DC Tom

Everyone I've seen saying "OMG, what an idiot!" about this is basically confirming their illiteracy.

Finally, 250 posts. Jesus Christ, you are a remarkable ***** idiot.

Because of reality.

He's the archetype of the Williamsville North Meathead that I knew so well back in high school.

What's so hard about saying "He's not Clinton?"

There's a bad mumps epidemic in one of the centers now. Unvaccinated children bringing it in, spreading amongst them. I saw three stories blaming Trump.

As was predicted. Because it was meant to destroy health care and pave the way for socialized medicine.

I've talked to and read statements from soldiers on both sides of many wars, and except for Russians and Germans in WW2 (who really were fighting a war of extermination) it always stands out that they have a mutual respect and genuine goodwill for each other, because as soldiers they end up having more in common than they have differences. Particularly when compared to their political leadership. Holds true as far back as the Napoleonic wars. Even holds true for the Anglo-Zulu war, despite the wide cultural gap.

Bagration. Don't try to teach me history.

You're right. It won't. Even though I've never called you an idiot. But only because you haven't earned or deserved it. Yet.

Technically, Leonardus would have been subject to summary execution - legally, under international law - as a partisan and not a uniformed soldier for what he did. He actually would have been fighting towards the end of the Market-Garden operation. Technically, the Netherlands wasn't "liberated" for many more months after that, because Field Marshal Montgomery was a stupid ***** midget.

No, they had a turbocharger on the prototype, but the Air Force asked it be deleted to save weight and money. They put a single-stage supercharger on the XP-39E, and added a double-stage to the P-63. They were uniquely loved by the Russians, as it fit their VVS doctrine almost perfectly (a large cannon with minimal machine guns, compact airframe, excellent maneuverability below 20,000 feet) and was better equipped and built than most Russian planes. The second-highest scoring Russian ace - Aleksander Pokryshkin - got almost all his victories in a P-39/P-63.

506th of the 101st Airborne. He probably died somewhere near Son on the Wilhelmina Canal. That was also Dick Winters' regiment (i.e. "Band of Brothers.") You know what company your uncle was in?

Put 5-10% aside to do something fun. Pay down my highest-interest debt with the rest. One thing I've found, for myself at least, is that with any windfall, putting a little aside for some frivolity makes me feel more positive about using the rest responsibly.

You have a 2 in 3 chance of surviving plague, without treatment. That's not "cured."

That's a point that puts in perspective the entire American contribution to the war: the US staged major amphibious operations, one across the Channel, the other across 1000 miles of the Pacific, at the same time on opposite sides of the world. And two weeks later, the Russians kicked off the largest land offensive in the world to that date...riding American Studebakers (450,000 through the war, with two full sets of tires for each) and tanks (about a third of the independent tank brigades were Lend-Lease Shermans), flying about 5,000 American aircraft (many of which were built in Buffalo by Curtiss or Bell) using American aviation fuel, walking on American shoes (one pair per two Soviet riflemen throughout the war), and eating American food (1000 calories of battle rations per rifleman per day throughout the war). And that doesn't even consider the battles of Imphal-Kohima, the China theater, the Italian theater, the start of the B-29 campaign (the most expensive war program, even more than the Manhattan Project, and something no other country had the industrial base to develop). American economic and industrial output during the war was unbelievable. There's a lot to be said for the old line that the war was won by British science, American industry, and Russian blood.

They wouldn't, but not because they're "weaker," but because the social dynamic in the US is vastly different now. For just one example: military service nowadays is considered national and outside of regular society (as a professional vocation, and to some degree above society - "they" protect "us.") . Back in the 30s, service was much more integrated in to society, and much more local - in rural areas, the National Guard post was roughly equal to the church in social impact. There was far less resistance to the idea of service, as it was perceived as service to and with a largely local, cohesive social group. There is virtually no way a modern suburban white son of a professional middle-class father with far greater prospects of geographic and social mobility today has the same attitude towards military service in a national military as a 1930s rural white son of a professional middle-class father who was geographically and socially more constrained had towards militia service in his local National Guard membership. (And yes, the National Guard was present in Normandy - the 29th Infantry Division. Those rural Guardsmen did, in fact, hit the beaches on Normandy. And Salerno, Anzio, south France, Buna-Gona-Sanananda, New Georgia, Bouganville, Saipan, Leyte. Even the 82d Airborne was originally a Guard division. The American GI in WWII was very much a civilian-soldier and product of his local environment, to a degree you never see today.) Under the couch?

75 years ago yesterday, Operation Forager started. 75 years ago the day before, Rome was occupied. The war was bigger than D-Day.

I've always heard that the Reagan administration was directly responsible because of Stockman's budget cuts. Jesus...I tried to google it, and the first three pages I got were anti-Trump stories from liberal news sites like Mother Jones.

Or exercising that greater flexibility he once mentioned. Or hey, maybe he just such a hyperventilating idiot to think a Facebook meme campaign was a national security threat. Particularly living exclusively in the sound box where he only heard that Hillary was a shoe-in for the presidency.

Reported as offensive content...

I also like dead cat bounce options.

Lost in this discussion is one critical fact: we have a Williams deficit on our roster. For that reason alone, sign him.

So there's an Elizabeth Warren connection...

Mine didn't. But it did pretty good yesterday, so it's a wash.