“Ahhhhh… That should about do it.” Ned Tate let out a deep sigh of relief, then buttoned his pants and stared out over the vast plain below them. He let his gaze drift up to the mountains in the distance that marked the imprecise border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He picked his rifle up from where it had been leaning against his leg and started walking back toward the truck.
“Hunh. You sure you don’t want to take a dump? I would have thought you’d like to leave one before you go… You know, a last great testimony – a monument, as it were – to your time here in Afghanistan.” Ned snorted at Frank’s comment, then smiled.
“Ya know, Mister Slade, you make a very good point.” Tate squinted in the bright sun, even behind his sunglasses. “It would be a fitting end to my time, but…” he paused and took a deep breath, then turned back around and looked off into the distance, “… it would be just my fucking luck to get shot by some dirty haji right as I was copping a squat – and then you’d be in therapy for years trying to cope with that image of me with my trousers around my ankles and my hairy ass out in the sun pinching a loaf.” Ned turned back to Slade, who was standing at the driver’s side door of their Toyota Hilux truck, the door open and one foot on the step, his rifle casually in his right hand.
“Solid point, my friend.” Slade hopped in with a smile, adjusted his rifle so it was barrel down between his left shoulder, leg, and the now-closed door. He did a quick check of the gauges, and a brief visual inspection of the truck’s interior: the Heckler and Koch collapsible-stock forty-millimeter grenade launcher was right where he liked it, between them on the seat; the bandolier filled with a mix of HE and flechette grenades was in its usual spot, slung over Ned’s seat; the Sony Toughbook was on the makeshift shelf he and Ned had made by cutting out a portion of the dashboard and mounting a piece of wood on some brackets, bungee cords holding it in place; spare water, ammo, and a variety of other necessaries were in the back seat, including some food, just in case. Getting a flat out here was a potentially, or even likely, fatal occurrence. They were about as far from home as it was possible to be and still be on Earth.
Slade waited for Ned to get in and slam the door, then he put the truck in gear to begin the long return trip to their current “home,” an old, abandoned Russian airfield, a relic from the Soviet invasion. I’ve lived at that goddamn airfield longer than a lot of places I’ve lived in the States, Slade mused. He grimaced at the thought, precisely because of its truth.
The truck bumped along slowly, unable to manage more than ten to fifteen miles per hour on the unpaved and harsh terrain.
“You think that little fucker can pull it off if we have to go that route?” Slade began. He was speaking of the Pashtun tribesman they had just dropped off in the mountains.
Ned paused, giving the question serious consideration. Frank enjoyed the easy silence and drove in silence. Ned spit some dip juice out the window before he spoke.
“Ya know, I worked with him and some of his clan when we were fighting up in Gardez and again at Tora Bora. Most of these so-called Afghan ‘mooj’ – big fucking heroes of the war with the Russians – can’t fire a weapon to save their lives. I mean, they just spray and pray without even looking where they’re shooting. Hell, it’s a goddamn miracle they stopped the Russians, even with our Stingers.” Ned looked down to find an empty water bottle on the floor of the truck, then grabbed it, worked the lid, and spit in it. Slade laughed.
“I know,” Frank offered. “We did some training with the new terps last week and one of them was talking all this shit about how he’s a legendary mujahidin, killed all of these Russians… You should have seen Craig lose his fucking mind when we did some contact drills out of the truck.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, this dumbfuck squats down behind the tire, points his rifle over the hood, and starts spraying it everywhere, hitting exactly zero fucking targets.” Frank took his right hand off the wheel to form a zero with his right hand. “I thought Craig would have an aneurysm. Some great swearing, too. Craig can really swear… was he a Marine, by the by?”
Ned laughed.
“Nah. Former SF guy, Sergeant Major, I think. He’s old school as a mofo, though. I think he might be a plankholder in Green.” Frank raised his eyebrows in response.
Ned spit and then began again.
“Anyway, this kid we just dropped off? Well, he and his buddies were the real deal, Bro. I mean, they weren’t Marines or Rangers or anything, but they weren’t cowards and they weren’t retards, like the rest of this fucking place. And I gotta be honest, the word came down from on high and we used those guys up front – as cannon fodder at Gardez and Tora Bora when we had bin Laden pinned.” Ned looked over and fixed his gaze on Slade.
“Really?” Slade asked, slight surprise in his voice. No one had included any of this in his initial in-briefings before he left or after he got in country.
“Yeah. They charged right into those AQ and Tally motherfuckers – uphill, Bro. Like Johnny Reb at Little Round Top. They took a pretty good beating. I mean, it wasn’t the Charge of the Light Brigade or anything, but fuck me, I wouldn’t have wanted to be up front.”
“Damn. And he’s back for more?”
