USS Gonzalez (DDG-66) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She is named for Sergeant Alfredo Cantu Gonzalez, a Medal of Honor recipient in the Vietnam War.
You can go check her specs here. I have to say that as a gun guy I am a fan of the MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons System, but I find the fact that you can shoot torpedoes from the deck via two MK 32 MOD 14 Triple Torpedo Tubes, makes me giggle like a six-year-old.
Hey, so I am a fan of PT Boats since I watched They Were Expendable many moons ago. Torpedoes launched from decks of ships have a high-ranking in the cool scale, at least in my mind.
This year was the first since 1970 that I have missed a World Cup and worse, it was done on purpose. Simply put, I cannot stand watching soccer anymore as it has become a tournament of divas controlled by a now thoroughly corrupt organization that has gone to the deepest depth of corruption.
Gone are the days of great soccer. Take this picture for example:
That is Bobby More, captain of England trading jerseys with Pele in Mexico’s World Cup in 1970. Back then, unless you were a total asshole, once the referee blew the whistle three times indicating the end of the game, the guy with the shirt not yours was no longer your contrary. And as a matter of friendship through sport, the garments were traded becoming mementos of the game and the World Cup. You looked down the field, and you could not tell which player belonged to which team, but you knew they just played a very important game and back then a tough but clean one. Mexico 1970 saw not one single red card nobody got expelled for any reason and that gives you an idea of the chivalry among players. And the shirt trading also confirmed it because the players hung out talking to each other, having the press taking pictures and celebrating with the fans.
Years later, FIFA prohibited the shirt trading saying that it was unbecoming for the players to be bare-chested in the field like it was some sort of cheap nudist club. The honchos felt it was embarrassing, I guess and that was one of many nails in Soccer’s coffin and probably we should have seen that coming, but we did not.
My only refuge for soccer will be the Women’s’ world cop in a couple of years. Fortunately the ladies seem to be playing with more courage than their male counterparts, unless they go political again and try to go the Equal Pay bull running the game.
Then there is the fact that Jesse Jackson was deeply involved in his son’s corrupt Congressional campaign.
Both Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are notorious shakedown artists that make the mob look tame. The mob only threatens to hurt you. Sharpton and Jackson will destroy you on national TV.
Lastly we get to Bill Clinton who has been accused of multiple violent rapes and countless more harassment complaints. In the post #MeToo movement, that should make him a pariah who’s only appropriate course of action is to hide under a rock and quietly spend the millions of dollars he’s amassed since leaving office by selling influence and in speaking fees.
But Sharpton, Jackson, and Clinton are still in the picture.
It’s a funny thing where the media draws the line between unacceptable and acceptable levels of bigotry and violence towards women.
I guess if Farrakhan did more to campaign for Democrats, he’s still be in the picture.
It is from 2015 but I’ve never seen (or heard of) it before. This is the trailer:
The synopsis from HBO doesn’t do it justice.
San Francisco has long enjoyed a reputation as the counterculture capital of America, attracting bohemians, mavericks, progressives and activists. With the onset of the digital gold rush, young members of the tech elite are flocking to the West Coast to make their fortunes, and this new wealth is forcing San Francisco to reinvent itself. But as tech innovations lead America into the golden age of digital supremacy, is it changing the heart and soul of their adopted city?
It is directed by Alexandria Pelosi, who is Nancy Pelosi’s daughter.
So why do I think it is so amazing. It is 100% pure communist propaganda.
She interviews working class people who do nothing but complain how the “greedy landlords just want more money” and so are using the Ellis Act to evict tenants and sell their properties at market rate for millions of dollars.
Every long time San Francisco resident she interviews complains about the tech people and the coffee shops that are displacing the “heart and soul” of the city. Forgetting that the heart and soul of the city is synonymous with open air drug use, highly fetishized gay sex, and vandalism. I don’t care if you have a Caesar Chavez, MLK, and Malcom X standing under a rainbow, when it’s painted on a wall without consent of the owner, it’s vandalism.
Every person interviewed, including the former mayor of the city and the Lt. Governor, Gavin Newsom openly complain about capitalism ruining the city.
The popular sentiment by elected officials was that the tech companies and techies “are not giving enough back to the city.”
One former mayor actually said “it’s not enough to create jobs and pay taxes” the have to take “social responsibility” too.
The idea that is reinforced by every interview is that San Francisco is some sort of special place where money doesn’t matter as much as “culture” and it should somehow be exempted from the regular laws of economics. Landlords and property owners should rent to people at orders of magnitude below market rate, because…. they should.
Some old guy was interviewed and he’s mad that he has 30 years experience and two degrees but can’t get work with a tech company and has to live in a shitty apartment. He said “the American dream is dead and it’s now a nightmare.” But everything he knows is obsolete. He failed to stay relevant. That’s his fault.
Of course, there was a racial aspect to it where most of the long term residents complain about the influx of “young white men” and how that is killing the city.
One person complained that the city was turning into Venezuela, with a small population of rich and a large base that can barely afford to live there.
Yes it is and it is because the people of San Francisco have gone down the same path that led the people of Venezuela to elect Chavez the first time around. They though the laws of economics didn’t apply to them.
No one talked about how hard it is to build new homes in San Francisco and how all the rules and regulations designed to maintain the “heart and soul” constrain the market. No one made the argument that rent control means that landlords lose money on homes and it is in their best interests to sell the building if they can’t charge rent that allows them to cover expenses.
San Francisco is falling apart because the people there are socialists to the core.
I hope the tech industry buys every square foot of livable space and these people end up homeless.
Why? Because I’m a mean bastard who believes that if you don’t understand the laws of economics, I want reality to run over you like a damn freight train.
