacy issues. But when you are disappeared over a weekend from your office and given three months to "prepare for an upcoming PCS" to a non-command base-level job, I'm pretty sure it's over. Certainly hope so. And hope that getting fired stares him in the face every day until the final one. Still, the association caused me to re-evaluate my life and decide to retire at age 56. Not all bad came from it. Adios, indeed, MF'er. Adios indeed...

Doesn't make the headlines when a complete douche is fired from a MAJCOM staff job, but just as satisfying knowing that the end of the road finally arrived. AMF...

Self-awareness 101...

Pointing out the obvious to the oblivious since those that believe it so will just be reaffirmed and those that don't won't or will accept it since it supports their position(s): Interesting that Project Veritas set up a CNN technical producer with, essentially, a honey trap and the poor schmuck, trying to get laid, 'fesses up to all the shenanigans that those on the right have been pointing out - deliberate, stated corporate policy to defeat Trump, deliberate hiding of stories facts detrimental to Democrats, hyping Kung Flu coverage for ratings (shocked, I tell you, shocked), deliberately only covering white on black crimes and not reporting on black on anybody else, especially Asian, crime since it "doesn't help BLM." Twitter just banned both Project Veritas and O'Keefe personally.