“Guess so. Give him credit…” Ned appeared to be lost in a memory, so Slade just drove in silence. “But hey, it’s their country, I guess.” Ned spit into the water bottle and then put the cap back on.
“Well,” Slade, offered, “let’s hope if we get the word to go across, he doesn’t decide to return the favor and fuck us.” He smiled his most cynical smile at Ned.
“Your problem, Bro,” Ned said, smiling right back, and then slapped Slade’s shoulder. “I am short as a Chinaman’s dick in the Himalayas, Yo! My freedom bird arrives on Wednesday.”
Slade just shook his head, but he was happy for Ned. He might not even know his real name, but they had seen and done a lot in their months together. Frank knew war was like that; Afghanistan even moreso. An old Afghan hand in Kabul quipped that being in Afghanistan was like dog years – for every one year here, it was seven anywhere else. The way the Afghans aged, Frank thought, it was something more than just a joke. Frank felt like he’d been In Country forever. He started doing some arithmetic and realized he was coming up on 6 months himself. It felt like a lot longer…
Frank was happy for anyone going home from this place, but he didn’t allow himself to consider it. He knew better from his prior life: part coping mechanism, part superstition, he never allowed himself to start thinking about “fly dates” until he was within a few weeks of leaving. Even though he was well into his one-year tour, he was committed for the long haul – he really wanted to get bin Laden.
“You got any satellites yet?” Frank lifted the palm of his right hand from the steering wheel to look at the gas tank as he asked the question. He made a note of the odometer reading, as well, and did some quick fuel calculations. There was no hint of concern in his voice… no need to be. Not yet, at least.
“Nah. Nothing.” Ned leaned forward and craned his neck to look up into the bright, clear azure-blue sky, squinting behind his Oakley half-jackets, the iridium snap-out lenses filtering the powerful glare that was unique to the high deserts and mountainous areas of Afghanistan. Both men wore the same glasses, with different lenses, as much a matter of fashion as it was pragmatic – every guy liked to see a certain sight-picture when he looked down his rifle – and the Central Intelligence Agency wasn’t skimping on what it got its warriors in the aftermath of 9-11 and the hunt for those who did it.
The sunglasses had been a lesson learned from some of the earliest case officers on the ground. The sun is brutal here, man, paramilitary case officers and SEALs would relay back to their comrades, in burst transmissions or secure text – or over beers between deployments. Get the best, most expensive fucking sunglasses you can, bro. That Afghan sun is no joke. It ain’t necessarily hot in the high desert, or the mountains – especially not in the mountains – but it damn sure is bright and blue. Maybe it’s because you’re that much closer to the sun up there in the footsteps to the Himalayas… Shit, I don’t know. But it is bright. Get some Costas. Or Oakleys. Something durable, though. Get a spare pair, in fact.
They both had gotten two pairs issued by the CIA, at least insofar as the military term ‘issued’ could be applied to undercover case officers, who were simply handed cash sufficient for the gear the CIA thought they would need to buy. It was nothing more sophisticated than what the earliest case officers spent on average when they had first been dropped into the Afghan mountains to begin the destruction of the Taliban government for refusing to turn over bin Laden. Most, but not all, of the early boots on the ground were former operators anyway, so they knew what they needed. The passage of their knowledge, from those who knew to those who weren’t previously SEAL/Delta/Marine Recon/Rangers/Orange/PJs or whatever other former secret-ninja outfit the US government had in its arsenal, become codified into a gear list and a simple set of instructions to the next generation to come In-Country during the War:
Here’s your gear list. Here’s the cash. It should be plenty to cover what you need – unless you’re a princess or an asshole. Plus, leave a little room for some personalized items in your kit for whatever snivel gear you like when you’re in the field.
Get a bag that’s rated colder than you think you’ll need. Better to be sweaty than freeze to death in those mountains. It’s no joke up there, it’s austere…like the fucking moon. Keep your receipts because you’re going to have to account for this shit sometime down the road. Oh, and the rule is if it touches your skin, you get to keep it; you’re not turning it back in because only God knows what cooties you might catch or bring back from there.
And then off Frank went, purchasing the items that he thought he would need and want, and likely all he would have for however long it took. No one was counting on Big Mil or US logistics for this mission, especially given where they were going. Slade had found that despite his years in the Corps, it is a very different kind of experience when the trip you’re packing for might very well be the last one of your life. He savored that last memory, his wife and kids constantly interrupting, making excuses to come in while he labored over what to put in his pack, especially his daughters, knowing he was going…again, asking inane questions, almost as if they could simply keep interrupting he would never finish packing and therefore never leave.
He maneuvered the truck over the uneven terrain, both hands on the wheel, while Ned continued to tap the keys on their Sony Toughbook.
