I knew I'm not the only one disappointed they didn't fire up the roof mounted Phalanx CIWSs. I'm pretty certain 20mm is big enough for unarmored infantry, and it puts nearly double the rounds down range per second, is far more accurate (not that accuracy matters with a Vulcan cannon) and has 1550 rounds per clip, reloaded in under 4 minutes by two people, compared to 1350 30mm total in a warthog.

Here's the thing: if average citizens didn't have guns, I'd be right pissed if the cops carried them.

I can't speak for the whole of whatever the fuck you think "liberals" encompasses, but here's my take on guns & cops: the constitution allows for guns within well-regulated militias. It was just worded really, really poorly. I mean, read 2A - it's practically authentic frontier gibberish. But the words "well-regulated militia" are definitely in there. And it makes sense - they were trying to secure a bold new type of governance. They needed to be able to defend that, and there was no immediate plan for a standing army. So local, reasonably well-supplied militias, which weren't a bunch of bumblefucks shooting at whatever whenever, were a pretty real need. Where we're at *now* with guns is so fucking far from what the founders could've possibly conceived, that to think they'd approve of it is absurd. I mean, maybe a few of them (they were quite the diverse bunch of white male landowners, in all sincerity), but those with solid military experience likely would've been horrified.

Having said that, it's fantasy-land nonsense to think the prospect of completely eliminating recreational guns in the US in the near term is viable. Hunting armaments will (and perhaps should) remain common for a long while, so be it. I see handguns and non-hunting long arms (or those that are excessive for it) as of significant negative value to society, they can all fuck right off into a metal recycling center or the armory of a well-regulated militia. Perhaps keep some at firing ranges for recreational target practice, with competent professional supervision, and with reasonable regulations in place.

Cops should have firearms in their armory, up until such time as we're living in a Star Trek-like utopia of blissful peace. Humans are largely cool, but some of us are dangerous fucksticks. Have cops pull guns for calls that seem like they'll be needed, and rely on less-lethal options as much as possible. Oh, and stop using the less-lethal options as fucking compliance-obtaining shortcuts. Don't fucking tase or use chemical spray when it isn't needed, they're not for the cops' convenience but to avoid more severe harms from occurring. Officer Friendly should be the order of the day, and any substantial deviation from that should be met with termination and arrest, with consequences no less severe than a non-police citizen would see. No more bad apples, no spoiled bunch.

Hey, thanks for the rant opportunity! Us liberals need to practice our high horsing from time to time. And just like God, we all love you. You specifically, you goddamn sexy hater.

I'm sure they get a small amount of training for situations like this, probably as much as the city will spend.

The point is, even with that training, there are no good options. If he shoots the black guy, he is simply the latest racist pig murdering 'innocent' people of color.

If he stands there and tries to talk the guy down, a vest doesn't cover your entire body. You can bleed to death from arm or leg shots, plus at that range the head is not a hard to hit target.

Maybe he isn't fit to be a cop. But the point is that because we haven't figured out a way to stop cops from kneeling on someone until they suffocate or shooting people in the back, all cops now have to make a split second decision on whether they can act as they were trained to do or act as protesters, the government, and the media want them to do.

We also judge them on what we think we would do, even though I doubt we will ever be in a similar situation.

Derp.
I've seen dozens of reports of increases in the 1000-1500% range, and millions just dropped with nothing....but even your lowball +30% per year is still impossible to absorb and insane increases.

Water damage not hurricane related include flooding from sea level rise and more powerful storms outside hurricane season.

You ijit....more and stronger hurricanes ARE a component of global warming, as are flood events not from hurricanes, stronger storms, and higher flood tides.

Dummy.... Of the top 5 years with the most hurricanes on record since 1851, 4 were since 2005. Absolutely there are more hurricanes on average since 2000. You need to learn how to read a graph, and to not cherry pick data by discarding any you don't like or stopping the tally before major changes started. More dishonest Bob.

If it's from the dollar dropping (no where near 50%, the dollar index went from 110 -90 since 2000, CPI from $1722-$2634) why didn't they explode under Bush when it dropped as low as 72, and why didn't they drop when Obama brought that back to 102?

Answer: because you're totally full of it, as usual.
The company's themselves say it's from higher payouts due to more, stronger storms causing more damage....Many abandoning the market for other states....not because the dollar is weak. That's nonsense.

I Remember .

They are going up a lot. Not due to global warming .


