Agiel

Must have some MKUltra contraption in my car since that was largely my sentiment when I heard about it over the radio this morning. It's a deregulation proposal that is of that rarest of breeds: One that actually favours regular Joes over Gordon Gekko types who can shrug off the capital gains tax penalties for short-selling. The pressure to deliver favourable earnings calls every quarter seems to tie the hands of executives trying to invest in the long-term health of the company, perhaps exemplified by analysts grousing things like "Labor is being paid first again. Shareholders get leftovers."

...and postponed. Heartening to an extent that the current administration isn't totally immune to, putting it mildly, bad press, particularly in light of the proposed Space Force, a defence budget that only offsets real decreases as a result of inflation, and Trump's own avoidance of service. If the Democrats don't seize defeat from the jaws of victory and the "Blue Wave" pans out, who knows? Maybe this can keeps getting kicked to the right indefinitely.

I suspect where some were hoping for something more like the traditional homecoming parades where serving men and women in ACUs and caps waved to crowds while walking down an avenue to a marching band Feldmarschall Bonespurs had this in mind: I would think Mattis was in the former camp, and may have leaked this himself in the hopes that the bad press might convince Trump to at the very least settle for a far less costly spectacle. The original news piece belaboured the point that this is far more expensive than exercises originally scheduled with the ROK, and given the history of Trump tweets I imagine Mattis rubs his temples whenever Trump tries to lay out defence policy without consulting him first. Trump's draft-dodging also seems particularly egregious in light of Mulvaney's attempt to drop protections against predatory loaning practices to veterans.

Addendum piece from Mackenzie Eaglen at AEI:

Emphases mine.

In honour of the 65th anniversary of the first French woman to break the sound barrier, Jacqueline Auriol, flying a Dassault Mystère II. Serendipitously enough Auriol shares her given name with the first woman to break the sound barrier, Jacqueline Cochran, who accomplished the feat earlier that same year.

Firefighter from Utah dies battling Mendocino Complex, the largest wildfire in California Trump _COULD_ go to California to be the comforter-in-chief, as presidents both Republican and Democrat before him have done in such occasions, but by all means he can play "He-Said, She-Said" with Omarosa. God knows those two friggin' deserve each other.

In light of Mattis' earlier opposition to the prospect, I can't help but think Mad Dog is still saying in a deep, mournful Goliath voice "Gee... I don't know, Donnie."

And now for some easy listening:

South Carolina manufacturer says it's closing plant over Trump tariffs. They say experience is the best teacher... https://youtu.be/sBffNiUOeiA?t=6s

As if a sign from the heavens I found this video while drinking some J&B Scotch.

Ob's stürmt oder schneit...

In spite of being the biggest Homeworld fan here I somehow got sidetracked half-way through Deserts of Kharak when it first came out. I finally came around to finishing it recently and man what a journey. There's a level of craft to that game that's hard to find in games of its league, from the sense of scale the artists instill into the player, to the idle unit banter, to the tracks in the sand left by a lone Baserunner making its way across the desert (even with the budgetary might of Blizzard the in-engine cinematics of Starcraft fail to be as cinematic as this game). Looking forward to whatever Blackbird Interactive comes out with next.

Man, this was such a pleasant surprise:

Maybe it's just me being some "college-educated littoral elite-type", but I never really got Trump's appeal to the "salt-o-the-earth" crowd since I found the act as transparently disingenuous as Clinton's attempt at a southern drawl. Every time Trump goes to one of those rallies I can't help but think back to Mayor Quimby at the beginning of a certain Simpsons episode: Except replace "drink" with "stiff Diet Coke".

Think of all the HMO administration jobs that will disappear overnight when you introduce single-payer healthcare.

Frankly Trump himself is to blame for sabotaging his own legislative efforts, if purely by negligence. He has neither the inclination nor energy to lobby members of congress, attempted to drive a wedge between red state democrats and the party leadership, or bothered to visit Maine, Alaska, or Arizona while AHCA and the Skinny Repeal was on the line. Hell, he doubled down on divisiveness on an issue that could have gotten bi-partisan support: Immigration (even Cesar Chavez, nominal saint of the left, came out as a hardliner against illegal immigration).

Just a lot of the usual "I'm back in college and I have to take a final for a class I hardly ever showed up for" nightmares.

Watching more of the beta videos of Kingmaker I don't know if there's much in the writing thus far that is identifiably in Chris Avellone's voice (i.e. deconstructions at every corner). Seems like it's more by-the-numbers, if largely inoffensive, fantasy writing to me.

Still astonishes me that there's young who people want these jobs back, in spite of having parents who told them they did the work so they could grow up not doing it.

I won't debate that, and arguably this approach is also part of Macron's vision for re-energising France's economy. However Trump talked up a big game that not one cent would be cut from Social Security and Medicare, a platform break from the GOP that likely clinched him the nomination. The goals of ensuring the solvency of entitlement programs for the future, cutting taxes on the wealthy, a proposed infrastructure program, and an increase in defence spending (the current budget was somewhat less than what many analysts were predicting) are tough to reconcile.