@#4

I wish I could disagree.

@#3 ... how come our marines couldn't beat the taliban after 20 years?...

As I noted in my #1 comment.

...While I do agree Iran's ground forces are feeble against the US Marines, providing Pres Trump is actually listening to his Generals about the Marine deployment. ...

So, my view is that the Marines are up to the task, but they seem to be held back (OK, weakened) by how they are deployed by the Commander in Chief.

imo, it is not about the level of force, but how the force is or is not deployed.

I guess this basketball stuff was the reason the shows I wanted to watch were pre-empted?

More from the article...

... The Indiana kid's going back to Indianapolis!," shouted Alex Karaban, whose record-breaking UConn career now moves on to its own third Final Four.

This was a comeback for the ages. UConn trailed by 19 late in the first half and could never get over the hump in the latter half until the very end. Silas Demary Jr. hit one of two free throws with 10 seconds left and Duke inbounded the ball and broke UConn's pressure. ...

Pres Trump signed a order that TSA agents should be paid.

If he can actually do such a thing, I have to ask, what took him so long to do so?

... Their army can do nothing against the Marines ...

While I do agree Iran's ground forces are feeble against the US Marines, providing Pres trump is actually listening to his Generals about the Marine deployment.

That aside, I still have some questions...

For starters, Pres Trump has said he already won this war. So, why is he still fighting a war he won?

OK,I'll start there...

@#44

Alabama 3 - Too Sick To Pray

I've posted that tune before.

A fav of mine.

Though, the CD I have is: A3 - La Peste

@#40 ... Don't get me started on Brewer And Shipley. ...

imo, they were most underrated.

Which is why I posted one of their lesser-known (OK, unknown) songs on this thread.

"The Party of Law and Order."

@#35 ... I just missed a bunch of good stuff, not getting my DL until late '72 ...

To be honest, I cannot remember where I saw that particular Pink Floyd concert (I had seen a few back in the early- mid-70's and early-80's.)

:)

@#36 ... Wet Leg ...

They took their name from how the people of the Isle of Wright describe immigrants coming ashore on their island, i.e., they have a wet leg when they leave their boat and walk ashore.

OK, that aside.

@#6 ... Even if a MEU captures an island or 2, so what? To what end? How will that be exploited-YOU WOULD NEED MORE FORCES.

That will not open the strait, it simply won't ...

Kharg is Iran's mai (major!) oil exporting point. If Iran loses Kharg, thenran's funding is essentially cut off.

My current opinion (and it is no more than that, an opinion, and over-simplified at that)...

Pres Trump is looking to take over Kharg. Not to run the operations on Kharg (Marines, as great as they are, cannot run an oil processing facility), but just to show that he can take it over.

To that end, he may think that Iran will just give up and open Hormuz in return for getting back Kharg.

@#1 ... no military options beyond what he is doing, bombing, often pointless bombing. ...

After weeks of bombing, the military targets become fewer and fewer.

So,what else is left to bomb?

@#32 ... I attended a half decade or so ago. ...

Oops.

Should be...

I attended a half century or so ago.

Yeah, that's better.

@#29 ... Floyd ...

"One of These Days I'm Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces"

I saw them perform the Meddle album live as an encore for the DSoTM concert I attended a half decade or so ago.

@#26

That spoof is quite funny.

@#13

I don't understand what you ask.

@#9 ... The war in Iran sparks a global fertilizer shortage and threatens food prices ...

Not just fertilizer.

Also helium.

Yeah, I know, party balloons.

But helium is more important to the economy that those balloons.

Helium is needed in the manufacture of chips.

@#6 ... WMT is up actually.+$0.71 ...

Walmart is moving upscale in the shoppers it tries to get into the stores, because their prior customer base doesn't have enough money to feed their families, let alone buy things.

Dow Futures are currently showing a 300 point decline going into tomorrow's trading.

But, you have to be careful about the Futures, they are thinly traded so more volatile.

How much might Saudi Arabia need to "donate" to Mr Kushner's investment funds in order possibly to make Pres Trump following their bidding?

More from the article ...

... In reviewing 11 leading AI models and human responses to interactions with those models across various scenarios, a team of Stanford researchers concluded in a paper published Thursday that AI sycophancy is prevalent, harmful, and reinforces trust in the very models that mislead their users.

"Even a single interaction with sycophantic AI reduced participants' willingness to take responsibility and repair interpersonal conflicts, while increasing their own conviction that they were right," the researchers explained. "Yet despite distorting judgment, sycophantic models were trusted and preferred."

The team essentially conducted three experiments as part of their research project, starting with testing 11 AI models (proprietary models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google as well as open-weight models from Meta, Qwen DeepSeek, and Mistral) on three separate datasets to gauge their responses. The datasets included open-ended advice questions, posts from the ------------- subreddit, and specific statements referencing harm to self or others.

In every single instance, the AI models showed a higher rate of endorsing the wrong choice than humans did, the researchers said. ...

A tip of the hat to the No Kings Day participants.