Agiel

Sums up both my hopes and my trepidations.

Few bemoaned the degradation of European capabilities and readiness in the period between 2000 and 2013 more than I, that said I've believed that things have been going in a positive direction since 2014 (for instance the Dutch deciding that perhaps they shouldn't sell _all_ of their Leopard 2A6es, even if it meant attaching their remaining armoured forces to the German Bundeswehr). But if you can't see how Trump's boasts ring hollow when he expresses such indifference (or even disdain) of constituent countries of NATO, especially its most vulnerable members like Estonia, then I guess I can't help you ("Hey, Trump, maybe it's not such a great idea ticking off the countries that have all the diesel-electric boats, stealth missile corvettes, and mine countermeasure ships, the capabilities the US Navy doesn't have.") lus, for all my misgivings about many European countries anemic defence budgets the 2% target was in my mind a poor measuring stick. The countries that do spend more than 4% on defence (Russia, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, militaries plagued by graft, cronyism, and more besides) should _not_ be models for European countries on defence spending policy. My criticisms of Trump would perhaps have been tempered if he focused more on Mattis' 30-30-30-30 proposal rather than fixating on the 2% target. Too long; didn't read: _How_ countries spend is just as, if not more important than _how much_.

In light of stagnant wage growth, the tax cut, and the necessary Social Security and Medicare cuts that are unlikely to materialise in the foreseeable future such an increase is unlikely to happen (even in the depths of Operation Iraqi Freedom spending to GDP sat between 2.9-3.8%). And in any case given the United States' commitments in the Middle East and East Asia a distressing percentage of US spending is not directly related to the defence of Eastern Europe (and what is is at best towards tripwire forces that I imagine Trump himself is highly reluctant to keep in country).

Re: NATO Spending As Mackenzie Eaglen (who is about as hawkish on defence spending as it gets) points out:

Seaman Jones: Conn, sonar! Crazy Ivan! Capt. Bart Mancuso: All stop! Quick quiet! Beaumont: What's goin' on, Jonesy? Seaman Jones: Russian captains sometimes turn suddenly to see if anyone's behind them. We call it "Crazy Ivan." The only thing you can do is go dead. Shut everything down and make like a hole in the water. Beaumont: So what's the catch? Seaman Jones: The catch is, a boat this big doesn't exactly stop on a dime... and if we're too close, we'll drift right into the back of him.

In light of Trump's proposed Space Force, I thought I'd share a rather snazzy cover for a book on the topic:

Man asks friends and strangers to sketch what they remember a bike looks like, then renders the concept: https://www.behance.net/gallery/35437979/Velocipedia

I'd feel a lot better about the NRA being the defenders of the 2nd Amendment if they got citizens to seriously reassess whether or not they really are responsible gun owners (sort of like how if you polled motorists at least 75% of them would say they were an "above average" driver). Frankly the guys in tacticool gear that bring semi-automatic rifles to rallies are the types I wouldn't trust casting a fishing line sitting in the same boat, let alone open-carrying a piece.

Not here to change anyone's opinion of the overall quality of the Last Jedi, but...

You see a nationalist symbol, I see a loyal citizen paying fealty to the Imperium of Man:

Were this a sketch on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" this would be the move the blatant KGB mole with a 10-gallon hat secured over the Ushanka his head with scotch tape would pull in front of the cameras to try and deflect suspicion off of him.

Well if you'd like to be pedantic the commonly accepted "end" to the Great War was 11 November 1918, or the day the armistice went into effect. The actual peace treaty would be signed in June of 1919, and fully put into effect the following year.

Well in light of Human Revolution one wishes that there was at least one other quest hub that was drastically different from Prague, and not just going through it at three different times of the day.

Along with allowing the Stars and Stripes to fly alongside the DPRK flag his claim to love the American flag like no other rings especially hollow.

We may have left the commies and the nazzis back in Moscow, but there will always be squatting track pants-wearing bandits to sucker punch and mug for their ammo wherever we go.

Nobody is and yet people have been praising it for the last three years. Well the impression I'm getting is that there's some form of Souls-ish respawn and retry mechanic, with Kojima coming up with some contrived plot point explaining how that works in-universe, something at least 99.98% of Souls fans thought went perfectly fine without being explained.

Metro: Exodus continues to look great. Cyberpunk 2077 looks interesting, though as said before hopefully there's a character creator. Disappointed at the lack of a new Splinter Cell, given all the developments of the past few months (that Ghost Recon DLC, interviews with Michael Ironside, and the tentative Walmart release date announcements). Bummed that Warhammer: Chaosbane wasn't demoed at the PC Gamer event. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice certainly has my attention, though was somewhat let down by From not announcing a new Armored Core. Hopefully Control isn't a PS4 exclusive. Still not 100% clear on what Death Stranding is.

I'm reminded of a story when Ehud Olmert was having lunch with the recently departed Philip Roth:

Seems like the TES VI announcement is a sign that Bethesda is breaking out of their alternating between a TES and Fallout games cycle with a 2 1/2-4 year wait between releases. Maybe they've turned into a multi-project studio. Here's hoping the game has a legit character creator, since the trailer "protagonist" isn't exactly doing anything for me.

Right answer.

Looking forward to: More footage of Metro: Exodus to tide me over to its new release date in 2019 Hoping for: Splinter Cell sequel directed by Clint Hocking and being a return to Chaos Theory form. Intrigued by: The new Tomb Raider, and finally finding out what the hell Cyberpunk 2077 actually entails.

This tweet in response to the news of Top Gun 2 commencing filming gave me a laugh: