@jodi said: The nicest thing is to be able to deposit them online. Amen.

@Mik said: Yep. That was what I suspected as well. But I think it's more akin to Putin's perception of Ukraine folding immediately. The difference being that Putin is committed. There maybe some parallels, but overall I think Putin’s perception was that he believed his own mythology that throughout history Ukrainians and Russians were one and the same people and nation and that the country never existed, or had a right to exist in the first place. He even maintains that Ukrainian, despite having its own distinct morphology, grammar and vocabulary- is merely a dialect of Russian. He expected Ukrainians to greet the Russians as liberators. Likewise with the military, I believe the US military planners anticipated considerable Iranian resistance to any attack, which is, of course what they are now receiving. The Russian military on the other hand, was flat footed regarding the Ukrainian forces and expected little to no resistance once the massed Russian formations started their advance into Ukraine. They anticipated that once a few dug in Ukrainian positions fell in the Donbas and in the north approaching Kyiv, the Ukrainians would voluntarily lay down their weapons across all fronts. Once this occurred the Zelenskyi government would either flee to the West or be brought back to Moscow in cage until such time they could be repatriated to Kyiv to endure a humiliating show trial and a Siberian jail for the rest of their lives.

@Tom-K said: @jon-nyc said: I think Horace is Andrea B’s AI bot. What's the proof? @Andrea-B said: If I were an AI bot, I wouldn't be this damn pretty. Now, that's Horace might say about himself. @Horace said: Andrea B and I are in a sexual relationship. I guess that clinches it. I know that you took some time with that post.

Well, you'll have to let us judge that.

Much tamer, but then we know each other far better. Many, if not most, of us have met IRL. It's a microcosm of human relations. Much harder to ascribe bad motivations to people you know.

Beautiful photograph.

Plain English has been failing at keeping up with technology advancements. Heck, practically all natural languages have the same problem. There will always be subject matter that less than .01% of the population understand. "Plain language" is developed to accommodate the middle one to three sigmas of the general population. There will always be cases when plain language simply cannot do a subject matter justice. But if you really want that compromise to get some aspects of a message across to the middle one to three sigmas of the general population, sure, try a "plain language" approximation. AI can probably do that quite well most of the time these days.

I use it daily.

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Does that mean they don’t wear a dick hiding cup?

[image: 71gh4uLL13L._SL1500_.jpg] Quite an interesting book. The guy is an equal opportunity cynic on who is at fault; slams pretty much every administration in the 2000's. Soldiers get addicted to drugs (both prescribed and illegal) and alcohol to keep them energized. Then they need other drugs to help numb the pain from the things they see and do. Focusing on Fort Bragg, N.C., home to Delta Force and other elite military units, Harp uncovers a culture steeped in drug trafficking, weapons theft, and cover-ups. Drawing on extensive interviews and documentation, Harp alleges that soldiers returning to Fort Bragg from Afghanistan smuggled opioids and other narcotics into the U.S., sometimes in collaboration with Mexican cartels, and engaged in reckless, often violent behavior on the base—much of it fueled by substance abuse—that the military swept under the rug. A detailed history of the Army's entanglement with Afghanistan's opium trade and harrowing accounts of drug-fueled parties at Fort Bragg full of racist behavior frame Harp's discovery of a shocking number of deaths on the base: 109 from 2020 to 2021 alone, many of them unexplained. Harp's investigative rigor and visceral storytelling make this a disturbing must-read for anyone seeking to understand the full cost of America's overseas conflicts. It was a good companion to the book I read about the drug trade in the Gold Triangle in Myanmar. https://nodebb.the-new-coffee-room.club/topic/95/what-are-you-reading-now/777?_=1774917935468

Something more recent: Link to video

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I heard one song-in a light tenor. His voice (one of the greatest ever) broke a bit. Here's a song from EARLY Fleetwood Mac that mentions McCartney's voice: Link to video I bought this album when it came out.

Their system punished me for using the legal tender of the land! And is trying to force me to use Credit Cards m, which is against my religion!

@Mik

That is awesome @jon-nyc !! While I am sure that some of it is due to himself, you and his mother are also doing soemthing right!!!

Jon loves Alex Preti, and Jon would look down his nose at Alex Preti, if Alex Preti were alive.