“Ya know,” Ned began, then spit some dip juice out the window, “when I first got here, I think I remember reading in some country profile that Afghanistan had something like forty miles of paved road in the whole fucking country.” He paused and looked over at Slade. “You fucking believe that – forty miles? That’s it.” Slade chortled and glanced at his passenger.
“Yeah. I believe it,” he deadpanned. “I haven’t seen any pavement at all, other than the roads between the Kabul airport and the Embassy, or whatever they hell they call the Station there now… And even those roads were stretching the term paved to its limits… Half tank of gas,” Slade added flatly, for Ned’s awareness. Ned grunted in response.
Ned, of course, wasn’t his real first name… and the last name in his passport was also just as fake; same for driver’s license and credit cards. Same for everything Frank Slade had identifying him. Yet there they were, two Americans in the middle of a high desert in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, driving a plain, unmarked, Toyota Hilux truck, trying to figure out how to get back to a base that didn’t exist on any non-classified map of Afghanistan.
“I’m gonna cut through that pass over there and see if we can get some reception on the other side,” Frank finally decided, turning the wheel right and pointing the truck up the side of the slope that he had been paralleling. Slade pointed with his left hand to a saddle between two mountain tops. Ned looked up and around briefly, then grunted in reply while returning to work on the laptop.
The sun was at least a general indicator of direction and they knew they needed to be headed back west, away from the Pakistani border, where they had just dropped off one of their few English-speaking sources. They had to get him near where his cover story made sense because diversions into Afghanistan from the other side of the mountains took time, time that had to be made up in order to be consistent with the travel out in this part of the world. Frank and Ned had brought the short, stolid Pashtun tribesman as far as they could to ensure he arrived where he needed to be and on schedule.
“What are you doing, writing your fucking intel report over there?” Frank elbowed him, even though he knew it wasn’t possible that Tate was doing any such thing. They would never have classified information, or God forbid, anything about their sources with them, but Frank knew all too well the bane of every intelligence officer’s existence was the writing that had to accompany Every. Single. Fucking. Meeting, or Operational Act whatsoever; every phone call, no matter how seemingly unimportant, irrelevant, or pointless it all seemed. Looking for bin Laden was the proverbial needle in a haystack… and that meant recording everything for their colleagues back at Langley to sift through and hopefully find some thread, some piece of information, that would lead them to UBL.
One of.. two?
You wrote something that short?
Technical difficulties prevented me from Firsting.
Are you sure it wasn’t a revalation that chasing the first is pointless and you should dedicate your life to something more?
It definitely was not that.
Bro, True Firsters don’t make excuses.
Just sayin’.
It happens to everyone at sometime or another. They do make a pill nowadays I hear.
“technical difficulties” – with heavy emphasis on the quote-y fingers.
Look who’s talking!! Mister “I’ve got so many castles in my story I can no longer adequately describe them.” 😉
And the answer is “no.” This is the introduction to a novel.
you should tone down the neocolonialist sneering at the locals. I am sure no self respecting soldier would use that kind of language.
That’s how you know it’s fiction, Pie.
More castles than Mad King Ludwig, yo
He had a smaller pallette to work with.
Okay. That makes more sense.
Well, I’d read it. So far, so good.
Ah ha, the old “first hit is free” trick.
Hey, if it worked for my weed guy…
I’m intrigued!
Nice start, Ozy!
I like the different genres that get posted. Gets the old brain juices flowing.
what bothered me is that a character is alternatively referred to as Frank or Slade but I cannot see a pattern to it. Why not just stick to Slade?
Ok, speaking of confusing…
Based on recommendations here I watched “The Witcher”. It is pretty good. But they have multiple timelines being shown with no indication that “this is the distant past” vs “this is the intermediate past” vs “this is the present”.
Mostly I can follow it… this character is a kid but it is the same as that adult.
But there is one timeline with a blond princess in the past, and another one with a blond princess in the present. They both look very similar. Until they revealed the same “Queen” character in both timelines, I was totally confused … Is this past? Is this now? Is this the same person at different times? Turns out it was mother/daughter… but it wasn’t clear to me that Queen was grandma to younger princess.. maybe I missed that part.
Anyway… I hate it when they do that.
Everyone loved Chariots of Fire. But I thought it was a bore, largely because I couldn’t tell half of the characters apart. Don’t pick two guys who look about the same to play different characters that never interact and have similar arcs. It is confusing!
Also in that group… JRR Tolkein. The Silmarillion had me turning back 4 pages to see what that other L-word name was. I swear, it was like he had 40 characters with long, made up names that start with L and have lots of L’s in them. How am I supposed to keep track of that?
I had that same complaint about Witcher, cyto, but it became clear(er) over time.
Doing that in film is tough given they’re using the same actors and the things are shot at the same time, but you would think/hope someone would come up with some devices that would make it more apparent where one is in the timeline.
