▲ 10 r/thebulwark
Cuba…talk me down?
I was reading today’s Triad where u/JVLast was talking about JD’s incentive structure and room to maneuver. He made a passing mention of a pivot toward Cuba that got me thinking…and not happy thoughts.
What I worry might be my inner JVL started running
and a lot of reasons occurred to me suddenly that make me worry we will have boots on the ground in Cuba before the midterm elections. Here are my main reasons:
- Any further Iran negotiation will not go well, and may never conclude, because the U.S. has no incentive to put further capitulation on paper and in a post-sanctions era Iran would happily keep “talking” to a weak-kneed counterparty forever. The admin will want to change the story before the 60-day window even expires.
- Despite Iran, neither the America Firsters nor WSJ neocons actually want to abandon Trump yet, and will be looking for a reason to get back on side with the White House. Shadow boxing Fidel’s ghost puts the coalition back together. All factions share anti-communism.
- If we contrast Iran operations with Venezuela/boat strikes it seems like there is a clear difference in culture between Centcom and Southcom. Centcom was clearly pushing back on the stupidest, riskiest and most illegal ideas like escorting commercial shipping or seizing Kharg Island. Southcom seems more incentivized to find a way to say yes to get attention/resources.
- As we descend into whatever we’re going to end up calling Idiocratic-Ameri-fascism the personal aesthetics of current (not just former) military service are going to matter more. Just as with Roosevelt and the Rough Riders at San Juan hill, gloryhounding your way into shooting short form vertical video of yourself in uniform with a weapon will be a powerful way for MAGA figures on the outs to recapture attention: Lt. Ron De Sanctimonious back with SEAL Team One, Col. Lindsay Graham called back with the Air Force but on performative helicopter rides (no lawyering), Sgt. Greg Bovino on patrol outside Havana, etc. Someone looking to capture a steadfast slice of the 2028 primary electorate is incentivized to be able to truthfully say “I have personally, recently, **** a brown person.”
I might be wrong. But I can see it. Please talk me down if this strikes you as crazy.
u/ABrownBlackBear — 19 days ago
▲ 20 r/LEGOtrains
Advice: roof curve and color on passenger coaches?
I'm using parts from my old Metroliner to try to make some mid-century American style passenger coaches, a dome car and an observation car, in 6-wide scale. The real thing uses corrugated metal to make a pretty smooth curve all the way across, like this (credit to The Autopian for this image). I'm going to need to do a bricklink order to make that happen. How would you model that curve?
For the original Santa Fe trains, Lego used a bunch of part 6215 and gave the cars flat tops. I think that looks good but cost-wise is only feasible in light bluish gray.
Is seems like most more modern Lego passenger cars use gradual curves more like 24309 to model the gradual curve across the top. These were never made in old light gray. To me that curve ends up looking a little more like British passenger coaches.
Option 3 of course is to stick with the 2875 2x6 slopes that came with my OG metroliner, or even order some in light gray, but don't think that will look right.
Also, old light grey is getting pretty cost prohibitive. What's your personal philosophy on mixing old light gray with light bluish gray? I have recently done so on a locomotive and it looks alright to my eyes - maybe my old brick is generally not too badly yellowed?
u/ABrownBlackBear — 20 days ago
▲ 125 r/LEGOtrains
Improving on my first MOC since childhood - 6-wide American oil-burner
Since this post I’ve been making many small improvements to my steam locomotive, itself a re-working of one I last worked on 25 years before that. I’m happy enough with the results that I decided to post an update.
I was happy with the proportions of the original build but not the details. I’ve continued to add features based on the main inspiration, Grand Canyon Railroad 29. It’s in no way an advanced or scale model - I’m more trying to build the engine I wish had existed in the My Own Train era
So far I’ve bought very little new LEGO to take advantage of all the things modern brick can do, but one cup of brick from my local B&M (before the scandal went down) let me add I lot of things I wanted to.
Next goal is to get some rods and valve gear and take another pass at the cylinders. Then I want to improve my My Own Train and Metroliner passenger cars into a vintage excursion train.
It’s been fun being back in the hobby with you all. I’ll try not to go crazy or bankrupt!
u/ABrownBlackBear — 29 days ago