DC Tom

When does MSNBC officially change their name to Voelkischer Beobachter? This is just embarrassing.

Things break. Operator error occurs. Accidents happen. I know of at least two accidental border crossings into Iran early in the occupation of Iraq. But it's not likely in this case. This was a strategic asset operating in a familiar - even routine - mission by experienced people.

Other concentration camps: Summer camps. Burning Man. Woodstock. Homeless shelters. Religious retreats. And no one was gassed in concentration camps. Jesus, this is the stupidest argument ever.

With a joke like that, he must have been another screenwriter.

I've read that it does, but not from a reliable source. A2A in particular, since it usually has to withstand multiple cycles. Makes a certain sense...but "makes sense" doesn't make it true.

Can't the shock of landing degrade weapon reliability, too?

It's like Trump was, um, literally running, like, an extermination camp in Bergdorf Goodman!

He's a conservative? I thought he was just an idiot.

This weather is out of control...

I remember seeing all those "working women" when I first moved here. After a few years, they were suddenly all gone. I always chuckled at the thought of prostitutes working the lobbyist district of K Street.

Who cares about intent? If the party allegiance were reversed, Democrats would be calling him a misogynist and demanding his head, regardless of intent.

Not necessarily, considering they were originally purchased to complement/replace the U-2. But in this case, doctrine's an important qualifier. While the RQ-4A might be used as a strategic surveillance platform over other countries, that would be a mission more likely to be performed by the Air Force. In this specific case, this was a drone modified to support a specific Navy program of maritime ISR, and would be very unlikely to be used for overland missions. Particularly given the scarcity - there were only two in-theater, losing one just eliminated the capacity for full-time coverage of Persian Gulf traffic. The elimination of full-time surveillance actually creates some significant limitations on naval operations in the Gulf. For that reason alone, flying the Navy's BADS-M platforms over Iran would be downright reckless. They're invested in the "Trump unstable warmonger" narrative. It's part of their identity.

Sailors visit prostitutes? Next you're going to be telling me there's gambling in Casablanca. Shocking!

The drone that was shot down was actually one of the Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance drones for the Navy. There's two prototypes (modified RQ-4As) stationed in the Persian Gulf region; together, they can basically provide full-time high-res radar coverage of the entire Gulf, and reportedly are always in the air to watch the Iranian Navy when a US Navy ship transits the Straits of Hormuz. Given that - their purpose and the nature of the mission, there's no particular reason they'd need to be flown in to Iranian air space. Basically, they're not that sort of platform. Based on that, and what I know of the operators' restrictions and procedure, it probably was in international air space. Not certainly, because mistakes do happen. But most likely. Another point: if this was in the air specifically to support the transit of a Navy ship at the time, and the Iranians shot it down...that's pretty serious. That's not just the loss of a drone. That sends the chain of command's collective asses puckering, wondering if it's the opening of an attack on whatever ship's in transit.

Google seems to have scrubbed all the articles from its search results about the Administration's stated justifications for the detention camps.

This, exactly. We've done it before, both with Iran and other countries. We're actually pretty good at this sort of limited action.

You took part in Praying Mantis? I'd suggest that Iranian air defense in 2019 isn't quite the same as it was in 1988. But I'd also suggest that we'd take their AD system apart very quickly. In fact, I'd suggest that would be the strongest acceptable military response to this drone shoot-down: take their air defense system apart at the seams. Nothing else, just degrade their capability to the degree that they know they're vulnerable to follow-on strikes if they try anything else.

We struggle with the same question. It's why we're considering rural Ireland. I mean...it's in the EU, but it's still got to be better than this, right?

"We now go to Chris Hayes for an in-depth report on President Trump's fantasies..."

No, they already have that info.

Not even. There's many crucial differences between these detention centers and concentration/internment camps. But one of the biggest is that this is specifically pre-hearing detention as a part of due process, not instead of it. There's a defined end-point of release (a hearing to determine status) that no concentration camp system has ever had (in fact, "uncertainty of the length of sentence" is the most common source of stress quoted by early camp survivors in Germany). I'm writing an article on this. I'll share it when it's done.

Your house ever been checked for lead paint?

$300,000 for a curtain????