Usually there’s hints such as color filters, or color schemes through the segment. That was one complaint I also had about the Witcher.
I’m glad I’m not alone. Once they explain the Grandmother, mother, daughter stories explicitly, it becomes apparent what is happening. But that is, what, 5 hours into the show? 6? Anyway, that’s a long time to be wondering what the heck is happening. And the fact that it is not just this particular idiot means it is on them.
Nope. It was a pretty common complaint. Coming from the games, I picked up on it pretty quickly. I lay that fully on the showrunners. Hell, they could have just popped up some subtitle the first time the introduced the different times to clue people in on it.
I, personally, liked this aspect of the show. I caught on quickly that there were different threads being run and that I’d need to pay attention to tie them together.
I’m also really glad my Wife gave up real quick, because trying to explain shit gets real old, real fast.
Even when I can follow multiple parallel stories that don’t really cross (especially because they’re at different points in time) I tend not to, simply because it’s one of my least favorite story structures.
I believe the literary term is “elegant variation,” Pie. Using Slade over and over and over becomes a bit monotonous. I don’t know that there’s a hard and fast rule beyond ensuring the it’s clear in context who it is. I just follow my own internal sense of balancing consistency versus monotony. Add to it that you’ve got people using alias names and nicknames.
I don’t know about you, but in real life conversations, my friends don’t call me the same thing over and over and over again. Typically, there’s a mixing.
e.g. When my mom uses my first middle and last name, I know I dun fucked up.
“I believe the literary term is “elegant variation”
This is unnecessary in Russian novels because everybody has about 6 names, several of which are variants on their nicknames.
Russian spy confirmed.
Somebody call Mueller.
One small thing – unless this is some alternate timeline shit, it’s gonna be a Panasonic Toughbook.
Huh. I must have mis-remembered. Those weren’t Sony Toughbooks??
Thanks for the catch, ES. I just remember how cool I thought they looked with all of that aluminum encasing the laptops.
No worries. Those things were kind of an an operator lodge pin back in the day, right up there with the Oakley’s, Ernie Emerson folding knives, and Rolex Sea-Dwellers.
I remember when Gargoyles were the cool kids’ sunglasses.
And I lusted after an Emerson back when Benchmade was making it. And Balisongs were under a hundred bones.
$300 for CNC’d bar stock with grind lines?
YeeahNO.
https://emersonknives.com/shop/knives/fixed-blade-knives/huck/
That’s not even a ridiculous one. The original Emerson CQC-6 was a $500 folding knife, with a single chisel-ground blade that probably took five minutes of grinding.
But there are plenty of people out there who will pay big money for shit with some operator cred.
Knife people in general are fucking weird.
Geez. And I thought the price on a CGC7 was high compared to a Spyderco (which I later understood somewhat when the stupid plastic clip broke).
I sold for a custom knifemaker/minor cult leader for too long. I’ve met the customer base at that price point first hand.
This is how weird knife people are – you say, “…custom knifemaker/minor cult leader,” and I think, “I wonder which of the ten or twelve candidates (off the top of my head) it could be?”
Gargoyles
Sarah Conner?
I just remember that they were heavy as #@$%ing bricks and were about as useful for computing. My agency got it into their heads that we should all have them, including the financial people who didn’t step foot outside of a DFAS building…
You expect the agency to procure more than one model of computer?
Only thing worse was the Blue Force Trackers that couldn’t get a satellite for shit!
Like EPLRS would’ve been better?
JI – That’s a new acronym for me, but I didn’t care for any of it. I though it was all kind of funny. I mean, I get the underlying idea/justification, but it struck me as the equivalent of helicopter parenting for the military. We were at war in the graveyard of empires (with all of Clausewitz’s friction front and center) and some commanders would cnx operations if a BFT went down (as just one example). I’m not preferring any one over another, just noting how I found the whole thing pointless.
Bobarian LMD was ranting about Kimmel on the prior thread. I have to agree. How in the world the architect of the Man Show could be such a raging SJW is beyond me. It is like he is a pod person.
Or greedy prick who says whatever will get him paid.
Keep in mind he was also married to Sarah Silverman who, despite being a very solid would, is also a card-carrying member of the woke-ocracy.
Obligatory.
The Way of the Gun was a good fun film
“Shut that cunt’s mouth before I come over and fuck-start her head!”
I’ve never known exactly what that’s supposed to mean, but it’s never failed to make me laugh.
Funny trivia – Ryan Phillipe accidentally punched Sarah Silverman in the first take of that scene, and knocked her out cold. He apparently felt really bad about it, for some reason.
Even she was funny a/o daring once (e.g., “Chinkies” on Politically Incorrect).
