TriGirl

That must be a planned part of that military rebuilt Trump was tweeting about.... And wow, Mattis in very kind words told Trump to go fuck himself. This is why I've always liked and respected the man. We haven't always agreed on certain personnel and organization issues, but I always felt comfortable expressing my point of view in our conversations, even with about six pay grades separating us. I respect that he took the job to help protect us, and he did a hell of a job for these two years. I totally understand why he just can't do it anymore. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Not a clue what he's talking about. Not sure he even knows. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

OTOH, Saturday Night Live casts Ben Stiller. I think Stiller more resembles Scaramucci in physical appearance. I would be there opening night to see Stiller in a movie as Scaramucci.When Stiller came out in the cold open, they had to specifically call him Michael Cohen. I thought at first he was playing Scaramucci. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

OTOH, Saturday Night Live casts Ben Stiller. I think Stiller more resembles Scaramucci in physical appearance. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

No, really. Take a close look at Cohen sometime. I swear it’s Cusak. A little pancake makeup, touch of grey in the hair, sad thoughts like your dog just died and Bang! You’ve got Cohen. It defies the very order of things! (Tough crowd in here today. Nobody got my War, Inc. reference either. Shoot, I thought we’d all have a few chuckles for a change.) Conversely, anyone who makes a movie about the Cohen affair and does NOT cast John Cusak is just being silly! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Like he did the last time? See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Well then, what about all the military members who work at the Pentagon, just across the expressway, from Crystal City? We already have to live quite a ways out of town to afford anything, and the traffic/rail crowds are already maxed out. I get that they like the proximity of Reagan Airport, but couldn't they have moved out to Vienna and been in close proximity to Dulles? Plenty of folks out there would love to see housing prices out there rise instead, and with a bigger incentive to complete the metro rail tracks out to Dulles and beyond. Crystal City/Pentagon Row is already way too crowded, IMHO. It's going to be unreal when they move in. They actually could have gotten a better deal had they moved out to Vienna. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

FIFY. Geneva Convention covers status of military members. Vienna Convention covers the status of the exchange of diplomats.

Despite the frequent calls from many, often right wing zenophobes, there is no official language in the USA. ***The United States technically has no official language. Although English is the most commonly spoken language, there is actually no official language in the United States at the federal level. Except that English is the official language of the government (not of the country). Meaning, the government operates in English at a minimum. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

If you think he was famous enough, he's #3. We had Aretha, then Burt, now Bill. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Yeah, I like that guy. Even if I sometimes disagree with his political perspective, I respect that he uses actual facts and logic to back up his assertions. Glad he's planning to stick around. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Not surprised, had to put some concessions in there and if there's ever a class of people who have zero support from society it's those in the limbo of being suspected but not convicted. Perhaps. I agree with the premise that you shouldn't have to be well off to be able to go home, but isn't that why judges have the latitude to set bail at their own discretion? Rich guy gets higher bail, poor guy gets lower or none? (Okay, ROR is not incredibly likely for low income, I get it). But the court must have some reasonable assurance that the accused will come back for trial. Cash or bond out of pocket, that is forfeit when the accused violates the terms, seems reasonable to me. What am I missing? Is there some kind of modern "mandatory minimum" type of bail reference California judges must apply? Institutional bias for low income suspects in play, that refuses ROR, that needs to be regulated? I'd be interested to hear the details. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

You are absolutely correct! Like I stated though, I'm much more likely to allow for some forays into the grey area for career civilians, because they haven't had the annual training and repetition of the rules (not to mention "fishbowl" culture of having everything scrutinized) as military (esp leadership). So this guy has NO excuse! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I'm embarrassed to say he's a former Marine officer. Why is this pertinent? Because: -- I often give career civil servants (civilian type) a bit more leeway when it comes to small steps over the line of inappropriate behavior (grey area, intent, etc). They haven't had the YEARS of annual training I've had on a lot of these issues (some will recall my defense of Sec. Clinton using personal email for official business). -- Service members, especially officers, and (for my experience base) especially Marine Corps officers doget that annual training. In this case, particularly as it pertains to "not your money." -- Add to that, and he has certainly been helped by his veteran status, most notably as it bumps his credibility from the start as a more honest, upstanding citizen. It was bad enough when he wanted to spout from his soapbox about crap he didn't really understand about "how it is" in the rest of the military (he didn't spend a lot of time with enlisted logistics personnel, for example) when it comes to equal opportunity, gender issues, marriage equality and the like; and I had to be associated with him by virtue of service. Now he's falling further than most would with his misuse of the funds and not taking responsibility for it, especially as he was so much higher than the average representative due to his military resume. So, I apologize that though he's a jackass, I still must tell the truth and admit he's a former Marine. Sorry, everyone. He certainly does not represent us all. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

