rjshae

For the Sounders, after being all Messi'd up...

Apparently it's okay for the US to shoot up non-military ships in international waters now. What are we, Somalia? I suppose it's easier to maintain a constant state of emergency that way.

Speaking of illegal, a judge has ruled that deployment of the National Guard to LA was a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. They have no shame.

Some German sausage Prez just keeps on...

Now for something completely random...

The first time I saw AI try to draw conclusions from something I'd written, it was so blatantly wrong that I was flabbergasted. Granted the conclusions it drew were based on some subtle inferences from the technical wording, but a normal person just wouldn't reach those conclusions. Sure, you can blame me as the author; I did rewrite the text slightly to make sure the AI would interpret it correctly. Nonetheless, AI hallucinations are a real problem, especially when they occur in STEM fields, as well as the legal professions.

Let's call him Marvin

Music for 1950s aliens to invade a planet.

Can't stop watching a TV show? That may be a good thing I just knew it had to be doing some good. 😉

Among other things, the flag stands for the freedom to burn the flag. So there's that. Most people here would never burn the flag.

I'm retired so I normally don't need an alarm, except on rare occasions. But I wouldn't trust that I remembered to recharge the phone properly, so I'll stick with the radio alarm clock.

I finally managed to get in, although I had to do it via a back door method. They started sending me occasional spam e-mails, and one of them let me do a sign in. Good grief.

Can I ask why you think it goes too far? At worse it can be mildly insulting, but I don't consider it a priority. There are western states that prohibit flag desecration (France and Germany) and those that don't (Canada and Britain). In either case, it doesn't appear to impact them in any significant way. I suspect this is more of a priority for flag-hugging Republicans, and I suspect that prohibiting it in apparent violation of the First Amendment is a slippery slope.

U.S. has tariff exemptions for goods under the 2020 free trade deal with Canada and Mexico. Apparently, Canada is matching those. Canada will match US tariff exemptions under USMCA trade pact, Prime Minister Carney says So, not as bad as it seemed?

Right, it would be a method of last resort, when Putin's forces are potentially closing in on Kiev, for example. The question is whether to demonstrate the capability in advance.

Hence why would (obviously) need to be done in secret. It wouldn't surprise me to learn it has already been planned. The time frame for Ukraine to build dirty bombs is months. Zelensky's doomsday nuke option

Who will not allow it? Britain and France?

We've seen this sort of thing (protection guarantees) before, and it rarely works out well for the protectee. I certainly wouldn't believe any such guarantee coming from DJT, and it's even a bit iffy coming from other European states. Who knows what their motives will be down the road? There's a slightly better chance of success if European troops are actually stationed in Ukraine; even if just anti-air units. There's a much stronger chance of success if Ukraine were to rearm with nukes and delivery systems -- there'd be no chance that Putin would risk an invasion with Moscow less than 2,000 km away.

You don't blame the audience for not getting the joke of a comedian. But in this case it's not particularly funny. The "humor" here more closely resembles schadenfreude (presumably accompanied by malicious laughter by the audience). It's German humor, perhaps, but humor doesn't translate well.

I can't imagine it's very efficient as a police force. Just a big waste of taxpayer money while putting on a show. I.e. it's a parade.

A meeting in Alaska means Putin doesn't need to land in any territory where he could be arrested.

I'd heard that rabbits can be h*rny, but this is ridiculous: https://apnews.com/article/rabbits-with-horns-virus-colorado-tentacles-papillomavirus-98b1ad95ba3a0f308bf884d79d1eea7c

There's one thing we can say about this event with reasonable assurity: this is not about crime. Crime in Washington D.C. is down 26% since this time last year. Violent Crime in D.C. Hits 30 Year Low (January 3, 2025)