She also makes no sense at all as a super-woke proggie. She was extremely transgressive in her humor, also doing blackface and other taboo things. She had a great joke at the Heffner roast about his “girlfriends” waxing their assholes. Now it is all woke, all the time. It makes me wonder if they don’t target those sorts. Her and Kimmel both struck me as obvious libertarians from their work product. Then the hard left turn.
I was thinking about this, as well, cyto, and I’ll offer this thought:
Silverman came up in comedy in NYC/The Village back when it was cool to be transgressive. When it stopped being cool to be transgressive and instead became “cool” to be woke or you were a big meanie, then “suddenly” she was no longer transgressive.
IOW, like so/too many in Hollywood, she was only doing what she thought was ‘cool’ by the metric of the peer group that she was trying to make laugh. When they shifted what they thought was ‘edgy’ (to attacking deplorables, among other things) then it was all too easy for her to pivot on a dime.
So, I’m not sure that it’s as surprising as it seems because we’re looking at it from a position of principle and interpreting her original stuff as coming from a particularly principled position that we know. But I would assert it never was about principle for her, hence why it was so easy to switch. I lived in Queens in the mid 80s (85-86) and I remember how ‘edgy’ and transgressive the comedy was – and that was when I rolled in those circles of intellectual liberal nerds. I can say in retrospect I’m not that surprised that a lot of them went the route they did.
Yeah. It’s not like she kept doing her own thing and told the critics to go fuck themselves.
Lenny Bruce is spinning in his grave.
Pretty smart take
Little-Known Judge Tedina Cruzette Throws Hat In Ring For Trump’s SCOTUS Consideration
Amazing how many different people did versions of that same joke. I think a couple of people here did it.
You know the left has become a self parody when something that outlandish counts as “the obvious joke”.
Ba-zinga! Pretty good all around. They’ve got Trump’s speaking style down pat.
That picture…
Hey, just because someone is probably a creepy serial killer, doesn’t mean they go around in drag all the time! That’s a vile stereotype.
Norman Bates has a sad.
This is stupid.
Three teams in the National Football League have been fined more than $1 million because their coaches didn’t wear masks during games.
The three teams, each fined $250,000, are the Seattle Seahawks, the Denver Broncos, and the San Francisco 49ers. Their coaches, the Seahawks’ Pete Carroll, the Broncos’ Vic Fangio and the 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan, were also each fined $100,000.
“The $1,050,000 in punishments comes a week after the league sent a memo to teams reinforcing its requirement that coaches wear coverings over their mouths and noses at all times on the sidelines during games, threatening discipline for those who don’t comply,” ESPN reported.
“We must remain vigilant and disciplined in following the processes and protocols put in place by not only the league, union and clubs, but also by state and local governments,” Vincent said in the memo. “Failure to adhere to this requirement will result in accountability measures being imposed against offending individuals and/or clubs … Becoming careless or ignoring face covering and physical distancing requirements will put the 2020 season at risk,” Vincent said.
Religious fanatics are in control of the American society. And pretty much all of us are meekly complying.
So, those three teams were deemed anarchist?
On this social signalling:
NBC has their remote reporters doing their standup with a mask. So here they are, outside, alone (except for a cameraman) standing in front of a building or sign to let us know that they are “On the Scene!”. Wearing a mask. So you can’t understand them.
Meanwhile… back in the studio… the on-air talent doesn’t wear masks… even though they are all inside, with a lot of other people…..
I assumed they were just trying to social signal super hard. But it is a bizarre message.
Mike Honcho..
John C. Reilly is one of those actors who can say things that no other human being could ever get away with saying. Damn, that guy is funny.
I have no idea how he utters the lines he does without cracking up or recoiling in shame and horror.
That was supposed to be under Rebel’s post, and it went out there on its own..
Reilly is just worth his own post or I Brooksed it…
Bringing two threads together.. Reilly and Silverman were great together in Wreck It Ralph
Great story, thanks. And, thanks for using the word “snivel.” It used to be way more common, but we’ve stopped seeing it recently and look how that turned out!
blackjack – when I was in Basic School, anything we took to the field that was ‘in excess’ of what was on the gear list was referred to as “snivel gear.” IOW, all of your personal items for use out in the field. Also, when I was a pilot, if you needed to not be scheduled to fly for some reason or at a particular time (like a kid’s doctor appointment, etc.), those would be written in a green notebook known as the “Snivel Log.” Wasn’t really meant as a pejorative (entirely), but it would depend upon what the sniv was for. It sat right in the ready room next to the duty officer’s desk.
Yup, it’s a word you use when you want people to grow up and take care of business.
When I was a wee young lad, still wet behind the ears, my team leader asked me after seeing something extraneous how much 10lbs of cool shit (today it would be Gucci gear) weighed.
