Also: trans-related medical costs paid by the US military: $8 million
Projected cost of implementing the transgender ban: Over $900 million
http://www.palmcenter.org/t…

We're saving so much payroll!

I say there's a non-zero chance that McConnell kills ACA repeal just to teach Trump a lesson.

It reads more like something you'd find in a compound in the woods, alongside a stockpile of canned food and guns, not a memo from the National Security Council, to be read by the President.

A lot of people have noticed some disunity in the National Security Council, between McMaster and an Alt-Right/Flynn camp, which McMaster has been purging recently. It seems a truly insane memo, from a Flynn hire to the NSC, has caused a lot of friction: http://foreignpolicy.com/20…

"We're saving money on payroll" is the most goddamn ridiculous response he could've said. If you want to be charitable, maybe he's going for a 'fine, I don't want to be a part of your stupid club anyway' type of thing, but that's still dumb as hell.

North Korea has clarified they are not planning to bomb Guam, but instead fire a missile directly over Japan (!) to within a few miles of Guam's shoreline. Also, I came across an article that mentioned that US/South Korea war games are also later this month—this is vitally important context, that I hadn't seen…

Probably, yeah. It's a kid show, there's not a whole lot of continuity.

May God have mercy on my soul, I am actually planning to watch the Ducktales reboot.

And honestly, that can work in the context of an apolitical sketch show. But for a half-hour show that's just news, they need some bite and a real POV.

Well, you got to aim the missile, then fire missile. If you fire the missile, then aim, that's no good!

They're escalating the threats. They can definitely reach Guam, so that's why they focus there instead of, say LA or D.C. I doubt very much they have any real desire to bomb Guam.

While I'm on the subject of "straight to DVD sequels that miss the point of the original movie": Apparently, "Jarhead"—the war movie from a few years ago with Jake Gyllenhall, which feature zero enemy soldiers or shots being fired—is being rebranded as a series of action movies about Marines, because it has a cool…

I caught some of the Players Club on tv the other day. Did not know it was directed by Ice Cube. I don't know if "Strip club melodrama" is a genre—maybe a subset of "sex worker melodrama"?—but if it is, I am certain Players Club is the only one that ends with somebody using a rocket launcher to blow up a strip club.

I feel largely the same way. The similarities between Leonard and Tarantino's work are obvious, but they are different enough to create friction, that ultimately leads Tarantino reign in his own excesses, while eliminating some of the source material's weaknesses as well.

It's about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but the actions scenes are cool, so I guess some people can't see beyond that. There a couple of straight to DVD sequels—Casper Van Dien came back for one of them, because why not?—which I haven't seen, but I imagine they lose the satire, too.

Yeah, Jackie Brown seemed to Tarantino maturing into more 'serious' films. That hasn't really panned out—even "The Hateful Eight" is more of a western/locked room mystery than a character study—but it could've been an interesting direction if Tarantino felt encouraged to stick with it.

Jackie Brown is Tarantino's most mature film, and his take on Elmore Leonard really bought the best of both of them to the forefront.

North Korea is doubling down on the "bomb Guam" rhetoric, saying they'll have a plan by mid-August (so, I guess next week) and Kim Jong Un will decide to proceed then. North Korea also said of Trump, ""Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him," which, yeah.

International news: The Taliban released over 200 people that were captured in attacks in the Sar-e-Pul province last week, following negotiations with village elders. Reports indicate the offensive was a joint attack with the Taliban working with ISIS, which would mark the first time the two groups have worked…