What I cannot wrap my head around is how John Kelly, a decorated, retired Marine general, can continue to work for this dufus. Jerry Baumchen I've often wondered the same of Sec. Mattis, but knowing him, I more believe SecDef is staying in place as long as possible to serve as a shield. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I think the only reason it's become prevalent recently is because Hobby Lobby didn't want emergency contraception to be involved in their insurance package. Their claim was that a pregnancy starts at conception and therefore Plan-B is an abortion. I think we all know that a pregnancy will not continue if the fertilized egg never implants. No humble opinion needed. The thing that kills me is that oral contraceptives are used to manage symptoms of a wide variety of reproductive issues in women. Okay, they want to believe Plan-B is over the line. But fighting to keep from paying for any type of oral contraceptive because they don't believe in the contraception use of it (only) is so totally backward and selfish. [/rant], {steps off soap box} See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I consider "abortion" to be removing a fetus from the uterus. If a fertilized egg fails to attach for whatever reason, this is not an abortion (IMHO). RU-486 is, however, a chemical D&C, and therefore is abortion. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

What they all said ^^, particularly regarding the weight loss (congrats!) and not doing this for anyone else but yourself. Plus, yeah, the sky will always be there if/when you ever change your mind and want to go back. A couple of things I will add: if your wife ever gets into competition of any kind, consider getting a judge rating. You can help out your home DZ by judging local competitions/boogies/records, and you will be able to travel with your wife to competitions (she as a competitor, you as a judge). Also -- learn to pack. It's one way you can support her and save money (not every single time, but on the days you want to hang out at the DZ with her). Depending on the DZ, you eventually might consider getting a job on the packing mat. Again, to save/make a little money while she's spending it. You'll feel much more involved in the sport and share friends that way. I know you said the tunnel is quite far away, but U.S. Indoor Skydiving is now a thing. Many tunnels will be starting up weekend or evening leagues for all skill levels. Others have mentioned the tunnel, so if you like it, again, that's something the two of you can share (even if only the occasional weekend getaway to a tunnel to do some recreational flying). Regardless, you are now, and will always be, a skydiver. Don't beat yourself up about keeping your jump numbers in the single digits. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

*** No matter what your race is, if you force a cop into a position where they think you are going to kill them they'll defend themselves. Like running away from a cop when told to freeze. Yep, that cop now has reason to believe his life is in immediate danger. Or, it's an offense that deserves the death penalty, right then and there, no due process. Neither of these arguments support the outcome of a dead suspect this scenario. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Her left hand is clearly grasping her husband's jacket. Not sure where her right hand is, though. So yeah, she could be reaching over to Pence. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

How did it play out in Russian? In the english version I guess most of us are working from the ambiguity comes from the reporter asking two questions at once (Did you want Trump to win and did you order you agencies to help him?) and Putin giving one answer (Yes I did). He does go on to extrapolate his answer in regards to the first question, but it's still fuzzy as to whether he was answering the second question too. Yeah, it was the translator's mistake. The second question was asked, and Putin actually said yes, I wanted Trump to win, because [I preferred his policy]. The last part is paraphrased. The translator took the easy way out and just said, "yes I did" instead of "yes I wanted that". It's the verb (past tense) "wanted" that makes the difference and delineates which question Putin actually answered. The rest of his comment was overrun by the translation, but that first bit I definitely heard in the original. ETA -- I consider it highly likely that someone else listening just to Putin's own words found the same thing -- that he didn't answer the second question. NPR hinted early on that Putin answered both questions, but it was never discussed after that. Therefore, I'm deducing that Putin never answered the second question. However, I do wonder why the White House would post the transcript with the FIRST question omitted, and the English translation of "yes, I did" seeming to answer the SECOND question. Until I can get a clear answer on that one, I'm going to give the WH the benefit that they omitted the wrong question in their transcript. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Just trying to be above scrutiny when I otherwise call out our POTUS for his shenanigans! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Note: If you understand Russian and listened to Putin's actual words, he only said that he wanted Trump to win. I was confused at first by the translation, but then I listened to what Putin actually said. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

So, they planned to sexually assault her (touch her without consent), and then arrest the victim. I see nothing changes. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Okay, but you can sleep on the high-speed ferry! ETA: oh wait, but the ferry doesn't take vehicles. So yeah, I guess that hurts. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!