In the Army, ‘Snivel Gear’ is anything you would take to the field to keep you comfortable in any way. Even if it were mission essential.
Cold weather gear, sleeping bag…etc.
Fleshlight.
That was also an alternative use. Call it definition #2 in the Marine lexicon.
If you though the “Muh Drumpfler” bs could not get more dishonest and retarded…
Trump:
From St. Paul to St. Cloud, from Rochester to Duluth, and from Minneapolis — thank God we still have Minneapolis — to right here, right here with all of you great people, this state was pioneered by men and women who braved the wilderness and the winters to build a better life for themselves and for their families. They were tough and they were strong. You have good genes. You know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it’s about the genes, isn’t it? Don’t you believe? The resource theory, you think was so different? You have good genes in Minnesota. They didn’t have a lot of money. They didn’t have a lot of luxury. But they had grit, they had faith, and they had each other. That’s what you have now. You have each other.
Huffpo:
Critics continue to tear into President Donald Trump’s shocking praise for Minnesota’s “good genes” as chillingly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s murderous eugenics policy.
Holocaust historian Steve Silberman on Sunday called Trump’s determination of who possesses worthy genes “indistinguishable from the Nazi rhetoric that led to Jews, disabled people, LGBTQ, Romani and others being exterminated.”
A spokesperson for the progressive Jewish advocacy organization J Street told HuffPost on Monday: “Again and again, President Trump and his allies publicly, gleefully embrace incredibly dangerous white nationalist tropes and ideas.”
It’s “clear the president’s far-right worldview poses an unprecedented threat to refugees, immigrants and vulnerable minorities in this country ― one of the many reasons why he faces vehement opposition from the large majority of American Jewish voters,” said J Street communications director Logan Bayroff.
They really will say and believe absolutely anything.
The “believe” part is what gets me. So many people will read the headline and possibly the first few sentences, then share it on FB and Twitter, and all of a sudden it’s the undisputable truth.
When it validates your personally held virtue signaling convictions of how great you are, it is easy to want to believe whatever bullshit is peddled about people that would force you to question your idiotic beliefs…
I did a whole rant about that last night.
And I am certain they are doing it on purpose. “they” being the DNC think tank types.
Remember the Mueller investigation? Remember the apoplectic rage of the left an the press over the fact that Bill Barr dared to release it with his own announcement and his own summary. The horror!
Well, that was entirely because they knew that there is only one opportunity to set the narrative. And by coming out first and saying “no collusion”, he ruined their chance to introduce the Mueller report as a damning exposee of a corrupt campaign and administration who actively solicit illegal foreign interference.
Confirmation bias is strong. An example from the other side illustrates how pervasive it is.
What if Joe Biden kicks Trump’s ass at the next debate? What happens to the mental decline narrative? Some will give it up, sure, but there will be a whole lot of people saying that they must’ve loaded him down with meds to keep him coherent.
That’s something I struggle with all the time. I have to remind myself that all news is fake news. Meaning, every news source has a narrative they’re trying to push. If a story sounds a little too perfect, it probably is.
That’s a great idea for a sci-fi story.. Biden winning a debate with anything other than a rock…
Is it confirmation bias if I’m pretty sure *they* are loading Biden up with meds right now?
This guy?
What in the hell is going on there?
Trump joked about the big shot in the ass they’ll give Biden before the debate. Some cocktail of speed and Adderal. He might appear okay on stage or he might stroke out.
AosHQ theorized that’s the reason for all the early quitting times the Biden campaign has been doing – that he can’t get loaded up with whatever drugs every single day. Because I have long despised Joe Biden, I find it easy to believe. See, confirmation bias again!
Yeah, that one is already out there. And I kind of see why. He looks like a completely different person from day to day. Some days he looks like he might not survive the week. Other days, he looks pretty healthy and together.
Which kicks in the confirmation bias even further…. if you support him, it is proof that all is well. If you don’t, that is exactly how dementia patients are… good days and bad days.
The difference is.. Trump can have an amazing string of great days and it doesn’t even make the news (meaning Kosovo and Serbia, Bahrain, UAE and Israel, for example) That’s some narrative control right there.
In fact, in support of my tinfoil hat – I did a quick google to find out how to spell Bahrain.
So I put in “Trump peace deals” in the google search box.
This is the number 1 result.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/09/15/trump-deals-bahrain-uae-kosovo-serbia/
The mirage of Trump’s ‘peace’ deals
So “Trump Peace Deal” returns a slew of articles explaining exactly why there is no such thing as a Trump peace deal at all. In fact, he probably made everything worse and less peaceful.
(Hey cyto, I neglected to say last night that I’m sorry to hear about your dad. I was trying to find some legal / logistical leverage for you about his nursing home, if only a long shot.)