Rates most likely going up due to dollar losing 50+% of value since 2000.



from the Herald Tribune
https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/business/2021/01/04/florida-homeowners-face-higher-rates-property-insurance-2021/4038548001/

"Property owners throughout Florida are seeing their insurance rates soar, as companies had rate increases approved ranging from from 12% to 31%. Insurers point to high rates for reinsurance, which is basically insurance to back up insurers, and claims for water damage from leaks that are not hurricane-related.

Another factor cited was that claims still were rolling in from Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Michael in 2018. Policy holders have a three-year window to submit wind damage claims. Insured losses from Irma totaled $17.44 billion while Category 5 Michael generated $7.9 billion in claims for insured losses, according to FOIR."



https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml
NOAA data goes up 2004.
Hurricane rated not more no less over last 100+ years.

You should have heard by now, the fake bamboo audit has now completely destroyed Maricopa county's election system because, since the pro Trump "cyber ninjas" (who's name itself indicates they intended to surreptitiously set traps and viruses in the machines and who had no supervision) tampered with vote machines, tabulators, and databases (and have asked for every piece of government held data in the county from addresses and social security numbers to expunged criminal records), so now every single machine in the county they touched must be discarded by court order.

It's impossible to know how many tens to hundreds of millions they wasted, finding nothing, and now they intend to travel the country doing it in every state. They seem intent on destroying our election apparatus, just like Trump's presidency was intent on destroying our government. It wasn't about finding problems and fixing them, it was about destroying the system and wasting billions of tax dollars, then lowering taxes to destroy America with massive debt over stupidity.

Because they played so fast and loose, with no chain of custody, no supervision, and no honesty, their "audit" is completely invalid on it's face. They destroyed the data, destroyed the machines (400 $5000 tabulators and around 10-20 vote machines per tabulator at another $5000+ each at a bare minimum in this one county)....so in the $20- >$40 million range for fraud #1, and they plan on at least 50 more. Good job handing Dominion tens of millions to replace them.....now pay up.

Every single Republican should have to pay for every cent they wasted, with non republicans exempt from the new election fraud fraud recovery tax. Children of Republicans too. I'm writing my congressman.

This is purely a Trump thing.

It's a realization that the party has been taken over by RINOs, specifically Trumptards claiming to be Republicans, most without even knowing what the party stood for before Trump. Anyone who supports Trump isn't a Republican by pre 2016 definitions.

Edit: As late as 09, Trump was a democrat, then switched to Republican, then by 11 left Republicans and went independent, and under a year later went back to Republican and ran for president before dropping out and backing Romney....you know, the guy you say is a RINO because he doesn’t back Trump. In a July 2015 interview, Trump said that he has a broad range of political positions and that "I identify with some things as a Democrat." Previously he said -"In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat", explaining: "It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans. Now, it shouldn't be that way. But if you go back, I mean it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats...But certainly we had some very good economies under Democrats, as well as Republicans. But we've had some pretty bad disaster under the Republicans.". During the last week of his presidential term, Trump was reportedly considering founding a new political party and wanted to call it the Patriot Party. Hardy a real Republican, and a prime example of the definition of a RINO.

Hopefully they will all be shown the door and the party will die along with toxic Trumpism.

McConnell, Graham, Gaetz, Green, McCarthy, Cruise, all those RINOs do all need to go, you're right.

I'm less shocked by the accident than the ship itself. Look at that thing! Anyone know a ballpark pricetag?

Edit: Found a site mentioning it, but it has no price listing. Similar yachts are in the $65M+ range. What the hell planet am I from.

I would love an EV, but I don't plan to buy a new car as long as my current one works. I used to drive a lot, but I don't drive as much these days, typically just around town and the occasional ~100 miles to a neighboring city that has things my little town doesn't have. An EV with 150 mile range and charging at home would suite me just fine for day to day use, and if I needed to go somewhere farther, I could rent, borrow or ride with a friend or family member if they're going too.

The two problems for me are, I don't have a garage, so I would have to install some ugly charging station in my yard next to the driveway. Then there is the cost, both the cost of the car and the cost of installing a charging station. I can't justify spending $30-35K on a new EV, when for less than half that I can buy a new gas car, and probably not even spend the difference in cost between the two in fuel over the life of the vehicle.

They need better proofreading/editing.

It is Chevy BOLT, not Volt. The Volt is a plug-in hybrid with an ICE range-extender, not a pure BEV.