Thanks. I am about 12 hours away, so as soon as he can take visitors I will drive up with my son.
When I was 12 my dad took me to see his dad. It was the last time he got to see him.
This trip will be something of an echo. He might have months. Or a few years. But time is short. So I want my son to have that same thing that I had with my dad.
Yeah, I am constantly trying to guard against confirmation bias. With a little self-awareness, it becomes really apparent how pervasive it is. For me, it generally comes down to who I give the benefit of the doubt to, and who I view with great suspicion.
“Trust No One”
/X-Files
Company wades into politics, example #192810:
Credit Karma, the credit score and personal finance website, sent me an email and popped a notification telling me about their voting resources. Why a credit score site thinks it’s their place to talk to me about politics, I don’t know.
I put the “Register to Vote!”/”Go Vote!” as pretty neutral. It’s when they start pushing for a candidate or issue that I start to get annoyed.
There’s certainly a spectrum of annoyance and this is pretty low, but I think this kind of thing is getting quite pervasive. Everybody thinks it’s their company’s job to get out the vote.
PR departments
Frankly, if you haven’t read up on the issues and formed an informed opinion, I don’t want you to vote.
Encouraging people to cote for the sake of voting is stupid.
A right ≠ a duty.
That’s where I am, too. There’s also a thread of “mind your own fucking business and stay in your lane” to my reaction. I don’t want my grocery store and my employer and my credit score app and my professional trade group and my mechanic telling me to go vote. Same way I don’t want them telling me their opinions on social issues.
https://hub.united.com/united-airlines-selected-to-be-official-airline-of-the-commission-on-presidential-debates-2647768519.html
Encouraging people to cote for the sake of voting is stupid.
Usually because the moron exhorting you to vote has their head so far up their own ass about politics that it never enters their mind that you might vote the opposite of what they are doing.
I am keeping an eagle eye on my company’s “GOTV” campaign. The active participants/supporters are all hardcore partisan Dems, but 501(c)(3)s are prohibited from supporting any candidate in any way.
We aren’t subject to such restrictions. Hell, we have a company PAC that is always bugging us for donations.
Today I got an email about voting from United Airlines. Apparently, United is the official airline of the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). And today is National Voter Registration Day.
Just received an email from Credit Karma, too. Nothing about voting, credit card peddling as usual.
I got a voting email from Lyft, because they will drive you to the polls.
That’s legit. Drumming up business is always “in-mission”.
I’d give them props if they were issuing warnings and about vote by mail and encouraging people not to put their ballot at risk.
^^
I should have refreshed first.
So ridiculous.
https://bongino.com/florida-governor-proposes-law-that-protects-drivers-fleeing-mobs/
Florida, spicing things up. Good. Let’s see more of this.
“Florida Governor Legalizes Vehicular Homicide”
I thought killing cars was always legal.
+1 cash for clunkers
Not if it’s someone else’s car.
Obligatory.
I’ll probably vote DeSantis again, just because he didn’t go full lockdown retard. The mask mandate in Orlando is coming from locals politicians, not from the governor.
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20200922010200315
I would say chalk up another possible Trump facilitated peace deal but aren’t the Norks back to acting a fool again?
Last I heard, Un was in a coma and his sister was consolidating power but they were pretending Un was fine because no one running the place wants a messy succession.
Trump’s pretty good with the chicks.
it would pave the way for complete denuclearization and lasting peace on the peninsula
Much naive. So trust.
Trump’s pretty good with the chicks.
I wouldn’t grab her by the pussy unless I was willing to lose a hand.
“Some heroes wear robes instead of capes. [Followed by more RBG hagiography]”
-My law school
*sigh*
Monks? Hugh Hefner?
Evil Wizards. Like Jeremy Irons.
https://am23.akamaized.net/tms/cnt/uploads/2015/08/jeremy-irons-D-and-D.gif
Heroes, Aloysious, we’re looking for robed heros.
Jedi knights?
Odd definition of heroes.
If you can telekinetically lift a jet fighter and only occasionally go on mass murder sprees, that’s some sainthood-level patience.
They’re the villains.
*doesn’t bother looking for the relevant YouTube link*
Those religious fanatics?
Ric Flair?
Me after I heroically emerge from the shower?
What did she do that was so heroic?
All rhetoric these days has to be hyperbolic. Somebody Jesus Christ reincarnated or they’re Hitler mixed with Genghis Khan and Satan.
Recognizing the accomplishments of a SC justice and their interactions with the school is expected and appreciated, whether or not I agree with those accomplishments. Treating them like a hero? Come on.
I’ve said this before – this is not an accident. Rand has several essays about the denigration of heroes and heroism generally. Once again, she was dead on with understanding the Left. It helps to have witnessed it firsthand I suppose.
Stopped cycling oxygen.
Not heroic, just rare.
However, no one really wants to make the comparison of O’Connor (born 1930, on the court from 1981 to 2006) with Ginsberg (born 1933, on the court from 1993 till now).
They were both trailblazers. But O’Connor played for the wrong team and retired at a reasonable age (she’s still alive and could conceivably still be on the court).
The notorious RBG cared more about outcomes than the law. She stayed on the court way, way too long.
I don’t really want to wish ill of people, but she needed to die earlier since she was never going to do the right thing and retire.
Mike Rowe did a Way I Heard it recently on Sandra.
She’s a MUCH more interesting chick than Sleepy Ruth.
Speaking of SDA, from her sister’s wiki
Wtf? It has nothing to do with Gifford’s shooting.
Wonder if any wiki articles do that for people that died near a bridge near Chappaquiddick…
Oh, chappa quit it!
I like judges who reason from first principles (including limiting principles) to their conclusion. I don’t like judges who find legal support for their conclusion; that’s advocacy, a lawyer’s job, not jurisprudence, a judge’s job.
Ginsburg’s desire to control the who, and how, of her successor’s appointment is of a piece with that. Back when a Dem was appointing a Justice, she was all “yeah, who cares that its an election year”. When it looked like a Repub would appoint a Justice, she became all “oh, my dying wish”.
Not for nothing, but we don’t even know that she could speak or was at all coherent these last couple of weeks?
When was the last actual sighting of her?
Good question. And not just “sighting”, but when did she last make a public appearance where she spoke or otherwise gave some indication of her health/mental status?
The meme warriors of 2016 have gotten bored or grown up.
Still, https://preview.redd.it/5w98lsxmqil51.jpg?auto=webp&s=b87417bf1fa75f9d1ebf112d7f2b56044e60dd5f
Someone somewhere will fall for it.
Hopefully the tattoo artist won’t ruin it by telling them.
Eventually those base numbers will change. Then they can say 88 is how long RBG should have lived and 14 is how many justices we’re gonna end up with.
I’m out of the loop. what is this?
https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/1488
The ADL? that infamous hate group and slander factory?
88 ==> HH ==> Heil Hitler
I got nothing on the 14.
“Fourteen words.” It’s something like “I promise to make white babies and kill Blacks, Jews, Arabs, Chinamen, Beaners, etc.”
Curiously, I just got off a zoom presentation by the ADL. 14 refers to a 14-word phrase about preserving white people or something (it was too uninteresting a phrase to remember). The ADL guy talked a lot about the Boogaloo Boys (or whatever they’re called), Patriot Prayer, etc, driving a rise in fanaticism, and referencing in particular their showing up at BLM rallies. Not mentioned: Antifa. He did excuse the ADL’s focus on the right by noting that they do so because most of the extremist deaths in the last decade or so have been caused by right wingers.
I guess if you count Islamic terrorist as right wing, I guess.
Of course! They engage in terrorism, don’t they?
I suppose I understand why an outfit like the ADL would be fixated on Nazis, neo or otherwise, but the presenter sure did a lot of tiptoeing around certain stripes of inconvenient political violence.
Thanks for the military lingo! Great memories of that culture. I enjoy watching the series, Generation Kill, just to hear all that again.
The first accurate movie / series on modern war I’ve seen.
Yes! And the right branch of service, too 🙂
The book was great, and the show/series did it justice.
Fun read Ozy!
Thanks, OBE. I need to finish the book, however. It’s the book I’ve always wanted to write, but at the moment it’s a bit on the back burner.
This year I finish it and send it off for attempted publication in early 2021.
Good luck and look forward to it. Definately interests me.
105K words into “Prince of the North Tower”, I know the rest of the plot, I just need to get it on the page, and I’m dithering on little details.
“dithering on little details”
So, you’re undecided on AOC?
Don’t be silly, she needs to lose her race in an embarassing landslide.
It won’t be hard, so few people normally vote in that district.
Little D Tails
“It won’t be hard”
I guess you have decided 😉
Ahahahaha. Slightly on topic too…
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/09/wow-4chan-sleuths-catch-china-faking-simulated-missile-tests-clips-came-transformers-hurt-locker/
4Chan is such a gift.
Weaponized autism.
How Dare You!
Paper Tiger?
The vid missed the part where the USAF and/or Navy massacres the Chinese bombers sent to attack Guam.
“4Chan is such a gift.”
They’re going to catch Hunter making the deal with China to hand over US sovereignty to China after daddy gets elected.
If they would have named the attraction “Streets of Portland” I might have went…
https://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/new-halloween-attraction-designed-to-be-experienced-inside-your-car-2127420/
I already bought my tickets for the haunted road.
https://www.thehauntedroad.com/