You utter fuckwit.

(not you, Morhaus, the dude in the video).

What exactly do you think happens to the people and funds holding those shorts? They have to pay the difference. They are contractually obligated to pay up -- period.

Everyone involved in the short was probably broke long before GME even hit $50. But, as we all learned from Goodfellas, "Fuck you, pay me!"

They're broke and on the hook for shit-tons of money. Guess where they're going to get that money? By selling solid assets. They're gonna dump everything they have to make up for the short loss. Who's holding the shares that're about to start tanking? The funds 401ks are invested in because they have to hold solid, reliable assets. The same funds people are relying on for their futures. These are the people who'll REALLY get fucked by this. If you've got a long enough timeline, hopefully, you'll get your money back (although at a loss of compounded value). If you're 65 and looking at your golden years through a lens of 20%+ returns, you're about to find out what happens when an irrational market decides to return to sanity.

Those are the first order effects. The second order effects range from the merely worrying to the outright fucking terrifying. There's a reason Goldman sent out its little missive last night after Mark Cuban pulled his stunt. This isn't just playing with fire, this is sitting in a room full of gasoline while Skippy, The Face-Ripper Ape On Meth, goes berserk with a blowtorch. God help us if this triggers some latent long-tail event.

The good news is that the idiocy of the crowds has apparently decided to dump GME in favor of silver. GME tanking will be bad, but mostly to people who should pay the price for dabbling magic they didn't understand. GME dumping will be good if you're worried about 2008 repeating itself, only without the whole "not letting AIG" fail thing.

People do not understand how fragile and insanely-interconnected the markets are, and how easily the whole goddamn thing could be brought down. We never solved the problems of 2008, we just dumped money on them; we never solved the underlying issues that lead to the Temper Tantrum of December 2018; and we sure the fuck didn't fix the fundamental issue that almost brought the whole show down on September 17 of 2019. And all this was before Covid. There's a reason I went all-in on bonds back in August and that Warren Buffet is sitting on a mountain of cash, and this is pretty much it.

So yeah, congrats to the little guy and all that shit, but don't think for a second that people at the top are going to be the ones who pay.

If YOU would like some truth......my source is the Department of Homeland Security, not a disgraced propaganda site.
Right wing domestic terrorism is the most dangerous issue in America today besides the Trump pandemic.



The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning Wednesday to alert the public about a growing risk of attacks by “ideologically-motivated violent extremists” agitated about President Biden’s inauguration and “perceived grievances fueled by false narratives.”

DHS periodically issues such advisories through its National Terrorism Advisory System, but the warnings have typically been generated by elevated concerns about attacks by foreign governments or radical groups, not domestic extremists.

"violent riots have continued in recent days and we remain concerned that individuals frustrated with the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances and ideological causes fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize a broad range of ideologically-motivated actors to incite or commit violence,” the statement read.

The most recent bulletins DHS has issued — both this month — warned the public about an elevated threat from Iran. No other bulletin in recent years has been issued to alert Americans about violence by domestic extremists.

“Throughout 2020, Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) targeted individuals with opposing views engaged in First Amendment-protected, nonviolent protest activity,” the bulletin states. “DVEs motivated by a range of issues, including anger over covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, and police use of force have plotted and on occasion carried out attacks against government facilities.”

It added: “DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021 and some DVEs may be emboldened by the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target elected officials and government facilities.”

The new bulletin will remain in place through April 30.

So this is a bit incorrect. Teller-Ulam devices (aka: huge fucking nukes like the Tsar Bomba) are three-stage or more weapons. The first stage, the "atom bomb", is the initiator. The second stage is where a normal hydrogen bomb gets its "oomph" from. After a third stage is added, things get very scary very quickly:
" Each stage can be 10-100 times the size of the previous stage. The 50 Mt bomb mentioned above was a three stage weapon."
Edward Teller proposed a (theoretical) T-U bomb that would be in the gigaton range, but reasoned it was impractical because it'd blow off a huge part of the atmosphere into space.
Fun bonus fact! The actual amount of plutonium that achieved pure fission in the Hiroshima explosion was roughly the size of a grain of rice. E=MC^2 is a hell of a thing!

I work in IT. I troubleshoot and optimize incredibly complex systems using a wide range of toolsets. There is zero chance I could make something like this work without trashing my house in a frustration meltdown.